David Stephens

Dr David Stephens is Editor of the Honest History website and was Secretary of the Honest History coalition (wound up in February 2019). During the Vietnam War era he was a conscientious objector and a National Service Act defaulter. He has an MA in politics from Monash and a PhD in political science and Graduate Diploma in Public Law from ANU. His Master’s thesis was on the impact of the Great Depression on the policies of the Curtin and Chifley Governments and his PhD thesis on decision-making in the ALP 1955-69. He spent nearly twenty years in the Australian Public Service, working mainly in transport and communications policy areas, then ten years as a consultant and government relations lobbyist. Since retiring he has completed a Diploma in Arts (French) at ANU and worked intensively on the campaign to prevent the building of additional World War memorials in Canberra, to rival the Australian War Memorial. He has published a number of articles in academic publications and the media (including on the development of drone technology) as well as writing and self-publishing a successful detective novel under the pseudonym Ned Rowney. He is married to a lawyer and has two adult daughters and two grandchildren. He is a member of MEAA, the union and industry advocate for Australia’s journalists. He is co-editor with Alison Broinowski of The Honest History Book. Since early 2020 he has been a member, and later convener, of the Heritage Guardians group, campaigning against the $548m extensions to the Australian War Memorial.

21 July 2022

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