Economist and parliamentarian Andrew Leigh will be in conversation with technology entrepreneur and philanthropist Cliff Obrecht about Andrew’s new book, Battlers and Billionaires: The Updated Story of Inequality in Australia.

The Melbourne Energy Institute, The Superpower Institute, and the University of Melbourne Faculty of Business and Economics invite you to an insightful conversation with Professor Ross Garnaut AO, as he shares key ideas from his latest work, Let’s Tax Carbon: And Other Ideas for a Better Australia.

In this thought-provoking discussion, Garnaut will explore how Australia can lead the global transition to a low-carbon economy, securing its future as a full-employment, renewable energy superpower.

Garnaut will reflect on the history of Australia’s economic policies, offering a critical assessment of the current approach to climate and energy reform. Central to the discussion will be his proposal for a Carbon Solutions Levy, a bold new approach to holding major polluters accountable while spurring innovation and driving industrial development in a low-carbon economy.

Garnaut will be joined by special guests. The Grattan Institute's CEO Aruna Sathanapally will provide an introduction and comment from a macroeconomic perspective. Professor Beth Webster, Director of the Melbourne Institute for Applied Economic & Social Research, will explore full employment, equity, and corporate tax implications. Professor Peter Dawkins, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the Mitchell Institute, Victoria University and co-author on the Full Employment chapter, will expand on the return to full employment.

We hope you can join this important discussion, and afterwards enjoy conversation with Garnaut and guests over light refreshments.

On October 23, 2024, the Brunswick Picture House will host "Highway to Hell: Are We Stuck in a Climate Action Cul-de-sac?", a pivotal event featuring a presentation by renowned climate scientist Dr. Joelle Gergis, lead author of IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, The Quarterly Essay Highway to Hell and joined by a panel of local experts and activists to talk about government paralysis, false solutions and the folly of adaptation, rather than curbing fossil fuel use. The threat is real, and it's the community who are being called to act.

The event aims to energise community action on climate change by presenting practical solutions and empowering attendees to make a tangible difference.

One year ago, the referendum for an Aboriginal Voice to Parliament failed. Once the idea of the Voice was rejected by the Opposition that failure was probably inevitable.

What, however, did the referendum campaign and its ultimate failure reveal about the contemporary attitude of non-Indigenous Australians to the Indigenous peoples?

What can now be done to advance the decades-long struggle for reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians?

The Ideas and Society Program at La Trobe University is delighted to be able to invite you to join a discussion between two people at the very centre of the "Yes" campaign, both of whom have recently published important books that represent the first drafts of the history of the struggle for the Voice and its failure.

Thomas Mayo, a leader of the campaign, is the author of Always Was, Always Will Be.

Dr Shireen Morris who worked closely with another leader of the "Yes" campaign, Noel Pearson, is the author of Broken Heart: A True History of the Voice Referendum.

It will be introduced by Professor Julie Andrews, Academic Director of Indigenous Research at La Trobe University.  Professor Mark McKenna, Historian from the University of Sydney will facilitate the discussion.

For everyone interested in the future of reconciliation in Australia this is an event that ought not to be missed.

Before he was the Silver Bodgie, Robert J. Hawke was a scrawny kid from Border Town with a prophetic belief in his own grand destiny. Historians David Day and Frank Bongiorno consider the man behind the myth, and the myth behind the man. In conversation with Western Australian Labor Senator Varun Ghosh.
 

Australia is experiencing its first serious outbreak of inflation in decades, global inequality is sky-rocketing, there is a cost of living crisis, and the big banks are posting record profits. Join award-winning historian Stuart Kells and Canberra’s own Andrew Leigh MP as they untangle some of the big knots of our economic moment, and uncover a scandal or two. In Conversation with ABC Canberra's Adam Shirley. 

From rookie Queensland cop to leader of the opposition, Peter Dutton’s trajectory is more than a political origin story, it’s a cultural mirror. His fears, furies and preoccupations tell us something important about ourselves. Lech Blaine and Niki Savva take a deep dive into the mind of the opposition leader, and consider where he might lead us.  

Nina Wan (The Albatross), Rachel Mogan McIntosh (Mothering Heights), and Ariane Beeston (Because I'm Not Myself, You See), join Tori Haschka (A Recipe for Family), to discuss the tensions between creativity and creation; anxiety, pain, illness and parenthood - and just how much of yourself you are willing to put into your work.

