The Briefing

Australian farmers are plowing crops into the ground.   Covid has meant the overseas workers aren’t getting in and the government’s trying to get young Aussies - any  Aussies - to step in, but it doesn’t seem to be working. Only 500 have taken up a new incentive to get picking.      A register set up by growers found they've lost more than $38 million wor...

Covid turned a Melbourne golf course into a public park and now no one wants to leave. There’s a push to turn the course into a public park permanently.   In Sydney for example - there are 91 golf courses and they take up 38 kilometres of open space - space that can only be accessed by members or paying guests.   In this Briefing... how Covid has ignited the debate about turning go...

Today, we take a look at the international roll-out of the various Covid-19 vaccines.   So far over 40m people have been vaccinated in more than 50 countries... including the Queen and Joe Biden! America and China are going fastest... with over 12 and 10 million people vaccinated respectively.   This a critical point to bring you a briefing on the vaccine rollout because we’re gett...

Today on the Briefing we discuss the crisis engulfing the Australia Open.   One of the main reasons being put forward for taking the risk of going ahead with this tournament is a threat that we’d lose the Australian Open if we didn’t. How real was that risk? Because Wimbledon was cancelled last year and its future’s not in doubt?   A lot of Australians don’t have...

Today on The Briefing we explain Bitcoin.   Have you missed the chance to buy Bitcoin? The value has tripled over the last few months and there's been greater institutional acceptance, so should you put your savings in this new currency? Could it make you rich? or is it like playing the pokies?   Finance/crypto expert Scott Philips Chief Investment officer from Motley Fool joins us to ex...

When Joe Biden is sworn in this week it will be one of the most unusual Inauguration ceremonies in history.    The FBI has warned that armed protests by violent Trump supporters were being planned in all 50 state capitals as well as in Washington for the days leading up to the inauguration.    To find out how tight security will be and what the risk of more violence is we&rsquo...

Welcome to our Briefing ‘Summer Mode’ series, where we check in on your favourite stories of 2020, and catch up with the key people in those episodes to see if anything’s changed.   On today’s episode we catch up with Marcus Tomoff a 28 year old from Florida who got COVID-19 and infected his parents. Months after getting the virus, we find out what’s it like, and...

Welcome to our Briefing ‘Summer Mode’ series, where we check in on your favourite stories of 2020, and catch up with the key people in those episodes to see if anything’s changed.   On today's episode we’re joined by Googles Data Editor Simon Rogers to see if our top google searches have changed over the last few months since our episode in September, what our searches...

Welcome to our Briefing ‘Summer Mode’ series, where we check in on your favourite stories of 2020, and catch up with the key people in those episodes to see if anything’s changed since we first spoke to them.   On today’s episode we’re joined by Jacob Greber who took us on a road trip through Trump territory and the rust belt in the lead up to the election. He he...

Welcome to our Briefing ‘Summer Mode’ series, where we check in on your favourite stories of 2020, and catch up with the key people in those episodes to see if anything’s changed.   On today's episode we look at the 35,000 Aussies that are stranded overseas and cant get home for Christmas: Tim an Aussie living in Malta Dave an Aussie stuck in Berlin Jess an Aussie stuck in L...

2020 has been a year. We really thought the January bushfires were going to be the worst of it, but then came floods, a recession, and a global pandemic. It’s been so bad that it can be difficult to put into words.   Except that someone has. Writer, radio presenter and Chaser co-founder Dom Knight has written the 2020 Dictionary: The Definitive Guide to the Year the Planet Turned to Shi...

Four years ago 10-15 percent of ASIO cases were linked to the far right. Now, that figure has almost tripled. The head of ASIO, our national security agency, says that Neo-Nazis are one of the most challenging security threats in Australia. Reports tell us racially motivated terrorism, especially from white supremacists is “on the rise and spreading geographically.”  &nb...

