Hosted by the Climate Council of Western Australia (CCWA), join us for a special evening with Professor Ian Lowe AO and CCWA President Carmen Lawrence AO to explore the history of the nuclear industry in Australia.
This is an important time to reflect on the nuclear industry and Australia’s role in it – and we can’t think of two better people to do that with!
Western Australia is edging dangerously close to having one operating uranium mine, and we are watching yet another community fight yet another proposal for a national radioactive waste dump. Nationally we are discussing the possibility of nuclear submarines, and facing the realities of a $2.2 billion clean-up at Ranger uranium mine. Globally there is a mounting push for a new generation of nuclear power, Russia has weaponised nuclear power in war, tensions are rising, and there is now an international treaty to abolish nuclear weapons.
Ian Lowe
Professor Ian Lowe AO is uniquely qualified to tell this story, following a long career in universities, research councils and advisory groups. Lowe is the author of several books, including Living in the Hothouse (Scribe, 2005), A Big Fix (Black Inc., 2005), A Voice of Reason (UQP, 2010), Bigger or Better? (UQP, 2012) and The Lucky Country? (UQP, 2016). He is also the author of a 2006 Quarterly Essay on the prospects for nuclear power in Australia, and a ‘flip book’ with Professor Barry Brook, giving the two sides of the argument.
Carmen Lawrence
Professor Carmen Lawrence AO is the President of the Conservation Council. With a breadth of experience in psychology, state and federal politics – covering Health, Indigenous Affairs, Environment and Industry she has become a leading voice for environmental protection and social change.
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Long Half-life
Ian Lowe
Dr Margaret Taft is a research associate at the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation at Monash University. For the past 12 years her research has focused on the reconstruction of Jewish immigrant life in pre-war and post-war 20th-century Australia. Her particular interest lies with the Yiddish speakers from Eastern Europe whose personal agency, leadership and cultural identity transformed what had been a predominantly Anglo Jewish community.
Michael Gawenda AM is one of Australia’s best-known journalists and authors. In a journalism career spanning four decades, Michael has been a political reporter, a foreign correspondent based in London and in Washington, a columnist, a feature writer, a senior editor at Time Magazine and the Editor and Editor in Chief of The Age in Melbourne from 1997 to 2004.
