We look at the political theatre of the right, including Pauline Hanson’s latest burqa stunt in the Senate, the rise of One Nation in the polls, and the growing battle for reactionary votes between minor parties and a hollowed-out Liberal Party. In an environment increasingly defined by provocation, stunts and nihilism, we cut through the noise to ask where Australian politics is heading.

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This week, we examine how the Liberal Party has abandoned serious policy for retail politics, scare campaigns and culture-war theatrics – strategies aimed at clawing back voters drifting to One Nation but which are instead eroding the party from within. After rejecting net-zero by 2050, the Liberals have pivoted to anti-immigration rhetoric, blaming migrants for traffic congestion, housing pressures and energy prices, despite net migration returning to pre-COVID norms and mirroring the Howard era. 

With new Redbridge polling showing One Nation rising to 18 per cent as the LNP slips into the low-20s, the right is becoming an echo chamber of grievance politics, far-right messaging and internal chaos, highlighted by the exits of Brad Battin, Leanne Castley and Mark Speakman during the November killing season.

We also unpack the escalating battle over hospital funding, as the Albanese government pushes productivity reforms before lifting the federal share to 42.5 per cent, while states warn of hospitals nearing breaking point. And with housing policy similarly gridlocked, Australia faces more buck-passing, worsening services and federal–state dysfunction unless real structural reform finally occurs.

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In this bonus episode, we examine the UN Security Council’s approval of a US-designed International Stabilisation Force for Gaza – effectively handing Washington, and Donald Trump as chair of the new “Board of Peace”, unprecedented power over Gaza’s future. With Palestinians excluded from the planning and conditions stacked in Israel’s favour, this plan risks entrenching occupation rather than delivering justice. With 70,000 Palestinians killed, 2 million displaced, and Gaza’s hospitals, schools and infrastructure destroyed, reconstruction cannot succeed without accountability for Israeli war crimes – yet the plan ignores this entirely.

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In this episode of the New Politics podcast, we look at Australia’s broken political structures and rising extremism – from the renewed debate over four-year federal terms and a constitution stuck in the 1890s, to the disturbing double standards in NSW policing after an authorised neo-Nazi rally was allowed to proceed while pro-Palestine protesters were violently suppressed, and finally the Liberal Party’s internal “killing season”, where chaos over net-zero, gender quotas and leadership instability shows a party drifting further from the electorate. We explore why constitutional reform matters, why hate-speech laws aren’t being used against white supremacists, and how the Coalition’s refusal to adapt to modern Australia – on climate, multiculturalism and democratic rights – is pushing it towards long-term electoral irrelevance.

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In this bonus episode of the New Politics podcast, we look at the ghost of Gough Whitlam and ask whether a visionary like Whitlam – who delivered universal healthcare, free tertiary education, multiculturalism, women’s rights and First Nations recognition – could even survive in today’s poll-driven, faction-controlled Labor Party. Fifty years after the Dismissal, Australia is still affected by the events from 1975, with Labor, Liberal and National parties offering tiny differences while the public demands real reform on housing, climate, health and education. We explore what a Whitlam government would look like in 2024 – cancelling AUKUS, recognising Palestine, expanding Medicare, rebuilding the ABC and pushing for a republic – and why the lessons learned from the Dismissal turned Labor into a cautious managerial party afraid of bold ideas. Whitlam’s legacy reminds us that government can transform lives, and that Australian politics desperately needs the ambition, imagination and courage that has been forgotten. 

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(00:00:00) The War on Dissent and Socialism USA

(00:01:12) Beautiful, Menacing, and Obscene: Australia’s Addiction to War

(00:18:18) Robodebt Reborn: The Cruelty That Never Dies

(00:29:56) Treaty and Truth: A New Beginning in Victoria

(00:43:07) Socialism in the City: Zohran Mamdani’s Revolution in New York

We expose Australia’s growing contradictions – a nation that talks peace while funding war, promises compassion while reviving cruelty, and talks justice while fearing equality. From Sydney’s taxpayer-funded arms expo where protesters were pepper-sprayed by police, to Labor’s quiet revival of Robodebt through private debt collectors, this episode reveals how state power is being weaponised against dissent and the vulnerable. We also cover Victoria’s historic Treaty with First Nations peoples, a breakthrough in truth-telling and Reconciliation now under threat from conservative backlash, and the election of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as New York’s first Muslim and African-born mayor – a victory for conviction politics over corporate control.
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Song listing:  

1. ‘Stranger In Moscow’, Tame Impala.
2. ‘Swing For The Crime’, Ed Kuepper.
3. ‘The King Is Dead’, The Herd.
4. ‘Sign O’ The Times’, Prince, remix by Michael Saxom.

