The Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA) has announced that the Minister of Health, Greg Hunt is to deliver this year’s Garran Oration.
The Institute said the oration is to be streamed today, Wednesday 21 October, from 12.30pm to 1.30pm (AEDT).
National President, of the IPAA, Gordon de Brouwer said the Garran Oration honoured the memory of the first, and one of the most prominent Australian Commonwealth Public Servants, Sir Robert Garran (pictured). It has been delivered held every year since 1959.
“Sir Robert was one of the country’s most senior Public Servants during the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1919, serving as Secretary of the Attorney-General’s Department,” Dr de Brouwer said.
“Over the course of 1919 up to 40 per cent of Australians had been infected by the Spanish flu and an estimated 15,000 lost their lives, with some Aboriginal communities recording a mortality rate of 50 per cent.”
He said that in a year when Australia’s society and economy had been so heavily hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, it was a privilege to host Mr Hunt as the 2020 Garran Orator.
“It is a year where the role of public services in supporting the work of Governments across Australia has never been clearer,” Dr de Brouwer said.
As President of IPAA, Dr de Brouwer will also announce IPAA’s 2020 National Fellows at the event.
The award of National Fellow is given to those individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to public service and to IPAA. National Fellows have been awarded each year since 1983.
Readers interested in the oration can register to receive access to it, live or recorded, from IPAA at this PS News link.
