Everyone in the workplace has positional power...but successful leaders intentionally tap into their personal power.
Julia Banks is a leadership consultant, keynote speaker, bestselling author, and Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Business, Government and Law at the University of Canberra.
With a career spanning law, corporate leadership, and public office, as a Federal Member of Parliament, Director, General Counsel, and Board Member, Julia brings rare, real-world insight, into leadership, power, and culture at the highest levels. She has worked with global companies and Australian organisations across the private and public sectors and all levels of government.
Her expertise spans leadership, power dynamics—personal versus positional power—safe, healthy and respectful workplace cultures, diversity and inclusion, reputational management, and governance.
Julia’s current work is broad-ranging and includes keynote speeches, “In Conversation” events with business leaders, and panel roles as moderator, facilitator, and MC. She regularly leads conferences, workshops, and CEO and CxO roundtables, where she is known for her ability to elevate discussions, draw out meaningful insights, and connect deeply with audiences.
Julia is a respected commentator, authoring opinion pieces published in The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Saturday Paper, and The New Daily. Julia appears across radio, television, and podcasts, contributing informed perspectives on leadership, culture, and public life.
Talking Points
Keynotes & Panels
Julia Banks draws on a career that has moved across corporate law, executive leadership, and federal politics. Her Keynotes and panel contributions are grounded in current research and shaped to the specific audience, sector, and moment.Keynotes & Panels
Signature Topics:
• Leadership and power in modern organisations
• Personal power vs positional power
• Building safe, respectful, high-performance cultures
• Diversity, inclusion, and breaking systemic barriers
• Governance, ethics, and reputational leadership
• Leading with courage in complex environments
Audience Takeaways:
• Understanding your personal power and when to use it, regardless of where you sit in an organisation
• It's not about having it all. It's about having your all.
• High-performance culture is often built on one question: what is the right thing to do?
• Every decision is a values decision. Knowing your truth makes the hard calls clearer.
• Your instincts are data. Learn to trust them.
Panel Moderation, Facilitation & Conference MC
Julia brings the same rigour to the room that she brings to the stage. As an MC and panel moderator, she elevates the quality of conversation, holds senior audiences, and creates the conditions for sessions that people remember. Her background across law, business, and politics means she is equally at home in governance forums, leadership summits, and industry conferences.Panel Moderation, Facilitation & Conference MC
What Clients Say:
"Her stage presence, anecdotes, and insightful interaction with event speakers took the quality of multiple sessions to the next level."
Lawyers Weekly, Law Firm Partners Summit
"Julia made us all feel very comfortable and enabled the conversation to flow very well. It is little wonder why we got such great feedback after the session."
Fee Synergy Group
Video
Julia Banks | Introduction | Saxton Speakers Bureau
Julia Banks is a leadership consultant, bestselling author, keynote speaker, and Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Business, Government and Law at the University of Canberra. A former Federal Member of Parliament, Director, General Counsel, and Board Member, she brings deep cross-sector experience.Julia Banks | Trust, Governance and Ethics | Saxton Speakers Bureau
Good governance, ethics and trust have to be lived and breathed by every individual in the organisation. Good Governance is imperative in the context of crisis, risk and issues management. A company's brand and reputation for employees, consumers, and all stakeholders are contingent upon good governance.Power Play | Julia Banks discusses her resignation speech and her new book
In 2018 Julia Banks resigned from the Liberal party. Her powerful resignation speech made the front page of every major news outlet. In this video, Julia reflects on this speech, her feelings at the time and the reactions that she received. Julia is the author of Power Play. Power Play is an honest guide for women who aspire to leadership in the workplace and in the world, from the trailblazing Julia Banks. Having won the ‘unwinnable’ seat that secured the Coalition Government majority in 2016, Julia Banks shocked Australia when she announced she would stand as an independent MP in 2018, having experienced a toxic workplace culture in the country’s centre of power – designed by men for their dominance. Julia doesn’t just know what power looks like in a political sense; she made it to the top of her game in the legal and corporate sectors before running for parliament. And at every level, she had to navigate through the bias, barriers and boys’ clubs that aim to silence women or deter them from leadership roles. Power Play reveals the unvarnished realities of any workplace where power disparities and gender politics collide: from the unequal opportunities, casual sexism and systemic misogyny, to pressures around looks, age and family responsibilities, and the consequences of speaking out. Julia shares personal stories, practical advice, and a resounding argument for why women aren’t the problem – but why more women in decision-making positions will help us find the solution. For anyone who is aspiring to lead, this book will help you to navigate there. And for anyone who believes that women’s voices need to be heard equally, it will inspire you to strive until that is our reality.Women in Australian politics panel | All About Women 2019
