Show Notes
Australia has forgotten what keeps it safe. So argues Michael Wesley in this sharp and compelling essay about our place in the world. His previous books include There Goes the Neighbourhood: Australia and the Rise of Asia and Mind of the Nation: Universities in Australian Life. He is Professor of Politics and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Global, Culture and Engagement) at the University of Melbourne and was formerly head of the Lowy Institute and dean of ANU's College of Asia and the Pacific.
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The global gas industry has pulled off the greatest con in Australia’s history, and we’re living with the consequences. Australia is one of the richest countries in the world, but we have been made to feel so poor that we no longer even expect the high quality, freely available public schools and hospitals we used to have. But while we are told we can’t afford to have good services, Australian governments give away billions of dollars worth of gas, for free, to multinational companies every year. When the price of oil surges, Saudis feel rich. When the price of gas surges, Qataris and Norwegians feel rich. But in Australia when the price of gas surges around the world we are told we must tighten our belts to cope with surging electricity prices. Successive governments have given away our gas to foreign companies for free and excused them from paying tax – and then asked us to say thank you when companies choose to do business in Australia. In this essay Richard Denniss pulls back the curtain to show how the gas companies performed a long con in Australia and spells out the simple steps we need to take to fix it
For decades, Rupert Murdoch’s global media empire has shaped political landscapes, influenced elections, and fuelled public opinion. But behind the headlines lies a darker story — of targeted campaigns, smear tactics, and relentless attacks on those who don’t fit the Murdoch mould. From LGBTQI communities and women’s rights advocates to progressive politicians, human rights defenders, and even conservatives deemed ‘not right enough’, this book reveals how News Corp turns disagreement into a declaration of war.
The Battle for Public Education: How did we end up pitting our kids against one another?
On the thirtieth anniversary of John Howard coming to power, a searing analysis of the untouchable prime minister: how the ‘great economic manager’ sold our future. John Howard is often revered as one of the great Australian prime ministers (1996–2007): economically prudent, politically astute, ‘relaxed and comfortable’ with Australia’s identity, venerated by the Liberal Party and grudgingly admired by the left. Why then – just twenty years after his government ended – are we in such a mess? Amy Remeikis is one of our most astute and convincing political commentators, and here she argues for a complete revision of how we see Howard’s tenure, for the first time holding him to account for the future he created.
The revealing biography of a leading and enigmatic Australian novelist. Australian novelist Elizabeth Harrower wrote some of the most intense, original and highly regarded psychological fiction of the twentieth century. Then she abruptly stopped writing in the 1970s and became one of the most puzzling mysteries of Australian literature. Why didn't she continue? Harrower gave elusive answers to friends and interviewers, and only since her death in 2020 has a deeper search been possible. When Harrower's four novels were brought back into print between 2012 and 2014, followed by a novel she had withdrawn from her publisher in 1971 and a collection of her short stories, a renaissance of admiration followed. In this engrossing biography, Susan Wyndham grapples with the questions that remained unanswered, the dynamics of Harrower's circles of famous friends, and her remarkable books and their timeless dissections of the human heart.