Podcasts about all iphones

In this episode, Tyler demonstrates the basics of using iPhone Mirroring, a feature that allows you to use your iPhone from your Mac, with VoiceOver. Topics covered in this demonstration include:General description of the feature and its current issues and limitationsSystem requirements and setupNavigating and dealing with various elements of the iOS user interface, such as the Home Screen, rotor actions, and context menus, using macOSControlling which iPhone apps can forward notifications to your MacMore general information about this feature can be found in the Apple Support article "iPhone Mirroring: Use your iPhone from your Mac."TranscriptDisclaimer: This transcript was generated by Aiko, an AI-powered transcription app. It is not edited or formatted, and it may not accurately capture the speakers' names, voices, or content.Hey Apple visitors, Tyler here, with a demonstration and overview of iPhone mirroring. iPhone mirroring is a feature that allows you to essentially use your iPhone from your Mac.This may be useful if you, for example, prefer a given service's mobile app over its desktop or web equivalent, or if what you're using doesn't have a desktop app or website.In addition, as notifications from your iPhone can be forwarded to your Mac via iPhone mirroring, you may find it more convenient to receive and respond to the notification on your Mac than to switch devices if you're working on your Mac when the notification comes in.With the initial release of Mac OS Sequoia 15.0, this feature was completely inaccessible with voiceover.With the subsequent 15.1 update, it has become accessible to a point.I say to a point because at the time of recording, October 2024, there are several issues that, in my opinion, make the experience less than refined from a voiceover perspective, which I'll elaborate on later in this demo.To use iPhone mirroring with voiceover, you'll need an iPhone with iOS 18.1 or later and a Mac with Mac OS 15.1 or later.All iPhones capable of running iOS 18 work with iPhone mirroring, as do all Macs capable of running Sequoia, with the exception of the 2019 iMac, as that model lacks the T2 security chip or Apple silicon.To set up iPhone mirroring, just open the iPhone mirroring app on your Mac and follow the on-screen instructions.I've already done that, so now I'm going to demonstrate the feature.I'm going to open iPhone mirroring on my Mac.So here I am prompted to authenticate.By default, whenever you open the iPhone mirroring app, you are prompted to authenticate as a way to verify your identity before it gives you control of your iPhone.If you'd rather, it didn't prompt you to authenticate each time you open the app, you can change this in iPhone mirroring settings.Just choose settings from the menu bar or press command comma and it should be there.But I'm going to authenticate with touch ID now.Close button.Okay, so here I am in the iPhone mirroring window.Okay, so we have home screen and app switcher.Now you can use those buttons to get to those locations, or I find it more convenient to use the view menu or keyboard shortcuts.…

We preview everything you can expect from next week's Glowtime Apple event, including iPhone 16, AirPods 4, and Apple Watch X rumors, plus discuss Oprah's controversial AI television special, Stephen reviews the Pixel 9 Pro, and EU's browser shenanigans is getting ridiculous.Donate to St. JudeJoin us and Relay.fm in supporting St. Jude's Children's hospital throughout the month of September! Our Primary Tech goal is $1,000 and we need YOUR help. Learn more and donate at: https://tiltify.com/@primarytechshow/relayChapter Image Credit: 9to5mac Watch on YouTube!Subscribe and watch our weekly episodes plus bonus clips at: youtube.com/@primarytechshowJoin the CommunityDiscuss new episodes, start your own conversation, and join the Primary Tech community here: social.primarytech.fmSupport the showJoin our member community and get an ad-free versions of the show, plus exclusive bonus episodes every week! Subscribe directly in Apple Podcasts or here: primarytech.memberful.com/joinReach out:Stephen's YouTube Channel@stephenrobles on Threads@stephenrobles on XStephen on MastodonJason's Inc.com Articles@jasonaten on Threads@JasonAten on XJason on MastodonWe would also appreciate a 5-star rating and review in Apple Podcasts and SpotifyPodcast artwork with help from Basic Apple Guy.Those interested in sponsoring the show can reach out to us at: podcast@primarytech.fmLinks from the showDonate to St. Jude!Apple Vision Pro Head StrapiPhone 15 Pro Max 5X Camera: 1 Year Review - YouTubePixel 9 Pro XL Review After 15 Years on iPhone - YouTubeHere are 16 rumored changes coming to the iPhone 16 lineup - 9to5Mac@markgurman on iPhone color • Threads2024 Color of the YearPantone Fashion Color Trend Report for NYFW Plays up Natural ShadesAirPods 4 Rumors: Everything We Know So Far - MacRumorsApple Watch X: All the Rumors So Far - MacRumorsApple Sports is ready for football season - AppleNvidia $279 billion wipeout, the biggest in history, drags chip stocksOprah's upcoming AI television special sparks outrage | Ars TechnicaAbout the browser choice screen in the EU - Support - Apple Developer (00:00) - Intro (04:11) - Donate To St. Jude (06:11) - Apple Event Preview (07:27) - iPhone 16 Feature Rumors (11:34) - iPhone 16 Capture Button (16:04) - 5X Camera IPhone 16 Pro (21:00) - Faster Charging Speeds (24:27) - iPhone Pre-Order Dates (27:38) - Apple Intelligence on All iPhones (33:41) - Wi-Fi 7 and MagSafe Charging (36:21) - Bluetooth 6.0 and Find My (38:27) - iPhone Brown Color (42:37) - AirPods 4 Rumors (45:12) - Apple Watch X (49:30) - Apple Sports App (52:51) - Nvidia Stock Drops (56:47) - Oprah's AI TV Special (01:06:55) - EU Browser Shenanigans (01:12:01) - Pixel 9 Pro Review ★ Support this podcast ★

The latest In Touch With iOS with Dave he is joined by Chuck Joiner, Jeff Gamet, and Ben Roethig. Dave and Chuck have their iPhone 15 Pro Max and give first impressions after almost 1 week of use. This includes the Action Button, USB-C, and camera upgrades. Dave reviews the Catalyst Influence iPhone case. Dave also has one more thing: A review of the Airpods Pro 2 with USB-C and you will be surprised. The Apple Finewoven case is not good. Security update for iOS 17.0.2 and much more. The show notes are at InTouchwithiOS.com 
Direct Link to Audio  Links to our Show Give us a review on Apple Podcasts! CLICK HERE we would really appreciate it! Click this link Buy me a Coffee to support the show we would really appreciate it. intouchwithios.com/coffee  Another way to support the show is to become a Patreon member patreon.com/intouchwithios Website: In Touch With iOS YouTube Channel In Touch with iOS Magazine on Flipboard Facebook Page Mastadon Twitter Instagram Spoutible News Apple's new FineWoven iPhone cases are very bad - The Verge Demand for iPhone 15 stronger than iPhone 14, Pro models about the same Apple's iCloud Website Updated With iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma Features iPhone users get even more browser options as Vivaldi for iOS arrives Apple releases iMovie and Clips app updates with iPhone 15 Pro support and more  Topics Updates to iOS 17. iOS 17.0.1 was released last week then iOS 17.0.2 was released for only iPhone 15 models to both fix file transfer issues with restoring to the new iPhone. This Week Apple Releases iOS 17.0.2 and iPadOS 17.0.2 for All iPhones and iPads Must update to fix security bugs.  Beta this week. One week after iOS 17 was released, iOS 17.1 Beta 1 Apple Seeds First Betas of iOS 17.1 and iPadOS 17.1 to Developers  Apple Releases First Betas of iOS 17.1 and iPadOS 17.1 to Public Beta Testers Apple Seeds First Beta of watchOS 10.1 to Developers - MacRumors Apple Seeds First Beta of tvOS 17.1 to Developers - MacRumors watchOS 10.1 Beta Brings NameDrop to Apple Watch - MacRumors New Battery Health Features Remain Limited to iPhone 15 Models on First iOS 17.1 Beta - MacRumors Everything New in iOS 17.1 Beta 1  iOS 17.1 brings Dynamic Island flashlight indicator to iPhone 14 Pro and All iPhone 15 models iPhone 15 Review. Both Dave and Chuck have the iPhone 15 Pro Max they give their review after having it 6 days, What was their experience with migration and use. iPhone 15 Pro Owners Complain About Overheating Problems and iPhone 15 Pro Overheating Concerns Highlighted in Two More Reports Notable items discussed New Action button Titanium Phone Modem speed The iPhone 15 Pro's 5G modem reportedly boosts speeds by up to 24 percent  WiFi 6E Ruggedness with the Titanium build The Camera and some huge upgrades. USB-C you can connect an external drive, charge Apple Watch, and more.Everything the iPhone 15's USB-C port can do (and what you'll need to do it)  iPhone 15 Pro Max Case Review. Dave reviews the Catalyst Influence with MagSafe for the iPhone 15 Pro Max. iPhone 15 Series - Influence Case, MagSafe Compatible (Pre-Order) Very durable case with 30% louder sound than other cases. Slim design fits nicely in your pocket.  One more thing: Dave has the new AirPods Pro 2 USB-C snd gives his Review you will be surprised.  Announcements Macstock 7 2023 Digitsl Pass is now available. Relive the conference as you can Purchase a virtual pass to see the talks that many of our regular guests and contributors did including Dave, Brittany, Chuck, and Jeff. https://macstockconferenceandexpo.com  Our Host Dave Ginsburg is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users and shares his wealth of knowledge of iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV and related technologies. Visit the YouTube channel https://youtube.com/intouchwithios follow him on Mastadon @daveg65,  Twitter @daveg65.and the show @intouchwithios   Our Regular Contributors Jeff Gamet is a podcaster, technology blogger, artist, and author. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's managing editor, and Smile's TextExpander Evangelist. You can find him on Mastadon @jgamet as well as Twitter and Instagram as @jgamet  His YouTube channel https://youtube.com/jgamet Ben Roethig Former Associate Editor of GeekBeat.TV and host of the Tech Hangout and Deconstruct with Patrice  Mac user since the mid 90s. Tech support specialist. Twitter @benroethig  Website: https://roethigtech.blogspot.com About our Guest Chuck Joiner is the host of MacVoices and hosts video podcasts with influential members of the Apple community. Make sure to visit macvoices.com and subscribe to his podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @chuckjoiner and join his MacVoices Facebook group.

- The Curious Case of the USB-C Case and AirPods Pro 2 - Apple Pulls Last iPhone mini Off the Market - Apple Commits to Plastic-Free Packaging by 2025 - Many Apple Prices Drop in UK - Most Apple Watch Battery Replacement Prices Go Up in US - Spain and Switzerland Getting Apple Satellite Services This Month - France Calls for Halt to iPhone 12 Sales and Fix Over RF Concerns - Belgium Calls for RF Investigation for All iPhones and Other Smartphones - Apple Disputes RF Findings in France - Apple Tightly Controls RF Messaging at Store Level - New Trailers for “Lessons in Chemistry” and “Killers of the Flower Moon” - Power what we do next for as little as $1 a month. Join the Mac OS Ken Test Kitchen at Patreon at Patreon.com/macosken - Send me an email: info@macosken.com or call (716)780-4080!

Apologies for the late upload. But this is episode 22 of the Tech Unlocked Podcast! Today we're taking about the Apple Event—our thought on it, a bunch of iPhone 14 leaks and rumours, Samsung doing bad things to their phones, and the Pixel 6a that was recently leaked. 1: Apple Event Recap: https://www.macrumors.com/2022/03/12/top-stories-peek-performance-apple-event-recap/ 2: Lower-End iPhone 14 Models Said to Have Same-Sized Display Bezels As iPhone 13: https://www.macrumors.com/2022/03/08/iphone-14-same-size-bezels-iphone-13/ 3: Face ID Dual-Hole Design to Be Limited to iPhone 14 Pro Models in 2022, But Expanding to All iPhones in 2023: https://www.macrumors.com/2022/03/07/face-id-dual-hole-design-iphone-14-pro/ 4: 40% of iPhone Users Plan to Buy iPhone SE 3, Survey Indicates: https://www.macrumors.com/2022/03/07/40-percent-plan-to-buy-iphone-se-3/ 5: Kuo: iMac Pro Won't Launch Until 2023, 27-inch External Display Without Mini-LED Coming This Year: https://www.macrumors.com/2022/03/06/kuo-imac-pro-in-2023-27-inch-display-this-year/ 6: I forgot my charger on 5-day road trip — but my iPhone never ran out of power: https://www.tomsguide.com/opinion/i-forgot-my-charging-cable-on-a-week-long-trip-but-my-iphone-never-ran-out-of-power 7: Apple dominates global share of smartphones as iPhone takes 7 out of 10 spots in 2021: https://9to5mac.com/2022/03/08/iphone-top-smartphones-2021/ 8: Samsung is throttling the performance of over 10,000 apps: https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/03/02/samsung-is-throttling-the-performance-of-over-10000-apps 9: ‘Pixel 6a' benchmark confirms Tensor performance and points to 6GB of RAM: https://9to5google.com/2022/03/06/pixel-6a-ram-specs/

This week: we got hot new intel on AirPods 3, new ‘Pro” iMacs, and MacBook Air. Plus: Apple's planning to bring FaceID to EVERYTHING, and we discuss the most insane parts of Apple's latest financial call. Get 2-3 episodes of CultCast Off Topic each and every week for just $6! Off Topic is a new weekly variety show hosted by Erfon Elijah and friends, dedicated to tech, gaming, culture, and more. Join Cult Support, good friend! This episode supported by Easily create a beautiful website all by yourself, at Squarespace.com/cultcast. Use offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Cult of Mac's watch store is full of beautiful straps that cost way less than Apple's. See the full curated collection at Store.Cultofmac.com CultCloth will keep your iPhone 12, Apple Watch, iPad, glasses and lenses sparkling clean, and for a limited time use code CULTCAST at checkout to score a free CarryCloth with any order at CultCloth.co. Join us in the CultClub! discord.gg/BrKdnSK On the show this week @erfon / @lkahney / @lewiswallace Twitter leaker @dylandkt reports bad news for iMac, good news for Airpods 3 https://twitter.com/dylandkt AirPods 3 https://twitter.com/dylandkt/status/1419103317683212290 https://twitter.com/dylandkt/status/1414645969216495619 iMac M1X https://twitter.com/dylandkt/status/1418602808010584066 Smile! Face ID may come to Mac in the next couple of years Apple aims to bring Face ID to Mac within the next couple of years, reports Mark Gurman in his weekend “Power On” newsletter for Bloomberg. Markus Gurman: Face ID Coming to the Mac, All iPhones and iPads Within ‘Couple of Years' In his latest edition of “Power On,” Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says Apple plans to bring Face ID to the Mac in another super vague, strange timeframe. Okay, in all seriousness, he says the next ‘couple of years.' Let's just be happy that's not the ‘next few decades.' Mini-LED MacBook Air likely to arrive in mid-2022 Apple's new MacBook Air with 13.3-inch Mini-LED display will debut in mid-2022, says respected TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in a new note to clients, seen by Cult of Mac. Smashed records, short supplies and other takeaways from Apple's record Q3 Apple just revealed that its made heaps of money last quarter. It broke all kinds of revenue records, and Mac, iPhone and iPad contributed strongly to the total.

Apple held its fall iPhone announcement, titled Hi, Speed. They announced the HomePod Mini, iPhone 12, 12 Mini, 12 Pro, and 12 Pro Max. We discuss the event and our thoughts on the new devices. Watch the event here - https://www.apple.com/apple-events/october-2020/ HomePod Mini (02:40) Preorders 11/6 $99 5G and Verizon Commercial (08:05) On all iPhones 12 All iPhones 12 Features New screen material with 4X better drop performance  All have a new A14 Bionic chip Magsafe IP68 waterproof to 6 meters iPhone 12 (08:35) 6.1" Screen White, Black, Blue, Green, (PRODUCT)RED Preorder 10/16 Starts at $799 MagSafe Charging/Connection (13:15) Magnetic wireless charging Magnetic cases/accessories Travel Duo Charger Environmental Update (15:35) No power brick in packaging Completely carbon neutral by 3030 iPhone 12 Mini (17:20) 5.4" Screen  Preorder 11/6 Starts at $699 iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max (19:00) 3 improved cameras and new Lidar sensor 4K 60fps Dolby HDR Video Recording Graphite, Silver, Gold, Pacific Blue iPhone 12 Pro 6.1" Screen Preorder 10/16 Starts at $999 iPhone 12 Pro Max Slightly better cameras than 12 Pro 6.7" Screen Preorder 11/6 Starts at $1099 Nate and Dave's iPhone 12 purchasing thoughts (28:15) Shop Amazon https://amazon.notnerd.com (affiliate link) Subscribe and Review Contact Info: https://www.Notnerd.com Twitter - @N0tnerd, Nate - @NetBack, Dave - @DavyB Notnerd Youtube Channel Notnerd Facebook Email - info@Notnerd.com Call or text 608.618.NERD(6373) If you would like to help support Notnerd financially, mentally, or physically, please contact us via any of the methods above. Consider any product/app links to be affiliate links.

