Apologies for the sudden radio silence (again). I got a bit busy at work over the last month with some colleagues on holiday, and then a new semester got underway at Uni. I’ll be back on Sunday with a new The Week that Was, and hopefully you’ll soon see a few extra posts as well.
Check out some of these links to articles that will cover what happened over the last few weeks, while the politicians were on winter holidays.
The ABC’s Julia Baird on the domestic violence exposé she wrote – ABC Online
Why you can no longer wander through the ABC Foyer – Canberra Times
Universities and their tackling of sexual assault and harassment – ABC Online
Annabel Crabb thinks section 44 has been turned to the “evil” setting – ABC Online
It’s been a mostly quiet week in politics, with the exception of the massive drama between the Attorney-General George Brandis and now ex-Solicitor-General Justin Gleeson. Gleeson quit over the increasingly tumultuous relationship between him and the Attorney-General, and believes the relationship is “irretrievably broken”
Also this week, Bob Day has done a bit of a backflip, deciding that because there is no chance of finding a new Family First Senator for South Australia prior to the next sitting day (November 7), he’s going to stay on and vote on the ABCC, the plebescite and other “important” legislation. South Australian Premier Jay Wetherill has contradicted this, saying that there can be a vote in SA on who they send to Canberra by November 3, so it wouldn’t be a problem. Malcolm Turnbull’s been defending Day’s decision saying he’s an independent Senator and can do as he pleases; while Labor and the Greens have been critical.
Paid Parental Leave is due to change, with Malcolm Turnbull telling women he feels for those affected by the changes. The changes will leave some mothers worse off as they will have less weeks of maternity leave supported by both the government and their employer. While many in the government have called it “double dipping”, there are many who criticise them for this characterisation.
The Council Of Australian Governments (COAG) met this week for a summit on violence against women. It seemed from what I saw on the news as a bit of a gab-fest, but hopefully something will come out of it given the next lot of money is due to help in the reduction of harm or violence, and to Turnbull’s credit, he did apologise for the governments not doing something to help sooner.
Finally this week, IBM apologised for #censusfail; State, Territory and Federal governments, along with the opposition are disagreeing over how to improve housing affordability; Barnaby Joyce is fighting with Singaporean Sugar giant Wilmar (who own the CSR sugar brand) over their treatment of cane farmers; and Marise Payne in in Paris talking about post-Mosul battle Iraq and what will happen next.
Tweet of the Week
That Awkward Moment when the boss doesn’t properly confirm the return of a news show on the national broadcaster, and the PR people have to do it…
The week began with Anti-Islam and Anti-racism protests in most capital cities and while there was some fighting between the groups, most people were well behaved and the police kept each group as far away from each other as possible.
Meanwhile, Malcolm Turnbull completed his first World Tour with a trip to Malaysia for the ASEAN East Asia Conference. Turnbull met with the Malaysian PM, discussing the battle against Islamic State as well as trying to encourage China to play nice in the South China Sea. Upon his return to Australia, Turnbull was in Parliament, where the government and the opposition made speeches of condolence to the people of Paris as well as talking about keeping Australia safe.
Turnbull has also been questioned by the media over the wording in some of his speeches as well as whether or not he has a grip on the more conservative faction of his party. Furthermore, there has been calls from Labor that Mal Brough should either stand down or be sacked from his ministry due to a police investigation into Brough’s role in the Peter Slipper scandal back in 2011-2012. Then, at the end of the week, he flew to Malta for the CHOGM meetings, where he met Queen Elizabeth and apparently made her chuckle when he spoke of Prince Charles’ visit to Australia a few weeks back, and then he will travel to Paris for the Climate Conference.
Climate Change was a big thing this week in the lead up to the Paris conference, with concerns that Turnbull is heading to France with Tony Abbott’s old, and somewhat sub-par climate plan. Labor has come out with an alternative, suggesting a 45% reduction by 2030 and a carbon neutral economy by 2050. This is based off the exact same model that the Liberals are using for their climate plan too, so it should be interesting to see the reaction.
