Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
In the 2025 Canberra Day Oration, Gary Humphries will explore the question of whether ACT self-government has been a success.
When self-determination for the Australian Capital Territory arrived, unceremoniously and unwanted, in 1989 it met widespread community dissatisfaction. One historian bemoaned the ‘avaricious free-loading pack of no-hopers’ self-government was about to unleash.
Now, 36 years later, it is timely to ask: were these fears realised, or has self-government proved an unexpected success? As both the ACT Legislative Assembly’s first historian and a former member of that body, Gary Humphries will attempt to answer this question.
Find out more: https://www.library.gov.au/whats-on/events/canberra-day-oration-2025-gary-humphries-ao
In the 2025 Canberra Day Oration, Gary Humphries will explore the question of whether ACT self-government has been a success.
When self-determination for the Australian Capital Territory arrived, unceremoniously and unwanted, in 1989 it met widespread community dissatisfaction. One historian bemoaned the ‘avaricious free-loading pack of no-hopers’ self-government was about to unleash.
Now, 36 years later, it is timely to ask: were these fears realised, or has self-government proved an unexpected success? As both the ACT Legislative Assembly’s first historian and a former member of that body, Gary Humphries will attempt to answer this question.
Find out more: https://www.library.gov.au/whats-on/events/canberra-day-oration-2025-gary-humphries-ao
