Pathways to Politics Program for Women NT

Our program brings together significant expertise and experience from across Australia’s political spectrum. Through an intensive series of workshops participants are provided with practical knowledge, skills and networking opportunities to become the political leaders of tomorrow. Program topics include:

• Political values
• Media training
• Campaigning & Fundraising
• Social media 
• Policy making
• Speech writing

The 2022 cohort gained entry into the Program through a competitive application process, and the participants chosen each demonstrated outstanding achievement and leadership potential in their respective fields. 12 participants were selected, a significant achievement given that it was the first year the program has run in the Northern Territory. The group is professionally diverse and includes participants from the government, corporate sector, and small businesses. 

The majority of the 2022 cohort were members of a political party ALP (5), the NT Greens Party (3), one cohort member was independent, and three were unaligned at the commencement of the Program. The cohort consisted of women from diverse cultures, languages and geographic backgrounds. Three cohort members identified as First Nations Australians. 

NT Cohort 2022 (alphabetical order): 

• Georgie Corrie 
• Ellie Cuthbert
• Genevieve Dally
• Rosanna De Santis
• Aiya Goodrich Carttling
• Sibella Hare Breidahl 
• Peta Haughey
• Asta Hill 
• Anjana Pant Baral
• Emily Raso 
• Jade Ritchie
• Rose-Anna Selhorst

2022 Program Participant Pack:

(PDF, 4.15 MB)

NT Cohort 2023 Cohort members gain entry into the Program through a competitive application process, and the participants selected for this year each demonstrated outstanding achievement and leadership potential in their respective fields.

11 participants were selected in 2023, a significant achievement given that this is only the second year of the program in the Northern Territory. The group is professionally diverse, including participants from government, corporate sector, and the business sector.

6 cohort members are not affiliated with a political party, followed by NT Greens Party (2), ALP (1), CLP (1), and Independent (1). The cohort consists of women from diverse cultural, language and geographic backgrounds. Two cohort members identify as First Nations Australians.

NT Cohort 2023 (alphabetical order):

Anika Alam

Suki Dorras-Walker

Rana Everett

Lavinia Gaff

Sunny Liu

Tanya Moran

Deanne Rioli

Nicole Sabamba

Jacqueline Taylor

Laurie Zio

Patron – The Honorable Vicki O’Halloran AO

The Honourable Vicki O’Halloran AO was sworn in as the 22^nd Administrator of the Northern Territory on 31 October 2017 completing her service 31 January 2023.

Prior to her appointment as Administrator of the Northern Territory, Her Honour was Chief Executive Officer of Somerville Community Services. She has been a member of a range of boards and committees locally and nationally. Her Honour was Chair of National Disability Services Northern Territory, serving as National President of National Disability Services from 2012-2015, and Chair of the Northern Territory Government Ministerial Advisory Council on Disability Reform.

Her Honour the Honourable Sally Thomas AC first came to the Northern Territory in 1978 to take up an appointment as Stipendiary Magistrate. Her Honour served as Magistrate and then Chief Magistrate of the Northern Territory from 1986 to 1992. Her Honour was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory from 1992 to 2009; the first female Judge in the Northern Territory. 

Her Honour has a strong interest in the tertiary education of Territorians and was a Deputy Chairman of the Northern Territory College of Queensland University and then a Member of the Northern Territory University Council from 1989 to 2003. In 2003, Her Honour was appointed to the Council of Charles Darwin University and elected Deputy Chancellor. Successively in 2010, Her Honour was appointed Chancellor of the University, a position she held until 2016.

In October 2011, Her Honour was sworn in as the 20th and first female Administrator of the Northern Territory. Her term concluded in October 2014.

In January 2014, Her honour was named a Companion of the Order of Australia for eminent service to the people of the Northern Territory, particularly to the judiciary and social justice, to the advancement of women in the legal profession, to youth, and to the promotion and development of tertiary education.

The Honourable Lauren Moss is a Northern Territory politician. She has been the Labor member for Casuarina in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since 2014. She is the youngest ever member of the Northern Territory Parliament. Prior to entering politics she was a youth advocate.

Born in Crewe in the United Kingdom, Moss has lived in the Northern Territory since emigrating to Australia in 1999. She has a Bachelor of Business from Charles Darwin University and Monash University. Before entering politics, she ran a small business and worked in mental health services.

She won an Excellence in Youth Leadership award at the NT Young Achiever Awards and the NT Pride of Australia Young Leader Medal. She was also a finalist in the NT Young Australian of the Year, Darwin City Council Young Citizen of the Year and the Australian Woman's Weekly Women of the Future.

She is currently the NT Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Water Security; NT Minister for Equality and Inclusion; NT Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention; NT Minister for Seniors; NT Minister for Youth. 

