Rights, Rorts and Rants

In part two of this broadcast Sam talks about his own struggles with mental health and addiction, and discusses the motivation behind one of his songs, written while on a train from the blue mountains, about the addictive nature of screens and their effects. This episode was first broadcast on Radio Blue Mountains 89.1FM on 19/11/2020. If you'd like to add to the discussion, you can leave an audio...

In this episode Deb Smith, the Secretary of Blue Mountains Unions and Community, takes a look at the industrial relations legislation proposed by the Morrison government and the effects it will have on the process of enterprise bargaining and workers ability to negotiate fair wages and conditions. Unionists and community members fought hard against this legislation and the cross benchers listened....

Uncle Lex Dadd is a Warmuli man and senior Darug custodian. He has shared culture for over 20 years as Burangilli, and is now Cultural Consultant of the Blue Mountains Aboriginal Cultural Resource Centre. He is also an Adjunct Fellow at the Macquarie University’s Discipline of Geography & Planning, where he leads the Yanama budyari gumada research collective. His show ‘Budyari baya - Good Talk...

In this episode, we hear an activist's story of a successful industrial dispute in the Blue Mountains hospitality industry and the impact of WorkChoices on two workers when former BMUC member Ken Zajicek joins us. Ken was an activist, union delegate at the Fairmont Resort in the Blue Mountains and an Organiser for United Voice (formerly the LHMU, now the United Workers' Union . Ken now lives on th...

In this interview presented by Merran McLaren on Rights, Rorts and Rants, BMUC member Susan Lammiman tells the remarkable story of how, in 1996, she and five other women from Teesside, Northern England set off on an overland adventure with an important mission.  The mission the six women undertook was to take a truck borrowed from the local Labor Council and "Fran's Volvo",  from Middlesbrough acr...

The  performers featured on this podcast who will be performing at Sing It! Say It! are singer Trash Baby and rapper Deej Aye.  BMUC's Fran Dyson is joined on Rights, Rorts and Rants by co-presenters Quinlan Semenetz (aka Quinlan Cementhead) and Corin Shearston.  With interviews and live performances the show showcases performers  who have entered Sing It! Say It! (to be held o...

BMUC's Fran Dyson is joined on Rights, Rorts and Rants by co-presenters Quinlan Semenetz (aka Quinlan Cementhead) and Corin Shearston.  With interviews and live performances the show showcases artists who have entered Sing It! Say It! 2020 to be held on 19 December at 6.30pm at the Family Hotel in Katoomba . All welcome.   On this podcast ie Part 1 of the 4th December show, you will hear...

Viv Langford is an experienced presenter of Beyond Zero a show on community radio station 3CR Melbourne.   Her show Beyond Zero (Mondays 5.00 - 6.00) is sponsored by Beyond Zero Emissions a not for profit climate change think tank.  Beyond Zero communicates what is happening in Beyond Zero Emissions and community campaigns around the country, as well as the latest science and the cl...

The right to protest has been withdrawn during Covid so it is topical that BMUC presenter Nick Franklin recently interviewed activist Stephen Langford on Rights, Rorts and Rants.  Stephen was arrested for sticking a pamphlet on a Governor Macquarie statue in Sydney and spent a "horrendous" couple of nights locked up for it.  Stephen doggedly protests every Friday at Sydney Town Hall &nbs...

Trish Doyle offers her first hand perspectives  as Nick Franklin follows up on an earlier interview with Trish. He asks about the big question of how Government is responding to last summer's bushfire crisis.  Trish explains an important amendment to bushfire legislation she achieved to ensure a review every 3 months as to how government is meeting report recommendations.   The inte...

Deb Smith talks to BMUC members and NSW Teachers Federation union organisers Annette Bennett, TAFE Organiser, and Pat Donohue, City Organiser organising in the Blue Mountains, about issues affecting school and TAFE education.    " To return TAFE to the preeminent provider it was, requires a return to recurrent guaranteed funding and increased funding". If you'd like to add to the discuss...

Fran Dyson's guests are RRR regulars and BMUC members Warren Ross, Kerry Brown and Jeanie Baxter. The panel who question, analyse and amuse listeners with their different takes on renewables (the myth we can have it all), The Jobs Reset Summit - 2020 World Economic Forum (kids will have to become entrepreneurs),  green billionaires (think Elon Musk) and pointless jobs (overpaid company direct...

