Tag Archives: 7:30

The Week That Was – October 25 to October 31

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For the first time in a long time, Australian politics was quite calm and sensible.

This week a Senate Enquiry was based in the far-western NSW town of Broken Hill, where locals told Senators that the drought and the Murray Darling Basin Plan mean that the town is running out of water. The Darling River is stagnant and there are suggestions that the water was taken too early from Broken Hill’s part of the Murray Darling Basin in order to help those further downstream.

Former Treasurer and MP Joe Hockey’s seat of North Sydney (I live in the electorate) will be going to the polls on December 5th to elect a new member. The seat is safe Liberal, however it has fallen to independents in previous elections. There was drama at the start of the week when a story on 7.30 on the ABC suggested that the guy tipped to be the Liberal Candidate, Trent Zimmerman, was going to get the candidacy because the part executive, including Zimmerman himself, had rejigged the rules meaning that the grassroots members would have no say. He did get pre-selection in the end, which I discovered when Malcolm Turnbull’s voice in a robo-call told me I should vote for Zimmerman. So far, Zimmerman is running in the seat, as is Fred Nile’s wife Silvana Nero for the Christian Democrats and Arthur Chesterfield-Evans will run for the Greens. Labor will not run a candidate, and other prospective candidates have until November 12 to nominate.

Zimmerman spent some time in Chatswood on Saturday with Gladys Berejiklian talking with voters and with the media. Zimmerman is pro-marriage equality and wants more public transport in the electorate. If he wins the seat Zimmerman will become the first openly gay member of the House of Representatives.

While on the topic of elections and voting, Bill Shorten has announced that the Labor party will move to decrease the voting age from 18 to 16. His argument is that at the age of 16 you can join the army, own a gun and some even pay tax, yet they have no say over how the country is run. The Coalition believes that this is a stunt, and a number of vox pops on the ABC News on Saturday night from 16 and 17 year olds suggest that they don’t know much about politics and many said they wouldn’t know who to vote for – and hey, neither do I half the time!

Environmentalists are calling on the government to commit to reducing coal power considerably in time for the Paris conference at the end of the year. The Liberal and Labor parties don’t seem so thrilled with the whole idea, while the Greens are all for it and are arguing the only way to help deal with climate change is if coal is significantly reduced.

Tony Abbott made headlines again this week, speaking at an event at the Margaret Thatcher Centre on what some are calling his “Stop the Boats World Tour”. He spoke about needing to fight ISIS in order to end them and then went on the say that Europe is making a mistake by allowing asylum seekers in, especially those that came by boat. This is despite the fact that the current European Refugee Crisis is on a larger scale than Australia’s refugee issues and critics are encouraging the world to ignore him.

Finally this week, there has been some drama at the Trade Union Royal Commission; Australian doctors had a “day of action” to protest the fact that there are still children in detention, and are also refusing to discharge refugee children in their care, as they are likely to go back to detention; there are debates on whether or not a nuclear waste processing site will be built in South Australia; and Malcolm Turnbull is still a popular people person.

Tweet of the Week

As the North Sydney By-Election begins, I found an amusing and snarky Twitter account that has been giving updates.

https://twitter.com/nthsydneyvotes/status/658419221597065216

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

First Dog on the Moon covers “Biff Bootface” and his trip to ‘Guano Island’ – The Guardian

First Dog on the Moon talks about Abbott’s Margaret Thatcher Centre speech – The Guardian

SBS2’s The Feed’s “Douche of the Week”

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 – September 6 to September 12

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I’m looking at my notes this week and realising just how many times the word “refugee” comes up.

It was a pretty good week for Abbott, even if it ended with a gaffe and a leak that sent cabinet into a hissy fit.

As of this week, the Abbott Government has been in power for two years, and has one more to go until the next election. The government is not in a great place, with polls showing that if there was an election held this week, they would lose their majority. Abbott has been repeating his usual line of “taxes are down, I stopped the boats” when asked about his two years so far and he says that he hopes that when people vote next year they will remember his government’s victories. Problem is, there are bigger issues at the moment, and with the economy down, jobs sparse and no surplus as promised, the bad decisions and the gaffes mean that Abbott and his government are not in a good place right now, and they still may not be in 12 months time when the next election comes around. He also had a 15 minute interview on 7:30 with Leigh Sales, which had the inhabitants of my house arguing, laughing and “oooh”-ing at the TV.

