Organisation: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Job Title: 2016 Policy Graduate Program
Word Limit: ½ – ¾ page agreed with client
Location: Canberra
My record of academic achievement throughout my Bachelor of Arts at the University of
Queensland (3 years) and my Juris Doctorate at Monash University (4 years) has sat at Distinction
and High Distinction level throughout. In other areas, I have successfully been an athlete, running
at National level in the past.
With a focus on environmental and human rights law within the international context, I have
studied the Trans Pacific Trade agreement, European Free Trade agreements and the
development of renewable energy in China and Europe as well as Australia. I possess a strong
interest in international relations and Australia’s foreign, development and trade policy interests.
Throughout my working career in China, Cambodia and Timor-Leste, as outlined on my resume, I
have gained substantial knowledge and understanding of the work and goals of Australia’s
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). For example, as a junior consultant at Cardno Acil
(now Emerging Markets International) I was regularly tasked with tracking potential upcoming
projects funding by AusAid, DFAT or other Australian stakeholders and making an assessment of
the likelihood of them proceeding. My analyses included an assessment of Australia’s current
policies regarding development assistance, policies and strategic interests.
Further, within my current role as Management Advisor for ALFeLa, a local NGO in Timor Leste,
which provides free legal assistance to women and children victims of gender based and sexual
violence, I work closely with our donor organisations, of whom DFAT (through the Asia
Foundation) is our largest donor. Understanding the policy and strategic objectives of DFAT and
the Australian government is key to ensuring not only the longevity of our organisation but also
our relevance and progress towards achieving the greater strategic objective of reducing gender
based violence in the Pacific region.
As well as my international experience and knowledge of Australian policy and direction, I have
had exposure to Indigenous Australians through my work at the North Australian Aboriginal Justice
Agency where I carried out research and legal case representation as well as took briefs from
clients. This gave me an insight into the issues which affect Aboriginal Australians which I have
maintained an interest in since this time. During the process of harnessing information from these
clients, I developed an understanding of culturally appropriate behaviour when working with
Indigenous people, including not asking questions with a yes/no answer (as the answer will always
be yes), and the importance of ceremony and family.
B. Written and oral communication skills
I possess excellent written and oral communication skills as well as strong interpersonal and
negotiation skills. I have demonstrated these skills throughout my professional working life,
including drafting a wide range of documents in a variety of media, presenting and training (both
formal and informal), developing project briefs, plans and reports as well as Ministerials and legal
briefs. I have also been regularly evaluated and assessed on my communication and writing skills
through my post-graduate university studies.
In my role as Safety and Health Development Team Leader at the City of Port Phillip I drafted the
2013-2017 Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan (MPHWP). The MPHWP is a public
document which was required to be approved by Council as well as the Department of Health
before distribution to all Council officers and stakeholders. The Plan established the goals towards
which the Council will work over a four year period. The Plan is designed to be accessed by both
internal and external stakeholders as well as the general public and as such, was written in plain
English and designed to be accessible by a wide range of audiences. As a subset of the MPHWP, I
also developed and implemented the 2014-2016 Community Safety Program plan, which
encompasses projects covering street sex work, alcohol and other drugs and gender-based
violence.
My oral communication skills were key strengths within this process as in drafting each plan, I
consulted with a range of audiences including each internal Council department as well as
undertaking extensive community consultation. Within the consultations I draw upon my
experience in working with people from culturally diverse communities, people experiencing
homelessness, people from indigenous backgrounds, people for whom English is a second
language and non-government organisations to ensure that consultations were meaningful and
respectful.
The Community Safety Program Plan in particular required sensitivity in its design due to the
strong and often contrary viewpoints presented by those who were consulted. Despite this, the
final program plan was widely accepted and supported internally as well as by stakeholders and
partners external to Council, and established a range of new funding partnerships for Council on
the topics it covered such as with the Victorian Hotspots Project
Within my current role I have needed to develop an understanding of communication with local
people within my organisation. My role is to develop their skills and consult in order for them to
take over the organisation themselves at some stage. I need to ensure my communication is
respectful and to not appear as though I am bringing in the answers to every problem. I have
learnt a significant amount from the local people through active listening and interest and have
worked collaboratively with them to achieve positive outcomes.
C. Conceptual and Analytical Skills
As the current Management Advisor at the only women and children’s legal aid organisation in
Timor-Leste, I work on a day to day basis with management staff to build their capacity, to
implement practices which improve the organisation, to build effective relationships with donor
organisations and to address any issues which arise in the course of our work. In any given week I
provide advice on human resource and development practices, consultancies, contract
management, project implementation, advocacy, board matters and strategic planning. In order
to manage these issues effectively I must comprehend a diverse range of information, analyse
events, identify critical issues quickly and use sound judgement to develop appropriate
recommendations.
