Tag Archives: ETS

The Week That Was – July 26 to August 1

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The ALP Conference finished last Sunday, with an agreement for a conscience vote on marriage equality for the next two parliamentary terms, a promise to introduce a marriage equality bill within the first 100 days of government if they win the next election, and an agreement to make climate change policy one of the key issues at the next election. Commentators believe Shorten has come out of the conference alright, but needs to prove himself as an alternative PM to non-ALP members. Meanwhile, Tony Abbott has been scaremongering on the proposed ETS that the ALP is taking to the next election, saying it is a big scary tax, only for Malcolm Turnbull to point out that the RET is technically a tax too.

Bronwyn Bishop is still under fire, originally for not apologising and going to Sophie Mirabella’s wedding on the taxpayer purse, then apologising because the PM’s office told her to, and then for a $6000 charter flight to seniors’ events and fundraisers two weeks after the $5000 chopper flight that started it all. There also appears to be some sort of link between the Ms Bishop and the charter company she’s been using, but it is not clear what that link is. Meanwhile Labor has announce that it will only support the government in condolence motions in Parliament, Meanwhile Christopher Pyne and Abbott are still supporting the Speaker, while Malcolm Turnbull has been tweeting about the trains he’s been taking and joking about justifying the $4 train ticket.

EDIT 5PM August 2 – Bronwyn Bishop has resigned.

After the Labor Party agreed to have a quota of 50% women in parliament in the next couple of years, which has sparked discussion about why women don’t go into politics, with some suggesting that Question Time has something to do with it. Senior Liberals are not in favour of targets despite the fact that the general belief is that the Liberal Party has problems with women.

The Royal Commission into Child Abuse looked into Jehovah’s Witnesses, where it was revealed that church elders investigated abuse claims internally, and never reported any cases to the police. Members of the church also admitted to destroying notes.

Finally this week, the guy who came back from Syria last week has been charged with terrorism offences, paperwork acquired by the ABC through Freedom of Information shows the ATO was worried about people rorting the small business tax breaks, they may have found a section of the MH370 washed up on the French overseas department of Réunion, and Russia vetoed a UN Security Council Resolution to have a tribunal look into the downing of MH17, which made Julie Bishop angry.

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Barrie Cassidy on the Bishop and Goodes Sagas – ABC The Drum

Stan Grant on racism and being Indigenous – The Guardian

SBS2’s The Feed – Douche of the Week

The Week That Was – July 19 to July 25

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The week began with “Reclaim Australia” protests in major capital cities, most of which were countered by anti-racism protesters, who had a tendency to call the Reclaim Australia protesters ‘fascists’. At least in Sydney, the police kept the apart for most of the day, considering their operation a success with only five arrests and two people charged.

The saga with Bronwyn Bishop continues, with Bishop insisting that while her use of taxpayer funds to pay for a chopper ride from Melbourne to Geelong (which is perfectly accessible by a highway and you can get there in about an hour) was an ‘error of judgement’, it was official business and she paid back the over $5000 the ride cost. Abbott is standing by Bronwyn Bishop, although she is ‘on probation’, which is leading to calls of hypocrisy from both Labor and the public, given the last time a Speaker got in trouble for spending taxpayers’ money for dubious transport claims Abbott was calling for their resignation. For those who don’t remember, that was Peter Slipper, the LNP MP that became Speaker so that Labor had another vote – he spent $900-ish on cars to wineries.

This week also saw a COAG retreat and meeting, with all of the Chief Ministers and Premiers, along with the PM discussing the GST, Health Funding, Medicare and other ways to bring some more money into the states after the government cut funding to health back in the 2014. No decisions were made but they had “constructive discussions”. They also considered some more finding for domestic violence and also looked into making the Northern Territory a State.

The ALP had its National Conference at the end of the week, with Bill Shorten proposing that 50% of Australia’s energy to be renewable by 2030, with a possible ETS – the Greens were happy with that and the Liberals are not (no surprises there). However, the ALP is not all rainbows and sunshine, with both Bill Shorten and other senior party people proposing that Labor consider turning back asylum seeker boats if they win government. The party voted not to ban turnbacks, which means Labor has the option if they’re in government, but they do have some additional parts to the policy, such as money for the UN Refugee Agency, a Refugee Child Advocate, and doubling Australia’s refugee intake. Dutton suggests that this will make more boats come.

Speaking of boats coming, an asylum seeker boat was spotted off the Western Australian coast, which is believed to have Vietnamese asylum seekers on board – we’re not sure though because of the Operation Sovereign Borders Cone of Silence which also means we have no idea where they are now.

A nurse who ended up joining IS has returned to Australia and extradited to Victoria. He claims that he went to Syria for humanitarian purposes, as he was a nurse, and when hurt in an airstrike was taken to an IS-run hospital where they forced him to join the organisation. He is yet to be charged.

Finally this week, the National Party is split over the Shenhua Coalmine, telcos are upset about the new national security legislation being proposed that lets the government meddle in the way they secure their networks, Mike Baird suggests raising the GST which upsets almost everyone, and incumbent MP for Canning Don Randall died this week – most famous for expenses scandals and not being in Parliament during the apology.