However, this week has been good for Abbott, as he’s been able to announce that Australia will take in 12,000 Syrian refugees in a one-off increase in our refugee intake. Peter Dutton was sent to Geneva at the start of the week to ask what Australia could do, while the Opposition and the Greens call on the government to take in more refugees overall. Before the announcement people were pointing out that Australia has done similar things in 1989 after Tiananmen and in 1999 during the Kosovo crisis, so we should do the same.

However, there has been criticism after several senior ministers, including Eric Abetz and Julie Bishop made clear their focus was on the Christians escaping Syria. Now, it is likely that some of the refugees are from Christian minority groups, and they are likely to be the ones in the most danger from Islamic State, but you can’t just say “oh we’ll just take the Christian ones thanks guys”. The Opposition is criticising the government on its bias as are the Greens. Meanwhile, the government began talking about how taking in these extra refugees was a burden to be shouldered by all, and we were told Australia would also send aid to the countries bordering Syria that host refugee camps.

The Government also said that any Syrian refugees in offshore detention – basically those that arrived by boat – will not be included in this 12,000 strong cohort of refugees they are settling in Australia. This has angered the Greens who feel that not only should these boat arrivals be included, but the government should also put an end to offshore detention all together. Meanwhile Abetz reiterated the focus on letting in Christians – leading to some believing that this was a sort of rebirth of the White Australia Policy – if you don’t know what that is, Google it.

The week ended with Abbott meeting community leaders to plan how Australia would welcome the influx of refugees from Syria…and then the good week Abbott had ended not so well.

Peter Dutton’s joke offended Pacific Island nations’ leaders, didn’t make Bill Shorten laugh, and left Abbott trying to salvage his weekend in Canning where he is helping the Liberal candidate get elected in a by-election, calling the joke “lame” and praising Dutton for his hard work in Immigration.

Meanwhile there was a leak to Sydney’s Daily Telegraph newspaper in which it proclaims that there may be a cabinet reshuffle on the cards. It’s unclear whether the PM’s Office – who is close to the Tele – or someone who wants Abbott out of job is the one who spoke to the reporter, but either way it has sent Cabinet into panic, with rumours that at least eight ministers could be in the firing line, including Nigel Scullion, Eric Abetz and Andrew Robb.

Finally this week, the Commonwealth is celebrating the Queen, after she became the longest-serving monarch, usurping Queen Victoria, Australia will be taking part in airstrikes in Syria, and while they began flying over IS-held territory at the end of the week we don’t know if they launched any strikes or not, and there have been accusations of bias against Judge Street, who out of 254 asylum seeker cases has dismissed all but two before hearing any evidence

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online.

I’ve had uni assessments due this week – so the material is not that erudite.

First Dog on the Moon on the PM’s “Twonyversary” – The Guardian

First Dog on refugees in Europe – The Guardian

Antony Green is made an Adjunct Professor – ABC Backstory

The Week that Was – August 16 to August 22

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This week following one of Abbott’s worst weeks in a long time was better for him, but not by much.

First there is disagreement in the party about how the same-sex marriage vote will work. Will it be a plebiscite (a massive opinion poll) or a referendum (that enshrines something in the constitution)? Do we have it before, during or after the election due in 2016? The details are sketchy, and what’s more, a referendum or plebiscite – whichever it ends up being – will be incredibly expensive, even if bundled together with a general election. Cabinet was meant to discuss details, but it seems we still have no idea about how this whole thing will work.

There were leaks to journalists this week in parliament, which had Eric Abetz talking to the media about how leakers are gutless and asked why journalists publish these leaks that are, according to Abetz, untrue. This seems to have backfired because hours later someone leaked the day’s press guide to the media which had some scripted “jobs, growth and community safety” lines in it and a directive to answer any questions about party stability with a variation on the above jobs and growth as well as a swipe at the Labor Party.

