Tag Archives: Weatherill

The Two Weeks That Were – March 11 to March 24

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During the last fortnight there were three elections (yes, three – all on the same night) – the WA state seat of Cottesloe was won by the Liberal Party in a by-election; and the by-election in the Victorian Federal seat of Batman was won by the Labor party’s Ged Kearney, which was a bit of a surprise, given many expected the Greens to win the seat. However it appears that some within the Greens leaked to the media, suggesting their candidate Alex Bhathal is a bully and accused her of branch stacking.

Meanwhile, in South Australia, the Liberal Party has won the State Election in their own right, after 16 years of Labor Party rule. It’s not as bad a gouging as the NSW state election in 2011, as the SA Labor Party only lost 4 seats. Jay Weatherill seemed pragmatic about the loss, which is unsurprising given he’s been in power for 16 years. What was surprising for many is the fact no seats in the South Australian lower house were won by Nick Xenophon’s SA-BEST party, but they will likely have two upper house seats.

During the fortnight, the ASEAN Summit was held in Sydney, which is unusual. Why? Well, apparently Australia is not an actual member. Instead, we’re sort of honorary members because we are a rich, slightly important neighbour. Anyway, we got to host South East Asian leaders, and show off the city – while also hoping to become a full-blown member, which can only happen if the current members vote unanimously to let us in. This consensus model also means that ASEAN doesn’t really tackle human rights issues, although this year they did make some sort of resolution to see what they could do regarding the humanitarian crisis surrounding Rohingya Muslims.

Bill Shorten announced a tax plan where investors will no longer be able to exchange their franking credits for monetary refunds when they get dividends from their investments. This has led to a tax fight between the Liberal and Labor party with accusations that Shorten’s plan will affect mostly “mum and dad” investors and the elderly that manage their own retirement income.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton is in trouble after he implied that South Africa was an uncivilised country. It all started when Dutton (who some believe might be a teensy bit xenophobic) said that he wanted to welcome white South African farmers who are being forced off their land in favour of blacks, who he says are being persecuted. They may very well be persecuted, seeing as it appears that some white farmers have been murdered.

However, given Dutton has a history of appearing to not really want to help refugees from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, all of a sudden passionately calling for us to welcome a bunch of affluent, white South Africans makes him look a little bit bad.

Meanwhile the Royal Commission into the banking and finance sector is continuing with Counsel Assisting Rowena Orr QC and Commissioner Kenneth Hayne QC. Justice Hayne has been getting quite mad with the Big Four banks who have not been very helpful – “forgetting” to include key documents, and abysmally failing to follow Australian business law that requires companies to report things to regulators within a certain amount of time. Meanwhile, Rowena Orr’s expressions, while listening to some of the answers to questions she has asked have been awesome.

Finally this fortnight, there are concerns about a lack of policy to deal with Australia’s rapid population growth; there are questions over what the USA expects us to do now that Australia is exempt from aluminium and steel tariffs; and the Cambridge Analytica scandal has people asking whether Australian political parties have been using the company or similar entities in their campaigns.

Tweet of the Fortnight

https://twitter.com/leighsales/status/973385759322353664

 

The Week That Was – March 12 to March 18

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The West Australian election saw a changing of the guard with the Labor party winning the election. It a larger than expected success for the party, with 18 seats changing. There are now questions over what caused the loss for the WA Liberals. The belief is mostly jsut that West Australians just got annoyed with the Barnett Government and wanted change, although the preference deal with One Nation appears to have been somewhat of a contributor. Barnett will now step down from the Liberal leadership and a new leader will be voted on – as soon as the Liberals know just how many people will be in the party room. The Nationals, both West Australian and Federal are warning the Liberals to never make a preference deal with One Nation ever again, but neither the Prime Minister nor the NSW Premier (NSW is having some by-elections right now so the premier has been out and about) have specifically ruled a deal out.

