Big Ideas

How can you turn failure into success? And even learn to love your mistakes? Table tennis champion Matthew Syed explains that we need to change our perception that talent is crucial for success into accepting that failure is temporary. Only then do you believe in the potential for growth. The mindset to learn from mistakes is common in many sports, but not prevalent in our social and political institutions.

Throughout America’s atomic history, the president has solely held the power to start a nuclear war. For decades, glitches and slipups have threatened to trigger such a war – unintentionally. A faulty 46-cent microchip nearly caused World War III, and we have cyber-attacks as well. Former US secretary of defense William Perry and security expert Tom Collina condemn leaving explosive power this devastating under one person’s decision and outline the prescription for a safer future.

Coronavirus has shut international borders, closed borders within Australia, forced countries to isolate, brought an end to global mobility, and put globalism itself into reverse. How do we prevent a rise in xenophobia, authoritarianism and isolationism and a lurch toward cold war conflict?

Economic sanctions serve to resolve international conflicts without resorting to violence and war. That’s the theory. But how well do they really work? They seem to have been successful in ending apartheid in South Africa or finalising the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. But it’s crucial that the big economies stand together and support the same sanctions. And in recent years, the important sanction alliance between the EU and the US is under pressure.

A billion dollar stimulus package is life support for our economy but sooner or later the government will pull the plug. Is there a risk of relapse if it happens too quickly? The Grattan Institute has a prescription for economic recovery with policy recommendations for household finances, transport , employment and health.

When Julia Gillard became our first female Prime Minister she fought a war on two fronts One to get her policies through. The other to fend off attacks from the gender warriors. Why are female leaders judged differently to men and how do we change the game? Prominent female leaders shared their personal experience with Julia who's distilled their insights into a new book on women and leadership.

What does not kill you, makes you stronger - so the saying goes. But how much truth is there to this old cliché?  Can a life altering trauma, or crisis, really lead to personal growth?  Psychologist, David Roland, believes it can. Paul Barclay speaks to David and three other individuals who have triumphed over extreme adversity.

Should things go back to the way they were before Covid-19 or is it an opportunity to do things differently? A greater investment in public services and public ownership could be the legacy of this pandemic.

The modern Middle East with the nations we know today is an artificial construct. In 1919, the victorious allies of WWI carved up the region into new countries — shaped by post-war greed and ambition, not based on historic communities.

The result is the violence we see today.

To mark Constitution Day on July 9, Paul Barclay talks to a panel of experts about the COVID-19 pandemic and the constitution. How have state and federal relationships equipped the nation to address this ongoing public health, and economic, crisis?