Dyson Heydon’s week hasn’t been that great either. Labor wants him gone, as do the unions, while Heydon tried to put out the fire by saying he was an idiot and didn’t read the entire messages that his staff printed out for him. Given some of the messages explicitly mentioned the party in the subject lines, there is the theory that he always knew and either hoped to get away with it, or thought that his job as Royal Commissioner for the Trade Union Royal Commission would be over. Furthermore, it has been revealed that Justice Heydon, who was a Law Professor at Sydney University in the 1970s and 1980s was on the board of selectors that chose Tony Abbott for his Rhodes Scholarship in 1981. The unions have applied for Justice Heydon to be removed from his position because of “apprehended bias” – a legal term basically meaning that even if Heydon isn’t biased at all, he looks like he is to the average person and therefore may as well be, meaning he has to go. Catch is, he’s hearing the application himself – leading to quips about marking one’s own exam, among others –  and is due to deliver his verdict on Tuesday.

Also this week, the by-election in the seat of Canning is revving up. It’s been marred by the revelation that the Liberal Party candidate for the seat, Andrew Hastie, a former army captain, was the leader of a group that is being investigated for violating the rules of war by desecrating corpses. Members of the group cut the hands off dead Taliban insurgents – purportedly to have a way of identifying them. Hastie has said that he was not with the group at the time, and was up in a helicopter circling the location where the incident occurred, also claiming that when he became aware of what had taken place he reported the incident to his superiors.

Finally this week, the Abbott government is going to fight the war against “green warfare” by making it more difficult for groups not directly affected by development to launch legal action against it, the USA has asked Australia to consider bombing in Syria, which does have legal issues to resolve, GST will be introduced to online purchases in 2017, the Victims of the Martin Place Siege can only access NSW State victims compensation and not the Federal government scheme, because their incident didn’t take place overseas, and David Leyonhjelm has suggested that if you are the victim of a gun crime you aren’t allowed to have an opinion about gun control, after victims of the Port Arthur Massacre began campaigning to have a gun banned in Australia.

Tweet of the Week

Leigh Sales puts on her “serious voice” and ends up singing with Tim Minchin

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

How id the AFR dealing with Mark Latham after some derogatory comments – Buzzfeed

2015 Canning By-election – Antony Green’s ABC Election Blog

A look at where Australia stands when it comes to endangered species – ABC Fact Check

The Week that Was – August 2 to August 8

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Well, as the edit in last week’s post showed, Bronwyn Bishop resigned. It’s believed that despite her friendship and trust from Tony Abbott, it was causing too much damage and she had to go. Abbott has been trying to shift the blame from her to the system, even announcing an inquiry into the system to see if the rules can be made clearer (which they probably can be). Parliament is due back soon, which means that people are putting themselves forward for the role of Speaker. Constitutionally, the vote for the new speaker will happen first thing, as you can’t run the House of Representatives without a Speaker. There are a few people being suggested for the role, such as Philip Ruddock, Andrew Southcott and the current Deputy Speaker Bruce Scott. There is hope that they will be far less partisan than Ms Bishop was.

MPs have begun to shut up about the whole entitlements saga, after Tony Burke went on the attack on Bishop, which lead Christopher Pyne to go on the attack regarding Burke’s spending, before it was pointed out that Pyne is just as bad as Tony Burke. Since then, MPs have not really said anything because it’s become clear that most of them have done something inappropriate at least once.

Abbott spent his week in South Australia and Victoria, announcing contracts for ship builders in SA, which they hope will improve employment and the Liberal Party’s vote in the state. Meanwhile in Victoria, he’s been focusing on jobs and training, which has made some wonder if South Australia is getting a better deal than Victoria.

NAPLAN tests are showing that there is little to no improvement in Australia’s literacy and numeracy skills overall, although there has been major improvement in Queensland and Western Australia. Most experts and teachers are suggesting that there needs to be more information and resources for teaching staff and a more individual focus on students.

It’s believed that the terrorism legislation may be struck down in the High Court, after it was revealed by legal experts that the legislation is poorly written and extremely broad. It’s believed that people who a caught putting graffiti on Commonwealth buildings could be charged with terrorism offences and lose their Australian citizenship if they are dual citizens.

Malaysia has announced that the piece of plane that washed up on Réunion Island is from MH370. However, the French, who are looking after the plane at the BEA, want to do more tests to double-check.

