Tag Archives: 2GB

The Week That Was – September 27 to October 3

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The realm of politics seems to have settled a bit, which is good because it’s hot this long weekend and I don’t want to work too hard.

Turnbull’s new economic team has met with interest groups and service organisations to see what they want and need. Obviously the government can’t give everyone everything they want, but the key thing for the groups seemed to be that they were being listened to. That seems to be Turnbull’s signature at the moment, going places and listening to people and seeing what they want, which was one of the things he promised to do when he said the government would be a consultative one. There are still concerns with the China FTA and Greens leader Richard Di Natale seems to think the government will over-promise and under-deliver. But if you were anywhere near Turnbull, you’d be hearing about new markets and great opportunities.

Meanwhile, Ken Wyatt, an Indigenous MP has been made Assistant Health Minister. This means he gets to deal with the new Medicare review, the lucky thing. While the AMA and other medical interest groups are divided, some calling the review unnecessary, and others saying it’s worth a look. The issue seems to be, at least from the government’s point of view, inefficiency, with people having “unnecessary” tests and treatments, while also saying that Australia needs a medical system for the 21st Century (I think this is part of the Turnbull government spin script at the moment). The medical experts seem to be concerned that the cutting of unnecessary items is all that is going to happen, and that the introduction of more efficient ones will not occur, disadvantaging Australian patients.

Julie Bishop has been in New York for UN meetings this week, taking part in a counter terrorism forum, announcing that Australia will co-operate (and only that) with Russia and the Assad government to defeat ISIS, on the proviso that Assad would step down and allow reforms once ISIS had been defeated. Australia has also decided to nominate for the UN Security Council for the 2029-2030 term, which seems way to far away, but apparently starting now is good because we will not have to spend as much as we did to get ourselves on the UNSC for 2013-2014. Julie Bishop said that while she probably wouldn’t be in politics when we hypothetically win this UNSC seat, she’d be more than happy to hear what Future PM Wyatt Roy would have to say. It also seems that Turnbull has a more favourable view of the UN than Abbott did given our decision to nominate. Australia is also trying to get on the UN Human Rights Council, but there’s obviously the whole thing with detention centres that we have to deal with.

Tony Abbott has appeared at two radio stations this week, talking with Ray Hadley on Sydney’s 2GB and Neil Mitchell on Melbourne’s 3AW. In the interview with Hadley he said that he would’ve won the next election, and was upset about the lack of faith his party had in him. Abbott has decided for the moment to stay in politics, because he is “too young” to retire (which led to the suggestion in my house that Abbott should be the next Ambassador to the Holy See) and that he would “grit his teeth” and support Turnbull as PM. On 3AW, he was mildly miffed that the government had shelved the university fee deregulation legislation, tried to save his legacy and took a dig at Turnbull, suggesting that Turnbull did not stay in the Parliament after 2010 not to be Prime Minister.

Also this week, there was a police shooting in Parramatta, in Sydney’s west. It’s understood that a 15-year-old boy, who is believed to have been radicalised, shot a police civilian employee (someone who works for the police force in an unsworn role – basically they’re not an officer) as they were leaving the Parramatta Police HQ and was then shot dead by officers. The boy was not known to police and was not on anyone’s radar, although his sister is believed to have travelled to Iraq or Syria to be with ISIS fighters. It is also understood that the boy’s brother called the police to tell them he thought he knew who their perpetrator was. NSW police are calling it a politically motivated act of terrorism, while both NSW Premier Mike Baird and NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione are calling for calm and respect and unity.

Finally this week, the Manus Island police are annoyed that the company running the detention centre is flying out people accused of committing crimes on the island before they can be dealt with; the satellite that is to deliver the NBN to regional Australia, named “Sky Muster” by a School of the Air student, has been launched, with the new Communications Minister saying “Thunderbirds are go”; Australia denied visas to musician Chris Brown (who has a domestic violence conviction) and an anti-abortion activist and there is confusion over what will happen now that Russia has begun bombing in Syria.