Domestic Violence came to the fore this week for Wednesday’s White Ribbon day, with Malcolm Turnbull telling the country that there must be change and it will have to be lead by men, while surveys are showing that young men are more likely to blame others for their problems and play down their aggressive behaviour, while young women are more likely to blame themselves as well as justify the aggressive behaviour of their partners.
The government has changed the terrorism warning system indicators from High, Low, Moderate etc, to a simpler system suggesting the likeliness of an attack.
Under this simpler system the current warning is the second-lowest “probable”, so we’re pretty safe for now.
There are still national security concerns over foreign investment in Australia, with the US Ambassador meeting Australian officials to get more information on the Darwin Port deal, angry that they were not consulted. However, Defence Minister Marise Payne says that she was abroad with Julie Bishop when the decision was made and that as soon as it was, someone was dispatched to the Pentagon to tell US officials.
Finally this week, the coalition against Islamic State have completed more airstrikes on ISIS strongholds; the government wants the states to increase their trading hours to increase choice and the help the economy and Hillsong’s Brian Houston has been found to have had a conflict on interest over his father’s abuse of a young child at the Royal Commission into Child Abuse.
Also, if you live in the electorate of North Sydney, don’t forget you have a by-election on December 5!
This week wasn’t too insane, which is probably a good thing for the government as it might actually be settling down and doing something.
Speaking of, Senate cross bencher David Leyonhjelm thinks that the only reason the government is making such strict anti-terror laws is so that it looks like something is being done, while Cathy McGowan is calling on the Attorney-General to change the legislation so that abusive ex-partners can’t cross-examine their victims in court, which only a few states ban. The idea behind this is that it intimidates and terrorises the victims, giving the power back to the perpetrator.
Malcolm Turnbull turned 61 on Saturday, and celebrated with some interviews being published in the weekend papers that outlined some of his plans, which include borrowing money to invest in public transport projects as well a dealing with union corruption. Polls at the start of the week show that he has a 68% approval rating – which analysts are attributing to the fact that the bitterness of the Rudd-Gillard-Abbott period is over and the government appears to be acting sensibly.
Badgerys Creek Airport has taken a step towards actually being made instead of just being mused about, with a plan for the build and the environmental statement released. It’s been received mostly positively with tourism and business groups applauding the plan’s release, but concerned about the fact that there is no train line to the prospective airport mentioned. Warren Truss, the Transport Minister, has said that the train and other public transport will come eventually. The environmentalists are worried too, because they feel not enough is being done to protect native endangered species. If Badgerys Creek Airport is ever built (sorry, I live with parents who have heard about this plan since they were kids), construction would start next year, with 6 years to be spent levelling soil, and another few years to build the actual airport – at least ten years in all.
This week Senate Estimates brought to light an incident that occurred on the night Tony Abbott lost the spill. Dubbed “Tablegate” by the media, the gist of the story is that a bunch of people had an alcohol fuelled party in Abbott’s Prime Ministerial Office, in which people got a tad drunk and someone climbed atop a marble coffee table and danced. It is understood that the table then gave way, in Penny Wong’s words, “smashing” to pieces, and possibly injuring the dancer – and people are believed to have taken bits of the table as souvenirs. What makes the whole thing even better is the ABC’s reenactment of the event they filmed for the nightly news, which was quite funny and which I have turned into a gif.
Meanwhile, the people of the electorate of North Sydney (including me) are bracing themselves for a by-election after Joe Hockey made his valedictory speech in Parliament this week. Usually during elections the seat is ignored a bit because it’s a safe Liberal seat and Joe Hockey’s win is essentially a given, so I think some of us in the electorate are looking forward to a little attention.
The Somali refugee that was flown back to Australia after the government said she “changed her mind” about having an abortion after being raped in detention at Nauru has written a statement that contradicts a lot of what the government says. The woman, who is being referred to as Abyan (not her name), says that when she came to Sydney to get the abortion (illegal in Nauru, hence the reason she was flown here) she never saw a doctor, nurse, midwife, or even an interpreter. The government is yet to respond further as far as I have seen, while her lawyers and other activists protested the decision to send her back with no treatment.
