Progressives and conservatives don’t agree on much, so what happens when you put four leading figures from each side of the ideological scale in a room and ask them to fight? A Battle of the think tanks. And strangely enough, a productive, intelligent discussion, though admittedly not without it’s heated moments.

CPD Executive Director Miriam Lyons joined forces with Per Capita’s David Hetherington to defend and highlight the merits of a progressive agenda against conservative think tank panelist’s Dr Oliver Hartwich from the Centre for Independent Studies and Tim Wilson of the Institute of Public Affairs. The issues discussed ranged from the traditional ‘nanny state’ battleground to the role of free-market libertarianism in the GFC and the recent debt-crisis. 

WATCH the full event on ABC’s Big Ideas here.