In this holiday episode, we cut through the noise surrounding calls for a Royal Commission into the Bondi attack and ask whether the process is truly about accountability or has become a vehicle for political pressure. With an independent review already underway, led by respected former diplomat Dennis Richardson and examining the actions of ASIO and the Australian Federal Police, we question whether a Royal Commission is necessary or risks becoming a highly politicised inquiry with unclear objectives. We explore how Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been placed in an impossible position – where any decision is framed as weakness – particularly given his past support for Palestine and his government’s recognition of the Palestinian state, while noting that past tragedies such as Port Arthur and the Lindt Café siege, along with ongoing crises like domestic violence against women and media ownership in Australia, have never prompted Royal Commissions. The episode also examines the growing influence of pro-Israel and Zionist lobby groups, the use of antisemitism accusations to shut down debate, and the broader implications for free speech, democratic accountability, and Australian politics. #AUSPOL

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Song listing:

• ‘La Femme d’Argent’, AIR.

After its emphatic 2025 election victory, the Albanese Labor government entered the year with overwhelming parliamentary dominance and a clear mandate to govern boldly. On paper, it was a government with every advantage imaginable. Yet despite this strength, Labor has continued to govern cautiously – reluctant to take risks, overly attached to bipartisanship with a fractured Coalition, and hesitant to translate power into decisive reform. In this episode, we examine the growing gap between authority and action, and the political myth that a government’s “second year” automatically delivers bold change. Drawing on recent history and Labor’s own record so far, we ask whether 2026 will finally be the year of decisive reform – or whether Labor is waiting for a big bang that may never come. #AUSPOL 

The New Politics series of long-read essays, from our new publication, The Monday Essays.


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Song listing:

1. ‘La Femme d’Argent’, AIR.

This long-read audio essay examines the vilification of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese after the Bondi Beach memorial, and how national mourning was turned into a partisan spectacle. It explores how antisemitism, public safety and the Israel–Palestine debate have been politicised by the Israel lobby, conservative media and the right, trapping the Labor government in an impossible bind. Challenging the “done nothing” claim, the episode outlines the extensive security, legal and education measures delivered since October 2023, and argues that Albanese’s weakness was not indifference, but caution – appeasement in a moral crisis driven by outrage and absolutism. #AUSPOL  

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2025 was the year the comforting myths finally fell away. In this long-read essay, we trace how democratic institutions – globally and in Australia – proved far more fragile than many assumed, as misinformation, authoritarian politics and media failure reshaped the political landscape. From Trump’s return and Elon Musk’s political interference, to the catastrophic war on Gaza and Australia’s own shallow election campaign, the year exposed a deep crisis of leadership, media courage and moral clarity. Yet amid the disillusionment, there are faint but real signs of renewal: growing scepticism of mainstream media, the rise of independent voices, and a questioning of Australia’s place in a changing world. This long-read episode asks a simple but urgent question: at the crossroads revealed in 2025, will Australia choose to continue to drift, or seek a democratic renewal? #AUSPOL

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Song listing:

1. ‘La Femme d’Argent’, AIR.

Australia enters 2026 facing deep strategic uncertainty: AUKUS costs have blown out to $1.3 billion with little clarity about what Australia is actually buying, while fear-driven national-security politics – from Richard Marles’ exaggerated warnings about a Chinese “flotilla” to unconstitutional anti-protest laws in NSW and creeping police-state powers in Victoria – continue to erode democratic accountability. As governments amplify threats, expand surveillance and silence dissent, the mainstream media has drifted further into PR and censorship, from the National Press Club cancelling Chris Hedges to the Sydney Morning Herald publishing misleading reporting used to attack Anthony Albanese.   And despite its historic 2025 landslide, Labor still governs cautiously, clinging to bipartisanship, avoiding bold reforms on climate, housing and integrity, and remaining wary of collaboration with the Greens even where their agendas align. With Australia bound tightly to US security interests, distracted by culture wars and hollow media coverage, and hesitant to use its political dominance for meaningful change, the question heading into 2026 is whether the country can shift from fear and dependency towards genuine strategic independence and confident, democratic governance. #AUSPOL

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Song listing:

1. ‘Let Me Entertain You’, Robbie Williams.
2. ‘Swing For The Crime’, Ed Kuepper.
3. ‘Satellite Anthem Icarus’, Boards of Canada.
4. ‘Off The Grid’, Beastie Boys.
5. ‘Yesterday’s Gone’, Beth Orton & William Orbit.

