Tag Archives: Entitlements

The Two Weeks That Were – December 30 to January 12

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Happy New Year!

2019 started with the release of cabinet documents from 1996 and 1997 – the first two years of the Howard government. The 1996 Federal Budget was extremely tough, but cabinet documents reveal it could have been so much worse. Amanda Vanstone, who was then the Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs, prevented major cuts from tertiary education. Documents also showed the Howard decided not to cut welfare payments to people after 12 months of being on them. Cabinet documents also showed the government’s plans on their battle with the unions (especially the maritime unions) and the discussions that led to gun control reform after the Port Arthur Massacre.

Cabinet documents from 1997 show John Howard’s resistance to apologising to the stolen generations. Howard has always felt that Australians should not be made to feel guilty for something that happened in the past that they had no control over. This opinion upset and agitated many people at the time – and it’s part of the reason Kevin Rudd promised to apologise in Parliament if Labor won the 2007 election (a promise he kept).

Meanwhile, back in the current day…

…Independent Queensland Senator Fraser Anning is under fire for attending a far-right rally at St Kilda in Melbourne – where some of the speakers had criminal records and  several people were seen doing Nazi salutes and other unpleasant things. Not only did he go, but he charged the taxpayer $3,000 for it, saying that he attended in his capacity as a Queensland Senator because some of his constituents are concerned about African gangs there. It’s led to an unusual unity amongst many in Parliament, who are criticising Anning’s choice to attend rallies and charge the taxpayer to do so, and are urging him to pay the money back.

Similarly, Mathias Cormann is under fire for chartering an airforce jet to take him from Canberra to Adelaide, where he was negotiating tax legislation with cross-benchers, and then on to Perth where he lives. In total it cost taxpayers $37,000, mostly because after flying from Canberra to Adelaide and then to Perth, the plane then had to return to Canberra. Since Bronwyn Bishop’s infamous “chopper-gate”, Liberal politicians were encouraged to strongly consider whether the transport they were taking was value for money, which Cormann seems to believe is the case, despite the fact that only a fraction of the tax legislation he was negotiating got through parliament.

Labor has dipped toes into the whole teachers, teaching degrees and ATARs situation, as concern grows about the low ATARs some students are getting into teaching degrees with. Labor wants universities to increase the minimum ATAR for teaching degrees to around 80.00, saying they can’t dumb down the degrees. Universities have hit out at Labor’s plan, and the Liberals have pointed out that they made changes already, requiring prospective teachers to complete the LANTITE – an exam that assesses their numeracy and literacy to ensure teachers can actually teach those things to children. There is also a call to increase wages for teachers, as that will attract more people with higher ATARs who might be put off teaching because it doesn’t pay enough compared to medical and legal roles.

This fortnight also saw over thirty packages containing asbestos delivered to various consulates and embassies in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. A few days later, a 49-year-old man was arrested and charged for allegedly sending the packages, some of which were not yet delivered. Thankfully, Australia Post does know where they are.

This fortnight also saw Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne travel to Thailand to discuss the cases of two asylum seekers. The first, Rahaf Alqunun was in the news this week after fleeing Saudi Arabia via Kuwait, attempting to get to Australia. Saudi and Thai officials prevented her from travelling on to Australia – leading her to barricade herself in the airport’s hotel until the UNHCR ensured her safety and referred her asylum application on to Australia – until Canada ended up offering to take her. This is because Canada’s refugee processing can be done on Canadian soil, while Australia’s is more convoluted and apparently has to be done offshore.

Meanwhile, Payne also spoke to Thai officials about the incarceration of Hakeem al-Araibi, a Bahraini refugee that has Australian permanent residency. al-Araibi went to Thailand for his honeymoon, and the Thai government arrested him as he has an Interpol red notice based on a politically motivated vandalism conviction in Bahrain.

Finally during this fortnight, Peter Dutton has announced his support for a National Sex Offenders Register, which would make the names and postcodes of offenders available publicly, something Senator Derryn Hinch has wanted for a while; David Leyonhjelm has announced he will leave the Federal Senate to contest the NSW State Upper House. Australia is still in a row with Fiji over the citizenship of Neil Prakash, a former ISIS member, whose Australian Citizenship was revoked because he was fighting in Syria. This was under the assumption that he had Fijian citizenship, which according to Fiji he doesn’t have.

Tweet of the Fortnight

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

John Howard stopped a domestic dispute during the week – News.com.au

Mark Humphries on Fraser Anning’s St Kilda trip – ABC Online

 

The Week That Was – August 9 to August 15

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This week was a crazy one in politics.

The expenses saga came to an end, with Tony Smith being elected speaker on Monday. He says that he will be different, starting with the fact that he will not sit in on party meetings, and that he will help make real change in parliament. He also apologised to Tony Abbott, admitting that he had friends from the other side of politics. The thing is, Smith was not Abbott’s first choice, but Scott Morrison’s  – or at least that’s the rumour. Meanwhile the expenses inquiry is again being talked about, as the Greens call for an independent Integrity Commissioner and it becomes apparent that there is a disconnect between the politicians and the public.

