Winston Churchill Memorial Trust

Mr GRIFFITHS (Goyder) (12:39): I move:

That this house—

(a) acknowledges the 50^th anniversary of the formation of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust in 1965;

(b) congratulates and pays tribute to the committee and volunteers at the Churchill Fellows Association of South Australia on their commitment to honour the legacy of Sir Winston Churchill; and

(c) recognises the achievements of Churchill Fellows for their outstanding research and contribution to Australian society.

I appreciate the opportunity to put some level of record before the house. I am not sure if others will make contributions towards this motion, but I believe there are some important words that need to be said. The motion intends to acknowledge the legacy of a remarkable man whose achievements and fields of endeavour were as diverse as the fellowships which have lived on in his name now for some 50 years. This motion serves to honour the memory of a significant political leader who, after his death, continues to bring positive benefits to Australians.

The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust was established in April 1965, just some three months following the death of Sir Winston Churchill. The aim of the trust is to provide an opportunity for Australians to travel overseas to conduct research in their chosen field that is not readily available in Australia. Travelling fellowships, known as Churchill Fellowships, reward proven achievement of talented and deserving Australians. Notably, no prescribed qualifications are required and the subject of research is limitless: it depends on the imagination and what the need is.

The idea of a fellowship came from Sir Winston himself, when asked by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1962 what type of memorial he would like so that the world could remember him. His suggestion was 'something like the Rhodes Scholarships, but available to all people on a much wider basis, men and women from all walks of life', and his emphasis was that merit be the primary qualifier. This led to the concept of travelling fellowships to give the opportunity to ordinary people to travel overseas to meet people, to learn and to bring back what they have learnt.

Sir Winston wanted to recognise individuals with determination, drive and dedication in their specialised field, ultimately for skills transfer that would benefit the nation of Australia. The concept was developed jointly by the English-Speaking Unions of the commonwealth and of the United States, and Australia was among the countries that laid plans for a nationwide appeal on the death of Sir Winston Churchill to set up the national Churchill Trust. Sir Robert Menzies launched the appeal immediately after Sir Winston's death on 24 January 1965, with a generous response.

The RSL executed a nationwide doorknock on Churchill Memorial Sunday, 28 February 1965, being just four weeks after Sir Winston's funeral. It became the greatest one-day doorknock in Australian history at that time, which is further testament to the admiration and respect the Australian fighting men and women of World War II had for Churchill. That one doorknock raised £911,000, or over $2 million. By the time pledges from commonwealth and state governments, Australian companies, institutions and individuals had been collected, the appeal target had more than doubled, to £2.206 million. In South Australia, the equivalent of $428,000 was collected, which was a truly remarkable achievement.

In the 50 years since, some 3,000 fellowships have been awarded across Australia, including approximately 300 to South Australians. The fields of study have been as diverse as Sir Winston's own achievements. He is a man well known as the prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955 and, arguably, as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20^th century. Perhaps lesser known are his other fields of endeavour. Sir Winston Churchill was also a historian, a writer, a journalist and an artist, the latter yielding more than 500 works over a near 50-year period.

He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his numerous published works, especially his six-volume work, The Second World War. That same year, he was invested as a Knight of the Garter. He was Chancellor of the University of Bristol. In 1963, he was the first person to be made an honorary citizen of the United States. In 1964, Civitan International presented Sir Winston its first World Citizenship Award for service to the world community. The Winston Churchill Range in the Canadian Rockies was named in his honour, and in 1965 he was the first commoner to be placed on a British coin.

Winston Churchill can be said to have achieved the extraordinary. The Churchill Fellowships fittingly serve to inspire individuals to reach similar heights for the betterment of our nation. Over the past 50 years, Churchill Fellowships have been awarded in just about every field imaginable. There have been studies, for example, in clinical psychology and patient rehabilitation practices, therapeutic and remedial farriery techniques, design of prisons for Indigenous prisoners, use of improvisation in teaching classical music, disability service provision, AIDS research, urban renewal and housing crises, and treatments of infantile club foot, to name just a few.

