Good Life, Good Death: The Morality of Mortality

Julian Burnside is a Melbourne barrister. He joined the Bar in 1976 and took silk in 1989. He specialises in commercial litigation, and has acted in many very contentious cases - the MUA Waterfront dispute; the Cash-for-Comment enquiry; cases for Alan Bond and Rose Porteous - but has become known for his human rights work and has acted pro bono in many refugee cases. 

He is an outspoken opponent of the mistreatment of people who come to Australia seeking protection from persecution. His latest book is Watching Out: Reflections on Justice and Injustice (Scribe).

C.A.J. (Tony) Coady is Vice Chancellor’s Fellow and Professorial Fellow in the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne, where he was formerly Boyce Gibson Professor of Philosophy.

He has played a major role in the growth of applied philosophy in Australia.

His book, Testimony: a philosophical study (OUP, 1992) has had a significant impact on developments in contemporary epistemology. More recently, his book Morality and Political Violence was published by Cambridge University Press in early 2008 and another book, Messy Morality: the Challenge of Politics was published by Oxford University Press late in 2008.

Many years ago he worked as a journalist in Sydney and was co-editor of The Catholic Worker in the late 1960s and early 70s. He served on the committee that revised the journalists’ code of ethics for the MEAA. He has often provided commentary on topical ethical matters for print and broadcast media.

Phillip Adams is a prolific and sometimes controversial broadcaster, writer and film-maker. As presenter of Late Night Live for 25 years he has interviewed many thousands of the world’s most influential thinkers – from archaeologists to zoologists.

A foundation member of the Australia Council and chairman of the Film, Radio and Television Board, Phillip has chaired the Australian Film Institute, the Australian Film Commission, Film Australia and the National Australia Day Council. He is a former president of the Victorian Council for the Arts and was foundation chairman of the Commission for the Future. He currently chairs the Advisory Board of the Centre for the Mind at Sydney University and Australian National University and the Australian Centre for Social Innovation.

His countless board memberships include the Festivals of Ideas in Adelaide and Brisbane, the Families in Distress Foundation, the Museum of Australia, Greenpeace Australia, CARE Australia, the Australian Children’s Television Foundation, Film Victoria and the Anti-Football League. He was co-founder of the Australian Skeptics.

As well as two Orders of Australia, Phillip was Australian Humanist of the Year (1987), Republican of the Year 2005, and received the Longford Award, the film industry’s highest accolade, in 1981, the same year that he was appointed Senior Anzac Fellow. He is a recipient of the Henry Lawson Arts Award (1987) and in 1998 the National Trust elected him one of Australia’s 100 Living National Treasures. He recently became one of the 70 honorary fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He has four honorary doctorates from four universities— Sydney, Griffith, Edith Cowan and the University of South Australia.

Phillip lives on a cattle property specialising in the production of chemical-free beef. He is a collector of antiquities, including Egyptian, Etruscan, Roman, Greek and pre-Columbian sculptures and artefacts.

Amanda Lohrey is the author of several acclaimed novels, including the award-winning Camille’s Bread, as well as Vertigo, The Philosopher’s Doll and The Morality of Gentlemen.

She has also written two Quarterly Essays, Groundswell and Voting for Jesus. Reading Madame Bovary, her first collection of short fiction, was published in September 2010 by Black Inc.