IQ2 Oz 2010 Subscriptions Season
IQ2 Oz- Add IQ2 Oz 2010 Subscriptions Season: Tuesday 13 April 2010, 6:45pm to your calendar Tuesday 13 April 2010, 6:45pm
- Add IQ2 Oz 2010 Subscriptions Season: Tuesday 11 May 2010, 6:45pm to your calendar Tuesday 11 May 2010, 6:45pm
- Add IQ2 Oz 2010 Subscriptions Season: Tuesday 6 July 2010, 6:45pm to your calendar Tuesday 6 July 2010, 6:45pm
- Add IQ2 Oz 2010 Subscriptions Season: Tuesday 10 August 2010, 6:45pm to your calendar Tuesday 10 August 2010, 6:45pm
- Add IQ2 Oz 2010 Subscriptions Season: Tuesday 12 October 2010, 6:45pm to your calendar Tuesday 12 October 2010, 6:45pm
- Add IQ2 Oz 2010 Subscriptions Season: Wednesday 17 November 2010, 6:45pm to your calendar Wednesday 17 November 2010, 6:45pm
The 2010 series promises to be even more stimulating, informative and entertaining. Outstanding speakers, comprising a panel of six for each debate, have been, or are being arranged. As last year, we’ve chosen motions that are controversial and should again see queues at our floor debate microphones.
The Senate is still unrepresentative swill
Tuesday 13 April
Paul Keating’s famous jibe has not lost its sting. The Senate still has the capacity to frustrate the will of government. It is still the chamber designed to protect the interests of the States, rather than those of the nation as a whole. On the other hand, are the Senate’s supposed faults actually its greatest strength? As a check on the unbridled power of government, the Senate might frustrate politicians in the House of Representative but is this essential to keep our democracy strong?
Governments should not censor the internet
Tuesday 11 May
Architects of the internet have championed its promise as an instrument of liberty – a free-wheeling republic in which the ordinary person can bypass the gatekeepers of power and influence. Beneath the shiny towers of liberty electronic sewers run thick with child pornography, terrorist propaganda, racial hatred, crazy conspiracies and other products of the grimy denizens of the internet’s underworld. Some governments think that they should protect us from what they deem to be harmful to the common weal. Can we not be trusted to care for ourselves? And if not, then will censorship inevitably shut out the light along with the dark?
Better more cameras than more crime
Tuesday 6 July
In a bid to combat crime, Britain has made a massive investment in closed circuit cameras – with as many as 4.2 million having been installed. Yet, the evidence suggests that this may have been for little benefit – with only 3% of street robberies, in London, being solved with the help of the ubiquitous cameras. Some suggest that this simply proves the need for more cameras; that it is time to feed the grid into a comprehensive database, to post images on the internet, to use the power of facial recognition technology to spot and track suspects. Is this an approach that should be adopted in Australia? Or is the consequent loss of privacy worse than the crime such measures are meant to curb?
Only capitalism can save the planet
Tuesday 10 August
Critics of capitalism have been crowing ever since the onset of the global financial crisis. Capitalism has been blamed for nearly every one of the earth’s ills – poverty, pestilence, exploitation, environmental degradation, the lot! Capitalism has been celebrated as the only cure for the earth’s ills – poverty, pestilence, exploitation, environmental degradation, the lot! So, who is right?
We’d be better off without our armed forces
Tuesday 12 October
Australia spends a fortune on defence – money that could be invested in improving health, education and the security of our energy, food and water. Some think that defence expenditure is the price of freedom – ultimately measured in blood and treasure. Given the foreseeable risks to Australia’s national security, might we better off adopting a policy of lightly armed neutrality – becoming a threat to none and a friend to all? Would our interests be best served by ‘demobbing’ our troops, selling off our kit and investing the proceeds in the good things of life?
The nation state is a rotten idea
Wednesday 17 November
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace ...
John Lennon - 1971
There was a time when most people belonged to natural communities or roamed the earth as free agents. The creation of the nation state was accompanied by borders, armies to defend or take them, governments, laws, bureaucracies, taxes. Idealists have imagined a global republic founded on our common humanity. Is this a naïve or foolish hope and in either case, a recipe for chaos, confusion and misery? Perhaps we should embrace the nation state for what it is - a larger entity that enhances our individual lives; a source of pride and security, financial and emotional?
Six debate package: $162
(Additional fees may apply)
All prices, dates, times and program details are subject to change without notice.