Luncheon with Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee and Shortlisted Candidates

Rhodes Scholarship Queensland Selection Committee and shortlisted candidates; distinguished guests, welcome.

I begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the lands around Brisbane, the Turrbal and Jagera people, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and to any First Nations people here today.

It’s a delight to welcome you all to Government House for today’s luncheon.

As Patron and Chair of Rhodes Scholarship Queensland, it gives me great pleasure to be in the company of such bright and inspiring minds. Equally, it’s a delight to be in the company of ‘unlike minds’ also, which is what makes the awarding of the Rhodes scholarship so very interesting.

Such diversity in the disciplines inhabited by Rhodes Scholars makes for very rewarding times.

This life-changing opportunity to study at the University of Oxford offers the opportunity to act on your beliefs, to utilise your knowledge and to make change in the world.

The community of Rhodes Scholars is sizeable, with over 4,500 living Rhodes Scholars residing in more than 100 countries, each motivated to serve humankind, and to lead the way. I know how proud you would feel to be named as a member of such an innovative and impactful group.

The global Rhodes Scholarship program is indeed visionary, and it has stood the test of time – for 120 years now. Whether or not you are named as the Rhodes Scholar, does not diminish your success thus far, however, and nor will it inhibit your further success.

You have already proven yourselves to be exemplary role models in the pursuit of education, and from that pursuit comes the power to transform our world in positive and enduring ways.

We recognise all of you as exceptional candidates.

Enjoy your interviews tomorrow where you can elaborate on what it would mean to you to gain such a prestigious international scholarship, and how you might use it to help others.

I wish you every success now and into the future. Thank you.