Episodes

  • Why House Prices Are Rigged Against You, Mining Billionaires' 3% Fine & The Punters' E-Bike Rides

    Why House Prices Are Rigged Against You, Mining Billionaires' 3% Fine & The Punters' E-Bike Rides
    Feb 24 2026
    This week, we expose how a billionaire US mining cartel got slapped with a pathetic $55 million fine for illegally destroying endangered WA forests — then immediately received government permission to keep doing it. We break down the Minister's discretion loophole that lets politicians approve environmental destruction under "national security" exemptions, supposedly for renewable energy, while endangered black cockatoos lose their habitat. The $250 Billion Housing Scam Nobody Wants You To Understand Konrad breaks down the Capital Gains Tax discount — the 1999 policy that's cost Australia $250 billion over the next decade and handed 82% of the benefits to the top 10% of earners (and 60% to the top 1%). We expose why investors get half-price tax on property profits while you pay full tax on your wages, why the media machine is absolutely losing it over potential reforms, and how Domain, REA, and Murdoch's new mortgage company are all incentivized to keep house prices sky-high. Plus: the Punters Lobbyist hunt continues with applications rolling in, Konrad confesses to accepting a free e-bike and puts his fate in the hands of Patreon punters, we clarify Tanya Plibersek's trust situation, and Spotify pulls down last week's episode over four seconds of a Madonna song. Bypass the Algorithm, Sign up to the Punter Times Newsletter https://www.punterspolitics.com/pages/email-sign-up Support We the Punters on PATREON (https://www.patreon.com/punterspolitics) Buy Punters Stickers & T-shirts (https://www.punterspolitics.com/)
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    38 mins
  • A candid chat with Tanya Plibersek: Gas, grievance politics & why she still believes in Labor

    A candid chat with Tanya Plibersek: Gas, grievance politics & why she still believes in Labor
    Feb 17 2026
    Konrad sits down with Tanya Plibersek for our longest conversation with a senior Labor figure - discussing media clipping culture, online abuse, gas royalties, Wealth inequality, money in politics, transparency laws, and whether Labor is genuinely different or just operating the same system with better branding. We also break down David Pocock’s viral Senate Estimates moment exposing how Australia collects more tax from beer than offshore gas — and why that clip exploded. Plus, we run a social media audit on Kat Theophanous to unpack what politicians are finally learning about cut-through online. Note Tanya quickly offered a correction to one of the claims made in our chat. Wages have gone up 9k a year since they took government not* 14k. A citation was provided. Cheers for the self fact check Tanya. https://ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/jim-chalmers-2022/media-releases/national-minimum-wage-rise-35-cent-following-annual-wage Bypass the Algorithm, Sign up to the Punter Times Newsletter https://www.punterspolitics.com/pages/email-sign-up Support We the Punters on PATREON (https://www.patreon.com/punterspolitics) Buy Punters Stickers & T-shirts (https://www.punterspolitics.com/) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 18 mins
  • Why Hate Speech Laws Won't Stop Violence, My Instagram Pile-On & The Sticky Bandits Strike Again

    Why Hate Speech Laws Won't Stop Violence, My Instagram Pile-On & The Sticky Bandits Strike Again
    Feb 10 2026
    This week, we unpack why Australia's rushed hate speech laws won't actually stop violence, break down the anatomy of an Instagram pile-on when Konrad copped it from the bot army for not posting fast enough, and celebrate the return of the sticky bandits who've been absolutely relentless during our government-mandated break. Why Hate Speech Laws Miss the Point (And Make Things Worse) Konrad sits down with Tim Roberts from the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties to expose why the federal government's vague, minister-empowered hate speech laws won't prevent another Bondi & why suppressing speech doesn't eliminate hate Bypass the Algorithm, Sign up to the Punter Times Newsletter https://www.punterspolitics.com/pages/email-sign-up Support We the Punters on PATREON (https://www.patreon.com/punterspolitics) Buy Punters Stickers & T-shirts (https://www.punterspolitics.com/)
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    28 mins
  • How Albo Dodges Questions, The Toll Roads Scam That Shook Me & The Toll Hostage Plan

    How Albo Dodges Questions, The Toll Roads Scam That Shook Me & The Toll Hostage Plan
    Dec 22 2025
    Go to https://surfshark.com/punters or use code punters at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN! This week, we break down Albo's defensive masterclass on Sunrise where he pulls off the classic "I'm not the finance minister" dodge, name-drops Sussan Ley, and attempts the slowest political pivot in history — all while journalists actually hold his feet to the fire about ministerial spending. Beauty Pageant Politics: The Million Dollar Distraction While the Murdoch media machine goes into overdrive about Annika Wells' travel expenses, we expose the cherry-picked outrage for what it really is: beauty pageant politics designed to distract you from the real scams. Sure, politicians waste a million bucks on flights — but while you're focused on that, Labor's taking $600,000 from gambling companies and refusing to ban gambling ads that cost Aussies $31 billion a year. We do the bad maths: if banning gambling ads reduced losses by just 3%, that's a billion dollars back in punters' pockets — or a thousand times more than all the ministerial travel rorts combined. Transurban's Toll Scam: The Junk Fee Heist Nobody's Talking About Konrad gets absolutely fleeced by Transurban's toll fee scam — $40 in tolls, $50 in junk fees — and breaks down every single predatory charge this legal monopoly hits you with: $10 admin fees, $0.75 "video matching" fees, $15 non-return tag fees, and a dozen other made-up charges that would make a Nigerian prince blush. Plus, we float the idea of a digital toll protest: what if 100,000 punters just stopped paying until Transurban pays their fair share of tax? It's a toll hostage situation — you want your money? Start acting like a legitimate business. Also: Konrad rates his own political redirect performance, we answer Spotify comments about whether One Nation is taking over the Libs, and we're officially on a government-mandated break until February (probably). Bypass the Algorithm, Sign up to the Punter Times Newsletter https://www.punterspolitics.com/pages/email-sign-up Buy Punters T-shirts Support We the Punters on PATREON What Punter are you? Take the Quiz! Buy Punters Stickers & T-shirts
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    49 mins
  • Mass Shootings & Media: The One Thing Media Does That Makes Us Less Safe

