The Week That Was – October 21 to October 27

The by-election result in Wentworth is not yet fully finalised, but it definitely looks as if Kerryn Phelps will be the new Member for Wentworth. The counting of postal and pre-poll votes has narrowed her lead on Liberal Party candidate Dave Sharma, and a couple of polling booth recounts during the week have seen some preference errors fixed up and extended her lead to about 1600 votes. With Phelps now highly likely to become the Wentworth’s MP, she’s begun speaking about what she wants to work on when she reaches parliament. For many people in Wentworth, the issues that this election was fought on were value based, such as getting children out of detention in Nauru, action on climate change and LGBTIQ+ issues – things the government haven’t been focusing on as much recently.

Phelps is acutely aware that she doesn’t have much time to act in parliament – the next federal election is due in the first half of next year – but it’s the Government that will also have a tough time in the next six or so months. With Phelps winning the seat, we now have a hung parliament, which Scott Morrison said would make governing hard. He seems to think that all the cross-benchers will try to destabilise the government. Given most cross-bench MPs – like Rebekha Sharkie, Andrew Wilkie, Adam Bandt and Cathy McGowan – tend to judge each motion or piece legislation on its merits and also discuss things with the government, it is unlikely they will intentionally band together to overthrow the Prime Minister and the government.

This week also saw the National Apology for victims of child sexual abuse from Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten. The apologised for the government’s inaction on child abuse in the early days, as well as for abuse suffered in facilities run by the states, churches and charities. Julia Gillard came to Canberra for the apology, and received lots of cheers and applause, as she was the one that announced the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Abuse. The government also didn’t hold Question Time on Monday, out of respect for the victims and attendees at the apology in order to show that the day was about them, not about politics.

Meanwhile there are continued calls for the government to remove and resettle all the refugees detained in detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru. Earlier in the week, eleven children (and presumably their families) were removed from Nauru and brought to Australia for urgent medical care. However, many adults and children are still in detention. There are suggestions to resettle some refugees in New Zealand, which has been offered multiple times by our neighbours in the last decade – but the New Zealand government understandably wants more information, especially given Australia still hasn’t decided whether they’re going to let people settled in NZ come to Australia at all, even as tourists. There are also thoughts about sending migrants to regional centres in Australia, which is all well and good but you must have the infrastructure and services to make that work. There were also rallies in Sydney and Melbourne this weekend, calling for detention on Manus Island and Nauru to be ended.

The plan to move the Australian Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was a key issue covered in Senate Estimates this week, with revelations that it was a bit of a captain’s call. Foreign Minister Marise Payne didn’t know about the plan until she was asked to notify Australia’s neighbours, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade wasn’t consulted, and the Chief of the Defence Force, Angus Campbell, found out through the media instead of being notified by the government, which Campbell felt wasn’t ideal.

The government announced this week that superannuation would be modified, such that there would be caps of fees paid, and making the life and income insurance cover optional for those under the age of 25 and in inactive super accounts. While the fee caps are being received pretty well, there are mixed reactions to the potential insurance cover changes – super funds feel that a change would leave thousands of young people without cover, and some people who have ended up needing to use their superannuation’s automatic life insurance or income protection has been very useful.

This week saw the Duke of Sussex attending Invictus Games events on Sunday and then unveil a plaque on Fraser Island on Monday, while the Duchess of Sussex rested. They spend the middle of the week in the Pacific, visiting Fiji and Tonga, before returning to Australia on Friday night to attend the Australian Geographic Society Awards, and attend the Wheelchair Basketball finals and the Invictus Games Closing Ceremony on Saturday. They’re now headed to New Zealand, where they will spend the rest of their trip before heading back to England.

The Government has announced that they will start an investment fund to help drought-proof regional areas for future droughts, while at a summit on farming and the drought, held at Old Parliament House. There won’t be any money for two years though, and the full amount promised wont be fully given our for a decade after that – which is a good long-term plan perhaps, but it relies on the Coalition being returned to government at the 2019 Federal Election, which may not happen. Some farmers though are also suggesting that the government needs to look at programs to help farmers for whom an exit from farming would be the best option rather than helping drought-proof their farms.

Also this week, Fraser Anning has been dumped by the Katter’s Australia Party, after he brought a motion to have a plebiscite on non-European migration, which is something Anning thinks should be stopped. Meanwhile, Malcolm Turnbull has returned to Australia after spending some time in America – while also facing criticism for not helping the Liberal Party during the election campaign.

