Ben Eltham is the National Affairs Correspondent for New Matilda, the Industry Columnist for Arts Hub and has written for Guardian Australia, the ABC's The Drum, Crikey and many other outlets. He's a Research Fellow at Deakin University's Faculty of Arts and Education and a Fellow of the Centre for Policy Development.
Basically, he's a major smarty-pants.
Ben's very, very good at explaining things and in this chat he kindly took the time to explain to me what the hell negative gearing is and what it means for Australia's housing crisis. We also discuss the myth of a "classless Australia", tax dodging, neoliberalism, the government's attacks on the arts and how the 2016 election is shaping up.
The World Keeps Happening at the Sydney Comedy Festival this week for TWO NIGHTS ONLY
My speeches at the MICF Great Debate, "Everyone's Entitled To An Opinion"
Five Reasons The Myth About Liberals Running The Economy Best Must Die by Costa A
Human Rights Commissioner Gillian Triggs Speaks Out by Ramona Kavol
Why Labor Are Right To Chase Turnbull's Wealth by Ben Eltham
Don't bank On ASIC Saving The Day: The Case For A Royal Commission Is Open and Shut by Ben Eltham
The Baaing Of Our Artists by Andrew Bolt
Neoliberalism: The Ideology At The Root Of All Our Problems by George Monbiot
Cause of the Week: Alzeihmer's Australia (fightdementia.org.au)
Nayuka Gorrie is a Kurnai/Gunai, Gunditjmara, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman who's passionate about progress for Indigenous Australians.
After reading her piece for Vice entitled Fuck Your Constitutional Recognition, I Want A Treaty, I scurried into her (beautiful) bedroom (with her permission) to talk about the problematic nature of recognition, the echoing trauma of the Stolen Generation, white Australia's denialism, what an Indigenous treaty might look like and, of course, Andrew Bolt.
The World Keeps Happening at the Sydney Comedy Festival for TWO NIGHTS ONLY
My final blog for TheMusic.com.au, wrapping up MICF 2016
Nayuka on the Foundation for Young Australians
Maddee Clarke on twitter - @intoreceiving
Gregory Phillips: Should Australian Cities Bear Indigenous Language Names?
Causes of the Week: Aboriginal Family Violence Prevention & Legal Service (fvpls.org, Sisters' Day Out), Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network (seedmob.org.au)
Journalist, anthropologist and broadcaster Sally Warhaft is a former editor of The Monthly, host of The Wheeler Centre's Fifth Estate podcast and mother to one-year-old twins.
In this wide-ranging chat, Sally diagnoses the current state of Australian politics, laments the lack of great political oratory today, explains why Malcolm Turnbull is politically "rooted", shares her thoughts on the cruelty of the death penalty and her friendship with Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran and gives me a bit of an insight into anthropology.
I gots nominated for the 2016 Barry Award golly gee!
The World Keeps Happening at the Melbourne Comedy Festival
Boundless Plains To Share at the Melbourne Comedy Festival
The World Keeps Happening at the Sydney Comedy Festival
The 2016 MICF Great Debate on tenplay
Article: "I've cried researching my comedy show about refugees"
The Wheeler Centre's Fifth Estate podcast
Well May We Say: The Speeches That Made Australia
Cause of the Week: Reprieve Australia (reprieve.org.au)
YES I KNOW IT'S BEEN QUITE A WHILE I'VE BEEN VERY BUSY SORRY LOL.
The good news is this episode is well worth the wait. Simon Hunt is a political satirist, film maker, lecturer, sound designer, musician and activist who's best known for his creation "Pauline Pantsdown" - a hugely popular and scathing parody of the One Nation politician Pauline Hanson.
In this extraordinary chat (recorded on the day of Mardi Gras 2016), Simon recounts his experiences of growing up gay in NSW in the 80s and explains his his fascination with religious right-wingers like Fred Nile and Anita Bryant, his politicisation in the face of the AIDS crisis, how he came to create Pantsdown and what Hanson says about us as a country today. Plus he's got some stories that are fucking funny.
The World Keeps Happening at the Melbourne Comedy Festival
Boundless Plains To Share at the Melbourne Comedy Festival
My episode of Wil Anderson’s Wilosophy
SBS’s The Feed story on Boundless Plains To Share
Pauline Pantsdown on the Star Observer
Electoral Guerilla Theatre in Australia: Pauline Hanson vs. Pauline Pantsdown by Lawrence M. Bogad
Cause of the Week: minus18 (minus18.org.au)