Join us for the launch of Where’s All the Community? Aboriginal Melbourne Revisited by Professor Julie Andrews, OAM, Director of Gabra Biik, Wurruwila Wutja Indigenous Research Centre. 

This powerful book will be launch by Graeme “Porky” Brooke, with Jedda Atkinson-Costa as MC.

This is a free event, RSVP is essential. 

Please don’t let my kid become that guy

From Andrew Tate to algorithmic rabbit holes, this panel will unpack the real forces shaping boys today — and what parents can do beyond panic and blame.

Bringing up boys isn’t getting any less complicated. One minute they’re sweet, funny little humans. The next, they’re parroting some podcast bro who insists “patriarchy isn’t real” and “grindset” is a personality.

Shows like Adolescence and books like The Anxious Generation tapped a nerve. As toxic masculinity is loudly (and often rightly) called out, a generation of boys is confused and ashamed — and the algorithm is happy to lead them down dark alt-right rabbit holes. It’s part of the reason the Australian government introduced age restrictions for social media accounts.

So how do we cut through the bro-fluencer noise to raise resilient, emotionally literate boys?

Investigative journalist Jess Hill (See What You Made Me Do) and men’s mental health researcher Zac Seidler unpack the cultural forces shaping boys today and how adults can guide them with compassion.

At a time when global crises demand collective action, public trust in traditional media and public institutions is eroding. In this timely panel, journalist Marian Wilkinson, author Don Watson and political scientist Christian Downie explore how disinformation, corporate influence, and identity politics are deepening polarisation. What does it take to rebuild trust, reclaim facts, and foster unity in an age of division? Join three of the sharpest minds working at the intersection of media, politics and language for a conversation about truth, power, and the fight for a livable future.

Breaking the stigma surrounding motherhood’s most misunderstood crisis

Leading with compassion, this panel will dive into a perinatal condition that is increasingly talked about but remains widely misunderstood.

Along with overwhelming joy and love, new mothers are also told to expect exhaustion, low moods and hot tempers. The emotional extremes of “baby blues” and “mum rage” are all just part of it, right?

But what happens when panic becomes paranoia, when sleeplessness becomes delusion, and when, terrifyingly, reality cannot be trusted?

The much rarer cousin of postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis affects one to two in every 1,000 mothers. The early signs can look deceptively ordinary and be difficult to identify, but delayed diagnosis can lead to devastating consequences.

Early intervention is essential for the safety of mothers and babies alike — but how do we do this without risking a return to the centuries-old pattern of turning psychiatric labels into tools that control or silence women?

With Ariane Beeston, Anne Buist, Rachel Skillington and moderated by author and journalist Lauren Novak (Meltdown), this panel will illuminate the gaps in maternal mental health care, unpack the warning signs with compassion, and look to solutions.
 

The incredible story of the special investigations unit that tracked down the Nazis who called Australia home after World War II.

In 1986 journalist Mark Aarons presented a Radio National series, which established that a significant number of Nazi collaborators and war criminals - particularly from Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Yugoslavia - had settled in Australia after World War II.

Aarons' explosive reporting led to the formation in 1987 of the Special Investigations Unit, which investigated over 800 suspected war criminals living in Australia. This book gathers the recollections of historians, archaeologists, police investigators, SIU leaders, translators and lawyers to create a detailed insiders' account of the unit's efforts to prosecute Australian residents and citizens believed to have participated in horrific war crimes.

The SIU left an important legacy. As well as pursuing justice for victims of the Holocaust, it demonstrated that historical investigation of war crimes was possible, even decades later. In the words of former SIU director Graham Blewitt, 'Australia should be proud that, for a brief period in our legal history, we stood up and did the right thing. There was a time when Nazi collaborators living in Australia were wondering when the SIU knock on the door would come.'

For this special event, Mark Aarons will be in conversation with Tim McCormack, and the event will be opened by Julia Flint. Join them at the Afterword Café.

Join acclaimed authors Kate Mildenhall (The Hiding Place) and Fiona Hardy (Unbury the Dead) as they explore crime, community, and the hidden truths that shape our lives.

From fierce female fixers to families unravelling in the bush, their novels reveal how loyalty, deception, and survival collide in contemporary Australian storytelling.

Michael Wesley will be in conversation with Hugh White on his new Quarterly Essay 101: Blind Spot: Southeast Asia and Australia's Future.

