Tag Archives: By-Election

The Week That Was – October 21 to October 27

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The by-election result in Wentworth is not yet fully finalised, but it definitely looks as if Kerryn Phelps will be the new Member for Wentworth. The counting of postal and pre-poll votes has narrowed her lead on Liberal Party candidate Dave Sharma, and a couple of polling booth recounts during the week have seen some preference errors fixed up and extended her lead to about 1600 votes. With Phelps now highly likely to become the Wentworth’s MP, she’s begun speaking about what she wants to work on when she reaches parliament. For many people in Wentworth, the issues that this election was fought on were value based, such as getting children out of detention in Nauru, action on climate change and LGBTIQ+ issues – things the government haven’t been focusing on as much recently.

Phelps is acutely aware that she doesn’t have much time to act in parliament – the next federal election is due in the first half of next year – but it’s the Government that will also have a tough time in the next six or so months. With Phelps winning the seat, we now have a hung parliament, which Scott Morrison said would make governing hard. He seems to think that all the cross-benchers will try to destabilise the government. Given most cross-bench MPs – like Rebekha Sharkie, Andrew Wilkie, Adam Bandt and Cathy McGowan – tend to judge each motion or piece legislation on its merits and also discuss things with the government, it is unlikely they will intentionally band together to overthrow the Prime Minister and the government.

This week also saw the National Apology for victims of child sexual abuse from Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten. The apologised for the government’s inaction on child abuse in the early days, as well as for abuse suffered in facilities run by the states, churches and charities. Julia Gillard came to Canberra for the apology, and received lots of cheers and applause, as she was the one that announced the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Abuse. The government also didn’t hold Question Time on Monday, out of respect for the victims and attendees at the apology in order to show that the day was about them, not about politics.

Meanwhile there are continued calls for the government to remove and resettle all the refugees detained in detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru. Earlier in the week, eleven children (and presumably their families) were removed from Nauru and brought to Australia for urgent medical care. However, many adults and children are still in detention. There are suggestions to resettle some refugees in New Zealand, which has been offered multiple times by our neighbours in the last decade – but the New Zealand government understandably wants more information, especially given Australia still hasn’t decided whether they’re going to let people settled in NZ come to Australia at all, even as tourists. There are also thoughts about sending migrants to regional centres in Australia, which is all well and good but you must have the infrastructure and services to make that work. There were also rallies in Sydney and Melbourne this weekend, calling for detention on Manus Island and Nauru to be ended.

The plan to move the Australian Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was a key issue covered in Senate Estimates this week, with revelations that it was a bit of a captain’s call. Foreign Minister Marise Payne didn’t know about the plan until she was asked to notify Australia’s neighbours, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade wasn’t consulted, and the Chief of the Defence Force, Angus Campbell, found out through the media instead of being notified by the government, which Campbell felt wasn’t ideal.

The government announced this week that superannuation would be modified, such that there would be caps of fees paid, and making the life and income insurance cover optional for those under the age of 25 and in inactive super accounts. While the fee caps are being received pretty well, there are mixed reactions to the potential insurance cover changes – super funds feel that a change would leave thousands of young people without cover, and some people who have ended up needing to use their superannuation’s automatic life insurance or income protection has been very useful.

This week saw the Duke of Sussex attending Invictus Games events on Sunday and then unveil a plaque on Fraser Island on Monday, while the Duchess of Sussex rested. They spend the middle of the week in the Pacific, visiting Fiji and Tonga, before returning to Australia on Friday night to attend the Australian Geographic Society Awards, and attend the Wheelchair Basketball finals and the Invictus Games Closing Ceremony on Saturday. They’re now headed to New Zealand, where they will spend the rest of their trip before heading back to England.

The Government has announced that they will start an investment fund to help drought-proof regional areas for future droughts, while at a summit on farming and the drought, held at Old Parliament House. There won’t be any money for two years though, and the full amount promised wont be fully given our for a decade after that – which is a good long-term plan perhaps, but it relies on the Coalition being returned to government at the 2019 Federal Election, which may not happen. Some farmers though are also suggesting that the government needs to look at programs to help farmers for whom an exit from farming would be the best option rather than helping drought-proof their farms.

Also this week, Fraser Anning has been dumped by the Katter’s Australia Party, after he brought a motion to have a plebiscite on non-European migration, which is something Anning thinks should be stopped. Meanwhile, Malcolm Turnbull has returned to Australia after spending some time in America – while also facing criticism for not helping the Liberal Party during the election campaign.

Finally this week, Scott Morrison announced that returned service members would be able to get discounts on things they buy with the new veterans card coming out early next year. Also, there is a push for more intergenerational care programs, particularly between young children in childcare and the elderly in aged care. Evidence shows that it teaches young children to be comfortable around older people and in turn, it helps the older people feel they have a purpose and a greater feeling of self-worth.

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

VICE Australia’s new “Dolly Doctor” for the social media age – Walkley Magazine

Laura Tingle on how the Liberals are dealing with the Wentworth result – ABC Online

Parties urged to be honest about businesses paying for political access – The Guardian

 

The Week That Was – October 14 to October 20

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This was the final week of campaigning for the Wentworth by-election, which got a bit nasty towards the end (but more on that in a moment). The Liberals kept going on about how if the Liberal candidate Dave Sharma didn’t win the election there would be instability because there would be a hung parliament. Meanwhile, Kerryn Phelps has been talking about keeping parliament stable should she win. Sharma and Phelps are the two frontrunners and between them the polling has been neck and neck. The candidates had an event for the public earlier in the week where they spoke to people from the electorate about issues important to them. Sharma has made clear that he was just as shocked and upset by the rolling of Malcolm Turnbull as most of the electorate was.

