Represent

This week on Represent National, the team headed to court. Or at least, we spoke an awful lot about court cases. We looked at Reddit's High Court challenge to the under-16 social media ban, in which the company claims the ban impedes young people's freedom of political communication. Upvote, etc.?  We also talked about Erin Patterson's (aka the 'mushroom murderer') appeal outcome, with her wa...

We talk to researcher Dr Jordana Silverstein about the contentious Israeli elections and what it all means for the Palestinians experiencing genocide. In slightly less depressing news, we also look at progressive wins in the Brazilian and Serbian national elections. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You read that correctly! This week we had a special announcement to share on behalf of SYN leading up to the Victorian election. Head over to @synmedia and @synrepresent on Instagram to stay up to date! We also discussed One Nation's crude depiction of Jacqui Lambie's health issues, a jump in peptide-related hospital admissions in New South Wales, and attacks on politicians in Australia in the wak...

Former US public policy advisor and combat veteran Christopher Rivers is uniquely qualified to give his take on the rhetoric (or lack thereof) around the death penalty shemozzle and how it might or might not affect the upcoming US midterms. Also the kids are NOT okay in Europe and they are making sure their governments know it. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on Represent National, Benita, Fatima and Nayan look at the alleged attack on independent MP for Indi outside her electorate office in Wangaratta. The team discusses calls from public figures like the Prime Minister to 'turn down the temperature' politically, or whether this conversation should centre on gendered violence.  The Victorian Labor Party has also promised to increase acc...

This week on Represent National, the whole team is back in the studio as Ashley walks us through the federal government's backflip on banning credit card payments to the tax office. Between that and the credit card surcharge ban, small business owners are reportedly not very happy campers.  Benita then takes us up to New South Wales, where a new 'Armed Response Command' initiative will see po...

People have been adapting The Odyssey longer than they've been writing it down. To talk to us about the hold this story seems to have on us and its place in Western colonisation we were joined by Associate Professor Ika Willis, Head of School of Culture & Communication at the University of Melbourne. We also finally reveal Represent International's true political leanings. See omnystudio.com/l...

Pre-COP31 wrapped up in Fiji today and Gerard Anapu joined us fresh off his flight from Nadi to give us the low down on how things went down. To celebrate the first Represent International episode with the whole gang in the studio, we decide to take a political personality quiz as a group to find out who Represent International really is in one of the most heated segments in Represent history. See...

This week on Represent National, Zoe and Ashley hold down on the fort while Nayan is trapped in a lift.  Ashley takes us through who the federal Greens' new leader David Shoebridge is, and his approach to leading the party so far. We discuss The Greens' political tactics, whether Shoebridge is a good pick for the leadership, the party's media coverage (or lack thereof) and their prospects for...

This week on Represent National , we bring you the second half of our interview with Mohamed Semra, the 27-year-old Mayor of Maribyrnong City Council in Melbourne's inner west. In part two, we spoke to Mohamed about racism in politics, media representation of African communities, barriers to entry in leadership, and key areas of discussion in (and about) the City of Maribyrnong like data centres,...

One of the pilots of a flydubai plane bound for Tel Aviv incapacitated his co-pilot and attempted to crash the plane carrying more than 170 passengers as it crossed into Israeli territory. Naturally Nayan wasn't here for the one plane story. Where was he? On his way back from flying a plane... Fifty kilograms of cocaine that have gone missing from Fiji’s High Court, including more than $10 m...

This episode of Represent National is a big one! History-making City of Maribyrnong Mayor Mohamed Semra joins the team for part one of an interview about leadership, local government, being elected as an independent, representing your communities and making tough decisions you can live with. Mohamed came to Australia as a refugee from Sudan as a child and was elected Mayor at just 27 years old, an...

The 18th BRICS summit was held in New Delhi, India and again has raised questions about the balance of geopolitical powers. Is BRICS the G7 of the Global South? Is it just an symptom of an increasingly multi-polar world? Women in South-Africa have taken to the streets to rally against gender-based violence and fe micide (GBVF) after the bodies of nine women were found in Johannesburg over the past...

