Events

We warmly invite families, young people, members and allies of the deaf community to Science Gallery Melbourne’s free Deaf Art Science Festival on Saturday 19 September 2026.

This event has been co-designed with members of the deaf community including students and professionals, and will be an exciting day of exploration and learning at the University of Melbourne’s Science Gallery. The program includes:

• Keynote forum with deaf/hard of hearing experts in climate change and the climate crisis.

• Deaf-led STEM activities for families including Makey Makey workshops and Auslan Storytime.

• Introductory Auslan lesson by deaf Auslan teachers.

• Showcase of deaf organisations and emergency services supporting the deaf/hard of hearing community.

• Science Gallery Cafe open for coffee and lunch, staffed by deaf student baristas from Victorian College for the Deaf’s Tradeblock Cafe.

Auslan interpreters will be available and families with children are encouraged to attend. Attendees can create their own program by selecting from all available sessions to tailor the day to their interests.

Please note: This is a free event. Registration is essential via the event page.

Please join us for a Labour Law Seminar on A Wage-Price Spiral: What are the Chances? presented by Dr Iain Ross AO.

The presentation discusses wage-price spirals, beginning with definitional issues and historical evidence in Australia and internationally. It then turns to the episode of stagflation in the 1970s and 1980s in Australia and the structural factors that contributed to those episodes. The central point is that the labour market framework of today is very different to that of the 1970s and 1980s. The overall thesis is that there is no evidence of the emergence of a wage-price spiral in the present circumstances and recent data suggests such an outcome is unlikely. I conclude by pointing to the importance of productivity and the potential challenges for wages policy and social cohesion presented by the adoption of artificial intelligence.

Dr Ross’s keynote address will be followed by a panel discussion with Josh Bornstein (The Australia Institute) and Katie Sweatman (Kingston Reid).