For the first time ever, the Supreme Court of Victoria allowed a television camera to broadcast a sentencing – the hearing for convicted triple murderer Erin Patterson. Justice Christopher Beale imposed life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 33 years, for murdering three in-laws – and attempting to murder a fourth – by lacing their beef Wellingtons with poisonous death cap mushrooms in 2023. In handing down the sentence, Justice Beale said Patterson’s crimes fell into “the worst category ...
Sep 08, 2025•17 min•Ep. 1659
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the government’s deal with Nauru was “hardly secret.” But the agreement to deport hundreds of non-citizens to live in the tiny Pacific nation was signed on Friday August 29 and only acknowledged publicly the following weekend, with key details – including a potential $2.5 billion price tag – emerging in the days afterwards. At the same time, parliament has passed laws to speed up the process, stripping natural justice from deportation decisions. Today, journa...
Sep 07, 2025•16 min•Ep. 1658
Insiders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the agency is in chaos. Last week, the White House fired CDC Director Susan Monarez after less than a month in the role. Insiders say the agency is no longer able to provide reliable health guidance to Americans as it faces resignations, funding cuts, and a replacement of vaccine advisers with skeptics who have expressed anti-vaccine views. Today, staff writer at The Atlantic on what Monarez’s firing signals about the Trump administr...
Sep 04, 2025•16 min•Ep. 1657
Australia acted against Iran after ASIO found Tehran orchestrated two antisemitic arson attacks on Australian soil – expelling Iran’s ambassador and moving to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation. For Kylie Moore-Gilbert, it’s a long time coming. She spent 804 days imprisoned under IRGC control after being arrested in Tehran on espionage charges. Today, she explains who the IRGC is, why it would attack Australia, and what this listing would actually change. If y...
Sep 03, 2025•17 min•Ep. 1656
In the lead-up to the so-called ‘March for Australia’, many people downplayed the involvement of neo-Nazis in organising and promoting the rallies that took place in several cities. But in Melbourne, neo-Nazis were not just central to the march – they led it all the way to the steps of Parliament House, where a prominent neo-Nazi’s speech to the crowd ended in applause. Just hours later, that same figure was part of a group that stormed Camp Sovereignty – an Aboriginal-led site of protest and mo...
Sep 02, 2025•17 min•Ep. 1655
As hard-fought gains in reproductive medicine, voluntary assisted dying and LGBTQI health care have been made – another story has emerged. One where religious pharmacists, doctors and hospital systems believe it's justifiable to withhold medication or support… often with devastating consequences. Now, 1 in 5 pharmacists in Australia will refuse you care if the medication you’re asking for doesn’t align with their beliefs… and in some parts of the country, that number is closer to half. Today, wr...
Sep 01, 2025•14 min•Ep. 1654
Murray Watt has a big job: as federal environment minister, he’s been hand-picked by Albanese to fix Australia’s old and broken environment laws. It was a brief his predecessor Tanya Plibersek failed to achieve – with mining interests in Western Australia claiming success when a deal with the Greens was dashed by the prime minister at the last minute. So what will be different this time? And how does the minister square greenlighting new fossil fuel projects with his government being elected to ...
Aug 31, 2025•18 min•Ep. 1653
When Prime Minister Anthony Albanese fronted the media this week alongside ASIO chief Mike Burgess, it was with extraordinary news. Albanese revealed that ASIO now has evidence the Iranian government was behind at least two anti-semitic attacks on Australian soil – the firebombing of a Jewish kitchen in Bondi, and an arson attack on the Adass synagogue in Melbourne. He said Iran directed the attacks – and then tried to cover up its role. Albanese also announced that he had expelled the Iranian a...
Aug 29, 2025•15 min•Ep. 1652
The man alleged to have killed two police officers in the Victorian town of Porepunkah this week self-identified as a sovereign citizen. Dezi Freeman’s hatred of police and rejection of government and the law are well-documented in social media posts and court documents. Like many in the movement, Freeman’s views reportedly became more radical during the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time, he built a public profile, sharing his views on vaccinations, lockdowns and face masks. Investigative repo...
Aug 28, 2025•15 min•Ep. 1651
The federal government says too many children are on the NDIS, and many of them are ‘over-serviced’. Health Minister Mark Butler has unveiled a new plan, ‘Thriving Kids’, pitched as a way to save the NDIS by moving children with ‘mild’ and ‘moderate’ autism and developmental delay off the scheme and back onto mainstream supports – which, over time, were defunded. But the plan raises questions as to who gets to decide what’s ‘mild’ and ‘moderate’ – and whether shifting kids off the NDIS will simp...
