Speaker: author Paul Collins

13 September 5.30 for 6pm

Manning Clark House, 11 Tasmania Circle Forrest

MCH members $5, concession (Government Support) & full-time students $10

Non-members $15.00

Booking: https://www.trybooking.com/WSPO

This is the remarkable story of the last two centuries of the papacy. In 1799, the papacy was at rock bottom: The Papal States had been swept away, Rome had been seized by the Revolutionary French armies, and the cardinals were scattered across Europe. With the next papal election uncertain, it seemed that even if Catholicism survived, the papacy was doomed. And yet, just over 200 years later, the pope’s influence reaches across the world—from Cuban politics to gender equality to the refugee crisis.

Speaker: Paul Collins is an historian, broadcaster and writer. A Catholic priest for thirty-three years, he resigned from the active priestly ministry in 2001 due to a dispute with the Vatican over his book Papal Power (1997). He is the author of fifteen books, the most recent of which is Absolute Power. How the pope became the most influential man in the world (New York: Public Affairs, 2018). A former head of the religion and ethics department in the ABC, he is well known as a commentator on Catholicism and the papacy and has a strong interest in ethics, environmental and population issues. He has a Master’s degree in theology (Th.M.) from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in history from the Australian National University. He lives in Canberra.

Author Richard Denniss in discussion with Genevieve Jacobs

31 July 5.30 for 6pm

 Manning Clark House, 11 Tasmania Circle Forrest

MCH members $5, concession (Government Support) and full-time students $10

Non-members $15.00

Booking: https://www.trybooking.com/WWGW

Dr Richard Denniss is the Chief Economist and former Executive Director of The Australia Institute. He is a prominent Australian economist, author and public policy commentator, and a former Adjunct Associate Professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University.

Denniss is the author of best-selling Quarterly Essay, Dead Right: How neoliberalism ate itself and what comes next. In Dead Right, Richard explores what neoliberalism has done to Australian society, looks at ways to renew our democracy and discusses everything from the fragmenting Coalition to an idea of the national interest that goes beyond economics.

Genevieve Jacobs has been a journalist for 30 years, working in print and radio. She is the former ABC Mornings presenter and works with a wide range of organisations including the National Folk Festival, Canberra International Music Festival, M16 artspace and Conflict Resolution Service. She has just completed co-chairing the consultative committee for the ACT’s first Reconciliation Day public holiday. Genevieve has an enduring interest in building and strengthening community engagement.

Speaker : Chris Uhlmann

7-11 Barry Drive Teaching Centre, Australian National University (TBC)

7pm – 12 July 2018

Members $20 (MCH members or govt support concession, full-time students).

Non-members $25

Book here 

The Prime Minister likes to paraphrase Mark Twain saying, “only fiction has to be credible”. Perhaps that’s because he has lived through the incredible last decade of Australian politics.

In 2008 Kevin Rudd was in his first year as PM, enjoying a 70 per cent approval rating and, apparently, settling in for a long run. In November that year, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States and America looked like it would finally become the land it imagined itself to be.

What went wrong? Come and find out the details, insights and perspectives!

About the speaker: Chris Uhlmann is a leading Australian political journalist. After many years working for the ABC, in August 2017, Uhlmann moved to Nine News replacing Laurie Oakes. He had previously held the positions of the political editor for the 7.30 report, 14th presenter of AM for ABC radio and ABC News political editor. In 2008, Uhlmann received the Walkley Award for Broadcast Interviewing. With Steve Lewis, Uhlmann has written a series of political novels set in Canberra: The Marmalade Files (2012), The Mandarin Code (2014) and The Shadow Game (2016). These feature a political reporter, Harriet Dunkley, investigating a conspiracy involving China, the USA and Australian security organisations. In 2016 the first two books were adapted as the Australian television series Secret City.

Thursday, 3 May 2018  —   5.30 for 6pm start

Manning Clark House, 11 Tasmania Circle, Forrest, ACT

MCH members, concession (govt support) and full-time students $10

Non-members $15

BOOK HERE

Speaker: Professor Ramesh Thakur is Director of the Centre for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (CNND) in the Crawford School, The Australian National University and co-Convenor of the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN).

He was Vice Rector and Senior Vice Rector of the United Nations University (and Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations) from 1998–2007.

Educated in India and Canada, he was a Professor of International Relations at the University of Otago in New Zealand and Professor and Head of the Peace Research Centre at the Australian National University, during which time he was also a consultant/adviser to the Australian and New Zealand governments on arms control, disarmament and international security issues.

