Thursday, 1 December, 2022
The former PM is censured; new minerals in a meteorite; the Socceroos’ big morning; and Wednesday sets a record.
LINKS
Mathew Leckie’ legendary goal:https://www.foxsports.com.au/football/world-cup/fifa-world-cup-2022-australia-vs-denmark-live-updates-blog-socceroos-score-result-start-time-how-to-watch-highlights-video-stream/news-story/17ae13a30f6506b02bb0f852825302a6
The scene in Melbourne’s Fed Square after the Aussie goal: https://twitter.com/SBSSportau/status/1597990541454880768
Squiz Kids + Lego ‘Build To Give’ Christmas Campaign
Help Lego give away Lego sets to families in need this Christmas.
- Build something using Lego
- Share your creation to Instagram (a story or a post)
- Tag @ squizkids and #buildtogive
We’ll re-share your post on our Instagram, and on December 9, reveal just how generous Squiz Kids are …
Newshounds – Get started on our free media literacy resource for classrooms:
www.squizkids.com.au/newshounds
Stay up to date with us on our Squiz Kids Instagram!
Got a birthday coming up and you want a shout-out? Complete the form on our Squiz Kids website. Link: SHOUT OUTS or / send us an email at [email protected]
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
THE LOWDOWN
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There was high drama in Canberra yesterday, when Parliament voted 86 to 50 to censure former Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
First things first: what does “censure” mean? Spelled c-e-n-s-u-r-e, it means severe disapproval, expressed in a formal way… in this case, by MPs voting publicly to condemn Mr Morrison’s behaviour. It comes from the Latin word ‘censura’, which means judgement or opinion, and no Australian Prime Minister, or former PM, has ever been censured before.
So, what led to this censure? Well, during the COVID pandemic, Mr Morrison secretly appointed himself to 5 government ministries. A minister is the political head of a government department – there’s a health minister, an education minister… you get the idea.
Mr Morrison, who was Prime Minister, secretly made himself the minister of five other departments, without telling the original ministers, and without telling his Cabinet – the people who were his closest colleagues in government. He also did not inform the departments that he’d made himself the boss of; nor the Parliament.
Mr. Morrison, who is still a member of Parliament, refused to apologise, and yesterday defended his actions, saying he was proud of how he led Australia through the worst of the pandemic. But the independent judge who investigated said that the former PM’s actions had “little if any connection to the pandemic”, and had “corroded” trust in government.
You may have heard about corrosion before in science – acid rain, for example, corrodes buildings, meaning it slowly damages and destroys them. In this case, the report said that Mr. Morrison’s actions had corroded Australians’ trust in government.
It’s important to note that Mr Morrison did nothing illegal – but those who voted to censure him said that his actions fell far below the standards expected of a member of Parliament.
The new leader of the Liberal Party, Peter Dutton, said that the censure was a political stunt – meaning that he thought the Labor government was only doing it to score political points. Meanwhile, the new PM, Anthony Albanese, has promised to introduce laws this week to make sure secret appointments can’t happen again.
SPIN THE GLOBE
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Each day we give the world globe a spin and find a news story from wherever it stops… and today we’ve landed in Somalia, where a massive meteorite that landed in the desert there has brought excitement and joy to the scientific community. A meteorite is what you call a meteoroid that didn’t burn up as it entered Earth’s atmosphere, and this particular meteorite has just been found to contain at least two minerals never before seen on earth. As in, the only way we know about them is because they arrived from space. How cool is that?
The 15-tonne meteorite was found by scientists in 2020, and scientists called it El Ali, after the closest town, so one of the brand new minerals has been named “elaliite”. The second is “elkinstantonite”, in honour of a NASA scientist called Lindy Elkins-Tanton, who does a lot of work on how planets form.
By studying the meteorite more, scientists hope to learn whether the new minerals could have a practical use on Earth. I’ll say it again… how cool is that?
SPORT TIME
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(Yawn). Oh my goodness, am I tired! But I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. I’m talking, of course, about Australia’s Socceroos shocking the world extremely early this morning and beating Denmark 1-0 in the FIFA World Cup.
Australia is now through to the next round of competition in soccer’s biggest tournament – only the second time in history the Socceroos have ever made it that far.
