Late Night Live — Full program podcast

Our US political commentator Bruce Shapiro has watched the (very long) State of the Union address.  The High Court has found the Catholic Church is liable for the actions of a priest who abused a boy in the 1960s in NSW. Lawyer and victim advocate Judy Courtin analyses what this decision might mean for the Church. Plus dams and desalination plants: will they supply sufficient amounts of water to cities in an extreme drought?

Richard Ackland discusses the scope and ambitions of the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, and the challenges facing the enquiry. On the high seas, a major treaty aims to protect marine life from overfishing, climate change, shipping, and deep-seabed mining. Why hasn't Australia ratified it yet? Plus, Sir Douglas Mawson kept extensive diaries, which have taken the South Australian Museum 20 years to transcribe. What do Mawson's diaries reveal about one of Australia's greatest explorers?

Chief political correspondent for SBS, Anna Henderson, on the ongoing political wrangling over people who do or do not reflect 'Australian values'.
And former New Zealand Prime Minister and former head of the United Nations Development Programme, Helen Clark, says it is high time the UN's top job went to a woman.

The PALM scheme, bringing Pacifika workers to regional Australia to work, has many fans, but significant problems also, a new report finds. Its author Peter Mares, a long time analyst of immigration policy, also discusses the current political hyperbole around immigration. And Irish author Ronan Macrae on the new sources of opposition to gay rights, and argues the movement needs to rethink its goals.

The PALM scheme, bringing Pacifika workers to regional Australia to work, has many fans, but significant problems also, a new report finds. Its author Peter Mares, a long time analyst of immigration policy, also discusses the current political hyperbole around immigration. And Irish author Ronan McCrea on the new sources of opposition to gay rights, and argues the movement needs to rethink its goals.