Ideas and Society in 2019

The Ideas and Society Program at La Trobe University was very pleased to present two outstanding Australians to discuss the questions surrounding trade unions. Bill Kelty, as Secretary of the ACTU, was a key player during the Hawke and Keating years and one of the fathers of compulsory superannuation. Jennifer Westacott has been an outstanding public servant and is now an energetic and respected Chief Executive of the Business Council of Australia. It is an interesting fact about our country that both came from unprivileged family backgrounds but rose to the top of their professions through hard work, university education and, of course, talent.

The discussion was introduced by La Trobe University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor John Dewar and moderated by political scientist Andrea Carson.

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Climate change is a generational problem. Older Australians took up the struggle. The lives of younger Australians will be shaped by the impact of climate change. The Ideas and Society Program has brought together, for this reason, frontline fighters across the generations to reflect on recent experience and debate future strategy. The former leader of the Greens, Bob Brown, is the revered father of the Australian environmental movement. Dr David Ritter is the leader in Australia and the Pacific of the pioneering world-wide environmental movement, Greenpeace. Dr Amanda Cahill, a Queensland grassroots analyst and activist, is the founder and chief executive of The Next Economy. And Maiysha Moin is a leader in Victoria of one of the most hopeful recent climate change developments, the school strike movement that is taking action on September 20.

This debate will be introduced by La Trobe University's Vice President (Strategy and Development), Natalie MacDonald, and moderated by La Trobe University’s Director of the Centre for the Study of the Inland, Professor Katie Holmes.

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In part as a consequence of her experience as President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Professor Gillian Triggs, the renowned international lawyer and author most recently of Speaking Up, is a passionate advocate for an Australian Human Rights Charter. Professor Greg Craven, the Vice-Chancellor and President of the Australian Catholic University, disagrees equally passionately.

This event was moderated by Dr Madelaine Chiam, a scholar from La Trobe University’s Law School and introduced by La Trobe's Vice-Chancellor, Professor John Dewar.

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Since 2013 virtually no asylum seeker boats have reached Australia. In the six years since 2013, some of those sent to offshore detention have returned to the countries from which they fled; others have been settled in the US; still others have been brought to Australia temporarily for medical reasons. Nine hundred remain on Nauru or Manus Island. Reports tell us that after six years without hope their spirits have been broken.

Two of Australia’s most respected social justice fighters, Julian Burnside QC and Father Frank Brennan SJ have been following Australia’s asylum seeker policy for decades. On many questions connected to asylum seekers who come by boat their viewpoints differ.

Manus Island detainee and the great Kurdish writer, Behrouz Boochani, author of No Friend But the Mountains, also joined us via Skype to discuss his six year ordeal on Manus Island.

This event was moderated by Dr Madelaine Chiam, a scholar from La Trobe University’s Law School.

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The feminist movement has fundamentally re-fashioned our world. As the #MeToo movement and the backlash against it continues, it is timely to think about what kind of feminism we need. There are different voices within feminism, and different answers to the question of what still must be done to deepen and complete the feminist revolution.

Discussing these issues is a panel of three experts, featuring Clementine Ford , author of Fight Like a Girl and Boys Will Be Boys, Teela Reid , a Wiradjuri and Wailwan woman, practising lawyer and a powerful advocate for the rights of Aboriginal women, and Dr Petra Bueskens, author of Modern Mothers and Women's Dual Identities. This event was moderated by La Trobe University’s, Dr Clare Wright , author of the Stella Prize-winning, The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka.

Has racism entered the political mainstream? Or, is its influence found only among the far-right extremist groups and lone wolves?

This discussion follows the horrific terrorist attack at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch, on the 15^th of March, 2019.

The Christchurch shootings revealed that even one well-armed racist can wreak havoc in any country, anywhere.

Although almost everyone in Australian politics and the media condemns racism, disagreement exists on the question of whether racism in Australia is widespread and structural, or found exclusively on the far-right extremist fringe.

Discussing these issues is a panel of four experts, featuring Professor Tim Soutphommasane, who is a political theorist and former race discrimination officer at the Australian Human Rights Commission, and Tom Switzer, the director of the conservative think-tank, the Centre for Independent Studies, and former well-respected opinion editor at The Australian.

You’ll also hear from La Trobe University alumna Tasneem Chopra, who is a cross cultural consultant on issues of cultural competence, and Associate Professor Chelsea Bond ,a distinguished academic, who has worked in Indigenous health promotion, culture, identity and community development.

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Almost no question is of greater significance for Australia’s future than the emergence of China as an economic and military great power. Does the rise of China pose a threat to the security of Australia? If so, a threat of what kind?

The two most important voices in this debate are Hugh White and Clive Hamilton. Hugh White, is Emeritus Professor of Strategic Studies at The Australian National University and has been an intelligence analyst, a journalist, a senior staffer to Defence Minister, Kim Beasley and Prime Minister, Bob Hawke and the first director of Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Clive Hamilton is Professor of Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University and was the founder and for fourteen years the Executive Director of The Australia Institute.

For those with an interest in Australia’s future, the Hugh White–Clive Hamilton China debate is of highest interest and fundamental importance, not to be missed.

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