Trinity Today 2024

THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

SHAPING OUR FUTURE

Where to now for higher education

Next generation marketing

The case for part-time politics

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK

Email your feedback about this edition of Trinity Today to tt@trinity.unimelb.edu.au or write to us at:

Trinity Today

Marketing, Communications and Events

Trinity College

100 Royal Parade Parkville VIC 3052

Stay up to date with Trinity College news at trinity.unimelb.edu.au

MANAGING EDITOR

Emily McAuliffe Communications Manager, Trinity College

SUBEDITOR

Simon Mann MediaXpress

DESIGNER

Bill Farr MediaXpress

CONTRIBUTORS

Kirstie Bedford

Catherine Best

Mark Daffey

Justin Meneguzzi

Jocelyn Pride

Tara Wells

IMAGES

Kit Haselden Photography, Emily McAuliffe, Ming Zhou, Trinity College Archives and supplied by alumni, students and friends of Trinity College.

Information in this magazine was understood to be correct at the time of printing. Views expressed in Trinity Today do not necessarily reflect the views of Trinity College.

Trinity Today is printed on Pacesetter Satin FSC®, which is manufactured using low environmental impact FSC® certified pulps in a facility that is ISO 14001 Environmental Management System accredited.

CHARTING TRINITY'S PATH TO THE FUTURE

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of this country and pay our respects to elders past and present.

FROM LITTLE THINGS

It takes a solid strategy to keep a large-scale business thriving. Learn how Mecca, Medibank and ANZ approach the big picture. 22

A NEW WORLD OF WINE

Three Trinity alumni and wine industry experts comment on how the industry is shifting with changing consumer preferences. 40

Planning ahead

This year’s edition of Trinity Today is focused on shaping our future. As we all know, shaping the kind of future we want requires a clear and well-thought-out plan, so the subtext of this theme is rooted in strategy.

In 2024, Trinity released its latest strategy, which will guide us through to 2030, and you can read more about this on page 10. We’ve also highlighted some key achievements from Trinity’s past that have been the result of strategic planning, and which helped set the College on its current path.

Of particular note is that we are celebrating 50 years of coresidency at Trinity. Although admitting women residents was a big change at the time, it seems almost strange now to imagine Trinity College without women.

In the years since, the College has strived to become more and more diverse, as we welcome and encourage applications from people from all walks of life – whether that be students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds, rural or remote areas, or far-flung parts of the world. Diversity is what makes our community strong and helps all students gain greater perspectives on life, so in delivering on our new strategy, we will continue to work hard to make Trinity College a place where students and alumni from all backgrounds feel comfortable, safe and supported.

As well as outlining Trinity College’s strategy, this edition also delves into the strategic moves and plans of various organisations across a range of industries, and draws on advice and commentary from alumni and experts within our community. It is an interesting look at the thought that goes into shaping the direction of different sectors, from education to media to the wine industry.

I hope you enjoy reading the stories, and here’s to having the strength and conviction to shape a future in which all want to be a part.

Professor Ken Hinchcliff Warden and CEO

Isaac Hucker (pictured at top), a proud Badimaya man from Ballarat, was elected the new Senior Student of the Residential College. Other members of the TCAC for 2025 are: (back) Men’s Sport Rep Deegan Craig-Peters; Indoor Rep Kody Roth; Community Rep Lam Pham; (seated) Women’s Sport Rep Tarsh Madden; Treasurer Hamish Devonshire; Senior Student Isaac Hucker; Social Secretary Rosie Bradford; and Arts Rep Sam Prins

Trinity College signed a memorandum of agreement with Taylor’s College Malaysia to deliver Trinity’s renowned Foundation Studies program transnationally at Taylor’s in Kuala Lumpur. This will provide Malaysian students with the option of studying Trinity College Foundation Studies either in Melbourne or in Malaysia, with the Taylor’s program delivered under the supervision of Trinity College Melbourne and with attention to strict quality control.

At our annual Archbishop’s Dinner, we farewelled the retiring Archbishop of Melbourne, the Most Reverend Dr Philip Freier, who has long been a strong supporter of the Trinity College Theological School and who served for 19 years as President of the Trinity College Council. The Council, along with members of the Senior Management Team and Board, also celebrated the Archbishop’s service at a special dinner following the Archbishop’s final Council meeting on 24 October.

SNAPSHOT

2024

Residential College students performed the story of teenage misfit Veronica Sawyer (played by Charlotte McAdam, pictured above with Ollie Jones, who played Jason Dean) in Heathers over three nights in May. The musical was directed by student Sam Prins, with Charlie Morris as musical director, Francis Heath and Grace Koczkar as co-producers and Josh Roberts as choreographer. Students then performed the play Away on 2 and 3 October, with Will Lawrence as director and Sam Prins as producer.

We were pleased to install 12 new Fellows in August: the late Dr John (Jack) Best AO (awarded posthumously), Professor Stephen Cordner AM PSM, Professor Andrew Cuthbertson AO, Andrew Farran, Associate Professor Jane Freemantle OAM, Rose Hiscock, the Reverend Jennifer Inglis, Professor Fleur Johns, Professor Tim Lindsey AO, Ali Moore, the Hon Geoffrey Nettle AC KC, and Siobhan Stagg Fellowship is the highest honour the College can bestow and we are limited to having 30 Fellows (plus an unrestricted number of Senior Fellows). This was the largest installation of Fellows on record.

We invited a number of guest preachers to our Chapel throughout the year, including a number as part of our ‘faith and sciences’ sermon series. They included the Reverend Dr Chris Mulherin (pictured), Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Christianity in an Age of Science and Technology (ISCAST) network, and Professor David Grayden, Clifford Chair in Neutral Engineering at the University of Melbourne.

Our ‘old’ JCR (replaced by the new Junior Common Room in Dorothy) was renamed the Cripps Room to honour the generous support of the Cripps family over many decades. The room will be used for both Residential College student events and other College-wide events and dinners.

Trinity hosted 22 visiting scholars throughout the year, including Emeritus Professor Dr Dagmar Eichberger, an expert in Renaissance art history, and her husband Dr Jürgen Eichberger, a senior lecturer in economics; Dr Joshua Ralston, Reader in Christian-Muslim Relations at the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, and director and cofounder of the Christian-Muslim Studies Network funded by the Henry Luce Foundation; and Stefan Hanß, a Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Manchester, as part of the Australian Research Council-funded project ‘Albrecht Dürer's Material World’, and his wife, Beatriz Marin-Aguilera, a Derby Fellow in Historical Legacies of Empire at the University of Liverpool. (Pictured: Dagmar Eichberger, Peter Campbell and Jürgen Eichberger.)

SNAPSHOT

MAIN: Tais, culture & resilience exhibition. INSET: Ken Hinchcliff, David Frazer, Campbell Bairstow and Ben Thomas at the All that you’ve loved opening.

2024

The Choir of Trinity College was awarded Performance of the Year – Notated Composition at the 2024 Art Music Awards for their performance of Stabat Mater at St Paul’s Cathedral. Soprano soloist chorister Mia Robinson was accompanied by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Benjamin Northey, with Trinity’s music director, Christopher Watson, directing the chorus. Trinity’s choir also joined forces with that of St Paul’s College, University of Sydney, in July to perform in Sydney and Bowral. (Pictured: Benjamin Northey, Mia Robinson and Christoper Watson at the Art Music Awards ceremony.)

Pathways School graduates celebrated the completion of their Foundation Studies program at our Summer Valedictory Ball (in March) and Winter Valedictory Ball (July). Congratulations to our duxes: Ching Fong Ly (January Comprehensive 2023), Thi Viet Huong (February Standard 2023), Chang Yan (February Standard 2023), Stanislaus Nicholas Dosemon (June Fast Track 2023) (as pictured), Mengying Xue (July Comprehensive 2023), Yuxuan Li (August Standard 2023), Michael Dharmawan (September Fast Track 2023) and Brandon Gabriel Liem (September Fast Track 2023).

We held two exhibitions in 2024 in Trinity College’s Burke Gallery. In March, we opened All that you’ve loved, which brought together a collection of works by graphic artist and printmaker David Frazer, and in September we opened Tais, culture & resilience: woven stories of TimorLeste. This exhibition attracted the largest opening night attendance of any of our exhibitions and coincided with the 25th anniversary of Timor-Leste’s vote for independence and start of the Australian-led UN peacekeeping mission INTERFET. It showcased traditional weaving plus photography taken on the ground in Timor-Leste over the past 50 years.

Cowan Alum of the Year. Tom, who was Trinity’s Senior Student in 1998, has strongly advocated for equality in Australia, founding and co-chairing the Equality Campaign, which played a crucial role in the successful YES postal plebiscite on marriage equality in 2017. Tom, who founded infrastructure investment fund Whitehelm Capital, also chairs the Snow Medical Research Foundation, and has served as a director of Canberra, Perth and Bankstown Airports and Rhodes Scholarships in Australia, having been a Rhodes Scholar.

Tom Snow was named our 2024 Bill

Our Foundation Studies program continued to thrive in 2024, with student places filling well ahead of cut-off dates for all intakes throughout the year. We secured two additional levels of 200 Victoria Street, our second campus, taking our total occupancy to four levels by mid-2025 and allowing us to enrol 1600 students per year.

Daisy Wu (TCFS 2015) was announced as our 2024 FS Alum of the Year. Daisy is a cost manager at Linesight Global Construction Consultants and was the winner of the 2024 Women in Leadership Award – Australian Multicultural Women Association and the 2023 Top 100 Women in Construction Award. She is also the founder of Multilingual Connectors, which offers mentoring, events and other resources, including the No Language Barriers podcast, to non-native English speakers to help them thrive in English-speaking environments.

SNAPSHOT

2024

Resident Trinity students once again enjoyed great sporting success. The men and women took out the top spot in swimming; the men won the premiership in hockey; the men’s firsts won the rowing for the third year in a row (the men’s and women’s seconds crews also won) and the men again took out the intercollegiate Australian Boat Race, also for the third year in a row; the women’s firsts triumphed in netball, while the men did likewise in basketball; the men won the rugby and the women won the AFL (having now taken out the premiership 10 times in the past 11 years). To top it all off, the men won the Cowan Cup and Trinity College won the Tickner Cup, the combined men's and women's trophy for intercollegiate sport.

Former prime minister Julia Gillard launched former Victorian premier John Brumby’s new book A Better Australia: Politics, Public Policy and How to Achieve Lasting Reform, co-written with Scott Hamilton and Stuart Kells, at the College on 8 October, while Ken Hinchcliff, Mark Lindsay and Dorothy Lee all published books in 2024: Equine Sports Medicine and Surgery (3rd edition), Markus Barth: His Life and Legacy and Poems of Lament and Grace respectively.

