Tag Archives: Welfare

The Week That Was – September 18 to September 24

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This week saw Malcolm Turnbull overseas in New York City to take part in the United Nations General Assembly. Turnbull visited the 9/11 Memorial, met with wold leaders to talk about asylum seekers at an invite-only migration summit run by Obama, and also met with US Defence Secretary Ash Carter to talk defence as well as US Congress members to convince them to pass the TPP.

While at the migration summit, Australia committed to an increase of $130 million to refugee programs in Australia, and will permanently increase the refugee intake to just under 19,000 after 2018. We will also take some Central American refugees, a decision which has confounded many. There are also questions as to whether Australia’s pledge was exactly what Obama was wanting.

The government is planning some major welfare reform. They’re thinking of going down the same route as New Zealand, with the aim of reducing the overall lifetime cost of welfare payments to people. There are concerns that some could be left behind, and it’s also a very confusing system to wrap one’s head around.

Meanwhile, parents and teachers are angry over proposed changes to the Gonski funding model. The plan, according to Education Minister Simon Birmingham, is to redo the entire education funding model, and it is believed that there will be cuts to some public education, while there are increases to private schools.

Finally this week, Australia was involved in a botched airstrike on Syrian forces; the government settled with the ship that ran aground on Douglas Shoal a few years ago; Nigel Scullion is meeting with Indigenous groups in order to repair the relationship between the government and the Indigenous community; and the National Gallery of Australia is returning two Indian artefacts that were believed to be stolen.

Tweets of the Week

https://twitter.com/MarkDiStef/status/779466847875760128

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Michael Fletcher on the NZ welfare model – The Conversation

Annabel Crabb on Pauline Hanson – The Age

The Week That Was – October 5 to October 11

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The week began with Tony Abbott at the NRL Grand Final – where he got booed.

Australia has begun airstrikes in Iraq, which has also led to the question of how to pay for the ‘mission’ (the government still isn’t using the word ‘war’). The Defence Minister believes the mission won’t last too long, but it will take time, in the belief that if they under-promise, it will look like they’ve kept it. However, they still need to pay for it, and it looks like they might have to raise taxes – well it did, until Tony Abbott ruled it out. They could also cut foreign aid, but apparently Julie Bishop has been telling cabinet there is no way she is cutting the foreign aid budget further. The opposition has suggested that Tony Abbott’s Paid Parental Leave Scheme should be scrapped to save money, while Joe Hockey has suggested that if Labor supports the mission to Iraq, then they should also support the Coalition’s Budget measures.

Staying with the Budget, it is getting closer to the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) due in December/January and the Coalition still hasn’t got many of their big ticket items through Parliament, which is important as they play into other budget cuts and spending. There are 16 sitting days left for the House of Representatives and 12 days left for the Senate, which doesn’t give the government long to get things through an unpredictable Senate, as Clive Palmer changes his mind at will. Also, the six month waiting period for welfare could be dropped after the government backflipped on the 40 job applications requirement in order to receive the dole. The PM says it isn’t a backflip, but a ‘response’ to consultation with businesses and community.

The Council Of Australian Governments (COAG) is meeting this weekend, with higher security than normal because of the increased terror alert. It was a “constructive and productive” meeting (the Premiers’ words not mine). They’ve agreed to look into changing the way federal money gets given to the states, and they will also be setting up a federal agency to help guide families through the surrogacy process, but just advice.

Which leads us to the latest surrogacy scandal, this time in India. An Australian couple, whose surrogate gave birth to twins, abandoned one of the babies in India, with accusations of money changing hands. There are concerns that senior Australian government officials tried to speed up the process, and now the PM’s Office, the Attorney-General’s Office and DFAT are looking into the allegations. The reason so many people go to Asia for surrogacy is because surrogacy is illegal in Australia. Bill Shorten is of the opinion that there should be one national law to regulate surrogacy, but Tony Abbott says there will be no changes to the legislation.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority is in trouble after losing people to redundancies and resignations. Morale is down in the agency apparently, especially after the decision to dump coal in the reef. Both stakeholders and the agency itself are concerned about the reef’s health.

A nurse from Cairns has been in hospital being tested for Ebola after going to hospital with a fever. The nurse, who travelled with the International Red Cross, has spent a month in Sierra Leone helping with the outbreak. She returned and quarantined herself in her apartment, only leaving to go to the hospital when she developed a fever. The local MP, Bob Katter, asked why she was in the community, and has demanded mandatory quarantine for anyone returning from the Ebola zone. As of Saturday the nurse is improving, and her tests thus far have been negative. Australia is sending financial aid to help fight Ebola, but won’t send actual medical staff until they have an evacuation plan in place. Meanwhile, an isolation pod to put potential Ebola victims in has arrived in Brisbane for use on the East Coast.

