15 Things That Happened in the Last Three Weeks – April 1 to April 21

When I end up working a few Sundays in a row it sort of messes up the whole “posts every Sunday” thing, so here is a recap of the last three weeks:

1. Easter happened, which meant that there was a bit of a lull for the first two weeks – but there was still political stuff happening, just less dram a than is normal.
2. Greens Senator Jordan Steele-John brought awareness of the fact that the 1980s era Parliament House is not really built for people with wheelchairs – especially the MP’s offices
3. Former Labor Opposition Leader Kim Beazley will become the new WA Governor, after returning from Washington DC  where he was the Ambassador to the United States.
4. Alinta Energy is offering to buy the Liddell power plant off AGL. Alinta has said they won’t ask for money from the taxpayers, but AGL is unlikely to sell the ageing plant as it is vital to its 2022 transition plans.
5. The GST distribution between the states is being redistributed, with WA getting some more money, while money is being taken away from the (richer) East Coast.
6. The Australian Taxation Office is in trouble for abusing their powers and being heavy-handed in their actions, with allegations that the motive was revenue raising rather than enforcing compliance.
7. Kelly O’Dwyer then announced that there would be an investigation into the ATO’s practices.
8. The National Broadband Network is still causing trouble with complaints about fibre to the node (FTTN) links (with some people returning to copper wire links) and concerns about the difference in service for people with FTTN, fibre to the premises (FTTP), and the new fibre to the curb (FTTC) plans.
9. Malcolm Turnbull hit what the media dubbed the “Dirty Thirty” – as it has been thirty consecutive Newspolls lost to the Opposition, which Turnbull used as a measure to topple Tony Abbott. Turnbull says he regrets using thirty Newspolls as a measure of failure now, but used the attention to highlight his economic leadership.
10. There was thought that if someone did use “Dirty Thirty” to try to topple Turnbull it’d probably be at the hands of Peter Dutton and Julie Bishop – however there really isn’t a viable alternative to Turnbull right now so we’re stuck with him 🙂
11. There are new concerns about live sheep exports to the Middle East after footage was released of sheep dying of heat stress on one of the export ships. This has led the cross-bench and backbench MPs to either call for bans or changes to the live export trade.
12. There was a rumour that Vanuatu was in talks with China to host a Chinese military base on the archipelago. Vanuatu has denied this strenuously, and Vanuatu’s Foreign Minister reportedly had no idea about any plans or talks.
13. The Banking Royal Commission continued over the last three weeks and it has been shocking – banks and financial advisors have admitted to knowingly giving poor financial advice to customers and knowingly charging “fees for no service” that they were not entitled to, even charging fees to someone who was dead (and had been reported dead to the bank already).
14. It has also been suggested that if Commissioner Hayne were to approach the Government and ask for an extension for the Royal Commission, he would likely get it, as the Government has realised that the banking sector has been very, very naughty.
15. Malcolm Turnbull began his European Tour in London, attending the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (CHOGM) where the Queen made clear her “sincerest wish” that Prince Charles become the next Head of the Commonwealth – as the Queen’s headship of the Commonwealth of Nations is not hereditary.

 

I’ll be back to regular posting on Sundays this coming week.

The Two Weeks That Were – July 2 to July 15

It may be the Winter Break for parliamentarians, but Malcolm Turnbull has been dealing with internal pressures within the Liberal Party. Tony Abbott believes the Liberal Party should be more conservative and seems to see himself as the voice of the conservatives within the party. The Labor party appears to be the party of unity at the moment, with both the Greens and the Liberals having internal issues. To his credit though, Turnbull has said that if he stops being PM he will quit parliament and not cause trouble. Somehow I think he’s more likely to keep that promise than Abbott was.

Turnbull spent the rest of the fortnight in Europe at the G20 in Hamburg, Germany, where he got to ride in “The Beast” – the car the US President rides in – and he and Lucy got a ride to Paris with Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte in the Presidential private plane. He then travelled to the UK and met the Queen. He may be a republican, but he enjoyed meeting her. He also said that most Australian republicans do like Queen Elizabeth, even if they don’t want to be ruled by her.

Speaking of the G20, ABC Political correspondent Chris Uhlmann went viral this week after his cutting analysis of Trump’s performance at the summit.

The die-hard Trump supporters think Uhlmann’s some kind of idiot who can’t cope with the new world order, but others think it may be a turning point as people begin to realise that they may not be the most powerful nation anymore.

