This week started off calm, and then Malcolm Turnbull went to China and an important preselection battle took place
The start of the week involved the Liberals supporting owner-driver truck operators and small trucking businesses over the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal’s (RSRT) future. The tribunal, set up under the Gillard government essentially keeps truck drivers’ payments at a level that would allow them to work safely and not cut corners in trying to make money. It is argued that the smaller operators could be priced out of the market, giving a monopoly to the larger operators. The Coalition wants to got rid of the RSRT, while Labor has agreed to put off the next pay rise the RSRT has recommended for a few months. However, the legislation for the removal of the RSRT and the legislation for the reincarnation of the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) will both be brought before the Parliament when they return on the 18th of April after being recalled by the Governor-General.
Meanwhile, Labor has decided to announce that if they win the next election they will hold a Royal Commission into the banking industry after the scandals of the last few months. The Liberals have called the announcement “distracting” and unnecessary, given the existence of ASIC, but given their budget cuts, it’s thought a Royal Commission might be able to investigate more thoroughly and independently.
As what seems to be the longest unofficial election campaign known to man continues, snippets of the budget are being announced. There will be rises in tax – or “revenue measures” if you want to get all Scott Morrison on semantics – but it seems to be mainly in taxes that don’t directly affect the voting public. The announcement came after the people at Moody’s suggested Australia could loose its prized high credit rating if it only focused on cutting government spending, leaving Labor a chance to dig in and talk about fiscal responsibility.
The election drama continued on Saturday when the one hundred or so people who can vote in preselection battles in the electorate of Mackellar spent five hours in Dee Why RSL before finalising who would become the candidate. The three way contest, involving incumbent Bronwyn Bishop, the Abbott-supported Walter Villatora, and another candidate, Jason Falinski, resulted in the branch members choosing the more moderate Falinski. It suggests that the Liberal Party members of Mackellar are ready for someone fresh, moderate and different, with no apparent links to the former PM.
Malcolm Turnbull spent a few days in China, as part of the now annual “Australia Week” trade missions, in which businesses and politicians travel to Shanghai and Beijing to sell Australian goods, services and tourism to the growing middle class. Turnbull announced that a game in the 2017 AFL season would be played in Shanghai, while the issue of China’s actions in the South China Sea were mentioned but not broadly the focus of a very much trade-oriented trip.
The administrators appointed to deal with the drama and Queensland Nickel (QNI) have released a report scathing of the actions of Clive Palmer, suggesting he was a shadow director and that hundreds of thousands of dollars were shuffled between the various arms of Palmers business empire, including the Titanic II project and his failed resort project. It is likely that QNI will be liquidated, with the Federal Government paying out the entitlements owed to workers and their families. However, the Queensland Government has said they will make QNI, or one of the other Palmer businesses that technically owns it, clean up the site at their own cost, while the Federal Government has said it will pursue Palmer and/or his businesses in Court to pay back the costs of the entitlements to workers.
Finally this week, the Japanese Self Defence Force brought a submarine into Sydney Harbour for the first time since World War Two; Australia has opened its first medical marijuana farm even if nothing can be grown on it yet because they need to sort out the licensing system first; Bob Day’s challenge to the Senate reform legislation will be heard in the High Court on May 2 and May 3; and Stan Grant will join the council advising the government on the Indigenous Recognition Referendum.
Tweet of the Week
https://twitter.com/workmanalice/status/720120601508253696
Things I’ve Been Looking at Online
It’s a Buzzfeed week this week – but the stories are good reading.
Both major party candidates in a Brisbane electorate are gay – Buzzfeed
The Keating Fandom – Buzzfeed
People are falling in love with the Electrical Trade Union guy – Buzzfeed
Kara L 