The story of our past -- as individuals, and collectively as communities, nations, and indeed empires -- is the bedrock of understanding the present and perceiving the outlines of the future. But how history is told – and by whom -- matters greatly. Author and journalist David Marr, historian Alison Bashford, and Marc Fennell, author and presenter of the ABC’s Stuff the British Stole, discuss how history is transmitted – in books, on screen, and now in podcasts -- by both scholars and non-scholars, and to what effect, both good and bad.

Artificial intelligence  is one of the most contentious innovations of this century. For some observers its potential benefits -- for medicine and science, for example – outweigh any dangers; for others, the risks it poses to human agency and creativity, as well as global security, are enough to call for an immediate halt to its development. Journalist Tracey Spicer (author of Man Man: How the Bias of the Past is Being Built into the Future);  Toby Walsh (Professor of AI at UNSW and author of Faking It! Artificial Intelligence in a Human World) and Seumas Miller (ANU Professor Philosophy and author of Cybertechnology, Ethics and Collective Responsibility) debate and discuss these issues.

Depicting one’s life or the lives of others, whether in memoir or fiction, raises issues of identity, as well as authenticity. Yet identity – cultural, sexual,  racial, national --  can be  fluid and, rightly or wrongly, is sometimes contested, as is the authenticity of its depiction. Memoirist Kaya Wilson, biographer Jacqueline Kent, novelist Kirsty Jagger, and memoirist and novelist Alice Pung examine the challenges these issues present in writing about their own lives and the lives of others.

Founding editor of The Saturday Paper and Schwartz Media Editor-in-Chief Erik Jensen talks about his book Angry at Breakfast, an anthology of ten years writing editorials for The Saturday Paper, and the triumphs and frustrations of his career publishing the nation’s biggest news stories. With Stephanie Convery from The Guardian.

Which inheritances can we escape and which will haunt us forever? From one of Australia's most brilliant writers comes a gripping true story about the tangled fates of two couples and the foster children trapped between them. Join Lech Blaine as he discusses his new family memoir with Michael Williams (recorded for The Monthly’s weekly podcast, Read This).

With the majority of residents in the Borough of Queenscliffe voting ‘Yes’ in last year’s historical Referendum for a Voice to Parliament, but the nation overall voting ‘No’, First Nations writer Thomas Mayo and constitutional lawyer Shireen Morris share their thoughts on the outcome and the new path forward for reconciliation.

Two allies. Two agreements. 70 years of entwined history. Allan Behm, Andrew Fowler and Sam Rogeveen consider the risks and rewards of the America/Australia alliance. In conversation with Emma Shortis.

In 1975, as Gough Whitlam’s government hurtled towards its demise, a nineteen-year-old arts student at the University of Melbourne, Kim Carr, began a long march. Join the former Victorian senator and Labor cabinet minister as he discusses his memoir with Frank Bongiorno, and ponders a vital political question: How should Labor argue the case for a workable, appealing, durable version of social democracy for twenty-first-century Australia?

What does it take for an author to excavate personal history and turn it into searing, emotive prose? And how does an individual situate their experiences within, or against, formidable institutions – the church, the media, the government, the police force? 

Lech Blaine’s memoir, Australian Gospel: A Family Saga, tells the gripping true story of the tangled fates of two couples and the foster children trapped between their beliefs. Former police officer Veronica Gorrie’s astonishing debut, Black and Blue, details her passionate fight against institutional racism and sexism in the police force, and saw her win the 2022 Victorian Premier's Prize For Literature. Winning the 2024 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards for Indigenous Writing, Daniel Browning’s Close to the Subject, chronicles his stellar career as a journalist in a collection of essays, interviews, poetry, memoir, art writing and play script, highlighting his vulnerable and passionate creative side in its own right. 

Explore the artistry and personal toll of writing non-fiction with these celebrated authors, in conversation with festival director Maeve Marsden. 

Authors have long been fascinated by the very human need to belong, and what happens when that need becomes an obsession. A teenage sports game descends into a brawl in Karen Viggers’ Sidelines, two families clash over their beliefs, and their children, in Lech Blaine’s memoir, Australian Gospel, and a 70-year-old alternative health influencer is reunited with her estranged transgender son in Ernest Price’s dry-witted debut, Pyramid of Needs.  

Consider family, religion, identity, sport, diet culture and social media with these three brilliant books. 

From one of Australia's most brilliant writers, a gripping true story about the tangled fates of two couples and the foster children trapped between them.

