Events

The decision by the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Union is more than two years old. What will happen on Brexit day on 29 March next year? What kind of deal, if any, will Britain negotiate? What will be the impact on the infighting in British politics and within Prime Minister Theresa May’s government?
 
As the country nears the date set for the conclusion of negotiations with Brussels, join a panel of experts at the Lowy Institute to discuss the outcomes of either a ‘deal’ or ‘no deal’ scenario, the outlook for the United Kingdom after Brexit, and the consequences for Australia and its ties with both London and Brussels.

The decision by the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Union is more than two years old. What will happen on Brexit day on 29 March next year? What kind of deal, if any, will Britain negotiate? What will be the impact on the infighting in British politics and within Prime Minister Theresa May’s government?
 
As the country nears the date set for the conclusion of negotiations with Brussels, join a panel of experts at the Lowy Institute to discuss the outcomes of either a ‘deal’ or ‘no deal’ scenario, the outlook for the United Kingdom after Brexit, and the consequences for Australia and its ties with both London and Brussels.

Melbourne's panel will include Professor Philomena Murray, School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Tom Bentley, former director of London based think tank, Demos, and now Adviser to the Vice Chancellor at RMIT University, and Dr Euan Graham, Senior Fellow at the Lowy Institute. The panel will be moderated by Daniel Flitton, Managing Editor of Lowy Institute's The Interpreter.

We are now halfway through Donald Trump’s first term as president of the United States. With a polarised US public and a fraying international order, the president faces his first electoral report card since 2016 in the mid-term elections. The results will influence the trajectory of US politics and foreign policy for the next two, and possibly six, years.
 
Join Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove for an address on the Trump administration, the effect of the midterms on US foreign policy and what this means for Australia and the world order. The event will be chaired by Lowy Institute’s Research Director Alex Oliver.

Michael Fullilove has served as the Executive Director of the Lowy Institute since 2012. He writes widely on Australian foreign policy, US foreign policy and global issues in publications including The New York Times, Financial Times, Foreign Policy, and Foreign Affairs, as well as the Australian press. In 2015, Dr Fullilove delivered the Boyer Lectures, which were published as A Larger Australia: The ABC 2015 Boyer Lectures (Penguin). Dr Fullilove has written and edited a number of other books, including Rendezvous with Destiny: How Franklin D. Roosevelt and Five Extraordinary Men Took America into the War and into the World (Penguin), which won the 2014 NSW Premier's Literary Award for Non-Fiction.

The Institute’s Aus-PNG Network is hosting a special viewing of the film Power Meri which documents the journey of PNG’s first national womens Rugby League team as they journey to Australia to compete in the 2017 World Cup. These trailblazers must overcome many obstacles – including cultural and financial – to reach their biggest stage yet. As well as viewing the film, participants will be able to take part in a Q&A session with some of the producers of the documentary.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the global financial crisis and the elevation of the G20 to a leader-level forum. Ten years on, has the G20 fulfilled its promise of improving global economic cooperation, particularly in the current environment of rising geopolitical tension and trade frictions? With only a few weeks until the Buenos Aires Summit, Dr David Gruen, Australia’s G20 Sherpa, will discuss the role of the G20 in the global economic order, including its progress since 2008 and prospects for the future.

This event has been cancelled.

Unfortunately our guest John Micklethwait is now unable to travel to Australia for medical reasons.

The economic crisis facing journalism has broadened into one of relevance, as President Donald Trump seeks to undermine the mainstream media. Yet amid newspaper closures, job cuts and the attacks on ‘fake news’, the quality press is staging a remarkable resurrection. John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, argues that the industry is in transition, not decline. The news of the future will be more personalised, monetised — and less ‘fake’.

John Micklethwait oversees editorial content across all Bloomberg platforms, including print, television, radio, digital and research. Prior to joining Bloomberg in early 2015, he was editor-in-chief of The Economist, leading the magazine into the digital age while expanding its readership.

On Monday 29 October the Lowy Institute will host the Hon Bill Shorten MP, Leader of the Opposition, for a major foreign policy address.
 
Mr Shorten has served as the Leader of the Opposition since 2013. He was first elected as the Member for Maribyrnong at the 2007 Federal election. He served as a Cabinet Minister in the Rudd and Gillard Governments.

 

In an age of ubiquitous data, the “scarce factor is the ability to understand that data and extract value from it”. Join Google’s Chief Economist, Hal R Varian, and Lowy Institute’s International Economy Director Roland Rajah for a discussion on the economics of data, how data can drive innovation and improve our wellbeing, and the debate over its effects on competition and the appropriate role of government. 

On the eve of the visit to Australia by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, the Lowy Institute is holding an event on the issue of the republic and Australia’s place in the world.
 
Constitutional monarchist Julian Leeser MP, Federal Member for Berowra, and Michael Cooney, National Director of the Australian Republic Movement, will join Alex Oliver, Lowy Institute Director of Research, for a panel discussion on whether Australia’s status as a constitutional monarchy affects the way the world see us – and how we see ourselves.

