joe.toscano's blog

Why is Melbourne’s second COVID-19 lockdown important? Why have we closed down the city? Why do we practise social distancing? How is COVID-19 different to influenza?

COVID-19 is a new virus. It is something we have never been exposed to. We have no immunity. There is no vaccine. There is no cure. 20% of Australia’s population are at great risk from dying the virus.

There is at present an external threat to Australia and Australians. It goes by the name of ‘China’. The Morrison-led Coalition is gearing up for the 2022 federal election with a campaign reminiscent of the successful Menzies-led campaigns of the 1960s, the ‘Yellow Peril’ and ‘Reds Under the Bed’, which won him elections many times over, despite the economic conditions in the country at the time.

As a British colonial outpost, in a land violently taken from its people, Australia is insecure about its place in Asia. Are we worried we will have stolen what we have stolen ourselves?

Some surprising statistics were released late in 2019, before COVID-19 took hold. They revealed that Australians are the second highest medicated people for anxiety in the world. Australia has a lot going for it as a society, compared to other countries, so you have to wonder why this is the case. Is it down to the individual Australian psyche? Or does it have to do with the institutional structures we find ourselves in?

About 2,000 people every year receive Queen’s Birthday and Invasion Day honours, awarded by a private organisation. They comprise a hierarchy of gongs! At the top you have the Companion of the Order of Australia medal. Tony Abbott, no less, received this honour last week. This is the man who tried to privatise Medicare. You also have philanthropists in the mix, those tax-evading individuals granting charity to the 'deserving poor', along with has-been's and media celebrities.

What we are witnessing in the USA is a classical uprising that has crossed ethnic, social and cultural barriers. Ever increasing numbers of people have gotten out onto the streets and it hasn’t taken long for many Australians to realise that the situation in the USA is not just specific to that country but applicable here as well.

MABO DAY - Wednesday 3rd June - 28th Anniversary

27th May, the first day of Reconciliation Week, the day in 1967 when 90% of non-indigenous Australians (the highest number in referendum record) gave the Commonwealth power to legislate for indigenous Australians for the first time. Prior to this time, each Australian state and territory held this power, to deal with the ‘aboriginal problem’.

Irrespective of whether we as a nation accept or don’t accept the science behind climate change, Australians are being forced to deal with an increasing number of disasters. Despite the herculean efforts of so many Australians, many volunteers, others salaried staff from multiple agencies and institutions, the current spate of bushfires around the nation highlights we, as a people, are not adequately prepared for what is ahead of us.

Since 2002 the Reclaim the Radical Spirit of the Eureka Rebellion Celebrations Committee have organised these celebrations on Eureka Day - 3rd December, in Ballarat.

Since 2005 the Committee has awarded six Eureka Australia Medals at Bakery Hill, Ballarat (the site where the Eureka Oath was taken in 1854) at 10:00am on Eureka Day, 3rd December.

The EAM is awarded to people whose political or community activities reflect the principles embodied in the Eureka Oath which was sworn by miners and their supporters at Bakery Hill, Ballarat on the 29th November 1854 –

The Victorian Legislative seat of Northcote is located approximately five kilometres north east of Melbourne. It includes the suburbs of Alphington, Fairfield, Northcote, Thornbury and parts of Preston. The electorate is bounded by Darebin Creek in the east, Merri Creek in the west, the Yarra River in the south and Bell St in the north. It is approximately 25 square kilometres in area and approximately 55,000 people reside in the electorate. It is rapidly becoming gentrified. Significant pockets still have people on old age, disability and single parent benefits living in the electorate.