Politics with Michelle Grattan
News:Politics
When Katy Gallagher joined the podcast this week, she was running between sessions of Senate estimates.
Among other issues, she and other Labor senators pressed (with mixed results) for answers about the handling of the Brittany Higgins matter.
Gallagher has another role in the pursuit of accountability. As Chair of the Senate's Select Committee on COVID-19, she's spearheading the quest for detail on what the government is doing on both the health and economic fronts.
As shadow minister for finance, she's also been vocal in the opposition's attack on the budget - in particular the government's failure to increase real wages despite considerable spending.
Gallagher speaks about the difficulty in getting substantive information.
"We have had pretty critical information withheld from the [COVID] committee..."
"All of the modelling and assumptions that went into the economic rescue packages, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars going out the door. All the health advice that's been provided to the government, the decisions that have been taken about border closures, about vaccinations, about why they went with certain companies and not others.
"The government has refused to provide that information. And I think that creates a problem for us in properly scrutinising it."
Minister David Littleproud on bushfires, drought, and the Nationals
Ross Gittins on the government’s ‘surplus obsession’
On the trust divide in politics
Deputy PM Michael McCormack on the drought and restive Nationals
Tim Watts on Australia's changing identity
Daughters of Robert Menzies and Arthur Calwell say parliament wasn’t always a “fort”
Arthur Sinodinos with some reflections and advice
Jim Chalmers on the need to change economic course
Independent MP Helen Haines on using 'soft power'
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on a slowing economy
PM’s advisor Christine Morgan on tackling Australia’s rising suicide rates
On the ‘creeping crisis’ in the public service
Anthony Albanese on Labor's hard times
Paul Oosting responds to GetUp's critics
Centre Alliance’s Stirling Griff on Newstart
Megan Davis on a First Nations Voice in the Constitution
Minister Ken Wyatt on constitutional recognition for Indigenous Australians
Frank Brennan on Israel Folau and religious freedom
ACTU president Michele O'Neil on John Setka and the government’s anti-union legislation
Corrected version: Richard Eccleston on the electoral mood in Tasmania
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