Tag Archives: MUA

The Week That Was – June 9 to June 15

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It’s been a while since my notes have said “No politics” on more than one day! This mostly has to do with the fact that the country and the government are waiting for the results of the Senate count to be finalised, and there seems to be only one seat left in doubt, so it should not be long now. Once that happens, it’ll be back to politics all day, every day.

Monday was the Queen’s Birthday Holiday, and so came the Queen’s Birthday Honours. Father-daughter duo Jade and Paul Hameister, who completed the exploration known as “Polar Hat Trick” (North Pole, Greenland and the South Pole) together have received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM). Leigh Sales, Eric Bana and Elizabeth Chong, among others have become Members of the Order of Australia (AM). Former senator and anti-domestic violence activist Natasha Stott Despoja is now an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO); and former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, actor Hugh Jackman and ABC Chairwoman Ita Buttrose have received the highest honour, becoming Companions of the Order of Australia (AC). You can see the full list here.

It was revealed this week that the Home Affairs Department’s Secretary Mike Pezzullo called Centre Alliance Senator Rex Patrick after he said that the department and the Home Affairs Minister “hate media scrutiny” in a press release put out after least week’s raids on News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst and the ABC’s Sydney headquarters. Pezzullo allegedly called Patrick to ‘correct the record’ – which has concerned both Peter Dutton and the Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Morrison and Dutton have both said that the call concerns them, and they have advised Pezzullo that he really shouldn’t contact senators personally, even if Pezzullo thinks they’re wrong.

This week also saw drama amongst the unions, after CFMEU boss John Setka was accused of saying that anti-domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty was infringing on men’s rights at a union meeting. Setka denies he said anything of the sort, and two other union bosses who were present at the meeting, the West Australian Secretary of the Maritime Union, Christy Cain and ACTU President Sally McManus have backed Setka up on that fact. However, Setka is not well-liked by some in the union movement and many conservative politicians and regular people, and McManus has urged Setka to step down, while federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese has requested that Setka be booted from the party, but Setka appears to be holding firm for the moment.

Adani’s new Queensland mine has passed another environmental assessment, which now means that Adani can start to build their mine. This has made many regional Queensland MPs, mayors and residents very happy, as there is promise of jobs – even though the number keeps changing. Environmentalists, on the other hand, are unimpressed, especially given that the Queensland government has given Adani a huge concession on their water management plan, that was off the table before.

Finally, this week the country farewelled former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, who died last month, at a National Memorial Service. Many former Prime Ministers, and former and current Labor figures attended the memorial along with Hawke’s family and members of the general public.

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

The Good Priest (who does CrossFit) – ABC Online

WA Liberals have their first female leader in Liza Harvey – ABC Online

 

The Week That Was – February 24 to March 2

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With the Federal Election due to be called sometime after the Federal Budget on April 2nd, politicians are getting ready for the battle ahead. The Coalition have announced their climate change reduction policy, which is a re-animation of Tony Abbott’s scheme, which essentially gave out grants for emissions reduction actions like not cutting down trees. This plan had no real impact last time it was implemented, with research showing that Australia’s emissions have continued to climb. On the plus side, the “Snowy Hydro 2.0” – basically an upgrade to the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme to improve its energy generation capacity.

Meanwhile the Labor Party have announced that they will continue with the Turnbull-era National Energy Guarantee (NEG) that they agreed to support before Turnbull was overthrown because of it. Labor is copping criticism for using the NEG, but they’ve been more consistent in their support for any sort of climate reduction policy that might actually work and is also feasible. Labor also announced a plan to support the building of several merchant ships that would be commercially operated, but could be seconded and captained by the military in a national security emergency. The government has framed this as the Labor party bowing to the MUA (the maritime industry union).

This week, two more ministers joined the stream of Liberal Cabinet ministers retiring from politics. Defence Minister Christopher Pyne and Defence Industries Minister Steve Ciobo have joined Nigel Scullion, Kelly O’Dwyer and Michael Keenan in deciding to leave parliament at the next election. Ciobo’s seat of Moncrieff on Queensland’s Gold Coast is safe Liberal (on a margin of around 14%), leaving some to suspect that the LNP may reshuffle their candidates and parachute Peter Dutton into the seat to keep him in politics. Pyne’s electorate of Sturt in South Australia is also safe Liberal (around 10%), and it appears the South Australian Premier’s chief of staff will run for pre-selection in the seat.

