Events

Kim Williams - Pre-Concert Insights

Join us before the Borodin Quartet performance to hear former Musica Viva General Manager and Chairman Kim Williams AM, discussing his connections to chamber music and his new book Rules of Engagement.

Lee Kofman - A Dangerous Bride

Join author Lee Kofman as she launches A Dangerous Bride, a candid and engrossing memoir set in Lee's first years in Australia. In conversation with Krissy Kneen, Kofman will discuss her story, her experience of migration, love, marriage, polygamy, and the conflict between our desire for security but also for foreign places.

Maxine McKew - MLC Lecture Series: Replicating Success in Australian Education

Maxine McKew considers the challenges in lifting academic achievement across a fragmented education system. With problems at both ends of the spectrum – bright students who are insufficiently stretched as well as a three year learning gap among disadvantaged students – it's time we learnt from the best and paid heed to the strong body of research around expert teaching that evaluates impact.

Anne Tiernan - The Fifth Estate: The Prime Minister's Chiefs

The prime minister’s chief of staff has a unique role in Australian political culture. With immeasurable influence – some much more than others – as confidantes, mediators, gatekeepers and advisors, the chief of staff steers the prime minister through the challenges and landmines of leadership, fine tuning and coordinating the things that matter to help win the support of cabinet, caucus and country.

What makes a great chief of staff? What are the challenges, pressures and principles that occupy their time? And what matters most in this powerful behind-the-scenes role? Prime Minister Tony Abbott calls his chief of staff, Peta Credlin, ‘the boss’. Kevin Rudd’s chief of staff, Alister Jordan, was referred to as ‘the wunderkind’, not always kindly.

Join Fifth Estate host Sally Warhaft with Anne Tiernan, associate professor at the Centre for Governance and Public Policy at Griffith University, and David Epstein, the first chief of staff to Prime Minister Rudd, to discuss the chiefs, past and present, and this singular job in the national capital.

Writers Live - Kim Williams Discusses Rules of Engagement

Join author Kim Williams as he discusses his latest work, Rules of Engagement, a candid and personal account of the exercise of power in the nation's leading boardrooms, political parties and media organisations. This is a great oppurtunity to gain insight into the career and thoughts of someone who has been at the helm of some of Australia's leading media organisations.

Lee Kofman - A Dangerous Bride

Lee Kofman, rebellious daughter of ultra-orthodox Jews, has always sought her own way. True to her Bohemian dream where love can coexist with sexual freedom, she decided to experiment with an open marriage. A Dangerous Bride is Kofman's quest to save her marriage, and her exploration of unconventional relationships. Join her as she launches her engrossing story of her experience of migration, love, marriage, polygamy, and the conflict between our desire for security but also for foreign places.

Kim Williams - CPA Congress Conference

Hear a firsthand, animated account of the fascinating, packed life of one of the country’s leading media executives. Kim Williams has held many positions, including CEO of each News Corp Australia, FOXTEL, FOX Studios Australia, the Australian Film Commission and Music Viva. Off the back of his latest release, Rules of Engagement, join Kim as he chronicles what he has learnt along the way, including the leadership lessons from the boardroom and witty and wise observations on the modern Australian times.

Paul Daley on Challenge

Already known and respected for his non-fiction work, Paul Daley has released his first book of fiction – Challenge is a fast-paced tale of Australian politics. Paul will be in conversation with political journalist Barrie Cassidy.

Kim Williams - Port Adelaide Football Club: Power to Perform

The Power to Perform Summit is a day of practical and contemporary learnings aimed at inspiring and driving leadership and high performance. Kim Williams is a buidler of Asutralian institutions, from FOXTEL to NewsCorp, film, football, opera and business. Kim will share his insights and successes chronicled in his latest book, Rules of Engagement, a personal account of the exercise of power in the nation's leading boardrooms, political parties and media organisations.

Paul Daley - Challenge: in conversation with Mark Dapin

Challenge. Fast-paced Australian political fiction, Challenge unfolds over three days in an atmosphere of treachery and deceit, amid a looming federal leadership challenge.

Opposition leader Daniel Slattery is a former sporting hero from the wrong side of the tracks, politically principled and courageous, but also personally unhinged and highly volatile. He is determined to stand the political moral high ground while fighting for his job—and a rearguard action against the phantoms of his dark past. Who is working to trash his reputation and derail his one tilt at the prime ministership? Is it real—or just demons inside his head?

Blistering and blackly comic, Challenge puts us into the shoes of a man whose life is slipping away as he confronts the abyss of modern Australian politics.

Reality Bites Festival Literary Lunch with Maxine McKew

Maxine McKew is a Vice Chancellor’s fellow with the University of Melbourne and a distinguished fellow of the Australia India Institute. She is an advisor on education for the not-for-profit group Social Ventures Australia, and a director of three not-for-profit boards, Playgroup Australia, Per Capita and the John Cain Foundation. In November 2012 Maxine published her memoir, Tales from the Political Trenches. Maxine will be presented with The Hoopla Young Women’s Essay Award and present a Key Note Speech about her new book, Class Act. Her latest work discusses the changing the culture of schools so all students have the opportunity for success. Class Act invites reflection on one of our most pressing national dilemmas—how we replicate success across a fragmented educational system and reverse the decline in student performance.

