Big Ideas

Being poor has become big business in Australia, but not for people who need work. Billions spent. Millions of profits. But who's getting them?  Why do unemployment and poverty continue to be stigmatised? And does the legacy of the Robodebt scandal live on? The Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research concluded in a new excoriating report Who’s rorting who? The failure of outsourced job services that the system is "filling the pockets of private equity and millionaires" while leaving job-seekers without work. Three people close to the coalface join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell to weigh in.This event was held at the 2026 Festival of Dangerous Ideas on Gadigal Country in Sydney. SpeakerRick Morton Investigative journalist Multi-award-winning author, Mean Streak, My Year of Living Vulnerably, On Money, and One Hundred Years of Dirt.Mark Considine Political scientist and Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor Co-Director of the Australian Welfare and Work Lab, University of Melbourne Author, The Careless State Co-author, Buying and Selling the Poor: Inside Australia's privatised welfare-to-work marketEmily Roy Chief Executive OfficerNot-for-profit employment services provider JobLink Plus Thanks to Danielle Harvey, Lauren Bennett, and the whole Festival of Dangerous Ideas team.Further reading Report: Who's rorting who? The failure of outsourced job services (Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research, 2026) Australia's jobseeker system fails workers and enriches millionaires, report says  The Shaping the future of employment services Discussion Paper  (Australian Government, 2026) Senate Committee Report: Rebuilding Employment Services (2023) 

Helen Garner is one of Australia's most significant and renowned writers, known for her precise and observational writing style, disarming honesty and piercing curiosity about her fellow human beings. Here, she reflects on a lifetime of writing, from her groundbreaking 1977 debut Monkey Grip, to her work in the courtroom covering some of Australia's most shocking crimes, to her keen observations of daily life in her collections of letters and diaries.To celebrate ABC Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books countdown we bring you this celebration of Garner's immense contribution to Australian letters and life across five decades."I'm terribly interested in working out what happens between people."The first event in the Body of Work series presented by Federation Square and the Melbourne Arts Precinct was recorded Thursday 6 August 2026Speakers:Helen Garner Author, Monkey Grip, The Children's Bach, Cosmo Cosmolino, Joe Cinque's Consolation, How to End a Story: The Collected Diaries 1978-1998 (winner the 2025 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction), This House of Grief, The Season, The Mushroom Tapes (with Sarah Krasnostein and Chloe Hooper) and moreMichael Williams (host)Editor, The Monthly, former artistic director of Sydney Writers Festival, former director of The Wheeler Centre, former host, ABC Radio National

Foraging and eating wild food is nothing new in Australia. First Nations people have done it for over 50,000 years. Even your grandparents often still used to search for eatable weeds, mushrooms and nuts at the edge of their fields and in the woods. This knowledge is lost today. But attitudes to weeds have also changed. We don’t see weeds as a valuable resource anymore, only as a pest to get rid of. Is it time to change that and to rediscover the traditional knowledge of foraging? And what would that mean for how we manage our farmland in the future?Presented at the Lyrebird FestivalSpeakersDiego Bonetto Edible weeds advocate, forager and author of EAT WEEDS, A field guide to foragingGregg Borschmann (host)Writer, radio producer and oral historian for the National Library of Australia

Trailblazing feminist, political activist, journalist, and founder of Ms Magazine Gloria Steinem died this week at age 92 after a big life changing lives. In her memoir My Life on the Road she recounted how taking to the road fundamentally changed her understanding of the world and who she could be.  Médecins Sans Frontières co-founder, French diplomat and novelist Jean-Christophe Rufin worked in war zones as a doctor and walked the Camino de Santiago as a pilgrim. Acclaimed poet and Yankunytjatjara woman Ali Cobby Eckermann found family, connection, and Country on a different kind of pilgrimage. This well-travelled trio joined Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell at the Sydney Writers Festival in 2016 to explore their love of life on the road, and the bigger consequences of their transformative encounters along the way.SpeakersGloria SteinemAmerican feminist and political activist, journalist, and founder of Ms MagazineAli Cobby EckermannProud Yankunytjatjara womanMulti-award-winning poet and authorJean-Christophe RufinAuthor, former diplomat, doctor, co-founder of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors without BordersThis event was held in 2016 (not 2015 as mentioned) and first broadcast in 2017 on ABC Radio National. 

Blockbuster Australian children's authors Andy Griffiths (The Treehouse series), Hilary Rogers aka Maddy Mara (Dragon Girls) and bookseller Tamuz Ellazam join Natasha Mitchell to share the iconic kid's books they'll be voting for in ABC Radio National's Top 100 Books (vote now!) — and weigh in on current controversies in kid's literature.  Have children's books become too moralistic, too obsessed with teaching kids how to behave, or with imparting Very Important Messages? Is there a tension between education and entertainment in kid's literature? And why does all this matter?How to vote in ABC Radio National's Top 100 Books. Don't forget you can also nominate books you love that aren't on the list of suggestions.SpeakersAndy GriffithsAustralian Children's LaureatePopular children's author (The Treehouse series, The Bum Trilogy, the JUST! books, You & Me and The Giant Knucklehead, and more)Hilary RogersAuthor, the Girltopia trilogyCo-author (with Meredith Badger as Maddy Mara) of the Dragon Girls, Max Beast, Itty Bitty Kitty series.Former children's publisher of Go Girl, Zac Power, Billie B Brown seriesTamuz EllazamManager, Readings Kids bookshop in Carlton, MelbourneResearcher into children's literatureThanks to Chris Gordon and the Readings events team, and the Church of All Nations community venue.Further readingMake Believe: On Telling Stories to Children (2026), by Mac BarnettA Beloved Children's Book Author Said Most Children's Literature Is "Crud." It Has Not Gone Well.Children's Book Community Responds in Outrage to Mac Barnett CommentsMac Barnett on Make Believe (video)Mac Barnett Responds Amid Continued BacklashSOME FAVOURITE AUSTRALIAN CHILDREN'S BOOK NOMINATIONSAndy GriffithsThe Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay the pudding Coles Funny Picture Book by E.W. Cole Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner  My Place by Nadia Wheatley & Donna Rawlins My Place in Space by Robin and Sally Hirst, illustrated by Roland Harvey Bamboozled by David Legge Unreal by Paul Jennings Magic Beach by Alison Lester Sunshine (and Moonlight) by Jan OrmerodAll Right, Vegemite! and Far Out, Brussel Sprout! by June Factor And more!Hilary RogersThe Terrible Plop by Ursula Dubosarsky and Andy Joyner My Shadow is Pink by Scott Stuart Hating Alison Ashley by Robin KleinPlaying Beatie Bow by Ruth Park And more!Tamuz EllazamThe Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek by Jenny Wagner Possum Magic by Mem Fox and Jenny Vivas Stay For Dinner by Sandhya Parappukkaran and Michelle PereiraOnce I was a Giant by Zeno Sworder Derek the Dinosaur by Mary Blackwood and Kerry Argent And more!