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Dr Ken Henry delivers tribute to Ian Little

12 March 2008

Monash Chancellor Alan Finkel, Secretary to the Federal Treasury Ken Henry, Victorian Treasurer John Lenders, and Monash Vice-Chancellor Richard Larkins.

One of Australia's highest-ranking public servants, Secretary to the Federal Treasury Ken Henry, delivered the second annual Ian Little Memorial Lecture in Melbourne earlier this month.

The lecture is held in memory of the Mr Little, who graduated from Monash with an honours degree in economics in 1977 and went on to become the Secretary to the Victorian Treasury before his death in June 2006 at age 50.

Dr Henry delivered the lecture to an audience of more than 200 distinguished guests from State and Federal governments, the business and university communities on March 4.

Dr Henry paid tribute to the strong contribution Mr Little made to the formulation of public policy in Victoria.

"Ian was not motivated by the adrenalin rush of the quick-fix," Dr Henry said. “For him, problems worth worrying about had a strategic dimension. They demanded a long hard look, an evidence-based analytical crunch and their solutions demanded painstaking implementation."

Dr Henry spoke about the vast range of issues Mr Little engaged in, including implementing initiatives of the 10-year National Competition Policy developed in the mid 1990s, dealing with the fallout from the High Court's decision on business franchise fees and the difficult issues resulting from the collapse of Australia's largest general insurer, HIH.

Dr Henry said that Mr Little's work program would have been enough to consume most people and what Mr Little put into it would have exceeded the capacity of most.

“But it was not this work program that defined his contribution to Heads of Treasuries. The fact is, Ian was never comfortable letting issues come to him: he went looking for them. What defined him, then, was his public policy ambition: more than ambition - vision."

The Ian Little Memorial Lecture was organised by the Faculty of Business Economics and funded by Monash University and the Victorian Government. It will continue to be delivered annually by a distinguished scholar or leader in public policy or economic management.