"The Week on Wednesday" with Van Badham & Ben Davison
292 episodes - English - Latest episode: 11 days ago - ★★★★★ - 1 ratingJoin notorious Guardian columnist Van Badham and her labour activist co-host (and partner!) Ben Davison. As they deep-dive into the big news themes of the week and provide fresh, irreverent analysis about what's really going on in Australia and around the world.
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Episodes
Weekend Wrap April 30 2023: Van Badham joins Ben to discuss Insiders, reforming jobseeker, YES on track to win and migration reforms
April 30, 2023 02:07 - 58 minutes - 80.6 MBVan Badham joins Ben Davison for a special weekend wrap! They dissect David Speers' on defence policy, consider Insiders' decision to ignore reforms to the pharmaceutical benefits scheme (PBS), ask whether Albo attending the Sandilands wedding was either good or bad politics and the dangers of mistaking online abuse for a real-world movement. Our hosts discuss what real reforms to the social safety net would look like, and how media needs to be careful not to fall into the traps that right-...
Episode 132: Tucker taken down, Elon gives Twitter the blues, tackling the cost of living and good news about batteries
April 26, 2023 07:39 - 1 hour - 93.2 MBVan Badham and Ben Davison look at the threads behind the rise and fall of Murdoch star, Tucker Carlson. Why he was effective at what he did, why that wasn't making money, how the Murdoch empires remains focused on making money and how their political interference is just a means of more easily making money. Despite his sacking Tucker Carlson was, and remains, very focused on promulgating his view of what is good and what is evil. Spoiler: He would think we are evil. Van and Ben also loo...
Weekend Wrap 23 April 2023: Labor reforming social wage, Insiders intrigues and the dangers of self-appointed advocacy
April 23, 2023 02:31 - 34 minutes - 47.4 MBBen observes Peter Van Onselen's decision to wear a Foxtel show hoodie on Insiders after a week where his parent Murdoch publication, The Australian, was critical of Van Badham having her book on display in the background of The Drum and another guest seemed to accidentally make the case for why unions are important by pointing out junior employees are often afraid to raise issues. You can join your union at australianunions.org.au/wow Ben also looks at the debate around the social wage - ...
Episode 131: Dutton tanks Liberal vote, NDIS reboot, Father Bob passes and good news about EVs
April 19, 2023 10:38 - 1 hour - 90.7 MBVan Badham and Ben Davison look at the shocking collapse in support for the Coalition, the nose dive in Dutton's approval and how Labor has overtaken the Liberals as the party perceived as best to manage all aspects of the economy, jobs, wages and the delivery of services. Van and Ben explore Dutton's recent poor decisions and how taking shadow cabinet appointment advice from Pauline Hanson may be symptoms of a wider set of problems in the Liberal Party. Bill Shorten has announced a reboot...
Episode 130: Duttons unelectable boofheads, Greens block more homes and a listener sends good news about batteries
April 12, 2023 07:32 - 1 hour - 98.2 MBVan Badham and Ben Davison discuss Dutton's "unelectable boofheads" and their response to the resignation of now former shadow minister for Indigenous Affairs and shadow Attorney General Julian Leeser which has swung wildly from "Albo should apologise" to their media mouth pieces calling him a "traitor" and "self indulgent". What does this mean for the ever "unelectable" Liberal Party? Van and Ben take a peek at the factional swamp that Dutton lords over and offer some ideas of what might ...
Weekend Wrap 9 April 2023: Child labour, minimum wage wars, NDIS under attack
April 09, 2023 02:22 - 30 minutes - 42 MBBen Davison takes a look at how a NSW jam factory has been able to employee up to 100 children as young as 11 as a former Liberal MP attacks minimum wages for Aboriginal people and the union movement for insisting that all workers get at least the minimum wage. With the minimum wage case underway, unions calling for wages to keep up with the cost of living while the bosses lobby argues for more wages cuts, the debate about wages and jobs is heating up. You can join your union to protect yo...
Episode 129: Trump in court, Duttons Noalition, RBA says rates may rise again and the good news is the majority say YES to The Voice
April 05, 2023 07:24 - 1 hour - 88.4 MBVan Badham and Ben Davison break down why Donald Trump was arrested and in a Manhattan court this week, how the alternate reality of Donald Trump has infected American politics and what might happen next in the saga that is Donald Trump, the Republican Party and American politics. Peter Dutton has announced he will be campaigning for the NO vote in this year's Voice referendum. Van and Ben analyse how Dutton has come to this point, what it says about the present state of the Liberal Party ...
