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

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

I was locked in a room for six hours with every political journalist in the country. This is my story. #Budget2019 pic.twitter.com/8vmUY78KWK

— Mark Humphries (@markhumphries) April 3, 2019

Outside the launch of @NStottDespoja ‘s book “On Violence”, @TurnbullMalcolm has just declared that the claim that electric vehicles lack grunt “could only be made by someone who’s never driven one”.

— Annabel Crabb (@annabelcrabb) April 9, 2019

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

 

16 Things That took Place in December

December is a busy time in retail, and so I’ve been very busy. So here’s a look back at December and we’ll get back to regular posting soon.

1. Labor announced it would maintain the current government’s boat turn-back policy and would continue offshore detention as a deterrent – but would support Kerryn Phelps bill to evacuate asylum seekers to Australia for medical reasons.
2. The Australian Labor Party held their national conference in Adelaide, which went relatively smoothly – minus some environmental and asylum seeker protesters who tried to interrupt Bill Shorten. All in all, it’s become apparent that the election in 2019 is Labor’s to lose and the party showed unity at their conference.
3. As house prices fall, there are concerns that the market could collapse. But the whole thing is weird because generally house prices fall when there are high interest rates, but this time that isn’t the case. For some people if the prices continue to drop, buying a home might actually become attainable.
4. The ACCC has called for data rights legislation, and for search engines to control traffic to news sites. The ACCC says this is so that journalists who break huge news stories get the credit for their hard work by having these search engines push readers to the original story, rather than to another news site that didn’t break the story.
5. Australia finally had two Joint Strike Fighters arrive, 20 years after ordering them (we’ve got more on the way)
6. There are legislation changes for casual workers. They can now ask that their role become permanent after 12 months, but while the business council believes this is a good thing, the unions are concerned that this could lead to casual workers being treated badly.
7. Scott Morrison had his first COAG meeting – which was “co-operative”, “collaborative” and “productive” according to the Prime Minister and State and Territory Leaders.
8. There is a push to sell regional universities to international students to relieve pressure on the major cities and share the money that streams in from international students more widely. However, there are concerns that if international students are forced to go to regional universities, they will vote with their feet and study elsewhere.
9. The government will set up an anti-corruption watchdog after a lot of to-and-fro. The Commonwealth Integrity Commission will have two arms – Law enforcement, which will look after the behaviour and integrity of the AFP, Border Force and other regulators. The other arm will look after the integrity of MPs, Judges, Departments and agencies.
10. Scott Morrison has recognised West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which has made no-one happy. The Palestinians are annoyed that Australia has recognised Jerusalem whether in full or in part as the capital, while Israel doesn’t like the East-West division of Jerusalem.
11. The aforementioned announcement of West Jerusalem as the Israeli capital has put a trade deal with Muslim-majority Indonesia in jeopardy.
12. Australia will get a new Governor-General in 2019, in the form of current NSW Governor David Hurley. Hurley won’t take the role until after the federal election, because Hurley needs to keep an eye on NSW during and after the State Election in March, and almost straight after that is the federal election, so current Governor-General Peter Cosgrove will stay on to deal with that election.
13. Nationals MP Andrew Broad has resigned as Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister after it was revealed by New Idea magazine that he used ‘sugar baby’ services while on a work trip in Hong Kong. He will also not re-contest his seat of Mallee.
14. The Andrew Broad issue did distract from the MYEFO update. It’s been announced that Australia will have a $5 Billion deficit for the 2018-19 financial year, and a surplus of $2 billion in the 2019-20 financial year.
15. The NSW Liberal government has expressed their concern that the Federal Liberal government is out of touch on climate change. Other states believe this too but for the NSW government, who are due to go to the polls in March, it is of great importance to distance themselves from their federal counterparts if they want to save the furniture, let alone remain in government.
16. Australia has revoked the citizenship of Neil Prakash, an Australian fighter in Syria who was a major part of ISIS and is currently in prison in Turkey. Although there is some concern that the government has botched this. They revokes Prakash’s citizenship under the assumption that he had dual citizenship of Fiji, but it may be that he doesn’t have Fijian citizenship at all, and is now stateless.

