Politics with Michelle Grattan

Former ACT chief minister Katy Gallagher, now a federal Labor Senator with new responsibilities in the shadow ministry, admits she has found the jump into the bigger political pool challenging - she has also had to do a pivot in her views on increasing the GST. Here she also talks about the issues of mental health, federal-state relations and Labor’s face-off against Malcolm Turnbull.

Michelle Grattan discusses the new release book The Protest Years: The Official History of ASIO 1963-1975, with its author Dr John Blaxland. Among many controversies, they review the evidence supporting conspiracy theories surrounding the dismissal of the Whitlam government and the fractious relationship between the agency and Lionel Murphy, the Labor Attorney-General.

In this interview, Senator Hanson-Young calls upon the government to appoint an independent advocate to protect the interests of the Somali woman known as Abyan, who at the time of recording was being held in Nauru. Michelle also probes the Senator on the Greens electoral prospects following the ascension of Malcolm Turnbull to the prime ministership. 

In The Conversation's first live podcast, which took place in Canberra's Muse wine bar and bookstore, Labor's Sam Dastyari gives a candid insight into Labor's strategy to win back government, the threat of the Greens and much more.

Minister for Cities and the Built Environment Jamie Briggs joins Michelle to talk about his new portfolio, the policy pivot away from just roads toward other infrastructure projects like public transport, the changes under new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, the mistakes the government made about submarines in South Australia and much more.

Labor has a new higher education policy out this week. Shadow Minister for Higher Education Kim Carr joins Michelle to talk about it in depth. In the interview Carr is highly critical of some university managements for exploiting the system to the detriment of the tax payer, says far too many students are not graduating and much more.

Arthur Sinodinos was a key backer of Malcolm Turnbull, and he sits down with Michelle to talk about the coup, why the Liberals needed to change leader, what he hopes will change in the running of the Prime Minister's Office and much more.

Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg joins Michelle to talk about Syria, Australia's humanitarian refugee intake, the economy, Canning, the state of the Liberal Party in Victoria and much more.

Michelle spent two days this week in Canning, where campaigning is building up for the by-election on the 19th of September.  The seat is held by the Liberal Party by about 12%. Its former member was Don Randall, who died suddenly in July. In a break from our usual longform format, we conducted short interviews with Labor candidate Matt Keogh, Deputy Labor Leader Tanya Plibersek, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, Greens Leader Richard di Natale and Greens candidate Vanessa Rauland. 

The secretary of the department of foreign affairs and trade Peter Varghese sat down with Michelle to talk about aid, the integration of AUSAID, Islamic State, the Asian century and much, much more.