The Week That Was – March 12 to March 18

The West Australian election saw a changing of the guard with the Labor party winning the election. It a larger than expected success for the party, with 18 seats changing. There are now questions over what caused the loss for the WA Liberals. The belief is mostly jsut that West Australians just got annoyed with the Barnett Government and wanted change, although the preference deal with One Nation appears to have been somewhat of a contributor. Barnett will now step down from the Liberal leadership and a new leader will be voted on – as soon as the Liberals know just how many people will be in the party room. The Nationals, both West Australian and Federal are warning the Liberals to never make a preference deal with One Nation ever again, but neither the Prime Minister nor the NSW Premier (NSW is having some by-elections right now so the premier has been out and about) have specifically ruled a deal out.

There are concerns that some of the NDIS staff that are involved in the rollout have not recieved adequate training in order to understand what kind of treatments and plans are appropriate for people on the scheme. This, in addition to states preemptively cutting their funding to providers has left people unable to access providers and treatments that benfit them. One person affected by this change, who has cerebral palsy and autism, did have several treatmets that aided in his quality of life (like remedial massage, which was helping with some of his paun) removed from ghis treatment plan. Another concern is that providers are having trouble applying to be part of the scheme, while others are having trouble recouping money from the scheme.

South Australia had a pretty nice week in the power stakes, with their power plan announced and Elon Musk suggesting he put some (non-domestic) Tesla batteries in SA, and would do it for free if it took more than 100 days. It appears however that some other South Australian companies were already making batteries too. Other parts of the SA plan include having a gas plant backup just in case the power goes out in the state again.

It was also energy week for the federal government, firsly covering the concerns concerns over both a gas shortage and the price of gas in Australia. Gas companies on the eastern coast of the country tend to send most of the gas overseas cheaply, and at a loss meaning that the prices go up in Australia. This sending abroad also means that unless more is saved for use here in Australia, we’ll run out soon. Meanwhile, Malcolm Turnbull announced an expansion to the Snowy Hydro in southern NSW. The idea is that they’ll increase the capacity of the hydro-electric plant by 50%, as well as pump water up to the dams to make sure there’s enough water for peak times, all at the low price of $2 billion. It’s hoped that the NSW and Victorian governments will chip some money in for the (at least) four year long projects but Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who said he was a “Nation Building Prime Minister”, says the federal government will be happy togo it alone.

But the week of energy and power (in the sense of electricity anyway) wasn’t over yet.

Missed this the first time. Q: Minister, is this a bit awkward? @JoshFrydenberg– no! @JayWeatherill, on the long run-up: "it's about to be" pic.twitter.com/svbWGQ0aok

— Stephen Dziedzic (@stephendziedzic) March 16, 2017

In what can only be described as one of the best political smackdowns I have ever seen in my 23 years on earth, South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill crashed Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg’s press conference and gave him a telling off for hating on South Australia. Many even recalled the Love Actually press conference scene.

Also this week, there were calls to look at reform in order to help with housing affordability. There are again calls to reform negative gearing and capital gains tax, while people also suggested allowing people to dip into their superannuation to help them buy a house. The Greens also had their idea costed by the nerds this week, in which they propose changing the one-off stamp duty charge that is paid as soon a you buy a home with an ongoing land tax, which would reduce costs, but also reduce one of the state’s biggest cash cows for a few years.

Finally this weeks, the unemployment rate rose by 0.2% in February; Peter Dutton told CEOs to back off from the same-sex marriage debate; the craft beer industry wants changes to the way kegs are taxed; Bill Leak was farewelled at a memorial servoce; and there is a lot of to-ing and fro-ing about the Adani mine in Queensland, with concerns there is a Cayman Islands bank account.

Tweet of the Week

This is the look German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave when Trump said that he and Germany had wire-tapping in common

https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/843231346046644225

Annabel Crabb on workplaces v parliament for women – SMH

Lessons on love from a Divorce Lawyer – TIME Online

How Insiders is beating Today and Sunrise in ratings – The Age

The plan for when the Queen dies – The Guardian

The Two Weeks That Were – December 20 to January 2

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Before Christmas, there were a few announcements, starting with the Health Minister announcing that there would be $1 billion in funding to help eradicate Hepatitis C, however the concerns about the bulk billing of pathology are still rife. Then, the Productivity Commission recommended that Sunday penalty rates should be wound back from their current level to the current Saturday penalty rates. Labor and Unions are not impressed by the suggestion, while the Government is trying to distance itself from the recommendations and blame the Productivity Commission, even though they commissioned the report and set the terms of reference for the commission to investigate.

