Curtin’s Cast

Three Shocks: The Australia Politics Hasn’t Caught Up With
One of Australia's finest political journalists and authors, "demography whisperer" George Megalogenis, joins Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras to discuss the three forces reshaping Australia: migration, the changing workforce and a more uncertain international order. In Three Shocks: Who We Are Becoming in the 21st Century, George argues that Labor adapted more successfully to these changes while the Coalition remained attached to assumptions inherited from the Howard era. The conversation explores what these shifts mean for Australian identity, the changing electoral map and the future of both major parties.
📘 Buy George’s book: https://www.penguin.com.au/books/three-shocks-9780143789994

Labor has hit record-low favourability ratings as One Nation again tops the primary vote in the latest RedBridge/Accent poll.
Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras unpack what the numbers really mean, whether the “Albo Derangement Reflex” obscures genuine voter anger, and why the Coalition’s dramatic immigration cuts may simply pour more fuel on the One Nation bonfire.
Plus: One Nation’s Victorian campaign launch, the promise to have Dan Andrews and Jacinta Allan “in prison by Christmas”, and whether Australia is importing a more Trumpian style of politics.

India’s Gen Z Revolt: Meet the Cockroach Janta Party
India’s young people are increasingly questioning whether education, hard work and competitive exams will deliver the secure future they were promised. Out of that frustration has emerged one of the world’s most unusual youth movements: the satirical Cockroach Janta Party.
Kos Samaras speaks with Viren Naidu, journalist and author of the New Statesman feature The facts of India’s Gen-Z revolt, about the movement’s origins, India’s youth unemployment crisis, the NEET scandal and the growing postponement of home ownership, marriage and family formation.
They discuss whether it makes sense to speak of a distinct Indian “Gen Z” across vast differences of class, caste, religion, gender and region; how memes and deliberately unserious language can carry serious political anger; and whether online mobilisation can develop into durable political organisation.
The conversation also explores why established parties have struggled to represent younger Indians, how economic disillusionment can coexist with support for Narendra Modi and the BJP, and what India’s generational revolt might tell us about Gen Z politics elsewhere — including Australia and its large Indian diaspora.
Read Viren Naidu’s New Statesman article ($):
https://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2026/07/the-facts-of-indias-gen-z-revolt

Can Labor Hold Back the Orange Tide? Emma Dawson and Kos Samaras talk Vic and NSW elections, Gen Z and Australia’s AI Future
With Nick away, Kos is joined by Curtin’s Cast veteran Emma Dawson, Executive Director of the Chifley Research Centre, to take the pulse of Australian politics.
They check in on the Victorian election campaign before taking a first look at the 2027 NSW election, where another One Nation orange tsunami threatens both major parties.
Then Kos and Emma unpack Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ new Intergenerational Report and its vision of Australia in 2066: a population of 39.3 million, record-low fertility, deaths overtaking births, an ageing population and mounting pressure on health and aged care. Does a report promising future prosperity offer Generation Z anything now—particularly on housing, wealth and economic security?
Finally, they tackle the immense opportunities and risks posed by artificial intelligence and the data-centre boom. Does Labor’s historic mission now require it to ensure that AI serves working people rather than allowing working people to serve the machines?
Listen now to Episode 70 of Curtin’s Cast.

NZ in Revolt: Leadership Chaos, Fragmentation and the Election Ahead
Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras are joined by Neale Jones, Managing Director of Capital and former chief of staff to Jacinda Ardern, to unpack the turmoil reshaping New Zealand politics ahead of the 7 November election.
With Christopher Luxon weakened by another leadership challenge, Labour and National struggling to command much more than 30 per cent of the vote, smaller parties surging and economic discontent biting, is New Zealand entering a new era of political fragmentation? We discuss Luxon’s leadership, Chris Hipkins and Labour’s path back to government, Winston Peters and David Seymour, the strains of MMP coalition politics, the rise of Opportunity — and what New Zealand tells us about the wider global age of political disruption.

