Meet our Conference MC
David Tennant
After deciding private legal practice was not for me (or was it the other way around?) I joined the community sector in 1995, as the first consumer lawyer with Canberra’s Care Inc Financial Counselling Service. Over the next 30 years, I held a range of community-based roles across service delivery, policy, management and sector representation, stepping down as CEO of Shepparton-based FamilyCare in July 2026.
Now a card-carrying Senior, the chance to reconnect with financial counsellors at a different point in my career has been an absolute joy. Relative to size and resourcing, there is no other not-for-profit human services sector that produces better outcomes or exerts greater influence than financial counselling.
After a few years away from the MC circuit, I am looking forward to seeing you all at the Financial Counselling Victoria Conference in October. There is a chicken in the cupboard that is also looking forward to renewing acquaintances and helping ensure everything runs to time.
The theme of this year’s conference In Pursuit feels entirely right to me. Financial counsellors have not earned their reputations as empathetic supports and fearless advocates by sitting still. There will be plenty to stimulate, entertain, amuse and challenge…all with an election just five minutes away. Better start pursuing a ticket if you do not already have one!
Some of you may know I have a passing interest in the Hawthorn Football Club. This is one of my favourite photographs, because it features the club’s Premiership trophies. There just might be one more by the time of the conference...
Introducing: Dr Julia Baird
FCVic Conference Keynote Presenter
Dr Julia Baird is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and bestselling author whose work explores resilience, courage, grace and what sustains us through difficult times.
Julia holds a PhD in history from the University of Sydney, where her research examined the way female politicians are portrayed in the media. In 2005, she was a fellow at Harvard University’s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, researching global responses to American opinion in the lead-up to the Iraq War. She later became a senior editor and columnist at Newsweek in New York, covering complex social and political issues including gender, hate, climate science denial and surrogacy.
Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Time, The Monthly and The Sydney Morning Herald. Julia hosted ABC’s The Drum for eleven years and now co-hosts the ABC podcast Not Stupid with Jeremy Fernandez. She has received multiple Walkley Our Watch Awards, including the Gold Award, for her reporting on domestic violence.
Julia is also the bestselling author of Phosphorescence and Bright Shining: How Grace Changes Everything. Drawing on extensive research and her own experiences of cancer, grief and recovery, her work examines how awe, connection, kindness and moral courage can sustain us through adversity.
A devoted ocean swimmer who describes herself as always “hunting awe”, Julia will bring warmth, intelligence and a deeply human perspective to the FCVic Conference—inviting delegates to consider how we sustain hope, resilience and purpose while undertaking work that is both challenging and profoundly important.