Archive for May, 2014

Episode 56: Prog Podcast vs the Grubbiest Budget Ever

Posted: May 28, 2014 in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
3

Image from Australian Political Memes.*

Listen to this episode and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes. You can also listen to this episode on Stitcher, Cyber Ears or download it on MediaFire (24MB).

On this one we take on the budget – introduced by the grubs in government. We start off by discussing “grubgate” – where Liberal party politician Christopher Pyne apparently called Labor leader Bill Shorten a “grub”. We discuss the “nitty gritty” of the budget, covering a number of different aspects. A starting point is that this is not really an austerity budget significantly reducing government spending, but rather there are some cuts and some increases. Economist Richard Denniss has pointed out that military spending has gone up, for example. We explain that this is a “class war” budget that will increase the already vast wealth inequality in Australia. Greater inequality results in poor health outcomes and other negative results across the board. Cuts have been made to essential services despite the fact that the “budget emergency” does not exist.

One way the poorest and most vulnerable people will be affected is the new $7 co-payment for doctor visits. Treasurer Joe Hockey has dismissed this as costing ‘less than two middies’ but we argue this is a significant move towards a US model of healthcare. It has already led to less people visiting doctors in Australia and will lead to less preventative healthcare. Stevie has written a powerful article on how these policies would affect people close to her. There have also been changes to education such as the deregulation of uni fees, meaning they can charge students as much as they like – which only the UWA Vice-Chancellor is happy about. Meanwhile, it has been revealed that Tony Abbotts’ daughter received a $60 000 scholarship from one of Abbott’s political donors. On welfare, the budget proposes that people under 30 should wait 6 months to receive payments. Another unpopular part of the budget is raising the retirement age to 70 – which is opposed by 70% of Australians. This unpopularity was also shown in the Q and A episode where Joe Hockey was roasted on the budget by a crowd made up of many Liberal party voters.

There is widespread opposition to the budget in parliament as well – a number of political parties have pledged to block many of the budget proposals. Despite this, a double dissolution election is unlikely. Even if it did go ahead, Labor has followed a neoliberal agenda just like the Liberal party, showing the importance of social movements in opposing the budget. On this topic, we play an interview with March in May organiser Alex Bainbridge. He is interviewed by Caroline Smith on the Indymedia show. We also discuss an article on the potential for technology to be used to exploit animals (following on from our discussion on the role of virtual technology in bringing about positive social change) and we encourage people to check out The Angry Hippie’s Podcast.

This episode is brought to you by “Man Next Door Michael”. We encourage people to follow Michael on Twitter – @mikkelbot. Thanks a lot to Michael for becoming a member of our show – you can become a member and sponsor an episode too!

Clips:

W.Paulo S ‘What Did Christopher Pyne Call Bill Shorten’, Rap News (featuring Christopher Pyne) ’Australia, Yeah C**t – Australia’s new National Anthem’, Q & A featuring Treasurer Joe Hockey, Q & A with Hockey, Clerks ‘Vilification’, Q & A with Hockey, Austin Powers, Interview with March in May organiser Alex Bainbridge by Caroline Smith on the Indymedia show, Anti-Flag (featuring a special guest vocalist) ‘The Project for the New American Century’.

*Link to the picture for this episode.

You can listen to a short (6 minute) version of this episode here: Prog Podcast vs the Budget. You can subscribe to these short versions of our episodes through Omny.

Episode 55: Where’s the Anal in Same-Sex Marriage?

Posted: May 17, 2014 in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
7
http://totheexclusionofallothers.tumblr.com/post/42798150409/homo-online-an-altered-activism-xtra

Image from the website totheexclusionofallothers.com

Listen to this episode and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes. You can also listen to this episode on Stitcher, Cyber Ears or download it on MediaFire (32MB).

This time we’re joined by Jess Ison, editor of the soon-to-be released book To the Exclusion Of All Others: Queers Questioning Gay Marriage. We’re also joined by Stevie from Team Earthling. Jess discusses the book and how she came to this position of being pro-queer but anti-same sex (and other) marriage. This includes some groups being left out of the same-sex marriage campaign, such as trans people. Brazil and Mexico both have same-sex marriage but have the most reported killings of trans people. Similarly, England and Wales have same-sex marriage and have seen a drop in homophobic crime but a rise in transphobic crime. We also discuss: the relationship between cops and queer people, the widespread support for same-sex marriage in the queer community but the growing critique from within the queer movement, Julia Gillard’s new position on same-sex marriage now she’s out of office, and the article ‘Marriage Will Never Set Us Free’ by Dean Spade & Craig Willse. We also bring you more from the ICAS conference – we play some of Curtis Redd’s talk ‘Bodies, Beats and Bashing: History Telling of Homophobic Violence’. This talk critiques the This Is Oz campaign and also makes some links between the oppression of queer people and non-human animals. You can listen to this entire talk with a Q and A with Curtis and Jess here.