Mandy Tibbey, Chancellor of the Diocese of Riverina, delivered the biennial Sharwood Lecture in Church Law entitled ‘Church law and anti-discrimination law: do these need to collide?’, on 15 May in Melbourne and 22 May in Sydney. The Hon Justice Joe Williams, KNZM (see page 29), delivered the Caldwell Lecture, ‘Mā te ture anō te ture e āki’ (‘The law must look itself in the mirror’) on 9 April.

CHARTING A PATH

‘You can’t be what you want to be unless you’ve got a plan.’

PROFESSOR KEN HINCHCLIFF

Trinity College Warden and CEO

Trinity College this year released a revised strategy that will see the College through to 2030. The previous strategy, devised in 2017, focused primarily, but not exclusively, on bricks and mortar, business improvement and scholarships. The completion of many of the transformational projects from then has allowed the 2024 blueprint to place greater focus on people and culture.

‘Trinity is all about community and what the previous strategy has done has allowed us to have a much more efficient, effective college, which creates an atmosphere in which people want to come, study, live and work,’ says Trinity College Warden and CEO Professor Ken Hinchcliff

‘We’ve continued to create a beautiful campus, upgraded and added buildings, reviewed the culture in our Residential College, and ensured that the business operations of the College are contemporary and fit for our purpose. As a result, more than ever, people want to come and live here, they want to come and work here, and it creates a healthy community. That’s the most important part of it.’

That said, the development and maintenance of Trinity’s facilities is never ending. ‘We plan to spend approximately

$50 million over the next few years to ensure that our physical facilities are top notch and that we have a functionally modern college. This will enable us to fully implement the programs that come out of the new strategy,’ says Ken.

People and community lie at the heart of Trinity’s plans through to 2030. While our community has, of course, always been a core part of the fabric of the College, the new strategic plan brings added focus to and purposeful development of Trinity College’s greatest assets – its people and its community.

‘We pride ourselves on being a welcoming, respectful, healthy and safe community as these things are really important,’ says Ken. ‘They are fundamental to allowing us to build our broader contribution to society, one in which Trinity is an ideal place to work, a place where the creative arts and the cultures of our diverse community all thrive, a community recognised outside the College gates for its contribution to the broader society.’

This people-and-community focus complements our ambition to keep improving our business processes and academic programs.

CHARTING A

A modern college

We will provide an experience that truly reflects our contemporary community by:

n Effectively connecting and engaging with all parts of our broader community

n Expanding our scholarship opportunities to ensure all three divisions of our College are accessible

n Pursuing environmental sustainability at the College through both what we do and in our educational programs

n Leveraging technology to make better decisions to support our business, programs and people.

An enduring college

We will ensure the College is here to educate and inspire for generations to come by:

n Developing a strategy and purpose for the Foundation and philanthropic initiatives

n Investigating opportunities to broaden our Pathways School offering

n Exploring opportunities to enhance the scale and scope of the Theological School

n Supporting strategies for chaplaincy and our Anglican identity

n Collaborating with the University of Melbourne and affiliated colleges to promote a vibrant, sustainable broader college community

n Providing an alumni experience that is wide reaching, engaging and inclusive.

PATH

STRATEGY

An outward-looking college

We will open up to our community to learn and connect through our diverse range of academic and cultural activities by:

n Providing our community with clear and effective avenues to use our services and programs

n Encouraging greater participation and engagement in our music offerings and finding ways to further showcase our programs

n Maturing our collection and promotion of arts and archives to support College strategies

n Broadening our public lectures and visiting scholar programs

n Maintaining positive and robust relationships with our key partners to deliver best-practice services

n Working with partners to promote and support Indigenous culture

n Enhancing engagement with leaders from our university partners and broader community through a senior common room.

A student-centred college

We will continue to be a highly valued educator and place for students through a unique, encouraging and well-rounded experience by:

n Ensuring our student facilities and resources embrace contemporary trends in learning and connecting

n Promoting student wellbeing across the College

n Exploring avenues for greater connection and collaboration within and across our student cohorts

n Invigorating our co-curricular activities, ensuring they are engaging and relevant

n Continuously developing and re-evaluating our pedagogies and curricula to provide best-practice education

n Providing opportunities for students to develop leadership skills.

A staff-focused college

We will provide a fulfilling experience for staff across all teams through a supportive, inclusive, enjoyable and stimulating work environment by:

n Promoting staff connection through structured approaches to collaboration and transparency

n Evaluating, defining and promoting the Trinity College staff experience

n Supporting staff wellbeing through tailored, flexible programs

n Supporting staff through learning and development opportunities for mutually beneficial outcomes

n Providing the resources for our staff to operate efficiently and effectively.

CHARTING A

Admitting women as residents

Though Trinity had welcomed women as non-residents as early as 1883 (and opened the Trinity Women’s Hostel, now Janet Clarke Hall, three years later), the College opened its doors to women residents in 1974 (including Liz Kelly and Sigrid MacLeod (née Kraemers), pictured). This was after the College Council agreed to permit women as residents at a meeting in 1972 and made a formal decision the following year to admit women. Ten women joined Trinity in the inaugural year of co-residency.

Creation of the Trinity College Foundation

During Evan Burge’s wardenship (1974-1997), it was noted that Trinity had lived a financially ‘hand-to-mouth’ existence since its inception and lacked the funds for fundamental capital works projects. In 1981, a case was brought forward to the College Council to create a foundation to manage donations. The proposal was ultimately passed to ensure the College ‘showed faith in its own future’. Raising philanthropic funds via the Foundation has enabled new capital works to be carried out, building restoration and funding of scholarships and bursaries. The Foundation has been spectacularly successful in developing a corpus that will ensure the long-term viability of the College.

PATH

In 2024, Trinity College welcomed 1197 international students, 370 residential students and 128 theological students, and had 262 full and part-time staff, plus 187 casual staff members.

STRATEGIC MILESTONES

Establishment of Foundation Studies and the Pathways School

In 1990, Trinity College offered its first Foundation Studies program under the Trinity Education Centre (later to be known as the Pathways School). This program, which has run successfully for more than 34 years, provides a pathway for international students to access undergraduate study at the University of Melbourne. The program is instrumental in developing the personal and academic attributes of young international students and thereby enables them to excel in their studies at the University of Melbourne or elsewhere.

In 2016, the $26 million Gateway Building – a dedicated space to run Foundation Studies classes – opened on Trinity’s Parkville campus.

Trinity’s 2017 strategic plan then highlighted the need for a two-campus model to manage burgeoning international student numbers, which prompted the securing of five floors of a new build at 611 Elizabeth Street. This site was relinquished because of the COVID-19 pandemic and, today, Trinity is focused on maintaining its two-campus model through its Parkville and Victoria Street campuses.

Since 1990, the Pathways School has been a major economic driver for the College and has helped more than 30,000 international students access the University of Melbourne.

Offering programs to support Indigenous education and understanding

Trinity’s interest in engaging and developing meaningful connections with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is most obvious from the 1990s, when a number of student trips were organised to visit Aboriginal communities on country. Over the following years, Trinity invited various guest speakers and artists in residence from Indigenous backgrounds to the College and began growing its collection of Indigenous artworks.

In 2001, the College’s first two Indigenous scholarships were awarded to Sana Nakata and Lilly Brophy, with the Nakata Brophy short fiction and poetry competition introduced in 2014 to help Indigenous writers develop their writing skills and portfolio.

In 2009, Trinity played a lead role in establishing the Bachelor of Arts Extended program to provide a pathway for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to the University of Melbourne. The College then instigated and hosted two Indigenous Higher Education Conferences (IHEC) in 2016 and 2018 as a forum to share information and knowledge about how to better support Indigenous students at a tertiary level.

Other initiatives have included inviting a student cohort to the Garma festival in the Northern Territory, holding exhibitions of Indigenous art in Trinity’s Burke Gallery and hosting a series of short programs for Indigenous students. Importantly, the College has a commitment to enabling access to the Residential College for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and, moreover, in ensuring that there is a welcoming and culturally safe environment in the College that allows Indigenous students to embrace and celebrate their own culture.

CHARTING A

Growing our scholarship program

Trinity has long raised funds to provide student scholarships. However, the 2017 strategic plan outlined an explicit goal to grow the College’s scholarship program to become one of the largest of all Australian collegiate institutions. While COVID-19 interrupted these plans, Trinity has a renewed interest in growing its scholarship offering, as reflected in its new strategy, with a particular focus on providing access to students from disadvantaged and regional and rural backgrounds.

In 2024, Trinity College offered $3.6 million in scholarships across its three divisions, and will increase this amount in future years. Our hope is that no student offered a place in the College is unable to take it up because of their financial situation.

Reviewing our College culture

In 2018, Trinity commissioned an independent review by the Honourable Marcia Neave AO, former judge of the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court of Victoria, and commissioner of the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence, to assess the culture of the Residential College. This was instigated following the Australian Human Rights Commission report on sexual assault at universities.

We implemented 30 of the 32 recommendations made in the final report, known as the ‘Neave review’ (with two recommendations assessed and considered unfitting in context). Actions included making relevant policies more transparent, increasing student training programs to foster responsible student leadership, and encouraging and formalising the process of reporting and managing sexual misconduct.

Recognising that fostering a vibrant and supportive community is an ongoing effort, Trinity College has commissioned a second independent review in 2024. This review will focus on the overall student experience and aim to strengthen students’ sense of belonging within the Residential College. The goal is to ensure the College remains robust and relevant to future undergraduate cohorts.

PATH STRATEGIC MILESTONES

Redeveloping our Dining Hall

After opening in 1880, our Dining Hall underwent its first expansion in 1925 following an influx of students after World War I, then accommodated the post-WWII inflow with a further expansion over the summer of 1954–55. A third expansion and renovation took place in 2011 and, at the end of 2022, we commenced the most significant building project the College is likely to see in many years, with a $22 million redevelopment of the Dining Hall and broader Kitchens Precinct. This will accommodate increased student numbers following the opening of the Dorothy Jane Ryall residential building.

WHAT LIES AHEAD

Education's crystal ball: three experts consider the future for the tertiary sector.

BY JOCELYN PRIDE

BUILDING BLOCKS

When Kath Curry started as Deputy Dean, Student Success at the Trinity College Pathways School in early 2024, she felt she had been handed a golden ticket. With a background in nursing, she had previously worked in a range of executive roles in universities.

‘I wanted to return to working more directly with students, and what better place to do it than the Pathways School.’

In her role overseeing three elements – teaching and learning, wellbeing, and student experience – Kath believes addressing and supporting the mental health of students is one of the challenges facing educational institutions. ‘Our aim is to prepare learners to excel in a university environment,' she says. 'There’s significant pressure on young people to achieve and succeed.’

Kath is also cognisant of the questioning around the value of higher education. ‘I think the focus has been a lot on how we keep students out, rather than how we bring them in,’ she observes.

‘Higher education appears to be entangled in politics and funding issues rather than focusing on its core mission. Our debates should be about the value of learning and the economics of a higher education qualification. That’s a really big debate.’