Finally this week, Labor has agreed to the China free trade agreement as long as there are certain checks and balances in place; there are going to be changes to renewable energy legislation; Warren Entsch and Eric Abetz have differing views over whether pre-emptive same-sex marriage legislation should be written so that when the country passes it in a plebiscite they can push it through quickly; Bill Heffernan is accusing the judiciary of a cover-up of child abuse, saying he has police paperwork to prove it which includes allegations of child abuse by a former PM; the Trade Union Royal Commission is recommending charges against a union figure and the Social Services Minister Christian Porter bungled an interview question during the week which lead to some savage questioning from the Opposition during Question Time this week.
The second week under Prime Minister Turnbull began with Cabinet assignments. Kevin Andrews is no longer Defence Minister and called for a conference where he basically got upset about being replaced – by Marise Payne, a NSW Senator and the first woman to be in the role. She, along with Michaelia Cash (Minister for Employment, Women and Assistant Minister to PM on Public Service) and Kelly O’Dwyer (Minister for Small Business and Assistant Treasurer), join Julie Bishop and Susan Ley to make five women in the cabinet. Christopher Pyne has moved to Industry, Innovation and Science, while Simon Birmingham takes education. Christian Porter becomes Social Services Minister, Mitch Fifield takes Communications and Arts. That’s not the whole list of the new Cabinet, but Peter Dutton, Greg Hunt, Matthias Cormann, and George Brandis are keeping their jobs, while Eric Abetz and a few Abbott supporters have been booted. Several people who helped Turnbull into power did not get roles in the Cabinet because Turnbull told them he wanted renewal and freshness and they understood.
The most interesting move has been the inclusion of a new Ministry, held by Jamie Briggs, for Cities and Built Environment, as well as the reinstating of the Cabinet Secretary – a role to be filled by Arthur Sinodinos as part of Turnbull’s return to “traditional cabinet government”.
As for the role of Treasurer, Scott Morrison now holds the job, and Joe Hockey is not only out of a ministry, but will be leaving Parliament altogether, albeit “in due course”, making people thing that Hockey will be sent to Washington as the next Australian Ambassador to the United States – a very cushy job.
Meanwhile, one of the Murdoch papers caught up with Tony Abbott over the weekend. Technically they just bothered him while he was working out at the beach, but either way, Abbott took a swipe at Scott Morrison, accusing him of misleading the public in an interview. Morrison said that he had warned Abbott the Friday before Turnbull challenged that there was discontent in the party and that it wasn’t looking good for Abbott at all. Abbott disputes this and has not spoken with Morrison since the spill.
Scott Morrison spent his first week as Treasurer talking about opportunities to save and invest, saying the country doesn’t have a revenue problem, but a spending problem. Some experts dispute this, saying that the only way problems can be solved is if there is changes to the tax system. Meanwhile, Morrison has to figure out what to with the rising debt, that is now in fact his government’s doing and not Labor’s doing at all.
The Turnbull government has announced $100 million dollars for “practical” domestic violence measures, mainly through the improvement of front-line services and safety tools for victims such as panic buttons. As of September 24, 63 women have died at the hands of their partners and 3000 are turned away from shelters every year (both figures reported by ABC News NSW). Experts are welcoming the perception change, where the focus is on the offender’s actions and the onus of safety is not left to the victim, however they would like to see more money for shelters and other safe locations that women go to when they leave their abusive partners.
The UN Human Rights investigators have cancelled visits to Australian detention centres. They say they were not able to guarantee that detention centre workers who spoke to them would not be prosecuted under the Border Force Act, which prevents workers from talking on the public record about conditions in the centres.
Also, Australia is considering including the Assad government in the fight against Islamic State, with Julie Bishop saying that a political solution that includes both Russia and the Assad government is the only way that Islamic State can be stopped. The British Foreign Minister has suggested that there is a role for Assad in getting rid of Islamic State, but would have to be followed by Assad stepping down and allowing a transition to democracy. Regardless of the terms, the ALP is concerned about choosing a side in the Syrian Civil War. Bill Shorten was possibly a little stressed when he commented on the issue as he spouted some pretty random words, such as “ethno-facists” which left the people in my house poking a bit of fun at the Opposition Leader.
