Questions for the Nation: Brisbane

Where

When

Friday, 8 Sep 2017, 02:30pm - 03:30pm

Event Status

Past event

The Wheeler Centre is roaming Australia, collecting the nation’s most urgent questions and thrashing them out with some of the sharpest thinkers we know. We’re doing it in panel discussions at Brisbane Writers Festival, Perth’s Disrupted Festival of Ideas, Darwin Festival and National Young Writers Festival in Newcastle.

At these sessions, we’ll scan the horizons, break deadlocked debates and dust off the issues rotting for too long at the bottom of the nation’s too-hard basket. What are the faultlines and tensions in Australian society, and where do we turn for fresh ideas for the future? Who do we want to be, and how are we going to get there?

In partnership with the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne, social researcher Rebecca Huntley hosts a discussion on the present and future of the nation. Join writer, prolific tweeter and columnist John Birmingham, historian Rutger Bregman, political scientist Anne Tiernan and researcher and IndigenousX ambassador Sandy O’Sullivan for their take on the most important question facing Australia today, before the microphone turns to you: what questions should Australia be asking?

Presented in partnership with UPLIT at Brisbane Writers Festival.

Featuring

Featuring

Rebecca Huntley

Rebecca Huntley is one of Australia’s most respected researchers on social and consumer trends, and head of research at Essential Media. She is the author of Still Lucky: Why You Should Feel Optimistic About Australia and Its People.

@rebeccahuntley2

Anne Tiernan

Anne Tiernan is an associate professor in the Centre of Governance and Public Policy and School of Government at Griffith University. She is director of postgraduate and executive programs in policy analysis and public administration in Griffith’s School of Government and International Relations. ... Read more

John Birmingham

John Birmingham is the author of the cult classic He Died With a Felafel in His Hand and most recently the thriller, Without Warning. He has also written the award-winning history Leviathan and the trilogy comprising Weapons of Choice: World War 2.1, Designated Targets: World War 2.2 and Final Impac... Read more

Rutger Bregman

Rutger Bregman is a historian and author. He has published four books on history, philosophy, and economics. The Dutch edition of Utopia for Realists became a national bestseller and sparked a basic income movement that soon made international headlines. The book will be translated in 22 languages. ... Read more

@rcbregman

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Sandy O'Sullivan

Dr Sandy O’Sullivan is an Aboriginal (Wiradjuri) woman and Associate Professor in Creative Industries at the University of the Sunshine Coast, and is an ambassador for IndigenousX. For 25 years she has taught and researched across media, performance, design and First Nations identity, and holds a ... Read more

@sandyosullivan

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