Tag Archives: Section 44

Gaffes, Controversies and that Pesky Section 44

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And so the campaign has begun, with Scott Morrison visiting the Governor-General at 6:55 am on Thursday morning to ask for the election to be held on May 18. Unlike 2016, where we were stuck with eight weeks of what soon became turgid and frankly boring campaigning, this time it will all be over in a little more than five weeks!

There are 151 seats in the House of Representatives up for grabs, with the party that wins the election needing to win at least 76 seats. This is up from the last couple of elections, as the Australian Electoral Commission has added a new electorate in the Australian Capital Territory. There are also 40 of the seats in the Senate up for grabs, with those who drew the short straw after the double dissolution in 2016 campaigning to remain in the Senate.

The start of the campaign saw Scott Morrison painting the election as a choice between him and his government or Bill Shorten – a tactic taken up because polling suggests that while the Coalition is losing to Labor in polling, Bill Shorten is not the preferred Prime Minister, and not everyone likes him. This tactic, while taking aim at one of the Opposition’s main weaknesses, does paint the Coalition into a corner a little bit, as there’s not a lot you can do when your main campaigning point is “its us or them”.

On the other hand Bill Shorten has said the election is about people and health and education. He doesn’t seem to mind much that he’s not the preferred Prime Minister, as long as people stop using his name as a verb. Shorten has taken a different approach to the election with a great deal of his talking time devoted to policy, and when he is asked about Morrison and the Coalition, he tends to try to divert to policy rather tha personal attack. This approach is refreshing and a nice change from what I refer to as “petty school children” politics.

We’re only a few days into the campaign and already we’ve had our first major misstep in the form of the incumbent Member for Dickson, Peter Dutton. Dutton said in an interview with The Australian newspaper that his Labor opponent Ali France was using her disability as an “excuse” to not live in the marginal northern Brisbane electorate. France is an amputee, who after loosing her leg in a car accident in 2011, and while she has been using a prosthesis while out an about, uses a wheelchair at home. She currently lives two kilometres from the border of Dickson and has committed to moving to the seat if she wins – but in order for her to do that she does need to find a home that either suits or can be renovated to suit her needs.

It took Dutton a day to apologise, during which Scott Morrison tried to stonewall questions to him about Dutton’s comments, and gave the Labor party a bunch of free political advertising. Anyone in the seat of Dickson who didn’t know who Ali France was before the election was called certainly does now. It has also allowed for Labor to pick up on the hypocrisy of the Government who just announced a Royal Commission into abuse within the disability care sector, and Kristina Keneally has called Dutton “the most toxic man in the Liberal Party”.

We’ve also had the first controversy of the election with accusations that the government tried to politicise the work of the Treasury Department. On Friday the government brandished Treasury costings of the Labor party’s tax plans, or at least what looked like them. Labor, justifiably concerned, contacted the Treasury Secretary Philip Gaetjens and asked him to explain. As it turned out, before the election was called the Government asked the Treasury to cost some policies for them, as one in government has a right to do. It just so happens that these policies were similar to, if not the same as, those Labor had announced. Philip Gaetjens made clear to Labor (through a letter to Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen) that they were not asked to cost Labor’s policies specifically, and had that been the case Treasury would have refused the request. You can read Gaetjens’ letter to Chris Bowen here.

Meanwhile, there have been four early withdrawals from candidates this campaign, with Labor’s Melissa Parke in the West Australian seat of Curtin dropping out after comments on Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, and three Liberal Candidates in Melbourne – Kate Oski in Lalor, Vaishali Ghosh in Wills, and Helen Jackson in Cooper (formerly Batman) – over section 44 issues. Ghosh and Oski have been forced out over citizenship concerns, while Jackson has been revealed to be an Australia Post employee and is in the process of being disendorsed.

Top Tweet

There are a few seats the Coalition are yet to find candidates for….

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Kristina Keneally is on the rise – SMH

There are two major votes on May 18 – ABC Online

Things You Should Check Out

AEC Website – Remember you have until 8pm AEST to enrol to vote or change your details!

ABC VoteCompass – take the survey and see where you sit compared to the major players this election.

