Boyer Lectures

In our fifth and final Boyer Lecture for 2025, James Curran, professor of modern history at the University of Sydney, analyses our partnership with the world’s most powerful democracy, the USA, addressing options for how we can deal with, and even construct, a post -American future.In his talk, Professor Curran argues that we need to stop hoping for ‘regional strategic equilibrium' because US primacy is a thing of the past.  Instead, we need to look for new solutions within our Asia-Pacific region to secure amity, commerce, and cooperation into the future.“The point is not that we cannot have an independent foreign policy: the point is that it does not need to be articulated by the shaking cans of bully beef or dressing up the Eureka Stockade incident in the borrowed robes of Gettysburg or the storming of the Bastille.  We cannot be entirely dependent of the US and China because their actions still have such a powerful influence on us. And we need to retain influence in Washington and Beijing to press the cause of peace.”Credits:Presented by James Curran, professor of modern history at the University of SydneySeries curated and introduced by Dr Julia BairdExecutive Producer, Julia BairdProducer,  Gail BoserioSound Engineer, Simon Branthwaite

In the fourth Boyer Lecture for 2025, Amelia Lester, deputy editor at Foreign Policy Magazine in Washington, explores why it is so difficult to have meaningful discussions about the possible repercussions of Artificial Intelligence in all our lives. Given it is being described as possibly more transformative than electricity, even more transformative than fire, and even worthy of threatening our very human nature, what needs to happen?If it seems that we are being carried along a road without return, Amelia begs to differ, arguing that given Australia’s track record in standing up for workers’ rights and human rights puts us in a good place to exercise action against these threats to our very humanness.“A handful of big tech companies control what we know about AI, and because these companies want to consolidate oligopoly control over the AI ecosystem, we’re constantly having to parse what’s factual and what’s hype. But just because AI’s hard to talk about, doesn’t mean we have to resign ourselves to it, or any technology, being harmful to humanity.”Credits:Presented by Amelia Lester, deputy editor at Foreign Policy Magazine in Washington.Series curated and introduced by Dr Julia BairdExecutive Producer, Julia BairdProducer,  Gail BoserioSound Engineer, Simon Branthwaite

Larissa Behrendt, AO a Euahleyai/Gamillaroi woman and Distinguished Professor of Law and Inaugural Chair in Indigenous Research at the University of Technology, is passionate about the Australian courts’ record of upholding democracy, but reminds us the legal system has been used to exclude and discriminate against First Nations people.  In the third Boyer Lecture for 2025, she presents a three-point remedy to get us past the ‘us and them’ mentality, highlighting the necessity and importance of truth and story-telling and the critical importance of universities, the arts and creative and cultural institutions to forge a truly healthy democracy.Larissa Behrendt also advocates for the inclusion of ancient Indigenous philosophies into our traditional Western liberal traditions, to create a truly inclusive and engaging democracy.“The law is shaped by power. It reflects who has a voice, and who does not. If we want a fairer society, we must ensure the law listens to those too often silenced.  And we have to acknowledge that at the heart of the Constitution, there lies an historic and structural wound.”CreditsPresented by Larissa Behrendt, AO Series curated and introduced by Julia BairdExecutive Producer, Julia BairdProducer,  Gail BoserioSound Engineer, Simon Branthwaite

In the second Boyer Lecture for 2025, the Hon John Anderson, AC, farmer, grazier and former deputy prime minister of Australia, takes a sweeping look over our history and concludes that the liberal world order that has so far defined us, is ending.While such turning points require big and important decisions, what happens to Australia, he understands, is inextricably linked to what happens to the global democratic order.John Anderson argues for the need to counter distrust, disengagement and other pressing social issues, and has found in talking to many young participants in his podcast series, that the views of the young need to be far better respected to foster new Australian leadership.“As the great American economic historian Thomas Sowell put it best, ‘Civilisation doesn’t always sustain itself, it has to be built, maintained, defended, and most importantly understood.’   When that understanding is lost, decline is not just likely, it becomes inevitable.  And that’s the illusion we’re living under today – that civilisation is permanent – but it isn’t.”Credits:Presented by Hon John Anderson, AC, farmer, grazier and former deputy prime minister of AustraliaSeries curated and introduced by Dr Julia BairdExecutive Producer, Julia BairdProducer,  Gail BoserioSound Engineer, Simon Branthwaite