Beyond the vocational worth of gaining a degree, Kath addresses the importance of the social cohesion that higher education generates by helping students develop as holistic individuals.

KATHCURRY

‘A student gets a piece of paper in the hope it opens doors, but we’re trying to foster skills in people to also be creative, constructive, analytical and critical.’

To maintain this goal, she feels higher education needs to be accessible and achievable, and revisit the core principles of what it truly means.

‘I believe we need to explore new funding models by considering public and private partnerships.’

On the back of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is little doubt the most significant disruptor in educational practice is generative artificial intelligence (AI), which promises to transform the way we teach and learn, and how we conduct research and assessments.

Kath believes it is a case of getting on board or being left behind.

‘Currently, educational solutions appear to be in the too hard basket, with everyone waiting for someone else to find an answer. As people struggle with the issue, it’s important to take small steps to make huge leaps.’

Believing and trusting students is key, she adds. ‘We don’t want students working and operating under fear. We want them to know what the rules are, and that they are going to need to defend work they’ve submitted.’

An example Kath offers is in the Foundation Studies program in which teachers guide students through a process whereby they complete a written assignment, bring it back to

class for discussion, and use this workshop to build their confidence in using AI. ‘Within the tutorial, students need to think of two new questions to ask about their paragraph in order to compare and contrast what is AIgenerated.’

Having champions on board to train the trainer is a signature of Kath’s philosophy. ‘Earlier this year, we sent five academics to an AI conference in Singapore,’ she explains. ‘They returned with a fresh perspective, urging us all to approach things from new angles.

‘I really want to nurture and give our teachers time and permission to be reflective practitioners. Look at how we use student voice? How we use peer voice? How we keep challenging each other as professionals?’

COMMUNITY SPIRIT

As a visiting professor at Trinity College, Bishop Stephen Andrews appreciates the parallels in education across the globe. Hailing from Canada, where he is the Principal of Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto, Stephen has brought an international perspective, working alongside the Reverend Dr Bob Derrenbacker, Dean of the Trinity College Theological School.

Identifying AI as one of the challenges facing academic institutions, Stephen explains that although the University of

BISHOPSTEPHEN ANDREWS

Toronto and Wycliffe College are starting to develop policies and strategies to embrace the technology, there remains a lot of uncertainty.

‘Students are using it, but it’s hard to detect if a paper or paragraph has been produced by AI,’ he says.

Stephen highlights an example at Wycliffe in which AI is being harnessed in a helpful way through the establishment of the Canadian Institute for Empirical Church Research.

‘This was the result of a grant the college applied for to help collect necessary data required by Canada Revenue every year from non-profit organisations,’ he explains. ‘By collecting large amounts of data across congregations, AI can track and analyse it on an ongoing basis.

‘This means, we can explore factors like church growth, expenditure, locations of congregations and what makes for healthy churches. The database is so massive, AI can organise and categorise in ways that are not humanly possible.’

The embrace of technology through the pandemic, with lessons moved online for instance, has already shifted student expectations, according to Stephen. ‘They like the flexibility of learning and the capacity to take a course online,’ he says. ‘We are committed to this and recognise it’s an important part of accessibility.’

Additionally, there is a greater awareness of the need for good mental health, evidenced by a rise in the demand for counselling services within the college and university. He also ponders the prevalence of social media, and its downsides. ‘Students are so wrapped up in this dimension, I think it affects their ability to relate in person.’

This is one of the reasons why Stephen is a strong advocate for the residential model of learning at his college.

‘Students have a chance to develop community, have conversations over dinner, linger at the end of class, wander into a faculty office, visit a smorgasbord of churches to expand their experience of what it means to be a church in different traditions,’ he says. ‘The more authentic our relationships can be, the better prepared our students will be for authentic ministry.’

THE BIG PICTURE

In Professor Michael Wesley’s role as Deputy Vice-Chancellor Global, Culture and Engagement at the University of Melbourne, he is responsible for the university’s external engagement at a global, national and local level in addition to overseeing its museums, galleries and performing arts spaces.

In imagining the future, Michael deems funding of higher education institutions in Australia as being one of the greatest challenges. ‘We’ve seen public funding flowing to universities largely flatlining for probably the last 10 years or so, and this has effects on how we educate [and] how we research, and it means we are forced to look for other sources of revenue.’

Greater collaboration with business and possibly other forms of teaching such as non-degree education are some options that could provide solutions.

‘I think Australia is fortunate enough to be located in what will become a kind of epicentre of higher education for the rest of the 21st century,’ he explains. ‘So many of the countries to our north and north-west are investing heavily in higher education and research at a time when the traditional centres of higher education in North America and Europe are seeing stagnant investment in the sector.’

He believes the Australian universities that figure out how to make the most of being in the growth area will do very well, while those which do not will struggle. Without knowing exactly what the introduction of government caps on international student numbers will

PROFESSOR

MICHAELWESLEY

ultimately mean for Australian universities, Michael deems diversity an essential ingredient for world-class education.

‘I strongly believe that you can’t educate successfully if you are operating in a sort of monocultural environment, because without diversity of viewpoint, received wisdom can’t be challenged effectively. The best Australian universities should be continuing their efforts to keep their student cohorts as diverse as possible.’

From a university perspective, Michael sees AI as a potential advantage in higher education if used properly, but it could also very easily undercut the processes of learning.

‘We’re doing a lot of work developing a set of resources for our academic staff to help them think through how to productively use AI and how to guard against the risks of it,’ he says. ‘If students are using AI to write essays, put together reviews, it actually undermines what we’re trying to educate them to do, which is synthesise ideas, balance and adjudicate different claims.’

A university degree is still a coveted aspiration and there is a strong correlation in most people’s minds between a degree and employment, Michael believes. Add to that, the importance of alumni. ‘I would say there’s probably been greater alumni engagement now than there was 20 years ago. A degree is more than a piece of paper, it becomes part of your life.’

WHERE WILL RESIDENTIAL COLLEGES FIT IN THE FUTURE?

‘It can be argued that the primary purpose of education is for students to learn about themselves and the world they live in. There are multiple different ways to acquire that knowledge, and, of course, many distinct bodies of expert knowledge in which we can become immersed while studying. Still, for all students, the best possible outcome for the years spent acquiring a university degree is a combination both of selfknowledge and the capacity for critical interrogation of knowledge, in one or more of the many disciplines.

‘On both these counts, the experience of community living with other students and scholars in a university college is one of the best ways to experience a university education.’

PROFESSOR DUNCAN MASKELL

Outgoing Vice-Chancellor

The University of Melbourne

FROM LITTLE THINGS . . .

The headwinds facing business leaders can be overwhelming at times. Meet three Trinity community members who have stared down those challenges.

BY MARK DAFFEY

We all know the story of how Facebook started as an online networking site for Harvard University students. Meta, the company that now owns the social media giant – plus Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads and others – is currently worth more than $1 trillion, largely on the back of that initial idea.

It’s a similar story with Apple. When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak designed their first personal computer in a garage, lenders baulked when the two tech whizzes went in search of funds to turn their vision into reality. At the time, the idea of a computer that ordinary people would want to use seemed absurd. But, like Facebook (or Meta, if you prefer), Apple is now one of the world’s corporate behemoths.

Here’s another example. In 1982, Howard Schultz began working at a coffee shop in Seattle. A year later, he took a trip to Italy and discovered there were 1500 coffeehouses in Milan. Inspired by the Italians’ coffee culture, he imagined something similar in the US, so he quit his job and started his own company. Four years later, he bought that original Starbuck’s coffee outlet where he had worked, launching the global enterprise we know today.

The point is this: all big companies started small. They have then had to adapt their strategies as they have grown to survive in a fast-paced world.

The Mecca story

Someone who understands that truism is Jo Horgan AM, founder of retail cosmetics chain Mecca. Jo, mother of Trinity student Eleanor Wetenhall and a mentor to several Trinity students, opened her first Mecca store in South Yarra in 1997. Fast forward to today, and there are 110 stores across Australia and New Zealand, with a 3500-square-metre flagship store set to open in Melbourne in early 2025.

Mecca’s success is indisputable. But amid that success, and rapid rate of growth, invariably came challenges that required Jo and her team to act nimbly.

‘We consistently remind ourselves that the bigger we get, the smaller we must act,’ she says. ‘We try to separate our business into areas where we continue to drive our existing flywheel, and then we have an “explore” area where we try new things. That aids our agility in the areas where it most matters.

‘One of the Mecca mantras is to fail fast and fail forward. We will test and try new formats then we’ll share the findings. Once we are happy that we have the right approach, then, having fired lots of bullets and worked out if we’re shooting in the right direction, that’s when we fire a cannonball. And we do it all day, every day.’

Clearly, drive is no issue for Jo, and she notes that many of the Trinity alumni who have joined her team show similar care and tenacity to help move the business forward.

‘It’s funny, because there are so many Trinity and ex-Trinity students who work at Mecca. I think they bring great curiosity, an ability to connect with others, a sense of community and responsibility, and great smarts.’

The Medibank story

For almost five decades, Medibank has ranked among Australia’s leading health insurers, while also providing a range of healthcare services for more than 4 million customers. Starting as a not-for-profit service owned by the government, it was privatised in 2014.

Overnight, the company had a responsibility to shareholders, with return on investment a key driver in business decisions. But how do you achieve that without sacrificing customer welfare? It’s a tricky dichotomy.

David Koczkar (TC 1991) was appointed Medibank CEO in May 2021. He believes a way of balancing the two is to focus less on treatment and more on prevention, and to concentrate more on personal health than generalised care.

‘Our health system needs innovation, and with the current challenges that exist, we simply can’t move fast enough,’ he says. ‘Australia spends more than $38 billion annually on care for people with chronic health conditions, yet more than a third of chronic disease is preventable. For every dollar invested in prevention, the health cost savings exceed $14, so it’s a compelling case.

‘We are rewarding healthy behaviours with personalised offerings to encourage our customers to be better. And we are providing more support when our customers need to access care and get better.’

Medibank is also building a growing network of communitycare and short-stay hospitals, investing in virtual health and primary care, and accelerating the take-up of new care models in partnership with clinicians and health providers.

‘This could deliver savings of around $1.3 billion and free up hospital beds for those who really need them,’ says David. ‘It’s our customers who are demanding these changes.’

The ANZ story

Banks operate in one of the most highly regulated industries in Australia. Failing to comply with government regulations can lead to financial penalties, legal challenges and reputational damage.

Moreover, without strong leadership ambition to drive sustainability, a company risks falling behind competitors who are more proactive in addressing climate change.

‘This can result in lost market opportunities, diminished investor confidence and a decline in customer trust,’ says Senhao Huang (TCFS 2012), who is ESG (environmental, social and governance) Analytics Manager at ANZ.

‘The company may also face increased operational costs due to climate-related disruptions and the potential for stranded assets. In a rapidly changing regulatory and market environment, not being future-focused can jeopardise a company’s long-term viability and success.’

