Tag Archives: Gaffe

Gaffes, Controversies and that Pesky Section 44

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And so the campaign has begun, with Scott Morrison visiting the Governor-General at 6:55 am on Thursday morning to ask for the election to be held on May 18. Unlike 2016, where we were stuck with eight weeks of what soon became turgid and frankly boring campaigning, this time it will all be over in a little more than five weeks!

There are 151 seats in the House of Representatives up for grabs, with the party that wins the election needing to win at least 76 seats. This is up from the last couple of elections, as the Australian Electoral Commission has added a new electorate in the Australian Capital Territory. There are also 40 of the seats in the Senate up for grabs, with those who drew the short straw after the double dissolution in 2016 campaigning to remain in the Senate.

The start of the campaign saw Scott Morrison painting the election as a choice between him and his government or Bill Shorten – a tactic taken up because polling suggests that while the Coalition is losing to Labor in polling, Bill Shorten is not the preferred Prime Minister, and not everyone likes him. This tactic, while taking aim at one of the Opposition’s main weaknesses, does paint the Coalition into a corner a little bit, as there’s not a lot you can do when your main campaigning point is “its us or them”.

On the other hand Bill Shorten has said the election is about people and health and education. He doesn’t seem to mind much that he’s not the preferred Prime Minister, as long as people stop using his name as a verb. Shorten has taken a different approach to the election with a great deal of his talking time devoted to policy, and when he is asked about Morrison and the Coalition, he tends to try to divert to policy rather tha personal attack. This approach is refreshing and a nice change from what I refer to as “petty school children” politics.

We’re only a few days into the campaign and already we’ve had our first major misstep in the form of the incumbent Member for Dickson, Peter Dutton. Dutton said in an interview with The Australian newspaper that his Labor opponent Ali France was using her disability as an “excuse” to not live in the marginal northern Brisbane electorate. France is an amputee, who after loosing her leg in a car accident in 2011, and while she has been using a prosthesis while out an about, uses a wheelchair at home. She currently lives two kilometres from the border of Dickson and has committed to moving to the seat if she wins – but in order for her to do that she does need to find a home that either suits or can be renovated to suit her needs.

It took Dutton a day to apologise, during which Scott Morrison tried to stonewall questions to him about Dutton’s comments, and gave the Labor party a bunch of free political advertising. Anyone in the seat of Dickson who didn’t know who Ali France was before the election was called certainly does now. It has also allowed for Labor to pick up on the hypocrisy of the Government who just announced a Royal Commission into abuse within the disability care sector, and Kristina Keneally has called Dutton “the most toxic man in the Liberal Party”.

We’ve also had the first controversy of the election with accusations that the government tried to politicise the work of the Treasury Department. On Friday the government brandished Treasury costings of the Labor party’s tax plans, or at least what looked like them. Labor, justifiably concerned, contacted the Treasury Secretary Philip Gaetjens and asked him to explain. As it turned out, before the election was called the Government asked the Treasury to cost some policies for them, as one in government has a right to do. It just so happens that these policies were similar to, if not the same as, those Labor had announced. Philip Gaetjens made clear to Labor (through a letter to Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen) that they were not asked to cost Labor’s policies specifically, and had that been the case Treasury would have refused the request. You can read Gaetjens’ letter to Chris Bowen here.

Meanwhile, there have been four early withdrawals from candidates this campaign, with Labor’s Melissa Parke in the West Australian seat of Curtin dropping out after comments on Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, and three Liberal Candidates in Melbourne – Kate Oski in Lalor, Vaishali Ghosh in Wills, and Helen Jackson in Cooper (formerly Batman) – over section 44 issues. Ghosh and Oski have been forced out over citizenship concerns, while Jackson has been revealed to be an Australia Post employee and is in the process of being disendorsed.

Top Tweet

There are a few seats the Coalition are yet to find candidates for….

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Kristina Keneally is on the rise – SMH

There are two major votes on May 18 – ABC Online

Things You Should Check Out

AEC Website – Remember you have until 8pm AEST to enrol to vote or change your details!

ABC VoteCompass – take the survey and see where you sit compared to the major players this election.

 

 

The Week That Was -May 22 to May 28

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The third week of the election began with Bill Shorten campaigning for the Labor candidate in Malcolm Turnbull’s seat of Wentworth, while Malcolm Turnbull announced $7 million for young people to get into clinical trials while at a food and wine festival. They’ve mostly talked taxes and parliamentary entitlements while people aren’t really paying attention. That’s probably because at this point in an average campaign, we’d be two to three weeks out and heading toward the home stretch.

