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It’s been a long time since a woman led the Labor party. This term, Tanya Plibersek will become the longest serving woman of the House of Representatives in Australia. Plibersek has held senior cabinet and shadow cabinet roles since 2004, was deputy leader to Bill Shorten between 2013 and 2019, and is one of the most recognisable politicians in the country. But in the conversation of who is in lin...

Barrie Cassidy is back, and kicks off the episode by analysing the conflict in the Labor party over migration that led to the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, pulling out of his scheduled press club speech this week. Tony Barry delves into new Redbridge polling suggesting small gains for One Nation and the Coalition at a federal level. And as the conversation turns to Victorian politics, he surp...

The criminal trial of veteran broadcaster Alan Jones has begun almost two years after he was arrested over multiple counts of indecent assault and sexual touching – charges he strongly denies. What did week one reveal about the prosecution’s case, and the way Jones treated his alleged teenage victim? Nour Haydar speaks to Guardian Australia’s media correspondent, Amanda Meade, to unpack opening st...

In this episode of Guardian Australia’s weekly US politics podcast, co-hosts Jonathan Yerushalmy and Reged Ahmad take a look at how the Michigan Senate primaries could decide the future of the Democrats. This is a race that has revealed the civil war raging inside the party, as some seek to take it further to the left, with candidates such as Abdul El-Sayed. But will this schism be the Democrats’...

Despite most Australians supporting clean technology, the campaign against wind and solar infrastructure has proven to be effective, striking a chord with many of those living in remote and rural areas. So how do we bring everyone along on the transition to a renewable energy-focused future? And who’s putting up roadblocks? The Guardian’s environment and climate correspondent Graham Readfearn join...

The One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has repeatedly declared that he doesn’t ‘believe in multiculturalism’. But the reality on the ground in his New South Wales electorate of New England suggests otherwise. Joyce supported a campaign for the town of Armidale to become a refugee resettlement centre but, as a member of One Nation, his party advocates for a ‘monocultural’ Australia and for restricting mig...

Alan Jones will today front court on 22 indecent assault and sexual touching charges, spanning a nearly two-decade period. He denies all charges. But how did we get here? Once a media giant who enjoyed the height of influence and power, he is now the centre of one of Australia’s highest-profile criminal cases. The Guardian’s media correspondent, Amanda Meade, joins Nour Haydar to get us up to spee...

Two years into her role representing King Charles, Australia’s head of state, the governor general, Sam Mostyn, says she has observed a “woeful lack of understanding” among the adult population about the civic underpinnings of Australia’s democracy – beginning with the constitution. Mostyn speaks to Guardian Australia political editor, Tom McIlroy, at Admiralty House in Sydney about her decision t...

Tony Barry and Jon Faine (sitting in for Barrie Cassidy this week) examine the ousting of Jacinta Allan and the anointing of Ben Carroll as the new premier of Victoria. They discuss what it could all mean for the upcoming election and while they say anything can happen, Tony’s tummy compass points to a win for Jess Wilson. And, weeks into the royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion, F...

It has been a messy week in Australian politics. In NSW, the Liberal party faced the corruption watchdog over allegations of branch stacking and illegal donations. In Victoria, the noise around the so-called Big Build brought down a premier and threatens to further alienate already aggrieved voters. Josephine Tovey is joined by Mike Ticher, Patrick Keneally and Anne Davies to talk about a bad week...

Twenty-five years ago, on a desolate stretch of Australian highway, Bradley John Murdoch flagged down British backpackers Joanne Lees and Peter Falconio. Falconio was never seen again. Now, as police continue to try to bring closure for his family, one former British government expert says he knows the ‘most likely’ place where Falconio’s body was hidden Queensland correspondent Ben Smee joins Reg...