 

 

The Week That Was – November 18 to November 24

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The week began with the last days of APEC for Prime Minister Scott Morrison, where he announced several plans for involvement in the Pacific, mostly with the aim of countering Chinese influence. In particular, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the USA are working together to invest money into Papua New Guinea’s electricity grid so that more people in PNG have reliable electricity. But while Morrison had a relatively good showing at APEC, all was not smooth sailing, with Chinese officials marching into the PNG Foreign Minister’s office to demand changes to the wording of the joint communiqué, and wouldn’t leave until security was called. The USA and China appeared to have had a lot of disagreements at this APEC, and while some officials did try to find compromise, it was unsuccessful. For the first time in a long time, APEC did not finish with the release of any joint communiqué

The Banking Royal Commission is heading into its final days, with Westpac, Commonwealth Bank and ASIC on the stand. ASIC has promised to punish and prosecute banks more, while Westpac has admitted that they don’t really know how many people were charged fees for no service, as there are insufficient records. Their explanation is that some very rich people are happy to pay for the relationship, where it’s at their discretion. On the other had, the Commonwealth Bank’s CEO Matt Comyn was attempting to make it seem that he was trying to fix things when he was in charge of the retail bank, and that the former CEO Ian Narev was trying to stop him from doing good things, which he then stopped doing to wait to see what the Royal Commission recommended.

The CommBank’s board chairperson Catherine Livingstone got into a spot of bother at one point, suggesting that she had brought up a concern at a board meeting, but there was no record of it in the board minutes. So, either Livingstone was trying to make herself look good, or she did genuinely bring up the issue, but the bank’s board broke the law by not keeping accurate minutes of the meeting.

Scott Morrison, in the wake of both the Bourke Street attack and some anti-terrorism raids this week, has announced a plan to strip the Australian citizenship from convicted terrorists if they have citizenship of another country, or if they have some sort of entitlement to it. Other than the logical question of whether a country is going to give citizenship to a convicted terrorist, no matter how entitled they are to it, there are also concerns about the legality of the policy should it actually come into law. As it could render people stateless, it may also lead to detaining those who lose their Australian citizenship in detention centres because they’ll become “illegal aliens” all of sudden.

Morrison and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton also want legislation to force technology companies hand over information on users during police investigations, as it will make it easier for the cops to find evidence when carrying out surveillance on terror suspects, but one you have the power you could theoretically use the powers for anything, so again, there are concerns about civil liberties. Labor isn’t saying much on Morrison and Dutton’s policy plans, other than their insistence that while security is important, the legislation must also be correct.

Labor has also been working on announcing their climate policy this week, which is essentially using Turnbull’s National Energy Guarantee (NEG), which got him rolled in August, but with added subsidies for implementing renewables such as solar panels and wall batteries. They will also give the Clean Energy Finance Corporation more investments and push for a 45% reduction in emissions, based on 2005 levels. The Liberals, it seems are against the policy, despite the fact it was originally their idea, mostly because it’s Labor that is now announcing it. From the perspective of the intelligent life forms in my house, Labor is somewhat pushing this as a wedge issue, because the Liberals are then damned if they reject the policy and are damned if they support the policy.

Also this week, Victoria had a State election. It was originally thought that it could be quite a tight race, given the incumbent Labor government could have gone into minority government if they lost two seats, but as of Sunday lunch it’s looking as if it could be the biggest win for Victorian Labor in a very long time, with seats that haven’t been in Labor hands for decades falling to them with massive swings.

Finally this week, Jim Molan has pulled out of a Q&A appearance on the ABC this coming Monday, saying he cannot bring himself to defend his party after being placed in an unwinnable spot on the Liberal-National Senate ticket for NSW. Molan joined the senate in February this year, taking up the seat left vacant by National Senator Fiona Nash who got caught by section 44, and has ended up as one of the unlucky ones. He ended up drawing the short straw for the senators who got the three-year terms after the double dissolution election in 2016. He’s been placed in an unwinnable place on the Senate ticket, which has left him feeling a bit ripped off – which is understandable.

Tweet of the Week

The Revolving Door of Leadership Rotates Again… (August 19 to August 25)

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We had another leadership spill, and that’s literally what took up the entire week.