Ciobo also left his ministerial position, so Scott Morrison has replaced him as Defence Industries Minister with Senator Linda Reynolds, who is a former Brigadier. It has also been suggested that should the Coalition win the next election she will become the Defence Minister. While Reynolds’ appointment does increase the number of women in cabinet to the highest number ever, there is concern that her appointment was more a political point scoring exercise to get another women in cabinet and break the record for the most number of women in an Australian Cabinet ever. All of this change also gives the perception that these ministers are evacuating a sinking ship. The Labor party is also jumping on this perception, and I’m tempted to agree, if only because I’m inclined to believe that if my spidey senses are anything to go by the Coalition are likely to lose the next election.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Party have had pre-selection challenges for candidates in Kelly O’Dwyer’s electorate of Higgins and Michael Keenan’s electorate of Stirling. Dr Katie Allen has been selected for Higgins, and Vince Connelly has been selected for Stirling.

This week, the ABC announced that they had settled the unfair dismissal case with former Managing Director Michelle Guthrie. Meanwhile, the Government has announced the new Chairperson for the ABC’s Board as Ita Buttrose. The media doyenne, whose father was an executive at the ABC when her career in magazines was taking off, is the second woman to become Chairperson since Dame Leonie Kramer in 1982. Buttrose has said that she wants to stabilise the management at the ABC – they still need an MD – and that if the ABC does need more money, she’s not afraid to ask for it.

Finally this week, Cardinal George Pell was found guilty of historical child sexual abuse offences dating back to 1996 at the end of last year. The trial was not public knowledge because of an injunction placed on the case by the Judge, who felt that media coverage would not allow Pell a fair trial in a second case that was due to go ahead this week – but charges were dropped. He’s had his bail revoked and is now awaiting sentencing, with former Prime Minister John Howard announced as one of ten character witnesses for Pell’s sentencing.

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Those who feel Pell is being hard done by are disrespecting the justice system – SMH

The reaction of Pell’s defenders just displays their power – The Guardian

Both Steggall and Abbott will need to work to woo Warringah’s voters – ABC Online

The Week that Was – August 2 to August 8

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Well, as the edit in last week’s post showed, Bronwyn Bishop resigned. It’s believed that despite her friendship and trust from Tony Abbott, it was causing too much damage and she had to go. Abbott has been trying to shift the blame from her to the system, even announcing an inquiry into the system to see if the rules can be made clearer (which they probably can be). Parliament is due back soon, which means that people are putting themselves forward for the role of Speaker. Constitutionally, the vote for the new speaker will happen first thing, as you can’t run the House of Representatives without a Speaker. There are a few people being suggested for the role, such as Philip Ruddock, Andrew Southcott and the current Deputy Speaker Bruce Scott. There is hope that they will be far less partisan than Ms Bishop was.

MPs have begun to shut up about the whole entitlements saga, after Tony Burke went on the attack on Bishop, which lead Christopher Pyne to go on the attack regarding Burke’s spending, before it was pointed out that Pyne is just as bad as Tony Burke. Since then, MPs have not really said anything because it’s become clear that most of them have done something inappropriate at least once.

Abbott spent his week in South Australia and Victoria, announcing contracts for ship builders in SA, which they hope will improve employment and the Liberal Party’s vote in the state. Meanwhile in Victoria, he’s been focusing on jobs and training, which has made some wonder if South Australia is getting a better deal than Victoria.

NAPLAN tests are showing that there is little to no improvement in Australia’s literacy and numeracy skills overall, although there has been major improvement in Queensland and Western Australia. Most experts and teachers are suggesting that there needs to be more information and resources for teaching staff and a more individual focus on students.

It’s believed that the terrorism legislation may be struck down in the High Court, after it was revealed by legal experts that the legislation is poorly written and extremely broad. It’s believed that people who a caught putting graffiti on Commonwealth buildings could be charged with terrorism offences and lose their Australian citizenship if they are dual citizens.

