NSW Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Network

December 2026 marks three years since the Australian Human Rights Commission gained the power to enforce the positive duty. Some organisations have made real progress. Many are still working out what the duty requires of them. For all of them, the test is the same: are your measures working, and are they working for everyone?

Sexual harassment doesn’t land evenly. Some workers face higher risk and more barriers to speaking up: First Nations workers, culturally and racially marginalised workers, LGBTIQ+ workers, workers with disability, young workers and those in insecure work. A one-size approach does not work. 

Sex Discrimination Commissioner Dr Anna Cody and Abbie Wright, Head of EDI APAC from Arup join Prabha Nandagopal Founder of Elevate Consulting Partners for a dynamic conversation about:

• What the Commission looks for when it assesses compliance

• What effective prevention looks like beyond policy and training

• Why an intersectional approach is central to meeting the duty

• Lessons from embedding respect at work across a global organisation

Bring your questions. We’ve set aside plenty of time for Q&A with Commissioner Cody and Abbie Wright.

Essential for HR, People and Culture, risk leaders and executive leaders, wherever you’re starting from.

Target Audience  

HR, People and Culture, risk leaders and executive leaders.

Speaker: Commissioner Dr Anna Cody

Dr Cody started as Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner in September 2023. She is responsible for advocating for gender equality and the equality of LGBQTI+ communities under the Sex Discrimination Act, in Australia.

Before this, Dr Cody had a distinguished career as an academic, as a lawyer specialising in discrimination and as a passionate advocate for human rights.  Her work over the years has included substantial advocacy to various United Nations human rights committees when they have reviewed Australia’s and other nations’ fulfilment of their human rights obligations.

Most recently she was the Dean of the School of Law and Professor at Western Sydney University for 4.5 years, leading education and research impact within the School to better reflect the diversity of the community and the intersection of law and justice.

Speaker: Abbie Wright

Abbie is the Asia Pacific Equity Diversity and Inclusion Leader for Arup. 

Abbie has experience in human resources, cultural change, executive coaching, and leadership development however found her passion in equity, diversity, and inclusion a space she has been leading in for the past 14 years. 

Abbie is a previous non-executive director of the Diversity Council Australia (DCA) Board and member of the DCA Research Committee. She holds the prestigious Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI) Diversity Champion award and led Aurecon’s diversity and inclusion strategy which resulted in an AHRI most inclusive workplace award. Abbie is also a recipient of the South Australia National Association for Women in Construction (NAWIC) Crystal Vision Award in recognition of her work championing gender equity. One of Abbie’s proudest career achievements has been centering lived experience voices to enable and support delivery of Arup’s Race Action Plan, culminating in a Consult Australia People First Award. Other career highlights include partnering with Diversity Council Australia to directly support their Words@Work and Racism in the Workplace research reports. 

In addition to her leadership role at Arup, Abbie is currently an Implementation Manager for the Consult Australia Champions of Change coalition group, working with industry CEOs committed to enabling a more inclusive consulting engineering industry.

Speaker: Prabha Nandagopal

Prabha Nandagopal is an award-winning human rights and discrimination lawyer with over 20 years’ experience spanning business and human rights, asylum seeker and refugee policy, and workplace culture reform.

She has led groundbreaking recommendations on some of Australia’s most high-profile workplace cultural reviews, including the Independent Review into Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces and the National Music Industry Review into sexual harm, sexual harassment and systemic discrimination. In 2020, she served as senior legal advisor to the Respect@Work National Inquiry, helping shape the country’s new sexual harassment regulatory scheme.

Prabha is the founder of Elevate Consulting Partners and SafeSpace@elevate, a world-first trauma-informed psychosocial safety platform built to support organisations committed to strengthening workplace culture. She has a proven track record leading high-performance teams through sensitive and complex environments, combining sharp intellect, empathy and courage to create positive workplace cultures and drive business outcomes.

In 2024, Prabha won the India Australia Business & Community Award for Business Leader of the Year and was a finalist in the Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards.

Other Event Information 

You will obtain 1.0 CPD points for attending this forum.

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Registration Information 

Registration close: Tuesday 10 November

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