The Two Weeks That Were – July 7 to July 20

During the past two weeks, parliament didn’t sit at all, so things were a little quieter – but politicians still did things.

For example, Scott Morrison spoke and prayed at the Hillsong Conference, the annual conference the Pentecostal church hosts in Sydney and London. This was a further show of Morrison’s faith, something that has become part of his image since he ascended to the Prime Ministership. Other than the fact that during his prayer he spoke of Australians needing “more love” (whatever that is supposed to mean), he also spoke a little on enshrining religious freedoms in Australia.

This is somewhat concerning. While Attorney-General Christian Porter and Morrison seem to be on a similar page of a smaller, universally respectful addition to the Anti-Discrimination Act, there are some ultra-conservatives, like Concetta Fierravant-Wells, who have been emboldened by the recent Israel Folau drama – and are pushing for something that appears to be more in the vein of protecting only Christian freedoms.

Scott Morrison also spent time in Dubbo and other parts of regional Australia affected by drought, touting a future fund for droughts that he wants to introduce to parliament when it goes back. It was originally introduced before the election, but Labor was concerned that it would divert money from infrastructure funding that they saw as more important. However, regardless of the politics, farmers just want concrete plans and insight into what the government is going to do to help them during this drought and into the future.

Meanwhile, Minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, has announced that within the term of this government (so, basically in the next three years), there will be a referendum for Indigenous recognition in the constitution. Many advocates are pleased about this development but concerned still about how the “voice to parliament” – another aspect of reconciliation that they feel is important – has not been fully addressed. Some of this is because the government is still hugely divided on the issue. This is because some of the less, shall we say, enlightened members of our parliament are worried that the “voice to parliament” will become a third house of parliament if enshrined in the constitution.

The Government also lowered the “deeming rate” in the past fortnight, which is the amount that the government assumes those on part pensions are earning from their investments and other incomes. This means that couples who rely partially on the aged pension will be around $1000 better off and a single person on the part pension will be around $800 better off. There are questions as to why the deeming rate is decided by the government and not by and independent body or decided on a case-by-case basis depending on how much pensioners actually earn.

The Aged Care Royal commission has been in North Queensland for the last fortnight hearing stories of poor treatment and some shocking information on some of the challenges chefs in aged care facilities face. Chefs say that they have been required to cook meals for residents for $7 per person, per day, with the emphasis on saving money. Cooks claimed that they watched residents waste away as they weren’t getting enough food and that they sometimes had to cook rancid food or reuse uneaten food. Maggie Beer, who is a chef and also has a foundation to improve elderly eating habits says that the evidence is shocking and that $7 per person, per day, is not enough money to provide food for the elderly that not only tastes good but is also nutritious.

Finally this week, Alek Sigley, who was released from North Korea earlier in the month has been accused of spying by the DPRK – and that they let him go on “humanitarian” grounds; and Australia and the United States have held military exercises – known as “Talisman Sabre” – while being monitored by the Chinese navy, who’ve sent a ship to lurk just outside Australia’s territorial waters, but within our maritime economic zone

Tweet of the Week

Behind the scenes on ABC’s Insiders.

“Could you pass me that cushion please?” Treasurer obliges pic.twitter.com/SL5lxl0JAM

— Annabel Crabb (@annabelcrabb) July 13, 2019

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Kate McClymont on Israel Folau’s faith and current church – SMH

Are Donald Trump’s racist tweets some sort of campaign strategy? – ABC Online

The Two Weeks That Were – May 19 to June 1

Well that was certainly not the result the country expected!

The election result was a bit of a shock, with government being returned with a slightly more solid majority than 2016. There was an epic swing toward the Coalition in Queensland, where it seems Labor’s lack of a concrete position on the Adani mine was their downfall. There has been calls from those south of the Queensland border that have suggested that the Sunshine State should secede, but I think they’re (mostly) joking. Regardless, Morrison appears to have pulled off a massive victory, and this gives him great authority.

Tony Abbott did lose his seat of Warringah this election, much to the joy of many both in the electorate and out of it. This will likely make the government more stable this time around, as both of Morrison’s predecessors, Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, are no longer in Parliament. However, Kerryn Phelps has lost her seat of Wentworth to Dave Sharma, whom she defeated in last October’s by-election.

The Prime Minister then spent some time forming his new cabinet – which can now be fully his own. In order to keep stability when he took the reins last August, Morrison left most ministers and assistant ministers where they were, but now he can rearrange the ministry however he pleases. Frydenberg, Payne and Dutton were thought to keep their positions, and they have.

