About the speaker
Our speaker today is Ms Alison Peters
Alison is the CEO of the Council of Social Service of NSW (NCOSS), which provides independent and informed policy development, advice and plays a key coordination and leadership role for the non-government social and community services sector in New South Wales.
Prior to her current position, Alison held numerous positions within the trade union movement including Deputy Assistant Secretary of Unions NSW, Secretary of the Australian Services Union (NSW & ACT Services Branch), National Chairperson of the ASU and Vice President of the Labor Council of NSW (now known as Unions NSW).
Alison has been a board member of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, a director of Sydney Water and the NSW Working Women’s Centre. She holds a bachelor of commerce in industrial relations and law from the University of New South Wales.
It gives me great pleasure to invite Ms Alison Peters to deliver the occasional address.
Speech
I would like to begin by acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eora nation as the traditional owners and custodians of the land on which we meet today . I also acknowledge the Gooringai people as the traditional owners and custodians of the land on which other UTS campuses sit.
Acknowledge guests
Distinguished guests
Family and friends and
Today’s graduands
It is a great honour to be with you today and to be asked to speak. I must admit after accepting the invitation to do so I did wonder what exactly I could say to you all. One thought was to commission one of you to prepare my speech for me!
My thoughts also turned to my own graduation in 1987 – some 27 years ago. Much has changed in this time. We had computers – but certainly not ones we could carry around with us. I did almost all of my essays and assignments on a typewriter – liquid paper was my friend! No mobile phones, no facebook or twitter – social media meant the pages in newspapers devoted to society parties, theatre and gallery openings and charity events. In my case I also graduated with no HECS debt. I was in one of the last graduating groups that had a free university education. That makes me enormously privileged compared to students today.
Despite the many changes in the last three decades, some things do remain the same. University provides learning, knowledge and the opportunity to broaden our horizons. It is a melting pot of ideas, different people and experiences. Graduating from university remains a great achievement and it continues to be the passport to many careers.
I remember my own graduation with relief – for having made it through to the end, with pride – as the first person in my family to go to university, and with a great deal of satisfaction. I had been working for several years by then and the graduation ceremony marked what I believed then to be the end of my education and the start of the rest of my life. I saw my time at University as a rite of passage and a means to an end – in my case a job.
Looking back, what I hadn’t expected was that my education would have such a significant bearing on the person that I am today. While I have not undertaken significant formal education since my graduation, - unlike many students today who are already planning post graduate study while they complete their undergraduate degrees – I continue to learn.
My time at University also confirmed my passion for social justice and to strive for a society that is fair to all of its people.
University left me with a great sense of curiosity and the skills needed to satisfy that curiosity. As I said, I continue to learn. Exposure to different ideas, different views and a way to assess these, consider their merit and argue for those I felt offered the best opportunities were also skills I developed, and continue to develop to this day. Working with others to resolve problems is another skill honed in countless group presentations during tutorials.
Some skills weren’t quite so positive or useful. During uni I became a champion procrastinator. Promises of “if I just finish this reading” or “if I just write another couple of pages on the essay”, then I can have a break for a coffee and a chocolate biscuit. To this day I still use Tim Tams as a bribe to get work done when I have looming deadlines.
My career in the trade union movement and now the not for profit community sector has seen me exposed to many different ideas and issues and the skills I developed while at university - an ability to analyse, reflect, think, propose new ideas and argue for their consideration and to work with others have held me in good stead.
The motto of UTS “Think, Change, Do” is perfectly apt to describe my university experience and the legacy of my studies.
I could not have imagined when I graduated the jobs that I would do and the positions I would hold. While I was clear that I wanted to make a difference for people, I could not have predicted being a leader in the trade union movement nor the head of NCOSS, the peak social justice advocacy body in NSW.
I have been remarkably privileged to have held these roles. My current role, as I said is as the head of NCOSS, the Council of Social Service of NSW. NCOSS as the peak body for the social and community services sector has a vision for a society where there is social and economic equity, based on cooperation, participation, sustainability and respect. Sometimes we just say that we work for social justice
The work of NCOSS and the broad social and community services sector is to provide advice and support to vulnerable people so that they too can live an “ordinary” life, with dignity and opportunities to be whatever they want to be. To explain this a bit more, when we hear that 85% of primary school kids in NSW meet learning and development benchmarks, we acknowledge that result but ask what would it take to have the other 15% also meet those benchmarks.
If Gina Rhinehart were to walk into this auditorium today the average wealth of everyone would increase dramatically. But, not one of us would be better off. NCOSS seeks therefore to lift the average by focusing our attention, resources and effort of those who do not have much rather than improving the lot of those who do.
In short by making a real difference for individuals we aim to have a fairer society that we can all be proud of.
To give you a sense of the work I and my colleagues do, this week we will be analysing the Federal Budget to provide briefings to our member organisations about the impact on their clients and their work. NCOSS will also be consulting our members about the forthcoming NSW State Election and what we want to see candidates and parties commit to. The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) will be releasing its determination on gas prices and we will need to consider the impact of that decision for low income and vulnerable households. We will meet with the new Minister for Family & Community Services, Gabrielle Upton to discuss issues in her portfolio, especially affordable housing. We will be seeking meetings with several of her cabinet colleagues to discuss how the NSW Government can support low income, vulnerable and disadvantaged people through the planning system and by providing better integrated services for people with mental health issues. I will also be spending time considering how to allocate funding for community infrastructure available as part of the ClubGRANTS scheme. We will take calls, respond to emails, provide information, develop submissions, lobby and advocate, attend meetings, collaborate with government, other NGOs and other organisations.
The work is challenging, sometimes confronting, always interesting and ultimately rewarding. I could not have done this without my University education. I would highly recommend working for a NGO.
In the course of your studies you have gained much knowledge and vital skills. To this you will now add experience. Your studies have given you an excellent foundation and it’s important that you build on this wherever you go and whatever you do.
The best lesson I learned at university was that whatever I did, it had to be important to me and to be fulfilling. Regardless of what you do, know that you are making a contribution to our society.
You should be very proud of your achievements in your studies. As I discovered however, this isn’t the end. Its just the next step. Continue to challenge yourself, maintain a sense of curiosity about the world and continue to learn.
I would also like to pay tribute to your families and friends who have supported you throughout your studies and who will no doubt support you in your future work.
They are rightly proud of what you have achieved in graduating here today. They should know that your success has been partly the result of their support as well as your own hard work.
Last week I came across something that Robert Reich wrote. Robert Reich was the Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton and he is now a Professor at the University of California at Berkeley in political economy. He had just given the last lecture to his students who would soon graduate and he spoke of their boundless energy and sharp intelligence, of their idealism and commitment. He noted that some would change the world for the better.
As I look at the graduates today I see the same energy, determination and optimism for the future. I know some of you will change the world for the better but I know that all of you have something to contribute. I wish you all the very best in your future endeavors whatever they may be and whatever path you chose to follow.
Thank you.