The Keynote Boyer Lecturer for 2025 is Justin Wolfers, Professor of Economics and Public Policy from the University of Michigan and visiting Professor at the University of NSW.After many years teaching in the USA, he argues that Australia’s political institutions are unique; in fact, they are the very key to its prosperity and asks if we require a form of conservative radicalism to preserve them.“Australia’s institutions are world-leading – which might seem like an unlikely argument if you follow the news. Every day we’re bombarded by bulletins of broken institutions: Power-hungry politicians; dysfunction and deadlocked debate, and the maddening messiness of democracy. But travel the world and you’ll get a different perspective. Australia’s rules aren’t perfect, but just about every other country is imperfect-er.”Credits:Presented by Justin Wolfers.,  Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan.Series curated and introduced by Julia BairdExecutive Producer, Julia BairdProducer,  Gail BoserioSound Engineer, Simon Branthwaite

"Whilst our new Australian choral music began in a classical context, artistic collaborations have extended our musical realm to a point where it no longer fits this classification – it is simply choral music." As the founder of Gondwana Choirs, Lyn Williams AM is particularly well placed to talk about the future of classical music. Her work with children over 30 years has created a whole new choral repertoire and a new standard for children’s choirs. In the final Boyer Lecture for 2024, she looks at different kinds of excellence, what accessibility really means, and the pathways that choral singing reveals to young musicians.

Iain Grandage is a composer, a cellist, a pianist, a festival director, and a career collaborator. In his Boyer Lecture, he asks whether classical music has been underestimated in its capacity to connect communities. His work with Indonesian Gamelan ensembles, Noongar elders, theatre companies and the late, great Jimmy Chi, provide waypoints on a long journey from childhood piano lessons to a mature acquisition of knowledge that only serves to reveal how much more understanding is still to seek. 

“There is much to be gained by tapping into the tens of thousands of years of culture that we have available to us in this country. Exposing more people to it can only help to highlight our shared humanity, and to advance the cause of reconciliation.”Aaron Wyatt is a Noongar, Yamatji and Wongi musician: a conductor, composer, violist, educator and programmer. And as the Artistic Director of Ensemble Dutala, Australia’s first First Nations chamber ensemble, he’s working to rectify the conditions in the classical music industry that often see him being the only Indigenous person in an orchestra. In their 2024 Boyer Lecture, Aaron traces the ways that classical music in Australia has attempted to fold in Indigenous ideas, music, and people – from the appropriative, to the naive, the collaborative, and the groundbreaking. This lecture was written on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Land and produced on Gadigal Land. 

"There is a continuity to the inner experience of what it is to be human. And it is this inner experience that this music addresses directly."Professor Anna Goldsworthy is a pianist, an author, a festival director and the Director of the Elder Conservatorium at the University of Adelaide. In her keynote Boyer Lecture for 2024, she traces how mentorship, music education, and opportunity have led her into a deep relationship with so-called classical music that reaches far beyond her career. Through the lens of her twenty six year collaboration with Helen Ayres and Tim Nankervis, the other two members of her Seraphim Trio, Anna talks about finding kairos: "the right, shared moment". 

What will a quantum computer look like? Will quantum computing supercharge AI? Can it save us from the climate crisis? Professor Michelle Simmons has the answers.

Doubt is often seen as a something to be overcome — a failing, or even a sign of incompetence. But in her fourth and final lecture, Professor Michelle Simmons tells us why doubt is her greatest asset.

In her third Boyer lecture, Professor Michelle Simmons maps how science has changed from 1927 to now — moving from the theoretical to the applicable. 

In her second Boyer lecture, Professor Michelle Simmons details the international race underway to build the first error-corrected quantum computer.

Computing machinery that used to fill an entire room has now shrunk to the size of individual atoms. In her first lecture, Professor Michelle Simmons tells the story of miniaturisation  — and how Australia found itself at the forefront. 

In his fifth and final Boyer lecture Noel Pearson looks at the question of identity, Australian identity, and he argues that our extraordinary diversity and distinctiveness are undermined when we forget the great similarities and commonalities we all share.

In his fourth lecture, Noel Pearson addresses the educational barriers facing young Indigenous people, and the critical need to raise literacy and numeracy rates through transformational school programs.

In his third lecture Noel Pearson argues that Indigenous Australians have become trapped in the 'bottom million' of the nation when it comes to economic development. He describes the ongoing effect of welfare dependency, or 'passive welfare', which he says is not just a problem afflicting Indigenous communities, it's a human problem.

In his second lecture, Noel Pearson reflects on the words of 1968 Boyer lecturer W.E.H. Stanner who said that Aboriginal people seek, 'a decent union of their lives with ours but on terms that let them preserve their own identity'. Pearson traces the long process that led to the final proposal for a Voice to parliament enshrined in the constitution. He identifies a speech by John Howard in 2007, which Pearson says offered 'the core rationale for constitutional recognition', and began the 15-year process to a referendum. 

Noel Pearson argues the case for why a Voice to parliament, enshrined in the constitution, is so important to Indigenous people, ‘to be afforded our rightful place’.

