7am

Schwartz Media

A daily news show from the publisher of The Monthly and The Saturday Paper. Hear from the country’s best reporters, covering the news as it affects Australia. This is news with narrative, every weekday.

  • 16 minutes 27 seconds
    The fight for Dan Duggan - Part 1: From 'Top Gun' to wanted man

    In October 2022, Dan Duggan was arrested at a Woolworths in Orange, regional New South Wales, after dropping his kids off at school.

    American prosecutors claim the former US Marine pilot helped train Chinese military pilots in South Africa more than a decade ago, in breach of US arms trafficking laws. Duggan denies that, and says he believed he was involved in lawful civilian flight training.

    He’s now facing extradition to the United States.

    But before the arrest, the charges, and before the extradition fight, Duggan was living as an Australian citizen, running a flight business in Tasmania, and building a life with his wife Saffrine and their children.

    Today, Dan Duggan’s wife, Saffrine Duggan on her husband’s fight for freedom from jail, and journalist and member of the Free Dan Duggan Campaign, Michael Sainsbury, on how an Australian pilot became the target of US prosecution.

    This is part one of a two-part episode.

     

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    Guest: Saffrine Duggan and journalist and member of the Free Dan Duggan campaign Michael Sainsbury.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    26 April 2026, 7:05 pm
  • 14 minutes 49 seconds
    The fight for Dan Duggan - Part 2: The extradition battle

    Dan Duggan’s case is now an extradition battle.

    Former attorney-general Mark Dreyfus approved the Australian citizen’s extradition to the United States and the Federal Court has rejected the latest attempt to stop it.

    Duggan’s supporters say this is no longer just a legal case – they believe it’s also shaped by geopolitics and the growing rivalry between the United States and China, and by Australia’s willingness to go along with Washington.

    Today, journalist Michael Sainsbury, and Saffrine Duggan, on why the Australian government signed off on Duggan’s extradition, what he could face in the United States, and why his supporters say he has become caught in something much bigger than one man.

    This is part two of a two-part episode.

     

    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: Saffrine Duggan and journalist and member of the Free Dan Duggan campaign Michael Sainsbury.

    Photo: AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    26 April 2026, 7:00 pm
  • 17 minutes 12 seconds
    Part 1: Victoria’s historic treaty

    When Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan introduced the state's treaty bill into parliament, she said it would pave the way for a formal apology, the introduction of Aboriginal truth-telling into the school curriculum, and a better future for Indigenous Australians in the state.

    The treaty is the culmination of almost a decade of work that established the First Peoples’ Assembly – which led the negotiations – and delivers on ‘Voice, Treaty and Truth’, making Victoria the first state in the country to do so.

    Now, that treaty is in its next phase. This week, we'll have the election results of who will sit on the next First Peoples’ Assembly – and tomorrow, the process of setting up the delegation that will actually decide what the treaty will look like begins.

    Today, the co-chairs of the First Peoples’ Assembly, Ngarra Murray and Rueben Berg, on what they hope Victoria’s treaty will deliver – and how its success will be measured.

    This is part one of a two-part episode that first aired in September 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: Co-Chairs of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, Ngarra Murray and Rueben Berg.

    Photo: AAP Image/Pool, Justin McManus

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    25 April 2026, 7:05 pm
  • 16 minutes 37 seconds
    Part 2: The politics and pushback

    Indigenous leaders across the country welcomed Victoria’s treaty.

    The legislation enshrines a democratically elected body for First Peoples, called Gellung Warl, that will be consulted on laws and policies affecting Indigenous communities.

    Now there are calls for other states and territories to use the Victorian example as a model to establish their own treaties.

    But there’s also pushback – with critics calling it costly and divisive in claims that echo The Voice debate – and with state and territory leaders across the country abandoning previous promises and commitments.

    Today, writer and 7am co-host Daniel James on whether Victoria’s treaty marks a turning point or an anomaly.

    This is part two of a two-part episode that first aired in September 2025.

     

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    Guest: Writer and 7am co-host, Daniel James.

    Photo: AAP Image/Joel Carrett

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    25 April 2026, 7:00 pm
  • 18 minutes 8 seconds
    NDIS shrinks, gas profits soar, and One Nation takes a hit: the week in politics

    This week, the Albanese government moved to rein in the NDIS, making a hard political argument that one of the most impactful reforms in recent memory now has to be smaller to survive. In Canberra, a Senate hearing pressed on another pressure point: whether, at a time of global instability and rising costs, Australia should be getting more from its gas exports.

    And in the first electoral test for the reshaped right, there may be signs that One Nation’s surge in the polls has reached its limit. 

    Today, contributing editor at The New Daily, Amy Remeikis, on what this week reveals about Labor, the right and the pressure on both.

     

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    Guest: Contributing editor at The New Daily, Amy Remeikis

    Photo: AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts

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    24 April 2026, 7:00 pm
  • 14 minutes 39 seconds
    “Confusion and distrust”: The disability community on the NDIS overhaul

    The government says the NDIS has drifted too far from its original purpose, has grown too fast and too loosely, and that it now needs a major reset.

