The Week That Was – October 5 to October 11

The week began with Tony Abbott at the NRL Grand Final – where he got booed.

Australia has begun airstrikes in Iraq, which has also led to the question of how to pay for the ‘mission’ (the government still isn’t using the word ‘war’). The Defence Minister believes the mission won’t last too long, but it will take time, in the belief that if they under-promise, it will look like they’ve kept it. However, they still need to pay for it, and it looks like they might have to raise taxes – well it did, until Tony Abbott ruled it out. They could also cut foreign aid, but apparently Julie Bishop has been telling cabinet there is no way she is cutting the foreign aid budget further. The opposition has suggested that Tony Abbott’s Paid Parental Leave Scheme should be scrapped to save money, while Joe Hockey has suggested that if Labor supports the mission to Iraq, then they should also support the Coalition’s Budget measures.

Staying with the Budget, it is getting closer to the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) due in December/January and the Coalition still hasn’t got many of their big ticket items through Parliament, which is important as they play into other budget cuts and spending. There are 16 sitting days left for the House of Representatives and 12 days left for the Senate, which doesn’t give the government long to get things through an unpredictable Senate, as Clive Palmer changes his mind at will. Also, the six month waiting period for welfare could be dropped after the government backflipped on the 40 job applications requirement in order to receive the dole. The PM says it isn’t a backflip, but a ‘response’ to consultation with businesses and community.

The Council Of Australian Governments (COAG) is meeting this weekend, with higher security than normal because of the increased terror alert. It was a “constructive and productive” meeting (the Premiers’ words not mine). They’ve agreed to look into changing the way federal money gets given to the states, and they will also be setting up a federal agency to help guide families through the surrogacy process, but just advice.

Which leads us to the latest surrogacy scandal, this time in India. An Australian couple, whose surrogate gave birth to twins, abandoned one of the babies in India, with accusations of money changing hands. There are concerns that senior Australian government officials tried to speed up the process, and now the PM’s Office, the Attorney-General’s Office and DFAT are looking into the allegations. The reason so many people go to Asia for surrogacy is because surrogacy is illegal in Australia. Bill Shorten is of the opinion that there should be one national law to regulate surrogacy, but Tony Abbott says there will be no changes to the legislation.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority is in trouble after losing people to redundancies and resignations. Morale is down in the agency apparently, especially after the decision to dump coal in the reef. Both stakeholders and the agency itself are concerned about the reef’s health.

A nurse from Cairns has been in hospital being tested for Ebola after going to hospital with a fever. The nurse, who travelled with the International Red Cross, has spent a month in Sierra Leone helping with the outbreak. She returned and quarantined herself in her apartment, only leaving to go to the hospital when she developed a fever. The local MP, Bob Katter, asked why she was in the community, and has demanded mandatory quarantine for anyone returning from the Ebola zone. As of Saturday the nurse is improving, and her tests thus far have been negative. Australia is sending financial aid to help fight Ebola, but won’t send actual medical staff until they have an evacuation plan in place. Meanwhile, an isolation pod to put potential Ebola victims in has arrived in Brisbane for use on the East Coast.

Ebola isolation pod (Image from http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2014/10/10/1227087/047108-9c723628-502a-11e4-9f42-13e1f1f0e337.jpg)

Finally this week, Brisbane practiced for G20 transporting a “delegate” around the city with all of the security staff (probably also practicing for a Chaser-like prank), the government will begin to flag “hate groups”, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics is having problem with job numbers, which is being blamed on budget cuts.

Tweet of the Week

https://twitter.com/xinwenxiaojie/status/520383886748966912

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Annabel Crabb and Leigh Sales talk cakes, politics and Annabel’s book – The Saturday Paper

Emma Alberici vs. Wassim Doureihi on Lateline – ABC Online

Where in the World is Kim Jong-Un?

The Week That Was – April 13 to April 19

Well, NSW Political craziness overtook the ABC News NSW and ABC News 24 for the last few days, so I may have missed something. If you want to take a look at what happened in NSW have a look here.

So, this week saw Tony Abbott back from North Asia and Joe Hockey warn us about how tough the budget will have to be in order to fix everything. One idea being floated is raising the pension age to 70. Not immediately, mind you. Currently it is 65, and in a few years it will rise to 67. Only after that will it rise to 70. People seem somewhat unimpressed, but that’s because young people, like myself, will not be able to retire until 70, while people my parents’ age can retire 3-5 years earlier. In some ways I’m sort of expecting people to go on strike and protest this, but I think that’s the result of living in France, where almost anything will have the people go on strike. Anyway, Hockey said that the rises in the pension need to be “sustainable” and if you’ve got a good memory (and paid attention), then you will remember that Tony Abbott said in the election campaign that there wouldn’t be changes to the pension. Oh, and government organisations like the CSIRO are getting a bit antsy over whether or not they are going to have their funding cut.

Badgery’s Creek will become the location for Sydney’s second airport, with construction to begin in 2016. This decision has been made after almost 50 years. It will cost $2.5 billion to build and most of that money will come from the private sector. The government has promised to put in some major infrastructure – train lines and connections to the motorway and freeway systems around Western Sydney, along with some form of ring road. There are a few issues though – will the airport be a 24/7 airport or will it have curfews like Sydney Kingsford Smith? Will Sydney Airport, which has the first right of refusal, try to prevent the Badgery’s Creek Airport from being built and operated? What about the people who are living in the area that will become the airport and runways and the environment surrounding it? The other issue, one that came up on Wednesday, is the NSW Government’s involvement post-O’Farrell. Apparently, there is no need to worry and the Airport will go on as planned.

