Monthly Archives: December 2013

The Year that Was – 2013 Politics

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It’s been an interesting year in politics, and I thought I’d do it by the numbers.

Harry Potter references: 2

“Neither can live while the other survives” – Mark Simkin, said during a live cross to Parliament House explaining that whoever lost the leadership spill in June (it was Julia) was not going to stay in politics in the following election.

“It’s like in the Harry Potter novels….Dolores Umbridge is now in charge” – Tony Burke, made during a speech congratulating Bronwyn Bishop on her election into the Speaker’s chair.

ALP Spills: 3

#1: Courtesy of Simon Crean, the first spill of the year, in March, was essentially a non-spill, because Kevin didn’t put his hand up and Julia Gillard remained the PM.

#2: Julia Gillard got sick of the rumours and called a spill, with the loser leaving politics at the next election. Kevin Rudd won, and Julia kept her word.

#3: Post election, the ALP had a spill for leader, this time not only with caucus but also rank-and-file members of the ALP. In what was a slightly insane and complicated spill, Bill Shorten became Opposition leader.

Federal Elections: 1

Thank god there was only one of these – I think we would’ve gone mental if there were more. In short, Tony Abbott and the Coalition won. Now we’re get to wait for 3 years!

Backflips: 1

Artfully named the “Quadruple Gonski Backflip” by ABCNews23 (NOT 24) on Twitter, it charts the Coalitions position on the “Gonski Reforms” – reforms to the education system. First they didn’t like it, then they were ok with it and would carry it on, then after the election they said they were going to renegotiate. After getting into trouble from lots of parents, they said they would support it.

Threats of a Double Dissolution: 1

Tony Abbott began threatening this before he even won the election. He suggested that if the Carbon Tax was not repealed, he would ask for a double dissolution so he could try to control the Senate – although it appears that recently, someone has (maybe) told him it could backfire because he hasn’t made that threat in a while…

Ballot Recounts: 3

#1: Indi (VIC) – to double-check the numbers – Cathy McGowan, an independent, won the seat of Sophie Mirabella.

#2: Faifax (QLD) – again to double-check the numbers – Clive Palmer, billionaire mining magnate and dinosaur park owner, won the seat.

#3: West Australia – the Senate results were so close, there was a recount – which didn’t end too well (see below)

Magical appearances/vanishing of ballot papers: 2

Appearance: Due to a clerical error, a container/box of ballot papers in Indi were discovered to have 1000, not 100 papers inside, which help Cathy McGowan in Indi win the seat.

Vanishing: Somehow, somewhere, 1,300 Senate ballot papers in Western Australia vanished and were never seen again. It changed the result of the Senate and is possibly the subject of a High Court challenge.

I hope you all have a lovely new year.

The Week That Was – December 15 to December 21

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Well, Tony Abbott thinks that he’s doing a pretty good job.

At least that what he said during his speech about how his government is faring 100 days in. He does admit it hasn’t been smooth, and that he’d really like to get his Carbon Tax repeal through. He says that he is going to keep the commitments that he made during the election and is blaming the previous government for some issues – which he can do for a while, but not for too long. He also said that it was “high time” that the Indonesians began to co-operate with Operation Sovereign Borders again.

This week we got a mid-year budget outlook, and apparently it’s not too good. By next June/July (the start of the new financial year) Australia’s deficit could be almost AU$50 billion. Ouch. Joe Hockey says that it is all Labor’s fault – albeit despite the fact that some of the current government’s big-ticket items are factored into the budget too. To solve the problem, the Coalition is thinking of fiddling with the NDIS, while keeping their paid parental leave scheme.

In case you missed it, Holden’s manufacturing division is leaving Australia by the end of 2017 – so the government has put together a package worth AU$100 million. The government would supply $60 million, Holden $20 million, Victoria $12 million and South Australia will contribute $8 million to help the workers. Hopefully that will help them feel a little better.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Tweet of the Week

The guy who caused NSW Parliament House to be shut down.

What I’ve Been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

2013: The Year of Déjà Vu – TIME Magazine Online

The Week That Was – December 8 to December 14

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I’ve resigned myself to the fact that politics is going to be a lot busier with Tony Abbott at the helm – so I’ve started taking notes.

This week there was a new NewsPoll – the Coalition is down 48 to 52 against Labor in two-party preferred. Admittedly, given there is no election until 2016 – unless a double dissolution is called – the Coalition has plenty of time to sort themselves out. This week, after cutting a deal with the Greens – yes, the GREENS – the Coalition has abolished the debt ceiling. Labor wasn’t impressed, and they’ve been saying that the government is playing Russian Roulette with a loaded gun.

This week also saw Tony Abbott and Bill Shorten in South Africa for Mandela’s memorial service. Abbott said some decent, relatively sage things. While the Prime Minister was away, Warren Truss ran the joint and did pretty well. However, he may have contributed to a not-so-nice early Christmas present to the car industry.

