AUSTRALIAN STEREOTYPES BETRAY OUR CULTURAL IDENTITY <BR><BR>Noble Savages, Outback Heroes, White Men in Charge... Does the stereotyping of the Australian character hold us back or give us a springboard for the future? Three leading Australian women, Professor Ien Ang, Larissa Behrendt and Robyn Archer challenge and discuss what they think it will mean to be Australian in the decades to come. This special recording is presented by the BBC's diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall with ABC Radio National. It was broadcasted on ABC Radio National, ABC Fora TV and globally on the BBC World Service. Link: www.bbcworldservice.com/forum

David Mutton, former Chief Psychologist for the NSW Police, argues that the insights that forensic pathology can provide into the criminal mind, can be used hand-in-hand with modern surveillance techniques to identify and exploit the psychological vulnerabilities of criminals, which will assist in the destabilisation and disruption of their criminal enterprises.

The war on drugs has failed. Despite the billions of dollars spent in law enforcement, today illicit drugs are cheaper, more potent, and easier to get than they were 35 years ago. Meanwhile, people continue dying in our streets while drug barons and terrorists continue to grow richer than ever before. Our panellists argue that all drugs should be legalized and the markets then regulated.

Christopher Hitchens is a British-American author, journalist, and literary critic. He is an anti-theist, and describes himself as a believer in the Enlightenment values of secularism, humanism and reason. <BR>Hitchens' argument against religion is not just the familiar argument against it in its "organized" form, but that the religious impulse is a means by which people deceive themselves and attempt to deceive others. He argues, that in making us submissive to the will of an Almighty, religion assaults human beings in their deepest integrity; by asserting that without acknowledging supernatural power they would have no means of distinguishing right from wrong. And by proposing a man-made authority (or in practice a series of rival man-made authorities) that are nonetheless eternal and unchallengeable, religion seeks to establish a totalitarian rule from which there can be no appeal. <BR>Talk presented in association with ABC Fora.

One of the most exciting events in the Festival of Dangerous Ideas was the free public speaking competition -Soapbox. <BR><BR>The event gave punters a chance to step up and share their big idea or viewpoint in two minutes. <BR><BR>You can hear the thoughts of our 15 finalists here. <BR><BR>CONGRATULATIONS to Sarah Taylor who won the 2009 Soapbox event and was awarded the opportunity to open the keynote speech for Christopher Hitchens in the Concert Hall.

NO HUMAN CURE JUSTIFIES ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION <BR><BR>Dr. Denise Russell makes a powerful case against scientific experiments using animals. The founding editor of the journal Animal Ethics argues that in Australia animal slavery is condoned and supported by government grants, charitable organizations, honours and awards. Other countries have managed to develop alternatives, so what’s standing in our way?

Keysar Trad is a spokesperson for a section of the Australian Muslim community, and no stranger to controversy thanks to his former role as an interpreter for Sheik Taj El-Din Hilaly. <BR><BR>He argues that - as the family is failing and losing significance in the developed world - Australians could benefit from appreciating the values that have served to protect, preserve and strengthen the family in the Islamic Culture. He suggests that customs such as polygamy strengthen rather than divide the family unit.

John Humphreys takes on the idea that the government should look after people in their old age. Humphreys argues that the government approach is unsustainable, inefficient, and inequitable, and that it undermines individual responsibility and civil society. Society would be better off with personal retirement accounts, supplemented by private charity.