Tag Archives: Common Sense – or a lack of

The D-Day Stuff Up of 2014

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I first found out about this on Twitter…

and since then, it’s gotten awkward. The New Matilda has a summary of the story, and the PDF of the original speech is here.

Please tell me how a speech about following War Veterans to France for D-Day commemorations links into blatant political messaging about how getting rid of the Carbon Tax and telling the rest of the world that “Australia is open for business” is going to make anyone want to trade or do more business in Australia than they already do.

Somehow, I don’t think Tony Abbott is going to make any headway going around Europe and the Americas, telling people that “Australia is open for business” and that:

We welcome investment and we are making investment more attractive by scrapping the carbon tax and the
mining tax, cutting 50,000 pages of red tape and ending the “analysis paralysis” on major projects.

The “analysis paralysis”? What has this got to do with D-Day Veterans attending the 70th anniversary commemorations in Normandy to remember the beginning of the end of a deadly war?

This has been stirring up social media, and I can understand why – it was meant to be about the Veterans, not a chance to slip in a political message that at the moment is completely irrelevant. It shouldn’t have happened at all.

The video is still on YouTube (as at 10:55pm AEST on June 1)

Why the Australia Network TV Channel is Needed

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An apartment in Shanghai, China, November 2007. It’s election night, and the ABC’s Election Coverage is on Australia Network. A family sits to eat dinner as election coverage, three hours ahead, starts to develop dramatically. “I’m sorry, I can’t just sit here anymore”, says the husband, “Is it ok if I take my dinner in front of the TV to see this?”. His wife nods in understanding as he gets up, grabs his plate and moves quickly into the lounge room to watch the 2007 Federal Election unfold…

…nice story, right? Ok, it’s not the best in the world, but its a true story – one about my family.

When my family lived in Hong Kong and Shanghai, we were able to watch Australia Network (originally ABC Asia-Pacific when we first moved). It may be touted as a “soft diplomacy” strategy to “showcase Australian values”, but it’s more than that, and the Australian Government hasn’t realised this. It’s not just about showing Australia off to the region, it’s also keeping Australian expatriates connected, and providing English-language news and entertainment in the region – something that helps expatriates of other nationalities as well as locals in Asia-Pacific nations.

Personally, Australia Network made me feel connected to Australia, and kept me informed on what was going on back home and also in the region. Australians are a rare breed of expatriate (expat) in some places, so unlike the American and British expats, news from back home is not covered as much in the media of the country you’re in, if at all, and usually it’s not in English. CNN and BBC World News are great, but they’re world-wide services with the entire globe to cover, and sometimes a huge political scandal  that might be of interest to Australians overseas may not even be mentioned at all. Not only that, but both CNN and BBC World News are 24-hour news services, and lets face it, when you have a family with small children, 24-hour news is boring and tedious.

Think back to 9/11 when every Australian free-to-air TV network was on a 24-hour news cycle for about three days. I can remember (I was 7 at the time) my mum calling the ABC to ask when regular programming would return, and her being told it would be soon and that a lot of parents with young children had been calling in to ask the same question – because the 24-hour news was, by this point, replaying the World Trade Center buildings collapse for the 1000th time.

But back to Australia Network. Not only does it make an Australian expat feel connected to Australia, but it also provides English language news and programming for others too. For expats from other countries, Australia Network gives them news in English about the Asia-Pacific, and also provides them with English language entertainment, such as children’s programming (Play School, anyone?), current affairs, documentaries, comedies, dramas and all sorts of other shows – some of which are originally broadcast on Australia’s commercial networks (e.g. Mr. & Mrs. Murder – Channel 10; Packed to the Rafters – Channel 7; Insight – SBS; RPA – Channel 9). Broadcasting such diverse content, expats from other nations get entertainment, and here you can also stick your “soft diplomacy” in – because they get a look at Australian television shows and think that Australia is a nice place.

For locals in Asia-Pacific nations, Australia Network isn’t just a way for us to show them that Australia is a nice place and that they should trade, study or just have a holiday here, for some, it’s a way to get the facts about what is happening in their country. In China, Malaysia and Singapore, as well as other Asia-Pacific nations, where media is censored and rarely, if at all, critiques the government, Australia Network is way for the people to find out what they might not find elsewhere in local media. Example: In 2008, while in Shanghai, Facebook was suddenly blocked (this was pre-Beijing Olympics, so the Chinese were trying to be more open at the time) as was YouTube. Had it not been for the news on Australia Network or the ABC, I probably wouldn’t have known that there was unrest in Tibet at the time, and while the Chinese media mentioned it, it would have been downplayed, and very anti-Dalai Lama.

