Big Ideas

Australia's national anthem proclaims that: "for those who've come across the seas we've boundless plains to share". But with Australia's immigration program once again under the political spotlight, is that really true? How does what leaders say about refugees and migrants ripple out into the community, and what attitudes and behaviours does it give license to?

Mariam Veiszadeh was born in Afghanistan and moved to Australia as a child. She's devoted her life's work to creating a fairer Australia for refugees and migrants. She explores what it might take to foster social cohesion and a sense of belonging in Australia, and to ensure that everyone gets a fair go.

The 2026 Kaldor Centre Oration was recorded on 20 October 2026 at the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law in partnership with the Centre for Ideas at the University of New South Wales.

Speakers:

Mariam VeiszadehLawyer, executive, diversity and inclusion consultant and human rights advocateFounder and director, Islamophobia Register AustraliaFormer and inaugural CEO of Media Diversity Australia

Nicole AbadeeJournalist and professional moderator

Is the witch back?  The word, the craft, the movement, and as a viral social media phenomenon #witchtok? Did the witch ever really disappear? Women who don't conform or who challenge certain kinds of power have long been persecuted as witches. An eye-opening conversation about the past and present of witchy women. Witchcraft is both ancient and modern. Could it be the radical response we need right now — in a world increasingly detached from Nature? This event was hosted by the 2026 Festival of Dangerous Ideas and The Ethics Centre 

Speakers

Lucianne Tonti Author of Good Witch: In search of our lost feminine power (2026) Fashion editor of The Saturday Paper, sustainability editor-at-large for Elle Australia, and contributor to The Guardian.  Dr Emma Quilty Author of Witch Power: Hexing the Patriarchy with Feminist Magic (2026)  Anthropologist and postdoctoral research fellow at Monash University’s ARC Centre for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. 

Dr Caroline Tully Archaeologist, University of Melbourne's School of Historical and Philosophical Studies.  Author, The Society of Diana Witch-flight and the Mysteries of the Night Queen (2026). Practising pagan and witch for over four decades.

AI data centre developments are raising concerns in affected communities across Australia. The industry and its critics come together to cover the pros, the cons, and the concerns, at an event in the heart of a city where data centres have become a political hot potato in the lead up to the Victorian state election.

This event hosted by RMIT University for Social Sciences Week was recorded on 17 September 2026. 

Speakers:

Lisa GivenDirector & Co-Founder, Centre for Human-AI Information Environments, Distinguished Professor of Information Sciences in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University

Priya RajagopalanDirector of the Post Carbon Research Centre for Infrastructure and the Built Environment and Associate Dean (Research and Innovation) in the school of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University

Belinda DennettCEO of Data Centres Australia

Michael HelmerChief Risk Officer at NEXTDC

Dr Sarah MansfieldGP, Deputy Leader of the Victorian Greens, MLC for Western Victoria

Margaret Paul (host) Suburbs reporter, ABC News Victoria

Homer’s Odyssey is back into the spotlight. Not just with Christopher Nolan’s new record breaking movie. Greek mythology is a publishing phenomenon with enduring appeal. So why are we reaching back to ancient myths for life lessons and a deeper understanding of the human condition? What was life actually like in Homer’s world... and where does history end and myth begin? 

This event was hosted at the Greek-Australian Writers’ Festival in Adelaide.

Speakers

Dr Alexandra TheodoropoulouGreece’s Consul-General in South Australia

Dr Emlyn DoddLecturer in Archaeology and Classical Studies, University of Adelaide

Petra KaliveArtistic Director, State Theatre Company South Australian

Dr Helen Vatsikopoulos (host)Director of the Greek-Australian Writers’ Festival Journalist; Industry Professional Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney

When you lose people and places, you can't bear to be without - or the baggage that weighs you down, is loss really nothing more than change? This conversation goes looking for loss in all its shapes: the identity we misplace growing up between cultures, the self we lose and remake as our bodies change and the strange, unsettling experience of coming face to face with who we used to be.

