Wayne Swan is a former Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister of Australia. He's the current President of the Australian Labor Party. In this conversation I ask Wayne about Labor's performance in the recent Newspoll, what it means for Australia to aspire to "full employment" out of COVID, the ideological war over superannuation, whether the Hawke-Keating legacy can be described as "neoliberal" and how he thinks about the relationship between the ALP and the Greens. If you’ve got the means please su...
Sep 27, 2020•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kristin O'Connell is the Acting Communications Coordinator for the Australian Unemployed Workers Union . With more than a million Australians unemployed in this time of recession (and depression maybe?), the AUWU has been coordinating a Mutual Obligations Strike and campaigning against the cruel reduction in the JobSeeker payment. Kristin shares her story with me and explains why unemployed workers are workers (and why the AUWU is definitely a union) and just how fucked up and privatised Austral...
Sep 21, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Emma Alberici is a three-time Walkley-nominated journalist. She's the former Chief Economics Correspondent at the ABC and she worked as a foreign correspondent and the host of Lateline . She recently finished up at the ABC after 18 years; in September 2021 she'll release her memoir through Hardie Grant, Rewriting The Story . In this conversation, Emma shares her thoughts on gender pay equality, unionism and the state of the economy. We reflect on her ABC career and the controversy surrounding th...
Sep 13, 2020•1 hr 24 min•Transcript available on Metacast "Aysha" (not her real name) is a Kashmiri activist who advocates for the rights of those suffering under the Indo-Pakistan-Chinese conflict in her home country. I've previously known very little about the situation in Kashmir and was grateful to Aysha for giving me a crash-course history lesson on the conflict and the 2019 escalation of tensions by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We discussed the nature of India's occupation, the possibilities of democracy in the region, the effects of COVI...
Sep 09, 2020•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Guy Rundle is a political essayist, comedy writer, activist and the correspondent-at-large for Crikey . He's a former editor of Arena Magazine. Guy's been writing about the strangeness and politics of COVID-19. Here I ask him about what a collective virus means for certain political ideologies, what it means to be a "post-Marxist" and what he made of the Democratic National Convention and the possibilities of a Biden presidency. If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patr...
Aug 25, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week's ep is a conversation I had with journalist and author Melissa Davey about her brilliant new book, The Case of George Pell . The book was launched on Tuesday night and Mel kindly asked me to discuss its details and what the story and trials of Pell mean for us now. If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you @MelissaLDavey The Case Of George Pell: Reckoning With Child Sex Abuse By Clergy by Melissa Dave...
Aug 19, 2020•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's episode 200! Hurrah. Dominic Kelly is a political historian and Honorary Research Fellow at La Trobe University. His 2019 book Political Troglodytes and Economic Lunatics: The Hard Right in Australia examines the activities and influence of four Australian right-wing single-issue advocacy groups: the H.R. Nicholls Society (focussed on industrial relations), the Samuel Griffiths Society (constitutional issues and federalism), the Bennelong Society (Indigenous issues) and the Lavoisier Group ...
Aug 10, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Max Chandler-Mather is a former union activist and active member of the Queensland Greens . He was the party's candidate for the seat of Griffith in last year's election, where he increased the Greens vote by 7.2%, the biggest Greens swing in the country. I find the more explicitly Leftist approach taken by Max and the Queensland Party really exciting because they're pushing good, anti-neoliberal polices and, more importantly, it's really working for them. Here I ask Max to explain how a democra...
Aug 03, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Alison Pennington is a Senior Economist at The Australia Institute's Centre for Future Work . She has a Masters of Political Economy from the University of Sydney and she rules. After a week of changes to the JobKeeper and JobSeeker payments, the government's "mini-budget" announcement, a torrent of shitty "deficit politics" and some ominous talk about industrial relations reform, Alison talks to me about the state of play for Australian workers right now. We discuss the possibilities of reimagi...
Jul 26, 2020•1 hr 13 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dave Donovan is the founder and editor of Independent Australia , a progressive journal focussed on Australian federal politics, democracy and economics. In a time of a declining media industry slashing jobs left right and centre, I think supporting independent Australian media is vital, and I for one find it refreshing to read explicitly progressive takes on the news in IA. Here Dave talks about his background in the Republican movement, just how much neoliberalism has reshaped Australia over t...