Michael and Mary Shelley are Christian fanatics who loathe their fellow Australians – especially their 'reckless indulgence of alcohol and obsession with idiotic ball sports'. Lenore and Tom Blaine are working-class Queensland publicans raising a large family in a raucous, loving, sports-obsessed home. There's just one problem. The Blaines are foster parents to three of the Shelleys' children, who were removed from Michael and Mary as infants. And the Shelleys are prepared to do anything to get them back. Anything.

Australian Gospel is a family saga like no other – heartbreaking, hilarious and altogether astonishing.

'One of the best writers of his generation.' Benjamin Law

Lech Blaine is the author of the memoir Car Crash and the Quarterly Essay Top Blokes. His writing has appeared in The Monthly, Guardian Australia, The Best Australian Essays, Griffith Review, Kill Your Darlings and Meanjin. He was an inaugural recipient of a Griffith Review Queensland Writing Fellowship.

Jess Hill is an investigative journalist and the author of See What You Made Me Do and the Quarterly Essay The Reckoning. She has been a producer for ABC Radio and journalist for Background Briefing, and Middle East correspondent for The Global Mail. Her reporting on domestic abuse has won two Walkley awards, an Amnesty International award and three Our Watch awards. See What You Made Me Do won the 2020 Stella Prize and the ABA Booksellers’ Choice Adult Non-Fiction Book of the Year.

Join us for an enriching evening and meet two of the brilliant voices behind Growing Up Indian in Australia, editor Aarti Betigeri and Daizy Maan.

This is a compelling anthology exploring identity and community through vibrant narratives of cultural adaptation and resilience. Don't miss this chance to delve into the rich tapestry of Australian-Indian experiences.

Join us for a discussion with journalist, writer, and broadcaster Aarti Betigeri as she discusses her newly released book, Growing Up Indian in Australia.

"To be Indian growing up in Australia is to tread the narrow line between here and there, to constantly code-switch and navigate between filling the needs and aspirations of your family, your community – and yourself. Indian-Australian' is not a one-size-fits-all descriptor. Given the depth and richness of diversity of the Indian subcontinent, it is fitting that its diaspora is similarly varied."

Growing Up Indian in Australia reflects and celebrates this vibrant diversity. It features contributions from established and emerging Australian-Indian writers who hail from a wide range of backgrounds, religions and experiences. This colourful, energetic anthology offers reflections on identity, culture, family, food, and expectations, ultimately revealing deep truths about both Australian and Indian life.

Aarti Betigeri was born in Melbourne to parents from Maharashtra and Karnataka. After an early career as a producer with SBS and the ABC, and as a radio and television news presenter, she moved to India and worked as a foreign correspondent for almost a decade. Currently, she works as a journalist and advisor focusing on international relations. Her name is surprisingly easy to pronounce.

Join us for the launch of Lech Blaine's Australian Gospel. Lech will be joined in conversation by his siblings: Steven Blaine, John Blaine, Hannah Blaine and ABC journalist Ellen Fanning. 

Australian Gospel is a gripping true story about the tangled fates of two couples and the foster children trapped between them. Michael and Mary Shelley were Christian fanatics. Three of their children – Steven, John and Hannah – were placed into foster care with Lenore and Tom Blaine. The Blaines were working-class publicans in country Queensland. In 1992, Lenore Blaine gave birth to a miracle baby named Lech. Australian Gospel is the book that Lech was born to write: a love letter to his colourful parents and foster siblings. Today, Steven is an accountant in Perth. John is a car salesman in Bundaberg. Hannah is a neuropsychologist in Alice Springs. Lech is an author and essayist based in Sydney.

Lech Blaine is the author of the memoir Car Crash and the Quarterly Essays Top Blokes and Bad Cop. He is the 2023 Charles Perkins Centre writer in residence. His writing has appeared in Good Weekend, Griffith Review, The Guardian and The Monthly. 

Michael and Mary Shelley are Christian fanatics who loathe their fellow Australians – especially their 'reckless indulgence of alcohol and obsession with idiotic ball sports'. Lenore and Tom Blaine are working-class Queensland publicans raising a large family in a raucous, loving, sports-obsessed home.

There's just one problem. Lenore and Tom are foster parents to three of Michael and Mary's children, who were removed from the Shelleys as infants. And the Shelleys are prepared to do anything to get them back. Anything.

Australian Gospel is the true story of Lech Blaine's family, a stranger-than-fiction tale that is heartbreaking, hilarious and altogether astonishing.

Lech Blaine is the author of the memoir Car Crash and the Quarterly Essays Top Blokes and Bad Cop. He is the 2023 Charles Perkins Centre writer in residence. His writing has appeared in Good Weekend, Griffith Review, The Guardian and The Monthly. His forthcoming book is Australian Gospel.

