The Week That Was – July 27 to August 2

Again this week, international investigators attempted to get to the MH17 crash site, and finally arrived by the end of the week. The AFP and the Dutch police are both there to secure the site, with no ADF, because it is a humanitarian mission. Julie Bishop remained in Kiev meeting with Ukrainian politicians and the Red Cross as part of the response to MH17. Both she and Angus Houston have been in Ukraine while waiting for the international investigators to get close to the crash zone and have shared the OSCE’s frustration when the missions failed. There are now new sanctions on Russia from the US and the EU. At the moment the Australian Government is not imposing sanctions (Our main focus is to “bring them home”) but the government could revoke Russia’s G20 invite if they so choose.

There’s been a suggested change to welfare again, this time suggesting the expansion of the “work-for-the-dole” plan to all those on welfare under 50. Those on welfare could do between 15-25 hours of work depending on their age and must apply for 40 jobs per month. The opposition has labelled it cruel, and businesses are not impressed, because it means that they have to trawl through thousands of applications and possibly write back to all of them so there is evidence that the applicant, should they be on welfare, did apply but was rejected.

Onto the Asylum Seekers that are now no longer floating out near Christmas Island, but were sent to Curtin Detention Centre via the Cocos Islands. The Indian High Commission stated that they would not be repatriating anyone against their will, while lawyers have argued that technically, because they’re here, Indian officials shouldn’t be talking to the refugees, Australian officials should. Scott Morrison has been saying that because the Indian refugee camps are “safe” those who have come to Australia are economic migrants, not refugees. But in the last day or so, it appears that because the asylum seekers refused to talk to the Indian officials, they have all been secretly flown to Nauru. The government blames the lawyers, saying that they instructed the refugees to say nothing, which the lawyers deny – they haven’t been able to talk to the asylum seekers at all. The lawyers are now thinking about launching a second case, while Tony Abbott is telling asylum seekers “they’ll never stay” and that “If we stop the boats, we stop the deaths”. The government has had to apologise this week to former cricketers Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath after asking them to sign bats, which were then given to the Indian officials who were going to talk with the asylum seekers.

There has also been an Inquiry into Children in Detention this week. The results are quite shocking: there are large numbers of children  with mental illness, and the government asked the people doing the survey to remove that statistic from the report. Other children have had their medication confiscated, the medical centre on Nauru frequently runs out of supplies and because there are no child protection laws or protection services in Nauru, the children are in strife.

The Government is also planning to change national security laws in an aim to deter people from travelling to the Middle East to fight with ISIS. It reverses the onus of proof – meaning that instead of the police proving that you did something wrong, you have to prove that you did nothing wrong. This essentially restricts people’s human rights, as it presumes guilt over innocence, instead of the other way around (It is a human and civil right that a person be treated as innocent until proven guilty – usually in a court of law).

The ABC has got a promise tracker going – you might be surprised by the results

Finally this week, Peter Slipper has been found guilty of dishonesty regarding Cabcharge vouchers, the CSIRO is helping with the African Ebola outbreak and Wikileaks is telling people what a suppression order won’t let them find out from mainstream media regarding an RBA corruption scandal.

Tweet of the Week

Young boy in #Gaza pretending to be a journalist with his home made flak jacket, had to lend him my helmet. pic.twitter.com/CnlUShdixI

— JoMa Sommarstrom (@ekmathia) July 31, 2014

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

Julia Gillard appeared to launch Greg Combet’s new book…mentioning ABC News NSW anchor Juanita Phillips at the end:

So a Guardian Australia staffer applied for 40 jobs in nine minutes – Guardian Australia

Behind the Baden-Clay trial – ABC Backstory

Liberal Launch, Freaky Arty Things and Upsetting NSW

Sunday saw the Liberal Party campaign launch, which was a little American-esque. Tony Abbott said it was a “referendum on trust” and that Labor is incompetent. Julie Bishop tried, I think, to make a joke about how Kevin Rudd reminded her of The Hulk. To be honest, I found it more nasty than funny. He’s promised to abolish the mining tax and carbon tax, $200m dollars for dementia treatment, bring the budget into surplus and reduce red tape for a stronger economy.

In an interview with the ABC that evening, he said that there needs to be an audit – fair enough, apparently there hasn’t been one in 20 years – and that his government will have no surprises or excuses. He was asked if he supported military action in Syria, given that there has been talk of it since the reported gas attacks, but all he said was that the UN envoys need to be allowed into Syria to have a look around.

Syria meant Kevin Rudd stayed in Canberra on Sunday, before moving onto Sydney. He keeps saying that Abbott’s Paid Parental Leave Scheme will be really quite bad for everyone and it will damage the economy, and the Labor Party has released this advertisement:

Speaking of advertisements, this is what became news on Monday (you will need to got to about 4:20) :

Also there was some freaky weird art guy in Melbourne as part of something to do with The Greens, which was the source of great amusement in my house.

From funny haha to funny peculiar – there are questions as to why Barnaby Joyce, candidate for the seat for New England, has preferenced One Nation before someone less mental. Not only that but apparently he hasn’t actually been campaigning in the electorate he wants to be MP, he’s been in Queensland. Not only that but there are further suggestions that he actually wanted the candidacy of the seat just across the border in Queensland.

Tuesday brought us the lesson “How to upset the NSW Premier in one easy step” – that step you ask? Well, you suggest that Garden Island, where the Australian Navy has its HQ, should be turned into a cruise ship terminal and the Navy should move to Brisbane. In a way, I see how it works, BrisVegas is closer to places where the Navy would be needed, such as Pacific nations battered by a really bad cyclone.

The experts, who usually know what they are talking about, say that it will be expensive to move the Garden Island stuff to QLD, but is also important to Sydney.

We now have a week and a half to go – if you can’t get to the polls on September 7, find out where you can pre-poll vote here.