ALUMNI FOCUS
A life of service
When NSW Public Service Commissioner Kathrina Lo returned to Macquarie University as an occasional speaker for the 4 October graduation ceremony, 28 years after she graduated with a Bachelor of Law and Bachelor of Economics, her story spoke of an unwavering dedication to the public interest, the value of cultural diversity in the workplace, and how a strong sense of purpose has guided her career. It’s a story that will stay with graduands long after their mortar boards were tossed in the air …
As Kathrina Lo explained in her address, almost 30 years ago, she too was sitting at a graduation ceremony, her career and all its possibilities stretched out in front of her. She may not have known the specific details of what lay ahead of her, but as she sat in the graduation hall surrounded by her peers, it might be said that her clarity of purpose – and her interests that developed out of her degree – are what have propelled her in her career.
As she told the graduands in early October, ‘When I was studying law at Macquarie, the subjects I gravitated toward were the public law ones; after all, it applies to and shapes our entire society. I could also see the potential for impact in these areas and an alignment with purpose, so I made a deliberate decision to join the public service. I wanted to do work that was in the public interest.’
And it’s this decision and no doubt drive that have led to an exceptionally distinguished public service career at the state and commonwealth levels. Currently the NSW Public Service Commissioner, Kathrina leads workforce policy and programs as well as strategy and reform for the NSW public sector, the largest workforce in Australia.
Before being appointed commissioner, she was the deputy secretary at the NSW Department of Communities and Justice. Kathrina has also held the positions of NSW Information Commissioner, NSW Privacy Commissioner, Assistant Auditor-General, and CEO of Juvenile Justice NSW.
Kathrina says her career has been enormously fulfilling, and as a lawyer in the public service, she has had the opportunity to do work she couldn’t do elsewhere. She has led a wide range of civil and criminal law reforms; developed numerous pieces of legislation, including enshrining changes to surrogacy arrangements and victim impact statements, and extinguishing historical homosexual offences; and been part of the team advising the NSW Attorney General on matters such as the penalties that should attach to offences, and requests for reviews of criminal convictions.
Kathrina was also part of a United Nations expert group at the UN headquarters in New York, and travelled to China as part of a delegation of senior Australian public servants strengthening ties between the two countries. As she says, ‘It’s big-impact work. I’m a proud career public servant and have never regretted my decision to join the public service – the work we do is purposeful, interesting, challenging and impactful; it makes a real difference to people’s lives.’
And never has this been more evident than in the last few years when she has seen the NSW public service through some of the most challenging periods in the state’s history. ‘Our frontline workforce in the Rural Fire Service, the State Emergency Service, and Fire and Rescue, are constantly preparing for and responding to extreme weather events, from fires to floods,’ she says.
‘At the moment, there’s a lot of preparation being done ahead of summer – because of climate change, we’re dealing with events that people might previously have only experienced once in a century, or once in a generation, but they’re common events now.’
No less, we don’t hear as much about the pandemic in the news any more, but nurses are still supporting COVID patients in ICUs, and people are still dying, so there’s still a lot of work going on behind the scenes. ‘In the early days,’ notes Kathrina, ‘we didn’t know how bad things would get, so we mobilised and trained hundreds of public servants ready to go as contact tracers, and later roll out vaccinations, as just one example.
‘It was a huge team effort – COVID wasn’t just a health response, it was a whole-of-sector response,’ she says. ‘I’m really proud of how our 430,000-strong workforce has continued to turn up, step up, and be there for the people of New South Wales during these extremely difficult times.’
But this is just the tip of the iceberg.‘Often, people are quite surprised to learn that 85 per cent of the NSW public service workforce is on the frontline,’ says Kathrina. ‘But our teachers, nurses, police, prison officers and paramedics, bus and train drivers and firies, they’re all frontline workers – they’re our unsung heroes,’ she says with genuine admiration.
It’s a career that’s increasingly popular, too. From the highly competitive graduate program that’s one of the best in the country to people moving across to middle management from corporate, people are realising you can have a really interesting, purpose-driven career in the public service. ‘I’ve chosen to stay in the public sector for my entire career,’ says Kathrina, ‘but I’d like to see more movement between corporate and government as it benefits both sectors.
‘The really big problems we need to deal with as a state and as a nation – like Indigenous disadvantage, climate change and domestic and family violence – all require different sectors working together to solve them, so the more movement of talent there is between sectors, increasing understanding and building relationships, the more likely we are to tackle those problems successfully.’
Big-impact work, indeed. So where does Kathrina’s deep sense of purpose and desire to tackle huge societal issues come from? ‘It’s partly because my family are migrants,’ says Kathrina, explaining her father was born in China and grew up in Hong Kong, and her mother is from Malaysia, and is Malay–Chinese, while her great-grandmother was from Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.
