The 'vote of thanks' from a graduate representing the student body at graduation ceremonies is a longstanding tradition.

"Chancellor, Fellow Graduates and Guests.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak today on behalf of the student body it is a great honour and privilege.

For me graduating is a time for two things,

Firstly, to take time to reflect upon our achievements and experiences at university, and

Secondly, to thank those who have contributed to our education.

In reflecting upon what my time at Macquarie has meant to me there is no single factor that became apparent.

This did not strike me as unusual. This is because over the years university and education has not been a part of our lives. Rather, it has been our life.

It has been a place where we have made and cultivated many great friendships which I am sure will endure for many years to come.

It is a place where we have had a marvelous opportunity to learn and indulge our academic interests in history, math, economics, finance, philosophy and the law.

In a time of our lives that had largely been free from responsibilities and stresses that I am sure will come about with time.

I am sure we have all heard that universities are a community of scholars. This is as true now as it was in the 11th century when teaching began at Oxford.

It is a place where we have been exposed to great thinkers, many of whom have espoused contradictory arguments.

It is these great thinkers, great teachers that have so richly influenced our experience here.

And as we all know they do not always agree.

In reflecting what I feel that we have taken away from these years and the many subjects that we have undertaken I think that the most valuable thing that we shall take from our time here at Macquarie is a generic skill rather than:

any piece of information,
any theory,
any one formulae, or
any one rule of law.

I feel that the most valuable skill that we have learnt is the ability to grapple with these different points of view and make up our own minds.

This is due to the great thinkers that we have been exposed to here in this community of scholars.

Fellow scholars in the class rooms,
Teachers in lecture halls and offices, and
Past scholars in the books housed in the library.

This may not seem like an earth shattering achievement, however, I think today to possess a questioning mind is more important than ever.

Today we live in what has been dubbed the ‘information age’.

We have lived through the technological revolution. I am sure that when I have children they will be amazed that we did not have computers in the classroom when we were in school.

The consequence of such is that in this information age we are flooded with information to the extent that we are saturated with information.

And it is here that the critical mind becomes important.

To exemplify searching for a news source on google yields over 11 ½ billion results.

So today we are faced with not two opposing points of view but thousands of points of view. In the wake of this it is much simpler to look for a legitimate or orthodox source rather than to make up our own minds.

This is not utilising a critical mind, this is relinquishing the responsibility for thought and criticism in the hands of others.

Especially when the level of political debate and reporting of the news in this nation is so truncated that it borders on being vacuous.

I feel that it in this context that universities gain paramount significance within society.

This is for two reasons:

The first is that universities are research centres full of capable people who are dedicated to engaging in rigorous analysis of important political, social, economic and legal issues to name but a few.

The second is that they teach thousands of pupils how to engage with this analysis on a deeper, Critical level.

I know that all of us graduating today have been exposed to this research methodology and have been endowed with the gift of a CRITICAL MIND

We have learned:
To question the premise and conditions of an argument.

We have learned
To question the motivations of those asserting a position.

We have learned
To be skeptical about the air of orthodoxy.

We have learned
To consider the implications of an idea in practice,
who it effects and how.

We have learned
To debate the alternatives, and other options

We have learned
Ultimately make up our own mind

Therefore if the only thing that we have learnt in my time at Macquarie has been the ability to critically assess and argument.

I am left with no doubt that it has been time well spent.

The second thing that we do as graduates, apart from patting ourselves on that back is to thank those that have contributed towards our education.

I think that these people fall into three broad groups.

First, as students we rely greatly on each other for debate, competition, support and friendship.

At Macquarie we are particularly lucky to be exposed to a range of international students who bring the culture and ideologies other nations to our campus.

To speak from personal experience last year I greatly relied upon the friendship and support from the other students in my honours year.

Without the having these friends in the trying times I sometimes doubt I would have survived.

The second group of people we need to thank are the academics who have taught us over the years.

I have already touched upon the eminent role that academics play within society with regard to research and analysis.

However, now I would like to particularly thank them for the laudable role that they play as teachers.

At Macquarie we are blessed by with a remarkable faculty in the Division of Economics and Financial Studies.

It is a faculty made up of scholars who have dedicated their lives to progressing the general body of knowledge in society.

This course has been pursued with a high opportunity cost.
They have the opportunity to have lucrative careers in the private sector but instead but have opted to dedicate their lives to the pursuit of knowledge and we have been the privileged beneficiaries in being their students. So to the academics here today and to those who are absent we sincerely thank you for the invaluable role that you have played in our tertiary studies.
We have been enriched by your teachings.

The final group of people that we cannot go without thanking is our families.

Our families have all endured the years of our studies.

The times when we have been frantically stressed when the printer refused to work an hour before the essay was due.

When we have been depressed, times when we were certain that we had taken on more than we could handle.

Our families have been there to lend emotional support.

To assure us that we were on the right path by studying

Our families all have made sacrifices so that we can be here graduating today.

I have been lucky enough to have a family that has supported me throughout my years at Macquarie.

They have provide a home when I have been able to study and read.

They have provided a support network to see me through adversity.

They have provided selfless guidance when we have been unsure what to do or where our lives are going.

They have provided financial support, without which I simply could not afford to be at university

Without their love and support I am sure none of us would be able to be here today celebrating our academic success.

So to our families, we are forever indebted, and we thank you all for the critical support you have so generously given and the sacrifices that you have so selflessly made.

The degrees that we are being awarded today are very much a testament to the communities of which we are from.

The community of students and friends.

The community of scholars at the University.

And of course our families.

In an economy and a society that is ideologically dominated by libertarian individualism.

We are all acutely aware our achievements are by no means the result of individual efforts.

It is with this acknowledgement that we all realized that the privileges which we have been endowed come with a duty to reciprocate, to give back to the communities that we are so fortunate to be a part of.

Thank you"

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