It’s not just the “soft diplomacy” strategy the government is cutting here, it’s an English language news and entertainment service for the region that’s keeping Australian expats feel connected back home, as well as giving expats from other countries a broadcaster with more relevant information for the region, as well as more diverse programming than CNN or BBC World News.

Author’s Note: I wrote this before the coup in Thailand – but the above also applies here. Australia Network was able to provide rolling coverage as martial law was declared and then more rolling coverage as the coup took place in the region.  According to the Australia Network-watching Twitterati, the channel was one of the last foreign news providers to be blacked out by cable networks, despite the fact that the channel seemed to be the only one covering the situation in any detail at the time.

The Week That Was – May 11 to May 17

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Well this week was fun. We got to talk about the Budget.

In the two days before the budget, we received some more information about what would be in it, like a pay freeze for MPs and their staff – which is essentially symbolic. Around 16000 public service jobs will go, 9 government agencies are to be either abolished or merged with others and the Mint, along with three other agencies are to be privatised. However, the media was saying on Monday and on Tuesday before the Budget, it would be a hard sell – with Tony Abbott saying they “will have a good story by the election” – I assume he means the 2016 election.

You can read what I wrote on the night here and here.

There was quite a lot of backlash from the public from this budget, with #ThreeWordBudget trending for at least the first 24 hours after the Budget and the Premiers of almost every state have responded negatively – to the point where they will hold an emergency meeting on Sunday.

It is believed that families, whether they be a single parent family, an elderly couple, or a family with three kids , could lose up to $3000, if not more. The ABC and SBS will have their funding cut, the ABC-run Australia Network will be shut down and the renewable energy sector is getting cuts too.

The catch at the moment is that Tony Abbott and the Coalition do not control the Senate at the moment – even after July 1 they won’t. The Palmer United Party (PUP) and the Greens have said they will not support the Budget through the Senate and there are people on social media encouraging the opposition parties (Labor, PUP, Greens, and the others) to block supply. Tony Abbott will now go on what ABC Political Reporter Mark Simkin called a “country-wide Budget roadshow”.

That roadshow though, will need to include universities if Abbott and his government want to convince everyone that this Budget is worth it. University students have been protesting the most in the last month about changes to university funding, with capped fees to end in 2016. The Group of 8 Universities support this change – at least the people running those universities do – but some teachers and students at these institutions, as well as other universities in Australia do not support it.

Speaking of university students, this video, from Friday shows Julie Bishop heading to an event at The University of Sydney, outside which students were protesting.

She seemed relatively ok with being yelled at and jostled as she was helped through the crowd by aides, but Christopher Pyne thinks the students were encouraged by the Labor party and should be charged with assault, and Tony Abbott called the students “revolting”. Yeah, that’s a fantastic way of trying to convince university students to accept your budget – and it’s ridiculous to think that the opposition encouraged a bunch of university students to protest, especially given that the way I understand it suggests that it was the same group that had been involved in the Q&A protests. Labor said that Pyne needed to grow up, that they didn’t have anything to do with the protest, and that the Coalition “didn’t inherit a budget crisis, they made it”. They also said that they condemn violent protest – but was it violent?

Back to Christopher Pyne though, because this week seems to be him saying or doing things he perhaps shouldn’t. He accused university students of assault, but earlier this week he called Manager of Opposition Business Tony Burke what many perceived to be the c-word…

…and he may also have been making signals to the Speaker of the House, Bronwyn Bishop, adding to talk about whether or not the Speaker is biased (she’s now hit 100 ejections from the House, all Opposition).

That’s all for this week – hopefully there will be less Budget next week.

Tweet of the Week

People applauding the ABC’s Budget coverage – well, the women involved in hosting and interviewing anyway…

https://twitter.com/AdamSpenceAU/status/466198538905350145

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

The Budget Lock-up for Journalists

An interactive summary of the Budget’s “Winners and Losers” – ABC Online

Alan Kohler looks at the “budget of suicidal heroism” – The Business Spectator

The Week That Was – March 2 to March 8

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This week began with the Australian missionary arrested in North Korea being released after he apologised, although it was mainly because of his age. Also, both Tony Abbott and the government are warning Russia not to invade Crimea in Ukraine, so he does have some diplomacy skills. It also happens to be the 6-month mark for the Coalition government.

