The Canberra & District Historical Society proudly present the 2025 Canberra Day Oration.
Gary Humphries AO will deliver the 2025 address: Has ACT self-government been a success?
Attend in person
Entry to this event is free but bookings are essential.
Watch online
If you cannot attend in-person, the lecture will be available online. Please make a booking and we will send you a direct link to the livestream event via email. Or you can join through the Library’s YouTube channel.
About the lecture
In the 2025 Canberra Day Oration, Gary Humphries will explore the question of whether ACT self-government has been a success.
When self-determination for the Australian Capital Territory arrived, unceremoniously and unwanted, in 1989 it met widespread community dissatisfaction. One historian bemoaned the ‘avaricious free-loading pack of no-hopers’ self-government was about to unleash.
Now, 36 years later, it is timely to ask: were these fears realised, or has self-government proved an unexpected success? As both the ACT Legislative Assembly’s first historian and a former member of that body, Gary Humphries will attempt to answer this question.
About Gary Humphries AO
Gary Humphries served as an Australian politician for almost 25 years. He was a Member of the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory from 1989 to 2003, during which time he served in many ministerial roles, including Minister for Health, Education and the Arts, Treasurer and Attorney-General. He was Chief Minister from 2000 to 200. From 2003 to 2013 he was the Liberal Senator for the ACT. He held various responsibilities in the Federal Opposition, including Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney-General and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Matériel. After leaving the Senate he was Deputy President of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for more than 6 years, until 2021. He was at various times President of the Australian Institute of Administrative Law and chairman of the Anzac Centenary Public Fund Board and of RSPCA Australia. He is presently enrolled as an PhD student in the School of History at the Australian National University, where he is writing the first history of ACT self-government.
About the Canberra Day Oration
From foundation in 1953, the Canberra & District Historical Society has promoted the annual observance of Canberra Day on 12 March. In the following years the Society celebrated Canberra Day in a variety of ways, including Pioneer Gatherings, exhibitions, essay competitions, orations and commemorations at the Commencement Stone. From 2002 the Society re-introduced the Canberra Day Oration, with Professor Don Aitkin as the first orator. Since then, the Canberra Day Oration has been an annual event, held on 12 March.
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