Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has marked her birthday in 2021 by recognising the commitment and dedication of the many public servants who have served the people of Australia over and above the call of duty in the past year and beyond.
Her Majesty’s awards, presented by the Order of Australia, were unveiled for the public in Canberra earlier this week by the Governor-General, General David Hurley on her behalf.
Staff members of the Queensland Public Service recognised and honoured by the Queen on her birthday included:
OFFICER IN THE GENERAL DIVISION (AO)
Anne Frances TWOMEY AO
University of Sydney
For distinguished service to the law, to legal education, and to public education on constitutional matters.
Professor Twomey has been Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Sydney since 2012.
MEMBER IN THE GENERAL DIVISION (AM)
Toni Magdalena MAKKAI AM
Australian National University
For significant service to tertiary education, and to public administration.
Emeritus Professor Makkai has been Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in the Centre for Social Research and Methods at the Australian National University in Canberra since 2014.
Robyn Lesley RICHMOND AM
University of New South Wales
For significant service to tertiary medical education, and to public health.
Professor Richmond has been Professor of Public Health at the University of New South Wales, School of Population Health since 2003.
Helen SCOTT-ORR AM PSM
Department of Primary Industries
For significant service to public administration, to biosecurity, and to veterinary science.
Dr Scott-Orr was Inspector-General of Biosecurity for the Commonwealth of Australia from 2016-2019 and Director of Health Sciences, Strategic Alliances and Evaluation in the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries from 2004 to 2009.
MEDAL IN THE GENERAL DIVISION (OAM)
Brian John LADD OAM
Art Gallery of New South Wales
For service to the public art galleries sector.
Mr Ladd was President of the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales from 2015-19 and Head of the Public Programs Department in the Art Gallery of New South Wales from 1996-2010.
PUBLIC SERVICE MEDAL (PSM)
Leanne BARNES OAM PSM
Bega Valley Shire Council
For outstanding public service to local government in New South Wales.
Ms Barnes has shown expertise and commitment in her leadership of the Bega Valley community as it responded to and recovered from 12 natural disasters since 2013, most notably the 2019-2020 bushfires.
As General Manager, she has driven the Bega Valley Shire Council’s response to these natural disasters. During the 2019-2020 bushfires, she guided the set-up of evacuation and recovery centres, and the creation of local recovery committees, while always being available to support a traumatised and devastated community.
She was instrumental in bringing together and strengthening collaboration between councils, state agencies and other stakeholders through her involvement in the Canberra Region Joint Organisation, the Southern Region Leadership Executive team and Southern NSW Recovery Committees. She had a profound impact on both the Bega Valley Shire Council and the Bega Valley community through her networks, particularly with the NSW and Commonwealth Governments, by advocating and attracting over $157 million in grant funding to support community assets, services and disaster recovery.
Throughout all the natural disasters that have faced the Bega Valley over the past 8 years, she has developed a reputation of delivering projects to the highest quality and in turn earnt the respect of her peers. She has been able to source information, secure assistance, and advocate for local solutions to support decision making during the height of a crisis, but also in the recovery phase.
She is a dedicated lateral thinker that wears multiple hats and gets things done. She manages a turbulent, ever changing workplace with a steady hand, and encourages her staff to support each other and be empathetic to the challenging and changing environments being experienced right across the community.
Ms Barnes has created a connected, responsive, and committed local government organisation with the confidence to successfully navigate whatever challenges lie ahead, hand-in-hand with the community.
Michelle Aléna CRETIKOS PSM
NSW Health
For outstanding public service to community health in New South Wales.
Dr Cretikos commenced with NSW Health in 1998, and since that time has been passionate about making a difference to people’s lives through the delivery of health care services, and more recently through high quality, evidence based policy development and implementation.
She has displayed an impressive ability to assess complex situations and determine what measures are required to address them, followed by developing and executing a plan to resolve them. This has been particularly evident in the NSW Health response to music festival harm reduction, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
As the Executive Director, Centre for Alcohol and Other Drugs, she led the Ministry of Health’s response to music festival harm reduction. This required her to work across government with music festival organisers, private medical providers and other stakeholders. The work was undertaken in a politically sensitive environment with significant public, professional and political discussion, including calls for a range of controversial measures.
Her approach to risk identification, her understanding of data and critical care services, and her ability to effectively engage with senior clinicians provided a clear pathway to an evidence-informed response to a serious and complex issue.
