I was on the road early this morning to give the Keynote opening address at the National Conference of Business and Professional Women Australia - the title of my address is "Hope, Aspiration and Opportunity". Hope that we can achieve equity for women around the world, aspiration in the sense that comes from hope to build careers and success and opportunity in terms of seizing it. As ex- Officio Director of the Board of the United Nations Global Compact i can't wait to put the message out there - that across the world we must do more for girls and women who still face oppression, domestic violence, lack of access to opportunity and the basic fundamental right of being equal amongst us all.

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Keynote Opening Speech – the National Conference of Business and
Professional Women (Australia), Ettalong, New South Wales,
Australia 17th of November 2013
Matthew Tukaki, ex-Officio Director of the Board of the United Nations Global Compact, Chairman of the
Sustain Group / matthew.tukaki@sustaingroup.net / www.sustaingroup.net
Opening Slide
Kia Ora, Talofa and good morning. Thank you Marilyn for that warm welcome. Before I begin I would
like to acknowledge the local indigenous people of this land on which we are gathered this Sunday
morning and pay my respects to the elders and ancestors both past and present. The Dharruk and
the Darkinjung people have occupied this land for the last nearly 11,000 years. For those of you who
don’t know Ettalong is the Aboriginal name for “Drinking Place” so it’s only apt that I speak with you
this morning after what I understand was a fantastic evening had by all. I would also like to pay
tribute to the work of Marilyn and the team at Business and Professional Women Australia who have
not only been partners – but sources of regular inspiration. I would also like to acknowledge past
presidents and of course the incoming president.
Slide 1: The United Nations Global Compact
For those of you who don’t know about the United Nations Global Compact, we are the world’s
largest corporate citizenship movement established by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
There are some 7,500 signatories around the world today and we focus on changing business
behaviour around embedding human rights, the environment, anti-corruption and labour rights into
everyday business strategy. I like to refer to the UNGC as the business and industry side of the UN
system. Here in Australia, just like more than 100 countries around the world, we have established
Local Networks who work to localise the global discussion and, in reverse, take the country
experience to the global level. I have been involved with the Australian Network for nearly five years
and have led our global networks since May of this year in a significant change and reform process
as we gear ourselves towards what is known as the Post 2015 Agenda.
For those of you who are familiar with the Millennium Development Goals, designed to alleviate
people from poverty, focus on improving maternal health, ensuring children have access to primary
education, empower women and begin the change process of developing up the developing world,
then you might know that as of 2015 the world will once again change – this time towards what are
known as the Sustainable Development Goals – more than a decade ago when the world came
together for the Millennium Development Goals business and industry were really involved. Today,
more than ever we are and it will be through innovation and invention, entrepreneurship and
stewardship that each of us will play a role. I am here expressly to tell you that I fundamentally
believe that in order for us to truly address the inequity between the genders, particularly in the
developing world, women will pay a significant role – business and professional women, not just
those who work in policy or within non-governmental organisations.
Slide Two: Hope, Opportunity and Aspiration
So, today, I am not going to talk about the breaking of the glass ceiling or more women on boards – I
am sure of these last few days you have discussed, debated it and analysed it. Instead I am going to
talk about three of the most important words I believe are central to the human condition – hope,
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opportunity and aspiration and what we can do to empower, in particular, girls and young women
across the developing world. That even though we may be far from the streets of Kabul in
Afghanistan, Riyad in Saudi Arabia, or Dakkar in Bangladesh – the opportunity abounds.
Slide Three - Seven: Key Facts
But first, and I am sure many of you will be familiar with these, are some facts
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Globally, 66 million girls out of school
80% of all human trafficking victims are girls
There are 33 million fewer girls than boys in primary school
75% of AIDS cases in sub-Saharan Africa—the region hardest hit by the disease—are women
and girls
In a single year, an estimated 150 million girls are victims of sexual violence.
50% of all the sexual assaults in the world are on girls under 15.
14 million girls under 18 will be married this year; 38 thousand today; 13 girls in the last 30
seconds.
The #1 cause of death for girls 15-19 is childbirth.
Girls with 8 years of education are 4 times less likely to be married as children.
