Category Archives: Uncategorized

How does Australia decide to go to war – should the Parliament decide?

Bookings, Events, Uncategorized

Speaker : Ernst Wilheim

Tuesday, 19 September – 5.30 for 6pm start. Finishes 7.30.

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

$5 for MCH members, government income support and full-time students, $10 non-members

CLICK HERE TO BOOK

The decision to go to war is arguably the most important decision any government can make. Yet it is the least regulated of any government decision.

We have all observed the many hours of parliamentary debate and back room negotiation on controversial legislation. Yet Australia can be taken to war on the whim of our Prime Minister.

How can this be?

Lawyers refer to ‘the Royal prerogative’ to go to war.

Is the Royal prerogative the relic of a bygone era? Is it consistent with contemporary values, with the modern perception of the role of the Parliament and the ultimate sovereignty of the people?  How do similar countries deal with the decision to go to the war? What are the alternatives? Is a requirement for prior parliamentary approval feasible? These are some of the issues to be explored.

Ernst Willheim is a Visiting fellow at the College of Law, ANU. Before his formal retirement he was a senior officer of the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department. In that capacity, he has appeared as counsel in the High Court and other appellate courts, lead Australian delegations to international conferences, established and headed the Office of General Counsel and headed other legal policy divisions. Ernst has published widely on public law matters, constitutional law, administrative law, international law, refugee issues and indigenous issues. Ernst is Vice President of Manning Clark House.

 

 

New economic directions

Bookings, Events, Uncategorized

The circular economy project of the European Union is a ground breaking initiative.      Questions are being asked whether mainstream economic policies in Australia are appropriate within a world of climate change impacts and growing inequality.

This forum will look at new economic directions including policies to redistribute income and address the imbalance between capital and labour.

Wednesday 9 August, 2017 – 5.30 for 6pm start. 7pm finish

Tickets – members/concessions $5, non-members $10. Click here to book. 

Venue: Manning Clark House, 11 Tasmania Circuit

Image of David Richardson - Australia Institute

David Richardson, The Australia Institute. David Richardson (BEc, MEc) taught at the University of New England and University of Western Australia. Worked in the Research Service, Parliamentary Library (1979-85 and 1996-2007). During the Hawke/Keating years (1985-1996) worked for Ministers Brian Howe and Sen Nick Bolkus. David commenced at The Australia Institute in 2008.

CarolineLambert

Caroline Lambert is the  First Counsellor of the Delegation to Australia of the European Commission. Since March 2015, Caroline has been the European Union’s Climate and Environment Counsellor in Australia. Caroline worked for five years in the private office of the European Commissioner for Climate Action, Connie Hedegaard, where she advised on financial, trade and taxation matters and adaptation policy. Between 2007 and 2010, Caroline advised Margot Wallström, Vice President of the European Commission in charge of Communication and Interinstitutional Relations and helped design communication campaigns on key European policies.

The future of quality news in Australia – July 12, 2017

Bookings, Events, Uncategorized

Katharine Murphy (Guardian’s political editor) and Caroline Fisher (Asst Prof of Journalism at UC) will deliver a scintillating discussion on the above subject.

Venue – Manning Clark House, 11 Tasmanian Circle, Forrest.

Ticket price $5.00 MHC members, $10 non-members, concessions $5.00

Click here to book

Organiser: Shobha Varkey Ph: 0405 064 176
shobhamvarkey@gmail.com

 

Invidious Choices – naval war in the Pacific 1914

Bookings, Events, Uncategorized
Speaker: Lieutenant Commander Desmond Woods
RANR Research Officer – Sea Power Centre – Australia – Department of Defence
Thursday 6 July 2017 at 6:00pm
Venue : Manning Clark House. 11 Tasmania Circle Forrest.
War in the Indo Pacific oceans and HMAS Australia in 1914 – Invidious Choices and catastrophe at Coronel and how the build up occurred and the details behind the scenes of how naval war began on this occasion and ended.
Ticket price $5.00 for MHC members, $10.00 for non-members

Click here to book

Organiser : Shobha Varkey
Ph: 0405064176

Everyday Ancestors – A Singing Memoir

Bookings, Events, events, Uncategorized

fleur_milla8x8-1Hi Music Lovers,

 Please find attached information about  the entertaining and unique show – Everyday Ancestors – at the wonderful Manning Clark House, on the last Sunday in November written and performed by Canberra artist Fleur Millar and directed by the  iconic Canberra director Domenic Mico.

 Enjoy a Summers afternoon of singing – you’ll laugh, cry and maybe ‘contact’ some ancestors of your own!

 We hope to see you there, after the show please stay around for coffee, cake and chats! 

