Tag Archives: People Smugglers

The Week That Was – May 29 to June 4

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The week began with a debate at the National Press Club, which was reportedly the least watched thing on Sunday night, and as a die hard politics nerd who watched the debate (along with forcing those in my home) I can see why that was. It was a mostly a talking points fest, where Shorten and Turnbull to various extents failed to answer the questions asked. It got interesting about three quarters of the way through when Turnbull suggested that people smugglers in Indonesia were going around telling prospective customers that if Bill Shorten becomes Prime Minister, the boats will be ‘back on’. It was a low blow, and resulted in some snarky exchanges for the last 10-15 minutes of the night.

This week was also the start of what would have been a normal five-week election campaign, and the movements of the leaders show that they’ve been hitting the marginal seats, mainly in NSW and Queensland, but also a few in other states. There were promises for the arts, the environment, transport and child care. There is also concerns over superannuation, which left Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young in trouble in radio interviews this week.

As we hit the halfway point in this election this weekend, the Liberal Party has finalised its Senate ticket, which it had to re-do after the double dissolution was called. In the last ticket, prepared for the usual half-Senate election, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells was in a position on the list where she would never have one. In this new list, Fierravanti-Wells is in fourth spot, which gives her a far better chance of retaining a seat.

Finally this week, it’s believed that it could cost somewhere around $16 billion to implement changes to help save Great Barrier Reef from bleaching; Australia was pleasantly suprised by a higher than expected 1.1% March quarter growth rate; and the scaremongering has begun over hung parliaments, especially with it looking like at least one lower house seat in South Australia could go to the Nick Xenophon Team.

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

The young woman who is running against Tony Abbott – Triple J Hack

Liberal-Labor Meme Wars – Buzzfeed

The Week That Was – February 2 to February 8

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This week saw the SPC Ardmona saga continue, and politicians trying to change things.

Liberal back bencher Sharman Stone, whose electorate covers Shepparton – where SPC Ardmona is based – accused Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey of lying while talking to ABC Rural. When they said that they wouldn’t give money to SPC, they blamed the wages the company was paying workers, as well as “over generous” allowances. SPC Ardmona’s parent company, Coca Cola Amatil denied this and released a statement correcting the PM and the Treasurer. It also asks why the government is not taking a stronger stance against imported products the way New Zealand has.

The government also wants to change the education system, turning around 1500 public schools into government-funded independent schools. The thing is, they don’t run schools, the States do. So while Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia have some public schools run independently, the rest of the country does not. Christopher Pyne has some selling to do.

The government also wants to change the awards system (the rules about paying shift workers) and are seeing whether or not companies still need to pay penalty rates (if you work late, on weekends or public holidays, you are paid more as compensation). It sounds like they want to have Zombie Work Choices, bringing a bad system back to life. Even though Abbott said it was “dead, buried and cremated”.

Tony Abbott had a little victory speech the other day, saying it had been 50 days since “an illegal boat” arrived in Australia. Again with the terrible timing, it just so happened that an orange lifeboat showed up on an Indonesian beach and then the videos taken by the asylum seekers was released to the ABC. Oops. But they don’t comment about “on water operations” because they don’t want to tell the people smugglers what is going on. But hey, once the ABC had the footage, they could give it to others, and imagine my cringing when Al Jazeera and BBC World News showed it. Great.

Speaking of the ABC, they’ve apologised for the wording of their reports about the mistreatment of asylum seekers but not airing the story, because it’s in the public interest.

The Griffith by-election took place on Saturday and at this point, it appears that Terri Butler (ALP) has won.

Tweet of the Week

The disadvantage of using your breaking news colours for bushfire warnings while talking about other breaking news regarding Schapelle Corby’s parole

Things I’ve Been Reading/Watching/Listening

The Canadian Luge ad everyone is talking about.

The Undoing of Australia Network – The Hoopla