After graduating from the Foundation Studies program under Trinity’s Pathways School, Senhao went on to attain a bachelor’s degree in environments. He then continued studying for a master’s in spatial engineering at Melbourne University, and a master’s degree in environmental change and management at Oxford University.

‘I received an incredible amount of academic and personal support through various academic and pastoral programs [at Trinity],’ Senhao says. ‘There were also opportunities for students to earn some pocket money, such as tutoring. However, what was more valuable was the chance to develop leadership skills, which has helped me tremendously in my career.’

Today, Senhao leads ANZ’s Large Emitters Engagement Program with the aim of improving the climate transition plans of institutional customers.

‘Communities expect these institutions to not only provide financial services, but also contribute positively to societal wellbeing. This includes responsible lending practices that consider environmental and social impacts, supporting local economic development and ensuring financial inclusion for all segments of society.

‘We’re expected to be proactive in addressing climate change by setting and adhering to ambitious sustainability goals, such as reducing carbon footprints and investing in green initiatives. Upholding these expectations helps build trust and reinforces the bank’s reputation as a responsible corporate citizen.’

Quality over quantity

What impact do our clothes have on the environment? Sally Tam-Hadi (TCFS 2007), founder of clothing label We The Earth, realised fast fashion was negatively impacting our natural world, and decided to act.

BY EMILY M c AULIFFE

‘You don’t know it, but you are a small, small fish in a big pool of sharks.’ Sally Tam-Hadi’s father was realistically blunt when his daughter floated the idea of partnering with him to start a conscious clothing business.

Daniel Tam had extensive experience in the clothing manufacturing industry in Indonesia, supplying apparel to major global fast fashion brands, and understood the corporate giants they would be up against. Despite not always liking the business models of the companies that were his customers, Daniel saw it as a way to support his family. However, the immense waste generated by the industry deeply concerned him.

That waste was exactly what drove his daughter to try a different approach. Having grown up in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sally’s childhood memories are peppered with images of rubbish – including old clothing – piled high on street corners and plastic being washed up on the shoreline, and an early realisation of the vast chasm between rich and poor.

Despite her growing awareness of environmental issues, it wasn’t until Sally joined Trinity College’s Foundation Studies program in 2007 that she discovered her real passion for sustainability through the elective subject Environment, Development and Design, which inspired

her to study a Bachelor of Social Science (Environment) at university. ‘I never really questioned where my clothing came from until I started studying these things,’ she admits.

After spending 10 years working in the education sector after graduation, Sally had a ‘crisis moment’ and challenged herself to really think about how she wanted to spend the next 10 years of her working life. ‘Every time I go back home, I feel really sad,’ she says, referencing Indonesia’s overwhelming environmental and social issues and her desire to do something about it. ‘I know I can only do what I can as a responsible human.’

For Sally, the action she ultimately took was creating the environmentally conscious clothing company We The Earth. Daniel, despite his initial reservations,

came on board as a mentor. Together, they started from scratch, researching small-scale, family-run manufacturers in Indonesia and Australia who shared their ethical mindset, sourced ecofriendly fabrics and learned the ropes for starting a small business.

Two years later, We The Earth launched its first collection. Was it easy? Far from it.

‘We’re competing with fast fashion, which is quick to market using the cheapest fabrics at the lowest prices,’ says Sally. ‘But we want to select high-quality fabrics that are environmentally friendly and well-made.’

Part of We The Earth’s strategy is education – trying to convince consumers that there are better choices than those offered by the fast fashion industry, particularly if you choose quality over quantity, and that these options are not necessarily expensive.

‘Buy quality clothes that are versatile and durable,’ Sally suggests. We The Earth also reduces plastic waste wherever possible. For instance, there are no hang tags on products, and packaging is both recyclable and made from recycled materials. Customers are also discouraged from requesting express shipping — another environmental foe that many people don’t think about.

‘I realise the power of taking one step at a time,’ says Sally, reflecting on her journey. ‘I tell myself, start small, and then you can witness these small steps having a ripple effect.’

Part-time politician mission

Australian women – and men –have been successfully working part-time for decades, but not so our elected parliamentarians. Meet Bronwen Bock (TC 2002), the democracy disruptor calling for change.

BY CATHERINE BEST

Bronwen Bock was destined to be a trailblazer. Back in 2003, she was a second-year university student when her mother won a gender equality battle that would pave the way for more female engineering academics in a faculty dominated by men.

Two decades on, Bronwen and childhood friend Lucy Bradlow are engaged in an equality showdown of their own, attempting a democratic coup of sorts to become the first job-share members of federal parliament. At stake is a seat in the Senate, representing Victoria.

Both women are changemakers in their own right. Lucy, a lawyer and former political staffer, was most recently communications and campaigns manager at the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA). Bronwen, a former investment banker, is a governance expert and gender equality consultant. Together, they want to challenge the status quo of parliament, to make it more inclusive and representative.

‘I believe so strongly that parliament should be like any other workplace where there are options for flexible work and job sharing,’ says Bronwen, who has a Bachelor of Commerce/ Bachelor of Arts from the University of Melbourne and a Master of Finance from INSEAD business school.

The job-share campaign was Lucy’s idea after she became frustrated by how a lack of part-time leadership opportunities in Australia was disproportionately affecting women. (WGEA

Lucy Bradlow, left, and Bronwen Bock.

‘I think that being able to lead from the top and say, ‘‘We've got job-sharing politicians, we've got opportunities for a broader group of people to come into parliament’’, is very imortant.’

LUCY BRADLOW

research shows 30 per cent of women employed by privatesector organisations with 100 or more staff work part-time, but only 7 per cent of management roles are part-time.)

‘Workplaces with 100 or more employees are required to report … on their gender pay gaps and on what measures they’re putting in place to promote gender equality,’ Lucy says. ‘And yet parliament itself is not required to meet those same standards, and I think that being able to lead from the top and say, “We’ve got job-sharing politicians, we’re creating opportunities for a broader group of people to come into parliament,” is very important … I think it gives permission for other organisations to do the same.’

Some workplaces drive reform from within. And for a role model, Bronwen need look no further than her mother, Professor Doreen Thomas. Doreen was the head of Melbourne University’s Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 2002 when women comprised just 12 per cent of academics in the faculty. It was an imbalance she fought to redress. The following year, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal granted the university an exemption under the Equal Opportunity Act, enabling the engineering faculty to advertise three women-only postdoctoral fellowships.

‘I still remember celebrating with her,’ recalls Bronwen, ‘and that being a big formative moment for me for

‘We're trying to strive for a more inclusive parliament which brings in a new crop of people who are currently excluded from the system.’

BRONWEN BOCK

understanding the importance of trying to drive for different outcomes and inclusion in our university. But, also, we’re taking it a step further now into parliament.’

Bronwen’s motivation comes partly from her parents, who met in residence at Oxford University, and from her academic years at Trinity College, where she was encouraged to participate in different causes and ‘create and drive change’.

But the biggest mind shift came after the birth of her first child, when she left a decade-long role as an investment banker at Macquarie Group to join REA Group, where she worked part-time and had a further two children.

‘Time and time again I came up against – and I saw peers come up against – the challenges of marrying flex-work and leadership,’ Bronwen says. ‘Through that time, I had three babies, so I was juggling trying to work flexibly but still progressing in my career.’

Lucy and Bronwen are quick to point out that their jobshare tilt at parliament is not just about women. It is about creating flexible opportunities for all political aspirants who may not fit the parliamentary mould.

‘We’re trying to strive for a more inclusive parliament which brings in a new crop of people who are currently excluded from the system,’ Bronwen says. ‘We think it’s about time that the system changes rather than always trying to change the person to fit into the system.'

TIn the aftermath of a divisive national debate over constitutional recognition for Indigenous Australians, what might an equitable future look like for First Nations peoples?

BY JUSTIN MENEGUZZI

he national referendum on the proposed Voice to Parliament was a watershed moment in Australian history. Although ultimately unsuccessful, the proposal served as a lightning rod for discussion about what First Nation sovereignty could look like, while highlighting the challenges still being experienced by First Nations peoples.

On average, Indigenous Australians live eight years less than their non-Indigenous peers, a reality that speaks to the impact of many forms of disadvantage. Forty per cent of Indigenous Australians live without two or more of life’s essentials such as clean water and food; they are 15 times more likely to be incarcerated; and their median personal income is 60 per cent less than that of non-Indigenous people.

This difference has come to be known as ‘The Gap’, and closing it has been the challenge of governments since the phrase was first coined in 2007.

While there have been improvements on some measures, mostly in the areas of education and infant health, the Productivity Commission has criticised governments of all stripes for failing to fulfill their commitments to First Nations peoples.

With treaty and truth-telling efforts underway across the country, how might we continue to close the gap for a more equitable future?

New ways of thinking

Australia’s states and territories still conform to the notion that government knows best. Elias Jarvis, a Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung student currently studying his Bachelor of Arts while living at Trinity College, says policies and initiatives are most successful when First Nations peoples are given room, and funding, to solve creatively their own problems.

‘Indigenous people have the answers, but they aren’t resourced to enact solutions,’ says Elias, who also works as a junior consultant for ABSTARR Consulting, which provides advice to government bodies and other agencies on how to align their practices more culturally with First Nations peoples.

Elias points to examples across Victoria that demonstrate how problem-solving in First Nation hands leads to better outcomes for the community.

For instance, a childcare centre in Melbourne’s inner north is taking a holistic approach to care, supporting parents and extended family members – as well as the child – using a model that is foreign to the way such centres typically operate. The problem is the government’s rigid idea of what childcare should look like, and an unwillingness to fund initiatives that don’t align with Western thinking.

‘The childcare centre is providing excellent care, and they know what their community needs, but they’re not supported

financially,’ says Elias. Instead, the centre is left to fund programs on its own, usually through donations.

Funding was also identified as a policy shortcoming by the Productivity Commission, which noted that government money intended to support First Nations communities was in many cases being siphoned to outsider NGOs and government service providers instead of organisations controlled by First Nations communities.

Supporting emerging leaders

Education has a key role to play in bridging the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians as it has been linked to improved health, employment and income as well as other social benefits – and good progress has been made in this space. In 2021, the proportion of Aboriginal students who successfully completed Year 12 or an equivalent level program was 16 per cent higher than in 2011.

While the numbers are encouraging, Elias says it is important to ensure that First Nations students – many of whom travel from remote communities to cities to study – feel culturally safe and included so they can successfully complete their degrees.

‘We need to work with communities to find the best way to bring First Nations students into an educational setting,’ says Elias, who is a member of Trinity’s Kumergaii Yulendji student committee.

Kumergaii Yulendji is designed to be a safe space for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at the College,

with the committee providing students with emotional, academic and administrative support, as well as organising social events and sporting matches where First Nations students can get together. It also presents opportunities for those students to grow and take on leadership roles.

‘Having Kumergaii Yulendji has been great, especially when I first started out,’ says Elias.

