Speech to the Australian Council for International Development Annual Conference

www.unglobalcompact.org.au

Speech to the Australian Council For International Development

Annual Council 2012

Canberra, the Australian Capital Territory 11th October 2012

Matthew Tukaki, Australian Representative to the United Nations Global

Compact

Speech background:

This speech copy is embargoed until 8am on the morning of the 11th of October 2012. The speech is

(was) delivered at the annual conference / council meeting of the Australian Council for

International Development. Mr Tukaki was also a member of a panel convened by Don Henry of the

Conservation Foundation to discuss the outcomes of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable

Development also known as Rio+20.

Matthew Tukaki is the Australian Representative to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) with

the UNGC being the world’s largest corporate citizenship initiative. Mr Tukaki is also the current CEO

and Executive Chairman of the Sustain Group in Australia, Director of the Board of the Australian

Indigenous Chamber of Commerce, Suicide Prevention Australian and the Advisory Board of Deakin

Universities Centre for Sustainable and Responsible Organisations. Matthew is previously the

Regional Head of Drake, one of the world’s oldest and most respected employment and human

resources companies. He is also a former Chairman of the Government Policy Advisory Panel, the

CIO Council and the Skills for Schools Program. For information or commentary about this speech

please contact [email protected] or call Matthew Tukaki directly on 0415 093 137 in

Australia or from overseas on +61 415 093 137.

Speech begins:

Good morning ladies and gentlemen and thank you very much for that warm welcome. I would like

to begin by acknowledging the local Indigenous people of this Canberra land and pay my respects to

the elders and ancestors both past and present.

Slide one: Opening Slide

Last week when we had a conference call to talk about this session I think we all agreed that the

topic itself is worthy of a full day as opposed to ten minutes and a panel discussion because there is

just so much ground to cover that has relevance and importance to us all and not just a few. So, try

as I will I am going to compact a lot into a few minutes and then be hopeful for a robust discussion

during the panel and question and answer session. Specifically I am going to cover the business

response to the sustainable development challenge and try and unpack why I believe Rio+20 was a

success as opposed to the failure that has been reported out there. Before I do I need to provide

some brief context about the role of the United Nations Global Compact and who we are.

Slide two: About the Global Compact

mailto:[email protected]


On the cusp of the new millennium former Secretary General Kofi Annan took a message to the

Davos World Economic Forum where he called on business and industry to embrace, support and

enact a set of core values in the areas of human rights, labour standards and environmental

practices. It was a call to arms by the Secretary General and recognition that business should and

must play a role in a world that is increasingly fragile, in various states of social and economic

development, states of conflict of war, differences of opinion and intolerance. The United Nations

Global Compact was born. Today, under our chief architect, Georg Kell, we have grown to more than

8,500 signatories across 135 countries that make up our planets largest corporations, industry

groups, union movements, micro enterprises and financial institutions. By 2020 we aim to have

more than 20,000 businesses of all sizes and from all geographies involved. It is our planets single

largest corporate citizenship initiative. At our heart sit four fundamental and universal Principles

whereby business must communicate their progress on each annually – Human Rights, Anti-

Corruption, the Environment and Labour. Here in Australia there are more than 300 signatories who

are party to the Compact and a further 300 global organisations with operations in Australia. Over

the course of this last 18 months more than 1200 individuals and organisations have attended one of

our three leadership groups and we have gone to great lengths to enter into dialogue and

partnerships with Government and the Non-Government sector to the point where our Signatories

also include organisations such as the Diversity Council of Australia, World Vision and Fair Trade

Australia and New Zealand.

Slide three: the UNGC Convened the Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum

Before we look forward we need to first look back for a moment. 25 years ago former Norwegian

Prime Minister Gro Brundtland, who later became the Director General of the World Health

Organisation, presided over the World Commission on Environment and Development. In 1987 a

report, widely known as the Brundtland Report was published and entitled “Our Common Future”.

The Commission was one of the key driving factors for the establishment of the first Earth Summit in

1992 and what is known as Agenda 21. The first Earth Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro and for the

first time the linkages between social, economic and environmental development were drawn. In

many ways you cannot alleviate poverty unless you are also able to grow an economy and create

jobs, you cannot address issues dealing with the environment and social justice unless you first

empower the people not to be subservient but to be independent and in order to achieve a

sustainable future you must establish the necessary governance structures to support people and an

economy as they move from poverty to empowerment. In many ways you cannot achieve a lasting

solution unless we properly and consistently address the fundamental societal issues that lie at the

very core of many of the great challenges we face today.

