# Who is Australia’s Zohran Mamdani?

An episode of [7am](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1461999702), 31 Jul 2026, 16 min.

Audio: https://p.podderapp.com/2544644999/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5/62723a1f-3e96-4fc4-882c-b25e0181da4d/2e0d5718-765f-4dd5-9561-b49800577342/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=70f29d90-2a63-48aa-bf8f-b25e0181da70

In America, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has turned anger over rent, groceries and childcare into a powerful movement on the left. One with real momentum. In Australia, that same anger is increasingly being captured by Pauline Hanson and the populist right, while Labor retreats towards the centre. So attention is turning to who in Australia could make a Mamdani-style case for economic change, and to whether the Australian left has the organisation, discipline and ambition to build a movement around them. Today, freelance writer, political commentator and host of RRR's Spin Cycle Rachel Withers, on the political figure the left is searching for, and whether the conditions exist to produce an Australian Mamdani. If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support. Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Writer and political commentator Rachel Withers Photo: AP Photo/Heather Khalifa See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: In America, New York City mayors Or and Mendani has
[0:03] Speaker 1: turned anger over rent, grocery prices and childcare into a
[0:07] Speaker 1: powerful movement of the left, one with real momentum.
[0:11] Speaker 2: Today, I am proud to announce a collection of essential
[0:14] Speaker 2: steeples that will be predictably thirty percent cheaper at all
[0:18] Speaker 2: five of our city run grocery stores. We need to
[0:21] Speaker 2: deliver universal childcare for each and every family across the city, because,
[0:25] Speaker 2: after housing, childcare is the most expensive thing. For too long,
[0:29] Speaker 2: bad landlords have been allowed to mistreat their tenants with impunity.
[0:33] Speaker 2: That ends today.
[0:37] Speaker 1: In Australia, that same anger is increasingly being captured by
[0:41] Speaker 1: Pauline Hansen and the Popular Stride, while labor retreats towards
[0:45] Speaker 1: the center. So attention is turning to who in Australia
[0:48] Speaker 1: could make a Mendani style case for economic change, and
[0:51] Speaker 1: to whether the Australian left has the organization, discipline and
[0:55] Speaker 1: ambition to build a movement around them. I'm Daniel James,
[1:03] Speaker 1: and you're listening to seven AM Today. Freelance writer, political
[1:08] Speaker 1: commentator and host of Triple Ar spin Cycle Rachel Withers
[1:12] Speaker 1: on the political figure the left is searching for and
[1:15] Speaker 1: whether the conditions exist to produce an Australian Memdani. It's
[1:24] Speaker 1: Saturday August one, Rachel, good to see you this week.
[1:32] Speaker 1: You asked the question where is Australia's zorn and Mendani?
[1:36] Speaker 1: So you looked at some of his signature policies and
[1:38] Speaker 1: their equivalents here in Australia. Where did you find similar offerings?
[1:44] Speaker 3: So, I mean, mum Danny has so many policies, but
[1:46] Speaker 3: I chose to focus on the core, like cost of
[1:48] Speaker 3: living policies, which was the rent freezers, universal childcare, free buses,
[1:55] Speaker 3: city run supermarkets and taxing the ridge. Unsurprisingly, I found
[1:59] Speaker 3: that the Greens and the socialist parties were the most aligned,
[2:04] Speaker 3: especially when it came to freezing rents, universal childcare and
[2:08] Speaker 3: taxing the ridge. You have former Greens and PMAX Jailabeker
[2:13] Speaker 3: who made rent freezers like a huge part of his
[2:15] Speaker 3: agenda and a huge part of the Greens agenda.
[2:17] Speaker 4: I wouldn't call it socialism or communism. I'd call it
[2:19] Speaker 4: what's being done around the world and worked. In fact,
[2:22] Speaker 4: Victoria froze rents for six months during the pandemic. And
[2:26] Speaker 4: what we're saying is that right now, we're in a
[2:28] Speaker 4: worse housing crisis than we were during the pandemic, and
[2:31] Speaker 4: so we need an equally urgent national response to rent.
[2:35] Speaker 3: And the Greens are still actually calling for them. They
[2:37] Speaker 3: most recently called to one in response to the fuel crisis.
