The Fifth Estate

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.

Can our economy make us sick? David Stuckler thinks it can. Stuckler is an Oxford University professor whose focus is the intersection of political economy and public health. In 2013, he co-wrote The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills, arguing that some countries have turned recessions into public health disasters in misguided efforts to get the budget back on track.

Sally Warhaft and David Stuckler

Stuckler has studied large data sets from across the globe to learn how economic upheavals – from the Great Depression to the collapse of the Soviet Union to the Asian Financial Crisis to the Global Financial Crisis – have affected the health of citizens.

Australia’s economy has held up better than most in recent times, so how do Stuckler’s findings relate to us? And what lessons can Australian policy-makers learn from mistakes made in other countries?

For our first Fifth Estate event in 2016, join Sally Warhaft and a fascinating international guest for a discussion of health and economic upheaval.

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Can our economy make us sick? David Stuckler thinks it can. Stuckler is an Oxford University professor whose focus is the intersection of political economy and public health. In 2013, he co-wrote The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills, arguing that some countries have turned recessions into public health disasters in misguided efforts to get the budget back on track. For our first Fifth Estate event in 2016, join Sally Warhaft and a fascinating international guest for a discussion of health and economic upheaval.

In our final Fifth Estate of 2015, Sally Warhaft is joined by the authors of The Dismissal, a new book on the abrupt, brutal end to the Whitlam era. One day shy of the 40th anniversary, journalists Paul Kelly and Troy Bramston shed new light on the crisis, discussing the true motivations of key players as well as the scale of collusion.

Australia has had four prime ministers in the last two years, thanks to a series of dramatic leadership spills and coups. Yet the dismissal of the Whitlam government on 11 November 1975 continues to stand out among the most divisive events in Australian political history. As far as political crises go, it remains in a class of its own.

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In our final Fifth Estate of 2015, Sally Warhaft is joined by the authors of The Dismissal, a new book on the abrupt, brutal end to the Whitlam era. One day shy of the 40th anniversary, journalists Paul Kelly and Troy Bramston shed new light on the crisis, discussing the true motivations of key players as well as the scale of collusion.

Six weeks into Turnbull’s turn as leader, host Sally Warhaft is joined by revered political journalists Michelle Grattan and Laura Tingle to discuss the new-look Liberals, the weight of expectation – and Australian political culture more broadly.

‘Here’s the rule in the Liberal Party – if you win, you did the right thing.’ Those are the words of former treasurer Peter Costello, describing the brutal party dynamics that allowed Malcolm Turnbull to seize the leadership from Tony Abbott on 14 September.

The Labor Party turned switching leaders into an unedifying team sport, but the Liberals promised Australians something different: stability and ‘grown-up government’. So, how are they doing? Prime Minister Turnbull wants to be a new kind of leader – with a more optimistic outlook and greater respect for the public’s intelligence. The new cabinet, we’re told, will be consultative, communicative and no longer subject to ‘captain’s calls’. The old guard has promised ‘no sniping, no wrecking’.

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Six weeks into Turnbull’s turn as leader, host Sally Warhaft is joined by revered political journalists Michelle Grattan and Laura Tingle to discuss the new-look Liberals, the weight of expectation – and Australian political culture more broadly.

Warhaft, Pyne and Bowen

If you want a friend in Washington, the famous saying goes, get a dog. Is the same true of Canberra? With a sometimes cynical electorate and a particularly hostile parliament, is it hard to hold onto one’s belief in politics as public service? What keeps long-time politicians in the game?

Sally Warhaft is joined by Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science Christopher Pyne (who was, until a recent reshuffle, Minister for Education) and Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen to discuss life on the front bench. In a wide-reaching conversation, the two Christophers reveal their motivations, their views on Australian political culture today and their personal political heroes in their respective portfolios: education, industry, innovation, science and treasury.

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In a wide-reaching conversation with Sally Warhaft, front bench politicians Christopher Pyne and Chris Bowen reveal their motivations, their views on Australian political culture today and their personal political heroes in their respective portfolios.

See also Note Malcolm Turnbull: ‘we have to put a price on carbon' / Australian politics

Guest post by Malcolm Turnbull

14 Sep 2015 Note Saving Native Species and Our Moral Code: With Tim Flannery / Animals & nature

By Jo Case

21 Nov 2012

Ten years after his internationally bestselling book, The Weather Makers, author and scientist Tim Flannery argues in Atmosphere of Hope that the global climate system is close to crisis.

Following the recent announcement of Obama’s Clean Power Plan, and in the lead-up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (to be held in Paris in December 2015), Fifth Estate host Sally Warhaft is joined by Tim Flannery alongside Australian Solar Council CEO John Grimes and futurist Katherine Teh-White to provide both a snapshot of the trouble we’re already in – and a discussion of the emerging technologies that give us hope for the future of our planet.

From atmospheric carbon capture to seaweed farming to carbon dioxide snow production in Antarctica and the manufacture of carbon-rich biochar, our guests will discuss not only the depths of the climate change crisis – but the transformative models that might mitigate its effects.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.