Last night EY Partner Dean Yates and the Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability Dr Gillian Sparkes were amongst recipients of the 2019 Institute of Public Administration Australia National Fellowship. "As a proud Victorian, I am honoured to receive this recognition,” said Dr Sparkes. "I also see it as recognition of the great team of people I have around me at the Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability and the importance of our work together facilitating the creation of new baseline data on the health of Victoria’s environment and integrating the SDGs into environmental reporting in Victoria. There’s lots more work to do and I look forward to being of public service."
"This award is for people for whom public service is or has been a vocation and a driving force, often over many years," said IPAA National President Peter Shergold, who announced the winners at IPAA's National Conference in Darwin. "The IPAA looks for outstanding individuals, women and men who are proud to be public servants, who understand in here (points to heart), not just in here (points to head) what is the ethos and the mission and the purpose of public administration," he said. "And who are proud for us to recognise as the embodiment of public service and we call them our Nation Fellows."
The two Victorian awardees are: Dr Gillian Sparkes and Dean Yates. Said Mr Shergold, "Gillian is respected across the political spectrum and has been appointed Commissioner by successive governments and has in that capacity championed reforms in environmental monitoring, assessment and reporting." Yates was described as a highly experienced public servant "who really has been instrumental to a whole series of public sector financial reforms."
Read more: https://www.ipaa.org.au/national-awards/