Clive Hamilton

"In the marketing society, we seek fulfillment but settle for abundance. Prisoners of plenty, we have the freedom to consume instead of our freedom to find our place in the world."

Clive Hamilton is an Australian author and public intellectual. Since 2008 he has been Professor of Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University in Canberra. For 14 years, until February 2008, he was the Executive Director of The Australia Institute, a progressive think tank he founded.

He holds an arts degree from the Australian National University and an economics degree from the University of Sydney. He completed a doctorate in the economics of development at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. Clive has held visiting academic positions at Yale University, the University of Oxford, University College London and Sciences Po in Paris. He has published on a wide range of subjects but is best known for his books, a number of which have been best-sellers. In 2018, his controversial book, Silent Invasion: China’s Influence in Australia, was published by Hardie Grant after three other publishers pulled out citing fear of punishment from Beijing. It became an immediate best-seller.

In 2009 Clive was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his contribution to public debate and public policy. Later that year he was the Greens candidate in the by-election for the federal seat of Higgins. In 2012 he was appointed by the Federal Government to the Climate Change Authority, from which he resigned in 2016.