He was a Commissioner and one of the principal authors of The Responsibility to Protect (2001), and Senior Adviser on Reforms and Principal Writer of the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s second reform report (2002).

He was a Professor of Political Science at the University of Waterloo (2007–11), Distinguished Fellow of the Centre for International Governance Innovation (2007–10) and Foundation Director of the Balsillie School of International affairs in Waterloo, Ontario.

Speaker : Humphrey McQueen

23 April 2018, 5.30 for 6pm

Manning Clark House, 11 Tasmania Circle, Forrest

 MCH members, concession and full-time students $10 (non members $15)

BOOK HERE

Responding to Antonio Gramsci’s 1919 suggestion, the talk will weave together a trio of anniversaries:

• 150 years since the publication of Das Kapital in September 1867
• the 200^th anniversary of the birth of its author, Karl Marx, on 5 May 1818
•  the centenary of the Bolshevik Revolution, erupting in October 1917.

Speaker: Humphrey McQueen is a Canberra-based historian and activist at work on yet one more Marxist account of the origins of capital, to be titled The Revolution Inside Capital.

For access to a selection of his writings over fifty years, see www.surplusvalue.org.au

Sunday March 25th —– 4.00 to 6.00 pm
Manning Clark House, 11 Tasmania Circle, Forrest

It’s FREE to come along and enjoy – please book here

Devonshire Tea can be purchased on the day.

Sow the seeds for the renewal of Dymphna Clark’s 1950’s kitchen garden.

Join us for an afternoon of live music, Devonshire Tea and gardening presentations.

Thanks to an ACT Government Community Garden Grant, the old kitchen garden site at Manning Clark House will be refurbished as a community asset.

Join us for a short presentation from our soil and compost experts Mr Gerry Gillespie and Dr Amardeep Wander.

Then enjoy songs, including from the Australian composer Penelope Thwaites AM,
sung by exceptional soloists with a repertoire not often heard in
our city:

❀ Kenneth Goodge -Tenor
❀ Hannah Belnick – Soprano
❀ Rudie Darby – Soprano

❀ Fleur Millar – Conductor
❀ Sam Rowe – Pianist
❀ Manning Clark Choristers

Admission is free, although gold coin donations appreciated.

27 February 2018 – 5.30 for 6pm

 Manning Clark House, 11 Tasmania Circle Forrest

MCH members, concession/full-time students $10, non-members $15.00

CLICK HERE TO BOOK

Whither the ABC – a panel discussion featuring Genevieve Jacobs (ex ABC), Jack Waterford (ex Canberra Times) and Ebony Bennett (Australia Institute) about the Australian Broadcasting Corporation which will end with questions and answers from the audience.

Genevieve Jacobs has been a print and radio journalist throughout her career and spent more than a decade working for the ABC in Canberra, most recently as the Mornings presenter. She works with a number of Canberra charities and not for profits and has an enduring interest in building and strengthening community engagement.

Ebony Bennett is the Deputy Director of Canberra-based think tank The Australia Institute and has worked in federal politics for more than a decade. Bennett has published research on gender and street harassment and regularly appears as a commentator on Sky News and as a contributor for the Guardian and Fairfax publications.

Jack Waterford is the former Editor-at-large at The Canberra Times and writes a regular column.

Book title: Curing Affluenza

14 December, 5.30 for 6.30pm

Venue: Manning Clark House, 11 Tasmania Circle, Forrest, ACT

Members (and concession) $5, non-members $10

Click here to book

Richard Denniss will be talking about his latest book  ‘Curing Affluenza’ in conversation with Genevieve Jacobs of ABC radio.

‘Affluenza is that strange desire we feel to spend money we don’t have to buy things we don’t need to impress people we don’t know . . .’

A truly modern affliction, affluenza is endemic in Western societies, encouraged by those who profit from aculture of exploitation and waste.

So how do we cure ourselves?

In this sparkling book of ideas, Richard Denniss shows we must distinguish between consumerism, the love of buying things, which is undeniably harmful to us and the planet, and materialism, the love of things, which can in fact be beneficial.

We should cherish the things we own – preserve them, repair them, and then gift or sell them when we no longer need them. We must foster new ways of thinking and acting that do not squander limited resources and which support the things we value most – vibrant communities and rich experiences.

The book will be available and signed by the author. There will be plenty of time for discussion.