The Sydney Papers Online (Iss. 40-49)

Issue 48

Seven Big Australians: Adventures With Comic Actors

Dr Anne Pender is Professor of English and Theatre Studies at the University of New England. Her most recent book, Seven Big Australians: Adventures with Comic Actors, is published by Monash University Publishing. In it, Pender talks to seven of Australia’s most successful comedians about their lives and how they work. It is Pender’s thesis […]

A Life Writ Large

Now in his late-eighties, and listed by the National Trust as a “Living Treasure”, Geoffrey Blainey has now published the first volume of his memoires – Before I Forget. In it, he reflects on his humble beginnings as the son of a Methodist Minister and school teacher, one of five children, and a carefree childhood spent […]

Religious Freedom – Two Views

In 2019, the Morrison government tasked the Australian Law Reform Commission to review current legislation around religious freedom. This was in response to the recommendations put to the government by the findings of the Expert Panel into Religious Freedom in 2018. As debate continued over what the legislation might look like, Labor’s Senator Kimberley Kitching […]

Immigration, Humanitarian Pathways, Sovereign Borders, Skilled Migration and Population

Australia’s immigration policies are the envy of other multicultural Western nations – recently having won the praise of the leaders of the UK and the USA. Some of the most significant changes to Australia’s immigration system in recent years are going to take effect this year. The Hon David Coleman MP is the Minister for […]

Far Left and Far Right Populism in Europe

James Kirchick is a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, journalist and author of The End of Europe: Dictators Demagogues and the Coming Dark Age [Yale, 2017] In an article for The Australian, published on 17 August 2019, James Kirchick wrote: “One of the most profoundly disturbing and perplexing phenomena in the Western world today has been […]

Policies Supporting Opportunity and Aspiration Prevailed

Senator the Hon. Mathias Cormann, a Senator for Western Australia, is the Minister for Finance and Leader of the Government in the Senate. Senator Corman has been Australia’s Finance Minister since September 2013 – amid three changes of prime minister. His record is one of stability and progress for the Australian economy. In a wide-ranging […]

Why I Blog – The Quiet Australians

The Hon John Anderson is a sixth-generation farmer and grazier from New South Wales, who spent 19 years from 1989 in the Australian Parliament. This included six years as Leader of the National Party and Deputy Prime Minister. These days, John Anderson is best known for his “John Anderson” blog – offering a range of […]

A Remarkable Ten – They Left Their Mark On Australia and Were Then Forgotten

Ian Macfarlane AC is an Australian economist and was Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, from 1996 to 17 September 2006. He has not let retirement end his endeavours, however, and is now the author of a new book, The Remarkable Australians, that puts together the stories of ten remarkable Australians who were once […]

The World Is Moving On While Australia Stands Still

The Hon Joel Fitzgibbon is Member for Hunter & Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Resources. After watching his regional seat in New South Wales’ Hunter Valley come very close to a Labor loss, Joel Fitzgibbon has challenged his Labor colleagues to reassess the reasons they lost the 2019 election, raising the issue of Labor’s large […]

Myall Creek Massacre: The Trial That Defined A Nation

In 1838, eleven convicts and former convicts were put on trial for the brutal murder of 28 Aboriginal men, women and children at Myall Creek in New South Wales. The trial created an enormous amount of controversy because it was almost unknown for Europeans to be charged with the murder of Aborigines. It would become […]

Tasmania the Turnaround State

In 2014, The Hon Will Hodgman led his Liberal Party to am historic win in the Tasmanian state elections. On a visit to Sydney, on Wednesday 23 October 2019, the Tasmanian premier addressed The Sydney Institute and outlined how Tasmania is undergoing remarkable economic growth. As he put it: “For only the fifth time […]

Religious Freedom – Two Views

The Coalition government of Scott Morrison has tasked the Australian Law Reform Commission to review current legislation around religious freedom. This was in response to the recommendations put to the government by the findings of the Expert Panel into Religious Freedom in 2018. As debate continued over what the legislation might look like, Labor’s Senator […]