After Turnbull removed the emissions target from the National Energy Guarantee, and the addition of more carrots and sticks to encourage the energy companies to keep prices down, it became apparent that Turnbull was desperately trying to appease the right of the party, and it really wasn’t working.

So much so, the questions on his leadership started on Monday and they didn’t stop.

Malcolm Turnbull walked into the weekly party room meeting on Tuesday morning and sprung a leadership spill on the Liberals, winning 48 votes to 35 against Peter Dutton. That’s not entirely good for Turnbull, given it was only a margin of seven votes. It led many experts to suggest Turnbull could be gone within weeks, if not days.

Then the resignations began, with Peter Dutton, James McGrath, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, Michael Sukkar, Angus Taylor, Steve Ciobo, Greg Hunt starting things off. Turnbull refused all offers to resign, except for Dutton and Fierravanti-Wells, before James McGrath insisted Turnbull accept his resignation too.

It then gets throughly confusing, to the point where even I am unsure as to what happened. Essentially, so many ministers resigned, that I don’t think Australia really had a proper cabinet government for at least 24 hours. This, combined with the right-wing of the party circulating a petition to get another party room meeting for a leadership vote gave the impression that the Liberal Party was tearing itself apart.

However, Turnbull played hard ball – and quite rightly too – as he made several caveats on his allowing a meeting. First, Dutton had to prove that he was eligible under section 44(v), as there are suggestions that two childcare centres owned by the Dutton family trust might be benefitting from the government. Second, Turnbull wanted to see the petition with 43 signatures (a majority of the party room) before he called a party meeting; and third, there would be a spill motion and if that passed then Turnbull would step down as PM, and potentially from parliament altogether.

By Friday morning, the 43 signatures were found. Once the party’s Chief Whip Nola Marino checked that all the people whose signatures were on the petition had signed it, the party met at 12:20pm and carried the spill motion. And from that vote, Malcolm Turnbull ceased being our Prime Minister.

There was then a vote for leader, between Julie Bishop, Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton. Bishop was knocked out of the first round, and Scott Morrison won the vote against Peter Dutton 45 votes to 40. We now have a new Prime Minister in Scott Morrison, and a new Liberal Party deputy leader, Josh Frydenberg.

Morrison and Frydenberg now have an epic challenge facing them. First they must unite and heal a bruised and divided party, which some think may not happen and the party may be irreparably split. They also now have to contend with an angry, frustrated public who just watched another government spend a week focusing on their own infighting rather than running the country, as they did in 2010, 2013 and 2015. To their credit, Frydenberg and Morrison weren’t directly involved in the infighting, and this will be of benefit to them while dealing with the public backlash to this sixth change of Prime Minister in eleven years.

It also appears that Turnbull and his allies outmanoeuvred Petter Dutton and the conservative wing of the Liberal Party. There was also the fatal mistake from the Dutton camp in assuming that the 43 signatures put down to have the party meeting were also an indication of support for Dutton himself, and it’s believed that many in the Liberal Party couldn’t stomach the possibility of Prime Minister Dutton.

On Saturday, Morrison spent his day getting briefed on all the important things he needs to know, as well as fielding phone calls from the likes on Donald Trump. Meanwhile, the rest of the country started wondering when Turnbull would leave parliament, and who might replace him in his electorate of Wentworth.

Christine Forster, Liberal Councillor for the City of Sydney Council, and same-sex marriage advocate (who is also Tony Abbott’s sister) is considering a tilt at the seat, as are Katherine O’Reagan a former Deputy Mayor and the former Ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma. However, this by-election must happen soon, as no-one wants to force the people of Wentworth to vote three times in six months. Already, the state of NSW is due for an election in March 2019 and the next Federal Election is due mid-way through 2019.

Hopefully, we’ll be back to some semblance of normalcy next week, but we will have to see – and with Julie Bishop no longer Foreign Minister and may leave Parliament at the next election.

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Annabel Crabb on the Liberals ridding themselves of Turnbull – ABC Online

Stan Grant on the Liberal Party’s “civil war” – ABC Online

Philip Williams on Julie Bishop and her future – ABC Online

The Tonightly’s take on the politicians infighting… (Be warned – coarse language)

 

 

 

Three Weeks That Were – May 13 to June 2

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Yep, I worked two Sundays in a row again – that’s the joy of retail – so here’s a list of some of the things that happened in politics.

