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Anthony Albanese has, with growing confidence, spent years trying to convince voters he's relatable But this week that confidence carried him somewhere the office of Prime Minister probably shouldn’t go – a game of “shag, marry, date” on a comedy podcast. The apology came quickly. Then, as the Prime minister turned to rugby league diplomacy in the Pacific, China tested a mi...

A call came through with a warning: political operatives were digging for dirt.  For Amy Remeikis, it wasn’t the first time. But this time, she was told, it was more vicious than usual.  In Canberra, that kind of warning is part of the machinery: a whisper campaign, a rumour, a file passed around – backgrounding against opponents or perceived threats to vested interests. Enou...

Survivors say it’s like being stabbed in the back; some were just days away from finally having their day in court against the Christian Brothers when their cases were suddenly put on hold. The Catholic religious order is crying poor, saying it doesn’t have enough money to pay child sexual abuse victims the compensation they’re owed. But it’s been revealed that assets worth...

Since the ceasefire was announced late last year, Gaza has faded from the headlines. But the horror of life there has not stopped. More than 1,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire was announced in October, and thousands more have been wounded, as people continue to face a daily struggle for survival. Independent journalist Antony Loewenstein, author of  The...

Last year, Tracy Hall was sent a dating profile that sent chills down her spine. The name on the profile was different, but the image was that of notorious conman Hamish McLaren. He had been jailed for scamming 15 Australians out of $7.6 million – including Tracy, his girlfriend and final victim, whose life savings he stole after meeting her under a fake identity. Now, as McLaren prepares fo...

For generations of Australians, Powderfinger songs are tied to first loves, long drives, share houses, break-ups and summers that still feel close enough to touch.  They were written by people, played by a band, and carried by listeners into their own lives.  Now, that music has been found inside the machinery of artificial intelligence, harvested into vast datasets without permission an...

It’s been one year since Kumanjayi Walker’s family gathered in the Central Australian community of Yuendumu, to hear the findings of a coronial inquest into his death. Kumanjayi Walker, a 19 year old Warlpiri-Luritja man, when he was shot and killed by former constable Zachary Rolfe in 2019. In 2022, Zachary Rolfe was found not guilty of Kumanjayi Walker’s murder, but his family...

Pauline Hanson went to the National Press Club with a party polling like a threat to the old order. Then she had to explain what that party was actually for. Since her appearance, One Nation’s federal support has slipped. The speech, with its talk of monoculture and its familiar targets – migration, the ABC and renewables – gave voters a clearer look at the movement behind the mo...

Donald Trump returned to the White House promising to make America the crypto capital of the world, despite having once dismissed Bitcoin as “not money” and warned it was “based on thin air” in a 2019 tweet. In his first year back in office, Trump has set that scepticism aside as it has become clear crypto presents an extraordinary business opportunity. A new financial disc...

The temperatures were so high that roads melted and tram tracks buckled. Some locals even resorted to sleeping in parks and caves to escape the heat. And at the epicentre of the European heatwave? Paris – which recorded its hottest day in history.  It’s where Australian author and climate activist Sarah Wilson has called home for the past few years. Today, Sarah speaks with 7am fr...

They were some of the biggest stage productions in the country, starring some of the biggest names in the biz. But in the space of just two weeks, Beetlejuice and Waitress: The Musical have had their tours cut short, leaving the cast and crew devastated.  Now, stars like Nat Bass are sounding the alarm as the industry struggles to stay afloat amid rising costs and slumping ticket sales. Today...

For decades, the Dollarmites program turned schoolchildren into customers.  The controversial scheme, now axed, gave Australia’s biggest bank access to kids, classrooms and their cash under the guise of teaching financial literacy. Now it’s happening again.  A new report has found the country’s biggest fossil fuel companies are using the same strategy – with multi...

