Tag Archives: Hanson

Two Weeks (and a bit) That Were – March 24 to April 10

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The Liberal Party ended up winning the NSW election – just. They’re going to have a margin of two seats. Michael Daley, the Labor leader said he would stay on as leader, but within days he was announcing a leadership ballot for after the federal election (so as not to distract from Federal Labor, who are looking really good in the lead up to the federal election), and then announced that he wouldn’t contest the ballot. This makes Daley the shortest serving Labor Opposition Leader in nearly 100 years in NSW.

One Nation is also in hot water after an undercover investigation by Qatari news network Al Jazeera English (AJE) revealed that One Nation had approached the National Rifle Association to see if they could provide financial and strategic support. The AJE journalist Rodger Muller spent almost three years pretending to be a pro-gun activist and befriended Pauline Hanson’s chief of staff James Ashby (currently banned from Parliament House after having a punch-up with Brian Burston) and One Nation’s Queensland Leader Steve Dickson. They travelled to the USA where they met with the NRA and other pro-gun groups, explaining that donating millions to the party would help One Nation gain 8-20 seats in parliament and would allow them to negotiate what they wanted from the government of the day.

The NRA donations never came to fruition, as foreign donations to political parties are now banned. Regardless, Hanson, Ashby and Dickson are very upset that they were duped and caught out and have accused Al Jazeera being an agent of Qatari interference in Australian politics. They’re also a tad annoyed at the ABC, who broadcast the Al Jazeera investigation on Australian TV. It should be noted that the ABC had no involvement in the program – they just bought the rights to broadcast it in Australia.

Meanwhile, Labor has begun to furnish its war chest in preparation for the election. They’re reiterating their promise to change the rules around negative gearing, announcing that any investment property bought after January 1, 2020 would not be eligible for negative gearing. They’ve also announced they will legislate a minimum wage, but haven’t said what that will be – and small business are concerned as to whether they’ll be able to afford a legislated minimum wage.

The government is being asked to prove that the NDIS has been underfunded, after announcements from some NDIS providers that they were going to increase their fees. They’re increasing their fees in part because they’re only being paid to see their clients but not to fill in all the paperwork that comes with it. There has also been concerning revelations about abuse in the disability sector – with a Royal Commission announced to look into the abuse in the sector. However, Greens Senator Jordan Steele-John, who uses a wheelchair, has concerns that two of the commissioners have worked in the sector and have a conflict of interest. He’s also helped reveal that in NSW and South Australia alone there have been almost 1,500 reports of abuse to the NDIS watchdog, 62 of which have been sexual abuse claims.

There are also calls to for the government to help the children of now-deceased ISIS fighter Khaled Sharrouf, who are stuck in a camp in Syria after fleeing the now defunct caliphate. While the eldest daughter is now an adult, she and her four siblings (although two have died in Syria) were all underage when their parents took them to Syria with them when they went to fight for ISIS around five years ago. Their grandmother, Karen Nettleton, wants the government to provide the children (and the eldest daughter’s toddlers) safe passage to Australia. However the government hasn’t said much about it because they don’t want to be seen to be supporting terrorists but they also don’t want to be seen to be mean because they won’t help a couple of children.

We also had the Budget, where Josh Frydenberg announced that Australia is “back in black”, which isn’t exactly right. For the financial year 2018-19, there is a deficit of $5.2 billion and the surplus for 2019-20 of $4.1 billion is prospective, and based not on particular savings within the budget but the government’s savings account and the Future Fund, which is supposed to help pay public service pensions.

Meanwhile the Opposition’s Budget in Reply, announcing that their budget would invest in health and education, as well as $2 billion to reduce, if not eradicate the out-of-pocket costs of the tests, consultations and treatments for cancer. They’ve also announced that they will provide incentives for companies to make more electric vehicles by 2030, so that half of cars on sale by then are electric – which led the government to blatantly lie to the public, saying Bill Shorten was going to take their utes away.

So began what I call the Budget Grand Tour, where the government and the opposition travel around the country, selling their budget, or their alternative budget.

Except given the election could be called at any minute, it’s also like a pre-election campaign…..

Tweets of the Fortnight

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Annabel Crabb on the Budget – ABC Online

First Dog on the Moon on the Budget “Lock-Up” – The Guardian

 

The Week That Was – February 10 to February 16

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This week saw Parliament return, and what a week it was. The government released classified security information to the public that suggested that if all the Manus Island and Nauru detainees were deemed unwell by the medical team that they could all be transferred to Australia within weeks. Labor made an amendment to the legislation that means that the laws would only apply to those currently on Manus Island and Nauru, and they convinced the Greens and cross bench MPs to support this change.

So the government lost a vote on legislation, which is something that has not happened for around 80 years, and it sort of led to some sort of Trump-like transformation in the government, with suggestion that people with criminal histories would get into the country. This is despite the fact that the government hasn’t actually confirmed that any of the asylum seekers in detention have a criminal background. The government is also laying the foundations to blame Labor for any new boat arrivals, should they come.

Barrie Cassidy from ABC’s Insiders program had a great explanation about the whole issue.

This week was peak ridiculous from the government, and is exactly the reason that people switch off. People are getting annoyed with politics because the opposition to policy has become more about who was introducing that policy, rather than the policy itself. Labor has begun to recognise the change in public sentiment when it comes to humane treatment of asylum seekers, and it appears the government either hasn’t recognised the change, or they are simply ignoring it.

It also probably doesn’t help that it is an election year as well. Despite there being no date yet (but we know it has to take place by May), the pre-election policy announcements have begun, mostly from the Government. The Coalition are focusing on national security, something they see as one of their traditional strengths, which may have played into how they were dealing with the asylum seeker issue.

