New chair of the ACTF board announced

Helen Silver has been elected the new Chair of the ACTF Board, succeeding Janet Holmes à Court.

Helen is an experienced executive who has worked at the highest levels of the public and private sectors. Most recently, she spent eight years at Allianz Australia, where her last role was Deputy Managing Director. Previously, Helen spent nearly 30 years in executive roles in the Victorian and Commonwealth public service, culminating as Secretary of the Department of Premier and Cabinet in Victoria.

Joining the Board of the Australian Children’s Television Foundation is Helen’s first foray into the world of kids’ TV, but the seed of interest was first planted two decades ago, when Helen attended a meeting with then-Premier, Steve Bracks. Researchers introduced the Victorian government to findings which showed the immense impact early experiences had on young children.

“This amazing research showed the differences between a child that had close familial relationships, compared to that of a young baby that was either emotionally deprived or suffered aspects of abuse,” Helen said. “So many connections are going on in the brains of small children, but if the child is deprived in some way those connections aren’t happening, and you can’t rebuild them. So you have to intervene early. We started the work that I got really engaged with: early childhood development.”

Helen says she’s also passionate about the arts. “I’ve always had a very strong view about the arts… as a civil society we should have well-funded creative industries. To me that's vitally important.”

As the chair of the ACTF Board, Helen says one of her key priorities is to ensure Australian pre-school and school children have greater access to ACTF supported shows. “There’s a huge amount of content, which we know will engage young people and can be used to support their learning," says Helen. "We need the education departments to be aware of the immense value of this material. Our education Board members have an important role to play here, too."

In 2020, the former Commonwealth Government axed quotas requiring Australia’s commercial broadcasters to air a minimum number of hours of locally made children’s content. The current Government will shortly release a National Cultural Policy and is considering introducing Australian content obligations on commercial platforms, including streaming services, and looking at how that content is funded.

Helen says she will fight for policies that protect and support the production of quality Australian children’s content.

“We know there are enormous benefits that are accrued to the community by funding quality children’s content and also content that is dealing with sometimes difficult issues,” says Helen. “The main thing is to ensure there's growth of this important industry, but also that we are seeing content for children from early childhood all the way through to the teen years, and that it’s Australian, not somebody else's. What we're advocating for is very, very good public policy.”

Welcome, Helen. We look forward to working with you!