Events
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October 2025
Politics in the Pub: Australia’s Housing Crisis
Join us for a look at the causes and solutions of the housing crisis. This month we have Bill Code, the director of the new documentary Sold! Who Broke the Australian Dream? In this documentary, co-written by Craig Reucassel, satirist Mark Humphries examines Australia’s housing crisis, with renters, journos and comics asking who broke the
Queenscliffe Literary Festival: America Unravelling
With the re-election of President Trump, America has entered a tumultuous new era of political strongmanship and an unravelling of previous approaches to foreign policy, climate action, human rights and more. With decades of US political expertise between them, Emma Shortis and Don Watson unpack what this new era means for Australia and the world. With Dylan Bird.
Bernie Fraser Oration
This oration is being launched by The Australia Institute to celebrate and honour the significant contribution to economic and public policy in Australia made by Bernie Fraser. Politicians and industry leaders often prioritise short-term approval over confronting challenging economic choices. However, where others dance around the fringes, playing painstaking games of semantics, prominent economist, Bernie Fraser,
Revenue Summit 2025
Taxation shapes the society we want to live in. It facilitates the provision of public services and is a key policy lever to reduce inequality. Too often the decision of how and who we tax — or do not tax — is shaped by vested interests rather than asking what is best for most Australians.
Defiance with Bob Brown
For half a century, Bob Brown has been standing up to the powerful interests who would put profit before planet. In Defiance, he draws on this experience to inspire a new generation of individual and collective action. He reflects on the people and places that have shaped him, celebrates the irreplaceable beauty and value of nature
November 2025
Dr Hugh Saddler Memorial Lecture 2025 | The Hon. Mike Rann AC CNZM
Join us at the second Dr Hugh Saddler Memorial Lecture, featuring the Hon Mike Rann AC CNZM, former South Australian Premier and current Chair of the UK Climate Group, discussing the politics of climate ambition, the importance of courage, and lessons from South Australia’s renewable energy transformation. When Mike Rann was elected Premier in 2002,
Barrie, Bowers & Friends
The Australia Institute presents Barrie, Bowers and Friends for an evening of political insight, laughs, and a bit of sass. From the election, to what the Albanese government is doing and what is the point of the Coalition – it will all be covered by some of the smartest minds in Australian politics, led by
Aiming Higher with George Williams
Decades of policy decisions have made access to higher education harder for those who need it most. Public trust and community confidence in universities in Australia and overseas are at all-time lows. Political sentiment has shifted. Our centres of higher learning have leapfrogged big business to become easy political targets. And it’s no surprise; the
On belief in politics with Sean Kelly
In Quarterly Essay 100, Sean Kelly considers the strange transitional moment we are in. We seem sick of neoliberalism but afraid of what might replace it. We are obsessed with work but resentful of it; desperate for community but stuck inside our phones; protective of our way of life while wanting to change everything. Amid