The Week That Was – February 25 to March 3

Michael McCormack won the ballot for the Nationals leadership, almost uncontested, after George Christiansen staged a last minute attempt in the party meeting. McCormack is a former journalist, who wrote an anti-LGBT tirade when he was editor of a Riverina newspaper. He has since apologised profusely for the editorial and he did vote in favour of same-sex marriage in parliament, so he appears to have toned himself down a bit. Banarby Joyce hasn’t ruled out making a comeback, but for now, McCormack is Deputy PM.

Speaking of Barnaby Joyce, it was revealed in Senate Estimate Hearings this week that the Prime Minister asked the secretary of prime minister and cabinet to investigate Joyce’s conduct and it was then ended when he resigned. Estimates hearings this week were a bit insane, with Labor Senator Kim Carr suggesting Liberal Senator James Patterson would have been a member of the Hitler Youth. Also, Michaelia Cash, upon being asked about the qualifications of her new Chief of Staff, said she’d name all the young women in Bill Shorten’s office ‘because there are rumours’, which left many politicians on both sides angry and shocked. Tanya Plibersek wants Cash to go into Shorten’s office and apologise to every single young woman in the office, but that’s unlikely happen, given that Turnbull defended her saying that she was ‘provoked’. In my humble opinion, that’s a load of crap, and from the look on Turnbull’s face, he didn’t believe it either.

Malcolm Turnbull came back from Washington and welcomed the NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to Sydney. They shared the usual ‘Australia and New Zealand are best friends and we are closer than ever’ spiel before being asked about a couple of sore spots in the friendship, such as Ardern’s offer to take around 150 refugees from Manus detention centre which Turnbull keeps declining, and the fact that Australia sends Kiwi citizens back to New Zealand after they’ve served time for their crimes – only catch is, some of them had no idea they were New Zealand citizens and have spent their entire lives in Australia.

The Tasmanian election took place this weekend, with the issue of poker machines a big one in the state. Labor and the Greens said early on that they would get rid of pokies in Tasmania if they won the election, while the Liberals said they’d keep them. This has seen a large amount of money and support for the Liberal Party from the clubs and poker machine industry. While the Liberals did suggest at one point easing gun control, which made some people uneasy (Port Arthur, the location of Australia’s worst mass shooting, is in Tasmania), it appears they will win the election. Election day was marred by the passing of former Tasmanian Attorney-General Vanessa Goodwin from cancer.

Finally this week, Australia is trying to see if it can get an exemption of some sort after President Donald Trump announced a 25% tariff on steel and aluminium; the gun amnesty last year resulted in 57,324 guns being handed in – many will be destroyed, while some will be registered and returned to owners; and there are still funding issues with the NDIS, with people being kicked off their care programs after bills weren’t paid and providers being left with hundreds of thousands of dollars owed to them.

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

MPs want Julie Bishop to declare her boyfriend – ABC Online

Michelle Grattan on Michaelia Cash’s outburst in Senate Estimates – ABC Online