Tue 15 Sep 2026 05.15 AEST
Gage Skidmore/Flickr
After a NSW Parliamentary Inquiry recently found that the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme is putting people at risk of modern slavery, their lost super might seem like a minor problem, but it’d be an easy one to fix.
It’s official: not even the World Cup can make Australians travel to the United States anywhere close to the degree they did before Trump came to power. As I have noted before, when a World Cup is held in a country, the number of Australians travelling there usually spikes. For the USA, the opposite occurred.
The people most affected by climate change are missing out on the benefits of the energy transition and household electrification. As more and more extreme weather events occur, everyone is impacted but people experiencing disadvantage are much less able to absorb the health and financial costs.
The United States controls or has access to more than 100 defence facilities on Australian soil, according to new research.
On this episode of After America, Dr Richard Tanter joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss his new research on American access to Australian defence facilities, the long-term consequences of the war on terror for the Australia-US alliance, and whether Australia is the only American ally not seriously rethinking its relationship with the United States.
This episode was recorded on Friday 11 September.
Join Emma and Allan Behm for the Melbourne launch of Allan’s new book, New Game New Rules: A foreign policy for dystopian times at 6pm on Tuesday 22 September.
Tickets to ‘The Last Best Hope of Earth: Reflections on the USA at 250’ at the Celtic Club in Melbourne on Friday 18 September are available here.
Guest: Richard Tanter, Senior Research Associate, Nautilus Institute
Host: Emma Shortis, Director, International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @emmashortis
Show notes:
Quality research, analysis, explainers and factchecks from experts you can trust.
The US now has access to more than half Australia’s military bases – could it drag the country unwillingly into war? by Ben Doherty, Andy Ball & Nick Evershed, Guardian Australia (September 2026)
9/11: Can the US ever recover? by Allan Behm, The Point (September 2026)
Shorter America: Anniversaries; Australia and 9/11; From the rubble by Emma Shortis, The Point (September 2026)
New Game, New Rules: A foreign policy for dystopian times by Allan Behm, the Australia Institute (August 2026)
A suitable piece of real estate: American installations in Australia by Desmond Ball, Hale & Iremonger (1980)
Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC BY-SA-2.0)
Theme music: 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 After America on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you get your favourite podcasts.
