Politics with Michelle Grattan

David Crosling/AAP It is almost been a year since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. Since then, the conflict in the Middle East has increasingly impinged on our domestic politics, despite Australia having no direct role in it. The horrific death toll in Gaza and the increase in both antisemitism and Islamophobia in Australia have focused the attention of the Albanese government. Both Muslim a...

Discussion between Deputy Governor of The RBA Andrew Hauser and Sky News Business Editor Ross Greenwood during Australia's Economic Outlook business luncheon. Britta Campion/AAP Inflation remains top of mind as the Reserve Bank of Australia continues to keep interest rates on hold at a time when the United States Federal Reserve signals that it will start cutting rates. One of the new lead arc...

Gabrielle Lurie/AP This year’s Democratic National Convention has been an event filled with excitement and optimism, a far cry from where the Democrats were just weeks when Joe Biden was their presidential candidate. With Kamala Harris as their nominee, the Democrats have gained support in the polls and with a big surge in donations and volunteers. A question lingers, however, about whether they c...

Mick Tsikas/AAP Cost of living remains at the top of people’s minds as inflation stays sticky. With an election in less than a year, the government has been doing what it can to address some of the pressures. But the Reserve Bank doesn’t envisage an interest rate cut this year, and has suggested spending by governments is keeping inflation higher for longer. On Thursday, new figures showed employm...

Mick Tsikas/AAP Gambling reform has become a major issue of tension for the government as it prepares to respond to a cross-party committee inquiry led by former Labor member, the late Peta Murphy. The inquiry’s report, released last year, unanimously recommended a ban on gambling advertising within three years. There is strong public and backbench support within Labor for a ban, but the governmen...

Mick Tsikas/AAP Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s address to the weekend Garma festival had a different tone from last year’s, when the Voice referendum was approaching. The Prime Minister is resetting policy, moving the focus to the economic empowerment of Indigenous communities as a path to reducing Indigenous disadvantage and “closing the gap”. Indigenous outcomes continue to go backwards for s...

Mick Tsikas/AAP The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast is one of those teals, Zoe Daniel, member for the Melbourne seat of Goldstein. Daniel, previously a veteran reporter and foreign correspondent for the ABC, discusses so...

Erin Schaff/AP The 2024 US election took another dramatic turn when President Joe Biden withdrew his re-election bid, endorsing his Vice President, Kamala Harris, to take his place. The quick switch from Biden to Harris has reinvigorated the Democratic Party and their donors behind a younger candidate. It has thrown up a new challenge for Donald Trump who, however, is still election favorite. It’l...

Mick Tsikas/AAP American politics has become weekly high drama. Donald Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt last weekend. Now Joe Biden has COVID , and is under ever-increasing pressure to stand aside as the Democratic candidate for November’s presidential election. We’re joined on the podcast by former Australian Ambassador to Washington, Joe Hockey, who’s at this week’s Republican co...

Lukas Coch/AAP Western Australian Senator Fatima Payman quit Labor after defying the party’s “solidarity” rule. Her action, spurred by the Gaza issue, has intensified Labor fears about the possible impact of the Muslim vote in some of its safe seats at the election. The now-independent senator joined the podcast to discuss her decision, the challenges of regrouping as a crossbencher, and the impac...

Flavio Brancaleone/AAP The Coalition is taking a major political gamble with its nuclear power policy, which is facing criticism from a range of experts. The opposition has announced seven proposed sites for power stations but has yet to provide costings and other details. Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy Ted O'Brien, who spearheaded the policy’s development, in coming months has to c...

Lukas Coch/AAP The climate wars have been reignited with the Coalition’s release of its controversial plan for nuclear power, an option totally rejected by the government. Meanwhile, a report this week from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AMEO) has indicated the government needs to speed up efforts in what has become a challenging energy transition. Minister for Climate Change and Energy Ch...

