7am

On February 9, thousands of people gathered at Sydney Town Hall to protest the visit of Israeli president Isaac Herzog.They wanted to march to state parliament, but police were blocking their way. The scenes that followed were shocking: 10 officers and dozens of protesters – some in their 70s and 80s – were injured in the violent clashes that unfolded.Now, after hundreds of complaints of police brutality, the law enforcement watchdog is today opening its investigation into what officers did, how the operation was planned and who gave the orders.Today, Managing Partner at Marque Lawyers, Michael Bradley, on who should be held accountable for the violence at Town Hall – and why NSW Police fought to keep the investigation behind closed doors.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Managing partner at Marque Lawyers, Michael Bradley Photo: AAP Image/Flavio BrancaleoneSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In politics, there’s nothing quite like a book launch to remind everyone you’re here if they need.  Josh Frydenberg is back, with a new book, some pointed criticism of his party, and perhaps an eye on a return to Canberra. Meanwhile, Angus Taylor is steering the Liberals firmly to the right, although even that hasn’t spared him a heckling from the conservative faithful. For Anthony Albanese, it’s a welcome distraction from what has been a torrid couple of weeks for the government. His own MPs are getting restless, and the prime minister's own confidence isn’t proving contagious. Today, columnist Paul Bongiorno on the Liberals’ competing visions, Labor’s midterm blues, and a prime minister waiting for the wind to change.    If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Press gallery veteran Paul Bongiorno Photo: AAP Image/Sarah WilsonSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For generations, Australians could reasonably expect that their lives would be more prosperous than their parents.  But over recent years, that bargain has started to break down.  Productivity growth has barely moved for a decade. We’re working more hours, without producing much more for each hour we work, and that stagnation is showing up in incomes, living standards and rising interest rates.  Now with economic growth under pressure, the government is betting that new technology, particularly artificial intelligence, can help turn things around. Today, Productivity Commission Chair Danielle Wood, on why Australia has stopped becoming more productive, whether AI can change that, and what happens if it can’t.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Productivity Commission Chair Danielle Wood Photo: AAP Image/Dean LewinsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Coalition is saying that soon, you won’t be able to criticise the Prime Minister on the internet. It’s part of its campaign against Labor’s proposed Digital Duty of Care – which the opposition has branded the “Albo-rithm”, arguing it would give the government the power to decide what Australians can see and say online. So what’s actually in the government’s bill? And how far does it go towards addressing the harms created by social media and its algorithms? Today, Digital Rights Watch chair Lizzie O’Shea on whether Labor can force Big Tech to change what we’re served – and why Donald Trump’s White House has now weighed in.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Chair of Digital Rights Watch, Lizzie O’Shea Photo: AAP Image/Lukas CochSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last week, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth gathered hundreds of service members at a base in Virginia to lay out his vision for the American military. Alongside sweeping changes to the way it fights and trains, Hegseth announced a new Office of Religious Affairs – reporting directly to him – aimed at putting what he calls “spiritual health” on the same level as physical health. It’s the clearest sign yet of how Hegseth’s evangelical Christianity is shaping the Pentagon and religious policy across the armed forces. Earlier this year, we looked at the beliefs driving Hegseth’s push to remake the military – and why Donald Trump chose him to wage a cultural and ideological battle inside it, bringing so-called “warrior culture” back to an institution they believed had gone “woke”. Today, former Voice of America Chief National Correspondent Steve Herman on Pete Hegseth, Christian nationalism and the religious worldview reshaping the US military. This episode first aired in March, 2026.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Former chief national correspondent for Voice of America, Steve Herman Photo: Alex Wong/Pool Photo via APSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Greens’ official think-tank has a new proposition — a national chain of 624 publicly owned supermarkets. To make that a reality would cost more than $25 billion, and involve the forced sale of 200 Coles and Woolworths supermarkets.  But the Institute, which took its inspiration from New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, says it would cut grocery bills by 22 per cent.  Today, former MP and now Green Institute Executive Director Max Chandler-Mather on his proposal for a publicly owned supermarket chain.    If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Green Institute Executive Director Max Chandler-Mather Photo: AAP Image/Dan PeledSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Angus Taylor has promised “the biggest cut to immigration in the history of this country” – vowing to cut net overseas migration to one hundred thousand for two years if he wins office, slashing Australia’s temporary migration intake by 650 thousand over four years. Temporary graduate visas would be scrapped and new international students capped at 240 thousand. Australia’s humanitarian intake to be halved at ten thousand a year. In a press conference which saw classic Coalition slogan “stop the boats” make a comeback, a new catch cry made an appearance as Angus Taylor tried to out muscle Labor and One Nation – promising to “raise the standards and reduce the numbers”. Today, Director of the Migration Hub at ANU, Professor Alan Gamlen on what the Coalition’s drastic cuts would actually mean for Australia, why this debate is happening now, and the dangers when migration rhetoric reaches fever pitch   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Director of the ANU Migration Hub, Professor Alan Gamlen Photo: AAP Image/Bianca De MarchiSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last week, Britain’s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham stood in front of the Labour Party conference and promised to break politics as usual.  