This week saw the SPC Ardmona saga continue, and politicians trying to change things.
Liberal back bencher Sharman Stone, whose electorate covers Shepparton – where SPC Ardmona is based – accused Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey of lying while talking to ABC Rural. When they said that they wouldn’t give money to SPC, they blamed the wages the company was paying workers, as well as “over generous” allowances. SPC Ardmona’s parent company, Coca Cola Amatil denied this and released a statement correcting the PM and the Treasurer. It also asks why the government is not taking a stronger stance against imported products the way New Zealand has.
The government also wants to change the education system, turning around 1500 public schools into government-funded independent schools. The thing is, they don’t run schools, the States do. So while Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia have some public schools run independently, the rest of the country does not. Christopher Pyne has some selling to do.
The government also wants to change the awards system (the rules about paying shift workers) and are seeing whether or not companies still need to pay penalty rates (if you work late, on weekends or public holidays, you are paid more as compensation). It sounds like they want to have Zombie Work Choices, bringing a bad system back to life. Even though Abbott said it was “dead, buried and cremated”.
Tony Abbott had a little victory speech the other day, saying it had been 50 days since “an illegal boat” arrived in Australia. Again with the terrible timing, it just so happened that an orange lifeboat showed up on an Indonesian beach and then the videos taken by the asylum seekers was released to the ABC. Oops. But they don’t comment about “on water operations” because they don’t want to tell the people smugglers what is going on. But hey, once the ABC had the footage, they could give it to others, and imagine my cringing when Al Jazeera and BBC World News showed it. Great.
Speaking of the ABC, they’ve apologised for the wording of their reports about the mistreatment of asylum seekers but not airing the story, because it’s in the public interest.
The Griffith by-election took place on Saturday and at this point, it appears that Terri Butler (ALP) has won.
Tweet of the Week
The disadvantage of using your breaking news colours for bushfire warnings while talking about other breaking news regarding Schapelle Corby’s parole
Things I’ve Been Reading/Watching/Listening
The Canadian Luge ad everyone is talking about.
The Undoing of Australia Network – The Hoopla
Kara L 