Weekend Wrap 2 April 2023: Labor wins Aston, Dutton’s train wreck on Insiders and Liberals circle the drain
April 02, 2023 02:09 - 45 minutes - 62.8 MBBen Davison breaks down the Aston by-election result which has seen Labor's Mary Doyle win a the formerly safe Liberal seat. The result is the first time in over 100 years a sitting government has won a seat away from the opposition at a by-election. The first time a woman has won Aston. Ben looks at how a proud feminist, unionist, single mum was able to win such a "blue ribbon" Liberal seat against a conservative Liberal candidate who ticked all the usual boxes. Peter Dutton fronted up ...
Episode 128 Inflation slows, workers call for wages and just transition, Aston byelection, Liberal MPs injure worker and good news about Skinks!
March 29, 2023 07:01 - 1 hour - 88.3 MBVan Badham and Ben Davison discuss what the latest inflation figures might mean for working people when the high priests of neo-liberal monetary policy at the Reserve Bank meet again. Van and Ben discuss how the bosses lobby groups think they can argue the RBA needs to raise interest rates to create more unemployment but also not that the Fair Work Commission shouldn't raise minimum wages because it would cause unemployment. Ultimately they're just fronting for more profits. Which is why u...
Weekend Wrap 26 March 2023: Minns Labor wins NSW, media fails with call of tight election, Voice question and putting workers in the centre of debate
March 26, 2023 00:53 - 33 minutes - 46 MBBen Davison returns with the Weekend Wrap to breakdown the landslide Labor victory in NSW. With Labor set to win its biggest ever majority when coming into government from opposition. Labor's lower house performance was only bettered by its performance in the upper house where it has achieved a 9% swing and battered the Liberal/National coalition. Ben breaks down some of the seats that Labor won, some of the seats where there is a genuine close contest and just why the media continues to...
Episode 127: NSW Election, TERFs and Nazis, Voice a step closer and good news about baking soda!
March 22, 2023 06:44 - 1 hour - 95.9 MBVan Badham and Ben Davison return home from their award winning run at the Adelaide Fringe Festival to discuss the NSW State Election, on March 25th, the issues, the leaders, the optional preferential system and the seats to watch. It is looking like a tight election but if NSW wants, as the polls are suggesting they do, guaranteed minimum staffing levels in hospitals, public schools that have resources for every student, wages that are going up and leadership that's focused on the issues t...
Episode 126: SPECIAL GUEST Minister Aboriginal Affairs and Attorney General Kyam Maher on the Voice, Dutton sets up AUKUS vs NDIS fight, Perrottet’s voucher program
March 15, 2023 08:08 - 55 minutes - 76.4 MBVan Badham and Ben Davison do their FINAL Week on Wednesday LIVE at Adelaide Fringe with special guest South Australian Aboriginal Affairs Minister and Attorney General Kyam Maher discussing how South Australia became the first part of Australia to create a Voice to parliament and what lessons it provides for the national Voice referendum. Van and Ben also look at how Peter Dutton has decided to frame the AUKUS deal, which was started when he was Defence Minister, as a choice between fundin...
Weekend Wrap 12 March 2023: Insiders talks nonsense, two weeks until nswvotes, three weeks until Aston byelection and RBA has stuffed the economy
March 11, 2023 23:57 - 27 minutes - 38.3 MBBen Davison looks at (rants about?) how Insiders managed to spend three quarters of the show talking about submarines in the same week that the robodebt royal commission ended, the national reconstruction fund became law, the RBA put up interest rates for a record 10th consecutive time, the Aston by election is only three weeks away and the NSW election is only two weeks away! Ben discusses how the unions in NSW that have been racking up wins across education, healthcare, transport as part ...
Episode 125: International Women’s Day, Musk tells people to get off Twitter, The RBA puts bosses before reality and good news about oceans!
March 08, 2023 08:01 - 55 minutes - 75.8 MBVan Badham and Ben Davison LIVE from the Adelaide Fringe Yurt cover the broccolini boycott, Qantas refusing refuelling workers pay rises and the 10 big wins for women that unions have won in the last 12 months. Van and Ben discuss the socialist foundations of International Women's Day, the struggles that are still to be won and Van's view of why being a woman shouldn't be an "economic class" but has been made one by men in grey suits. Whatever industry you’re in you can join your union at ...
