2026 John Cain Memorial Oration

The Board and Management of Per Capita wish to invite you to the 2026 John Cain Memorial Oration.

The Oration will be delivered by Professor the Honourable Gareth Evans, AC KC FASSA FAIIA

The evening will include a two course meal and drinks in the surrounds of the State Library of Victoria's Conversation Quarter, with the generous support of Maurice Blackburn, and the State Library of Victoria.

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The State Library of Victoria Swanston Street Entrance (Entry 1) is accessible via a ramp from La Trobe Street, near the corner of Swanston Street. The Ian Potter Queen’s Hall is accessible via a lift from the main foyer and has accessible toilets located within the hall.

Dress Code: Business Attire

Ticket sales close on Sunday 13 September, 11:30pm

If you would like to be seated with friends or family who have ordered separately, please email info@percapita.org.au. Please note there is a maximum of 8 guests per table.

When purchasing tickets, there is an option to pre-order a signed copy of Gareth's book "Good International Citizenship." Subject to availability, books may also be available for sale on the night, however there will not be an opportunity to have him sign it at the event. To secure a signed copy, please pre-order here.

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This event continues the legacy of the  John Cain Foundation  following a merger with Per Capita in 2020. The annual John Cain Oration is given by a prominent public thinker on the pursuit of social democracy.  

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Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AC KC FASSA FAIIA is Distinguished Honorary Professor at the Australian National University, where he was Chancellor from 2010-19. He was a Cabinet Minister in the Hawke and Keating Labor Governments from 1983-96, in the posts of Attorney General, Minister for Resources and Energy, Minister for Transport and Communications and Foreign Minister.

He has co-chaired two major International Commissions, on Intervention and State Sovereignty (2000-01), and Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (2008-10), and has been a member of a number of others. He currently Co-Chairs the International Advisory Board of the New-York based Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, a member of the ANU Centre for Asian-Australian Leadership Advisory Board where he was the founding Chair, and is founding Convenor and Board Member of the Asia Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN). In 2010 Gareth Evans accepted the Roosevelt Foundation's Freedom From Fear award for his work as one of the key drafters of the peace treaty between Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge in 1991 and his work on the Chemical Weapons Convention. He was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in 2012 for his "eminent service to international relations and in the same year was elected an honorary Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia (FASSA).

His thought leadership on good international citizenship focuses on why Australia should care about poverty, human rights atrocities, health epidemics, environmental catastrophes, nuclear proliferation or other problems afflicting faraway countries, even when they don’t have immediate impact on our own safety or prosperity. It acknowledges that national security and economic prosperity are dependent upon a stable international system. When international affairs are increasingly dominated by narratives of geopolitical rivalry, this thinking offers an alternative where Australia can exercise leadership and contribute to a more peaceful and equitable world.