The Five Minute Advocate Podcast Community Broadcasting Association of Australia

This week on the Five Minute Advocate Michael Walker unpacks the recent Happy Planet Index report which revealed that those of us who burned the most CO2, particularly the wealthiest 10%, are in fact scarcely happier than those living more modest lifestyles. Michael argues that this finding challenges the notion that addressing climate change requires sacrificing living standards, suggesting that modest lifestyles can be as fulfilling while significantly reducing environmental impact. 
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This week on the Five Minute Advocate, Eva Cox criticises the Labor government’s 2024 Budget for prioritising economic concerns over addressing pressing social issues. Eva laments the budget’s lack of impact on social improvement and its failure to instill optimism in its citizens for a fairer society. Eva advocates again for a shift towards prioritising citizens’ wellbeing over profit. 
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This week on The Five Minute Advocate, Julie Macken deep dives into Irish sociologist Benedict Anderson’s most famous theories – that nations are imagined political communities. This idea reminds us to take the role of imagination in nation building seriously, because it is what makes this country what it is, for better or worse. So, in this edition Julie plays with the tool of imagination and applies it to the 2024 federal budget.
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In Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel’s influential work ‘Modernisation, Cultural Change, and Democracy’ it’s noted that increasing a society’s affluence leads to increasing tolerance - as societies become more affluent and self-confident, their citizens will become more open and tolerant. This week on the Five Minute Advocate, Michael Walker highlights this notion as the common thread that seemingly runs through many of the topics we’ve been exploring on the show. Whether it be gender relations, economic struggles, the treatment of refugees or attitudes towards social services and other social policy - tensions are undeniably high but Michael urges us to examine what role our current wealth distribution plays in this tension. 
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This week on the Five Minute Advocate Eva Cox reflects on the impactful events of this past weekend when around the country thousands gathered to end men’s violence against women, calling upon the government to declare this epidemic a national emergency. As a long standing and prominent figure in the feminist movement, Eva reflects on the current state we find ourselves in - questioning why, after years of advocacy, women are still facing such extreme violence and discrimination. Eva calls for continued action, urging women to continue to band together and fight to achieve true and genuine equality.  
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This week on the Five Minute Advocate Julie Macken dives deeper into AUKUS agreement and criticises the government’s questionable prioritisation of defence spending over citizen and community welfare. Julie highlights the failings of the two-party system, calling out their failures to offer meaningful policy differences with both Labor and the Coalition seeming to be performing difference to hide sameness of their policies. Julie calls for a return to the ambitious and transformative policies that were the hallmark of the 1970s to truly enact real and positive change for all Australians.  
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