Tag Archives: Catholic Church

The Week That Was – August 26 to September 1

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This week was Scott Morrison’s first week as Prime Minister and he rather quickly announced his cabinet. Mathias Cormann and Peter Dutton, have kept their roles – although Immigration is now no longer part of the Home Affairs portfolio.  A number of cabinet members have also stayed in cabinet or kept their roles, regardless of who they supported during the drama of last week. However, there has been a bit of a reshuffle and two backbenchers have been pulled out of relative obscurity into the ministry, with Melissa Price becoming Environment Minister and Karen Andrews becoming Minister for Industry and Science. Michaelia Cash has been moved sideways to become the Minister for Small Business and Skills, and Kelly O’Dwyer is now Minister for Jobs and Industrial Relations. Steve Ciobo seems to have lost his Trade portfolio to Simon Birmingham, and Dan Tehan is now Education Minister.

Julie Bishop has left the front bench, and will be replaced by Marise Payne as Foreign Minister, so Christopher Pyne is now Defence Minister. The big thing here though is that Bishop has left the ministry and the deputy leadership of the Liberal party after eleven years. One of the most senior and experienced women in the Liberal party is no longer in the ministry, and that’s a heck of a lot of expertise no longer on the front bench. Part of this seems to be because of a group text conversation on WhatsApp between some moderate Liberal MPs and Senators calling themselves “Friends of Stability”. It appears one of them uncovered an alleged plan from the Dutton camp to stick some WA votes behind Bishop in the first round of voting during the spill, in order to knock out Morrison so Dutton would win. Poor Christopher Pyne was left to very respectfully warn Julie Bishop of this plan to use her to get Dutton as PM.

Julie Bishop has said that she will contest her seat of Curtin at the next election, and there are whispers that she could be the next Governor-General as she is respected on both sides of the political divide.

This is not the only issue involving women in the Liberal Party and the spill of last week. Julia Banks, the Member for Chisholm, has announced she will not contest the next election in her marginal Melbourne seat. She cites bullying and sexist behaviour from parliamentary Liberal Party, especially during the week of the spill, where she alleges three MPs and Senators (who are thought to be some of Dutton’s numbers men) engaged in intimidation tactics to try to get her to vote their way.

https://twitter.com/juliabanksmp/status/1034597677017718784

Two other members of parliament, Sarah Henderson MP and Senator Linda Reynolds have also alleged poor behaviour on the part of these “numbers men”, with Henderson apparently being promised a ministry or some other worldly goods, and Reynolds feeling intimidated by the actions of her party – something she spoke about in the Senate to get it into Hansard.

Prime Minister Morrison spent a lot of his first full week as PM not in Canberra. He toured drought affected Queensland at the start of the week and learned more about the effects the drought is having on families. At the end of the week he travelled to Jakarta and met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Originally the trip was for Malcolm Turnbull, and many expected it to be postponed after the spill, however, Morrison went over and spent time with Widodo, and they seemed to get on well, and Morrison did represent us well on his first international trip as Prime Minister. Australia is about to sign a Free Trade Agreement with Indonesia, eight years in the making, so the relationship is now more important than ever.

Meanwhile, Peter Dutton is facing criticism over what is being dubbed the “Au Pair Affair”. It’s understood that a couple of years ago, Peter Dutton allowed a 27-year-old French national into the country on a tourist visa, despite the fact that she had admitted to Border Force officials that she would engage in work as an au pair for the McLachlan family. The McLachlan family are well-known South Australian pastoralists and are related to AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan – who knows Dutton from when he was Sports Minister. It appears Gillon McLachlan linked his relatives to Dutton’s office so they could plead the young woman’s case. It’s also understood that he has helped a former cop colleague in the same situation whose potential au pair was detained at Brisbane airport, along with one other au pair – but that last one hasn’t been talked about much.

The Catholic Church has responded to the recommendations from the Child Abuse Royal Commission, saying it will take all but a few of the recommendations on board. They have stated that they won’t be breaking the seal of confession to report child abuse, but they will apply to the Vatican to consider making celibacy a voluntary aspect of being a member of the clergy. Meanwhile, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory are continuing in their push to make it illegal to not report child abuse revealed to priests in the confessional, against the wishes of the Catholic Church.

