Represent

This week on Represent National, the team headed to court.

Or at least, we spoke an awful lot about court cases.

We looked at Reddit's High Court challenge to the under-16 social media ban, in which the company claims the ban impedes young people's freedom of political communication. Upvote, etc.? 

We also talked about Erin Patterson's (aka the 'mushroom murderer') appeal outcome, with her walking away with a revised, harsher sentence. Ouch. 

Finally, we discussed the first Australian charged under deepfake pornography laws avoiding jail time, a controversial result that may serve to set precedent in future cases. 

Represent is a Syn Media podcast.

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We talk to researcher Dr Jordana Silverstein about the contentious Israeli elections and what it all means for the Palestinians experiencing genocide.

In slightly less depressing news, we also look at progressive wins in the Brazilian and Serbian national elections.

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You read that correctly! This week we had a special announcement to share on behalf of SYN leading up to the Victorian election. Head over to @synmedia and @synrepresent on Instagram to stay up to date!

We also discussed One Nation's crude depiction of Jacqui Lambie's health issues, a jump in peptide-related hospital admissions in New South Wales, and attacks on politicians in Australia in the wake of Helen Haines' hospitalisation.

Represent is a Syn Media podcast. 

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Former US public policy advisor and combat veteran Christopher Rivers is uniquely qualified to give his take on the rhetoric (or lack thereof) around the death penalty shemozzle and how it might or might not affect the upcoming US midterms.

Also the kids are NOT okay in Europe and they are making sure their governments know it.

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This week on Represent National, Benita, Fatima and Nayan look at the alleged attack on independent MP for Indi outside her electorate office in Wangaratta. The team discusses calls from public figures like the Prime Minister to 'turn down the temperature' politically, or whether this conversation should centre on gendered violence. 

The Victorian Labor Party has also promised to increase access to abortions if re-elected in the November state election, including covering out-of-pocket costs for pregnancies under 16 weeks. But why wait to lock this behind an election outcome? Why not legislate it sooner? Hmm...

Finally, Nayan walks us through the federal government's plans to sell off Defence properties across Australia, at an expected profit of close to $2 billion. As ever in Australian politics, these moves beg the age-old question: is our government prioritising short-term and ignoring long-term costs? 

Represent is a Syn Media podcast.

 

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This week on Represent National, the whole team is back in the studio as Ashley walks us through the federal government's backflip on banning credit card payments to the tax office. Between that and the credit card surcharge ban, small business owners are reportedly not very happy campers. 

Benita then takes us up to New South Wales, where a new 'Armed Response Command' initiative will see police officers patrolling Sydney streets with long-arm rifles less than a year after the Bondi mass shooting that killed 15 people at a Hanukkah event. The Represent National team debates whether this will really increase public safety, or create fear and further endanger marginalised people. 

Finally, Fatima gives us the rundown on the eSafety Commissioner's plans to block the livestream of a United States execution by firing squad in Australia. Should our government block access to livestreams of executions in the US? Would we even be having this conversation if it weren't in the US? 

Share your thoughts with us on Instagram @synrepresent!

Represent is a Syn Media podcast.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People have been adapting The Odyssey longer than they've been writing it down.

To talk to us about the hold this story seems to have on us and its place in Western colonisation we were joined by Associate Professor Ika Willis, Head of School of Culture & Communication at the University of Melbourne.

We also finally reveal Represent International's true political leanings.

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Pre-COP31 wrapped up in Fiji today and Gerard Anapu joined us fresh off his flight from Nadi to give us the low down on how things went down.

To celebrate the first Represent International episode with the whole gang in the studio, we decide to take a political personality quiz as a group to find out who Represent International really is in one of the most heated segments in Represent history.

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This week on Represent National, Zoe and Ashley hold down on the fort while Nayan is trapped in a lift. 

Ashley takes us through who the federal Greens' new leader David Shoebridge is, and his approach to leading the party so far. We discuss The Greens' political tactics, whether Shoebridge is a good pick for the leadership, the party's media coverage (or lack thereof) and their prospects for the upcoming Victorian election.

Zoe then walks us through how exactly voting in the Victorian election works, with voting rules in the upper house changing this year following the recent abolishment of the 'group voting' system. We then have a chat about why Victorian Labor is waiting until just a month before the election to announce their upper house candidates (hint: in-fighting, desperation and factional deals have a lot to do with it). 

Will you vote above or below the line on your upper house ballot? Will Nayan make it out of the lift in time to join the show? You'll have an answer to at least one of these questions after listening!

Represent is a Syn Media podcast. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on Represent National, we bring you the second half of our interview with Mohamed Semra, the 27-year-old Mayor of Maribyrnong City Council in Melbourne's inner west. In part two, we spoke to Mohamed about racism in politics, media representation of African communities, barriers to entry in leadership, and key areas of discussion in (and about) the City of Maribyrnong like data centres, social welfare, homelessness, land banking, and crime concerns. 

In her Represent National segment debut, Fatima takes us through OpenAI's hack on a Medicare database way back in June, which the company only told our government about in August via... a regular email to Medicare that got lost in the inbox, of course. How did this happen? Who should be held responsible? Are we ready for the threats AI poses to national security? All that and more in this segment.

Finally, Ashley takes a look at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese winning a United Nations Global Citizens award. But what on earth did he get this award for, exactly, why is he brushing shoulders with Wicked's Cynthia Erivo, and why aren't we hearing much about this in mainstream media? Listen in and find out, my friend. 

Represent is a Syn Media podcast.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.