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The pursuit of happiness is making us miserable

The ‘pursuit of happiness’ has been claimed as an inalienable right of human beings

Generations of people have taken the authors of the American Declaration of Independence at their word, pursuing happiness with a relentless zeal.

But is happiness really worth pursuing? Would we be better off striving for other goods like honour or peace or, perhaps, not striving at all?

Finally, is the pursuit of the happiness of the affluent the source of misery for millions who toil and sweat to meet and match our ever-changing wants?

It is important that audience members are seated by 6.35pm as the event will be screened live.

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Speakers

For

• Clive Hamilton is Professor of Public Ethics and holds the Vice-Chancellor's Chair at Charles Sturt University. He was the Founder and for fourteen years the Executive Director of The Australia Institute, a public interest think tank. He is well known in Australia as a public intellectual and for his contributions to public policy debate. His extensive publications include writings on climate change policy, overconsumption, welfare policy and the effects of commercialisation.  Amongst other titles he is the author of Affluenza.
• Dr Tanveer Ahmed is a psychiatry registrar and opinion columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald. His writings often relate to the place of mental health in modern society. A former SBS television cadet, he sits on the Advertising Standards Board, the advisory council to the Smith Family and is a former national representative for junior doctors within the Australian Medical Association. He has also performed comedy and co-hosted a prime time gameshow. He has previously been chosen by a PM's committee as one of a hundred future leaders of Australia and as "a young man of influence" by a popular men's magazine.
• Petrea King is the best-selling author of eight books, and a leading light in the field of holistic health in Australia. She has received the Advance Australia Award and the Centenary Medal for her contribution to the community and has been a nominee for Australian of the Year several years in a row. Petrea has practiced many forms of meditation since the age of seventeen and in the 1980s overcame a life threatening cancer. Since then, she has counselled more than 60,000 people living with life-challenging illnesses, grief, loss, trauma and tragedy. Petrea sees crisis as a catalyst for spiritual growth and understanding and as an opportunity for healing and peace.

Against

• Professor Ian Hickie is the Executive Director of the Brain and Mind Research Institute and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Sydney. He was the inaugural CEO of the national depression initiative, BeyondBlue. In 2006 he received the Australian Honours Award of Member (AM) for services to medicine in the development of key national mental health initiatives and general practice services in both the public and non-government sectors.
• Russel Howcroft is Chairman and Managing Director of George Patterson's Y&R and former Chairman of the Advertising Federation of Australia. He founded the advertising agency Brandhouse and has worked for major advertising companies in London. He is a panel member of the ABC’s Gruen Tansfer program and a regular commentator on ABC Radio in Melbourne. Russel is also on a Board Member of The Melbourne International Arts Festival, The Melbourne Football Club and The Advertising Federation of Australia. Recently he helped create and fund EMIT - one of Australia's first carbon trading company's.
• Professor Judith Sloan is an economist and company director. She is Commissioner of the Productivity Commission, Commissioner of the Australian Fair Pay Commission and Director of Santos Ltd. She is also a member of the board of the Lowy Institute for International Policy and the Westfield Group. She has held a number of academic appointments including Professor of Labour Studies and Director of the National Institute of Labour Studies at the Flinders University of South Australia.

Chair:

Dr Simon Longstaff is Executive Director of St James Ethics Centre. Simon spent five years studying and working as a member of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Having won scholarships to study at Cambridge, he read for the degrees of Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy. He was inaugural President of The Australian Association for Professional & Applied Ethics and is a Director of a number of companies. He is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum and a member of the International Advisory Committee of the Foreign Policy Association, based in New York. Simon has been Executive Director of St James Ethics Centre since shortly after it was founded.