Tag Archives: Canning

The Year That Was – 2015

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Another year, another batch of numbers.

Leadership Spills: 2

The first in February this year, saw Tony Abbott survive a ballot to see if there would even be a spill. The second saw Tony Abbott rolled by Malcolm Turnbull, who has brought Australia some calm in the political realm.

Elections: 4

Queensland State Election – saw the first term Liberal government go from over 80 seats in a less than 100-seat House of Representatives to a hung parliament lead by Labor with around forty seats each for the major parties.

New South Wales State Election – The Liberals, under Premier Mike Baird, remained in power in NSW, albeit with a reduced majority, and the Greens had one of their best showings with four seats – two in the Sydney Metro area, and two on the north coast.

Canning By-election: Andrew Hastie, a former SAS captain, retained the seat for the Liberals less than a week after Malcolm Turnbull took over the country. Hastie replaces the late Don Randall.

North Sydney By-election: Won by Trent Zimmerman for the Liberals. Nominated for the seat under controversial circumstances, Zimmerman is the first openly gay MP in the lower house and replaces former Treasurer Joe Hockey, who is now the incoming Australian Ambassador to the US.

Scandals: 2

First, the knighting of Prince Phillip (the Queen’s husband) by Tony Abbott, resulting in the non-spill in February. Second is Chopper-gate in which former Speaker Bronwyn Bishop was discovered to have used taxpayer dollars to charter a helicopter to travel to an event that she could have easily travelled to by car. The scandal resulted in Bishop’s resignation after more than two weeks.

Women In Cabinet: 5

Julie Bishop: Minister for Foreign Affairs, since 2013 Election

Sussan Ley: Minister for Health and Sport, since December 2014

Kelly O’Dwyer: Minister for Small Business and Assistant Treasurer, since September 2015 (Turnbull’s Reshuffle)

Marise Payne: Minister for Defence, since September 2015 (Turnbull’s Reshuffle)

Michaelia Cash: Minister for Employment and Minister for Women, since September 2015 (Turnbull’s Reshuffle)

Changes to the AEC’s Ballot Paper Protocols: Many.

Since that awkward moment in 2013 when 1,300 senate ballot papers from WA went into the void, causing the AEC to nullify the 2013 result and recall the senate election for the state. Since then the protocols for ballot papers at federal elections, including by-elections, have changed dramatically, with the Canning by-election and the North Sydney by-election becoming test runs.

Last Minute Cabinet Resignations: 2

#1: Mal Brough, stood down until the police investigation into Slipper-gate ends.

#2: Jamie Briggs, resigned after a public servant made a complaint about him regarding a trip to Hong Kong.

ABC News 24 Year in Review

ABC News 24 Politics Unearthed

ABC Digital Most Popular Vines

Happy New Year. Let’s see what 2016 has on offer.

The Week That Was – October 11 to October 17

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Malcolm Turnbull’s week started well, with him announcing $100 million for light rail infrastructure on the Gold Coast. However, as it went on, the week got tougher for him. His government with his cabinet had their first sitting day in the Parliament, with Andrew Hastie, the new MP for Canning being sworn in, and Tony Abbott on the back benches for the first time in almost two decades, which went well. However, by the end of the week Turnbull was dealing with the Labor party implying, but never directly accusing the PM of avoiding taxes, as it was revealed that Turnbull has an investment in the Cayman Islands, a famed tax haven. Turnbull says that he has always paid his taxes, and while it seems suspicious, he doesn’t control where his money is invested. Furthermore, he has no investments in Australia, so there is no perceived conflicts of interest. At the end of the week, Turnbull was in NZ for his first international trip as PM, with the main focus on Australia deporting New Zealand citizens who had been convicted of a crime and sentenced to more than 12 months in prison.

Refugees also became a major issue this week, with the doctors and nurses at the Melbourne Children’s hospital refusing to discharge patients who came to them from detention centres, due to concerns about mental health. The Victorian government is behind them, and both have told the public that the issue will not affect bed numbers. Another issue was the way the government dealt with a Somali asylum seeker who was raped and required medical attention, primarily because she wanted an abortion, which is illegal in Nauru. She was flown to Australia towards the end of the week, only to be sent back a few days later without the abortion. The government is claiming that she changed her mind, while her lawyers say that she was never seen by a medical professional and was never given access to an interpreter.

