The Seat Warmers: What Is The Purpose Behind Labor?
In the final week of Parliament, New Politics asks a blunt question about Australian federal politics: what is the Albanese Labor government actually for? This episode turns its focus to Labor’s record in office, examining stalled gambling advertising reform, public service and CSIRO job cuts, tensions with the Australian Greens, and the growing gap between election promises and policy delivery. We explore rising inflation, falling productivity, weak investment, mining superprofits, gas export contracts, and the long shadow of Howard-era economic decisions, alongside Labor’s contradictory approach to climate policy, coal and gas expansion, and slow environmental reform. From energy prices and domestic gas reservation to housing policy, HECS, the failed Voice referendum and a weakened National Anti-Corruption Commission, this episode argues that competence without reform is not enough — and asks whether a managerial Labor government risks squandering a historic opportunity for structural change.Support New Politics, just $5 per month:Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/newpoliticsSubstack: https://newpolitics.substack.com
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Hanson’s Burqa Stunt and the Political Nihilism of the Right
We look at the political theatre of the right, including Pauline Hanson’s latest burqa stunt in the Senate, the rise of One Nation in the polls, and the growing battle for reactionary votes between minor parties and a hollowed-out Liberal Party. In an environment increasingly defined by provocation, stunts and nihilism, we cut through the noise to ask where Australian politics is heading.Support New Politics, just $5 per month:Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/newpoliticsSubstack: https://newpolitics.substack.com
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Retail Politics is Killing the Liberal Party
This week, we examine how the Liberal Party has abandoned serious policy for retail politics, scare campaigns and culture-war theatrics – strategies aimed at clawing back voters drifting to One Nation but which are instead eroding the party from within. After rejecting net-zero by 2050, the Liberals have pivoted to anti-immigration rhetoric, blaming migrants for traffic congestion, housing pressures and energy prices, despite net migration returning to pre-COVID norms and mirroring the Howard era. With new Redbridge polling showing One Nation rising to 18 per cent as the LNP slips into the low-20s, the right is becoming an echo chamber of grievance politics, far-right messaging and internal chaos, highlighted by the exits of Brad Battin, Leanne Castley and Mark Speakman during the November killing season.We also unpack the escalating battle over hospital funding, as the Albanese government pushes productivity reforms before lifting the federal share to 42.5 per cent, while states warn of hospitals nearing breaking point. And with housing policy similarly gridlocked, Australia faces more buck-passing, worsening services and federal–state dysfunction unless real structural reform finally occurs.Support New Politics, just $5 per week:Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/newpoliticsSubstack: https://newpolitics.substack.com
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The International Occupation of Gaza
In this bonus episode, we examine the UN Security Council’s approval of a US-designed International Stabilisation Force for Gaza – effectively handing Washington, and Donald Trump as chair of the new “Board of Peace”, unprecedented power over Gaza’s future. With Palestinians excluded from the planning and conditions stacked in Israel’s favour, this plan risks entrenching occupation rather than delivering justice. With 70,000 Palestinians killed, 2 million displaced, and Gaza’s hospitals, schools and infrastructure destroyed, reconstruction cannot succeed without accountability for Israeli war crimes – yet the plan ignores this entirely.Support New Politics, just $5 per week:Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/newpoliticsSubstack: https://newpolitics.substack.com
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The Constitution, The Neo-Nazis and The Liberal Party
In this episode of the New Politics podcast, we look at Australia’s broken political structures and rising extremism – from the renewed debate over four-year federal terms and a constitution stuck in the 1890s, to the disturbing double standards in NSW policing after an authorised neo-Nazi rally was allowed to proceed while pro-Palestine protesters were violently suppressed, and finally the Liberal Party’s internal “killing season”, where chaos over net-zero, gender quotas and leadership instability shows a party drifting further from the electorate. We explore why constitutional reform matters, why hate-speech laws aren’t being used against white supremacists, and how the Coalition’s refusal to adapt to modern Australia – on climate, multiculturalism and democratic rights – is pushing it towards long-term electoral irrelevance.Support New Politics, just $5 per week: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/newpoliticsSubstack: https://newpolitics.substack.com
The best analysis and discussion about Australian politics and #auspol news. Presented by Eddy Jokovich and David Lewis, we look at all the issues the mainstream media wants to cover up, and do the job most journalists avoid: holding power to account. Seriously./ Twitter @NewpoliticsAU / www.patreon.com/newpolitics/ newpolitics.substack.com/ www.newpolitics.com.au
Australia