Tag Archives: Christiansen

More Gaffes, Stonewalling and Alt-Right Infiltration

Posted on by

Oops, a bit late with the posting…working in retail during holiday periods tends to lead to that.

I hope you had a restful Easter break.

Last week, we saw policy promises from both major parties around health, jobs and the economy. The parties both rallied their volunteers on Sunday, and so began a week of campaigning with tempered by truces on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

This week saw another gaffe, with Bill Shorten saying there would be “no new taxes on superannuation” – except, well, he has one planned should he get into government. He apologised and said that upon reflection he should have said that there would be no new taxes on superannuation other than what had already been announced by Labor in the last few months. Scott Morrison has attempted to jump on this gaffe, but it feels overdone, mostly because he’s using the line he’s been using for the last ten days about Labor and Bill Shorten being liars.

When not selling their policies to the electorate, both Shorten and Morrison have been frustrating journalists (and voters) by stonewalling on certain questions. For example, when the Prime Minister was in the electorate of Deakin with MP Michael Sukkar, he was asked he felt confident in Sukkar’s support, given Sukkar had backed Dutton last August – and Morrison responded:

That is such a bubble question, I’m just going to leave that one in the bubble

Shorten on the other hand, got into a terse exchange with Channel 10 reporter Jonathan Lea, who asked about the costs of Labor’s emissions reduction target five time and didn’t get a “proper” answer – Lea was rightfully frustrated.

It is a worry that both leaders feel they can control what is put out by the media by stonewalling and avoiding questions. It doesn’t work, because we have a fairly independent and free press, which means that politicians or governments can’t control the story anyway. If anything it makes both leaders look like they’re hiding something, which one might think would be something they would rather avoid.

There weren’t a huge range of announcements this week due to the agreement to not campaign on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, but Labor has promised to give Indigenous community organisations more say in where money goes, combined with further promises to invest $115 million in indigenous health, and to make Pat Dodson the Indigenous Affairs Minister should Labor win the election. Otherwise, most of the week was spent either talking more about previous policy announcements, or debating whose policy costings were correct. There are so many millions and billions floating around, my head is spinning.

Meanwhile, Fraser Anning had been embroiled in some sort of alt-right conspiracy to infiltrate politics. It seems that at least one of his political staffers and some of his campaign staff have links to an ultra right-wing group that tried to infiltrate the Nationals (they were unsuccessful, after they were discovered and expelled from the party in October last year). However, it gets a bit weirder, as one of these alt-right guys worked for Clive Palmer a few years ago. He only worked for Palmer and his eponymous – but now-defunct – Palmer United Party, but only for three weeks. Palmer doesn’t see it as a big deal, he apparently fires people all the time.

Meanwhile, Clive Palmer is having another stab at politics – he is now running a new political party, the United Australia Party, and will be running for the Senate. Palmer was planning to contest the ultra-marginal Queensland seat of Herbert, but because he’s quite unpopular there, he’s decided to put someone else in the seat and try for the Upper House where he potentially has a better chance.

Many in the government now believe that George Christiansen’s electorate of Dawson in Queensland is going to be lost in the election, as he comes under more fire for being an “absent member” – he’s spending more time in the Philippines than in Australia, mostly because Christiansen has a Filipino girlfriend. The main concern for the electorate Dawson for both major parties is that the One Nation vote is generally quite high and they don’t really want a member of the Lower House from One Nation.

There are also questions surrounding Barnarby Joyce and Angus Taylor over the $80 million government purchase of water rights from two farms owned by a company that is domiciled in the Cayman Islands. If that wasn’t enough, the company did at one point employ Angus Taylor. Taylor denies that he or any family members have benefitted from the sale, and Barnaby Joyce was “out of range”.

Tweet of the Week

Election campaigns that have Easter in the middle of them means politicians take photos with the oddest of characters…

Thing’s I’ve Been Looking at Online

The logistics of the world’s biggest single-day election – The Interpreter

Annabel Crabb says we shouldn’t be distracted by the billions and millions – ABC Online

 

The Two Weeks that Were – February 26 to March 11

Posted on by

Uni returned and work schedules changed so you’ve got two weeks rolled together again.