The Dutch report into MH17, was released this week, with the investigators concluding that a Russian-made BUK missile shot down the plane over Ukraine, although they do not know who launched it. Most of the families and friends of the victims, including Malcolm Turnbull, who I think said that he knew one of the passengers, have welcomed the report, while Russia has criticised it.

Finally this week, Glenn Lazarus has called for a Royal Commission into the Coal Seam Gas industry after a Queensland farmer killed himself after a long battle with the CSG companies drilling on his land; the Federal government is looking into legalising medical marijuana; charges have been laid against those involved in the Parramatta shooting, and the victim, Curtis Cheng was farewelled at a funeral on Saturday.

Tweet of the Week

International Politics can be interesting…

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

I’ve been working on an assignment for uni, so this is really all I’ve looked at…

Diversity at the ABC – ABC Radio National

The Week that Was – September 13 to September 19

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It’s been quite a week in Australian politics.

Sunday saw rumours of a spill the end of the year, with internal chatter and backbenchers and ministers speaking out. There were also fears of a double-digit swing in the Canning by-election. Then Monday happened.

I did a whole evening of coverage on this blog and tumblr, but long story short, Malcolm Turnbull turfed Tony Abbott in a spill 54 votes to 44, in what Annabel Crabb called an “epic frontstabbing”.

#libspill updates: 6:50pm    8:35pm    9:55pm    11:05pm     Next day

In Turnbull’s first day as Prime Minister, he paid tribute to Abbott as PM and did a lot of interviews. He’s expected to announce his new cabinet early next week, and is expected to have more women in it. It’s believed that Joe Hockey will lose the role of Treasurer, but could be given another ministry – maybe Communications. Meanwhile others are trying to keep their jobs, with Kevin Andrew saying he should keep his because changing the Defence Minister would not be good from a security point of view. Turnbull also signed NDIS deals with New South Wales and Victoria, as well as spending the week warning news cameramen not to walk into the furniture at Parliament House as they walk backwards while filming him. It wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine for Turnbull though, with someone leaking to media about some statistics. Apparently Turnbull had a poor record of promoting women to board positions while in the corporate world – the leak is believed to be the work of a disgruntled Abbott supporter.

On an international front, many leaders have welcomed Turnbull to the job, with some countries appearing to be overjoyed at the change in leadership, especially Indonesia. The Jakarta Post is reported to have used the term “good riddance” in reference to Abbott in an editorial. Meanwhile, others have watched on in confusion as we acquired the fifth Prime Minister in as many years.

Labor, on the other hand is not as impressed with the new Prime Minister. It was believed that because the Abbott Government was so hated that Labor would have an easy go at regaining a majority in the House of Reps, and throwing out a first term PM – something that would have given Bill Shorten a pretty good legacy as the saviour from Abbott. With Turnbull, who is one of the most popular people in Australian politics, Shorten and Labor have more work to do, and it makes their job a lot harder.

This week was dominated by the spill, and it meant that a lot of Abbott supporters, especially Andrew Bolt, Alan Jones, Ray Hadley and Rowan Dean, were not happy with the change of leadership. They’ve not only called Turnbull a traitor but also anyone who voted for him. While Scott Morrison has publicly said that he voted for Abbott, there has been speculation that some sort of background deal may have been made. It lead to an exchange on Ray Hadley’s 2GB show in which Hadley demanded that Morrison swear on the Bible that he was telling the truth. Morrison, who is Christian and attends a church affiliated with Hillsong, was understandably offended and upset by the whole thing.

Meanwhile, the Canning by-election was held this weekend and won by the Liberal Party’s Andrew Hastie.

