A petition by a Sydney school girl has put the spotlight on an epidemic of sexual violence against Australian teenagers by their peers. It’s prompted moves by government to improve consent education in our schools. But is it enough?
With Australian of the Year Grace Tame inspiring a movement of passionate women and the Brittany Higgins scandal engulfing our Federal parliament, thousands have taken to the streets demanding justice for women.
On Thursday night Q+A brings together students, parents, experts and educators for a frank look at the vexed issue of consent, how men can help change the power imbalance and what needs to be done to combat the cultures of violence and silence that threaten the daily lives of Australian girls and women.
Yumi Stynes; Broadcaster and author, Welcome to Consent; Yumi Stynes is a broadcaster and writer who’s been working in Australian media for almost two decades. Her forthcoming book, out this year, is about consent.
Briony Scott; Principal, Wenona School; Dr Briony Scott is an Australian educator and columnist, and the Principal of Wenona in North Sydney, an independent K-12 girls school.
Michael Salter; Associate Professor of Criminology, UNSW; Scientia Associate Professor Michael Salter is a criminologist at the University of New South Wales, where he studies gendered violence and complex trauma.
Yasmin Poole; 2021 Youth Influencer of the Year; Yasmin is an award winning speaker, writer and youth advocate. She is Plan International’s National Ambassador and champions the importance of young women being heard in Australia’s political conversations.
Joe Williams; Former NRL player and mental health advocate; Joe Williams is a Wiradjuri/Wolgalu, First Nations man born in Cowra, NSW, who has advocated for mental health awareness through his The Enemy Within foundation.
With the world in lockdown and the showdown with China accelerating, the West must now adapt to a world it no longer dominates.
Our current political, justice and economic systems are unable to resolve the current global crises, nor bridge the growing divides of wealth, gender and race.
COVID is giving us a chance to reset, but already we’re seeing a toxic form of vaccine nationalism take hold, in which unequal access to vaccines is leaving some countries out in the cold. So how do we design a more equal world?
We’re at a turning point now - how do we proceed?
Stan Grant; Journalist and author; Stan Grant was born in Griffith, NSW, and is a proud Wiradjuri man. His forthcoming book, With the Falling of the Dusk, “explores what is driving the world to crisis and how it might be averted”.
Bruce Pascoe; Author, Dark Emu; Bruce Pascoe is the author of Dark Emu, which explores the history of Aboriginal agriculture and prompted a discussion about Australian history. His is also still a country A-grade cricketer.
Sam Mostyn; President, Chief Executive Women; Sam Mostyn is a businesswoman and sustainability adviser, with a long history of executive & governance roles across business, sport, climate change, the arts, policy, and NFP sectors.
Gigi Foster; Economist, UNSW; Gigi Foster is a Professor with the School of Economics at the University of New South Wales, having joined UNSW in 2009 after six years at the University of South Australia.
Adam Creighton; Economics editor, The Australian; Adam Creighton is The Australian’s economics editor, and has a special interest in tax and financial policy.
Also joining the conversation:
Thomas Piketty; Internationally renowned economist; Thomas Piketty is Professor at EHESS and at the Paris School of Economics and the author of international best-sellers Capital in the 21st century and Capital and ideology.
8.30pm for Thursday April 1 has been a TBA in the guide for over a week, going by this post of the schedule.
Given how the ratings have been recently though, I think there would be some concern at the ABC about Q&A’s performance on Thursday nights. Mind you, I’m not at all surprised this serious panel discussion program has rated poorly against content on the commercial networks (Thursday Night Football, Gogglebox) which radiates a true “almost the weekend” feel!
Check out the ABC TV Guide for the next week and it is back - clearly just taking a break for the day before Good Friday. The show is also in the schedule for the 2 weeks after that.
The Federal Government’s so-called “women’s ministry” meets for the first time this week in an attempt to drive action when it comes to the treatment of women. Will it be enough to turn the Prime Minister’s fortune around?
The government has been under mounting pressure over allegations of sexual assault and harassment for weeks, since former staffer Brittany Higgins alleged she was raped in a minister’s office, in March 2019.
The Government is also trying to turn around its vaccine rollout, as it fails to reach its targets. Some medical experts are warning further delays to the rollout could increase the likelihood of more lockdowns and further delays to international travel. The number of medical centres delivering the jab will double this week but what else can be done to accelerate and restore confidence in the process?
And this week another Indigenous Australian died in custody, the fifth death since the start of March. Almost thirty years on from the Royal Commission’s Aboriginal Deaths in Custody report, how do we turn the tide against Indigenous disadvantage and stop our First Nations people dying in prison?
Trent Zimmerman, Liberal Member for North Sydney; Trent Zimmerman was elected as Member for North Sydney at a by-election in December 2015.
Anika Wells, Labor Member for Lilley; Anika Wells became the youngest woman in the House of Representatives when she took over the seat of Lilley from Wayne Swan following his retirement at the 2019 Federal Election.