A child born to a literate mother is 50% more likely to survive past the age of 5.
Educated mothers are more than twice as likely to send their children to school.
A girl on planet earth has a 1 in 4 chance of being born into poverty
A girl with an extra year of education can earn 20% more as an adult
Women operate a majority of small farms and business in the developing world
If India enrolled 1% more girls in secondary school, their GDP would rise by $5.5 billion
There are 600 million girls in the developing world.
So let’s start off with Hope.
Slide Eight: Hope
For my day job I travel the world looking at what we call social investment projects – initiatives
where a company or a business may be providing either financial or material support to a
community initiative – mainly in the areas of health, education and small business. There are many
examples where business and industry and build schools and hospitals, roads and infrastructure that
help build the capacity of a local community and, importantly put them on the path to prosperity
and independence. Did you know, for example, one of the biggest success stories could be as simple
as building a bridge across a river therefore enable the freer flow of trade and culture between
villages? Anyway, hope is one of those things that you need to instil early on in the lives of children
in the developing world – as is the case here at home. The problem is business all too often does not
step into the classrooms of the schools we build in developing country or we simply fly in and fly out.
All too often we do not encourage enough the development of education for girls as a primary
indicator of development.
So, this is what I do. Whenever I step in the classroom of a school in a developing country I always
ask a very simple, yet scientific question. If you could be anything in the world what would you be.
The last time I did this was in a school in Pekanbaru, Indonesia only a few months ago. The school
had been built by an Indonesia company more than a decade ago. Being Indonesia there is a high
population of Muslim students and a great many girls. The test when you ask the question is
whether or not hope exists in the answer – that they dream large. Invariably the answers that come
back can disturbing – a house wife, have children, be a good wife. In this case the answers were
different – I want to be a teacher, I want to be a doctor, I want to be a politician. One said she
wanted to be like Megawati Sukarno Putri, Indonesia’s first female President. In both of these cases
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the role of business may be to look at how we can help those move towards hope if they think their
lives will simply be one of subservience by showcasing women in the workforce. In the case of the
second is how can possibly provide opportunities so those girls and young women can achieve their
dreams? That is why hope is important. We must do more to ensure it has the environment to exist
and where it does not- seed it.
Slide Nine: Aspiration
Hope invariably leads to Aspiration. It is one thing to hope it is another to aspire. I spoke recently to
a student in Wollongong last week who were graduating with Diplomas in everything from Childcare
to the Law. I said to them that the key to success is to list your aspirations down, however fool hardy
they may seem at the time and have a plan. Where some may not have means or access to a plan,
the role of those in business can be to guide them and to mentor them. My plan wa s fairly simple to
start off with – at 8 I wanted to be a museum director – that changed when mum discovered what
we were really doing was burying all her jewellery in the backyard and playing treasure hunt. If
anyone ever buys 10 Gemstone Drive in Wellington and dig up the backyard in fifty years they’ll be
rich. I wanted to be a chemist at 10 – that didn’t quite work out because I was no good with mixing
things. At 12 I was very entrepreneurial. We got sugar sacks from grandads, went to the bush, got a
whole heap of pine cones, bagged them and sold them for a $10 a pop as firewood. Our native plant
business didn’t last too long after we snatched a whole lot of mum’s pot plant holders, went next
door to the reserve, transplanted said native plants and sold them on the road side – needless to say
the local council was unimpressed. At 16 I got a lost a little bit but when I moved to the big smoke
and needed to make friends I ran for student politics. My election campaign was pretty simple “vote
for me and my dad will buy you beer”. I won and after having a fairly big head at the age of 18, in
1993 I thought how hard can running for parliament be. I had no post school qualifications
whatsoever – because even though this school thing was a regular feature early on we just didn’t
agree. But, who would have thought that a little Maori boy from Upper Hutt New Zealand could at
34 be running a near multi billion company at the age of 34 or, at the age of 39 be appointed by the
Secretary General to sit on the Board of a United Nations Institution. Now my life journey is nothing
overtly special had it not been for the fact that in between 16 and 20 someone sat me down and
showed me how to turn hope and aspiration into opportunity. For girls and young women one of
two things that are fundamental to empowerment is enablement – providing an enabling
environment through which success, in its many forms can come.