The Adani Abbot Point Coal Terminal in Queensland has been approved by the federal government, with the dredge spoil to be dumped on land and not in the Great Barrier Reef. This could increase export capacity, however there are strict environmental rules Adani has to follow. The other major issue is that Moodys is planning to give the development “junk status” in terms of its financial health, and the government is refusing to give financial assistance at this point, meaning the development may not even go ahead, which would make environmental groups pleased.

After Christmas, a whole heap of negative news was released, presumably in the hope that people wouldn’t notice. First, two ministers have left the frontbench, with Mal Brough – the Special Minister of State – being stood down temporarily until the police investigation into Slippergate is resolved; and Jamie Briggs – the Minister for Cities – has resigned or was forced to resign as a result of an investigation into a complaint made by a female public servant in Hong Kong. The Briggs scandal has grown in recent days, with the revelation that a photo of his Chief of Staff and the public servant (whose face was pixelated) that ended up on the front page of some papers, was taken by Briggs and sent to colleagues by Briggs himself, despite saying he wanted to protect the identity of the woman. Either way, this means that there are now two spots to fill in cabinet. Some think Turnbull should have more women, while others think Tony Abbott should be on the front bench.

The Trade Union Royal Commission has delivered its report, recommending over 40 people to the relevant authorities for further investigation and releasing almost eighty recommendations. The government is saying that the public should be appalled by the level of misbehaviour in the union movement, while Labor and the Unions are suggesting there are just a few bad apples in a very large barrel. Either way it appears that the next election (due this year!) could be run on busting union corruption and other industrial relations issues. This could be interesting to see given the last time an election was run on those issues, its was 20o7, and just after WorkChoices was introduced, which was so poorly received that Labor won convincingly.

Cabinet Documents from 1990 and 1991 have been released, and it is creepily reminiscent of the last year or so. A sluggish economy, issues with submarine building, refugee issues and a war in the Middle East were all from 1990 and 1991 and were still issues in 2015. And hey, two attempts at booting the party leader, with the second being successful? It would appear that Paul Keating and Malcolm Turnbull have something in common – although Keating was behind both in the 1990s and Turnbull appeared to have nothing to do with the first in February 2015.

Finally this fortnight, the people living near the Williamtown RAAF base have been able to speak at a Senate Inquiry, Border Force stopped entry of a French national of arabic background from entering the country earlier in December, Malcolm Turnbull made Dr Who references regarding the TARDIS, and concerns about Childcare reforms are rearing their heads again.

Tweet of the Fortnight

https://twitter.com/hamishNews/status/679413177013022720

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Not much really – it was Christmas.

The ABC News Year in Review (from the 31/12/15) – ABC Online

The Week That Was – February 1 to February 7

This week has been one of the crazy ones, and it’s not going to calm down anytime soon.

The Queensland election appears to have resulted in a hung parliament, with most people believing that Labor will have government with the support of the three other MPs. Most people in the Liberal Party are blaming Tony Abbott, and the fact that he gave Prince Phillip a knighthood for the election loss. There is concern in NSW, that given the results of the Victorian and Queensland elections, that the Liberals could lose the NSW Election in late March if Abbott stays as PM.

Not only is there some concern in NSW, but also federally, with Abbott’s approval rating quite low. The PM made a speech at the National Press Club on Monday, in which he relinquished his involvement in Australia Day Honours, promised he’d listen more and has told Australians that they voted him and the government in, and only the electorate can vote him out – which is incorrect in terms of the leadership, as he can be toppled by the party if they so wish. In the days that followed, ministers and other senior Liberal figures have come out in support of the PM as rumblings of discontent within the party grow, and several backbenchers have publicly spoken about how they no longer support Abbott as the Prime Minister.

It came to a head on Friday with West Australian MP Luke Simpkins asking the Chief Whip, Philip Ruddock, for a spill motion during the party room meeting on Tuesday. Ministers, including the top contenders for the leadership – Julie Bishop and Malcolm Turnbull – have publicly said that they will not support the motion, although it is a secret ballot, so no one will know.

