Human rights

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Right Time: Why We Need an Australian Charter of Human Rights / Human rights

With Lee Carnie, Gillian Triggs, Teela Reid and 1 other

Australia is the only western democracy without a Charter of Human Rights or an equivalent legal protection. What’s holding us back?

For this discussion, we’re bringing together three panellists – Kristen Hilton, Teela Reid and Gillian Triggs – to discuss the push for a federal Charter of Human Rights. Hosted by Lee Carnie, they’ll outline glaring problem areas in Australia’s…

Podcast episode

Cover image for of Right or Duty? Compulsory Voting in Australia

The Fifth Estate

Right or Duty? Compulsory Voting in Australia / Government

Sally Warhaft, Kim Rubenstein and Judith Brett

In a democracy, should voting be a citizen’s right or a citizen’s duty?

Australia is one of a small number of countries – including Argentina and Egypt – with mandatory voting. Australia is rare, within this small group of nations, in imposing penalties on citizens who fail to turn up to vote. Compulsory voting has been in place here since 1924 and it sets us apart from other advanced democracies. Less than 60% of the US voting-age population cast ballots in the 2016 presidential election.

For this conversation, we bring together citizenship law expert Kim Rubenstein and the eminent historian Judith Brett, author of From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia Got Compulsory Voting. They trace the history of our voting system and examine how it’s shaped the tenor of our debates and our sense of ourselves and our representatives – plus, how the system may yet change. With Sally Warhaft, they discuss donkey votes, ballot boxes, barbeques and the wide-ranging implications of compulsory participation.

The Wheeler Centre

Housekeeping #1: Sizzle / Australia Podcast episode

The Wheeler Centre

Housekeeping #2: ID / Government Podcast episode

The Wheeler Centre

Housekeeping #3: No-Shows / Australian politics Podcast episode

The Wheeler Centre

Housekeeping #4: Scrutiny / Government Podcast episode

The Wheeler Centre

Housekeeping #5: Locked Out / Crime

Promo image for Not Racist, But … Racism in the Workplace

Not Racist, But … Racism in the Workplace / Race, religion & identity

With Santilla Chingaipe, Yin Paradies, Jackie Huggins and 1 other

While overt forms of racism in Australian workplaces are outlawed, many people from Indigenous and migrant backgrounds argue that racism is still pervasive – before and after joining a workplace. Last year, a major company’s employment listing overtly preferenced ‘candidates who are Anglo Saxon’. Multiple studies have shown that anglicising names on job applications improves a jobseeker’s prospects, prompting recent…

Promo image for Writing in Exile: Mammad Aidani

Writing in Exile: Mammad Aidani / Free speech, human rights & social issues

With Mammad Aidani and Sami Shah

Mammad Aidani left Iran soon after the 1979 February Revolution. He has never been able to return home and has been living in exile ever since.

Aidani is an acclaimed poet and playwright, as well as a distinguished academic. His research is concerned with Middle Eastern people, especially Iranians, who have experienced violence or torture and who have resettled in…

Promo image for Sohaila Abdulali: Consent and Power

Sohaila Abdulali: Consent and Power / Crime

With Sohaila Abdulali and Jane Gilmore

This discussion includes topics that some viewers may find confronting.

‘We need to put responsibility where it lies, on men who violate women’ Sohaila Abdulali has written, ‘and on all of us who let them get away with it while we point accusing fingers at their victims.’

In 1980, Sohaila Abdulali was 17 years old and living in Mumbai. One…

8 Mar 2019

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