John Blackburn spent four decades in the Air Force, rising to Deputy Chief.

For more than decade he’s been warning that Australia is too reliant on imported fuel, too light on reserves, and too exposed if a global crisis – just like this one – disrupts supply.

Now, as more than hundred servos around the country run dry and a Trump ultimatum looms, threatening to make the fuel crisis worse, Australia is paying the price for our lack of preparedness.

Today, Chair of the Institute of Economic Research Australia, John Blackburn on how Australia botched our emergency fuel plan, what we should do next, and why the Iran war is shaping up to be a covid-level crisis.

 

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Guest: John Blackburn, Chair of the Institute of Economic Research Australia

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Like so many stories about misinformation, this one starts with a social media post. 

“Australia is making a terrible humanitarian mistake by allowing the Iran National Woman’s Soccer team to be forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed. Don’t do it, Mr. Prime Minister, give ASYLUM.”

Not long after that, Donald Trump backtracked and set the record straight. 

“He’s on it! Five have already been taken care of, and the rest are on their way.”

But in those few short hours before clarification, misinformation had already taken hold.

Social media posts accusing Australia of inaction on the soccer team, and falsely claiming Albanese lied to Trump about granting the women asylum gained millions of views on X.

Meanwhile, news commentary which wrongly portrayed Trump as triggering Albanese’s decision hit the mainstream media.

It’s just one recent example of the wave of misinformation making it increasingly difficult for all of us to work out what is and isn't factual in this ‘post truth’ world.

Today ABC journalist and host of new doco ‘The Matter of Facts’ Hamish Macdonald on the misinformation and disinformation taking over our online world.

 

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Guest: Hamish Macdonald, ABC journalist

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It’s been one year since dead fish began washing up on South Australian beaches, as the largest algal bloom in Australia’s history spread along the coast.

Marine ecologist Dr Scott Bennett was part of the team that first surveyed the bloom – coming face to face with the algae’s devastating impact.

Twelve months on, the bloom is still there, the damage has spread, and many of the warnings scientists made in those early days have proved well founded – particularly the damage to marine life.

Today, we’re bringing you an episode from 2025 with marine ecologist Dr Scott Bennett, on what caused the bloom, what he saw beneath the surface, and what it means for the fate of the ocean.

This episode first aired in August 2025.

 

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Guest: Marine ecologist Dr Scott Bennett

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South Australia does not usually wake up on election day at the centre of the national mood. But this morning, a contest that looks settled on paper is carrying a much stranger energy.

Peter Malinauskas is expected to win comfortably. The real movement is happening elsewhere; in the noise around One Nation, the protest vote in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis gathering around the once marginal party, and the possibility that a state election could end up telling us something bigger about where Australian politics is heading. 

Today, Editor of InDaily SA, Belinda Willis, on the state election that may be a whitewash for Labor, but a warning for everyone else. 

 

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Guest: InDaily SA Editor Belinda Willis

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While the world focuses on the war underway in Iran, Israel and the Gulf, there is another war front developing – Lebanon.

Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Shia group, Hezbollah dragged the country into the war, attacking Israel after a joint US-Israeli airstrike killed Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Israel then hit back, bombing Beirut and amassing tens of thousands of troops on the border.

Meanwhile, more than a million Lebanese people are now displaced, forced to flee their homes as the attacks continue and Israel demands evacuations.

Today, Michael Young, editor of Carnegie’s Middle East Center blog on whether Lebanon could see a ground invasion and what Israel’s plan is to reshape the region.

 

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Guest: Michael Young, editor of Carnegie’s Middle East Center blog

Photo: EPA/WAEL HAMZEH

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Brett Hosking is a fifth-generation grain and livestock farmer, and has seen his fair share of heartache and hard times.

But this time, it’s not a natural disaster or a foreign war that’s threatening to tip farmers over the edge, but a decision from the Victorian government.

The state has passed new compulsory acquisition laws which make it easier for energy companies to acquire farmers’ land and build transmission lines and renewable energy projects on it.

Today, Victorian Farmers Federation President, Brett Hosking, on why the government’s push to roll out renewables and transition lines in rural Australia has left farmers feeling devastated and disrespected.

 

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Guest: Brett Hosking, Victorian Farmers Federation President

Photo: AAP Image/Joel Carrett

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Australians are in for a world of pain, with mortgages and rents set to rise after our second interest rate hike in as many months.

It was a line-ball decision from the Reserve Bank – with five members voting for a quarter of a percent jump and four against – putting our official cash rate at 4.1 per cent.

RBA Governor Michelle Bullock says high inflation left them with no choice, but others have slammed the call.

Today, Chief Economist at The Australia Institute, Greg Jericho, on why he thinks the RBA has got it horribly wrong.

 

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Guest: Greg Jericho, Chief Economist at The Australia Institute

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The war in the Middle East has sent Australia’s fuel prices soaring.

And people are worried that if the battle between the US-Israel and Iran continues for another month – Australia may have to begin rationing fuel.

Already, drivers are panic buying, stockpiling and some country petrol stations are running dry.

Global oil supplies are under threat as Iran attacks tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.

Today, Tim Buckley, the Director of Climate Energy Finance, and the question: as the oil shock hits home, how high could the price at the pump really go?

 

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Guest: Tim Buckley, Director of Climate Energy Finance

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This month, one of the biggest shows in Australian radio was suddenly pulled off air.

For years, Kyle and Jackie O have been treated as untouchable – a breakfast radio juggernaut that could pull huge audiences, generate endless headlines, and weather scandal after scandal.

So much so that the Australian Radio Network handed the pair a $200 million deal – one of the biggest contracts Australian media has ever seen – betting Sydney's most popular breakfast show could go national.

But that bet turned shaky: The show struggled to win over Melbourne, controversies kept piling up, and the regulator repeatedly found it in breach of broadcasting standards.

Now, after an on-air rupture that has blown apart the partnership at the centre of it all, the future of that enormous deal is in doubt.

Today, Kyle and Jackie O’s former boss and host of the Game Changers Radio podcast, Craig Bruce, on what happens when the most expensive bet in the Radio business falls apart.

 

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And you can check out Craig Bruce’s podcast Game Changers Radio here 

 

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Guest: Craig Bruce, host of Game Changers Radio

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For some time now, an alarming number of Australian boys have been engaging with, and looking up to, the misogynistic influencer Andrew Tate.

This week, the conversation about misogyny and the “manosphere” has resurfaced. Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek has accused Married At First Sight of platforming coercive control and misogyny, Netflix has released Louis Theroux’s Inside the Manosphere, and fresh research suggests roughly 40% of teenage boys surveyed agreed that women lie about domestic and sexual violence.

Tate’s influence is warping classroom conversation, driving female peers to the fringe of discussion and even causing some teachers to quit.

So why are misogynistic influencers reaching so many young men?

Today, we’re bringing you an episode from 2024 – in which Ange McCormack speaks to author and journalist Anna Krien about the misogynist radicalisation happening in our schools.

This episode was first published in March 2024.

 

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Guest: Journalist and author, Anna Krien

Photo: AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda

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