23 — Law & Order: Statue Victims Unit

Police are out in force to protect metal in the shape of Captain Cook, the PM apparently hasn't learned anything since primary school and money keeps not reaching the people who really need it. 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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