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IQ² live debates - past events

2010 series - Sydney

Below are past events from the 2020 IQ² series in Sydney.

You can also visit the future events page to see what's coming up. Details of debates from the 2008 series are also available, including recordings of each debate.

Popular Culture: We’ve seen the future and it is junk

Row of three soft drink cans in bright colours each with a letter to spell out the word 'pop'.

9 February 2010 - Sydney

There is a certain cast of mind that locates all virtue in the classics; a cast of mind that dismisses popular culture as worthless.

But in a society where so much popular culture is shaped by yesterday’s heroes, is the conservative critic just the ‘pot calling the kettle black’?

Read more ...

The pursuit of happiness is making us miserable

Unhappy faces printed on paper with one happy face.

9 March 2010 - Sydney

The ‘pursuit of happiness’ has been claimed as an unalienable 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?

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The Senate is still unrepresentative swill

Photograph in the evening of the Senate building, Parliament House, Canberra.

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.

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Governments should not censor the internet

A chain and padlock across a computer keyboard.

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 ...

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Better more cameras than more crime

CCTV camera aimed at printed grafitti stating: 'What are you looking at?'.

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 ...

2009 series

View details of the events from the 2009 series of debates.

2008 series

View details of the events from the 2008 series of debates.