Draft:Zoë Robinson

Zoë Robinson in 2022

Zoë Robinson is an Australian lawyer and children’s rights advocate whose term as the New South Wales Advocate for Children and Young People runs from January 2021 to January 2026. She was appointed by the Governor of New South Wales for the five-year term following a twelve-month period as Acting Advocate. At the time of her appointment, Robinson was the youngest Advocate ever appointed in Australia.

Early life and education

Robinson grew up in Sydney and attended Pymble Ladies’ College. She holds a Bachelor of Media and Laws from Macquarie University and a Master of Human Rights from University of Sydney. In 2019, she completed a Company Directors Course from the Australian Institute of Directors. The following year, she undertook a course in Executive Leadership at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School.

Career

Legal and consulting career

Robinson stated that she wanted to be a lawyer after reading Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird as a child.

She began her career as a solicitor working for law firms in New South Wales before transitioning to the corporate sector, where she worked at Deloitte in internal strategy. She also volunteered for several months with Reprieve US, a charitable legal defense organisation representing unlawfully detained prisoners or those facing the death penalty around the world.

Youth homelessness advocacy

From November 2017 to August 2019, Robinson served as the CEO of Yfoundations, the peak body for youth homelessness services in New South Wales. During her tenure, she advocated for increased investment in early intervention services, as well as medium-term housing solutions and long-term pathways to employment and housing.

Robinson has also served on the boards of MyFoundations Youth Housing, a youth social housing provider, and Homelessness Australia, the national peak body providing systemic advocacy for the homelessness sector.

Public service

Prior to her appointment as Advocate, Robinson was Director, Breaking Disadvantage at the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet. The role was part of the New South Wales Government’s five areas of strategic focus, and prioritised breaking the cycle of intergenerational disadvantage through effective community engagement and service delivery.

NSW Advocate for Children and Young People

Appointment

Robinson was appointed as Acting Advocate for Children and Young People in January 2020 and subsequently appointed by Her Excellency The Honourable Margaret Beazley AC, KC, the Governor of New South Wales, for a five-year term beginning in January 2021. At the time, her appointment made her the youngest Advocate ever appointed in Australia. Her five-year term concludes in January 2026.

Role and responsibilities

The Advocate for Children and Young People is an independent statutory office that reports to the Parliament of New South Wales through the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Children and Young People. The responsibilities and main functions are set out in the New South Wales Advocate for Children and Young People Act 2014. The Advocate also provides secretariat support to the New South Wales Youth Advisory Council.

Robinson's work raises the voices of children and young people to decision makers to ensure that policy and service delivery are developed in consultation with them and in their best interests, with particular focus on the most vulnerable children and young people.

In August 2025, the NSW Government established the NSW Office for Youth, an agency led by the Advocate for Children and Young People.

Key initiatives as the Advocate

Robinson and the Office of the Advocate for Children and Young People have published 17 reports in 6 years on topics such as out-of-home-care, disaster recovery preparedness, and the experiences of LGBQTIA+ young people in New South Wales.

Special Inquiry into Alternative Care Arrangements 2023-2025

In accordance with Part 5 of the New South Wales Advocate for Children and Young People Act 2014, the Advocate can conduct a special inquiry into a specific issue affecting children and young people in New South Wales.

In September 2023, Robinson launched the first Special Inquiry undertaken by the Advocate. The inquiry focused on children and young people in alternative care arrangements (ACAs), such as the use of caravan parks, motels, and short-term rentals for out-of-home care (OOHC) placements. The impetus for the Special Inquiry was based on conversations with and research undertaken by the Advocate and her team with children and young people about systemic issues in OOHC.

Robinson was deeply concerned about the welfare and wellbeing of children and young people with experiences of ACAs. The Special Inquiry sought to ensure that the lived experience of children and young people were included in order to reform the OOHC system in New South Wales.

The Special Inquiry included private hearings with 21 children and young people aged 10-23 years and received 21 submissions from various stakeholders. The final report, titled “Moving cage to cage: Final Report of the Special Inquiry into children and young people in alternative care arrangements” reflects the overwhelming direct evidence from children and young people that ACAs are not appropriate placements or living arrangements. Robinson called for an immediate end to the use of ACAs.

As a result of the report, the New South Wales Government established an urgent review of the $2 billion out-of-home-care system and released a roadmap for reforms. On 4 April 2025, the government announced that for the first time in 20 years, no children and young people will be forced to live in unaccredited ACAs. In the 2025-26 budget, the Premier of New South Wales increased investment in child protection and OOHC, with a landmark $1.2 billion to deliver reforms.

