2021 ALGWA Vic Conference

ALGWA Vic and Yarra City Council presents:

Culture, Conduct and Retention.

The Next 100 Years of Women in Local Government.

Yarra City Council will host the 2021 Annual Australian Local Government Women’s Association of Victoria Conference. This conference will bring together women elected as councillors, mayors, officers and interested parties in Local Government across Victoria.

This is an exciting opportunity to capture the hearts and minds of women in local government and showcase the diverse and exciting opportunities that exist in the City of Yarra.

This year’s conference theme is Culture, Conduct and Retention, which celebrates the next 100 years of women in Local Government. The event focuses on our next four years. We are creating a culture that is diverse, conduct that is exemplary and finding sustainability to retain our own ability to create a lasting impact and continue our pathway within Local Government and beyond. 

The Schedule

Over two days we are bringing together women from rural and metro Victoria to Yarra to connect, enlighten and inspire.

• Friday 30 April 2021 – Pre-conference evening event at a special location
• Saturday 01 May 2021 – Conference at Fitzroy Town Hall
• Saturday 01 May 2021 – Dinner in the Ballroom
• Sunday 02 May 2021 – Curated special experiences in the City of Yarra
  
  

The Speakers

We are lucky to have secured a lineup of inspiring speakers who represent culture, conduct and retention.

LATEST RELEASE:

Tessa Sullivan
Currently a lawyer and officer of the Supreme Court of Victoria, law academic at the University of New England, has a David Nason Journalism scholarship at Harvard University, is a qualified mediator and arbitrator awarded by the the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, former City of Melbourne councillor, wife and mother-of-three and on the boards of Blind Sports and Recreation at Vision Victoria, the Thai-Australia Network, the North American Australian Lawyers Alliance and ambassador for NOW (Tracey Spicer’s initiative against sexual harassment).

Nyadol Nyuon
Nyadol Nyuon was born in a refugee camp in Itang, Ethiopia, and raised in Kakuma Refugee camp, Kenya. In 2005, at the age of eighteen, she moved to Australia as a refugee.

Since then, Nyadol has completed a Bachelor of Arts from Victoria University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Melbourne. She worked as a commercial litigator at Arnold Bloch Leibler and recently moved to the Department of Justice and Community Safety.

Nyadol is a vocal advocate for human rights, multiculturalism, the settlement of people with refugee experiences, and those seeking asylum. She has worked and volunteered extensively in these areas with a range of organisations.

Nyadol is also a regular media commentator having appeared on ABC’s The Drum, as a panellist on Q&A and contributing to The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and the Saturday Paper. She was recently appointed as a regular columnist for the Age.

In 2019 Nyadol was named, by the Australian Financial Review, among the top 11 most Influence Women in the Country (out of 100). She won the AFR Diversity and Inclusion category. In the same year, she also received the Victorian Premier’s Award for Community Harmony. This award was the highest honour awarded to a Victorian for outstanding achievements in strengthening multiculturalism through professional and volunteer service to the community. In 2018 her efforts to combat racism were widely recognized, with achievements including the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Racism. It Stops with Me Award. The prestigious award was in recognition of her advocacy and activism on behalf of the Australian-African and Melbourne’s South Sudanese communities. Nyadol Nyuon also received the Harmony Alliance Award for significant contribution to empowering migrant and refugee women and was a co-winner of the Tim McCoy Prize for her advocacy on behalf of the South Sudanese Community.

Jill Gallagher
Jill has spent the past 20 years advancing Aboriginal health and wellbeing through her work as CEO of the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation. She is a highly respected Aboriginal leader and advocate for self-determination outcomes in the Victorian Aboriginal community, and a former Victorian Treaty Advancement Commissioner.

In 2013 Jill was awarded the Order of Australia. She is also an inductee of both the Victorian Honour Roll of Women and the Victorian Aboriginal Honour Roll.

Dr Helen Haines MP
Helen Haines is the Independent Federal Member for Indi. She was elected in May 2019 – the first Independent to succeed another in the same electorate in Commonwealth Parliamentary history.

In her earlier professional career she was a nurse, midwife, health administrator and rural health researcher in Victoria’s North East for more than 32 years.

Helen has long been active as a member of community organisation boards and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Alpine Valleys Community Leadership Program.

Helen lives with her husband, Phil, on a small beef farm by Wangaratta’s King River, where they raised three children. Before contesting this year’s federal election she worked as a Senior Research Fellow with the University of Melbourne Department of Rural Health and as Director of Education and Research Unit at NHW.

Winsome McCaughey AO
Winsome focussed on philosophy and political science at Melbourne University. She has held many positions in community, government, philanthropy and business. These include founder and EO of Community Child Care Association; Executive Director of Lance Reichstein Philanthropic Foundation; Lord Mayor of the City of Melbourne; Associate Director, KPMG; Commissioner for Africa with Melbourne Olympic Bid Committee; CEO of Greening Australia Ltd; Chair and CEO of Australia New Zealand Food Authority (now FSANZ); Chair, RMIT School of Arts Advisory Committee; Executive Director, Australia Business Arts Foundation (ABAF); Senior Strategic Advisor (Partnerships), University of Melbourne; Trustee, Helen Macpherson Smith Trust; Director, Macpherson Smith Rural Foundation; Member, ‘Invisible Farmer’ Advisory Committee, Museum Victoria. Currently she is Chair, Benalla Art Gallery Trust and Director of Seven Sisters Vineyard P/L, her family company that produces ‘Baddaginnie Run’ world-class wines. 