Finally this week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Barnaby Joyce will be a Special Envoy for the Drought, and Tony Abbott will be Special Envoy for Indigenous Affairs (which is going down really well amongst the Indigenous community); Chelsea Manning, the US Army intelligence officer who leaked thousands of documents to WikiLeaks, was banned from entering Australia, but she will be allowed to enter New Zealand; the NAPLAN results came out and while Primary school results are improving,  the high school results aren’t as positive; and Australia probably won’t get visited by US President Donald Trump, instead we’ll get a visit from Vice-President Mike Pence.

Tweets of the Week

https://twitter.com/BevanShields/status/1034259584221736960

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Annabel Crabb on Julie Bishop’s savage one-liners – ABC Online

Mark Latham’s defamation defence dismissed (it’s awesome) – Federal Court of Australia

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 – June 29 to July 5

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This week has primarily focused on the two Asylum Seeker boats out near Christmas Island. We know they exist, that on of them is possibly from India, that the Detention Centre on Christmas Island is preparing for new people and that they are the first boats in quite a long time. Since then, nothing has been heard from the government who have said it’s an “on-water operation” that they won’t comment on just yet, and we don’t even know if the boats have made it ashore or if the asylum seekers are even alive.

There are concerns that the refugees are being assessed on the boats they arrived on. The UNHCR is concerned as well, reminding Australia that it is illegal to return people to a place where they fear for their safety under international law. However, Scott Morrison appears to be trying to find a way around that and he could use his ministerial powers to intervene in cases.

There are also more suggestions of streamlining welfare payments again. It’s suggested that people with “non-permanent” disabilities could be taken off the Disability Support Pension (DSP) and onto New Start – which is considerably less money. Also, I’d like to know what a “non-permanent disability” is. The Opposition is angry, especially Anthony Albanese, who was raised by his single mother with the DSP as most of her income.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse released an interim report, saying that they had heard shocking stories and that the number of complaints was so high, they would need two more years and another $100 million to continue their investigations. They are investigating at least 70 institutions and say that adults have failed children. The government in considering the request for more time and money. The Royal Commission is also annoyed at the Vatican, because they asked for all the documents pertaining to paedophile priests in Australia and they’ve only received two. And speaking of the Catholic Church, despite Cardinal Pell telling the Commission that the church will stop using the “Ellis Defence” (the defence that says that the Church is not a legal entity that can be sued) in sexual abuse cases, they are still using it.

The NDIS is still facing problems a year after its launch, with many people facing bureaucratic battles. It appears that very few people are aware of their rights under the scheme and are in fact losing out on some of the things they had before. There is also questions over what should be funded and whether or nor iPads are worth funding – despite the fact that some are actually being used to help with communication.

This week also saw the new senators being shown the ropes in Canberra, in what is affectionately called “Senate Kindy”. It appears that Palmer United Party Senator Jacqui Lambie wants to become PM eventually and that the only thing that David Leyonhjelm learnt at Senate Kindy was not to go to wineries in ComCars.

Speaking of David Leyonhjelm, he may just help get the Paid Parental Leave Scheme through the Senate, however he wants to see a deregulation of childcare, such that there are cheaper options for families. Sussan Ley, the Assistant Education Minister, says that while she thinks it could be a good, it isn’t on the cards – something the Opposition and childcare associations are happy about, saying that people want quality and safety when it comes to taking care of their kids.

Finally, the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) saga continues, with the CEO apologising for messing up and telling people that they are opening up an investigation. However, there are still concerns because the investigation will be internal and only after that investigation will anyone external be brought in, and even the CBA will choose who the external person is. The Financial Planning Association does support a Royal Commission, unless the CBA sorts everything out, especially its compensation.

Also this week, a 17-year-old Western Sydney teenager is reportedly in the Middle East, presumably to fight in Syria or Iraq, Julie Bishop travelled to Myanmar on a trip that focused on trade and education, there are plans to ban Australians from bringing back souvenirs from ‘canned hunting’ trips and be aware of a scam in which you are called by someone saying they are from the ATO, recite your tax details and tell you have overdue taxes – somehow some people’s tax details have been sold on the black market.

Tweet of the Week

What I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

The UN now recognises same-sex marriage – Gaystar News

Tony Abbott in trouble for saying Australia was ‘unsettled’ before colonisation – SBS Online

The Week that Was – June 1 to June 7

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It’s been four weeks since the budget and we’re still talking about it – albeit a little bit less than in previous weeks.

