"The Week on Wednesday" with Van Badham & Ben Davison

Weekend Wrap 10 Oct 2021: NSW to reopen but concerns remain, Labor to buy Australian as Coalition suggests mortgage increases to pay for coal mines and removing social media anonymity

Ben looks at the reopening of NSW, some of the issues other places have faced when reopening and what the concerns might be for us here in Australia.

Morrison sent his minister off to Insiders to talk about social media accountability while totally failing to address the fact The Australian has numerous anonymous articles and manage to not be asked a single question on the National Party plan to increase mortgages to support a $250 billion (more than three times the size of Jobkeeper) program to fund mines that no one else wants to invest into.

This continues the Morrison government's record of avoiding tough economic discussions and any accountability for the high levels of real unemployment and underemployment, wage cuts, the replacement of ongoing jobs with casual and labour hire jobs and the handing over of $5Billion in infrastructure funds to foreign head contractors rather than using Australian companies.

By contrast Labor used the NSW State conference this weekend to announce its new Buy Australian Act that would lift us up the innovation index, the digital competitiveness index and see Australian companies get major government contracts to employ local workers.

As we start to hit vaccination targets and things reopen theres never been a more important time to follow the health advice, get vaccinated, wear your mask and ignore the wannabe celebrities prepared to sacrifice your life for a few headlines about them.

Episode 58: Right wing Perrottet picked as NSW Premier, Far right protests against Australia in USA and Poland and the good news is about forests!

Van Badham and Ben Davison dive into the new NSW Premier, Dom Perrottet, his public statements against women's reporductive rights, against marriage equality, against financial support for single mothers, his public sector wage cuts, his privatisation of NSW infrastructure and the iCare scandal that saw 52,000 injured workers ripped off while a former US Republican operative worked out of his office while being paid for by iCare as they gave out undeclared contracts to Liberal Party donors.

Van discusses her own faith and how Perrottet's interpretation of Christianity seems to be more interested in protecting the sins of priests than in loving all God's children.

Van and Ben explore how foreign right wing actors are using Australia as a political stage to spark anti-democratic death cults which are overseeing the deaths of tens of thousands of people in Florida and Tennessee even as Republican law makers are condemning Australia and suggesting sanctions in response to our mask mandates and vaccination requirements for essential workers.

Spoiler alert: The videos of Australian "repression" and "oppression" that are on the internet are foreign made propaganda.

The good news is about the protection of forests in Western Australia and the implementation of a 10 year transition program to ensure the delivery of economic and environmental benefits to the West Australian community.

Weekend Wrap 3 October: Gladys is gone, Dom is up, Constance is going federal, COVID is still kicking but maybe we‘ll get to see each other at Christmas

Ben Davison dives into how Gladys failed in her duty to report possible corrupt conduct while he slams the rose coloured glasses some of the Liberal Party and Sydney's elites have decided to view her through. 

Dom, iCare, Perrottet seems likely to replace Gladys now that Constance has announced he wants to go federal but is the Trump supporting, anti-aboriginal flag, home bulldozing hard right Catholic who wanted to let COVID rip the right man for the job?  John Howard thinks so.  So probably not.

COVID vaccine targets continue to be hit as Victoria announces essential workers will need to be vaccinated to keep their essential worker status and we are all reminded that if 20% of Australians are not vaccinated thats around 5 million people still at risk.

Morrison announced a plan to get Australians home for Christmas 2021.  Which differs from his plan to get Australians home for Christmas 2020 in that it has some hope of actually happening.  

Episode 57: Morrison cuts payments amid COVID uncertainty, Coalition play acting on climate action and good news about land protection

Van Badham and Ben Davison dive into the Morrison government's bungling of the COVID situation in Australia that has seen people with a disability go from being in a priority group to "refocussed" almost out of contention for vaccines, payments being cut from people left unemployed due to COVID restrictions, states going off the road map at the expense of thousands of lives and extra hospitalisations.  All while Victoria has its worst day for cases and NSW has its worst day for deaths. And Singapore is having a lockdown with well over 80% of the population vaccinated.

The choices our political leaders have made during the pandemic and are making again now are determining whether people fall into poverty, homelessness and hunger.  Or not.

