Fifteen Minutes with Lieutenant General (Retired) David Morrison AO

 Lt. Gen. (Ret’d) David Morrison AO with College Dean Professor Paul Pickering

Lt. Gen. (Ret’d) David Morrison AO with College Dean Professor Paul Pickering

In mid-February, Australian of the Year 2016 and ANU Alumnus of the Year 2016 Lieutenant General (Retired) David Morrison AO paid a special visit to the ANU campus. He was on campus to film his video message to accept his alumni award and meet ANU Vice-Chancellor, Professor Brian Schmidt. 
 
Being that Lt. Gen. (Ret’d) Morrison graduated from ANU with a Bachelor of Arts (’79), he also spent some time with the Dean of the College of Arts and Social Sciences, Professor Paul Pickering. Here's an edited transcript of their conversation, which spanned the General’s thoughts on being named Australian of the Year, his service as the former Chief of the Australian Army, highlights his diverse interests across the arts and humanities.

 

On being Australian of the Year 2016

Lt. Gen. (Ret’d) David Morrison AO: I find the whole concept of the Australian of the Year to be very, very odd. I mean, the idea that there is ‘the’ Australian of the Year is just ridiculous, isn’t it? There are millions of our fellow Australians who just get up in the morning with quiet heroism, facing much, much greater challenges than I will ever face in my life. And live their lives with dignity and social commitment. All I see this year is the chance to probably speak with a little bit more resonance about those issues that matter to me. 
 
College Dean, Professor Paul Pickering: I agree, and it’s sort of the whole Honours system is ambiguous to this Australian idea. 
 
DM: It is!
 
PP: But also in a way it provides… it’s a Curtinism… it’s Chiefly’s light on the hill in a way, isn’t it. It allows someone to say something that resonates. 
 
DM: I think the choice of me has been quite contentious for certain sectors within Australian society. 
 
PP: Good. 
 
DM: Yes – well, to be fair too though, balanced from those on perhaps what you’d describe as under that amorphous title ‘The Right’, there have been a group of I think very logical arguments put forward, largely by women, but not exclusively. Why single out a man for talking about these issues when so many women have been doing that? And I absolutely agree with that.
 
I was the most surprised person on the planet when my name was read out. I was looking out into the distance trying to find my wife in the rain because we’d already planned to leave early and go home and open a bottle of champagne and celebrate the fact that I wasn’t the Australian of the Year, and that didn’t work out.  But I’m intent on doing something with it.
 
 

On the value of studying arts and humanities

DM: I don’t understand astrophysics but I am fascinated by it. I am fascinated by the physical world, and science is opaque to me in so many ways but I do really enjoy trying to deepen my knowledge of science. Having said that though, I wouldn’t be in a position to do that without a background in humanities, because what’s humanities about? It’s about understanding the human condition through others’ experience, either given to you in conversation or given to you in perpetuity in writing…. The study of who we are as a species – it seems pretty relevant to us all.
 
PP: I’m in awe of these people who think about bent waves and so forth. But at the end of the day, we [in the humanities] can talk about T.S. Eliot. And we can talk about Milton. 
 
Terry Eagleton the philosopher, he was struggling with the idea that you couldn’t have a university without humanities; he said it’s like a pub without beer. 
 
DM: I agree. And indeed, later in my life I have come to an amateur but nonetheless committed study of philosophy. I didn’t do philosophy here at ANU – and I’m sorry for that, but I was doing other things. But I find myself now going to philosophy just simply to give added layers to who I am and how I think. I’ve found it exceptionally valuable, I must say.
 
PP: That’s so encouraging to hear. I wish I had more time to read philosophy, but I do find it that…
 
DM: It’s often a synopsis. It’s not like I sit down with David Hume’s collected works and tell the dogs to be quiet and work my way through it. It’s not like that. 
 
But I’ve got to say, I have found the Ancient Greeks to be pretty fascinating. I keep coming back to some of what Aristotle… I know Aristotle got a very, very good run for many centuries after, particularly through Medieval Europe. This idea of Eudaimonia, living a flourishing life, and what comprises the concept of the flourishing life, is fascinating. 
 