Qantas’ issues continue to divide the politicians, with debate over whether or not the government should get rid of the Qantas Sale Act, with one suggestion being that the international operations of Qantas remain Australian-owned, while having the domestic operations foreign-owned. Apparently there is no “Plan B” so to speak, despite rumours that Warren Truss had come up with an idea to have the government keep majority ownership of the airline, but increase the maximum number of shares a foreign shareholder can have. It may have been on the news, but apparently it was never an idea…oh well.

The other issue that arose early this week was the airline’s communications, with a message from Qantas on Monday saying the carbon tax had nothing to do with their problems. But on Wednesday, all of a sudden, the carbon tax was a factor – the Opposition were suspicious, and rightfully so. Labor also expressed concern that the virtually clean safety record of Qantas could be compromised, which then brings out the clip from Rain Man.

This week the Grattan Institute called for a change to health pricing, particularly surgery prices. They found huge differences in prices between hospitals, with one charging less than $10,000 for a specific surgery and another hospital doing the same surgery charging almost $25,000. Apparently it has something to do with the services given to you pre- and post-operation, so in some ways it adds up.

Still with health, it appears that Medicare is being defrauded by a few nasty people – apparently the vast majority of Australians are not rorting or misusing the system. But it is an easy system to defraud because people’s information is available at so many service providers.

The government is still trying to convince workers that they will be ok under the new government, but may have had a setback when the draft terms of reference for the Productivity Review Commission were leaked. They want the commission to see if penalty rates could be removed…I thought Work Choices was dead, buried and cremated.

Tweet of the Week

Faux Pas of the Week

Mattias Cormann, the Finance Minister, said that the issue of more women in cabinet was a “side issue” – it may not have caused so much fuss, if he hadn’t said it on International Women’s Day…Ooops.

What I’ve Been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

SBS2’s The Feed had fun spoofing 12 Years a Slave in the hope that the ABC might apologise for spelling their presenter’s name wrong, a là Solomon Northup and the New York Times.

The Taxpayer Money Saga

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That’s the ABC Online editor and radio presenter Jonathan Green’s take on this taxpayer money claiming scandal thing.

I don’t know what to call it. Scandal? Saga? Thing? Taxpayer-Money-Gate?

But Jonathan Green’s comment, using the stealing of a car, simplifies it into a few simple steps, which I have listed below.

1. Go to a wedding or on an equally dubious “work trip”.
2. Claim taxpayer money on transport, accommodation, food or all the above and pray you get away with it.
3. Once caught, pay it back, saying you were always intending to, because you are an honest person.
4. In interviews, blame the fact that regulations are very vague.

While I don’t think anyone stole cars, and nor should anyone take Jonathan Green’s suggestion seriously, it is a little concerning that this is going on.

First, what are the entitlements for?

Schedule 1 Part 1 of the Parliamentary Entitlements Act 1990 allows certain travel and accommodation to be reimbursed if it is related to ‘parliamentary or electorate business’.

That’s what it says on the Parliament House website. It also tells you the four reasons you can claim for overseas travel (N.B. I have cut out the additional explanations from the site):

1. Travel as a member of a Parliamentary Delegation, within a program approved for each calendar year by the Prime Minister.

2. Travel overseas for the purpose of undertaking studies and investigations of matters related to their duties and responsibilities as a member of parliament.

3. Representational overseas travel for parliamentarians who, with the approval of the Prime Minister, are representing Australia, a Minister, or the Government overseas.

4. Travel overseas on official business for Ministers as approved by the Prime Minister.

So, if you are going to a trade summit or the UN or something along those lines, then the claims for accommodation and travel are completely legitimate. I can totally understand the claiming of tax payer’s money if the politician is doing their job (for some that term is also ambiguous).

Not only are people claiming for weddings, but Tony Abbott has also claimed money for travel to Iron Man competitions, in particular one in the electorate of Port Macquarie, which he said was legitimate because back then the seat was “at the time, marginal”. He also claimed travel for his charity ride called the ‘Pollie Pedal’. He says he isn’t going to pay it back, and if he is travelling in his capacity (as in not on holiday, one hopes) he’ll claim the allowance.

I’m sorry Mr Abbott, but if going to sporting events and charity events, whether they are in a marginal seat or not, are “duties and responsibilities as a member of parliament” then I must be living on another planet. How is being in an Iron Man contest or a triathlon a responsibility as an MP?