Happy Memorial Day! Nearly half of all the tweets about “reopening the country” come from bots! There's a new jailbreak out for ALL iPhones! Spotify snags Joe Rogan! And we have to chat about this GORGEOUS phone on my desk! The Xperia 1 ii is in the Gadget Lab! Let's get our tech week started right! Stories This Week: Focals Long Term Review https://somegadgetguy.com/2020/04/21/focals-long-term-review-smart-glasses-in-the-age-of-social-distancing/ LG V60 vs Xperia 1 ii Pro Camera Battle https://somegadgetguy.com/2020/05/24/sony-xperia-1-ii-vs-lg-v60-pro-camera-fight/ Stop making NEW phones: An open letter to Android manufacturers https://somegadgetguy.com/2020/05/23/please-stop-making-new-smartphones-an-open-letter-to-android-manufacturers/ OP vs LG PART 1 https://somegadgetguy.com/2020/05/22/oneplus-vs-lg-part-1-v60-or-oneplus-8/ 1More Dual Driver ANC Pro Review https://somegadgetguy.com/2020/05/21/1more-dual-driver-anc-pro-wireless-review-bluetooth-neckbands-rule/ STEM toys for kids! https://somegadgetguy.com/2020/05/20/stem-toys-hands-on-with-kits-from-best-choice-products/ RhinoShield cases for the iPhone SE https://somegadgetguy.com/2020/05/19/rhinoshield-review-cases-and-camera-lens-for-the-iphone-se/ Almost half of the “re-open country” tweets are from bots https://www.cs.cmu.edu/news/nearly-half-twitter-accounts-discussing-%E2%80%98reopening-america%E2%80%99-may-be-bots Siri Whistleblower Pushes EU for reform on voice recording tech https://cnet.co/2WW5CQI iPhone jailbreaks for EVERYONE https://www.wired.com/story/apple-ios-unc0ver-jailbreak/ Spotify lands Joe Rogan https://www.engadget.com/spotify-joe-rogan-experience-exclusive-podcast-203044280.html TOP STORIES OF THE WEEK ON r/GLOWINGRECTANGLES https://www.reddit.com/r/glowingrectangles/top/?t=week What the HECK LG?!?!?! https://www.androidauthority.com/lg-upskirt-video-tiktok-1122554/ Juan Rambles on about the Sony or something… Support SomeGadgetGuy! The complete list of how you can contribute to production on this channel AND get yourself some cool stuff! Patreon, Amazon, Humble Bundle, OnePlus, Audible, Merch, and MORE! https://somegadgetguy.com/2012/07/15/support-somegadgetguy-get-cool-stuff/ SomeGadgetGuy's Gear List: Panasonic G85 http://amzn.to/2oKNwAm Panasonic 15mm f/1.7 http://amzn.to/2qWH0UZ Panasonic 25mm f/1.7 http://amzn.to/2ohTzsd Audio-Technica Lavalier https://amzn.to/2WywofM Focusrite 6i6 Audio Interface http://amzn.to/2p5l7py Shure SM57 Microphone http://amzn.to/2oypnLm Cloudlifter CL1 http://amzn.to/2oKN9G5 LED Light Panels http://amzn.to/2oy60ls AJA U-TAP HDMI http://amzn.to/2wfprBF Elgato HD S http://amzn.to/2p95Unu SGGQA Podcast RSS: http://goo.gl/oSUjvi SGGQA Podcast on Spotify: https://goo.gl/uyuSsj SGGQA Podcast Google Play https://goo.gl/ABF7Up SGGQA Podcast iTunes: https://goo.gl/YUcyS7 SGGQA Podcast on Stitcher: http://goo.gl/cyazfY SGGQA Podcast on PlayerFM: https://goo.gl/34B8SG SGGQA Podcast on Archive.org: https://goo.gl/9zh4pK Juan Carlos Bagnell on Twitch – http://Twitch.tv/SomeGadgetGuy Juan Carlos Bagnell on Twitter – http://Twitter.com/SomeGadgetGuy Juan on Instagram – http://instagram.com/somegadgetguy Support SomeGadgetGuy Production: http://amzn.com/w/34V1TR2551P6M Links on this page may be affiliate links which help support production on this website. Support Talking Tech with SomeGadgetGuy by donating to their Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/talking-tech-with-somegadgetgu Find out more at https://talking-tech-with-somegadgetgu.pinecast.co This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-c117ce for 40% off for 4 months, and support Talking Tech with SomeGadgetGuy.

Happy Memorial Day! Nearly half of all the tweets about “reopening the country” come from bots! There’s a new jailbreak out for ALL iPhones! Spotify snags Joe Rogan! And we have to chat about this GORGEOUS phone on my desk! The Xperia 1 ii is in the Gadget Lab! Let’s get our tech week started … Continue reading "#SGGQA 151: Spotify and Joe Rogan, iPhone Jailbreaks, Xperia 1 II in the house!"

The Parkes radio telescope can detect extremely weak signals coming from the most distant parts of the Universe. ShutterstockFor John Sarkissian, operations scientist at the CSIRO Parkes radio telescope, astronomy has been his life’s passion – starting from the age of six. “When I was six years old, I watched Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the Moon,” he says of the radio telescope made famous in the film The Dish. “In fact, on the cover of my year nine mathematics textbook was a painting of the Parkes radio telescope. I remember sitting in the class staring at the painting and daydreaming working there one day. And so here I am now, 40 some years later.” Today, on Trust Me I’m An Expert, editorial intern Antonio Tarquinio speaks to Sarkissian about the research underway at one of Australia’s most famous astronomical research facilities including: the role Parkes is playing right now in the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence how the telescope detects extremely weak signals coming from the most distant parts of the Universe why even a light breeze can imperil the dish unless it’s in the right position how the explosion of phones, wi-fi and radio frequency interference is affecting research in the once-deserted Parkes location. And Sarkissian’s own take on whether Parkes will help find alien life? “Well, as of today, the only place we know of the entire Universe that there is definitely life is right here on Earth,” he says. “And what does that say? It says that we should appreciate our place in the Universe a little more.” Read more: 'The size, the grandeur, the peacefulness of being in the dark': what it's like to study space at Siding Spring Observatory New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Trust Me, I’m An Expert on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Trust Me, I’m An Expert. Read more: Trust Me, I'm An Expert: what science says about how to lose weight and whether you really need to Additional audio Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks. Extra Dimension by Kri Tik, from Free Music Archive Images Shutterstock Read more: Darkness is disappearing and that's bad news for astronomy

Today we hear about some of the fascinating space research underway at Siding Spring Observatory – and how, despite gruelling hours and endless paperwork, astronomers retain their sense of wonder for the night sky. ShutterstockHow did our galaxy form? How do galaxies evolve over time? Where did the Sun’s lost siblings end up? Three hours north-east of Parkes lies a remote astronomical research facility, unpolluted by city lights, where researchers are collecting vast amounts of data in an effort to unlock some of the biggest questions about our Universe. Siding Spring Observatory, or SSO, is one of Australia’s top sites for astronomical research. You’ve probably heard of the Parkes telescope, made famous by the movie The Dish, but SSO is also a key character in Australia’s space research story. In this episode, astrophysics student and Conversation intern Cameron Furlong goes to SSO to check out the huge Anglo Australian Telescope (AAT), the largest optical telescope in Australia. Siding Spring Observatory, north east of Parkes. Shutterstock Read more: Darkness is disappearing and that's bad news for astronomy And we hear about Huntsman, a new specialised telescope that uses off-the-shelf Canon camera lenses – a bit like those you see sports photographers using at the cricket or the footy – to study very faint regions of space around other galaxies. Students use telescopes to observe the night sky near Coonabarabran, not far from SSO. Cameron Furlong Listen in to hear more about some of the most fascinating space research underway in Australia – and how, despite gruelling hours and endless paperwork, astronomers retain their sense of wonder for the night sky. “For me, it means remembering how small I am in this enormous Universe. I think it’s very easy to forget, when you go about your daily life,” said Richard McDermid, an ARC Future Fellow and astronomer at Macquarie University. “It’s nice to get back into it to a dark place and having a clear sky. And then you get to remember all the interesting and fascinating things, the size, the grandeur and the peacefulness of being in the dark.” New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Trust Me, I’m An Expert on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Trust Me, I’m An Expert. Read more: Trust Me, I'm An Expert: what science says about how to lose weight and whether you really need to Additional audio Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks. Lucky Stars by Podington Bear from Free Music Archive. Slimheart by Blue Dot Sessions from Free Music Archive. Illumination by Kai Engel from Free Music Archive. Phase 2 by Xylo-Ziko from Free Music Archive. Extra Dimensions by Kri Tik from Free Music Archive. Pure Water by Meydän, from Free Music Archive. Images Shutterstock Cameron Furlong Read more: Antibiotic resistant superbugs kill 32 plane-loads of people a week. We can all help fight back

Antibiotics can be a wonder for treating bacterial infections – but we need to be cautious in how we use them. From shutterstock.comYou might think antibiotic resistance is something to worry about in the distant future. But it’s already having a deadly impact today. The number of people dying globally every week from antibiotic resistant infections is equivalent to 32 Boeing 747s full of people. And if that sounds scary, the projections for the future are even scarier. On today’s episode of Trust Me, I’m An Expert we ask you to imagine a future where more and more antibiotics don’t work any more – and hear from researchers about how you can help scientists fight back. Read more: 'This is going to affect how we determine time since death': how studying body donors in the bush is changing forensic science New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Trust Me, I’m An Expert on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Trust Me, I’m An Expert. Read more: Trust Me, I'm An Expert: what science says about how to lose weight and whether you really need to Additional audio Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks. Airliner by Podington Bear from Free Music Archive. Images Shutterstock

Lithium ion batteries revolutionised the way we use, manufacture and charge our devices. They’re used to power mobile phones, laptops and even electric cars. ShutterstockBritish-born scientist M. Stanley Whittingham, of Binghamton University, was one of three scientists who won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work developing lithium-ion batteries. L-R: John Goodenough; Stanley Whittingham; Akira Yoshino, the three scientists who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry this year for their work developing lithium-ion batteries. Niklas Elmehed/Royal Swedish Acad. Sci. Maybe you know exactly what a lithium-ion battery is but even if you don’t, chances are you’re carrying one right now. They’re the batteries used to power mobile phones, laptops and even electric cars. When it comes to energy storage, they’re vastly more powerful than conventional batteries and you can recharge them many more times. Their widespread use is driving global demand for the metal lithium – demand that Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese this week said Australia should do more to meet. The University of Queensland’s Mark Blaskovich, who trained in chemistry and penned this article about Whittingham’s selection for the chemistry Nobel Prize, sat down with the award-winner this week. They discussed what the future of battery science may hold and how we might address some of the environmental and fire risks around lithium-ion batteries. He began by asking M. Stanley Whittingham how lithium batteries differ from conventional, lead-acid batteries, like the kind you might find in your car. Read more: 'Highly charged story': chemistry Nobel goes to inventors of lithium-ion batteries New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Trust Me, I’m An Expert on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Trust Me, I’m An Expert. Read more: Trust Me, I'm An Expert: what science says about how to lose weight and whether you really need to Additional credits Recording and production assistance by Thea Blaskovich Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks. Announcement of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2019 Images Shutterstock

Maggots are a major part of the puzzle when it comes to collecting forensic evidence. ShutterstockA few episodes ago, we heard from forensic scientists at the Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Research (AFTER) – that’s the official name for what, in books and movies, they would call a body farm. It’s there, at a secret bushland site, researchers are making some surprising discoveries about how donated human bodies decompose in Australian conditions. One of the researchers there is Professor James Wallman, Head of the School of Life Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney, and one of the nation’s few forensic entomologists. It’s his job to unpack little clues left behind by insects – including the much maligned blowfly – that can help police solve crimes when a body is found. Today, James Wallman explains how and why insects have a really profound influence on decomposition. We’re also re-broadcasting a clip from Maiken Ueland, the interim director of the AFTER facility, on how research underway there is changing what we thought we knew about determining time since death. And if you’re interested in finding out more about how to donate your body for such research, you can start here. Read more: 'This is going to affect how we determine time since death': how studying body donors in the bush is changing forensic science New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Trust Me, I’m An Expert on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Trust Me, I’m An Expert. Read more: Trust Me, I'm An Expert: what science says about how to lose weight and whether you really need to Additional audio Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks. Backyard by David Szesztay from Free Music Archive Images Shutterstock

The Panama Papers was the biggest-ever collaboration for investigative journalism, involving 400 journalists in 80 countries who collectively produced 6,000 stories in 100 different media outlets. ShutterstockToday on Media Files, a podcast on major themes and issues in the media, we meet Bastian Obermayer, the Pulitizer prize-winning journalist who led the Panama Papers investigation into global tax evasion and money laundering. It was the biggest-ever collaboration for investigative journalism, involving 400 journalists in 80 countries who collectively produced 6,000 stories in 100 different media outlets. Bastian Obermayer is the deputy editor for investigations at the Süddeutsche Zeitung in Munich, Germany. He was the person who received the original email from the anonymous source known as John Doe. Bastian recently joined the Centre for Advancing Journalism at the University of Melbourne, courtesy of the Macgeorge fellowship. He recorded this discussion with Andrew Dodd for Media Files. New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Media Files on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Media Files. Additional credits Producers: Andy Hazel and Henning Goll. Theme music: Susie Wilkins. Image Shutterstock Andrew Dodd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Have you been told by your doctor to consider dropping a few kilos? The good news is that often even a small amount of weight loss can improve your health outlook. shutterstockEverywhere you turn these days, there’s a diet ad, or family member or friend raving about some new diet that apparently works wonders. But what does the research actually say about how to lose weight - and if you even need to lose it in the first place? To find out, The Conversation’s Alexandra Hansen interviewed Clare Collins, a professor in nutrition and dietetics at the University of Newcastle. Professor Collins, who recently wrote an article titled The science behind diet trends like mono, charcoal detox, Noom and Fast800, also designed a free online course called The science of weight loss – dispelling diet myths. Alexandra began by asking Clare Collins how a person would know if they needed to change their diet. Read more: The science behind diet trends like mono, charcoal detox, Noom and Fast800 New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Trust Me, I’m An Expert on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Trust Me, I’m An Expert. Read more: Health Check: what's the best diet for weight loss? Additional reading: The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating Credits: Recording and editing by Wes Mountain and Chynthia Wijaya, additional editing by Sunanda Creagh. Additional audio Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks. CNN report. BBC report. Images Shutterstock

Are southern-born politicians talking about a state they essentially don't understand? ShutterstockThe dust has well and truly settled on Scott Morrison’s surprise victory in this year’s federal election but opinion is still divided on exactly what happened in Queensland. Why did Labor perform so poorly in the Sunshine State? Is Queensland an inherently conservative part of Australia? During the campaign, were southern-born politicians talking about a state they essentially didn’t understand? And – #Quexit jokes aside – is it time to redraw state lines in Australia, or even add new states? Today on Trust Me, I’m An Expert, we bring you a discussion organised by The Conversation, recorded at Avid Reader bookshop in Brisbane and broadcast by Big Ideas on the ABC’s RN. In this chat, political scientist Anne Tiernan from Griffith University speaks with the University of Southern Queensland’s John Cole, who has research expertise in the history of Australian federation, regional development and regional communities. Host Paul Barclay began by asking them to name the biggest misconceptions floating around about Queensland. New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Trust Me, I’m An Expert on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Trust Me, I’m An Expert. Credits: Recording and editing by RN’s Big Ideas, additional editing by Sunanda Creagh. Additional audio Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks. CNN report. BBC report. Images Shutterstock

