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.
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 this 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.
2009 series
The 2009 season of debates is proving to be even more stimulating, informative and entertaining than the highly successful 2008 series.
All debates start at 6.45pm. Audience members must be seated by 6.35pm as the event will be screened live.
The media cannot be trusted to tell the truth
4 August 2009
Newspapers, radio, television and now the internet are the means by which countless millions engage with information about the world in which we live. There are critical moments in our lives when the truth really matters. Can the media be trusted at these moments? Are commercial imperatives overwhelming considerations of public interest?
Read more ...
Our current immigration rate is too high
15 September 2009
It used to be that only xenophobes and economic nationalists opposed increased immigration. Today, caution is being urged by environmentalists. Could Australia increase its population while reducing its footprint? Can our society cope with the pace of change that increasing numbers of immigrants will force?
Read more ...
Intelligence Squared should shove off to Melbourne where it belongs
26 October 2009
Sydney’s IQ² debates are not going anywhere. However, this brute fact has done nothing to dampen a body of Southern opinion that refuses to believe that something as intelligent as IQ² could have taken root in Sydney! A light and irreverent end to the 2009 Season.
Read more ...
Past debates
2009 series
We should legalise euthanasia
3 February 2009
Some people suffer terrible deaths – riven by uncontrollable pain, denied the dignity of choice, willing but unable to end life without the aid of others. Yet deliberately to end a human life is, for many, always wrong.
Watch this debate on The Sydney Morning Herald website.
Read more ...
Freedom of expression must include the licence to offend
31 March 2009
Most people believe in freedom of expression – up to a point. But what of the artist who offends our ideas of innocence? Or the politician who stokes the flames of racial hatred? Or the cleric who preaches that all other faiths are false?
Read more ...
It's time to get rid of state government
26 May 2009
They may frustrate, they may infuriate. However, for many, the States remain the indispensable building blocks of Federation. But have the States outlived their usefulness – becoming expensive islands of dysfunction?
Read more ...
Public funding of private education is unconscionable
25 June 2009
The parents of students attending private schools pay taxes. So, why should their children be denied a share of the education dollar? Where should we invest public funds – and according to what set of principles might we decide without prompting envy and division?
Read more ...
2008 series
The 2008 series of IQ² Australia debates has now concluded. Follow the links below to learn more about each debate topic from the series. You can also watch recordings of each debate which are now embedded in each event page below.