You can join the Facebook group To the Exclusion of all Others and/or follow @ToTheExclusion on Twitter to be notified when the book is out. You can find more from Jess at queeringspeciesism.wordpress.com. If you want to hear more about the ICAS conference, check out our crossover episode with Team Earthling: Bonus episode – Team Earthling and Progressive Podcast Australia ICAS Reflection. If you’d like to hear our views on marriage, check out our 28th episode: Beyond Same-Sex Marriage.

If you like what you hear, please support the show!

Clips:

Q and A with Curtis Redd and Jess Ison, ‘Tennesse’ by Toby Foster, Julia Gillard on Big Ideas, Curtis Redd ‘Bodies, Beats and Bashing: History Telling of Homophobic Violence’, Daniel Versus the World from Queer Punx Podcast ‘Love Your Rage, Not Your Cage (live)‘, Q and A with Curtis Redd and Jess Ison.

You can listen to a short (8 minute) version of this episode, here: Queer Critiques of Same-Sex Marriage. You can subscribe to these short versions of our episodes through Omny.

Episode 54: Let’s Get Critical!* ICAS 2014

Posted: May 3, 2014 in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
15

From left to right: Jess Ison, Lara Drew and Dr Colin Salter – they were all part of the organising committee for the 2014 ICAS conference.**

Listen to this episode and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes. You can also listen to this episode on Stitcher, Cyber Ears or download it on MediaFire (38MB).

In this episode we do a recap of the Institute for Critical Animal Studies Oceania (ICAS) 2014 conference: Critical Animal Studies in the Asia-Pacific. We are joined by ICAS Rep Jess Ison, who tells us what ICAS is all about, including bringing about change for non-human animals, an intersectional focus, anarchism, collective decision-making and safe spaces. We’re also joined by Stevie from Team Earthling podcast aka “Steve Earthling”.

Throughout the episode we play Jess’s talk/rant on Animals Australia’s ‘No Way to Treat a Lady’ campaign and we also play Javed’s introduction to the ‘Class, Race and Veganism’ workshop. We encourage people to check out the group Riserefugee.org, who Javed mentioned during the conference.

We discuss a bunch of talks from the conference, including: our talk ‘Intersectionality in Practice’ (you can listen to this talk here and view the powerpoint presentation for it here – we also played this talk on episode 93); Nick’s talk ‘Live Animal Export, Humane Slaughter and Media Hegemony’ (you can listen to this talk here and view the powerpoint presentation for it here – it was also played on Team Earthling and Freedom of Species); Sam Cadman’s talk ‘Who’s a pretty boy, then: on unreliable narrators and listening to other animals’; ‘Critically questioning the Environmental Sustainability of Diet as a Framework for Encouraging ‘Counter Thought’ ’ by Angela Ragusa and Andrea Crampton; ‘Sustainability and Animal Protection: How do they intersect, where do they collide?’ by Iris Bergman; ‘Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd and Civil Disobedience on the High Seas’ by Siobhan O’Sullivan, Clare McCausland and Scott Brenton; ‘Technology for Change: Video Cameras, Video Games, and Virtual Reality’ by Gonzalo Villanueva; ‘Bodies, Beats and Bashing: History Telling of Homophobic Violence’ by Curtis Redd; and ‘Should the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) Revise their Code of Ethics to Include Non-Human Animals?‘ by Kathryn Joy.

You can hear more from Jess on Freedom of Species podcast, including her interview with ICAS co-founder Anthony Nocella. Check out Team Earthling for heaps more on the conference – we particularly recommend people check out our crossover episode with Team Earthling, where we reflect on the ICAS conference, as well as discussing a wide range of other issues including: activism approaches, non-violence, body shaming, gendered bathrooms, and teabagging. You can listen to our recap of last year’s ICAS Oceania conference on our 32nd episode.

This episode is brought to you by Taylor (the Sailor?). You can hear Taylor’s talk from the ICAS conference ‘You Should(n’t) Be Ashamed’, which opposes body shaming, on episode 119 of Team Earthling. Thanks a lot to Taylor for becoming a member of our show – you can become a member and sponsor an episode too!

Clips:

Chokehold ‘Burning Bridges’, Jess Ison’s talk on Animals Australia’s ‘No Way to Treat a Lady’ campaign, Javed’s introduction to the ‘Class, Race and Veganism’ workshop, Good Riddance ‘Waste’, Sam Cadman ‘Who’s a pretty boy, then: on unreliable narrators and listening to other animals’, Fresh Meat ‘Series 2, Episode 8’.

More Talks that were Recorded at the Conference:

We’ll upload links to the audio for a bunch more talks from the conference here soon!

If any of the speakers would like any changes to the way you or your talk is described, or would like any edits to the audio of your talk, or would like to send us your powerpoint so we can link to it, please contact us.

*Thanks to Alix for this title!

**The photo is thanks to Pádraig Dubhthaigh and Aaron Daniel Scheibner – you can see more of their photos from the conference here.

You can listen to a short (10 minute) version of this episode, where Jess, Stevie and us discuss some of our favourite talks from the conference, here: Let’s Get Critical! ICAS 2014. You can subscribe to these short versions of our episodes through Omny.