Protesters holding umbrellas amid heavy rain march in an anti-government rally in Wan Chai, Hong Kong. AAP/EPA/VIVEK PRAKASHLast weekend, hundreds of thousands of people again took to the streets in Hong Kong to protest against the government – the 11th straight weekend of demonstrations that began in June over a proposed extradition bill. But after more than two months of increasingly violent clashes between demonstrators and the police, this protest was peaceful. No tear gas was fired. China expert Graeme Smith, one of the hosts of The Little Red Podcast, devoted this week’s episode to the Hong Kong protest movement, with his co-host, Louisa Lim, on the ground in Hong Kong talking to people about their perseverance in the face of a potentially severe military crackdown from Beijing. In this episode of Trust Me, Smith discusses where the protests go from here, whether there’s any chance for dialogue between the two sides, and the impact of the increasingly nationalist vitriol aimed at protesters on social media – and on the streets of Hong Kong. Read more: Beijing is moving to stamp out the Hong Kong protests – but it may have already lost the city for good Smith believes the protests aren’t going to stop until Chief Executive Carrie Lam definitively withdraws the contentious extradition bill and launches an inquiry into police violence against the protesters. And this is unlikely so long as Lam – and her backers in Beijing – continue to stand firm in their positions and refuse to negotiate. So, no one knows how this might end, Smith says. A lot of the protesters, especially those in their 20s, feel they basically have nothing to lose and they’re going to dig in for the long haul. New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Trust Me, I’m An Expert on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Trust Me, I’m An Expert. Credits: Recording and editing by Graeme Smith, Justin Bergman and Sunanda Creagh. Additional audio Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks. CNN report BBC report The Little Red Podcast Images AAP/EPA/VIVEK PRAKASH

AAP/EPA/JULIAN STRATENSCHULTEIn a landmark report, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has urged the federal government to fix the uneven market power of digital companies like Facebook and Google that make it almost impossible for traditional media companies to compete for advertising and audiences. The Digital Platforms Inquiry report, released in late July, lists 23 recommendations that cover all aspects of how and where we get our news. The ACCC’s proposed changes span competition law, consumer protections, media regulation and privacy laws. Today, the Media Files team talks to a media owner and journalism expert to look closely at what the ACCC has suggested needs to change so media businesses remain economically viable and able to produce reliable news in all parts of Australia. Media Files’ guests are media academic and journalist Margaret Simons from Monash University and Ross McPherson, editor-in-chief of the McPherson Media Group, publisher of 14 newspapers in regional Victoria and New South Wales. New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Media Files on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Media Files. Additional credits Producers: Andy Hazel and Gavin Nebauer. Theme music: Susie Wilkins. Image AAP/EPA/JULIAN STRATENSCHULTE Andrea Carson was invited to give her expert views to the ACCC during the inquiry and is the author of 'Investigative journalism, democracy and the digital age' published by Routledge, which is quoted in the ACCC's final report. She is also a chief investigator on an Australian Research Council grant examining the role of media coverage and other factors on public policy making.Matthew Ricketson is a chief investigator on an Australian Research Council grant led by Deakin University about developing new ways to support the survival of country media in the digital era. He is a member of the board of the Public Interest Journalism Foundation. Andrew Dodd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Today, we're asking two astrophysicists and a planetary scientist: what's the likelihood we'll be living on Mars or the Moon in future? Pixabay/WikiImages, CC BYYou’ve probably heard that this week marks 50 years since humans first set foot on the Moon – a feat that still boggles the mind given the limitations of technology at the time and the global effort required to pull it off. If you’re as fascinated as we are about the history and future of space exploration, check out The Conversation podcast, To the moon and beyond, a five-part podcast series from The Conversation. We’ve featured a little taste of it on Trust Me today. Through interviews with academic experts around the world – from space scientists to historians, lawyers, futurists and a former astronaut – science journalist Miriam Frankel and space scientist Martin Archer look at the past 50 years of space exploration and what the 50 years ahead have in store. Episode two features Australia’s own space archaeologist, Alice Gorman, in conversation with Sarah Keenihan about why Apollo 11 landing spots could become heritage sites for future generations of visitors to the Moon. Read more: To the moon and beyond 2: how humanity reacted to the moon landing and why it led to conspiracy theories But today, The Conversation’s Molly Glassey sits down with a panel of astrophysicists to ask the big questions about space, like: what’s the next big thing that’s happening in space research, the thing that will blow us away or bring us together the way the Moon landing did back in 1969? And what’s the likelihood we’ll be living on Mars or the Moon in future? Today, Molly chats to astrophysicists Jonti Horner and Belinda Nicholson from the University of Southern Queensland and planetary scientist Katarina Miljkovic from Curtin University. You can find all the episodes of To the moon and beyond on your podcast app, or on our site here. New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Trust Me, I’m An Expert on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Trust Me, I’m An Expert. Credits: To the moon and beyond is produced by Gemma Ware and Annabel Bligh. Sound editing by Siva Thangarajah. Thank you to City, University of London’s Department of Journalism for allowing use of their studios for To the moon and beyond, and to . Music: Even when we fall by Philipp Weigl, via Free Music Archive Fallen Stars by Ketsa, via Free Music Archive Apollo 11 and 17 audio from NASA Additional audio Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks. Images Pixabay/WikiImages

The world's weather is changing and the media needs to keep up. Flickr/Shannon Dizmang, CC BYWhen he founded the blog CapitalWeather.com 15 years ago in Washington DC, Jason Samenow was working for the US government as a climate change analyst. A full-time media career was probably the last thing on his mind. But the blog – which became known as the Capital Weather Gang – gained traction, and was gradually absorbed by The Washington Post. These days, Samenow is chief meteorologist and weather editor for the Post, where his work is driving audience growth and engagement. Jason Samenow began his career as a climate change analyst before transitioning into journalism. Jason Samenow, Author provided (No reuse) Lawrie Zion caught up with him for a chat about how digital media has changed the way that we connect to the weather, and why it’s wrong for weather editors to leave climate change out of the discussion. New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Media Files on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Media Files. Additional credits Producer: Andy Hazel. Theme music: Susie Wilkins. Image Flickr/Shannon Dizmang The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Research underway at the University of Technology, Sydney's AFTER facility is yielding some surprising new findings about how bodies decompose in the Australian bush. Supplied by UTS, Author provided (No reuse)On the outskirts of Sydney, in a secret bushland location, lies what’s officially known as the Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Research (AFTER). In books and movies, it’d be called a body farm. Maiken Ueland at the AFTER facility run by UTS. Supplied by UTS, Author provided Taphonomy is the study of how an organism breaks down after death. Research underway at the University of Technology Sydney’s AFTER facility is yielding some surprising new findings about how bodies decompose in the Australian bush. And here’s an astonishing detail: until AFTER opened in Sydney in 2016, there was no facility like it in the southern hemisphere. Most of the world’s taphonomic research came from the US, meaning we were missing vital clues relating to how Australian weather, bugs and climate conditions affect the way a human body decomposes in the bush. Today on our podcast, Trust Me, I’m An Expert, we take you on a journey to AFTER. The facility’s interim director, Maiken Ueland, and PhD student Samara Garrett-Rickman share with us: some of the unexpected findings emerging from AFTER on determining time since death; why AFTER researchers prefer not to use the term “body farm”; how the stages of decomposition work a process of “mummification” that research suggests may be unique to Australian bushland conditions; what the TV shows get wrong about forensic science; why it’s harder to bury a body than most people think; what investigators look for to spot a clandestine grave; And if you’re interested in finding out more about how to donate your body for such research, you can start here. Looking for odours at the AFTER facility, run by UTS. Anna Zhu, Author provided (No reuse) New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Trust Me, I’m An Expert on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Trust Me, I’m An Expert. Additional audio Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks. Backyard by David Szesztay from Free Music Archive Images UTS/Anna Zhu

The report found that Australian news consumers access news less often and have lower interest in it compared to citizens in many other countries. ShutterstockOn today’s episode, we hear from Caroline Fisher, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Canberra and lead author of the 2019 Australian edition of the the Digital News Report. The annual report has found that public trust in the news media is falling. It also finds that Australians are worried about “fake news”. Perhaps as a result, we access news less often and have lower interest in it compared to citizens in many other countries. Yet, when it comes to keeping us up to date, we think the news media passes the test. It’s the fifth year of the report, which comes from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University. There are 38 countries involved and it’s an annual snapshot of media: how they’re using it and what they think of it. You can hear the full interview and details of the report here on Media Files. Read more: Australians are less interested in news and consume less of it compared to other countries, survey finds New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Media Files on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Media Files. Additional credits Producer: Andy Hazel. Theme music: Susie Wilkins. Image Shutterstock The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Older private renters are far more likely to experience loneliness than their counterparts in social housing and that loneliness can be acute. ShutterstockA growing number of older Australians don’t own their homes. And whether they are private renters or live in social housing can make a big difference to their risk of loneliness and anxiety. That’s the key finding of research led by Alan Morris, a professor at the UTS Institute for Public Policy and Governance, who interviewed older Australians about how their housing situation may relate to the loneliness they experience. On today’s episode, Professor Morris shares some of the deeply moving stories he heard. Read more: 'I really have thought this can’t go on': loneliness looms for rising numbers of older private renters New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Trust Me, I’m An Expert on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Trust Me, I’m An Expert. Additional audio Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks. Image Shutterstock

David Crosling/AAPCardinal George Pell’s appeal against child sexual assault convictions kicks off this week, but when that’s over Pell still has another reckoning to face: the unredacted findings of Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. When the royal commission handed down its massive report in late 2017, several sections were redacted until after any legal proceedings against Cardinal Pell were concluded. In this episode of Media Files, Matthew Ricketson talks with ABC investgative reporter Louise Milligan – author of Cardinal: the rise and fall of George Pell – about the issues and incidents the royal commission investigated. New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Media Files on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Media Files. Additional credits Producer: Andy Hazel. Theme music: Susie Wilkins. Image David Crosling/AAP Matthew Ricketson is chair of the board of the Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma, Asia-Pacific, which has done work to support journalists who have reported extensively on child sexual abuse.