Sarah Redshaw has 'lived in the mountains since the 80's".  She has worked in social research for over 20 years.  She has developed and conducted a number of research studies on young peoples engagement with cars, health related projects including bereavement support in community nursing, community engagement and resilience, and much more.  She now works across the Faculty of Arts a...

At a time when corruption and standards expected of politicians are in the news Ann-Maree McEwan interviews BMUC members Mike Holland and Marilla North on Rights, Rorts and Rants. They have written a paper with Peter Lammiman for the BMUC (Blue Mountains Unions and Community) on "Federal ICAC".    The interview covers Transparency International  7 key areas for measuring and rating...

Jan O'Leary was a guest on  Rights, Rorts and Rants on 13 November.  Jan is an activist, founder of Stop Coal Seam Gas Blue Mountains and BMUC member.  "Out in the Pilliga forest, near Narrabri, in North West NSW, gas giant Santos want to drill 850 coal seam gas wells. It's the only CSG production project proposed in NSW, and farmers, Traditional Owners and environmentalists have be...

Associate Professor Nick McGuigan is the Director of Education at the Monash University Business School (Melbourne) but has been marooned in Katoomba for months.  In this fascinating interview he shares his ideas and future thinking on accounting,  the imperative for us to operate in bioregions and reduce out reliance on imports, components of good governance and more.   He also sha...

What's going on with elections in Bolivia, South America?  We don't hear very much about Bolivian politics in Australia.  James Dawes - school student, BMUC member and presenter of this show, dived into Bolivia's recent political history and shared his knowledge and insights with us on Rights, Rorts and Rants.   If you'd like to add to the discussion, you can leave an audio comment...

The BMUC's Debra Smith, Nick Franklin and Peter Lammiman recently spoke to the Member for Blue Mountains, Trish Doyle.   The conversation covered state politics, unanswered questions about the highway duplication at Blackheath " There needs to be a lot more transparency before they get their shovels ready " (Trish Doyle) and Labor and Greens instigation of so called coercive control bills aim...

Blue Mountains Unions Council's Nick Franklin and Deb Smith invited Ms Susan Templeman MP into the studio to discuss topical issues of interest to listeners .....  Susan's response to the government's outline for a federal integrity body,  alleged dodgy land deals around Western Sydney Airport, Labor policy on the environment and their Budget Reply policy to cut the cost of child care an...

A  Legislative Council report entitled " Health impacts of exposure to poor levels of air quality resulting from bushfire and drought " (Report 54, September 2020) recommends that the Government continues its air quality monitoring programme.  This reinforces the utmost importance for groups in the Mountains and Lithgow to continue a long running campaign for air monitoring equipment to...

Michael Thomson is the State Secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union NSW.  Prior to working for the union Michael's career background was in universities.  He provides listeners with the latest on the crisis in Australian universities.   Michael estimates job losses of 30,000 people in the uni sector.  Universities are billion dollar businesses largely reliant on &nb...

On Rights, Rorts and Rants we meet Farm It Forward founder Emmanuela (Manu) Prigioni and farmer James Broughton.  Farm It Forward is a Blue Mountain's movement and the creation of founder Manu Prigioni.  It connects older residents with land to spare with younger individuals who farm that back yard to produce veggies and fruit for the older resident and the farmer with spare food being s...

The discussion kicks off  with David Graeber speaking on the Origins of Democracy (in America).  Presenter Fran Dyson with Councillor Kerry Brown and BMUC member Warren Ross share their observations in the studio and BMUC member Jeanie Baxter provides written input on the many facets and extent of privatisation in Australia.   Their discussion includes whether democracy is work...

Blue Mountains Councillor Kerry Brown and BMUC member Warren Ross unpack benefits and negative impacts of proposed and current infrastructure projects in and around the Blue Mountains.  Is Western Sydney Airport still viable?  How will increased population around the Western Sydney Airport be employed?  Why not invest in high speed rail infrastructure between capital cities?  W...

Presenter Fran Dyson and BMUC member Warren Ross' fascinating discussion of debt, money, neoliberalism, impotent government and economics under the broader banner of privatisation.  Close to the untimely passing of American anthropologist and activist David Graeber on 2 September at 59,  Fran and Warren acknowledge Graeber's significant book "Debt: The first 5000 years".   Amer...