What a year! At the end of 2020 we can’t even gather people in a pub to talk about how terrible it was. Well we can. But we shouldn’t. So we didn’t. We did this instead.
In this ridiculously long episode of The 9pm Edict, I chat separately and remotely with four very special guests to consider what happened in 2020 and what it might mean for 2021.
- Award-winning satirist Mark Humphries (@markhumphries) of 7.30 fame etc, inaugural champion of Mastermind Australia, former co-presenter of Pointless Australia, and much more.
- Health and science reporter Tegan Taylor (@teegstar), co-presenter of ABC Radio’s excellent Coronacast.
- Journalist Osman Faruqi (@oz_f), editor of the 7am podcast, among other things.
- Yun Jiang (@yun_aus), editor of The China Story blog at ANU and a director of China Policy Centre. Also one of the people that Senator Eric Abetz kicked off at.
We talk about so, so many things, including journalism, quokkas and quolls, the Melbourne lockdown, savoury biscuits, COVID-19 (obviously), China, Scott Morrison, birds, the politics of policing, the economy, Donald Trump (also obviously), and much much more.
And it’s all punctuated by my own musings on the magnificent and most memorable year that was 2020.
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This episode it’s thanks to Dave Gaukroger, Franksting, Kimberley Heitman, and two people who choose to remain anonymous.
And of course it’s thanks once again to all the people who supported The 9pm End of Spring 2020, listed here for one last time.
CONVERSATION TOPICS: David King, Phillip Merrick, and Tim Holland.
THREE TRIGGER WORDS: Christopher Neal, John Lindsay, Joop de Wit, Rami, Wyld, and two people who choose to remain anonymous.
ONE TRIGGER WORD: Andrew Groom, Benno Rice, Crispin Harris, Edward Thompson, Frank Filippone, John Twyman, Jon Eaves, Jonathan Ferguson, Karl Sinclair, Mark Newton, Matthew Moyle-Croft, Michael Cowley, Mick Fong, Paul Williams, Peter Blakeley, Peter Sandilands, Scott Reeves, Wade Bowmer, and four people who choose to remain anonymous.
FOOT SOLDIERS FOR MEDIA FREEDOM who gave a SLIGHTLY LESS BASIC TIP: Andrew Kennedy, Bob Ogden, Chris Lawrence, Coralie Naumann, David Heath, deejbah, dfk, Drew Mayo, Emma Cooper, Garth Kidd, Katie McLaughlin, Karloscar Hall, Leanne O’Donnell, Mathew McBride, Matthew Hall, Michael Harris, Michael Keating, Michael Rowe, Paris Lord, Peter McCrudden, Ric Hayman, Rohan Pearce, Smurfingbeer, Stacey Ryan, Stu Annels, Susan Rankin, Syl Mobile, Tim Bell, and seven people who choose to remain anonymous.
MEDIA FREEDOM CITIZENS who contributed a BASIC TIP: Anthony Agius, Daniel O’Connor, Errol Cavit, Greg Randolph, Jason Anderson, Kate Carruthers, Lucas James, Peter Viertel, Raena Jackson Armitage, and five people who choose to remain anonymous.
And another 11 people chose to have no reward, even though some of them were the most generous of all.
Episode Links
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[4 January 2020] Fires ravaged towns and bushland across the state, rapidly spreading amid extreme weather conditions.
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The 2019–20 Australian bushfire season,[a] colloquially known as Black Summer,[13][16] was a period of unusually intense bushfires in many parts of Australia.
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[2 June 2020] President Trump vows to send U.S. troops onto the streets of American cities if local officials cannot control the violent protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd.
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[6 August 2020] In Beirut, rescue workers are sifting through debris from a massive warehouse explosion Tuesday that killed more than 100 people and injured thousands more. NBC chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel reports for TODAY.
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On 4 August 2020, a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the port of the city of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, exploded, causing at least 204 deaths, 6,500 injuries, and US$15 billion in property damage, and leaving an estimated 300,000 people homeless.
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[23 January 2020] Gwyneth Paltrow talks about different cleanses and Goop’s sold-out candle that she named “This Smells Like My Vagina.”
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[20 April 2015] A couple years ago a Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report gave us a snapshot of just where this explosive inequality bubble is headed, reminding us of something far worse than the 1929 Crash, but of the 1790s when inequality triggered the French Revolution, and 17,000 lost their heads under the guillotine.
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[23 January 2020] Late December 2019, doctors began seeing a new type of viral pneumonia — fever, cough, difficulty breathing — in people who worked at or visited a seafood market in the suburbs of Wuhan in China. Since then, hundreds more cases have been reported and a handful of people have died.