Organised in partnership with Constant Reader Bookshop.

Join us for a fascinating panel discussion that will explore the issues faced by Australian women with Indian heritage. What are the roles and expectations of women in India and how do these play out among the Indian diaspora in Australia? 

The panel includes the editor of Growing up Indian in Australia, Aarti Betigeri, and selected contributors from the book. Growing up Indian in Australia is a compilation of stories reflecting the diversity and experiences of Australians with Indian heritage. 

Entry is free to this event but bookings are essential. A book signing in the Foyer will follow this event.

The event will be available to view live online via the Library's Facebook and YouTube pages. You do not need to book a ticket to watch the event online. 

Lech Blaine is an award-winning writer and journalist from Queensland. He is the 2023 Charles Perkins Centre writer in residence.

Lech is author of the critically-acclaimed Car Crash: A Memoir and the Quarterly Essay Top Blokes. Car Crash was shortlisted for the National Biography Award and two categories at the Queensland Literary Awards.

Join Lech Blaine and Benjamin Law to discuss Blaine's new book Australian Gospel.

Copies of Australian Gospel will be available to purchase on the night, and Lech will be signing books.

Tickets include a welcome drink and shared grazing boards. Doors open from 6:00pm for a 6:30pm start, seating is unallocated so arrive early to secure your spot!

Join us for the launch of Let's Tax Carbon by Ross Garnaut.

A new path for Australia, by eminent economist and author of the bestselling Superpower.

Could Australia become a full-employment, renewable-energy superpower? Ross Garnaut says yes, and it starts with taxing carbon. A levy on the big polluters will help fund Australia to become a carbon-free energy giant, lower the cost of living and assist the world to cut emissions.

In this path-breaking book Ross Garnaut makes two linked arguments. He focuses on the underpinnings of successful social democracy and traces when economic policy has worked for Australia and when it hasn't. He leads off with a critique of the Albanese government – is this a case of policy half-done, or a government sailing at half-mast?

His second argument is about the low-carbon opportunity that Australia has before it. Garnaut brings to bear his unrivalled expertise on industrial development, here and internationally. He calls for a new Carbon Solutions Levy. Getting this right is a way to secure the economic base of Australia's social democracy.

A thought-provoking book by a visionary thinker.

We’re delighted to welcome Lech Blaine to The Taproom in November. We are fans of his Quarterly Essay contributions and his memoir Car Crash was an incredible read, described by Trent Dalton as ‘A heart-soaring act of literary bravery’.

Lech’s new book, Australian Gospel: A Family Saga, is a dark comedy about the tangled fates of two couples and the children trapped between them

​

Michael and Mary Shelley are Christian fanatics who loathe their fellow Australians – especially their 'reckless indulgence of alcohol and obsession with idiotic ball sports'.
Lenore and Tom Blaine are working-class Queensland publicans raising a large family in a raucous, loving, sports-obsessed home.

There's just one problem. Lenore and Tom are foster parents to three of Michael and Mary's children, who were removed from the Shelleys as infants. And the Shelleys are prepared to do anything to get them back. Anything.

Australian Gospel is the true story of Lech Blaine's family, a stranger-than-fiction tale that is heartbreaking, hilarious and altogether astonishing.

Lech will be in conversation with Chris Donnelly.

Ross Garnaut will be in conversation with Barry Jones on his new book Let's Tax Carbon: And Other Ideas for a Better Australia, tracing a new path for Australia

Could Australia become a full-employment, renewable-energy superpower? Ross Garnaut says yes, and it starts with taxing carbon. A levy on the big polluters will help fund Australia to become a carbon-free energy giant, lower the cost of living and assist the world to cut emissions.

In this path-breaking book, eminent economist Ross Garnaut makes two linked arguments. He focuses on the underpinnings of successful social democracy and traces when economic policy has worked for Australia and when it hasn't. He leads off with a critique of the Albanese government – is this a case of policy half-done, or a government sailing at half-mast?

His second argument is about the low-carbon opportunity that Australia has before it. Garnaut brings to bear his unrivalled expertise on industrial development, here and internationally. He calls for a new Carbon Solutions Levy. Getting this right is a way to secure the economic base of Australia's social democracy. A thought-provoking book by a visionary thinker.

