Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce AC CVO, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia

Quentin Bryce with UWS Chancellor, Professor Peter Shergold

In 1965 after studying at the University of Queensland, Quentin Bryce became one of the first women barristers admitted to the Queensland Bar. She subsequently returned to the University in 1968 and pursued an academic career in law until 1983. This laid the foundations of a distinguished public life of action and advocacy for human rights and the elimination of discrimination in Australia.

In an extraordinarily diverse career she has often been a trailblazer for the rights of women, children and the welfare of the family. Some of the key roles that she has held, among very many, have been: Convenor of the National Women’s Advisory Council; Inaugural Director of the Queensland Women’s Information Service in the Office of the Status of Women; Director, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission for Queensland; Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission; Founding Chair and CEO of the National Childcare Accreditation Council; Principal and CEO of The Women's College, The University of Sydney; Governor of Queensland for five years; National President of the Association for the Welfare of Children in Hospital; and Chair of the National Breast Cancer Centre Advisory Network.

Quentin Bryce’s contribution to advancing human rights and equality, the rights of women and children, and the welfare of the family was recognised in her appointment as an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1988 and a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2003. Also in 2003, she was invested as a Dame of Grace of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem.

Her career has been characterised by courage and leadership, a willingness to raise and debate issues that need to be addressed, and to press for reform. She is universally respected for her lifelong commitment to improving the status of women in Australia and has been a generous mentor, friend and admired role model to those many women who have followed in her footsteps.

The culmination of her distinguished career came in September 2008 when she became Australia’s 25th and first, female Governor General. No one could be more qualified than Quentin Bryce to be afforded that distinction.

The Board of Trustees of the University of Western Sydney has resolved to confer the award of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, on Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce AC in recognition of her distinguished lifelong contribution to Australian society.

Distinguished guests, graduands, your families and friends,
 
What an honour it is to join you here today.

Whenever I’ve visited the University of Western Sydney, I’ve been touched by an overwhelming optimism and generosity working at the heart of your teaching and learning.

You know what an exceptional place this is.

For more than two decades, I have looked on with a sense of glowing Australian pride, at this university’s achievements and the values, wisdom and ethos, with which you acquit your educational mission.

I acknowledge the Darug people who once cared for this land; and I express my sincere admiration and thanks, to the university’s founders and leaders, who believed in the promise of this Indigenous legacy.

A legacy that has guided UWS’s moral purpose, and social responsibility, to the Indigenous people of Greater Western Sydney.

One that has strongly influenced the university’s commitment, to welcoming, and supporting, students at all levels of educational preparedness; including those who also deal with: disability, financial disadvantage, cultural adjustment, family and work pressures, getting older, or the trepidation of just starting out.

UWS is a gutsy Australian story, that grew from the grassroots of a hugely diverse community – culturally, linguistically, socially and economically.

People whose needs and talents deserved a different kind of attention, but no lesser opportunity.

UWS was their advocate and their steward.

It belonged to Greater Western Sydney, and still does, though your devotees and beneficiaries now spread well beyond these borders.

In those 23 years or so, since UWS opened its doors, much has changed.

Your campuses have become exemplars in modern design intelligence, and efficiency.

From next year, the old Orphans’ School at Parramatta will house the esteemed Whitlam Institute and Prime Ministerial Library, as well as marvellous new public spaces for exhibitions, conferences, debates and learning.

UWS has proven itself to be – in your Vice-Chancellor’s words – a “robust, enterprising, exciting and, dare I say, happy institution.”

My friends, you don’t hear those two words proximate in the same sentence very often!

But I’ve known your Vice-Chancellor for a long time.

She’s not only well qualified to recognise a happy institution when she sees one, she can build one too, which she has clearly done at UWS.

What hasn’t changed, is the university’s philosophy: its governing touchstones of access, equity, and social justice.

its steadfast goal to be “Everyone’s University”, as Professor Reid so disarmingly puts it.

These are the fundamental principles of universal human rights practice.

They were learned by your Vice-Chancellor as a young scientist researching the health and wellbeing of aboriginal and refugee communities; and taught to me as a young lawyer advocating for the rights of women and children.

I feel grateful that our paths have crossed over the years.

I am constantly reassured by the influence and inspiration of Professor Reid’s work – today, so impressively demonstrated in her leadership of this fine university.

Friends, if we were to share our experiences of inequality, we’d find that some of us have been spared entirely; some have witnessed its humiliation and harm; and others have lived its nightmare.

The only thing that has ever made a difference, is our human capacity to stand up, and speak out, against prejudice and discrimination.

To exercise a singular kind of courage, in the face of inertia or hatred.

To be prepared to go it alone.

To insist that justice be done, no matter the personal cost.

And to keep at it, until the job is done.

Graduands, that is what this university is about, and what it has equipped you to do.

You have learned an appreciation of diversity, and the skills to work productively across disciplines and cultures, to achieve better opportunities and outcomes in your fields of endeavour.

And you know how to use your voice.

I urge you to use it.

As you do the hard yards and rise through your profession, you will see things: that ought to be praised, ought to be admonished, and ought to be changed.

It will be your voice that makes the difference.

I come from the days of street protests, church hall meetings, stump speeches, and letterbox drops. Offices had plug-in phones, IBM golfballs, snail mail, and, if you were really sophisticated, a telex machine.

It’s true that none of these antiquities stopped us from speaking out, but the myriad digital devices and virtual forums at your disposal today, allow you unprecedented power to exercise your voice in unprecedented ways.

And with that power comes a responsibility to take the fury out of fast.

To remember that it’s not smart phones talking to one another, but people; and for all the new wizardry we’ve deployed in our lives, human sensibilities are pretty much as they’ve always been.

Aristotle knew a bit about crafting an argument; finding the available means to persuade others of a position.

His starting point was not an appeal to reason or emotion, but a display of good character built on the virtues held in common with his audience.

In two and half thousand years these virtues still persuade.

Respect, courtesy, honesty, patience, humility.

They are persuasive, because they allow us to trust one another, and in trusting, we can listen.

Without trust, our arguments are muted, and the things that need our attention are neglected.

Graduands, there will never be a time when this won’t hold true.

We are generations apart, yet we share the one podium.

I am profoundly complimented by the award I receive with you today, and humbled in knowing the respected ranks I join.

Treasure the skills and virtues you take from this place, and use them well.

Friends, thank you.

Return to New beginnings for UWS spring graduates

Photos: Sally Tsoutas