Finally this week, unemployment is up to 6.3%, it’s been revealed that the Vietnamese asylum seekers who were intercepted off WA a few weeks ago have been sent back to Vietnam, and that under Peter Dutton, 20 boats have been turned back, eight more than under Scott Morrison, Foreign investors are still being cracked down upon, with around 400 sales suspicious, the Productivity Commission has suggested changing penalty rates, and the MUA is picketing at Hutchison Ports (a holding company for Hutchison Whampoa) locations after they sacked workers by email this week.

Tweet of the Week

Taylor Swift continues world domination.

https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/628452918308384768

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

First Dog on the Moon introduces Ian the Climate Denialist Potato – The Guardian

Kumi Taguchi talks about her father’s experience in Japan during WWII – ABC The Drum

The Year that Was – 2014 Politics

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New Words: 1

Shirtfront: Tony Abbott said that he was going to “shirt front” Vladimir Putin regarding the suspected Russian involvement in the downing of Malaysia Airlines MH17.

You bet you are.

Elections: 3

West Australian Senate Seats Re-election: This is what happens when you misplace 1300 ballot papers.

Griffith By-election: To fill the vacant seat left by former PM Kevin Rudd. Labor won.

Victorian State Election: Victorian Labor ousts a one term Liberal/Nationals Coalition government, which hasn’t happened in more than 50 years, and it scared the federal government.

Reshuffles: 1

Just before Christmas, Abbott reshuffled cabinet after Arthur Sinodinos resigned, which also meant that David Johnston was removed as Defence Minister. Other people were moved around which leads us to….

Women In Cabinet: 2

Julie Bishop: Minister for Foreign Affairs, since 2013 Election

Sussan Ley: Minister for Health and Sport, since December 2014

Dramatic Sagas: 1

Jacqui Lambie vs. Clive Palmer: Lambie basically got sick of working with Clive Palmer and the Palmer United Party and left 5 months into her senate term, deciding to vote in the “coalition of common sense” which involved Labor, Nick Xenophon, Ricky Muir and other independents.

Achievements as Minister for Women: 1

Apparently, that achievement is the repeal of the Carbon Tax. How? Well, I think it might have something to do with housework and electricity bills.

Here’s ABC 7:30’s Politics Year in Review.

Happy New Year. Let’s see what 2015 has on offer.

The Cuts to the ABC

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The ABC has announced its cuts to save money after the government cuts to their funding.

The ABC has announced the axing of several Radio National programs, including regional and agriculture programs, 7:30 State editions on Friday nights as well as the scaling back of non-news TV production and TV sports broadcasting. The ABC will also close five – yes, five – regional radio stations in Gladstone, Port Augusta, Nowra, Morwell and Wagin. There will be a restructure of the foreign bureaux and the ABC will close Adelaide’s production unit, despite Christopher Pyne’s petition to save it. Lateline will now be broadcast on ABC News 24 at a set time and replayed on ABC1 later. Newcastle’s station has been re-labeled a “regional” station, cutting the funding it gets as a “metropolitan” station.

The ABC will also sell Outside Broadcast (OB) vans, as well as its Langley Place property in Artarmon in Sydney. The ABC will review the rest of its property portfolio. The Managing Director and senior executives will forego a pay rise and 400 jobs will be made redundant, which is about 10% of the ABC’s workforce.

However, there are some positives. The ABC will not change their emergency coverage for bushfires, floods and cyclones. With the money that the ABC re-invests from the savings, they will start a new regional division and a new digital network, as well as a new foreign bureau in Beirut, Lebanon.

The Week that Was – November 9 to November 15

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It would appear that this week has been international summit week, with Tony Abbott attending three summits. The first was APEC in Beijing, where Abbott met Putin on the sidelines, and China probably had way too much fun, placing Putin and Abbott next to each other or near each other at every opportunity. They were sat next to each other at the roundtable and Abbott was placed behind Putin in the “Family Photo” (called that because they all get a photo in the requisite costume). The big thing at APEC was the US-China emissions deal. Abbott then headed to Myanmar for the ASEAN Summit, where he discussed regional security and economy and met Aung Sun Suu Kyi.

