The Dunstan Dialogues Series has been re-imagined as a Chatham House forum where decision-makers, researchers, the social services sector, professionals, the private sector and people with lived experience can come together to discuss how we can work together as a community to make South Australia a better, fairer place.
These forums will explore our key focus areas:
The Don Dunstan Foundation will delve into these areas and their relate issues arising in South Australia. Dunstan Dialogues are a space to explore the multifaceted perspectives of those in our communities, and find ways to build a state of hope.
Don Dunstan’s career showed us what we can achieve as a community – so many of the landmark reforms of the Dunstan decade were a cooperative effort across sectors and even political boundaries.
To learn about the Dunstan Dialogues Series in previous years, check out our resource library
2025 Dunstan Dialogues
Climate Justice
In April we hosted our first forum and discussed the impacts of climate change on communities here and now, particularly the impact of extreme weather and temperature. We focused on how we as a community could look after people already suffering from climate extremes. Indeed, heatwaves are causing illness, even death; the unsettled climate also puts pressure on the cost of living.
We looked ahead to how we could prepare for what was coming as the globe continued to heat. The discussion was insightful and helpful in defining the key policy issues, and there was a view in the room for the opportunity ahead of COP31 – particularly if Adelaide hosts it – to elevate climate justice as a key policy concern in South Australia.
Transforming Justice for South Australian Children and Young People
Later in September we hosted a policy forum in partnership with the Justice Reform Initiative and invited prominent thinkers and thought leaders in our state to discuss transforming the South Australian youth justice system. We considered key policy areas that need addressing, particularly for Aboriginal children and young people, and ways of engaging politicians and the general public in this transformation.
The discussion informed the Justice Reform Initiative’s 12-month project funded through the Minderoo Foundation which aims to develop, in partnership with key stakeholders, a national advocacy strategy to make recommendations about how to end the harmful incarceration and criminalisation of children in Australia.