Weekend Wrap5 March 2023: Angus Taylor exposed on Insiders, Stuart Robert fronts robodebt royal commission, media a barrier to reform, NSW Labor and May Doyle launch
March 05, 2023 00:24 - 34 minutes - 47.7 MBBen Davison takes a look at Angus Taylor's dreadful performance on Insiders and the disproportionate focus on tax concessions for the wealthiest at a time when more people than ever are working multiple jobs and wages are making up less and less of our national income. Unions keep raising these issues and reminding us that superannuation is for retirement, not tax evasion, and you can join your union at australianunions.org.au/wow Stuart Robert is the opposition spokesperson for superannua...
Episode 124: Super tax reforms, Greedflation, the end of killer kitchen tops and good news about cute animals
March 01, 2023 08:11 - 54 minutes - 74.7 MBVan Badham and Ben Davison are LIVE in the Yurt at Adelaide Fringe talking about how the week's news shows us that, for some bosses, if they can get away with it they will and that we need strong, democratic movements to curb the excesses that create greed-price spirals, shorten people's lives for the sake of a kitchen bench and funnel our commonwealth to the 0.5% richest people in the country at the expense of working people's retirements. You can join you union at australianunions.org.au/...
Weekend Wrap 26 February 2023: Super reforms to save billions, Insiders and the phantom arguments, the greed price spiral, YES launches and Tsarina Thorpe crashes Mardi Gras
February 26, 2023 05:05 - 29 minutes - 40.2 MBBen Davison wraps up a huge week where the scale of corporate profiteering, what Sally McManus calls the Greed-Price Spiral, has been exposed as driving 69% of inflation, the nation is debating whether 11,000 people who have more than $5M in super should get a tax concession or whether that money is better invested in the 24,000,000 other people struggling under a 4.5% real wage cut, record rises in interest rates and underfunding in our public schools. The From the Heart YES campaign launc...
Episode 123: Not so perfect broccolini, Murdoch boycotts Fringe, YES to the Voice, Albo’s 2023 agenda and good news about batteries!
February 22, 2023 08:27 - 59 minutes - 81.3 MBVan Badham and Ben Davison deliver The Week on Wednesday LIVE! from the Adelaide Fringe! Live from the Yurt Van and Ben expose that "broccolini" is a trademarked term and that some of the agri-corp businesses, many around Adelaide, may not be all they seem. The United Workers Union are encouraging people to contact Coles and Woolworths to demand that exploitation doesn't make it on Australian tables. Don't forget you can join your union at australianunions.org.au/wow The Murdoch organisa...
Weekend Wrap 19 February 2023: Insiders press Greens on climate blockage, Labor passes signature policies, Voice campaign launches and NSW election heating up
February 19, 2023 00:53 - 37 minutes - 51.8 MBBen looks at the first two weeks of the parliamentary sitting for 2023 where Labor introduced housing policy, manufacturing policy and emissions reduction policy all of which were opposed by Dutton and the Greens. Plus our friend Mary Doyle is running for Aston following Tudge's retirement. The bosses pamphlets have argued against working people being involved in the running of the country but you can have your say by joining your union at australianunions.org.au/wow Adam Bandt went on In...
Episode 122: Reserve bank puts profits before people, information wars exposed, good news about grass and we are COMING TO ADELAIDE!
February 15, 2023 06:52 - 58 minutes - 80.3 MBVan Badham and Ben Davison break down the ideological nonsense at the heart of the Reserve Bank Governor's decision to prioritise bank profits over employment, living standards and the well being of the Australian people. With the Commonwealth Bank declaring a record profit and 20% increase in dividends Van and Ben breakdown the fallacies at the heart of the neo-liberal ideology. Of course at the same time mega corporation Visy is trying to give workers real term pay cuts and Ben and Van s...
Weekend Wrap 12 February 2023: Insiders stays in neoliberal frame, Tudge quits in disgrace, bosses attacking workers
February 12, 2023 00:12 - 29 minutes - 40.7 MBBen Davison looks at the big stories at the end of the first sitting week of parliament in 2023 and neo-liberal skew that Insiders offered up to the ABC audience. While mouth piece for the bosses pamphlet, Phil Coorey, was promoting his friends at the Mineral's council advertising campaign the hidden truth that profitable major corporations will be fighting to keep workers divided and wages low during 2023 was exposed. Join your union at australianunions.org.au/wow Jim Chalmer's delivered...
