Meet the Presenter 

The Honourable Jaala Pulford

The Honourable Jaala Pulford was elected to the Victorian Parliament in 2006 as Member for Western Victoria. Over the first two terms of the Andrews Government (2014-22), Jaala was the first woman to serve as Minister for Agriculture, and had ministerial responsibilities that included roads, the TAC, fishing and boating, small business, resources, employment and for innovation, medical research and the digital economy. She also served as Deputy Leader of the Government in the upper house,

Jaala steered Jobs Victoria through a critical period as the pandemic hit hard for both workers and employers alike. She led the state’s efforts to help Victoria’s 640,000 small businesses navigate and survive the impact of lockdowns. She secured both Moderna and BioNTech for Melbourne, cementing a local end-to-end mRNA vaccine capability, supply certainty, an R&D hub and significant research investment. She also set Victoria on course to be Australia’s first gigabit state through the Connecting Vic program, a billion dollar investment delivered in partnership with telecommunications providers. As Agriculture Minister she oversaw the establishment of a medicinal cannabis industry. Jaala is an experienced leader with deep experience in Cabinet government, public administration and governance, Jaala is passionate about making sure people and businesses can thrive in an economy undergoing fast-moving, often destabilising, but exciting and transformational change.

Jaala lives in Ballarat with her husband Jeff, son Hamish, two adopted greyhounds and the everlasting memory of her daughter Sinéad. Sinéad died in December 2014 at the age of 13, just 12 weeks after being diagnosed with a rare cancer.