Dr Fay Marles AM

Dr Fay Marles has a long history of leadership in the Victorian community with her dedication to human rights being the central feature of a long and distinguished career. Fay became Victoria's first Equal Opportunity Commissioner in 1978, and held the position for nearly 10 years.

Her ground-breaking appointment, along with the Equal Opportunity Act 1977, provided a strong platform to grow the rights of women in the workplace. Her extensive community awareness campaign on discrimination quickly gained the attention of the community and daily media. It brought 'niche issues' like sexual harassment and innuendo, paternity leave, women priests and workplace discrimination against women into the mainstream. During her time as Equal Opportunity Commissioner, Fay also achieved significant and lasting change in her conciliatory negotiations with the Melbourne Cricket Club on the issue of 'men's only' sports clubs.

Fay left the Commission in 1986 and established an equal opportunity and anti-discrimination consultancy, advising people about whether "what had happened to them was unlawful and how best to deal with it".

Fay also continued to work closely with Moira Raynor, who occupied the role of Commissioner for the next four years. Fay became the eighteenth and first woman Chancellor of the University of Melbourne in 2001, and dedicated herself to increasing the number of Indigenous graduates. She worked closely with Indigenous members of the university to establish the Koori Education Centre employing Koori staff and providing a space for Indigenous students to have time on their own without pressure.

The university established the annual Chancellor's Human Rights lectures, in honour of Fay's work. In 2003 Fay was awarded the Centenary Medal for services to Australian society in business leadership and higher education. She is also a member for the Order of Australia for her public service, particularly in social welfare.