John Howard reading room opens at ADFA Canberra
A reading room honouring former prime minister John Howard has opened at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) in Canberra.
Thousands of official and personal papers from Mr Howard's time as prime minister are being transferred from the National Archives to the University of NSW (UNSW) Canberra Academy Library.
The public will be able to use the new John Howard Reading Room to view and use the special collections, which have also been made available online.
Mr Howard attended the official opening of the reading room and said he hoped the material would be helpful for people who examined the nation's political history.
"I do hope that as the years go by people, whatever vantage point, whatever attitude, whatever analysis they bring to their study of my time in politics, they will be aided and enlivened by access to this material," he said.
"Something of this kind, I hope will make a contribution to an understanding of my time in various positions, the ins and outs, the ups and downs, the victories and defeats.
"I do thank both the university and the national archives for the concept and the obvious care that they have put into it."
Mr Howard said he had always had a deep respect for the men and women of the Australian Defence Force.
"That is why when the opportunity arose for the gifting of these papers to this campus it seemed a very logical thing to do," he said.
"Because the papers were coming to the ADFA campus, it was an opportunity to emphasise the respect I have for our defence forces."
The Howard collection will continue to expand as cabinet documents are declassified after 20 years.
The reading room's opening coincided with an exhibition at the library, The Road to the Lodge, which draws on papers from the John Howard collection and marks the 40th anniversary of his election to Federal Parliament.