 

On the telling of Australian history

PP: Often when I talk to students about Australia’s democratic history, well there are lots of things wrong with our democratic system and there’s some black spots in our history, but, we’re a pretty successful – you know, power changes hands here without violence. The polling booth there’s very few brawls. 
 
DM: You’re right. Although we should never lose sight of the colourful side of our history. I mean, I don’t think we study Jack Lang quite as often as we should. That period after the first World War was a time of huge social disruption in this country. The rise of the new guard, Lang’s response to it, Lang’s extraordinary actions as a state premier during the great depression…
 
PP: Absolutely. And the other Lang in our history of course is someone who’s fallen out of public memory, apart from that statue in Sydney near the strain station, Wynyard Square, John Dunmore Lang, of course, he was our first Republican. He wrote The Coming Event. And Lang Park the rugby stadium was named after him, because he was instrumental to separating Queensland from New South Wales. And yet he’s fallen out of our history…
 
DM: We’re not very good with our own history.
 
PP: No. 
 
DM: And I think in part our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, men and women, struggled for the type of recognition that has been accorded to the Maori in New Zealand. In part because of the way the story of their struggle was never properly documented, never properly told. Or told in verbal histories amongst the Indigenous people, and of course, you destroy a tongue you destroy a people. 
 
And that has happened across Australia. And now, there is a movement to try and collect those stories again and put them forward because they need telling. I have this shorthand for what culture is – it’s largely the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. If we’re not telling stories about the Indigenous people of Australia, or the achievements of women – millions of successful women throughout our history – just folding them into the broader narrative, what happens? You get the culture that we’ve got at the moment. 
 
 

On our Anglo-Saxon biases

DM: Every time I speak about culture I say, look, this is really important stuff, these stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. I’m going to say two words and I’ll tell you what you thought. I’ve done this in front of – I’ve tried this in front of maybe ten to twenty thousand people now. Over the course of the last five years. Never had anyone put their hand up. 
 
So the two words are ‘Aussie digger’. And you thought of a male, who’s Anglo-Saxon. Who comes from a rural background. Who fights best with a hangover. Who never salutes officers, especially the Poms. You haven’t thought of a woman. You haven’t thought of a man or a woman of Aboriginal heritage. Or Asian heritage. Or Islamic heritage. You haven’t thought about any of those, so what does it say to women, or men and women of non-Anglo-Saxon heritage. About when they think about the Army. It says don’t join.
 
It’s potent. Think of the iconic figures of Australian history. Dashing sportsmen. The Aussie digger. The stoic pioneer. All men. We get our Melbas. We get our wonderful women who’ve done so much for the country. But their stories tend to be folded into the broader Australian narrative, I think. 
 
 

On his time as Chief of the Australian Army

DM: I had a series of meetings over the course of my time as Chief, prior to 2013 when I took a very public stand, but it had already convinced me of the need for change. And we in fact were embarked on a huge change in the army. 
 
The palpable anger that was perhaps displayed in a very brief video clip which no one else was meant to see, welled from a frustration that I had that we were doing so much and now it was all being called into question again. Nonetheless, I’ve played a small part in this and I think that staying with it through a genuine passion now around diversity and certainly some of the issues around domestic violence which in my mind stem largely from gender inequality – is just shaping my life and I wouldn’t ever want to let go now. I’ll stay with it until I die.
 
PP: I suppose one of the things of being the Commander of the Army is you get to meet some fascinating people. 
 
DM: Oh you do. You may not meet heads of state – well, I’ve met the Queen. But, you’re given opportunities to meet amazing people doing amazing things around the world.
 
I think as Australian of the Year, too, that’s going to be one of the absolute standouts for the year. Already people are writing saying, ‘Will you be involved in this and if you can, can you lend support here’ and I’m trying to say yes as much as I possibly can because these people are pivotal to shaping the way we live in Australia. It’ll be a fantastic aspect of the year.
 
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The College of Arts and Social Sciences is proud to have Lt. Gen. (Ret’d) Morrison as an alumnus. We have great hopes for his term as Australian of the Year 2016 and look forward to his continued engagement with the ANU.