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[19 March 2020] Australia will ban any non-citizens from entering the country from tomorrow night to stop the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
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[1 August 2020] New South Wales has recorded its first coronavirus-related death in several weeks. The death toll on Saturday rose to 52 after an 83-year-old man died after being diagnosed with the virus.
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[30 July 2020] Victoria has recorded its deadliest day since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, with 13 new deaths in the past 24 hours.
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[20 November 2020] Coronavirus cases continue to soar across the country, including in New York City, where all in-person school classes are shutting down Thursday, forcing millions of families to scramble. NBC’s Kathy Park reports for TODAY.
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[14 December 2020] The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus topped 300,000 Monday just as the country began dispensing COVID-19 shots in a monumental campaign to conquer the outbreak.
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Coronacast is a podcast that answers your questions about coronavirus. We break down the latest news and research to help you understand how the world is living through a pandemic.
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[29 December 2020] NSW recorded three locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night, with an additional six cases in returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
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Health and science journo for @ABCScience but I mostly tweet nonsense memes. Views are my own.
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[5 July 2020] Authorities have worked through the night to supply thousands of Melbourne housing commission residents in "hard lockdown" with essential supplies, amid a growing coronavirus outbreak within the tower blocks. It comes as the Victorian government announces hardship payments for the residents, who became trapped inside their own homes without warning yesterday.
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[6 July 2020] A man has been taken into custody after biting a police officer while attempting to flee one of the Melbourne public housing towers in lockdown. Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said police were assaulted when the 32-year-old man tried to escape one of the Flemington public housing towers.
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[7 July 2020] Five million people have again been put under stay-at-home restrictions in the state of Victoria in Australia.
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Editor of @7ampodcast, writer for @SatPaper, columnist for @NME. Co-host, Read The Room on @3RRRFM.
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Osman Faruqi is a journalist and the editor of 7am, Schwartz Media’s daily news podcast. [This page lists the stories by Osman Faruqi discussed in this episode of The 9pm Edict.]
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[8 August 2020] There are two striking aspects of Australia’s response to coronavirus: the first is that it’s being increasingly led as a police issue, and the second is that this is happening while the rest of the world works to reform and curtail police powers. As other democracies talk about abolition, we’re sending armed officers into housing blocks and calling it public health.
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[22 December 2020] NSW Police slapped the penalties on motorists who were caught using their phones while they waited up to six hours for virus tests on Saturday, amid the outbreak that is spreading across Sydney.
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Two consecutive mass shootings occurred at mosques in a terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, during Friday Prayer on 15 March 2019. The attack, carried out by a single gunman who entered both mosques, began at the Al Noor Mosque in the suburb of Riccarton at 1:40 pm and continued at Linwood Islamic Centre at 1:52 pm. He killed 51 people and injured 40.
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[4 September 2020] As the Australian-born terrorist who killed 51 worshippers at two Christchurch mosques was sentenced to life without parole this week, questions are being raised about the Australian government’s ability and willingness to monitor far-right extremism.
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The report, Ko t? t?tou k?inga t?nei: Royal Commission of Inquiry into the terrorist attack on Christchurch masjidain on 15 March 2019, was released to the public on 8 December 2020.
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[9 December 2020] New Zealand's inquiry found YouTube and Facebook were central to the right-wing mass murderer's radicalisation, but detecting the lone-wolf attacker would have required connecting dots they didn't have.
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[23 April 2020] Australia's call for an international probe into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic has drawn sharp criticism from China, accusing Scott Morrison's government of taking instructions from the US.
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Wang Xining tells National Press Club that Australia was ‘supposed to be a good friend of China’
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Beijing's number two diplomat in Australia says China does not interfere in Australia's internal affairs and warned Canberra to stop intervening in Beijing's affairs, in a rare public address at the National Press Club.
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[20 June 2020] Brazen and broad-scale, Beijing's cyber intrusions in Australia are becoming a threat to sovereignty and could undermine national resilience. That was the security advice which kicked off a series of events that culminated in the Prime Minister declaring on Friday that Australia was facing intensifying online attacks.
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[26 August 2020] Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack won't be drawn on who is behind the spate of cyber strikes on Australia, as China denied any part in the attacks, saying such suggestions are "baseless". But an Australian think tank is standing by its claim the attacks almost certainly came from the Asian superpower.
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A trade spat bubbling away for months between China and Australia is threatening to boil over with growing calls for the Government to consider action at the World Trade Organization.
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In the first part of this episode, Jordan Schneider, the host of ChinaTalk, sat down with Yun Jiang, a former Australian government official and an editor at the Australian National University's China Story blog, for a deep dive into the Australia-China relationship, providing much needed context on why tension has boiled over in recent months.
