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The conversation you’re about to listen to is almost certainly unlike any interview you’ve heard before. It’s unlike any 7am has ever done. Dr Jeni Haynes has dissociative identity disorder, otherwise known as multiple personality disorder. In 2019 she set a world first legal precedent when her alters were allowed to testify in court against her abusive father, who was later sent...

Right now, AI data-centre mega-hubs as large as 350 hectares are being planned across Australia – that’s the equivalent of 175 MCG playing fields. And the energy they need to fuel them is just as huge: more than the total output of an entire coal plant. The solution? So-called “shadow grids” built in partnership between the data centres and big gas, where gas-fired power pl...

Earlier this year, authorities found something extraordinary inside a Cambodian scam compound: a fake Australian Federal Police office. There were Australian flags, AFP-style logos, and desks staged to look official – all part of a six-storey compound used by scammers impersonating police forces from around the world. It was a reminder that the scam messages Australians receive are often con...

Tony Abbott is back at the centre of Liberal Party politics.  The former prime minister has been elected unopposed as federal Liberal Party president – a role that sounds administrative, but carries real political weight at a moment of deep trouble for the Coalition. The Liberals are watching voters drift to One Nation, while Abbott argues the answer is to take the fight directly to Lab...

In Melbourne, few names carry the weight of Mick Gatto.  For decades, he’s been known as a survivor of the gangland wars, a man whose influence has stretched from the city’s underworld into the heart of the construction industry. This week, police raided his home. Gatto and his wife were arrested, then released without charge. He says it was all over a driving infringement. Police...

29 women have been killed in Australia so far this year - most allegedly by their intimate partner. Their names sometimes hit the headlines, but often not. And even then, the outrage seldom lasts.  We’ve known for a long time that Australia has a problem with violence against women. Little seems to work to change the statistics. For some advocates - a Royal Commission is the only chance...

For decades Pauline Hanson has been on the fringe of politics. Sometimes mocked, often ignored, occasionally courted.   Even from that position she’s been influential: her presence can be felt in our immigration policies, dating back to Howard.  But her power and her popularity have never been greater than they are today. A recent poll has one Nation as the most popular party in th...

Five years on from COVID, a new report has found the world is even more vulnerable to new pandemics than it was before.  The report, by a body linked to the World Health Organisation, has been released as the world grapples with Ebola and hantavirus outbreaks, as well as one of Australia's worst diphtheria outbreaks on record. The report found that, despite advances in vaccines and diagnostic...

The world is facing a series of large-scale crises – war, declining democracy, climate catastrophe.  So, is it all a sign that our civilisation is reaching its limits – and that our economic and political systems are nearing collapse? That’s the question Australian author Sarah Wilson has been interrogating for the last three years for her new book, ‘I Eat The Stars&rs...

One year ago this week, a 24-year-old Warlpiri man, Kumanjayi White, died after being restrained by police inside a supermarket in Alice Springs. This week, his family was told the officers involved will not face charges. The coronial investigation is still underway, with another directions hearing expected next month. Kumanjayi White’s grandfather – Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves – ha...

Well, the budget blowback is showing no signs of easing but this week the government doubled down, introducing the legislation for its tax changes to parliament. Albeit with the detail around CGT still TBC and with an inbuilt political booby trap for the Coalition. At the same time, Pauline Hanson is floating her own negative gearing model - as One Nation surges in the polls. And while Labor and t...

Paul Brereton – the outgoing head of Australia’s National Anti-Corruption Commission – was grilled at Senate estimates this week. Brereton’s time leading the body charged with investigating serious corruption in the Commonwealth public sector has ended in a crisis of confidence – over Robodebt, his ongoing Defence links, and whether the watchdog properly managed confl...

