Lowy Institute @ NGV: What Australians really think about the world

According to this year’s Lowy Institute Poll, Australians feel less safe and less optimistic about their prosperity than at any time in the Lowy Institute’s 11-year history of polling.

Join veteran political journalists Chris Uhlmann and Rowan Callick, together with the Executive Director of the Lowy Institute, Dr Michael Fullilove, the Institute's Research Director and Middle East expert Anthony Bubalo and Director of Polling Alex Oliver, for a discussion of some of the many fascinating findings of this year’s Lowy Institute Poll.

Panel Discussion: 6:15pm to 7:15pm

Panellists:

Chris Uhlmann is the ABC’s political editor and Rowan Callick is the Asia-Pacific editor of The Australian. Both are Walkley-award winning journalists.

Chris has hosted most of the ABC’s foremost political programs over last quarter of a century, including AM, 7.30 Report and 666 Canberra, and has been ABC Radio’s chief political correspondent. He authored The Marmalade Files, a satirical account of Australian politics, with Steve Lewis, in 2012.

Rowan has been the China correspondent for the Australian Financial Review and The Australian, and has served on the Australia-Indonesia Institute and the Foreign Minister’s Foreign Affairs Council. He has won two Walkley Awards and authored two books, the most recent being Party time: who runs China and how in 2013.

Dr Michael Fullilove is the Executive Director of the Lowy Institute for International Policy. Dr Fullilove writes widely on Australian foreign policy, US foreign policy and global issues in publications including The New York Times, Financial Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, The National Interest and Foreign Affairs, as well as the Australian press.

Anthony Bubalo is the Lowy Institute’s Research Director and Alex Oliver is Director of the Lowy Institute’s polling program. Anthony is an expert on a variety of Middle East issues including Islamism, democratisation, terrorism and energy security, and was formerly a diplomat and analyst. Alex has authored three Lowy Institute polls as well as a number of other research studies for the Institute. Alex is a reformed commercial lawyer.

Guests are able to view the following exhibition before hand from 5:00pm to 6:00pm

Gods, Heroes and Clowns: Performance and Narrative in South and Southeast Asian Art explores visual and performance art inspired by the many narratives that pervade South and Southeast Asia, including the great Hindu epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, and ballads describing the exploits of local folk heroes. Works on display come from India, Thailand, Laos, Indonesia and Cambodia and include storyteller’s cloths, shrine and temple hangings, manuscripts and paintings, masks and puppets. Historical and contemporary works in this exhibition use narrative as a means of exploring emotions, morals, and responses to contemporary events. Presented in the Rio Tinto Gallery of Asian Art, the works were used in a wide range of contexts, including community processions and displays associated with religious festivals, as painted backdrops to storyteller’s performances and in lively puppet plays.

Contemporary works include a patachitra (painted narrative textile) from Orissa, India and a commissioned ‘soft sculpture’ by Cambodian artist Svay Sareth which critiques the message of the Buddhist Vessantara tale.

http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/gods-heroes-and-clowns/