7am

The seats that will decide the election

27 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As we head to the polls this weekend, election analyst Ben Raue has been calculating the path to victory for the major parties.  The Coalition ne...

Read This: Chris Flynn’s New Book Arrived in a Dream

26 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The opening scene of Chris Flynn’s fourth and latest novel, Orpheus Nine, came to him in a dream. Not long after, he had the whole story do...

How the Pope’s death changed the election campaign

25 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Paul Bongiorno is one of the 1.2 billion Roman Catholics who mourned the loss of Pope Francis this week. As he read tribute after tribute of the impac...

From Trump’s America to Queensland: The people fighting back against trans healthcare bans

24 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In January, Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting the trans community by banning some medical care for minors. The move has had a chilling ...

Bri Lee on the Liberal Party’s problem with women

23 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Scott Morrison lost his job as prime minister, it was women who sacked him. A review commissioned by the Liberal Party after the 2022 election fo...

Labor vs the Coalition: Which housing plan is worse?

22 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Peter Dutton’s son, Harry, fronted the media to talk about his dream of home ownership, it was an attempt by the opposition leader to seem ...

Saul Griffith on how the major parties could get to net zero

21 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In a coastal corner of Australia, scientist Saul Griffith has been quietly working away on a plan to turn 500 households completely off fossil fuels. ...

Why asylum seekers are barred from Australian universities

20 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As a child refugee in India, Harini dreamt of making it to Australia to study medicine and become a doctor. She arrived in Australia in 2013 when she ...

Read This: The Imaginary Village of Niall Williams

19 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Over four decades Niall Williams has made a name for himself as one of Ireland’s leading novelists. In his latest novel, Time of the Child,...

What the major parties are offering on Indigenous affairs

18 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At one point during this term of government, Indigenous affairs dominated national debate. Politicians, pundits and the public couldn't stop talking a...

This castle is tax deductible

17 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Last year, reporter Mike Seccombe looked into the divide between Australia’s richest and poorest schools to find out why this gap keeps widening...

Albanese v Dutton: The second leaders’ debate

16 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Last night, Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton went head-to-head in the second leaders’ debate of the campaign. The difference between the two le...

How Albanese is using Trump as a weapon

15 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump’s presence looms large on the campaign trail, as both leaders face questions about how they would handle his trade war. The market ...

Protecting the ABC from Dutton

14 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In January, Jonathan Holmes met with the ABC’s then managing director, David Anderson.  Jonathan and his colleagues at ABC Alumni wanted to...

Tim Flannery on the Coalition’s energy plan

13 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As a scientist, Tim Flannery says he’s seen climate change kicked around parliament for decades. Australians are now paying for the years of den...

Read This: Nothing Happens In Ayşegül Savaş’s Book and That’s Great

12 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Turkish-born, Paris-based writer Ayşegül Savaş’s third novel opens with a young, ex-pat couple who are apartment hunting. Both foreigners...

How big should Australia be?

11 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Dutton says he’ll cut migrant numbers by 100,000 people a year as soon as he gets into office. He says it’s part of his plan to free...

Why Elon Musk doesn’t want NASA to go to the moon

10 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Elon Musk is pressing NASA to abandon its planned journeys to the moon – projects that have been decades in the making, with billions already sp...

Elon Musk’s plan to take over NASA

09 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump wants to write the next chapter in US spaceflight history. With billionaire tech CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk by his side, he’s...

Albanese v Dutton: The first leaders’ debate

08 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Anthony Albanese won the first leaders debate of the election campaign last night. But it was a tight contest, with both leaders well prepared and pol...

‘They’re panicking’: Why Dutton reneged on job cuts and work from home

07 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

“We made a mistake” are tough words for any politician, but in the heat of an election campaign, they can really hurt. In a spectacular re...

How Trump's mass deportations targeted men with tattoos

06 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It looked like a scene from a very different period of history: US Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, standing in front of a prison pen fill...

Read This: The Long Ireland of Colm Tóibín

05 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Colm Tóibín is regarded as one of Ireland’s greatest authors — and for good reason. With a career spanning 30 years and 11 a...

Albanese v Dutton: Who won week one?

04 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It’s only been a week, but the election campaign is already off script.  Trump’s tariffs have landed like a grenade in the middle of ...

Ruby Jones on the government’s plan to demolish public housing

03 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Barry Berih has lived in the same Melbourne flat for most of his life. He has mild cerebral palsy and is cared for by his mother. He has all the medic...