‘Not many people from my family have been to university, so having First Nations people here who I could rely on for support was super helpful.’

Ultimately, every student needs to graduate and find a job, which is why private businesses have an important role to play in closing the gap by ensuring their workplace is culturally safe and free from discrimination.

‘There’s a lot of research highlighting that racism is literally bad for your health, increasing the risk of heart attacks, stroke and diabetes,’ says Elias. ‘When people can’t go to work without experiencing racism, not only is that incredibly unfair, it’s also a health and safety risk.’

Renegotiating power: lessons from across the pond

In the 1980s, when Trinity College visiting professor and Caldwell Lecturer Justice Joe Williams was a wide-eyed law student studying at Victoria University of Wellington, a committee like Kumergaii Yulendji was just a pipe dream. The idea, too, that the official Māori language te reo would one day become the preferred way to sing New

Zealand’s national anthem – as it is today – seemed implausible.

Now a New Zealand Supreme Court judge, the first Māori judicial appointment in the nation’s history, Joe says governments and universities are taking baby steps towards First Nation recognition.

Where ATAR scores, admission exams and course fees once worked to exclude minorities from professions such as law, which were homogenously nonIndigenous, efforts are being made to open up these spaces. The New Zealand Council of Legal Education has decreed that it will be compulsory for students to study Māori law as part of their degree from 2025.

The decree follows a series of small changes in New Zealand’s legal system: court sessions open and close in the Māori language, and First Nation understanding of sovereignty and land rights is being woven into legislation and court judgments. In 2017, a sacred mountain on the country’s North Island was granted legal personhood in an accord between the Māori community and the New Zealand government.

‘As a symbol of recognition, it’s an incredible affirmation of identity and values for people who have been suppressed for so long,’ says Joe. ‘If you’re a young Māori these days, you’ll feel less negatively viewed than when I was in high school because of these important symbolic acceptances.’

Far from just being tokens, such symbols – whether legal, political or cultural – carry status and have an important role to play in bridging the gap

Elias Jarvis

Justice Joe Williams

between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. Justice Joe Williams says when the wider community starts to recognise and respectfully adopt First Nations symbols – including art, music and stories – it enriches its social fabric and provides a platform for reconciliation.

At the start of the Olympic Games in Paris, social media was set ablaze when Eliza McCartney, a non-Indigenous New Zealand pole vaulter, spoke te reo at a formal welcome event. It was a searing moment of First Nation recognition on the world stage.

For Joe, that unexpected event demonstrated there is hope and optimism in Māori culture being seen by New Zealanders as something essential to their national identity. ‘It creates space to hope for a shared nationhood where Māori identity isn’t a threat but, instead, taken up by all,’ he says.

New Zealand’s demographics are fundamentally different to those of Australia, which has a much smaller Indigenous population, so lessons are not easily imported from across the Tasman. However, the experience of New Zealand offers a road map of sorts for how Australia renegotiates its relationship with First Nations communities and works to bridge the gap.

‘We can’t really be a country at peace with ourselves if we are built on the original sin of colonialism,’ says Joe.

‘If you recognise that First Nation peoples’ resources and autonomy were taken from them wrongly without their consent, you have to give some of it back. The question is: how much is enough if we are to have a shared future together?’

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

Dresident advisor at Trinity College who is a lawyer and World Economic Forum ‘global shaper’, says breaking down barriers to information and leadership is key to bridging the gap not just for Indigenous communities, but also for women, youth and minorities.

‘If you don’t have connections or family working in law, [then] navigating those spaces of power becomes significantly more challenging,’ says Devni.

‘At a university level, this requires a greater focus on equity-based programs and mentorship opportunities to reduce gatekeeping and ensure that the increasing diversity of law schools is reflected in meaningful industry leadership.’

Organisations such as Foundations for Young Australians and the Diversity Council of Australia are helping pave the way with

mentoring and knowledge programs, but Devni says tech-savvy Generation Z students are also taking advantage of new ways to find information and support their local communities on their terms.

‘Social media has been really powerful and young people have done an incredible job of using the tools they’ve been given to mobilise and disrupt traditional ways of knowledge sharing,’ says Devni.

Gen Z’s reliance on social media for advice on everything from baking to healthcare has led to it to being unfairly, even dismissively, labelled as the ‘Tik-Tok generation’, but such labels trivialise young people’s very real desire to see change.

‘We’ve done a good job breaking the glass ceiling, but young people now want to lift the floor – which means recalibrating what leadership looks like today and how young people can take up leadership positions in the workplace and in the community.’

evni Vihara Wimalasena, a

Devni Vihara Wimalasena

Engagement in the modern-day church

Church attendance and the concept of faith in Australia is evolving, so what do church leaders need to do to keep up?

BY EMILY M c AULIFFE

The number of Australians claiming affiliation with Christianity declined by 1.1 million people between 2016 and 2021, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The sharpest decline was evidenced in adults aged 18 to 25 years, with Anglicanism experiencing the biggest drop among all religious denominations.

In line with these findings, both the National Church Life Survey (conducted by NCLS Research) and IBIS World have noted that church attendance in Australia is steadily declining.

So how do churches continue to engage, and what strategies need to be employed to boost and retain numbers?

Building community

First things first: community is key. ‘Jesus always did things at a community level – never individual,’ says the Reverend Heidin Kunoo (TCTS 2017), who is Assistant Priest at St Paul’s Anglican Church, East Kew, and Assistant Chaplain for Mission to Seafarers.

‘I’ve heard a lot of people saying that God is everywhere, so

we can pray at home, we can pray by ourselves, we don’t need to go to church. And I agree with the first part; yes, God is everywhere …

‘However, we are also called to pray together as a community and worship God. Praying at home is to nurture yourself, but praying with the community is to deepen your faith.’

As well as coming together in worship, Heidin, who studied a Bachelor of Theology at Trinity College Theological School, believes engaging with the wider community on a social level is important. For St Paul’s, this means organising a parish lunch once a month at a local pub, plus a weekly morning tea, which attracts not just parishioners, but community members who don’t want to attend church per se, but still want to connect with their church community.

The Reverend Professor Mark Lindsay, TCTS Deputy Dean, Academic Dean and Joan F. W. Munro Lecturer in Historical Theology, agrees. At Christ Church Brunswick, where Mark serves as an associate priest, community engagement is part of the church’s core business.

The church runs a social enterprise cafe on Sydney Road, and its previous vicar, Bishop Lindsay Irwin, played a crucial role in connecting the church to the wider community by working as a barista. ‘He was always there behind the counter in his collar serving people and striking up conversation,’ says Mark. ‘It was a really great way for the community to get to know him.’

Taking the church’s community engagement a step further, the clergy, including Mark, made a conscious decision to wear their cassocks and collars when out and about in Brunswick. While some priests have at times found that challenging,

especially in the aftermath of such events as the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the team has drawn inspiration from Lindsay’s example, and his personality and charisma.

‘All of us on the clergy team are quite comfortable walking up and down Sydney Road, going into the shops and going into the Cornish Arms Hotel wearing our cassocks when we sit down to have a beer,’ Mark says. ‘It probably looks a bit anachronistic and weird, but it’s become a natural part of how we inhabit that ministry.

‘Sometimes, it’s why people start to come into the church. They get drawn in out of curiosity, wondering what are those guys doing dressed up in black? It creates opportunities for conversation and for people to come in and have a look around and see what’s going on.’

St Paul’s Cathedral in the Melbourne CBD has the benefit of being one of the most beautiful spiritual places in Australia, so naturally attracts worshippers and passers-by. However, its success in a strategic sense – particularly when it comes to funding – hasn’t always been a given, and is something that the Very Reverend Dr Andreas Loewe, former senior chaplain and senior lecturer in theology at Trinity College, has worked hard to address since being appointed in 2012 Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral and Dean of Melbourne.

‘Over the last 12 years, we have really set up the cathedral for growth and particularly set it up in a way that is financially sustainable,’ says Andreas.

‘Previously, we were always short of funds or facing deficits or short on staff or volunteers, and we very strategically

invested in growing the number of our volunteers and growing the number of our staff, both administratively and pastorally, so that the cathedral can run in the way it was intended to, which is really like an English cathedral.

‘We are one of the few cathedrals in the southern hemisphere to retain a pattern of a daily choral evening service during term time.’

Regularity and consistency

Both Andreas and Mark believe that a calendar of regular and frequent services, and the sense that a church is always open, is key to a thriving church community.

St Paul’s Cathedral, open every day of the year, offers 16 weekly services and has been intentional in ensuring its services welcome a diverse range of people. In 2024, three new congregations were established, including one that is Farsi speaking, one that is Mandarin speaking (re-established post-pandemic), and one called ‘Gather’, targeted at students.

‘In addition to our very internationally minded Englishspeaking congregations, where we’ve got people from more than 25 nations, we’ve got these three very specific congregations that also look to reach out to particular constituents within the CBD,’ says Andreas.

Christ Church Brunswick, which offers morning and evening prayer and a mass every day except Mondays, plus two Sunday morning services and a more informal ‘Bible and Beer’ gathering on Sunday evenings, is also open every day, from first light to sundown, and it’s subsequently become known as a safe space to pray or just sit in silence.

The Very Reverend Dr Andreas Loewe

‘I think the most obvious thing would simply be remembering what any church is meant to be there for in the community,’ says Mark. ‘It’s meant to be a visible, welcoming space where people can come and participate and, yes, encounter God. And they cannot do that if the church is either literally or metaphorically shut up as though it’s somewhere that just exists for the people who are already inside it.’

Attracting the next generation

Creating a warm and hospitable space also means welcoming people of all ages, particularly young people.

‘We have babies through to 90-year-olds and everyone in between, and we’ve got a Sunday school program that we’ve had to divide into two for the numbers,’ says Mark, of Christ Church Brunswick, adding that the older kids sometimes also meet in the parish house on Friday afternoons.

As well as seeking a place to spend time with like-minded peers, Heidin believes young people are often attracted to a different kind of church service.

‘[Younger generations] are more motivated by instruments like the guitar and drums and modern music, rather than the hymns, piano or organ,’ she says, adding that the style of preaching is important too, having observed that younger people are interested in testimony that can be related to what’s going on for them in their life right now rather than learning about the theology behind the scriptures.

She also feels that board games or sports can help younger people bond in a religious setting, along with discussions that draw on the contributions of a wider group, as opposed to just one person standing at the front of a church.

For Andreas, ensuring that young people – including those with small children – feel welcome at the cathedral has been very deliberate.

‘If we want to have more young people, then we also need to accept the consequence of our worship being disrupted … It took a good three or four years for most people to come on board with that idea, but once we’d gone through that process, we confirmed that, yes, we do want to have a place where kids

can run around and they’re not going to be constrained or limited to a particular space.’

Embracing change, thinking strategically

‘Inevitably, [the way people engage with the church] will change,’ says Mark. ‘A lot of people in the churches get terrified by the census statistics – you see the plummeting numbers.

