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

Weekend wrap Jun 13, 2021

-Pressure grows on Morrison to let them go #HomeToBilo -G7 meets but Morrison does photo op instead of policy work -IR update on wages, 2nd jobs & vaccination leave Plus Morrison wants to gag charities

Episode 41: Medicare cuts slammed by doctors, Biloela family left to rot, Morrison looking to cut wages AGAIN and good news about trees and bees

Van Badham and Ben Davison look at the Medicare cuts that have been slammed by doctors and have inspired action from Australian Unions to save Medicare from Greg Hunt's dream of an American style, privatised healthcare system.

A family from Biloela has been left to rot on an island for 1000 days, a toddler is a preventable blood infection and a community wants the family to come home.  So why is Morrison spending $6 million keeping them in a 400 bed detention centre?  And how do we get things back on track?

Morrison reanimates the ministerial career of Michaelia Cash to help cut wages for the workers in Australia's "most profitable sector" while also trying to drive down the minimum wage for millions of our pandemic heroes.

The good news is about Trees and Bees

Plus Germanicus joins as we record from a new location.

WeekendWrap Jun 6, 2021

-85 cases of Covid in Victoria but hope ahead l -Morrison finally agrees to fund a quarantine centre but can’t tell us how many aged care workers have been vaccinated -Morrison passes super laws that are a punishment looking for a crime as cross bench cuts ministerial powers -Merivale empire grows on the back of stolen wages as Morrison’s I.R. Minister poses with the CEO, attends his fundraiser & scraps wage theft laws

Episode 40: Scovid lockdown continues in Victoria, Harvey Norman as the face of corporate greed, economic growth for the few not the many and good news about airships!

Van Badham & Ben Davison look at how Scott Morrison's failure to rollout the COVID vaccine has created the #Scovid hashtag, left 98% of people in supported disability care accomodation unvaccinated and brought Australians a world of confusion. Meanwhile, a Morrison minister called aged care workers "dregs", another minister told locked-down casual workers to "go to Centrelink" and the Deputy PM thinks "a week isn't a long time to go without pay". Gerry Harvey volunteers to be the face of corporate greed by demanding wage suppression while economic growth leads to massive profits (hey, everyone, JOIN YOUR UNION), Van has a problem with capitalism, Ben restrains himself on the subject of convicted wage thief, Justin Hemmes, the dog tries to get out of the garage on his own and the good news involves Iron Maiden and the return of THE AIRSHIP! What a bumper week! Share this programme!

Weekend wrap May 30, 2021

Scovid outbreak locks down Victoria for seven days A mystery case in an aged care facility And Morrison’s ministers tell Victorians to go to Centrelink, where they won’t be eligible for any support at all!

Episode 39: Morrison's vaccine strollout puts Victoria under lockdown cloud, Canberra cover up culture continues & good news about plastic waste

Van Badham and Ben Davison look at how Morrison's failure on COVID vaccinations and quarantine might have blown Australia's head start and left Victoria facing another lockdown.

The Canberra cover-up culture continues as Morrison's three seperate investigations into the Brittany Higgins allegations devolve into farce, outright sabotage and total misdirection.  Meanwhile the senate estimates processes is being obfuscated by Liberal appointed senators trying to help Michaelia Cash and security advisors pretending that Morrison's QAnon mates being used as a pipeline for misinformation for Russia, China, Iran and Saudi Arabia isn't really a problem.

It is Sorry Day and we say sorry to first nations Australians for their mistreatment at the hands of successive Australian governments.

The good news is about a combined ANZAC effort on plastic waste.

Germanicus is super excited to have us back in the shed and we once again thank our show sponsor, Australian Unions. 

Weekend Wrap May 23, 2021

Ben Davison looks at: Gerry Harvey complains about being made to pay the taxes he asked for, Victoria makes big business pay for mental health Unemployment is down but there are fewer jobs Labor will scrap the privatised INDUE card Upper Hunter stays national and maybe there’s a deeper message about regional communities.

Episode 38:Vaccine "Stroll-out", the CEOs say profits are worth a few deaths, Morrison's university failure, gig workers win... and SEABIRDS!

Van Badham and Ben Davison analyse the dangers of Scott Morrison's too-slow COVID vaccine "rollout", budget cuts to the university sector aren't smart thinking, gig economy workers have a win at last... and there's also good news about seabirds. 

Also, we have some exciting news about *this very podcast!!!*, Van sniffles and the dog gets upset about worker exploitation. Enjoy!

Weekend Wrap May 16, 2021

Weekend Wrap! (With new sound quality!) Hidden budget nasties Albo’s powerhouse budget reply Frydenberg makes clear Morrison supports wage cuts and exposes the sham of “tight labour market = wage growth” Wage thieves want more temporary migrant workers Tas Labor changes leader Hawke commemoration NSW restrictions to lift #Idahobit day

Episode 37: The big breakdown of Morrison's band aid budget and good news about fish!

Van Badham and Ben Davison breakdown the Morrison government's latest budget offering and get under the headlines into what is really happening with aged care, childcare, wages, training, climate change and the secret cuts.

The so called "women's budget"  doesn't actually have much for women.

There's some tinkering with superannuation, some pre-election sweeteners and a lot of ignoring experts while praying that "technology" saves us from climate change while allowing multinationals to extract even more of our gas.

So tune in for a detailed breakdown of what's in the budget and what it actually means.

Plus the good news is that 60,000 fish have been released back into the Darling river system!