A breakdown of the latest appointments in the Australian Public Service and across the public services of the states and territories.
APS Senior Executive Service
Band 1
The Department of Social Services has appointed Heidi Kiekebosch-Fitt as chief of staff to its secretary.
David Meredyth is a branch head at Cancer Australia.
The Office of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security has made Andrew Corradin its next inspector-general for legal and assurance.
The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has appointed Martin Mosely as assistant secretary.
Brett Mason is the assistant secretary of media and communications at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), which also promoted Clemency Oliphant to assistant secretary.
The Australian Government Solicitor has appointed Erin Shriner and Jennifer Davenport as senior government lawyers.
Band 2
Treasury has made Neena Pai and Margaret Thomas assistant secretaries.
Other federal
Inaugural First Nations Board for the Arts
The Federal Government has appointed 10 members to a new First Nations Board, dedicated to supporting and promoting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts practice.
It follows the passage of legislation earlier this year to establish First Nations Arts as a new part of Creative Australia, the Commonwealth’s principal arts investment and advisory body.
First Nations Arts will receive funding over four years from 2024-25.
The 10 board members, including two co-chairs, deliver broad representation across theatre, visual arts, television, film, dance and governance.
The appointees are:
- Rachael Maza AM (co-chair) – a Yidinji and Meriam woman and the current artistic director and co-chief executive officer of Ilbijerri Theatre Company
- Philip Watkins (co-chair) – part of large extended Arrernte and Larrakia families from Alice Springs (Mparntwe). He is currently chief executive director of Desart Incorporated
- Clint Bracknell (member) – a Noongar song-maker, composer and Professor of Music at the University of Western Australia
- Pauline Clague (member) – a Yaegl woman from the North Coast of New South Wales. She has worked as a storyteller and producer in film and TV for 25 years
- Jeanette James (member) – a practising Tasmanian Aboriginal artist and traditional shell-necklace stringer whose work is deeply rooted in her Palawa cultural heritage
- Deborah Mailman AM (member) – an award-winning television and film actor and singer. Ms Mailman has both Aboriginal (Bidjara) and Maori (Ngati Porou and Te Arawa) heritage
- Daniel Riley (member) – a Wiradjuri man, originally from Western NSW. He is currently the artistic director of the Australian Dance Theatre in South Australia
- Rhoda Roberts AO (member) – a Bundjalung woman, current member of the Board of Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute Inc and director of MusicNSW. She is also the Elder-in-Residence at SBS Television
- Dennis Stokes (member) – belongs to the Wardamann, Luritja, and Warramunga peoples of the Northern Territory and the Wagadagam people of the Torres Strait. He is chief executive officer of the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair
- Jared Thomas (member) – a Nukunu person of the Southern Flinders Ranges, he is Research Fellow, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Material Culture and Art at the South Australian Museum.
Co-chairs of the first dedicated First Nations Board for the arts: Philip Watkins and Rachael Maza. Photo: Creative Aus/GRM Artists.
Shifts in the arts and music sectors
Professor Larissa Behrendt AO has been appointed to the Australia Council Board, which will again be joined by Alexandra Dimos and Stephen Found. They will sit for a four-year term, along with Catherine Haridy, who’s now on the Music Australia Council.
The Australia Council Board provides leadership to Creative Australia, while the Music Australia Council provides strategic direction to support and grow Australia’s contemporary music sector.
Professor Behrendt is a Euahleyai/Gamillaroi academic, lawyer, award-winning author and filmmaker. From November 2024, she will also be chair of the Council of the National Library of Australia.
Ms Dimos is currently the managing director of the Nunn Dimos Foundation and Nunn Family Investments, and director of Philanthropy Australia. She has been a member of the Australia Council Board since April 2022, as well as a member of the Audit and Risk Committee.
Mr Found owns and operates Foundation Theatres, which manages the Capitol Theatre, Sydney Lyric, and Foundry Theatre. He has been a member of the Australia Council Board since March 2022.