Jul 17, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Transcript available on Metacast CW: This conversation involves discussion of sexual assault This is the second part of my conversation with human rights lawyer and self-described "social justice witch" Sunili Govinnage . Here we continue our conversation on what cancel culture is and what it isn't, privilege, oppression, intersectionality and class; topics that have certainly SPICED UP over the past week. If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank ...
Jul 12, 2020•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sunili Govinnage is an Australian human rights lawyer and self-described "social justice witch" who has recently come to some realisations about themselves and their politics. In the first part of this frank conversation we discuss her "decolonising journey", her focus on dismantling the "colonialist-capitalist-heteropatriarchy", anti-racism and cancel culture. We identify areas that we agree on and some points where we have different perspectives - differences that will be further fleshed out i...
Jul 07, 2020•1 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sophie Payten records and performs as Gordi. She makes powerful, sweeping, personal indie-pop and last week released her sophomore album, Our Two Skins . I am a fan and it is good. I wanted to talk to Sophie about her other job (she's a qualified doctor and has been on standby during the pandemic) and explore the political ideas surrounding her recent discovery of her queer identity and the loss of her beloved grandma. We reflect on the 2017 marriage equality plebiscite, the political stasis tha...
Jun 30, 2020•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dr. Chelsea Bond is a Munanjahli and South Sea Islander woman and a senior lecturer at the University of Queensland. She's worked and researched extensively in the area of Aboriginal health and regularly writes and speaks about race and racism in Australia today. In this conversation, Chelsea reflects on how the recent Black Lives Matter uprising has played out in Australia, her personal experiences with the police, the fierceness of Black women in this struggle and the intersection of racial po...
Jun 23, 2020•1 hr 23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Andy Zaltzman is a British comedian, the co-host of the hugely popular satirical podcast The Bugle and (sadly) a fanatical cricket fan. I've been lucky enough to become friends and work with Andy over the past five or so years and have been meaning to have him on as a guest for quite a while now, to laugh about everything in the world and ask him some (mildly) serious questions about his political outlook. Here discuss sport, statues, Fawlty Towers, the failures of the Corbyn moments, his "radic...
Jun 17, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Gavin Stanbrook is a revolutionary socialist who hails from Gumbanyggir country on the NSW mid-north coast. He's a member of Socialist Alternative who's been campaigning for justice for Aboriginal families for years and who helped organise last week's #BlackLivesMatter protest in Sydney. In this conversation Gavin tells me how about tearing down statues, the revolutionary potential of this moment, police violence, the tragic cases of Aboriginal deaths in custody, his personal involvement in the ...
Jun 09, 2020•1 hr 13 min•Transcript available on Metacast Oliver Twist is a very funny and intelligent up-and-coming Australian comedian. He was born in Rwanda, grew up in a refugee camp in Malawi and has lived in Australia since 2014. I was planning on taking a week off the podcast this week, but in the midst of everything that's happening right now, Oliver reached out and we decided to record this honest conversation about his relationship to the police, race, class, Black Lives Matter and what meaningful action looks like. There are even a few laffs...
Jun 04, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mark Seymour is one of the best singer-songwriters Australia has ever produced. He's the former frontman of Hunters & Collectors and now writes and performs with Mark Seymour & The Undertow. The new Undertow record is called Slow Dawn and comes out today. Mark has regularly been outspoken about his politics through his music and public appearances, particularly when it comes to Australia's refugee policies. Here he tells me about how he approaches tackling social issues in his music (without bei...
May 28, 2020•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Tim Wilson is the Liberal MP for the Victorian seat of Goldstein and the Chair of the House Economics Committee. He last joined me on the podcast back in July 2015 . I wanted to talk to Tim about how he's found dealing with the COVID-19 crisis as a local member and his thoughts on the Morrison's government's economic response thus far as a well as a bit old-fashioned ideological argy bargy. We discuss the JobKeeper and JobSeeker payments, neoliberalism, government debt and why being a democratic...
May 26, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Rick Morton is an award-winning journalist and writer. He reported on Social Affairs for The Australian for years and is now the Senior Reporter for The Saturday Paper . His memoir 100 Years Of Dirt - about surviving his poverty- and trauma-ridden childhood - has been a critical and commercial success. Here I ask Rick about issues he's been writing about of late - the conspiracy theories that have thrived amid COVID-19 and the new aged-care "Uber app" that's been given a multi-million dollar gov...