Australia’s relationship with alcohol is changing, on average we're drinking less, in fact less than anytime in the last 50 years. In today's briefing topic, you’ll find out why.   Someone who’s watched this relationship from a safe distance, is comedian Shaun Micallef. He stopped drinking in his 20s and made a documentary series called "On The Sauce". He joins us on today's...

In this Briefing we’ll find out how you negotiate a rental decrease ! In some parts of the country the pandemic had a big impact on renters who are more likely to have insecure jobs.    As a renter it always feels like the landlord has the upper hand and that rent only ever goes up but that’s not the case at the moment in some of Australia’s biggest rental markets so it...

COVID-19 has really sped up the cashless tend and in today’s episode we’re Briefing you on how close we are to becoming a cashless economy, and the surprising and important reasons why we may never go 100% cash free.    The big four banks closed 170 branches during the pandemic and more than two thousand ATM’s were removed mid-year, it’s unclear whether they&rsquo...

The Paris agreement is having its 5th birthday tomorrow so you’ll be hearing a lot about it, and a lot about achieving net zero emissions by 2050 which is something our government haven’t committed to yet despite being a signatory to the Paris climate agreement.    In today's episode we’ll explain what the Paris agreement actually is and go back to basics with Andrew Hi...

A film about one of Australia’s darkest moments, the 1996 Port Arthur massacre is in production right now. It’s called Nitram which is Martin spelt backwards and is scheduled for release next year. The filmmakers want to shine a light on the gun laws that were brought in after the attack, but a long list of Tasmanians don’t want the film to go ahead, and in today's Briefing...

On this day one year ago Whakaari/White Island volcano off the coast of New Zealand erupted. Tragically there were 47 tourists on or near the island and around 12 of them were actually inside the crater. In total 22 people died, 17 of them were Australians.    So now that we’re one year on what have we learned about this tragedy? what should have been done differently? and who...

In 2016, 20-year-old Australian Elly Warren was killed on a night out with friends at a tourist resort in Mozambique. Her father Paul Warren is still fighting for justice having travelled to Africa and funded his own investigation. And as part of that investigation he hired a local woman to act as a sex worker and gather evidence on the key suspect.    In this Briefing topic, you&rs...

Streaming services have transformed the way we watch TV with 16 million Australians now accessing these platforms. But the giants Netflix, Amazon and Disney are all US companies with mostly US shows.   Last month the Australian government put out a proposal to force these streaming services to spend a certain percentage of their Australian revenue on Australian content. On today’s episo...

There’s been a running boom in 2020. During lockdown it was one of the only things you could do and in some parts of the country the number of people using running tracks and walking trails doubled during the height of the pandemic.   So in this episode we’re going to find out why so many of us turned to running and what we got out of it not just the physical side but the psycholo...

A national review has suggested that smartphone apps and wearable surveillance devices including ankle bracelets are among options that could allow returning travellers to quarantine at home rather than in a hotel. Since March, Hong Kong has been allowing travellers to home quarantine using a wrist bracelet that you scan into a phone app and it has been working effectively.   On today's episo...

Parler is a growing platform that calls itself the “world’s premier free speech social network.”  But is it free speech? or hate speech?   Parler has created a space for people who share a similar world view and those that feel their opinions are being blocked by more traditional social media sites. User numbers spiked dramatically after the 2020 US Presidential electio...

What may be a few easy taps on your phone to order takeout straight to your door, can be a treacherous and sometimes life-threatening trek for food delivery drivers. On average, one food delivery rider dies in Australia every fortnight. Five delivery riders have died nationally in the past nine weeks, four of them in Sydney.   The latest tragedy involved a 37-year-old UberEats cyclist from Ma...

Can “shareholder activists” bring meaningful action on climate change, even as the federal government continues to hold out? At 23 years old, Mark McViegh sued one of Australia’s biggest super funds over its handling of climate change, forcing them to commit to being carbon neutral by 2050. This year a number other superannuation funds have committed to achieving net zero carbon...