Geoffrey Robertson QC is a human rights barrister and judge, he's mentored Amal Clooney, is a Rhodes scholar, has been involved in the defence of Julian Assange, while his ancestors are basically responsible for the existence of Dapto.
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If you haven't heard of this humans rights activist, he also hosted his own television program called Hypotheticals (where notable people came on to discuss contemporary issues by assuming imagined identities in hypothetical situations) - the now English citizen is returning to his beloved Illawarra in August to push for social change through a speaking tour.
The tour - which heads to capital cities and the WIN Entertainment Centre - will see Robertson discuss the world's turmoil, stolen history, Australian politics plus "bad people and how to be rid of them" (also the title of his latest book).
"We need to have integrity in government, be more effective on climate change, we need give Indigenous people a stake in the governance of the country - which is at least promised today by the new Prime Minister," he said.
"I also have an idea for empowering women who are subject to attack [through domestic violence]. I think there is a way to empower them with the right to take civil action against their assailants, i'll be talking about how to do that. It's a legal issue to setup a body that can fund women to take civil action against those who assault."
He believes audiences will, at the very least, find some degree of "amusement" though he does hope to incite them think differently about the world's - and Australia's - problems, and ways in which they could help a solution.
He said our nation had a "good record" for human rights, "generally better than most", though noted there have been injustices in the past with Indigenous people and even more recently with the Morrison government "making it impossible" for many expatriates to come home during the pandemic.
"The Australian passport was rendered valueless for some months - because they weren't able to return and its a basic right to return to your native land, its even in Magna Carta," Robertson said.
"They built up such a degree of resentment against the man responsible who caused a good deal of suffering and pain by this policy ... I wasn't surprised at the swing at teal seats against Morrison."
Moving forward though, he does have hope for our new Prime Minister, Labor's Anthony Albanese.
"He keeps referencing [former Prime Minister] John Curtin's darkest hour speech ... from 1941," Robertson said.
"That speech always seemed to me one of the greatest speeches by a 20th Century world leader, and re-calibrated Australia's foreign policy."
He said the Labor Party during those years was one of the "great architects in the great world order that emerged after World War II", and hoped Albanese might have the same visions as Curtin once did.
Meantime, Robertson is very happy to take a leaf out of the new PM's book and celebrate parts of his humble upbringing and give praise to his roots in Dapto - the place he remembers visiting every other weekend growing up to see his grandad.
"Since Albo is going back to his upbringing in a council flat, I can boast of a grandfather who was a secretary of the Dapto Dogs [Harry Beattie] and indeed I can go back even further," he said.
Robertson's great, great grandfather, Lieutenant William Weston, "sailed away from the stigma" of having knocked up his English maid Elizabeth and travelled as far as he possibly could - to Sydney.
He was promised 500 acres of land and took possession of it in 1818, naming it "West Horsley" after his home in Surrey, and was one of the first three English settlers to the Illawarra.
"Governor Macquarie was delighted to have a squire from England who wasn't a convict or a jailer ... so he gave this fellow a great big grant [for land]," he said, adding that against the norm his ancestor married his maid and settled in the Illawarra with their family.
"They built a mansion on the same architecture as the mansion back home. It was even called the same name, West Horsley."
Weston died before the completion of the mansion along Bong Bong Road, Robertson said, but his widow remarried.
"A convict [Thomas Williamson] who was a good builder and finished it," he said.
Those 500 acres on Mullet Creek were eventually issued to Weston's daughters Elizabeth Weston and Augusta Brooks in 1842. The property changed hands years later and was even a dairy farm at one point.
"I think my ancestral home is still on the Dapto historical trail," Robertson said.
The trail is not something he'll have time for when revisiting his old stomping ground in August, by said he might wonder the streets of Wollongong or catch a bus to reminisce on when family members owned Rutty's may be on the cards - "for old time's sake".
Geoffrey Robertson QC - It's No Longer Hypothetical Tour
International Turmoil . Australian and Global Politics . Royal Family . Stolen History . Bad People And How To Be Rid Of Them
Geoffrey Robertson will analyse the current Australian and global politics, the current international turmoil, explain how fake news distorts democracy, what is really happening to the royal family, and his calls for Australian constitutional regeneration.
He will explain what is happening to Julian Assange, how to stop the rich from inheriting the world, and the thinking behind 'Bad People - and How to Be Rid of Them.'
The show will give an insight into his life and famous cases and his crusade to restore cultural property from museums around the world to the people from whom it was stolen.
For more details and ticketing, visit: https://lateralevents.com/
'IT'S NO LONGER HYPOTHETICAL' TOUR DETAILS
- Wollongong, Win Sports & Entertainment Centre, Saturday, 6 August 2022
- Darwin, Darwin Convention Centre, Tuesday 9th August 2022
- Canberra, Lewellyn Hall, Wednesday 17th August 2022
- Adelaide, Festival Theatre, Thursday 18th August 2022
- Brisbane, QPAC Concert Hall, Tuesday 23rd August 2022
- Brisbane, QPAC Concert Hall, Wednesday 24th August 2022
- Perth, PCEC - Riverside Theatre, Saturday, 27th August 2022
Geoffrey Robertson will also present a different show, "Hypothetical", at Sydney's ICC - Darling Harbour Theatre on Thursday August 4.
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