Talking Point (audio)

Professor Pat Dodson, Professor of Indigenous Policy at UNSW, gives the Inaugural Gandhi Oration.

The Gandhi Oration commemorates Martyrs' Day and is delivered by a person whose life's work exemplifies the ideals of Gandhi. Professor Patrick Dodson has shown great leadership promoting and fostering reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians and his work in this area has been marked by great tolerance and compassion.

Can corporations' relentless focus on maximising shareholder wealth actually harm investors? UNSW's Centre for Law, Markets and Regulation presents Prof Lynn Stout, the Paul Hastings Distinguished Professor of Corporate and Securities Law at UCLA, in the second seminar of the series "In Who or What Do We Trust?"

Lynn Stout has been described as "the closest thing to a rockstar in corporate governance". Professor Stout advocates the end of shareholder primacy where public corporations belong to their shareholders and firms exist for one purpose only - to maximise shareholder wealth.  However, modern corporate practice needn't be this way. Professor Stout argues that shareholder value thinking actually harms investors, over time and as a class.

The CLMR in association with Allens Arthur Robinsion and the Centre for International Finance and Regulation is delighted to welcome Professor Stout to lead the second seminar in the series ‘In Who or What Do We Trust.’

The lecture is followed by a panel discussion moderated by Professor Justin O’Brien, Director of the CLMR. Panelists include:

- Professor David Vines, Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford;

- Mr Greg Medcraft, Chairman, Australian Securities and Investments Commission;

- Mr John Colvin, CEO, Australian Institute of Company Directors;

- Professor Seumas Miller, Professor of Philosophy, ANU;

- Mr John Morgan, Partner, AAR

A particular take on the dangers of cannabis use from UNSW's Dr Matthew Large, as remixed by journalist Michael "Mikey" Slezak.

Prof Peter Singer (Princeton University) discusses the way in which our decisions about the kind of built environment we choose to create, and to live in, should take into account the interests of others, whether present or future, human or nonhuman.

Australian-born philosopher Peter Singer is frequently acknowledged as a major force in modern bioethics. Peter has taught at the University of Oxford, La Trobe University and Monash University, as well as holding several visiting appointments. He has been Ira W DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Centre for Human Values at Princeton University since 1999, and since 2005 has also held the part-time position of Laureate Professor in the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne. Professor Singer first became well-known internationally after the publication of Animal Liberation. His other books include Practical Ethics, Rethinking Life and Death, How Are We to Live? and most recently, The Life You Can Save, His writings have appeared in more than 20 languages. In 2005 Time named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world and in 2011 he received the Ethics Award of the Giordano Bruno Foundation, in Germany.

Historian Bob Hall has turned a tour of duty in Vietnam into a life’s work. His team at UNSW@ADFA has identified the burial sites of thousands of Viet Cong missing in action.

Ben Wildavsky's lecture, The Great Brain Race: Rise of the Global

Documentary presentation and talk by Rusty Young, author of Marching Powder. 17 April 2011 at The University of New South Wales.

Rusty graduated from UNSW Commerce/Law in 1999. He worked briefly in merchant

NB. The Foreign Correspondence domentary shown was not included in this recorded.

Kerry O'Brien delivers the 2011 Wallace Wurth Memorial Lecture.

Kerry O’Brien is one of the most well regarded names in Australian journalism. With a career spanning 45 years, Kerry has been awarded six Walkley Awards and the coveted Gold Walkley, which is the highest honour in Australian journalism.

The host of the ABC’s Lateline for six years, Kerry later moved to The 7.30 Report in December 1995, and only concluded his time on the program in December 2010. Kerry now comperes Australia’s most respected investigative television current affairs program, Four Corners, and is also the regular anchor of the ABC’s election tally-room coverage. He has interviewed many world leaders including President Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, Tony Blair, Mikhail Gorbachev and Margaret Thatcher.

UNSW's national HIV clinical research centre has celebrated its 25th