The Week That Was – November 18 to November 24

The week began with the last days of APEC for Prime Minister Scott Morrison, where he announced several plans for involvement in the Pacific, mostly with the aim of countering Chinese influence. In particular, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the USA are working together to invest money into Papua New Guinea’s electricity grid so that more people in PNG have reliable electricity. But while Morrison had a relatively good showing at APEC, all was not smooth sailing, with Chinese officials marching into the PNG Foreign Minister’s office to demand changes to the wording of the joint communiqué, and wouldn’t leave until security was called. The USA and China appeared to have had a lot of disagreements at this APEC, and while some officials did try to find compromise, it was unsuccessful. For the first time in a long time, APEC did not finish with the release of any joint communiqué

The Banking Royal Commission is heading into its final days, with Westpac, Commonwealth Bank and ASIC on the stand. ASIC has promised to punish and prosecute banks more, while Westpac has admitted that they don’t really know how many people were charged fees for no service, as there are insufficient records. Their explanation is that some very rich people are happy to pay for the relationship, where it’s at their discretion. On the other had, the Commonwealth Bank’s CEO Matt Comyn was attempting to make it seem that he was trying to fix things when he was in charge of the retail bank, and that the former CEO Ian Narev was trying to stop him from doing good things, which he then stopped doing to wait to see what the Royal Commission recommended.

The CommBank’s board chairperson Catherine Livingstone got into a spot of bother at one point, suggesting that she had brought up a concern at a board meeting, but there was no record of it in the board minutes. So, either Livingstone was trying to make herself look good, or she did genuinely bring up the issue, but the bank’s board broke the law by not keeping accurate minutes of the meeting.

Scott Morrison, in the wake of both the Bourke Street attack and some anti-terrorism raids this week, has announced a plan to strip the Australian citizenship from convicted terrorists if they have citizenship of another country, or if they have some sort of entitlement to it. Other than the logical question of whether a country is going to give citizenship to a convicted terrorist, no matter how entitled they are to it, there are also concerns about the legality of the policy should it actually come into law. As it could render people stateless, it may also lead to detaining those who lose their Australian citizenship in detention centres because they’ll become “illegal aliens” all of sudden.

Morrison and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton also want legislation to force technology companies hand over information on users during police investigations, as it will make it easier for the cops to find evidence when carrying out surveillance on terror suspects, but one you have the power you could theoretically use the powers for anything, so again, there are concerns about civil liberties. Labor isn’t saying much on Morrison and Dutton’s policy plans, other than their insistence that while security is important, the legislation must also be correct.

Labor has also been working on announcing their climate policy this week, which is essentially using Turnbull’s National Energy Guarantee (NEG), which got him rolled in August, but with added subsidies for implementing renewables such as solar panels and wall batteries. They will also give the Clean Energy Finance Corporation more investments and push for a 45% reduction in emissions, based on 2005 levels. The Liberals, it seems are against the policy, despite the fact it was originally their idea, mostly because it’s Labor that is now announcing it. From the perspective of the intelligent life forms in my house, Labor is somewhat pushing this as a wedge issue, because the Liberals are then damned if they reject the policy and are damned if they support the policy.

Also this week, Victoria had a State election. It was originally thought that it could be quite a tight race, given the incumbent Labor government could have gone into minority government if they lost two seats, but as of Sunday lunch it’s looking as if it could be the biggest win for Victorian Labor in a very long time, with seats that haven’t been in Labor hands for decades falling to them with massive swings.

Finally this week, Jim Molan has pulled out of a Q&A appearance on the ABC this coming Monday, saying he cannot bring himself to defend his party after being placed in an unwinnable spot on the Liberal-National Senate ticket for NSW. Molan joined the senate in February this year, taking up the seat left vacant by National Senator Fiona Nash who got caught by section 44, and has ended up as one of the unlucky ones. He ended up drawing the short straw for the senators who got the three-year terms after the double dissolution election in 2016. He’s been placed in an unwinnable place on the Senate ticket, which has left him feeling a bit ripped off – which is understandable.

