The Great Debate

Sunday, June 15, 2025
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Hall L, Ground Level

Details

⏫ Debate
⏲️ 2.00pm - 3.00pm
⌛ 60-minutes
📚 Assumed knowledge of attendees: Foundational (new/casual familiarity with the topic e.g. treated a single case)

Presenter

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SPA Ethics

The Great Debate

2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Presentation summary

A returning crowd favourite, the Great Debate is a light-hearted but fiercely contested feature of the conference. Each year, the session explores a provocative statement — offering both entertainment and meaningful professional insight.

In 2025, the debate will ask: Is what’s good for business good for clients and clinicians? This session will explore whether business-focused decisions can (or should) align with the best outcomes for clients and the profession — or whether competing priorities create ethical tension.

With equal parts humour and substance, this session promises to spark reflection and celebrate the complexity of delivering ethical, high-quality speech pathology services in today’s evolving landscape.

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Andrea Ferguson
Talk Speech Pathology

Team FOR

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Ms Helen Smith
CALHN

Team FOR

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Cathy Olsson
Spa

Team FOR

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Ashish Sharma

Team AGAINST

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Ms Gaenor Dixon
Department Of Education

Team AGAINST

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Dr Suzanne Hopf
Charles Sturt University

Team AGAINST

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Dr. Suzanne C. Hopf is Course Director (Speech Pathology) and Senior Lecturer at Charles Sturt University, Australia. An Australian-Fijian citizen based in Fiji, Suzanne’s publications and presentations describe how the contextually unique barriers and facilitators for supporting people with communication disability are created and reinforced by individual, community, and societal factors. Dr. Hopf’s Communication Capacity Research and Culturally Responsive Teamwork frameworks provide starting points for developing evidence-informed and culturally responsive communication specialist services in unserved areas of the world.

Session chair

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Kathryn McKinley
Speech Pathology Australia

Student volunteer(s)

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Mikayla Adams

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Shang Yi Lim

The information contained in this program is current at of the time of publishing but is subject to changes made without notice.

Disclaimer: © (2024) The Speech Pathology Association of Australia Limited. All rights reserved.
Important Notice, please read: The views expressed in this presentation and reproduced in these materials are not necessarily the views of, or endorsed by, The Speech Pathology Association of Australia Limited ("the Association"). The Association makes no warranty or representation in relation to the content, currency or accuracy of any of the materials comprised in this presentation. The Association expressly disclaims any and all liability (including liability for negligence) in respect of use of these materials and the information contained within them. The Association recommends you seek independent professional advice prior to making any decision involving matters outlined in this presentation including in any of the materials referred to or otherwise incorporated into this presentation.

 

© Copyright 2024 Speech Pathology Australia


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