Richard Torbay to deliver this year's Drummond Lecture

May 15, 2007

The Speaker of the NSW Legislative Assembly and Member for Northern Tablelands, Richard Torbay, will deliver the 2007 Drummond Memorial Lecture at the University of New England's Drummond and Smith College on Friday 18 May.

His lecture, titled "Redefining Public Education", will pay tribute to the enormous contribution made by David Drummond as Minister for Education from 1927 to 1930 and from 1932 to 1941.

Mr Torbay (pictured here) will also look at the changing attitude to public education since that time, and the challenges facing the system into the future.

Everyone is welcome to attend the free public lecture, at Drummond and Smith College, beginning at 6 pm. It will be followed by a dinner for invited guests only. Parking will be made available within a short walk from the College. For more information on the lecture ring Edwina Ridgway, the Principal of Drummond and Smith College, on 6773 5701, or e-mail: eridgway@une.edu.au.

Mr Torbay is well known on the UNE campus as the former Chief Executive Officer of the University of New England Union (which he served for a total of 20 years) and as a member of the University Council.

Last week he was elected the first non-aligned Independent Speaker of the NSW Legislative Assembly, an historic event for the Parliament and NSW. He will also take a leading role in the new Rural Task Force being established by the Government.

Mr Torbay served on Armidale Dumaresq Council from 1991 to 1999. He was Deputy Mayor and Mayor, as well as Chair of the NSW Country Mayors’ Association and Chairman of the New England Local Government Group. He is the patron of several local organisations.

In 1999 he was elected as the first Independent Member for Northern Tablelands, and in Parliament has served on the Public Accounts Committee, the Speaker's Technology Advisory Group and the Joint Committee on the Office of the Valuer General, and has been a member of the Regional Investment Task Force, the Joint Select Committee on Bushfires, and the Standing Committee on Public Works.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at May 15, 2007 01:39 PM