Graduation Address

UNIVERSITY
OF ADELAIDE

Graduation
Address

John
von Doussa QC

15
December 2006

I
would like to acknowledge the Kaurna people, the traditional owners of the land
on which we meet today, and pay my respects to their elders.

INTRODUCTION

I
speak to you now, not as the Chancellor of this University, but as the President
of Australia’s national Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.

In
your professional and personal lives you are likely to wear many hats and,
perhaps, like myself, many hats at the same time. How you juggle these
different hats without losing hold of your health, your happiness, or your
family, is something I would like you to think about today, and as your journey
through life continues.

But
first things first! Again, congratulations! Today is the culmination of your
studies. You can throw your student hats in the air; bask in the glow of
familial pride; and take stock of your achievements.

Sometimes
people say your student years are the best years of your life. But while I hope
you will always have fond memories of your time at Adelaide University, I
believe– and I suspect you do too – that the best is yet to come.

Today,
as you take off your student hats, you can look forward to bright and promising
futures. But as you plan your rapid escalation of
the professional ladder, remember that an office is a hollow home. The end of
your student life should not mark the end of your social life. Remember that
life must not only be professionally exciting but personally fulfilling.

STRIKING
THE BALANCE

In
short, remember to be happy. Working life should be a challenge; it should not
be a straitjacket. You will hear many employers parrot the phrase work/life
balance; make sure you find the real thing.

This
is no easy task. You live in an age where you have the technological
flexibility to work from virtually anywhere: the challenge is not logging on,
but logging off.

Earlier
this year I attended a lecture by a visiting Canadian expert on professional
health, Professor Mamta Gautum entitled ‘Managing Mental Wellness in the
Legal Profession’.

She
described the constant struggle for professional people to juggle, as she put
it, ‘five balls ... the work ball, the home and family ball, the
relationships ball, the friends ball, and the self-care ball’.

What
she said next is worth remembering: ‘the work ball is the rubber ball
– if you drop that one, it will bounce right back again...the other balls
are more fragile; when you drop them they might crack, they might scratch, they
may even
shatter’.[1]

Caring
for yourself becomes more challenging when you are trying to balance work
responsibilities with caring for family members.

You
will inevitably need time to care for family members, especially as they age,
and you will always need time to care for yourself.

Balancing
work and family is sometimes pigeonholed as a women’s issue. It’s
not. While it is true that women continue to carry the disproportionate burden
of carer’s responsibilities, many men are expressing an increasing desire
to have a greater involvement in the lives of their children.

Yet
workplace, financial and cultural pressures still put the onus on men to be
primary breadwinners and women to be the primary carers. While there seems to
be acceptance of the ideal of equality in paid work and family responsibilities,
the reality is that equality is not being met in many Australian families.

The
unequal division of care needs to change. Relationships, children and happiness
can all be the casualties of failing to strike the right balance between paid
work and family. Men and women need to be able to choose
how to make that balance.

Yet
sometimes, if you’re working in an office with a machismo culture of 70-80
hour weeks, where meetings are routinely held outside business hours, you might
feel like you don’t have a choice.

Early
next year the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) will grapple
with these issues in the final paper of our ‘Women, men, work and
family’ project.

HUMAN
RIGHTS IN EVERYDAY LIFE

This
project gets back to one of HREOC’s key functions – promoting
understanding and acceptance of human rights in Australia. You might be thinking
what has promoting human rights got to do with balancing work and family?

One
of the challenges HREOC faces is overcoming the popular misconception that
human rights principles are abstract ideals which are remote from every day
life.

But the principles of equality and
non-discrimination are not abstract ideals. They are basic rights which should
be recognised in families and in the workplace.

To
strike the balance we need structural change in the workplace to support gender
and carer equality. And we need attitudinal change. Both men and women need
access to family friendly employment provisions like flexible working hours and
parental leave. We need to create a culture of shared work and valued care.

Addressing discrimination is not just the responsibility of law makers, or human
rights organisations. It’s everyone’s responsibility.

