Defending Democracy with Malcolm Turnbull

Recorded at Malcolm Turnbull’s Sovereignty and Security forum held in Canberra. Is Trump 2.0 an aberration, or a seismic 8 on the Richter scale of international relations? We cannot grit our teeth and ride this out. We must confront reality.  Professor James Curran reminds us of the history between Australia and America, and what it can tell us about our future prospects. These are the...

Recorded at Malcolm Turnbull’s Sovereignty and Security forum held in Canberra. This panel examines how Australia pursues its national interest in a “might is right” world, and if we should work with other countries to mitigate the economic damage from Trump’s tariff war.  Panellists include: Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AC KC FASSA FAIIA,  Cabinet Minister thro...

Recorded at Malcolm Turnbull’s Sovereignty and Security forum held in Canberra. In the absence of support from America, should Australia adopt an Echidna Strategy - friendly to those who don’t mean us harm, and spikey and indigestible to those who do?  This panel discusses the big question of whether Australia can defend itself’, and how.  Panellists include:  Sam...

Recorded at Malcolm Turnbull’s Sovereignty and Security forum held in Canberra. This panel discusses the viability of AUKUS in its current form, and what needs to change to deliver sovereign undersea warfare capabilities that Australia can afford to own and man. Panellists include: Dennis Richardson AO, served as Secretary of Defence, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, was the Director General of...

Recorded at Malcolm Turnbull’s Sovereignty and Security forum held in Canberra. This panel discusses the nature of the security threats Australia faces, and reassesses the assumptions that have informed our economic, foreign and defence policies.  Panellists include:  Professor Hugh White, Emeritus Professor of Strategic Studies at ANU, founding Director of ASPI, worked for several...

Is our affection for America and Americans blinding us to the reality that Trump’s political values are more aligned to the “might is right”  world view of Putin than they are to ours in Australia?  Malcolm Turnbull’s opening remarks to the Sovereignty and Security forum held in Canberra with over 100 national security and foreign policy experts to discuss policie...

Malcolm is on the ground in the US in the final days of the battle for the White House. The race is tight. If Donald J Trump wins, what would a second term look like? What would it mean for Australia? With the prospect of Trump riding back into Washington for another four years, Malcolm tells the story of his own interactions with Trump and how he knew immediately the best strategy to adopt to tak...

Chinese President Xi Jinping's unshakable determination to unite mainland China and Taiwan is one of our most significant threats to geopolitical stability.  Shirley Lin, a Taipei native, is the founder and chair of the Center for Asia Pacific Resilience and Innovation, or CAPRI. For decades, she's been at the forefront of defending democracy in Taiwan, a testament to the island's unwavering spiri...

The clock of war is ticking in Taiwan – and it’s up to the west to stop it. Matt Pottinger worked as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in China. He's a former U.S. Marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and was President Trump's Deputy National Security Advisor.  In recent decades, Taiwan has cemented itself as a cornerstone of technological manufacturing, producing chips essential to almo...

How can we build a society where different opinions are met with curiosity and understanding?  Dame Louise Richardson is a counter-terrorism expert, author and the President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and she has some thoughts.  In this episode, Dame Louise and Malcolm argue how our environments can bring people back to the centre, reduce division, and inoculate against extremism.  D...

The potential of a second Trump Presidency has far-reaching implications, particularly in Europe. Cecilia Malmstrom is a Swedish-born politician elected to the European Parliament in 1999, later serving as European commissioner for trade and as European commissioner for home affairs.  When Trump was elected, Cecilia promoted free trade worldwide, including an EU/Australia free trade deal when the...

Donald Trump's MAGA movement has inspired a following of non-college-educated, working-class Republican voters; but it's also had a profound impact on Republican policy.   Ben Ginsberg is a Republican lawyer who wrote  Lost, Not Stolen: The Conservative Case that Trump Lost and Biden Won the 2020 Presidential Election.   He says the Republican party would be better off arguing for conservative pol...