Aug 27, 2025•15 min•Ep. 1650
When a group of Neo-Nazis recently took to the streets of Melbourne, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said that Nazi’s “don't belong” in Australia. But while that might be a good sentiment, is it actually true? Today, Arrernte writer and Crikey contributor Celeste Liddle, on Australia’s white nationalist past – and how in failing to reckon with it we’ve set the stage for the movement to grow. If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/suppor...
Aug 26, 2025•15 min•Ep. 1649
As Israel's assault on Gaza city continues, Israeli aircraft and tanks have pounded the eastern and northern outskirts of the city, destroying buildings and homes. It comes as a record number of Australians turned out this weekend in protest against the war – and as the relationship between the Australian and Israeli government worsens. But while Australia moves to recognise a Palestinian state, it continues its military and trade relations with Israel, supplying parts that allow planes to drop ...
Aug 25, 2025•14 min•Ep. 1648
“I’m REAL and I’m sitting here blushing because of YOU!” That’s the message 76-year-old Thongbue “Bue” Wongbandue received from a flirty Facebook Messenger chatbot before it proposed he travel to New York for a meet-up. Bue – who was cognitively impaired after suffering a stroke – packed a suitcase to catch a train, believing the woman was real. He never made it home alive. Jeff Horwitz is an investigative tech reporter based in Silicon Valley. He has written a book about Facebook’s scandals and...
Aug 24, 2025•17 min•Ep. 1647
This week in Canberra, the press, unions, business leaders and politicians have all been talking about one thing: the economic roundtable. It’s been spruiked by the government as a way to address a core problem with the economy – sluggish productivity. But what is actually on offer – and will it make a difference to the rising structural inequalities we face? Today Executive Director of The Australia Institute, Richard Denniss, on what’s happening behind closed doors in Canberra, and the challen...
Aug 21, 2025•15 min•Ep. 1646
Qantas has been told it’s the “wrong kind of sorry”. Five years after illegally outsourcing 1,800 ground staff, the airline has been hit with a record $90 million penalty on top of compensation for workers. Qantas is promising cultural change, but the court's judgment questions whether the airline’s remorse is real or just for show, given the move saved the company hundreds of millions of dollars in the long run. Today, Rampart founder and author of The Chairman's Lounge: The Inside Story of How...
Aug 20, 2025•16 min•Ep. 1645
Fresh off the back of his meeting with Putin in Alaska, US President Donald Trump has held talks with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky. While details of those talks are still trickling out, this time things seem to have gone well. Trump has promised Ukraine security, and is now talking about a peace deal – though not a ceasefire. Today, associate professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, David Szakonyi, on Trump's plan to profit from providing protecti...
Aug 19, 2025•16 min•Ep. 1644
Darwin’s crocodile farms supply some of the world’s most exclusive fashion houses. But as award-winning journalist Katherine Wilson started looking into this booming hundred million dollar industry, she knew she had to visit the Northern Territory herself. As she got closer to this secretive industry, what she found was shocking: animals being kept in cramped conditions and being killed in drawn out processes, Indigenous people who say they are being ripped off for dangerous work and claims of c...
Aug 18, 2025•14 min•Ep. 1643
This is part two of a two-part series. Start with Part 1: Inside Australia's secretive crocodile skin industry. The lucrative Australian crocodile skin industry has always sold its conservation credentials - arguing that by farming the animals, they were ensuring the future of the species. Two prominent scientists, using successful media businesses to promote research which showed those benefits, gave credibility to an industry worth 100 million dollars. Their work also reportedly underpinned No...
Aug 18, 2025•15 min•Ep. 1642
When the Australian government appointed its envoy to combat Islamophobia, it came amid escalating violence in Gaza. But signs have emerged that the envoy chosen - Aftab Malik - appears to see his role as separate from the conflict in the Middle East. Now there are questions about why Malik was chosen, and concern about whether his report - due any day now - will go far enough to address Islamophobia in this county. Today, Crikey reporter Daanyal Saeed on the secret briefings the envoy is holdin...
Aug 17, 2025•13 min•Ep. 1641
A few weeks ago, Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar addressed the National Press Club to discuss what he describes as the “next great industrial revolution”. Singing the praises of the economic opportunity of artificial intelligence, Farquhar called on the government to loosen the rules – allowing AI models to train themselves using creative works, without paying for it. Now, as Treasurer Jim Chalmers and the Productivity Commission focus on the potential billions AI could produce – there are q...