Brisbane was shut down for the G20, security was tight, and 19 world leaders came to visit. Russia decided to send ships round to the Coral Sea as a show of force, and climate change was forced onto the G20 agenda thanks to the US-China deal. There was a retreat in Queensland Parliament and Tony Abbott had some words to start their conversation, which included complaining about how he couldn’t get his policies through.

Other than that, they’ve discussed Ebola, the economy, climate change (or at least, Obama made pointed comments that appeared to be aimed at Abbott) and took a family picture, albeit without the APEC costumes. The “wives club” got to cuddle koalas on Saturday.

Australian troops have finally started to head to Iraq, and it appears that Obama may want Australia to send more, but there hasn’t been a specific request yet. They will only be there in an advisory role, helping with tactics and training, but they could be there for a few years.

The Palmer United Party is in turmoil following Jacqui Lambie’s promise to block all government legislation because of a below-inflation wage raise. Clive Palmer and the PUP executive expelled Lambie’s Chief of Staff from the party, called Lambie a “dram queen” and dared her to challenge him for leader. Lambie told Palmer expelling her Chief of Staff from the party was a low blow and that he should take shots at her and not her staff. Lambie is a unique senator, and sometimes says some interesting things, but her interview with Leigh Sales on 7:30 during the week was sensible, coherent and reasoned. There is fear that the PUP could split, which could possibly make the government’s job more difficult as they will have to negotiate with more people.

The government is still trying to pass their university fee legislation, and are hoping to pass it by Christmas. However if it doesn’t, they may have to push back the start date to 2017. Christopher Pyne has told people that the number of university applications are up, which he says shows that people aren’t worried about the new legislation. However, given that next year’s students won’t be affected by the fee deregulation, my money is on the fact that people are getting in to uni without massive fees while they still can.

Finally this week, there are concerns about how Somali workers are going to send money home now that banks are stopping transfers to Somalia because they can’t guarantee that the money isn’t going to terror groups, there was a memorial in Amsterdam for the MH17 victims, and former Queensland Premier Wayne Goss has died.

Tweets of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Concerns about the university assignment black market – SMH

Controversy surrounding the ABC’s airing of a skit about Abbott vs. Putin on 7:30 – The Australian

The CIA ruins people’s fun by telling people how Argo got it wrong

The Week that Was – July 6 to July 12

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The week began with a #Bustthebudget March in major cities, protesting the Budget and the government in general.

Then we saw one of the two boats of asylum seekers processed at sea and surrendered to the Sri Lankan Navy. Eric Abetz says the government is acting within its international obligations – but he’s the only one from the government talking. It was confirmed the next day with Scott Morrison defending the move saying “This is what works”. Critics say that may be, but it is possibly somewhat almost illegal under international law , especially when you send Sri Lankan Tamils back to Sri Lanka, where they are discriminated against. The other boat with 153 asylum seekers aboard is in limbo, after a High Court challenge was brought. It’s hoped that the court case will lead to transparency about what is going on, but the government is still saying that they are acting legally. But now the Sri Lankan government has said they won’t take the second boat, which means they’ll be taken to Manus Island or Christmas Island if and when the injunction is lifted. Australia also gifted two patrol boats to Sri Lanka to help “Stop the Boats”. Meanwhile the UNHCR is becoming increasing concerned about the Australian Government’s treatment of asylum seekers and Tony Abbott says he “won’t capitulate to moral blackmail” after being asked about refugees attempting suicide in detention.

The new Senate was sworn in and then decided to postpone the Carbon Tax and Mining Tax votes. Clive Palmer and the PUP have also possibly blown a $7 billion hole in the budget by demanding that the mining tax be gone but the sweeteners be kept. The government then attempted to move to have less debate on the Carbon Tax repeal bill, which was lost because Ricky Muir, the Motoring Enthusiast Party’s senator didn’t vote with the Palmer United Party. Then when it came time to debate and vote, the Palmer United Party withdrew support claiming that the Coalition had “pulled a swifty” on the PUP Senators by not putting their amendment in the way they wanted it. Something they could have missed, given bills are written in legalese. This rejection of the Carbon Tax repeal is not the first and is now a double dissolution trigger for the Prime Minister. We also saw Clive Palmer storm out of an interview with 7:30.

