Prudence Jane Goward (born 2 September 1952) is a former Australian politician and was a Liberal member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 2007 to 2019, representing the seat of Goulburn.
She was the New South Wales Minister for Family and Community Services and Minister for Social Housing, from January 2017 to March 2019 in the Berejiklian government, and the Minister for Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, from 2015 until March 2019. Goward has also previously served as the Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Medical Research, and Assistant Minister for Health between April 2015 and January 2017, and the Minister for Women between 2011 and January 2017, in the second Baird government and the Minister for Planning during 2014 and 2015. With the first Berejiklian government she returned to Community Services portfolio which she previously held between 2011 and 2014, in the O'Farrell and first Baird governments.
Prior to entering politics, Goward served as the Australian Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner and Commissioner Responsible for Age Discrimination with the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. In 2019, Goward became an academic with Western Sydney University.
Early life and personal background
Goward was born to Gerald Goward and Zipporah Riggs, and was raised in Adelaide. She attended Morphett Vale Primary School, Willunga High School and gained entrance to Woodlands Church of England Girls Grammar School on a half scholarship. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Econ) (Hons) in 1974 from Adelaide University.
She was married from 1973 to 1983 to university lecturer Alastair Fischer, whom she met while studying at Adelaide University.
Goward married journalist David Barnett in 1986. Goward and Barnett maintained a close personal friendship with former prime minister John Howard for many years, and jointly wrote a biography of Howard in 1997. Barnett died in August 2022, aged 90.
She is the mother of three daughters, former model and actor Kate Fischer, Penny Fischer, and Alice Barnett. She has two granddaughters.
Career
Goward joined ABC TV and Radio in 1980, firstly as a reporter with Nationwide, then as a political correspondent on the 7.30 Report, and later as host of the 2CN Morning Show and Daybreak on Radio National. In 1994, Goward was the narrator of the ABC's 5-part documentary series The Liberals: Fifty Years Of The Federal Party, which detailed the events of the Liberal Party of Australia from 1944 to 1994. She has also worked as a high school teacher, a university lecturer in economics, a broadcast journalism lecturer at University of Canberra, a media consultant and freelance writer.
She was Executive Director of the Office of the Status of Women in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet from 1997 to 1999. In this position, Goward criticised the business community for the "primitive attitudes" that kept women out of senior executive ranks and boardrooms. At the time of her appointment, she was criticised by Anne Summers, a previous Executive Director, and Carmen Lawrence, a prominent female politician, for her perceived inexperience and political connection to the Howard government.
Goward was the Sex Discrimination Commissioner at HREOC, a five-year tenure she began in July 2001. In this role, she called for the introduction of paid maternity leave, a position rejected by the Howard government. Howard extended her tenure for an additional three years in July 2006. However, she successfully ran for New South Wales state parliament in March 2007.
Pru Goward, while Minister for the Department of Family and Community Services, initiated the Going Home Staying Home reforms which redistributed funding for youth refuges across the state.
In August 2019, Western Sydney University announced that Goward had been appointed Professor of Social Intervention and Policy.
