The Week That Was – November 11 to November 17

This week saw the centenary of the armistice following the First World War, with commemorations across Australia. Scott Morrison spoke at the War Memorial in Canberra and the Governor-General, General Sir Peter Cosgrove, attended services in France. 

Melbourne is recovering from the apparent terror attack on Bourke Street, with Dan Andrews offering the family of the deceased victim, Sisto Malaspina, a state funeral – which they’ve accepted. Meanwhile the Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton have been speaking tough on extremism, saying the community, especially the Muslim community, needs to keep an eye on radicalisation and report it  – which has somewhat upset the Muslim community because they’re being tarred with the same brush. There are also questions now over whether the attacker, who died after being shot by police, was also mentally unwell, separate from his radicalisation – something that Scott Morrison did not like the idea of when asked about it in an interview on Channel 10. 

This week also saw Prime Minister Scott Morrison at his first regional summits. First, to Singapore, where he attended ASEAN meetings. He was received well, however both Indonesia and Malaysia have concerns about the Israel Embassy decision, which is yet to made. This has lead to the delay in signing the free trade agreement with Indonesia, which was supposed to happen this week. Morrison says the decision will be made in “a little while”, but won’t say exactly when – although the aim seems to be before Christmas.

Morrison also attended the APEC conference in Papua New Guinea this weekend, during which there has been a lot of announcements about joint projects. Most of these are designed, it seems, to counter Chinese influence in the Pacific region. The first is a joint infrastructure venture between America, Japan and Australia, which is meant to be an alternative to the “Belt and Road” infrastructure initiative offered by China.

The other of these is a Joint Naval base on Manus Island that will house Papuan, Australian and American naval forces. Again, the plan is to counter Chinese influence in the region by setting up a naval base close to Australia before China did. Australian Defence members have also bee brought in during APEC to help the Papua New Guinean security forces with security and protection for the conference, as Australia knows a thing or two about APEC security having hosted in 2007.

The closing date for opting out if the MyHealth Record system was November 15 – or at least it was until the website crashed in the days prior as people rushed to opt out or get more information. This has lead the Health Minister Greg Hunt to announce that there will be an extension to the opt-out timeframe. If you are yet to opt-out (if you so wish) you have until January 31.

Also this week, the ABC investigated itself on Four Corners over the sacking of Michelle Guthrie. Guthrie essentially accused the board of failing to act when she brought up instances of former Chairman Justin Milne interfering politically in the running of the public broadcaster. Guthrie also accused Milne of “inappropriate touching”, saying that he rubbed her back, which made her feel uncomfortable. She reported it to another board member but refused to make a formal complaint. Many people can understand why that’d make you uncomfortable, but it did feel a little bit like she was throwing that in at the eleventh hour to save her job. 

This has lead to calls for the ABC Board to be entirely replaced, but also lead to several former and current politicians to support the ABC and the work they do – with former Deputy PM Tim Fischer saying regional Australia would “be like Siberia” if not for regional ABC programming.

Finally this week, in an epic display of “policy gymnastics”, the government announced a cut to Foodbank, ostensibly to share the money with two other food rescue organisations, SecondBite and OzHarvest, before deciding instead to increase the food rescue industry budget after facing public backlash.

Tweet of the Week

Everything about this is wonderful… pic.twitter.com/ydiBa6Vzpt

— Andrew Stroehlein (@astroehlein) November 13, 2018

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

A year after the vote, the LGBT community are still recovering – ABC Online

Morrison’s government brings back memories of McMahon’s – ABC Online

The Two Weeks That Were – March 11 to March 24

During the last fortnight there were three elections (yes, three – all on the same night) – the WA state seat of Cottesloe was won by the Liberal Party in a by-election; and the by-election in the Victorian Federal seat of Batman was won by the Labor party’s Ged Kearney, which was a bit of a surprise, given many expected the Greens to win the seat. However it appears that some within the Greens leaked to the media, suggesting their candidate Alex Bhathal is a bully and accused her of branch stacking.

Meanwhile, in South Australia, the Liberal Party has won the State Election in their own right, after 16 years of Labor Party rule. It’s not as bad a gouging as the NSW state election in 2011, as the SA Labor Party only lost 4 seats. Jay Weatherill seemed pragmatic about the loss, which is unsurprising given he’s been in power for 16 years. What was surprising for many is the fact no seats in the South Australian lower house were won by Nick Xenophon’s SA-BEST party, but they will likely have two upper house seats.

