Eleanor Garrard

6.30 AM

Wake up, breakfast, get ready for work.

8.00 AM

Leave home, walk to the bus.

8.40 AM

Arrive at work, login and check emails.

9.00 AM

Coordinate the fact-checking process for one of the Prime Minister’s speeches—email all relevant policy areas, requesting that they review and provide advice on the accuracy of the content by 1pm.

9.30 AM

Walk up to Parliament House for Assistant Parliamentary Liaison Officer (PLO) duty in the Federation Chamber.

9.45 AM

Collect the keys to the Federation Chamber from the Parliamentary Liaison Office and proceed to the Federation Chamber.

10.00 AM

Settle in for three hours of PLO duty. This involves monitoring government business in the Federation Chamber and ensuring Ministers are present when required to sum up a bill at the end of the second reading stage. I have to call various Ministerial offices to let them know that the Minister is needed in the Chamber urgently. 

1.00 PM

Depart Parliament House and return to the Department.

1.15 PM

Follow up on the fact-checking task. Policy areas that have not yet responded are chased via a phone call. Collate all of the feedback/edits from policy areas in a master document and send the final copy to the Prime Minister’s Office.

1.40 PM

Take a break and go for a run around Lake Burley Griffin (approx. 6km). 

2.20 PM

Continue working on a speech for International Women’s Day—this is a bit of a ‘stop-start’ process, with 15 minutes spent researching, 15 minutes writing, then back to researching again.

3.10 PM

Return to the office and continue working on my speechwriting process. 

4.30 PM

Pop upstairs for a meeting of the Women’s Network executive. I’m the Convenor of Communications for the Women’s Network, so I need to provide an update on our communications targets for the next quarter, and also take on board any relevant feedback from our recent members survey.

5.15 PM

Return to the communications branch and complete some administrative tasks—respond to emails, update my timesheet, and send the draft International Women’s Day speech to my colleagues for their consideration.

5.30 PM

Get a lift home with one of my colleagues.

6.00 PM

Cook dinner and enjoy a bit of downtime.