Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Tuesday 23 June
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
In the wake of the Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) regional summit aimed at foiling terrorist propaganda – and the reversal of recent defence spending cuts in this year's budget – Fifth Estate host Sally Warhaft talks to defence expert and adviser to Chief of Airforce, Group Captain Catherine McGregor, about the shape of Australia's defence policy in action.
With major operations in Iraq and the Middle East, the purchase of new military equipment (including ships, vehicles and planes) and the increase in programs to counter violent extremism, how do we prioritise our defence spending and focus? Is the Government's commitment to increase defence spending to 2% of GDP within a decade warranted? And what will the defence white paper, due for release in August, likely reveal?
Join us as we throw the spotlight on defence matters both near and far.
Featuring
Sally Warhaft
Sally Warhaft is a Melbourne broadcaster, anthropologist and writer. She is the host of The Fifth Estate, the Wheeler Centre’s live series focusing on journalism, politics, media, and international relations, and The Leap Year ...
Catherine McGregor
Catherine McGregor entered the Royal Military College Duntroon on 14 January 1974. She graduated to the Royal Australian Infantry having completed an honours degree in Arts and being awarded the C.E.W. Bean Prize in Military History in 1977. Over the intervening forty years, she held a wide variety of appointments inside the Australian Army.
She deployed on operations to Timor Leste on three occasions, commanding the Australian Army Training Team in East Timor and served as the political adviser and translator for the Commander of Australian Forces during the crisis in 2006. She is a Tetum linguist.
She was the speechwriter to every Chief of the Army since 2001. She was the Director of the Land Warfare Studies Centre in Canberra, in which capacity she was the editor in chief of the Australian Army Journal and the LWSC Strategy monograph series. In 2008, she was a Visiting Fellow at the Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War at Oxford University.
For a number of years she was a civilian during which time she worked in politics and the media. She served on the staff of the Honourable Bob Carr Leader of the News South Wales Opposition and later Premier. She was an official of the New South Wales Branch of the Australian Labor Party and also worked for the Federal Liberal Party in 1993 and 1994.
She wrote a weekly column in the Australian Financial Review and Australian newspapers between 1994 and 2000. In addition, she was a regular expert commentator on Australian politics on all major television and radio networks, as well as commenting on Australian politics for the BBC, CNN and CNBC Asia.
She is a published author (under her previous name Malcolm McGregor), having written a biography of Paul McLean in 1985 and Indian Summer -Reflections on Australia’s Summer Game in 2012. She has written on Cricket for the Australian Financial Review, Spectator Magazine and ABC’s The Drum, and was part of the ABC Grandstand broadcast team over the past summer. She has been engaged by the Australian to cover the forthcoming Ashes tour of England.
She is a vice president of Australian Service Cricket Association, responsible for Women’s ADF cricket, and is the Prime Minister’s delegate to the Cricket Australia National Selection Panel for the PM XI. She is an active player and coach and brand Ambassador for My Coach Cricket and TNF.