2024 Conference Program
Day 1 Dinner Reception | Thursday October 24, 2024 BALLROOM 3
18:30 - 19:00
Pre-dinner reception
19:00 - 19:10
Opening address: Nicholas Moore
Welcome address: Tom Switzer, Executive Director, Centre for Independent Studies
19:10 - 21:30
Opening dinner and onstage discussion: US Presidential election preview
Sir Niall Ferguson, MA, DPhil, FRSE, is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a senior faculty fellow of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard
John B Judis, author and American journalist, Editor-at-Large, Talking Points Memo
Sarah Percy, Associate Professor, University of Queensland
Tom Switzer, Executive Director, Centre for Independent Studies (moderator)
21:30
Post dinner drinks Lobby Bar
Day 2 Morning Sessions | Friday October 25, 2024
08:00 - 08:45
Morning session A: Post Voice — What’s the future for Indigenous policy in Canberra? Facet Room 1 & 2
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, Shadow Minister Indigenous Affairs, and former Director of Indigenous Affairs at The Centre for Independent Studies
Kerrynne Liddle, Shadow Minister for Child Protection and the Prevention of Family Violence of Australia
Warren Mundine AO, Director – Indigenous Forum, CIS (moderator)
08:00 - 08:45
Morning session B: Fiction writing: you can’t make this stuff up Cullinan Room
09:00 - 09:10
Welcome by conference chair Ballroom 1 and 2
09:10 - 09:50
Keynote 1: What is prison good for?
09:50 - 10:50
Plenary 1: What are the challenges facing Australia’s criminal justice systems?
10:50 - 11:20
Morning tea
11:20 - 11:50
Keynote 2: How to transition energy — what can Australia learn from Canada?
11:50 - 12:50
Plenary 2: Is Australia too late for nuclear?
12:50 - 14:00
Lunch Akoya Restaurant
14:00 - 14:30
Keynote 3: How healthy is our democracy?
14:30 - 15:30
Plenary 3: The decline of institutions and the fall of empires
Helen Dale, senior writer Liberty Fund, Lawyer, Author
Sir Niall Ferguson, MA, DPhil, FRSE, is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a senior faculty fellow of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard
Simon Haines, former CEO, The Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation, and Adjunct Professor, ACU
Nigel Biggar CBE, Regius Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology and Senior Research Fellow, University of Oxford
Simon Cowan, Research Director, CIS (moderator)
15:30 - 18:00
Afternoon tea & free time
18:00 - 18:30
Independence Society members' reception
19:00 - 22:00
Gala dinner, The McGregor Fellowship and Neville Kennard Address: What now for the Liberal World Order? Ballroom 3
22:00 - 24:00
Post dinner drinks Lobby Bar
Day 3 Morning Sessions | Saturday October 26, 2024
08:00 - 08:45
Morning session A: Overcoming the odds in Australia’s disadvantaged schools Facet room 1 and 2
08:00 - 08:45
Morning session B: Costs and benefits of a big Australia Cullinan room
09:10 - 10:10
Conversation 1: Housing policy reform: lessons from New Zealand
10:15 - 11:15
Conversation 2: The rise of populism
11:15 - 11:40
Morning tea
11:45 - 12:15
Keynote 4: Lessons in education policy reform from England
12:15 - 13:15
Plenary 4: Can education in Australia be reformed?
Rt Hon Nick Gibb MP, former Schools Minister
Ross Fox, Director, Catholic Education Canberra
Michelle Bruniges, Chair, Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, Chair, OECD’s PISA Governing Board
Hon Erica Stanford MP, NZ Minister of Education and Minister of Immigration
Glenn Fahey, Director Education Program, CIS (moderator)
