Have You Thought About Governance Today?

I’ll admit it.
Governance is not my first thought when I wake up in the morning.
Nor is it my last thought when I rest my weary head at night.

In the battle between the S and the G of ESG to claim the ‘forgotten’ label, I think you have to hand it to Governance. Especially in contexts like Australia where legal stability is often taken for granted, the risks and the effects of poor governance are overlooked.

It’s a little like plumbing. It goes unnoticed until something goes wrong. And then, well, the proverbial hits the fan.

Often, governance gets viewed as Compliance Corner, filled with those rare and wonderful people who still have the attention span to dot every i and cross every t.

But, as the private sector continues to outpace policy (especially as political debates get more and more bitter) the need for good governance frameworks and ethical guidance beyond government regulation becomes more and more critical.

So, who better to ask about it all than Dr. Gillian Triggs AC.

When I first met Gillian Triggs, I was interviewing her alongside my good friend and co-conspirator at Ripple Opportunities, Skye Riggs for our Civic Leaders program during the COVID years.

Then, she was the Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, and the Assistant High-Commissioner at UNHCR in the midst of conflicts in the Ukraine, South Sudan and Yemen that were seeing refugees fleeing in their millions.

By contrast, I was unemployed, and recording the interview from the spare room of my mother-in-law’s house with a laptop delicately balanced on a box of nappies*.

We were both going through something.

Gillian has always gone where the action is. In the early 70s, she worked as legal advisor to the Texas Chief of Police in the implementation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In the early 80s, after completing Doctor of Philosophy in territorial sovereignty, she spent a few months working in Antarctica with the Antarctic Science Advisory Council.

In 2012 she was appointed the President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, during which time she launched the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention, which began the slow process of those children and their families being released.

She told me that period of time led to the most public scrutiny she had ever experienced - including 42 cartoons of her in the Murdoch press. To her, this wasn’t so much a moment of courage, as of clarity. To Gillian, the decision to launch the inquiry “was easy… I was no great saint in doing it, it was extremely easy because… it (the indefinite detention of children) was fundamentally wrong in law and in morality.”

That’s all a long way of saying that she is a legend; and maybe this is showing my life stage, but she should definitely have one of those Little People, Big Dreams books written about her.

Earlier this year, after Gillian’s term with the United Nations concluded, we reconnected for this conversation on where governance stands in 2025, and how it intersects with corporate impact. Let’s dive in:

Tim: You’ve spent much of your career holding institutions to account, what’s the most urgent governance challenge we're facing today and how do you see it intersecting with Australian institutions directly?

Gillian: My experience as a UN Assistant Secretary General and as President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, is that where good governance declines, where judicial independence is threatened and when basic human rights treaties are ignored, the result is a decline in political stability, and a loss of trust in democratic institutions. Poor governance has a chilling effect on investment in business and trade declines, leading to social disharmony and, all too often, to violence and conflict. 

Over the last few years, we have seen this as military coup d’état have multiplied, especially in Africa, almost always reflecting a decline in respect for the rule of law and governance. Corruption in particular, especially over access to oil and gas and mineral resources, if unchecked, fosters inter-ethnic, political and territorial rivalries leading to violence. The conflict is visible, but the causal pathway often leads back to poor governance.

In short, the most urgent needs for good governance are respect for the laws and democratic institutions that are increasingly under threat, paradoxically  from the very nations that built the foundations of principles of modern democracy in the 20th century.

In Australia an urgent need is to legislate for a  Charter for Human Rights at the Federal level, to give the courts the legal tools to ensure respect for human rights and the environment. Australia remains the only common law country in the world without a constitutional or legislative human rights charter.

Tim: You’ve worked at the intersection of corporate governance and human rights. Where should businesses be doing more to ensure their policies translate into real-world protections for workers, communities, and consumers?

Gillian: Business leaders have a special ‘line of sight' to any early warning signs of decline in respect for the rule of law, like interference in the justice system and regulation by autocratic executive fiat (Editor’s Note: I had to double check this phrase, but this article may shed some light).

This is so even where any such decline seems not to affect businesses directly, as it effects the ecosystem in which they operate.

In practice, business leaders of all sizes hear and understand the needs of workers, consumers and the communities in which they invest. They can be strong voices for protection. The UNHCR, for example, is working with global and local businesses to encourage investment in economic development to provide jobs and stabilise populations in more fragile contexts, the aim being to avoid forced displacement as victims of bad governance seek protection and opportunities in neighbouring countries.

So, business leaders are in a position to use their considerable influence to alert the media, to work with Parliamentarians, and to develop their leadership policies and advocate for good principles of governance. It’s a virtuous cycle: good governance creates the conditions for business, and business can help reinforce good governance.

Tim: As global regulations on human rights and environmental due diligence tighten, what’s one area where businesses might get ahead of the curve?

Gillian: As political leadership is increasingly challenged by a volatile global environment and fragmentation of long established alliances, business leaders should be vocal in supporting the laws and institutions on which their prosperity depends.

It is important that business leaders adopt practices and policies to support human rights and protect the environment as part of their business ethics, rather than await the outcome of fractious political debates. For our part, we need to demonstrate with data and examples how good governance is a foundation for successful business.

I want to shine a light on an outstanding Australian business, Talent Beyond Boundaries, which provides a bridge between refugees and potential employers. Any refugee can add their details to a Talent Catalog that will be widely available to ensure effective access to jobs.

Initiatives such as this need to be multiplied. For those initiatives to be impactful, we need to ensure refugees have access to social security numbers, bank accounts and entrepreneurial opportunities through micro financing and low interest loans and grants. If the governance ecosystem around an initiative like this is weak, it is hard for businesses to engage.

Tim: Governance is often framed as a compliance burden, but you’ve seen how it can be a driver of long-term stability and trust. How do we shift that mindset?

Gillian: Good governance is good for business. It is an asset rather than a burden.

We need to make the pragmatic case with research and evidence to persuade those looking for short term benefits to focus instead on the much more profound longer term benefits of stability, fairness that good governance ensures.

I have come to see the importance of the idea of "principled pragmatism"; not a contradiction in terms but an opportunity for progress. Ethical leadership can and should also be practical.

Tim: In 2019, you said in an interview that when it comes to business and their role in human rights; "there has been a very important change and there is reason for optimism. We are in a period of change and disruption, and it is an opportunity for leaders to do things they wouldn’t dare do before." Do you still believe there is reason for optimism in 2025?

Gillian: My reasons for optimism are that the principles of good governance have evolved and prevailed over many decades both for ethical and practical reasons.

Business leaders today are often better educated, and many have a personal commitment to protection of the environment and of human rights as the necessary preconditions for sustainable business success.

As always, we must believe in the future for progress. 

And with that, including a couple of interrupting editions, that concludes our three-part interview series on ESG.

If you want to take a walk down (recent) memory lane, you can find the other interviews here:

Cheers,

Tim

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