Like I'm A Six-Year-Old

Rachel Siewert has been a Greens Senator for WA since 2005. She's the whip for the Greens in the Senate and her portfolios include First Nations Affairs, Family, Ageing and Community Services, Gambling and Mental Health. She recently chaired a Senate Committee into the adequacy of the Newstart/JobSeeker payment and has been fighting hard for the government to #RetainTheRate after the COVID crisis has passed.  In this conversation, Rachel explains how her politics are founded on concern for both people and the planet, the realities of our punitive welfare system, just how shitty JobSeeker is and why the Greens' "Invest To Recover" policy proposal - including a jobs, income and education guarantee - is the kind of bold response Australia needs right now.   If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you You can see me on Stan Australia’s Australia Lockdown Comedy Festival – episode one is streaming right now! @SenatorSiewert rachel-siewert.greensmps.org.au RN INTERVIEW: Are welfare payments entrenching Australians in poverty and unemployment?  SENATE COMMITTEE REPORT: Adequacy of Newstart and related payments and alternative mechanisms to determine the level of income support payments in Australia The Greens' "Invest To Recover" Plan ARTICLE: Greens demand job guarantees and free education for young people in coronavirus recovery plan The Australian Unemployed Workers Union ARTICLE: Adam Bandt, the personable hardliner by Margaret Simons Cause of the Week: The Australian Greens (greens.org.au)  

Dave Anthony is a stand up comedian, writer, activist and co-host of the history comedy podcast The Dollop. In May 2016 he correctly predicted that Hillary Clinton was going to lose to Trump in the presidential election. So yeah - he knows stuff.  Dave joined me from LA in the GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD to talk about the death of American empire, what he's learned from history, his journey to socialism, the right-wing Democratic Party and why Joe Biden is really really bad. We laugh and also talk about the end of hope. If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you You can see me on Stan Australia’s Australia Lockdown Comedy Festival – episode one is streaming right now! I'll be performing comedy to an empty room this Saturday night for Delivered Live and you can stream it if you like @daveanthony daveanthonycomedy.com dolloppodcast.com The Dollop episode on the Clarence Thomas hearings A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn ARTICLE: Biden And Sanders Announce Task Forces To Find Party Unity Over Policy Cause of the Week: Extinction Rebellion (rebellion.earth)

Jon Kudelka is a Walkley Award-winning political cartoonist who's been drawing for over 20 years. He drew thousands of cartoons for The Australian until 2019 and his work now regularly appears in The Hobart Mercury and The Saturday Paper.  Jon kindly joined me from Tasmania via Zoom to reflect on his journey to cartooning, the (minimal) influence that satire has on things, what he learnt from John Clarke, the deterioration and stasis of Australian politics, punching down, how compromised the ALP has become and how COVID-19 might wake people up to shitty free-market ideology.  If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you You can see me on Stan Australia’s Australia Lockdown Comedy Festival - episode one is streaming right now! THIS THURSDAY NIGHT I'm hosting this bingo night via Zoom to raise money for the Inner City Legal Centre which do great work for LGBTQIA+ folks @jonkudelka kudelka.com.au Jon's instagram Jon's cartoons for The Saturday Paper Jon's cartoons for The Australian ARTICLE: Data company that "helped locate Osama Bin Laden" recruits former Labor MP Mike Kelly  Cause of the Week: StreetSmart Australia (streetsmartaustralia.org) 

