The Week That Was – January 17 to January 23

The week has been relatively quiet with Malcolm Turnbull back on tour. He first travelled to Iraq and Afghanistan to meet with troops, before travelling  to the USA to hang out with Obama after his invitation in November.

Turnbull signed a cybersecurity agreement with the FBI, Twitter and Facebook, spoke to Obama and Defence Secretary Ash Carter about fighting Islamic State and having “the right boots on the right ground”. He then went to Hawaii to meet the Commander of the US Pacific Command and talked about concerns about China’s claims in the South China Sea.

The economy is causing concerns again, with Australian shares down 8% since January 1st. There are questions over whether or not the Australian economy will have a recession, which some experts are saying may not be all that bad. Either way, Scott Morrison has called for “sober and wise heads”.

Clive Palmer’s Queensland Nickel (QNI) company has gone into voluntary administration with continuing concerns about the company’s finances and how much money has been given to the Palmer United Party (PUP). As the administrators get to the bottom of the whole thing, Palmer has announced that two other companies he founded/owns (it’s complicated because of the whole political thing) will give QNI around $250 million to help them get back on their feet.

As we begin an election year, there are tensions within the NSW Liberal Party over the candidates in certain seats. Because NSW has been redistributed by the AEC this year, some MPs no longer live in their original electorates, and also due to some scandals, and the fact that we have a moderate PM, there are certain seats that are being fought over between the conservative and moderate factions of the party. Mackellar – held by Bronwyn Bishop, Berowra – held by Phillip Ruddock, and Hughes – held by Craig Kelly are at risk. It is believed that the plan is to put forward younger, more moderate candidates, supported by the moderate faction. Two others, Angus Taylor and Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, while at risk have been supported by Turnbull and it might be less concerning for them.

Finally this week, NSW Premier Mike Baird has spoken about accepting and welcoming refugees into Australia, using the example of lawyer Deng Adut (of Western Sydney University advertisement fame) to remind people that refugees do make positive contributions and Turnbull has moved into the lodge.

Tweet of the Week

Bauer announced the end of Cleo.

#Cleo closure: Founding editor Ita Buttrose says closure like 'a death in the family'https://t.co/zyYGmOjthz pic.twitter.com/XG5S3EGdNP

— ABC News (@abcnews) January 20, 2016

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Lisa Wilkinson on being one of the editors of Cleo – Huffington Post Australia

First Dog on the Moon on Border Force Medals – The Guardian

*I would have also linked to Sharri Markson’s piece on the folding of Cleo, but it’s on The Australian website behind a paywall.

The Week That Was – December 13 to December 19

As Christmas approaches, the world of politics has mellowed a bit.

The week began with a Climate Change agreement in Paris, with an aspiration to cap temperature rises to 2ºC if not 1.5ºC. Australia did not get all of the things that it wanted, but nor did other countries.The next step, as Julie Bishop said, was the implementation of changes.  According to experts and activists the changes need to ba made now and that the government should do more than just the 26-26% reduction it promised at the talks in Paris – with suggestions that Australia needs to become a carbon neutral economy sooner rather than later.

As always, just before Christmas, the government releases MYEFO – basically a budget update in which, at least for the last few years, we’ve been told the deficit is just a little bit worse. It was the same this year, as iron ore prices continue to drop and tax reform is yet to occur, meaning that other options have been considered. The government has announced that bulk billing incentives for pathology services will either be decreased or removed, causing issues for patients who need regular scans, blood tests or other services, causing concern among doctor’s groups, as well as patient and community groups.

Malcolm Turnbull spent the end of this week in Japan, meeting with academics and other tech experts to talk about innovation, Turnbull took a selfie with a robot.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Malcolm Turnbull (@turnbullmalcolm)

He also met with Japanese PM Abe, and talked about the economy and also about issues with Southern Ocean Whaling, after Japan set off this year for the Southern Ocean after a year off.

Finally this week, it has been a year since the Sydney Siege and a memorial service was held in Martin Place, Ian Macfarlane has been stopped by LNP state executive from changing party rooms, and Australia is now doing freedom of navigation exercises in the South China Sea to keep an eye on China.

Have a Merry Christmas.

