On the show this week: As rumours fly that the federal budget will be brought forward to the first week of May, we take a look at what the community service sector wants to see change. We talk to the Council of Social Service (ACOSS), who has just released their budget submission.

Also on the show, with International Women’s Day just behind us, we discuss the push for parity in the workplace. In Australia the gender pay gap is at 17.3 per cent, but in the finance sector it’s as high as 30 per cent. We look at the challenges facing women, and the culture that’s keeping the pay gap open.

We also look at blockchain, the technology behind bitcoin. We’ve all heard of the virtual currency, now worth nearly eleven billion US dollars globally. But what is blockchain, and how could it transform banking?

Show features:

· Rebecca Cassells, Assosicate professor and principal research fellow at Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, Curtin University

· Marco Navone , Senior Lecture in the Finance Discipline Group at the University of Technology Sydney Business School

· Cassandra Goldie, CEO of the Australian Council of Social Service: ACOSS

Producers: Andrew Barclay, Meike Wijers, Tania Katsanis and Vincent Su

Executive Producer: Catherine Zengerer