Brisbane Symposium 2022

Thursday 23rd June 2022

Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre

Panel Members

JELENA DOKIC

Former World #4 Tennis Player; Olympian; TV Commentator & Expert Analyst, Channel 9; Bestselling Author; Advocate

Dr Phoebe Hart

Australian Filmmaker; Senior Lecturer, Queensland  University of Technology; Principal, Hartflicker Moving Pictures; Intersex Rights Activist

ANYIER YUOL

Founder & CEO, Miss Sahara & Anyier Model Management; Partnerships and Capacity Building Coordinator, Creating Chances; Diversity & Inclusion Advocate

Christine Castley

Chief Executive Officer, Multicultural Australia

David Winters

Partner, Deloitte Asia Pacific

We all know that diverse and inclusive workplaces benefit individuals, organisations, teams and society and they have a significant impact on trust, commitment, performance, reputation, and financial performance. But what do inclusive workplaces and teams actually look and feel like? What are the practices of today's inclusive leaders? In this session, our expert panel will discuss the practices and principles that have supported their journeys as inclusive leaders and their stories will give you the knowledge and confidence in enacting these ideas to create a more inclusive workplace.

The Practices and Principles of Inclusive Leadership

Panel Discussion

11:00 - 12:30​

Maria Scharnke is a proudly Disabled young person and a lifelong Autistic, Disabled self-advocate. Now 19, she is a loud and persistent voice for disability rights as a writer, public speaker, and youth leader, both independently and through her roles in many Disabled People’s Organisations. Her passion is the full and practised realisation of disability rights worldwide. Maria presented evidence at a Public Hearing of the Disability Royal Commission in October 2020; at the time, she was the youngest person to have done so. Maria was diagnosed with autism at the age of six, and has since received additional diagnoses, such as a learning disability, a movement disorder, and mental health conditions. She is a survivor of domestic/family violence, structural violence, and peer violence. Maria is a member of the Steering Committee of the Australian Coalition for Inclusive Education and is on the board of Women With Disabilities Australia.

Dr Sally Pitkin AO is a company director and lawyer with thirty years’ corporate experience. She has served as a director and board member of ASX 200 companies, Federal Government-owned business enterprises, private companies, regulatory bodies and non-profit organisations. Sally joined Super Retail Group in 2010 as an Independent Non-Executive Director and was appointed Chair in 2017. She is also a Director of ASX-listed companies The Star Entertainment Group Limited and Link Administration Holdings Limited, Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and Chair of the Institute’s Corporate Governance Committee. Sally holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Governance), a Master of Laws and Bachelor of Laws. She is an Adjunct Professor with the UQ Business School and a former Fellow of Bond University. In 2021, Sally was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to business, to corporate governance standards and performance, to the arts, and to the advancement of women.

Christine is the Chief Executive Officer of Multicultural Australia, with substantial expertise in organisational transformation, community engagement, and service delivery. Prior to this, she was Deputy Director-General in the Queensland Department of the Premier and Cabinet and the Queensland Department of Housing and Public Works. Christine has a strong track record in delivering significant reform including for adult and youth justice, disaster management response and recovery, and public sector ethics. In 2014, she led the Secretariat for the Special Taskforce on Domestic and Family Violence, which delivered the landmark ‘Not Now, Not Ever’ Report. Christine is a passionate advocate for equal access to justice and services for everyone, drawing on her lived experience as a first generation migrant to do everything possible to help the most disadvantaged people in our community, including refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers.

As a Deloitte Partner based in Brisbane, David leads a team of specialist practitioners in program governance, assurance, and leadership offerings as part of Deloitte’s Risk Advisory practice. David’s career has taken him from the UK, to Europe, America, and Australia, which has been his home for the past eleven years. David is a strong diversity and inclusion advocate and as a gay man, he is most proud to be a Deloitte Partner champion and Advisory Group member for the organisation’s internal LGBTI+ and Ally Network, StandOUT. In this role, David contributes to Deloitte’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion agenda across Deloitte Asia Pacific. In 2020, David was humbled to be recognised in the Australian Out50 Leaders Report (developed by Deloitte, Google, and Energy Australia). 

