By Liam Blair
Queensland Senator has his fingers in a racist Victorian pie
Queensland senator Fraser Anning travelled to St Kilda this January to protest the alleged rise of Sudanese crime in Victoria. Mr Anning said the event was “official business” for his role as a Senator, though images of the day were scattered with men sporting the Nazi salute and Nazi memorabilia. While Mr Anning has said he would never “be a part of that”, fellow Senators and media outlets alike slammed his choice to use tax-payer dollars to travel to an event specifically held to divide the community.
Prime Minister sidelines the ‘January 26’ debate to promote $50 million revamp of the site where Captain Cook first set foot on Australian land
Federal government has once again shat all over the January 26th debate with Prime Minister (then Treasurer) Scott Morrison pledging $50 million towards 250th Anniversary memorial space of the First Fleet’s landing – a day that represents genocide, division and sadness for many Australians. Mr Morrison said to The Weekend Australian the memorial commemorates “an understanding of two cultures.” Despite these comments, he fails to prove his understanding of said cultures when he told the ABC that “Australia Day is Australia Day … you can’t pretend your history isn’t your history.” It looks like this issue won’t be resolved any time soon.
Pill testing still not legal. Authorities still contradicting their arguments against it.
In April 2018, pill testing was used in an Australian first at the Groovin the Moo music festival in Canberra. It unsurprisingly identified highly toxic chemicals in the party pills, including N-Ethylpentylone which is a known killer. While many have started warming up to these kinds of initiatives, federal and state governments have been ruthlessly turning their backs on calls from the public to legalise it. NSW Police issued a warning to festival-goers in January that “they can never be certain what the substances contain,” which almost suggests there should be some initiative in place for people to know their pills aren’t toxic before they take them… if only such an initiative existed.
The Federal Liberal Spill could shape our next election, whenever that happens.
Last August saw another leadership spill, ending with Malcolm Turnbull booted from his position of Prime Minister, replaced by, then Treasurer, Scott Morrison. The party’s conservative and socially progressive factions being at each other’s throats is not new, but with a federal election due before mid-year, this division doesn’t scream “strong government”. At the last federal election, some big players scraped through with tiny margins, including Peter Dutton. Now that Labor has brought in some new faces to contrast the stale white bread that is the Liberal National Party, the fate of the government seems grim.
