This November, Manning Clark House invites you to a weekend of ideas, conversation, reflection, and celebration — marking 50 years since the Whitlam Dismissal, one of the most defining moments in Australia’s democratic story.
Over two days under the marquée in the gardens of Manning Clark House, historians, artists, writers, and citizens will come together to ask: How do we continue to maintain the rage and enthusiasm in 2025?
This event is supported by the Whitlam Institute.
Andrew Clark is an Australian journalist and commentator with a career spanning more than five decades. The son of historian Manning Clark, he began as a cadet at The Age in 1966 and went on to report and edit for outlets including The Sun-Herald, Australian Business, and The Australian Financial Review. A former foreign correspondent and co-author of Kerr’s King Hit (1976), Clark is known for his incisive political and business analysis and contributions to Australia’s public debate.
Professor John Juriansz is the Director of the Whitlam Institute and the Parramatta South Campus Provost for Western Sydney University. John previously served as Deputy Dean of the School of Law at Western Sydney University where he lectured in equity and trusts, legal technology, and remedies. John is admitted as a legal practitioner of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and of the High Court of Australia. John has held a range of legal positions including as a senior lawyer at Gilbert + Tobin Lawyers, King and Wood Mallesons, MLC Limited, the Australian Law Reform Commission, and as a Member of the Litigation, Law and Practice Committee of the Law Society of New South Wales.
Elizabeth Reid: Elizabeth Reid is a pioneering Australian feminist, academic, and policy adviser known for her groundbreaking work in advancing gender equity. In 1973, she made history as the world's first adviser on women's affairs to a head of government when she was appointed by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. This role positioned her at the forefront of policy development, advocating for matters relating to the welfare of women and children in employment, education, and reproductive health.
Throughout her career, Reid has worked extensively in international development, focusing on gender equity, HIV/AIDS policy, and social justice. Her contributions have had a lasting impact both in Australia and globally, making her a key figure in the ongoing struggle for women's rights.
Dr Elizabeth Cham has been an academic, and worked in federal and state parliament and in philanthropy, including ten years as CEO, Philanthropy Australia. After fifteen years Elizabeth has just stepped down as a board member of the progressive think tank, The Australia Institute (TAI). Dr Cham is also Chair of ANZTSR (Australia New Zealand Third Sector Research Inc) a regional network of scholars whose research focus is the not-for-profit sector, charities and philanthropy.
Biff Ward is an is an Australian author, feminist, and activist known for her memoirs and for writing one of the first books on child sexual abuse. She was active in the women's liberation movement in the 1960s and '70s and remains a passionate advocate for social justice.
Meredith Edwards AM, is Emeritus Professor at the University of Canberra. She is an economist who has been a lecturer, researcher, policy analyst and administrator. From 1983 to 1997, she worked in the APS advising on some major social and labour market policies and was Deputy Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (1993 to 1997). Meredith was Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Canberra between 1997 to 2002 and founding Director of the National Institute for Governance (1999-2005). She was a member of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration from 2010 to 2017. She is Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia and a Fellow of ANZSOG. Her publications include Social Policy, Public Policy: from problem to practice. In the Whitlam era Meredith was an active member of the Women’s Electoral Lobby and wrote about and lobbied for childcare and related policy reforms.
Professor Frank Bongiorno AM is Professor of History at the Australian National University and Distinguished Fellow of the Whitlam Institute within Western Sydney University. His books include The Eighties: The Decade that Transformed Australia (2015) and Dreamers and Schemers: A Political History of Australia (2022). He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and the Australian Academy of Humanities; President of the Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences; and Immediate Past President of the Australian Historical Association.
Dr James Watson is a historian at the Australian National University in Canberra. His writing on Australian political and economic history can be found in History Australia and Labor History, and he is the author of a forthcoming history of asbestos in Australia from Monash University Publishing. He is currently writing a biography of the palaeontologist and Australian Museum director Robert Etheridge Jr.