Lukas Coch/AAP After beating a first-term South Australian Liberal government in 2022, Labor premier Peter Malinauskas has gone on to be a reform advocate on issues including social media and politcal donations. His government is looking at a ban on children under 14 accessing social media accounts, with parental consent required for those 14 and 15. Malinauskas is also proposing changes that woul...

Mick Tsikas/AAP Bill Shorten, the minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), is currently in New York at a United Nations conference on the rights of people with disabilities . At the weekend, he’ll fly to Europe to represent Australia at a summit in Switzerland aimed at finding international consensus on a peace path for the Ukrainian conflict. In this podcast, Shorten discusse...

The debate over climate change mostly focuses on how to best to limit emissions in the effort to prevent disastrous global warming. However in a new book, Living Hot, Clive Hamilton and George Wilkenfeld challenge current priorities, arguing rising temperatures can’t be contained fast enough and we need to turn our attention to “adaptation”. Clive Hamilton, who is Professor of Public Ethics at Cha...

shutterstock Migration has become a major battleground between the government and opposition. While they have different policies, each side is targeting foreign students in their plans for cuts in the intake. The government will apply caps, decided by the minister, on the numbers of foreign students for particular universities, with some concessions for those institutions investing in new student...

Housing remains one of Australia’s most pressing issues in both state and federal politics. The RBA keeping rates up and high mortgage repayments have left many Australians struggling. For those Australians who don’t own a home, it’s becoming increasingly hard to get into the housing market. The opposition has blamed the high levels of migration for why Australians feel so much housing pain. Peter...

The energy debate has ramped up, with government and opposition trading blows over their respective plans to secure Australia’s energy future. The budget announced big tax incentives for green energy projects. Earlier the government embraced the importance of gas up to 2050 and beyond. The Coalition is still promising its yet-to-be-announced nuclear policy, but that took a hit from a sceptical CSI...

Mick Tsikas & Lukas Coch/AAP Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Tuesday handed down his third budget. It had a second successive surplus and sweeteners, including relief on energy bills, and tax breaks for development of green hydrogen and critical minerals processing. The opposition will back the energy bill subsidy but oppose the tax breaks in the Future Made in Australia policy. In this podcast we w...

Mick Tsikas/AAP Next week the government will again next try to get its legislation through to deal with non-citizens who won’t cooperate with efforts to deport them. The bill, which the opposition and crossbench refused to rush through in the last parliamentary sitting, went to a Senate inquiry that reported this week. In dissenting comments, the Coalition urged a number of amendments. On Friday...

Dean Lewins/AAP The Prime Minister and state and territory leaders met on Wednesday as the national cabinet to discuss a crisis gripping Australia – the horrific number of women murdered this year. The killings have shocked the nation and led to mass demonstrations across the country last weekend. In this podcast, we’re joined by Dr Anne Summers, a longtime writer and advocate on women’s issues. H...

Lukas Coch/AAP With Jim Chalmers’s third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief – beyond the tax cuts – although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As this week’s consumer price index showed, the battle with inflation has not yet been won. The government can’t afford to have an over-generous budget add to inflation and further delay a pr...

Lukas Coch/AAP After the stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in an Assyrian Orthodox Church in Wakeley on Monday, and the killings in Bondi Junction shopping centre just two days earlier, many people in Sydney and in Australia more widely are tense. The shopping centre incident, in which the perpetrator was a mentally-ill 40-year-old man, was not seen by the police as terrorism; the church attack...

James Ross/AAP The death of Australian Zomi Frankcom and other World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza in an Israeli strike has led to yet more intense and critical scrutiny over how Israel is prosecuting the war against Hamas. This week Foreign Minister Penny Wong has floated the possibility of recognition of a Palestinian state ahead of a two-state solution. Her comments were condemned by Pete...

Lukas Coch/AAP The Albanese government and the Australian public are currently focused on the cost-of-living crisis and its impact on household budgets. For Australia’s longer-term economic outlook, the government is looking at reforms that are needed to increase competition and our flat-lined productivity. Andrew Leigh is in the middle of this debate. He’s Assistant Minister for Employment and As...