The Weekly Round-Up: August 1st 2021
Welcome to the Weekly Round-Up — a series where we bring you five big stories from across the internet that you should know about. This week, we’re talking vaccine hesitancy, sh*tty politicians using lockdowns to up their profiles and Australia’s unemployment benefits winning gold in Bridget McKenzie’s eyes.
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1. ‘The science swayed her’: how do you convince someone to get vaccinated?
Have that one relative that isn’t planning on getting the vaccine? Or a friend who’s feeling unsure because of all the mixed messages? The Guardian asked their readers what strategies worked for them when it came to dealing with vaccine hesitancy within their circle and how they approached those conversations — in case you need some inspo for that one stubborn uncle who’s spent a bit too much time on the internet.
2. Rightwing Australian politicians using COVID lockdowns to promote challenge to Liberal party
The new hot trend amongst rightwing politicians? Hitching their wagons to anti-lockdown sentiments on their way to the Liberal Democrats. John Ruddick kicked things off last week by attending Sydney’s anti-lockdown protest, copping a $1,000 fine before announcing that he was joining the libertarian Liberal Democrats. A former prominent member of the NSW Liberal party, Ruddick has set his sights on the federal seat of Warringah and, by the sounds of it, his platform is all about COVID-19 and those pesky lockdowns. There’s also been rumblings that former Queensland premier Campbell Newman might join the party. And that’s in addition to Craig Kelly and George Christensen’s vocal support of last week’s protests, amongst other conspiracy-leaning ideas that are making the rounds on Telegram.
3. NT government to pay former youth detainees $35 million after failed bid to keep figure secret
In what is potentially the largest ever class action settlement the NT has ever faced, young people who spent time in NT youth detention centres between 2006 and 2017 stand to receive $35 million from the government who, despite all of that, denies their liability in this case. While the sum is considerable, we know it won’t undo the harm caused to these young people by a system that fails to view young detainees with any respect or empathy. And let’s not forget the fact that Don Dale, the facility at the centre of the 2016 Four Corners episode that first exposed the treatment of these young people, is currently going through a $2.5 million refurbish to help detain the NT’s rising youth detainee numbers.
In this week’s episode of ‘politicians saying things they clearly have no understanding of even though they should because it is their literal job’: Bridget McKenzie decided to make some bold claims to defend the federal government’s decision to not include support for unemployed people on welfare in their package to Greater Sydney. According to her, doing so isn’t necessary because being on welfare is already pretty sweet: “When you look globally at the economic impacts on individuals we can be very, very glad we actually live in a country like Australia where we have such a strong social network of welfare payments. I would rather be on welfare here in Australia than anywhere else in the world going through this global pandemic,” she told ABC radio. Those comments were, of course, quickly debunked by people who actually know what they’re talking about. According to an economist for the Australia Institute, Australia actually ranks last in terms of unemployment benefits in comparison to other OECD countries. As the minister responsible for emergency payments, someone should probably let McKenzie know that.
5. US, European and UK diplomats meet to encourage Australia to ramp up climate action
So turns out that while Sussan Ley was busy flexing her diplomatic muscles to stop the Great Barrier Reef from being listed as ‘in-danger’, European, British and American diplomats were trying to get Australia to consider stronger cuts to our greenhouse gas emissions. I’m sure that went well. According to a Guardian Australia exclusive, diplomats from ‘like-minded’ countries have been talking about how they could engage in dialogue with Australia to lift our level of climate ambition. So basically, we are now officially that weird kid in class that people have to work out ways to engage with. Jokes aside, if this kind of pressure can force our government to face the reality of needing climate action now, it can’t be a bad thing.
