Raft of Bitches
A podcast about women supporting women. Like otters.
Raft of Bitches
Caitlin Figueiredo - Change-making is not a sprint, it's a marathon
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Caitlin is a proud Goan woman and strategic leader with 10+ years driving multi-sector reforms across government, civil society, and global organisations. Recognised by Forbes, the Obama White House, and as 2024 ACT Young Australian of the Year, Caitlin has a record of delivering transformative programs that advance social impact, equity, and human rights.
In this episode, Caitlin shares her experience running Girls Takeover Parliament, her thoughts about traditional and non-traditional political media, and her aspirations to become Australia's first intergenerational commissioner.
Caitlin's ask for you rafters is to inform yourself about (and join, if you can) the National Women's Alliances which play a key role in ensuring women’s voices are central in the policy development process. Or, if you work with or for an organisation with a wicked problem that needs solving, you can hire Caitlin to help!
Hi Rafters, before this episode begins, we just want to share a content warning with you. This episode touches on some difficult topics including depression and burnout. If any of that is triggering for you, catch us back up in the next episode. Otherwise, it's a really great chat and we hope you'll get a lot out of it. As usual, this episode contains adult language and concepts.
SPEAKER_01Female otters, bitches, if you will, join hands with each other to create rafts that stop them from drifting apart and losing each other while they're asleep. Thriving women have one thing in common. They have a tight-knit circle of other women who helped them get there by providing information and support. Join us each episode as we shine a light on an amazing woman and give her a platform to share with us her story, her passion, and the raft of bitches supporting her. Welcome to another episode of the show. I'm Kate and I'm here with my co-host Ricky Barnes. And a fun fact about Ricky is there's actually a Ricky Barnes trading card from when she was in BMX. And I'm really disappointed that we don't have one.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I know. I only I bought the one at the time. And yeah, never thought that I would need to, you know, spread it around amongst my friends in the future or anything like that. It was actually quite funny though, because they released this whole kind of set. And obviously, because we live in a patriarchy, all of the men's ones were like the more popular ones that the kids were buying. But there were some kids who are obviously like OCD or completist or whatever, so they would get the full set. And you'd have these little kids coming up to you and be like, Will you sign your trading card, please? It was like full-on rock star moment.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so cool. All right, well, we're gonna have to put a photo on socials of this trading card.
SPEAKER_02When I see it for the first time, and I'm here with my co-host Kate, and a fun fact about Kate is she has been to Niagara Falls, but only on the Canadian side. And I believe there's a bit of a story behind that.
SPEAKER_01So I was in Canada, I went to Niagara Falls, and I really wanted to just like see the full picture. Um, and so I tried to walk to the American side, but I didn't have I didn't have a visa, and you can't do that. And I was like, I'm literally going to take a photo and then I'm gonna walk back across. And they were like, you're not allowed to do that because you don't have the right visa situation to do that. So then I just had to sadly walk back to Canada, which was a situation. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_02I mean, you're really under the circumstances, probably lucky you didn't get shot or something.
SPEAKER_01So, you know, there was around really intense security situation um for the border crossing. It was really intense. But anyway, yeah, you could be like Canada.
SPEAKER_02You could be an illegal immigrant or something, you know? Like I don't know.
SPEAKER_01I mean, is anyone illegally immigrating across from Canada? No, from but from Niagara Falls? Well, it's so expensive. Like everything in Niagara Falls is expensive. I just feel like if I was gonna illegally cross the border, it wouldn't be there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Maybe it's a slightly easier path though, because they're not well, I was gonna say because they're not as alert, but they are as alert. They didn't want you going anywhere near it. So yeah, no easy ways in. We're joined today by Caitlin Figuredo. Caitlin is a proud going woman and strategic leader with more than 10 years driving multi-sector reforms across government, civil society, and global organizations. She's been recognized by Forbes as a visionary change maker, by former First Lady Michelle Obama as a global change maker for gender equality, and as the ACT's 2024 Young Australian of the Year. She delivers programs that drive real change in social impact, equity, and human rights. And with deep experience in working across different levels of government, partnering with civil society, and navigating complex policy shifts, she helps to turn big ideas into lasting progress. Welcome, Caitlin.
