Qtopia says Sydney Mardi Gras board candidate Savanna Peake is not a member of the queer museum’s central board, despite her previously listing the role on her Instagram profile until Gay Sydney News began asking questions.
In her Mardi Gras board candidate statement, Peake – who is aligned with the Protect Mardi Gras membership faction – said she brought "experience in government, policy and governance, through Board roles with the Pride Business Association, Women's Legal Service NSW, QTOPIA…"
While Peake was on the board of the Pride Business Association (PBA) – a director role Gay Sydney News has learned she resigned from on October 29 after having served since late 2023 – her links with Qtopia and the Working Women’s Centre are not board positions. Peake served on the male-dominant PBA board alongside fellow Mardi Gras board candidate Jarrod Lomas, who remains the non-profit's president.
Separate to Peake's Mardi Gras candidate statement, she described herself on Instagram as a "Board Member @qtopia_sydney" and a "Board Member WWC". WWC refers to the Working Women's Centre, which operates within the Women's Legal Service NSW.
Instead, Peake was recently appointed to Qtopia's "education advisory committee", also referred to as its "education advisory board", and to the advisory board of the Working Women's Centre NSW. Neither of the advisory boards/committees have ever met, having only been established in recent times.
When Gay Sydney News asked whether she believed a reasonable person would interpret her candidate statement and Instagram bio as claiming she sat on the boards of Qtopia and the Women's Legal Service NSW, Peake – responding via an intermediary – said: "Thank you for pointing this out. I will be amending this in due course."
Peake's Instagram bio was updated shortly after GSN received her statement, but her candidate statement on Mardi Gras' website remained unchanged at the time of publication. Her Instagram profile now lists "Education Advisory @qtopia_sydney" and "Member WWC" as her positions within the groups.
The discrepancy raises questions about the accuracy of Peake’s claimed experience as she seeks election to the Mardi Gras board. Gay Sydney News is not suggesting she intended to mislead, only that her biographical details lacked clarity about the specific roles she holds in the community.
Gay Sydney News is also not suggesting she lacks relevant experience, but notes that the positions she referenced in her Instagram bio and in her candidate material (Qtopia and the Women’s Legal Centre/Working Women’s Centre) are advisory committee roles, not board roles.
A further follow-up question with Peake's intermediary, asking why she left her Pride Business Association board position after being re-elected as a director on September 6, remained unanswered at the time of publication.
The association's president and fellow Mardi Gras board candidate Jarrod Lomas told Gay Sydney News: "As for why she stepped down, respecting all our volunteers' privacy is paramount to the PBA – as such, we won't be running a commentary on decisions made by our volunteers so it's a question best put to her."
A spokesperson for Qtopia, via its public relations agency, said Peake was "not on the board of Qtopia Sydney and has never been".
About 30 minutes later, another spokesperson clarified her actual role: "Savanna is on the Education Advisory Board which has been established to further bolster the content and delivery of Qtopia Sydney's school education programs – both excursions to Darlinghurst and incursions to rural and remote schools."
Peake is known to have a close relationship with Qtopia chief executive Greg Fisher, who The Sydney Morning Herald once described as "a former business executive who spent eight years in jail for drug and fraud offences before lawfully running charities after his release". Gay Sydney News makes no suggestion that Peake has any connection to, or involvement in, Fisher's past offences.
In a telephone interview arranged by Qtopia's PR agency, Fisher was asked whether he was comfortable with Peake calling herself a Qtopia board member. He said: "Well, no, she is not a board member of Qtopia and if she has said she is that's not correct. But I am happy and very proud to say she is on the education advisory board, or committee."
Last Saturday, Fisher publicly posted a message of support for Peake and her Mardi Gras board bid, sharing a photo of the pair taken at Qtopia in March in the lead up to her unsuccessful run for the federal seat of Wentworth as Labor's endorsed candidate.
