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- 20 September 2006
Macquarie University
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Page: 1999
Mr ANDREW TINK (Epping) [6.05 p.m.]: Today it was my privilege to attend a law and education graduation at the Macquarie University, which is in my electorate of Epping, and to reflect on 19 years of my association with the university, in particular during the period from 1988 to 1995 when I was the Legislative Assembly's representative on the university's council. It was a pleasure to see some familiar faces, such as the Registrar and Vice-Principal, Brian Spencer, who has been employed by the university education even before it was opened in 1964, and Judge Lincoln, the Deputy Chancellor, who also has been involved with the university since its earliest days.
Throughout my association with the university, I had a long association with the recently retired Vice-Chancellor of the university, Di Yerbury, whom I admired and respected greatly, despite our differences of opinion from time to time. One difference of opinion we had concerned an internal audit committee for the university's council, which I thought was necessary. However, Di Yerbury made a wonderful contribution to that establishment as well as to higher education in the role she ultimately undertook as chairman of the Vice-Chancellors Committee of Australia. I wish her well in her retirement.
Together with longstanding employees and associates of Macquarie University at the graduation was one of the newest, the Vice-Chancellor Professor Steven Schwartz, who is an extremely impressive successor to Di Yerbury. I had a chat at lunchtime with Professor Schwartz and, among other things, we discussed our common interest in the Centre for Independent Studies, which is managed by Greg Lindsay, and all that he stands for in the marketplace of debate on ideas. I was very interested to note in a recent edition of the university's magazine, Campus Review, a statement referring to Professor Schwartz:
Schwartz has firm views on the purpose of the university, referring to Nobel Prize-winning economist Friedrich Hayek's comments that the way to judge a publicly funded organisation is the extent to which it advances freedom and liberty.
I certainly agree with that statement. I know that Hayek looms large in the thinking of Greg Lindsay and all those who are at the Centre for Independent Studies. Today Professor Schwartz made a statement in the presence of graduates pointing out that universities are one of the few institutions that began over 500 years ago. One of the other very few institutions that has existed over the same period and beyond, apart from the Catholic Church and some other venerable organisations, is the parliamentary system of democracy.
I was most impressed by those who spoke at the graduation. Robyn Beaman, who received a PhD in Education today, and Professor Kercher from the Law School addressed both law and education graduates. Robyn made the point that in both disciplines evidence is very important and central. In her area of education she called it "data." Nevertheless, the empirical measurement of things, whether in education or law for the purposes of proving an argument or putting a case to students, is of central importance. That is very much what Macquarie University is about. At the same time both speakers were keen to stress that it is also about a broad, liberal education.
My friend Professor Bruce Kercher from the Law School is a prime example of that. He spent much of his academic career talking about remedies, which involves, amongst other things, fairly dry but important subjects such as Mareva injunctions and injunctions of all types, as well as various other orders. He has since branched out into legal history and is now one of the great legal historians of Australia, with a very strong international reputation. He made the point that the best lawyers, the best judges—and the best teachers for that matter—are those with a broad evidence-based education across a number of disciplines. That is something that the university prides itself upon. I was pleased to be able to sit with Robyn Beaman's extremely proud family. They are all local North Epping people, three generations of them. To see Robyn graduate today and speak to the graduates was a moment of great pride for the family. It is certainly something I will not forget. I wish everyone at Macquarie University well. In my 19 years in Parliament it has been a delight to be associated with them.
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