The political pantomime that is Coalition policy around climate action has reached WWE levels of spectacle this week.  With a clash between the Nationals (rural seats) and the Liberals (city seats) being billed as part of distracting from the reality that the world is moving to net zero emissions.  The only questions are how and what happens to people as that occurs.  Neither question is one that Morrison's political side show is interested in answering but both are the focus for environment groups, union, companies and farmers.

And the good news is that old European enmities have been set aside to create a land sanctuary some are calling "the European Amazon."

Plus we thank everyone who made The Week on Wednesday the number 1 news and the number 1 politics podcast in Australia last week!

Weekend Wrap 26 September 2021 Insiders disgrace with Barnaby the fool, 40 percent fully vaxxed but its not evenly spread and the Demon‘s win the grand final

Ben Davison breakdown how 51% over 16 vaccinated equals 40% full vaccinated and what the delayed rollout in lower socio-economic suburbs and regions means for when things "open up".

Insiders, on the ABC, makes some terrible calls about the far right riots. From using language that reinforces the narrative of fascists to regurgitating anti-union talking points and simply getting their facts about vaccine hesitancy wrong the show's coverage of what happened in Melbourne this week was a disgrace.  Stan Grant gave some insight into the shifting patterns of global trade alliances and Barnaby Joyce once again proved he is a fool.  Australia will get to net zero emissions, because everyone else will eventually make us if we want to trade with them, so the question is when, how and what does the journey to get there look like for ordinary Australians. 

None of which Barnaby can answer, or even accept as a reality.

And the Melbourne Demons won the AFL Grand Final for the first time since 1964

Episode 56: Far right riots in Melbourne, Morrison skips country to play submarines with Biden and Boris but the good news is about fossil fuels

Van Badham and Ben Davison breakdown what's happening in Melbourne as far right infiltrators have been rioting, attacking union offices, attacking police and desecrating working class sites.

It is a cracking deep dive into fascism, what's driving the riots, why union offices and sites have been targeted, the baffling political responses and what we can do to ensure democracy and our communities are protected.

Van discusses what's driving these "new far right" adherents and gives some insight into the shifting sands of right wing ideology.  Ben calls out some members of the Morrison government for trying to use the rioters for their own political purposes.

The team then explore how fascism always comes to power through weak centre right politicians that think they can harness fascists and it is actually the coalition of those that believe in democracy, left and right, that has to stand together to ensure democracy continues. 

Throughout the pandemic unions and business groups have tried to do exactly that and both have condemned the riots and called for people to get vaccinated.

Morrison's weakness, a whole different sort of weakness to Turnbull's, has seen him run off to play submarines in New York with Biden and Boris just as the OECD says our economy isn't going so great, unemployment is more like 20% than 5%, fascists are mobilising in Victoria and NSW might end up "going it alone" on COVID reopening as other COVID free states suggest higher vaccine targets.

But there is good news about the end of leaded petrol!

Weekend Wrap 19 September 2021 Nuclear subs blowing up jobs, diplomatic and trade relations, Morrison‘s Port Problem, Pro-Covid protestors and union wins!

Ben Davison is back with the Weekend Wrap looking at how Morrison's Nuclear sub deal is blowing up Australian jobs, threatening trade relations with China and the EU and resulting in the only European power that cares about the Indo-pacific region withdraw their ambassador from Australia and the United States (their oldest ally).

But we will now get eight instead of 12 subs.  In 2040. And "that fella", as Biden calls Morrison, has only had to part with $90 billion of our taxpayer funds to make it happen.

Morrison's more immediate problem is Christian Porter.  The embattled cabinet minister is facing daily calls to resign over the revelation that he received an anonymous million dollar donation.  Morrison's Finance Minister, Simon Birmingham, took a grilling over it on the ABC show Insiders today and refused to either support or condemn his cabinet colleague in a masterful display of how to avoid demonstrating any values while looking than his own government's climate action policies.

Pro-Covid fascist recruitment rallies were held again this weekend with over 200 arrested and 10 police officers injured.  Australia's COVID vaccination rate has hit 37% but the impacts are not just case numbers as 13 people died in NSW.  10 of which have died before hitting average life expectancy.  84% of Victoria's cases today were under 50.

