Policy Symposium: Gendered Impacts of Care

Melissa Donnelly is the Community and Public Sector Union's (CPSU) youngest ever National Secretary, as well as the third woman and the first working mother to hold the role.

Melissa was admitted to practice law in New South Wales in 2006, and has degrees in Social Science and Law from Macquarie University.

Soon after joining the CPSU, Melissa represented APS staff and argued for their right to participate in the Your Rights At Work campaign, which opposed the Howard Government’s WorkChoices industrial relations policy.

Melissa has led the CPSU’s national Political, Industrial, Research and Legal team, as well as its Justice, Revenue and Media team, and has represented staff in the Australian Taxation Office, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, courts and tribunals, Australia Post and Telstra.

More recently she was responsible for the union’s biggest stronghold in the Australian Public Service, the Department of Human Services. 

Professor Guyonne Kalb is a Professorial Fellow, Senior Research Manager and co-Coordinator of the Labour Markets and Employment Program in the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research at the University of Melbourne. She has a PhD in Econometrics from Monash University.

Before joining the Melbourne Institute in 2001, she worked at the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, and at The Department of Econometrics at Monash University. She is a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course. a Research Fellow at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) an associate editor for Fiscal Studies and The Economic Record.

Her research interests are mainly in the field of applied micro-economics and include labour supply issues, in particular female labour supply; the interaction of labour supply, social security and taxation; labour supply and childcare; and the impact of childcare/parental activities on child development and health. Her work is well-cited and includes over 60 refereed publications in national and international journals, such as for example Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, Journal of Health Economics, Health Economics, Economics of Education Review, Fiscal Studies and Economic Record. In addition, she has been involved in several research projects providing evidence for policy makers, including a number of evaluation studies, such as the evaluation of the Paid Parental Leave scheme. She is currently leading the evaluation of the Future Directions policy, a large social housing policy reform in New South Wales, for the NSW Department of Communities and Justice, and she is involved in the evaluation of the Try, Test and Learn Fund for the Department of Social Services. These projects have led/are leading to numerous (government) reports.

Professor Deborah Brennan AM was appointed as an Associate Commissioner with the Productivity Commission in February 2023 to work on the Early Childhood Education and Care inquiry.

Deborah Brennan BA Syd., MA Macq., PhD Syd., FASSA, is one of Australia’s leading researchers in comparative welfare, family policy and gender and politics. Deborah is Professor Emerita at the Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW and has held visiting positions at the London School of Economics, Oxford University and Trinity College Dublin.

She has published extensively on early childhood education and care policy, gender and public policy, care and migration and the impact of marketisation on human services. Her publications include The Politics of Australian Child Care: From Philanthropy to Feminism, Cambridge University Press, 1994; and “No Fit Place for Women”? Women in New South Wales Politics, 1856-2006, (with Louise Chappell), 2006. She has been commissioned to write reports for numerous government agencies and community organisations. In 2018, she published Lifting our Game. Report of the Review to Achieve Educational Excellence in Australian Schools through Early Childhood Interventions, a report commissioned by all State and Territory governments and co-authored with Susan Pascoe.

Deborah has served on a range of government committees and advisory bodies. She was also the Inaugural Convenor of the National Association of Community Based Children’s Services (1982-1986) and has served on the boards of various research and community organisations, including the Centre for Children and Young People, Southern Cross University (2009-2020) and the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) (1996-2000).

As CEO of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), Mary Wooldridge leads the Agency in driving gender equality in workplaces ensuring that women and men are equally represented, valued and rewarded.

Mary brings to the role a wealth of experience from a distinguished career in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Mary served from 2006 to 2020 in the Victorian Parliament, including a term as Minister for Mental Health, Community Services and Women’s Affairs.

As Minister, Mary worked to implement the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022 and was instrumental in establishing Our Watch, the national family violence prevention agency. Mary was the Minister responsible for signing Victoria up to the National Disability Insurance Scheme. She established the Victorian Commission for Children and Young People, including the nation’s first Aboriginal Commissioner, Parkville College – an award-winning Public School in Youth Justice Centres and Australia’s first Mental Health Complaints Commissioner and the Family Drug Treatment Court.

Prior to being elected to Parliament, Mary was the CEO of The Foundation for Young Australians and worked with McKinsey & Company and Consolidated Press Holdings.

Mary also serves as Chair of Global Citizen (Australia) and a Director of Carey Baptist Grammar School.