Tag Archives: McGowan

The Week That Was – January 13 to January 19

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This week, politicians started to come back from holidays, and given it is an election year, the pre-election rev-up has begun. Both Bill Shorten and Scott Morrison headed to the Northern Territory where they both announced nearly $220 million worth of investment into Kakadu National Park and the township of Jabiru. Labor’s plan includes money to seal a number of unsealed roads in the park, while the Government’s plan is not totally clear.

Meanwhile in the lead-up to the election, Minister for Women, Jobs and Industrial Relations and MP for Higgins, Kelly O’Dwyer has announced she won’t contest her seat at the next election, as she’s made the decision to spend more time with her family. She’s also revealed that she and her husband would like to have another child, and that they needed to be realistic about whether could happen if she’s still in Parliament, and O’Dwyer and her husband have decided the answer to that is “no”. O’Dwyer has insisted that a woman would be the Liberal candidate in Higgins, but we don’t know who that is yet.

Also, Cathy McGowan, the Independent MP for the seat of Indi, has announced that she won’t contest the seat at the next election. She’s decided it’s time to move on and let a new person take her place, with McGowan’s supporters choosing a nurse and health researcher Helen Haines – it’s not exactly a party thing per se, but (from what I can gather) a community group that helps McGowan at elections and with her community meet-ups in the seat of Indi.

This week also saw a the continued anger over a fish kill in the Murray-Darling River Basin at Menindee in early January. After heat wave conditions, the temperature dropped rapidly and algal blooms in the Darling River de-oxygenated, suffocating the fish. There are concerns that given the heat in the last couple of days, there could be more fish kills on the river where the algae is blooming if the temperature drops suddenly again. Many locals believe the algal bloom and the fish kill could have been better prevented by government policy, and again blame is being placed on the poor management of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in NSW.

Meanwhile, on the topic on environmental management, the National Audit Office has released their report into the contentious $443 million grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation for protecting the Great Barrier Reef. The Audit Office found that the minister at the time, Josh Frydenberg, made decisions based on information the department gave him, but that the Environment Department should have placed the foundation under greater scrutiny and taken into account the high administration costs of the foundation and their subcontractors. Current Environment Minister, Melissa Price, says that the government is proud of the grant they gave the organisation and that they won’t be asking for the money back.

This week also saw the start of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, with The Honourable Richard Tracey AM RFD QC and Lynelle Briggs AO in charge. They’re facing a bit of an issue in that only 80-ish aged care providers have provided the commission with documents, out of the 2,000 or so providers in Australia. They’re going to spend most of their time in South Australia, but will soon travel around the country to hear submissions.

Scott Morrison headed to Vanuatu this week to meet with leaders and promises to invest more money in Vanuatu and the Pacific in general. This is mostly due to the fact that China has been getting involved in the Pacific with infrastructure investment – evidenced by the fact that the tarmac that the Prime Minister’s plane landed on was built by a Chinese company, as was the building Morrison met the Prime Minister of Vanuatu in. However, Pacific nations are not getting one of the big things they want out of Australia, which is for the government to take more action on climate change.

Scott Morrison is under fire because he’s trying to force local councils to hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day, because while most councils do hold them, there are a small number of councils that do not. It appears to be some sort of way to counter councils not wanting to hold ceremonies out of respect to indigenous people, however most of these councils don’t hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day because the cost-to-benefit ratio is low. Only two Melbourne councils have ever publicly said they don’t hold ceremonies on the 26th of January out of respect to Indigenous people – and they’ve had their right to hold citizenship ceremonies stripped from them by the government already.

Also this week, the NSW Government has announced their new Governor will be Justice Margaret Beazley, taking over from David Hurley in May, when he becomes Governor-General.

Finally this week, Saudi Arabian refugee Rahaf Alqunun spoke with the ABC, saying that all she wanted was a safe country to live in and that the UNHCR chose Canada over Australia because the Canadian government approved her case faster than Australia did.

Tweet of the Week

Annabel Crabb on the Gillette masculinity ad

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

ABC political journalist Laura Tingle on the possibility of an early election – ABC Online

Tomic and Kyrios are distracting from our Aussie women players – ABC Online

The Gillette “toxic masculinity” advertisement:

 

The Week That Was – October 21 to October 27

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The by-election result in Wentworth is not yet fully finalised, but it definitely looks as if Kerryn Phelps will be the new Member for Wentworth. The counting of postal and pre-poll votes has narrowed her lead on Liberal Party candidate Dave Sharma, and a couple of polling booth recounts during the week have seen some preference errors fixed up and extended her lead to about 1600 votes. With Phelps now highly likely to become the Wentworth’s MP, she’s begun speaking about what she wants to work on when she reaches parliament. For many people in Wentworth, the issues that this election was fought on were value based, such as getting children out of detention in Nauru, action on climate change and LGBTIQ+ issues – things the government haven’t been focusing on as much recently.

