THE ROLE OF MANNING CLARK HOUSE – a home for ideas to make a better Australia, and a place where we enrich our better selves.
by Andrew Clark
Australia is at an impasse.
It has experienced a decade of revolving door governments, including four party-room putsches against sitting Prime Ministers. The political turmoil has even led the BBC to labelAustralia “the coup capital of the democratic world.”
Underneath the turmoil is a country unable to come to grips with issues like climate change, energy policy, relations with the US and China, a radically different Indo-Pacific environment, refugees, the role of our first settlers, and how we deal with the
extraordinary rate of technology-generated change.
An energetic, well-educated and affluent multicultural society has been crimped by political short termism and mediocrity.
We know we can do better than this.
Manning Clark House, which has been in operation for more than 20 years, is the ideal
institution to foster ideas and policies to help change Australia into the progressive, successful and compassionate country we know it should be.
Manning and Dymphna Clark both believed passionately that Australians should come up with distinctive solutions for the country’s problems.
A fresh and independent approach is needed as politicians become hide-bound by focus groups and opinion polls, and universities are more corporatized and business-like in their approach.
Through events like the annual Week End of Ideas, the Manning and Dymphna Clark lectures, regular talks and discussion groups, Manning Clark House fosters an environment where members are stimulated to express ideas and discuss major issues. It also acts as a cultural incubator in music, song, poetry, literature, and, of course, history.
The daring modernism of the 65-year-old House in Forrest, Canberra, itself reflects the radical and adventurous spirit Manning Clark House fosters among members. It is a place where Australians can be inspired to make their daily lives richer and more meaningful. Join us.
Martin Bayer is a German-born photographer and independent scholar of war serving on an Australian-German research group on First World War commemoration. This talk will discuss differing modes of commemorating that war in various countries and will consider the Australian experience as part of a wider narrative arc examining the international perspective on commemorations. 