There’s also been some drama over health policy, with Health Minister Susan Ley suggesting that she was not allowed by Treasury and other senior ministers to create the health policy she wanted, instead having to remain with a co-payment and a freeze on Medicare rebates. It led Labor to tell the public that Ley essentially believes that their health policy is better, while Turnbull and Scott Morrison are insisting that there needs to be sustainable spending.

The only other real issue has been the dispute over how costings are done. Both parties agree there is a deficit, and that spending needs to be sustainable. However, while Scott Morrison believes that the promises Labor has made will put a $67 billion hole in the budget. Labor’s Chris Bowen disputes this, suggesting the maths is incorrect, and one could argue it is, given that the Liberal Party has included policies the Labor party has blocked since the 2014 budget and other measures that Labor has disputed. Tony Burke slammed the coalition, saying they were consciously misinforming the public. It also didn’t help that Bill Shorten talked about a ‘spendometer’ when making a comment about the media while making some funding promises at a community meeting.

Two gaffes this week saw Barnaby Joyce suggesting Indonesia was behind the influx of asylum seekers coming by boat, after the Labor government halted the live cattle trade a few years ago after concerns about humane treatment, leaving Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop to do damage control. Meanwhile Mathias Cormann had a moment where he forgot who his Prime Minister was, saying Bill Shorten was a nice, caring, intelligent person, when he meant to say Malcolm Turnbull – Shorten jumped on the mistake, saying the Liberal scare campaign was ‘terminated’.

With Monday this week having been the cut-off for enrolling to vote, it was suggested that nearly 955,000 eligible people were yet to enrol, of which they believe 300,000 are younger voters. Parties are being reminded not to ignore the youth vote, because young people are not disengaged with politics. Others are suggesting that we need an easier and simpler enrolment system.

Finally this week, Bill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull agree that more needs to be done for reconciliation and upset Mathias Cormann by suggestion that Australia still has issues with racism; there are concerns that the rural delivery of the NBN is and will be sub-par; and dairy farmers are angry after milk suppliers Fonterra and Murray Goulburn drastically cut milk prices, leading to massive public support with people purchasing name-brand milk over $1/L supermarket brand milks.

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Labor should focus on policy, not Turnbull – ABC The Drum

Why Journalists should get off the campaign buses – ABC The Drum

Nova Peris shuts down racism – Buzzfeed

The Week That Was – September 6 to September 12

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I’m looking at my notes this week and realising just how many times the word “refugee” comes up.

It was a pretty good week for Abbott, even if it ended with a gaffe and a leak that sent cabinet into a hissy fit.

As of this week, the Abbott Government has been in power for two years, and has one more to go until the next election. The government is not in a great place, with polls showing that if there was an election held this week, they would lose their majority. Abbott has been repeating his usual line of “taxes are down, I stopped the boats” when asked about his two years so far and he says that he hopes that when people vote next year they will remember his government’s victories. Problem is, there are bigger issues at the moment, and with the economy down, jobs sparse and no surplus as promised, the bad decisions and the gaffes mean that Abbott and his government are not in a good place right now, and they still may not be in 12 months time when the next election comes around. He also had a 15 minute interview on 7:30 with Leigh Sales, which had the inhabitants of my house arguing, laughing and “oooh”-ing at the TV.

However, this week has been good for Abbott, as he’s been able to announce that Australia will take in 12,000 Syrian refugees in a one-off increase in our refugee intake. Peter Dutton was sent to Geneva at the start of the week to ask what Australia could do, while the Opposition and the Greens call on the government to take in more refugees overall. Before the announcement people were pointing out that Australia has done similar things in 1989 after Tiananmen and in 1999 during the Kosovo crisis, so we should do the same.

However, there has been criticism after several senior ministers, including Eric Abetz and Julie Bishop made clear their focus was on the Christians escaping Syria. Now, it is likely that some of the refugees are from Christian minority groups, and they are likely to be the ones in the most danger from Islamic State, but you can’t just say “oh we’ll just take the Christian ones thanks guys”. The Opposition is criticising the government on its bias as are the Greens. Meanwhile, the government began talking about how taking in these extra refugees was a burden to be shouldered by all, and we were told Australia would also send aid to the countries bordering Syria that host refugee camps.

