Meet our highly qualified, diverse and dynamic line up of speakers. 

 

Dr Robert Anderson OAM (Uncle Bob)

Welcome to Country 
 
Dr Robert Anderson OAM is a respected Ngugi Elder from Mulgumpin, Moreton Island in Quandamooka, SEQ. He is well known for striving to protect the rights of workers through the union movement and for his efforts to maintain and promote the reconciliation process and native title rights as an Aboriginal Elder. He served as a union delegate and State Organiser for the Building Workers Industrial Union from 1951 to 1978 and has been recognised as an Honorary Member of the CFMEU.
 
Affectionately known as Uncle Bob, he has a long and distinguished history of community service for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In 1998, Uncle Bob was named SEQ Indigenous Elder of the Year and SEQ Indigenous Person of the Year. Since then he has received many awards including Brisbane Citizen of the Year and the Order of Australia Medal (OAM). In 2001, he became one of the inaugural Queensland Greats. 
 

Sarah Beaman

QNMU Secretary
Presentation: TBA
 
Sarah is the Secretary of the QNMU. She has an extensive history as a Registered Nurse across the public, private and aged care sectors, as well as a long history of activism as a member. Her experience as a grassroots activist has given her a strong interest in nurturing local leadership and ensuring emerging leaders receive support, mentoring and training through their union. She also a keen advocate for safe workplaces and safe staffing.

Within her employment at the QNMU, Sarah has held the roles of Organiser, SEQ Public Sector Organising Team Leader, Professional Officer, Director of Organising and Professional Services and the Assistant Secretary of the QNMU. Sarah is also part of the Queensland Council of Union’s Executive.
 

Grant Burton

QNMU Assistant Secretary 
Presentation: Assistant Secretary’s Report 
 
Grant is the Assistant Secretary of the QNMU. He has been a QNMU member for more than 18 years, an Enrolled Nurse for nearly 20 and he has a strong belief in the power of local branches and grassroots activism.

Based in Rockhampton, Grant has a strong nursing and organising background having been an active delegate, QNMU Councillor, Organiser, Organising Regional Team Leader and Acting Director of Organising and Professional Services. 
 

Annie Butler

Federal Secretary - Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) 
Presentation: ANMF Federal Office Report  
 
Annie was formally appointed Federal Secretary for the ANMF in June 2018, having served as the Assistant Federal Secretary since March 2014, and following years of experience in the clinical, professional and industrial areas of nursing.
 
Annie is a Registered Nurse with over a decade’s experience working in public hospitals, the community and on health education projects, and a further decade working in research and education. Annie is passionate about improving Australia’s system of health and aged care and the critical role nurses and midwives have to play in the future of our health system. 
 

Lori-Anne Sharp 

Assistant Federal Secretary - Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) 
Presentation: ANMF Federal Office Report  
 
Lori-Anne Sharp is a Registered Nurse with a career spanning over two decades. She spent the majority of her career working for the Royal District Nursing Service across a variety of roles and sites.
 
Lori-Anne was a workplace representative with the ANMF before joining the Victorian Branch Council in 2004. During this time, she has held positions as Branch Executive, Branch Vice President and Federal Vice President. She became a pivotal cog in the union effort negotiating EBAs on behalf of members and supporting landmark policies such as nurse-to-patient ratios. 
 

Dr Stephen Duckett

Director of Grattan Institute’s Health and Aged Care Program
Presentation: INNOVATE - Reimagining Health Care Panel Discussion
 
Dr Stephen Duckett has recently concluded a decade as Director of Grattan Institute’s Health and Aged Care Program. He was an Independent Adviser to the Queensland Health Reform Group. He has held top health sector leadership positions in Australia and Canada and literally wrote the book on the Australian health care system (Oxford University Press, 6e, 2022). An economist, he is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.




Adrian Carson

The Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH)
Presentation: INNOVATE - Reimagining Health Care panel discussion
 
Adrian Carson is a Cobble Cobble man from Queensland’s Western Downs Region who was born and spent majority of his life on Turrbal and Jagera country in Brisbane. 

Adrian has almost thirty years’ experience in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector.  Adrian is currently the CEO of the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH) Ltd in South East Queensland (SEQ), and has held this role for over 10 years.  Adrian is a former CEO of Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council (QAIHC), Director of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service (ATSICHS) Brisbane Ltd – Queensland’s first Community Controlled Health Service – and is a founder member of the Galangoor Duwalami Health Service within Queensland’s Fraser Coast Region. 

Adrian has held various senior policy and program roles within both Queensland and Australian Governments.  Adrian is a Board Member of the Metro North Hospital and Health Service (HHS), Australia’s largest health service, and is a previous Board Member of Health Workforce Queensland (HWQ) and the Wide Bay Medicare Local.

Adrian holds a Graduate Certificate in Health Service Management from Griffith University and is completing a Master of Business Administration from the University of Queensland. 
 

