{"href":"http://player.captivate.fm/services/oembed?url=http%3A%2F%2Fplayer.captivate.fm%2Fepisode%2F060ae781-e602-4413-b9ca-e245e06b0e72","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Captivate.FM","provider_url":"https://www.captivate.fm","width":600,"height":200,"type":"rich","html":"","title":"Episode 195 \u2013 NRA and DNA and MLAs","description":"Cue the banjo music. NSW to exhume Joh Bjelke-Peterson and offer him a place in the Upper House where he will feel right at home.
\nNSW falls in love with the Shooters Party. Mark Latham gets a seat in the Legislative Council. All this in a State with the highest proportion of “NO” voters in the Marriage Equality plebiscite.
\nYou guys are making Queensland look sophisticated!
\n1:05 One Nation
\nPauline Hanson\u2019s One Nation staff have been caught on camera asking the National Rifle Association for $20 million to help water-down Australia\u2019s gun laws, as revealed by an extraordinary Al Jazeera investigation.
\nPauline Hanson\u2019s chief of staff James Ashby and One Nation\u2019s Queensland leader Steve Dickson are both filmed meeting figures from the NRA, discussing the threat of Islamic extremism in Australia, and the need for NRA money to help emerge as a pro-gun force.
\n5:01 NSW Election
\ncue banjo music…
\nfrom Crikey
\n… the results from rural and regional NSW should induce a feeling of nausea. Not merely is the far-right Shooters Party, which wants to loosen gun laws, expand coal-fired power and hand the Murray-Darling back to irrigators, likely to pick up two more lower house seats, but in the NSW Legislative Council, around 11% of voters statewide saw fit to vote either for the Shooters and One Nation.
\n… The issue that really hurt the Nats in western NSW was water. The Shooters have dramatically increased their vote promising to bin the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and give irrigators as much water as they want.\u00a0 The issue is so toxic the Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair abruptly announced he was leaving politics yesterday, despite being re-elected to the upper house.
\nFrom the ABC:
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\n13:50 Mark Latham
\nHas suggested DNA testing for people claiming benefits as aboriginals. His detractors call him racist.
\nFrom Media Watch:
\nPaul Barry
\nSo, what\u2019s the gain in claiming to be Aboriginal?
\nAccording to Mark Latham, it is a treasure trove:
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\nMARK LATHAM : There\u2019s special education, health programs, Indigenous-only jobs in New South Wales, $5 billion worth of assets to join a land council in New South Wales. Jeez, there\u2019s plenty of money …
\n– Sydney Live, 2GB, 12 March, 2019
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\nNow you\u2019d have thought that at this point, he might have faced a few tough questions, like:
\nIs this really so?
\nWhat\u2019s the evidence?
\nWould DNA testing even work?
\nAnd isn\u2019t it an appallingly racist idea?
\nBut the media rarely asked them.
\nA proper journalist might have sought an Aboriginal point of view, from someone like Warren Mundine, who told Ben Fordham:
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\nWARREN MUNDINE: That is the most bigoted, racist comment I’ve ever heard. Why should Aboriginal people be singled out to be done a DNA test for a welfare payment that every Australian gets.
\n– Sydney Live, 2GB, 12 March, 2019
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\nA proper journalist might also have sought reaction from the Jewish community – who know all about race-based policies – and put that to Latham. Because its condemnation – in a statement on Facebook – was swift:
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\n\u201cThe policy amounts to racial profiling and is fraught with danger. We call on all major political parties to utterly reject this poli...","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/085762e2-797c-4ef4-9b10-434ecde61c07/logo2018v2.jpg"}