Mathew Leckie scored Australia’s goal – a video is in your episode notes – and said after the match that the team always believed they could do it. He said, “With our spirit, our belief, our work ethic and how close we are, it shows on the pitch. That last 15, 20 minutes we battled to the end.”
Only half of the 32 teams who started in Qatar make it through to the next round.
Other countries that have also won a spot in the round of 16 are: Netherlands, Senegal, England, USA, France, Brazil, and Portugal. The rest will be decided today and tonight.
It’s been an extraordinary World Cup so far, with many of the world’s powerhouse soccer countries losing matches that should have been easy for them. Lionel Messi’s Argentina, ranked third in the world, were beaten by Saudi Arabia, ranked 51; Morocco stunned Belgium; Japan shocked Germany, and then were shocked themselves by Costa Rica. And of course Australia was the lowest ranked team in our group of four… and finished with the same number of points as France, who WON the last World Cup. Just goes to show what can happen when you believe in yourself.
POP CULTURE CORNER
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Move over, Stranger Things — your Netflix record for most hours watched in a week has been broken by a new series called Wednesday. If you didn’t help rack up those 341.23 million hours of Wednesday watching in just one week, you may have no idea what I’m talking about. Wednesday is a show about a slightly spooky and supernatural kid called Wednesday, who has to solve a monster mystery at her school, Nevermore Academy.
The character of Wednesday has existed for almost 100 years – she first appeared in a series of cartoons as the daughter in the Addams family… a group of people who look like they’re always dressed up for Halloween, and who seem to enjoy it when people find them frightening. There was an Addams Family comedy TV show in the 1960s, a couple of films in the 1990s, an award-winning musical in 2010, and an animated series just in the last few years. And now, Wednesday has her own eight-episode spin-off show, sitting at the #1 spot on English language Netflix. Spooktacular. (Dad joke alarm). Aha! The dad joke alarm works on Mums, too.
CHRISTMAS with LEGO
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Hear those bells? We’ve heard them every time we talk about the Squiz Kids Christmas charity campaign, in association with LEGO.You should know the drill by now – when you build something with those beaut bright bricks, share it to Instagram, tag Squiz Kids and use the hashtag BuildtoGive, LEGO will give a LEGO set this Christmas to a family in need.
Now, when I was a teacher, I talked to my students about how important it was to take on challenges. I’d tell them I had something hard for them to do, and it was their job to say … BRING IT ON.
And so, Squiz Kids, I have a challenge for you. So far, we’ve had almost 200 posts shared to our Instagram, @squizkids, featuring incredible LEGO creations. And that is fantastic – 200 kids in need whose Christmases are going to be a lot brighter.
But I happen to know that more than 100,000 kids listen to this podcast every day. Surely we can build more, and provide more LEGO for kids whose families are struggling. Can we crack 500? 1,000?
Don’t just sit there – get building! Suggest it to your teacher as an end-of-year project… do it as a family activity after school. You can create and share as many builds as you want – just remember to tag us @squizkids, and add the hashtag BuildToGive. I’ve stuck details in today’s episode notes..
I’ve given you a challenge… now BRING IT ON.
THE SQUIZ
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This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you’ve been listening …
- Wednesday is the daughter in which pop culture family?
- Two new minerals have been discovered in a meteorite that landed in which African country?
- Which team did Australia play in this morning’s do-or-die tournament?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s December 1.. A pinch and a punch for the first day of the last month of the year…
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today ..Noah from NSW, Jet from Glenbrook, Sophie from Wyoming and Matilda from Melbourne.
Belated birthday shout outs go to…Hugh from Bowral and Elliot from Heathmont.
Classroom shoutouts go to … class 4SC and Mrs Cox at St Anthony’s Primary School in Toowoomba, and farewell to Mrs Cox; Class 5R and Mr Robinson at Croydon Public School; Year 4 and Miss Schwartz at Maitland Lutheran School; class 4C and Miss Campbell at Lane Cove West Public School, class C15 and Miss Khalaf at Craigburn Primary School, class 5/6R and Mrs Roda at Kearns Public School, year 3 and Mrs Evans at St Paul’s Catholic Primary School in Moss Vale, class 5/6F and Miss Fryer at Pymble Public School, and farewell to all of Grade 6; and lastly a special shout out to Charlotte and her class 2LB at Rouse Hill Anglican College.
The S’Quiz Answers:
- The Addams Family
- Somalia
- Denmark