Wed 7 Oct 2026 16.52 AEDT
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing has released a consultation paper on excessive specialist fees. The paper can be boiled down to a simple question: when a specialist charges far more than their peers, or far more than the Medicare schedule fee, could government do anything about it? The answer is yes.
The latest corporate tax data released today by the Australian Tax Office (ATO) showed that once again, major gas producers are paying no company tax, and despite claims that changes to the Petroleum Rent Resources Tax (PRRT) would deliver “more revenue sooner”, the PRRT in 2024-25 raised less tax than in 2020-21.
Australia’s criminalisation and detention of children as young as ten is a “crime scene and a human rights catastrophe,” disproportionately impacting First Nations kids, Senator Lidia Thorpe has said. In separate comments to the Senate inquiry into Australia’s youth justice and incarceration system, which reported last month, Senator Thorpe explicitly named detention centres as “sites of systemic child abuse".
Australia is a rich country, but for many younger Australians, the ability to share in that prosperity is increasingly out of reach.
On this episode of Follow the Money, Senator Barbara Pocock, Australian Greens Spokesperson for Housing & Homelessness, joins Ebony Bennett to discuss the housing crisis, its long-term impacts on the lives of younger Australians, and her proposals to turn the situation around.
This episode was recorded on Tuesday 6 October.
If you or anyone you know needs help, you can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or online at www.lifeline.org.au.
Guest: Barbara Pocock, Senator for South Australia and Australian Greens Spokesperson for Housing & Homelessness // @barbarapocock
Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director, the Australia Institute // @ebonybennett
Show notes:
Locked out: the growing generational housing divide, Select Committee on Intergenerational Housing Inequity (September 2026)
Quality research, analysis, explainers and factchecks from experts you can trust.
Additional comments from the Chair, Senator Barbara Pocock, Select Committee on Intergenerational Housing Inequity (September 2026)
Senate Committee on Intergenerational Housing Inequity | Perth, WA, Australian Parliament House Streaming Portal on YouTube (August 2026)
Profit in home lending: April 2026 edition by Dave Richardson, the Australia Institute (April 2026)
Factcheck: Is immigration really causing Australia’s housing crisis? by Noah Schultz-Byard, The Point (September 2025)
Even Liberal voters agree, it’s time to ditch Howard era perks for property investors – polls, the Australia Institute (March 2026)
Youth mental health decline coincides with increased economic pressure: new report, the Australia Institute (August 2026)
Theme music: Pulse and Thrum; additional music by Blue Dot Sessions
We’d love to hear your feedback on this series, so send in your questions, comments or suggestions for future episodes to podcasts@australiainstitute.org.au. Subscribe to Follow the Money on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you get your favourite podcasts.
