Featuring brilliant weirdo acts from around the world and me paying tribute to my comedy hero, Jack Tucker.
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Author Archives: Tom
191 – Gavin Stanbrook
Gavin Stanbrook is a revolutionary socialist who hails from Gumbanyggir country on the NSW mid-north coast. He’s a member of Socialist Alternative who’s been campaigning for justice for Aboriginal families for years and who helped organise last week’s #BlackLivesMatter protest in Sydney.
In this conversation Gavin tells me how about tearing down statues, the revolutionary potential of this moment, police violence, the tragic cases of Aboriginal deaths in custody, his personal involvement in the #JusticeForBowraville campaign and why he thinks the police should be abolished.
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I was on the latest episode of The Bugle podcast with Andy Zaltzman and Hari Kondabolu
Gavin’s speech at the 2018 Invasion Day Rally in Redfern
ARTICLE: There cannot be 432 victims and no perpetrators by Amy McQuire
ARTICLE: Justice for Bowraville! by Gavin Stanbrook
ARTICLE: Tear down Australia’s racist statues by Rebecca Barrigos
ARTICLE: Our cops are killers too by Jasmine Duff
ARTICLE: Democrats are already trying to co-opt the movement. Drive them out by Daniel Taylor
Cause of the Week: The Justice for David Dungay Jnr. GoFundMe
The Bugle #4155
‘Twas an honour to be on The Bugle this week with Andy and Hari Kondabolu, desperately trying to find some semblance of comedy amongst fucking everything.
190 – Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist is a very funny and intelligent up-and-coming Australian comedian. He was born in Rwanda, grew up in a refugee camp in Malawi and has lived in Australia since 2014.
I was planning on taking a week off the podcast this week, but in the midst of everything that’s happening right now, Oliver reached out and we decided to record this honest conversation about his relationship to the police, race, class, Black Lives Matter and what meaningful action looks like.
There are even a few laffs in there too.
CAUSE OF THE WEEK: blacklivesmatter.caard.co
Here are practical ways you can support Aboriginal Lives Matter
ARTICLE: Australia must stop turning a blind eye to our own black deaths
ARTICLE: How did #BlackOutTuesday Go So Wrong So Fast?
ARTICLE: Why the media are to blame for racialising Melbourne’s African gang problem
VIDEO: Trevor Noah’s reflections on the riots in the US and the breakdown of the social contract
189 – Mark Seymour
Mark Seymour is one of the best singer-songwriters Australia has ever produced. He’s the former frontman of Hunters & Collectors and now writes and performs with Mark Seymour & The Undertow. The new Undertow record is called Slow Dawn and comes out today.
Mark has regularly been outspoken about his politics through his music and public appearances, particularly when it comes to Australia’s refugee policies. Here he tells me about how he approaches tackling social issues in his music (without being sanctimonious), why he’s left-wing, wearing an “Asylum Seeker” t-shirt at the AFL Grand Final, his experiences in South Africa and how the tides of history weigh on us all today.
I’m going to take a break from the pod next week: chat soon.
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You can see me on Stan Australia’s Australia Lockdown Comedy Festival – all episodes are streaming now
Hunters & Collectors at the 2013 AFL Grand Final
Cause of the Week: The Frankston Life Church (frankston.life)
188 – Tim Wilson Returns
Tim Wilson is the Liberal MP for the Victorian seat of Goldstein and the Chair of the House Economics Committee. He last joined me on the podcast back in July 2015.
I wanted to talk to Tim about how he’s found dealing with the COVID-19 crisis as a local member and his thoughts on the Morrison’s government’s economic response thus far as a well as a bit old-fashioned ideological argy bargy. We discuss the JobKeeper and JobSeeker payments, neoliberalism, government debt and why being a democratic socialist makes me an evil idiot.
