Tag Archives: Ebola

The Week That Was – November 30 to December 6

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The Victorians held an election last weekend, and a first term government was thrown out. That hasn’t happened in decades. Labor won a comfortable majority to beat the Liberal/National Coalition. There is a suggestion from the left that the current government is to blame for the Liberal election loss, and that this is, or at least should be, a wake up call to the current federal government, telling them that people are not happy with them. The new Victorian Premier, Dan Andrews has said that he will work with the federal government and Tony Abbott, but not for them. The election loss of a one term government isn’t the only shock though. Shepparton, which was considered the second safest seat in Victoria and held by the Nationals, has swung 32 percent against the Nationals to become an Independent-held seat.

After a shocking week last week, Tony Abbott held a 45-minute long press conference in which he took responsibility for some of the broken promises, and announced that the government will give back the days off it was planning to take away from people in the ADF. The budget is still in trouble, not just because the government hasn’t got major legislation through but because mining revenues are down, which is how the government was making a lot of money before. This week is the last week of sitting for 2014, so the government is hoping next week is better. To add to the government’s concerns, the GDP is down again, and worse than the most pessimistic forecast.

With this week being the last week of Parliament for 2014, there has been a lot of nagging about legislation that people want to pass through the Senate, especially the university fee deregulation legislation and Temporary Protection Visa (TPV) legislation. The university fee legislation did not pass, with PUP senator Glenn Lazarus complaining that Education Minister Christopher Pyne had been texting him non stop about it – Lazarus was in hospital with kidney stones last weekend and Monday. Pyne was not to be deterred, as he has tweaked the legislation and is sending it through next year, although my understanding is that the tweaking will not mollify students as they are more concerned with the cost of tuition than with having to pay it back. One success for the government has been the passing of legislation for Temporary Protection Visas. TPVs will be introduced, allowing genuine asylum seekers to be released into the Australian community.

There is frustration among rural communities, and in particular indigenous communities, with the announcement that people will have to work five hours a day, five days a week all year round in order to receive their welfare benefits. It’s meant to stop “sit down welfare”, but it also forces people into jobs. It’s also criticised as discriminatory as it only affects rural and indigenous communities and not people in the city.

The Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has announced that DFAT is going to be stricter on Australians who cause trouble abroad, suggesting that they may charge some people for consular assistance and may not even help some people who break local laws. Bishop has said that consular assistance is a privilege and not a right, and has also said that people need to stop asking DFAT stupid questions, like if they will feed your pets while you are away or requesting an embassy car to take people to and from their hotel.

Meanwhile, the Department of Defence is beginning an investigation into the leaking of receipts from restaurants, showing that the Defence Minister, while wining and dining foreign officials, has spent thousands of taxpayer dollars on food and drink at upscale establishments, including at Adelaide Casino, where a steak that cost $98 was ordered, along with several hundred dollars on drinks.

Finally this week, the Child Abuse Royal Commission investigated a yoga retreat where children were abused, there are mutterings of a cabinet reshuffle with the Treasurer and Defence Minister in the rumoured firing line, Australian medics are will soon be off to West Africa, once they’ve completed some critical situation training and safety training in Australia, and ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher is stepping down in order to be eligible to be considered for the casual vacancy that Kate Lundy is leaving in the Senate.

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve been Looking at Online

Australian parents publish a correction in the Births, Deaths and Marriages section of the local paper – Mirror UK

Dame Quentin Bryce says men have to confront domestic violence – The Guardian

The ABC’s top 30 clips on YouTube

The Week That Was – November 23 to November 29

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The Palmer United Party has split. Jacqui Lambie has left, and become an independent. There are still two PUP Senators for now, five months after they started in the Senate. Clive Palmer has been accusing Lambie of fraud and generally does not seem to be taking the split well, given he started hurling insults at Lambie via the mainstream media. Lambie has indicated that she is willing to negotiate with the government, mainly on Defence pay, but will be blocking changes to university fee deregulation. This now makes the Senate a little more difficult to deal with as there are more groups to negotiate with, especially if Ricky Muir keeps himself independent of the PUP.

This week also saw the ABC announce the cuts it has to make in order to survive the government’s funding cuts – or “efficiency dividend” as the government is calling it. You can read what is going to be cut here. Mark Scott, the ABC’s managing director explained that it was a sad day and that he was upset that he had to sack 400 people. Meanwhile Tony Abbott admitted during question time that he had promised not to make cuts to the ABC or SBS. Mind you, either the ABC executives doing the cutting are very cunning or it was an incredible coincidence, because the five regional outposts being cut are in Liberal or National held seats. The Nowra, Wagin and Port Augusta posts are in the Liberal-held seats of Gilmore, O’Connor and Grey respectively, while the Nationals hold the seats of Gippsland and Flynn, where the outposts of Morwell and Gladstone are based. There were protests at Parliament the next day, while Christopher Pyne bemoaned the ABC’s decision to cut the Adelaide-based production unit, while Australian tweeters called him a hypocrite and trolled his petition.