Dr Phoebe Hart is an Australian filmmaker, lecturer, and intersex rights activist, born with Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome. She lectures in film, television, and digital media at the Queensland University of Technology, and is principal of Hartflicker, a video and film production company. She is known particularly for her autobiographical road trip movie, Orchids, My Intersex Adventure. Phoebe completed her film studies at the Queensland University of Technology in 1995. She has been involved in Totally Wild, Network Ten‘s documentary unit, and the ABC‘s Race Around the World and Fly TV. In 2009, Phoebe was awarded her doctorate from Queensland University of Technology, of which Orchids was a central element. She describes the work as a means of helping young intersex people to come to terms with their bodies. Phoebe Hart has a passion for all that is beautiful in the world and has a strong sense of social justice.

Jelena Dokic started playing tennis when she was six years old and quickly became a National champion. However, the war in former Yugoslavia forced her family to escape and they became refugees before settling in Australia when Jelena was 11. At 18, Jelena won her first WTA singles title in Rome and reached the top 10 in the world. At the age of 19 she reached world number 4. Jelena's latter part of her career was riddled with injury and illness which forced her into early retirement. Jelena penned the best-selling autobiography Unbreakable, which details her career, and struggles with poverty, racism, bullying, discrimination, and depression. She also talks about the physical and emotional abuse she suffered for over 20 years at the hands of her father. Jelena now pours her efforts into commentary and TV work for Channel 9, Fox Sports, and Tennis Australia. 

09:00 - 09:30

Welcome & Acknowledgment of Country

Program Director, Women & Leadership Australia

Dr Janet Smith

09:40 - 10:10

Keynote Address

Chair, Super Retail Group

Dr Sally Pitkin AO

Christine Castley

Chief Executive Officer, Multicultural Australia

10:10 - 10:40

Keynote Address

Partner, Deloitte Asia Pacific

David Winters

Maria Scharnke

Member, Steering Committee, Australian Coalition for Inclusive Education; Board Member, Women with Disabilities Australia

Program Director, Women & Leadership Australia

Dr Janet Smith

13:45 - 14:40

Development Session

12:30 - 13:15

Lunch

15:30 - 16:10

Keynote Address

Australian Filmmaker; Senior Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology; Principal, Hartflicker Moving Pictures; Intersex Rights Activist      

Dr Phoebe Hart 

Suzi Finkelstein

16:50 - 17:00

Closing Comments

Chief Executive Officer, Australian School of Applied Management

16:10 - 16:50

Keynote Address

Former World #4 Tennis Player; Olympian; TV Commentator & Expert Analyst, Channel 9; Bestselling Author; Advocate

Jelena Dokic 

Program Director, Women & Leadership Australia

Dr Janet Smith

Saba Abraham

Community Leader; Founder and Manager, Mu’ooz Eritrean Restaurant & Catering; QLD State Recipient Local Hero Award 2022

Community Leader; Founder and Manager, Mu’ooz Eritrean Restaurant & Catering; QLD State Recipient Local Hero Award 2022

Saba Abraham

Saba Abraham arrived in Australia as a refugee from Eritrea in 1992. In her early life Saba was a freedom fighter. Her activism and fighting spirit led her to become a social entrepreneur that founded and now manages Mu’ooz Eritrean Restaurant and Catering in Brisbane’s West End. The non-for-profit social enterprise business provides on the job training for refugee women. The restaurant has provided more than 270 refugee and migrant women gain vocational training and earn award wages since 2003. She is also a co-founder of the Queensland African Community Council, QACC, the Eritrean Community Association and the founder of the Eritrean Australian Women's and Family Support Network, EAWFSN.  In 2009, she was awarded the Pride of Australia Medal and recently awarded the 2022 QLD Local Hero Award.

What is Inclusive Leadership and Why does it Matter?

Inclusive Leadership involves embracing and practicing both Diversity and Inclusion. This Development Session will build on the Panel Session by further exploring the signature traits of Inclusive Leaders and highlighting strategies and practical actions needed to create psychological safety and reduce unconscious bias in the workplace.