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You can see me on Stan Australia’s Australia Lockdown Comedy Festival – all episodes are streaming now
ARTICLE: Tim Wilson: Freedom fighter by Tim Elliott
Cause of the Week: Bayside Community Information & Support Service Inc (bayciss.org.au)
187 – Rick Morton
Rick Morton is an award-winning journalist and writer. He reported on Social Affairs for The Australian for years and is now the Senior Reporter for The Saturday Paper. His memoir 100 Years Of Dirt – about surviving his poverty- and trauma-ridden childhood – has been a critical and commercial success.
Here I ask Rick about issues he’s been writing about of late – the conspiracy theories that have thrived amid COVID-19 and the new aged-care “Uber app” that’s been given a multi-million dollar government contract – as well as his broader approach to journalism, the realities of poverty, how class works in Australia and the privatisation of the welfare state.
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You can see me on Stan Australia’s Australia Lockdown Comedy Festival – all episodes are streaming now
Rick’s writing for The Saturday Paper
ARTICLE: How COVID-19 energised conspiracy theorists
ARTICLE: A fraction too much friction (on Scott Morrison’s approach to the truth)
ARTICLE: Exclusive: Gov’s $5.8m aged-care app offers ‘no duty of care’
Rick’s articles for The Australian
Rick’s speech The Power of Money
ARTICLE: Rick Morton found writing his memoir painful enough. Then he had to read it aloud
Cause of the Week: Brotherhood of St. Laurence (bsl.org.au)
186 – Senator Rachel Siewert
Rachel Siewert has been a Greens Senator for WA since 2005. She’s the whip for the Greens in the Senate and her portfolios include First Nations Affairs, Family, Ageing and Community Services, Gambling and Mental Health. She recently chaired a Senate Committee into the adequacy of the Newstart/JobSeeker payment and has been fighting hard for the government to #RetainTheRate after the COVID crisis has passed.
In this conversation, Rachel explains how her politics are founded on concern for both people and the planet, the realities of our punitive welfare system, just how shitty JobSeeker is and why the Greens’ “Invest To Recover” policy proposal – including a jobs, income and education guarantee – is the kind of bold response Australia needs right now.
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rachel-siewert.greensmps.org.au
RN INTERVIEW: Are welfare payments entrenching Australians in poverty and unemployment?
The Greens’ “Invest To Recover” Plan
The Australian Unemployed Workers Union
ARTICLE: Adam Bandt, the personable hardliner by Margaret Simons
Cause of the Week: The Australian Greens (greens.org.au)
185 – Dave Anthony
Dave Anthony is a stand up comedian, writer, activist and co-host of the history comedy podcast The Dollop. In May 2016 he correctly predicted that Hillary Clinton was going to lose to Trump in the presidential election. So yeah – he knows stuff.
Dave joined me from LA in the GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD to talk about the death of American empire, what he’s learned from history, his journey to socialism, the right-wing Democratic Party and why Joe Biden is really really bad. We laugh and also talk about the end of hope.
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The Dollop episode on the Clarence Thomas hearings
A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
ARTICLE: Biden And Sanders Announce Task Forces To Find Party Unity Over Policy
Cause of the Week: Extinction Rebellion (rebellion.earth)
184 – Jon Kudelka
Jon Kudelka is a Walkley Award-winning political cartoonist who’s been drawing for over 20 years. He drew thousands of cartoons for The Australian until 2019 and his work now regularly appears in The Hobart Mercury and The Saturday Paper.
Jon kindly joined me from Tasmania via Zoom to reflect on his journey to cartooning, the (minimal) influence that satire has on things, what he learnt from John Clarke, the deterioration and stasis of Australian politics, punching down, how compromised the ALP has become and how COVID-19 might wake people up to shitty free-market ideology.
Here’s some of his work that we touch on in our conversation:
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Jon’s cartoons for The Saturday Paper
Jon’s cartoons for The Australian
ARTICLE: Data company that “helped locate Osama Bin Laden” recruits former Labor MP Mike Kelly
Cause of the Week: StreetSmart Australia (streetsmartaustralia.org)