Labor is challenging the election of David Gillespie MP after it emerged that he owns a shopping village with an Australia Post outlet, which they suggest means he has a financial interest with the Commonwealth and is therefore ineligible to have been elected into Parliament under the constitution. It’s being considered by the High Court, but the Liberals just thinks it’s a stunt.

The government is planning on introducing legislation to force social media companies to provide encryption keys to investigators in order to read messages on suspects’ phones. Most companies are annoyed with the plans because they believe it will weaken the system, and if the keys get in the wrong hands there will be security and privacy issues.

Scott Ludlam has resigned from the Senate after he discovered he was still a dual citizen of Australia and New Zealand. Ludlam was born in NZ, and was naturalised as an Australian citizen when he was a teenager. He believed his NZ citizenship was superseded by the Aussie citizenship. Ludlam moved to Australia when he was three years old and has never considered NZ his ‘home’ so never really thought about it until a member of the public pointed out he was still a Kiwi. His seat will be filled by a recount, however, if he rectifies the citizen issue soon, he will be eligible for casual vacancies as they come up.

Finally this fortnight, the Fair Work Commission has ruled that casual employees can ask for full time employment, although employers can deny this request for “reasonable” reasons; the government will be paying Malek Fahd Islamic School $6.5 million in back funding after denying the school money because of alleged misappropriation of funds by the previous school board; someone at the ATO accidentally published how the agency hacks into phones, and the agency was unaware until the ABC called them; and Australia is considering if it needs a space agency.

Tweet of the Week

Eagle eyed Aussie has captured this image of @TonyAbbottMHR in Croatia amid calls for truce with PM https://t.co/bqtQ5CSq6H @SkyNewsAust pic.twitter.com/9i86FgBmaL

— Samantha Maiden (@samanthamaiden) July 17, 2017

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

The ‘Foxification’ of the Sky News Channel – Buzzfeed

Chris Uhlmann on going viral – Canberra Times

The Year That Was – 2015

Another year, another batch of numbers.

Leadership Spills: 2

The first in February this year, saw Tony Abbott survive a ballot to see if there would even be a spill. The second saw Tony Abbott rolled by Malcolm Turnbull, who has brought Australia some calm in the political realm.

Elections: 4

Queensland State Election – saw the first term Liberal government go from over 80 seats in a less than 100-seat House of Representatives to a hung parliament lead by Labor with around forty seats each for the major parties.

New South Wales State Election – The Liberals, under Premier Mike Baird, remained in power in NSW, albeit with a reduced majority, and the Greens had one of their best showings with four seats – two in the Sydney Metro area, and two on the north coast.

Canning By-election: Andrew Hastie, a former SAS captain, retained the seat for the Liberals less than a week after Malcolm Turnbull took over the country. Hastie replaces the late Don Randall.

North Sydney By-election: Won by Trent Zimmerman for the Liberals. Nominated for the seat under controversial circumstances, Zimmerman is the first openly gay MP in the lower house and replaces former Treasurer Joe Hockey, who is now the incoming Australian Ambassador to the US.

Scandals: 2

First, the knighting of Prince Phillip (the Queen’s husband) by Tony Abbott, resulting in the non-spill in February. Second is Chopper-gate in which former Speaker Bronwyn Bishop was discovered to have used taxpayer dollars to charter a helicopter to travel to an event that she could have easily travelled to by car. The scandal resulted in Bishop’s resignation after more than two weeks.

Women In Cabinet: 5

Julie Bishop: Minister for Foreign Affairs, since 2013 Election

Sussan Ley: Minister for Health and Sport, since December 2014

Kelly O’Dwyer: Minister for Small Business and Assistant Treasurer, since September 2015 (Turnbull’s Reshuffle)

Marise Payne: Minister for Defence, since September 2015 (Turnbull’s Reshuffle)

Michaelia Cash: Minister for Employment and Minister for Women, since September 2015 (Turnbull’s Reshuffle)

Changes to the AEC’s Ballot Paper Protocols: Many.

Since that awkward moment in 2013 when 1,300 senate ballot papers from WA went into the void, causing the AEC to nullify the 2013 result and recall the senate election for the state. Since then the protocols for ballot papers at federal elections, including by-elections, have changed dramatically, with the Canning by-election and the North Sydney by-election becoming test runs.

