The Two Weeks That Were – July 15 to July 28

The last fortnight saw the final days of campaigning before Super Saturday. There were some awkward moments, like the revelation that Liberal Candidate for Longman Trevor Ruthenberg was claiming he had an army medal he didn’t actually have. He says that it was an innocent mistake, in that he claimed he had an Australian Service Medal (given to those who serve in non-war operations overseas) rather than an Australian Defence Medal (given to those who go through an initial enlistment period or 4 years service).

There has also been a bit of awkwardness for the Liberal Candidate in Mayo, Georgina Downer, who hasn’t been able to shake the public perception that she is an outsider being parachuted in. Even with help from her father, former Howard Government Minister Alexander Downer, and even John Howard himself, it appeared that the Liberals began to feel that Downer was going to lose the seat to Centre Alliance Candidate Rebekha Sharkie.

The results ended up being called on the night, and Labor has won Longman and Braddon, as well as their two seats in Western Australia that the Liberal Party did not contest, while Sharkie won Mayo.

The government says they are going to get rid of junk health insurance policies (i.e. ones that don’t really cover you but could be bought cheaply to get the tax rebate) and there will be a crackdown on how health insurances are advertised. However, the opposition has pointed out that the only thing the government has done to protect people from junk policies is to just remove the rebate from them, rather than actually outlaw them.

Meanwhile, the government is giving people until October 15 to decide whether they want to opt out of the MyHealthRecord system. It’s being touted as an easy way for all your medical practitioners (and your emergency contact) to have your medical information all in one place, but there are concerns that the system is not secure enough especially given it will have all your personal information on that. There are also concerns over who else can have access to it – the police, health insurers and the government. Many people, including government MPs are opting out of the system.

If you decide to opt out you can do so here.

Malcolm Turnbull spent the a few days in Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory to promise better services to help those in Tennant Creek deal with alcohol abuse and other social issues that the lead to the brutal sexual abuse of a two-year old child earlier this year. Turnbull went on patrol with a group that deals with alcohol abuse is the streets. However, he went on a Sunday, which is when the bottle shops are closed in Tennant Creek – so some suggest he didn’t really get the full picture. The government has announced that they will work an a plan with the NT government and NGOs to co-ordinate services so that there isn’t an overlap, but there are no costings or plans as of yet.

The Government has announced that there will be a 100-person strong team attached to the NDIS to catch people trying to defraud the system. Users of the scheme say that’s all well and good, but money could be better spent training more disability support staff and improving wait times for people’s applications. What’s even more awkward at the moment for the NDIS is that one of the people on their advertising has had their NDIS application rejected, despite having early onset Parkinson’s disease and a spinal injury (and being promised he was eligible).

Also during the last two weeks, Lindsay MP Emma Husar is taking personal leave while an investigation takes place into her office after allegations that she made a taxpayer-funded staffer run personal errands for her. Meanwhile, there has been some concern about government services going online, particularly those used most often by the elderly, as some of them are not computer literate.

Finally this week, there have been inaccurate predictions of Australia’s population growth and we are now going to hit 25 million people in August this year; Malcolm Turnbull is calling on the Pope to sack the Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson now that he’s been convicted of concealing child abuse and is refusing to quit; if the Labor Party wins the next NSW state election, they’ve pledged to define a ‘gig worker’ and give them rights under industrial relations laws; and Medals of Bravery have been given to the Australian divers involved in the Thai Cave rescue.

Tweet of the Fortnight

Oh, Lee Lin Chin is quitting SBS News…. July 29th is her last night.

Tonight I will read @SBSNews for the second last time. Watch it or miss the 2nd most important night of your life.

— Lee Lin Chin (@LeeLinChin) July 28, 2018

 

 

The Three Weeks That Were – June 24 to July 14

The week of June 24 was the last week of parliament before winter break, so after that, with the exception of “Super Saturday” campaigning, was pretty quiet.

