Tracey Spicer

Onya Soapbox

Tracey Spicer

Tracey Spicer AM is a multiple Walkley Award winning author, journalist and broadcaster who has anchored national programs for ABC TV and radio, Network Ten and Sky News.
The inaugural national convenor of Women in Media, Tracey is one of the most sought-after key-note speakers and emcees in Australia. In 2019 she was named the NSW Premier’s Woman of the Year, accepted the Sydney Peace Prize alongside Tarana Burke for the Me Too movement, and won the national award for Excellence in Women’s Leadership through Women & Leadership Australia.

In 2018, Tracey was chosen as one of the Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence, winning the Social Enterprise and Not-For-Profit category. For her 30 years of media and charity work, Tracey has been awarded the Order of Australia.

Highlights of her outstanding career include writing, producing and presenting documentaries on women and girls in Bangladesh, Kenya, Uganda, Papua New Guinea and India. She is an Ambas-sador for Your Side, ActionAid, the Ethnic Business Awards, Emerge Australia, the Australian POTS Foundation and Purple Our World, and Patron of the Pancreatic Cancer Alliance.

Her first book, The Good Girl Stripped Bare, became a bestseller within weeks of publication, while her TEDx Talk, The Lady Stripped Bare, has attracted almost seven million views worldwide. Tracey’s essays have appeared in dozens of books including Women of Letters, She’s Having a Laugh, Father Figures, Unbreakable, and Bewitched & Bedevilled: Women Write the Gillard Years.

The ABC highlighted Tracey’s #metoo work in the three-part documentary series Silent No More, which featured the stories of hidden survivors. Her new book, Man-Made: How the bias of the past is being built into the future, was published by Simon & Schuster in May 2023. It has since been longlisted for a Walkley Award, and won the Social Responsibility category in the Australian Busi-ness Book Awards.

Tracey is available for;

  • Master of Ceremonies
  • Media and broadcast
  • Facilitation
  • Presentation training

Speaking Topics

  • *Man-Made: How the bias of the past is being built into the future. In this thought-provoking and inspiring keynote, Tracey details the bigotry embedded in technology through artificial intelligence, and what we can do in our homes and workplaces to beat the biased bots.
  • Past, Present and Future: Building a Fairer World for Our Children. In this clever and future-focused presentation, Tracey looks at how far we’ve some and how far we have to go, when it comes to equality in society and Artificial Intelligence. She draws on research in her upcoming book about technology. Will it create a utopia or dystopia for the next generation?
  • Strong Women: May We Know Them, Be Them and Raise Them. In this speech, Tracey talks about the strong women and girls in her life, highlighting fresh research to suggest what we can all do in our own homes, communities and workplaces to achieve equality.
  • The Good Girl Stripped Bare: From Bogan to Boned and Beyond. This is an extremely funny and fast-paced presentation in which Tracey recounts aspects of her best-selling memoir. She shares the lessons learned when it comes to gender, class and inequality, and how we can break down the structural barriers still holding us back.
  • Resilience in a Time of Pandemic: How can you remain optimistic during a time of uncertainty? Tracey uses humour, wisdom and insight while revealing her own mental health challenges, uncovering the latest research to forge a path forward for all of us: The 3 Rs of Resilience.
  • Don’t Forget to Breathe!: We’re all expected to perform like TV presenters these days with meetings, presentations and speeches via Zoom. In this masterclass, Tracey will teach you how to manage nerves, maintain eye contact, control gestures and body language, and use your voice for maximum impact.
  • Pythagoras, Voltaire and Churchill: Ever wondered how to write a killer speech? One that engages deeply with an audience and resonates over a lifetime? And what on earth do Pythagoras, Voltaire and Churchill have in common? In this powerful masterclass, Tracey reveals the secrets of narrative, storytelling, and using language for influence.

REVIEWS / TESTIMONIALS

“Wickedly witty and wonderfully wise.”
Wendy Harmer

“Glows with the wisdom of a woman who has learned essential truths.”
Caroline Overington

“Thanks again for such an extraordinary interview the other night – I’m still having people say how fantastic and nuanced and perfectly pitched you were.”
Jemma Birrell – Sydney Writer’s Festival

“You were brilliant! Thank you so much for Race Day last Saturday which for us was a great success. You played a large part in the success of the day with your 3 p’s namely professionalism, poise and positiveness.”
Jim O’Brien – Wheelchair Sports NSW

“Tracey Spicer is an entertaining and inspirational speaker. She is truly authentic and we were honoured to have her at our ExtraOrdinary Women event for International Women’s Day. She held the attention of everyone in the room. Our delegates were so impressed with her presentation that they are already signing up for next year! I can highly recommend Tracey as a speaker at any event. It was an absolute pleasure to work with her. She is an amazing woman who is really making a difference in the world.”
Dr Annemarie Christie – The Children’s Doctor

“We would just like to take this opportunity to thank you for taking out the time to be the MC of The Ronald Ball. There has been a lot of positive feedback about the tremendous job you did.”
Ally Webb – RMHC Ball Committee