The ADF has been in the news this week for multiple reasons. First, Tony Abbott has agreed to review the ADF pay issue, to see if there is anything he can do. There is no plan to meet with Jacqui Lambie at the moment, thou, and Abbott has pointed out that you can’t always get what you want. Meanwhile, the Defence Minister, David Johnston, has got himself into hot water over a comment made in the Senate about the Australian Submarine Corporation (ASC), in which he said he would not trust the ASC to build a canoe. That obviously upset the ASC’s staff, as well as the opposition, with people calling for his resignation. It doesn’t help that the government is trying to sell the ASC, and saying something like that, kind of devalues it. Staying with defence, the ADF has released a report into sexual assaults at ADFA. The report says that many senior officers who were told of the allegations either did noting or did not believe the cadets. Some are even calling for a Royal Commission into ADFA and its culture.

Freya Newman, the young woman in court over the leaking of information regarding Frances Abbott’s scholarship to the Whitehouse art school, has been sentenced to a good behaviour bond, with no conviction recorded. This is good for her, however now that the case is over, people have been asking why Newman sent the information to The New Matilda and not the NSW ICAC.

The government has said that a boat carrying Sri Lankan asylum seekers was turned back to Sri Lanka two weeks ago near the Cocos Islands, while the UN committee that looks into torture has condemned the government’s treatment of asylum seekers. Meanwhile, refugee legal services are being inundated with clients wanting clarification over a clause in the “Code of Conduct” they are required to sign. The clause basically tells them that if they engage in anti-social behaviour that disrupts the peace of the Australian community, they can be deported. This makes the refugees concerned, because many fear that if they make an innocent mistake, they could be kicked out of the country.

Finally this week, medics are finally headed to West Africa to join the fight against Ebola, Medibank was listed on the ASX, Clive Palmer was in court to deal with allegations from a Chinese company that was part of a joint venture, Bronwyn Bishop has broken the  record for the most members thrown out in one sitting of the House of Representatives – 18, and the $7 co-payment may be binned.

Tweet of the Week

https://twitter.com/JamelleWellsABC/status/536682521421836288

Things I’ve been looking at Online

Where Mark Latham got it wrong on mothers – AFR

Annabel Crabb on Mark Latham – SMH

23 Things Australians can thank the ABC for – BuzzFeed

Broadcast Battleground

The Week That Was – November 16 to November 22

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The G20 continued over Sunday with leaders having a “robust” discussions with Putin, who left the G20 a little early, he says to catch up on sleep, but others say he was feeling hardly done by. Obama kept talking about climate change while Abbott kept talking about coal. However, the G20 is mainly about the economy, so they’ve promised to work harder to fight corporate tax evasion as well as try to get 100 million women into the work force. It was 42ºC in Brisbane over the weekend, making it very hot for some of the northern hemispheric heads of state, who are heading into winter.

China’s President, Xi Jinping arrived in Canberra shortly after the G20, he made a speech to Federal Parliament and signed a Declaration of Intent regarding the finalised Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

In the FTA, tariffs on dairy, beef and wine will decrease or be removed, mining tariffs will be gone in a decade and Australian service companies, like hotels, will have it much easier in China. Xi also visited Tasmania, making him the first Chinese head of state to visit every Australian state and territory. He met some school children – presumably the ones who wrote him a letter in Chinese – saw Tasmanian devils and went to Tasmania’s government house. His wife, Peng Liyuan, also visited a girls school on Sydney’s upper north shore and met some of the students and watched a Chinese lesson.

Narendra Modi, the Indian PM, also came to Canberra, but visited Sydney first, where he made a community address at Sydney Olympic Park. There were thousands there including some from Melbourne who took an overnight train to Sydney, dubbed the “Modi Express”. Modi spoke in Federal Parliament, where he suggested that making the members both houses sit through three speeches by Heads of State over the course of five days was Tony Abbott’s way of “shirtfronting” them.

Angela Merkel, Matteo Renzi and François Hollande also stayed in Australia a little longer, although they didn’t go to speak at Parliament House. Merkel visited a technology park in Sydney, Renzi visited Kellyville, a suburb in Sydney’s northwest, where an Italian company is working on part of a transport build, and Hollande hung around Sydney with the Governor General.

The Jacqui Lambie Saga continued this week with her being removed from her role as the PUP’s Deputy Senate Leader, and suspended her from attending party room meetings. The PUP has also removed references to her from their site, and she has removed references to them off hers. Lambie, along with the Motoring Enthusiasts’ Ricky Muir, voted with Labor, the Greens and Nick Xenophon against government changes to FOFA legislation. Lambie is looking at her options, because while she has every right to leave the party, should she pass away or be forced to quit, the casual vacancy will be filled by a PUP member and not by an independent or a member of Lambie’s alternative party, should she create one. This does make Senate more difficult at the moment, as it forces the government to negotiate with more people.

