Madam Speaker
AMBASSADORS

Leanne Miller, AM, is a descendant of the Dhulanyagen Ulupna Clan, Yorta Yorta nation, Executive Director of Koorie Women Mean Business. She has an extensive advocacy background working in Indigenous, legal and women’s sectors, and has represented the community sector as the Australian Indigenous Women delegate at the 54th Session on the Committee of the Status of Women, United Nations, New York. As well as undertaking a UN Fellowship in Geneva. In 2005 Leanne consulted and anchored nationally the first shadow report Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women's Shadow report on the UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. Inducted into the Victorian Women's Honor Roll in 2004. In 2018 she was selected as the Inaugural cohort of the Atlantic Fellow for Social Equity, she has become a Life Long Atlantic Fellow. In 2019, Leanne was elected as the inaugural member of the North East Region to the First People’s Assembly of Victoria. In 2023, Leanne was inducted to the Australia Day honours list and awarded an AM for her “significant service to women’s affairs, and to the Indigenous community”.

Professor Julie Andrews OAM is descended from the Yorta Yorta; Wiradjuri and Wurundjeri Woiwurrung peoples. She is a proud member of the Briggs family and Dhulunyagan clan. She has a PhD in anthropology and is a published academic, with over 15 years’ experience teaching Aboriginal Studies. She led the development of La Trobe University's Gabra Biik, Warrawilla Wutja Indigenous Research Centre, of which she is now Academic Director. In this role, Julie leads the consultation process with Indigenous communities on research partnership building and raising the prominence of Indigenous-led research. Julie has been leading Aboriginal teaching and research development for several decades and is regarded highly by her peers and community.

Anna Burke AO is an Australian former politician who served as the 28th Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives from 2012-2013. Burke's political career began as she contested the safe Liberal seat of Chisholm, becoming a popular local Member who was returned at the next five elections. When Burke had her first child in 1999, she became only the second woman to give birth while continuing to serve as a Member of Parliament. She later became the second woman Speaker of the House. With a hung parliament and a combative Opposition, Burke presided over a challenging period. Nonetheless, Burke was well-regarded for her patience and impartiality. Her Speakership ended with the Labor Party's loss at the 2013 election, and she retired at the 2016 election.

Chanel Contos is the founder of Teach Us Consent, a campaign that mandated consent education in Australia, and in 2021, received the Young People's Medal from Australian Human Rights Commission. In 2023, she was named NSW Young Woman of the Year for her persistent efforts towards eradicating rape culture. Chanel has also been presented with the prestigious Diana Award for her humanitarian work, and in 2022 she was listed as one of the BBC's 100 inspiring and influential women worldwide. Chanel has a Masters in Education, Gender and International Development from University College London and was recently appointed by Julia Gillard to chair the Global Institute for Women's Leadership's Youth Advisory Committee.

Carly Findlay OAM is an award-winning writer, speaker and appearance activist. Her first book, a memoir called Say Hello, was released in January 2019.

Carly edited the anthology Growing Up Disabled in Australia with Black Inc Books. It’s in stores now. She writes on disability and appearance diversity issues for news outlets including the ABC, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald and SBS. In 2020, Carly Findlay received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for her work as a disability advocate and activist.

She was named one of Australia’s most influential women in the 2014 Australian Financial Review and Westpac 100 Women of Influence Awards. She has appeared on ABC TV’s You Can’t Ask That and Cyberhate with Tara Moss, and has been a regular on various ABC radio programs. She has spoken at the Melbourne Writers Festival, the University of Western England and Melbourne University – to name a few. She organised the history-making Access to Fashion – a Melbourne Fashion Week event featuring disabled models. She has a Masters of Communication and Bachelor of eCommerce.

Carly identifies as a proud disabled woman – she lives with a rare, severe skin condition, ichthyosis. She organised Australia’s first Ichthyosis meet in 2015 – bringing together 75 people affected by the rare, severe skin condition Ichthyosis. 25 attendees had Ichthyosis. Friendships and support networks were formed.

Professor Julianne Schultz AM FAHA FRSN is an Australian academic, media manager, author and editor. She is the founding editor of the Griffith Review and Emeritus Professor of Media and Culture in the Griffith University Centre for Social and Cultural Research. She is an acclaimed author of several books, including 'The Idea of Australia' and 'Steel City Blues'. She became a Member of the Order of Australia for services to journalism and the community in 2009 and an honorary fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities the following year. She is a thought leader on media and culture and an accomplished public speaker and facilitator. She writes a regular column for The Guardian and is working with Blackfella Films on a four-part TV series of 'The Idea of Australia'.

Professor Fiona Stanley is an epidemiologist from Sydney who received her MSc in Social Medicine from the University of London, where she became a member of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians, UK. While studying there she was introduced to epidemiology, biostatistics and public health, the areas that became her life's research focus. Stanley went on to hold significant roles as senior medical officer for the Western Australian department of public health, and as deputy director and principal research fellow of the National Health and Medical Research Council unit in epidemiology and preventive medicine at UWA. In 1990 Stanley was appointed to the position of director, TVW Telethon Institute for Child Research, and professor, Department of Paediatrics, UWA.

Kim Rubenstein is a Professor in the Faculty of Business, Government and Law at the University of Canberra. A graduate of the University of Melbourne and Harvard University, she is Australia’s leading expert on citizenship, both around its formal legal status and in law’s intersection with broader normative notions of citizenship as membership and participation. This has led to her scholarship around gender and public law, which includes her legal work and her oral history work around women lawyers’ contributions in the public sphere. She was the Director of the Centre for International and Public law at the ANU from 2006-2015 and the Inaugural Convener of the ANU Gender Institute from 2011-2012 and Co Director of the 50/50 by 2030 Foundation at the University of Canberra 2020-2022. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law and the Australia Academy of Social Sciences and in 2024 she was awarded the Council of Australian Law Dean’s Lifetime Achievement Medal, in recognition of her significant and impactful contributions to legal research in Australia.