Boyer Lectures

"A more contested region presents countries with hard choices .The reflex may be to turn inward, but no country can secure its future alone. Resilience comes not only from self-sufficiency, but also from partnerships and networks that a country can call upon in a crisis." This final Boyer Lecture is presented by Senior Minister of Singapore, Mr Lee Hsien Loong. Mr Lee served as Prime Minister of S...

"Sixty years ago, Australia was deciding what kind of country it wanted to be. Today, it faces another choice: not whether it is part of Asia, but whether it is prepared to make that reality a permanent part of its national character." In this lecture, prominent Indonesia economist Dr Mari Pangestu draws deeply on her experience of living between two nations: Australia and Indonesia. She argues th...

"Australia has never been a monoculture.  Its history is not a singular narrative.  It is polyphonous, multilingual, plural. Yet the country keeps looping back into the same stale old arguments, driven by domestic politics."   How can we engage meaningfully with Asia when we haven’t come to terms with our own Asian history? That’s the question driving Louisa Lim – the first Asian Boyer lecturer.  ...

"Australia can’t afford to turn its back on Asia the way the UK turned its back on Europe. If there is a key to averting such a future, it is for Australians to internalise the fact that we can no longer rely on powerful friends. Creating the conditions for an Australia that stands strong and independent in Asia begins with a simple act of recognition: we must look after ourselves."  The Keynote B...

In our fifth and final Boyer Lecture for 2025, James Curran, professor of modern history at the University of Sydney, analyses our partnership with the world’s most powerful democracy, the USA, addressing options for how we can deal with, and even construct, a post -American future. In his talk, Professor Curran argues that we need to stop hoping for ‘regional strategic equilibrium' because US pri...

In the fourth Boyer Lecture for 2025, Amelia Lester, deputy editor at Foreign Policy Magazine in Washington, explores why it is so difficult to have meaningful discussions about the possible repercussions of Artificial Intelligence in all our lives. Given it is being described as possibly more transformative than electricity, even more transformative than fire, and even worthy of threatening our v...

Larissa Behrendt, AO a Euahleyai/Gamillaroi woman and Distinguished Professor of Law and Inaugural Chair in Indigenous Research at the University of Technology, is passionate about the Australian courts’ record of upholding democracy, but reminds us the legal system has been used to exclude and discriminate against First Nations people.   In the third Boyer Lecture for 2025, she presents a three-p...

In the second Boyer Lecture for 2025, the Hon John Anderson, AC, farmer, grazier and former deputy prime minister of Australia, takes a sweeping look over our history and concludes that the liberal world order that has so far defined us, is ending. While such turning points require big and important decisions, what happens to Australia, he understands, is inextricably linked to what happens to the...

The Keynote Boyer Lecturer for 2025 is Justin Wolfers, Professor of Economics and Public Policy from the University of Michigan and visiting Professor at the University of NSW. After many years teaching in the USA, he argues that Australia’s political institutions are unique; in fact, they are the very key to its prosperity and asks if we require a form of conservative radicalism to preserve them....

"Whilst our new Australian choral music began in a classical context, artistic collaborations have extended our musical realm to a point where it no longer fits this classification – it is simply choral music."  As the founder of Gondwana Choirs, Lyn Williams AM is particularly well placed to talk about the future of classical music. Her work with children over 30 years has created a whole new cho...

Iain Grandage is a composer, a cellist, a pianist, a festival director, and a career collaborator.  In his Boyer Lecture, he asks whether classical music has been underestimated in its capacity to connect communities. His work with Indonesian Gamelan ensembles, Noongar elders, theatre companies and the late, great Jimmy Chi, provide waypoints on a long journey from childhood piano lessons to a mat...

“There is much to be gained by tapping into the tens of thousands of years of culture that we have available to us in this country. Exposing more people to it can only help to highlight our shared humanity, and to advance the cause of reconciliation.” Aaron Wyatt is a Noongar, Yamatji and Wongi musician: a conductor, composer, violist, educator and programmer. And as the Artistic Director of Ensem...

"There is a continuity to the inner experience of what it is to be human. And it is this inner experience that this music addresses directly." Professor Anna Goldsworthy is a pianist, an author, a festival director and the Director of the Elder Conservatorium at the University of Adelaide.  In her keynote Boyer Lecture for 2024, she traces how mentorship, music education, and opportunity have led...

What will a quantum computer look like? Will quantum computing supercharge AI? Can it save us from the climate crisis? Professor Michelle Simmons has the answers.

Doubt is often seen as a something to be overcome — a failing, or even a sign of incompetence. But in her fourth and final lecture, Professor Michelle Simmons tells us why doubt is her greatest asset.

In her third Boyer lecture, Professor Michelle Simmons maps how science has changed from 1927 to now — moving from the theoretical to the applicable. 

In her second Boyer lecture, Professor Michelle Simmons details the international race underway to build the first error-corrected quantum computer.

Computing machinery that used to fill an entire room has now shrunk to the size of individual atoms. In her first lecture, Professor Michelle Simmons tells the story of miniaturisation  — and how Australia found itself at the forefront. 

In his fifth and final Boyer lecture Noel Pearson looks at the question of identity, Australian identity, and he argues that our extraordinary diversity and distinctiveness are undermined when we forget the great similarities and commonalities we all share.

In his fourth lecture, Noel Pearson addresses the educational barriers facing young Indigenous people, and the critical need to raise literacy and numeracy rates through transformational school programs.

In his third lecture Noel Pearson argues that Indigenous Australians have become trapped in the 'bottom million' of the nation when it comes to economic development. He describes the ongoing effect of welfare dependency, or 'passive welfare', which he says is not just a problem afflicting Indigenous communities, it's a human problem.

In his second lecture, Noel Pearson reflects on the words of 1968 Boyer lecturer W.E.H. Stanner who said that Aboriginal people seek, 'a decent union of their lives with ours but on terms that let them preserve their own identity'. Pearson traces the long process that led to the final proposal for a Voice to parliament enshrined in the constitution. He identifies a speech by John Howard in 2007, w...

Noel Pearson argues the case for why a Voice to parliament, enshrined in the constitution, is so important to Indigenous people, ‘to be afforded our rightful place’.

In this fourth and final lecture, John Bell discusses how William Shakespeare imagined a different world and encouraged his audience to do the same.

In this third lecture of the Boyer series, John Bell discusses Shakespeare's Women and how through his female characters he imagined a better world.