Julie Bishop was in New York this week in the blistering cold to chair the last meetings of the UN Security Council that Australia has the Presidency. The UNSC took a veiled sweep at nations like Australia that are restricting or stopping visa applications from the Ebola hot zone. Bishop called Ebola more than just a “health emergency” and that more needed to be done to help. The opposition was not impressed, suggesting that Australia says one thing internationally and does another thing domestically.

The ABC will lose almost 5% of its budget over the next five years, which is about $300 million dollars. The Opposition is telling people that Abbott lied during his election campaign, which he did, and money will also be taken from SBS, which will be allowed to play more advertising during prime time to help make up for the loss. Malcolm Turnbull has said that people shouldn’t be blaming the government, but some seem to think the government will be blamed. The ABC has suggested that they may have to close down foreign bureaux, cancel some programs and close a production unit based in South Australia, the latter making Christopher Pyne start a petition to stop the ABC from shutting the unit down. This week also saw rallies across the country with people coming to support the ABC – many fearing they will lose news coverage and entertainment.

The Overcoming Disadvantage report was released this week, suggesting that things are slowly improving for Indigenous Australians. Mortality is down, life expectancy is up, albeit not by much, and high school completion is also on the rise. However, there is an increase in the number of indigenous people incarcerated, which is being blamed on poor policy decisions, and experts want more investment in mental health services for indigenous people. Indigenous people have said that they should be involved in the decision-making in order to help the community.

The Australian government is receiving criticism this week for deciding that they would not take anymore refugees that registered in Indonesia, in the belief that they will stop people smugglers from sending people to Indonesia in the first place. Indonesia has said that they were not consulted and that this puts all the burden on them to help refugees, which they cannot do. Furthermore, an asylum seeker boat showed up on the island of Yap in Micronesia with refugees who wanted to settle in Australia. Micronesia has never had to deal with this and are now trying to figure out what to do with the 30-odd refugees.

Finally this week, Baby Gammy will likely get Australian citizenship, Westpac is closing accounts of money transfer businesses, making things difficult for workers who send money back to Australia, the Dutch have begun to remove the wreckage from MH17 and Peter Greste could be pardoned if it is in Egypt’s national interest, although DFAT is unaware of anything going on.

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

According to Mark Latham, left-feminist women hate kids – Australian Financial Review

Meet Lammily, the normal body alternative to Barbie – The Guardian

FDA Changes regarding blood donations from men who have sex with men – TIME Online

It’s lose-lose for Malcolm Turnbull with ABC cuts – ABC The Drum

The Week that Was – November 9 to November 15

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It would appear that this week has been international summit week, with Tony Abbott attending three summits. The first was APEC in Beijing, where Abbott met Putin on the sidelines, and China probably had way too much fun, placing Putin and Abbott next to each other or near each other at every opportunity. They were sat next to each other at the roundtable and Abbott was placed behind Putin in the “Family Photo” (called that because they all get a photo in the requisite costume). The big thing at APEC was the US-China emissions deal. Abbott then headed to Myanmar for the ASEAN Summit, where he discussed regional security and economy and met Aung Sun Suu Kyi.

Brisbane was shut down for the G20, security was tight, and 19 world leaders came to visit. Russia decided to send ships round to the Coral Sea as a show of force, and climate change was forced onto the G20 agenda thanks to the US-China deal. There was a retreat in Queensland Parliament and Tony Abbott had some words to start their conversation, which included complaining about how he couldn’t get his policies through.

Other than that, they’ve discussed Ebola, the economy, climate change (or at least, Obama made pointed comments that appeared to be aimed at Abbott) and took a family picture, albeit without the APEC costumes. The “wives club” got to cuddle koalas on Saturday.

Australian troops have finally started to head to Iraq, and it appears that Obama may want Australia to send more, but there hasn’t been a specific request yet. They will only be there in an advisory role, helping with tactics and training, but they could be there for a few years.

The Palmer United Party is in turmoil following Jacqui Lambie’s promise to block all government legislation because of a below-inflation wage raise. Clive Palmer and the PUP executive expelled Lambie’s Chief of Staff from the party, called Lambie a “dram queen” and dared her to challenge him for leader. Lambie told Palmer expelling her Chief of Staff from the party was a low blow and that he should take shots at her and not her staff. Lambie is a unique senator, and sometimes says some interesting things, but her interview with Leigh Sales on 7:30 during the week was sensible, coherent and reasoned. There is fear that the PUP could split, which could possibly make the government’s job more difficult as they will have to negotiate with more people.

The government is still trying to pass their university fee legislation, and are hoping to pass it by Christmas. However if it doesn’t, they may have to push back the start date to 2017. Christopher Pyne has told people that the number of university applications are up, which he says shows that people aren’t worried about the new legislation. However, given that next year’s students won’t be affected by the fee deregulation, my money is on the fact that people are getting in to uni without massive fees while they still can.

