Tag Archives: Finance Minister

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 Two Weeks that Were – June 15 to June 28

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I had exams and family engagements in the last fortnight, which is why I’ve bunched two weeks together. It’ll be a bit long, but I will be back on my regular schedule next week.

So, Tony Abbott left the US, via Hawaii where he visited Pearl Harbor. He says that he will wait for guidance, presumably from the Americans on how to approach the crisis in Iraq, calling the situation a “security disaster”.

He’s returned to Australia, where he faced internal dissent regarding the deficit levy. It isn’t supported by Senator Ian Macdonald and Cory Bernardi. Bernardi abstained the vote because he feels the rich pay enough tax, while Macdonald voted against because he thinks that companies should be paying too. The Paid Parental Leave is also an issue dividing the Coalition.

Tony Abbott was also handed a Double Dissolution trigger by the by the Opposition. They’ve rejected the bill to remove the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. It doesn’t mean it will be used, but because of how the Constitution works – if Abbott so pleases he may dissolve all houses of parliament and put the country through yet another election. Christine Milne and the Greens have essentially dared him to do it, while the Government is planning to reintroduce it when the new Senate sits after the 1st of July….but that could be an issue too, depending on how the beholders of the balance of power decide to vote.

Trade with the Middle East has been put into a predicament with George Brandis announcing that Australian Government Documents will now refer to what is considered my most countries to be “occupied Israeli settlements” as “disputed”. Why? Well, apparently “occupied” is a loaded term – which I thought was the point anyway – and “disputed” apparently shows that the government still supports a two-state solution. Regardless of whether or not that’s the case, some Middle Eastern nations are not amused and are thinking of sanctioning Australia’s trade. They met with Julie Bishop and DFAT, but were not impressed.

Peter Greste, the Australian journalist held in Egypt has, along with several other Western and Egyptian journalists been sentenced to 7 years prison, essentially for doing their jobs. The Australian government had been, and still is, communicating with Egyptian authorities and ministries, and Julie Bishop will again talk with the Egyptian leadership as will Abbott in the hope of fixing the situation. Australia doesn’t have an extradition treaty with Egypt, which means he cannot be transferred here to carry out his sentence. So now it’s a waiting game for the judicial system to take its course.

Oh, and in case we didn’t have enough on our foreign affairs plate, Indonesia’s Presidential candidates have given Australia a bit of a dressing down. One of the candidates says that while he wants Indonesia to have better relations in Australia, he is under the impression that we think that they are a poor, backward country.

Ouch.

There is a huge amount of controversy at the moment, because the Government wants to change financial advice laws. They want to water down strict rules that protect the consumer including one that makes sure there are no loopholes. It comes as the aftermath of a major scandal at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) pans out involving unauthorised investments of consumer’s money that lost money a few years back. There have been calls for a Royal Commission into the CBA but Tony Abbott is resisting it, saying it was good that the scandal was exposed. There is an investigation into similar crimes committed at other banks, however it isn’t looking at the specific crime the CBA employee committed and submissions are closed anyway. Joe Hockey – whose mother was in fact a victim of this scandal – has criticised the CBA’s handling of the incident, but hasn’t said much more.

The UN World Heritage people have declined the Government’s request to reduce the World Heritage area in Tasmanian Forests. The request was denied within five minutes, and the application was described by delegates as feeble. They also declined a request to do something on the Great Barrier Reef (I don’t remember what it was). Tony Abbott is a bit disappointed about it.

Clive Palmer has been earning some comments in my house, particularly about his strategy. Palmer met with Al Gore in the last week and announced the he would support the abolishment of the Carbon Tax – as long as the savings are passed onto the people’s bills and cost of living. It will also exclude the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and there will be no “Direct Action Plan” or any moves until our trading partners move to do the same – i.e. China.

The Liberal-National Council met in the last couple of days, and there were lots of speeches from Joe Hockey, Julie Bishop and of course Tony Abbott. Abbott encouraged the incoming Senators to accept his government’s election to power as he would their election to their seat – translated as: let my changes go through the senate. There was disagreement on a party constitution change between Christopher Pyne and George Brandis. But more interestingly, there is the suggestion of giving more sovereignty to the states. Labor Premiers like Jay Weatherill are not happy, saying it means cuts to the states. Liberal Premiers, like Denis Napthine have been more cryptic, saying they’re looking forward to the definitions.

The Government is relaunching Temporary Protection visas, which they won’t get through the current Senate, but will try after July 1st. The Government has also been stopped by the High Court from trying to limit the number of protection visas that can be issued each year. There may or may not be an asylum seeker boat (or maybe two) off Christmas Island – but it’s an “on water operation” at the moment so no one will say anything.

Finally in the last fortnight, James Ashby has dropped his case against Peter Slipper, the Greens will be rejecting the fuel excise because they want more funding in public transport and not roads, and Tony Abbott thinks protesting is “un-Australian” and that we not only need to “stop the boats” but “stop the jihadists” – in reference to the Australians fighting in Syria and/or Iraq – usually for ISIS.

Tweet of the Fortnight

Cynical Sydneysiders are awesome

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Other than my revision?

A Fact Check  on how much Tony Abbott says households will save if the Carbon Tax is repealed – ABC FactCheck

A look at what different cultures consider beautiful – estherhonig.com

Graham Creed talked to a Year 3 class at the British International School in Shanghai about climate – ABC Backstory