Tweets of the Week

https://twitter.com/leighsales/status/643645563691360256

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

David Marr on the leadership change – The Guardian

Annabel Crabb on the leadership change – ABC The Drum

The BBC’s Australia correspondent reflects on the change – BBC

The Taiwanese Animators made a video about the spill

Turnbull challenges Abbott

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Its been announced that Malcolm Turnbull has asked Tony Abbott for a party room spill.

He’s resigned as Communications Minister, and in a speech to the media, Turnbull has criticised captain’s picks, said that the government is not performing well. He believes that with Abbott as PM, the Liberals will lose the next election, as shown by the fact that the government has consecutively lost the last 30 Newspolls.

Turnbull says the PM is not capable of economic leadership and that he treats the public like idiots, and said the Liberals need a new leader who will explain and give just cause for government actions. He says the Liberal party has a good team and that new leadership will communicate the message better, with an open government and a “proper” cabinet government much like Howard cabinet under which many Liberals served – and also suggested the Abbott cabinet was not comparable.

Turnbull has also noted the timing of his move coincides with the final week of the Canning by-election campaign. He says that it’s bad timing, but better now than later, also asking when is it ever a good time to overthrow a PM?

The Week That Was – September 6 to September 12

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I’m looking at my notes this week and realising just how many times the word “refugee” comes up.

It was a pretty good week for Abbott, even if it ended with a gaffe and a leak that sent cabinet into a hissy fit.

As of this week, the Abbott Government has been in power for two years, and has one more to go until the next election. The government is not in a great place, with polls showing that if there was an election held this week, they would lose their majority. Abbott has been repeating his usual line of “taxes are down, I stopped the boats” when asked about his two years so far and he says that he hopes that when people vote next year they will remember his government’s victories. Problem is, there are bigger issues at the moment, and with the economy down, jobs sparse and no surplus as promised, the bad decisions and the gaffes mean that Abbott and his government are not in a good place right now, and they still may not be in 12 months time when the next election comes around. He also had a 15 minute interview on 7:30 with Leigh Sales, which had the inhabitants of my house arguing, laughing and “oooh”-ing at the TV.

However, this week has been good for Abbott, as he’s been able to announce that Australia will take in 12,000 Syrian refugees in a one-off increase in our refugee intake. Peter Dutton was sent to Geneva at the start of the week to ask what Australia could do, while the Opposition and the Greens call on the government to take in more refugees overall. Before the announcement people were pointing out that Australia has done similar things in 1989 after Tiananmen and in 1999 during the Kosovo crisis, so we should do the same.

However, there has been criticism after several senior ministers, including Eric Abetz and Julie Bishop made clear their focus was on the Christians escaping Syria. Now, it is likely that some of the refugees are from Christian minority groups, and they are likely to be the ones in the most danger from Islamic State, but you can’t just say “oh we’ll just take the Christian ones thanks guys”. The Opposition is criticising the government on its bias as are the Greens. Meanwhile, the government began talking about how taking in these extra refugees was a burden to be shouldered by all, and we were told Australia would also send aid to the countries bordering Syria that host refugee camps.

The Government also said that any Syrian refugees in offshore detention – basically those that arrived by boat – will not be included in this 12,000 strong cohort of refugees they are settling in Australia. This has angered the Greens who feel that not only should these boat arrivals be included, but the government should also put an end to offshore detention all together. Meanwhile Abetz reiterated the focus on letting in Christians – leading to some believing that this was a sort of rebirth of the White Australia Policy – if you don’t know what that is, Google it.

The week ended with Abbott meeting community leaders to plan how Australia would welcome the influx of refugees from Syria…and then the good week Abbott had ended not so well.

Peter Dutton’s joke offended Pacific Island nations’ leaders, didn’t make Bill Shorten laugh, and left Abbott trying to salvage his weekend in Canning where he is helping the Liberal candidate get elected in a by-election, calling the joke “lame” and praising Dutton for his hard work in Immigration.

Meanwhile there was a leak to Sydney’s Daily Telegraph newspaper in which it proclaims that there may be a cabinet reshuffle on the cards. It’s unclear whether the PM’s Office – who is close to the Tele – or someone who wants Abbott out of job is the one who spoke to the reporter, but either way it has sent Cabinet into panic, with rumours that at least eight ministers could be in the firing line, including Nigel Scullion, Eric Abetz and Andrew Robb.

