2021 Colin Tatz Memorial Oration delivered by Hon. Tanya Plibersek

Plus61J Media's annual COLIN TATZ MEMORIAL ORATION celebrates the life and legacy of scholar and activist Colin Tatz AO (1934-2019).   

In 2021 the ORATION will be given by the Hon. Tanya Plibersek, Shadow Minister for Education and Shadow Minister for Women. 

You can watch it online Tuesday 7th December 2021 6.30 – 7.30pm AEDT

About Tanya Plibersek and Colin Tatz

Tanya Plibersek is the Shadow Minister for Education, Shadow Minister for Women, and the Federal Member for Sydney.

Between 2013 and 2019, Tanya was Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Deputy Leader of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party. From 2013 to 2016, Tanya was also the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Development.

Tanya served as a Cabinet minister in the Gillard and Rudd Governments. Tanya was Minister for Health, Minister for Medical Research, Minister for Housing, Minister for Human Services, Minister for Social Inclusion, and Minister for the Status of Women.

Tanya grew up in the Sutherland Shire of Sydney and is the daughter of migrants from Slovenia. Like many newly arrived migrants, Tanya’s parents helped build the country in which they made their new home. Her father worked on the Snowy River hydroelectric scheme in the 1950s.

Tanya holds a BA Communications (Hons) from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and a Master of Politics and Public Policy from Macquarie University. Before entering Parliament, Tanya worked in the Domestic Violence Unit at the NSW Ministry for the Status and Advancement of Women. Elected to Federal Parliament as the Member for Sydney in 1998, she spoke of her conviction that ordinary people working together can achieve positive change.

Tanya lives in Sydney with her husband Michael and her three children, Anna, Joseph and Louis.

Colin Tatz was born in South Africa on 18 July 1934. 

Colin was a graduate of the University of Natal. In 1964 he received his PhD from the Australian National University, with a thesis entitled "Aboriginal administration in the Northern Territory of Australia". Colin went on to become senior lecture in sociology and politics at Monash and a professor of politics at UNE and Macquarie University, and later director of the Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

Colin wrote widely and authored hundreds of books and peer-reviewed articles on race politics, genocide, the Holocaust, antisemitism, and racism in sport. 

An anti-apartheid activist in his youth, Colin devoted his working life to researching and combatting racism and discrimination. 

He died Tuesday 19 November 2019, aged 85.