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A few weeks ago, Independent MP Andrew Wilkie stood up in parliament and dropped a bombshell on the Australian megachurch Hillsong. He tabled a cache of documents that alleged staggering misconduct and outrageous spending at Hillsong, including details of extravagant personal purchases made by some of its leaders, including former global senior pastor Brian Houston, using church money. Now, severa...

Bob Brown, the founding leader of The Greens, is ready to make a plea to Tanya Plibersek: stand up in cabinet and be a voice against coal and gas. While the party Brown used to lead is locked in a tense battle with the Labor party over the safeguard mechanism, he believes Tanya Plibersek could become the best environment minister Australia has ever had – she just needs the support of the prime min...

The AUKUS agreement has brought a rare political sight this week: the government and the opposition are agreeing with each other. Both major parties support the deal and if anything they’re competing to show who can support it more strongly. But how will we pay for it? Will we cut spending on other services? Or try to increase tax revenue? Today, columnist for The Saturday Paper Paul Bongiorno, on...

The single biggest defence spend in Australian history was announced this week, with the government committing up to $368 billion over the next 30 years to acquire nuclear submarines. Former prime minister Paul Keating has called it “the worst decision by a Labor government in a century”. And big questions remain about whether these subs will ever be delivered at all. So, what could a misstep in t...

John Hughes was once hailed as a young literary genius, and won a scholarship to Cambridge. Yet he found himself back in Australia working as a librarian and a teacher before his writing found acclaim. Hughes was shortlisted for some of the greatest honours in Australian writing. But under the scrutiny of greater acclaim, a strange web of inconsistencies and copying struck one reader: Anna Verney....

The royal commission hearings into robo-debt are over. With over 100 witnesses and nine weeks of hearings, the commission into one of the greatest failures in the history of the Australian government has already given us unforgettable insight into the thinking of our public servants and leading politicians. But there are still questions to be answered: like how could so many — find themselves in l...

Australia has to act fast to help cut emissions and avoid a global climate catastrophe. After decades of inaction, the Labor Government has brought their proposal forward, adjusting the awkwardly named safeguard mechanism. But this bets our climate future heavily on emission offsets – or carbon credits. They’re a convoluted way of making up for emissions, by doing good elsewhere. Are they actually...

Today, a tribute to publisher, poet and memoirist Robert Adamson. Robert died late last year and to mark that moment, The Monthly decided to posthumously republish two of his essays on a subject very dear to him: fishing. Socials: Stay in touch with us on Twitter and Instagram Guest: Publisher, poet and memoirist, Robert Adamson. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Australia’s climate future is again hanging in the balance. And, once more, it could all depend on a Labor government negotiating with the Greens. As it stands, they’re at loggerheads. The Greens want no new coal and gas developments to be approved; the government is accusing the Greens of being unrealistic. But should the Greens be expected to pass whatever Labor is proposing? And where’s the sci...

The family court is a place of last resort for spouses and parents, to settle the legal, financial and parenting disputes that can sometimes arise.  But lawyers and mothers have been warning that when abuse or violence is part of the equation, the court is failing.  Today, author and contributor to The Saturday Paper Jane Caro on the women who feel silenced by the family court, and the changes the...

We now have the clearest insight into the inner workings of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. The mogul was forced, under oath, to answer questions about Fox News in a $1.6 billion dollar lawsuit against the company. What’s been revealed is that Murdoch and some of his most famous hosts knew they were putting lies to air, and allowed it anyway. Today, author of a book about the Murdoch media empire ‘...

Whether it’s floods or bushfires, climate-related disaster is something Australia will have to contend with more and more. But so far, Australia isn’t recovering from disaster. It’s one year since the Lismore floods, but the scheme to get people back into homes, and to move those homes away from the floodplain, is taking far too long. And in the absence of real recovery, what’s happening in Lismor...

