Sector efforts recognised in Australia Day Honours

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Posted on 25 Jan 2024

By Greg Thom, Institute of Community Directors Australia

Mitchell Cynthia 202305 DAY2 CIC1 002 — Passionate environmental advocate Emeritus Professor Cynthia Mitchell in full flight.

The tireless efforts of scores of people in the not-for-profit, charity and community sector were recognised in this year's Australia Day Honours.

In a sign of the times, Emeritus Professor Cynthia Mitchell’s first reaction upon receiving an email informing her she had been awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) was to dismiss the message as spam.

“The image of the Governor-General’s crest was a little dodgy. Luckily, I checked the sender’s address before binning it,” said Professor Mitchell with a grin.

The respected member of the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney was recognised in the Australia Day 2024 Honours list for distinguished service to the environment through water resource sustainability as an innovator, leader and academic.

Professor Mitchell, a member of the Institute of Community Directors Australia (ICDA) advisory body the Community Directors Council, said she felt “a little flabbergasted, proud and deeply honoured” to receive the award.

“I don’t know who they are, but I’m very grateful to and deeply appreciative of the efforts of those who put me forward and supported this nomination.”

Professor Mitchell said as a woman, she felt that the timing of the award was significant, with 2024 the second year in a row that women have comprised the majority of award recipients in the Honours List General Division.

“This at long last means the awards reflect the fundamental make-up of our community, and it is a welcome change that I’m delighted to be part of.”

Professor Mitchell said she hoped the award was an acknowledgement of the importance of advocating for a more sustainable planet.

“We are in dire straits, it’s true, but I fundamentally believe we have the capacity and tenacity to avoid smashing ourselves on the rocks.

“At the risk of sounding terribly glib, all we must do are two things:

Get better at noticing what’s already here, within ourselves and in the world around us, both in terms of amazing and inspiring things and in terms of the worst of things. Sticking our fingers in our ears and turning away does not help and neither does a media that focuses on sensationalising bad news.
Get better at noticing how one thing leads to another, often in unpredictable ways… because that will help us give up on the illusion of control and lower our hubris a bit so that we can give things a go and learn our way forwards into a different era, rather than needing to be certain of success before we step out the door.”

While humbled to receive her Order of Australia, Professor Mitchell took the opportunity to call for increased efforts to recognise Australia’s Indigenous community.

“Given the announcement of this award is on what is currently known as Australia Day, I also want to acknowledge that we need to have a civil, deep and wide conversation about the date on which we, together as a nation, seek to celebrate Australia.

“It seems to me that we could do better than the anniversary of the day we whitefellas ostensibly ‘took possession’ of lands never ceded by the First Peoples of this region.”

Over several decades, Professor Mitchell has become an internationally recognised expert on regenerative futures, particularly in water management.

She said her work reflects the fact that the world is now in uncharted territory in terms of the planet’s capacity to continue to support life as we know it.

“Records are being repeatedly smashed and the weather is wonkier by the day,” said Professor Mitchell.

“My work is fundamentally about transforming our relationships with the natural world, with a view to having us as a collective do more good rather than simply do less bad, because doing less bad is what has led us to this terrifying point.

“What I do is help people in the water sector and beyond get curious about what else is possible – to shift their worldviews and find new perspectives on what matters most and where it makes sense to invest next, in order to contribute to a future that’s worth living in.”

Professor Mitchell paid tribute to the many people she has collaborated with over her career.

“I’ve had the privilege of working with exceptional people at many points in my career, both as part of the teams I’ve led or been part of and also my collaborators in industry, in government, and in the community,” she said.

“This award is as much an affirmation of their brilliance and courage to do things differently as it is mine.”

“Given the announcement of this award is on what is currently known as Australia Day, I also want to acknowledge that we need to have a civil, deep and wide conversation about the date on which we, together as a nation, seek to celebrate Australia."

AO recipient Emeritus Professor Cynthia Mitchell.

