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The Big Teal: Simon Holmes à Court in conversation with Kate Chaney MP (Perth)

Please join us to celebrate the Perth launch of Simon Holmes à Court’s new book, The Big Teal, the latest in Monash University Publishing’s In the National Interest Series.

The author will be joined by Kate Chaney MP, the Independent Federal Member for Curtin, for a conversation about the book.

About the book

‘We will not achieve net zero in the cafes, dinner parties and wine bars of our inner cities.’ Little infuriated the forgotten people of the twenty-first century — women and younger voters, especially — more than Scott Morrison’s deluge of disparagement on the issues that mattered to them. The May 2022 election marked the great re-engagement of those ignored and patronised for too long on climate, integrity and gender equity.

The electoral map has been dramatically redrawn. However, the triumph of the ‘teals’ was not entirely unexpected to those assisting their rise, such as Climate 200 founder Simon Holmes à Court. As Australia entered its lost decade on climate action, he observed that conventional advocacy had become a case of diminishing returns, and that Cathy McGowan’s election as a community independent in 2013 provided a template for direct political engagement. The result was Climate 200, a crowdfunded outfit intended to provide the money and expertise to better match the major parties and turbocharge the grassroots movement emerging in thirty-plus electorates.

Despite a relentless and increasingly shrill campaign of vilification aimed at Holmes à Court and the candidates by the Liberals, assisted by their media mates, we saw the election of six new community independent MPs and one senator. It was a victory of facts over fear, priorities over prejudice. It was a blow to the unfit-for-purpose ‘majoritariat’, a rejection of the false binary choice between parties that no longer reflect the hopes and complexity of modern democratic Australia.

This is the story of how a team of inspired young tech-heads and older sages used their real and virtual-world experience to help a cluster of communities get the representation they wanted.

To pre-purchase your book ahead of Perth launch, purchase via Boffins Books website and add a note in “Additional Instructions & Comments” box at checkout: “For collection at the launch on 14 October.

Banner with text 'The Big Teal book launch' and a picture of hands holding a copy of the book on a teal background
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The Big Teal – Book Launch (online)

Join Simon Holmes à Court in conversation with the Guardian’s political editor Katharine Murphy and the Independent Member for Curtin, Kate Chaney, to celebrate the launch of his book, The Big Teal, the latest instalment in Monash University Publishing’s In the National Interest series.

About Simon Holmes à Court

Simon is an energy analyst, clean-tech investor, climate philanthropist, director of the Smart Energy Council and the Australian Environmental Grantmakers Network, and the founder and convenor of Climate 200. He was co-founder of the Australian Wind Alliance and inaugural chair of the Melbourne Energy Institute’s Advisory Board.

About Katharine Murphy

Katharine Murphy is Guardian Australia’s political editor. She has worked in Canberra’s parliamentary gallery for 15 years. In 2008, she won the Paul Lyneham award for excellence in press gallery journalism, while in 2012 she was a Walkley award finalist in the best digital journalism category.

About Kate Chaney

Kate Chaney is the Independent Federal Member for Curtin in Western Australia. She is WA’s first female Independent Federal Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives.

Essential Pre-poll Reading
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Monash University Publishing’s Essential Pre-Poll Reading

In the lead-up to this federal election, Monash University Publishing has your reading list covered. From our In the National Interest Series:

In Who Dares Loses: Pariah Policies, Wayne Errington and Peter van Onselen explain the political constraints on policymakers and the ways in which they are changing.

In Challenging Politics, Scott Ryan discusses the loss in faith in politics.

In Easy Lies & Influence, Fiona McLeod tells us what corruption can do, and why it’s imperative that we address it.

In Tides that Bind, ALP Deputy Leader Richard Marles implores us to step up our support for Pacific nations threatened by climate change and under-development.

In Governing in the Internet Age, Communications Minister Paul Fletcher outlines the key challenges the internet has posed for governments.

In Fortune’s Fool, Satyajit Das dissects the pandemic, global trends, Australia’s narrow ‘house and holes’ economy and its dependency on China.

In Population Shock, Abul Rizvi asks: how will government chart our larger and older population’s economic future?

In Good International Citizenship, Gareth Evans argues that to be, and be seen to be, a good international citizen is both a moral imperative and a matter of hard-headed national interest.

In Burning Down the House, Jo Dyer looks at how Australian politics has gone awry and how a range of independents are determined to burn it all down and build something new.

In Big: The Role of the State in the Modern Economy, Richard Denniss makes the case for following the lead of the Nordic countries in the provision of great public health, education, housing and infrastructure.

In Now More than Ever, David Anderson gives us an insider’s insight into the ABC: a cultural powerhouse where Australian identity is celebrated, democracy is defended, and creativity is encouraged to flourish.

In Dismal Diplomacy, Disposable Sovereignty, Carrillo Gantner offers some modest suggestions for improving Australia’s relationship with China.

In Leadership, Don Russell reflects on politicians, the political process and the role of government, and explains why our political leaders are as they are.

In A Decade of Drift, Martin Parkinson outlines how the twists and turns in climate change policy over the past decade have contributed to the erosion of public trust in government in Australia.

Other important background reading for the election includes: Cathy Goes to Canberra by Cathy McGowan, the inspiring story of one of Australia’s most successful and influential independents; Long Half-life by Ian Lowe on Australia’s nuclear policies and energy and climate challenges; Class in Australia on Australia’s deepening social stratification; and Corporate Power in Australia by Lindy Edwards on how the ‘big end of town’ influences our politics.

  • Who Dares Loses

    Wayne Errington & Peter van Onselen
  • Governing in the Internet Age

    Paul Fletcher

 

  • Good International Citizenship

    Gareth Evans
  • Dismal Diplomacy, Disposable Sovereignty

    Carrillo Gantner

 

  • Class in Australia

    Steven Threadgold and Jessica Gerrard
  • Corporate Power in Australia

    Lindy Edwards