The Saturday Paper | Labor reboots arts industry, detainee dies in Villawood, migrants pulled into ‘No’ campaign

News in five.

͏

Read Online

Back Issues

The Saturday Paper

7am

Post

30 January, 2023

Max Opray

is Schwartz Media's emails editor.

1

Labor reboots arts industry

The Albanese government will today pledge $286m over five years to overhaul Australia’s cultural bodies and mandate local requirements for streaming content.

What we know:

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Arts Minister Tony Burke

will announce that under the Revive plan, Australia Council for the Arts is to be rebranded Creative Australia, receiving almost two-thirds of the funding (

The Guardian

);

Within Creative Australia

there will be four new bodies, including a First Nations-led body, Music Australia, Writers Australia, and the Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces (

The Conversation

);

Legislation will

be introduced to protect First Nations’ culture, with a particular brief to crack down on fake art, and there will be funding for First Nations languages and a national Aboriginal art gallery in Alice Springs;

The plan

will also see streaming platforms such as Disney, Netflix and Amazon Prime required to spend some of their local revenue on making Australian content (

Media Week

);

Authors will

begin receiving lending rights from audio and ebook loans for the first time, a move which is expected to boost writer earnings by as much as 20% (

SMH

);

The government-funded arts sector

will be subject to fair pay and workplace safety measures overseen by a newly formed group, the Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces, following several high-profile harassment allegations (

The Australian

$);

The National Gallery of Australia

will receive extra funding to test sending works from its holdings across the country so more people can see the collection (

Canberra Times

$);

The plan

comes after Burke held town-hall forums calling for community feedback, with more than 1200 submissions made to the consultation process (

The Monthly

).

Share

2

Detainee dies in Villawood

An immigration detainee from Iraq has died in a suspected suicide at Villawood detention centre in Sydney.

What we know:

The Department of Home Affairs

confirmed the death, noting the matter had been referred to the NSW Coroner (

SBS

);

The Refugee Action Coalition

was alerted to the death early on Sunday morning, with the Iraqi detainee in his 30s found dead in his cell;

“It is shocking

that there has been yet another suicide in Villawood detention centre — it is not just a factory for mental illness, it is becoming a suicide factory,” Refugee Action Coalition spokesperson Ian Rintoul said;

The NGO

said the man had been moved several times at the centre because of tensions with other detainees, including a fight with a man on Saturday night;

A recent report

on torture from the Commonwealth Ombudsman highlighted use of mechanical restraint at Villawood and concrete cells where asylum seekers are locked up alone (

The Saturday Paper

);

The report

also revealed maggots being found in food served to a detainee at the Park Hotel in Melbourne;

It comes as

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus flags announcements to enable refugees on temporary visas “to rebuild their lives” (

The Saturday Paper

).

Lifeline: 13 11 14

MREC 1

3

Migrants pulled into ‘No’ campaign

The “No” campaign has revealed it will propose constitutional recognition of Indigenous and migrant Australians while opposing the Voice to Parliament.

Warren Mundine,

a leading organiser of the “No” campaign, said it will run on a slogan of “recognise a better way”, proposing to insert an acknowledgment in the preamble of the constitution, via another referendum (

The Guardian

).

The Yuin, Bundjalung and Gumbaynggirr man

said the campaign was “talking with the migrant community as well” about including constitutional recognition of “migrants and refugees who have come here – recognise their story, about the circumstances of how they’ve come here and their contribution to Australia”.

Mundine rejected

the suggestion that adding the migrant experience to the constitution was an attempt to set them against the advancement of First Nations rights.

The “Yes” campaign

is set to launch with a week of action starting on February 20, including door-knocks, letter-box drops, street stalls and online advertisements (

SMH

).

4

WA search for radioactive capsule

Rio Tinto has apologised for losing a minute, highly radioactive capsule along a 1400km stretch of highway in WA, as the effort to locate it escalates.

The caesium-137 capsule,

only 6mm in diameter and 8mm long, was lost in transit somewhere between a Rio Tinto mine site in WA’s north and Perth (

Financial Times

).

People have

been scanning for radiation levels from the device along the vast trucking route, with WA emergency services calling for federal support.

“We recognise

this is clearly very concerning and are sorry for the alarm it has caused in the Western Australian community,” said Rio Tinto executive Simon Trott.

WA deputy premier Roger Cook

said the situation was extremely concerning and a review should be conducted (

ABC

).

When asked

if there would be any consequences for Rio Tinto, Cook said it was “a matter for the chief health officer to decide with his colleagues on the Radiological Council”.

MREC 2

5

Djokovic takes 10th Australian Open

Novak Djokovic has drawn level with Rafael Nadal’s record 22 grand slam titles, after defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets to win the Australian Open men’s final on Sunday night.

Djokovic beat

Tsitsipas 6-3, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) at Rod Laver Arena, extending his unmatched number of Australian Open titles to 10 (

Nine

).

The final

also saw the Australian Open suffer another flag scandal, with an apparent supporter of Novak Djokovic waving a controversial far-right Chetnik flag during the match (

Fox Sports

).

In the women’s singles final

on Saturday night, Aryna Sabalenka defeated Elena Rybakina in a come-from-behind 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 (

ESPN

).

Australia enjoyed

success in the men’s doubles, where Jason Kubler and Rinky Hijikata beat Monaco’s Hugo Nys and Poland’s Jan Zielinski in a surprise 6-4 7-6 (7-4) result (

7News

).

‘Politicians are naturally weak’: Tony Windsor versus the gas industry

Tony Windsor was a politician, and as an independent helped hand Julia Gillard minority government and the prime ministership. Despite being a politician, he says that at the end of the day, politicians are, by their nature, weak. And if there’s any example that’s taught him that, it’s the decades-long fight over our water and how we protect it.

Listen

MREC 3

I’m more angry now and I’m more committed now than I ever was.

Former US president Donald Trump kicks off his 2024 campaign vowing to somehow break the record-setting levels of anger he achieved while last in office (

NBC

).

Postscript: National vote sees Australian public broadcaster forced to play song about Prime Minister pleasuring himself with coal

The Australian public broadcaster, the ABC, has this week been forced to air a song about former Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s erotic love of fossil fuels, after the song Coal Makes Me Cum by satirical comedy group The Chaser was voted in at number 136 in the station’s yearly national music poll “The Hottest 100” (

The Shot

).

logo

Capitalism after the crises

In a time of serial disruption – to our economy, our society and our environment – Treasurer Jim Chalmers argues for the place of values and optimism in how we rethink capitalism

Read more

The Saturday Paper

‘Pandora’s box’: Real conspiracy behind robo-debt

Fresh evidence to the royal commission shows how departments actively avoided legal precedents to keep robo-debt running for years.

Read more

logo

Alice Springs: The crisis that shouldn’t have happened

A crime wave in Alice Springs grew into a national crisis this week, with politicians jumping on planes in a last-ditch effort to listen to a community whose concerns have fallen on deaf ears. But how did the crime rate in Alice Springs become an issue for Anthony Albanese? And how could the situation have deteriorated so far?

Listen now

The Saturday Paper

The future of garbage

Although Australian governments have set ambitious targets for recycling – overall 80 per cent of waste is to be recycled by 2030 – we are transitioning slower than other global players and, at 60 per cent overall recycling, are falling off the pace to meet our targets.

Read more

Post

Read Online

Back Issues

The Saturday Paper

You are receiving this email because you signed up to receive

The Briefing

or

Post

, or you opted in on one of our websites.

To stop receiving these emails,

unsubscribe

or

manage your email preferences

Unsubscribe

Copyright © 2023 Schwartz Media. All rights reserved.