Facebook's Mia Garlick says, 'we're frequently seeing politicians use the Facebook Live tool to augment a press conference or to directly speak to voters about the issues of importance of the day.' AAP/MICK TSIKASAs we enter the final straight of the Australian election campaign, we ask you: how much of your information about the issues and the candidates comes from social media? Today’s Media Files podcast examines the role of social media in election campaigns, including the spread of “fake news” and foreign political interference. Joining us is Facebook’s policy director Mia Garlick to help us understand the scale of traffic on social media. New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Media Files on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Media Files. Additional credits Producers: Andy Hazel and Marg Purdam. Theme music: Susie Wilkins. Image Mick Tsikas/AAP Andrea Carson receives funding from The Australian Research Council for a discovery on the role of big data in public policy decision-making. She has previously researched digital newsrooms on a Facebook-funded research project in 2017.Andrew Dodd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Indian general elections begin April 11. vepar5/shutterstockHere’s an astonishingly large number. Around 900 million Indians are heading to the polls to decide if they want to reelect the current government of Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). India Tomorrow is a seven-part podcast series by The Anthill (produced by The Conversation UK), exploring some of the major issues facing India – identity politics, the rise of Hindu nationalism, Kashmir, the role of caste and gender in shaping Indian society, and how women and young people experience these phenomena. Part one, an episode on India’s information wars and how fake news fuels violence, launched on April 9. You can sign up to The Anthill newsletter to stay up to date and send questions via podcast@theconversation.com or via Twitter @AnthillPod. The producers will be putting your questions to academics. Read more: Why Australia should engage with the unemployment crisis affecting Indian youth Today on Trust Me, I’m An Expert, we’re hearing from an academic featured on India Tomorrow. Craig Jeffrey is the director and CEO of the Australia India Institute and Professor of Development Geography at the University of Melbourne. He explains what issues are front of mind for India’s millions of first-time voters delivering their verdict on the performance of the BJP government, led by Narendra Modi. “Two things are really crucial. One is jobs. Young people across India and particularly in parts of India where the economy’s been less successful at creating jobs - so some of the northern states, for example, are going to be really concerned with the capacity of the government to provide better employment opportunities,” Professor Jeffrey told The Conversation’s editorial intern Bageshri Savyasachi. “The second issue, I think, that they’ll be very concerned about is education. So they’ll be looking to see which political parties and politicians are promising to improve higher education […] Because for a lot of young people who aren’t part of the elite in India, there is a mismatch, often, between the educational opportunities they obtain in school or university and then the employment markets and the demands of key private sector firms.” “A third area that’s perhaps less obvious is the issue of health care and public health. And my own observations, as an anthropologist and human geographer working in mainly Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand over the past 25 years on social change, is that young people are often demanding access to health services that are poorly provisioned in provincial India, particularly in relation to issues like sexual health, mental health, reproductive health and that’s an area where I think young people are looking to government for more action.” Join us as Professor Jeffrey explains what implications this enormous election will have for the world’s second most populous nation, and for the rest of the globe as well. Read more: India Tomorrow: a podcast series from The Anthill – episode guide New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Trust Me, I’m An Expert on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed and click on the icon to find Trust Me, I’m An Expert. Transcript Craig Jeffrey: Those numbers are astonishing, aren’t they? And it’s very difficult, I think, for pundits to predict what precisely they’ll do in terms of the elections. What’s slightly easier to say, though, I think, is what’s in the minds of those voters. And I think two things are really crucial, one is jobs. So young people across India and particularly in parts of India where the economy’s been less successful at creating jobs - so some of the northern states, for example - are going to be really concerned with the capacity of the government to provide better employment opportunities. The second issue, I think, that they’ll be very concerned about is education. So they’ll be looking to see which political parties and politicians are promising to improve higher education, tertiary education more generally, the skills environment and school education. Because for a lot of young people who aren’t part of the elite in India, there is a mismatch, often, between the educational opportunities they obtain in school or university and then the employment market and the demands of key private sector firms. So I think jobs and education are going to be at the top of young people’s minds as they go into the polling booths. What are parties and politicians promising in those areas? A third area that’s perhaps less obvious is the issue of health care and public health. And my own observations, as an anthropologist and human geographer working in mainly Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand over the past 25 years on social change, is that young people are often demanding access to health services that are poorly provisioned in provincial India particularly in relation to issues like sexual health, mental health, reproductive health and that’s an area where I think young people are looking to government for more action. And I think that will also be in young people’s minds in the lead up to the elections. Read more: India Tomorrow part 1 podcast transcript: Fake news and the battle for information Bageshri Savyasachi: What jobs are available to young people and do they want to do those jobs? Craig Jeffrey: Well, I think one of the stories of Indian economic growth since 1990 is its failure to create a large number of what might be regarded as white collar or middle class jobs for the increasing numbers of young people who are getting high school matriculation certificates or degrees in India. Now, India’s not especially unusual in that regard. Particularly since the global financial crisis in the late 2000s, economies around the world have often found it difficult to create secure employment opportunities for people. Of course, automation, mechanisation is changing the nature of work throughout the world. So this isn’t specific to India but India is an almost very condensed or intense example of the failure of economic growth to create lots of good quality jobs, that long predates 2014 and the coming to power of the BJP. It’s a structural feature of the Indian economy since 1990 and especially since the mid-2000s period. So to get to your question of what jobs actually exist, in many cases what we’re seeing in India is people having to realign their expectations of what work they’re going to do in that five to 10 year period after they graduate from high school or university. This is not new. Ronald Dore wrote in his book The Diploma Disease in 1970 that India was the country of the BA bus conductor. So that sense of having to downplay your expectations in light of circumstances is quite old in India. But now, I would argue, that a lot of people with bachelors degrees in India would be very keen to have a job on state roadways as a bus conductor, so intense and cut-throat has the employment market become. So you’re seeing people with masters degrees, with PhDs having to do very small scale entrepreneurial business work, you’re seeing them especially having to go back into agriculture – not as large-scale agricultural innovators making large amounts of money and employing other people but rather working on quite small plots of land in an environment where they didn’t imagine that they would go back into farming. So one of the alarming statistics, I think, is that while in most of the period between 2000 and 2010 the number of young people in agriculture was declining, as you would expect in a country that’s undergoing a structural transformation from agriculture into manufacturing and services, in the 2010s and particularly since 2014 there has been an increase in young people in agriculture. Now that is quite worrying for India and reflects the point that jobs in the modern economy are not becoming available quickly enough, young people are not finding the infrastructural and institutional environment conducive to moving into successful medium-scale entrepreneurship where they employ other people and find an outlet for their talents. Bageshri Savyasachi: How crucial has mobilising young people been to the electoral successes of the ruling party, the BJP? Craig Jeffrey: That’s an easy question to answer because of the demographic structure of India and the figures for voting in 2014 in particular show that of course the BJP has been very successful at mobilising people generally in India to vote for them and that includes young people. It’s done so through making a series of important statements about its approach to social and economic change. And it has done so also through tapping into, I think, a sense of national identity that’s important to young people. So the BJP has been pretty successful. Not just the BJP but also various organisations connected to the party at the grassroots level. Bageshri Savyasachi: Is young people’s support for Modi on the wane? A lot of young people supported him when he was first running for prime minister but now a lot of young people are feeling disappointed. What do you think? Craig Jeffrey: I should do that classic academic thing of saying that I’m not an expert on the contemporary views of young people in India. Where I’ve done most of my research has been in particular pockets of India, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and the bulk of that research was done in the period between 1995 and 2010. Since 2010, my work has been mainly in a village in quite a remote part of Uttarakhand, in Chamoli district, and I’ve written quite a lot about the social and political attitudes of young people in that village. Now, those are quite particular to one part of India. Like you and like lots of people, I read the newspapers, I talk to friends in different parts of India, I try to pick up on the streets a sense of the mood. But in that regard, I’m an armchair or amateur interpreter of young people’s political views at the moment. With those caveats in mind, my sense is that young people may not support Modi as much as they did five years ago but that doesn’t mean that they won’t vote for him. So one needs to maybe distinguish between support and how people will actually behave in the ballot booth. I think lots of people that I speak to recognise that given the high pitch to which Modi raised people’s aspirations in 2014 there was always going to be a sense of disappointment, that skilling hundreds of millions of people quickly was going to be a very tough ask. And that the vision of New India, while attractive in certain respects, is not borne out in social reality for those outside of the elite and particularly in provincial parts of India, in small town and rural India. So people see on the social and economic side a kind of mismatch between promise and actuality. And I think that’s undermined a certain enthusiasm for the ruling BJP government. I’m really not in a position to be able to adjudicate on the extent to which people have sort of fallen out of love with a particular vision of the nation as primarily Hindu or driven by a Hindu civilisational push. That’s, I think, more difficult to ascertain. It’s tricky. The question, I suppose, is: is 2019 to be like 2004, where there was a bit of a surprise that actually the Indian population, including the young population, did move away from the BJP? And it was partly because they didn’t feel that they were sharing in the social gains associated with economic growth. And it was partly, as you just observed, that some of the aspects of the sort of rhetoric of Hindu nationalism were not anymore particularly attractive. So it is possible that the same kind of cocktail will still exist in 2019, of sort of a sense of social and economic exclusion and a sense of being a little bit tired of the same message coming out from the government. But it’s very very difficult to tell. As I said, one has to distinguish between support and enthusiasm on the one hand and the actual decision to vote on the other. Because one thing you see again and again in elections in India is people putting their votes in for politicians or parties that they don’t actually very much like but they feel like they ought to. Ultimately, it’s the least bad choice that they want to make, which is of course it’s not distinctly Indian, it’s an aspect of how people vote across the world. Read more: India Tomorrow podcast series from The Anthill – trailer Bageshri Savyasachi: We’ll just have to wait and watch. What is the state of youth unemployment in India? My impression is that for young people, it’s hard to get a job if you don’t have a masters or a bachelor’s degree. And even then you may not get a job in your chosen field. Craig Jeffrey: Oh, that’s absolutely right. The recent NSSO figures show that youth unemployment in India is something around 16 or 17%. Now those figures are contested but my view is that they are fairly robust. And, of course, beyond that problem of outright unemployment, there’s a very large problem of underemployment where people are working in part-time insecure work that doesn’t reflect their skills, ambitions and credentials. So both outright unemployment and underemployment are becoming increasing problems in India. In 2010, I wrote a book called Timepass which drew attention to this problem based on fieldwork work in Western Uttar Pradesh. I talked about the emergence of a generation of young people who described themselves as people with nothing to do. Who were doing nothing but also in some sense saw themselves as being nothing. A very intense form of social suffering associated with a prolonged period of unemployment or underemployment. When I talk to young people in the same area now they say that actually that book is more relevant in 2019 than it was in 2010. Someone told me when I visited India two weeks ago “I felt like it had been written yesterday” and this reflects the way this problem of unemployment and underemployment to young people has intensified over the past nine years rather than dissipated. Bageshri Savyasachi: In her recent book, Dreamers: how young Indians are changing the world, the prominent Indian journalist Snigdha Poonam writes, “the world’s future depends on young Indians meeting their aspirations but it’s a pipe dream at this point”. How big of a problem is this disconnect between young Indians’ aspirations and their reality? Craig Jeffrey: Well, I think it’s a huge problem and I think that the book Dreamers is very successful in setting that out. It’s worth again going back to the point about demographics. One in eight people in the world is an Indian under the age of 30. It’s worth repeating that: one in eight people in the world is an Indian young person, someone under the age of 30. Now, that’s an extraordinary statistic and it gives a sense of the importance of that demographic for the future of Asia and of the world. Now unlike the same generation 25 years ago, that set of young people are very well aware of events in other parts of the world which are streamed to them via their mobile phones or on the internet. They are increasingly in secondary school, including young women, and in school they’re learning to obviously dream big. And the government is also encouraging those young people to see themselves as part of a new India that’s modern, in which people are based often in urban areas doing what historically has been described as sort of middle class work, service work. And now where you’ve got that situation of both demographic growth and the rapid sort of revolution of rising aspirations, you need an outlet for young people so that they feel as they move into their 20s and 30s that they’re achieving the goals that they desire. And that’s not happening. And the question then is, how much of a problem is that? Well, obviously for the young people concerned it’s a big problem for their families. Young people are not passive in that situation, they actively and creatively seek ways to make do. That may be entering into fallback work in agriculture. It may be finding jobs that perhaps they weren’t aspiring to originally but which provide a means for establishing a family and getting by, in areas like sales and marketing. But there is also a lot of just disappointment, I think, and a sense of stuckedness and limbo that, again, I wrote about in detail in my book Timepass. What’s surprising, perhaps, is that that sense of social suffering hasn’t led to more unrest in India and I think there are several reasons for that. I think partly because India is a democracy people have an outlet for frustration through the political system, through voting, through demonstrating on the streets. I think a second reason why there hasn’t been more political mobilisation is that people often perceive this as a personal failure rather than a failure of government or of society or as a structural failure, as social scientists would put it. They see it as “Well, I didn’t try hard enough” or “I wasn’t successful enough in that examination”. So it’s quite a lot of this failure I think often is personalised rather than seen as a reflection of the structural features of the Indian economy and the wider institutional environment in which people may be trying to start businesses. There’s a whole history of commentators on India talking about the country as being poised to sort of fall into unrest. I’m not going to do that. I think India, it holds together and as I said people are, young people are actively finding ways to make do. But I do think it’s a major social issue at the moment, the lack of capacity for young people to realise their aspirations and it should be and will remain an absolutely critical issue for government in India. Bageshri Savyasachi: How has national politics played out in Indian universities under Modi? Craig Jeffrey: Well, the information that leaks out on this issue tends to come from a small number of the very well-known universities in India. So universities like Jawaharlal Nehru University, Hyderabad University, Delhi University and that there has been, over the past few years as you’ll be well aware, a series of controversies over the government’s treatment of student protesters in those universities and of the ideological, the role of government in shaping how universities operate ideologically through, for example, the appointment of particular vice-chancellors with particular views on politics that then shape those institutions. Now, that’s a very important debate and it’s one that people can follow through a whole series of articles in magazines and newspapers in India. What interests me more is what’s happening outside of those well known central universities. What is happening actually in universities like the one that I worked in quite a bit 15 years ago. Chaudhary Charan Singh University which is the sixth largest university in the world if one excludes universities that provide distance education. And is actually, according to some sources, the second largest university in India after Indira Gandhi National Open University, which of course is largely a distance university, distance education university. So what’s happening in those big state universities that are affiliating other colleges. And that’s an area which desperately requires consideration. I think it would repay close social research. You’re seeing the emergence of different types of student politics to that which existed 15 years ago and some of those forms of student politics are linked to a Hindu nationalist agenda. Some are not. There’s a great deal of foment in those sort of more provincial universities that operates under the radar on which commentators and social scientists know very little about but which is really important in terms of shaping the environment in which the vast majority of students in India study, which is in colleges, not actually in universities. It’s in colleges affiliated to universities like Chaudhary Charan Singh University. I’d be really interested in hearing from anyone who’s listening to this podcast about their views or experiences of the curricular, of student action in India’s colleges where most people study. Bageshri Savyasachi: Do you think there is a growing shift towards illiberalism among India’s youth? Craig Jeffrey: Well, I think that’s a really interesting question. First, one has to think about, well, what is liberalism? And if we define that relatively narrowly in terms of a commitment to formal equality and individual freedoms then I think there’s evidence both ways. There’s evidence of young people contesting those visions of formal equality and individual freedom, for example through their views on areas like sexuality. So there was a recent Centre for the Study of Developing Societies survey that showed that the majority of young Indians didn’t approve of homosexuality. So there’s some evidence there of a certain kind of “illiberalism”. There’s evidence of young people’s involvement in societies or organisations that are policing people’s right to eat certain foods, again which would suggest the rise of a certain form of illiberalism. But there’s also of course a great deal of evidence the other way, that young people are very active in nongovernmental organisations that are seeking to protect people’s formal equality, protect people’s freedoms. The number of youth NGOs in India is growing very, very quickly. There’s also, I think, a very interesting debate about the relationship between the individual and liberalism in India. So an argument that’s been made by several people is that actually liberalism in India is organised around a sense of group rights rather than around individual rights. So it’s perfectly possible to be part of a caste organisation or a religious organisation that’s about equality and freedom but nevertheless is articulating those notions of equality and freedom through reference to caste and religion. So that would be an argument that I think lots of Hindu nationalists would make, is that even though Hindus are the majority and even though that they’re making an argument in Hindu terms, it’s an argument about tolerance and about liberalism rather than about violence or exclusion or limiting people’s freedoms. So it’s a very complicated question. There’s evidence both ways. There’s also a tangled set of debates about whether you could have a kind of liberalism based on a sense of group rights and whether so-called Western visions of liberalism can really be applied to a place like India, where notions of religion and caste and family are so strong. That might be a more detailed answer than you wanted but it’s one that really interests, this is a question that really interests me. Bageshri Savyasachi: What do young people think now in 2019 that their parents or grandparents may not have thought at the same age? Craig Jeffrey: Well, I think one of the effects of more young people studying in secondary school is that they’ve often absorbed notions of citizenship and good government that are communicated in school textbooks. So in one of the villages where I work, I was sitting working with a young person who was doing an English lesson recently and one of the English exercises was to write a letter to the local district magistrate in English complaining about the state of the drains in their neighbourhood. And this was obviously an attempt not only to learn English but to inculcate a particular vision of the citizen and of the state. And I think the effect of having large numbers of young people in school, being exposed to these narratives is actually that many more people have accepted and appreciate that kind of vision of rights and citizenship than in the 1990s when I started doing fieldwork in north India. So you see that’s reflected, for example, in young people’s support for anti-corruption movements. You see it in terms of young people’s questioning of forms of malpractice that exist in certain bureaucracies in India. Another point I’d really like to stress is the revolution that’s been happening in India with reference to women’s and especially young women’s rights and capacities. And that’s, I think, really a major success story in the last 20 years in India or 30 years, is that women and young women have achieved a much greater degree of autonomy and voice at all levels of society and in cities as well as in villages. Now, that comes, of course with all sorts of caveats about the continued problems of gender violence, of disparities in terms of pay and access to schooling and social goods. Nevertheless, I think that is a really important point to stress about the achievements of India in the period since 2000. Additional audio Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks Image: Shutterstock

A scene at the Aquarius Festival, Nimbin, 1973. Flickr/Harry Watson Smith, CC BY-SA, CC BY-SAToday, Trust Me, I’m An Expert brings you a special episode carried across from another Conversation podcast, Essays On Air. In the north-east corner of Australia’s most populous state of New South Wales is a small former dairying and banana farming community. Today, however, that village is unrecognisable. Nimbin is now widely acknowledged as Australia’s counter-cultural capital, a sister city to both Woodstock in New York State and Freetown Christiania in Denmark. Among Nimbin’s tourist attractions today are its Hemp Embassy and the annual Mardi Grass festival in early May, which argues for the legislation of marijuana for personal and medicinal use. The village’s transformation from a rural farming community to its present form can be traced to 1973, when Nimbin became the unlikely host of the Aquarius Festival – a counter-culture arts and music gathering presented by the radical Australian Union of Students. A scene from the Aquarius Festival in Nimbin, 1973. Flickr/harryws20/Harry Watson Smith, CC BY Why is Nimbin the way it is? These social and political origins of the commodified hippie culture on display today in Nimbin have become less apparent to visitors and more recent migrants to the region. Visitors, especially those arriving on bus tours, tend to shop, buy coffee and leave again. To counter this, the Nimbin Tourism Office commissioned me in 2016 to produce an app-based audio walk to promote a deeper engagement for tourists with the town and help answer the question: why is Nimbin the way it is? Here’s a snippet: Local voices on how the 1973 Aquarius Festival changed Nimbin forever. Jeanti St Clair, CC BY2.44 MB (download) The audio walk, an adapted version of which features on today’s episode of Essays On Air, was published onto the GPS-enabled mobile phone app Soundtrails. Soundtrails is owned by The Story Project, an Australian organisation focusing on oral history-based audio walks and they’ve published more than a dozen such walks in regional Australia. A scene from the Aquarius Festival in Nimbin, 1973. Flickr/Harry Watson Smith/harryws20, CC BY Anyone with a smartphone can access it by downloading the app and the Nimbin audio walk and following the route through the village’s streets and parklands. Headphones provide the best experience. The stories I share with you today are excerpts from the Nimbin Soundtrail and are drawn from consultations and interviews with more than 60 Nimbin residents, Aquarius Festival participants and Indigenous elders. Here, I’ve tried to reconnect the past and the present to make clear how Nimbin became the counter-cultural capital that it is. And the caveat is that many of the events in this documentary walk happened more than 40 years ago. I’ve recognised that memories have merged with other retellings that evolved over the years and the definitive truth is perhaps unavailable. Any version of Nimbin’s counter-culture will be an incomplete history. The nine months it took me to gather these stories and make some sense of how they fitted together were rewarding. And while there are some who might dispute the accounts of what happened in these stories, others agree that it’s a fair record of Nimbin contemporary history. The full Nimbin soundtrack can be heard by downloading the Soundtrails app and listening here. And if you are ever in the area, I invite you to take a day out, visit and listen to the stories in town. A crowd at the Nimbin Hotel during the Aquarius Festival, Nimbin, 1973. Flickr/Harry Watson Smith, CC BY New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Essays On Air on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on PlayerFM or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Essays On Air. Additional audio Recording and editing by Jeanti St Clair from Southern Cross University. This podcast contains excerpts from the Nimbin Soundtrail, used with grateful permission from The Story Project/Soundtrails. See the app for the walk’s full credit list. Selections of original music from the Nimbin Soundtrail by Neil Pike. Excerpt from Deke Naptar’s Culture, Culture from Necroscopix (1970-1981), Free Music Archive Fair Use Excerpts: Nimbin Mardi Grass 2018 parade ABC, Vietnam Lottery, 1965 Pathé Australians Against War 1966 ABC, This Day Tonight, anti-Vietnam War Moratoriam, 1970 Gough Whitlam policy speech, 1972 It’s Time, ALP campaign song, 1972 Snow by David Szesztay Jeanti St Clair would like to again thank Lismore City Council and Nimbin Tourism for commissioning the Nimbin Soundtrail, and all the many contributors to the audio walk. Additional reading/listening Nimbin Soundtrail Image Lead image from Flickr/harryws20/Harry Watson Smith/, published under Creative Commons. Correction: An earlier version of this article included a caption that described the 1973 Aquarius Festival as the “first”. In fact, it was the first Aquarius Festival in Nimbin, and followed other Aquarius festivals that had taken place on university campuses. Jeanti St Clair has consulted in the past for Soundtrails as an associate producer. She was paid by Lismore City Council to produce the audio walk. She does not have any ongoing financial benefit from Soundtrails or Lismore City Council.