Phelps is acutely aware that she doesn’t have much time to act in parliament – the next federal election is due in the first half of next year – but it’s the Government that will also have a tough time in the next six or so months. With Phelps winning the seat, we now have a hung parliament, which Scott Morrison said would make governing hard. He seems to think that all the cross-benchers will try to destabilise the government. Given most cross-bench MPs – like Rebekha Sharkie, Andrew Wilkie, Adam Bandt and Cathy McGowan – tend to judge each motion or piece legislation on its merits and also discuss things with the government, it is unlikely they will intentionally band together to overthrow the Prime Minister and the government.

This week also saw the National Apology for victims of child sexual abuse from Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten. The apologised for the government’s inaction on child abuse in the early days, as well as for abuse suffered in facilities run by the states, churches and charities. Julia Gillard came to Canberra for the apology, and received lots of cheers and applause, as she was the one that announced the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Abuse. The government also didn’t hold Question Time on Monday, out of respect for the victims and attendees at the apology in order to show that the day was about them, not about politics.

Meanwhile there are continued calls for the government to remove and resettle all the refugees detained in detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru. Earlier in the week, eleven children (and presumably their families) were removed from Nauru and brought to Australia for urgent medical care. However, many adults and children are still in detention. There are suggestions to resettle some refugees in New Zealand, which has been offered multiple times by our neighbours in the last decade – but the New Zealand government understandably wants more information, especially given Australia still hasn’t decided whether they’re going to let people settled in NZ come to Australia at all, even as tourists. There are also thoughts about sending migrants to regional centres in Australia, which is all well and good but you must have the infrastructure and services to make that work. There were also rallies in Sydney and Melbourne this weekend, calling for detention on Manus Island and Nauru to be ended.

The plan to move the Australian Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was a key issue covered in Senate Estimates this week, with revelations that it was a bit of a captain’s call. Foreign Minister Marise Payne didn’t know about the plan until she was asked to notify Australia’s neighbours, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade wasn’t consulted, and the Chief of the Defence Force, Angus Campbell, found out through the media instead of being notified by the government, which Campbell felt wasn’t ideal.

The government announced this week that superannuation would be modified, such that there would be caps of fees paid, and making the life and income insurance cover optional for those under the age of 25 and in inactive super accounts. While the fee caps are being received pretty well, there are mixed reactions to the potential insurance cover changes – super funds feel that a change would leave thousands of young people without cover, and some people who have ended up needing to use their superannuation’s automatic life insurance or income protection has been very useful.

This week saw the Duke of Sussex attending Invictus Games events on Sunday and then unveil a plaque on Fraser Island on Monday, while the Duchess of Sussex rested. They spend the middle of the week in the Pacific, visiting Fiji and Tonga, before returning to Australia on Friday night to attend the Australian Geographic Society Awards, and attend the Wheelchair Basketball finals and the Invictus Games Closing Ceremony on Saturday. They’re now headed to New Zealand, where they will spend the rest of their trip before heading back to England.

The Government has announced that they will start an investment fund to help drought-proof regional areas for future droughts, while at a summit on farming and the drought, held at Old Parliament House. There won’t be any money for two years though, and the full amount promised wont be fully given our for a decade after that – which is a good long-term plan perhaps, but it relies on the Coalition being returned to government at the 2019 Federal Election, which may not happen. Some farmers though are also suggesting that the government needs to look at programs to help farmers for whom an exit from farming would be the best option rather than helping drought-proof their farms.

Also this week, Fraser Anning has been dumped by the Katter’s Australia Party, after he brought a motion to have a plebiscite on non-European migration, which is something Anning thinks should be stopped. Meanwhile, Malcolm Turnbull has returned to Australia after spending some time in America – while also facing criticism for not helping the Liberal Party during the election campaign.

Finally this week, Scott Morrison announced that returned service members would be able to get discounts on things they buy with the new veterans card coming out early next year. Also, there is a push for more intergenerational care programs, particularly between young children in childcare and the elderly in aged care. Evidence shows that it teaches young children to be comfortable around older people and in turn, it helps the older people feel they have a purpose and a greater feeling of self-worth.

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

VICE Australia’s new “Dolly Doctor” for the social media age – Walkley Magazine

Laura Tingle on how the Liberals are dealing with the Wentworth result – ABC Online

Parties urged to be honest about businesses paying for political access – The Guardian

 

The Week That Was – October 18 to October 24

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This week wasn’t too insane, which is probably a good thing for the government as it might actually be settling down and doing something.

Speaking of, Senate cross bencher David Leyonhjelm thinks that the only reason the government is making such strict anti-terror laws is so that it looks like something is being done, while Cathy McGowan is calling on the Attorney-General to change the legislation so that abusive ex-partners can’t cross-examine their victims in court, which only a few states ban. The idea behind this is that it intimidates and terrorises the victims, giving the power back to the perpetrator.

Malcolm Turnbull turned 61 on Saturday, and celebrated with some interviews being published in the weekend papers that outlined some of his plans, which include borrowing money to invest in public transport projects as well a dealing with union corruption. Polls at the start of the week show that he has a 68% approval rating – which analysts are attributing to the fact that the bitterness of the Rudd-Gillard-Abbott period is over and the government appears to be acting sensibly.