The Government also said that any Syrian refugees in offshore detention – basically those that arrived by boat – will not be included in this 12,000 strong cohort of refugees they are settling in Australia. This has angered the Greens who feel that not only should these boat arrivals be included, but the government should also put an end to offshore detention all together. Meanwhile Abetz reiterated the focus on letting in Christians – leading to some believing that this was a sort of rebirth of the White Australia Policy – if you don’t know what that is, Google it.

The week ended with Abbott meeting community leaders to plan how Australia would welcome the influx of refugees from Syria…and then the good week Abbott had ended not so well.

Peter Dutton’s joke offended Pacific Island nations’ leaders, didn’t make Bill Shorten laugh, and left Abbott trying to salvage his weekend in Canning where he is helping the Liberal candidate get elected in a by-election, calling the joke “lame” and praising Dutton for his hard work in Immigration.

Meanwhile there was a leak to Sydney’s Daily Telegraph newspaper in which it proclaims that there may be a cabinet reshuffle on the cards. It’s unclear whether the PM’s Office – who is close to the Tele – or someone who wants Abbott out of job is the one who spoke to the reporter, but either way it has sent Cabinet into panic, with rumours that at least eight ministers could be in the firing line, including Nigel Scullion, Eric Abetz and Andrew Robb.

Finally this week, the Commonwealth is celebrating the Queen, after she became the longest-serving monarch, usurping Queen Victoria, Australia will be taking part in airstrikes in Syria, and while they began flying over IS-held territory at the end of the week we don’t know if they launched any strikes or not, and there have been accusations of bias against Judge Street, who out of 254 asylum seeker cases has dismissed all but two before hearing any evidence

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online.

I’ve had uni assessments due this week – so the material is not that erudite.

First Dog on the Moon on the PM’s “Twonyversary” – The Guardian

First Dog on refugees in Europe – The Guardian

Antony Green is made an Adjunct Professor – ABC Backstory

The Week that Was – August 30 to September 5

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The week hasn’t been that bad for the government, but it hasn’t been fantastic either.

There are rumours that Tony Abbott is being asked to get rid of Treasurer Joe Hockey, meanwhile Hockey has been dealing with some not-so-great growth data and a fall in average national income. On top of that, Abbott is also dealing with the fallout from a blistering New York Times piece about the Australian Government’s treatment of refugees, as well as a gaffe that offended the Jewish community – Abbott said that Islamic State was worse than the Nazis. Abbott, former PM John Howard and others have been in the West Australian seat of Canning as the by-election heats up.

Unions are still concerned about the way the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) will affect the labour market, not only for them but for the workers that could be flown in by China. These concerns seem to have been misinterpreted by the government, who keep reminding people that labour mobility was always part of the agreement and then bad mouth the Unions and the Labor Party, calling them racists. On the other hand, you have the Labor Party trying to get people to understand that they are just concerned about it because there doesn’t seem to be that much information about how the labour mobility thing is going to work. Labor has also said that they don’t want the FTA renegotiated, they’re just worried about Australian jobs.

The Royal Commissioner for the Trade Union Royal Commission, Dyson Heydon has ruled that he does not need to recuse himself due to apprehended bias. He’s said that the average fair-minded lay person (which is a legal concept and doesn’t actually exist) would not think he’s biased. Heydon has also pointed out that he can’t use a computer and can only read emails if they’ve been printed out by his assistant.

The plight of the Syrian Refugees is hitting home this week after the image of the drowned toddler went viral. It has leads some Liberal Party figures to speak about how Australia should take in more refugees. Both Mike Baird, the NSW Premier and Craig Laundy, a Federal MP, have called on Abbott to consider letting more refugees in to Australia, particularly from Syria, with Laundy saying that he and his family had talked over dinner about whether or not they would jump on a boat to escape Islamic State and that the family agreed that they probably would. The Prime Minister is keeping his cards close to his chest, while the Greens are demanding that Australia take in 20,000 Syrian refugees.

Finally this week, there will be a Senate Inquiry into the 7-Eleven pay scandal, which will also incorporate United service stations, the citizenship legislation is probably going to be challenged in the High Court, and it’s looking very likely Australia will join the USA in bombing Syria – Oh and Johnny Depp had a go at Barnaby Joyce, which you can see here.

