This week was the first week back from Winter Holidays for politicians, and the Liberals found themselves coming in a day early to have an internal party vote on whether or not they should have a conscience vote for same-sex marriage in Parliament or stay with their plebiscite idea. In the end, only seven voted for the conscience vote, so they sent the once-rejected plebiscite legislation back into the Senate, where it failed. Prior to doing so, the government announced that if the vote in the Senate failed they would run a postal survey through the Bureau of Statistics at a cost of $122 million.
Activist groups are challenging the survey thing in the High Court, arguing that the Treasurer can’t justify pulling $122 million out of his back pocket. The High Court will urgently hear the argument, starting next week, before holding a one and a half day hearing on September 5. Already people are joining sides, with former Prime Ministers Tony Abbott and John Howard joining the ‘no’ campaign. Abbott, in a doorstop on Wednesday, tried to frame voting no as a way to protect freedom of speech and religion, as well as protecting people from political correctness. It was bizarre. Meanwhile several MPs and Ministers have jumped on the yes train, Education Minister Simon Birmingham, George Brandis, Trent Zimmerman (who was one of the seven wanting a conscience vote) as well as most Labor MPs, and all Greens.
However, the “yes” campaign needs to be careful, and they need to unify soon, no matter how reluctant they are to have a postal plebiscite survey. Many believe this survey is just ridiculous, and it likely is, but this may be their chance to have same-sex marriage in Australia, and they need to join the campaign and encourage others to vote ‘yes’. As for concerns over hate speech and the safety of LGBTIQ youths and children of LGBTIQ parents, there appears to be a plan to get some rules legislated to protect them.
Moving away from one stupid thing to another, apparently we’re going to war with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (aka North Korea) if they attack US Territory, including the Pacific territory of Guam. In return if the DPRK decides to go after Australia, the US will come and help us. It’s all because of the ANZUS treaty between Australia, New Zealand and the United States, and Malcolm Turnbull spoke with Mike Pence during the week to pledge our support. Greens Leader Richard Di Natale has said that it is amazing that we’re being brought along by an “unhinged and paranoid” leader in Trump, who seems to be having a war of words with an equally paranoid and unhinged dictator.
Finally this week, public servants could lose their jobs for liking or appearing to support anti-government posts online; the Commonwealth Bank is in trouble for failing to report over 50,000 suspicious transactions to several government agencies until they were taken to court; former MP Bruce Billson is in hot water for being paid by his new lobbying job before he left parliament; and power prices are still a bit of an issue, and there doesn’t seem to be any sensible results coming from meetings between the government and power providers.
Tweet of the Week
German Newspaper Der Spiegel on Trump v Kim Jong Un
(The words under the cartoon read “Trump against Kim: The Comparison”)
Things I’ve Been Looking at Online
ABC meteorologist Nate Byrne on the ‘weather girl’ stereotype – ABC Online
Annabel Crabb on Parliament House – ABC Online
Buzzfeed is still checking out Malcolm Roberts’ citizenship – Buzzfeed
Paul Kildea on the Same-Sex Marriage postal plebiscite survey thing – The Conversation
Kara L 