Pru
Goward

Speaker Profile

Pru Goward became federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner for a five year period in July 2001. Following the introduction of the Age Discrimination Act in 2004, Ms Goward was also appointed Commissioner Responsible for Age Discrimination. In this role the Commissioner undertakes educational activities to promote the law which aims to reduce barriers faced by younger and mature age people in public areas of life.

Commissioner Goward is an economist by training and a broadcaster by practice. She spent 19 years with ABC TV and Radio as a current affairs journalist and later as a political reporter and commentator. She also wrote extensively for newspapers and magazines during that time.

Commissioner Goward has also been a high school teacher, a university tutor in Economics, a Broadcast Journalism lecturer at Canberra University, a media consultant and freelance writer. In 1997 she became Executive Director of the Office of the Status of Women in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, serving a number of ministers as well as the Prime Minister. During that time the Office became responsible for a $50 million Domestic Violence Prevention Programme and advised the Government on the fairer division of superannuation assets for divorcing couples.

Commissioner Goward was also Government Spokesperson during the Sydney Games and was responsible for developing Olympic and Paralympic media strategies for all Commonwealth agencies.

Commissioner Goward is also the author of A Business of Your Own, a study of success strategies for women in business, and, together with her husband David Barnett, authored a biography of the Prime Minister, John Howard. She is patron of a number of charities and a board member of Anglicare, Canberra and Goulburn. Commissioner Goward is also Chair of the Advisory Panel on the Marketing in Australia of Infant Formula and Chair of the Council of Australian Arab Relations.

In 2004 she was nominated by The Australian as one of the most forty influential Australians and by the Australian Financial Review as one of the country’s top cultural and industrial relations influencers. Her speeches have been reproduced in published collections and in 2001 she was awarded a Centenary Medal for her services to journalism and women’s rights.

Travels from Australia