Episode 121: Thorpe leaves Greens in lurch, Dark Brandon rises and good news about the sea!
February 08, 2023 09:59 - 1 hour - 96.7 MBVan Badham and Ben Davison examine former Greens Senator for Victoria Lidia Thorpe's announcement that she is no longer a Green Party member but is now leader of "a grassroots Blak sovereign movement." They look at the commentary around her split from the Greens, events leading up to this moment, what "a grassroots Blak sovereign movement" might actually mean based on Thorpe's public statements and the implications for democracy and the Voice referendum. Thorpe's announcement, made standin...
Weekend Wrap 5 February 2023: Insider’s returns to discuss The Voice, The Chifley Research Centre conference platforms new ideas and 1 in 10 cancers are work related
February 05, 2023 04:08 - 28 minutes - 38.5 MBBen Davison reviews the return of the ABC's flagship political discussion show, Insiders. As host David Speers manages to make incredibly dismissive off hand comment about the Robodebt Royal Commission and another panelist waves off the only first nations panellist's views about the situation in Alice Springs Professor Megan Davis patiently explains that The Voice referendum is about principles, not details. No one knows where the offices will be or what colour the business cards might ha...
Episode 120: Cultural policy at last! Visy, Woodside and Mantle workers facing down corporate greed plus the robodebt royal commission
February 01, 2023 07:21 - 1 hour - 92.9 MBVan Badham and Ben Davison took a look at the Revive cultural policy launched by the Albanese Labor government and what it will mean for working people in the arts, in Australian audiences and to conversation about who we are as a nation. Van share's some of her experiences as an artist and just what Revive will mean for the tens of thousands of people working in arts and culture across Australia. After a decade, or more, of campaigning in union workers now have a right to paid family and ...
Weekend Wrap 29 January 2023: Alice Springs, a complex story needing complex solutions, West Australian opposition shuffles deck chairs and stranded ship crews
January 29, 2023 02:09 - 33 minutes - 45.4 MBBen Davison takes a closer look at the situation in Alice Springs and how the end of a 15 year ban on alcohol in some communities coincided with cuts to support services, a federal election and a Morrison government unable to think beyond the news cycle to create the slow moving storm that has now engulfed the community. And maybe provides the clearest example of why The Voice is needed. Ben looks at how the West Australian opposition, with only six lower house members across two parties, ...
Episode 119: Whether Australia Day or Invasion Day January 26th needs to change, will the RBA cause a recession? Good news from the Mersey river!
January 25, 2023 04:07 - 50 minutes - 69.9 MBBen Davison examines some of the history, the changing attitudes, the cultural impacts and the evolving community sentiment towards January 26th. Ben believes there is a need for change to "Australia Day"/"Invasion Day" if we are to have a day that celebrates modern Australia while recognising our complex and painful history. You can find more info on the views of First Nations Workers and how to become an ally at www.fnwa.org.au Inflation has hit a new high, though lower than the 8% for...
Weekend Wrap 22 January 2023: Labor leads in NSW, The Voice winning across the nation, Ardern retires and Qantas has been Joyced!
January 22, 2023 07:05 - 24 minutes - 34.3 MBBen Davison looks at the recent polling showing a surge in support for Chris Minns and the NSW Labor party at the expense of Dom Perrottet's Liberal/National coalition government. Ben goes through why working people have had enough of the cuts, the costs and the waste during a decade of mismanagement by the Liberals. Also how unions are getting organised to win better pay, services and more secure jobs, join them at australianunions.org.au/wow. You can check out Van and Ben's interview w...
Episode 118: Dutton playing politics with The Voice, Stoves new culture war front, is it time to end the free ride? And good news on plastics!
January 18, 2023 04:48 - 1 hour - 83.3 MBVan Badham and Ben Davison look at how Dutton is playing politics over The Voice to parliament, why he's playing a politically dangerous game and just how easy it is to find "the detail" he claims he cannot find. (Ben reads it out if you're interested Peter) Turns out gas appliances aren't great for our health, our environment or our wallets but, as culture war correspondent Van Badham reports, there's enough vested interests to keep American law makers and ridiculous sky news types rantin...
