Due to building works, some of our collections are temporarily unavailable. Some requests for deliveries of Library material to the Reading Rooms will not be fulfilled. Learn more
The Kenneth Myer Lecture commenced in 1990 as a major annual event for the Friends of the National Library of Australia. The lecture was named for Kenneth Baillieu Myer, AC who was Chairman of the National Library Council from 1972 to 1982 and a long-time friend of the Library.
The prescription for the lecture is simple and based on the views of Kenneth Myer. As a businessman and philanthropist with a wide range of cultural and social commitments, he saw it as an opportunity for an eminent Australian to make a significant statement on a broad subject of particular interest to them.
Distinguished Australians who have delivered the Kenneth Myer Lecture in previous years are: The Hon. E.G. Whitlam, Dr H.C. Coombs, Dr Davis McCaughey, Elizabeth Reid, Professor Emeritus John Mulvaney, Jillian Broadbent and Sir Gustav Nossal.
- 2019
Press Freedom in Australia and Why it is in Crisis
Presented by Professor Peter Greste
- 2018
Leaders and Followers
Presented by Laura Tingle
- 2017
20/20 Vision: Where is Australia Headed?
Presented by Anne Summers AO
- 2016
Holding to True North
Presented by Kim Williams AM
- 2015
Promoting Positive Change in Australia
Presented by Professor Mick Dodson AM
- 2014
Science and Society: Exploring the Role of Research in Australian Lives
Presented by Professor Brian Schmidt
- 2013
Media standards in an Internet World
Presented by Professor Julian Disney
- 2012
In an age awash with information, how easily we forget the past
Presented by Kerry O'Brien
- 2011
Why Did I Do That? A Fresh Look at the Psychology of Human Motivation
Presented by Hugh Mackay
- 2010
A Woman for All Seasons
Presented by Maggie Beer
- 2009
Personalised medicine and social responsibility: a prescription for health in the 21st century?
Presented by Professor Ian Frazer
- 2008
Climate Change: an update to July 2008
Presented by Professor Tim Flannery
- 2007
Is Politics Still a Vocation?
Presented by Michelle Grattan AO
- 2006
Crimes Against Humanity - International Affairs Post Iraq
Presented by Geoffrey Robertson QC
- 2005
The Seeds of Change: Serendipity and Social Movements
Presented by Tim Costello, AO
- 2004
Modernism’s Legacy and Future
Presented by Harry Seidler AC, OBE
- 2003
Before the bough breaks: children in contemporary Australia
Presented by Professor Fiona Stanley
- 2002
Achieving A Fairer Australia
Presented by The Hon. Fred Chaney AO
- 2001
We know what we are, but what may we become?
Presented by Professor Peter Doherty
- 2000
Reconciliation at the Crossroads: Some Millennial Perspectives
Presented by Sir Gustav Nossal
- 1999
Efficiency but not Equality?
Presented by Jillian Broadbent