Really Interesting Women

Ep. 84      Senator Lidia Thorpe

Lidia Thorpe's sense of injustice is always close to the surface. Her first hand experiences inform her. Growing up, her dinner table conversations and education with the family matriarchs were also hugely influential. Her life experiences continue to play a big part in who she is today and what she fervently believes will be best for not only indigenous Australians, but all Australians. 

Senator Thorpe has faced plenty of hurdles in life. She grew up in poverty in housing commission flats in Collingwood Victoria. Left school at 14. Was a single mum at 17, survived domestic violence. Became bankrupt as a direct result of the domestic violence. Then...having worked in public policy, advocacy, small business, government, and NGO’s... in 2017, her career and life changed dramatically. She became the first aboriginal woman elected to Victorian parliament. Then, in September 2020, she became Victoria’s first Aboriginal Senator in the Federal Parliament and is now deputy leader of the Greens in the Senate.  

Her views and methods can divide people but, all would agree, she cannot be ignored. So, as with all my guests, I thought the best place to start was to just listen. 

  

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Ep. 83    Traci Houpapa

Traci Houpapa is a company director and business advisor from New Zealand. But a simple scratching of the surface reveals a unique and inspiring story. 

Her early life influences could well have something to do with her Maori father who was very active in campaigns to return properties back into Maori management in the 1980s. 

As to her own career, she was advised to experience a wide range of occupations after high school before settling on a career... and that education was essential to her success. 

She sits on numerous Boards an Foundations.  She is, amongst many other things, chair of the Federation of Maori Authorities, a Chartered Fellow of the NZ Institute of Directors, an advisor to Maori, Government, public and private sector organisations and has an unwavering commitment to advancing the interests of indigenous women in New Zealand. 

In the 2012 Queen's Birthday Honours, she was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to business and Maori. In 2015, she won the Board and Management award at the New Zealand Women of Influence Awards. In 2016 she named as one of the BBC's 100 Most Influential Women in the World for that year. 

She has some great advice for life and career. And an optimism that we’re heading in the right direction on a number of fronts including gender bias and racism. 

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Ep 82   Natalie Walker

Natalie Walker is, amongst many other achievements, the inaugural CEO of two start-up businesses with huge agendas - Supply Nation and Inside Policy. 

She was Australia's representative on the G20's Women Business Leaders Taskforce. She’s held positions in human rights, indigenous affairs and human services in the government, corporate and not-for-profit sectors. She is the Social Commissioner on the Greater Cities Commission, sat on the Indigenous Advisory groups for a range of corporations, including Telstra and the National Australia Bank and has current directorships with not-for-profit organisations the Paul Ramsay Foundation, Goodstart Early Learning and Life Without Barriers. 

She is also, most importantly, a proud Kuku Yalanji woman from the Daintree Rainforest. 

And she's fabulous. Very informed and informative.  

To listen to Nat helps you understand. Even when you thought you already knew. 

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Ep. 81  Professor Michelle Haber AM FAA FAHMS

Michelle Haber has dedicated her entire professional life to improving clinical outcomes for children with cancer. She is one of this country’s leading researchers and has become the face of Australian childhood cancer research internationally. 

But she almost wasn't. In the late 1970’s she had one of many sliding door moments that changed the course of her career and has subsequently saved many lives around the globe. You see, Michelle had just completed her Honours in Clinical Psychology and, being inquisitive and curious, she walked into the nearby offices of the faculty of medicine at the University of New South Wales, Australia. There she happened to meet a Professor of Pathology who helped change everything. She wanted to do research to make a difference. The professor recommended she do a PhD around the topic of the chemical causes of cancer. So, she did. 

In 1984 she became the inaugural staff scientist at what is now known as the Children’s Cancer Institute and eventually became Executive Director of that Institute in 2003. 

The results of her research are astonishing. Amongst many examples, an 11 month old girl had a tumour the size of a football in her stomach. While on life support some ‘precision medicine’ resulting from advances in genomic sequencing, and international co-operation finding the right medicine in the US meant this child was off life support in 4 weeks and out of ICU 2 weeks later. And recently celebrated her 5th birthday. 