Tweet of the Week

Hilarity from the latest Chat 10, Looks 3 episode

From the current episode: the title page of Flora's Fancies ping @annabelcrabb @leighsales pic.twitter.com/R8j29tYqv0

— Chat 10 Looks 3 (@Chat10Looks3) December 15, 2015

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Annabel Crabb on the Paris Agreement – ABC The Drum

An AFR article on outgoing ABC Managing Director – AFR

2015 on ABC News 24

The Two Weeks that Were – November 29 to December 12

I probably made the worst choice of weeks to put together, but this is what happens when you work at a by-election and help people move into apartments. Plus I missed a day of news so if I’ve missed anything that went on, that’s probably why.

Back at the end of November, Turnbull was in Malta for CHOGM, where he met the Queen, chatted about security and the economy with Commonwealth leaders before heading to Paris for the Climate Conference, where he made a speech about how Australia plans to decrease emissions by 26-28% by 2030. While in Paris, Turnbull, his wife Lucy and New Zealand PM John Key, laid flowers at the Bataclan Theatre. Since becoming Prime Minister, Turnbull has been placed in good positions in the photos of leaders at events, which shows that he’s not only making people in Australia happy, but world leaders and other important people respect him too.

With MYEFO due in the coming week, the Budget has become a focus again, with reports of a deficit continuing for some time thanks to the mining boom winding up and revenue issues. While the numbers aren’t clear yet, it does seem like the government is having trouble putting the country back into surplus. Meanwhile there are discussions again about how to change the GST, with states, especially Western Australia, wanting more money, and the concern that if they increase the rate of the GST the public and community groups would not be happy. There is also a suggestion of increasing the Medicare levy in order to pay for more healthcare, which was discussed at COAG, but no real decision was made.

Mal Brough is being hounded in Question Time, after the police came to interview him regarding Ashby-gate. It’s believed that back when Peter Slipper (remember him?) became Speaker and angered all of the Liberals, Brough asked Slipper’s staffer James Ashby to (possibly illegally) copy Slipper’s diary. Why he needed the diary is unclear, but now the police are interested so one can’t help but think it’s not good. Meanwhile, former Liberal minister Ian Macfarlane has defected to the Nationals, most likely in the hope that he can get back into cabinet, even though it’s not a given.

Malcolm Turnbull has introduced his big innovation plan, with tax breaks for investments in startups, money for research and more forgiving bankruptcy legislation. It’s Turnbull’s signature policy, with a $1 billion price tag and it appears that Turnbull has a long term plan for it. It has come with coverage showing some interesting projects that have fascinated the inhabitants of my house.

Liberal Trent Zimmerman won the seat of North Sydney, which was expected. However there has been a 13% swing. With the seat originally being a safe seat with a 15-16% margin while Joe Hockey was there, it appears that the seat is now somewhat marginal at 2-3%.

Finally this fortnight, the family court has a massive backlog of cases to get through because the government won’t replace retiring judges, Joe Hockey is off to Washington to replace Kim Beazley as Ambassador to the US, Tony Abbott’s been speaking about Islam, and Cardinal Pell has disappointed and angered victims of church sexual abuse by being to ill to appear at a Royal Commission hearing in Ballarat – with suggestions he’s not actually ill.

Tweet of the Fortnight

https://twitter.com/MarkDiStef/status/671452808520974336

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

The Simpsons and the LGBT community – SBS Online

Who follows who in Federal Parliament – SBS Online

Leigh Sales and Malcolm Turnbull banter on the ABC

 

The Week That Was – November 22 to November 28

The week began with Anti-Islam and Anti-racism protests in most capital cities and while there was some fighting between the groups, most people were well behaved and the police kept each group as far away from each other as possible.

Meanwhile, Malcolm Turnbull completed his first World Tour with a trip to Malaysia for the ASEAN East Asia Conference. Turnbull met with the Malaysian PM, discussing the battle against Islamic State as well as trying to encourage China to play nice in the South China Sea. Upon his return to Australia, Turnbull was in Parliament, where the government and the opposition made speeches of condolence to the people of Paris as well as talking about keeping Australia safe.

Turnbull has also been questioned by the media over the wording in some of his speeches as well as whether or not he has a grip on the more conservative faction of his party. Furthermore, there has been calls from Labor that Mal Brough should either stand down or be sacked from his ministry due to a police investigation into Brough’s role in the Peter Slipper scandal back in 2011-2012. Then, at the end of the week, he flew to Malta for the CHOGM meetings, where he met Queen Elizabeth and apparently made her chuckle when he spoke of Prince Charles’ visit to Australia a few weeks back, and then he will travel to Paris for the Climate Conference.