Housing In Australia – How The Morrison Government Is Backing Australians’ Housing Choices

Housing has become on of the most pressing issues in Australian politics. The cost of housing, the lack of housing and how to fix the problems. The Hon Michael Sukkar MP became the Minister for Housing and Assistant Treasurer in the newly elected Morrison Government after the 18 May 2019 election. Throwing down the gauntlet, […]

The Crisis on Campus

Universities across the Western world are now educating a majority of high school graduates. What are they being taught? How high are standards? Why is freedom of expression under attack on campus? These questions and many more are the focus of a new book, Campus Meltdown The Deepening Crisis in Australian Universities edited by William Coleman. […]

Israel: Netanyahu, Gant or Other Options

Ehud Ya’ari is an Israel-based Lafer international fellow of The Washington Institute and author of Toward Israeli-Palestinian Disengagement and Peace by Piece: A Decade of Egyptian Policy and Sinai: The New Front? A Middle East commentator for Israel’s Channel Two television and former associate editor of Jerusalem Report, Ehud Yaari has been a Middle East […]

Billy Hughes at Versailles: The New Evidence

Australia was represented at the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919 by the Prime Minister, the colourful Billy Hughes, whom Woodrow Wilson called “a pestiferous varmint” after their repeated clashes over Australia’s claims to the Pacific Islands its troops had taken from Germany during the War. Professor Carl Bridge is Head of the Menzies Centre for […]

Accelerating R&D in NSW

The Hon Gabrielle Upton MP is Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier of New South Wales. On Monday 25 November, Gabrielle Upton addressed The Sydney Institute to outline a new initiative she is leading for the NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to accelerate R&D in NSW. ACCELERATING R&D IN NSW GABRIELLE UPTON Key messages: Investment in R&D […]

A Pope and a Greenie: Why More Power Should Be Given to Locals

Ninety years ago, Pope Pius XI warned against the problems of taking power away from individual communities when he coined the modern principle of “subsidiarity”. The malaise affecting modern, western democracy has much to do with us ignoring his wisdom. This trend has been personified most recently through Bob Brown’s sanctimonious convoy to central Queensland. […]

Sydney – What is to be Done?

Australia’s premier city of Sydney has its development problems – and issues of debate. Trams in George Street, high rise in Pyrmont, homeless people in parks and streets, bike lanes and more besides. Is it a case of over development, under development or the wrong development? Councillor Christine Foster hopes to change all that in her […]

The Crisis on Campus

A Year to Remember – How the Coalition Went from Chaos to Comeback

Disunity is said to be death in politics – but not for Scott Morrison’s Liberal Party in election 2019. Morrison and his team took their chance and won a remarkable victory. Over some months, The Australian Financial Review’s Print editor Aaron Patrick interviewed key insiders to reveal the turning points and the cunning schemes behind […]

Australian Labor – Looking Back and the Way Forward

Dr Adrian Pabst is Reader in Politics at Kent University and author Story of Our Country: Labor’s vision for Australia. In 2018, Adrian Pabst spent months in Australia researching Labor’s appeal, or lack of it, among middle Australia. Seeking to answer the questions that now plague the new Labor opposition, Pabst believes Labor has, over some […]

Australia and the Pacific – Their Prosperity is Our Prosperity

The strategic, economic, technological and environmental changes taking place in the Indo-Pacific, including increased investment and competition for influence, present both opportunities and challenges for our region. Through the Pacific Step-up the Australian Government is helping our Pacific neighbours build their prosperity, strengthen their security, and harness the opportunities that these changes bring, while developing […]

Iran and the United States: An Update

Behnam Ben Taleblu is a senior fellow at Foundation For The Defence of Democracies (FDD) where he focuses on Iranian security and political issues. Behnam previously served as a research fellow and senior Iran analyst at FDD. Prior to his time at FDD, Behnam worked on non-proliferation issues at an arms control think-tank in Washington. […]

MOBILITY, DRIVING INNOVATION AND ENHANCING OUR LIVEABILITY – TRANSPORT AS A TRUE TECH BUSINESS

With the NSW Berejiklian Government’s win at the state election in March 2019, issues around transport in Sydney and NSW took centre stage as vast underway projects started coming to completion and new projects were started and outlined – from light rail into George Street and the CBD from Randwick to additional Metro routes to […]

LABOR AFTER THE 2019 FEDERAL ELECTION – WHERE TO NEXT?

