Australia’s leading expert on strategic empathy, Daniel Murray, will be the facilitator at the APS 5-6 Leadership, Capability & Professional Excellence Masterclass on 16 – 17 September, and at the APS 6 – EL1 Leadership, Capability & Professional Excellence Masterclass on 18 – 19 September. Photo: Supplied.
Producing a Quality Cabinet Submission
Date: 15 September
Time: 9 am – 5 pm
Duration: One eight-hour face-to-face session
Location: Australian Capital Territory – MoAD (Old Parliament House)
Email: https://apslearn.apsacademy.gov.au/user_login
In this session, you will be provided with the most current information and insights into the Cabinet system, delivered in an engaging and educational way. You will become familiar with Cabinet principles and conventions, key steps and timeframes, template requirements, and who to consult.
With lots of practical activities, you will develop your drafting skills and learn tips on how to write for a Cabinet audience. You will also benefit from meeting and engaging with other APS staff on these topics.
This content has been provided by the APS Academy in partnership with the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and is suitable for APS 5 – SES 3.
Women in Leadership Summit 2025
Date: 15 – 19 September
Time: 9 am – 4:30 pm
Location: Pullman on the Park, Melbourne
Email: [email protected]
Overview
Leadership reimagined: Gain the skills, strategies and confidence to lead with impact.
- Join the wave of women redefining leadership.
- Uncover strategies to challenge and overcome bias.
- Learn how to create balance while continuing to grow your career.
- Connect with inspiring women and expand your network.
Speakers include:
- Chief Marketing Officer, Origin Energy, Catherine Anderson
- Chief Corporate Affairs & Marketing Officer, Optus, Felicity Ross
- Deputy Secretary, Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions, Lill Healy
- Chief People Officer, BAE Systems, Angela Wiggins
- Chief Enterprise Services Officer, Toll Group, Angela Tatlis
- Head of Airport Operations, VIC & SA, Qantas Airways, Jenna Yeats.
Women in Leadership Summit 2025: Banking & Financial Services
Date: 15 – 19 September
Time: 9 am – 4:30 pm
Location: Pullman on the Park, Melbourne
Email: [email protected]
Overview
Find your edge. Lead with confidence to make a lasting impact.
- Build confidence and sharpen your leadership skills for a high-stakes world.
- Navigate the quickly evolving financial landscape without losing your authentic voice.
- Discover strategies to overcome bias, boost influence, and inspire teams.
- Connect with powerhouse women transforming banking and finance across Australia.
Speakers include Simone O’Brien and Jacqui Cooper.
In 2012, Simone survived a horrific, near-fatal attack by a former partner after months of emotional and psychological abuse escalated into brutal violence. Left with life-altering injuries – including the loss of sight in one eye and her sense of smell – Simone refused to be silenced. Today, she is one of Australia’s most courageous voices against domestic and family violence, using her story to spotlight coercive control, inspire prevention, and drive change. With grit, grace, and purpose, Simone empowers audiences nationwide to speak up, recognise the signs, and take action to protect women and children.
With five world titles, 39 World Cup medals, 24 World Cup wins and a record five Olympic appearances, Jacqui Cooper is a sporting icon who defied gravity and expectations to become the greatest aerial skier in history. For more than 20 years, she represented Australia on the world stage, turning a bold dream into a record-breaking career. As the first Australian woman to compete at five Winter Olympics, Jacqui shattered ceilings and redefined what’s possible with vision, grit, and unshakeable purpose. Today, she brings that same energy to every stage – empowering others to lead boldly, back themselves, and rise beyond limits.
APS 5-6 Leadership, Capability & Professional Excellence Masterclass
Date: 16 – 17 September
Time: 9:30 am – 3:30 pm
Location: Ngunnawal Country, Canberra, ACT (venue to be confirmed)
Email: [email protected]
Accelerate leadership skills, exceed expectations and lead a high-performing team. Exceed your work-level standards, thrive in your role and unleash your leadership potential. Aimed at APS 5-6 officers and management, this face-to-face two-day masterclass will provide an opportunity to advance core skills and explore the leadership requirements for effective APS 5-6 professionals.
Built around the core capabilities and characteristics set out by the APSC, it will arm you with the key tools to thrive as a public sector leader and tackle your career with drive and resilience. Practical, engaging and hands-on, this comprehensive masterclass will optimise your professional performance and accelerate your growth as a leader.