Finally this week, Scott Morrison announced that returned service members would be able to get discounts on things they buy with the new veterans card coming out early next year. Also, there is a push for more intergenerational care programs, particularly between young children in childcare and the elderly in aged care. Evidence shows that it teaches young children to be comfortable around older people and in turn, it helps the older people feel they have a purpose and a greater feeling of self-worth.

Tweet of the Week

Days like this I just want to go to wherever ⁦⁦@jonkudelka⁩ lives and just shake his hand very vigorously. pic.twitter.com/e5eVlDMUwK

— Annabel Crabb (@annabelcrabb) October 24, 2018

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

VICE Australia’s new “Dolly Doctor” for the social media age – Walkley Magazine

Laura Tingle on how the Liberals are dealing with the Wentworth result – ABC Online

Parties urged to be honest about businesses paying for political access – The Guardian

 

The Week That Was – September 16 to September 23

The Liberal Party is still dealing with allegations of bullying and sexism against women, with Gilmore MP Ann Sudmalis announcing she will not contest her seat at the next election. She’s citing bullying from NSW State MP Gareth Ward and branch stacking in her electorate. This, combined with Julia Bank’s decision not to re-contest her seat, Lucy Gichuhi being placed in an unwinnable spot on the Senate ballot paper in South Australia, Jane Prentice loosing her pre-selection battle earlier this year, and the suspicion that Julie Bishop may not re-contest her seat of Curtin, has the Liberal’s pool of women dropping from its already low numbers. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced internal processes to investigate some of these allegations, however there is little information on these internal machinations and women in the party, especially Kelly O’Dwyer, are calling for these investigations to be independent.

Meanwhile there a continuing calls for there to be quotas in the Liberal Party, which most of the men in the Liberal Party don’t think necessary; and Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie has said that she will withdraw support for the government if they don’t sort out the women’s issue by the Wentworth by-election.

Speaking of the seat of Wentworth, the Liberals have a serious challenger in Independent Dr Kerryn Phelps. Phelps, a Sydney City Councillor, GP and marriage equality campaigner, says that if she wins, she would guarantee supply in order to keep stability. It’s thought Phelps could have a decent chance at the seat, despite Wentworth being held by the Liberals at 17%. This is because a lot of that margin is attributed to Malcolm Turnbull’s personal popularity, and many in the seat of Wentworth are unhappy about how Turnbull was treated. This combined with the fact that the Liberals didn’t choose a female candidate, and Kerryn Phelps is a “local”, could result in a large swing against the Liberal Party. To give context on the whole “local” thing, while there is no law that says you have to live in the electorate you’re representing, in Sydney if you’re not from the area in which you’re running (at least somewhat) you’re not considered to be a “local”. So Dave Sharma, who lives on the North Shore, on the other side of Sydney Harbour to Wentworth, isn’t considered to be a “local”. He is apparently thinking of moving to the electorate, but I have a suspicion that he’d want to wait to see if he’ll actually get the seat.

It got a bit weird though this week, when Scott Morrison didn’t show up for a press conference with Dave Sharma, instead opting to visit a school and talk about school funding. It appears Morrison’s people didn’t tell Sharma he wouldn’t be coming, so Sharma was left standing around, only to have the lectern gate-crashed by Kerryn Phelps, announcing that she would preference the Liberal Party over the Labor Party – doing a backflip on her announcement the day before that she would be putting the Liberals last and Labor ahead of them.

It has been revealed that two media moguls got involved in the Liberal instability during the week of the spill that saw Morrison become Prime Minister. Kerry Stokes, the head of SevenWest Media and Rupert Murdoch, the head of NewsCorp, have been named as getting involved. According to multiple retellings (mostly from Malcolm Turnbull since he headed off to NYC), Turnbull contacted Stokes to ask him whether NewsCorp was actually out to get him, so Stokes obliged and spoke with Murdoch, who confirmed that he had told NewsCorp to editorialise against Malcolm Turnbull and push for Peter Dutton. Funnily enough, much like most of the country and the Liberal Party, Stokes didn’t think Dutton as PM was such a good idea, so instructed editorials be written in favour of Scott Morrison and Julie Bishop. One should take this story with a grain of salt given that it’s been retold quite a few times and has come from a quite bitter Malcolm Turnbull.

