Amy Remeikis

This form of niceness is actually destroying society and I think we need to tear it down and actually start being decent to each other.

Amy Remeikis has been called many things in her life.

The political journalist and author has been accused of being a bitch, a propagandist, an idiot.

But do you know what she really doesn't want to be called? Nice.

Amy reckons the only way to shake up the current political and social systems that are veering further to the right is to get messy and uncivil.

I'm Yumi Steins.

Ladies, we need to talk about flipping the middle finger to niceness with Amy Remeikis.

We're not born nice.

It's produced by Michael the Griff Griffin and made possible with the help of the Green Institute.

I'm Tom Ballard, once again joined by returning champion, the one and only journalist and writer, Amy Remeikis.

Hello, mate.

Hello.

working with integrity, decency, passion for making our community better, and above all else, with respect for others, which is all too often missing from Australia's political debate.

And to talk about what's been happening in politics, including this devastating attack on Helen Haynes, I'm joined this week by Amy Remeikis, Chief Political Analyst here at the Australia Institute.

G'day, Amy.

Hello.

It's pretty common to be told to keep the peace, to avoid talking about politics, to be nice.

Well, our guest today, and political commentator and journalist, Amy Remeikis, has said, "Enough is enough.

Screw nice." She's so passionate about this that she actually wrote a whole book of the same name that was released this year.

I think Hannah and I both recommended this on the podcast.

So, in this episode, she dissects what the word nice actually means, and we talked about whether niceness is oppression, whether killing with kindness is a strength, and why we need to keep speaking out against a world that's on fire.

[upbeat music] Hi, I'm Sarah, and this is Small Talk.

It's not quite a news headline, but it is what the girls are talking about, and I'm here with Amy Remeikis.

Welcome to the podcast.

It's managing to dictate our political debate, our political narrative, and both major parties are responding to whatever issue One Nation is basically putting in front of the political class at the moment.

That's Amy Remeikis, chief political analyst at the Australia Institute, an independent think tank with the goal of providing intellectual and policy leadership through their research.

In her view, the immigration debate isn't addressing any problems Australia is trying to solve.

Labor has found themselves responding in a political environment that is really fraught, that is full of tension and misinformation, and essentially has no real solution because nobody in this debate has been able to say, "What is the actual problem Australia is trying to solve right now?"