Inside Politics

We're bringing you an extra episode of Inside Politics today because Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had an opening in his diary, and he's granted us an audience. His interview comes off the back of a difficult week, with a state visit from Israeli President Isaac Herzog. Herzog's visit was welcomed by the victims of the Bondi terror attack and their families, but his presence in Australia also sp...

There’s a bit going on with the Liberal Party this week, but while that unfolds we are going to look at some bigger issues.  Interest rates went up recently, for the first time in two years, and there’s a question as to whether government spending contributed to inflation. So we're testing that today, with host Jacqueline Maley, senior economics correspondent Shane Wright and fede...

Today on  Inside Politics , we welcome back former opposition leader Bill Shorten, who is now the Vice Chancellor of the University of Canberra. It's a timely moment to have Shorten on the podcast as he obliquely (very obliquely, we stress) came up in the Epstein files this week. Strangely, in the massive dump of new documents from the files, there is a text message exchange between Steve Ban...

The drama between the Liberals and the Nationals continued this week with what seems to be a total breakdown in the relationship between Liberal leader Sussan Ley and Nationals leader David Littleproud. Meanwhile, Ley's leadership remains in mortal peril, and in a plot twist, Littleproud faces his own leadership challenge next week. Chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal joins Jacqueline Maley...

Tony Wright, the associate editor of The Age, has been writing for 50 years. He is the master of what we call the political sketch. Sketches are akin to a verbal cartoon and, when done well, capture a moment in politics. Today, in a bonus episode of Inside Politics , we bring you Wright's sketch on the disintegration of the Coalition, titled: It’s a mess of Titanic proportions on the Coaliti...

One Nation is having a bit of a moment. Pauline Hanson’s outfit, accused by both major parties of exploiting racial anxiety over her career, has faded into irrelevance at points since she burst onto the scene in the late 1990s. But two new polls have recorded record-high primary votes for One Nation. One of them saw One Nation’s vote rise above the Coalition, which split in spectacular...

We are back with a special episode of  Inside Politics as a few things have happened this week – namely the break-up of the Coalition, a century-old political alliance. Nationals leader David Littleproud announced the split on Thursday morning, blaming Liberal leader Sussan Ley in the process. Federal political correspondent Natassia Chrysanthos joins chief political correspondent Paul...

Inside Politics is still on a break, but we’re set to return in two weeks.   Today, we return to an episode released just after Anthony Albanese’s successful meeting with Donald Trump, and one in which we had a special guest -  former Labor opposition leader Bill Shorten. Bill also has some advice for the opposition, and its leader Sussan Ley, before a slight diversion t...

We’re on a break over summer, our dear chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal is probably off to a yoga retreat somewhere in Bali, and we return at the end of January for another fun-filled year of Inside Politics. Well, we can’t ignore the impact that Donald Trump had on domestic politics last year and for this episode, we return to a point in time when most of the press pack was o...

Happy New Year. We’re on a break over summer - lucky us - before we return at the end of January for another year of Inside Politics. Today, we’re returning to an episode recorded in the wake of the divisive ‘March for Australia’ protests, which became the vehicle for a hodgepodge of causes, including immigration, an issue that would lead to Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s...

Hi and Merry Christmas! Your Inside Politics team is on a little hiatus over summer before we return at the end of January. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy some of our favourite episodes of the year, starting with a trip down memory lane to election night with our former chief political correspondent David Crowe before he passed the baton to BFF of the podcast Paul Sakkal. Subscribe to The Age...

This week it feels wrong to talk about politics in the wake of the horrific antisemitic massacre at Bondi Beach on Sunday. Australians and Sydneysiders in particular are still trying to make sense of the senseless.  But the fact is that the response to the massacre has been deeply political, and things got divisive very quickly.  So this week on Inside Politics we are going to discuss th...

