Posted: 9:36 am on 1st May 2012
Opera companies and orchestras worldwide are closing at an alarming rate for a number of reasons (including the global financial crisis), but the lack of change in the fundamental structure of opera companies is an extremely important contributing factor. We live in a very different time and the expectations of the past can be assumed no longer. We can blithely ignore this, and many practising artists in classical music are…
Posted: 8:00 am on 28th April 2012
Alexander Downer was Australia’s longest-serving Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1996 to 2007. This is an extract from his article ‘The European Union’ in the latest issue of Policy magazine (Autumn). It always sounded like a great idea. The bellicose continent of Europe which brought us two world wars in a little more than 30 years and plenty before united in a single entity called the European Union. At its…
Posted: 8:00 am on 27th April 2012
Australia’s green orchidectomy ‘A week into my Australian tour and I already I love the country and its people so much I could happily stay here forever. There’s just one small problem – well, one bloody big problem actually: the rampaging political correctness. How, in God’s name, did the robust, no-nonsense pioneer spirit of the original settlers who carved an earthly paradise out of burning hell allow itself to be…
Posted: 8:00 am on 24th April 2012
The European financial crisis has kept markets busy for the past three years. Yet Australians are still unaware what the European troubles mean for them. Is what is happening in Europe a regional phenomenon only affecting the Europeans themselves? Or are there implications for Australia despite its distance from the epicentre of the crisis? A new report by Oliver Marc Hartwich, Faraway, So Close: How the Euro Crisis Affects Australia argues…
Posted: 8:00 am on 18th April 2012
Extreme Money: The Masters of the Universe and the Cult of Risk, with Satyajit Das at a special CIS event investigating the causes of the global financial crisis. At 6pm on 15 May at the Macquarie Bank Auditorium. Book here
