Page 2044 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 28 May 1991
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MR HUMPHRIES (Minister for Health, Education and the Arts): I did not know Rajiv Gandhi, but I did have the privilege of meeting Manning Clark. I was a student of Australian history at the University of New England in 1977. Of course, for any student of Australian history at that time, and probably since, A Short History of Australia was the bible to which we all referred. If you were really a swot you would go to the six-volume history, although I think it was four volumes at that time. I also had the privilege of attending lectures and speaking to him when I came to Canberra, and I found that a very exciting experience.
I do not want to say much, Mr Speaker. I think other speakers have indicated very clearly the contribution Manning Clark made to the study and the appreciation of Australian history. I will say that I did disagree with much that he wrote. I appreciated very much the fact that he raised the awareness of Australians' origins and their character through their pursuit of their history, but he did so by being heavily critical of Britain and Britain's legacy in Australia, and contrasting very sharply British expectations of this country and what actually was discovered when British settlers came here. He contributed very heavily, therefore, to the trend away from all things British which has been experienced and is still being experienced in this country.
He was, as I think Ms Follett said, a very political person in some of the things he said. He was a republican, which may account for his comments in respect of those that were made by the Duke of Edinburgh. He also had a very powerful religious perspective on all the things that he said, although I think it is probably better to say that he was an extremely humanist person in respect of the things that he wrote about this country and the people of this country.
He was not a purveyor of facts and dates in the way many other historians might be perceived to be. He was a person who used history to articulate a vision of life and a philosophy, particularly of Australian life, which I think will be a major legacy for all of us and for many generations to come. Despite my reservations about some of the things he had to say, I fully acknowledge the contribution he made to Australian history and to Australian life, and I am very happy today to rise and join in this condolence motion, mourning, as it does, the passing of a great Australian.
MR JENSEN: I rise briefly to support the motion of condolence on the death of Professor Manning Clark. As a student of Australian history at the Australian National University I was soon made aware of the extent of Professor Clark's influence on the teaching of the history of this great country. His edited volumes of selected documents and the six volumes of his assessment of our history, particularly the history of the people who migrated to this country and established a new nation, were, as Mr Humphries has indicated, the bibles of those studying history.
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