  1. Liberal MP Jane Prentice has lost pre-selection in her seat to a man, making many Liberal women very, very concerned. Warren Entsch is also worried and concerned, but that’s normal for Warren Enstch, because he’s probably one of the nicest, most accepting people in parliament. Meanwhile Craig Laundy is implying the person who will now be the candidate in the seat may have been partaking in branch stacking.
  2. There are continuing concerns over the standards of care at residential care facilities (i.e. Nursing Homes) after revelations that some facilities are failing several benchmarks.
  3. There are calls to encourage refugees to come to small country towns rather than the big cities in order to fill job shortages. While there are concerns that some may face problems with the isolation in some of these towns, many employers seem willing to take people on.
  4. There a questions over how Australia plans to deal with waste now that China has stopped taking in other nations’ rubbish (yes, apparently Australia has been sending some of our rubbish to China for years). There a questions over whether Australia should have a Pay As You Throw system, or burn some of our rubbish to add to the electricity grid.
  5. Focus in the Banking Royal Commission has moved to how banks have been treating small businesses. ANZ has confessed to misconduct, NAB has conceded it forced a business loan client to pay off his debt with the sale of his home, and the Commonwealth Bank has admitted to charging double the amount of interest they were entitled to.
  6. Around 200 athletes that attended the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in April have now applied for temporary protection visas. Another 50 athletes have officially over-stayed their visas.
  7. Operation Augury – the mission to the Philippines to help the Philippine Army with the fight against ISIS in the city of Marawi – has all of a sudden become a very quiet operation shrouded in secrecy.
  8. Several Liberal parliamentarians are trying to get a private members bill through parliament to ban the live export of animals during the Northern Hemisphere Summer, after vision of conditions on a sheep live export ship became public a few weeks back. Other Liberals have pushed for more regulation rather than a full on ban, and that is what Minister David Littleproud ended up announcing.
  9. Pauline Hanson has announced that her party will no longer support company tax cuts – making it incredibly hard for the government to now pass the bill through the senate. Apparently, Hanson has been asking for way too much in return and the liberals can’t give it to her so she isn’t going to help them. But…
  10. …it appears that either the whole party was not aware, or NSW Senator Brian Burston has decided not to go with the party, as he has announced that he will support the government’s company tax cuts. Pauline Hanson is very upset – she had one heck of an interview on SKY News – and told Burston to resign. He won’t resign and Hanson is yet to sack him so, we’ll have to watch this space.
  11. Canning MP Andrew Hastie has revealed that Chau Chak Wing – a prolific donor to both parties and the name sake of a university building at the University of Technology, Sydney – has been named in a UN bribery investigation.
  12. The day for the 5 by-elections – dubbed Super Saturday – has been announced as July 28. That’s a nine week campaign, leaving these seats without representation for over 80 days. While the AEC and the Liberals say that date has been chosen to avoid school holidays, so as not to disadvantage voters, Labor is very angry. July 28th is the weekend Labor is having their national conference, and while they have since deferred the date of the conference, they felt like the selection of that date was politically motivated.
  13. Speaking of Super Saturday – the Liberals have announced that they will not be contesting the two safe Labor seats in WA in order to preserve their election war chest (i.e. They are unlikely to win and they shouldn’t be throwing money at a futile endeavour), while Bob Katter is helping Rebekha Sharkie out with costs for her campaign in the seat of Mayo, as she takes on Liberal candidate Georgina Downer (daughter of former foreign Minister Alexander Downer).
  14. The Government is and the Opposition are currently fighting over each other’s respective tax plans. The Liberal tax plan costs the government more, but will take longer to implement, with the highest tax bracket benefitting later on. The Labor plan will be cheaper and faster to implement but provides less relief to the highest paid workers. Meanwhile, Amazon has announced that Australians will only be able to access the Australian website from July 1, in order to comply with new online shopping GST legislation.
  15. A review has called for the superannuation program in Australia to be simplified and made more transparent. It turns out many young people who have changed jobs multiple times have multiple super accounts, meaning they will have less to retire on in the future. There are also calls to make it easier for workers to stay with one super account for their entire working life.
  16. Workers on the minimum wage have had a 3.5% wage increase to $719.20 per week. The unions are happy for the rise, but say that it is not enough to give workers a living wage. Meanwhile, employers say it will make it harder for them to hire people because it costs more to pay people.
  17. The redress scheme that came out of the Royal Commission into Child Abuse has now had the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, the Scouts, YMCA and the Salvation Army sign up, along with all states and territories, except WA.
  18. Barnaby Joyce is facing criticism for getting paid for an interview with Channel 7. He argues that, despite calls to respect his and his partner Vikki Campion’s privacy, there have been drones flying over their home and paparazzi everywhere, and because Vikki felt ripped off she agreed to the interview and took the $150,000, which is to be put into a trust for their son Sebastian.
  19. Labor faced some drama at the Victorian State conference, when the CFMEU and the AWU teamed up to end controversial debates and end the conference early. Delegates were set to debate offshore detention of asylum seekers, an issue that would have revealed the deep divide within the party, and there were concerns that this would affect the five Super Saturday by-elections.
  20. Independent Tasmanian Senator Steve Martin is no longer independent, having joined the Nationals. The former Mayor of Devonport, who got in on the Jacqui Lambie ticket after Lambie had to quit due to Section 44, was sacked from the party when he refused to step aside for her. Since coming to parliament, he’s made friends with the Nationals and found he shares their views and so he joined them.
  21. Michaelia Cash has received a subpoena from the federal court, calling her to give evidence regarding the AWU raid scandal, in which one of Cash’s staffers tipped the media off to raids being carried out at AWU offices. Cash is trying to get the subpoena thrown out, which is just a little suspicious.

