Unlike a lot of other western countries, Australia has a forced saving system called superannuation. When the system was introduced back in 1992, 3% of your income went to your super, which is only accessible at the age of 66. Nowadays, that percentage is 9.5%, but there are plans to increase it so that by 2025, 12% of your pay will be put into your super. Should more of our money be put into super? Or would you rather have it now to buy a house? Senator Andrew Bragg and Executive Director of Pe...
Oct 19, 2020•19 min•Season 1Ep. 140
Conspiritualism is a blend of two words: Conspiracy and spiritualism and it describes a strange phenomena that you might have noticed on your social media feeds. It describes the wellness bloggers and influencers who’ve taken up the same causes as conspiracy theorists. This wellness community and QAnon conspiracy theorists have previously seemed worlds apart but according to Sarah Wilson they have quite a lot in common, and she joins us on this episode to explain. Sarah’s latest book ‘This One W...
Oct 18, 2020•19 min•Season 1Ep. 139
What’s in a name when you’re applying for a job? Does your name impact your hire ability? In 2012 researchers conducted an experiment sending out fictional applications for real jobs. On some they used English-sounding names and on others they used names that sounded stereotypically Indigenous, Italian, Chinese and Middle Eastern. They found that these applicants were less likely to score an interview than those with English sounding names. Other research has found that when employers were prese...
Oct 15, 2020•17 min•Season 1Ep. 138
Will COVID-19 be the ‘great accelerator’ in the death of the shopping mall? The mall has gone from the height of the social scene to struggle street in only a couple of decades, and the closing of shops amid the pandemic is leading to fears the “dead mall” phenomenon seen in the US could be in store for Australia. More than a third of all shopping is expected to be online by 2030 and big retail chains here in Australia are struggling. So in today’s Briefing, we ask: Is the mall dead? And is Covi...
Oct 14, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 137
It’s easy to feel like we’re the first ones to go through a pandemic like this, and that the deprivations and constant state of underlying anxiety is unique to our generation. But while this is a once in a generation pandemic, Australians have lived through difficult times before and survived. And some of them are still alive to tell us about it. 86 year olds Dorothy McRae-McMahon and Val Reily have lived through and survived pandemics, recessions and moments of global upheaval and in this episo...
Oct 13, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 136
J.K. Rowling is one of the most famous authors in the world. The Harry Potter book series have sold more than 500 million copies across 80 languages. Potter isn’t just a series, it’s a phenomenon. Back in June, J.K. Rowling retweeted an opinion piece that used the phrase “people who menstruate”. Rowling -- who has over 14.2 million of followers on Twitter -- publicly took issue with the story not simply using the word ‘women’. “People who menstruate” is a commonly used term in the transgender co...
Oct 12, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 135
Eighteen years ago today 202 people including 88 Australians were killed in a terror attack in the tourist district of Bali. A powerful car bomb, hidden inside a white Mitsubishi van, was detonated by a suicide bomber right outside the Sari Club, a renowned open-air thatch-roof bar in the Kuta district. The blast site itself has lain dormant for almost 20 years, and the question of what to do with it is at the centre of a bitter dispute. A group of Aussies are pushing for a permanent memorial in...
Oct 11, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 134
Fast fashion is the rise of cheap, trendy, affordable and accessible clothes that turn catwalk trends into bargain buys in a matter of weeks. And while more fashion choices might seem like a good thing for consumers, it’s a bad thing for the planet. The average Australian buys 27 kilograms of clothes every year, and we throw away 23 of those, so 85 percent of what we buy ends up in landfill. On today's Briefing we ask: Just how much is fast fashion destroying the planet and what can we do about ...
Oct 08, 2020•19 min•Season 1Ep. 133
Homeownership in Australia is declining, with the biggest drop happening for young people. But the good news to come out of the Federal Budget this week is that the Government has added an extra 10,000 places to its First Home Loan Deposit Scheme which allows singles or couples to buy their first home with a deposit of only five per cent and the government acting as guarantor for the loan. This gets rid of the need for lender's mortgage insurance. Today we’re joined by Federal Minister for Housi...
Oct 07, 2020•21 min•Season 1Ep. 132
The federal budget is usually handed down in May, but this year it was delayed while the government focused on the coronavirus outbreak and rethought their approach to an economy in big trouble. The government has now released its plans to reboot the economy in what is reported to be one of the most important federal budgets in Australia’s history. So how does the government intend on spending our taxpayer dollars over the next four years and what does it mean for young people? Former Treasurer ...