Badgerys Creek Airport has taken a step towards actually being made instead of just being mused about, with a plan for the build and the environmental statement released. It’s been received mostly positively with tourism and business groups applauding the plan’s release, but concerned about the fact that there is no train line to the prospective airport mentioned. Warren Truss, the Transport Minister, has said that the train and other public transport will come eventually. The environmentalists are worried too, because they feel not enough is being done to protect native endangered species. If Badgerys Creek Airport is ever built (sorry, I live with parents who have heard about this plan since they were kids), construction would start next year, with 6 years to be spent levelling soil, and another few years to build the actual airport – at least ten years in all.

This week Senate Estimates brought to light an incident that occurred on the night Tony Abbott lost the spill. Dubbed “Tablegate” by the media, the gist of the story is that a bunch of people had an alcohol fuelled party in Abbott’s Prime Ministerial Office, in which people got a tad drunk and someone climbed atop a marble coffee table and danced. It is understood that the table then gave way, in Penny Wong’s words, “smashing” to pieces, and possibly injuring the dancer – and people are believed to have taken bits of the table as souvenirs. What makes the whole thing even better is the ABC’s reenactment of the event they filmed for the nightly news, which was quite funny and which I have turned into a gif.

Marble Table

Meanwhile, the people of the electorate of North Sydney (including me) are bracing themselves for a by-election after Joe Hockey made his valedictory speech in Parliament this week. Usually during elections the seat is ignored a bit because it’s a safe Liberal seat and Joe Hockey’s win is essentially a given, so I think some of us in the electorate are looking forward to a little attention.

The Somali refugee that was flown back to Australia after the government said she “changed her mind” about having an abortion after being raped in detention at Nauru has written a statement that contradicts a lot of what the government says. The woman, who is being referred to as Abyan (not her name), says that when she came to Sydney to get the abortion (illegal in Nauru, hence the reason she was flown here) she never saw a doctor, nurse, midwife, or even an interpreter. The government is yet to respond further as far as I have seen, while her lawyers and other activists protested the decision to send her back with no treatment.

Finally this week, Labor has agreed to the China free trade agreement as long as there are certain checks and balances in place; there are going to be changes to renewable energy legislation; Warren Entsch and Eric Abetz have differing views over whether pre-emptive same-sex marriage legislation should be written so that when the country passes it in a plebiscite they can push it through quickly; Bill Heffernan is accusing the judiciary of a cover-up of child abuse, saying he has police paperwork to prove it which includes allegations of child abuse by a former PM; the Trade Union Royal Commission is recommending charges against a union figure and the Social Services Minister Christian Porter bungled an interview question during the week which lead to some savage questioning from the Opposition during Question Time this week.

Tweets of the Week

https://twitter.com/workmanalice/status/656320299466518528

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

First Dog on the Moon on Joe Hockey – The Guardian

The ABC’s look back at Joe Hockey’s political career

The Week That Was – September 8 to September 14

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So, the first week of Tony Abbott’s Prime Ministership (well, he’s actually PM-elect) is going ok and the sky hasn’t fallen, as many predicted. However, anyone who said that they were going to leave the country if Abbott ever became PM are now in a difficult position.

This week, we’ve seen the counting continue, especially in the seat of Indi (Sophie Mirabella’s seat before the election) where it is so close between Mirabella and Cathy McGowan, an Independent, that they are having to go through and look at all of the preferences. There was controversy too, when the AEC found 1,000 misplaced votes for McGowan – the AEC says it was a clerical error, so no conspiracy. If McGowan does win the seat, Mirabella will be one of, if not the only, Liberal MP to lose their seat this election, which leaves Abbott with another issue – now there is only one woman, Julie Bishop, in the yet to be sworn in Cabinet, and that could be a real problem.

Even more controversy was created on Tuesday, when Foreign Minister-elect Julie Bishop sacked the Consul-General-to-be Steve Bracks from his post. He was meant to be going to the New York Consulate as Consul-General, and was still in Canberra, presumably for briefings and training when he lost his job. That has sent Labor into a bit of a tantrum, and I’ll let them have this one, because I thought it was a little bit vindictive.

We’ve also seen some of the new senators-elect on TV:

David Leyonhjelm

Wayne Dropulich

Ricky Muir – on the ABC Website

With Kevin Rudd no longer the Labor leader, there is now the question on who will. There is a choice between Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese – and not just for Caucus. Members of the Labor Party can join as well. The only issue is how it’ll work. It’ll take about a month to find out who’ll lead the Opposition.

Hmm. At least the election campaign is over.

Last, but not least, the story of the New York Times journalist and photographer who took an asylum seeker boat to Christmas Island – they had visas, so they aren’t going to Manus Island, but hey, it’s interesting. You can read the story here.

Links

To read Julia Gillard’s piece in the Guardian, click here.

To read Antony Green’s piece about Senate preferences, click here.

Tweet of the Week

https://twitter.com/hamishNews/status/377731382983680000

Amusement

Craig Emerson singing, Skyhooks, and somewhat veiled insults on the ABC…