SPEAKER_01Thank you so much for having me. We're so excited to chat to you today. And I feel like there was a lot in that bio. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_02Not even all of the awards? There's way more than that. There just isn't time.
SPEAKER_01You've won a few. You've won a few. We're really excited to unpack a little bit of that today and talk about politics and social impact and human rights and all of the fun things. But to start us off, we want to know your icebreaker. So you've picked what is your favorite quote and why? Share with us your quote.
SPEAKER_00Yes, so my favorite quote of all time. I saw this in 2016 when I was invited to just like casually, the good White House. Um and I was walking um through the memorials and I came to Dr. Martin Luther King's memorial, and there was a quote which just stopped me absolutely in my tracks. And the quote is make a career of humanity, commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a better person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in. That is the person that I want to be. That's my favorite quote.
SPEAKER_02Amazing. I feel like maybe you were already on that path though, because I mean I've never been invited to the White House to like celebrate how I'm a global change maker. So it does feel like maybe you had already started your journey.
SPEAKER_00I think a little bit. I've always, since I was really little, just been doing community services, volunteering, and I really started my change maker journey, I think when I was 18, 19. I ended up just randomly getting a position at World Vision to set up their state uh new state director in the ACT, and that just launched me into a really unexpected career and just led me to the White House.
SPEAKER_01Amazing. It's so powerful that Martin Luther King memorial as well. I went there last year, and but I think we need to remember that you know, that that humanity.
SPEAKER_02Caitlin, I want to also ask you how did your interest in politics begin? It sounds like you've always had a strong social, civil society kind of feeling, but it's not necessarily, I guess, a very common thing for young, a young woman to be interested in. And I guess that's kind of the point of some of what you're doing, which I'd also like to talk about. But can you take us through how you kind of started out being interested in politics?
SPEAKER_00So I don't know what made me start being interested in politics. I think I'm I'm from Canberra. I live literally down the road from Parliament House. It's less than six, seven minutes drive from where I live right now. And I remember just so clearly, it was the night of the 2007 Kevin 07 election. I was on a cruise with my family, and they, my parents and my little brother had asked like me to like leave the cabin because it was election night, and they were like, let's go to dinner, there's a party on, and I was like, no, like, mum, dad, you don't understand. It's the Australian election, it's so important. So I just like was on the top of my brother's bunk bed because it was closer to the TV. And I just watched it and I was engulfed. And I think for me, I found out a lot later in life that I actually come from a long line of politicians and freedom fighters in Goa, which I was like, oh, okay, maybe that's where it comes from. Politics changes lives, it has the ability to shape lives, to make lives better or to make lives worse, depending on who's in government. And I feel like I really reflected on that when I was a kid, and I thought, okay, if we want to make a difference, then we have to get involved in politics. And politics has to reflect the Australian community, it has to reflect us and our values and just the incredible multiculturalism that we are as a nation. And I never really saw my family reflected in politics. I very rarely saw women, and there was no young people. So that's what really drove me to go, all right, how are we going to change the status quo? The status quo has been the same for over 120 years, plus then some with the Westminster system. And that's why I just decided to get involved.
