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| Coronavirus Australia update: national cabinet to meet today as Victoria records four new Covid-19 cases – politics live | |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Queensland continues to cop brunt of federal pressure to reopen borders, but closures remain in place for WA, SA, Tasmania and the NT. Follow live | Queensland continues to cop brunt of federal pressure to reopen borders, but closures remain in place for WA, SA, Tasmania and the NT. Follow live |
| In case you missed this yesterday - | |
| Linda Burney and Terri Butler stopped by the cameras this morning to speak about a new Senate inquiry looking at the destruction of Indigenous heritage sites, in mine expansions. | |
| Burney: | |
| A Black Lives Matter protest is still planned for Sydney tonight, despite NSW police declaring it ‘unauthorised’ and announcing they will be upholding the current health control orders (code for moving people on/fining people) | |
| A smaller protest for refugee rights is also going ahead tomorrow in Sydney, despite also being declared unauthorised. | |
| NSW police have said they will be “well resourced” at the protests. | |
| That Kangaroo Point (in Brisbane) protest we showed you a little earlier is still occurring. | |
| From AAP: | |
| Protesters have called for a mass gathering at a Brisbane hotel after staging a blockade to prevent the removal of asylum seekers detained there. | |
| Police are continuing to negotiate with protesters near the Kangaroo Point Central Hotel after dramatic scenes there on Thursday night. | |
| Two people were charged after a night-time operation to prevent the removal of asylum seekers from the hotel and move them to an immigration detention facility. | |
| The man and woman are accused of jumping on the roofs of parked cars during the operation, which saw people use cars to block the hotel’s driveways and prevent any of the 120 detainees from being shifted. | |
| The same hotel has been the scene of previous protests against the detention of asylum seekers. | |
| Some of those at the hotel have been in detention for years and have staged balcony protests about their treatment. | |
| Refugee Solidarity Brisbane/Meanjin supporters filmed their interactions with police on Friday and uploaded it to Facebook, calling for as many people as possible to descend on the hotel. | |
| “We need as many people to get here as soon as possible. This is an urgent call to action,” a woman who posted the video on the group’s Facebook page says. | |
| “Cops have rocked up, they are planning to detain people. They’ve already detained two people. We really need people power right now. | |
| “We’re not going anywhere. We’re going to hold this fort until, hopefully, for another week’s time.” | |
| Police said they were only aware of the two arrests on Thursday night involving public nuisance charges. | |
| On Thursday, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk warned people not to attend a Free the Refugees protest planned at Kangaroo Point on Saturday because of coronavirus fears. | |
| Labor’s South Australian team have come together to put out this statement, calling for the government to save community television in their state (and in Victoria): | |
| Community television has been serving Australian audiences for 25 years but the Morrison Government wants to boot Channel 44 Adelaide and Channel 31 Melbourne and Geelong off-air from 30 June 2020. | |
| The Liberal Minister for Communications and the Arts, Paul Fletcher MP, is refusing to renew or extend their broadcast licences beyond the end of the month. | |
| Through the COVID-19 crisis Adelaide’s C44 has provided a valuable community service connecting isolated people through broadcasting in addition to the local content and voices it normally empowers. | |
| Instead of vibrant community services that have fostered talent the likes of Rove McManus, Peter Hellier, Hamish and Andy, Merrick Watts and Tim Ross, Nazeem Hussain, Shona Devlin, Corinne Grant, Tom Ballard, Waleed Aly and more, there will be blank screens. | |
| Australia has one of the most concentrated media markets in the world and Community TV provides much needed diversity and local content. | |
| At a time when at a time when newsrooms are closing, Community TV supports local news and provides a training ground for emerging journalists and screen practitioners, including in partnership with universities. | |
| At a time when social cohesion, national culture and identity should be fostered, Community TV provides a platform for local multicultural, sporting and arts events, as well as small business. | |
| At a time when social distancing makes participation in religious services difficult, Community TV provides accessibility, particularly to elderly citizens without internet access. | |
| The Liberal Government came up with the idea of forcing Community TV off-air to an online-only mode of delivery back in 2014. | |
| Since then the sector has been operating under huge uncertainty and most stations haven’t survived: Sydney, Brisbane and Perth don’t even have Community TV any more. | |
| Now the impact of COVID-19 means the idea of moving audiences and sponsors to an online-only model is simply impossible. | |
| Community TV should remain on-air. C44 and C31 serve a wide and diverse audience and they don’t cost the government anything to run. | |
