Anne Summers – trailblazing feminist, journalist, commentator and author – has long been one of the nation’s most powerful voices and, at times, its conscience. 

Through her fearless and incisive writing, she has challenged complacency, expanded the national conversation and championed the essential power of artistic freedom and the expression of ideas.

In this very special opening address, Anne examines the role of ideas – and the freedom to express them – in Australia’s shifting political and cultural landscape.

Anne urges us to galvanise our intellectual energy, reclaim the space to think boldly, and create the conditions for ideas to be articulated, debated and allowed to change us for the better – helping us define who we are, and who we might become, as a nation.

Dr Anne Summers AO is a journalist, commentator and best-selling author of ten books, including the classic Damned Whores and God’s Police, first published in 1975, and still in print. Her most recent book Witness. People. Politics. Culture. Feminism is published in late 2026. 

Previously, Anne has advised Prime Ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, run the Office of the Status of Women, been Canberra Bureau Chief for the Australian Financial Review newspaper, been editor-in-chief of America’s leading feminist magazine Ms., editor of Good Weekend, chair of the Board of Greenpeace International and a Trustee of the Powerhouse Museum. 

She has been an activist in the women’s movement since its inception and in 1974 was involved in establishing Elsie Women’s Refuge the first modern shelter for women and children escaping domestic violence.

She was appointed an officer of the Order of Australia for her services to journalism and to women in 1989; had her image on a postage stamp as an Australian Legend in 2011 and in 2017 was inducted into the Australian Media Hall of Fame.

This Bondi Books & Ideas Weekend event is presented by Waverley Council, with support from Gertrude & Alice Bookstore. With thanks to New South publishing.