Dr Neville Buch (ABN 86703686642) Business Office
An Australian Top Humanities and Social Science Researcher
An Australian Top Humanities and Social Science Researcher
18 Callendar Street, Sunnybank Hills 4109
AUSTRALIA
AUSTRALIA
Hon. John Howard
Former Australian Prime Minister
c/ Menzies Research Centre
PO Box 6091
Kingston ACT 2604
Kingston ACT 2604
AUSTRALIA
12 June 2025
Re: Your Letter Asking For Donations for the MRC from the Australian Public
Dear Sir,
I well respect your right to ask the Australian Public for donations in the interest of the Menzies Research Centre (MRC), and can well understands what motivates you to do so, though, I have no respect for the MRC socio-political arguments and I suspect that most Australians do not as well. Allow me to explain in this letter, that I hope you will read with care.
In the period of your Prime Ministership (1996-2007), whether intentionally or indirectly, you casted the Culture-History War upon Australians. I have explained the thinking in my academia.edu essay, called, “Finding Peace from the Culture-History War: A Historiographical Message for the Times.” It is still relevant today. The politics of your actions at the time, to appease those, called at the time, “dries” (“Dry Right”), is still with us under other political labels, and, quite frankly, propaganda, when all is said and done from scholarship.
I suspect, or hope, that the young persons in the Liberal Party are attempting to drive a course change back to fairer and more intelligent, traditional, thinking of liberalism. This would be in the direction of historian Judith Brett (see my article Judith Brett on Character). One of those characteristics is Public Apology. It would be helpful if you extend a public apology.
Perhaps, you think you have no reason to do so. So if you bear with me, a little longer in the letter, I will attempt to explain, not that a public apology is necessary (I am not saying it is, nor expected), but to explain why a public apology would demonstrate good character. An apology demonstrates good character when it is recognised that harm has been done, and regret is expressed.
When you talked about the “Culture-History War” during your Prime Ministership, you created the conditions whereby the careers of many Australian humanities and social science scholars were harmed. With their career harmed, they were personally harmed, their loved ones, family members, were harmed. Yes, that is secondary and unintended causes, but they arose from primary intended political causes. Personally for me, my wife died aged 55 in relative poverty, never seeing the promise her husband made that they, as a family, could have a sustainable career in the humanities and social sciences. I did have a brief prosperous career, under periods of Australian coalition and labor governments. A career in higher education policy research, which has now led into a career of extensively researching cognition histories and sociology, demonstrating why political rhetoric and actions continue to fail.
To explain further (please keep reading with me, I know this is difficult for you). My position is consolidating in what I am calling “centralism accuracy”; it is more method than any fixed position:
The first lesson is that ideas are never unrelated. You can not dismiss it by saying, “it has nothing to do with me”.
Second lesson. Political intentions more often than not, lead us astray, becoming inaccurate in judgement, since the intention is how we combine all the different elements in who we are, but weighing too much in prejudice:
Prejudice, pre-judgement to unfamiliar questions, is the key here:
AND…
In political rhetoric and actions, you can push another person down or lift them up. Unless we think deeper and wide, our prejudice takes us to pre-existing attitudes, which is the forcefulness of prejudicial beliefs, the opportunism, and then we attempt rationalism in a particular typology of value. Any ethicist can see the plain idiocy of the attempt. Self-delusion. Without the comprehension that seeks out a fit for everyone else’s non-harmful views, it is idiocy (this does not mean references to “offence”; I am talking John Stuart Mill’s principle of “do no harm”). It is idiocy because Aristotle argued that in each ethical principle, no other principle should be abandoned. All of this occurs in consciousness, or what we can call “cognition”.
I hope that in reading this explanation of why a public apology would be good character, an apology for launching the ‘Australian Culture-History War’, from your position as former Prime Minister, you would come to an agreement. And if I can appeal to your conservative evangelical Methodist background (and a reference to the work of Dr Marion Maddox), Repent, and do no harm any more.
Kind regards,
Neville Buch
Historian,
President, Sea of Faith in Australia (SOFiA)
Professional Historians Australia (Queensland)
Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society (ANZHES)
Convenor, Sociology of Education Thematic Group, The Australian Sociological Association (TASA).
Regular Philosopher, The Philosophy Cafe Brisbane Meet Up.
Director, Brisbane Southside History Network (BSHN).
MPHA (Qld), Ph.D. (History) UQ., Grad. Dip. Arts (Philosophy) Melb., Grad. Dip. (Education) UQ.
“May I not hope to be heard with candor? God deliver us all from prejudice and unkindness, and fill us with the love of truth and virtue.” William Ellery Channing, Delivered at the Ordination of Rev. Jared Sparks in The First Independent Church of Baltimore on May 5, 1819.
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Neville Buch
Professional Historian at Professional Historians Association (Queensland) Inc.
Neville Buch (Pronounced Book) Ph.D. is a certified member of the Professional Historians Association (Queensland). Since 2010 he has operated a sole trade business in history consultancy. He was a Q ANZAC 100 Fellow 2014-2015 at the State Library of Queensland. Dr Buch was the PHA (Qld) e-Bulletin, the monthly state association’s electronic publication, and was a member of its Management Committee. He is the Managing Director of the Brisbane Southside History Network.
Latest posts by Neville Buch (see all)
- A Eulogy for Jack - July 8, 2025
- Freedom in both The Domestic Home and The Open Road - July 7, 2025
- Australian Universities Afraid of Open Communication and Intelligent Conversation - June 27, 2025