Michael Sexton SC is the NSW Solicitor General and author of The Great Crash: the short life and sudden death of the Whitlam Government. Brad Norington is Associate Editor at The Australian and has been writing about national and international politics over two decades. He was also The Australian’s Washington Correspondent during the Obama presidency. On Monday […]

LISTENING TO THE NATION – WHAT DO AUSTRALIANS MOST WANT FROM THEIR GOVERNMENT?

Rebecca Huntley is a social Researcher and author, most recently of the Quarterly Essay Australia Fair. Dr Tanveer Ahmed is a psychiatrist, a regular contributor to the Australian Financial Review and author, most recently, of Fragile Nation. During the 2019 federal election campaign, a majority of Australians believed that there would be a change of government and that what […]

WHERE TO NOW? LABOR AFTER THE 2019 FEDERAL ELECTION

Brad Norington is the Associate Editor at The Australian and has been writing about national and international politics over two decades. He was alsoThe Australian’s Washington Correspondent during the Obama presidency. Michael Sexton SC is the NSW Solicitor General and author of The Great Crash: the short life and sudden death of the Whitlam Government. On Monday […]

FEDERATION’S MAN OF LETTERS – PATRICK McMAHON GLYNN

On Thursday 6 June 2019, the Vice-Chancellor of Australian Catholic University, Professor Greg Craven, joined The Sydney Institute’s Anne Henderson to launch the P M Glynn Institute’s Federation’s Man of Letters. As Greg Craven explained, polymath Glynn should not have been a man who fell through history’s cracks. But he has. The publication of Anne […]

TAKING BACK THE CLASSROOM – RECLAIMING EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA

Dr Catherine Runcie is a contributing editor of Reclaiming Education: Renewing Schools and Universities in Contemporary Western Culture and David Furse-Roberts, Research fellow at the Menzies Research Centre and editor of Menzies – The Forgotten Speeches joined forces at The Sydney Institute on Wednesday 22 May 2019 to discuss the concern many feel over scholastic standards and […]

DONALD TRUMP’S MIDDLE EAST POLICY

Michael Doran is a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC. He specialises in Middle East security issues. In the administration of President George W. Bush, Doran served in the White House as a senior director in the National Security Council, where he was responsible for helping to devise and coordinate United States […]

REVISITING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF ROBERT MENZIES

Who was Robert Menzies, what did he stand for, what did he achieve. Columnist with The Australian and author – most recently – of Robert Menzies The Art of Politics, Troy Bramston has not only researched the official record and published accounts, but has also interviewed members of Menzies’ family, and his former advisers and ministers. He has also been […]

AUSTRALIA VOTED – AN EVENING AFTER THE ELECTION

On Saturday 18 May 2019, Australia voted and the opinion polls were wrong. Prime Minister Scott Morrison pulled off what had been predicted to be an impossible win. In March 2019, at The Sydney Institute, Caroline Overington and Paul Kelly could not see the Coalition winning. On Monday 20 May 2019, author and Associate Editor […]

LISTENING TO THE NATION – WHAT DO AUSTRALIANS MOST WANT FROM THEIR GOVERNMENT?