Three Weeks That Were – May 13 to June 2

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

The Week That Was – May 1 to May 7

It was the week of the Budget, which is always interesting – and also results in information overload.

In this year’s Budget, Scott Morrisson’s first, a lot of stuff was announced. They key ones are: $1 billion set aside for schooling, there’ll be a small tax cut for small to medium size businesses, $5 billion for public transport, a change to the tax brackets to help solve issues with bracket creep and inflation and the tobacco excise will increase. There’s some others and you can get a better picture on the ABC’s website – where they have an entire section dedicated to it.

Negative gearing is not on the table in this budget, but it remains a key plan of Labor’s, as does the excise. Labor is currently trying to get answers out of the Liberals over their ten year tax plan that they have forecasted ahead only four years. An answer will be unlikely, given the election is due to be called over the weekend.

A female refugee has become the second person to self-immolate on Manus Island, and has been sent to Brisbane for treatment. The Sudanese woman is as of Saturday night, still alive but there is no word on her progress. Meanwhile Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has been accusing social workers and other people working on Manus and at other detention centres are encouraging people to self harm. This is a dangerous allegation for him to make. First, it’s unlikely to be true that people working in social work and psychology in detention centres are encouraging people to self harm, and second, if it is true, then he should have evidence to back it up – and we have none other than his word.

Lastly, on Friday afternoon, the government announced a new deal with Singapore, in which the Free Trade Agreement between Australia and the tiny island nation was updated, visa restrictions were relaxed, tourism and university links will be created and nearly 14,000 Singaporean troops will be trained in Australia, mainly because we have the space. It makes Singapore the closest ally Australia has in Asia, mainly to counter China, although no one is saying that out loud in politics land.

Finally this week, Clive Palmer has announced he will not re-contest his seat of Fairfax at the next election; an Australian fighter in the Middle East, believed to be a key planner of several plots in Australia, has been killed by a US airstrike; and Stan Grant has been talking about constitutional recognition of Indigenous people.

Tweet of the Week

The election hasn’t even been called yet (as of Saturday) and the the stunts have begun.

Premature erection = cheating. Rules say posters cant go up till 6pm on day writs issued. Play fair! pic.twitter.com/0k9EDu4Yae

— Nick Xenophon (@Nick_Xenophon) May 7, 2016

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Lenore Taylor on this whole “class war” thing – The Guardian

Annabel Crabb on policies and Labor’s budget reply – ABC The Drum

And because it’s cool, Nobel Laureates in North Korea – from the BBC

The Week That Was – November 22 to November 28

The week began with Anti-Islam and Anti-racism protests in most capital cities and while there was some fighting between the groups, most people were well behaved and the police kept each group as far away from each other as possible.

Meanwhile, Malcolm Turnbull completed his first World Tour with a trip to Malaysia for the ASEAN East Asia Conference. Turnbull met with the Malaysian PM, discussing the battle against Islamic State as well as trying to encourage China to play nice in the South China Sea. Upon his return to Australia, Turnbull was in Parliament, where the government and the opposition made speeches of condolence to the people of Paris as well as talking about keeping Australia safe.

Turnbull has also been questioned by the media over the wording in some of his speeches as well as whether or not he has a grip on the more conservative faction of his party. Furthermore, there has been calls from Labor that Mal Brough should either stand down or be sacked from his ministry due to a police investigation into Brough’s role in the Peter Slipper scandal back in 2011-2012. Then, at the end of the week, he flew to Malta for the CHOGM meetings, where he met Queen Elizabeth and apparently made her chuckle when he spoke of Prince Charles’ visit to Australia a few weeks back, and then he will travel to Paris for the Climate Conference.