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Hamish MacDonald on the Barnaby Joyce interview – SMH

Jessica Harmsen on being pregnant on TV – ABC Online

Budget Week – May 6 to May 12

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Every year, Budget Weeks comes around, and it’s both slightly enjoyable and slightly annoying. Enjoyable because our politicians tend to have a serious week with minimal mudslinging, and annoying because the Budget can be a little hard to understand for those of us less mathematically and economically inclined, let alone find a relevant tidbit of information for younger Australians (like me).

The theme for the 2018 Budget is: “living within our means”. The government’s budget aims to show that the country is living within its means, while keeping spending and debt down. Spoiler alert, this is what is known as an election budget – the last budget prior to the next federal election. One would have expected next year’s to be the election budget, but word on the street is that the election will be taking place in the next twelve months, so the sweeteners are in this one.

There will be a reduction in income tax for low and middle-income earners, some of which will start next financial year. Over the next 7 years, there’ll be further cuts (basically it’s aspirational and a promise, in the hope that the people will keep the Liberals in). However, there are concerns that the government is not taking the best route in these tax cuts, as they intend to remove an entire tax bracket. This means that people earning between $45,000 and $200,000 are paying 32.5 cents in the dollar, which some experts argue isn’t entirely fair. The big winner  in all of this are those earning around $90,000 – as the Liberals will need their vote to stay in government.

The government has forecast a surplus for the 2019-20 Financial Year (that is if they stay in power, and financially on track in the next few budgets).

There will be PBS subsidisation of an important Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) drug. With subsidisation, the cost of the drug plummets from a whopping $100,000 per dose, to just $40. The Government has also announced in tandem with this, free genetic screening for SMA, and where parents test positive as carriers, they will be eligible for subsidised IVF, so they can have a healthy baby – as SMA is fatal and most kids with the disorder don’t live for very long.

There will be a large infrastructure spend, but most money is mostly going to other States and Territories, which means the NSW editions of Budget coverage didn’t really cover those projects. In NSW the money will go to plans for the Badgerys Creek Airport rail link and a Botany transport link duplication to reduce congestion.

The ABC does some pretty comprehensive summaries including a Winners & Losers graphic explainer, so go check it out. It explains things better than me….

Labor’s Budget reply was interesting – they feel the Liberals are all for helping the big end of town (a bit true), so they’ve promised to reduce tax rebates further. The maximum lump sum you can get back on your tax with the Liberals is about $530, whereas Labor is promising to return a lump sum of around $928 to those same taxpayers. Whether or not people go for it is yet to be seen, but there will be by-elections soon.

