It was her readiness to show leadership and speak up about any issue where she sensed injustice that earned her the Darrell Cochrane Award for the Australian Services Union Delegate of the Year.

The national award recognises the hard work and dedication to advancing workers’ rights - not only in the workplace, but also in life generally.

Miss Flynn is the union delegate for GWMWater.

She said people often had a preconceived idea that the union was made up of “50-year-old men on construction sites in fluros”.

“My mum was a nurse and midwife and my dad was a teacher and obviously involved in the union. It was normal for me to be a member because that’s what I grew up with,” she said. “I hear people say the union are bad people, but that is my family and that is me. It is normal and it was never a foreign concept for me."

Despite her passion for speaking up for others, Miss Flynn said it was “unusual” that she was the union delegate for GWMWater because she was a woman in a male-dominated industry. 

“I’ve talked to some of the guys and they had never had a female delegate at GWMWater before,” she said. “So, it is about fighting for everyone, but for me it is also about saying that women can do this, too.”

A big achievement for Miss Flynn was her involvement in a new agreement that gave 20 days paid leave for victims of family violence.   

“That’s a big win and I personally want to see 10 days on the national employment standards,” she said.

“Family violence can happen to men and women, but if they need to talk to their child’s teacher at school, go to the bank or see a solicitor, that happens during work hours. We are really proud of that and fought really hard to get it.” 

However, Miss Flynn said more needed to be done to help women and children affected by family violence.

She believed that White Ribbon Day was no longer sending the right message to the community. 

“It’s all good for us to walk down the street and say we don’t want this to happen, but our actions must speak louder than words and we, as a society, need to call out bad behaviour,” she said. 

Miss Flynn has been a member of the Horsham East Rotary Club. She said Rotary was in the process of rolling out a program called ‘say no to family violence’ that empowered people to help neighbours who were experiencing family violence. 

“It’s about empowering the community to ring the police if they think their neighbours are that situation,” she said. "It’s about engaging with businesses and if there are individuals experiencing family violence, it’s helping them know where to go."

Miss Flynn said people needed to call out bad behaviours in the workplace and within community groups or sporting clubs. She said it was about using “appropriate language” and understanding that men and women were making equal contributions. 

Miss Flynn said closing the gender pay gap was also important. 

“There is data around two women and one man employed for the same job, but the man will negotiate and be on a higher wage for the same job,” she said.

“When it comes to the retirement age, there are a higher number of women homeless.”

Related: News Focus | Jobs data shines light on gender differences 

Miss Flynn encouraged all women and the community to take a stand together and speak out in order to achieve equality.  

“I have had strong women in my life who I have looked up to and I know if they can do it, then so can I,” she said. “I do not open my mouth for the sake of it, but I will always say something if it needs to be said.

“In everyday life, I will be the first to stand up and say this is not right and what are they going to do about it because it is not equitable.” 

Miss Flynn said women needed to “back their own good judgement.” 

“We have recently gone through our enterprise bargaining negotiations and that was a long, hard process. For 75 per cent of the time, I was the only female sitting at the table,” she said. “Imagine sitting around a table with 10 men and most of the time they are older than you and you are the only woman in the room. It is intimidating. 

“I look back and think, I don’t know how I did that - but in everything we do, we have to say we can compete with men.

“Us, as women, need to learn to back our own good judgement. We know right from wrong and we need to back our judgement and be brave for five more seconds, get in there and do what needs to be done.” 

Miss Flynn said starting “meaningful conversations” could change people’s perspectives. 

“Last year at Horsham East Rotary Club’s Christmas party, we decided to not do Kris Kringle and I thought we needed to make a donation to the food centre and I found out what they needed,” she said. “So the men of my dad’s generation – about 60 to 70 years old – went to the supermarket with their wives to buy female hygiene products to donate.

“I was very pumped about that and they are going to do it again. It was something I thought was worthwhile and now they think so, too.” 

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