As the Safety and Health Development Team Leader at the City of Port Philip, I came to a role
where all of the data was out of date and needed to be re-collected. In addition, this is an area
which has substantial family violence, drug and alcohol issues, which required a comprehensive
plan to begin to combat. I undertook a significant data collection project through surveys and
other means to ensure the data was up to date. The data was then analysed and I made
recommendations around how the MPHWP plan would be undertaken effectively. The analysis of
this data required a large amount of reading and research to ensure I fully understood the
demographic and other information collected and so that I could ensure sound decisions could be
made on the basis of the information. These recommendations were approved and I was able to
set the plan in progress successfully.
During my role as a Legal Assistant at Melbourne Health, part of my role was to take calls from
staff who required emergency assistance, requiring me to analyse the situation very quickly and
provide ad hoc legal advice over the phone. Legal obligation in emergency situations can
sometimes be a very important area to get correct and I needed to ensure I understood the
situation through questioning and analysis before I gave advice each time. In addition, this role
required judgement and a common sense approach to determine how urgent the emergency was.
D. Effective working relationships
Within my role as Project Officer, Climate Change Bill within the then Department of Sustainability
and Environment, I worked within a team to manage stakeholders and to assist the Climate
Change Bill through the Victorian Parliament. The team of five staff all had a range of roles
however we interacted well and worked very much as a team. This was a challenging
environment, working on a project which was highly political at the time and attracting a large
amount of media and public attention as it progressed.
As well as within the team, my working relationships were demonstrated through working with
the legal department, the Minister’s Office, the Department of Premier and Cabinet and many
other areas. Just about everything within this project was confidential and tested all of our high
standards of professionalism and integrity.
Within my role as Team Leader at the City of Port Philip, I directly managed two staff members,
whom I both supervised and mentored throughout my tenure. This involved both formal and
informal training and mentoring and allowed the staff to develop their capabilities within their
roles. My ability to train has also been demonstrated within my role as a Teacher of English within
China and as Residential Tutor (Law) within the University of Melbourne. The latter role included
academic tutoring as well as teaching life skills and the development of appropriate study/life
balance plans.
My significant cultural awareness has been developed over a number of years of working in highly
diverse workforces and also through working in China, Cambodia and Timor-Leste. I have an
excellent understanding of a range of cultures and backgrounds including those mentioned above
as well as Indigenous Australian culture. My current role means I work with staff from all over
Timor and this has its own cultural challenges with different parts of Timor in conflict or with
historical issues. For this reason, I have needed to become aware of where each staff member is
from to enable me to display sensitivity to potential issues.
I have not only experience, but a genuine interest in a range of countries and their cultural
heritage. Having spent some time training with the National Cambodian Circus troupe at the
Cambodian Centre for Circus and Performing Arts in Phenom Penh, I have a strong interest in
Cambodia and have informally studied many of the current development issues faced by this
nation. To this end, over the years I have followed such events as the death of Chut Wutty, the
use of social media in the most recent election, the government response to street protests, the
introduction of legislation governing cybercrime and free speech and more recently the
Cambodian-Australian Refugee agreement. My understanding of these events has been aided by
a contextual understanding of free speech and politics in Cambodia particularly since the
inception of free elections in 1993, and Cambodia’s relationship with neighbouring states.
E. Flexibility, adaptability and initiative
Working as a Project Officer, Climate Change Bill, part of my role was to respond to requests for
information from the Minister’s Office, which always came with a short timeline and high priority.
This environment meant dropping whatever I was currently working on to gather and write up
information into briefs and reports.
The best demonstration of my flexibility and adaptability comes from my role as Team Leader,
Safety and Community Development for the City of Port Philip. At my commencement within this
position, I undertook to write a Health and Wellbeing Plan for the City which was supposed to
have been written for State Government much earlier. Due to issues before my arrival, the plan
was extremely behind schedule and took all of my initiative to plan, develop, implement and
submit the plan to Government within the deadline.
Another aspect of this role which demonstrated my flexibility and initiative was the fact that our
team worked completely without supervision or a direct manager for a large amount of time. This
meant we were self-managed as a team and as individuals. During this time, however, we worked
together well, set direction and implemented a number of initiatives and projects which made a
measurable impact on the health of our community, particularly those affected by drug and
alcohol issues and family violence.
Identifying opportunities and anticipating challenges have been at the crux of my current role in
Timor. Working as the Management Advisor at the only women and children’s legal aid
organisation in Timor-Leste, I have undertaken to seek funding and support to implement a range
of projects, including a successful application recently to UNHR to run a paralegal project, tied in
with International Women’s Day. Identifying this type of opportunity is part of my role and also
part of what I am mentoring others on how to do once I am gone. This challenging role is
undertaken where there is no email, no shared calendars, very unreliable internet and generally
no technology to speak of. This in itself has developed my adaptability to situations outside of
what I am used to. I have adapted successfully to these conditions and have found some
innovative ways to both work and gain business and support from other organisations for the
organisation.