Celeste Liddle is an Arrente woman, a trade unionist and Leftist who's written for Eureka Street, The Guardian and SBS.  Celeste Zoom'ed me from her couch to discuss how the COVID-19 crisis is affecting First Nations people, over-policing and deaths in custody, culture warring about Captain Cook and the "Indigenous alt-right".  If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you Ads-Up are doing great work helping out refugees from Nauru and Manus Island who have been resettled in the US and are struggling during COVID-19 You can see me on Stan Australia's Lockdown Comedy Festival from this Saturday @Utopiana Celeste's blog Black Feminist Ranter ARTICLE: Vulnerable Indigenous man jailed over locked up by police in 'string of errors' during coronavirus pandemic (ABC) ARTICLE: Tanya Day inquest: coroner refers death in custody of Aboriginal woman for possible protection (Guardian Australia)  ARTICLE: Social responsibility means care for all of the vulnerable by Celeste Liddle ARTICLE: Why the term "Australian" can be an imposition on Aboriginal people by Celeste Liddle  ARTICLE: Cook wanted to introduce British justice to Indigenous people. Instead, he became increasingly cruel and violent by Shino Konishi endeavour250.gov.au  Cause of the Week: Djirra (djirra.org.au)

Adam Creighton is the Economics Editor for The Australian and has written for The Economist and The Wall Street Journal. For the past couple of months he's been highly critical of the Australian government's economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic and has called for the immediate easing of restrictions. I asked Adam to sketch out his critique of the response and his concerns about its economic impact, as well as discussing the Swedish, economic "trade-offs", the "statistical value of life" (it's $4.4m, apparently), the joys of tax and what kind of changes he does (and doesn't) want to see once the pandemic passes.  If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you I'm hosting QUEER LOVE IN for Equality Australia this Saturday at 3pm, featuring an amazing line up of LGBTIQA+ artists. It will be great fun, please join us  Please support Alex Makes Meals if you can: he’s providing free meals for healthcare workers! What a cool guy!  @Adam_Creighton Adam's writing for The Australian ARTICLE: Under 60, in good health? Crossing the road is more risky ARTICLE: Let's hope the economic train crash is worth it ARTICLE: We may be over-reacting to an unremarkable coronavirus ARTICLE: Coronavirus: Total shutdown may be too high a price ARTICLE: New Zealand claims it has eliminated coronavirus Cause of the Week: Alcoholics Anonymous (aa.org.au)

Mark Humphries is a comedian who regularly makes satirical sketches for the ABC's 7:30 along with Evan Williams. He always makes me laugh and I've been lucky enough to become friends with him over the past few years.  Mark joined me via Zoom from deep in the heart of the ABC to discuss his politics, his (haphazard) journey into comedy (featuring some stories involving ME!!!), Mark Latham and the state of Australian right-wing media craziness and the limits of satirising it. We had a good ol' giggle and we barely talked about coronavirus at all.   If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you Please support Alex Makes Meals if you can: he's providing free meals for healthcare workers! What a cool guy!  My discussion with Refugee Legal Executive Director David Manne about the challenges people seeking asylum face in COVID-19 - please support them at refugeelegal.org.au @markhumphries Mark's twitter account about musical theatre is @MarksMusicals Mark's satire for 7:30 His sketch on The Greta Thunberg Helpline Mark on The Roast VIDEO: Bogan Train Trip Girl Australia Cause of the Week: Multiple Sclerosis Research Australia (msra.org.au)

Nick McKim is a Tasmanian senator and the co-deputy leader of The Australian Greens.  He joined me via Zoom (sorry) from Tasmania to discuss the Morrison government's (sometimes okay but generally shitty) response to the COVID crisis, the neoliberal Labor Party, how this pandemic affects folks in immigration detention and the current Greens' plebiscite on the election of the federal leader.  If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you If you’re a Greens member who supports the One Member One Vote model for leadership election, please consider adding your name to this open letter @NickMcKim Nick's page on the Greens' website Join The Greens (if you like) Information about the Greens' leadership plebiscite ARTICLE: The Greens are founded on the principle of grassroots democracy - the leadership vote should be no exception by Michael Berkman, Mehreen Faruqi, Tammy Franks, Tim Hollo & Scott Ludlam ARTICLE: As former Greens leaders, we ask members not to shut the party room out of leadership votes by Bob Brown, Christine Milne & Richard Di Natale ARTICLE: It's out decision: electing the parliamentary leader by Dylan Griffiths ARTICLE: So how much power does the leader of the Australian Greens actually have? by Jonathan Sri  If you’re a Greens member who supports the One Member One Vote model for leadership election, please consider adding your name to this open letter VIDEO: Why the Green New Deal matters Causes of the Week: The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (asrc.org.au), The Unemployed Workers' Union (unemployedworkersunion.com) 

