2025 ABC Boyer Lecture series examines Australia as a Radical Experiment in Democracy – Academics, writers and policy experts will explore Australia: A Radical Experiment in Democracy across a series of five orations for the 2025 Boyer Lecture series, hosted by its creative director Julia Baird.
In this groundbreaking series, each of the five speakers will examine the strengths of Australian democracy as well as growing threats to it. The speakers will reflect on what has made our democracy so resilient and how, while Australians are lacking trust in our politicians, they have remarkable trust in our electoral processes. But they will also examine what each believes to be some of the challenges to it: shifting and uncertain global alliances, angry algorithms, artificial intelligence and rising autocracies.
ABC Chair Kim Williams said
“This year it is proposed that we host five distinguished speakers, having had four in the 65th series last year. In presenting an anthology series again, this year with Julia Baird as interlocutor to bind the series seamlessly, we are confident that the magic of a ‘thought kaleidoscope’ through our speakers will deliver captivating contrasting perspectives.
“I believe anthology series are better suited to the current era where undertaking four or more consecutive lectures is probably too big a request on prospective speakers with time pressures. Rather than having just one thinker why not have five with closely argued divergent viewpoints which Julia will then explore in conversation. The ABC Board is confident that an anthology series better suits contemporary temperament and offers the audience a variety of perspectives on contemporary directions in Australian democracy.”
The series will commence with a keynote delivered by Justin Wolfers, professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan and a visiting professor of economics at the University of Sydney.
Mr Wolfers’ keynote will be recorded on 14 October in front of a live audience in ABC Ultimo Studio 22. This will be followed by a panel discussion with all five speakers, moderated by journalist, historian and creative director of the Boyer lectures, Julia Baird. The keynote and panel will air on ABC Radio National and ABC News Channel on 19 October.
“Australia’s radical experiment has held to date – but we need to be clear-eyed about the challenges to it.”
– said Julia Baird.
For the first time in Boyer history, every subsequent lecture in this series will be broadcast on the ABC News Channel as well as ABC Radio National on consecutive Sundays from 26 October.
In another first for the Boyers, the ABC will partner with The Monthly to expand on the reach and impact of the lecture series.
About the speakers:
Justin Wolfers
Justin Wolfers is a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan and a visiting professor of economics at the University of Sydney. He is also a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research; a non-resident senior fellow with the Brookings Institution, a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a research fellow with the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn; a research affiliate with the Centre for Economic Policy Research in London; an international research fellow with the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, and a fellow of the CESifo in Munich.
He was previously a visiting professor at Princeton, an associate professor at Wharton, an assistant professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and an economist with the Reserve Bank of Australia. He is also a past editor of the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, and was a member of the Congressional Budget Office Panel of Economic Advisers. Dr. Wolfers earned his PhD in economics in 2001 from Harvard University, and was a Fulbright, Knox and Menzies Scholar.
He earned his undergraduate degree in economics in his native Australia at the University of Sydney in 1994, winning the University Medal.
He was named by the IMF as one of the “25 economists under 45 shaping the way we think about the global economy.” Wolfers’ research focuses on labor economics, macroeconomics, political economy, law and economics, social policy and behavioral economics.
Beyond research, he is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, National Public Radio, the BBC and ABC. He is a popular teacher, with many teaching awards to his name, and an author of a leading introductory economics textbook.
John Anderson
Hon. John Anderson AC, FTSE, spent 19 years from 1989 in the Australian Parliament. This included six years as Leader of the National Party and Deputy Prime Minister as a member of the reformist government led by John Howard. After 10 years in cabinet, he left politics with the deep respect of his colleagues on both sides of the house.
As a former senior legislator, John is concerned about political and public life and has remained active in the public square through his website and his socio-political podcast which can be found on the YouTube channel. His podcast enjoys a subscription list in excess of 600,000, and has attracted well over 200 million YouTube downloads, opinion pieces, public forums, and regular speaking engagements here, and internationally.
As important as good policy is, John now sees our biggest challenge is that of cultural break down.
John Anderson is a Companion in the Order of Australia, which is Australia’s highest award, he is an honorary member of the Academy of Technology and Engineering, and he holds a Master’s in History from the University of Sydney.
Larissa Behrendt
Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt AO is a Eualayai/Gamillaroi woman and Laureate Fellow at the Jumbunna Institute of Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology, Sydney. She is a graduate of the UNSW Law School and has a Masters and SJD from Harvard Law School. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities and a Founding Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. She has published numerous textbooks on Indigenous legal issues.
Larissa won the 2002 David Uniapon Award and a 2005 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for her novel Home. Her second novel, Legacy, won a Victorian Premiers Literary Award. Her most recent novel, After Story (2021, UQP) won the 2022 Voss Literary prize. Larissa is an award-winning filmmaker. She won the 2018 Australian Directors Guild Award for best Direction of a Documentary Film for After the Apology and the 2020 AACTA for Best Direction in Factual Television for her documentary, Maralinga Tjarutja. She is Chair of the National Library of Australia, Chair of Writing Australia, a trustee of the Australian Museum, Chair of the Murrup Foundation, a Council Member of Creative Australia, a board member of Sydney Dance Company and a Chair of the National Justice Project.
She is a former Chair and Board Member of the Bangarra Dance Theatre and has previously held board positions on the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney Festival, Sydney Writers Festival and the Sydney Community Fund. She chaired the 2011 review of Indigenous Higher Education and was a member of the University Accord Panel in 2023.
Larissa was awarded the 2009 NAIDOC Person of the Year award and 2011 NSW Australian of the Year. She was awarded an Order of Australia in 2020 for her work in Indigenous education, the law and the arts. Larissa received the Human Rights Medal 2021 from the Australian Human Rights Commission. She is the host of Speaking Out on ABC Radio. Larissa is a Native Title holder and a member of the Yuwaalaraay Euahlayi Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC as well as a member of the Metropolitan Aboriginal Land Council. She is also the host of Speaking Out on ABC Radio.
Amelia Lester
Amelia Lester is deputy editor of Foreign Policy magazine in Washington, DC. She was editor in chief of the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age’s Saturday magazine Good Weekend, and executive online editor and managing editor at The New Yorker. Amelia wrote from Japan for The Economist’s 1843 magazine, The New York Times books section, and The New York Review of Books. She is a graduate of Harvard University and lives in Sydney.
James Curran
James Curran is Professor of Modern History at The University of Sydney. He is also a foreign affairs columnist at The Australian Financial Review where from 2023-25 he was also International Editor. His latest book is Australia’s China Odyssey: From Euphoria to Fear (New South Press, 2024). Prior to joining Sydney University, James served in the Department of The Prime Minister and Cabinet and at the Office of National Assessments. In 2013, he was Chair of Australian History at University College Dublin and in 2010 a Fulbright Scholar at Georgetown University. James is now writing a book about former Australian PM Paul Keating’s foreign policy. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs.
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2025 ABC Boyer Lecture series examines Australia as a Radical Experiment in Democracy
