Bring Back Yesterday: The Hon Bob Carr on Love, Loss, and Memory
Date: Thursday 30 July 2026
Time: 5:00pm for 5:30pm start
Venue: IAC, Building EA, Parramatta South Campus, Western Sydney University
Please RSVP HERE[[link]]
The Institute for Australian and Asian Arts and Culture, in partnership with the Whitlam Institute and Writing and Society Research Centre at Western Sydney University, is honoured to host this in-person conversation with the Hon Bob Carr.
Bob Carr joined the Australian Labor Party at the age of 15, his greatest ambition being to enter parliament and become a Labor leader. While working as a journalist for The Bulletin, he knew he “was itching to practise politics, not write about it.” Inspired by his political hero Gough Whitlam, Carr set out on a political path that would take him to the highest levels of public life.
In 1988, he was elected Leader of the NSW Labor Party. After seven years leading the opposition, and despite an “image problem”, as he has put it, as someone who was not a convivial beer drinker and football addict but a Shakespeare-quoting and opera-attending intellectual, he was elected Premier of New South Wales in 1995. He went on to serve for over ten years, becoming the longest-serving premier in the state's history. In 2012, he served as Australia's Foreign Minister in the Gillard and Rudd governments. In 2018, he published his political memoir, Run for Your Life, which encapsulates his political career and affirms his standing as a politician of distinction.
Since leaving politics, the Hon Bob Carr has led a distinguished career as an academic and author. But his world was shattered when his beloved wife of fifty years, Helena, died suddenly from a brain aneurysm in October 2023 while they were visiting Vienna. Born and raised in Taiping, Malaysia, to parents of Chinese and Indian heritage, Helena came to Australia as a student. She married Bob Carr in 1973. As Carr has described, his life partner of half a century was “gone in a flash”.
In 2026, Carr published his personal memoir Bring Back Yesterday, a deeply moving tribute to Helena and a celebration of the love, companionship, humour, and shared passion for art, culture and history that shaped their life together. Grief and joy share the same source, as captured in the Chinese phrase 悲喜同源 bēi xǐ tóng yuán. The things that bring the greatest happiness become the source of the deepest sorrow when they are lost.
In this book, Carr also pays “debts of honour” to those who shaped his life, including his great aunt, his high school English teacher, and Edmund and Joanna Capon, specialists in Chinese art who were art mentors to both him and Helena.
You are warmly invited to join this candid and deeply personal conversation with the Hon Bob Carr, one of Australia's most respected public figures, as he reflects on love, memory, loss and a life shared.
Book sale and singing will be available on site. Light refreshments will be provided following the event.
About the Speaker
The Hon Bob Carr is the longest continuously serving Premier in the history of New South Wales. Bob entered the Senate in 2012 and served as Australia’s Foreign Minister for 18 months. Since leaving politics Bob has led a distinguished career as a defacto diplomat, author and academic. Bob received the Fulbright Distinguished Fellow Award Scholarship. He has served as Honorary Scholar of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue. He is the author of: My Reading Life (2008), Thoughtlines (2002) and Diary of a Foreign Minister (2014), his political memoir Run for Your Life (2018) and Bring Back Yesterday (2026).
For five years he was the Director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney. Between 2019 and 2022 he served as Professor of Industry in Climate and Business at the University of Technology Sydney helping shape the debate on climate and energy. In July 2024 he was appointed Chair of the Australian Heritage Council, he is Chair of the Museums of History NSW Board and a board member of Sydney Water.
About the Opening Speaker
Distinguished Professor George Williams AO is the fifth Vice-Chancellor and President at Western Sydney University. He has previously served as Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Dean of Law and Anthony Mason Professor at the University of New South Wales.
As one of Australia’s pre-eminent experts in constitutional law, Professor Williams has made significant contributions both nationally and internationally in the areas of human rights, federalism, Indigenous justice, electoral law and national security. Professor Williams’ passion for providing opportunities for students and a quality education is evidenced through many years of teaching constitutional law and having authored the leading student text in this field.
Outside of academia Professor Williams practised as a barrister for over 25 years, advising government, business and community organisations and appearing in the High Court of Australia on matters relating to freedom of speech, freedom from racial discrimination, Indigenous rights and the rule of law.
About the Closing Speaker
The Hon. John Faulkner was a Labor Senator for New South Wales from 1989 to 2015. Following his election to the Senate in 1989, Senator Faulkner held a number of ministries, serving as Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Minister for Defence Science and Personnel, Minister for the Environment, Sport and Territories, Cabinet Secretary, Special Minister of State and Minister for Defence. He served as Leader of the Opposition in the Senate from 1996 to 2004.
He has also held a range of senior positions within the Australian Labor Party, including National President of the party, twenty years as a member of its National Executive and nine years as Assistant General Secretary of the New South Wales Branch.
John Faulkner is well versed in, and passionate about the history of the Australian Labor Party. Prior to his political career, John Faulkner worked as a teacher of children with severe disabilities.