Worker have had wins to round out the week with 360 AMWU members at Cadbury taking action to see those who have been "casual" for 10 years offered ongoing work, UWU member's at Dulux voted unanimously to reject a sub-standard deal and AWU members at Bluescope Steel have won $5,000,000 in back pay that will see some workers take home $45,000!  It pays to be union.    

Episode 55: Porter‘s mystery donor and Morrison‘s problem with accountability, Education under attack, COVID updates and good news about cows

Van Badham and Ben Davison examine the latest Morrison government transparency failure as Christian Porter receives a "blind" million dollars for his legal fund that even Malcolm Turnbull can't stomach but Frydenberg says is "within the rules".

Its been over 1,000 days since Morrison announced the as yet undelivered national anti-corruption organisation but he has found time to cut the national audit office budget after it uncovered sports rorts and a $30 million payment to a Liberal Party donor in exchange for a parcel of land worth $3 million.

Van and Ben look at the chequered history of three Morrison ministers and how their ability to avoid responsibility has seen them promoted into positions where they wield enormous budgets, cultural power and control over the mechanisms of government.

The rise of the far right has been made worse by COVID and by cuts to our educational institutions.  The workers in our universities and schools are fighting back to make sure people get the educational tools we need to have a functioning democracy, free of the tyranny of fascist rule.

Van also explains why the super spreader protests are happening and how they connect to standard fascist playbooks on building support for themselves, at the expense of the people.

One in three Australian's are vaccinated against COVID, despite the selective use of phrases like "eligible", "a dose" and other mumbo jumbo words so we need to get more people vaccinated as today saw more deaths, more lockdowns and more anguish. 

The good news is that cows can be toilet trained!  Maybe next they'll find a way to keep Morrison's ministers out of the trough....

Plus a special guest appearance by Van's mum who wanders in to say "Hello!"

Episode 54: Morrison‘s father‘s day jaunt, Women‘s summit ”platitudes”, more vaccinations needed before COVID under control and good news about scooters & football

Van Badham and Ben Davison examine how Scott Morrison's decision to fly to Sydney for father's day weekend, at tax payer expense across two closed borders, was compounded by the sleight of hand photo used on his social media and speaks to his continued poor judgement in the wake of his trip to Hawaii, the family pub crawl around Cornwall and his decision to deal with the politics, rather than the substance, of his party's "women problem".

The Women's Summit, Morrison's attempt to make the rolling scandals and systemic mistreatment of women in Australia under his leadership go away, has been slammed by Grace Tame, Brittany Higgins, Victorian and Queensland Ministers as well as groups advocating for women fleeing domestic violence.  Brittany Higgins wasn't an invited delegate, even though in many ways she was the catalyst for the summit, and the Australian Union movement was invited at all.  Van looks at how this summit continues the Morrison approach of dealing with the politics rather than the problem, the sense of disappointment that comes from Morrison's refusal to impliment all 55 recommendations of the Respect@Work report and the baffling new human rights commissioner appointment that was announced, while the summit was on, who grace Tame described as "a grave mistake."

COVID continues to ravage Australia with more deaths than at any point in the pandemic except when it got loose in commonwealth regulated aged care.  Australian Unions have joined the push to increase vaccination rates with a new campaign as the rate of full vaccinated Australians still sits just over 30%.

The good news is the trial of electric scooters in Ballarat and a zero emissions Premier League game between Tottenham and Chelsea happening this month!

Weekend Wrap 5 September 2021: Morrison minister calls COVID reopening a plan for a framework that might change as a plan plus Jobkeeper overpayment hypocrisy and worker wins for the week

Ben Davison breaks down Morrison Minister, Stuart Robert's, appalling explanation of the COVID reopening plan on Insiders as NSW hits 24,000 active cases, The Saturday Paper exposes Galdys' 1,700 secret hospital cases and News.com reveals there are three children are in ICU with COVID19.

The Morrison government won't publish the list of companies that received Jobkeeper even though $13 BILLION was over paid to profitable companies yet it is chasing down thousands of workers who received Jobkeeper claiming they've been overpaid a combined amount of around $33 million.  The double standard highlights Morrison's priority remains corporate profit and the oppression of working class Australia.

Workers have had some wins this week with the McCain's workers in Tasmania winning pay increases, union campaigns getting senate recommendations to reform the temporary migration system and legislation has been introduced that will finally allow offshore wind projects in Australian waters.