Tag Archives: Interest Rates

The Week That Was – June 2 to June 8

Posted on by

The first few weeks after an election are usually relatively quiet as people get themselves organised in their new portfolios. This week was going that way, until the Australian Federal Police (AFP) raided the home of News Corp Journalist Annika Smethurst, and then the Headquarters of the ABC, as part of two unrelated national security investigations.

Annika Smethurst’s home was raided after she revealed that the Australian Signals Directorate (Australia’s national surveillance agency) was seeking to increase their powers to be able to spy on Australians without their knowledge. Smethurst was quickly joined by News Corp lawyers as the AFP went through her home. Smethurst revealed that the AFP was so thorough that officers found things she forgot she even had and even went through her underwear drawer (this was reported in The Australian, but I can’t link it as it’s now behind a paywall).

The ABC was raided over their revelations in 2017 about incidents between civilians and the Australian Army in Afghanistan – known as the ‘Afghan Files’ – allegedly because discussions between the AFP and the ABC’s legal team ‘broke down’, something the ABC’s lawyers deny. Senior ABC news executives defended the ABC with news boss Gaven Morris and Editorial Director Craig McMurtrie saying that the ABC will continue to report the news that is in the public interest, while ABC Chairwoman Ita Buttrose declared that the raids were “clearly designed to intimidate” the ABC, News Corp and whistleblowers.

International media outlets including the BBC and CNN have reported on the raids, and also declared their support for a free press in Australia. As it happens, Australia has some of the weakest whistleblower protection legislation compared to the UK, USA and some European nations. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that he supported the AFP’s actions, as they were acting within the legislation. However, he has also suggested the government might review the legislation.

Meanwhile, Morrison and his wife Jenny went on a whirlwind diplomatic trip to the Solomon Islands, United Kingdom and Singapore. In the Solomon Islands, one of the few nations that still recognises Taiwan (Under the PRC’s “One China Policy” you either recognise and have diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China (China) or the Republic of China (Taiwan) as a legitimate nation, not both), Morrison announced a change to aid funding that provides aid funding for health, education and national security, while also countering the PRC’s influence.

Morrison then travelled onto the UK, where he met Queen Elizabeth II (which was probably a far more pleasant meeting for her than the one she had with Trump earlier in the week), and attended the 75th Anniversary D-Day Commemorations. Morrison then travelled onto Singapore on the way home to Australia.

Anthony Albanese announced his shadow cabinet this week, which has 12 men and 12 women. Former opposition leader Bill Shorten will be the Minister for the NDIS and Government Services, while several of Shorten’s shadow cabinet have remained in their roles, including Tanya Plibersek, Penny Wong, Richard Marles (with added Deputy Leadership) and Mark Butler.

There has also been a slight “pass the portfolio” act amongst some of the other members of Shorten’s last shadow cabinet – Jim Chalmers will be Shadow Treasurer, taking the role from Chris Bowen, who has the health portfolio. Bowen has taken the health portfolio from Catherine King, who is now Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Tony Burke keeps his Arts portfolio and his Manager of Opposition Business in the House, but passes on the Environment portfolio, and takes up Industrial Relations.

Burke’s Environment portfolio now goes to Terri Butler, a new addition to Shadow Cabinet, along with Katy Gallagher who becomes Shadow Finance Minister, Madeleine King who is to be Shadow Trade Minister and Kristina Keneally, who will take up the Home Affairs and Immigration portfolios, alongside her Deputy Senate Leader Role.

Peter Dutton has decided that Keneally’s elevation to be his jousting partner on Home Affairs is a bad idea because, he says, she is the least qualified person to do it. Dutton says that Keneally doesn’t believe in turning asylum seeker boats back – but given Albanese basically said they would keep the government’s policy, I think that’s probably not going to be much of an issue. In some ways, I think Dutton might be a teensy bit nervous about Keneally.

Also this week, Sydney received a (not so) surprise visit from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, as three warships pulled into Garden Island to restock and give some naval personnel some shore leave. It turns out, while the trip was a surprise to the majority of the Australian population, the government did know the Chinese Navy was coming, as they asked for permission about two months ago. However, there is also concern over the timing, highlighted by government senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, as they arrived on the eve of June 4th, which is the 30th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

Finally this week, there seems to be a disconnect between what the government and what the experts are saying about the Australian economy. The government has been touting their superior economic management and the fact that the economy is growing under them. While the latter point is essentially true, the fact is that the economic growth rate is very slow.

