Tag Archives: HECS

The Week That Was – March 6 to March 12

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Last weekend saw the Mardi Gras Parade take over Sydney, with both Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten coming to the parade – although Turnbull was just a spectator, and Shorten actually marched with other Labor Party members. On the Sunday, George Brandis announced that the planned plebiscite could happen by the end of the year, and then there was some confusion as Turnbull’s office sort of began backtracking on it. It seems that the idea was to have it shortly after the next election, and if that election is in September or October then the plebiscite won’t happen this year, but if it comes earlier, then what Brandis said kind of fits…

Cue logical jump from political analysts and commentators.

The rest of the week was spent with the Press Gallery focusing on when the election would be and whether it would be a Double Dissolution election. Now this is where it gets wordy and complicated. Bear with me.

The theory is that the last possible date for a double dissolution election is July 2, meaning Turnbull would have to call an election on May 11 at the latest for that date to be possible. That would be the day after the current planned date  of the 2016 Budget on May 10 and the issue and it is highly unlikely that parliament will pass budget bills in less than 24 hours, meaning a supply bill won’t have time to be passed and the government will run out of money in June or July.  So, if the July 2 plan is the one Turnbull is going with, then the budget will probably be moved forward to the week before (May 3) and in order to keep the public servants, number crunchers and journalists happy, they’ll actually need to give them warning about the date change – so we’ll find out too, essentially telling us the government’s plans.

The other option is to hold out till September/October for the full term of government, but that does leave the government, should the Liberals win again, with what they see as a “feral” and “hostile” Senate, with cross benchers like Jacqui Lambie, Glenn Lazarus and Ricky Muir for three more years. The understanding was they wanted to kind of, well, get rid of them with the new Senate reforms that the Liberals will be, as I’m understanding it, able to pass thanks to the Greens and Nick Xenophon.

It seems though, from what was said on the ABC, this coming week is going to be the week they decide to change (or not change) the date of the Budget, indicating what their plan is. If they take the Double Dissolution option, then they sort of need a trigger, and the government has suggested two. The catch? One has not been listed for debate in parliament yet, and the other isn’t even written yet. Watch this space.

Meanwhile, Bronwyn Bishop’s seat of Mackellar is in for a big fight, with six people contesting Bishop for preselection. Bishop has held the seat for years and at 73, some people think she should go quietly and calmly. However, it’s understood that Bishop has a very tight grip on the people who vote in preselections and most of them are likely to vote for her. It’s so dodgy and her grip is so tight, that it’s believed preselection challenger #7 dropped out.

Meanwhile, Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce has a tough run in New England coming up after former New England MP, Tony Windsor announced his comeback. Joyce is confident of his return, especially if the seat is fought on mining (Windsor is known to have sold his land to a mining company for a lot of money). However, mining is not the only focus in the seat, and Windsor may win if other issues take precedence.

The government has announced that they will update the Collins class submarines, as they will need to be used for up to 20 more years until the new submarines are made. Meanwhile, China is becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the defence relationship between Australia and the USA, with American B-1 Bombers being stationed in the Top End. China has warned Australia and the USA not to target a “third country”, essentially telling them that they shouldn’t be targeting China over it’s claims in the South China Sea.

Finally this week, the nerds have calculated that Labor needs to win 21 seats and have a swing of over 4.5% to win the next election; there are proposed changes to HECS repayments, such as the income threshold being decreased; and Clive Palmer’s Queensland Nickel company has gone down the drain and another company affiliated to Palmer has bought the refinery, applied for environmental permits, but is yet to employ the 500-ish QNI employees in limbo.

Tweet of the Week

In the next instalment of “Fashion Advice for Female TV Presenters”….

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Antony Green on the Turnbull Government’s options – ABC Elections

Antony Green explains terms in the Senate after a Double Dissolution – ABC Elections

The extent of Peta Credlin’s involvement in the Abbott Prime Ministership – The Guardian

Mark Di Stefano explains the whole Peta Credlin thing – Buzzfeed

The Two Weeks That Were – December 28 to January 10

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Happy New Year. As the government slowly heads back to work after the holidays, Penny Wong has suggested that Tony Abbott’s New Years Resolution should be to stop breaking promises, while Abbott has told senate cross benchers to stop being selfish and think about the big picture, and Nick Xenophon thinks that Abbott is still acting like an opposition leader as opposed to a PM.

After the Air Asia crash just before New Year, Australia began to help in the search for the plane, as has the USA, Russia and other countries Indonesia has asked. It’s believed that some Australian searchers found some bits of wreckage, and Tony Abbott, ever the philosopher, said it was neither a mystery like MH370, nor was it an atrocity like MH17 (Air Asia is a Malaysian budget/low-cost carrier).

In some slightly good news for Peter Greste, judges have overturned his and his colleagues convictions, but they will have to be retried. The Al Jazeera journalists were not given bail, however two have applied to be deported – Greste and his colleague with Canadian citizenship – the other is Egyptian and has no other citizenship. It’s unclear if that will happen, and both Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and the Greste family are not getting too hopeful. Qatar and Egypt have apparently improved their relationship slightly, which will help in the case as Al Jazeera is based in Qatar and run by a member of the Qatari Royal Family.

Meanwhile, more has come to light in the saga involving one of Clive Palmer’s staffers. It’s alleged that he helped with a plan to lure a NAB executive to Bali in order to hold the executive against his will and force him to retract a witness statement he was going to make in court. It turns out the executive reported it to NAB and the Queensland Police Fraud Squad, and nothing was done. It wasn’t until 2014, when Taskforce Maxima – an anti-bikie taskforce – came across the case while looking into other matters and they arrested Palmer’s staffer and some of the other people involved, while also reporting the dodgy fraud squad investigation to Queensland’s corruption watch dog.

