Latest Episodes
Politics with Michelle Grattan: Jim Chalmers on Labor's budget reaction
Shadow Finance minister Jim Chalmers said Labor was looking for ways to make things fairer for low-income earners who were "largely left behind" in the government's budget. He told The Conversation the measures "would be through the tax system and would most likely be around the low and middle income tax offset which the government introduced". New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan
Politics with Michelle Grattan: Peter Martin and Tim Colebatch on budget strategy and numbers
From inside the budget lockup, The Conversation's Business and Economics editor Peter Martin and political and economic journalist Tim Colebatch from Inside Story shared their reactions to the pre-election budget. Martin said the budget featured a substantial tax cut "that goes back in time" and that while the government was forecasting "good times around the corner," there has been barely any sign…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan
Politics with Michelle Grattan: Jenny Macklin on inequality and Labor values
After more than two decades, Jenny Macklin is in her final days as an MP. Her legacies from her time as a Labor minister include parental leave and the landmark National Disability Insurance Scheme. In this podcast she tells The Conversation a Labor government would fix "one of the worst" problems of the NDIS by abolishing the cap on the number of staff that could be employed in the agency. "There…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan
Politics with Michelle Grattan: Ian McAllister on voters and issues in the coming election
The ANU's Australian Election Study has been running since 1987. Its director Ian McAllister says one thing voters will want at this poll is stability. McAllister says that for the first time in a long while, one of the major parties - Labor - has put forward some "very constructive policies". But, he told The Conversation, Bill Shorten is very unpopular: he "ranks below any leader we’ve ever recorded…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan
Politics with Michelle Grattan: Tony Abbott and Zali Steggall on Warringah votes
The Sydney electorate of Warringah will be one of the most fascinating battlegrounds in the May election, with a high profile independent Zali Stegall challenging former prime minister Tony Abbott. Despite the seat being on about 11 per cent, Abbott describes this as a "full on marginal seat campaign". Abbott is running hard on local issues. He says over-development and traffic congestion are the biggest…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan
Politics with Michelle Grattan: Kerryn Phelps on medical transfer numbers
Independent MP Kerryn Phelps, who set the ball rolling for the medical transfers legislation, says its passage is "a remarkable exercise in cooperation". Phelps says that of the about 1000 people on Manus and Nauru "around 70 people require urgent medical evacuation" and "another couple of hundred will require transfer but not as urgently". She describes Scott Morrison's proposal to reopen the Christmas…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan
Politics with Michelle Grattan: Michael McCormack on banks and the bush, and the election battle
Deputy prime minister and Nationals leader Michael McCormack says the banking royal commission report contained a good outcome for farmers. McCormack praised Nationals backbenchers Llew O’Brien, George Christensen and senator John "Wacka" Williams for their role in pushing for the commission, saying he was "really pleased" about major changes recommended in relation to agricultural loans. Acknowledging…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan
Politics with Michelle Grattan: Tanya Plibersek on a united Labor
The Labor party has emerged from its three day national conference in Adelaide looking united and projecting itself as "ready to govern". Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek told The Conversation the ALP wants voters to see the party as "responsible and progressive". She says a Labor government would "work cooperatively with the trade union movement cause we share the same objective". "The union movement…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan
Politics with Michelle Grattan: Anthony Albanese on Labor's road ahead
Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese, a senior minister in the last Labor government and briefly deputy prime minister, is preparing to "hit the ground running" if the ALP wins next year's election. But meanwhile the opposition is concentrating on staying focused and on message, fully aware that things can always go wrong. Speaking to The Conversation, Albanese wouldn't comment on Bill Shorten's unpopularity…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan
Politics with Michelle Grattan: Josh Frydenberg on Liberal troubles
Josh Frydenberg, who became treasurer and deputy Liberal leader in the tumultuous events of August, said the party has "big challenges". While the party is "disappointed" by this week's defection of Julia Banks to the crossbench they "remain as a group focused on the challenges ahead. And we have big challenges, there’s no doubt about that." He said he "absolutely" will be keeping in touch with Banks…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan
Politics with Michelle Grattan: Lowy Institute's Jonathan Pryke on APEC 2018
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) ended with no agreed communique and unresolved tensions between the United States and China on open display. Lowy Institute's Pacific Islands program director, Jonathan Pryke, who observed the forum in Port Moresby, said: "it is distressing for all parties that they weren’t able to find common ground. There is a fear that we’re losing the middle here…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan
Politics with Michelle Grattan: Derryn Hinch on a national ICAC and the Victorian election
The Senate this week passed a motion calling for the government to establish a federal anti-corruption commission. The government is more likely to beef up existing institutions but Justice Party senator Derryn Hinch, who has been a strong advocate for a national ICAC, says "that would be wrong." "We have to have an independent national body to look into us [politicians] and to public servants and…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan
Politics with Michelle Grattan: Andrew Giles on the growing issue of loneliness
