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Should Australia be spending more on defence?

That's the argument that former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison made earlier this week when speaking to ABC Radio National's Global Roaming about AUKUS.

He said the country should increase its defence spending to 3 per cent of Gross Domestic Product by 2030, and 3.5 per cent by 2035.

And following the recent changes to the AUKUS deal, should Australia double down or retreat from its 30-year, $370 billion commitment with AUKUS?

Scott Morrison says the deal is a dynamic one, and that we should press on.

Elsewhere on Radio National, the Law Report investigates who may be held responsible if a bushfire starts on your property and spreads to your neighbours.

And The Music Show hunts down the best, the worst, and the downright strange versions of classic songs, and asks the question: why does one version give us goosebumps while another makes our skin crawl?

Join Andrew Ford and two musical guests for series three of Cover Story: one song, many versions, no mercy.

Have a great weekend!

Changes to the AUKUS deal that mean Australia only gets second hand submarines from the Americans have prompted some wobbles this side of the Pacific. 

A court has found that a South Australian farmer was responsible for setting fire to a pile of vegetation that was left smouldering and reignited six months later, causing a devastating bushfire.

From sacred ceremonies to high fashion runways, it has continually reinvented itself while carrying deep cultural meaning. But how has one garment continued to feel fresh, relevant and strikingly modern over so much time?

The latest economic figures suggest we're not in a recession. But new ABS data shows our overall life satisfaction is in decline. So which numbers should we trust?

In 2021 UK immigration officers carried out a dawn raid in Kenmure St in the culturally diverse Pollokshields area of Glasgow's Southside. They arrested two Sikh men who’d been members of the community for ten years, and put them in a van.  

Leo Woodall and Havana Rose Liu talk Tuner, a slick crime thriller also starring Dustin Hoffman, which follows a gifted piano tuner pulled into something darker.