The Public Square

Shalom Auslander describes himself as having "been raised like a veal". He is the author of the short story collection Beware of God, the memoir Foreskin’s Lament and the novels Hope: A Tragedy and Mother For Dinner. He is the creator of Showtime’s Happyish. 

George Brandis was a Senator for Queensland from 2000 to 2018, Minister for the Arts in the Howard and Abbott Governments, Attorney-General in the Abbott and Turnbull Governments, and Leader of the Government in the Senate under Prime Minister Turnbull.  He was Australia’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2018 to 2022. He was recently appointed as a Professor at the National Security College at the Australian National University. He also writes a regular column for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

The Hon Bob Carr holds the record for longest continuously serving Premier in the history of New South Wales and he also served as Australia’s Foreign Minister for 18 months. Since leaving politics, Carr has led a distinguished career as a defacto diplomat, author and academic. He is the author of My Reading Life, Thoughtlines, Diary of a Foreign Minister and political memoir Run for Your Life. 

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Cold War, Hot Culture

Sarah Ferguson is the presenter of the ABC’s 7.30. She has won four Walkleys, including the Gold Walkley in 2011, the Melbourne Press Club Gold Quill Award, four Logies for most outstanding public affairs report, the George Munster Award for Independent Journalism and the Queensland Premier's Literary Award. She is the author of The Killing Season and On Mother. 

Sir David Hare was described by the Washington Post as “the premiere political dramatist writing in English.” He has written over thirty stage plays and thirty screenplays for film and television. The plays include Plenty, Pravda (with Howard Brenton), The Secret Rapture, Racing Demon, Skylight, Amy’s View, The Blue Room, Via Dolorosa, Stuff Happens, The Absence of War, The Judas Kiss and Straight Line Crazy. His film credits include The Hours, The Reader, Damage, Denial, Wetherby and The White Crow among others, while his television films include Licking Hitler, The Worricker Trilogy, Collateral and Roadkill. In a millennial poll of the greatest plays of the 20th century, five of the top 100 were his.

Mark Scott is the Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Sydney. For a decade, he was Managing Director, overseeing its transition to being a great public broadcaster of the digital age. Before that, he was Editor-in-Chief for Fairfax’s Metropolitan and Community newspapers, including The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Most recently, he was Secretary of the NSW Department of Education. Until the beginning of this year, he was Chair of the Sydney Writer’s Festival and has recently been appointed Chair of The Conversation Media Group.