However, Malcolm’s son Alex Turnbull has been telling people to vote for anyone but the Liberal Party. Kerryn Phelps became the victim of a vicious email that suggested she was pulling out of the race because she’d been diagnosed with HIV and that people should vote for Sharma. Phelps has forwarded the email to the AEC to be investigated, and Sharma has condemned the email.

Meanwhile the Liberals appeared to get a tad desperate this week, by announcing something that was apparently meant to get some of the Jewish vote for Sharma. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that he was considering moving the Australian Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv – like Trump did with the American Embassy. According to Morrison, the suggestion came from Sharma himself, but the timing for the idea is a little odd. As Peter van Onselen pointed out on Insiders, most devout and potentially Orthodox Jews in Wentworth who support that policy are also strict observers of the Sabbath on Saturdays, and generally pre-poll vote, meaning they would have already voted without that policy on the table influencing their vote. Furthermore, ASIO documents have been leaked to the media, suggesting that if Australia were to follow the American’s example and move the Embassy to Jerusalem, Australia there would be some serious implications (mostly violent protests according to the documents).

Anyway, election day came and both Sharma and Phelps were unable to vote for themselves because they don’t live in the electorate (Sharma lives on the North Shore of Sydney and Phelps lives near Wentworth, as she was a Sydney City Councillor before running for Federal Parliament, but not exactly in the electorate). Sharma instead spent his day touring the polling booths and at one point was followed by a bunch of anti-coal protesters, while Phelps also toured around talking to people. By 7:20pm on Saturday night, with 9.4% of the vote counted, the ABC’s Election Analyst (or psephologist if you want to get technical) Antony Green called the election for Phelps, with a then swing of 23.6% against the government.

As morning came on Sunday, the gap between Sharma and Phelps was narrowing slightly, as postal votes and pre-poll votes were also counted, and the swing has narrowed to 18.4% as of the last update on the ABC website on Sunday morning – which I think may be the biggest swing ever in a by-election.

And then, Antony Green had to update on Twitter as I hit publish on this post 🙂

This by-election result has topped off a pretty bad week for the government. First, they suggested they might let people leave Nauru and settle in New Zealand – although they want some way to stop these refugees from coming to Australia, even as tourists. This has Labor, the Greens and the New Zealand government concerned, as Labor thinks it’s economically stupid to ban tourists from New Zealand, and New Zealand doesn’t want to have a group of people in their country who would essentially have second-class citizenship.

The government was also humiliated by their Senators somehow “accidentally” voting in favour of a Pauline Hanson motion that said it was “ok to be white” – which has its roots in right-wing white supremacist movements in the USA. The government’s Senators demanded a re-vote in which the summarily condemned the motion. But still, from the perspective of an outsider like me, it looks really bad.

Environment Minister Melissa Price is in hot water this week, after approaching the former President of Kiribati (pronounced Ki-ri-bas), Anote Tong, at a restaurant in Canberra. Pat Dodson, a Labor Party senator, was dining with Tong when Price approached, as were several other including the Director of the Edmund Rice Centre (a climate justice organisation that brought Tong to Australia). They allege and confirm that the Environment Minister said to Tong at the table:

I know why you’re here. It is for the cash. For the Pacific, it is always about the cash. I have my cheque book here. How much do you want?

Price denies that she said anything of the sort, but with Tong, Dodson and several other diners confirming she said something to the effect of the above quote, she’s not very convincing. Labor and the Greens have been appalled by the Environment Minister’s behaviour, saying she is the “worst Environment Minister ever”.

The other thing that’s been big this week (but not necessarily political) has been the royal tour to Sydney by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan. The tour is mainly focused on the Invictus Games in Sydney, which Harry started to help his fellow servicemen who were returning from military service in the Middle East, but will also visit Fiji and Tonga while down in this part of the world. They flew in on a Qantas flight on Monday morning, and spent the day recovering from their long trip at Admiralty House where they’ll stay while in Sydney. Kensington Palace then announced on Monday night that the Duchess of Sussex is pregnant with the couple’s first child, due in the first half of next year.

Highlight of their trip so far have included Prince Harry spotting Daphne Dunne, a lady in her 90s who has met him multiple times. He chatted to her again, before introducing her to Meghan. The Sussexes went to Dubbo where they met school children (and got a hug from a 5-year-old boy who got to stroke Harry’s beard) before meeting with a drought affected farmer and talking about mental health at a picnic. They also went to Melbourne, where the Duchess of Sussex had a go at some AFL skills, and the couple went to a restaurant where they learned about indigenous ingredients. Another highlight was the Duke of Sussex climbing the Harbour Bridge with Invictus representatives and the Prime Minister Scott Morrison to plant the Invictus Games’ flag atop the Bridge.

Youth mental health network Headspace, will get an extra $51.8 million, to hire more staff and increase online services for those in regional areas in order to reduce wait times for young people reaching out for help.

Concerns have been raised about “alt-right” (those on the extreme right of the political spectrum) and their infiltration into the Liberal and National parties. One group in particular, the Young Nationals, seem to have been joined by some of these alt-right people. There was apparently some sort of plan to change the views of the mainstream parties, which has been somewhat unsuccessful, given the Young Nationals have cottoned onto the issue (potentially through the ABC telling them when they went to ask the party about it) and has asked one Young Nats member to leave, while two others have been suspended and two more have been asked to explain. The federal Nationals President has said that extremism is not welcome in the Nationals Party.

Finally this week, the former Managing Director of the ABC Michelle Guthrie is suing the ABC at the Fair Work Commission, claiming the board had no reason to trigger the termination clause in her contract, and the terror charge against the Sri Lankan student accused of planning a terror plot to kill Malcolm Turnbull because the police have admitted the handwriting in the notebook that has his name on it (and is their only evidence) is not his. Also, the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Glenn Davies, has defended Anglican schools, saying that they never asked to have the ability to expel LGBTIQ+ students in their submission to the Ruddock religious freedom review.