Australia has forgotten what keeps it safe. So argues Michael Wesley in this sharp and compelling essay about our place in the world. Southeast Asia is the key to our national security and prosperity. If China dominates the region, as it plans to, Australia will be very vulnerable. So why are we following an American strategy that isolates and alienates us from our neighbours?

Wesley argues that the focus on AUKUS and sticking with Trump is a dangerous distraction. Whereas the United States has little at stake in Southeast Asia, Australia has everything to lose. How did our foreign policy elite become so wedded to the US worldview? What do our Southeast Asian neighbours have to tell us, if only we would listen? Blind Spot is a gripping essay about strategic folly and the future of our region.

“It should be clear that Australia has made the wrong bet: that relying on the US alliance to address the threat of a Chinese-centred Sphere of Deference on its northern doorstep has left it dangerously exposed and unprepared. The nation is arguably at an all-time low in its ability to shape events and attitudes in Southeast Asia.” —Michael Wesley, Blind Spot
 

Michael Wesley is Professor of Politics and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Global, Culture and Engagement) at the University of Melbourne and was formerly Head of the Lowy Institute and Dean of ANU's College of Asia and the Pacific. .His  books include There Goes the Neighbourhood: Australia and the Rise of Asia and Mind of the Nation: Universities in Australian Life. 

Hugh White AO FASSA is Emeritus Professor of Strategic Studies at the Australian National University. He is the author of The China Choice and How to Defend Australia, and four Quarterly Essays, Power Shift, Without America, Sleepwalk to War and Hard New World.

The vote of thanks will be given by Emeritus Professor James Fox FASSA.

Books will be available for signing from 5.30pm and again after the event.

Michael Wesley in conversation with Geraldine Doogue on Quarterly Essay 101: Blind Spot: Southeast Asia and Australia's Future

Australia has forgotten what keeps it safe. So argues Michael Wesley in this sharp and compelling essay about our place in the world.
Southeast Asia is the key to our national security and prosperity. If China dominates the region, as it plans to, Australia will be very vulnerable. So why are we following an American strategy that isolates and alienates us from our neighbours?

Wesley argues that the focus on AUKUS and sticking with Trump is a dangerous distraction. Whereas the United States has little at stake in Southeast Asia, Australia has everything to lose. How did our foreign policy elite become so wedded to the US worldview? What do our Southeast Asian neighbours have to tell us, if only we would listen? Blind Spot is a gripping essay about strategic folly and the future of our region.

“It should be clear that Australia has made the wrong bet: that relying on the US alliance to address the threat of a Chinese-centred Sphere of Deference on its northern doorstep has left it dangerously exposed and unprepared. The nation is arguably at an all-time low in its ability to shape events and attitudes in Southeast Asia.” —Michael Wesley, Blind Spot


Michael Wesley’s books include There Goes the Neighbourhood: Australia and the rise of Asia and Mind of the Nation: Universities in Australian life. He is Professor of Politics and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Global, Culture and Engagement) at the University of Melbourne and was formerly head of the Lowy Institute and dean of ANU’s College of Asia and the Pacific.

Geraldine Doogue has had a long and distinguished career in various arms of Australian journalism. She is currently co-presenter, with Hamish Macdonald, of the podcast/RN program Global Roaming, which focuses each week on international developments that influence Australia’s place in the world. For the previous 18 years Geraldine presented RN’s Saturday Extra, which specialised in foreign policy, regional issues, good books, good travel.

Michael Wesley will discuss Quarterly Essay 101 at Stanton Library.

Southeast Asia has never been more important to Australia – and Australia has never been more alienated from Southeast Asia and with so little idea of what to do about it. What has our foreign policy elite's subservience to the United States stopped us from seeing and doing?

This event will be held on Level 1 and is accessible for people using mobility aids via lift. A hearing loop is also installed.

About the author

Michael Wesley is a Professor of Politics and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Global, Culture and Engagement) at the University of Melbourne and formerly head of the Lowy Institute and dean of ANU's College of Asia and the Pacific.

Readings Carlton are delighted to host the launch of Julie Andrews' Where's All the Community? Aboriginal Melbourne Revisited.

Julie Andrews will be in conversation with Jedda Atkinson-Costa to discuss this groundbreaking account of the people and places that have shaped Aboriginal Melbourne.

In Where's All the Community? Andrews paints a vivid portrait of the Aboriginal community in Melbourne, from 1835 to today.

Drawing on extensive interviews with community members, her research in anthropology and her own family's story, Andrews traces the bonds that have shaped and sustained Aboriginal Melbourne. She explores the importance of kinship, geographic mobility and ties to other First Nations communities. She considers health, education and housing, including the crucial role played by Aboriginal-led organisations. And she describes the ongoing campaigns for social justice, land rights and self-determination.

