7am

After a chaotic 24 hours of backroom plotting and mounting pressure, the Victorian premier resigned.

Jacinta Allan’s replacement, and former deputy leader Ben Carroll, now has just four months to turn Labor’s fortunes around in what’s shaping up to be the most unpredictable election the state has ever seen.

Polls show an unprecedented three-party contest – with voters split, almost equally, between the unpopular Labor government, an Opposition ridden by scandal, and a rising One Nation.

Today, ABC Melbourne Mornings host Raf Epstein on what Labor’s change of leader means for an already chaotic election race and whether Australia’s most progressive state could turn orange.

 

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Guest: ABC Radio Melbourne host Raf Epstein

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Cory Doctorow is the author and tech critic who brought us the term ‘enshittification’ – which refers to the gradual decline in the quality of digital platforms and services over time.

Now he’s warning that what we’ve been led to believe is the inevitable march of AI towards world domination isn’t that inevitable after all, and actually what we’re marching towards could be the end of the AI bubble.

Because every time you ask ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini a question, companies like OpenAI are losing money. The more we use, the more they lose.

And while those AI giants burn through billions of dollars a year, gambling that eventually they’ll figure out how to turn it into a profitable business, the world’s economy is hanging in the balance.

Today, Cory Doctorow, on why the AI boom is being pushed into every part of our lives and what happens when the bubble bursts.

 

If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.

 

Cory Doctorow is in Australia this August for appearances at Sydney’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas, and in Melbourne at The Capitol, presented by The Wheeler Centre and Now or Never. His new book, The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI, is out via Verso 

 

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Guest: Author Cory Doctorow

Photo: AAP Image/James Ross

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Alan Joyce was once one of Australia’s most admired business leaders.

By the time he left Qantas, he had become one of the country’s most hated men.

His final years at the airline were marked by unlawful sackings, cancelled flights, withheld refunds and a collapse in public trust. But in a new memoir, Riding the Jet Stream, Joyce defends many of the decisions that made him a symbol of corporate arrogance and public distrust.

Today, former Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, on what he believes Australians got wrong about him – and whether he accepts responsibility for the damage done to the Qantas brand on his watch.

 

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Guest: Former Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce

Photo: AAP Image/Joel Carrett

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When Robert F Kennedy Jr was sworn in as Health and Human Services Secretary, his confirmation came off the back of a fiery questioning from Democrats and Republicans alike about RFK Jr’s record on vaccines. And under oath, RFK Jr denied he was against them.

But now, Reuters reports he considered scrapping the entire childhood immunisation schedule, removing polio and MMR vaccines, and spending five billion dollars investigating the disproven link between vaccines and autism.

Kennedy has spent two decades campaigning against vaccines, using his famous name to become one of the movement’s most prominent figures.

Today, we return to our conversation with investigative journalist Brian Deer, on Kennedy’s anti-vaccine campaign – and the deadly consequences of vaccine misinformation in Samoa.

This episode was originally published in February 2025.

 

If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.

 

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Guest: Investigative journalist Brian Deer

Photo: AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.

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Australia is one of the world’s biggest exporters of liquefied natural gas.

Over the past 25 years, the value of those exports has increased more than twentyfold. Yet revenue from the tax designed to capture the extraordinary profits made from petroleum resources has gone backwards.

This week, at its national conference, the Labor Party formally acknowledged that Australians deserve a "fairer return" from the resources beneath their land and seas.

But the party stopped short of backing the policy that forced the issue onto the agenda: a 25 per cent tax on gas exports that supporters say could raise up to $17 billion a year.

Today, Australia Institute co-chief executive Richard Denniss, on the unlikely alliance pushing Labor to take on the gas industry – and whether the party’s carefully chosen words will ever become an actual tax.

 

If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.

 

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Guest: Co-Chief Executive Officer at The Australia Institute, Dr Richard Denniss

Photo: AAP Image/Joe Castro

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In the East Room of the White House, Donald Trump made an extraordinary accusation of election interference: Beijing had illegally obtained the voter files of 220 million Americans.

He also accused US intelligence agencies of hiding the extent of China’s activity. 

Later, Trump claimed a Homeland Security review had found around 278,000 non-citizens registered to vote.

Trump’s motivation, critics say, is to sow doubt ahead of the upcoming midterm elections – which he’s already made several attempts to reshape: from redrawing maps, to restricting voting, to firing the entire electoral commission.

Today, staff writer at The Atlantic David A. Graham, on Trump’s campaign to tilt the midterms and what he could still do before, during and after election day.

 

If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.

 

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Guest: Staff writer at The Atlantic David A. Graham

Photo: Saul LOEB / POOL / AFP

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A blonde woman stands among smiling children holding lollipops. A foundation banner hangs behind them. She announces that a new orphanage has opened in Africa.

But evidence collected during an ABC investigation suggests that the woman in the video isn’t real. Neither are the children or the banner behind them. The scene appears to have been generated using artificial intelligence.

Millions of people have watched an Australian influencer promise food, shelter and hope to children in some of the world's most critical crisis zones. 

Now, her foundation is facing questions about its humanitarian claims, the money it solicited, and the damage AI-generated appeals could do to public trust in charities.

Today, ABC News Verify journalist, Matt Martino on the Lily Jay Foundation, and the tangled web behind its humanitarian work. 

 

If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.

 

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Guest: ABC News Verify senior journalist Matt Martino

Photo: @lilyjayofficial via X

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For more than a week, Donald Trump has unleashed strikes against Iran, in a worsening cycle of attacks, including on civilian infrastructure.

Trump has defended the strikes as honouring the deaths of up to three American service members in an Iranian attack. But the real goal is to get the Strait of Hormuz open again – something that looks increasingly unlikely. 

So, with the region once again on a knife’s edge, the US appears locked back into an escalating war, unless the interim ceasefire deal can be salvaged. 

Today, diplomatic correspondent at NOTUS Akbar Shahid Ahmed on the threat of all-out war, and who is really in charge of what happens next. 

 

If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.

 

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Guest: Diplomatic correspondent at NOTUS and author of Crossing the Red Line: Biden, His Advisors, and Israel’s War in Gaza, Akbar Shahid Ahmed

Photo: US Central Command/Reuters

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It’s the other racism inquiry running at the same time as the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion – the inquiry into racism, hate and violence directed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

But while the royal commission has attracted rolling media coverage and government attention, the Aboriginal racism inquiry has been largely ignored.

The inquiry was triggered by the alleged bombing of an Invasion Day rally – witnesses shining a light on the repeated inaction before, during and after the event as they testified about the fear still hanging over the Indigenous community.

Today, National Indigenous Affairs Editor for NITV & SBS John Paul Janke, on how Australia treats different kinds of racism differently. 

If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.

 

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Guest: National Indigenous Affairs Editor for NITV & SBS John Paul Janke

Photo: AAP Image/Bianca De Marchi

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After more than two decades at Nine, Karl Stefanovic has left the building.

For years, he was the face of the Today show – surviving ratings slumps, public scandals, internal criticism and a revolving door of female co-hosts.

But after launching his own podcast, and then interviewing far-right British figure Tommy Robinson, Nine finally cut him loose.

Now, people who worked with Stefanovic are speaking out.

Crikey contributor and Fourth Estate host Tina Quinn has spoken to current and former Nine insiders about what he was really like behind the scenes and why the network backed him for so long.

Today, Tina Quinn, on Karl Stefanovic’s rise, his fall from Nine, and whether he can survive without the network that built him.

 

If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.

 

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Guest:  Host of Fourth Estate on 2SER and Crikey contributor, Tina Quinn

Photo: AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy

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