Finally this week, there are concerns about how Somali workers are going to send money home now that banks are stopping transfers to Somalia because they can’t guarantee that the money isn’t going to terror groups, there was a memorial in Amsterdam for the MH17 victims, and former Queensland Premier Wayne Goss has died.

Tweets of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Concerns about the university assignment black market – SMH

Controversy surrounding the ABC’s airing of a skit about Abbott vs. Putin on 7:30 – The Australian

The CIA ruins people’s fun by telling people how Argo got it wrong

The Week That Was – November 2 to November 8

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There has always been concern about the current government’s attitude to climate change, given last weeks passing of the Direct Action Plan, and this week had people more concerned. The government wants to scale back the renewable energy target and the use of renewable energy sources, which the Opposition has said they will oppose. The government wants to have a chat with opposition to see if there can be a compromise, so that there is still growth in the renewable energy market. This is despite the fact that the IPCC released a report saying that the use of fossil fuels should be stopped by 2100 and that the large amount of greenhouse gasses currently in the atmosphere are most likely caused by humans. However, coal is a major export for Australia, and while the Environment Minister Greg Hunt says there are ways to clean up the industry, Tony Abbott has been constantly saying that coal is essential for economic growth and the “foundation of prosperity”.

Australia has finally got itself sorted on sending people to the Ebola zone, however, they won’t be doing it themselves.They’re giving $20 million to a private health provider, Aspen, to run a 100-bed Ebola treatment centre. Hundreds of Australian medical staff have applied to go, although it is unclear how many Australian medics Aspen will take, as there has been talk of engaging local medics as well as international staff. There has been criticism of the government for taking this long to start sending people West Africa, especially since it was revealed that the EU has had a deal going for weeks, saying they’ll evacuate and treat any aid workers who contract Ebola, contradicting the government’s excuse that there was no plan to get Australians out of West Africa should they contract the virus. Other medical staff in Australia have been making the trip to West Africa with Médecins Sans Frontières and other aid groups because they’re unimpressed with the government’s response.

This week also saw the Gough Whitlam State Memorial Service at Sydney Town Hall. Several Gurindji Land Rights activists and descendants came to the service, as well as every Prime Minister that came after Whitlam. There were speeches from senior Labor figure John Faulkner, actress Cate Blanchett and academic and lawyer Noel Pearson, who is considered to have given the best speech of the service. There was a bit of a problem though when it came to seating. It became unclear as to how the organisers were running the public seating, whether by ballot or by first in, first served. It meant that for the 1500 seats available, 6000 people registered, and without confirmation, most showed up thinking they were good to go. It meant people ended up standing outside Town Hall watching on a big screen.

The Dutch Prime Minister visited for a couple of days to talk to Tony Abbott about the investigation into MH17, and the fact that more bodies have been found at the site, and will be brought to Amsterdam where they will be examined before being returned to the families. Tony Abbott also said that he would raise MH17 with Putin at some point in the next few weeks, with APEC and the G20 coming up. According to Abbott, Putin “owes it to us, he owes it to our common humanity to ensure that justice is done”. Tony Abbott will meet Putin for a short meeting on the sidelines of APEC next week.

Speaking of APEC, Julie Bishop is in Beijing, starting discussions, and also making sure that the last bits of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China are ready for the G20 and Xi Jinping’s visit to Australia. The FTA mainly involves labour and trade deals, including a live cattle trade worth about $1 billion annually.

This week, Jacqui Lambie has raised eyebrows, saying she won’t pass any government legislation until the Defence Force is given a pay rise. Lambie is a former soldier, and thinks the current pay offer, which is below the rate of inflation and therefore a pay cut in real terms, is unfair. Many of her fellow Palmer United Party colleagues are distancing themselves, and Lambie is trying to get Motoring Enthusiast Party Senator Ricky Muir to join her. This would, despite Joe Hockey telling people that threats won’t work against the government, make passing legislation in the Senate difficult, as the PUP and Muir hold the balance of power. Oh, and this is all despite the fact that the government had no involvement in the Defence Force pay offer, and the only thing the PM can do is ask the tribunal responsible to reconsider their decision.

Finally this week, a former Howard minister, Jackie Kelly, who left the Liberal Party last month will challenge a NSW state seat as an independent, only a small fraction of the 4400 special humanitarian visas available to refugees from Syria fleeing ISIS have been given out, and Australian troops are still in the UAE, yet to go to Iraq.

Tweets of the Week

One of the many protocol theories being made to figure out who stands next to whom in pictures:

https://twitter.com/smurray38/status/529870844168646656

Things I’ve been Looking at Online

Leigh Sales interview with Julia Baird – ABC Online

Annabel Crabb and Leigh Sales have a podcast – Chat 10 Looks 3

One of the producers from the ABC’s Africa Bureau reflects on his job – ABC Backstory

The Week that Was – October 26 to November 1

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This week saw the Labor party announce that they may keep the current government’s policy of turning back boats, because it appears to be working. However, they have said that they will only do it with Indonesia’s permission, which probably won’t happen, and then they didn’t say much else about it.