A scene at the Aquarius Festival, Nimbin, 1973. Flickr/Harry Watson Smith, CC BY-SAIn the north-east corner of Australia’s most populous state of New South Wales is a small former dairying and banana farming community. Today, however, that village is unrecognisable. Nimbin is now widely acknowledged as Australia’s counter-cultural capital, a sister city to both Woodstock in New York State and Freetown Christiania in Denmark. Among Nimbin’s tourist attractions today are its Hemp Embassy and the annual Mardi Grass festival in early May, which argues for the legislation of marijuana for personal and medicinal use. The village’s transformation from a rural farming community to its present form can be traced to 1973, when Nimbin became the unlikely host of the Aquarius Festival – a counter-culture arts and music gathering presented by the radical Australian Union of Students. A scene from the Aquarius Festival in Nimbin, 1973. Flickr/harryws20/Harry Watson Smith, CC BY Why is Nimbin the way it is? These social and political origins of the commodified hippie culture on display today in Nimbin have become less apparent to visitors and more recent migrants to the region. Visitors, especially those arriving on bus tours, tend to shop, buy coffee and leave again. To counter this, the Nimbin Tourism Office commissioned me in 2016 to produce an app-based audio walk to promote a deeper engagement for tourists with the town and help answer the question: why is Nimbin the way it is? Here’s a snippet: Local voices on how the 1973 Aquarius Festival changed Nimbin forever. Jeanti St Clair, CC BY2.44 MB (download) The audio walk, an adapted version of which features on today’s episode of Essays On Air, was published onto the GPS-enabled mobile phone app Soundtrails. Soundtrails is owned by The Story Project, an Australian organisation focusing on oral history-based audio walks and they’ve published more than a dozen such walks in regional Australia. A scene from the Aquarius Festival in Nimbin, 1973. Flickr/Harry Watson Smith/harryws20, CC BY Anyone with a smartphone can access it by downloading the app and the Nimbin audio walk and following the route through the village’s streets and parklands. Headphones provide the best experience. The stories I share with you today are excerpts from the Nimbin Soundtrail and are drawn from consultations and interviews with more than 60 Nimbin residents, Aquarius Festival participants and Indigenous elders. Here, I’ve tried to reconnect the past and the present to make clear how Nimbin became the counter-cultural capital that it is. And the caveat is that many of the events in this documentary walk happened more than 40 years ago. I’ve recognised that memories have merged with other retellings that evolved over the years and the definitive truth is perhaps unavailable. Any version of Nimbin’s counter-culture will be an incomplete history. The nine months it took me to gather these stories and make some sense of how they fitted together were rewarding. And while there are some who might dispute the accounts of what happened in these stories, others agree that it’s a fair record of Nimbin contemporary history. The full Nimbin soundtrack can be heard by downloading the Soundtrails app and listening here. And if you are ever in the area, I invite you to take a day out, visit and listen to the stories in town. A crowd at the Nimbin Hotel during the Aquarius Festival, Nimbin, 1973. Flickr/Harry Watson Smith, CC BY New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Essays On Air on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on PlayerFM or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Essays On Air. Additional audio Recording and editing by Jeanti St Clair from Southern Cross University. This podcast contains excerpts from the Nimbin Soundtrail, used with grateful permission from The Story Project/Soundtrails. See the app for the walk’s full credit list. Selections of original music from the Nimbin Soundtrail by Neil Pike. Excerpt from Deke Naptar’s Culture, Culture from Necroscopix (1970-1981), Free Music Archive Fair Use Excerpts: Nimbin Mardi Grass 2018 parade ABC, Vietnam Lottery, 1965 Pathé Australians Against War 1966 ABC, This Day Tonight, anti-Vietnam War Moratoriam, 1970 Gough Whitlam policy speech, 1972 It’s Time, ALP campaign song, 1972 Snow by David Szesztay Jeanti St Clair would like to again thank Lismore City Council and Nimbin Tourism for commissioning the Nimbin Soundtrail, and all the many contributors to the audio walk. Additional reading/listening Nimbin Soundtrail Image Lead image from Flickr/harryws20/Harry Watson Smith/, published under Creative Commons. Correction: An earlier version of this article included a caption that described the 1973 Aquarius Festival as the “first”. In fact, it was the first Aquarius festival in Nimbin, and followed other Aquarius festivals that had taken place on university campuses. Jeanti St Clair has consulted in the past for Soundtrails as an associate producer. She was paid by Lismore City Council to produce the audio walk. She does not have any ongoing financial benefit from Soundtrails or Lismore City Council.

Political scientist Andy Marks says: ‘I’d suggest the momentum is with Labor and it hasn’t substantially shifted’. AAP Image/NIC ELLISWe are but a few weeks from a federal election, and the way the wind is blowing may depend on what state you’re in. Trust Me, I’m An Expert – along with Politics with Michelle Grattan – is bringing you state-focused podcast episodes as polling day approaches. To catch up on all the political drama unfolding in NSW, I spoke to political scientist (and self-described political tragic) Andy Marks, who predicted a Labor victory on May 18. “Labor will win this election. I think that’s virtually unquestionable. We’re just not seeing enough movement, even in the polls at this point, in the primary vote level, to say the Libs or the Coalition will hang on. I think this is going to be a Labor victory,” he said. Read more: The myth of 'the Queensland voter', Australia's trust deficit, and the path to Indigenous recognition Take this week’s Newspoll – which appeared to show the gap between the two major parties – with a grain of salt, he said. “Early in April, we saw exactly the same primary vote polling as we saw on the weekend. So, there hasn’t really been a discernible shift. You need to see a gap open up to the degree of around about five or six points, for the Coalition to even look like hanging on. It will stay tight, I think until polling day, but I’d suggest the momentum is with Labor and it hasn’t substantially shifted.” You can read the full transcript below, and hear The Conversation’s chief political correspondent Michelle Grattan talk with experts on the seats and issues to watch in WA and Victoria on the Politics with Michelle Grattan podcast. Production assistance by Tilly Gwinner. Read more: Politics with Michelle Grattan: Caroline Fisher on the spin machines of #AusVotes19 New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Trust Me, I’m An Expert on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Trust Me, I’m An Expert. Additional audio Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks SBS news report ABC news report Image AAP Image/NIC ELLIS Transcript: Andy Marks: I’m Andy Marks, I’m a political scientist and Assistant Vice-Chancellor at Western Sydney University. Sunanda Creagh: So Andy, let’s just catch up on where things are up to in New South Wales. What do you see as the key issues in voters’ minds in New South Wales as polling day approaches? Andy Marks: New South Wales is a strange case. It’s the usual suspects in terms of issues but not in the usual way. So we’re seeing the economy feature but we’re not hearing too much in the way of big ticket reform. We are hearing some of that from Labor of course and it’s not about fiscal performance. That’s not winning votes anymore. It’s about issues like cost of living, it’s about issues like wage stagnation. At the other end, you have issues around negative gearing reform and franking credits which are more at the investment end. So a very unusual take on the economy in terms of elections. The other issues that feature, of course, Labor have made it about health in terms of cancer care and the package they have there. Alternatively, the Libs have sought to bring it back towards security and issues around border protection, of course, that we saw with John Howard coming into the campaign on the weekend. The big sleeper is climate and it’s a sleeper in the sense that it’s coming to the fore from a number of angles. We’re seeing the issue of energy reform come up from industry who are madly seeking coherent energy policy from both sides of the parliament. We’re seeing the issue of the environment played out with issues like Adani, and water, of course, is the big one in terms of agriculture and rural electorates across the country. So there’s three different lenses being applied but they all come up in terms of how both sides address the issue of climate. Sunanda Creagh: You mentioned negative gearing there. Sydney, being the centre of the property boom in Australia, people here seem to be mortgaged up to their eyeballs. Lots of people negatively gearing properties. Do you think that issue might be a decider for some Sydney voters who do take advantage of that policy? Andy Marks: Negative gearing will factor on the minds of many voters, but not in the seats that are pressure cookers, so they’re not going to swing seats. I think, for example, certainly among the retirement community those issues, particularly around the franking credits matter, are of importance. The housing market in Sydney and across the eastern states more broadly is softening anyway ahead of this measure. It’s hard to tie a definitive link to that and the coming reforms, should Labor win government. It’s not an issue that’s going to turn swinging seats, but it will factor into some more rusted-on voters. Sunanda Creagh: And speaking of seats, what do you see as the key seats to watch? Andy Marks: Across New South Wales, I reckon there’s about five that are up for a change. At the outset, I have to say this election won’t be won or lost in New South Wales. It’s most likely Queensland where you have up to eight seats and margins of 4% or less that will decide it. In Victoria, there’ll be some significant movement as well. There’s about five that I’m looking at in New South Wales in terms of potential change. Wentworth, of course, is the big one with the contest between Kerryn Phelps and Dave Sharma. Lindsay, where Emma Husar has been moved aside through misconduct allegations, and you have a contest there and out at Western Sydney. Banks, the immigration minister faces a challenge there on a 1.4% margin. Then we, move into some coastal regional seats. Gilmore, where former ALP president Warren Mundine is running against Labor’s Fiona Phillips. Robertson on the Central Coast which is held by just 1.1% by the Libs, so they’re the ones where I think you can see some movement. Now the exciting stuff, in terms of drama, Warringah, of course, where former PM Tony Abbott is facing a challenge. In Reid, Turnbull-backer Craig Laundy turned that razor thin margin into almost a moderately safe seat for the Libs, and that’s up in play again as well. Sunanda Creagh: You mentioned Gilmore, that’s an area that takes in places like Shoalhaven, Jervis Bay, and some of those Batemans Bay type areas. Tell us, what are some of the issues that will be in voters minds in that area? Andy Marks: Look that’s a difficult one to pick. It’s really a four-way contest. You have a candidate in Warren Mundine who was essentially parachuted in by Morrison. The controversy there, of course, being his former role with Labor. You also have Katrina Hodgkinson, who was a former Nationals New South Wales minister and really reputable individual running against the Labor candidate Fiona Phillips. And Grant Schulz, the Lib turned independent who was passed over by Mundine. So, it’s interesting in the sense that the way the vote splits over the course of the election will be something to watch. It’s really one that’s very uncertain for all of the players. Sunanda Creagh: You mentioned Reid, which takes in Canada Bay, Burwood, Strathfield and is currently held by Craig Laundy for the Liberals. He’s been somewhat of a comparatively moderate voice. What do you think will be the issues there? Andy Marks: Reid is an interesting one. Laundy was an incredibly strong local member and he stood up against his own party’s attempted reforms of the anti-discrimination act. That area was lost to Labor in the recent New South Wales election, due to comments made by the Labor opposition leader around Asians taking jobs. Really retrograde comments on his part. So the momentum probably was with Labor, whether the voters have forgiven the foibles of the state party though will remain to be seen. But, that’s a big loss to the Libs in Craig Laundy moving on. Sunanda Creagh: I wanted to ask you about the seat of Farrer. That’s a regional seat, it takes in places like Hay, Murrumbidgee. Some of those areas around the Murray Darling, the Central Darling. With the seat of Farrer, what do you think of some of the issues there? Andy Marks: Look Farrer is an interesting one - you wouldn’t be talking about an electorate with a 20% plus margin as being one that’s up for grabs, but it is. We saw swings in the state election against the coalition of up to 26% in Murray, 19% in Barwon, and around 37% in Orange. So these rural electorates are very volatile and the issue of water management, of course, is the dominant thread across a seat like Farrer. But it’s a diverse seat. So you have areas like Albury, where unemployment is very high, educational attainment is quite low, economic activity has been suppressed through the drought. So the issues across that electorate are incredibly diverse and equally you don’t have in the New South Wales case we had the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party running against the Nationals quite successfully in three seats. They’re not a consolidated force at the federal level. Really, Farrer’s in play because of the Albury Mayor Kevin Mack, who is running the strongest challenge against Sussan Ley. She’s held onto that seat since 2001 and that’s Tim Fischer’s old seat. So, it should be a sure bet for them. This is suddenly a seat that’s in play. Sunanda Creagh: So you mentioned water being an issue in the seat of Farrer, and certainly that’s shaping up to be an issue across the board. If you believe what you read on social media, suddenly everybody’s talking about water buybacks and we’ve had the big story breaking around the water buybacks issue that involved Barnaby Joyce. I’m interested to know what you think on how that issue may influence voters in the lead up to polling day. Andy Marks: Look, there’s already a bit of disaffection towards the Nationals. I think their own internal troubles around leadership, and the other controversies they’ve had around Andrew Broad and other figures have given weight to the perception that their mind is not on the game. They’ve taken their eye off the ball in terms of the concerns of rural voters. So, that’s why we are seeing such a pronounced reaction against them in some seats. Whether that anger was spent, at the New South Wales election and the earlier Victorian poll remains to be seen. I can’t see a repeat of the swings we saw in the state election here in NSW. But certainly, some very generous margins will be really damaged, I think. Sunanda Creagh: So let’s talk about Warringah where Tony Abbott is facing that strong challenge from independent Zali Steggall, who’s been supported by GetUp! in her campaign. That’s also become a point of contention and a point of attack for her political foes. How do you see things playing out? Andy Marks: Look, there’s no doubt it’s going to be a contest. Zali Steggall will take it down to the wire. People need to be aware though that Tony Abbott loves a fight, shifting him on that margin of over 11% is going to be incredibly difficult. It’s not like Bennelong, for example, where we saw John Howard go as a result of demographic shifts and other factors. And it’s not like Wentworth where, of course, Turnbull stepped aside. A former PM, even one that’s controversial, still attracts some traction among voters. Zali Steggall has done well in opening the debate up into issues that challenge the principles that Tony Abbott’s put forward. So, forcing him to for example to talk more about climate, to talk more about issues where he’s clearly a little uncomfortable, has been a good tactic on her part. Obviously, the work of groups like GetUp! will influence things as well. I just can’t see it shifting. I think Tony Abbott is far too an experienced player to go down without a fight, and this is the guy that loves to be backed into a corner. I might be proven wrong, but I think he’ll just hang on in Warringah. Sunanda Creagh: And you mentioned former PMs, speaking of which, let’s talk about Wentworth. Do you think voters will punish the Coalition for turfing out Malcolm Turnbull? We saw Turnbull’s son, Alex Turnbull actively encouraging people not to vote for the Liberal candidate Dave Sharma. And as it turned out Kerryn Phelps did win that seat. So how will things play out there? Andy Marks: Wentworth is an interesting one. I like to call it the contest for the soul of the Liberal Party. Because really, it’s about whether the party will choose to push forward in a progressive way, or revert more to those hard right tendencies that we’ve seen in recent times. The thing to watch at Wentworth will be whether Phelps has managed to translate in a really short timeframe that protest vote into a base. And that would mean Phelps has to have really strong points of differentiation on issues like climate, immigration and border protection. Which she’s, to a very large extent, done on the latter issue. Whether that’s enough to shift people across for good remains to be seen. That’s one that’s too hard to call. Sunanda Creagh: So, Andy Marks what’s your prediction? Who do you think is going to win this federal election? Andy Marks: Look, Labor will win this election. I think that’s virtually unquestionable. We’re just not seeing enough movement, even in the polls at this point in the primary vote level to see the Libs or the Coalition hang on. I think this is going to be a Labor victory. Sunanda Creagh: Even with Newspoll saying it’s tightening as voting day draws closer? Andy Marks: You have to look again at that primary vote figure. Early in April, we saw exactly the same primary vote polling as we saw on the weekend. So, there hasn’t really been a discernible shift. You need to see a gap open up to the degree of around about five or six points, for the Coalition to even look like hanging on. It will stay tight, I think until polling day, but I’d suggest the momentum is with Labor and it hasn’t substantially shifted. So with the Coalition on 38% and Labor on 37%, I don’t see it shifting sufficiently for there to be a change in the momentum. Sunanda Creagh: Let’s talk about the upper house. What do you see as the issues to watch there? Andy Marks: Look, that’s an interesting one from the New South Wales point of view. Jim Molan, arguably their highest profile senator, finds himself in an unwinnable spot on their ticket. This is largely due to reforms that he instigated, internal party reform. So it’s a big ask therefore for somebody to get up. You know, you’re going to require a quota in excess of 14% of the vote to get a spot. Brian Burston’s the other interesting one. He’s a former One Nation representative, now with Clive Palmer’s outfit, and he’s their parliamentary leader in the house. It’s a very interesting contest there. There’s Doug Cameron, a long-standing senator for Labor, retiring, and Tony Sheldon, the former Transport Workers Union secretary coming in on his spot. Sunanda Creagh: And just lastly, what do you want to say about preferences? Do you think preferences will make a big difference in this election? Andy Marks: Look, there’s no doubt that the question around where the United Australia Party’s preferences flow has been a dominant issue in Queensland. I don’t see it being of sufficient weight to shift the momentum, which again in those marginal electorates, up to eight of them, is all with Labor at the moment. So, it will make things a little trickier to call earlier. But, I still see things going Labor’s way in those key seats. Sunanda Creagh: Any final comments? Andy Marks: Look, this is a contest where New South Wales will provide plenty of action. But it’s not going to be the place where it’s won or lost. But it’s certainly going to be the place of high drama. Sunanda Creagh: Andy Marks, thank you so much for your time. Andy Marks: Thank you.

