THE NSW POLICE DOTH PROTEST TOO MUCH?
According to the ABC, NSW Police have won a Supreme Court order against a 200+ person rally in Sydney on Saturday, which had been organised to protest the indefinite detention of former Manus and Nauru detainees in hotels.
Up in Brisbane, SBS reports that two protesters have been arrested as part of a blockade against the forced removal of refugees — who Australia has now been “processing” for seven years now — from a Kangaroo Point hotel to BITA detention centre.
AGILE AGITATORS: Suspecting Victorian police might again try handing out $1600 fines, organisers for Melbourne’s rally have split the event into eight different sites, to include the Mantra hotel, MITA detention centre and Alan Tudge’s office. In another workaround, Brisbane protesters have been holding “exercise” demonstrations for weeks.
LOWERING THE BARR
According to The Guardian, US Attorney-General William Barr is facing calls to resign over accusations of directing violence against peaceful protesters outside the White House — which he stands by — and helping peddle Donald Trump’s Antifa conspiracy theories.
The news comes amidst continuing protests and some fresh horrors in the US — notably, Louisville Metro Police has released a 3-month-old incident report looking at the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor that lists her “injuries” as “none” despite officers shooting her eight times after breaking into her apartment. However, there are some significant, if small signs of a reckoning with police violence:
- a Louisville police chief has been fired after it was discovered police involved in the fatal shooting of a local restaurant owner did not activate their body cams; subsequent investigations found the bullet belonged to a National Guard rifle;
- officers in Atlanta, Buffalo and New York City have been charged with assault; and
- Civiqs survey data suggests America’s net support for the BLM has grown from negative 5% in 2018 to 17% pre-protests to a current level of 28%.
HARD AND SOFT CORRUPTION: According to POLITICO, the Trump administration is indicating that it will not disclose 4.5 million US businesses that received bailout funds through the US$500+ billion (AU$726.6 billion) Paycheck Protection Program, with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin alleging that the recipients of taxpayer funds constitutes “proprietary” and “confidential” information.
USED AD NAUSEUM
With more Black/Blak Lives Matter rallies planned tonight in Australia, kindly check out today’s The Australian ($) or Herald-Sun ($) to see hundreds of words used to report how “a Melbourne protester has tested positive since last weekend, health officials are investigating, get tested if you went and feel sick”.
The news caps off a stellar day for race politics here in Australia, where the prime minister falsely claimed we never had slaves, The Guardian reports an LNP staffer has been sacked over racist social media content, and the Senate was last night forced to reject a One Nation “All Lives Matter” motion. Which, compared to that time the Coalition voted for a white supremacist slogan, might count as progress?
WHAT REFORM LOOKS LIKE: Incidentally, a coalition of justice groups have today issued a five-point plan to reduce Indigenous incarceration rates, which include raising the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to at least 14 years, decriminalising public drunkenness, repealing punitive bail laws, and other overdue recommendations from the 1991 royal commission.
[free_worm]
LET’S GO TO JAPAN
According to Japan Today, Japan is planning to introduce a quota of around 250 foreign travellers per day from Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Vietnam sometime over the next three months.
The plan would reportedly prioritise businesspeople, i.e. executives and engineers, and then students and tourists. Per ongoing discussions between governments, sources also expect that the easing of travel restrictions will be mutual.
STATE VIRUS WATCH: NT LAUNCHES TOURISM VOUCHERS
- The Northern Territory government has announced a tourism voucher scheme that will offer $200 in matched funds for intra-territory tourism activities between July 1 and October 31.
- From Saturday, NSW will allow food courts to reopen, increase the number of people allowed to visit homes from 5 to 20, and lift restrictions on outdoor crowds from 10 to 20.
- Western Australia’s State Recovery Advisory Group convened yesterday for a major workshop to develop input for the State Government’s Draft Impact Statement.
- The Victorian government has announced that learner permit and licence testing including driver tests will progressively resume from Monday June 15; Tasmania, meanwhile, will permanently streamline the “L1” and L2 into one Learners state, a change first introduced as a COVID-19 assistance measure.