What needs to change to make more women want to run for public office in Australia? At All About Women 2019, four of Australia's most senior politicians crossed party lines to discuss their experiences working in parliament. Labor Party's Linda Burney, Greens Senator Sarah Hanson Young, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party Julie Bishop and Independent Julia Banks had a frank discussion about the pitfalls and rewards of their jobs, and how we can shift the culture so girls who want to grow up to be Prime Minister are inspired, not discouraged. The session was chaired by Jacqueline Maley.Saxton Fireside Chat with Business Leader & Former Federal MP, Julia Banks
Julia Banks is an experienced Business Leader and Company Director, a former Member of the Parliament of Australia, and a leadership, governance and risk management expert. Julia's extensive business experience includes positions such as General Counsel, Company Secretary and Company Director for some of the worlds blue chip companies. Julia is an advocate for gender equality and Special Advisor to Gender Equity Victoria. In this session, Julia and Anne will discuss Julia's life and work in both the corporate space and politics, her leadership experience in crisis & risk management and her advocacy for equal representation of women in leadership positions, in politics, business and all industry sectors.Former Liberal MP Julia Banks says entering politics was like 'stepping back in time' | 7.30
Former Liberal MP Julia Banks sheds new light on her experiences of a "Mad Men"-esque culture at the heart of federal politics in an exclusive TV interview with 7.30's Laura Tingle. Ms Banks has alleged she was subjected to an unwanted sexual advance at work from a cabinet minister in the Turnbull government. Ms Banks was the only Liberal MP to win a seat from Labor at the 2016 election, but ended up quitting the party after the Morrison leadership spill, sitting briefly as an independent until the subsequent election in 2019.Julia Banks delivered a presentation that deeply resonated with our audience, sparking meaningful conversations and personal reflection. ... keep reading National Apprentice Employment Network
Julia’s presentation was thoughtful and insightful, focused on our event themes of safety, culture and leadership. Her openness and honesty in talking about her professional and personal experiences resonated particularly well with the executive-level audience.
Julia Banks was the perfect speaker at the Women in Finance Summit, leaving us all truly inspired. Her energy combined with her expertise was nothing short of magnetic…she brings a wealth of experience to the table and powerful insights regarding building personal power, which resonated deeply with everyone.
It was thrilling to have an MC and panel moderator of Julia’s calibre at our event – her stage presence, anecdotes, and insightful interaction with event speakers took the quality of multiple sessions to the next level. We’re very pleased to have been able to work with Julia!
We were so lucky that Julia was able and willing to speak at our IWD Book Club. She was inspiring and authentic and made our event so successful.
It's definitely a great day in the office when you have guest speaker Julia Banks come in to discuss ethics.
Julia Banks is an outstanding parliamentarian with a life's experience in the Business world. Her book Power Play is Real raw human and forensic."
Wonderful guest speaker and focus on authentic self.
Julia Banks is a competent, smart woman who has moved the conversation forward about the treatment of women in politics and other workplaces. Her book Is brutal and astounding. I couldn't stop reading.
Julia's session was great, she had really interesting insights and a depth of knowledge across issues from both her corporate and public career, we had great feedback
Julia was a wonderful addition to our conference and very accessible which really helped given the nature of what was required of her. She was a pleasure to deal with and I have heard many positive responses about her keynote address.
Julia brought her customary candour and astute insight to our panel at the Women in Leadership Dinner. Her contribution had a resounding impact on the audience.
Exciting, entertaining and insightful - helped make our event a resounding success.
Julia Banks was the best rated speaker for the day.
… an outstanding presentation… some important lessons for our industry.
Julia's insights and experiences are incredibly powerful.
Julia was incredible! Engaging, entertaining and impactful. She made the event a success.
The eloquent, audacious, courageous statement of disruption of Julia BanksShe will go down in history for calling out truth to power.
The powerful cohort who run our major organisations should stop the diversity box ticking and read PowerPlay instead.
