MELBOURNE, GRAND HYATT  |  NOVEMBER 6, 2025

Program

8:30AM 

GUEST ARRIVAL, REGISTRATION AND NETWORKING

9:00AM 

WELCOME ADDRESS AND WELCOME TO COUNTRY

9:10AM 

KEYNOTE PRESENTATION

  • Deborah Glass, former Victorian Ombudsman

9:45AM 

PANEL

Lessons Victoria’s public servants need to learn from the pandemic

What Victoria’s public service leaders learned from the pandemic, and how this knowledge impacts the management of current and future government challenges.

  • Brigid Monagle, VPS commissioner
  • Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, University of Melbourne

Moderator: Melissa Coade, News Editor, The Mandarin

10.30AM 

MORNING TEA BREAK 

11:00AM 

PRESENTATION 

Treaty and the future of Indigenous relations in Victoria

11:45AM 

PANEL

Essential public service skills in a world of disinformation and uncertainty

  • Sean Morrison, Victorian Information Commissioner
  • Ika Trijsburg, Director of Urban Analytics, ANU Institute for Infrastructure in Society

Moderator: Amanda Stevens, Chief Executive Officer, IPAA Victoria

Turn insights into action — join public sector leaders

12:30PM 

LUNCH BREAK 

1:25PM 

IN CONVERSATION

Making better policy

  • Jenny Macklin, Honorary enterprise professor in Social and Political Science at University of Melbourne 
  • Jay Weatherill, Executive Director of Democracy, McKinnon

Moderator: Libby Hackett, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Public Policy Institute

2:15PM 

PANEL

Technology transforming public service teams and government services

Moderator: Julian Bajkowski, Senior Journalist, The Mandarin

3.00PM 

AFTERNOON TEA BREAK

3:30PM 

PRESENTATION & Q&A

From earning trust to designing trustworthy institutions

Moderator: Melissa Coade, News Editor, The Mandarin

4:15PM 

PANEL

Lessons from a life in public service

Three PSM recipients explain why they got into public service, the biggest influences in their careers, some of the biggest challenges they have faced, plus more.

  • Karen Sutherland, Director, Child Protection, Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, Victorian Government 
  • Rena De Francesco, Director Family Violence Command, Victoria Police
  • Robert Hortle, Commissioner, Wage Inspectorate Victoria

Moderator: Peter Gearin, Editor-in-Chief, The Mandarin

5:00PM 

CLOSING NOTES

5.05PM 

DRINKS RECEPTION

Partners

HEADLINE PARTNER

EXHIBITION PARTNER

COFFEE CART & NETWORKING SPONSOR

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