I’m back! I took some time off work and then when I got back to work it was a bit hectic, so here are a few things that happened while I was away.
First, we saw yet another announcement from a Liberal MP that they would not contest the next election. This time it was Craig Laundy, MP for the marginal seat of Reid, in Sydney’s Inner West. Laundy was a minister in the Turnbull government, and he is considered to be a moderate Liberal, which many commentators attribute to his ability to hold onto the seat. There is currently a push for a woman or an equally moderate candidate to be placed in the seat in order to keep it in Liberal hands. The seat is likely to be one where the party will parachute a candidate into it given it is so close to the election (it’s expected to be called after the budget).
It’s also concerning that the party has already asked two people if they’d like to run, and they have both refused. These people were ABC Journalist Stan Grant, and former NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Nick Kaldas. This means that the candidate the Liberal party announces will be their third choice, and so far no women have been mentioned in rumours.
Second, New Zealand was rocked by a right-wing extremist terror attack on two mosques by an Australian citizen. It’s proved once again to the world and Australia that Jacinda Ardern is an awesome human being – just take her response on the day of the attack:
Once again there were calls for Jacinda Ardern to become Prime Minister of Australia, which isn’t possible because of Section 44, but whatever, we can dream.
The attack in NZ led right-wing senator Fraser Anning to try to blame Muslim immigration in Australia and New Zealand for the terror attack. Anning was widely criticised for his comments, mostly verbally. A teenage boy decided to smash an egg on Anning’s head while he was at an event – leading Anning to punch him in the face before Anning’s supporters tackled him to the ground.
The boy, Will Connolly, has since been interviewed by Channel 10. He admits that egging Anning was the wrong thing to do, and there is no denying it was, but he’s unapologetic because, well, he’s probably not the only one who has felt like smashing an egg on Anning’s head.
Scott Morrison also announced he was going to talk to social media companies about how they manage hateful content, and create legislation to make it illegal not to monitor and remove such content from these sites. This comes after the mosque attacker broadcast his attack live on Facebook, and while Facebook finally found it and deleted it, people kept reposting it.
Meanwhile, in New South Wales the state election took place, with it originally looking like the Liberal party would be in a minority government, mostly credited with the Labor leader Michael Daley’s comments about the Chinese community.
Finally, there was another round of school student strikes, with students campaigning to draw attention to climate change and their displeasure at the government’s action on climate policy, or lack thereof.
That’s it for now, back to regular posting this week.
Kara L 