Professor Julian Knowles is an Australian composer, media artist and academic whose work sits at the intersection of technology, sound and creative practice. He is currently the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Design at the University of Canberra, having previously held senior academic leadership roles at Macquarie University (where he served as Professor of Media and Music) and at other institutions including Queensland University of Technology and the University of Wollongong.
Professor Nicholas Brown is a distinguished Australian historian specialising in twentieth-century social, political, environmental and biographical history. He holds a Professorship in the School of History at The Australian National University (ANU) and heads that unit within the College of Arts and Social Sciences.
Associate Professor Will Brehm's research interrogates how comparative and international education intersects with international relations and the political economy of development. In his research, he has explored issues of educational privatisation, regional identity making, community-based education, and the politics of knowledge production.
Professor Nicole Anderson is a Professor at Macquarie University, Sydney; Affiliate (Adjunct) Faculty at Arizona State University; and Adjunct Professor at the University of Canberra. An internationally recognised scholar of French philosopher Jacques Derrida, she has published over fifty works on animals, ethics, culture, democracy, and philosophy. She is the author of Derrida: Ethics Under Erasure and is currently completing a second book, Derrida and Animals (forthcoming 2026). Anderson is the founding editor of Derrida Today (Edinburgh University Press) and Executive Director of the associated international conference series, which has been held across the UK, USA, Europe, and Australia. With Julian Knowles, she co-produced the acclaimed PBS podcast Futures of Democracy, ranked among Arizona’s top political podcasts from 2022 to 2025. She has also received an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant with John Potts, through which she co-curated a major exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales on philanthropist John Kaldor’s art collection.
Dr Julie Gough is an artist, writer and curator of First People’s Art and Culture, at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG). Gough’s multi-media art works often reveal and re-present conflicting and subsumed histories, legacies and impacts of colonisation, sometimes referring to her family’s experiences as Tasmanian Aboriginal people. Her Briggs-Johnson-Gower family have lived in the Latrobe region of Lutruwita (Tasmania) since the 1840s, with Tebrikunna in north east Lutruwita their traditional, Trawlwoolway, country. Gough has exhibited in more than 200 exhibitions in Australia since 1994, including Show Spirit (2023), Biennale of Sydney (2022, 2006), Tarnanthi (2021, 2017), Adelaide Biennial (2018, 1998), Eucalyptusdom, Tense Past, Defying Empire, The National, With Secrecy and Despatch, Undisclosed, Clemenger Award, Liverpool Biennial, UK (2001), Perspecta (AGNSW, 1995). During November-December 2025 Gough is undertaking a Creative Fellowship at the National Library of Australia focussing on colonial maps, art and manuscripts from Van Diemen’s Land.
Tom Brennan SC is a leading Sydney barrister practising in commercial, equity, administrative, and regulatory law. He is particularly recognised for his expertise in aviation and trade law. Before being called to the Bar in 2006, he was a partner at Corrs Chambers Westgarth and held senior advisory roles within the federal government, including as Principal Advisor to a Deputy Prime Minister. Brennan has appeared in significant cases before federal and state courts, including the High Court of Australia.
Notably, he represented historian Professor Jenny Hocking in The Palace Papers case, which successfully led to the release of the secret correspondence between Governor-General Sir John Kerr and Buckingham Palace concerning the 1975 dismissal of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.
Professor Joseph Anthony Camilleri OAM is Professor Emeritus at La Trobe University, Melbourne, where he held the Chair in International Relations (1994-2012), and was founding Director of the Centre for Dialogue (2006-2012). He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences.
He has authored or edited some thirty-five books and written over 120 book chapters and journal articles, covering such areas as peace and security, geopolitics, governance, the role of culture and religion, intercultural dialogue and conflict resolution.