Why, you ask?

If you remember a couple of months ago, Australia was gripped by the Section 44 saga – I lost count at 10 MPs and Senators caught out, but this week saw another four MPs and Senators caught up (SBS tells me I’m not far off, they’ve counted 15 as of this week). This time all but one are Labor Party people – Senator Katy Gallagher, Braddon MP Justine Keay, Longman MP Susan Lamb, Fremantle MP Josh Wilson and Mayo MP Rebekha Sharkie (who was elected as NXT, but will be on the Centre Alliance Party ticket because Nick Xenophon changed the party name). Add to this the resignation of Perth MP Tim Hammond, who is resigning for family reasons, and it appears there will be one big Super Saturday election day for all five of these by-elections.

There is also a small amount of annoyance at the High Court from both sides of politics, as the Court has not only stolen the government’s Budget thunder, but their ruling has left four electorates without MPs, and when these seats are finally filled, the MPs in them may not be there for long – the next federal election is due in the next six to twelve months.

Finally this week, Bob Hawke was in hospital for a bit; Australia’s contemporary Parliament House turned 30; and there are calls for there to be a legislated staff:patient ratio at residential care homes (like there are at childcare centres) in order to improve patient care and outcomes.

Tweet of the Week

SBSViceland’s The Feed presenter Mark Humphries ended up in Budget Lockup.

Thing’s I’ve Been Looking at Online

Annabel Crabb’s take on the Budget – ABC Online

 

16 Things That Happened in the Last Three Weeks – February 4 to February 24

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The weeks that I work on a Sunday really throw a spanner in the works of this blog writing thing. But here is what happened while I was busy working too much…

  1. Barnaby Joyce is expecting a baby with a former staffer. Yes, this requires its own post, or most of this post would be about Barnaby and some of you may not want that. Point is, Barnaby Joyce ended up having to quit so now the National Party need a new leader.
  2. Parliament went back and there are still questions over section 44 with two Labor MPs and a Liberal MP being suspected of being dual citizens. Meanwhile the Batman by-election campaign continues.
  3. South Australia and Tasmania are holding their elections in March, with SA Labor attempting a fifth term in government while fighting off the Liberals and Nick Xenophon’s SA-BEST; and Tasmanian Liberals are trying to keep their power after one term, although the Labor party is definitely a threat.
  4. South Australia’s Premier Jay Wetherill likes Elon Musk (of Tesla), with Tesla now helping South Australia to set up solar panels and Tesla battery storage at residences across the state.
  5. The government is trying to sell middle class and business tax breaks, while people debate whether ‘trickle down economics’ actually works. Some suggest that for it to work, government needs to specify that savings from the tax breaks should be used towards wage rises (i.e. specify that the trickle effect has to happen)
  6. The Close the Gap Report and National Sorry Day came around, with results in the report that suggest that is not enough funding going to programs.
  7. There will be a National Apology for the victims of sexual abuse by the end of the year.
  8. Jacqui Lambie has booted the Davenport Mayor Steve Martin from the JLN after he was found to be eligible to sit in Senate while still being a local government representative and didn’t create a casual vacancy for Lambie to fill.
  9. HIV prevention drug PrEP has been PBS approved, making it cheaper and more accessible.
  10. Kevin Rudd has evaluated Australia’s foreign policy, suggesting that the government’s strategy regarding China is “all over the place” and Turnbull is sending mixed signals to China
  11. The Banking Royal Commission has begun and the Big Four Banks are in trouble because they didn’t hand in their documentation by the due date, and the Commissioner is not impressed. Despite the banks apparently having a lot of say in how the commission runs, it seems that Commissioner Hayne is taking his job seriously.
  12. Malcolm Turnbull introduced new rules saying Ministers should not have sex with their staff – which is being referred to as the “Bonk Ban”.
  13. Mattias Cormann became Acting PM while Julie Bishop and Malcolm Turnbull were away on diplomatic trips (because Joyce was also on leave – see point 1)
  14. There is more funding confusion between the NDIS and the states, with some parents who have kids with high-care needs have been considering putting their children into state care so they get the help they need as their subsidies dry up.
  15. Tony Abbott announced that he thought Australia’s permanent migration numbers should be reduced, which the Liberal Party has rebuked, by saying most of the immigration we have right now is temporary – i.e. Students and short-term skilled workers.
  16. Malcolm Turnbull went to the USA to meet Trump and other key government officials on a short trip. He also took NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on the trip, along with several business CEOs.

