Subject ACT: Recent Episodes
Subject ACT
From local to global, SubjectACT brings you stories that impact and influence our community. Covering everything from politics and education to arts and entertainment, we bring you insight and depth each week with SubjectACT. Canberra 2XXfm 98.3.
From Local to Global will be picking up where SubjectACT left off. From Local to Global is a new current affairs program that will be launching on Canberra community radio 2XX in late August, 2022. We’ll be covering local Canberra stories as well as national and international stories that make a difference to our community. Importantly, we’d like you to join us on this journey and be part of shaping this dynamic new program. Find out how...
Canberra Refugee Support provides good neighbour support to families from refugee backgrounds living in Canberra. In 2022, this local charity is supporting more families than ever before. CRS President, Doug Hynd, discusses the work of CRS and the challenges it faces in 2022.
Join Virginia Haussegger AM for a very stimulating, hopeful and wide ranging conversation about gender equality plus so much more. First aired in 2021.
Virginia is an award winning journalist, gender equity advocate and communication strategist. Many of you may remember her as our local ABC News presenter.
Australia's new security partnership, AUKUS, will see Australia acquiring nuclear powered submarines, and yet, such a significant development has had little scrutiny, particularly within the Australian parliament. Dr Sue Wareham, Medical Association for the Prevention of War, discusses AUKUS and the risks it poses in escalating nuclear militarisation and conflict in the Indo Pacific region.
Helen Oakey, Executive Director, Conservation Council, ACT Region talks about the biodiversity value of this block of land in Molonglo, why everybody’s talking about it, and what’s being done to save it from the developers’ bulldozers.
More info: https://conservationcouncil.org.au/
Kristen Sutcliffe, audiologist and bassoonist with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, outlines the CSO and Better Hearing Canberra’s free concert program for music lovers that live with hearing loss. It starts next Tuesday, 1 March, so be quick! For ticket enquiries call 62626772.
More info: https://cso.org.au/event/rediscovering-music-2022-1/
Join Helen Oakey, Executive Director of the Conservation Council ACT Region in this summer edition encore interview. The Conservation Council’s Save Lawson Grassland campaign aims to stop the Defence Housing Australia from building a suburb right over critically endangered grassland here in Canberra.
Also in the show: The Tassie Devil – Aussie Ark rewilding mainland Australia.
Join Michelle Robertson, CEO, RSPCA ACT, as she talks about the tips and tricks to help your pet adjust to life after lockdown, plus how to keep your forever friends safe and happy over the holiday season.
RSPCA Adopt a Pet: https://www.rspca-act.org.au/adopt-pet
Hearing the news that you have a spinal cord injury is devastating, and the world as you know it changes forever. Patrick Will, Co-ordinator of the Peer & Family Support team, SCIA, talks about a new service in Canberra that’s there to help you navigate your way forward.
Spinal Cord Injuries Australia: https://scia.org.au/
E: info@scia.org.au T: 1800 819 775
Refugees trapped in Indonesia, with no work or education rights, live without economic security and have little prospect of finding permanent resettlement in a third country. Canberra's Hanalei Bickley is swimming the length of Lake Burley Griffin to raise money in her bid to secure freedom for on refugee in Indonesia, her friend, Elijah.
The tragic drowning of a close friend from a refugee background has prompted Annie Gao and Clare McBride Kelly to establish the Refugee & Migrant Swimming Project, in partnership with Royal Life Saving ACT. This project will provide people living in Canberra from a refugee and migrant background to learn swimming and critical water skills.
It’s FrogID Week and you can help make frogs count! Thousands of sick and dying frogs are being reported across Australia. What’s going on? Dr Jodi Rowley explains the urgency and need for us to learn about our froggy friends and how to join this citizen science project.
FrogID Week: https://australian.museum/event/frogid-week-2021/
Dr Dana Bergstrom, winner of the National 2021 Eureka Prize for Leadership in Innovation and Science, talks about changes in the Antarctic environment and ecosystem collapse from Antarctica to the Australian tropics. How can we best respond?
Dr Dana Bergstrom, Eureka Prize winner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0UUfEX2dS8
@AusAntarctic #AusAntarctic
Operation Not Forgotten is a potential lifeline for refugees subject to Australia's offshore detention regime to resettle and rebuild their lives in Canada under that country's Community Sponsorship Program. Three Canberra women - Sister Jane Keogh, Robyn Fetter and Julie Demicoli - with Operation Not Forgotten, speak about creating a pathway of freedom for people who have been in Australia's immigration detention for 9 years and more.
In October 2001, a small fishing boat left Indonesia with over 400 people en route to Australia dreaming of safety, reuniting with family and building a home. Tragically, 353 people died when the SIEV X sank. The background to this horrific event was John Howard's 2001 election during which people seeking asylum were demonised and scapegoated. We commemorate the SIEV X, honour those who lost their lives and remember their families 20 years on.
After well over three years, the Muruguppan family is finally out of prison like immigration detention. But they are still prevented from returning to their home and community in the Queensland town of Biloela as the youngest daughter remains held in community detention. Home to Bilo campaign lead, Angela Fredericks, discusses the situation facing the family and the campaign to get them home.
Join Jeannie Paterson, Professor of Law at the University of Melbourne, as she discusses the use of artificial intelligence and facial recognition data in Australia: permutations, ramifications, and why we should care!
