Politics with Michelle Grattan
News:Politics
Earlier this year, Australian writer Don Watson visited the United States, observing the race for president. Rather than examine the “rust belt” or “down-at-heel” cities, Watson chose America’s heartland.
“I found in Wisconsin many of the underlying themes of this election. And that sort of Gothic quality of the United States where everything has a very deep and often dark story behind it.”
Watson tells Michelle Grattan that what is happening in the United States now has “something to do with the religion of neoliberalism and the really nasty tactics of the Republican Party since Reagan”.
“We ought to be careful I think that we don’t go the same way. Certainly inequality is increasing here and we have seen the revival of Hansonism and we know that Australia is prone to bouts of xenophobia and even of racism,” he says.
Gareth Evans on being an Incorrigible Optimist
Darren Chester on the infrastructure spending spree
Rob Sitch on Utopia and political satire
AGL chief economist Tim Nelson on what to do with Liddell
Judith Brett on The Enigmatic Mr Deakin
Mark Butler on energy uncertainty
Nick Xenophon on media reform
Mathias Cormann on the same-sex marriage postal survey
Derryn Hinch on surviving the Senate
Tiernan Brady on same-sex marriage showdown
Michael Cooney on an Australian republic
Peter Jennings on the home affairs department
Graeme Samuel on data governance
Anna Krien on the climate wars
Alan Finkel on the future of Australia’s energy market
Gladys Berejiklian on the need to reform federal-state partnerships
Josh Frydenberg, George Christensen and Mark Butler on the Finkel review
John Blaxland on handling Islamist terrorism
Matt Canavan on Adani
Dennis Richardson on telling it like it is
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free