Tag Archives: G4S

The Week That Was – August 17 to August 23

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The big story this week was Clive Palmer’s attack on the Chinese. When asked about the court case involving him and a Chinese State Owned Enterprise on Q & A, he got overly defensive.

The Chinese Embassy responded by saying that Palmer is ignorant and prejudiced and the Australian government has gone into damage control, telling China that they don’t agree with Palmer – FYI, there is a Free Trade Agreement under negotiation at the moment. Jacqui Lambie isn’t making it easy though, as she believes that the Chinese are going to invade us at some point – which is absolutely ridiculous.

Ricky Muir from the Motoring Enthusiasts’ Party appeared from the shadows at the end of the week. He appeared and had a press conference at a car show, in which he said that while he does vote in the Palmer United Party bloc, he is his own man and does not agree with PUP’s views on China. He also said that he had talked with treasury people – apparently getting calls at all hours – and told the press that he still isn’t sold on the $7 GP co-payment or the Higher Education changes.

Speaking of the co-payment, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) has suggested an alternative plan for the co-payment. The AMA suggests that consultations for children, concession card holders and pensioners should not be subject to the co-payment. Both sides of politics, as well as other lobby groups are calling this plan a money grab, not a nice alternative, given something like $2-$3 goes to them out of the co-payment. However, the government is also being criticised for trying to sell the co-payment as a Medicare-strengthening measure because the government’s slice of the co-payment goes into a Medical research fund, and not into the budget or Medicare.

The Prime Minister has been busy this week. The start of the week saw the Pollie Pedal end in Penrith and Tony Abbott join in for the last few (wet) days and at a First World War memorial on Cockatoo Island. He was also on 2GB this week talking about the previous week’s NSW ICAC scalps – saying it was “a bad look” for the Liberal Party – but criticised the previous NSW Labor Government for changing the rules, making it illegal for property developers to make donations. According to the PM, it is unclear in the legislation what constitutes a property developer and arguing that private donations are better that publicly funded elections. He was also asked by 2GB presenter Ray Hadley about the ASADA investigation, saying that the ASADA claims were meant to be the previous Federal Labor government’s distraction from Julia Gillard, although Ray Hadley didn’t actually call Gillard by her name, he called her something along the lines of “that woman“. In the same interview, he was asked about a flag that had been seen in Sydney’s west that looked like it could be an ISIS flag (it wasn’t), and Abbott said that the only flag that should fly is the Australian flag – forgetting that most of the time the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags are often required to be flown as well.

Speaking of ISIS, they gruesomely murdered a journalist this week. The PM described the murder as “evil”, and then decided to also warn Australia that if we let our vigilance down, similar things could happen here.

Moving on though, the budget is still being talked about over three months after it was laid out. The government isn’t overly concerned, because they’ve got the appropriation and supply bills through, but some of their big-ticket items are still on the table and being negotiated. After his “poor don’t drive” gaffe last week, Joe Hockey has been out of sight for a while, leading journalists to question Mattias Cormann about why he was selling the budget over the weekend and not Hockey. Cormann said it was because they’re working together to sell the budget and therefore either of them can appear in front of the media to do so. However, it’s believed that the government may be compromising and giving ground on some of their major policy items in order to get them through.

It was also announced this week that Australia has agreed to take 2200 Iraqi and 2200 Syrian refugees in. However, they will be coming through what Scott Morrison called the “front door”, so therefore they are still stopping the boats, ergo no broken promises. Also, children and their families (where applicable) are being released from detention centres on bridging visas, and the Papua New Guinean authorities have arrested and charges two G4S employees over the murder of Reza Berati, the asylum seeker killed during the Manus Island riots.

Bill Shorten made a statement this week about rape claims made against him last year.

He’s been applauded by both sides of politics for being open and transparent about it now, rather than hiding it and having it come out later on.

So this week, Australia-Indonesia relations have gotten much better, to the point where thy are signing an agreement not to spy on each other…

Finally this week, the NSW Liberal Party has announced they will not put anyone forward for the by-elections in Newcastle or Charlestown, there has been criticism of the NAPLAN writing question, Australia and India have done a trade deal on uranium, there’s another ADFA sex scandal, and the man who was convicted of the Winchester Assassination has been released from prison after his conviction was quashed.

