KEY DETAILS

• Conditions: This is a 0.8 FTE (ie: 4 days a week) contract role from March 2025 to January 2026, with the possibility of extension. Hours can be worked across 4 or 5 days, between 8am and 6pm. Some limited overtime and weekend work may be required (such as attending community events with or on behalf of the MP) and is compensated with time off in lieu.
• Salary: This role will be employed 0.2 as an Electorate Officer Grade 2.1 under the Parliament of Victoria enterprise agreement - $83,469 per annum (pro rata) plus superannuation, and 0.6 as a casual employee at $45.60 per hour plus superannuation.
• Location: 3 days per week to be worked in the Carlton office, with the option to work from home on the other day.
• Applications close on the advertised date, and we anticipate interviews will be held on the week beginning 10th February.
• Start date: Ideally, the successful candidate will begin on the 17th March (or earlier) and have a two week handover period with the outgoing advisor.

ABOUT US

Ellen Sandell was elected in 2014 as the MP for Melbourne in the Victorian Parliament. She was re-elected in 2018 and 2022. Ellen is the Leader of the Victorian Greens and holds the portfolios of climate change, environment, Treasury, and First Nations justice.

Our office is small, collaborative, nimble and strategic. Our staff are innovative, enthusiastic and driven to achieve outcomes for our local residents and on the big issues we care about. We pride ourselves on bringing a positive attitude, organisation and great attention to detail to our work.

As the Leader of the Victorian Greens, Ellen is often not in the office because she’s at local community events, in Parliament, or meeting with stakeholders or colleagues.

The Victorian Greens MPs are a small team but we have a big vision for change. That means we work on a lot of things - we’re simultaneously trying to achieving big legislative and systemic change to the way government works - while also using our office to directly support our local community and constituents as much as possible. Your job will be mostly the latter - to be the first point of contact in the office and help our local residents when they contact our office. It’s a big job, but a very important one!

The other staff in our office include our Senior Advisor/Comms Manager, our Policy Advisor, and our Community Engagement Advisor (who works 3 days a week and will do similar work to you but with more of a focus on local campaigns and issues that affects groups and organisations in our electorate, rather than individuals which is more of the focus of this role). Six ‘Central Staff’ also work in our office but support all the Greens MPs across Victoria.

ABOUT THE ROLE

Ellen is seeking a motivated and organised staff member who can be the main point of contact between local constituents and Ellen’s office.

We’re looking for someone who is organised, loves helping people, and has a passion for supporting our local community even with small tasks.

The job includes two main parts:

1. Tasks which fit into a traditional ‘executive assistant’ role - such as managing Ellen’s diary, managing her inbox and answering emails, answering the office phone, and helping organise logistics for the office.
2. Supporting local constituents who contact our office (the electorate includes Kensington, North Melbourne, Parkville, CBD, Docklands, Carlton, West Melbourne and East Melbourne). This includes holding meetings with constituents who contact us to understand their needs, writing letters or making calls to Ministers Offices or government agencies on their behalf, and generally assisting them to navigate government systems.

This position is employed by the Victorian Parliament, but is directly accountable to the Member of Parliament whose electorate they are employed.

MP’s staff are required to maintain a high degree of confidentiality on behalf of the MP and those who contact the office.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Constituent support:

• Greeting people who contact the office, answering the phone and being helpful, friendly and approachable to all who come to us for help.
• Managing Ellen’s inbox - triaging correspondence, prioritising urgent matters, researching and drafting responses to emails, and making sure everyone is responded to in a timely manner.
• Supporting constituents with more complex needs - meeting one-on-one with constituents who need our assistance and then advocating on their behalf to Ministers and other government agencies and managing their cases.
• Working with Ellen’s policy advisor to prepare constituency questions and questions on notice for Ellen to ask in Parliament on behalf of constituents as needed.

Diary management:

• Managing Ellen’s diary - triaging and responding to event invitations and requests for meetings, bringing these requests to Ellen for decision, preparing briefing notes for meetings and events, and supporting Ellen to use her time efficiently.

Community engagement support:

• Coordinating vouchers, prizes, congratulatory letters and awards for students, schools and other community organisations and groups throughout the year and for residents with major birthday, wedding or achievement milestones.
• Working with the Community Engagement Advisor to identify and escalate local issues that come to your attention.
• Occasionally attending local community events and group meetings with Ellen as needed.

Office logistics support:

• Acting as the key contact for any office logistics. This includes holding relationships with the Department of Parliamentary Services partners and arranging access for visitors and trades as needed.
• Ad-hoc administrative and logistical tasks as needed such as ordering supplies and ensuring that the office is running effectively.

ABOUT YOU

This role requires:

• Values that align with the Greens’ values of social justice, environmental sustainability, peace and non-violence, and grassroots democracy.
• Passion for working one-on-one with members of the community across a range of complex issues, including public housing, accessing local services and helping them navigate government departments and agencies.
• An interest in working in a political/parliamentary environment and understanding of what that entails.
• Someone who is super organised - if you’ve been an Executive Assistant, Constituent Advisor, or worked in fast-paced customer-facing roles, this role could suit you!
• The ability to maintain a friendly and approachable manner with people of all backgrounds and personalities and develop and maintain strong relationships particularly under pressure.
• The ability to stay positive even under pressure. Sometimes residents have complex needs and we can’t resolve them, but we need someone who tries to help as much as possible and stays positive even when circumstances are frustrating.

KEY SKILLS & ATTRIBUTES

• Reliable and organised: You’re able to track and manage competing priorities, and meet tight deadlines. We’re a fast-paced office with lots of competing priorities.
• Understand complex information: You have the ability to digest a large amount of information, understand complex issues, identify what is important and communicate this concisely to Ellen and/or other team members.
• Self-motivated: Our team is small, so you’ll need to self-direct your workload and stay motivated even when working on your own.
• Great communicator: You’re an excellent written and oral communicator, comfortable talking with people from different backgrounds and with different personalities, and writing for many different audiences and purposes.
• Personal resilience. Often we deal with vulnerable constituents who have issues that are distressing or that we cannot easily solve. You’ll need to be resilient. We help people as much as possible, but solving individual issues in a broken system isn’t always possible (which is why we’re also fighting for systemic change!)
• Compassionate. We want someone who is going to be compassionate to all who contact our office - no matter their socioeconomic status or circumstances. We’re here to represent everyone in our community, whoever they are.

Overall, we want someone who is passionate about working for a local Greens MP to help our local community, and is organised.

We value and seek the knowledge and expertise of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people with experience living in public housing, and people from diverse cultural backgrounds.

These assets are more important than having all the skills and experience listed in this job ad.

HOW TO APPLY

Please provide the following in PDF form to [email protected] using the subject line ‘Constituent Support Advisor’.

1. A cover letter (maximum 2 pages) outlining why you’re interested in the role and why your experience makes you a good fit. You don’t need to address the role requirements individually, but you might like to reference them in your cover letter.
2. CV / Resume (maximum 3 pages).

For more information, please email [email protected] using the subject line: Constituent Support Advisor enquiry via EthicalJobs.