The week began with a commemoration of the Wave Hill walk off fifty years ago, with the Lingiari and Mabo families meeting up together for the commemorations. It began the movement for Indigenous land rights in Australia, as well as Indigenous working conditions.
There are questions over whether the change in funding of sport is working after we only won half of the gold medals that we won in Sydney in 2000. As the Olympians returned from Rio, it was announced that there would be a review into the “Winning Edge” funding program and the falling medal tally.
Parliament has been interesting this week with the new Senators having orientation day, and police raids in the office of Senator Stephen Conroy over NBN leaks. Labor has claimed parliamentary privilege on some of the documents seized by the police, meaning the Senate has to vote on whether or not to allow the police to take them as evidence.
Meanwhile, Scott Morrison made a speech about no being complacent about the risk of a recession as the mining boom ends, Barnaby Joyce has announced an investigation nto the dairy industry, especially how pricing is determined, and Malcolm Turnbull is condending with an ambitious backbench and a possibly hostile Senate.
Also this week, the Greens have said they will not support the same-sex marriage plebiscite, as they believe it puts the mental health of LGBTIQ youth at risk, instead believing a parliamentary vote on the subject is a better course of action. They’ve also had a reshuffle, in which Sarah Hanson-Young has lost her Immigration Spokesperson role to Nick McKim.
Finally this week, there are concerns over the extent of Chinese involvement in Australia, with most Chinese language media toeing the Communist Party line, as well as Chinese state company donations to politcal parties; Man Haron Monis has been mentioned in is girlfriend’s murder trial, with the prosecution saying that he was the mastermind of the murder of his ex-wife; and the NT election looks to be in Labor’s favour.
Tweet of the Week
An interesting look at which countries allow foreign donations:
Things I’ve Been Looking at Online
Not much, recently, thanks to uni.
Questions over the “Winning Edge”funding system – ABC Online
Kara L 