 

Tweets’n’Articles

The young people taking on the NRA after the school shooting in Florida – A Plus

 

15 Things That Happened in the Last Three Weeks (December 17 to January 6)

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For the first time in a while, Australian politics actually went on holiday. So, here’s what happened, in case you missed it.

  1. A man was arrested in Sydney for allegedly acting as an economic agent for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (aka North Korea). Apparently he was trying to help them get WMDs, although the facts available are very basic given it’s a National Security issue.
  2. John Alexander won the Bennelong by-election.
  3. The first church services took place since the Royal Commission released their report.
  4. Scott Morrison and Mathias Cormann presented MYEFO (Mid Year Economic & Fiscal Outlook) and revealed that we are to expect a surplus in 2021, and that they have made $3 billion in savings by capping university places, increasing the wait to three years for migrant welfare claims and cutting the rebate for after hours GP services.
  5. Oh, but somehow Australia can still have personal and corporate tax cuts even though the government needed to cut some money from other things.
  6. Chris Bowen, the Shadow Treasurer,  responded to the MYEFO announcements, saying that the Liberals have their priorities wrong.
  7. A cabinet reshuffle – where several senior Nationals ministers were dumped in favour of some young blood, suggesting instability within the National Party.
  8. The new cabinet the got sworn in – and Peter Dutton is the most powerful national security minister Australia has ever had.
  9. George Brandis is going to be High Commissioner in the UK, so Christian Porter is the new Attorney-General and will have to keep Dutton on a tight leash.
  10. Florence Bjelke-Peterson – former senator and wife of controversial QLD Premier Joh Bjelke-Peterson – died aged 97.
  11. The replacement for Fiona Nash (who was caught up in Section 44 drama) was finally selected – Jim Molan. There are still questions surrounding whether he will get a 3-year or 6-year term in the Senate.
  12. Christmas happened as usual, with images of Malcolm Turnbull helping out at the Wayside Chapel Christmas Lunch in Sydney and dancing with guests.
  13. The end of 2017…
  14. New Years Day 2018 saw the release of the 1994/1995 Cabinet Papers – revelaing that Keating was warned about allowing the Australian people to vote for the President if Australia becam a republic because we plebeians might pick someone “of the wrong calibre” (read: we might pick someone like Trump).
  15. It was also revealed that after Sydney won the right to host the 2000 Olympics, that champion swimmer Kieran Perkin’s swimming record dating back to when he was 12 years old was used to argue for a 6-year funding plan for sport in order to increase the medal tally.

 

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

MYEFO Explained by ABC’s Emma Alberici

Huw Parkinson’s take on Australian Politics with some help from Harry Potter

The Year That Was – 2017

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It’s the end of another year, and that means another look back on the year that has been.

Leadership Spills: 0
Yep, they kept their cool again this year, but only just. There were rumours through the year that Coalition Backbenchers were annoyed enough with Malcolm Turnbull that had there been a viable alternative they may have sounded out numbers.

MPs/Senators caught by Section 44: ?
It has gotten to the point where so many people have been potentially affected by this section of the Australian Constitution regarding their citizenship status, that I’ve stopped counting. Last time I was paying attention to the number it was over 10.

Cabinet Reshuffles: 1.5
One proper one just before Christmas, which saw George Brandis sent to the UK to be High Comissioner, and sparked rumours of instability within the Nationals Party. The other was only a temporary one that saw Malcolm Turnbull and a few other Ministers temporarily take over the ministries of Matt Canavan, Barnaby Joyce and Fiona Nash who were caught up in the first wave of section 44 victims.

