Patron General Peter Gration AC OBE

Chair Len Goodman AO, lgoodman@ozemail.com.au, 6258 1598 (h) 0409 442 345 (m)

Secretary Bruce Trewartha OAM, btrewartha@actewagl.net.au, 6231 0281 (h) 6265 1848 (w) 0439 887 480 (m) GPO Box 423 Canberra City ACT 2601

Treasurer Brian Acworth AM

Committee Trish Keller OAM, Andrew Lu OAM, Evol McLeod OAM, Ian Meikle AM, Derek Robson AM, Caroline Turner AM

Immediate past chair Liz Scrivener OAM

Co-opted member: Ray Newcombe OAM (Student Citizenship Awards)

OAAACTNEWSLETTER OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA ASSOCIATION ACT BRANCH

EMAIL ALERTS Your committee can keep you briefed faster (and cheaper) if we have an email address. We understand perfectly the ongoing need for a paper-based newsletter, however we can save valuable funds, resources and time talking directly to you via the net. Please register with Bruce Trewartha OAM at btrewartha@actewagl.net.au.

MARCH 2010

Newsletter teamEditor, Ian Meikle AM.Designer, Joran Dilucian.Distribution logistics, Anne Cahill Lambert AM.This edition was produced through the resources of “CityNews”.

Invitation to engage... and enjoy

HOW better to start our Australia Day celebrations than by a challenging address on “Active Citizenship” by our patron and eminent Australian, Gen Peter Gration AC OBE? Enhanced by the Lake Burley Griffin vista from the Yarralumla Yacht Club, 125 members and guests captured the spirit of the address as they shared breakfast with like-minded Australians. The gist of our patron’s address is on Page 3.

WELCOME to the 36 local region men and women recognised in the Australia Day Honours. On behalf of the branch, I convey our congratulations and extend an invitation to join our fellowship. A recep-tion to welcome new recipients of the Order is planned for the Commonwealth Club, 6 to 7.30 pm on Thursday, April 29. Newly appointed Officer of the Order, Dr Jeff Harmer AO, Secretary of the Depart-ment of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs will give the address.

A registration form is within the newsletter – or is from our website www.theor-derofAustralia.asn.au.

ON March 31 we present a new innova-tion – morning tea on site at the National

Library of Australia with an address by NLA assistant director general Ms Helen Kon (a registration form on Page 4 – or from our website www.theorderofAustralia.asn.au).

OUTCOMES from the National Associa-tion’s Conference and Annual General Meeting in Adelaide will be reported in the next edition of “The Order”. One major decision was to increase annual membership fees to $60 + GST = $66 and Life Membership to $990 incl. GST. Future conferences, with some changes to duration, will be Hobart in February 2011 and Darwin in 2012 – ahead of our ACT Branch hosting the 2013 Conference.

THE Branch Committee meets every month and we are always open to hear your views about your Association – please do not hesitate to call me or secretary Bruce Trewartha.

Best wishes,

Len Goodman, chairman

How better to start Our Day?

COMMITTEE member and organiser EVOL MCLEOD says there’s nothing like diversity. Whether you fancy a Devonshire morning tea and an engaging guest speaker at the National Library of Australia or an elegant cocktail reception at the Commonwealth Club, the ACT Branch is providing these possibilities – and indeed, hopes to welcome you at both functions.

Library talkJOIN us at the conference room at the National Library of Australia, 10am-noon, on Wednesday, March 31 to hear the library’s assistant director-general Ms Helen Kon, talk to us on the topic “The National Library – a library for all Austral-ians”. Ms Kon has held senior manage-ment positions at the National Library of Australia and the State Library of NSW. She has been responsible for major

projects at the Library including exhibi-tions such as Treasures from the World’s Great Libraries, community based programs such as volunteers and friends, as well as grants for local communities to preserve their heritage collections.Before working in libraries, Ms Kon worked for “The Age” newspaper as edu-cation services manager and in a range of positions both in the secondary and tertiary education sectors.

Continued page 2

OAA - MARCH 10 - 2

NEWSLETTER OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA ASSOCIATION ACT BRANCH

From page 1ON Thursday, April 29, the social focus will move to the The Commonwealth Club in Yar-ralumla for a cocktail reception to welcome new recipients. The guest speaker will be Dr Jeff Harmer AO, secretary of the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.Dr Harmer was made an Officer in the Order of Australia for service to public administra-tion through leadership of key policy initiatives, particularly programs for housing assistance,

child support, mental health, the disabled and insurance reform, and through initiatives for Indigenous Australians.He has a keen interest in social policy, manage-ment, leadership and organisational change and development.It’s a great opportunity to learn more about our new members and to meet up with old friends.Registration forms for both events are included in this newsletter. Please note: Members are asked to complete BOTH forms if attending both events, in order to facilitate booking processes.

