8 — Stop the floats

The Liberal party's float at the Sydney Mardi Gras was targeted by protestors who were ejected from the parade. We discuss the Liberal party's history of policies that hurt the LGBTQI community, and the Labor party's lack of spine on both gay marriage and climate change.

News

Australia is still on fire, but all of the fires in Victoria and New South Wales are contained!

The “sports rorts” scandals roll on, showing more and more evidence of corruption and coverups.

Channel 10’s report on the sports rorts shows that Scott Morrison was involved in making decisions about grant allocations.

Superannuation and wage theft

After an “amnesty” on unpaid superannuation, 7000 companies have admitted to underpaying their workers.

Employers are now calling for an amnesty on wage underpayments.

CEO Dan Price pays all of his workers workers at least $70,000 a year. Decent, living wages can work!

Mardi Gras, the police and the Liberal Party

Protestors were removed from the Sydney Mardi Gras by police after targeting the Liberal Party float.

Correction: In the episode we say that the Liberal Party float depicts Captain Cook and the Endeavour. This was actually part of the protest, which makes it much more cool.

The Liberal Party has a long history of opposing gay marriage, refusing to apologise for past genocidal policies, and pushing for protection for religious bigots.

The first Mardi Gras in Sydney, in 1978, faced shocking police violence.

The NSW Police—known more recently for their strip-searches of unsupervised minors at public events—had cup cakes. So they must be nice right?

Why the Labor and Liberal parties won’t act on climate change

Joel Fitzgibbon, the Labor party shadow minister for resources is a big fan of coal.

He is also pushing for the Labor party to move further right and remove Anthony Albanese as the current leader.

The Labour party takes lots of money from fossil fuel interests.

On the Liberal party side, Angus Taylor the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction, is taking subsidies away from proven clean energy sources.

…while still subsidising fossil fuel industry to the tune of $29 billion.

Action items

Shout out to refugee advocacy group RISE, who organised a protest in support of refugees being detained in a hotel. Donate to to help out, and follow them to find out when their next actions will be.

Listen to friend of the show Tom Tanuki’s podcast, The Poor Can Feed the Birds, which has a “gig guide” upcoming protests.

Listen to the Background Briefing episode “How fracking could threaten Australia’s Paris target”. Solidaritus et podcastus ✊

Talk to your friends! Start a group chat! Reach out to the people around you who care about the same things you do.