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Nov 30, 2024 | 
themonthly.com.au | Rick Morton |Kath Kenny |Anna Goldsworthy |Margaret Simons
A friend, Harry, used to proudly exclaim: “I’m going to live forever and you can’t prove me wrong.” And he was right, and remains so, if only while adhering to the strictest requirements of evidentiary law.
This logic was the opposite of mine. I was not naturally given to such confident self-reflection, even if part of me believed, for longer than was reasonable, that I had the latent power of telekinesis and I’d made a paper pinwheel in an attempt to prove it. Results: inconclusive.
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Nov 14, 2024 | 
insidestory.org.au | Rick Morton |Harper Collins |Matthew Ricketson
Robodebt is the emblem of all that went wrong with the Coalition governments of 2013–22. If the kindest thing that could be said about the scheme is that it aimed to ensure welfare payments were well managed… well, a lengthy royal commission found it was ill-conceived and poorly executed. And when democracy’s guardrails — the bureaucracy, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the ombudsman — raised questions about its legal foundations, they were ignored or finagled.
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Nov 20, 2023 | 
themonthly.com.au | Ange McCormack |Rick Morton
7am is a daily news podcast brought to you by the publishers of The Saturday Paper and The Monthly. How to listen? WebsiteSenior reporter for The Saturday Paper Rick Morton on a serious flaw in the robo-debt response. The royal commission into the robo-debt scheme delivered 57 recommendations to the government in July. Four months later, the Albanese government has given its response, insisting it is acting to ensure that nothing like the "shameful" robo-debt scandal ever happens again.
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Nov 14, 2023 | 
themonthly.com.au | Ange McCormack |Rick Morton
7am is a daily news podcast brought to you by the publishers of The Saturday Paper and The Monthly. How to listen? WebsiteSenior reporter for The Saturday Paper Rick Morton on the murder of Lilie James, and what it tells us about our most elite institutions. The murder of a young woman at an elite private school – and the reaction from a former principal – has led to nationwide outrage.
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Nov 7, 2023 | 
themonthly.com.au | Ange McCormack |Rick Morton
7am is a daily news podcast brought to you by the publishers of The Saturday Paper and The Monthly. How to listen? WebsiteNow, as national cabinet considers options for strengthening the hand of those who rent, a High Court judgement has redrawn the relationship between tenants and landlords. Renters across Australia are facing a worsening housing crisis. With hikes in rents and growing complaints about the quality of living in rental homes, many are at breaking point.
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Oct 23, 2023 | 
themonthly.com.au | Ange McCormack |Rick Morton
Senior reporter for The Saturday Paper Rick Morton, on why private companies have the power to put welfare recipients on a suspension. In Australia, if you’re on welfare your payment can be suspended by a for-profit, private company – even if you’ve done nothing wrong. With tens of thousands of jobseekers being affected by suspensions every week, anti-poverty experts are urging the government to act, warning that vulnerable people are already at risk.
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Sep 15, 2023 | 
themonthly.com.au | Ange McCormack |Rick Morton
7am is a daily news podcast brought to you by the publishers of The Saturday Paper and The Monthly. How to listen? WebsiteSenior reporter for The Saturday Paper Rick Morton on the woman now known as the “Alan Joyce slayer”, and how she aims to stop Australian consumers from being duped. When companies take advantage of consumers by misleading them, selling faulty products, or breaking promises, there’s a body that steps in – the ACCC.
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Sep 3, 2023 | 
themonthly.com.au | Ange McCormack |Rick Morton
7am is a daily news podcast brought to you by the publishers of The Saturday Paper and The Monthly. How to listen? WebsiteSenior reporter for The Saturday Paper Rick Morton, on chaos at Qantas and whether the government is too cosy with our national carrier. Qantas’s luck has gone from bad to worse. The airline has had to ditch expiry dates for Covid credits, and faced questions over its prices and tickets allegedly sold for flights that had already been cancelled.
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Aug 25, 2023 | 
tinyurl.com | Rick Morton |Mike Seccombe |Chloe Hooper |Tim Moore
Late in 2017, a scandal broke out across Britain’s university sector. The vice-chancellor of the University of Bath, Dame Glynis Breakwell, was found to be receiving a salary close to double that of her counterparts at other UK universities. The figure was £468,000 (then about $820,000). The outcry – both within her university and more broadly – was so intense Breakwell was forced into a humiliating resignation. Clearly, she chose the wrong country in which to be a vice-chancellor.
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Aug 21, 2023 | 
themonthly.com.au | Ange McCormack |Rick Morton
[Theme Music Starts]From Schwartz Media, I’m Ange McCormack. This is *7am*. If someone in an aged care home is hurt or mistreated, there’s a system in place that’s supposed to make sure incidents are flagged and followed up on. But the people in charge of doing that, have instead been “bulk closing” cases in the thousands. Sometimes, without even the most basic assessment. Staff say this is leading to further neglect, abuse and even preventable deaths, as major risks go unnoticed.
