PROTESTS LEAD TO POLICE REFORM BILL
After almost two weeks of sustained protests over the police killing of George Floyd, ABC reports that Democrats will today introduce legislation, the Justice in Policing Act, that, amongst other changes, would:
- create a national database of complaints against police
- grant authority to the Department of Justice “to investigate state and local police for evidence of department-wide bias or misconduct”.
- ban chokeholds — which, while already banned in multiple states, is something that can apparently be ignored. as the 2014 killing of Eric Garner demonstrated.
While public pressure has led to a series of other wins — including a majority of Minneapolis City Council members voting to disband the city’s police force, and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio pledging to trim the NYPD’s whopping $6 billion annual budget — The Hill reports that presumptive Democrat nominee Joe Biden has rejected calls to start defunding US police departments.
PS: In new analysis at Too Much Information, investigative journalist David Sirota unpacks how America’s population grew by about 50% between 1977 and 2017 but state and local spending on police forces grew by a colossal 173%.
CLOSING THE GAP GOALS
According to sources at The Australian ($), the Morrison government will aim to reduce the number of Indigenous people incarcerated by reforming “Closing the Gap” goals between state, territory and federal departments and Indigenous representatives.
The goal, which would reportedly improve on a draft 2028 target, comes after tens of thousands of protesters attended Black/Indigenous Lives Matter marches last weekend; as The Guardian reports, it also comes after the number of Indigenous deaths in custody increased by five.
BP TO CUT 10,000 JOBS
According to the BBC, oil giant BP intends to slash 10,000 largely senior office positions after mass lockdown led to oil prices plummeting into the negative earlier this year.
While the company has paused redundancies amidst the pandemic’s peak, chief executive Bernard Looney emailed staff yesterday to say around 15% of the company’s global workforce — which includes 15,000 in the UK and, according to AAP, more than 5700 in Australia — will go by the end of the year.
PEAK-PEAK DEMAND: As Mandarin Premium unpacked last week, the news comes after Looney voiced support for a demand under the World Economic Forum’s new “Great Reset” campaign to end fossil fuel subsidies.
It also follows IEA and Carbon Tracker reports that found the pandemic led to a dip in demand for all energy sources but renewables, and, consequently, accelerated peak demand for fossil fuels.
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STATE VIRUS WATCH: WA’S $444M HOUSING BLITZ
- The Western Australian government has unveiled a $444 million housing package that includes both homebuyer ($125m) and social housing ($319m) schemes.
- In a busy long weekend, the Queensland government announced: a new intrastate tourism campaign, “You’re Good to Go”; a staggered timeframe for resumed, discounted long-service train services; more than 400 free business training courses; and 1500 square kilometres of opened up gas country
- Victoria announced $18.9 million to upgrade public visitor sites as state camping restrictions begin to ease; separately, the government pledged almost $850,000 in health and wellbeing funding for frontline healthcare workers.
- Finally, the Tasmanian government announced an Explorer Support Package, to include 6 months of suspended rental payments for exploration licences, amongst other waivers.
THEY REALLY SAID THAT?
The PM doesn’t doubt that there continues to be discrimination and racism but would not agree that this is a racist country.
Spokesperson for Boris Johnson
Shockingly, the prime minister who once joked about the Commonwealth’s “flag-waving piccaninnies” — and worked in a government that wrongfully deported at least 11 black English citizens that went on to die in unfamiliar countries — doesn’t think the UK might be kind of racist.
CRIKEY RECAP
Don’t count on that tradie-led recovery. The latest package is nothing to build on
“Have Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg lost their nerve on the economy?
“Having apparently spent more time leaking the details of its construction industry package than actually preparing them, the government yesterday released its ‘HomeBuilder’ policy to, at best, tepid enthusiasm in some quarters and harsh criticism in others.”
We forgot the Spanish Flu. Will we remember the coronavirus?
“The virus arrived in a world bruised and broken by four years of war. Nobody knows where or how a devastating deadly strain of H1N1 A influenza virus took hold in the spring of 1918.
“It could have started in Kansas, or in France, or China. In Spain, which stayed neutral during WWI, authorities didn’t censor the press to boost morale, leaving newspapers free to report on the virus. And that’s how it got its name: Spanish Flu.”
Without genuine war crime investigations, Australians could end up in The Hague
“With allegations of the commission of war crimes by Australian special forces in Afghanistan now appearing to be large scale, together with the emerging pattern of a policy of cover ups by special forces personnel at the scene of the crimes, Australia must ensure it conducts genuine and effective investigations, and where appropriate, prosecutions into all allegations of crimes.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Coalition to extend small business tax incentive for six months
NSW Police Minister says protests larger than 10 people will be deemed illegal
Top super funds increasingly vote down climate resolutions
A bitter election. Accusations of fraud. And now second thoughts.
Rivals unite to revive a live entertainment industry ‘on its knees’
‘We would rather have much more time’: Defence lawyer calls for MH17 trial adjournment
Two million fish to be released into Murray-Darling system
Inside the revolts erupting in America’s big newsrooms
World Bank forecasts worst global recession in eight decades
Prince Andrew’s lawyers hit out at US authorities over Jeffrey Epstein investigation
THE COMMENTARIAT
A stronger shelter for Indigenous heritage ($) — Ben Wyatt (The Australian): “The destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters in the Pilbara two weeks ago has been extraordinarily upsetting on multiple levels. It’s heartbreaking for the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura peoples, who have lost an irreplaceable spiritual and emotional connection to an ancestral past that continues to nourish their contemporary cultural life.”
Recounting Abbott’s ‘contributions to Indigenous Australians’ — Luke Pearson and Nat Cromb (IndigenousX): “1. Cut $500 million from the Indigenous affairs budget. He was the Prime Minister that had a vision. One of police stations and more mines but that money had to come from somewhere, right? Mining companies cannot possibly pay fair prices for land and be taxed for what resources they take from the land.”
History has stepped on the accelerator and is taking Australia along for the ride — Peter Hartcher (The Sydney Morning Herald): “In the past week, three important developments continued to accelerate the change to Australia’s place in the world. First, the Chinese government told Chinese citizens: ‘Do not travel to Australia.’ It’s unsafe in Australia because of racist violence against Chinese people, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
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