This episode exposes the contradictions of modern Australia – a nation that supposedly celebrates peace while funding war, promises compassion while reviving cruelty, and flirts with justice while fearing equality. This week, we look at the shocking scenes outside Sydney’s taxpayer-funded Indo–Pacific International Maritime Expo, where police used pepper spray and riot squads against peaceful protesters calling out Australia’s complicity in genocide. Defence Minister Richard Marles described the weapons showcase as “beautiful, menacing and extremely cool,” but behind the marketing spin is a darker reality: Australia’s growing addiction to militarism, war profiteering, and the suppression of dissent. NSW Premier Chris Minns, who boasted about the $3.4 billion defence export industry, avoided questions about the Israeli companies Elbit and Rafael – both accused of aiding the destruction of Gaza. What does it mean when the Labor Party, once rooted in anti-war values, now sponsors the killing machines of war?
We also revisit Robodebt 2.0 – the Albanese government’s quiet revival of a system it once condemned. Through private debt collectors like Recoveries Corp, ordinary Australians are again facing automated notices, threats of legal action, and garnished wages. More than 350,000 people have been targeted, echoing the cruelty and bureaucratic indifference of the original Robodebt scheme. Labor says it learned the lessons of the past – but with automation errors, private-equity contractors and punitive social-security laws allowing payments to be cut off based an accusation, the same culture of punishment persists.
In better news, Victoria has made history by signing Australia’s first Treaty with its First Nations peoples. It establishes a First Peoples’ Assembly, a truth-telling commission and an accountability framework that could transform Reconciliation into something real. It’s a powerful rebuke to the politics of fear that derailed the federal Voice referendum. But conservatives are already threatening a repeal, proving that the struggle for justice and dignity remains unfinished.
And in the United States, 34-year-old democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani has just been elected as New York’s first Muslim and African-born mayor. His victory – built on grassroots energy, small donations and a fearless stand against Israel’s war in Gaza – sends a shockwave through establishment politics in the US. Mamdani’s win shows what happens when authenticity defeats fear, and when people choose conviction over compromise. Could this be a roadmap for Australia – a politics that puts people before profit, truth before spin and courage before conformity?
This episode looks at the intersections between militarism, welfare cruelty, Reconciliation and socialist renewal. It’s a fearless take on the week in Australian and global politics – from war profits and Gaza, to Robodebt and the Treaty – viewed through the uncompromising lens of New Politics.
Other news from New Politics this week:
Song listing:
‘Stranger In Moscow’, Tame Impala.
‘Swing For The Crime’, Ed Kuepper.
‘The King Is Dead’, The Herd.
‘Sign O’ The Times’, Prince, remix by Michael Saxom.
