She's so well known she needs just one name: Ita.
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Ita Buttrose, whose never-ending list of accomplishments are as extensive as they are impressive, was the keynote speaker at the annual One Door Mental Health in the Workplace Corporate Lunch at Novotel Wollongong Northbeach.
The 81-year-old kept the audience enraptured with a speech that touched on all manner of subjects - from media mogul Frank Packer's fashion commentary to onetime acceptable workplace place behaviour, to statistics that suggest analarming mental ill-health tsunami is coming down the pipeline.
What resonated deep within every minute of Ms Buttrose's speech was her advocacy for communication and understanding.
"No one should ever feel ashamed to admit they need a hand," the chair of the ABC said.
"Mental health has to be a general topic of conversation in the workplace - as tropical as the two grand finals we had last weekend."
Ms Buttrose recalled a number of her own workplace experiences which demonstrated how significantly behaviour had changed. Most notably, when she returned from maternity leave after her first child.
She swapped niceties with her boss, Sir Frank Packer, in the corridor when he made mention of her dress she was.
"No," he said, taking a wad of money out of his pocket, peeling off some notes and telling her to buy a new one.
"Imagine that happening today," she said.
Ms Buttrose told the packed ballroom that one in five Australians will experience a mental illness.
"And then the thing that I find really horrifying - is that one in seven children aged 4 to 17 will experience some form of mental illness.
"We need to talk about this," she said.
That's exactly what mental health and suicide awareness advocate Jodi Bush had done so eloquently earlier in proceedings.
Professor Frank Deane, who doubles as the Illawarra One Door Mental Health committee chairman, explained the workings and value of Wollongong clubhouse to the uninitiated, while singer-songwriter Damien Leith, one of the charity's ambassadors, kept the crowd entertained.
