Tasmania and South Australia both have elections this year, and both are being held on the 15th of March. The Griffith by-election will be held on the 8th of February. So the beginning of this year will be quite busy.
The Australian Navy’s been a bit naughty lately, what with their unauthorised travels into Indonesian waters, and it seems like they may be in more hot water. There are accusations that the Navy forced asylum seekers to put their hands on a hot engine for long enough that they were burnt. The ABC story can be found here. The ABC then got told off for breaking the story by the Immigration Minister, Scott Morrison, who said people should stop sledging the Australian Navy and that there was no investigation being carried out by Indonesian Police. But they are:
Tony Abbott, on the other hand, has been in Davos, Switzerland in his capacity as head of the G20. His line to the media was “Australia is under new management, and open for business” and then got asked about Syria, and once again said that the Syrian Civil War was “baddies versus baddies” and then added that “the only way [either side] can be goodies is if they lay down their arms”. Hate to break it to you, Mr Abbott, but the Syrian Civil War is way more complicated than that.
He also made a speech in which he explained that Australia is in financial trouble because the Labor government spent beyond its means. He also thinks free trade and small government is good for the economy and that taxes should be fair and low. I may not fully understand finance and economics, but last time I checked, the Labor government got us out of the GFC. Labor is unimpressed and thinks Tony Abbott should stop being an opposition leader and shouldn’t have brought up domestic politics at an international conference.
Also in Europe, you may vaguely remember the raid on the lawyer representing East Timor in a dispute over spying in the Hague. Well, East Timor has now taken Australia to court over the raid, asking for the confiscated stuff back. They finished presenting in court and are now awaiting the judges to come back with a verdict on that.
Finally, we had the Australian of the Year announcements on January 25.
Australian of the Year: Adam Goodes
Young Australian of the Year: Jacqueline Freney
Senior Australian of the Year: Fred Chaney
Local Hero: Tim Conolan
Congratulations to them.
Tweet of the Week
Hamish Macdonald has been covering the Ukrainian riots for ABC (the American one). It must be very cold.
https://twitter.com/hamishNews/status/427044132927078400
What I’ve Been Reading/Watching/Listening etc
An interesting look at “net neutrality” in the USA – YouTube
Peter Greste (Al Jazeera Journalist) is still in prison in Egypt without charge… His parents have spoken with the media – ABC News Online. He’s also written a letter – Al Jazeera
Kara L 