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This week, Trump signed the Energy Independence executive order, which amounts to open slather for oil drilling and coal companies. It turns off policy settings made under Obama, including a moratorium on coal leases on federal land and methane emissions limits in oil and gas production. It's a colossal setback, though it could play well in coal country. While Trump may declare he is '(cancelling) job-killing regulations', people will eventually find it is not emissions-related regulation that is killing jobs.
In this episode, we touch on energy, infrastructure and the political lens through which we receive nation-building ideas. We talk about Jay Weatherill, the South Australian Premier, who gave a master class this week in how to make federal ministers squirm. We also ask whether it is possible for journalists to remain neutral, a quarter into the Trump presidency.
A new round of anti-union chest-thumping is underway, following ACTU secretary Sally McManus' remarks that 'I believe in the rule of law where the law is fair ... But when it's unjust, I don't think there's a problem with breaking it.' If any other person had said this in the context of civil and political rights, the words might not be so incendiary. Laws are not as neutral as we imagine them to be. They are constructed by individuals of immense power, with their own set of values and connections.
Justin Trudeau became Prime Minister of Canada in 2015, taking the Liberal Party to a strong majority after nearly a decade of Conservative rule. He signaled many things that were seen as progressive. But is he really all that? In this episode of ChatterSquare Extra, we catch up with Neal Jennings, Canadian politics nerd, who joins us from Vancouver.
In this episode, we feel a bit sorry for Malcolm Turnbull and wonder whether the electorate even cares who is leader anymore. We also discuss scapegoating and how attempts to discriminate lead to indiscriminate effects.
The Fair Work Commission decision on penalty rates removes any doubt that young people might have still had about their place in the economic order. The four-yearly review of awards in hospitality, fast food, retail and pharmacy found that Sunday penalty rates 'do not achieve the modern awards objective, as they do not provide a fair and relevant minimum safety net'. But whose safety net? Unfair to whom? These industries are already notorious for exploiting young workers.
In this episode, we chat with Dr Evan Smith, from the School of History and International Relations at Flinders University, Adelaide. We go over some of the historical analogies being made about the Trump administration, why people are drawn to them, and the pitfalls of reaching into the past to make sense of the present.
Is there an upside to Hansonism? In this episode, we try to figure out what One Nation actually has to offer. We also talk about fear and how some Americans are dealing with the Trump era by turning to fantasy literature. Is this just escapism?
There's not enough jobs because foreigners are stealing them. Wages aren't going up because foreigners drag them down. Graduates aren't finding positions because skilled worker visas are being given out too easily. Such answers are potent in pockets of Australian society that would rather blame outsiders than demand their government create new jobs, lift the minimum wage, improve work conditions and training, and mediate skills transfers from industries that are contracting, such as mining.
In the pilot episode of ChatterSquare, we talk about that phone call between the US president and Australian Prime Minister, and how it foreshadows foreign policy. We also try to work out what it means to be in opposition on both sides of the Pacific under current conditions. Hosted by Fatima Measham and Jim McDermott.
It strikes me as odd that we have mostly withstood anti-establishment agitation, as seen in the Philippines and the UK. It is not like our political class have not earned similar scorn. What if the optimism bias that kept most of us from anticipating the results of the Brexit referendum and the US election are now also in play in Australia? How long will current welfare architecture and the incompetence of nativists keep at bay the destabilising forces that have laid America so low?
The removal of an Australia Day billboard featuring two girls in hijabs prompted a swell of support against Islamophobia. Alongside this was a backlash from those who read the action as forcing Muslim Australians to be complicit in the oppression of Indigenous peoples. My unease came from seeing intra-community tension manifest as dismissal and denigration of those who were considered not 'woke' enough to the politics and embedded racism surrounding invocations of Australian identity.