Jill Hennessy believes government should provide the best schools and job opportunities for all people. As a working mother with two children, she also knows how difficult it can be to balance parenthood and work. Jill is passionately committed to providing services to support working families.
As a lawyer specialising in personal injury and employment law, Jill spent her working life standing up for the rights of police officers, teachers, engineers and builders, before working as a manager in local government.
Jill has worked as a volunteer in a range of services, such as a group run by the Oblate Brothers called ‘Rosies’ which involved supporting, feeding and providing company to people on the streets of inner Melbourne, Dandenong and Rosebud. She has been a volunteer adviser at the Springvale Legal Service and worked as a volunteer with St Vincent de Paul, preparing and serving food to people on the streets of inner Melbourne.
Jill has served on the Board of Western Region Health Service and as Chair of the Victorian Working Families Council to work for better health and community services in the west. She has worked hard to secure radiation therapy bunkers - funded for the first time in the west for people with cancer.
Jill has chosen to raise her two daughters, with their father Bernie in the western suburbs. She is also a fan of the Western Bulldogs.