7am

When Donald Trump was sworn in for a second time, some of the most powerful men in the tech world had the best seats in the room.
Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg – a display of just how close silicon valley had aligned itself to the administration.
But within that world, journalist Gil Durán says, is a smaller, more radical group with a much bigger ambition: get rid of democracy, and use technology to build a new order in its place, controlled by a wealthy elite. And in his new book, The Nerd Reich, Gil traces how these once-fringe ideas have moved closer to the White House than ever before.
Today, Silicon Valley journalist and author Gil Durán, on the group he’s dubbed the “Nerd Reich’, the ideas driving them, and how they became part of Trump’s political project.

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Guest: Author of The Nerd Reich Gil Durán
Photo: AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson
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Last month, an emotional Jacqui Lambie revealed a private health battle connected to her time in the army – a debilitating prolapse that required surgery.
The Tasmanian senator called out gaps in health care services for female veterans, and raged against the government’s plans to introduce a $5,000 cap on allied health services for veterans.
This week fellow veterans joined her calls, laying down their war medals outside parliament house in protest, as Lambie promised to continue the fight.
Today, Senator Jacqui Lambie on why veterans are getting a raw deal.

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Guest: Independent Senator for Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie
Photo: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
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One Nation is copping heat for a proposal that would let Australians take some of the money going into their super as extra pay instead.
For up to three years, renters and mortgage holders could choose to take home a quarter of the money that would normally be put into their retirement – worth about $44 a week for someone on the average full-time wage.
At the same time, the Coalition has been looking at its own ways to give people greater access to their super now – and some of its MPs want to go further.
So why is superannuation suddenly being pitched as an answer to Australia’s cost-of-living and housing problems? And is it a good idea?
Today, economist Greg Jericho, on the growing political fight over what our super should actually be for.

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Guest: Chief economist at the Australia Institute, Greg Jericho
Photo: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
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In imposing scenes in the UK over the weekend, hundreds of masked men belonging to the hard-right group Patriot Platform stopped traffic.
Around the same time, political party AfD was making history in Germany – becoming the first far-right party to win in the country since World War two.
And on the other side of the world, Australia’s high court will today hear from our most high profile Neo-Nazi group in a challenge, legal experts say could see the federal government’s ban on White Australia (formerly known as the National Socialist Network) overturned.
Today, Associate professor of politics at Deakin University Josh Roose on Germany, the UK, and Australia’s high court challenge – as the far-right continues its march across the world.

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Guest: Associate professor of politics at Deakin University, Josh Roose
Photo: AP Photo/Matthias Schrader
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On the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Labor has promised a vast new national park to protect more than 12,000 koalas.
But there’s a catch.
The New South Wales government wants carbon credits to help pay for it. By ending planned logging, it could generate credits that are then sold to companies to offset their emissions.
For the Greens, that creates a dilemma at a moment when both major parties are bleeding voters – voters who are walking straight past the Greens as an alternative.
They want the forests protected, but have long opposed carbon offsets that allow big polluters to keep polluting. Now those two positions are about to collide.
Today, co-chief executive officer of the Australia Institute Richard Denniss on koalas, carbon offsets and whether the Greens are still willing to pick the big fights.

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Guest: Co-chief executive officer of the Australia Institute, Richard Denniss
Photo: AAP Image/David Wigley
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