Tag Archives: Islamic State

The Week That Was – November 22 to November 28

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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.

national-terrorism-threat-advisory-system-graphic.-data
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

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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.

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

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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 20 to September 26

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The second week under Prime Minister Turnbull began with Cabinet assignments. Kevin Andrews is no longer Defence Minister and called for a conference where he basically got upset about being replaced – by Marise Payne, a NSW Senator and the first woman to be in the role. She, along with Michaelia Cash (Minister for Employment, Women and Assistant Minister to PM on Public Service) and Kelly O’Dwyer (Minister for Small Business and Assistant Treasurer), join Julie Bishop and Susan Ley to make five women in the cabinet. Christopher Pyne has moved to Industry, Innovation and Science, while Simon Birmingham takes education. Christian Porter becomes Social Services Minister, Mitch Fifield takes Communications and Arts. That’s not the whole list of the new Cabinet, but Peter Dutton, Greg Hunt, Matthias Cormann, and George Brandis are keeping their jobs, while Eric Abetz and a few Abbott supporters have been booted. Several people who helped Turnbull into power did not get roles in the Cabinet because Turnbull told them he wanted renewal and freshness and they understood.

The most interesting move has been the inclusion of a new Ministry, held by Jamie Briggs, for Cities and Built Environment, as well as the reinstating of the Cabinet Secretary – a role to be filled by Arthur Sinodinos as part of Turnbull’s return to “traditional cabinet government”.

As for the role of Treasurer, Scott Morrison now holds the job, and Joe Hockey is not only out of a ministry, but will be leaving Parliament altogether, albeit “in due course”, making people thing that Hockey will be sent to Washington as the next Australian Ambassador to the United States – a very cushy job.

Meanwhile, one of the Murdoch papers caught up with Tony Abbott over the weekend. Technically they just bothered him while he was working out at the beach, but either way, Abbott took a swipe at Scott Morrison, accusing him of misleading the public in an interview. Morrison said that he had warned Abbott the Friday before Turnbull challenged that there was discontent in the party and that it wasn’t looking good for Abbott at all. Abbott disputes this and has not spoken with Morrison since the spill.

Scott Morrison spent his first week as Treasurer talking about opportunities to save and invest, saying the country doesn’t have a revenue problem, but a spending problem. Some experts dispute this, saying that the only way problems can be solved is if there is changes to the tax system. Meanwhile, Morrison has to figure out what to with the rising debt, that is now in fact his government’s doing and not Labor’s doing at all.

The Turnbull government has announced $100 million dollars for “practical” domestic violence measures, mainly through the improvement of front-line services and safety tools for victims such as panic buttons. As of September 24, 63 women have died at the hands of their partners and 3000 are turned away from shelters every year (both figures reported by ABC News NSW). Experts are welcoming the perception change, where the focus is on the offender’s actions and the onus of safety is not left to the victim, however they would like to see more money for shelters and other safe locations that women go to when they leave their abusive partners.

The UN Human Rights investigators have cancelled visits to Australian detention centres. They say they were not able to guarantee that detention centre workers who spoke to them would not be prosecuted under the Border Force Act, which prevents workers from talking on the public record about conditions in the centres.

Also, Australia is considering including the Assad government in the fight against Islamic State, with Julie Bishop saying that a political solution that includes both Russia and the Assad government is the only way that Islamic State can be stopped. The British Foreign Minister has suggested that there is a role for Assad in getting rid of Islamic State, but would have to be followed by Assad stepping down and allowing a transition to democracy. Regardless of the terms, the ALP is concerned about choosing a side in the Syrian Civil War. Bill Shorten was possibly a little stressed when he commented on the issue as he spouted some pretty random words, such as “ethno-facists” which left the people in my house poking a bit of fun at the Opposition Leader.

Finally this week, the government got a bounce in the polls now that Turnbull is PM, Peta Credlin appeared at a Women’s Weekly event talking about gender equality, Peter Greste is likely to get a pardon too, after his colleagues received pardons on Wednesday, a Senate Enquiry has begun into the payment activities of 7-Eleven and the trial for the men who killed asylum seeker Reza Berati in an Australian detention centre has begun in Papua New Guinea.

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

First Dog on the Moon’s guide to the Turnbull Ministry – The Guardian

Annabel Crabb on Turnbull’s Cabinet and how we are all now part of a ‘Turnbull experiment’ – ABC The Drum

John Oliver has been paying attention to our politics, it would seem…

The Week That Was – September 6 to September 12

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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

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

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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

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 19 to July 25

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The week began with “Reclaim Australia” protests in major capital cities, most of which were countered by anti-racism protesters, who had a tendency to call the Reclaim Australia protesters ‘fascists’. At least in Sydney, the police kept the apart for most of the day, considering their operation a success with only five arrests and two people charged.

