7am

More than a decade after he retired from AFL, John Barnes collapsed without warning and began having seizures.
The former Essendon and Geelong ruckman says years of head knocks left him with epilepsy, memory problems, and a life he barely recognised.
Now, as a growing class action takes on the AFL over concussion, Barnes is speaking about the damage he says the game caused – and the accountability he still wants.

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Guest: Former AFL ruckman, John Barnes
Photo: AAP Image/Julian Smith
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In September of 2012, Australian soldiers descended on the rural village of Darwan in Afghanistan, killing four men.
That raid and the events of that day were central to the defamation action brought by Ben Roberts-Smith. The court eventually found it was substantially true that he had committed war crimes – including kicking Ali Jan, an Afghan villager, off a cliff and ordering his execution.
Ben Roberts-Smith maintains his innocence, and the allegations have never been proven to a criminal standard.
But now, that’s about to be tested.
This week, Roberts-Smith was arrested and charged with five counts of war crime murder. One of those charges relates to the Darwan raid, making the killing of Ali Jan central to the criminal case ahead.
Ali Jan’s family are still waiting for justice and want to testify. But the agency leading Australia’s war crimes investigations is still refusing to take witness statements directly from Afghanistan.
Today, freelance journalist Michelle Dimasi, who travelled to Afghanistan to meet Ali Jan’s family, on what justice might still look like for them.
This episode first aired in November 2023.

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Guest: Freelance journalist covering Afghanistan and the Middle East, Michelle Dimasi
Photo: AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills
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The fighting may have temporarily eased in the Middle East, but the fallout is still moving through the global economy. Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains disrupted, fuel markets are unsettled, and Australia is exposed.
Now, Anthony Albanese is in Singapore trying to secure supply, as the opposition presses the government over how prepared the country really is.
Today, Tony Wood, Energy and Climate Change Senior Fellow at the Grattan Institute, on the state of the Strait, the ongoing risks for Australia, and the politics taking shape around another global shock.

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Guest: Energy and Climate Change Senior Fellow at the Grattan Institute, Tony Wood
Photo: AAP Image/Tom White
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Ben Roberts-Smith was once held up as the face of Australia’s war in Afghanistan. This week, he was arrested and charged with war crimes.

Ben Roberts-Smith maintains his innocence.
For journalist Chris Masters, the road to that moment began almost two decades ago, when he travelled to Afghanistan to report on the war up close. Over time, he began hearing whispers that some elite soldiers had crossed a line.
Those whispers turned into a years-long investigation, alongside Nick McKenzie, into allegations that would later be tested in one of the biggest defamation trials in Australian history.
Today, veteran investigative journalist Chris Masters on how that story began, why soldiers finally started talking, and what Ben Roberts-Smith’s arrest means for how Australia reckons with the truth about its war in Afghanistan.

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Guest: Investigative reporter and author of Flawed Hero: Truth, lies and war crimes, Chris Masters
Photo: AAP Image/Bianca De Marchi
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Eighteen years ago, Kevin Rudd apologised to the Stolen Generations and said those injustices must never happen again.
But in that same year, Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts was taken from her family at just 10 years old.
Now, as a lawyer and advocate, she says Australia is still taking First Nations children from their families – and that the number in out-of-home care is today higher than the estimated number removed during the Stolen Generations.
Today, Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts on her own removal, the pipeline from child protection to prison, and what it would take to keep First Nations children with their families and communities.

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Guest: Human rights lawyer and former ACT Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People, Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts
Photo: AAP Image/Jeremy Ng
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