Tag Archives: The Guardi

The Week that Was – December 1 to December 7

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I think that having Tony Abbott as Prime Minister is making each week incredibly hectic.

First there was the backflip on Gonski, they said they would, then they said they wouldn’t and now they are again – all in the space of three days. Lovely. The state politicians are happy now – if not still a little irked that they’ve been doing policy gymnastics.

Again, there have been international tensions between Australia and it’s allies this week as well – first there was a raid on the offices of the lawyer representing East Timor. Attorney-General George Brandis ok-ed it on national security grounds. Obviously the lawyer isn’t impressed – he’s representing East Timor in the Hague over a resources deal with Australia a few years back. The Timorese believe that the Australians spied on them so that they could have the upper hand. Either way, I don’t see how raiding the office of a lawyer in an international court case protects national security, but what’s done is done. Julie Bishop got a talking to in China over Australia’s criticism of China’s air defence zone. Before she could even reply the media was bundled out of the room.

The Coalition has also made clear that it doesn’t really like the ABC much. With Senator Cory Bernardi saying they should have their funding cut during a party meeting. Tony Abbott on the other hand was a little more civil when it came to being critical. He said they had poor judgement for running the story on spying on Indonesia as well as name-dropping the Guardian. You can see that here.

Abbott is also annoyed with the senate because they didn’t pass his Carbon Tax repeal. He’s threatening to keep them sitting through Christmas but that doesn’t really work given that the Senate has its own calendar and I don’t think Tony Abbott really wants to spend his Christmas yelling at the Labor party – I’m sure he’d much rather spend time with his family. I could be wrong here, but I think it’s an empty threat.

Also this week, the High Court reserved it’s decision on the ACT Same-sex marriage law, meaning that this week saw some of the first same-sex marriages in Australia – despite the fact that they could be void next week. It seems that some don’t care and have even said they will marry as many times as is necessary. A West Australian State politician, Stephen Dawson, got married in front of Parliament House in Canberra just after midnight on Saturday as did many other couples across the ACT.

So, the ACT is the first Australian state or territory to have same-sex marriage, while also this week, Hawaii became the 15th US State to allow same-sex marriage. That’s 12.5% of Australia allowing same-sex marriage, compared with 30% of the US.

Tweets of the Week

https://twitter.com/JezFernandezABC/status/409448014701273088

What I’ve Been Reading/Listening/Watching..etc

Anton Enus (who was born in South Africa) on Mandela’s death – SBS Online

Adam Spencer left 702 ABC Sydney this week – 702 ABC Sydney

The ABC Camera guy who cooked after Typhoon Haiyan – Manila Bulletin