Tag Archives: Queen’s Birthday

The Week That Was – June 9 to June 15

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It’s been a while since my notes have said “No politics” on more than one day! This mostly has to do with the fact that the country and the government are waiting for the results of the Senate count to be finalised, and there seems to be only one seat left in doubt, so it should not be long now. Once that happens, it’ll be back to politics all day, every day.

Monday was the Queen’s Birthday Holiday, and so came the Queen’s Birthday Honours. Father-daughter duo Jade and Paul Hameister, who completed the exploration known as “Polar Hat Trick” (North Pole, Greenland and the South Pole) together have received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM). Leigh Sales, Eric Bana and Elizabeth Chong, among others have become Members of the Order of Australia (AM). Former senator and anti-domestic violence activist Natasha Stott Despoja is now an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO); and former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, actor Hugh Jackman and ABC Chairwoman Ita Buttrose have received the highest honour, becoming Companions of the Order of Australia (AC). You can see the full list here.

It was revealed this week that the Home Affairs Department’s Secretary Mike Pezzullo called Centre Alliance Senator Rex Patrick after he said that the department and the Home Affairs Minister “hate media scrutiny” in a press release put out after least week’s raids on News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst and the ABC’s Sydney headquarters. Pezzullo allegedly called Patrick to ‘correct the record’ – which has concerned both Peter Dutton and the Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Morrison and Dutton have both said that the call concerns them, and they have advised Pezzullo that he really shouldn’t contact senators personally, even if Pezzullo thinks they’re wrong.

This week also saw drama amongst the unions, after CFMEU boss John Setka was accused of saying that anti-domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty was infringing on men’s rights at a union meeting. Setka denies he said anything of the sort, and two other union bosses who were present at the meeting, the West Australian Secretary of the Maritime Union, Christy Cain and ACTU President Sally McManus have backed Setka up on that fact. However, Setka is not well-liked by some in the union movement and many conservative politicians and regular people, and McManus has urged Setka to step down, while federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese has requested that Setka be booted from the party, but Setka appears to be holding firm for the moment.

Adani’s new Queensland mine has passed another environmental assessment, which now means that Adani can start to build their mine. This has made many regional Queensland MPs, mayors and residents very happy, as there is promise of jobs – even though the number keeps changing. Environmentalists, on the other hand, are unimpressed, especially given that the Queensland government has given Adani a huge concession on their water management plan, that was off the table before.

Finally, this week the country farewelled former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, who died last month, at a National Memorial Service. Many former Prime Ministers, and former and current Labor figures attended the memorial along with Hawke’s family and members of the general public.

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

The Good Priest (who does CrossFit) – ABC Online

WA Liberals have their first female leader in Liza Harvey – ABC Online

 

The Week That Was – June 11 to June 17

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I’m back after a bit of a break, thanks to some uni assignments and some family stuff.

Monday was the Queen’s Birthday, and as usual, people received honours. Fifteen people became Companions of the Order of Australia (the highest honour) with Cate Blanchett the only woman to receive it. Alan Joyce was another notable Australian who became a Companion.

Others who received an Order of Australia includes ABC psephologist Antony Green, actress Deborah Mailman, designer Collette Dinnigan and surgeon and playwright Mohammed Khadra. Only 30% of the Queen’s Birthday honours recipients were women, attributed mostly to a lower number of nominations for women than men, however many want to see this change.

This week saw a pretty epic mudslinging saga regarding Chinese and other foreign donations to the two major political parties. After an ABC Four Corners report on China’s influence in Australian politics, university student groups and Australian chinese-language media. The Chinese were not impressed, and the politicians took the chance to call each other out on slightly dubious Chinese donations. Julie Bishop went after Senator Sam Dastyari, someone else went after Julie Bishop, and Bishop then brought up Joel Fitzgibbon, and someone else dragged former MP and Trade Minister Andrew Robb into the furore. Meanwhile the Greens called for an independent inquiry or a Federal ICAC.

The two major parties have promised to ban foreign donations, but this has to look legitimate, especially given the damaging week of dragging each other through the mud.

Meanwhile, Alan Tudge, Michael Sukkar and Greg Hunt, who are all Victorian MPs and ministers in Turnbull’s cabinet, could be facing contempt of court charges. The suggested that Victorian courts were being too soft on terror suspects. The Victorian courts didn’t take that too well, and while the ministers have retracted their statements, they haven’t apologised.

There will be an amnesty on guns from July, allowing people who may have unregistered guns and ammunition to hand them in, with no penalty and no questions asked. With 250,000 unregistered guns in Australia, it is hoped many of them will be handed in. However some gun control advocates and politicians do not believe it will be as successful as the last amnesty back in the late 1990s after Port Arthur and the National Firearm,s Agreement.

Several refugees on Manus Island have settled with the Australian Government before a six-month long trial was due to begin. The government will pay around $70 million to the refugees, as well as the near $20 million court costs for Slater and Gordon Lawyers. The government says that settling was going to be cheaper than going through the trial, which is probably true, but some do believe they’re covering up what goes on in those detention centres by preventing the truth from coming out.

Finally this week, the unemployment rate dropped to 5.5%, thanks to an increase in full-time employment; a 22-year-old Sydney man was arrested at Sydney airport for allegedly trying to travel overseas to fight in Syria; there are questions over whether a second Supermax prison should be built for those convicted of terror offences, despite concerns it will only breed further radicalisation; and there is a bit of a Liberal backbench rebellion regarding the Finkel report, as it doesn’t talk about the future of coal.

Tweets of the Week

ABC Correspondent Adam Harvey on his injury in Marawi in the Philippines…

Since this tweet, he was flown to Manila, and had surgery to remove the bullet.

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Andrew Probyn on Turnbull’s ‘Trump Speech’ at the Midwinter Ball – ABC Online

Channel 10 in voluntary Administration – ABC Online