Cultural Institutions Legislation Amendment Bill 2025

Although young people make up over 30 percent of New South Wales’ population, they are underrepresented in the arts and cultural sector as arts workers and audience members: the average age of directors has continued to increase to 61 years.

As a part of sector-wide consultation to develop New South Wales’ 10-year arts policy, Zoë Robinson advocated for young people to serve as a member of the boards, councils or trusts of the state’s cultural institutions. In June 2025, the Cultural Institutions Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 was passed by both Houses of the Parliament of New South Wales.

The following boards will each include at least one director aged between 18 to 28 years:

• Art Gallery of New South Wales
• Australian Museum
• Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences – the Powerhouse Museum
• Museums of History NSW,
• State Library of New South Wales
• Sydney Opera House

The Office of the Advocate for Children and Young People awards grants for successful young applicants to undertake the three-day Australian Institute of Company Directors ‘Foundations of Directorship (Public Sector)’ course.

Additionally, the Advocate for Children will work closely with the six cultural institutions to ensure that the onboarding process will be welcoming and supportive of the young people in their roles.

The Voices of LGBTQIA+ Young People in New South Wales 2022-2024

Through the Office of the Advocate for Children and Young People’s ongoing consultations with children and young people, it became clear that young people who identify as LGBTQIA+ experience particular vulnerabilities. The Office’s research revealed that this group experienced poorer outcomes across a variety of measures.

In 2022, the Office conducted consultations with 233 young people aged 12–24 years who identify as LGBTQIA+ about their experiences in education, work, health and mental health services; their ‘coming out’ experiences, whether they had experienced stigma, discrimination and violence and what advice they had for New South Wales Government to improve the lives of LGBTIQA+ young people.

The findings in this report were confronting: while many LGBTQIA+ young people were great supports to one another and sought out opportunities to celebrate their identity, they continue to face bullying, homophobia, and in some cases violence.

The report informed the Advocate’s submission and public hearing statements to the New South Wales Parliamentary Inquiry into the Equality Legislation Amendment (LGBTIQA+) Bill 2023. The Bill was introduced and supported by independent member of the NSW Legislative Assembly Alex Greenwich and passed in New South Wales Parliament on 17 October 2024.

Robinson stated that the proposed legislative changes in the Bill will have positive and lasting impacts on the lives of young LGBTQIA+ people in New South Wales, as well as their families and communities who support them.

Northern Rivers Disaster Recovery and Future Preparedness Report 2020-2025

In 2020, Robinson visited areas of New South Wales affected by natural disasters and listened to more than 400 children and young people about their experiences of bushfires and floods. This was followed up with quantitative polling of a further 1,000 children and young people.  

The combined results of this research informed the development of the Children and Young People’s Experience of Disaster Report (2020). As a result of the report’s recommendations, the Office of the Advocate was awarded grant funding from the Australian Government and New South Wales Government to develop and deliver the Recovery Youth Support Service program (RYSS) through the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements 2018. The service commenced in the Northern Rivers in March 2023 and concluded in May 2025.

RYSS had a specific focus on children and young people in the temporary ‘pod housing’ communities established throughout the Northern Rivers to address the high rate of homelessness in the region after the floods. It also provided services including advocacy, consultation, capacity building, community engagement and one-to-one supported care pathways.

The Advocate’s RYSS program is the only program funded under the Recovery Support Services stream to deliver supports specifically to children and young people impacted by the 2022 flooding event in the Northern Rivers.  

Philosophy and approach

In an independent evaluation of the NSW Strategic Plan for Children and Young People 2022–2024, Robinson was consistently praised by interviewees for her empathetic and engaging style. She was described as caring, passionate, tenacious, and resilient in demonstrating an unwavering dedication to making NSW a better place for children and young people.

In an independent evaluation of the RYSS program, it was observed by participants that: “The Advocate was able to gain rapid trust especially of government agencies based on the Office’s place and reputation as an independent oversight agency operating within the NSW Government and with expertise in working safely and effectively with children and young people. The independence and expertise of the Advocate was invaluable in disaster recovery.”

Additionally, the Advocate has been recognised for being pragmatic, innovative and courageous in asking difficult questions in order to prioritise children over politics. Robinson has stated that she believes children and young people should be given every opportunity to thrive and set themselves up for success, and that they should have the opportunity to choose what that means to them.

She has also said that is crucial for her to meet children and young people with energy, enthusiasm and hope and identified one of her key skills as bringing people together to solve a complex issue.

Other positions

Robinson is currently a board member of BackTrack, an organisation working with young people to learn relevant life skills and enable access to wraparound support services.