Following the partial-cancellation of the Byron Writers’ Festival due to extreme weather, join some festival favourites online as they talk big ideas.

Some of the nation’s leading thinkers share a big idea for a better Australia. Featuring prominent Australian economist and public policy commentator Richard Denniss, advocate and signatory to the Uluru Statement From The Heart Thomas Mayo and acclaimed author and academic Julianne Schultz. With Ebony Bennett.

This session is presented by The Australia Institute in partnership with Byron Writers Festival.

SPEAKERS:

Julianne Schultz AM FAHA FRSN — Emeritus Professor of Media and Culture at Griffith University

Julianne Schultz AM FAHA FRSN  is the author of “The Idea of Australia” and the executive producer of the SBS/Blackfella series based on the book. She writes a regular column for The Guardian and was the founding editor of Griffith Review. She is Professor Emeritus of Media and Culture at Griffith University and lives in the Byron Shire.

Thomas Mayo — National Indigenous Officer at Maritime Union of Australia

Thomas Mayo is a Kaurareg Aboriginal and Kalkalgal, Erubamle Torres Strait Islander man and National Indigenous Officer of the MUA. Thomas is a signatory of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and has been a leading advocate since its inception in May 2017. He is the Chairperson of the Northern Territory Indigenous Labor Network, advises the Diversity Council of Australia and the From the Heart campaign, and is an executive member of the Northern Territory Trades and Labour Council.

Thomas has previously written five books published by Hardie Grant, and has articles and essays published in The Guardian, Griffith Review and Sydney Morning Herald. Thomas is the author of Finding the Heart of The Nation, Dear Son, Finding The Heart, Freedom Day, Always Was, Always Will Be and The Voice to Parliament Handbook with Kerry O’Brien. The Voice to Parliament Handbook won the 2024 ABIA award for Book of the Year, Social Impact Book of the Year and General Non-Fiction Book of the Year.

Dr Richard Denniss — Executive Director at The Australia Institute

Dr Richard Denniss is the Executive Director at the Australia Institute. He is a prominent Australian economist, author and public policy commentator, and previously an Associate Professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy at ANU and a Lecturer in Economics at the University of Newcastle.

The Australian Financial Review listed Richard Denniss and Ben Oquist of The Australia Institute on their ‘Covert Power’ 2018 list of the most powerful people in Australia.

Richard Denniss is a former columnist for Australian Financial Review and the Guardian and has been featured in The Monthly. He publishes regularly in academic journals and has written 6 books including Affluenza: When Too Much is Never Enough (with Clive Hamilton), An introduction to Australian Public Policy (with Sarah Maddison), Minority Policy: Rethinking Governance When Parliament Matters (with Brenton Prosser), Econobabble: How to Decode Political Spin and Economic Nonsense, Curing Affluenza: How to Buy Less Stuff and Save the World and the June 2018 Quarterly Essay, Dead Right: How Neoliberalism Ate Itself and What Comes Next which was also adapted into a book of the same title.

Richard is also a contributing author in What’s the Big Idea?, released by Australia Institute Press.