Oct 06, 2020•19 min•Season 1Ep. 131
While countries like China, Italy, France, Spain were taking strict lockdown measures when the Pandemic struck, Sweden went out alone with a very different approach. People were still out in cafes, children were still going to school and there were very few facemasks. Initially that seemed to be a disaster compared to their neighbouring countries, as their infection rate was high, their death rate was high and their economy went backwards. But six months down the track Sweden is not seeing the s...
Oct 05, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 130
On today’s episode we get the latest sleep science on daylight saving. A peak medical body says daylight saving is bad for us, and the EU has voted to stop doing it from 2021. So is it time for Australia to get rid of it? Last month the US American Academy of Sleep Medicine changed its position on daylight saving, coming out against it citing new research the health impacts of moving the clocks forward. In Australia we’re already divided on it WA, NT and QLD don’t do it. while the rest of the co...
Oct 04, 2020•19 min•Season 1Ep. 129
Donald Trump reportedly claimed $US70,000 in haircuts as part of millions in business expenses that have helped reduce his federal tax bill to just a few hundred dollars. An investigation by the New York Times exposed two decades of the Presidents tax returns, revealing he paid just $750 US in both 2016 and 2017, and paid no income tax in 10 of the past 15 years. Trump's critics hope the leaked taxed returns will hurt the President’s chances when Americans go to the polls next months. It’s alrea...
Oct 01, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 128
Today we find out about the woman at the centre of one of the biggest crime scandals in Australian history. Last year it was revealed that Lawyer X was Nicola Gobbo: a prominent Melbourne lawyer who represented some of Melbourne’s biggest criminals and at the same time was giving information about them to the police. The Lawyer X scandal could see some of Australia's most notorious criminals released from prison, and there’s concern that they might want Lawyer X dead, and that’s why she might ha...
Sep 30, 2020•21 min•Season 1Ep. 127
What’s going on inside some of Australia’s most expensive schools? What kind of culture is being promoted? Should private schools review their culture? Are the high marks, fancy uniforms and big gymnasiums really worth it? The recent muck up day scandal re-opens some of the debates about the problems with private schools elitist attitudes to people less fortunate, and unhealthy outdated attitudes towards women. One voice that’s stood out in the public vs private school debate is Rob Sturrock who...
Sep 29, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 126
For the last week, there has been an epic struggle of life and death on a remote wild part of the Tasmanian coast. 470 long-finned pilot whales were discovered beached around Macquarie Harbour and Ocean Beach near the Tasmanian town of Strahan. The tragic event stands as the largest whale stranding in Australian history. Rescuers have managed to save 110 whales but sadly the rest are dead and are currently being disposed of. In this Briefing, we dive deep into why this mass beaching has happened...
Sep 28, 2020•21 min•Season 1Ep. 125
175 years in a US prison: that’s the sentence Australian Wikileaks founder Julian Assange could be facing. Julian is currently in London with legal proceedings underway to decide whether or not he is extradited to the US to face espionage charges. In this episode we get you up to speed on Julian’s story so far, going back to 2010 when he and Wikileaks made headlines for the release of almost 400,000 classified US documents about the war in Iraq. Today we find out what’s going on for Julian right...
Sep 27, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 124
On today's episode we look at the global campaign to strip Beijing of the Winter Olympics asking: Should a country have the privilege to host the Olympic Games if the government of that country is doing something harmful to its citizens? Hosting the Olympics is a privilege and often a very positive PR moment for the host nation, however a group of human rights activists have delivered a joint letter to the International Olympic Committee calling for Beijing to be stripped of the Games over its c...
Sep 24, 2020•17 min•Season 1Ep. 123
There are 25,000 Australian’s wanting to come home from overseas and our Prime Minister wants them home by Christmas. But with limits on the number of people allowed home and into quarantine each week the airlines that are still flying can only bring in a fraction of the passengers they used to, so passengers are being charged first and business class tickets and those with economy seats are being bumped. We’re joined by Aviation expert Neil Hansford to explain why that is happening, how will th...
Sep 23, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 122
Turia Pitt was 24 years old when she was caught in a grassfire while competing in an ultramarathon. She tried to outrun the flames but couldn’t. She suffered burns to 65% of her body and wasn’t expected to survive her injuries. But Turia is proof that with the right mindset anything is possible. On today’s episode we find out what Turia’s tragedy taught her about happiness and why she‘s happier now than she was before her accident. Turia’s new book’s called Happy and other Ridiculous Aspirations...