The government has announced that they will prevent a number of people with outstanding welfare debts from travelling out of the country. These people have either been accidentally overpaid or they are deliberately defrauding the government, and are yet to pay back their debts despite repeated attempts to get them to pay the money back. The concern is however, that this could end up the same way at that debt collection debacle (which happened nearly two years ago, and I wrote about it earlier here), and there are also concerns about whether these travel bans will only ever be used as a last resort.

The Prime Minister has announced that there will be a Royal Commission into Aged Care. This is partially due to a two-part Four Corners investigation into the industry, and preempted the broadcast of the show by 24 hours. There are no costings or terms of reference yet, but the announcement has garnered support from the opposition, who says that there needs to be better pay for aged care workers and more doctors and nurses. There are calls for there to be nationally legislated minimum staff to patient ratios at aged care homes, like there are at childcare centres, which the industry says isn’t necessary.

The Banking Royal Commission is looking into home insurance this week, with Youi admitting it failed to provide “awesome service” (their words) to two clients. In one case, it took 18 months for Youi to arrange for the repair of a roof damaged after a freak hailstorm in Broken Hill, and in another, Youi is yet to organise the repairs on a home damaged by Cyclone Debbie. Meanwhile, Suncorp has admitted to showing “insufficient compassion” to a long-term customer, and AAMI (owned by Suncorp) have admitted to misleading advertising and failing to cover the complete cost of he repairs of a bushfire ravaged home.

Also this week, there were concerns over the conflicts of interest of Margie McKenzie, a board member of the Marine Park Authority. McKenzie’s husband Col, almost completely owns the Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators, and is a board member of the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre. Both of these organisations received money from the Marine Park Authority, which was funded to a company called Gempearl, which is contracted to eradicate the crown-of-thorns starfish in the Barrier Reef. Gempearl is owned by both McKenzies, meaning that there is a massive conflict of interest on Margie’s part. She has said that she abstained from voting on those issues, however with a change in legislation, she may soon be ineligible to sit on the Marine Park Authority’s board. However, this will no longer be a concern, as McKenzie resigned over the weekend, following the story’s broadcast.

Finally this week, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is going to visit Darwin in November for trade meetings. It’s been revealed that Infrastructure Australia refused to give NSW money for their light rail project, as they felt it would have little benefit and would worsen congestion in the Sydney CBD; and the government has increased the maximum penalty for food tampering from 10 years to 15 years, in order to bring the full force of the law upon whoever is putting needles in fruits (Queensland Health says strawberries are safe to buy, just keep cutting them in half). Also, Catholic and Independent schools have earned themselves a $4 billion payment over ten years to transition to the Gonski funding program, closing one battlefront and potentially opening another in the form of public schools.

Tweet of the Week

Seriously, who doesn’t like strawberries but does like eating a raw onion like it is an apple? https://t.co/OraMggMdOP

— Tanya Plibersek (@tanya_plibersek) September 19, 2018

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

WA Parliament still has a ban on breastfeeding in the chamber – ABC Online

How leaders work hard at being “normal” – ABC Online

The Week That Was – August 12 to August 18

Politicians returned to Canberra this week after a two month break, with the government ready to tackle two major policy issues in the first few weeks: company tax cuts and the National Energy Guarantee – but more on that later. This week also saw the swearing-in of the five “Super Saturday” by-election victors – Susan Lamb, Justine Keay, Rebekha Sharkie and Josh Wilson, who fell victim to section 44 of the constitution, along with Patrick Gorman who is replacing Tim Hammond, who left politics for family reasons.

This week also saw the maiden speech by Fraser Anning. Now, bear with me, this is going to get a tad complicated… Mr Anning is new to parliament, because he replaced One Nations Senator Malcolm Roberts when Roberts fell victim to section 44 of the constitution. Anning, before being sworn in to the Senate, had a fight with Pauline Hanson and left the One Nation party to join up with Katter’s Australia Party.

Fraser Anning’s speech was, well, interesting to say the least – and a bit (or a lot) racist. He advocated for a return to the mid-20th century White Australia Policy, an end to Muslim immigration and may have in reference to these two issues, used the term ‘final solution’. This is a term which, for many, stirs up memories of the Nazis and the Holocaust. If it really floats your boat, you can go and look up the speech, but I’m not going to give it anymore airtime or attention.