Meanwhile in the Senate, the Senate President Scott Ryan has banned Pauline Hanson’s chief of staff James Ashby from entering parliament for “the time being” after he provoked Senator Brian Burston (formerly of One Nation, now part of the United Australia Party), leading to an altercation between the two. Burston also smeared blood on Pauline Hanson’s office door in the aftermath but it’s unclear whether that was on purpose or by accident, although I’d put my money on it being the former, even if Burston claims he can’t remember it.

The government also tried to avoid a vote on a Royal Commission into abuse in the disability sector. It passed the senate on Thursday, but the government kept Question Time going for an extra two and a half hours, so that the vote couldn’t be brought on in the Lower House. Labor accused the Coalition of running down the clock, which Scott Morrison denies, but Christopher Pyne didn’t.

This week also saw the start of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Safety and Quality in Adelaide. Most of Australia’s 1.3 million aged care clients are in home-based care (in a retirement or nursing home). During this week’s hearings we learned that there are not enough qualified nurses to fill nursing roles, meaning some roles are being filled by people who are unqualified, and that this issue, combined with a general lack of nursing staff has left those working in aged care facilities spread too thin, leading more nurses to quit, which adds to the nursing problem facing the sector. We also learned that there are a large number of patients with complex issues, such as dementia, being over-medicated. It’s thought that only a small fraction of those with dementia on anti-psychotic medication actually benefit from it, and that for those who don’t really need these medications it could be doing more harm than good.

Divisions in the seat of Gilmore are starting to show, with the Nationals holding a pre-selection for a candidate in the Southern NSW coastal electorate. It looks as if former NSW State MP and minister Katrina Hodgkinson will win that pre-selection and join the race against the parachuted Liberal candidate Warren Mundine, the originally pre-selected Liberal (and now independent) Grant Schultz, as well as the Labor candidate Fiona Phillips. Gilmore is an extremely marginal seat, and if the Liberal and National parties split the first preference vote, they may find neither party wins Gilmore.

Also this week, Hakeem al-Arabi was released from a Thai prison and returned to Australia. He’s likely to get his citizenship application fast-tracked from what Marise Payne and Scott Morrison were saying.

Finally this week, Michaelia Cash appeared in the Federal Court this week to give evidence in a case related to the raids on AWU offices in Melbourne, and it looks like one of her staffers may also be giving evidence soon

Tweets of the Week

Oh, and Tony Jones announced this week he would be leaving Q & A on the ABC, as his wife Sarah Ferguson will be posted to China as the ABC’s bureau chief, which led to numerous offers to host from social media, including this one that reflects many people’s feelings when it comes to politics these days:

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

The refugee drama distracted from a couple of other key points – ABC Online

 

The Week That Was – October 14 to October 20

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This was the final week of campaigning for the Wentworth by-election, which got a bit nasty towards the end (but more on that in a moment). The Liberals kept going on about how if the Liberal candidate Dave Sharma didn’t win the election there would be instability because there would be a hung parliament. Meanwhile, Kerryn Phelps has been talking about keeping parliament stable should she win. Sharma and Phelps are the two frontrunners and between them the polling has been neck and neck. The candidates had an event for the public earlier in the week where they spoke to people from the electorate about issues important to them. Sharma has made clear that he was just as shocked and upset by the rolling of Malcolm Turnbull as most of the electorate was.

However, Malcolm’s son Alex Turnbull has been telling people to vote for anyone but the Liberal Party. Kerryn Phelps became the victim of a vicious email that suggested she was pulling out of the race because she’d been diagnosed with HIV and that people should vote for Sharma. Phelps has forwarded the email to the AEC to be investigated, and Sharma has condemned the email.

Meanwhile the Liberals appeared to get a tad desperate this week, by announcing something that was apparently meant to get some of the Jewish vote for Sharma. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that he was considering moving the Australian Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv – like Trump did with the American Embassy. According to Morrison, the suggestion came from Sharma himself, but the timing for the idea is a little odd. As Peter van Onselen pointed out on Insiders, most devout and potentially Orthodox Jews in Wentworth who support that policy are also strict observers of the Sabbath on Saturdays, and generally pre-poll vote, meaning they would have already voted without that policy on the table influencing their vote. Furthermore, ASIO documents have been leaked to the media, suggesting that if Australia were to follow the American’s example and move the Embassy to Jerusalem, Australia there would be some serious implications (mostly violent protests according to the documents).

Anyway, election day came and both Sharma and Phelps were unable to vote for themselves because they don’t live in the electorate (Sharma lives on the North Shore of Sydney and Phelps lives near Wentworth, as she was a Sydney City Councillor before running for Federal Parliament, but not exactly in the electorate). Sharma instead spent his day touring the polling booths and at one point was followed by a bunch of anti-coal protesters, while Phelps also toured around talking to people. By 7:20pm on Saturday night, with 9.4% of the vote counted, the ABC’s Election Analyst (or psephologist if you want to get technical) Antony Green called the election for Phelps, with a then swing of 23.6% against the government.

As morning came on Sunday, the gap between Sharma and Phelps was narrowing slightly, as postal votes and pre-poll votes were also counted, and the swing has narrowed to 18.4% as of the last update on the ABC website on Sunday morning – which I think may be the biggest swing ever in a by-election.

And then, Antony Green had to update on Twitter as I hit publish on this post 🙂

This by-election result has topped off a pretty bad week for the government. First, they suggested they might let people leave Nauru and settle in New Zealand – although they want some way to stop these refugees from coming to Australia, even as tourists. This has Labor, the Greens and the New Zealand government concerned, as Labor thinks it’s economically stupid to ban tourists from New Zealand, and New Zealand doesn’t want to have a group of people in their country who would essentially have second-class citizenship.

