I don’t know whether the government decided their New Year’s Resolution was to give Australia a nice break from the annoying back and forth blame-game of politics for a few weeks, or whether this is sheer luck, but it’s been mostly pleasant in the land of politics this past fortnight.
One exception is the whole DRAMA between the Labor Premier of Victoria Dan Andrews, and the Liberal government who have been having a fight about African crime gangs in Melbourne. According to the Liberals there is a crisis, and according to Labor (and some community leaders) there isn’t. There hasn’t been much detail other than tha fact that they are having a bit of a back and forth – but some of that is probably due to the fact I watch the ABC’s NSW news, not the Victorian one.
The Prime Minister is in Japan, meeting with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe to talk about security and trade. They’re trying to see what they can salvage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership after Trump pulled the USA out, and also discuss the security threats of China and North Korea.
The ABC has revealed that the Labor plan to change negative gearing would not affect the housing market as much as the Liberals were saying it would. Part of this is because the government models are based off the policy plan that Bill Shorten has stuck to since announcing it, which would only prevent negative gearing on new investments properties, allowing people who have been claiming negative gearing for years to continue to do so. House prices would drop, but it would not be a massive decrease.
There is a push in some parts of the education sector to use the “explicit instruction” model of teaching in order to ensure students are keeping up with the curriculum. While there seems to be some benefits to it, some teachers and academics have concerns that students will only be spoon-fed and they won’t learn to think critically.
Also this week, there has been the regular debate about whether or not Australia Day should be on January 26th, while Kristina Keneally has decided she will nominate for the casual vacancy when Sam Dastyari finally quits the Senate.
Finally this fortnight, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has become a dual Ecuadorian-Australian citizen, in the hope that there would be some way for Assange to have diplomatic immunity by becoming a member of the diplomatic team in London, which the UK refused meaning Assange is still stuck in the embassy; NSW will soon have a shortage of enrolled nurses; and there is a push to have new laws to protect the privacy of Australians with the changes in technology in the last decade or so.
Tweet of the Fortnight
Only in Australia…
Things I’ve Been Looking at Online
Australian of the Year finalists – Australian of the Year Website
Annabel Crabb on NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s pregnancy – ABC Online
Kara L 