New head of Blueline focused on the dignity of work
By Catherine Sheehan
After a long and varied career, working predominantly in forestry science and education, new CEO of Blueline, Mark Hunt, says he wants his tenure at the helm of the social enterprise to be focused on the concept of the dignity of work.
“It’s very easy to have a vision in Blueline because it’s been around for 130 years,” he said. “And we are clear about what we do and that heritage of understanding how important work is and the role it plays in the life of the individual and the community,” he said.
“It’s one of those great areas where it’s completely central to what it means to be Catholic… And we should be embracing that rather than stepping away from it.
“So for me, it is really bringing that back. It’s about people having dignity at work and in the work they do. And it’s about the way that work provides a much broader concept of dignity for the person.”
Mark stepped into the CEO role at Blueline in July, having previously served as Chair of the Board. Blueline is a commercial laundry service which supports those marginalised from mainstream employment, such as people with a disability, migrants, or those who have experienced trauma. Blueline has also recently branched out into commercial cleaning.
Born and raised in Hobart, Mark has spent most of his working life outside Tasmania. He’s worked all over the world, in the South Pacific, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu, Vietnam, North Korea, the Philippines, Chile, the US, Europe, the UK, the Netherlands, and France. He’s even spent 400 days in Antarctica as leader of Australia’s busiest Antarctic station, Casey station. He also worked at the University of Tasmania as Professor of Forestry Science and Director of the National Forestry Research Centre.
Mark said the most important lesson he’d learned over his career was the importance of listening to people and working alongside them. A lesson he was brought with him into his role at Blueline.
Ultimately, Mark said, Blueline was about giving people a sense of belonging and purpose.
“If we look back at our origins working with the Sisters of the Good Shepherd back in the late 19th century and through the early 20th, that was about people who were young women who were cast out. It was about bringing them back in, finding a way to belong.
“And more recently we see a very large number of the people we work with, refugees and recent migrants and of course belonging and dignity and it is central to their ability to move on from what they’ve come from and to fully participate in our society.
“It’s about belonging, it’s about purpose, it’s about community.”