Nevena and Rachel Payne are joined live on air by, Michelle Reynolds, Director – Advocacy and Policy, Inner Melbourne Community Legal. Michelle Reynolds is the Director of Advocacy and Policy at Inner Melbourne Community Legal (IMCL). In this role, she oversees strategic advocacy and policy development, working extensively with IMCL’s Police Accountability Project.

She is a leading voice on legal reform and social justice issues in Victoria, focusing heavily on systemic police accountability, public housing advocacy, and the rights of marginalised communities.

Police impunity could be collateral damage to IBAC ‘follow-the-money’ reforms

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Joining Nevena as co-host this week, live in the studio this morning is Rachel Payne, Legalise Cannabis Victoria MP for the South-Eastern Metropolitan Region. Beyond her leading advocacy on drug policy reform, Rachel has been a persistent parliamentary voice calling for greater government integrity, the ending of internal police self-investigations, and urgent support for Victoria’s overburdened justice system—including our volunteer Justices of the Peace. Good morning, Rachel, and welcome back to Saturday Magazine on JOY.

IBAC Reform & Police Misconduct Oversight

Victoria’s anti-corruption framework currently sets a high legal bar for IBAC to investigate misconduct. Historically, over 95% of complaints made to IBAC regarding Victoria Police are referred back to Victoria Police internal affairs (Internal Integrity Command). In 2023, IBAC commenced independent investigations into just 23 out of over 4,000 allegations.

Rachel introduced the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission Amendment (Functions) Bill 2026 to strip away barriers that force IBAC to bounce complaints back to the police force. She has also pushed to expand IBAC’s powers to cover broader misconduct, follow-the-money powers, and hold public hearings without extreme statutory restrictions.

Systemic Misuse of LEAP: Payne has previously highlighted instances where police officers inappropriately accessed the Law Enforcement Assistance Program (LEAP) database to stalk or harass victim-survivors, arguing that independent oversight is essential to ending systemic abuse.

The State of Victoria’s Justices of the Peace (Honorary Justices)

The Crisis: Victoria has a severe shortfall of active Justices of the Peace (JPs) compared to other states. Victoria has under 4,000 registered JPs (with fewer than 2,000 actively operating), whereas states like Queensland and NSW maintain tens of thousands.

Public Impact: JPs provide essential, free volunteer services—witnessing statutory declarations, affidavits, and certifying legal documents. The severe shortage in growth corridors like the South-Eastern suburbs leaves vulnerable community members, elderly residents, and people without regular internet access struggling to execute legal documents.

Parliamentary Action: Payne sponsored petitions in Parliament calling on the Attorney-General to fund and reform the Honorary Justice Services Support unit to prevent the collapse of the volunteer JP network.

The post Sat, 19th Sept, 2026; Rachel Payne MLC, Legalise Cannabis Victoria Upper House, MP for South-Eastern Metropolitan Region appeared first on Saturday Magazine.

Joining us for our weekly political pulse-check is Amy Remeikis, Chief Political Analyst at The Australia Institute and Contributing Editor for The New Daily. Known for cutting straight through Canberra’s noise and spin, Amy is here to break down the latest media culture wars, truth in political advertising, and the policy debates dominating federal parliament. Welcome back to Saturday Magazine, Amy.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has announced plans to curb migration to Australia, reducing numbers to 245,000 this year and 225,000 next financial year. One Nation wants Australia to have 0 net overseas migration for the next three years and then 130,000 after that, and the Coalition wants migration numbers to be between 150,000 to 170,000 people.

Burke wants to increase the value of skilled permanent migration, with housing construction tradespeople to receive the same recognition as those with university degrees. Priority will be given to construction, healthcare, agriculture, fisheries and teaching. International Students will also no longer be able to attach family members to their visas.

For backpackers in Australia, eligibility for a second-year stay will be capped at 45,000 places and applicants will need to complete 88 days of regional work to qualify. For those seeking a third year, it’s six months in the country and only 5,000 places available. UK applicants will not be subject to this restriction because of our Free Trade Agreement with them.

