The Labor party has emerged from its three day national conference in Adelaide looking united and projecting itself as “ready to govern”. Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek told The Conversation the ALP wants voters to see the party as “responsible and progressive”. She says a Labor government would “work cooperatively with the trade union movement cause we share the same objective”. “The union movement hasn’t got everything they wanted from the Labor party in this instance, but a lot of the ch...
Dec 20, 2018•19 min•Ep. 121
Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese, a senior minister in the last Labor government and briefly deputy prime minister, is preparing to “hit the ground running” if the ALP wins next year’s election. But meanwhile the opposition is concentrating on staying focused and on message, fully aware that things can always go wrong. Speaking to The Conversation, Albanese wouldn’t comment on Bill Shorten’s unpopularity with voters, arguing instead that it’s a matter of whether the Labor team is “seen as wor...
Dec 12, 2018•49 min•Ep. 120
Josh Frydenberg, who became treasurer and deputy Liberal leader in the tumultuous events of August, said the party has “big challenges”. While the party is “disappointed” by this week’s defection of Julia Banks to the crossbench they “remain as a group focused on the challenges ahead. And we have big challenges, there’s no doubt about that.” He said he “absolutely” will be keeping in touch with Banks. Frydenberg reiterates that the Liberal party is still a “broad church” and says he isn’t concer...
Nov 29, 2018•16 min•Ep. 119
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) ended with no agreed communique and unresolved tensions between the United States and China on open display. Lowy Institute’s Pacific Islands program director, Jonathan Pryke, who observed the forum in Port Moresby, said: “it is distressing for all parties that they weren’t able to find common ground. There is a fear that we’re losing the middle here.” Pryke told The Conversation “the desire for a convergence of China into the international libe...
Nov 19, 2018•14 min•Ep. 118
Ahead of the release of the most comprehensive data on loneliness in Australia - by the Australian Psychologists Society - Labor frontbencher Andrew Giles speaks to The Conversation about this “contagious phenomenon”. Loneliness is a growing issue, Giles says. It’s not just among older Australians, as often conventionally thought, but also a problem for young people - with social media, paradoxically, a contributing factor. Giles who is working on a loneliness policy, thinks it is an area where ...
Nov 07, 2018•22 min•Ep. 117
Anne Summers, who has worn many hats during her career - journalist, editor, activist, senior public servant, and prime ministerial advisor - is concerned about the slow progress in Australia in addressing sexual harassment and assault. “I don’t know what it is that is holding [MeToo] back here,” Summers tells The Conversation. She believes there should be more naming of perpetrators, with the proviso that “obviously it’s got to be justified, obviously you don’t do it rashly and without and very...
Nov 02, 2018•31 min•Ep. 116
Jonathan Biggins, who has been sending up politicians as part of The Wharf Revue for almost two decades, has some sharp words about social media - “the enemy of democracy, not its ally” - and a warning on political correctness. “We are entering an age of a new puritanism that is actually not only driven by the censorious right but by the equally censorious left who are saying this is no longer acceptable,” he tells The Conversation. “We’ve always had a free rein at the wharf but I can see shadow...
Oct 30, 2018•19 min•Ep. 115
Some in the Nationals would like Barnaby Joyce back in the leadership before the election. Joyce speaking to The Conversation repeats that if the leadership were offered, he would be up for it - though he insists he is not canvassing. But his critics think he would have a “woman problem” - and Joyce acknowledges that to win support back from rural women he “would certainly have a lot of work to do”. The former deputy prime minister is the government’s special drought envoy, and ahead of Friday’s...
Oct 23, 2018•25 min•Ep. 114
Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), Peter Jennings, says it would be "silly" to claim - as Scott Morrison does - that there is no connection between this week's announcement about the possible relocation of Australia's embassy to Jerusalem and Saturday's Wentworth byelection. This kind of decision would not have been considered by Malcolm Turnbull, Jennings says and if Julie Bishop were still foreign minister she "would have put up quite a fight". On Morrison's general ...
Oct 17, 2018•20 min•Ep. 113
The government’s majority is at stake in the October 20 Wentworth byelection, when the Liberals face voters still reeling from the loss of their member Malcolm Turnbull. ABC election analyst Antony Green says there’s likely to be a 10 per cent swing “as a start” - the result of losing Turnbull’s personal vote and a generally more intense battle. He says “the only danger” to the Liberals not winning the seat is high profile independent Kerryn Phelps but she may have made it harder for herself by ...