Last Minute Cabinet Resignations: 2

#1: Mal Brough, stood down until the police investigation into Slipper-gate ends.

#2: Jamie Briggs, resigned after a public servant made a complaint about him regarding a trip to Hong Kong.

ABC News 24 Year in Review

ABC News 24 Politics Unearthed

ABC Digital Most Popular Vines

Happy New Year. Let’s see what 2016 has on offer.

The Week That Was – November 22 to November 28

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

 

The Week that Was – July 20 to July 26

So this week was all about MH17 and the asylum seekers that are floating around Christmas Island.

Australia drafted a resolution for the UN Security Council which asked for an international investigation and for the crash site to be secure. Julie Bishop was there for the emergency meeting in New York as questions were asked about where the plane’s black boxes were and who was to blame for the crash. Australia’s resolution was voted on and passed, and Julie Bishop travelled to the Netherlands, where she, along with Sir Peter Cosgrove and Lady Cosgrove, watched some of the bodies arrive from Ukraine. Julie Bishop has since travelled to Kiev, and also to a base in the north-east of the country where bodies are sent to the Netherlands.

Tony Abbott on the other hand, is staying in Australia and giving daily briefings. He’s also told the ABC that his daughters took flight MH17 a few months ago when they were returning home from a trip to Europe. Abbott is leading the criticism of Russia and the rebels, earning himself some narky comments from not only the Russian foreign ministry, but the Chinese as well. Since the crash, Abbott has spoken with Putin, who has “said the right things” and now needs to be held to his word. Abbott has sent Angus Houston (the guy in charge of the MH370 search) as his personal envoy, and Australian police, army and victim identification experts are being sent to Europe to help. One thing that has been getting to me though is Operation Bring Them Home – the plan to bring back all the bodies of the Australian victims. The number of times I have heard Tony Abbott say “bring them home” has now got me singing Bring Him Home from Les Misérables in my head.

Moving on to the asylum seekers, it has come to light that they are being held on a customs ship in windowless rooms but they are let out into the light during the day when they have their meals. The government has defended the treatment saying that there are children on board and they have to be kept safe. However since the case was in court at the start of the week, Scott Morrison has announced that the refugees will be taken to Curtin Detention Centre via the Cocos Islands. At Curtin Detention Centre (in remote WA), the refugees will be interviewed by Indian Consular staff to determine if any can be taken back to India. However, legal experts and refugee advocates have pointed out that technically if the asylum seekers are brought to Australia, then technically we have to assess them and decide to grant them asylum, as per their rights in the Immigration Act. But this is “not a broken promise” according to Morrison, despite the fact he’s letting them into Australia.

Its been discovered that the current Childcare Rebate scheme doesn’t help families as well as it used to. the 50% rebate doesn’t always cover an entire year’s childcare for a family. It’s been suggested that the signature Paid Parental Leave scheme should be smaller and that the Childcare Rebate should be expanded – something that has been suggested multiple times – giving lower-income families a 90% rebate and high-income earners a 30% rebate, while also making the hiring of nannies eligible for the rebate as well.

Finally this week, Joe Hockey’s authorised biography has been released, revealing that he wanted a tougher budget and that Tony Abbott would sometimes give him no warning before announcing a policy. It has sparked rumours that there could be a leadership spill in the Liberal Party, which most government MPs are rubbishing. But we’ll never know.

Tweet of the Week

So the Queen photobombed a selfie by some Aussie hockey players at the Commonwealth Games:

Ahhh The Queen photo-bombed our selfie!! 😄 👑 #royalty #sheevensmiled #amazing #Glasgow2014 @Hockeyroos @AusComGames pic.twitter.com/ZMtHYFUqHk

— Jayde Taylor (@_JaydeTaylor) July 24, 2014

Things that I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

What happens when you equate your President with a giant inflatable toad online in China – ABC Online

Westboro Baptist Church picketed a Panic! At the Disco concert – Huffington Post

Virginia Trioli talks about SAD – The Weekly Review

ABC1 recently rebranded to become ABC and has some new idents to go with it:

The Week that Was – June 1 to June 7

It’s been four weeks since the budget and we’re still talking about it – albeit a little bit less than in previous weeks.