The government was also humiliated by their Senators somehow “accidentally” voting in favour of a Pauline Hanson motion that said it was “ok to be white” – which has its roots in right-wing white supremacist movements in the USA. The government’s Senators demanded a re-vote in which the summarily condemned the motion. But still, from the perspective of an outsider like me, it looks really bad.

Environment Minister Melissa Price is in hot water this week, after approaching the former President of Kiribati (pronounced Ki-ri-bas), Anote Tong, at a restaurant in Canberra. Pat Dodson, a Labor Party senator, was dining with Tong when Price approached, as were several other including the Director of the Edmund Rice Centre (a climate justice organisation that brought Tong to Australia). They allege and confirm that the Environment Minister said to Tong at the table:

I know why you’re here. It is for the cash. For the Pacific, it is always about the cash. I have my cheque book here. How much do you want?

Price denies that she said anything of the sort, but with Tong, Dodson and several other diners confirming she said something to the effect of the above quote, she’s not very convincing. Labor and the Greens have been appalled by the Environment Minister’s behaviour, saying she is the “worst Environment Minister ever”.

The other thing that’s been big this week (but not necessarily political) has been the royal tour to Sydney by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan. The tour is mainly focused on the Invictus Games in Sydney, which Harry started to help his fellow servicemen who were returning from military service in the Middle East, but will also visit Fiji and Tonga while down in this part of the world. They flew in on a Qantas flight on Monday morning, and spent the day recovering from their long trip at Admiralty House where they’ll stay while in Sydney. Kensington Palace then announced on Monday night that the Duchess of Sussex is pregnant with the couple’s first child, due in the first half of next year.

Highlight of their trip so far have included Prince Harry spotting Daphne Dunne, a lady in her 90s who has met him multiple times. He chatted to her again, before introducing her to Meghan. The Sussexes went to Dubbo where they met school children (and got a hug from a 5-year-old boy who got to stroke Harry’s beard) before meeting with a drought affected farmer and talking about mental health at a picnic. They also went to Melbourne, where the Duchess of Sussex had a go at some AFL skills, and the couple went to a restaurant where they learned about indigenous ingredients. Another highlight was the Duke of Sussex climbing the Harbour Bridge with Invictus representatives and the Prime Minister Scott Morrison to plant the Invictus Games’ flag atop the Bridge.

Youth mental health network Headspace, will get an extra $51.8 million, to hire more staff and increase online services for those in regional areas in order to reduce wait times for young people reaching out for help.

Concerns have been raised about “alt-right” (those on the extreme right of the political spectrum) and their infiltration into the Liberal and National parties. One group in particular, the Young Nationals, seem to have been joined by some of these alt-right people. There was apparently some sort of plan to change the views of the mainstream parties, which has been somewhat unsuccessful, given the Young Nationals have cottoned onto the issue (potentially through the ABC telling them when they went to ask the party about it) and has asked one Young Nats member to leave, while two others have been suspended and two more have been asked to explain. The federal Nationals President has said that extremism is not welcome in the Nationals Party.

Finally this week, the former Managing Director of the ABC Michelle Guthrie is suing the ABC at the Fair Work Commission, claiming the board had no reason to trigger the termination clause in her contract, and the terror charge against the Sri Lankan student accused of planning a terror plot to kill Malcolm Turnbull because the police have admitted the handwriting in the notebook that has his name on it (and is their only evidence) is not his. Also, the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Glenn Davies, has defended Anglican schools, saying that they never asked to have the ability to expel LGBTIQ+ students in their submission to the Ruddock religious freedom review.

Tweets of the Week

Elections means Antony Green – made even better by the fact that parts of Wentworth are on Green’s morning cycling route.

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Jessica Martin on the fall of women’s magazines – ABC Online

Tony Walker on moving the Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem – ABC Online

The Week That Was – August 12 to August 18

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Politicians returned to Canberra this week after a two month break, with the government ready to tackle two major policy issues in the first few weeks: company tax cuts and the National Energy Guarantee – but more on that later. This week also saw the swearing-in of the five “Super Saturday” by-election victors – Susan Lamb, Justine Keay, Rebekha Sharkie and Josh Wilson, who fell victim to section 44 of the constitution, along with Patrick Gorman who is replacing Tim Hammond, who left politics for family reasons.

This week also saw the maiden speech by Fraser Anning. Now, bear with me, this is going to get a tad complicated… Mr Anning is new to parliament, because he replaced One Nations Senator Malcolm Roberts when Roberts fell victim to section 44 of the constitution. Anning, before being sworn in to the Senate, had a fight with Pauline Hanson and left the One Nation party to join up with Katter’s Australia Party.

Fraser Anning’s speech was, well, interesting to say the least – and a bit (or a lot) racist. He advocated for a return to the mid-20th century White Australia Policy, an end to Muslim immigration and may have in reference to these two issues, used the term ‘final solution’. This is a term which, for many, stirs up memories of the Nazis and the Holocaust. If it really floats your boat, you can go and look up the speech, but I’m not going to give it anymore airtime or attention.

Anning was widely criticised by all sides of politics – Liberal, Labor, and the Greens; along with Derryn Hinch, who upset Pauline Hanson by suggesting Anning’s speech was “Pauline Hanson on steroids.” It gets weirder though, because by some freak of nature, Pauline Hanson, said she was “appalled” by the speech, as you would assume this kind of speech would be somewhat up her alley. Meanwhile, Bob Katter thought Anning’s speech was awesome and was squawking about how it was what many in Australia were thinking but were too afraid to say… which I certainly hope isn’t the case. One positive out of all of this was the immense unity shown by both sides of politics, through speeches by Penny Wong, Malcolm Turnbull, Ed Husic and many more.

Company tax cuts are unlikely to be dealt with for a while, because negotiations still need to happen with senators, and they can be difficult people to deal with sometimes.

