This week was dominated by the drama in the Senate. The Senate voting reforms, which were always going to pass with the support of the Greens and Nick Xenophon, were debated for 40 hours (28 of which were uninterrupted) before being successful. While there were some legit questions in the debate, such as Family First’s Bob Day’s question about exhausted votes, but it was a very long night. At 9pm, Labor was giving Greens leader Richard Di Natale a hard time about his GQ Magazine photoshoot…
..and by 2am it had all got to the point where NSW Labor Senator Doug Cameron quoted Monty Python’s Holy Grail…
…David Leyonhjelm suggested that the government was acting like Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe, and the Senate Chair was exhausted. It did pass the senate, however, Bob Day, with some support from Leyonhjelm and the Liberal Democrats, will now bring a High Court challenge over the whole exhausted votes thing, as Day’s amendment would have stopped people from putting “Just vote 1 for X party” on their how-to-vote gear.
Once again the Labor party still has a bit of an upper hand with the whole election talking thing – despite the minor distraction from WA involving former defence minister Stephen Smith – while Turnbull and the Coalition continue to deal with double dissolution speculation. It didn’t help that all of the Liberal MPs retiring from Parliament, like Theresa Gambaro, Bruce Billson and Ian McFarlane, began making their valedictory speeches – which is basically where they talk about their achievements and make some warm and fuzzy parting comments. Parliament now has a seven week break until the May 10 Budget – at least if it stays being on May 10, they might come back a week early – during which they’ll probably make some policy announcements and finalise their tax plans.
Religious leaders have announced that they will provide sanctuary to refugees due to be returned to Nauru once their medical treatment is completed. Several congregations across the country also pledged to assist their church in providing sanctuary, including preventing officials from entering their church. It’s possible that they risk arrest for their actions, but they don’t seem to be phased by that. They say they are not sure when they will need to provide sanctuary, but they will respond when the time comes.
This week, some people stormed and protested the Adelaide office of SA Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi over his issues with the Safe Schools Program. This week, the Education Minister Simon Birmingham announced some big changes to the program, with it only being used in High Schools, changing the content of a few of the lessons, requiring parental permission for each child to participate, and making some information only available to “certain students” and delivered by “qualified teachers” – essentially cutting some of the most crucial information that helps students understand what their LGBTQI classmates are going through.
Finally this week, the Iranians had their go at criticising Australia’s treatment of refugees; Concetta Fierravanti-Wells has been dropped to #2 on the Coalition Senate ticket in NSW; Australia might follow the UK’s lead and have a “sugar tax”; and former Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson has won preselection in outgoing MP Andrew Robb’s Victorian electorate of Goldstein.
Tweet of the Week
Things I’ve Been Looking at Online
American colleges taking Aussie Rules players as kickers or something – Washington Post
Senate photo rules lead to a Buzzfeed Journalist’s phone being searched – The Guardian
A listicle on the weird stuff that happened in the Senate – Buzzfeed
Kara L 