[2:41] Speaker 5: We should be implementing rent caps and real rights for renters,
[2:46] Speaker 5: longer leases, actual minimum standards so that people aren't living
[2:50] Speaker 5: in fear of their next rent increase.
[2:53] Speaker 6: I think.
[2:53] Speaker 3: With universal childcare, Greens and socialists both say it should
[2:59] Speaker 3: be free, universally accessible. Anthony Abernezia said he wants childcare
[3:04] Speaker 3: to be part of his legacy, so we gave Labor
[3:08] Speaker 3: some half points on the scorecard for that, But it
[3:12] Speaker 3: won't actually be universal childcare if Labor continues to subsidize
[3:17] Speaker 3: costly private providers, which is actually a point that I
[3:19] Speaker 3: heard Amymikers make really compellingly on this show at the
[3:23] Speaker 3: end of last year.
[3:24] Speaker 6: It's not universal if it's private but subsidized.
[3:27] Speaker 1: So was Australia actually lacking these Mendani style policies, or
[3:32] Speaker 1: we're lacking a politician capable of turning these ideas into
[3:37] Speaker 1: a national platform, someone with a compelling argument and with charisma.
[3:42] Speaker 6: Yeah, I think that might be what we're missing.
[3:44] Speaker 3: I think the ideas are there, but we don't have
[3:46] Speaker 3: that compelling Mumdani leadership figure. I think Australian politics is
[3:52] Speaker 3: traditionally elevated parties, not people. You know, we've had a
[3:56] Speaker 3: pretty strict two party system. It's a parliamentary system. The
[3:59] Speaker 3: Prime Minister is the leader of the party, so parties
[4:02] Speaker 3: decide who leads, not the public in the same way.
[4:05] Speaker 3: But I do think there's you know, a few people
[4:07] Speaker 3: who sort of tried to occupy that space. Max Choann
[4:12] Speaker 3: la Mayfair, as I mentioned, had a bit of a
[4:14] Speaker 3: crack and I think he did speak really compellingly to Renters,
[4:18] Speaker 3: but he got a pretty tough run in Parliament, being
[4:21] Speaker 3: quite a minority voice there, and also I think the
[4:24] Speaker 3: media was pretty tough on him as well. A few
[4:26] Speaker 3: of the commenters on my piece pointed to David Pocock,
[4:29] Speaker 3: but he is just one guy. He is just a
[4:31] Speaker 3: senator and unless he runs a David Pocock to get
[4:34] Speaker 3: across the country, it's hard to see how he can
[4:37] Speaker 3: really build a national platform.
[4:39] Speaker 6: Although I have had.
[4:40] Speaker 3: Like a beautician I see asked me how she can
[4:42] Speaker 3: vote for David Pocock, So I do think he's got
[4:45] Speaker 3: the common touch.
[4:46] Speaker 1: A lot of people ask care they could vote for
[4:47] Speaker 1: David Pocock. I don't know what it is about him,
[4:49] Speaker 1: but he does seem to have an appeal on Yeah.
[4:54] Speaker 3: Look, I think I think it's hard to go past
[4:55] Speaker 3: the fact I'm Doney and Pocock are both very good looking.
[4:59] Speaker 6: I think that's part of it. That's part of it.
[5:01] Speaker 3: For Mum Danny, You've got purple pingers Jordan Vandalam who
[5:05] Speaker 3: is now running with.
[5:07] Speaker 6: The Vics Socialists. I think he does really well on TikTok.
[5:10] Speaker 1: Hello, welcome back to share Randall's with your host.
[5:12] Speaker 3: Pingers today are in Kangaro Flat, which is in like
[5:15] Speaker 3: the greater Bendigo area.
[5:17] Speaker 6: It's four hundred and fifty dollars a week and this
[5:19] Speaker 6: was sent to me.
[5:19] Speaker 3: But I can't see that translating nationally. His sort of
[5:24] Speaker 3: dead pan tone. Yeah, and I think within labor the
[5:27] Speaker 3: only person currently speaking boldly and authentically is at Husick,
[5:32] Speaker 3: who spoke out quite a lot at the party conference
[5:35] Speaker 3: last week.
[5:36] Speaker 4: When we signed up for this membership card, we didn't
[5:38] Speaker 4: sign up for the status quo.
[5:39] Speaker 6: I can put me in the Phraezer Angel.