This week though, was all about the National Energy Guarantee (NEG). This guarantee is theoretically supposed to reduce energy bills, increase energy reliability and help reduce emissions by the 26% target set at the Paris talks. Turnbull first had to get his policy through the Coalition party room, which he did with only a few back benchers reserving the right to cross the floor. These people were Tony Abbott, George Christiansen, Andrew Hastie, and Tony Pasin. Basically the rest of the week was focused around the fact that key conservatives in the Coalition were apparently not totally on board with the whole NEG, and swirling leadership rumours – which lead to Turnbull backflipping on how the emissions target would be enforced. Originally it was to be legislated, but it will now be regulated, which means it’s unenforceable by law.

The Banking Royal Commission continued this week with their inquiry into superannuation. It is apparent that retail superannuation funds are just a little bit naughty, a lot of the time. Again, bear with me, this is complicated, but this week we learned that NAB and its superfund MLC, have not been telling the regulators ASIC and APRA – the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority – things they should have been telling them. Colonial First State, owned by the Commonwealth Bank, was still charging fees after the client had died, but also for no service which is illegal, and they were also forcing clients onto super expensive in-house CommInsure insurance. Meanwhile ANZ got in trouble for trying to sell superannuation through bank tellers, which is also illegal, because bank tellers aren’t actually qualified to give financial advice.

All of this was compounded by the fact that APRA revealed that they tended not to publicly pursue some of these transgressions, so as to avoid damaging confidence in the finance industry.

Also this week, there are concerns about the ATAR cut-offs for some education and teaching degrees. It appears that some universities are allowing students into these degrees with an ATAR of less than 20 – the maximum ATAR you can get is 99.95, so 20 isn’t great – which is understandably concerning to parents and politicians alike. Now, I am surrounded by teachers and pre-service teachers in my personal life, and they’re all quite irritated. My partner, a pre-service teacher in his second last year of study, is mostly irritated that the media, when they picked up this story, didn’t actually talk to students studying education degrees. Most of these degrees are now four years long, have become more specialised, and he’s seen many students drop out in the first year.

Finally this week, former Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson will face his 12 month sentence in home detention;  former Governor-General and former Anglican Archbishop Peter Hollingworth is being investigated for concealing abuse in the Anglican church, an issue which forced him to resign from his vice-regal post back in the early 2000s; and there are concerns that some people may be missing out on their medical care because of the out-of-pocket costs some doctors charge, despite a rise in bulk billing.

Tweet of the Week

Kristina Keneally is still having a go at the Great Barrier Reef Foundation… (you may have to click the tweet to see what Keneally has written)

https://twitter.com/workmanalice/status/1029222975101263872

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

An excerpt from Ed Husic’s speech in response to Fraser Anning’s speech – ABC Online

Bushfire seasons are starting earlier and lasting longer – ABC Online

 

The Three Weeks That Were – June 24 to July 14

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The week of June 24 was the last week of parliament before winter break, so after that, with the exception of “Super Saturday” campaigning, was pretty quiet.

  1. The tax battle continued in parliament over the last week of sitting, with the government really trying to get their corporate tax cuts through. It mostly involved trying to figure out whether Pauline Hanson and her one remaining One Nation colleague were going to support it, and it now appears she won’t. Pauline Hanson and said that she wouldn’t, then that she would, and then flipped back to not supporting it – before denying she was flip-flopping. In fact, it got to the point where the government decided to wait until after the Winter Break to continue pursuing the tax cuts.
  2. The Banking Royal Commission has shown the banks to once again be pretty horrible to people. This time the focus was on farmers and the indigenous community. Farmers were being treated badly when it came to paying back loans during droughts when money is tighter, forcing many off their farms, while the indigenous community is being exploited due to poor financial literacy – mostly by small operators looking to make a quick buck.
  3. Super Saturday campaigning is continuing, with Labor looking safe in the two WA seats to the point where federal political news is very sparse on it. Meanwhile the seat of Longman in Queensland and Braddon in Tasmania could be won by the Liberals. This is virtually unheard of as usually the swing in a by-election is against the government, not to it. In Mayo, however it looks as if the main battle will be between the incumbent Centre Alliance candidate Rebekha Sharkie, and Liberal candidate Georgina Downer (daughter of former MP Alexander Downer). Sharkie got into parliament on the coattails of Nick Xenophon, and now with the Xenophon mania fizzing out, Sharkie has to work harder – she has however been lucky to have the support of Bob Katter and Cathy McGowan. On the other hand, Downer is facing criticism for being an outsider that has been parachuted in.
  4. Bill Shorten caused some commotion during the last three weeks, making a “captain’s call” (remember those from the Abbott era?) about repealing mid-size business tax cuts. Most of the higher-ranking shadow Cabinet members did try to convince the public it had been discussed prior to Shorten’s off the cuff announcement – they weren’t totally convincing – and it did not help that some of the backbenchers essentially confirmed it was a captains call. Shorten and Chris Bowen have since announced a backflip, and these tax cuts will remain in place.
  5. Denison MP Andrew Wilkie has revealed (under parliamentary privilege) that the government is prosecuting a former ASIO spy known as Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery under the espionage act for revealing that Australia bugged the East Timorese Cabinet during negotiations regarding an oil field between the countries.
  6. Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson has now been sentenced to 12 months in prison – but is more likely to spend it under house arrest with his relations rather than in an actual jail cell. Wilson was found guilty of concealing child abuse while a bishop in the Hunter Valley/Maitland area decades ago. He is yet to resign his role as Archbishop, and he is planning to appeal.
  7. David Leyonhjelm and Sarah Hanson-Young are having an epic fight right now, with Hanson-Young calling in the lawyers. During Hanson-Young’s speech in the Senate on domestic violence, Leyonhjelm told her to “stop shagging men” and when she confronted him on it, he told her to “f- off” (or at least that’s what Hanson-Young said). Anyway, Leyonhjelm was invited to a Sky News politics show the weekend following this exchange where he made comments about Hanson-Young’s character that amounted to slut shaming – no one else is broadcasting what he actually said because Hanson-Young is now suing Leyonhjelm for defamation.
  8. Tony Abbott has gone back to doing the thing he does best – causing trouble and stirring the pot. He’s decided that Australia needs to abandon the Paris Climate Agreement that he signed up to – saying it was an aspirational goal not a commitment to a goal, which is not what he said back when he signed Australia up for the agreement.
  9. The “GST pie” is being re-divided and it is very confusing. Essentially, Western Australia, now without their Mining boom, needs a bit more of the share of the GST, and so the government is going to top up the GST money pile to help that transition. Other than that, NSW and Victoria, being the richest states will be the benchmark states to help determine what the other states get.
  10. Agriculture Minister David Littleproud has called in the farmers and the banks to hash out a deal that allows farmers who are doing it tough in the current drought in NSW and Queensland can survive and keep their farms. The basic idea, from what I understand, is that during the drought years, levies and loans will be cheaper to pay back, balanced out by paying more in the good years. It’s thought the banks will probably agree to this suggestion so that they can reclaim some of their tattered reputation after the Banking Royal Commission.
  11. Mark Latham has re-emerged in the political sphere, this time voicing a robo-call for One Nation in the seat of Longman. Labor doesn’t seem concerned – saying if he repeats the result he gave the Labor party as their leader in 2004 (spoiler: it was a terrible showing for Labor) then they have no concerns about the rise of One Nation in Longman.
  12. The ACCC has revealed that with some help from state government and the regulators, electricity bills could be made cheaper for households and businesses. The ACCC report says that confusing bill structures as well as the “lazy tax” (where people who are loyal or stay with the same provider are charged more and they are unlikely to pay attention to their bills) are what is making it most expensive for people.
  13. NSW State MP Daryl Maguire has stepped down from the Liberal Party and his parliamentary secretary role after an ICAC investigation revealed he was trying to get a kickback from a property developer.
  14. The public is being reminded to only claim what they are actually entitled to in their tax returns, reminding people that the cost of travelling to and from work is not claimable, and neither are clothes you buy to wear to work (unless it is a uniform with a logo and you always have to wear it).