‘That’s one way to look at it. The other way to look at it is that we are now, as a Christian faith, no longer able to hide behind that self-serving idea that Australia is a Christian country. We probably haven’t been for a century, which is good because it reminds us that we have no guaranteed or selfevident voice in the public square.

‘We can’t presume that the policymakers should listen to us before they listen to anyone else as we are just one voice amongst many. Because we can no longer make that presumption, it means we have to think much more seriously about what those key things are we really want to invest in, in terms of our energies and how we present ourselves publicly.’

For St Paul’s Cathedral, that investment includes championing social issues, and being a strong voice of support in the community. This includes refugee advocacy, First Nations recognition and reconciliation, tackling climate change, and advocating for a safe church, including for children and those experiencing intimate partner violence.

Ultimately, Andreas says it’s about thinking tactically about what the church represents and what it aims to achieve, and considering who it’s serving, and who it wants to serve.

‘You have to be strategic … we see ourselves very much like a not-for-profit, but I think some of the qualities that come out of the corporate world [apply], which is an emphasis on good governance and setting strategic goals, so that you can either meet them or you can work out why you’re not, and therefore begin improving on meeting them,’ he says.

‘That’s really important because if you don’t have a plan, if you don’t have a map, you don’t know where you’re going.’

The Reverend Heidin Kunoo

The Reverend Professor Mark Lindsay

For organisations to be drivers of a greener, more equitable world, decision-makers must rise to the challenge of ethical leadership.

BY TARA WELLS

Guided by strong ethics and smart strategy, decision-makers can transform their business’s impact to make the world better. Choosing ethical leadership pays off with increased consumer confidence, employee satisfaction and investor support. But it’s a path requiring smart navigation.

THE RIGHT CHOICE FOR BETTER BUSINESS

Professor Mette Morsing, Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford, and Trinity’s 2024 Gourlay Visiting Professor of Ethics in Business, has been collecting corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports for more than two decades. In that time, she has led business schools, advised boards, and headed the United Nations Global Compact for Responsible Management. Mette has noticed CSR reports evolve from optional, feel-good pieces with ‘a lot of aspirational talk’, to heavily scrutinised documents influencing every level of business operations.

The change, Mette says, has been sparked by the planet in crisis. While there have always been business leaders feeling an ‘ethical responsibility to serve the world via their profession’, global crises like floods, melting polar ice and wildfires (not just in Australia; Mette saw smoke blanketing New York City from 2023’s Canadian fires nearly 1000 kilometres away) have spurred others to take action.

‘They witness this and get scared to an extent where they actually see their own powers and responsibility, and start to act,’ says Mette.

There’s an increasing awareness of human rights, too. In 2013, the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh collapsed, taking the lives of more than 1000 garment factory workers producing textiles for multinational brands. The world’s attention turned towards poor working conditions, resulting in consumer boycotts. Competing companies united for a solution.

While crises can trigger awareness, Mette points out that consumer demand is rarely the main driver for organisational change. ‘Consumers are still oriented towards particular brands they like, or the price.’

Beyond an individual leader’s moral imperative, what then prompts an organisation’s ethical evolution? The answer could be a looming spectre of business risk, sharpening both stakeholder focus and investor attention. And it may prove the most effective way

for ethical leaders to get buy-in.

Being pro-green and antimodern slavery, for example, can guard against the collapse of supply chains and keep businesses on the right side of newly introduced legislation.

‘Investors see regulations coming in the EU. They have seen the Inflation Reduction Act in the US [addressing climate change]. Investors think, if we are not at the forefront then we may impede our market opportunities in the long run,’ says Mette.

Mette’s team at the University of Oxford is analysing decades worth of marketing material and internal documents from the fossil fuel industry. Using AI, they’re comparing the industry’s repeated claims of decarbonisation to actual results. If they can show misleading conduct – creating a false impression in consumers – the industry may risk costly legal action… a result investors would be keen to avoid.

The first step for businesses of any size that are interested in making change is to conduct a materiality analysis. It’s a method of engaging stakeholders to discover which environmental, social and governance issues are most important for the organisation to uphold.

From there, leaders can make more effective decisions. ‘But,’ Mette warns, ‘to have a real impact, you have to look at the products and services you deliver, and your supply chain.’ This gets to the heart of each organisation's unique power to make a difference. Using a financial company as an example, Mette points out that turning off the office lights each night, or printing doublesided, is ineffective compared to making strategic decisions to invest millions in eco-friendly Company A compared to gas-guzzling Company B.

The biggest misunderstanding business leaders have, according to Mette, is thinking they have time to address issues later.

‘They think that this is going to happen far into the future, rather than understanding it’s actually now.’

Professor Mette Morsing

Marketing

TO THE NEXT GENERATION

BY EMILY M c AULIFFE

‘PBrand. Storytelling. Social

media. AI. What do modern marketers need to consider in a rapidly changing world?

art of the strategy was to just stay alive,’ says Jack Watts (TC 2006) of the initial plan behind the full-service marketing and communications agency he started with his brother amid the fallout from the Global Financial Crisis.

When Bastion Agency was formed, neither Jack nor Fergus had any real experience in the field, but Fergus had once done an internship at a creative agency.

Sitting on the couch of their share house in 2009, the jobless duo pondered how to pay their rent, and Fergus recalled that during his internship there were people wearing T-shirts, there was music playing, and … surely it couldn’t be that hard? So, the decision was made to start a creative agency. It would see them through the crisis, after which they would find ‘real’ jobs.

Fast forward to today, and the wryly named Bastion Agency is one of the largest marketing and communications agencies to come out of Australia, with 350 staff working across nine cities in three countries.

Given their lack of experience, the brothers had embarked on a simple strategy: listen to the client and give them what they wanted. When they noticed several clients were asking about public relations, for example, they responded by buying a PR agency, and have since made 15 mid-to-large-scale acquisitions to build a 360-degree service offering – from market research to website design, to reputation management.

While supplying what the client wants remains just as central to their approach today, Jack says that equally important is staying attuned to consumer needs, which are constantly evolving.

‘The obvious change in consumer

behaviour is a long-term shift to digital media,’ says Jack, noting the rapid demise of free-to-air TV as the last true mass-market product. ‘It’s changed the way brands communicate and advertise … the media landscape is fragmented, and nothing has replaced traditional media in its entirety.’

The digital writing was certainly on the wall when Alicia Tan (TCFS 1999) stepped into the role of editor at CLEO in Singapore in 2013, where she spearheaded the magazine’s digital strategy, including its foray into social media and Instagram. She bucked the then-trend of taking a magazine and simply displaying it on an iPad, realising the digital natives who consumed the women’s magazine were tech-savvy and wanted access to immediate and interactive content.

‘We need to give [consumers] what they want because they have the power,’ Alicia says. ‘They’re the ones who say, “I control when I read your magazine. I control when I shop your brand and how I want to consume the information you’re giving to me.”’

Having since worked as head of brand marketing for PUMA, Alicia is now the marketing manager for luxury skincare brand Synergie Skin, crediting Trinity with giving her the confidence to make bold career moves, after she moved to Melbourne from Singapore at just 16. She notes that rising consumer power means marketers need to produce a volume of content that was not previously required to feed contenthungry social media channels.

According to Jack, this is where artificial intelligence (AI) has an emerging role.

‘Most of our clients are wary of the copyright issues associated with AI actually producing finished work,’ he

says. ‘But being able to utilise AI to take one great creative concept and proliferate that across multiple content formats probably addresses something in the top 10 list of all brand marketers’ challenges today – which is, “How the hell am I going to do this at scale across all these social platforms … and do that at an appropriate cost?” ’

Purchasing power

The new media landscape has also seen shifts in the way people purchase. Jack uses the example of buying a car. In the past, the main goal was to get a prospective customer into a showroom for a test drive. ‘You used to walk into half a dozen dealerships, you’d interact with the dealer, you’d get information, and it would probably be a three-to-sixmonth sales cycle.’

These days, however, customers approach a dealership equipped with background knowledge and ready to buy. ‘The shortlist is not five or six cars, it’s two,’ Jack says. ‘[Buyers] want to sit in the car, and they want to ask the dealer very specific questions like, “How long will this take? Could you do it like this?” The sales cycle is a lot shorter, and the sales staff have to be armed with a different set of information … you have to convert the customer much faster.’

As well as fast decision-making, consumers also expect immediacy in their dealings with an organisation and have little patience for laggy customer service. ‘[Consumers] have an expectation for fast responses and immediate access to information,’ says Alicia. ‘It could be a case of, “I’m going to buy from this brand because they

answered my query,” or “They haven’t responded to my questions so I’m going to find another brand.”’

Aligning values

Speed, however, isn’t the whole story, with brand ‘values’ playing an increasingly vital role in people’s buying decisions.

‘Brands are accepting that people have really changed their purchase behaviour, and people will support you when you align with their social, environmental and personal life values,’ says Alicia. ‘I think that’s what our consumers really want now – they want to feel heard and listened to, and that’s why we are always talking about community.

‘Investing in distinctiveness, where it’s clear to your customer what you do, why you do it, why that’s different from the competitor and why they should buy from you instead, is always my number one piece of advice.’

JACK WATTS

‘How do we build platforms for them to be able to share their reviews or share their testimonials? And community building goes back to authenticity, because a brand can pay an influencer to say X, Y and Z about their brand but, at end of the day, I want to listen to what my community and people that I trust, my peers, are recommending to me.’

Today, a strong brand usually requires

strong environmental, social and governance (ESG) credentials to meet the modern customer expectation that organisations will act responsibly. ‘It’s sort of a minimum threshold that [consumers] need to be able to see that the brand or business they are buying from has an investment in the space that meets their own ideological value set,’ says Jack.

Alicia adds: ‘Digital natives are so action-oriented – they are the generation that’s going to go out there and fight for what they believe in … They don’t just take things at face value, which is why I feel like brand values are really, really important.’

Building a brand

Given that consumers can form a detailed opinion of a brand or product before – or without ever – setting foot in a showroom or shop, a strong brand is imperative.

‘Brand is critical to long-term business growth – you can’t get away with not investing in it,’ says Jack. ‘You need to have a great strategy and be really distinctive about the way you present your brand to market so customers can very quickly understand who you are, what you stand for, what you sell and why.’

Brand is much more than a logo on a notepad and pen, however, encompassing things such as tone of voice, market position, consistent colour schemes and company personality, whether that is via a website, social media post or internal staff email, and requires hardline consistency.

‘Your brand is all about perception,’ says Alicia. ‘It’s not what you say it is, it’s

Jack Watts

actually what people think you are… and it’s all about cohesiveness and matching everything you put out verbally and visually.’

‘Digital natives are so action-oriented – they are the generation that’s going to go out there and fight for what they believe in … They don’t just take things at face value, which is why I feel like brand values are really, really important.’

According to Jack, a solid brand also requires distinctiveness.