SPEAKER_01And can you tell us a little bit about your work? So you've done some work getting women into politics and also really passionate about the voice for young people and for youth. Um, can you tell us a little bit about that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, sure. So I um founded an organization and a program called Girls Takeover Parliament. So Girls Takeover Parliament was an experiential um democratic program where we brought young women from all from all ages, from 12 years old was our youngest participant to 28 years old. And we would pair them with politicians, and they would get to go behind the scenes and have unfiltered access to our nation's capital and to see what happens behind the scenes and the closed doors of parliament. And we worked with every single political party. There was not one party that was like off limits because we wanted to demonstrate that even though I may be more progressive, you know, we come from a huge spectrum of political engagements, and I wanted women and young women in particular to have that level of exposure and to also recognize that anyone of them could be a politician, regardless of where they sit on the spectrum. So they did everything. So we first would train them and they would go through this really intensive uh leadership program. They would get exposure to the media, to public speaking, backgrounds to policies, what has shaped our democratic system, and in particular the women who have shaped our systems and what they achieved. And then they would go to parliament and they would shadow a politician from a day to a week. And they would write motions, they would help contribute to policy, they would write their own speeches that the politicians would read out on their behalf, and they would sit in the chamber on the floor in the advisors' boxes, which is some of the most powerful things. And we also got to collaborate with the Museum of Australian Democracy to write and create the first young women's charter for Australian democracy, and we handed that to the Prime Minister, and so we wrote motions and we were like, oh, let's put the leader of the opposition's name, let's put the prime minister's name, let's put Richard Dina Tali, the leader of the Greens, and we'll put them all under this motion, and we will hand it to them, and we will make sure that it's so easy that they can go, oh, all we have to do is sign our names and it will happen. Like that's how I think for me, we were like, oh, let's just do something that's funny, but also get the conversation started about where's young people's voices, why aren't they reflected or represented in government, especially when we have three different ministers covering aged care and older Australians and they're represented, but there's none for young people. And so that was the program. We supported over 500 women across not just Australia, but also internationally. We expanded across the Pacific to three different countries. We then went to the Caribbean in Trinidad and Trebago and India. So it was just this really big, vibrant movement. We had our delegates end up running for parliament. They became ministerial advisors, they launched their own programs and initiatives themselves, and they've gone on to be incredible leaders in their own rights. And that was the whole purpose of Girls Take Over Parliament was to show you can be a leader in politics, but you can also be a leader however you want to try and shape the nation that you want us to live in in the future.
SPEAKER_02I love that like grassroots level, but laddering up to something that is no longer grassroots and actually has, you know, proper influence.
SPEAKER_01And there's something really powerful about, you know, when I was in Canberra, I had the opportunity to be shown through Parliament by Patrick Gorman, the member for Perth and his team. And there's something really cool about walking through, you know, the the halls of parliament. And I'm a huge political nerd, so maybe not everyone would find it that cool. But some people are like, this is boring as well. Yeah, but there's there's a there's a presence, I think, of being in those spaces, and it's pretty rare that you get the opportunity to do that. So for some of these, you know, young women, that might be the first and only time that they would have an opportunity and be like, oh, oh, I get it.
SPEAKER_02So cool. I want to get your opinion on, you know, there's been some pretty unsavory and let's face it, completely unsafe for women kind of things going on in Canberra over the past few years. Do you think that that's having uh an overall kind of impact as in it's you know, another space where women and girls feel like, well, that's not for me because I won't be safe there? Have you seen an effect of that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think it's always it has always been there. So when we first started Girls Takeover Parliament, Plan International, who I worked with at the time, we did a national report and we found that less than 1% of Australian young women and girls actually wanted a career in politics. Because of that reason, they felt that it was unsafe, that they wouldn't be welcomed. They, you know, we were growing up in the time of Julia Gillard where she was just being harassed and just destroyed by the media. You know, you had Tony Abbott going ditch the witch and that, and then everything that happened since with like Brittany Higgins and the culture of politics in itself being a boys' club and a booze club as well. Like, you know, they apparently politicians and their staffers fought back when they tried to turn the bar that was in parliament into a daycare centre.
SPEAKER_02Yes, I remember that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was it was huge controversy, and you have, you know, offices which have so much alcohol. I think that was like one of the first things when I was first started in this space when I was 19, roaming around the halls of parliament as an advocate, going into offices and seeing all the alcohol. I was so shocked. And I think, you know, what's been happening in the last couple of years has really started and prompted a national conversation around the standards that we allow the political system inside Parliament House to get away that will just not be tolerated in any workforce. In particular, if you look at the public service, politicians and their staffers are public servants. They should be held to the absolute highest standards. While there have been reforms in Parliament in the last couple of years around behavioral standards, it does not go far enough. And until we make parliament completely safe, we're not going to have encourage more women, more younger people, more people of culturally diverse backgrounds in Parliament. And that's going to take a huge cultural change internally through really, really strong leadership.
