The Week That Was – August 3 to August 9

This week there were MH17 memorials in Western Australia and Queensland and more bodies were found at the crash site. The people living in a town close to the crash site also held a memorial. Meanwhile, the Russians have imposed sanctions on Australia, the EU and the US, in retaliation for the sanctions placed on them (which I thought Australia was not a part of, because our main aim was to bring our dead home). These sanctions stop Australia from trading dairy and livestock. Tony Abbott has said Australia will now consider more sanctions on Russia. Also, the Prime Minister is due to travel to the Netherlands and the UK in the next week.

So it turns out the asylum seekers were moved to Nauru on Friday night last week. Scott Morrison has been saying that the Tamils are from Indian camps and most have long-term Indian residency. The lawyers for the High Court case have also begun to claim that their clients were taught to drive lifeboats and read maps to show them where to go. Meanwhile a report has come out about the asylum seekers that claimed to have been burnt by being forced to put their hands on boat engines by Australian authorities. The heavily censored report suggests that the asylum seekers were burned when trying to light a fire on their boat and not by the actions of the Australians. There has been no response from the Indonesian authorities, who treated the asylum seekers at the moment.

Unemployment is now at a 12 year high – at 6.4%. Only 300 jobs were lost in the last month, but more people have been looking for jobs, making the unemployment rate rise. Youth unemployment is worse, with a little over 20% in the 15-19 age group and nearly 15% in the 15-24 age group. South Australia and Tasmania have had a drop in the unemployment rate, while the other states have had a rise, with Sydney having one of the worst youth unemployment rates, especially out in Sydney’s west. The Paid Parental Leave Scheme may have been shelved or delayed. It’s thought to be because some backbenchers – primarily those in rural or low-income areas – are still not supporting it. The government claims that the budget is the priority at the moment, so they haven’t brought up the scheme yet.

Joe Hockey has also been disputing Treasury numbers, after information was released stating that many families would be up to $490 worse off because of the 2014 Budget. In fact, the table that explains this was omitted from the budget papers, and those who wanted to know what the table said had to make Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. However, it appears most FOI requests, including one from the ABC was denied. Joe Hockey says that the numbers are wrong because the Deficit Levy imposed on higher-income households wasn’t factored in and there could still be changes. Either way, there are still negotiations between the Government and the cross benchers in the Senate – David Leyonhjelm has said that these discussions should have begun before July 1.

This week also saw a bit of gymnastics on the repeal of section 18c of the Racial Discrimination Act. The government has decided not to continue with the repeal of section 18c because Tony Abbott wants to unify Australia, given the threat posed by Australians travelling to the Middle East. Andrew Bolt, along with other conservative commentators and politicians are not pleased. At least one conservative senator is going to launch a private member’s bill to keep the repeal alive.

There are now going to be changes to the Terrorism laws given the threat posed by those travelling to the Middle East perceived by the government. This change, on top of the “burden of proof” proposal last week, means that there will be another $630 million for security agencies, the ability to suspend passports and make it illegal to travel to certain nations without an acceptable reason (burden of proof on the traveller not the police) and telecommunications companies must keep metadata for a certain amount of time.

Now this “metadata” thing has confused everyone. Tony Abbott and George Brandis have been unable to explain exactly what will be retained, and they didn’t let Malcolm Turnbull (one of the guys who probably could explain it) out to talk until a few days later. Other than the concerns over privacy, it is completely unclear at the moment what is going to be retained by the telcos. Now, I am not a computer geek in any way, but from what I understand, what will be retained is the IP address of websites you visit, not the content or the URL of the site. So when you visit this blog, they only see the IP address, not the karaxl.wordpress.com or the content of the blog – in order to see those they need a warrant.

Before I forget, Eric Abetz is in trouble for appearing to link abortions with breast cancer. He said it on The Project on Channel Ten in what he says was a pre-recorded interview that was heavily edited, which Channel Ten denies. By the way, the link has been disproved by the scientific community, despite the fact that some scientists coming to the World Families’ Congress maintain there is a link. The congress will be held in Melbourne later this year, and several Federal Government MPs are planning to attend.

Finally this week, the Federal Liberal Party is being dragged into the NSW ICAC, Australia might become involved in humanitarian drops in Iraq, our Airports are preparing for Ebola checks, and the WA Premier Colin Barnett wants the GST changed, because he feels that Western Australia is ripped off as it contributes quite a bit to the GST and gets less back.

