Keepin’ on keepin’ on.

I realised this morning that if I didn't carve out some time, then 2024 would have gone down in history as the year with the fewest ever entries of 'Big Picture' blogs since records began 10 years ago. I couldn't allow that to happen - so it now looks like 2024 will tie with 2023 as having three entries, including this one. I wonder what on earth is going on that would keep me away from the keyboard these past two years. I can't think of anything. Oh. That. Ah. Yes.

Avid fans of this recurring series will know that I have some inclinations in life. I am inclined to make reference to science fiction, to movies, to what I fervently believe is popular culture, but which is, in reality, shockingly dating of the fact that I am now in my sixth decade and what I think is ‘hip’ and ‘cool’ just isn’t. Including those words, according to my now adult children. So, I’ll just get some of it out of the way here – and without over-labouring.

I’d like to break the fourth wall a la Deadpool with a wry reflection on maximum effort, but right now, the one thing that keeps coming to mind is Captain Christopher Pike’s reflections on leadership from the pilot episode of the original series of Star Trek, ‘The Cage’, from 1966. Pike has, of course (of course you all know this), enjoyed something of a renaissance in recent Trek incarnations, in both the Kelvin timeline movies and in Discovery and Strange New Worlds – but back in 1966, back where it all really started, he was pretty tired and I know that when I hear that particular dialogue in my head, that I probably am too. (The more tenacious among you can do some internet search, see if you find what I’m on about). If I plotted a graph though, I do wonder whether the periodicity of this particular feeling would show that this is an annual occurrence, as November draws to a close, as the year heats up both figuratively and literally, and as people rush the ‘get things done’ before the Earth completes another elliptical orbit of its local star (for a given definition of complete).

2024 has been a heck of a year. A *lot* has happened on and off the field. And all of it has been intense and, frankly, taken some measure of toll. I’m sitting in Canberra as I write this, ahead of a meeting with our Federal Minister. To talk about future of the Australian higher education sector. That’s one of the hats that gets worn and a hat which can feel heavier by the day as our universities’ status and standing are deliberately eroded solely to score political points, while the real point, the role we play in ensuring Australia’s productivity, economics and social cohesion is all-too frequently conveniently ignored. It beggars belief that education can be so blithely reduced to populist sound bites and attack, and yet so much of our future hinges on it.

We are, of course, here in this wonderful State of South Australia, doing our bit to future proof that future. I need not recount all of the incredible achievements we’ve had of late – but let me just point out that yesterday, the Accord and Other Measures Bill passed the Australian Senate, bestowing ‘Table A’ provider status on the new Adelaide University. Only a year ago this week, the Act establishing Adelaide University passed the Parliament of South Australia. The institution only came into being in March of this year as its Transition Council was established, it only launched a brand in July, and in just a couple of weeks the proclamations necessary to populate this new enterprise with staff in 2025 will happen. And we will be T minus 12 months to lift off. What we have done to date has happened at warp speed. George Takei would be looking over his shoulder and exclaiming ‘oh my’ as the starfield blurs around the bridge.

We’ve done that. While maelstroms of uncertainty raged around us, while uncharted territory abounded, and political footballs were kicked around, and none of us really knew exactly how things would play out – we banded together, we faced in the right direction, and we got on with the job at hand. It hasn’t been easy, but we have prevailed. We face a future now with greater certainty. We can see the shape of our new vessel taking form around us and wherein we have agency to influence its course and how it will reach its destination. We know what that destination looks like and what we will need to deliver in the next 12 months to get there. And, while tired, that does give me a huge boost. It tells me that as a crew, we continue to perform admirably. That, after a little shore leave at the end of a busy, busy year, we are incredibly well placed to boldly go.  

For that, thank you.