Media

Darin Baker, James Morrow and I discuss this on Easter Sunday because the campaign never ends

Tom so over the election and interviewing politicians (whether former or not) loses his voice. But never fear Patrick was there to takeover for as long as he needed.

Not so quickly, now we are talking about Russia and Indonesia. This is becoming the international election when people want to talk about cost of living.

And then we talked about some other stuff to do with the election. The classic moment comes at the end when Graham slips in the knife and twists it oh so slowly

Nothing to say really, the gremlins got to us first

Who did better in week 38 of the election campaign? It turns out that Matt thought it was Albo and I thought Dutts got to humanise himself. But Matt stole the show with his announcement of $3m for a new surf lifesaving club in Maroubra.

Among other things we discuss the massive increase in threats of violence against our political representatives that has been driven by the dehumanisation of our parliamentary representatives, the inability of some to see our political opponents as Australians rather than enemies, and the constant need to appeal to emotions over reason, vibe over facts and the personalisation of issues where everyone is driven by self interest and dark motives. At the last election in Mackellar, one of Dr Sophie Scamps campaign workers was charged with physical assault against a woman, another was questioned, one of them pleaded guilty. In 2019, one of Zali Steggall's campaign workers stabbed a Liberal Party volunteer. This hatred of challenging ideas and inconvenient facts must stop. There is little doubt that all this was driven by Saul Alinsky's work, but it is now driving us apart and dissolving our ability to resolve important issues.

Simon Banks and I join Kieran to talk about the impact of Trump, who has momentum, and the virtues of the People's Forum format

What happens when Teal MP Zoe Daniel is asked about receiving support from Climate 200 – which has a senior staffer who has called for the boycotting of Israeli businesses? The conversation shifts to transparency in political donations – and raises big questions. AIJAC – alongside JCCV, Zionism Victoria, ZFA, ECAJ, Brighton Hebrew Congregation and The Australian Jewish News – hosted a Jewish community forum last week for the Federal seat of Goldstein featuring Independent MP Zoe Daniel and Liberal candidate Tim Wilson.

That is right we have hit that part of the campaign where the leaders are going for broke. Peter Dutton took off the jacket and rolled up the sleeves, Albo pretended he knows what the yoof want by putting DJ in front of his name and checking out a word in the Urban Dictionary. Word! Albo. And of course all of us are wondering if working from home is good for you, the country and the public. Pat has discovered though it is good for a scare campaign.

At the end of week one... we are one week down Coming up next week: Trump, who else, tariffs, WFH & falling off stages. You know the usual campaign stuff

This week has seen some genuine divisions open up between the parties. Lower taxes versus more government programs. Trump versus Australia. Tariffs versus free trade. Industry policy versus free markets. This is actually quite an ideologically divided elections and Australians are being given a very real choice.

There are so many foreign ships in Australian waters that Labor's next defence initiative will have to include free binoculars for Virgin airline pilots so they can try and spot them in between flying planes

Plus we see the result of Sky refusing to provide Patrick with a solar powered lamp and instead relying coal powered stuff. When will they learn? Despite being kept in the dark Patrick made some good points. Fortunately everywhere Patrick goes he takes his own little bit of sunshine.

And the latest poll puts Tim Wilson a mile in front of Zoe Daniel. How upset will Andrew Clennell be if Tim Wilson does actually win?

This was a big one - Pat admitted there would be lots of spending, I mean investment, in the upcoming budget, further, he will not apologise for supporting medicare, but no one was asking him to apologise, so before you ask Pat to apologise for supporting Medicare with a $2.8b spend, I mean investment, don't because he is not going to. And finally Tom had to get off the sidelines and defend Monique Ryan when Pat wouldn't with the novel the excuse that he was just trying to save the tax payer money by becoming a vigilant and removing unlawfully placed posters [all of which happen to be of the Teal's opponent as they are integrity and axiomatically if they do it, it is integrity and therefore justified.]

Also should anyone from Queensland be allowed to have a fundraiser. And if so must champagne be served cold? And anyway, what is the real hypocrisy here? That Albo has to raise money? That he criticised Peter Dutton for doing exactly the same thing? Or that someone has to pay $10,000 and all they get is dinner with Albo?

Ryan Liddell the wunderkind behind people like Jim Chalmers gives us an inkling into our Labor believes that the Liberals will wilt under the spot light. Today's Freshwater poll shows there is little doubt that this election will be decided by the campaign.

Another great interview by Patrick who came in from door knocking especially to show us how humble he can be. After that we all indulged in Australia's favourite game of blaming insurance companies before they had even had a chance to do something wrong.

When will the election be? Patrick knows but he will not even blink an answer. Which is understandable given he was trying to explain why Labor has to spend $8.5bn to get bulk billing back to where it was under the Liberal Party.

There is little doubt that foreign relations will play an outsized role in this upcoming election between Ukraine, Trump's America First Agenda and Chinese military aggression. What does this mean for public debate in Australia in the next 12 months

Me: we aren't funded by tech bro billionaires; our corflutes are hand painted Pat: that is the first time the Liberal Party has supported the arts. Or Tom: Pat you have a Teal candidate running against you, are you worried? Me: nah Teals only run against Liberal members. Pat: No I am not worried

In September, I joined Michael Sexton, NSW Solicitor General, and Gerard Henderson the Executive Director of the Sydney Institute, to discuss the critical question of who does the Liberal Party represent these days.

The week that was. A lot happened on the Aukus front, the political front and the China front. There was no room for another front. Tim and I talk through the week that was, the issues that mattered and try to get to the bottom of things.

Also all of us wish King Kyle Sandilands, the PMs favourite DJ, a quick recovery from his brain surgery

When Jim Chalmers wrote a 106,000 word essay on capitalism reimagined no one had any idea it would look so much like the 1970s. Pattern bargaining, falling wages, widescale industrial action, low growth, high inflation, tax and debt out of control.

Watch as Pat demands to know how many seats the Teals are going to lose, while I remind Tom that Zali Steggall is dealing in misinformation when she says emissions have gone down under her.

A simple yes or no question is very difficult for Sophie to answer