Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Tuesday 27 October
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
‘Here’s the rule in the Liberal Party – if you win, you did the right thing.’ Those are the words of former treasurer Peter Costello, describing the brutal party dynamics that allowed Malcolm Turnbull to seize the leadership from Tony Abbott on 14 September.
The Labor Party turned switching leaders into an unedifying team sport, but the Liberals promised Australians something different: stability and ‘grown-up government’. So, how are they doing? Prime Minister Turnbull wants to be a new kind of leader – with a more optimistic outlook and greater respect for the public’s intelligence. The new cabinet, we’re told, will be consultative, communicative and no longer subject to ‘captain’s calls’. The old guard has promised ‘no sniping, no wrecking’.
Six weeks into Turnbull’s turn as leader, host Sally Warhaft will be joined by revered political journalists Michelle Grattan and Laura Tingle to discuss the new-look Liberals, the weight of expectation – and Australian political culture more broadly.
Featuring
Sally Warhaft
Sally Warhaft is a Melbourne broadcaster, anthropologist and writer. She is the host of The Fifth Estate, the Wheeler Centre’s live series focusing on journalism, politics, media, and international relations, and The Leap Year ...
Laura Tingle
Laura Tingle is chief political correspondent for ABC TV’s 7.30. She won the Paul Lyneham Award for Excellence in Press Gallery Journalism in 2004, and Walkley awards in 2005 and 2011. She is the author of Chasing the Future: Recession, Recovery and the New Politics in Australia, In Search of Good Government and three acclaimed Quarterly Essays, Great Expectations, Political Amnesia and Follow the Leader. Her new Quarterly Essay on Australian and New Zealand is due out in late 2020.
Michelle Grattan
Michelle Grattan AO is one of Australia’s most respected and awarded political journalists. She has been a member of the Canberra parliamentary press gallery for more than 40 years, during which time she has covered all the most significant stories in Australian politics.
As a former editor of The Canberra Times, Michelle Grattan was also the first female editor of an Australian daily newspaper. She has been with the Australian Financial Review, the Sydney Morning Herald and Political Editor of the Age since 2004.
Michelle currently has a dual role with an academic position at the University of Canberra and as Associate Editor (Politics) and Chief Political Correspondent at The Conversation.
She is the author, co-author and editor of several books and was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2004 for her long and distinguished service to Australian journalism.