Cocktail party offers welcome

Dr Jeff Harmer

Wayne Goodman, Ann Gration, chairman Len and Joyce Goodman with patron Peter Gration

Patsy Hill, Glen Barclay with Russell and Helen Bielenberg

Barbara Silinis and Jan JohnstonPhil Perman and Barbara DenhamJulie and Chris Long with Elizabeth Cox

Carolyn Forster and Ian McLeanAndrea McCourtie, Mark Hassall and Dianne Trewartha

OAA - MARCH 10 - 3

NEWSLETTER OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA ASSOCIATION ACT BRANCH

WHEN it comes to citizen-ship, we are a pretty special group. Every member of our Associa-

tion has carried out some meritorious act of service to the Australian commu-nity, and has had that service publicly recognised. The common bond linking our very diverse membership is therefore service to Australia, or putting it another way, proven good Australian citizenship.This focus on good citizenship is re-flected in our Association’s objectives. Two of the most important are to do with citizenship. They are: • To foster love of and pride in Aus-tralian citizenship, and • To promote good citizenship by example, by encouragement and by awards to individuals, institutions and organisations.So our object is to promote good citi-zenship, but what do we really mean by those words “good citizenship”?Something to do with “doing the right thing by the community” perhaps, but can we get a bit more specific?Yes, we can. There is a commonly ac-cepted definition of citizenship as being a member of a political community (in our case, of Australia) who enjoys the rights and assumes the duties of membership.This is all right as far as it goes, but we know that Australian citizenship is a good deal more than simply enjoy-ing rights and meeting obligations. It is coveted by many who do not have it – and should be highly prized by those of us who do.Being highly prized does not mean we should become defensive and close the gates to the rest of the world, but it does mean we should continue to be prudent and careful in the way we extend citizenship to others.Nor does having love of and pride in our citizenship mean that we think of ourselves as living in some sort of Camelot without blemish. Of course Australia has its share of evil-doers and social ills, and we as a nation have

made plenty of mistakes since that first Australia Day in 1788. We know that most indigenous Australians do not see today as a day to celebrate. But we also know that we have peacefully assimilated people from many lands, into a stable, democratic, prosperous and multi-cultural society in which the pluses far outweigh the minuses. We can, indeed, take pride in our citizen-ship. I have lived in other countries around the world, and I can tell you the more I have seen, the better I feel about being Australian.For we are fortunate to live in a society with a particular and unique quality of its own – different to all the others – a society where the majority of people consciously or unconsciously embrace a set of values we sometimes refer to as the ANZAC spirit. We call it that be-cause the world at large first recognised these values as distinctively Australian during the First World War through the exploits of the men of the 1st AIF fight-ing on Gallipoli, in Palestine and Syria, and in France and Belgium almost 100 years ago.I know that some are uncomfortable with the idea that our core national values were founded in war. This is to miss the point. The men of the 1st AIF were almost to a man citizen soldiers who brought to the conflict values that had already emerged over the previous 100 years in the Australian bush, on the outback stations, in the mines, and in the cities too. So the “ANZAC Spirit” was the expression in war of values that had already formed in our first century and a quarter of settlement.Not all these values are distinctively

Australian. Most countries would want to have qualities like courage, integrity, responsibility and so on as national values, but I am talking about uniquely Australian things like the idea of “a fair go” – that everyone deserves a reason-able chance to make their way, free of class or other impediments. And of “mateship” – the idea that we are all Australians and part of the team, and we stick by our mates in hard times, particularly those worse off than our-selves. And of a certain “irreverence for authority” for its own sake, and until that authority has proved itself worthy of our respectAnd here I come to a key point: The important principle underlying each of these three – fair go, mateship, and irreverence for authority – is the moral obligation to help those less fortunate than ourselves. This line of thinking has led us to an ideal of citizenship that goes well beyond rights and obliga-tions, and we call it “active citizenship”.Active citizenship is the idea that citizens should work positively towards the betterment of their community through economic participation, public service, volunteer works, and other such efforts to improve life for all citizens.It is an excellent concept, and it is the ideal of Australian citizenship that the Order of Australia Association em-braces, and in which we wish to foster Australians’ love and pride.Because every member has already demonstrated and had publicly recog-nised good Australian citizenship, we above all groups in the country should be taking a lead in promoting active citizenship. It is not enough, having received an award, to sit back. More is expected, and we can’t rest on our laurels. The Association’s objectives re-quire us to promote good citizenship by example, encouragement and awards – in fact, to be active citizens

General Gration’s address has been edited to fit the available space. The full text can be found on www.theor-

Citizenship: What do we really mean?The Australia Day address to the OAA (ACT Branch) by Patron GENERAL PETER GRATION AC OBE, at the Yarralumla Yacht Club

THE AUSTRALIA DAY ADDRESS

NEWSLETTER OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA ASSOCIATION ACT BRANCH

Morning tea at the libraryDATE: Wednesday, March 31TIME: 10am-noonPLACE: The Conference Room, The National Library of AustraliaSPEAKER: Ms Helen Kon: Assistant Director-General of The National Library of AustraliaTOPIC: “The National Library – a library for all Australians”COST: $20 per person. DRESS: Jacket and tie/ lapel pin

A cocktail reception to welcome new recipientsDATE: Thursday, April 29TIME: 6 -7.30pmPLACE: The Commonwealth Club, 45 Forster Crescent, Yarralumla, ACT – with the kind permission of the President of the Commonwealth ClubSPEAKER: Dr. Jeff Harmer AO: Secretary, Department of Families, Housing and Community Services and Indigenous AffairsCOST: $42 per person. DRESS: Jacket and tie/ day wear

RSVP by Friday, March 26: Booking slip below to be mailed to:Ms. Evol McLeod OAMOAA-ACT Branch97 Beasley StreetTORRENS ACT 2607

To foster love of pride in Australian citizenship and to uphold the high principles and prestige of the Order of AustraliaThe Order of Australia Association Limtied ABN 40 008 612 664/007 - A Company Limited by Guarantee

MORNING TEA BOOKING FORM COCKTAIL PARTY BOOKING FORM

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ENqUIRIES: Evol McLeod OAM | 6286 2081 (h) | 0406 378889 (m)

RSVP by Friday, April 23: Booking slip below to be mailed to:Ms. Evol McLeod OAMOAA-ACT Branch97 Beasley StreetTORRENS ACT 2607