Big Ideas

Saving Australia's endangered mammals

Our unique mammals are on the endangered list. Their habitats are consumed by expanding cities and destroyed by tree clearing and climate change. There's also an increased risk of disease. Join the scientists on a mission to save them.

Diversity in arts, culture and the creative sector

Australia is tremendously multicultural, but the cultural and arts sector is overwhelmingly white, and significantly under-represents cultural and linguistically diverse Australians. 

What's on the menu in 2050?

Australian farmers are changing the way they farm in response to climate change, consumer demands for green and clean products and export opportunities in Asia. What will we be eating in coming decades?

What's on the menu in 2050?

Australian farmers are changing the way they farm in response to climate change, consumer demands for green and clean products and export opportunities in Asia. What will we be eating in coming decades?

Boosting equality for rural women in poor countries

In developing countries women are an important part of the rural economy but don't have social or economic equality. A development economist evaluates aid programs and loan schemes designed to improve boost their position.

Empowering rural women and future food

Boosting the social and economic position of poor rural women in developing countries and how Australian farmers are responding to climate challenges and new markets.

Australia and a US-China conflict

As China and America go head to head in Asia, on trade and security issues, can Australia remain neutral? John Mearsheimer says that in the future if the competition heats up we'll have to choose.  

Regionalism, politics and the Queensland factor

Is Queensland different to the rest of Australia? How does its history, and decisions going all the way back to federation, continue to affect the state and its politics?

Where now for the asylum seekers who come by boat?

Since 2013 all asylum seekers who arrive by boat have been diverted to offshore detention and processing. Successive Australian governments say they'll never be re-settled in Australia. About nine hundred asylum seekers remain on Manus Island and Nauru. What is their future and the future of our refugee policy?

Insights into the Banking Royal Commission

The Banking Royal Commission revealed evidence of shocking misconduct, fraud and even crime within banking, superannuation and financial services industry. Adele Ferguson sparked the inquiry with her investigative stories and she takes you behind the scenes of how the royal commissions started and what she thinks should happen next.

Indigenous languages and origins of language

Preserving Australia's Indigenous languages and the mystery of human language.

The Fitzgerald Report, and corruption fighting, 30 years on

30 years ago, in Queensland, the landmark Fitzgerald Report was handed down.  Does it still provide a roadmap for greater public integrity and transparency?

Inclusive technology design

Do you struggle with the small text on your phone screen or strain to hear voicemail messages?  Technology throws up problems for everyone but if you have a disability poor design can exclude you from using all kinds of devices. How do we promote inclusive design which gives access to everyone?  

Jenny Macklin and the creation of the NDIS

Jenny Macklin held many social policy portfolios over her long political career. As Minister for Disability Reform in the Gillard government she ushered in the NDIS. Jenny talks about the process of winning support for big social policy changes.  

NDIS and inclusive design

Former Minister for Disability Reform Jenny Macklin describes the creation of the NDIS and designing technology with disability in mind.

Is free speech an industrial issue?

In an age when you can be sacked for an inflammatory tweet, people are asked to sign ‘morality clauses’ and media ownership remains in the hands of a select few, it seems that the powerful are increasingly able to redraw the boundaries of free speech. 

The women who mapped the stars

Dava Sobel discusses the unheralded women scientists of the Harvard College observatory who changed our understanding of the universe

Australian family policy

The stay-at-home mum and the breadwinner dad is a distant memory for most modern parents. And in the 1950s who could imagine paid parental leave and subsidized child care? Three historians weigh up the impact of public policy on Australian families.

Lessons from the Weimar Republic

Why did the Weimar Republic fail to make Germany democratic? There are lessons to be learned for the future of democracy in the 21st century.

Archaeology in the interests of indigenous communities

Colonial social scientists appropriated the artefacts and wrote the cultural history of dispossessed people. To advance reconciliation,  archaeologists and anthropologists are now working in partnership with first nations.

Certainty vs insecurity: why Scott Morrison defeated Bill Shorten

Scott Morrison is possessed of certainty. Bill Shorten is insecure. This helps explain why the Coalition was re-elected, and why Labor lost. So says writer, Erik Jensen.

Microbiome – and our health

The importance and function of the human microbiome is just starting to be appreciated. It appears to have a much broader impact on our health than was previously thought.

Saudi women fight for equality

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s a magical place if you’re an oil-rich sheik. Not so magical if you’re a Saudi woman wanting personal autonomy. Women can now drive and attend sporting matches , thanks to the new Crown Prince. But has anything really changed? Two Saudi dissidents talk about the cost of challenging the system.

Andrew Stafford on how music came to his rescue

Writer, Andrew Stafford, talks about how the outsider ethos of rock and roll helped define him, and how it’s been the soundtrack to his life through thick and thin

Race, gender and prisons

We’re building more prisons and we imprison indigenous people at a much higher rate than the rest of society. Prison reformer Baz Dreisinger says it’s a similar picture around the world. Women are also now going to jail in greater numbers. What are the alternatives?    

Is digital distraction killing our inner life?

Are we losing the connection to our ‘inner self’ with the constant notifications and distractions of digital media? Is solitude needed to nourish a rich inner life?

