Tag Archives: Speaker

The Week That Was – August 9 to August 15

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This week was a crazy one in politics.

The expenses saga came to an end, with Tony Smith being elected speaker on Monday. He says that he will be different, starting with the fact that he will not sit in on party meetings, and that he will help make real change in parliament. He also apologised to Tony Abbott, admitting that he had friends from the other side of politics. The thing is, Smith was not Abbott’s first choice, but Scott Morrison’s  – or at least that’s the rumour. Meanwhile the expenses inquiry is again being talked about, as the Greens call for an independent Integrity Commissioner and it becomes apparent that there is a disconnect between the politicians and the public.

Once the drama with Bronwyn Bishop was over, the Liberal Party had a marathon meeting on Monday night after the topic of same-sex marriage came up. The meeting, which some have described as poorly managed, resolved – with two-thirds majority – to keep the same policy to what Howard legislated in 2004 that defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Furthermore, Abbott apparently had a “captain’s pick” moment and announced that there would be a plebiscite or referendum on the issue at or after the next election. There are issues with this however both legal and political. Legally, it is pointless as our marriage laws are an Act of Parliament, not enshrined in our constitution, as Ireland’s was. Politically, as Malcolm Turnbull pointed out, it will continue to distract from the Liberal Party’s policies and reforms.

Another drama this week came when it was revealed that Justice Dyson Heydon, the Commissioner for the Trade Union Royal Commission agreed to attend and speak at a Liberal Party fundraiser. He has since dropped out of the event, however it has led to Labor pointing to perceived bias, if not bias itself. Justice Heydon has said that he did not know it was a party fundraiser, and released a statement saying that people in his office made it clear to organisers that if it was a party fundraiser, Heydon would not be able to attend. Labor wants to see this correspondence, and until they do, they’ll probably run the “of he not biased, then he looks it” line.

The costings for the Government’s environment policies are not due out until 2017, however some information has leaked out, suggesting that the 26-28% reduction will not affect coal industries and will most likely be done through the cheapest means possible. The IPCC is worried about the plans and Labor wants to see the government’s modelling before they show people theirs.

Abbott rounded out one of the worst week’s he’s possibly ever had by trying to make the upcoming 2016 election about trust and the environment, with Abbott talking about how “every election is about trust” and how we only have one planet. This was not received well by the people in my house, with comments about his competency and the agreement with the Labor speakers on the news that Abbott is trying desperately to save his job.

Finally this week, Abbott has had some trouble adjusting to the new speaker, as he referred to Smith as “Madam Speaker” at least once this week, it has been announced that the 2016 Census is going to be carried out primarily online, the Hutchison Ports Wharf workers are due to head back to work after the Fair Work Commission said that they’d been fired unfairly, the world celebrates the end of WWII in the Pacific and there is talk that we are to get involved in airstrikes in Syria.

Tweet of the Week

Abbott took part in the City2Surf last Sunday

https://twitter.com/MarkDiStef/status/630260742285955073

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

NSW and Victoria have a go at each other over Victoria’s new branding – Buzzfeed

New Media Adventures in Oz – ABC Radio National

Jacqui Lambie’s revelation about her son – ABC News

Penny Wong and Joe Hockey meet outside the ABC radio booth on Tuesday morning after the same-sex marriage decision in the Liberal Party room:

The Week that Was – August 2 to August 8

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Well, as the edit in last week’s post showed, Bronwyn Bishop resigned. It’s believed that despite her friendship and trust from Tony Abbott, it was causing too much damage and she had to go. Abbott has been trying to shift the blame from her to the system, even announcing an inquiry into the system to see if the rules can be made clearer (which they probably can be). Parliament is due back soon, which means that people are putting themselves forward for the role of Speaker. Constitutionally, the vote for the new speaker will happen first thing, as you can’t run the House of Representatives without a Speaker. There are a few people being suggested for the role, such as Philip Ruddock, Andrew Southcott and the current Deputy Speaker Bruce Scott. There is hope that they will be far less partisan than Ms Bishop was.

MPs have begun to shut up about the whole entitlements saga, after Tony Burke went on the attack on Bishop, which lead Christopher Pyne to go on the attack regarding Burke’s spending, before it was pointed out that Pyne is just as bad as Tony Burke. Since then, MPs have not really said anything because it’s become clear that most of them have done something inappropriate at least once.

Abbott spent his week in South Australia and Victoria, announcing contracts for ship builders in SA, which they hope will improve employment and the Liberal Party’s vote in the state. Meanwhile in Victoria, he’s been focusing on jobs and training, which has made some wonder if South Australia is getting a better deal than Victoria.