I wonder if he’ll answer that question. Probably not.

Oh well, at least he’s paying some of it back. Which, if we are being honest is what Peter Slipper said he’d do about those dodgy CabCharge claims. But that doesn’t seem to be an issue, despite the fact the Mr Slipper is facing the courts over it, while Abbott is just paying some of the money back.

I don’t think we’ve seen the end of this.

The Last One…

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Sorry this is a tad late, but hey, we’re at the end, and we’ve find out who is leading our country…finally.

Wednesday saw the aftermath of the previous night’s Lateline on the ABC, when Roger Corbett, a Fairfax board member and member of the Liberal Party made some comments about Kevin Rudd – they weren’t nice, and the media got into a frenzy. Doug Cameron said that Corbett should “do the right thing and quit,” and Christine Milne doesn’t think it was very nice either.

The ad blackout began on Thursday morning at 12am, so there are no more political ads!

Speaking of which, the Coalition decided that this was when they should release their costings. They will decrease foreign aid by AU$4 billion and put that into infrastructure. They will scrap public transport plans and put more emphasis on roads. There is also that repetitive spiel of “cut the mining tax, cut the carbon tax, cut the waste” which drove me mental.

There was also a bit of a brouhaha in Sydney after there was a stabbing. One of the people involved is a refugee, and Scott Morrison, the Shadow Minister for Immigration decided that he could politicise it, which was probably not the best thing to do, and Tony Burke said that we should be able to make up our own minds.

The last day of the campaign, Friday. Everyone got a bit paranoid – Labor could lose 10-20 seats apparently. Tony Abbott plus one daughter spent time with some cute guide dogs – not that dogs should sway anyone, but the puppies were so cute!

Anyway, Kevin Rudd made one last push, saying that his government has plans and Tony Abbott doesn’t. He may have said something along the lines of “we’ll all be doomed” if Abbott does come to power. Tony Abbott thinks Kevin Rudd is getting desperate and scaring people and doesn’t have a plan – which was a bit mean.

Oh well, no more election campaign! Yay!

The Week That Was – July 14 to July 20

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Well this week was somewhat uneventful, until we got to Friday.

That’s when Kevin Rudd announced his new asylum seeker policy – to settle those who arrive by boat to Papua New Guinea.

I’m assuming that the idea is to thwart people smugglers, who are sending these boats to Australia, as asylum seekers pay them to get here – the idea being that if it’s obviously apparent that paying a people smuggler to get to Australia, when the likelihood of doing so is incredibly low, the smuggling will stop.

Ok. In a way, I get it. It will stop the people smuggling and that’s a good thing. But I was under the impression that if they ended up on christmas island or Nauru, then they were Australia’s responsibility to process and resettle in Australia, not to palm them off to PNG. In return PNG is getting more development aid. It’s one of these things where, until I have more information – which is what I like to have in order to make decisions – I’m not entirely sure whether or not it’s a good policy.

Earlier in the week, those interested were entertained by Mr Tony Abbott’s comments on the emissions trading scheme Kevin Rudd’s government announced, which you can read in Quotes of the Week below. The emissions trading scheme switch is thought to give the budget 4-6 billion dollar-wide hole. Labor’s denying this though. However, businesses like the idea, and it is how Europe is doing it. Oh, and while the carbon tax was something like $25 per tonne, this is a variable rate, depending on the amount you emit.

Other than that, the asylum seekers are rioting on Nauru – I can’t tell why though.

Quotes of the Week

“This is not a true market. Just ask yourself what an emissions trading scheme is all about…It’s a so-called market in the non-delivery of an invisible substance to no-one” – Tony Abbott on an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)

“I understand this is a very hard-line decision. I understand the different groups in Australia and around the world will see this decision in different ways,but our responsibility as a government is to ensure we have a robust system of border security and orderly migration on the one hand, as well as fulfilling our legal and compassionate obligations under the Refugees’ Convention on the other” – Kevin Rudd on the PNG policy.

Tweet of the Week

The ABC’s Indonesian Correspondent was the one who had to tell asylum seekers what was going on when he came to interview some of them – they hadn’t got the news yet…

Faux Pas of the Week

Say again?

The Two Weeks that Were – 30 June to 13 July

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The last two weeks have been relatively calm and relaxed, if we put it in comparison to what happened in that last week of June.

It was a nice change.

