Tag Archives: Malcolm Fraser

The Week that Was – October 19 to October 25

Posted on by

At the start of this week, Iraq finally found itself a Defence Minister, allowing Julie Bishop to finalise the terms of Australian troops coming to help advise the Iraqi defence forces. While there won’t be direct combat for the moment, the troops, mainly from the SAS, will advise and train the Iraqi army to deal with Islamic State (IS aka ISIS/ISIL). Speaking of Islamic State, Tony Abbott has been mentioned in a propaganda video spoken by a 17-year-old Australian who was able to get to the Middle East undetected by authorities. The young guy, a student from South-western Sydney told his mother he was going fishing and never came back. Abbott has used this to explain why Australia is in Iraq, and both sides of politics, not to mention community leaders are shocked that the young guy is there.

Meanwhile, the decision to make women wearing the burqa to watch parliamentary proceedings from a sealed-off section of the public gallery that is usually reserved for visiting students has been reversed. The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate met and decided that it would be better if women wearing the burqa were taken aside and asked to remove the covering for a moment so an officer could be satisfied of their identity. Some of the people who supported the burqa ban, such as Cory Bernardi and Jacqui Lambie are calling it ‘political correctness gone mad’, but most people seem to think that the Speaker and the Senate President are doing the right thing.

Also this week, we saw a shocking terrorist attack in Canada.

It saw Tony Abbott make a speech in Parliament about what happened in Canada, as did the Opposition.

Earlier in the week, Tony Abbott visited Indonesia for Joko Widodo’s inauguration. Widodo, often referred to by his nickname “Jokowi”, is the second democratically elected president of Indonesia. Abbott wants Australia and Indonesia to be closer and more friendly, but it is thought that Jokowi is going to be tougher on threats to Indonesia’s sovereignty, particularly by Australia, not to mention the fact that Widodo has domestic issues to deal with, such as a hung parliament and his promises to the Indonesian people.

Australia is apparently starting to frustrate the rest of the world when it comes to the fight against Ebola. The Health Minister has said that Australia will be focusing on the Asia-Pacific region and how we can help an outbreak there, as well as working on research into a vaccine. Australia has also sent $18 million to Africa to help them fight, but the opposition has demanded the government send personnel to West Africa to help fight the virus, as has, it turns out, the UK and the USA. Meanwhile, the chief medical people from each state and territory have met to discuss Australia’s plans to fight Ebola should someone in Australia be diagnosed with it, and they would also like Australian medical staff to be sent to Africa.

This week also saw Australia mourn the death of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. He died on Tuesday (the 21st) at the age of 98. He’s considered to be one of the best Prime Ministers the country has ever had, making major social change, such as no-fault divorce and free tertiary education. He is also well-known for his changes to Aboriginal land rights, so much so, that several Aboriginal communities entered a period of traditional mourning. Many tributes came in from across the political spectrum, including Malcolm Fraser and all parliamentary business was suspended, except for a sitting to pass a condolence motion and have a few speeches.His State Memorial Service will be held on the 5th of November in Sydney. You can read some editorials and tributes about Whitlam by Julia Gillard, David Marr and Lenore Taylor from the Guardian website.

Finally this week, Bill Shorten spoke about his dislike of hiding behind the bible when arguing against marriage equality, the AMA is criticising the government for its response to Ebola, the Governor-General met up with Australian forces in the UAE and Afghanistan, and Saturday saw National Mosque Open Day, in an attempt to inform people about Islam.

Tweets of the Week

The makeshift Whitlam memorial on the steps of Old Parliament House in Canberra

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Australia’s war on whistleblowers must end – The Guardian

Barry Spurr is the smoking gun of institutional racism – New Matilda

The death of a US-born journalist working for Iranian TV is believed to be the work of Turkish authorities – Daily Mail UK

The relationship you wish you had (about a gay couple on YouTube) – Huffington Post

The Week That Was – May 25 to May 31

Posted on by

The Budget Saga continues.

The ALP and the Greens has said that they will allow the ‘deficit levy’ to pass through the senate, but anything else will be rejected – because guess what…they’re unpopular! Government Senators and MPs have admitted that the Budget is sort of hard to sell to their constituents. They seem to say that their electorates are ok with the deficit levy, but nothing else. Also of concern is the fact that certain agencies have been cut or had their funding – including security at Parliament House. Cue Bill Heffernan:

Mathias Cormann says that “This is the budget we had to have” which has reminded the older people in my house of Paul Keating, and there was lots of yelling in Question Time as Parliament resumed.

There has also been concern in Aboriginal communities, where a large number of people are on unemployment benefits. They say that job are hard enough to find, and that both the “earn or learn” and the “work for the dole” programs will make life difficult for Indigenous youth. The Government has said that they will be more lenient on Indigenous communities, but there are also huge funding cuts to Indigenous services.

There was talk that the government was going to use taxpayers’ money to explain the budget, which is a bit of an issue given they said the were cutting funding to a lot of things, but that was quashed by the Prime Minister. There is also concern from within the back benches, with one government MP, Dennis Jensen, asking about science funding – which has become “incoherent”.

But the government has said that they will now negotiate the GP co-payment – begin Politics and Budget Gymnastics 2014.

Still on the budget, there were concerns that the government might chase after HECS debts when you’re dead – Abbott quashed that idea too, which could be putting the Treasurer into a difficult position.

Clive Palmer showed up to parliament in his own (chauffeured) car, saying he didn’t need Commonwealth car (com car) and that it’s a waste of the taxpayers’ money. He also said that he wouldn’t be making any decisions until he had more information about the Budget. He was seen having dinner with Malcolm Turnbull and Treasury officials – which lead to Joe Hockey (who has had gastric sleeve surgery) making fat jokes. Not a good look.

A report into the riot on Manus Island, run by Robert Cornall, came out this week and it does suggest that there were warning signs that a riot was possible. The report says that a Salvation Army staffer from PNG was the most likely person to have killed Reza Berati, the asylum seeker killed in the riots. It says that G4S, the security company knew there were issues. However, while it appears the Papua New Guinean Government’s report is similar to the Cornall Report, the PNG police are accusing them of a cover-up. They say they never entered the centre and that G4S didn’t co-operate with their investigation, and neither did the Australian Government.

The Greens are very concerned, and have called for Scott Morrison’s resignation – though that probably won’t happen.

South Australia had some pretty cool political drama this week, with former Liberal leader Mark Hamilton-Smith defecting to support the Jay Weatherill’s Labor government. He will become and Independent Liberal, and a minister in Weatherill’s cabinet, as Minister for Trade, Investment, Veteran’s Affairs and Defence Industries. The SA Liberal are angry and are calling it a betrayal, and some in his electorate are unimpressed because they voted Liberal, not Independent or Labor.

Finally this week, as the Thai coup continues, the Australian government is stepping down relations with the Thai Army, there were protests against the budget and changes to Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, Tim Mathieson (Julia Gillard’s partner) dissed Margie Abbott, and Joe Hockey circa 1987:

Quote of the Week

“Some people do drugs at university, I did the Young Liberals” – Nick Xenophon’s standard reply when people bring up his membership of the Young Liberals in his university days.

Tweets of the Week

Christopher Pyne also supports chasing after your HECS debt when you’re dead…

https://twitter.com/DeptOfAustralia/status/471807846900723712

And there was talk that the ABC and SBS could be merged…so here’s what people came up with…

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Malcolm Fraser warns against the combining of ABC and SBS – Canberra Times

We don’t need to change section 18C to have free speech, because we already have it – A Tony Abbott version of Pharrell’s Happy.