Chairman, CRC on Greenhouse Gas Technology
AC, BE(Civil) (Cant), BLegStd (Macq), HonFIEAust, HonDSc (Macq), FTSE
Tim Besley addressed graduates from the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at the Great Hall, City campus, Thursday May 14, 2.30pm.
About the speaker
Tim Besley is Chairman of the Collaborative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technology. Tim is also Chairman of the Science and Engineering Challenge Council, University of Newcastle; a Board Member of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council for Higher Education; and a Director of IXC Australia Limited.
Tim's career began in 1950 working for the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electricity Authority, where he worked until 1967. He then embarked on a career in the public service that included roles such as:
- First Assistant Secretary, Department of External Territories;
- Executive Member, Foreign Investment Review Board;
- First Assistant Secretary, Department of Treasury; and
- Secretary, Commonwealth Department of Business and Consumer Affairs, and Comptroller General of Customs.
From 1982–2001, Tim held senior positions in the private sector for companies that included Monier Limited, The CIG Group and Leighton Holdings Limited. He was also Chairman of the Commonwealth Bank and Chairman of the Telecommunications Service Inquiry (2000). He was Chancellor of Macquarie University for the period 1994 to 2001.
Tim has been Chairman of the Australian Research Council and the Wheat Export Authority; and he was President of the Australian Academy of Technological Science and Engineering
In 2001, Tim was awarded a Centenary Medal for service to Australian society in civil engineering and corporate governance; and in 2002, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia for his service to the community through the promotion of economic and social development; the advancement of science, innovation and education; and for distinction at the forefront of government and corporate responsibilities.
Speech
Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, Members of Council, Staff, Distinguished guests, Graduates and their families and Friends.
I congratulate you on your achievements. You have completed a major step in your professional careers and are now set to optimise the opportunities and deal with the challenges which lie ahead.
In my day Engineering and today engineering and computing offer a vast range of career opportunities. The underlying analytical skills developed in your degrees should serve you well. I will briefly demonstrate this through my own experience then discuss one area where your skills will be vital to Australia's future.
In my career as an Engineer I have had interesting jobs and a fair measure of luck. I found that engineering principles and analytical thought processes can be applied across a wide spectrum of endeavours — from real engineering on the Snowy Mountains scheme and with the Leighton Group, to the Australian Public Service; to a roof tile and concrete products manufacturer and even to Banking.
There were many lessons to be learnt along the way. Let me mention a few.
The importance of an organisation's culture and its people, the need for community outreach and the great importance of lifting productivity through innovation.
On the Snowy Scheme the Commissioner, Sir William Hudson demonstrated the power of public relations. His determination to let the Australian public see what they were getting for their tax dollar effectively headed off a threat from Menzies that he would shut the scheme down when he came to power.
When he did so he found the public knew about the scheme — it was their scheme, it showed we could do big things and they were proud of it so Menzies became a staunch supporter. It remains the case today if not more so the importance of community outreach cannot be overstated.
The designed use of grouted rockbolts in hard rock tunnelling and the science of rock mechanics was pioneered on the Snowy Scheme. This led to more rapid and more efficient tunnelling methods and greater productivity.
Safety was another key feature of the scheme. Amongst other things Hudson was a firm believer in seat belts and the Australian standards were largely developed through the innovative work undertaken in the scheme's engineering laboratories.
In the public sector while in the Treasury I can recall a good example of being prepared to deal with the unexpected. I was explaining the Government's Foreign Investment policy to a group of Senior Japanese Business men in Sydney and became aware of a presence behind, from whom in a loud whisper picked up by the PA system, came the news
"they've sacked Whitlam." This put an end to my story as the Japanese men hastened to the exits. We did reconvene at a later date.
I have observed and learnt the importance of understanding cultural issues in a number of environments. Let me give you two examples:
Monier, the roof tile and concrete products company had operations in NZ, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and the United States.
Bernard Shaw said many years ago that America and Britain were two countries divided by a common language.
An Australian colleague who works for a large US company recently said much the same thing but referring to Australians and Americans.
In Monier we learnt early to populate the management structure with Americans but to have Australians handling the technology and financial control systems. This blend worked well and gave us the confidence to expand the business there.
In the Commonwealth Bank, as David Murray has observed, it was relatively easy to privatise the Bank but not so easy to privatise the culture.
Like all of the big Banks Commbank had grown up in a pretty uncompetitive atmosphere with fixed interest rates, a cap on mortgage rates and a rigid exchange control system.
And it was government owned. With significant deregulation of the financial sector in the Hawke/Keating era cultural change was a must. The CEO who was, and is, a clear thinker supported by a strong Board became an effective change agent. The recruitment at a senior level of a number of top line executives provided some excellent role models.
This leads to my second point.
While people, culture, outreach and the need to innovate and find better ways of doing things to lift productivity are all important it is in this last area that Australia is falling behind. So let me invite you to consider the digital economy and Australia's productivity.
Australia's performance in terms of productivity growth has slowed. In a March 2009 report Access Economics said that whereas in the 90's we achieved about 90% of the productivity growth rate of the USA this has now fallen to 80%.
We were No 1 or No2 over much of the 80's and 90's and are now only No 17 amongst OECD countries. An OECD science technology and Industry Scoreboard report of 2007 shows that Australia didn't make the chart which shows the percentage of enterprises' total turnover from e commerce amongst OECD countries. For half of these countries the figure was around 15% or better. Australia's figure for last year would have just got us on the chart at 3%.
New technology and increased investment in information and communication technology will lead to increased productivity.
We are now technically in a recession and we shouldn't waste it. It provides the opportunity to sharpen the focus on risk management and importantly consider how we could benefit from the digitalisation of the economy.
There are or course some good examples of greater efficiency and higher productivity through digitalisation. The finance sector is one of the few sectors that has truly benefited from the use of ICT. Australia has been in the front line of world activity in on-line banking for some time. Productivity has markedly improved.
The Australian economy is now some 80–90% services and while a lot of services can't be provided on line like dry cleaning and tyre repairs for example, a large percentage can be digitalised.
In terms of ICT efficiency and use the Scandinavian/Nordic countries lead the world, Australia's ranking is stagnant at 14th. The core reason appears to be a weakening of an innovative push and the lack of a national broad band network.
The digital economy provides a great rallying point for our future productivity growth. We should grasp the opportunity and build on the platform of the broadband infrastructure. So are you as engineers and ICT professionals going to embrace it — I hope so.
Let me congratulate you once again and wish you well in your future endeavours.