Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Australia's ISIS brides - the women trying to return home with their children from Syria - are not getting help from the government, but it seems there is more to the story.

Joining Jacqueline Maley to discuss is senior writer Michael Bachelard, who has followed the story for years, and chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal.

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Tony Wright, the associate editor of The Age, has been writing for 50 years. He is the master of what we call the political sketch. Sketches are akin to a verbal cartoon, and when done well, capture a moment in politics.
Today, we bring you Wright's latest sketch, titled: 'Nation’s worst government? Jane Hume’s hyperbolic historical claim'.

Read Wright's columns, and sketches, by clicking here.

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We're bringing you an extra episode of Inside Politics today because Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had an opening in his diary, and he's granted us an audience.

His interview comes off the back of a difficult week, with a state visit from Israeli President Isaac Herzog. Herzog's visit was welcomed by the victims of the Bondi terror attack and their families, but his presence in Australia also sparked protests with shocking clashes between police and protesters in Sydney.

Host Jacqueline Maley and chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal ask Albanese whether the police response was heavy-handed, and whether his invitation to Herzog caused further division.

The conversation also traverses other issues bubbling along in the background, including the Coalition leadership tussle, as well as what policies the prime minister plans to implement this year ahead of May's budget.

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There’s a bit going on with the Liberal Party this week, but while that unfolds we are going to look at some bigger issues.

Interest rates went up recently, for the first time in two years, and there’s a question as to whether government spending contributed to inflation.

So we're testing that today, with host Jacqueline Maley, senior economics correspondent Shane Wright and federal political correspondent Natassia Chrysanthos.

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Today on Inside Politics, we welcome back former opposition leader Bill Shorten, who is now the Vice Chancellor of the University of Canberra.
It's a timely moment to have Shorten on the podcast as he obliquely (very obliquely, we stress) came up in the Epstein files this week.
Strangely, in the massive dump of new documents from the files, there is a text message exchange between Steve Bannon, the former strategist for Donald Trump, and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In the messages, Bannon boasts that he spoke to Australian billionaire mining magnate Clive Palmer on his disruptive $80 million advertising campaign during the 2019 federal election.
This was the election contested by Shorten, and we asked him what he thought.
Joining host Jacqueline Maley for this discussion is chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal.

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The drama between the Liberals and the Nationals continued this week with what seems to be a total breakdown in the relationship between Liberal leader Sussan Ley and Nationals leader David Littleproud.

Meanwhile, Ley's leadership remains in mortal peril, and in a plot twist, Littleproud faces his own leadership challenge next week.

Chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal joins Jacqueline Maley in today's episode.

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Tony Wright, the associate editor of The Age, has been writing for 50 years. He is the master of what we call the political sketch.
Sketches are akin to a verbal cartoon and, when done well, capture a moment in politics.
Today, in a bonus episode of Inside Politics, we bring you Wright's sketch on the disintegration of the Coalition, titled: It’s a mess of Titanic proportions on the Coalition’s ship of fools.

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One Nation is having a bit of a moment.

Pauline Hanson’s outfit, accused by both major parties of exploiting racial anxiety over her career, has faded into irrelevance at points since she burst onto the scene in the late 1990s.

But two new polls have recorded record-high primary votes for One Nation. One of them saw One Nation’s vote rise above the Coalition, which split in spectacular fashion this week, over new hate crime legislation in the wake of the Bondi massacre.

The break-up of the Coalition, and the rise of One Nation, may point to a tectonic change in conservative politics.

At same time, the attack at Bondi has further sapped trust in our political system as politicians have brawled in the wake of a tragedy.

I’m Paul Sakkal, and you’re listening to Inside Politics, from The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
From Parliament House this week, we recorded an interview before the Coalition split, with One Nation’s newest recruit, Nationals defector and former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce.

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