Weekend Wrap 15 January 2023: Workers beat wage thieves at Mantle, Pell is gone and who is Perrottet really?
January 15, 2023 01:16 - 28 minutes - 39.4 MBBen Davison explores how workers at the Mantle Group stood together in union against a sham agreement that saw hundreds of workers denied their proper wages. The Queensland and New South Wales based hospitality company continues to deny any wrong doing but the case is damning for the company (who might face criminal charges) and a win for workers. Join your union at australianunions.org.au/wow This week saw the death of George Pell. Ben, from Ballarat, talks about what this has meant for...
Episode 117: Sunak’s anti-strike laws have Australian flavour, Republican supreme court could strip right to strike,Brazil’s far right storm their capital
January 11, 2023 06:22 - 1 hour - 96.3 MBVan Badham and Ben Davison take a look at some of the big issues facing working people in the UK and the USA and find that there's an Australian flavour in conservative moves to strip worker's of rights. In the UK Rishi Sunak is trying to ban effective strikes and force people to cross picket lines with a law that one of his own MP's has called "shameful". The "protecting essential services" approach is one that is already law in Australia and has been used to stop industrial actions from ...
Weekend Wrap 8 January: Republicans finally settle on McCarthy, Dutton’s polyphonic press conference to undermine the Voice
January 08, 2023 04:01 - 24 minutes - 34.1 MBBen looks at how the dysfunctional Republican Party took a record number of ballots to finally elect the only candidate they had for speaker and why the next two years may be ungovernable for the Party that once saw itself as the "natural party of government". Peter Dutton has kicked on 2023 behind in the polls and desperate to find a pathway into government. Today's press conference on The Voice was a classic polyphonic speech, talking to multiple audiences with a different set of meaning...
Episode 116: Dutton falls off millennial cliff, ACMA proves the case for change, MAGA madness consumes congressional Republicans and garbage powered cars!
January 04, 2023 03:28 - 1 hour - 90.6 MBVan Badham and Ben Davison return in 2023 by breaking down the collapse in support for Dutton's Liberal/National Coalition, why the post Gen X generations are not buying the culture wars and how the combination of material pain caused by insecure work, housing affordability & neo-liberal economics has joined the existential threat of climate change to alter generational voting patterns. Van and Ben also look at how the ACMA letter to the ABC exposes the neo-liberal success at "institution...
Episode 115: Morrison fumbles at robodebt royal commission, Cookers turn to terrorism, Pampas workers strike for job security and good news for renewables
December 14, 2022 04:43 - 56 minutes - 77.4 MBBen Davison looks at Scott Morrison's performance at the Robodebt Royal Commission and isn't surprised to learn that Morrison has not regrets, is still pitting groups of Australian's against each other and is avoiding answering the questions. A terrible act of terrorism in Queensland have resulted in the deaths of three innocents and three suspected terrorists. Police were ambushed by conspiracy cultists at a property in Queensland. Ben does discuss what happened but more importantly why ...
Weekend Wrap 11 December: Labor announces EPA, Albo gets energy deal and the Pampas workers latest target of multinational greed
December 11, 2022 01:14 - 25 minutes - 34.8 MBBen Davison looks at the Albanese Labor government announcement of an Environmental Protection Agency to improve our natural environment and meet the zero extinctions target. The national cabinet has agreed a new national energy policy to cap fuel input costs and reduce energy costs in 2023 for households and businesses. Ben explores how a decade of Coalition mismanagement and failed privatisations has made our domestic energy market a mess and contrasts that with the Western Australia exp...
Episode 114: Chris Minns, NSW Labor Leader, joins Van and Ben to discuss the state of NSW, bad news about burritos and good news from Georgia
December 07, 2022 06:25 - 51 minutes - 70.6 MBVan Badham and Ben Davison sat down with NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns to discuss his campaign, why privatisation doesn't work, why his former school teacher dad inspires him to respect the power of education to change lives and what it will take to fix the gig economy, workers rights and local manufacturing. Join Van, Ben and the NSW Labor leader as they discuss the need to put workers at the centre of reform, how each of us can improve our communities by talking with people about the issu...
