Tag Archives: Muir

The Week That Was – November 16 to November 22

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The G20 continued over Sunday with leaders having a “robust” discussions with Putin, who left the G20 a little early, he says to catch up on sleep, but others say he was feeling hardly done by. Obama kept talking about climate change while Abbott kept talking about coal. However, the G20 is mainly about the economy, so they’ve promised to work harder to fight corporate tax evasion as well as try to get 100 million women into the work force. It was 42ºC in Brisbane over the weekend, making it very hot for some of the northern hemispheric heads of state, who are heading into winter.

China’s President, Xi Jinping arrived in Canberra shortly after the G20, he made a speech to Federal Parliament and signed a Declaration of Intent regarding the finalised Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

In the FTA, tariffs on dairy, beef and wine will decrease or be removed, mining tariffs will be gone in a decade and Australian service companies, like hotels, will have it much easier in China. Xi also visited Tasmania, making him the first Chinese head of state to visit every Australian state and territory. He met some school children – presumably the ones who wrote him a letter in Chinese – saw Tasmanian devils and went to Tasmania’s government house. His wife, Peng Liyuan, also visited a girls school on Sydney’s upper north shore and met some of the students and watched a Chinese lesson.

Narendra Modi, the Indian PM, also came to Canberra, but visited Sydney first, where he made a community address at Sydney Olympic Park. There were thousands there including some from Melbourne who took an overnight train to Sydney, dubbed the “Modi Express”. Modi spoke in Federal Parliament, where he suggested that making the members both houses sit through three speeches by Heads of State over the course of five days was Tony Abbott’s way of “shirtfronting” them.

Angela Merkel, Matteo Renzi and François Hollande also stayed in Australia a little longer, although they didn’t go to speak at Parliament House. Merkel visited a technology park in Sydney, Renzi visited Kellyville, a suburb in Sydney’s northwest, where an Italian company is working on part of a transport build, and Hollande hung around Sydney with the Governor General.

The Jacqui Lambie Saga continued this week with her being removed from her role as the PUP’s Deputy Senate Leader, and suspended her from attending party room meetings. The PUP has also removed references to her from their site, and she has removed references to them off hers. Lambie, along with the Motoring Enthusiasts’ Ricky Muir, voted with Labor, the Greens and Nick Xenophon against government changes to FOFA legislation. Lambie is looking at her options, because while she has every right to leave the party, should she pass away or be forced to quit, the casual vacancy will be filled by a PUP member and not by an independent or a member of Lambie’s alternative party, should she create one. This does make Senate more difficult at the moment, as it forces the government to negotiate with more people.

Julie Bishop was in New York this week in the blistering cold to chair the last meetings of the UN Security Council that Australia has the Presidency. The UNSC took a veiled sweep at nations like Australia that are restricting or stopping visa applications from the Ebola hot zone. Bishop called Ebola more than just a “health emergency” and that more needed to be done to help. The opposition was not impressed, suggesting that Australia says one thing internationally and does another thing domestically.

The ABC will lose almost 5% of its budget over the next five years, which is about $300 million dollars. The Opposition is telling people that Abbott lied during his election campaign, which he did, and money will also be taken from SBS, which will be allowed to play more advertising during prime time to help make up for the loss. Malcolm Turnbull has said that people shouldn’t be blaming the government, but some seem to think the government will be blamed. The ABC has suggested that they may have to close down foreign bureaux, cancel some programs and close a production unit based in South Australia, the latter making Christopher Pyne start a petition to stop the ABC from shutting the unit down. This week also saw rallies across the country with people coming to support the ABC – many fearing they will lose news coverage and entertainment.

The Overcoming Disadvantage report was released this week, suggesting that things are slowly improving for Indigenous Australians. Mortality is down, life expectancy is up, albeit not by much, and high school completion is also on the rise. However, there is an increase in the number of indigenous people incarcerated, which is being blamed on poor policy decisions, and experts want more investment in mental health services for indigenous people. Indigenous people have said that they should be involved in the decision-making in order to help the community.

The Australian government is receiving criticism this week for deciding that they would not take anymore refugees that registered in Indonesia, in the belief that they will stop people smugglers from sending people to Indonesia in the first place. Indonesia has said that they were not consulted and that this puts all the burden on them to help refugees, which they cannot do. Furthermore, an asylum seeker boat showed up on the island of Yap in Micronesia with refugees who wanted to settle in Australia. Micronesia has never had to deal with this and are now trying to figure out what to do with the 30-odd refugees.

