As Christmas approaches, the world of politics has mellowed a bit.
The week began with a Climate Change agreement in Paris, with an aspiration to cap temperature rises to 2ºC if not 1.5ºC. Australia did not get all of the things that it wanted, but nor did other countries.The next step, as Julie Bishop said, was the implementation of changes. According to experts and activists the changes need to ba made now and that the government should do more than just the 26-26% reduction it promised at the talks in Paris – with suggestions that Australia needs to become a carbon neutral economy sooner rather than later.
As always, just before Christmas, the government releases MYEFO – basically a budget update in which, at least for the last few years, we’ve been told the deficit is just a little bit worse. It was the same this year, as iron ore prices continue to drop and tax reform is yet to occur, meaning that other options have been considered. The government has announced that bulk billing incentives for pathology services will either be decreased or removed, causing issues for patients who need regular scans, blood tests or other services, causing concern among doctor’s groups, as well as patient and community groups.
Malcolm Turnbull spent the end of this week in Japan, meeting with academics and other tech experts to talk about innovation, Turnbull took a selfie with a robot.
He also met with Japanese PM Abe, and talked about the economy and also about issues with Southern Ocean Whaling, after Japan set off this year for the Southern Ocean after a year off.
Finally this week, it has been a year since the Sydney Siege and a memorial service was held in Martin Place, Ian Macfarlane has been stopped by LNP state executive from changing party rooms, and Australia is now doing freedom of navigation exercises in the South China Sea to keep an eye on China.
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
The Palmer United Party has split. Jacqui Lambie has left, and become an independent. There are still two PUP Senators for now, five months after they started in the Senate. Clive Palmer has been accusing Lambie of fraud and generally does not seem to be taking the split well, given he started hurling insults at Lambie via the mainstream media. Lambie has indicated that she is willing to negotiate with the government, mainly on Defence pay, but will be blocking changes to university fee deregulation. This now makes the Senate a little more difficult to deal with as there are more groups to negotiate with, especially if Ricky Muir keeps himself independent of the PUP.
This week also saw the ABC announce the cuts it has to make in order to survive the government’s funding cuts – or “efficiency dividend” as the government is calling it. You can read what is going to be cut here. Mark Scott, the ABC’s managing director explained that it was a sad day and that he was upset that he had to sack 400 people. Meanwhile Tony Abbott admitted during question time that he had promised not to make cuts to the ABC or SBS. Mind you, either the ABC executives doing the cutting are very cunning or it was an incredible coincidence, because the five regional outposts being cut are in Liberal or National held seats. The Nowra, Wagin and Port Augusta posts are in the Liberal-held seats of Gilmore, O’Connor and Grey respectively, while the Nationals hold the seats of Gippsland and Flynn, where the outposts of Morwell and Gladstone are based. There were protests at Parliament the next day, while Christopher Pyne bemoaned the ABC’s decision to cut the Adelaide-based production unit, while Australian tweeters called him a hypocrite and trolled his petition.
The ADF has been in the news this week for multiple reasons. First, Tony Abbott has agreed to review the ADF pay issue, to see if there is anything he can do. There is no plan to meet with Jacqui Lambie at the moment, thou, and Abbott has pointed out that you can’t always get what you want. Meanwhile, the Defence Minister, David Johnston, has got himself into hot water over a comment made in the Senate about the Australian Submarine Corporation (ASC), in which he said he would not trust the ASC to build a canoe. That obviously upset the ASC’s staff, as well as the opposition, with people calling for his resignation. It doesn’t help that the government is trying to sell the ASC, and saying something like that, kind of devalues it. Staying with defence, the ADF has released a report into sexual assaults at ADFA. The report says that many senior officers who were told of the allegations either did noting or did not believe the cadets. Some are even calling for a Royal Commission into ADFA and its culture.
Freya Newman, the young woman in court over the leaking of information regarding Frances Abbott’s scholarship to the Whitehouse art school, has been sentenced to a good behaviour bond, with no conviction recorded. This is good for her, however now that the case is over, people have been asking why Newman sent the information to The New Matilda and not the NSW ICAC.
The government has said that a boat carrying Sri Lankan asylum seekers was turned back to Sri Lanka two weeks ago near the Cocos Islands, while the UN committee that looks into torture has condemned the government’s treatment of asylum seekers. Meanwhile, refugee legal services are being inundated with clients wanting clarification over a clause in the “Code of Conduct” they are required to sign. The clause basically tells them that if they engage in anti-social behaviour that disrupts the peace of the Australian community, they can be deported. This makes the refugees concerned, because many fear that if they make an innocent mistake, they could be kicked out of the country.
Finally this week, medics are finally headed to West Africa to join the fight against Ebola, Medibank was listed on the ASX, Clive Palmer was in court to deal with allegations from a Chinese company that was part of a joint venture, Bronwyn Bishop has broken the record for the most members thrown out in one sitting of the House of Representatives – 18, and the $7 co-payment may be binned.
