" Presidential Address to the .American Club (Hobart) at the.Annual Dinner which honoured the Centenary of the Declaration of Independence, 1876. This is the fourth occasion upon which you have bestowed on me the honour of filling my present position at our annual reunion to celebrate the declaration of their independence by the United States of America, and in proposing to-night the toast that formally proclaims our sympathy with that event, I wish to give expression more particularly to the reasons which appear to me to justify so small a company as we are assembling year after year to commemorate it. We have met to-night in the name of the principles which were proclaimed by the founders of the Anglo-American Republic as those which justified resistance to a government which had violated them and a permanent repudiation of its authority ; and we do so because we believe those principles to be permanently applicable to the politics of the world and the practical application of them in the creation and modification of the institutions which constitute the organs of our social life to be our only safeguard against political retrogression. Unhappily, gentlemen, history teaches us that although perpetual progress is the law of humanity, retrogression in special cases is possible; and it is the possibility of political retrogression in consequence of the forgetfulness and violation of the principles we have met to magnify which justified us in assembling annually to remind one another of the worth of what we inherit from the struggles and victories of the forefathers of our kinsmen on the American continent. And the fewer we are, the more earnest and more punctilious we ought to be in keeping alive in each other's hearts the sentiments which bring us together at the present moment, so that we may be preserved against the insidious contamination of the indifference or lethargy of the majority around us. This, gentlemen, is the utility of our annual gathering on the anniversary of the day we commemorate to-night, and I have confined myself on this occasion to the vindication of our action in so doing in order to encourage the finest expression of sentiment in those of you who shall speak after me and trusting that the result which I have aimed at will be secured, I give you the Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen North American British Colonies. "

Andrew Inglis Clark. Beaurepaire Hotel, Hobart, 1876 in John Reynolds,“A. I. Clark's American Sympathies and his Influence on Australian Federation”, The Australian Law Journal-Vol. 32 July ll, 1958. 62-3

Latest Papers

The working papers collection comprises historical papers as well as current ideas and works in progress on some of the major issues and topics of our times.

Ceremonial Economy: An Interview with Djambawa Marawili AM (released 13 August 2015)
Aboriginal homelands are the places that Australians need to be supporting now according to Djambawa Marawili. They are the source of health and life for Aboriginal people. The trend is for government to invest in mainstream communities and towns, making it harder and harder on tribal country. Can we find a way to support the core of the culture: ceremonial life on homelands. Djambawa explains that for Yolngu people, ceremony is as important as our mainstream economy. Ceremonial life is an economy in our terms that is worthy of investment that brings tremendous rewards for all concerned.
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Saint Joan of Williamstown (released 3 June 2015)
When I last saw Joan Kirner she asked "What trouble have you been up to?" "Lots as usual". "Good!", she said.
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The Sublime Tragedy of Kava in North East Arnhem Land (released 11 May 2015)
Successive Federal and Northern Territory governments have understandably acted to ban kava, however, in cutting back funding to Aboriginal homelands and communities they have also created an inevitable escalation of an illegal, out of control market that makes Al Capone’s bootleg industry of Chicago in the 1930s look like a tea party.
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When the World Turns Upside Down (released 5 May 2015)
A Glimpse of the Impact of Cyclones Lam and Nathan on Remote Aboriginal Homelands
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Co-Mingling: An Interview with Ernst & Young's Les Hems (released 19 April 2015)
Co-Mingling public grants and re-current funding with private and philanthropic investments is the name of the game for next generation social change organisations.
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Born to Run: Hillary Rodham Clinton's New Agenda (released 13 April 2015)
If ever a person was born to run for the White House then it is Hillary Rodham Clinton.
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"Barangaroo Had the Measure of the Invaders": An Interview with Linda Burney Her Vision of the Barangaroo Indigenous Cultural Centre, Labor’s Pledge of $100 million and land and the hand back of Me-Mel (Goat Island) (released 23 March 2015)
Linda Burney’s announcement of Labor’s plan to build a $100 million plus Indigenous Cultural Centre at Barangaroo incorporating the hand back of the eye of the Harbour Me-Mel (Goat Island) on Saturday sent a wave through the NSW election. It was an act of leadership whose reverberations go beyond the NSW State election. The Labor plan is a blue print to guide the city of Sydney, the corporate sector and the gateway of Australia. It has the potential to enliven the whole city and nation by acknowledging our national wrongs and re-harnessing the creative spirit of the land and its first peoples.
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"There is no one to raise the voices anymore": An Interview with Linda Burney (released 27 February 2015)
“The Labor party is changing. It had no choice but to change.”
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The Woman who Changed Our Hearts and Minds: The Style and Grace of Faith Bandler (September 27, 1918 - February 13, 2015) (released 14 February 2015)
“…change can be achieved if the people are taken along also. The ordinary people. We who are ordinary have helped save the world...”
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Stolen Generation II? (released 10 February 2015)
Aboriginal children in NSW are 9.8 times more likely than non-Aboriginal children to be in out-of-home care. It's a big issue in Aboriginal communities. Some are talking about Stolen Generation II. In this interview Lorraine Brown, Sue Leppan, Royden Butler and Gerry Moore talk about the issues.
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