Tweets of the Week

Obama’s words after the mass shooting in Oregon

Matt Moran (who was working for Channel 10) has got a job being Turnbull’s press secretary, so his former colleagues are keeping tabs on him

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Greg Jericho helps the Treasurer out after he got annoyed talking with Leigh Sales on 7:30 – ABC The Drum

The ABC’s Tahmina Ansari on accepting ‘visible’ muslim women – ABC The Drum

Michael Bradley rebukes Miranda Devine on domestic violence – ABC The Drum

The Week That Was – August 17 to August 23

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The big story this week was Clive Palmer’s attack on the Chinese. When asked about the court case involving him and a Chinese State Owned Enterprise on Q & A, he got overly defensive.

The Chinese Embassy responded by saying that Palmer is ignorant and prejudiced and the Australian government has gone into damage control, telling China that they don’t agree with Palmer – FYI, there is a Free Trade Agreement under negotiation at the moment. Jacqui Lambie isn’t making it easy though, as she believes that the Chinese are going to invade us at some point – which is absolutely ridiculous.

Ricky Muir from the Motoring Enthusiasts’ Party appeared from the shadows at the end of the week. He appeared and had a press conference at a car show, in which he said that while he does vote in the Palmer United Party bloc, he is his own man and does not agree with PUP’s views on China. He also said that he had talked with treasury people – apparently getting calls at all hours – and told the press that he still isn’t sold on the $7 GP co-payment or the Higher Education changes.

Speaking of the co-payment, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) has suggested an alternative plan for the co-payment. The AMA suggests that consultations for children, concession card holders and pensioners should not be subject to the co-payment. Both sides of politics, as well as other lobby groups are calling this plan a money grab, not a nice alternative, given something like $2-$3 goes to them out of the co-payment. However, the government is also being criticised for trying to sell the co-payment as a Medicare-strengthening measure because the government’s slice of the co-payment goes into a Medical research fund, and not into the budget or Medicare.

The Prime Minister has been busy this week. The start of the week saw the Pollie Pedal end in Penrith and Tony Abbott join in for the last few (wet) days and at a First World War memorial on Cockatoo Island. He was also on 2GB this week talking about the previous week’s NSW ICAC scalps – saying it was “a bad look” for the Liberal Party – but criticised the previous NSW Labor Government for changing the rules, making it illegal for property developers to make donations. According to the PM, it is unclear in the legislation what constitutes a property developer and arguing that private donations are better that publicly funded elections. He was also asked by 2GB presenter Ray Hadley about the ASADA investigation, saying that the ASADA claims were meant to be the previous Federal Labor government’s distraction from Julia Gillard, although Ray Hadley didn’t actually call Gillard by her name, he called her something along the lines of “that woman“. In the same interview, he was asked about a flag that had been seen in Sydney’s west that looked like it could be an ISIS flag (it wasn’t), and Abbott said that the only flag that should fly is the Australian flag – forgetting that most of the time the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags are often required to be flown as well.

Speaking of ISIS, they gruesomely murdered a journalist this week. The PM described the murder as “evil”, and then decided to also warn Australia that if we let our vigilance down, similar things could happen here.

Moving on though, the budget is still being talked about over three months after it was laid out. The government isn’t overly concerned, because they’ve got the appropriation and supply bills through, but some of their big-ticket items are still on the table and being negotiated. After his “poor don’t drive” gaffe last week, Joe Hockey has been out of sight for a while, leading journalists to question Mattias Cormann about why he was selling the budget over the weekend and not Hockey. Cormann said it was because they’re working together to sell the budget and therefore either of them can appear in front of the media to do so. However, it’s believed that the government may be compromising and giving ground on some of their major policy items in order to get them through.

It was also announced this week that Australia has agreed to take 2200 Iraqi and 2200 Syrian refugees in. However, they will be coming through what Scott Morrison called the “front door”, so therefore they are still stopping the boats, ergo no broken promises. Also, children and their families (where applicable) are being released from detention centres on bridging visas, and the Papua New Guinean authorities have arrested and charges two G4S employees over the murder of Reza Berati, the asylum seeker killed during the Manus Island riots.

