We are very pleased to be congratulating Sue Fraser for her receiving an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) earlier this month. It is so encouraging to see Sue being recognised for her work in the financial counselling sector in which she has more than 25 years\’ experience, during which time she has remained a leading voice and passionate advocate for change. Her work in developing new programs and policies has taken the profession and the lens of hardship within industry in new directions.

Amongst her many achievements, Sue was the first to really focus on working with women experiencing family violence. As we are now keenly aware, there are often financial issues involved in family violence and Sue\’s work has helped to address them. As a financial counsellor, she helped many individual women experiencing family violence. As a consumer advocate, she contributed to the important policy work undertaken by Good Shepherd and Kildonan Uniting that documented and explained how economic abuse is frequently a component of family violence.

Sue is also well known for her work on energy policy and helping low-income people address rising energy costs. She has been instrumental in shaping the conversations within utility companies and the financial sector through information and education about hardship, including a shared understanding of how financial hardship can happen to anyone at any stage of life – something many people have come to learn in the face of economic uncertainty brought about by COVID-19 over the last 18 months.

Congratulations Sue and thank you for your continued efforts to bring recognition and professionalisation to the financial counselling sector.