When Lisa Carter (pictured left) and Kate Greaves (pictured right) step on to the Dancing CEOs stage on May 30, the two brokerage leaders won't just be performing a country-rock mashup in front of a live audience. They'll be dancing for the tens of thousands of Queensland women who have nowhere else to turn - and asking the insurance industry to step up alongside them.
Carter, CEO of Clear Insurance, and Greaves, managing director of Goldsworthy General Insurance Services, are competing as a team in the high-profile fundraiser to help push the WLSQ event's running total past $1 million.
The service provides free legal advice and support to women and children suffering domestic and family violence with a focus on the most vulnerable and disadvantaged. The need has never been more visible: in the past financial year alone, the WLSQ Helpline answered 15,708 calls - an average of 63 Queensland women reaching out every working day. January 2026 was one of the busiest months on record, with an average of 730 calls every week.
For brokers and insurers, this is not a cause sitting at arm's length from the day job. Domestic violence routinely surfaces in claims files and some industry leaders are increasingly unwilling to look away.
For Greaves, the motivation is deeply personal. One of her longtime clients, Simone O'Brien, now an international speaker on domestic violence, suffered a horrific attack from her ex-partner.
“Ten minutes changed her entire life," Greaves said recounting how, after O’Brien broke up with her partner, he came over to discuss it and with the children present, closed the door on the bedroom and attacked her with a baseball bat.
“He proceeded to hit her over the head more than 50 times,” said Greaves.
O'Brien put her arm up to shield herself, breaking it. Half her skull was crushed, she lost an eye, has endured dozens of surgeries and faces more. Her attacker is now in jail. O'Brien, Greaves said, grew up in a loving family and had never experienced violence before.
“I learned the hard way and now, I want to make sure no women or children will experience what me and my kids did ever again,” says O’Brien on her website.
This determination from women like O'Brien to spare others what she endured is, Greaves believes, beginning to shift the conversation - including among the people whose voices have too often been absent from it. Recent WLSQ events, including Dancing CEOs, are seeing more interest and support from men. O’Brien, said Greaves, has lately experienced multiple men approach her after events and ask what they can do to help.
Also, insurers and brokers in Queensland could already be more closely connected to the WLSQ than they think. At a recent International Women's Day broking event, Greaves mentioned the Dancing CEOs fundraiser to the broker sitting next to her. The broker said she had to use the service herself when she was separating from her ex-husband.
The WLSQ is open to all women, whatever their economic position but prioritises the disadvantaged and vulnerable. That can be important, said Carter, because there are situations where domestically abusive men control the finances of the women they abuse.
She pointed to WLSQ ambassador Christina Sy, who lost both her children at the hands of her ex-husband. "At the time, she was a successful corporate accountant and he was actually controlling all of their bank accounts, so she was in a tough position,” said Carter.
For brokers, the domestic violence issue can land squarely on the claims desk.
"We were talking about it just internally in my office the other day,” said Greaves. “One of my staff's friends is in claims and was saying that they've got a claim going through at the moment where it's very obvious that it's a domestic violence issue."
The suspicion is that the woman's partner set the family home on fire with himself and their child inside. Everyone got out of the house and the evidence isn't there to prove intent but the claims team are concerned it could be a case involving domestic abuse.
That’s another reason why Carter and Greaves are dancing, not just because the insurance industry is often a witness to possible cases but because for the women who are experiencing domestic violence from their male partners, access to the services of the WLSQ is a lifeline.