    Health Minister Mark Butler says the changes, which will see eligibility tightened, participants reassessed and 160,000 people booted from the NDIS are about making the scheme sustainable and pulling it back to the people it was originally designed to support.

    But for people with a disability, families and carers, the language has done little to calm anxiety – because this is just not a crackdown on fraud and dodgy providers. It's a change to who gets support, how that support is judged and what happens to people who no longer meet the new test.

    Today, Australian Autism Alliance co-chair Jenny Karavolos on the government's NDIS overhaul and why it's causing so much apprehension across the community. 

     

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    Guest: Australian Autism Alliance Co-Chair Jenny Karavolos

    Photo: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    23 April 2026, 7:00 pm
  • 15 minutes 16 seconds
    Bonus Ep: Punter’s Politics and the gas tax “ripping off” Aussies

    It’s not often politicians are taken to task by regular Australians on the issues that fill them with rage.

    But that’s exactly what happened at this week’s senate inquiry into taxing Australia’s gas companies for their windfall war profits. 

    Konrad Benjamin, a former high school teacher, gave evidence at the hearing – and he didn’t hold back

    The self proclaimed “citizen’s lobbyist” is making headlines around the country.

    Today in a special bonus episode, founder of Punter’s Politics Konrad Benjamin on why he thinks gas companies are ripping off Australia – and the government is letting them get away with it.

     

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    Guest: Punter’s Politics founder Konrad Benjamin

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    23 April 2026, 6:00 am
  • 14 minutes 27 seconds
    A fellow war vet on Ben Roberts-Smith and the long legal road ahead

    This week, accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith, who is out on bail for five charges of murdering unarmed Afghan civilians and prisoners in 2009 and 2012, came out swinging.

    The highly decorated soldier categorically denied the allegations against him, saying he will never give up the fight. Roberts-Smith insists he’s proud of his service in Afghanistan, and of the men and women who served alongside him.

    Men like Glenn Kolomeitz – a defence force lawyer deployed with Ben Roberts-Smith’s squadron in Afghanistan – whose take on the charges, the investigation and the impending trial may not be what you’d expect.

    Today, war veteran and defence lawyer Glenn Kolo meitz, on how the defence community feels about Ben Roberts-Smith, and what comes next.

     

    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: Veteran and lawyer Glenn Kolomeitz

    Photo: AAP Image/Jason O’Brien

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    22 April 2026, 7:00 pm
  • 17 minutes 27 seconds
    Inside Putin’s classroom propaganda push

    This year a Russian documentary filmed at a school in Russia won an Academy Award.

    Its hero? A Russian Primary school teacher, Pasha Talankin.

    After Russia invaded Ukraine Mr Talankin found himself trapped in the job of teaching propaganda to students.

    He filmed it all until he was forced to flee the country.

    And what he captured offers a rare glimpse into Putin’s Russia, and the classroom propaganda program indoctrinating Russian kids.

    Today, Andrei Soldatov a Russian investigative journalist, who also fled - and is living in exile in London on how the Kremlin is indoctrinating kids, Putin’s plan to re-write history .. and Russians – are they buying it?

     

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    Guest: Russian journalist Andrei Soldatov

    Photo: Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    21 April 2026, 7:00 pm
  • 15 minutes 20 seconds
    Amateur hitmen, mistaken murders and airtasker for crims: the new underworld

    It’s been dubbed by underworld kingpins as “disorganised crime”

    A new wave of young, amateur gangsters is changing the scene – with brazen daylight attacks, hit jobs on rivals’ family members, and cases of alleged mistaken identity.

    Of course, it’s all about money, notoriety and settling scores.

    Today, Mark Morri, crime editor at the Daily Telegraph, on the evolving world of gangland violence – where contract killing can now be ordered off an encrypted app.

     

    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: Daily Telegraph crime editor Mark Morri

    Photo: PR HANDOUT

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    20 April 2026, 7:00 pm
  • 16 minutes 3 seconds
    Acid rain, toxic water & tonnes of CO2: The hidden cost of the Iran war

    The images coming out of the US-Israeli-led war in Iran have been described as apocalyptic.

    Oil depots have burned for days. Strikes have hit petrochemical facilities and the area around the Bushehr nuclear power plant. In Tehran, toxic black smoke has blanketed the city, with residents reporting black acid rain falling from the sky.

    After thousands of missile and drone strikes, Iran and parts of the Gulf are facing not only a humanitarian and economic crisis, but an environmental one too.

    Analysts estimate that, in the first 30 days of the war, almost 9 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions were released into the atmosphere.

    Today, Dr Patrick Bigger, the interim executive director of the Climate and Community Institute, on the long-term environmental cost of this war – and why some are calling these strikes ‘ecocide’.

     

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    Guest: Research director of the Climate and Community Project, Dr Patrick Bigger.

    Photo: AP Photo/Altaf Qadri

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    19 April 2026, 7:00 pm
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