THE BATTLE FOR LAE AND THE PACIFIC WAR

The capture of Lae was the most complex operation for the Australian army in the Second World War. In many ways it was also a rehearsal for the D-Day invasion of France, with an amphibious landing combined with the first successful large-scale Allied airborne operation of the war. Phillip Bradley is an historian and author […]

WRITING BIOGRAPHY IN THE 21ST CENTURY – THE LIFE OF WILLIAM MCMAHON AND OTHERS

Today, biographies seek to reveal and understand the lives of their subjects, shedding light on both their times and the people who rose in them, while avoiding the temptation to indulge in flights of fancy or amateur psychological assessment. So how do the political biographies of Australia’s prime ministers and public figures stand up? Dr […]

STATECRAFT AND WORLD ORDER

The ancient Greeks hard-wired a tragic sensibility into their culture. By looking disaster squarely in the face, by understanding just how badly things could spiral out of control, they sought to create a communal sense of responsibility and courage – to spur citizens and their leaders to take the difficult actions necessary to avert such […]

CHARLES KINGSFORD SMITH – KING OF THE AIR

Charles Kingsford Smith was the most commanding flyer of the golden age of aviation. In three short years, he broke records with his astounding and daring voyages: the first trans-Pacific flight from America to Australia, the first flight across the Tasman, the first non-stop crossing of the Australian mainland. A tickertape parade was held in […]

LAUNCHING FEDERATION’S MAN OF LETTERS – PATRICK MCMAHON GLYNN

On Thursday 6 June 2019, the Vice-Chancellor of Australian Catholic University, Professor Greg Craven, joined The Sydney Institute’s Anne Henderson to launch the P M Glynn Institute’s Federation’s Man of Letters. As Greg Crave explained, polymath Glynn should not have been a man who fell through history’s cracks. But he has. The publication of Anne […]

FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND THE MEDIA

Australian Federal Police raids on the offices of the ABC and the home of a journalist with The Australian provoked a heated debate over press freedom in Australia during June 2019. Predictably, the debate gained widespread media coverage as the Australian media voiced its collective disapproval of the raids. To offer a more nuanced appraisal […]

FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND THE MEDIA

LABOR AFTER THE 2019 FEDERAL ELECTION – WHERE TO NEXT?

AUSTRALIA VOTES – AN EVENING AFTER THE ELECTION

ROBERT MENZIES’ PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

David Furse-Roberts, Research fellow at the Menzies Research Centre and editor of Menzies – The Forgotten Speeches joined forces with Dr Catherine Runcie, contributing editor of Reclaiming Education: Renewing Schools and Universities in Contemporary Western Culture, at The Sydney Institute on Wednesday 22 May 2019 to discuss the concern many feel over scholastic standards and the decline […]

HOW THE GREAT NAVIGATOR MISSED BASS STRAIT– LOOKING BACK AT JAMES COOK

Margaret Cameron-Ash is the author of Lying for the Admiralty: Captain Cook’s Endeavour Voyage. In her book, she mounts a strong circumstantial case that Cook both discovered Bass Strait and actually gazed upon Sydney Harbour. Her proposition is that Cook and some of his party walked overland from Botany Bay to the Harbour. Her case is […]

THE CROATIAN SIX – AN OLD TERRORISM PANIC

One summer night in 1979, Roger Rogerson and a posse of tough Sydney cops raided a Sydney house where sticks of gelignite were discovered. The Croatian family’s young men were taken off and soon joined by others, arrested in simultaneous raids across the city. For them, and the entire community of migrants from Croatia, it […]

Has Politics Really Changed – from Menzies to Morrison

At The Sydney Institute’s Annual Dinner held at The Star on Wednesday 27 March 2019, the Institute celebrated its thirtieth year. Guest speaker at the dinner was The Hon John Howard OM AC who was introduced by Sydney Institute Executive Director Gerard Henderson and thanked by Carmel Mulhern, Group Executive, Legal & Corporate Affairs, at […]

Welfare, Personal Responsibility and the Cashless Debit Card

On Monday 25 March 2019, The Hon Paul Fletcher MP, Minister for Families and Social Services, addressed The Sydney Institute. Paul Fletcher is the Member for Bradfield and entered parliament in 2009.In his speech, the Minister clarified the government’s belief in the positive effects of the cashless credit card for welfare recipients. He also announced […]

What’s Wrong with North Fitzroy?