More recently she significantly contributed to the development and implementation of public health measures to limit COVID-19 transmission in NSW. She managed multiple priorities, including providing advice to the highest level of government, liaison with the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee and senior public health officials across other States and Territories, and setting and revising the public health orders to the pandemic as it evolved.
Dr Cretikos has gone above and beyond in times of high pressure and uncertainty, and by doing so, has helped ensured the safety of the people of New South Wales.
Joanne Louise EDWARDS PSM
Department of Health
For outstanding public service to community health in New SouthWales
Ms Edwards has worked tirelessly for the Ministry of Health and the people of New South Wales.
As the Executive Director of Nursing, Midwifery and Clinical Governance at Western Sydney Local Health District, she drove the development of the Safety and Quality Account and Safety and Quality Improvement Strategy, and introduced the ‘My Experience Survey’, which enabled real time measurement for patients and consumers to drive improvement.
As Executive Director, System Management, she has place high importance on understanding and addressing the issues faced by people in the rural healthcare sector. During the 2019-2020 bushfires, she identified the needs of Local Health Districts, and mobilised additional support and staff for impacted areas.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, as the Deputy State Health Emergency Operations Centre Controller, she has undertaken roles and responsibilities including managing hotel quarantine and boarder restrictions; the medical exemption process; working with public and private pathology providers to establish testing clinics; and working with public and private hospitals to ensure NSW was able to meet the demand for care and treatment should a surge in COVID-19 cases occur.
Ms Edwards builds professional relationships and works collaboratively and tirelessly with internal and external stakeholders to produce the best outcomes for the people of New South Wales.
Jason Scott ELDERHURST PSM
Public Works advisory
For outstanding public service to building services in New South Wales.
Mr Elderhurst is an integral staff member within the Public Works Advisory. Most recently, as the Manager of Building Services, he made a significant impact to the NSW Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He has been a driving force behind the NSW Government’s COVID-19 Quarantine Hotels program. Engaged by Treasury, the Public Works Advisory, under his leadership, was tasked with providing security services in the police managed quarantine hotels. The security arrangements had to be mobilised and deployed within 48 hours to over twenty hotels across Sydney.
He interacted with multiple stakeholders including; Treasury, NSW Police, Security Service providers and hotels and his communications with key stakeholders ensured the high standards of a Quarantine Hotel were maintained, while also ensuring cost transparency and accountability for the security service provided.
In the first three months of the Quarantine Hotel program, over 620,000 security hours were provided, delivering a crucial service to significantly reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission in NSW.
The Public Works Advisory’s Building Service team, under his leadership, also played an influential role in returning NSW students back to school in May 2020. He engaged over 700 new cleaners in 10 days to clean over 2,200 schools to ensure the safe return of students and staff. This was a significant achievement considering the scale and urgency in which the project was undertaken.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic he has provided bespoke project delivery in a complex, high profile and publicly sensitive landscape.
Mr Elderhurst has consistently performed at the highest standard and his dedication to the safety of the New South Wales community has been of the highest order.
Karen Anne JONES PSM
Department of Education
For outstanding public service to education in New South Wales.
Mrs Jones has displayed a strong commitment to public education, with a particular focus on Aboriginal education, for over 39 years. Beginning her career as a special education teacher in 1982 she has been dedicated to improving the education system to meets the needs of all students.
She has led a number of large scale change reforms as a Principal, Director and Executive Director, to the benefit of the Department of Education and public schools across the state. As the Principal of Wyoming Public School, she significantly transformed and unified the then struggling school and her teaching and learning initiatives resulted in the percentage of students achieving literacy growth between Years 3 and 5, increasing from 12% to above 86%.
As Executive Director, Aboriginal Outcomes and Partnerships, she has advanced the education of 64,655 Aboriginal students in public schools across NSW. She has delivered quality education experiences and engaged positively and genuinely with Aboriginal communities. Most notably, she facilitated partnerships across 16 schools to implement a shared direction for reading, resulting in a significant decrease in the percentage of students below minimal standards.
She was also instrumental in developing a 10 year formal partnership agreement with the NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group Incorporated.
Mrs Jones is a highly regarded education leader and her achievements in improving opportunities for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students displays her commitment to the community of New South Wales.
