Occasional Address for the School of Social and Political Sciences

Well thank you, it is an honour to be with you all this morning.

I want to begin by also acknowledging my Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters who are here today and on whose land we hold this gathering.

I want to recognise the Presiding Officer and Deputy Chancellor as well as the Dean – thank you for making me so welcome this morning. And I recognise all staff, distinguished guests, graduates, their families and friends.

As an alumnus of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, I am pleased to hear the appropriate recognition of our first nations this morning, as it is a year of great significance where we as a people will be asked whether to constitutionally recognise first nations people through a Voice to Parliament.

One of the long-time First Nations leaders for constitutional recognition and key to the Uluru Statement from the Heart, Noel Pearson, was also a graduate of this university. Noel graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in the year of my birth, 1987, and went on to a Bachelor of Laws in 1993.

If you have been listening into the debate around the Voice, you will see and hear one of this countries great orators shaping the public conversation on an issue of profound cultural, moral and historical significance.

At one time, just like today, Noel was sitting just as you are in a graduation ceremony in the Great Hall of the University of Sydney. Could he have imagined all these years later how his story would unfold into this countries story?

I can say, 15 years on from my own undergraduate graduation, that I appreciate the power afforded to me through my university education.

However, in as much as having the power that a university degree equips you with, it is more important to reflect on how we are to dispose of this power in our communities and across the world.

In the middle of my Bachelor of Arts and Sciences, I was granted the opportunity to spend two weeks as a Youth Ambassador in remote Timor-Leste with World Vision Australia.

Here were communities who knew all too well the impact of dis-ordered power in their lives: colonisation, genocide, famine and dispossession.

When I was there in 2006, their struggle for independence had only recently been won after decades of oppression. Despite this hard-won freedom, the injustices of the past meant many Timorese families I met in remote villages faced a crippling hunger and nutrition crisis, alongside the worst maternal and child health outcomes in South East Asia.

Upon returning to what felt like an alternate universe on this campus, I happened to undertake subjects in the Theory of Social Justice taught by Dr. Danielle Celermajer, Professor of Sociology and Social Policy. There could not have been a greater contrast between these two worlds:

On the one hand, critical Rawlsian theory on justice; on the other, my encounters with many people who lived in injustice.?

Looking back, I have learnt that my studies have provided a form of “renewable energy” to power my own vocation on from that point; a vocation that seeks justice and compassion for communities who rightfully deserve their freedom from extreme poverty, violence and slavery.

However, even today, I can too easily drift from the foundation stones of my university education and neglect the opportunity to dispose of its power towards the lives of others in our world.

….

In 2022, I met former Vice President of the Philippines, Atty. Leni Robredo during the Obama Foundation Democracy Forum in New York City (and yes, I also met former President Obama, but Leni was even more inspiring).

During her term, despite enormous pressure and terrible personal attacks, she reinvented the Office of the Vice President from a purely ceremonial one into an advocacy centred office, instituting poverty alleviation programs all over the Philippines, focusing on programs on education, health, nutrition and food security, rural development, women empowerment and housing and resettlement.

As a former human rights lawyer, her education combined with her vocation became a powerful instrument she chose to use to impact the lives of millions for the better.

She shared a few reflections with the Obama Asia Pacific Leaders cohort that I think I would have appreciated hearing at my own graduation all those years ago.

So to conclude, I thought I would share some of these as you step into the next phase of your journey. She said:

·????“There are no small tasks. Give your all in whatever given to you. Mute the noise and get on with the work.”

·????“No matter how small the space is, make sure you fill it up.”

·????“You have to be willing to take risks even in difficult situations. Every time there is an opportunity to do good, you have to do it.”

Congratulations to you all, and to your families and communities who supported you to graduate today.