[5:41] Speaker 3: And I think it's interesting demographically he's the most similar
[5:45] Speaker 3: to mum Danny as a Muslim man, but he would
[5:48] Speaker 3: be there only person in labor that's even trying to
[5:51] Speaker 3: fill that mold.
[5:54] Speaker 1: So there's some people around the country speaking to some
[5:56] Speaker 1: of these policies. But how much of an appetite do
[5:58] Speaker 1: you think there are for these more? I guess socialist
[6:01] Speaker 1: type policy amongst Australian voters because New York City is
[6:05] Speaker 1: one thing, it's a progressive stronghold. Australia obviously has a
[6:08] Speaker 1: much border range of political leanings, and right now there
[6:11] Speaker 1: are a lot of people moving to the right as
[6:13] Speaker 1: one nation arises. Do you think there's an appetite for
[6:16] Speaker 1: a counter movement on the left?
[6:18] Speaker 3: Yeah. Look, I often refer back to this really great
[6:20] Speaker 3: sub stack from my friend Alex Fine, who runs the
[6:24] Speaker 3: focus groups for Redbridge and really really spends a lot
[6:27] Speaker 3: of time talking to voters twice a week.
[6:30] Speaker 6: Back in March, she wrote a piece called.
[6:32] Speaker 3: Polarization is a Myth, where she basically argued that Australians
[6:36] Speaker 3: seem to broadly want the same things, whether they define
[6:38] Speaker 3: themselves as.
[6:39] Speaker 6: Left right centrist, don't.
[6:41] Speaker 3: Care you know, they want healthcare, education, and they believe
[6:44] Speaker 3: in fairness, kindness. As she wrote in this piece, that
[6:48] Speaker 3: those with the greatest interest in keeping us divided need
[6:52] Speaker 3: us to forget how much we agree. The first Progressive
[6:55] Speaker 3: party to harness this properly will be unstoppable. And I've
[6:59] Speaker 3: really thought a lot about that and the fact that
[7:03] Speaker 3: even though the Greens did quite terribly at the last election,
[7:07] Speaker 3: the things they stand for, like taxing our resources and
[7:09] Speaker 3: putting it into healthcare, adding dental to medicare, these are
[7:13] Speaker 3: things that Australians seem to kind of want.
[7:16] Speaker 6: They currently don't.
[7:17] Speaker 3: They think of the Greens as radical, and you know,
[7:19] Speaker 3: Alex has an argument for this as well, is that
[7:22] Speaker 3: Australians do like to think of themselves as kind of centrist,
[7:25] Speaker 3: not particularly radical people, but the policies they express a
[7:29] Speaker 3: desire for are actually quite left wing. As you mentioned,
[7:33] Speaker 3: you know, Pauline Hanson seems to be picking up a
[7:36] Speaker 3: lot of the disenfranchised vote. A lot of people who
[7:41] Speaker 3: are angry with the system are turning to one nation.
[7:45] Speaker 3: You know, we're kind of eight years behind the US
[7:47] Speaker 3: with what happened with Donald Trump there. Alex also had
[7:51] Speaker 3: a self stack in June, where she wrote about raw
[7:54] Speaker 3: power and the fact that people who feel robbed of
[7:56] Speaker 3: agency right now really feel like Pauline Hanson is the
[7:59] Speaker 3: one projecting that kind of anti establishment power, so win away.
[8:05] Speaker 3: Maybe Pauline Hanson is the one coming closest to a
[8:08] Speaker 3: mum Dani right now.
[8:12] Speaker 1: Still to come. While Labor is moving away from the
[8:15] Speaker 1: Mendani model, Rachel, the happenings of this week actually showed that,
[8:28] Speaker 1: if anything, our major party is actually moving further away
[8:32] Speaker 1: from the Mandani model. This week, Victorian Labor replaced Cinna
[8:35] Speaker 1: Allen from the left with Ben Carroll from the party's.
[8:39] Speaker 6: Right, the blandest man I've ever seen.
[8:41] Speaker 1: There's these elevation signal that Victorian Labor believes the answer
[8:45] Speaker 1: to its political crisis is have moved back towards the center. Look.
[8:48] Speaker 3: I think in this case, part of Vic Labour's thinking
[8:51] Speaker 3: was anyone but just center, and Ben Carroll was there,
[8:54] Speaker 3: but he is from Labor right. A lot of the
[8:58] Speaker 3: more conservative media outlets seem quite thrilled.