Tweets of the Week

Elections means Antony Green – made even better by the fact that parts of Wentworth are on Green’s morning cycling route.

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Jessica Martin on the fall of women’s magazines – ABC Online

Tony Walker on moving the Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem – ABC Online

The Week That Was – October 7 to October 13

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This week saw the leaking of the report from the religious freedom inquiry run by Philip Ruddock, which suggested that all religious schools have the right to refuse the enrolment of or expel a student because of their sexuality, if it was against the schools doctrinal teaching. This sent people into an uproar about adults discriminating against children, and an argument over whether or not it was already illegal – and it actually depends on the state in which the school is. In Queensland and Tasmania it is illegal for religious schools to expel or refuse enrolment to LGBTIQ+ students, while in WA, SA, Victoria and the Northern Territory, the legislation is not clear, while in NSW and the ACT, it is legal.

This became something that caused problems for the government this week. There is a week until the Wentworth by-election, which was quickly dealt with by Scott Morrison, who promised to legislate to make it illegal nationally to expel or refuse enrolment to LGBTIQ+ students, and Labor has agreed to support the legislation.

Meanwhile taxes have been another niggly problem in which the opposition has been in agreement with the government. It did take a bit longer than the schools issue, Labor did agree to the government’s decision to fast-track the tax relief to small and medium businesses. They want to drop the tax rate from 27.5% to 25% – originally by 2025-ish, but the government seem to have decided that saying they’ll be doing it faster might be to their benefit electorally (both at the Wentworth by-election and in the next 6-9 months). initially sometime between 2018 and 2020 the tax rate for small to medium business will drop to 26% and then in 2020-2021 it will drop to 25%.

The Wentworth by-election has headed into its final week, with Malcolm Turnbull’s son Alex telling the voters of Wentworth not to vote for the Liberal Party, which is irritating Scott Morrison a bit, but that is the least of his problems, as polling shows Kerryn Phelps and Dave Sharma are neck and neck in the polls. Phelps has promised stability if she wins the seat, saying she’ll support supply (the money needed to run the country) – her winning the seat would deprive the government of their one-seat majority and turn them into a minority government – while Labor is way back in the polls. Labor isn’t necessarily giving up just yet, but they are telling the people of Wentworth to use their votes on October 20th to send a message to the government.

The Labor Party appeared to have some sort of launch event at the start of the week. I say some sort, because the election hasn’t actually been called yet. It’s thought that Labor decided to start campaigning a little bit after Malcolm Turnbull was rolled, separate from the Wentworth by-election. Bill Shorten has promised to be a Prime Minister “ambitious” for Australia’s future and its future generations. He has a five point plan – which could be dangerous, if you remember back to the 2013 Election when a Liberal Party candidate struggled to remember the “Six-Point Plan to Stop the Boats” – the highlights of which include school and healthcare investment, easing the cost of living and embracing clean energy. However, there is the small issue, where the Labor Party does have a chance of winning the next election, but Bill Shorten isn’t necessarily popular as a person. We shall have to wait and see.

There are plans to place conditions on some migrants moving to Australia, requiring them to move to regional centres as opposed to cities in order to address both overpopulation in the cities and labor shortages in regional areas. The only concern with this is some migrants are highly skilled and the kinds of jobs they would be doing are usually only in major cities. Without the jobs and infrastructure being available, this plan may not play out the way the government wants. Meanwhile, there is also a plan to require those on welfare in regional areas to work seasonal fruit picking jobs, or lose their payments (if they are capable of working). There are also concerns with this plan, such as the fact that a lot of people who want or need jobs in these regional areas want more permanent work rather than seasonal jobs.

The week also saw protests at the Opera House, over the use of the sails to project the barrier draw of the Everest Horse Race as demanded by Alan Jones. The sails have been used to show projections for the Vivid Light Festival, Remembrance Day and other events of public interest (like a national sports team winning). However, the sails have never been used to promote an event like The Everest before, nor has a prominent media entity pushed so hard for the advertising of something that they have a vested interest in.  It led to members of the Chaser satire group to project Alan Jones’ phone number on the Opera House sails on Monday, and the public (with some professional help) shining lights onto the sails during the draw.

Doctors and psychologists working for Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) were asked to leave Nauru last week, leaving the under-equipped local health authorities to deal with a large number of local patients and refugee patients with major physical and mental health issues. MSF staff held a press conference in Australia after leaving Nauru in which they told the media about the plight of refugees on Nauru, with some children suffering from Traumatic Withdrawal Syndrome, which is characterised by a semi-comatose state and incontinence, among other symptoms.

It was announced this week that the Royal Commission into Aged Care would be based in South Australia, and that the commissioners would be WA Supreme Court Judge Joseph McGrath and former Medicare CEO Lynelle Briggs. They’ve been given until 2020 to submit their final report with an interim report expected by 2019.

There are also calls for a program known as “Senior Smiles” to be implemented nationwide in aged care homes, in which a certified dental hygienist is employed within the care home to tend to the dental needs of the residents. University of Newcastle research has shown this to be beneficial to the residents’ health. There’s thought that perhaps the Aged Care Royal Commission can recommend a dental program to implemented as part of their report.

Finally this week, the IPCC has released a report that calls for coal use to be phased out by 2050, if not beforehand, in order to prevent a catastrophic 2ºC rise in global temperatures. The aim is to keep the rise in global temperatures to 1.5ºC, as the effects of a rise in temperature of that level will not be as catastrophic as those if the rise in temperature of 2ºC. However, the government doesn’t seem to perturbed, with Environment Minister Melissa Price suggesting 2050 is a long time away and by then there will be technology that will make coal use cleaner, while Price’s shadow minister Mark Butler has accused the Liberals of “blocking their ears and ignoring the signs”.