Could a Trump 2.0 bring more blatant and dangerous violations of the norms and rules of democracy than we've seen before? Larry Diamond, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University, has dedicated his life to the cause of liberal democracy. Malcolm and Larry discuss the success of centrist candidates in Australia, which is improbable in America because of a combination of primary...

As the US election looms, Malcolm talks to Eric H. Holder, Jr., about the United States electoral system, how it compares to Australia, and the significant challenges to democracy the US faces today. Eric H. Holder Jr, served as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States of America from 2009 to 2015 in the Obama Administration.  Holder argues that the health of a democracy can be measured by t...

In a world of social media echo chambers, misinformation and partisan media, the lines between truth and lies are blurrier than ever. Jonathan Rauch knows this well - he's the author of  The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth , which describes the crisis in our society, in which we are no longer divided based on different opinions but on other realities. Malcolm and Jonathan discuss the...

Barbara Walter has been part of a CIA task force looking at predictive models for where civil wars might break out around the world. As the task force looked closely at the data, they discovered that the two most predictive factors were well-established in America.      Barbara says the 2024 U.S. Presidential election is a genuine trigger for violence, and if the U.S. does not change its course, i...

What do you do when a country suddenly falls into darkness?    Afghan Australian businessman Saad Mohseni is Chairman, Chief Executive, and CEO of Moby Group, which runs Afghanistan's 24/7 Tolo News channel.  Saad is widely applauded for advancing press freedom and defending women's rights; Time Magazine recognized him in 2011 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.     In this epi...

Climate change and the decline of democracy are two global crises that have come to a head in recent years. Transitioning to green energy is key to tackling both.     Can we make enough progress fast enough to save the planet and democracy?     Energy security expert Anna Mikulska discusses how Vladimir Putin weaponised gas for decades before the ground invasion of Ukraine and warns that Europe is...

Who are the new autocrats and what’s their playbook?   We are now living in the era of the strongman - and every dictator has built on the accomplishments of his predecessors. Hitler watched Mussolini, and Gaddafi learned from Lt Col Gamal Abdul Nasser. So why, despite the evidence of history, do strongmen still hold such appeal for us? What does the playbook reveal about  Donald Trump’s run for t...

Congressman Adam Kinzinger reflects on the toxicity that has overtaken the United States and why it’s almost certain Donald Trump will be the Republican Presidential nominee. What would a Trump 2.0 Presidency look like and what does this mean for the allies and democracy around the world? Available on LiSTNR See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How is artificial intelligence reshaping the battlefield? As a teenager, Palmer Luckey designed the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset he then founded Oculus VR and sold it to Facebook for $2.3b. Now he is bringing the ingenuity of Silicon Valley to defence technology. Founder of Anduril Industries Palmer is on a mission to reshape our defence forces. Find out how his technologies are helping...

Even the founders of generative AI ChatGPT say they are “super nervous” about how autocrats will use the platform.  This new release of artificial intelligence has the potential to unleash disinformation at a pace and scale that is unprecedented.  We won’t be able to fact-check ourselves of this problem. Malcolm Turnbull talks to one of the world's leading voices on AI Toby Walsh, Author of Machin...

Should Tik Tok be banned for Australian users? Is our social media data safe? How much power do foreign-owned apps have in a free and open society? Last year the Australian government banned TikTok from staff devices over security concerns, while many experts say it should be banned full-stop. Still, over seven million Australians log on each month.   Justin Bassi is the executive director of the...

Democracy around the world is being challenged from forces within and afar. Autocrats are gaining momentum and the release of generative AI models like ChatGPT could play to their advantage.  Join Malcolm Turnbull in his podcast, Defending Democracy as we open up a discussion about the future of democracy. Hear how insiders are thinking about the challenges and ultimately how we chart a pathway to...

Rupert Murdoch's Fox News has settled with Dominion for $787.5 USD; he's also fired the network's most popular host Tucker Carlson. Former Guardian newspaper editor, Alan Rusbridger and Malcolm Turnbull have both known Rupert Murdoch for decades. In this episode, they unpack the chaos inside the network and evaluate the carnage wrought by the reckless embrace of Donald Trump’s big lie.    Alan Rus...