Tweet of the Week

The ABC celebrated five years of ABC News 24…

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

How the ABC’s female journalists are changing the newsroom – Daily Life

Virginia Trioli on renewable energy and engineers – The Weekly Review

ABC News 24 looks back at five years:

The Week that Was – July 13 to July 19

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This week was less insane than previous weeks, or at least it was until about Friday.

This week saw the Coalition negotiating with the Palmer United Party to get the Carbon and Mining taxes through the Senate, with the hope that both would get through by the end of the week. Senate ran later on Tuesday and Thursday, and while the Carbon Tax passed the Senate on Thursday, the Mining Tax was not, as the PUP wanted to see the $10 million of welfare that came with it to remain. Regardless, the Government is pleased with itself for removing the Carbon Tax, while the opposition is saying that the government will be judged harshly in the future. Bill Shorten has said that he will take an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to the next election and Tony Abbott, when asked if he would consider an ETS, said there wouldn’t be a Carbon Tax. It appears that if you are Tony Abbott, there is no difference between an ETS and a Carbon Tax.

The financial regulation laws are floating around too, with the PUP asking for some consumer safeguards to be added before they let it through. There was also the release of an interim report from a financial inquiry, stating that while the market is quite concentrated, it is still competitive. There are also concerns with superannuation though, with funds borrowing money to make investments and high fees, as well as the recommendation that financial advice from banks be called “sales” leaving the term “advice” to independent advisors who aren’t attached to any bank or financial group.

This week also saw this:

Yep, David Leyonhjelm, a Liberal Democratic Senator (different from the Liberal Party), says that basically, the politicians should let people do what they want to do behind closed doors and allow marriage equality. He’s pretty sure that the Greens and Labour will be supportive of his Marriage Deregulation Amendment, and says that he will table it only if he gets a guarantee from the Coalition that there will be a conscience vote on their side. He says that it’s a liberty issue, and that if same-sex marriage were legal, then maybe people wouldn’t make it so hard for the government to get their budget through. He also pulled the “Tony Abbott, what about your sister?” and the “Bill Shorten, think about Penny Wong” cards. In return for the conscience vote, Leyonhjelm has said he will support Temporary Protection Visas in the Senate.

It was going pretty smoothly this week until Friday morning, when the news came through that a Malaysian Airlines flight had been shot down over a rebel-held region in Ukraine. The flight, MH17, from Amsterdam’s Schiphol to Kuala Lumpur, had 298 people aboard, including 3 infants, 15 crew, and 36 (UPDATE: now 37) Australian citizens and permanent residents. Australia has the third highest death toll, behind The Netherlands and Malaysia. The Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop has called for an international investigation, I’m assuming by International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) given they have investigated similar incidents (like Korean Air 007). Russia is also under scrutiny, as it is believed that the pro-Russia separatists in the region are being supported by Russia in many ways, and possibly gave the rebels the missile used to shoot down the plane.

Finally this week, the guy in charge of looking at the Australian education system, Kevin Donnelly, thinks corporal punishment is ok. Thankfully, no-one else appears to agree with him. The refugees that are somewhere on a boat off Christmas Island are still there and haven’t been handed over yet.

Tweets of the Week

Not sure if this is true, but if it is….

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Oz:  A very supportive nation when it comes to marriage equality, but we still haven’t changed the law – The Advocate

ABC’s Hayden Cooper reflects on the Greste case – ABC Backstory

The Week That Was – July 14 to July 20

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Well this week was somewhat uneventful, until we got to Friday.

That’s when Kevin Rudd announced his new asylum seeker policy – to settle those who arrive by boat to Papua New Guinea.

I’m assuming that the idea is to thwart people smugglers, who are sending these boats to Australia, as asylum seekers pay them to get here – the idea being that if it’s obviously apparent that paying a people smuggler to get to Australia, when the likelihood of doing so is incredibly low, the smuggling will stop.

Ok. In a way, I get it. It will stop the people smuggling and that’s a good thing. But I was under the impression that if they ended up on christmas island or Nauru, then they were Australia’s responsibility to process and resettle in Australia, not to palm them off to PNG. In return PNG is getting more development aid. It’s one of these things where, until I have more information – which is what I like to have in order to make decisions – I’m not entirely sure whether or not it’s a good policy.

Earlier in the week, those interested were entertained by Mr Tony Abbott’s comments on the emissions trading scheme Kevin Rudd’s government announced, which you can read in Quotes of the Week below. The emissions trading scheme switch is thought to give the budget 4-6 billion dollar-wide hole. Labor’s denying this though. However, businesses like the idea, and it is how Europe is doing it. Oh, and while the carbon tax was something like $25 per tonne, this is a variable rate, depending on the amount you emit.

Other than that, the asylum seekers are rioting on Nauru – I can’t tell why though.

Quotes of the Week

“This is not a true market. Just ask yourself what an emissions trading scheme is all about…It’s a so-called market in the non-delivery of an invisible substance to no-one” – Tony Abbott on an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)

“I understand this is a very hard-line decision. I understand the different groups in Australia and around the world will see this decision in different ways,but our responsibility as a government is to ensure we have a robust system of border security and orderly migration on the one hand, as well as fulfilling our legal and compassionate obligations under the Refugees’ Convention on the other” – Kevin Rudd on the PNG policy.

Tweet of the Week

The ABC’s Indonesian Correspondent was the one who had to tell asylum seekers what was going on when he came to interview some of them – they hadn’t got the news yet…

Faux Pas of the Week

Say again?