    Mass Shootings & Media: The One Thing Media Does That Makes Us Less Safe
    Dec 18 2025
    In the aftermath of violence, everyone asks the same question: why? But what if the way we ask it — and the stories we tell next — decide whether it happens again? Why Australia Once Refused to Name Killers (And Why That’s Changing) In this episode, Konrad is joined by Dr Glynn Greensmith, senior lecturer in journalism at Curtin University, to unpack the uncomfortable truth about mass attacks, media coverage, and the hidden incentives shaping what we see, share, and believe. Drawing on decades of research into mass violence, journalism, and copycat behaviour, we explore why attention is often the real reward attackers seek — and how Australia once reduced harm by refusing to give it to them. We examine how 24-hour news, social media algorithms, and profit-driven media structures collide with public safety, why speculation masquerading as news makes us less informed, and what responsibility journalists, platforms, politicians — and ordinary people — actually carry in moments of crisis. Dr Glynn Greensmith https://www.smh.com.au/by/glynn-greensmith-p5369d Bypass the Algorithm, Sign up to the Punter Times Newsletter https://www.punterspolitics.com/pages/email-sign-up
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    1 hr and 15 mins
  • How to Spot "Bad-Faith" Politicians and Why Politicians Hire Their Mates Over Merit

    How to Spot "Bad-Faith" Politicians and Why Politicians Hire Their Mates Over Merit
    Dec 9 2025
    Go to https://surfshark.com/punters or use code punters at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN! This week, we expose the jobs-for-mates scandal the government tried to bury, watch David Pocock absolutely demolish ministers in Senate estimates with straight facts about Japan reselling our gas, and deliver a comprehensive punters audit on Cosplay Canavan that reveals exactly why you should never trust a word he says. The independent review Labor didn't want released just dropped, confirming the appointment system "looks like nepotism" and isn't fit for purpose—but instead of fixing it with actual laws, they're going with a vibes-based framework and rejecting cooling-off periods so they can keep hiring their mates immediately. Minister Katie Gallagher pulls the classic resume pad when grilled about giving away 50% of our gas exports royalty-free, while Tim Ayres dismisses Japan's billion-dollar gas resale scam as just "dinner party discussion." Plus, we break down why Matt Canavan deliberately confuses total investment with government spending to mislead punters on net zero costs, reveal his brother's 7% stake in a coal mine and executive role at Peabody Energy, and discuss how a Bachelor of Economics honours graduate who worked at KPMG somehow pretends he doesn’t understand basic economic concepts he's pushing. Bypass the Algorithm, Sign up to the Punter Times Newsletter https://www.punterspolitics.com/pages/email-sign-up Buy Punters T-shirts Support We the Punters on PATREON What Punter are you? Take the Quiz! Buy Punters Stickers & T-shirts Be a dark money funder to help hire a lobbyist for the punters: https://chuffed.org/project/134297-fund-australias-first-punter-powered-lobbyist
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    48 mins
  • Does Albo Hate Science? Microsoft Scams Aussies & Sussan Ley's Masterclass

    Does Albo Hate Science? Microsoft Scams Aussies & Sussan Ley's Masterclass
    Nov 25 2025
    Bypass the Algorithm, Sign up to the Punter Times Newsletter https://www.punterspolitics.com/pages/email-sign-up This week, we expose whether Albo's quietly strangling Australia's science sector while claiming to be a "friend of science," reveal how Microsoft tried to scam 2.7 million Aussies with hidden price hikes until the ACCC stepped in, and watch Sussan Ley pull off an absolute masterclass in saving Littleproud from a train wreck press conference with the sleepy koala defense. Plus, the CSIRO returns $7 for every $1 invested but gets told that's not good enough value, we discover Australia spends $30 billion less on research than comparable countries while shipping our smart people overseas to invent stuff we then buy back at a premium, and Punter Jess alerts us to Microsoft's sneaky opt-out scam that jacked up subscription prices by 45%. Also: LinkedIn bros needed for lobbyist headhunting, Conrad's bringing cardboard cutouts to the TikTok Awards, and we're officially recruiting Australia's first punter-powered lobbyist with $75K in the bank and a clean conscience as the signing bonus. Go to https://surfshark.com/punters or use code punters at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN! Buy Punters T-shirts Support We the Punters on PATREON What Punter are you? Take the Quiz! Buy Punters Stickers & T-shirts Be a dark money funder to help hire a lobbyist for the punters: https://chuffed.org/project/134297-fund-australias-first-punter-powered-lobbyist See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    50 mins