In this episode of Guardian Australia’s weekly US politics podcast, co-hosts Jonathan Yerushalmy and Reged Ahmad discuss Donald Trump’s closed-door meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. They also examine the president’s escalating attacks on the Smithsonian National Museum of American History as well as his performance at the White House correspondent’s dinner

Victoria has a new premier after the education minister, Ben Carroll, was voted in by the Labor party during a chaotic caucus meeting on Tuesday morning. His predecessor, Jacinta Allan, stood down after a tumultuous few months at the helm of a government diving in the polls and struggling to fend off a rising One Nation ahead of November’s state election. Victorian state correspondent Benita Kolov...

Taking place once every three years, the Labor party conference can be a chance to have open debates on vexed policy issues – but this one was different. Reged Ahmad speaks to the political editor, Tom McIlroy, about whether the prime minister is insisting on too much control and what his tight hold means for his party’s chances of taking on One Nation

This year the FBI issued urgent warnings to parents about 764, a global online community where children are manipulated into acts of violence. With hundreds of investigations under way worldwide, including in Australia, 764 and groups like it are accused of using coercion to turn vulnerable minors into victims and, in some cases, predators. Nour Haydar speaks to investigations reporter Ariel Bogle...

Speaking with political editor Tom McIlroy and chief political correspondent Dan Jervis-Bardy at the 50th Labor conference in Adelaide, Peter Malinauskas talks about his own state contest with One Nation and why progressives should not speak down to Pauline Hanson’s supporters. And despite the US admitting this week that the production rate of Virginia-class submarines has not increased, the SA pr...

Tony Barry and George Megalogenis (filling in for Barrie Cassidy) give their view on One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce’s viral moment this week and why they think it played well to his party’s base. George takes us back to past elections that produced favourable results for One Nation to remind us that we have been here before and that political predictions often don’t come true. And they sign off with...

Political and media attention this week has once again been squarely focused on One Nation’s antics. But while Pauline Hanson had her Euro summer, many of that continent’s biggest cities were enduring their worst heat stress in recorded history. In Australia, an El Niño summer is not far away and we may be headed for our hottest winter on record. Jo Tovey speaks with Mike Ticher and assistant clim...

Tens of thousands of young protesters poured on to the streets of India’s capital, New Delhi, this week amid an explosion of anger over the country’s education system and youth unemployment. The protesters are supporters of the Cockroach Janta party, which started as an online joke but has quickly become an unexpected challenge to the powerful rightwing government of Narendra Modi. Nour Haydar spe...

Co-hosts Reged Ahmad and Jonathan Yerushalmy look at why Donald Trump chose to make a prime-time address about the US electoral system: was he trying to destabilise and undermine confidence before the midterms, and will it work? Also: why is the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, ordering annual testosterone deficiency screening for soldiers in the military aged 30 and older?

There has been no end to the negative headlines generated in response to comments made by Pauline Hanson on her trip overseas – and it has forced members of One Nation, including Barnaby Joyce, to defend and explain her actions back home. Guardian Australia political reporter Josh Butler speaks to Reged Ahmad about how the trip’s many controversies could play with One Nation supporters in Australi...

Senior political correspondent Peter Walker and former No 10 press secretary Paul Harrison analyse Andy Burnham’s first day as PM

We know that the online world is awash with angry commentary, but why are we so compelled to keep scrolling, despite our best intentions? And how is it shaping our politics? Ed Coper is political adviser and communications consultant who works to harness that social media outrage machine, which he calls ‘angertainment’. And while there is no doubt it is shaping political strategy now, especially o...

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has opened in Australia to much hype and intense interest. The first film ever to be shot entirely on Imax film has prompted fans to go on their own epic journey – crossing oceans to see it at one of just 41 cinemas around the world equipped to screen it in its original 70mm format. But as Homer’s Odyssey plays out onscreen, a struggle is happening offscreen too, wi...

Guardian Australia political editor Tom McIlroy talks to Paul Kelly about his new book on the turbulent era of the Liberal party under prime ministers Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison. In The Twilight of Exceptionalism, Kelly writes about how the Liberal leadership changed hands from a conservative to a progressive and then a transactional centrist. The Australian newpaper’s editor...