Anning was widely criticised by all sides of politics – Liberal, Labor, and the Greens; along with Derryn Hinch, who upset Pauline Hanson by suggesting Anning’s speech was “Pauline Hanson on steroids.” It gets weirder though, because by some freak of nature, Pauline Hanson, said she was “appalled” by the speech, as you would assume this kind of speech would be somewhat up her alley. Meanwhile, Bob Katter thought Anning’s speech was awesome and was squawking about how it was what many in Australia were thinking but were too afraid to say… which I certainly hope isn’t the case. One positive out of all of this was the immense unity shown by both sides of politics, through speeches by Penny Wong, Malcolm Turnbull, Ed Husic and many more.

Company tax cuts are unlikely to be dealt with for a while, because negotiations still need to happen with senators, and they can be difficult people to deal with sometimes.

This week though, was all about the National Energy Guarantee (NEG). This guarantee is theoretically supposed to reduce energy bills, increase energy reliability and help reduce emissions by the 26% target set at the Paris talks. Turnbull first had to get his policy through the Coalition party room, which he did with only a few back benchers reserving the right to cross the floor. These people were Tony Abbott, George Christiansen, Andrew Hastie, and Tony Pasin. Basically the rest of the week was focused around the fact that key conservatives in the Coalition were apparently not totally on board with the whole NEG, and swirling leadership rumours – which lead to Turnbull backflipping on how the emissions target would be enforced. Originally it was to be legislated, but it will now be regulated, which means it’s unenforceable by law.

The Banking Royal Commission continued this week with their inquiry into superannuation. It is apparent that retail superannuation funds are just a little bit naughty, a lot of the time. Again, bear with me, this is complicated, but this week we learned that NAB and its superfund MLC, have not been telling the regulators ASIC and APRA – the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority – things they should have been telling them. Colonial First State, owned by the Commonwealth Bank, was still charging fees after the client had died, but also for no service which is illegal, and they were also forcing clients onto super expensive in-house CommInsure insurance. Meanwhile ANZ got in trouble for trying to sell superannuation through bank tellers, which is also illegal, because bank tellers aren’t actually qualified to give financial advice.

All of this was compounded by the fact that APRA revealed that they tended not to publicly pursue some of these transgressions, so as to avoid damaging confidence in the finance industry.

Also this week, there are concerns about the ATAR cut-offs for some education and teaching degrees. It appears that some universities are allowing students into these degrees with an ATAR of less than 20 – the maximum ATAR you can get is 99.95, so 20 isn’t great – which is understandably concerning to parents and politicians alike. Now, I am surrounded by teachers and pre-service teachers in my personal life, and they’re all quite irritated. My partner, a pre-service teacher in his second last year of study, is mostly irritated that the media, when they picked up this story, didn’t actually talk to students studying education degrees. Most of these degrees are now four years long, have become more specialised, and he’s seen many students drop out in the first year.

Finally this week, former Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson will face his 12 month sentence in home detention;  former Governor-General and former Anglican Archbishop Peter Hollingworth is being investigated for concealing abuse in the Anglican church, an issue which forced him to resign from his vice-regal post back in the early 2000s; and there are concerns that some people may be missing out on their medical care because of the out-of-pocket costs some doctors charge, despite a rise in bulk billing.

Tweet of the Week

Kristina Keneally is still having a go at the Great Barrier Reef Foundation… (you may have to click the tweet to see what Keneally has written)

https://twitter.com/workmanalice/status/1029222975101263872

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

An excerpt from Ed Husic’s speech in response to Fraser Anning’s speech – ABC Online

Bushfire seasons are starting earlier and lasting longer – ABC Online

 

The Two Weeks That Were – July 15 to July 28

The last fortnight saw the final days of campaigning before Super Saturday. There were some awkward moments, like the revelation that Liberal Candidate for Longman Trevor Ruthenberg was claiming he had an army medal he didn’t actually have. He says that it was an innocent mistake, in that he claimed he had an Australian Service Medal (given to those who serve in non-war operations overseas) rather than an Australian Defence Medal (given to those who go through an initial enlistment period or 4 years service).

There has also been a bit of awkwardness for the Liberal Candidate in Mayo, Georgina Downer, who hasn’t been able to shake the public perception that she is an outsider being parachuted in. Even with help from her father, former Howard Government Minister Alexander Downer, and even John Howard himself, it appeared that the Liberals began to feel that Downer was going to lose the seat to Centre Alliance Candidate Rebekha Sharkie.

