Why is Australia going soft on settler sanctions?

Migration is shaping up to be the next big battleground in federal politics as Labor desperately tries to wrestle back control of the narrative from One Nation. But does this week’s long-awaited plan leave the government stronger or weaker politically? And could going harder on Pauline Hanson hold the key to tackling One Nation? This week, the major parties gave it a try as some of Hanson’s nasty comments came back to bite her. Today, Contributing Editor at The New Daily, Amy Remeikis on immigration politics and whether some things are off limits, even for Pauline Hanson.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Contributing Editor at The New Daily, Amy Remeikis Photo: AAP Image/Dean LewinsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After one false start and a hell of a lot of political pressure from the right, Labor has finally unveiled its long-awaited immigration plans. Backpackers, students and visa overstayers will all be targeted by the measures – designed to bring net overseas migration down from around 300 thousand, to 225 thousand by 2028. So what impact will the overhaul have on our economy, our communities, and on Labor’s re-election prospects?  Today, journalist Peter Mares – who writes extensively on immigration for Inside Story magazine – on what’s in store, and whether the issue Labor’s addressing is a political problem, or a real one.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Inside Story Magazine journalist Peter Mares Photo: AAP Image/Lukas CochSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last week, countries including the UK, Canada and France announced plans to restrict trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank. In the past, Australia has joined its overseas allies in actions on Israel. This time it’s different – with Foreign Affairs Minister, Penny Wong, saying Australia isn’t considering joining the ban.  So – why not?  Today, Commissioner on the UN’s Commission of Inquiry into the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel, Chris Sidoti, on Australia’s responsibilities, and its failures.    If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Commissioner on the UN’s Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Chris Sidoti Photo: AP Photo/Leo CorreaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the last week, AI bosses around the world have suddenly grown a conscience – urging a global slowdown amid fears the race to develop artificial intelligence could outstrip humanity’s ability to control it. For Dex Hunter-Torricke, that realisation came a little sooner. The big-tech insider walked away last year, disillusioned, after spending 15 years inside the belly of the beast. He wrote speeches for Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook, worked with Elon Musk at SpaceX, and most recently helped Google DeepMind explain the rise of artificial intelligence to the world. Now, he says society is making the same mistakes with AI as it did in the social media era – sleepwalking into what comes next. Today, founder and president of The Center for Tomorrow, Dex Hunter-Torricke gives us a glimpse inside the big tech firms shaping our future.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Founder of The Center for Tomorrow Dex Hunter-Torricke Photo: @dexhuntertorricke via InstagramSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The numbers are almost incomprehensible – last month US debt hit 40 trillion dollars. With an interest bill of more than three billion dollars a day. And that’s before Donald Trump’s trillion dollar promise to hand every adult in America a cheque for five thousand bucks! Now, as global debt levels rise to record highs, and the cost of paying that debt rises too – experts are sounding the alarm – warning the economic storm that’s brewing is starting to look an awful lot like the 2007 global financial crisis. Today, Senior Economics Correspondent at the Age and SMH, Shane Wright on the chance of another GFC and what it means for Australia.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Senior Economics Correspondent at the Age & SMH Shane Wright Photo: AP Photo/Richard DrewSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One by one, the Aboriginal leaders, organisations and watchdogs the Northern Territory government is supposed to work with are walking away. The Children’s Commissioner has resigned. An Indigenous MP has left parliament after more than a decade. And now almost the entire Aboriginal side of the Territory’s Justice Policy Partnership has suspended its involvement. They’re all making a remarkably similar complaint – that the government isn’t listening, and that the structures supposedly designed to give Aboriginal people a say have become meaningless. Today, National Indigenous Times journalist Dechlan Brennan, on how relations got this bad – and whether a government can tackle the Territory’s enormous problems if the people most affected no longer believe there’s any point in sitting at the table.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: National Indigenous Times journalist, Dechlan Brennan Photo: AAP Image/Supplied by (A)manda ParkinsonSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From afar, Alice Springs is a whirlpool of myth and truth. A town with competing interests and few solutions, marked by chaos and decades of government overreach. In cities and towns across Australia, we read about a “crisis” about “rampages”. One newspaper described the children of Alice Springs as “tiny menaces stuck on a turnstile of trouble”. In this first episode of our three part series This is Alice Springs, Daniel James visits the town at the heart of our nation, to find out how all the interventions, big and small, by governments of all persuasions have led to this chaos. What he finds is that almost all of it leads back to one thing. This series was originally published in October 2024.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Hosted and reported by Daniel JamesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2020 Anthony Albanese called for the sacking of then-sports minister Bridget McKenzie over her involvement in the infamous sports rorts – which he labelled a farce. Not long after, she resigned. But now that similar pork barrelling claims have been levelled at the Prime Minister, he’s come out swinging – refusing to admit any wrong-doing over his failure to declare membership at a golf club which received a six million dollar grant. Also coming out swinging this week was Andrew Hastie. The Liberal MP delivered a masterclass in how to take on One Nation as he labelled Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce lying cowards over a party-backed cartoon calling him a traitor. Today, press gallery veteran Paul Bongiorno on a fiery week in parliament, and who came off second best.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Press gallery veteran Paul Bongiorno Photo: AAP Image/Mick TsikasSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Donald Trump was sworn in for a second time, some of the most powerful men in the tech world had the best seats in the room. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg – a display of just how close silicon valley had aligned itself to the administration. But within that world, journalist Gil Durán says, is a smaller, more radical group with a much bigger ambition: get rid of democracy, and use technology to build a new order in its place, controlled by a wealthy elite. And in his new book, The Nerd Reich, Gil traces how these once-fringe ideas have moved closer to the White House than ever before. Today, Silicon Valley journalist and author Gil Durán, on the group he’s dubbed the “Nerd Reich’, the ideas driving them, and how they became part of Trump’s political project.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Author of The Nerd Reich Gil Durán Photo: AP Photo/Julia Demaree NikhinsonSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last month, an emotional Jacqui Lambie revealed a private health battle connected to her time in the army – a debilitating prolapse that required surgery. The Tasmanian senator called out gaps in health care services for female veterans, and raged against the government’s plans to introduce a $5,000 cap on allied health services for veterans. This week fellow veterans joined her calls, laying down their war medals outside parliament house in protest, as Lambie promised to continue the fight. Today, Senator Jacqui Lambie on why veterans are getting a raw deal.   If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.   Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Independent Senator for Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Photo: AAP Image/Mick TsikasSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.