Tweet of the Week

Fairfax staff went on strike this week…

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Eliza Harvey on the only Liberal MP in the Hunter not to quit, and how she’s changed for the better – ABC The Drum

Sean Dorney’s leaving Australia Network and the ABC – ABC Backstory and Australia Network Online

What Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond thinks of Tony Abbott – Huffington Post UK

The Week that Was – June 8 to June 14

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Tony Abbott is continuing to represent Australia on the world stage. After Normandy at the end of last week, Abbot went to Villers-Bretonneux and visited the memorial and the local school L’ecole Victoria (Victoria School – named after the state) where he chatted in French to the students. Unfortunately his French wasn’t that great, but he gets a few kudos points for trying. He wants the Western Front to become more prominent and announced an interactive museum that will be open in time for ANZAC Day in 2018 – the Centenary of the Second Battle of Villers-Brettoneux.

His linguistic adventures continued in Canada, where he may or may not have called the country “Canadia” before quickly correcting himself. He and Stephen Harper, Canada’s PM, are ideologically similar, and so they were very happy to be in the same room as each other and both bashed the Carbon Tax a little bit, calling it “economy destroying” – or something close to that. The Opposition were a bit concerned given that Abbott’s itinerary in United States wasn’t fully sorted before he arrived, but that seems to have been sorted out.

In New York, Abbott visited the 9/11 Memorial, chatted with Ban Ki-moon and rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange. It was amusing at the NYSE as one of the spots where Abbott stopped for the cameras was near the stock screen for Abbott – a healthcare company with the slogan “A Promise for Life”…

He also had dinner with Rupert Murdoch, defending it by saying it what a Prime Minister should do. If that’s the case, then he should also meet with Mark Scott, David Gyngell, Hamish McLennan and other Australian media CEOs and Directors, not just Murdoch. Abbott then travelled to Washington D.C., where he met with Republican John Boehner. He was also meant to meet with Eric Cantor, another senior Republican, but Cantor lost his primary and so he resigned from his post. He met President Obama as well, and given the situation in Iraq (Al-Qaeda inspired ISIS militants have taken over some cities in the north), the PM assured Obama that we would be there to help if asked by the USA.

He also went to the Arlington Cemetery in Virginia and had talks with the US Secretary of Defence, Chuck Hagel, at the Pentagon. He also went to Texas, where he talked about how amazing coal is and how it was going to fuel our future for years to come, as well as bashing the Carbon Tax again. He also got given a big hat, which lead to George W. Bush comparisons…which I don’t think were meant to be positive.

Still with international affairs, there was concern this week that some Middle Eastern nations might stop or sanction trading with us, because the government recently stopped calling Israeli settlements in the West Bank. For many years, the government has used the term “occupied” but now they’re using “disputed”. It’s been said that our government has a “pro-Israel bias”, which the government has disputed. Barnaby Joyce, the Minister for Agriculture, “says he is leaving foreign policy issues affecting his portfolio to people “smarter” than him” (quote from the ABC). That’s a bit of a cop-out if you ask me, and the government should have kept things the way they were – offending large blocs of trading partners is not a good look.

I’ll leave the international jet-setting fun for now, and move on. Again the Budget is causing trouble, with a “Bust the Budget” protest in Melbourne that not only involved students, but also union members and ordinary people. There are moves to change the welfare system to cut 40-50 payments down to 4-6 payments as well as identifying those who may become “welfare dependent” and putting a stop to it. However, youth unemployment is very high in Australia – almost 20% – and the government wants those on welfare to apply for 40 jobs a month, so there could be an issue when it comes to stopping unemployment when there are no jobs. Oh, and if there is too much trouble getting the Budget through the Senate, the treasurer has essentially said there will be a double dissolution.

There were two inquiries this week:

The first was the Royal Commission into Union Corruption, which this week got onto a case involving the AWU. In particular, this case implicates Julia Gillard’s ex-boyfriend, who created a slush fund. It’s said that Julia Gillard – at the time a lawyer – helped with the legal stuff related to the set up of the fund, but she and the ex-boyfriend, among other witnesses, have said that she had no idea what the fund was for and that all she did was help. There is also suggestions that renovations at her old house were paid for by her ex-partner using this slush fund, but there has been contradictory evidence, and it’s also been pointed out that people in relationships often give each other money at times.

The second is a senate inquiry into what is going on in the Manus Island Detention Centre. A former G4S employee gave evidence as did a Salvation Army official, who attacked Scott Morrison for placing the blame one of their Papua New Guinean staffers, suggesting that witnesses were not questioned properly, and those witnesses say that the Salvation Army staff were trying to help the injured. Two 22-year-old students have also given evidence, saying they were hired by the Salvation Army as case workers. With no training or job interview, the two students were sent to Nauru and Manus Island within days of applying and found themselves counselling suicidal and distressed asylum seekers. One of the students got into a debate/argument with Senator Ian Macdonald over her opinions on asylum seekers and other things (SMH).

