(2020) Irish Migrant was Champion of Rail Workers: Jim Walshe, 1931-2020

Jim Walshe, rail unionist, Labor activist, superannuation reformer, keen golfer and family man, was born in Ballybunion in County Kerry, Ireland, a resort town known for its picturesque stretch of sand dunes overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, beaches, steep seaside cliffs, ruined castles, golf course, family farms and, in his early years, the rural poverty of Depression-era, newly independent Ireland.

(2020) Faith’s Place

Australia’s political culture, as with western ruling elites generally, with the partial exception of the United States, is becoming more secular. Yet the world is becoming more religious. Faith still registers strongly in western societies. (Even in Australia, though the trend is clear, a clear majority still identify as Christian, though this is dropping.)

(2020) China’s Ambition: How Far Can They Go?

Welcome, everyone. Today’s topic is much anticipated – China’s Ambition: How Far Can They Go? We are joined by a very distinguished panel – former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott; Business China CEO and Singapore MP Tin Pei Ling; Chair of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee, The Honourable Tobias Ellwood; security correspondent and famous Israeli journalist Yossi Melman; and University of Sydney and Hudson Institute academic, Dr. John Lee.

(2020) Faithful and Labor: What Labor Ignores at its Peril

The history of the ALP at the national level is one long lesson in humility. More often defeated than victorious, glorious in government but only in retrospect. This is our party. The thirteen-year golden era of Hawke and Keating between 1983 and 1996 created Medicare and universal, compulsory superannuation; broke the back of inflation; set the economy up for a quarter century of continuous economic growth; changed Australia for the better. At the same time as those governments fought to earn credibility and support, enthusiasm waxed and waned within the wider labour movement.