Freddie Hayward on America’s ‘Summer of Socialism’ and 9/11, 25 Years On
Something unusual is stirring inside America’s Democratic Party.
Across the northern summer, young progressive and democratic-socialist candidates have been knocking over establishment Democrats — raising the possibility that the American left is finally experiencing its own Tea Party or MAGA-style insurgency.
Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras are joined from Washington by Freddie Hayward, US Correspondent for the New Statesman, to discuss what he has called “America’s summer of socialism”.
How socialist are these insurgents really? Are Medicare for all, stronger unions, affordable housing and higher taxes on billionaires revolutionary ideas — or simply conventional social democracy made radical by America’s unusually right-shifted political culture?
They discuss the legacy of Bernie Sanders, Zohran Mamdani and the DSA; Abdul El-Sayed’s insurgent Senate campaign; affordability and economic insecurity; organised labour and the possibility of a new alliance between unions and the socialist left; whether progressives have moved beyond “woke 1.0”; the political impact of Gaza; and why anti-establishment movements have generally proved more successful on the right than the left across Western democracies.
They also compare developments in the United States with Britain and Australia, where Labor’s relationship with organised labour and the Greens’ electoral experience point to very different paths for left-wing insurgent politics.
Finally, with America approaching the 25th anniversary of September 11, Freddie reflects on how the attacks are remembered a quarter-century later — and whether 9/11 still represents a genuinely shared American national memory.

They’re the generation politics forgot — and they may now be among the angriest in Australia.
Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras go deep on the latest RedBridge/AFR generational polling, which has One Nation at an extraordinary 35 per cent among Gen X, Labor on 28 and the Coalition languishing at 19. Even more strikingly, Gen X voters split almost evenly between Anthony Albanese and Pauline Hanson for preferred prime minister, while Angus Taylor trails far behind.
Why is a generation raised through recession, restructuring, globalisation, deindustrialisation, the housing boom, the GFC and Covid turning away from the political establishment? Kos explores the Gen X “sandwich”: mortgages still to pay, adult children who cannot afford to leave home, ageing parents needing care and retirement no longer looking quite as secure as promised.
Nick and Kos ask whether the revolt is driven by economics, disappointed expectations or a potent mix of material insecurity and cultural unease — and why Gen X appears willing to trust Labor on some services while turning overwhelmingly to One Nation on immigration.
They also examine the Victorian numbers and what they mean for Ben Carroll’s Labor government, the Coalition and One Nation ahead of November.
Is Gen X moving right — or has the generation that did what it was told simply become politically homeless?

Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras go deep on the two latest RedBridge/AFR polls and what they reveal about the extraordinary reshaping of Australian politics: One Nation’s surge, the Coalition’s weakness, Labor’s low primary vote and whether voters are moving towards a durable three-bloc system or simply renting their votes in protest.
They also unpack Melongate and what the episode says about political outrage, media consumption and where Australians are actually getting their news.
Then it’s Victoria. With Ben Carroll attempting to reset Labor around working people, cost of living and services, can he turn around the government’s fortunes before November? Is Jess Wilson becoming a credible change agent? And can One Nation really sustain a 20-plus primary vote when voters have to choose an actual government?

This week on Curtin’s Cast, Nick Dyrenfurth is joined by award-winning historian Ross McMullin, author of the definitive history of the Australian Labor Party, The Light on the Hill.
Thirty-five years after its original publication, McMullin has returned to his landmark work, updating Labor’s extraordinary story through Keating, Rudd, Gillard and the leadership wars to Anthony Albanese’s historic 2025 victory.
What has changed about Labor — and what has endured across 135 years? Where do Keating and Albanese sit in the Labor pantheon? What was the party’s greatest mistake? And who are the underrated, overrated and forgotten characters of Labor history?
A fascinating long-form conversation about Labor, history, leadership and the craft of writing political history.

This week on Curtin's Cast, Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras are joined by one of Australia's foremost political journalists and historians, Paul Kelly, Paul Kelly, Editor-at-Large, The Australian and author of the new book, The Twilight of Exceptionalism: The Liberal and Conservative Era (Melbourne University Publishing).
Has Australia entered a fundamentally new political era? Why has reform become so difficult? What explains the decline of trust in institutions, the fragmentation of politics, and the rise of populism?
The conversation explores:
The end of Australia's "exceptional" political era
Why the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments failed
The future of the Liberal Party, Hansonism and the Teals
Anthony Albanese, Labor and the coming Victorian election
The changing nature of political leadership and journalism
Whether Australian democracy can rediscover its reforming spirit
A wide-ranging discussion on Australia's past, present and future with one of the country's leading political thinkers.
Buy Paul's book here: https://www.mup.com.au/books/the-twilight-of-exceptionalism/9780522882339