The Australian’s Australian of the Year: Kerry Chant covering hard yards to keep people safe

Over the last 12 months Australians have grown accustomed to the calm and warm nature of Kerry Chant.

‘One of the things I’ve learnt as a leader is that you don’t want to create an environment that just mirrors your skills or your approaches’: NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant. Picture: Nikki Short

Over the last 12 months Australians have grown accustomed to the calm and warm nature of Kerry Chant.

The NSW Chief Health Officer has become a familiar figure to many following daily COVID briefings alongside Premier ­Gladys Berejiklian.

While leading her state through a series of decisions that were often different from those of other jurisdictions, she’s gained the trust of the people of NSW and Australia.

Despite the challenges faced by NSW and the nation, Dr Chant’s competence has never been questioned. And when The Australian asked its readers to nominate their pick for its annual Australian of the Year award, people were quick to suggest her.

She has worked tirelessly to manage the coronavirus pandemic, is known for working 24-hour days and once even fronting the press after staying awake for 31 hours.

App users tap here to nominate your Australian of the Year

She’s also a mother and a daughter, who has juggled leading the NSW government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic while her own mother lives in an aged-care home and her daughter, 19, stayed home and often cooked.

Before starting her career in the medical field, Dr Chant was a woman wearing many hats, including the one she donned for iconic ice cream delivery van business Mr Whippy in Roselands, a couple of kilometres from the southwest Sydney suburb of Punchbowl where she grew up.

She also worked at Grace Bros furniture and a pharmacy. These roles taught her respect for money, a thing or two about customer service and, ultimately, helped her career in medicine, she said.

She had initially enrolled to study pharmacy but transferred to medicine after a year. “I’ve ­always been drawn to health and sciences,” she said. Her 2½-decade career in the public sector began in 1995. It was then she oversaw the Public Health Unit in Sydney’s southwest before directing Health Protection and becoming deputy NSW chief health officer in 2005 and finally moving into the chief’s position in 2008.

She acknowledges that becoming a leader isn’t something you do on your own, especially as the health chief. “I’m very thoughtful and bear the weight of any decisions or ­advice I provide, but there’s been a very strong team behind me,” she said.

Building that team isn’t possible if you surround yourself only with those who share your ideas.

“One of the things I’ve learnt as a leader is that you don’t want to create an environment that just mirrors your skills or your ­approaches, you actually have to challenge yourself by surrounding yourself with people who will challenge your ideas and present different ideas.

“And that’s the strength of a truly high-functioning team.”

If there’s one thing she has learned about pandemic, which she describes “like running a marathon at sprint pace”, it’s to never be complacent. “It’s almost like you’ve got to keep looking ahead, you’ve got to ­manage the now and then keep taking some time to look at what could be on the horizon, looking for risk, looking for opportunities, and then reflecting,” she said.

We encourage our readers to put in a nomination for The Australian’s Australian of the Year, which was first won in 1971 by economist HC “Nugget” Coombs. Prominent Australians can be nominated by filling out the coupon above, or sending an email to [e-mail]. Nominations close on Thursday, January 21.