The Lucky Country

By The Australia Institute

Business

What's The Lucky Country about?

The Lucky Country is an insider’s outside view of Australia’s most important political and economic debates. Hosted by The Australia Institute’s Chief Economist Richard Denniss, The Lucky Country is a weekly podcast from Schwartz Media which applies common sense to complex issues.

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LAST EPISODE

7am: Sacking Scott Morrison

06.11.2019

Schwartz Media's new daily podcast 7am launched a few weeks ago. Search for 7am in your favourite podcast app to subscribe and keep listening. Sacking Scott Morrison Before entering parliament, Scott Morrison ran Tourism Australia. He was sacked by the ...

The Lucky Country episodes:

06.11.2019 7am: Sacking Scott Morrison Schwartz Media's new daily podcast 7am launched a few weeks ago. Search for 7am in your favourite podcast app to subscribe and keep listening. Sacking Scott Morrison Before entering parliament, Scott Morrison ran Tourism Australia. He was sacked by the ...
05.26.2019 Launching 7am: Episode 1 Schwartz Media's new daily podcast 7am launches today. Search for 7am in your favourite podcast app to subscribe and keep listening. Surprise: the status quo election Scott Morrison's surprise win last weekend was the status quo election no one saw ...
05.15.2019 Richard Dennis Introduces 7am, Our Daily News Podcast Richard Dennis, host of The Lucky Country, introduces Schwartz Media's new podcast, 7am. Hosted by Elizabeth Kulas, 7am is a daily news show from the publisher of The Monthly and The Saturday Paper. Hear the country's best reporters, covering the ...
07.06.2018 Episode 21: Winner And Losers, The Final Say. For the final episode of season two of The Lucky Country, chief economist at The Australia Institute Richard Denniss and Canberra-based lobbyist Chris Fry chew the economic fat of the complex relationship between Australian citizens, their elected representatives and the ...
06.21.2018 Episode 20: Chris Kenny, Ebony Bennett And Violence Against Women The public messaging regarding recent occurrences of the rape and murder of women has predominantly been that women need to try harder to stay safe in public. Is this the right message? This week, Richard Denniss talks to journalist Chris ...
06.13.2018 Episode 19: Bob Brown, More Liberal Than The Liberals? Why do corporate investments and political interests so often take priority over the long-term viability of our common resources? Should more Australians be encouraged to vote to secure the nation's future, or is it okay to prioritise this generation's wants ...
06.06.2018 Episode 18: The Downsides Of Democracy Why do people embark on careers in politics, and what does the uncivilised behaviour we see on Question Time achieve? In this episode, former trade minister Craig Emerson joins Richard Denniss to discuss why democracy is the worst political system ...
05.30.2018 Episode 17: Australia's Free Trade Fallacy For decades, Australians have been told that they have no choice but to support free trade, but now it seems that even Coalition MPs support restricting the market for the export of live sheep. In this episode, Richard Denniss and ...
05.23.2018 Episode 16: Lest We Forget Our Corporate Sponsors Why does Australia spend so much time and money commemorating the wars we've fought in? And why do corporate sponsors' logos at the Australian War Memorial often overshadow the people and events being commemorated? In this episode, Richard Denniss and ...
05.18.2018 Episode 15: Corruption In The Capital Does corruption occur in federal politics? How will we know, and, importantly, how will it be prosecuted, without a federal corruption watchdog? In this episode, Richard Denniss and former NSW premier and now federal senator Kristina Keneally discuss the NSW ...
05.10.2018 Episode 14: Budget - Behind The Scenes How do the cogs of government turn when preparing a federal budget? In this episode, The Lucky Country takes a behind-the-scenes look at the budget with former treasurer Wayne Swan. Swan and Richard Denniss discuss what is in the budget, ...
05.10.2018 Episode 13: The C Word - Class Does class exist in Australia? And if so, does it matter? In this episode, Richard Denniss and ANU political scientist Jill Sheppard discuss class in Australia, its impact on individuals' lives and its influence on politics. News audio is courtesy ...
04.25.2018 Episode 12: Corporate Tax Cuts. Will The Money Trickle Down, Or Up? Does wealth "trickle down"? Or does society benefit more when wealth "trickles up"? The Lucky Country's first episode of the year features Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, who was recently awarded the 2018 Sydney Peace Prize for his work addressing ...
12.18.2017 Episode 11: Listeners' Questions What impact might a banking royal commission have on the economy, or a cut in corporate tax rates or the legalising of same-sex marriage? To answer these and other questions, Richard Denniss is joined by senior economist at the Australia ...
11.08.2017 Episode 10: Shame And Solutions As the citizenship crisis plays out, the government is reaping the lack of trust that it itself has been sowing for years. Voters don't trust politicians because politicians have trained voters not to trust anybody. Throughout this series the issue ...
11.01.2017 Episode 9: Rights And Association Politicians like to talk about the alleged value of mateship and sticking together and fairness, but many of those same politicians are quick to turn on vulnerable sections of the community the minute they think it will win them popular ...
10.25.2017 Episode 8: The Global Economy It's easy to convince yourself, or be convinced by others, that the decisions we make as individuals or at a community level don't really matter when there are 7.5 billion other people on the planet and a global economy worth ...
10.18.2017 Episode 7: Education And Harassment Australians are some of the most indebted people in the world. But we have been told again and again that government borrowing is evidence of mismanagement. How can it be? Treasurer Scott Morrison talks about "good debt" and "bad debt", ...
10.18.2017 Episode 6: Technology And Welfare The politicians that rage against the greed of the unemployed are often the same ones who preach about the importance of keeping families together. But despite all the talk, we have designed a welfare system that does little to help ...
10.04.2017 Episode 5: Market Farces The right wing of Australian politics is becoming increasingly confused about what they are for and what they want. While they talk about the importance of letting individuals make their own decisions, they rage against the idea that adults should ...
09.27.2017 Episode 4: Sinking Popular Causes Whether it's renewable energy, becoming a republic or marriage equality, politics excels at taking popular causes and sinking them. This week, former Howard staffer Geoff Cousins explains the lessons learnt from the republic referendum and how they are being repeated ...
09.20.2017 Episode 3: Home Calls This week's episode investigates housing affordability. Like Australia's energy crisis, housing affordability is a crisis of our own making: record house prices, a growing homeless population, and a greater number of people spending over a third of their income on ...
09.13.2017 Episode 2: The Economics Of Mental Health This week's episode takes a close look at the economics and politics of mental health and, in particular, the way that some of our economic policies don't just make treating mental health more difficult, but actually contribute to causing it. ...
09.06.2017 Episode 1: The Wizards Of Oz On the first episode of The Lucky Country, host Richard Denniss is joined by journalist Laura Tingle and the founder of the Australian Greens, Bob Brown, to examine the myth of politicians "managing" the economy. Richard will also look at ...
08.24.2017 Introducing The Lucky Country With Richard Denniss Join Richard Denniss, The Australia Institute's chief economist, as he tackles Australia's most important political and economic issues in a new weekly podcast from Schwartz Media. This is an insider's outside view, making sense of the country and where it's ...