The Royals are in Australia this week and next week, flying into Sydney on Wednesday. They’ve spent their time here so far going to the Opera House, The Blue Mountains, Bear Cottage, Manly Beach, and Brisbane. Today (Sunday) they’ve been to Church and might be taking George to Taronga Zoo.

Also this week, the ABC-run Australia Network, an Australian news and entertainment channel for the Asia-Pacific Region got landing rights in China, meaning that they can broadcast there, at least through a Shanghai-based media organisation. This is significant, because unlike BBC World and CNN International which are only allowed in hotels (at least that’s what I understand the case to be), they will be able to broadcast not only in hotels, but also to the Chinese people. Maybe the ABC and Australia Network’s funding shouldn’t be cut.

Have a lovely Easter.

Tweet of the Week

Political journo Oscar-style selfies during the NSW leadership ballot

Oscars at state parly @DamoNews @alicia_wood @mcoultan #nswpol pic.twitter.com/S0MarmS8Dy

— brigid glanville (@brigidglanville) April 17, 2014

Things I’ve Been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Tom Meagher (Jill Meagher’s husband) on violence against women – ABC Online’s The Drum

Why Gladys Berejiklian couldn’t become Premier of NSW – SMH

The Lateline Interview that had people talking – ABC Online

The Last One…

Sorry this is a tad late, but hey, we’re at the end, and we’ve find out who is leading our country…finally.

Wednesday saw the aftermath of the previous night’s Lateline on the ABC, when Roger Corbett, a Fairfax board member and member of the Liberal Party made some comments about Kevin Rudd – they weren’t nice, and the media got into a frenzy. Doug Cameron said that Corbett should “do the right thing and quit,” and Christine Milne doesn’t think it was very nice either.

The ad blackout began on Thursday morning at 12am, so there are no more political ads!

Speaking of which, the Coalition decided that this was when they should release their costings. They will decrease foreign aid by AU$4 billion and put that into infrastructure. They will scrap public transport plans and put more emphasis on roads. There is also that repetitive spiel of “cut the mining tax, cut the carbon tax, cut the waste” which drove me mental.

There was also a bit of a brouhaha in Sydney after there was a stabbing. One of the people involved is a refugee, and Scott Morrison, the Shadow Minister for Immigration decided that he could politicise it, which was probably not the best thing to do, and Tony Burke said that we should be able to make up our own minds.

The last day of the campaign, Friday. Everyone got a bit paranoid – Labor could lose 10-20 seats apparently. Tony Abbott plus one daughter spent time with some cute guide dogs – not that dogs should sway anyone, but the puppies were so cute!

Anyway, Kevin Rudd made one last push, saying that his government has plans and Tony Abbott doesn’t. He may have said something along the lines of “we’ll all be doomed” if Abbott does come to power. Tony Abbott thinks Kevin Rudd is getting desperate and scaring people and doesn’t have a plan – which was a bit mean.

Oh well, no more election campaign! Yay!

The Debate, NoteGate, The Suppository and Sex Appeal

Well, It’s been an entertaining few days.

Sunday saw the debate, and while Tony Abbott ran the City2Surf in Sydney, Kevin Rudd went to church with his family. Mr Abbott had a press conference with Malcolm Turnbull at Bondi Beach. The debate ensued. You can find my account of it here.

Kevin Rudd had a bit of a problem when two candidates pulled out of the running for their seats. The one in Queensland was dumped for some unknown reason, and the one in Victoria pulled out after being rude to or about a disabled person a few years ago.

Tony Abbott still hasn’t talked about his budget plans or costings, which does put the Liberals in a tough position, and to be frank, I just wanted answers – and that was what the four random Queenslanders that the ABC talked to after the debate were annoyed about – there weren’t any. The only thing of note was Kevin Rudd’s pledge of a same-sex marriage bill within 100 days of his term if elected.

Of course, on Monday, came the controversy of all possible controversies – NoteGate. Kevin Rudd had notes! Why on earth would someone making a speech or taking part in a debate have notes or facts? Apparently they were only allowed to use the notepad given to them by the National Press Club, but if Kevin and/or Tony had a page or two of notes, I wouldn’t kick up a fuss. In fact, I’d be glad that they were prepared.

The amusement came from Tony Abbott saying:

“No one, however smart, however well-educated, however experienced … is the suppository of all wisdom”

Technically, that’s true, given that a suppository is a drug administered through the rectum. Not a nice image, is it? The general assumption is that he was meant to say “repository” – which is a storage vessel. Oops.

Also, there’s been some asylum seekers who nearly got through the Torres Strait – and Campbell Newman, at least according to the Labor Party, tried to scare people about it – and to be honest, if that’s the case, he’s not being a nice guy.

Then there was the NBN Debate on Lateline. Neither Malcolm Turnbull nor Anthony Albanese did very well at all. There are two very different broadband plans and I didn’t understand a word. The stellar performance came from Emma Alberici – the anchor of Lateline – and she earned herself a stiff drink.

Tuesday just got weird. The Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook (PEFO) was released and the Labor Party called for the Liberals to release their budget costings. Apparently the Treasury used the word “uncertainty” thirty times. Wow.

Then Tony Abbott was asked about how his female candidate for Lindsay compared to the candidate (who as also female) beck in 2010. He said that they both had sex appeal.

Oh well, we still have three and a half weeks of this to go!