In this bonus episode of  Inside Politics , former primer minister Tony Abbott joins host Jacqueline Maley and chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal. Abbott has penned a new book, Australia: A History,  describing a more positive view of our past. He also discusses the current political and cultural challenges facing the Liberal Party, as well as reflecting on his own political caree...

Today, we're delving into the expenses scandal, if indeed we are calling it a scandal, that has engulfed the Communications Minister Anika Wells. A $100,000 taxpayer funded flight to New York snow-balled into a drip-feed of information about flights to the Formula 1 grand prix, the Boxing Day tests and even a family reunion at Thredbo. All of this dropping at precisely the moment the min...

This week the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was on his honeymoon after his low-key Lodge wedding last weekend, while Senate estimates rolled on in Canberra, uncovering some interesting secrets. Notable was the head-scratching amount that Communications Minister Anika Wells spent on flights to New York, made public ahead of the mammoth social media ban coming into effect. Chief political correspo...

Well, Barnaby Joyce finally announced his resignation from the Nationals this week, paving his way to join One Nation, in a week where Pauline Hanson recycled a burqa stunt from 2017. And it’s amid this turmoil that we have a special guest with chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal and Jacqueline Maley - Opposition Leader Sussan Ley. Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com....

Recently on this podcast we have been highly fixated on the problems within the Liberal opposition and we have neglected the government somewhat. So this week we are going to focus on Labor, and to that end we have a real treat for listeners. Sean Kelly, a columnist for  The Age  and  Sydney Morning Herald , was previously a Labor staffer with Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard. He i...

This week in federal politics there was really only one show in town, and that was the compelling and 'can't look away' car crash that is the Liberal party's continued ructions on its net zero policy. They culminated, or maybe even concluded, on Thursday afternoon, when the Liberal Party met and finally came up with a policy. Today, host Jacqueline Maley is joined by chief political correspondent...

It’s been a rather torrid week for the Coalition, with yet more messy fighting over whether it will dump its commitment to Australia achieving net zero emissions by 2050. This was followed by controversial comments by former frontbencher Andrew Hastie on late-term abortions. Today’s guest is Senator Jane Hume, a Liberal moderate, joining chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal and ho...

This week we're going to talk about the government's weaknesses, which might seem a little bit counter-intuitive, because Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been flying so high on the international stage, where he dined with US President Donald Trump at a dinner at ASEAN. But back on the domestic front, there are a few weaknesses, particularly in the economy. Chief political correspondent Paul Sa...

The week in federal politics could not have been more fun. We had Prime Minister Anthony Albanese travel to Washington, finally, for his meeting with US President Donald Trump. The meeting was a total hit, and Albanese came home with a deal on critical mineral supply and reassurances on the AUKUS submarine pact. Jacqueline Maley is joined by chief political correspondent, Paul Sakkal and special g...

They said he couldn’t do it, but he’s doing it. In a few days, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, fresh from a week’s holiday, will be flying to Washington to meet US President Donald Trump.  And also, what really went on between the PM and his Treasurer over the super reforms that Jim Chalmers abandoned this week. Paul Sakkal says the Treasurer had his pants pulled down by th...

The member for Goldstein, Tim Wilson, is a guest on the podcast this week during a very interesting time for the Liberal Party. Last week, home affairs   spokesman Andrew Hastie quit the front bench, followed by infighting and internal leaking. Wilson talks about his relationship with Hastie and the former frontbencher's 'fraught' decision to step back, and where the party's soul-searching co...

The prime minister has just returned from 10 days of high-wire diplomacy, initially at the United Nations in New York before swinging through London and stopping by Abu Dhabi on his way home. He’s claimed some credit for helping push along a potential peace plan for Gaza, spruiked Australia’s social media ban on the global stage, and drummed up interest in Australia’s green trans...

Today we are bringing you a special international episode of the pod. The prime minister has spent the week in New York addressing the United Nations, recognising Palestinian statehood and chasing Donald Trump around Manhattan trying to get a meeting. We talk about all these capers with host Jacqueline Maley and our chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal, who are joined by foreign affairs and n...