Speeches
Monday, 10 November 2025
Reception for Kathleen Lumley Foundation
I warmly welcome you all to Government House to launch the Kathleen Lumley Foundation, marking a new chapter in the Kathleen Lumley story.
I have always admired the role that residential colleges play in fostering scholarly communities and lifelong networks.
My husband Rod's experience at Balliol College Oxford, and our children's experience of residential colleges, reinforced for me how these institutions shape not just academic trajectories but also the connections and friendships that endure across decades.
Kathleen Lumley College created precisely that kind of vibrant postgraduate community: scholars from different disciplines living together, building relationships that extended beyond the personal to benefit South Australia and communities beyond.
Building on the College’s legacy, the new foundation is a symbol of evolution and innovation.
Within the context of the pandemic's impact on residential education, the foundation's leadership demonstrated remarkable foresight in asking not "how do we preserve what was?" but rather "what can we become?"
The answer, a perpetual foundation advancing cross-disciplinary research on the Asia-Pacific region, speaks both to the organisation's capacity for reinvention and its understanding of where South Australia's scholarly contributions matter most.
As someone whose career was shaped by deep engagement with our region, I am heartened by the foundation's strategic focus on issues that contribute to social, cultural, economic and environmental prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.
Australia's security and prosperity are inextricably linked to the stability and growth of our immediate region, and the foundation's commitment to supporting research in this space is timely and vital.
By supporting post-doctoral researchers and postgraduate students working on challenges facing the Asia-Pacific, the foundation is helping to build South Australia's capacity to contribute meaningfully to regional cooperation and understanding.
I note with particular interest the foundation's partnership with South Australia's public universities to establish scholarships for PhD students undertaking research aligned with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals - research which has the potential to contribute to systemic change in health access and welfare outcomes.
This approach exemplifies the kind of cross-disciplinary, impact-focused scholarship that will define the next generation of research excellence.
I thank those whose dedication has brought us to this moment: the past and present leadership of Kathleen Lumley College, the Foundation Council, staff, and all those who have contributed their expertise and energy to this transformation.
Your collective vision has ensured that the legacy of scholarly collaboration and community that defined the College will continue to be felt, in new and powerful ways, for generations to come.
It is my privilege tonight as your patron, officially to launch the Kathleen Lumley Foundation.
May it forge new opportunities for research excellence, deepen ties across our region, and attract and retain in South Australia the brightest minds, pursuing solutions to the challenges that will shape our shared future.