Month: June 2020

First episode of the Perth Slam Podcast – http://perthslam.com

Chris Cunneen – Can we defund the police in Australia? –  Professor of Criminology, University of Technology Sydney

Calls to “defund the police” following the death of George Floyd in the US have led to various proposals to either dismantle or cut funding to police departments in several North American cities. And there has been similar anger over Indigenous deaths in custody here in Australia – with over 10,000 people marching with the Black Lives Matter movement in Perth. But, would the idea of defunding the police – or something similar work here…

I caught up with Professor Chris Cunneen – from the University of Technology Sydney – (who co-wrote an article in the Conversation – “Defunding the police could bring positive change in Australia. These communities are showing the way“) and asked him – what does Defund the Police actually mean? And can this happen in Australia?

Gavin Mudd – Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering, RMIT University & Chair of the Mineral Policy Institute – on why we need to stop the push to fast-track uranium mines…

Prime Minister Scott Morrison – in a bid to fast track the economy – recently announced that BHP’s proposal to expand its Olympic Dam uranium mine, in South Australia – would be fast-tracked for environmental approval. Currently, any new uranium mine – requires both state and federal government environmental approvals. But it seems the Minerals Council of Australia wants to change this. I spoke with Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering at RMIT University – Dr Gavin Mudd – who has written an article in the Conservation: “Expensive, dirty and dangerous: why we must fight the push to fast-track uranium mines”.

I asked Gavin: “Why should uranium mining approval remain a federal issue?”

Last week Prime Minister Scott Morrison stated that “there was no slavery in Australia”. Now, he’s back-pedaled and apologised since – but the ongoing issue of historical ignorance remains – that there is indeed a well-documented history of Slavery in this country.

I spoke with Dr Stephen Gray – Senior Lecturer, with the Faculty of Law at Monash University, who co-authored an article in the Conversation (with Dr Thalia Anthony) entitled “Was there slavery in Australia? Yes. It shouldn’t even be up for debate” – which gives many well-documented examples of Australia’s history of slavery… I asked Dr Grey (who has published widely on historical Australian Slavery) what he thought of Scott Morrison’s statement…

Marnta Sandalwood is an Aboriginal owned sandalwood harvesting, seeding and oil product company based in Leonora Western Australia.

Marnta only harvest dead sandalwood trees in the wild and plant sandalwood nuts to promote new growth and sustain the species. They also create sandalwood oils for luxury skincare and fragrance.

I spoke with Ngalia leader and business owner Kado Muir about the project…

 

 

Interview with Jess Beckerling convener and campaign director of the WA Forest Alliance – WA’s peak forest conservation body. In March 2020 The WA Government has placed a 12-month freeze on the logging of “two-tier” karri forests in the state’s wooded South West region (ABC). WAFA says the 12-month ban on logging karri timber is a “major breakthrough” for the forests…