Cut Through

We are currently witnessing the death throes of the Liberal Party. To a good chunk of the electorate that voted for the current government, that doesn’t matter,except that it leaves Labor in full power with no meaningful opposition. Ten years ago former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser predicted this moment would come, and he spent his final years working on the answer: a new political party, built on traditional liberal values but without the now-toxic name.

Bernard Keane joins the podcast to revisit Fraser’s plan to replace the Liberal party. The detailed ‘Renew Australia’ manifesto remains remarkably relevant, and takes a surprisingly progressive stance on issues like immigration, our relationship with the US, intergenerational equity and a post-carbon economy.

In 2025, could Fraser’s new party accelerate what the community independents movement already started? 

Read more:

• Read the full Fraser manifesto
• Malcolm Fraser’s vision for a new centrist political party could be just what voters (and the Liberals) need
• ‘Fit for purpose’: How a Labor veteran helped create Fraser’s vision of a new political party
• Chasing One Nation is a dead end for the Liberals — and would guarantee a split
• The Liberals are dead and the rot will kill its moderates. What next?

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What counts as ‘lobbying’? That’s the central question at the core of the Australian Parliament Sports Club saga, the company organising social sport at Parliament House — paid for by sponsors, who in turn get to play alongside politicians and political staffers, building vital relationships during sitting weeks. 

According to the government’s definition, the Club is not a lobbying organisation and has been removed from the lobbyists register. CEO of the Club Andy Turnbull provided Crikey with a lengthy statement defending his operation… after kicking out former Wallabies captain and Senator David Pocock for questioning the legitimacy of the Club at senate estimates. 

So does it pass the pub test? Crikey’s media reporter Daanyal Saeed joins the podcast to unpack the Parliament Sports Club lobbying saga, from beginning to end.

Read more:

• Australian Parliament Sports Club de-registered as lobby group amid MP outrage (including Andy Turnbull’s full statement to Crikey)
• The gambling lobby has infiltrated social sports at Parliament House
• Gambling not as serious as cigarettes, PM’s adviser tells reform advocates
• On gambling, Australia is a collection of banana republics — while our cowering government watches on

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Crikey’s independent journalism is supported by readers — 98% of our revenue comes from our subscribers. We’re not accountable to billionaires; we’re accountable to you.

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It’s been a terrible year for corporate incompetence, misdeeds and thievery. But amongst all this bad business behaviour, is there a way to objectively determine which company is the worst of them all? Yes, according to politics editor Bernard Keane. So he devised a scoring system and applied it to 58 of Australia’s biggest corporations.

This week we awarded the Alan Bond Award for Corporate Misconduct to [SPOILER!]

Keane joins the podcast to explain the logic behind his scoring system, the rationale for Crikey’s final ranking, and why Australia’s economy is so vulnerable to these toxic oligopolies.

With Qantas, News Corp, Woodside, Google, Crown, Optus, PWC, Hancock Prospecting and Lockheed Martin all jostling to be the best of the worst, listen to find out exactly how we split the hairs. 

*According to Crikey!

Read more:

• And Australia’s worst company is…
• Read about our criteria for the award here
• These are Australia’s worst industries
• Who’s responsible for our dud companies? Bad management, bad governments — and us

Got a tip about bad business behaviour? Contact us securely.

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Crikey’s independent journalism is supported by readers — 98% of our revenue comes from our subscribers. We’re not accountable to billionaires; we’re accountable to you.

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Tony Blair wants to give Larry Ellison the full NHS data set, to “power AI”. Donald Trump is making trade and tariff threats on behalf of American tech billionaires. And when Mark Zuckerberg wanted changes made to Australian policies, he just called then treasurer Josh Frydenberg direct. Big tech is now inextricable from politics. How did it happen? 

Crikey's politics reporter Anton Nilsson joins the podcast to discuss his part in the global investigation uncovering exactly how big tech shapes legislation, litigates against governments, and deploys its influence to avoid regulation.

Read more:

• Tony Blair is a tech evangelist with a lot of power. Insiders are worried
• Read the draft of Tony Blair’s plan for Gaza, in full
• ‘Australia’s example has spread’: Inside big tech’s global playbook to stop news media bargaining codes
• Inside the US lobby group banking on the $6.7 trillion future of data centres
• Here’s 20 questions for Google that remain unanswered
• Read the full Big Tech’s Invisible Hand series

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Crikey’s independent journalism is supported by readers — 98% of our revenue comes from our subscribers. We’re not accountable to billionaires; we’re accountable to you.

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Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert cancelled. Journalists fired by right-wing media oligarchs. A president — and the institutions that support him — silencing political dissent. The US has indeed returned to the 1950s, when McCarthyism became a nationwide witch hunt for communists and “subversive” ideology.

And it’s catching: the Red Scare-esque hysteria over political speech is evident in Australia, with campaigns against critics of Israel, climate activists and progressive voices supported by government crackdowns. 

Crikey’s reporter-at-large Charlie Lewis joins the podcast to explain the striking parallels between McCarthyism and the fraught political discourse of 2025. 

Read more:

• Welcome to the New McCarthyism
• Always partisan, the Supreme Court has contorted itself into the shape dictated by Donald Trump
• How the authoritarian playbook creates a far-right media for the Five Eyes world
• Paul Robeson, the ‘Last Tour’ and Australia’s lost history
• Charlie Kirk’s martyrdom in the US is to be expected. Here, it’s baffling
• Segal’s antisemitism plan would be the deepest intervention in Australian universities since Federation

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Crikey’s independent journalism is supported by readers — 98% of our revenue comes from our subscribers. We’re not accountable to billionaires; we’re accountable to you.

