Imagining Australia

When I started this podcast there was one overarching question that I was really keen to explore on Imagining Australia, ‘what type of country do Australians want to call home in 2031? For the last episode of this series, I pitched the conversation back in my own community of Melbourne and finished with that big question. Hear the perspectives of Melburnians at the Queen Victorian Market as they look ahead to 2031 and peep beyond COVID-19.

Host/Producer/Editing: Evan Wallace. Featuring: Melburnians. Music: deliBass and mango_bone.

We continue our exploration of how disability might be defined in 2031. In part two of this episode we learn about our guests' experience of disability in Central Australia and the challenges facing people with disability and their families in remote communities. Against this backdrop, my guests outline their hopes and concerns for how Australia could respond to disability over the next ten years.

Across some confronting stories, there's a real call for communities to be empowered, people's sense of home to be respected and for basic needs to be met. There's some harsh realities out there and a clear need to better understand insidious discrimination and the depth of challenge if we're to become a more inclusive community. 

Featuring Sandy Robinson and Jacinta Cordner (Alice Springs Access Advisory Committee) Wanatjura Lewis, Rene Kulitja and Nyunmiti Burton and Yuminiya Ken (NPY Women's Council). Interpreter: Beth Sometimes. Music: deliBass and mango_bone.

About 1 in 6 Australians are living with a disability and in recent times, we’ve become a lot better as a community in how we understand, respond to and define it.

On this edition of the show, we’re looking at how disability will be defined in 2031 in Australia. Over two separate parts, you’ll hear from people who have made it their day to day work to challenge expectations and realities for people with disability.

First up it's Kim McRae, Manager of the NPY Women's Council Tjungu Program. She offers a very different perspective of how disability is understood, some of the key contrasts that exist in Central Australia and the persisting connection between disability and poverty.

Featuring: Kim McRae. Host/Producer/Editing: Evan Wallace. Music: deliBass and mango_bone.

Central Australia is part of the country that I think we could benefit from a much closer understanding. Its future will say a lot about the type of country that Australians call home in 2031. On this edition we turn our focus to what reconciliation looks like in a part of the country where the divisions between the aboriginal and non-aboriginal populations are at their greatest. We listen to the dreams and hopes of key leaders in an area that is so often defined in the negative.

Featuring: Pat Ansell-Dodds, Jimmy Cocking, Louise Wellington, Scott McConnell, Marguerite Baptiste-Rooke. Host/Producer/Editing: Evan Wallace. Music: deliBass and mango_bone.

Seeing that it’s only a one and half hour flight from Darwin to Dili – I thought it was about time to imagine Australia as a neighbour.

That’s why in my conversation with Ben Bland, Director of the Lowy Institute's Southeast Asia Project,  we look at how Australia is positioning itself in Southeast Asia, what this means in terms of foreign relations and the big question for this episode: how will Australia engage with South East Asia in 2031?

Featuring: Ben Bland. Host/Producer/Editing: Evan Wallace. Music: deliBass and mango_bone.

We know a lot about the pressures that Australia’s environment is facing over the next ten years. A warmer climate, a loss of biodiversity and the further devastation of our forests and reefs. This is the grim backdrop that can’t be escaped in considering how Australia might treat its environment in 2031. What needs to change over the next ten years? Listen to find out.

Featuring Kelly O’Shanassy, Janet Rice, Mark Howden and young Melburnians. Host/Producer/Editing: Evan Wallace. Music: deliBass, mango_bone.

On this edition my guests encourage me to look beyond the top-line figures that place Australia as the second wealthiest country on the planet and consider the challenging realities that affect different groups in the community. I make the case that in 2031 a thriving economy is one where the well-being of the community is at the heart of planning and decision making. Whether we get there is another question all together.

Featuring Matt Grundoff, Emma Dawson, Ross Lambie and the residents of Footscray. Host/Producer/Editing: Evan Wallace. Music: deliBass and mango_bone. 

This is an upbeat and uplifting take on the future of multiculturalism and migration in Australia. Australia has come a long way since the White Australia policy and communities now celebrate diversity and difference. This episode looks at how the face of Australia is changing and how this stacks up against attitudes towards migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. What will multiculturalism look like in Australia in 2031? Have a listen. Featuring Mark Wang, Rebecca Wickes, Paul Power and the residents of Footscray. Host/Producer/Editing: Evan Wallace. Music: deliBass and mango_bone.

My guests on this first edition of ‘Imagining Australia’ paint a picture of a more open country where discussions about mental health are normalised, where ‘treatment’ is community minded and those who are most vulnerable receive coordinated care. Featuring: Stephen Duckett, Larissa Taylor, Kevin Yap and Jack Druce. Host/Producer/Editing: Evan Wallace. Music: DeliBass and mango_bone.