Dr. Ross Garnaut AO is the professorial research fellow in economics at the University of Melbourne. In 2008, he produced the Garnaut Climate Change Review for the Australian government. He is the author of many books, including the bestselling Dog Days, Superpower and Reset. Ross has held senior roles in universities, business, government and other Australian and international institutions.. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Sciences and a Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Society of Australia.

The Hon. Dr. Barry Jones AC (b. 1932) is a politician, lawyer, writer and former Labor Minister between 1983 and 1990 holding the portfolios of Science, Prices and Consumer Affairs, Small Business and Customs. Barry is the only person to have been elected as a Fellow of all four Australian learned Academies. He was a member of the executive board of UNESCO in Paris from 1991 to 1995 and was National President of the Australian Labor Party from 1992 to 2000. Jones has written a number of influential books, of which the best known are the international best-seller Sleepers, Wake!: Technology and the Future of Work, and the Dictionary of World Biography.

Emma Aisbett, Associate Professor ANU School of Law and Associate Director (Research) Zero-Carbon Energy for the Asia-Pacific Grand Challenge will give the vote of thanks.

This event is in association with Harry Hartog Bookshop. Books will be available for purchase. Pre-event book signings will be available from 5.30pm and again after the event.

Join us for a conversation between Lech Blaine and Emily Westmoreland to celebrate the release of Lech's new book, Australian Gospel.

Michael and Mary Shelley are Christian fanatics who loathe their fellow Australians - especially their 'reckless indulgence of alcohol and obsession with idiotic ball sports'.
Lenore and Tom Blaine are working-class Queensland publicans raising a large family in a raucous, loving, sports-obsessed home.

There's just one problem. Lenore and Tom are foster parents to three of Michael and Mary's children, who were removed from the Shelleys as infants. And the Shelleys are prepared to do anything to get them back. Anything.

Australian Gospel is the true story of Lech Blaine's family, a stranger-than-fiction tale that is heartbreaking, hilarious and altogether astonishing.
 

Hosted by The Sun Bookshop.

Join Readings for 24-hours celebrating books, culture and community

Laura Tingle once famously said about Australia: ‘We are a racist country, let's face it. We always have been, and it's very depressing.’ Take that premise as a jumping off point and join Erik Jensen, founding editor of The Saturday Paper and editor-in-chief of Schwartz Media, as he asks activist and author Veronica Gorrie, author and academic Alice Pung, and Lord Mayor of Melbourne Nicholas Reece about their experiences in our own home town. Author and journalist George Megalogenis will open the discussion with an introduction to Australia’s social and political stats and facts – both past and present.

Join Readings for 24-hours celebrating books, culture and community

In Australian Gospel, Lech Blaine, one of Australia’s most brilliant writers, has written the story of his childhood – a gripping tale of the tangled fates of two couples and the foster children trapped between them. Here the old adage is true: fact is stranger than fiction. Australian Gospel is a family saga like no other – heartbreaking and hilarious. 

David Marr, beloved Australian journalist, author, and host of ABC Radio National’s Late Night Live, will join Lech Blaine in a discussion about the ties that bind us.

The Readings Bar and Books will be open at the venue.

A report of America that catches the madness and the politics of an election like no other.

In his Quarterly Essay High Noon (September 2024) Don Watson gives a deeply historically informed, characteristically mordant account of Donald Trump, Joe Biden and a divided country. Watson considers how things reached this pass, and what might lie ahead.

An essential analysis about a crucial moment of choice.

Don Watson is an acclaimed author. His books include the bestselling Recollections of a Bleeding Heart: A Portrait of Paul Keating PM, Death Sentence, Watson’s Dictionary of Weasel Words, Caledonia Australis, American Journeys, The Bush and The Passion of Private White. In addition to books and essays, including several on US politics for Quarterly Essay, he writes films and gives occasional talks on writing and language.

Don Watson will give members, potential members and guests an insightful perspective into the US Presidential election outcome, what it means for Australia and the broader implications.   

From the land-rights movement, to Treaty borne from the ashes of an unsuccessful referendum, Clare Wright (Naku Dharuk The Bark Petitions) and Inala Cooper (Marrul) discuss the long, powerful history of First Nations sovereignty and activism. With Tom Griffiths they will discuss the Yirrkala Bark Petitions and what this founding document can teach us about Australian democracy as we journey towards Treaty.

Australia is in peril. Do we truly grasp the impact of a warming planet–in particular, what it will mean for our sunburnt country? Leading climate scientist, Dr Joëlle Gergis discusses her searing Quarterly Essay Highway to Hell, Australia’s fossil fuel reliance and the consequences on Australia’s future.