"The Week on Wednesday" with Van Badham & Ben Davison

Van Badham and Ben Davison start this special Thursday edition by tearing apart the ridiculous wage cutting ideologies of Jeff Kennet and exploring why a man who's devoted his life to cutting wages wanting to cut wages isn't news but it is bad for productivity, women and workers in general.  Which is why unions are campaigning for more flexibility to work from home and you can join them at austral...

Ben Davison spends some time looking at the Robodebt Royal Commission report, the scathing rebuke of the Morrison government, the potential crimes of former ministers and the culture of cooperation between corporate and billionaire owned media and the Coalition of treating people in need as less than human. Ben explains why Robodebt was bad policy, how we avoid such policies in the future and why...

Van Badham and Ben Davison dive into the explosion of bots, trolls and online hate that is being targeted at YES campaigners and how Pauline Hanson is using her vile and inexcusable comments about Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi to eliminate protections against discrimination and open the flood gates on hate speech. The farm workers we reported on last episode won their strike and you can win better...

Ben Davison, fresh from a Yes campaign launch event, talks about why he's voting YES at the referendum and how you can get involved through yes23.com.au or through your union at australianunions.org.au/wow to join and then follow the links. ICAC has found Gladys Berejiklian engaged in serious corrupt conduct.  Ben discusses why the bosses pamphlet was so very wrong about Glady's "saving Australia"...

Van Badham and Ben Davison look at the context of the first farm strike in decades as United Workers Union member's stand firm against employer threats and take action for a decent pay rise, same job, same pay rules and the right to pick salads for Coles and Aldi under decent conditions. There's a union for everyone and if you've got a boss you should be a member of your union, join at australianu...

Ben Davison takes a look at the big stories coming out of Russia, the Musk/Zuckerberg cage match and the Oceangate tragedy and draws together the threads of how these sagas, created and caused by billionaires, usually involve the suffering and or exploitation of working people. And that maybe that's why there's a level of skepticism towards them. Ben also discusses the passing of the referendum bi...

Van Badham and Ben Davison explore the broken philosophy of The RBA that denies profiteering is a problem until everyone else has said it is, continues to believe in a wage-price spiral that doesn't exist and both simultaneously says people should get more work but we need less people employed.   Of course the union movement was among the first to point out the fallacies of the RBA's ideology and...

Ben Davison takes a look at the horrendous week in federal parliament, the ABC's continued use of billionaire funded journalists on Insiders, the grim reality that women's safety in the workplace is a question of solidarity whether that's in parliament or in a factory. The Liberal's "flood the zone" strategy failed and has exposed, on Insiders, that the Coalition was aware they had a Senator who w...

Van Badham and Ben Davison look at what's happening in Canberra, how Brittany Higgins is again being targeted, why the Liberal's are "flooding the zone" and what it has to do with recent polls that show Labor is the most trusted party on economic management. Warning there is some discussion of violence and assault. Van and Ben discuss the recent data showing CEO's getting 15% pay rises while their...

Van Badham and Ben Davison discuss the latest of Phil Lowe's interest rate rises and the Reserve Bank's total ideological capture.  We breakdown why they are happening, how ideological obsession is outweighing economic reality and wonder if Phil Lowe's own crisis about his position may be part of the reason that he gives wildly contradictory statements about the economy one day to the next. The un...

Ben Davison gets under the hood of the minimum wage decision, the cuts the bosses wanted and how millions of Australian's will be better off as a result of the work of the Australian Union movement.  If you're not already a member join now at australianunions.org.au/wow because unions have won an 8.6% increase in the minimum wage, a 5.75% in award wages and unionised workers get paid an average of...

Van Badham and Ben Davison are BACK and the struggle continues! Visy, Australia's largest private company, is still refusing to make a decent offer to workers after 20 weeks of action and bosses in the university sector are strategising together to cut pay and conditions while bosses unions are calling for cuts to the minimum wage and the right to keep exploiting sham contracting and labour hire l...

Ben admits he couldn't bring himself to watch Insiders as he gives a scathing critique of the Murdoch infiltration of the ABC.  On a week where Stan Grant was hounded out of QandA by Murdoch's dogs, the Uluru statement from the Heart had its anniversary and The Australian admitted to doctoring a letter to the editor about Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson there was an Australian journalist on the Ins...

