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...
She's written two books, the best-selling memoir, Daring To Fly, and a behind the scenes tale of Muster Dogs.
Lisa was co-host of ABC News Breakfast for five years where she interviewed prime ministers and celebrities on a daily basis and won fans for her warmth and connection with her audience.
Time on the News Breakfast couch came after more than a decade as a foreign correspondent in the US and Europe.
Her first posting in Washington DC began in the months after the September 11 terrorist attacks and she was witness to a period of extraordinary turmoil and terror in the following years.
Most recently Lisa was the Bureau Chief in Europe during a period of extraordinary turmoil and terror, guiding a team that covered attacks in Paris, Barcelona and London among others.
She began her career in Gympie in country Queensland has kept a close connection with regional communities ever since.
She worked at The Sun newspaper in Brisbane, Win TV in Townsville and began her career with the ABC as the North Queensland reporter.
She spent time cover federal politics and hosted the now defunct Stateline program in Queensland before beginning her foreign career.
Lisa has had a lot of fun along the way and even scored an interview with Fidel Castro before he stepped down as Cuban president.
But her empathy and approach to stories of extraordinary grief and trauma has won her praise including her continuing work with the families who lost children during the Sandy Hook school shooting in the US.
Her book Daring to Fly was long-listed by the Australian Book Industry Association in the best memoir category.
It details her childhood in country Queensland, her journey to overcome a debilitating fear of flying and a wildly overly ambitious attempt at an Olympic distance triathlon. She also lifts the curtain to give readers an inside look at the life of a foreign correspondent.
She was a director on the board of the Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma, an international organization looking at the impact of trauma on members of the media.
Lisa can mix the funny with the serious and has MC'd events for Australian embassies in the US and the UK and is a popular keynote speaker in Australia.