UNSW Centre for Ideas

Most whistleblowers are unknown and ordinary people shedding light on corruption and misconduct. They rarely make the front page; many pay a devastating personal price. Australia’s whistleblowing protections are failing them. 

Hear two of the foremost experts in Australia on protecting and defending the rights of whistleblowers, Kieran Pender and Gabriel Shipton alongside leading commentator and former editor of Guardian Australia, Lenore Taylor. The event also includes an account from a whistleblower on a harrowing case of wrongdoing they exposed in the prison system.

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Following the historic appointment of Sue-Anne Hunter as the inaugural National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People, Australia finds itself on a new journey but an old and critical road to mend.  

From the over-representation of Indigenous kids in child protection and youth detention systems to the inordinately high rates of incarceration, family separation and suicide, there has been an ongoing failure to address their health and wellbeing, justice and education. Commissioner Hunter has been clear - First Peoples’ children and young people deserve better. 

In an evening of reflection and hope, Sue-Anne Hunter shares her vision for uplifting the lives and voices of Indigenous Youth in Australia. She discusses how this new agency, now given statutory powers to do its important work, will help to realise international and domestic commitments to human rights, address systemic failures in federal and state institutions, and enhance the safety, wellbeing and life chances of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people. Sue-Anne Hunter was joined in conversation by Isabella Higgins, host of ABC News' AM radio program.

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The ongoing conflict between Iran, the US and Israel has not only led to the deaths of many thousands of people, it has destabilised the global world order. As a middle power, Australia is being drawn into the conflict amid global pressures and strategic resource dependencies. Closer to home, the conflict is having a destabilising impact on Australia’s economy and enhancing other ongoing issues, such as rising inflation and concerns of higher unemployment. 

UNSW’s Nalini Prasad explains how global and domestic trends in the economy are impacting the Aussie wallet, and your standard of living. She will explain how these trends are threatening an economic situation called ‘stagflation’, unseen since the 1970s and difficult to solve through traditional policy levers.

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When Nila Ibrahimi posted a video of herself online, singing proudly in protest of the ban on girls over 12 singing in public, she hoped the music would inspire young girls to continue their education. It was 2021 and the Taliban’s return to Afghanistan had come down swiftly on women's freedom. The video went viral and the ban was reversed, sending a powerful message across social media – women of Afghanistan would not be erased from public life. The Taliban would, however, go on to prohibit female education and Nila and her family would have to flee her homeland. Undeterred, Nila continues to advocate for Afghan girls from Canada.

Listen in to winner of the 2024 International Children’s Peace Prize Nila Ibrahimi in her first ever visit to Australia. In conversation with UNSW’s Verity Firth, they’ll unpack how peaceful grassroots activism can empower people of all ages to challenge authority and the importance of a right to education.

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Dr Karaitiana Taiuru is a leading global voice at the forefront of Māori data sovereignty and AI ethics. His practice draws on tikanga Māori and mātauranga Māori to facilitate conversations about the ways emerging technologies must uplift, protect and empower Indigenous knowledge, culture and communities.

Hear him in conversation with Dr Sue Keay, where he explores why protecting Māori knowledge as a living treasure is one of the most exciting and urgent challenges of our tech future.

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Angie Abdilla creates video installations interrogating Indigenous deeptime knowledges, automation and AI, focusing on technology as cultural practice. Her research, artworks and films have been exhibited at premier cultural institutions, including the current Data Dreams: Art and AI exhibition at the MCA, and previously, the United Nations; Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria; the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam; the Museum of Old and New Art, nipaluna/Hobart; and the Goethe-Institut, Sydney.

Her pioneering research on cultural governance for AI has influenced governments globally. She is the founder and director of Old Ways, New; co-founder of the Indigenous Protocols for AI working group; has won the inaugural Women in AI Award for Creative Industries; and is a Professor at the School of Cybernetics at the Australian National University.

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Every day, generative AI is pumping millions of new pictures into existence. Researcher and UNSW lecturer Dr Charu Maithani is redefining how we think about the images flooding our world, exposing how they capture only the narrowest sliver of human experience. Her work reveals how reimagining the way AI is trained – what it sees, learns, and absorbs from culture – defines our visual vocabulary and reshapes our collective imagination. Sometimes, what we don’t see is just as important as what we do.

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Richard Holden | Alan Kohler

Australia, a land of sweeping plains, has one of the lowest population densities on the planet. So, how did we end up with a housing shortage? 

In conversation with economist and author Richard Holden, veteran finance journalist Alan Kohler’s new Quarterly Essay, The Great Divide: Australia’s Housing Crisis and How to Fix It, investigates where things went wrong at the start of the 21st century with escalating property prices leading to a rental crisis, a dearth of public housing and a mortgage crunch.  

This event is presented by the Sydney Writers' Festival and supported by UNSW Sydney. 

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Since its 2025 publication, Laurie Woolever’s Care and Feeding was an immediate New York Times bestseller, tracing her path from small-town childhood to working with two of the most powerful men in the food business, chefs Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain. The book’s success is no surprise. Laurie doesn't sugarcoat the consequences of a life where desire has been met with opportunity in equal measure. She weaves her story deftly, capturing the essence of New York city during the golden era of the 1990s and 2000s food celebrity without downplaying the darker side of indulgence and the treatment of women in the male-dominated food industry. 

Hear Laurie alongside Good Weekend senior writer and former editor Katrina Strickland as they discuss the love language of food, living life without guardrails and learning to curb her appetites.

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As one of the world’s leading researchers in artificial intelligence, Toby Walsh has been awarded the Humbolt Research Award and elected as a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of AI. In The Shortest History of AI, Toby outlines the six key ideas for understanding artificial intelligence today. 

Hear Toby trace the origins of artificial intelligence in science and culture and predict where the technology is heading in the future. 

This event was presented by the Sydney Writers' Festival and supported by UNSW Sydney.

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