Joko Widodo, Indonesia’s President, finally made his way to Australia and met with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. They talked about Australian and Indonesian military and maritime partnerships and announced that there would be a new Australian consulate in Surabaya.

Penalty rates are still causing issues, with Labor continuing to paint the issue as one Malcolm Turnbull is responsible for. Turnbull doesn’t seem to be making it easier for himself by not stating his position clearly. Ann Sudmalis MP didn’t make it easier either, after she was quoted as saying that penalty rate cuts were a ‘gift’ to young people. Meanwhile the government is hoping that the Fair Work Commission can phase in penalty rate cuts in order to ease the blow on workers.

Malcolm Turnbull has had shocking fortnight in the polls after Tony Abbott decided to make comments about the direction of the Liberal Party and what the government needs to do to keep their voters from moving to One Nation. While Abbott doesn’t have the numbers, people think he might be trying to get someone from the party’s right, like Peter Dutton, into the Prime Ministership instead. The polls the next week were in Labor’s favour on two-party preferred, and Turnbull’s approval has taken a dive

George Christiansen has quit at the Chief Whip of the National Party, but says he does not intend to quite the Party. This is something that Pauline Hanson is advising Christiansen to do (unsolicited) because she thinks the voting public will not be too happy with an unstable House of Representatives and government. Meanwhile the Queensland LNP had a crisis meeting last weekend in which they discussed the growth of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation. Pauline Hanson has been pointing out the similarities One Nation has with the Coalition, while her critics are suggesting that her party not that much of an alternative party, and closer to the Liberal Party. Although she has been casting doubt on the benefit of vaccinations – making the AMA and mainstream politicians wary.

Meanwhile the Joint Strike Fighter planes were flown to Victoria via Queensland for an airshow to be shown off. All looked good, until it was announced that they were not going to fly to Queensland when they were planned to because they didn’t yet have lightning protection and couldn’t fly in bad weather.

Finally this fortnight, intelligence sharing is unlikely to be looked at during the Lindt Siege Inquest; the economy grew 1.1%, therefore avoiding a recession; there is an increase in Indigenous students going to university, but more support for students is needed; Western Australia has gone to the polls, and it looks as if the Labor party will win; and The Australian cartoonist Bill Leak has passed away.

Tweet of the Fortnight

A stern warning on Election night in WA

https://twitter.com/sallyjsara/status/840444700339257344

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Vale Bill Leak – ABC Online

A look at One Nation in the WA Election – ABC Online

 

The Week That Was – February 12 to February 18

Posted on by

So I had two weeks off from work and blogging. I missed a pretty crazy two weeks, what with Cory Bernardi leaving the Liberal Party for his own, the Trump-Turnbull phone call and Rod Culleton being ruled invalidly elected.

This week saw some drama as the Liberal Party in Western Australia made a preference deal with One Nation over the Nationals. This has led to suggestions that the Coalition in WA may be at risk of falling apart and has led the Federal Labor party to push the Federal Liberals to promise not to do the same. It appears to be an attempt to save the WA Liberals from losing the State election in March, as it looks as if the swing against the Liberals there could be a large as 12% – leading to a Labor win. Labor also seems to be enjoying making inner city Liberals uncomfortable about the whole One Nation thing.

Businesses, conservation groups and other organisations are pushing politicians to have a bipartisan approach to energy policy. These groups are saying that all this uncertainty is bad for society and the economy.

Malcolm Turnbull has also been caught out after a Freedom of Information showed that Turnbull was told by government officials that the South Australian blackout at the end of last year was not the result of South Australia’s mix of renewable and non-renewable energy. Labor is accusing the Prime Minister of lying to the public, while Turnbull is sort of ignoring the whole thing.

To add to the governments issues is the poor Closing the Gap Report results that came out this week. Only one of the 7 markers is on track at the moment, while the other 6 are behind. It appears that there is little information on what programs are actually working, so the government has decided to start a productivity commission to figure that out.

Meanwhile, the prestigious private school, Barker College, and an Aboriginal Land Council has found a program that seems to be working on the NSW Central Coast, with the school hiring teachers for a co-educational indigenous-only school with a teacher for every 7 students. The school is funded by corporate donations, and the Sydney-based College provides the educators. The school has been incredibly successful with students improving by up to five years – with the school only being open for about a year.