Tweet of the Week

Malcolm, Lucy and Alex Turnbull are all among the first 100 followers of a new Instagram page campaigning to vote Tony Abbott out. pic.twitter.com/zLriY0WgQv

— Denham Sadler (@denhamsadler) November 20, 2018

The Two Weeks That Were – September 23 to October 6

The school funding changes that the government wants to make to Gonski 2.0 may be derailed by some of the states and territories. The NSW and Queensland Education Ministers have said they don’t think the additional $4.5 billion earmarked for Catholic and Independent schools is fair. They want funding to be based on need such that the money goes to the schools with the most need, especially those in low socio-economic areas.

The earlier half of the fortnight saw an epic week of drama at the ABC. the Managing Director of the ABC, Michelle Guthrie was sacked from her role. While not much information was given by the board, other than Guthrie’s “leadership style” not fitting the direction in which the board wanted to take the Corporation, it appeared that some ABC staff, particularly those working in news and current affairs, were quite pleased to see her go,. It seems many felt that her lack of experience in public broadcasting, and focus on “platforms”was inappropriate, and staff morale was reportedly very low. There were also allegations that Guthrie had, when asked to what she would like to see on a future Four Corners program during a production meeting, she suggested positive puff piece profiles on business leaders, and stories about “happy” children detained on Nauru.

However, things kept on going. Someone then leaked documents from a board meeting held the week before, during which Guthrie had shown the board members emails from the Chairman of the ABC Board, Justin Milne, telling her to sack economics reporter Emma Alberici, whose story had angered the government (it also had some errors in it, but the story was revised and then republished). Guthrie also recounted a phone call from Milne in which she alleges he told her to ‘shoot’ ABC political editor Andrew Probyn, because the government didn’t like him.

Milne, as it turns out, is one of Malcolm Turnbull’s former business associates, and they are still quite good friends, which wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing if it weren’t for the fact Milne’s actions look a bit like political interference. Even if it wasn’t, the perception thereof is damaging enough, and led to ABC staff across the country holding snap union meetings, during which they agreed to demand Milne’s resignation, which did end up happening towards the end of the week. Meanwhile, Communications Minister Mitch Fifield announced a departmental inquiry into the board’s knowledge of Milne’s actions, and Labor and the Greens have announced they will move to create a Senate inquiry into the situation as well.

The Wentworth by-election seems to have gotten a bit dirty recently with allegations of dirty tricks against the Liberal candidate Dave Sharma and his supporters. This is because posters belonging to Independent Kerryn Phelps, Labor candidate Tim Murray and Hinch Justice Party candidate Ben Forsyth, among other candidates were removed or turned away from view and replaced by posters of Sharma. These posters can cost quite a bit of money and volunteers spend hours sticking them up, so understandably, people aren’t too happy about this. Wentworth has also had a bit of a shock with former Liberal Party MP for the seat (and former Opposition Leader) John Hewson, telling the people of Wentworth to vote for anyone other than the Liberal Party, because of their stance (or lack of) on climate policy, which has made Labor’ Tim Murray and Independent candidate Kerryn Phelps very, very pleased.

The interim report from the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry has been released, and while it doesn’t have any explicit recommendations, many are implied. Commissioner Hayne was withering in his criticism of ASIC, which didn’t punish badly behaved banks appropriately. Hayne will deliver his final report in February 2019, but the Opposition wants Hayne to have more time. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said that he is not opposed to this and would gladly let Hayne have more time if he asked for it.

There is a push for there to be a review into the Family Law system, as cases continue to back up and be delayed. There is a concern that if the Law Reform Commission cannot find solutions to the issues, then we may need to have a Royal Commission. There are also concerns over the government’s plan to merge the Family Court and the Federal Circuit Court in order to maximise efficiency. Those in the legal system aren’t on board, saying people are more concerned about the quality of the justice delivered, rather than the speed at which it is done so.

Labor has announced a $1.75 billion dollar childcare package that will be delivered should they win the next election. They say they will pay for it by winding back the tax breaks the current government has implemented, and the plan would see recognised preschool program funding extend to include the education of three-year-old children. This would increase the current number of three-year-olds in preschool, and bring us into line with other OECD nations.