Finally this week, Senator-elect Ricky Muir had an interview with Channel 7, which didn’t go so well (see here), and NSW is in the lead-up to its Budget.

Tweets of the Week

Oh, and Tony, just because you delete a tweet with a mistake in it does not mean that people haven’t screencapped it before it disappears.

https://twitter.com/thebleague/status/477624340733632512

(It should be Ange Postecoglou, Mark Bresciano and Tim Cahill)

Things I’ve Been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Tony Abbott’s response to the son of gay parents – SameSame

The explanation of a comment by an Q&A panellist, and why it was so important – New Matilda

A comparison: ABC vs. BBC and CBC – Quadrant

The Week That Was – May 25 to May 31

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The Budget Saga continues.

The ALP and the Greens has said that they will allow the ‘deficit levy’ to pass through the senate, but anything else will be rejected – because guess what…they’re unpopular! Government Senators and MPs have admitted that the Budget is sort of hard to sell to their constituents. They seem to say that their electorates are ok with the deficit levy, but nothing else. Also of concern is the fact that certain agencies have been cut or had their funding – including security at Parliament House. Cue Bill Heffernan:

Mathias Cormann says that “This is the budget we had to have” which has reminded the older people in my house of Paul Keating, and there was lots of yelling in Question Time as Parliament resumed.

There has also been concern in Aboriginal communities, where a large number of people are on unemployment benefits. They say that job are hard enough to find, and that both the “earn or learn” and the “work for the dole” programs will make life difficult for Indigenous youth. The Government has said that they will be more lenient on Indigenous communities, but there are also huge funding cuts to Indigenous services.

There was talk that the government was going to use taxpayers’ money to explain the budget, which is a bit of an issue given they said the were cutting funding to a lot of things, but that was quashed by the Prime Minister. There is also concern from within the back benches, with one government MP, Dennis Jensen, asking about science funding – which has become “incoherent”.

But the government has said that they will now negotiate the GP co-payment – begin Politics and Budget Gymnastics 2014.

Still on the budget, there were concerns that the government might chase after HECS debts when you’re dead – Abbott quashed that idea too, which could be putting the Treasurer into a difficult position.

Clive Palmer showed up to parliament in his own (chauffeured) car, saying he didn’t need Commonwealth car (com car) and that it’s a waste of the taxpayers’ money. He also said that he wouldn’t be making any decisions until he had more information about the Budget. He was seen having dinner with Malcolm Turnbull and Treasury officials – which lead to Joe Hockey (who has had gastric sleeve surgery) making fat jokes. Not a good look.

A report into the riot on Manus Island, run by Robert Cornall, came out this week and it does suggest that there were warning signs that a riot was possible. The report says that a Salvation Army staffer from PNG was the most likely person to have killed Reza Berati, the asylum seeker killed in the riots. It says that G4S, the security company knew there were issues. However, while it appears the Papua New Guinean Government’s report is similar to the Cornall Report, the PNG police are accusing them of a cover-up. They say they never entered the centre and that G4S didn’t co-operate with their investigation, and neither did the Australian Government.

The Greens are very concerned, and have called for Scott Morrison’s resignation – though that probably won’t happen.

South Australia had some pretty cool political drama this week, with former Liberal leader Mark Hamilton-Smith defecting to support the Jay Weatherill’s Labor government. He will become and Independent Liberal, and a minister in Weatherill’s cabinet, as Minister for Trade, Investment, Veteran’s Affairs and Defence Industries. The SA Liberal are angry and are calling it a betrayal, and some in his electorate are unimpressed because they voted Liberal, not Independent or Labor.

Finally this week, as the Thai coup continues, the Australian government is stepping down relations with the Thai Army, there were protests against the budget and changes to Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, Tim Mathieson (Julia Gillard’s partner) dissed Margie Abbott, and Joe Hockey circa 1987:

Quote of the Week

“Some people do drugs at university, I did the Young Liberals” – Nick Xenophon’s standard reply when people bring up his membership of the Young Liberals in his university days.

Tweets of the Week

Christopher Pyne also supports chasing after your HECS debt when you’re dead…

https://twitter.com/DeptOfAustralia/status/471807846900723712

And there was talk that the ABC and SBS could be merged…so here’s what people came up with…

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Malcolm Fraser warns against the combining of ABC and SBS – Canberra Times

We don’t need to change section 18C to have free speech, because we already have it – A Tony Abbott version of Pharrell’s Happy.