Jeremy Cordeaux is in the garage with Pete and Gary for the first day of spring, and there is plenty to cover. He pays a warm tribute to Dolly Parton, larger than life and loved by everyone who met her, then turns to the political earthquake in the west: One Nation's Luke Herdegen taking nearly 40 per cent of the primary vote and 57 per cent two-party-preferred in the Secret Harbour by-election, a seat Labor held for 40 years. He calls it strategic, psychological and a genuine shot across the bows of both major parties, backed by Red Bridge and Newspoll numbers putting One Nation ahead of Labor nationally.

He argues Anthony Albanese is "delusional" for insisting he has to beat One Nation because "we owe it to history," lists the government's record of higher taxes, higher debt, falling house values and electricity up by billions, and questions a Prime Minister whose diary is full of overseas trips, including a Pacific Islands Forum most island leaders are skipping. He rejects using the Nepal avalanche disaster to justify net zero, restating that Australia could switch everything off and change the climate not at all, and returns to Adelaide, where the Malinauskas government plans to cut down another 400 trees, more than 1,000 in total, for a $96 million, three-day MotoGP-style race most locals do not want. Plus this day in history from the outbreak of World War Two and the discovery of the Titanic to Rear Window and Barry Gibb.

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Jeremy Cordeaux is back in the garage with Pete and Gary, and opens with a milestone: Andy Martin reports 10.1 million people checked out the show across all platforms in the last 28 days. He then turns to the record-breaking "Stop the Chop" petition, more than 45,000 signatures carried book by book up the steps of Parliament House, to save trees of significance the government wants to cut down for sport and events, and warns Labor there is always a price to pay in the court of public opinion.

He questions why Treasurer Jim Chalmers says he is worried about the coalition and One Nation influencing the $4.5 trillion superannuation industry, but not the union movement that already sits close to it, and argues Labor has its eye on super to fund a renewables push that has seen electricity costs rise. He defends free speech and Pauline Hanson's right to take her 18C case to the High Court, citing Voltaire; flags the "unintended consequence" of paying $40,000 to $60,000 a day to anchored fuel tankers with nowhere to store the fuel; asks whether an AFL player is really worth $5 million a season; and makes a heartfelt case against putting parents and grandparents into aged care, recalling three generations under one roof. Plus this day in history from Krakatoa and Halley's Comet to Mountbatten, Mary Poppins and Don Bradman.

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Jeremy Cordeaux is back in a cold, wet garage with Pete and Gary, and the headline number is staggering: federal debt has passed $1 trillion, a one with twelve zeros after it. He works through what that means, roughly $29.6 billion a year in interest, about $569 million every single week, and contrasts it with 2006, when Peter Costello declared Australia debt-free, sold Telstra and set up the Future Fund. He argues a government this poor at managing money has little to show for the debt beyond "a masterclass in what not to do."

He also breaks down how David Speers, in his view, sprung a trap on One Nation's newly elected member David Farley on Insiders, turning a reasonable point about skilled visas into a "new member goes rogue" headline, and warns One Nation to stop being naive with a hostile press. Along the way: the 4.5% unemployment rate and 16,000 jobs lost in a month that barely made the news, the tobacco excise that has collapsed from $16.3 billion to $4 billion while illicit smokes supply 80% of the market, why there is no excise on fast food or a sugar tax, agreement (for once) with the Greens that the government runs "a protection racket" for the gambling industry, Ben Carroll's promise of ten free dental clinics in a broke Victoria, the Malinauskas government misreading the felling of Adelaide's parkland trees, 103-year-old Spitfire pilot Harry Young flying again, and a contested reflection on the 60th anniversary of the Wave Hill walk-off. Plus this day in history from Neil Armstrong to Sean Connery and the liberation of Paris.

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