Also during this fortnight, Malcolm Turnbull called Tony Abbott and Kevin Rudd “miserable ghosts” for hanging around in parliament after they lost the Prime Ministership. The GST on sanitary products will be removed, making many women very happy, eighteen years after the GST was introduced.

Finally this fortnight, Labor announced that when they’re in government they’ll require companies with more than 1,000 employees to declare the differences in pay between men and women in an effort to reduce the gender pay gap. Scott Morrison has announce that there could be a new day for the recognition of indigenous people (but it’s literally a thought bubble, there is no other information as yet).

Tweet of the Fortnight

Former 7:30 Report presenter Kerry O’Brien on the ABC.

Kerry O’Brien takes us through ABC’s tumultuous week following revelations of political interference, and the importance of reporting without fear or favour. #TheProjectTV pic.twitter.com/XorAJdgrCi

— The Project (@theprojecttv) September 30, 2018

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Why Michelle Guthrie went (written before the Milne allegations came to light) – Meanjin

Mark Dapin on the ABC’s Acting Managing Director David Anderson – SMH

ABC presenter Jeremy Fernandez reads texts about a DJ set played on Triple J – Triple J

First Dog on the Moon on the banking royal commission – The Guardian

The Week That Was – August 12 to August 18

Politicians returned to Canberra this week after a two month break, with the government ready to tackle two major policy issues in the first few weeks: company tax cuts and the National Energy Guarantee – but more on that later. This week also saw the swearing-in of the five “Super Saturday” by-election victors – Susan Lamb, Justine Keay, Rebekha Sharkie and Josh Wilson, who fell victim to section 44 of the constitution, along with Patrick Gorman who is replacing Tim Hammond, who left politics for family reasons.

This week also saw the maiden speech by Fraser Anning. Now, bear with me, this is going to get a tad complicated… Mr Anning is new to parliament, because he replaced One Nations Senator Malcolm Roberts when Roberts fell victim to section 44 of the constitution. Anning, before being sworn in to the Senate, had a fight with Pauline Hanson and left the One Nation party to join up with Katter’s Australia Party.

Fraser Anning’s speech was, well, interesting to say the least – and a bit (or a lot) racist. He advocated for a return to the mid-20th century White Australia Policy, an end to Muslim immigration and may have in reference to these two issues, used the term ‘final solution’. This is a term which, for many, stirs up memories of the Nazis and the Holocaust. If it really floats your boat, you can go and look up the speech, but I’m not going to give it anymore airtime or attention.

Anning was widely criticised by all sides of politics – Liberal, Labor, and the Greens; along with Derryn Hinch, who upset Pauline Hanson by suggesting Anning’s speech was “Pauline Hanson on steroids.” It gets weirder though, because by some freak of nature, Pauline Hanson, said she was “appalled” by the speech, as you would assume this kind of speech would be somewhat up her alley. Meanwhile, Bob Katter thought Anning’s speech was awesome and was squawking about how it was what many in Australia were thinking but were too afraid to say… which I certainly hope isn’t the case. One positive out of all of this was the immense unity shown by both sides of politics, through speeches by Penny Wong, Malcolm Turnbull, Ed Husic and many more.

Company tax cuts are unlikely to be dealt with for a while, because negotiations still need to happen with senators, and they can be difficult people to deal with sometimes.

This week though, was all about the National Energy Guarantee (NEG). This guarantee is theoretically supposed to reduce energy bills, increase energy reliability and help reduce emissions by the 26% target set at the Paris talks. Turnbull first had to get his policy through the Coalition party room, which he did with only a few back benchers reserving the right to cross the floor. These people were Tony Abbott, George Christiansen, Andrew Hastie, and Tony Pasin. Basically the rest of the week was focused around the fact that key conservatives in the Coalition were apparently not totally on board with the whole NEG, and swirling leadership rumours – which lead to Turnbull backflipping on how the emissions target would be enforced. Originally it was to be legislated, but it will now be regulated, which means it’s unenforceable by law.

