Tag Archives: AWU

The Week That Was – October 22 to October 28

Posted on by

Apologies for the radio silence, uni assessments combined with work tend to take over around this time of year.

The main focus this week was the “Citizenship Seven” – the seven MPs and Senators whose position in the parliament was in doubt. On Friday, it was ruled that Senators Fiona Nash, Larissa Waters, Scott Ludlam and Malcolm Roberts were elected while ineligible for Parliament. Senators Nick Xenophon and Matthew Canavan were ruled as safe. The court decided that Xenophon’s potential UK overseas citizenship is so obscure that “taking all possible steps” to discover and get rid of it would be very difficult (Xenophon had already renounced his Greek citizenship when he first became a politician) and Matthew Canavan was ruled not to be a dual Italian citizen after his mother took out Italian citizenship.

If you’ve been counting, then you’ve noticed I’ve only listed six people so far. The seventh is Barnaby Joyce MP, the Member for New England, Agriculture Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. He’s been ruled ineligble for office as a dual Australian and New Zealand citizen. This means that New England is going to a by-election on December 2. Joyce, who has since renounced his NZ citizenship, will run for the seat. Tony Windsor, the independent that the media often thinks might run against him, has said that he won’t be.

There has been some drama though, as Labor has suggested that they might cause trouble in the last sitting week of the year now that Malcolm Turnbull has a minority government. There were also questions over who was going to run the country while Malcolm Turnbull went overseas to Israel, as the top two Nationals – Fiona Nash and Barnaby Joyce – were caught up in the citizenship issue. His options were Nationals Senator Nigel Scullion or Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. Given the constitution states that the Prime Minister must be from the House of Representatives, it had to be Julie Bishop. Meanwhile the government is attempting to maintain the image of stable government, but it’s not working very well for them given Labor is continuing to say that things aren’t stable. It also appears that some Liberal Party people are annoyed with the Nationals for causing these issues, putting strain on the Coalition.

Oh, and Labor is planning on challenging Fiona Nash’s and Barnaby Joyce’s decisions.

The Australian Federal Police has revealed that they’re somewhat understaffed – or at least that’s what appears to be the case. The equivalent of three investigative squads have been redirected to keeping an eye on the Prime Minister’s home at Potts Point (ICYMI – Turnbull lives in his family home in Potts Point, not at Kirribilli House) and protecting the PM himself. Several drug investigation cases have been handed to either the NSW Police or to overseas police forces. The Federal Police Commissioner says that this is the “normal” level of protection for the Prime Minister, but that the security climate has changed. Whether or not this is true, I don’t know, but it does seem like they might need to hire more people.

The Australian Workers Union’s offices in Sydney and Melbourne, over some sort of funding issue regarding GetUp! – I think it has to do with donation declarations. Anyway, the whole drama is that somehow, the media was there when the cops walked through the door to carry out their warrants, suggesting that either the AFP or the Employment Minister Michaelia Cash tipped the media off. The AFP said they didn’t, which leaves either Cash or a person in her office. Despite an office staffer talking the fall and resigning, there are still many who think Cash is behind the leak to the media. This has lead to calls for Cash to quit or be sacked.

Finally this week, there’s still more NBN drama; the building works at Parliament House are making it look pretty bloody ugly; and foreign policy bureaucrats are stopping Australia from getting into a China-run trade group due to national security concerns.

Tweet of the Week

https://twitter.com/RyanSheales/status/924376782349860864

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Michelle Grattan on the drama with Michaelia Cash – ABC Online

Julie Robert on ‘Physical Philanthropy’ – ABC Online

The Week That Was – November 1 to November 7

Posted on by

As the North Sydney by-election campaign continues, the Federal Government appears to be laying groundwork for tax reform. I should be interesting to see how a popular PM deals with selling unpopular tax reforms. It’s thought that the GST will be raised to 15% and all exemptions will be removed, however this is all speculation and it’s believed that the PM and the government are letting all this speculation run rife in order to lay the groundwork and see what the public think.

Some MPs believe that they could sell GST changed but they would have to come in a package with other sweeteners – such as income tax cuts and increases in pensions – in order for that to happen. Meanwhile the opposition is against any tax changes util they see the maths behind it. Turnbull will also have to convince the state premiers that it is worth the rise in the GST – especially Western Australia who feel – thanks to the way the GST paybacks to states are calculated – that they are not getting as much money as they should.

Peter Dutton travelled one of the biggest refugee camps in the world this week, on his trip to Jordan. Dutton had a tour of the camp, meeting residents, before giving visas to the first few dozen refugees that Australia is taking in. There was one guy the cameras filmed getting his visa and shaking Dutton’s hand, professing his gratitude and promising that his family would be good people in Australia – which shows just how desperate these families are to get out of Syria and the Middle East.

This week the Trade Union Royal Commission looked into the NUW, with revelations that several employees were using their union-issued credit cards for personal expenses, such as online dating and holidays. Some of these employees are members of the same family. Furthermore, TURC released a statement exonerating Bill Shorten of any wrongdoing while at the helm of the Australian Workers Union, but faced criticism for releasing this statement at 8pm on a Friday night.

Finally this week, Malcolm Turnbull made a speech this week talking about his plans and vision – He wants Australia to be a high-wage nation with a generous social net and “fair” tax systems – he also got rid of Knights and Dames and Bill Shorten has been revealed as an awkward dad dancer. Other than that, there hasn’t been much else on, or I missed it.