Tweet of the Week

Scott Ludlam on Dyson Heydon’s decision…

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Julia Baird (Host of The Drum on ABC TV) on her cancer diagnosis – New York Times

Michelle Grattan on Abbott and his government – The Conversation

Emma Alberici on how Trump is reminding people of Ronald Reagan’s campaign – ABC The Drum

The Week That Was – February 15 to February 21

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This week was a little less crazy as the last, but there was still some drama.

Philip Ruddock has spoken out about his sacking, saying that he was never approached by Tony Abbott about his performance as Chief Whip. Some have suggested that Ruddock was sacked because he allowed the spill motion to go ahead last week, or that the sacking was a way to show the backbench that he was serious about change and that he wants to communicate with them differently.

The Bali Nine ringleaders are getting closer to execution, although it was closer at the start of the week, when the authorities decided to move them to the execution prison by Wednesday. However that changed, and the two men will not be transferred for some time, so they can have more time with their families. Tony Abbott and the government have been trying to save the two men from execution, saying that if it goes ahead, Australia will make their disappointment known diplomatically. Abbott also said that because of the $1 billion in aid Australia gave to Indonesia after the 2004 Tsunami, Indonesia should pay us back by saving the two men from execution, which Indonesia did not like, saying that threats were not part of diplomatic language and foreign aid was not a bargaining chip. It put strain on the relationship and Julie Bishop ended up apologising to the Indonesian Foreign Minister for the gaffe.

The Social Services Minister Scott Morrison has ruled out including the family home in the means-testing calculations for the aged pension, after rumours that it would be included. Morrison has asked for ideas on saving money so he doesn’t get in trouble from the public for doing something they don’t like.

The Productivity Commission has released their report into childcare, saying that the cost and the limited places are what keeps parents (usually mothers) at home looking after the kids and not returning to work. The Commission has recommended that there be a means-tested subsidy that is paid directly to the child care providers, meaning that wealthier parents will pay more towards childcare than lower-income parents. If the parents choose to get a nanny, the subsidy can also go towards paying them, however the professional child care providers are concerned about the quality of care children get from nannies. Meanwhile, the Health Minister Sussan Ley is trying to make the Medicare changes more palatable.

David Hicks, an Australian held in Guantánamo Bay by the Americans, has had his conviction quashed after it was ruled that the crime he was charged with did not exist at the time he committed his crime. Hicks has welcomed the development, but has been critical of the Australian and American governments, saying his conviction was politically motivated, and wants an apology from the government, which the Prime Minister has said he will not get because he was “up to no good”. Hicks also wants the government to help him pay his medical bills, as he needs quite a few procedures and long-term treatments thanks to his time in the prison at Guantánamo Bay.

The submarine building drama continues, with the announcement that Japan, Germany and France will compete for the tender to build Australian submarines, meaning that the ASC will have to partner with the company that earns the tender in order to have building jobs available. The Opposition and the unions have said this is a broken election promise. The government has also ruled out the Swedish firm Saab from building submarines, even though Saab said it would be more than happy to have all the building done in Australia, because the Swedish haven’t built a submarine since 1996.

Also, there appears to be someone leaking things to the media, after a story came out on Saturday suggesting that Tony Abbott wanted to send thousands of troops into Iraq. Abbott has denied that he ever brought it up, although it has been suggested that it may have been an informal suggestion rather than a formal idea.

Finally this week, Western Australia is worried that the measures to prevent young Australians heading to fight in the Middle East are focusing too much on the eastern coast after a West Australian man left for the Middle East; George Brandis is trying to monitor social media in real-time; the ADF has been called in to help with the Cyclone Marcia recovery; and there are concerns that Free Trade Agreements might make it easier for incidents, like this week’s Hepatitis A outbreak, to happen again.

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve been Looking at Online

Malcolm Turnbull talks to Indonesia through Q & A about the Bali Nine ringleaders (and in the process auditions for the role of PM)

Queensland’s Cyclone Marcia sent rain and wind to Northern NSW – so this happened.

The Week That Was – February 1 to February 7

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This week has been one of the crazy ones, and it’s not going to calm down anytime soon.

The Queensland election appears to have resulted in a hung parliament, with most people believing that Labor will have government with the support of the three other MPs. Most people in the Liberal Party are blaming Tony Abbott, and the fact that he gave Prince Phillip a knighthood for the election loss. There is concern in NSW, that given the results of the Victorian and Queensland elections, that the Liberals could lose the NSW Election in late March if Abbott stays as PM.