He has convened several international dialogues and conferences, including From the Middle East to the Asia Pacific: Arc of Conflict or Dialogue of Cultures and Religions? (2008); the Australia-Malaysia and Australia-Indonesia dialogues (2010-2013); Towards a Just and Ecologically Sustainable Peace (2019), and Night Falls in the Evening Lands: the Assange Epic (2024).
He serves on the board of various organisations, and is the recipient of numerous Australian and international awards.
Patricia Amphlett OAM (Little Pattie), shot to fame at just 14 after winning a local talent quest that led to a recording contract with EMI. Her debut hits, He’s My Blonde-Headed Stompie Wompie Real Gone Surfer Boy and Stompin’ at Maroubra, made her a national sensation and earned her the affectionate nickname “Little Pattie.” She went on to become one of Australia’s most beloved entertainers, winning the TV Logie for Most Popular Female Performer and later being inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. At only 17, she became the youngest Australian performer to entertain troops in Vietnam, where she and Col Joye were evacuated during the Battle of Long Tan, an experience that inspired her lifelong dedication to supporting veterans and earned her a Humanitarian Award.
Beyond music, Patricia made her mark in public life as a passionate advocate and community leader. A committed supporter of Gough Whitlam and the Labor Party, she actively campaigned during the 1972 “It’s Time” election, lending her voice and influence to a defining moment in Australian political history. Honoured with the Order of Australia for her contributions to the performing arts and charity, she has served as Federal President of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance and on the Council of the Australian War Memorial. Today, as Patron of Forces Entertainment alongside General Peter Cosgrove, Little Pattie continues to inspire through her music, advocacy, and service—a legacy immortalised with her own Australia Post stamp.
Shane Howard is an Australian singer-songwriter who rose to prominence as the driving force behind the folk-rock band Goanna. With hit songs like Solid Rock (1982) and Let the Franklin Flow (1983), Howard helped bring social and Indigenous issues into mainstream music.
His relationship with renowned historian Manning Clark is reflected in that Clark contributed the liner notes to Goanna’s debut album Spirit of Place (1982), echoing the concept of Australia’s “spirit of place” that Howard adopted as a guiding theme in his work.
Jack Waterford AM is a distinguished Australian journalist and commentator based in Canberra, best known for his long service at The Canberra Times (joining as a cadet in 1972) and his pioneering use of freedom of information legislation to hold government and bureaucracy to account. A law graduate of Australian National University, he rose through the ranks to become Editor-in-Chief and later Editor-at-Large, while also writing extensively on Indigenous health, public administration and accountability. In 2007 he was honoured with the Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to journalism and Indigenous affairs, and the same year was named Canberra Citizen of the Year.
E A Gleeson (Anne) has published four collections of poetry, the most recent, The Deepest Thing, a poetic memoir was launched this year. In The Deepest Thing, Anne writes of how her sister’s life has been affected by disability but also tackles some of the social and political issues surrounding disability care in this country.
Readers have described The Deepest Thing as a powerful and moving memoir. In her previous three collections, Anne has included the stories of those whose voices are often discounted. In this book, she depicts the reality of her sister’s and father’s experiences of disability, a sustained poetic voice in speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves.
Dr Lesley Fitzpatrick’s Exhibition from 8 November to 8 December will be featured during the Weekend of Ideas.
Is this Australia: Staggering towards a better future? A selection of painted works in acrylics on (often upcycled) canvas. The works explore human, cultural and societal interactions in Australia provoking questions about the nature of our country, its people, and its social and economic fabric.
The images reflect social, economic and ethical contradictions, and challenge the viewer to reflect on the integrity of our, values, behaviours and relationships. They reflect on social conundrums and their impacts and the exploitation of the vulnerable by the powerful. Some works present real-life scenarios, others combine concepts related to changing values, ways of life, cultural myth and a yearning for times past.
The works are silent on the artist’s view of the meanings they offer, inviting the observer to consider their complexities and contradictions; to reflect upon the innate promise of our county; to consider its past and its future; and, the complex issues it faces.