Tweet of the Week

After hitting 5000 followers on twitter this week, the people running Kevin Rudd 2000 (@Rudd2000), a spoof account called it a day, killing off “Kevern”.

Ablo eat Kevern

— Kevin Rudd 2000 (@Rudd2000) August 5, 2014

(Translation: Albo [Anthony Albanese] ate Kevin [Rudd])

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening to etc

Balibo’s ghosts and East Timor’s media laws – ABC The Drum

When journalists stop covering a story without explanation and social media speculation gets out of hand – BBC News

Whitehousegate is still going, and a student at the college is facing criminal charges for blowing the whistle – Business Insider

The Week That Was – May 18 to May 24

Well, this week saw further dissent on the budget with protests across the country…and it wasn’t just the young angry ones

The Premiers and Chief Ministers of states and territories had an emergency meeting – called by Campbell Newman – to discuss the budget changes and they will not be taking them lying down – although the WA Premier, Colin Barnett, didn’t show up. They were asked if they were going to ask for a raise in the GST, which to some might seem like a good idea, but Newman said that they were not going to. I can see why though. The Federal Government hasn’t raised the GST in years, and by cutting state funding, the states will then ask for a raise in the GST….making the State governments look bad, and not the federal government. The states will not accept the budget or the budget cuts, and said that Tony Abbott is wrong about when the effects of the Budget will begin to show.

Tony Abbott said the voters were ‘on notice’ about the budget and that the Coalition was upfront, but funnily enough, most people don’t see it that way – including some government backbenchers. The government needs to sell the budget to not only the people of Australia, but independents and small parties in both houses, especially in the Senate, where the Greens and the Palmer United Party hold the balance of power – and Clive Palmer actually seems to be genuinely concerned about the budget, and how it affects the average Australian.

In fact, this budget is the most unpopular in 20 years, and Abbott, as well as the Coalition, have taken a huge hit in the polls. Abbott says the budget was meant to get the country’s finances back on track, not for popularity, and that if the country is borrowing money to pay off other borrowed money, were kind of stuffed – how that was relevant, I have no idea, but it was said. Tony Abbott says that the polls are the least of the governments worries right now, and that the Labor party are being “fiscal vandals”.

Although, if you’re a university student you probably think the “fiscal vandals” are the government. Again this week there were student protests in Sydney, both on Wednesday at an organised protest in the city, and on Thursday outside a debating contest being held at St John’s College, where several key Liberal figures were moderating or attending. Not only that, but when Universities Australia asked the government to reconsider the timeframe for implementing funding changes to universities, Pyne refused. He doesn’t think students will be burdened by costs, and moreover, it appears that there is now confusion over who pays what when the changes get through.

However, the responses from Abbott and Pyne were unfair and unjust. To suggest that these university students “were looking for a rumble” or “wanted to get a riot on national TV” is rude and unfair. They were not looking for a riot or a rumble, but looking to get their voices heard, and given that the government is not listening, but making snide remarks, they are going to continue protesting until they are heard, no matter how long it takes.

Ok, I’ll stop being opinionated now – sorry.

Anyway, doctors are now more concerned about the $7 co-payment. It turns out that people are already avoiding seeing the doctor because they think the co-payment is already in force, to the point where surgeries have been sending texts to their clients reminding them that is not the case – and hey, $5 of the co-payment goes to the government, and only $2 to the GP. Not only that but statistics show that a lot of women in violent and abusive relationships often tell their GPs what is going on before telling anyone else, and there are cuts to Legal Aid and housing/shelters – two other important things that help women in abusive relationships. However, it appears that some doctors are considering waiving the co-payment for these women so that they can get help.

Also this week, Australia moved closer to sending asylum seekers to Cambodia. It seems that the only things left to be done are to finish negotiations and sign the piece of paper.

And now to this week’s gaffe:

Yep, he winked – and it made international headlines.

Oh and he used an interesting analogy to explain the budget crisis too.

Finally, I thought I’d let you know that this is the 100th post on Kara L. Thanks for reading and following.

Tweet of the Week

Oh, the weather has been lovely in Sydney this week…

Absurdly perfect day here at Sydney Writers Festival. Assuming organisers sacrificed a goat at some point for this weather #swf2014

— Annabel Crabb (@annabelcrabb) May 24, 2014

Things I’ve been Reading/Watching/Listening etc

How #winkgate was covered around the world – ABC Online

The less important, yet interesting, #whitehousegate – New Matilda

A collection of collated social media reactions to the budget – Buzzfeed

The March in May protests on the budget…witty signs galore – Buzzfeed