Women in Cabinet: 5 (as of Dec 20, 2017)

  • Kelly O’Dwyer – Minister for Women, Minister for Revenue and Financial Services
  • Bridget McKenzie – Minister for Regional Communications, Minister for Rural Health, Minister for Sport
  • Julie Bishop – Minister for Foreign Affairs
  • Marise Payne – Minister for Defence
  • Michaelia Cash – Minister for Jobs and Innovation

There are five others in the outer ministry, but they are not Cabinet Ministers.

State and Federal Elections: 11 (by-elections included)

  • WA State Election – saw the Labor Party victorious against the Barnett Liberal Government
  • The NSW State By-elections for the seats of Manly, North Shore and Gosford
  • The NSW State By-elections for the seats of Cootamundra, Blacktown and and Murray
  • The VIC State by-election for the seat of Northcote – a win for the Greens who got their first Victorian Lower House seat
  • New England By-Election – Banarby Joyce re-elected after his section 44 snafu
  • QLD State election
  • Bennelong By-election – John Alexander ] re-elected after his section 44 snafu, but had a tough fight on his hands after Labor put former NSW Premier Kristina Keneally on the ballot.

Scandals: 2
Both the work of Sam Dastyari, through his links to a big donor who is involved in a Chinese State Owned Enterprise.

The ABC’s Year in Review

 

The Week That Was – August 27 to September 2

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This week was mostly quiet for politics, but the issues that did make the news were pretty major.

First, Peter Dutton announced that refugees in Australia for medical treatment, who had finished treatment and were living in the community would lose their financial assistance and be moved onto a visa that essentially expects that they will leave soon. Until they do leave, refugees will be expected to pay their own way. It appears this mainly concerns single refugees, rather than families, but the concern is that this decision could soon include them. The Greens, activists and service providers are mad, and Labor is yet to comment.

Malcolm Turnbull visited the Snowy Hydro to talk up his “Snowy 2.0” plans, which will take six years to build – once everything has been approved. Turnbull and other government ministers met with energy providers as well this week, the result of which was the providers agreeing to send letters to consumers to show them how to get compare and get cheaper energy bills. Most people seem to think this somewhat unimpressive, and I have to say, it is a bit of a fail when you’re the PM and all you can get out of the energy providers is a commitment to send customers a letter, when you’ve been going on and on about how it is such a massive problem for Australians.

The first same-sex marriage “no” campaign ad came out this week, and was panned by most people for being factually incorrect. For the millionth time – having same-sex marriage is not going to mean that your child is going to be forced to pretend they are in a same-sex relationship. I could go into an entire rant about the actual Safe Schools lesson that this misinformation stems from, but I won’t in this post – mainly because I did back in February last year. The Education Minister has also said that there is no such plan to change the education of children simply because the country lets same-sex couples get married. Panti Bliss, an Irish drag queen, has also reinforced that point in an interview for an ABC news story about what Ireland thinks about Australia’s survey.

Finally this week, US broadcaster CBS will buy Channel 10 (as long as it passes a foreign investment review); Derryn Hinch may or may not be the eighth politician to fall victim to section 44; Aboriginal people in Yamba have been ruled the traditional owners of an additional area of water that they consider sacred after a twenty year push for recognition; and Australia might send military trainers to the Philippines to help fight ISIS in Marawi.

Tweets of the Week

Buzzfeed’s Mark Di Stefano is leaving Australia to go to the UK (he’s following his girlfriend)

https://twitter.com/workmanalice/status/900612075587723264

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Joe Biden on Trump and Charlottesville – The Atlantic

ABC’s meteorologist Nate Byrne explains Hurricane Harvey – ABC Online

Did a book buy its way onto the New York Times Bestseller List – Pajiba

A Quick Note.

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Apologies for the sudden radio silence (again). I got a bit busy at work over the last month with some colleagues on holiday, and then a new semester got underway at Uni. I’ll be back on Sunday with a new The Week that Was, and hopefully you’ll soon see a few extra posts as well.

Check out some of these links to articles that will cover what happened over the last few weeks, while the politicians were on winter holidays.

The ABC’s Julia Baird on the domestic violence exposé she wrote – ABC Online

Why you can no longer wander through the ABC Foyer – Canberra Times

Universities and their tackling of sexual assault and harassment – ABC Online

Annabel Crabb thinks section 44 has been turned to the “evil” setting – ABC Online