PM Transcripts

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PRIME MINISTER PRESS'STATEMENT NO. 592
November 1975
PROFESSOR R. I. DOWNING
I was deeply shocked to hear of Professor Downing's
death. The loss of this outstanding Australian will be keenly
felt in his own country and abroad. There was scarcely an'area
of our intellectual and artistic life that he did not adorn
with his wisdom, his experience and with the singular
warmth and force of his personality.
I took special satisfaction from his appointment as
Chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Commission in 1973,
He brought remarkable tolerance and sensitivity to
his guidance of the ABC and high liberal principles to the
difficult area of program standards.
For more than 20 years he was associated with the
University of Melbourne as an academic economist and administrator.
He was on the Boards of the National Gallery of Victoria
and the Melbourne Theatre Company. He made a lasting
contribution to the Arts as a member of the Australia Council.
As an economist and social critic identified with the
most enlightened causes, Richard Downing was in the great
humane tradition of Keynes and Galbraith. I extend, on behalf
of the Government, my deepest sympathy to his widow and
family and express my personal sorrow in the loss sustained
by his many friends and by all his countrymen.
CANBERRA, A. C. T.-