Divestment from fossil fuels, advocated by climate action campaigners such as Bill McKibben, is a blunt instrument for reducing carbon emissions, according to climate risk analyst Robert Litterman in an…
Tasmania’s alkaloid poppy industry was an Australian innovation success story - until it moved overseas.
Glenn Schultes/Flickr
Australian innovation has stagnated in the past 50 years, and could be reinvigorated by focusing on key areas, according to Donald Hector, President of the Royal Society of New South Wales in an interview…
Peter Doherty: Thinking in terms of Australia’s future, how important is it for us to expand activity in the innovation/high technology sector? Donald Hector: It’s critically important. If you look at…
Tony Abbott has had a tumultuous first few months as prime minister.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Tony Abbott has been in office six months, and this week marks 20 years since he was elected to parliament. On Thursday he sat down with The Conversation in his Parliament House office to talk about settling…
To fight climate change, the UK will invest in renewing nuclear energy.
pandaposse/Flickr
Recent floods in the UK have awoken the country to the possibly severe impacts of climate change. Like many other parts of the world, including Australia, the UK will see rising temperatures and increasing…
Rod Keenan: What do you see as the challenges of adapting to climate change in the UK? Lord Krebs: In the UK we’ve done what we call the Climate Change Risk Assessment, which is a formal analysis of all…
Josh Frydenberg believes the government has an ambitious agenda for the G20.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Finance ministers from the G20 countries gather in Sydney this weekend, a crucial step on the way to November’s Leaders meeting, which will be the most important gathering of world leaders Australia has…
Josh Frydenberg is confident that there will be concrete outcomes from the G20 meeting.
AAP/Dominic O'Brien
Michelle Grattan: Australia will host the G20 leaders meeting late this year. It will be the most important international conference we have ever had in this country. This week, the G20 finance ministers…
Simply standing in front of a class and telling children how we are used to doing things ‘just won’t work’, according to leading American education expert Linda Darling-Hammond.
AAP/Dan Peled
Watch the video of Maxine McKew interviewing Stanford professor Linda Darling-Hammond below. Australian schoolkids are scoring higher than their US counterparts in maths, science and literacy, but a visiting…
The Saturday Paper will be the first new print paper in several decades, and editor Erik Jensen hopes to find a profitable niche in an industry that is quickly shedding circulation and staff.
Phil Gyford
Businessman and publisher Morry Schwartz’s decision to appoint a 25-year-old, relatively unknown journalist to edit the first serious newspaper launched in Australia in more than four decades might be…
The Saturday Paper will be the first new print paper in several decades, and editor Erik Jensen hopes to find a profitable niche in an industry that is quickly shedding circulation and staff.
Phil Gyford
Bill Birnbauer: Is this a serious business proposition or is it an act of philanthropy to an ailing newspaper industry? Erik Jensen: It’s certainly there to aid an ailing newspaper industry but it’s not…
Dr Kiran Martin (centre) has been working with New Delhi’s slum dwellers for 25 years.
Asha Health & Development Society Photo Archives
Watch the video of public health professor Rob Moodie interviewing Dr Kiran Martin below. Kiran Martin is the founder of Asha, a community health and development society that works with over 500,000 people…
Wall Street Journal editorial board member Mary Kissel says she isn’t concerned about a decline in quality journalism.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Despite the gloom surrounding the future of media, technological changes present new opportunities for quality journalism - but should call into question the role of state broadcasters such as the ABC…
Wall Street Journal editorial board member Mary Kissel is a guest at the Public Knowledge Forum in Sydney.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Andrea Carson: What are you intending to say at the Public Knowledge Forum at Sydney’s Opera House next week? Mary Kissel: I think there is a lot of concern about the decline, or the death, of good quality…
Technology will be a big part of a brighter future for India, says Nilekani.
Joshua Wanyama
Nandan Nilekani is one of Indian’s foremost entrepreneurs. He was co-founder of information technology company, Infosys, and is now Chair of the Unique Identification Authority of India. The Authority…
British Labour MP has worked to expose and investigate activities by News Corporation figures ranging from phone hacking to bribing police.
Chris Boland
Jill Singer: You’ve come here fresh from being British Labour’s campaign coordinator, which you’re not doing now. We won’t get into all the argy-bargy about that. But I wonder, coming from that perspective…
Rupert Murdoch’s evidence to the Leveson Inquiry appears to contradict statements recorded by his journalists in mid-2013, says Labour MP Tom Watson.
Toastwife
Rupert Murdoch may have perjured himself before the Leveson Inquiry, according to claims made by British Labour MP Tom Watson. Watson, who has spent much of the last five years investigating activities…
The Democratic Labor Party may have had its heyday decades ago, but Senator John Madigan may soon hold the balance of power and have enormous influence over Australian life.
AAP/Julian Smith
When the Democratic Labor Party’s John Madigan won the sixth Victorian Senate seat at the 2010 election, it appeared a tear in the time space continuum had somehow briefly transported politics back to…
DLP senator John Madigan believes we need to have a ‘public interest test’ when determining levels of foreign investment in Australia.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Geoffrey Robinson: John, you’re the first DLP [Democratic Labor Party] senator elected for a long time from Victoria. In your first speech you talked about being elected to parliament as surreal. Three…
Vice Chancellor of Cambridge University, Sir Leszek Borysiewicz talks with one of our academic experts about the changing role of universities.
Cambridge University
To listen to the conversation between Leszek Borysiewicz and Lynn Meek, please see the link below. An edited transcript is available here. Lynn Meek: Hello, I’m Professor Lynn Meek from the LH Martin Institute…
Director, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute & Professor of Medical Biology, and an honorary principal fellow in the Department of Zoology at the University of Melbourne, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)