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The Northern Territory managed to only record a handful of cases and avoided any deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic, but now the NT is on the brink of a public health crisis.  An outbreak in the town of Katherine is spreading to remote communities across the territory. And almost everyone who has tested positive so far is Indigenous. Today, Labor Senator for the Northern Territory, Malarndirri Mc...

The COP26 climate summit in Glasgow was seen as the world’s ‘last best chance’ to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees and avoid catastrophic climate change.  On that measure it failed. The pledges made will instead see temperatures rise by nearly 2 degrees.  Tim Flannery, one of Australia’s most well known environmentalists, had a front row seat at the negotiations and to what he describes as Aust...

Last week Taylor Swift re-released one of her most critically acclaimed albums, Red . The re-recording is the result of a complicated financial and legal battle over who owns the rights to the original versions of her songs. Red (Taylor’s Version) features all of the songs on the original album, plus a bunch of new tracks and a 10 minute long version of her iconic song ‘All Too Well’, where she ta...

The federal Coalition government holds office by the barest of margins - just one seat.  That means at the next election, due in the first half of next year, it can’t afford to lose any seats without risking a hung parliament. Now, a popular and high profile Liberal incumbent has announced he won’t be recontesting his electorate, throwing the party’s election preparations into jeopardy. Today, col...

Everyday for the past week hundreds of protesters have camped outside the Victorian Parliament, protesting a new bill that would extend the state’s public health orders, the tools used to combat the pandemic. Some of the protesters are far-right extremists, who have threatened violence against politicians and brought nooses to the steps of the parliament.  But opposition to the government’s propos...

The federal government has finally released the modelling underpinning its plan to reach net zero emissions by 2050. According to the Prime Minister, the economic impact of the plan won’t be that significant. But at the last election Scott Morrison had a very different position when he was opposing Labor’s emissions reduction policy. Today, national correspondent for The Saturday Paper Mike Seccom...

Australia has become well known as the defamation capital of the world, with many high profile figures regularly, and successfully, suing media outlets. But recently there’s been a new trend: politicians using defamation law against ordinary people. It’s become so common that one senior government minister is even suggesting creating a new fund to bankroll the lawsuits, all paid for by the taxpaye...

As the next federal election approaches, the question of whether the Prime Minister Scott Morrison can pull off another ‘miracle’ win looms large.  But how much do we really know about the man who’s been in charge through a pandemic, a sexual assault reckoning, and a crystallising climate crisis?  Today, journalist and author Sean Kelly on what’s underneath the persona that Scott Morrison presents...

Grammy-nominated musician Courtney Barnett is one the most successful Australian artists performing right now. She’s just released her much-anticipated third studio album, ‘Things Take Time, Take Time’. This week on The Culture , Osman Faruqi caught up with her as she was gearing up to head on her first tour post-pandemic in the United States. They chat about the creative journey behind the album,...

After two weeks, COP26, the international climate summit in Glasgow is wrapping up. The summit has been called the world’s best last chance. So has it worked?  The primary goal of the conference was to reach a consensus that would keep levels of global warming below 1.5 degrees. According to research released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), staying below 1.5 degrees is cri...

In a landmark decision, the Fair Work Commission has ruled that every farm worker in Australia must be guaranteed the minimum wage. The decision comes after years of reports of underpayment and exploitation of workers, particularly in the horticulture industry. Today, Director of Policy at the McKell Institute Edward Cavanough on how Australia’s farming industry came to depend on wage theft, and w...

Over the past few months, Australians ordering goods online have been waiting longer than ever for their packages to arrive.  In Victoria, parcels sent through Australia Post from interstate are taking up to 14 business days. So what is going wrong at Australia Post?  Today, journalist and contributor to The Saturday Paper Hannah Ryan, on what these delays tell us about the vulnerability in Austra...

