Building trust in public institutions

Integrity, respect, listening and action are four critical ingredients for individuals and organisations to build trust, Chancellor David Thodey said in the annual Sydney Policy Lab lecture.

“Trust is one of those things that’s getting scarcer and scarcer in today’s world,” the Chancellor told University colleagues and community members gathered at the Sibyl Centre in the Women’s College on Wednesday 19 March. “I see declining trust in organisations and leaders, in our government processes. I see it everywhere and it concerns me.”

“In this fast-moving geopolitical world, we’re seeing greater polarisation and more challenges, and universities are right at the heart of that,” he said, noting that the recently released 2025 EdelmanTrust Barometer found that 61 percent of respondents have a moderate or high sense of grievance, driven by a belief that government and business make their lives harder and serve narrow interests.

“This trust decline is concerning because trust and truth go together. And if we lose truth, we lose objectivity,” he said.

Reflecting on his experience of leading telecommunications firm Telstra from being one of the least trusted Australian organisations to the most, the Chancellor said this five-year transition required a commitment to organisational purpose and values, customer service, and leadership culture – as well as recognising trust is built and lost in everyday interactions. Underscoring the importance of action in building trust, he argued that for any organisation the journey to trustworthiness “isn’t about highfalutin ideas, it’s about hard, disciplined, rigorous work to get things right.”

His involvement in the 2019 review of the Australian Public Service drove home for him the lesson that for public organisations to build trust, “clarity of mission and clarity of purpose are essential.”

Reflecting on the 12 months since he was elected as the University’s 19th Chancellor, he sees this clarity in the “deep purpose” of the University of Sydney “to be trusted as an institution serving the needs of the New South Wales community. That’s our number one objective, so our commitment to academic excellence and a brilliant student experience is absolutely key to what we want to do.”

The Chancellor called on the University to seize opportunities to make a difference. “I think we need to be more courageous, and I think the University has a great opportunity to do that because we touch so many people every day,” he said.

“Change starts with us, not out there. It's not other people’s faults [that create distrust]. It's what we do that makes a difference,” the Chancellor concluded.

Sydney Policy Lab Director, Dr Kate Harrison Brennan, thanked the Chancellor for his lecture and Professor Michelle Dickson for offering an Acknowledgment of Country.