Malcolm Turnbull also made a trip to New Zealand this week to hang out with the new Prime Minister Bill English. The two have discussed the benefits of lower business taxes and free trade, with the aim of telling their Asian counterparts that even if the USA pulls out of the TPP, there are still nations in the region to have free trade with.

And if that wasn’t all – George Christiansen is threatening to leave the LNP.

Finally this week, Bob Katter is demanding that the government create laws to protect Australian made cultural souvenirs, as Asian nations make cheap fakes that we sell here; American official have arrived on Manus Island to begin interviewing asylum seekers; refugees that have been settled in Sydney are having trouble finding homes; and there are concerns over recent job cuts at Air Services Australia – the company that provides air traffic control to the country – with staff saying that the public is at risk.

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

The cost to the US taxpayer for Trump’s weekly trips to Mar-a-Lago – ABC USA

Richard Glover tells the US why Australia and the USA are friends – Washington Post

The Two Weeks That Were – December 18 to December 31

Posted on by

This Christmas and New Years period was possibly the least insane for politics in a very long time. The first few days had a bit of drama but nothing too major.

The long-awaited Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO), showed us that the deficit is now $36.5 billion, and debts will be bigger until a forecasted surplus in 2020. The government is on track for 12 continuous deficits and the country’s growth is down. Part of the reason for the bad news is because there are still 2014 Budget ‘zombie measures’ that still haven’t passed the Senate, however they do think some money could be recouped in the next year or so by collecting welfare debts.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull caused some division amongst the Liberal Party when he attended a dinner hosted by the Republican Movement, who want to see australia become a republic rather than stay as a constitutional monarchy. The move to become a republic is unlikely while Queen Elizabeth II is still alive, however Turnbull has outlined his vision for the move to a republic, with a plebiscite to decide on the model, and a referendum to follow to make the final decision – a marked difference from the failed referendum in 1999.

Meanwhile, there are concerns among the Liberals that some more conservative members may split from the party. Both Cory Bernardi and George Christiansen are fans of Donald Trump, and have concerns about national security and Bernardi’s conservative movement is going well. Many in the party are encouraging the party to stay unified and not be divided “like Labor”. The issue also had Tony Abbott talking on radio about staying with the party, which drew criticism.

There were arrests in Melbourne just before Christmas, in which several people for arrested for allegedly planning to attack some of Melbourne’s key landmarks on Christmas Day. From what the police have said they were inspired by Islamic State and the police have been keeping an eye on them for a while. Meanwhile, Malcolm Turnbull has called for calm, and reminded people that they should not cower in fear, as that is what the terrorists want.

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party is looking to do well in the next few years as State elections take place in traditionally conservative States such as Western Australia and Queensland. Critics are saying that Pauline Hanson “is for Pauline Hanson” – an allegation she and her supporters deny, saying that she is for the country. Meanwhile she’s having to deal with the Culleton validity scandal – and the fact that Rod Culleton just quit her party.

As if it couldn’t get more confusing, Rod Culleton has also been declared bankrupt, and although he has 21 days to appeal, he’s technically ineligible to be a Senator. It gets confusing because the validity issue is the more important constitutional issue than the undischarged bankrupt issue. So, if Culleton loses the bankruptcy appeal, but wins his validity case, then One Nation chooses the replacement. If Culleton is found to have been invalidly elected, then his replacement is chosen by seeing who came after him in the count.

Also during this fortnight, there have been concerns about the rental agreement between the government and the rifle range, in which it appears they are paying a lower rate of rent for the land. The other concern is that David Leyonhjelm’s comments about the rental agreement suggest some secret back room horse trading between the government and the cross bench senator.

Finally during this fortnight, there was an explosion at the Australian Christian Lobby building in Canberra – which police say was not ideologically motivated; mining company Adani is facing probes in India, leading to concerns in Queensland, where they are due to start a mine; there will be a national AUSLAN curriculum set up to help teach people sign language; and an asylum seeker has died in Brisbane after not receiving appropriate medical care on Manus Island before collapsing.

You can catch my 2016 Year in Review here.

Tweet of the Fortnight

The ABC’s James Glenday was covering the Berlin Terror Attack, and all the feedback he got was about staying warm.

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

ABC 2016 Year in Review