Germany's far-right AfD (Alternative for Germany) has won a landslide election in the Saxony-Anhalt state election coming just short of forming government. If they do manage to form government, it will be the first time a far-right party governs a German state since... uhh... you know,,, the Nazis. And who said history doesn't repeat itself? Back home, Australia is being accused of foreign interfe...

This week on Represent National, Ashley, Benita and Zoe talk about the Liberal and National Parties' leaders comments about 'anti-boy' ideology being taught in schools (???) and Respectful Relationships education.  They also look at huge, high-voltage concrete power poles that have popped up in Melbourne's inner west to power data centres, which locals say they were not consulted over nor war...

No way, Norway has royal family? And the king is dead? And his family's kind of weird? And the monarchy is desperately trying maintain relevance in the modern world? Oh, so a tale as old as time. Pacific leaders try to get literally any work done in Palau while external forces keep getting in the way. And New York makes their attempt at answering the whole AI in schools thing. See omnystudio.com/l...

This week on Represent National, Ashley, Benita and Zoe sat down with Pamela Anderson, the CEO of EMILYs List Australia, to talk about women in politics, reproductive rights, the Liberal Party's glaring gender issue and whether the Labor Party is a viable avenue for progressive politics anymore.  We also talked about the federal Labor government teaming up with the LNP to pass changes (see: c...

Notoriously polite Canada has said "no more Mr Nice Guy" by firing back at the US with retaliatory tariffs in a heated trade war. Should Ukraine hold a wartime presidential election? Well, sacked defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov seems to think so. And no, I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that he's ranking #3 in the election polls. The Canadian province of Alberta might soon take t...

Is it too good to be true?!  In this week's Represent National show, Ashley, Benita and Nayan take a look at the Victorian Government's election promise to create 10 free dental clinics in Victoria, and relive the dental woes of Christmas past.  The team also looks at shocking revelations from a Four Corners investigation reporting thousands of older Australians have died while waiting f...

Eurovision won't let winning countries involved in active armed conflict host the competition in another move from the famously political singing competition that is strictly apolitical. Presumably preparing for the possibility that they enter and win one day, South Korea is calling for a new push to formally end the Korean War. Because we all know if they were ever allowed to compete in Eurovisio...

This week on Represent National, we're tackling some big questions, starting with whether we should abandon the British monarchy and become a republic or not. Australia voted against ditching the Mountbatten-Windsors in 1999, and now it's dividing the Represent team in 2026.   We also talk about One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce proclaiming his party to be "one of the gayest" in Australia, after a...

The former president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, has been sentenced to death in absentia while he reportedly lives a life of luxury in Russia. While al-Assad is living it up in Moscow, the Represent International team soldiers on as the studio burns down around them. After successfully fighting the fire with their bare heads, the team discusses the Prime Ministers of New Zealand and Australia's own...

In this episode of Represent National, Benita, Nayan and Zoe take a look at new questions in the National Census, including questions surveying LGBTQIA+ people.  The team also discusses a Year 11 student running in the upcoming Victorian election in November, and whether there should be minimum (or even maximum!) age restrictions for running as a political candidate.  Finally, we talk ab...

English is now recognised as one of the official languages in New Zealand... for some reason. The only country in the world that has a president with Japanese heritage is in... Peru? And she's not even the first, it's a family business. And the kids are not alright all over the world apparently because they can't stop cheating on their university entrance exams. See omnystudio.com/listener for pri...

Content warning:  This episode of Represent National discusses gambling, addiction, and child sexual abuse.  This week, Ashley, Benita Nayan and Zoe talk about Acknowledgements of Country and One Nation's takes on multiculturalism.  The team also looks at the Senate inquiry into gambling, and discusses whether our government should ban gambling advertising, or even ban gambling enti...