Vincent Namatjira is in the news again because Gina Rinehart is a truly awful person.
I think his painting is a pretty good likeness. It's recognisable to the point of being iconic. It captures her disdain for Black people perfectly, just as his painting of Tony Abbott captured the fake smile and witless eyes of our former Prime Minister.
I want to congratulate the ABC journalist who appears to have found the reference photo used by the artist, Vincent Namatjira, and put the photo side-by-side with the painting.
Compare them.
Before you say "This painting is not a good likeness" or "The artist is trying to make her look ugly", look at both images.
Now, look at the shit Gina Rinehart has done to the land with her resource extraction while making herself one of the richest people in the world with an estimated wealth of $30 billion.
And, look at Gina Rinehart's refusal to separate herself from her father's appallingly racist words.
Here's a sample:
"Nothing should be sacred from mining whether it’s your ground, my ground, the Blackfella's ground or anybody else’s. So the question of Aboriginal land rights and things of this nature shouldn’t exist."
And:
"[Aboriginal people] that have been assimilated into, you know, earning good living or earning wages amongst the civilised areas, those that have been accepted into society and they have accepted society and can handle society, I’d leave them well alone.
The ones that are no good to themselves and can’t accept things, the half-castes - and this is where most of the trouble comes - I would dope the water up so that they were sterile and would breed themselves out in future and that would solve the problem."
What is Australia's fair share when it comes to financing the necessary climate transition?
In a headline today, the Australian government has pledged AU$150m in #ClimateFinance for Pacific nations.
Good news, right? Isn't this PM Anthony #Albanese "ending the #ClimateWars" by actually doing what #Australia ought to have done years ago? Let's consider that assumption.
Back in 2009 at the much hyped, but ultimately deeply disappointing international climate negotiations in #Copenhagen known as #COP15, one step forward that was agreed, even as more comprehensive or ambitious agreements slipped away was that the wealthy nations of the world (including #Australia) collectively pledged to be providing US$100b each year to help the poorer nations transition away from #FossilFuels (#ClimateMitigation) and develop in ways that help societies adapt to the warming that cannot be mitigated (#ClimateAdaptation).
1/8
When the #GreenClimateFund was being established, Australia's Prime Minister was #TonyAbbott, a #ClimateDenier, who had won the 2013 federal election promising to dismantle the baby steps towards a #ClimatePolicy the previous #Labor government had made.
So there was little surprise when PM Abbott announced in Nov 2013 that #Australia would be contributing a massive sum of $0 to the Green Climate Fund.
At the time, he claimed Australia would chip in AU$200m (then =USD$187m) over four years, but since this was merely a rebranding of existing #ForeignAid, it clearly didn't count as "new and additional funding", a fact that most journalists blithely ignored, falling for the bait-and-switch. Or we might say instead that the Australian government was overstating its foreign aid commitments by $200m over those years.
Nonetheless, the four years were soon gone, as was Tony Abbott, as well as his successor #MalcolmTurnbull, who in turn had been replaced as PM by #ScottMorrison. When it came time to pledge again in 2018, Morrison announced Australia would be pulling out of the Green Climate Fund entirely, a path also taken by the #Trump administration at the time, whom Morrison was often cribbing notes from when it came to what kinds of #cruelty and #selfishness he could get away with.
5/8
Why is this guy even still allowed do to anything but go fishing?
"Former #Australian prime minister #TonyAbbott, a director of the UK’s principal #climate science #denial group, the Global Warming Policy Foundation (#GWPF), has been reappointed by the government as an adviser to the prestigious Board of Trade.
The Board of Trade provides advice to the government on its trade deals with foreign countries, which often encompass environmental and climate standards. "