7am

Epizode

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  Is Labor’s migration plan tackling a real problem or a political one? 17.09.2026 18min

  After one false start and a hell of a lot of political pressure from the right, Labor has finally unveiled its long-awaited immigration plans. Backpackers, students and visa overstayers will all be targeted by the measures – designed to bring net overseas migration down from around 300 thousand, to 225 thousand by 2028. So what impact will the overhaul have on our economy, our communities, and on Labor’s re-election prospects?  Today, journalist Peter Mares – who writes extensively on immigration for Inside Story magazine – on what’s in store, and whether the issue Labor’s addressing is a political problem, or a real one.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Inside Story Magazine journalist Peter Mares Photo: AAP Image/Lukas CochSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Why is Australia going soft on settler sanctions? 16.09.2026 18min

  Last week, countries including the UK, Canada and France announced plans to restrict trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank. In the past, Australia has joined its overseas allies in actions on Israel. This time it’s different – with Foreign Affairs Minister, Penny Wong, saying Australia isn’t considering joining the ban.  So – why not?  Today, Commissioner on the UN’s Commission of Inquiry into the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel, Chris Sidoti, on Australia’s responsibilities, and its failures.    If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Commissioner on the UN’s Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Chris Sidoti Photo: AP Photo/Leo CorreaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  A big-tech defector’s AI warning for the world 15.09.2026 17min

  In the last week, AI bosses around the world have suddenly grown a conscience – urging a global slowdown amid fears the race to develop artificial intelligence could outstrip humanity’s ability to control it. For Dex Hunter-Torricke, that realisation came a little sooner. The big-tech insider walked away last year, disillusioned, after spending 15 years inside the belly of the beast. He wrote speeches for Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook, worked with Elon Musk at SpaceX, and most recently helped Google DeepMind explain the rise of artificial intelligence to the world. Now, he says society is making the same mistakes with AI as it did in the social media era – sleepwalking into what comes next. Today, founder and president of The Center for Tomorrow, Dex Hunter-Torricke gives us a glimpse inside the big tech firms shaping our future.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Founder of The Center for Tomorrow Dex Hunter-Torricke Photo: @dexhuntertorricke via InstagramSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Is another GFC brewing? 14.09.2026 17min

  The numbers are almost incomprehensible – last month US debt hit 40 trillion dollars. With an interest bill of more than three billion dollars a day. And that’s before Donald Trump’s trillion dollar promise to hand every adult in America a cheque for five thousand bucks! Now, as global debt levels rise to record highs, and the cost of paying that debt rises too – experts are sounding the alarm – warning the economic storm that’s brewing is starting to look an awful lot like the 2007 global financial crisis. Today, Senior Economics Correspondent at the Age and SMH, Shane Wright on the chance of another GFC and what it means for Australia.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Senior Economics Correspondent at the Age & SMH Shane Wright Photo: AP Photo/Richard DrewSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Something is seriously wrong in the Northern Territory 13.09.2026 18min

  One by one, the Aboriginal leaders, organisations and watchdogs the Northern Territory government is supposed to work with are walking away. The Children’s Commissioner has resigned. An Indigenous MP has left parliament after more than a decade. And now almost the entire Aboriginal side of the Territory’s Justice Policy Partnership has suspended its involvement. They’re all making a remarkably similar complaint – that the government isn’t listening, and that the structures supposedly designed to give Aboriginal people a say have become meaningless. Today, National Indigenous Times journalist Dechlan Brennan, on how relations got this bad – and whether a government can tackle the Territory’s enormous problems if the people most affected no longer believe there’s any point in sitting at the table.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: National Indigenous Times journalist, Dechlan Brennan Photo: AAP Image/Supplied by (A)manda ParkinsonSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  This is Alice Springs: Children of the Intervention 12.09.2026 30min

  From afar, Alice Springs is a whirlpool of myth and truth. A town with competing interests and few solutions, marked by chaos and decades of government overreach. In cities and towns across Australia, we read about a “crisis” about “rampages”. One newspaper described the children of Alice Springs as “tiny menaces stuck on a turnstile of trouble”. In this first episode of our three part series This is Alice Springs, Daniel James visits the town at the heart of our nation, to find out how all the interventions, big and small, by governments of all persuasions have led to this chaos. What he finds is that almost all of it leads back to one thing. This series was originally published in October 2024.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Hosted and reported by Daniel JamesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Did the PM dabble in pork barrelling? 11.09.2026 15min

