Tag Archives: Badgery’s Creek Airport

The Week That Was – May 7 to May 13

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First, apologies for the sudden few weeks off, but when your internet dies and the family ends up having to use a pocket wi-fi device for two weeks, you end up having to decide what is the best use of what little wi-fi there is available.

But I came back in time for Budget Week! Yay! I’m not normally a fan of maths and economics and finance, because it makes my head hurt, but in the last couple of years I’ve warmed to it. Modern technology also helps, as people can now make graphics to simply explain “winners and losers”.

The theme for the budget this year was “Fairness, Opportunity and Security”, with the aim of differing between good and bad debt (borrowing for paying bills = bad; borrowing to build infrastructure = good) and making things fairer. The big things in this budget include the funding for Snowy Hydro 2.0, Gonski 2.0, Badgery’s Creek Airport and other infrastructure. The AFP will get a $320 million boost in funding, and

There will also be an increase in the Medicare levy to pay for the NDIS, as well as an increase in tax for most, if not all, taxpayers. There is also a restructure to schools funding, which is causing a bit of drama, because several schools will lose some money. In NSW (because that’s what version of ABC News I get) several independent and public schools will lose between $500,000 to $2.5 million in funding in 2018, making the State Education minister, as well as the NSW Department of Education boss Mark Scott (who used to run the ABC) very mad – although more about the public schools than the independent ones.

The ‘big four’ banks (ANZ, NAB, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac) are going to be taxed by the government, with the aim of rasing $6.2 billion over the next four years. The banks are not happy, and walked out of meeting with the government this week, convinced the tax is unworkable. Scott Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull have both encouraged the banks to take the pain and not pass on the costs to the consumers. There is also a plan to allow first-home buyers to salary sacrifice money into their super in order to help them afford the deposit on a home. There are still no mentions of changing negative gearing.

The government has also decided to randomly drug test Centrelink recipients, which has been met with mixed reviews. Some support it, mainly in areas where the jobs involve drug testing in order to be allowed onto site, while others are concerned it will push those on the dole who may be just barely getting by into homelessness when their payments are cut off. Jacqui Lambie has decided that she will only support it if politicians are drug tested as well (which will be unlikely in my lifetime).

Bill Shorten and the Labor party are in a bit of hot water this week after an advertisement touting Labor’s plan to ‘hire Australians first’ – with a cast of, well, white people in work uniforms. The party has been criticised for not reflecting the diversity of the country, with Shorten and the party apologising for the advert, which will likely never be played again ever.

Finally this week, the Prime Minister has revealed he is considering an American request to send more troops to the Middle East, a decision he will be making without Dennis Richardson, a long-serving public servant and advisor, who retired on Friday; and the death of ABC radio journalist and presenter Mark Colvin shocked and saddened politicians and the media.

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Leigh Sales’ tribute to Mark Colvin – ABC Online

ABC journalists remember Mark Colvin – ABC Online

How Brigitte Macron is different from other French presidential spouses – ABC Online

The Week that Was – December 11 to December 17

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As we head into Christmas, it’s finally slowing down a bit – for politics at least.

The Northern Territory Juvenile Justice Inquiry has started with Dylan Voller giving evidence to the Commission. Voller, whose treatment in the Don Dale Prison was featured in the Four Corners story that sparked the set up Commission, talked about tear gassing, starvation, being deprived of toilet facilities and being put in isolation. He’s currently in an adult prison, but he has said that he isn’t proud of his past and wants to turn his life around.

The government has finally signed off on Badgerys Creek Airport, meaning it will be built over the next ten years or so. It will start with one runway, but will not get a second until 2050. There are also concerns over the flight paths and 24/7 operating hours, as well as the fact that while there will be a road link in place by the time the airport is built, there are no plans for a rail link – with the NSW government saying they want to wait and see what the demand is.

Aboriginal groups are putting pressure on the federal government to start working on a treaty, after South Australia announced it was setting aside $4 million to start working on their own treaty.There are debates over whether or not there should be a treaty at all, as well as questions over what should be the priority – reconciliation or closing the gap.

Also this week, there has been some Liberal and Labor fighting, after robo-calls from the ACTU regarding pension changes, suggesting that pensioners will get less money, and the Liberal’s counter robo-calls saying that the changes affect very few and benefit more people. It’s bound to lead to some confusion and anxiety amongst pensioners who probably now have no clue whether their pensions are increasing or decreasing.

Finally thus week, the High Court has ruled that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will have to block several piracy sites including the Pirate Bay; there is a push to continue to fund research in the Antarctic and keep the current Antarctic Treaty going so as to avoid militarism of the continent; experts say the power and electricity infrastructure needs to be upgraded in he next twenty years; it has been two years since the Lindt Café Siege. and it was marked with a memorial service; and there are calls to change the ATAR University entry system.

That’s all from me for now, so have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Tweet of the Week

The trials and tribulations of working in current affairs – one day you’re a “lefty” and the next you’re a “right-wing nut”.

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

The difficulties of caring for adult children with disabilities – ABC Online

Leigh Sales on her top ten interviews of 2016 – ABC Online

The Week That Was – December 14 to December 20

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It hasn’t been the best week.

