Reporting on the three great traditions of January 26 since John Howard named it a holiday in 1994 - a long weekend, Invasion Day protests and Murdoch media culture wars. Upon the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz a discussion of William Cooper, Aboriginal leader who led the only public protest against the Nazi Kristallnacht in 1938, supporting the Jewish people of Germany. He also was part of the campaign begun in 1939 to make January 26th a day of mourning for Aboriginal people.

Here in 2025 on January 28th Australia begins Lunar New Year Festivals in all its major cities as well as many of its suburbs with prominent Chinese and Vietnamese communities. Hear of the big events planned in Sydney and Melbourne while in the north of Australia people face the rare occasion of five cyclones forming in the oceans from the north west of Western Australia all the way to the north east of Queensland.

Music played on RTHK3:

Thelma Plum - The Bown Snake

The Beefs - Red-Bellied Black Snake

Yothu Yindi - Jailbreak

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This week the Australian Federal government appointed two women as ministers and thus for the first time in Australian history its national government achieved gender parity in its Cabinet. Meanwhile in Washington, among the US tech broligarchy frotage there was West Australian billionaire mining oligarch Gina Rinehart, whose coal interests in Canada bely one of the reasons for her attendance and support of Trump. In Melbourne, the dull thud of tennis balls being whacked has been interrupted by all sorts of dramas involving players, a heavy drinking crowd and a TV reporter whose antics have been seen as an insult to the nation of Serbia. It's been a nice distraction from the usual culture war leading up to January 26...

Music played on RTHK3

Midnight Oil - US Forces

The Seven Ups - New World Monkeys

King Stingray - Cat 5

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Talking about the East Donnie video which went viral involving an arsonist charred with crime, and enquiries about whether this put arson hospital; opposition leader Peter Dutton launches his Australian version of MAGA, although this one spells GABOT. Phil points out this is Tagalog language for “ripped out/weeded out/pulled out”. Interestingly Peter Dutton launched his campaign in electorate stood for and lost by Hong Kong born Gladys Liu in the last election.

Meanwhile, scientists have identified three species of funnel-web spider, including one from the Newcastle region that is larger than them all, albeit with a not very creative name.

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A year after a Federal Parliamentary inquiry into the impact and influence of gambling ads on Australian people, and having received 31 proposals for banning advertising and controlling its impact on young people, the Albanese government has decided to... spend three hours debating a social media ban for the under 16s after giving the public 24 hours notice of a 12 hour public submission period before introducing legislation... backed by Peter Dutton's Federal Opposition.

With two media oligarchs also making hundreds of millions of dollars each year from gambling advertising, it's plain to see the Albanese government is not going to start a fight just before an election... Meanwhile the rantings of Elon Musk are fading down under as millions of Australians join the X-odus from Twitter to BlueSky and media organisations set up new social media presences. All of this in a week where the Macquarie dictionary people have announced the Australian Word of the Year - coined by Cory Doctorow in 2022, the word "ensh**ification" received both the Macquarie and people's choice vote for 2024's word of the year.

Music played on RTHK3:

Ella Thompson - Jigsaw

King Stingray - What's the Hurry

Emily Wurramurra - Boom Biddy Bye

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Anthony Albanese has finally united Australia to one point of view: his plan for social media bans on under 16 year old is being panned at all levels of society while Albanese tries to tell Australian parents their kids should be riding bikes like the 1970s and not being educated about electronic media and responsibility. There's an important background to this policy idea, though: the deal forcing the owner of Facebook and Instagram (Meta) to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation to selected Australian media organizations, predominantly Murdoch-managed News Corp, ended after three years earlier this year. Meanwhile, the election of Donald Trump has lead to a) Australia's ambassador to the US Dr Kevin Rudd to delete a number undiplomatic tweets b) Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong to tweet their fealty to Trump c) News Corp to begin its campaign to remake Peter Dutton in the style of Donald Trump and d) at least one person to ask questions about Australia's $200 million dollar export market in vaccines to the US now that Robert F Kennedy Jr looks to be put in charge...

Songs played on RTHK3:

King Stingray - Light Up the Path

Night Parrots - you Tried To Let Me Down

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What really happened when a democratically elected Senator from Victoria with Aboriginal heritage shouted at the descendant of a European dynasty of Kings and Queens in Canberra? Hear how Senator Thorpe a) did not heckle and b) raised issues of fact in her short and loud serve delivered to King Charles III in the Great Hall of the Australian Parliament, including the tens of thousands of Aboriginal artefacts still not returned from museums across the UK, the King's refusal to issue a similar apology to that of Kevin Rudd in 2008, the facts of the Mabo decision in 1991 declaring no such thing as "Crown land" in Australia and the bigger issue of a "treaty" - promised in 1988 but yet to be delivered, making Australia the only nation one of few not to have one with its First Nations people.

But are we missing a bigger scandal? Keen-eyed observers have noticed an item on the canape menu for the Royal reception that might just be cause for a criminal investigation behalf of the ANZAC spirit...

Songs played on RTHK3

The Cruel Sea - Just a Man

The Angels - Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again

The Seven Ups - Machine Learning



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The BBC, the British/Murdoch press are up in arms about Aussie humour in advance of 75 year old King Charles the Third making his brief visit to Australia on his way to Samoa for CHOGM; PM Albanese's republican and working class credentials in doubt after the last referendum and a multimillion dollar property purchase; Aussies don't care about royalty - it's climate change, cyclones and snakes they're worried about; the West Australian town of Carnamah joins the pantheon of Aussie towns with Big Things with the unveiling of their Big Tractor.

Songs played on RTHK3

Midnight Oil - Stand in the Line

Gut Health - Uh Oh

Horns of Leroy - It’s About Time

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