Climate Change was a big thing this week in the lead up to the Paris conference, with concerns that Turnbull is heading to France with Tony Abbott’s old, and somewhat sub-par climate plan. Labor has come out with an alternative, suggesting a 45% reduction by 2030 and a carbon neutral economy by 2050. This is based off the exact same model that the Liberals are using for their climate plan too, so it should be interesting to see the reaction.

Domestic Violence came to the fore this week for Wednesday’s White Ribbon day, with Malcolm Turnbull telling the country that there must be change and it will have to be lead by men, while surveys are showing that young men are more likely to blame others for their problems and play down their aggressive behaviour, while young women are more likely to blame themselves as well as justify the aggressive behaviour of their partners.

The government has changed the terrorism warning system indicators from High, Low, Moderate etc, to a simpler system suggesting the likeliness of an attack.

The new terror attack warning system. (from: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-26/national-terrorism-threat-advisory-system-graphic./6976880)

 Under this simpler system the current warning is the second-lowest “probable”, so we’re pretty safe for now.

There are still national security concerns over foreign investment in Australia, with the US Ambassador meeting Australian officials to get more information on the Darwin Port deal, angry that they were not consulted. However, Defence Minister Marise Payne says that she was abroad with Julie Bishop when the decision was made and that as soon as it was, someone was dispatched to the Pentagon to tell US officials.

Finally this week, the coalition against Islamic State have completed more airstrikes on ISIS strongholds; the government wants the states to increase their trading hours to increase choice and the help the economy and Hillsong’s Brian Houston has been found to have had a conflict on interest over his father’s abuse of a young child at the Royal Commission into Child Abuse.

Also, if you live in the electorate of North Sydney, don’t forget you have a by-election on December 5!

Tweet of the Week

https://twitter.com/nthsydneyvotes/status/669365995148972032

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

First Dog on Bill Shorten’s dismal poll numbers – The Guardian

First Dog on White Ribbon Day – The Guardian

SBS2 The Feed’s retrospective for 2015

 

The Week That Was – November 15 to November 21

As the world recovered from the shock of the Paris attacks, people either tried to encourage calm and tolerance, while others encouraged negativity towards others. Thankfully, the Turnbull government appears to be in favour of the former.

While continuing his “World Tour”, Malcolm Turnbull travelled to Turkey for the G20 where they spoke a bit about a collective response to terrorism, and how there really needs to be a political solution in Syria, even if it means allowing Assad to remain in power while Islamic State is defeated, while also reminding Australia that we have good security measures in place and shouldn’t start freaking out. This year’s G20 was a huge improvement for Australia’s image, with Turnbull placed in a prime spot in the ‘Family Photo’ and during some discussions. The PM was also invited to visit President Obama at the White House at the start of next year. After the G20 was the APEC Meeting in Manila, in the Philippines, where Turnbull was bombarded with concerns about the Darwin Port lease – which is covered in more detail below – especially because the USA didn’t find out through official channels, but through the Wall Street Journal, to which Turnbull told them to get a subscription to the NT News. Turnbull returned to Australia, spending some time in Darwin before flying out to Malaysia for the ASEAN summit starting this coming week.

Terrorism has been infiltrating our news feeds this week, after the Paris Attacks, in which one of the attackers is believed to have gotten into France through the Eastern European refugee channels. This has lead to concerns around the world about just who they might be letting in, especially in the United States, where more than half of the States have decided to refuse to take in some the 10,000 refugees the US will allow into the country to help lessen the burden the European Migrant Crisis is having on the region. Meanwhile France began more airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq and France is believed to be talking with several nations including the US and Australia about increasing their involvement. Meanwhile the NSW government has announced that police will now have the power to act without question (presumably lethally) if they believe someone is being killed or attacked in front of them, while other States and the ADF are considering similar powers.

