Warburton Environment's Win Against VicForests, Pacific Youth on Self Determination and a Nuclear-Free Pacific, Ongoing Impacts of the Collapse of Youpla, Victoria's Laws Punishing Peaceful Protestors, 5th International Conference for Carceral Geography
7:15 Nic Fox is a member of Warburton Environment, a community organisation dedicated to protecting the forests of the Central Highlands of Victoria. After two and a half years of grassroots campaigning, the Supreme Court handed down a judgment against VicForests, the state-owned logging business, in favour of Warburton Environment, that will increase protection for the endangered Tree Geebung. Nic spoke about this win with Annie McLoughlin on Solidarity Breakfast 10 December 2022.
7:30 Mere Tuilau a human rights activist, facilitator and a youth leader from Fiji. Her advocacy on self-determination, nuclear and ocean spaces comes from over 7 years of lived experience of engagement with Pacific youth and within regional civil society organisations and movements. She speaks about self determination and the Pacific Global Youth Movement pursuing the full UN Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Ban, as part of an event Reverse The Trend Pacific hosted to mark the international Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, on 28 September 2022.
7:45 Bettina Cooper is a proud Boandik woman and a Mob Strong financial counsellor and is on the show to give us an update on the collapse of Youpla (formerly Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund) and the compensation owed to First Nations policy holders. Bettina explains the central role of Centrepay in legitimising exploitative financial products and facilitating payments from vulnerable households during a sixteen-year period from 2001 to 2017, and talks about the ongoing harmful impacts this has had on Indigenous families and communities.
8:00 Katia Lallo is a community lawyer and advocate living and working on Woi wurrung Country. She is a long term member of Melbourne Activist Legal Support. Furthermore, Katia is a good friend of 3CR, doing OBs and is part of the board. Katia joins us on the show to talk about Violet Coco's arrest; the draconian anti-protest laws in Victoria; and the ways in which language is manipulated and co-opted to paint peaceful protestors as criminals.
8:15Dr Claire Loughnan is a Lecturer in Criminology, at the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne. Her research examines the modes, practices and effects of living and working in sites of confinement and on the carceral expansion accompanying border control practices. She is currently exploring practices of 'neglect' as a tool in the externalisation of refugee policies. Claire is a committee member of the Carceral Geography Network, and Co-convenor of the University of Melbourne branch of 'Academics for Refugees' and is on our show this morning to talk about the 5th International Conference for Carceral Geography, a hybrid conference taking place December 13-15th. Register for the event here.