SPEAKER_02Do you see that kind of change being made? Are there people who are championing?
SPEAKER_00There are some people who are championing it. Like, you know, you've got the new leader of the Greens, you know, Larissa Waters. She is incredible. We've worked with her for several years under Girls Takeover Parliament, and you know, that was something that her and Maureen Faruqi kept on talking and pushing within their own party. And you have a lot of Labour ministers who are current ministers doing the same. And I think there's trying to be some structural and cultural change within the Liberal National Coalition, but we're also seeing this massive pushback. I think it it will take more than a few individuals pushing it.
SPEAKER_01I'm also interested on your view of we're seeing this kind of new wave, I guess, of of media, of things like Hannah Ferguson, Cheek Media, and Abby Chatsfield. Doing a lot of that work around bringing young people to the conversation because it's Instagram and it's podcasts and it's relatable and it's a girl's girl, rather than traditional forms of media where you've got to consume, you know, highbrow highbrow media. What are your thoughts on those kind of new waves of media and possibly some of the impact that it's having?
SPEAKER_00I honestly think it's great. I think it's also slightly problematic. First talk about why it's great, and then I'll talk about some of the consequences and why I think it's also problematic. I think it's great because they're meeting people where they're at. And so, as you were just talking about just then, it's like, how do we get people engaged? It's like, well, traditional old forms of media and politicians don't directly engage with the public. They don't make it relatable, they don't break down really big and complex issues to make sure that it's digestible and engaging. And that's what the new wave of media, and you know, you have influencers and you got buzz media and stuff who were who are coming in and just breaking it down and like the daily odds going, okay, this is what you need to know, and this is what you can do about it. And I think that's great. The more people and the more voices that we have to try and reach as many people as possible is fantastic. There is still a role of traditional media. We still need to make sure that we have both new form media and traditional media being able to hold our systems accountable. However, this is the difficulty that I have with all of these influencers who are now popping up into the space. And you could see it very, very clearly at what happened prior to the 2025 election. We had all of these new age influencers who got access to the budget lockup, who got access to the prime minister. They all come from incredibly privileged backgrounds, they are generally middle to upper class from affluent cities and states and territories. There is very little gender and uh culturally diverse influences who are out there who do get access. If there are, I've only seen one to two. And so again, it's creating a sense of reinforcing what politics has always been. It's this exclusive club. I often see like young women of color go, well, actually, you're not considering it from our perspective, or where is the intersectionality behind your arguments, or the questions that you may be asking politicians of a very light touch as well. And so I think whilst it's fantastic that we are now trying to engage and use new platforms, we still need to critically go who gets access and why. And that's not the discussion. That we're having.
SPEAKER_02Is that do you think it is uh more that lots of women, women of colour, they feel like this is not a space for them, so they're not in the space, or do you think it's they don't get the access?
SPEAKER_00It's access. It it fully fundamentally is access because they are there, but the level of access, you know, whether it's they get access to one, the politicians themselves behind the doors, but it's who they also know. They don't get access to lobbyists, they don't get access to some of the larger influences, they don't get access to funding, which a lot of these normal women of colour sometimes get. And that in itself goes to a systemic structural problem that we have in our country that goes beyond politics. It's who should be in the room, who should be connected versus who shouldn't be.
SPEAKER_02Whose dad didn't go to school with Barnaby Joyce?
SPEAKER_00100%.
SPEAKER_01I'd like to take a little bit of a step back if we can. And I'm curious to know kind of what the early part of your journey looked like. So you've told us a little bit about the Obama White House and what running girls to take over parliament looked like. What about the bits kind of in the beginning there? How did you get started on that pathway?
