Tag Archives: Coal

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”

The Week That Was – August 9 to August 15

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This week was a crazy one in politics.

The expenses saga came to an end, with Tony Smith being elected speaker on Monday. He says that he will be different, starting with the fact that he will not sit in on party meetings, and that he will help make real change in parliament. He also apologised to Tony Abbott, admitting that he had friends from the other side of politics. The thing is, Smith was not Abbott’s first choice, but Scott Morrison’s  – or at least that’s the rumour. Meanwhile the expenses inquiry is again being talked about, as the Greens call for an independent Integrity Commissioner and it becomes apparent that there is a disconnect between the politicians and the public.

Once the drama with Bronwyn Bishop was over, the Liberal Party had a marathon meeting on Monday night after the topic of same-sex marriage came up. The meeting, which some have described as poorly managed, resolved – with two-thirds majority – to keep the same policy to what Howard legislated in 2004 that defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Furthermore, Abbott apparently had a “captain’s pick” moment and announced that there would be a plebiscite or referendum on the issue at or after the next election. There are issues with this however both legal and political. Legally, it is pointless as our marriage laws are an Act of Parliament, not enshrined in our constitution, as Ireland’s was. Politically, as Malcolm Turnbull pointed out, it will continue to distract from the Liberal Party’s policies and reforms.

Another drama this week came when it was revealed that Justice Dyson Heydon, the Commissioner for the Trade Union Royal Commission agreed to attend and speak at a Liberal Party fundraiser. He has since dropped out of the event, however it has led to Labor pointing to perceived bias, if not bias itself. Justice Heydon has said that he did not know it was a party fundraiser, and released a statement saying that people in his office made it clear to organisers that if it was a party fundraiser, Heydon would not be able to attend. Labor wants to see this correspondence, and until they do, they’ll probably run the “of he not biased, then he looks it” line.

The costings for the Government’s environment policies are not due out until 2017, however some information has leaked out, suggesting that the 26-28% reduction will not affect coal industries and will most likely be done through the cheapest means possible. The IPCC is worried about the plans and Labor wants to see the government’s modelling before they show people theirs.

Abbott rounded out one of the worst week’s he’s possibly ever had by trying to make the upcoming 2016 election about trust and the environment, with Abbott talking about how “every election is about trust” and how we only have one planet. This was not received well by the people in my house, with comments about his competency and the agreement with the Labor speakers on the news that Abbott is trying desperately to save his job.

Finally this week, Abbott has had some trouble adjusting to the new speaker, as he referred to Smith as “Madam Speaker” at least once this week, it has been announced that the 2016 Census is going to be carried out primarily online, the Hutchison Ports Wharf workers are due to head back to work after the Fair Work Commission said that they’d been fired unfairly, the world celebrates the end of WWII in the Pacific and there is talk that we are to get involved in airstrikes in Syria.

Tweet of the Week

Abbott took part in the City2Surf last Sunday

https://twitter.com/MarkDiStef/status/630260742285955073

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

NSW and Victoria have a go at each other over Victoria’s new branding – Buzzfeed

New Media Adventures in Oz – ABC Radio National

Jacqui Lambie’s revelation about her son – ABC News

Penny Wong and Joe Hockey meet outside the ABC radio booth on Tuesday morning after the same-sex marriage decision in the Liberal Party room:

The Week that Was – June 8 to June 14

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Tony Abbott is continuing to represent Australia on the world stage. After Normandy at the end of last week, Abbot went to Villers-Bretonneux and visited the memorial and the local school L’ecole Victoria (Victoria School – named after the state) where he chatted in French to the students. Unfortunately his French wasn’t that great, but he gets a few kudos points for trying. He wants the Western Front to become more prominent and announced an interactive museum that will be open in time for ANZAC Day in 2018 – the Centenary of the Second Battle of Villers-Brettoneux.

His linguistic adventures continued in Canada, where he may or may not have called the country “Canadia” before quickly correcting himself. He and Stephen Harper, Canada’s PM, are ideologically similar, and so they were very happy to be in the same room as each other and both bashed the Carbon Tax a little bit, calling it “economy destroying” – or something close to that. The Opposition were a bit concerned given that Abbott’s itinerary in United States wasn’t fully sorted before he arrived, but that seems to have been sorted out.