Climate Change was a big thing this week in the lead up to the Paris conference, with concerns that Turnbull is heading to France with Tony Abbott’s old, and somewhat sub-par climate plan. Labor has come out with an alternative, suggesting a 45% reduction by 2030 and a carbon neutral economy by 2050. This is based off the exact same model that the Liberals are using for their climate plan too, so it should be interesting to see the reaction.

Domestic Violence came to the fore this week for Wednesday’s White Ribbon day, with Malcolm Turnbull telling the country that there must be change and it will have to be lead by men, while surveys are showing that young men are more likely to blame others for their problems and play down their aggressive behaviour, while young women are more likely to blame themselves as well as justify the aggressive behaviour of their partners.

The government has changed the terrorism warning system indicators from High, Low, Moderate etc, to a simpler system suggesting the likeliness of an attack.

The new terror attack warning system. (from: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-26/national-terrorism-threat-advisory-system-graphic./6976880)

 Under this simpler system the current warning is the second-lowest “probable”, so we’re pretty safe for now.

There are still national security concerns over foreign investment in Australia, with the US Ambassador meeting Australian officials to get more information on the Darwin Port deal, angry that they were not consulted. However, Defence Minister Marise Payne says that she was abroad with Julie Bishop when the decision was made and that as soon as it was, someone was dispatched to the Pentagon to tell US officials.

Finally this week, the coalition against Islamic State have completed more airstrikes on ISIS strongholds; the government wants the states to increase their trading hours to increase choice and the help the economy and Hillsong’s Brian Houston has been found to have had a conflict on interest over his father’s abuse of a young child at the Royal Commission into Child Abuse.

Also, if you live in the electorate of North Sydney, don’t forget you have a by-election on December 5!

Tweet of the Week

https://twitter.com/nthsydneyvotes/status/669365995148972032

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

First Dog on Bill Shorten’s dismal poll numbers – The Guardian

First Dog on White Ribbon Day – The Guardian

SBS2 The Feed’s retrospective for 2015

 

The Week That Was – November 15 to November 21

As the world recovered from the shock of the Paris attacks, people either tried to encourage calm and tolerance, while others encouraged negativity towards others. Thankfully, the Turnbull government appears to be in favour of the former.

While continuing his “World Tour”, Malcolm Turnbull travelled to Turkey for the G20 where they spoke a bit about a collective response to terrorism, and how there really needs to be a political solution in Syria, even if it means allowing Assad to remain in power while Islamic State is defeated, while also reminding Australia that we have good security measures in place and shouldn’t start freaking out. This year’s G20 was a huge improvement for Australia’s image, with Turnbull placed in a prime spot in the ‘Family Photo’ and during some discussions. The PM was also invited to visit President Obama at the White House at the start of next year. After the G20 was the APEC Meeting in Manila, in the Philippines, where Turnbull was bombarded with concerns about the Darwin Port lease – which is covered in more detail below – especially because the USA didn’t find out through official channels, but through the Wall Street Journal, to which Turnbull told them to get a subscription to the NT News. Turnbull returned to Australia, spending some time in Darwin before flying out to Malaysia for the ASEAN summit starting this coming week.

Terrorism has been infiltrating our news feeds this week, after the Paris Attacks, in which one of the attackers is believed to have gotten into France through the Eastern European refugee channels. This has lead to concerns around the world about just who they might be letting in, especially in the United States, where more than half of the States have decided to refuse to take in some the 10,000 refugees the US will allow into the country to help lessen the burden the European Migrant Crisis is having on the region. Meanwhile France began more airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq and France is believed to be talking with several nations including the US and Australia about increasing their involvement. Meanwhile the NSW government has announced that police will now have the power to act without question (presumably lethally) if they believe someone is being killed or attacked in front of them, while other States and the ADF are considering similar powers.

Foreign investment is starting to cause concern this week with three different situations arising. The first is the Darwin Port lease, in which the Northern Territory Government leased the port to a Chinese company, this has caused concerns given that people in the company have links to the Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army. This seems to be surprising people even though it’s common for Chinese companies, especially the State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), to have these links. It is also concerning because the Darwin Port’s lease area also encompasses a naval base, which has become a security concern.

The second investment issue this week has been the Treasurer’s decision to deny an application for a company, believed to be a Chinese company, from buying all of the Kidman Family farmland, as part of the land in South Australia backs onto the ADF weapons testing site at Woomera – a national security issue. The third is the concern that the NSW government will sell off their electricity assets to a Chinese SOE – which is another national security issue.