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Writer, @china_neican. Editor, @The_ChinaStory. A historical nihilist who likes to provoke trouble. she/they/?/?/ta
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The China Story Project consists of the Yearbook and the Blog published by the Australian Centre on China in the World (CIW) at the Australian National University.
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Petra Mason is a beef producer in Mitchell in Queensland's Maranoa Region, and she spoke to ABC NewsRadio's Thomas Oriti about the many challenges farmers have faced this year.
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We stand in solidarity with #AustraliaFlag of Australia by serving #FreedomWine at @MOFA_Taiwan. #StrongerTogether
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China announced that Australian intelligence and police had raided four of its journalists as part of a broader investigation into an alleged plot to influence an Australian state politician.
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A Senator's grilling of three Chinese Australians has ignited a fierce debate in the diaspora community, with some labelling it blatant racial profiling and others defending his call to denounce the Chinese Communist Party.
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[29 December 2020] Australia, whose early call for inquiry sparked furious Chinese response, says it expects ‘robust, independent and comprehensive’ report.
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The Pacific koel (Eudynamys orientalis), also known as the eastern koel, is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. In Australia, it is colloquially known as the rainbird or stormbird, as its call is usually more prevalent before or during stormy weather.
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It's always a risk to pronounce the words "annus horribilis" but, if ever there was a year worthy of the description, it's 2020. To say goodbye and good riddance to the year that was, Mark Humphries and his co-writer Evan Williams are chucking out everything related to the past year.
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Fortnightly sketches for @abc730. Was the standing up one on @PointlessAU and the satirical one on @thefeedsbs. Management: erin@morrissey.com.au
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Mark Humphries accepted with co-writer Evan Williams who proceeded to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press.
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Sixteen well-loved Australian celebrities will battle it out for the winning title across five weeks, facing the pressure as they answer questions based on their speciality subjects. Hosted by journalist Jennifer Byrne, each episode of Celebrity Mastermind will see one celebrity advance to the Grand Final.
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The Cook Up with Adam Liaw: We’re thrilled to announce this brand new 200-episode series which will air every weeknight at 7pm on SBS Food. We can’t tell you too much, but Adam will be joined by a range of guests from heavyweight Australian chefs, to local TV personalities to answer the age-old question: “What’s for dinner?”
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In this episode Snarky Platypus and I taste test the new Arnott’s Shapes Aussie Legends crackers, and we hear how bots and trolls are spreading disinformation about Australia’s unprecedented bushfires.
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There’s been a crisis meeting at the PM’s office about his love of curry metaphors.
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Senator Ruston was asked about the culture towards women in the Liberal Party. The Prime Minister interjected just moments into Senator Ruston's response, taking issue with the use of the words "bonk ban".
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Campbell Parkes may be an idiot but he still has his own radio show, broadcast every day at midnight to a dwindling audience. His long-suffering producer Michelle longs to pursue real journalism but instead must listen to Campbell's on-air rants about expensive cinema tickets and reusable coffee cups every night.
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[27 August 2020] Arnott’s have created a new shapes flavour based on a popular dish – but the brand’s choice of spelling has been labelled “bogan”.
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Circa 1800, the Cocktail was a “hair of the dog” morning drink that tamed spirits with water, sugar and bitters (patent medicine). The late 19th Century expanded the use of the word “cocktail” to encompass just about any mixed drink. Since then, the Old Fashioned—literally, the old-fashioned way of making a cocktail—has been our contemporary expression of the original drink.
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Made using 100% Australian grown rye sourced from a single farm in the Murray Mallee region of South Australia, The Gospel Solera Rye carries a depth of flavour that speaks to the land from which the grain was grown.
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[THIS IS NOT TRUE.] Dr. Fauci lied about masks in March. Dr. Fauci has been distorting the level of vaccination needed for herd immunity. It isn’t just him. Many in elite bubbles believe the American public doesn’t know “what’s good for them” so they need to be tricked into “doing the right thing”.
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) -There are no intensive care beds available in densely populated Southern California or the state’s agricultural San Joaquin Valley, together home to nearly 30 million people, amid a deadly surge of COVID-19, Governor Gavin Newsom said on Monday.
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This 1914 prophesy was correct. (The Commonwealth, Jan. 29, 1914)
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[24 January 2011] Oddly enough, I might end up managing my hunt for a new home more effectively and more cheaply by leaving the country next month. But even if that doesn’t happen, it looks like I’ll be in temporary digs for a while.
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Series Credits
- The 9pm Edict theme by mansardian via The Freesound Project.
- Edict fanfare by neonaeon, via The Freesound Project.
- Elephant Stamp theme by Joshua Mehlman.