Professor Mitchell was among a large number of Australians in the community, charity and not-for-profit sector to be honoured in this year’s Australia Day Honours.

They include the late Melbourne-based Catholic priest Father Bob Maguire, much-loved founder of the Father Bob Maguire Foundation and Emerald Hill Mission, who was awarded an AO for distinguished service to the community, particularly through social welfare initiatives and organisations.

Former Philanthropy Australia and SANE Australia CEO Jack Heath received an AM for significant service to community health, and to social welfare.

TV journalist and media personality Sandra Sully was recognised for her widespread charity work.

Former Philanthropy Australia CEO Jack Heath was awarded an AM in this year's Australia Day Honours.

Ms Sully, who is patron of Spinal Cure Australia and an ambassador for multiple organisations, including Adopt Change, was awarded an AM for significant service to the media, to charitable organisations and to the community.

Oxfam Australia CEO Lyn Morgain was awarded an AM for significant service to the community through a range of organisations.

Former National Heart Foundation president Bruce Carter received an AO for distinguished service to business, to charitable organisations, and to the community.

The founder and former chair of the First Nations Foundation, Paul Briggs OAM, added an AO to his Australia Day tally, in recognition of his distinguished service to the Indigenous community, to social welfare through economic inclusion and reconciliation, and to sporting organisations.

The chair of the Food for Thought Network, Varvara Athanasiou-Ioannou, received an AM for significant service to the community, particularly through inclusion and diversity initiatives, in a range of roles.

President of Surf Life Saving Australia John Baker was awarded an AM for significant service to surf lifesaving, to veterans and to the community.

The national chair of the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, Stephen Callister, received an AM for significant service to the community, particularly men’s health.

The long-running musical director of Vision Australia’s Carols by Candlelight and chair of the National Australia Day Council, John Foreman, received an AM for significant service to the performing arts, particularly music, and to the community.

Penelope Fowler, chair of the National Portrait Gallery, chair of the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal, and ambassador for the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation, was awarded an AM for significant service to the community.

The late Father Bob Maguire, who founded the Father Bob Maguire Foundation and Emerald Hill Mission in Melbourne, was awarded an AO for distinguished service to the community.

Other sector-related AM recipients included:

Ellie Cole (significant service to sport as an advocate for diversity and inclusion)
Joanne Crawford (significant service to women’s rights, to gender equality and to international development)
Partners for Equity chair Mark Cubit (significant service to the community through charitable organisations)
Synapse Australia CEO Jennifer Cullen (significant service to people with disability and to the community)
Former Paul Ramsay Foundation CEO and Goodstart Early Learning founder Julia Davison (significant service to children, to youth and to the community)
Former Diabetes Australia CEO Gregory Johnson (significant service to community health through diabetes governance, reform, and education)
St Vincent de Paul Society (NSW) vice president Beverley Kerr (significant service to the community through social welfare programs)
National Stroke Foundation CEO Sharon McGowan (significant service to community health, particularly stroke prevention and awareness)
Susanne Dahn (significant service to business, the finance sector and the community)
Christine Kotur (significant service to education and to the community of Victoria)

Another 49 Australians were also recognised for their efforts supporting Australia’s response to the covid pandemic by being added to the ongoing and permanent covid Honour roll. 

They include 81-year-old former nurse Marion Richardson, the mother of Our Community Executive Director (and Chaos Controller) Kathy Richardson, who was awarded an OAM after coming out of retirement to help swab members of her local community in Bendigo at a drive through covid testing site four times week, often in extreme weather conditions.

In an interview published in The Age at the height of the pandemic in 2021, Marion admitted to having swabbed pretty much everyone in town, from truckies to politicians and professors, many of them apprehensive about what was to come.

“I always say ... you’ve got to have the whole experience. You can’t have a good pandemic and not have it all,” said Marion.

Access the full list of Australia Day 2024 Honours List recipients here.

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