Barbara Ann Pocock AM is an Australian Senator, researcher and academic who has written numerous books and academic journal articles on the labour market, work-life conflict, unionism, low pay, inequality and vocational education. Senator Pocock is also a campaigner for urgent climate change action and corporate accountability; areas that are very much of interest to management accountants who subscribe to a sustainable value creation agenda.
She was elected at the 2022 Australian federal election to become a Senator representing South Australia from July 2022.
In very recent times, the Institute has been impressed with the substantial role Senator Pocock played in improving corporate transparency and accountability, especially on the Committee of the Parliamentary inquiry into management and assurance of integrity by consulting services. Whilst there were other members in the committee, it was her significant academic profile in economics (the core discipline of the ICMA), and her other achievements in areas that the institute champions, that made her stand out as a worthy inductee for the award.
Senator Pocock grew up with her family on a sheep and wheat farm near Lameroo, 200 kilometres from the South Australian state capital of Adelaide. In her early career she was employed in 1979 by the Reserve Bank of Australia as a Research Officer in the International Department. Her portfolio encompassed regions including Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. After that, in 1981, she worked at the Department of Industrial Relations in Newcastle and the Hunter Valley Region as an Equal Employment Opportunity Officer.
Senator Pocock joined academia in 1989 at the South Australian College of Advanced Education as a Lecturer. She was then promoted in 1997 to Senior Lecturer at the University of Adelaide in 1997, and in 2002 was once again promoted to Associate Professor. In 2006, she began work at the University of South Australia as a Professor, before becoming an Emeritus Professor at the same institution in 2015. She established and led the Centre for Work and Life at UniSA from 2006 to 2014. She has authored 7 books and over 300 chapters of books and academic articles in prestigious journals.
Senator Pocock was a Director and Deputy Chair of the Australia Institute and is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. She won the 2007 ‘society’ category of The Bulletin’s ‘Smart 100 Australians’; and in 2010 she was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to industrial relations and social justice.
Senator Pocock graduated from the University of Adelaide in 1978 with a Bachelor of Economics (First Class Honours). She completed her PhD at the University of Adelaide in 1997.
The Institute of Certified Management Accountants is honoured to induct Senator Barbara Pocock to the Global Management Accounting Hall of Fame® for her services to the profession and the community in Australia via the excellent work she has done in championing sustainable business practices, industrial and workplace relations, climate change and corporate accountability.