8* — The Fifth Element is coal

We log off (for now).     No notes! Go touch grass.

We chat with Celeste Liddle, Greens candidate for Cooper, about unionism, protest and speedrunning Spyro the Dragon.   Celeste Liddle for Cooper! Celeste Liddle is running for the Greens in the seat of Cooper. The 1988 bicentenary protests — first nations people and supporters protested 200 years of colonialism. Celeste has a history of unionism, an Organiser for the NTEU. Without reparations, what good was Rudd’s apology to the Stolen Generations? Why do so many of the radical left participate in “speedrunning”? Actions Volunteer, host a placard or donate to help Celeste’s campaign. Come to the the Celestival at the Tote! It’s gonna be sick.  

Not an ep! Just an update! See you all soon xx

QLD and NSW are underwater, again. Knives are out for the prime minister. FU Pay is not good. The budget is discussed.   Floodcast (not that one) At Melbourne’s Flower and Garden show, see “Coming soon”, a garden built around the theme of climate change. The flooding in Queensland and NSW: It’s real bad. Lismore’s flood warning system didn’t work, because it was still damaged from the flooding three weeks ago. The NSW government has proposed cutting stamp duty for people leaving flood-effected areas. Everybody hates Scott Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells used her retirement speech to attack Scott Morrison and is not fit to be Prime Minister. In 2020 Fierravanti-Wells pushed conspiracy theories stating that the bushfires were created by eco-terrorist arsonists. Then voted against any kind of climate resilience measures. In 2007 she attended a Croatian neo-nazi event. And in 2014 asked Craig Kelly to attend that same event on her behalf. Scott Morrison has denied that in 2007 he claimed his preselection opponent was a “moslem”. Jim Malo: “being racist doesn’t preclude you from public life, in 2009 or now”. Former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett is proud of his golliwog collection. FU PAY Me Australia loves buy-now-pay-later services. Australian Venue Co let you buy for a parma with four easy payments. Payday loan lenders are also getting into the area. New buy now pay later service FUPay is letting you buy milk, petrol and rent and pay it off later. FUPay are also pitching themselves as a tool for employers to micromanage their employee’s money. FUPay’s headquarters are in the same building as Indue, the company that manages cashless welfare cards. A real nexus of evil. Budget spectacular The government is giving $420 in additional tax offsets to lower income earners. If you do a winners and losers breakdown, lol that’s fake. The best form of welfare is a job, and the best type of rental support is buying a house. Actions Volunteer for a better political party.

Carbon credits are a big scam. David Koch fantasies about cutting the rope.   Carbon Credits! Angus Taylor has spent a billion dollars on “sham” carbon credits. Whistleblower Andrew Macintosh says many parts of the carbon offsets system are a scam. Andrew Macintosh has been replaced by former fossil fuel lobbyist David Byers (we’ve talked about him before). Under the Gillard government, Australia’s emissions actually went down. What’s the go with Angus Taylor anyway? Blockade Sunrise Protestors from Blockade Australia are continuing to disrupt coal company operations. Emma Dorge went on morning TV show Sunrise while hanging from a pole above a train line. Sunrise’s “Cool the Globe” initiative was sponsored by Origin Energy. Shoutouts Shoutout to The Greens! They’ve announced some cool new policies, like free university, and dental into Medicare. Shoutout too to Joe Hockey for fighting for free university too (before stripping it for parts). Blockade Australia are running actions from 27th of June - July 2nd. Change your god damn electricity provider!  

We get Adelaidepilled, then talk about the federal court ruling that the Environment Minister doesn't have a duty of care after all.   Adelaidepilled The election in South Australia saw large swings against the Liberals. The new Premier said some okay things. Fair enough! The federal court has found that the Environment Minister doesn’t have a duty of care to protect children from climate change after all! The judges had a lot of good legal reasons why we should ignore the fact that the government has blood on it’s hands. Climate change-lover Joel Fitzgibbon loves this. Climate scientist Peter Kalmus on the need to take risks. A harder place to live Scott Morrison says Australia is becoming a harder place to live. I wonder who did that? Guess he’s just moving through the stages of climate change denial. Scotty also reckons we should run coal power plants for as long as possible! Actions Speak up when you can! Find your community. It’s not your job but you’ve gotta do it anyway.

