Description

We discuss the recently-settled class-action lawsuit against the Robodebt scheme, then dive into the media coverage of Australia's Afganistan war crimes, and why they should not be surprising.

Lockdowns

• South Australia went into lockdown for six days, and weren’t happy about it.
• The man who lied to contract tracers and was working multiple jobs is being hounded by the media and South Australian government.
• Migrant workers don’t receive any income support.

• The Federal Government knew the Robodebt scheme was illegal at least as early as 2017.
• Alan Tudge — one of the ministers responsible, threatened victims of the illegal scheme with prison.
• The government’s settlement payout to the victims of Robodebt comes to a total of… $280 per person.
• Gordon Legal knew the government ministers were personally responsible.
• Government Services Minister Stuart Robert used this settlement as a way to claim that the government are actually in good and in the right for ending the scheme, as if they weren’t forced.
• Peter Van Onselen points out that the Robodebt scheme was actually started by Scott Morrison, so don’t expect to see any consequences.
• “If you stick a knife in my back nine inches and pull it out six inches, there’s no progress” — Malcolm X.
• Alan Tudge claims his affair with a staffer was the biggest mistake of his life.

• We’ve known about Australian soliders commiting war crimes for a long time. This article from 2009 reports on an event in 2004 and says that we owe the Afagani people an apology. This commanding officer of this operation, Jim Molan
• Alleged war criminal Jim Molan is now a Liberal Party Senator
• Commando Kevin Frost in 2016 publicly confessed to covering up the shooting of a captive, and called for his own punishment. In 2019 he committed suicide.
• In 2017, the ABC released the “Afgan Files”, revealing leaked reports for war crimes.
• In response, the Australian Federal Police raided the ABC offices, and home of News Corp jounalist Annika Smethurst. The warrants were ruled invalid and no charges were laid.
• The Onion got it right again.
• Decorated SAS Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith allegedly kicked a handcuffed Afgani prisoner off a cliff.
• Roberts-Smith sued the Age for defamation over this report, resulting in the court-ordered release of documents showing his involvement in the war crimes. Maybe not the sharpest tool in the shed.
• Even after these Allegations, the ABC had Ben-Robert Smith giving the Remembrance Day address.
• Labor’s shadow defence minister Richard Marles: “It would be a tragedy if Australians were to see our nation’s involvement in Afghanistan solely through the prism of these allegations”.
• Former PM John Howard, who sent these soliders to war, says the culture of the military is mostly fine. Just a few bad apples.

• Bendigo dairy workers at Lactalis went on strike, and got a pay rise and jobs guarantee out of it.
• Climate-change denier and general crank Craig Kelly is facing a grassroots campaign to be removed from office.

• Ask your local cafe to stop stocking the local Murdoch rag. Direct action campaigns can work. The Sun was kicked out of Liverpool after their their coverage of the Hillsborough Football disaster.