Griffith Review: Lost and Found was presented at the Melbourne Writers Festival

Speakers

Dr Ahona Guha Clinical and Forensic Psychologist, author, media consultant and speakerAuthor of Reclaim: understanding complex trauma and those who abuse and Life Skills for a Broken World

Madison GriffithsAuthor of Sweet Nothings and Tissue

Georgia MaluPoet, writer and editor. Boigu Island woman from the Umu Mere and Umai Lag clans

Carody Culver (host)Editor of the Griffith Review

Two neurospicy minds talk neurodiversity, creativity, and what it's like to get a diagnosis like Autism or OCD as an adult. Can it bring clarity, upheaval, grief, or all of the above? And how can writing about it help? Host of The Bachelor and Bachelorette, podcaster, and mental health advocate Osher Günsberg and poet, essayist, editor and author of Kill Your Boomers Fiona Wright join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell. This event was held at the 2026 Byron Writers Festival on Bundjalung Nation Country. Speakers

Osher Gunsberg Host of TV shows The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, and of the Better Than Yesterday podcast.  Author of Back, After the Break (2018). Co-author of So What? Now What?: How to Stop Being Stuck and Start Living (2026) with illustrator Campbell Walker aka Struthless. 

Fiona Wright Poet, writer, editor 2024 Judy Harris Writer in Residence, Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney Author, Small Acts of Disappearance: Essays on Hunger (2015); Kill Your Boomers (2026), and contributor to the Someone Like Me anthology of autistic writers. 

I was unseen even to myself: as many as half of people with anorexia are autistic (Fiona Wright in The Conversation, 2026)

From the rise of One Nation at home, to surprising election results abroad, recent events suggest that people feel that politics as usual is no longer delivering for them. So what alternatives are they reaching for?

This conversation Political Rupture: Identity, Equality and Opportunity was recorded at the Canberra Writers Festival on 17 October 2026.

Speakers:

Niki SavvaAuthor, Earthquake: the election that shook Australia and morePolitical commentator and columnist with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapersFormer press secretary to Liberal Treasurer Peter Cosetllo

Waleed AlyAuthor, Chaos: Dispatches from disorder, Time of Monsters: What Future for Liberalism? (Quarterly Essay #103) and moreCo-host (with Scott Stephens) of The Minefield, ABC Radio NationalAdjunct Professor at Monash UniversityColumnist with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspaper

Jordan McSwiney (host)Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy, University of Canberra2026 ABC Top 5 Humanitites Scholar

Is there method in Donald Trump's madness? His plans for Venezuela, Iran, Ukraine, Greenland — even Canada. His disdain for global institutions and democratic processes. His preference for traditional values. What is the logic behind "Trumpian world making", and how is it reshaping the globe?

This event was recorded at the Ultimo Institute at the University of Technology Sydney on 14 October 2026.

Speakers:

Gary GerstleEmeritus Paul Mellon Professor of American History at the University of CambridgeAuthor, The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era

Roy Green (host)Emeritus Professor and Special Innovation Advisor at the University of Technology Sydney

The fire season is changing across Australia, becoming hotter, drier and longer. The evidence about the best ways to protect lives, property, and the environment is changing too. While fuel reduction burning has become a vital tool in the arsenal for land managers in every state and territory, some are now questioning whether we are doing it right - or whether we should be doing it all.

The Burning Conversation was recorded at the Royal Society of Victoria on 21 September 2026.

Speakers:

Professor Trent Penman Bushfire risk modeler and Team Leader of FLARE Wildfire Research at the University of Melbourne

Dr Phil Zylstra Adjunct professor, Curtin University and the Australian National University

Gregg Borschmann (host) Writer and oral historian, Driector, Talking Country

The year is 2046. After 2026, a whole lot changed in the world. Citizens started to vote women into power in parliaments everywhere. What happened next? Four Far North Queensland leaders are leaping into a tardis to hurtle twenty years into the future. Jump in, if you want the world to be different, this could be the ride of your life. Join Natasha Mitchell and guests in Cairns on Yidinji Country at the 2026 WOW (Women of the World) Festival.

Speakers

Dr Rana DadpourResearch Fellow at The Cairns Institute at James Cook University.Director of AUSIRAN, an advocacy group for Australian Iranians.

Francoise LaneDescendant of the Meriam and Kaurareg peoples of Zenadth KesArtist, curator, designerCo-founder and director of Indij Architecture and DesignFounder, Francoise Lane FashionFormer Artistic Director, Cairns Indigenous Arts Fair.

Claudia KurowskiYear 12 student and 2026 Youth Mayor of Cairns2026 Cairns Young Citizen of the Year, 2025 Cairns Young Woman, and co-founder of The Gratitude Initiative.

Anita VeiversExecutive Director, Centacare Far North QldChair, Cairns Regional Jobs CommitteeBoard Member, Regional Development Australia Tropical North.

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