The Robert Menzies Institute is delighted to announce that our 2023 Annual Gala Dinner and Oration will be held on Thursday 19 October 2023 6:30pm – 10:30 in the Grand Ballroom at The Hotel Windsor.

We have secured renowned British journalist Fraser Nelson to deliver the Oration on The State of Modern Conservativism.

Date – Thursday 19 October
Time – 6:30 pm – 10:30 pm
Location – The Hotel Windsor – Grand Ballroom 111 Spring St Melbourne VIC 3000
Dress Code – Black Tie

Fraser Nelson

Fraser Nelson is editor of The Spectator. He also writes a weekly column for the Daily Telegraph and sits on the board of two think tanks: the Centre for Policy Studies and the Centre for Social Justice.

Raised in Nairn, in the Scottish Highlands, he started out as a financial journalist with The Times then became a political reporter for the newly-opened Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. There he met Andrew Neil who recruited him to The Scotsman newspaper where he was political editor until January 2006 when the Barclay family sold the paper. Nelson stayed with the Barclays and joined The Spectator where he was made political editor and then, in 2009, editor.

He then turned The Spectator into the fastest-growing current affairs magazine in Europe, launching an Australian edition and doubling its subscriptions in a market that fell by two-thirds. The Spectator went multi-platform with a live news analysis blog, a suite of podcasts, Britain’s best-read politics email and Spectator TV (which recently passed 300,000 subscribers). He has described his editorship as a “partnership” with James Forsyth, who was The Spectator’s political editor until becoming Rishi Sunak’s political secretary earlier this year. Nelson has edited 700 issues of The Spectator, more than any modern editor. His predecessors as editor include Nigel Lawson and Boris Johnson.

For five years, Nelson combined his work at The Spectator by writing a column for the News of the World, a scabrous tabloid which was the world’s best-selling newspaper until it was closed by the hacking scandal. His interest in free-market economics led him to join the Centre for Policy Studies where he delivered the 2009 Keith Joseph Lecture. One of his innovations at The Spectator has been the data hub (data.spectator.co.uk) intended to give readers the same access to crucial figures as journalists have. His work with the Centre for Social Justice led to a Channel Four documentary on inequality called How The Rich Get Richer.

Nelson has won numerous awards and is the only UK journalist to have simultaneously held the top industry awards for editing and political writing. His last was in 2021 from the British Magazine Society of Editors which named him Editor of the Year in a current title. The Spectator is currently being sold, with the new owner named in October.

Nelson met Linda, his wife, in 2001 and ever since has divided his time between London and her native Stockholm. They have three children and live in Twickenham, Middlesex.

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