The 2022 Laki Jayasuriya Oration with Dr Anne Aly MP

Emeritus Professor Laksiri (Laki) Jayasuriya (1931-2018) was an intellectual, policy and campaigning pioneer. Having first arrived at The University of Sydney in the 1950s, he had an extraordinary career in academia, working at the interface of government and community organisations.

 

As the first Asian professor at The University of Western Australia, he founded the UWA Department of Social Work and Social Policy, and made significant contributions to the development of social policy. Upon his appointment by Whitlam Government to the Immigration Advisory Council in 1973, he was amongst the key architects of Australia’s Multicultural policy. A staunch supporter of positive engagement with Asia and the Indian Ocean region, Laki challenged historic assumptions about the country’s European identity.

 

The Oration has been established as an annual UWA Public Policy Institute event to reflect and expand on the work of the late Professor Jayasuriya, and in particular to highlight contemporary issues of racism, migration, social and cultural diversity and political reform.

 

In honour of his life and rich legacy, the UWA Public Policy Institute invites you to attend the 2022 Laki Jayasuriya Oration, delivered by The Honourable Dr Anne Aly MP, Minister for Early Childhood Education and Minister for Youth, titled 'Why we need to recalibrate our approach to multiculturalism'.

 

Keynote Speaker | The Honourable Dr Anne Aly MP

Hon Dr Anne Aly MP has been the Federal Member for Cowan since 2016. She is the current Minister for Early Childhood Education and Minister for Youth.

 

By her late twenties, Anne was a single mother of two young boys earning the minimum wage to put food on the table. She went on to study her Masters and PhD and worked as a professor, academic and practitioner in counter terrorism and countering violent extremism. The founder of People against Violent Extremism, Anne was the only Australian representative to speak at President Obama's 2015 White House summit on countering violent extremism.

 

Anne is a 2011 inductee into the Western Australian Women's Hall of Fame, a 2016 nominee for Australian of the Year and a 2016 recipient of the prestigious Australian Security Medal. In 2021, she was awarded the McKinnon Prize for Emerging Political Leader of the Year, in recognition of her Parliamentary work against both right-wing extremism and family & domestic violence.