Festival of Dangerous Ideas

For most of its modern history, Australia has sheltered under the wing of a great and powerful friend – first the UK, then the USA.   But the rules-based order we've relied on is now unraveling. America is no longer the reliable ally it once was.  So where does that leave us? Is a middle power ever truly sovereign? Ex-politicians Bob Carr and Malcom Turnbull discuss with Simon Longstaff whether Australia can learn to dance with elephants, without being trampled in the process. This session was recorded live in Sydney, August 2026. The Hon Bob Carr was Premier of New South Wales from 1995 to 2005, during which his government created 350 new national parks, introduced the world's first carbon trading scheme, and hosted the 2000 Olympics. He later served as Australia's Foreign Minister under the Gillard and Rudd governments. Since leaving politics, Carr has built a distinguished career as author, academic and defacto diplomat.  Malcolm Turnbull was the 29th Prime Minister of Australia. Prior to entering politics he enjoyed successful careers as a lawyer, investment banker and journalist. As a lawyer, together with his wife Lucy, he successfully defended former MI5 agent Peter Wright against the British Government in the "Spycatcher" trial. He led the campaign to make Australia a republic. He has been, and remains, a venture capitalist having co-founded, among other companies OzEmail Ltd, the first Australian tech company to list on the NASDAQ in 1996. As Prime Minister from 2015–18, his government, among other achievements, legalised same-sex marriage, reformed schools funding as well as income tax, and commenced the construction of both Snowy Hydro 2.0 and Western Sydney Airport.

What happens when the institutions designed to protect human dignity come under strain? In the frontline human rights battles across the US, Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, China and beyond, the future of freedom may depends less on superpowers and more on whether democracies and civil society can reinvent the right for rights before it's too late.  Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, Philippe Bolopion and Australian Director at Human Rights Watch, Daniela Gavshon discuss how this is a moment to resist, not retreat. This session was recorded live in Sydney, August 2026. Philippe Bolopion is the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch. He was formerly the United Nations Director of Human Rights Watch and has held several leadership positions. Bolopion has extensive experience in designing and implementing Human Rights Watch's advocacy strategies worldwide and in overseeing the organisation's advocacy response to crises. He has traveled extensively to conflict zones, including in Myanmar, Burundi, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and Mali. Prior to joining Human Rights Watch in 2010, he spent five years working with the French daily Le Monde as the UN correspondent in New York. He has also worked as a journalist for France 24 and Radio France Internationale (RFI). Daniela Gavshon is the Australia director at Human Rights Watch, leading the organisation's engagement with the Australian government on foreign and domestic policy. Prior to this, she spent ten years at the Justice and Equity Centre (formerly Public Interest Advocacy Centre), where she founded the Truth and Accountability program, led human rights and war crimes investigations, and led a landmark project mapping laws and policies affecting First Nations people in Australia. She also serves as an adjunct lecturer at the University of New South Wales, is the co-chair of the War Crimes Committee of the International Bar Association, and holds degrees in law and arts from the University of Sydney, and a master's in international humanitarian law from the Geneva Academy.

History's response to heretics has been consistent – to silence, shame and ultimately, burn them. Booker Prize-winning Australian novelist Richard Flanagan presents a new essay inspired by his book, Heresies. This session was recorded live in Sydney, August 2026. Richard Flanagan is an Australian writer who has been described by the Washington Post as 'one of our greatest living novelists' and as 'among the most versatile writers in the English language' by the New York Review of Books. He is the first and only author to have ever won both the Booker and the Baillie Gifford prizes.

Australia has spent years building new ways to recognise suffering and combat discrimination. From dedicated envoys to public reckonings – but are these approaches deepening division rather than healing it?  Professors Ghassan Hage and Marcia Langton, and journalist David Leser, in conversation with Simon Longstaff, ask the question nobody wants to ask: is empathy killing our nation? This session was recorded live in Sydney, August 2026. Ghassan Hage is a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and a fellow of both the Australian and the British Academies of the Social Sciences. He has held prestigious visiting professorship all over the world including at Harvard and the Collège de France in Paris. He is currently a Distinguished Research Fellow at Zhejiang University in China. He is internationally renown for his work on the anthropology of racism and nationalism. Marcia Langton holds the Foundation Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne and is an anthropologist and geographer who has made extensive contributions to Indigenous knowledge and advocacy for Indigenous rights. She is a descendant of the Yiman and Bidjara peoples. She is Director of the Indigenous Studies Unit of Onemda at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health. Her research subjects include alcohol-related family and domestic violence, Indigenous alcohol management plans, racism, and Indigenous culture and art. David Leser is a two-time Walkley award-winning journalist and author of seven books, including his memoir To Begin to Know, shortlisted for the 2015 National Biography award, and Women, Men & the Whole Damn Thing, his 2019 study of the history of patriarchy and misogyny in the age of #MeToo. A former Middle East and Washington correspondent, David is a former staff writer and regular contributor to Good Weekend magazine and columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Simon Longstaff is Executive Director of The Ethics Centre. In 2013, he was made an officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for "distinguished service to the community through the promotion of ethical standards in governance and business, to improving corporate responsibility, and to philosophy." He is also Adjunct Professor of the Australian Graduate School of Management at UNSW Sydney, a Fellow of CPA Australia, the Royal Society of NSW and the Australian Risk Policy Institute.

 All the digital spaces we rely on have transformed into giant piles of inescapable shit. The app that used to work, now doesn't. The platform that once connected you, now surveils you. The internet that promised everything, now delivers misogyny, manipulation, conspiracy and fraud. Journalist Cory Doctorow has a word for it, and you've probably already used it – enshittification.   It's a technique that tech giants use to lure users and businesses in. They offer a valuable service with hidden lock-ins, which lets the platforms degrade their services. They then extract value from businesses and users alike, tormenting their captives with impunity.  In a world that's ever-worsening, Doctorow isn't just here to name the rot. He wants to cut it out, question the monopolies, and fight for regulation and our right to privacy. This session was recorded live in Sydney, August 2026. Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of dozens of books, most recently Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It (nonfiction); and the novel Picks and Shovels. His latest book is The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI, coming in June 2026. Born in Toronto, Canada, he lives in Los Angeles and London.