Clive Palmer has signed a deal with the government to pass the Direct Action Plan through the Senate, allowing the government to pay emitters to reduce their emissions. This has annoyed people, because Palmer had initially said he wouldn’t let it through because he believed it to be a wast of taxpayer money, and would only accept an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) if Australia’s allies would do the same, especially China. The government has also found a way to get the Fuel Excise to rise without taking it through Parliament. It will go up by half a cent every six months and is estimated to rain around $19 million. There is a catch though, if the government can’t get Parliament to agree within 12 months the money has to be given back, not to the taxpayers, but to the oil companies. Tony Abbot has also said that he wants an adult debate on the GST so it can be changed. It’s led to a few people wondering about this ‘adult debate’, given Abbott was part of the protests about the Carbon Tax during which he stood in front of some pretty nasty signs about Julia Gillard.

Tony Abbot during Protests about the Carbon Tax (from http://images-2.drive.com.au/2014/08/04/5651350/1407146829758.jpg-620x349.jpg)

Tony Abbott during Protests about the Carbon Tax (from http://images-2.drive.com.au/2014/08/04/5651350/1407146829758.jpg-620×349.jpg)

Ebola scared the bejesus out of everyone again this week, after an 18-year-old Brisbane woman was taken to hospital with a fever after coming into the country from West Africa. She was in self-quarantine in her home before she came down with the fever, and as it turns out, she’s tested negative. However, refugees from West African Ebola countries will no longer be given visas for the time being, and those who already have visas will be quarantined for 21 days. This seems to be the only reaction Australia has made at the moment, as they haven’t forced aid workers into quarantine, like several US states have, although most aid workers are making sure quarantine themselves and check their temperature everyday, as is recommended by health authorities and aid groups. Again, the Australian Medical Association has said Australia should be sending staff to Ebola hot zones to help, however the government is still saying that they probably won’t until they have an evacuation plan in place should anyone contract the virus.

Parliament House got interesting earlier in the week, after three men staged a protest about the burqa ban being overturned. You can see the video from the ABC here.

Nova Peris is embroiled in scandal this week after being accused of using taxpayer money to get an international track star from the Caribbean to come to Australia because she was having an affair with him. She has denied the allegations and the Labor Party is standing beside her, while some believe News Corp may have got the emails illegally. Peris spoke in Senate to say that this is part of a blackmail attempt in a long running child access case.

The metadata laws passed this week, meaning that metadata will be held for two years. This is believed to cost the telecommunications companies money, so they will get subsidies from the government, but it is unclear at the moment as to how much money there will be. There are critics, especially the Greens and Nick Xenophon, but given Labor supported the legislation, it’s gone through.

The government is trying to confirm the death of an Australian ISIS member in the conflict zone. The man is thought to be the most high-ranking Australian in the organisation. Meanwhile, Australian troops are still in the UAE, yet to go to Iraq to advise the military there.

Finally this week, Medibank shares are on sale,  Australian couples are having trouble getting visas to India for surrogacy, Julia Gillard has been found by the Trade Union Royal Commission to have done nothing wrong, farmers are suing the government for damages after the live export ban a few years ago, and the West Australian town of Albany played host to commemorations for the centenary of the first ships leaving Australia for WWI.

Tweet of the Week

Things that I’ve been Looking at Online

How British Colonialism determines which countries celebrate Halloween – The Washington Post

With the US Midterms coming up, people are being reminded to vote:

The Week that Was – October 19 to October 25

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At the start of this week, Iraq finally found itself a Defence Minister, allowing Julie Bishop to finalise the terms of Australian troops coming to help advise the Iraqi defence forces. While there won’t be direct combat for the moment, the troops, mainly from the SAS, will advise and train the Iraqi army to deal with Islamic State (IS aka ISIS/ISIL). Speaking of Islamic State, Tony Abbott has been mentioned in a propaganda video spoken by a 17-year-old Australian who was able to get to the Middle East undetected by authorities. The young guy, a student from South-western Sydney told his mother he was going fishing and never came back. Abbott has used this to explain why Australia is in Iraq, and both sides of politics, not to mention community leaders are shocked that the young guy is there.

Meanwhile, the decision to make women wearing the burqa to watch parliamentary proceedings from a sealed-off section of the public gallery that is usually reserved for visiting students has been reversed. The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate met and decided that it would be better if women wearing the burqa were taken aside and asked to remove the covering for a moment so an officer could be satisfied of their identity. Some of the people who supported the burqa ban, such as Cory Bernardi and Jacqui Lambie are calling it ‘political correctness gone mad’, but most people seem to think that the Speaker and the Senate President are doing the right thing.