‘My parents met in Australia, got married here, and never returned to their birth countries to live. As newlyweds, they moved to Canada, where I was born, before we returned to Australia and lived in a small town near Lake Macquarie until I was 13.’
Kathrina tells of the quintessential Aussie childhood, growing up in the country in the 70s and 80s, hanging out with other kids, riding their bikes down dirt tracks to the creek, and building cubby houses in the bush. ‘We’d be away for hours, only returning for dinner,’ reminisces Kathrina. ‘Our parents didn’t hover over us, and I think this fostered our independence, resourcefulness, imagination and resilience.’
Her parents did however drum into her the importance of contributing to society, and of helping people who are less fortunate. ‘It was very much about embracing our adopted country and wanting to give back,’ she says. ‘My parents always talked about helping other people who might not have the good fortune we had, and they both chose purposeful careers as educators at the university level, my father in maths and science, and my mother in nursing.’
And this is where Kathrina’s sense of purpose and background intersect. As she noted in her speech, she is one of the nearly 50 percent of Australians who were either born overseas or have at least one parent who was born overseas. She is also the first culturally diverse person to hold all the senior leadership positions she’s been appointed to in the NSW public service, and the first culturally diverse person to be a member of the NSW Secretaries Board, the top leadership team for the NSW public service.
So, it’s no surprise that when asked what legacy she’d like to leave, she cites increasing cultural diversity in the workplace. As she explains, ‘I truly believe Australia’s cultural diversity is one of our greatest strengths as a country, and it’s a competitive advantage we need to leverage more than we currently do.
‘I’m halfway through my seven-year term as commissioner, and I’d like to leave behind a public sector workforce that better reflects the diversity of the community we serve, including at the senior leadership level, so we’re better able to understand and respond to the needs of the community and deliver better outcomes.
‘There’s a large body of research that shows that diverse organisations and teams perform better across a whole range of metrics, including customer and financial metrics, and that they’re more innovative, creative and better at problem-solving. And that’s exactly what we want our organisations to be, whether they operate in the public, private or not-for-profit sectors.’
You could hear the passion in her voice as she shared her personal and professional journey with graduands and, as part of her six tips shared at the ceremony, Kathrina reminded the audience that we all have a sphere of influence within which we can choose to contribute positively. ‘No matter what level we’re at, we all play a role in ensuring our workplaces value diversity, are inclusive, and are places where everyone feels they belong and can do their best work.’
So, what’s next for Kathrina Lo? Although she still has over three years to go as commissioner and no doubt much to achieve, this may well be her last executive role. ‘I might find other ways to give back, whether that’s through boards and committees, or volunteer work,’ she muses, and indeed, she is now a member of the recently established Macquarie Law School Advisory Board.
‘I’d also like to have more time for my parents, who are getting older, and time for those things I didn’t get to do when you have a full-on executive career, like getting back to playing the piano and taking some art classes. There are lots of things to get involved in the local community too – I’m really open to different things, but it’s a little way off yet.’
She sounds satisfied with her career journey, the opportunities she has taken, the positions she has given her all to, and the changes she has made – from the large and significant to the more personal, such as writing letters to applicants to let them know that a historical offence that had been hanging over their heads for decades was no longer on their record.
Ever mindful and pragmatic, Kathrina adds, ‘You’ve also got to know when it’s time to step aside and let other leaders come through – that’s part of your job as a leader, to develop other leaders, but you also need to know when to step aside and give other leaders an opportunity. I’ll find other ways to contribute, I have no doubt about that!’ she laughs warmly, knowing herself and her purpose well.
Do you have a story to share with us? As Macquarie University approaches its 60th Anniversary in 2024, we’re eager to hear from you. Whether you’ve pursued global ventures, achieved your dream career, or explored new horizons post-graduation, share your journey with us.
Kathrina Lo is the New South Wales Public Service Commissioner and leads workforce strategy, reform and programs for the NSW public sector, the largest workforce in Australia with over 430, 000 employees. Kathrina has had a distinguished public service career. Prior to her appointment as NSW Public Service Commissioner in April 2020, a seven-year tenure, Kathrina was Deputy Secretary at the NSW Department of Communities and Justice. She has also held the positions of NSW Information Commissioner, NSW Privacy Commissioner, Assistant Auditor General, and CEO of Juvenile Justice NSW.
Kathrina has a Bachelor of Economics and a Bachelor of Laws from Macquarie University, a Master of Laws from the University of Sydney and a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice. She is actively involved in the tertiary education sector as a member of the Macquarie Law School Advisory Board; a director of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government; a member of the Advisory Board for the Australian Institute of Gender Equality @ Work at the University of Sydney Business School; and she Chairs the Industry Advisory Board for the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at UTS. Kathrina is a member of Chief Executive Women. She is passionate about working in the public interest and is a champion for diversity and inclusion.