The cabinet now has seven women, including Melissa Price, who spent most of her time as Environment Minister in hiding (or so it seemed). Price will no longer be Environment Minister though, as she is moving to the Defence Industry portfolio. This is essentially a demotion to the outer ministry, while Sussan Ley has been reappointed to the inner ministry in the Environment portfolio. We will also see two Senators leave in the next six months, with Arthur Sinodinos heading to Washington DC to become the next Ambassador to the United States, once Joe Hockey’s term ends, and Mitch Fifield will head to New York to become the next Ambassador to the United Nations.

The government has also appointed Ken Wyatt as Minister for Indigenous Australians, the first Indigenous person to be appointed to the role. Many people in the indigenous community are happy to have one of their own responsible for the policies that affect them. However there seems to be confusion regarding how constitutional recognition and the “voice to parliament” that the indigenous community. The Prime Minister has announced a new agency within the Indigenous Affairs portfolio, and while information is sparse, there is concern that its purpose is to trump the plans for the “voice to parliament” – which is touted as an elected advisory body to Parliament, but some conservatives seem to see it as a third house of Parliament, which is not the case.

The government also plans to introduce their promised tax cuts as soon as possible, however they’ve kind of reneged on one of their promises already, which was to try get the legislation through before the start of the new financial year on July 1. This is because there is still at least one seat to be declared, as the seat of Macquarie is now so marginal they’re counting all of the preferences – earlier in the count there were less than 100 votes separating the Labor and Liberal candidates, but as of writing, Labor has pulled ahead by 282 votes.

Speaking of Labor, after their shock loss, Bill Shorten stepped down as leader, but has decided to remain in Parliament as an MP. The leadership race began, with Anthony Albanese (aka Albo) throwing his hat in ring. Tanya Plibersek considered running, as did Jim Chalmers and Chris Bowen, however all three decided not to, and Albanese was nominated unopposed, leading to the least bloody leadership battle the Labor Party has seen in a decade. As Albanese is from NSW and is from the left faction of the party, his deputy must be from another state and from the right faction – Richard Marles and Clare O’Neill both considered running, however O’Neill decided to step aside in the end, leaving Marles as the only contender.

All of this bloodless change was somewhat tainted when factional drama arose over who would be in Shadow Cabinet. Albanese had made clear publicly that he wished to have Senator Kristina Keneally in his cabinet, however it took a bit of drama to get there – and this is going to require a bit of explanation. In the Labor Party, in order to keep things equal and even between the left and right factions each side hands over a list of people to be in Shadow Cabinet and the leader chooses the positions each gets. However, the right faction’s list did not have Kristina Keneally’s name on it, let alone the name of any woman. So Ed Husic decided to give his spot to Keneally, allowing the former NSW Premier to be in the cabinet, and she will now be Deputy Leader in the Senate and will likely get a high ranking ministry.

Finally this week, Papua New Guinea has a new Prime Minister, which may have implications for the resettlement of refugees on Manus Island; and the Adani Coal Mine has passed another hurdle on the path to being approved. The Queensland Government has approved Adani’s conservation and protection plan for the Black Throated Finch.

Tweet of the Fortnight

https://twitter.com/shauncrowe/status/1133627072025260032

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

So, how do we pronounce Albo’s name then? – ABC Online

What challenges does Ken Wyatt face as Indigenous Affairs Minister? – ABC Online

 

The Week That Was – January 16 to January 21

The week began with Bill Shorten returning from holidays with a more populist and protectionist focus for the year ahead. He spoke about Australian jobs and the likelihood of the USA not ratifying the TPP under Trump. Shorten believes that without the USA, the TPP will fail and therefore it is dead. Shorten has also made clear that Labor will not say ahead of time how they will vote on the TPP when it comes to parliament.

The ABC revealed this week that a Yahoo hack that took place three years ago resulted in several sales of private information to crime syndicates and foreign intelligence. These may have involved the private information and email accounts of several diplomats, government officials and Members of Parliament or the Senate – including Christian Porter, Chris Bowen and Victorian Premier Dan Andrews.

Meanwhile, the Department of Immigration has been criticised for the contracts made with companies when setting up detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island in 2012. According to the audit, they made vague contracts and staff approved the spending of millions of  dollars – some of whom were not authorised to do so. The department also did not keep their asset register up to date, meaning that several assets burned down in a riot were not covered by their insurance, costing the taxpayer.

Malcolm Turnbull has reshuffled his cabinet after the Sussan Ley drama, with Greg Hunt the new Minister for Health and Sport, Arthur Sinodinos is now Industry Minister, Ken Wyatt has now been promoted from an Assistant Minister to a fully fledged Minister – becoming Minister for Ageing and Indigenous Health, while rising young conservative Michael Sukkar has become Assistant Minister to the Treasurer. This is the fourth reshuffle in 16 months.

Malcolm Turnbull’s week has been a bit on the sombre side, with him in Sydney’s West to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Granville train accident, before heading to Melbourne to lay flowers in Bourke Street after the tragedy there. He’s also had to respond to the shock resignation of NSW Premier Mike Baird – who is ideologically similar – and prepare for his likely successor, Gladys Berejiklian.