Also this week, we saw a shocking terrorist attack in Canada.

It saw Tony Abbott make a speech in Parliament about what happened in Canada, as did the Opposition.

Earlier in the week, Tony Abbott visited Indonesia for Joko Widodo’s inauguration. Widodo, often referred to by his nickname “Jokowi”, is the second democratically elected president of Indonesia. Abbott wants Australia and Indonesia to be closer and more friendly, but it is thought that Jokowi is going to be tougher on threats to Indonesia’s sovereignty, particularly by Australia, not to mention the fact that Widodo has domestic issues to deal with, such as a hung parliament and his promises to the Indonesian people.

Australia is apparently starting to frustrate the rest of the world when it comes to the fight against Ebola. The Health Minister has said that Australia will be focusing on the Asia-Pacific region and how we can help an outbreak there, as well as working on research into a vaccine. Australia has also sent $18 million to Africa to help them fight, but the opposition has demanded the government send personnel to West Africa to help fight the virus, as has, it turns out, the UK and the USA. Meanwhile, the chief medical people from each state and territory have met to discuss Australia’s plans to fight Ebola should someone in Australia be diagnosed with it, and they would also like Australian medical staff to be sent to Africa.

This week also saw Australia mourn the death of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. He died on Tuesday (the 21st) at the age of 98. He’s considered to be one of the best Prime Ministers the country has ever had, making major social change, such as no-fault divorce and free tertiary education. He is also well-known for his changes to Aboriginal land rights, so much so, that several Aboriginal communities entered a period of traditional mourning. Many tributes came in from across the political spectrum, including Malcolm Fraser and all parliamentary business was suspended, except for a sitting to pass a condolence motion and have a few speeches.His State Memorial Service will be held on the 5th of November in Sydney. You can read some editorials and tributes about Whitlam by Julia Gillard, David Marr and Lenore Taylor from the Guardian website.

Finally this week, Bill Shorten spoke about his dislike of hiding behind the bible when arguing against marriage equality, the AMA is criticising the government for its response to Ebola, the Governor-General met up with Australian forces in the UAE and Afghanistan, and Saturday saw National Mosque Open Day, in an attempt to inform people about Islam.

Tweets of the Week

The makeshift Whitlam memorial on the steps of Old Parliament House in Canberra

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Australia’s war on whistleblowers must end – The Guardian

Barry Spurr is the smoking gun of institutional racism – New Matilda

The death of a US-born journalist working for Iranian TV is believed to be the work of Turkish authorities – Daily Mail UK

The relationship you wish you had (about a gay couple on YouTube) – Huffington Post

The Week that Was – October 12 to October 18

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It’s been announced that Russia will be sending a delegation to the G20 in Brisbane, including President Vladimir Putin during talks while Joe Hockey was chairing a G20 Finance Minister’s meeting in Washington D.C.. Tony Abbott said that we had to accept their arrival but not embrace the Russians when they arrived and has also promised to talk with Putin about MH17. This nice promise of a discussion went down the drain however, when Abbott said this:

The comment led to confusion among the general population, as people struggled to define the term “shirtfront”. From what I can gather, it’s a shoulder charge in AFL – no longer allowed as they try to make the game safer – and the clips I’ve seen aren’t pretty, and in ABC Political Reporter Mark Simkin’s words: “hardly diplomatic”. It’s lead to a bit of a back-and-forth with the Russians, both at the Embassy and in Moscow, with Russian Embassy staff saying the Australia hasn’t even booked in a meeting with the Russians, and that Abbott shouldn’t be making the meeting physical anyway. The Russian PM, Dmitri Medvedev, has told Tony Abbott to behave, as have Australian politicians – namely Sarah Hanson-Young and Jacqui Lambie. Relations are believed to be at their lowest at the moment, but things are looking up after Julie Bishop met with Putin on the sidelines of a summit in Milan, where she asked Putin to use Russian influence to get the rebels to allow investigators back to the MH17 crash site, and found out that Putin is still coming to the G20.

The Australian Defence Force has been in the news a bit this week. Firstly, a group of veterans who were involved in humanitarian efforts during “Iraq 1” (The Gulf War), are wanting to have their deployment recognised as active service. The non-combat mission involved humanitarian aid to help Kurdish refugees, and involved 75 personnel, mainly medical staff and engineers. Many suffer mental anguish and a few have ended their lives, yet because their mission was not deemed to be active service, they don’t get their pension, a service medal or recognition of their mission. Many have said they would prefer the recognition over the pension, as the recognition proves that they did something a served their country.

Also this week, the Department of Defence has been in negotiations over pay increases for the armed forces. The government has offered a 1.5% increase every year for three years, but lose a day’s leave at Christmas. The main criticism is that the increased aren’t in line with inflation, and that the politicians deciding on their pay recently got a massive pay rise, and the defence force isn’t getting as big a pay rise. Bill Shorten has come out in support, saying the defence force should be paid more, and there have been many saying that more pay would mean more productivity.

