The Week That Was – January 3 to January 9

Despite the ongoing drama from the Jamie Briggs scandal, the week has gone by quietly.

It turns out that Jamie Briggs sent the photo of the young female public servant who made the complaint against him to several colleagues before and during the investigation into his actions. However, Briggs denies that he leaked the image to the media, meaning that someone else who had the photo had to have leaked it. We still don’t know who this is, and the Prime Minister has been focusing on the fact that Briggs should never have sent the image out in the first place.

Malcolm Turnbull is not the only person suggesting that Briggs has made some poor decisions recently. Several commentators and Press Gallery veterans have been writing pieces suggesting that the night out in Hong Kong that started this whole scandal was one of the not-so-great decisions made by Jamie Briggs. One of these was written by Samantha Maiden, who has worked in the Press Gallery for over 15 years.

Maiden’s piece, like many suggested that Briggs had made poor choices in Hong Kong, but was a tad more brutal than some of the others. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton decided to send Briggs a consolation message after the piece was published.

Problem was, he sent it to Maiden instead of Briggs. Oops.

What makes it that little bit worse was that the text called Maiden a “mad f**king witch”. Dutton apologised and Samantha Maiden has forgiven him, but it sparked criticism on social media. Dutton is also copping criticism from the opposition, who want Turnbull to act as soon as possible, and the women in his own party who have warned other men in the Liberal Party to be considerate, especially Minister for Women Michaelia Cash and Victorian MP Sharman Stone.

Meanwhile, it has been announced that Australia will buy and refit several Gulfstream G550 jets from the US to replace their current spy plane fleet at a cost of $90 million. The planes, which are more commonly used as private jets for corporate and personal use, will be fitted out with spying equipment – which turns out to be far less rare than a lot of people thought. However, it was not the Australian Government making the announcement, but the US Government, and we may have to wait until the Defence White Paper is released later in the year before the Aussies comment at all on the decision.

Finally this week, Australia condemned the North Korean (DPRK) government for their self proclaimed “test” of a hydrogen bomb.

Tweet of the Week

Chris Gayle tried to chat up a female sports journalist from Channel 10 (which he has done before to other female journalists), offending people and he didn’t apologise very well the next day.

https://twitter.com/lucethoughts/status/684178868949782528

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Sexism in the workplace – ABC The Drum

Lee Lin Chin (and other media and sports stars) in the Lamb ad

The Two Weeks That Were – December 20 to January 2

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Before Christmas, there were a few announcements, starting with the Health Minister announcing that there would be $1 billion in funding to help eradicate Hepatitis C, however the concerns about the bulk billing of pathology are still rife. Then, the Productivity Commission recommended that Sunday penalty rates should be wound back from their current level to the current Saturday penalty rates. Labor and Unions are not impressed by the suggestion, while the Government is trying to distance itself from the recommendations and blame the Productivity Commission, even though they commissioned the report and set the terms of reference for the commission to investigate.

The Adani Abbot Point Coal Terminal in Queensland has been approved by the federal government, with the dredge spoil to be dumped on land and not in the Great Barrier Reef. This could increase export capacity, however there are strict environmental rules Adani has to follow. The other major issue is that Moodys is planning to give the development “junk status” in terms of its financial health, and the government is refusing to give financial assistance at this point, meaning the development may not even go ahead, which would make environmental groups pleased.

After Christmas, a whole heap of negative news was released, presumably in the hope that people wouldn’t notice. First, two ministers have left the frontbench, with Mal Brough – the Special Minister of State – being stood down temporarily until the police investigation into Slippergate is resolved; and Jamie Briggs – the Minister for Cities – has resigned or was forced to resign as a result of an investigation into a complaint made by a female public servant in Hong Kong. The Briggs scandal has grown in recent days, with the revelation that a photo of his Chief of Staff and the public servant (whose face was pixelated) that ended up on the front page of some papers, was taken by Briggs and sent to colleagues by Briggs himself, despite saying he wanted to protect the identity of the woman. Either way, this means that there are now two spots to fill in cabinet. Some think Turnbull should have more women, while others think Tony Abbott should be on the front bench.

The Trade Union Royal Commission has delivered its report, recommending over 40 people to the relevant authorities for further investigation and releasing almost eighty recommendations. The government is saying that the public should be appalled by the level of misbehaviour in the union movement, while Labor and the Unions are suggesting there are just a few bad apples in a very large barrel. Either way it appears that the next election (due this year!) could be run on busting union corruption and other industrial relations issues. This could be interesting to see given the last time an election was run on those issues, its was 20o7, and just after WorkChoices was introduced, which was so poorly received that Labor won convincingly.

Cabinet Documents from 1990 and 1991 have been released, and it is creepily reminiscent of the last year or so. A sluggish economy, issues with submarine building, refugee issues and a war in the Middle East were all from 1990 and 1991 and were still issues in 2015. And hey, two attempts at booting the party leader, with the second being successful? It would appear that Paul Keating and Malcolm Turnbull have something in common – although Keating was behind both in the 1990s and Turnbull appeared to have nothing to do with the first in February 2015.

Finally this fortnight, the people living near the Williamtown RAAF base have been able to speak at a Senate Inquiry, Border Force stopped entry of a French national of arabic background from entering the country earlier in December, Malcolm Turnbull made Dr Who references regarding the TARDIS, and concerns about Childcare reforms are rearing their heads again.

Tweet of the Fortnight

https://twitter.com/hamishNews/status/679413177013022720

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Not much really – it was Christmas.

The ABC News Year in Review (from the 31/12/15) – ABC Online

The Week That Was – September 20 to September 26

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.

Tweet of the Week

A bag full of thank you cards from a local school after I spoke at their assembly @NSWDET #gorgeous pic.twitter.com/avH9L0sdrI

— Tanya Plibersek (@tanya_plibersek) September 20, 2015

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

First Dog on the Moon’s guide to the Turnbull Ministry – The Guardian

Annabel Crabb on Turnbull’s Cabinet and how we are all now part of a ‘Turnbull experiment’ – ABC The Drum

John Oliver has been paying attention to our politics, it would seem…