If Australian politics and public policy debates are a war of ideas, the National Press Club (NPC) is the battleground.

For the past half-century, the NPC has been the epicentre of political and social debate in Australia. Leaders and opinion-makers have used its stage to launch leadership bids, rattle the cage of public opinion with courageous and sometimes outrageous ideas, and make a stand.

Stand & Deliver author Steve Lewis joins political historian Frank Bongiorno in conversation to discuss some of the NPC's most powerful, controversial and entertaining speeches of the past fifty years.

Steve Lewis has been reporting politics in Canberra since 1992 and has survived the near collapse of the Fairfax media group, three prime ministers, Mark Latham and a career switch from The Financial Review to the News Ltd tabloids. Steve now writes freelance and works for Newgate Communications.

Associate Professor Frank Bongiorno is an Australian labour, political and cultural historian who teaches at the ANU.