Malaysia has announced that the piece of plane that washed up on Réunion Island is from MH370. However, the French, who are looking after the plane at the BEA, want to do more tests to double-check.

Finally this week, unemployment is up to 6.3%, it’s been revealed that the Vietnamese asylum seekers who were intercepted off WA a few weeks ago have been sent back to Vietnam, and that under Peter Dutton, 20 boats have been turned back, eight more than under Scott Morrison, Foreign investors are still being cracked down upon, with around 400 sales suspicious, the Productivity Commission has suggested changing penalty rates, and the MUA is picketing at Hutchison Ports (a holding company for Hutchison Whampoa) locations after they sacked workers by email this week.

Tweet of the Week

Taylor Swift continues world domination.

https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/628452918308384768

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

First Dog on the Moon introduces Ian the Climate Denialist Potato – The Guardian

Kumi Taguchi talks about her father’s experience in Japan during WWII – ABC The Drum

The Week That Was – September 28 to October 4

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It’s official. Australia is going to Iraq to take part in US airstrikes against Islamic State (IS, aka ISIS/ISIL). At the beginning of the week, while waiting for confirmation, Australian troops were doing practice flights in the UAE and reconnaissance flights over Iraq. The government has not considered Syria yet, and may decide not to go there in the end. However, according to the government, we’re not going to war, we’re going to help a humanitarian mission – despite this the ABC has been using the term ‘war’, so go figure. Australia’s tactical advisors are yet to begin working in Iraq as they haven’t been given their diplomatic immunity, but apparently that will happen soon. Meanwhile, raids were carried out in Melbourne by Victoria Police and the AFP. There was one person arrested and charged for sending money to finance terror organisations. The police say it had noting to do with the young man killed last week, and that the FBI tipped them off about the guy.

At the end of this week, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Senate President decided to force women wearing burqas or niqabs to sit behind the glass walled part of the public gallery, usually reserved for school groups. This “security measure”, as they’re calling it, has been criticised by most people, arguing that it treats Muslim women as second-class citizens, with some calling it religious apartheid. On Friday, Tony Abbott spoke with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Bronwyn Bishop and asked her to reconsider the decision.

That mysterious thing called the budget is still haunting the government, as they try to figure out new ways to save money that won’t upset the Opposition, and will allow for the changes to go through. There is talk of lowering the income limit for tax benefits, as well as fiddling with the large family tax benefit. In the meantime, they’ve also got to find cuts in order to have money to fight in Iraq and fund new terror laws, though getting through a hostile senate may be a challenge, especially if Clive Palmer and the PUP decide not to support the changes the government decides to make.

This week, Scott Morrison announced an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse by guards at the Detention Centre in Nauru, after saying earlier this week that he would be “pretty damn cross” if the allegations are true. However, the investigation is also looking into whether or not the children’s charity Save the Children is orchestrating the claims or encouraging asylum seekers to make such allegations.

As the Ebola outbreak continues in Africa, and with the news of the first person being diagnosed of the disease on US soil, officials are moving to quell the fear here. Australia is at low risk, and while airports are on alert and have the capacity to send suspected Ebola cases to hospitals, we shouldn’t be overly concerned. They’ve also pointed out that in Australia, we have the resources to deal with a patient with Ebola.

In other news, the move to fully privatise Medibank is gaining momentum, with advertising now letting people know that they can register their interest in buying shares in the health fund. While some are happy with the move, there are concerns that jobs could be at risk, premiums will go up, and what happens to the many Australians that picked Medibank due to its link with the government. Also, the Trade Union Royal Commission continued this week with bribery allegations against the MUA, as well as the implication of the CFMEU in activities with crime bosses.

Finally this week, Australia Network stopped transmission into the Asia Pacific, and Australian citizen was killed in Afghanistan, and it turns out some Australian companies are not paying the amount of tax they should be.

Tweets of the Week

ICYMI – Hong Kong has been crippled by protests. But they are some of the most well-behaved and polite protesters you will ever see…

They recycle:

They apologise for barricading train stations:

They shield the cops from the rain:

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

California adopts “Yes means Yes” consent legislation – TIME Magazine

Only in Australia…Bushfire training for journalists – ABC Backstory

How to Comment – The Not Adam