- Queensland has announced legislative amendments enabling supermarkets and essential businesses to restock their shelves 24 hours a day will now be in place until October 31, 2020.
- Finally, the ACT government will expand its fast-tracked suburban infrastructure program with $8 million allocated to new projects and a $2 million extension to early planning and design work.
THEY REALLY SAID THAT?
Our great National Guard Troops who took care of the area around the White House could hardly believe how easy it was. “A walk in the park”, one said. The protesters, agitators, anarchists (ANTIFA), and others, were handled VERY easily by the Guard, D.C. Police, & S.S. GREAT JOB!
Donald Trump
Even for Trump, laughing at how easy it was for soldiers and the “SS” to tear gas and shoot pepper bullets at peaceful protesters while he cowered in a bunker is on the fucking nose.
CRIKEY RECAP
Anti-vaxxers reap rewards for spreading utter crap — and there’s no stopping them
“In Australia, Christine Baynes, who is part of a loose alliance of ‘active skeptics’ with an interest in the anti-vax movement, told Inq that 2015 marked the time when anti-vaxxer messaging which had been prevalent for well over a decade became fused with an overarching anti-science and anti-government narrative, eventually linking up with the 5G conspiracy theory which ties the 5G network to the spread of coronavirus and holds that Bill Gates is behind a plan to control the world through vaccination.”
Bringing down the death house — and changing the present, future and past
“With a rapidity and power that many on both sides are finding hard to believe, the world is being consumed by a social uprising around the question of race, culture and the relations and form of everyday life.
“Like any good revolution, the fact that it has had multiple preludes does not disguise the fact that, as an event, it has arisen all at once, its power coming from its unitary, near-simultaneous emergence across the world, changing not only present and future, but the past as well.”
Looking to rewrite history? Here are a few places to start
“Charles Cameron Kingston, statue in Victoria Square, Adelaide, SA: A lawyer and politician, Kingston was a strong advocate of a white Australia and is regarded as the originator of the White Australia policy, which was in place until 1973. He opposed Chinese immigration, and was initially opposed to women’s right to vote, but changed his tune in his later years.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Just one of six Covid commission members volunteers to release conflict-of-interest declaration
Medicare rebates for telehealth may be extended beyond September
Truckies, childcarers top employers’ new jobs wishlist ($)
Adani mine: three major insurers to have no further involvement in coal project
Porter calls time on changes to wages agreement notice period
Sanjeev Gupta slashing costs, jobs as coronavirus steel and aluminium consumption plummets ($)
10 things you should know about slavery in Australia
Biden predicts military will intervene if Trump refuses to accept election loss
THE COMMENTARIAT
Was there slavery in Australia? Yes. It shouldn’t even be up for debate — Thalia Anthony and Stephen Gray (The Conversation): “As early as the 1860s, anti-slavery campaigners began to invoke ‘charges of chattel bondage and slavery’ to describe north Australian conditions for Aboriginal labour. In 1891 a ‘Slave Map of Modern Australia’ was printed in the British Anti-Slavery Reporter, a journal that documented slavery around the world and campaigned against it.”
Cancel culture sees humour and history Gone with the Wind ($) — David Penberthy (The Australian): “Be it through politically correct conformity or sheer nerves in the face of a worldwide shaming on Twitter, broadcasters and publishers are nervously rifling through their back-catalogues to expunge any work with the capacity to offend.”
Dear J.K. Rowling, I’m a woman so let’s end this toxic ‘debate’ — Dale Sheridan (The Sydney Morning Herald): “Some consider Rowling’s latest comments and actor Daniel Radcliffe’s intervention in support of transwomen part of an ongoing ‘debate’ about trans and gender diverse rights. I’m going to call it out for what it really is — a privileged assumption of entitlement on the part of Rowling and her ilk to ‘debate’ my very existence and validity.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Canberra
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The national cabinet will meet today via videoconference, with borders and protests expected to dominate the discussion.
Australia
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Independent independent MP Helen Haines will speak with retired Supreme Court Judges David Harper and Margaret White for the Australia Institute’s latest Economics of a Pandemic webinar, Safeguarding our Democracy.
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