May 25, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Rachel Siewert has been a Greens Senator for WA since 2005. She's the whip for the Greens in the Senate and her portfolios include First Nations Affairs, Family, Ageing and Community Services, Gambling and Mental Health. She recently chaired a Senate Committee into the adequacy of the Newstart/JobSeeker payment and has been fighting hard for the government to #RetainTheRate after the COVID crisis has passed. In this conversation, Rachel explains how her politics are founded on concern for both p...
May 19, 2020•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dave Anthony is a stand up comedian, writer, activist and co-host of the history comedy podcast The Dollop . In May 2016 he correctly predicted that Hillary Clinton was going to lose to Trump in the presidential election. So yeah - he knows stuff. Dave joined me from LA in the GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD to talk about the death of American empire, what he's learned from history, his journey to socialism, the right-wing Democratic Party and why Joe Biden is really really bad. We laugh and also ...
May 15, 2020•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jon Kudelka is a Walkley Award-winning political cartoonist who's been drawing for over 20 years. He drew thousands of cartoons for The Australian until 2019 and his work now regularly appears in The Hobart Mercury and The Saturday Paper . Jon kindly joined me from Tasmania via Zoom to reflect on his journey to cartooning, the (minimal) influence that satire has on things, what he learnt from John Clarke, the deterioration and stasis of Australian politics, punching down, how compromised the ALP...
May 12, 2020•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Celeste Liddle is an Arrente woman, a trade unionist and Leftist who's written for Eureka Street , The Guardian and SBS . Celeste Zoom'ed me from her couch to discuss how the COVID-19 crisis is affecting First Nations people, over-policing and deaths in custody, culture warring about Captain Cook and the "Indigenous alt-right". If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you Ads-Up are doing great work helping out ref...
May 05, 2020•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Adam Creighton is the Economics Editor for The Australian and has written for The Economist and The Wall Street Journal . For the past couple of months he's been highly critical of the Australian government's economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic and has called for the immediate easing of restrictions. I asked Adam to sketch out his critique of the response and his concerns about its economic impact, as well as discussing the Swedish, economic "trade-offs", the "statistical value of life" (...
Apr 29, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mark Humphries is a comedian who regularly makes satirical sketches for the ABC's 7:30 along with Evan Williams . He always makes me laugh and I've been lucky enough to become friends with him over the past few years. Mark joined me via Zoom from deep in the heart of the ABC to discuss his politics, his (haphazard) journey into comedy (featuring some stories involving ME!!!), Mark Latham and the state of Australian right-wing media craziness and the limits of satirising it. We had a good ol' gig...
Apr 21, 2020•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Nick McKim is a Tasmanian senator and the co-deputy leader of The Australian Greens . He joined me via Zoom (sorry) from Tasmania to discuss the Morrison government's (sometimes okay but generally shitty) response to the COVID crisis, the neoliberal Labor Party, how this pandemic affects folks in immigration detention and the current Greens' plebiscite on the election of the federal leader. If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron Join the LIASYO Facebook group here ...
Apr 16, 2020•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Tash Heenan and Anna Sturman are ecosocialist academics who are writing about and organising around the possibilities of a Green New Deal for Australia. They both joined me via Zoom (I AM VERY SICK OF ZOOM) to lay out what their vision for a GND entails, its "four Ds" (decarbonisation, decolonisation, decommodification, democratisation), how much currency it had as a political idea prior to the current COVID crisis, the possibilities these new conditions could bring and the dangers of eco-fascis...
Apr 14, 2020•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Caleb Bond is a 21-year-old political commentator who describes himself as "conservative with a splash of libertarianism". He writes a regular opinion column for the Adelaide Advertiser and regularly appears on Sky News. Caleb kindly gave me his time a few weeks ago when I was in town for the Adelaide Fringe (before the PLAGUE HIT US ALL AND LOCKED US IN OUR HOUSES). We had a wide-ranging discussion about his experience of being a young conservative giving his opinions in public, the politicisat...
Apr 07, 2020•1 hr 27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Gian and Sam host a great podcast called Twink Revolution , which they describe as "cultural and political commentary on current events from a homo-leftist viewpoint". They joined me from their isolated apartment in San Francisco to explain how they came to Marxism and queerness (via anarchism and libertarianism), the failures of identity politics, what happened to the Sanders campaign (and how sad we should feel about it) and what the COVID-19 pandemic could mean for the Left. It was all very i...
Apr 02, 2020•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
