ADDRESS BY
HER EXCELLENCY MS QUENTIN BRYCE AC
GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
ON THE OCCASION OF
ADDRESS TO THE WORLD BANK CONFERENCE ON CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
MOZAMBIQUE
25 MARCH 2009
Thank you for your warm welcome.
I am delighted to join you for this significant conference of the World Bank: sponsored by the governments of Norway and Australia; an assembly of policy-makers, industries and communities; an earnest dialogue about our shared responsibilities for human and environmental wellbeing; providing a measure of our progress, and a map for our forward journey.
Today is my tenth day in Africa. Like every traveller across this continent I have been overwhelmed by its beauty and splendour, and the great generosity of spirit of its peoples. I have been welcomed wholeheartedly, and have seen firsthand the strength, faith and promise of your communities.
I have also brought a message of goodwill and sincere friendship from the Australian government. We are committed to broadening and deepening our engagement in Africa. To investing in development and security, and partnering with African nations as together we confront challenges that are global – and universal – in their span.
Alongside and sustaining this commitment are our growing commercial and economic interests here. Australian companies have 15 billion dollars invested in African mining projects, with more in the pipeline.
We recognise, as many other nations have done, that resource industries are altering the landscape of developing countries, providing fresh opportunity and a new economic trajectory. Substantial growth in extractive sectors is building a platform for change.
However, the cause and effect of these industries has not always been straightforward. Natural resources turned to profit do not inevitably turn to benefit for the societies that tap them. The wealth they generate does not translate automatically into services, structures and a better life for all citizens.
For those whose experience has been defined and deeply etched by want, a flow of wealth past and beyond their horizons heaps injustice on insufficiency; it drains societies, and indeed nations, of all that might have nurtured an enduring and collective affluence.
Profit, then, must be shaped and steered by a larger sense of what is valuable, what is useful, and what is just. In fact it must be redefined to encompass human, social and environmental prosperity.
As a human rights lawyer, I learned that if these are not safeguarded, equitably and vigilantly, we lose, irretrievably, far more than our balance sheets will show.
After all, “what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and yet forfeits his soul?”
Morally, this is an unanswerable question. But there is also a practical dimension to fair and efficient reinvestment.
Communities properly resourced and effectively overseen are less vulnerable to poverty and conflict, more likely to participate in and support the industries that support them: a fact which corporate leaders and drivers have long recognised.
The idea of social responsibility, of writing wellbeing into the corporate charter, has been around for more than thirty years.
The Sullivan Principles, tabled in 1977 with a specific focus on South Africa, and redrafted in 1999 with a wider remit, have been a blueprint for socially responsible corporations operating across borders and continents.
They guarantee that human rights are respected; equality is upheld; health, safety and security are protected; communities are enriched and advanced by the corporation’s presence.
They inscribe transparency, obligation and accountability into a company’s day-to-day operations, and into their identity and branding.
Many other such agreements now exist and condition corporate activity, creating greater continuity between policy and practice, and a more tangible interface between industries and governments and the communities to whom they are ultimately answerable.
Corporate social responsibility has had its critics: some who see it as unprofitable; some who see it as a mask for otherwise naked profiteering.
Yet research suggests that in purely fiscal terms, the responsible corporation is neither more nor less profitable than the irresponsible one, and in less quantifiable measures, the responsible firm can report durable positive outcomes for employees, consumers, and societies at large.
However much criticism it inspires from the sidelines, “CSR” has taken firm hold of bottom lines – tripling or quadrupling their reach.
In the case of extractive industries, companies around the world are embracing responsibility for their impact on the environment, and on the people in their employ and purview – those who may not have shares but who certainly have a stake in company outcomes.
Governments, too, have a role to play in regulating and mediating responsibility, and Australia’s has pledged to ensure the impeccable and demonstrable integrity of every company that bears our name.
Through our support of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, and our adherence to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption and the Foreign Bribery Convention, as well as other mechanisms, Australia partners many other countries in investing in just, sound, and renewable development.
Australians believe we have much to offer in securing a return on this investment. Our industrial and managerial expertise, our leadership in technology and innovation are reflected in the breadth and scope of participation at this forum today.
Most importantly, we are convinced that prosperity must find expression in equality; growth in sustainability; wealth in the richness and dignity of every human life.
I know that each of you are here because you share that conviction.
As you deliberate and engage over the next two days, I am confident that together we are on a path to a new and better world.
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