The G20 continued over Sunday with leaders having a “robust” discussions with Putin, who left the G20 a little early, he says to catch up on sleep, but others say he was feeling hardly done by. Obama kept talking about climate change while Abbott kept talking about coal. However, the G20 is mainly about the economy, so they’ve promised to work harder to fight corporate tax evasion as well as try to get 100 million women into the work force. It was 42ºC in Brisbane over the weekend, making it very hot for some of the northern hemispheric heads of state, who are heading into winter.
China’s President, Xi Jinping arrived in Canberra shortly after the G20, he made a speech to Federal Parliament and signed a Declaration of Intent regarding the finalised Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
In the FTA, tariffs on dairy, beef and wine will decrease or be removed, mining tariffs will be gone in a decade and Australian service companies, like hotels, will have it much easier in China. Xi also visited Tasmania, making him the first Chinese head of state to visit every Australian state and territory. He met some school children – presumably the ones who wrote him a letter in Chinese – saw Tasmanian devils and went to Tasmania’s government house. His wife, Peng Liyuan, also visited a girls school on Sydney’s upper north shore and met some of the students and watched a Chinese lesson.
Narendra Modi, the Indian PM, also came to Canberra, but visited Sydney first, where he made a community address at Sydney Olympic Park. There were thousands there including some from Melbourne who took an overnight train to Sydney, dubbed the “Modi Express”. Modi spoke in Federal Parliament, where he suggested that making the members both houses sit through three speeches by Heads of State over the course of five days was Tony Abbott’s way of “shirtfronting” them.
Angela Merkel, Matteo Renzi and François Hollande also stayed in Australia a little longer, although they didn’t go to speak at Parliament House. Merkel visited a technology park in Sydney, Renzi visited Kellyville, a suburb in Sydney’s northwest, where an Italian company is working on part of a transport build, and Hollande hung around Sydney with the Governor General.
The Jacqui Lambie Saga continued this week with her being removed from her role as the PUP’s Deputy Senate Leader, and suspended her from attending party room meetings. The PUP has also removed references to her from their site, and she has removed references to them off hers. Lambie, along with the Motoring Enthusiasts’ Ricky Muir, voted with Labor, the Greens and Nick Xenophon against government changes to FOFA legislation. Lambie is looking at her options, because while she has every right to leave the party, should she pass away or be forced to quit, the casual vacancy will be filled by a PUP member and not by an independent or a member of Lambie’s alternative party, should she create one. This does make Senate more difficult at the moment, as it forces the government to negotiate with more people.
Julie Bishop was in New York this week in the blistering cold to chair the last meetings of the UN Security Council that Australia has the Presidency. The UNSC took a veiled sweep at nations like Australia that are restricting or stopping visa applications from the Ebola hot zone. Bishop called Ebola more than just a “health emergency” and that more needed to be done to help. The opposition was not impressed, suggesting that Australia says one thing internationally and does another thing domestically.
The ABC will lose almost 5% of its budget over the next five years, which is about $300 million dollars. The Opposition is telling people that Abbott lied during his election campaign, which he did, and money will also be taken from SBS, which will be allowed to play more advertising during prime time to help make up for the loss. Malcolm Turnbull has said that people shouldn’t be blaming the government, but some seem to think the government will be blamed. The ABC has suggested that they may have to close down foreign bureaux, cancel some programs and close a production unit based in South Australia, the latter making Christopher Pyne start a petition to stop the ABC from shutting the unit down. This week also saw rallies across the country with people coming to support the ABC – many fearing they will lose news coverage and entertainment.
The Overcoming Disadvantage report was released this week, suggesting that things are slowly improving for Indigenous Australians. Mortality is down, life expectancy is up, albeit not by much, and high school completion is also on the rise. However, there is an increase in the number of indigenous people incarcerated, which is being blamed on poor policy decisions, and experts want more investment in mental health services for indigenous people. Indigenous people have said that they should be involved in the decision-making in order to help the community.
The Australian government is receiving criticism this week for deciding that they would not take anymore refugees that registered in Indonesia, in the belief that they will stop people smugglers from sending people to Indonesia in the first place. Indonesia has said that they were not consulted and that this puts all the burden on them to help refugees, which they cannot do. Furthermore, an asylum seeker boat showed up on the island of Yap in Micronesia with refugees who wanted to settle in Australia. Micronesia has never had to deal with this and are now trying to figure out what to do with the 30-odd refugees.
Finally this week, Baby Gammy will likely get Australian citizenship, Westpac is closing accounts of money transfer businesses, making things difficult for workers who send money back to Australia, the Dutch have begun to remove the wreckage from MH17 and Peter Greste could be pardoned if it is in Egypt’s national interest, although DFAT is unaware of anything going on.
Tweet of the Week
Budget problems solved! Ray Hadley found more than $4 billion in our budget I didn't know was there. pic.twitter.com/BzwSGHIsAQ
Kara L 