Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Tuesday 18 October
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
‘You can feel it here. In your bones,’ Bruce Wolpe wrote from Washington DC on 19 September. ‘The political classes in Washington are frightened and dazed, afraid that Donald Trump can win this election, reflecting a changed America they do not know or understand any more.’
Wolpe was on the Democratic staff in Congress in Barack Obama’s first term, was a senior advisor to Prime Minister Julia Gillard and is a regular commentator on US politics for Fairfax, Sky News and the ABC. He’ll join Sally Warhaft at the Wheeler Centre for a crucial Fifth Estate session in the countdown to the US presidential election.
With a race characterised by a palpable hostility towards the status quo and a heightening of gender, class and racial divisions across the country – will we see a radically changed electoral landscape on polling day? Would a President Trump in office really deliver on the bigotry and bluster he’s demonstrated in his campaign? And, as an establishment candidate, how can Hillary Clinton respond to anti-establishment sentiment if she wins the presidency?
Join Warhaft and Wolpe as they unpack these questions and more in the final days of a truly surreal election season.
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 ...
Bruce Wolpe
Bruce Wolpe served as a Senior Adviser to Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Australia from 2012-13, and is Chief of Staff to the former prime minister. He was liaison for Prime Minister Gillard with the business community, and involved in key economic initiatives, including establishing the architecture for Australia’s chairing the G20 in 2014; developing and holding the Prime Minister’s Forum on the Economy; the Prime Minister’s Forum on the Digital Economy; the Business Advisory Forum to COAG, the National Panel on Economic Reform, and other government-business initiatives.
Bruce helped finalise, launch, and begin implementation of the Government’s Australia in The Asian Century white paper. He worked closely with the Cabinet and senior MPs, and contributed to the PM’s public statements and speeches. He had extensive official travel with the PM domestically and internationally to NATO (Chicago) and APEC (Vladivostok).
Previously, Bruce served as Senior Advisor to Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA), Chairman and later Ranking Member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which has jurisdiction over energy, climate, health, telecommunications, consumer protection and related issues.
From 1998-2009, Bruce was Director, Corporate Affairs for Fairfax Media Limited, Australasia’s largest media company, based in Sydney. Previously, he was head of the media, telecoms and IT practice at Hill and Knowlton Australia. In the 1980s, Bruce was a partner at The Wexler Group in Washington, a government relations firm. From 1974-82, he was Legislative Director for Rep. Waxman, and was Director, Corporate Affairs for National Public Radio, 1982-83. He has served on the Boards of the Australian American Education Leadership Foundation, and the Australian Fulbright Program. Bruce is author of Lobbying Congress: How The System Works (Congressional Quarterly Books, 1990, 1996). He is a regular commentator on US politics for Sky News and ABC News.