Our intelligence community used to believe terrorism was the greatest threat to Australians. But today, Australia’s domestic intelligence agency, ASIO, says the biggest threat we’re facing is actually from foreign spies. According to the agency, it’s not just politicians and military officers who are being targeted – it’s everyday people, who might not know they’re giving away information that cou...

A week ago, superannuation reform was just an idea, a national conversation — the prime minister certainly wasn’t proposing anything. But the conversation was brief, and a decision was swift. Australia’s wealthiest people will not get tax breaks on wealth being stored in their super accounts. So what convinced Anthony Albanese that his government had to act? And why was it worth the risk of being...

It's being called the most important case for reproductive rights in the United States since Roe vs Wade was overturned. A judgement in a court case in Texas that could ban access to a non-surgical abortion medication is due any day now. Closer to home, the exact same medication could become more widely available. The Therapeutic Goods Administration is currently considering appeals to widen its a...

Australia has seen a series of record corporate profits posted in the last few weeks. They come as millions of average Australians are being squeezed. Mortgage repayments, rent, and the cost of almost everything is going up – but wages aren’t keeping up. So, how are corporations posting record profits right now? What’s the impact of profits on the prices we’re paying? And why is it that the only a...

Rhys Cauzzo was one of hundreds of thousands of Australians who received unlawful and false debt notices under robodebt. The 28 year old died by suicide in January of 2017, as debt collectors pursued him for $17,000 dollars. After his death, his mother Jenny began to unravel just how many debt notices Rhys had received, and she decided to go public – speaking to The Saturday Paper about what happe...

Zaki Haidari is one of 19,000 people who Australia has kept in limbo, but will now get the certainty of a permanent place in Australia. Temporary protection visas allowed people who arrived by boat to come to Australia, but denied them the rights of other visa holders, and hanging over them was the threat that they could be sent back to where they came from. The Labor party promised to put an end...

As housing becomes less affordable and the search for adequate accommodation more desperate, Erin O’Dwyer investigates how we can escape from the urban sprawl. Erin looks at how the best intentions can go awry, as we try to build better homes. She makes the case that designing our homes doesn’t have to be a luxury and that as we build more and more of them to address the housing shortage, happines...

For the last 30 years, Australian retirements have been tied to superannuation. It’s the nest egg that most of us spend decades building up. While it might not be a perfect system, any changes to it have usually become stuck in controversy; whether that’s increasing compulsory contributions, or allowing people to raid their super to buy property. This week, the treasurer said he wants to start a n...

Once the United States military started looking for them, they couldn’t stop finding them. Unidentified balloons were everywhere. The military and President Joe Biden decided the best course of action was simple: to shoot these unknown objects out of the sky. But weeks later, we’re finally learning that only the first of these balloons to be shot down has anything to do with China – the others, li...

In recent years, Labor governments have swept into power in most states across the country… with the exceptions of NSW and Tasmania. But that might be about to change. Chris Minns, the leader of the opposition in NSW, looks likely to lead the Labor party to its first victory in the state since 2007 – but many voters still don’t know much about him. Today, national correspondent for The Saturday Pa...

Violence and vandalism in Alice Springs became a national fascination this year. First Peter Dutton, then Anthony Albanese flew into town, after rates of alcohol-related assault rose by 68 per cent in 2022. One community meeting, held by a group calling itself ‘Save Alice Springs’, became a focal point of the media’s coverage. But another meeting took place as well. On the edge of town, hundreds o...

Philip Lowe, the governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, has already had to apologise for his forecast that interest rates were unlikely to rise until 2024. He now acknowledges that people may have taken his prediction as an assurance, and as a result they might have bought homes and saddled themselves with debt that’s more expensive than they thought. So, the pressure was on Lowe as he made hi...

The announcement that former Liberal minister Alan Tudge will resign from the parliament marks the end of a controversial political career, but it's also throwing open new challenges for the party, and opposition leader Peter Dutton. Speculation is swirling about who will be selected to run for Tudge’s seat in Melbourne at the upcoming by-election, and while the pressure is on for the Liberal part...