NAPLAN tests are showing that there is little to no improvement in Australia’s literacy and numeracy skills overall, although there has been major improvement in Queensland and Western Australia. Most experts and teachers are suggesting that there needs to be more information and resources for teaching staff and a more individual focus on students.

It’s believed that the terrorism legislation may be struck down in the High Court, after it was revealed by legal experts that the legislation is poorly written and extremely broad. It’s believed that people who a caught putting graffiti on Commonwealth buildings could be charged with terrorism offences and lose their Australian citizenship if they are dual citizens.

Malaysia has announced that the piece of plane that washed up on Réunion Island is from MH370. However, the French, who are looking after the plane at the BEA, want to do more tests to double-check.

Finally this week, unemployment is up to 6.3%, it’s been revealed that the Vietnamese asylum seekers who were intercepted off WA a few weeks ago have been sent back to Vietnam, and that under Peter Dutton, 20 boats have been turned back, eight more than under Scott Morrison, Foreign investors are still being cracked down upon, with around 400 sales suspicious, the Productivity Commission has suggested changing penalty rates, and the MUA is picketing at Hutchison Ports (a holding company for Hutchison Whampoa) locations after they sacked workers by email this week.

Tweet of the Week

Taylor Swift continues world domination.

https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/628452918308384768

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

First Dog on the Moon introduces Ian the Climate Denialist Potato – The Guardian

Kumi Taguchi talks about her father’s experience in Japan during WWII – ABC The Drum

The Week That Was – July 26 to August 1

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The ALP Conference finished last Sunday, with an agreement for a conscience vote on marriage equality for the next two parliamentary terms, a promise to introduce a marriage equality bill within the first 100 days of government if they win the next election, and an agreement to make climate change policy one of the key issues at the next election. Commentators believe Shorten has come out of the conference alright, but needs to prove himself as an alternative PM to non-ALP members. Meanwhile, Tony Abbott has been scaremongering on the proposed ETS that the ALP is taking to the next election, saying it is a big scary tax, only for Malcolm Turnbull to point out that the RET is technically a tax too.

Bronwyn Bishop is still under fire, originally for not apologising and going to Sophie Mirabella’s wedding on the taxpayer purse, then apologising because the PM’s office told her to, and then for a $6000 charter flight to seniors’ events and fundraisers two weeks after the $5000 chopper flight that started it all. There also appears to be some sort of link between the Ms Bishop and the charter company she’s been using, but it is not clear what that link is. Meanwhile Labor has announce that it will only support the government in condolence motions in Parliament, Meanwhile Christopher Pyne and Abbott are still supporting the Speaker, while Malcolm Turnbull has been tweeting about the trains he’s been taking and joking about justifying the $4 train ticket.

EDIT 5PM August 2 – Bronwyn Bishop has resigned.

After the Labor Party agreed to have a quota of 50% women in parliament in the next couple of years, which has sparked discussion about why women don’t go into politics, with some suggesting that Question Time has something to do with it. Senior Liberals are not in favour of targets despite the fact that the general belief is that the Liberal Party has problems with women.

The Royal Commission into Child Abuse looked into Jehovah’s Witnesses, where it was revealed that church elders investigated abuse claims internally, and never reported any cases to the police. Members of the church also admitted to destroying notes.

Finally this week, the guy who came back from Syria last week has been charged with terrorism offences, paperwork acquired by the ABC through Freedom of Information shows the ATO was worried about people rorting the small business tax breaks, they may have found a section of the MH370 washed up on the French overseas department of Réunion, and Russia vetoed a UN Security Council Resolution to have a tribunal look into the downing of MH17, which made Julie Bishop angry.

Tweet of the Week

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Barrie Cassidy on the Bishop and Goodes Sagas – ABC The Drum

Stan Grant on racism and being Indigenous – The Guardian

SBS2’s The Feed – Douche of the Week

That Time My Notebook Was Left on the Table

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Every night at 7pm, I sit and watch the news. I make notes about politics and watch the news and generally either annoy or amuse the rest of my family. The other day, I got home late and missed the news live, but it had been recorded so that I could watch it later and make notes. My dad had watched the news, and decided to write some notes for me on a page in my notebook:

Dad Story 1

In case you were wondering, it’s fictional.

Something tells me I need to start putting my notebook away.

