Transparency Summit 2024: Secrecy is not security

“Australia may well be the world’s most secretive democracy” — Damien Cave, New York Times

A lack of transparency and integrity lies near the heart of every political issue facing Australia.

In our climate policies, our defence procurement and even in how we develop our public policy – flimsy excuses obscure even flimsier decision-making.

So how can we reverse a culture of secrecy?

The 2024 Transparency Summit will connect those who have been stonewalled – and keep the pressure on all levels of government to ensure the interests of all Australians are represented in our policy-making process.

Speakers include:

• Professor Allan Fels AO, Professor of Law, and Economics & Business, University of Melbourne and Monash University
• Senator David Pocock, Independent Senator for the Australian Capital Territory
• Senator David Shoebridge, Australian Greens Spokesperson for Justice and Senator for New South Wales
• Rex Patrick, Former Senator for South Australia
• Rawan Arraf, Executive Director and Principal Lawyer, Australian Centre for International Justice
• Professor Eleanor Bourke AM, Chair, Yoorrook Justice Commission
• Jake Blight, Independent National Security Legislation Monitor
• Professor John McMillan AO, Former Commonwealth Ombudsman, Australian Information Commissioner and New South Wales Ombudsman
• Professor Peter Greste, Journalist and Professor of Journalism, Macquarie University
• Professor A J Brown AM, Chair, Transparency International Australia and Professor of Public Policy & Law, Griffith University
• Professor Chris Wallace, Professor of Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra
• Mary Inman, Partner, Whistleblower Partners
• Delia Obst, Head of Strategy & Public Affairs, Australian Associated Press
• Isabelle Reinecke, Executive Director and Founder, Grata Fund
• Cindy Penrose, Chief Executive Officer, Yoorrook Justice Commission
• Regina Featherstone, Senior Lawyer, Human Rights Law Centre
• Kieran Pender, Associate Legal Director, Human Rights Law Centre
• Frank O’Toole, National Whistleblowing Advisory Group, Transparency International Australia
• Clancy Moore, Chief Executive Officer, Transparency International Australia
• Jim Middleton, Former Journalist
• Polly Hemming, Climate & Energy Director, The Australia Institute
• Dr Emma Shortis, Senior Researcher, The Australia Institute
• Bill Browne, Democracy & Accountability Director, The Australia Institute
• Dr Richard Denniss, Executive Director, The Australia Institute

Join elected officials, transparency and policy experts, journalists, the legal fraternity, advocates, and members of the public on Thursday 17 October at the Shine Dome in Canberra for a series of discussions about the future of transparency in Australia.

Presented by the Australia Institute, in collaboration with the Human Rights Law Centre, Whistleblower Justice Fund, Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom and Transparency International Australia. 

Please Note: this is an in-person event.

Dietary requirements: Please include any dietary requirements for catering on the day.

Questions Contact: events@australiainstitute.org.au

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.