Ms Haridy is the founder and director of Catherine Haridy Management, and the current chief executive officer of the Australian Music Centre.
Ad Standards executive director to step down
Ad Standards, Australia’s advertising complaints-handling body, has announced that Richard Bean will step down from his role as executive director at the end of September.
Chair of the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA), Martin Brown, thanked Mr Bean for his contribution to the agency.
This includes developing the Community Panel that independently reviews all advertising complaints, growing the Canberra-based team’s capability and leadership, along with representing the Australian industry on the Executive Committee of the International Council for Advertising Self-Regulation (ICAS).
Richard Bean is a former CEO of the NSW Environment Protection Authority and deputy chairman of the Australian Communications and Media Authority. Photo: Ad Standards.
Dr Ian Watt joins NDIA board
NDIS Minister Bill Shorten has announced the appointment of Dr Ian James Watt AC to the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) Board, where he will sit on a part-time basis for up to three years.
Dr Watt previously served as the secretary of multiple federal agencies, including Prime Minister and Cabinet, Finance, Defence and Communications.
The NDIA Board consists of a chair and up to 11 other members, now including Dr Ian J Watt, who help guide the agency’s work. Photo: UOW.
GRDC welcomes SA grower as board chair
Sharon Starick is joining the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) for a three-year term as its new board chair – making her the first female to lead the largest of the rural research and development corporations.
Managing director Nigel Hart welcomed the appointment, noting the South Australian grain grower’s experience on the board since 2018 “so she has an in-depth understanding of the business”.
“She is a grain and pork producer from the Mallee region of South Australia, so she also brings the hands-on practical understanding and experience of farming that is invaluable for a grower-focused organisation like GRDC,” Mr Hart said.
Mrs Starick has an agricultural science degree from the University of Adelaide and is currently the chair of Animal Health Australia, director of the Regional Investment Corporation and independent chair of the South Australian Future Drought Fund Advisory Group. She is also a past chair of the South Australian Murray-Darling Basin Natural Resources Management Board.
Sharon Starick replaces outgoing Grains Research and Development Corporation board chair John Woods, a Goondiwindi grain grower who has led the organisation since 2016. Photo: GRDC.
Foreign Minister Wong appoints ambassador, consul-general and Japan Foundation chair
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has announced the appointment of several people to stations across the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
Jason Robertson is Australia’s first Ambassador to the Organisation of American States (OAS). It is a pre-eminent regional organisation with 34 members and 75 Permanent Observers, the latter of which Australia already is. Mr Robertson is a senior career officer within DFAT and is currently Deputy Head of Mission at the Australian Embassy in Washington, DC.
Glen Askew is replacing Fiona Hoggart as Consul-General in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city. Her new role will be in working to strengthen two-way trade and investment by implementing initiatives under Invested: Australia’s Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040. Mr Askew is a career officer with DFAT and was most recently assistant director of the Israel-Gaza Taskforce.
Natsuko Ogawa is the new chair of the Australia-Japan Foundation (AJF), cementing her as the first woman and citizen of Japanese heritage in the role. Established in 1976, the AJF is Australia’s oldest cultural council and underpins its Special Strategic Partnership with Japan. Ms Ogawa is a respected lawyer with more than 20 years’ experience, but also holds positions on the Australia-Japan Business Council of Victoria and the Australia-Japan Business Cooperation Committee.
States and Territories
New Mental Health Commissioner of NSW
With more than 30 years of experience in mental health advocacy, policy development and service reform, Jennifer Black has been appointed as the new NSW Mental Health Commissioner from 14 October.
The Mental Health Commission, an independent statutory agency, works with government and communities to ensure accessible mental health support, particularly for those at risk.
Ms Black previously served as CEO of the Queensland Alliance for Mental Health, where she championed greater collaboration between government agencies, service providers and the community to improve mental health services across Queensland.
Jennifer Black also held leadership roles as the Victorian Deputy Mental Health Complaints Commissioner. Photo: MHC NSW.