As the United States slides into institutional decay under Donald Trump’s return to the White House – with sweeping tariffs on global trade, mass deportations, rolled-back civil rights and an increasingly authoritarian style – Australia has failed to confront the strategic danger of relying on an erratic superpower. Instead of using this moment to diversify towards Asia, Europe and the Global South, Canberra is fixated on whether Anthony Albanese could secure a photo-op in the Oval Office, while signing critical-minerals deals and celebrating AUKUS announcements that overwhelmingly benefit the US. With Pine Gap’s secret intelligence role, billions of dollars in rare-earth exports and deep defence integration, Australia’s supposed “sovereign choices” look increasingly constrained. The deeper question – how Australia protects its national interest when US democracy is eroding – was never asked, leaving the country more dependent than ever and no closer to a genuinely independent foreign policy. #AUSPOL

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In our continuing review of the 2025 year in Australian federal politics, we discuss the federal election held in May, analysing one of the worst campaigns by a major political party in modern history and the resulting collapse of the Liberal Party, including the loss of Peter Dutton’s seat. We examine how Anthony Albanese’s Labor government ran a cautious but disciplined campaign built on stability and competence, while the Coalition relied on fear, culture-war outrage and an implausible nuclear energy policy that drove its primary vote and seat count to historic lows, leaving the party stranded in political wilderness.

We also look at Australia’s weak and deliberate silence on the genocide in Gaza during the campaign, Labor’s continued supply of military components to Israel, its refusal to impose sanctions, and the abandonment of core party principles under lobby pressure – and then go on to expose the growing influence of the Israel lobby across politics, media, universities and cultural institutions, and what this means for free speech, academic freedom, journalism and democratic accountability in Australia. #AUSPOL

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To commence our review of the 2025 year in Australian federal politics, this bonus episode examines the continuing culture wars, the Australia Day and Invasion Day debate, and a federal election that dramatically reshaped the political landscape. We explore how Peter Dutton and conservative commentators attempted to weaponise “wokeness,” cancel culture and identity politics, why these tactics are increasingly ineffective, and how Victoria’s historic Treaty with First Nations people exposed the emptiness of Liberal Party scare campaigns. #AUSPOL 

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In the final week of Parliament, New Politics asks a blunt question about Australian federal politics: what is the Albanese Labor government actually for? This episode turns its focus to Labor’s record in office, examining stalled gambling advertising reform, public service and CSIRO job cuts, tensions with the Australian Greens, and the growing gap between election promises and policy delivery. We explore rising inflation, falling productivity, weak investment, mining superprofits, gas export contracts, and the long shadow of Howard-era economic decisions, alongside Labor’s contradictory approach to climate policy, coal and gas expansion, and slow environmental reform. From energy prices and domestic gas reservation to housing policy, HECS, the failed Voice referendum and a weakened National Anti-Corruption Commission, this episode argues that competence without reform is not enough — and asks whether a managerial Labor government risks squandering a historic opportunity for structural change.

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We look at the political theatre of the right, including Pauline Hanson’s latest burqa stunt in the Senate, the rise of One Nation in the polls, and the growing battle for reactionary votes between minor parties and a hollowed-out Liberal Party. In an environment increasingly defined by provocation, stunts and nihilism, we cut through the noise to ask where Australian politics is heading.

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This week, we examine how the Liberal Party has abandoned serious policy for retail politics, scare campaigns and culture-war theatrics – strategies aimed at clawing back voters drifting to One Nation but which are instead eroding the party from within. After rejecting net-zero by 2050, the Liberals have pivoted to anti-immigration rhetoric, blaming migrants for traffic congestion, housing pressures and energy prices, despite net migration returning to pre-COVID norms and mirroring the Howard era. 

With new Redbridge polling showing One Nation rising to 18 per cent as the LNP slips into the low-20s, the right is becoming an echo chamber of grievance politics, far-right messaging and internal chaos, highlighted by the exits of Brad Battin, Leanne Castley and Mark Speakman during the November killing season.

We also unpack the escalating battle over hospital funding, as the Albanese government pushes productivity reforms before lifting the federal share to 42.5 per cent, while states warn of hospitals nearing breaking point. And with housing policy similarly gridlocked, Australia faces more buck-passing, worsening services and federal–state dysfunction unless real structural reform finally occurs.