But Professor Haber is not quite happy with just that. She wants to eradicate children’s cancers altogether. I wouldn’t bet against her either. 

To hear Michelle’s extraordinary story, head to the podcast link in my bio.

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Ep. 80   Professor Bronwyn Fox

Professor Bronwyn Fox has come a long way since blowing things up in her back yard with her brother. Mind you that curiosity and practical application of their ideas was probably quite informative, because from there she would go on to become the Chief Scientist of Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO. 

She’s been described by CSIRO’s Chief Executive as ‘driven to deliver, brilliant but humble, leading by listening and a generous collaborator’. What a great description, don't you reckon? 

'Leading by listening'. We explore that as well as a multitude of other things vital to a fulfilling career. Finding mentors, taking opportunities, the importance of creativity and diversity, empathy and real world applications of all those things. 

I also found fascinating her take on future proofing a career in an ever changing and unpredictable world. I reckon that's worth the price of admission alone (don't worry - it's still free). And then there's the chief scientist's enormous admiration and utilisation of 60,000 years of indigenous knowledge and what it can teach scientists. 

Professor Fox is motivated by making a difference in other people's lives. And she has. Have a listen to her episode and find out how. 

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Gemma Sisia has earned a global reputation through building one of the top performing schools in Tanzania, East Africa. And she built it, literally, from scratch. Well, that’s not quite true - a friend had donated $10 to the cause. Can you imagine the challenges?

All this is a long way from the sheep farm she grew up on in northern New South Wales, Australia, where education, hard work as well as plenty of fun, were considered essential. 

After gaining her tertiary qualifications, like a lot of people, she set off to Africa and also like most people, she fell in love with the place. Her greatest desire was to try and do something to help the poor. But unlike most people, actually, let’s face it, unlike nearly all people, she did do something to help the poor. And twenty years later, she’s still helping them. 

Gemma's work continues to leave such an indelible mark that, in 2007 she was honoured with an Order of Australia Medal, her story has featured not once, but twice on ABC TV’s Australia Story as well as 60 Minutes. 

The School of St Jude, in Tanzania, provides a free, high-quality education to nearly 2000 of the poorest and brightest students in that region. And it’s not just the children that benefit. St Jude puts back around $7M US into the local economy supporting builders, farmers, mechanics, teachers, school staff etc. The school is celebrating its 20th year this year….and its first group of doctors that have now graduated from university (one with the University Medal) all of whom started with St Jude when it first opened its doors.

90% of it is really really hard work. But she wouldn’t change a thing. And a lot of people are very grateful for that.

Head to their website www.schoolofstjude.org to see how you may be able to help this remarkable woman. 

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Episode 78 Dr Anne Summers AO

Dr Anne Summers AO is a pioneering Australian feminist, a best-selling author and journalist with a long career in politics, the media, business and the non-government sector in Australia, Europe, and the United States. 

 It would not be a stretch to say her first book, published in 1975,Damned Whores and God's Police, changed the way Australia viewed women. 

 Her career is almost the ultimate example of taking opportunities as they present themselves, even if they’re outside your comfort zone. Consider a few things she undertook with little or no previous experience....moving to Canberra to become bureau chief for the Australian Financial Review, working in politics as an adviser to Prime Minister Bob Hawke and later Prime Minister Paul Keating. Moving to New York to become editor in chief of the iconic feminist magazine Ms. And, when a young Warwick Fairfax decided the magazine businesses of his media empire should be sold, Anne with her business partner, undertook for only the second time in U.S. corporate history, an all-female management buyout of the magazine. And then there’s the first ever post prime ministerial interview with Julia Gillard - at a sold out Opera House in Sydney if you don’t mind. The rock star reception for both Anne and Julia on the night was not only unforeseen but unprecedented for a political interview. 

 And there’s more to come in her career. 

 Indefatigable, unrelenting, dogged, outspoken, fearless and driven by injustice (it seems to me anyway)...with a wicked sense of humour. It was a fabulous opportunity for me to have this conversation with Anne Summers. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. 

