Under the Hood with CGM's Amy Blom

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus is credited with originating the concept that change is the only constant in life.

The idea espouses the need to ignore the futile human desire to seek routine and structure in a constantly shifting world and embrace change instead.

For Amy Blom, CGM’s Senior Advisor for Innovation and Engagement, change is something she has done more than embrace – it is the driving force in everything she does.

Amy’s career has seen her walk the halls of Parliament House in Canberra, hold those in power to account through a local newspaper, and help communities fight for a future through public advocacy campaigns.

No matter the context, the desire to effect positive change is the connective tissue binding those experiences together.

Amy, 32, tried a few ways to channel that passion.

She jokes that she started studying law because “17-year-old me watched a lot of Boston Legal and was sure I could just swirl scotch all day and argue with people”.

“In reality, I wanted to do it because I thought it would enable me to help people and to make changes for the disadvantaged,” she clarifies.

“But you don’t really have that much power to change things quickly in law.”

Amy soon dropped law in favour of philosophy, studying thought leaders of old like Heraclitus, Epicurus and Democritus (and being amazed the latter conceived of atoms thousands of years before they could be physically observed).

Those ancient thinkers asked the big questions, but it was working across journalism and politics that helped Amy find the answers she was seeking.

“As a journalist, you have so much more power to actually get things changed by people that are a lot smarter than you,” she says.

“You can be that loudspeaker that gets stuff done.

“Politics is really just an extension of that, it’s getting a whole bunch of people who know more than us into a room and saying, ‘What do we do? How do we fix this?’ and then they tell us and we enact it.”

Amy’s personal approach to effecting positive change borrows a little from both practices.

“I like being the person who's not necessarily the smartest person in the room, getting everyone together and fixing whatever issue it is,” she says.

“Sometimes really intelligent and knowledgeable people have the ability to solve the problem, but they don’t always have the ability to persuade the public or get into the room with the power brokers to enact the change we need.”

In applying this approach, Amy walked a winding path, but each turn presented her with a challenge she overcame or a lesson she carries with her today.

From her four years at the Examiner Newspapers, she learned consistency.

“You had to deliver a front-page story every single week, so you can’t have an off day, basically,” she says.

Her fair reporting on local government issues indirectly led to Amy being offered a position under WA Senator Linda Reynolds, which she accepted.

Her time in Parliament House can’t be distilled into a single lesson, but it required Amy to overcome a new challenge – self-doubt.

“I was 26 at the time, and yes I could write, yes I could interview, but there’s so much more to working in that environment and that was kind of terrifying,” she recalls.

“I had also never really travelled by myself before, so going to Canberra every week was a bit daunting at first.

“I didn't realise how big Parliament House would be, how long the days are and how hectic they are.”

Despite the challenges, Amy appreciates the positive aspects of the nation’s capital.

“There’s a buzz when you get there and a real collegiate atmosphere between offices, whether they are on the same side of politics as you or in Opposition,” she says.

From hosting events to showcase Australia’s authors or working to introduce new legislation, Amy’s time in Canberra helped her appreciate the benefits of collaboration on a whole new scale.

It also taught her the importance of a work-life balance, reinforced perhaps by meeting the man who is now her husband.

“I had been there for two years, and I got to the point that I couldn't do those 18-hour days, six days a week anymore,” she says.

“I'd also just met Alan and kind of went ‘I want my life back now’.”

Amy made the move to state politics, joining the office of Alyssa Hayden, the former member for Darling Range.

Working at the state level offered a new experience – being in Opposition.

“Being in Opposition, I learned there were two kinds of issues,” Amy explains.

“There are issues where you’re going to kick up a big stink and try to make the Government look bad.

“Then there are the issues, where you just call the Minister’s office and say, ‘this is happening, can we get help?’ and they would work with you behind the scenes to get people the help they need, from supporting older people in the early stages of the pandemic to families in crisis.”

For someone who lists her “loud mouth” as a strength, being in Opposition taught her the value of silence when it’s needed.

More than the lessons or memories, Amy values achieving positive change, regardless of the scale of the issue or people affected.

One change Amy was closely involved with was the introduction of the Modern Slavery Act in 2018.

Australia was the first country in the world to acknowledge ‘orphanage tourism’ as a form of modern slavery and to outlaw it.

Orphanage tourism is when overseas orphanages take children, with parents and without, and use them to attract donations from rich tourists or volunteer organisations from places like Australia, America and England.

The issue struck a chord with Amy, in part because most of the people involved had good intentions.

“You've got very few people who visit overseas orphanages because they want to hurt children – they do it because they want to do good and they’ve been led to believe this is the way to help vulnerable children,” she says.

“But they haven’t researched properly so they don’t know that institutions are not an appropriate setting for children, even if they are genuine orphans.

“That speaks to me because I want to do good things too, but I don’t always know how.

“So, I have that desire to help people understand how they can help others properly.”

Her work on the Modern Slavery Act impacted people on an international level, but Amy says the “little things” she achieves mean just as much to her.

“I remember being a little suburban journo and fighting for the name of a local man who had been conscripted into the Australian Army and killed in Vietnam to be added to a memorial in Gosnells,” she says.

“I interviewed the veteran’s younger sister and it had been 50 years since he died, but the pain in her voice was still so apparent.

“Being able to help her get a bit of closure by having his sacrifice recognised meant a lot.”

Underpinning Amy’s achievements and drive is the compassion she holds for others.

“I think some people see other people as inherently bad and needing fixing,” she says.

“I see people as being inherently good, but sometimes they mess up and they just need help to be better.”

It’s a perspective rooted in part in Amy’s own complicated history as the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, whose family experienced the effects of that intergenerational trauma as she grew up.

She lost her father at 15, and left home a year later, putting herself through high school and university – becoming the first person in her family to graduate from either.

But the true inspiration for her optimistic worldview comes from the people around her.

“I've been exposed to so many amazing people, who could have been the worst given their backgrounds, but they’re impressive instead,” she says.

“I can't help but think people are the products of their environments, and some of them rise up and others don't because they don’t get the support they need.”

It was a desire to help the ones that don’t receive that support that led her to study law in the first place.

“I have this firm belief that even people who have done bad things deserve to have someone defend them,” Amy says.

Joining CGM Communications brought Amy full circle, giving her a chance to help those same people through clients like Legal Aid WA.

It was also an opportunity for Amy to provide a different political perspective to an agency that has always been strongly linked to the Labor party through its founder Daniel Smith.

Amy welcomed the chance to be the only Liberal member in the office at the time she was hired (she has since been joined by senior Liberal figure Libby Lyons).

“I kind of was excited about it because I like having that difference of opinion,” she says.

“I’m the kind of person that if I hold a view strongly, I will regularly go and read the other side just to see if I’ve changed my mind.”

That extends to even the most one-sided debates, with Amy able to provide an update on the position of the Flat Earth Society with no hesitation.

“They have been to Australia and they did not walk on their heads, so have concluded the Earth is flat,” she shares.

Firmly ensconced at CGM now, Amy loves the diversity the agency setting offers her.

“I love how many different projects I’ve been able to work on across different accounts and using different engagement tools, whether online, in person, or through other forms of media,” she says.

“Working across different areas allows me to work in a fast-paced reactive environment some days, while spending time being more strategic and proactive on others.”

Heraclitus is also known for observing that ‘no man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man’.

The same could be said of Amy, who is a different woman to the one that started this journey – one who is confident, capable, compassionate and self-aware enough to handle whatever change she faces next.

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