Carol Taylor was a young Lawyer in 2001 when she sustained a catastrophic spinal cord injury rendering her a quadriplegic, paralysed from the chest down. She took up painting with specially made tools to aid in her recovery and discovered her creative side, becoming an award-winning artist. She came back to law in 2015, launching Taylor Law and Conveyancing, and last year she was named QLS Regional Practitioner of the Year. Still using her creative talents to shine a light on disability, in 2019 Carol became the world’s first quadriplegic fashion designer when her debut collection was presented at Mercedes Benz fashion festival in Brisbane. Carol is also a Non-Executive Director for Spinal Life Australia, a Founding Member of QLS Diverse Abilities Network, a mother, and a champion for equal opportunity and inclusion.

Principal, Taylor Law and Conveyancing

Carol Taylor

Maria Scharnke

Member, Steering Committee, Australian Coalition for Inclusive Education; Board Member, Women with Disabilities Australia

Born in a Kenyan refugee camp and moving to Australia at the age of 10, Anyier Yuol is an inspiring entrepreneur with aspirational dreams for social change. She is the founder and CEO of Miss Sahara and Anyier Model Management and is an advocate for women's and girls’ rights, refugee and gender equality, sport for development, youth participation and improving representation of minority groups in Australia through sport and the beauty and fashion industry. The former chair of the Australian National Committee on Refugee Women (ANCORW), Anyier regularly consults local councils, state and national government agencies, schools, and businesses, and attends high level consultative meetings at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva. Anyier has been influential in her advocacy activities in creating a space where young people are able to use their voice to bring change.

13:15 - 13:45

Keynote Address

Founder & CEO, Miss Sahara & Anyier Model Management; Partnerships and Capacity Building Coordinator, Creating Chances; Diversity & Inclusion Advocate

Anyier Yuol

Carol Taylor

Principal, Taylor Law and Conveyancing

Senior Manager, Energy & Decarbonisation, AGL

Naureen is an awarded change maker and energy leader. She is currently leading sustainable & clean energy development projects across Australia at AGL Energy. Naureen has a diverse engineering career in the energy and resource industry, having worked at several top-tier organisations such as at ExxonMobil, Rio Tinto, Origin Energy, Aurecon and AGL. She is an acknowledged leader in solving complex challenges in the energy and decarbonisation space by bringing together technical, commercial & strategic teams. With a Masters in Sustainability Leadership from Cambridge University, she is passionate about operationalising innovation & tech to realise a sustainable energy future. In 2021, Naureen was awarded Women’s Agenda Leader in Tech, EnergyLab’s Women in Climate and Energy Fellowship and was named a finalist for Engineers Australia 2020 Young Engineer of the Year. 

Naureen Alam

Naureen Alam

Senior Manager, Energy & Decarbonisation, AGL

Dr Sally Pitkin AO

Chair, Super Retail Group

Yasmin Khan

Founder, Global Muslim Women; Director, The Bangle Foundation; 2017 Australian of the Year (Qld) Local Hero Award winner

Founder, Global Muslim Women; Director, The Bangle Foundation; 2017 Australian of the Year (Qld) Local Hero Award winner

Yasmin Khan is a champion for diversity and women.  Yasmin founded the award winning Eidfest, the festival that celebrates the end of Ramadhan, The Muslim Writers Festival, Global Muslim Women, Qld Pakistan Assoc and The Bangle Foundation. Yasmin is a Churchill Fellow (2017) and studied Domestic Abuse Support Services for women from the Indian Subcontinent. In 2015, Yasmin won the State Multicultural Award and in 2017 she was named the Qld Australian of the Year Local Hero Winner. She works full time helping South Asian women experiencing domestic abuse at The Bangle Foundation, an unfunded and voluntary service, that sees more than 300 clients each year. Yasmin is a Past Chair of the Ethnic Communities Council of Qld, she is an Accredited Mediator and is also a Director of the Red Rose Foundation.

Yasmin Khan