SPEAKER_00So I first started when I was at university. I just came off the back of I tried to be an elite athlete. I was training throughout my high school to be a basketball player. I thought that was gonna be my career. Like I had been working with members of the Canberra Capitals, I was playing in Sydney, I went overseas to New Zealand to play, and that's what I thought I was gonna do. And then I ended up having an accident, and that was the end of my career. So I was really lost when I went to uni and I was like, okay, what can I do? And I saw at the time that World Vision was advertising for a position for a new state director for their youth organization called VGEN in Sydney. And my pitch to them was I have no leadership experience whatsoever, but I have a ton of confidence. I know how to Google, and I had just been playing in Sydney. So I can run an organization from another state and I will just drive it back and forth. Now, obviously, they didn't give that to me, but instead they were like, you know what, we're gonna give you a chance to start up that branch of the organization here in the ACT. And that was my first initial access to the humanitarian sector. That was around 2015. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals were just being launched, and so I wanted to use our access in Canberra to try and get politicians and young people and the diplomatic core to come together around the SDGs. And so we did this big, massive launch, and that kind of propelled me to go to the UN. I was invited to go to the United Nations to speak about what we were doing in Australia, and just by coincidence, a person who was a senior advisor to the head of UN Women was in the room at the time. And after my presentation, he messaged me on Twitter before it was evil, and he was like, Hey Caitlin, I saw your speech. I'd like to offer you a position on our global task force. We don't have anyone from the Pacific. I think you'd be great. And I was like, Yeah, right, this is a scam. Like, who are you? And he and I messaged him back and I was like, Oh, I don't think this is real. And then he jumped on a call with me and he's like, No, no, no, this is this is real. I want to offer you a job. And that just sort of launched everything for me. So I was still based in Canberra, but splitting my time between New York, Canberra, my I would go to uni in the middle of the day, then go work at like my local pub after school. Then I would sleep for a couple of hours and wake up at midnight to then start my day with the UN. And that was my life for a couple of years. But I was also doing so many other things because I was like, I need to try and make an impact. Nothing's happening, nothing's changing. So I helped found Schools for Peace in Peshawar, Pakistan, after meeting the High Commissioner to Pakistan in Canberra. We started doing like local community events in Canberra. I started working with Plan International. All these doors just kept on opening for me. And then it just started exploding after I won 100 Women of Influence back in 2016 and I won the young leader category. And that just changed my life. And I was running absolutely ragged. I was doing so much. There was a downfall to it. Once I was creating impact, I was also losing myself. I was losing myself because of my mental health was deteriorating. Something that some people know, some people don't know is I have bipolar. And obviously that has so much negative connotations. And my bipolar was a little bit out of control because I was in such a depressive state because I wasn't leaving the house. I was get I gained in two years over 50 kilos. I weighed over 140 kilos at a time. I lost my best friend of over 15 years because I couldn't hang out with her. And my life behind the scenes was unraveling. But I just had to keep on pushing because I thought if I didn't do it, then no one would. And so that was really my early years of my change maker journey until really COVID hit. And all of a sudden, all of the external things that I was doing had to shift. I had to make a tough decision to let things go because I couldn't keep operating the way that I was. And a really good mentor of mine said and reminded me that actually change making is not a sprint, it is a marathon, and that I have to really prioritize my health, my well-being, my foundations of my connections to my family, to my friends, to my communities over everything that I was trying to do because I need to be around for a long time. And that was a reality check that I really needed in the first couple of years of starting.
SPEAKER_02So relatable. Yeah. I was like, does this sound like anyone we know? This is a pretty good segue, I think, into asking who is in your raft. You mentioned a mentor uh helped you there. Who was that mentor and who else is in your raft?
SPEAKER_00Uh, so that mentor was Natasha's Dr. Spoiler.
