What is Intelligence Squared?
IQ² occupies a unique position in Sydney’s social and intellectual landscape. It is the only institution in town - aside from Parliament - to provide a forum for debate on the crucial issues of the day.
But unlike Parliament, its debates are consistently exciting, witty, provocative - and comfortable, held as they are at the City Recital Hall Angel Place in Sydney and the Melbourne Town Hall in Melbourne.
Best of all, you are invited to watch the live debates and even participate.
Read more about Intelligence Squared Australia and the live debates series.
Debate webcasts & broadcasts
Each IQ² debate will be webcast live on The Sydney Morning Herald website from 6:45pm on the day of the event.
Once available an embedded video of each debate will be available on this site. Visit the past events page for the most recent series for links to the events.
In addition each event will be broadcast at a later date on ABC Radio National and the ABC Fora program on ABC2 television.
Live debate polls
Visit the Values Exchange site for IQ2 Australia, where you can give your opinion for each debate topic and read the views of other participants.
2010 series
Below are details of the 2010 series of live debates, which will not only be taking place in Sydney, but for the first time a series of four different debates are planned to take place in Melbourne. Note that further details for the Melbourne series are still be be confirmed.
2010 Sydney season ticket
A season ticket for the entire series debates in Sydney is again available this year. Most debates in 2009 were sold out, so secure your place by purchasing a season ticket.
2010: Sydney live debates
The Senate is still unrepresentative swill
13 April 2010 - Sydney
Paul Keating’s famous jibe has not lost its sting. The Senate still has the capacity to frustrate the will of government.
It is still the chamber designed to protect the interests of the States, rather than those of the nation as a whole.
Read more ...
Governments should not censor the internet
11 May 2010 - Sydney
Architects of the internet have championed its promise as an instrument of liberty – a free-wheeling republic in which the ordinary person can bypass the gatekeepers of power and influence.
Beneath the shiny towers of liberty electronic sewers run thick with child pornography, terrorist propaganda, racial hatred, crazy conspiracies ...
Read more ...
Better more cameras than more crime
6 July 2010 - Sydney
In a bid to combat crime, Britain has made a massive investment in closed circuit cameras – with as many as 4.2 million having been installed.
Yet, the evidence suggests that this may have been for little benefit – with only 3% of street robberies in London being solved with the help of the ubiquitous cameras.
Read more ...
Only capitalism can save the planet
10 August 2010 - Sydney
Critics of capitalism have been crowing ever since the onset of the global financial crisis.
Capitalism has been blamed for nearly every one of the earth’s ills – poverty, pestilence, exploitation, environmental degradation, the lot!
Read more ...
We'd be better off without our armed forces
12 October 2010 - Sydney
Australia spends a fortune on defence – money that could be invested in improving health, education and the security of our energy, food and water.
Some think that defence expenditure is the price of freedom – ultimately measured in blood and treasure.
Read more ...
The nation state is a rotten idea
17 November 2010 - Sydney
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace ...
John Lennon - 1971
Read more ...
2010: Melbourne live debates
The first season of IQ² debates in Melbourne will be held at the Melbourne Town Hall, 90-120 Swanston Street from 6:30 to 8:30pm.
Further details about our Melbourne debate series - being held for the first time in 2010 - are still being confirmed. Please check back for further information.
Old people must pay their own way
15 June 2010 - Melbourne
Australia’s baby boomers are getting older – and with their aging comes mounting expense ... for the community.
The elderly receive a broad raft of subsidies – especially for medical services, where the annual costs of care are spiralling out of control.
What, if anything, justifies these subsidies?
Read more ...
- Event details
- Buy tickets
- Vote on the debate
Feminism has failed
28 September 2010 - Melbourne
After generations of effort, women still bear a disproportionate burden of domestic labour. Women are under-represented in the senior ranks of politics, business and the professions.
Women continue to be denied equal pay for equal work.
Read more ...
- Event details
- Buy tickets
- Vote on the debate
Our obsession with self is destroying our communities
9 November 2010 - Melbourne
John Donne wrote that, “No man is an island, entire of itself ... any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee”.
Yet, does this sentiment hold true in the modern world?
Read more ...
- Event details
- Buy tickets
- Vote on the debate
2009 series
The 2009 series of IQ² Australia debates has now concluded. Learn more about the debates in this series - you can also watch online recordings of each debate.
2008 series
The 2008 series of IQ² Australia debates has now concluded. Learn more about the debates in this series - you can also watch online recordings of each debate.
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