"I STAND WITH THIS AMAZING PERSON – MY GOOD FRIEND @savannapeake_ because Savanna is community to the core," Fisher wrote. "I urge Protect Mardi Gras aspirants to support each other – for not one of us is perfect but each of us has a place to serve the community with honesty and integrity. I am concerned for my friend and will not sit back – toxicity has to stop!"
Fisher's post came after the publication of two stories about Peake's use of the Mardi Gras membership register and Labor Party data during the queer charity's current directors' election to campaign for her board bid. His caption referred to Peake's appointment to Qtopia’s "Education Advisory Committee".
"I should have put 'board' [on that Instagram post]," Fisher told Gay Sydney News. "That's what we are calling it."
He said Peake accepted the position "a number of months ago" and that the full advisory board would meet for the first time "over the coming month, after which a formal announcement" would be made and the committee listed on Qtopia's website.
Asked for a list of all of the committee's members, Fisher initially declined but said his daughter, Carly Fisher, Qtopia's artistic and programs director, would chair the advisory board. After being pressed, he later named Rodney Plashick, Garry Case and Brendon Ludlow as other members.
Katrina Ironside, chief executive of Women's Legal Service NSW, confirmed Peake was not a member of the charity's board, but instead sat on the advisory board of the Working Women's Centre NSW – a separate group that sits within the Women's Legal Service NSW – which had not yet met. In her candidate statement, Peake said she had a board role with "Women's Legal Service NSW".
"This Advisory Board is separate to the Women's Legal Service NSW Board (on the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission)," Ironside said.
"It is advisory in nature on the establishment and operation of the Working Women's Centre NSW. The Advisory Board will have its first meeting in December 2025."
Ironside did not respond to questions about when Peake's appointment occurred, who chairs the committee, or who its other members are. She said Peake's role had not yet appeared on the centre's website because "we are in the process of developing a new website".
Protect Mardi Gras co-founder Peter Stahel, who is not running as a candidate, said there was "no conspiracy or funny business here".
"Savanna has important and varied governance and community experience – far more than many of the other election candidates," he said. "This is another side issue and I'm confident anyone considering the broader context, including an avalanche of nasty anonymous attacks online, will see it for what it is.
"There are really important core issues at stake in this election about what Mardi Gras is, how to win progress and to make the organisation powerful. That's what we are focussed on."
Peake has been at the centre of two previous controversies during this year's Mardi Gras election campaign. One involved what the Australian Labor Party described as a "misuse" of its email database by Peake to campaign for her board bid. Peak did not respond to questions about it at the time, despite saying she would “shortly” come back to Gay Sydney News about it.
Another, for which she apologised, involved a university student being outed to her family after Peake sent campaign material to members’ home addresses using Mardi Gras' membership database.
The student's mother allegedly noticed the envelope, made her daughter open it in front of her, and realised it contained queer-related material. Gay Sydney News does not suggest that Peake sought to out the student, just that this was the consequence of her direct mail to the student's home.
Under Mardi Gras' constitution, board candidates are legally allowed to use the Mardi Gras database to send materials to members.
The incident prompted Mardi Gras to review its handling of member information, leading the organisation to update its membership form to allow members to opt out of postal communications from board candidates.
Editor's note: Journalist Ben Grubb pays $50 annually for Mardi Gras membership to access discounts, including at retail stores and bars, but does not use the membership’s voting rights.
Ben Grubb is the founder and editor of Gay Sydney News, an independent publication covering LGBTQIA+ news. A journalist with more than 15 years' experience, he has reported and edited for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, WAToday, Brisbane Times, The Australian Financial Review, News.com.au, ZDNet, TelecomTimes and iTnews, primarily on the topic of technology. He previously hosted The Informer, a queer current affairs program on Melbourne’s JOY 94.9 radio station, and contributes to LGBTQIA+ media including Stun Magazine. Ben has also appeared as a technology commentator on Channel Ten's The Project, ABC RN’s Download This Show and commercial radio stations 2UE, 2GB and 6PR. Contact Ben: [email protected]