Finally this week, Baby Gammy will likely get Australian citizenship, Westpac is closing accounts of money transfer businesses, making things difficult for workers who send money back to Australia, the Dutch have begun to remove the wreckage from MH17 and Peter Greste could be pardoned if it is in Egypt’s national interest, although DFAT is unaware of anything going on.

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

According to Mark Latham, left-feminist women hate kids – Australian Financial Review

Meet Lammily, the normal body alternative to Barbie – The Guardian

FDA Changes regarding blood donations from men who have sex with men – TIME Online

It’s lose-lose for Malcolm Turnbull with ABC cuts – ABC The Drum

The Week That Was – November 2 to November 8

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There has always been concern about the current government’s attitude to climate change, given last weeks passing of the Direct Action Plan, and this week had people more concerned. The government wants to scale back the renewable energy target and the use of renewable energy sources, which the Opposition has said they will oppose. The government wants to have a chat with opposition to see if there can be a compromise, so that there is still growth in the renewable energy market. This is despite the fact that the IPCC released a report saying that the use of fossil fuels should be stopped by 2100 and that the large amount of greenhouse gasses currently in the atmosphere are most likely caused by humans. However, coal is a major export for Australia, and while the Environment Minister Greg Hunt says there are ways to clean up the industry, Tony Abbott has been constantly saying that coal is essential for economic growth and the “foundation of prosperity”.

Australia has finally got itself sorted on sending people to the Ebola zone, however, they won’t be doing it themselves.They’re giving $20 million to a private health provider, Aspen, to run a 100-bed Ebola treatment centre. Hundreds of Australian medical staff have applied to go, although it is unclear how many Australian medics Aspen will take, as there has been talk of engaging local medics as well as international staff. There has been criticism of the government for taking this long to start sending people West Africa, especially since it was revealed that the EU has had a deal going for weeks, saying they’ll evacuate and treat any aid workers who contract Ebola, contradicting the government’s excuse that there was no plan to get Australians out of West Africa should they contract the virus. Other medical staff in Australia have been making the trip to West Africa with Médecins Sans Frontières and other aid groups because they’re unimpressed with the government’s response.

This week also saw the Gough Whitlam State Memorial Service at Sydney Town Hall. Several Gurindji Land Rights activists and descendants came to the service, as well as every Prime Minister that came after Whitlam. There were speeches from senior Labor figure John Faulkner, actress Cate Blanchett and academic and lawyer Noel Pearson, who is considered to have given the best speech of the service. There was a bit of a problem though when it came to seating. It became unclear as to how the organisers were running the public seating, whether by ballot or by first in, first served. It meant that for the 1500 seats available, 6000 people registered, and without confirmation, most showed up thinking they were good to go. It meant people ended up standing outside Town Hall watching on a big screen.

The Dutch Prime Minister visited for a couple of days to talk to Tony Abbott about the investigation into MH17, and the fact that more bodies have been found at the site, and will be brought to Amsterdam where they will be examined before being returned to the families. Tony Abbott also said that he would raise MH17 with Putin at some point in the next few weeks, with APEC and the G20 coming up. According to Abbott, Putin “owes it to us, he owes it to our common humanity to ensure that justice is done”. Tony Abbott will meet Putin for a short meeting on the sidelines of APEC next week.

Speaking of APEC, Julie Bishop is in Beijing, starting discussions, and also making sure that the last bits of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China are ready for the G20 and Xi Jinping’s visit to Australia. The FTA mainly involves labour and trade deals, including a live cattle trade worth about $1 billion annually.

This week, Jacqui Lambie has raised eyebrows, saying she won’t pass any government legislation until the Defence Force is given a pay rise. Lambie is a former soldier, and thinks the current pay offer, which is below the rate of inflation and therefore a pay cut in real terms, is unfair. Many of her fellow Palmer United Party colleagues are distancing themselves, and Lambie is trying to get Motoring Enthusiast Party Senator Ricky Muir to join her. This would, despite Joe Hockey telling people that threats won’t work against the government, make passing legislation in the Senate difficult, as the PUP and Muir hold the balance of power. Oh, and this is all despite the fact that the government had no involvement in the Defence Force pay offer, and the only thing the PM can do is ask the tribunal responsible to reconsider their decision.

Finally this week, a former Howard minister, Jackie Kelly, who left the Liberal Party last month will challenge a NSW state seat as an independent, only a small fraction of the 4400 special humanitarian visas available to refugees from Syria fleeing ISIS have been given out, and Australian troops are still in the UAE, yet to go to Iraq.

