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

Ben Davison looks at Labor's moves to scrap the cashless debit card, end the outsourcing of Centrelink call centres and lift the minimum wage while acknowledging National reconciliation week and Mabo Day. Insider's had National Party leader David Littleproud on who expressed "no regrets" over the policies of the last decade of Liberal-National misrule, lied about Labor's efforts to fix the energy...

Van Badham and Ben Davison dive into the new Albanese Government Ministry with a look at some of the key changes as well as an explainer on how "factions" work and directly answer some direct listener questions. Big appointments in defence, skills, education, environment, climate change, NDIS, government services, aged care, housing, Indigenous Australians, infrastructure, the arts and workplace r...

Ben Davison looks at a huge first week for the Albanese Labor government as five ministers bring the Muragappan family home to Bilo, push to lift wages, rebuild our relationships in the Pacific, ensure our role in the Quad and commit to the Uluru Statement from the Heart and a Voice to parliament. Ben also reviews the latest episode of Insider's where Phil Coorey calls Education, Health, The NDIS,...

Van Badham and Ben Davison examine the first few days of the Albanese Labor government as Albo and his gang of four are sworn in to start the transition after a decade of Liberal-National rule and so Albo can attend the regional security pact meeting known as "The Quad". Van and Ben look at Labor's policy priorities between now and the end of the year, the make up of the parliament, the failure of...

Van Badham and Ben Davison talk about election night 2022, the first openly left/centre left LIVE Election night broadcast and the current state of play for the Australian parliament. With Albo's Labor Party winning a majority but the most independant MPs elected into parliament since before WWII Van and Ben look at what has happened from a macro perspective and how this election signals that Aust...

Van Badham and Ben Davison break down Morrison's re-election platform of wage cuts, job cuts and raids on retirement on the very day the Morrison government has delivered the worst wage figures in more than 20 years. With profits up, sales up, CEO pay up, the cost of living going up and Morrison demanding workers wear a $4,000 pay cut Van and Ben ask the question; "How can Morrison be promising to...

Ben Davison looks at Albo's Insider's interview and the key point that Australians with jobs are now having to rely on food banks while Morrison argues for more pay cuts and against a $1 an hour wage increase. Morrison ended the week promising to change but immediately doubled down on all the same old policy positions. The Liberal campaign launch shows a weakening grip on older voters and Dutton s...

Van Badham and Ben Davison look at why Morrison is demanding that Australian's accept pay cuts of $2,000 each as he rails against the idea that wages should keep pace with inflation. Since Morrison responded to Albo's question on whether or not every worker should be paid the minimum wage with "it depends" the focus of the election has been on wages. Workers in aged care, hospitals and education h...

Ben Davison covers why Waleed was wrong to suggest we need more wage cuts to control inflation as Australian workers have already lifted productivity by more than 10% points since 2013 and Treasury tells us that for every 1.5% lift in productivity we can sustain 4% increases in wages WITHOUT impacting inflation. And wages have been going backwards.  Ben looks at why inflation is happening despite...

Van Badham and Ben Davison are joined by the host of hit political podcast, Socially Democratic, Stephen Donnelly to discuss the 2022 election...so far. The crew examine some big questions: Is Labor's polling lead translating on the ground? Has Morrison lost control of the economic and national security narratives? Have Australian Unions turned "economic management" into a discussion about "managi...

This May Day Ben Davison gives a 20 minute wrap up of James Campbell's embarrassingly fact free appearance on Insider's where he dismissed the democratic rights of two thirds of Australian's and everyone who has experienced wage cuts over the past two years. Remember union member's have more secure jobs and earn more so join at australianunions.org.au/wow Ben looks at Labor's promise to launch a R...

Van Badham and Ben Davison look at how Morrison has bungled the economy.  Despite his many promises he is set to increase taxes for 10 million households, has overseen a 5% spike in inflation (just two months after promising it wouldn't go above 4.25%) and is delivering a $2,000 real wage CUT. Van and Ben look at how the inflation spike, wages cuts, impending interest rate rise and ongoing job ins...

