More than a year ago, the CFMEU – one of Australia’s most powerful unions – was placed into administration, after an investigation by our mastheads, and 60 Minutes, revealed that it was infiltrated by bikie gang members and criminals who were guilty of corruption and cronyism. But now, some of the very union officials who have been tasked by the government to stamp out the corruption have themselves been threatened - via arson attacks, vandalism and threats.

As one union leader puts it: “I was gobsmacked. I feel like I'm in an episode of the Sopranos. It’s bizarre".

Today, investigative reporter Nick McKenzie on the ongoing allegations of corruption, and the bravery of one man who is steadfast in his goal of purging the union of it, even as he admits he now does so while looking over his shoulder.

Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So now we know: Erin Patterson will be 82 before she gets the chance to get out of jail; if she gets out at all.

This will make her one of Victoria’s longest-serving female inmates.

But the revelations from Patterson’s sentencing hearing, in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Monday morning, leaned less to the historic, and more to the primal.

Today, crime and justice reporter Erin Pearson, on the people impacted by Patterson’s premeditated and pitiless cruelty, and what the judge made of them. And the unexpected moments of mercy and forgiveness that Patterson was, nevertheless, offered by one of them.

Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Year 9 debaters in South Australia were given a topic for the third round of their debating competition a few months ago. The topic was whether the ''tradwife'' movement, a lifestyle in which women embrace traditional gender archetypes, was good for women.

While it was deemed offensive by some, senior writer Jacqueline Maley today outlines why such a debate is worthwhile, and whether the movement is a "frilly version of fascism" or a way to reclaim motherhood.

For more, read Maley's article, 'Year 9s were asked if women should stay in the kitchen. People were outraged. I wasn’t'.

Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.