South Australian Fellows have studied topics such as: electrical stimulation for people with spinal cord injury (Mr Henry Rischieth); palliative care for people with intellectual and/or physical disability (that was Karen Glaetzer); cancer survivorship monitoring tools (Dr Marion Eckert); exceptional visual arts events (Penelope Griggs); low-cost drones for improving environmental research (Tyson Grubb), modern technology; mental health treatments for Defence Force members (Joe Zada); and development of a national centre for cheese education (Gina Dal Santo). So it is a very diverse area of—

The Hon. T.R. Kenyon interjecting:

Mr GRIFFITHS: Absolutely; very diverse. I will put on the record that I do not have a personal interest in this, but my father-in-law is a Churchill Fellow. He received it in about 1990 or 1991 when he studied manganese deficiencies in soils and travelled through America for a two-month period. I remember that he missed his grandson's first birthday; I remember that, that he was away when that occurred—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Oh dear.

Mr GRIFFITHS: Yes; but it goes to show that no matter where you are from there is an opportunity to develop your area of interest, and to educate yourself and bring back what you learn from what occurs around the world to benefit your own community. That is just a small snapshot of some of the areas where this national fund, established in 1965, has been involved and what it has been able to achieve. I also recognise, in my own electorate, a more contemporary Fellow, Mr Bill Long, who is known to some people in here. He received a Churchill Fellowship in 2009.

I believe that Sir Winston himself would be well satisfied with the continuing legacy provided by the fellowship trust . It is thus an honour to pay tribute to Sir Winston Churchill and to the Churchill Fellows across Australia for their endeavour and effort, to the dedicated administrators of the trust over the last half century, and to the Churchill Fellows Association of South Australia for its 50 years of achievements. I know they meet regularly, as well; I have seen it advertised.

I commend the motion to the house. It is rather unusual for me because I am someone who tries to look to the future, and this one reflects upon the history of what our nation did on behalf of someone it believes to be a very important man in the history of the world. That legacy will be a profound one and should be supported. I look forward to the passage of the motion.

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (12:47): I rise to support this motion, that the member for Goyder has brought to the house this Thursday morning: that this house acknowledges the 50^th anniversary of the formation of the Winston Churchill Trust in 1965, congratulates and pays tribute to the committee and volunteers of the Churchill Fellowship Association of South Australia for their commitment to the legacy of Sir Winston Churchill, and recognises the achievements of Churchill Fellows for their outstanding research and contribution to Australian society.

The member for Goyder summarised the lifelong achievements of Sir Winston Churchill, which were significant to say the least. There is no need for me to go over that; they are well documented, of course. However, the trust itself is known as the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and is a company, limited by guarantee, that was established in 1965 after the death of Sir Winston Churchill. It was an idea that was discussed prior to his death, and there was some talk of establishing an ongoing memorial to recognise the good work he had done not just throughout his life but also, in particular, during those dark years of World War II.

The memorial fellowships were to be established and known as the Churchill Fellowships, and the aim of the trust was to provide an opportunity—in our case, for Australians—to travel overseas to conduct research, in their chosen field, that is not readily available in Australia. It also aims to reward proven achievement of talented and deserving Australians with further opportunity in their pursuit of excellence for the enrichment of Australian society.

Interestingly, no prescribed qualifications are required in order to apply for a Churchill Fellowship. The subject of the proposed project is limitless, provided a benefit to Australia is evident and a willingness to share the research findings with the Australian community is displayed. Over the years, that has been well evidenced by the broad spectrum of studies undertaken and the research and contribution that fellows have made once they have arrived home.

The concept bearing his name originally began to give an opportunity to ordinary people from participating countries (in the first instance, the English-speaking countries of the world, generally commonwealth but also the United States of America), primarily, to travel, to meet people and to learn. There was, of course, the small matter of funding the fellowships and a significant fundraising effort took place during the 1950s. The call went out because the need was recognised and there was a generous response from the commonwealth and the state governments and by Australian companies and individuals.

