Occasional Address: Graduation Ceremony, Deakin University, Faculty of the Arts
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty APM
28 April 2006
Chancellor Mr David Morgan, Vice-Chancellor Professor Sally Walker, members of University Council, academic staff, graduates, family and friends.
Thank you for your invitation to provide the occasional address tonight.
I’d like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of this land, the Wathaurong People of the Kulin Nation. It is important to recognise their historical connection to the land on which we gather today.
Let me start by saying this is a happy occasion and I offer my personal congratulations to the graduands. Many of you would have realised working through your ‘semesters’, that what you initially set out to achieve can be often be altered by what you learn along the way - I think it is a truism to say that the more you learn, the more you realise how much you have to learn.
I guess there’s no truer time that comes to mind when you are sitting your final exam paper!
I’d like to talk to you tonight about life long learning and how that interacts with leadership in terms of facing the changes around us today.
Learning is life long and there has been no better example of that than the challenges we have faced in our organisation during my first five year term in office.
Only six months into the job the September 11 terrorist attacks occurred. A year later, the Bali nightclub bombings occurred, this soon became the biggest operation in AFP history. That was surpassed by the Indian Ocean Tsunami of which we still have people involved, and capacity building projects but more about that later.
Events such as these have dramatically altered government and community expectations on how to deal with all sorts of issues in society.
This in turn has profoundly affected our work and the context of Australian and regional policing. And the learning has not been restricted to the security environment.
While it is true to say that Australia does remain a terrorist target, particularly in those countries where terrorist groups have based themselves, there are other less obvious threats to our security. There are many examples in our region of countries whose level of development lends itself to exploitation.
In addressing the recent events in the Solomon Islands and our attempts to assist the Australian Government’s initiatives in PNG, we have found that the best response has been whole -of-government responses.
We have learned that success requires a heavy investment into partnerships at the local, national and international levels.
As those of you who are graduating from International and Community Development studies would understand, this has been an intense process. It has involved developing an understanding of values, communities and environments - which are often very different to our own.
We have had to change our organisation and our outlookl to face these challenges. As a growing organisation we have had to ensure that the skills distribution has limited the opportunity for gaps to develop in our responses.
As a consequence of what we and dare I say it, governments have learnt in recent years, policing and activities strengthening the rule of law, now assume a more prominent role in national and regional policy considerations.
Where election policies of the past focused heavily on health and education – and rightly so – we have seen a shift in emphasis especially during the past two Federal elections.
This prominence can be reflected in monetary terms through the increase of the AFP budget from $365 million in 2000-2001, to $1.86 billion in 2005-2006.
But the rapid pace of change, balancing extensive new roles with traditional responsibilities, and the complexity of the environment we now have to operate in, has lead to us an organisation to look at learning and look at leadership.
But I want to say publicly that with the increased resources and additional powers provided to the AFP, there is a consciousness in our executive team that we need to be more accountable for what we are given by the government.
Tonight I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to help us in what we try to do on behalf of the community.
As graduates of the Arts you have answered theoretical questions which we address operationally such as:
- How do societies function in local and global settings?
- What are the forces and great events that are shaping our world?
- What are the relationships between crime and major social and political structures governing our society?
- How do we identify and manage policy tensions where there are competing interests?
- What are the main factors shaping people’s lives in national and international contexts particularly the push and pull factors affecting the movement of people and resources around the world?
Part of your training at Deakin has developed skills and abilities which can help us better understand the rapid changes to our environment.
We invite you to explore where we have had to make major adjustments to planning, operating and training.
The public relations and journalism graduates here would have their own observations about our performance in managing community expectations and an understanding of what we are doing, why we have to do it, when we do it and who it really affects.
Some would say that we have become a leader in our field when it comes to policy development and capacity building. Certainly the United Nations has made observations about our efforts in taking the investigation of drug importations offshore to source countries. The UN has also made positive comments about our work in the Solomons.
But as historian Robert A. Caro said ‘no-one can lead who does not first acquire power, and no leader can be great who does not know how to use power’.[1]
Conscious of this responsibility, we wave been working in conjunction with institutions such as the Australian National University, the Centre for International Economics, the University of Queensland and Flinders University to ensure that we have independent and qualified assessment of our performance.
For example, we can tell you the return on investment in dollar terms, for the work of the AFP in drug investigations, in fraud investigations and in counter terrorism work.
But what difference, if any, have we made in the Solomons and how do we measure that?
Again, to me these are important questions because the capacity building programs are fast becoming the largest investment by government into the AFP with nearly 500 police permanently attached to our International Deployment Group. As I mentioned earlier, the cost of this means that other areas of public policy may not be receiving the same level of attention from government which places a heavy onus upon us to understand and measure our performance.
On the more controversial topic of police powers, particularly the new powers to combat terrorism, the same onus applies.
