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This week, Pauline Hanson called for multiculturalism to be replaced with monoculturalism.  At the same time, the Soccerros were capturing the hearts and minds of Australians everywhere on the biggest stage of all, the World Cup.  It’s a team filled with players from multiple cultural backgrounds and one,  that if Hanson’s vision of the nation came to bear, simply wouldn...

Parkinson’s is the fastest-growing neurological disorder in the world. And in some Australian farming communities, doctors are questioning why so many seem to be getting it. For years, some farmers and doctors have drawn a link to paraquat – a powerful weedkiller still used widely on Australian farms, despite being banned in more than 60 countries, including the UK, China and Brazil. T...

For three decades, Pauline Hanson has built a career on grievance.  In all that time she hasn’t fronted to the bastion of political journalism, the national press club. That was until yesterday where she appeared for the first time. In a long address she laid out how she aims to turn her politics of grievance into policy; targeting immigration, the ABC, multiculturalism, renewable energ...

Over the weekend, Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire. It came after his company, SpaceX, was publicly listed, reaching a valuation of more than two trillion dollars. Elon’s wealth is now the equivalent of the bottom one-third of the entire globe’s population. It’s more than the entire annual GDP of Belgium, Sweden or Ireland. But while some are celebrating Musk...

Donald Trump said what he wanted for his 80th birthday was world peace And now, alongside the UFC spectacle on the White House lawn, he appears to have given himself the headline he wanted: a so-called peace deal with Iran. Or more accurately - a sixty day “pause” – while negotiations continue.  Today Director of the Australia Institute's International & Security Affairs...

Aukus is the most expensive defence project in Australia’s history; a project, that at its heart has the plan to acquire nuclear-powered submarines through the United States and the United Kingdom.  But the doubts around it are growing: over the cost, over whether Australia will get the submarines it’s been promised, and over what the deal means for our sovereignty. Now, a public...

When Professor Christian Downie appeared before a Senate inquiry into climate and energy misinformation, he warned that Australia is facing coordinated campaigns designed not to debate climate solutions, but to stall them. Professor Downie has spent years inside boardrooms and the lobbying world studying how these campaigns are built – tracing the billions spent on messaging by lobby groups,...

Pauline Hanson has spent decades casting herself as the outsider, the voice of people who feel ignored by the political class.  Now, One Nation is surging in the polls and in donations. On Friday their fundraising site crashed under the weight of more than three million dollars in new money, forcing Labor to treat Hanson less like a fringe dweller and more like a direct threat. But as Hanson&...

The scenes in Belfast this week have been horrifying to watch - ugly clashes, masked men rioting in the streets, immigrant families begging neighbours to hide their children - fearing for their safety. Politicians, far-right agitators, and billionaire Elon Musk have been accused of sparking the riots - weaponising a brutal stabbing attack, to ramp up anti-migrant rhetoric and whip protestors into...

Donald Trump is right now following through on his threats to “hit Iran hard again” unleashing another round of strikes. Trump says he wants a peace deal, but in the past 24 hours, the war has escalated again. Iran and the US have traded strikes, and one of the most important oil routes in the world remains severely restricted. The ceasefire is still supposed to exist, as is the promis...

When Julia Gillard delivered her now-famous misogyny speech in 2012, it was against a backdrop of some horrendous sexist attacks. One of the most prominent was “Ditch the Witch” – a slogan on a placard then-opposition leader Tony Abbott was photographed standing in front of at an anti-carbon tax rally. Now, the ugly slogan is back. This time, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan is th...

Last month, the federal government announced that the biggest neo-Nazi organisation in the country would be listed as a hate group. A few days ago, The Age revealed the group’s former leader, Thomas Sewell, has been living in a $2.5 million estate in Melbourne’s suburbs.  So what are Sewell’s plans for the compound, and who are the wealthy backers making it possible? Today,...

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...