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Bit of a Melbourne Cup theme this week…

The pooping pony at a Sydney cafe on Melbourne Cup Day – ABC News

Jana Wendt’s profile on Wyatt Roy – SBS News

Malcolm Turnbull just doesn’t care about the Melbourne Cup – Buzzfeed

How Admire Rakti (one of the horses that died at last year’s Cup) saved his jockey’s life – The Age

The Week that Was – June 8 to June 14

Posted on by

Tony Abbott is continuing to represent Australia on the world stage. After Normandy at the end of last week, Abbot went to Villers-Bretonneux and visited the memorial and the local school L’ecole Victoria (Victoria School – named after the state) where he chatted in French to the students. Unfortunately his French wasn’t that great, but he gets a few kudos points for trying. He wants the Western Front to become more prominent and announced an interactive museum that will be open in time for ANZAC Day in 2018 – the Centenary of the Second Battle of Villers-Brettoneux.

His linguistic adventures continued in Canada, where he may or may not have called the country “Canadia” before quickly correcting himself. He and Stephen Harper, Canada’s PM, are ideologically similar, and so they were very happy to be in the same room as each other and both bashed the Carbon Tax a little bit, calling it “economy destroying” – or something close to that. The Opposition were a bit concerned given that Abbott’s itinerary in United States wasn’t fully sorted before he arrived, but that seems to have been sorted out.

In New York, Abbott visited the 9/11 Memorial, chatted with Ban Ki-moon and rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange. It was amusing at the NYSE as one of the spots where Abbott stopped for the cameras was near the stock screen for Abbott – a healthcare company with the slogan “A Promise for Life”…

He also had dinner with Rupert Murdoch, defending it by saying it what a Prime Minister should do. If that’s the case, then he should also meet with Mark Scott, David Gyngell, Hamish McLennan and other Australian media CEOs and Directors, not just Murdoch. Abbott then travelled to Washington D.C., where he met with Republican John Boehner. He was also meant to meet with Eric Cantor, another senior Republican, but Cantor lost his primary and so he resigned from his post. He met President Obama as well, and given the situation in Iraq (Al-Qaeda inspired ISIS militants have taken over some cities in the north), the PM assured Obama that we would be there to help if asked by the USA.

He also went to the Arlington Cemetery in Virginia and had talks with the US Secretary of Defence, Chuck Hagel, at the Pentagon. He also went to Texas, where he talked about how amazing coal is and how it was going to fuel our future for years to come, as well as bashing the Carbon Tax again. He also got given a big hat, which lead to George W. Bush comparisons…which I don’t think were meant to be positive.

Still with international affairs, there was concern this week that some Middle Eastern nations might stop or sanction trading with us, because the government recently stopped calling Israeli settlements in the West Bank. For many years, the government has used the term “occupied” but now they’re using “disputed”. It’s been said that our government has a “pro-Israel bias”, which the government has disputed. Barnaby Joyce, the Minister for Agriculture, “says he is leaving foreign policy issues affecting his portfolio to people “smarter” than him” (quote from the ABC). That’s a bit of a cop-out if you ask me, and the government should have kept things the way they were – offending large blocs of trading partners is not a good look.

I’ll leave the international jet-setting fun for now, and move on. Again the Budget is causing trouble, with a “Bust the Budget” protest in Melbourne that not only involved students, but also union members and ordinary people. There are moves to change the welfare system to cut 40-50 payments down to 4-6 payments as well as identifying those who may become “welfare dependent” and putting a stop to it. However, youth unemployment is very high in Australia – almost 20% – and the government wants those on welfare to apply for 40 jobs a month, so there could be an issue when it comes to stopping unemployment when there are no jobs. Oh, and if there is too much trouble getting the Budget through the Senate, the treasurer has essentially said there will be a double dissolution.

There were two inquiries this week:

The first was the Royal Commission into Union Corruption, which this week got onto a case involving the AWU. In particular, this case implicates Julia Gillard’s ex-boyfriend, who created a slush fund. It’s said that Julia Gillard – at the time a lawyer – helped with the legal stuff related to the set up of the fund, but she and the ex-boyfriend, among other witnesses, have said that she had no idea what the fund was for and that all she did was help. There is also suggestions that renovations at her old house were paid for by her ex-partner using this slush fund, but there has been contradictory evidence, and it’s also been pointed out that people in relationships often give each other money at times.

The second is a senate inquiry into what is going on in the Manus Island Detention Centre. A former G4S employee gave evidence as did a Salvation Army official, who attacked Scott Morrison for placing the blame one of their Papua New Guinean staffers, suggesting that witnesses were not questioned properly, and those witnesses say that the Salvation Army staff were trying to help the injured. Two 22-year-old students have also given evidence, saying they were hired by the Salvation Army as case workers. With no training or job interview, the two students were sent to Nauru and Manus Island within days of applying and found themselves counselling suicidal and distressed asylum seekers. One of the students got into a debate/argument with Senator Ian Macdonald over her opinions on asylum seekers and other things (SMH).

Finally this week, Senator-elect Ricky Muir had an interview with Channel 7, which didn’t go so well (see here), and NSW is in the lead-up to its Budget.

Tweets of the Week

Oh, and Tony, just because you delete a tweet with a mistake in it does not mean that people haven’t screencapped it before it disappears.

https://twitter.com/thebleague/status/477624340733632512

(It should be Ange Postecoglou, Mark Bresciano and Tim Cahill)

Things I’ve Been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Tony Abbott’s response to the son of gay parents – SameSame

The explanation of a comment by an Q&A panellist, and why it was so important – New Matilda

A comparison: ABC vs. BBC and CBC – Quadrant