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 broadcasts & recordings
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.
Big Ideas will feature exerpts from each IQ² debate the following Tuesday on ABC1 at 11am. The debate is likely to be played in full at the same time on the next day (Wednesday). In addition, each debate is likely to be aired on ABC Radio National just after the 6pm news the following day (Thursday).
Note that broadcast times are subject to change and that debates are no longer broadcast 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 for the first time features debates in Melbourne as well as Sydney.
2010: upcoming Sydney debates
You can also view the past debates in this series.
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: upcoming Melbourne 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.
You can also view past debates in this series.
Feminism has failed
22 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 ...
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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