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The Senate is still unrepresentative swill

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.

On the other hand, are the Senate’s supposed faults actually its greatest strength? As a check on the unbridled power of government, the Senate might frustrate politicians in the House of Representatives but is this essential to keep our democracy strong?

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

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Speakers

For

• Annabel Crabb is a refugee from the legal profession who has been working as a journalist covering politics for over ten years. She has written a book about the Labor Party (Losing It, 2005) and published an insightful Quarterly Essay on Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberal Party. She was a political correspondent for The Age and London correspondent for Fairfax's Sunday titles, and is a former columnist and sketchwriter for The Sydney Morning Herald. She is now ABC Online's chief political writer and is a regular panelist on ABCTV's Insiders program.
• Dr Peter Van Onselen is Associate Professor of Politics and Government at Edith Cowan University. His PhD thesis was on the Senate. He is a regular newpaper contributor, and is host of a weekly half hour political program. He has featured as an election night television commentator. In his academic career Peter has written dozens of scholarly journal articles and refereed conference papers on topics relating to parliamentary democracy, communications and public policy. He has authored and edited three books, including John Winston Howard: The Biography - a best seller rated by The Wall Street Journal Asia as the best biography of 2007.
• Susan Ryan was appointed the first Labor Senator for the Australian Capital Territory, 1975. In the Federal Parliament she was the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister Bob Hawke on the Status of Women 1983-88 and the Minister for Education, 1984-87. She presided over the passage of the federal government's Sex Discrimination Act 1984 and the Affirmative Action (Equal Opportunities in Employment) Act 1986. She later worked in the plastics industry and in superannuation.

Against

• Senator Bob Brown is well known throughout Australia for his passion for the environment, his leading role in saving Tasmania’s Franklin River from damming, for founding The Wilderness Society and Bush Heritage Australia and for speaking out on human rights issues. During his thirteen years in the Senate, Bob has served on a number of parliamentary committees including Senators' Interests, Senate Procedure, on the Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, on Competition Policy and on Electoral Matters.
• Fr Frank Brennan AO is a Jesuit priest, professor of law at Australian Catholic University and professorial visiting fellow at the University of New South Wales Law School. He was the founding director of Uniya, the Australian Jesuit Social Justice Centre. He is author of many books on Aboriginal issues, social justice and civil liberties. His latest book, Acting on Conscience, looks at the place of religion in Australian politics and law. At the launch Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described Frank as "an ethical burr in the nation’s saddle".
• Simon Sheik is the National Director of advocacy group GetUp.  He has campaigned on climate change, changes to our anti-terrorism laws and GetUp’s work on internet censorship. He studied Economics at the University of New South Wales, and represented Australia at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Uganda in 2007 as Australia's Commonwealth youth representative and in the same year was named the NSW Young Professional of the Year.

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.