Senior Executive Service
Band 1
Timothy Neal has been promoted to assistant secretary for government cyber and protective security at the Department of Home Affairs. Home Affairs has also moved Lavinia Mitchell to assistant secretary for humanitarian and child wellbeing policy and capability.
Alexander Goldie has moved from the Department of Parliamentary Services to assistant secretary for countering violent extremism at Home Affairs.
The new assistant secretary for funding and revenue at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry is Maria Loyman.
Nisette Anderson has taken a new role as assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Aged Care.
Rebecca Daumont has moved from the Office of the Australia Government Solicitor to the Attorney General’s Department as new assistant secretary of IT engagement, innovation and support.
The eSafety commissioner has appointed Bryan Downie executive manager of investigations.
Band 2
Olivia Abbott is now deputy chief general counsel at the Australian Government Solicitor’s Office.
Social Justice commissioner named chair of Indigenous gender justice centre
Outgoing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner June Oscar has been named inaugural chair of Wiyi Yani U Thangani Institute for First Nations Gender Justice.
Hosted by ANU, the institute will build on Oscar’s First Nations gender justice work by developing and designing initiatives to improve life outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls.
Oscar is a proud Bunuba woman from the remote town of Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia’s Kimberley region.
Oscar has worked as a community health and welfare worker in her hometown of Fitzroy Crossing in the early 1990s. Since then, she has held a raft of influential positions including deputy director of the Kimberley Land Council, chair of the Kimberley Language Resource Centre and the Kimberley Interpreting Service and chief investigator with WA’s Lililwan Project addressing FASD.
In 2013, she was awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to the Indigenous community of Western Australia, particularly through health and social welfare programs.
In 2015, Oscar received the Menzies School of Health Research Medallion for her work with FASD. In 2016, she was the recipient of the Desmond Tutu Global Reconciliation Award, she was named NAIDOC Person of the Year in 2018, and in 2019 she was bestowed the honorary role of a Distinguished Fellow of ANZSOG.
Her five-year term as Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner began in 2017, and in April 2022 she was reappointed for a further two years.
During this time, she published the landmark Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women’s Voices) Report which highlighted the important role women play in maintaining the social fabric of Indigenous communities.
Jobs and Skills Australia ministerial advisory board appointed
Skills and training minister Brendan O’Connor has announced appointments to the ministerial advisory body Jobs and Skills Australia’s (JSA).
The board will provide independent, expert and strategic advice to the minister and the JSA commissioner.
Their strategic advice will also ensure that gender equality and the economic inclusion of First Nations people, Australians from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and people with disability are integral to JSA’s work.
Chair Cath Bowtell has been appointed for a three-year term. Bowtell has a background in the superannuation sector and industrial relations, with experience as a CEO, advocate and board director.
In 2023 she was appointed Chair of IFM Investors, after four years on the board. Bowtell is also chair of The Royal Women’s Hospital Board, and a member of the Board of the Melbourne Arts Precinct Corporation. She was appointed as a director of Industry Fund Services (IFS) in 2022, having served as CEO from 2016.
Bowtell is also the chair of The New Daily and deputy chair of Industry Super Australia (ISA).
Megan Lilly and Liam O’Brien have been appointed deputy chairs for a two-year term. Lilly will act as a representative of employer organisations, and O’Brien will represent workers.
Lilly is executive director at the Centre for Education & Training at The Australian Industry Group (Ai Group). Prior to this she was the CEO of Business Services Training Australia. Before joining the national board, she held several senior management positions in various Victorian TAFE institutes.
Lilly is deputy chair at Worldskills Australia, a director on the board Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), a member of the Qualifications Reform Design Group, and the Mansfield Adult & Continuing Education Centre. She was also on the Noonan AQF review panel and chaired Manufacturing Skills Australia.
She has been a member of the Australia India Education Council, including chairing the Skills Working Group, Australian Qualifications Framework Council, Queensland Ministerial Commission, Victorian Skills Commission and was a member of the Australian Industry Skills Committee, National Skills Standards Council, and the National Quality Council.
She also chaired the Joint COAG-NQC Working Group – VET Products for the 21st Century and has presented at international conferences. She has a Masters in Educational Policy and Administration.
