The Morning Edition

Tony Wright, the associate editor of The Age, has been writing for 50 years. He is the master of what we call the political sketch. Sketches are akin to a verbal cartoon, and when done well, capture a moment in politics.
Today, we bring you Wright's latest sketch, titled: 'Nation’s worst government? Jane Hume’s hyperbolic historical claim'.

Read Wright's columns, and sketches, by clicking here...

We are in a dangerous new nuclear age, according to a growing number of world leaders. The signs are not just in Russia’s threats to use its nuclear arsenal, or China’s steady build-up of its nuclear capabilities.

The signs are also plain to see in a single sentence, buried in an otherwise dull strategic document, released last month by the Trump administration.

Today, international and political editor Peter Hartcher o...

It should have been a time of celebration for a Sydney woman, who had bought a new home for herself and her daughter.

But as settlement loomed, her application for a mortgage unravelled in shocking fashion. And it was all over $44.11.

Kishor Napier-Raman appraises what led a judge to demand that the head of one of the big four banks be hauled before a court this week.

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“Our character is essentially Anglo-Celtic and Judaeo-Christian. That's what has made our country attractive to migrants, and we should keep it that way.’’

That was former prime minister Tony Abbott on the position he would like the newly minted Coalition leader Angus Taylor to adopt, saying that for the Coalition to win voters back from One Nation, it needed to take a harder line on immigration and move aw...

Investigative reporter Nick McKenzie’s 2024 exposé of the criminal infiltration of the construction sector prompted a slew of investigations among governments and law enforcement agencies around the country.

The conclusions of those investigations reveal the extent of that corruption, and its findings are damning - including that the CFMEU's conduct could have cost taxpayers $15 billion, and the Victorian govern...

We're bringing you an extra episode of Inside Politics today because Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had an opening in his diary, and he's granted us an audience.

His interview comes off the back of a difficult week, with a state visit from Israeli President Isaac Herzog. Herzog's visit was welcomed by the victims of the Bondi terror attack and their families, but his presence in Australia also sparked protests with shocking clashe...

There’s a bit going on with the Liberal Party this week, but while that unfolds we are going to look at some bigger issues. 

Interest rates went up recently, for the first time in two years, and there’s a question as to whether government spending contributed to inflation.

So we're testing that today, with host Jacqueline Maley, senior economics correspondent Shane Wright and federal political correspondent Natassi...

The new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is so pro-Donald Trump she’s become known as the “Trump whisperer”. She also just gained an enormous amount of power in a historic landslide election win.

What will this do to Australia, if she encourages Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to strengthen our ties with the United States?

Today, Peter Hartcher on how Australia manages this new relationship with the Japanese...

The violence that unfolded outside Sydney Town Hall on Monday night was ugly. Protesters were punched, kicked and trampled as they tried to breach a police line.

Thousands of demonstrators were crushed together as capsicum spray was deployed indiscriminately at close range. Dozens were arrested, and several police officers were allegedly assaulted.

People were there to protest a visit to Australia by Israeli President...

If you’ve taken a passing glimpse at news over the past week, you would have come across the name Bad Bunny.

The Puerto Rican musician recently won three Grammy awards and just performed on the biggest stage in the world as headline act for the NFL Super Bowl’s half-time show, which usually attracts more than 100 million viewers every year.

The 29-year-old’s selection and performance have not been wi...

We all know how a neighbour with irksome habits can drive us to distraction. Maybe their leafblower is their best friend. Or they blast their music at all hours.

But what if your neighbour is Gina Rinehart, Australia’s richest person? And you’re on a disability pension?

Today, investigative reporter Lucy Macken on why the NSW Supreme Court is hearing a case involving feral goats, a 12-kilometre fence and w...

Today on Inside Politics, we welcome back former opposition leader Bill Shorten, who is now the Vice Chancellor of the University of Canberra.
It's a timely moment to have Shorten on the podcast as he obliquely (very obliquely, we stress) came up in the Epstein files this week.
Strangely, in the massive dump of new documents from the files, there is a text message exchange between St...

Another tranche - amounting more than 3 million pages - of the Epstein files has been published.

The US Department of Justice says this is the final drop, but there are reportedly millions of more pages being kept from view.

So is there anything in them that hurts President Donald Trump?

Today, international and political editor Peter Hartcher on how the ...

The Reserve Bank lifted the cash rate for the first time in two years yesterday, to 3.85 per cent. Exactly as mortgage holders have been fearing.

But what if many of us are not actually in the cost-of-living crisis that we keep being told that we’re in? And that this new interest rate is comparatively good?

Today, senior economics reporter Matt Wade on how obsessing over the...

Can the Coalition reunite, after two weeks of political infighting? And will the Liberal and National parties’ leaders, Sussan Ley and David Littleproud, even keep their jobs, given the threats to their leadership that continue to play out, as this episode goes to air?

These are only two of the political tripwires that are at high risk of being stepped on, this week; a period that veteran political analyst Sean Kelly c...

"No jab no play” policy means unvaccinated children can’t be enrolled in childcare or preschool in most Australian jurisdictions. But some parents have found ways to evade those laws.

According to an investigation by reporter Kayla Olaya, these parents are using Facebook groups to share the contacts of doctors who will falsify their children’s immunisation records. This, as vaccine uptake in Australia has s...

The drama between the Liberals and the Nationals continued this week with what seems to be a total breakdown in the relationship between Liberal leader Sussan Ley and Nationals leader David Littleproud.

Meanwhile, Ley's leadership remains in mortal peril, and in a plot twist, Littleproud faces his own leadership challenge next week.

Chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal joins Jacqueline Maley in today's episode.

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Two Americans have now been killed by federal agents on the streets of Minneapolis in less than three weeks.

Their families say they were sweet, passionate people who could not sit back and watch while masked men snatched members of their community off the streets.

The US government, meanwhile, calls them “domestic terrorists” who should not have intervened while agents of Immigration and Customs Enforceme...