In the first week of July, if you had the pleasure of watching Q&A on the Monday, you got to see Sophie Mirabella (Liberal) not answer questions properly and hurl insults at Tanya Plibersek (Labor) – at least that’s how it seemed to me. Thursday was interesting, with an Indonesian-centric Q&A live from Jakarta, and it was nice, calm and intelligent conversation – I didn’t feel like throwing things or yelling at everyone – which was a good change.

Kevin Rudd went to Indonesia, and has been flying around the country. At the last count he has travelled more that 22,000km in the last two weeks.This week, he’s been primarily in Arnhem Land, for the celebrations of the Bark Petition, a huge moment in Indigenous Australian rights.

Other than that they haven’t really been doing much, given that parliament is on break, however it seems that we might be having our election later than September 14th.

Quotes of the Fortnight

“Calm down” – Tony Abbott to a female journalist from the Guardian Australia Newspaper

“We’re committed now to rolling out the constitutional recognition for the first Australians and we want to get that work done” – Kevin Rudd in his speech about the Bark Petition.

Tweet of the Fortnight

This is just some perspective on just how long it has been since Tony Abbott appeared on ABC News and Current affairs shows

Faux Pas of the Fortnight

Tony Abbott tells a female journalist to calm down – Oops.

The Week That Was – June 16 to June 22

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This week was less dramatic, yes, but it sure wasn’t boring.

All this week, we had the lovely discussion over in that crazy land that is Australian politics about the Labor leadership. I’ve gotten sick of it, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the news anchors are too. You see the slightest change in their face as they move on to the leadership story from the previous one. Whether they’re grinning because of a funny or happy story or looking serious, as soon as they see start reading the political story on the auto cue it is obvious they are sick of it. They look a bit tired and annoyed. At least I know I’m not the only one that is annoyed by all this prancing about.

Seriously, it has to stop. We have an election coming up and I would like to know what is on offer. No bitching is required. I’d also like members of the Liberal Party to stop smirking and looking like smarmy, smug idiots for once. Yes, you may be ahead in the polls and you may be on the road to a convincing win, but looking smug just doesn’t work for me. I for one, would like to hear about policies from both sides, politics is about government not fighting, not guessing who the leader will be next week and it isn’t about telling us that the opposing party has something wrong with them.

On a more positive note, the pollies did some good this week, with Kevin Rudd, Malcolm Turnbull, Christopher Pyne and NSW Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner all completing the CEO Sleepout. The CEO Sleepout is a charity event run by the St Vincent de Paul Society. The Sleepout gives the more advantaged a chance to understand just what it is like for the homeless. There is more information on their website.

Finally, just because I can, Annabel Crabb’s show Kitchen Cabinet is returning – Yay!

Quotes of the Week

I thought this week I might show you guys the Sunrise montage of odd and peculiar metaphors.

Sexism in Politics

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I should warn you, the last couple of days have made me very angry.

First, there was the Liberal fundraiser menu, referring to Julia as so:

I am shocked and horrified. This is totally inappropriate. It may have been a “joke” but if it were, then why is Julia’s menu item the only dish that has extra (and very offensive) information? If there hadn’t been the description or if every dish with a Labor MP’s name had the extra description, I might still be annoyed, but I wouldn’t be as angry as I am.

What makes it worse is the Joe Hockey, the Shadow Treasurer and MP for North Sydney (my electorate) was at the function. Whether or not Mr Hockey saw the menu is right now irrelevant to me. As far as I can tell, he hasn’t condoned it. He hasn’t said that it is wrong. That’s what is making me so angry. For all I care, he can wax on as much as he wants saying “I haven’t seen it!” – but he isn’t condoning it. The only people condoning it are the Labor Party – as far as I can tell.

Next we move onto what happened in Perth on Thursday. Here is what happened on 6PR that afternoon:

It is astounding how people like Howard Sattler think they can get away with things like that. I do have to commend Julia Gillard for maintaining her poise during Sattler’s questions. People may not like her, but she appears on radio shows and TV channels that she may not like, unlike Tony Abbott who has been avoiding the ABC News and ABC Radio interviews ever since Leigh Sales trumped him on 7:30 about a year ago.

I happened to be watching Ten Late News this evening when I heard the story – it was still developing – and it turns out that Howard Sattler has been stood down pending an “internal review”. Hmm. Like many twitterers – I think he should be sacked.

It’s made me realise in the last couple of days that there is ingrained sexism in Australian culture. It has been there for a while, but with recent, high-profile developments, it has become more obvious to me. I just hope that something can be done about it soon, and it has to be made clear that it is not OK.