2024 Reviewed - Pre Christmas Rapping

·1 hr 24 min·5 clips

Australia's 4 million solar homes are feeding so much power into the grid that it shuts down, causing blackouts.

The episode is a year-in-review conversation between host Piers Cunningham and returning guest Brad McKenzie. It begins with a broad overview of 2024's global political events, including pivotal elections and South Korea's brief martial law declaration. The focus quickly narrows to Australia's energy crisis, where the hosts discuss the paradox of exporting cheap coal and gas while facing domestic price hikes and potential blackouts. They cite retired physicist Dr. Tony Hayes's warning that rushing to renewables without reliable baseload power will lead to social unrest. The discussion then explores the hidden industrial uses of natural gas beyond household heating. A significant segment is devoted to the post-election US landscape, detailing Elon Musk's role in Trump's proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut waste and address national debt, contrasting SpaceX's reusable rocket efficiency with NASA's costly Space Launch System. The conversation returns to Australian issues, critiquing Victoria's infrastructure mismanagement, exemplified by new trains incompatible with a major tunnel project, and high taxation. They analyze the bipartisan push to ban social media for under-16s, questioning its enforceability and suggesting Murdoch media influence. The hosts also touch on the failed Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum and broader political disillusionment. The episode concludes with a reflection on former Premier Geoff Kennett's advice for bipartisan, transparent crisis management in Victoria.

As heard by us

A year-end politics chat that moves from 2024 elections to EVs, government waste, and Trump.

This year-end conversation closes out 2024 by looping through elections in Argentina, America, India, Russia, the UK, and South Korea, then shifting into electric cars, government bloat, and leaders who never seem to stop at one term.

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Why you'd press play

For your Christmas-week politics fix, this one wanders from martial law to Chinese EVs.

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