Bonnie Cavanagh — Serving the Community

Bonnie Cavanagh is a proud Taungurung woman and winner of IPAA Victoria’s Young Indigenous Leader Scholarship in 2018.

She is also a Program Manager in the Media and Corporate Communication Unit with Victoria Police, and was recently interviewed for IPAA Victoria’s Public Sector Perspectives podcast.

Now in her 13th year with Victoria Police after studying criminology at RMIT, she began her career as a forensic officer before moving into senior policy, project and program management positions with Victoria Police.

As anyone working in the public sector knows, you have a work world and a personal world where you have to live and work — which isn’t always easy. Bonnie was asked how she approached this challenge, of living in a couple of different worlds:

‘It’s walking that fine line between your community, your family and your Police family — or your public servant family — and I think you’ve just got to be open, transparent, honest with the work you’re doing, where you want to be, where you want to go, and who you are, and just be genuine in your approach with everything you do.

And when I put my mind to something I do it so whole-heartedly and I commit — I do what I say, say what I do — and you’ve just got to keep working hard at it, and I think that’s the best way I’ve been able to tackle it … making sure that I am approachable, but I am approaching things genuinely and trying to do my best.’

During the course of the podcast Bonnie discussed ways the public sector can better reflect the community it serves and attract young people with new ideas and perspectives.

A link to the full podcast interview with Bonnie Cavanagh is provided below.

Produced by IPAA Victoria, the Public Sector Perspectives podcast features conversations with incredible people highlighting the interesting work in government and across the Victorian Public Sector.