Critical Line Item with Tom Ravlic

The new Member for Goldstein, Zoe Daniel, recently finished her first couple of weeks in her new job. The former ABC journalist shares her observations about the new gig, reflects a bit on her old one, and also puts the challenge out to journalists to resist telling the narrative of the powerful. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Steve Davies is a former public servant with deep experience on change management and organisational behavior with a concern about how people that raise concerns in organisations get treated. The Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has discontinued the prosecution of Bernard Colleary, the lawyer at the heart of a long-running case related to revelations that Australia engaged in intelligence skulldugger...

Author Steve Tolz has a new novel out called Here Goes Nothing but it really isn't about nothing. Tolz explores a range of issues about the craft of writing and his influences that shape the way he writes today and what readers don't get to see when the writer begins pulling together the ideas. Here Goes Nothing is published by Penguin Books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informa...

Greens candidate Celeste Liddle is standing for the seat of Cooper in the Federal Election on May 21. The unionist, writer and activist has spent a lifetime in the education sector and this time is running for the lower house seat. She talks about her concerns about the state of education, her hopes for First Nations peoples, and other issues that are driving her candidacy. Hosted on Acast. See ac...

Journalist and author Troy Bramston has spent a significant amount of time diving into lives of politicians and the biography recently released by Penguin Books on Bob Hawke, one of Australia's most popular political leaders, is no exception. Bramston talks about the journey of writing a biography, what made Hawke so effective as a politician and the personal flaws that dogged the former PM for mu...

It is difficult for people to assemble data on a politician in one place without looking at multiple sources and some folks might just give up. A new service called Polipedia is being developed by a team of three enterprising women - Su Darmapala, Ebony McKenna, and Sally Stockbridge - that will consolidate key data on Australia's politicians in one handy site that will help Aussies track their lo...

Author, columnist and speaker Jane Caro has had a varied career but she has set her mind on a run for the Senate for the Reason party in New South Wales. She talks about the things she wants to see changed and some of the policy priorities that are a motivation for her Senate tilt. Caro's latest book, The Mother, is a cracking tale and she takes us through the key themes of the book and how the id...

Jo Dyer is the author and independent candidate for Boothby in South Australia for the Federal Election in 2022. Her book 'Burning Down The House: Reconstructing Modern Politics" looks at how politics is broken. She talks about the areas of policy she believes will be important as well as touching on the impact of the intense media attention during the year in which the aftermath of the Four Corne...

Former corporate litigator Georgia Steele has had a gutful of what she sees as 'politics as usual' and she has chosen to put her hand up for the Seat of Hughes current held by Craig Kelly, the former Liberal Party member now running as the chief standard bearer for Clive Palmer's United Australia Party. Who is she? What does she stand for? Steele addresses the policies and the funding issues that...

The Australian Electoral Commission has started engaging more with Twitter and other social media platforms in the lead up to the 2022 Federal Election. It is busy trying to put out brush fires of conspiracies online that have been imported from the United States. Evan Ekin is a member of the communications team at the AEC and he takes us through how the AEC is handling the social media space. Hos...

Australian media outlets are increasing publishing the names and affiliations of people in fringe extremist movements. What happens when names and organisations are published? How do extremists act? Does it cause them to pull back or stick with the ideology that has brought them attention? Jeff Schoep is the founder of Beyond Barriers, a group that has the mission to help people disengage from ext...

Former member of parliament Kate Ellis chronicled her experiences in the national parliament of Australia. The sexist and ageist views to which she was subjected might have been something women acclimatised to but those behaviors should never have been acceptable. Ellis and other former female parliamentarians have shared their experiences since leaving that place on the hill. Eliis reflect on the...

Amy Remeikis is a gifted writer and a political journalist with the Guardian in Australia. Remeikis and other survivors of psychological and sexual abuse have seen a seismic shift in community attitudes. Women marched in Canberra and the 2021 Australian of the Year, Grace Tame, ensured that the issues of sexual abuse and the right of a woman to speak about her experience openly and frankly were ne...

Political journalist, author and academic Dr Peter Van Onselen is used to getting predictions wrong. He even admits to this being a habit that started with his honors thesis on the Australian Democrats! He reflects on controversies and whether there are times he regrets writing certain columns at particular way or writing them at all. How does he deal with blow back? What does he think about the c...

A consultant and trainer in the area of violent extremism, Shane Healey, has seen the results of extremism. He has spoken to people involved in movements and is concerned that people do not necessarily understand what drives people to become extremists and how to approach friends and loved ones who are looking as if they are buying into an extreme ideology. Healey offers tops on how parents and ot...

Periodic debate about Australia becoming a republic happens and it is healthy. The Australian Republic Movement has launched a model that has already attracted some opponents and supporters. What the heck does it propose? Their chief advocate on this model is Sandy Biar and Sandy explains why the ARM wants to happen and why certain suggestions were made. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for...

Politics has been changing for eternity and Kosmos Samaras, a director at research firm Redbridge Group, is at the coal face conducting research on the attitudes of individuals on the political climate. Samaras is an experienced campaign director with the Victorian division of the Australian Labor Party. What are the factors causing people to shift from mainstream parties to minor parties? What ro...

Writer and activist Van Badham took a deep dive into extremism and the result of that research is QAnoin and On - a book on the impact of QAnon on individuals, their families, and the community of which they are part. What are the things she learned along the way? How should families respond when a loved one is caught up in a cultlike climate? What are the lessons for our politicians in grappling...

Crikey political editor Bernard Keane has been focused intensely on politicians, government departments and their accountability. His new book. Lies and Falsehoods, is derived from a focus on the Morrison government - and Prime Minister Scott Morrison in particular - and what Keane sees as a growing willingness of politicians to lie and rewrite history in Australia. What does Bernard think about t...

EY is one of several accounting firms that have reviewed the financial services sector and Tim Dring, a specialist financial services partner at the firm, joins Tom Ravlic to provide an overview of where the financial services sector is at as it moves out of COVID paralysis. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Author and journalist Sean Kelly has taken a deep dive into the background, personality and government of Prime Minister Scott Morrison. His book, The Game, dissects the way in which Scott Morrison plays the game of politics and during this podcast he offers perspectives on leadership, the role of the media and the propensity for people to view politics as a perpetual contest without diving into t...

Increasing numbers of companies are coming to terms with the fact that they need to tell the story about how they impact the environment in their various statutory and other reports/ Stakeholders are demanding the information and over time will demand more of it. PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Matthew Lunn talks through the challenges and realities for companies that are dealing with new disclosur...

Professional regulation and self-regulation is an area that is filled with debate and controversy and the accounting profession is not exempt from this often vibrant discourse. The CEO of the Institute of Certified Management Accountants, Janek Ratnatunga, has some concerns and would like a royal commission into the role of audit in out legal regime. He also talks about the deficiencies he believe...

Senator James Patterson is the chairman of the powerful committee that looks at intelligence and security matters in the Federal Parliament. He looks at the work of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security over the past year and points to a series of challenges confronting legislators when it comes to balancing security priorities and the right to privacy of citizens. Hosted...

Investors and other stakeholders read financial statements when they are issued but not a lot of time is spent looking at the process by which the underlying documents that set reporting principles known as accounting standards are developed. Andreas Barckow is the new chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board and in a very special and extremely enlightening discussion he talks abou...