Chad Theory

Episode 291 - Labor has won the NSW election under the leadership of Chris Minns, marking an historic moment for NSW as well as for Australia more broadly. Every state and territory in Australia (except Tasmania) is now under Labor government, but the question is how did this happen? How did Labor win? And, what happened to the Liberal Party?

Chad, Niko & Liv give you a full breakdown of how it went down, the key seats in play ...

Episode 290 - Bruce Lehrmann is poised to find out if the Federal Court will allow his defamation case against the media to go to trial. Lehrmann is suing Network Ten, Lisa Wilkinson, News Life Media and Samantha Maiden for publishing Brittany Higgins' allegations on 15 February 2021 on The Project and News.com.au, however, he needs the Federal Court to allow him to go to trial given he missed the deadline of 1 year from public...

Episode 289 - As Jarryd Hayne's third trial enters its second week, the court has heard from friends and family of the complainant as well as doctors and forensic experts. However, this trial isn't the same as the first two - there's a difference in the charges this time around.

Chad, Niko & Liv discuss all the details coming out of Hayne's Sydney trial and point to flaws and inconsistencies in the case that hav...

Episode 288 - Several media outlets, including FriendlyJordies, have published a secret recording of John Barilaro and several of his former colleagues discussing how they sought funding from their Liberal Party counterparts to fund projects in their electorates that fell outside of the official budget. Questions have been raised as to why the mainstream media are not covering these recordings, given the potential significance of t...

Episode 287 - Controversial Victorian MP, Moira Deeming, has pledged to resist attempts to eject her from the Liberal Party in parliament following her participation in an anti-trans rights rally that was attended by neo-Nazis. Her presence at the #LetWomenSpeak rally on Saturday prompted the Opposition Leader, John Pesutto, to declare his intention to expel her from the parliamentary Liberal Party.

Chad & Liv discuss the fallo...

Episode 285 - According to the media, Bruce Lehrmann has quite sensationally admitted to lying to a former girlfriend on the night The Project aired Brittany Higgins' sexual assault claims. The former political staffer who is pressing forward with defamation proceedings against Network Ten, News Life Media, Lisa Wilkinson and Samantha Maiden, took the stand on Thursday to answer questions about certain text message conversation...

Episode 284 - Former Prime Minister, Paul Keating, has labeled the AUKUS agreement between Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, as the "worst international decision" made by a Labor government since World War I conscription. The deal is estimated to cost the Australian taxpayer between $268 and $368 billion dollars from now until 2055, with the specific target of building, maintaining and servicing eight nuclear-po...

Episode 283 - The under-40s in NSW are now in the majority, making up 51 per cent of the state's population, continuing the trend since the 2022 federal election, which saw younger voters move away from the Liberal Party in favour of the Greens, Labor & Teals.

Chad and Niko discuss this demographic shift, what it means for Australia's major political parties and how it could affect the outcome of the upcoming NSW election.

Don'...

Episode 281 - News Corp has lodged its defence filing in response to Bruce Lehrmann's Statement of Claim (SOC), regarding two News.com.au articles detailing Brittany Higgins' allegations of rape at Parliament House in 2019. Similar to Lisa Wilkinson, who is the second respondent in the Network Ten proceedings, Samantha Maiden is the second respondent in News Corp's proceedings. News Corp plans to prove that Brittany Higgins was tel...

Episode 280 - The high-profile workplace dispute between independent MP Monique Ryan and her former chief of staff, Sally Rugg, which is headed for trial in the Federal Court, has caught the attention of Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, who has become personally involved in the matter. Although Dreyfus is now responsible for overseeing the case, he is apparently at "arms-length" from any negotiations between the parties. However, any...

Episode 279 - Network Ten has lodged its defence filing in response to Bruce Lehrmann's Statement of Claim (SOC), regarding the production and broadcast of Brittany Higgins' allegations of rape on the The Project in February 2021. Similar to Lisa Wilkinson, who is the second respondent in the proceedings, Network Ten plan to prove that Brittany Higgins was telling the truth. However, they also plan to claim qualified privilege - a ...

Episode 278 - Monique Ryan's chief of staff, Sally Rugg, has failed in her bid to keep her job as a staffer pending the full trial of her Fair Work case where she alleges she was sacked for refusing to work “unreasonable” additional hours. The former political activist claims Ryan had “pushed or jostled” her out of the chief of staff role after refusing to work 70-hour weeks. After almost a month of failed mediation between Rugg, R...

Episode 277 - Superstar former-athlete, Jarryd Hayne, is on trial for the third time for his alleged involvement in the sexual assault of a young woman on the night of the NRL grand final in 2018. Hayne's first trial resulted in a hung jury, however the subsequent retrial resulted in his conviction and sentencing to almost 6 years in prison. He successfully appealed his conviction, paving the way for a third trial into the same mat...

Episode 275 - Veteran journalist Lisa Wilkinson plans to use a 'truth' defence in the defamation case brought by former federal Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann against her and Network Ten. Lehrmann has alleged defamation in relation to Wilkinson's interview with Brittany Higgins on an episode of The Project, which was aired on February 15, 2021, and other related material on the 10Play website and YouTube. The truth defence will aim...

Episode 274 - Australia’s gender pay gap has reached a record low of 13.3%, with women earning 87 cents for every dollar that men earn, based on average full-time base salaries. Governments, both federal and state, are continuing to roll out family friendly social and economic polices to incentivise more women to re-enter the workforce after having children in an attempt to close the gender pay gap, by improving female workforce pa...

Episode 273 - According to a recent analysis by the Australia Institute, it is the profits of companies, not wages, that have caused a significant increase in inflation in Australia. The think-tank has presented proof of a "profit price spiral," claiming that the excessive inflation is largely attributed to the substantial earnings of big businesses, which account for 69% of the rise in prices. But can corporations set their profit...

Episode 272 - Australia's superannuation industry is often touted as being one of the best in the world, boasting over $3 trillion in assets under management. Recently, debate has flared up yet again around what super should actually be used for, because believe it or not, we don't actually have a legislated definition on what superannuation is! But while Jim Chalmers and the media focus on a definition for super, there are a few o...

Episode 270 - The NSW Liberal Party is in overdrive to replace sacked candidates before the election including Peter Poulos, who in 2018 (when he was a political staffer) shared an email containing explicit photos of his then political rival, Robyn Preston, from a photo shoot for Penthouse Magazine she had done when she was 22 and published in 1980, as well as Damien Tudehope (Finance & Employment Minister) who was forced to re...

Episode 269 - Queensland police have labeled last year's shooting of two police officers and a neighbour in Wieambilla as Australia's first fundamentalist Christian terrorist attack. Police and security agencies have trawled through the Train family's diary, phones, and online communications to piece together their motives for the attack. They found that the trio acted as an autonomous cell and executed a religiously motivated terr...