Tweet of the Week

 

 

The Two Weeks That Were – July 15 to July 28

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The last fortnight saw the final days of campaigning before Super Saturday. There were some awkward moments, like the revelation that Liberal Candidate for Longman Trevor Ruthenberg was claiming he had an army medal he didn’t actually have. He says that it was an innocent mistake, in that he claimed he had an Australian Service Medal (given to those who serve in non-war operations overseas) rather than an Australian Defence Medal (given to those who go through an initial enlistment period or 4 years service).

There has also been a bit of awkwardness for the Liberal Candidate in Mayo, Georgina Downer, who hasn’t been able to shake the public perception that she is an outsider being parachuted in. Even with help from her father, former Howard Government Minister Alexander Downer, and even John Howard himself, it appeared that the Liberals began to feel that Downer was going to lose the seat to Centre Alliance Candidate Rebekha Sharkie.

The results ended up being called on the night, and Labor has won Longman and Braddon, as well as their two seats in Western Australia that the Liberal Party did not contest, while Sharkie won Mayo.

The government says they are going to get rid of junk health insurance policies (i.e. ones that don’t really cover you but could be bought cheaply to get the tax rebate) and there will be a crackdown on how health insurances are advertised. However, the opposition has pointed out that the only thing the government has done to protect people from junk policies is to just remove the rebate from them, rather than actually outlaw them.

Meanwhile, the government is giving people until October 15 to decide whether they want to opt out of the MyHealthRecord system. It’s being touted as an easy way for all your medical practitioners (and your emergency contact) to have your medical information all in one place, but there are concerns that the system is not secure enough especially given it will have all your personal information on that. There are also concerns over who else can have access to it – the police, health insurers and the government. Many people, including government MPs are opting out of the system.

If you decide to opt out you can do so here.

Malcolm Turnbull spent the a few days in Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory to promise better services to help those in Tennant Creek deal with alcohol abuse and other social issues that the lead to the brutal sexual abuse of a two-year old child earlier this year. Turnbull went on patrol with a group that deals with alcohol abuse is the streets. However, he went on a Sunday, which is when the bottle shops are closed in Tennant Creek – so some suggest he didn’t really get the full picture. The government has announced that they will work an a plan with the NT government and NGOs to co-ordinate services so that there isn’t an overlap, but there are no costings or plans as of yet.

The Government has announced that there will be a 100-person strong team attached to the NDIS to catch people trying to defraud the system. Users of the scheme say that’s all well and good, but money could be better spent training more disability support staff and improving wait times for people’s applications. What’s even more awkward at the moment for the NDIS is that one of the people on their advertising has had their NDIS application rejected, despite having early onset Parkinson’s disease and a spinal injury (and being promised he was eligible).

Also during the last two weeks, Lindsay MP Emma Husar is taking personal leave while an investigation takes place into her office after allegations that she made a taxpayer-funded staffer run personal errands for her. Meanwhile, there has been some concern about government services going online, particularly those used most often by the elderly, as some of them are not computer literate.

Finally this week, there have been inaccurate predictions of Australia’s population growth and we are now going to hit 25 million people in August this year; Malcolm Turnbull is calling on the Pope to sack the Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson now that he’s been convicted of concealing child abuse and is refusing to quit; if the Labor Party wins the next NSW state election, they’ve pledged to define a ‘gig worker’ and give them rights under industrial relations laws; and Medals of Bravery have been given to the Australian divers involved in the Thai Cave rescue.

Tweet of the Fortnight

Oh, Lee Lin Chin is quitting SBS News…. July 29th is her last night.

 

 

The Three Weeks That Were – June 24 to July 14

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The week of June 24 was the last week of parliament before winter break, so after that, with the exception of “Super Saturday” campaigning, was pretty quiet.

