Speeches
Friday, 06 March 2026
International Women’s Day Breakfast
Can I just say how happy I am to welcome my sister Justice Christine Adamson who has come from Sydney for today’s breakfast. We’ve been celebrating IWD together since 1975.
It’s Rod’s and my pleasure to welcome you to Government House for our annual International Women’s Day breakfast.
One way or another, our paths have crossed over the past twelve months, and I am delighted that you have accepted what was really a personal invitation.
I have engaged with many of you in your capacity as leaders in government, business, education or the broader community; or as individuals pursuing your unique interests and talents and, in doing so, supporting and progressing the advancement of women in South Australia.
I thank you all for the work you do.
I thank you for your determination, your courage, the generosity of your leadership and for being what we all can see.
I thank too the men who are with us, including those who are SA Leaders for Gender Equity.
The purpose of today’s breakfast is to share stories and experiences, to offer one another practical support and inspiration and to learn from our speaker, Sally Sara.
I trust you will enjoy our time together, have some stimulating and fruitful conversations and no doubt benefit from Sally’s insights and experience.
I will be back shortly to formally introduce her.
As many of you know, this breakfast is one of my favourite events of the year, perhaps because IWD is so personal.
I always try to choose a speaker – Annabel Crabb in 2022, Sam Mostyn in 2023, Liz Broderick in 2024, Danielle Wood in 2025 – whom I know personally, who knows South Australia through birth or circumstance, and who can bring a perspective on IWD which is shaped by experience nationally or internationally.
And I always invite them the previous year!
So, with that, let me introduce Sally Sara AM, an award-winning journalist, writer and author, who has reported from more than 40 countries as a foreign correspondent with the ABC. She’s done this exceptionally well and won lots of awards including the coveted Walkleys. In 2011, Sally was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia for service to journalism and the community.
There’s more about Sally on the cards on your tables
As Radio National listeners will know, Sally now presents ABC Radio’s flagship breakfast program, called “Breakfast” from 6 til 9am. That means she has to get up very early, as her ABC Adelaide counterparts Sonya Feldhoff and Deb Tribe and other journalists here know only too well.
It also means she has one of the biggest jobs in news and foreign affairs in the country. She has to ask the toughest questions, including “will be you please answer the question?” in a hard-headed, well informed, but ultimately pleasant way designed to elicit the maximum insights for her listeners.
Now, you’ll be thinking that sounds like a job for a South Australian! Which is just what Sally Sara is. Sally grew up in Port Broughton and if you are a regular listener, which I am, you will notice she often has nice things to say about Adelaide’s weather (“great day for the beach”) or our sporting teams and South Australians in general.
I love listening to Sally and today we get to see her too!
Please make Sally Sara feel welcome.