Socially Democratic

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by National Secretary for the CPSU, Melissa Donnelly. Mel joins the show for the first time to chat about her journey into the union movement, the challenges public sector workers faced under the previous federal government, lessons learned, how COVID reset the idea of “workplace”, and where the CPSU is seeking to make improve...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by Director at QDOS research group John Armitage.  John returns to Socially Democratic to discuss the Voice Referendum: how the Yes and No Campaigns have changed the messaging since we last spoke, what the good and bad polling data tells us, and lays out the path to victory for the Yes campaign in this historic referendum.  Th...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by founder of Love Reacts Only - a digital and social media consultancy and the former Digital Director for Victorian Premier Dan Andrews, Eloise Young; the campaign director and state secretary of Queensland Labor, Kate Flanders, and National Training Organiser for ALP National Secretariat, Nadia Montague, for a conversation...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by ACTU President, Michele O'Neil and TWU National Secretary, Michael Kaine. They join Stephen for the first of TWO live recordings of Socially Democratic, as part of ALP National Conference Fringe. Michele and Michael discuss the state of the Australian Trade Union movement after 9 years of conservative rule, identifying...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by founder of Fireside Agency, Ben Hart.  Working in environment media and communications since 1997, Fireside’s Ben Hart joins the show to discuss how the environmental movement communicates to voters, why it struggles to persuade the community to act on climate change, and what needs to be done to overcome this communication...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by Rebecca Thistleton from the McKell Institute - Victoria and for his Socially Democratic debut Matthew Lloyd Cape from the Centre for Equitable Housing (a Per Capita Initiative).  Together, Rebecca and Matthew unpack the Australian Housing Crisis: the problem, its cause, impact, and discuss what solutions are needed to addre...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by former researcher with the US based Analyst Institute and Israeli based progressive campaign consultant Will Cubbison. In Israel this week the right wing coalition government led by Benjamin Netenyahu voted to cut the powers of the independent judiciary, ignoring months of weekly protests by 100,000s of progressive citizens...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister of the Arts, Tony Burke. A long time listener, first time guest, Tony joins the show to chat about his journey from paper boy organiser to politician, touching on some of the important milestones from his 20 years in office. The presenting sponsor of the Socially...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by Executive Director of the Chifley Research Centre, David Epstein. David joins the show to chat about his political journey from a Labor household to chief of staff in the Rudd government, to executive director of Labor's official think tank - the Chifley Research Centre.  David discusses the role Chifley plays in the d...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by Federal Labor MP Josh Burns, Democratic strategist Jonae Wartel, former ALP Secretary David Feeney for our 200th Episode!  To celebrate our double tonne, Stephen is joined by fan favourites, Josh, Jonae, and David to chat about all things social democrats love to chat about: politics, campaigning, organising, unions, electi...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by National Campaigns Director at SEC Newgate, Lenda Oshalem. Lenda returns to the show to discuss the 2022 Federal Election campaign review for the ALP National Executive, which she, alongside Greg Combet AM, Craig Emerson, and Sen Linda White, conducted following Labor’s successful campaign in May 2022. She shares the review...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by organiser and founder of the Amazon Labor Union, Christian Smalls.  At the height of COVID pandemic, Amazon employee, Christian Smalls went from being an essential worker to unemployed overnight to then attracting international interest when he and his fellow workers became the first to successfully organise an Amazon wareh...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by National Youth Convenor for the Australian Republican Movement, Michael Cooney Jr.  Michael joins the show to chat about his role in the Australian Republican Movement, how the movement is progressing in the wake of a changing of the guard in the British monarchy, lessons from the 1999 referendum defeat, and how the Voice r...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by Director of the Project on Center-Left Renewal at the Progressive Policy Institute, Claire Ainsley. Claire joins the show to discuss the Project on Centre-Left Renewal and how it aims to make center-left parties more competitive and improve their governing performance. She also discusses her journey into politics and toward...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Chief of Staff and Managing Director at Capital NZ, Neale Jones.  Neale dials in from Aotearoa to provide an update on NZ politics as we prepare for the general election on 14 October. Neale talks about Labour’s new policy direction under new PM, Chris Hipkins, and how he framed Labour’s...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by Executive Director of McKell Victoria, Rebecca Thistleton.  Rebecca breaks down the Andrew’s Government 2023 Victorian State Budget, which was dropped this Tuesday - what's in it, the winners - people, the losers - corporate greed, and what it means for Victoria's economic future. The presenting sponsor of the Soc...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by Director at QDOS research group John Armitage and Professor of Political Communication at La Trobe University, Dr Andrea Carson.  John and Andrea join Stephen to discuss the Australian media landscape, the Murdoch Press, its influence on the Liberal party.  In the second half of the show they discuss the Voice to Parliament...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by Executive Director for Per Capita, Emma Dawson. Emma returns to the show to unpack the key details from the 2023 Federal Budget which was released earlier this week, such as the notable investments into Health, Energy, Housing, and First Nations. She also discusses the media’s coverage of the budget, the Opposition’s respon...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by Executive Director for Per Capita, Emma Dawson. Emma shares her expectations for the upcoming 2023 Federal Budget, the Albanese Government’s first official budget, and discusses the pressure Treasurer Jim Chalmers is under to provide a budget surplus after inheriting a deficit left by the 12 years of poor economic managemen...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by ACTU Assistant Secretary Scott Connolly.  Last time Scott was on the show, we were in the middle of lockdowns. Today, Scott returns to chat about the focus the union movement will take under a new Labor government including wage growth, bargaining, organising and training and improving superannuation. The presenting sponsor...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by International Secretary for the Irish Labour Party, David Kitching.  David dials in from Dublin to discuss the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement, outlining the historical, international, and political context of the landmark peace agreement - which ended the Troubles. They also discuss US President Joe B...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by Tik Tok and Twitter political content creator Matt Knox.  Matt aka Comrade_Matt (formerly PoggersMagoo), joins the show to chat about his journey into the world of political Tik Tok, from being relatively shut off to politics in a community sense to creating left wing content himself and cultivating a diverse, politically a...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by former Victorian Labor Campaign Director, David Feeney. David joins Stephen to mark the historic occasion (this Saturday) as Dan Andrews passes John Cain as the longest serving Labor Premier of Victoria.  They reflect on the legacies of the Cain and Bracks governments that paved the way for Labor to become the dominating fo...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by political director at the CPSU, Rosie Ryan for our final installment in our NSW Election series - the post election day recap.  Rosie returns to unpack Labor’s historic election victory on Saturday night. She recaps the results from election day, where the swings occurred, the key takeaways to come out of Saturday night, an...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by McKell Institute CEO, Michael Buckland, and political director at the CPSU (community public sector union), Rosie Ryan for our NSW Election Night Battleground Seats Guide. In the lead up to Saturday’s election, Michael and Rosie break down the key seats Labor needs to win to form a majority government and provide seat by se...