Emancipation Day is August 1

Dear ,

If you were thinking about booking for the Matt Barrie function, you now have a few more weeks to do so. Matt has come down with a fever and we have had to postpone it. We're hoping to reschedule it to the week of August 4, and I will let you know when we have tied down the day, which will depend on the availability of a venue.

But it is only just over two weeks until Tony Abbott will address our Emancipation Day breakfast on August 1. To book click here.

Tony is uniquely placed to deliver this lecture. Not only is he a former Prime Minister, but since leaving office he has become a public intellectual of some note. Indeed, before he went into politics he had already made a name for himself in journalism.

He brings a real depth of understanding of Western culture with him. After graduating in Economics and Law from Sydney University he studied at Oxford, gaining a bachelors degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He then entered training to be a Roman Catholic priest. That training is not restricted to studying the Bible, but encompasses the wider Western canon.

So he has had a longer and more rigorous exposure to Western culture than most people you could meet outside a university, and this knowledge has been combined with practical experience in governance. If you'll excuse me a classical reference I'm sure Plato had this sort of training in mind when he came up with the concept of the "Philosopher King", and I'm pretty sure Tony's training would have convinced him Plato was mistaken in his ideas of government.

Emancipation Day is all about looking at the entirety of the Western, and British, contribution to our current world. What has it, and they, ever done for us? Democracy, Industrial Revolution, incredible wealth and health...but more than anything else, the belief in the individual and individual rights.

The belief in those rights manifests itself with most force on the day the Empire decided to abolish slavery. While we can disagree on a lot surely we can't disagree on the importance of that moment.

Emancipation Day Breakfast

Date: Thursday August 1, at 7:00 for 7:30 am.
Venue: Tattersall's Club, 215 Queen Street, Brisbane
Tickets: General Admission $75, AIP mebers $65, Pensioners and Students $60. Tables of 10 $650. (All tickets include a hot breakfast)
Bookings: RSVP Tuesday July 30, 2024. To book: click here.

Kind regards,

GRAHAM YOUNG
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR