Tag Archives: Dastyari

The Year That Was – 2017

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It’s the end of another year, and that means another look back on the year that has been.

Leadership Spills: 0
Yep, they kept their cool again this year, but only just. There were rumours through the year that Coalition Backbenchers were annoyed enough with Malcolm Turnbull that had there been a viable alternative they may have sounded out numbers.

MPs/Senators caught by Section 44: ?
It has gotten to the point where so many people have been potentially affected by this section of the Australian Constitution regarding their citizenship status, that I’ve stopped counting. Last time I was paying attention to the number it was over 10.

Cabinet Reshuffles: 1.5
One proper one just before Christmas, which saw George Brandis sent to the UK to be High Comissioner, and sparked rumours of instability within the Nationals Party. The other was only a temporary one that saw Malcolm Turnbull and a few other Ministers temporarily take over the ministries of Matt Canavan, Barnaby Joyce and Fiona Nash who were caught up in the first wave of section 44 victims.

Women in Cabinet: 5 (as of Dec 20, 2017)

  • Kelly O’Dwyer – Minister for Women, Minister for Revenue and Financial Services
  • Bridget McKenzie – Minister for Regional Communications, Minister for Rural Health, Minister for Sport
  • Julie Bishop – Minister for Foreign Affairs
  • Marise Payne – Minister for Defence
  • Michaelia Cash – Minister for Jobs and Innovation

There are five others in the outer ministry, but they are not Cabinet Ministers.

State and Federal Elections: 11 (by-elections included)

  • WA State Election – saw the Labor Party victorious against the Barnett Liberal Government
  • The NSW State By-elections for the seats of Manly, North Shore and Gosford
  • The NSW State By-elections for the seats of Cootamundra, Blacktown and and Murray
  • The VIC State by-election for the seat of Northcote – a win for the Greens who got their first Victorian Lower House seat
  • New England By-Election – Banarby Joyce re-elected after his section 44 snafu
  • QLD State election
  • Bennelong By-election – John Alexander ] re-elected after his section 44 snafu, but had a tough fight on his hands after Labor put former NSW Premier Kristina Keneally on the ballot.

Scandals: 2
Both the work of Sam Dastyari, through his links to a big donor who is involved in a Chinese State Owned Enterprise.

The ABC’s Year in Review

 

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 – November 26 to December 2

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For a week in which the sitting of the House of Representatives was cancelled, a lot happened.

First, aside from federal politics, Queensland’s State election resulted in an apparent Labor party retain, with incumbent Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk leading her party to victory. It’s thought that part of the reason that the LNP did not do so well is that some of their votes went to One Nation, which is major concern for the Liberals, Nationals and the LNP (the Liberals and Nationals merged in Queensland in the late 2000s, while the parties remain separate entities in all other states). It also appears that the Greens could win their first seat in Queensland Parliament.

This week also saw the New England by-election in which Barnaby Joyce won in a landslide – and if this tweet is anything to go by, it was a given very early on..

Meanwhile, Malcolm Turnbull has had an OK week – with drama from Labor (more on that below), the Senate passing the same-sex marriage bill, and the win in New England. However, there has been some drama for him to, mostly in the realm of political gymnastics. After spending nearly two years rejecting a Banking Royal Commission, Turnbull has done a backflip and decided to hold the Royal Commission. Labor is claiming victory, while also criticising the PM and Treasurer for waiting for the banks to give them a “permission slip”. Essentially this backflip is Malcolm Turnbull saving face. By agreeing to it and making the executive decision, he decides the terms of reference and be nice to the banks. Had he not, the Parliament would have pushed for it to happen anyway and that would have left the terms of reference out of Turnbull’s control.

Turnbull also had to deal with NSW Nationals Leader John Barilaro saying Turnbull needs to step down on 2GB radio. It appears that he may have been trying to get on Alan Jones’ good side by saying so. Turnbull suggests this might be the case, saying that if Barilaro truly believed what he was saying on Jones’ show then Barilaro would have had a private conversation. Liberals and Nationals are all coming in to criticise of Barilaro’s remarks.  Meanwhile, the Bennelong by-election campaign continues with Turnbull announcing a plan for a tunnel under Herring Road in Macquarie Park near the Macquarie University campus and have a bus interchange. Oh, and Kristina Keneally is accusing the Liberals of preferencing an allegedly One Nation affiliated candidate (he’s a candidate for Non-Custodial Parents) ahead of Labor.

Labor, on the other hand, has had a shocking end to the week, with Senator Sam Dastyari getting into more trouble over links to a Chinese donor to both political parties. Last year he let the donor pay a travel bill for him, and lost his shadow cabinet role as Manager of Opposition Business. This time, he’s in trouble for telling the donor his phone was being tapped (it’s unclear if he knew classified info or just said it for another reason) and also saying that Australia should let China do its thing in the South China Sea, which is contradictory to the Labor Party’s position. So now, Dastyari has lost his job as a whip in the senate – which was given to him earlier in the year when he appeared to have been forgiven – and will now only be a backbencher.

Finally this week, the giant Tesla battery in South Australia was switched on; some of the new accommodation on Manus Island is still not ready, despite asylum seekers being forced to live there; there is a push to change the age of criminal responsibility from age 10 to age 14; a man was arrested in Melbourne for plotting an attack on NYE in Federation Square; and the Greens need to be careful about how they appear – are they a part of the left, or a party to knock off the Labor Party?

Tweet of the Week

Twitter remembers the Lane Sainty’s epic rebuke against Miranda Devine

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

With the news about the accusations against TV presenter Don Burke, women in the media have been writing a lot this week…

Juanita Phillips on women speaking out on blokes behaving badly – ABC Online

Sandra Sully on women being “too outspoken” – Huffington Post Australia

 

30 Things That Happened in the Last Three Weeks – October 29 to November 18

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Uni kind of took over for a while (as did some extra work shifts) so here is a run through what happened in the last three weeks.

  1. After the whole Citizenship thing in the High Court, more and more people are popping up as potential dual citizens, with Stephen Parry, John Alexander and Jacqui Lambie resigning from their positions – More on this in a post coming up later this week.
  2. Questions are being raised over whether or not Barnaby Joyce and Fiona Nash’s ministerial decisions can be questioned in court given they made those decisions while in parliament, well, illegally. However, a litigant with some money will be needed to do it.
  3. Queensland is holding their State Election on November 25, earlier than expected.
  4. Sir Ninian Stephen, a former Governor-General from the 1980s passed away.
  5. Unions are calling for a boycott of Streets brand ice cream products while Streets attempts to suspend the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement to pay their workers less money.
  6. There will be more government funding for brain cancer research.
  7. Because Barnaby Joyce is no longer in parliament and the PM (or acting PM) has to be in the Lower House, Julie Bishop became Acting Prime Minister while Malcolm Turnbull was overseas, first in Israel and then on his whirlwind Asian conference tour.
  8. Turnbull went to Israel to the Beersheba memorial (a WWI battle on what is now Israeli soil 100 years ago) and to talk with Israeli and Palestinian officials.
  9. Turnbull also went to Asia to show up at the APEC and ASEAN conferences in Vietnam and the Philippines respectively, and also swung by Hong Kong too.
  10. The detention centre on Manus Island closed, but many refugees did not want to leave saying they don’t feel safe outside the centre. They’ve been staying there since it closed on October 31, with no running water, no medicine and only the small amounts of food locals are getting into the centre.
  11. Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten finally agreed on a method to audit (but not audit) MPs’ and Senators’ citizenship statuses.
  12. Stephen Parry is to be replaced by Richard Colbeck.
  13. The Senate has had a small renovation to put in ramps for Scott Ludlam’s replacement Jordan Steele-John who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair.
  14. The traditional owners of Uluru will ban climbing the iconic rock. After 2019, those caught climbing will be fined.
  15. New Zealand’s new Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has offered to settle a couple hundred of the Manus detention centre refugees in NZ. Turnbull has said “not now thanks” which leaves the door open for him to say “yes please” in the future.
  16. Telstra will pay compensation to around 42,000 customers who have not received the NBN internet speeds they paid for.
  17. Sam Dastyari was accosted by two racists who called him a terrorist at a Melbourne university pub. He was hanging out with Gellibrand MP Tim Watts who will forever be known for asking the racists who were berating Dastyari “what race is dickhead?” 
  18. Protests outside a fundraiser for Tony Abbott got somewhat out of hand, with Abbott’s sister Christine Forster, among other Liberal heavyweights, being accosted by the protesters. Forster’s “favourite” jacket was ripped in the scuffles.
  19. Hollie Hughes, the person that was expected to replace Fiona Nash in the senate is not eligible to sit in the senate because she took a job after the 2016 election that is considered to be a “position of profit under the Crown”. Lambie’s replacement, who is the current Mayor of Devonport is also under a cloud but does not have the $15,000 left lying about to refer himself to the High Court.
  20. Malcolm Roberts’ replacement in the Senate, Fraser Anning, has left the One Nation party within a day of showing up in Canberra – it’s unclear whether he left voluntarily or was pushed out after he had a disagreement with Pauline Hanson.
  21. Scott Ryan has become the Senate President, at least for the time being.
  22. The by-election in John Alexander’s seat of Bennelong has been shaken up with Labor running former NSW Premier Kristina Keneally. Liberals have already started the dirt throwing with allusions to Keneally’s corrupt ministers and the epic loss of the Labor party in NSW at the 2011 State Election. (Note that she wasn’t corrupt and she was found to be so by the NSW ICAC)
  23. AUSTRALIA SAID YES TO SAME SEX MARRIAGE! 61.6% of the country voted to allow same-sex marriage. Now it just has to be legislated. You can see the makeup of the result and some more detailed numbers on the ABC website. Malcolm Turnbull has promised the legislation will pass by Christmas.
  24. Penny Wong is embarrassed that she cried in front of the country. 
  25. Legislation to allow same-sex marriage has hit the Senate, with Dean Smith introducing the bill. There are concerns from conservatives that there aren’t enough religious protections a la American cake bakers. See this SBS article to get what this is all about.
  26. People are now pointing out the economic benefits of same-sex weddings, because if you do the maths…. 47,000(ish) gay couples multiplied by the average cost of a wedding means a lot of money will be poured into the weddings industry.
  27. The Royal Commission into Juvenile Detention has recommended that the Don Dale correctional centre in the Northern Territory be closed, and that the age of criminal responsibility be raised from 10 to 12, among other recommendations.
  28. Cory Bernardi and his Australian Conservatives party are planning on running a candidate in Bennelong.
  29. 17 people are running in the New England by-election, and there are thoughts from Antony Green that more than that could run in Bennelong.
  30. The NSW voluntary euthanasia bill has been rejected in the NSW Upper House, while the Victorian Upper House debate has been suspended for a few days after a Labor member collapsed in their office during the mammoth overnight session.

The Week That Was – August 13 to August 19

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The tally of dual citizen victims if section 44 of the Constitution has risen to seven, with Barnaby Joyce learning he was a Kiwi, Fiona Nash discovering she’s British through her estranged Scottish dad, and Nick Xenophon found out he was a “British overseas citizen” because his dad was born in Cyprus while it was still a British Colony. It turns out Labor has been doing some digging, because they found out about Xenophon and passed on the information. A Labor staffer has also been implicated in the Joyce citizenship issue, after it was revealed that a staffer in Penny Wong’s office was chatting with a NZ Labour mate, who asked about it.

https://twitter.com/jmodoh/status/897378576818884608

This lead to Julie Bishop accusing both the Labor Party and NZ Labour of “treachery”, and saying that the current Liberal government may not be able to work cooperatively with a Kiwi Labour Government. Bishop has been panned for her comments, while NZ Opposition Leader Jacinda Ardern has been apologising and asking to talk with the Foreign Minister.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Child Abuse has made over 80 recommendations to better help victims. These recommendations include making it an offence to groom a child or their parents, making it illegal to move priests from parish to parish with the charge of failure to protect children, and most controversially, make it an offence not to report abuse revealed in confessional. Catholics see the confessional as sacred, and some priests are suggesting that instead of breaching the sacrament, they could refuse absolution to priests unless they turn themselves in, and ask victims who confess to chat to the priest or another trusted adult outside the confessional so they can report the incident to police.

Finally this week, Pauline Hanson pulled a stunt in the senate, wearing a black burqa – ostensibly to make a point about security and banning the burqa. Senator George Brandis swiftly refused and then scolded her for being disrespectful to Muslims.

Tweets of The Week

ABC staff once again stand up for their employer after someone spreads misinformation. (In this case Alan Jones said the ABC had 65 trauma counsellors – these people are trained counsellors but work for the ABC in news roles)

Sam Dastyari and Nick Xenophon have a laugh (before Xenophon found out he was a Brit)

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

ABC 7:30’s Andrew Probyn on the s44 saga – ABC Online

Noel Debien on the Confessional recommendation – ABC Online

 

The Two Weeks that Were – August 28 to September 10

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The fortnight began with discussion about same sex marriage, with Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten both saying the time is right. However, Shorten says that Turnbull will stuff up the plebiscite, and is suggesting that he and Labor may block the plebiscite in parliament. Meanwhile Derryn Hinch thinks there should just be a same sex marriage vote in parliament – given that’s why the politicians were voted into parliament in the first place.

Meanwhile, the Northern Territory election saw the Country Liberal government defeated in a landslide, with Adam Giles losing his seat. It’s not a major win for the Labor party however, as many independents have won seats. Analysts say they’re not surprised that the Country Liberals lost the election given the 2 Chief Ministers, 18 reshuffles, and one almost- leadership coup.

In the last fortnight, the 45th Parliament began, with the swearing in of MPs and Senators on an industrial scale, thanks to the double dissolution. The Prime Minister and the treasurer have announced they will bring the ABCC bill and the budget omnibus bill to parliament in the next few weeks, while Shorten is trying to get the banking Royal Commission through parliament. Meanwhile, some of the rules in the House of Representatives were relaxed to allow for an indigenous celebration of the swearing in and maiden speech of new MP Linda Burney – the first indigenous woman to be elected to the House. There was also drama at the end of the first week of parliament, after three MPs left Canberra early, leaving the government losing three motions to adjourn parliament.

The first political scandal of the 45th Parliament sees Sam Dastyari resign from the shadow front bench in the last week after it emerged that he had asked a Chinese donor with links to the Chinese government to pay a $1700 bill back to the Treasury department as well as a $5000 legal bill a few months ago. The issue has been compounded by the fact that Dastyari has publicly supported China’s position on a few issues in contradiction to his party – leading to a perception of ‘cash for comment’. It’s also lead to calls for a change to party donation legislation.

Malcolm Turnbull has had a massive whirlwind adventure in the last couple of days, travelling to China for the G20, Laos for the East Asian Summit, and Micronesia for a Pacific nations summit. The main chats have been about fair trade and the South China Sea issue. The trip seems to have been successful, but other than what Chris Uhlmann called “speed dating” with leaders, Malcolm Turnbull hasn’t really made any major public announcements.

Finally this fortnight, the Royal Commission into Child Abuse has heard evidence about some Catholic priests in the Newcastle-Maitland region; a new $5 note has been released; Tony Abbott made comments saying he thinks the Royal Commission into the NT Youth Justice System was an overreaction into the Don Dale scandal; and it turns out 13% of the country’s farmland is foreign-owned.

Tweets of the Fortnight

https://twitter.com/AllanJClarke/status/773772527537577984

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

First Dog on the Moon on the three missing MPs – The Guardian

German “cuckoo kids” legislation – ABC Online

Lamb ads that reflect diversity – The Guardian

The Week That Was – July 17 to July 23

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It was almost back to business this week, only for everyone to go back home at the end of it.

Turnbull and Shorten announced their respective ministries, with expansions and reshuffles – with few loosing jobs. Turnbull has decided to keep most people in the same spots they were in before the election, replacing those who lost seats, and shuffling a few people and names around. Notably, Kelly O’Dwyer job name has changed from Assistant Treasurer and Small Business Minister, and she is now Minister for Revenue and Financial Services. The new ministry, which is one of the largest has 41 member, with three nationals, one of whom is in the cabinet.

Labor on the other hand had some factional hissy fits this week, with Kim Carr nearly losing his Shadow Ministry. The shadow ministry is one of the bigest, with 32 – 30 being paid shadow ministry salaries, and two being paid backbencher’s salaries those two being Sam Dastyari and Andrew Leigh. The reshuffle here has been a little more dramatic, with Penny Wong becoming Shadow Foreign Minister, Deputy Labor Leader Tanya Plibersek becoming Shadow Education Minister, heading up a 6-person Education ministry team including Kate Ellis, who retains the Vocational and Early Childhood Education shadow ministries. Bill Shorten has taken Shadow Indigenous Affairs, and will be advised by WA Senator Pat Dodson, and new NSW MP Linda Burnie will take Shadow Human Services.

Meanwhile, the last seat in doubt in the country has finally been counted, with Labor winning Herbert by eight votes. Not surprisingly, given the closeness, they’re going to count it again to be absolutely sure.

The President of the Australian Medical Association has met with Sussan Ley this week to talk medicine and health policy. He believes that the Medicare rebate freeze will not last and that health is not the area the government should be cutting from to save the budget.

Finally this week, the Child Abuse Royal Commission has announced it will look into accusations in the Anglican Church; and the Lindt Cafe Siege Inquest heard evidence from a tactical officer in charge, who offended families by first suggesting that the attacker, Man Haron Monis, had the same rights as the hostages, and then making a poor choice of words, while calling the situation a “high stakes game”.

Tweet of the Week

Editorial Questions at the ABC….

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Ameer Ali on Sonia Kruger’s comments – ABC Online

Michelle Grattan on the Same Sex Marriage Plebiscite – ABC Online