Sisters in Crime - Susanna Lobez

Susanna Lobez is the co-author of Bent: Australia's Crooked Cops, a fascinating examination of Australia's tangled history of police corruption, from the First Fleet to the present day, and the trouble caused by greed, power, drink, sex, money and drugs.

In this unique event she joins co-panellists in a lively discussion about the challenges – and joys – of moving from journalism to true crime.

Reality Bites Festival: Class Act - Maxine McKew

In Class Act Maxine McKew invites reflection on one of our most pressing national dilemmas - how we replicate success across a fragmented eductaional system and reverse the decline in student performance. Through a series of conversations and case studies Maxine McKew documents the transformation that's now underway around Australia and examines the strategies that are helping to lift academic performance, particularly in some of Australia's most challenged schools. Come for morning tea to hear Maxine speak with mhigh shcool Enghlish teacher Luoise Francis.

Reality Bites Festival - Maxine McKew

In 2013, following the LNP’s federal election win, Tony Abbott appointed a new cabinet featuring only one woman, and made himself minister for women’s affairs. Meredith Burgmann, Maxine McKew and Caroline Overington discuss with Clementine Ford  what this means for women’s equality, and why we’re still a long way from ‘Destroying the Joint’. Maxine McKew has recently published her new book Class Act, which queries how the educational needs of boys and girls differ, and how we could change school culture to maximise personal and educational growth for all students.

Barrie Cassidy on Private Bill

Political commentator Barrie Cassidy talks about his new book, Private Bill, in which he shares his father’s experiences as a POW during WWII.

Maxine McKew - Class Act and reforming education

Girls consistently outperform boys in our education system. How do the educational needs of boys and girls differ, and how can a school’s culture maximise personal and educational growth? Former politician and journalist Maxine McKew is the author of the recently-released Class Act, a new book on changing the culture of schools so all students have the opportunity for success. Joining her for this lunchtime event are Tim Hawkes and Michael Grose.

Maxine McKew - Class Act

Class Act: Ending the Education Wars

It's time for a ceasefire in the education wars.

Through a series of conversations and case studies Maxine McKew documents the transformation that's now underway in classrooms around Australia and examines the strategies that are helping to lift academic performance, particularly in some of Australia's most challenged schools.

Class Act invites reflection on one of our most pressing national dilemmas—how we replicate success across a fragmented educational system and reverse the decline in student performance.

With its frank accounts of the joys and pitfalls of learning in the twenty-first century, Class Act will appeal to parents, teachers and policy-makers alike.

'The ideas from schools and education leaders so well expressed in this book are vital to the education debate and inform it well.' DAVID GONSKI AC

Patrick McCaughey in Melbourne

Patrick McCaughey has spent much of his life in art museums. He has been director of the National Gallery of Victoria and art critic of the Age. Who better to take you on a tour of Australian art?

In this lecture, McCaughey focuses on the original – and the moments when Australian art has been marked by a particular individuality. He explores the revival of Indigenous art in the 1970s, and the impact it had on changing the Australian consciousness. He discusses the discovery of the Australian landscape as an intimate environment to be lived and worked in. And he argues that three major women artists were crucial to the coming of the Modern in Australia: Grace Cossington-Smith, Margaret Preston and Clarice Beckett.

Join this Australian icon for a very special lecture on what has made Australian art distinctive and original, from John Glover to the present.

Presented by the Wheeler Centre and the NGV.

Patrick McCaughey in Queenscliff

Patrick McCaughey has spent much of his life in art museums. He has been director of the National Gallery of Victoria and art critic of the Age. Who better to take you on a tour of Australian art?

In this lecture, McCaughey focuses on the original – and the moments when Australian art has been marked by a particular individuality. He explores the revival of Indigenous art in the 1970s, and the impact it had on changing the Australian consciousness. He discusses the discovery of the Australian landscape as an intimate environment to be lived and worked in. And he argues that three major women artists were crucial to the coming of the Modern in Australia: Grace Cossington-Smith, Margaret Preston and Clarice Beckett.

Join this Australian icon for a very special lecture on what has made Australian art distinctive and original, from John Glover to the present.

Special lecture by Patrick McCaughey - Strange country: why Australian painting matters

Hear from a leading authority on Australian art, art historian and author Patrick McCaughey.

McCaughey was formerly director of the National Gallery of Victoria and more recently held the position of professor of Australian studies at Harvard University. Returning to Australia with his new book Strange country: why Australian painting matters (Melbourne University Press), McCaughey will explore the ways in which our island continent has made such a distinctive and powerful contribution to art despite our relatively small population. As he does in this latest publication, he will explain the progression and development of a uniquely Australian style of painting and why it forms the core of the Australian experience.

The Hard Sell: Dee Madigan on Political Advertising

In the lead-up to the Victorian state election, advertising expert Dee Madigan (Gruen Planet) gives us the inside running on how political advertising works, why negative ads strike a chord, the secrets of spin, and more.

Find out how politicians use journalists who use politicians, how gender plays into it, and what happens when it all falls apart. Get the tools to analyse all those ads you’re about to be bombarded with!

In conversation with Ben Birchall.