All of this is also leading to cabinet disagreements, which is leading to the perception of disunity in the party. This could be problematic for Turnbull, who is trying to balance all of the views in his party and cabinet to keep people happy.

Finally this week, the Trade Union Royal Commission has recommended that the people who gave evidence into the NUW last week should be prosecuted for their actions; the “On water operational matters” curtain was raised when a boat was turned back from Christmas Island – whether it was refugees or some wayward fishermen is unclear;  the Arts Minister is moving some finding back to the Arts Council, which will benefit individual performers and artists, but will still disadvantage small companies;  the top-secret ASIO part of the Sydney Siege Inquest has begun and it’s believed that any recommendations from this section will never be known to the public and Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall finished their visit to Australia and New Zealand and headed home.

Tweet of the Week

Waleed Aly on how Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) is weak.

Waleed talks about how we can stop ISIL #TheProjectTV
Written by Waleed & @twhittyer https://t.co/tX6mRNXZK1

— The Project (@theprojecttv) November 16, 2015

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

First Dog on the Moon on Paris – The Guardian

Durex wants a condom emoji – Junkee

Lee Lin Chin Interviews If You are the One host Meng Fei (subtitles)

Tea and Consent

 

The Week That Was – October 25 to October 31

For the first time in a long time, Australian politics was quite calm and sensible.

This week a Senate Enquiry was based in the far-western NSW town of Broken Hill, where locals told Senators that the drought and the Murray Darling Basin Plan mean that the town is running out of water. The Darling River is stagnant and there are suggestions that the water was taken too early from Broken Hill’s part of the Murray Darling Basin in order to help those further downstream.

Former Treasurer and MP Joe Hockey’s seat of North Sydney (I live in the electorate) will be going to the polls on December 5th to elect a new member. The seat is safe Liberal, however it has fallen to independents in previous elections. There was drama at the start of the week when a story on 7.30 on the ABC suggested that the guy tipped to be the Liberal Candidate, Trent Zimmerman, was going to get the candidacy because the part executive, including Zimmerman himself, had rejigged the rules meaning that the grassroots members would have no say. He did get pre-selection in the end, which I discovered when Malcolm Turnbull’s voice in a robo-call told me I should vote for Zimmerman. So far, Zimmerman is running in the seat, as is Fred Nile’s wife Silvana Nero for the Christian Democrats and Arthur Chesterfield-Evans will run for the Greens. Labor will not run a candidate, and other prospective candidates have until November 12 to nominate.

Zimmerman spent some time in Chatswood on Saturday with Gladys Berejiklian talking with voters and with the media. Zimmerman is pro-marriage equality and wants more public transport in the electorate. If he wins the seat Zimmerman will become the first openly gay member of the House of Representatives.

While on the topic of elections and voting, Bill Shorten has announced that the Labor party will move to decrease the voting age from 18 to 16. His argument is that at the age of 16 you can join the army, own a gun and some even pay tax, yet they have no say over how the country is run. The Coalition believes that this is a stunt, and a number of vox pops on the ABC News on Saturday night from 16 and 17 year olds suggest that they don’t know much about politics and many said they wouldn’t know who to vote for – and hey, neither do I half the time!

Environmentalists are calling on the government to commit to reducing coal power considerably in time for the Paris conference at the end of the year. The Liberal and Labor parties don’t seem so thrilled with the whole idea, while the Greens are all for it and are arguing the only way to help deal with climate change is if coal is significantly reduced.

Tony Abbott made headlines again this week, speaking at an event at the Margaret Thatcher Centre on what some are calling his “Stop the Boats World Tour”. He spoke about needing to fight ISIS in order to end them and then went on the say that Europe is making a mistake by allowing asylum seekers in, especially those that came by boat. This is despite the fact that the current European Refugee Crisis is on a larger scale than Australia’s refugee issues and critics are encouraging the world to ignore him.

Finally this week, there has been some drama at the Trade Union Royal Commission; Australian doctors had a “day of action” to protest the fact that there are still children in detention, and are also refusing to discharge refugee children in their care, as they are likely to go back to detention; there are debates on whether or not a nuclear waste processing site will be built in South Australia; and Malcolm Turnbull is still a popular people person.

