David Scott Mitchell Oration: Memory institutions and freedom

The David Scott Mitchell Oration celebrates and honours the Library’s founder and benefactor. Previous guest speakers have included Kate Grenville AO, Professor Stephen Garton AM and Clive James AO.

In this revival of the Library’s David Scott Mitchell Oration, Kim Williams AM will address the supreme value of memory institutions in the 21st century and the part they play in our never-ending quest to learn, understand and share knowledge as we build a better world.

He will explore the State Library’s collections relating to the South Pacific, European settlement, Indigenous Australia and Antarctic exploration and science, focusing on the unpredictable serendipity, bravery, tragedy and wonder that is captured between the walls of this and other great libraries, galleries, museums and archives.

Kim Williams AM has had a long involvement in the arts, entertainment and media industries here and overseas and has held various leadership positions since the late 1970s including as Chief Executive at News Corp Australia, Foxtel, Fox Studios Australia, the Australian Film Commission, Southern Star Entertainment and Music Viva Australia.

Kim was the Chief Executive of Foxtel for the decade up until November 2011. At Foxtel he pioneered many of the major digital broadcast innovations in Australia and received the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Australian subscription television association ASTRA for his contributions.

Kim has also held numerous Board positions (and Chairmanships) in commercial and public life over more than four decades, including Chairman of the Australian Film Finance Corporation (which he founded in 1988), Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Musica Viva Australia and the Sydney Opera House Trust.

He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2006 for his services to the arts and public policy formulation in the film and television industries. In 2009 he was awarded a Doctorate of Letters (Honoris Causa) by Macquarie University for his contribution to the arts and entertainment industry in Australia and internationally. He is a previous recipient of the Richard Pratt Business Arts Leadership Award from the Australian Business Arts Foundation and the Australian Writers Guild’s Dorothy Crawford Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession. His first book Rules of Engagement was published by Melbourne University Press in 2014.

Previous roles have included serving as a Chair of the Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership, Chair of Copyright Agency and the Richard Gill School; Co-chair of the State Library of NSW Foundation; and a Board member of Myer Family Investments, Executive Channel International, Wine Australia, the University of Western Sydney Foundation, the Myer Foundation, a Trustee of Thomson Reuters Founders Share Company (which he has chaired since 2018), and as a Commissioner of the Australian Football League from 2014 until 2021.

Kim was appointed in January 2024 by the Honourable Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister of Australia, as the twentieth Chair of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, with effect from 7 March for a five-year term.

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