The Week That Was – June 10 to June 16

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So, we’ve avoided nuclear war for now, with Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un meeting in Singapore this week. Other than North Korea agreeing to denuclearisation (which they have promised before, only to renege), Trump keeps talking about not taking part in war games with South Korea, something the USA has done almost every year since the 1970s. People are now trying to figure out if this talk of not taking part in war games was agreed upon between the two leaders (plausible given the wording Trump used) or if it’s one of Trump’s ideas that just popped into his head.

Meanwhile, back in Australia, there are multiple investigations into the conduct of the Australian Special Forces (SAS). Now, bear with me, because it does get a little complex. After a small initial investigation by sociologist Dr Samantha Crompvoets suggested that a wider investigation was needed, the Inspector General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF) Justice Paul Brereton began an inquiry in 2016. It has recently been leaked to the media that there is now another inquiry, independent of the IGADF, by former ASIO chief David Irvine.

It appears that some of the breaches being investigated include the civilian deaths in an Afghan town during a mission; and the use of a Nazi swastika, among others. Given the secrecy of the SAS, while we didn’t know a lot about the investigation, those who are part of the investigation know who has been talking and the ADF is now investigating a threatening letter sent to a witness.

The Nationals have announced new medical student places in regional areas in order to boost the number of doctors in regional Australia. While good on paper, both medical students and the Australian Medical Association are concerned. Medical students are concerned that while they can get their basic training in the regional areas, their specialties training will not be able to take place in those areas, meaning they will have to leave to the big cities to specialise, especially for oncology, cardiology and orthopaedics. The AMA’s concern is in a similar vein, suggesting that this solution is too simplistic.

Australia has successfully combated some Chinese soft power in the Pacific, by convincing the Solomon Islands to buy an Australian made internet cable from the Islands to Australia, rather than a Chinese made one by Huawei. This is the third time that Huawei has been thwarted in their attempts to get into the Australian grid, suggesting that the Australian government feels that Huawei is a state actor for China – which is potentially true, because it is not a “state-owned enterprise” it does receive favourable treatment from the Chinese government.

Meanwhile, Brian Burston has finally quit One Nation after his stoush with Pauline Hanson over corporate tax cuts. He will now be an independent in the Senate, leaving Hanson with just one other One Nation Senator.

This week also saw the Liberal Party’s annual council (from what I can gather, it’s their national conference). Where the two big items were the rank and file voting to privatise the ABC and move the Australian Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem (like Trump did with the US Embassy). While those in parliament are suggesting that neither of these are government plans, it does beg the question of what else they talked about. Some in my house wonder what other things were agreed on, given the ABC and Embassy issues were the biggest news makers from the conference.

The federal government is making further progress in implementing over 100 recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse. They’ve convinced Western Australia to sign onto the redress scheme; announced a national apology to victims, which is slated for October 22; and are implementing a National Office of Child Safety. Meanwhile, New South Wales is in the process of removing the legal loophole known as the ‘Ellis Defence’, which stopped people from suing the Catholic Church, because their assets are in a trust and the trust isn’t responsible for the actions of those in the organisation.

In South Australia, legislation has been announced that will force priests to break the seal of the confessional if the person doing the confession admits to child abuse – essentially making the priest taking the confession a person under mandatory reporting laws required to report to authorities.

