Do no harm but give no f***s.

2022 has got me riled up to do good. I'm ready to make some noise to in an attempt to create the change we need to make our society better. Not everyone will agree with my point of view.

I'm no stranger to power. I've had it, I've come up against it and I've worked along side it. I understand it and I get how it works. I used to be fearless of power- I was quite happy to march into a Ministers office and tell them they were wrong and that they needed to do more. I did it for the first time as a teenager and the Minister was the Hon Bob Such, a South Australian Parliamentarian and then Minister for Youth. I have a lot of respect of Dr Such and in hindsight his openness to encourage kids like me into the halls of Parliament had a huge influence on me having such a strong voice.

Somewhere along the way I stopped speaking my mind so frankly. In part it was growing up, understanding that you can't get away with the same stuff at 25 or 35 that you could at 15. There is a higher expectation to be professional and kind, to be accommodating of different perspectives and to follow the established rules of work. It was these established rules of work that started to stop me being so frank and open.

In the world of work there are often consequences for not staying in your lane. If you speak too loudly about something not working you might find that you don't have resources coming your way the next time you ask for them. Speaking out and embarrassing the boss is more than frowned upon, it's often a career ending move. Power is held both by those in a hierarchy and those who know how to wield it. Both types of power need to be considered.

Over time, I began to be fearful about speaking my mind quite so openly. I learned a lot about 'influence' and 'stakeholder management' and 'bringing people on the journey'. These are all tools that are designed to have the same outcome- you tell people that they are wrong and that they need to do more- but it makes the message a bit nicer and make people feel more comfortable about what you have to say. These tools also slow things down and require a lot more resourcing. They have their place and can really help with big reform and social change, but the balance has to be right.

The things that I care about are domestic violence and child protection. These aren't nice things. These aren't things that wait for communications plans and nicely thought out change management approaches. These are important things that have life or death consequences for the people (often women and children) that experience them. These are urgent things that require urgent action.

In managing expectations and feelings and trying not to embarrass people in power too much, in practice I am letting down the people that need me to use my voice with power, influence and urgency. In making people who have power feel more comfortable I am inadvertently leaving the people with least amount of comfort with even less power. In more than 20 years of activism in domestic violence, I really haven't seen much change. Women and children are still dying and having their lives turned upside down at a grossly unacceptable rate. What I feel has happened is that in trying to manage workplace and hierarchical power, I've accidentally turned down the volume of my own voice. I've made myself more acceptable, made myself fit in.

I don't have the time to wait anymore, to create yet another stakeholder management plan. Our communities are under greater stress than ever before and need voices to speak up quickly and with power. That is why I have adopted the motto "do no harm but give no f***s". It's the thing that I feel I need to start speaking loudly and with urgency. It's the tool I'm using to embrace my own power and to give myself permission to be loud.

In speaking up fearlessly and loudly it is not my intention to embarrass anyone or to create problems. I do so from a place of wanting to solve some of society's biggest problems and to collaborate for the betterment of our community. It is not my aim to play games or to go seeking power for the sake of power itself. It is my aim to try to change things for the better and to do it much more quickly so that we don't have any more vulnerable children dying because of our inaction or our fear to speak our mind.

So if I offend you or embarrass you or critique your work because I am speaking up about the problems that I see in our society and the ways that we can create better solutions please accept this as my public apology. It's not my intention or my aim. I would really appreciate it if you could help by putting your own feelings to the side so that we can work together much more quickly. Let's not let any more children suffer because we were too worried about what others might think. Let's do no harm, but give no fucks.