Festival of Dangerous Ideas

What is the purpose of democracy when it’s become more challenging than ever to tell the left and right apart?  Journalist and filmmaker, Tariq Ali says Western democracy has failed and we are now seeing the emergence of an extreme centre, which ensures no challenges to this form of neoliberal politics is permitted.  T

In modern Australia, productivity is all that matters, or so our leaders tell us. However the way we have pursued economic growth in the last 30 years has prevented many people from sharing the rewards. We now create wealth via exclusion.  Writer Denis Glover argues that an economy is not a society. We desperately need

In a time of turmoil, what happens when art and politics collide? From prisons, refugee camps and war zones, artist and journalist Molly Crabapple has documented the astounding courage of people living in the worst possible circumstances.   Crabapple wonders whether art is sharp enough to cut through razor wires. Is it

We all have assumptions of what citizenship means. However, in recent years we are starting to see the envelop pushed with more common law rights being taken away. From Australia shutting its doors during the pandemic to authoritarian regimes acquiring the habit of turning travellers into political prisoners, where is

Drawing truth to power is more dangerous in some parts of the world than others. The combination of satire and anger can make the best political cartoons lethal to politicians, unveiling truths around human rights, leadership and freedom. But where do we draw the line between humour, offence and legality? And for carto

Are the ideals of the Enlightenment – reason, science and humanism – and the progress they can deliver being undermined by a cynical desire to burn it all down? Pre-eminent psychologist Steven Pinker explains why problems are inevitable and not a reason to destroy the institutions of modernity, with all the resulting c