Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I take the opportunity in the adjournment debate today to acknowledge a significant achievement for my region in the person of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wollongong, Professor Gerard Sutton, who, as of 1 February, ascended to the head of the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee. I want to acknowledge that Professor Sutton—who I have worked with for many years, not directly as an employee of the university but on general university issues in my region—is a person of great calibre, and I believe he will bring a great deal of experience and insight into his role as the head of the AVCC for 2006-07.

The University of Wollongong, I think, exemplifies the Wollongong motto of the ‘City of Innovation’. The university, under Professor Sutton’s leadership, has consistently won awards as the university of the year on many occasions but also for other things. I would like to highlight two of those which I think directly reflect on the type of leadership that Professor Sutton has offered. I do so because, having been a teacher in the state high schools and at the TAFE facilities, I am more than conscious, as anybody would be, that the calibre and quality of an educational facility is very much a reflection of the person who heads that facility.

The University of Wollongong in 2005 won the Prime Minister’s Employer of the Year Award for the higher education category. That particular award recognises Australian businesses and organisations which have made a strong commitment to employing people with disabilities. The university, under Ms Robyn Weekes, who has carriage of that responsibility at the university, has had a long-term commitment to equity, including for people with disabilities. The university ensures that, across all salary levels at the university, people with disabilities have the capacity and encouragement to aspire to those sorts of positions and indeed in this case to achieve them. That was a tremendous outcome for the university and is a great reflection of the environment which Professor Sutton creates at the university.

The other thing that I want to acknowledge is that, in 2005, Professor Julie Steele of the University of Wollongong was named the New South Wales Telstra businesswoman of the year. Professor Julie Steele, who is the head of the Biomechanics Research Laboratory at the University of Wollongong, recently attended a businesswomen’s luncheon as a guest speaker, at which I was able to participate. She made it clear that the University of Wollongong—when she was, in her own words, ‘a cheeky young woman in the academic world’ and had applied for a fairly senior position—was the only university to give her an interview and to subsequently employ her. That has certainly paid off for the university.

I think these examples are important. I know that Professor Sutton will have a great deal of challenge in his new role as the head of the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee. I am sure that he will perform in that role with great credit. I put no words in his mouth, but I am sure that the body that he now heads will have many challenges in lobbying the federal government on university funding and such issues. I know that Professor Sutton will represent all the universities in a forthright and honest way to the government, as indeed he has always been forthright and honest with me when I have raised issues with him.

More importantly, what I want to acknowledge today is that I think he brings to the role a true understanding of the value of innovation in education, the true value of looking for talent and ability when it is not always apparent and a true talent for giving an opportunity to people who may normally have been locked out because of old traditional processes, particularly in the world of academia. Whilst that has been reflected at Wollongong University, to its great credit, over recent years, I am sure that bringing that perspective to the national body will also ensure that that becomes a national priority and that we see great results across universities all over Australia as a result of that type of leadership. I congratulate Professor Gerard Sutton, and I also congratulate his wife, Sylvia, who I know is a very important part of the partnership, on that appointment. (Time expired)

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