Sandy Killick, Managing Director
Voting is mandatory in Australia, yet for most of us voter education ends in primary school. Democracy affects all of us but there are few places we can come together to discuss how our democracy works in an unbiased, non partisan way. Sandy Killick B.Ed, M.Ed established Democracy Matters to host these important conversations.
As Managing Director @Democracy Matters, Sandy’s priority is equipping people with the skills, practices and habits to grow democracy between elections. Democracy is a relationship that connects all of us and it's important to know how to be part of it. Democracy can be both a driver of, and solution to, many of the persistent and large scale challenges individuals, businesses and communities face.
Sandy is at ease working with elected representatives, public servants, early voters, and teachers. Her goal is to ensure all have the skills and confidence to keep Australian democracy fit for purpose. She is a qualified executive coach, ethics trainer, experienced adult educator. She is a Social Leadership Australia alumna and Churchill Fellow.
Hear Sandy talk about her vision for democracy in this podcast in conversation with Catherine Madziva from Western Sydney Community Forum - LISTEN.
Find out more about Sandy on LinkedIn.
ADVISORY GROUP MEMBERS
Tim Bateman, systems thinker, sustainability specialist, former political staffer. Tim’s interest in democracy was sparked during his early university years, while studying Politics, Journalism and History. A self-described sustainability advocate, Tim’s passion and drive is in all areas of sustainability, with a particular focus on climate change, renewable energy, green hydrogen, the circular economy, sustainable housing, Indigenous land management and regenerative agriculture.
With a diverse career encompassing service in the Royal Australian Navy, journalism, federal and local government, Tim considers himself a jack of all trades and master of none, with a strong drive to help deliver triple-bottom-line sustainability outcomes. A systems thinker, Tim is exploring the ‘Green New Deal’ and ‘Steady State Economy’ concepts as a means of helping create a more sustainable society and planet.
Tim sees the role of democracy as fundamental to sustainability, and believes that Democracy Matters plays a critical role in ensuring young Australians understand and embrace our nation’s unique system of democracy, and their role in shaping it.
BA (Journalism, History), University of Southern Queensland, Postgraduate Certificate in Public Relations, Murdoch University.
Judy King History & English teaching specialist, OAM for Services to Secondary Education, MA, Dip Ed
Judy King retired as principal of Riverside Girls High School, Gladesville in 2010 after 19 years as a secondary public school principal. She taught HSC Ancient and Modern History and English for many years in several NSW public schools.
Judy was seconded to the Teacher Education Program at Macquarie University in the 1980s where she taught both English and History methods to Dip Ed students completing their secondary teaching degrees. Throughout her teaching career Judy has maintained a very strong interest in all aspects of effective teaching and learning, assessment and reporting. She was very active in the NSW History Teachers Association and edited the HTA Teaching History Journal for several years in the 1990s which continues to a significant teaching resource for History teachers.
Judy was the History Curriculum Inspector at the then Board of Studies (now NESA) in the early 1990s before she was promoted to high school principal. During her time as History Inspector she worked closely with the History Syllabus Committee to develop the then new enquiry based Years 7-10 History Syllabus which mandated five areas of enquiry including Aboriginal History and Women’s History. The mandated areas proved to be controversial at the time but many aspects of the mandated enquiry approach were incorporated into future NSW History Syllabuses.
Judy is still a dedicated public education warrior and has never stopped campaigning for funding justice for public schools. She was deputy president of the NSW Secondary Principals Council with the key responsibility of public school advocacy. From 1998-2004 she represented the Secondary Principals Council on the Board of Studies. During that time major revisions to the HSC were incorporated into the NSW curriculum, first examined at the HSC in 2001. It was the most substantial reform of the HSC since it had been first examined at the HSC in 1967, the second year of Judy’s teaching career.
Judy is a Life Member of the NSW Teachers Federation and the AEU. She is also a Life Member of the SPC. In 2007 she was awarded the Meritorious Service to Public Education and Training medallion by the NSW Department of Education.
In 2020 Judy gave evidence at the Gallup Enquiry into Valuing the Teaching Profession which had been commissioned by the NSW Teachers Federation. In 2014 and 2019 Judy attended the History Summer School at Cambridge University in the UK and hopes to return to the History Summer School in the future.
Since her retirement Judy has worked part time as a tutor in History and Politics at the WEA in Sydney. She offers courses in all aspects of Archaeology, Ancient, Modern and Mediaeval History and Politics and where possible includes references to film study. She has enjoyed giving guest lectures at various organisations since her retirement.
