Robert Fisk, Timothy Lynch and Sally Warhaft — Photo: Emily Harms

The Syrian War is the most deadly conflict we’ve seen in the 21st Century so far.

And with 12 million Syrians displaced since 2011 and world powers intervening on all sides – it’s far from a regional problem. The Syrian War is a crisis with ramifications that reach across the globe.

Now in its seventh year, the conflict that began during the Arab Spring has become appallingly complex. The involvement of world and regional powers has served to intensify and prolong the hostilities, turning Syria into a proxy battleground, and casting the possibility of peace further into the distance.

For this Fifth Estate episode, recorded live at the Melbourne Writers Festival, join the Independent’s revered correspondent Robert Fisk and American politics expert Timothy Lynch for a discussion of foreign political involvement in the region. How are the interventions of world and regional powers exacerbating the conflict? Who are the various rebel groups involved and what are their activities in other parts of the region? How are global dynamics shifting – and are we witnessing the collapse of American power in the Middle East?

Immigration has long been among the most contentious, and highly politicised, areas of  Australian public policy. The past 20 years have seen a drastic increase in Australia's intake of migrants, as well as an increasingly punitive approach to managing asylum seeker arrivals; an approach that has attracted censure from human rights groups.

Does the recent outcome of the class action between Manus Island detainees and the Commonwealth represent a turning point? And what impact will new changes to 457 visas and the Australian citizenship test have on the fabric of our communities?

For this episode of The Fifth Estate, Sally Warhaft meets human rights activist, former refugee and orthopaedic surgeon, Munjed Al Muderis and GetUp!’s human rights campaign director, Shen Narayanasamy. Join them for a discussion of the Australian immigration experience and its broader implications.

Sally Warhaft, Munjed Al Muderis and Shen Narayanasamy

Australia has one of the world’s most educated populations. We have stable institutions, a strong economy and advanced technology. Yet we seem to face endless obstacles when it comes to solving our problems with good public policy. Is it the ideas, the culture or the political contest that get in the way?

And if we can’t solve problems – even those with broad agreement for solutions – how can we possibly create space for innovation?

In this conversation, we examine how public policy is shaped today and how the avenues to reform have changed in recent times. How do global political shifts impact on governance and public policy in Australia? What part do vested interests, changes in the media landscape and declining rates of political participation play?

Join host Sally Warhaft and two speakers who are uniquely qualified to tackle these questions: Geoff Gallop, former premier of Western Australia and Peter Hartcher, political editor and international editor of the Sydney Morning Herald.

Sally Warhaft, Geoff Gallop and Peter Hartcher