The Fifth Estate

Award-winning journalist and author Roger Cohen meets Fifth Estate host Sally Warhaft for a wide-ranging spotlight conversation on his memoir, his body of work and his perspective on international affairs.

Immediately after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, British civilian Emma Sky was enlisted as the representative of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Kirkuk, one of Iraq’s most volatile areas. She went on to serve in the region longer than any other senior military or diplomatic figure – including as political advisor to the Commanding General of US Forces in Iraq from 2007–2010.

In The Unravelling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq, Sky recounts the years following the fall of Hussein, detailing the corruption, the brutal insurgencies and the often disastrous manoeuvres of both the Bush and Obama administrations. Offering a unique insider’s perspective, it has been praised in the Guardian as ‘adetailed and darkly humorous account that tries to understand everyone involved, Iraqis and Americans, on their own terms.’

Emma Sky (left) and Sally Warhaft (right)

Prior to her time in Iraq, Sky worked in the Palestinian territories for a decade. She is a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute, where she teaches Middle East politics. Sky visited Melbourne and Ballarat to talk with Sally Warhaft about the Middle East post-Hussein, the continuing importance of the US and the lessons to be learned about the limitations of power. This podcast episode brings you their discussion in Melbourne.

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Immediately after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, British civilian Emma Sky was enlisted as the representative of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Kirkuk, one of Iraq’s most volatile areas. She went on to serve in the region longer than any other senior military or diplomatic figure – including as political advisor to the Commanding General of US Forces in Iraq from 2007–2010. Prior to her time in Iraq, Emma Sky worked in the Palestinian territories for a decade. She is a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute, where she teaches Middle East politics. She spoke with Sally Warhaft about the Middle East post-Hussein, the continuing importance of the US and the lessons to be learned about the limitations of power.

Join acclaimed journalist Sarah Ferguson (The Killing Season) and host Sally Warhaft for a conversation about Labor, leadership and loyalty.

Sally Warhaft, left, with Sarah Ferguson — Photo: Jon Tjhia

Labor romped to victory under Kevin Rudd in 2007, with a comfortable majority and generous reserves of public goodwill. How did they manage to squander that goodwill, and trash their own brand so thoroughly that they were out of office again within just six years? Alan Milburn, a campaign strategist for Tony Blair and later for Julia Gillard has said he’s ‘never seen anything like it in any country, anywhere, anytime, in any part of the world’.

Milburn was one of more than 100 politicians, staffers, public servants and political insiders journalist Sarah Ferguson interviewed for the riveting ABC documentary series The Killing Season, about this extraordinary period of ALP infighting and implosion. Ferguson had to edit those interviews back to three one-hour episodes – an unenviable task indeed – but her new book, The Killing Season Uncut, goes behind the scenes of the series, revealing material that didn’t make the final cut. The book has much to tell about this turbulent period in ALP history but also provides fascinating insights into the processes of Ferguson– one of Australia’s most celebrated, agenda-setting journalists.

'For me, this story is unfinished … these two great politicians of their generation, by any standards, cut off at their prime.'

Sarah Ferguson

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Acclaimed journalist Sarah Ferguson ('The Killing Season') joins host Sally Warhaft for a conversation about Labor, leadership and loyalty.

Join Sally Warhaft and senior member of the Canberra press gallery, Niki Savva, for a discussion of political partnerships, party loyalty, the looming election and the state of conservative politics in Australia today.

Sally Warhaft and Niki Savva

Earlier this month, Niki Savva’s book on the political partnership of Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin sparked a flurry of press. There were attacks, counter-attacks, impassioned defences of the Abbott Government legacy – and just as vehement defences of long political and journalistic careers.

This Fifth Estate conversation offers a chance for a deeper dissection of the issues raised in the book – and in the media surrounding it – as well as a broader discussion of the trajectory of the Liberal Party. In The Road to Ruin: How Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin Destroyed Their Own Government, Savva argues that while the partnership between the former PM and his chief of staff was effective in opposition, it was catastrophic in government.

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Join Sally Warhaft and senior member of the Canberra press gallery, Niki Savva, for a discussion of political partnerships, party loyalty, the looming election and the state of conservative politics in Australia today.

Join host Sally Warhaft, Grattan Institute CEO and policy expert John Daley and influential banker and author Satyajit Das for a conversation about change, market forces and aspirations.

The divide between generations is becoming an increasingly apparent faultline in our society.

Baby Boomers came of age during an era of unprecedented economic prosperity, but their children have become adults in a set of drastically different circumstances. Over recent decades, we’ve seen a widening gap between rich and poor, with access to the property market tipped largely in favour of older generations. The workforce has changed drastically, too, with younger people competing in a more fragmented, casualised market – one that discriminates against older workers.

Perhaps it’s time for us all to reconsider our expectations. Can we continue with an economic model that’s predicated on the idea of endless growth? And can we do it while addressing younger generations’ environmental concerns and coping with the economic challenges of an ageing population? Do younger Australians even want what the Baby Boomers have had anyway?

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Join host Sally Warhaft, Grattan Institute CEO and policy expert John Daley and influential banker and author Satyajit Das for a conversation about change, market forces and aspirations.

Addressing the media after his successful leadership challenge last year, Malcolm Turnbull stressed his vision for an agile, forward-looking Australia. ‘We can’t be defensive,’ he said, promising a government that would ensure Australia can thrive, ‘as the world becomes more and more competitive and greater opportunities arise’.

But beyond the rhetoric – in practical foreign policy terms – what will it take to achieve a thriving, competitive 21st-century Australia? In this election year, which parties have the smartest foreign policy plans? And, in a more complex, competitive world, does Australia need to be bigger to be better?

Michael Fullilove is an author, historian and executive director of the Lowy Institute. In his recent Boyer lectures, he argued that Australia must be smarter, shrewder and larger to capitalise on the changing world order. In conversation with Sally Warhaft, he discusses why we need a bigger population and a bigger economy. Listen in for a discussion of foreign affairs, population and thinking big.

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