Ton Abbott went to Iraq just after New Years to meet with the Iraqi Prime Minister and Australian troops and talk about the fight against ISIS. He talked about decimating the ISIS “death cult” and how everyone wants the ADF to be out there fighting against ISIS. Reports are that the Iraqi PM wants Australia to send more troops and equipment to help, which Labor has said it would like information about before they vote for it. Abbott also went to see air force staff based in the UAE, who have been helping with airstrikes on ISIS strongholds.

Cabinet Papers from 1988 and 1989 have been released showing Australia’s concern about the Cold War, including the bugging of the Australian Embassy in Moscow, the aftermath of the Tiananmen Incident, and the expulsion of spies. There were also concerns about the introduction of HECS – the current tertiary funding model – and cabinet papers also show the tension already brewing between Hawke and Keating.

This last fortnight also saw the attack on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo (said “ebb-dough” – short for hebdomadaire, meaning weekly in French) in Paris, two men shot journalists and cartoonists, as well as the shooting of a Paris Police Officer and the hostage taking at a Kosher supermarket. The French terror threat level is at its highest level, while Australia’s remains at its second highest, with Tony Abbott drawing links between the Paris attacks and the Lindt Siege, and since Wednesday, has started to scaremonger again, and is also saying that Australia’s safety starts in the Middle East.

Finally this fortnight, Queensland is having an election on January 31, and it is unclear how that will end; Tony Abbott, Bill Shorten, Queensland Premier Campbell Newman and Queensland Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk were at a funeral in Cairns for eight children killed by a family member; and an ISIS propaganda magazine has hailed Man Haron Monis’ attack on the Lindt Cafe, encouraging copycats, and there are reports that another Australian fighting with ISIS in the Middle-East has been killed.

Tweets of the Fortnight

As the Queensland election campaign begins, strange things begin to happen.

After the attacks on the offices of Charlie Hebdo, people are getting behind the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie

https://twitter.com/ABCNews24/status/553654405036122112

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

First Dog on the Moon’s poignant cartoon about Charlie Hebdo – The Guardian

26 Things about JB Hi Fi – Buzzfeed

2014 in Interactive news stories – ABC Online

Not One More: Leelah Alcorn and how trans* teens in deeply religious families suffer – Huffington Post

The Week That Was – December 7 to December 13

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Tony Abbott still wants his Paid Parental Leave (PPL) Scheme to go ahead, although he may have to lower the cap again, with money saved going to childcare, but won’t share too many details other than the fact that he would prefer “in-home care” – i.e. nannies – and there is disquiet among the Coalition to do with city vs. rural mothers and how much money they get. In case you were wondering, the Labor party’s PPL is paying every primary carer 18 weeks at minimum wage (source here).

The Government is using taxpayer money to pay for advertising to convince people of the benefits of their plan for higher education funding. The government says that it is an “information campaign focused on facts”, while Glenn Lazarus has called the ad campaign “expensive propaganda for dud reforms”. The thing is, the bulk of students (including me), whether at uni, or planning to go in the next few years, still have an issue with the legislation, and it isn’t the fact that the interest on HECS is going up.

The $7 co-payment is technically gone. However, they are cutting $5 from the rebate doctors get from Medicare, meaning that if doctors want to make that up, they are going to have to raise their prices. There is an exemption for children, pensioners, veterans and concession card holders, however there is concern about chronically ill patients or patients needing long-term or ongoing care who are adults, as they will not be reprieved, and it may also lead to clogged Emergency Departments. This policy is yet to be introduced to Parliament, so it may not even get through, but people are worried anyway. Bill Shorten also had some choice words that scared a few people.

This is not a back down by the Abbott Government, this is a GP Tax that Tony Abbott can’t bring through your front door so he is going to bring it through your back door.

Not a pleasant thought, but I guess that’s the point.

NAPLAN is in the news again as it turns out that parents are pulling their kids out of school on NAPLAN day at record rates, because students are pressured to do well, or schools tell parents to keep their kid away in order to make the school look better when the NAPLAN results come out. This leaves an incomplete picture about how students are doing at schools.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is in Australia at the moment, meeting with Tony Abbott, who is apparently one of the most popular foreign heads of state in Ukraine. Abbott said that it was nice to be popular, even if it was in Ukraine, and that “shirt front” must have translated well into Ukrainian. Poroshenko wants more help from Australia to fight the separatists and also wants energy resources from Australia. Abbott has also been invited to come to Kiev on a visit, which could happen next year.

In the run-up to the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO), it has been announced that up to 200 agencies could be axed, including a LGBTI working group and a Returned Servicemen group. The government needs to save $500 million dollars, and the fact that mining revenues are down, as is the petrol price, Australia is not getting as much revenue as it was.

Finally this week, Tony Abbott has suggested those in the Coalition who are complaining about Peta Credlin are sexist, which has led to people calling Abbott a hypocrite…

…Australia will contribute $200 million to the world Climate Fund, unemployment has risen to a 12 year high, making Joe Hockey’s life more difficult and Nick Xenophon has started his own party.

Tweets of the Week

https://twitter.com/MarkDiStef/status/542852661507137536

Things I’ve Been looking at Online

The 20 Reasons 2014 was the Year of Lee Lin Chin – BuzzFeed

Explaining to American why Australian shops banned GTA5 – Polygon.com

An academic paper by Maggie Simpson and Edna Krabappel got published – Vox.com

The Week That Was – May 25 to May 31

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The Budget Saga continues.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quote of the Week

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

Tweets of the Week

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

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

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

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

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

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