Hello and welcome to the Monday Breakfast show for the 16th of February 2026. On today's show: 

Headlines: 
 

• Liberty Victoria condemns NSW Police force at protest against Herzog and calls for Victorian Government to not give Victoria Police similar powers.
• Palliative Care Australia calls for expanding Commonwealth Prac Payment to include medical and allied health students. 
• Senator Lidia Thorpe renews calls for Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion to expand its Terms of Reference to cover all forms of right-wing extremism and violence, including racism against First Peoples.

Segments: 

- We hear the second half of Tuesday Hometime Presenter Jan Bartlett's conversation with Kathy Kelly, a U.S human rights activist about the climate of fear and intimidation in her country, focusing on the recent actions of ICE and draws comparisons to Germany in the 1930's. You can listen to the rest of this conversation and more from Jan Bartlett 
at 3cr.org.au/hometime-tuesday or tune into 3cr on Tuesdays from 4-6pm. 

- Second up we played a new regular segment here on the Monday Breakfast show. This segment is called Wing Beats Per minute with today's episode focusing on the importance of insects within ecosystems. 

- Following that is an excerpt from yesterday's Concrete Gang show. In this excerpt, the gang respond to the allegations against the CFMEU released in Geoffrey Watson SC's report on Wednesday at Queenland's Commission of Inquiry, in particular the allegation that $15B of taxpayer money has passed through the union for so-called corrupt behaviour. To listen to the rest of yesterday's show and more from the Concrete Gang, go to 3cr.org.au/concrete-gang or listen live on Sundays from 9:30 to 10AM.

- Last up on the show was a conversation with Dr Karinna Saxby to tell us about research released last week revealing that adding gender-affirming surgery and care into the Medicare scheme would save millions in taxpayer dollars. Dr Saxby is a senior research fellow at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research at the University of Melbourne. You can read the research here. 

Songs played: 

New Black Choker - The Crop Tops [https://thecroptops.bandcamp.com/album/new-black-choker-single]
Run With The Dogs - Cash Savage [https://cashsavage.bandcamp.com/track/run-with-the-dogs]