ABC News Daily

The floods in NSW and QLD are both déjà vu and a taste of worse to come, if climate change forecasts are accurate.

The question is, how much of the damage suffered by the worst affected communities is avoidable?

Today on the Signal, we're asking how our town and cities could change to cope with the next round of record breaking floods, when they inevitably arrive.

Featured:

Graham Creed, ABC weather specialist and meteorologist

Barbara Norman, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Canberra

There was palpable tension in the Blue Room of Parliament House when Scott Morrison stood up to speak yesterday.

At the outset of the press conference, it was clear his tone on the topic has shifted dramatically, but within minutes, he'd hit back at journalists' question with a warning: be careful.

Editor's note: The Prime Minister issued a late night apology on his Facebook page after claiming during a press conference that News Corporation was dealing with its own harassment complaint, a claim rejected by the company. In his post, Mr Morrison said: "I accept their account. I was wrong to raise it, the emotion of the moment is no excuse."

Featured:

Olivia Caisley, Federal Politics Reporter, The Australian

COVID-19 lockdowns and border closures have meant a lot more of us than usual have recent experiences of feeling lonely

And now, with a new group being set up in the Parliament, loneliness finally, officially, has some friends

Today on The Signal, how big a problem has loneliness become?

And what are its new companions planning to do about it?

Featured:

Dr Michelle Lim, Chair, 'Ending Loneliness Together' and Head, Social Health and Wellbeing Laboratory, Swinburne University, Melbourne

Andrew Giles, Labor MP

Dr Fiona Martin, Liberal MP

From today, 6 million more Australians are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.

But with Italy already blocking the export of 250,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Australia, and the European Union threatening to block more, will Australia's rollout be delayed?

Today on The Signal, how worried should Australia be about possible kinks in the vaccine supply chain?

And with literally billions of people worldwide also in the vaccine queue, is there a way to get the vaccine made more quickly, and fairly?

Featured:

Dr Deborah Gleeson, Associate Professor, School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne

Funerals in Australia are changing.

The death rituals of past generations aren't necessarily the right fit for people dying today, or for those of us whose deaths are hopefully further away.

Today on The Signal, we hear about the trends, and about the funerals of the future.

From body-composting to bushland burials, water-based cremations and funerals without a ceremony at all, what are the options?

And if you're relatively fit and healthy today, how much forward planning can you do?

Featured:

Dr Margaret Gibson, Senior Lecturer, Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Brisbane

Amy Sagar, General Manager, Tender Funerals

Philip Shelley, CEO, Canberra Cemeteries

Michelle Dariol, Canberra Cemeteries

More than a dozen countries have paused their rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine, mostly in Europe.

Australia isn't among them, and as of Monday the jab will be offered to a pool of more than 6 million people here.

But Australians themselves are, in some cases, feeling rattled by the news about the pause overseas.

So what's got half of Europe spooked about this one vaccine?

And what's the knock-on effect for us?

Featured:

Professor Julie Leask, Sydney Nursing School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Adjunct Professor, School of Public Health, Visiting Fellow, National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance

Editor's note: Since recording this podcast the European Medicines Agency (EMA) says it has found a possible link between AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine and rare blood clotting issues in adults.

The verdict is unanimous: JobKeeper kept Australia afloat during the COVID-19 recession.

But all good things must come to an end. Specifically, two weeks from today.

So what's on the other side?

Today on The Signal, the world beyond the JobKeeper cliff.

Which businesses will survive, and which ones will become casualties of COVID-19?

Featured: 

Stephanie Chalmers, ABC news business reporter

Sonia Ortega, Chief executive, Global Experience

Leanne Harwood, Managing director for Australasia and Japan, InterContinental Hotels Group

Gus Fernandez, Bookings manager, Gilligan's Hotel and Resort, Cairns

Vanessa Schap, Tourism consultant, Gilligan's Hotel and Resort, Cairns

We've been here before.

Thousands of women took to the streets on Monday to demand a safer world, free from gendered violence.

This time though, their voices were louder and more determined than they have been in a long while.

So will the result this time be different?

Featured:

Jess Hill, journalist and author, 'Look What You Made Me Do'

Over the past decade, the lives of millions of people in Syria have been turned upside down.

From bombings to beheadings, Syria has been utterly destroyed by hatred and violence.

Since March 2011, 600,000 people have died, 2 million have been injured and 13.7 million have lost their homes.

So how has the conflict gone on for so long?

And as it drags into its eleventh year, what are the reflections of those whose lives it has destroyed?

Featured:

Tracey Shelton, Reporter, ABC Asia Pacific newsroom

Amina Srio, Syrian-Australian

Jessie Adam, Syrian-Australian

Jezeel Adam, Syrian-Australian

The people of Arnhem Land are having a conversation that could radically re-shape Australia.

In the Top End of the Northern Territory, they're discussing the ugliest parts of colonisation, what's happened since, and the way forward from here.

Today on The Signal, we go on the road with the Northern Territory's Treaty Commissioner Mick Dodson.

What are communities telling him?

And how far off is self-determination for Australia's first peoples?

Featured:

Jane Bardon, ABC reporter, Darwin newsroom

Mick Dodson, Northern Territory Treaty Commissioner