Rosamund Christie, adaptive leadership specialist, AGSM adjunct faculty, Sydney Leadership, Women in Leadership
Rosamund values the opportunity to engage with the complexity and ambiguity of exercising leadership by supporting those who are leading complex human systems and working to create sustained change for the betterment of our community and society.
She is committed to the work of Democracy Matters knowing that everyone of us has a responsibility to help create the best social conditions for all. She has recently read A Month in Siena by Hisham Mater and was captivated by his description of a fourteenth century painting The Allegory of Good Government. Painted by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, it is in celebration of Siena establishing the first secular government in Italy, a country at that time still made up of city states. In the painting, he says, “There appears to be no anchor, no god, no place to rest. The activity is distributed in such a way as to frustrate the need for a singular authority. It instead presents a visual parade of a political manifesto: a series of figures facing us, arranged in a stacked procession, as though to demonstrate a principle…. Each man has got the rope Concord has woven, passing it up the line but also grabbing on to it as though for support, till it reaches Common Good, the large figure above, enthroned on the seat of state. The rope is wrapped around his wrist, therefore binding the figure of Common Good, through the citizenry, to Concord, Justice and Wisdom. He stares ahead in an expression of grave responsibility, as though holding his breath or worried about losing his balance. He also appears to be caught in a dream, or locked inside an aspiration.”
This is the dream and aspiration of Democracy Matters – to keep democracy front of mind and front of effort for the common good.
Rosamund brings intelligence and compassion, trust and insight, and a genuine interest in people to her work. She draws on her extensive twenty-year career in leadership development, which has spanned program delivery and executive coaching in corporate, government, not-for profit and the university sector. Her 5,000 hours of executive coaching are testimony to her broad and deep experience.
Rosamund completed The Art and Practice of Adaptive Leadership at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She holds a Master of Arts (Literature and Psychology) from the University of Sydney, and delights in weaving literature into her work.
Russell Grove, PSM, Clerk Emeritus for the NSW Parliament
Russell joined the staff of the Parliament of New South Wales in February 1971 and was appointed as Clerk of the Legislative Assembly in 1990, a position held for 21 years. His long standing and senior service of the Parliament, continuing for 40 years until his retirement from the Parliament of New South Wales on 4 November 2011, was recognised by the NSW Public Service Medal (PSM) being awarded in 2000 and the Centenary of Federation Medal in 2003.
During his career with the NSW Parliament, Russell gained vast experience in the areas of parliamentary procedure and practice, parliamentary administration including shared joint services and inter-parliamentary relations.
During his career he has had the opportunity to travel widely in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Pacific, Canada, the USA, the Caribbean and the UK, participating in and leading parliamentary conferences, workshops and seminars. He has led Parliamentary Delegations to China, Japan, South Korea and Thailand.
Facilitating and participating in workshops, seminars and training attachments, he is recognised as an expert in these areas, serving as a consultant in his role as Clerk Emeritus for the NSW Parliament.
Russell has had a long association with community organisations and initiatives serving as an Ambassador for the White Ribbon Campaign in NSW Parliament, and promoting the annual ‘Loud Shirts Campaign’ in support of Hearing Awareness programs and inclusion. Russell has contributed to Rotary International since 1991 as a Member of the North Sydney Rotary Club, serving as President in 2012-13. On retirement this commitment continued as a member of the Woy Woy Club, serving as President 2018-19 and Gosford East Rotary Club. In retirement Russell has been appointed as a Mentor through the NSW Department of Education program for mentoring high school students to assist in social education and support.
Russell is a Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia (FIPAA), and a member of the Australasian Study of Parliament Group (ASPG). In 2011, Russell was made an Honorary Life Member of the Society of Clerks-at-the-Table in Commonwealth Parliaments (SOCATT), the Society of Clerks-at-the-Table in Canada; American Society of Legislative Clerks and Secretaries; the New South Wales Branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association; the Association of Former Members of the NSW Parliament; and is a Life Member of City Tattersalls Club Sydney.
In recognition of Russell's meritorious service, and on the occasion of his retirement from the Parliament, Members of the Legislative Assembly unanimously resolved in the House on 20 October 2011 to extend to him the honorary title of Clerk Emeritus of the Legislative Assembly of NSW Parliament.
Russell was awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship for his work in the area of promoting parliamentary democracy in the developing world. Since his retirement in 2011 he has continued this work through various aid agencies.