Finally this week, the government got a bounce in the polls now that Turnbull is PM, Peta Credlin appeared at a Women’s Weekly event talking about gender equality, Peter Greste is likely to get a pardon too, after his colleagues received pardons on Wednesday, a Senate Enquiry has begun into the payment activities of 7-Eleven and the trial for the men who killed asylum seeker Reza Berati in an Australian detention centre has begun in Papua New Guinea.
Well, this week saw further dissent on the budget with protests across the country…and it wasn’t just the young angry ones
The Premiers and Chief Ministers of states and territories had an emergency meeting – called by Campbell Newman – to discuss the budget changes and they will not be taking them lying down – although the WA Premier, Colin Barnett, didn’t show up. They were asked if they were going to ask for a raise in the GST, which to some might seem like a good idea, but Newman said that they were not going to. I can see why though. The Federal Government hasn’t raised the GST in years, and by cutting state funding, the states will then ask for a raise in the GST….making the State governments look bad, and not the federal government. The states will not accept the budget or the budget cuts, and said that Tony Abbott is wrong about when the effects of the Budget will begin to show.
Tony Abbott said the voters were ‘on notice’ about the budget and that the Coalition was upfront, but funnily enough, most people don’t see it that way – including some government backbenchers. The government needs to sell the budget to not only the people of Australia, but independents and small parties in both houses, especially in the Senate, where the Greens and the Palmer United Party hold the balance of power – and Clive Palmer actually seems to be genuinely concerned about the budget, and how it affects the average Australian.
In fact, this budget is the most unpopular in 20 years, and Abbott, as well as the Coalition, have taken a huge hit in the polls. Abbott says the budget was meant to get the country’s finances back on track, not for popularity, and that if the country is borrowing money to pay off other borrowed money, were kind of stuffed – how that was relevant, I have no idea, but it was said. Tony Abbott says that the polls are the least of the governments worries right now, and that the Labor party are being “fiscal vandals”.
Although, if you’re a university student you probably think the “fiscal vandals” are the government. Again this week there were student protests in Sydney, both on Wednesday at an organised protest in the city, and on Thursday outside a debating contest being held at St John’s College, where several key Liberal figures were moderating or attending. Not only that, but when Universities Australia asked the government to reconsider the timeframe for implementing funding changes to universities, Pyne refused. He doesn’t think students will be burdened by costs, and moreover, it appears that there is now confusion over who pays what when the changes get through.
However, the responses from Abbott and Pyne were unfair and unjust. To suggest that these university students “were looking for a rumble” or “wanted to get a riot on national TV” is rude and unfair. They were not looking for a riot or a rumble, but looking to get their voices heard, and given that the government is not listening, but making snide remarks, they are going to continue protesting until they are heard, no matter how long it takes.
Ok, I’ll stop being opinionated now – sorry.
Anyway, doctors are now more concerned about the $7 co-payment. It turns out that people are already avoiding seeing the doctor because they think the co-payment is already in force, to the point where surgeries have been sending texts to their clients reminding them that is not the case – and hey, $5 of the co-payment goes to the government, and only $2 to the GP. Not only that but statistics show that a lot of women in violent and abusive relationships often tell their GPs what is going on before telling anyone else, and there are cuts to Legal Aid and housing/shelters – two other important things that help women in abusive relationships. However, it appears that some doctors are considering waiving the co-payment for these women so that they can get help.
Also this week, Australia moved closer to sending asylum seekers to Cambodia. It seems that the only things left to be done are to finish negotiations and sign the piece of paper.
And now to this week’s gaffe:
Yep, he winked – and it made international headlines.
Oh and he used an interesting analogy to explain the budget crisis too.
Finally, I thought I’d let you know that this is the 100th post on Kara L. Thanks for reading and following.
Tweet of the Week
Oh, the weather has been lovely in Sydney this week…
Absurdly perfect day here at Sydney Writers Festival. Assuming organisers sacrificed a goat at some point for this weather #swf2014
Kara L 