This slow growth in the economy and the added concern of rising unemployment has resulted in the Reserve Bank cutting interest rates for the first time in nearly three years to a record low of 1.25%. There are suggestions that interest rates could be cut frequently over the next 12 months and many economists are urging the government to spend some money to stimulate the economy – which if the government were “good economic managers” as they call themselves, you’d think they wouldn’t need to do. But then again, economics is not my strong suit so I could be wrong there.

Tweets of the Week

As the Smethurst/ABC raids inundated the news cycle, that’s what most of the tweets are about….

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

ABC’s Head of Investigative Journalism John Lyons tweeted the AFP raid – ABC Online

Tom Iggulden on Labor’s Sliding Doors moment between Albo and Shorten – ABC Online

How climbs on Mount Everest can end so badly – ABC Online 

As the finish line nears, Bill Shorten appears relatable and ScoMo gets egged (almost).

Posted on by

The week began with the Labor Party’s campaign launch in Western Sydney, with former Prime Ministers Paul Keating, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard putting aside their dramas to attend, along with a large majority of the Labor team. The party opted to have Penny Wong speak about the problems Labor sees with the current government and Tanya Plibersek spoke on Labor’s virtues and values.

The Opposition reiterated their policies on climate change, wage growth and health, along with several new promises – $200 million for youth mental health, $500 million for hospital emergency department upgrades, and tax credits for companies that hire under-25s and over-55s.

The only spanner in the works on launch day was Paul Keating. He started by surprising the ABC’s Andrew Probyn and Jane Nicholson who were hosting coverage from the launch:

Keating, who is famous for his use of words over the years (see here), then proceeded to call Scott Morrison “a fossil with a baseball cap”, and suggest that government security agencies were going “berko” over China. The latter statement gave the government something to grab onto to use against Labor regarding embracing China too openly – which sort of distracted from Labor policies during the week because people kept asking if the Labor front bench agreed with him.

The Labor Party also had Bill Shorten’s wife Chloe introduce him at the launch, where she talked about how wonderful Bill is as a human being – but a pretty terrible dancer (a reference to his “dad dancing” in Kiribati).  The aim of Chloe’s speech was to improve Shorten’s personal popularity, and that combined with some luck and the ability to capitalise upon in late in the week has shown Shorten to be far more relatable and human than he has been in the past.

Bill Shorten then appeared on Q&A on the ABC on Monday night by himself – Scott Morrison declined to attend, and opted to be interviewed on ABC 7:30 instead – allowing Shorten a further chance to speak about his values and policies. It also allowed him to make a few jokes and show his sense of humour. If you have a spare 70-80 minutes before the election, I recommend you watch the episode either on iView or below:

Whatever media or public speaking training Bill Shorten has had over the last 3-6 years has worked pretty well and it shows. He sounds like a reasonable, sensible human being and he’s explaining a lot of his policies in a very measured manner, treating the voters like intelligent humans. The humour at the Q&A appearance helped Shorten seem more personable and it makes a refreshing change from some of what we have seen with the government recently.

During the program he spoke about his mother and how she hadn’t been able to study law when she finished high school as she’d wanted. Instead she earned a scholarship to study education, and had stuck with it and she was able to provide for Bill and his siblings as children – the gist essentially was that Ann Shorten didn’t get all the opportunities because she was working class and Bill Shorten wants to make all opportunities available to all.

On Wednesday, the Daily Telegraph in Sydney published a story that implied that Bill Shorten had made up things or lied about his mother on the Monday Q&A appearance. As you would imagine, Shorten was very upset and in a press conference defending his mother, he cried in public.

This has served to make Bill Shorten appear even more ‘normal’, for want of a better word, as this show of emotion is something not really ever seen with Shorten in the past.

Scott Morrison also said that the Telegraph’s story was unfair, and there have again been calls to leave the parents, children and other family members of candidates out of the spotlight in campaigns – unless they are there willingly as part of the campaign, like Bill’s wife Chloe.

Scott Morrison and the government kept Sunday pretty low-key because of Labor’s launch but did announce money for e-Safety and anti-cyberbullying programs, as well as promising to increase prison time for those who abuse people online.

