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Labor has been spruiking its Jobs and Skills Summit for months, but is the gathering live up to the hype?  Anthony Albanese has spent his senior political career insisting that what’s good for workers is good for employees – a belief that has allowed him, according to his colleagues, to build good relations with both unions and business leaders. Now Labor is attempting to put that assertion into p...

There are signs that Ukraine has begun its biggest counter-offensive yet to win back territory held by Russian forces. It's too soon to know if the operation will succeed or how concerted the effort will be - but there’s no doubt that a new battle in the war would be difficult and costly.   Meanwhile, Ukraine and its president Volodymyr Zelenskyy are also fighting the clock. Winter will make it di...

Amid the controversy over Scott Morrison’s secret ministry appointments a new question has emerged: did the former Prime Minister act unconstitutionally? Advice from the Solicitor-General released last week found that Scott Morrison was legally appointed to the Resources portfolio under section 64 of the constitution. But rather than that being the end of the matter, it has raised a new question:...

A crisis that began in China’s housing market is now threatening to drag down the country’s entire economy.  If that happens, the repercussions will be felt across the globe, and nowhere more so than Australia – where our economy relies on what China buys from us. So just how unstable is the Chinese economy right now? And how did things change for the superpower once seen as an unstoppable economi...

Diego Franco was a food delivery rider. He worked for Uber, DoorDash and Deliveroo, to transport food in Australia. What happened to him, and his subsequent case at the Fair Work Commission was supposed to set a powerful precedent for people who work across the whole gig economy – and give workers in these industries the same rights as employees. But instead, his case faltered - and the reason was...

The Solicitor-General’s legal advice on Scott Morrison’s secret appointments painted a complex picture. What Morrison did was legal, but it fundamentally undermined principles of the constitution. So is that it? Should the country and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese move on? Or are there more questions to be answered? Today, columnist for The Saturday Paper Paul Bongiorno on the inquiry to come an...

Wages aren’t rising fast enough to keep up with inflation, and it means that many workers are actually falling behind. At the same time, the corporate profit share is going up – it's now at a record 31 per cent of Australia’s national income. These are the stakes for next week’s national job summit, where businesses, unions and economic experts will sit down with the new government to make their c...

With the balance of power in the senate, the Greens hold significant sway over what gets done under this government. But at the same time, the dynamics within the Greens party room have dramatically transformed – out of 16 Greens parliamentarians, five are now from Queensland. So how will they change the Australian Greens and what agenda do they represent?  Today, journalist Paddy Manning on the B...

Today, the Prime Minister will reveal legal advice on Scott Morrison’s secret appointment to five ministries. While the country waits to hear about what legal dilemmas the affair entails, the former prime minister’s colleagues are responding both privately and publicly. The explanations from Morrison have left some unconvinced and there are still questions over the purpose of such a ministerial po...

The spread of monkeypox is testing public health officials worldwide.  It’s a virus that is challenging both our ability to get vaccines and medicines to the people who need them most - and the ability of health authorities to send the right message. So what is the right health message? And how do we empower communities, after they have been through two years of a Covid-19 pandemic? Today, science...

It's the rolling scandal that has dominated the week in politics, and permanently marked Scott Morrison’s legacy. This week it emerged that while in power the former prime minister secretly swore himself into five different ministries: Health, Finance, Resources, Treasury, and Home Affairs. The public didn’t know, his former government colleagues didn’t know, and in most cases, the very ministers...

Australia’s wealthiest postcodes and the millionaires who pay no tax have been revealed in the latest data drop from the Tax Office. It gives us new insight into who has wealth in Australia, how they keep a hold on that wealth and whether the taxation system is fair. Today, author and professor Chris Wallace on who the real burdens are on our economy. Socials: Stay in touch with us on Twitter and...

Right-wing groups in the US are holding armed rallies against the FBI, with one field office of the bureau attacked by a gunman. A raid last week by agents on Donald Trump’s Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago, opened the floodgates of anger after classified government documents were found on the premises.  Trump has now called for calm, but maintains the FBI’s raid was part of a witch-hunt and that he...

