24 — Blaming families

We chat about the News Corp beat up of Lydia Thorpe, the re-up of the lockdown in parts of Victoria and ginned up cyber attacks in the news. Feel good news?

• Victora has criminalised wage theft! Time to send George Calombaris to perma-jail.
• Aboriginal activist Lidia Thorpe has been elected by the Greens to Federal Senate. News Corp immediately tried to concoct a smear campaign.
• Crikey has a detailed run down of News Corp’s beat-up.

Not on the beers

• Victoria has cranked the lockdown up a bit.
• Victorian opposition leader has tried to score political points, saying that Dan Andrews has “reached a new low” in calling out families.
• The Victorian Government is providing $1500 to people who test positive or their close contacts so they can self-isolate.

Crank hack attack

• Australia was the “victim” of a “state-based” “cyber” “attack”.
• David Speers clarified that this wasn’t an announcement of an attack, just some ongoing security concerns.
• This news dropped at the same time as the Government moved to bypass parliament and effectively ban vaping.

Contemptuous Dutton

• Peter Dutton has been threatened with contempt of court for refusing to release an illegally held asylum seeker.
• We’ve covered this before all the way back in episode 13.

Taking from the Public Trust

• In pun news, the Guardian has been running a deep dive series on the political expense system.
• Stuart Robert, Dan Tehan and Simon Birmingham charged the taxpayers for flights to a $10,000-a-head fundraiser.
• Michael McCormack took a free trip to the Melbourne Cup to announce a cancelled grant.
• NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell resigned over a $3000 gift of a bottle of wine from Australian Water Holdings.
• Tony Abbot’s daughter was given a $60,000 scholarship.
• The Australian government is moving to make it twice as expensive to study arts and law at university.
• University education was free from 1974-1989.
• Former Treasurer Joe Hockey was once involved in a violent protest against a $250 annual university fee.

Actions

• Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi has a thread of MPs who received a free education. Call them!
• Check out the Guardian’s Full Story podcast.
• Listen to 7AM’s interview with the Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance on organising the Black Lives Matter protest.