Martyn Iles, Martyn Iles is the Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby - one of the nation’s largest political movements of more than 170,000 people.
Antoinette Lattouf, Co-founder, Media Diversity Australia; multi-award winning journalist and a diversity advocate.
Teela Reid, Lawyer; activist, storyteller and proud Wiradjuri and Wailwan woman, born and raised in Gilgandra western NSW.
With a live performance from singer-songwriter Robbie Miller
I have no idea why the ABC thought moving Q&A to Thursday nights would be a good idea considering it’s now going up against Thursday night NRL (and early in the season, AFL) games
Not a defense but an explanation: They were trying to spread their available programming over more nights, by moving a 9:35 pm program to an earlier timeslot. ABC have said that with their current funding they can’t afford put premium programming past 9:30 pm.
Putting aside my dislike for the program… it’s a studio-based panel show. Hardly an expensive commission compared with a local drama or an investigative reporting series.
I understand the reasoning behind the decision. However, putting Q&A on Thursday nights not only doesn’t make sense logically but it was always going to fail.
I think half the issue is the guests. It’s usually a panel of boring or based on topics mainstream audiences don’t give two hoots about. Like does Paul from Penrith care that the show has a panel from the Melbourne Writers Festival?
Sticking controversial figures on there gives it newsworthy comment like the time Pauline Hanson and Sam Dastiari were together on the panel or Bob Katter and Josh Thomas also together. Jackie Lambie is also good value.
The Federal Government has scrapped its targets for the nationwide rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, after new medical advice derailed the rollout. More doses of the much-needed Pfizer vaccine have been ordered, taking the total number to 40 million. But of that, only about one million has arrived on our shores.
So, when will Australians be fully vaccinated? And how quickly can the government get the program back on track?
The delay has some experts questioning when Australia’s international borders will reopen. It’s a stark contrast to China, which despite being the origin of the virus, continues to recover strongly, with its economy surging at the start 2021.
The relationship between Australia continues to sour over the fallout of its push for an international investigation into Covid-19. Exporters and business leaders are bearing the brunt and fear it could spell potential economic disaster.
How can the relationship be repaired? Does having a trade relationship with China mean we have to stay silent on human rights issues?
Live from Melbourne
Norman Swan, Presenter RN and Coronacast
James Paterson , Liberal Senator for Victoria
Katy Gallagher, Shadow Minister for Finance
Vicky Xu, Journalist and researcher
David Olsson , President, Australia China Business Council
Rob is on the Money. They are only bringing up Regional Figures because the show is in trouble. If the show was doing well they wouldn’t give two shits about Regional Figures.
Absolutely agree. The last couple of years have just been people who have the same opinion as each other and they pretty much just mostly nod heads with each other. When i started watching it back around 8-9 Years Ago they used to have people from different sides of politics and had different opinions. You didn’t agree with everything they said but there was the diversity. Also i am not a fan of the 5 minute pre-packaged inserts or the Interview with an Audience Member segment Hamish does. It’s very Project-esque which doesn’t work with Q&A in my opinion.
On Q+A we’ll discuss all the big issues of the week, including Australia’s climate policy which will be under the international spotlight as world leaders lay out their plans for action at President Biden’s global climate summit.
As more countries set ambitious targets to reduce emissions, Australia stands at a crossroads. After more than a decade of bickering on both sides of politics, is the country ready to put an end to its climate wars? And will the plan for a gas-led recovery ease the transition from coal to renewables?
This week China and the US agreed to work together on developing carbon capture, energy storage and hydrogen targets, a move which puts even more pressure on Australia to take action. Shadow Resources Minister Madeleine King has also thrown her support behind the coal industry, while calling for a mature debate about the issue. The Prime Minister has signalled he’s open to setting a net zero target by 2050. But how do you build a policy framework that can lead to the reduction of emissions, attract economic investment and keep energy costs down?
And with work gathering pace on the draft report into The Voice to Parliament, we’ll look at the battle for Indigenous recognition.
Q+A is live from Sydney on Thursday, April 22 at 8.30pm AEST.
Malcolm Turnbull, Former Prime Minister; Malcolm Turnbull was the 29th Prime Minister of Australia. Prior to entering politics, he enjoyed successful careers as a lawyer, investment banker and journalist.
Narelda Jacobs, Narelda Jacobs is a Whadjuk Noongar woman from Perth. She’s been a journalist at Network 10 since 2000, spending 19 years in the Perth newsroom before heading to Studio 10 in Sydney.
Keith Pitt, Minister for Resources; Keith Pitt was sworn in as Minister for Resources, Water and Northern Australia on 6 February 2020.
Sarah Hanson-Young South Australian Greens Senator. With a background in activism and campaigning, Sarah Hanson-Young has brought a strong human rights focus to her years in Federal Parliament.
Andrew Liveris, Former CEO, The Dow Chemical Company; Andrew Liveris AO is the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Dow Chemical Company and former Executive Chairman of DowDuPont.