Tweets of the Week

One of the many protocol theories being made to figure out who stands next to whom in pictures:

https://twitter.com/smurray38/status/529870844168646656

Things I’ve been Looking at Online

Leigh Sales interview with Julia Baird – ABC Online

Annabel Crabb and Leigh Sales have a podcast – Chat 10 Looks 3

One of the producers from the ABC’s Africa Bureau reflects on his job – ABC Backstory

The Week That Was – August 17 to August 23

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The big story this week was Clive Palmer’s attack on the Chinese. When asked about the court case involving him and a Chinese State Owned Enterprise on Q & A, he got overly defensive.

The Chinese Embassy responded by saying that Palmer is ignorant and prejudiced and the Australian government has gone into damage control, telling China that they don’t agree with Palmer – FYI, there is a Free Trade Agreement under negotiation at the moment. Jacqui Lambie isn’t making it easy though, as she believes that the Chinese are going to invade us at some point – which is absolutely ridiculous.

Ricky Muir from the Motoring Enthusiasts’ Party appeared from the shadows at the end of the week. He appeared and had a press conference at a car show, in which he said that while he does vote in the Palmer United Party bloc, he is his own man and does not agree with PUP’s views on China. He also said that he had talked with treasury people – apparently getting calls at all hours – and told the press that he still isn’t sold on the $7 GP co-payment or the Higher Education changes.

Speaking of the co-payment, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) has suggested an alternative plan for the co-payment. The AMA suggests that consultations for children, concession card holders and pensioners should not be subject to the co-payment. Both sides of politics, as well as other lobby groups are calling this plan a money grab, not a nice alternative, given something like $2-$3 goes to them out of the co-payment. However, the government is also being criticised for trying to sell the co-payment as a Medicare-strengthening measure because the government’s slice of the co-payment goes into a Medical research fund, and not into the budget or Medicare.

The Prime Minister has been busy this week. The start of the week saw the Pollie Pedal end in Penrith and Tony Abbott join in for the last few (wet) days and at a First World War memorial on Cockatoo Island. He was also on 2GB this week talking about the previous week’s NSW ICAC scalps – saying it was “a bad look” for the Liberal Party – but criticised the previous NSW Labor Government for changing the rules, making it illegal for property developers to make donations. According to the PM, it is unclear in the legislation what constitutes a property developer and arguing that private donations are better that publicly funded elections. He was also asked by 2GB presenter Ray Hadley about the ASADA investigation, saying that the ASADA claims were meant to be the previous Federal Labor government’s distraction from Julia Gillard, although Ray Hadley didn’t actually call Gillard by her name, he called her something along the lines of “that woman“. In the same interview, he was asked about a flag that had been seen in Sydney’s west that looked like it could be an ISIS flag (it wasn’t), and Abbott said that the only flag that should fly is the Australian flag – forgetting that most of the time the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags are often required to be flown as well.

Speaking of ISIS, they gruesomely murdered a journalist this week. The PM described the murder as “evil”, and then decided to also warn Australia that if we let our vigilance down, similar things could happen here.

Moving on though, the budget is still being talked about over three months after it was laid out. The government isn’t overly concerned, because they’ve got the appropriation and supply bills through, but some of their big-ticket items are still on the table and being negotiated. After his “poor don’t drive” gaffe last week, Joe Hockey has been out of sight for a while, leading journalists to question Mattias Cormann about why he was selling the budget over the weekend and not Hockey. Cormann said it was because they’re working together to sell the budget and therefore either of them can appear in front of the media to do so. However, it’s believed that the government may be compromising and giving ground on some of their major policy items in order to get them through.

It was also announced this week that Australia has agreed to take 2200 Iraqi and 2200 Syrian refugees in. However, they will be coming through what Scott Morrison called the “front door”, so therefore they are still stopping the boats, ergo no broken promises. Also, children and their families (where applicable) are being released from detention centres on bridging visas, and the Papua New Guinean authorities have arrested and charges two G4S employees over the murder of Reza Berati, the asylum seeker killed during the Manus Island riots.

Bill Shorten made a statement this week about rape claims made against him last year.

He’s been applauded by both sides of politics for being open and transparent about it now, rather than hiding it and having it come out later on.

