Mackay International Women’s Day business lunch speakers for 2022

Women's rights. Gender inequality. Domestic violence. The ‘voice of Siri’ asked Mackay to recalculate the way we think about these issues while the world record holder for open water swimming talked about pushing through roadblocks. See the photos

World record holder for open water swimming Chloe McCardel and keynote speaker at 2022 International Women's Day Business Lunch in Mackay. Picture: Madeleine Graham

Not only is Chloe McCardel the Queen of the English Channel but a strong advocate for domestic violence awareness in Australia.

The world record holder in open water swimming has spent the past two years lobbying for domestic violence laws to change in Australia.

Ms McCardel, who spoke at the International Women’s Day business lunch in Mackay on Tuesday, is a domestic violence survivor herself and became passionate advocate for the issue after her “terrible” dealings with the police system in Victoria.

“I was churned through the court system as a victim survivor and had a terrible experience,” she said before the event.

“I realised how hard it is for some people in society that their voices are not heard and institutions work against them or blame them.

“I thought I could do something about this.”

World record holder for open water swimming Chloe McCardel and keynote speaker at 2022 International Women's Day business lunch in Mackay. Picture: Madeleine Graham

She works alongside the Australian police in women's rights and advocacy to try and prevent domestic violence.

“ I work with the police to help women recognise red flags in their relationships,” she said.

“So educating women on what their partners may or may not be doing, so they can see where the red flags may lead”.

Marathon swimmer Chloe McCardel completed her record-breaking 44th English Channel swim in 2021. She completed the final lap on October 13 last year, breaking the world record for greatest crossings, after completing 35 single crossings, three double and a triple crossing over her swimming career. Picture: Jane Dempster/The Australian.

As well as advocacy, Ms McCardel is working towards instituting and strengthening laws for domestic violence nationwide.

She made a submission to a parliamentary inquiry into criminalising coercive control in New South Wales. She said the parliament accepted all of the inquiry’s recommendations.

Speaking during the event, Ms McCardel said it was important to keep pushing the boundaries and busting through roadblocks to reach equality.

She said reaching goals, like a triple English Channel crossing, might take more than one go but if we kept recalculating, we could get there in the end.

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The Mackay woman behind the “voice of Siri”, singer and public speaker Karen Jacobsen also spoke at the business lunch about gender inequality within workplaces.

She said inequality was still a huge issue in Australia and how important it was for women to band together.

“I read a statistic the other day that at this rate the gender pay gap is going to take another 86 years to close and I don’t know about you but I don’t have 86 years to wait, so that is absolutely and unequivocally unacceptable .”

Singer, motivational speaker and the voice of "siri" Karen Jacobsen at 2022 International Women's Day Business Lunch in Mackay. Picture: Madeleine Graham

Ms Jacobsen encouraged women to speak out against inequality in any way they can, whether that is a trusted source or an organisation body.

“I know from personal experience that speaking up can be really scary and it is a real concern thinking about what backlash might exist and what people might think,” Ms Jacobsen said.

“But I really encourage anybody who is dealing with some kind of inequality in their workplace to find a trusted source and somebody to speak to.”

Karen Jacobsen

She said she hoped on International Women’s Day, women and men would recognise the power of equality and how important women leaders were.

“Something I think about a lot and especially on International Women’s Day is styles of leadership and there is a very masculine style of leadership which has run the world for eons,” she said.

“I personally find a softer and more conscious level of leadership very inspiring and I will point to Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand.

“My wish for women and men in Mackay is to really respect and encourage that kind of compassionate and conscious leadership because I feel very strongly that if that was everywhere we would not be dealing with conflicts that we deal with around the world.”