Jeremy Montgomery McANULTY PSM
NSW Health
For outstanding public service to infectious diseases monitoring and environmental health in New South Wales.
Dr McAnulty has been a dedicated public servant since joining the New South Wales public sector over 35 years ago. Among many achievements, his work on communicable diseases and environmental health has been of significant value.
As the Executive Director of Health Protection NSW, he is responsible for monitoring notifiable infectious diseases and taking appropriate action to control their spread. Through the development of robust evidence-based policy, legislation, public information resources and other public health tools, he has ensured that NSW Health have been appropriately educated and adequately prepared to respond to major health incidents.
Some of the significant pieces of work that have occurred under his leadership include; managing outbreaks of cryptosporidium contaminated drinking water in Sydney; preparation for the response to SARS and Ebola; sustained excellent immunisation rates, particularly in Aboriginal communities; re-drafting of the NSW Public Health Act (2010); and investigation and control of numerous localised virus clusters or outbreaks.
He was also responsible for the public health planning for, and in response to, mass gatherings including the Sydney 2000 Olympics, APEC 2007 Forum and World Youth Day 2008. Since the commencement of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, he has played a vital role in leading and coordinating the public health aspects of NSW Health’s response to the pandemic as Deputy Controller of the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre.
He has worked tirelessly to guide epidemiological investigations, implement measures to control localised outbreaks, monitor contact tracing processes, issue public health orders, and coordinate the state-wide network of public health units.
Dr McAnulty has been an integral part of NSW Health’s response to public health emergencies for over three decades demonstrating a strong commitment to the community of New South Wales.
Christine Enid SELVEY PSM
NSW Health
For outstanding public service to infectious disease reporting and public health in New South Wales.
Dr Christine Selvey is currently the Director of the Communicable Diseases Branch and Deputy Controller of the NSW Health Public Health Response Branch. Her contribution to the surveillance and reporting of sexually transmittable infections and communicable diseases, and most recently assisting in the NSW Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, has been significant.
During her career she has undertaken a number of roles, including as Manager of Blood Borne Virus and Sexually Transmissible Infections within the NSW Communicable Diseases Branch. She was a key partner with the Kirby Institute in trialling innovative health system responses to HIV and hepatitis C prevention and control. She has contributed significantly to NSW’s international reputation for best practice in infectious disease control and policy.
In HIV surveillance, she has been responsible for numerous innovations to ensure that our surveillance system provides real-time data to shape public health responses, protecting health and enhancing quality of life. This has included innovations in molecular epidemiology within a research framework and the prospective follow-up of people newly diagnosed with HIV to ensure all people with HIV are quickly linked to treatment and care.
Most recently she has been influential in the NSW Government’s response to COVID-19 where she has been key to the development and setting in place responses that address the challenges posed by COVID-19. Her input into the detail of local public health procedures has played a major role in ensuring that outbreaks have been detected and managed effectively.
She is also the NSW representative on the Communicable Diseases Network of Australia’s COVID-19 Working Group, which has been pivotal to the development and implementation of national public health guidelines, surveillance plans and other key documents.
Dr Selvey has served NSW Health, and the broader community, with distinction.
Patrisha L VAN TUSSENBROEK PSM
Department of Education’s
For outstanding public service to emergency planning and response in the education sector in New South Wales.
Ms van Tussenbroek has been instrumental in the enhancement and improvement of the NSW Department of Education’s emergency planning and response systems which serve as a means to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of all staff, students and visitors in schools and workplaces. As Manager of the Emergency Response she is responsible for all disaster and critical event responses across 2,200 schools, encompassing over 900,000 students.
Most recently she has been instrumental in the management of natural disasters which significantly impacted the NSW education system. In 2020 this included bushfires, smoke impact on schools, damaging storms, threatening floods, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to the 2019-2020 bushfires she prepared schools for the possibility of a major fire event, establishing a system wide response which allowed the Department of Education to rapidly evacuate schools and workplaces should fires threaten local communities.
Her capacity to resolve complex issues, her insightful knowledge, and her liaison skills make her an asset to the Department. She is highly regarded by other agencies for her collaborative approach, and her commitment to ensuring the safety and well-being of others.
Ms van Tussenbroek has demonstrated the importance of emergency management planning across government entities, and the benefits of well-co-ordinated systems to support a whole of government response.
