The Morning Edition

Kylie Moore-Gilbert was imprisoned in Iran for more than years, accused of being a spy. Five years after her release, the research fellow in security studies at Macquarie University is calling on the Australian government to change its strategy towards hostages. Today, Moore-Gilbert speaks about how the era of "quiet diplomacy" is – in some hostage cases –over. Subscribe to The Age & S...

On the evening of Anzac Day, a man is alleged to have set in motion a series of events that sparked a national outcry, broke hearts, and ignited rage in Alice Springs. Today's episode comes after the news that 47-year-old Jefferson Lewis was charged on Sunday with the murder of a five-year-old girl in a tiny Alice Springs community. We cross to the Northern Territory to journalist Hannah Murphy, f...

Inflation figures were out this week, and it wasn’t good news. Next week’s interest rates figures from the Reserve Bank aren't looking crash hot either. So how do these results impact Jim Chalmers’ impending budget and what are the chances the treasurer will press ahead with changes to taxes and housing? We also chat about the government’s new favourite buzzwords from...

When the National Disability Insurance Scheme was created in 2013, it was proof that a rich society could find the money to help people living with a disability. This was social democracy at work. Twelve years on, it has turned into a $62 billion behemoth, on track to cost more than the age pension. The Albanese government last week admitted the scheme was at risk of collapse. It announced a root-...

Regular listeners will know Peter Hartcher – he’s our international and political editor and a weekly voice on The Morning Edition , helping us dissect and process the extraordinary times that we’re living in. Every week we get a lot of comments from our listeners, so we put a call out for the burning questions you’ve wanted to ask Hartcher. Today we've collated a selection...

It's shaping up to be a story of profound betrayal – if the allegations are proven in court. On the one hand is one of Australia's most influential and richest philanthropists, a woman who doesn't use email or indeed a computer.  On the other is her personal secretary, whom she entrusted with access to her intimate personal and financial details. Today, chief investigative reporter Kate...

Within hours of the shooting, right outside where US President Donald Trump was dining at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, the American president was venting his anger. Not, notably, about the gunman firing shots in the lobby of the hotel. But at a journalist who read out what the suspected shooter allegedly thinks about Trump.  Today Bruce Wolpe, a senior fellow at the United States Studies C...

Prohibition-era gangs, mafia dons, the notorious Melbourne’s gangland wars and the rise of flashy outlaw motorcycle gangs. Crime in Australia has had a few iterations, and has mirrored crime occurring in the rest of the world. But now we’re in a new era. Today investigative reporter Marta Pascual Juanola on how organised crime has changed and the uniquely Australian trend that has emer...

Today, we are talking about one of the federal budget’s trickiest customers - the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Labor was once like a proud parent of the NDIS, but now even the minister in charge, Mark Butler, is describing the scheme as a honeypot for organised crime. Also this week, an inquiry about taxing offshore gas exports went kind of viral due to a David Pocock question about...

Since the Cold War ended more than 35 years ago, many of us have likely not given much thought to Bloc warfare. Those nuclear threats that the Western and Eastern Blocs hurled at each other? A thing of the past. But lately, the beginnings of a  return to Bloc warfare have revealed themselves. Today, international and political editor Peter Hartcher on the group of countries that are assisting...

Treasurer Jim Chalmers is slated to make a big change to the tax system, with the centrepiece of the May budget a change to taxing capital gains on property. Will the likely tweaks reduce skyrocketing house prices, or address intergenerational inequality? Today, senior economics correspondent Shane Wright talks about who this change will cost, who it will benefit, and by how much. Background readi...

There’s been something of a revolt in women’s basketball in the United States, and two Australians – Alanna Smith and Ezi Magbegor – are among the biggest winners. Today, sports reporter Frances Howe on the multimillion-dollar deals netted by these Australian stars, as a result of a very simple demand, and what it means for women in sport.   Background reading The Age...

