Last year, over half a million Australians saw their HECS debt grow faster than it was being repaid. 

Teal Independent MP Dr Monique Ryan says it’s because Australia has an unfair HECS indexation system. In fact, the government got more money last year from HECS debts than it did from its main fossil fuel tax.  Dr Ryan has begun a petition calling on Education Minister Jason Clare to change the way HECS debts are indexed.   

In this episode of The Briefing, we hear from Dr Ryan as we investigate why it feels like you’ll never pay off your HECS debt. 

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Last year, a report found that Australia offers the least amount of parental leave support to parents of multiples in the OECD. In fact, extra payments to families with multiples only account 7% of the differential costs.

In this episode of The Briefing, Bension Siebert speaks with mother of triplets, Silje Andersen-Cooke who is also the director of the Australian Multiple Birth Association to find out what has happened in the year since the report was released, and why families with multiples are so overlooked in Australia.

Headlines:

2023 breaks every single climate indicator 

White House slams Trump’s comments on Jewish voters 

RBA keeps rates steady

Another Kate Middleton photo under scrutiny

 

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Banksy is the artist behind the most famous, subversive and satirical street art on the planet. Yet despite their notoriety over the last two decades, Banksy has impressively managed to maintain their anonymity.

But that could all change, due to a current court case between two art collectors and Banksy's authentication company, which could see the artist forced to reveal their identity.

In this episode of The Briefing, Bension Siebert speaks with LiSTNR Investigations Editor, Clair Weaver about the current theories on who the artist could be, and the potential ramifications of Banksy losing their anonymity.

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The US is moving to ban TikTok after a bill passed through its House of Representatives last week. It’s given TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest before 150 million users face not being able to access the platform.

In this episode of The Briefing Bension Siebert speaks with Crikey’s Cam Wilson about the ban, what it says about data ownership and what the implications could be for us here in Australia.

Headlines:

Greens to introduce bill that would break up Coles and Woolies

Putin addresses crowds at Red Square after landslide election ‘win’ 

Qantas workers tell hearing they suffered depression after being illegally sacked

Intimacy ban lifted for the Paris Games

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Vladimir Putin has been re-elected as Russia’s president for the fifth time over the weekend. Before the polls even opened all serious challengers had been wiped out, with Putin’s only real opposition, Alexei Navalny dying in mysterious circumstances weeks before.  

In this episode of The Briefing, Sacha Barbour Gatt sits down with Politico’s Zoya Sheftalovich to find out why Russia holds elections when the outcome has already been decided, and how Putin came to power in the first place. 

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The war between Israel and Hamas has been raging for five months, more than 30,000 people have been killed, and it’s spawned a massive refugee crisis. Currently 1.4 million Palestinians who have fled to the southern city of Rafah on the border with Egypt are hemmed in.

So are any of Palestine’s neighbouring countries willing to accept them? And if not, why not?

In this episode of The Briefing Sacha Barbour Gatt speaks with Anas Iqtait from the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at ANU about Arab countries’ role in the crisis.

Headlines:

Some visas reinstated for Palestinians heading to Australia

Russians around the world protest election

TikTok ban talks ignite in Australia

Space X is building a spy satellite network for the US

 

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Twitter: @TheBriefingAU

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Patrick deWitt is an award winning author, and screenwriter.

In this chat with Tom Tilley, Patrick talks about his latest novel The Librarianist, and why he hopes it provides readers with an escape from the “ugly” world we live in.

Patrick also reflects on his decision to leave high school to pursue his dream of becoming a writer, and explains his take on why literature and art should focus less on young people.

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Sydney-based content creator Veronica B is many things, but she’s perhaps best known for her hilarious comedy skits where she plays Aunty Salma, a character she says represents “every ethnic mum”.

In this chat with Antoinette Lattouf, Veronica takes us back to the moment she invented Aunty Salma, opens up about her decade-long journey in content creation before having her breakout moment on TikTok during the pandemic- and tells us why she wishes she could be a sellout.

She also chats about using humor to cope with chronic illness- having grown up with colitis and Crohn’s disease.

 

WEEKEND LIST
Broadsheet’s episode with Hannah Gadsby
Aldi Prosecco
Running clubs
Antoinette’s episode of Abbie Chatfield’s It’s A Lot podcast

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The first ever academic study has finally been written about Salad Fingers, a video series created in 2004 that later went viral on YouTube. Salad Fingers featured a sickly green figure with lettuce leaves for hands who liked to stroke rusty spoons. The study argues Salad Fingers was a trailblazer of “weird youtube” and is still influencing internet culture today. 

In this episode of The Briefing, Eleanor Harrison-Dengate speaks with Jessica Balanzategui, a Senior Lecturer in Media at RMIT University, about why she thinks the series has been so influential. 

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There’s a new phone-scam that’s being reported around the world, and it’s petrifying. It uses an AI generated cloned version of a loved one, who calls, claiming that there’s an emergency (often that they’ve been kidnapped and a ransom needs to be paid). They’re emotive, they’re high-quality replications, and they’re expected to hit Australians soon.

So how does the scam work, and what do you need to know to ensure that you or your loved ones don’t fall victim to it?

In today’s episode of The Briefing, Bension Siebert speaks with Toby Murray, Associate Professor of Computing and Information Systems at the University of Melbourne to find out more.

Headlines:

Federal government under fire for pulling Palestinian Visas 

Australian women died in Bali landslide

EV purchases soar in Australia

Space X mega rocket reaches new heights, before ending up lost

 

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