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More and more people have to pay to see a doctor, GPs are leaving the profession, and the cost of seeing a specialist is rising at an alarming rate. That’s why the government is promising the biggest overhaul to Medicare in its 40-year existence – the details of the plan could be released any day now. Everything is on the table for consideration: increasing the Medicare rebate, giving pharmacists...

Between his death, two weeks ago, and his burial tomorrow, a furious battle has raged over George Pell’s legacy. If you happen to read The Australian newspaper, though, you probably wouldn’t be aware there are two sides to the debate. The Murdoch newspaper has been glowing about Pell’s influence. Why is the Murdoch media so invested in how the former Catholic cardinal is remembered? And what are t...

Australian law is far from perfect. Not only can it be unjust, it’s sometimes simply no longer fit to do what it was intended to. The person responsible for maintaining our federal laws is the attorney-general. And, since the last election, that’s Mark Dreyfus. Today, national correspondent for The Saturday Paper Mike Seccombe – on Mark Dreyfus, what drives him, and why he says Australia’s treatme...

Tony Windsor was a politician and, as an independent, he helped hand minority government and the prime ministership to Julia Gillard. He says that at the end of the day, politicians are, by their nature, weak. And if there’s any example that’s taught him that, it’s the decades-long fight over our water and how we protect it. Today, former Independent MP Tony Windsor on our water, how gas developme...

A crime wave in Alice Springs grew into a national crisis this week, with politicians jumping on planes in a last-ditch effort to listen to a community whose concerns have fallen on deaf ears. But how did the crime rate in Alice Springs become an issue for Anthony Albanese? And how could the situation have deteriorated so far? Today, columnist for T he Saturday Paper Chris Wallace on how giving co...

It’s been over 30 years since the high court acknowledged that terra nullius was a lie, that this country was not empty – that Indigenous Australians had an ongoing claim to the land beneath our feet. But still today, officially, large swathes of Australia are held as what’s called ‘crown land’. What is it? And what do the assumptions about crown land say about the attitude to land ownership in mo...

Jacinda Ardern’s decision to resign as the Prime Minister of New Zealand shocked her country and the world.  She had seemed almost universally beloved. And the young, empathetic and energetic politician was the most world-renowned prime minister New Zealand has ever had. So what made Ardern unwilling to continue? And does she leave her country with the kind of meaningful change she set out to make...

The Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia has been a battleground for months – and now, it’s the target of Russia’s newest offensive. Fighting there could be about to get a lot worse.  Ukrainian forces are readying a defense, but the war effort in this part of southeastern Ukraine involves more than fighting back on the frontlines. Dr Natalya Mosol is a psychologist, and for the past year, she’s been w...

The premier of NSW, Dominic Perrottet wore a Nazi uniform to his 21st birthday party. Since the revelations, Jewish groups in NSW have told journalists that they have fielded calls, particularly from elderly members of the community, in tears after hearing about the incident. But why did Perrottet come out and admit the scandal? Does it have anything to do with the looming election? And who was ci...

Summer has provided everyone with a respite from politics, even our politicians. But as they return, they’ll need to face up to problems that have been long in the making. The pandemic is still with us, and clues from the northern hemisphere point towards variants that authorities will have to keep a close eye on. And in the meantime, this week, we have been warned that inequality got worse throug...

When Liberal MP Julia Banks quit the Morrison government in 2018, her resignation was cited as an example of how hostile the political environment can be towards women. But Banks’ story and her resignation happened to coincide with a landmark report: Respect@Work. That report, and the changes it recommended, languished on the desk of the former government. But reform is now finally coming into eff...

George Pell’s body is returning to Australia after last weekend’s funeral service in the Vatican. He will be interred in the crypts below St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney. To his supporters, Pell was a guardian of traditional faith and doctrine, whose conviction on charges of child sexual abuse was overturned by the High Court. To thousands of survivors of child sexual abuse perpetrated by priests ac...

