7am

Is Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe pushing Australia into a recession? That has now become the biggest question in the Australian economy – as household budgets are squeezed even further by an interest rate rise that almost no-one wanted to see. Today, columnist for The Saturday Paper Paul Bongiorno, on Phillip Lowe, the treasurer and the fight over wages. Socials: Stay in touch with us on Twitt...

It’s the department that’s supposed to watch over the support system for Australians with a disability – and ensure the care they’re receiving is good.  But the very people doing this job, at the Quality and Safeguards Commission of the NDIS, could be in an unsafe workplace. And the strangest part of all: the leadership of the commission has allegedly been pretending there isn’t a problem. Today,...

The Australian Tax Office suspected that PwC used confidential information to help their big corporate clients get richer – seven whole years ago. But they did shockingly little about it. They didn’t even share that information with government ministers. The reason, they say, is that their hands were tied – that bureaucratic rules kept them from exposing one of the biggest scandals in the history...

A new green energy agreement with the US, signed by President Biden and Prime Minister Albanese, will allow the Pentagon to fund mining projects in Australia.  It’s part of a race to control the energy sources of the future, and associated technologies – everything from computer chips to electric vehicles to advanced weaponry.  So what does this deal mean for our security, as the US tries to match...

Ben Roberts-Smith dined with prime ministers, attended the Queen’s funeral as a hero and was held up as an icon of the Australian Defense Force. In fact, a huge portrait of him still hangs in the Australian War Memorial today. But now, a court has found that allegations Ben Roberts-Smith is a murderer, a war criminal and a bully who disgraced his country have been proven. Today, Chief Political Co...

To mark the 200th edition of The Monthly , the editor of the magazine, Michael Williams, joins us – to read a piece by the late-Mungo Maccallum from the debut issue nearly 20 years ago. Mungo was a totally unique character of Australian journalism – once described by Gough Whitlam a "tall, bearded descendant of lunatic aristocrats" – he could deftly bounce from the funny and odd to the great stori...

Anthony Albanese says politicians are running around Canberra claiming the sky is falling. “Chicken littles”, he’s calling them, doomsayers trying to whip up unfounded fears about the Voice. Opposition leader Peter Dutton has reacted as if the reference to the old folk tale is a deeply insulting slur, but it’s hardly the most charged language that’s been used by one of our politicians in recent we...

Anthony Albanese’s government faces significant challenges – looming climate disaster, a widening wealth gap and international security concerns.  But a year after the election, it’s hard to judge how it will respond to these circumstances. Albanese promises a bold reformist agenda, but the government often appears cautious and slow in its delivery. Anthony Albanese himself comes from the left of...

When Australia’s most high-profile Indigenous journalist was forced to step away from his role because of racist abuse – it made headlines around the world.  But here in Australia, most of the media and our political leaders have struggled to comprehend the meaning of the moment – and appear to be trapped in a cycle of well-wishes, apologies and outright denial instead of taking action. Today, Yor...

The police officer who allegedly Tasered 95-year-old great-grandmother Clare Nowland reportedly said three words before firing: “No, bugger it”. He will now face court, where we will learn more about what led up to the incident and what contributed to Nowland’s death. But the biggest question is how the police ended up confronting an elderly person in aged care, who was distressed and in need of h...

Everyone knows we have a housing crisis – rents are spiralling, homelessness is growing and more and more of our income is going towards keeping a roof over our heads. But did you know that on any given night more than a million homes in Australia sit empty? That’s more than 10 per cent of Australia’s housing stock. The shortage is not in homes, but in affordable homes. Today, National corresponde...

This week, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton stood to address parliament on the bill that will allow a referendum on the Voice to parliament. What he said in that speech has alarmed many, and at least one spokesperson for the Voice said Dutton’s words have been echoed in the abuse he’s received from racist opponents online. Today, columnist for The Saturday Paper Paul Bongiorno on what Dutton’s rheto...