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What if we told you that US politics is more transparent than Australian politics? Case in point: we know that Gina Rinehart donated money to Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s legal defence fund. But how much? The Senator doesn’t have to say.

Sean Johnson, founder of Open Politics and author of this week’s Rinehart donation scoop, joins the podcast to explain the many ways politicians can hide assets and keep potential conflicts off the register of interests. With so many loopholes, exemptions and no consequences for failing to disclose, the system is best summed up as, “trust me, bro” — but Johnson has ideas for how we can fix it. 

Read more:

• The company they keep: Where does your MP invest their money? Search our database
• Gina Rinehart among slew of people bankrolling Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s defamation defence
• Landlord List: See how many properties your local MP owns
• Nothing can force politicians to disclose their conflicts and benefits. That’s a problem.

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Crikey’s independent journalism is supported by readers — 98% of our revenue comes from our subscribers. We’re not accountable to billionaires; we’re accountable to you.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After a two year battle, the Murdoch family has settled the biggest question about its future: who gets control of daddy's media empire. Three of Rupert Murdoch's adult children, Prudence, James and Elisabeth have agreed to get out of the game, selling their shares in the family trust for US$3.3 billion. Favoured son Lachlan will buy them out and maintain the legacy of staunch conservatism in News Corp and Fox, just as Rupert planned.

Crystal Andrews is joined by Crikey founder Stephen Mayne to unpack who gets what in the deal, and what Lachlan plans to do with the media empire. But the feuding is far from over. If a disgruntled James Murdoch wanted to mess with his estranged father and brother, what are his options now? Mayne has some ideas. 

Read more:

• For the secretive Murdochs, the succession drama has been a nightmare. It’s far from over
• Who are the other Murdoch siblings?
• Rupert Murdoch’s corporate record over 70-plus years as CEO and chairman
• How does News Corp make its money?
• The Murdoch Century, our series about the legacy of the family’s media empire
• Project Harmony, our series about Rupert Murdoch’s succession plan for Lachlan

Sign up to Crikey’s free newsletter: https://bit.ly/crikey-newsletter

Crikey’s independent journalism is supported by readers — 98% of our revenue comes from our subscribers. We’re not accountable to billionaires; we’re accountable to you.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The “media-baiting” tactics of neo-Nazi groups was on brutal display at the March for Australia rallies last Sunday, with many traditional and new media outlets suckered in to amplifying their hate-filled agenda. How can journalists do responsible reporting without falling into the trap?

Cut Through host Crystal Andrews and contributor Scobie McKay discuss the complexities of reporting on the far right and how Australian tabloid media’s obsession with the “freedom movement” is helping neo-Nazis recruit new members. 

Read more:

• How neo-Nazi support for a viral anti-immigration rally exposed fractures among ‘freedom’ groups
• How to report on neo-Nazis without giving them what they want
• Why the sovereign citizen movement is no longer a fringe curiosity
• Before the horror of Porepunkah, Australia’s media platformed Dezi Freeman for years
• Attack on Camp Sovereignty: How ordinary fears are giving cover to extraordinary hate
• White Rose Society’s 9 Principles for Journalists Reporting On Neo-Nazis

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Crikey’s independent journalism is supported by readers — 98% of our revenue comes from our subscribers. We’re not accountable to billionaires; we’re accountable to you.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In just four months, social media platforms will be forced to ban kids aged 16 and under. How will that work? No-one actually knows.

Crikey associate editor and tech journalist Cam Wilson has been closely following the progress of the teen social media ban – from the push for a ban by commercial radio host Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli, to the rushed legislation, aggressive lobbying by the tech giants, and, now, a trial of age-verification technology that’s not quite going to plan. 

He joins Cut Through host Crystal Andrews to explain what the hell is going on, and what you can expect when the results from the tech trial are made public.

Read more:

• How Australia’s teen social media ban tech trial was derailed by expert turmoil and secrecy
• ‘No fucking sense’: The secret deal which removed a ‘crucial’ part of the teen social media ban
• See the leaked teen social media ban tech trial report that has experts worried
• For parents, the teen social media ban doesn’t have to be perfect to be worthwhile
• The Wiggles’ teen social media ban lobbying exposes an uncomfortable truth about young kids and tech
• How Crikey will report on the teen social media ban (and how we got here in the first place)

Sign up to Crikey’s free newsletter: https://bit.ly/crikey-newsletter

Crikey’s independent journalism is supported by readers — 98% of our revenue comes from our subscribers. We’re not accountable to billionaires; we’re accountable to you.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers held his much-hyped Economic Reform Roundtable this week, with politicians and a selective list of experts, leaders and business executives discussing solutions for the challenges facing the Australian economy. Boring? Yeah. But given this three-day meeting will shape the next three federal budgets, it deserves your scrutiny.

Economist Jason Murphy joins readers’ editor Crystal Andrews to explain what ‘productivity’ means, why the roundtable was so fixated on this concept and to talk through some of the proposals on housing, tax reform and Centrelink.

But patience is the name of this game: Murphy thinks any “success stories” from this roundtable won’t be seen for 10 years or more.

Read more:

• Jim Chalmers wants his economic roundtable to rise above party politics. Good luck!
• How Jim Chalmers’ ‘boardroom blitz’ roundtable kicked off
• Reader reply: Is it time for a Universal Basic Income?
• Some taxes are inefficient at any level. Even modest reforms will help
• How the productivity roundtable became a vast gaslighting exercise — and sums up the fatal rot in Australian politics

Sign up to Crikey’s free newsletter: https://bit.ly/crikey-newsletter

Crikey’s independent journalism is supported by readers — 98% of our revenue comes from our subscribers. We’re not accountable to billionaires; we’re accountable to you.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.