| Community TV is part of the broadcasting mix in Australia and spectrum is a valuable public resource that should not go unused when C44 and C31 could make such good use of it. | |
| The Minister provided COVID-19 relief for other sectors of the media and he should give Community TV a fair go too. | |
| Killing Community TV is wasteful and wilful destruction. Labor calls on the Morrison Government to keep Community TV on-air. | |
| AAP also has a wrap on Australia’s latest attempt to talk about its history: | |
| Australia won’t have proved itself as a nation until Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cultures are brought together, indigenous historian Bruce Pascoe says. | |
| “It’s not rocket science really,” he told ABC radio on Friday. | |
| “It’s about recognition, it’s about embracing the history - good and bad.” | |
| Mr Pascoe says successive governments have failed to make any headway on the issue, with both histories not being embraced. | |
| Indigenous people must be included in history and the economy, he added. | |
| “That hasn’t happened. Until it does, we really can’t call ourselves a mature nation. We can’t say we’re any better than America.” | |
| Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been widely criticised for claiming there was no slavery in Australia. | |
| “It’s pretty obvious that when you chain people up by the neck and force them to march 300km and then work on cattle stations for non-indigenous barons, then that is slavery,” Mr Pascoe said. | |
| Indigenous incarceration rates and deaths in custody have come under the spotlight along with the Black Lives Matter movement, which gained momentum in the US after black man George Floyd was killed by police after being arrested. | |
| Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton lashed out at an apparent rash of “cancel culture” in response to the movement. | |
| Netflix has pulled four shows featuring controversial Australian performer Chris Lilley and there are supposedly calls to topple statues of British explorer Captain James Cook. | |
| “I don’t think ripping pages out of history books and brushing over parts of history you don’t agree with or you don’t like is really something the Australian public is going to embrace,” Mr Dutton told Nine’s Today show. | |
| “There are good and bad parts of our history. You learn from that.” | |
| Mr Dutton said Netflix’s decision to remove the Chris Lilley shows, depicted the comedian in a range of characters including blackface, was absurd. | |
| Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese does not want statues removed. | |
| “You can’t rewrite history, you have to learn from it,” he told Sydney radio 2GB. | |
| “The idea that you go back to year zero of history is in my view, just quite frankly unacceptable.” | |
| The US movies classic Gone with the Wind has been temporarily removed from HBO until “ethnic and racial prejudices” depicted in the 1939 film can be contextualised by the streaming service. | |
| “I mean, for goodness sake, I just think a bit of common sense here,” Mr Albanese responded. | |
| “People can watch things, they can learn from them. Doesn’t mean you agree with them. Doesn’t mean that everything that they did was right. But it happened. You cannot pretend that it didn’t happen.” | |
| AAP has an update on the Tasmanian situation: | |
| Tasmania is on the verge of being free of Covid-19 cases, with just one active infection remaining in the island state. | |
| As of Friday morning, the state had gone 27 days without recording a new case of coronavirus.Of 226 recorded cases from more than 39,300 tests, one is active while 212 people have now recovered. | |
| The Victorian health minister, Jenny Mikakos, is asked whether the man who attended Saturday’s protest and subsequently tested positive for Covid-19 will be identified. | |
| No one is supposed to have that information, except for health authorities. | |
| Mikakos: | |
| (The man, like most of the protesters, was wearing a mask during the protest, which authorities believe will help minimise, but not eliminate, any risk of transmission.) | |
| For the record, the chief medical officer, Professor Brendan Murphy, issued a statement yesterday saying there was no need for the mass quarantine or testing of people who attended the Melbourne protest: | |
| Victoria has recorded four new cases in the past 24 hours. | Victoria has recorded four new cases in the past 24 hours. |
| One was found through routine testing, another two were returned travellers in hotel quarantine and the fourth is under investigation. | One was found through routine testing, another two were returned travellers in hotel quarantine and the fourth is under investigation. |
| And no, none of them had anything to do with the protests on the weekend. | And no, none of them had anything to do with the protests on the weekend. |
| Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy says she would take part in another Black Lives Matter protest if she were in Darwin. | Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy says she would take part in another Black Lives Matter protest if she were in Darwin. |
| And before all the whataboutters start jumping up and down, listen to why she is talking about “if she were in the NT”: | |