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In this bonus episode, we examine the UN Security Council’s approval of a US-designed International Stabilisation Force for Gaza – effectively handing Washington, and Donald Trump as chair of the new “Board of Peace”, unprecedented power over Gaza’s future. With Palestinians excluded from the planning and conditions stacked in Israel’s favour, this plan risks entrenching occupation rather than delivering justice. With 70,000 Palestinians killed, 2 million displaced, and Gaza’s hospitals, schools and infrastructure destroyed, reconstruction cannot succeed without accountability for Israeli war crimes – yet the plan ignores this entirely.

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In this episode of the New Politics podcast, we look at Australia’s broken political structures and rising extremism – from the renewed debate over four-year federal terms and a constitution stuck in the 1890s, to the disturbing double standards in NSW policing after an authorised neo-Nazi rally was allowed to proceed while pro-Palestine protesters were violently suppressed, and finally the Liberal Party’s internal “killing season”, where chaos over net-zero, gender quotas and leadership instability shows a party drifting further from the electorate. We explore why constitutional reform matters, why hate-speech laws aren’t being used against white supremacists, and how the Coalition’s refusal to adapt to modern Australia – on climate, multiculturalism and democratic rights – is pushing it towards long-term electoral irrelevance.

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In this bonus episode of the New Politics podcast, we look at the ghost of Gough Whitlam and ask whether a visionary like Whitlam – who delivered universal healthcare, free tertiary education, multiculturalism, women’s rights and First Nations recognition – could even survive in today’s poll-driven, faction-controlled Labor Party. Fifty years after the Dismissal, Australia is still affected by the events from 1975, with Labor, Liberal and National parties offering tiny differences while the public demands real reform on housing, climate, health and education. We explore what a Whitlam government would look like in 2024 – cancelling AUKUS, recognising Palestine, expanding Medicare, rebuilding the ABC and pushing for a republic – and why the lessons learned from the Dismissal turned Labor into a cautious managerial party afraid of bold ideas. Whitlam’s legacy reminds us that government can transform lives, and that Australian politics desperately needs the ambition, imagination and courage that has been forgotten. 

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(00:00:00) The War on Dissent and Socialism USA
(00:01:12) Beautiful, Menacing, and Obscene: Australia’s Addiction to War
(00:18:18) Robodebt Reborn: The Cruelty That Never Dies
(00:29:56) Treaty and Truth: A New Beginning in Victoria
(00:43:07) Socialism in the City: Zohran Mamdani’s Revolution in New York

We expose Australia’s growing contradictions – a nation that talks peace while funding war, promises compassion while reviving cruelty, and talks justice while fearing equality. From Sydney’s taxpayer-funded arms expo where protesters were pepper-sprayed by police, to Labor’s quiet revival of Robodebt through private debt collectors, this episode reveals how state power is being weaponised against dissent and the vulnerable. We also cover Victoria’s historic Treaty with First Nations peoples, a breakthrough in truth-telling and Reconciliation now under threat from conservative backlash, and the election of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as New York’s first Muslim and African-born mayor – a victory for conviction politics over corporate control.
Support and celebrate New Politics, just $5 per week:  

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Song listing:  

1. ‘Stranger In Moscow’, Tame Impala.
2. ‘Swing For The Crime’, Ed Kuepper.
3. ‘The King Is Dead’, The Herd.
4. ‘Sign O’ The Times’, Prince, remix by Michael Saxom.

(00:00:00) The Great Environmental Backflip and the Joy Division
(00:01:09) Green Light, Red Flags: Labor’s Environmental Backdown
(00:16:40) Nuclear Déjà Vu: The Coalition’s Broken Record
(00:29:26) Between Beijing and Washington: Albanese at ASEAN
(00:41:10) Culture Wars on Vinyl: The Joy Division Distraction

We examine one of the biggest environmental retreats in years as the Albanese government prepares to hand decision-making powers on coal, gas and water projects back to the states, gutting environmental protection and empowering the fossil-fuel lobby. It’s supposedly about “cutting red tape,” but critics say it’s a green light for mining giants and a betrayal of Labor’s climate promises. We also assess the new “national interest” override, the anger from NT Aboriginal land councils, and the government’s growing resemblance to the Morrison era. Meanwhile, the Coalition revives its nuclear energy obsession as Senator Jane Hume pushes to lift Australia’s nuclear ban, reigniting divisions between Barnaby Joyce and the moderates. Plus, Anthony Albanese’s balancing act at the ASEAN summit – caught between China and the US – and Sussan Ley’s bizarre attack on the Prime Minister for wearing a Joy Division T-shirt. Sharp analysis, politics without spin, and all the week’s contradictions in Australian politics.

