Tag Archives: Finance

The Week that Was – February 23 to March 1

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So back last week, a guy died on Manus Island during riots. When Scott Morrison first talked about it, he said that the deceased asylum seeker was outside the complex when he was killed. It appears that this was not the case – the Iranian asylum seeker, who arrived after Kevin Rudd’s asylum seeker PNG resettlement plan, was inside the centre when he was killed. There have been calls for Scott Morrison to resign or for Tony Abbott to sack him. Abbott has said that he won’t sack him because we “don’t want a wimp running border protection” and that Morrison is “strong and decent”, despite the fact that Scott Morrison is the Minister for Immigration and not the Minister for Border Protection. Back on Manus Island, the locals have said they are rattled by the event and would very much like to know what happened that night. Fair enough, if a guy had died near my house, I’d like to know exactly what happened too. The Manus locals are blaming Australia for what happened and Papua New Guinean officials are saying that locals and PNG police weren’t very involved. They also said that the asylum seeker death was confirmed to have taken place in the complex very early on.

Craig Thompson, after having been found guilty in court last week, has this week been referred to the Privileges Committee to see if he deliberately lied to Parliament when he made a speech, denying he did anything untoward, and the Government has apologised to the people Thompson named in his speech. Labor allowed both motions through, and I guess, given Thompson was found guilty, it would look bad if they voted against it.

Stephen Conroy caused a major brouhaha (yes, brouhaha) this week, when he accused Angus Campbell of a political cover-up to do with Operation Sovereign Borders and what happened on Manus Island, which you can watch here. The Defence Minister wants an apology, which Conroy hasn’t given and Bill Shorten isn’t forcing him to. Conroy has however, withdrawn the comment, but the Liberals still want him sacked. In Senate Estimates hearings, it has been said that about $2 million has been spent on Operation Sovereign Borders, but they won’t say how much specifically they have spent on the orange lifeboats they’ve been using to send the asylum seekers back. Hmmm.

Aid for drought affected farmers also passed through parliament this week, with money for loans as well as handouts for those farmers who really and desperately need money and help. They are also setting aside $33 million dollars for mental health services to help farmers as well.

Speaking of aid, Qantas came back with its results, but it seems that the government is very reluctant to give it money, because there would be backlash from, well, a lot of people. However, they may still change the Qantas Sale Act so they can have more foreign ownership and make a bit more money. And while I don’t understand finance and economics that well, I can tell when shareholders are unimpressed. Qantas shares went down twice on Thursday, first when the $252 million loss was announced and then again when Alan Joyce said he was staying in his role as CEO…Ouch.

Tweets of the Week

A selection of tweets from the growing number of people who are taking part in a twitter campaign #notinmyname

The Week That Was – December 8 to December 14

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I’ve resigned myself to the fact that politics is going to be a lot busier with Tony Abbott at the helm – so I’ve started taking notes.

This week there was a new NewsPoll – the Coalition is down 48 to 52 against Labor in two-party preferred. Admittedly, given there is no election until 2016 – unless a double dissolution is called – the Coalition has plenty of time to sort themselves out. This week, after cutting a deal with the Greens – yes, the GREENS – the Coalition has abolished the debt ceiling. Labor wasn’t impressed, and they’ve been saying that the government is playing Russian Roulette with a loaded gun.

This week also saw Tony Abbott and Bill Shorten in South Africa for Mandela’s memorial service. Abbott said some decent, relatively sage things. While the Prime Minister was away, Warren Truss ran the joint and did pretty well. However, he may have contributed to a not-so-nice early Christmas present to the car industry.

Holden is leaving Australia by the end of 2017. Warren Truss was demanding an answer from Holden, and they replied. This will leave Toyota as the last car maker in Australia, and they could go to. It seems from some reports that Tony Abbott just assumes that Toyota will just stay forever, but I could be misunderstanding. The government cars (which are from Holden) are being replaced too. The new cars will be from BMW. If you ask me, the government should be buying cars from Toyota that are made in Australian factories. For now though, Tony Abbott is trying to put together a compensation package for the Holden workers and affiliated component makers.

The bad news keeps on coming. The High Court ruled that the ACT same-sex marriage law is at odds with the federal marriage law. The couples that did get a chance to marry are disappointed but they aren’t too bitter – they knew it was a possibility. If you remember last week, I did the maths and found that 12.5% of Australia allows same-sex marriage compared with 30% of the USA. Well, the USA is still at 30%, and Australia is back to zero.

This week also saw the Coalition wanting to take back money from Childcare to put into training instead of pay packets, a bit of COAG and the NBN or Coalition equivalent is going to take forever to come. Oh well, hopefully it will all settle down as Christmas gets closer…

Tweet of the Week

Kate Ellis (Labor MP for Adelaide) retweeted this:

What I’ve Been Reading/Listening/Watching etc.

Tea Party-like fun is not (yet) in Australia, thank goodness – ABC Drum Online

The Phobie Awards – The Advocate Online

Another Debate, Awkward Netballers and Costings

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Wednesday saw another debate, as well as the Liberal Party’s costings coming out, though the didn’t seem to make sense to me – then again my understanding of economics is dodgy at best.

I have to say, the best moment in a debate where I nearly fell asleep due to the constant repetitiveness of party spin, was the guy who asked Tony Abbott about his paid parental leave and said this:

I like him. Anyway, back to the costings. They are, in case you’ve been deaf for the last four weeks, going to cut the mining tax and carbon tax. The only new bit is that they are cutting 12,000 public service jobs – none of which will come from education and health.

Thursday will be the day forever etched in the memories of a netball team told “a little contact never hurt anyone” by Tony Abbott – the players faces were priceless to look at. On the other side, Kevin Rudd got in trouble with the Treasury Department for saying the Coalition’s costings had a hole. Oops.

Rural Queenslanders are feeling ripped off – maybe because all the focus is on Brisbane and Western Sydney. Trying to make them feel better (and to win votes of the Liberals), Warren Truss, the Nationals leader, said that he was announcing rural funds – AU$200m to help towns that need it.

Friday showed just how annoying the tabloid papers can get – I don’t read them for that reason, unless I am searching quotes. Kevin Rudd had a go at them for not asking Abbott about the Liberal’s finance plans. Mind you this is only 24 hours after Treasury corrected him, but even so, they haven’t asked Abbott at all during this election. It has got to the point, it appears, that the Finance Minister herself, Penny Wong, is sick of it. She got asked if the two Treasury Department guys who called Rudd out would still have jobs after the election if Labor won. The intelligent woman she is (sorry, I like her) she rolled her eyes and refused to answer.

Julia Gillard will not be attending the Labor Party launch on Sunday. However, she will be getting an honourary degree from a university in Adelaide.

One week to go….