Adele Ferguson, the celebrated journalist who many credit as the driving force behind the banking royal commission, says that the commission 'didn't go anywhere near far enough.' KYM SMITH/AAPToday on Media Files, it’s journalism versus the big banks. We’re hearing from Adele Ferguson, the celebrated journalist who many credit as the driving force behind the banking royal commission. Adele Ferguson is a reporter with the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age and a columnist for the Australian Financial Review. Over many years, her reporting has exposed the way financial institutions have flouted the rules and how regulators like the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) have consistently failed to hold financial institutions to account. New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Media Files on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Media Files. Additional credits Producers: Andy Hazel and Gavin Nebauer Theme music: Susie Wilkins. Image KYM SMITH/AAP The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Today we're asking: what Queensland seats are the ones to watch on election night? How to give Indigenous Australians a true voice in politics? And how can we improve trust in the political system? ShutterstockToday we’re bringing you a special discussion about the federal election that took place at the launch of a book of Conversation essays, Advancing Australia: Ideas for a Better Country. Recorded at Avid Reader bookshop in Brisbane on April 17, the discussion featured Indigenous academic lawyer Eddie Synot from Griffith University and Griffith’s Dean of Engagement, Professor Anne Tiernan. Eddie Synot is currently completing his PhD, taking a hard look at the liberal rights discourse of Indigenous recognition, and has also taught Indigenous Studies. And political scientist Anne Tiernan has worked in and advised Australian governments at all levels, so she knows politics from the inside out. Together with Liz Minchin, the Executive Editor of The Conversation Australia & New Zealand, the panel covered topics including the Queensland seats to watch on election night, how to give Indigenous Australians a true voice in politics, and how to improve trust in the political system. Today’s episode was recorded by Michael Adams from Griffith University. Read more: Our Advancing Australia series is about starting a conversation about what really matters New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Trust Me, I’m An Expert on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Trust Me, I’m An Expert. Additional audio Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks Recording and editing by Michael Adams from Griffith University Additional reading Buy Advancing Australia: Ideas for a Better Country Griffith University’s special election coverage, including interactive maps of Queensland’s 30 federal electorates The Uluru statement showed how to give First Nations people a real voice – now it’s time for action by Griffith University’s Eddie Synot The 14 Indigenous words for money on our new 50 cent coin by the University of Queensland’s Felicity Meakins Explainer: the significance of the Treaty of Waitangi by the University of Waikato’s Sandra Morrison and Ingrid L M Huygens The end of uncertainty? How the 2019 federal election might bring stability at last to Australian politics by University of Canberra’s Michelle Grattan Image Shutterstock

Mukurtu is a Warumungu word meaning “dilly bag” or a safe keeping place for sacred materials. Nina Maile Gordon/The Conversation CC-NY-BDReader advice: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article may contain images of people who have died. A few years ago, the State Library of NSW was working with Moree’s Dhiiyaan Centre to pull together archival photographs of the 1965 Freedom Rides, an Aboriginal-led protest against racist segregationist policies in NSW. Moree – where Aboriginal people were once banned from swimming in the public pool – was an important site in the history of protest against official segregation in Australia, and a key stop on the Freedom Rides route. Demonstrating outside the Council Chambers at Moree, February 1965 Photo from the Tribune archive, State Library of NSW. Courtesy the SEARCH Foundation. Digital ID: 5606003. Photo from the Tribune archive, State Library of NSW. Courtesy the SEARCH Foundation, Author provided (No reuse) Kirsten Thorpe - a Worimi woman, professional archivist and now a researcher at UTS – was then at the State Library, working with Mitchell Librarian Richard Neville to dig out old protest photos to share with the Moree community in the lead up to an exhibition. But in practice, collecting, sharing and storing such digital archives in perpetuity is no simple matter. Surveying at Bowraville, February 1965. Photo from the Tribune archive, State Library of NSW. Courtesy the SEARCH Foundation. Digital ID: 5606019. Photo from the Tribune archive, State Library of NSW. Courtesy the SEARCH Foundation., Author provided (No reuse) How to ensure the material is stored safely, so the whole process doesn’t need to be repeated in a few years time? How to capture the outpouring of memories and stories that such an exhibition evokes? What if the exhibition inspires more people to come forward with important historical material or accounts – where does that material end up? And how to ensure Indigenous people are empowered to tell their own stories and have a say over how digital archives are managed? Enter Mukurtu. Moree residents look on as the students protest outside the Moree Council Chambers, February 1965. Photo from the Tribune archive, State Library of NSW. Courtesy the SEARCH Foundation. Digital ID: 5606004. Photo from the Tribune archive, State Library of NSW. Courtesy the SEARCH Foundation., Author provided (No reuse) Mukurtu (pronounced MOOK-oo-too) is an online system that aims to help Indigenous communities conserve stories, videos, photographs, songs, word lists and other digital archives. Mukurtu is a Warumungu word meaning “dilly bag” or a safe keeping place for sacred materials. It’s a free, mobile, and open source platform built with Indigenous communities in mind to manage and share digital cultural heritage. Kirsten Thorpe says it’s the kind of thing that would have been really useful back when she was collating Freedom Rides material for the Moree community. Conserving Indigenous archives for future generations Mukurtu is/are already being used by Native American communities to store and preserve digital archives, and Kirsten Thorpe – now a senior researcher at the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research at UTS – is involved in making Mukurtu more widely accessible in Australia. She works with other key players, such as Professor Kimberly Christen at the Centre for Digital Curation and Scholarship in the US and Richard Neville at the State Library of NSW, to ensure the Mukurtu Project has the institutional support it needs to help Indigenous communities protect their cultural heritage for generations to come. On today’s episode of the podcast, Kirsten Thorpe and Richard Neville explain why Mukurtu is needed, how it’s being used and what’s at stake if we don’t find better ways to empower Indigenous people with the skills and tech to conserve and manage digital archives. Freedom rider Charles Perkins (right) surveying members of the Moree community about living conditions, February 1965. Photo from the Tribune archive, State Library of NSW. Courtesy the SEARCH Foundation. Digital ID: 5605027. Photo from the Tribune archive, State Library of NSW. Courtesy the SEARCH Foundation., Author provided (No reuse) New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Trust Me, I’m An Expert on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Trust Me, I’m An Expert. Additional audio Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks ABC News 1965 intro music. Lee Rosevere, Betrayal. Lead image: Nina Maile Gordon

Today on Trust Me I'm An Expert, we're bringing you a special episode carried across from The Conversation podcast Politics with Michelle Grattan. Mick Tsikas(AAP)/The Conversation/ShutterstockToday’s federal budget, as predicted, was chock full of sweeteners designed to woo voters on the eve of what promises to be a bitterly fought election. We’ve got loads of analysis and at-a-glance graphics over here but if you’re just looking for the short, sharp version – what was announced, who’s affected, what it all means as polling day approaches – you’re in the right place. Today on Trust Me, I’m An Expert, we’re bringing you a special episode carried across from The Conversation’s Politics with Michelle Grattan podcast (you can subscribe to it over here). Chief political correspondent Michelle Grattan, Business and Economics Editor Peter Martin and political and economic journalist Tim Colebatch have all just emerged from the budget lockup. Here’s their take on all the news that’s just broken. Transcript Michelle Grattan: We’re here in the budget lockup and, as we all expected, this document is very much pitched at the imminent election. Here to discuss the politics and the economics, I have today Peter Martin, the economics editor of The Conversation and Tim Colebatch, a writer for Inside Story. Peter, can I start with you? What are the standout features of this budget as far as the ordinary voter is concerned? Peter Martin: A tax cut that goes back in time, Michelle, which is a pretty tricky thing to do. But people are going to get a bigger tax cut at the end of the financial year that’s about to end than they expected when it began. They’re going to get a rebate of about A$1000 instead of the $500 that was promised. Now, you might say that that’s electoral in focus because that’s money that will be going into people’s pockets in a matter of weeks, depending how soon they get their tax returns in. But it’s probably also economic-based as well, in that in the budget we see that, frankly, the domestic economy – yeah, yeah we’ve got money coming in from mining – but the domestic economy, in terms of consumer spending and so on, isn’t flash. It’s interesting to note the size of this bonus that’s going to people, that’s doubled, will be about $1000 for a lot of people in the middle income range. That $1000 – 500 now doubled to roughly 1000 – is more than the Rudd government’s first cash splash during the GFC of $800. Michelle Grattan: So, Tim, do you think that in this budget, the government has sacrificed the economic for the political? Tim Colebatch: No, I think it’s actually a fairly modest budget. It’s really, given that we’re heading right into the election after this week, into the election campaign, it’s really quite modest in what it gives. As Peter says, it’s given another $500 to people in the near term. But then to wait for a bigger tax cut, you’re going to have to wait till 22-23. Well down the track. And the new spending, likewise, is really fairly restrained. It amounts, in net terms, to $2-3 billion a year in a budget of $500 billion a year, so we are not talking big bikkies. Michelle Grattan: Now just in terms of the economic outlook. There seem to be two messages: that the economy is fundamentally sound but there are all sorts of clouds around the place. Tim Colebatch: Well I think governments always say the economy is fundamentally sound. I think they were saying that in 1990, and… Michelle Grattan: Before the recession we had to have. Tim Colebatch: That’s right. Yes, as we were going into recession, they were saying: the ship is on course. And no, I think what Peter said is quite right. The economy is not flash, as consumer spending is not flash, and there’s reasons to think that the decline in house prices will have an impact on consumer spending. Indeed, Treasury admits that itself in the economic analysis. And so there’s good reason for the government to be giving a bit of stimulus to the economy, and what is in its electoral interests and what is in the economy’s interests are very nicely in coincidence. Michelle Grattan: Now, Peter, what about the wages story? We’ve heard so much about wages recently. Peter Martin: What the government has done in this budget is what it’s done in the previous budget – and the budget before that and the budget before that – which is to assume that wages are going to take off. They going to increase. The rate at the moment is 2.3%. After a while it’s going to go up to 3%. But as they’ve done for, I think, about five budgets in a row now, they’ve just pushed out the start date of that improvement. Now we are seeing a little bit of improvement. Wage growth is slightly higher than it has been, but the future of that is uncertain. Not uncertain if you, as Tim said, not uncertain if you look at the perennially “things are okay” sort of budget rhetoric. But with the hit to incomes of housing prices, if businesses start thinking that consumer spending is not going to hold up then, you’re looking at a situation where suddenly workers won’t have whatever bargaining power they’ve got and wage growth will, in fact, weaken or won’t get any stronger. So it’s the forecasts, as always really, forecast that the good times are just around the corner but there’s been scarcely any sign of them. Now, I’m not really blaming the Treasury for forecasting good times around the corner because in the long run, they say, they have a model: wage growth has got to… Tim Colebatch: They assume that things work in the long run. Peter Martin: And they assume the long run will happen eventually, right? That wage growth has got to equal inflation, which is around 2%, plus productivity growth, which is around 1%. That’ll give you 3%. The fact that that hasn’t happened hasn’t stopped them from believing it will. Tim Colebatch: Well, can I just register a slight disagreement of tone? Peter does see things in black and white and I’m more of a grey person. I mean it is – wage growth is rising very slowly. It is rising and I think the forecasts this year are more reasonable than in previous years. They’re not forecasting it to go back to 3.5% or 3 and ¾%. It’s a pretty modest – I think it’s only another quarter of a percent up. They are expecting to get to two and a half this year, which may be heroic, this financial year… Peter Martin: But it ends up at three as it has always ended up at three. Tim Colebatch: No, it was 3.75 at one stage. Peter Martin: The other thing which is good in what they’ve done is, in their forecasts, there’s been realism in the forecast whether that’s come from the Treasury, most probably, or the Treasurer. They could have factored in – the convention would have allowed them to factor in – these high iron ore prices we’ve got. The convention is that you take the previous four weeks iron ore price and assume it will continue for four years. They haven’t done that. They’ve assumed, in line with their advice and common sense, that this iron ore price is going to come down as Chinese demand goes away. Now, that’s cost the government money in the budget. It didn’t need to do that. So I think you would be a brave person to say that the forecasts in totality are anything other than reasonable. You’ve always got to give them some slack. It’s their job, and I don’t think you can say they’ve done it wrong. Michelle Grattan: Now, Tim, what are the vulnerabilities of this budget that Labor can home in on? Tim Colebatch: At first sight, I can’t see anything that I would think provides an obvious lever for Labor to hone in on. And, as I said, to me it’s a modest budget. I think what’s particularly interesting about that, Michelle, is that they have not spent all this money. They have programmed in for a budget surplus next year of $7 billion. And, as Peter says, on reasonably conservative and sensible assumptions. For a government in a state, electoral state, that this government is in, that I think shows a fair bit of restraint and it recognises that the debate has shifted. And people are less likely to be bought by big spending and more likely to be bought by the impression of fiscal reticence and control and delivering a budget surplus. And I think what is particularly interesting is that Labor, remember, took a lot of flak in 2016 because it came out with the budget. Its budget was going to be… Peter Martin: Spending the benefits of the boom! Tim Colebatch: They were going to have bigger deficits in the short term than the Coalition and this went against their message that in the long term they were better managers. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if Labor actually targets a higher budget surplus in the next year than this one. Michelle Grattan: And just finally, Peter, do you think that this will change the conversation for the government? Peter Martin: Will it change the conversation for the government? I think it gives Labor an advantage and Labor has always had that advantage. Ever since it announced its action against negative gearing and capital gains tax, ever since it announced its changes to dividend imputation policy. Labor has more money than the government. I don’t think it will want to disagree with anything in the budget, but it still has an advantage over the government. Now, there is nothing that government could do to take this away. But what Josh Frydenberg has done is brought down a budget, his first, about which he is unlikely to be embarrassed in the future. Look at Peter Costello’s last budget. He gave away money in ways that turned out to be unsustainable, to seniors and all sorts of people. Seniors got cheques just for being old and so on. Josh Frydenberg hasn’t done that. He has begun to build a legacy that Peter Costello began to throw away. Michelle Grattan: Tim Colebatch, Peter Martin, thank you very much. That’s all for our budget lockup podcast. Thank you to my producer Eliza Berlage. We will be back with more interviews later in the week. Goodbye for now. New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Trust Me, I’m An Expert on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Trust Me, I’m An Expert. Read more: Shorten to announce Labor's 'living wage' plan but without an amount or timing Additional audio and production Today’s episode was recorded and edited by Eliza Berlage. Theme beats: Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks Image Mick Tsikas(AAP)/The Conversation/Shutterstock