 Ciao,

 

 Fleur

flyer-1-fleur-everyday

 

Manning Clark House October Poetry Event

Events, events, Uncategorized

It’s the last Thursday of the month next week, 27th October.  This means of course that another poetry event will be in full-swing at 7.30pm that night at Manning Clark House, 11 Tasmania Circle, Forest , ACT.  The poets reading are three well-known Canberra poets, Adrian Caesar, Paul Hetherington and Harry Laing.  Please join us over a glass of wine and light refreshments, $10 at the door.    Contact Kathy Kituai (0478640169) for further information.

 

Harry Laing is a poet, comic performer and children’s author. His most recent collection of poetry Backbone (Bunda Press) came out in 2010. Harry co-runs Poetry Alive which organises residential poetry weekends and also poetry readings at the Stanley Street Gallery in Sydney. He has given many public readings and appeared at festivals. Harry’s first collection of poems for children, Shoctopus – poems to grip you! (Bunda Press) came out in 2015 and he presented at Whitsunday Voices Youth Literature Festival in July 2016. Harry lives beside Monga National Park near Braidwood, NSW.

Adrian Caesar is a Canberra writer.  He is the author of several works of non-fiction including The White (Picador, 1999) which won the Victoria Premier’s Award for non-fiction in 2000 and the ACT Book of the Year, 2000.  He has also published a novel, The Blessing (Arcadia, 2015) which has been long-listed for this year’s Voss Award, and five books of poetry, the latest of which is, Dark Cupboards New Rooms (Shoestring Press 2014). His poems have also recently featured in The Best Australian Poems 2014 and ABR’s States of Poetry project.

Paul Hetherington is the author of eight volumes of poetry, the most recent is Burnt Amber, 2016. Blood and Old Belief was shortlisted for the Colin Roderick Award and the West Australian Premier’s award. He won the 1996 ACT Book of the Year Award for Shadow Swimmer and a 2002 Chief Minister ACT Creative Arts Fellowship. He is a founding editor of the National Library quarterly humanities and literary journal, Voices (1991-97), and is a member of the Board  of Australian Book Review and was a former poetry editor of The Canberra times. He has been director of publishing at the National Library of Australia since 1994 and edited and introduced the final three volumes of the Library’s authoritative four-volume edition of diaries of the artist Donald Friend.

Manning Clark House AGM

About, Events, events, Get Involved, Uncategorized

Dear member/former member,

I am writing to let you know that the Manning Clark House AGM will be held at 5:30 pm on 10 November 2016 at Manning Clark House, 11 Tasmania Circle, Forrest ACT.  The Agenda is attached – if you have any difficulty reading it, let Ron Fraser know (ron.fraser@effect.net.au) and he will send it to you in the body of an email.

We will be reporting to you on the work we have done so far this year to bring Manning Clark House alive again.  There are many things still to be done, and we will need your help with them in 2017, so it would be great if you could come along on 10 November and give us your ideas and hopefully sign up for volunteering next year if you haven’t already done so.

We are also very much in need of some new active committee members based in Canberra to help us in our transition to an all-volunteer organisation without paid staff, so please be prepared to nominate as an office bearer and/or committee member if you would like to help in this way (see attached form).

I attach the following documents: Agenda for AGM 2016, Nomination for Office-Bearer/Committee Member, and the MCH Membership Form if you need to rejoin.

We very much look forward to seeing and talking to you at Manning Clark House at the AGM – it would help in catering for light refreshments if you could RSVP to me at the email or postal addresses shown at the foot of the Agenda.  But if you’ve forgotten to do that, come anyway!

Alana Mahon, Manning Clark House Secretary

membership-form-currentagm-nomination-2016

agm-agenda-2016

membership-form-current

 

“3 Minutes to Midnight” and exploration of the state of play on Earth now

Bookings, Events, events, Uncategorized

It has become clear that, rather than focus attention on the existential issues which Homo sapiens is facing, human institutions remain preoccupied with parochial power games and money matters, regardless of the proliferation of  hair-trigger nuclear missile fleets around the world and the rapid change in the terrestrial climate. When the world’s leading scientists warn of a dangerous shift  in state of the terrestrial climate and the proximity of tipping points, what difference would the election make if both parties support coal mining and export, rendering the country the world’s leading per-capita carbon emitter? When opposed military forces are confronted and dangerous people aim to reach control of red nuclear buttons, with time a confrontation by accident or design becomes inevitable, yet little of this appears to be an issue in the media, rendering the elections in the US and Australia meaningless. Nowadays governments are presiding over an increasingly likely demise of the terrestrial atmosphere and the marine environment. Which planet do these people think they are living on?

3-minutes-to-midnight

The discussion will be led by Andrew Glikson and Hugh Saddler

Date: 4th October 2016

Time: 6pm

Entry: $10 members $15 non members