Earlier this year, a blistering Royal Commission report found that Crown Casino in Melbourne had links to organised crime, enabled money laundering and behaved in ways that were ‘illegal, dishonest, unethical and exploitative’.   Despite all that, Crown managed to keep its licence - for now, though it's been forced into a two year probation period.   So how has it managed to evade serious conseque...

Just one year on from winning the US election, President Joe Biden is in the middle of a political crisis.  Divisions within his own party have left Biden unable to implement key election promises, and his approval ratings are plummeting.  And after losing key election races last week, there are now predictions the Democrats could be annihilated at the midterms next year. Today, former advisor to...

Today, Richard Denniss, chief economist at The Australia Institute, will be reading his cover story from the latest edition of The Monthly . It's called 'The needle and the damage done', and in it, he argues that the federal government’s handling of the pandemic has been the worst public policy failure in Australian history.  Guest: Richard Denniss, chief economist at The Australia Institute. See...

Lockdown is over and cinemas are back! Luckily, Australia’s reopening happens to coincide with a bunch of exciting new releases coming out between now and the end of the year. This week on The Culture , Osman Faruqi is joined by Flick Ford - film reviewer and presenter of Triple R’s ‘Primal Screen’ - to run us through the most exciting films to watch this summer. Guest: Flick Ford See acast.com/pr...

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has just returned from two international summits, but Australia’s diplomatic standing is worse than ever. His handling of a $100 billion submarine contract has created tension with both France and the United States, two traditional allies, and he’s also been accused by his predecessor of being a serial liar. Today, columnist for The Saturday Paper Paul Bongiorno on Sc...

With international travel resuming and our biggest states re-opening, life in Australia is finally returning to normal.  So, is this really the beginning of the end of the Covid-19 pandemic? And what have we learnt from the past eighteen months?  Today, Nobel prize winning scientist Peter Doherty on what surprised him most about the pandemic, and the way we respond, and what we should expect in th...

In Australia the not-for-profit sector employs over a million people, and it’s growing. Much of this growth is driven by charities accepting government grants to deliver essential services to our most vulnerable.  But these grants come with strict contractual obligations, which effectively prevent organisations from holding government agencies to account. Frontline workers say that this can mean t...

Last week former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian fronted the Independent Commission Against Corruption and was asked candid questions about the nature of her relationship with former MP Daryl Maguire. Today, national correspondent for The Saturday Paper Mike Seccombe on what happened when Gladys Berejiklian went to ICAC, and what the corruption investigation reveals about NSW politics. Guest: Natio...

Dave Chappelle is one of the most successful comedians in the world, and his latest Netflix special, ‘The Closer’, reportedly made him $20 million. The special has sparked a huge amount of backlash, prompting a staff walkout at Netflix, and calls for the special to be taken down.  This week comedians Cassie Workman and Tom Ballard join The Culture , to help unpack the reignited conversation around...

After spending weeks locked in secret negotiations with the Nationals on climate policy, Prime Minister Scott Morrison is finally heading to the UN summit in Glasgow. But while Morrison’s deal with the minor party might solve an internal political issue for him, it still leaves Australia without a serious and ambitious emissions reduction plan. And that could lead to more political trouble for Mor...

Right now world leaders are gearing up for COP26: a major international climate summit starting in just a few days. The summit has been billed as humanity’s last chance to avoid the catastrophic impacts of climate change. But while many developed nations are preparing to commit to strong emissions reduction targets, Australia remains an outlier. Today, national correspondent for The Saturday Paper...

A landmark judgement by the High Court of Australia has reignited debate over whether or not our legal system is fit for purpose in the age of social media. The Court found that news organisations are liable for the comments posted on their Facebook pages. The decision has forced many news sites to disable comments - impacting how each of us find and consume the news. Today, legal affairs editor f...

In recent weeks the world’s two superpowers, China and the United States, have been steadily building up their military presence in the Taiwan Strait. Chinese President Xi Jinping has made it clear that he wants to bring Taiwan back under China’s control, a move the United States seems likely to resist at all costs. Today, Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University Hugh White on how...