Show Notes
Tony Blair wants to give Larry Ellison the full NHS data set, to “power AI”. Donald Trump is making trade and tariff threats on behalf of American tech billionaires. And when Mark Zuckerberg wanted changes made to Australian policies, he just called then treasurer Josh Frydenberg direct. Big tech is now inextricable from politics. How did it happen?
Crikey's politics reporter Anton Nilsson joins the podcast to discuss his part in the global investigation uncovering exactly how big tech shapes legislation, litigates against governments, and deploys its influence to avoid regulation.
Read more: Tony Blair is a tech evangelist with a lot of power. Insiders are worried Read the draft of Tony Blair’s plan for Gaza, in full ‘Australia’s example has spread’: Inside big tech’s global playbook to stop news media bargaining codes Inside the US lobby group banking on the $6.7 trillion future of data centres Here’s 20 questions for Google that remain unanswered Read the full Big Tech’s Invisible Hand series
Sign up to Crikey’s free newsletter: https://bit.ly/crikey-newsletter
Crikey’s independent journalism is supported by readers — 98% of our revenue comes from our subscribers. We’re not accountable to billionaires; we’re accountable to you. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Cut Through
With the fragmentation and loss of belief in the Liberal Party, the future of liberalism itself these days doesn’t look bright. But what would a “post-liberal” world look like?
Parliament is back in session, and there’s a new Greens leader on the scene to cause trouble for Anthony Albanese. Crikey’s politics reporter Anton Nilsson and journalist Tina Quinn discuss how Labor’s agenda is holding up against attacks from all sides.
In a special Q&A episode of Cut Through, Rachel puts your questions to long-time Crikey contributors, climate analyst Ketan Joshi and Dr Ben Eltham, about the unfortunate topic de jour: the rapid proliferation of data centres. What are they? Do we actually need them? And what is the benefit — if any — of having them operate on Australian soil?
It’s been a busy month for our tips hog, Cochon Truffier. The intrepid pig snooped out some internal discussions between NACC staffers which probably should have been had at the pub, investigated the backlash to Mia Freedman’s comments about the Ed Sheeran/Macklemore saga, and dug into why student politicians at Sydney Uni were getting their knickers in a knot over allegations involving horse meat and bribery in Kazakhstan.
Paul Keating was prime minister of a very different Australia, in a very different geopolitical environment from that of today. How does his ambition for Australia hold up 30 years later? Crikey politics editor Bernard Keane and Professor James Curran from the University of Sydney discuss Keating’s legacy, and whether his approach to foreign policy suffered from the curse of being “right, but too early”.