Ben Davison looks at Morrison's explanation that his debate response to a mother who's child has had their NDIS support cut that he was "blessed to not have had to go through that" was about the difficulties in navigating the NDIS, rather than a comment about children with a disability.  Even if we take Morrison at his word it is, at the very least, a condemnation of his own failure to properly de...

Van Badham and Ben Davison look at Morrison's promises on workplace laws and what the real impact will be for working people. They also give a roundup on the changing COVID rules and election state of play. Morrison's campaign continues to take place in workplaces where workers are being offshored, wages cut, temporary migrants exploited and former Liberal Minister's chair the board.  The work of...

Van Badham joins Ben Davison for an election special weekend wrap.  The end of the first week of the election campaign has seen a change in the way the media reports the campaigns, the topics that are being covered and the insights being offered. On ABC's Insider's program the panel openly discussed Morrison's decision to install a bigot into a seat he does not expect to win in order to help gain...

Van Badham and Ben Davison discuss "horse race" political journalism in light of the revelations that Morrison is "hosting drinks for the media" during the campaign and that the "cash rate gaffe" was based on a question asked after a visit to a nursing home that needed nurses but where the media wasn't interested in asking about aged care policy. With disinformation campaigns having shaped nationa...

Van Badham joins Ben Davison to discuss the opening salvo's from Morrison and Albo on the first day of the election. They take a brief look at some of the battle ground seats around the country, the key issues that have been put forward by the leaders and seperate some of the spin from the reality. So settle in for a wide ranging chat about the issues, the leaders, how the systems of our democracy...

Van Badham and Ben Davison dive into the mess that is Scott Morrison's relationship with the truth as the week since the budget has seen Morrison called "unfit to be Prime Minister" by member's of his own government, state Liberals MPs write articles on why they "cannot vote for the reelection of a Scott Morrison government" and ABC Fact Check find him to be "misleading" All while his intervention...

Josh Frydenberg gave a train wreck interview with David Speers on Insiders. From refusing to fund aged care wages to it being exposed that he had planned to reduce the price of medicines but had it cut from the budget and continually saying he and Morrison were offering "temporary cost of living relief", when what we need is a permanent improvement in living standards, Josh came across as a man wh...

Van Badham and Ben Davison breakdown the Morrison budget. This latest instalment of neo-liberal waste and vote buying STILL doesn't address the fundamental issues of insecure work and low wage growth that is dragging down the economy and people's household budgets. While the average worker has already gone backwards $1,300 over the last 18 months this budget locks in another $1,355 cut to the livi...

Van Badham joins Ben Davison for a very special edition of the Weekend Wrap to bring you The Week on Wednesday, on a Sunday. Van and Ben dive into the Morrison government's pre-budget leaks, analyse Insiders and Jim Chalmer's focus on wages and job security during his interview.  The budget will benefit from rising commodity prices but Morrison's renouncement of old policies, leaking of cash hand...

Technical issues mean that Van Badham wasn't able to join Ben for this week's episode but The Weekend Wrap will be a special extended, post Insiders and pre federal budget Sunday edition. In a shorter 30 minute episode Ben looks at how Morrison is leading the charge on cutting wages while the reserve bank admits that under the current government policies workers face another wage cut this year, on...

Ben Davison looks at how Peter Malinauskas won the South Australian for Labor focussing on health, ambulance waiting times, public ownership of assets and jobs while the Marshall Liberals, blinded by infighting and scandal, set the wrong, wasteful priorities. Morrison minister, Simon Birmingham, appeared on Insiders this morning to claim the people of South Australia had been "tricked" and that th...

Van Badham and Ben Davison dive into the cost of living crisis that is smashing Australian households with some people going backwards by as much as $1,500 a year.  Morrison may be trumpeting low unemployment but more and more Australians are in lower paid, casual work and having to work more than one job just to survive.  Australian Unions are achieving better outcomes in workplaces with more uni...

Ben Davison breaks down Labor shadow defence minister, Brendan O'Connor's, Insiders interview in which he exposes the wastefulness of the Morrison-Dutton government.  Billions spent on equipment that doesn't work, given to Liberal donor companies that have no staff and on contracts that will never be delivered.  All in pursuit of an arbitrary "Spending as a percentage of GDP target" while Dutton f...