Finally this week, Brisbane practiced for G20 transporting a “delegate” around the city with all of the security staff (probably also practicing for a Chaser-like prank), the government will begin to flag “hate groups”, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics is having problem with job numbers, which is being blamed on budget cuts.

Tweet of the Week

https://twitter.com/xinwenxiaojie/status/520383886748966912

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Annabel Crabb and Leigh Sales talk cakes, politics and Annabel’s book – The Saturday Paper

Emma Alberici vs. Wassim Doureihi on Lateline – ABC Online

Where in the World is Kim Jong-Un?

The Week that Was – June 8 to June 14

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Tony Abbott is continuing to represent Australia on the world stage. After Normandy at the end of last week, Abbot went to Villers-Bretonneux and visited the memorial and the local school L’ecole Victoria (Victoria School – named after the state) where he chatted in French to the students. Unfortunately his French wasn’t that great, but he gets a few kudos points for trying. He wants the Western Front to become more prominent and announced an interactive museum that will be open in time for ANZAC Day in 2018 – the Centenary of the Second Battle of Villers-Brettoneux.

His linguistic adventures continued in Canada, where he may or may not have called the country “Canadia” before quickly correcting himself. He and Stephen Harper, Canada’s PM, are ideologically similar, and so they were very happy to be in the same room as each other and both bashed the Carbon Tax a little bit, calling it “economy destroying” – or something close to that. The Opposition were a bit concerned given that Abbott’s itinerary in United States wasn’t fully sorted before he arrived, but that seems to have been sorted out.

In New York, Abbott visited the 9/11 Memorial, chatted with Ban Ki-moon and rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange. It was amusing at the NYSE as one of the spots where Abbott stopped for the cameras was near the stock screen for Abbott – a healthcare company with the slogan “A Promise for Life”…

He also had dinner with Rupert Murdoch, defending it by saying it what a Prime Minister should do. If that’s the case, then he should also meet with Mark Scott, David Gyngell, Hamish McLennan and other Australian media CEOs and Directors, not just Murdoch. Abbott then travelled to Washington D.C., where he met with Republican John Boehner. He was also meant to meet with Eric Cantor, another senior Republican, but Cantor lost his primary and so he resigned from his post. He met President Obama as well, and given the situation in Iraq (Al-Qaeda inspired ISIS militants have taken over some cities in the north), the PM assured Obama that we would be there to help if asked by the USA.

He also went to the Arlington Cemetery in Virginia and had talks with the US Secretary of Defence, Chuck Hagel, at the Pentagon. He also went to Texas, where he talked about how amazing coal is and how it was going to fuel our future for years to come, as well as bashing the Carbon Tax again. He also got given a big hat, which lead to George W. Bush comparisons…which I don’t think were meant to be positive.

Still with international affairs, there was concern this week that some Middle Eastern nations might stop or sanction trading with us, because the government recently stopped calling Israeli settlements in the West Bank. For many years, the government has used the term “occupied” but now they’re using “disputed”. It’s been said that our government has a “pro-Israel bias”, which the government has disputed. Barnaby Joyce, the Minister for Agriculture, “says he is leaving foreign policy issues affecting his portfolio to people “smarter” than him” (quote from the ABC). That’s a bit of a cop-out if you ask me, and the government should have kept things the way they were – offending large blocs of trading partners is not a good look.

I’ll leave the international jet-setting fun for now, and move on. Again the Budget is causing trouble, with a “Bust the Budget” protest in Melbourne that not only involved students, but also union members and ordinary people. There are moves to change the welfare system to cut 40-50 payments down to 4-6 payments as well as identifying those who may become “welfare dependent” and putting a stop to it. However, youth unemployment is very high in Australia – almost 20% – and the government wants those on welfare to apply for 40 jobs a month, so there could be an issue when it comes to stopping unemployment when there are no jobs. Oh, and if there is too much trouble getting the Budget through the Senate, the treasurer has essentially said there will be a double dissolution.

There were two inquiries this week:

The first was the Royal Commission into Union Corruption, which this week got onto a case involving the AWU. In particular, this case implicates Julia Gillard’s ex-boyfriend, who created a slush fund. It’s said that Julia Gillard – at the time a lawyer – helped with the legal stuff related to the set up of the fund, but she and the ex-boyfriend, among other witnesses, have said that she had no idea what the fund was for and that all she did was help. There is also suggestions that renovations at her old house were paid for by her ex-partner using this slush fund, but there has been contradictory evidence, and it’s also been pointed out that people in relationships often give each other money at times.

