All voices are media voices: celebrating six years of the Economic Media Centre
Description
Join us in celebrating six years of the Economic Media Centre!
Since launching in 2020, we’ve trained 1,200+ grassroots and lived expertise advocates in media skills and secured thousands of interviews centreing advocates in stories on housing, First Nations justice, tax, disability, gender equality, social security, migration, and more.
We know democracy functions best when diverse voices are represented. And we know policy is only inclusive and able to deliver when it’s shaped by the people it impacts most. In such disruptive times, the Economic Media Centre is more important than ever.
This is an opportunity to learn about how the Economic Media Centre works; the ethics and rigour that underpin our approach, the breadth impact we’re having across a range of social and economic justice issues, and how you can get involved.
Will you join us?
What: An event to celebrate the Economic Media Centre's work and share our plans for the coming years.
Who: Philanthropy and movement friends
Where: Yirranma Place, 262 Liverpool St, Darlinghurst NSW 2010
Date: Tuesday 20th October, 2026
Time: 5:30pm arrival for a 6:00pm start, concluding by 8:00pm
Speakers
Kirsty Albion (CEO, Australian Progress)
At the helm of Australian Progress since the pandemic began, Kirsty has led her team to train thousands of social changemakers, convene hundreds of nonprofits and deliver groundbreaking collaborations. Previously, Kirsty served for five years as National Director of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, running high-impact campaigns to protect the reef, grow renewable energy and keep fossil fuels in the ground. She grew the organisation three-fold to the largest team focused on climate campaigning in the country. Kirsty has trained more than 10,000 young people in campaigning, communication, organising, and supported the growth of the Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network. Kirsty is the recipient of numerous awards including Young Tasmanian of the Year 2010 and the Prime Minister’s Young Environmentalist of the Year.
Adam Knobel (Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Australian Progress)
Adam is an experienced non-profit leader who has worked on public education, community health, and LGBTIQ+ reforms. Previously, he worked as Communications and Campaigns Director and Acting Chief Executive Officer at the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, working across public policy advocacy campaigns and large-scale health promotion programs. He was also the Digital Campaign Director at Australian Marriage Equality and was recently the Communications Director at Yes23 to support during the Voice referendum. His passion is building the capacity of social change advocates across communications, strategy, organisational development, and change.
Nick Cassella (Senior Media Advisor, Economic Media Centre)
Nick is a political communications professional who has worked for progressive campaigns and organisations in the US and Australia. Nick is in charge of formulating a new strategy for Australian Progress' external communications while also managing the development of the Economic Media Centre's Spokesperson Network. Nick specialises in digital campaigning and holds an International Relations degree from the University of St Andrews, Scotland.
Alex Leon (Senior Trainer, Australian Progress)
Alexander is an internationally recognised educator, speaker and campaigner, with over 10 years experience working in LGBTQ+ equality, focused on LGBTQ+ mental health and intersectionality. His day job is as a social justice educator, delivering workshops on campaign strategy, communication and anti-oppression to activists, politicians and businesses across Europe, Australia and beyond. His writing (fiction and non-fiction) has been featured in The Guardian, BBC, Huffington Post, 14poems, and more.
Jackie Turner (Director, Trans Justice Project)
Jackie Turner (she/her) is the Director of Trans Justice Project, a national movement fighting for freedom, justice, and equality for all trans and gender-diverse people. She is passionate about community power, developing the leadership of trans and gender diverse people, and building movements that can win. Over the last 10 years as an organiser and campaigner she has led national mobilisations, trained and mentored hundreds of volunteers, and run campaigns across movements for climate and economic justice. Her work on movement building, messaging, and combating anti-trans disinformation has been instrumental in pushing back against the attacks of the anti-trans lobby in Australia.
Kristin O’Connell (Antipoverty Centre)
Kristin is an antipoverty activist relying on the Disability Support Pension to live. She was previously a coordinator at the Australian Unemployed Workers' Union and established the Antipoverty Centre in 2021 with other unemployed advocates who have direct experience of poverty and the welfare system. The Antipoverty Centre works alongside other grassroots organisations to represent and defend the interests of millions of people forced to survive on unliveable welfare payments in so-called Australia. In her work with the Antipoverty Centre, Kristin provides direct peer support to people who rely on Centrelink payments, ensures welfare recipients’ stories and voices are heard through the media, organises grassroots activists, communicates government policy changes, responds to senate enquiries, fights back against job agency abuse of JobSeekers and counters harmful myths about unemployed people.
Néha Madhok
Néha Madhok (they/them) is a seasoned community organiser, anti-racism strategist, and political communicator with over 15 years of experience building people-powered campaigns across Australia. They've worked as a political staffer, at unions, on the Equality campaign for marriage equality. Most recently, Néha co-founded Democracy in Colour, where they led national efforts to dismantle systemic racism and build the leadership of people of colour in movements for justice. Néha has run large-scale digital mobilisation campaigns, trained hundreds of organisers, and advised unions, NGOs, and advocacy groups on messaging, power-building, and racial justice. Their work sits at the intersection of race, climate, class, and gender. They believe deeply in the power of movements to transform culture, systems, and ourselves, because how else are we going to win?
Raul Sugunananthan (Sydney Alliance)
Raul is a community organiser with the Sydney Alliance, a diverse coalition of community organisations, religious groups, trade unions, and schools working to make Sydney a more just, fair and sustainable city. He is the housing campaign lead as well as the local organiser for the Western Sydney regions of Blacktown and Mt Druitt. Raul is proud of his Sri-Lankan Tamil and Chilean heritage, driving his passion for working alongside marginalised communities to have a say in decisions that affect them. He is a member of Leichhardt Uniting Church and the Australian Services Union. He is also a renter and holds a Bachelors of Arts and Laws from the University of Sydney.
Additional Information
About Australian Progress and the Economic Media Centre
Australian Progress builds capacity of organisations and movements to advocate and win. Learn more here: https://www.australianprogress.org.au
The Economic Media Centre trains and supports a community of trusted spokespeople who bring lived expertise and policy solutions to economic debates in mainstream media. Established in 2020 in response to an identified media capacity gap for small civil society organisations, we exist to:
Ensure the voices of those most affected by economic issues are centred in the media.
Build the media skills and capacity of staff within small and grassroots organisations.
Connect journalists with high quality, diverse spokespeople to shift economic policy conversations in mainstream media, in turn shaping public discourse and political decision making in favour of economic fairness.
All our training is provided free of charge thanks to our philanthropy partners: Greater Melbourne Foundation, Reichstein Foundation and E.M. Horton Family Fund, which is part of the Australian Community Foundation Network.
Learn more about the EMC here: https://www.economicmediacentre.org/
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