Foreign investment is starting to cause concern this week with three different situations arising. The first is the Darwin Port lease, in which the Northern Territory Government leased the port to a Chinese company, this has caused concerns given that people in the company have links to the Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army. This seems to be surprising people even though it’s common for Chinese companies, especially the State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), to have these links. It is also concerning because the Darwin Port’s lease area also encompasses a naval base, which has become a security concern.

The second investment issue this week has been the Treasurer’s decision to deny an application for a company, believed to be a Chinese company, from buying all of the Kidman Family farmland, as part of the land in South Australia backs onto the ADF weapons testing site at Woomera – a national security issue. The third is the concern that the NSW government will sell off their electricity assets to a Chinese SOE – which is another national security issue.

All of this is also leading to cabinet disagreements, which is leading to the perception of disunity in the party. This could be problematic for Turnbull, who is trying to balance all of the views in his party and cabinet to keep people happy.

Finally this week, the Trade Union Royal Commission has recommended that the people who gave evidence into the NUW last week should be prosecuted for their actions; the “On water operational matters” curtain was raised when a boat was turned back from Christmas Island – whether it was refugees or some wayward fishermen is unclear;  the Arts Minister is moving some finding back to the Arts Council, which will benefit individual performers and artists, but will still disadvantage small companies;  the top-secret ASIO part of the Sydney Siege Inquest has begun and it’s believed that any recommendations from this section will never be known to the public and Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall finished their visit to Australia and New Zealand and headed home.

Tweet of the Week

Waleed Aly on how Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) is weak.

Waleed talks about how we can stop ISIL #TheProjectTV
Written by Waleed & @twhittyer https://t.co/tX6mRNXZK1

— The Project (@theprojecttv) November 16, 2015

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

First Dog on the Moon on Paris – The Guardian

Durex wants a condom emoji – Junkee

Lee Lin Chin Interviews If You are the One host Meng Fei (subtitles)

Tea and Consent

 

The Week That Was – October 25 to October 31

For the first time in a long time, Australian politics was quite calm and sensible.

This week a Senate Enquiry was based in the far-western NSW town of Broken Hill, where locals told Senators that the drought and the Murray Darling Basin Plan mean that the town is running out of water. The Darling River is stagnant and there are suggestions that the water was taken too early from Broken Hill’s part of the Murray Darling Basin in order to help those further downstream.

Former Treasurer and MP Joe Hockey’s seat of North Sydney (I live in the electorate) will be going to the polls on December 5th to elect a new member. The seat is safe Liberal, however it has fallen to independents in previous elections. There was drama at the start of the week when a story on 7.30 on the ABC suggested that the guy tipped to be the Liberal Candidate, Trent Zimmerman, was going to get the candidacy because the part executive, including Zimmerman himself, had rejigged the rules meaning that the grassroots members would have no say. He did get pre-selection in the end, which I discovered when Malcolm Turnbull’s voice in a robo-call told me I should vote for Zimmerman. So far, Zimmerman is running in the seat, as is Fred Nile’s wife Silvana Nero for the Christian Democrats and Arthur Chesterfield-Evans will run for the Greens. Labor will not run a candidate, and other prospective candidates have until November 12 to nominate.

Zimmerman spent some time in Chatswood on Saturday with Gladys Berejiklian talking with voters and with the media. Zimmerman is pro-marriage equality and wants more public transport in the electorate. If he wins the seat Zimmerman will become the first openly gay member of the House of Representatives.

While on the topic of elections and voting, Bill Shorten has announced that the Labor party will move to decrease the voting age from 18 to 16. His argument is that at the age of 16 you can join the army, own a gun and some even pay tax, yet they have no say over how the country is run. The Coalition believes that this is a stunt, and a number of vox pops on the ABC News on Saturday night from 16 and 17 year olds suggest that they don’t know much about politics and many said they wouldn’t know who to vote for – and hey, neither do I half the time!