| We’re again hearing calls for the commissioners of Scott Morrison’s Covid-19 commission to release their conflict-of-interest declarations. The commissioners, all leaders of the private sector, are helping to shape Australia’s non-health response to Covid-19. | We’re again hearing calls for the commissioners of Scott Morrison’s Covid-19 commission to release their conflict-of-interest declarations. The commissioners, all leaders of the private sector, are helping to shape Australia’s non-health response to Covid-19. |
| But the government has steadfastly refused to release their conflict-of-interest declarations, detailing not only their board positions but also their private interests. I asked all six commissioners whether they would release a list of their interests voluntarily. | But the government has steadfastly refused to release their conflict-of-interest declarations, detailing not only their board positions but also their private interests. I asked all six commissioners whether they would release a list of their interests voluntarily. |
| Only one, Greg Combet, did so. Even then, the entries on his list were already publicly known and published on the National Covid-19 Coordination Commission website. Other commissioners have disclosed their board positions but not their private interests. That has prompted renewed calls for greater transparency. | Only one, Greg Combet, did so. Even then, the entries on his list were already publicly known and published on the National Covid-19 Coordination Commission website. Other commissioners have disclosed their board positions but not their private interests. That has prompted renewed calls for greater transparency. |
| The Australia Institute’s climate and energy program director, Richie Merzian, said releasing the declarations was the least the NCCC could do. Merzian noted the role of the commission – a publicly funded body led by corporate leaders – was clearly to influence the government. | The Australia Institute’s climate and energy program director, Richie Merzian, said releasing the declarations was the least the NCCC could do. Merzian noted the role of the commission – a publicly funded body led by corporate leaders – was clearly to influence the government. |
| Peter Dutton also managed to slip in that people were angry at Daniel Andrews (as well as Annastacia Palaszczuk) about the border closures in that Today interview. | Peter Dutton also managed to slip in that people were angry at Daniel Andrews (as well as Annastacia Palaszczuk) about the border closures in that Today interview. |
| Victoria never closed its borders. Seems like something the federal minister in charge of Australia’s border should know. | |
| The fact that statues have taken over the debate in this country, and not the treatment of Indigenous people, really says a lot about Australia and how we just cannot let go of a cultural war. | The fact that statues have taken over the debate in this country, and not the treatment of Indigenous people, really says a lot about Australia and how we just cannot let go of a cultural war. |
| Here are Richard Marles and Peter Dutton on the Today show this morning: | Here are Richard Marles and Peter Dutton on the Today show this morning: |
| Q: There’s a bit of anger around at the moment. You can feel it in the air. And some of it is racially charged. There’s also a few other issues that we need to get to. Wayne Swan was on our show about half an hour ago saying Pete, Captain Cook statues and the like may be better placed in museums, what do you think? | Q: There’s a bit of anger around at the moment. You can feel it in the air. And some of it is racially charged. There’s also a few other issues that we need to get to. Wayne Swan was on our show about half an hour ago saying Pete, Captain Cook statues and the like may be better placed in museums, what do you think? |
| Dutton: Well, I think a museum would be a great place for Wayne Swan. I can’t think of anyone more in the past than Wayne Swan. Really, is he serious? Look, I don’t think ripping pages out of history books and brushing over parts of history that you don’t agree with or that you don’t like is really something that the Australian public is going to embrace. There are good and bad parts of our history. You learn from that. And sit down – and you see what Netflix has done and the ABC now is trying to do. I just think it is such an absurdity. You sit down with your kids, looking at some of these videos, explaining that slavery was a horrible period in the United States. There was a civil war that took place. Kids learn from all of that. But removing that sort of content from online or from our television sets, I just don’t think makes any sense. People need to learn from history. Need to appreciate those periods. And people will reflect back on us in 100 years and no doubt form their own judgments as well. But I just really think airbrushing history or pretending that something didn’t happen is such an obscure sort of leftwing cause. I don’t think the mainstream public agree with it. | Dutton: Well, I think a museum would be a great place for Wayne Swan. I can’t think of anyone more in the past than Wayne Swan. Really, is he serious? Look, I don’t think ripping pages out of history books and brushing over parts of history that you don’t agree