You are invited to join the Womens's council for a discussion with Cr Sarah Swan, Shivani Gopal & Dave Brady.
Australia’s Family Benefit Scheme is over 23 years old, out of date, bureaucratically saturated, and disrespects today’s working women. It is time to scrap the Family Benefit Scheme and replace it with a universal tax break policy that supports families in caring for children, while minimising barriers to paid workforce participation, supporting gender equity, empowering family investment into their communities, easing family cost of living pressures, and reducing child poverty.
Our Guests Bios:
Cr Sarah Swan: Sarah has worked in Family Law for over 5 years and is a strong advocate against all forms of family violence and abuse against all genders and age groups. Sarah is a passionate community activist and director of Holdsworth Community Ltd. In these role, has come to understand many of the challenges faced by many Australian families and is dedicated to working toward better outcomes for all. Sarah is the beneficiary of guidance and mentoring from wonderful Liberal Women and she wants to contribute to the network of women who are dedicated to that task. Sarah has a proven track record to work hard in support of our Party – she the Deputy Mayor of Woollahra Councillor; secretary of Cooper Park Branch; Secretary of Wentworth FEC; and is committed to work for and support other Liberal women. In her spare time, Sarah teaches and practices yoga, participates in local run and cycle clubs and (attempts to) surf.
Shivani Gopal: Shivani is the founder and CEO of Elladex, an Australian official Startups 20 and Women’s 20 delegate as part of the G20, and podcast host.
Shivani Gopal is an expert in unlocking inclusion and participation in finance and leadership for women. As the founder and CEO of Elladex, Australia’s first digital mentor marketplace & daily learning platform – Shivani has raised over 7 figures in venture capital and worked with celebrity ambassadors such as Tracey Spicer, Jana Pittman and Catherine Fox to build a global ‘rolodex’ with over 25,000 women, designed to elevate personal, professional and financial success.
She is the author of the Inclusion Report: The Perspex Ceiling, a landmark national research paper assessing the challenges and opportunities of inclusion and diversity across Australian corporations, and is a podcast host for Commbank’s Leading Women.
Shivani has won the 2022 NSW Excellence in Women’s Leadership Award, was a finalist for the Women in Tech awards, and Sydney’s Young Entrepreneur Awards for 2022. She holds an MBA and a Masters in Commerce, majoring in Financial Planning and her work has seen her covered in some of Australian media outlets, including the AFR, the SMH, The Today Show, Channel 7 and more.
Dave Brady: Dave hails from rural Armidale, New South Wales. He is the first deaf person from Armidale to complete HSC and earned degrees from both the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. Professionally he is Director of Community Engagement at The Shepherd Centre, and prior to this the CEO of Hear For You (2013-2021) an award-winning program for teenagers. Prior, he was a National Senior Sports Association Executive—a remarkable feat as the only deaf person at that level in Australia. Notably, David excelled as an elite athlete, representing Australia in Water Polo at the 2005 Deaflympics Games in Melbourne. Volunteering and community advocacy is a passion, though being the Chairperson of Deafness Forum Australia, where he achieved significant policy reforms, including the creation of the Commonwealth Government Roadmap for Hearing Health in Australia. Beyond this, he is a community volunteer, recently returning to Surf
Lifesaving, mentoring young Australians, and actively engaging with other families through his daughter’s day-care.