Environmentalists are calling on the government to commit to reducing coal power considerably in time for the Paris conference at the end of the year. The Liberal and Labor parties don’t seem so thrilled with the whole idea, while the Greens are all for it and are arguing the only way to help deal with climate change is if coal is significantly reduced.

Tony Abbott made headlines again this week, speaking at an event at the Margaret Thatcher Centre on what some are calling his “Stop the Boats World Tour”. He spoke about needing to fight ISIS in order to end them and then went on the say that Europe is making a mistake by allowing asylum seekers in, especially those that came by boat. This is despite the fact that the current European Refugee Crisis is on a larger scale than Australia’s refugee issues and critics are encouraging the world to ignore him.

Finally this week, there has been some drama at the Trade Union Royal Commission; Australian doctors had a “day of action” to protest the fact that there are still children in detention, and are also refusing to discharge refugee children in their care, as they are likely to go back to detention; there are debates on whether or not a nuclear waste processing site will be built in South Australia; and Malcolm Turnbull is still a popular people person.

Tweet of the Week

As the North Sydney By-Election begins, I found an amusing and snarky Twitter account that has been giving updates.

https://twitter.com/nthsydneyvotes/status/658419221597065216

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

First Dog on the Moon covers “Biff Bootface” and his trip to ‘Guano Island’ – The Guardian

First Dog on the Moon talks about Abbott’s Margaret Thatcher Centre speech – The Guardian

SBS2’s The Feed’s “Douche of the Week”

The Week That Was – September 6 to September 12

I’m looking at my notes this week and realising just how many times the word “refugee” comes up.

It was a pretty good week for Abbott, even if it ended with a gaffe and a leak that sent cabinet into a hissy fit.

As of this week, the Abbott Government has been in power for two years, and has one more to go until the next election. The government is not in a great place, with polls showing that if there was an election held this week, they would lose their majority. Abbott has been repeating his usual line of “taxes are down, I stopped the boats” when asked about his two years so far and he says that he hopes that when people vote next year they will remember his government’s victories. Problem is, there are bigger issues at the moment, and with the economy down, jobs sparse and no surplus as promised, the bad decisions and the gaffes mean that Abbott and his government are not in a good place right now, and they still may not be in 12 months time when the next election comes around. He also had a 15 minute interview on 7:30 with Leigh Sales, which had the inhabitants of my house arguing, laughing and “oooh”-ing at the TV.

However, this week has been good for Abbott, as he’s been able to announce that Australia will take in 12,000 Syrian refugees in a one-off increase in our refugee intake. Peter Dutton was sent to Geneva at the start of the week to ask what Australia could do, while the Opposition and the Greens call on the government to take in more refugees overall. Before the announcement people were pointing out that Australia has done similar things in 1989 after Tiananmen and in 1999 during the Kosovo crisis, so we should do the same.

However, there has been criticism after several senior ministers, including Eric Abetz and Julie Bishop made clear their focus was on the Christians escaping Syria. Now, it is likely that some of the refugees are from Christian minority groups, and they are likely to be the ones in the most danger from Islamic State, but you can’t just say “oh we’ll just take the Christian ones thanks guys”. The Opposition is criticising the government on its bias as are the Greens. Meanwhile, the government began talking about how taking in these extra refugees was a burden to be shouldered by all, and we were told Australia would also send aid to the countries bordering Syria that host refugee camps.

The Government also said that any Syrian refugees in offshore detention – basically those that arrived by boat – will not be included in this 12,000 strong cohort of refugees they are settling in Australia. This has angered the Greens who feel that not only should these boat arrivals be included, but the government should also put an end to offshore detention all together. Meanwhile Abetz reiterated the focus on letting in Christians – leading to some believing that this was a sort of rebirth of the White Australia Policy – if you don’t know what that is, Google it.

The week ended with Abbott meeting community leaders to plan how Australia would welcome the influx of refugees from Syria…and then the good week Abbott had ended not so well.