Also this week, it has been announced that the three-year long search for the missing MH370 plane has been ended, having finished searching in the area in the Indian Ocean. It is still unclear how the plane went down, and it may remain a mystery for years to come – although the Australian, Chinese and Malaysian searchers hope that in the future more information will come to light and they will be able to search again.

Finally this week, the Centrelink debt collection saga continues; Australia Day plans are underway; Australian police commissioners will apologise to victims of child sexual abuse for not believing them when they reported it – although it will not take place until the Royal Commission report is released; Australia is behind the rest of the world in keeping university courses relevant to the modern labor market requirements; and protests took place in Australia and around the world after Trump’s inauguration to show solidarity with minorities in America who have uncertainty ahead for the next few years.

Tweet of the Week

History repeats: When Reagan became president in 1981, Britain had a female prime minister, Canada had Trudeau and Australia had Malcolm.

— George Megalogenis (@GMegalogenis) January 20, 2017

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Stan Grant on taking until 2017 for an Indigenous minister to be appointed – ABC Online

 

The Week That Was – September 27 to October 3

The realm of politics seems to have settled a bit, which is good because it’s hot this long weekend and I don’t want to work too hard.

Turnbull’s new economic team has met with interest groups and service organisations to see what they want and need. Obviously the government can’t give everyone everything they want, but the key thing for the groups seemed to be that they were being listened to. That seems to be Turnbull’s signature at the moment, going places and listening to people and seeing what they want, which was one of the things he promised to do when he said the government would be a consultative one. There are still concerns with the China FTA and Greens leader Richard Di Natale seems to think the government will over-promise and under-deliver. But if you were anywhere near Turnbull, you’d be hearing about new markets and great opportunities.

Meanwhile, Ken Wyatt, an Indigenous MP has been made Assistant Health Minister. This means he gets to deal with the new Medicare review, the lucky thing. While the AMA and other medical interest groups are divided, some calling the review unnecessary, and others saying it’s worth a look. The issue seems to be, at least from the government’s point of view, inefficiency, with people having “unnecessary” tests and treatments, while also saying that Australia needs a medical system for the 21st Century (I think this is part of the Turnbull government spin script at the moment). The medical experts seem to be concerned that the cutting of unnecessary items is all that is going to happen, and that the introduction of more efficient ones will not occur, disadvantaging Australian patients.

Julie Bishop has been in New York for UN meetings this week, taking part in a counter terrorism forum, announcing that Australia will co-operate (and only that) with Russia and the Assad government to defeat ISIS, on the proviso that Assad would step down and allow reforms once ISIS had been defeated. Australia has also decided to nominate for the UN Security Council for the 2029-2030 term, which seems way to far away, but apparently starting now is good because we will not have to spend as much as we did to get ourselves on the UNSC for 2013-2014. Julie Bishop said that while she probably wouldn’t be in politics when we hypothetically win this UNSC seat, she’d be more than happy to hear what Future PM Wyatt Roy would have to say. It also seems that Turnbull has a more favourable view of the UN than Abbott did given our decision to nominate. Australia is also trying to get on the UN Human Rights Council, but there’s obviously the whole thing with detention centres that we have to deal with.

Tony Abbott has appeared at two radio stations this week, talking with Ray Hadley on Sydney’s 2GB and Neil Mitchell on Melbourne’s 3AW. In the interview with Hadley he said that he would’ve won the next election, and was upset about the lack of faith his party had in him. Abbott has decided for the moment to stay in politics, because he is “too young” to retire (which led to the suggestion in my house that Abbott should be the next Ambassador to the Holy See) and that he would “grit his teeth” and support Turnbull as PM. On 3AW, he was mildly miffed that the government had shelved the university fee deregulation legislation, tried to save his legacy and took a dig at Turnbull, suggesting that Turnbull did not stay in the Parliament after 2010 not to be Prime Minister.

Also this week, there was a police shooting in Parramatta, in Sydney’s west. It’s understood that a 15-year-old boy, who is believed to have been radicalised, shot a police civilian employee (someone who works for the police force in an unsworn role – basically they’re not an officer) as they were leaving the Parramatta Police HQ and was then shot dead by officers. The boy was not known to police and was not on anyone’s radar, although his sister is believed to have travelled to Iraq or Syria to be with ISIS fighters. It is also understood that the boy’s brother called the police to tell them he thought he knew who their perpetrator was. NSW police are calling it a politically motivated act of terrorism, while both NSW Premier Mike Baird and NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione are calling for calm and respect and unity.

