The historian in the mirror: writing first-person history, and other issues in contemporary historiography

Image: “Ethos” by Tom Bass. Photo credit: Gary Humphries
Responding to the impulse to provide an account of the birth of what was (probably) Australia’s last new polity – the ACT Legislative Assembly – has presented multiple challenges. The period under review (1989-2001, the first four Legislative Assemblies) ends just 25 years ago, rendering historically valid assessments of the period tentative. In addition, ACT citizens’ early rejection of their newly created political institutions coincides with a broader collapse in public confidence across liberal democracies in political norms and parliamentary processes, making the isolation of the ACT experience more challenging.
Finally, my own involvement in the events (I was an MLA throughout this period) poses acute problems around perspective, objectivity, and the way in which the oral histories contributed by my contemporaries has been shaped by their (political) relationship with me.
Writing an account of events which generated strong feelings within the Canberra community creates an additional problem (or opportunity): how does this history help answer the question of whether ACT self-government has been a failure or success? Rarely does historiography intersect so directly with contemporary themes in play within the body politic.
This pre-submission seminar explores all of those issues.
Gary Humphries served as an Australian politician for almost 25 years. He was a Member of the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory from 1989 to 2003, during which time he served in many ministerial roles, including Minister for Health, Education and the Arts, Treasurer and Attorney-General. He was Chief Minister from 2000 to 2001. From 2003 to 2013 he was the Liberal Senator for the ACT. He held various responsibilities in the Federal Opposition, including Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney-General and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Matériel.
After leaving the Senate he was Deputy President of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for more than six years, until 2021. He was at various times President of the Australian Institute of Administrative Law and chairman of the Anzac Centenary Public Fund Board and of RSPCA Australia.
He is presently enrolled as an PhD student, writing the first history of ACT self-government.
This event is originally published on the School of History website.
Location
RSSS Lectorial (room 1.21)
Speaker
- Gary Humphries (Australian National University)
Contact
- David Romney Smith