Australia’s leading expert on strategic empathy, facilitator Daniel Murray shows business leaders how to foster organisational understanding, build deep, trusted relationships and create a culture of commitment through mastery of empathy as a capability. The worlds of business strategy, leadership and emotional intelligence are blended to support business and community leaders to drive high performance by creating more motivated and empowered teams.
NSW Public Sector Grades 9-10 High-Performance & Leadership Workshop
Date: 16 – 17 September
Time: 9 am – 4:30 pm
Location: Cliftons Sydney
Email: [email protected]
Overview
Develop and refine core skills and key leadership capability to achieve success and excel.
- Identify and develop your capabilities as a confident and successful public sector leader.
- Build productive relationships and lead proficient, capable teams.
- Drive strategic change to improve procedures and meet agency goals.
- Explore career planning and pathways in NSW public service roles.
Trainer Dr Karen Whittingham is one of Australia’s leading executive management development specialists, having worked with thousands of executives to transition them into senior leadership roles quickly and effectively. She is an organisational psychologist passionate about people’s success and facilitating their careers to rise. Dr Whittingham teaches organisational psychology at UNSW and works with ASX-listed companies and large public sector organisations to drive engagement, inclusion, and performance.
Defending Australian Territory: Dr Andrew Carr at the National Library
Date: 17 September
Time: 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
Location: National Library of Australia
Cost: Entry to this event is free, but bookings are essential. Tickets are available on the National Library of Australia website
A 2025 National Library of Australia Honorary Fellow, Dr Andrew Carr discusses his research on the history of Australian defence policy. During his fellowship, Dr Carr explored the personal papers of Australian politicians and defence and diplomatic officials from the 1960s to the ’80s, to better understand how they thought about protecting the continent.
In discussing the history of Australia’s defence policy, Dr Carr aims to address the shortfalls in our understanding of both the policy and the way the nation’s elite have considered the geography of this nation.
Dr Carr is a senior lecturer at the Australian National University’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre. His research focuses on strategy and Australian defence policy. He has published widely and has a sole-authored book with Melbourne University Press, as well as edited books with Oxford University Press and Georgetown University Press. Dr Carr is a member of the ANU-Defence Strategic Policy History Project, writing a history of Australian Defence White Papers from 1976-2020.
His current research examines how a country as large and diverse as Australia can be defended. Since the 1970s, this has been the formal primary task of the Australian Defence Force. However, Australians’ views on their security, as well as scholarly attention, have remained focused on overseas deployments and alliance relationships. This has led to shortfalls in our understanding of both Australian defence policy and the way the nation’s elite have thought about the geography of Australia.
Dr Carr’s fellowship research will also inform the central chapters of a longer, comprehensive history of Australian defence policy, with a focus on territorial security.
Watch online
The conversation will also be available online. Please make a booking and you will be sent a direct link to the livestream event via email. Or you can join through the library’s YouTube channel.
Lunch and Learn – Session 5: Speed up claims processing with AI
Date: 17 September
Time: 12:30 pm – 1 pm
Duration: One 30-minute face-to-screen session
Location: Virtual
Email: https://apslearn.apsacademy.gov.au/user_login
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) has developed a Proof-of-Concept AI tool named MyClaims to understand whether AI could help tackle claims processing. The tool uses AI features such as visual language models and semantic search to extract and summarise medical information from complex documentation and has been developed using synthetic data.
If implemented, this approach has the potential to significantly reduce manual review time and improve accuracy for the DVA. The initiative demonstrates how early-stage AI experimentation can help improve government workflows.
The presenter is Alicja Mosbauer, an Assistant Secretary/Chief Data Officer at the DVA, based in Tasmania. She has extensive experience leading data, digital transformation, and capability-building initiatives across the Australian Public Service (APS). Her work spans both APS and non-APS contexts, including cross-sector collaborations that explore the ethical and practical integration of emerging technologies.
Facilitator Daniel Parris is an engagement manager with GovAI, a whole-of-government program in the Department of Finance working to enable responsible and effective AI adoption across the APS. In his role, Daniel works with agencies to accelerate AI adoption through information-sharing, capability-building, and supporting cross-agency connections. He also oversees the APS AI Use Case Library, which is a central GovAI resource showcasing real-world AI applications in government, promoting reuse, and fostering innovation across the public sector.
