Economics is a social science and I think that it's easy to forget that economics is about people. Philosophy comes into it.
Social sciences come into it, health comes into it, a lot of psychology.
I chose to study economics 'cause I realised it was a really powerful tool, for being part of a conversation.
Most people that get into economics, they can see how
exciting it is, and how useful it is for a whole range of jobs. You can use this
problem solving, analytical tool set for everything. I love that economics just touches on
every facet of daily life and I think that's because every sort of large or
significant public policy decision that impacts us today, was originally informed by some sort of economic theory.
I truly believe that
economics is a way and a construct in which we can
talk about deeply human problems and the things which matter to all of us.
If you don't understand economics,
you're really locking yourself out of this whole amazing tool set you can use to shape the world.
Economics teaches you how to ask the right questions and that is inherently linked to critical thinking the ability to
unpick a thought or an idea and to be able to assess it for its value and merit. Critical thinking is going that
layer deeper on an issue and
understanding why the issue?
exists and how to fix it. The economic tool set is really a problem solving tool set.
Is this the right information and are we thinking about it the right way?
Choosing the option that's best and then implementing it. Economics covers that whole process. Australia's an
economy where we're actually
interacting and trading with all these other nations all the time. Because it relates to every country in the world, I've had lots
of opportunities to travel to France to Spain
to the US and to several places in Asia to try and better understand their economies.
So economics gives you exposure to what's going on in the world.
It's really a way of thinking that you can apply in so many different situations.
People think that if you study economics
you have to become an economist and that just simply isn't true. You can really go on to apply those skills in whatever other career
you're interested in. So I've worked on the future of work.
I've worked on getting more gender diversity in senior leadership which is something I'm really passionate about.
I've worked on the value of the Sydney Opera House, which is really cool,
so you're not just thinking about the economic benefits, but you're thinking about how it contributes to our culture or how it contributes to our
society or our status in the world.
People really thought that you're just
choosing it 'cause you want a high paying career and that economics is really all about just making bigger profits for big companies. And
really my experience has been largely the opposite. It really is so
integral to how decisions are made about your life.
It's been such a great opportunity to contribute to try and help people. And every day is really
stimulating, that it's been a great choice for a whole range of reasons. Economics is used by everything,
that's why I'm so excited about it. I think economics is fun economics is useful
I love that economics brings so many different people from so many different backgrounds and so many
diverse ways of thinking
together to talk about the same issues in one spot and in one language that we can really debate it and
respect each other, but make progress, that excites me