Not only is there some concern in NSW, but also federally, with Abbott’s approval rating quite low. The PM made a speech at the National Press Club on Monday, in which he relinquished his involvement in Australia Day Honours, promised he’d listen more and has told Australians that they voted him and the government in, and only the electorate can vote him out – which is incorrect in terms of the leadership, as he can be toppled by the party if they so wish. In the days that followed, ministers and other senior Liberal figures have come out in support of the PM as rumblings of discontent within the party grow, and several backbenchers have publicly spoken about how they no longer support Abbott as the Prime Minister.

It came to a head on Friday with West Australian MP Luke Simpkins asking the Chief Whip, Philip Ruddock, for a spill motion during the party room meeting on Tuesday. Ministers, including the top contenders for the leadership – Julie Bishop and Malcolm Turnbull – have publicly said that they will not support the motion, although it is a secret ballot, so no one will know.

The crazy week in federal politics has led to some amusing slip-ups and some great pop culture references though. Defence Minister Kevin Andrews at one point said he supported the Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard leadership team, and Abbott made reference to Game of Thrones. Although his was more a reference to the title than to a specific part of the franchise (unlike the Harry Potter comments made in 2013).

Meanwhile, the Northern Territory had a more dramatic week, with Willem Westra van Holthe challenging Adam Giles for the NT Country Liberal Party leadership (and also the role of Chief Minister). Westra van Holthe called a press conference at one in the morning to say he was in charge, and was due to be sworn in before noon, only for no-one to show up. It turned out Giles was refusing to sign his resignation letter, so he and Westra van Holthe were sent to a room to come to a solution. The solution? Adam Giles is to remain Chief Minister, and Willem Westra van Holthe will be his deputy – much to the amusement of the rest of the country.

Finally this week, Peter Greste has been released from prison and is now back in Australia, the Bali Nine ringleaders are due to be executed this month, and the UK Defence Minister is in town for talks with his Australian counterpart.

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve been Looking at Online

ABC News Librarians – ABC Backstory

Tony Abbott hashtag backfires – SMH

Reporters looking back on the Sydney Siege – ABC Backstory

The Week That Was – December 21 to December 27

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It was inordinately busy in the days leading up to Christmas this year.

It began with a reshuffle of Tony Abbott’s Cabinet, during which he sacked David Johnston as Minister for Defence, putting Kevin Andrews in his place. That meant the role of Minister for Social Services was given to Scott Morrison, and Peter Dutton was made Minister for Immigration. Sussan Ley becomes the second woman in Cabinet, as Minister for Health and Sport, and there has also been a change of Parliamentary Secretaries and Assistant Ministers. You can see who has gone where on the ABC website.

At least two Australians are being implicated in the brutal treatment of Yazidi women by Islamic State militants. It’s believed that the ISIS militants have either sold women and girls into sex slavery, forced them to marry ISIS militants or sexually assaulted them. Activists and charities that have rescued and helped these women have reported that at least four Yazidi women were held by militants well-known to be Australian.

There are thoughts that the GST will be changed in the next budget, after the white papers on taxation are tabled. This announcement that the GST could change has led to State Treasurers clambering for more money, while also reminding the government that if their share of the GST is decreased they will not accept the changes.

Consumer confidence could rise after the Boxing Day sales given the high turnout, but it could be a one-off given that people are still concerned about the budget and the uncertainty in Canberra. It’s thought that retailers will keep the sales going for as long as possible in order to keep consumer confidence up for a bit.

Finally this week, it’s understood that someone warned the authorities about Man Haron Monis (the perpetrator of the Sydney Siege) two days before the siege, the siege victims have been farewelled at funerals and memorial services, two men were arrested in terrorism raids on Christmas Eve, and the Climate Change Authority is concerned that Australia will not meet its 2020 emissions target. Plus, it is looking like Peter Greste may be released very soon.

Oh, and before I forget: Tony Abbot announced that his greatest achievement as Minister for Women was the repeal of the Carbon Tax.