The crazy week in federal politics has led to some amusing slip-ups and some great pop culture references though. Defence Minister Kevin Andrews at one point said he supported the Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard leadership team, and Abbott made reference to Game of Thrones. Although his was more a reference to the title than to a specific part of the franchise (unlike the Harry Potter comments made in 2013).

Meanwhile, the Northern Territory had a more dramatic week, with Willem Westra van Holthe challenging Adam Giles for the NT Country Liberal Party leadership (and also the role of Chief Minister). Westra van Holthe called a press conference at one in the morning to say he was in charge, and was due to be sworn in before noon, only for no-one to show up. It turned out Giles was refusing to sign his resignation letter, so he and Westra van Holthe were sent to a room to come to a solution. The solution? Adam Giles is to remain Chief Minister, and Willem Westra van Holthe will be his deputy – much to the amusement of the rest of the country.

Finally this week, Peter Greste has been released from prison and is now back in Australia, the Bali Nine ringleaders are due to be executed this month, and the UK Defence Minister is in town for talks with his Australian counterpart.

Tweet of the Week

WE ARE. FREE BEER FOR ALL "@hapsterpark NT does not have a Chief Minister – thats from the Adminstrator's office… who is running the NT?"

— The NT News (@TheNTNews) February 3, 2015

Things I’ve been Looking at Online

ABC News Librarians – ABC Backstory

Tony Abbott hashtag backfires – SMH

Reporters looking back on the Sydney Siege – ABC Backstory

The Year that Was – 2013 Politics

It’s been an interesting year in politics, and I thought I’d do it by the numbers.

Harry Potter references: 2

“Neither can live while the other survives” – Mark Simkin, said during a live cross to Parliament House explaining that whoever lost the leadership spill in June (it was Julia) was not going to stay in politics in the following election.

“It’s like in the Harry Potter novels….Dolores Umbridge is now in charge” – Tony Burke, made during a speech congratulating Bronwyn Bishop on her election into the Speaker’s chair.

ALP Spills: 3

#1: Courtesy of Simon Crean, the first spill of the year, in March, was essentially a non-spill, because Kevin didn’t put his hand up and Julia Gillard remained the PM.

#2: Julia Gillard got sick of the rumours and called a spill, with the loser leaving politics at the next election. Kevin Rudd won, and Julia kept her word.

#3: Post election, the ALP had a spill for leader, this time not only with caucus but also rank-and-file members of the ALP. In what was a slightly insane and complicated spill, Bill Shorten became Opposition leader.

Federal Elections: 1

Thank god there was only one of these – I think we would’ve gone mental if there were more. In short, Tony Abbott and the Coalition won. Now we’re get to wait for 3 years!

Backflips: 1

Artfully named the “Quadruple Gonski Backflip” by ABCNews23 (NOT 24) on Twitter, it charts the Coalitions position on the “Gonski Reforms” – reforms to the education system. First they didn’t like it, then they were ok with it and would carry it on, then after the election they said they were going to renegotiate. After getting into trouble from lots of parents, they said they would support it.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Dreams really do come true. pic.twitter.com/6JcbOQ2v8z

— ABCParodyNews25 (@ABCNews25) December 2, 2013

Threats of a Double Dissolution: 1

Tony Abbott began threatening this before he even won the election. He suggested that if the Carbon Tax was not repealed, he would ask for a double dissolution so he could try to control the Senate – although it appears that recently, someone has (maybe) told him it could backfire because he hasn’t made that threat in a while…

Ballot Recounts: 3

#1: Indi (VIC) – to double-check the numbers – Cathy McGowan, an independent, won the seat of Sophie Mirabella.

#2: Faifax (QLD) – again to double-check the numbers – Clive Palmer, billionaire mining magnate and dinosaur park owner, won the seat.

#3: West Australia – the Senate results were so close, there was a recount – which didn’t end too well (see below)

Magical appearances/vanishing of ballot papers: 2

Appearance: Due to a clerical error, a container/box of ballot papers in Indi were discovered to have 1000, not 100 papers inside, which help Cathy McGowan in Indi win the seat.

Vanishing: Somehow, somewhere, 1,300 Senate ballot papers in Western Australia vanished and were never seen again. It changed the result of the Senate and is possibly the subject of a High Court challenge.

