Marg O'Donnell

Ms O'Donnell is a former Director-General of three Queensland Government Departments: Equity and Fair Trading, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy and Development and Arts.

She was Victoria's first Legal Ombudsman and established and ran the Alternative Dispute Resolution Division in the Department of Attorney-General and Justice in Queensland. Ms O'Donnell is a freelance consultant and contributes her expertise to a number of other boards.

Marg O'Donnell is grateful for her training in social work and still uses the skills she practiced for 17 years.

"I haven't worked in social work since 1985 but I find that the skills I use everyday have been influenced by my background in social work," Marg said. "Social work gave me a good foundation on which to build my career and I find that I call on my counselling, crisis intervention and listening skills constantly."

"I am immensely grateful for my social work training and I encourage young people to do the course (Social Work and Social Policy at the University of Queensland) because I think it provides a wonderful building block for people who want to bring about change."

After graduating in 1968 with a Bachelor of Social Studies at The University of Queensland, Marg started her career in social work as a child welfare officer with the then Department of Children's Services in Brisbane."I wanted to help people, do good and change the world," she said.

However, Marg admits that she was naïve when she left university. "I had a simplistic view that if you wanted change, you became a social activist and you brow-beat and bullied governments into adopting social justice platforms and social reforms. I have refined my technique since then," she said. "Now I still want to make a difference and I still want to work in social justice and social policy but I believe I can best do that by making changes from inside the government and leading from the top."

Marg has worked in a number of positions since working for Children's Services. She worked in Wolston Park Psychiatric Hospital and spent many years as a tutor at the University of Queensland. Marg also worked for the Department of Social Security in Gympie and Nambour, in Community Health as a social worker as well as the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.

Since 1985 Marg has held a number of senior roles including acting Director for the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Director of the commonwealth Women's Information Service and acting Deputy Director-General (Justice Services) for the Department of Justice and Attorney-General in Queensland.

She was also the Director of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Division in the Department of Justice and Attorney-General and was the inaugural Legal Ombudsman in Victoria, where she was responsible for regulation of the legal profession in Victoria. Marg has held her current position of Director-General of two government departments for the past two years. 
 

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