There are concerns that some of the NDIS staff that are involved in the rollout have not recieved adequate training in order to understand what kind of treatments and plans are appropriate for people on the scheme. This, in addition to states preemptively cutting their funding to providers has left people unable to access providers and treatments that benfit them. One person affected by this change, who has cerebral palsy and autism, did have several treatmets that aided in his quality of life (like remedial massage, which was helping with some of his paun) removed from ghis treatment plan. Another concern is that providers are having trouble applying to be part of the scheme, while others are having trouble recouping money from the scheme.

South Australia had a pretty nice week in the power stakes, with their power plan announced and Elon Musk suggesting he put some (non-domestic) Tesla batteries in SA, and would do it for free if it took more than 100 days. It appears however that some other South Australian companies were already making batteries too. Other parts of the SA plan include having a gas plant backup just in case the power goes out in the state again.

It was also energy week for the federal government, firsly covering the concerns concerns over both a gas shortage and the price of gas in Australia. Gas companies on the eastern coast of the country tend to send most of the gas overseas cheaply, and at a loss meaning that the prices go up in Australia. This sending abroad also means that unless more is saved for use here in Australia, we’ll run out soon. Meanwhile, Malcolm Turnbull announced an expansion to the Snowy Hydro in southern NSW. The idea is that they’ll increase the capacity of the hydro-electric plant by 50%, as well as pump water up to the dams to make sure there’s enough water for peak times, all at the low price of $2 billion. It’s hoped that the NSW and Victorian governments will chip some money in for the (at least) four year long projects but Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who said he was a “Nation Building Prime Minister”, says the federal government will be happy togo it alone.

But the week of energy and power (in the sense of electricity anyway) wasn’t over yet.

In what can only be described as one of the best political smackdowns I have ever seen in my 23 years on earth, South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill crashed Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg’s press conference and gave him a telling off for hating on South Australia. Many even recalled the Love Actually press conference scene.

Also this week, there were calls to look at reform in order to help with housing affordability. There are again calls to reform negative gearing and capital gains tax, while people also suggested allowing people to dip into their superannuation to help them buy a house. The Greens also had their idea costed by the nerds this week, in which they propose changing the one-off stamp duty charge that is paid as soon a you buy a home with an ongoing land tax, which would reduce costs, but also reduce one of the state’s biggest cash cows for a few years.

Finally this weeks, the unemployment rate rose by 0.2% in February; Peter Dutton told CEOs to back off from the same-sex marriage debate; the craft beer industry wants changes to the way kegs are taxed; Bill Leak was farewelled at a memorial servoce; and there is a lot of to-ing and fro-ing about the Adani mine in Queensland, with concerns there is a Cayman Islands bank account.

Tweet of the Week

This is the look German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave when Trump said that he and Germany had wire-tapping in common

https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/843231346046644225

Annabel Crabb on workplaces v parliament for women – SMH

Lessons on love from a Divorce Lawyer – TIME Online

How Insiders is beating Today and Sunrise in ratings – The Age

The plan for when the Queen dies – The Guardian

The Two Weeks that Were – June 15 to June 28

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I had exams and family engagements in the last fortnight, which is why I’ve bunched two weeks together. It’ll be a bit long, but I will be back on my regular schedule next week.

So, Tony Abbott left the US, via Hawaii where he visited Pearl Harbor. He says that he will wait for guidance, presumably from the Americans on how to approach the crisis in Iraq, calling the situation a “security disaster”.

He’s returned to Australia, where he faced internal dissent regarding the deficit levy. It isn’t supported by Senator Ian Macdonald and Cory Bernardi. Bernardi abstained the vote because he feels the rich pay enough tax, while Macdonald voted against because he thinks that companies should be paying too. The Paid Parental Leave is also an issue dividing the Coalition.

Tony Abbott was also handed a Double Dissolution trigger by the by the Opposition. They’ve rejected the bill to remove the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. It doesn’t mean it will be used, but because of how the Constitution works – if Abbott so pleases he may dissolve all houses of parliament and put the country through yet another election. Christine Milne and the Greens have essentially dared him to do it, while the Government is planning to reintroduce it when the new Senate sits after the 1st of July….but that could be an issue too, depending on how the beholders of the balance of power decide to vote.

