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
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….
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…
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…
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…
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….