In an emotional speech, he took aim at privatisation, austerity and Brexit, arguing that Britain’s departure from the European Union had done more harm than good.  Alastair Campbell was in the room and he sees Burnham’s speech as part of a much bigger political moment, as populist parties gain ground, America redraws its alliances and China is asserting more power abroad.  For countries like Britain and Australia, that means old assumptions about political leadership, alliances and global power are being tested all at once.    Today, former Tony Blair adviser and the co-host of The Rest Is Politics, Alastair Campbell, on how centre-left leaders can respond to the rise of populism, and what a shifting global order means for countries like Australia.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Co-host of The Rest is Politics Alastair Campbell Photo: SuppliedSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David Shoebridge has taken over the Greens leadership with a big ambition: to replace Labor. He’s doing it at a time when Australians are becoming less attached to the major parties, and less trusting of the people who run them. But so far, it’s Pauline Hanson’s One Nation that has made the most of that anger, while the Greens, after losing seats at the last election, have stagnated in the polls. Their challenge now is to convince disillusioned voters that the Greens can be more than a bit player in the halls of parliament.  Today, Greens leader David Shoebridge on his plan to turn the Greens into an anti-establishment force, and whether that requires changing the party itself.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Greens leader David Shoebridge Photo: AAP Image/George ChanSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In April this year, Ben Roberts-Smith was arrested and charged with five counts of the war crime of murder. He’s now out on bail and maintains his innocence – and One Nation has swung its support behind him.  Now, the minor party says it’s also seeking to make a change to the criminal code — a change that could make a big difference to Roberts-Smith’s upcoming trial.  Today, journalist Ben McKelvey on the law One Nation wants changed — and what that could mean for Australia’s international standing.    If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Journalist Ben McKelvey Photo: AAP Image/Russell FreemanSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In June, an OpenAI agent was looking for public information about medicines spending when it broke into a Medicare statistics website and accessed files it wasn’t authorised to see. No personal Medicare information was accessed, and the breach itself was relatively minor. But the behaviour is more concerning: the agent hit a barrier – and instead of stopping, found a way around it. And it wasn’t the first time. Sydney Von Arx runs the Nightingale Collective, which monitors these AI systems. Her team uncovered a group of OpenAI agents behaving in remarkably similar ways around the same time as the Medicare breach – even sharing tips with each other about how to get around restrictions. Today, what happens when AI agents stop taking no for an answer – and can the companies building them actually control what they do?   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: AI researcher and CEO of Nightingale Collective, Sydney Von Arx Photo: AAP Image/Susie Dodds / Pictures: Tracey Nearmy and Dan HimbrechtsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When starting out at university, it’s normal to want to meet new friends and establish a community. But for some young Australians, that formative time has led them down the path of a secretive and extreme religious group accused of using deceptive tactics to draw in young people: Shincheonji.  According to one former member, the group took over his life – leaving him sleep deprived and isolated, and teaching him that using his own judgement was dangerous. He described what happened to him as “mind control”. Since then, similar accounts have been heard by a major Victorian parliamentary inquiry – which has now recommended new laws targeting coercive control by high-control groups. And Shincheonji itself is now under investigation by Australia’s charities regulator. Today, journalist Aleisha Orr on one young Australian who spent years inside the doomsday church – and what it took for him to get out. This episode was originally published in March, 2024.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Journalist Aleisha Orr Photo: shincheonji.orgSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For years, Donald Trump’s attacks on the media were treated as part of the spectacle of his politics. Now, three major news organisations have had their White House passes revoked – and Trump says others could follow. Here in Australia, we’re seeing Pauline Hanson follow the same playbook – with One Nation repeatedly deciding which news organisations can attend its press conferences. But unlike America, press freedom in Australia has remarkably few legal protections backing it. So what happens when politicians stop respecting the rules we’ve simply assumed they would follow? Today, journalist and press freedom advocate Peter Greste, on how fragile press freedom is in Australia and why we’ve relied for so long on convention rather than law.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Journalist and press freedom advocate, Peter Greste Photo: AP Photo/Mark SchiefelbeinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.