The Week That Was – September 28 to October 4

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It’s official. Australia is going to Iraq to take part in US airstrikes against Islamic State (IS, aka ISIS/ISIL). At the beginning of the week, while waiting for confirmation, Australian troops were doing practice flights in the UAE and reconnaissance flights over Iraq. The government has not considered Syria yet, and may decide not to go there in the end. However, according to the government, we’re not going to war, we’re going to help a humanitarian mission – despite this the ABC has been using the term ‘war’, so go figure. Australia’s tactical advisors are yet to begin working in Iraq as they haven’t been given their diplomatic immunity, but apparently that will happen soon. Meanwhile, raids were carried out in Melbourne by Victoria Police and the AFP. There was one person arrested and charged for sending money to finance terror organisations. The police say it had noting to do with the young man killed last week, and that the FBI tipped them off about the guy.

At the end of this week, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Senate President decided to force women wearing burqas or niqabs to sit behind the glass walled part of the public gallery, usually reserved for school groups. This “security measure”, as they’re calling it, has been criticised by most people, arguing that it treats Muslim women as second-class citizens, with some calling it religious apartheid. On Friday, Tony Abbott spoke with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Bronwyn Bishop and asked her to reconsider the decision.

That mysterious thing called the budget is still haunting the government, as they try to figure out new ways to save money that won’t upset the Opposition, and will allow for the changes to go through. There is talk of lowering the income limit for tax benefits, as well as fiddling with the large family tax benefit. In the meantime, they’ve also got to find cuts in order to have money to fight in Iraq and fund new terror laws, though getting through a hostile senate may be a challenge, especially if Clive Palmer and the PUP decide not to support the changes the government decides to make.

This week, Scott Morrison announced an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse by guards at the Detention Centre in Nauru, after saying earlier this week that he would be “pretty damn cross” if the allegations are true. However, the investigation is also looking into whether or not the children’s charity Save the Children is orchestrating the claims or encouraging asylum seekers to make such allegations.

As the Ebola outbreak continues in Africa, and with the news of the first person being diagnosed of the disease on US soil, officials are moving to quell the fear here. Australia is at low risk, and while airports are on alert and have the capacity to send suspected Ebola cases to hospitals, we shouldn’t be overly concerned. They’ve also pointed out that in Australia, we have the resources to deal with a patient with Ebola.

In other news, the move to fully privatise Medibank is gaining momentum, with advertising now letting people know that they can register their interest in buying shares in the health fund. While some are happy with the move, there are concerns that jobs could be at risk, premiums will go up, and what happens to the many Australians that picked Medibank due to its link with the government. Also, the Trade Union Royal Commission continued this week with bribery allegations against the MUA, as well as the implication of the CFMEU in activities with crime bosses.

Finally this week, Australia Network stopped transmission into the Asia Pacific, and Australian citizen was killed in Afghanistan, and it turns out some Australian companies are not paying the amount of tax they should be.

Tweets of the Week

ICYMI – Hong Kong has been crippled by protests. But they are some of the most well-behaved and polite protesters you will ever see…

They recycle:

They apologise for barricading train stations:

They shield the cops from the rain:

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

California adopts “Yes means Yes” consent legislation – TIME Magazine

Only in Australia…Bushfire training for journalists – ABC Backstory

How to Comment – The Not Adam

The Week That Was – May 11 to May 17

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Well this week was fun. We got to talk about the Budget.

In the two days before the budget, we received some more information about what would be in it, like a pay freeze for MPs and their staff – which is essentially symbolic. Around 16000 public service jobs will go, 9 government agencies are to be either abolished or merged with others and the Mint, along with three other agencies are to be privatised. However, the media was saying on Monday and on Tuesday before the Budget, it would be a hard sell – with Tony Abbott saying they “will have a good story by the election” – I assume he means the 2016 election.

You can read what I wrote on the night here and here.

There was quite a lot of backlash from the public from this budget, with #ThreeWordBudget trending for at least the first 24 hours after the Budget and the Premiers of almost every state have responded negatively – to the point where they will hold an emergency meeting on Sunday.

It is believed that families, whether they be a single parent family, an elderly couple, or a family with three kids , could lose up to $3000, if not more. The ABC and SBS will have their funding cut, the ABC-run Australia Network will be shut down and the renewable energy sector is getting cuts too.

The catch at the moment is that Tony Abbott and the Coalition do not control the Senate at the moment – even after July 1 they won’t. The Palmer United Party (PUP) and the Greens have said they will not support the Budget through the Senate and there are people on social media encouraging the opposition parties (Labor, PUP, Greens, and the others) to block supply. Tony Abbott will now go on what ABC Political Reporter Mark Simkin called a “country-wide Budget roadshow”.