Her books, Damned Whores and God’s Police and her memoir, Unfettered and Alive are available at Booktopia.com.au 

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Ep. 77  Roma Torre

Roma Torre is a 2 time Emmy Award winning TV journalist and theater critic. 

She is best known for her time at New York City’s first 24 hour local news station, the much loved and revered cable news channel NY1, where she was a lead news presenter for over 28 years. She’s had an amazing career. She has received over 30 broadcasting awards including those 2 aforementioned Emmy’s, the most recent in 2019, which would obviously justify feeling like she was in the prime of her career. 

But just as NY1 (the cable news channel) was taken over by a new owner (whose focus to that point was as a broadband supplier), things seemed to be inexplicably unravelling for her and 4 other senior female journalists at NY1. They were replaced. All of them. At the same time. Over 100 years of journalistic experience that the new owner must have thought was superfluous, or outdated, or lacking in skill, or....something. 

Roma, of course, can't comment on it because of legal restrictions - but there is a lot of public information on this out there that I could comment on. It certainly intrigued me. The fact that Roma had won her second Emmy award just months earlier intrigued me. The fact that the incoming female anchors looked - to me - eerily similar to the outgoing anchors but for one interesting fact, intrigued me. The fact that they are not allowed to say anything about this for fear of legal reprisals, intrigued me. There are similarities to the conversation I had with journalist Gretchen Carlson not so long ago. But it seems things may be changing.  

We had a really interesting conversation about journalism and democracy in today's social media obsessed world. We spoke about her amazing mother, also a journalist, who owns a unique piece of journalistic history. And her love of theater - first as an actor and then as a fan and eventually, a theater critic. 

She's - rightfully - proud of the stance she took. Her mother did the same thing. An imposing combination. Have a listen. 

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Ep. 76   Robin White

Robin White started her career as an operations manager in the rail industry. As a result of being discriminated against and denied promotion, she reassessed.... everything. You see, Robin was blocked for any promotion because she is transgender. Could be front office management or transgender. Couldn’t be both.

After much soul searching and introspection, she decided to pivot and reinvent herself (although ‘reinventing’ probably short-changes what she had to do). Robin ‘reinvented’ herself as an employment and discrimination barrister. In fact, in 2011, she became the first barrister in practise to transition from male to female at the discrimination Bar. She is, without doubt, a pioneer. 

There’s a lot of noise out there at the moment about transgender women. It didn’t appear to me that there was enough of a voice that could discuss this from a transgender perspective. I’m sure there was a lot…I just wasn’t hearing it. 

Anyway, I thought it might be a good thing to have a conversation with an intelligent, informed, funny woman who is transgender and, as it turns out, is an attorney who specialises in the rights of transgender women and men. Probably the sort of voice worth listening to don’t you reckon?

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Ep. 75   Emeritus Professor Rosalind Croucher AM

Rosalind Croucher is the President of the Australian Human Rights Commission. 

She's been pretty busy these last couple of years.

It's a fascinating career and one which emphasises the importance of taking opportunities as they present themselves. Even when you are having doubts. 

We talk about the anatomy of a career move (or several big ones in her case), her thoughts on leadership and how to progress yourself towards that, should that be your goal. The importance of not getting bogged down by mistakes but, instead, embracing what she calls the 'foetal 48 hours' (you'll have to listen).

Perhaps most importantly, we talk about the Australian Human Rights Commission - I don't think I knew there were seven separate divisions within the Commission and each has its own President and Rosalind is the overarching President of all divisions! The last two years have proved particularly challenging given the impact of covid restrictions on human rights generally. It's a fascinating insight. 

And, unexpectedly, we touched on the delights of Telemann's flute and recorder concertos and Rosalind's side gig as a concert musician. And, I must admit, the idea of a recorder concerto tended to make me flinch slightly...but no more! As with everything, education is the key to understanding. 

www.humanrights.gov.au
Excerpt is from George Philip Telemann's Concerto for Recorder and Flute in E Minor, TWV 52:e1:IV. Presto   Gunther Holler, Konrad Hunteler, Cappella Coloniensis, Georg Fischer

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