Annual Report 2000
CHAIRMAN'S REPORT 2000
Sir Daryl Dawson,AC,
KBE, CB
I am pleased to report that during 2000 the Menzies Foundation has continued with many successful activities which reflect its original charter. The task of the Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Trust in 1978 was to "create and then maintain and administer a form or forms of permanent memorial to Sir Robert Menzies". Sir William Vines, in his Chairman's report of 1984, stated that "... the Trust sought not so much a physical monument as themes or topics providing us with lines of activity essentially and popularly linked to Sir Robert Menzies' own thoughts on national benefit. And since it is a leader of a nation and not a political party whom we honour, we have sought also to be non-political". The themes chosen for the memorial activities, to be brought to fruition through the Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Foundation, were health, scholarship and education.
In 2000, support for health related activities included:
- Continued support for the Menzies medical research centres. The Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin and The Menzies Centre for Population Health Research in Hobart are two outstanding and on-going memorials which continue to develop strong reputations for excellence in Australia and internationally.
- Sponsorship of workshops, seminars and public lectures on health related themes. This year's very successful Third Menzies Scholars Symposium, entitled "Human Genome Research: How far should we go?", and two public Menzies Foundation Lectures upheld the Foundation's reputation for supporting debate on important, contemporary public health issues.
The Foundation continues to support scholarships - which are much sought after and highly valued - as well as educational activities:
- The Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Research Scholarship in the Allied Health Sciences; which provides support for scholars from such disciplines as nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology and clinical psychology;
- The Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Scholarship in Law tenable at Universities in the United Kingdom (in association with the UK Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Trust and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office);
- The RG Menzies Scholarship to Harvard (in association with the Harvard Club and the Australian National University);
- The CJ Martin/RG Menzies Fellowship (in association with the National Health and Medical Research Council);
- The Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, London. As reported last year, extensive financial support for the Centre - which has been the major recipient of our funds since 1988 - concluded in October 2000. From 2001, the Foundation will provide $25,000 per annum for a Menzies Foundation Fellowship at the Centre.
- Melbourne University Oration on Higher Education. Professor Sir Alec Broers, Vice-Chancellor of the University Cambridge, delivered the Oration entitled "University Partnerships - Sustaining International Competitiveness".
I was privileged to Chair the Selection Committee for the Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Scholarship in Law and I am again pleased to report that the quality of the scholars is outstanding. This year at the annual dinner for the Menzies Memorial Scholars Association held at the new Melbourne Museum, scholars were presented for the first time with a Menzies medallion. Two of the Foundation's Council Members, Mr Bob White and Mr Paul Sheahan were also presented with Life Membership medallions in recognition of their longstanding association with the Foundation. The Menzies medallion was struck in 1969 by Andor Meszaros in honour of Sir Robert Menzies and the Foundation expresses its gratitude to the Meszaros family for the use of the die.
On the financial side in January 2000 the Foundation allocated its portfolio to three investment managers: Credit Suisse Asset Management ($6 million); JB Were Asset Management ($4 million); and Westpac Investment Management ($4.2 million). The average return for the 12 months ending 31 December, 2000 was 10%. This compares with a return in 1999 of approximately 6%. Accumulated funds at the end of the financial year were $14,583,432 (1999: $14,128,573) and the net surplus of income over expenditure was $454,859.
Since its inception, the Foundation has been supported by outstanding Australians and we congratulate five of them on recent public recognition of their achievements. In the special Federation edition of the Medical Journal of Australia an article entitled "A half-century of Australian health and medical research" paid tribute to our Executive Director, Professor John Coghlan for his work on hybridisation histochemistry at the Howard Florey Institute and to Professor Terry Dwyer and his colleagues at Menzies Centre for Population Health Research for their work on sudden infant death syndrome. In the Queen's Birthday Honours, Professor Chris Silagy, a Menzies Memorial Scholar in Medicine, was awarded an AO and in the 2001 Australia Day Honours, Mrs Jean Trethewey, Chair of the Menzies Centre's Board of Management and a Director of this Foundation was awarded an OAM and Professor Bob Porter, a Council Member of the Foundation, was awarded an AC. On behalf of the Menzies Foundation, may I offer them all our warmest congratulations.
The Honourable
Sir Daryl Dawson, AC, KBE, CB
Chairman
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