Professor Julie Andrews OAM is a descendant of the Yorta Yorta people. Her community and family connection is to the Aboriginal Melbourne community and the Cummeragunja Aboriginal Reserve. She also has connection to the Wiradjuri and Wurrundjeri Woiwurrung peoples. Her family has been instrumental in establishing Melbourne Aboriginal organisations and Aboriginal women's networks across Australia. She is director of the Gabra Biik Wurruwila Wutja Indigenous Research Centre at La Trobe University.

Jedda Atkinson-Costa is a proud Wemba Wemba, Yorta Yorta and Mutti Mutti woman from Narrm. Growing up with a love for storytelling, she pursued a Bachelor of Communication (journalism) before forging a media career as a cross-platform news reporter at the ABC. During her time at the national broadcaster, Jedda wrote stories that would go on to earn her the Victorian Rural Press Club's Young Journalist of the Year Award in 2021. She has since used her skills to train and support grassroots campaigners and community advocates to better understand the country's media landscape. Having worked within various media and Aboriginal community spaces, Jedda has become a vibrant presenter and host with a passion for uplifting voices within her community. She currently works as a Media and Communications Advisor at the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria.

Join us as foreign policy analyst and commentator Professor Michael Wesley discusses his Quarterly Essay with Misha Ketchell, Editor of The Conversation.

In his Quarterly Essay Michael Wesley outlines why Southeast Asia has never been more important to Australia – and Australia has never been more alienated from Southeast Asia and with so little idea of what to do about it.

For Australia, the region holds the key to our security and prosperity. Yet as a society we have never fully grasped its importance. Our gaze has vaulted over Southeast Asia towards Northeast Asia's industrial giants, and now towards a rising India. Yet Southeast Asia is where the future world order will be decided – the place where China's bid for regional power will succeed or fail.

This illuminating, original essay reveals Australia's blind spot. What do we need to know about Southeast Asia? What has our foreign policy elite's subservience to the United States stopped us from seeing and doing? What do our neighbours have to tell us, if only we could hear? This is an essay about values, imagination and a new way of seeing ourselves.

Be inspired by ex-Greens leader and lifelong environmentalist, Bob Brown, in conversation with ABC broadcaster Hilary Harper, as he discusses some of the pivotal campaigns of his career and examples of active resistance. This will be an empowering session for young and old who want to stand up for the planet.

We are delighted to invite you to hear Michael Wesley, Professor of Politics and Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Melbourne, talking about Quarterly Essay 101: The Crucible: Southeast Asia and Australia's Future

Southeast Asia has never been more important to Australia - and Australia has never been more alienated from Southeast Asia and with so little idea of what to do about it. This illuminating, original essay reveals Australia's blind spot. What do we need to know about Southeast Asia? What has our foreign policy elite's subservience to the United States stopped us from seeing and doing? What do our neighbours have to tell us, if only we could hear? This is an essay about values, imagination and a new way of seeing ourselves.

Join us for the Brisbane launch of the new Quarterly Essay 101 on Australia and Asia by Michael Wesley

ABOUT THE BOOK

Southeast Asia has never been more important to Australia – and Australia has never been more alienated from Southeast Asia and with so little idea of what to do about it.
For Australia, the region holds the key to our security and prosperity. Yet as a society we have never fully grasped its importance. Our gaze has vaulted over Southeast Asia towards Northeast Asia's industrial giants, and now towards a rising India. Yet Southeast Asia is where the future world order will be decided – the place where China's bid for regional power will succeed or fail.
This illuminating, original essay reveals Australia's blind spot. What do we need to know about Southeast Asia? What has our foreign policy elite's subservience to the United States stopped us from seeing and doing? What do our neighbours have to tell us, if only we could hear? This is an essay about values, imagination and a new way of seeing ourselves.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Wesley's books include There Goes the Neighbourhood: Australia and the Rise of Asia and Mind of the Nation: Universities in Australian Life. He is Professor of Politics and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Global, Culture and Engagement) at the University of Melbourne and was formerly head of the Lowy Institute and dean of ANU's College of Asia and the Pacific.

In their recent, gripping novels, Kate Mildenhall and Holly Wainwright establish secluded, seemingly idyllic worlds where tensions build and secrets emerge. The question transpires: how well do we really know our friends? In conversation with Nina Cullen, Kate and Holly speak about betrayal, trust, and the pressures of parenthood.