Join us at the inaugural Dr Hugh Saddler Memorial Lecture, featuring award-winning political journalist Lenore Taylor discussing the role of experts and the media.

Lenore Taylor is visiting Canberra as a guest of the Australia Institute to celebrate Dr Hugh Saddler’s decades-long contributions to Australia.

A strong democracy is built on a foundation of shared truths. But democracies around the world are struggling as that foundation is eroded by post-truth politics and its compromised supporters.

So how can journalists and experts work together to ensure the facts aren’t merely a bit-part player in our public debate?

Join us for the inaugural Dr Hugh Saddler Memorial Lecture, an address in honour of an energy transition expert and founding director of the Australia Institute, the late Dr Hugh Saddler (1943-2023). Dr Saddler had a profound influence over a generation of researchers and policymakers, and his expertise helped lay the groundwork for Australia’s renewable energy transition.

This lecture will be delivered by Walkley Award winning journalist and Guardian Australia Editor, Lenore Taylor, who’ll discuss the role of experts and the media in democracies for this inaugural Hugh Saddler Memorial Lecture.

Drinks and canapes will be provided following the lecture.

Lenore Taylor has been the editor of Guardian Australia for eight years and has been with Guardian Australia since its launch in May 2013, when she joined as political editor. Lenore has been honoured with two Walkley Awards and has twice won the Paul Lyneham Award for excellence in press gallery journalism. She is a formidable commentator on the Australian political landscape and has long been a regular guest on radio and television current affairs programs, including the ABC's Insiders.

This event will be MC'd by Dr Richard Denniss, Executive Director of the Australia Institute and prominent Australian economist, author and public policy commentator. Richard has spent the last twenty years moving between policy-focused roles in academia, federal politics and think-tanks. He was also a Lecturer in Economics at the University of Newcastle and former Associate Professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy at ANU. He is a regular contributor to The Monthly and the author of several books including: ‘Econobabble’, ‘Curing Affluenza’ and ‘Dead Right: How Neoliberalism Ate Itself and What Comes Next?’

About Dr Hugh Saddler

Dr Hugh Saddler was a founding director of the Australia Institute, serving on the board from 1994 to 2014 and on the Research Committee from 2001 to 2023. An alumnus of Adelaide University, Dr Saddler attained a PhD in plant cell biology and membrane physiology at Cambridge University. His academic work included roles as a research fellow at The University of Sydney’s School of Biological Sciences and Energy Research Centre and Associate Professor at the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy. Dr Saddler was a founding director of The Climate Institute and authored Energy in Australia: Politics and Economics, along with numerous book chapters, scientific papers, monographs and articles on energy, technology and environmental policy.

Dr Saddler was a consultant in energy policy for many years, working for governments, NGOs and the private sector, and his work remains at the forefront of Australia’s climate change and energy policy. His advice was regularly sought, both on and off the record, by journalists.

The Australia Institute: Celebrating 30 years of Big Ideas

The Australia Institute is bringing some of the world’s brightest thinkers to Australia in 2024 to celebrate our 30th anniversary as the nation’s leading independent think tank. For 30 years the Australia Institute’s independent, non-partisan research has led the national policy debate with big ideas. The Australia Institute plays a critical role in shaping the national economic debate for a fairer society and economy—from our groundbreaking 1997 paper on better measuring wellbeing in Australia, The Genuine Progress Indicator, to the influential 2005 book Affluenza (and later Curing Affluenza), to our cutting-edge research exposing the role of corporate profits in driving Australia’s post-pandemic inflation, to our influential work that helped reshape better fairer Stage 3 tax cuts—we have a track record of delivering research that shifts policy from the politically impossible into the inevitable.