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PUBLIC LECTURE: 2012 John Toohey Oration, The Need for Reasons

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Today's date is Friday, March 29, 2024
2012 John Toohey Oration, The Need for Reasons : A free lecture given by His Excellency Mr Malcolm McCusker AC CVO QC Other events...
It is an inherent characteristic of humans that we want to know the reason for everything.

That “need to know”, to understand the reasons, is not confined to the physical world. It extends to decisions made by another, especially if they affect us.

Who has not, at some time, asked a child to do (or to refrain from doing) something, to be met with the spontaneous and natural human reaction, “But why?”. And who has not, perhaps in frustration caused by repeated requests for reasons, replied “Because I said so”, to then feel guilty; perhaps because you know that you are being authoritarian, have probably engendered a sense of injustice in the child (“That’s not fair!”).

A society in which decisions affecting its citizens are made, without reasons being given, is in danger of its citizens losing respect for such decisions, and causing those affected by them to believe that they have been treated unjustly.

Yet we live in a society in which not all decisions affecting its citizens (often with very serious consequences) must be accompanied by reasons given by the decision-maker.

This public lecture honours the career and contribution to public life of a very distinguished graduate of UWA, Dr John Leslie Toohey who, after graduating in Arts and Law, went on to become one of the State's outstanding legal practitioners and subsequently one of the country's eminent jurists.

The lecture is free and open to the public, no RSVP required.
Speaker(s) His Excellency Mr Malcolm McCusker AC CVO QC
Location University Club Theatre Auditorium, The University of Western Australia
Contact <[email protected]> +61 8 6488 2945
Start Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:00
End Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:00
Submitted by Kate Brandis <[email protected]>
Last Updated Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:01
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