The second is a senate inquiry into what is going on in the Manus Island Detention Centre. A former G4S employee gave evidence as did a Salvation Army official, who attacked Scott Morrison for placing the blame one of their Papua New Guinean staffers, suggesting that witnesses were not questioned properly, and those witnesses say that the Salvation Army staff were trying to help the injured. Two 22-year-old students have also given evidence, saying they were hired by the Salvation Army as case workers. With no training or job interview, the two students were sent to Nauru and Manus Island within days of applying and found themselves counselling suicidal and distressed asylum seekers. One of the students got into a debate/argument with Senator Ian Macdonald over her opinions on asylum seekers and other things (SMH).

Finally this week, Senator-elect Ricky Muir had an interview with Channel 7, which didn’t go so well (see here), and NSW is in the lead-up to its Budget.

Tweets of the Week

Oh, and Tony, just because you delete a tweet with a mistake in it does not mean that people haven’t screencapped it before it disappears.

https://twitter.com/thebleague/status/477624340733632512

(It should be Ange Postecoglou, Mark Bresciano and Tim Cahill)

Things I’ve Been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Tony Abbott’s response to the son of gay parents – SameSame

The explanation of a comment by an Q&A panellist, and why it was so important – New Matilda

A comparison: ABC vs. BBC and CBC – Quadrant

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.

The Week That Was – May 4 to May 10

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So the week began with May Day protests, Christopher Pyne defending the Commission of Audit and Amanda Vanstone (a former Howard minister) wanting to keep her former MP ‘travel gold pass’ – something the Audit recommended, of which she was a Commissioner.

Then on Monday, there was a protest on Q&A about university cuts – it didn’t thrill many, especially the host, Tony Jones, who ended up having to go to a break – which was in fact a musical performance from the archives – while they booted the protesters out. You can read what I thought about the protest here, as well as seeing what the Executive Producer of Q&A thought here and another view from Clementine Ford here.

The talk about the Budget focused on whether or not a ‘debt levy’ should be implemented to help Australia deal with its debt. There is backlash from backbench MPs and the opposition in politics, while Peter Costello, a former treasurer famous for giving Australia at least ten consecutive budget surpluses, has said it’s bad idea. He’s added his voice to the large number of people who have the experience or the qualifications to talk about this kind of thing (i.e. people in the finance/economics sector, former Treasurers…) who are saying that the ideas the government have may not be the best ones.

The government could also be removing a freeze on the Fuel Excise – a tax on petrol and other fuels – making them more expensive. They haven’t sorted all the details out yet, but it’s believed the excise will go up with inflation. The major concern with this is for farmers. They spend upwards of $100,000 per year on fuel for equipment, and a raise in the Fuel Excise will make it more expensive. Many are hoping that if the Fuel Excise rises, then there will be a raise in the diesel fuel rebate to ease the pressure – otherwise agricultural production may face major issues.

Speaking of major issues, young people on the dole seems to be a big one for the government. Apparently, young people on welfare get money from the government so they can just sit on the couch and do nothing. So young people on the disability allowance (i.e. a medical condition prevents them from finding work) will be independently assessed and if they are deemed fit to work they will be sent out into the work force. Again, the people with the qualifications, experience and understanding of the situation are saying this is a bad idea, saying that they shouldn’t be sending people into a workforce where there may not be any suitable jobs for them. Adam Bandt (Greens MP) has said that this is only about the Budget’s bottom line – which it probably is.

Moving on, the government is closing some detention centres on Australian soil as well as combining all of the border protection and customs organisations into one big one called *drumroll* – The Australian Border Force! Ooh, scary. The Australian Border Force (ABF) is something less controversial than Operation Sovereign Borders (no kidding) and will save money – also a plus. Labor likes this plan. However, it does mean jobs will go, which is a good time to also say that there was the annual mention of sacking public servants – because they all sit around in their offices and do nothing. (I don’t actually believe this, but family members who have worked and do work in the public service make this comment in jest anytime cutting public service jobs is mentioned)

Back to border protection and Operation Sovereign Borders, though. Because this week, there’s been another scandal. According to Indonesian authorities, a vessel was turned around last week (when Tony Abbott was meant to be in Indonesia), and while being turned around by the Australian Navy, three people were put on the boat, one Indonesian and two Albanians. Indonesia wants to know how on earth that happened, and the Greens think the Australian Federal Police should investigate – which they probably should, given I am under the impression that what is alleged to have happened could be illegal under international law.

Finally this week, polling showed the Coalition government is at 38% approval, down 5 points – all of which have gone to the Greens or other parties, and Malcolm Turnbull was on BBC’s HARDtalk.

Tweet of the Week

Some don’t think this is a good look for Mathias Cormann and Joe Hockey – I wonder why…

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

Calling out Miranda Devine (a conservative columnist) on a somewhat homophobic column – Junkee

A look at gay YouTubers – The Advocate

The Taiwanese animators got on the Packer-Gyngell Brawl bandwagon!