Into Action and For Service - The Remarkable Life of Bob Carr

Today's guest is the iconic, the indomitable and the insatiable Bob Carr. Most will know Bob and be familiar with his political appointments and achievements - leader of the NSW Labor Opposition Party from 1988 until he and his party won government election in 1995, where he went on to win three further elections was Premier for ten years making him the longest continuously serving Premier in NSW's history. He then served as the Australian Foreign Minster for 18 months from 2012-13 as part of the Gillard Government.
In what now seems like a much more sane and reasonable period of politics, under Bob's leadership the NSW Labor Party did and delivered a lot - most famously the glorious Sydney 2000 Olympics, he introduced four unit English and history into the school curriculum and launched the NSW Premier's reading challenge, established Australia's first medically supervised heroin injection room in King's Cross, he reformed the corruption prone police force, and much more.
On the environment front, Bob was a passionate and vital leader in protecting wild places - 350 national parks covering 1.2 million hectares of land were secured for all time during his premiership, and he introduced the world's first carbon trading scheme in 2003. We talk a little as well about how he played a key role in ending the capture and holding of wild dolphins in Dolphinariums in Australia in the 80s, and his deep respect for conservationists who press constantly for the preservation and return of our wild places, all for no personal gain.
I met Bob after an introduction when he was an Industry Professor of Business and Climate Change at the University of Technology Sydney and I was hosting an event to coincide with World Environment Day in 2019. That initial meeting was entirely surreal and my colleagues were frankly stunned that of all the people working in that organisation I'd be the person chaperoning Bob through the office.
From that initial meeting though Bob has been nothing but humble, curious and gracious in how he has approached and treated me, something I can still barely believe - especially when I go to his office and it is chock full of photos of him with the likes of Bill Clinton and Joe Biden, Shinzo Abe and Vladimir Putin. For him to happily catch up a few times a year for five years and now agree to helping me starting this podcast and Finding Nature more broadly, I'm really enormously grateful and I think it says a lot about the person he is and remains to be after such a remarkable and prominent career but also through a period of personal tragedy.
Personally I have learnt a lot from Bob, and this conversation feels like it barely scratches the surface in working through his significant body of achievements and service through the political and industry appointments he's held. This conversation I think is about the gifts of reflection and taking time to not only look back on our lives, but also the gems history can offer if we take the time to understand the stories and events that have created today, and then attempt to use the lessons of the past as a compass to help guide us through the tumult of the present and whatever the future holds. For the sustainability practitioners out there, I think there are plenty of lessons here regarding understanding how business and politics have ended up preoccupied and captured by the interests of what are not natural nor long term, that reform and change are very difficult but possible through hardship and struggle, and the necessity for pragmatism and opportunism which may always be available if we take the time to notice it.
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