Arrest of Omar Radi, Poetry: Jeanine Leane and Vincent Silk, University staff cuts and fee hikes, Cuts to Jobseeker, Vic coroner Indigenous deaths in custody

Thursday, 1 October 2020 - 7:00am to 8:30am

Carly speaks with Thursday Breakfast’s own Scheherazade Bloul about Omar Radi, a Moroccan journalist who has recently been jailed on a series of charges including espionage. Omar is an award-winning investigative journalist and human rights activist who frequently publishes articles about land grabs by speculators and the corruption within Moroccan officials. Omar's imprisonment comes after an investigation by Amnesty International which found that his phone was infected with NSO Pegasus software - Israeli spyware that last year was used illegally against journalists, dissidents and campaigners around the world. 

 

We return to Thursday Breakfast's poetry and writing segment. This week we have readings by two poets. First we hear a poem by Jeanine Leane called The Colour of Massacre then we hear Boy Dentata by Vincent Silk.

 

Jeanine Leane is a Wiradjuri writer, poet and academic from south-west New South Wales. This poem was published as part of Fire Front: First Nations poetry and power today, edited by Alison Whittaker. 

 

Vincent is a writer, poet and community organiser. His work has been published in the UTS Writers' Anthology, Voiceworks, Going Down Swinging, Archer and Seizure, among other places. Earlier in the year Carly from 3CR Thursday Breakfast spoke with Vincent about his first novel, Sisters of No Mercy. 

 

Dani Cotton, a casual tutor and PhD student at the University of Sydney and member of the Usyd Casuals Network, speaks with Priya about the recent protests against course and staff cuts and fee hikes at USYD, and the NSW Police response.

 

Kristin O'Connell, the Australian Unemployed Workers Union Acting Communications Coordinator, joins us to speak about the Australian Government's recent cuts to Jobseeker payments and the Union's concerns about changes to mutual obligations for income support recipients. 

 

Robyn Oxley, a Tharawal and Yorta Yorta woman and criminologist and lecturer at Western Sydney University, speaks with Priya about the recent practice direction issued by the Victorian state coroner regarding Indigenous deaths in custody.