with or that you don’t like is really something that the Australian public is going to embrace. There are good and bad parts of our history. You learn from that. And sit down – and you see what Netflix has done and the ABC now is trying to do. I just think it is such an absurdity. You sit down with your kids, looking at some of these videos, explaining that slavery was a horrible period in the United States. There was a civil war that took place. Kids learn from all of that. But removing that sort of content from online or from our television sets, I just don’t think makes any sense. People need to learn from history. Need to appreciate those periods. And people will reflect back on us in 100 years and no doubt form their own judgments as well. But I just really think airbrushing history or pretending that something didn’t happen is such an obscure sort of leftwing cause. I don’t think the mainstream public agree with it. |
| Q: Richard, you’re left wing, have things gone too far? | Q: Richard, you’re left wing, have things gone too far? |
| Dutton: He has got two left wings. | Dutton: He has got two left wings. |
| Marles: I don’t think it’s a leftwing cause. I think history matters. People need to be judged in the context of their history. And as Peter said, future generations are going to judge us. They are actually going to judge us on what we do or do not do in terms of dealing with the question of Indigenous disadvantage in this country. That’s what we have got to be focusing on. I’m not sure that we’re going to be given a lot of credit for going on a statue rampage. We actually have to be doing something about improving the lives of Indigenous Australians right now and I think that’s what should be our focus. | Marles: I don’t think it’s a leftwing cause. I think history matters. People need to be judged in the context of their history. And as Peter said, future generations are going to judge us. They are actually going to judge us on what we do or do not do in terms of dealing with the question of Indigenous disadvantage in this country. That’s what we have got to be focusing on. I’m not sure that we’re going to be given a lot of credit for going on a statue rampage. We actually have to be doing something about improving the lives of Indigenous Australians right now and I think that’s what should be our focus. |
| For all the international coronavirus news, head here | For all the international coronavirus news, head here |
| Anthony Albanese called in to Sydney radio 2GB, where he was asked about what is apparently the biggest issue in Australia at the moment – the tearing down of statues. | Anthony Albanese called in to Sydney radio 2GB, where he was asked about what is apparently the biggest issue in Australia at the moment – the tearing down of statues. |
| For the record, they are not saying you can’t watch Gone With The Wind. They are just saying to remember the historical context in which it is set, and to think about it as you watch the movie. | For the record, they are not saying you can’t watch Gone With The Wind. They are just saying to remember the historical context in which it is set, and to think about it as you watch the movie. |
| It’s really not that hard. Looney Tunes did it. There has been a disclaimer in front of the cartoons since about 2014 | It’s really not that hard. Looney Tunes did it. There has been a disclaimer in front of the cartoons since about 2014 |
| And if kids can handle it without passing out from political correctness vapours, than we should be able to watch Katie Scarlett O’Hara defend her part of the South, while recognising that in today’s world, she’d be rightly called out for her bullshit. And yes, I have read the book. | And if kids can handle it without passing out from political correctness vapours, than we should be able to watch Katie Scarlett O’Hara defend her part of the South, while recognising that in today’s world, she’d be rightly called out for her bullshit. And yes, I have read the book. |
| Labor will move to disallow the Australia Post changes in both the House and the Senate today. | Labor will move to disallow the Australia Post changes in both the House and the Senate today. |
| The Senate is where the move has the most chance of success. These things are usually left out of the House, because the government of the day (obviously) has the numbers there, making it sort of against the point. | The Senate is where the move has the most chance of success. These things are usually left out of the House, because the government of the day (obviously) has the numbers there, making it sort of against the point. |
| So in moving it himself in the House, Anthony Albanese will be making a bit of history – it is the first time since at least the 1960s that an Opposition leader has moved a disallowance motion | So in moving it himself in the House, Anthony Albanese will be making a bit of history – it is the first time since at least the 1960s that an Opposition leader has moved a disallowance motion |
| In Brisbane, this is still happening. | In Brisbane, this is still happening. |
| The national cabinet is national cabineting as of now. | The national cabinet is national cabineting as of now. |
| You’ll hear a bit more about borders at the end of that meeting. | You’ll hear a bit more about borders at the end of that meeting. |