The saga with Bronwyn Bishop continues, with Bishop insisting that while her use of taxpayer funds to pay for a chopper ride from Melbourne to Geelong (which is perfectly accessible by a highway and you can get there in about an hour) was an ‘error of judgement’, it was official business and she paid back the over $5000 the ride cost. Abbott is standing by Bronwyn Bishop, although she is ‘on probation’, which is leading to calls of hypocrisy from both Labor and the public, given the last time a Speaker got in trouble for spending taxpayers’ money for dubious transport claims Abbott was calling for their resignation. For those who don’t remember, that was Peter Slipper, the LNP MP that became Speaker so that Labor had another vote – he spent $900-ish on cars to wineries.

This week also saw a COAG retreat and meeting, with all of the Chief Ministers and Premiers, along with the PM discussing the GST, Health Funding, Medicare and other ways to bring some more money into the states after the government cut funding to health back in the 2014. No decisions were made but they had “constructive discussions”. They also considered some more finding for domestic violence and also looked into making the Northern Territory a State.

The ALP had its National Conference at the end of the week, with Bill Shorten proposing that 50% of Australia’s energy to be renewable by 2030, with a possible ETS – the Greens were happy with that and the Liberals are not (no surprises there). However, the ALP is not all rainbows and sunshine, with both Bill Shorten and other senior party people proposing that Labor consider turning back asylum seeker boats if they win government. The party voted not to ban turnbacks, which means Labor has the option if they’re in government, but they do have some additional parts to the policy, such as money for the UN Refugee Agency, a Refugee Child Advocate, and doubling Australia’s refugee intake. Dutton suggests that this will make more boats come.

Speaking of boats coming, an asylum seeker boat was spotted off the Western Australian coast, which is believed to have Vietnamese asylum seekers on board – we’re not sure though because of the Operation Sovereign Borders Cone of Silence which also means we have no idea where they are now.

A nurse who ended up joining IS has returned to Australia and extradited to Victoria. He claims that he went to Syria for humanitarian purposes, as he was a nurse, and when hurt in an airstrike was taken to an IS-run hospital where they forced him to join the organisation. He is yet to be charged.

Finally this week, the National Party is split over the Shenhua Coalmine, telcos are upset about the new national security legislation being proposed that lets the government meddle in the way they secure their networks, Mike Baird suggests raising the GST which upsets almost everyone, and incumbent MP for Canning Don Randall died this week – most famous for expenses scandals and not being in Parliament during the apology.

Tweet of the Week

The ABC celebrated five years of ABC News 24…

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

How the ABC’s female journalists are changing the newsroom – Daily Life

Virginia Trioli on renewable energy and engineers – The Weekly Review

ABC News 24 looks back at five years:

The Week That Was – February 22 to February 28

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It’s been less than a month since the failed spill motion in the Liberal Party room, and already there have been some leaks from within the party. A message written by the outgoing Honourary Treasurer of the Liberal Party (a senior Liberal Party executive) has leaked in which he criticises the fact that Peta Credlin, Abbott’s Chief of Staff, is in a senior job within the party that her husband Brian Loughnane is in charge of, suggesting it is a conflict of interest. Also this week saw more leadership rumblings, with reports that backbenchers approached Malcolm Turnbull about challenging Abbott, telling him he would have the numbers to do so. Even more worrying is that many backbenchers are avoiding saying that Abbott will last to the next election.

Tony Abbott made a National Security Statement, in which most people in my house rolled their eyes, as Tony Abbott told us:

When it comes to someone like the Martin Place murderer, people feel like we have been taken for mugs.

He also said this:

I’ve often heard Western leaders describe Islam as a ‘religion of peace’. I wish more Muslim leaders would say that more often, and mean it.

Yes, he actually said that. Here is a transcript of the speech, complete with death cults.

And you can also watch it below (It’s 20 mins long)

Part of the National Security speech had to do with Man Haron Monis and the Sydney Siege, in which it was revealed that despite calls to the National Security Hotline and the fact that Monis was on the authorities’ radars, he was not seen as much of a threat in the lead up to the Sydney Siege.

Gillian Triggs has shocked many by telling a Senate Estimates Committee that the Attorney-General asked her to resign from the role as President of the Human Rights Commission and in return she would be given a senior legal job in the government. The Attorney-General believes that the Australian Human Rights Commission is biased against the government, and Abbott has said that the government has lost confidence in Professor Triggs. Triggs has said that she will not go, and several opposition members have asked the Australian Federal Police to look into the offer given to Gillian Triggs to see if the Attorney-General acted corruptly.

This week has seen two reports about private organisations that have been rorting the federal government systems that they are beneficiary to. The first, a jobs company that is meant to help get people jobs, and is taxpayer-funded, has been claiming money on people who have since found a job and no longer require the serviced of the company, it has shown that the system is open to rorts, and it has also become apparent that some people within the company knew about the activity. The other issue has been a Sydney-based private vocational college that has been claiming government subsidies through FEE-HELP students, by claiming students have completed courses that they have not, with one claim that an office assistant who was helping a student with literacy issues withdraw (for which the college had no form) was told to tear up the withdrawal letter and put it in the bin once the student was gone, under the impression they had withdrawn.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has agreed to facilitate the move of asylum seekers from Nauru to Cambodia, with Australia covering the cost. The IOM has guaranteed education, job and family re-unification rights for the refugees. However, few, if any, of the refugees in detention on Nauru want to be moved to Cambodia, and the Cambodian locals are not happy with the prospect of refugees being sent there.