Tony Abbott has also said that this first week drama is understandable given the new senators are “inexperienced” and Labor is being annoying. PUP Senator Jacqui Lambie was not impressed by that. Abbott also seems to think that Clive Palmer will eventually come around.

Tony Abbott had a guest this week with the visit of Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. They signed their Free Trade Agreement and went to look at the mines in Western Australia and talk about trading. Abe also spoke to a joint session of Parliament, making his speech in English and making mention of rugby and Olympian Dawn Fraser – most famous for stealing a flag from outside the Emperor’s Palace at the Tokyo Games in 1964. He also went to the Australian War Memorial where he laid a wreath – he’s since returned home and the FTA will be tabled in Parliament in a few weeks.

Tweet of the Week

So Abe got some RM Williams and wore them in WA

What I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

The National Gay Blood Drive in the USA – TIME Magazine

RJ Aguiar – Bisexuality: Setting the Record “Straight”

The Week That Was – April 27 to May 3

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This week seemed to be all about the Budget and the Commission of Audit, which meant quite a bit of information, so if I miss something, I apologise.

So, the Commission of Audit (in 1000 pages) has made 80 recommendations, some of which are:

  • Having people pay more for medication and seeing a GP and charging people for going to Emergency
  • Getting more “well off” people to buy private health insurance
  • A reduction in the minimum wage, if not getting rid of it
  • A reduction in family tax benefits – cutting Family Tax Benefits A and B and replacing it with one benefit
  • Forced relocation for young people on the unemployment benefits if they can’t find a job after 12 months
  • Abbott’s Paid Parental Leave max payment should be $29,000 (half of what the Government is suggesting) and funnel what money is saved from that into childcare
  • Higher retirement age (up to 70 by 2053) and making means testing tougher for those on the aged pension

If you have 10 minutes to spare, this ABC 7:30 story summarises the key points and has visuals as well.

I can understand that in the future, Australia is going to be spending a lot of money, as things get more expensive as we go along. So yes, being cautious when it comes to spending does have its benefits. However, while I may not study business, finance or economics, I do know that getting on the wrong side of the people means you get kicked out of government, and if the Coalition want to stay there, they need to be very careful when it comes to deciding what to cut or change in the budget. Especially these days when news programs can easily retrieve footage from the election campaign where you are saying “No new taxes,”.

It is also an issue when economists and business leaders pop up on the news and start telling people that Australia is not having an economic or budgetary crisis right now, despite what the government is saying. They do suggest that putting some preventative measures in place will be beneficial so there is not a crisis in the future. But when the people with degrees directly related to economics, finance and business say things like that, then one should be a little concerned about the governments motives.

We also saw Tony Abbott cancel – at the 11th hour –  a diplomatic trip to Bali this week. The government’s official line is that Abbott is doing Budget related things, despite the fact he hasn’t appeared on the news in days, other than for a COAG photo-op. The ABC suggests it has something to do with “on-water operations” to do with Operation Sovereign Borders – essentially, the navy is most likely in the process of intercepting and turning a boat around and they don’t want to embarrass the Indonesian President. The real reason is still unclear, though, and the Opposition has been asking the government to “please explain,”.

Also this week, the decision was made to call off the aerial search for MH370 – it doesn’t mean they are stopping altogether, just that there is now almost no chance of seeing any wreckage from the air, so they may as well spend the money on the undersea search. It may take a long time to find the plane though, and the underwater search is going to be expensive.

The Palmer United Party has spread to the Northern Territory, where three former Country Liberal backbenchers have joined the party. There does seem to be some concern within the two major parties though, with Queensland Premier Campbell Newman suggesting that Clive Palmer may have paid them or in some way sweetened the deal for them, which Palmer denies.

And finally, Ian Ross, a newsreader and journalist for both Channel 7 and Channel 9 over a 50-year career, passed away this week after battling with pancreatic cancer.

Tweet of the Week

The Independent Commission Against Corruption in NSW has meant that several NSW State Ministers have had to quit.

https://twitter.com/JezNews/status/461364753927921665

Things I’ve Been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

How Important is a Promise in Politics? – ABC Radio National

Tony Abbott cancelling his Indonesia trip has made the news in Hong Kong – South China Morning Post

A browser plugin that switches Tony Abbott’s image for those of cute cats seems to have caused a stir in the PM’s office – SMH