Sally Rugg
Rugg at a Melbourne rally in 2021
Rugg at a Melbourne rally in 2021
Born (1988-10-02) 2 October 1988
Australia
OccupationActivist, writer.
Period2013–present
SpouseKate McCartney
Website
speakingout.com.au/speaker/sally-rugg/

Sally Rugg is a Melbourne-based LGBTIQ activist, feminist and political staffer. Rugg was the GetUp creative and campaigns director between 2013 and 2018. Rugg was one of the many public faces of the "YES" campaign in the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey and also campaigns for Safe Schools.[1][2] Until her highly publicised dismissal in 2022, Rugg served as the Chief of Staff for Independent Member of Parliament, Monique Ryan.

Early life

During her early years, Rugg volunteered to work with disadvantaged youth. She then started working at the organisation GetUp, while doing her master's degree in arts. She attended events in the ACT when same-sex marriage was made legal for six days, which she says informed her views.[3]

Awards and recognition

Rugg has won numerous awards due to her campaigning for the YES same-sex marriage vote.[4] There is a room named after Rugg in Oxford Street, Sydney named "The Sally Rugg LGBTIQ Pride Room".[5] In 2018, Rugg was awarded the FBi Radio SMAC of the Year award for her work on the YES same-sex marriage campaign[6] and Strayan of the Year by Pedestrian.tv, for her efforts in the YES campaign.[7] and was a finalist for Hero of the Year at the Australian LGBTI Awards.[8] In 2017, Sally was named among Harper’s Bazaar’s 5 Women of The Year, by Cosmopolitan magazine as one of Australia’s Most Influential LGBTIQ people, ranked first in Mammamia’s Most Powerful LGBTIQ Women list, by Amnesty International’s Top 15 Women Championing Human Rights In Australia. Sally was awarded the Young Achiever Award at the 2016 Honour Awards.

Rugg was a finalist for the Honour Awards Young Achiever Award in 2015, was named among the 23 LGBT Australians to Watch in 2016 by SX Magazine and the Top 40 Under Forty by TimeOut,[9] and won the New South Wales Honour Awards Young Achiever Award in 2016.[10]

Personal life

Rugg self-identifies as gay.[11] She lives in Melbourne and is engaged to comedian Kate McCartney.[12]

Writing

Rugg writes regularly on activism and feminism, as well as LGBTIQ and human rights. Rugg's work has been published in media including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian, Vice, Pedestrian as well as Junkee. Rugg was a contributing author for books including The Full Catastrophe, (2019) as well as Growing Up Queer in Australia, (2019).[13][14][15]

Her first book, How Powerful We Are: Behind the scenes with one of Australia's leading activists, is her narrative about legalizing same-sex marriage.[16][17]

Dispute with Monique Ryan

After winning the seat of Kooyong at the 2022 election, Monique Ryan hired Rugg as chief of staff. Rugg was formerly an executive director of Change.org, and was a key voice in the marriage equality debate as campaign director of left-wing activist group GetUp! from 2013 to 2018.[18] Whilst initially things were positive, disagreements emerged regarding Rugg's work hours and responsibilities. Further incidents then arose in November 2022 that which Rugg alleged amounted to hostile conduct in the workplace.[19][20]

On January 21, six months after Rugg's employment, Rugg resigned as chief of staff, and on January 25, Rugg lodged a court application alleging Ryan and the Commonwealth breached general protections under the Fair Work Act.[18][20][21] Rugg claimed to have been forced to work 70–80 hours per week, including weekends, early morning and late nights, 12-hour days on sitting weeks and 8–9 hours in her office on non-sitting days. Ryan disagrees "with any suggestion that I required or expected Ms Rugg to work that number of hours".[19]

After failures at mediation and dispute resolution the case proceeded to trial.[22] Rugg lost an injunction on 7 March 2023 to stop her termination as Ryan's chief of staff.[20] The case management hearing was heard by Justice Debra Mortimer. Part of the reasoning included the fact that Nina O'Connor had already been "seconded" from Climate 200 to replace Rugg.[20][23]

On 8 May 2023 Rugg accepted a settlement of approximately $100,000 with no admission of fault by Ryan or the government, with all parties paying their own costs.[24][25]

References

  1. ↑ Street, Andrew P. (9 September 2017). "When Marriage Equality Becomes Law, It Will Be Because of People Like Sally Rugg". Rolling Stone Australia. Archived from the original on 21 December 2017.
  2. ↑ "2019 UniSA Nelson Mandela Lecture". www.unisa.edu.au. 4 September 2019. Archived from the original on 3 December 2020.
  3. ↑ Law, Benjamin; Rugg, Sally (5 August 2019). "Sally Rugg: 'As queer people, we open up the most intimate parts of ourselves to the majority'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  4. ↑ "Sally Rugg Books". www.hachette.com.au. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  5. ↑ "The Sally Rugg LGBTIQ Pride Room". Song Hotel Sydney Australia. 13 May 2018. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  6. ↑ "'YES' campaigner takes out FBi Radio SMAC top gong". Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  7. ↑ "Here's The Full List Of Winners From Oz's First Ever Pop Culture Awards". 28 February 2018. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  8. ↑ "Hero". Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  9. ↑ "GetUp! MEDIA ROOM". Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  10. ↑ "LGBTI Heroes Honoured At Community Service Awards". Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  11. ↑ Sally Rugg [@sallyrugg] (28 October 2020). "Cannot believe that I'm gay but don't have a 'personal life' section of my wikipedia page? Very unfair" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  12. ↑ Sally Rugg [@sallyrugg] (3 January 2022). "IMPORTANT RETRACTION TO MY 2019 MEMOIR" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  13. ↑ "Sally Rugg | Speaking Out Agency | Book Sally to speak at your event". Speaking Out. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  14. ↑ Convenor, Gender Institute; convenor.genderinstitute@anu.edu.au. "She Leads In-Conversation with Sally Rugg". genderinstitute.anu.edu.au. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  15. ↑ "Shelf Reflection: Sally Rugg". Kill Your Darlings. 12 April 2018. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  16. ↑ "Sally Rugg". Q&A. 20 June 2019. Retrieved 26 July 2019.
  17. ↑ Rugg, Sally (12 January 2021). How powerful we are : behind the scenes with one of Australia's leading activists. Sydney, NSW. ISBN 9780733642227. OCLC 1103918151.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  18. 1 2 Thompson, Angus (30 January 2023). "Activist, adviser Sally Rugg takes boss Monique Ryan to court". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  19. 1 2 Karp, Paul (3 March 2023). "Sally Rugg v Monique Ryan: court documents reveal how working relationship fell apart". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  20. 1 2 3 4 "Rugg v Commonwealth of Australia as represented by the Department of Finance [2023] FCA 179". www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  21. ↑ "Monique Ryan taken to court by Sally Rugg". Australian Financial Review. 30 January 2023. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  22. ↑ "MP Monique Ryan and chief of staff Sally Rugg fail to settle dispute after four-week mediation". ABC News. 2 March 2023. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  23. ↑ Karp, Paul (3 March 2023). "Judge says Sally Rugg returning to work for Monique Ryan may be 'simply unworkable'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  24. ↑ Karp, Paul (8 May 2023). "Sally Rugg accepts $100,000 to settle workplace dispute with MP Monique Ryan". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
  25. ↑ Le Grand, Chip (8 May 2023). "Launched in a blaze of publicity, Ryan v Rugg settles in a whimper". The Age. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
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