We are delighted - honoured in fact - to open our 2026 series of conversations with former journalist and State Premier, Bob Carr, speaking about his new memoir, Bring Back Yesterday.

In October 2023 Bob’s wife of more than fifty years, Helena, suddenly died .

In this memoir he records his attempt to deal with his grief, switching between the present moment - pacing the night-time streets of Sydney - and reflections on his shared past with Helena, including ruminations on travel, conversations and cultural curiosity.

Bob Carr was the longest serving Premier of NSW. A committed conservationist, he used his term in power to create literally hundreds of National Parks, preserving vast areas of wilderness. He later held the position of Foreign Minister under Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd. He is the author of four books, including The Diary of a Foreign Minister.

Maisie and Charlie meet at a life-drawing session as undergraduates: she’s the model, he’s an artist. Their immediate connection carries them across two decades as they navigate the slippery dynamics of friendship, estrangement and family.

Emily Lighezzolo’s bold debut interrogates the collision of art and gaze, desire and consent, muse and meaning. This is a love story. At its core: a woman’s body – seen, touched, loved, hated, commodified and reclaimed. Life Drawing is an award-winning and unflinching novel for our times.

Hypothetically, would you want to live forever but be invisible, or have a short life and be seen? Hypothetically, would you give up wine forever or sex for ten years?Hypothetically, would you show a friend someone else’s nude?

Emily Lighezzolo has worked in Australian publishing for nearly a decade. Life Drawing won the Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer at the Queensland Literary Awards and is her first book. She lives in Meanjin/Brisbane.

Hugh Mackay, social psychologist extraordinaire - ‘the man who explains us to ourselves’ has a new book.

Just Saying is a series of twenty-five essays that take as their starting points statements from writers and thinkers as varied as Susan Sontag and Bertrand Russell, from Samuel Johnson to Gloria Steinem, from Plato to Miles Franklin.

In these reflections Mackay explores themes ranging from kindness and humility to power and prejudice; from gender equality to ethnic diversity; from coping with change to the damage inflicted on ourselves by revenge, and the great gulf between propriety and virtue.

Hugh Mackay is the bestselling author of twenty-five books, including The Way We Are and The Kindness Revolution. He had a sixty-year career in social research and was for thirty years a weekly newspaper columnist. In recognition of his pioneering work in social research, he has been awarded honorary doctorates by five Australian universities, as well as being appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia

This is Hugh’s third visit to Maleny for Outspoken. Hugh, himself, requested to be included in our program, citing the openness and intelligence of the audience. We couldn’t be more delighted to have him return.

Hugh is in conversation with Steven Lang.