During the fortnight, the ASEAN Summit was held in Sydney, which is unusual. Why? Well, apparently Australia is not an actual member. Instead, we’re sort of honorary members because we are a rich, slightly important neighbour. Anyway, we got to host South East Asian leaders, and show off the city – while also hoping to become a full-blown member, which can only happen if the current members vote unanimously to let us in. This consensus model also means that ASEAN doesn’t really tackle human rights issues, although this year they did make some sort of resolution to see what they could do regarding the humanitarian crisis surrounding Rohingya Muslims.

Bill Shorten announced a tax plan where investors will no longer be able to exchange their franking credits for monetary refunds when they get dividends from their investments. This has led to a tax fight between the Liberal and Labor party with accusations that Shorten’s plan will affect mostly “mum and dad” investors and the elderly that manage their own retirement income.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton is in trouble after he implied that South Africa was an uncivilised country. It all started when Dutton (who some believe might be a teensy bit xenophobic) said that he wanted to welcome white South African farmers who are being forced off their land in favour of blacks, who he says are being persecuted. They may very well be persecuted, seeing as it appears that some white farmers have been murdered.

However, given Dutton has a history of appearing to not really want to help refugees from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, all of a sudden passionately calling for us to welcome a bunch of affluent, white South Africans makes him look a little bit bad.

Meanwhile the Royal Commission into the banking and finance sector is continuing with Counsel Assisting Rowena Orr QC and Commissioner Kenneth Hayne QC. Justice Hayne has been getting quite mad with the Big Four banks who have not been very helpful – “forgetting” to include key documents, and abysmally failing to follow Australian business law that requires companies to report things to regulators within a certain amount of time. Meanwhile, Rowena Orr’s expressions, while listening to some of the answers to questions she has asked have been awesome.

Finally this fortnight, there are concerns about a lack of policy to deal with Australia’s rapid population growth; there are questions over what the USA expects us to do now that Australia is exempt from aluminium and steel tariffs; and the Cambridge Analytica scandal has people asking whether Australian political parties have been using the company or similar entities in their campaigns.

Tweet of the Fortnight

https://twitter.com/leighsales/status/973385759322353664

 

The Week That Was – November 22 to November 28

The week began with Anti-Islam and Anti-racism protests in most capital cities and while there was some fighting between the groups, most people were well behaved and the police kept each group as far away from each other as possible.

Meanwhile, Malcolm Turnbull completed his first World Tour with a trip to Malaysia for the ASEAN East Asia Conference. Turnbull met with the Malaysian PM, discussing the battle against Islamic State as well as trying to encourage China to play nice in the South China Sea. Upon his return to Australia, Turnbull was in Parliament, where the government and the opposition made speeches of condolence to the people of Paris as well as talking about keeping Australia safe.

Turnbull has also been questioned by the media over the wording in some of his speeches as well as whether or not he has a grip on the more conservative faction of his party. Furthermore, there has been calls from Labor that Mal Brough should either stand down or be sacked from his ministry due to a police investigation into Brough’s role in the Peter Slipper scandal back in 2011-2012. Then, at the end of the week, he flew to Malta for the CHOGM meetings, where he met Queen Elizabeth and apparently made her chuckle when he spoke of Prince Charles’ visit to Australia a few weeks back, and then he will travel to Paris for the Climate Conference.

Climate Change was a big thing this week in the lead up to the Paris conference, with concerns that Turnbull is heading to France with Tony Abbott’s old, and somewhat sub-par climate plan. Labor has come out with an alternative, suggesting a 45% reduction by 2030 and a carbon neutral economy by 2050. This is based off the exact same model that the Liberals are using for their climate plan too, so it should be interesting to see the reaction.

Domestic Violence came to the fore this week for Wednesday’s White Ribbon day, with Malcolm Turnbull telling the country that there must be change and it will have to be lead by men, while surveys are showing that young men are more likely to blame others for their problems and play down their aggressive behaviour, while young women are more likely to blame themselves as well as justify the aggressive behaviour of their partners.

The government has changed the terrorism warning system indicators from High, Low, Moderate etc, to a simpler system suggesting the likeliness of an attack.

The new terror attack warning system. (from: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-26/national-terrorism-threat-advisory-system-graphic./6976880)

 Under this simpler system the current warning is the second-lowest “probable”, so we’re pretty safe for now.

There are still national security concerns over foreign investment in Australia, with the US Ambassador meeting Australian officials to get more information on the Darwin Port deal, angry that they were not consulted. However, Defence Minister Marise Payne says that she was abroad with Julie Bishop when the decision was made and that as soon as it was, someone was dispatched to the Pentagon to tell US officials.

Finally this week, the coalition against Islamic State have completed more airstrikes on ISIS strongholds; the government wants the states to increase their trading hours to increase choice and the help the economy and Hillsong’s Brian Houston has been found to have had a conflict on interest over his father’s abuse of a young child at the Royal Commission into Child Abuse.