(00:00:00) The Great Environmental Backflip and the Joy Division

(00:01:09) Green Light, Red Flags: Labor’s Environmental Backdown

(00:16:40) Nuclear Déjà Vu: The Coalition’s Broken Record

(00:29:26) Between Beijing and Washington: Albanese at ASEAN

(00:41:10) Culture Wars on Vinyl: The Joy Division Distraction

We examine one of the biggest environmental retreats in years as the Albanese government prepares to hand decision-making powers on coal, gas and water projects back to the states, gutting environmental protection and empowering the fossil-fuel lobby. It’s supposedly about “cutting red tape,” but critics say it’s a green light for mining giants and a betrayal of Labor’s climate promises. We also assess the new “national interest” override, the anger from NT Aboriginal land councils, and the government’s growing resemblance to the Morrison era. Meanwhile, the Coalition revives its nuclear energy obsession as Senator Jane Hume pushes to lift Australia’s nuclear ban, reigniting divisions between Barnaby Joyce and the moderates. Plus, Anthony Albanese’s balancing act at the ASEAN summit – caught between China and the US – and Sussan Ley’s bizarre attack on the Prime Minister for wearing a Joy Division T-shirt. Sharp analysis, politics without spin, and all the week’s contradictions in Australian politics.

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Song listing: 

1. ‘Bonnie And Clyde’, Serge Gainsbourg (French Accent remix).
2. ‘Satellite Anthem Icarus, Boards of Canada.
3. ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’, Joy Division.
4. ‘Sign O’ The Times’, Prince, remix by Michael Saxom.

(00:00:00) Alliance Games and the Price of Truth

(00:01:09) The Albanese–Trump Deal and the $8.5 Billion handshake (17 mins)

(00:18:46) Sparks Over The South China Sea (11 mins)

(00:29:56) Barnaby Joyce and One Nation: Who Really Cares (8 mins)

(00:38:45) A Ceasefire That Still Kills in Gaza (5 mins)

(00:43:35) The ABC Hatchet Job on Hedges (15 mins)

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s long-awaited meeting with Donald Trump delivers smiles, handshakes and a critical minerals deal that deepens Australia’s dependence on Washington. Beneath the diplomacy lies a bigger story – how this deal sidelines China, fuels the mining magnates and leaves Australia as the world’s quarry. Meanwhile, rising tensions in the South China Sea, Barnaby Joyce’s flirtation with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, and the collapse of the Gaza “ceasefire” expose a world of political theatre and moral failure. From AUKUS to media censorship and Chris Hedges’ fight for truth, this episode dissects power, propaganda and the high price of speaking out.

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Song listing: 

1. ‘Spitfire’, Public Service Broadcasting.
2. ‘Confessions Of A Window Cleaner’, Ed Kuepper.
3. ‘Dātura’, Tori Amos.
4. ‘Sign O’ The Times’, Prince, remix by Michael Saxom.

In this week’s podcast, Labor’s superannuation retreat exposes a government afraid to lead – Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ watered-down super tax gives wealthy Australians another break while real reform on housing, climate and tax fairness slips further away. We examine the bizarre corruption scandal of the Australian Parliamentary Sports Club – with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese presiding over a registered lobby group – and the vindictive legal crusade of former senator Linda Reynolds against Brittany Higgins, highlighting Australia’s broken defamation laws. Plus, Donald Trump’s so-called Gaza “ceasefire” reveals more illusion than peace, as Israel’s narrative control collapses and global calls for justice and accountability grow louder.

Support New Politics, just $5 per month: 

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Song listing: 

1. ‘Off The Grid’, Beastie Boys.
2. ‘Confessions Of A Window Cleaner’, Ed Kuepper.
3. ‘Talking To A Stranger’, Birds of Tokyo (cover).
4. ‘Sign O’ The Times’, Prince, remix by Michael Saxom.

We expose the hypocrisy behind the National Press Club’s cancellation of Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Chris Hedges, silenced for planning to speak about the collapse of journalism and the genocide in Gaza. We reveal how corporate sponsors like Raytheon, BAE Systems and Thales – all supplying weapons to Israel – help shape media censorship in Australia’s so-called home of free speech. We also examine the Optus Triple-0 outage, which blocked hundreds of emergency calls and caused three preventable deaths, highlighting the failure of neoliberalism and the dangers of outsourcing essential public services. And as the Liberal Party descends further into chaos, with Andrew Hastie’s aborted leadership challenge, Jacinta Price’s infighting and Peter Dutton’s factional damage, we ask whether Australia’s conservative movement is now ideologically bankrupt and politically finished. #AUSPOL
Support New Politics, just $5 per month: 

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• Substack: https://newpolitics.substack.com

Song listing:

1. ‘All I Need’, AIR (feat. Beth Hirsch).
2. ‘Ameno’, +eRa+.
3. ‘Sign O’ The Times’, Prince, remix by Michael Saxom.