AGM Dinner with Peter McMullin

Thursday, 26th May

We were honoured to welcome distinguished Australian lawyer, businessman and philanthropist, Peter McMullin who was the guest speaker for The Graduate Union AGM dinner. Here are some salient points from Peter’s presentation on The University, Human Rights and Philanthropy. At the outset Peter made the point that it all began here at The University of Melbourne, an institution for which he has a great affection. He expressed his strong belief in what the university is able to do and will continue to do in the future. Rather than speaking of ‘giving’, he prefers to use the expression ‘giving back’. Peter stressed the importance of philanthropic support for this and other universities which, he suggested, are under threat, having been neglected by government for too long. Peter offered a personal reflection on the recent inauguration of an old friend, President José RamosHorta in Timor Leste, who has been elected for a second time. They first met in Melbourne in 1974 when José was advocating for his people, and Peter subsequently saw him at the United Nations where he was the sole voice for East Timor in the international arena, becoming East Timor’s de facto ambassador to the United Nations. José spoke out against human rights violations by the occupying Indonesian military forces and promoted a peace plan to end the violence in his country. During that time he struggled to get others to believe, but he demonstrated the power of persistence. To have seen José Ramos-Horta at his second inauguration as President of his beautiful country was really moving, said Peter, who stated that stories like this inspire him to keep going. Peter’s work with refugees has led him to advocate strongly for stateless people — who live in all parts of the world, including Australia, and are often denied basic human rights due to their lack of legal status. As a consequence, in 2018, Peter McMullin and his wife Ruth established the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness within the Melbourne Law School through a generous philanthropic donation – one of the most significant gifts in the history of the Law School. The couple’s generosity resulted in the world’s only academic research centre dedicated to the issue of statelessness. It reflected their great humanitarian concern. With the guidance of international refugee and statelessness law expert, Professor Michelle Foster, the Centre has undertaken research, teaching and engagement activities aimed at reducing statelessness and protecting the rights of stateless people in Australia and the Asia Pacific region. The Stateless Children Legal Clinic, established in 2021, is a proud partnership between the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, the Refugee Advice Casework Service and the Melbourne Law School Clinics at The University of Melbourne. This offers a unique service providing legal education and aid to eligible stateless children in their application for Australian citizenship. There are an estimated 10–15 million stateless people in the world, approximately one third of whom are

children. Without nationality, stateless children face barriers in accessing education and health care; and in Australia, the threat of prolonged and indefinite immigration detention. Peter and Ruth McMullin also support most generously The Science Gallery Melbourne, which plays an important role in exploring the nexus between science, art and innovation. In announcing their gift of $4 million during the 2019 National Science Week, they said that the Science Gallery Melbourne is a vital and important new addition for young people and they hope to encourage more women to enter the world of science. Peter spoke of The University of Melbourne’s very successful “Believe” campaign, launched publicly in May 2013, with a dual target of activating and engaging 100,000 alumni and friends in the life of the University, and raising $1 billion to support people, facilities and research that will change the world. He reminded us that universities today still maintain a high degree of trust in the community and the strength that they hold needs to be recognized and supported. Social disharmony is on the rise and the universities have a role to play: “We believe there are solutions; we need to find a way forward.” As a board member of many organisations Peter acknowledged that they are all — in their respective ways — tackling their issues. At the same time he underscored the integral role of universities in supporting these organisations by coming up with solutions and addressing pressing issues — not least those relating to climate, decarbonization, renewables, etc. He underscored the real capacities within universities for their researchers to engage in all such debates. In stressing the importance of philanthropy, Peter stressed that it is deeply embedded in systems of networks in our immediate community and more broadly, and as such has the power to influence debates. He strongly encouraged people to be philanthropic whenever they are able to do so — whenever they are in the fortunate position of being able to give. And he sees this as being the basis for further giving and involvement across the generations. The values of philanthropy, he said, are positive values — and ones he would like to see more entrenched in society. In this respect he highlighted the difference between Australia, the United States and parts of Europe and expressed the hope that we in Australia will increasingly be inclined to give – and give back. The Chairman of Council of The Graduate Union, Mr Vincent Mirabelli, expressed his gratitude to Peter McMullin for sharing with us his insights and involvement with The University with respect to his work in Philanthropy.