SPEAKER_02Oh, what a banger. What a banger to have in your raft.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Yeah, she was our matriarch of Girls Take Over Parliament. I love Natasha so much. I have been inspired by her since I was very, very little. So she's one of them. My best friend, Madison O'Grady Lee. She is the 2025 New South Wales Young Australian of the Year. Mads and I have just celebrated our ninth year as friends. We met through the United Nations just randomly, and she just came up and was like, Hi, you don't know me, but I love you. And she gave me the biggest hug, and I'm not a hugger. And I'm like, who the hell is this random? Little did I know this random would be one of the most important people in my life who just keeps me sane. One of my biggest supporters and champions, and I'm that for her, I hope. Elizabeth Lee. So she was the former leader of the Liberal Party in the ACT. Elizabeth is incredible. She is of Korean descent. She was the first Asian woman to lead a national party, but she's also so cool and down to earth. And she was a black belt in karate. Like she's so cool. Um, she's definitely one of them. Yeah, I have too many to name, but also I am going to do a special shout out to one of your former guests, but also to Kate. So Nayara and Kate, I was so privileged through the Australian of the Year awards to have met the most coolest, amazing group of leaders who we were special. And I recognize that now from supporting Mads this year through the Australian of the Year journey. Is that we from day one, as soon as we found out who all of us were, we're like, right, we're not going to be using this to compete against one another. Actually, we want to foster friendships, and we did that through across our whole cohort. We still have our like WhatsApp group chat that we use. We were so supportive of one another. And even in some of our hard times, like two years on, we still message each other going, How can I help you? What do you need? Do you do you need to like get on a call and just tell us with what's going on? And I think that was so beautiful and refreshing. And I wouldn't give up that raft in a million years for any award because they're just the most incredible special people in my life.
SPEAKER_01So shout out to our friend of the podcast, Nayara. But I also wanted to highlight Caitlyn your role in that. So our Australian of the Year group chat started because Caitlin like basically stalked us. And she found us on all of the platforms, maybe like two weeks before we went to Canberra. And she's like, gang, let's start a WhatsApp channel because I really want to catch up with everyone. And then she also sent us like a bazillion. Here's where to go in Canberra. Here's like the restaurants and the cafes and the like getting around town. And in case you have any free time, you should go here. And my mum flew in a couple of days before me, and she was like, Oh, I've got a list of things that Cheryl would really like, even though, like, you don't know my mum for a bar of stuff. Um, but I think that that really set the tone for how we went forward because we had that community builder, and I think there is a bit of a community builder in you who was like, you know what, I'm gonna take the reins, and we're not gonna have the awkward first date meeting where we're in person and we're in an uncomfortable environment and we're like, oh, what do I do with my hands? Um, we're gonna like build a relationship virtually so that when we come, we've we know a little bit about each other. So anyway, that's my soapbox that I'm gonna stand on to make sure that you know that you created some of that, Caitlin.
SPEAKER_00Oh, thank you. It was I love when people come together, and I was following all of you, and I was like, you guys are the most coolest humans on the planet, and I just want to force my way into your lives, and I want to be friends with all of you. Like, you have no choice in that matter.
SPEAKER_02So, speaking of rafts, who do you need in your raft? You've already got a pretty solid one. Is there any role in your raft that's not being filled right now?
SPEAKER_00Probably. I've just recently transitioned from the public service and from like leading my own organizations to being in consulting again. I'm in an organization called Parbury, small camper-based consulting where we are completely committed to community and to giving back and to creating social impact. And as a part of that, I have to build strong networks and connections to businesses and CEOs and organizations. I need to meet really cool, amazing people so that I can find and do some really cool work. So just being connected to really cool leaders who have some wicked problems that they need solving, who want to do good in the world, and I just want to be connected to those people.
SPEAKER_01And what's next for you? I mean, you've already won basically every award that has existed. Um and you've just changed careers again. So that's what, like the third career reinvention of your life? Fourth, a few career reinventions. Yeah. And a few awards, what's next?
SPEAKER_00Oh, well, buying house in this cost of living crisis, that's like my big priority, is what I'm going to be doing next year, which is also why I've slightly gone to consulting.
SPEAKER_02That's exciting.
SPEAKER_00I'm really excited. I'm also very scared. But in terms of my career, one of my goals, and that's something that I've been thinking about for a really long time, and I might have a pathway in the next couple of years to get there, is I want to be either Canberra's or Australia's first intergenerational commissioner. And that's one of my goals. This was inspired by a woman named Sophie Hal. So she was the banger.
