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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 5 Hansard (9 May) . . Page.. 1387 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

contributions were always very thoughtful. He was regarded as a person of great conscience and considerable intellect. In a setting where, sometimes, politics and political games would be played, he was a person whose view could always be counted upon to represent the best interests of the university and its teaching and research.

Professor Arndt, as members have heard, was born in Germany and studied in Britain before coming to Australia. The role he played in the development of economic policy in Australia is a very significant one. The personal papers that he produced, the very many articles, documents and books that he wrote, are now held in libraries all over the world and certainly are a very important part of the libraries and repositories of Australian teaching institutions.

He was particularly interested in areas to do with macro-economics, economic development and, in particular, South-East Asia, especially Indonesia. He was responsible for the establishment of the Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, a journal which is now in its 35th year of publication. He was the inspiration behind the so-called Indonesia Project, which is now some 20 years old, providing detailed assessments of the Indonesian economy. Because of the historic and reputable work of Professor Arndt, the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, as it then was in 1963, has been recognised as the foremost centre for Indonesian studies outside of Indonesia.

Mr Speaker, I believe that the significant passion with which Professor Arndt approached the task of contributing to the Australian community is an important example to all Australians. He was a man who was never afraid to give of himself, to make his time and his considerable intellectual energy available for a variety of public purposes, and I think that citizens of his calibre are rare and much valued in life. It is sad that we have, this week, lost that contribution to Australian society. Even at the age of 87 Professor Arndt was a very active and a very passionate contributor to the life of this city.

On behalf of the opposition, I want to pay tribute to the work of Professor Arndt, his work in economics in particular, and his dedication to the growth and development of the Australian National University, a matter about which, as we have heard, he was extremely passionate. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his children, grandchildren and great-grandchild.

MRS DUNNE: Mr Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Heinz Arndt, a true intellectual who modified his views over the years in light of new knowledge and reflection-something that I think we should all learn from. Commenting on this back in 1985, he wrote:

In my own case, these political prejudices (if not, I would like to think, the moral convictions) underwent great changes over half a century, from a brief youthful Marxist phase to decades of Fabian-Keynesian views which gradually gave way to ... a sceptical-monetarist near-libertarian position ... It might be thought that such an odyssey would induce a decent humility: if I could be so completely wrong earlier what grounds of confidence have I that I am right now? I can only shamefacedly report that that has not been my experience. What others may diagnose as a banal example of the common drift to senile conservatism, reflecting that gradual loss of openness to new ideas and sensitive compassion that comes with the hardening of the arteries, presents itself in my mind as a process of learning from experience, both in the general sense of discovering that the world's problems

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