The Banking Royal Commission continued this week with their inquiry into superannuation. It is apparent that retail superannuation funds are just a little bit naughty, a lot of the time. Again, bear with me, this is complicated, but this week we learned that NAB and its superfund MLC, have not been telling the regulators ASIC and APRA – the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority – things they should have been telling them. Colonial First State, owned by the Commonwealth Bank, was still charging fees after the client had died, but also for no service which is illegal, and they were also forcing clients onto super expensive in-house CommInsure insurance. Meanwhile ANZ got in trouble for trying to sell superannuation through bank tellers, which is also illegal, because bank tellers aren’t actually qualified to give financial advice.

All of this was compounded by the fact that APRA revealed that they tended not to publicly pursue some of these transgressions, so as to avoid damaging confidence in the finance industry.

Also this week, there are concerns about the ATAR cut-offs for some education and teaching degrees. It appears that some universities are allowing students into these degrees with an ATAR of less than 20 – the maximum ATAR you can get is 99.95, so 20 isn’t great – which is understandably concerning to parents and politicians alike. Now, I am surrounded by teachers and pre-service teachers in my personal life, and they’re all quite irritated. My partner, a pre-service teacher in his second last year of study, is mostly irritated that the media, when they picked up this story, didn’t actually talk to students studying education degrees. Most of these degrees are now four years long, have become more specialised, and he’s seen many students drop out in the first year.

Finally this week, former Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson will face his 12 month sentence in home detention;  former Governor-General and former Anglican Archbishop Peter Hollingworth is being investigated for concealing abuse in the Anglican church, an issue which forced him to resign from his vice-regal post back in the early 2000s; and there are concerns that some people may be missing out on their medical care because of the out-of-pocket costs some doctors charge, despite a rise in bulk billing.

Tweet of the Week

Kristina Keneally is still having a go at the Great Barrier Reef Foundation… (you may have to click the tweet to see what Keneally has written)

https://twitter.com/workmanalice/status/1029222975101263872

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

An excerpt from Ed Husic’s speech in response to Fraser Anning’s speech – ABC Online

Bushfire seasons are starting earlier and lasting longer – ABC Online

 

The Week That Was – August 5 to August 11

Drought now affects 100% of the state of New South Wales, as new assistance and tax breaks were announced by both the Federal and the NSW State Government. A lot of the money from the Federal Government is going to mental health phone support and topping up the “living on the farm” tax break that farmers already get (I don’t know what that tax rebate is actually called but that was how I understood it from the news). However some farmers fear they may miss out because their land is too large.

There is also a bit of angst from some farmers who have invested heavily in drought proofing or preparation, because they don’t feel that those farmers that haven’t prepared should get rewarded for it; however if the drought goes on for too long, those that made preparations may also need the assistance, and if it isn’t there now they’ll be angrier in the future when they need the help. In some towns, they’re running out of water and even Sydney’s water supply is dropping. While Sydney is not yet at strict water restrictions like it was back in the 2000s, there is a chance we will, even after the desalination plant kicks into action.

As the Garma Festival came to an end this week, there is further criticism of the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, as it appears he isn’t acting on or is simply rejecting suggestions that were made in the Uluru statement last year. One particular point of contention is the call for there to be an elected body of indigenous advisors to parliament, like a third house of parliament essentially, which Turnbull doesn’t want to even approach because he doesn’t think it will get through a referendum.

This week the banking Royal Commission has taken its focus to superannuation, looking into both industry and retail funds. Because super makes no sense sometimes, there will be no average people giving evidence, just experts and executives. The main focus has been NAB, who owns super fund MLC, and how they charged fees for no service (which is illegal) and then debated whether or not they should compensate customers and how.

Emma Husar’s political career will end at the next election, after she decided she would not re-contest her marginal Western Sydney seat of Lindsay. She said her reputation has been irreparably damaged. The awkward part in all of this is that the day after she made this announcement, the investigation into her conduct reported that while her management style is a little unusual and she can be heavy-handed, but in no way is she behaving inappropriately and she doesn’t need to resign from parliament.

The National Audit Office is looking into how the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, a small charity run by corporates, is using the money it was granted for Great Barrier Reef protection. There are suggestions that the money was potentially given to the foundation without a tender process. There are suggestions from former board members and employees that the organisation is less geared towards climate issues and that giving them such a large grant without much of a process.