Trade with the Middle East has been put into a predicament with George Brandis announcing that Australian Government Documents will now refer to what is considered my most countries to be “occupied Israeli settlements” as “disputed”. Why? Well, apparently “occupied” is a loaded term – which I thought was the point anyway – and “disputed” apparently shows that the government still supports a two-state solution. Regardless of whether or not that’s the case, some Middle Eastern nations are not amused and are thinking of sanctioning Australia’s trade. They met with Julie Bishop and DFAT, but were not impressed.

Peter Greste, the Australian journalist held in Egypt has, along with several other Western and Egyptian journalists been sentenced to 7 years prison, essentially for doing their jobs. The Australian government had been, and still is, communicating with Egyptian authorities and ministries, and Julie Bishop will again talk with the Egyptian leadership as will Abbott in the hope of fixing the situation. Australia doesn’t have an extradition treaty with Egypt, which means he cannot be transferred here to carry out his sentence. So now it’s a waiting game for the judicial system to take its course.

Oh, and in case we didn’t have enough on our foreign affairs plate, Indonesia’s Presidential candidates have given Australia a bit of a dressing down. One of the candidates says that while he wants Indonesia to have better relations in Australia, he is under the impression that we think that they are a poor, backward country.

Ouch.

There is a huge amount of controversy at the moment, because the Government wants to change financial advice laws. They want to water down strict rules that protect the consumer including one that makes sure there are no loopholes. It comes as the aftermath of a major scandal at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) pans out involving unauthorised investments of consumer’s money that lost money a few years back. There have been calls for a Royal Commission into the CBA but Tony Abbott is resisting it, saying it was good that the scandal was exposed. There is an investigation into similar crimes committed at other banks, however it isn’t looking at the specific crime the CBA employee committed and submissions are closed anyway. Joe Hockey – whose mother was in fact a victim of this scandal – has criticised the CBA’s handling of the incident, but hasn’t said much more.

The UN World Heritage people have declined the Government’s request to reduce the World Heritage area in Tasmanian Forests. The request was denied within five minutes, and the application was described by delegates as feeble. They also declined a request to do something on the Great Barrier Reef (I don’t remember what it was). Tony Abbott is a bit disappointed about it.

Clive Palmer has been earning some comments in my house, particularly about his strategy. Palmer met with Al Gore in the last week and announced the he would support the abolishment of the Carbon Tax – as long as the savings are passed onto the people’s bills and cost of living. It will also exclude the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and there will be no “Direct Action Plan” or any moves until our trading partners move to do the same – i.e. China.

The Liberal-National Council met in the last couple of days, and there were lots of speeches from Joe Hockey, Julie Bishop and of course Tony Abbott. Abbott encouraged the incoming Senators to accept his government’s election to power as he would their election to their seat – translated as: let my changes go through the senate. There was disagreement on a party constitution change between Christopher Pyne and George Brandis. But more interestingly, there is the suggestion of giving more sovereignty to the states. Labor Premiers like Jay Weatherill are not happy, saying it means cuts to the states. Liberal Premiers, like Denis Napthine have been more cryptic, saying they’re looking forward to the definitions.

The Government is relaunching Temporary Protection visas, which they won’t get through the current Senate, but will try after July 1st. The Government has also been stopped by the High Court from trying to limit the number of protection visas that can be issued each year. There may or may not be an asylum seeker boat (or maybe two) off Christmas Island – but it’s an “on water operation” at the moment so no one will say anything.

Finally in the last fortnight, James Ashby has dropped his case against Peter Slipper, the Greens will be rejecting the fuel excise because they want more funding in public transport and not roads, and Tony Abbott thinks protesting is “un-Australian” and that we not only need to “stop the boats” but “stop the jihadists” – in reference to the Australians fighting in Syria and/or Iraq – usually for ISIS.

Tweet of the Fortnight

Cynical Sydneysiders are awesome

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Other than my revision?

