Think Again

 Marie Brennan and Lew Zipin talk about their research and action-research projects with schools and universities. They present a direction for education that is intertwined with commmunities - with students researching issues that matter to them, while drawing from a range of sources and 'knowledges', and forming relevant relationships in the process. This is contrasted with the current top-down,...

Jacques and Jennifer talk about some of the big money forces and secretive arrangements behind the right-wing No campaign, agitating against an Aboriginal advisory group to the Australian Parliament. Neoliberal  'think tank' Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) has played a key strategic role in the No campaign, to maintain the pro-business (as usual) status quo. CIS is part of a global network of...

Jacques talks with Dr Kate Shaw, an urban geographer at the University of Melbourne, about the 'bombshell' announcement for an overhaul of social housing by outgoing Premier Dan Andrews. Again: lots of tinkering at the edges of the 'problem'... trying not to antagonise the real estate industry and those who really benefit from the 'crisis' ... and even get the 'Murdoch-cracy' and Nine-Entertainmen...

Troy McDonald is a Director on the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria, which provides a representative Aboriginal Voice to the state government, that is creating pathways for Treaties and Truth-telling. Troy describes how the Assembly works, and how it might show the way for a Voice to Parliament at a national level. This is particularly relevant for the upcoming referendum for a national Voice o...

While a lot of people are apparently worried about tampering with the Australian Constitution in enshrining an Aboriginal Voice to parliament, Jennifer and Jacques discuss how we don't actually follow our Constitution for the most part. It is an anomolous document that embeds our subjection to a distant monarch and says nothing about democratic processes. Alongside our Constitution we have the Wes...

Marie Brennan has been Professor at several universities  and has researched and written about the dire changes in our university system since the 90s. She outlines the moves to a more commercialised, top-down management model, in which academic staff have less say, and many have become demoralised and burnt out. This is a gender equity issue, as many of the casual staff left carrying the load are...

Jay Coonan from the Antipoverty Centre talks about the research report he co-authored, Punishment for profit. The report highlights how billions of government dollars are paid to corporate entities, supposedly to help unemployed people into work. Instead they punish and bully people they are meant to support, and force them into meaningless activities under the threat of losing Centrelink payments...

Jacques and Jennifer revisit Africa and the centuries-long pilfering of its goods and resources by western nations (presumed to be more 'developed'). They expand on this, and talk about the use of certain African nations as a 'tip' for consumer rubbish from the west. To keep their advantage, western nations exercise deep (anti-democratic) interference in local African politics. References:Hickel,...

Jacques interviews Lucinda Holdforth about her book: 21sr-Century virtues: How they are failing our democracy.

Jacques and Jennifer revisit the centuries of vicious exploitation of Africa by western powers, and how Africa has been rubbed out of history to this day - except when African nations are blamed for their own struggles, rather than blaming the interference and skulduggery of western countries which would be much more accurate. ReferencesLode Vanoost 2023, Burkina Faso, Mali en Niger 40 jaar na Tho...

Jennifer and Jacques speak with Simon Bradshaw from the Climate Council. Reflecting on the extreme weather events and heatwaves across the world, Simon talks about what is happening with climate change. Importantly he explains that it is not too late to take action to avert the worst catastrophe. Indeed, not only can action at all levels still bring benefit, it is paramount that such action be tak...

Dr Charles Livingstone from the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, talks about the proposed reforms to reduce harm from poker machines in Victoria. He begins with a history of the computerised version introduced in the 1990s, and explains why these machines are intrinsically hazardous, and an improper source of tax revenue. Charles supports the proposed reforms and...

Jennifer and Jacques talk about the militarisation of our foreign policy, and they ask why we seem to be aiding and abetting the US and NATO military expansion into our region.

Jennifer and Jacques talk about Robodebt, the past federal government's immoral and illegal scheme to reclaim phony debts from Centrelink recipients. The Robodebt Royal Commission has just released its findings, and they are pretty scathing. There was no legal basis for the scheme, and Ministers and top bureaucrats were aware of this early on and actively covered it up and hid the truth. Meanwhile...

Om Dhungel tells his story as recounted in his book; Bhutan to Blacktown: Losing everything and finding Australia, written with James Button. Brought up in a remote village in southern Bhutan, Om is a gifted student and becomes a senior civil servant overseeing Bhutan's first modern telecommunications system. But things change with government crackdowns on southern Bhutanese people of Nepalese anc...

Jennifer reports back from the recent World Community Development Conference in Darwin (on Larrakia country), and Jacques and Jennifer discuss some of the conference themes about ways of doing community work. Drawing from the conference, they also talk about what community work can and should be aimed at. Examples are given of different community projects, including indigenous-led and rural-based...

Jacques talks about what is happening with housing in Australia. Talking about a housing 'crisis' makes it sound as if there are times when things are 'normal' in the area of housing in Australia... but really, homelessness and unaffordability of housing have been with us for the last five decades, homelessness probably even for longer....Leaving the price of shelter to the market will necessarily...

In this Radiothon special, we hear from past guests about the value of 3CR and Think Again, and listeners are asked to help keep the radio station on air through donations. Your support enables 3CR to provide alternative analysis, and ideas for social change. Because of your support, 3CR can keep bringing people together who are working toward a healthier, fairer and more sustainable world. 

Jacques has a conversation with Tuffy Morwitzer, an activist from the Goongerah Environment Centre (GECO), about their reaction to the Andrews Government decision to stop logging old-growth forests by the end of the year - six years earlier than originally planned. Whilst that is a big relief for the 30 year old activist group - with whom Borderlands cooperated in the late 90s during the Goolongoo...

Jennifer and Jacques move from talking about traditional slavery to modern slavery. They cover the ongoing legacy of invasion and colonisation in Australia, and some of the ways that our immigration laws support practices of slavery. 

Jennifer and Jacques talk about the colonial and slavery legacies of racism in the US, and the reverberations in Australian racist policies from federation in 1901 to the 1970s. Their discussion continues from the previous program about slavery in the Americas. ReferencesAlex Zakarus (2022) The roots of American individualism: Political myth in the age of Jackson. New Jersey: Princeton University...

Jacques and Jennifer talk about slavery in the Americas - how the enslaving of millions of Africans and their transport to the Carribean and the early US has played into colonial practices and narratives to this day, and has become integral to the global political-economy of capitalism. Indeed, without the 'labour resource' of slaves, capitalism would probably not have been as 'successful' in the...

Jacques talks with Matt Lloyd-Cape from progressive Think Tank Per Capita about the latest federal budget and what it prioritises and provides for. Our assessment is mixed... we do think that the Government could be a bit braver and risk some more deliberate changes in many areas of policy making... especially housing, taxes and - of course - return to sanity in terms of the AUKUS madness...

Jennifer interviews Tiffany White from Yarra Valley Water, and Bec Moore, who is co-owner of the cafe,Tinker. They talk about an initiative of YVW in partnership with cafes that offer free refills of water bottles to the public ('Choose Tap Refiller' initative). The idea is that people can get free water when they are 'out and about' so they don't have to buy bottled water. The aim is to reduce pl...

Jennifer speaks with Elsa Tuet-Rosenberg who is a queer, multi-racial Jewish and Chinese woman of colour, and co-founder of anti-racism organisation, Hue. Elsa talks about her experiences in the community service sector that led to the setting up of Hue - from training as a Social Worker to stints in community organisations that practiced racism and various forms of oppression. She describes how H...