Oct 10, 2018•35 min•Ep. 112
Shadow minister for financial services Clare O'Neil, who is leading Labor’s “roundtables” for victims of the banks and other financial institutions, says the ALP exercise will give a voice to people in areas the Royal Commission hasn’t had time to visit. “There’s vast swathes of the country where the commission hasn’t been at all.” she tells The Conversation. “I just utterly reject that this is a political exercise”, she says in answer to government criticism. O'Neil says she has “a lot of confi...
Oct 03, 2018•21 min•Ep. 111
With Scott Morrison flagging his government will take a hard line on industrial relations, especially the CFMEU, Labor’s shadow minister for employment and workplace relations, Brendan O'Connor will have a tough job ahead of the election. O'Connor says Labor remains totally opposed to the government’s Ensuring Integrity legislation, which the Coalition wants to resurrect. “I can’t see this bill in any way being salvageable, and that’s why of course it sat for a year without the Senate debating i...
Sep 26, 2018•32 min•Ep. 110
Independent Cathy McGowan and Centre Alliance’s Rebekha Sharkie share more in common than just sitting on the crossbench. The members for Indi and Mayo respectively have dug in to retain their seats - they believe there is “a mood” in the community for alternative candidates. McGowan and Sharkie have given the government their confidence until the Wentworth byelection - after which they will consult with their electorates. They think Kerryn Phelps would have “an excellent chance” of winning the ...
Sep 13, 2018•35 min•Ep. 109
Former Victorian Liberal senator Judith Troeth is no stranger to speaking out forthrightly on issues, even when that goes against her party’s position. In this podcast, Troeth says the party should adopt quotas to rectify the “abysmally low numbers” of Liberal women in parliament. “We should have quotas, but not forever … to get the numbers up”. One of the group of moderates when she was in parliament (1993- 2011), Troeth is concerned about the party’s drift to the right. “Sometimes i feel as th...
Sep 07, 2018•23 min•Ep. 108
Barnaby Joyce has confirmed he could cross the floor on the federal legislation associated with the National Energy Guarantee. “Of course I could,” he says in an interview with The Conversation. Joyce is out on the author’s circuit for his just-released book Weatherboard and Iron, which reprises the personal saga that took him from deputy prime minister to backbencher, as well as canvassing life in Canberra and policy issues. On the NEG, he says in this podcast: “If it comes back from COAG and i...
Aug 08, 2018•17 min•Ep. 107
Incoming Labor national president Wayne Swan has made it clear he will have an assertive voice in the role, as the party moves towards next year’s election. While many in the ALP would like action on party reform, Swan says bluntly it’s not top of mind for him. “I made it very clear [in campaigning for the presidency] that party reform in the first instance was not my priority,” he says. “My priority is winning the battle of ideas.” Looking to the rescheduled party conference in December, Swan a...
Aug 01, 2018•18 min•Ep. 106
Deputy opposition leader Tanya Plibersek talks on Anthony Albanese's Whitlam oration, Bill Shorten's unexpected announcement on rolling back company tax for medium sized firms, the "tough" Braddon and Longman byelections - and really fires up about mobile phones and over connected children.
Jun 27, 2018•23 min•Ep. 103
Frances Adamson is secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. She was previously international adviser to Malcolm Turnbull, and served as Australia’s ambassador in Beijing between 2011 and 2015. This interview is published in partnership with The Australian Strategic Policy Institute .
Jun 25, 2018•33 min•Ep. 102
Attorney-General Christian Porter says the response to the consultations for the national apology to victims of child sexual abuse has been very strong with a total of 167 attendees at consultation sessions so far. "There are further consultations coming up in Ballarat, Melbourne, Bendigo, Newcastle and Sydney ... it is a very important process and is going very well," he said. Porter also says there's "some level of common sense" to suggestions that former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who set ...
Jun 20, 2018•27 min•Ep. 101
The Brotherhood of St Laurence has underway a campaign with the slogan “ Share the Pie ” highlighting the inadequacy of the Newstart allowance. The Brotherhood is also arguing the social safety net more generally is fraying. Executive Director of The Brotherhood Conny Lenneberg spoke to The Conversation about the inequality created by the low level of Newstart, which hasn’t been boosted for many years. She also pointed to the systemic barriers - such as disinvestment in the TAFE system and a sca...