And Aspiration invariably leads to opportunity
Slide Ten: Opportunity
The central role of business and industry, executives and mentors it to provide the environment
wherever that environment may be. We need to look at our workforce dynamic and change our
mindsets on the work we think women can do and it starts with not only reforming our sometimes
entrenched thinking – it’s also about the process of employment. The truth is a large part of the
workforce doesn’t just drop off the back of the HR truck anymore. Permanent employment and the
world of work is changing to the point that not only are we seeing a marked pick-up in casualization,
but also of who is doing the recruiting – and it’s the recruitment firms at every level of the
organisation. In the developed world it is about ensuring the recruitment company is in fact going to
market for a cross section of skills and based on the brief not based on what they think you want and
therefore are prepared to pay a fee for. The truth is if we took a hard cold look at how the
employment industry works then, having been a large part of it, we would see some significant
process problems. So, in the developing world we need to provide the same access to opportunities
as we do men, ensure that from the get go we are filling the brief we have been given and no it’s not
about quota or the reverse of merit alone it is focussing on the inherent need of business in today’s
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world and that is women play an equal and important part in the success of my business. In the
developing world it is about showcasing the very opportunities that can be provided and again,
creating the enabling environment. How many graduate programs have you heard of in developing
countries? How many programs around childcare in the workplace in developing countries have you
heard of? The truth is I have not head of many so we need to get the basics right and opportunity
also means access.
As business and industry we participate in the lives of women in developing countries in many cases
from the time they arrive at school and it just makes good business sense that we would should
enable the pathway to employment and small business ownership because one day that young girl
could be our employee or a supplier to our business.
The funny thing about hope, aspiration and opportunity is we more often than not take it for
granted. Sometimes we don’t recognise it’s not present and so we draw complexities around the
discussion. Here in Australia those complexities of the role of women in business or on boards have
been made worse because instead of simplifying it we add more layers. The truth is we can quickly
address the pay inequity debate between male and female graduates with the stroke of a pen and
the human resources department of a business ensuring the process is equitable. We don’t need a
productivity commission review for that. When it comes to the recruitment of more women on
Boards it is about those very men who make public statements to fulfil them and for recruiters to
stop putting forward the same old usual suspects for a role. And when it comes to women in the
service workers sector being paid on average more than 20% less than a male counterpart then that
should also be fixed with the stroke of a pen and a commitment to reform. In other words its action
time not more discussion time.
It’s the developing world where the complexities lay and that’s why business and industry can play
such a pivotal role. We are in the business of creating jobs and so it makes sense that we should take
the time and effort to nurture increased female participation in our workforces.
Slide Eleven: Role Models
That leads me on to role models. Here are five
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Michelle Bachelet
Helen Clarke
Valerie Amos
Nancy Robinson
Mary Robinson
Role models can be global – they show young women that they can in fact succeed and do anything
they can providing the enabling environment is present. Or they can be truly local and in our own
communities. For me personally my own female role models were my mother and two
grandmothers. My mum worked two jobs for a long time, as did my father, to give us access to all
the opportunities they could. My grandmother, Anne O’Flaherty, showed me that persistence pays –
she is an activist even though quiet – in her eighties she is still out there with a hammer and nails
putting hoardings for her chosen political party in her front yard come election time. My father’s
mother, Barbara, was as formidable as she was compassionate. She took me in when I thought all
hope was lost when I was a young fella and set me straight and set me back on the path to
opportunity. From my mother came my hope, from her mother came my aspiration and from my
father’s mother came the opportunity – the opportunity to re-group and well, here I am today.
This is why your organisation is so important with a huge amount of potential. It is through business
and professional women both here in Australia and abroad that the real life differences can be
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made. If any organisation should own that catch-call of hope, aspiration and opportunity then it is
yours. Thank you for all your hard work, to Marilyn and the executive team and the many tireless
volunteers across the chapters from Burwood to Joondalup and, finally, thank you for letting me
share part of your Sunday.
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