Maggie Toko
Maggie is the CEO of VMIAC, the peak consumer body for people with direct lived experience of mental health issues or emotional distress. Maggie identifies as indigenous to Aotearoa and acknowledges that she is proud of her Ngati whatua, Ngapuhi descent.  Maggie has worked in homelessness, mental health, sexual assault, youth and education, citing her work as a consumer consultant and her work in the NT teaching indigenous students as some of the highlights of her career.  Maggie is a strong believer in growing consumer leadership across all sectors and forging change to enable a mental health system that is consumer-driven.

Dr Niki Vincent
Dr Vincent is Victoria's first appointed Public Sector Gender Equality Commissioner. As Commissioner, Dr Vincent is responsible for overseeing implementation of the Gender Equality Act 2020 and plays a key leadership role in promoting gender equality in the Victorian community and workplaces. Dr Vincent has a wealth of experience in gender equality and organisational leadership. This includes most recently serving as the South Australian Commissioner for Equal Opportunity since May 2016. In this role, Dr Vincent was responsible for the general administration of the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 (SA).

Natalie Egan
Natalie joined the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office in 2017 and has managed a variety of local government performance audits covering service delivery and asset management. In 2020, Natalie managed a performance audit on Sexual Harassment in Local Government, which was tabled in Victorian Parliament in December 2020.

Melissa Scadden
Melissa Scadden is a Partner at Justitia, an employment law firm that is excited to sponsor this years ALGWA Vic conference. In addition to advising employers (including local government) on the full gamut of employment law matters, Melissa has acted as Arbiter on numerous Councillor Code of Conduct disputes and more recently worked with a number of Councils to refresh their Codes of Conduct. She has a keen interest in early intervention strategies for workplace conflict, along with building the capacity of individuals to effectively engage in difficult conversations. Melissa also regularly conducts complex workplace investigations and delivers training, and is frequently asked to speak on employment law matters at industry conferences.

Jane Gazzo
Jane Gazzo is a broadcaster, TV presenter, music journalist and published author who began her career in radio, aged 16. Since then, she has presented nationally on Triple J and Triple M as well as XFM London, Capital FM London and BBC Radio 6 in the UK and has hosted music television shows such as The Sound and Recovery on ABC TV. Jane also spent eight years as a presenter on Foxtel's Channel V, where she reported from some of the biggest world music festivals, red carpet events and hosted live TV shows, interviewing some of the biggest and best names in the music world.

Jane is currently a lecturer of entertainment management at Collarts, chair of the Australian Music Vault Hall of Fame advisory committee at the Arts Centre Melbourne and serves on the board for government youth organisation The Push. Her first book, John Farnham - The Untold Story was published in 2015. She is also co-founder of the Sound as Ever Facebook group - a place which celebrates and documents Australian music from the 1990s and whom to date has over 17K members.

Coral Ross
Coral Ross was a councillor at the City of Boroondara for more than 18 years and served three terms as Mayor. She is the ALGWA National Vice President, and was previously both the National and Victorian President. Until last October Coral was the President of the Municipal Association of Victoria and served on the board of the Australian Local Government Association for four years.

Coral is the Chair of the Australian Gender Equality Council, an umbrella group of national women’s organisations with a collective membership of over 500,000. In 2014 she was named by Westpac/Fairfax as one of the 100 Women of Influence and in 2019 she was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women. Coral was awarded a prestigious Churchill Fellowship to improve gender equality in local government.

In January and February 2020 she travelled to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Germany to investigate ways of increasing the number of women elected to local government.

The Topics

Topics will be focused on good culture, conduct and retaining councillors in Local Government while avoiding burnout. These are themes that are important to ALGWA Vic and the best way to build the foundation of this current council term.

The Location

City of Yarra is a unique and inspiring city located in the heart of Melbourne. Over the course of the conference, you will experience iconic heritage locations including the Fitzroy Town Hall and Collingwood Yards. 

Aboriginal Yarra
The Wurundjeri-willam people of the Kulin Nation are the Traditional Owners of the land that is now known as the City of Yarra. Their relationship with the land extends back tens of thousands of years to when their creator spirit ‘Bunjil’ formed their people, the land and all living things. Visit our website for more information about the Aboriginal history of Yarra.

Fitzroy Town Hall
Built in two stages between 1873 and 1890, Fitzroy Town Hall is a heritage building of architectural significance as a most intact and exemplary High Victorian building and for its association with two prominent Melbourne architects William Ellis and George Johnson. Today, Fitzroy Town Hall hosts events, functions and celebrations. 

Collingwood Yards
Collingwood Yards is a new, permanent and affordable home for scores of artists and independent arts organisations. 

COVIDSafe Event

This event is COVIDSafe, and will follow all guidance from DHS. Please note that in the event of tightening restrictions, this event may be held online. 

Acknowledgement of Country

Yarra City Council acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people as the Traditional Owners and true sovereigns of the land now known as Yarra. We also acknowledge the significant contributions made by other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to life in Yarra. We pay our respects to Elders from all nations here today – and to their Elders past, present and future.