Once the drama with Bronwyn Bishop was over, the Liberal Party had a marathon meeting on Monday night after the topic of same-sex marriage came up. The meeting, which some have described as poorly managed, resolved – with two-thirds majority – to keep the same policy to what Howard legislated in 2004 that defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Furthermore, Abbott apparently had a “captain’s pick” moment and announced that there would be a plebiscite or referendum on the issue at or after the next election. There are issues with this however both legal and political. Legally, it is pointless as our marriage laws are an Act of Parliament, not enshrined in our constitution, as Ireland’s was. Politically, as Malcolm Turnbull pointed out, it will continue to distract from the Liberal Party’s policies and reforms.

Another drama this week came when it was revealed that Justice Dyson Heydon, the Commissioner for the Trade Union Royal Commission agreed to attend and speak at a Liberal Party fundraiser. He has since dropped out of the event, however it has led to Labor pointing to perceived bias, if not bias itself. Justice Heydon has said that he did not know it was a party fundraiser, and released a statement saying that people in his office made it clear to organisers that if it was a party fundraiser, Heydon would not be able to attend. Labor wants to see this correspondence, and until they do, they’ll probably run the “of he not biased, then he looks it” line.

The costings for the Government’s environment policies are not due out until 2017, however some information has leaked out, suggesting that the 26-28% reduction will not affect coal industries and will most likely be done through the cheapest means possible. The IPCC is worried about the plans and Labor wants to see the government’s modelling before they show people theirs.

Abbott rounded out one of the worst week’s he’s possibly ever had by trying to make the upcoming 2016 election about trust and the environment, with Abbott talking about how “every election is about trust” and how we only have one planet. This was not received well by the people in my house, with comments about his competency and the agreement with the Labor speakers on the news that Abbott is trying desperately to save his job.

Finally this week, Abbott has had some trouble adjusting to the new speaker, as he referred to Smith as “Madam Speaker” at least once this week, it has been announced that the 2016 Census is going to be carried out primarily online, the Hutchison Ports Wharf workers are due to head back to work after the Fair Work Commission said that they’d been fired unfairly, the world celebrates the end of WWII in the Pacific and there is talk that we are to get involved in airstrikes in Syria.

Tweet of the Week

Abbott took part in the City2Surf last Sunday

https://twitter.com/MarkDiStef/status/630260742285955073

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

NSW and Victoria have a go at each other over Victoria’s new branding – Buzzfeed

New Media Adventures in Oz – ABC Radio National

Jacqui Lambie’s revelation about her son – ABC News

Penny Wong and Joe Hockey meet outside the ABC radio booth on Tuesday morning after the same-sex marriage decision in the Liberal Party room:

The Week that Was – August 2 to August 8

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Well, as the edit in last week’s post showed, Bronwyn Bishop resigned. It’s believed that despite her friendship and trust from Tony Abbott, it was causing too much damage and she had to go. Abbott has been trying to shift the blame from her to the system, even announcing an inquiry into the system to see if the rules can be made clearer (which they probably can be). Parliament is due back soon, which means that people are putting themselves forward for the role of Speaker. Constitutionally, the vote for the new speaker will happen first thing, as you can’t run the House of Representatives without a Speaker. There are a few people being suggested for the role, such as Philip Ruddock, Andrew Southcott and the current Deputy Speaker Bruce Scott. There is hope that they will be far less partisan than Ms Bishop was.

MPs have begun to shut up about the whole entitlements saga, after Tony Burke went on the attack on Bishop, which lead Christopher Pyne to go on the attack regarding Burke’s spending, before it was pointed out that Pyne is just as bad as Tony Burke. Since then, MPs have not really said anything because it’s become clear that most of them have done something inappropriate at least once.

Abbott spent his week in South Australia and Victoria, announcing contracts for ship builders in SA, which they hope will improve employment and the Liberal Party’s vote in the state. Meanwhile in Victoria, he’s been focusing on jobs and training, which has made some wonder if South Australia is getting a better deal than Victoria.

NAPLAN tests are showing that there is little to no improvement in Australia’s literacy and numeracy skills overall, although there has been major improvement in Queensland and Western Australia. Most experts and teachers are suggesting that there needs to be more information and resources for teaching staff and a more individual focus on students.

It’s believed that the terrorism legislation may be struck down in the High Court, after it was revealed by legal experts that the legislation is poorly written and extremely broad. It’s believed that people who a caught putting graffiti on Commonwealth buildings could be charged with terrorism offences and lose their Australian citizenship if they are dual citizens.

Malaysia has announced that the piece of plane that washed up on Réunion Island is from MH370. However, the French, who are looking after the plane at the BEA, want to do more tests to double-check.

Finally this week, unemployment is up to 6.3%, it’s been revealed that the Vietnamese asylum seekers who were intercepted off WA a few weeks ago have been sent back to Vietnam, and that under Peter Dutton, 20 boats have been turned back, eight more than under Scott Morrison, Foreign investors are still being cracked down upon, with around 400 sales suspicious, the Productivity Commission has suggested changing penalty rates, and the MUA is picketing at Hutchison Ports (a holding company for Hutchison Whampoa) locations after they sacked workers by email this week.

Tweet of the Week

Taylor Swift continues world domination.

https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/628452918308384768

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

First Dog on the Moon introduces Ian the Climate Denialist Potato – The Guardian

Kumi Taguchi talks about her father’s experience in Japan during WWII – ABC The Drum