Finally this week, the Commonwealth is celebrating the Queen, after she became the longest-serving monarch, usurping Queen Victoria, Australia will be taking part in airstrikes in Syria, and while they began flying over IS-held territory at the end of the week we don’t know if they launched any strikes or not, and there have been accusations of bias against Judge Street, who out of 254 asylum seeker cases has dismissed all but two before hearing any evidence

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online.

I’ve had uni assessments due this week – so the material is not that erudite.

First Dog on the Moon on the PM’s “Twonyversary” – The Guardian

First Dog on refugees in Europe – The Guardian

Antony Green is made an Adjunct Professor – ABC Backstory

The Week that Was – August 16 to August 22

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This week following one of Abbott’s worst weeks in a long time was better for him, but not by much.

First there is disagreement in the party about how the same-sex marriage vote will work. Will it be a plebiscite (a massive opinion poll) or a referendum (that enshrines something in the constitution)? Do we have it before, during or after the election due in 2016? The details are sketchy, and what’s more, a referendum or plebiscite – whichever it ends up being – will be incredibly expensive, even if bundled together with a general election. Cabinet was meant to discuss details, but it seems we still have no idea about how this whole thing will work.

There were leaks to journalists this week in parliament, which had Eric Abetz talking to the media about how leakers are gutless and asked why journalists publish these leaks that are, according to Abetz, untrue. This seems to have backfired because hours later someone leaked the day’s press guide to the media which had some scripted “jobs, growth and community safety” lines in it and a directive to answer any questions about party stability with a variation on the above jobs and growth as well as a swipe at the Labor Party.

Dyson Heydon’s week hasn’t been that great either. Labor wants him gone, as do the unions, while Heydon tried to put out the fire by saying he was an idiot and didn’t read the entire messages that his staff printed out for him. Given some of the messages explicitly mentioned the party in the subject lines, there is the theory that he always knew and either hoped to get away with it, or thought that his job as Royal Commissioner for the Trade Union Royal Commission would be over. Furthermore, it has been revealed that Justice Heydon, who was a Law Professor at Sydney University in the 1970s and 1980s was on the board of selectors that chose Tony Abbott for his Rhodes Scholarship in 1981. The unions have applied for Justice Heydon to be removed from his position because of “apprehended bias” – a legal term basically meaning that even if Heydon isn’t biased at all, he looks like he is to the average person and therefore may as well be, meaning he has to go. Catch is, he’s hearing the application himself – leading to quips about marking one’s own exam, among others –  and is due to deliver his verdict on Tuesday.

Also this week, the by-election in the seat of Canning is revving up. It’s been marred by the revelation that the Liberal Party candidate for the seat, Andrew Hastie, a former army captain, was the leader of a group that is being investigated for violating the rules of war by desecrating corpses. Members of the group cut the hands off dead Taliban insurgents – purportedly to have a way of identifying them. Hastie has said that he was not with the group at the time, and was up in a helicopter circling the location where the incident occurred, also claiming that when he became aware of what had taken place he reported the incident to his superiors.

Finally this week, the Abbott government is going to fight the war against “green warfare” by making it more difficult for groups not directly affected by development to launch legal action against it, the USA has asked Australia to consider bombing in Syria, which does have legal issues to resolve, GST will be introduced to online purchases in 2017, the Victims of the Martin Place Siege can only access NSW State victims compensation and not the Federal government scheme, because their incident didn’t take place overseas, and David Leyonhjelm has suggested that if you are the victim of a gun crime you aren’t allowed to have an opinion about gun control, after victims of the Port Arthur Massacre began campaigning to have a gun banned in Australia.

Tweet of the Week

Leigh Sales puts on her “serious voice” and ends up singing with Tim Minchin

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

How id the AFR dealing with Mark Latham after some derogatory comments – Buzzfeed

2015 Canning By-election – Antony Green’s ABC Election Blog

A look at where Australia stands when it comes to endangered species – ABC Fact Check