The Briefing

Maxine Beneba Clarke is an Australian writer of Afro-Caribbean descent whose work includes fiction, non-fiction, children’s books and poetry. She has won a plethora prizes. From the NSW Premier’s Award to the Australian Book Industry Literary Fiction Book of the Year.   Maxine is so much more than a mantelpiece heavy with trophies. Her books, her poetry and her musings on Twitter...

Australian Billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes has teamed with Canadian asset manager Brookfield in a bid to buy the Australian energy giant AGL and then accelerate the company’s green energy transition - planning to get the company out of coal by 2030.    Mike joins the Briefing to explain his plan for the future of Australia’s energy market, and how he sees his vision playing o...

How would you feel about going shares with the government to buy your first home?    Brendan Coates, the Economic Policy Program Director at the Grattan Institute, says it’s time for a national shared equity housing scheme. He says several states already have shared equity schemes, but it’s time for a national approach to address housing affordability.    2021 saw h...

The families of some of the adults and children killed in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School reached a settlement with gun manufacturer Remington.  They won a $A100m lawsuit in a court in Connecticut, with the court ruling Remington had marketed the firearm used in the shootings to young men.   Veronique de la Rosa, a mother of one of the schoolchildren killed, joins...

Australia’s energy market is changing rapidly.   Coal fired power plants are closing earlier than planned... and their owners are building batteries in their place!    Last year Energy Australia announced the Yallourn plant in Victoria will close and Origin Energy last week announced its Eraring plant in NSW will close seven years earlier than planned. Tech billionaire Mi...

Economists say interest rates will rise this year – some are predicting a 15-basis point rise as early as June. So, what does that mean for the average mortgagee?   We talk to AMP chief economist Shane Oliver, to find out how many Australians will go into mortgage stress if rates rise, as predicted, by one percent in the next twelve months.   With a federal election due in May, bot...

CONTENT WARNING: Sexual Assault. Domestic Violence.  Domestic Violence Help Line: 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) This is a 24-hour national sexual assault, family and domestic violence counselling line for any Australian who has experienced, or is at risk of, family and domestic violence and/or sexual assault. Individuals can also access local support services and search the internet using ...

US President Joe Biden this week put the world on notice that a Russian attack could happen very soon... and western countries have been evacuating their embassy staff and warning citizens to get out...    But the Ukraine president President Volodymyr Zelensky has been giving a very different message - he’s been urging people to stay calm.   So what is happening in Ukraine......

Jakara Anthony is an Australian freestyle skier, and Olympic gold medalist.  Jakara won the Women's Moguls event at the 2022 Winter Olympics – one of the most gruelling and challenging events at the Olympics. Having been a competitive skier since her childhood, the gold medal at Beijing was a lifelong dream.    She said after winning gold:  “It's really incredible t...

China is hosting the Winter Olympics and two of its athletes highlight the incredible complexity of the country’s social media – and attitude to the rest of the world in general.      Eileen Gu is the poster girl.  Born in the US to an American father and a Chinese mother, she chose to represent China at the Games.  Gu won gold and is a national hero.&nbsp...

Prime Minister Scott Morrison won the “miracle” election back in 2019.  No one expected him to win, but he was a master campaigner, convincing what he called “the quiet Australians” to trust him.   Annika Smethurst from the Age newspaper and the Briefing is author of a biography on Scott Morrison – The Accidental Prime Minister.  Annika tells us Scott M...

McDonalds is accused of denying workers their ten minute meal break….in some cases offering workers a free sugary soft drink instead.  They’re being sued for $100m in the largest class action of its type in the history of the Federal Court.   We’re joined by Josh Peak, Secretary of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, who says the class action could...

Lisa Wilkinson has lived most of her life in the public eye. At age just 21 she became editor of DOLLY magazine, before going on to edit CLEO magazine and later becoming a longtime co-host of the TODAY show with Karl Stefanovic. Now co-host of The Project and with a new autobiography in bookstores, Wilkinson remains at the top of her game.  In this chat with Jamila Rizvi she spoke about telev...