The $11 billion warship decision testing Australia’s alliances

02 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Australian defence officials are preparing to choose whether to buy warships from Germany or Japan. It’s an $11 billion decision – and is ...

The Mar-a-Lago accord: The real reason Trump wants tariffs

01 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today in the White House Rose Garden, President Trump will unveil his next round of tariffs – an event he’s calling “Liberation Day&...

Amy Remeikis on what the election should be about

31 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As the federal election campaign kicked off over the weekend, chief political analyst at the Australia Institute Amy Remeikis was paying close attenti...

The real impact of Trump's cuts to Australian research

30 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In recent weeks, Australian researchers began receiving a questionnaire. Sent by the US government, it asked things like “can you confirm that t...

Read This: Zanzibar Is Still Home for Abdulrazak Gurnah

29 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tanzanian-born, London-based author Abdulrazak Gurnah was midway through writing his latest novel, Theft, when he received a call letting him know he&...

Albanese v Dutton: What's at stake on May 3

28 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In his press conference announcing the May 3 federal election, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australians have a choice, warning Opposition Lead...

Peter Dutton and the billionaires

27 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

While Peter Dutton’s electorate braced for Cyclone Alfred, the opposition leader flew to Sydney to attend a $25,000 dollar-a-head dinner at Just...

The tabloid panic rewriting bail laws

26 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Traditionally, the idea of bail meant that someone accused of a crime had the right to be free until their trial. But over nearly fifty years, that ha...

The election budget: What's in it for you?

25 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jim Chalmers has handed down the Labor government’s election budget. Front and centre was a surprise tax cut for all Australians, along with man...

The end of the Gaza ceasefire

24 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The ceasefire in Gaza collapsed a week ago as Israel launched a series of airstrikes. Since then, more than 600 people have been killed, including chi...

‘The gangsters have gone f*cking nowhere’: The failed clean up of the CFMEU

23 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When footage of a CFMEU “health inspector” assaulting a woman was made public last week, it shocked a lot of people. But many union member...

Read This: Robert Dessaix Is a Fox (Not a Hedgehog)

22 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tasmanian writer Robert Dessaix is a man of many talents when it comes to the written form – from travel memoir and fiction to biography and phi...

‘If I was on the Labor side of politics, I'd be worried’

21 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Kos Samaras spends hundreds of hours listening to what voters really think. In focus groups and in surveys, his research and political strategy firm, ...

China, Australia and the warships off our coast

20 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Over the past month, a flotilla of Chinese military ships came close to Australian shores unannounced. They conducted live-fire drills off the coast o...

The Catholic Church’s legal loophole for abuse

19 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Are Catholic priests employed by the Church, or by the hand of God? This question was at the heart of a five-year legal battle between a survivor of c...

‘Frankly terrifying’: Albanese’s secret climate report

18 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In December last year, a group of crossbenchers dialled into a secret call with the Albanese government. It was to get a briefing on a government-comm...

Peter Dutton and the caravan of explosives

17 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The discovery of an abandoned caravan full of explosives on the outskirts of Sydney earlier this year triggered widespread panic and fear.  There...

Part 2: What happens to America if DOGE succeeds

16 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump’s full-throated support of Elon Musk continues, despite more and more people questioning why an unelected billionaire is exerting e...

Part 1: Inside Elon Musk's takeover of the US government

16 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Acolytes of Elon Musk, working in the Department of Government Efficiency, are currently gutting the US government, with Musk claiming he’ll fin...

Read This: How Sonia Orchard Reclaimed Her Story

15 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Novelist Sonia Orchard was in her 40s when a revelation during a therapy session turned her life upside down. Could the relationship she’d had i...

How Chinese voters will shape the election

14 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Australia’s Chinese community proved to be a powerful voting bloc in the last election.  And as the time draws near to vote again, a growin...

The real impact of Trump’s tariffs on Australia

13 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump’s trade war is escalating, as his wide-ranging tariffs take effect.  Australia had hoped to avoid a 25 per cent tariff on our ...

Falsified deaths: The systemic problems in Tasmanian hospitals

12 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Launceston nurse and midwife Amanda Duncan appeared at a Tasmanian parliamentary inquiry into ambulance ramping last year, her testimony was maca...

Peter Dutton, Donald Trump Jr and the Australian weapons mogul

11 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As Trump’s radical reshaping of the US pulls into focus, so too has the list of those who have gained entry to his inner circle.  That list...

Trapped in a Cambodian scam factory

10 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Most Australians have been targeted by a scam attempt, from spam text messages to intricate love fraud. The scams have cost us billions. But behind th...

