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
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,…
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
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…
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
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…
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…