In this fourth and final lecture, John Bell discusses how William Shakespeare imagined a different world and encouraged his audience to do the same.

In this third lecture of the Boyer series, John Bell discusses Shakespeare's Women and how through his female characters he imagined a better world.

In this second lecture of the Boyer series, John Bell discusses what Shakespeare can teach us about governance, about politics and power.

In the first lecture of the 2021 Boyer series, John Bell opens our eyes and our ears to how relevant William Shakespeare is in today's world and what he can teach us through his own observations from four hundred years ago.

In the third Boyer lecture, Dr Andrew Forrest discusses how inequality manifests in our modern capitalist system — through intergenerational dependence on welfare, lack of access to finance, a lack of policy focus on early childhood development in vulnerable communities and through modern slavery.

In the second of his 2020 Boyer Lectures, Andrew Forrest mounts a passionate defence of our oceans. Dr Forrest argues the key issues facing our oceans — deoxygenation, overfishing and plastic pollution — are our fault, and it's us who must fix them. He says it's philanthropic and government interventions, at a scale not yet seen, that will save our seas.

In this first Boyer lecture, leading philanthropist and businessman Andrew Forrest calls for an urgent move to green hydrogen "on a global scale". For Dr Forrest, the question is not whether green hydrogen will become the next global energy form, but who will be the first to mass-produce it?

In Rachel Perkins final Boyer lecture she details the dual proposal for a Makarrata Commission and a process of truth telling about our nation.

From colonial times to the present, Indigenous people have wanted a say about the laws and policies that affect them. Rachel Perkins discusses what needs to be done to guarantee that the Indigenous voice is heard.

Rachel Perkins reminds us of the significance of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and why it's the most important message Indigenous people have sent to their fellow Australians in over four decades.

How advances in genetics and biomedicine have quietly brought eugenics back from exile.

Human GMOs already walk amongst us and the implications of this are enormous.

There's a dark side of stem cell research — John Rasko shines a light on the low points and scandals of unproven cell therapies.

In the fields of gene and cell therapies we've already crossed many thresholds — but do we really understand the consequences of what we're doing?

Professor Genevieve Bell outlines her proposal for how Australia should build its digital future. This talk was recorded in front of a live audience in Studio 22 at ABC Ultimo on Saturday 21 October, 2017, and features questions from former Boyer lecturer and sociologist Eva Cox and chief commissioner of the Greater Sydney Commission Lucy Turnbull.

We asked what your hopes and fears are for where technology is heading, and here's what you told us.

Professor Genevieve Bell reveals how new technologies change life, but rarely in the ways we anticipate. How might the origin stories of the typewriter, the robot and electricity equip us to invent the future?

Professor Genevieve Bell looks at how personal computers and the internet have reshaped our lives, and the possibilities we’ve imagined for ourselves and each other.

Professor Genevieve Bell explains why she’s returned home after decades in Silicon Valley, and explores Australia’s role in building our current digital world.

What does it mean to be human, and Australian, in a digital world?

There are examples from around the world, of community and government actions that make a difference to health inequalities. Creating the conditions for individuals to take control over their lives will enable social flourishing of all members of society.

Unemployment is bad for health, but work can damage health, too. When work is no longer the way out of poverty, health suffers.

Absence of the nurturing and presence of the harmful are important for the whole of life and are strong contributors to inequalities in adult health. There is much we can do to make things better at both the level of national policy and at the local level supporting families and children.

There are large inequalities in health within and between countries. To explain this we have to look at the social determinants of health—the conditions in which people are born, grow, live work and age; and inequities in power, money and resources.

There are examples from around the world, of community and government actions that make a difference to health inequalities. Creating the conditions for individuals to take control over their lives will enable social flourishing of all members of society.

Unemployment is bad for health, but work can damage health, too. When work is no longer the way out of poverty, health suffers.

Absence of the nurturing and presence of the harmful are important for the whole of life and are strong contributors to inequalities in adult health. There is much we can do to make things better at both the level of national policy and at the local level supporting families and children.

There are large inequalities in health within and between countries. To explain this we have to look at the social determinants of health—the conditions in which people are born, grow, live work and age; and inequities in power, money and resources.

Australia now finds itself on the centre stage. Staying there is the challenge. In the final of the 2015 Boyer Lectures series, Dr Michael Fullilove calls for a larger and more ambitious foreign policy; one that ensures that our national interests once again align with our national capabilities.

In his third Boyer lecture, Michael Fullilove argues the need for a larger politics and some big thinking on the economy in order to respond to global challenges, like immigration and climate policy.

In his second Boyer Lecture, Dr Michael Fullilove examines how the dizzying rise of China has pulled Australia onto a new world stage as a key player, a leap that calls for a serious examination of foreign policy