Importantly,
it’s your responsibility.

As
graduates of law, business and economics you will be entering the private
sector, the public sector, and academia. In your daily working lives you will
have a responsibility to help foster a discrimination free environment.

You
can speak out in favour of family friendly workplaces and paid maternity leave.
You can recognise that in what is sometimes referred to as a
‘post-feminist age’ the challenge of achieving gender equality is
still real. Women are still grossly underrepresented in political life, in
executive management, and on the benches of Australian courts. [2]

In
the world of big business, you can think about what corporate social
responsibility means to your company. One of the encouraging developments HREOC
has witnessed is companies taking a leadership role on issues like the
gender-wage gap, climate change, and reconciliation.

The
main drive comes from within the corporations: employees expect their employer
to contribute to the community. [3] Companies who take CSR build their reputation in the community at large and
among future employees.

Of
course, corporate social responsibility starts in the corporate office.
Companies need to be encouraged to introduce effective anti-discrimination and
anti-harrassment strategies and promote family friendly working culture. A
productive, cohesive and family friendly workplace not only increases the pool
of potential employees, it makes existing employees happier and more productive.
The message is simple: good practice grows reputation, and is good
business.

HUMAN
RIGHTS IN THE FUTURE

You
may be thinking that such advice is premature; that it will be many years before
you will have a meaningful say about company policy.

So
let me say two things. Firstly, never underestimate the importance of speaking
up. It is a competitive market place and if successful companies want to recruit
and retain the best people they need to be responsive to the wishes of their
recruits.

Secondly,
your time will come. When I look at you, I am looking at the future. I am
looking at future CEOs, future lawyers, judges, economists, business leaders,
politicians, parents, employers. I am look at people who can make a difference.

You
graduate today equipped with an educational foundation on which you can build
professional success. But I hope you graduate with something more than that. I
hope you graduate with a sense of the importance of your relationships with your
fellow students, your university community, and indeed, your fellow man.

Ultimately,
the way you define yourself is not just about the hats you wear, or the awards
or accolades you win. It’s about the way you regard your fellow humans;
your sense of social responsibility; your commitment to social justice.

At
the moment there is a lot of talk in the political and media circles about
values. What I believe we should all value are not peculiarly Australian values,
but the universal values set out in the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights: values of equality, fair
treatment, of regard for our fellow human beings.

We
all have the opportunity to apply these values to our daily lives. Too often we
assume that the rights we enjoy everyday are enjoyed by all Australians.
They’re not. Today, the gross disparity between the health status of
Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is undisputed, unacceptable and a
matter of national shame. So too is the high incarceration rate of Indigenous
Australians in our gaols.

In 1991 Mr
Elliott Johnston’s Royal Commission report into Aboriginal Deaths in
Custody was greeted with enormous hope by the Indigenous community as a blue
print for change. Fifteen years later those hopes have not be realised.

What
I would like to say to you today is remember to think beyond the walls of your
office. Whatever career path you follow you will have opportunities to promote
equality, to speak out against intolerance, to use your education and your
ability to foster a more inclusive and humane society.  And I hope that
when such opportunities arise – and they will – you will speak
clearly, without hesitation.

Once
again, congratulations. I hope each of you has the courage to do what you love,
and the character to love more than yourself.

After
all, the kind of society we become depends, in no small measure, on the kind of
society you want.

Human
rights principles help to define the difference between a democratic civil
society, and a society where the winners take all. As you step outside the
university into the wider world I urge you to use your education, your ability,
and your integrity, to foster a society that respects and promotes human rights.

I
wish you all – good fortune and happiness

[1] Associate Professor Dr Mamta Gautam, Tristan Jepson Memorial Lecture,
‘Towards Managing Mental Wellness in the Legal Profession’, Tristan
Jepson Memorial Lecture, 2006

[2] The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace census in 2004 showed that in
the top 200 listed companies women held only 10.2 per cent of executive
management positions.

[3] See for example, Simon McKeon, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility makes an
impact’, The Age, 31 August 2006.