O’Brien was re-elected as assistant secretary at the ACTU Congress in July 2021, where he is also responsible for VET and skills policy. Before joining the ACTU, he was the Victorian assistant secretary and national vice-president of the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU). As a national official, he led the AWU’s work in the aluminium, aviation, glass and construction sectors.
As ACTU assistant secretary, O’Brien is responsible for leading the movement’s policy, industrial and campaigning work on work health and safety and workers’ compensation matters. He is passionate about the rights of all workers to have safe, healthy and decent work, and is a member of Safe Work Australia (SWA) and the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Council (ASEC).
Additional appointees are:
- State and Territory Representatives – Lisa Healy (Victorian Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions) and Jodie Wallace (WA Department of Training and Workforce Development).
- Employer Organisation Representatives – Luke Achterstraat (Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, CEO), Bran Black (Business Council of Australia, CEO) and Natalie Heazlewood (Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, director of Skills, Employment and Small Business).
- Employee Organisation Representatives – Annie Butler (Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation, federal secretary), Andrew Dettmer (Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, national president) and Correna Haythorpe (Australian Education Union, federal president).
- Professor Jack Beetson (Literacy for Life Foundation executive director).
- Professor Rae Cooper (Australian Centre for Gender Equality and Inclusion @ Work, Sydney University).
- El Gibbs (Disability Advocacy Network Australia).
- Nyadol Nyuon (lawyer, human rights advocate, TAFE Board director).
Melbourne lord mayor to step down
Sally Capp has announced she will not seek another term as Melbourne lord mayor.
Capp was elected lord Mayor in 2018 in a byelection after the resignation of former lord mayor Robert Doyle following sexual harassment claims. She was reelected in 2020.
She will depart in June to avoid a mayoral byelection ahead of council elections in October.
Capp is chair of the Council of Capital Cities Lord Mayors, and also a member of the federal government’s Urban Policy Forum. In 2023, she was appointed an officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to the people of Melbourne, local government, business and the community.
She was the first woman to hold the post of agent-general for Victoria in the UK, Europe and Israel. She has served as the CEO for the Committee for Melbourne and Victorian executive director of the Property Council of Australia.
She is involved in a number of charities, currently sitting on the board of the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute, the Mary Jane Lewis Scholarship Foundation and the Melbourne University Faculty of Business and Economics.
She was named McKinnon Emerging Political Leader of the Year in 2019 for her work building a more consensus-based culture at Melbourne Town Hall.
Gales to chair Australian Antarctic Science Council
Antarctic and sub-Antarctic scientist Dr Nicholas Gales has been appointed chair of the Australian Antarctic Science Council.
The council provides independent advice to the government on the priorities of the Australian Antarctic Science Program, which investigates the role of Antarctica in the global climate system.
Gales joined the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) in the 1980s as a veterinary scientist studying elephant seals and penguins on Heard and MacDonald islands and Davis Research Station.
Since then, he has served as chief scientist of the AAD and then as head of the division from 2015-18.
Gales is also the Australian commissioner to the International Whaling Commission (IWC), a position he has held since 2016. He was a witness for Australia in the successful International Court of Justice finding against Japan’s Southern Ocean whaling program.
He was awarded the Antarctic Medal in 2021 for his contribution to AAD.
Gales takes over from outgoing chair Philip Marcus Clark, who has finished his term.
Experienced agriculture researcher next policy council president
Dr Nick Austin will be the next president of Australia’s Policy Advisory Council for International Agricultural Research.
The council provides advice and insights into the development priorities and food security needs of our regional partners. It considers how Australia’s expertise in agricultural research can contribute to these priorities, including through research collaborations with the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).
Austin has a long association with ACIAR, having served as CEO from 2009 to 2016.
He has held senior roles in international bodies, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, representing Australia on the CGIAR Fund Council for 7 years, and with the board of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).
The council is made up of 11 expert members from across the Indo-Pacific region and Africa. Austin will succeed Professor Wendy Umberger.
Mr Smith goes to Perth
Colin Smith has been appointed CEO of Western Australian government organisations Lotterywest and Healthway.
Smith has experience as a senior executive in government and the private sector, including almost 13 years at Synergy as manager of corporate strategy implementation, general manager of customer experience.
He is currently the chief operating officer at the Telethon Kids Institute and has worked at Tata Group and Bankwest.
He commences his five-year appointment on May 13, following the departure of Ralph Addis in late 2023.
Jeremy Hubble has been acting in the CEO position this year.
