Prof The Hon. Jill Hennessy GAICD

Professor. the Honourable Jill Hennessy is the former Attorney-General of Victoria. Jill also served as the Minister for Health, the Minister for Ambulance Services and Minister for Workplace Safety. She retired from political life at the 2022 state election after almost 13 years in the Parliament of Victoria. 

Jill forged a reputation for ground-breaking legislative and policy reforms along with a passion for the delivery of new infrastructure and transforming service delivery.

Her signature reforms include many nation-leading and Victorian firsts such as:

• Workplace Manslaughter and Wage Theft laws.
• Justice reforms to support victims of family violence.
• Expanding Family Violence Courts, Drug Courts and Koori Courts to better respond to the causes of offending and the needs of victims.
• Nurse to Patient ratio laws, Quality and Safety laws and laws to protect women accessing reproductive health services.
• Australia’s first medicinal cannabis scheme
• Voluntary Assisted Dying laws and making Advanced Care Plans legally enforceable.
• Victoria’s Medical Research Strategy
• Management of significant infrastructure roll outs and service delivery reforms.
• Establishing the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants

Before entering Parliament, Jill worked as a lawyer, a stay-at-home Mum and served as a Board Director on two Victorian health services and an industry superannuation fund. She also worked as a legal advisor to former Premier Steve Bracks and was the Chair of the Victorian Working Families Council.  

Jill currently works as a non-executive director and strategic advisor to private clients. She is the Chair of the Monash Women’s Health Alliance and the AASW Accreditation Council.  Her board portfolio includes the Hudson Institute for Medical Research, Scope Australia, Western Bulldogs Foundation and private sector health, medical research and commercialisation companies focussed. She authored a book entitled “Respect” as part of the National Interest Series and is the Vice-Chancellor’s Professorial Fellow at Monash University, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. She was awarded the Thornett Prize for the promotion of reason and is an Ambassador for The McKinnon Prize for Political Leadership.

She completed a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws at Monash University and a Master of Public and International Law at the University of Melbourne.

Jill loves country music, cooking and travel. However, parenting two sassy teenage girls, a border collie and a cat take up most of her energy.