  1. The tax battle continued in parliament over the last week of sitting, with the government really trying to get their corporate tax cuts through. It mostly involved trying to figure out whether Pauline Hanson and her one remaining One Nation colleague were going to support it, and it now appears she won’t. Pauline Hanson and said that she wouldn’t, then that she would, and then flipped back to not supporting it – before denying she was flip-flopping. In fact, it got to the point where the government decided to wait until after the Winter Break to continue pursuing the tax cuts.
  2. The Banking Royal Commission has shown the banks to once again be pretty horrible to people. This time the focus was on farmers and the indigenous community. Farmers were being treated badly when it came to paying back loans during droughts when money is tighter, forcing many off their farms, while the indigenous community is being exploited due to poor financial literacy – mostly by small operators looking to make a quick buck.
  3. Super Saturday campaigning is continuing, with Labor looking safe in the two WA seats to the point where federal political news is very sparse on it. Meanwhile the seat of Longman in Queensland and Braddon in Tasmania could be won by the Liberals. This is virtually unheard of as usually the swing in a by-election is against the government, not to it. In Mayo, however it looks as if the main battle will be between the incumbent Centre Alliance candidate Rebekha Sharkie, and Liberal candidate Georgina Downer (daughter of former MP Alexander Downer). Sharkie got into parliament on the coattails of Nick Xenophon, and now with the Xenophon mania fizzing out, Sharkie has to work harder – she has however been lucky to have the support of Bob Katter and Cathy McGowan. On the other hand, Downer is facing criticism for being an outsider that has been parachuted in.
  4. Bill Shorten caused some commotion during the last three weeks, making a “captain’s call” (remember those from the Abbott era?) about repealing mid-size business tax cuts. Most of the higher-ranking shadow Cabinet members did try to convince the public it had been discussed prior to Shorten’s off the cuff announcement – they weren’t totally convincing – and it did not help that some of the backbenchers essentially confirmed it was a captains call. Shorten and Chris Bowen have since announced a backflip, and these tax cuts will remain in place.
  5. Denison MP Andrew Wilkie has revealed (under parliamentary privilege) that the government is prosecuting a former ASIO spy known as Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery under the espionage act for revealing that Australia bugged the East Timorese Cabinet during negotiations regarding an oil field between the countries.
  6. Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson has now been sentenced to 12 months in prison – but is more likely to spend it under house arrest with his relations rather than in an actual jail cell. Wilson was found guilty of concealing child abuse while a bishop in the Hunter Valley/Maitland area decades ago. He is yet to resign his role as Archbishop, and he is planning to appeal.
  7. David Leyonhjelm and Sarah Hanson-Young are having an epic fight right now, with Hanson-Young calling in the lawyers. During Hanson-Young’s speech in the Senate on domestic violence, Leyonhjelm told her to “stop shagging men” and when she confronted him on it, he told her to “f- off” (or at least that’s what Hanson-Young said). Anyway, Leyonhjelm was invited to a Sky News politics show the weekend following this exchange where he made comments about Hanson-Young’s character that amounted to slut shaming – no one else is broadcasting what he actually said because Hanson-Young is now suing Leyonhjelm for defamation.
  8. Tony Abbott has gone back to doing the thing he does best – causing trouble and stirring the pot. He’s decided that Australia needs to abandon the Paris Climate Agreement that he signed up to – saying it was an aspirational goal not a commitment to a goal, which is not what he said back when he signed Australia up for the agreement.
  9. The “GST pie” is being re-divided and it is very confusing. Essentially, Western Australia, now without their Mining boom, needs a bit more of the share of the GST, and so the government is going to top up the GST money pile to help that transition. Other than that, NSW and Victoria, being the richest states will be the benchmark states to help determine what the other states get.
  10. Agriculture Minister David Littleproud has called in the farmers and the banks to hash out a deal that allows farmers who are doing it tough in the current drought in NSW and Queensland can survive and keep their farms. The basic idea, from what I understand, is that during the drought years, levies and loans will be cheaper to pay back, balanced out by paying more in the good years. It’s thought the banks will probably agree to this suggestion so that they can reclaim some of their tattered reputation after the Banking Royal Commission.
  11. Mark Latham has re-emerged in the political sphere, this time voicing a robo-call for One Nation in the seat of Longman. Labor doesn’t seem concerned – saying if he repeats the result he gave the Labor party as their leader in 2004 (spoiler: it was a terrible showing for Labor) then they have no concerns about the rise of One Nation in Longman.
  12. The ACCC has revealed that with some help from state government and the regulators, electricity bills could be made cheaper for households and businesses. The ACCC report says that confusing bill structures as well as the “lazy tax” (where people who are loyal or stay with the same provider are charged more and they are unlikely to pay attention to their bills) are what is making it most expensive for people.
  13. NSW State MP Daryl Maguire has stepped down from the Liberal Party and his parliamentary secretary role after an ICAC investigation revealed he was trying to get a kickback from a property developer.
  14. The public is being reminded to only claim what they are actually entitled to in their tax returns, reminding people that the cost of travelling to and from work is not claimable, and neither are clothes you buy to wear to work (unless it is a uniform with a logo and you always have to wear it).

The Week That Was – June 17 to June 23

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This week was all about tax, or at least that’s the way it felt.

This week marked the start of the last two weeks of sitting before the Winter Break. The Government desperately wants to get their tax changes through the parliament before this break – and they have succeeded, at least with the personal tax cuts.

These personal tax cuts have been a spot of contention, because while there is bipartisan support for the first two phases of the government’s plans, the Labor party does not support the final phase, which is not only many years away but is a nice (and slightly better) cut in taxes for those on higher incomes. Labor did want to split the bill, and put through the bits it did like to help those on low and middle incomes, who they feel deserve a cut but the Coalition was having none of it. After stalling in the Senate on Wednesday by tying the votes 34-34 (which negates a bill – I learned something this week) but the Government tried again after sweet talking Pauline Hanson and her one remaining One Nation senator, as well as the Centre Alliance (the party formerly known as NXT) senator.

The bill then passed on Thursday, meaning that our tax system will change. We will eventually loose the 37% tax bracket in the next ten years, with the bulk of the population paying 32.5% tax on income over $37,000. Australia’s tax system is progressive, in that you pay more tax if you earn more money, and this is theoretically meant to be a buffer on wage growth. Anyway, one of the big sweeteners for lower- and middle-income earners is that the government has promised that their rebate from these tax changes will increase when they do their 2017-18 tax return later this year – or at least that’s how it’s being touted.

It’s now starting to look like one of the big issues that the “Super Saturday” by-elections will be about on will be tax. Some in these electorates are happy for the rebate increase, but irritated that the higher income earners will eventually get a better deal than them within the next ten years. Many in the seat of Braddon in Tasmania, who work in what are classed as low- and middle-income jobs, feel a bit ripped off that they’ll only get about $10 extra a week with this rebate, despite the cost of living increasing and wages stagnating.

Farmers are angry that the Banking Royal Commission will only hear evidence for four days. Farmers argue that is not enough time to hear about how they have been treated by the banks with allegations of mismanagement of accounts. There is a chance that commissioner Kenneth Hayne could extend the hearings but this seems unlikely.

Meanwhile, there is now questions over whether there is going to be a Labor party spill with Anthony Albanese challenging Bill Shorten. It all stems from a speech Albanese made, in which he suggested the party was going in a direction he did not like. A spill at this point in the game seems unlikely to me, because for the Labor party to change the federal parliamentary leader they require a national vote of the rank and file members as well as the parliamentary caucus (the MPs and Senators), which costs money. I don’t remember if they revealed the cost of the vote back in 2016, but it’s bound to be a lot of money and this is an expense they’re unlikely to want to make in the run up to an election that could happen in the next six to nine months. There is also concern that with Super Saturday, Labor could lose either Longman or Braddon (which are held by margins of less than 2%) – or both seats, which could make Shorten’s life harder.

