7am

Anti-abortion activists say it was the most successful pro-life campaign in Australia - last week a bill to overturn abortion access after 25 weeks was voted through the upper house of South Australia’s parliament.

It didn’t make it through the lower house, but women's advocates are still sounding the alarm amid a growing push against reproductive rights - led, in part, by One Nation.

Pauline Hanson, once a supporter of a woman’s right to choose, has changed her tune, as her colleague Malcolm Roberts pushes for the party to adopt a blanket abortion ban.

Today, writer, peer-support worker, and reproductive health advocate Hannah Bambra
on the local and international forces looking wind back abortion access in Australia

 

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Guest: Writer & reproductive health advocate Hannah Bambra

Photo: AAP Image/Dean Lewins

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In 2017, billionaire businessman Sanjeev Gupta rescued the Whyalla steelworks from administration, becoming known as the “saviour of steel”.

There was hope in this small South Australian town that steelmaking – and the thousands of jobs tied to it – would survive. But since then, Gupta has lost control, the South Australian government has forced the steelworks into administration, and taxpayers are now underwriting the rescue to the tune of $2.4 billion.

Now, the sale of the steelworks is in its final stages, but the question of whether Whyalla becomes the green steel town politicians promised, or whether public money is being used to keep an ageing steelworks alive, remains.

Today, investigative journalist and former host of the ABC’s Media Watch Paul Barry, on the billionaire who brought Whyalla to the brink – and what it would really take to save the town.

This episode was originally published in January, 2025.

 

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Guest: Investigative journalist and former host of the ABC’s Media Watch Paul Barry

Photo: AAP Image/David Mariuz

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This week, Pauline Hanson took to the National Press Club stage with a greatest hits collection of the grievances that have fueled her political career. 

Immigration. Multiculturalism. Trans rights. Indigenous Australians. The “political elite”. The changing face of the country. 

The backlash from the government, sections of the community and commentariat was immediate.

But that may no longer be enough. For years, Hanson has survived controversies that would have ended most political careers. And as One Nation support grows, one thing is becoming more evident: we are now entering a political era where outrage carries no penalty. Where the shock of what politicians say matters less than the anger they channel. 

Today, columnist Sean Kelly on Hanson’s resurgence, the opportunities it creates for politicians of every persuasion, and what becomes possible when voters decide the old political order is broken. 

 

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Guest: Former Labor advisor and The Age & SMH columnist, Sean Kelly

Photo: AAP Image/Lukas Coch

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This week, Pauline Hanson called for multiculturalism to be replaced with monoculturalism. 

At the same time, the Soccerros were capturing the hearts and minds of Australians everywhere on the biggest stage of all, the World Cup. 

It’s a team filled with players from multiple cultural backgrounds and one,  that if Hanson’s vision of the nation came to bear, simply wouldn’t exist. 

Today, former Soccerroo and refugee advocate, Craig Foster. On the team that’s quietly challenging one of the most divisive debates in the country, simply by taking the field. 

 

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Guest: Former Socceroo and refugee advocate, Craig Foster

Photo: Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP

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Parkinson’s is the fastest-growing neurological disorder in the world.

And in some Australian farming communities, doctors are questioning why so many seem to be getting it.

For years, some farmers and doctors have drawn a link to paraquat – a powerful weedkiller still used widely on Australian farms, despite being banned in more than 60 countries, including the UK, China and Brazil.

This month, Australia’s chemical regulator is expected to decide whether paraquat can keep being used here – after a review that’s been going on since 1997.

Professor Wesley Thevathasan is one of about 50 neurologists who made submissions to that review, calling for paraquat to be banned. But he says the regulator has ignored them – as well as some of the strongest evidence linking exposure to the chemical to Parkinson’s.

Today, Associate Professor Wesley Thevathasan, on the farmers who fear paraquat made them sick, and whether Australia’s regulator is listening.

Farmer audio courtesy of ABC rural.

 

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Guest: Parkinson’s disease specialist, Associate Professor Wesley Thevathasan

Photo: ABC / Jake Hamilton

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For three decades, Pauline Hanson has built a career on grievance. 

In all that time she hasn’t fronted to the bastion of political journalism, the national press club. That was until yesterday where she appeared for the first time.

In a long address she laid out how she aims to turn her politics of grievance into policy; targeting immigration, the ABC, multiculturalism, renewable energy, transgender rights and journalists. 

It was a performance that will play to her base and one that helps explain her rise in the polls. But she also gave her opponents a clearer picture of what they’re running against and what to target in the two years until the next election.

Today, press gallery journalist Karen Middleton, on Pauline Hanson’s big moment, and the fight now coming for One Nation. 

 

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Guest: Press gallery journalist Karen Middleton

Photo: AAP Image/Lukas Coch

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Over the weekend, Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire.

It came after his company, SpaceX, was publicly listed, reaching a valuation of more than two trillion dollars.

Elon’s wealth is now the equivalent of the bottom one-third of the entire globe’s population. It’s more than the entire annual GDP of Belgium, Sweden or Ireland.

But while some are celebrating Musk’s milestone, for others it’s jarring to see in the hands of someone who uses their power for political purposes – and at a time where so many are living with so little.

Today, author of Stinking Rich: The Four Myths of the Good Billionaire, Carl Rhodes, on what the world’s first trillionaire means for the distribution of power and wealth.

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Guest: Author of Stinking Rich: The Four Myths of the Good Billionaire, Carl Rhodes

Photo: REUTERS/Mike Segar

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Donald Trump said what he wanted for his 80th birthday was world peace

And now, alongside the UFC spectacle on the White House lawn, he appears to have given himself the headline he wanted: a so-called peace deal with Iran.

Or more accurately - a sixty day “pause” – while negotiations continue. 

Today Director of the Australia Institute's International & Security Affairs Program Dr Emma Shortis on the latest end of the war announcement - and what could derail it. 

 

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Guest: Director of the Australia Institute’s International & Security Affairs Program, Dr Emma Shortis

Photo: Bonnie Cash/Pool/ABACAPRESS.COM

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Aukus is the most expensive defence project in Australia’s history; a project, that at its heart has the plan to acquire nuclear-powered submarines through the United States and the United Kingdom. 

But the doubts around it are growing: over the cost, over whether Australia will get the submarines it’s been promised, and over what the deal means for our sovereignty.

Now, a public inquiry, in lieu of parliamentary debate, led by former Labor minister Peter Garrett is putting Aukus under scrutiny. 

Today, Peter Garrett on why he believes Australians deserve answers, and whether it’s too late to walk away. 

 

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Guest: Lead commissioner of the Aukus Inquiry, Peter Garrett

Photo: AAP Image/Con Chronis

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When Professor Christian Downie appeared before a Senate inquiry into climate and energy misinformation, he warned that Australia is facing coordinated campaigns designed not to debate climate solutions, but to stall them.

Professor Downie has spent years inside boardrooms and the lobbying world studying how these campaigns are built – tracing the billions spent on messaging by lobby groups, PR firms and think tanks – and outlining what he calls “the climate obstruction playbook”. It’s a strategy refined in Washington and increasingly echoed in Australia.

Today, Professor at ANU’s School of Regulation and Global Governance, Christian Downie, on how the obstruction playbook has been so successful in stopping action on climate change.

This episode was originally published in October, 2025.

 

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Guest: Professor at ANU’s School of Regulation and Global Governance and Director of the Governing Energy Transition Lab, Christian Downie

Photo: REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.