University of South Australia – Graduation Address

The Hon Catherine Branson QC

University of South Australia, Adelaide

Thursday, 25 August 2011

Chancellor Dr Ian Gould AM, Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Peter Hoj, Members of University Council, Doctors, Emeritus Professors, Fellows and Senior Management and staff of this fine University, Graduands, Ladies and Gentlemen.          

First, may I join with the Chancellor in acknowledging the Kaurna People of the Adelaide Plains, the traditional owners upon whose ancestral lands this ceremony is being held, and pay my respect to their elders past and present?

It is a privilege to have been asked to address you on this important day. I congratulate each of you on whom an award is being bestowed. The successful completion of your course of study is something of which you, and those family members and others who supported you while you were studying, should feel justifiably proud. During your years of study you will have called upon your capacities for hard work, self-discipline and independent and critical thinking – all qualities that will be important to you in the years ahead.

The tertiary education that you have been fortunate to receive will mark you out as a privileged member of your community – where ever that community is. Privilege commonly comes hand in hand with enhanced opportunity to make a difference. I urge you to seize opportunities to make a difference – provided that they are opportunities to make a positive difference; a difference for good.  This leads me to say a few words about human rights.

Australia is not a country with a well-developed culture of human rights. Nor do we much like speaking of ‘human rights’ in the Australian context - although, somewhat curiously, we are comfortable with ideas which correlate closely with respect for human rights - such as the notion of the Aussie ‘fair go’.  It seems that we prefer to think of human rights as being relevant only to other countries.

Exploring why this might be so is too big a task for this afternoon.  Instead I would like to say a little about an important way in which we can each ensure that our privilege of education, with its related capacity for independent and critical thinking, is in fact utilized to ensure greater respect for human rights in Australia, or wherever else we may live, and thereby to make a difference for good. I am thinking of our potential power as bystanders.

I would like to start by telling the story of Tariq Jahan.  You might not recognise his name but you probably know something of his shocking but inspirational story. Mr Jahan is a resident of Birmingham in the north of England. His community got caught up in the recent riots in that country.  His son, with two other young men, sought to protect local businesses from looters.  They became victims of a hit and run attack and all three died. How did Tariq Jahan respond?  He appealed for there to be no revenge for his son’s death and for the law to be allowed to take its course.  He asked: ‘Why do we have to kill one another?  Why are we doing this?  Step forward if you want to lose your sons. Otherwise, calm down and go home – please.’ In this way Mr Jahan helped defuse an extremely volatile situation and may have saved a number of lives.  

Tariq Jahan’s story is an illustration writ large of the potential power of bystanders. He saw individuals preparing to abuse the rights of others and used his influence to dissuade them. While I hope that no one here will ever find themselves in a situation comparable to Mr Jahan’s, whose son was denied his most fundamental right, the right to life, we are unfortunately all likely to find ourselves bystanders to lesser human rights violations.

In particular, violence, harassment and bullying are worryingly prevalent in Australia.  This is one of the reasons that the Australian Human Rights Commission has adopted tackling violence, harassment and bullying as a key priority and decided that working with bystanders should be our key strategy.

We know that bullying occurs in a group context with other young people present in approximately 85% of all cases.  Yet, research has found that less than 20% act to stop the bullying and defend the person being bullied.  Most, although they don’t agree with the bullying, instead act in ways which enable and maintain it.

Similarly it seems that most harassment and bullying in the workplace takes place with bystanders present – yet not many step forward to protest at the sexual harassment of a colleague, at the racist jibe or suggested joke that demeans a fellow worker or at the over-bearing conduct of the office bully.  

It is not always easy, or even safe, to step forward to protest at conduct of these kinds. But often it is safe, particularly if one holds a position of some stature, and even where it is not, other useful but safe courses of action can often be identified.  The critical thing is that we use that capacity for self-discipline and independent thinking that I mentioned in opening to identify abusive and demeaning conduct when we see it and call it for what it is; to make plain that the conduct is not OK. In this way we can all be bystanders who make a difference for good – and incidentally, human rights practitioners.

Making a commitment to be a bystander who makes a difference for good would, I suggest, be a wonderful way of taking into your ongoing lives, the idealism and values that I am sure have been important to you throughout your lives as students in this fine University.