In June this year, 25 years later and again in Rio, the world again came together with a focus on

sustainable development. For many however, there was a belief that Rio+20 was wholly and solely

about the climate change challenge, and as obviously as important as it is climate was not the core

focus of the conference. This time the linkages, discussed by Brundtland, between social, economic

and environmental development were much clearer. In a report entitled “Resilient People, Resilient

Planet” co-authors Jacob Zuma and Tarja Halonen made it clear that in order to achieve a

sustainable world, a future we all want that any recommendation and flow on from Rio+20 would

require commitment and action from citizens across all sectors of society, from Heads of State and


Government and local mayors to business executives, scientists, religious leaders, civil society

activists and not least, the leaders of the next generation, today’s youth. In a world post the global

financial crisis, where a lot of work needs to be done to rebuild the economies of nations states and

regions there was a general view that Rio+20 was not a success. I can tell you from our view that is

far from the truth. One of the key differences between the first Earth Summit in 1992 and Rio+20 in

June of this year is the increasing role business and industry can and must play when it comes to

some of the biggest challenges our planet faces, whether it is climate change, food and water

security, population, education, health, poverty alleviation and the empowerment and

independence of women, girls and indigenous people. As an equal partner at the table business and

industry have, over these last 25 years, accepted more of the responsibility and accountability that

participation brings. It used to be the case that civil society organisations and non-government

operators were the main balancing actors in the debate and discussion, where business and industry

have largely been viewed with suspicion in respect of their motivators for behavioural change. I

should be very clear not every person or organisation in the sector is a good corporate citizen, there

are certainly some out there that are driven more by profit that sound reasoning and there are still

some that believe that climate change is all a bit of a story – but in the main, today, the vast majority

are not of those views or opinions.

another core outcome of Rio+20 was that fundamental and specific recognition that each of us play

an important and equal role as symbiotic links in a chain just as there are links between the three

pillars of social, economic and environmental development. Whether we operate here at home or a

developing country abroad the very need to build and manage the business case for our social

license to operate is fundamental. Governments demand it, communities require it, our

shareholders want it, our employees want to live it and as a CEO and Chairman, Director of any

number of Boards I want to ensure we deliver it. Put simply a social license to operate is where we

engage with the local community to ensure that while there are obvious commercial imperatives

that we provide the very social and economic support programmes such as jobs, education and

health, that will in themselves assist local communities grow. Good business is not about a win for

the company and a loss for the community or the environment – it must be a win win for both, a

partnership of equity and equality.

Business and industry are and must be an owner and first responder when it comes to sustainable

development both at home and abroad whether it be our supply chains in developing countries, or

the very real influence we can bring to bear on nation states to improve their own behaviour – it is

our responsibility and our present and future social license to operate depends on it.

Slide Four: So what of RIO+20?

So what was the business and industry response to the evolving and developing agenda of Rio+20?

In 2010 at the UNGC Leaders Summit in New York and throughout the regional consultations with all

100 Local Networks (NB Burma had not yet been established) and the signatory base a view was

taken that not only should we focus our energies on some core thematic areas, we needed to ensure

we arrived at real outcomes that business and industry could lead, be involved in or partner with.

Under the guise of sustainable development the agenda encompassed:


≥ Energy & Climate ≥ Water & Ecosystems ≥ Agriculture & Food ≥ Social Development ≥ Urbanization & Cities ≥ Economics & Finance of Sustainable Development

Partnering with other UN Agencies and delivery organisations such as the UNEP, the ILO and the

International Finance Corporation we then bought more than 2,500 business executives and leaders,

organisational and institutional representatives together to begin unpacking what those real and

tangible outcomes could be. One of the most bluntest of statements I myself made at the time is we

need to shift the focus away from competing with each other, being critical of each other in line with

the common cause. As crass as it might sound when a nation state crosses the border of another

nation state we have all sorts of diplomatic problems and issues – yet when a business crosses a

border we call it investment – therefore lets ensure we attach rules of engagement, support

structures and principles once a business does get established offshore – particularly developing

countries

Slide five: The Objectives of Rio+20 from business

We set ourselves some pretty big objectives. The first was to prove to colleauges and the world that

corporate sustainability is an essential element in achieving sustainable development and the vice

versa need for business to engage more with the UN System and for the UN System to recognise the

important role of business. We want to demonstrate that principle based platforms are and do

advance critical issues – that the process of having organisations commit to a series of outcomes and

indicators can make a difference when it comes to everything from women’s empowerment to

children’s rights and sustainable energy. We needed to ensure the message was clear that there can

be no sustainable development without the inherent need to respect human rights – and that

business have an equal and common role in that cause. The UNGC Network in Australia established

our Human Rights Leadership Group more than two years ago to do just that. We needed and

wanted to demonstrate that technological and social innovations could in fact provide the very

solutions we are looking for when it comes to the many challenges we face today and that with

investor and finance support we can actually arrive at those solutions a lot sooner. Hence the rise of

social investment and social impact investing. In Rio the UNGC and the Rockefeller Foundation

launched the new framework for action on social enterprise and impact investing.

