Once again, I had university assignments…they’re all done now, so we should get back to normal next week.
Well, well, well. The last two weeks have been a bit entertaining, with rants, people falling in pot plants and sandwiches being thrown.
John Madigan had a rant about a plan to give politicians bonuses depending on the number of votes they get. Now, on average an MP in the House of Representatives is representing about 100,000 people. So say John Doe, who is a member of the Funky Dancing runs for the seat of Fish Fingers (I am quite confident that there is not an MP, party or seat by those names in any state) and wins with 60,000 votes. Under this plan, he gets a $1 (1 dollar) for every vote, which is a bonus of $60,000 for him and/or his party. At least, that;’s how I assume it works, and I don’t know how it would work in the Senate, as some Senators are there with 2.3% of their state’s vote – and with preferential voting, it could be a lot more complicated. John Madigan, a Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Senator said that it was an outrage and that this was the reason “people hate politicians’ bloody guts” – Good on you John. Mind you, he’s a Victorian Senator…so I can’t vote for him. 😦
The onslaught of the sandwiches continued when Julia went to a high school in Canberra. She got another sandwich thrown her way. Why was she at a high school? Well in fact, the ACT Chief Minister, Katy Gallagher was signing the ACT up to the Gonski education reforms. Yay. The PM also let a
On a slightly sadder note, news came in this week that former Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh has cancer. It’s non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (Hodgkin’s lymphoma is more radiation sensitive), and by the sounds of it, they caught it early. Hope she gets well soon.
Quotes of the Fortnight
“There’s no money for dental care, there’s no money for single mothers, we tell everybody else to pull their belts in and then we’ve got to have more money to so-called fund democracy…We’ve got a bunch of people that are so disconnected from what the average person on the street’s hopes [and] aspirations are, it’s just un-bloody-believable. What message are we sending to people? The message isn’t good. And we wonder why there’s such a high informal vote. We wonder why people hate politicians’ bloody guts – well it’s on display here for the whole world to see.” – John Madigan sticking it to the man.
“Perhaps he thought I was hungry” – Julia Gillard, answering a press question about the sandwich.
“Watch my tea!” – NSW Labor Senator Doug Cameron
Tweet of the Fortnight
Julia Gillard’s nod to the State of Origin – Gonski Style
Random Fun of the Fortnight
The antics of News Crews. Abandoning Scott Morrison in favour of Joel Fitzgibbon
They were also falling into pot plants (I couldn’t find footage on YouTube, but I saw it on the news – UPDATE: I did)
and asking stupid questions…all in a day’s work really.
Kara L 