The Morning Edition

When news surfaced in March, that schools across Australia were recording record levels of violence, with a huge number of principals having either suffered physical abuse, last year, or witnessed it, education reporter Nicole Precel wanted to find out more. What, if anything, could stop principals from being bitten, and teachers from being pushed down stairs, by students? And turn around the often plummeting academic records and mental health of the students at these schools? Today, Nicole Precel, on how two determined principals dramatically altered the culture of a school dubbed, only six years ago, “Australia’s worst school”.  And the trauma they needed to confront, in order to do it. Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/ [https://subscribe.smh.com.au/] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

The Australian government and opposition party have both announced policies to address the country's housing crisis, with young people in particular priced out of the market. Labor say they want to drop deposits for mortgages to buy a home to five per cent, while the Coalition want to make mortgage repayments tax deductable.  In an early release episode, Brendan Coates, who is the Grattan Institute's housing and economic security program director, talks through these policies and which could boost housing supply and home ownership. Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/ [https://subscribe.smh.com.au/] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

A year on from Joel Cauchi's apparently indiscriminate stabbing spree at the Westfield shopping centre in Bondi Junction, what have we learned? Later this month, an inquest into the attack, which claimed the lives of six people and injured another 10, will begin.  Today, chief reporter Jordan Baker, and crime reporter Perry Duffin, on what the coroner hopes to learn and whether any intervention in the lead-up could have prevented Cauchi’s attack. For more: 'At 3.33pm the bloody rampage began. By 3.39pm six innocent people lay dead or dying' [https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/at-3-33pm-the-bloody-rampage-began-by-3-39pm-six-innocent-people-lay-dead-or-dying-20250408-p5lq4j.html], Baker and Duffin, The Sydney Morning Herald. Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/ [https://subscribe.smh.com.au/] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

No one fell off a stage this week, but we did see the two party leaders face off for their first debate, plus the Coalition released modelling of its gas policy. With energy prices so crucial in this election, we are going to take a closer look at the Coalition’s gas plan - is it credible or is it just a cover-up for a nuclear policy that may never come off?  Chief political correspondent David Crowe and special first-time guest on the pod, business reporter Nick Toscano, join Jacqueline Maley to discuss the intricacies of gas supply.  Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/ [https://subscribe.smh.com.au/] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

To say that American president Donald Trump’s global tariffs have sparked chaos around the world is an understatement. One analyst called the result, “a self-induced economic nuclear winter”.                                                 And that was before the tit-for-tat trade war between the United States and China escalated today with Trump imposing an additional tariff on China, taking the total to 104 per cent. Today, international and political editor, Peter Hartcher, on where this trade war with China could lead. And the mini-rebellion among Republicans to Trump’s tariffs. Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/ [https://subscribe.smh.com.au/] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.