Environmental activists, Anna Molan and Elle Lawless, share their story of a direct action on the Newcastle port in 2018 to protest the climate damage caused by coal mining and government inaction to address climate change.
Building on the success of their first survey of Canberra women, YWCA Canberra is returning to survey women and non-binary persons aged 16 years and over, to build a snapshot of what life is like for these groups in the ACT.
Subject ACT caught up with Frances Crimmins, CEO, YWCA Canberra to chat about this survey.
You can take their 15 minute survey by following this link:
Our Lives: Women in the ACT survey: https://ywca-canberra.org.au/advocacy/the-our-lives-women-in-the-act-survey-returns-for-2021/
Roundabout Canberra is a local Canberra charity supporting new mums, dads and children in need with essential quality items. CEO Jeanette Dyer talks about the work of Roundabout Canberra and the impact that the Covid 19 lockdown is having on the charity and the families they are supporting.
Canberra's domestic and family violence services are essential services and will remain open during lockdown. You can contact the YWCA Domestic Violence Support Service during business hours on 6185 2000.
If you need to urgently leave your relationship or require crisis support, call:
· The Domestic Violence Crisis Service 24/7: 6280 0900
· 1800 RESPECT 24/7: 1800 737 732
· Or call 000 if you’re experiencing an emergency.
Chris Johnson, WWF-Australia, speaks about the impacts of climate change, Antarctic tourism and geo-political forces, while Anna Kelly, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania, talks about her discovery of microplastics in the Anatarctic sea ice and the implications of that finding.
Microplastic pollution in sea ice: https://www.imas.utas.edu.au/news/news-items/microplastic-pollution-recorded-for-first-time-in-antarctic-sea-ice
WWF in Antarctica: https://www.wwf.org.au/what-we-do/oceans/antarctica#gs.qlzlzw
In this encore episode from 2020 Garry Mills, speaker for Beyond Blue, talks openly about his own experience of depression, how he came through, and how to get support while in lockdown.
Also in the show: Frances Crimmins, CEO, YWCA Canberra, talks about their survey, ‘Our Lives: Women in the ACT’.
Beyond Blue: https://www.beyondblue.org.au/
Our Lives: Women in the ACT 2021 Survey: https://ywca-canberra.org.au/advocacy/the-our-lives-women-in-the-act-survey-returns-for-2021/
The campaign to stop the Adani coal mine from going ahead is being waged in cities and towns across Australia as well as at the Carmichael Basin mine site itself and the Bowen coal port. Annie Close, from the Stop Adani Canberra Group, joins us to discuss the campaign and its strategies for climate justice.
Extinction Rebellion has the strategy of non-violent direct action at the core of their fight to climate justice. Karlo Paasonen discusses the theory and practice of NVDA and the challenge of building a mass movement to stop climate change.
The Practical Guide to Law and Protest in the ACT takes activists through planning and preparing for protests and non-violent direct action in the ACT. The Guide ranges from permissions to defamation and rights and obligations if you are arrested. Vanessa Sporne, from GreenLaw discusses.
In 2017 Subject ACT’s Nathan Gruber sat down with Richard Denniss from the Australia Institute to talk about Richard’s book: ‘Curing Affluenza: How to buy less stuff and save the world’, available through Black Inc. Don't miss it!
Secret trials, whistleblowers being charged, defendants hidden behind black screens - what's going on? Australia has more security legislation than other western democracies, how are these laws being used and what are the possible implications for the justice system in this country? Kathryn Kelly discusses the charges against lawyer, Bernard Collaery, his client Witness K and former soldier, David McBride.
With recent amendments to the Migration Act, passed by the Coalition government with ALP support, policies regarding people seeking asylum and refugees in Australia have become even more complex. Member for Canberra, Alicia Payne, discusses the recent changes and why the ALP supported them.
Join Dr Mark Browne, UNSW School of Science, as he discusses the impact of microplastics on health, current research trends, and issues that need attention.
Also in the show: Ryan Lungu, Executive Director of the Canberra Environment Centre, gives us tips and tricks on how to break up with single use plastic without feeling guilty or overwhelmed. It’s not as hard as you may think. Take the pledge today!
Microplastics: https://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/micro-plastics/11016302
Plastic Free July: https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/about-us/
Canberra Environment Centre: https://www.canberraenvironment.org/
The Save Lawson North Grassland campaign, being run by the Conservation Council, ACT Region, aims to stop the Commonwealth building a suburb right over critically endangered grassland here in Belconnen, Canberra. If you don’t live in the Belconnen area you may think, ‘what’s this got to do with me?’ Well, this development, if it goes ahead, will significantly extend the suburb of Lawson across a lot of critically endangered grassland land and it will leave us all the poorer for it.
Save Lawson North Grasslands: https://conservationcouncil.org.au/nature-waterways/save-lawson-north-grasslands/
Locals at Manyana are lobbying hard to save patches of unburnt bush, bush that has become a haven for the flora and fauna that escaped the ravages of the 2019/20 summer fires, but which is now under threat of development. This development proposal has implications for all who are concerned about Australia’s biodiversity.
Manyana Conservation Fund: https://fnpw.org.au/news/latest-news/fnpw-launches-manyana-conservation-fund/