The week became a bit interesting for Morrison when he was the victim of an attempted egging while at a Country Women’s Association (CWA) event. A 24-year-old woman tried to egg Morrison’s head, but missed. Morrison’s security arrested the woman, and in the kerfuffle, knocked over an elderly CWA member at the event. Morrison assisted the member to her feet and checked she was alright, while the CWA ladies watched the young woman get taken away by security and police, with some telling her she was a “silly girl”. Morrison was unfazed by the incident, brushing it off by saying that the CWA knows what to do with eggs, and Bill Shorten has condemned the egging and any type of violence during an election campaign.

There was a third debate this week at the National Press Club, and it was an experimental model that the Press Club had never tried before. There was only one moderator – the Press Club’s President Sabra Lane – and the audience was made up of equal numbers of Coalition and Labor supporters, who asked the questions.

After weeks and weeks of nagging Labor has, in their own time, revealed the costings for their policies. Chris Bowen and Jim Chalmers presented the policy costings, which showed how much Labor intends to raise through tax changes and how they intend to spend taxpayer money while still maintaining a surplus over the next few years. Matthias Cormann and Josh Frydenberg were dispatched to rebut the costings, but all they could seem to come up with was “it’s a con job” and “Labor deception”, which does suggest to me that the Coalition is panicking a bit on how to deal with the reasoned and measured approach Labor is taking.

Other than the Keating issue Labor is having a little bit of trouble this week with tax policy as some on the right-wing of politics are suggesting that Labor will bring in a “Death Tax” at the behest of the Greens if they win the election. This is despite the consistent denials of Bill Shorten, Chris Bowen, Anthony Albanese and many other Labor figures. This non-existent policy that the right is trying to scare people with just won’t die (if there is a pun in that, it is totally intended) and it’s another distraction that is beginning to frustrate the Labor party a bit – there are a limited number of ways to say “there will be no death tax” before you start to get annoyed.

Also this week, Kerryn Phelps called in the Australian Federal Police after an email was circulated suggesting Phelps was pulling out of the race because she had been found ineligible to run in the seat under section 44. The email suggests that because she is Jewish, she has the right to Israeli citizenship. There are two key facts that prove this email wrong. First, while being Jewish makes you eligible to be an Israeli citizen, you do have to express a desire to do so and get a special visa (which she hasn’t done), or have parents who were Israeli citizens, the latter of which Phelps doesn’t have as she is a convert. Second, there are several other Jewish candidates and MPs, including Josh Frydenberg, Mark Dreyfus and Phelps’ opponent Dave Sharma, and they haven’t had problems with section 44 in regards to Israeli citizenship.

Finally this week, the Aged Care Royal Commission has been hearing evidence about the treatment of nursing home residents with dementia, and the evidence so far hasnt been pleasant. There are allegations that one patient’s dentures were left in her mouth for weeks, and that a patient was given such a high dose of anti-depressants that they were unresponsive to family when they came to visit on the patient’s birthday.

Before I go, interest rates stayed the same, although the word on the street is that they might be cut in the next few months, making people think the only reason they didn’t cut them this month is because of the election campaign.

Don’t forget to vote on May 18!

Tweets of the Week

https://twitter.com/MrsDzTB/status/1126681842319364096

What do you do when you’re an independent with limited resources – an interpretive dance:

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Vote Compass results on penalty rates and the minimum wage – ABC Online

Could America get a gay president in 2020? – ABC Online

Laura Tingle on the differences between the Labor and Coalition campaigns – ABC Online

The Two Weeks That Were – April 2 to April 15

Posted on by

Hopefully now that uni and work have petered out a bit, I should get back to my regular posting schedule… Hope you are all having a lovely Easter Weekend.

The past fortnight began, with flood and cyclone damage being cleaned up across the bulk of the north-east coast. The NSW town of Lismore, and Queensland town of Rockhampton as well as the Whitsunday Islands were the three areas with the bulk of the damage. Researchers have also been able to survey the Great Barrier Reef – and it has had a tough run, with some major damage and stress bleaching.

Interest rates may go up in the next few months, due to the high rate of investment buying and interest-only loans. However the RBA is anxious about raising these rates because it will cause stress on the mortgages of low-income households, as well as lead to defaults on mortgages in some cases, as many households do not appear to have enough of a buffer if the earners were to lose their jobs.

