The Two Weeks that Were – May 12 – May 25

Right now is assignment time at uni, so once again, I have a two-week chunk for you!

So, both the Royal and Victorian State Commissions into child abuse continued, Bob Carr has been flying everywhere, Craig Thompson has been charged with further crimes, oh and the budget came out, as did the Opposition’s reply.

Oh, my. The budget. It drives me insane. I didn’t watch it on TV, so So much so, that I am giving you a link to a summary here, simply because I will get too annoyed summarising it her. In short, there is a huge hole, involving a AU$17bn tax write down. That makes me wonder:

Who hasn’t been paying their taxes?

Yes, it’s a strange question, but how did tax revenue fall so sharply? It is beyond my understanding.

Then there was the Opposition’s reply, which from what I gathered, consisted of Tony Abbott telling the Labor Party that they were useless, which annoyed me. Why can’t we have sensible debate? I can’t be the only one that would like politics to be sensible.

In other news, Craig Thompson (MP for Dobell) has been charged with more fraud allegations, relating to his time at the HSU. Thankfully, this time, there were no snide comments from Abbott, which make me (somewhat) pleased.

Quotes of the Fortnight

Better late than never” – Denis Hart, the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, in response to the allegations that the church only recently defrocked a pedophile priest, who had been accused 18 years ago.

“Tony Abbott’s budget-in-reply speech was the best in decades…It shows that the Coalition understands the dimension of the task ahead and is ready to rescue the situation” – Peter Costello, former Treasurer on Tony Abbott’s budget reply on May 16th.

Tweet of the Fortnight

If you haven’t been following, there has been some issues with Sydney Uni hosting the Dalai Lama – it’s all sorted out now:

 

Faux Pas of the Fortnight

Meet Denis Hart, the top Catholic in Melbourne, talked last week at the Victorian Commission into child abuse. This is an ABC video, so I have to link it here. Watch it through – at least until you get to “Better late than never”.