Weekend Wrap 3 December 2022: Socceroos do us proud, Albo delivers with more to come and Dutton remains on the fringes
December 04, 2022 09:04 - 16 minutes - 22.1 MBBen Davison starts by acknowledging our Buy me a Coffee supporters www.buymeacoffee.com/weekonwednesday and breaking down some of the achievements of the first six months of the Albanese Labor government. Ben talks about what's happened with Labor in power, Dutton's move to the political fringe and what we might see in 2023. With workplace reforms passed and more likely in 2023 nows the best time to join your union at australianunions.org.au/wow Plus Ben praises the Socceroos not just for...
Episode 113: Morrison censured over multiple ministries, Labor wins promised reforms and the good news is about electric vehicles
November 30, 2022 05:24 - 39 minutes - 53.6 MBVan Badham and Ben Davison examine the historic censure motion against former Minister-for-Everything Scott Morrison and his entirely egregious response to it. They also discuss a refreshingly busy legislative week in the federal parliament, with Labor's IR bill and National Anti-Corruption Commission set to become law. While Australia steps into the future, the National Party remain deeply wedded to the past, committing themselves to campaigning against the First Nations' Voice to Parliamen...
Weekend Wrap 27 November 2022: Victorian state election wrap up and Secure Jobs, Better Pay to become law
November 27, 2022 07:09 - 1 hour - 87 MBVan Badham joins Ben Davison to give a deep dive on the Victorian state election. How the media narratives were so wrong, the death of the Menzian Liberal Party, the misinformation about the Greens, the quiet success of the Nationals and why Labor has so convincingly won. Tony Burke, the federal industrial relations minister, announced on Insiders that the Albanese government has come to an agreement with ACT independant senator David Pocock to pass the Secure Jobs, Better Pay laws. Van a...
Episode 112: Workers asking Pocock which side are you on? Victoria heads to the polls, Musk burns billions for Twitter lols and good news on the NSW Super Battery
November 23, 2022 09:08 - 1 hour - 109 MBVan Badham and Ben Davison RETURN to the podcast following the sad passing of Van's mum, Barb. With the Secure Work, Better Pay laws before the senate and Barb being a lifelong unionist Van and Ben pay tribute to her life by examining why David Pocock needs to pass the whole package of laws to get wages moving. And just what the laws really mean for jobs, wages, climate action and social change. Joining your union and being part of making this change happen is just a few clicks away at a...
Weekend Wrap 13 November 2022: Ben updates on mid terms, Victorian election, Secure Jobs, Better Pay laws and Van’s mum
November 13, 2022 08:29 - 23 minutes - 33 MBBen Davison gives a brief update on the situation with Van and her Mum, thanking all The Week on Wednesday listeners for their support and solidarity. With Biden's Democrats set to retain the senate and pushing the house elections to the wire its been a good week for democracy. Ben also takes a look at the debate on the Albanese Government’s Secure Work, Better Pay laws. Apparently some people on Insiders and on the cross bench thought "get wages moving again" was rhetoric not a promise...
Weekend Wrap 30 October 2022: Van Badham joins Ben to talk Insiders, budget and workplace law reforms
October 30, 2022 00:03 - 28 minutes - 38.9 MBVan Badham joins Ben Davison to discuss the issues that the October Budget has highlighted, how Insiders dealt with those issues and what is really happening with the Secure Jobs, Better Pay laws. With 29 of 33 OECD nations in structural deficit the issue of how we invest in our commonwealth, how we generate revenue from our productivity and resources and who benefits from that is front and centre of debate in Australia and around the world. Ben and Van breakdown the Secure Jobs, Better Pa...
Episode 111: The dragon slaying budget, Secure Work Better Pay laws, Sunak is Britain’s billionaire PM and good news about batteries
October 26, 2022 08:11 - 1 hour - 91.9 MBVan Badham and Ben Davison look at the Albanese Labor government's first budget, handed down by Jim Chalmers. They explore the three themes of keeping election promises, targeted cost of living relief and putting downward pressure on inflation interact with each other. They also take a look under the hood at some of the big six programs including some of the savings made by stopping the Morrison era rorts. With inflation getting above 7% the need to "slay the dragon", as it was put at th...
Weekend Wrap 23 October 2022: Chalmers invests in social security, Angus Taylor putting profit before people, Truss gone and Thorpe’s resignation
October 23, 2022 00:46 - 35 minutes - 48.3 MBBen Davison looks at the big investment's Jim Chalmer's has announced for pensioners, jobseekers, domestic violence, housing and indigenous organisations in the lead up to the budget. Angus Taylor went on Insiders and Ben tears apart the shadow Treasurer's ideological fantasy world. From giving power companies more profits to stopping working people winning pay rises, Angus Taylor reminded Australia why he MUST NEVER be allowed to become Treasurer and why being in your union is so importan...
