The Week That Was – March 9 to March 15

This week seemed less politically charged nationally, which is a nice change, but there were state elections in Tasmania and South Australia.

We begin the week with both Tony Abbott and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten being sombre about the missing plane belonging to Malaysia Airlines. The flight, MH370 (the flight number now retired) went missing early (2am Malaysian time) on Saturday morning and hasn’t been seen or heard from since. Tony Abbott talked with his Malaysian counterpart, and Australia has sent some Orion surveillance planes to search for the flight.

SPC Ardmona (you remember them?) have had a good week, signing a deal to give Woolworths supermarkets more fruit, not only in its capacity as an independent company with its own brands, but also as part of Woolworths’ home brand (Woolworths Select). Hopefully someone will think its a good idea to call the fruit products “Woolworth’s Select by SPC” such that the consumer can tell that the fruit is home-grown. SPC has also had a rise in sales due to the coverage of its bid to get some taxpayer money, so they are much happier down in Shepparton.

Meanwhile, the State election campaigns in South Australia and Tasmania have wrapped up, with Tasmania (at last glance) changing from a Labor Government to a Liberal Government. It looks like South Australia might have ended up with a hung parliament, but there are still pre-poll, declaration and postal votes to count, so we won’t know for a while, especially in some marginal seats. I don’t live there, so I don’t know much about it. You can read more in-depth on the ABC Elections website for both Tasmania and South Australia.

Other than that, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce fronted a Senate Estimates Inquiry, and the Western Australian Federal Senate re-election campaign began to gain momentum.

Tweet of the Week

So the ABC is biased you say? Um actually, no it is not. ABC largely meets its professional standards, auditors find http://t.co/S2CfdbFQLL

— amanda meade (@meadea) March 12, 2014

What I’ve Been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Tasmania’s State voting system explained – ABC Online

The YouTube ad revenue split – DailyDot

Ukraine – explained by author John Green

Scott Ludlam invites Tony Abbott to Western Australia