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Song listing: 

1. ‘Bonnie And Clyde’, Serge Gainsbourg (French Accent remix).
2. ‘Satellite Anthem Icarus, Boards of Canada.
3. ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’, Joy Division.
4. ‘Sign O’ The Times’, Prince, remix by Michael Saxom.

(00:00:00) Alliance Games and the Price of Truth
(00:01:09) The Albanese–Trump Deal and the $8.5 Billion handshake (17 mins)
(00:18:46) Sparks Over The South China Sea (11 mins)
(00:29:56) Barnaby Joyce and One Nation: Who Really Cares (8 mins)
(00:38:45) A Ceasefire That Still Kills in Gaza (5 mins)
(00:43:35) The ABC Hatchet Job on Hedges (15 mins)

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s long-awaited meeting with Donald Trump delivers smiles, handshakes and a critical minerals deal that deepens Australia’s dependence on Washington. Beneath the diplomacy lies a bigger story – how this deal sidelines China, fuels the mining magnates and leaves Australia as the world’s quarry. Meanwhile, rising tensions in the South China Sea, Barnaby Joyce’s flirtation with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, and the collapse of the Gaza “ceasefire” expose a world of political theatre and moral failure. From AUKUS to media censorship and Chris Hedges’ fight for truth, this episode dissects power, propaganda and the high price of speaking out.

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Song listing: 

1. ‘Spitfire’, Public Service Broadcasting.
2. ‘Confessions Of A Window Cleaner’, Ed Kuepper.
3. ‘Dātura’, Tori Amos.
4. ‘Sign O’ The Times’, Prince, remix by Michael Saxom.

In this week’s podcast, Labor’s superannuation retreat exposes a government afraid to lead – Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ watered-down super tax gives wealthy Australians another break while real reform on housing, climate and tax fairness slips further away. We examine the bizarre corruption scandal of the Australian Parliamentary Sports Club – with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese presiding over a registered lobby group – and the vindictive legal crusade of former senator Linda Reynolds against Brittany Higgins, highlighting Australia’s broken defamation laws. Plus, Donald Trump’s so-called Gaza “ceasefire” reveals more illusion than peace, as Israel’s narrative control collapses and global calls for justice and accountability grow louder.

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Song listing: 

1. ‘Off The Grid’, Beastie Boys.
2. ‘Confessions Of A Window Cleaner’, Ed Kuepper.
3. ‘Talking To A Stranger’, Birds of Tokyo (cover).
4. ‘Sign O’ The Times’, Prince, remix by Michael Saxom.

We expose the hypocrisy behind the National Press Club’s cancellation of Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Chris Hedges, silenced for planning to speak about the collapse of journalism and the genocide in Gaza. We reveal how corporate sponsors like Raytheon, BAE Systems and Thales – all supplying weapons to Israel – help shape media censorship in Australia’s so-called home of free speech. We also examine the Optus Triple-0 outage, which blocked hundreds of emergency calls and caused three preventable deaths, highlighting the failure of neoliberalism and the dangers of outsourcing essential public services. And as the Liberal Party descends further into chaos, with Andrew Hastie’s aborted leadership challenge, Jacinta Price’s infighting and Peter Dutton’s factional damage, we ask whether Australia’s conservative movement is now ideologically bankrupt and politically finished. #AUSPOL
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Song listing:

1. ‘All I Need’, AIR (feat. Beth Hirsch).
2. ‘Ameno’, +eRa+.
3. ‘Sign O’ The Times’, Prince, remix by Michael Saxom.

Anthony Albanese is back from his international tour, pitching stability and steady progress – but is “slow and steady” enough, or just political stagnation? We unpack the prime minister’s speeches at the UK Labour conference, his meeting with King Charles, and what his cautious style means for Australia’s future. Labor may have the advantage of a fractured Liberal Party, but with Andrew Hastie pushing a hard-right agenda and Sussan Ley struggling to hold her party together, the opposition’s leadership battles could shift quickly. We also examine Labor’s $790 million Nauru contract with a US private prison company, concerns over the National Anti-Corruption Commission, and the so-called Gaza peace plan backed by Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu – a deal that looks more like forced surrender than genuine peace. #AUSPOL
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Song listing: 

1. ‘Atomic Moog 2000’, Cold Cut.
2. ‘Crooked River’, Richard Pleasance. 
3. ‘Sign O’ The Times’, Prince, remix by Michael Saxom.