A Cold War with China will make a bad situation worse

Australia's balancing act: Constraining, not containing China

Who is going to come out on top in the post-COVID world order: China or the US?

Sweden's virus experiment: death sentence, or a way forward?

How do we revive the economy once the pandemic passes?

Coronavirus has Australia headed for a deep recession, so what can we do now to plan our way out of it? Is the answer more government intervention and state planning? Or, is now the time to launch a new reform agenda that sharpens the incentives to work, save, invest and hire?

And, Alexander Downer: “I don’t know what China’s problem is”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called for an investigation into the origins of the virus. But China’s Ambassador in Canberra upped the stakes this week by threatening a trade and tourism boycott of Australia.

Australia’s longest serving Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer says China’s Cold War style rhetoric will backfire on it, and it is in everyone’s interests to investigate the origins of the virus. But as we head into recession, can we afford to aggravate our largest trade partner?

Weighing up Turnbull’s legacy

This week, former Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull published his memoir A Bigger Picture.  In it he settles old scores with colleagues over his 2018 ousting, which he describes as an “act of madness.”

What is his legacy, and how will history judge our nation’s twenty ninth Prime Minister?

Jacqueline Maley, columnist at The Sydney Morning Herald.

Jennifer Oriel, columnist at The Australian

 

And, the death of a führer

April 30th marks seventy-five years since Hitler’s suicide. Cambridge historian Brendan Simms challenges past scholarship on the führer, and argues that Hitler saw Anglo-American global capitalism, not Bolshevism – as Germany’s real enemy. He says this philosophical link reveals worrying connections between Hitler and the rise of populism today.

Brendan Simms, Professor in the History of International Relations at Cambridge University, and author of Hitler: Only the World was Enough.

What impact will Boris’ bout of COVID-19 have on his leadership and the nation’s fight against the virus?  His former boss, political columnist Charles Moore weighs in. Later in the program Moore discusses his best-selling three volume biography of Margaret Thatcher. Was the Iron Lady really an eco-warrior? Would she have supported Brexit?

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has told the army to shoot to kill anyone who violates strict COVID-19 lockdowns. Has he gone too far, or is this just more of the strong-man machismo that made him so popular? We talk to Sheila Coronel, Professor of Investigative Journalism at the Columbia Journalism School.

Also, why don't Australian prime ministers leave quietly? Australia has had 30 prime ministers since its Federation in 1901. According to political historian Norman Abjorensen they all have one thing in common: a marked reluctance to relinquish power.

Hear from the chair of Infection Control at the National University Hospital in Singapore, who says home isolation is impossible to enforce, and everyone who tests positive for coronavirus should be isolated in hospitals or in designated hotels until they recover.

Plus, veteran British historian Max Hastings discusses his new history of the World War Two Dambusters raid.

Is the government pulling the right levers to mitigate the economic impact of Covid-19. How long can the Australian economy survive shut downs before we tip into irreparable damage?