Teresa Gambaro (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great pride that I inform the House that the Telstra Australian Business Woman of the Year for 2014 is Anne Cross, the CEO of UnitingCare Queensland, who just happens to be one of my constituents in the federal seat of Brisbane. Might I say as well that this is the second year in a row that a Queensland woman has taken out the prestigious national award, with the 2013 award being won by QSuper CEO, Rosemary Vilgan. There is something about us Queenslanders, Mr Deputy Speaker, wouldn't you agree?

Anne is a former front-line social worker and a champion of the not-for-profit sector who has reshaped the way that healthcare, community and aged-care services are delivered in Queensland. To give you some insight into the transformational role that Anne played in health and the community sector service, consider this: within a year of her being appointed as CEO in 2003, Anne used her business nous to consolidate more than 100 separate organisations into four service groups—Blue Care, UnitingCare Health, UnitingCare Community and Australian Regional and Remote Community Services. Indeed, it was Anne's ability to bring together such a fragmented group, to enhance service delivery for society's most disadvantaged people, that has truly impressed the judges. Today, UnitingCare is a mature, focused, integrated organisation where Anne oversees some 16,000 employees and 9,000 volunteers across 400 locations.

I would like to acknowledge and congratulate the other six truly brilliant women who are national winners in the 20th year of the awards. They were: Kate Weiss of Table of Plenty in Victoria, who won the Business Owners Award; Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz of Mirvac in New South Wales, who won the Private and Corporate Sector Award; and the two winners of the Business Innovation Award, Andrea Galloway of Evolve Housing in New South Wales and Assistant Commissioner Donna Adams of the Tasmania Police. The Young Business Women's Award winner was Tina Tower of Begin Bright, in New South Wales. As Kate McKenzie, Telstra's Chief Operations Officer and Telstra Business Women’s Awards Ambassador, said at the awards last night:

Australia's economic future depends on the leadership and innovation of women like these, and the inspiration that they are giving younger women.

I wholeheartedly agree. I congratulate all of the winners and I again commend Telstra for such a wonderful and important initiative, the Telstra Australian Business Women’s Awards.

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