Acknowledgement of Country//

News Headlines//

Avery Howard, Vice President of the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union (AUWU) and JobSeeker recipient, speaks with us on the 5th anniversary of the COVID-19 supplement about the drastic and immediate impact that it had to alleviate poverty for nearly a million people across so-called Australia. The Morrison Government’s subsequent decision to end the supplement plunged welfare recipients back into poverty, sparking widespread condemnation by anti-poverty activists. The AUWU, Anti-Poverty Network South Australia, Antipoverty Centre, Anti-Poverty Network Queensland, and Nobody Deserves Poverty are commemorating the anniversary with a press conference today at Parliament House, as well as an online event on Monday the 24th of March reflecting on the impacts of the COVID-19 supplement and its significance for welfare recipients.//

Last Saturday the 15th of March, a vigil was held outside the State Library of Victoria on the anniversary of the Christchurch mosque massacre in 2019, honouring the 51 lives lost in this tragedy. We hear singing and words of cross-community solidarity shared at the rally by Jasmine, Zari, and other members of the local Māori community, with speakers introduced by MC Sara Baarini.//

We hear a speech by Nina, a member of Formerly Incarcerated Girls Justice Advocates Melbourne (FIGJAM), at the snap action for Poccum’s Law held on Parliament steps this past Tuesday the 18th of March to condemn the Victorian Labor Government’s new ‘tough on crime’ bail bill. Nina was introduced by Maggie Munn, proud Gungarri advocate, who is the First Nations Justice advocate at Human Rights Law Centre. During the rally, attendees learned that the Bail Amendment (Tough Bail) Bill 2025 passed the Legislative Assembly with only three votes against. The bill inserts significant restrictions to bail access and has been widely condemned by Aboriginal community-controlled organisations, the community legal sector, family violence prevention organisations and youth support organisations for its regressive approach that will increase rates of incarceration for both children and adults in Victoria. Read the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Services' 'Bail Saves Lives: Poccum’s Law is the Way Forward' statement here, and Flat Out's media statement on the bail laws here.//

Dr James Martin is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Director of the Bachelor of Criminology at Deakin University. He's a leading researcher in the field of black markets, cybercrime, and the dark web illicit drug trade, as well as a Tobacco Harm Reduction Advisor for Harm Reduction Australia. In this interview, Dr Martin breaks down where law enforcement clashes with proven harm reduction approaches, how the dark web functions, and lays out australia's approach to vaping. He also discusses what's going on with vaping regulations, enforcing this law, changing societal perceptions of nicotine, and moral panics.//