{"podcast":{"title":"ABC News Top Stories","slug":"abc-news-top-stories-6001594","podcast_index_feed_id":6001594,"rss_url":"https://www.abc.net.au/feeds/101858056/podcast.xml","website_url":"https://www.abc.net.au/radio/","image_url":"https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/e095db3b3ea82ec7b474d8295add4336.jpg?src","author":"ABC Australia","episode_count":250,"summary":"ABC News Top Stories delivers the biggest breaking news and headlines from Australia and around the world, updated throughout the day. Get fast, trusted coverage of politics, business, extreme weather, and major national events from the ABC's newsroom direct to your podcast feed. Whether you're catching up on the morning's top headlines or need a quick update between meetings, ABC News Top Stories gives you the essential news of the day. You can also hear the biggest stories of the day explained in-depth in just a few minutes. Follow now for daily Australian news briefings from the ABC, Australia's most trusted news source.","last_synced_at":"2026-09-20T14:20:29.789761+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/abc-news-top-stories-6001594"},"episode":{"title":"Why are some politicians calling for a cut to the tobacco excise?","slug":"why-are-some-politicians-calling-for-a-cut-to-the-tobacco-excise","published_at":"2026-08-31T00:15:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/abc-news-top-stories-6001594/why-are-some-politicians-calling-for-a-cut-to-the-tobacco-excise","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/abc-news-top-stories-6001594","url":"https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/abc-news-top-stories/politicians-calling-for-a-cut-to-the-tobacco-excise-/107097600","audio_url":"https://mediacore-live-production.akamaized.net/audio/02/o1/Z/dj.mp3","summary":"Australia's tobacco excise is increasing again this week, pushing the price of legal cigarettes and smoking products up even further. The excise - or the tax consumers pay on tobacco products - has more than quadrupled over the past fifteen years, making cigarettes $50 or more a packet. There's currently a a big political fight over the excise; some are calling for it to be cut because they argue the huge costs are fuelling the illicit tobacco market","meta_description":"Australia's tobacco excise is increasing again this week, pushing the price of legal cigarettes and smoking products up even further. The excise - or the…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":211,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/abc-news-top-stories-6001594/episodes/why-are-some-politicians-calling-for-a-cut-to-the-tobacco-excise/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/abc-news-top-stories-6001594/why-are-some-politicians-calling-for-a-cut-to-the-tobacco-excise.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}