In New York, Abbott visited the 9/11 Memorial, chatted with Ban Ki-moon and rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange. It was amusing at the NYSE as one of the spots where Abbott stopped for the cameras was near the stock screen for Abbott – a healthcare company with the slogan “A Promise for Life”…

He also had dinner with Rupert Murdoch, defending it by saying it what a Prime Minister should do. If that’s the case, then he should also meet with Mark Scott, David Gyngell, Hamish McLennan and other Australian media CEOs and Directors, not just Murdoch. Abbott then travelled to Washington D.C., where he met with Republican John Boehner. He was also meant to meet with Eric Cantor, another senior Republican, but Cantor lost his primary and so he resigned from his post. He met President Obama as well, and given the situation in Iraq (Al-Qaeda inspired ISIS militants have taken over some cities in the north), the PM assured Obama that we would be there to help if asked by the USA.

He also went to the Arlington Cemetery in Virginia and had talks with the US Secretary of Defence, Chuck Hagel, at the Pentagon. He also went to Texas, where he talked about how amazing coal is and how it was going to fuel our future for years to come, as well as bashing the Carbon Tax again. He also got given a big hat, which lead to George W. Bush comparisons…which I don’t think were meant to be positive.

Still with international affairs, there was concern this week that some Middle Eastern nations might stop or sanction trading with us, because the government recently stopped calling Israeli settlements in the West Bank. For many years, the government has used the term “occupied” but now they’re using “disputed”. It’s been said that our government has a “pro-Israel bias”, which the government has disputed. Barnaby Joyce, the Minister for Agriculture, “says he is leaving foreign policy issues affecting his portfolio to people “smarter” than him” (quote from the ABC). That’s a bit of a cop-out if you ask me, and the government should have kept things the way they were – offending large blocs of trading partners is not a good look.

I’ll leave the international jet-setting fun for now, and move on. Again the Budget is causing trouble, with a “Bust the Budget” protest in Melbourne that not only involved students, but also union members and ordinary people. There are moves to change the welfare system to cut 40-50 payments down to 4-6 payments as well as identifying those who may become “welfare dependent” and putting a stop to it. However, youth unemployment is very high in Australia – almost 20% – and the government wants those on welfare to apply for 40 jobs a month, so there could be an issue when it comes to stopping unemployment when there are no jobs. Oh, and if there is too much trouble getting the Budget through the Senate, the treasurer has essentially said there will be a double dissolution.

There were two inquiries this week:

The first was the Royal Commission into Union Corruption, which this week got onto a case involving the AWU. In particular, this case implicates Julia Gillard’s ex-boyfriend, who created a slush fund. It’s said that Julia Gillard – at the time a lawyer – helped with the legal stuff related to the set up of the fund, but she and the ex-boyfriend, among other witnesses, have said that she had no idea what the fund was for and that all she did was help. There is also suggestions that renovations at her old house were paid for by her ex-partner using this slush fund, but there has been contradictory evidence, and it’s also been pointed out that people in relationships often give each other money at times.

The second is a senate inquiry into what is going on in the Manus Island Detention Centre. A former G4S employee gave evidence as did a Salvation Army official, who attacked Scott Morrison for placing the blame one of their Papua New Guinean staffers, suggesting that witnesses were not questioned properly, and those witnesses say that the Salvation Army staff were trying to help the injured. Two 22-year-old students have also given evidence, saying they were hired by the Salvation Army as case workers. With no training or job interview, the two students were sent to Nauru and Manus Island within days of applying and found themselves counselling suicidal and distressed asylum seekers. One of the students got into a debate/argument with Senator Ian Macdonald over her opinions on asylum seekers and other things (SMH).

Finally this week, Senator-elect Ricky Muir had an interview with Channel 7, which didn’t go so well (see here), and NSW is in the lead-up to its Budget.

Tweets of the Week

Oh, and Tony, just because you delete a tweet with a mistake in it does not mean that people haven’t screencapped it before it disappears.

https://twitter.com/thebleague/status/477624340733632512

(It should be Ange Postecoglou, Mark Bresciano and Tim Cahill)

Things I’ve Been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Tony Abbott’s response to the son of gay parents – SameSame

The explanation of a comment by an Q&A panellist, and why it was so important – New Matilda

A comparison: ABC vs. BBC and CBC – Quadrant