" 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.

Punter & the Next President of the United States (released 10 January 2008)
Hillary Clinton, Ricky Ponting are both on a search for the First Class Temperament of our times. An impossible search? When they find it, their futures' will be assured!?
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Strength through Enterprise, Work & Training (released 18 December 2007)
Report of the Ngarda Heavy Plant Operator Training (HPOT) Strategy which took 19 Indigenous men and women from unemployment to high paid, high quality work in the Australian Mining Industry. "COAG bureaucrats and politicians need to read this or quit", Barry Taylor, Executive Chairman, Ngarda Civil & Mining. "I also want to recommend it to my hard working colleagues in the Australian Mining Industry". 72 pages, 20,000 words
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Ngarda Heavy Plant Operator Training Newsletter 4 (released 10 December 2007)
Ngarda Civil & Mining's Heavy Plant Operator Training (Oct 15-Dec 7) took Indigenous people who were unemployed into high quality employment in the mining industry. Of the 20 who started 19 were offered jobs. With editorials by Executive Chairman Barry Taylor the newsletters tell the story. A major final report is due soon.
» more
Ngarda Heavy Plant Operator Training Newsletter 3 (released 10 December 2007)
Ngarda Civil & Mining's Heavy Plant Operator Training (Oct 15-Dec 7) took Indigenous people who were unemployed into high quality employment in the mining industry. Of the 20 who started 19 were offered jobs. With editorials by Executive Chairman Barry Taylor the newsletters tell the story. A major final report is due soon.
» more
Ngarda Heavy Plant Operator Training Newsletter 2 (released 10 December 2007)
Ngarda Civil & Mining's Heavy Plant Operator Training (Oct 15-Dec 7) took Indigenous people who were unemployed into high quality employment in the mining industry. Of the 20 who started 19 were offered jobs. With editorials by Executive Chairman Barry Taylor the newsletters tell the story. A major final report is due soon.
» more
Ngarda Heavy Plant Operator Training Newsletter 1 (released 10 December 2007)
Ngarda Civil & Mining's Heavy Plant Operator Training (Oct 15-Dec 7) took Indigenous people who were unemployed into high quality employment in the mining industry. Of the 20 who started 19 were offered jobs. With editorials by Executive Chairman Barry Taylor the newsletters tell the story. A major final report is due soon.
» more
Forget Howard: Recognise Australia's Mandela (released 12 October 2007)
Patrick Dodson ranks amongst the greatest of Australian men. For eleven long years his extraordinary presence and capacity have been lost to the nation. With the prospect of Kevin Rudd or Peter Costello as Prime Minister we have the prospect of this great figure returning to national service. The question for the nation and for Dodson is: how best can his destiny to be one of our greatest Australian leaders be fulfilled?
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The dramatic turn-around of Gallarrwuy Yunupingu (released 25 September 2007)
The model deal achieved by Gallarrwuy Yunupingu should be rolled out to all Indigenous communities in the North, the South, the East and the West. That is the test of the bona vides of Howard and Brough and the challenge for Labor. However the deal casts a shadow over the way Indigenous leaders work with each other. Out of the bad feeling, now only Patrick Dodson can pull all of the forces of Indigenous Australia together to form a strong national leadership group that is capable of lobbying for plans that benefit all Indigenous Australians, not just those who have a strategic negotiating advantage.
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Little Old Man (released 17 September 2007)
John Howard has become no little big man, just a little old man. The revelatory blow has come from his own comrades.
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On being a wypella (released 2 September 2007)
When I looked into the campfire I saw not only two hundred years of overwhelming sadness, but a thousand years of wisdom. The gift comes to me now whenever I like – in my dreams, in my thoughts. It comes to me through the people I know.
» more

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