This content is suitable for all staff.
APS 6 – EL1 Leadership, Capability & Professional Excellence Masterclass
Date: 18 – 19 September
Time: 9:30 am – 3:30 pm
Location: Hyatt Hotel Canberra
Email: [email protected]
In a tailored program to strategically fast-track your APS leadership skills, learn how to lead at the top of your game, with tips from the top of the public sector. Practical, engaging and hands-on, this comprehensive masterclass will optimise your professional performance and prepare you for the next stage of your career.
Specifically designed for APS 6 & EL1-level roles and built around the core capabilities set out by the APSC, it will give you the key tools to thrive as a senior public sector leader and tackle your career with drive and resilience.
Facilitator Daniel Murray is Australia’s leading expert on strategic empathy. He blends the worlds of business strategy, leadership and emotional intelligence to support business and community leaders to drive high performance by creating more motivated and empowered teams. Daniel shows business leaders how to foster organisational understanding, build deep, trusted relationships and create a culture of commitment through mastery of empathy as a capability.
A proverbial ”one-stop shop” for professional and leadership development, the masterclass will leave you feeling inspired, re-energised, and confident about your leadership and the path ahead. Daniel’s keynote speaking, training, consulting and writing demonstrate he believes it will be people, not technology, that will disrupt business today.
MasterCraft Series – AI in Government and AI’s role in capability and learning
Date: 23 September
Time: 1 pm – 2 pm
Duration: One one-hour face-to-screen session
Location: Virtual
Email: https://apslearn.apsacademy.gov.au/user_login
This MasterCraft Series event promises to be an insightful exploration of the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in the public sector. This timely discussion will delve into how AI technologies can be leveraged to enhance government operations, improve service delivery, and foster innovation in policy formation. The event will provide some commentary on the alignment of AI implementation with the Australian Public Service Reform Agenda, emphasising the importance of citizen-centric approaches and cross-sector collaboration.
Distinguished panellists from across academia, industry and the not-for-profit sector will offer their expertise on the big picture of AI in government, framing the AI discussion within the context of purposeful innovation that supports the APS Reform Agenda and puts citizens at the centre of government service delivery. They will explore how AI can be harnessed to better understand and respond to citizens’ needs, streamline administrative processes, and enable data-driven decision-making. The panel will also address the ways in which AI can facilitate improved collaboration between government departments and external stakeholders, leading to more effective and efficient public services.
Finally, the event will examine AI’s role in enhancing capability and learning within the public sector. Panellists will discuss how AI might augment our capabilities and change how we do things. The discussion will also touch upon the ethical considerations and challenges associated with AI adoption in government, ensuring that its implementation aligns with principles of transparency, accountability, and fairness.
Presenters will be:
- CEO, Infoxchange, David Spriggs
- Founder and principal, Public Purpose, Martin Stewart-Weeks
- Acting Head of Policy at the Tech Council of Australia, Madeleine Haughton.
The facilitator will be co-head of AI CoLab, Department of Finance, Dr Paul Hubbard.
This content is suitable for all staff.
Lunch and Learn – Session 6: Make audio archives searchable with AI
Date: 24 September
Time: 12:30 pm – 1 pm
Duration: One 30-minute face-to-screen session
Location: Virtual
Email: https://apslearn.apsacademy.gov.au/user_login
Discover how the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) uses its custom language engine “Bowerbird” to convert sound archives into searchable text. This session demonstrates how AI can unlock access to historical audio content, support research workflows, and improve discoverability across large collections, even when dealing with complex or multilingual recordings.
The presenter, Dr Keir Winesmith, is chief digital officer at the National Film & Sound Archive of Australia. His research and creative practice are focused on the intersection of digital and culture. He has experience across the galleries, libraries, archives, museums and records management (GLAMR) sector with roles at the National Gallery of Australia, museums on two continents, multiple universities, and an artist residency at the State Library of Queensland. Dr Winesmith holds hold a PhD in new media and speaks frequently at international conferences and symposia. His most recent publication is The Digital Future of Museums (2020), co-authored with Dr Suse Anderson.
The facilitator will be Daniel Parris, an engagement manager with GovAI, a whole-of-government program in the Department of Finance, working to enable responsible and effective AI adoption across the APS.
This content is suitable for all staff.
