Tag Archives: Robb

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

 

 

The Week That Was – September 6 to September 12

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I’m looking at my notes this week and realising just how many times the word “refugee” comes up.

It was a pretty good week for Abbott, even if it ended with a gaffe and a leak that sent cabinet into a hissy fit.

As of this week, the Abbott Government has been in power for two years, and has one more to go until the next election. The government is not in a great place, with polls showing that if there was an election held this week, they would lose their majority. Abbott has been repeating his usual line of “taxes are down, I stopped the boats” when asked about his two years so far and he says that he hopes that when people vote next year they will remember his government’s victories. Problem is, there are bigger issues at the moment, and with the economy down, jobs sparse and no surplus as promised, the bad decisions and the gaffes mean that Abbott and his government are not in a good place right now, and they still may not be in 12 months time when the next election comes around. He also had a 15 minute interview on 7:30 with Leigh Sales, which had the inhabitants of my house arguing, laughing and “oooh”-ing at the TV.

However, this week has been good for Abbott, as he’s been able to announce that Australia will take in 12,000 Syrian refugees in a one-off increase in our refugee intake. Peter Dutton was sent to Geneva at the start of the week to ask what Australia could do, while the Opposition and the Greens call on the government to take in more refugees overall. Before the announcement people were pointing out that Australia has done similar things in 1989 after Tiananmen and in 1999 during the Kosovo crisis, so we should do the same.

However, there has been criticism after several senior ministers, including Eric Abetz and Julie Bishop made clear their focus was on the Christians escaping Syria. Now, it is likely that some of the refugees are from Christian minority groups, and they are likely to be the ones in the most danger from Islamic State, but you can’t just say “oh we’ll just take the Christian ones thanks guys”. The Opposition is criticising the government on its bias as are the Greens. Meanwhile, the government began talking about how taking in these extra refugees was a burden to be shouldered by all, and we were told Australia would also send aid to the countries bordering Syria that host refugee camps.

The Government also said that any Syrian refugees in offshore detention – basically those that arrived by boat – will not be included in this 12,000 strong cohort of refugees they are settling in Australia. This has angered the Greens who feel that not only should these boat arrivals be included, but the government should also put an end to offshore detention all together. Meanwhile Abetz reiterated the focus on letting in Christians – leading to some believing that this was a sort of rebirth of the White Australia Policy – if you don’t know what that is, Google it.

The week ended with Abbott meeting community leaders to plan how Australia would welcome the influx of refugees from Syria…and then the good week Abbott had ended not so well.

Peter Dutton’s joke offended Pacific Island nations’ leaders, didn’t make Bill Shorten laugh, and left Abbott trying to salvage his weekend in Canning where he is helping the Liberal candidate get elected in a by-election, calling the joke “lame” and praising Dutton for his hard work in Immigration.

Meanwhile there was a leak to Sydney’s Daily Telegraph newspaper in which it proclaims that there may be a cabinet reshuffle on the cards. It’s unclear whether the PM’s Office – who is close to the Tele – or someone who wants Abbott out of job is the one who spoke to the reporter, but either way it has sent Cabinet into panic, with rumours that at least eight ministers could be in the firing line, including Nigel Scullion, Eric Abetz and Andrew Robb.

Finally this week, the Commonwealth is celebrating the Queen, after she became the longest-serving monarch, usurping Queen Victoria, Australia will be taking part in airstrikes in Syria, and while they began flying over IS-held territory at the end of the week we don’t know if they launched any strikes or not, and there have been accusations of bias against Judge Street, who out of 254 asylum seeker cases has dismissed all but two before hearing any evidence

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online.

I’ve had uni assessments due this week – so the material is not that erudite.

First Dog on the Moon on the PM’s “Twonyversary” – The Guardian

First Dog on refugees in Europe – The Guardian

Antony Green is made an Adjunct Professor – ABC Backstory