Straight Talk

Richard Denniss is the Executive Director of the Australia Institute. He is the author of several books including: Econobabble, Curing Affluenza, Dead Right: How Neoliberalism Ate Itself and What Comes Next? and Big: The Role of the State in the Modern Economy.

Dr Joëlle Gergis is an award-winning climate scientist and writer at the Australian National University. She served as a lead author for the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report and is author of Sunburnt Country: The History and Future of Climate Change in Australia. Joëlle has also contributed to The Climate Book by Greta Thunberg, and Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility, edited by Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua.

Thomas (Tom) Keneally has written a considerable number of novels and non-fiction works including  The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Schindler's List and The People's Train. He has won the Miles Franklin Award, the Booker Prize, the Los Angeles Times Prize, the Mondello International Prize and has been made a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library, a Fellow of the American Academy, and has been the subject of an Australian postage stamp.

Yanis Varoufakis is an economist and academic, a bestselling author, and the former finance minister of Greece. He is a co-founder of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025. His books include And the Weak Suffer What They Must? and Talking to My Daughter About the Economy. 

Natasha Mitchell is a multi-award-winning journalist, radio presenter, podcaster, and documentary maker. She is host of ABC Radio National's Big Ideas program, was founding host and producer of the radio show and podcast All in the Mind, hosted the ABC's daily social affairs program Life Matters, and was founding host and producer of Science Friction. Mitchell was recipient of a prestigious Knight Fellowship at MIT/Harvard. Her journalism has received numerous accolades.