The post Sat, 19th Sept, 2026; Amy Remeikis; Chief Political Analyst, The Australia Institute & Contributing Editor, The New Daily appeared first on Saturday Magazine.

Joining us this morning on Saturday Magazine is Sophie McNeill, Greens Member of the Legislative Council in Western Australia. Before entering parliament in 2025, Sophie spent over fifteen years on the frontlines of global conflict as a Walkley Award–winning foreign correspondent for the ABC and SBS, followed by leading investigative research for Human Rights Watch.

McNeill has been a prominent voice in the anti-AUKUS campaign, particularly focused on Submarine Rotational Force-West (SRF-West) at HMAS Stirling in WA.

Sovereignty risks, the massive $368 billion price tag diverted away from public housing and health, nuclear waste disposal concerns, and the militarisation of local communities. She has also campaigned against state anti-protest laws surrounding arms fairs (such as the Land Forces exposition).

As a former ABC Middle East correspondent who produced Walkley-winning coverage in Gaza and author of We Can’t Say We Didn’t Know, McNeill brings personal field experience to parliamentary advocacy.

Calling for an immediate end to Australian arms exports and dual-use component supply to Israel, federal sanctions, human rights accountability, and advocating for Palestinian self-determination and refugee protections.

The rapid expansion of AI infrastructure and hyperscale data centres across Australia is putting severe pressure on state energy grids and net-zero targets.

Data centres consume vast amounts of electricity and water, often delaying the phase-out of fossil fuels or sucking up renewable energy capacity meant to power homes. McNeill argues that unconstrained tech infrastructure undermines state emissions reduction commitments and diverts resources from genuine climate action.

The post Sat, 19th Sept, 2026; Sophie McNeill MLC, Greens Upper House MP for Western Australia, former ABC Middle East Foreign Correspondent & Human Rights Watch Researcher appeared first on Saturday Magazine.

Joining us live in the studio this morning is Felix Ralph, a leading criminal defence lawyer from law firm Marshall Jovanovska Ralph. As the federal parliament pushes forward with major reforms to the Online Safety Act—including the introduction of a statutory ‘Digital Duty of Care’ for social media platforms—Felix is here to unpack what these legislative shifts mean for corporate liability, digital free expression, and individual rights online. Welcome to JOY, Felix.

The proposal for a “Digital Duty of Care” amends the framework under the Online Safety Act 2021. Rather than relying solely on reactive takedown notices administered by the eSafety Commissioner, it imposes an affirmative legal duty on platforms to design safer digital environments and mitigate systemic risks (e.g., algorithmic amplification of self-harm, cyberbullying, hate speech, and deepfakes).

Legal Duty vs. Free Speech Concerns: Legal scholars and civil liberties advocates raise concerns over “chilling effects.” If platforms face heavy civil penalties or corporate liability for failing their duty of care, their automated moderation tools may over-regulate, censoring legitimate speech, political commentary, or LGBTQIA+ community discussions.

Algorithmic Accountability & Opt-Outs: A central debate surrounds recommendation algorithms. Implementing a duty of care could force platforms to give users direct controls—such as chronological feed opt-outs—and demand transparent risk assessments before launching new platform features or AI models.

Enforcement & Constitutional Boundaries: Key legal questions remain regarding the eSafety Commissioner’s enforcement powers, standard-of-proof thresholds, potential class action liabilities, and whether these state-level/federal restrictions withstand implied constitutional protections for freedom of political communication.

Section 25C(2) & Ministerial Discretion: The exposure draft of the Online Safety Amendment (Digital Duty of Care) Bill 2026 sets out 13 explicit categories of “seriously harmful material and conduct” under Section 25C(1). However, Section 25C(2) creates a broad catch-all power allowing the Communications Minister to declare any additional material or conduct as “seriously harmful” via subordinate legislative instruments if they are satisfied it “may cause serious harm”. Critics argue this creates an expandable regulatory ratchet where executive power can bypass primary parliamentary debate to reclassify controversial speech, political advocacy, or social commentary as legally harmful.

