Journalist
Equity Advocate
Communication Guru

… and purveyor of powerful words!

Award winning journalist & gender equality advocate

Virginia Haussegger AM is a passionate women’s advocate, and communication specialist with  unique expertise in leading powerful conversations. She is also an award-winning television journalist, writer and commentator, whose extensive media career spans 30 years.

Virginia has reported from around the globe, including Washington, New York and the Middle East, for leading current affair programs on Channel 9, the Seven Network and the ABC. She has anchored primetime national news programs and presented as state host in five capital cities, including 15 years as nightly anchor of the ABC’s flagship TV News in Canberra.

Virginia has been widely published across Australian media including The Canberra Times; the Sydney Morning Herald; The Age; The Guardian; Australian Foreign Affairs; HQ Magazine; The Museum. She is Deputy Chair of the media think-tank PIJI, the Public Interest Journalism Initiative.

A highly sought-after Speaker, Virginia hosts BroadTalk, a podcast about Women, Power and the Wayward World, in which prominent women speak intimately about the events that have shaped and influenced their leadership. 

In 2022 as Guest Curator of the exhibition Australian Women Changemakers, at the Museum of Australian Democracy (MoAD), Virginia was tasked with compiling an historic list of the nation’s leading changemakers.

As founding Director of the 50/50 by 2030 Foundation, at the University of Canberra, where she is an Adjunct Professor, Virginia launched a bold new gender equality research initiative in 2017, and created BroadAgenda, Australia’s first gender equity news platform to bridge academic research into mainstream media. 

In 2019 Virginia was named ACT Australian of The Year, in recognition of her community leadership and women’s rights advocacy. In 2014 she was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to the media and gender equity. 

Widely recognised as a leading communication and media strategist, Virginia regularly hosts a broad range of public forums, conferences and panel discussions, covering diverse fields of knowledge spanning academic, public and private sectors. She has worked across Commonwealth departments on the design and delivery of bespoke communication and presentation masterclasses. Virginia is an ANZSOG Fellow and sessional Lecturer in the Public Policy Program (faculty of Business, Government & Law) at the University of Canberra.

Recent media

May 1, 2024
Future Woman podcast
March 31, 2024
Our Radicals and Revolutionaries: Women’s Liberation
March 9, 2024
Meta may not care about Australian news but it’s the soul of our communities

Latest events

28 Jun, 2024
Keynote Address
President’s Lecture … ’30 Shades of Grey & Grievance: Women, Politics and the Gender Card’
Virginia was invited by the President of the Senate, the Hon Sen Sue Lines to deliver the Inaugural President’s Lecture, at Parliament House. Her speech, titled ’30 Shades of Grey & Grievance: women, Politics and the Gender Card, was followed by a Q&A with Senator Lines. The full address is available to view on the Senate Lecture Series website… or click the Learn more tab (below). For details on Virginia’s chosen topic and the themes she discussed, click the PDF tab below. The full text of the speech will be published in due course, with links in the Media Articles and Essay tabs.
31 Mar, 2023
Facilitator, MC
Voice to Parliament: Information Night with Indigenous Leaders
With a nation defining Referendum to be held in Australia during 2023, Virginia joins key Indigenous Leaders, Prof Meghan Davis and Pat Anderson AO, both lead architects of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, to facilitate a public discussion about the Referendum and the Voice to Parliament. They are joined by ACT Ngunnawal Elder, Aunty Violet Sheridan and ACT Independent Senator, David Pocock, who is host of this event.
27 Mar, 2023
Guest Speaker
Handbook of Feminist Governance Launch
Virginia to Launch the Handbook of Feminist Governance: Edited by Marian Sawer, Lee Ann Banaszak; Jacqui True, Johanna Kantola, at an event hosted by the ANU Gender Institute, RSSS Auditorium, the Australian National University.

Latest BroadTalk Episodes

Rosie Batty: Changemaker

The former Australian of the Year tells her extraordinary story of courage in the public spotlight.

Anne Summers: Changemaker

The journalist, writer and lifelong women’s rights activist who to many is the ‘godmother of Australian feminism’.

Natasha Stott Despoja: Changemaker

The unstoppable changemaker that became Australia’s youngest ever Senator and has built a stellar career post-politics that propelled her on to the global stage as a warrior for women’s rights and gender equality.

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Get in touch

Email me directly at virginia@virginiahaussegger.com.au or fill in the below form to get in touch.