QUEENSLAND

7NEWS Young Achiever Awards QLD

2026 7NEWS Young Achiever Awards - QLD Winners

 

  

Overall Winner - 2026 Queensland Winner of the Year

Presenter The Honourable Sam O'Connor MP (Left) with Overall Winner Remy Tucker (Right)

 

 

Kennelly Constructions Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Achievement Award

Winner Kane Munt (Right) with Presenter Liz Kennelly (Left)

Kane Munt of Springfield Lakes is a proud young leader from Mabuiag Island in the Torres Strait Islands, whose work spans cultural mentorship, youth advocacy, and national Indigenous representation. As 2026 Culture Captain and leader of the First Nations dance group at St Peter Claver College, NRL Indigenous Youth Ambassador for 2025–2026, Kirrawe Ambassador, and volunteer with Nana Magic as a First Nations children's entertainer, Kane creates culturally safe spaces where young people feel seen, valued, and proud of their heritage. He has represented his community at the NRL All Stars Indigenous Round in New Zealand and spoken at the Māori Rugby League Youth Summit, and advocates for children in care through the Groundswell Younger People Advisory Group, consulting with organisations like QATSIPP to embed Elders in decision-making. His own journey of reconnecting with culture — including travelling to the Torres Strait — deeply informs the way he supports other young mob to find their identity and their path.

 

The University of Queensland Create Change Award

Winner Remy Tucker (Right) with Presenter Jacqueline Niblett (Left)

Remy Tucker of Brisbane is the founder of On the House — a new category of advertising called Social Out-of-Home (SOOH) — digital dispensers fitted with 32-inch advertising screens in high-traffic public bathrooms, where brand revenue funds free, biodegradable period products for anyone who needs them. The model is structured as a genuine media business: 100% venue retention, 99% user satisfaction, 76-second average dwell time, a 94% brand trust uplift, and a 92% intent uplift — because when people feel grateful for an ad, everything changes. Remy launched commercially in July 2025 with five dispensers across Brisbane and the Gold Coast, has distributed over 12,000 free period products to date, and closed a $1.7 million seed round in January 2026 backed by Purpose Ventures and UniQuest. She is expanding nationally in April 2026, and aims to eliminate period inequity entirely — From 3 in 5, to 0 in 5.

 

Queensland Family & Child Commission Contribution to Community or Family Safety Award for First Nations People

Winner Taeg Twist (Right) Presenter Commissioner Luke Twyford (Left)

Taeg Twist is a proud Birri Gubba Birriah and Ngāti Whātua 2Spirit from Waibene in the Zenadth Kes. A multidisciplinary creative, advocate, and emerging leader, their work bridges First Nations LGBTQIA2S+ health, storytelling, and systems change. Taeg represented First Nations youth as a delegate to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, oversaw more than $1 million in youth wellbeing funding through Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council, and led the co-design of an Integrated Social and Emotional Wellbeing Tool for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBTQIA2S+ communities, alongside contributing to the Transcend Queensland Connected Communities Project. Their leadership spans the Orygen National Youth Advisory Council, advisory work to the board of Gondwana Choirs, the Youth Advisory Group for the Sir David Martin Foundation, and consulting with Desert Pea Media. Currently performing as Gail McRae in the Queensland Theatre Company production of The Sapphires, Taeg continues to use performance, advocacy, and community leadership to create culturally powerful spaces where First Nations young people can see themselves reflected, celebrated, and heard.

 

Queensland Family & Child Commission Contribution to Community or Family Safety Award

Winner Dakota McSpadden (Right) with Presenter Commissioner Luke Twyford (Left)

Dakota McSpadden of Fortitude Valley is a lived-experience advocate whose own journey through homelessness, out-of-home care, and complex encounters with Queensland's health and child safety systems now informs practice improvements at every level of those systems. She has spoken at Prince Charles Hospital to multidisciplinary staff during Child Protection Week about how service fragmentation escalated risk in her own life, given an ABC News interview ahead of the Queensland Commission of Inquiry into child safety and residential care, presented at the EPCS conference on transitioning from care, and is a member of both the EPCS Oversight and Implementation Review Group and UQ's Self-Placing Research Project Governance Group — ensuring research is ethical, youth-centred, and practically useful. She has co-facilitated CSO training and been selected for Department workshops on extended post-care support. Her advocacy consistently centres trauma-informed care as standard practice, lived-experience workers in the system, and early intervention that keeps families together.

