I slept through the week, what happened?
25 October 2020
The Dog Ate My Pork-Barrel Paper Trail
Hot off the back of the J̶e̶r̶r̶y̶ Darryl Maguire ICAC investigation, things are steaming up in the Premier’s office over a new scandal. The paperwork for $250 million worth of grants, awarded to mostly Coalition-held local councils, have been destroyed.
Apparently an intern did not understand that the A4-printed sign above the paper-shredder which read ‘slush fund filing cabinet’, was a joke.
Dan Andrews Furious Healthy New Zealanders Arrive In Victoria
As part of logistical teething issues with the trial, one-way transit bubble with New Zealand, around 100 arrivals skipped straight through Sydney airport (as NSW is included in the trial bubble) onward to Melbourne (where Vic not in the bubble).
“We’ll take the dirty backpackers flying in from Sydney, but only if they’ve been milling about in King’s Cross bars for months, not if they’re fresh from the country with the best pandemic response in the world.”
NSW Eases Restrictions, Allowing Protests; Victorians Protests Easing Restrictions
Sovereign Citizens across NSW are baffled as to their next move, since new eased restrictions specifically allow for organised protests to occur. So now they are allowed to protest, but have nothing to protest about.
Meanwhile, Victorian rabble-rousers couldn’t keep it in for two more days till restrictions had been slated to ease further, with a gathering of 200 protesters on Friday, in breach of restrictions leading to 96 penalty notices and 16 arrests by police.
The protesters had obviously already made the ‘essential’ trip to buy supplies to make their signs, and didn’t want their nonsensical argument with the Bunnings staff to have been for nothing.
Meanwhile in Thailand, Protests Are About Actual Political Corruption
Protest tension is increasing in Thailand, where tens of thousands have congregated in spite of a recently introduced ban on gatherings, and after police had used water cannons to control the crowd earlier in the week. The protests are against the legitimacy of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha’s election win last year, as well mounting open criticisms of the royal family, who spend most of their time in Europe.
Criticising the royal family is illegal in Thailand. It’s like how you can’t say anything when you’re at a dinner party where the host has undercooked the roast chicken, even though everyone in the room is thinking it. At least it would be if you could be banned from future dinner parties for up to 15 years for speaking up.
As an Australian, it’s hard to knock someone who lives in a western country and only visits Asia a few weeks a year to catch up on the tan and throw back a few Singha lagers. Then again, I’m not the King of Thailand.