Kylea (Pronounced Kylie) Tink

The largest food relief operation in Australia, Foodbank Australia has a national footprint, anchored in a federated structure, with Members operating in every state and territory. In 2024, Foodbank sourced 51 million kilos of food and groceries, the equivalent of 92 million meals, from farmers, manufacturers and retailers to make is available to individuals and families in need. This food is distributed both directly (through Foodbank hubs in some states and via the School Breakfast and Lunch Program to over 3,000 schools) and through a network of nearly 3,000 frontline charities nationally. With Australian food growers and manufacturers producing enough food every year to feed our entire population three times over, hunger should not be an issue in Australia - and yet it is with 1 in 3 Australian households reportedly experiencing food insecurity.

As a Member of a dynamic & diverse Board it’s a privilege to support the incredible Executive team at Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE) as they drive optimistic and compelling solutions to inspire industry, political decision-makers, and regional communities to accelerate climate action and turbo-charge Australia's shift to the zero-emissions economy

As a key member of the Community Independent/ Teal wave, that swept the 2022 Federal Election, Kylea is an instrumental contributor to the growth of the movement. With her seat of North Sydney abolished in the 2025 electoral boundary redistribution, Kylea has offered her time and expertise to those seeking to emulate her success: mentoring new candidates and sharing her expertise through public speaking and media engagements. This has helped raise awareness and support for independent political representation in Australia. A regular speaker at events, media commentator and writer, Kylea's insights into the state of Australian politics post the 2025 election result are unique and invaluable.

The first female to be elected to represent the federal seat of North Sydney, Kylea was instrumental in influencing the outcomes of the 47th Parliament and changing the political climate in Canberra. Having campaigned on a platform that advocated for doing politics differently to drive faster action on climate change; integrity in politics; gender equality; and human rights, Kylea worked tirelessly as an MP to drive progress in these areas. As a Community Independent MP she: • Represented the people of North Sydney in the federal parliament ensuring the community’s authentic voice was heard during debates and the electorate’s vote was case in way that was consistent with the community’s values and ambitions • Engaged with key stakeholders and experts to ensure evidenced based policy positions • Engaged deeply with the broader community to ensure a cross section of voices were heard during policy development and tabled three Private Member's Bills (Vehicle Emissions, Human Rights and Housing and Homelessness) • Frequent commentator in the media • Built and managed a team (both paid and voluntary) to enable appropriate representation of the seat in Canberra whilst also operating the Electorate Office function in North Sydney • Reviewed draft legislation and worked to negotiate amendments • Actively engaged in Parliamentary debate and worked directly with Ministers to provide input into policy

Asked to run by community group North Sydney's Independent, Kylea worked with people across the federal electorate of North Sydney to challenge the established political system and take the community's voice and vote back. As one of the original 75 electorates created at Federation, the seat of North Sydney had a long history of contributing to the Nation's development both economically and socially. The movement to make the seat Independent involved thousands of people coming together from across the community to provide assistance: be that time, money or other resources. As the candidate Kylea was responsible for ensuring the campaign ran smoothly and that all activations generated maximum impact. She worked tirelessly for 9 months to build awareness and encourage as many people as possible to get involved. Previously considered a safe Liberal seat, held on a margin of 9.3%, Kylea won the seat of North Sydney with a margin of 2.9%.

Having met the Founder of the Harrison Riedel Foundation - Amanda Riedel - through a mutual acquaintance, Kylea assisted both Amanda and her Board as they sought to scale the organization up. In this context, Kylea provided strategic advice and support to the organization on matters as broad as team structure, recruitment, financial modelling, fundraising, partnership development and brand/ media campaigning. Kylea remains a passionate supporter of the Harrison Riedel Foundation.

Providing strategic support to the CEO and Board, Kylea was tasked with developing the organization's fundraising strategy. At the same time, she provided direct support to the CEO as he developed the organizations wider business strategy.

As CEO for Camp Quality, Kylea worked with the Board and Executive team to transform the charity's operational base whilst ensuring volunteer engagement remained high and program delivery standards remained exceptional. This required Kylea to work with a dedicated team of professionals to develop and deliver a range of programs to help children growing up with cancer experience a better quality of life. This included leading the team through an organizational restructure, identifying and recruiting new key executive team members, working to secure federal funding for new program offerings, and facilitating the business' adoption of Integrative Reporting (as a form of Annual Reporting). In her time as CEO, Kylea brought the business back into profit and elevated its trust ranking to the number 1 most trusted children's charity in the country. She also negotiated the one of the first "Registered Charity" stamps from the ACNC and also oversaw the renewal of the organization's Australian Childhood Foundation Child Safety qualifications. As a national organization, with offices in every major capital city, she worked closely with geography leads to expand volunteer numbers and supporters more generally.

Having had over 25 years of broad business experience, in 2015 Kylea established her own consultancy as a way of offering her expertise to a wider group of people and organisations who were eager for her help. In the 18 months of running this business Kylea built a team of 5 people who worked with a variety of commercial and not-for-profit entities to help them navigate everything from business transformation through to business start up. During this period clients included: Volpara Technologies; the Mary MacKillop Foundation; Miracle Babies; St John's Ambulance; and LivePro. Kylea chose to close this business when her personal family circumstances changed.

In the lead up to Christmas 2014, a group of like-minded individuals came together to develop and execute a campaign to get over 750 children out of Australia's offshore immigration detention centres. Kylea became involved in the campaign as a volunteer to lead and coordinate it following an approach from someone who knew her from her work at the McGrath Foundation. The campaign was funded personally by those involved and driven by a deep sense that what was happening to those children and their families at the time was "unAustralian". Ultimately the team believed that, if everyday Australians were made aware of how the children were being treated, they would rise up and join the call to have them immediately released. After securing the involvement of hundreds of high profile people in campaign, and the release of song and video clip specifically calling for immediate government intervention, the children were released from detention in the week prior to Christmas. Sadly, many of now young adults and their families continue to fight for permanent residency in Australia despite the fact that all of them have now been here for over a decade. In this context, the call to action remains for our federal government to do better because "We're Better Than This Australia".

While studying my Communications degree at University of Canberra I was fortunate to work in areas as diverse as retail, entertainment, hospitality, government advocacy, health promotion and community development

Commerce at ANU