Think Again

Sarah Sacher from the Human Technology Institute (HTI) explains the expanded provisions for automated decision making in the new NDIS Bill before parliament, that lack human oversight and proper guard rails. This decision-making relates to the supports that people with disability can access. While certain types of decisions may be appropriate for automation, those that require human discretion and...

Whilst we only very occasionally hear or view on our mainstream media about what's going on in Sudan, the civil war in that countrry has been and continues to be one of the most violent in recent history and still with any possible resolution in sight. It is known that the United Arabic Emirates have been funding and continue to support the rebel militia, the details remain obscure. What is too of...

Jennifer and Jacques have a closer look at why citizens are losing faith in political systems and processes, and the idea that democracies are working in their interests. This is a world-wide trend. Meanwhile, on the home front, tone-deaf representatives of wealth and power tell a senate committee looking into tax changes, why they should pay lower tax to normal income earners. Against all the evi...

Ex Member for Wills, Kelvin Thomson, talks about his passionate connection with nature dating back to childhood, and current projects he is leading and is involved in to protect local habitats and waterways. These include the Moonee Ponds Chain of Ponds collaboration, and the 'Adopt a Creek' initiative that involves community members keeping small patches of creek litter-free. Kelvin suggested com...

In this radiothon special, the presenters discuss the origins and 'reason for being' of Borderlands Cooperative and its program at 3CR, 'Think Again'.Themes have included:peace and how this is best folded into everyday relations and organising (while countering 'command and control' managerialism)developing and celebrating community, and generating change from the grassrootsexploring alternative a...

Jennifer and Jacques unpick what is happening in the Australian electorate with some big shifts in community sentiment and voting trends, such as a move to One Nation and the demise of the National-Liberal Coalition. They argue that the changing voting patterns are not temporary anomalies, but a response to the inequity that has grown over several decades of market-rules neoliberalism. As argued b...

Jennifer and Jacques weave together a few threads relating to Israel's occupation and genocide in Palestine, including the complicity of the US and western powers, Zionism, Christian Zionism, big money, and the media. For their analysis they are helped by Jewish scholars and historians. The presenters warn against pro-Zionist forces which are working to suppress free speech and critique of Israel...

Nour Salman, who leads the Anti-Palestinian Racism project, talks about a preliminary report on incidents recorded through a national online register (by APAN).Anti-Palestinian racism includes racial vilification and dehumanisation, suppression of political and cultural expression, and denial of identity and equal rights. It is often directed at people standing in solidarity with Palestinian peopl...

Jacques and Jennifer continue their critique of pro-Israel hegemony, which is an active scourge on free and informed public discourse in Australia affecting our media, our legal system and our universities, to name a few institutions. For this program the presenters particularly focus on the pro-Zionist bias underpinning the current Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, and the pla...

Greg Barns SC provides an overview of Australia's new hate speech laws at federal and state levels, and how they present a serious threat to free speech and dissent. While the patchwork of laws is confusing, in general they set some groups against others in partisan fashion, and favour the pro-Israel lobby. Some of the laws are over-reliant on subjective judgements such as what constitutes 'hatred...

For this May Day special, Jacques talks with Stefan Gigacz and Jorge Jorquera about the history of the Young Christian Workers (YCW), a workers' movement that emerged within the Catholic church starting in Belgium over 100 years ago and rapidly spreading worldwide. All three of us have been involved in the movement and have been influenced in various ways, Stefan starting in St Alban's in Melbourn...

Jennifer and Jacques return to the topic of Artificial Intelligence, this time focussing on the pressing dangers of Superintelligent AI, which is self-organising and self-directing and not within the understanding and control of any humans. They refer to a recent book by experts in the field, Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares. with the self-explanatory title: If anyone builds it, everyone dies: Th...

Following the program on this topic two weeks ago, Rob Hattam and Marie Brennan discuss how Australia's policy regime silences the voices of teachers who are treated as mere technicians who should just carry out instructions. In this regime teachers are treated as stupid, requiring dumbed down instruction about what to do in classrooms. Rob and Marie offer an alternative way, based on good social...

Jennifer and Jacques return to the theme of the state of democracy in Australia. They begin with our seriously misguided military alliance with the US, before moving on to the conservative and highly compromised positioning of the Australian Labor Party, leading many to wonder what it stands for in its pursuit of being the 'natural party of government'.ReferencesSean Kelly 2025, 'The good fight: W...

Marie Brennan, Borderlands Cooperative board member, hosts this program. She is joined by Professor Rob Hattam from Adelaide University, who talks about the ways that government policy has been impeding the ability of schools and teachers to carry out good education for several decades. Rob Hattam argues that we've been infected by a 'GERM', a Global Education Reform Movement. The logics of this i...

Jennifer and Jacques take a deeper dive into the wider, historical context of the latest conflagration in the 'middle east', brought on by US-Israel attacks on Iran. They share some ideas for building a better future for all in the region, including: restoration of people's ability to relate across divides and differences, processes for truth-telling, serious resources allocated to reparation, and...

Jennifer and Jacques talk about the US and Israel's full scale attack on Iran which started in late February. They examine some of the reasons given for the war, plus the devastating ripples of harm spinning out from it, harming and uprooting millions of people.

Conal Feehely from Get Up recently went undercover to an Advance conference and he shares some of his learnings. Amidst some predictably extreme themes from presenters (for example blaming migrants and climate policy for current woes) Conal had a range of civil conversations with attendees with legitimate grievances looking for a political solution. Advance has a deliberate, ongoing strategy of en...

It's a national disgrace and a tragedy that children across the country as young as 10 continue to be arrested, charged, and hauled before the courts, and are locked up in police and prison cells. And amongst all the rhetoric about 'closing the gap', Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are 29 times more likely to be growing up behind bars than other children in Australia. The systemic,...

Jane Gardner from the Australian Conservation Foundation talks about a current ACF campaign 'Love letters to nature'.Already many Australians have put their love letters online, expressing how they feel about places that are precious to them. Jane and the presenters read some of the love letters on air that have touched and inspired them. Overall, the letters provide evidence that nature is import...

Jacques and Jennifer continue their discussion about democracy from last week, coming back to the question of how we could imagine our political system to be truly democratic - to have a system in which we the people truly govern ourselves. Once again, the presenters critique the current system with two main parties presented by the media as the only way, as a sport in which two teams are in const...

Jacques and Jennifer talk about the dismal state of democracy in Australia, especially with little space between the two main parties on things that urgently need to change (even before the current downward spiral of the Coalition).Cases in point are: lack of real action on climate change and environment, military and political/imperial entwinement with the US, our support for Israel's ongoing war...

Maree Pardy is the lead author of a new report by Footscray Community Response, which evaluates Maribyrnong Council's use of security patrols to address social and health issues. The research found that Council's reliance on security, police and surveillance is causing direct harm to those targetted and it is undermining the safety and wellbeing of the broader community. The report makes a range o...

After twenty years of working with and supporting the Womanjun Aboriginal communities in the Kimberley and a few years volunteering with communities in the Papua province of Indonesia, Robert reflects on what it all has come to mean for him. He talks about his deep spiritual learning and feeling of humility in the face of ongoing effects of colonialism and neo-colonialism and the arrogant assumpti...

Jacques and Jennifer catch up on a few cataclysmic developments since the last 'Think Again' in 2025, namely:(1) extreme weather events brought on by climate change;(2) the Bondi massacre and its fall out, including some shameful weaponisation of the tragedy for political purposes, and(3) the megalomaniac spinning out of control of the US under Trump and implications for Australia.