Magazine of the World Federation of People Management Associations Vol. 22 No. 4 | October 2012
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HR’s New Horizon—the 14th WFPMA World HR Congress By Adrienne Fox
Members of the Wurundjeri tribe opened the 14th Annual World Federation of People Management Associations (WFPMA) World HR Congress on Sept. 25 with a traditional Australian indigenous welcoming ceremony. Wurundjeri elder Aunty Diane Kerr offered a prayer that honored her ancestors, the indigenous people of Melbourne, and told the 2,500 global HR professionals from 48 countries, “You are members of a family—the HR family—and you need to respect your family.” Since 1986, the World HR Congress has been held biennially, with the host rotating among the WFPMA’s five regional HR association members. This year, the Australian Human Resources Institute hosted the congress in Melbourne Sept. 25-27 around the theme of new world thinking in diversity, innovation, motivation and creating economic value.
Diversity In the opening keynote address, the Honorable Michael Kirby, retired judge of the High Court of Australia, called on HR professionals to be a voice for those who may be forgotten in the workplace. Kirby began his advocacy during college when he fought for greater access to education for indigenous Australians and to end the government’s “White Australia” policy, which forbade nonwhite immigration until 1966. “There is a tendency in humanity for everyone to be the same and to think the same,” Kirby said. “It is a tendency we must beware.” While an advocate for the rights of others, Kirby knew the personal pain of discrimination as a gay man. It wasn’t until he publicly acknowledged his homosexuality in 1999 as a justice of the High Court of Australia that he realized Michael Kirby he should have been as vocal for
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gay rights as he was for others’ rights. “The law of the land I presided over as judge said I was a criminal and would take away my rights as a human,” Kirby said, referring to the criminalization of homosexuality in Australia until the mid-1980s. Though laws have since passed banning discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) individuals, “it is still socially acceptable to treat GLBT Wurundjeri tribal member people differently,” he said. “They are forgotten. I beckon you to remember them. The game of shame is over. No longer is GLBT unspoken.”
Innovation At first glance, fairness wouldn’t seem like the motivating factor behind inventing the first personal computer. But that was the main purpose driving Steve Wozniak to design the Apple I and Apple II computers for Apple Computer Inc., which he co-founded with Steve Jobs in 1976. Computers at the time cost millions of dollars and were World HR Congress continued on page 2
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