KPMG is one of the biggest, wealthiest and most powerful consulting firms in the country – auditing and advising everything from major companies to governments. It is trusted with some of the most sensitive information in Australia. Now that trust is at the centre of a major scandal.  A whistleblower raised concerns that confidential client information was being used to chase new work....

When the teal independents swept through Liberal heartland, their pitch was simple: they were not like the major parties. They were community-backed, locally accountable, and free to vote how they wanted. Now, two of the best-known teals – Zali Steggall and Allegra Spender – are forming a political party. They say Community Strong Australia is a home for the politically homeless: peopl...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia – like many countries – saw protesters take the streets. They weren’t just protesting lockdowns, they were rallying around a tangle of fears and conspiracies. Those threads fused into a broader worldview that pulled people down a pipeline and built a small industry of influencers. Today, Conspiracy Nation authors Ariel Bogle and Cam Wilson...

It’s easy to dismiss conspiracy theories as fringe or imported. But conspiratorial ideas are gaining traction with everyday Australians – about one in three endorse at least one conspiracy belief. They’re also being echoed by people in power, and have spilled into real-world violence. Today, Conspiracy Nation authors Cam Wilson and Ariel Bogle on how conspiracies leap from the fr...

Pauline Hanson’s call for Australia to become a monoculture was meant to draw a line around national identity. Instead, it opened up a new split inside the Liberal Party. This week, the idea left Opposition Leader Angus Taylor looking bewildered, unable to say clearly where he stood on multiculturalism. Andrew Hastie took the opposite approach in navigating the challenge presented by One Nat...

Karl Stefanovic has spent decades as one of the most recognisable faces on Australian television.  A household name from the largely inoffensive world of breakfast television.  Now, that multi-million dollar career at Nine is officially over, after Stefanovic published an interview with Tommy Robinson, a British far-right activist with a long criminal history, who has built a large follo...

Bird flu has reached mainland Australia – with cases first confirmed in WA and now South Australia. The strain, detected in three seabirds, is H5N1 – a deadly form of the virus that has swept through wild birds overseas, forced farmers to slaughter millions of chickens, spread to mammals, and, in the United States, infected dairy cows and farm workers. Authorities in Australia say the...

Amid the seismic political shift currently underway in this country, there’s been one party missing from the conversation: the Greens. And it’s curious, because the conditions that have seen One Nation rise – frustration with the major parties, a slip in living standards, appetite for change – should suit the Greens and their anti-establishment politics. So why are they los...

The Prime Minister of the UK Keir Starmer has announced his resignation – meaning Britain is preparing for its seventh leader in just ten years.  Starmer, who won in a landslide victory for the Labor party only two years ago, has been haemorrhaging support from the public and the party for months. The man likely to replace him: Andy Burnham.   Today - host of the News Agents E...

In Western Australia, police have just started trialling technology that can identify people as they walk past.  A marked police van will scan faces outside major events, cross-checking them against a watchlist of people wanted by authorities. Police say it’s targeted and that innocent people have nothing to fear. But once this kind of surveillance is switched on, the question becomes h...

Anti-abortion activists say it was the most successful pro-life campaign in Australia - last week a bill to overturn abortion access after 25 weeks was voted through the upper house of South Australia’s parliament. It didn’t make it through the lower house, but women's advocates are still sounding the alarm amid a growing push against reproductive rights - led, in part, by One Nation....

In 2017, billionaire businessman Sanjeev Gupta rescued the Whyalla steelworks from administration, becoming known as the “saviour of steel”. There was hope in this small South Australian town that steelmaking – and the thousands of jobs tied to it – would survive. But since then, Gupta has lost control, the South Australian government has forced the steelworks into administ...

This week, Pauline Hanson took to the National Press Club stage with a greatest hits collection of the grievances that have fueled her political career.  Immigration. Multiculturalism. Trans rights. Indigenous Australians. The “political elite”. The changing face of the country.  The backlash from the government, sections of the community and commentariat was immediate. But t...