In Tuesday night's budget we can expect a last ditch attempt to woo voters ahead of the election in May. AAP Image/Mick TsikasNext Tuesday night is budget night, and it’s happening on the eve of a federal election where the Coalition is in for the fight of its life to hold onto government. The Conversation’s team of editors and experts will be in the budget lockup at parliament house next Tuesday, where they’ll have early access to what the government plans to do with our money this year. Read more: Expect tax cuts and an emptying of the cupboards in a budget cleanout as the billions roll in On the night, we’ll bring you Chief Political Correspondent Michelle Grattan’s analysis of what’s set to be a last ditch attempt to woo voters ahead of the election next month. And veteran economics correspondent Peter Martin will look in detail at where the money is going - and what the mooted tax cuts look like. Economist Richard Holden will examine the government’s strategy, and former Chief Economist of the ANZ bank, Warren Hogan, now with UTS, will bring us the economic outlook. And if you’re a podcast person, check your podcast app on Tuesday night for a fresh episode of Trust Me, I’m An Expert and Politics with Michelle Grattan (subscribe now, if you haven’t already). There, Peter Martin and Michelle Grattan will be speaking with political and economic journalist Tim Colebatch about this election-year budget. We’ll also bring you some nifty graphics that will explain at-a-glance the big announcements from the budget papers. And as always, our experts will be on hand to respond to any big announcements in health, education, energy and infrastructure. Keep an eye out for our special budget newsletter on the night (you can subscribe here), and on our Facebook and Twitter at @ConversationEDU. New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Trust Me, I’m An Expert on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Trust Me, I’m An Expert. Read more: Shorten to announce Labor's 'living wage' plan but without an amount or timing Additional audio Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks Sky News report. Sky News report. Image: AAP/Mick Tsikas

Today on Media Files we look at the suppression order that prevented the Australian media reporting the Pell case - and why rushing to judge-only criminal trials may be a mistake. AAP/PAUL TYQUINWhen Judge Peter Kidd sentenced Cardinal George Pell last week, it was broadcast live on radio and television. It was a stark contrast to the preceding trial, which was subject to a suppression order that prevented any coverage of the proceedings. Today on Media Files we look at the suppression order that prevented the Australian media reporting the case, even when the verdict was widely known and was being circulated on social media and on the front pages of newspapers around the world. On the day of the Pell sentence the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Advancing Journalism brought together several experts with wide-ranging experiences of suppression orders to discuss how they affect the public’s right to know and whether the laws should be reformed. The panellists are: Associate Professor Jason Bosland, Co-Director of the Centre for Media and Communications Law at Melbourne Law School, where he teaches media and communications law. His primary research interests lie in media law, including defamation and privacy, open justice and the media, contempt of court and freedom of speech Melissa Davey, Melbourne bureau chief for The Guardian. She is an experienced news journalist who previously worked as a reporter for Fairfax newspapers, including The Sydney Morning Herald and the Sun Herald. She sat through every day of the George Pell trial Lucie Morris-Marr, a reporter who, like Melissa, sat through the entire Pell proceedings. She worked at the Daily Mail, London, Marie Claire Australia and the Herald Sun in Melbourne before covering the Pell trial for the New Daily. She is the author of a book on Pell entitled Fallen: The inside story of the secret trial and conviction of Cardinal George Pell Frank Vincent AO QC, who served 16 years as a judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria followed by a further eight years as a judge of the Court of Appeal. He was Deputy Chair and then Chair of the Victorian Adult Parole Board, a position he occupied for 17 years. In 2017 he conducted a review of court suppression orders and the Open Courts Act 2013. The forum was chaired by Dr Denis Muller of the Centre for Advancing Journalism at the University of Melbourne. New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Media Files on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Media Files. Recorded at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Advancing Journalism. Producer: Andy Hazel. Theme music by Susie Wilkins. Image: PAUL TYQUIN/AAP Andrew Dodd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

It's a fight for a rapidly vanishing centre, which will make passing bills difficult for whoever wins. Chris Pavlich/Dean Lewins(AAP)We are but weeks away from an election in New South Wales – polling day is on March 23 – and it will be eagerly watched. Not just for the outcome but for the implications for the looming federal election. That’s according to Dr Andy Marks, a political scientist from Western Sydney University, who tells us on the podcast today that this state election outcome may give us some clues on how some global political themes are playing out here in Australia. “It’s not just about state politics. Increasingly the Australian electoral cycles, federally and at the state level, are subject to changes in political dynamics internationally. We’re seeing the erosion of centrist politics around the world […] and that even affects humble New South Wales.” He predicts a weakened Nationals Party will be facing a strong challenge from the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party and that One Nation’s Mark Latham is almost a sure bet to win a spot in the NSW upper house. “I do think you’ll see a minority Coalition government returned but the really interesting play is what happens in the upper house. Currently, the Coalition have to deal with two to three independents or minor parties to get stuff over the line,” said Dr Marks. “I think what we’ll see in the coming parliament is that that the ranks of cross-benchers will expand quite dramatically, up to seven to nine cross-benchers. So that makes negotiations pretty fraught. "This is really going to be new territory,” he said. “We’ve got One Nation returning to the fold. Mark Latham, their number one ticket holder in the upper house, will get in. But potentially they’ll get two seats in the upper house. You’ll have an emboldened Shooters and Fishers Party. "So you really have a really broad field and it’s going to mean negotiating the passage of bills will be pretty difficult.” We also talked about: why East Hills (which takes in suburbs like Panania, Condell Park, the Bankstown aerodrome, Padstow, Revesby and others) is the most marginal seat in NSW how a plan to demolish and rebuild two stadiums turned into a political headache for NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian why Michael Daley, who took over from Luke Foley as NSW Labor leader late last year, is only now just making his mark how local issues in rural seats may end up deciding the fate of the state what it all means as we head into the May federal election. New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Trust Me, I’m An Expert on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Trust Me, I’m An Expert. Additional audio Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks ABC news report on 2GB interview 2GB interview clip. Image: Chris Pavlich/Dean Lewins(AAP)

Shutterstock/AAP/The ConversartionWhen Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced this week that a “sophisticated state actor” had targeted the big Australian political parties in a major cyber attack, the revelation threw up more questions than answers. Who did it and how? What data did they get their hands on? How vulnerable is our data – and our democracy? Read more: We've been hacked – so will the data be weaponised to influence election 2019? Here’s what to look for To make sense of it all, we’re hearing today from Nigel Phair, the director of UNSW Canberra Cyber and an expert on the intersection of crime, technology and society. He said that while hacks like these should be seen as “the new normal” there was good reason to be concerned. “Just merely having a breach is quite a big deal. Secondly, you look at the information that they hold. Political parties have information on donors – who they are and how much they give and what they want for it. They have information on the electorate, they have information on their own party politics and tactics for Senate Estimates for Question Time, those sorts of things,” he said. “So that’s a lot of rich data that you could then use as a nation state to infiltrate other areas to perhaps change voter outcomes.” The hackers may have used social engineering techniques such as phishing to gain access to the data, he said. “They are quite unsophisticated attacks. It’s often spoofing an organisation or a person and getting someone, an end user, to reveal login credentials. And because we share passwords across multiple logins, that’s how you gain access to a trophy asset,” he said, adding that the hack served as a reminder to use a password manager and ensure all passwords are long and strong. “I think we should be very concerned. We’ve got a great case study from the US. We’re very allied to the US and when you look at how nation states have disrupted that election I think it’s a given that there are many out there that’ll disrupt ours.” You can read an edited transcript of the interview below. Read more: A state actor has targeted Australian political parties – but that shouldn't surprise us New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Trust Me, I’m An Expert on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Trust Me, I’m An Expert. Additional audio editing by Wes Mountain, production assistance from Bageshri Savyasachi. Additional audio Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks ABC news report Image: AAP (Various)/Shutterstock/The Conversation Transcript SUNANDA CREAGH: And so what’s the main concern? Why was everybody so worried about this, particularly earlier this week? NIGEL PHAIR: I think when you look at the history with the attack in the US on the DNC (Democratic National Committee), and a lot that’s been reported in the US about nation states trying to infiltrate the election process over there and change people’s voting habits and we’re some weeks/months from an election here – it strikes at the heart of what could be our dear beloved democracy, when you have nation state actors trying to influence voting outcomes. SUNANDA CREAGH: And what do you think this week’s events tell us about the cyber security weaknesses here in Australia? NIGEL PHAIR: It tells us that no organisation is immune. It tells us that cyber is another vector for people trying to win the hearts and minds of people. SUNANDA CREAGH: If I was a sophisticated nation state using this as a strategy to achieve that goal, how might this sort of hack help me achieve that goal? What do you think they were actually trying to do here? NIGEL PHAIR: There’s a number of things that they’ve achieved. Firstly, is the goal of doing the hack. When we look at parliament house, we look at the political parties, when we think about it, they’re revered from a democratic perspective. Just merely having a breach is quite a big deal. Secondly, you look at the information that they hold. Political parties have information on donors – who they are and how much they give and what they want for it. They have information on the electorate, they have information on their own party politics and tactics for Senate Estimates for Question Time, those sorts of things. So a lot of rich data that you could then use as a nation state to infiltrate other areas to perhaps change voter outcomes. SUNANDA CREAGH: China has strongly denied that it was involved but a lot of speculation has focused on that country, as opposed to Russia or another state actor that’s been linked to this kind of behaviour in other contexts. In Australia, why do you think speculation has focused on China as a potential perpetrator? NIGEL PHAIR: Basically because they’re a near neighbour to ours, they’re in our arc of instability. They’re well known for their theft of intellectual property online. They’re well known for not adhering to the international norms of cyberspace. Add that all up and that’s why people keep pointing the finger at them. SUNANDA CREAGH: And I believe there’s news reports that China was linked to other previous hacks of universities and parliament and other key pieces of computer infrastructure around Australia. Is that right? NIGEL PHAIR: That’s right. They’ve been well known to do a range of cyber attacks on a range of different organisations – government, non-government, commercial etc. SUNANDA CREAGH: So in the context of concerns that Australians have about the government’s capacity to keep our personal information safe – and I’m thinking here about the talk around My Health Record, the census – what does this hack tell us, if anything, about how capable the government and people in power are at guarding our private details? NIGEL PHAIR: I think we need to go back a couple of steps before we start to think about this. Government, what they haven’t done is take the citizenry of Australia on a journey. They haven’t explained to them what it means to participate in a digital economy. What it means to be a good online citizen and transact with government and social media, commercially, e-commerce. If we had that narrative from the outset then people could understand that the internet is just another public place where they act ethically and lawfully and responsibly to what they do in the real world, then I think we wouldn’t be having this discussion. Because people would be able to have an informed decision about what it means to participate with My Health Record, or participate in an online census or other government instruments. But at the moment we just never had that background and people don’t have the certainty and because of that they make knee-jerk reactions. SUNANDA CREAGH: Where do you land on this issue, do you think the government is capable of keeping that data safe? NIGEL PHAIR: I think the government is capable of keeping it safe. The systems around My Health Record for example are really quite secure and there’s a lot of technologies, a lot of process and a lot of policy to ensure. But the reality is if there is going to be a breach of my health record, it’ll probably happen at a doctor’s surgery where there’s an unpatched or unprotected computer, or a user not using a good password, or accidentally emailing the wrong patient records to someone. It will be the end user compromise which we’ll see will be the failure. And that’s what the government isn’t investing in. It’s great to say they have a great secure system themselves but again we need to wind the clock back several years and start telling people this is what it means. SUNANDA CREAGH: Just on this hack, how might it have been actually perpetrated? Can you just explain that to me in really basic terms? NIGEL PHAIR: We don’t know yet until the forensic examination is done about how it occurred. Invariably, it was most probably some sort of social engineering attack against someone on the network. Most probably a phishing attack or something similar, where a person is targeted rather than the network itself is targeted. But again, until we know the forensics, we’re just speculating. SUNANDA CREAGH: And those phishing and social engineering attacks, am I right in thinking they mainly focus on trying to get somebody to reveal their password or their login details to another person who is perhaps impersonating somebody else or impersonating an official password reset type email. Is that the sort of thing you mean there about the social engineering? NIGEL PHAIR: Invariably, they are quite unsophisticated attacks. It’s spoofing an organisation or a person. Getting someone, an end user, to reveal login credentials and because we share passwords across multiple logins, that’s how you gain access to a trophy asset. SUNANDA CREAGH: So the lesson there for all of us really is never reuse your password details and get a password manager. Am I right? NIGEL PHAIR: You are right. SUNANDA CREAGH: We’ve heard some commentators saying that this is the new normal, that this type of attack really should be expected in this day and age. What do you think about that? NIGEL PHAIR: It’s been the new normal for quite some time. The reality is, most organisations get hacked just don’t know they’ve been hacked. This is all of a sudden a trophy matter, it’s come at the time where parliament is sitting, so it’s really got some attention in society, which is a great thing. And added to that the government that’s come out and actually said this is what’s happened and that is a completely different policy shift, whereas before it was swept under the carpet. SUNANDA CREAGH: Do you think that’s a positive policy shift? NIGEL PHAIR: There’s a great positive. We need to start having a conversation about what it means to be online and what it means to participate. And the fact is there’s countries out there, there’s actors out there trying to do us harm and Australians need to be brought into that confidence. SUNANDA CREAGH: There was a lot of talk about this at the start of this week, but it really has sort of shifted off the news headlines toward the end of the week and some people are now saying that was a lot of noise over what? And I’ve seen some media commentators saying that this was an announcement that fed into a narrative of fear as election day draws closer. And that is a criticism that’s been directed at the government in the past in their rhetoric around border control and security in more general terms. To what extent do you see this announcement as about safety and awareness and how much of it is politics? NIGEL PHAIR: I couldn’t put a percentage on either way but I focus purely on the safety and awareness side of it. I just think that’s the value of the message – is the safety and awareness. SUNANDA CREAGH: It’s an important message to get out to make people aware of those risks. And, as you say, bring them into that conversation around online security and online participation in an active globally networked world, is that right? NIGEL PHAIR: That’s right. SUNANDA CREAGH: So what needs to be done? What should governments do to reduce risks and educate people? NIGEL PHAIR: So the first thing for their internal networks, they need to do a proper risk management exercise. They need to identify the key target assets they hold and work out how sensitive that information is and put appropriate controls around where that data sits. Whether it’s a technology stack, whether it’s internal, cloud-based, those sort of decisions. And secondly, who has access to it, why they have access to it and how they access it. And once you start doing some simple things like that, you’ll find the cyber security posture of parliament house or a political party or anyone else in corporate Australia can really change the way that they’re viewed from a cyber security perspective. SUNANDA CREAGH: And if, and I know this is speculation, but if the source of the problem was somebody sharing their login credentials or being victim to a phishing scam or victim to some social engineering then it sounds like it’s possible that some education is needed around that issue and what to be aware of and how not to get tricked online. NIGEL PHAIR: Well, that’s a tough one. There aren’t sufficient technical controls to protect our data and ourselves online. In fact, we should’ve looked for any technical silver bullet. Likewise, we know education doesn’t work either. But education is all we have. So all we can keep doing is reinforce the message, particularly amongst young people as they grow up and participate in the online economy, and hopefully as time goes on we’ll be better protected for it. SUNANDA CREAGH: In other words, not forgetting to address the capacity for human error in our effort to cover off and protect ourselves from technical error. NIGEL PHAIR: Human error, but also the use of third parties and outlying people that you might not have specific command and control over. SUNANDA CREAGH: And going back to this week’s hack, if I am an individual who has given my details as a donor or as a supporter to a political party, what does this hack tell us about what we as individuals might do in future to protect our data? NIGEL PHAIR: Well, if you think you’ve (experienced) a loss of your data through this process, the first thing to do – contact the party that you’ve made say the donation or whatever it might be to. Secondly would be to start thinking about how that data or information that’s been stolen might be used against you - whether it’s identity theft or takeover, for example. So you need to start monitoring your bank accounts, you need to start thinking about consumer credit that might be done in your name. So you should be probably doing a credit reference check. SUNANDA CREAGH: What advice do you give to people who want to use best practice in keeping their details safe online? NIGEL PHAIR: Best thing you can do is use strong and long passwords. More stealthy it is, the harder it will be to guess by anyone else. Second, don’t replay the same password across multiple logins. Thirdly, be really wary when online and navigating around social media and e-commerce and other places. Really think about where you put your personal information in and why you’re placing it into a particular website or a portal. SUNANDA CREAGH: Now, in the US we’ve heard about state actors really appearing to have an influence on election outcomes. How concerned do you think Australians should be about that happening here? NIGEL PHAIR: I think we should be very concerned, we’ve got a great case study from the US. We’re very allied to the US and when you look at nation states that have disrupted that election I think it’s a given that there’s many out there that’ll disrupt ours. SUNANDA CREAGH: So what can we do about that? NIGEL PHAIR: It’s a tough one. We need to start working with all the players involved. And this is where the social media companies come into it. Your Googles, your Facebooks, your Twitters, your Instagrams etc. Because that’s the place of choice that nation states will use to send out any bespoke messaging. SUNANDA CREAGH: Should we be changing any progression we’re making in Australia towards electronic voting? NIGEL PHAIR: We have zero progression towards electronic voting, unfortunately, and I think it’s a great thing. But because we had the census failure, because we had the robo-debt issues, because we had the My Health Record issues, as a population there’s no way in my generation that we will see electronic voting. We just won’t countenance it because of the perceived risks. I’m a pro-online guy. We doom and gloom everything online too much and I’m guilty for doing that. But we want people to participate online. We are great and early adopters of mobile smart devices and we love being online itself, so it makes sense for service delivery to be online, it makes sense to order your food online, to do social media, participate in everything, there’s a lot of good benefit. But because we hear this messaging all the time about the government can’t deal with online issues, there’s already this level of distrust and dissatisfaction out there that voting will just be another one of those things. And the facts just don’t support that. SUNANDA CREAGH: Would there be anything that you’d change about the way political parties collect or are allowed to collect data on people given that they seem to be a perfect target or a growing target? NIGEL PHAIR: Oh, there’s lots I’d change. Primary to that is the Privacy Act and adherence to the privacy principles of which political parties don’t need to. SUNANDA CREAGH: In what way? What change would you make? NIGEL PHAIR: Well, I’d ensure that political parties have to adhere to the privacy principles when it comes to the collection, the storage, retention and dissemination of personally identifying information. SUNANDA CREAGH: And what are the privacy principles? NIGEL PHAIR: Well the privacy principles, there’s 13 of them, inform organisations in Australia where they have a turnover of more than A$3 million about how they should collect data, how they should store that data, how they should disseminate it and how they should destroy it. There’s some simple advice that’s provided by the Australian Office of the Information Commissioner. And they’re quite easy to adhere to, but unfortunately political parties are exempt from that and I see that as being a bad thing. SUNANDA CREAGH: So we’re at a point where I guess you’d have to assume that basically anybody could be a target for a hack and any organisation could be. So what options are there for organisations like political parties that don’t have My Health Record level of security set ups or government scale security set ups? NIGEL PHAIR: Well, the first thing they have to do is acknowledge that they’re are a target. Then they have to go through a risked-based process to understand what their information assets are, what their technology stack is, and who has access to it and make sound investment decisions around that. We can no longer, as a society, just say “it’s not us that gets hacked, it’s always someone else”. I mean, there is a cost of participating online. SUNANDA CREAGH: Nigel Phair, thank you so much for talking to us. NIGEL PHAIR: Pleasure.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and other Coalition MPs described Labor as weak on borders after the opposition and the crossbench voted to pass a bill allowing medical transfers from Manus and Nauru. AAP/Mick TsikasToday, we’re bringing you a special episode of our podcast Trust Me, I’m An Expert for anyone wondering: what the hell happened this week? A sitting government lost a vote on the floor of parliament (which hasn’t happened in decades) over a bill that aims to facilitate medical transfers from Manus and Nauru. (You can hear the MP Kerryn Phelps, who set the ball rolling for that legislation, give her account on Michelle Grattan’s politics podcast over here). Read more: Politics with Michelle Grattan: Kerryn Phelps on medical transfer numbers A day after a bloc of cross-benchers and the opposition won the vote, Prime Minister Scott Morrison signalled the government may re-open the Christmas Island detention facility and the Coalition was accusing Labor of being weak on borders. In other words, a federal election campaign centred on border security has well and truly begun. To help us understand the broader context, we’re hearing today from Dr Daniel Ghezelbash, a refugee law expert from Macquarie University. In our discussion, he busted several myths about how the asylum seeker “medevac” bill would work, and described as “reckless” political rhetoric that the new legislation represents a destruction of Australia’s border security. Read more: Explainer: how will the 'medevac' bill actually affect ill asylum seekers? This week, many Australians cheered the release of refugee footballer Hakeem Al-Araibi, and reports emerged showing airport arrivals of asylum seekers has soared, but much of the political discussion centred on boat arrivals. The focus on boat arrivals in the lead-up to an election should be familiar to any student of Australian political history, he said – but this time it may be different. Join us on Trust Me, I’m An Expert, as Dr Daniel Ghezelbash explains a policy alternative to our current system of offshore processing that he says wouldn’t involve compromising security or shirking our international legal obligations. Read more: We don't know how many asylum seekers are turned away at Australian airports New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Trust Me, I’m An Expert on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Trust Me, I’m An Expert. Additional audio Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks Guardian News video. Sky News report. RN Breakfast report. Image: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