A Fact Check  on how much Tony Abbott says households will save if the Carbon Tax is repealed – ABC FactCheck

A look at what different cultures consider beautiful – estherhonig.com

Graham Creed talked to a Year 3 class at the British International School in Shanghai about climate – ABC Backstory

The Week That Was – May 25 to May 31

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The Budget Saga continues.

The ALP and the Greens has said that they will allow the ‘deficit levy’ to pass through the senate, but anything else will be rejected – because guess what…they’re unpopular! Government Senators and MPs have admitted that the Budget is sort of hard to sell to their constituents. They seem to say that their electorates are ok with the deficit levy, but nothing else. Also of concern is the fact that certain agencies have been cut or had their funding – including security at Parliament House. Cue Bill Heffernan:

Mathias Cormann says that “This is the budget we had to have” which has reminded the older people in my house of Paul Keating, and there was lots of yelling in Question Time as Parliament resumed.

There has also been concern in Aboriginal communities, where a large number of people are on unemployment benefits. They say that job are hard enough to find, and that both the “earn or learn” and the “work for the dole” programs will make life difficult for Indigenous youth. The Government has said that they will be more lenient on Indigenous communities, but there are also huge funding cuts to Indigenous services.

There was talk that the government was going to use taxpayers’ money to explain the budget, which is a bit of an issue given they said the were cutting funding to a lot of things, but that was quashed by the Prime Minister. There is also concern from within the back benches, with one government MP, Dennis Jensen, asking about science funding – which has become “incoherent”.

But the government has said that they will now negotiate the GP co-payment – begin Politics and Budget Gymnastics 2014.

Still on the budget, there were concerns that the government might chase after HECS debts when you’re dead – Abbott quashed that idea too, which could be putting the Treasurer into a difficult position.

Clive Palmer showed up to parliament in his own (chauffeured) car, saying he didn’t need Commonwealth car (com car) and that it’s a waste of the taxpayers’ money. He also said that he wouldn’t be making any decisions until he had more information about the Budget. He was seen having dinner with Malcolm Turnbull and Treasury officials – which lead to Joe Hockey (who has had gastric sleeve surgery) making fat jokes. Not a good look.

A report into the riot on Manus Island, run by Robert Cornall, came out this week and it does suggest that there were warning signs that a riot was possible. The report says that a Salvation Army staffer from PNG was the most likely person to have killed Reza Berati, the asylum seeker killed in the riots. It says that G4S, the security company knew there were issues. However, while it appears the Papua New Guinean Government’s report is similar to the Cornall Report, the PNG police are accusing them of a cover-up. They say they never entered the centre and that G4S didn’t co-operate with their investigation, and neither did the Australian Government.

The Greens are very concerned, and have called for Scott Morrison’s resignation – though that probably won’t happen.

South Australia had some pretty cool political drama this week, with former Liberal leader Mark Hamilton-Smith defecting to support the Jay Weatherill’s Labor government. He will become and Independent Liberal, and a minister in Weatherill’s cabinet, as Minister for Trade, Investment, Veteran’s Affairs and Defence Industries. The SA Liberal are angry and are calling it a betrayal, and some in his electorate are unimpressed because they voted Liberal, not Independent or Labor.

Finally this week, as the Thai coup continues, the Australian government is stepping down relations with the Thai Army, there were protests against the budget and changes to Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, Tim Mathieson (Julia Gillard’s partner) dissed Margie Abbott, and Joe Hockey circa 1987:

Quote of the Week

“Some people do drugs at university, I did the Young Liberals” – Nick Xenophon’s standard reply when people bring up his membership of the Young Liberals in his university days.

Tweets of the Week

Christopher Pyne also supports chasing after your HECS debt when you’re dead…

https://twitter.com/DeptOfAustralia/status/471807846900723712

And there was talk that the ABC and SBS could be merged…so here’s what people came up with…

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Malcolm Fraser warns against the combining of ABC and SBS – Canberra Times

We don’t need to change section 18C to have free speech, because we already have it – A Tony Abbott version of Pharrell’s Happy.