Law, Leadership, and Lively Discussion: An Evening with Gina Cass-Gottlieb

We had the pleasure of welcoming Gina Cass-Gottlieb, Chair of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC), as our guest of honour at our formal dinner.

The night began with a respectful Acknowledgement of Country by Kai. Several residents contributed to a memorable night including Alex’s incredible performance of The Prelude to Bach’s Cello Suite in D Minor. Omar delivered a stellar introduction of our guest speaker, quoting a Financial Review article that described Gina as “A gutsy lawyer with ‘extraordinary knowledge’”, a fact proved several times over in our night.

Gina’s presentation was extraordinarily interesting. She started by describing her path to where she was from being a university student, like us, studying Law at The University of Sydney, to following her passions and utilising opportunities. She pursued a Master in Law in the United States (US) before coming back to Australia, gaining valuable experience, memories and an intricate knowledge of US law and the global implications of rulings in US supreme courts.

Gina was extremely engaging as she introduced and contextualised the role of the ACCC. She explained that the organisation encourages competition to ensure the best prices and outcomes for consumers whilst also allowing collaboration in the country’s interests such as recycling batteries and other such programs to improve our approach to climate change. She discussed the ACCC powers including the authority to stop mergers. With it being scams awareness week, Gina shared stories of romantic and employment scams. The timely inclusion of Scamwatch information encouraged us to be aware of scams and sceptical of things that are too good to be true as it is an ever-growing issue facing not only Australia but people around the globe.  She explained a mentoring program in the ACCC which allows cross-discipline knowledge communication. She is mentored by a young Indigenous woman in NT which enables her to be more informed of the issues that are prevalent in Indigenous communities.

One of the things I loved about her speech was Gina’s appreciation of everything and every step she has taken along her journey. At each stage, there was something important that she loved. During her master’s degree, it was meeting people from all around the globe, something she noted we get to experience every day in college. She loved her private practice. When I asked what her favourite thing about working for the ACCC was she replied it was the way the ACCC’s breadth of influence allowed her to provide help to multiple communities across the country.

We had lots of questions that Gina was happy to answer from competition law to Indonesia’s goal of becoming an OECD to the difference in USA compared to Australia with her experience in both. We learned a lot and discussed the progress of various inquiries in progress such as the current investigation into supermarkets, completed inquiries and their outcomes such as Qantas paying back consumers for tickets sold to already cancelled flights.

I loved how passionate she was about her work. The impact on communities and individuals, whilst slow through the courts, is real and important to Gina. She was extremely knowledgeable about Australian and global events and the relevance of global influences. I’d like to thank Gina for taking the time out of her busy schedule to visit Mandelbaum House and for engaging with us in such a positive way.

Article by: Maka Mutyiri (Mandelbaum House resident)

Photography: Andres Zambrano (Mandelbaum House resident)