Planning your big weekend at Byron Writers Festival? We take a look at the hot button topics at Australia’s largest regional writers festival this August.

Last week, Simon Holmes à Court and Clive Palmer presented two very different visions for the future of independent politics at the National Press Club in Canberra. They're both wealthy men, and interested in influencing the next federal parliament via the election of independent candidates, but that's where the similarities end.

The Coalition has produced a policy! Don't get too excited – this policy is recycled, and not in a good way – in fact it's radioactive. Like Robert Menzies, John Howard and Tony Abbott before him, Peter Dutton wants to legalise nuclear electricity generation in Australia.