This week saw Malcolm Turnbull overseas in New York City to take part in the United Nations General Assembly. Turnbull visited the 9/11 Memorial, met with wold leaders to talk about asylum seekers at an invite-only migration summit run by Obama, and also met with US Defence Secretary Ash Carter to talk defence as well as US Congress members to convince them to pass the TPP.
While at the migration summit, Australia committed to an increase of $130 million to refugee programs in Australia, and will permanently increase the refugee intake to just under 19,000 after 2018. We will also take some Central American refugees, a decision which has confounded many. There are also questions as to whether Australia’s pledge was exactly what Obama was wanting.
The government is planning some major welfare reform. They’re thinking of going down the same route as New Zealand, with the aim of reducing the overall lifetime cost of welfare payments to people. There are concerns that some could be left behind, and it’s also a very confusing system to wrap one’s head around.
Meanwhile, parents and teachers are angry over proposed changes to the Gonski funding model. The plan, according to Education Minister Simon Birmingham, is to redo the entire education funding model, and it is believed that there will be cuts to some public education, while there are increases to private schools.
Finally this week, Australia was involved in a botched airstrike on Syrian forces; the government settled with the ship that ran aground on Douglas Shoal a few years ago; Nigel Scullion is meeting with Indigenous groups in order to repair the relationship between the government and the Indigenous community; and the National Gallery of Australia is returning two Indian artefacts that were believed to be stolen.
Tweets of the Week
So @PaulineHansonOz was right. I swamped this country 25 years ago & didn't that work out great? Can't wait to meet my Muslim counterpart.
The second week under Prime Minister Turnbull began with Cabinet assignments. Kevin Andrews is no longer Defence Minister and called for a conference where he basically got upset about being replaced – by Marise Payne, a NSW Senator and the first woman to be in the role. She, along with Michaelia Cash (Minister for Employment, Women and Assistant Minister to PM on Public Service) and Kelly O’Dwyer (Minister for Small Business and Assistant Treasurer), join Julie Bishop and Susan Ley to make five women in the cabinet. Christopher Pyne has moved to Industry, Innovation and Science, while Simon Birmingham takes education. Christian Porter becomes Social Services Minister, Mitch Fifield takes Communications and Arts. That’s not the whole list of the new Cabinet, but Peter Dutton, Greg Hunt, Matthias Cormann, and George Brandis are keeping their jobs, while Eric Abetz and a few Abbott supporters have been booted. Several people who helped Turnbull into power did not get roles in the Cabinet because Turnbull told them he wanted renewal and freshness and they understood.
The most interesting move has been the inclusion of a new Ministry, held by Jamie Briggs, for Cities and Built Environment, as well as the reinstating of the Cabinet Secretary – a role to be filled by Arthur Sinodinos as part of Turnbull’s return to “traditional cabinet government”.
As for the role of Treasurer, Scott Morrison now holds the job, and Joe Hockey is not only out of a ministry, but will be leaving Parliament altogether, albeit “in due course”, making people thing that Hockey will be sent to Washington as the next Australian Ambassador to the United States – a very cushy job.
Meanwhile, one of the Murdoch papers caught up with Tony Abbott over the weekend. Technically they just bothered him while he was working out at the beach, but either way, Abbott took a swipe at Scott Morrison, accusing him of misleading the public in an interview. Morrison said that he had warned Abbott the Friday before Turnbull challenged that there was discontent in the party and that it wasn’t looking good for Abbott at all. Abbott disputes this and has not spoken with Morrison since the spill.
Scott Morrison spent his first week as Treasurer talking about opportunities to save and invest, saying the country doesn’t have a revenue problem, but a spending problem. Some experts dispute this, saying that the only way problems can be solved is if there is changes to the tax system. Meanwhile, Morrison has to figure out what to with the rising debt, that is now in fact his government’s doing and not Labor’s doing at all.
The Turnbull government has announced $100 million dollars for “practical” domestic violence measures, mainly through the improvement of front-line services and safety tools for victims such as panic buttons. As of September 24, 63 women have died at the hands of their partners and 3000 are turned away from shelters every year (both figures reported by ABC News NSW). Experts are welcoming the perception change, where the focus is on the offender’s actions and the onus of safety is not left to the victim, however they would like to see more money for shelters and other safe locations that women go to when they leave their abusive partners.
The UN Human Rights investigators have cancelled visits to Australian detention centres. They say they were not able to guarantee that detention centre workers who spoke to them would not be prosecuted under the Border Force Act, which prevents workers from talking on the public record about conditions in the centres.
Also, Australia is considering including the Assad government in the fight against Islamic State, with Julie Bishop saying that a political solution that includes both Russia and the Assad government is the only way that Islamic State can be stopped. The British Foreign Minister has suggested that there is a role for Assad in getting rid of Islamic State, but would have to be followed by Assad stepping down and allowing a transition to democracy. Regardless of the terms, the ALP is concerned about choosing a side in the Syrian Civil War. Bill Shorten was possibly a little stressed when he commented on the issue as he spouted some pretty random words, such as “ethno-facists” which left the people in my house poking a bit of fun at the Opposition Leader.
Finally this week, the government got a bounce in the polls now that Turnbull is PM, Peta Credlin appeared at a Women’s Weekly event talking about gender equality, Peter Greste is likely to get a pardon too, after his colleagues received pardons on Wednesday, a Senate Enquiry has begun into the payment activities of 7-Eleven and the trial for the men who killed asylum seeker Reza Berati in an Australian detention centre has begun in Papua New Guinea.
Kara L 