Former Vic business figure Danni Hunter reflects on clash with Daniel Andrews

She clashed with Daniel Andrews and a racism row “derailed” her career. Now, former Victorian Property Council chief Danni Hunter is ready to talk.

Danni Hunter was at the height of her career and one of the most recognisable faces in the property industry when a racism row derailed everything.

It was a fall from grace for the high-powered head of the Property Council’s Victorian division who worked tirelessly advocating to government and regulators — often through the media — on behalf of the property, construction and development sector.

Ms Hunter resigned from the top job in August 2022, just months after allegations surfaced that she had made racially insensitive comments at a Gala dinner.

The days that followed were dark, and Ms Hunter was left to question both her personal and professional recovery.

Ms Hunter resigned from the top job in August 2022. Picture: Meagan Harding

“It was a complete derailing of what I thought the direction was for my life. It was hard and it was sad and the circumstances were difficult,” she said.

“I stepped out at that point and it gave me the chance to completely change direction. I knew that for me personally and professionally, I needed to make a change in my life.

“I made that decision because I knew that my career and my life’s purpose were not aligned anymore. I needed to rebalance my priorities and work out what was next, I guess, without the identity of being a title or being a public person.”

Ms Hunter had started climbing the career ladder at a remarkably young age. Walking away was equally terrifying and empowering, she said.

“It was a mixture of, to a certain extent grief, for something that I used to do, used to be and used to love, but also hesitant excitement as to what’s to come next,” she said.

At just 27 years old, Ms Hunter was appointed chief executive of the Urban Development Institute of Australia’s Victorian branch.

She then progressed to the powerful role as Property Council boss, where she made a name for herself as an outspoken critic against some of former Premier Daniel Andrews’ lockdown policies — and the impact they had on her members companies’.

Ms Hunter had started climbing the career ladder at a remarkably young age. Picture: Tony Gough

Her advocacy helped keep the construction industry open for all but two weeks of the state’s lengthy lockdowns.

But her relationship with the government soured when Mr Andrews publicly accused her of reneging on an agreement to support a tax on developers that would fund social housing.

She maintains the former premier “greatly misrepresented” her personal views on social and affordable housing, calling this moment a low point in her career.

“Unfortunately when their proposed policy was disbanded there was a great deal of blame placed on the industry and on me and that was really unfortunate and it meant that the constructive nature of the relationship that we had, we had to rebuild that afterwards,” she said.

“I certainly think I wore some personal scars from that. That was tough to swallow.

“Everyone’s sort of, to some extent, fair game, but it’s not how I would have behaved and it’s certainly not how I had behaved in my career. I guess what it taught me is that when they go low, you go high.”

Ms Hunter maintains former premier Dan Andrews ‘greatly misrepresented’ her personal views on social and affordable housing. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Months after she left the corporate world, Ms Hunter launched a new business venture – Hunter Collective, a strategic advisory firm that helps organisations solve problems and expand their impact.

She also spends her new-found time volunteering with the Salvation Army cafe in the city, managing her son’s football team and attending school excursions – all things she wouldn’t have been able to do in her previous life, where she barely had a minute to herself.

During Covid, Ms Hunter was diagnosed with melanoma. Her immediate reaction to her doctor was ‘I don’t have time for this, I don’t have time to have any kind of cancer’.

Hunter Collective is a strategic advisory firm that helps organisations solve problems and expand their impact. Picture: Meagan Harding

“The biggest thing for me was that my whole personal identity and value was really attached to the career that I’d had … and that wasn’t healthy. So when that nexus just broke, and all of a sudden I wasn’t who I thought I was, I had to really find out who I was again … and that’s been a two year journey,” she said.

But now, after a period of self-confessed soul searching, Ms Hunter is making her return to the public eye with the launch of a new podcast in mid-January.

The six-part series, called ‘Australia in Focus’, will feature conversations and discussions between Ms Hunter and local and international thinkers, doers and change-makers – across fields such as property, population, growth, AI and leadership – about the issues that matter to the nation.

“I’ve been in the arena for most of my career. In the absence of an arena, I’m building my own because I want to have a say on issues that matter to Australians and I feel like I can make a contribution,” she said.

As to what follows, Ms Hunter is keeping all her options open, including a tilt at politics.

“I’m not ruling anything out,” she said.

“I want to serve people and organisations and see good policy impact the lives of Victorians and Australians. In whatever way I can do that best, I will pursue.

“I no longer measure success by the title that I have. I now measure success by the impact I have, and that’s in business, in motherhood and wifehood and in my community.”