Aspiring Leaders Forum Parliamentary Dinner

Ladies and Gentlemen, I greet you in the languages of the realm of New Zealand - English, Maori, Cook Island Maori, Niuean, Tokelauan and Sign Language.

Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni and (Sign)

I want to acknowledge specifically, Members of Parliament supporting your Forum; Board of Trustees for Aspiring Leaders; Families Commissioner Lyn Campbell, Charities Commission Chief Executive, Trevor Garrett; and you the Young Leaders.

It is a pleasure for my wife Susan and myself to be here tonight, and for me to speak as Governor-General with such a committed group of young New Zealanders.

Part of my current role, which I have now held for almost one year, requires a capacity to contribute to leadership for New Zealanders.

However, it seems that not so long ago, I was your age, a law student at Auckland University, pursuing an ordinary path of a battling student and law clerk working in a solicitor's office.  I was someone who met and married my wife Susan whilst a student or just after. 

I cannot profess that I ever expected, either then, or even more recently, that my career would ultimately bring me to this Office of Governor-General.  It would be rare to find someone in New Zealand who would set themselves the goal of becoming Governor-General.

I certainly had ambitions and goals and although they were not formed, I knew I wanted to be a professional person, to work with communities and I hoped for eventual success in both of those endeavours.

If I can impart any insight for you it is to draw on and use your own experience at all times, whatever that may have been.  And that you should make the best of whatever is on offer and if you can, be professionally as well as recreationally interested in your job - or whatever you do.

I spent my youth not aspiring to be Governor-General, but at least wanting to be the best and most productive person I could be.

By having this sort of approach, I have been able to follow a career that has taken me down many paths, and that has led to many doors opening.

After leaving the Sacred Heart College in Auckland with ordinary passes in School Certificate and University Entrance examinations I went to the University of Auckland.  After a faltering start, I began to study the law, which I did with, I may say, some rather ordinary pass marks. 

Following graduation, I practiced as a lawyer in the courts for 12 years.  Half of that was spent as a Crown prosecutor and the other half as a regular court lawyer.  As a lawyer I first became interested in learning and then helping impart knowledge about trial skills and I thus played a role in the development of continuing legal education.

At the beginning of the 1980s I was recruited to be a District Court Judge, and for 13 years from 1982 to 1995 I worked as a Judge in a number of places in New Zealand.  In Palmerston North, in West Auckland, South Auckland and then Auckland Central.  I was a Judge who had both Civil and Criminal jurisdiction with a Specialist Warrant for Criminal Jury trials.  My interest in continuing professional education was encouraged by senior judiciary members and I received a brief to develop a Judicial Orientation Programme for new Judges which now is delivered by a stand-alone Institute of Judicial Studies.

In 1995 I was appointed an Ombudsman by Parliament and served for two terms each of five years. This was fascinating work dealing with the public on the one hand, Government officials and Ministers, and Parliamentarians on the other.  I came into this role with it being known that I had a background in skills enhancement.  I was therefore identified by the Commonwealth Secretariat to go and help deliver a training programme for newly appointed Commonwealth Ombudsmen in London and I did this on a number of occasions.

Last year, I came to be appointed as Governor-General.  In that role, I represent our formal Head of State, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and it is the practice for that role to last for five years.

To furnish some relevance to this week's Forum, I acknowledge that my career has frequently placed me in a position of leadership.  And with each metamorphosis of my professional life my definition of leadership has expanded.  To do what I have, has required the enormous patience and skill and support of a loving wife and family, which I have been very fortunate to have had throughout.

I hesitate to add my own definition of leadership to the very many that already circulate.  People define leadership quite differently - some by vision, others by charisma, yet others by the ability to inspire through one's own actions.

Perhaps a good definition is that attributed to the late Rt Rev Godfrey Edward Armstrong Wilson, the former Anglican Bishop of Auckland, who is quoted as saying: 

When what one believes to be morally right is clearly seen to take precedence over personal ambition and pleasure, that is true leadership.

My own experience of leadership tells me that there are two words that leaders resonate - trust and respect.

The important thing about leadership is the provision of a positive example to others, that you promote positive change, that you take care of others and that you have a vision for doing things in a better way.

It is important to keep your feet firmly on the ground and remember that the most important purpose of a leader is to serve.

Leaders need to have numerous qualities including the ability to listen, along with integrity, and decisiveness.  All of this is easier if there is the capacity for respect and trust.

I encourage you, as aspiring leaders, to consider what kind of leader you would like to become.  And in doing so, keep always close to the people you believe you have the capacity to lead - and lead them well.

Leadership can take many forms.  Throughout the year, there are investiture ceremonies at the Government Houses in Wellington or Auckland where I confer a host of awards to recognise those who have achieved in commerce, community and public service.  Some of those achievements are at local level and others at the national or further.  All people have shown leadership.

Another quality of leadership is courage.  Earlier today there was a special investiture ceremony for me to confer the first Victoria Cross for New Zealand on Corporal Willy Apiata.  He received this award for display of outstanding gallantry, courage and leadership in rescuing a seriously wounded colleague in Afghanistan in 2004.  His courageous deeds, in placing his own life before that of a comrade, are an inspiration to everyone.

Courage need not be a quality confined to the battlefield.  In a recently published book, the new British Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Gordon Brown, has written eight essays about people displaying courage - people of the modern era such as Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Aung San Su Kyi saying that courage is the greatest of all virtues. He wrote:

"All of us value duty, honesty, kindness, humility, responsibility, integrity but none of these can exist without courage."  As Winston Churchill said: 'Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others.'"

Having the courage of ones convictions includes holding fast to values - such as honesty and justice - in the face of others who might suggest that expediency was a higher priority.

The late President John F. Kennedy put it well when he said, writing about courage:

"In whatever arena of life one may meet the challenge of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience.each man must decide for himself the course he will follow.  The stories of past courage can define that ingredient—they can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul."

I have told you my story.  New Zealand needs good leaders, and I look forward to meeting many of you in different capacities—and hearing of your stories —in the years ahead.

I began speaking in all the New Zealand realm languages.  May I close, particularly because this is Maori Language Week, by speaking in Maori, issuing greetings and wishing you good health and fortitude in your endeavours.