Finally this week, former Greens Senator Larissa Waters, who was caught up in the section 44 saga, will return to the Senate, replacing Andrew Bartlett who is going to focus on his candidacy on the lower house seat of Brisbane; Indigenous Australians commemorated the 180th anniversary of the Myall Creek massacre, remembering those murdered by stockmen; and the Australian Museum in Sydney will be one of 10 venues to host a set of rare Egyptian artefacts, with the exhibition visiting in 2021.

Tweet of the Week

https://twitter.com/leighsales/status/1006132097558253568

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Julie Bishop’s ‘truth bombs’ – ABC Online

Trump might be wrong about Kim, like Chamberlain was about Hitler – ABC Online

Three Weeks That Were – May 13 to June 2

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Yep, I worked two Sundays in a row again – that’s the joy of retail – so here’s a list of some of the things that happened in politics.

  1. Liberal MP Jane Prentice has lost pre-selection in her seat to a man, making many Liberal women very, very concerned. Warren Entsch is also worried and concerned, but that’s normal for Warren Enstch, because he’s probably one of the nicest, most accepting people in parliament. Meanwhile Craig Laundy is implying the person who will now be the candidate in the seat may have been partaking in branch stacking.
  2. There are continuing concerns over the standards of care at residential care facilities (i.e. Nursing Homes) after revelations that some facilities are failing several benchmarks.
  3. There are calls to encourage refugees to come to small country towns rather than the big cities in order to fill job shortages. While there are concerns that some may face problems with the isolation in some of these towns, many employers seem willing to take people on.
  4. There a questions over how Australia plans to deal with waste now that China has stopped taking in other nations’ rubbish (yes, apparently Australia has been sending some of our rubbish to China for years). There a questions over whether Australia should have a Pay As You Throw system, or burn some of our rubbish to add to the electricity grid.
  5. Focus in the Banking Royal Commission has moved to how banks have been treating small businesses. ANZ has confessed to misconduct, NAB has conceded it forced a business loan client to pay off his debt with the sale of his home, and the Commonwealth Bank has admitted to charging double the amount of interest they were entitled to.
  6. Around 200 athletes that attended the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in April have now applied for temporary protection visas. Another 50 athletes have officially over-stayed their visas.
  7. Operation Augury – the mission to the Philippines to help the Philippine Army with the fight against ISIS in the city of Marawi – has all of a sudden become a very quiet operation shrouded in secrecy.
  8. Several Liberal parliamentarians are trying to get a private members bill through parliament to ban the live export of animals during the Northern Hemisphere Summer, after vision of conditions on a sheep live export ship became public a few weeks back. Other Liberals have pushed for more regulation rather than a full on ban, and that is what Minister David Littleproud ended up announcing.
  9. Pauline Hanson has announced that her party will no longer support company tax cuts – making it incredibly hard for the government to now pass the bill through the senate. Apparently, Hanson has been asking for way too much in return and the liberals can’t give it to her so she isn’t going to help them. But…
  10. …it appears that either the whole party was not aware, or NSW Senator Brian Burston has decided not to go with the party, as he has announced that he will support the government’s company tax cuts. Pauline Hanson is very upset – she had one heck of an interview on SKY News – and told Burston to resign. He won’t resign and Hanson is yet to sack him so, we’ll have to watch this space.
  11. Canning MP Andrew Hastie has revealed that Chau Chak Wing – a prolific donor to both parties and the name sake of a university building at the University of Technology, Sydney – has been named in a UN bribery investigation.
  12. The day for the 5 by-elections – dubbed Super Saturday – has been announced as July 28. That’s a nine week campaign, leaving these seats without representation for over 80 days. While the AEC and the Liberals say that date has been chosen to avoid school holidays, so as not to disadvantage voters, Labor is very angry. July 28th is the weekend Labor is having their national conference, and while they have since deferred the date of the conference, they felt like the selection of that date was politically motivated.
  13. Speaking of Super Saturday – the Liberals have announced that they will not be contesting the two safe Labor seats in WA in order to preserve their election war chest (i.e. They are unlikely to win and they shouldn’t be throwing money at a futile endeavour), while Bob Katter is helping Rebekha Sharkie out with costs for her campaign in the seat of Mayo, as she takes on Liberal candidate Georgina Downer (daughter of former foreign Minister Alexander Downer).
  14. The Government is and the Opposition are currently fighting over each other’s respective tax plans. The Liberal tax plan costs the government more, but will take longer to implement, with the highest tax bracket benefitting later on. The Labor plan will be cheaper and faster to implement but provides less relief to the highest paid workers. Meanwhile, Amazon has announced that Australians will only be able to access the Australian website from July 1, in order to comply with new online shopping GST legislation.
  15. A review has called for the superannuation program in Australia to be simplified and made more transparent. It turns out many young people who have changed jobs multiple times have multiple super accounts, meaning they will have less to retire on in the future. There are also calls to make it easier for workers to stay with one super account for their entire working life.
  16. Workers on the minimum wage have had a 3.5% wage increase to $719.20 per week. The unions are happy for the rise, but say that it is not enough to give workers a living wage. Meanwhile, employers say it will make it harder for them to hire people because it costs more to pay people.
  17. The redress scheme that came out of the Royal Commission into Child Abuse has now had the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, the Scouts, YMCA and the Salvation Army sign up, along with all states and territories, except WA.
  18. Barnaby Joyce is facing criticism for getting paid for an interview with Channel 7. He argues that, despite calls to respect his and his partner Vikki Campion’s privacy, there have been drones flying over their home and paparazzi everywhere, and because Vikki felt ripped off she agreed to the interview and took the $150,000, which is to be put into a trust for their son Sebastian.
  19. Labor faced some drama at the Victorian State conference, when the CFMEU and the AWU teamed up to end controversial debates and end the conference early. Delegates were set to debate offshore detention of asylum seekers, an issue that would have revealed the deep divide within the party, and there were concerns that this would affect the five Super Saturday by-elections.
  20. Independent Tasmanian Senator Steve Martin is no longer independent, having joined the Nationals. The former Mayor of Devonport, who got in on the Jacqui Lambie ticket after Lambie had to quit due to Section 44, was sacked from the party when he refused to step aside for her. Since coming to parliament, he’s made friends with the Nationals and found he shares their views and so he joined them.
  21. Michaelia Cash has received a subpoena from the federal court, calling her to give evidence regarding the AWU raid scandal, in which one of Cash’s staffers tipped the media off to raids being carried out at AWU offices. Cash is trying to get the subpoena thrown out, which is just a little suspicious.