Finally this week, the Manus Island police are annoyed that the company running the detention centre is flying out people accused of committing crimes on the island before they can be dealt with; the satellite that is to deliver the NBN to regional Australia, named “Sky Muster” by a School of the Air student, has been launched, with the new Communications Minister saying “Thunderbirds are go”; Australia denied visas to musician Chris Brown (who has a domestic violence conviction) and an anti-abortion activist and there is confusion over what will happen now that Russia has begun bombing in Syria.

Tweets of the Week

Obama’s words after the mass shooting in Oregon

Obama on the #OregonShooting. #TENNews 5PMhttps://t.co/pA4iNhhA3Z

— Hugh Riminton (@hughriminton) October 2, 2015

Matt Moran (who was working for Channel 10) has got a job being Turnbull’s press secretary, so his former colleagues are keeping tabs on him

#moranwatch https://t.co/P6FEso9r82

— Adam Todd (@_AdamTodd) September 30, 2015

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Greg Jericho helps the Treasurer out after he got annoyed talking with Leigh Sales on 7:30 – ABC The Drum

The ABC’s Tahmina Ansari on accepting ‘visible’ muslim women – ABC The Drum

Michael Bradley rebukes Miranda Devine on domestic violence – ABC The Drum

The Week that Was – March 23 to March 29

Where to start?

First to Operation Sovereign Borders. If you remember a while back there was this big thing over asylum seekers getting burned on engines, allegedly at the hands of Australian Navy members. Well some of the asylum seekers on that have spoken and told their stories. They say that they got upset when they realised what the Navy was doing (i.e. turning the boat around) and they decided to stand up for themselves. The navy crew pepper sprayed them while others tried to get into the engine room, and they say that they were punished by being pushed or forced to touch the hot engine so they got burnt. Other people on the boat are backing up the story while the government maintains that the claims are untrue and unsubstantiated.

Staying with Operation Sovereign Borders, the government says that there have been no asylum seeker boat arrivals in 100 days, those 100 days being from December until now. They say that compared with the same period under the Labor government (Dec 2012 – March 2013) there were 66 boat arrivals. That may be so, but, as a lot of people have been asking, at what cost – and that is a good question. Speaking of questions, Scott Morrison was asked if he would get a promotion from the Immigration portfolio given he has done his job so well…he never got to answer, because Tony Abbott made the fastest media save I’ve ever seen and stopped the line of questioning in its tracks. Labor wants Morrison to stay in the Immigration portfolio for the entire term of government.

Moving on now to possibly one of the most divisive policy plans the government has in its six or so months in office. They want to change Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. Put simply they want to take the words “insult, offend and humiliate” out and replace it with “vilify”. It is so divisive that members of the Coalition government such as Ken Wyatt are saying they will cross the floor (vote to oppose) if the reform makes it to a vote. The Liberal Premier of NSW has taken a swipe at the Attorney-General George Brandis over the proposed changes. I’m not going to say much more, because I’ll get too annoyed and start yelling.

Speaking of yelling, Question Time got quite its fair share of yelling this week, particularly when the Opposition moved a motion of no confidence in the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Bronwyn Bishop, who they believe has not been impartial and is favouring the government – and in the opinion of a few people I talked to about it, they agree. As of Thursday, when this motion occurred, the Speaker has made 99 expulsions of MPs – all from the Opposition.

This week also saw “Dames” and “Sirs” being returned to Australia’s Honours lists. The first two are Dame Quentin Bryce – the now former Governor General and Sir Peter Cosgrove, the new Governor General – he also has a “General” in there somewhere from his army days. The Opposition has been making fun of this addition, with Mark Dreyfus, the Shadow Attorney-General, asking if slavery was next. Dame Quentin Bryce has now left her position as Governor-General and Sir Peter Cosgrove has been sworn in. Cosgrove says he is agenda free, so lets hope he stays that way.

Also this week, Craig Thompson was sentenced to 12 months prison for his crimes, with 9 months suspended. He spent about an hour in jail before being released on bail after appealing his sentence. Medibank Private is most likely going to be sold off and you will be able to buy shares in the company when it does. Tony Abbott called the Egyptians and talked to them about Peter Greste, with Abbott saying he was only doing his job, and the Egyptians promising a free and fair trial – one hopes that more is done and Greste and his Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera colleagues are released. Oh, and before the university students come after me for not mentioning it – they protested this week over the government’s education cuts.

Tweets of The Week

People have been making fun of the Dames and Sirs thing – thanks in part to Peter FitzSimons encouraging people

Allowing the commoners to swim in my castle moat. Keeps the buggers clean. @Peter_Fitz #noblesseoblige pic.twitter.com/4LwOEcHile

— Juanita Phillips (@Juanita_Phillip) March 30, 2014

https://twitter.com/paintsreads/status/450032774921977856

Things I’ve Been Reading/Watching/Listening

Waleed Aly on the change to the Racial Discrimination Act – SMH

Change the computer font, save money on ink – CNN

The Racial Discrimination Act, 1975. – AustLII