Jon Faine

An exceptional journalist with a legal background who, over 30 years, has presented a high rating daily morning radio show for the ABC.

Jon Faine has interviewed Prime Ministers, Premiers and Government Minsters of all persuasions. He has asked hard hitting questions of business moguls, celebrities and authors, and encouraged countless remarkable but not-so-famous people to tell their personal stories.

With an impressive ability to research, listen, analyse and discuss, Jon brings events to life as a professional conference speaker, MC and facilitator. His wit, energy, fearlessness and passion for contesting ideas never fail to engage, leaving people inspired and enlightened.

For over three decades, Jon Faine has covered some of Australia’s most significant events. From the catastrophic events of the Black Saturday bushfires, through to the ABC coverage of elections and political battles, and horrific crimes including the murder of his colleague and friend Jill Meagher, Jon has held the hand of his audiences through tumultuous times.

Jon has written several best-selling books, including an account of his overland adventure from Melbourne to London, with his father and son. The book From Here To There sold 20,000 copies and is a top rating audio file. His latest book ‘Apollo & Thelma’ about ‘The Mighty Apollo’, is a story of a circus strongman and his sister Thelma, the pioneering but outrageous publican of one of Australia’s most remote pubs in the NT. This thinly disguised memoir blends Jon’s life as a baby lawyer sent to the NT in 1982 and their intertwined stories and flows through 40 years. Along the way we re-visit the Gurindji walk-off at Wave Hill amongst other historical events.

Jon is currently a Vice Chancellors Fellow at the University of Melbourne, based in the Melbourne Law School. His work at the UoM is concentrated on amplifying research and making sure academics understand it is part of the social licence of a university that they make their expertise accessible to the general public.

Whether he is examining our ethical crisis in public life, questioning democracy, technology and its impact, social trends, political movements, or legal challenges, he manages to scrutinise our contemporary world in an entertaining way.

Jon Faine speaks about:

Jon speaks on a range of contemporary issues affecting business, government and communities. These can include, for example:

Can Democracy Survive Social Media?

Social media — actually antisocial media – is undoing our civil society, its anonymity allowing anyone to say anything to anybody with no consequences.

A look into our national soul: whatever happened to ethics?

Australia is experiencing an ethical crisis. Many institutions and individuals we thought we could trust have let us down. Why, and what do we do about it? How do we navigate our way through to better relations between business, the professions, government and the people. How do we restore trust? How do you protect your good reputation? What do you do if your past is less than perfect but you are seeking redemption?

When the whole town burned, who stepped forward?

Strathewan and Kinglake were towns devastated by the Victorian Black Saturday fires, with 173 people dead in a single day. The impact was felt for years afterwards, and some unexpected lessons were learned. Jon, who was on air for the ABC Radio Emergency broadcasts that day and non-stop for days afterwards, tells of the harsh lessons learned, lessons that apply across many walks of life.

Is leadership instinctive or learned?

So many workplaces and organisations become captive to an individual charismatic figure – usually to their disadvantage, yet the lessons are rarely learned. Who steps up in a crisis? What happens when a natural disaster strikes? Bushfires? Floods? Massacres and terrorism?

Who should you trust? Fake news and legacy media

The business model of the news has been shattered, and the replacement is evolving in our own lifetime. How do we protect our society from fake news? What are ‘citizen’ journalists and do they know what they are doing? Are we being bombarded with propaganda from overseas? How do we encourage any investigative journalism if the funds are no longer there to support it?

Career suicide or mid-career tonic? Six months driving overland to London

Jon discusses six months and 35,000 k’s, spent driving through Europe with his father and his son, a story also recorded in his book From Here To There, which sold over 20,000 copies. What is Turkmenistan like? The Silk Road? Eating dog in Laotian jungles? Driving through the Gobi Desert in a snow storm! Were they still talking to each other by the end? And did it crush his work ethic and career or revive it?

Cheaper than a shrink

Many parents and teachers – and employers – are dogmatic in their thinking that the best way to achieve success is to cram students full of facts and figures. That may get you superficial short term success – but it is often those very students who struggle once they emerge into the real world. Are we teaching kids to pass exams and get into the course of their choice… only to see them drop out at alarming rates? How realistic is life-long learning?