The results ended up being called on the night, and Labor has won Longman and Braddon, as well as their two seats in Western Australia that the Liberal Party did not contest, while Sharkie won Mayo.

The government says they are going to get rid of junk health insurance policies (i.e. ones that don’t really cover you but could be bought cheaply to get the tax rebate) and there will be a crackdown on how health insurances are advertised. However, the opposition has pointed out that the only thing the government has done to protect people from junk policies is to just remove the rebate from them, rather than actually outlaw them.

Meanwhile, the government is giving people until October 15 to decide whether they want to opt out of the MyHealthRecord system. It’s being touted as an easy way for all your medical practitioners (and your emergency contact) to have your medical information all in one place, but there are concerns that the system is not secure enough especially given it will have all your personal information on that. There are also concerns over who else can have access to it – the police, health insurers and the government. Many people, including government MPs are opting out of the system.

If you decide to opt out you can do so here.

Malcolm Turnbull spent the a few days in Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory to promise better services to help those in Tennant Creek deal with alcohol abuse and other social issues that the lead to the brutal sexual abuse of a two-year old child earlier this year. Turnbull went on patrol with a group that deals with alcohol abuse is the streets. However, he went on a Sunday, which is when the bottle shops are closed in Tennant Creek – so some suggest he didn’t really get the full picture. The government has announced that they will work an a plan with the NT government and NGOs to co-ordinate services so that there isn’t an overlap, but there are no costings or plans as of yet.

The Government has announced that there will be a 100-person strong team attached to the NDIS to catch people trying to defraud the system. Users of the scheme say that’s all well and good, but money could be better spent training more disability support staff and improving wait times for people’s applications. What’s even more awkward at the moment for the NDIS is that one of the people on their advertising has had their NDIS application rejected, despite having early onset Parkinson’s disease and a spinal injury (and being promised he was eligible).

Also during the last two weeks, Lindsay MP Emma Husar is taking personal leave while an investigation takes place into her office after allegations that she made a taxpayer-funded staffer run personal errands for her. Meanwhile, there has been some concern about government services going online, particularly those used most often by the elderly, as some of them are not computer literate.

Finally this week, there have been inaccurate predictions of Australia’s population growth and we are now going to hit 25 million people in August this year; Malcolm Turnbull is calling on the Pope to sack the Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson now that he’s been convicted of concealing child abuse and is refusing to quit; if the Labor Party wins the next NSW state election, they’ve pledged to define a ‘gig worker’ and give them rights under industrial relations laws; and Medals of Bravery have been given to the Australian divers involved in the Thai Cave rescue.

Tweet of the Fortnight

Oh, Lee Lin Chin is quitting SBS News…. July 29th is her last night.

Tonight I will read @SBSNews for the second last time. Watch it or miss the 2nd most important night of your life.

— Lee Lin Chin (@LeeLinChin) July 28, 2018

 

 

The Three Weeks That Were – June 24 to July 14

The week of June 24 was the last week of parliament before winter break, so after that, with the exception of “Super Saturday” campaigning, was pretty quiet.