Tweet of the Week

An ABC Journalist in the Canberra Press Gallery is leaving the ABC for a new job:

…and NSW, QLD and Victoria police discuss what they’ve left out for Santa

https://twitter.com/jamus__/status/547737670248435712

Things I’ve been Looking at Online

Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin – NYT

Richard Glover on ‘staycations’ – SMH

Small NZ children re-enact the Christmas Story

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 Week That Was – August 10 to August 16

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So this week, Tony Abbott went to the Netherlands with the Chiefs of the ADF and the AFP. They went to say thank you to the Dutch and Australian officials working on identifying victims of the crash. Abbott met with the Dutch Prime Minister and other politicians to discuss the investigation as well as sanctions against Russia – it is still unclear as to whether or not Putin still has an invite to the G20 meetings in Australia later this year. Abbott also visited the UK, where he talked with the British PM and was briefed on the UK’s aid mission to Iraq, and announced that he was exploring all his options when it came to Iraq, but for the moment all Australia is doing is assisting the US and UK with aid drops. He also made a visit to wherever in the Middle East the air force crews are stationed to thank them for helping – when he got back to Canberra on Friday morning, the PM’s car nearly left without Peta Credlin.

Speaking of international trips, Julie Bishop’s phone was compromised while she was on her trip in Europe after MH17. It is unclear as to whether it was hacked, tapped or compromised in some other way, but intelligence officials took her phone from her when she got back and replaced it. This week though, she played host to US Secretary of State John Kerry during the AUSMIN talks. It’s thought that Australia could help the US with more than aid missions in the future, primarily due to the release of an image of a 7-year-old boy, who is the son of an Australian fighting in Syria, holding the severed head of a Syrian soldier. It appears that, at least for now, Australia will only be helping with aid missions.

It also turns out that the aforementioned Australian man fighting in Syria was a welfare recipient, leading the government to announce that people’s welfare payments are to be cancelled if they are a national security risk, because Australians shouldn’t have to deal “terrorism tourism on the taxpayer” (say that five times fast).

Finally this week, Joe Hockey got in trouble for saying that the fuel excise (a tax on petrol, which is yet to get through the Senate) would not affect low-income households because “the poorest people don’t drive cars, or actually don’t drive very far”, which lead to backlash from the opposition and his own party.

ABC’s FactCheck even checked out whether or not what Joe Hockey said was true, regardless of how classist the comment was.

Some of his more high-profile colleagues have said they support Joe Hockey in his job, but have not said specifically that they support his comment. He apologised on 2GB later in the week, multiple times. However, many people feel he is out of touch with the people of Australia.

Also this week, the “Pollie Pedal” began with five government MPs, including a Cabinet Minister, Peter Costello suggested rubbishing the $7 co-payment, and Christopher Pyne has decided that politics is about the end result, not the day-to-day running of the government.

Tweet of the Week

Radio Australia’s  Asia Pacific program is now off air, thanks to government cuts, along with RA Mornings and Asia Review.

https://twitter.com/RAAsiaPacific/status/500208353939685376

Things I’ve Been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

The MythBusters talked with Julia Baird on The Drum – ABC The Drum

Interest in politics is waning – ABC Online

A look at what happens after high-profile suicides at crisis hotline centres – News.com.au

An Open Letter to Joe Hildebrand

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https://twitter.com/Joe_Hildebrand/status/488242408912465920

Joe Hildebrand you should be ashamed. It may have been humourous to you, but it wasn’t funny to most people.

You may have attempted an apology too:

https://twitter.com/Joe_Hildebrand/status/488259629655158784

Regardless of whether or not we suspected Ian Thorpe was gay, comments like that really aren’t appropriate. There are people who struggle for years and even decades coming to terms with their sexuality and for you to go around saying “Well duh!” doesn’t help. We never “knew” that Thorpe was gay. At best, we suspected and hypothesised and we could have been so, so wrong. We all live on the same planet, and while most of us may have suspected at one point or another, it’s up to Thorpe to tell us his sexuality, not us to label him. Just as much as it’s up to you to identify the way you wish and not have the general public decide for you.

https://twitter.com/Joe_Hildebrand/status/488276823126441984

You really don’t get it. It has nothing to do with how  “good it was that Thorpey came out”, although it is good that he did. It has to do with the fact that you don’t seem to understand the struggles that some go through coming out, something that only those who have been through that struggle will understand. Admittedly, I’m straight and haven’t been through those struggles, but at least I know they exist, have sympathy for those struggling and can acknowledge that some people never overcome their struggle and tragically end their lives. LGBTQI youth are six times more likely to attempt suicide and to know that someone as prominent as Ian Thorpe has gone through a similar struggle to come to terms with his sexuality will undoubtedly help them.

Comments like the ones you made are part of the problem. The people calling you out are trying to make you realise that, even if they are calling you an idiot, because you should know better.