Melbourne: Incorrigible Optimist: A Political Memoir By The Hon Gareth Evans AC QC
Asialink Business, Corrs Chambers Westgarth and Melbourne University Publishing are delighted to invite you to attend an exclusive discussion on:
Incorrigible Optimist: A Political Memoir
By Professor The Hon Gareth Evans AC QC, former Foreign Minister of Australia
Melbourne
Date: Thursday 19 October
Time: 6.00pm for a 6.30pm start to 8.00pm (refreshments will be served)
Venue: Corrs Chambers Westgarth, 567 Collins St, Melbourne
Cost: $40.00 including GST and booking fee.
We hope you are able to join us for this exclusive, invitation only opportunity to meet with Gareth Evans and hear first-hand insights and memoirs from one of Australia’s most commended political and international leaders.
About the speaker:
Gareth Evans was a Cabinet member throughout the Hawke-Keating years, as Attorney-General (1983-84), Minister for Resources and Energy (1984-87), Minister for Transport and Communications (1987-88) and Foreign Minister (1988-96). He left Australian politics to become President and CEO of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group from 2000 to 2009, and has been Chancellor of the Australian National University since 2010.
When Gareth Evans took office as Foreign Minister in September 1988, he immediately conveyed his approach to the job by setting his travel plans. He began with a trip to the immediate South Pacific neighbourhood, then worked through the key South-East Asian capital and followed that with a familiarisation tour to North-East Asia where our trade interest was heavily concentrated – only then going on to the US, Europe and elsewhere. And he remained centrally preoccupied with Asia throughout his term – navigating our troubled relationship with Indonesia, working closely with China and other regional powers in initiating the UN peace plan for Cambodia, and playing key roles in the creation of new regional economic and security policy architecture with APEC and the ASEAN Regional Forum.
A colourful and central figure in Australian politics for two decades—described by Bob Hawke as having 'the most acute mind' of any of his ministers—Evans has also been applauded worldwide for his contributions, both as Foreign Minister and in later international roles, to conflict resolution, genocide prevention and curbing weapons of mass destruction. Kofi Annan describes him on the book’s cover as ‘one of the world’s great internationalists’.
Join us to hear Gareth Evans discuss his political memoir, which draws from his national, regional and global experience many lessons of immediate relevance to today’s fraught policymaking environment.
For further information please contact Emily Paul on 03 8344 1415 or e.paul@asialinkbusiness.com.au