"The Week on Wednesday" with Van Badham & Ben Davison

Van Badham reviews the most strange Presidential debate in living memory, Ben takes us through the cuts facing 3.5 millions Australians on Jobkeeper and Jobseeker, Van & Ben are horrified at the Morrison government potentially sending troops to the docks while the workers are still negotiating and people in Tasmania save 109 whales!

What's really happening in Victoria?

Why are Morrison and the Jims mowing guy attacking Dan Andrews?

Sports Rorts are heating up again

A look at the child protection situation in WA

Australian Unions have launched their new campaign : For the workers

And the good news is a bank won't be accepting climate denialism anymore.

This is The Week on Wednesday

Van Badham and Ben Davison explore the company Prime Minister Scott Morrison keeps as his pastor faces charges of concealing a crime, one of his senators spouts Bannon neo-fascism and made up numbers on the ABC and one of his members in the lower house regurgitates foreign conspiracy theories and finally gets called out on it by the parliament. Plus there's Craig Kelly, Gerard Rennick and even a bit of Barnaby!

The IPCC, and reality, says humans are slow cooking our only home but Scott Morrison wants the poorest people on earth to do something or a miracle technology before he'll "write a blank cheque" to save us. Van and Ben explore how the same mouth pieces for foreign propagandists on COVID are also the same people threatening the government if they do anything to improve our environment.

COVID gets worse in NSW with no real end in sight as more areas enter lockdown and Melbourne extends the 6th lockdown for another week. Van reports from Sydney and asks the question: Do you want the kind of strong decisive leadership that we've seen in the Labor states or the hopeless failure of Morrison and Gladys to continue? "Because that's the choice people will have to make."

The good news is that whiskey waste is being used to fuel whiskey delivery trucks in closed manufacturing processes!

Van Badham and Ben Davison discuss "horse race" political journalism in light of the revelations that Morrison is "hosting drinks for the media" during the campaign and that the "cash rate gaffe" was based on a question asked after a visit to a nursing home that needed nurses but where the media wasn't interested in asking about aged care policy.

With disinformation campaigns having shaped national elections in Australia, the UK and the USA in recent years Van and Ben discuss why trust in the media is so important and how recognising the potential for bias by being up front with your views, values and interactions is so critical to democracy.

There have been some policy announcements in the first days of the election, on Medicare from Labor and on jobs from Morrison (though the details might be better news for workers in Vietnam than in Western Sydney). There have also been revelations about Liberal travel rorts and George Christensen locking in his $100k severance by jumping into an unwinnable senate spot for One Nation.

Australian Unions have put out a secure jobs policy paper which shows 1 in 3 workers in Australia currently has no job security. Union jobs are more secure jobs and you can join your union at Australianunions.org.au/wow

The good news is that solar panels are being designed that collect energy at night!

Plus we give a huge shoutout to our Cadre and Extending the Reach supporters who have allowed us to keep promoting the show, despite the spike in advertising costs due to the election. Check out www.buymeacoffee.com/weekonwednesday to make a contribution and read the posts.

Van Badham and Ben Davison break down the scandal engulfing the treatment of Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate and how it connects to the Liberal Party plans to privatise our postal services.

Morrison has announced "mass vaccination" centres for Australian's between 50-70 with no timelines and seemingly no plan but he will be holding national cabinet meetings twice a week so the state Premiers can do the actual work for him.

Tucker Carlson has repeated a vile far right conspiracy theory on Fox "News" and instead of firing him Lachlan Murdoch has defended Carlson for "not really believing it". Ben and Van explain why that's bad for everyone on every level.

The good news is there are more rhino's than there were in 2017 and Saudi Arabia is planning on planting billions of trees.

Plus Germanicus gets fired up for Ben's birthday!