  In 2020 Anthony Albanese called for the sacking of then-sports minister Bridget McKenzie over her involvement in the infamous sports rorts – which he labelled a farce. Not long after, she resigned. But now that similar pork barrelling claims have been levelled at the Prime Minister, he’s come out swinging – refusing to admit any wrong-doing over his failure to declare membership at a golf club which received a six million dollar grant. Also coming out swinging this week was Andrew Hastie. The Liberal MP delivered a masterclass in how to take on One Nation as he labelled Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce lying cowards over a party-backed cartoon calling him a traitor. Today, press gallery veteran Paul Bongiorno on a fiery week in parliament, and who came off second best.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Press gallery veteran Paul Bongiorno Photo: AAP Image/Mick TsikasSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  “Nerd Reich”: Are big tech billionaires at war with democracy? 10.09.2026 17min

  When Donald Trump was sworn in for a second time, some of the most powerful men in the tech world had the best seats in the room. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg – a display of just how close silicon valley had aligned itself to the administration. But within that world, journalist Gil Durán says, is a smaller, more radical group with a much bigger ambition: get rid of democracy, and use technology to build a new order in its place, controlled by a wealthy elite. And in his new book, The Nerd Reich, Gil traces how these once-fringe ideas have moved closer to the White House than ever before. Today, Silicon Valley journalist and author Gil Durán, on the group he’s dubbed the “Nerd Reich’, the ideas driving them, and how they became part of Trump’s political project.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Author of The Nerd Reich Gil Durán Photo: AP Photo/Julia Demaree NikhinsonSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Why Jacqui Lambie’s not done fighting veteran health caps 09.09.2026 13min

  Last month, an emotional Jacqui Lambie revealed a private health battle connected to her time in the army – a debilitating prolapse that required surgery. The Tasmanian senator called out gaps in health care services for female veterans, and raged against the government’s plans to introduce a $5,000 cap on allied health services for veterans. This week fellow veterans joined her calls, laying down their war medals outside parliament house in protest, as Lambie promised to continue the fight. Today, Senator Jacqui Lambie on why veterans are getting a raw deal.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Independent Senator for Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Photo: AAP Image/Mick TsikasSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Why are the conservative parties suddenly obsessed with super? 08.09.2026 15min

  One Nation is copping heat for a proposal that would let Australians take some of the money going into their super as extra pay instead. For up to three years, renters and mortgage holders could choose to take home a quarter of the money that would normally be put into their retirement – worth about $44 a week for someone on the average full-time wage. At the same time, the Coalition has been looking at its own ways to give people greater access to their super now – and some of its MPs want to go further. So why is superannuation suddenly being pitched as an answer to Australia’s cost-of-living and housing problems? And is it a good idea? Today, economist Greg Jericho, on the growing political fight over what our super should actually be for.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Chief economist at the Australia Institute, Greg Jericho Photo: AAP Image/Mick TsikasSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  The far right is winning. Could Australia’s neo-Nazis be next? 07.09.2026 15min

  In imposing scenes in the UK over the weekend, hundreds of masked men belonging to the hard-right group Patriot Platform stopped traffic. Around the same time, political party AfD was making history in Germany – becoming the first far-right party to win in the country since World War two. And on the other side of the world, Australia’s high court will today hear from our most high profile Neo-Nazi group in a challenge, legal experts say could see the federal government’s ban on White Australia (formerly known as the National Socialist Network) overturned. Today, Associate professor of politics at Deakin University Josh Roose on Germany, the UK, and Australia’s high court challenge – as the far-right continues its march across the world.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Associate professor of politics at Deakin University, Josh Roose Photo: AP Photo/Matthias SchraderSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Have the Greens lost their appetite for a fight? 06.09.2026 16min

  On the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Labor has promised a vast new national park to protect more than 12,000 koalas. But there’s a catch. The New South Wales government wants carbon credits to help pay for it. By ending planned logging, it could generate credits that are then sold to companies to offset their emissions. For the Greens, that creates a dilemma at a moment when both major parties are bleeding voters – voters who are walking straight past the Greens as an alternative. They want the forests protected, but have long opposed carbon offsets that allow big polluters to keep polluting. Now those two positions are about to collide. Today, co-chief executive officer of the Australia Institute Richard Denniss on koalas, carbon offsets and whether the Greens are still willing to pick the big fights.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Co-chief executive officer of the Australia Institute, Richard Denniss Photo: AAP Image/David WigleySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Firebombs and gang wars: The bloody fallout of Australia’s tobacco crackdown 05.09.2026 13min

  For years, Australia has made cigarettes increasingly expensive in an effort to drive down smoking. Now, the Coalition wants to dramatically reverse course. It's promised to slash the tobacco excise by 80 per cent, arguing that soaring cigarette prices have fuelled a violent black market. It also wants to legalise and regulate vapes and nicotine pouches. Labor says there’s no evidence the tax cuts would draw smokers away from the black market, while public health authorities warn it could undo decades of progress in reducing smoking. So, who’s right? Today, Martin McKenzie-Murray on how Australia’s public health success helped create the conditions for a deadly tobacco war – and whether making cigarettes cheaper could actually help end it. This episode was first published in May, 2025.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Martin McKenzie-Murray Photo: AAP Image/Diego FedeleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Paul Keating's unfinished argument for an independent Australia 04.09.2026 18min

