A former Australian diplomat, Peter Varghese has become the new chancellor of the University of Queensland. The University of Queensland is Mr. Varghese’s alma mater where he studied history.
Mr Varghese, a career diplomat, has served as Australia’s high commissioner to India and Malaysia. He retired as secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in June this year after a distinguished career of 38 years.
Mr. Varghese was born in a well-educated Indian-heritage Catholic family in Kenya. His family traces their roots in Kerala in India. The family of 11 migrated to Australia on the eve of Kenyan independence in 1964. The family moved first to Newcastle, where his father taught in a school, and two years later to Brisbane where his father took up a position in UQ’s education faculty.
Mr. Varghese says moving to Australia was a matter of chance at a time when White Australia policy was in place.
“In the end the only explanation I can find for ending up in Australia was providential because we had no connection to here at all,” he told The Australian.
“For me, coming to Australia in 1964 was probably less of a wrench than it was for my parents and older siblings. The eldest would have been about 20 at the time and I think it was a pretty difficult transition,” he added.
Speaking about life during the White Australia policy, he says he didn’t come across many incidents of racial discrimination.
“And my experience has been overwhelmingly positive. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I’ve encountered something that might look like racial discrimination. There is something about Australia, notwithstanding all the baggage we carry about race, something at the individual level that we are willing to accept people for who they are.
“I just don’t think we would have made the transition from White Australia to multicultural Australia if we didn’t have a bedrock of acceptance at the individual level.”
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