Aug 14, 2025•15 min•Ep. 1640
It’s easy to dismiss conspiracy theories as fringe or imported. But conspiratorial ideas are gaining traction with everyday Australians – about one in three endorse at least one conspiracy belief. They’re also being echoed by people in power, and have spilled into real-world violence. Today, Conspiracy Nation authors Cam Wilson and Ariel Bogle on how conspiracies leap from the fringe to the mainstream – including all the way to Parliament house. This is part two of a two-part series. If you enjo...
Aug 13, 2025•17 min•Ep. 1639
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia – like many countries – saw protesters take the streets. They weren’t just protesting lockdowns, they were rallying around a tangle of fears and conspiracies. Those threads fused into a broader worldview that pulled people down a pipeline and built a small industry of influencers. Today, Conspiracy Nation authors Ariel Bogle and Cam Wilson on the conspiracy pipeline: how it works, who benefits, and where it’s heading now. This is part one of a two-part ser...
Aug 13, 2025•15 min•Ep. 1638
When dead fish began washing up on South Australian beaches earlier this year, Dr Scott Bennett was alarmed. Scott’s a marine ecologist at the University of Tasmania, and knew that dead fish on shore meant trouble under the surface. On a dive in June, Scott came face-to-face with the devastating impact of the largest algal bloom Australia has ever seen. The full impact still isn’t known – but some of Australia’s rarest and strangest animals could be wiped out entirely. If you enjoy 7am, the best...
Aug 12, 2025•15 min•Ep. 1637
Australia will recognise a Palestinian state at the United Nations in September, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced. Albanese claims the move will help advance a two-state solution and is “humanity’s best hope” for peace in the Middle East. But as Israel intensifies its military campaign in Gaza once again, what difference does recognition really make? Today, contributing editor of The New Daily, Amy Remeikis, on what the international community is trying to achieve – and whether it's...
Aug 11, 2025•14 min•Ep. 1636
In May this year, Kumanjayi White died after being restrained by police inside a supermarket in Alice Springs. Just weeks later, the coroner released her findings into the fatal police shooting of Kumanjayi Walker, who was killed in Yuendumu in 2019. Both men were Warlpiri, and both died after encounters with Northern Territory police. Jampijinpa Hargraves is Kumanjayi White’s grandfather – and a Warlpiri elder who has also spoken on behalf of Kumanjayi Walker’s family. He says the system that f...
Aug 10, 2025•15 min•Ep. 1635
Labor is laying the groundwork for a major overhaul of Australia’s tax system. In just over a week, a hand-picked group of people from business, unions and government will gather in Canberra for an economic roundtable. Already, a range of ideas are being touted for debate: from lowering company tax rates, to rethinking negative gearing, and a carbon tax. The prime minister is watching carefully to see which ideas gain traction – and which are political poison – before claiming them as part of hi...
Aug 07, 2025•15 min•Ep. 1634
As ceasefire talks with Hamas stall, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to convene his security cabinet to agree on a new Gaza strategy. He’s been pushing for a full military takeover of the strip – but that plan is exposing deep divisions inside his own government. The meeting was postponed, senior defence officials warn the operation would be costly and endanger the remaining hostages, and critics say it risks leaving Israel even more isolated internationally. Meanwhile, th...
Aug 06, 2025•16 min•Ep. 1633
At the height of the Islamic State’s power in Syria, hundreds of Australians are thought to have joined their ranks. But as security agencies cracked down on people leaving the country, Australian ISIS supporters turned their focus here. What followed was a string of attacks and foiled plots. Now, as ISIS once again gains a foothold in Syria, attacks are expected to rise in Australia. Today, investigative reporter for the ABC Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop on Australia’s ISIS supporters, the spiritual ...
Aug 05, 2025•12 min•Ep. 1631
When ASIO’s spy chief Mike Burgess delivered his annual threat assessment earlier this year, it was widely seen as a recruitment drive. He talked about the crucial role of human intelligence in ASIO's work – and sang the praises of the people who make huge sacrifices, in secret, to keep Australians safe. But while Burgess insisted informants collecting intelligence for ASIO are valued, ABC investigative reporter Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop has revealed a different side to this dangerous work. Today,...
Aug 05, 2025•15 min•Ep. 1632
For nearly two decades, Australian governments have pledged to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians — in health, education, employment and justice. But year after year, the data tells a grim story: modest improvements in some areas and deepening crises in others. Behind the national figures, and in the shadow of the failed referendum, the Northern Territory is falling even further behind. Today, Yorta Yorta man and co-host of 7am, Daniel James on the ongoing frustratio...
Aug 04, 2025•16 min•Ep. 1630