The post Sat, 19th Sept, 2026; Felix Ralph, Criminal Defence, Technology & Media Lawyer; Digital Duty of Care. appeared first on Saturday Magazine.

Joining us live on the Saturday Magazine to break down all things television is Steven Molk from TV Blackbox. With the dust settling on the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards and local networks gearing up for a packed spring line-up, Molk is here to walk us through the big winners, the host’s performance, and the hottest Australian shows landing on our screens. Welcome back to JOY, Molk!

78th Emmy Awards Highlights & Trends

Host Performance: Mariska Hargitay took on hosting duties for the September 14 ceremony as part of NBC’s 100th-anniversary milestone. Moving away from traditional stand-up comedians, Hargitay leaned into TV royalty nostalgia.

Major Winners: HBO Max’s medical drama The Pitt took out Outstanding Drama Series, while comedy Widow’s Bay (Apple TV) swept the night with 14 total wins. Apple TV’s Pluribus also made waves with Rhea Seehorn taking home Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

Domestic Australian TV Landscape & Streaming Originals

Local Drama Push: Paramount+ recently launched Dalliance, a high-profile Australian drama starring Hugo Weaving and Georgie Parker.

Genre Experiments: Stan revealed first looks at its upcoming horror-comedy series Gnomes (featuring Megan Smart, Asa Butterfield, and Nina Oyama), where garden gnomes come to life with murderous intent. This points to a trend of Aussie streamers taking bigger creative risks.

Upfronts Season Approaching: Channel 9 and Stan’s Upfronts have just happened which should be exciting

The post Sat, 19th Sept, 2026; Steven Molk TV Critic, Industry Analyst & Co-Founder of TV Blackbox appeared first on Saturday Magazine.

Celebrated local designer and technologist Mel Huang Buntine, has built a shrine to the tender and personal side of computing. Embracing code as a creative medium, Mel brings together people, communities and computers that push our understanding of what computation can be.

“My love letter to the personal computer” – Mel Huang Buntine

‘What if computation wasn’t about speed, automation and scale but building slower, tender and more personal systems? Radical Computing, guest curated by Mel Huang Buntine, is a love letter to the personal computer and to all those who tinker, weave, extend, stretch, hack, subvert and make with the materiality of code’.

.Owning your own computer was once a radical concept. When computers started entering our homes from the 1970s, computing was out of reach to most people.

Affordable, small computers that could be built by everyday people changed this. From the raw energy of the Demoscene, Australia’s early rave and hacker underground, to global creative coding and open-source software movements, Radical Computing celebrates those who have shaped, challenged and reimagined our world via code as a medium. Featuring commissions from artists like Chia Amisola and Chok Si Xuan, plus a revival of Laurie Spiegel’s groundbreaking work Music Mouse, this exhibition is anything but a computer graveyard. Explore a vast array of personal computers from the Buntine Computer Collection, plus see a rare piece of computing history – NCM’s latest acquisition, a Connection Machine CM-2, restored by our Collections and NCM Studio teams, in collaboration with its original industrial designer, Tamiko Thiel. Centring communities who have challenged traditional ideas of what computers are, how to use them and who they’re for, this is an interactive exhibition for all ages

The post Sat, 12th, Sept, 2026: Mel Huang Buntine; Radical Computing; National Communication Museum (NCM) appeared first on Saturday Magazine.

Macca and Kenny talk to Todd Hacking; Chief Executive Officer; Heavy Vehicle Industry Australia.

Todd holds a double degree in Arts (Politics) and Law from the University of Adelaide and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

He has forged a successful career advocating public policy solutions for a range of industries, including infrastructure, transport, land use planning, environment, safety, construction, and logistics.

As CEO of Heavy Vehicle Industry Australia, the peak body for truck, trailer, component, equipment and technology manufacturers and suppliers, as well as being the custodian of the largest B2B event in Queensland, the Brisbane Truck Show, Todd is delving into the policy areas affecting the heavy vehicle industry.

On weekends, he moonlights as a marriage celebrant, is an avid AFL fan, a horse racing enthusiast and is at his most comfortable cooking in the kitchen.

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