It’s a controversial proposal – immigration based on blatant discrimination.

Opposition leader Angus Taylor has laid out the beginnings of the Liberal Party’s hard line migration policy in a provocative speech in Canberra.

Some of his proposals had echoes of Donald Trump, others of John Howard – as he made a play for One Nation’s growing pool of lapsed Liberal voters.

So what does it all mean? And will his bold move on migration pay off at the polls?

Today, press gallery journalist Karen Middleton on the Liberal Party’s controversial new migration policy.

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Guest: Press gallery journalist, Karen Middleton

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Israel has passed a new law allowing for the execution of Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks.

The law passed through the country’s parliament despite opposition from Israeli and international human rights groups, as well as the governments of the UK, Germany, France and Italy.

Israel’s national doctors’ union has refused to carry out lethal injections, meaning those sentenced under the law would face death by hanging.

The government says the law will deter future Palestinian attacks. Some right-wing Israeli politicians wore noose-shaped pins in parliament as it was debated.

Today, Israeli journalist Amira Hass, who lives in the West Bank and writes for Haaretz, on capital punishment, settler violence and the expansion of settlements in Palestine.

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Guest: Haaretz correspondent for the Occupied Territories, Amira Hass

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More than a decade after he retired from AFL, John Barnes collapsed without warning and began having seizures.

The former Essendon and Geelong ruckman says years of head knocks left him with epilepsy, memory problems, and a life he barely recognised.

Now, as a growing class action takes on the AFL over concussion, Barnes is speaking about the damage he says the game caused – and the accountability he still wants.

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Guest: Former AFL ruckman, John Barnes

Photo: AAP Image/Julian Smith

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In September of 2012, Australian soldiers descended on the rural village of Darwan in Afghanistan, killing four men.

That raid and the events of that day were central to the defamation action brought by Ben Roberts-Smith. The court eventually found it was substantially true that he had committed war crimes – including kicking Ali Jan, an Afghan villager, off a cliff and ordering his execution.

Ben Roberts-Smith maintains his innocence, and the allegations have never been proven to a criminal standard.

But now, that’s about to be tested.

This week, Roberts-Smith was arrested and charged with five counts of war crime murder. One of those charges relates to the Darwan raid, making the killing of Ali Jan central to the criminal case ahead.

Ali Jan’s family are still waiting for justice and want to testify. But the agency leading Australia’s war crimes investigations is still refusing to take witness statements directly from Afghanistan.

Today, freelance journalist Michelle Dimasi, who travelled to Afghanistan to meet Ali Jan’s family, on what justice might still look like for them.

This episode first aired in November 2023.

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Guest: Freelance journalist covering Afghanistan and the Middle East, Michelle Dimasi

Photo: AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills

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The fighting may have temporarily eased in the Middle East, but the fallout is still moving through the global economy. Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains disrupted, fuel markets are unsettled, and Australia is exposed.

Now, Anthony Albanese is in Singapore trying to secure supply, as the opposition presses the government over how prepared the country really is.

Today, Tony Wood, Energy and Climate Change Senior Fellow at the Grattan Institute, on the state of the Strait, the ongoing risks for Australia, and the politics taking shape around another global shock.

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Guest: Energy and Climate Change Senior Fellow at the Grattan Institute, Tony Wood

Photo: AAP Image/Tom White

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Ben Roberts-Smith was once held up as the face of Australia’s war in Afghanistan. This week, he was arrested and charged with war crimes.

Ben Roberts-Smith maintains his innocence.

For journalist Chris Masters, the road to that moment began almost two decades ago, when he travelled to Afghanistan to report on the war up close. Over time, he began hearing whispers that some elite soldiers had crossed a line.

Those whispers turned into a years-long investigation, alongside Nick McKenzie, into allegations that would later be tested in one of the biggest defamation trials in Australian history.

Today, veteran investigative journalist Chris Masters on how that story began, why soldiers finally started talking, and what Ben Roberts-Smith’s arrest means for how Australia reckons with the truth about its war in Afghanistan.

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Guest: Investigative reporter and author of Flawed Hero: Truth, lies and war crimes, Chris Masters

Photo: AAP Image/Bianca De Marchi

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Eighteen years ago, Kevin Rudd apologised to the Stolen Generations and said those injustices must never happen again.

But in that same year, Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts was taken from her family at just 10 years old.

Now, as a lawyer and advocate, she says Australia is still taking First Nations children from their families – and that the number in out-of-home care is today higher than the estimated number removed during the Stolen Generations.

Today, Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts on her own removal, the pipeline from child protection to prison, and what it would take to keep First Nations children with their families and communities.

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Guest: Human rights lawyer and former ACT Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People, Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts

Photo: AAP Image/Jeremy Ng

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It’s been a war of shifting deadlines for President Trump. And now, his latest one expires this morning.

Trump is threatening that if Iran fails to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the US will strike the country’s bridges and power plants in what he’s calling "Energy Plants Day and Bridges Day” – stating 'a whole civilisation will die tonight' if Tehran ignores his ultimatum.

But indiscriminately targeting infrastructure that civilians rely on to survive could amount to war crimes.

Today, Rachel VanLandingham – a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and former military lawyer – on whether the US can lawfully target civilian infrastructure, and what it would mean for international law if it did.

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Guest: National security law expert and former active duty judge advocate in the US Air Force, Rachel VanLandingham

Photo: EPA/JIM LO SCALZO

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