‘Investing in distinctiveness, where it’s clear to your customer what you do, why you do it, why that’s different from the competitor and why they should buy from you instead, is always my number one piece of advice,’ he says.

He notes that distinctiveness does not necessarily equate to personality and storytelling, which is becoming increasingly prominent in organisational content, but could be as simple as always claiming to have the lowest price, à la Chemist Warehouse or Bunnings. Or it could be around higher-order values, as is the case for brands such as Patagonia and Microsoft, which strive to make major societal impacts.

A force for good

For Mallika Bajaj (TC 2007), who founded media and communications

company Little Yellow Beetle and is director and CEO of Indian e-learning company Ballistic Learning, the idea of creating societal impact is at the core of what she does via digital media.

Mallika, who was named one of the 100 most powerful chief marketing officers (CMOs) in Asia, started Little Yellow Beetle to help her home country of India improve communications, after realising the country fell behind when compared to Australia and the UK, where she had studied and worked.

‘India is a great country, but [organisations] would be sent communications or emails, and it would take forever [for them] to respond,’ she observes, prompting her to ask, ‘Why can’t we communicate better?’ Like Jack, she started a full-service media company to help clients build robust and cohesive communications strategies.

This work led her to take over Ballistic Learning, where she is driven by a desire to provide access to information for people across India, including ‘the last child in the most remote village’.

In this sense, she is interested in showing people what media and communications can teach them, rather than having people being used by media and communications. ‘Because we’re connected by mobiles all the time, so many of us are now being consumed by our media,’ she laments.

‘I want to empower people through communications.’

Employing the concept of digital transformation, Mallika’s projects have included building a healthcare platform that provides ‘accessible anywhere’

healthcare, so that people in regional and remote areas of India don’t need to travel to a city when they are sick, or so women can speak with a female doctor should they wish, even if there are none working in their town or village.

Mallika says that even this type of ‘product’ requires applying the same logic as any other form of marketing. ‘You need to really understand who your audience is,’ she says. ‘We help our clients with the identification of their audience, the niche of their audience, the expertise of their audience, the capacity of their audience.’ And everything else stems from that.

‘We are on a very beautiful cusp at this point because I think the world is now recognising that there’s so much more you can do with digital communications and technology.’

‘Communication is the reason communities have been formed and is how the world is going to move forward, except that it’s now digital … and we shouldn’t be scared,’ says Mallika. ‘We are on a very beautiful cusp at this point because I think the world is now recognising that there’s so much more you can do with digital communications and technology, especially with AI coming through, and people are more prepared, they’re more curious, and we are happy to teach them how it can help them.’

MALLIKA BAJAJ Mallika Bajaj

Alicia Tan

ALICIA TAN

A NEW WORLD OF WINE

Health-conscious consumers and global oversupply are changing the face of the wine industry –and wine lovers stand to be the beneficiaries.

BY KIRSTIE BEDFORD

While wellness booms, wine is on the decline, and there’s a clear correlation between the two. It seems younger generations are far more in tune with the age-old saying, ‘You can’t have your cake and eat it, too.’

‘People are monitoring their health, and they are more educated about the wine industry,’ says Giant Steps senior winemaker and Trinity College alum Jess Clark (TC 2008).

‘They are doing more research into the wines they drink,’ says Jess. ‘So, they want to know if you are organic or if you harvest your grapes sustainably, and they’re also drinking less, so they’re not spending $50 for a bottle of wine on a Wednesday night, but they will wait for the weekend and do that for a boutique, higher-end wine.’ Statistics back her up.

Research released by industry body Wine Australia shows the number of people drinking wine, and the frequency of wine drinking, are both on the decline.

The main drivers, it says, are health and wellness concerns, economic pressures and competition from other alcohol categories, particularly from premixed drinks.

The report says regular wine drinkers are choosing a ‘narrower range of wine styles and varieties, possibly as a result of drinking on fewer occasions, while younger consumers have different taste preferences compared with older consumers regarding attributes of both red and white wines’.

It says sustainability is becoming more important to consumers, and no- and lower-alcohol wine is expected to rise in popularity over the next five years, a trend driven by younger wine drinkers.

Mount Mary CEO David Middleton (TC 1970), who runs the wine business with his son Sam (TC 2001) and daughter Claire (TC 1999), says the decline in wine consumption can be attributed also to a lack of clarity on the safety of drinking.

‘There’s a growing voice warning of the dangers of alcohol, and health authorities are now stating that there is no safe level of consumption, and this is creating a trend towards smaller volumes of premium wines.’

David says it has also been suggested that Australian wine lovers prefer international labels.

‘I am not sure why this should be the case unless it is to do with quality,’ he says. ‘This fits with the measured trend away from the consumption of large volumes of cheap wine towards smaller volumes of premium wines. In fact, premium wine consumption has defied the downward trend and has actually increased over recent years.’

And that’s not a bad thing, according to Stephen Shelmerdine AM of Merindoc (TC 1969), whose parents were industry pioneers, planting their first vines in 1969, the same year Stephen started at Trinity College.

He says if consumers want quality wine, Australia has plenty of it.

‘More local winemakers are working in Europe, and they are coming back with a lot of human ingenuity and that has revolutionised winemaking here,’ he says.

‘In the same way that we saw an explosion of cuisine, the diversity, if you look for it, can be pretty exciting.’

Changing times

Stephen says the local industry has had to adjust its thinking in response to the global oversupply of wine and it has led to significant changes to every aspect of winemaking.

‘From resource usage and management, there is a strong trend to moving towards organic wines … that’s part of what most vineyards are focusing on now, and while gaining organic certification can take years, it’s going from strength to strength.

‘There’s also this new trend called “natural” wines – that means wines made

with minimal intervention – and the single vineyard, but I’m more interested in the blends, and I hope there will be a stronger resurgence in blends of different varieties.’

Jess agrees that sustainability has been one of the industry’s biggest recent changes.

‘In general, businesses are trying to be more sustainable in terms of their vineyards and the way they process grapes,’ she says. ‘But they are also trying to be more sustainable in terms of people – retaining staff and creating workplaces where people want to stay.

‘Ten years ago, no one would have been allowed to work from home in the wine industry, but that’s now become a reality. We are having conversations about diversity and inclusion and being more inclusive to families and open to flexible working, whether that’s part-time or from home. So, it’s about sustaining the workplace and ensuring people actually want to stay in their jobs.’

Jess says technology is another factor bringing dramatic change.

‘We’re seeing the emergence of electric tractors and drones for spraying, where it was historically run by bums on tractors, but now you’re seeing intelligent young people working with the latest innovation and using the least amount of fuel and footprint as possible.’

She adds that people are ripping out vineyards that are mass produced, because consumers are looking for higher-end wines, produced by boutique vineyards.

David agrees, adding that high-value wine simply cannot be made in large volumes.

‘A viable wine industry requires that a greater portion of producers are small, or that larger producers engage in more small-volume, hand-crafted, products.’

That, he says, is how the future of Australia’s table wine industry will be secured.

Wine lovers rejoice

While the industry faces its share of challenges – notably in controlling production costs and meeting the demands of consumers for higher-end products – the news for wine aficionados is overwhelmingly good, according to Stephen.

‘With vine material now available out of European countries, there are some exciting new flavours in wine which will

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Jess Clark (TC 2008) with original Giant Steps winemaker, Steve Flamsteed; Sam (TC 2001), Claire (TC 1999) and David Middleton (TC 1970); Stephen Shelmerdine (TC 1969).

‘In general, businesses are trying to be more sustainable in terms of their vineyards and the way they process grapes.’

JESS CLARK

be a continuing trend,’ he predicts. ‘I think there will be a stronger resurgence in blends of different varieties … If you look internationally, the wine is more complex when it incorporates different varieties.’

And he suggests wine lovers look locally.

‘There are 20 wine regions within Victoria, and they all have something exciting to say … We’ll never be as big in volume as South Australia, but I think Victoria, with diverse regions and soil, can produce everything from sparkling to fortified wine, and it has a great future in leading Australian wine.’

Jess predicts a continuing shift in the way the industry operates when it comes to sustainability and because of the impacts of climate change.

‘You can see at the moment more and more wineries are buying up in Tasmania because it’s cooler and there are great places to grow chardonnay and pinot, for example. Mainland wineries are buying grapes and having their wine made over there, or bringing the grapes back to the mainland.

‘We are seeing longer-term trends that are for high-end wine, and we have more ability to do more research into soils and rainfall and plant in areas best for producing a high-quality wine.’

She says all of this is driven by consumers who are ‘forcing us as winemakers and owners to be more intelligent about the way we produce and market wine, so that’s a good thing’.

As a recent KPMG report into the Australian wine industry points out, ‘The prevailing sentiment is that it’s now or never for the Australian wine industry as urgent and large restructuring is required to address the corrosive and enduring supply/demand imbalance.’

The report says while the Australian wine industry is resilient, it must address factors leading to the fall in consumption, focus on adapting to the times and keep innovating, including for ‘health-conscious’ trends.

This, it seems, is exactly what local winemakers such as Jess, David and Stephen are doing.

And with a move to a more premium product, produced from grapes grown sustainably in smaller batches, the winner will undoubtedly be the consumer – and perhaps, even, a younger, more healthconscious generation, who might just be able to have their cake and eat it, too.

n

↑ DRINKS UNDER THE OAK

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Archbishop Philip Freier, Michael James (TC 1969) and Andrew St John (TC 1968); Bridget Lieberman (TC 2019), Thalia El-Assaad (TC 2019), Benjamin Santamaria, Freddie Donnelly (TC 2019) and Matilda von Bibra (TC 2019); Danielle Emerson (TC 2005), William Christian (TC 2003), Amy Mitchinson (TC 2005) and Alex Wiltshire; George Colman (TC 2014), Eleanor Heathcote-Morris (TC 2014) and Hannah Roberts (TC 2014); Ken Hinchcliff (TC 1976), Campbell Bairstow, Evan Sinclair (TC 2017) and John Royle (TC 1954); Margaret Harper, David Harper (TC 1963), Richard Larkins (TC 1961) and Caroline Larkins; Hamish Roberts (TC 2020), Anni Grimwade (TC 1981), Catherine Ludbrook (TC 1983) and Alistair MacLean (TC 1983).

n ← EARLY '80s REUNION

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: David Beischer (TC 1980), Kirsten Binns Smith (TC 1982), Libby Kent (TC 1982) and Diana Cudmore (TC 1984); Elizabeth Elder (TC 1984), Andrew Maughan (TC 1980) and Peter Rose (TC 1981); Michael Gronow (TC 1984), Diana Cudmore (TC 1984) and Craig Brown (TC 1982); Richard Allen (TC 1981), Jason Romney (TC 1981) and Adam Harrison (TC 1984).

n ↑ GOURLAY ETHICS IN BUSINESS EVENT

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE LEFT: Chris Buckingham, Tennant Reed, Stephen Dodd and Mette Morsing; Ali Moore; Mette Morsing; Chris Buckingham and Emma Harrison.

