Tag Archives: Gun Control

The Week That Was – October 16 to October 22

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Apologies for the absence over the last few weeks, but we’re back to regular programming.

Malcolm Turnbull began the week hoping to get his ABCC legislation through the Senate, but all did not go to plan, with Family First Senator Bob Day – a key supporter of the ABCC legislation – resigning from parliament after his house construction company went into liquidation. He believes his spot is untenable and that he needs to focus on paying back creditors, which is fair enough, and now there is a casual vacancy in the Senate for Family First in South Australia. Fair Trade has gotten involved in the liquidation as families with homes under construction and there are also questions over whether the company traded insolvent.

It got worse for Turnbull when Liberal Democrat Senator David Leyonhjelm claimed that in return for his vote on legislation, he was promised a the government would reconsider the import ban on Adler A110 guns. When the 12-month sunset clause passed and the gun’s import ban remained, he felt betrayed and went to the media. Basically it appears the deal was done by the Justice Minister Michael Keenan and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton. There is then contention over whether Tony Abbott knew of the deal, of which he says he knew nothing, while Turnbull says the then-PM’s office knew.

This leads me to suspect that the then-Prime Minister’s Office knew, but the Prime Minister himself did not. It could be one of these things that Credlin knew that she either decided Abbott didn’t need to or she never got the chance to tell him. Regardless, Turnbull’s declaration in Question Time, that Abbott then got up to refute saying he had been “most grievously” misrepresented, has led to a suggestion from commercial media that there is a Turnbull-Abbott feud, which really distracts from the government actually running the country and wanting to talk about that more than the whole guns saga.

Senate Estimates also took place this week, with some epic moments. Top of the list though had to be the response of Defence Minister Marise Payne to a question about the three defence focused ministers. She was asked who was the most senior minister among the three ministers and what each minister’s roles were – she couldn’t really tell them. Oops.

Finally this week, Labor won the ACT election; the new Reserve Bank chair suggests there could be another interest rate cut; the AMA is recommending a $2 price rise for GP consultations as the Medicare rebate remains at 2014 levels; and the Liberals in NSW may allow the rank and file members to vote in preselections.

Tweets of the Week

Aussie accents get noticed everywhere

And the smashed-avo-breakfast-gate

https://twitter.com/dtsmith_sydney/status/787584914635919361

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Cafés are having a bit of (cheap) fun with the whole breakkie vs housing thing  – ABC News

Michael Janda on why Gen Y should postpone buying a home – ABC Online

The Week that Was – August 16 to August 22

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This week following one of Abbott’s worst weeks in a long time was better for him, but not by much.

First there is disagreement in the party about how the same-sex marriage vote will work. Will it be a plebiscite (a massive opinion poll) or a referendum (that enshrines something in the constitution)? Do we have it before, during or after the election due in 2016? The details are sketchy, and what’s more, a referendum or plebiscite – whichever it ends up being – will be incredibly expensive, even if bundled together with a general election. Cabinet was meant to discuss details, but it seems we still have no idea about how this whole thing will work.

There were leaks to journalists this week in parliament, which had Eric Abetz talking to the media about how leakers are gutless and asked why journalists publish these leaks that are, according to Abetz, untrue. This seems to have backfired because hours later someone leaked the day’s press guide to the media which had some scripted “jobs, growth and community safety” lines in it and a directive to answer any questions about party stability with a variation on the above jobs and growth as well as a swipe at the Labor Party.

Dyson Heydon’s week hasn’t been that great either. Labor wants him gone, as do the unions, while Heydon tried to put out the fire by saying he was an idiot and didn’t read the entire messages that his staff printed out for him. Given some of the messages explicitly mentioned the party in the subject lines, there is the theory that he always knew and either hoped to get away with it, or thought that his job as Royal Commissioner for the Trade Union Royal Commission would be over. Furthermore, it has been revealed that Justice Heydon, who was a Law Professor at Sydney University in the 1970s and 1980s was on the board of selectors that chose Tony Abbott for his Rhodes Scholarship in 1981. The unions have applied for Justice Heydon to be removed from his position because of “apprehended bias” – a legal term basically meaning that even if Heydon isn’t biased at all, he looks like he is to the average person and therefore may as well be, meaning he has to go. Catch is, he’s hearing the application himself – leading to quips about marking one’s own exam, among others –  and is due to deliver his verdict on Tuesday.

Also this week, the by-election in the seat of Canning is revving up. It’s been marred by the revelation that the Liberal Party candidate for the seat, Andrew Hastie, a former army captain, was the leader of a group that is being investigated for violating the rules of war by desecrating corpses. Members of the group cut the hands off dead Taliban insurgents – purportedly to have a way of identifying them. Hastie has said that he was not with the group at the time, and was up in a helicopter circling the location where the incident occurred, also claiming that when he became aware of what had taken place he reported the incident to his superiors.

Finally this week, the Abbott government is going to fight the war against “green warfare” by making it more difficult for groups not directly affected by development to launch legal action against it, the USA has asked Australia to consider bombing in Syria, which does have legal issues to resolve, GST will be introduced to online purchases in 2017, the Victims of the Martin Place Siege can only access NSW State victims compensation and not the Federal government scheme, because their incident didn’t take place overseas, and David Leyonhjelm has suggested that if you are the victim of a gun crime you aren’t allowed to have an opinion about gun control, after victims of the Port Arthur Massacre began campaigning to have a gun banned in Australia.

Tweet of the Week

Leigh Sales puts on her “serious voice” and ends up singing with Tim Minchin

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

How id the AFR dealing with Mark Latham after some derogatory comments – Buzzfeed

2015 Canning By-election – Antony Green’s ABC Election Blog

A look at where Australia stands when it comes to endangered species – ABC Fact Check