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Hamish MacDonald on the Barnaby Joyce interview – SMH

Jessica Harmsen on being pregnant on TV – ABC Online

30 Things That Happened in the Last Three Weeks – October 29 to November 18

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Uni kind of took over for a while (as did some extra work shifts) so here is a run through what happened in the last three weeks.

  1. After the whole Citizenship thing in the High Court, more and more people are popping up as potential dual citizens, with Stephen Parry, John Alexander and Jacqui Lambie resigning from their positions – More on this in a post coming up later this week.
  2. Questions are being raised over whether or not Barnaby Joyce and Fiona Nash’s ministerial decisions can be questioned in court given they made those decisions while in parliament, well, illegally. However, a litigant with some money will be needed to do it.
  3. Queensland is holding their State Election on November 25, earlier than expected.
  4. Sir Ninian Stephen, a former Governor-General from the 1980s passed away.
  5. Unions are calling for a boycott of Streets brand ice cream products while Streets attempts to suspend the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement to pay their workers less money.
  6. There will be more government funding for brain cancer research.
  7. Because Barnaby Joyce is no longer in parliament and the PM (or acting PM) has to be in the Lower House, Julie Bishop became Acting Prime Minister while Malcolm Turnbull was overseas, first in Israel and then on his whirlwind Asian conference tour.
  8. Turnbull went to Israel to the Beersheba memorial (a WWI battle on what is now Israeli soil 100 years ago) and to talk with Israeli and Palestinian officials.
  9. Turnbull also went to Asia to show up at the APEC and ASEAN conferences in Vietnam and the Philippines respectively, and also swung by Hong Kong too.
  10. The detention centre on Manus Island closed, but many refugees did not want to leave saying they don’t feel safe outside the centre. They’ve been staying there since it closed on October 31, with no running water, no medicine and only the small amounts of food locals are getting into the centre.
  11. Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten finally agreed on a method to audit (but not audit) MPs’ and Senators’ citizenship statuses.
  12. Stephen Parry is to be replaced by Richard Colbeck.
  13. The Senate has had a small renovation to put in ramps for Scott Ludlam’s replacement Jordan Steele-John who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair.
  14. The traditional owners of Uluru will ban climbing the iconic rock. After 2019, those caught climbing will be fined.
  15. New Zealand’s new Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has offered to settle a couple hundred of the Manus detention centre refugees in NZ. Turnbull has said “not now thanks” which leaves the door open for him to say “yes please” in the future.
  16. Telstra will pay compensation to around 42,000 customers who have not received the NBN internet speeds they paid for.
  17. Sam Dastyari was accosted by two racists who called him a terrorist at a Melbourne university pub. He was hanging out with Gellibrand MP Tim Watts who will forever be known for asking the racists who were berating Dastyari “what race is dickhead?” 
  18. Protests outside a fundraiser for Tony Abbott got somewhat out of hand, with Abbott’s sister Christine Forster, among other Liberal heavyweights, being accosted by the protesters. Forster’s “favourite” jacket was ripped in the scuffles.
  19. Hollie Hughes, the person that was expected to replace Fiona Nash in the senate is not eligible to sit in the senate because she took a job after the 2016 election that is considered to be a “position of profit under the Crown”. Lambie’s replacement, who is the current Mayor of Devonport is also under a cloud but does not have the $15,000 left lying about to refer himself to the High Court.
  20. Malcolm Roberts’ replacement in the Senate, Fraser Anning, has left the One Nation party within a day of showing up in Canberra – it’s unclear whether he left voluntarily or was pushed out after he had a disagreement with Pauline Hanson.
  21. Scott Ryan has become the Senate President, at least for the time being.
  22. The by-election in John Alexander’s seat of Bennelong has been shaken up with Labor running former NSW Premier Kristina Keneally. Liberals have already started the dirt throwing with allusions to Keneally’s corrupt ministers and the epic loss of the Labor party in NSW at the 2011 State Election. (Note that she wasn’t corrupt and she was found to be so by the NSW ICAC)
  23. AUSTRALIA SAID YES TO SAME SEX MARRIAGE! 61.6% of the country voted to allow same-sex marriage. Now it just has to be legislated. You can see the makeup of the result and some more detailed numbers on the ABC website. Malcolm Turnbull has promised the legislation will pass by Christmas.
  24. Penny Wong is embarrassed that she cried in front of the country. 
  25. Legislation to allow same-sex marriage has hit the Senate, with Dean Smith introducing the bill. There are concerns from conservatives that there aren’t enough religious protections a la American cake bakers. See this SBS article to get what this is all about.
  26. People are now pointing out the economic benefits of same-sex weddings, because if you do the maths…. 47,000(ish) gay couples multiplied by the average cost of a wedding means a lot of money will be poured into the weddings industry.
  27. The Royal Commission into Juvenile Detention has recommended that the Don Dale correctional centre in the Northern Territory be closed, and that the age of criminal responsibility be raised from 10 to 12, among other recommendations.
  28. Cory Bernardi and his Australian Conservatives party are planning on running a candidate in Bennelong.
  29. 17 people are running in the New England by-election, and there are thoughts from Antony Green that more than that could run in Bennelong.
  30. The NSW voluntary euthanasia bill has been rejected in the NSW Upper House, while the Victorian Upper House debate has been suspended for a few days after a Labor member collapsed in their office during the mammoth overnight session.

