Law & Order: Statue Victims Unit

Metaphorical fire news

• Australia is still trying to be as On Fire as possible.
• Australia’s Covid recovery commission is heavily stacked with fossil fuel goons.
• The commission has been pushing strongly for Australia’s post-Covid economy to invest in gas, excluding other green industries.

Sinking statues

• Thousands of Australians came out in exercise gear to protest Aboriginal deaths in custody.
• Two women were arrested after spraypainting a statue of Captain Cook in Sydney, resulting in police being “Forced” to stand guard.
• NSW cops have been seen throwing Alt-right gang signs, and denying it.
• One of the chuds standing guard at the Captain Cook statue used to be a rapper.
• National Party MP Andrew Laming thinks protestors should be stripped of their welfare payments (as if protestors don’t have jobs).
• Finance Minister Matias Cormann agreed, after prompting by Sky News.

Scott on Slavery

• Scott Morrison reckons Australia doesn’t have a history of slavery.
• “Blackbirding” was happening in Australia up until 1970.
• Townsville in Queensland is named after slave trader Robert Towns.
• Emelda Davis, President of Australian South Sea Islanders Port Jackson, had an enslaved grandfather.
• Migrant workers are still being treated very poorly by fruit farms.
• Last year, the Queensland government paid $190 million in compensation for wages withheld from Indigenous workers.

Handouts for retirees

• The wealth transfer from the poor to the rich continues apace with the HomeBuilder program.
• The government’s $9.3m plan for sending food boxes to retirees in need sent out a total of… 39 boxes.
• The government’s promised bushfire relief grants have simply… not gone out.

Blowing up Aboriginal heritage

• Rio Tinto apologised for blowing up Juukan Gorge.
• They received a report in 2014 informing them that the caves are of the highest archaeological significance in Australia.
• BHP has plans to destroy at least 40 Aboriginal sites.
• In good news, Fortesque Metals Group has lost its high court appeal against Yindjibarndi traditional owners native title claim.

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