Think Again

Jacques and Jennifer revisit the centuries of vicious exploitation of Africa by western powers, and how Africa has been rubbed out of history to this day - except when African nations are blamed for their own struggles, rather than blaming the interference and skulduggery of western countries which would be much more accurate. ReferencesLode Vanoost 2023, Burkina Faso, Mali en Niger 40 jaar na Tho...

Jennifer and Jacques speak with Simon Bradshaw from the Climate Council. Reflecting on the extreme weather events and heatwaves across the world, Simon talks about what is happening with climate change. Importantly he explains that it is not too late to take action to avert the worst catastrophe. Indeed, not only can action at all levels still bring benefit, it is paramount that such action be tak...

Dr Charles Livingstone from the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, talks about the proposed reforms to reduce harm from poker machines in Victoria. He begins with a history of the computerised version introduced in the 1990s, and explains why these machines are intrinsically hazardous, and an improper source of tax revenue. Charles supports the proposed reforms and...

Jennifer and Jacques talk about the militarisation of our foreign policy, and they ask why we seem to be aiding and abetting the US and NATO military expansion into our region.

Jennifer and Jacques talk about Robodebt, the past federal government's immoral and illegal scheme to reclaim phony debts from Centrelink recipients. The Robodebt Royal Commission has just released its findings, and they are pretty scathing. There was no legal basis for the scheme, and Ministers and top bureaucrats were aware of this early on and actively covered it up and hid the truth. Meanwhile...

Om Dhungel tells his story as recounted in his book; Bhutan to Blacktown: Losing everything and finding Australia, written with James Button. Brought up in a remote village in southern Bhutan, Om is a gifted student and becomes a senior civil servant overseeing Bhutan's first modern telecommunications system. But things change with government crackdowns on southern Bhutanese people of Nepalese anc...

Jennifer reports back from the recent World Community Development Conference in Darwin (on Larrakia country), and Jacques and Jennifer discuss some of the conference themes about ways of doing community work. Drawing from the conference, they also talk about what community work can and should be aimed at. Examples are given of different community projects, including indigenous-led and rural-based...

Jacques talks about what is happening with housing in Australia. Talking about a housing 'crisis' makes it sound as if there are times when things are 'normal' in the area of housing in Australia... but really, homelessness and unaffordability of housing have been with us for the last five decades, homelessness probably even for longer....Leaving the price of shelter to the market will necessarily...

In this Radiothon special, we hear from past guests about the value of 3CR and Think Again, and listeners are asked to help keep the radio station on air through donations. Your support enables 3CR to provide alternative analysis, and ideas for social change. Because of your support, 3CR can keep bringing people together who are working toward a healthier, fairer and more sustainable world. 

Jacques has a conversation with Tuffy Morwitzer, an activist from the Goongerah Environment Centre (GECO), about their reaction to the Andrews Government decision to stop logging old-growth forests by the end of the year - six years earlier than originally planned. Whilst that is a big relief for the 30 year old activist group - with whom Borderlands cooperated in the late 90s during the Goolongoo...

Jennifer and Jacques move from talking about traditional slavery to modern slavery. They cover the ongoing legacy of invasion and colonisation in Australia, and some of the ways that our immigration laws support practices of slavery. 

Jennifer and Jacques talk about the colonial and slavery legacies of racism in the US, and the reverberations in Australian racist policies from federation in 1901 to the 1970s. Their discussion continues from the previous program about slavery in the Americas. ReferencesAlex Zakarus (2022) The roots of American individualism: Political myth in the age of Jackson. New Jersey: Princeton University...

Jacques and Jennifer talk about slavery in the Americas - how the enslaving of millions of Africans and their transport to the Carribean and the early US has played into colonial practices and narratives to this day, and has become integral to the global political-economy of capitalism. Indeed, without the 'labour resource' of slaves, capitalism would probably not have been as 'successful' in the...

Jacques talks with Matt Lloyd-Cape from progressive Think Tank Per Capita about the latest federal budget and what it prioritises and provides for. Our assessment is mixed... we do think that the Government could be a bit braver and risk some more deliberate changes in many areas of policy making... especially housing, taxes and - of course - return to sanity in terms of the AUKUS madness...

Jennifer interviews Tiffany White from Yarra Valley Water, and Bec Moore, who is co-owner of the cafe,Tinker. They talk about an initiative of YVW in partnership with cafes that offer free refills of water bottles to the public ('Choose Tap Refiller' initative). The idea is that people can get free water when they are 'out and about' so they don't have to buy bottled water. The aim is to reduce pl...

Jennifer speaks with Elsa Tuet-Rosenberg who is a queer, multi-racial Jewish and Chinese woman of colour, and co-founder of anti-racism organisation, Hue. Elsa talks about her experiences in the community service sector that led to the setting up of Hue - from training as a Social Worker to stints in community organisations that practiced racism and various forms of oppression. She describes how H...

John Falzon from PerCapita discusses how the illusions of neoliberal capitalism are dismantling, such as the idea that everyone gets what they deserve and those who are struggling have only themselves to blame. In fact, many of the settings in our system manufacture poverty and inequality. Examples given are wage suppression, rate rises that disproportionately hit workers, escalating cost-of-livin...

Jacques speaks with Denise Budge who shares her insights from her past 37 years in the community sector, most recently with Knox Infolink. Denise talks about the issues affecting communities and people, and how the community sector is struggling to address the escalating need. Systemic factors behind this need include the lack of affordable housing, and Centrelink payments that are way below the p...

Jacques and Jennifer continue discussion on US strategies for world domination and why we shouldn't get caught in its vortex. They offer some hope in examples of resistance - in our own media and politics, but also by nations internationally who don't want to 'take sides'. There are certainly cracks appearing in the assumed consensus about the 'rightness' of US dominance, offering some hope for pe...

Jacques and Jennifer continue their critical look at the dangerous drumming up of war with China, while focusing on the intersecting vested interests (which they call 'system collusion'). In particular, the media has been a reckless player in this 'systemic collusion' and has failed to interrogate the decision to spend huge sums on nuclear submarines way into the future, in support of the US imper...

Jacques and Jennifer look at who is benefitting from the drumming up of war with China, and the plans for mammoth spending on nuclear submarines. They begin with a critique of the hysterical one-sided reporting in Nine Entertainment's papers, The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, which cites 'experts' with close ties to arms producers and the US government. Media companies, like Nine Entertainmen...

Elias Colabrianos talks about his upbringing in Greece, his arrival in Australia at the age of 18 in 1972 (when Whitlam was PM), and his experience and passion for community radio. Elias was brought up in a political family, and naturally found his way to community activism in the 1970s in Australia, in the context of the anti-Vietnam war protests. His broadcasting career started with 3ZZ in the e...

Jennifer and Jacques talk about three ways that class war is being waged through 'systemic collusion' (between people, corporations, government, media and other parties benefitting most from the system). Their three examples are superannuation, inflation + wage depression, and the business of gambling. While attempts to more equally distribute our common wealth are decried by conservatives as 'cla...

Jennifer and Jacques explore the meanings of ownership and property in western thought, and how concepts of land use and productivity have been used to justify the dispossession of first nations people. ReferencesGnuse, R (1985) You Shall Not Steal: Communiy and Property in the Biblical Tradition. New York: Orbis BooksJurczak, P. (2019) Ch.10 - The Nature of Property in Introduction to Philosophy....

In Think Again we regularly illustrate how society’s  and the community’s response to matters of addiction, of poverty or disadvantage is too often one of blaming and stigmatising those who have fallen victim to these influences and of the systems that have caused them. Just think about Robodebt for a moment which is in the news right now...One addiction we have often talked about is gambling and...