The Queen and Me

The Queen and Me After-dinner speech to the AGM of the Australian Republican Movement Canberra, 31st May 2003 Clive Hamilton Executive Director The Australia Institute I grew up in Yarralumla. Then it was the name of a fairly ordinary Canberra suburb and not a synonym for the Governor General. But we knew what was at […]

Can Porn Set Us Free?

A speech to the Sydney Writers Festival May 25th 2003 Clive Hamilton1 In Growth Fetish I argue that it has become apparent that the liberation movements of the sixties and seventies – the sexual revolution, the counter-culture, the women’s movement and the civil rights movement – have had some unforeseen and regrettable consequences. Contrary to the […]

An Optimal Population for Australia

An address to a seminar organised by the Economic Society of New South Wales Reserve Bank, Sydney 17th April 2002 Executive Director, The Australia Institute www.tai.org.au Introduction I don’t want to dwell on the economic arguments for population growth and higher levels of immigration because I don’t believe the economics of the issue are very important. […]

Colonising Space

 After-Dinner Speech to the Biennial Conference of the International Society for Ecological Economics 7th July 2000, Parliament House, Canberra Clive Hamilton Let me begin by welcoming our international visitors to Australia. I hope you are not having too much difficulty with the language. Australian English − sometimes called Strine − takes a bit of getting […]

Diesel and the Environment

A speech to the Australian Trucking Association conference Brisbane 13th April 2000 Dr Clive Hamilton Executive Director, The Australia Institute Last October the UK’s Meteorological Office released a new report on the expected effects of climate change. Over several decades the rise in carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere will mean: •widespread hunger, especially in […]

Hansonism and the politics of spin

A talk to Politics in the Pub Harold Park Hotel, Sydney, Friday September 4th 1998 Clive Hamilton The astounding success of Hansonism is, as much as anything else, a product of the failure of spin. It is the result of the inauthenticity of Australian politics in the 1980s and 90s, and the ultimate inability of […]

Cashing In On Koalas

Clive Hamilton Executive Director, The Australia Institute www.tai.org.au In 1997 I participated in a study of the contribution of koalas to the Australian tourism industry. The study was commissioned by the Australian Koala Foundation, which believed that governments and the public, while reasonably well informed about the threats to koalas, were unaware of the economic […]