  Paul Keating has been out of office for thirty years. But he’s never really left the national conversation. Keating wanted Australia to find its security in Asia, not from it, and to stop defining itself through bigger powers in the Anglosphere. That vision now sits uneasily alongside AUKUS, a more powerful China, and an Australia tied ever more closely to the United States. Today, historian and author of Grand Ambition James Curran, on Keating’s argument for a more independent Australia – and why it continues to challenge the modern Labor Party.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Historian and author of Grand Ambition, James Curran Photo: AAP Image/Darren EnglandSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Chanel Contos on the fight to turn off your algorithms 03.09.2026 15min

  Speaking at the Press Club this week, consent education advocate Chanel Contos outlined how social media companies are feeding misogynistic content to young men online.  Now, she wants the government to compel social media companies to give people the option to restrict their algorithm.  So can, and should, the algorithm be contained? And would social media companies even comply?  Today, CEO of Teach Us Consent, Chanel Contos on the damage the algorithm is doing – and the next tech frontier.  If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Teach Us Consent CEO Chanel Contos Photo: AAP Image/Lukas CochSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Should Meta’s “pervert glasses” be banned? 02.09.2026 15min

  They’ve been dubbed pervert glasses. And with good reason  – women around the world are reporting being sexually harassed, filmed without their consent, often without their knowledge. But this week, the federal government ruled out an import ban on smart glasses – as concerns about the technology rise and examples of their misuse flood the internet.Today, Associate Dean of Interaction Technology & Information at RMIT Dana McKay, on the rising popularity of smartglasses, how to regulate their use, and the dangers if wearable surveillance tech becomes widespread.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Associate Dean of Interaction Technology & Information at RMIT, Dana McKay Photo: REUTERS/Carlos BarriaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Labor’s One Nation problem 01.09.2026 16min

  One Nation has declared that “politics has changed” after snatching a formerly safe Labor seat in a surprise by-election victory in WA over the weekend. Until now, it had been the Coalition feeling the effects of the orange wave, but now Labor officially has a Pauline problem of its own. So what does this mean for the government, and the country? Today, WA political reporter for Business News, Gary Adshead on how One Nation won over WA voters and whether it can replicate that victory elsewhere.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Political reporter for Business News, Gary Adshead Photo: AAP Image/Bianca De MarchiSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  “Accident waiting to happen”: Why Nepal’s floods could happen again 31.08.2026 14min

  A wall of grey, silted water tears through a Himalayan Valley.  People look on in shock, disbelief and fear as buildings are swallowed. Cars are swept away and people run as the flood surges down below.  In its aftermath, more than 800 people are dead and thousands are missing, including 43 Australians. In the search for answers, scientists now believe the disaster began high in the mountains, when an enormous mass of ice and rock, weighing around 500 million tonnes, collapsed and unleashed a torrent of water down the valley. Today, glaciologist at University of Sunshine Coast Adrian McCallum, on how this disaster unfolded, and why the Himalayas and some of the world’s other great mountain ranges are becoming more vulnerable to events like it.    If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Glaciologist Adrian McCallum Photo: EPA/NARENDRA SHRESTHASee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Anthony ‘the Mooch’ Scaramucci: The man who turned on Trump 30.08.2026 21min

  On day one of his role as communications director for the White House, Anthony Scaramucci sung Donald Trump’s praises.  He would serve in that role for just another ten days, a span of time that has become known as a “mooch”. Since leaving the White House, Scaramucci has become one of the president’s most vocal and scathing critics. Now, he says Trump’s return to power is the product of deeper failures in American politics, and a warning about what happens when economic anger goes unanswered. Today, The Rest is Politics US host Anthony Scaramucci on why Trump came back, the limits of his power, and how Australia should deal with the U.S. president.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: The Rest is Politics US host Anthony Scaramucci Photo: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez MonsivaisSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Is Australia failing to teach kids to read? 29.08.2026 13min

  The latest NAPLAN results show around a third of Australian students are still falling short in literacy and numeracy – results that have barely budged since 2023. At the same time, Australia is settling a decades-long fight over how children should be taught to read. For years, many schools relied on outdated methods that encouraged children to work out words using context, pictures and other cues. Now, some classrooms are increasingly moving towards phonics and explicit instruction. But the evidence for that approach has been around for decades. So why is it taking so long for classrooms to catch up? Today, journalist Martin McKenzie-Murray on why the old methods lasted for so long, and how children should actually be taught to read. This episode was first published in August 2024.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Associate editor of The Saturday Paper, Martin McKenzie-Murray Photo: AAP Image/Dan PeledSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.