Guest host Waleed Aly joins the 7am team as the US launches fresh strikes inside Iran, in the middle of a ceasefire. Days earlier, Donald Trump had said an agreement to end the war was close. Now Iran is threatening to retaliate, amid fears the conflict could escalate again. And while Trump insists peace talks are still “proceeding nicely”, he has raised the stakes for negotiators &nda...

For most of us, facing court with no lawyer and no legal advice in a case that could change the course of your life would be unthinkable. But that’s the situation currently facing dozens of defendants in the Northern Territory – many of them disadvantaged or with English as their second or third language, some just children – all being forced to go it alone in a legal system most...

This week, seven Australians returned home after being detained by Israel. They had been part of the Global Sumud Flotilla – more than 400 activists from 56 countries trying to reach Gaza by sea, carrying food and medicine. Four days after they set sail from Turkiye, Israeli forces intercepted the flotilla in international waters and took the passengers to Israel. Then Israel’s nationa...

Lawyers for the Australians detained after Israel intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla are now building a record of what happened.  They’re reviewing footage, collecting medical evidence, and taking witness statements alleging beatings, humiliation, denial of food and water, and detention in harsh conditions.  The legal team says the evidence points to serious abuse of Australian...

Australia is again being forced to reckon with the violence being inflicted on women and children.  The PM is adamant a royal commission isn’t the answer, dismissing the idea in an interview that’s gone viral. But his sudden disdain for royal commissions is out of step with what thousands of Australians want to see in response to the scourge of domestic violence.  After anoth...

The Federal Court has ordered Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue to pay the Yindjibarndi people $150.1 million. It is the biggest native title compensation payout in Australian history. But for Yindjibarndi leaders, the judgment is complicated. The payout is historic, but it is far below the $1.8 billion they were seeking. The case goes back more than two decades – to Fortescue’s Solomon...

The federal budget has been hit by a fierce campaign from large sections of the media and a handful of high-profile millennial entrepreneurs. But so far, Labor’s polling has remained relatively unscathed. But that doesn’t mean voters are happy. People might not be shifting their votes over this budget, but many still feel there’s nothing in it for them right now.  For the Co...

It started with a single nightclub attack and escalated into what’s been dubbed Melbourne’s hospitality crime war. More than 30 clubs, pubs and restaurants have now been targeted in drive-by shootings, break-ins and firebombings. And while dozens of arrests have now been made, the people behind the attacks remain a mystery. One theory? That an international crime syndicate led by a man...

For two decades, we’ve had a tax policy that pushed up house prices, gave landlords huge advantages, and ultimately created an intergenerational wealth divide.  A week ago, the government said it wanted to do something about that and announced changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax.  But the budget hasn’t gone down well – for some, it doesn’t go far eno...

You may know him as Keli Holiday, one-half of Peking Duck, or even as Abbie Chatfield’s boyfriend… Now, Australian musician Adam Hyde has become the latest high-profile victim of Trump’s tough border rules – after he was denied re-entry to the States in the middle of his North American tour. The explanation? National security concerns. That’s it – nothing more....

This weekend in Vegas, athletes including Australian swimmer James Magnussen will take part in the Enhanced Games – a competition that freely allows doping.  It's the creation of controversial Australian entrepreneur Aron D’Souza, and it's bankrolled by Peter Thiel and one of Donald Trump’s sons.  The competition has enticed athletes with huge cash prizes – and is...

Over the weekend, Eurovision got a feel-good ending. Bulgaria won the contest for the very first time with their infectious song Bangaranga. And Australia came close - with Delta Goodrem placing 4th. But the controversy over Israel didn’t go away. Israeli singer Noam Bettan finished second, after getting a huge huge public vote – despite protests outside the contest, boycotts from five...

This week’s budget shows AUKUS is getting bigger. The government is putting more money into the agencies, workforce and infrastructure needed for nuclear-powered submarines. But the deal still relies on the US agreeing to sell them to Australia, and on a Trump administration that has already reviewed AUKUS through an “America First” lens. And as the program grows, the public stil...