The Returned & Services League (of course, a very vibrant organisation which in those days had a huge membership) brilliantly planned and executed a nationwide doorknock on Churchill Memorial Sunday on 28 February 1965. It was only four weeks after Churchill's funeral. I note the member for Goyder mentioned that it was the largest single doorknocking effort in Australia's history. It was an incredible effort and people were exceedingly generous. That fundraising effort kicked off the Churchill fellowship in Australia. It was established in the UK but was extended to include Australia.

I note that this year, in South Australia, there are a number of fellowships awarded. I might just go through them and indicate to the house the diversity of the people and, also, their studies:

Dr Marion Eckert from Camden Park has her fellowship to gain knowledge to develop a cancer survivorship monitoring tool for South Australia.

Ms Donna Mayhew from Black Forest is to investigate interagency information sharing practice and protocols and their effect on safeguarding.

Ms Necia Mickel is to investigate the role of built landscape and environment in improving wellbeing.

Ms Penelope Griggs from Coromandel Valley is to investigate exceptional visual arts events that attract tourism and opportunities for local artists.

Ms Heather Smith from Adelaide is to identify robust governance structures and community energy systems.

Mr Tyson Grubb from Rostrevor is to investigate the use of low-cost drones for improving environmental research with reduced funding.

Ms Jodie Zada from Thebarton is to study family inclusive programs in the mental health treatment of defence force members.

Ms Gina Dal Santo is to develop a national centre for cheese education, creating a paddock-to-plate artisan cheese industry.

Dr Edward Bullitis from North Brighton (known to the member behind) is to investigate services and practices relevant to homeless individuals exhibiting premature ageing.

That is an extraordinary range of studies and South Australia will be the beneficiary of all those studies and reports and the contributions to those. Congratulations to those people.

I particularly wanted to make a contribution today because this fellowship trust has some significant parallels with the well-known Nuffield memorial trust that was established also in the UK. It was established by Lord Nuffield immediately post-war and, like the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, it was rolled out throughout the English-speaking and commonwealth countries. I wanted to talk briefly about the Nuffield scholarships because, just this last week, Nuffield Australia has held their annual conference and awarded this year's scholarships.

I will declare an interest here. I was awarded a Nuffield scholarship in 2002. Once again, as does the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, it gave people without, necessarily, any qualifications the opportunity to travel, study and learn and bring their findings home to their own business and the broader community.

I had that opportunity, and so I am well aware of the benefits that it can bring to all of those who are lucky enough to be involved in schemes such as this. The member for Goyder mentioned his father-in-law, Mr McEvoy, who I know a little from the days when we were involved in the South Australian Farmers Federation together.

The annual Nuffield conference was held in Albury just last week. Of the Nuffield scholarships awarded, four went to South Australians this year. Jack England from Kingston received a Nuffield scholarship supported by Australian Wool Innovation. Jack will investigate the benefits and costs of using variable-rate technology for fertiliser and trace element prescription use in livestock systems. Mr Dennis Holder from Largs North, adjacent to Port Adelaide, received a Nuffield scholarship supported by the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation. He will investigate technologies to reduce the carbon footprint of commercial fishing vessels.

Michael Vorrasi from Adelaide in South Australia received a Nuffield scholarship supported by Horticulture Innovation Australia. He will investigate opportunities for value-added vegetables to boost grower returns, consumption of fresh produce and markets for second-grade produce. That is a most important issue, I would suggest, given that it is estimated that about a third of what we produce as farmers is wasted. You can imagine the tonnages involved if you include the entire Western world, so good luck to Michael on that.

From my own patch, congratulations to Randall Wilksch, who is a grain grower from Yeelanna. He received a Nuffield scholarship supported by the Grains Research and Development Corporation. Randall will study two topics: broadscale spraying systems used in grain production with a particular focus on improving the efficiency of self-propelled sprayers and advocating for agriculture positively through social media.

Congratulations to all of those who have been awarded Nuffield scholarships but particularly those four South Australians. One of them I know, and I look forward to meeting the others. They will enjoy the experience of a lifetime. They will learn incredible amounts of information. They will bring that information home and I know will apply it to their own businesses and for the benefit of the broader community here in South Australia.

Motion carried.