Barnaby Joyce’s interview with Channel 7’s Sunday Night aired on Sunday and it appears that the only viewers were the Canberra Press Gallery – the interview didn’t really garner the attention or the rise in viewership. Even Scott Morrison admitted he was watching singing reality show The Voice. Joyce’s performance was all sorts of weird (from what I’ve seen from clips on the ABC) in which he disparaged some of his colleagues, implied his partner Vikki wasn’t an adult woman with a mind of her own, and admitted he knew that he was in trouble when Vikki got pregnant. People in his electorate seemed to have been forced by the local pubs to watch the interview, and as one younger viewer commented to the ABC (we’re talking a 20-30 year old) thought Joyce was bit of a tool.
There are now questions over whether Joyce will be able to survive pre-selection this time around. Most MPs aren’t really commenting on it, although it appears that they wouldn’t mind if Joyce didn’t come back after next year’s election. Tony Abbott on the other hand, seems to be very supportive of Joyce, which could be a blessing or a curse – we shall have to see.
So while Joyce takes some time off, the rest of Australia can get on with their lives.
Malcolm Turnbull and local MPs across regional New South Wales and Queensland have been inspecting drought ravaged areas. He’s pledged assistance and help but it is not totally clear exactly what that help will be just yet.
The economy is doing alright at the moment, with GDP up by 1% in the March quarter, and up 3.1% for the year. It’s a positive picture, and a good start to 2018. However, it is mostly exports and predominantly to China, which isn’t necessarily an issue, but does suggest we’ll be in trouble if China has a slump.
The Public Service Commissioner, John Lloyd, who is responsible for public service pay and conditions, has quit. There have been questions over his conduct and independence, as he has links to the right-wing think tank the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA). He will leave the role in August, and it appears that quite a few people are relieved that he’s going.
This week marks 30 years since former Prime Minister Bob Hawke promised a treaty between the government and Australia’s indigenous population. There hasn’t been a treaty, and this leaves Australia as the only Commonwealth nation with no treaty with the Indigenous population. However three states – Victoria, South Australia and the Northern Territory – have begun the treaty process with land councils, with varying success. This week saw the Northern Territory’s Chief Minister sign Memoranda of Understanding with three Central Australian Land Councils. Bill Shorten has also announced that he will act on the recent Uluru Statement and implement a federal Indigenous advisory panel.
The Australian military’s special forces (SAS) is being investigated for their conduct and behaviour while deployed. This information has come through leaks to the media making some politicians concerned. While the SAS does get some latitude and secrecy given the nature of their missions, it appears that some of their behaviour may have been illegal – so Mark Binskin, the head of Australia’s armed forces, has asked that this investigation continue and finish quickly without interference.
While the Royal Commission wasn’t in hearings this week, the banks still had a bad time. First, the Commonwealth Bank has been fined $700 million for breaching money laundering laws. There were over 53,000 breaches where the bank knowingly let suspicious transactions take place and potentially let money go to criminal organisations and terrorist groups. The fine could have been a lot worse, so CommBank is very, very lucky.
Meanwhile, the ANZ, Citibank and Deutsche Bank have been charged with cartel behaviour. The important thing here is that these are criminal charges, not civil. This means that they have also arrested people – mostly former CEOs and executives. It involves the ANZ approaching Citibank, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan to help them increase their shares. JP Morgan has not been charged in the case, because they are helping in the investigation and case and getting immunity in return.
This week has been an interesting one for Australia-China relations, with China getting anxious about the government’s plans to introduce foreign interference laws in time to protect ‘Super Saturday’ by-elections on July 28 – because apparently China is going to try to affect the outcome. From my perspective, it’s unlikely that China is going to get involved in five by-elections that are unlikely to dramatically affect the government’s standing in parliament – yes three more seats will make the Coalition more comfortable, but it’s not going to change the course of history.
Australia is also under pressure to get involved in freedom of navigation activities in the South China Sea, and it became really awkward when it became apparent that a suspected Chinese surveillance ship had been following HMAS Adelaide around the South Pacific, somewhat confirmed when they both pulled into port in Suva, Fiji.
Finally this week, technology companies are trying to figure out who the government is going to approach access to encrypted messages – essentially the government wants ways to access messages and informations on people’s phones when they are doing investigations; Qantas has bowed to Chinese pressure to label Taiwan as a region of China, making the government (potentially) a bit concerned; NBN quotes for people who are wanting to upgrade from fibre-to-the-node (or curb) to fibre-to-the-premises are ridiculously high and it’s unclear why that is the case; and eyes are now on a charity that has been named by an Australian teenager arrested in Lebanon for allegedly trying to join ISIS – he says the charity encouraged him to join.
Tweet of the Week
https://twitter.com/leighsales/status/1004875931134017536
Things I’ve Been Looking at Online
Laura Tingle on the political football that is the ABC – ABC Online
Lucy Barbour on Malcolm Turnbull’s ‘drought tour’ – ABC Online
Kara L 