Finally this week, ASIC will embed agents in financial institutions; Australia’s population hit 25 million sometime on Tuesday; the State and Federal Energy Ministers met this week to discuss lowering power prices while lowering emissions and keeping the energy reliable – which suggests we wont really get a lot of renewables in the mix for a while yet; and there are concerns over how providers are handling customers who go it alone paying to get fibre to the premises, and then when their neighbours decide they want it too, they don’t get any compensation, despite the fact they have made it cheaper for everyone else in the street.

Tweet of the Week

Cool history things. 🙂

The Bray Head fire combined with recent heavy rain has resulted in the "Eire" sign becoming visible from the air once more. The sign was made during the 2nd World War in order to warn Allied & German airmen that they were flying over a neutral country. #Wicklow #EIRE @barrabest pic.twitter.com/CYaXtpoRtS

— SkycamIreland (@IrelandSkycam) August 4, 2018

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Daniel Ziffer on the Banking Royal Commission’s look into super – ABC Online

Apparently Tony Abbott and the Greens are on the same side – ABC Online

The Week That Was – April 22 to April 28

The Banking Royal Commission is still revealing more and more illegal and unconscionable conduct by banks and financial advisors. This week the ANZ Bank revealed that nearly a quarter of their financial planners had been disciplined for giving inappropriate advice that potentially benefitted them rather than their clients. Not only that, but the regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), has been a toothless tiger. ASIC requires that companies report the fact that they may have broken the law within 10 days of the discovery of such information – and it theoretically has the power to prosecute if companies report later than that, but hasn’t. In fact, during this royal commission bank officials have admitted to knowing of potentially illegal actions and have not reported them to ASIC for years.

The government is also struggling with the Royal Commission issue, initially not wanting to admit they shouldn’t have resisted calls for a commission in the first place – something the backbench was getting irritated with because they can’t claim victory for starting up the commission until the senior MPs and ministers admit the mea culpa. Later in the week Malcolm Turnbull eventually admitted that there should have been less resistance and an earlier start to the commission.

Malcolm Turnbull spend the earlier part of the week finishing off his European trip, visiting Germany and France. In Germany he met with Angela Merkel and discussed the bilateral relationship and the potential for closer trade and security ties with Germany and the European Union post-Brexit. Then in France, Turnbull travelled to the town of Villers-Bretonneux where Australian soldiers fought off the Germans in the First World War. There he opened the Sir John Monash Centre (the brainchild of former PM Tony Abbott) on the centenary of the battle on ANZAC Day.

On ANZAC Day, the country commemorated the day with dawn services across the country, including at the Australian War Memorial, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney’s Martin Place, as well as at Gallipoli and Villers-Bretonneux. There were other ceremonies and commemorations, with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attending the New Zealand War Memorial in London, as well as a memorial service at Westminster Abbey (where Prince William was caught trying not to fall asleep).

The Government has also announced that they no longer plan to raise the Medicare Levy in order to pay for the NDIS program, saying they have other ways to pay for it. What those ways may be are unclear at the moment. Those using the NDIS are not so sure of and are now concerned about how their programs will be funded.

Also this week, Professor Clinton Fernandes has taken ASIS (Australia’s international spy agency) to court to get them to release 40-year-old intelligence documents regarding what Australia knew in the lead up to the Indonesian invasion of Timor-Leste. Fernandes, a university professor and historical advisor to the historical movie Balibo is trying to get the documents released in order to tell the whole story.

Finally this week, the Anglican Church has announced it may sell some of their church land in order to pay for the Institutional Abuse redress scheme in states that have signed up; Trump has decided to send the guy who was supposed to be the US Ambassador to Australia to help out with the North Korean peace thing – the government doesn’t see it as a snub but as a useful person being sent to a place where they’ll be useful; and AGL has got at least some of their Liddell coal power plant replacements – with a gas plant to be built outside of Newcastle and another plant to be built between Sydney and Wollongong (pending government and community approval).