 

Turosi Food Solutions Food Industry Innovation and Excellence Award

Winner Laura Carniel (Right) with Presenter Sheila McLauchlan (Left)

Laura Carniel is an emerging food systems leader and Vice President of Australia's first World Food Forum Australia Youth Chapter. Selected as a Global Voices Policy Fellow in 2024, Laura has represented Australia at the United Nation's FAO World Food Forum in Rome before returning to establish the Australian chapter. Since their launch in late 2025, she has co-led a team of four to 34 members, providing a platform that connects young Australians to the food system. Laura grew up on a multi-generational horticultural farm in the Lockyer Valley and holds a Bachelor of Advanced Science (First Class Honours) from UQ where she was named an AgriFutures Horizon Scholar and a UQ Future Leader. Laura has been a part of international and Asia-Pacific dialogues, farm tours and panel events and passionately advocates for youth involvement in agricultural and food systems transformation.

Konica Minolta Career Achievement Award

1st, Left Photo: Rep Emily (Right) with Presenter Brian Wood (Left) 2nd right Photo: Winner Joshua Fidrmuc (Unable to attend)

Joshua Fidrmuc in Cairns, is the CEO and founder of Dial A Vet, Australia's fastest-growing veterinary telehealth platform, which he launched while working full-time at Deloitte after a career in the Australian Army and senior banking roles at ANZ. Identifying that pet owners consistently struggled to access trusted veterinary advice when they needed it most, he built the platform from the ground up without external funding, growing it to reach over 600,000 pet owners each month and deliver hundreds of consultations daily through a team of over 90 licensed veterinarians and veterinary nurses operating globally. Winner of the Finder 2025 Innovation Award as an Innovation Champion among major fintech competitors, Dial A Vet has secured partnerships with Ancestry.com, TikTok, and Virgin Money, and is mentored by Bradley Horowitz, ex-VP of Google. Josh also sponsors the RSPCA Million Paws Walk as part of his broader commitment to animal welfare.

MEGT Early Career Skills Champion Award

 

Winner Madeline Cross (Right)  with Presenter Matthew Hick (Left)

Madeline Cross of Gleneagle is an 18-year-old apprentice aircraft engine technician at StandardAero Brisbane who has been working toward this moment since age 12. After completing work experience with the Women in Air Force program at RAAF Base Amberley at 15, enrolling in a Certificate II in Aircraft Line Maintenance while still at school, and travelling 70 km each way to study, Madeline became an apprentice while still completing Year 12 — starting shifts at 5am before returning to school for exams. She now specialises in the repair and overhaul of PT6A engines for customers including the Royal Flying Doctor Service, serves as a Health and Safety Representative, and contributes to continuous improvement initiatives across the workshop. Awarded the Sir Peter Landsborough Award for creating positive change and the Vocational Education Award, she is also an active advocate for women in aviation — speaking at industry events and mentoring young women considering the field.

 

Awards Australia Foundation Connecting Communities Award

 

Winner Jade Nelson (Left)  with Presenter Tionne Young (Right) 

Jade Nelson in Townsville region is the Founder and President of The Women's Society, a grassroots charity into a community of over 4,500 members across Townsville and North Queensland. From her own lived experience of domestic violence and experincing homelessness, Jade is committed to support women most at risk of isolation. Driven by the belief that loneliness — affecting one in three people — should never be faced alone, Jade has facilitated over 500 hours of connection, delivered more than 150 events, and raised over $35,000 for local women and families in need. Invited by the Minister for Women to contribute to Queensland's first Women's Economic Security Strategy consultation, and recognised as a Local Legend at the 2025 Community Achievement Awards, she is now building inclusive programs and digital solutions to extend The Women's Society's reach beyond geography.

Awards Australia Leadership Award

Winner Emma Boyd (Right) with Presenter Amanda Martin (Left)

Emma Boyd of Upper Coomera is a 19-year-old engineering student at Griffith University who founded the Coomera Youth Advisory Council — the first YAC ever established for the Coomera electorate, which holds Queensland's largest youth population — giving young people aged 15–25 direct access to local councillors and state and federal MPs. Through her Student Ambassador Alliance, she connects young people across Northern Gold Coast schools to engage directly with decision-makers on community issues. One of only four young women nationally to receive the Women in STEM Scholarship from the Australian Computer Society Foundation, she has spoken at 30 schools to inspire more young women into engineering. She has also raised over $13,000 for the Cancer Council and $5,000 for the National Breast Cancer Foundation in honour of her mother, and championed a 700-signature petition to protect koala habitat in Coomera East.