But still, there are reports that the Liberals allegedly conned the Country Liberals, Nationals and anyone in the Coalition who represents a rural seat into accepting the changes to the fuel excise. It appears that they may have hinted that they would change the diesel rebate – something that helps miners and farmers pay for diesel fuel for their operations – and not the fuel excise. That scared the Nationals and other rural MPs in the coalition, because they might lose the next election and there could have been tractors on parliament house lawn and war with the miners. So the nationals supported the fuel excise and are now defending themselves, saying it was legitimately on the table. Treasury have said that they only did the maths for the fuel excise and never the diesel rebate, though. In public they’ve been friendly, but reports are that behind closed doors people are annoyed.

There is also concern from Universities Australia – the organisation that represents Australian universities – about whether or not the fee changes will lead to higher costs. Christopher Pyne says prices will be forced down because it will be competitive, while others believe that it will lead to prices at more “prestigious” universities rising. There is also conflicting information about who is paying what back when – but the legislation has to get through the senate first, and the Labor and Greens have said they will oppose it. Clive Palmer says his party won’t let anything through that doesn’t make sense to them, and that they want more staff to help them understand things.

Speaking of money, it was announced that two new navy ships will not be built in Australia, but in Spain and Korea. The government has said that the boats are too large to be built in Australia and it would seem it’s also very expensive too. The shipbuilding industry is understandably annoyed, as apparently there is a gap coming up where there will be more builders than ships to be built and these two ships would have covered that gap. Apparently some frigates will be built here soon – so we shouldn’t worry – but given the government has said that they want Australian-built ships, but not at any cost, I fear what will happen in the future when it becomes even more expensive.

This week has been full of the drama between Malcolm Turnbull and conservative commentators. Andrew Bolt has accused Turnbull of planning to overthrow Tony Abbott. Bolt cites Turnbull’s dinner last week with Clive Palmer, as well as attending an event hosted by Friends of the ABC. Wow, the Communications Minister went to an event related to the government-funded broadcaster, he’s totally planning to overthrow the Prime Minister. Turnbull said that “it borders on the demented” and even said it was “unhinged”.

It continued later in the week, when Turnbull was on 2GB radio with Alan Jones – who questioned him about his motives and if he was after the leadership. From what I’ve heard of the interview, Turnbull remained quite calm. Turnbull was also on 7:30 this week – the full interview is here.

This week, Tony Abbott is off to Indonesia, France, The USA and Canada. He’s met with Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Indonesia for the first time since the spying allegations, and Julie Bishop appeared to give  Yudhoyono a demotion, calling him “Prime Minister SBY” – when she should have said “President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono” or “President Yudhoyono”. The PM’s flight was delayed because the plane they were originally going to use was broken, so they had to get a different one. The relationship does appear to be on the mend, so that is good. Abbott then went to Paris, where he met the Queen at the British Embassy, and talked with French business leaders before heading to Normandy for D-Day commemorations, where six Australian veterans became Chevaliers of the Légion d’Honneur – France’s highest honour.

Clive Palmer is in trouble this week for being rude to a senior Abbott staffer, Peta Credlin. Palmer said that the reason Abbott was bringing in a Paid Parental Leave Scheme was so that Ms Credlin could have her baby. But he’s also fighting with the QLD state government. He’s suing QLD Premier Campbell Newman for defamation, after Newman said he was buying governments. It’s now come to light that the Deputy Premier had referred Palmer to the CMC (QLD’s ICAC – but with no power) over allegations that Palmer asked for special treatment after the 2012 QLD Election that saw the LNP come to power.

Finally this week, Victoria’s in the middle of a constitutional crisis, the USA changed its emissions aims…now making them more active in the battle against climate change than us, and it turns out the Prime Minister gave a character reference to a priest who is accused of paedophilia – they met in the same seminary when Abbott was thinking of joining the priesthood. Oh, and the government might have lied to the World Heritage people about Tasmanian forests.

Tweet of the Week

Barnaby Joyce’s disconcerting photo out a plane window – I think his phone might have been upside-down.

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Introducing American cable viewers to Tony Abbott…

An introduction to OTPs: The flirtation between ABC2 and SBS2 – as chronicled by Buzzfeed.

Peppa Pig’s uncertain future on the ABC made one girl worried about her little sister – Canberra Times