Tweet of the Week

Senate Estimates have been taking place at the moment too… (N.B. the BCA is the Business Council of Australia)

https://twitter.com/KKeneally/status/988658604088545281

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Who has what information on you on the internet? – ABC Online

Kim Jong-Un is in it for the money – ABC Online

The Week That Was – April 17 to April 23

The week began with Parliament being recalled, with three weeks for the Senate to pass the ABCC legislation, before Malcolm Turnbull calls a double dissolution election. The Senate didn’t let Turnbull wait long, rejecting the legislation a second time and giving Turnbull his trigger. Most media outlets are so certain that there will be a double dissolution, they’ve started using their “Australia Votes” graphics already, even without the actual campaign.

The issue is however, that while a double dissolution would have been great for Turnbull and the Liberals a few months ago, there is now a risk of either a hung parliament or a win to Labor. While there is still a decent chance of return of Liberal government, albeit without a couple of marginal seats that were always going to swing to Labor, that chance is reduced. Part of that is due to complacency from the Liberal Party, in thinking that their very popular leader would help them coast through, as well as limited change from the previous Abbott government’s policies and the fact that it became so obvious earlier this year that a double dissolution was on the cards that Bill Shorten was able to plan and get ahead of the Liberals in the policy-selling stakes.

The week also began with several Canberra rallies for and against the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (RSRT). Those against it are owner-drivers and small trucking business owners, concerned they will be priced out of the market, supported by the Liberal Party. Meanwhile, Bill Shorten and Labor, along with other truck drivers, usually employed by bigger trucking companies have argued the benefit of it, in that it keeps drivers safer. The government also added the legislation to remove the RSRT in the Senate this week, and that was successful.

The politics over banks has continued, with Bill Shorten and Labor still talking about having a Royal Commission into the industry while Turnbull and the Liberals came up with the alternative of making those who ASIC investigates foot the watchdog’s bill. There has also been some drama over dental health funding, with the Liberals announcing a $5 billion injection of funds into state run dental clinics. However this is at the cost of a $3 billion children’s dental care voucher program.

South Australia also got some attention this week with the government announcing that South Australian ship builders will be involved in the building of offshore patrol vessels and frigates, with patrol boats being made in Perth when it comes time for the South Australian to make the frigates. There are concerns though about whether or not that promise will be kept, and if the submarines will be made in SA, once the government finally picks a model – although it probably won’t be long now.

It’s been announces that the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) was hacked, presumably by Chinese People’s Liberation Army agents, back in December. The Bureau has links to the Department of Defence, and it is believed that it cost hundreds of millions to re-secure the Bureau’s systems. But that’s not all, recently the USA informed Australia that Parliament House had been hacked and that China could see all emails, from the PM down. Oops. It’s also been confirmed that the Australian Signals Directorate has the capability to hack other nations too.

Johnny Depp’s wife Amber Heard appeared in court this week over the drama last year involving her dogs, Pistol and Boo. Heard plead guilty to falsifying her quarantine document, was given a good behaviour bond and made a video with Depp about Australia’s quarantine laws, which makes for some interesting viewing…

Meanwhile, Bronwyn Bishop lost preselection for the seat of Mackellar and Jason Falinski will now be the Liberal candidate in the blue-ribbon (i.e. almost always safe Liberal) seat. There was also some major drama and controversy in Parliament house when Tanya Plibersek’s hand was not shaken by the Governor-General, and Labor’s Stephen Conroy got a bit too riled up about it, and suggested Australia become a republic and that Governor General Cosgrove was akin to Sir John Kerr.

Finally this week, Clive Palmer’s company Queensland Nickel will be liquidated and Palmer and his nephew will likely be pursued in the courts by creditors and/or the government; Malcolm Turnbull has said the Channel Nine journalists were “most unwise” to have gotten involved (including paying) in the ‘retrieval’ of two kids from their father in Lebanon, which resulted in their arrest; and Australia signed the Paris Climate deal, and now need to ratify it in Parliament, which they will do along with the second part of the Kyoto agreement.

Tweet of the Week

https://twitter.com/workmanalice/status/722360331079581696

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Calling things Marxist is the new political correctness – The Guardian

Leigh Sales (of ABC’s 7.30) on the ‘vibe’ of the 2016 election – ABC The Drum

Annabel Crabb on political discipline and the election – ABC The Drum

I watched my lesbian girlfriend marry a gay man – The Guardian