John Anderson, Peter Costello to Speak at ARC-Successor: Inaugural Aspire Conference in Sydney
Hundreds of Australian leaders will converge on Sydney on 24–25 February for the inaugural Aspire Conference, a new initiative inspired by Dr Jordan Peterson’s Alliance for Responsible Citizenship that aims to re-anchor Australia in its foundational values amid growing cultural, economic, and geopolitical uncertainty.
Former Deputy Prime Minister the Hon John Anderson AC and former Treasurer the Hon Peter Costello AC are slated to join a range of international speakers and local delegates at the inaugural Aspire Conference in Sydney in February.
The theme of the two-day conference—scheduled for Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 February—is “Face the Facts. Shape the Future” and it promises a “concerted Australian response to these challenges we face”.
Aspire is being organised by FORM Australia—a charitable organisation renamed in October last year and previously registered in August 2025 as “Australians for Civic Renewal Inc”.
According to the Aspire website, FORM—standing for “Freedom, Opportunity and Responsibility Movement”—is “a not-for-profit organisation inspired by ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship), dedicated to elevating the quality of public leadership and discourse in our nation.” It “exists to re-anchor Australia in its foundational beliefs and values, providing a local response to the unique challenges our country faces.”
The conference is explicitly inspired by the success of the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC), which was founded in 2023 by a group including Dr Jordan Peterson, Baroness Philippa Stroud, Hon John Anderson, and Sir Paul Marshall with support from the Legatum Institute.
From its inception, ARC has enjoyed substantial support in Australia—attracting a significant Australian delegation to its international events and sustaining its own local conference in 2024. Australians are also well-represented on ARC’s advisory board, which lists former prime ministers Tony Abbott and John Howard alongside John Anderson, Andrew Hastie, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, and Amanda Stoker.
Despite citing it as an inspiration, February’s Aspire Conference is not organisationally linked to ARC—FORM Australia is an independent organisation. However, Aspire has attracted many speakers who have also featured at ARC conferences around the world.
These include former Australian federal parliamentarians John Anderson and Peter Costello alongside a notable list of international speakers.
Conference speakers for Aspire 2026 (photos taken from the Aspire Conference website).
According to the Aspire website, distinguished speakers include:
- Steven E. Koonin—a theoretical physicist and environmental scientist who served as the Under Secretary for Science, Department of Energy, in the Obama administration
- Erica Komisar—a psychological consultant and author of Being There: Why Prioritizing Motherhood in the First Three Years Matters
- Sir Niall Ferguson—a historian who is currently the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University
- Os Guinness—English author, Christian theologian, and social critic, known for his books Our Civilizational Moment: The Waning of the West and the War of the Worlds and Last Call for Liberty: How America’s Genius for Freedom Has Become Its Greatest Threat
Aspire seeks to engage five foundational policy areas, which it lists as Foundations and Freedoms (“The erosion of freedoms and civic confidence”), Social Fabric (“The forces shaping individuals, families and future citizens”), Economy and Housing (“The economic pressures undermining opportunity”), Energy and Environment (“Confronting the energy insecurity threatening prosperity”), and Geopolitics (“Global and regional instability that is testing our alliances”).
It hopes to convene a “significant group of key individuals, including many emerging young leaders, to join us in identifying and understanding challenges, exploring solutions, and equipping participants to lead change in policy, culture, and society. Aspire will call each attendee to improve their ‘patch’, whether a small community or a broader sphere of influence.”
The program spans two days with sessions covering all of these foundational issues—as well as a range of elective “deep dive” sessions and themed dinners.
While tickets are not available to the public, the Aspire website encourages people to sign up for future communication and newsletters.
Photo courtesy of Aspire Conference.
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Very interesting.
May this meeting be grounded in Christian repentance and faith, with 2 Chronicles 7:14 in mind.