I hope you all have a lovely new year.

The Week That Was – November 10 to November 16

This week was always going to be interesting, given that Parliament started, but no-one knew how much so until Kevin Rudd decided to quit – but I’ll get to that in a little bit.

The week began with the first day of parliament on Tuesday. Politicians were sworn in and Bronwyn Bishop was elected as Speaker. She’s known to have a well-thumbed copy of the rules and it seems that Labor is not happy about it.

Yep. Tony Burke just likened parliament to Hogwarts after Dumbledore’s Army was discovered and Dumbledore took the blame, escaping arrest, leaving Dolores Umbridge as Headmistress of Hogwarts (the end of chapter 27 and the start of chapter 28 – Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix). I have to admit it was funny.

Tony Abbott said in his speech to parliament that he wanted a Parliament where there would be no character assassinations, which had the Opposition cracking up. Why? Well, when he was in opposition, he did exactly that, particularly when Julia Gillard was PM.

Speaking of those who are no longer Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd decided it was time to retire from politics. He says he wants to spend more time with his family. Here is his speech, and as expected, it’s 15 minutes long.

Tony Abbott says there will be no rush to give Rudd a job, but I think he was staying in parliament until he found one himself. I’d say he probably has one and that is why he’s quitting. Mind you, Antony Green thinks it’ll be a while before a by-election can be held.

First possible by-election date is 21 December. Reckon February looks more likely. #auspol

— Antony Green – elections (@AntonyGreenElec) November 13, 2013

There have also been the usual tributes and looking back at Rudd’s political career. This is from the ABC.

And this one, also from the ABC is a look at all his strange gestures (in gif form). They give credit to Annabel Crabb and Mary Hamilton for the idea. Here is one of Annabel Crabb’s pieces from 2009 in the SMH and this is Mary Hamilton’s collection of gifs.

Well, other than that, Tony Abbott has been in Sri Lanka for CHOGM. So that’s this week for you.

Quotes of the Week

“This chamber should always be a place of spirited debate, but it should never be a place where motives are impugned or characters assassinated” – Tony Abbott. (Glass houses and throwing stones?)

“When they all return to Hogwarts, Dumbledore is gone and Dolores Umbridge is now in charge of the school,” Tony Burke, making his Harry Potter reference.

Tweet of the Week

This is in reference to the Sri Lankan asylum seeker saga.

https://twitter.com/natalietran/status/401529441332908032

https://twitter.com/natalietran/status/401530092838346753

Liberal Launch, Freaky Arty Things and Upsetting NSW

Sunday saw the Liberal Party campaign launch, which was a little American-esque. Tony Abbott said it was a “referendum on trust” and that Labor is incompetent. Julie Bishop tried, I think, to make a joke about how Kevin Rudd reminded her of The Hulk. To be honest, I found it more nasty than funny. He’s promised to abolish the mining tax and carbon tax, $200m dollars for dementia treatment, bring the budget into surplus and reduce red tape for a stronger economy.

In an interview with the ABC that evening, he said that there needs to be an audit – fair enough, apparently there hasn’t been one in 20 years – and that his government will have no surprises or excuses. He was asked if he supported military action in Syria, given that there has been talk of it since the reported gas attacks, but all he said was that the UN envoys need to be allowed into Syria to have a look around.

Syria meant Kevin Rudd stayed in Canberra on Sunday, before moving onto Sydney. He keeps saying that Abbott’s Paid Parental Leave Scheme will be really quite bad for everyone and it will damage the economy, and the Labor Party has released this advertisement:

Speaking of advertisements, this is what became news on Monday (you will need to got to about 4:20) :

Also there was some freaky weird art guy in Melbourne as part of something to do with The Greens, which was the source of great amusement in my house.

From funny haha to funny peculiar – there are questions as to why Barnaby Joyce, candidate for the seat for New England, has preferenced One Nation before someone less mental. Not only that but apparently he hasn’t actually been campaigning in the electorate he wants to be MP, he’s been in Queensland. Not only that but there are further suggestions that he actually wanted the candidacy of the seat just across the border in Queensland.

