Cut Through

It’s been one month since the US began its war on Iran, which means one month that the critical oil passageway the Strait of Hormuz has been closed. As a result, the price of crude oil has shot up, taking the price of fuel with it. At petrol stations across Australia diesel is more than $3 per litre, with unleaded creeping up to $2.50 in metro areas and well beyond that in regional areas.

Economics correspondent Jason Murphy joins the podcast to answer some crucial questions: is the rising cost due to price gouging? What can the government do to keep the price of essentials, like groceries, from spiralling out of control? And is Australia actually at risk of running out of fuel altogether?

Read more:
Do we actually need to panic about fuel?
With petrol prices rising, so is Australia’s interest in EVs. We should strike while the iron is hot
The Iran War is costing a lot more than higher petrol prices
Painful as it is, the rate rise was the easy part. Trump has turned economic policy into a lottery

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After 10 years, more than 470,000 wrongly-issued debts, six separate investigations and $2.4 billion in compensation to victims, the National Anti-Corruption Commission handed down its final report into the unlawful debt recovery scheme known as robodebt. Two public servants were found to have engaged in serious corrupt conduct, but will not face criminal investigation. The other four individuals – including Scott Morrison – were cleared.

The reaction from victims, their families and the advocates campaigning for accountability was one of disappointment and frustration. Rick Morton, the journalist who has followed robodebt most closely, says he was “shocked, but not surprised" by the NACC report.

Morton joins the podcast to unpack the NACC’s robodebt report, what the saga reveals about the public service, and why covering this story has changed him forever.

Read more:
The NACC robodebt report: A heartbreaking work of staggering incompetence
NACC’s robodebt investigation conjures offensive and stupid excuses for letting Scott Morrison off
Not ‘newsworthy’: Why the NACC decided not to update the media for 63 days
Does the NACC have any hope of regaining public trust?
Exclusive: Robodebt architect remains employed in a senior governance role in the public service

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Crikey’s independent journalism is supported by readers — 98% of our revenue comes from our subscribers. We’re not accountable to billionaires; we’re accountable to you.
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Can “good people” make change in Australia’s political system, or will power always corrupt? That’s the question that Jo Tarnawsky — former diplomat and chief of staff to Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles — is answering with her series exploring how power protects itself.

Tarnawsky joins the podcast to discuss what it’s like to be “in the room” when big decisions are made, how power is maintained by either weaponising or rewarding silence with gag orders, NDAs and party rules, and the biggest obstacles faced by independent voices attempting to challenge the major parties.

Plus, in light of the robodebt corruption report, how do institutions like the National Anti-Corruption Commission hold us back from good governance?

Read more:
Swimming with narcissists: What power looks like up close
Why good people leave politics — and what it costs us
Setting the standard? Parliament still doesn’t take workplace harm seriously
Power and silence: The strategy of saying nothing
Labor MPs quietly alarmed by Albanese government’s response to US-Israel strikes on Iran
NACC’s robodebt investigation conjures offensive and stupid excuses for letting Scott Morrison off

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Crikey’s independent journalism is supported by readers — 98% of our revenue comes from our subscribers. We’re not accountable to billionaires; we’re accountable to you.
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On February 28 the US and Israel launched an unprovoked missile strike on Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and several Islamic Republic officials and sparking further strikes across the Middle East. The Strait of Hormuz, the pivotal oil shipping route, is closed. Washington’s claim of attacking to provoke “regime change” in Iran is dubious at best.

But the Iranian people have been largely left out of the geopolitical discourse. Just last month, huge revolutionary protests saw the regime massacre up to 40,000 people. So when the Iranian diaspora shared their mixed feelings about this week’s strikes, why were they shouted down as “US propaganda agents”?

Writer and doctor Hessom Razavi joins the podcast to give his take on the complicated feelings of many Iranians, his own family’s story of persecution in Iran, and explain why calls for adherence to the “rules-based order” are meaningless right now.

Read more:
US intervention in Iran is not benevolent. But Iranians do not have the privilege of choice
I’m an Iranian doctor in Australia. The eyewitness accounts sent to me of medical brutality in Iran are chilling
As in Iraq, America wants regime change in Iran. It’s a smokescreen for US hegemony
If you can’t get online in Iran, do you still count as human?
The Art of War, with Donald Trump

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Crikey’s independent journalism is supported by readers — 98% of our revenue comes from our subscribers. We’re not accountable to billionaires; we’re accountable to you.
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Campaigning has officially begun for the South Australia state election set for March 21. Peter Malinauskas’ already-dominant Labor government will be returned and increase their representation – the only question is how many more seats will they win?

Jo Dyer joins the podcast to give the political background to the election, including how the SA Liberals collapse differs from the federal Libs, and why they’ll be fighting off One Nation for their existing lower house seats. Plus, Dyer gives her hot tip for two independent challengers to watch.

Read more:
Malinauskas faces a landslide win in SA. But cracks are appearing in his ‘good-time agenda’
The Liberals face a drubbing at South Australia’s election next month. But what of One Nation?
A South Australian Handmaid’s Tale: Inside the room where a Trumpian abortion bill was narrowly defeated
South Australia is now the battleground for the forced-birth movement

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Crikey’s independent journalism is supported by readers — 98% of our revenue comes from our subscribers. We’re not accountable to billionaires; we’re accountable to you.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.