Just picture it: under the cover of night, police detectives raid a clandestine drug lab in Melbourne belonging to an organised crime gang. But instead of picking through just the usual: beakers, wads of cash and perhaps the unmistakable acetone odour of ICE, they stumble on something else. Boxes upon boxes – upon BOXES – of Lego. Today, senior reporter Chris Vedelago on why your...

A fire at a Geelong oil refinery - one of two refineries left in Australia - has heightened anxiety around fuel supply. Energy Minister Chris Bowen joins the Inside Politics podcast today to address the impact of this fire and the scramble for petrol and diesel imports as the nation grapples with one of the most severe oil shocks in history. The pugilistic minister, a lighting rod in the debate ab...

Seven weeks into the US-Israel war with Iran, the narrative that Donald Trump was pushed into the war by Benjamin Netanyahu, and that the US president is an agent of Israel, still permeates the internet. How much truth is there to these claims? Today, international and political editor Peter Hartcher talks about who really is driving the war, and why it matters. Read Hartcher's column here . Subsc...

As our journalist James Massola put it, his niece Mattea is like most three-year-olds: boisterous and bursting with energy. Mattea is also not like most three-year-olds: from the moment she was born, her parents have had to grapple with a complex set of problems that make life very different. I’m Samantha Selinger-Morris, and you’re listening to The Morning Edition, from The Age and Sy...

For years, Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, have been tanking in popularity polls. Meghan is now the second-most disliked royal, beaten only by the disgraced Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. So why is this faux-royal tour occurring down under when the British monarchy is arguably on the nose? Today, senior writer Bevan Shields comments on recent bullying accusations against Prince Harry,...

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been slammed – over the course of years – for failing to crack down on the more than 1 million gambling ads broadcast every year on Australia's free-to-air TV and radio, not to mention the rest of our gambling industry, which has driven some families to financial ruin. Then, finally, just over a week ago, came the prime minister’s announcement...

The new leader of the Nationals, Matt Canavan, is a former Marxist from the suburbs who was once a Productivity Commission economist and then, a firebrand right-wing senator. Canavan joins  Inside Politics today with chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal at a time when the Nationals are battling for survival against an ascendant One Nation. The pair discuss Australia's over-reliance on th...

US President Donald Trump has backed down, at the eleventh hour, from his horrifying threat to - as Trump put it himself - unleash destruction on Iran’s entire civilisation.  Both sides have now said they have agreed to a two-week ceasefire, which includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Today, international and political editor Peter Hartcher on how to make sense of the events of the l...

The Australian Federal Police today arrested war hero Ben Roberts-Smith over the war-crimes murders of five unarmed Afghan civilians and prisoners during the Afghan War. The arrest comes after a quiet, five-year-long investigation into Roberts-Smith, which reportedly involved tapped phones, listening devices, and raids by secretive Office of the Special Investigator detectives. Today, investigativ...

There was a significant judgment in a Victorian court last week, one that is causing a great deal of controversy in the medical community. The case centres on what happened when a woman presented to a regional hospital to give birth. The woman, Larissa Gawthrop, was in labour – but the hospital refused to admit her until she’d undergone a vaginal examination. For the hospital, this tes...

Many of us probably have a hunch that vaping is bad for our health. Questions about just how bad have been around for years. So why, then, has there been a backlash by health researchers against a new study, that has now declared that the evidence is in, and e-cigarettes are likely to cause oral and lung cancer? Today, science reporter Angus Dalton on the main warnings contained in this Australian...

This week we debate the merits of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s national address before getting stuck into what’s happening with the budget. With the world in a bit of a shambles, we found it interesting that the PM hasn’t totally killed off the idea of reforms in the budget to things such as capital gains tax and negative gearing. But, as our guest and senior economics...

US President Donald Trump says he’s nearly done with the war in Iran, declaring: "We will be leaving very soon." His secretary of state also said on Wednesday that he can "see the finish line". This would be significant, but only if the Americans were in control of the war. Today, international and political editor Peter Hartcher argues the United States has leached power in this war, while...