There has been further changes to Brian Burston’s Senate existence. After leaving the One Nation party last week, he’s suddenly joined Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party. He says he decided less than an hour before publicly announcing it – but ferreting by journalists suggest that it has been longer given an advisor to Burston was posting United Australia Party stuff earlier in the morning on the day of the announcement. Meanwhile one of the other One Nation defectors, Fraser Anning (who took over from Malcolm Roberts) has announced he’s joining the Katter Australia Party.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Party is reeling after a meeting at the Arncliffe (in Sydney) branch of the party ended with a brawl. Two people ended up in hospital, the police were called and there is now a police investigation and an internal Liberal Party investigation. It’s thought the brawl started around some sort of local council candidacy issue, while others suggest it may be tensions between Muslims and Coptic Christians – which the branch leader denies.

Finally this week, there are calls to crack down on “dark web” sales of opioids and calls to monitor some doctors who are helping opioid addicts get codeine after the restrictions placed upon their sale earlier this year; the rainbow crossing is returning to Surry Hills (although no longer on the main road); and house prices are falling (which might be a good thing for young adults trying to buy a home), with prices expected to fall a little more over the next 12-18 months.

Tweet of the Week

The employees of the ABC are getting tired of the politics surrounding them…

https://twitter.com/leighsales/status/1008512310707490816

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Muriel Porter on the Anglican Church’s position against same-sex marriage – ABC Online

Leigh Sales, the Logie Awards, and 7:30 – SMH

Emmanuel Macron reprimanding a kid is earning him brownie points – ABC Online

Three Weeks That Were – May 13 to June 2

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Yep, I worked two Sundays in a row again – that’s the joy of retail – so here’s a list of some of the things that happened in politics.

  1. Liberal MP Jane Prentice has lost pre-selection in her seat to a man, making many Liberal women very, very concerned. Warren Entsch is also worried and concerned, but that’s normal for Warren Enstch, because he’s probably one of the nicest, most accepting people in parliament. Meanwhile Craig Laundy is implying the person who will now be the candidate in the seat may have been partaking in branch stacking.
  2. There are continuing concerns over the standards of care at residential care facilities (i.e. Nursing Homes) after revelations that some facilities are failing several benchmarks.
  3. There are calls to encourage refugees to come to small country towns rather than the big cities in order to fill job shortages. While there are concerns that some may face problems with the isolation in some of these towns, many employers seem willing to take people on.
  4. There a questions over how Australia plans to deal with waste now that China has stopped taking in other nations’ rubbish (yes, apparently Australia has been sending some of our rubbish to China for years). There a questions over whether Australia should have a Pay As You Throw system, or burn some of our rubbish to add to the electricity grid.
  5. Focus in the Banking Royal Commission has moved to how banks have been treating small businesses. ANZ has confessed to misconduct, NAB has conceded it forced a business loan client to pay off his debt with the sale of his home, and the Commonwealth Bank has admitted to charging double the amount of interest they were entitled to.
  6. Around 200 athletes that attended the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in April have now applied for temporary protection visas. Another 50 athletes have officially over-stayed their visas.
  7. Operation Augury – the mission to the Philippines to help the Philippine Army with the fight against ISIS in the city of Marawi – has all of a sudden become a very quiet operation shrouded in secrecy.
  8. Several Liberal parliamentarians are trying to get a private members bill through parliament to ban the live export of animals during the Northern Hemisphere Summer, after vision of conditions on a sheep live export ship became public a few weeks back. Other Liberals have pushed for more regulation rather than a full on ban, and that is what Minister David Littleproud ended up announcing.
  9. Pauline Hanson has announced that her party will no longer support company tax cuts – making it incredibly hard for the government to now pass the bill through the senate. Apparently, Hanson has been asking for way too much in return and the liberals can’t give it to her so she isn’t going to help them. But…
  10. …it appears that either the whole party was not aware, or NSW Senator Brian Burston has decided not to go with the party, as he has announced that he will support the government’s company tax cuts. Pauline Hanson is very upset – she had one heck of an interview on SKY News – and told Burston to resign. He won’t resign and Hanson is yet to sack him so, we’ll have to watch this space.
  11. Canning MP Andrew Hastie has revealed that Chau Chak Wing – a prolific donor to both parties and the name sake of a university building at the University of Technology, Sydney – has been named in a UN bribery investigation.
  12. The day for the 5 by-elections – dubbed Super Saturday – has been announced as July 28. That’s a nine week campaign, leaving these seats without representation for over 80 days. While the AEC and the Liberals say that date has been chosen to avoid school holidays, so as not to disadvantage voters, Labor is very angry. July 28th is the weekend Labor is having their national conference, and while they have since deferred the date of the conference, they felt like the selection of that date was politically motivated.
  13. Speaking of Super Saturday – the Liberals have announced that they will not be contesting the two safe Labor seats in WA in order to preserve their election war chest (i.e. They are unlikely to win and they shouldn’t be throwing money at a futile endeavour), while Bob Katter is helping Rebekha Sharkie out with costs for her campaign in the seat of Mayo, as she takes on Liberal candidate Georgina Downer (daughter of former foreign Minister Alexander Downer).
  14. The Government is and the Opposition are currently fighting over each other’s respective tax plans. The Liberal tax plan costs the government more, but will take longer to implement, with the highest tax bracket benefitting later on. The Labor plan will be cheaper and faster to implement but provides less relief to the highest paid workers. Meanwhile, Amazon has announced that Australians will only be able to access the Australian website from July 1, in order to comply with new online shopping GST legislation.
  15. A review has called for the superannuation program in Australia to be simplified and made more transparent. It turns out many young people who have changed jobs multiple times have multiple super accounts, meaning they will have less to retire on in the future. There are also calls to make it easier for workers to stay with one super account for their entire working life.
  16. Workers on the minimum wage have had a 3.5% wage increase to $719.20 per week. The unions are happy for the rise, but say that it is not enough to give workers a living wage. Meanwhile, employers say it will make it harder for them to hire people because it costs more to pay people.
  17. The redress scheme that came out of the Royal Commission into Child Abuse has now had the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, the Scouts, YMCA and the Salvation Army sign up, along with all states and territories, except WA.
  18. Barnaby Joyce is facing criticism for getting paid for an interview with Channel 7. He argues that, despite calls to respect his and his partner Vikki Campion’s privacy, there have been drones flying over their home and paparazzi everywhere, and because Vikki felt ripped off she agreed to the interview and took the $150,000, which is to be put into a trust for their son Sebastian.
  19. Labor faced some drama at the Victorian State conference, when the CFMEU and the AWU teamed up to end controversial debates and end the conference early. Delegates were set to debate offshore detention of asylum seekers, an issue that would have revealed the deep divide within the party, and there were concerns that this would affect the five Super Saturday by-elections.
  20. Independent Tasmanian Senator Steve Martin is no longer independent, having joined the Nationals. The former Mayor of Devonport, who got in on the Jacqui Lambie ticket after Lambie had to quit due to Section 44, was sacked from the party when he refused to step aside for her. Since coming to parliament, he’s made friends with the Nationals and found he shares their views and so he joined them.
  21. Michaelia Cash has received a subpoena from the federal court, calling her to give evidence regarding the AWU raid scandal, in which one of Cash’s staffers tipped the media off to raids being carried out at AWU offices. Cash is trying to get the subpoena thrown out, which is just a little suspicious.