The Week That Was – August 13 to August 19

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The tally of dual citizen victims if section 44 of the Constitution has risen to seven, with Barnaby Joyce learning he was a Kiwi, Fiona Nash discovering she’s British through her estranged Scottish dad, and Nick Xenophon found out he was a “British overseas citizen” because his dad was born in Cyprus while it was still a British Colony. It turns out Labor has been doing some digging, because they found out about Xenophon and passed on the information. A Labor staffer has also been implicated in the Joyce citizenship issue, after it was revealed that a staffer in Penny Wong’s office was chatting with a NZ Labour mate, who asked about it.

https://twitter.com/jmodoh/status/897378576818884608

This lead to Julie Bishop accusing both the Labor Party and NZ Labour of “treachery”, and saying that the current Liberal government may not be able to work cooperatively with a Kiwi Labour Government. Bishop has been panned for her comments, while NZ Opposition Leader Jacinda Ardern has been apologising and asking to talk with the Foreign Minister.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Child Abuse has made over 80 recommendations to better help victims. These recommendations include making it an offence to groom a child or their parents, making it illegal to move priests from parish to parish with the charge of failure to protect children, and most controversially, make it an offence not to report abuse revealed in confessional. Catholics see the confessional as sacred, and some priests are suggesting that instead of breaching the sacrament, they could refuse absolution to priests unless they turn themselves in, and ask victims who confess to chat to the priest or another trusted adult outside the confessional so they can report the incident to police.

Finally this week, Pauline Hanson pulled a stunt in the senate, wearing a black burqa – ostensibly to make a point about security and banning the burqa. Senator George Brandis swiftly refused and then scolded her for being disrespectful to Muslims.

Tweets of The Week

ABC staff once again stand up for their employer after someone spreads misinformation. (In this case Alan Jones said the ABC had 65 trauma counsellors – these people are trained counsellors but work for the ABC in news roles)

Sam Dastyari and Nick Xenophon have a laugh (before Xenophon found out he was a Brit)

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

ABC 7:30’s Andrew Probyn on the s44 saga – ABC Online

Noel Debien on the Confessional recommendation – ABC Online

 

The Week That Was – June 18 to June 24

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This week’s primary focus was Gonski 2.0 – the current government’s approach to needs-based school funding, but with actual money and not just promises. It started with the Catholic system, the Education Union and Labor imploring the Senate cross-bench to vote against the legislation saying it was a bad idea. However, after some deal making with the Xenophon Team, the government was able to convince 10 cross-benchers to vote for the legislation. The main point of contention was the amount of money, as Labor had promised double what the government was promising back when they were in power, which left the Coalition pointing out that Labor never had the money and that this government does. Another issue was the time it was going to take to transfer to the new needs-based system – the government had originally wanted a ten-year rollout, but the Greens and NXT negotiated a reduction to six years.

When the coalition made the deal with NXT, One Nation and the other cross-bench senators, the Greens were caught by surprise, as they had also been negotiating. Somewhat luckily for them, the NXT wanted similar things so some of what the Green wanted in the legislation is there, such as the shortened timeframe and independent oversight. By the end of the week, the legislation was through the Senate and the Catholics were saying that their education system was fine and there was nothing to worry about.

Staying on the education track, Pauline Hanson is in hot water with parents, teachers and education experts after saying that children with autism and other special needs should be segregated from mainstream schooling. Hanson’s comments stem from her slightly misguided concern that it puts strains on teachers and holds back ‘normal’ students. Emma Husar, MP for the seat of Lindsay, has a ten year-old son who has autism. She’s come out to defend her son’s right to a normal education, as have many other parents. Hanson says she won’t back down because she’s been taken out of context.

The government has asked the AFP to look into threats made by union boss John Setka after he appeared to threaten ABCC investigators and their families at a rally against the new industry watchdog. Setka has also been criticised by the government, federal Labor and the Victorian Labor party.

The Department of Defence is getting angsty after the company that runs a data storage facility became part owned by a Chinese company. Defence stores a lot of sensitive data at the Australian facility, and while this Australian facility is somewhat exempt from the deal (according to Scott Morrison), Defence will be moving the data to another facility owned by someone else at the end of the contract with the current provider.

Wire taps the police took while investigating the ATO fraud case have recorded former ATO deputy commissioner Michael Cranston talking to his son Adam. Cranston is believed to have no knowledge of the fraud and simply gave his son advice, which was an abuse of his powers. These wire taps seem to back that up, as Cranston seems to have no idea what his son is up to, but he does seem to suspect that something is up.

Also this week, Greg Hunt, Michael Sukkar and Alan Tudge all apologised to the Victorian court for saying the Victorian judiciary was not tough enough on crime – in the middle of a sentencing appeal for two men convicted of terror offences. Originally the court was threatening to charge the three Ministers with contempt of court, however it appears the apology and their previous withdrawal of their comments in court last week, they will not face any charges.

Finally this week, the New South Wales budget revealed the state has so much money, it’s not even funny; TAFE course participation is dropping due to the new VET fee loans system, that takes weeks to finalise; the Malek Fahd Islamic College in Sydney may have to close at the end of Term 2 because their federal funding is yet to be reinstated; and this week marked 10 years since the 2007 Northern Territory Intervention under the Howard Government.

Tweet of the Week

How to describe Question Time to someone unfamiliar? It’s like a group of school kids throwing insults at each other – at least sometimes…

https://twitter.com/MarkDiStef/status/877384085340954625

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

A teachers’ aide on how special needs students are accommodated – ABC Online

Buzzfeed’s Mark Di Stefano recaps the week in politics – Buzzfeed Australia