In partnership with the Balmain Association

The Power of Beauty – or what we can learn from Balmain

We are richer and freer than ever, yet we continue to make cities that few of us like. Now, they threaten our very survival. Cronyism, uglification, sprawl, heritage destruction, misappropriation of public land, flogging of public assets, carbon emissions, habitat clearing and urban heat: at the heart of them all lies a fallacy; the idea of city as profit-machine rather than a ground of shared connection. Perhaps it is time for a reset.
What, asks Dr Elizabeth Farrelly, can we learn from old, unplanned and beloved environments like Balmain.

About Elizabeth

Elizabeth Farrelly is a columnist, essayist, novelist, critic and speaker. Trained in architecture, science and philosophy, she is fascinated by how humans engage with nature to make culture. Over thirty years her Sydney Morning Herald column on urbanism, planning, planting, climate, politics and public art has seen city-making go from back-page news to headline material. With a PhD in Sydney urbanism, Farrelly has been Assistant Editor of the Architectural Review in London, a City of Sydney Councillor, Associate Professor (Practice) in the Australian Graduate School of Urbanism at the University of NSW and inaugural chair of the Australia Award for Urban Design.

More about Elizabeth

14 October 2021

Women in Australia – How safe? How equal?

With recent reports of the gender pay gap widening, greater numbers of women dropping out of the workforce, and the ongoing reports of sexual harassment, sexual assault and domestic and family violence, Edwina and Alison will reflect on the current status of gender equality in Australia, specifically for people living in poverty. They will explore the impacts of COVID on work, caring and families, responses needed for women’s safety, and how economic decisions can entrench or challenge gender inequality.

About the speakers

Edwina MacDonald (she/her)

Edwina is Deputy CEO at the Australian Council of Social Service, the peak body for the Australian community services sector. She has over two decades of experience in driving change on social issues and social justice, human rights, gender equality and civil society, and has worked on research, policy and advocacy in government, university and community sectors.

more about Edwina MacDonald

Alison Aggarwal (she/her)

Alison is a feminist human rights advocate and activist is currently the Director, Policy Advocacy and Research at Chief Executive Women. She has previously held policy roles promoting gender equality and human rights in the federal government, the Australian Human Rights Commission, and in community legal centres. She has also promoted gender equality and human rights through international development projects, and through her work with feminist movements and organisations across the Asia Pacific.

Thursday 11 April 2019
Rebecca Huntley

What do Australians want most from their next government? Rebecca Huntley listens to the people and hears a call for change.

Too often we focus on the angry, reactionary minority. But, Huntley explains, there is also a large progressive centre.

For some time, a clear majority have been saying they want action – on climate and energy, on housing and inequality, on corporate donations and the corruption of democracy.

Would a Shorten Labor government rise to this challenge? What can be learnt from the failures of past governments? Was marriage equality just the beginning? In Australia Fair, Rebecca Huntley reveals the state of the nation and makes the case for democratic renewal – should the next government heed the call.

“Often the claim is made that our politics and politicians are poll-driven. This is, on the whole, bunkum. If polls were influential, we would have invested much more in renewable energy, maintained and even increased funding to the ABC, and made child care cheaper. We may already have made changes to negative gearing and moved towards adopting elements of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. We would have taken up the first iteration of the Gonski education reforms. These are some of the issues where a democratic majority comes together, a basic agreement crossing party lines.” —Rebecca Huntley, Australia Fair

About the speaker

 

Join us for the presentation of this online project that brings together the written and mapped history of Balmain with personal stories.

Edwina is seeking local stories for the project and will be inviting guests to share their memories in writing, which she will be adding to the website.

About the speaker

History Matters

What are human rights and how does Australia’s performance stack up against its international human rights obligations?

Amy Maguire specialises in public international law and human rights at the University of Newcastle Law School. She is a sought-after commentator on international legal and human rights issues for Australian and international television, radio, online and print media and a featured author for The Conversation. Amy contributes to evidence-based policy-making through submissions to government inquiries in her fields of expertise. She has published widely in highly-regarded academic journals and edited books.

Profile: Associate Professor Amy Maguire

The Conversation | August 3, 2018
Amy Maguire, Jason von Meding,  Samuel Berhanu Woldemariam

Australia and other countries must prioritise humanity in dealing with displaced people and migration

Read the article

 

 

 

 

Refugee politics in Australia is the most divisive and controversial aspect of our immigration policy. Jock Collins and Carol Reid will present an overview of their current research through which members of 250 families from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan have been interviewed across the Eastern States.

Despite prejudice-flamed opinions to the contrary, their research suggests that new refugees are settling well into Australia, are very thankful to be here, are eager to contribute to our society, but employment remains a challenging issue.