We are at a time in our history where we, as leaders, are attempting to balance human rights, civil liberties and powers of the State to address national security. I want to be clear that having walked through the crime scene of the first and second Bali bombings and the bombing of our Embassy in Jakarta as well as the makeshift morgue of the Sangalah Hospital which, thanks to the Australian Government, has now been rebuilt – it will be necessary for us to ensure that we have the wherewithal in law enforcement to deal with the new environment.
Enormous responsibility rests on the shoulders of our leaders to get the correct balance between powers and liberties.
This is a time for leaders to understand and embrace the values of our community, and universities such as Deakin have the opportunity to make a valuable contribution. You are well positioned to ensure that the balance and the debate are properly focussed.
Leadership today more than ever before needs to be inherently linked to values.
Responses by leaders, including governments, are being second guessed on a global basis. We look to people we can trust to lead us through these times.
My mind goes to Sir William Deane who demonstrated leadership by living and embracing his values. As a leader, Sir William has helped us understand our national identity. His role in the ‘Mabo’ decision is a clear demonstration that you can and should take your values into your public life.
Deane said:
The three strands of our national identity that really unify and sustain our nation are the Spirit of Anzac, our multicultural inclusiveness, and the generosity and sense of fair play that so commonly exists between ordinary Australians
It is important that we continue to embrace each facet of our national identity as we face our current challenges. This is one of the reasons why the AFP has moved so purposefully towards engagement of the Islamic community in Australia.
In the case of the Solomons it has been one step forward, two steps back. For instance, up until two weeks ago, we had the first elections successfully completed against a backdrop of relative peace and calm. There had also been a significant positive impact economically.
During the times of greatest civil unrest, the Solomon Island economy is estimated to have contracted by 14.3 per cent (2000, 9 percent in 2001 and a further 2.4 per cent in 2002).
The Central Bank of Solomon Islands estimated in its 2004 Annual Report that the economy had grown by 5.6 per cent in 2003 and by 5.5 per cent in 2004, the fastest rates of growth since the early 1990s. The Central Bank had projected a growth rate of 4 per cent in 2005 that was expected to continue in 2006. But, of course, all of that has now changed.
We eventually need to reach the goal where the people of these countries acknowledge that their quality of life and their future has improved because of our presence.
It is relevant to this gathering to recognize that leaders and leadership are not only about values but also about education and understanding.
To the many parents here this evening, I simply point out that apart from affection and some basic essentials such as food clothing and a place to live, to provide a child with an education is a gift that is not only priceless but one that eludes many young people around the world who don’t have the quality of life that we enjoy in Australia.
The learning does not stop here though and it would be a shame if tonight was the culmination of learning for those of us in the room. I still learn each and every day and enjoy that aspect of my work.
To conclude I will leave you with two points about learning. The first is a story about Winston Churchill as told by Sir William Deane. Deane says that while Churchill was apparently not good at math, he did write a piece that showed how it fell into place for him. Churchill wrote:
“I had a feeling once about mathematics, that I saw it all – depth beyond depth was revealed to me – the Byss and the Abyss. I saw, as one might see the transfer of Venus – or even the Lord Mayor’s Show, a quantity passing through infinity and changing its sign from plus to minus. I saw exactly how it happened and why the tergiversation was inevitable and how the one step involved all of the others. It was like politics….. But it was after dinner and I let it go”.
So even leaders like Churchill have gaps in their qualifications, and the trick is to recognise the gaps and do something about them.
There is one final point on the importance of values and being true to yourself that I wish to mention.
A colleague of mine who is an architect recommended an excellent book to me called: “The Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility”. The book is written by Stewart Brand and is about taking a more strategic perspective of our world in order to better understand it, and care for it.
I can think of no better summary of strategic vision and values than a quote from mathematician and physicist, Freeman Dyson, contained in the book:
“The destiny of our species is shaped by the imperatives of survival on six different time scales. To survive means to compete successfully on all six time scales. But the unit of survival is different on all six time scales.
On a time scale of years, the unit is the individual.
On a time scale of decades, the unit is the family.
On a time scale of centuries, the unit is the tribe or the nation.
On a time scale of millennia, the unit is the culture.
On a time scale of tens of millennia, the unit is the species.
On a scale of eons, the unit is the whole web of life on our planet.
Every human being is the product of adaptation to the demands of all six time scales. This is why conflicting loyalties are deep in our nature. In order to survive, we have needed to be loyal to ourselves, to our families, to our tribes, to our cultures, to our species and to our planet. If our psychological impulses are complicated, it is because they were shaped by complicated and conflicting demands.”
The point I am making is that with all of the challenges we face in our world today, we need to recognise that from a more strategic perspective, this period represents a time in our history when first we must understand the long term nature of the problem before developing solutions that may only have a short term effect.
In the process, as leaders, we must not abandon our values and we must be creative and inclusive in developing the policy response.
Once again, I thank the University for inviting me here today to deliver this address and to share such an important day. I congratulate all graduands on your academic achievement and wish you all well for the future.
Thank you.
[1] Lessons in Power: Lyndon Johnson revealed. A Conversation with Historian Robert A Caro
pg 47, Harvard Business Review, Volume 84 number 4, April 2006