The very people who were meant to be closing loopholes in the Australian tax system have been using that information to advise their big corporate clients. The scandal engulfing PwC is one of the biggest to ever hit the cosy relationship between the government and private consultancy firms. And it goes beyond a few bad actors – pointing to a broken system, and a demoralised public service.  Today,...

There’s been a delay in the release of what could be the most explosive findings from a royal commission in decades. The commissioner of the robo-debt investigation quietly wrote to the attorney general to request a delay in the publication of its final report. But this is no mere bureaucratic hold-up, there are other reasons behind it. And one of them has to do with when Australia’s new National...

After more than half of voters at the 2022 federal election said climate change was a top concern, helping Labor take power, it became known as the ‘climate election’. But a year on, how much has really changed? A 43 per cent carbon emission reduction target has been legislated, and the government promises we’ll reach net zero – but fossil fuel projects are still being approved. Today, director of...

The global cocaine business is controlled by cartels worth tens of billions of dollars – and in that world, Australia is drawing more and more attention as a particularly lucrative market. That’s because a gram of cocaine sells in Australia for as much as $400. But the public rarely gets an insight into this enormous sector of criminal enterprise. How cocaine gets into the country, where the money...

Today on the show, Sasha Gattermayr, with her piece on the fascination with carnivorous plants from The Monthly magazine.  Sasha takes us inside a band of collectors whose obsession with plants such as the venus fly trap turned into a lifelong devotion to plants that devour their prey. Socials: Stay in touch with us on Twitter and Instagram Guest: Writer Sasha Gattermayr Background reading: Little...

It’s almost a year since Anthony Albanese did what no Labor leader had done in 15 years: win an election from opposition. It was a momentous time for him personally, and one that shifted the political landscape after a decade of conservative government. Just how much has he accomplished? Is Albanese living up to the promises he made on election night? And is he willing to go beyond them? Columnist...

What happens when a state begins to rely on a private company to fight wars? We’ve seen it before, but not like this – the power that Russian President Vladimir Putin has granted private military company the Wagner group is unprecedented.  And Putin may be discovering its drawbacks the hard way – as the public face of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin feuds with his generals and embarrassing stories have...

Australia can claim a significant world first: a special government adviser on Women’s Affairs. Fifty years ago, Elizabeth Reid stepped into the newly created role in Gough Whitlam’s government. Abortion access, workplace rights, contraception and education – it was a time of huge change in gender parity and access. But the reaction to Reid and the new position was vicious in some circles. She res...

The trial of Bruce Lehrmann for the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins never reached a verdict – and Lehrmann still strenuously maintains his innocence. When the most high profile sexual assault trial in Australia was called off, and any hope of a retrial abandoned, there was one question: how did it come to this? The actions of one juror might have led to the mistrial, but there was more to the sto...

There comes a time when politicians say ‘enough is enough’ and they leave parliament. Often they depart the stage without anyone really noticing, other times it’s worth pausing and marking their storied parliamentary careers. That’s the case for Stuart Robert, who has called time on politics after 16 years – during which time he presided over the robo debt scandal, a bag of Rolexes, and made his n...

Since the budget dropped on Tuesday night, the Coalition and some parts of the media have begun to pick a very strange fight. It’s over whether some of the most vulnerable in the community should really get more help than middle-class Australian households with two incomes. It pits the two against each other and ignores a much bigger cost coming down the pipeline: tax cuts that will benefit the we...

There’s one relationship the Liberal Party has always prized: its relationship with business. Other support bases for the party have ebbed and flowed, but the party has always drawn from the ranks of corporate Australia, and advocated for their interests. Now, strangely as the party finds itself in electoral crisis, its federal leader, Peter Dutton, is speaking out against heads of business on a s...

Treasurer Jim Chalmers promised a responsible budget, and one that helped Australians as costs soar. There was some relief, but it wasn’t as generous as some advocates hoped. So, has this Labor government threaded the needle, or did it avoid the most difficult challenges we face? Today, chief political correspondent for The Saturday Paper Karen Middleton, on Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ first full May...