Budgets are a central tool of government, offering not just economic policy but defining social and environmental policies for the years ahead. The 2023 budget moves in “the direction of fairness,” but is it moving fast enough?

The latest federal budget defines our values but does it live up to them? Australian historian, Professor Frank Bongiorno, joins us to discuss the limitations, merits and shift of focus in the second Albanese government budget.

Two-thirds of Australians experience one or more forms of abuse or neglect as children. Daryl Higgins, a co-author of a new ground-breaking study into child maltreatment, joins us to discuss the findings, and what needs to be done to stop the cycle of abuse.

WARNING: This episode and the below show notes discuss child abuse, sexual assault and suicide.

Helen Haines, the Independent Federal Member for Indi, joins us to discuss the unifying power of grassroots democracy and the major challenges Australia is facing in 2023.

Dr Haines discusses how kitchen table conversations had with humility and patience can bring people together. She talks about how people in regional Australia are reacting to the Voice Referendum and the power of the Uluru Statement of the Heart.  Haines outlines what regional and marginalised Australians want to see in the Federal budget based on the conversations had and the poverty so many of Australians are facing. Also discussed is what lessons can be learned from her seat of Indi around meaningfully engaging with, and listening, to the people that policies effect.

Dale Agius, South Australia's inaugural Commissioner for First Nations Voice,  walks us through how the South Australian Voice to Parliament was developed, and what he was told during more than 40 public consultation sessions.

He says there is too much attention being given to fly-in fly-out politicians, rather than listening to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples directly about the issues that are impacting their lives. He says the voice, both within the state and on a federal level is not a silver bullet. However, it is the opportunity for indigenous communities to come and sit at the table so they can take information, as raw and real as it is, and present it directly to the parliament.

A third of global deaths are linked to a combination of climate change, the non-communicable disease epidemic, and four industry sectors: tobacco, ultra-processed food, fossil fuel, and alcohol.

Professor Sharon Friel joins Sharon Bessell and Arnagretta Hunter for a challenging conversation about the commercial determinants of health, and what can be done to save and improve lives.

You can listen here.