It's a tough time to become a politician in Australia. Housing supply is short and prices are high, the climate is changing but society still can't agree why or what to do about it, cost of living is on everyone's minds every day and AI is about to take all our jobs and maybe even exterminate us for good measure. Who do we consistently blame for our problems? Politicians. While they may deserve part of the blame, they're expected to fix the problems in a thankless environment; we demand of them, but we trust them less and less.
Add onto that layers of socioeconomic issues caused by the tyranny of distance and a category-5 cyclone closing in fast, and you have the federal seat of Leichhardt, which Matt Smith was elected to in 2024.
Matt joined me on the podcast to talk about housing, health and jobs. We discussed the government's recent climate change risk assessment, biodiversity loss and feral species management, rising house insurance premiums, growing burdens on the healthcare system, and the approaching AI tidal wave. We had this discussion with category-5 Tropical Cyclone Narelle about 24 hours from impact.