The other issue is that somehow, an internal Liberal Party debate on whether to allow people to dip into their super to buy a house has been played out in the public, making the party look a bit uncoordinated. The suggestion has been panned by many people, including the people in my household, because it is a stupid idea. The only place that does allow superannuation to be used to buy a home is Singapore – but Singapore’s super contribution level is 33%.

Pauline Hanson had a tough time with an ABC Four Corners exposé on the One Nation Party. There have been accusations of mind-control and manipulation. One former member has claimed the party is run like a dictatorship, and the journalist behind the stories was asked multiple times by James Ashby (remember him?) to leave one of Pauline Hanson’s press conferences.

A documentary has been made about life on Manus Island, which shows the centre as quaint and quiet, but also reveals the uncertainty of the detainees. Filmed on a phone, the clips had to be sent bit by bit to the co-director in the Netherlands, the Manus-based co-director wanted a record of what happens on Manus before the centre closes in October. Manus was also rocked by a shooting incident this week, in which Papua New Guinean military staff attempted to break in to the centre armed with guns.

There are concerns that staff working on the NDIS are not familiar enough with some of the disabilities they are meant to be catering plans to. Several plans are missing or omitting vital equipment needed by recipients, and many consults are being done over the phone, leading to suggestions that maybe staff need more training or to meet with recipients face-to-face.

Finally this fortnight, Malcolm Turnbull went to India for bilateral talks; private schools are concerned that they will lose funding from the federal government; Australia has supported the launching of nearly 60 tomahawk missiles by the USA, targeting Assad Government sites in Syria; The Emissions Reduction Fund is running out; and Scott Morrison has been dumped by Ray Hadley for ‘cheating’ on him with ABC Radio in Melbourne.

Tweets of the Fortnight

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Euthanasia debate on Q&A  – ABC Online

Ben Pobjie on John Clarke’s passing – ABC Online

The Election Campaign Begins…

Posted on by

Well, it’s Tuesday. Since the election was called on Sunday, Tony has been on the ABC a few times: Sunday night and this morning.

But first, Tony spent Monday evening in Western Sydney at a function with minority leaders.

This morning, he was on 702 ABC Sydney being interviewed by Breakfast host Adam Spencer – it wasn’t brilliant work from either side, and Tony didn’t really answer all the questions he was asked, but it’s given me some valuable insight. Joe Hockey was interviewed for ABC Radio’s AM, and spoke about the economy. More insight.

Kevin Rudd, on the other hand, debated the Greens and Liberal candidates in his electorate of Griffith this morning. From the tweets, it appears that all three made an impression, and Kevin seemed to have some policy to talk about.

There was an interest rate cut this afternoon, and it has become apparent that the economy is a key point in this election. Oh boy. My interest in economics only goes so far, so if I make it to the end of the election without getting frustrated, it’ll be a miracle. Labor has made it clear that the interest rate cut is a good thing, particularly for those who have a mortgage. The Coalition appears to be less optimistic. Apparently having low interest rates is a bad thing, as it means our economy is falling apart.

Back in the early 2000s, John Howard used to say that there would be “low interest rates under a Coalition government” – there really wasn’t, and Tony Abbott, Joe Hockey and other Coalition politicians have been saying that the “economy would be stronger under a Coalition government”

Rudd says that “this speaks volumes” about the Coalition – how? I don’t know. He’s also annoyed at Rupert Murdoch, who tweeted this:

It probably doesn’t help that the Daily Telegraph’s headline on Monday morning was something along the lines of “Get this Mob Out!”. He says that Murdoch is probably worried that the NBN will affect Foxtel (Australian Pay TV) and is also trying to get Tony Abbott into power – apparently their friends. Kevin also thinks that Murdoch is enjoying himself in the USA – far, far away from Australia.

If that wasn’t enough, Labor announced a large contribution to the renovation Brookvale Oval (home of the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles), right in the middle of Abbott’s electorate.

I mentioned that I had gained some valuable insight this morning…. Abbott seems to be about putting down the incumbent government and telling us how bad they are. We aren’t getting any policy from him.

So far on the policy count….

COALITION: 0

LABOR: 1

These adverts were the first on TV since the election was called….You can bet that they have been ready for MONTHS!

Coalition

Labor