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“In quotation marks: the Australian public intellectual”

In his address at the Annual Academy Dinner on 14 November 2024, Professor Glyn Davis AC FASSA, Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (and honours student of Donald Horne), reflected on Horne as a ‘public intellectual’ and the space left behind in Australia’s discourse since his death. Download a PDF of the speech here.

“In quotation marks: the Australian public intellectual”

Glyn Davis 

Australian Academy of the Humanities’ 55th Annual Symposium: The ideas and ideals of Australia: ‘The Lucky Country’ turns sixty
Annual Academy Dinner, National Museum of Australia
14 November 2024, Canberra

In The Lucky Country, Donald Horne labelled Australia a ‘nation without a mind’.[1]

As a journalist, he dismissed those who aspired to be intellectuals. This was a European term, ill‑suited to an egalitarian nation. When it appeared in a publication Horne edited, ‘intellectual’ was often surrounded by quotation marks.

The irony is amusing. For in the years after The Lucky Country, Donald Horne became the walking definition of a public intellectual — someone who spoke to issues, wrote widely, marched, lectured, taught, and provided pithy witticisms for media profiles.

Trained as an Andersonian at the University of Sydney, Horne began with a deep scepticism about reform.[2] Governments might imagine they can influence the deeper currents of life, but their attempts will be frustrated by unintended consequences.

It was theory which encouraged raised eyebrows, if not mockery, toward those who imagined political activism can matter. This made Horne a radical conservative[3] — a freethinker perhaps keen for change, but philosophically doubtful it was possible.

And yet, Donald Horne demonstrated intellectual honesty when his confident worldview was tested. Horne recognised institutionalised racism in Australia but, as editor of The Observer,[4] saw no point antagonising his audience by campaigning against the long-standing White Australia Policy.

Read on…

[1] Donald Horne, The Lucky Country, Penguin Modern Classics edition, 2008, p. 10.

[2] https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/donald-horne#:~:text=From%20a%20position%20of%20doubting,seminal%20book%20The%20Lucky%20Country.

[3] https://thesydneyinstitute.com.au/blog/the-luck-and-life-of-donald-horne-from-unpopular-conservative-to-national-favourite/.

[4] https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C277907.

55th Annual Academy Symposium

This speech was delivered during our 2024 Annual Academy Dinner, during our 55th Annual Symposium, The ideas and ideals of Australia: ‘The Lucky Country’ turns sixty, held in Canberra from 13 – 15 November.

About the author

Professor Glyn Davis AC FASSA is the Secretary to the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Prior to his appointment, Professor Davis served as Chief Executive Officer of the Paul Ramsay Foundation, Australia’s largest charitable foundation with a mission to break the cycle of disadvantage.

In his academic life, Professor Davis has served as Vice-Chancellor at the University of Melbourne and Griffith University and, until recently, as Distinguished Professor of Political Science in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. He remains a Visiting Professor at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, and a Visiting Fellow at Exeter College. He also holds visiting professorial appointments at King’s College London, Manchester University and the Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne.

Professor Davis is a public policy specialist, with experience in government and higher education, who delivered in 2010 the Boyer Lectures on the theme ‘The Republic of Learning’. His community work includes partnering with Indigenous programs in the Goulburn–Murray Valley and Cape York, and service on a range of arts boards, including the Queensland and Melbourne Theatre Companies. In late 2021 he took on the role as Chair of Opera Australia.

His most recent book is On Life’s Lottery (Hachette, 2021), an essay on our moral responsibility toward those less well off.

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