Slide six: continued

Another key objective following on from or announcements around social enterprise and impact

investing was to ensure that we included the roles played by stock exchanges, business schools and

cities in stimulating the need by business to act upon sustainability. Of course, was the increasing

need to ensure we also encouraged more companies and organisations to sign on to programs with

actual reporting components as we have advanced through the global compact. I can tell you that by

2020 it is our goal and aspiration to more than double the signatory base to 20,000. In a few weeks-


time I will travel to Sri Lanka as part of our global strategic leadership review group to begin ensuring

we ourselves have the capacity to meet that number.

Finally, and to me personally as Australia’s Representative to the UNGC was the need to ensure we

mobilized a large and significant number of commitments to action by business and industry – that

these commitments would arrive at real outcome..

Slide seven: Australian business involvement

To help achieve these objectives Australian business and our own local signatory group played a

significant role in Rio. We convened the panel known as the business response to the sustainability

challenge where we took some of our best practice from corporates with operations in Papua New

Guinea, Indonesia, Africa and South America and engaged with dialogue with our counterparts in the

same industries and other countries. Joining with Indonesia and Japan we looked at common

responses in returning an economy to production post a major natural disaster and the role business

can play in the aftermath of events such as the Japan Earthquake or Boxing Day Tsunami. Together

with Germany and Indonesia we took on the issue of Human Rights, Childrens Rights and the

Empowerment of Women in society – all important to the broader task of sustainable development.

Slide eight: water and ecosystems and natural capital

More broadly 45 CEO’s of some of the planets major corporations involved in the UNGC Water

Mandate took things further by agreeing to deepen and broaden their development of corporate

water sustainability policies and practices. 37 banks, investment funds and insurance companies

submitted a far reaching natural capital declaration whereby it becomes part of our business to

ensure we integrate natural capital considerations into products and services.

Slide nine: sustainable agriculture

Together with a group of 16 leading companies in the food and agriculture sector we have

recognised the need for food security across the planet and as a result need to ensure we commit to

the development of principles on good practice and policy for sustainable agriculture.

Slide ten: Involving stock exchanges – responsible

Finally and as mentioned before the role that the finance sector can play when it comes to

supporting the transition to a low carbon and green economy. So far 5 stock exchanges with more

than 4.600 listed companies between them have now committed to promote long-term, sustainable

investment in their markets while more than 70 businesses, national Governments and international

organisations have endorsed the green industry platform.

Slide Eleven: New guides and toolkits

And, in support of these and all of our other initiatives both pre and post the Rio world we have

moved to ensure we have toolkits and guides in place to work with business to implement and

execute. But, be under no illusion while the appearance is that a lot of work has been done and I

have the inherent belief that Rio+20 was a success the reality is there is still a lot more work to be


done. For those who went to Rio expecting an answer and solution to the climate change challenge

the fact is it will take time for global agreements to be put into place. It took us decades to formulate

frameworks, rules, regulations and processes to develop our global trade framework that ultimately

saw the establishment of the world trade organisation – it took that long because when you are

dealing with more than 190 countries the process of negotiation is long and arduous. Anyone who

tells you any differently themselves needs a reality check. My hope is that it doesn’t take as long.

Where we can in fact begin to make a difference is by rethinking what aid means and who provides

it. Is it just a Government or a nation state or should business also be called upon not through

philanthropy but through the very thing I mentioned before, our social license to operate. Because

under that license it is our role and requirement to provide jobs, assist with the development of local

economies, empower women and the disadvantaged and to make a real difference so the

investment itself makes a return – but a social return. On the environment the same is true. For as I

said before unless we more clearly understand the fundamental links between social, economic and

environmental development then we cannot adequately begin to solve the challenges we face.

I trust that gives you a good but very brief snapshot and certainly wish you all well for the rest of

your gathering.

Speech ends

Speech to the Australian Council for International Development Annual Conference

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