IPAA Queensland Stewards on the Couch with Jasmina Joldic PSM

Premier of Queensland, the Honourable Steven Miles MP; Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, the Honourable Yvette D'Ath MP; Director-General, Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Mr Mike Kaiser; Public Sector Commissioner, Mr David Mackie; Director-General of the Department of Child Safety, Seniors and Disability Services and IPAA Queensland President, Ms Deidre Mulkerin; Director-General of the Department of Justice and Attorney-General, Ms Jasmina Joldić PSM; CEO of the Queensland Reconstruction Authority, Major General Jake Ellwood DSC AM CSC (Retd); Commissioner, Queensland Police Service, Mr Steve Gollschewski APM; Assistant Deputy Director-General, Queensland Health, Mr Robert Hoge; Distinguished guests; Ladies and gentlemen.

I begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the lands around Brisbane, the Turrbal and Jagera people, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and any First Nations people with us today.

As both Patron of the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA) in Queensland and Governor, I have been delighted to accept invitations to celebrate International Women’s Day with the members of the Institute for the past two years, but I was particularly pleased to be able to join you today, because the Steward on the Couch this afternoon is none other than my former Queensland Health colleague, Ms Jasmina Joldic PSM.

Jasmina was first appointed to the Office of the Director-General of Health in 2016, and it was certainly no surprise to me to learn, shortly after I retired as Chief Health Officer, that she had been appointed as Queensland Health’s Associate Director-General for Strategy Policy and Reform.

Now, as Director-General of the Department of Justice and the Attorney-General, I’m sure that those three words of her Queensland Health title – strategy, policy and reform – remain top of mind.

Indeed, I’m sure they’re central to the approach of every professional public administrator here today because it is only through a focus on those three fundamental pillars that contemporary challenges will be met.

Challenges, such as how to allocate scarce resources and how to ensure equitable service delivery, particularly in Indigenous communities, as well as how to respond to the unrelenting pressure of technological change and of ensuring the sector has the requisite skills and capacity.

The inevitable answer to all of those challenges and questions is ‘reform’, the third pillar in Jasmina’s former title. Fortunately, for everyone working in the field of public administration, the Institute is there, promoting excellence and providing leadership as well as the focused training and creative solutions that can strengthen the sector’s capacity.

Good governance is – and must remain – fundamental to effective government, and community expectations of those who work in the public sector will remain justifiably high.

I congratulate IPAA’s Queensland Division on this marvellous Stewards on the Couch series. It’s a fantastic demonstration of the Institute’s continued commitment to meeting those community expectations, and I look forward to a fascinating discussion lead by an amazing individual, Jasmina, I salute you.

Thank you.