7am

Parkinson’s is the fastest-growing neurological disorder in the world.
And in some Australian farming communities, doctors are questioning why so many seem to be getting it.
For years, some farmers and doctors have drawn a link to paraquat – a powerful weedkiller still used widely on Australian farms, despite being banned in more than 60 countries, including the UK, China and Brazil.
This month, Australia’s chemical regulator is expected to decide whether paraquat can keep being used here – after a review that’s been going on since 1997.
Professor Wesley Thevathasan is one of about 50 neurologists who made submissions to that review, calling for paraquat to be banned. But he says the regulator has ignored them – as well as some of the strongest evidence linking exposure to the chemical to Parkinson’s.
Today, Associate Professor Wesley Thevathasan, on the farmers who fear paraquat made them sick, and whether Australia’s regulator is listening.
Farmer audio courtesy of ABC rural.

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Guest: Parkinson’s disease specialist, Associate Professor Wesley Thevathasan
Photo: ABC / Jake Hamilton
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For three decades, Pauline Hanson has built a career on grievance.
In all that time she hasn’t fronted to the bastion of political journalism, the national press club. That was until yesterday where she appeared for the first time.
In a long address she laid out how she aims to turn her politics of grievance into policy; targeting immigration, the ABC, multiculturalism, renewable energy, transgender rights and journalists.
It was a performance that will play to her base and one that helps explain her rise in the polls. But she also gave her opponents a clearer picture of what they’re running against and what to target in the two years until the next election.
Today, press gallery journalist Karen Middleton, on Pauline Hanson’s big moment, and the fight now coming for One Nation.

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Guest: Press gallery journalist Karen Middleton
Photo: AAP Image/Lukas Coch
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Over the weekend, Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire.
It came after his company, SpaceX, was publicly listed, reaching a valuation of more than two trillion dollars.
Elon’s wealth is now the equivalent of the bottom one-third of the entire globe’s population. It’s more than the entire annual GDP of Belgium, Sweden or Ireland.
But while some are celebrating Musk’s milestone, for others it’s jarring to see in the hands of someone who uses their power for political purposes – and at a time where so many are living with so little.
Today, author of Stinking Rich: The Four Myths of the Good Billionaire, Carl Rhodes, on what the world’s first trillionaire means for the distribution of power and wealth.

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Guest: Author of Stinking Rich: The Four Myths of the Good Billionaire, Carl Rhodes
Photo: REUTERS/Mike Segar
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Donald Trump said what he wanted for his 80th birthday was world peace
And now, alongside the UFC spectacle on the White House lawn, he appears to have given himself the headline he wanted: a so-called peace deal with Iran.
Or more accurately - a sixty day “pause” – while negotiations continue.
Today Director of the Australia Institute's International & Security Affairs Program Dr Emma Shortis on the latest end of the war announcement - and what could derail it.

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Guest: Director of the Australia Institute’s International & Security Affairs Program, Dr Emma Shortis
Photo: Bonnie Cash/Pool/ABACAPRESS.COM
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Aukus is the most expensive defence project in Australia’s history; a project, that at its heart has the plan to acquire nuclear-powered submarines through the United States and the United Kingdom.
But the doubts around it are growing: over the cost, over whether Australia will get the submarines it’s been promised, and over what the deal means for our sovereignty.
Now, a public inquiry, in lieu of parliamentary debate, led by former Labor minister Peter Garrett is putting Aukus under scrutiny.
Today, Peter Garrett on why he believes Australians deserve answers, and whether it’s too late to walk away.

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Guest: Lead commissioner of the Aukus Inquiry, Peter Garrett
Photo: AAP Image/Con Chronis
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