[9:00] Speaker 6: With his elevation.
[9:02] Speaker 3: He essentially came out and said that he would immediately
[9:05] Speaker 3: call a Royal commission into union corruption on the Big Build,
[9:09] Speaker 3: which is really what brought just into Alan down. But
[9:12] Speaker 3: he's also said that he will pause and review the
[9:15] Speaker 3: suburban rail Loop, which is, you know, a big infrastructure
[9:19] Speaker 3: project that was very strongly pushed by Disinta Allen and
[9:23] Speaker 3: Daniel Andrews.
[9:23] Speaker 6: Before her, both of the left.
[9:25] Speaker 3: He said he will reopen closed police stations, he might
[9:29] Speaker 3: pause the Daniel Andrews statue that we're getting here in Victoria.
[9:33] Speaker 3: Essentially he's co opted a lot of the Liberal platform
[9:38] Speaker 3: ahead of the November state election here, so sort of
[9:41] Speaker 3: like by moving to the center, kind of cutting off
[9:43] Speaker 3: a lot of what Jess Wilson, the Liberal leader who
[9:46] Speaker 3: was finally getting a bit of traction, is actually running
[9:48] Speaker 3: on and ventually.
[9:49] Speaker 1: Anthony Alberinezi built his career in the labor left when
[9:52] Speaker 1: it used to really have a proper left, I guess.
[9:54] Speaker 1: But as Prime Minister his instincts have increasingly become cautious
[9:58] Speaker 1: type part of discipline and reaisus shoring business is his
[10:01] Speaker 1: way of doing things. Why has he moved so far
[10:04] Speaker 1: from the politics that formed him?
[10:06] Speaker 6: This is a question that obsesses me.
[10:08] Speaker 3: If somebody would like to give me a book deal
[10:10] Speaker 3: so I can just spend all my time figuring out
[10:12] Speaker 3: why Anthony alb and Easy has moved to the center.
[10:16] Speaker 3: The twenty sixteen and twenty nineteen elections really spooked the party.
[10:20] Speaker 3: Anthony Aben Easy has sort of argued that you can't
[10:24] Speaker 3: make change too quickly, like it's more important to be
[10:27] Speaker 3: in there making progressive as in slow change than to
[10:31] Speaker 3: do too much too quickly and get turfed out. I
[10:34] Speaker 3: also think he just I think he got more conservative
[10:36] Speaker 3: as he aged and at this stage, like factions don't
[10:40] Speaker 3: necessarily mean you're like left or right. It's kind of
[10:43] Speaker 3: just power bases in the Labor Party, and he has
[10:46] Speaker 3: just such an expert control of all of those actions
[10:49] Speaker 3: and how they work and where the power is. That essentially,
[10:52] Speaker 3: I think he's just as a strategist deciding what he
[10:55] Speaker 3: thinks is best for the party.
[10:57] Speaker 6: It's not so much ideological anymore.
[11:00] Speaker 1: We just had the ALP national Conference, and you know
[11:03] Speaker 1: that's a place where you know, a lot of disagreements
[11:06] Speaker 1: and Rgi Bargi's played out on the floor. This year
[11:09] Speaker 1: was a much more sort of senitized version of itself,
[11:13] Speaker 1: Ed Hughes, except the party had become allergic to dissent.
[11:17] Speaker 1: So what did the conference actually reveal about where power
[11:20] Speaker 1: sits inside Albanese's Labor Party.
[11:23] Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I think it's sits where it's always
[11:25] Speaker 3: sat with the factions. It's just that Anthony Abernezi has them.
[11:29] Speaker 3: He's put them into line for many conferences. Now dissent
[11:32] Speaker 3: has been discouraged. I think there might be some pretty
[11:35] Speaker 3: intense conversations going on within the factions, between the factions,
[11:39] Speaker 3: but not on the conference floor. I actually went to
[11:41] Speaker 3: the conference, not the one last week, but the one
[11:44] Speaker 3: three years ago, and there was just like no point
[11:46] Speaker 3: being there unless you were like in there with the
[11:49] Speaker 3: factions going to the factional dinners.
[11:50] Speaker 6: Like it's so stage managed at this.
[11:53] Speaker 3: Point, So that's how things get decided in the Labor Party.