Tash Heenan and Anna Sturman are ecosocialist academics who are writing about and organising around the possibilities of a Green New Deal for Australia.  They both joined me via Zoom (I AM VERY SICK OF ZOOM) to lay out what their vision for a GND entails, its "four Ds" (decarbonisation, decolonisation, decommodification, democratisation), how much currency it had as a political idea prior to the current COVID crisis, the possibilities these new conditions could bring and the dangers of eco-fascism.  If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you I went on the Twink Revolution podcast with the darlings Gian & Sam I also went and talked a bit of bullshit on Nazeem Hussain's Survivor's Guide to Coronavirus podcast If you're a Greens member who supports the One Member One Vote model for leadership election, please consider adding your name to this open letter @tashellenheenan @anna_sturman Climate Justice Collective - @greennewdealau climatejusticeaustralia.org ARTICLE: Five Orientations To The Green New Deal by Tash & Anna ARTICLE: Australia Needs A Green New Deal, Not More Centrism by Tash Heenan, Jon Piccini & Jeremy Poxon   ARTICLE: The Greens' New Deal by Paddy Manning ARTICLE: Capitalism is a virus by Jeff Sparrow VIDEO: Why the Green New Deal matters Cause of the Week: Sisters Inside (sistersinside.com.au)

Caleb Bond is a 21-year-old political commentator who describes himself as "conservative with a splash of libertarianism". He writes a regular opinion column for the Adelaide Advertiser and regularly appears on Sky News.  Caleb kindly gave me his time a few weeks ago when I was in town for the Adelaide Fringe (before the PLAGUE HIT US ALL AND LOCKED US IN OUR HOUSES). We had a wide-ranging discussion about his experience of being a young conservative giving his opinions in public, the politicisation of youth, the Opinion Industrial Complex, Newscorp, the idea that people naturally become more conservative as they get older, socialism, free markets, FREEDOM and his stance on drugs.  My show GRANDILOQUENT has been cancelled at the Brisbane and Melbourne Comedy Festivals: all tickets will be refunded in full  The show’s season at the Belvoir Theatre in Sydney in June and at the 2020 Edinburgh Fringe Festival are also not going ahead The live instalment of LIASYO with Andrew Denton at MICF has also been cancelled   Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron I was on the latest episode of The Little Dum Dum Club @TheCalebBond cbond.com.au ARTICLE: The Strange World of an Australian Conservative Political Commentator by Toby McCasker Cause of the Week: Youth Insearch (youthinsearch.org.au)

Gian and Sam host a great podcast called Twink Revolution, which they describe as "cultural and political commentary on current events from a homo-leftist viewpoint".  They joined me from their isolated apartment in San Francisco to explain how they came to Marxism and queerness (via anarchism and libertarianism), the failures of identity politics, what happened to the Sanders campaign (and how sad we should feel about it) and what the COVID-19 pandemic could mean for the Left. It was all very interesting, very funny and very gay.  My show GRANDILOQUENT has been cancelled at the Brisbane and Melbourne Comedy Festivals: all tickets will be refunded in full  The show’s season at the Belvoir Theatre in Sydney in June and at the 2020 Edinburgh Fringe Festival are also not going ahead The live instalment of LIASYO with Andrew Denton at MICF has also been cancelled   Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron I was on the latest episode of The Little Dum Dum Club @twinkrev Sam's twitter is @RevTwinkComrade twinkrev.com Twink Revolution's YouTube page Sam's queer history of socialist nations (starting with the USSR), Gaylag Archipelago The What's Left? episode on Coronavirus and the Sanders campaign The People's Republic of Walmart by Leigh Phillips & Michal Rozworski Cause of the Week: The SF Queer Nightlife Fund (sfqueernightlifefund.org)