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When the High Court handed down its Mabo decision, it cracked open the legal fiction at the heart of the nation. Terra Nullius was gone.
For John Howard, then in opposition, it provided an opportunity. He framed the moment not as correction, but as a threat. A story was spun to suburban and regional Australia: your backyard, your lease, your livelihood were suddenly, all under threat.
For John Howard, the real battle was over the nation’s conscience. He dismissed what he called the “black armband” view of history and described the violence and dispossession of the past as mere “blemishes” on an otherwise proud national story. He refused to apologise to the Stolen Generations, rejecting the idea that the nation owed a moral debt. In its place, he chose pride over reckoning — and ideology over truth.
Author and political commentator Amy Remeikis has spent months tracing the threads of Howard’s legacy, not just the policies, but the narratives that made them possible.
This is the Howard Effect, a three part series from 7am marking 30 years since John Howard's ascent to power. Episode Three - Who Belongs

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Guest: Author of Where It All Went Wrong: The case against John Howard, Amy Remeikis
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It’s just over two years into his first term and John Howard is taking the country to another election. In that short time he has seized the mantle of economic credibility away from Labor and rewritten the argument about who could be trusted to manage the economy.
The memory of Labor's reforms while in government were suddenly distant, and the constant reminder of the devastating recession of the 90s were kept fresh in the mind of voters by Howard and his treasurer Peter Costello.
Economic Management became the major selling point for Howard in every election from there on in.
This is The Howard Effect, a three-part series marking 30 years since John Howard’s emphatic election victory. Today, author Amy Remeikis on the economic revolution that defined his government — the tax reforms, the housing settings, and the policy choices that helped create the Australia we are all still living in.
This is episode 2 - In the Shadows of the Australian Dream.

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Guest: Author of Where It All Went Wrong: The case against John Howard, Amy Remeikis
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was the second of March 1996. After 13 years of Labor in power, Paul Keating’s government had been defeated in a landslide, closing the door on the Hawke-Keating era and opening another on a new political age.
John Howard’s victory marked the beginning of a prime ministership that would run for eleven years – redefining the Liberal Party, reshaping the economy, hardening the culture wars and changing the way power is exercised in Canberra.
In this three-part series, Amy Remeikis – contributing editor at The New Daily takes us back to Howard’s years in power.
Amy has just released a new book on Howard, Where It All Went Wrong: The case against John Howard. In this series she traces his improbable rise to the prime ministership, the way he consolidated power, and how he reshaped the nation in his own image.
This is Part 1 of a three-part series.

If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.

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Guest: Author of Where It All Went Wrong: The case against John Howard, Amy Remeikis
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The United States has entered a new war in the Middle East – alongside Israel – launching strikes inside Iran.
Iranian authorities say civilians have been targeted, including in a strike on a girls’ primary school in Minab – killing more than a hundred children. Israel says it’s targeting the regime’s military and nuclear infrastructure. And across the region, Iran has already fired missiles and drones at Israel and at Arab states hosting American forces.
Then came the most consequential announcement of all: Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is dead.
Khamenei was the centre of Iran’s power for decades – and his death leaves the country’s leadership in flux, at the exact moment the conflict is spreading.
Today, Dr Bader Mousa Al-Saif – a Gulf politics expert, assistant professor of history at Kuwait University and non-resident fellow at The Arab Gulf States institute – on the goal of regime change in Iran and whether Gulf states will pick a side.

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Guest: Gulf politics expert and assistant professor of history at Kuwait University, Dr Bader Mousa Al-Saif
Photo: EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
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Immigration is back at the centre of federal politics – again.
The Coalition’s new leadership is arguing Australia needs lower numbers, tougher rules, and a clearer cap on how many people we bring in each year.
It’s a familiar conversation. In the lead up to the 2024 election, Peter Dutton tried to put a hard number on it – promising to cut migration by 100,000 a year, saying it would help free up housing for Australians.
But critics say a large cut would hit the workforce Australia relies on, including the people needed to build more homes.
Abul Rizvi was a senior official in the Department of Immigration from the early 90s to 2007, when he left as deputy secretary.
He says the argument we keep having – election after election – skips the bigger question: Australia’s need for a long-term population plan, and what we want it to achieve.
Today, Abul Rizvi on the politics of population growth.
This episode was first published in April, 2025.

If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.

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Guest: Former deputy secretary of the department of immigration, Abul Rizvi.
Photo: AAP Image/Lukas Coch
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.