The Age’s Melbourne Assembly forum has convened to “drive forward the future of this great city”, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
When the newspaper first hit newsstands 172 years ago, the broadsheet was “bursting with advertisements and news items of all sorts”.
It set a goal, on the top right-hand corner of the first page, to be “the place where the movements, motives, and views of Melbourne would be recorded, and that its reporting would reflect the character of the city: progressive, prosperous, independent, a city with a high regard for public spirit”, Albanese told the civic forum.
“All things that were true then, and are certainly true now today,” he said.
“A growing city with a dynamic economy, Melbourne remains one of the great progressive centres of the world, a cultural and sporting global capital, under a people defined by their energy, their ideas, and their purpose.
“A people committed to building a shining, open future that shares success with The Age, still, as their journal and their voice.
“It is in that spirit and with that sense of vision in mind that this Melbourne Assembly has come together to celebrate, as well as drive forward, the future of this great city.”