Campaigner encouraging respectful colleges

Gender equality campaigner Ms Elizabeth Broderick AO was a special guest of King’s College at The University of Queensland on Friday, 23 June.

She presented the annual Dr David Williams Lecture for 2017, “The importance of culture at University Residential Colleges”, at a time when the practices and culture of university residential colleges around Australia are under the microscope.

Master of King’s College Mr Greg Eddy said it was an honour to have Ms Broderick at St Lucia.

“She is one of the country’s most powerful and influential leaders in the fight for gender equality,” Mr Eddy said.

“Elizabeth has dedicated her career to this cause, and as Australia’s longest serving Sex Discrimination Commissioner – serving from 2007-2015 - she worked tirelessly to break down structural and social barriers to promote gender equality in Australia and beyond.

“She has also worked alongside the Australian Federal Police to implement significant cultural changes across the organisation, with a focus on increasing women’s representation across the AFP.”

Lately Ms Broderick has established and convened a key strategy called the ‘Male Champions of Change’.

The Male Champions of Change is made up of senior male leaders in government, corporate, command and control sectors who form a team to address the under-representation of women at decision-making level in businesses in Australia.

Currently, Ms Broderick is conducting a project exploring the strengths of college life and highlighting areas for renewal with five of the residential colleges located at the University of Sydney.

The project will enable the sharing of best practice among the participating colleges to build greater collaboration between the university and the residential colleges.

This process of examining college culture is extremely important to ensure current students, and those who follow, have the best possible experience and to allow individuals to better understand their role in creating a college and university community culture that is respectful, inclusive, safe and supportive for all students.

In 2016 Ms Broderick was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia and was named the 2016 NSW Australian of the Year.

She also holds Honorary Doctorates of Law from the University of Sydney, UNSW, UTS Sydney and Deakin University.

Media: Madeleine Warner, m.warner@kings.uq.edu.au, 0498 099 151.