[11:57] Speaker 3: I think it's really interesting that at Husik is actually
[12:00] Speaker 3: of Labor Right. He's the one pushing for more left
[12:03] Speaker 3: wing policies, but he's a member of Labor Right. I mean,
[12:06] Speaker 3: he's kind of like out pushing his own agenda now,
[12:09] Speaker 3: which is really what I think Labor needs more of,
[12:11] Speaker 3: more individuals who are not willing to just do what
[12:15] Speaker 3: their faction says to do based on what Albanize says
[12:19] Speaker 3: to do.
[12:19] Speaker 1: What do you think is actually doing to the party
[12:21] Speaker 1: the fact that it's so heavily managed now, I think.
[12:25] Speaker 6: It's it's hurting it very much.
[12:28] Speaker 3: I mean, there are policies that are really popular in
[12:33] Speaker 3: the branches, you know, like things like the gas tax,
[12:36] Speaker 3: things like acting against Israel and calling out Israel's genocide
[12:40] Speaker 3: and Gaza.
[12:41] Speaker 6: The labor branches, the rank and file actually put forward
[12:44] Speaker 6: a lot of motions on these issues, but none of
[12:47] Speaker 6: it seems to filter up.
[12:48] Speaker 1: Isn't that a recipe for disaster sort of long term
[12:51] Speaker 1: for any sort of party that starts to lose touch
[12:54] Speaker 1: or not listen to its rank and file.
[12:57] Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, And I think I think you'll seeing that
[13:01] Speaker 3: with Labor, with the fact that they have less and
[13:02] Speaker 3: less rank and file. Like the very few members they
[13:06] Speaker 3: have left, it's not a particularly representative party at this stage.
[13:09] Speaker 6: Obviously it still wins like a third of the vote, but.
[13:12] Speaker 3: In terms of actual members who were able to influence
[13:15] Speaker 3: the direction of the party less unless people are bothering
[13:17] Speaker 3: because they don't feel like they actually can have a say.
[13:21] Speaker 1: I guess it's worth reminding finally, Rachel, that from here
[13:23] Speaker 1: in Australia, Mendani did seem to come out of nowhere.
[13:27] Speaker 1: But he actually didn't come out of nowhere. He came
[13:29] Speaker 1: out of a growing Democratic Socialist of American movement that's
[13:32] Speaker 1: recruiting candidates and mobilizing volunteers. DSA candilates to secure major
[13:38] Speaker 1: party victories ahead of the midterm elections. It's a movement
[13:41] Speaker 1: that has real momentum. So does Australia actually lack a
[13:45] Speaker 1: mandani or does it lack the organized movement to produce one.
[13:49] Speaker 3: I think American politics works so differently to Australian politics.
[13:53] Speaker 6: Better have professional voting.
[13:55] Speaker 3: They kind of locked into the two party system, which
[13:57] Speaker 3: sucks for them, but it has meant that it's forced
[14:00] Speaker 3: progressives to really channel all their energies into one place,
[14:04] Speaker 3: which is trying to win democratic crimeraies because essentially it's
[14:08] Speaker 3: going to be the Democrat or the Republican that gets
[14:10] Speaker 3: up in most races. And so the DSA has been
[14:15] Speaker 3: incredibly powerful at trying to steer the Democrats back to
[14:18] Speaker 3: the left by putting up left wing candidates. We just
[14:22] Speaker 3: don't seem to have that going on in Australia. It's
[14:25] Speaker 3: hard to see how we would replicate that. I mean,
[14:28] Speaker 3: if everybody of the left, the socialists, the greens all
[14:31] Speaker 3: got involved in labor and wanted to force all of
[14:34] Speaker 3: their branches to put up.
[14:35] Speaker 6: Left wing candidates.
[14:37] Speaker 3: Potentially that would look like the same kind of organized movement,
[14:41] Speaker 3: but at this point the left is fractured. It's scattered
[14:44] Speaker 3: across many different branches, and so we don't have a
[14:48] Speaker 3: unified left in the same way.
[14:50] Speaker 1: Well, right, Jil, thank you for coming on. I'm not
[14:52] Speaker 1: being scattered yourself. It's been a delight. Thanks again, Thanks Daniel.
[15:11] Speaker 1: Seven Am is a daily show from Solstice Media. Is
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