Also, if you live in the electorate of North Sydney, don’t forget you have a by-election on December 5!

Tweet of the Week

https://twitter.com/nthsydneyvotes/status/669365995148972032

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

First Dog on Bill Shorten’s dismal poll numbers – The Guardian

First Dog on White Ribbon Day – The Guardian

SBS2 The Feed’s retrospective for 2015

 

The Week That Was – November 15 to November 21

As the world recovered from the shock of the Paris attacks, people either tried to encourage calm and tolerance, while others encouraged negativity towards others. Thankfully, the Turnbull government appears to be in favour of the former.

While continuing his “World Tour”, Malcolm Turnbull travelled to Turkey for the G20 where they spoke a bit about a collective response to terrorism, and how there really needs to be a political solution in Syria, even if it means allowing Assad to remain in power while Islamic State is defeated, while also reminding Australia that we have good security measures in place and shouldn’t start freaking out. This year’s G20 was a huge improvement for Australia’s image, with Turnbull placed in a prime spot in the ‘Family Photo’ and during some discussions. The PM was also invited to visit President Obama at the White House at the start of next year. After the G20 was the APEC Meeting in Manila, in the Philippines, where Turnbull was bombarded with concerns about the Darwin Port lease – which is covered in more detail below – especially because the USA didn’t find out through official channels, but through the Wall Street Journal, to which Turnbull told them to get a subscription to the NT News. Turnbull returned to Australia, spending some time in Darwin before flying out to Malaysia for the ASEAN summit starting this coming week.

Terrorism has been infiltrating our news feeds this week, after the Paris Attacks, in which one of the attackers is believed to have gotten into France through the Eastern European refugee channels. This has lead to concerns around the world about just who they might be letting in, especially in the United States, where more than half of the States have decided to refuse to take in some the 10,000 refugees the US will allow into the country to help lessen the burden the European Migrant Crisis is having on the region. Meanwhile France began more airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq and France is believed to be talking with several nations including the US and Australia about increasing their involvement. Meanwhile the NSW government has announced that police will now have the power to act without question (presumably lethally) if they believe someone is being killed or attacked in front of them, while other States and the ADF are considering similar powers.

Foreign investment is starting to cause concern this week with three different situations arising. The first is the Darwin Port lease, in which the Northern Territory Government leased the port to a Chinese company, this has caused concerns given that people in the company have links to the Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army. This seems to be surprising people even though it’s common for Chinese companies, especially the State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), to have these links. It is also concerning because the Darwin Port’s lease area also encompasses a naval base, which has become a security concern.

The second investment issue this week has been the Treasurer’s decision to deny an application for a company, believed to be a Chinese company, from buying all of the Kidman Family farmland, as part of the land in South Australia backs onto the ADF weapons testing site at Woomera – a national security issue. The third is the concern that the NSW government will sell off their electricity assets to a Chinese SOE – which is another national security issue.

All of this is also leading to cabinet disagreements, which is leading to the perception of disunity in the party. This could be problematic for Turnbull, who is trying to balance all of the views in his party and cabinet to keep people happy.

Finally this week, the Trade Union Royal Commission has recommended that the people who gave evidence into the NUW last week should be prosecuted for their actions; the “On water operational matters” curtain was raised when a boat was turned back from Christmas Island – whether it was refugees or some wayward fishermen is unclear;  the Arts Minister is moving some finding back to the Arts Council, which will benefit individual performers and artists, but will still disadvantage small companies;  the top-secret ASIO part of the Sydney Siege Inquest has begun and it’s believed that any recommendations from this section will never be known to the public and Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall finished their visit to Australia and New Zealand and headed home.

Tweet of the Week

Waleed Aly on how Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) is weak.

Waleed talks about how we can stop ISIL #TheProjectTV
Written by Waleed & @twhittyer https://t.co/tX6mRNXZK1

— The Project (@theprojecttv) November 16, 2015

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

First Dog on the Moon on Paris – The Guardian

Durex wants a condom emoji – Junkee

Lee Lin Chin Interviews If You are the One host Meng Fei (subtitles)

Tea and Consent

 

The Week that Was – November 9 to November 15

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

Asked if she'd like a Canberra suburb named after her one day @JuliaGillard tells @666canberra "Why not? As long as it's a nice suburb haha"

— Andrew Greene (@AndrewBGreene) November 11, 2014

David Cameron also joked that he vetoed a bicycle ride with PM Abbott b/c it would require "more lycra than is consistent with re-election".

— Naomi Woodley (@naomiwoodley) November 13, 2014

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