Only one civilisation has decided slavery was wrong and then acted globally
Dear , This year our Emancipation Day speaker will be Hon John Anderson AC FTSE. John is a politician who has refused to fade away. He was Deputy Prime Minister of Australia between 1999 and 2005 and spent a total of 18 years in parliament. They were extremely active years, including 7 in opposition and 9 in cabinet as minister for Primary Industries and then Transport and Regional Development. Since parliament he has forged a career as a public intellectual with a YouTube channel with 799 subscribers, and as a founder of the Association for Responsible Citizenship and Aspire. Date is July 30, 7:00 for 7:30 at Tattersall’s. Tickets are $65 for members and include a hot breakfast. To hear John please click here. Emancipation Day celebrates the day that human rights became truly universal - August 1, 1834. This was the day the Abolition of Slavery Act came into force in 1834 in the UK, which led to the British navy spending the best part of the next century working to wipe it out. This is universally important because the British applied that law, which recognised the dignity of all human beings, internationally, even at one stage blockading their ally Brazil until they abolished the practice. Slavery has never quite been wiped out and you might have noticed that two of the Isis brides are charged with slavery offences. You might be interested to know that the legislation that allows this to happen was introduced into federal parliament by the government of which John Anderson was a member. In 1998 the Howard government legislated to make it possible for Australian authorities to prosecute acts of slavery committed anywhere in the world by an Australian citizen. Now we are seeing the fruits of that legislation. Australia is unique in the history of British settlement because from the beginning slavery was banned in the colony of New South Wales. This was in 1788 when the abolitionist movement had barely started, and 46 years before the Abolition of Slavery Act came into effect. At a time when Western civilization is under attack from all sides, this is something worth celebrating – our intellectual ancestors were the first civilization in the whole of human history who decided that slavery was wrong and that all humans deserved equal respect, and did something about it. Join in the celebration Thursday July 30. Kind regards, GRAHAM YOUNG
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE FOR PROGRESS
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