Thank you for that introduction.
I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodian of Australia, our Indigenous people – the oldest continuing culture on earth with an unbroken connection to the land of Australia.
And thank you for the opportunity to speak with Monash Suzhou graduates.
I am always so inspired by what I see graduates doing, and what I see them aiming for.
It is a real honour to be able to speak with them – with you.
First of all I want to congratulate you.
You should be proud of what you have achieved.
Not only your study to enter university.
Not only your study at university,
But you should be proud that you have chosen to study at an institution like Monash Suzhou.
You have made a deliberate choice to pursue something different.
And here you are – you have succeeded.
Congratulations on graduating.
I hope that this is not the end of journey with Australia – but just the start.
Monash University keeps in touch with its graduates.
And as Ambassador, I want to keep in touch with you too.
So please link up with the alumni networks run by the University and the Embassy.
I would like, with your permission, to offer just three pieces of advice to you today.
Three pieces of advice that are based on nothing more than my own experiences.
But three pieces of advice that I offer you in good faith having reflected on the question of how to live a meaningful life myself – including as I wrote this speech.
Three pieces of advice I offer in the hope that it helps you in the important act of reflecting.
Reflect on what you hear.
Think about what you agree with; and what you disagree with.
And use that process of reflection to define your own future and how you want to approach it.
Through that act of reflection, make a contribution to the best future you can imagine.
The world you will emerge into is different to the one I emerged into on graduation more than 30 years ago.
The world faces different challenges.
You will face different challenges.
These can be daunting as you seek to find your place in the world and make your contribution to the world.
But don’t be overwhelmed.
The world of the future is the one that you will make.
And that is the point from which I would like to start my remarks.
So here are my three pieces of advice to you.
First, respect is one of the most fundamental aspects of human engagement.
So act with respect towards people at all times.
If we respect each other and the institutions of society we can build trust.
Trust is what makes human society move forward.
Relationships with high trust have a low transaction cost.
And when there is a low transaction cost, we can do things more efficiently.
That helps moves society forward – we can create more, develop more, discover more.
So make respect a core of your engagements with other people and you will make a contribution to a better future.
It is easy to not be respectful to people that are different to you or have a different perspective.
It is sometimes easier to treat someone different to you with disrespect – to dismiss them and their views.
It takes effort to treat someone from a completely different culture to you – a different society and different world view – with respect.
You have to think about their perspective.
You might have to adjust the way you might say some things.
But that effort is the very showing of respect.
And it is rewarded many times over.
I see this everyday in my work as a diplomat.
I engage with people who have different backgrounds, cultures and interests to mine.
But if I respect them – genuinely engage with them in a respectful way – I can learn something.
And, I believe that people who are treated with respect are more likely to treat others with respect.
They will respond to you with respect.
And they will, perhaps, think about that in their next engagement and treat the next person with respect.
By taking the step to respect others, you set in train a possible better world – one based on respect.
So be respectful.
My second lesson is be curious.
It does not matter what you do.
Whether you are in business, an academic or in government.
Whether you are an artist or an entrepreneur.
You should be curious.
Be curious about the field you work in.
Be curious about the world.
Be curious about the changes taking place around you.
Curiosity is so important because it is how we engage with the world.
It helps us understand what is going on.
It helps us to tackle problems – in society, in the environment, in business.
It helps us to be creative – by being curious about the way others might see the world and how we can see and describe the world in new and different ways.
I am curious about China.
I try to learn about the economics, the history, the politics, the society, the culture and the literature of this country.
I know I will never be an expert in all things about China.
I love reading the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
And that helps me to understand Chinese history and literature.
Even if it is only one book of the many thousands one should read, it gives me new knowledge and perspectives with which to understand China.
You might be curious in different ways.
Some might be deeply curious about a narrow field and become very expert.
Some might be generally curious about everything.
The form your curiosity takes does not matter.
What matters is that you are curious.
And that curiosity should not stop now that your formal studies might end.
It is more important than ever that you remain curious.
Because that it is how we develop.
As the Monash coat of arms says: Ancora Imparo – I am still learning.
To me this is more exhortation than statement of fact.
So be curious.
Thirdly be ethical.
This last one is easy to say and hard to define.
Over the centuries there has been much written about ethics, philosophy and what is “right.”
I don’t have the answer.
But I can tell you that asking yourself what is “right” as you go about your life is perhaps more important than anything.
We work with other people in nearly everything we do.
In doing so, we – every one of us – make a unique contribution to building the culture of the business or team that we work in.
If we decide it is okay to take some ethical short cuts, then we build a team that works that way.
And believe me, that is not a team that you want to work in.
But if you make the effort to think about the ethics of what you do and you make a conscious decision to act in an ethical way, then you build a better team, and that team builds a better future.
In the Australian Government we talk a lot at the moment about “integrity.”
Integrity is closely related to ethics.
I would suggest that if you behave with integrity, you act ethically.
Just by putting this issue on the agenda it invites me to think about how I act ethically in my role.
It encourages me to reflect on how I behave.
And it encourages me to aim for the highest ethical standards.
So, everyday when I am making decisions about how I act with colleagues in the Embassy, in resolving a financial issue, or deciding on a promotion for someone, I think about ethics.
Ethics is not just about big questions. It is about the small actions we undertake everyday.
There are many ethical frames to choose from.
There is ancient Chinese thought from Confucius and Mencius, there is the wisdom of religions, there is what we can learn from contemporary discussions of ethics.
All of these help us to think about what is ethical.
And that is the point.
Ethics is about how you behave as an individual.
So you need to think about that.
As you make choices about what you do in life, think about the ethics.
Because you will be building the culture of the future.
So be ethical.
I have shared with you three thoughts: be respectful, be curious and be ethical.
These three are deeply interconnected.
To think about ethics you need to be curious.
If you behave ethically, I would suggest you are respectful of people.
If you are respectful of people, you have a good start to being ethical – because disrespecting people is fundamentally unethical.
Sir John Monash, after whom the university was named, was a remarkable man who left a great legacy.
He was an engineer and a soldier. A scholar and a man of his community.
Through his life he sought to use his education and abilities for the benefit of the community.
That is what you should be aspiring to do.
You will all graduate and go forward into the world.
The world might seem to you like a thing that is already set.
Maybe it seems that it is hard to conceive of how your actions might shape the future of the world.
But I would suggest to you that you need to realise that it is precisely you and the way you choose to act in all that you do that will define the future.
If you are respectful, curious and ethical, then I would suggest that you can make sure we have a good future.
And, as Monash Graduates, that is what you be aspiring to do.
Congratulations on your graduation.
And I want to thank you in advance for the future that you will build.