A 300-page review into the nation’s education system has been released this week, with recommendations that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island history and Australia’s place in the Asia-Pacific region should be taught as specific units and not just as a theme and a simplified curriculum – what that means is unclear, but it has something to do with the parents. Christopher Pyne has said that as far as he can tell, the review is not politically motivated. However, there has been controversy this week after the man in charge of the review into the English curriculum, Barry Spurr, has been stood down by the University of Sydney for sexist, racist and basically offensive emails. Spurr is well-known for focusing on Judeo-Christian literature, and essentially ignoring other authors in Australia. There are concerns that his views may have influenced the review and questions are being asked about who else in the review team who may have something to hide. Christopher Pyne has defended his role as Education Minister, saying that he didn’t pick Spurr and that he condemns offensive, racist and sexist comments like Spurr’s.

The Budget still isn’t through in its entirety, and this week concerns have been raised over the fuel excise and the way that the Greens reacted when they first heard about the plans. Originally, the Greens had believed that the government had seen the light when it was announced that the fuel excise would be raised, until they became aware that the money for the excise was going towards road building. There is disagreement over whether the government and the Greens had a chat, but regardless, the Greens had some turmoil within the party and the realisation that the government was going to build roads anyway. Mathias Cormann has also been criticised for calling Bill Shorten an “economic girlie man”, because he’s blocking Budget changes. Tanya Plibersek has said that that’s because the Labor Party sees the Budget as something pretty awful, and don’t want to pass it.

Australian states have bought isolation pods to transfer Ebola patients should any turn up in Australia, while Queensland Health has activated its Ebola medical teams. Each state has a specific hospital for treating Ebola, and they’re equipped pretty well, except for the isolation pods. There is still criticism of the government, who is refusing to send medical teams to Africa until they have a definitive evacuation plan, allowing for stops in countries along the route in order to refuel along the 30-hour flight. Oh, and the Defence Force doesn’t own a pod. Australia is also looking to the USA at the moment to see exactly what happened with the breakdown in protocol after two nurses who worked on the Liberian man who died in a Texas Hospital contracted the virus.

Finally this week, an Australian author who won a book prize is ashamed to be Australian because of the current government’s climate change policy, Australia has completed ‘successful’ airstrikes in Iraq, and a committee looking into the government’s terror legislation have said that the government can’t declare countries or regions no-go zones.

Tweets of the Week

The pro-democracy protests continue in Hong Kong

And the storm in Sydney at the start of this week led to entertaining news graphics

Things I’ve been Reading, Watching or Hearing

An ABC cameraman on his experience and how one can improve skills – ABC Backstory

A Blue Mountains school principal has received a Papal Medal for helping his students in last year’s bushfires – ABC News

University lecturers defend themselves against Sharri Markson’s article about their teaching – The Guardian

The Week That Was – October 5 to October 11

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The week began with Tony Abbott at the NRL Grand Final – where he got booed.

Australia has begun airstrikes in Iraq, which has also led to the question of how to pay for the ‘mission’ (the government still isn’t using the word ‘war’). The Defence Minister believes the mission won’t last too long, but it will take time, in the belief that if they under-promise, it will look like they’ve kept it. However, they still need to pay for it, and it looks like they might have to raise taxes – well it did, until Tony Abbott ruled it out. They could also cut foreign aid, but apparently Julie Bishop has been telling cabinet there is no way she is cutting the foreign aid budget further. The opposition has suggested that Tony Abbott’s Paid Parental Leave Scheme should be scrapped to save money, while Joe Hockey has suggested that if Labor supports the mission to Iraq, then they should also support the Coalition’s Budget measures.

Staying with the Budget, it is getting closer to the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) due in December/January and the Coalition still hasn’t got many of their big ticket items through Parliament, which is important as they play into other budget cuts and spending. There are 16 sitting days left for the House of Representatives and 12 days left for the Senate, which doesn’t give the government long to get things through an unpredictable Senate, as Clive Palmer changes his mind at will. Also, the six month waiting period for welfare could be dropped after the government backflipped on the 40 job applications requirement in order to receive the dole. The PM says it isn’t a backflip, but a ‘response’ to consultation with businesses and community.

The Council Of Australian Governments (COAG) is meeting this weekend, with higher security than normal because of the increased terror alert. It was a “constructive and productive” meeting (the Premiers’ words not mine). They’ve agreed to look into changing the way federal money gets given to the states, and they will also be setting up a federal agency to help guide families through the surrogacy process, but just advice.