Today, experts reveal the tips and tricks spin doctors use to shape the political messages you’re hearing every day - especially during election campaigns. AAP Image/Mick TsikasIt’s February, the holidays seem like a distant memory and here we are barrelling toward a federal election, which the government has indicated will be in May. Remember in the olden days – as in, a few elections ago – we used to have a fairly set election campaign period of usually about six weeks? Now, of course, politicians seem to always be in campaign mode. They’re not doing that all by themselves, of course. There’s a small army of spin doctors, social media strategists, political campaign advisers and press secretaries behind the scenes, finessing every utterance so it fits with the overall campaign strategy. And that’s what we are talking about on the podcast today – the art of political spin. Read more: It's reputation that matters when spin doctors go back to the newsroom We’ll hear from Caroline Fisher, political communication and journalism researcher from the University of Canberra. She began her career as a journalist with the ABC, but went on to work as a media adviser for Labor’s Anna Bligh, a former Queensland premier. Today, she’s talking to Michelle Grattan, political journalist and Professorial Fellow at the University of Canberra about the tips and tricks spin doctors use to shape the political messages you’re hearing every day. And you can read Caroline Fisher’s article on the spin tactics over here. Read more: The vomit principle, the dead bat, the freeze: how political spin doctors' tactics aim to shape the news All year round and especially during election season, you’re going to hear a lot of competing claims about the state of the economy. Has school funding been cut or is it at a record high? Do tax cuts make the economy better or worse? Why are the government and the opposition saying seemingly contradictory things about debt and deficits? To find out, Lucinda Beaman – who was our FactCheck editor but has just moved to the ABC – spoke to Fabrizio Carmignagni, a professor of economics at the Griffith Business School, Griffith University. He’s authored many FactCheck articles for The Conversation, where he tests statements by key public figures against the evidence and his special super power is pulling back the curtain to reveal why certain claims you hear about the economy don’t stand up to scrutiny. Today, Professor Carmignani reveals why you should be suspicious when you hear a politician claim their government has created jobs, how to spot a bit of causation vs correlation spin doctoring, and other political porkies that make economists’ skin crawl. Read more: FactCheck: have the Trump tax cuts led to lower unemployment and higher wages? Trust Me, I’m An Expert is a podcast where we ask academics to surprise, delight and inform us with their research. You can download previous episodes here. And please, do check out other podcasts from The Conversation - you can find them all over here. The segments in today’s podcast were recorded and edited by Sunanda Creagh, with additional recording and editing by Dilpreet Kaur and Eliza Berlage. Read more: Pencils ready: it's time for Politics 2019 Bingo! New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Trust Me, I’m An Expert on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Trust Me, I’m An Expert. Additional audio Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks Minister for Finance Mathias Cormann, RN Breakfast Channel 9 news report. Bill Shorten’s 2018 Budget reply speech. Sky News report. Today Show segment. ABC news report. Labor Facebook video. Nick Xenophon SA Best ad. The Greens ad. Podington Bear, Pshaw, from Free Music Archive. Bloomberg news report. Image: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

Ready for all the research-backed tips and tricks for setting a goal and meeting it? www.shutterstock.com, CC BYIt’s that time of year when we all start to make promises to ourselves about how this year it’ll be different. This is the year I’ll get my health in order, exercise more, save money, cut that bad habit, do more of this, less of that, and just be better. But the fact is, change is hard. Most of us need help. So, we found some. Today, experts who have researched this terrain will be sharing with us insights into how to make a change – big or small – using evidence from the world of academic research. Read more: Trust Me, I'm An Expert: the science of sleep and the economics of sleeplessness We’ll hear from Amanda Salis, a professor of obesity research at the University of Sydney’s Boden Institute of Obesity, Nutrition, Exercise and Eating Disorders in the Charles Perkins Centre. She explains exactly is happening inside your body when you get that feeling you’ve eaten too much this silly season, that it’s time to step away from the festive feasts, put down the bubbly beverages and do a bit of exercise: CC BY1.25 MB (download) If you’re interested in participating in one of Amanda Salis’ weight loss trials, please contact her. Also on the podcast episode Lisa Williams, a social psychologist from UNSW, shares with us all the research-backed tips and tricks for setting a goal and meeting it: Read more: Trust Me, I'm An Expert: Competition We’ll also hear from Amy, our case study, on how she stuck to her goals and made some big changes in her life: Trust Me, I’m An Expert is a podcast where we ask academics to surprise, delight and inform us with their research. You can download previous episodes here. And please, do check out other podcasts from The Conversation – including The Conversation US’ Heat and Light, about 1968 in the US, and The Anthill from The Conversation UK, as well as Media Files, a podcast all about the media. You can find all our podcasts over here. The segments in today’s podcast were recorded and edited by Sunanda Creagh, with additional editing by Dilpreet Kaur Taggar. New to podcasts? Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click here to listen to Trust Me, I’m An Expert on Pocket Casts). You can also hear us on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Trust Me, I’m An Expert. Additional audio and credits Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks Refraction by Podington Bear, Free Music Archive Gruyere by Podington Bear, Free Music Archive

Spend a day with a member of the CBT Team as we review our first GPS app from APH. Hugo takes Nearby Explorer to work, a coffee shop, a restaurant and then back home for a walk around his neighborhood. From the App Store: Nearby Explorer by American Printing House for the Blind is a full featured GPS app designed for use by people who are blind. Instead of just providing directions, it describes the environment in ways comparable to reading signage or observing road characteristics. It uses onboard maps, so a data connection is not required, but if you have one, Nearby Explorer supplements the on board map data with crowd collected locations from Foursquare or Google Places. It includes complete maps for the United States and Canada which contain millions of points of interest. The onboard maps are over 4GB in size, so be sure the device you plan to use has enough available space before purchasing. Nearby Explorer works with any device running iOS version 9 or later, but if the device does not contain its own GPS receiver, like most iPads and iPods, you must use an external GPS receiver. All iPhones contain GPS receivers. Nearby Explorer works by letting you select from several different location related options about what to announce as you move. These include both typical items like street name and address, and specialized options like approaching streets, intersection configurations, and nearby places and the distance and direction to them. (All announcements are optional.) All of this information is shown on the home screen and is available at any time, but typical use is to adjust the level of announcements, then lock the screen and put the device away. This keeps both hands free and let's your preferred voice speak the characteristics of the environment as you move. You may also use the devices position and orientation to obtain additional targeted details such as pointing the end of the device to scan for businesses, even in a moving vehicle, or tilting it vertically to function as a compass, including a listing of streets in the indicated direction. This all works with the device locked, so one need not fuss with the touch screen while moving. You may even mark a point, then use the position of the device to get haptic feedback about that point's location. Nearby Explorer includes a transit feature that provides detailed mass transit schedules for over 60 metropolitan areas in the U. S. and Canada. It treats transit stops just like favorites and points of interest by announcing their name and relative position as you move, but in addition, transit stops add next vehicle stop time, direction of travel, and route name to the announcements. You can use the transit schedules to look up times or even follow a route. You may virtually move to any area in the U.S. or Canada and explore the road network, search, or use the transit maps for that area. For complete details about Nearby Explorer, see American Printing House for the Blind

Spend a day with a member of the CBT Team as we review our first GPS app from APH. Hugo takes Nearby Explorer to work, a coffee shop, a restaurant and then back home for a walk around his neighborhood. From the App Store: Nearby Explorer by American Printing House for the Blind is a full featured GPS app designed for use by people who are blind. Instead of just providing directions, it describes the environment in ways comparable to reading signage or observing road characteristics. It uses onboard maps, so a data connection is not required, but if you have one, Nearby Explorer supplements the on board map data with crowd collected locations from Foursquare or Google Places. It includes complete maps for the United States and Canada which contain millions of points of interest. The onboard maps are over 4GB in size, so be sure the device you plan to use has enough available space before purchasing. Nearby Explorer works with any device running iOS version 9 or later, but if the device does not contain its own GPS receiver, like most iPads and iPods, you must use an external GPS receiver. All iPhones contain GPS receivers. Nearby Explorer works by letting you select from several different location related options about what to announce as you move. These include both typical items like street name and address, and specialized options like approaching streets, intersection configurations, and nearby places and the distance and direction to them. (All announcements are optional.) All of this information is shown on the home screen and is available at any time, but typical use is to adjust the level of announcements, then lock the screen and put the device away. This keeps both hands free and let's your preferred voice speak the characteristics of the environment as you move. You may also use the devices position and orientation to obtain additional targeted details such as pointing the end of the device to scan for businesses, even in a moving vehicle, or tilting it vertically to function as a compass, including a listing of streets in the indicated direction. This all works with the device locked, so one need not fuss with the touch screen while moving. You may even mark a point, then use the position of the device to get haptic feedback about that point's location. Nearby Explorer includes a transit feature that provides detailed mass transit schedules for over 60 metropolitan areas in the U. S. and Canada. It treats transit stops just like favorites and points of interest by announcing their name and relative position as you move, but in addition, transit stops add next vehicle stop time, direction of travel, and route name to the announcements. You can use the transit schedules to look up times or even follow a route. You may virtually move to any area in the U.S. or Canada and explore the road network, search, or use the transit maps for that area. For complete details about Nearby Explorer, see American Printing House for the Blind

Every day we see analytics data from our client's stores, and most of the time we use it as a benchmark of our performance and move on. But sometimes, we look at all of that data as a big picture. This week, we looked at Google Analytics data about 41K visitors to our client's store during Black Friday weekend and drew some conclusions – big and small – that may change how you view your mobile strategy. We looked at data from our top 20 performing ecommerce clients (mostly on the Shopify platform) from 11/28 through 12/1. Of the 41K visitors in our sample, we saw 49.54% of traffic coming from mobile (33.01% from mobile phones, 16.53% from tablets) and just 50.46% from traditional computers. By comparison, mobile was 40.1% of traffic for the same period last year. That's a big leap for this year. Let's dive a little deeper into that data and see what other interesting findings we can dig up— Mobile OS iOS : 74.43% Android : 23.2%. Other: 2.37% Average conversion rate for non-responsive sites: Desktop: 2.61% Tablet: 1.56% Mobile: 0.83% Average conversion rate for responsive sites: Desktop: 4.42% Tablet: 3.10% Mobile: 2.10% How about the top ten devices? Things get a little fuzzy here. Apple devices report themselves without specifics. All iPhones and iPads report themselves as a single respective device. This hides fragmentation and pushes them to the top of the list. Where as Android phones proudly report their branding, so it's easy to tease out specific devices. Apple iPhone (all) Apple iPad (all) Samsung Galaxy S5 Samsung Galaxy S4 Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Samsung Galaxy S3 Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Motorola Droid Ultra HTC One Samsung Galaxy Note 2 PS: Be sure to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes and write a review. iTunes is all about reviews!