Peter Dutton’s joke offended Pacific Island nations’ leaders, didn’t make Bill Shorten laugh, and left Abbott trying to salvage his weekend in Canning where he is helping the Liberal candidate get elected in a by-election, calling the joke “lame” and praising Dutton for his hard work in Immigration.

Meanwhile there was a leak to Sydney’s Daily Telegraph newspaper in which it proclaims that there may be a cabinet reshuffle on the cards. It’s unclear whether the PM’s Office – who is close to the Tele – or someone who wants Abbott out of job is the one who spoke to the reporter, but either way it has sent Cabinet into panic, with rumours that at least eight ministers could be in the firing line, including Nigel Scullion, Eric Abetz and Andrew Robb.

Finally this week, the Commonwealth is celebrating the Queen, after she became the longest-serving monarch, usurping Queen Victoria, Australia will be taking part in airstrikes in Syria, and while they began flying over IS-held territory at the end of the week we don’t know if they launched any strikes or not, and there have been accusations of bias against Judge Street, who out of 254 asylum seeker cases has dismissed all but two before hearing any evidence

Tweet of the Week

Happy Birthday Australia – 2 Years of the Abbott Government in 90 seconds. #auspolhttps://t.co/InQQva81ZN

— Jason Clare MP (@JasonClareMP) September 7, 2015

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online.

I’ve had uni assessments due this week – so the material is not that erudite.

First Dog on the Moon on the PM’s “Twonyversary” – The Guardian

First Dog on refugees in Europe – The Guardian

Antony Green is made an Adjunct Professor – ABC Backstory

The Week That Was – August 23 to August 29

This week Tony Abbott spent his promised week with the indigenous community in the Torres Strait Islands, visiting Thursday Island (Mer) to visit Eddie Mabo’s grave, as well as meet with elders and run the country. He attended a memorial service for those in the region who fought in the Second World War, who protected the islands in the Torres Strait from invasion, despite bombing raids from the Japanese Army. Abbott also spent some time on one of the school buses in one community, helping children get to school. Generally, it’s been a good week for Abbott, however, there have been a few hiccups – first, several establishments have claimed that the PM’s Office booked hotel rooms, which were cancelled at the last-minute when Abbott decided to stay in the army barracks instead, costing the hotels money, as they had been preparing for the PM, Ministers and other government officials. Second, Abbott may have gotten his teaching methods mixed up, crediting improvement in one school to “direct instruction” (where the concept is broken up into pieces and taught directly), when it fact it was “explicit instruction” (aka “I do, we do, you do” where the teacher does one example, the class does one together and then the students work on their own) that was helping.

The scaremongering about terrorism has continued, with politicians equating ISIS to Pol Pot or Adolf Hitler, trying to express the need for Australians to support the government’s plans to join the US in bombing ISIS targets in Syria. Despite the fact that it is believe that the government engineered the request from the US to join, there are still legal issues to consider, given there is no UNSC Resolution or formal request from Syria. However, it’s thought that Australia may get around these issues by claiming self-defence or by claiming the land they are bombing is “ungoverned space”, as Australia does not recognise either the Assad government or ISIS as legitimate governments.

Joe Hockey meanwhile has been talking about one of life’s certainties – taxes. There is universal concern that as inflation rises, more and more people are going to fall into the next highest tax bracket – a phenomenon known as ‘bracket creep”. Despite the Treasurer’s concern with bracket creep, it appears that Hockey is still only talking about it, and doesn’t yet have any policies on the table, which concerns some analysts.

Unions are worried about the Free Trade Agreement with China, especially because Chinese companies will be able to bring in their own workers for some projects. This concerns the unions, not just because it would detrimentally affect the local workers, as there would be fewer jobs, but also because it’s possible the Chinese workers flown in will not be paid according to Australian labour laws. Labor has suggested that if the workers are going to be affected negatively by the Free Trade Agreement, then they may not support it, which led Tony Abbott to warn that if Labor and the unions had their way, then there would be a new “White Australia Policy” – which left me speechless.

