Dr Bronwyn King

As a young oncologist Bronwyn King was shocked to watch the majority of her patients die from smoking-related cancer, so when she discovered most super funds were brazenly investing in the tobacco industry she had to take action.

- JULIET RIEDEN

Bronwyn King is a doer, a fixer and a nurturer. Her passion and energy are contagious and her calm diplomacy, coupled with uncompromising vision, is the stuff we long for in our politicians. As a doctor she has a brilliant evidence-based scientific brain, and as a mother – of Oliver, eight, and Charlie, six – she feels compelled to make a better world for everyone’s children.

In March 2010 Bronwyn had an epiphany that changed her life and is now changing the world. “I was buying a house with my partner [who is now her husband]. I sat down with the accountant who said ‘you need to sort out your money; how much do you have in your pension plan?’ I shrugged my shoulders. I had no idea. I knew that superannuation existed but that was it. I was working as a cancer specialist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne. I’d been a doctor for 10 years and so I’d been a member of a super fund for 10 years and I’d not thought about it at all, which is unfortunately very typical.

“Because of that meeting I organised to talk with a representative from the super fund. We met at the cafeteria and he brought along some paperwork to show me how much money I had. I remember having a latte and a little conversation and then I shook his hand, the meeting finished and I left.”