A Ferny Creek local has been recognised for his outstanding public service to the disability and social services sectors across Victoria, receiving the Public Service Medal for 2026.
Living quietly in the hills for 40 years now, Anthony Kolmus received the high accolade for his devotion towards protecting the rights of vulnerable Victorians throughout his career in public service.
On hearing he would be receiving the award, Mr Kolmus said it came as a bit of a surprise, as he hadn’t realised he’d been nominated and said he still has to figure out who put him forward for the medal.
“It’s lovely to get the recognition,” he said.
“I think there are actually a lot of public servants and a lot of people who work in our sector who would probably be equally eligible or equally entitled to an award like this, but it’s a nice recognition.
“It’s been tricky not being allowed to talk to anyone about it – I’ve got some investigating to do,” Mr Kolmus said, with a laugh.
The Australia Day 2026 Honours list saw Mr Kolmus recognised for a career spent in public service that has improved the lives of people with disability, children and young people, people experiencing homelessness, and other marginalised communities.
Retiring last year, Mr Kolmus said he got into the disability field really just wanting to make a difference in people’s lives, beginning with a job as a support worker and working his way up.
“In the late ’70s and early ’80s, people with disability were not exactly getting a great deal in life, and it just seemed like a good opportunity to make a difference,” he said.
Around 2010, Mr Kolmus moved into the State Government, working in complaints and regulation and then moving more broadly into other areas of regulation in child protection, family violence, sexual assault services, services to children in out-of-home care and disability services.
Investigating some cases which involved the abuse of clients by carers and providers, Mr Kolmus said some were quite heavy.
“We would make recommendations to a separate body, and they would decide whether workers would be excluded – there were some less-than-wonderful things we saw as a team,” he said.
Holding roles across the Office of the Disability Services Commissioner and the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing as the Human Services Regulator, Mr Kolmus said there were opportunities to really have an impact at a statewide level on the quality of services across the state.
On reflection, Mr Kolmus said throughout his time, while he had seen lots of great examples of fantastic service delivery, there had also been some pretty awful examples in organisations that claimed to be delivering great services.
“The last 16 years of my career were very much in the safeguarding space and really trying to hold providers to account for the services that they were delivering,” he said.
Through his leadership, child safety became not only a regulatory requirement but a shared responsibility in Victoria, along with changes made that strengthened the regulation of residential services and increased safety for people with disability.
Mr Kolmus was also recognised for his work at the Social Services Regulator, which is responsible for assessing and enforcing compliance with Child Safe Standards.
He also led the development of placing cultural safety auditing into the regulator’s own core operations, which Mr Kolmus said was a big learning curve and very rewarding.
“It was a really, it’s a huge learning experience for me, and I think we made a little bit of progress,” he said.
Regulating human services across the state, 21 of which were Aboriginal community-controlled organisations, Mr Kolmus said some of these organisations, in particular, had unique challenges in their service provision.
“Aboriginal services were generally expected to provide all services to their community,” he said.
Regulating cultural safety involved work that Mr Kolmus said really involved building a level of trust.
“It’s so worth it, it’s a really amazing space to be involved in,” he said.
“We’d started to build some good relationships to at least have the conversations you needed to have, to be able to do the work properly.”
On the current state of the human services sector and NDIS in particular, Mr Kolmus said, while no system is perfect, when he started in disability, it was pretty backward in so many ways, and there was no funding at all for many people.
“It’s two steps forward, one step back sort of thing,” he said.
“If you’ve got a good support network and good safeguards around you, then the NDIS can do wonderful things.”
He also oversaw the rapid implementation of the Worker Carer Exclusion Scheme with six weeks’ notice, working with social service providers to make sure children were protected and organisations supported through the changes.
Mr Kolmus’s work has driven significant improvements in regulatory practice in Victoria, and his leadership has left a lasting legacy in public service.
With no plans to slow down, Mr Kolmus said he’s currently in the middle of building a house, which is keeping him busy, but he will continue to advocate and put things in motion for vulnerable people and communities across Victoria.
“I’m keen to stay involved in the industry in one way or another,” he said.
