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There are few people in this country as obsessed with understanding the cultural and social potential of Australian cuisine as New Zealand-born chef Ben Shewry. And there are even fewer who have managed to combine that passion with the highest echelons of success. On this episode of Read This , Michael sits down with Attica’s head chef to discuss his new memoir, Uses for Obsession. expect. See omn...

The government led by Anthony Albanese is a timid troupe of shivers looking for a spine to run up. That’s the assessment from the Labor wise men who gather for lunch in Sydney once a month – Paul Keating, Bob Carr, John Faulkner and other warriors of the past – who claim the government is too cautious and defensive. For many Labor insiders, both in Canberra and across the country, the carping from...

According to Bruce Lehrmann’s lawyer Zali Burrows, he is “arguably Australia’s most hated man”. Burrows also told a federal court that her client is too “scared” to attend court, and his reputation has been so tarnished that “the only shot he’d probably ever have in making money is by going on OnlyFans or something silly like that”. Lehrmann has launched an appeal after a defamation trial judge ru...

Alice Springs is littered with “For Sale” signs as those who can afford it are packing up and leaving. Punitive government curfews made daily life more challenging, and families struggle to see a future for themselves if things continue the way they are. With the newly elected Country Liberal Party promising to be even tougher on crime – and lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 10 years...

Police are everywhere in Alice Springs. You see them driving pursuit vehicles and caged vans on the streets, or stationed outside the bottle shop checking IDs. But more police doesn’t mean less crime – it just means more people are getting locked up. As Alice Springs reels from the police shooting of Warlpiri teenager Kumanjayi Walker, and in the wake of an apology from the Northern Territory Poli...

From afar, Alice Springs is a whirlpool of myth and truth. A town with competing interests and few solutions, marked by chaos and decades of government overreach.  That all came to a head earlier this year, with what’s been described as a “youth riot” in town. The violence led to the Northern Territory government imposing an emergency curfew.  This is when the headlines started: in cities and town...

Malcolm Knox began his career as a journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald , back in the 90s. His breakout was in 2004 when, as literary editor, he broke the story of the fake Jordanian memoirist, Norma Khouri for which he won a Walkley Award. Since then he has written more than a dozen books of nonfiction and has been publishing fiction since 2000. On this episode of Read This , Malcolm sits dow...

The war in the Middle East is dominating Australian politics. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton spent the week attacking Prime Minister Anthony Albanese – claiming he disrespected the Jewish community when he included calls for de-escalation and a ceasefire in a condolence motion to mark the one-year anniversary of October 7. But there are signs that Dutton’s attacks aren’t landing, and that he’s bec...

A five-minute drive from the cliff where Ben Roberts-Smith allegedly murdered Afghan farmer Ali Jan, there is a small mud-brick room used for storing almonds. It was in this room, locals say, that a separate group of Australian soldiers killed two Afghan men in a shocking and brutal way. Despite the intense publicity around the killing of Ali Jan, almost nothing has been heard about what happened...

For two-and-a-half years, Ukraine has been fighting Russia with the goal of “total victory” – to not only beat President Vladimir Putin’s forces back to the border, but to reclaim all territory annexed by Russia since 1991.  But as both President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin’s popularity and resources fade, and as another winter approaches, it’s possible that a more pragmatic end to the war could...

Protecting Australia’s environment is a matter of urgency – or at least that’s the message the Albanese government campaigned on two and a half years ago.  But now, with environmental legislation stalling in the Senate and a series of announcements lacking detail, there’s a sense that the government’s priorities have shifted.   Today, director of the Australia Institute’s climate and energy progra...

One year on from the October 7 attacks against Israel, the region is bracing for more war.  It seems almost certain Israel will launch a retaliatory attack against Iran, after it fired ballistic missiles at Israel last week.  Meanwhile, over the weekend, Israel continued its airstrikes on Lebanon, with multiple explosions reported in the suburbs of the capital Beirut.  Today, Israel correspondent...