That roadshow though, will need to include universities if Abbott and his government want to convince everyone that this Budget is worth it. University students have been protesting the most in the last month about changes to university funding, with capped fees to end in 2016. The Group of 8 Universities support this change – at least the people running those universities do – but some teachers and students at these institutions, as well as other universities in Australia do not support it.

Speaking of university students, this video, from Friday shows Julie Bishop heading to an event at The University of Sydney, outside which students were protesting.

She seemed relatively ok with being yelled at and jostled as she was helped through the crowd by aides, but Christopher Pyne thinks the students were encouraged by the Labor party and should be charged with assault, and Tony Abbott called the students “revolting”. Yeah, that’s a fantastic way of trying to convince university students to accept your budget – and it’s ridiculous to think that the opposition encouraged a bunch of university students to protest, especially given that the way I understand it suggests that it was the same group that had been involved in the Q&A protests. Labor said that Pyne needed to grow up, that they didn’t have anything to do with the protest, and that the Coalition “didn’t inherit a budget crisis, they made it”. They also said that they condemn violent protest – but was it violent?

Back to Christopher Pyne though, because this week seems to be him saying or doing things he perhaps shouldn’t. He accused university students of assault, but earlier this week he called Manager of Opposition Business Tony Burke what many perceived to be the c-word…

…and he may also have been making signals to the Speaker of the House, Bronwyn Bishop, adding to talk about whether or not the Speaker is biased (she’s now hit 100 ejections from the House, all Opposition).

That’s all for this week – hopefully there will be less Budget next week.

Tweet of the Week

People applauding the ABC’s Budget coverage – well, the women involved in hosting and interviewing anyway…

https://twitter.com/AdamSpenceAU/status/466198538905350145

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

The Budget Lock-up for Journalists

An interactive summary of the Budget’s “Winners and Losers” – ABC Online

Alan Kohler looks at the “budget of suicidal heroism” – The Business Spectator

The Week That Was – June 23 to June 29

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Wow. What a week.

It began with Julia Gillard copping flak for knitting the Royal Baby a Kangaroo, despite being a supporter of Australia being a republic. I thought that was nice and thoughtful. It ended with a new PM.

It was entertaining, at least for news and political junkies (much like yours truly), and for once, might have had the nation sitting on the edge of their seats. If you weren’t paying attention on Wednesday night you can read what happened in the links at the bottom of this post.

In short, we now have a new Prime Minister – Kevin Rudd.

Not only that, but many people have decided to resign and leave politics, including Julia Gillard, Greg Combet and Peter Garrett. You can see who is staying and going here on the ABC News website. The media did pretty well, especially the ABC and Sky News.

In his first speech as the new PM, Kevin asked for a ‘gentler’ brand of politics and that politicians be nicer to each other. No such luck. By Tony Abbott’s second sentence, he’d taken a stab at Kevin Rudd.

Before I go, I have to say that the Liberal’s rally in Melbourne on the 29th has a distinctive US feel to it. Here’s a picture.

Personally, I don’t think we should go in this direction – but that’s just me. What do you think?

Oh well, let’s hope that next week is a little less frantic – I have a holiday planned!

Quotes of the Week

“I remind the Leader of the Opposition that he is speaking on the indulgence of the chair, and it is being tried” – Anna Burke, Speaker of the House, the day after the spill. Tony Abbott had started getting a bit too vocal about the previous nights shenanigans. (from Hansard)

“Before I conclude, let me say a word or two to young Australians. It’s clear that many of you, in fact far too many of you, have looked at our political system and the parliament in recent years and not liked or respected much of what you have seen. In fact as I rock around the place, talking to my own kids, they see it as a huge national turn off. Well I understand why you have switched off. It’s hardly a surprise but I want to ask you to please come back and listen afresh. It’s really important that we get you engaged, in any way we can. We need you. We need your energy. We need your ideas. We need your enthusiasm and we need you to support us in the great challenges that lie ahead for the country. With your energy, we can start cooking with gas.” Kevin Rudd in his speech after winning the spill, encouraging young Australians to come back and pay attention to politics, ended with one of his signature quips. (from Kevin’s website)

Tweets of the Week

https://twitter.com/hamishNews/status/349856913917345792

(Context: Leigh Sales was on the ABC from 7pm until about 10:45 (she is normally just on between 7:30 and 8pm). She and Annabel Crabb were talking for a good hour or so, holding the fort while the media awaited a slightly late Kevin Rudd to speak)

Links

6:24pm

6:42pm

6:59pm

7:54pm

9:09pm

Speeches

Part 1 (Gillard and Swan)

Part 2 (Rudd and Albanese)

Part 3 (Abbott)