Most of the Victorian terraces and workers’ cottages in inner Melbourne (and Sydney/Brisbane) have been thoroughly renovated by affluent professional couples and are valued in seven figures. And the pensioners, post-war migrants and even many of the university students have largely drifted away. This change has been driven by structural economic forces – the rapid […]

Communications Policy in Australia – The Road Ahead

With the polls suggesting that a Labor win at the 2019 federal election – due in May – was all but a certainty, The Sydney Institute invited Labor MP and Shadow Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland to address The Institute on Thursday 14 March 2019. Michelle Rowland was elected to the federal seat of Greenway […]

Escaping from the Rat Race – A Cradle Mountain Love Story

Gustav Weindorfer arrived in Melbourne from Austria in June 1900 and later met and married Tasmanian Kate Cowle. Their love of the natural and wild led them to Cradle Mountain where they eventually built a chalet for guests to stay. Their Waldheim or “home in the forest” was built of King Billy Pine. The couple […]

An Evening Before the Election

With a federal election looming by May 2019, and the polls for many months predicting an easy win for the Labor opposition led by Bill Shorten, The Sydney Institute held a seminar evening discussion on Wednesday 6 March 2019. Leading the discussion were Paul Kelly, commentator, columnist The Australian, editor and author and Caroline Overington, […]

An Evening Before the Election

Arguing with Family Ghosts – The Unsafe Memoir

Geoffrey Lehmann – writer, poet and tax lawyer – has written his memoirs which he has entitled Leeward – A Memoir. Old Sydney is part of Lehmann’s identity – its harbour and its fringe dwelling neighbourhoods clinging to that view. But his poetry roams much further. Peter Goldsworthy, reviewing Lehmann’s Poems 1957-2013, wrote, “Poets, like mathematicians, often […]

Crafting the Nation: The Story of a Banner, a Bicentennial and a Berth in the Big House of Australian Democracy

Dr Clare Wright is Associate Professor of History at La Trobe University and author of (most recently) You Daughters of Freedom. In an address to The Sydney Institute on Wednesday 20 February 2019, Clare Wright looked back at the struggle a century ago and reflected on how the campaign for female suffrage was hard won. […]

Voluntary Euthanasia: Impacts on Individuals and Society

The Rev Peter Kurti is Senior Research Fellow, Culture, Prosperity & Civil Society program at the Centre for Independent Studies and an author, most recently, of Euthanasia – Putting The Culture to Death. Penny Hackett is the President of Dying With Dignity NSW and is presently legal advisor to a funds management and corporate finance business […]

Voluntary Euthanasia: Impacts on Individuals and Society

Democratic Pushback: How to Confront the New Authoritarian Powers without Going to War

In the last week of federal parliament prior to Christmas 2018, Michael Danby MHR introduced a Private Member’s Bill to have Australia adopt a Global Magnitsky Act against authoritarian powers’ acts of corruption and abuse of human rights. The Magnitsky Act was enacted by the Obama Administration, authorising the US government to impose sanctions on […]

Australia and China – Different Views

The Hon Bob Carr, former NSW premier and author and Dr Alan Dupont, founder and CEO of Cognoscenti are both close watchers of Australian-Chinese relations. Yet they differ on how Australians should view China. For Carr, the fact that a Lowy Institute poll, on 20 June 2018, showed that 82 per cent of Australians saw […]

Religious Schools and the Sex Discrimination Act

In November 2017, in the midst of parliamentary debate about how to legislate marriage equality after the historic yes vote, the Turnbull government asked former attorney general Philip Ruddock to lead a panel to review the issue of religious freedom. The review has recommended the Commonwealth amend the federal Sex Discrimination Act to provide “that […]

Religious Schools and the Sex Discrimination Act

Creating Opportunity and Encouraging Aspiration: The Key to a Growing Economy and a Stronger Australia

The Hon Josh Frydenberg was elected Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party on August 2018. Prime Minister Scott Morrison soon after appointed him Australia’s treasurer. As the member for Kooyong since 2010, Josh Frydenberg is one of the rising stars of the Liberal Party. On Tuesday 22 January 2019, Josh Frydenberg gave a major address […]