1. The tax battle continued in parliament over the last week of sitting, with the government really trying to get their corporate tax cuts through. It mostly involved trying to figure out whether Pauline Hanson and her one remaining One Nation colleague were going to support it, and it now appears she won’t. Pauline Hanson and said that she wouldn’t, then that she would, and then flipped back to not supporting it – before denying she was flip-flopping. In fact, it got to the point where the government decided to wait until after the Winter Break to continue pursuing the tax cuts.
2. The Banking Royal Commission has shown the banks to once again be pretty horrible to people. This time the focus was on farmers and the indigenous community. Farmers were being treated badly when it came to paying back loans during droughts when money is tighter, forcing many off their farms, while the indigenous community is being exploited due to poor financial literacy – mostly by small operators looking to make a quick buck.
3. Super Saturday campaigning is continuing, with Labor looking safe in the two WA seats to the point where federal political news is very sparse on it. Meanwhile the seat of Longman in Queensland and Braddon in Tasmania could be won by the Liberals. This is virtually unheard of as usually the swing in a by-election is against the government, not to it. In Mayo, however it looks as if the main battle will be between the incumbent Centre Alliance candidate Rebekha Sharkie, and Liberal candidate Georgina Downer (daughter of former MP Alexander Downer). Sharkie got into parliament on the coattails of Nick Xenophon, and now with the Xenophon mania fizzing out, Sharkie has to work harder – she has however been lucky to have the support of Bob Katter and Cathy McGowan. On the other hand, Downer is facing criticism for being an outsider that has been parachuted in.
4. Bill Shorten caused some commotion during the last three weeks, making a “captain’s call” (remember those from the Abbott era?) about repealing mid-size business tax cuts. Most of the higher-ranking shadow Cabinet members did try to convince the public it had been discussed prior to Shorten’s off the cuff announcement – they weren’t totally convincing – and it did not help that some of the backbenchers essentially confirmed it was a captains call. Shorten and Chris Bowen have since announced a backflip, and these tax cuts will remain in place.
5. Denison MP Andrew Wilkie has revealed (under parliamentary privilege) that the government is prosecuting a former ASIO spy known as Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery under the espionage act for revealing that Australia bugged the East Timorese Cabinet during negotiations regarding an oil field between the countries.
6. Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson has now been sentenced to 12 months in prison – but is more likely to spend it under house arrest with his relations rather than in an actual jail cell. Wilson was found guilty of concealing child abuse while a bishop in the Hunter Valley/Maitland area decades ago. He is yet to resign his role as Archbishop, and he is planning to appeal.
7. David Leyonhjelm and Sarah Hanson-Young are having an epic fight right now, with Hanson-Young calling in the lawyers. During Hanson-Young’s speech in the Senate on domestic violence, Leyonhjelm told her to “stop shagging men” and when she confronted him on it, he told her to “f- off” (or at least that’s what Hanson-Young said). Anyway, Leyonhjelm was invited to a Sky News politics show the weekend following this exchange where he made comments about Hanson-Young’s character that amounted to slut shaming – no one else is broadcasting what he actually said because Hanson-Young is now suing Leyonhjelm for defamation.
8. Tony Abbott has gone back to doing the thing he does best – causing trouble and stirring the pot. He’s decided that Australia needs to abandon the Paris Climate Agreement that he signed up to – saying it was an aspirational goal not a commitment to a goal, which is not what he said back when he signed Australia up for the agreement.
9. The “GST pie” is being re-divided and it is very confusing. Essentially, Western Australia, now without their Mining boom, needs a bit more of the share of the GST, and so the government is going to top up the GST money pile to help that transition. Other than that, NSW and Victoria, being the richest states will be the benchmark states to help determine what the other states get.
10. Agriculture Minister David Littleproud has called in the farmers and the banks to hash out a deal that allows farmers who are doing it tough in the current drought in NSW and Queensland can survive and keep their farms. The basic idea, from what I understand, is that during the drought years, levies and loans will be cheaper to pay back, balanced out by paying more in the good years. It’s thought the banks will probably agree to this suggestion so that they can reclaim some of their tattered reputation after the Banking Royal Commission.
11. Mark Latham has re-emerged in the political sphere, this time voicing a robo-call for One Nation in the seat of Longman. Labor doesn’t seem concerned – saying if he repeats the result he gave the Labor party as their leader in 2004 (spoiler: it was a terrible showing for Labor) then they have no concerns about the rise of One Nation in Longman.
12. The ACCC has revealed that with some help from state government and the regulators, electricity bills could be made cheaper for households and businesses. The ACCC report says that confusing bill structures as well as the “lazy tax” (where people who are loyal or stay with the same provider are charged more and they are unlikely to pay attention to their bills) are what is making it most expensive for people.
13. NSW State MP Daryl Maguire has stepped down from the Liberal Party and his parliamentary secretary role after an ICAC investigation revealed he was trying to get a kickback from a property developer.
14. The public is being reminded to only claim what they are actually entitled to in their tax returns, reminding people that the cost of travelling to and from work is not claimable, and neither are clothes you buy to wear to work (unless it is a uniform with a logo and you always have to wear it).