Ahead of the release of the most comprehensive data on loneliness in Australia - by the Australian Psychologists Society - Labor frontbencher Andrew Giles speaks to The Conversation about this "contagious phenomenon". Loneliness is a growing issue, Giles says. It's not just among older Australians, as often conventionally thought, but also a problem for young people - with social media, paradoxically…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan
Politics with Michelle Grattan: Anne Summers on #MeToo and women in politics
Anne Summers, who has worn many hats during her career - journalist, editor, activist, senior public servant, and prime ministerial advisor - is concerned about the slow progress in Australia in addressing sexual harassment and assault. "I don’t know what it is that is holding [MeToo] back here," Summers tells The Conversation. She believes there should be more naming of perpetrators, with the proviso…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan
Politics with Michelle Grattan: Satirist Jonathan Biggins on sending up the pollies
Jonathan Biggins, who has been sending up politicians as part of The Wharf Revue for almost two decades, has some sharp words about social media - "the enemy of democracy, not its ally" - and a warning on political correctness. "We are entering an age of a new puritanism that is actually not only driven by the censorious right but by the equally censorious left who are saying this is no longer acceptable…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan
Politics Podcast: Barnaby Joyce on facing the drought and rural women
Some in the Nationals would like Barnaby Joyce back in the leadership before the election. Joyce speaking to The Conversation repeats that if the leadership were offered, he would be up for it - though he insists he is not canvassing. But his critics think he would have a "woman problem" - and Joyce acknowledges that to win support back from rural women he "would certainly have a lot of work to do…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan
Politics Podcast: Peter Jennings on Morrison's Jerusalem move
Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), Peter Jennings, says it would be "silly" to claim - as Scott Morrison does - that there is no connection between this week's announcement about the possible relocation of Australia's embassy to Jerusalem and Saturday's Wentworth byelection. This kind of decision would not have been considered by Malcolm Turnbull, Jennings says and if Julie…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan
Politics podcast: The battle for Wentworth
The government's majority is at stake in the October 20 Wentworth byelection, when the Liberals face voters still reeling from the loss of their member Malcolm Turnbull. ABC election analyst Antony Green says there's likely to be a 10 per cent swing "as a start" - the result of losing Turnbull's personal vote and a generally more intense battle. He says "the only danger" to the Liberals not winning…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan
Politics Podcast: Clare O'Neil on Labor's listening tour for banking victims
Shadow minister for financial services Clare O'Neil, who is leading Labor's "roundtables" for victims of the banks and other financial institutions, says the ALP exercise will give a voice to people in areas the Royal Commission hasn't had time to visit. "There’s vast swathes of the country where the commission hasn’t been at all." she tells The Conversation. "I just utterly reject that this is a political…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan
Politics podcast: Brendan O'Connor on Labor's industrial relations agenda
With Scott Morrison flagging his government will take a hard line on industrial relations, especially the CFMEU, Labor's shadow minister for employment and workplace relations, Brendan O'Connor will have a tough job ahead of the election. O'Connor says Labor remains totally opposed to the government's Ensuring Integrity legislation, which the Coalition wants to resurrect. "I can't see this bill in…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan
Politics Podcast: Cathy McGowan and Rebekha Sharkie on the role of community candidates
Independent Cathy McGowan and the Centre Alliance's Rebekha Sharkie share more in common than just sitting on the crossbench. The members for Indi and Mayo respectively have dug in to retain their seats, and they believe there is "a mood" in the community for alternative candidates. McGowan and Sharkie have given the government their confidence until the Wentworth byelection - after which they will…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan
Politics podcast: Judith Troeth on the Liberal party's woman problem and asylum seekers
Former Victorian Liberal senator Judith Troeth is no stranger to speaking out forthrightly on issues, even when that goes against her party's position. In this podcast, Troeth says the party should adopt quotas to rectify the "abysmally low numbers" of Liberal women in parliament. "We should have quotas, but not forever ... to get the numbers up". One of the group of moderates when she was in parliament…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan
Politics podcast: Barnaby Joyce at his provocative best
Barnaby Joyce has confirmed he could cross the floor on the federal legislation associated with the National Energy Guarantee. "Of course I could," he says in an interview with The Conversation. Joyce is out on the author's circuit for his just-released book Weatherboard and Iron, which reprises the personal saga that took him from deputy prime minister to backbencher, as well as canvassing life in…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan
Politics podcast: Wayne Swan on Labor's byelection victories and beyond
Incoming Labor national president Wayne Swan has made it clear he will have an assertive voice in the role, as the party moves towards next year's election. While many in the ALP would like action on party reform, Swan says bluntly it's not top of mind for him. "I made it very clear [in campaigning for the presidency] that party reform in the first instance was not my priority," he says. "My priority…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan
Politics Podcast: Dennis Atkins on the Longman byelection
After an eight-week campaign, Super Saturday is finally here. There are five byelections being held, but the race in Longman is one of two nail-biter contests that could go either way. Dennis Atkins, the Courier Mail's national affairs editor, says the mood in Longman is one of political exhaustion and that the result is anybody's guess because of preference changes. But Atkins says the LNP and Prime…
1 Host: Michelle Grattan