This year Peter Dutton has begun to spread doubt about the Voice to Parliament. His question is: where’s the detail? One woman has spent years fleshing out the proposal. Marcia Langton co-authored a report on The Voice, and briefed every party room in Canberra about what the model could look like. Today, Professor at the University of Melbourne Marcia Langton on the details of the Voice to Parliam...

Elon Musk has lost more money than any human being who has ever lived. It’s not because of his purchase of Twitter – well, not directly, anyway. It’s because in the last 12 months, the share price of his other company, Tesla, has plummeted. But why is Elon Musk, the erratic entrepreneur, so intertwined with Tesla? How has the company become an extension of one man’s ideas? And is that healthy? Tod...

On this Weekend Read, chief political correspondent for the ABC’s 7.30 program Laura Tingle, with her piece from the summer issue of The Monthly. It’s called ‘A patch of land’, and in it she writes of the joys of tending and surrendering herself to a native garden, before bidding it a fond farewell after nearly 20 years. Socials: Stay in touch with us on Twitter and Instagram Guest: Chief politica...

Australia’s domestic security agency, ASIO, says right-wing extremism now makes up half of its priority cases. And the far right, while still fringe, has capitalised on division and social media to push its message during the pandemic. So just how big a risk is this movement today? And how did we allow this discredited and dangerous ideology to get a foothold once again? Author Lydia Khalil discus...

When we talk about the most significant events of the last year, the one that might have the biggest impact on humanity actually took place far above the Earth’s atmosphere. Up there, in orbit around earth, is one of the most powerful tools humans have ever had to hunt for the origins of our universe – and for alien life. The James Webb Space Telescope has the ability to look so far and with such...

Each year, around a million Australians visit the US . But it's becoming a more dangerous place: firearm murders alone increased by 35% between 2019 and 2020.  But you won’t find that statistic in the guidance for Australians travelling to the US. And it’s a risk that disproportionately affects people of colour. Today, author and contributor to The Monthly, Santilla Chingaipe on the travel guidanc...

Misinformation, fear and pain: when Andrew Denton was asked to speak on the topic of euthanasia, he found something that he couldn’t look away from. What started as a single lecture became the biggest political fight of his life. And the last year has seen the fruit of those labours, with every state now having laws to allow people the right to choose to end their life when faced with terminal ill...

Today, on the Weekend Read, writer and artist Sarah Walker with her piece, “Little Breaks”, from The Monthly . It’s a story of joy and sadness in the ocean.  She writes of her time in the water as a beginner surfer, finding glee in shallow breaks.  But beyond the break, in the deeper water, there’s also loneliness, isolation and vulnerability. Socials: Stay in touch with us on Twitter and Instagra...

When Anthony Albanese declared victory in last year’s election, one of the first commitments that he made was to implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full. While the Uluru Statement from the Heart includes truth-telling and a treaty, a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament is the first step that the government plans to take. If it goes ahead, it will be the first referendum sin...

This year has seen an explosion of film and TV releases – as sound stages fill with productions, following the end of lockdowns that threatened the industry. But if you’re like us, this summer you might just be taking a breath and getting a chance to catch-up on the things you missed throughout the last year. So with that in mind, we’ve invited writer and critic Clem Bastow to share some of her fa...

Deep in Australia’s oldest forests there are criminal gangs operating: illegally chopping down trees to sell the wood.  The authorities know it’s happening, but the problem is catching the perpetrators in the act. The old growth forests are sprawling and these gangs know how to evade rangers and police. Today, author and contributor to The Monthly , Sophie Cunningham on the crime against our oldes...

Lachlan Murdoch is the presumptive heir to the global Murdoch media fortune – and with his father, Rupert, now aged 91, Lachlan’s time could be imminent. But Lachlan’s rise to the top has not been smooth. After a bright start, the first-born son fell out of grace with his father and was exiled to Australia, only to return to favour when the family was in crisis.    Now it seems that Lachlan could...

Next year, Australians will get to vote in a referendum and we will be asked whether Australia should amend its constitution to create an Indigenous Voice to parliament. In this episode from August, we spoke to the first person to read the road map to that referendum outloud after the Uluru Statement from the heart was agreed to. Today we revisit this episode with someone who has spent years worki...