In 2009, with the dust yet to settle on the financial crisis, a mild-mannered Wharton grad set in motion a fraud of unprecedented gall and magnitude involving billions of dollars of Malaysian Government money. Billion Dollar Whale is the definitive account of the fraud perpetrated by Jho Low, the man who fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the world. Wall Street Journal reporters Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, who uncovered the magnitude of the scandal, tell the story of the massive financial fraud that led to the fall of the government of former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak earlier this year.
 
On 4 October, Pulitzer finalist Tom Wright will join Aaron Connelly, Director of the Lowy Institute’s Southeast Asia Project, for a conversation about the 1MDB scandal and the political implications for Malaysia, Southeast Asia, and the world of finance.

Indonesians are frenetically preparing for presidential and legislative elections next year, in which President Joko Widodo will once again face retired general Prabowo Subianto. But this is hardly a rerun of the 2014 race: Jokowi has consolidated control of a much larger coalition, with the addition of a sizeable Islamic conservative bloc; while Prabowo has had to navigate a path to nomination in a difficult political environment. The casualties of the contest thus far appear to have been the rights of Indonesia’s ethnic and religious minorities and LGBT community.
 
Please join us at a Sydney edition of the ANU Indonesia Update for a discussion of the implications of these developments for Indonesian politics, with a political update presented by the ANU’s Tom Power, a keynote on the status of minorities in Indonesia by Professor Robert Cribb, and panel discussions featuring Sidney Jones, Aaron Connelly, Sandra Hamid, and Charlotte Setijadi.
 
The Indonesia Update has been an annual event held by the Australian National University in Canberra since 1983; this is the 13th abbreviated Sydney edition held by the Institute.

On the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary of the establishment of the Lowy Institute, the Institute's board has invited Sir Frank Lowy AC to deliver this year’s Lowy Lecture and Dinner.

The annual Lowy Lecture is the Lowy Institute’s flagship event, at which a prominent individual reflects on Australia and the world. Past lecturers have included German Chancellor Angela Merkel; UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson; former CIA Director David Petraeus AO; News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch AC; Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull; and Prime Minister John Howard OM AC, who delivered the inaugural Lowy Lecture in 2005.

Sir Frank is one of Australia’s most celebrated business leaders and philanthropists, having co-founded Westfield, the global company he led since 1960. He has also held a number of other public roles, including as a member of the Reserve Bank board and Chairman of Football Federation Australia.

The 2018 Lowy Lecture and Dinner will be held on Thursday, 13 September 2018 at 6.30pm for 7.00pm at the Sydney Town Hall, 483 George Street, Sydney. The dress code is lounge suit.

The Lowy Institute acknowledges the generous sponsorship of the event by NAB, Capital Group and Qantas. We thank them for their support.

We hope you will join us for what will be a thought-provoking evening.

The international order is under strain. Rising powers want to rewrite the rules, Western leaders are turning inwards, and technology is breaking down barriers. What can middle powers do in response?
 
Join Lowy Institute Executive Director Michael Fullilove, who will moderate a discussion with Ralf Beste, Head of Policy Planning at the German Federal Foreign Office, Volker Perthes, Director of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, and Gudrun Wacker, Senior Fellow in the Asia Division at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

Join us for an address by the Hon Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Samoa.
The Pacific is back in international headlines. New partners in the region are contributing to a fast-changing geostrategic landscape, and old partners are ‘stepping up’ in response. But how new are these current dynamics? How do Pacific Islanders view the movements and machinations of large powers in the Pacific and how have they responded to such developments? How are Pacific Island countries shaping the engagement of partners in the region, and how will they continue to shape them in the future? Join us as we delve into these issues and more with Samoa’s Prime Minister.
 

Whether in terms of denuclearisation talks with North Korea, an escalating trade war with China, or the promotion of a concept and strategy for a ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’, the pace of US statecraft in Asia has been frenetic in recent months.

Join Gordon Flake, CEO of the Perth USAsia Centre, together with Lowy Institute Senior Fellows Dr Euan Graham and Richard McGregor, for a panel discussion chaired by Alex Oliver, Director of Research at the Lowy Institute.

Australia now has its fifth prime minister in five years. What does this mean for Australia’s place in the world? Does our reputation as the ‘coup capital of the democratic world’ damage Australia’s international standing? How does it affect our ability to run a coherent foreign policy? And what might we expect from the Morrison Government? 
 
Join us on Tuesday, 28 August, when four Lowy Institute experts will discuss the global implications of Australia’s political crisis.  Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove will chair a discussion with Director of Research Alex Oliver, Senior Fellow Richard McGregor, and Director of the International Security Program Sam Roggeveen.

The future of the Middle East peace process under US President Donald Trump, the use of chemical weapons in Syrian conflict, the implications for the United Nations’ role and its duties – these topics are politically, culturally, and ethically complex and are not easily navigated.

Join the Lowy Institute for an address by Mr Nick Kaldas APM, former Director of Internal Oversight Services in the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA), to hear his views on these issues, followed by a question-and-answer session. 

China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea have emerged as the testing ground for great power competition between the US and China, and as a lightning rod for rival claimants in the region, as well as Australia and Japan, to assert their own maritime rights.

Join the Lowy Institute’s Senior Fellow Richard McGregor, together with other pre-eminent experts on the South China Sea – Wu Shicun, of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, Linda Jakobson, of China Matters, and Professor Benjamin Schreer of Macquarie University – for a discussion of the controversy.