Ben Davison looks at the first 12 months of the Albanese Labor government and some of the big changes ranging from the National Anti-Corruption Commission and Robo-debt royal commission to improvements in job security and wages to NDIS reforms and genuine action on climate change.  The first year of Labor at a national level has achieved a lot. The union movement has had successes on wages, women'...

Van Badham and Ben Davison take a closer look at Labor's proposed housing fund, why the Green opposition doesn't stack up and why the Dutton position remains the worst of all possible outcomes. With debate still raging about "the best" housing policies Labor's policy achieves some core outcomes.  More homes, a mechanism that Dutton can't easily scrap and an acknowledgement of the physical limitati...

Ben Davison takes apart Insiders for the lack of insight, the lack of economic understanding and the soft rehabilitation job on Peter Dutton. The budget this week was a step change towards Keynesian economic frameworks that support employment, wages growth and a social wage that keeps inflation under control and provides opportunity for people. The Insiders analysis and questions of Jim Chalmers s...

Van Badham and Ben Davison take a deep dive on the ideological frameworks that have crafted the first Commonwealth budget surplus in 15 years while also delivering increases to wages, Jobseeker, parenting payments, rent assistance and massive investments in health, Medicare and aged care. The budget doesn't deliver everything everyone wants and Ben and Van explain how and why some of the decisions...

Ben Davison looks Angus "Inflation" Taylor's terrible Insiders performance, the increases to Jobseeker, gas company taxes, energy bill relief and why a surplus budget is needed when the RBA is obsessed with increasing interest rates. Ben also looks at how effective the union movement has been in securing pay increase for aged care workers, an energy transition authority and ended the sham contract...

Van Badham and Ben Davison discuss the Reserve Bank's guerrilla interest rate rise, budget leaks and what they might mean for you as well as the minimum wage and why unions are taking action against the people who'd pay you nothing if they could get away with it.  So join your union at australianunions.org.au/wow Ben breaks down the incoherence of the reserve banks ideological attack on working pe...

Van Badham joins Ben Davison for a special weekend wrap! They dissect David Speers' on defence policy, consider Insiders' decision to ignore reforms to the pharmaceutical benefits scheme (PBS), ask whether Albo attending the Sandilands wedding was either good or bad politics and the dangers of mistaking online abuse for a real-world movement. Our hosts discuss what real reforms to the social safet...

Van Badham and Ben Davison look at the threads behind the rise and fall of Murdoch star, Tucker Carlson.  Why he was effective at what he did, why that wasn't making money, how the Murdoch empires remains focused on making money and how their political interference is just a means of more easily making money.  Despite his sacking Tucker Carlson was, and remains, very focused on promulgating his vi...

Ben observes Peter Van Onselen's decision to wear a Foxtel show hoodie on Insiders after a week where his parent Murdoch publication, The Australian, was critical of Van Badham having her book on display in the background of The Drum and another guest seemed to accidentally make the case for why unions are important by pointing out junior employees are often afraid to raise issues.  You can join y...

Van Badham and Ben Davison look at the shocking collapse in support for the Coalition, the nose dive in Dutton's approval and how Labor has overtaken the Liberals as the party perceived as best to manage all aspects of the economy, jobs, wages and the delivery of services.  Van and Ben explore Dutton's recent poor decisions and how taking shadow cabinet appointment advice from Pauline Hanson may b...

Van Badham and Ben Davison discuss Dutton's "unelectable boofheads" and their response to the resignation of now former shadow minister for Indigenous Affairs and shadow Attorney General Julian Leeser which has swung wildly from "Albo should apologise" to their media mouth pieces calling him a "traitor" and "self indulgent".  What does this mean for the ever "unelectable" Liberal Party?  Van and B...

Ben Davison takes a look at how a NSW jam factory has been able to employee up to 100 children as young as 11 as a former Liberal MP attacks minimum wages for Aboriginal people and the union movement for insisting that all workers get at least the minimum wage. With the minimum wage case underway, unions calling for wages to keep up with the cost of living while the bosses lobby argues for more wa...