Royal Navy’s James certainly came for a Captain Cook, but he wasn’t in the first XI
Deputy Nationals leader Bridget McKenzie on Sky News yesterday describing January 26, which she said celebrates:
“When, you know, Captain Cook stepped ashore.”
Australia Day marks the moment in 1788 when Captain Arthur Phillip arrived in NSW with the First Fleet’s flotilla of 11 ships and perhaps 1500 convicts. McKenzie may have taken lessons from the Greens’ Sarah Hanson-Young. Last May Hanson-Young said:
Despite an important national debate about changing the date of Australia Day away from Captain Cook’s landing at Botany Bay, the government has decided to spend taxpayer money it is stripping from the ABC on yet another monument to Captain Cook on the land of the Dharawal people.
When questioned about her error, Hanson-Young reissued the statement — with the same schoolgirl mistake, of course:
“This government is out of touch with the Australian people — taking money from our most trusted news service which will no doubt lead to further job cuts, and ignoring why our First Australians find the celebration of the arrival of Captain Cook so painful in one fell swoop,” read the statement from a woman whose website states she is the “proud student of public schooling”, which, fortunately for the school concerned, she does not name. Or forgets.
Who is ABC television’s Tonightly star Tom Ballard voting for? Victorian Socialists, Facebook, September 23:
I’m endorsing Stephen Jolly and the Victorian Socialists at this election because they’re good people fighting for good things.
Victorian Socialists? Ivan Mitchell, Jacobinmag.com, September 8:
The Victorian Socialists’ backbone is made up of Australia’s two largest socialist organisations, Socialist Alternative and the Socialist Alliance.
Big fans of Venezuela. Jim McIlroy, Green Left Weekly, October 7, 2014:
In a session entitled, “Why Venezuela’s revolution matters: Views from the Australian left,” Roberto Jorquera, from Socialist Alternative, spoke about the role of people’s organisations … Rachel Evans, representing Socialist Alliance, said, “The Venezuelan revolution … (has) institutionalised human rights, enshrined environmental sustainability, indigenous sovereignty, women’s rights, and LGBT rights … In 1998, when (Hugo) Chavez was first elected, 80 per cent of Venezuelans were living in poverty … it’s down to 27 per cent. There is free education, free healthcare … houses for the homeless, free music programs, free books.”
Venezuela? Samuel Osborne,Independent.co.uk, September 21:
Venezuela’s government is responsible for the “worst human rights crisis in its history”, Amnesty International said in a new report … 8292 extrajudicial executions took place between 2015 and 2017 … 4667 (22 per cent) of homicides in 2016 were at the hands of security officials … 87 per cent of people live in poverty. It also found a 65 per cent increase in maternal mortality … 2.3 million people have left Venezuela since 2014.
Let them eat steak. Alan Gomez, USA Today, September 18:
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is drawing worldwide condemnation for feasting on a steak prepared by a celebrity chef known as “Salt Bae” while the collapse of his country has left people starving and fleeing by the million … 30 per cent of Venezuelans eat (only) once a day.