Eddie Woo and the wonderful world of maths

Do you have a Maths brain? Eddie Woo, Maths teacher and Youtube sensation, believes everyone can learn Maths and it's a critical life skill in the twenty-first century.  

Australia and outer space

Australia was one of the first nations to launch a satellite into orbit. Does the recent establishment of an Australian Space Agency signal a re-entry into space related activities? What are the opportunities, and the constraints? 

01 | Who Runs This Place? — The Triangle

More power is concentrated inside Canberra’s Parliamentary Triangle than anywhere else. The Constitution doesn’t mention the Prime Minister but that office is where the power is. We look at how Prime Ministerial power has changed in the 21st Century. And, over the same time period, another part of the Canberra landscape has gained a huge range of powers: the security agencies. 

02 | Who Runs This Place? — The Lobbyists

The industries and organisations that get what they want from government. In part two we stay in Canberra and look at the lobbyists, the industries and organisations most effective at getting what they want from the government. We also look at the revolving door between politicians and lobbyists.

03 | Who Runs This Place? — The States

The different power players in each state. All six states are led by Premiers and have cabinets — they're the same. But they're also different. In part three, we look at the industries, groups and people who have power in each state, including mining peak bodies, radio shock-jocks, the AFL and poker machine operators.

04 | Who Runs This Place? — The People

Union membership is a fraction of what it was but people power is finding a voice through new platforms and movements. People power has given us revolutions, political parties and unions. In part four we look at how people power is now helping to put a range of issues on the political agenda through new platforms, movements and voices in Parliament. We also hear how Parliament itself could be changed.

The digital megatrends shaping your future

Put away the crystal ball. CSIRO's Data 61 has identified the digital megatrends of the next two decades. If you understand the changes ahead you can be the master of your own re-invention.  

Sustainable tourism

We all have the travel bug and cheap airfares promote mass tourism. As you wait at the airport, climb on the tour bus or walk shoulder to shoulder through Venice, it feels like the whole world is on the move. Can the planet sustain this level of tourism or does the tourist industry need a new business model?  

Universities – most successful institutions of all times?

It’s not unusual to have universities that are several hundreds of years old and still growing. What’s made universities such successful institutions? And can they endure faced with new challenges?

Homelessness and housing affordability

Many low income Australians experience rental stress and can easily find themselves homeless. How do we make housing more affordable and accessible?

Glaciers disappear as the globe heats up

The 25 Zero Project.  Twenty-five mountains on the equator have glaciers at their peaks. Unless we slow down climate change, in twenty-five years there will be zero ice. 25 Zero.

Renewable fuels for affordable and reliable energy

The race is on to transition to a low-carbon economy. If we ditch fossil fuels will electricity and heating be even more expensive? Three energy specialists weigh up the pros and cons of solar, wind, hydro, biomass and hydrogen.

Renewable energy and 25 Zero

Making renewable energy reliable and affordable and glaciers disappear as climate change bites.

Why Antarctica matters

The frozen confinement holds answers to the development of biodiversity, direct weather patterns across the world and is possibly our best indicator of climate change.

China's Great Firewall

China has developed its own version of the internet. The government blocks access to foreign websites like Facebook and Google and it employs a cyber army to monitor social media and censor sensitive topics. Other countries are now looking at adopting the Chinese model.

Shifting the Foundations - BBC Reith Lecture 5

Reith lecturer Jonathan Sumption argues that law has expanded to fill the space once occupied by politics. He wants to revitalize the public's interest in politics but says complaints about political elites are misguided. He weighs up proposals to change the constitution and voting systems.

How the internet led to division, distraction and civic disengagement

The internet has fragmented communities, proliferated fake news, distracted children, and led to disengaged citizens, according to Peter Lewis. What happened to the digital Utopia?

China Ages

After decades of the one child policy who will take care of China's elderly? 350 million people will be sixty-five plus in China by 2040. The one child policy was abolished in 2015 but China's birthrate hasn't increased as expected so aged care may not be any easier for the next generation.

Choosing to be childless and China's old age boom

To parent or stay childfree?

Do you want children and, if so, how many and when? Despite lifestyle choices, there’s still the expectation that you’ll find a partner, make a commitment and become a parent. But it’s not exactly going to plan. The birthrate’s going down and more women are choosing to be childfree.

Understanding sharks – better

Did you know that sharks have very distinct personalities? That they have social networks and a ‘home’? A panel of marine scientists tries to change the public perception of sharks. Understanding sharks better can help find the right balance of shark-human interaction.

Rights and the ideal constitution-BBC Reith Lecture 4

The American Bill of Rights is held up as the best way to protect civil liberties and minorities. But entrenched rights from a document written hundreds of years ago can have a downside. Reith lecturer Jonathan Sumption gives his view of the pros and cons of constitutional rights. Are they the best protection against the excesses of the State?

Disruption and surveillance capitalism

Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google - or FAANG - have disrupted our idea of privacy and created what some are calling ‘surveillance capitalism’. And there are other new disruptions ahead. 

The rise of the far right

Violent extremism is a global threat. And we’re caught in a deadly cycle of action and reaction. The recent attacks on the mosques in Christchurch shifted the focus from jihadi terror to the growing threat of far-right extremism. What drives extreme right wing groups in Australia?