n ↑ INTERCOLLEGIATE ROWING REGATTA COCKTAIL PARTY

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Alex Brew (TC 2022), James Brew (TC 1989), Jane MacDougall (TC 1988) and Timothy Hunt (TC 1988); Ellie Campbell, Lou Campbell, Jazz Wylie, Ollie Williams and Alex Brew (current students); Tamara Wraith (TC 1989), Alison Robson (TC 1994), Ro Treseder (TC 1993), Marita Barraclough (TC 1994) and Lucy Raymond (TC 1992); Michael James (TC 1969), Nick James (TC 2022) and Francine James.

n ← CORDNER ORATION

Chris Cordner (TC 1968), Ken Hinchcliff (TC 1976), Laura Kane (keynote speaker) and Scott Charles (TC 1986).

n ← TRINITY COLLEGE FOOTBALL CELEBRATION

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Andrew Maughan (TC 1980), Dawn Leicester (TC 1979), Keri Whitehead (TC 1979) and Penny ZagarelouMackieson (TC 1980); Gill McLachlan (TC 1994); Ian Solomon (TC 1969) and Guy Nelson (TC 1989); Adrian Anderson (TC 1990), Scott Charles (TC 1986) and Jeremy Grummet (TC 1990).

n

→ EXHIBITION OPENING

Tais, Culture & Resilience exhibition opening.

n ↑

EARLY '90s REUNION

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Juliet Norris, Julian Hinckfuss (TC1990) and Jade Reynolds (TC 1991); Jono Gourlay (TC 1991), Brodie Treloar (TC 1992), Ralph Ashton (TC 1991), Jon Pitt (TC 1991) and Mark Lewis (TC 1992); Philip Richter (TC 1994), Alison Robson (TC 1994), Sarah Oliver (TC 1994) and Meredith Wiseman (TC 1994); Sarah Gill (TC 1994), Piers Canty (TC 1994) and Michael Powell (TC 1994); Rosy Renwick (TC 1992), Paula a’Beckett (TC 1992) and Andrea Carr (TC 1991).

REUNION

n ↑ TCFS ALUMNI REUNION

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Khaing Susu (TCFS 2015), Stephen Lew (TCFS 1998), Kayeen Khaw (TCFS 2022) and Imraan Mikayil Raja Azmi (TCFS 2022); Pauline Wong (TCFS 1999), Sandy Wong (TCFS 1999) and Sharon Yu (TCFS 2009); Shaun Soong (TCFS 2016), Will Borghei (TCFS 2023) and Fun Lai; Dennis Darsono (TCFS 2014) and Kelvin Li (TCFS 2005); William Guo (TCFS 2017), Yige Song (TCFS 2016) and Zhenzhen Zeng (TCFS 2011); Damien Zhao (TCFS 2018), Vivian Wu (TCFS 2015) and Monica Thet (TCFS 2016).

n ↑ SENIORS' LUNCH

ABOVE: Hew Richards (TC 1965), Rob Mackie (TC 1965), David King (TC 1964) and Philip Kennon (TC 1965).

LEFT: John Calder (TC 1960) and Anthony Rose (TC 1957).

n ↑ INDONESIA

Richard Pickersgill, Yusuf Isa (TCFS 2019) and Steffi Lee.

HONOURS

Congratulations to the members of the Trinity College community who were recognised with honours in 2024.

Australia Day Honours

OFFICER OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA (AO)

Mr Paul Anthony Briggs AO

For distinguished service to the Indigenous community, to social welfare through economic inclusion and reconciliation, and to sporting organisations.

MEMBER OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA (AM)

Ms Susanne Dahn AM (TC 1979)

For significant service to business, to the finance sector, and to the community.

Dr Jane Graeme Fox AM (TC 1976)

For significant service to medicine, particularly as a breast surgeon, researcher and educator.

Dr Ian James Hardingham AM KC (TC 1963)

For significant service to the law and legal reform in Victoria.

Mr Geoffrey William Hone AM (TC 1963)

For significant service to the legal profession, and to charitable and educational foundations.

The Reverend Canon Professor Dorothy Ann Lee AM

For significant service to the Anglican Church of Australia.

King’s Birthday Honours

OFFICER OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA (AO)

Professor John Barton Furness AO (TC 1964)

For distinguished service to medical research in the field of autonomic neuroscience and neurogastroenterology.

MEMBER OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA (AM)

Professor David McRae Russell AM (TC 1970)

For significant service to general medicine, to clinical education, and as a mentor.

Associate Professor Christine Philippa Rodda AM

For significant service to paediatric endocrinology, to medical research, and to tertiary education.

Ms Robin Jean Campbell AM

For significant service to arts administration, and to the community.

MEDAL OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA (OAM)

Dr Richard David Johnson OAM (TC 1968)

For service to medicine, and to hospital administration.

Ms Ann Southcombe Rusden OAM

For service to education, and to the community.

OBITUARIES

RICHARD

(DICK) SMALLWOOD AO (TC 1955), 1937–2024

Clinician, educator and researcher Dick Smallwood was a Professor of Medicine at the University of Melbourne, where he headed up the Department of Medicine. He had followed in the footsteps of his mother, Margaret, who had been a doctor with the Malayan Medical Service.

Dick served as Australia’s Chief Medical Officer, President of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and Australian Medical Council, and Chair of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the National Blood Authority and the Division of Medicine at the Austin hospital, where he was Director of Gastroenterology. He was also a board director of the Snowdome Foundation, board member of the National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia and a member of the Australian Health Minister’s Advisory Council. In 1997, he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for service to medicine, particularly in the field of gastroenterology, to research through the NHMRC and to education.

In 1964, Dick married Carol (née Taggart) and together they had three children – David, Penelope and Michael. Dick was known as a great cricketer and topped the batting averages for Melbourne University. He also played for Trinity’s cricket team, which won five out of six cricket premierships during Dick’s time at College. (He once described the losing match against Ormond as ‘the greatest upset in the history of college sport’.)

Dick was named a Fellow of Trinity College in 2005 and Senior Fellow in 2020. A memorial service commemorating Dick’s life was held in the Trinity College Chapel.

SIR RODERICK (ROD) CARNEGIE AC (TC

1951), 1932–2024

Rod Carnegie was known as an exceptional businessman with a lateral-thinking mind. Rod studied science at the University of Melbourne, then a Master of Arts and Diploma of Agricultural Economics at Oxford University, and an MBA at Harvard University. He became a management consultant with McKinsey in New York then set up McKinsey’s office in Australia, securing global miner Rio Tinto as one of his first clients. He was appointed Finance Director of Conzinc Riotinto of Australia (CRA) in 1970, moving up to the roles of CEO and Chairman. CRA grew to become Australia’s biggest mining company.

Rod served as Chair of Hudson Conway and President of the Business Council of Australia. He was a director of ANZ, John Fairfax Holdings, CSIRO, Lexmark International and the Macfarlane Burnet Centre for Medical Research, and was a founding member of the General Motors Australian Advisory Council.

He married Carmen (née Clarke) and they had three sons – Mark (TC 1980), Charles and James.

Rod was awarded a knighthood in 1978 and a Centenary Medal in 2001 and was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2003 for service to the promotion of innovative leadership and to the development of competitive practices in business, both national and international, and to the community, particularly in the fields of health and the arts.

Rod was named a Fellow of Trinity College in 1980 and Senior Fellow in 2011. In 2009, artist Peter Neilson was commissioned by Trinity College to paint a portrait of Rod, which was hung in the Dining Hall.

(TC 1958), 1939–2024

Jack had a prominent career in medicine, most notably as Deputy Secretary-General of the Australian Medical Association and President of the International Society for Quality in Health Care. He was also Director of Medical Services for five rural health services and was Chair of the NHMRC Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research Agenda Working Group, as well as the Australian Institute of Political Science and the Alpine Health Credentialing and Privileging Committee.

Jack played a key role in the development of the national network of University Departments of Rural Health and Rural Clinical Schools in Australia. He established Diagnosis Pty Ltd in 1984.

He was named a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia in 1998 and, in 2007, was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for service to medicine and to public health through support for strategic health research and policy development, and as a contributor to the development of rural and remote health services and medical education programs, particularly in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and regional Victoria. Jack was named Bill Cowan Alum of the Year in 2014 for his lifelong commitment to the medical field, his work as Director of Clinical Training for the Murray to Mountains (M2M) intern training program, and – along with his wife, Janine Sargeant AM –their philanthropic contributions to the College and elsewhere. Jack had two sons, Paul and Marcus (TC 1985), and was posthumously made a Fellow of Trinity College in 2024. A memorial service for Jack was held in the Trinity College Chapel.

VALETE

We are saddened to acknowledge the passing of the following alumni and friends of Trinity College.

Gordon Frank Adler TC 1949

Dr John Barton Best AO TC 1958

Dr Roderic Stewart Booth TC 1972

John O’Neill Brenan TC 1964

Gordon Gibson Brown TC 1955

Sir Roderick Howard Carnegie AC TC 1951

William Chanen AM TC 1945

Professor Arthur Colvin Lindesay Clark AM TC 1946

Timothy James Colebatch TC 1967

Roger Brian David Cook TC 1956

William Andrew Coppel TC 1948

Andrew Lesile Cornish TC 1970

Jennifer Phyllis Cox TC 1992

David William Curtis TC 1960

Peter Charles Hanney Davis TC 1961

James Chester Eagle TC 1946

David Brian Forster TC 1968

Hannah Gabrielle Friebel TCTS 2023

Bryan Newton Gill TC 1949

David Austin Griffith TC 1953

John Arthur William Guthrie TC 1959

Jessica (Rio) Maria Halliday TC 2024

Robert Thorold Hannah TC 1946

Davina Hanson

Dr Arthur Victor Leslie (Les) Hill TC 1955

Dr Vere David Urquhart Hunt TC 1957

James Michael Jelbart TC 1956

Donald Allen Jones TC 1952

Michael Robert Jones PSM AM TC 1957

Carole Margaret Lloyd-Flanders TC 2001

Dr Blake Anthony Loughran TC 2003

Dr Stanley Kim Lowe TC 1968

James McCahon TC 1959

Brig John Francis McDonagh TC 1949

Professor Emeritus

Russell Ainslie Meares TC 1955

Cecil Edgar Robertson Parsons TC 1937

Cedric Berkeley Paynter TC 1956

Andrew Rahles-Rahbula TC 1951

Lachlan Crombie Redd TCTS 2015

Professor Emeritus Richard Alan Smallwood AO TC 1955

Andrew Paul Steiner TC 1971

Eric Timewell TC 1973

Nicholas John Robert Wagg TC 1972

Charles Morrice Williams TC 1952

Dr Robert Lawson Yewers TC 1964

If you’re aware of any other Trinity alumni who have recently passed away, let us know at alumni@trinity.unimelb.edu.au

DR JOHN (JACK) BEST AO