Katrina Fong Lim is currently the General Manager of Variety – the Children’s Charity NT and the former Lord Mayor of the city of Darwin (2012-2017).

She is a born and bred 5th generation Territorian with a keen sense of public service and community. Her career has been a combination of her passion for serving her local community, together with her outstanding professional qualifications and experience, honed within the government, NFP, B2B and public service sectors over 30 years.

Katrina’s strong personal values and ethics, which stem from a close-knit family and the guidance of her late father, Alec Fong Lim who was himself Lord Mayor of Darwin in the 1980s, are reflected in her authentic and bipartisan approach to her public, professional and personal life. She is a passionate advocate for Darwin and the Northern Territory. Katrina has worked with relentless dedication to advance the interests of her region, both interstate and internationally.

Kezia Purick is an independent member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, having held her seat of Goyder since the 2008 election.

Prior to entering Parliament, Purick was the CEO of the NT Minerals Council for 16 years. Originally elected as a member of the Country Liberal Party, she became an independent in 2015.

She served as Speaker of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since the CLP's victory in the 2012 Territory election, a post she retained after leaving the CLP.

Following Territory Labor's landslide victory at the 2016 Territory election, the new Labor government retained Purick as Speaker. She resigned as speaker on 23 June 2020.

Jo Hersey is a member for the electoral division of Katherine in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly.

Hersey was born in Adelaide, but moved to the Northern Territory when she was young. The family returned to Adelaide after a few years, but Hersey returned to Katherine after she married. Before being elected, she was a hairdresser, continuing a family tradition that stretched back 3 generations.

In the 2020 Northern Territory general election Hersey won a close race in the seat of Katherine to be elected to Legislative Assembly for the Country Liberal Party.

Maree Bredhauer has over 40 years’ experience in school, corporate and community leadership - in primary school and early childhood settings across the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors in the Northern Territory. Maree’s experience includes 14 years as primary school principal, six years as executive manager of a large not-for-profit organisation and six years in an elected position in local government as Mayor of Litchfield Municipality.

Maree has a long-term commitment to promoting leadership development, community participation and engagement and advocacy to ensure quality, social justice and equity in early intervention, and disability access.

Sarah is a strategic leader with over seventeen years’ business leadership experience in social innovation, gender equity, ESG integration and responsible investing.

Sarah is currently Chief of Staff for Carol Schwartz AO and CEO of the Trawalla Foundation, and she co-leads Pathways to Politics Program for Women nationally. Sarah has been a sought after sustainability consultant to major Australian companies, led PwC's award winning Corporate Responsibility team, and held senior roles creating innovative new businesses including PwC’s Indigenous Consulting.

Professor Wallace is the Pro-Vice Chancellor of the Faculty of Arts and Society (CDU) and the former Director of Northern Institute.

Ruth’s research interests relate to the links between identity, marginalised learners and the development of effective learning and workforce development pathways. This work is situated in regional and remote areas of Northern Australia and Indonesia, with a specific focus in research approaches to improve service delivery and adaptation, undertaken with Aboriginal people in remote and regional areas.

Ruth’s research connects to digital systematic learning pedagogies, and approaches to workforce development through remote based enterprises.

Ruth is a leader in workforce development and focuses on collaborative approaches to engagement with community, governments and industry that are sustainable and scalable. Ruth has extensive experience in educational practice development and as a teacher at all educational level.

Kim is Director of the Northern Institute, CDU and previous to that held various senior positions at RMIT University – as a Deputy and Associate Dean of Research and as Director of the Centre for Applied Social Research.

Kim is an interdisciplinary academic, originally trained in politics, social theory, HPS and history but predominantly working in the domain of sociology (and is incoming Vice-President of The Australian Sociological Association 2023-24).

Internationally, Kim is best known for her work on the socio-cultural and political dimensions of consumption and material life. She also has worked extensively on social and cultural aspects of Indigenous health (in the NT and Victoria) and on cross-cultural research ethics. Over the last two decades, Kim has published widely in these fields, has held a number of Australian Research Council grants, and has pursued collaborations through visiting research/professorial positions in sociology and media & creative industries at the University of Manchester, King’s College London, and the University of Sussex.

Dr Macfarlane is the Program Lead for Pathways to Politics for Women and a Senior Lecturer in South East Asian Studies, CDU College of Indigenous Futures, Education and the Arts.

She is an International Relations/Political Science scholar, who focuses on children and armed conflict, peacebuilding, human security, gender and South Asia. 

Recently, Kate's research focused on the reintegration experiences of former child soldiers in Sri Lanka and Nepal. She completed six months of fieldwork in both countries. Kate is the 2018-2019 Fox Fellowship (Yale University) ANU representative. She received an Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) Scholarship, and an Australian Government Endeavour Fellowship (2018). 

Kate speaks Mandarin Chinese, and spent a number of years studying and working, primarily in the development sector.