In the political upheaval that saw The Hon Tony Abbott replaced as PM by The Hon Malcolm Turnbull, Australia's Minister for Finance, Senator The Hon Mathias Cormann, was a survivor. Mathias Cormann is a senator from Western Australia. On Monday, 28 September 2015, Mathias Cormann addressed The Sydney Institute to outline the progress made under [...]
When eight-year-old Graeme Thorne was kidnapped on his way to school, in July 1960, Australia was gripped with fear and loathing. Just weeks earlier, Graeme’s parents had won a fortune in the Opera House Lottery and this had attracted the attention of the perpetrator, Stephen Bradley. Mark Tedeschi QC is an Australian barrister, law professor, photographer [...]
Jill Margo AM is a columnist with The Australian Financial Review and a biographer and author, most recently of Frank Lowy – A Second Life which is a sequel to her first volume on Frank Lowy’s life. As one of Australia’s most successful entrepreneurs, Frank Lowy has left a mark on his adopted nation in a [...]
Senator the Hon Stephen Conroy is Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and Shadow Minister for Defence. In the Rudd Labor Government, Stephen Conroy was the Minister for Communications. Over decades, Labor and non-Labor in Australia have pursued a bi-partisan approach to Australia’s Defence needs and alliances. Senator Conroy’s hopes for Australia’s future [...]
Suzanne Falkiner is a publisher and author, most recently, of Eugenia (XOUM 2014) and Mrs Mort's Madness, a forensic study of the story of one of New South Wales’ most intriguing murders. Sydneysiders, in 1920, could hardly have imagined how it was that murder had happened in the sitting room of a bungalow in quiet [...]
Professor Anne Twomey is Director of the Constitutional Reform Unit at Sydney University and author of numerous constitutional law studies especially The Chameleon Crown - The Queen and her Australian Governors She has expert knowledge of the legal story surrounding Sir John Kerr’s actions and what followed. On Monday 9 November 2015, Anne Twomey joined [...]
The word “mandarin”, as applying to those government bureaucrats closest to political leaders, first became commonly used in Australia after the election of Gough Whitlam’s government in 1972. Since then, heads of significant departments have increasingly come to be seen as an influential part of successive governments. Professor John Nethercote, Adjunct Professor at the Australian [...]
The Hon John Howard, prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, is also an author - his most recent work The Menzies Era - and commentator on Australian politics. As a young MP in 1975, and Liberal back bencher, John Howard witnessed many of the events of November 1975 at close range. On Monday [...]
Professor Michael Wesley is director of the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs and an author, most recently of Restless Continent: Wealth, Rivalry & Asia’s New Geopolitics which is an integrated account of the economic, political and strategic trends across the world's largest continent and which provides a guide for thinking about Asia's future [...]
Paul Kelly is editor-at-large at The Australian, journalist, commentator, author of numerous books and co-author of The Dismissal - in The Queen’s Name. With Troy Bramston, Kelly has pulled together a comprehensive version of the story of events of 11 November 1975 from fresh interviews, new archival material and a reinterpretation of events. On Monday [...]