As many as 1000 trucks have converged on Canada’s capital, Ottawa.  The Freedom Convoy 2000 has rallied to protest mandatory vaccines for Canadian truck drivers who ferry goods to and from the United States. The protestors are sounding their horns constantly, driving locals to despair.   Elizabeth Payne is a journalist with the Ottawa Sun.  She says while numbers are dwindling...

Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins addressed the National Press Club in Canberra yesterday to highlight the plight of victims of sexual assault. Amy Remeikis, the Guardian’s federal political correspondent, joins us to talk through the fallout from the address.  Scott Morrison apologised in Parliament this week…..was it enough to stem the fallout from the scandal that has rocked the...

Denmark has become the first European country to lift ALL covid restrictions... except international arrivals who’ll need to be double-vaxxed.   Authorities say the virus no longer qualifies as a ‘critical threat’ because of the country’s high vaccination rate  - 81% of adults are double vaxxed and more than 60% are boosted - and ICU admissions and hospital s...

A Brisbane Christian college has backflipped on its policy that required parents a sign a contract, that said children could be expelled based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.   We’re joined by the YouTube star and comedian, Christian Hull, who has led the campaign to have the contract ripped up.  We also talk to Natalie Pole, a parent of two students starting school...

The Winter Olympic Games kicked off over the weekend in Beijing in China.  Politics will be bubbling beneath the surface, with Russian President Vladimir Putin attending the Games alongside Chinese host Xi Jinping, while western countries boycott the Games over China’s human rights record.   Here are the two largest non-Western superpowers posing together on the world stage. &...

Dr Norman Swan's COVID-19 analysis has made him one of the most recognisable media identities in the last two years.   But where did this highly articulate, bespectacled doctor with a Scottish accent come from?  In this chat with guest host Tom Tilley, Norman discusses his upbringing in Scotland, why he decided to get political during the pandemic and what he’s learnt about hi...

We learned this week Hillsong founder and global leader Brian Houston is stepping down to fight charges that he concealed his father’s alleged sexual assault.    We discuss what this means for Hillsong and its expansion in the US.   We’re joined by Elle Hardy, author of Beyond Belief: How Pentecostal Christianity Is Taking Over the World.  Elle has travelled th...

When state governments pause elective surgeries - to free resources to handle covid cases - it’s a huge deal to people waiting for those surgeries. Elective surgeries include any procedure that doesn’t need to be done within 24 hours.  That includes some cancer procedures, even brain surgery – and these procedures are not luxury options    We were all moved by...

The aged care sector is in crisis, with hundreds dying from Covid already this year….. 2022 is already shaping up as the worst year for nursing homes in terms of pandemic deaths.  One of the hidden crises is mental health. If our parents and grandparents don’t get personal interaction, their cognitive health goes into steep decline.   We’re joined by “Julie&rdquo...

There’s a major crisis in the Australian automotive industry.  There are basically no new cars. It’s partly to do with the global semiconductor shortage, and partly to do with people having extra cash in the pandemic, splurging on a new vehicle.   James Voortman is CEO of the Australian Automotive Dealer Association.  He says the car is the second-biggest purchase f...

Students return to schools across the country this week (except for QLD) and they face a very challenging tension point for ‘living with covid’.   We’re joined by Correna Haythorpe, the Federal President of the Australian Education Union.  We know with Omicron spreading across the nation, you’ve got dozens of people in one room, a huge number of unvaccinated kids,...

You've probably heard of Shameless, the celebrity and pop culture podcast that has taken the country by storm. But who are Michelle Andrews and Zara McDonald, the notoriously private young women behind the podcasting juggernaut? In this conversation with Jamila Rizvi, Zara and Michelle unpack what gave them the courage to leave their secure jobs and try something totally new, why they like keeping...