SPEAKER_01She's so cool. Oh my god. So she's working alongside her at a panel recently. And I did.
SPEAKER_00How cool is she? And she's just like so switched on. And the work that she did in Wales, and I was so inspired. And I've been working on future generations, intergenerational issues, and topics with my organization that I'm on the board of of Think Forward. That's obviously something that we were doing at Girls Takeover Parliament. And when I was the chair of the Austin Youth Affairs Coalition, it's all about thinking of the next generation, and that's all a part of go and culture as well. We think of seven generations time. What is the impact and the decisions that we make today, how does that impact those in seven generations? And that's what a intergenerational future generations commissioner thinks about and focuses on and that holds Parliament accountable. So, what I would do in this role is that any piece of legislation that comes through Parliament before it gets to the Senate, before it turns into law and into policy, it has to be checked by myself as the commissioner or whoever is the commissioner. And we have to assess will this or will this not have a negative impact to those future Australians. With my background, it would be kind of perfect. So I'm hoping potentially that could happen because I just think it would be so cool. It brings up manifest it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yes, and manifesting.
SPEAKER_01I'm also really curious if you have advice for people who want to make a change in the world and they can see a problem that they're really passionate about, but it's a big hairy problem, like all of the things that we've been talking about today. The people out there who have something that they're really passionate about, but don't know how to start or get the momentum to keep going. Do you have any advice for them?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, definitely. I so I've got two pieces of advice. I think the first one would be really educate yourself about the topic or the issue and the problems, in particular, the root causes of the problems. Read what's available to you, but also read broadly and also look at what the other side is saying. Because I think the best way that you can be influential is to argue and counter argue those who may oppose you because you want to try and change. And this is a really corny thing that you hear all the time in politics of changing hearts and minds.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. But it's true.
SPEAKER_00Like it's true that you have to. You've got to try and bring people along the journey, and you do that by trying to understand what really drives them or what's important to them. So that would be the first thing. Like, really arm yourselves and educate yourself. And I think the second thing that I would recommend is try and find your tribe, people who care about the same issues that you care about, who want to make a difference, because you want to build those people that will support you, that will support your issues, but also keep you on the straight and narrow and will help you when you feel completely burnt out. And I think that's really important. And whether that's, you know, joining an existing organization or finding a gap like you did, Kate, and like a lot of our friends have done, and creating something from scratch, but you still have those people around you to support you, I think those are the two places that I would start.
SPEAKER_02How can we use our raft of bitches, our listeners, to support you?
SPEAKER_00I would say it's not to support me, but it's to support them. I helped revitalize the National Women's Alliances. So the National Women's Alliances for your Raft, who don't know who these amazing organizations are, are five civil society organizations that were selected by Minister Gallagher, the Minister for Women, to represent the diversity and intersectionality of women in Australia. And so my call out to your Raft would be: look at the National Women's Alliances, become members of the alliances, depending on your experiences, your interests, your backgrounds, and engage with them because I really want to try and encourage more women through civil society, through the alliances, to engage and influence policy and what the Minister for Women and what the Office for Women and the Australian Government is doing, so that all of our policy is influenced by lived experiences and the voices of women. I would really encourage everyone to go onto Prime Minister Cabinet's website because that's where you'll find all of the five alliances. And they are incredible. They are led by phenomenal women who I love very dearly, who are trying to make a massive impact for communities on the ground and women on the ground. And really the whole purpose of the alliances is to make sure that our voices shape the future of Australian policy. And so that would be my recommendation.
SPEAKER_02Excellent. What a great shout-out! Like, um, how can we help you? You can help me by helping yourselves. I like that. Love.
SPEAKER_01Unfortunately, once again, we're utterly out of time. That's right. But if you have a story about politics you'd like to share or how you've had your voice be heard, we'd like to hear from you. And where can people reach us? We're on Instagram at Raft Podcast, or you can email at us at hello at raftpodcast.com.
SPEAKER_02And for previous episodes or to find out more, don't forget to check out our website, raftpodcast.com. Thanks for listening, Rafters. Catch you next time.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Let's do it. Sorry.