Australia’s super racist Immigration Minister, mouldy cabbage Peter Dutton, has a long documented history of gross racism. There’s the time he laughed about people in the Pacific losing their homes due to rising sea levels, literally everything he’s ever said about refugees ever, and, this week, he was pretty offensive to Lebanese Australians. Please read on for details and action points.
Continue reading “Dutton is a racist cabbage + action points for Australians”
Former PM of Australia John Howard loves Menzies. He loves Menzies so much, in 2014 he released a 630 page tome about Menzies’ impact on Australia. No Award doesn’t have time to read 630 pages written by a white man about another white man in order to review it for you, so instead we’re going to review the existing reviews of people who could be bothered reading 630 pages a white man wrote about another white man. (Please note: actual tome is 720 pages in length, but only 630 of those pages are biography.)
Rules of reviewing Howard’s Menzies:
Spoilers: Stephanie’s favourite review is the Quadrant one. You’ll know why when you get there. Special mention to the Canberra Times review, for amazingness that we will be discussing later. #regionaldystopia
Overall, Steph has learnt from this process that she maintains a bias in regards to Menzies and his years, and she’ll be damned if she’ll let some baby boomer (or older) take that bias away from her.
Reviewer’s note: None of these reviews are linked, because Steph doesn’t want the bounceback to NA. However you have been presented with all the details you need to google them.
Continue reading “‘The Menzies Era’ – drinking game and review review”
subtitle: more things to hate your government for. actually the same reasons as last week, but here is some action.
There are protests all over the country today for a National Day Of Action. If you can’t make it to a physical protest, or even if you can, you can also participate virtually.
Follow the SOS Blak Australia twitter, and #SOSBlakAustralia.
Read more at New Matilda.
“They’re going to close down these communities and turn people into fringe dwellers. There’s going to be more in jail, and more homelessness. And there’s a lot of people homeless now,” Uncle Ben told New Matilda.
“I’m 75 now, and there’s been 70 years of racism in my life. Dehumanising conditions we’ve been living under. There’s still that hopelessness.”
TIMES OF RALLIES FOR THURSDAY 19th MARCH
CANBERRA: Assemble at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy at 11:30 am
SYDNEY: Kirribilli House, Kirribilli Avenue, 12:30 pm
PERTH: Forrest Chase, 1 pm
MELBOURNE: Parliament of Victoria, 5:30 pm
ADELAIDE: Victoria Square, 12:30 pm
BROOME, WA: ICC Office, Dampier Terrace to Broome Shire Offices, 1 pm
HALLS CREEK, WA: Cnr of Duncan H’way and Great Northern H/way, 10 am
GERALDTON, WA: Edith Cowan Square, Marine Tce, 10 am
BEAGLE BAY, WA: KRCI office, 10 am
HEDLAND, WA: Bloodwood Tree, Sth Hedland 10 am
BELLINGEN, NSW: Outside N5 & Kombu, Church St, 10 am
BENDIGO, VIC: Rosiland Park, Cnr of View St and Pall Mall, 11:45 am
LISMORE, NSW: Lismore Transit Centre, 5 pm
You may know it as Survival Day, or a public holiday for celebrating a genocide.
Nakkiah Lui writes at the Guardian: Australia Day is a time for mourning, not celebration.
Eugenia Flynn at Crikey: Friend or Foe of Indigenous Culture? Jessica Mauboy as Australia Day Poster Girl.
The day I don’t feel Australian? That would be Australia Day. Chelsea Bond over at The Conversation.
Over the weekend there was some shit going down in the #DearWhitePeople tag, with a whole heap of American (including African-American) policing of Australian Indigenous identities. (It is still pretty anger-making in there, and it sucks for @ebswearspink) I hope that there will be some write ups or something, but it’s not something Steph feels qualified to talk about (though an aside: this is in large part why No Award exists. Because we hate being forced to work through a USA social justice paradigm).
If you’re in Melbourne, Steph is going to some Invasion Day stuff:
There’s a smoking ceremony in the Tianjin Gardens at 10, and then a rally and march from 10:30 from Parliament house, because January 26 is a day of mourning and resistance. This rally is a resistance to colonialism and genocide.
Following that, there’s a festival in Treasury Gardens – Share the Spirit. It’s a festival to celebrate indigenous Australian culture and tradition.
Steph says: There’s rallies all over the country. Please go to one. We are living on indigenous land. I grew up on Noongar land, and I’m living on Wurudgeri land. My personal ancestors might not have had anything to do with the genocides of years past, but by staying silent I contribute to everything that continues. It is the very least I can do.
UGH, AUSPOL. Why must you be the blurst? Anyway, to keep you up to date on reasons to hate our federal government, here’s a summary of some things over the last week. Don’t worry, there’s more.
Proposed Changes to the Dole
I HOPE YOU AREN’T ON THE DOLE, not because you’re lazy (you’re not) or undeserving (your government should support you), but because of the proposed job applying thingy. If you’re on Newstart or Work for the Dole, you might be applying for 40 jobs a month. “What we want to do is to motivate job seekers to leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of a job,” Assistant Minister for Employment Luke Hartsuyker said, because people who are long term unemployed are definitely doing it on purpose. Excitingly, Eric Abetz, actual Employment Minister, admits that this might mean employers are spammed with fake, insincere, inconvenient job applications. But I am sure he is just being over-cautious.
Excellently, Centrelink won’t help you do selection criteria for jobs because it takes too long! And someone has handily put together this guide for applying for 40 jobs as quickly as possible.
157 Tamil Asylum Seekers Not on a Boat
157 asylum seekers have been stuck on a boat for a month (thanks, Customs, for keeping us safe), but have finally been allowed to get off the bloody boat. Scott Morrison says this is only because India wants to interview them and take them back, not because he is stopping his very important task of turning back the boats. This might not actually be legal? Who knows anymore. Scott Morrison says the Tamil asylum seekers are ‘economic migrants’ from India which suggests he doesn’t really know a lot about Sri Lanka and India and Tamils, which doesn’t surprise me at all. Even the Indian High Commissioner to Australia, Biren Nanda, says Tamil people living in Indian refugee camps usually aren’t actually citizens of Indian, which demonstrates just how much Morrison listens to brown people (never).
Carbon Tax
Fulfilling a grand total of one actual election promise, the Carbon Tax has left us temporarily (give it time). Given Steph is a climate change campaigner, it will not surprise you to learn she disagrees with our PM’s assessment of it as ‘toxic’, and that its abolishment will boost confidence.
Privacy and Spy Stuff
Although it’s pretty traditional to make fun of ASIS and ASIO, there’s some new stuff being proposed about data retention (which nope. Nope. I can barely be trusted to keep my own records, I don’t want others keeping it), ASIS’ ability to spy on Australians overseas without Ministerial approval (which makes me feel super safe), and compelling use of third-party computers (ie, people who aren’t under investigation).
The Great Barrier Reef
I am super pleased to tell you, via information provided by Environment Minister Greg Hunt, that Australia’s largest coal mine, recently approved and between us and the GBR, will not impact the Great Barrier Reef! The extra 450 large ships that will have to sail through the GBR to get there every year are totally negligible, and the high water use of coal mines will absolutely not impact the local marine areas. Handily, if this seems confusing, yesterday saw the triumphant return of Ian the Climate Denialist Potato at FDotM to explain the impacts of the mine and how it’s all totally okay and Greg’s a great guy.
no-award.net 