57 — The new Kelly Gang sucks too

We chat about Australia's bushfire/covid/storm situation, then a deep dive into why exactly Eddie Maguire should quit (he did), followed by a check-in with cooked unit Craig Kelly.

 

Australia is on fire

• Perth has massive bushfires, with at least 86 homes lost.
• COVID lockdowns and evacuation orders make for confusing mixed messages.
• Fire, plague and storms.
• Kangaroo Island is on fire, threatening the little Pigmy Possum, which was feared lost after devastating the 2019-20 bushfires.

Eddie McGuire corner

• Eddie McGuire is a weird little freak with a long history in Australian media and sports. He is currently the president of the Collingwood football club.
• Former Collingwood player Héritier Lumumba’s complaints about the culture of racism at the football club sparked a report, which was finally leaked on February 1st (PDF Link).
• Read along with Tweet-thread horror of Eddie’s press conference.
• Eddie says Collingwood can’t be racist because the larger wing of the club has asian netball players.
• Around the time of the internal release of the report, Eddie Maguire announced his “retirement”.
• Eddie supported Collingwood football coach Nathan Buckley after he made insinuations about Héritier’s mental health.
• Premier Dan Andrews reckons Eddie stepping down is poor leadership.
• The Project had Héritier on to grill him on his racist treatment. They’ve since removed the episode.
• In 2017, a documentary about the racism that Héritier Lumumba has faced was released.
• Between the recording of this segment and the release of this episode, McGuire has quit.

Australia Open

• The Australia Open went into lockdown for a day.
• The Quarantine hotel workers has a party with 60 people to celebrate the end of Australian Open quarantine, sparking fears that the infected person caught or spread it there.

Craig Kelly

• Craig Kelly is big on Facebook, and is a totally cooked unit.
• Kelly went on conspiracy-addled celebrity chef Pete Evans’s internet show.
• Scott Morrison finally told Kelly to keep a lid on it.
• Labor member Ged Kearny called Kelly a “dangerous fool”.
• Labor’s Tanya Plibersek and Craig Kelly had a Parliament House corridor showdown.
• On the same day the Julia Gillard made her famous “misogyny” speech, she threw thousands of single mothers off parenting benefits and into poverty.
• Following a report into cross-burning nazi meetups in Australia, the Labor party moved a senate motion to condemn far-right extremism.
• After amendments, it was watered down to be completely meaningless. It was passed anyway.
• George Christensen posed with a gun, asked “greenie punks” if they’re feeling lucky, then called it a joke.
• Peter Dutton insists that ‘leftwing lunatics’ must be dealt with.

Shoutouts

• Shoutout to We Are Hughes, who trying to unseat Craig Kelly.
• Listen to a great interview with Héritier Lumumba on friend-of-the-podcast Vocal Minority, and read his interview in Junkee.
• Listen to Floodcast, it’s good.