Broadcaster, anthropologist and writer, Sally Warhaft delivered the 2016 John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library (JCMPL) Anniversary Lecture at Â鶹ֱ²¥ this week.<\/p>\n
The annual lecture, introduced by JCPML Patron and former Prime Minister, the Honourable Julia Gillard, marked the upcoming 71st<\/sup> anniversary of Australia\u2019s war time Prime Minister John Curtin\u2019s death on July 5, 1945.<\/p>\n In her speech, Ms Warhaft outlined what John Curtin, Australia\u2019s 14th<\/sup> Prime Minister, would have made of the current Federal election campaign, the longest campaign in the country\u2019s history.<\/p>\n She said the speech was an opportunity to look at the changing nature of election campaigns.<\/p>\n \u201cJohn Curtin knew a fair bit about election campaigning. He knew what it was like to win \u2013 to win well, win by a fraction \u2014 and to lose,\u201d Ms Warhaft said.<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough there are many things about today\u2019s campaigning that Curtin wouldn\u2019t recognise, some things haven\u2019t changed as much as we might think.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat Curtin would surely find incomprehensible are the leaders\u2019 debates,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n In closing, Ms Warhaft said Curtin would most likely have been perplexed by the stilted, disingenuous and monotonous culture of the current election campaign.<\/p>\n \u201cHe would be amazed at the society we live in, the wealth, the technology, the progress. And he would be mightily perplexed at how we put it all to use.\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will probably wait a long time for our political culture to change. And when we do change, we must hope that it will be for the better.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would appear to need two politicians with the famous humility of John Curtin at once \u2014 one on each side of the despatch box \u2014 to agree and insist on some new ground rules,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Ms Warhaft is a Melbourne broadcaster, anthropologist and writer, and the host of the Wheeler Centre\u2019s live journalism series, The Fifth Estate, <\/em>now in its fifth year. She is a former editor of The Monthly<\/em> magazine and the author of the bestselling book Well May We Say: The Speeches that Made Australia<\/em>.<\/p>\n