Jock Collins is Professor of Social Economics at the UTS Business School. He has been conducting research on Australian immigration since the early 1970s.  He currently holds four Australian Research Council grants, two of which relate to refugee settlement in Australia.

Professor Jock Collins bio

Carol Reid is Professor of Sociology of Education in the Centre for Educational Research, Western Sydney University. For the last four decades she has been involved in education for culturally diverse populations. Her recent research focuses on the settlement of refugees, compulsory education for ethnic minorities in Sydney, and immigrant teachers in Australia. She has published six books and more than 80 articles on these topics.

Professor Carol Reid bio

 

 

 

The daughter of a Singaporean migrant, Gabrielle moved from the Canberra press gallery to marry a sheep and wheat farmer in 1996 – the year Pauline Hanson was first elected to federal parliament. She noticed the economic and cultural divide between the city and the country, the differences in political culture and yawning gap between the parliament and small town life.

In September 2017 she swapped interviews with politicians with interviews with ordinary people on her main street to discover why they think politics has moved so far from their lives. The result is Rusted Off: Why country Australia is fed up. In the process, Gabrielle draws conclusions about the current state of our rural political representation, the gap between city and country and how to bridge it.

Gabrielle Chan has been a journalist for more than 30 years. She has been a political journalist and politics live blogger at Guardian Australia since 2013. Prior to that she worked at The Australian, ABC radio, The Daily Telegraph, in local newspapers and politics.  Gabrielle has written and edited history books, biographies and even a recipe book.

 

Dean Parkin was closely involved in the process leading to the Statement and will take you on a deeper exploration and the invitation it gives to the Australian people.

Dean is the Executive Director of the Uluru Education Project, which aims to drive public awareness of the Uluru Statement From the Heart that was developed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in May 2017.

An experienced independent management consultant, Dean has worked across the public, corporate, not-for-profit and political sectors at national, regional, and local levels. He has advised a range of clients on strategy, engagement and co-design, and in addition to extensive experience in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs, he has commercial experience both in Australia and the UK.

Dean is from the Quandamooka peoples of Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) in Queensland and works with his community on their Native Title journey. Dean has a Bachelor of Arts (Politics and Journalism) from the University of Queensland. He is an inaugural Fellow of the Atlantic Fellowship for Social Equity (University of Melbourne) and is a board member of the NAISDA Dance College, Australia’s premier Indigenous training college.

Read the ULURU STATEMENT FROM THE HEART

What challenges and opportunities face North Korea in it’s 70th year – and our region and the world?

Dr Christopher Richardson

What does it look like, who will be doing it, and how will we regulate it?
How can we re-think the very concept of work to make sure that work works for as many of us as possible?

Susan Price is an experienced employment lawyer and diversity consultant.
She has worked in private practice, most recently with PwC, as well as in-house.
Susan is one of the inaugural Fellows of the University of Sydney Policy Lab, and is also an Honorary Affiliate of the Business School in the Discipline of Work and Organisational Studies.   Susan has a keen interest in the future of work and how it will be regulated.  She is an active member of Women Lawyers NSW, and sits on the boards of Epilepsy Action and the Bondi Beach Cottage.

more about Susan Price

The link between hard work and good living standards in Australia is broken. We need to find out why, and how to fix it. Australian workers deserve their fair share of prosperity in one of the wealthiest nations on earth.

Emma Dawson

Emma Dawson is the Executive Director of Per Capita.
Per Capita is an independent progressive think tank, dedicated to fighting inequality in Australia. We work to build a new vision for Australia based on fairness, shared prosperity, community and social justice.

Formerly, Emma was a senior advisor on Digital Inclusion at Telstra, Executive Director of the Institute for a Broadband Enabled Society at the University of Melbourne, and a senior policy advisor in the Rudd and Gillard governments.

Emma has published articles and opinion pieces on a wide range of public policy issues, which have appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the Guardian, The Australian, and a number of online publications. She is a regular panellist on The Drum on ABC TV and various Sky News programs.

Emma holds a BA with First Class Honours from LaTrobe University and an MA with Distinction from Monash University. She sits on the board of the Prader-Willi Research Foundation Australia and is an Honorary Fellow in the School of Social and Political Inquiry at the University of Melbourne.

more about Emma Dawson

from Mary Wollstonecraft to #metoo

Dr Olivia Murphy

It’s 2018, and women still face sexual harassment and discrimination at work and in public life. What can the eighteenth century teach us about how we got into this mess, and how to fix it?

Dr Olivia Murphy is the author of Jane Austen the Reader, and has published widely on eighteenth and early nineteenth century literature and culture. She is currently a postdoctoral research fellow, Department of English, Sydney University.

more about Dr Olivia Murphy