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Hamish MacDonald on the Barnaby Joyce interview – SMH

Jessica Harmsen on being pregnant on TV – ABC Online

The Week That Was – December 10 to December 16

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With last week being the last sitting week before Christmas, so began the quieting of the fun and fantastic world of politics for the holidays. However, there were still three major events that took place.

The Bennelong by-election took place, and although the seat has been retained by Liberal John Alexander, there was a large swing against the party, pushing the seat back into marginal(ish) status. It got nasty this week, with Labor and Kristina Keneally accusing Malcolm Turnbull of being anti-Chinese (despite the fact his grandchild is half Chinese) and the Liberal party continually referring to Keneally’s time as NSW Premier. Both sides have probably not been entirely truthful to voters, because both sides have got some facts wrong either intentionally for scare-mongering purposes or purely by accident. There were multiple robo-calls and pamphlet drops in Bennelong in the last six weeks and it appears that the voters got pretty annoyed.

Sam Dastyari announced that he will be resigning from the Senate before sitting resumes next year – not immediately, which has made people think that Labor was waiting to see how Keneally went in the by-election and then see if she wanted Sam’s Senate spot if she lost. It’d be really nice if Keneally could prove these people wrong and not take the spot, as I (and some others in my house) feel that she is better suited to being an MP rather than a Senator – but that’s just us and my house has weird people in it, including me.

Meanwhile, further allegations related to the whole Dastyari debacle emerged this week, with suggestions that he attempted to talk Shadow Foreign Minister Tanya Plibersek out of meeting a Hong Kong democracy activist for fears it would “upset China”. Basically, the whole party became so annoyed with him and made clear his political career was over, so Dastyari now has no choice but to quit.

It should be noted that the Chinese businessman with links to the Chinese Communist Party that is at the root of the Dastyari saga is not just cozy with the Labor Party. He has donated large amounts of money to the Liberals as well. This is concerning given his Yuhu Group owns the Eastwood Shopping Centre, and there is a push to develop it into a larger shopping centre with a 13-storey residential unit block. The panel that decides on this development is chaired by the Prime Minister’s wife Lucy Turnbull. The panel said that she will not be a part of the panel that makes the decision, but it still looks dodgy to the average person.

Also this week, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse released its report after five long years of hearings. The Commissioners have refereed to the issue as a “national tragedy” and thanked those who gave evidence im both public and private hearings. They found that for most of the people who spoke, their abuse took place in the Catholic Church, followed by the Anglican Church. The Commission has recommended that the sanctity of the Catholic confessional should be voided if child abuse is confessed to, and that celibacy should be voluntary for Catholic priests – something the Catholic Church has said they will need to chat to the Vatican about. Other recommendations include making it a crime to fail to protect a child from abuse in an institution and to strengthen child grooming laws. There is also a push to ensure that all states and territories sign up for a National Redress Scheme, although there are disagreements over how that should be approached.

Finally this week, the Commonwealth Bank is in hot water for allegedly warning a terrorism suspect that his account was going to be closed; there are concerns that there could be institutional racism in the medical community, as it was revealed that very few indigenous people get on transplant lists; and NAPLAN results show stagnation in results and some shocking civics results, although there has been an improvement on indigenous results.

Tweet of the Week

https://twitter.com/janeenorman/status/941799549898711040

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Chat10Looks3 listeners recommend episodes of ABC Radio’s Conversations – ABC Online

Michelle Grattan on the “China Factor” in Bennelong and Australia – ABC Online

The Week That Was – November 22 to November 28

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The week began with Anti-Islam and Anti-racism protests in most capital cities and while there was some fighting between the groups, most people were well behaved and the police kept each group as far away from each other as possible.

Meanwhile, Malcolm Turnbull completed his first World Tour with a trip to Malaysia for the ASEAN East Asia Conference. Turnbull met with the Malaysian PM, discussing the battle against Islamic State as well as trying to encourage China to play nice in the South China Sea. Upon his return to Australia, Turnbull was in Parliament, where the government and the opposition made speeches of condolence to the people of Paris as well as talking about keeping Australia safe.

