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A daily news show from the publisher of The Monthly and The Saturday Paper. Hear from the country’s best reporters, covering the news as it affects Australia. This is news with narrative, every weekday.

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Episodes

Albanese’s push-back against Trump

Donald Trump’s return to power is testing Australia’s decades-old reflex to stand with the United States. When the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, demanded Canberra nearly double its military spend, Anthony Albanese answered that Australia will decide its own defence policy – and has been vocal in his criticisms of Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminium. With public support for automatic alignment with the US fading, the prime minister is recalibrating the alliance in real time. Today, colum...

Jun 05, 2025•16 min•Ep. 1581

The years of lobbying behind Woodside’s North West Shelf approval

Greg Bourne, former BP Australasia president, once worked alongside Australia’s biggest LNG venture: Woodside’s North West Shelf. Now a councillor at the Climate Council, he warns extending the project will unleash billions of tonnes of emissions and threaten tens of thousands of ancient rock carvings, while delivering a “pittance” in economic benefit to Australia. Yet Bourne says the decision to keep the project running until 2070 was almost inevitable, after decades of lobbying in Canberra. To...

Jun 04, 2025•15 min•Ep. 1580

How Labor’s new super tax works

Labor is poised to move forward with its plan to increase the tax on superannuation balances over $3 million. Critics are calling the idea unfair and questioning why Labor’s super tax will apply to unrealised gains, rather than just money made. But with Labor’s super majority in parliament – and support from the Greens in the senate – their opponents can only complain. Today, national correspondent for The Saturday Paper , Mike Seccombe, on Labor’s superannuation plan, and what it tells us about...

Jun 03, 2025•16 min•Ep. 1579

How Advance ‘siphoned’ funds and helped the Liberals lose

As the search to explain the Coalition’s disastrous election results continues, there’s one group being singled out inside Liberal campaign headquarters: the right-wing lobby, Advance. Flush with a multi-million dollar war chest, Advance promised to “take back” the country – yet Labor won 17 new seats and the Greens vote barely moved. As Advance and the Liberals blame each other for the failures, there are questions about whether the two will ever work together again. Today, national corresponde...

Jun 02, 2025•16 min•Ep. 1578

Sussan Ley: ‘I’ve been underestimated a lot’

For anyone doubting her ability to rehabilitate the Coalition after its thumping May 3 loss, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has a message: people have questioned her capability and drive before. Ley says she’s proven them all wrong – as a roustabout picking up fleeces in 40-degree heat or piloting aeroplanes low over western Queensland to muster cattle when no one thought she could. Now, as the first woman to lead the Liberal Party, Ley promises to “meet modern Australia where they are” and to win...

Jun 01, 2025•16 min•Ep. 1577

Read This: Kevin Wilson Is Wonderfully Weird

Kevin Wilson writes weird books about weird people — in the best possible way. In 2019’s Nothing to See Here , two children have a condition that means they spontaneously combust. In Now Is Not the Time to Panic , two lonely young artists wreak havoc on their small town, prompting fears of Satanism. This week on Read This , Michael sits down with Kevin to discuss how he wrote his latest novel, Run for the Hills , why having children revealed the multitude of ways weirdness can manifest. See omny...

May 31, 2025•32 min•Ep. 1576

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