But still, there are reports that the Liberals allegedly conned the Country Liberals, Nationals and anyone in the Coalition who represents a rural seat into accepting the changes to the fuel excise. It appears that they may have hinted that they would change the diesel rebate – something that helps miners and farmers pay for diesel fuel for their operations – and not the fuel excise. That scared the Nationals and other rural MPs in the coalition, because they might lose the next election and there could have been tractors on parliament house lawn and war with the miners. So the nationals supported the fuel excise and are now defending themselves, saying it was legitimately on the table. Treasury have said that they only did the maths for the fuel excise and never the diesel rebate, though. In public they’ve been friendly, but reports are that behind closed doors people are annoyed.

There is also concern from Universities Australia – the organisation that represents Australian universities – about whether or not the fee changes will lead to higher costs. Christopher Pyne says prices will be forced down because it will be competitive, while others believe that it will lead to prices at more “prestigious” universities rising. There is also conflicting information about who is paying what back when – but the legislation has to get through the senate first, and the Labor and Greens have said they will oppose it. Clive Palmer says his party won’t let anything through that doesn’t make sense to them, and that they want more staff to help them understand things.

Speaking of money, it was announced that two new navy ships will not be built in Australia, but in Spain and Korea. The government has said that the boats are too large to be built in Australia and it would seem it’s also very expensive too. The shipbuilding industry is understandably annoyed, as apparently there is a gap coming up where there will be more builders than ships to be built and these two ships would have covered that gap. Apparently some frigates will be built here soon – so we shouldn’t worry – but given the government has said that they want Australian-built ships, but not at any cost, I fear what will happen in the future when it becomes even more expensive.

This week has been full of the drama between Malcolm Turnbull and conservative commentators. Andrew Bolt has accused Turnbull of planning to overthrow Tony Abbott. Bolt cites Turnbull’s dinner last week with Clive Palmer, as well as attending an event hosted by Friends of the ABC. Wow, the Communications Minister went to an event related to the government-funded broadcaster, he’s totally planning to overthrow the Prime Minister. Turnbull said that “it borders on the demented” and even said it was “unhinged”.

It continued later in the week, when Turnbull was on 2GB radio with Alan Jones – who questioned him about his motives and if he was after the leadership. From what I’ve heard of the interview, Turnbull remained quite calm. Turnbull was also on 7:30 this week – the full interview is here.

This week, Tony Abbott is off to Indonesia, France, The USA and Canada. He’s met with Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Indonesia for the first time since the spying allegations, and Julie Bishop appeared to give  Yudhoyono a demotion, calling him “Prime Minister SBY” – when she should have said “President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono” or “President Yudhoyono”. The PM’s flight was delayed because the plane they were originally going to use was broken, so they had to get a different one. The relationship does appear to be on the mend, so that is good. Abbott then went to Paris, where he met the Queen at the British Embassy, and talked with French business leaders before heading to Normandy for D-Day commemorations, where six Australian veterans became Chevaliers of the Légion d’Honneur – France’s highest honour.

Clive Palmer is in trouble this week for being rude to a senior Abbott staffer, Peta Credlin. Palmer said that the reason Abbott was bringing in a Paid Parental Leave Scheme was so that Ms Credlin could have her baby. But he’s also fighting with the QLD state government. He’s suing QLD Premier Campbell Newman for defamation, after Newman said he was buying governments. It’s now come to light that the Deputy Premier had referred Palmer to the CMC (QLD’s ICAC – but with no power) over allegations that Palmer asked for special treatment after the 2012 QLD Election that saw the LNP come to power.

Finally this week, Victoria’s in the middle of a constitutional crisis, the USA changed its emissions aims…now making them more active in the battle against climate change than us, and it turns out the Prime Minister gave a character reference to a priest who is accused of paedophilia – they met in the same seminary when Abbott was thinking of joining the priesthood. Oh, and the government might have lied to the World Heritage people about Tasmanian forests.

Tweet of the Week

Barnaby Joyce’s disconcerting photo out a plane window – I think his phone might have been upside-down.

Leaving Tamworth for Canberra, Rainbow staying. pic.twitter.com/MTvrH9QXPJ

— Barnaby Joyce (@Barnaby_Joyce) June 1, 2014

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Introducing American cable viewers to Tony Abbott…

An introduction to OTPs: The flirtation between ABC2 and SBS2 – as chronicled by Buzzfeed.

Peppa Pig’s uncertain future on the ABC made one girl worried about her little sister – Canberra Times