Holden is leaving Australia by the end of 2017. Warren Truss was demanding an answer from Holden, and they replied. This will leave Toyota as the last car maker in Australia, and they could go to. It seems from some reports that Tony Abbott just assumes that Toyota will just stay forever, but I could be misunderstanding. The government cars (which are from Holden) are being replaced too. The new cars will be from BMW. If you ask me, the government should be buying cars from Toyota that are made in Australian factories. For now though, Tony Abbott is trying to put together a compensation package for the Holden workers and affiliated component makers.

The bad news keeps on coming. The High Court ruled that the ACT same-sex marriage law is at odds with the federal marriage law. The couples that did get a chance to marry are disappointed but they aren’t too bitter – they knew it was a possibility. If you remember last week, I did the maths and found that 12.5% of Australia allows same-sex marriage compared with 30% of the USA. Well, the USA is still at 30%, and Australia is back to zero.

This week also saw the Coalition wanting to take back money from Childcare to put into training instead of pay packets, a bit of COAG and the NBN or Coalition equivalent is going to take forever to come. Oh well, hopefully it will all settle down as Christmas gets closer…

Tweet of the Week

Kate Ellis (Labor MP for Adelaide) retweeted this:

What I’ve Been Reading/Listening/Watching etc.

Tea Party-like fun is not (yet) in Australia, thank goodness – ABC Drum Online

The Phobie Awards – The Advocate Online

The Week that Was – December 1 to December 7

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I think that having Tony Abbott as Prime Minister is making each week incredibly hectic.

First there was the backflip on Gonski, they said they would, then they said they wouldn’t and now they are again – all in the space of three days. Lovely. The state politicians are happy now – if not still a little irked that they’ve been doing policy gymnastics.

Again, there have been international tensions between Australia and it’s allies this week as well – first there was a raid on the offices of the lawyer representing East Timor. Attorney-General George Brandis ok-ed it on national security grounds. Obviously the lawyer isn’t impressed – he’s representing East Timor in the Hague over a resources deal with Australia a few years back. The Timorese believe that the Australians spied on them so that they could have the upper hand. Either way, I don’t see how raiding the office of a lawyer in an international court case protects national security, but what’s done is done. Julie Bishop got a talking to in China over Australia’s criticism of China’s air defence zone. Before she could even reply the media was bundled out of the room.

The Coalition has also made clear that it doesn’t really like the ABC much. With Senator Cory Bernardi saying they should have their funding cut during a party meeting. Tony Abbott on the other hand was a little more civil when it came to being critical. He said they had poor judgement for running the story on spying on Indonesia as well as name-dropping the Guardian. You can see that here.

Abbott is also annoyed with the senate because they didn’t pass his Carbon Tax repeal. He’s threatening to keep them sitting through Christmas but that doesn’t really work given that the Senate has its own calendar and I don’t think Tony Abbott really wants to spend his Christmas yelling at the Labor party – I’m sure he’d much rather spend time with his family. I could be wrong here, but I think it’s an empty threat.

Also this week, the High Court reserved it’s decision on the ACT Same-sex marriage law, meaning that this week saw some of the first same-sex marriages in Australia – despite the fact that they could be void next week. It seems that some don’t care and have even said they will marry as many times as is necessary. A West Australian State politician, Stephen Dawson, got married in front of Parliament House in Canberra just after midnight on Saturday as did many other couples across the ACT.

So, the ACT is the first Australian state or territory to have same-sex marriage, while also this week, Hawaii became the 15th US State to allow same-sex marriage. That’s 12.5% of Australia allowing same-sex marriage, compared with 30% of the US.

Tweets of the Week

https://twitter.com/JezFernandezABC/status/409448014701273088

What I’ve Been Reading/Listening/Watching..etc

Anton Enus (who was born in South Africa) on Mandela’s death – SBS Online

Adam Spencer left 702 ABC Sydney this week – 702 ABC Sydney

The ABC Camera guy who cooked after Typhoon Haiyan – Manila Bulletin

The Week that Was – November 24 to November 30

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Well what a week. The first polling results came in for the new government, the relationship with Indonesia improved, and the Coalition is in trouble for backflipping on education policy.

So, on Monday, the first poll of Tony Abbott’s term came out – this is the earliest that a new government has a rating lower than that of the election…not that it’s going to scare the coalition. As long as they don’t have a double dissolution because they can’t pass the carbon tax legislation, they have three years to fix their issues. Like the one with Indonesia, which is improving, as long as the government signs some sort of deal that promises that they won’t spy on Indonesia – I don’t entirely understand it, but at least the relationship is back on track.

In other news, the Coalition is in trouble for what appears to be a backflip on its education policy. They said they would pay for next year – but then re-negotiate with all the states for 2015. Funnily enough, people aren’t impressed with that. It means that Christopher Pyne is battling not only Labor state and territory leaders but also Liberals. They are not happy and they do not want to re-negotiate.

There are still two weeks of Parliamentary sitting in Canberra, so lets see what happens.

Tweet of the Week

Aung San Suu Kyi is in Australia, and she’s been interviewed by a lot of people…such as

Hamish Macdonald

https://twitter.com/hamishNews/status/405917682144264192

Leigh Sales