Sep 22, 2020•21 min•Season 1Ep. 121
The horrifying video of George Floyd being killed by a Minneapolis police officer in May sparked massive Black Lives Matter protests in America and around the world, including here in Australia. But another death that actually happened before that of Floyd’s, the police shooting of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, continues to fuel BLM protests. Who was Breonna Taylor? How has her death impacted the BLM movement? And why did the Louisville City Council pay her family a US$12m settlement last week? To...
Sep 21, 2020•19 min•Season 1Ep. 120
We look at the children and wives of the Australian men who went to fight with ISIS. 47 of their children and 20 ISIS brides are still alive and stuck in refugee camps in Syria that hold people displaced by Islamic State. Their families have been pleading with Australian government to bring them home, and so far they’ve been refused, despite other Western countries having taken their ISIS brides and their children home. Laws were introduced that allowed Australia to take away the citizenship of ...
Sep 20, 2020•14 min•Season 1Ep. 119
At beginning of the pandemic in March we were hearing a lot about Europe, then in the following months the continent seemed to have the virus under control. Residents appeared to be enjoying the summer, travelling freely between countries. So have these lax attitudes contributed to Europe’s second wave? Last week the EU and Britain announced 41,000 fresh cases a day on average, however medical teams managing to keep the death rates lower during this second wave. On today's episode we find out wh...
Sep 17, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 118
Subscription-based social media site OnlyFans is booming during the pandemic with over 24 million users. So what exactly is it? and how does it work? Being a new combination of porn and social media where subscribers pay a small monthly fee and content creators keep 80% profits, we find out whether it comes with some dangers. In this episode we’re joined by Renee Gracie, the former V8 racer who wasn’t making enough money in the sport, and is now making hundreds of thousands a month on OnlyFans p...
Sep 16, 2020•19 min•Season 1Ep. 117
Loneliness and learning to be happy alone are important things to work out in your 20s. 2020 has given many of us a chance to reflect on our lives. What decisions did we make as twenty-somethings to get us here and were they right? The hosts of the pop culture podcast Shameless, Michelle Andrews and Zara McDonald, join us on todays episode to discuss why learning to be happy alone is one of life’s important lessons. They’ve written a book called The Space Between which is all about living in you...
Sep 15, 2020•17 min•Season 1Ep. 116
On this day 20 years ago, the world was watching Sydney for the Olympic Opening Ceremony. Today on The Briefing, we’re reliving the Sydney Olympic glory including some of the most iconic moments across the Games. The Sydney 2000 Olympics were our biggest ever medal haul to date, so we ask if our sporting heyday is behind us? And how do we get back to our former sporting best? To answer these questions we're joined by Andrew Gaze (basketballer and flag bearer) and Kerri Pottharst (gold medalist i...
Sep 14, 2020•18 min•Season 1Ep. 115
COVID deep cleaners are on the forefront of the fight against the virus spread. We take a deep dive into deep COVID cleaning and how it works. How does it differ to a regular clean? How long does a germ last? And what is turbo fogging? More importantly, we look at how deep we need to go to properly stop contamination. To answer these questions we’re joined by Associate Professor Paul Griffin from the University of Queensland (Infectious Diseases Physician and Microbiologist) and Sandra Pankhurst...
Sep 13, 2020•19 min•Season 1Ep. 114
Year 12 is looking a bit different this year. Formals have been cancelled in Victoria and severely restricted in other states and territories. The official Schoolies on the Gold Coast has been canned and travel restrictions mean overseas gap years aren't possible. On top of the social aspects of high school, academics have been hugely disrupted affecting students’ futures after graduation. To discuss Year 12 in this COVID nightmare we talk to a current student and Catriona Jackson (Universities ...
Sep 10, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 113
Victorian Premier Dan Andrews announced on Sunday harsh measures for the state’s pathway out of lockdown. Resentment to the strict approach is growing beyond protesters and is beginning to be questioned by those who accept the science, including our epidemiologists. We talk to Federal Liberal MP and medical researcher Dr. Katie Allen about the lockdown roadmap and Victoria’s contact tracing, while epidemiologist Professor Catherine Bennett weighs in on the gaps in the state’s modelling scenarios...
Sep 09, 2020•19 min•Season 1Ep. 112
Last financial quarter, Australia experienced its biggest economic drop since the Great Depression, officially plunging the country into a recession. But what exactly does a recession mean and what impact does it have on our lives? Economist writer Jessica Irvine joins The Briefing to explain the ins-and-outs of a recession and whether we should be worried. In today's news headlines: Young people warned to stay off TikTok after disturbing video goes viral Two Australian journalists rushed out of...
Sep 08, 2020•18 min•Season 1Ep. 111