Tuesday brought us the lesson “How to upset the NSW Premier in one easy step” – that step you ask? Well, you suggest that Garden Island, where the Australian Navy has its HQ, should be turned into a cruise ship terminal and the Navy should move to Brisbane. In a way, I see how it works, BrisVegas is closer to places where the Navy would be needed, such as Pacific nations battered by a really bad cyclone.

The experts, who usually know what they are talking about, say that it will be expensive to move the Garden Island stuff to QLD, but is also important to Sydney.

We now have a week and a half to go – if you can’t get to the polls on September 7, find out where you can pre-poll vote here.

Leadership Spill – 7:54pm

7:00 – ABC News begins with National Version with Leigh Sales – Local News.

Mark Simkin made a Harry Potter quote – “neither can live while the other survives”

In the day’s other political news – Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor are leaving politics – both for personal reasons – though Tony Windsor says he’s not well – that’s a given – this parliament was stressful to the extreme.

7:08pm – Local news bulletins – Seems a bit rushed, and my reception is a little dodgy…Oh well.

7:18pm – back to the National coverage. Turns out Julia announced the ballot and she set conditions. If you want to be leader, you put your name up. You win, you are PM and Labor leader, you lose, you retire from politics at the next election.

Mark Simkin and Chris Uhlmann think Kevin will win. Phones are ringing behind them and they are holding their phones. Interesting fact: If Julia loses and send the letter to the Governor General resigning but doesn’t say that Kevin should take her place – we have a Constitutional Crisis – maybe.

Terrible jokes about Chris Uhlmann being hung up on by a member of Caucus. No news yet, obviously.

Christopher Pyne and Tony Abbott are being pains in the neck. Julia complains about the fact that she’s being attacked internally within the party.

ABC News 24 geoblock has been lifted

7:35 – still waiting. Barrie Cassidy has Gillard supporters texting him – they say it’s against them.

7:40 – Antony Green on how the electorate would vote under Kevin, hypothetical question asked by Neilson poll last week. Some seats in NSW in danger, but we all knew that.

7:45 – Coalition about to hold a party meeting in Canberra. Now getting a look at a Liberal anti-Labor ad

7:49 – Back to Uhlmann and Simkin – still no news. Barrie Cassidy has no news either.

7:50 – On another note, Adam Hills Tonight is meant to be having a Princess Bride themed episode! Hope they sort themselves out soon!

Can the #spill results happen at 8.15 please? Followed by 15 mins of analysis then The Princess Bride ep of @HillsyTonight. That'd be ace.

— Adam Hills (@adamhillscomedy) June 26, 2013

7:52 – Here comes the returning officer!! And the Winner is….Kevin Rudd!

The Week that Was – May 5 to May 11

Well, this week was a little boring for me.

Why? All we talked about was the Budget if you were Labor, or how evil Labor was if you were Liberal. Honestly, it got to the point where anytime Tony Abbott or Joe Hockey appeared on the news to say “Labor is bad, m’kay?” (and yes, I just made a South Park reference), I would retort with “Well, what are you going to do?”, albeit at the television.

So what do we know?

• The budget is out by AU$17 billion
• They’re cutting $2.8 billion from universities to fund Gonski reforms
• Some people are having their welfare cut, while others will get more
• There will be an increase to the Medicare Levy in order to pay for the NDIS

There is a bit more, but economics is not my thing, and I can only hear about/look at Budget information for a short length of time before I feel like throwing heavy objects and ask difficult questions.

Questions like: “Who hasn’t been paying their taxes?” when I found out tax revenue had dropped.

Other than that…there wasn’t much. Except the PM’s visit to Papua New Guinea, where they signed papers.

Quotes of the Week

“The huge drop in commodity prices in the second half of last year had a dramatic impact on MRRT revenues” – Wayne Swan trying to explain the huge deficit.

“We will retain and improve the Fair Work Act; we want to protect workers’ pay and conditions; we also want to maximise their opportunities to get good jobs. I want to assure all the workers of Australia, unionised and non-unionised, that they can trust their future in our hands.” – Tony Abbott, talking about his industrial relations policy…Let’s just hope Work Choices doesn’t come back.

Tweet of the Week

Am wondering who Abbott thinks the women not of calibre are? A woman’s calibre is not determined by what she earns. http://t.co/PUGqZnrRpt

— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) May 7, 2013

Faux Pas of the Week

The Clive Palmer and Peter Slipper saga. Enough Said.