May 31, 2018•19 min•Ep. 100
With yet another round of the Barnaby Joyce affair distracting the government, the next question will be whether the beleaguered MP runs again in his New England seat at the election. In this interview with The Conversation, Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack pointedly avoids saying Joyce should do so. “That’ll be a matter for him and that’ll be a matter for the National party in New England. That’ll be a matter for a branch to nominate him and then that’ll be a matter ...
May 30, 2018•25 min•Ep. 99
Labor is facing tough tests in coming byelections in its narrowly held seats of Longman in Queensland and Braddon in Tasmania. Later on, managing the ALP national conference will be a challenge for Bill Shorten who will be anxious to avoid damaging displays of division over controversial issues. Labor Frontbencher Anthony Albanese is putting on a confident face about the byelections. On the conference, he predicts there will not be a "substantial change" in Labor's refugee policy. On the issue o...
May 23, 2018•28 min•Ep. 98
The Liberal party is currently fighting fires on various fronts - from a revolt on the live sheep trade to preselection power struggles. Western Australia Liberal Senator Dean Smith is putting up another push, as he challenges the decision not to run Liberal candidates in the two WA byelections. In this podcast he also speaks about the need for rigorous debate on religious freedoms, diversity in the Liberal party, and his opposition to constitutional reform of section 44.
May 22, 2018•19 min•Ep. 97
With the government's election focused budget released it's now a tax showdown between the two sides. Finance minister Mathias Cormann says the government is committed to the whole of their seven-year personal tax relief plan and is determined the three-part package not be broken up. Meanwhile, shadow finance minister Jim Chalmers says Labor is disappointed with the government's inflexibility on their tax plan. "It's a real shame that they're saying that they will hold those lower and middle inc...
May 09, 2018•32 min•Ep. 96
From inside the lockup political and economic journalist Tim Colebatch speaks to Michelle Grattan about his assessment of the budget. He says the income tax cuts are “well targeted” and that he can’t see any “significant negatives” from the budget. However Colebatch is “surprised the government hasn’t made more effort to find other sources of compensating tax income or making bigger spending cuts in areas where they thought there was waste”.
May 08, 2018•9 min•Ep. 95
Ahead of Tuesday’s budget that will unveil the goverment’s tax cut plans, the Coalition is painting Labor as the big taxing party, while the ALP is attacking the government’s push to cut company tax for big business. Meanwhile the Business Council of Australia is taking its message to the public with a grassroots campaign. Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen tells The Conversation he accepts that big business will “lobby on their own path”. “Clearly we have a difference of view with the Business Counci...
May 03, 2018•21 min•Ep. 94
Professor Robert E Kelly from the Department of Political Science and Diplomacy at Pusan University is pessimistic about how much the upcoming Korean summits will achieve. He told The Conversation that the Trump-Kim summit is likely "to be a bust" because the Americans aren't prepared for the negotiations, while the summit between the two Koreas is more important for issues of economic cooperation and military transparency. On the reunification of Korea, Kelly says while he wouldn't put a timeli...
Apr 24, 2018•20 min•Ep. 93
The Australia-China relationship is again in the headlines, with reports of strains between the two countries, resulting in federal ministers who want to visit finding it hard to get visas. China is reacting against the Australian government’s rhetoric and especially its legislation, now before parliament, to combat foreign interference in Australian politics. Malcolm Turnbull plays down the issue but admits “there is certainly some tension”, in the wake of the move on foreign interference. In t...
Apr 13, 2018•34 min•Ep. 92
With the debate about equality heating up ahead of the federal election, Dr Michael Keating, the former head of three federal government departments, warns that while past economic reforms have served Australia well, there’s a risk some people may be left behind if we don’t “change the debate”. A new book co-authored by University of Queensland Political Economy Professor Stephen Bell and Keating called Fair Share identifies lagging wages, low taxation and technological change as causes of inequ...
Apr 05, 2018•40 min•Ep. 91
As Russian Ambassador Grigory Logvinov and Foreign minister Julie Bishop trade verbal blows, ANU professor John Blaxland says the expulsion of two Russian spies from Australia will have a significant effect on Russia’s espionage here. Blaxland told The Conversation that ideologically we’re not seeing a new Cold War but the interconnectedness of the world means that activities by Russia create new vulnerabilities. “In some ways the threat is as great, if not greater.”
Mar 28, 2018•21 min•Ep. 90