Turnbull has also been questioned by the media over the wording in some of his speeches as well as whether or not he has a grip on the more conservative faction of his party. Furthermore, there has been calls from Labor that Mal Brough should either stand down or be sacked from his ministry due to a police investigation into Brough’s role in the Peter Slipper scandal back in 2011-2012. Then, at the end of the week, he flew to Malta for the CHOGM meetings, where he met Queen Elizabeth and apparently made her chuckle when he spoke of Prince Charles’ visit to Australia a few weeks back, and then he will travel to Paris for the Climate Conference.

Climate Change was a big thing this week in the lead up to the Paris conference, with concerns that Turnbull is heading to France with Tony Abbott’s old, and somewhat sub-par climate plan. Labor has come out with an alternative, suggesting a 45% reduction by 2030 and a carbon neutral economy by 2050. This is based off the exact same model that the Liberals are using for their climate plan too, so it should be interesting to see the reaction.

Domestic Violence came to the fore this week for Wednesday’s White Ribbon day, with Malcolm Turnbull telling the country that there must be change and it will have to be lead by men, while surveys are showing that young men are more likely to blame others for their problems and play down their aggressive behaviour, while young women are more likely to blame themselves as well as justify the aggressive behaviour of their partners.

The government has changed the terrorism warning system indicators from High, Low, Moderate etc, to a simpler system suggesting the likeliness of an attack.

national-terrorism-threat-advisory-system-graphic.-data
The new terror attack warning system. (from: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-26/national-terrorism-threat-advisory-system-graphic./6976880)

 Under this simpler system the current warning is the second-lowest “probable”, so we’re pretty safe for now.

There are still national security concerns over foreign investment in Australia, with the US Ambassador meeting Australian officials to get more information on the Darwin Port deal, angry that they were not consulted. However, Defence Minister Marise Payne says that she was abroad with Julie Bishop when the decision was made and that as soon as it was, someone was dispatched to the Pentagon to tell US officials.

Finally this week, the coalition against Islamic State have completed more airstrikes on ISIS strongholds; the government wants the states to increase their trading hours to increase choice and the help the economy and Hillsong’s Brian Houston has been found to have had a conflict on interest over his father’s abuse of a young child at the Royal Commission into Child Abuse.

Also, if you live in the electorate of North Sydney, don’t forget you have a by-election on December 5!

Tweet of the Week

https://twitter.com/nthsydneyvotes/status/669365995148972032

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

First Dog on Bill Shorten’s dismal poll numbers – The Guardian

First Dog on White Ribbon Day – The Guardian

SBS2 The Feed’s retrospective for 2015

 

The Week That Was – October 25 to October 31

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For the first time in a long time, Australian politics was quite calm and sensible.

This week a Senate Enquiry was based in the far-western NSW town of Broken Hill, where locals told Senators that the drought and the Murray Darling Basin Plan mean that the town is running out of water. The Darling River is stagnant and there are suggestions that the water was taken too early from Broken Hill’s part of the Murray Darling Basin in order to help those further downstream.

Former Treasurer and MP Joe Hockey’s seat of North Sydney (I live in the electorate) will be going to the polls on December 5th to elect a new member. The seat is safe Liberal, however it has fallen to independents in previous elections. There was drama at the start of the week when a story on 7.30 on the ABC suggested that the guy tipped to be the Liberal Candidate, Trent Zimmerman, was going to get the candidacy because the part executive, including Zimmerman himself, had rejigged the rules meaning that the grassroots members would have no say. He did get pre-selection in the end, which I discovered when Malcolm Turnbull’s voice in a robo-call told me I should vote for Zimmerman. So far, Zimmerman is running in the seat, as is Fred Nile’s wife Silvana Nero for the Christian Democrats and Arthur Chesterfield-Evans will run for the Greens. Labor will not run a candidate, and other prospective candidates have until November 12 to nominate.

Zimmerman spent some time in Chatswood on Saturday with Gladys Berejiklian talking with voters and with the media. Zimmerman is pro-marriage equality and wants more public transport in the electorate. If he wins the seat Zimmerman will become the first openly gay member of the House of Representatives.

While on the topic of elections and voting, Bill Shorten has announced that the Labor party will move to decrease the voting age from 18 to 16. His argument is that at the age of 16 you can join the army, own a gun and some even pay tax, yet they have no say over how the country is run. The Coalition believes that this is a stunt, and a number of vox pops on the ABC News on Saturday night from 16 and 17 year olds suggest that they don’t know much about politics and many said they wouldn’t know who to vote for – and hey, neither do I half the time!

Environmentalists are calling on the government to commit to reducing coal power considerably in time for the Paris conference at the end of the year. The Liberal and Labor parties don’t seem so thrilled with the whole idea, while the Greens are all for it and are arguing the only way to help deal with climate change is if coal is significantly reduced.

Tony Abbott made headlines again this week, speaking at an event at the Margaret Thatcher Centre on what some are calling his “Stop the Boats World Tour”. He spoke about needing to fight ISIS in order to end them and then went on the say that Europe is making a mistake by allowing asylum seekers in, especially those that came by boat. This is despite the fact that the current European Refugee Crisis is on a larger scale than Australia’s refugee issues and critics are encouraging the world to ignore him.

Finally this week, there has been some drama at the Trade Union Royal Commission; Australian doctors had a “day of action” to protest the fact that there are still children in detention, and are also refusing to discharge refugee children in their care, as they are likely to go back to detention; there are debates on whether or not a nuclear waste processing site will be built in South Australia; and Malcolm Turnbull is still a popular people person.

Tweet of the Week

As the North Sydney By-Election begins, I found an amusing and snarky Twitter account that has been giving updates.

https://twitter.com/nthsydneyvotes/status/658419221597065216

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

First Dog on the Moon covers “Biff Bootface” and his trip to ‘Guano Island’ – The Guardian

First Dog on the Moon talks about Abbott’s Margaret Thatcher Centre speech – The Guardian

SBS2’s The Feed’s “Douche of the Week”