Tanya Hosch

Thank you for having me here this morning, and congratulations to all of you. I begin by acknowledging that we are on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation and that we must all remember their continued connection with this land and surrounding waters. I acknowledge them for their fight, for their resilience, strength and leadership.

Chancellor, academic leaders, distinguished guests and graduates, today is obviously a day of celebration and a moment that formalises another achievement, or perhaps, for some of you, it may feel like your first achievement. How wonderful that you’ve completed this part of your education. As someone with no formal qualifications, I’m both envious and excited for you. My first aid certificate isn’t even currently up to date, so you’re all well ahead of me.

I’ve got a few moments with you this morning to share some of my thoughts and experiences. It’s a privilege to have that opportunity and potentially offer something to you that might speak to you in some way and help you along your path. I suspect that many of you have never heard of me, so I’m going to introduce myself in a different way.

I am a First Australian; I’m a Torres Strait Islander woman who was conceived in Melbourne and born in Adelaide, and then when I was three weeks old, I was adopted into a family with an Aboriginal father, a Darug man from New South Wales, and a white Australian mother. My natural mother was from Wales and migrated to Australia with her family when she was very young.

I grew up in a loving family of simple means but rich in heart and spirit. Growing up, never in a million years would I have thought that I would end up working as an executive in the sporting code that I love, Australian Rules Football. And I know I’m in the wrong state to be talking in that way, but you really should give it a crack if you haven’t.

Never did I think that I would end up being the first Indigenous Australian appointed to the AFL Executive and the second woman, and never did I think that someone would pay me to be professionally disruptive. I have a role that allows me – in fact, demands of me – to ask questions about fairness, equality and justice, and really about making sure that this sporting code, which is one of the largest in the country, continues to grow and be as inclusive and create a place of belonging for everybody.

So, in considering my remarks today, I wanted to choose something that keeps me up at night. It’s pretty clear that looking at the graduates today that you’re all significantly younger than me and you certainly look younger than I feel. But I wanted to share something with you that I don’t have a solution for and that I’m not asking of you anything in particular, but I believe as new, freshly-minted graduates that you’re going to have a new lease on life when you put what you’ve learnt here into practice.

And that one thing that has been keeping me up at night recently, and for quite some time now, is what I’m calling digital ethics. And the Chancellor, I just said to her I feel like she’s taken all my best lines. We do live in a world where technology, pace and opportunity enables anyone with access to a keyboard or a smartphone a chance to share their views with the world. Once, this was just the domain of the elites, the privileged, the intelligentsia. Most of us have now the abilities and the tools to share our every waking opinion with our followers, racking up as many likes and affirmations of our opinions that we can absorb.

Issues of privacy, freedom of speech and the basic need to communicate efficiently are all in balance or almost in competition with one another. The social media platforms we congregate within can be illuminating, inspiring, informative and just practically helpful. But we also know that they can become aggressive, threatening, abusive and unhealthy. No doubt the giants behind the creation of these platforms will continue to be tested with questions about their actions to address hate speech and how to maintain a standard of safety and good manners in these keyboard-driven environments.

I’ll be one of those people asking these questions and the reason for that is simple. I see harm being done to individuals and communities through racist, sexist, homophobic and other forms of vilification online. No matter what happens regarding the policy and regulation concerning these matters, it is us. All of us who participate in these environments that can set a standard and culture of safety through how we manage our engagement through these platforms.

Did you know that more than 7 million Australians came to see an Aussie Rules football game last year? And that one in every 25 Australians is now a financial member of the AFL or an AFL club? I’m a Swans supporter and member, by the way, so if you are Sydneysiders, please come along and join us – love our Swans. Did I hear a clap or something?

Yeah! All right, good. We’re not having the best year, but you’ve got to support your team.

Now, when you’re dealing with crowd numbers like this, you have to be vigilant about maintaining safety and making it a safe place for everyone. Physical safety is paramount and absolutely critical and there’s absolutely no doubt about that. But increasingly, our digital environment seems to be unsafe. So far this year, some of the great stars of our game, Aboriginal players that make our communities so proud through the excellence that they bring to the field, have been subject to racist abuse online. Patrick Ryder, Eddie Betts, Liam Ryan, and the African player Majak Daw, have all been subject to abuse online.

These are elite athletes doing their job, thrilling crowds, leading in their clubs and their communities, and they’re being vilified. And then there was also Tayla Harris, a Carlton AFL Women’s player who was harassed and abused on the back of a spectacular image by AFL photographer Michael Wilson going online. And again, just for doing her job and demonstrating her outstanding athleticism.

In all of these cases, there was strong support that came in behind all of these players, and it was heart-warming, and it was important to see that. And the AFL did what it always does – we investigate, we take action and if we are able to identify the offender, we will see them sanctioned. So, there are those out there, people who clearly take pleasure in racially vilifying people online, mostly anonymously. It is damaging, hurtful and it’s discriminatory. So, my question is this: What are we going to do about this behaviour? When we see this abuse or become aware of it, how do we denounce it without feeding the offenders with the attention they seem to crave? I believe we all need to think about this. How bad it will need to get before we stop and think and decide to behave differently or demand a decent standard of behaviour in our interactions with one another?

Debate and a contest of ideas are important, healthy and critical to progress and growth. But do we have to abuse each other in the process? What concerns me is if abuse is being meted out so frequently and freely as it is online, targeting those who are easy to focus on due to their profiles and leadership roles, how will those attitudes, beliefs and behaviours being meted out on those who are the least powerful, without the profiles and support bases behind them, and what is it doing to the mental health of our community? When are we going to say it is enough, and who is it going to be that decides to drive the leadership behind modelling positive behaviours to set a new tone and a new set of standards?

I don’t know about you, but I was raised to value kindness. That may sound old fashioned, too simple and inadequate. I accept that. We’re living in a world of rapid change, diverse views, sometimes fragile leadership, and through a period of unprecedented political upheaval and change. You will each meet the challenges this presents for all of us in your own ways and I wish you every success in how you do that.

But may I ask you to consider one thing? As you go out into the world to apply these new skills and learnings and the knowledge that you combine from what you already had, please don’t forget to find ways to offer even the most simple acts of kindness. Even the smallest gestures make a difference to the standard of our community. There is a community online and may our kindness be reflected there also before our cohesion is too broken to remedy.

Thank you.