The Laurie Carmichael Lecture is an annual keynote lecture hosted by the Carmichael Centre, an initiative of the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work, and RMIT University.

The lecture will feature Sharan Burrow speaking on ‘Global Worker Solidarity for a Peaceful, Sustainable World’. The lecture will be followed by an audience Q&A.

Speaker:

Sharan Burrow, former General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (2010-2022) and President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (2000–2010). Sharan will speak on the topic ‘Global Worker Solidarity for a Peaceful, Sustainable World’. She is well known for her international advocacy on employment, human rights, industrial relations, corporate responsibility, and climate action with just transition solutions.

She has represented workers and civil society groups in global policy discussions in United Nations bodies, on the Governing Body of the International Labour Organisation as well as at the tables of the G7, G20, World Bank and International Monetary Fund. She has twice been a Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos.

Sharan is currently a Visiting Professor in Practice to the LSE-Grantham Institute, a board member of the European Climate foundation, a board member of the Green Hydrogen Association, Co-Chair of the IEA Labour Council, and Commissioner for the Global Commission on Climate Governance.

The lecture is named in honour of Laurie Carmichael, the legendary manufacturing trade union leader who passed away in 2018 at the age of 93. Last year, the inaugural Laurie Carmichael Lecture featured Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stieglitz.

The Laurie Carmichael Lecture is supported by the ACTU, the AMWU, the AEU, the Department of Education and Training Victoria, and the Australia Institute.