So, Griffith will remain in Labor hands after the by-election last week, despite a lower than expected voter turnout. Who can blame them though? People in that area have had to go and vote up to five times in the last three years.
Meanwhile, the Government has decided to hold a Royal Commission into construction union corruption after the ABC and Fairfax broke the story. Speaking of unions, Tony Abbott seems to like blaming them for problems. This week Toyota announced they would stop manufacturing cars in Australia by 2017. This means that there will be no more car manufacturing in Australia after 2017. He says that the unions are to blame because they were demanding about work conditions, despite the fact that Toyota’s isn’t blaming them at all.
Tony Abbott has also been using his “some businesses close, others open” and “some jobs finish and others begin” lines again. While that line wasn’t commented on in Australia, an Australian CNN journalist threw some excellent shade by commenting “No word yet on what those new jobs will be”. There are fears however, because if the number of new jobs created is less than the number of jobs lost, there could be a recession here in Australia, which we avoided thanks to Kevin Rudd’s Labor government in 2007.
SPC Ardmona has been thrown a $22 million lifeline by the Victorian Government in a deal with the parent company Coca Cola Amatil. They’ll upgrade the plant with the money and hopeful keep some workers there. I don’t know if the Victorian Government were always going to give some money anyway, but they had promised to match the $25 million that SPC asked the Federal Government for, had they helped. Another issue is Qantas, Australia’s national airline. They would also like some money and some ownership legislation change. They’re saying that because they are not Holden, and they mainly want a change in their foreign ownership guidelines, the government should really consider helping them, and that argument appears to have worked.
Moving on, the Close the Gap Report shows that while there have been some gains within the indigenous population, particularly in decreasing infant mortality and the rise in Year 12 attainment, there are still some major issues to deal with, such as life expectancy and unemployment. The national unemployment rate also rose this month, which was expected but there are disagreements over who or what is to blame.
On to international matters, the foreign minister Julie Bishop has been in Fiji with delegates from the Pacific Forum in the hopes that once free and fair elections are held in Fiji later this year, the nation can rejoin the forum. Bishop says that she hopes to increase to trade between Australia and Fiji. Of more concern however, is that when the Americans come to Indonesia in the next week, the Indonesian Foreign Minister has said he will be talking to them about Australia’s actions in Operation Sovereign Borders. Oh dear.
Tweet of the Week
Juanita Phillips, the weekday newsreader for ABC News NSW has got Twitter (and a new news set)
Faux Pas of the Week
A lesson in paying attention in Federal Parliament. Nickolas Varvaris, a Liberal MP, appeared to be asleep during a division of the house and he ended up voting with Labor, because no-one told him what had happened. Oops.
What I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening
A Valentine’s themed Dumb Ways to Die message (see the original here)
The ABC Elections Site – with two (maybe three) state elections and multiple by-elections this year, not to mention some recent redistributions, you need to have a look.
Kara L 