1. The tax battle continued in parliament over the last week of sitting, with the government really trying to get their corporate tax cuts through. It mostly involved trying to figure out whether Pauline Hanson and her one remaining One Nation colleague were going to support it, and it now appears she won’t. Pauline Hanson and said that she wouldn’t, then that she would, and then flipped back to not supporting it – before denying she was flip-flopping. In fact, it got to the point where the government decided to wait until after the Winter Break to continue pursuing the tax cuts.
2. The Banking Royal Commission has shown the banks to once again be pretty horrible to people. This time the focus was on farmers and the indigenous community. Farmers were being treated badly when it came to paying back loans during droughts when money is tighter, forcing many off their farms, while the indigenous community is being exploited due to poor financial literacy – mostly by small operators looking to make a quick buck.
3. Super Saturday campaigning is continuing, with Labor looking safe in the two WA seats to the point where federal political news is very sparse on it. Meanwhile the seat of Longman in Queensland and Braddon in Tasmania could be won by the Liberals. This is virtually unheard of as usually the swing in a by-election is against the government, not to it. In Mayo, however it looks as if the main battle will be between the incumbent Centre Alliance candidate Rebekha Sharkie, and Liberal candidate Georgina Downer (daughter of former MP Alexander Downer). Sharkie got into parliament on the coattails of Nick Xenophon, and now with the Xenophon mania fizzing out, Sharkie has to work harder – she has however been lucky to have the support of Bob Katter and Cathy McGowan. On the other hand, Downer is facing criticism for being an outsider that has been parachuted in.
4. Bill Shorten caused some commotion during the last three weeks, making a “captain’s call” (remember those from the Abbott era?) about repealing mid-size business tax cuts. Most of the higher-ranking shadow Cabinet members did try to convince the public it had been discussed prior to Shorten’s off the cuff announcement – they weren’t totally convincing – and it did not help that some of the backbenchers essentially confirmed it was a captains call. Shorten and Chris Bowen have since announced a backflip, and these tax cuts will remain in place.
5. Denison MP Andrew Wilkie has revealed (under parliamentary privilege) that the government is prosecuting a former ASIO spy known as Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery under the espionage act for revealing that Australia bugged the East Timorese Cabinet during negotiations regarding an oil field between the countries.
6. Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson has now been sentenced to 12 months in prison – but is more likely to spend it under house arrest with his relations rather than in an actual jail cell. Wilson was found guilty of concealing child abuse while a bishop in the Hunter Valley/Maitland area decades ago. He is yet to resign his role as Archbishop, and he is planning to appeal.
7. David Leyonhjelm and Sarah Hanson-Young are having an epic fight right now, with Hanson-Young calling in the lawyers. During Hanson-Young’s speech in the Senate on domestic violence, Leyonhjelm told her to “stop shagging men” and when she confronted him on it, he told her to “f- off” (or at least that’s what Hanson-Young said). Anyway, Leyonhjelm was invited to a Sky News politics show the weekend following this exchange where he made comments about Hanson-Young’s character that amounted to slut shaming – no one else is broadcasting what he actually said because Hanson-Young is now suing Leyonhjelm for defamation.
8. Tony Abbott has gone back to doing the thing he does best – causing trouble and stirring the pot. He’s decided that Australia needs to abandon the Paris Climate Agreement that he signed up to – saying it was an aspirational goal not a commitment to a goal, which is not what he said back when he signed Australia up for the agreement.
9. The “GST pie” is being re-divided and it is very confusing. Essentially, Western Australia, now without their Mining boom, needs a bit more of the share of the GST, and so the government is going to top up the GST money pile to help that transition. Other than that, NSW and Victoria, being the richest states will be the benchmark states to help determine what the other states get.
10. Agriculture Minister David Littleproud has called in the farmers and the banks to hash out a deal that allows farmers who are doing it tough in the current drought in NSW and Queensland can survive and keep their farms. The basic idea, from what I understand, is that during the drought years, levies and loans will be cheaper to pay back, balanced out by paying more in the good years. It’s thought the banks will probably agree to this suggestion so that they can reclaim some of their tattered reputation after the Banking Royal Commission.
11. Mark Latham has re-emerged in the political sphere, this time voicing a robo-call for One Nation in the seat of Longman. Labor doesn’t seem concerned – saying if he repeats the result he gave the Labor party as their leader in 2004 (spoiler: it was a terrible showing for Labor) then they have no concerns about the rise of One Nation in Longman.
12. The ACCC has revealed that with some help from state government and the regulators, electricity bills could be made cheaper for households and businesses. The ACCC report says that confusing bill structures as well as the “lazy tax” (where people who are loyal or stay with the same provider are charged more and they are unlikely to pay attention to their bills) are what is making it most expensive for people.
13. NSW State MP Daryl Maguire has stepped down from the Liberal Party and his parliamentary secretary role after an ICAC investigation revealed he was trying to get a kickback from a property developer.
14. The public is being reminded to only claim what they are actually entitled to in their tax returns, reminding people that the cost of travelling to and from work is not claimable, and neither are clothes you buy to wear to work (unless it is a uniform with a logo and you always have to wear it).

Budget Week – May 6 to May 12

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.

I was locked in a room for six hours with every political journalist in the country. This is my story. #Budget2018 pic.twitter.com/QGbsMeOubm

— Mark Humphries (@markhumphries) May 8, 2018

Thing’s I’ve Been Looking at Online

Annabel Crabb’s take on the Budget – ABC Online