Historians in Public

On the Balance of Improbabilities: The Australian Take on the Wuhan Lab Leak Theory

On the Balance of Improbabilities: The Australian Take on the Wuhan Lab Leak Theory

Soon after a deadly plague came with dark winds out of the East.[i]   In the Saturday Paper of 23-29 November 2024 James Bradley reviewed the collection, The Best Australian Science Writing 2024.  I am not as enthusiastic as Bradley about the publication as a whole, but his comments on one article I found particularly […]

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Threats and challenges to Australia’s democracy are well outlined in government report. Now for some  action

Threats and challenges to Australia’s democracy are well outlined in government report. Now for some  action

Carolyn Holbrook, Deakin University The Strengthening Australian Democracy report released by Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil this week provides a sophisticated diagnosis of the challenges facing democratic governance around the world. The report also offers a broad prescription of how Australia might meet those challenges. The Strengthening Democracy Taskforce, established by O’Neil in 2023, prepared […]
Medicare: A Forty Year Health Check

Medicare: A Forty Year Health Check

Healthcare experts diagnose fundamental problems with our health system – it remains oriented to acute and episodic illness and curative responses even though we are now in an age of chronic illness, which requires continuing and holistic care, and a more preventative approach. Not only does this disjunction between disease and service provision affect the […]
GOLD STANDARD?: THE HAWKE GOVERNMENT 40 YEARS ON

GOLD STANDARD?: THE HAWKE GOVERNMENT 40 YEARS ON

Celebrate and reflect on the legacy of the Hawke government. Watch a recording on the Museum of Australian Democracy’s YouTube of this conference looking back on the Hawke government – one of the longest-serving and most transformative in Australian political history. Learn about the Hawke government’s successes and failures from key speakers including: Hon Professor […]
2023 HTAV Annual Conference – Dr Carolyn Holbrook Keynote Recording

2023 HTAV Annual Conference – Dr Carolyn Holbrook Keynote Recording

History Education for the Citizens of the Future Dr Carolyn Holbrook, Deakin University Keynote Recording The discipline of History has always been concerned with educating the citizens of the future. For the first decades of Australian nationhood, this largely consisted of inculcating young Australians in the virtues of British imperial liberalism—the kind of citizenship education […]
History Education for the Citizens of the Future – HTAV Conference, Melbourne 27 July 2023

History Education for the Citizens of the Future – HTAV Conference, Melbourne 27 July 2023

*This is an edited version of a speech delivered by Dr Carolyn Holbrook to the History Teachers’ Association of Victoria annual conference in Melbourne on 27 July 2023.   History teachers hold a special place in my heart.   Like many of you, I was drawn to study history because I had the privilege of […]
The Australian War Memorial must deal properly with the frontier  wars

The Australian War Memorial must deal properly with the frontier  wars

Carolyn Holbrook, Deakin University; Frank Bongiorno, Australian National University, and Michelle Arrow, Macquarie University The recent media rounds of the new chair of the Australian War Memorial Council, Kim Beazley, appear to presage a major shift in the institution’s attitude to the frontier wars. Beazley explained it is “enormously important” that the current $550 million […]
Post Pandemic Positions: Australian NGOs and Education in a Century of Internationalism – Students, Experts and Friends

Post Pandemic Positions: Australian NGOs and Education in a Century of Internationalism – Students, Experts and Friends

An Academy for Social Sciences in Australia workshop Convened by David Lowe, Kate Darian-Smith, Jon Piccini and Melanie Oppenheimer Ten years after the 2012 White Paper on Australia in the Asian Century, it is time to assess what has become of some of the major components of the people-to-people aspect of Australia’s engagements in its […]
Public Health Symposium – Building and Maintaining Medicare: Insiders’ Perspectives

Public Health Symposium – Building and Maintaining Medicare: Insiders’ Perspectives

Building and Maintaining Medicare: Insiders’ Perspectives: Panel Discussion chaired by Professor Frank Bongiorno, ANU Hon. Dr Neal Blewett, Commonwealth Minister for Health, 1983-1990 Bill Bowtell, senior adviser to Health Minister Neal Blewett, 1983-1987 and Prime Minister Paul Keating, 1984-1996 Caroline Edwards, Deputy Secretary/Associate Secretary of Commonwealth Department of Health, 2017-2021
Public Health Symposium – Hip-pocket First, Fairness Second: Australians and the Birth of Medicare

Public Health Symposium – Hip-pocket First, Fairness Second: Australians and the Birth of Medicare

‘Hip-pocket First, Fairness Second: Australians and the Birth of Medicare’ Dr Carolyn Holbrook Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University