Public Sector Perspectives

In this edition of Public Sector Perspectives, we talk to Ro Allen AM, new IPAA Victoria Fellow and Victoria’s Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commissioner.

In a 30 year career across the public and community sector Ro has been a powerful voice for human rights and social justice in Victoria.

Ro was Victoria's inaugural Commissioner for LGBTIQA+ communities, and they've also worked widely across the public and community sectors, including being a former Chair of the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria and Chair of the Adult Community and Further Education Board.

As a young person, Ro experienced the trauma of religious conversion therapy, an experience that deeply shaped their commitment to human rights advocacy and has driven their work in investigating and addressing those practices.

In this discussion you’ll hear Ro’s thoughts on:

- the unique role that Commissioners hold in our Westminster system of government and how they exercise the power their position gives them
-why they always welcome seeing an inclusive lanyard or badge in public sector workplaces
- what gives them hope about building a more inclusive community at a time when political debate is becoming more polarised
- and why Melbourne based public servants should think twice before wearing jeans to a meeting with regional colleagues.

You can find out more about the work of Victoria’s Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission here: https://www.humanrights.vic.gov.au/

There is a full list of IPAA Victoria’s newly appointed Fellows here.

You can see IPAA Victoria’s upcoming events here: https://www.vic.ipaa.org.au/events/, and you can stay in touch with what we are doing by following us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/institute-of-public-administration-australia-victoria

In this episode of Real Talk: AI in the VPS, Karen Dermody, Director Digital Design and Innovation at the Department of Education shares a practical case study of how AI is being used to support policy advisors working in a complex, high-stakes environment.

Speaking with Kate Fraser, Karen outlines how her team introduced an AI assistant to help navigate hundreds of policies, reduce cognitive load, and deliver faster, more consistent guidance to schools. The conversation explores how the project was designed to amplify, not replace, human expertise, with strong emphasis on trust, transparency, and continuous feedback. Karen highlights the importance of clear guardrails, daily iteration, and close collaboration between policy experts and technologists to improve accuracy and build confidence in the tool.

This episode offers insights for public sector leaders on implementing AI responsibly, demonstrating how organisations can scale expertise while keeping human judgement at the centre.

In this special edition of Public Sector Perspectives, we talk to Karen Fletcher, CEO of Flat Out and guest speaker at IPAA Victoria’s International Women’s Day event.

Flat Out helps women and gender diverse people work to get out and stay out of prison. But they also work with the public sector at systems level helping to improve to the way that our systems responds to the unique needs to women as they leave the corrections system.

In addition to leading Flat Out, Karen’s career includes more than 13 years working in the Victorian public sector. In this discussion she reflects on the way that prisons work as systems, her own career path, and how the broader public sector could better understand what happens insides a corrections system that employs around 5000 staff and accommodates more than 6000 people

You can find links to the Cultural Review of Victoria’s Adult Custodial Corrections System that Karen Fletcher referred to here: https://www.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2024-03/Final-Report-Cultural-Review-of-the-Adult-Custodial-Corrections-System.pdf

You can see IPAA Victoria’s upcoming events here: https://www.vic.ipaa.org.au/events/ and you can stay in touch with what we are doing by following us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/institute-of-public-administration-australia-victoria-/

In this edition of Public Sector Perspectives, we talk to Tania Farha, CEO of In Touch - and guest speaker at IPAA Victoria’s International Women’s Day event - about the challenges of building family violence services that are better tailored to the needs of our diverse community.

Tania Farha is the CEO of the community organisation In Touch - a Specialist Family Violence Service Provider, that supports migrant and refugee women and their communities to move on from experiences of family violence and thrive.

Tania’s career across the community sector, the Victorian public service, Victoria Police and the United Nations, gives her a unique perspective on this complex public policy challenge.

In this discussion you’ll hear her thoughts on:
- ways we can better tailor family violence services to the needs of diverse communities
- the opportunities and challenges in using the insights of people with lived experience of family violence to improve the way services are delivered
- and what gives her hope that the public sector and the broader community will be able to make the changes needed to reduce cultural bias in the ways family violence services are planned and provided.

You can find out more about the work of In Touch on their website: https://intouch.org.au/about-us/, and the IPAA Victoria’s International Women’s Day gala, where Tania was a special guest speaker: https://www.vic.ipaa.org.au/events/international-womens-day-gala-2026/.

The program for the Prevent X conference that Tania mentions is here.

You can see IPAA Victoria’s upcoming events: https://www.vic.ipaa.org.au/events/, and you can stay in touch with what we are doing by following us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/institute-of-public-administration-australia-victoria

In this special edition of Public Sector Perspectives, IPAA Victoria CEO Amanda Stevens talks to new IPAA National Fellow Paul Broderick PSM. Paul has been Commissioner of the State Revenue Office for more than 20 years and in this discussion he reflects on his career, his perspectives on leadership, how the public sector is changing, and the one organisational measurement that he thinks leaders should always looks at in the VPSC’s annual People Matters survey.

You can find our more about the work of the State Revenue Office here: https://www.sro.vic.gov.au/ and you can check their Unclaimed Money Register here.: https://www.sro.vic.gov.au/unclaimed-money

There is a full list of all IPAA National Fellows here: https://www.ipaa.org.au/national-awards/national-fellows/.
You can stay in touch with what we are doing by following us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/institute-of-public-administration-australia-victoria-/