Julie Bishop and the mine that could ruin Greenland

09 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Julie Bishop built her career as a politician representing Australia on the world stage.  Now, she’s taken on a new lobbying role, working ...

Read This: Andrea Goldsmith Finds the Poetry In Death

08 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In Andrea Goldsmith’s ninth and latest novel, The Buried Life, she unpicks the relationships between people and the undercurrents of doubt ...

Cyclone politics

07 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Cyclone Alfred hits as we gear up for the federal election, bringing back memories of the floods and bushfires that tore through the country last time...

Patricia Karvelas’ guide to saving democracy

06 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Australia is heading into a federal election at a time when trust in politics and our institutions is eroding. Over the past two decades, satisfaction...

The killing of Natan Mwanza

05 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

One evening, two weeks ago, Natan Mwanza was stabbed and killed at a bus stop in Melbourne’s south-west. He was 24 years old. Natan’s fami...

'Unfettered power': Former ambassador on rethinking the US-Australia alliance

04 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Arthur Sinodinos arrived in Washington as Australia’s ambassador to the United States in 2020, he was told the best way to get things done ...

What Russia is promising Trump

03 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with US President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance in the Oval Office on Friday, they were t...

A bizarre and frankly gross thing happening

02 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Warmer waters, disease and antibiotics have pushed Tasmania’s salmon farms into crisis. But it’s not just an environmental disaster &ndash...

Read This: Sean Wilson Pulls Back the Curtain on Dementia

01 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In Melbourne-based author Sean Wilson’s new book, You Must Remember This, he tackles the complicated, tragic, and often fraught subject of ...

Geraldine Brooks on Anthony Albanese's legacy

27 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It was just before Christmas when Geraldine Brooks sat down for the first in a series of conversations with Anthony Albanese – and his popularit...

A phone call from Tony Burke and the sacking of Venice Biennale artist Khaled Sabsabi

26 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When the country’s peak arts body, Creative Australia, decided to dump Australia’s representative at the Venice Biennale, it set in motion...

Exclusive: Ten dead after welfare glitch ignored by government

25 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It was 2020 when the government first discovered that a glitch in its system was wrongfully cutting  welfare recipients off from their payments. ...

Malarndirri McCarthy on closing the gap

24 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The results in the latest Closing the Gap report are grim. Only five of the 19 targets are on track, and Indigenous incarceration rates are rising. Bu...

Part 1: James and Rupert Murdoch’s ‘bitter meltdown’

23 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Last year, one of the world’s most powerful families converged in a Nevada court room to fight over the future of their empire. Rupert Murdoch w...

Part 2: The fall of the Murdoch empire

23 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

One of the cardinal Murdoch family rules is never speak about the family outside the family. So, when journalist McKay Coppins got in touch with James...

Read This: Alex Miller Finally Lets His Friend Die

22 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Two time Miles Franklin Award-winning author Alex Miller is 88, but with 17 books under his belt and more writing on the way, he’s showing no si...

Saturday special: Albanese's election plans

21 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In news rooms, board rooms and electoral offices around the country, there's one question driving everyone insane: when is Anthony Albanese going to c...

Sabotage, surveillance and state-sponsored killings: ASIO's warning

20 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Australia faces its most “difficult threat environment” in 50 years, with larger and more varied plots than ever before. That was the mess...

RFK Jr’s anti-vaccine obsession

19 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s confirmation as US health secretary made official one of President Donald Trump’s most controversial appointments. ...

Can the government claim a win from the RBA cut?

18 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On Tuesday afternoon, the Reserve Bank cut the official cash rate to 4.1 per cent. It’s the first interest rate cut since 2020, after 13 consecu...

Inside the ‘hostile takeover’ of Meals on Wheels

17 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Meals on Wheels is an essential service for many elderly people across the country.  It’s the sort of service that you can’t really p...

How Bob Brown stays optimistic

16 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Bob Brown spoke out against the invasion of Iraq in 2003, at the height of the war on terror, he was widely derided. He was mocked in the press, ...

Read This: The Real Rachel Khong

15 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2017, Rachel Khong released her debut novel Goodbye, Vitamin to critical acclaim. In 2024, she followed it with her second novel, a sweep...

Why SAS troops used wrong rules of engagement

13 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Brereton inquiry uncovered shocking allegations of war crimes committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan. But there was one failing of Austra...

Lidia Thorpe: ‘We need to scrap Closing the Gap’

12 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told parliament it must face up to the fact only five of the 19 Closing the Gap targets are on track, as he...

