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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-03-20 Daily Xml
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Premier's Excellence Awards

The Hon. M. EL DANNAWI (14:28): My question is to the Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector. Will the minister inform the council about the recently announced winners of the Premier's Excellence Awards?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:28): I thank the honourable member for her question. I would be most happy to provide information about the recently announced winners of the Premier's Excellence Awards, which sees tribute being paid to all of the substantial and excellent work happening throughout the public sector.

The Premier's Excellence Awards, as I have mentioned in this chamber before, are a fantastic platform for the acknowledgement and appreciation of the exemplary work that delivers positive outcomes for the people of South Australia in line with public sector values. It is the highest reward and recognition program that is open to all South Australian public servants.

I was proud to be able to inform the council a few weeks ago of the flavour of just some of the finalists within my portfolio areas, who are amongst the 177 nominations across more than 30 agencies. The nominations were narrowed down to 33 finalists; then on Friday 8 March the deserving winners were announced.

The Excellence in Service Delivery category for individuals was won by Phil Hespe from the SA Housing Authority. Phil has responsibility for the design, construction and maintenance of homes across South Australia's remote Aboriginal communities. Those who work with Phil note that he works in a culturally inclusive manner and ensures housing design includes cultural and environmental elements that are developed through community consultation and centres his work around being proactive and ensuring that planned maintenance is a priority.

The team award in that category was awarded to the flood recovery team in DPC and DIIS for their work over the last 12 months since the 2022-23 flood event in South Australia. The award recognised their careful planning and multilayered approach to recovery as well as their swift mobilisation.

The winning individual in the Driving Innovation category was Alexandre Santos, a senior specialist at the Central Adelaide Local Health Network whose work has transformed the quality of health care received by cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy treatment. The award-winning Driving Innovation team was the Royal Adelaide Hospital's immunotherapies team, led by Professor Michael Brown. The immunotherapies team have developed innovative, world-first therapies for cancers using targeted antibodies and cells.

The individual award in the Building South Australia's Economy category was awarded to Bettina Venner, who is the Manager of Supply Chain Development at the Industry Capability Network. The network has been at the forefront of identifying businesses that will be able to contribute to the future of hydrogen and renewables in this state.

The Building South Australia's Economy team award was jointly handed to two winners: the Department for Education's Industry Engagement Team, which partners with industry and employers across SA to develop opportunities for students to be exposed to their industry of choice and to expand awareness about various industries that are growing in South Australia; and the other winner was the South Australian Defence Industry Workforce and Skills Taskforce, which is dedicated to ensuring the necessary support for the delivery of some of South Australia's most complex defence projects.

The Leadership in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion individual award went to Dianna Smith-McCue, who is the Director of Consumer and Community Engagement at the Women's and Children's Health Network and whose family-centred approach has a commitment to understanding individual needs and preferences. She has also established the first Aboriginal consumer working group to enhance connections between the Aboriginal community and their healthcare rights.

The team category went to the Port Augusta YES Centre at the Port Augusta Secondary School, which promotes a flexible learning model of schooling with a personalised approach to encourage those with diverse classroom needs to continue to grow in their learning environment.

I was delighted to see Ali Abdullah-Highfold, whose work I informed the council about a few weeks ago, was named the individual winner of the Connecting Communities category. Ali undertakes important work at the South Australian Museum as a family and community history consultant. I also informed the council previously about the work of the Aboriginal education team at Para Hills High School, who have been named the winners of the team award.

Finally, the Emerging Young Talent individual award was presented to Nichola Goult of Service SA, who has been instrumental in addressing the escalating threat of cybercrime by overseeing the implementation of two-factor authentication in the mySAGOV app as well as playing a pivotal role in the agency's response to assisting customers impacted by the Optus data breach.

These winners, along with all the finalists and nominees, represent outstanding work across the public sector. It is a group that I am very proud of, and I thank them for all their work day in day out in what they do in the service of South Australians.

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