We talk about the power of polyps and the power of community.   Blobbing along Australia’s nuclear submarines would “inevitably” be forced to shut down by peacenik Queensland jellyfish. In 2006 the US Supercarrier Ronald Reagan was owned by 800kg of jellyfish. Floating in a pork barrel Flood disaster relief payments are different, depending on your electorate. Meanwhile, crowdfunding campaigns outstrip traditional charities. The Ballina hospital was evacuated and relocated, by staff and volunteers. …the Defence Force turned up nine days later. The Prime Minister’s visit to flood-effected areas avoided media questions, but brought his personal photographer. Actions Talk to a neighbors. Save yourself from reading, listen to a podcast instead.  

The government ignores the IPCC report and the floods. Warnie ruled though.   Fucking around / finding out The second part of the 6th IPCC report has been released. This one is about the social cost of climate change. UN President António Guterres: “I’ve seen many reports, but nothing like the new IPCC climate report, an atlas of human suffering”. The government response: Ignoring it. Except for Pauline Hanson, who’s happily denying that climate change exists. On a plus side, Victoria has announced a massive new offshore wind project to replace our aging coal plants. Floodcast (not that one) The flooding in Queensland & NSW: It’s real bad. The Lismore Maccas, completely underwater. The government has $5 billion sitting in a federal disaster fund, and just isn’t spending it. With local media closing, the ABC running on a rapidly shrinking shoestring budget, people are stuck without news that talks to them. But it’s okay, Peter Dutton has started a GoFundMe to help out. Dutton recently won $35,000 in damages for a defamation case against refugee activist Shane Bazzi. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk: “Let’s face it, it is climate change. I have never seen so many natural disasters”, but followed with… “Queensland is lucky, we have coal, we have gas”. Shane Stone, head of Australia’s disaster relief agency, vacillates on climate change, and blames residents for wanting to “live amongst the gum trees”. RIP Warnie Cricketer Shane Warne died early Saturday morning. He also had some good takes on climate change. “I think we all have to admit now that climate change is a huge issue… Scientists with proven facts are telling us things we can’t dispute about the rising temperatures, the rising sea levels” Actions Donate to help out in QLD & NSW: Bundjalung Community Flood Relief, Flood Recovery 2022. Read Warmth by Daniel Sherrell. Watch Shane Warne: 10 unforgettable deliveries, the Kath and Kim episode.

No pod this week! The vibes shifted too hard.   Instead, tune in to our pals over at Boonta Vista, raising funds for Sikh Volunteers Australia, Lismore SES and Loop Growers Brisbane.

Australia's largest coal power plant is shutting down early, Scott Morrison is good at diplomacy, and Grace Tame is cool.   On the tools Scott Morrison, welding expert. Good news! The biggest coal power plant in Australia is shutting 7 years early! They specifically avoided telling energy minister Angus Taylor about the plans. The Australian government has fought hard to keep fossil fuel plants spewing in the past. Angus Taylor is pissy about it. Of course, because the government refuses to consider any kind of transition, it’s the workers who lose. It’s not all good news… the mostly-Labor state governments are spending millions to prop up coal power plants. Demanding forgiveness Scott Morrison used the commemoration address for Kevin Rudd’s apology to Indigenous people to tell them they should forgive settlers. As The First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria say, “get in the bin”. Secretly working for China Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton are going hard on their “Labor is secretly working for China” narrative. The head of ASIO is now doing the media rounds saying “please don’t”. Labor MPs having been going off chops on TikTok. Samantha Maiden writes for news.com.au that Anthony Albonese had spoken a line of Mandarin at a Chinese trade association function. Grace Tame is cool The Daily Mail published a photo of former Australian of the Year with a giant BONG. Tame released a great open letter eviscerating the media who tried to shit-sheet her. Duncan Storrar went on Q&A questioning welfare policies, and had his life dragged through the mud in response. Weed is a normal, popular thing in Australia. Liberal MP Dave Sharma posted that he’s “sure there’s a photo of me like that”, but has consistently voted for drug testing welfare recipients. Meanwhile, almost 70 thousand australians were arrested for weed possession. Actions Pay the Rent! There’s a way to actually make reparations. Share the podcast! Leave a review!