Ideas and Society Program

Robyn Williams (presenter of ABC's The Science Show), will join science editor Elizabeth Finkel (editor of Cosmos and former CSIRO Chair), La Trobe Chancellor Adrienne E Clarke discuss the challenges of communicating science.

Chaired by Emeritus Professor Robert Manne.

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Dr Tim Soutphommosane (Australian Human Rights Commissioner) and Emeritus Professor Robert Manne (Vice-Chancellor's Fellow, La Trobe University) discuss the racial discrimination act and the intense discussion and public debate to amend it.

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Mick Malthouse (Coach, Carlton Football Club), Professor Russell Hoye (La Trobe Sport), Margot Foster (Former Olympian Rower, Chair of the Vicsport board) and Emeritus Professor Robert Manne (Convenor, Ideas and Society, La Trobe University) debate on the power of sport to make lasting change.

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Hilary McPhee AO (founding director of McPhee Gribble Publishers), Chris Feik (editor of the Quarterly Essay and publisher of Black Inc. Books), Elizabeth Finkel (editor of Cosmos Magazine and Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow at La Trobe University) and Jeff Sparrow (editor of Overland and co-author of Radical Melbourne) discuss Melbourne's claim to the intellectual capital of Australia.

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John Connor (CEO, The Climate Institute), Professor Mary Crock (Law, University of Sydney) and John Daley (CEO, The Grattan Institute) discuss what can be expected of the Abbott Government in response to climate change, the economy and asylum seeker policy.

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Bob Brown (a former Australian Greens politician, medical doctor, and environmentalist) is presented with an honorary degree from La Trobe University.

He discusses his career, views, and politics with Robert Manne (Emeritus Professor, a Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow and Convenor of the Ideas & Society Program at La Trobe University) and Dennis Altman (Emeritus Professor, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow and Professorial Fellow in Human Security at La Trobe University).

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Carrie Tiffany and Kerryn Goldsworthy discuss sex, desire and nature in Australian fiction.

Carrie Tiffany reads from her prize-winning novel, Mateship with Birds, and talks about her method of making fiction from fragments of different texts. Her work recently won her the inaugural $50,000 Stella Prize for Australian women’s writing. She is a postgraduate student with La Trobe University and now works as an agricultural journalist.

Kerryn Goldsworthy is Chair of the Stella Prize judging panel, the author of Adelaide in the ‘Cities’ series of New South books and 2013 Australian Critic of the Year.

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Global warming's maths mean we need to build a massive movement. It's simple maths: we can emit 565 more gigatons of carbon dioxide and stay below 2°C of warming – anything more than that risks catastrophe for life on earth. The only problem? Burning the fossil fuel that corporations now have in their reserves would result in emitting 2,795 gigatons of carbon dioxide – five times the safe amount. And they're planning to burn it all – unless we stop them.

Bill McKibben is the author of a dozen books about the environment. He is a founder of the grassroots climate campaign 350.org, which has coordinated 15,000 rallies in 189 countries since 2009. Time Magazine called him 'the planet's best green journalist'.

Introduced by Adam Bandt MP, Member for Melbourne.

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The political program, the philosophical views and the legal plight of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange discussed by leading Australian thinkers.

Human rights lawyer Julian Burnside, National Campaign Director of the WikiLeaks Party Greg Barns and La Trobe University Vice Chancellor’s Fellow Robert Manne share their fascinating insight into the world of Julian Assange.

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By the year 2050, there will be an extra two billion people coming to dinner. Just how we’re going to feed everyone is a question that’s exercising politicians, agri-businesses, academics and of course farmers.

Chaired by CEO of World Vision Tim Costello, the panel includes Snow Barlow, Foundation Professor of Horticulture and Viticulture at the University of Melbourne, Philip Keane, Reader and Associate Professor at La Trobe University, Department of Botany, and Elizabeth Finkel, Associate Editor, Cosmos Magazine and Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University.

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