The week began with Anti-Islam and Anti-racism protests in most capital cities and while there was some fighting between the groups, most people were well behaved and the police kept each group as far away from each other as possible.
Meanwhile, Malcolm Turnbull completed his first World Tour with a trip to Malaysia for the ASEAN East Asia Conference. Turnbull met with the Malaysian PM, discussing the battle against Islamic State as well as trying to encourage China to play nice in the South China Sea. Upon his return to Australia, Turnbull was in Parliament, where the government and the opposition made speeches of condolence to the people of Paris as well as talking about keeping Australia safe.
Turnbull has also been questioned by the media over the wording in some of his speeches as well as whether or not he has a grip on the more conservative faction of his party. Furthermore, there has been calls from Labor that Mal Brough should either stand down or be sacked from his ministry due to a police investigation into Brough’s role in the Peter Slipper scandal back in 2011-2012. Then, at the end of the week, he flew to Malta for the CHOGM meetings, where he met Queen Elizabeth and apparently made her chuckle when he spoke of Prince Charles’ visit to Australia a few weeks back, and then he will travel to Paris for the Climate Conference.
Climate Change was a big thing this week in the lead up to the Paris conference, with concerns that Turnbull is heading to France with Tony Abbott’s old, and somewhat sub-par climate plan. Labor has come out with an alternative, suggesting a 45% reduction by 2030 and a carbon neutral economy by 2050. This is based off the exact same model that the Liberals are using for their climate plan too, so it should be interesting to see the reaction.
Domestic Violence came to the fore this week for Wednesday’s White Ribbon day, with Malcolm Turnbull telling the country that there must be change and it will have to be lead by men, while surveys are showing that young men are more likely to blame others for their problems and play down their aggressive behaviour, while young women are more likely to blame themselves as well as justify the aggressive behaviour of their partners.
The government has changed the terrorism warning system indicators from High, Low, Moderate etc, to a simpler system suggesting the likeliness of an attack.
- The new terror attack warning system. (from: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-26/national-terrorism-threat-advisory-system-graphic./6976880)
Under this simpler system the current warning is the second-lowest “probable”, so we’re pretty safe for now.
There are still national security concerns over foreign investment in Australia, with the US Ambassador meeting Australian officials to get more information on the Darwin Port deal, angry that they were not consulted. However, Defence Minister Marise Payne says that she was abroad with Julie Bishop when the decision was made and that as soon as it was, someone was dispatched to the Pentagon to tell US officials.
Finally this week, the coalition against Islamic State have completed more airstrikes on ISIS strongholds; the government wants the states to increase their trading hours to increase choice and the help the economy and Hillsong’s Brian Houston has been found to have had a conflict on interest over his father’s abuse of a young child at the Royal Commission into Child Abuse.
Also, if you live in the electorate of North Sydney, don’t forget you have a by-election on December 5!
Tweet of the Week
https://twitter.com/nthsydneyvotes/status/669365995148972032
Things I’ve Been Looking at Online
First Dog on Bill Shorten’s dismal poll numbers – The Guardian
First Dog on White Ribbon Day – The Guardian
SBS2 The Feed’s retrospective for 2015
Kara L 