Promotion at NSW Audit Office
Renee Meimaroglou has been appointed Assistant Auditor-General of Financial Auditing at the Audit Office of NSW.
Ms Meimaroglou has been in the NSW public service for nearly 20 years, most of that time with the Audit Office, where she was most recently the lead director in the Financial Audit Branch.
She will lead the Audit Office’s sustainability and climate change reporting as well as the Government Sector Audit mandate for the Auditor-General to give consideration to wastage of public resources.
Renee Meimaroglou’s recent experience includes overseeing audits of the NSW total state sector accounts and agencies within the electricity, health and university sectors. Photo: AO NSW.
New coroner appointed to VIC Court
Dimitra Dubrow has been welcomed by the Victorian Government as a new coroner.
She is a Law Institute of Victoria-Accredited personal injuries specialist and has served on several committees, including as chair of the Law Institute’s Public Liability and Medical Negligence Committee from 2014 to 2018.
Ms Dubrow has been the national head of the medical negligence practice at Maurice Blackburn Lawyers since 2018 and led the national dust diseases practice encompassing asbestos and silica-related disease from 2019 to 2024.
Dimitra Dubrow will replace Katherine Lorenz, who was appointed as a judicial registrar to the Supreme Court of Victoria. Photo: Judicial College of Victoria.
Fresh leadership at Queensland Racing Integrity Commission
A new leadership team has been appointed to the independent Queensland Racing Integrity Commission (QRIC).
The Queensland Government established QRIC as an independent statutory body in 2016, as recommended by the MacSporran Commission of Inquiry, following its finding that industry self-regulation had failed across the state’s three racing codes (thoroughbreds, harness and greyhounds).
Catherine Clark has been permanently appointed as the new Racing Integrity Commissioner following a merit-based national and international recruitment campaign.
She will be joined by Chantal Raine as Deputy Racing Integrity Commissioner, along with Kim Kelly, who is the Acting Deputy Racing Integrity Commissioner until someone fills this other role.
Ms Raine has been acting as Deputy Racing Integrity Commissioner since March. Mr Kelly was Chief Stipendiary Steward of the Hong Kong Jockey Club from 2009 until his retirement in 2023.
Catherine Clark was most recently chief executive officer of Paralympics Australia. Photo: QLD Firebirds.
West Australian AEMO executive resigns
Kate Ryan, the executive general manager of Western Australia & Strategy within the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), has resigned.
She joined AEMO in February 2022, helping deliver WEM reform, Project Symphony and record levels of new investment in the South West Interconnected System.
Kate Ryan’s last day with AEMO is 20 September. Photo: AEMO.
Additional Deputy State Coroner appointed in South Australia
Naomi Kereru has joined the Coroner’s Court as South Australia’s second permanent Deputy State Coroner.
The new role was made possible by a $1.1 million-a-year contribution from the State Budget.
Ms Kereru has previously worked as a prosecutor, as Counsel Assisting the State Coroner, at the Legal Services Commission as a duty solicitor and as a barrister with experience in public inquiries, inquests and personal injury law.
Naomi Kereru was first appointed temporarily in 2022 to assist with the court’s workload. Photo: LinkedIn.
Lead investigator into maternity services at Royal Hobart Hospital appointed
Following consultation with the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF), Amanda Singleton has been appointed to lead the rapid independent investigation into maternity services at the Royal Hobart Hospital.
Ms Singleton has extensive experience as a nurse, midwife and health consultant across her 35-year career, including in the governance and management of maternity services in both rural and metropolitan settings.
Tasmanian Health Minister Guy Barnett welcomed the appointment, which follows concerns raised by the ANMF and past and current staff.
“The safety of mothers and babies is of paramount importance, and the claims made by nurses and midwives through the ANMF and the media are very serious,” he said.
“The department has been unable to corroborate these claims, that is why I have instructed the Department of Health to initiate this independent investigation, which Ms Singleton is extensively qualified to lead.”