Bill Shorten made a statement this week about rape claims made against him last year.

He’s been applauded by both sides of politics for being open and transparent about it now, rather than hiding it and having it come out later on.

So this week, Australia-Indonesia relations have gotten much better, to the point where thy are signing an agreement not to spy on each other…

Finally this week, the NSW Liberal Party has announced they will not put anyone forward for the by-elections in Newcastle or Charlestown, there has been criticism of the NAPLAN writing question, Australia and India have done a trade deal on uranium, there’s another ADFA sex scandal, and the man who was convicted of the Winchester Assassination has been released from prison after his conviction was quashed.

Tweet of the Week

Fairfax staff went on strike this week…

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Eliza Harvey on the only Liberal MP in the Hunter not to quit, and how she’s changed for the better – ABC The Drum

Sean Dorney’s leaving Australia Network and the ABC – ABC Backstory and Australia Network Online

What Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond thinks of Tony Abbott – Huffington Post UK

The Week That Was – August 10 to August 16

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So this week, Tony Abbott went to the Netherlands with the Chiefs of the ADF and the AFP. They went to say thank you to the Dutch and Australian officials working on identifying victims of the crash. Abbott met with the Dutch Prime Minister and other politicians to discuss the investigation as well as sanctions against Russia – it is still unclear as to whether or not Putin still has an invite to the G20 meetings in Australia later this year. Abbott also visited the UK, where he talked with the British PM and was briefed on the UK’s aid mission to Iraq, and announced that he was exploring all his options when it came to Iraq, but for the moment all Australia is doing is assisting the US and UK with aid drops. He also made a visit to wherever in the Middle East the air force crews are stationed to thank them for helping – when he got back to Canberra on Friday morning, the PM’s car nearly left without Peta Credlin.

Speaking of international trips, Julie Bishop’s phone was compromised while she was on her trip in Europe after MH17. It is unclear as to whether it was hacked, tapped or compromised in some other way, but intelligence officials took her phone from her when she got back and replaced it. This week though, she played host to US Secretary of State John Kerry during the AUSMIN talks. It’s thought that Australia could help the US with more than aid missions in the future, primarily due to the release of an image of a 7-year-old boy, who is the son of an Australian fighting in Syria, holding the severed head of a Syrian soldier. It appears that, at least for now, Australia will only be helping with aid missions.

It also turns out that the aforementioned Australian man fighting in Syria was a welfare recipient, leading the government to announce that people’s welfare payments are to be cancelled if they are a national security risk, because Australians shouldn’t have to deal “terrorism tourism on the taxpayer” (say that five times fast).

Finally this week, Joe Hockey got in trouble for saying that the fuel excise (a tax on petrol, which is yet to get through the Senate) would not affect low-income households because “the poorest people don’t drive cars, or actually don’t drive very far”, which lead to backlash from the opposition and his own party.

ABC’s FactCheck even checked out whether or not what Joe Hockey said was true, regardless of how classist the comment was.

Some of his more high-profile colleagues have said they support Joe Hockey in his job, but have not said specifically that they support his comment. He apologised on 2GB later in the week, multiple times. However, many people feel he is out of touch with the people of Australia.

Also this week, the “Pollie Pedal” began with five government MPs, including a Cabinet Minister, Peter Costello suggested rubbishing the $7 co-payment, and Christopher Pyne has decided that politics is about the end result, not the day-to-day running of the government.

Tweet of the Week

Radio Australia’s  Asia Pacific program is now off air, thanks to government cuts, along with RA Mornings and Asia Review.

https://twitter.com/RAAsiaPacific/status/500208353939685376

Things I’ve Been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

The MythBusters talked with Julia Baird on The Drum – ABC The Drum

Interest in politics is waning – ABC Online

A look at what happens after high-profile suicides at crisis hotline centres – News.com.au