Unless the LORD builds a house, they labour in vain who try to build anything not according to His call. Ps 127:1
I remember Australia when we manufactured everything we needed , when we had a great future , rockets in Woomera , scientific inventions, a proper navy with an aircraft Carrier, etc , and, I was proud of my country. I celebrate Australia Day and support the Patriotic Marchers, but, we face a bleak financial and moral future thanks to politicians starting with us joining the UN and PM Whitlam in 1975 replacing “The COMMON WEALTH of Australia ” with “The Australian Govt “. Illegal because done without a Referendum as ordered by our Constitution. Ditto with PM Hawke + Keating ‘s “Australia Act 1986 “– once again illegal because without the required Referendum of the People. It cut our ties with the UK , with the Queen and her successors and abolished Appeals to the House of Lords from decisions of the High Court of Australia .”The Crown ” is now a different entity= the Australian govt led by the politicians. The fiction that the Crown still rules Australia is NOT the case as the Governor-General admits she does not consult with the King, nor does he have any say over Australia’s affairs. We are left with no Bill of Rights to protect our Freedoms, or to defend our bank accounts, our Superannuation and Real Estate, etc–a new Law (not publicised by the Media ) was made recently giving huge powers to our govt to take these . “Your” Super is not “yours “, your home is not yours , etc ! Greed and Ignorance of our Rights have led to our economic decline . In 1968 we had world-class scientists and a great future ahead of us, but, unlike ,Norway,our great mineral wealth , due to Whitlam abolishing ” The Common Wealth “,the coal, iron ore, gas, uranium , etc could not be the property of Australia to be used to benefit all Australians, not just Overseas companies and a few Australian billionaires. The days of BHP making big money from selling iron ore in US dollars is over. Late 2025 Stand-off of 12 Australian ships carrying iron ore were not allowed to berth until they agreed to pay in yuan. Simandou, Guinea is being developed by China to extract and manufacture steel in situ–will under-cut our iron exports, as will other countries like South Africa and Brazil , etc. We are on the way to becoming “The Poor White Trash Of Asia ” as predicted . Our Woke schools and universities teach stupid , useless courses. DEI means that the best students are not rewarded and leave permanently to live Overseas. We are living in a “Fools ‘ Paradise ” in which we manufacture (thanks to Whitlam )only toilet paper and a few other things.
This comment contains errors. The Australia Acts did not cut links with the crown. Australian appeals never went to the House of Lords but to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. They had been largely abolished even before the Australia Acts. The latter did for the states what the Statute of Westinster1931 had done for the Commonwealth and the other dominions.
China is now the dominant World Power . They are even growing wheat in the Taklaman Desert .Rare Earths can be extracted from US rivers –until now yellow , ie polluted by mining. They are now safe for fish and people. Tasmania should investigate if the Macquarie River and Harbour contain the very valuable Rare Earths ? As Australia ceased to be Christian, it has become dumb , and dumber. Intelligence is not rewarded in our Woke Society.
The Defence conference in Canberra last week needs to be discussed. Are we expecting a war with China in 2027? Are we dredging Townsville so we can get more US ships in there. Are we building a wharf in Darwin next to the area China has an interest in and does not want us to buy back? Are the US having a 2027 drill here in 2027 and leaving weapons behind in readiness for dealing with China/Taiwan and China/Austalia. Do we have man power to use with our weapons – defintely not!
On another matter _ i see Albo gave goodwill gestures to the Chinese New Year and Ramadan. But i live in Australia which is mainly Christian but we didnt even get a mention about one of the great events on our Christian calendar – LENT for the next 40 days as a lead up to Easter. Maybe he forgets he is a Prime Minister who calls himself Catholic.
Marvellous edited version of the speech by Erica Komisar as reported in The Australian, Feb 25th! Surely most of our Australian very early learning centres caring for toddlers several days each week cannot be the mainstream provider of the vital beginnings of well-rounded individual character formation. Erica affirms that that daunting, difficult, time-consuming yet priceless role belongs in the main to the parents in a family. Can effective attention to the real issues she raises not help Australia’s future?