Mary Chiarella, AM

Professor Emerita, University of Sydney (Susan Wakil School of Nursing)
Presentation: INNOVATE - Reimagining Health Care panel discussion
 
Mary’s career spans 40 years both in the United Kingdom and Australia. Mary is Professor Emerita at the University of Sydney's Susan Wakil School of Nursing. She has served as the Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer for the NSW Health Department, and prior to that was the Foundation Professor of Nursing in Corrections Health with the University of Technology, Sydney. 
 
Mary has provided her professional expertise to health services, organisations and governments over the years. She is a Board member of Northern Sydney LHD and chairs their Health Care Quality Committee. She also serves on the Health Ethics Advisory Panel to the NSW Minister for Health and the Clinical Governance Advisory Committee to healthdirect Australia. She has recently been appointed by the NSW Nursing and Midwifery Council as a panel member for the professional standards committees and by the Australian Medical Council as a member of the accreditation review committee for the Australian College of Emergency Medicine.
 
Mary’s particular research interests focus on legal, policy and ethical issues in nursing, midwifery and health care delivery. She was awarded an AM for significant contributions to nursing and midwifery education and healthcare standards in June 2019 and was awarded the title of Professor Emerita by the University of Sydney on 1 May 2021.
   

Melissa Fox

Chief Executive Officer, Health Consumers Queensland
Presentation: INNOVATE - Reimagining Health Care panel discussion
 
Melissa leads Health Consumers Queensland to support consumers and health providers to collaborate together to improve the safety and quality of health services.  She is also President of the Queensland Council for LGBTI Health (QC). 

Melissa believes that consumers being involved in decision-making at all levels is essential to achieve consumer-centred care and to improve health services. 

She was an original member of the Ministerial Advisory Committee that later became the independent organisation that is now Health Consumers Queensland.  Melissa is a mother of two gorgeous girls and has previously worked in documentary and reality television. 

Bianca Hartge-Hazelman 

Managing Director of Financy
Presentation: INVEST in Diversity, Gender Equality & Health Equity panel discussion
 
Bianca Hartge-Hazelman is the CEO of Financy, which helps women and organisations become part of the solution to gender financial inequality. 

Financy collaborates & partners with like-minded organisations to help move the dial of financial equality as measured through the Financy Women’s Index (FWX). The FWX is a quarterly economic measurement and report on financial equality and women's progress in Australia. Economic modelling of the Index is done in partnership with Deloitte Access Economics.

For the past 8 years, Bianca has dedicated her time to co-raising three girls with her husband Neil, whilst also advocating for women’s finance progress and gender equality.
Bianca has published extensively on political and business gender financial equality reforms as well as individual actions that impact the financial progress of women.
Bianca lists the Financy Women’s Index™ as one of her proudest career accomplishments. Launched in 2017, the Index is aligned to the United Nations Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) of which Financy is a signatory.
Bianca has previously worked for the Australian Financial Review, Channel Nine’s Financial Review Sunday program, Kaplan Professional and the ABC. She is a regular contributor to Women’s Agenda, Yahoo Finance and the Australia Financial Review.

Bianca holds a Communications Degree with a Broadcast Major, Masters Degree in Journalism and Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance.
 

Dr Linda Colley

Special Commissioner, Equity and Diversity, Office of the Special Commissioner
Presentation: INVEST in Diversity, Gender Equality & Health Equity panel discussion
 
Dr Linda Colley assumed the role of Special Commissioner Equity and Diversity on 25 October, 2021. This new role focuses on developing strategies and initiatives that promote gender pay equity and ensure fairness and inclusiveness across the Queensland public sector, and reports to the Premier and Public Service Commissioner. 

From 2010-2021, Dr Colley was an academic at Central Queensland University and at The University of Queensland. Her research focused on public employment across Australia, and particularly on gender equality. Her PhD was a study of Queensland public service employment from 1859-1999.  Dr Colley was Chair of the Queensland Work Health and Safety Board from May 2017-October 2021.


Janty Blair 

Comedian
Presentation: Comedy Act - Time for a laugh
 
Janty Blair is a Butchulla (connections to K’gari), Woppaburra, Mununjali woman through her mother and Wakka Wakka , Cobble Cobble through her dad’s side. She is a Saltwater girl through and through!

Janet (Janty) Blair graduated from Rockhampton Base hospital in 1987 and then completed her Midwifery training at Redcliffe Hospital in 1998.
Her extensive health career spanned nearly 3 decades before she decided to follow her dreams and commenced her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at QUT in 2020.

Earlier this year she fell into Stand Up Comedy while house sitting in Byron Bay. She recently returned from The Melbourne Comedy festival where she took out the Deadly Funny Grand final. Janty recently performed with Steph Tisdale in Blakout at the Powerhouse as part of the Brisbane Comedy festival. She now is honing her skills by performing regularly at Open Mic nights in Brisbane.