I’m back after a bit of a break, thanks to some uni assignments and some family stuff.
Monday was the Queen’s Birthday, and as usual, people received honours. Fifteen people became Companions of the Order of Australia (the highest honour) with Cate Blanchett the only woman to receive it. Alan Joyce was another notable Australian who became a Companion.
Others who received an Order of Australia includes ABC psephologist Antony Green, actress Deborah Mailman, designer Collette Dinnigan and surgeon and playwright Mohammed Khadra. Only 30% of the Queen’s Birthday honours recipients were women, attributed mostly to a lower number of nominations for women than men, however many want to see this change.
This week saw a pretty epic mudslinging saga regarding Chinese and other foreign donations to the two major political parties. After an ABCÂ Four Corners report on China’s influence in Australian politics, university student groups and Australian chinese-language media. The Chinese were not impressed, and the politicians took the chance to call each other out on slightly dubious Chinese donations. Julie Bishop went after Senator Sam Dastyari, someone else went after Julie Bishop, and Bishop then brought up Joel Fitzgibbon, and someone else dragged former MP and Trade Minister Andrew Robb into the furore. Meanwhile the Greens called for an independent inquiry or a Federal ICAC.
The two major parties have promised to ban foreign donations, but this has to look legitimate, especially given the damaging week of dragging each other through the mud.
Meanwhile, Alan Tudge, Michael Sukkar and Greg Hunt, who are all Victorian MPs and ministers in Turnbull’s cabinet, could be facing contempt of court charges. The suggested that Victorian courts were being too soft on terror suspects. The Victorian courts didn’t take that too well, and while the ministers have retracted their statements, they haven’t apologised.
There will be an amnesty on guns from July, allowing people who may have unregistered guns and ammunition to hand them in, with no penalty and no questions asked. With 250,000 unregistered guns in Australia, it is hoped many of them will be handed in. However some gun control advocates and politicians do not believe it will be as successful as the last amnesty back in the late 1990s after Port Arthur and the National Firearm,s Agreement.
Several refugees on Manus Island have settled with the Australian Government before a six-month long trial was due to begin. The government will pay around $70 million to the refugees, as well as the near $20 million court costs for Slater and Gordon Lawyers. The government says that settling was going to be cheaper than going through the trial, which is probably true, but some do believe they’re covering up what goes on in those detention centres by preventing the truth from coming out.
Finally this week, the unemployment rate dropped to 5.5%, thanks to an increase in full-time employment; a 22-year-old Sydney man was arrested at Sydney airport for allegedly trying to travel overseas to fight in Syria; there are questions over whether a second Supermax prison should be built for those convicted of terror offences, despite concerns it will only breed further radicalisation; and there is a bit of a Liberal backbench rebellion regarding the Finkel report, as it doesn’t talk about the future of coal.
Tweets of the Week
ABC Correspondent Adam Harvey on his injury in Marawi in the Philippines…
Since this tweet, he was flown to Manila, and had surgery to remove the bullet.
Things I’ve Been Looking at Online
Andrew Probyn on Turnbull’s ‘Trump Speech’ at the Midwinter Ball – ABC Online
Channel 10 in voluntary Administration – ABC Online
Kara L 