Finally this week, New Zealand unintentionally threw Australia for a loop after including Australia in an announcement about sending more Australian and New Zealander troops to Iraq to help train troops there; the Bali Nine ringleaders have had their appeal rejected; Knox Grammar School has been investigated by the Child Abuse Royal Commission; there is a proposal for foreign buyers to pay a $5,000 fee when buying a house under $1 million and $10,000 when they buy a house for $1 million and then for every $1 million thereafter; and the Medicare co-payment may be dumped.

Tweet of the Week

Matthew Mitcham has been touring his Cabaret Show Twists and Turns around the country.

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

That dress that sent social media crazy, explained – ABC Online

Julie Bishop’s Emoji Interview – Buzzfeed

If Dying Phones Were People

The Week That Was – January 25 to January 31

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So, Tony Abbott made Prince Phillip a Knight of the Order of Australia. That announcement kind of took away from the fact that Angus Houston – the former Defence guy that was coordinating the search of MH370 and represented Australia for a bit after MH17 – also received a knighthood, and that anti-domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty was named Australian of the Year.

Other than the awkwardness of the Prince Phillip knighthood “captain’s pick” issue, Australia Day was relatively normal, other than the heavy rain in Sydney. People who did some great things were recognised, there was some interesting helicopter and boat choreography on Sydney Harbour and Prince Phillip received a knighthood (the whole knighthood thing took over for a bit). Indigenous people also reminded people that they still see this day in a more negative light, treating it as a “Day of Mourning” or a “Day of Survival”, since over 200 years ago, they were basically invaded and colonised by the British.

Tony Abbott has been having a tough time this week, especially after his captain’s pick for the knighthood, with ministers and backbenchers saying they had no idea that was the plan and saying that it isn’t really an appropriate knighthood to have given. Those who haven’t specifically said that the knighthood was the worst idea ever, have at least placed all the blame on Abbott who has ignored social media backlash over the whole thing, calling it “electronic graffiti”. However, there’s more to it, because now there are rumours of serious rumblings behind the scenes over Abbott’s leadership, while some of his closest supporters in the media, like Andrew Bolt and Alan Jones, are suggesting his leadership could be at an end.

Abbott has admitted he should have consulted more with his party and the public over the whole knighthood saga, but the rumours have continued with talk that Julie Bishop, Malcolm Turnbull and others, including Mal Brough (responsible for the whole Ashby-Slipper saga back in the Gillard days), are canvassing the party for numbers, or if not them, backbenchers who think that some of these Ministers could be PM and win them the next election.

The whole thing got a little bit more insane and ridiculous when Abbott said the reason ministers like Malcolm Turnbull, Julie Bishop and Scott Morrison are any good at their jobs was because he is a great leader.

Meanwhile, the Queensland LNP is fully ready to blame Abbott if they get a poor result in the Queensland State Election, held on Saturday, which now looks increasingly likely. The number of seats needed by a party to rule Queensland is 45, and at last count just before midnight on Saturday night, the LNP had 40 seats, Labor had 43 seats, with three seats in doubt, and three seats to other parties and independents. The prediction is that Labor will get 45 (the magic number) and win the election, most likely with support from the three other MPs – a result nobody expected.

Matthew Gardiner, the Labor Party President in the Northern Territory, has left Australia for the Middle East in order to help the Kurdish forces fight against Islamic State. It has shocked the country, with Bill Shorten telling people it’s a bad idea to go, and asking Gardiner to return to Australia. Furthermore, the government has pointed out that regardless of who you are fighting for, it’s still illegal to go fight overseas.

While the Manus Island Detention Centre protests are over, it appears that the allegations of violence on the part of the security forces and PNG Police may have had some truth to them, with images showing detainees with what appears to be evidence of being beaten. 40 of the Detention Centre’s detainees have also been arrested by the PNG government, however, once again, both the Australian and PNG governments aren’t saying much.

Finally this week, Whitlam and Hawke government minister, Tom Uren died this week; it’s looking more and more likely that the two Australians on death row in Indonesia for drug offences will be executed in the next few weeks; the Sydney Siege Inquiry has begun; the Royal Commission into Child Abuse has released its recommendations for compensation and reconciliation for victims; and Brazil is upset that a NSW court acquitted all but one of four cops charged with a Brazilian student’s death – and the one that was found guilty was charged with assault for using three cans of pepper spray on the student and didn’t even get a conviction recorded.

Tweet of the Week

So Triple J disqualified Taylor Swift from the Hottest 100, only to play another Top 40 song in spot #6

https://twitter.com/KKeneally/status/559657461620027392

Things I’ve been Looking at Online

Kristina Keneally is a Catholic and a Feminist – The Guardian

Things that would have been different if Harry Potter was set in Australia – Buzzfeed

Your Argument is Wrong: “Guns don’t kill people”

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