Trump threatens Australian medical research

11 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Since taking office, US President Donald Trump has thrown American science and medical research into disarray. Through a flurry of executive orders, h...

Kara Swisher has known Elon Musk for decades - she saw this coming

10 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Veteran tech journalist Kara Swisher has reported on Elon Musk for decades. In that time, they’ve talked publicly and privately on many occasion...

Inside Labor’s plan to fight tariffs

09 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Australia is a small player in global trade, compared with giants like the US and China. And when the world’s two biggest economies embark on a ...

Read This: This Is Not Michelle de Kretser

08 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Two-time Miles Franklin Award-winning author Michelle de Kretser has never been afraid of formal experimentation. Her seventh and latest book supports...

Parliament is back. Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump

06 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Dutton is making a bold move – aligning himself with Donald Trump. Dutton’s colleagues have been quick to draw the comparison, pitch...

Trump’s plan to ‘own’ Gaza

05 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump said the United States would “take over the Gaza strip”...

Who are Australia’s biggest political donors?

04 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tens of millions of dollars in “dark” donations to political parties have renewed calls for election funding reform. The Australian Electo...

After DeepSeek: How China outsmarted America

03 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The arrival of DeepSeek wiped more than $1 trillion off the value of America’s tech firms, topping the country from its unquestioned position at...

Read This: The Tangled Branches of Lech Blaine’s Family Tree

01 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Lech Blaine’s debut book Car Crash, told the gripping story of his life in the aftermath of a horrendous road accident that killed several ...

The people importing Trump's anti-trans tactics to Australia

30 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump returned to the White House with a campaign that routinely attacked trans gender people. On the night he was elected, trans people in the...

Serco’s ugly legacy in Australia’s immigration detention system

29 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The company that’s run Australia’s immigration detention network for over a decade, British conglomerate Serco, has lost its contract, but...

Grace Tame on improving the lives of autistic Australians

28 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As a child, Grace Tame often felt isolated and misunderstood, a feeling later explained by her autism diagnosis. It’s a common experience for au...

Paul Barry on the billionaire who failed Whyalla

27 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2017, the billionaire businessman Sanjeev Gupta rescued the Whyalla steelworks from administration, becoming known as the “saviour of steel&r...

Marcia Langton doesn't want Peter Dutton to stand in front of the Aboriginal flag

26 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Dutton’s announcement last month that he won’t stand in front of the Aboriginal flag got the exact reaction he was likely after &nda...

Read This: An Evening with Alan Hollinghurst

25 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Best known for his thought-provoking explorations of sexuality and identity across generations, British author Alan Hollinghurst rose to international...

Burnt mansions: Why the next election is a fork in the road

23 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As wildfires tore through some of LA’s most affluent neighbourhoods, burning down mansions owned by celebrities, some wondered if it might be a ...

Peter Dutton’s plan to win back teal seats

22 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Scott Morrison’s government was swept from power in 2022 it was the Coalition’s worst election result in 70 years. The cities deserte...

Trump’s plan to make billions off cryptocurrency

21 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Just three days before his inauguration, US President Donald Trump announced a new venture into cryptocurrency. Trump promoted the launch of the token...

The doping scandals overshadowing the Australian Open

20 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jannik Sinner is currently defending his title as the world’s best male tennis player at the Australian Open. But come April, he’ll be def...

'Everyone wants to be my friend': The people paying millions for access to Trump

19 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump will be president again by tomorrow, and he says “everybody” wants to be his friend. And while it might not be everybody, ple...

Read This: Noni Hazlehurst Is Being Herself

18 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For so many, Noni Hazlehurst is the patron saint of early childhood nostalgia, known for her magnetic presence on Play School. But Noni has ...

Ex-Pentagon official on the Israel-Hamas ceasefire

16 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This Sunday, Israel and Hamas are due to start a 42-day ceasefire in Gaza as part of a deal that could end the war. The announcement has prompted thou...

Why children are being kicked off the NDIS

15 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Outgoing Labor minister Bill Shorten has said he’s leaving politics at the end of the month confident with the state of the National Disability ...

Cathy McGowan on how to run a community independent campaign

14 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Cathy McGowan won the seat of Indi as an independent in 2013, it sent shockwaves through the political establishment. The Liberal Party had lost ...

How Elon Musk shapes politics

13 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the past few weeks, Elon Musk has posted thousands of times on his social media platform X about British politics, the far-right activist Tommy Rob...