The week was an improvement for the government, at least until Friday, when the Australian Border Force release a press release announcing that they were going to check the identity documents of anyone they came across in Melbourne over the weekend. It’s been equated with Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia, and others expressed concerns that it would lead to racial profiling – lawyers also told the media it was illegal. By Friday afternoon the protesters were out in force in Melbourne’s CBD, and the police and Border Force cancelled their operation. There have been questions over whether or not the Minister or the PM knew about the program.

Finally this week, Heydon delayed his judgement on his recusal due to his apprehended bias, people are bringing up the possibility of having a referendum on becoming a republic, and George Brandis is under fire for not filling a regional judge vacancy after the retirement of one of the three judges.

Tweet of the Week

Judges in Peter Greste and his colleagues’ retrial in Egypt delivered the verdict on Saturday

Shocked. Outraged. Angry. Upset. None of them convey how I feel right now. 3 yr sentences for @bahrooz, @MFFahmy11 and me is so wrong.

— Peter Greste (@PeterGreste) August 29, 2015

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Not much, given I had an assignment for uni this week…

First Dog on the Moon on the Border Force Saga – The Guardian

The Week That Was – July 26 to August 1

The ALP Conference finished last Sunday, with an agreement for a conscience vote on marriage equality for the next two parliamentary terms, a promise to introduce a marriage equality bill within the first 100 days of government if they win the next election, and an agreement to make climate change policy one of the key issues at the next election. Commentators believe Shorten has come out of the conference alright, but needs to prove himself as an alternative PM to non-ALP members. Meanwhile, Tony Abbott has been scaremongering on the proposed ETS that the ALP is taking to the next election, saying it is a big scary tax, only for Malcolm Turnbull to point out that the RET is technically a tax too.

Bronwyn Bishop is still under fire, originally for not apologising and going to Sophie Mirabella’s wedding on the taxpayer purse, then apologising because the PM’s office told her to, and then for a $6000 charter flight to seniors’ events and fundraisers two weeks after the $5000 chopper flight that started it all. There also appears to be some sort of link between the Ms Bishop and the charter company she’s been using, but it is not clear what that link is. Meanwhile Labor has announce that it will only support the government in condolence motions in Parliament, Meanwhile Christopher Pyne and Abbott are still supporting the Speaker, while Malcolm Turnbull has been tweeting about the trains he’s been taking and joking about justifying the $4 train ticket.

EDIT 5PM August 2 – Bronwyn Bishop has resigned.

After the Labor Party agreed to have a quota of 50% women in parliament in the next couple of years, which has sparked discussion about why women don’t go into politics, with some suggesting that Question Time has something to do with it. Senior Liberals are not in favour of targets despite the fact that the general belief is that the Liberal Party has problems with women.

The Royal Commission into Child Abuse looked into Jehovah’s Witnesses, where it was revealed that church elders investigated abuse claims internally, and never reported any cases to the police. Members of the church also admitted to destroying notes.

Finally this week, the guy who came back from Syria last week has been charged with terrorism offences, paperwork acquired by the ABC through Freedom of Information shows the ATO was worried about people rorting the small business tax breaks, they may have found a section of the MH370 washed up on the French overseas department of Réunion, and Russia vetoed a UN Security Council Resolution to have a tribunal look into the downing of MH17, which made Julie Bishop angry.

Tweet of the Week

.@InsidersABC host @barriecassidy reckons Bronwyn Bishop yesterday looked like an old lady who'd had her handbag stolen.@BreakfastNews

— Michael Rowland (@mjrowland68) July 30, 2015

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Barrie Cassidy on the Bishop and Goodes Sagas – ABC The Drum

Stan Grant on racism and being Indigenous – The Guardian

SBS2’s The Feed – Douche of the Week