Which leads us to the latest surrogacy scandal, this time in India. An Australian couple, whose surrogate gave birth to twins, abandoned one of the babies in India, with accusations of money changing hands. There are concerns that senior Australian government officials tried to speed up the process, and now the PM’s Office, the Attorney-General’s Office and DFAT are looking into the allegations. The reason so many people go to Asia for surrogacy is because surrogacy is illegal in Australia. Bill Shorten is of the opinion that there should be one national law to regulate surrogacy, but Tony Abbott says there will be no changes to the legislation.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority is in trouble after losing people to redundancies and resignations. Morale is down in the agency apparently, especially after the decision to dump coal in the reef. Both stakeholders and the agency itself are concerned about the reef’s health.

A nurse from Cairns has been in hospital being tested for Ebola after going to hospital with a fever. The nurse, who travelled with the International Red Cross, has spent a month in Sierra Leone helping with the outbreak. She returned and quarantined herself in her apartment, only leaving to go to the hospital when she developed a fever. The local MP, Bob Katter, asked why she was in the community, and has demanded mandatory quarantine for anyone returning from the Ebola zone. As of Saturday the nurse is improving, and her tests thus far have been negative. Australia is sending financial aid to help fight Ebola, but won’t send actual medical staff until they have an evacuation plan in place. Meanwhile, an isolation pod to put potential Ebola victims in has arrived in Brisbane for use on the East Coast.

Finally this week, Brisbane practiced for G20 transporting a “delegate” around the city with all of the security staff (probably also practicing for a Chaser-like prank), the government will begin to flag “hate groups”, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics is having problem with job numbers, which is being blamed on budget cuts.

Tweet of the Week

https://twitter.com/xinwenxiaojie/status/520383886748966912

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Annabel Crabb and Leigh Sales talk cakes, politics and Annabel’s book – The Saturday Paper

Emma Alberici vs. Wassim Doureihi on Lateline – ABC Online

Where in the World is Kim Jong-Un?

The Week That Was – September 28 to October 4

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It’s official. Australia is going to Iraq to take part in US airstrikes against Islamic State (IS, aka ISIS/ISIL). At the beginning of the week, while waiting for confirmation, Australian troops were doing practice flights in the UAE and reconnaissance flights over Iraq. The government has not considered Syria yet, and may decide not to go there in the end. However, according to the government, we’re not going to war, we’re going to help a humanitarian mission – despite this the ABC has been using the term ‘war’, so go figure. Australia’s tactical advisors are yet to begin working in Iraq as they haven’t been given their diplomatic immunity, but apparently that will happen soon. Meanwhile, raids were carried out in Melbourne by Victoria Police and the AFP. There was one person arrested and charged for sending money to finance terror organisations. The police say it had noting to do with the young man killed last week, and that the FBI tipped them off about the guy.

At the end of this week, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Senate President decided to force women wearing burqas or niqabs to sit behind the glass walled part of the public gallery, usually reserved for school groups. This “security measure”, as they’re calling it, has been criticised by most people, arguing that it treats Muslim women as second-class citizens, with some calling it religious apartheid. On Friday, Tony Abbott spoke with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Bronwyn Bishop and asked her to reconsider the decision.

That mysterious thing called the budget is still haunting the government, as they try to figure out new ways to save money that won’t upset the Opposition, and will allow for the changes to go through. There is talk of lowering the income limit for tax benefits, as well as fiddling with the large family tax benefit. In the meantime, they’ve also got to find cuts in order to have money to fight in Iraq and fund new terror laws, though getting through a hostile senate may be a challenge, especially if Clive Palmer and the PUP decide not to support the changes the government decides to make.

This week, Scott Morrison announced an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse by guards at the Detention Centre in Nauru, after saying earlier this week that he would be “pretty damn cross” if the allegations are true. However, the investigation is also looking into whether or not the children’s charity Save the Children is orchestrating the claims or encouraging asylum seekers to make such allegations.

As the Ebola outbreak continues in Africa, and with the news of the first person being diagnosed of the disease on US soil, officials are moving to quell the fear here. Australia is at low risk, and while airports are on alert and have the capacity to send suspected Ebola cases to hospitals, we shouldn’t be overly concerned. They’ve also pointed out that in Australia, we have the resources to deal with a patient with Ebola.

In other news, the move to fully privatise Medibank is gaining momentum, with advertising now letting people know that they can register their interest in buying shares in the health fund. While some are happy with the move, there are concerns that jobs could be at risk, premiums will go up, and what happens to the many Australians that picked Medibank due to its link with the government. Also, the Trade Union Royal Commission continued this week with bribery allegations against the MUA, as well as the implication of the CFMEU in activities with crime bosses.

Finally this week, Australia Network stopped transmission into the Asia Pacific, and Australian citizen was killed in Afghanistan, and it turns out some Australian companies are not paying the amount of tax they should be.

Tweets of the Week

ICYMI – Hong Kong has been crippled by protests. But they are some of the most well-behaved and polite protesters you will ever see…

They recycle:

They apologise for barricading train stations:

They shield the cops from the rain:

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

California adopts “Yes means Yes” consent legislation – TIME Magazine

Only in Australia…Bushfire training for journalists – ABC Backstory

How to Comment – The Not Adam