So this week, Australia-Indonesia relations have gotten much better, to the point where thy are signing an agreement not to spy on each other…

Finally this week, the NSW Liberal Party has announced they will not put anyone forward for the by-elections in Newcastle or Charlestown, there has been criticism of the NAPLAN writing question, Australia and India have done a trade deal on uranium, there’s another ADFA sex scandal, and the man who was convicted of the Winchester Assassination has been released from prison after his conviction was quashed.

Tweet of the Week

Fairfax staff went on strike this week…

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Eliza Harvey on the only Liberal MP in the Hunter not to quit, and how she’s changed for the better – ABC The Drum

Sean Dorney’s leaving Australia Network and the ABC – ABC Backstory and Australia Network Online

What Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond thinks of Tony Abbott – Huffington Post UK

The Week that Was – July 6 to July 12

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The week began with a #Bustthebudget March in major cities, protesting the Budget and the government in general.

Then we saw one of the two boats of asylum seekers processed at sea and surrendered to the Sri Lankan Navy. Eric Abetz says the government is acting within its international obligations – but he’s the only one from the government talking. It was confirmed the next day with Scott Morrison defending the move saying “This is what works”. Critics say that may be, but it is possibly somewhat almost illegal under international law , especially when you send Sri Lankan Tamils back to Sri Lanka, where they are discriminated against. The other boat with 153 asylum seekers aboard is in limbo, after a High Court challenge was brought. It’s hoped that the court case will lead to transparency about what is going on, but the government is still saying that they are acting legally. But now the Sri Lankan government has said they won’t take the second boat, which means they’ll be taken to Manus Island or Christmas Island if and when the injunction is lifted. Australia also gifted two patrol boats to Sri Lanka to help “Stop the Boats”. Meanwhile the UNHCR is becoming increasing concerned about the Australian Government’s treatment of asylum seekers and Tony Abbott says he “won’t capitulate to moral blackmail” after being asked about refugees attempting suicide in detention.

The new Senate was sworn in and then decided to postpone the Carbon Tax and Mining Tax votes. Clive Palmer and the PUP have also possibly blown a $7 billion hole in the budget by demanding that the mining tax be gone but the sweeteners be kept. The government then attempted to move to have less debate on the Carbon Tax repeal bill, which was lost because Ricky Muir, the Motoring Enthusiast Party’s senator didn’t vote with the Palmer United Party. Then when it came time to debate and vote, the Palmer United Party withdrew support claiming that the Coalition had “pulled a swifty” on the PUP Senators by not putting their amendment in the way they wanted it. Something they could have missed, given bills are written in legalese. This rejection of the Carbon Tax repeal is not the first and is now a double dissolution trigger for the Prime Minister. We also saw Clive Palmer storm out of an interview with 7:30.

Tony Abbott has also said that this first week drama is understandable given the new senators are “inexperienced” and Labor is being annoying. PUP Senator Jacqui Lambie was not impressed by that. Abbott also seems to think that Clive Palmer will eventually come around.

Tony Abbott had a guest this week with the visit of Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. They signed their Free Trade Agreement and went to look at the mines in Western Australia and talk about trading. Abe also spoke to a joint session of Parliament, making his speech in English and making mention of rugby and Olympian Dawn Fraser – most famous for stealing a flag from outside the Emperor’s Palace at the Tokyo Games in 1964. He also went to the Australian War Memorial where he laid a wreath – he’s since returned home and the FTA will be tabled in Parliament in a few weeks.

Tweet of the Week

So Abe got some RM Williams and wore them in WA

What I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

The National Gay Blood Drive in the USA – TIME Magazine

RJ Aguiar – Bisexuality: Setting the Record “Straight”

The Week that Was – October 6 to October 12

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I have assignments due in the next week, so this is quite short.

It seems the post-election crash I mentioned last week is over, as the taxpayer money scandal/saga/controversy grips the country, you can read my take on that here. It’s taken up a lot of the political news in the last week, as has the APEC Conference in Bali.

Tony Abbott did pretty well at APEC, and didn’t screw up majorly. However, he was late to one of the large group meetings. He was with Canadian PM Stephen Harper having a chat at the time and blames the messengers. The ABC story is here. There has also been talk about the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, and his body language when Abbott showed up late.

Also, Clive Palmer’s party, called the Palmer United Party, has done a senate deal with the Motoring Enthusiasts Party Senator-elect Ricky Muir. Clive says that he’ll have to treat the entire group (his three senators and Muir) as one, and not try to talk to them separately. This should be interesting, given that they’ll most likely hold the balance of power after the Senate changes next year.

Tweet of the Week