Charlotte Wood became a mainstay in Australia’s literary firmament in 2016 following the release of her award-winning novel, The Natural Way of Things . Her latest book, Stone Yard Devotional , is a meditation on grief, solitude, what it means to live a good life, and what we owe one another. It has been shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize. On this episode of Read This , Michael sits down with C...

There’s a greater than 50 per cent chance that there will be a terrorist attack – or a planned attack – in Australia in the next year. That’s the reality behind the head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s recent decision to upgrade the nation’s terror threat level to “probable”. So the need for all states and territories to be working on a united strategy with the federal gover...

As much as they would hate to admit it, both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris fit the definition of “coastal elite”. The United States presidential candidates are a wealthy New York businessman and reality TV star running against a San Francisco liberal with a career in public office. That’s why they’re both hoping their vice-presidential candidates and running mates will speak to a specific group o...

There are hundreds of angry posts on X, TikTok and Reddit from citizen journalists archiving Coles and Woolworths' published prices and noticing some strange patterns. The posters complain that the two supermarket giants have misled their customers with their “Down Down” and “Prices Dropped” promotions. Now, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has launched legal action, alleg...

When Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in Beirut over the weekend, Michelle Jasmin Dimasi felt the blast from her apartment.  Michelle’s an Australian journalist and she’s been based in the city for a few months. Now, as Israeli airstrikes continue, she is preparing to leave, likely by plane.  But for a million displaced people within Lebanon, that calculation of where to go, and ho...

The leader of Hezbollah has been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut. Hassan Nasrallah led the group for more than 30 years, building it into a powerful political force within Lebanon and the most heavily armed non-state militia in the world. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly ordered the killing from his hotel room in New York, before his speech at the United Nations genera...

Sri Lankan-born Canadian essayist, poet, and Booker Prize-winning novelist Michael Ondaatje recently released a stunning collection of poems. Ondaatje is now 80 years old and it’s almost half a century since he published his first novel; even longer since he first published poetry. On this episode of Read This he joins Michael for a conversation about A Year of Last Things and why writing remains...

The Reserve Bank should lower interest rates, and if they don’t, the government should make them, according to the Greens. Their spokesperson for economic justice Nick McKim has said he won’t support the government's reforms to the RBA unless the treasurer intervenes in the bank’s decision-making processes and tells them to lower interest rates.  It’s a big demand: something that has never happene...

The Liberal National Party has been in the political wilderness in Queensland for most of the past three decades. But in a month’s time that’s likely to change, after an election campaign fought on youth crime. Yesterday, David Crisafulli announced courts would be able to access young people’s full criminal histories, even after they have turned 18. It’s a move legal experts say is cheap and won’t...

In more than 30 years of lobbying for gambling reforms, Tim Costello says no government has tried to silence him through the use of a legally binding non-disclosure agreement. That’s until the Albanese government asked him to sign an NDA as part of lobbying the government on new gambling advertising laws. The chief advocate for the Alliance for Gambling Reform says he believes its purpose was to “...

If you ask a Melbourne local, almost all of them would have heard of the 1977 Easey Street murders. In one of Victoria’s most brutal unsolved killings, two women in their 20s were stabbed dozens of times in their home on Easey Street in Collingwood. Now, after 47 years and examining over 130 “persons of interest”, police have finally made an arrest. Today, journalist and author of Murder on Easey...

Peter Dutton is now on TikTok, and his first post was about as inspiring as you might imagine. It’s shot in an office, he’s wearing a suit, and he’s talking about housing. It’s easy to see this as a case of trying to appeal to the kids. But it’s also a sign of a broader trend among Australian politicians, with around a third of them now on TikTok and more likely to join the platform. Peter Dutton’...

Even if you’re not an obsessive Ancient Rome aficionado, you may have heard of Mary Beard. With more than 20 books to her name, including the wildly successful SPQR , Mary might be most famous for her work as a BBC host for shows such as Pompeii: Life and Death in a Roman Town and Julius Caesar Revealed. On this episode of Read This , she sits down with Michael to discuss her life sentence — the h...