It started with a job: $500,000 to be a trade envoy in New York. Now, an entire state government has become embroiled in a scandal over job appointments and how they get made. As Australia prepares to implement a federal anti-corruption body, in New South Wales – the state that first put in place an independent anti-corruption commission – we're learning a lot about why we need more transparency i...

It’s been one year since the Taliban swifty took control of Afghanistan as the US pulled out after 20 years of war.  In the days following the takeover, foreign countries rushed to evacuate diplomatic staff from Kabul. Thousands of Afghans were also airlifted out, but many, even those who worked directly with Australia and other foreign nations remain trapped.  Today, chief political correspondent...

China has a message for Australia: be quiet and take the trade money. In a chilling speech, China’s ambassador to Australia laid out his nation’s aims with startling honesty – including that China would pursue what he called ‘reunification’ with Taiwan at any cost. The reason he was sending that message has everything to do with US Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent visit to Taiwan, which raised the th...

When a Voice to Parliament was first proposed in the Uluru Statement from the Heart – it was dismissed by then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. It seemed possible the proposal might never be put in front of the Australian people. But Australians could soon get to vote in a referendum and we will be asked whether Australia should amend its constitution to create an Indigenous Voice to parliament. T...

A former intelligence officer in Canberra, known as Witness J, was charged, sentenced, and jailed in complete secrecy in 2018. It was only after he brought his own legal complaint, and journalists noticed some security guards in the courthouse, that anything about his case was made public.  Now, as fragments of the proceedings against the man known as Alan Johns filter out, we’re learning what hap...

The new government has inherited a problem that no one wants to talk about: the deep inequality of funding between public and private and independent schools. That discrepancy is most evident when it comes to the way that students with disabilities are funded. Today, senior reporter at The Saturday Paper Rick Morton reveals the $600 million funding shortfall for students with a disability in the p...

Our food supply is facing violent shocks — pandemic, war, and floods. And the threat to food security is unprecedented.  Underpinning the problem is the catastrophe of climate change, which will impact not only us but our neighbours too — creating implications for national security.  Today, Esther Linder on a looming food crisis that Australia isn’t prepared for, and what it means for the way we e...

Today on the show, journalist and author Bronwyn Adcock will be reading her piece from the latest issue.  It follows the fate of Encep ‘Hambali’ Nurjaman - a man arrested as a central figure in the Bali Bombings nearly 20 years ago - and interrogates his fraught path to justice in the War on Terror, through CIA black spots and Guantanamo Bay, torture and rendition, and bureaucratic obfuscation.  G...

Labor's first fortnight in power has been marked by a significant win — a successful agreement to pass a bill that would see a 43 per cent emissions reduction target become law. That agreement was made entirely without the opposition, with Peter Dutton effectively removing his party from negotiations at the beginning of the week. So what is the Coalition’s strategy, when it comes to climate, or to...

For more than ten years, the Greens and the Labor Party have been blaming each other for holding back progress on climate action.  Now, things have shifted — Labor’s new emissions reduction target will almost certainly become legislation, after the Greens announced that they’ll support it.  But that support has only come after fierce negotiations and several concessions from the Albanese governmen...

As a homelessness crisis escalates around the country, there’s one jurisdiction where the situation is particularly stark.  In the wealthiest state in Australia, more than 120 people have died on the streets in the past two years.  And while the causes of homelessness are complex, there’s no doubt Western Australia’s tenancy laws are making things worse: especially when it comes to “no grounds” re...

An investigation into factional misconduct in Victoria has created debate about how the Labor Party is structured and how it can be reformed. The stakes are incredibly high for the party: not only is some of the conduct illegal and undemocratic, but it also risks losses in seats where independents are likely to run on integrity. Today, Labor speechwriter and contributor to The Saturday Paper Denni...