WESTPAC AGM
(Image: AAP/Joel Carrett)

Corporate compassion If I were a massive financial institution housing a charity, I would simply not kick them out during a global-pandemic-induced recession. To be honest, the thought of a bank kicking out a food bank at this time in history is so Mr Burns as to be almost impressive.

The ‘Ville Food Pantry is a Sydney-based foodbank housed in the back of a Westpac in Marrickville, but in recent days it’s been under pressure to get out:

Though they appear to have been granted a “reprieve”, it definitely seems worth keeping an eye on.

In the still of the Nile Back in September, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Fred Nile’s Christian Democratic Party — which is famously a bit of one-issue party — was facing deregistration over “dwindling membership”.

Nile, whose interpretation of the Bible has always been a smidge selective, skipped over the bit about turning the other cheek and leapt on the offensive:

“I am shocked and appalled by the false assertions and allegations that the CDP is facing deregistration. The facts are that we successfully re-registered the CDP Party in August 2020 with the NSW Electoral Commission,” he said in a statement.

“We will be fighting this defamation vigorously and it will be proven that we have been victimised and slandered by a seditious rebel group within the Party. The CDP Party and my name will be vindicated with God’s Righteous and Just Hand,” he goes on (capitals his).

Just in case that wasn’t dramatic enough, the statement concludes with another biblical quote:

Proverbs 19:5  A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will not escape.

University of hard knocks The ongoing protests at the University of Sydney have seen some particularly heavy handed policing. And according to linguistics lecturer Yaegan Doran, university management — the target of the protests — have been far from neutral in this process: