As Christians, one of the things we simply must not do is to stand in front of someone else’s experience of the cross.
These were the words of Australia’s Ambassador to the United States of America, the Hon. Kim Beazley AC, who was this week conferred with the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa at a Notre Dame Graduation Ceremony on Wednesday, 10 December.
Ambassador Beazley joined a distinguished group of individuals, including former Prime Minister Hon. John Howard OM AC and Emeritus Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell AC, in receiving the university’s highest award at a graduation ceremony alongside more than 1,000 undergraduate, postgraduate and higher-degree students.
In an interview with Archdiocese of Perth eRecord Editor Jamie O’Brien, Ambassador Beazley, the former Opposition Leader and leader of the Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister and Cabinet Minister in the Hawke and Keating Governments, shared insights into his thoughts and ideas about politics, leadership and his own career.
Reflecting on the conferral of the Honorary Doctorate, he praised the work of the University of Notre Dame, including the work of the campus in Broome, which has provided a resource of education in the Kimberley for Aboriginal education.
“To be honoured by an establishment that has worked itself out so well, while having an interesting spiritual dimension, is pretty flattering,” Ambassador Beazley said.
Ambassador Beazley agreed that the spiritual element, in front of education is relevant for students today.
“It assigns high value to intellectual attainment,” he said.
“In the context of Australian higher education, Notre Dame has been a great initiative,” Ambassador Beazley said.
“I have had the chance to be acquainted with its founders, leaders, staff and students since foundation.
“Its community has intellect, spirit and purpose.
“To be honoured by the community in their 25th anniversary year is at once undeserved but deeply gratifying.”
Ambassador Beazley also spoke about his own education, including a period of time spent in India following his graduation from secondary school, and the influence of the movement, Moral Rearmament (now called Initiatives for Change) which he said while not explicitly Christian, was informed by Christian values.
However, it was his own life, and that of his father, Kim Beazley Snr, that had the biggest impact.
“I would say my life, my experience with my father and the issues that he took up, the sort of character of politics of the 1960’s and 70’s, that was more influential on me,” Ambassador Beazley said.
He also responded to questions about leadership, particularly in respect to politics.
“I’d give the same advice that I’d give to everyone who asks me about engaging with politics, because a lot of people approach that as if it’s a career choice – as though they should be a policeman, or a Member of Parliament. No, that’s not what politics is about,” Ambassador Beazley said.
“Firstly – you have to work out what you believe.
“You have to come to a conclusion that irrespective of whether or not you’re going to personally succeed in this endeavour – and it may be a major part of your life’s career – that you have things that you adhere to which you are prepared to pursue.
“You’ve got to believe something. If you don’t believe something; frankly, you’re dangerous.
“An ambitious person without foundation in the way in which they see the world and in what they want to create in it, is a dangerous person in politics.
“Don’t go into politics unless you really believe something; you may form a set of convictions that pushes you towards a particular party – but have those convictions.
And in response to questions about what he believed – as Ambassador, as former Opposition Leader and a Federal Minister – the Australian Government and Governments overseas could be doing to better promote Christian values, Ambassador Beazley said this involved two areas of discussion.
“One is that what you bring to politics yourself – in the way in which you have developed within yourself – values and beliefs about what is important about government and what is important about society.
“If you have a set of Christian commitments, then they inform your judgments. And it’s important that they do, because you can bring to the political life of the nation a set of values which produces sanity in systems that don’t necessarily adhere to the same principals
“That’s how I think a Christian commitment should to be brought into politics,” he said.
And you have one other particular problem as a Christian, as opposed to any other religion, and you’re looking at whether you want to join your religious beliefs to a political program and why someone should adopt it.
“As Christians, one of the things you simply must not do is to stand in front of someone else’s experience of the cross,” the Ambassador said.
“So if you tell someone that unless they believe a particular aspect about a particular policy – otherwise they are not being informed by Christian values or principles – it can have several effects.
“And one of those effects can be that the person thinks you’re right.
“Nevertheless, intellectually they can’t agree with you on the policy and therefore that will affect that person’s ability to place themselves in a situation where they can accept Christ as saviour, where they can look at the teachings of the Church as a moral underpinning for their life.”