Excellence in Women's Leadership Awards

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS (15:10): My question is to the Attorney-General. Will the Attorney-General inform the council about the recognition of a South Australian lawyer in the 2023 Australian Awards for Excellence in Women's Leadership?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:10): I thank the honourable member for her important question, in the week that has included International Women's Day and from a woman who was an exceptionally well-regarded lawyer in Adelaide before coming to this place. I thank her for maintaining her interest in these matters.

We heard yesterday in contributions to this chamber the formal recognition for International Women's Day and I am pleased to now be able to share the recipients of the 2023 Australian Awards for Excellence in Women's Leadership, including the South Australian awardee from our state's legal profession. The Excellence in Women's Leadership Awards was created by Women and Leadership Australia in 2014 with the aim to increase awareness and momentum for supporting Australian women to receive fair opportunities to exercise leadership positions across every industry and the broader community.

These awards, presented at the Australian Women's Leadership Symposium, aim to recognise and pay tribute to individual women who have, on their own volition, supported and uplifted other women in their field and to also excel in their positions to rise to positions of leadership. The national overall recipient for the award this year was Karen Mundine, who I know and who does tremendous work as the CEO of Reconciliation Australia. She is also a passionate advocate for women, particularly Aboriginal women and Aboriginal people right across Australia.

There were recipients from each state and territory in very important areas including the Victorian recipient, Georgie Harman, CEO of Beyond Blue. The Northern Territory winner was Pat Anderson AO, Chair of Batchelor Institute. I am very pleased that from South Australia, Moya Dodd, a South Australian lawyer and former vice captain of the Matildas, was a winner. It was a fitting award for Moya Dodd, the South Australian recipient, who has been acknowledged as supporting women in leadership through various aspects of her life, not only as a partner at the law firm, Gilbert and Tobin, but also in the sporting world, particularly soccer, where she was previously vice captain of the national soccer team, the Matildas.

Moya's leadership for women in sport has continued past her days on the field where she now contributes to uplift and empower women from the sidelines on the Football Australia Board and in having taken a lead role on gender reforms and becoming a 'driving force in the recent push for women within FIFA', and Moya's role in this area was recognised recently in no other than the publication The New York Times.

In the legal world, Moya is a member of the International Council of Arbitration for Sport, is a renowned motivational speaker, having often appeared at significant legal and other events such as the International Bar Association's annual conference and the IOC Athlete's Entourage Commission, to name just a few. Moya's incredibly impressive list of achievements and history of motivating and uplifting other women to rise into leadership positions both in the legal and sporting world is to be hugely commended and something that certainly I and I think most South Australians are very proud of.