Episode 110: Labor to grow wages as big business whines, Ukraine update and propaganda in your timeline and the good news is rewiring Australia
October 19, 2022 07:26 - 55 minutes - 76.3 MBVan Badham and Ben Davison take a look at the Albanese government's soon to be introduced workplace laws that will remove pay secrecy, create a dedicated goal of gender pay equity, give the care and community sector its own pathway in the system and give workers more rights to collectively bargain. Predictably big business lobbyists are unhappy. Van and Ben breakdown why these changes are needed (Hint: neo-liberalism is, was and always will be broken) and why being a union member is so imp...
Weekend Wrap 16 October 2022: Six months parental leave, Coorey clanger on Insiders, King fixing Morrison mess and Hunt in for Kwarteng
October 16, 2022 00:21 - 22 minutes - 31.2 MBBen Davison takes a look at the Albanese government's paid parental leave policy and how it adds to the macro-economic policies designed to improve our economy and the economic outcomes for Australians. With business and unions engaged in the policy process now is the time to join your union at australianunions.org.au/wow and be part of reshaping Australia. Coorey's Insiders contribution contained more than one clanger but Ben focusses on both his and his paper, the Australian Financial Re...
Episode 109: The Week on Wednesday LIVE at Melbourne Fringe! Van and Ben talk tax cuts, Putin, Musk and neo-Liberal nightmares with a LIVE audience
October 12, 2022 07:53 - 48 minutes - 67.2 MBVan Badham and Ben Davison do the Week on Wednesday LIVE at Melbourne Fringe! Complete with audience participation our hosts talk about tax cuts, neo-liberalism, Putin, Musk and good news about plastics coming out of the oceans! Enjoy this very special episode of The Week on Wednesday.
Weekend Wrap 9 October 2022: Dutton’s fantasies of improbable future wealth rationale for tax cuts on Insiders, gig economy reforms and Putin’s bridge is on fire
October 09, 2022 00:48 - 39 minutes - 54.9 MBVan Badham joins Ben Davison for The Weekend Wrap to discuss why Dutton's fantasies of improbable future wealth are not a good reason to keep stage three tax cuts- cuts that the Treasury advised were unaffordable if the budget was in deficit. Van and Ben discuss Dutton's Insiders interview which showed how little he's been prepared to change from the dark days of the Morrison government. In addition to fantasies of improbable future wealth he rolled out religious culture wars as cover for ...
Episode 108: Anti-government protests sweep Iran, Thorburn saga is about more than money and the good news is no new extinctions in Australia
October 05, 2022 06:31 - 1 hour - 84.8 MBVan Badham and Ben Davison open by looking at the sweeping reforms of paid family and domestic violence leave and enshrining an employers responsibility to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace that the union movement in Australia has won and how women leaders make societies, and social movements, better (you can join at australianunions.org.au/wow). Our hosts contrast this democratic advancement with the repressive regime in Iran and the violence that oppression of women in Iran has ...
Weekend Wrap 2 October 2022: NACC will either be reform or knackered, Truss shows tax cut follies, COVID isolation to end but whats next?
October 02, 2022 01:43 - 21 minutes - 29.8 MBBen Davison gives his view on Mark Dreyfus big week appointing the first female majority High Court in Australian history, introducing the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) to parliament and appearing on Insiders to explain why he thinks they've got the balance right on public hearings. Ben discusses the ups and downs of public hearings and how the union movement first passed a policy on a national anti-corruption Commission in 2015! You can join your union at australianunions.org...
Episode 107: Sally McManus calls for end to war on workers, Labor federal ICAC is NACC and Queensland to end reliance on coal by 2035
September 28, 2022 08:13 - 1 hour - 84.9 MBVan Badham and Ben Davison are relieved by the huge agenda of the Labor commonwealth government and do a deep dive on the National Press Club speech by ACTU Secretary Sally McManus. Sally's speech explores how we came to the economic situation we are in, what we can do about it and why unions are naturally inclined to work with others to solve our shared problems. Van and Ben discuss the historical context, the values that drive economic justice or inequality and just what might happen nex...