Sydney was rocked by a siege at the Lindt Chocolate Café, which left two hostages dead and the perpetrator dead as well. It’s understood the perpetrator, Man Haron Monis, was known to police. Tony Abbott was relatively decent for the first few days following the end of the siege, but as the week went on, he started to get a bit on the scaremongering side. The AFP are in strife after giving the Prime Minister’s Office incorrect information about whether or not Monis had a gun license – he didn’t. Abbott wants an investigation into why Monis was in Australia (he came requesting political asylum), why he had citizenship and why intelligence wasn’t watching him. He was also out on bail on charges of being an accessory before and after the murder of his ex-wife, which has led to some people deciding it is a good idea to threaten the magistrate that let Monis out on bail and the lawyers who have represented him in various court cases.

Meanwhile, there has been a growing mountain of flowers in Martin Place, near the Lindt Chocolate Café, and a positive has come out of the whole thing: a hashtag #illridewithyou, in which you say “on the xx bus or train, I will look out for people in religious clothing (Muslim women wearing headscarves in particular) in case racist idiots decide to torment them”.

Clive Palmer’s media guy has been arrested by Queensland Police. He’s alleged to have held a NAB banker against their will in Bali, using Palmer’s name to lure them. It’s understood Palmer has no idea of the plot, which also involves a former AFL player.

The Trade Union Royal Commission has returned its interim report. Julia Gillard has been cleared of wrongdoing, although she has been criticised for being naïve – she is demanding an apology. Several people have been referred to State DPPs and the CFMEU is under fire. Some parts of the 1800 page report have not been released in order to protect witnesses.

Craig Thompson’s Appeal has been somewhat succesful for him, with Thompson being acquitted of majority of the charges, and being fined $25,000 for those he was found guilty of. The judge agreed that Thompson did wrong but legal issues meant that she could only find him guilty of a few of them.

The Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) went ahead on Monday, during the siege, and it’s become apparent that the budget is worse. The deficit is now close to $40 billion and Joe Hockey has said that he “wasn’t conservative enough” when it came to the budget. The government will make more cuts to the public service and Hockey and Mathias Cormann have said that we may not have a surplus until 2020. This is mainly because Australia is not earning as much money as it was, due to the end of the resources boom, as well as a decline in corporate tax, because a decrease in sales.

Finally this week, the Prime Minister is reshuffling Cabinet after Arthur Sinodinos resigned, there are concerns that Medibank may tighten limits for chronically ill members no that it is a private company and has shareholders to please, and residents of Badgery’s Creek (where Sydney’s second airport will be based) are concerned about where they will live after they leave their homes, as the suburbs around them are more expensive than Badgery’s Creek and they are not getting much help from the state or federal governments.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve been Looking at Online

Two US pundits on C-SPAN, who are also brothers, get a call from their Mother – Slate.com

Annabel Crabb on the podcast Serial – Medium.com

Graeme Innes’ eulogy for Stella Young

The Week That Was – April 13 to April 19

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Well, NSW Political craziness overtook the ABC News NSW and ABC News 24 for the last few days, so I may have missed something. If you want to take a look at what happened in NSW have a look here.

So, this week saw Tony Abbott back from North Asia and Joe Hockey warn us about how tough the budget will have to be in order to fix everything. One idea being floated is raising the pension age to 70. Not immediately, mind you. Currently it is 65, and in a few years it will rise to 67. Only after that will it rise to 70. People seem somewhat unimpressed, but that’s because young people, like myself, will not be able to retire until 70, while people my parents’ age can retire 3-5 years earlier. In some ways I’m sort of expecting people to go on strike and protest this, but I think that’s the result of living in France, where almost anything will have the people go on strike. Anyway, Hockey said that the rises in the pension need to be “sustainable” and if you’ve got a good memory (and paid attention), then you will remember that Tony Abbott said in the election campaign that there wouldn’t be changes to the pension. Oh, and government organisations like the CSIRO are getting a bit antsy over whether or not they are going to have their funding cut.

Badgery’s Creek will become the location for Sydney’s second airport, with construction to begin in 2016. This decision has been made after almost 50 years. It will cost $2.5 billion to build and most of that money will come from the private sector. The government has promised to put in some major infrastructure – train lines and connections to the motorway and freeway systems around Western Sydney, along with some form of ring road. There are a few issues though – will the airport be a 24/7 airport or will it have curfews like Sydney Kingsford Smith? Will Sydney Airport, which has the first right of refusal, try to prevent the Badgery’s Creek Airport from being built and operated? What about the people who are living in the area that will become the airport and runways and the environment surrounding it? The other issue, one that came up on Wednesday, is the NSW Government’s involvement post-O’Farrell. Apparently, there is no need to worry and the Airport will go on as planned.

The Royals are in Australia this week and next week, flying into Sydney on Wednesday. They’ve spent their time here so far going to the Opera House, The Blue Mountains, Bear Cottage, Manly Beach, and Brisbane. Today (Sunday) they’ve been to Church and might be taking George to Taronga Zoo.

Also this week, the ABC-run Australia Network, an Australian news and entertainment channel for the Asia-Pacific Region got landing rights in China, meaning that they can broadcast there, at least through a Shanghai-based media organisation. This is significant, because unlike BBC World and CNN International which are only allowed in hotels (at least that’s what I understand the case to be), they will be able to broadcast not only in hotels, but also to the Chinese people. Maybe the ABC and Australia Network’s funding shouldn’t be cut.

Have a lovely Easter.

Tweet of the Week

Political journo Oscar-style selfies during the NSW leadership ballot

Things I’ve Been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Tom Meagher (Jill Meagher’s husband) on violence against women – ABC Online’s The Drum

Why Gladys Berejiklian couldn’t become Premier of NSW – SMH

The Lateline Interview that had people talking – ABC Online