My guest today is Peter Varghese AO who amongst other things served as the former head of Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and who currently serves as the Chancellor of the University of Queensland. Today we discuss:

• How to determine what is important and not in foreign affairs
• How diplomats generally missed the rise of Donald Trump and failed to properly understand the pressures that propelled him to the Presidency
• Whether our trade relationship with China needs to be readjusted
• Why did Australia get involved in many of the foreign interventions over the last 30+ years and whether places like Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere should be considered successes?
• Whether foreign student numbers are too high in Australia
• Whether he is optimistic for the future

And much much more

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Varghese

My guest today is Drew Hutton, who was one of the founders of the Australian Greens political party.

Today we discuss:

• The origins of the Green political party in Australia and how it has changed over the years
• His current dispute with the Greens regarding gender ideology and what explains the differences between baby boomers and younger generations on this issue
• Whether there are potential commonalities between a particular type of traditional "crunchy con" conservatism and the anti-corporate left
• Where he sees the Greens going in the years ahead both in Australia and elsewhere in the West

And much more

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Hutton

My guest today is Leah Blyth, federal Senator for South Australia and President of the Liberal Party of South Australia.

Today we discuss:

• What explains the decline in the Liberal Party's fortunes in her state?
• Whether the voters blame the Liberal Party for the deindustrialisation and loss of the car industry?
• Her views on trade policy, Andrew Hastie's comments on "neoliberalism", and what a new policy framework for the centre-right might look like
• The resurgent defense industry in South Australia
• Why current child care policy is not working and what to do about it?

And much more

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leah_Blyth

https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=315170

https://www.spectator.com.au/2025/10/protectionism-free-trade-and-small-government/

Philip Pilkington is a Senior Research Fellow at the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs (HIIA), where his focus is on macroeconomic and geo-economic issues, and he is also a visiting fellow at the Danube Institute in Hungary.

Today we discuss:

• What Viktor Orban's defeat means for Hungary, The Danube Institute, and post-liberalism in that country
• His book "The Collapse of Global Liberalism"
• What is wrong with liberalism and what the best way of getting liberals to question their ideology
• Whether liberalism is a Christian heresy

And much more

https://x.com/philippilk?lang=en

https://danubeinstitute.hu/en/authors/pilkington-philip

My guest today is Scott Challen, who is a successful businessman and founder of the "Australia Marches" organization and "Australian Lobby Group".

Today we discuss:

• The upcoming "Australia Marches" protests in Canberra and what they hope to achieve
• What sort of engagement he has had to date with political parties to date
• How the nationalist movement here is similar to and differs from those in the UK and USA
• A broader discussion about how we got here and why there is such disenchantment with the traditional mainstream parties

And much more

https://australiamarches.com/

https://auslobby.com.au/

https://x.com/shallowchal

My guest today is Alex McDermott who is a Melbourne-based historian, writer, and curator at the Robert Menzies Institute. He recently collaborated with Tony Abbott on his book "Australia: A History".

Today we discuss:

• His recent article entitled "Forgetting Federation" about why the formal establishment of the Australian nation state is ignored
• Whether centre-right appear to have a negative view of federation and whether modern neo-liberalism might help explain this
• Menzies' view of Federation and whether one can detect in his politics a one nation Disraelian conservatism as well as a Gladstonian classical liberalism
• The parallels between the Federation era and our own.

And much more

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/history/forgetting-federation/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-mcdermott-000128309/

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/alex-mcdermott

https://substack.com/@alexmcdermott1?utm_source=top-search

My guest today is Drew Pavlou, a well-known Australian online influencer and activist. He is regularly retweeted by members of the Trump administration and recently attracted attention with his expose on the fraud and waste in the NDIS. Today we discuss:

• His political journey from the left to the new right and what explains the change
• His views on immigration and Angus Taylor's recent speech on the subject
• His views on foreign policy whether he considers himself a "neocon" and his views on the realists
• Whether being an influencer is a long-term career and his plans for the future

And much more

https://x.com/DrewPavlou

My guest today is Dr Simon Kennedy an Australian academic specialising in the history of legal, political and religious ideas.

He was a Visiting Fellow at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium in Budapest in early 2023, and is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Danube Institute, also in Budapest. His first book was published with Edinburgh University Press in 2022, and is entitled Reforming the Law of Nature: The secularisation of political thought, 1532-1689. His second book is on education, entitled Against Worldview, and published with Lexham Press.

Today we discuss:

- His recent paper entitled "Young Men in Crisis: What Can Australia Do?"

- The nature of this crisis, what its underlying causes are, and the extend to which the challenges facing young men are new and unprecedented

- The related issue of the feminisation of our institutions including the churches and the impact this is having on our politics and society, and

- What can be done about it.

And much much more.

https://www.ac.edu.au/faculty-and-staff/simon-kennedy/main/

https://about.uq.edu.au/experts/24133

https://www.page.org.au/2026/03/young-men-in-crisis/