Tweet of the Week

As the North Sydney By-Election begins, I found an amusing and snarky Twitter account that has been giving updates.

https://twitter.com/nthsydneyvotes/status/658419221597065216

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

First Dog on the Moon covers “Biff Bootface” and his trip to ‘Guano Island’ – The Guardian

First Dog on the Moon talks about Abbott’s Margaret Thatcher Centre speech – The Guardian

SBS2’s The Feed’s “Douche of the Week”

The Week That Was – October 18 to October 24

This week wasn’t too insane, which is probably a good thing for the government as it might actually be settling down and doing something.

Speaking of, Senate cross bencher David Leyonhjelm thinks that the only reason the government is making such strict anti-terror laws is so that it looks like something is being done, while Cathy McGowan is calling on the Attorney-General to change the legislation so that abusive ex-partners can’t cross-examine their victims in court, which only a few states ban. The idea behind this is that it intimidates and terrorises the victims, giving the power back to the perpetrator.

Malcolm Turnbull turned 61 on Saturday, and celebrated with some interviews being published in the weekend papers that outlined some of his plans, which include borrowing money to invest in public transport projects as well a dealing with union corruption. Polls at the start of the week show that he has a 68% approval rating – which analysts are attributing to the fact that the bitterness of the Rudd-Gillard-Abbott period is over and the government appears to be acting sensibly.

Badgerys Creek Airport has taken a step towards actually being made instead of just being mused about, with a plan for the build and the environmental statement released. It’s been received mostly positively with tourism and business groups applauding the plan’s release, but concerned about the fact that there is no train line to the prospective airport mentioned. Warren Truss, the Transport Minister, has said that the train and other public transport will come eventually. The environmentalists are worried too, because they feel not enough is being done to protect native endangered species. If Badgerys Creek Airport is ever built (sorry, I live with parents who have heard about this plan since they were kids), construction would start next year, with 6 years to be spent levelling soil, and another few years to build the actual airport – at least ten years in all.

This week Senate Estimates brought to light an incident that occurred on the night Tony Abbott lost the spill. Dubbed “Tablegate” by the media, the gist of the story is that a bunch of people had an alcohol fuelled party in Abbott’s Prime Ministerial Office, in which people got a tad drunk and someone climbed atop a marble coffee table and danced. It is understood that the table then gave way, in Penny Wong’s words, “smashing” to pieces, and possibly injuring the dancer – and people are believed to have taken bits of the table as souvenirs. What makes the whole thing even better is the ABC’s reenactment of the event they filmed for the nightly news, which was quite funny and which I have turned into a gif.

Meanwhile, the people of the electorate of North Sydney (including me) are bracing themselves for a by-election after Joe Hockey made his valedictory speech in Parliament this week. Usually during elections the seat is ignored a bit because it’s a safe Liberal seat and Joe Hockey’s win is essentially a given, so I think some of us in the electorate are looking forward to a little attention.

The Somali refugee that was flown back to Australia after the government said she “changed her mind” about having an abortion after being raped in detention at Nauru has written a statement that contradicts a lot of what the government says. The woman, who is being referred to as Abyan (not her name), says that when she came to Sydney to get the abortion (illegal in Nauru, hence the reason she was flown here) she never saw a doctor, nurse, midwife, or even an interpreter. The government is yet to respond further as far as I have seen, while her lawyers and other activists protested the decision to send her back with no treatment.

Finally this week, Labor has agreed to the China free trade agreement as long as there are certain checks and balances in place; there are going to be changes to renewable energy legislation; Warren Entsch and Eric Abetz have differing views over whether pre-emptive same-sex marriage legislation should be written so that when the country passes it in a plebiscite they can push it through quickly; Bill Heffernan is accusing the judiciary of a cover-up of child abuse, saying he has police paperwork to prove it which includes allegations of child abuse by a former PM; the Trade Union Royal Commission is recommending charges against a union figure and the Social Services Minister Christian Porter bungled an interview question during the week which lead to some savage questioning from the Opposition during Question Time this week.

Tweets of the Week

https://twitter.com/workmanalice/status/656320299466518528

In Canberra Al Desko, (coming next week to @abciview) I also drop in on politicians' tragic desk lunches: pic.twitter.com/B3QfznYXxu

— Annabel Crabb (@annabelcrabb) October 22, 2015

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

First Dog on the Moon on Joe Hockey – The Guardian

The ABC’s look back at Joe Hockey’s political career

The Week That Was – September 20 to September 26

The second week under Prime Minister Turnbull began with Cabinet assignments. Kevin Andrews is no longer Defence Minister and called for a conference where he basically got upset about being replaced – by Marise Payne, a NSW Senator and the first woman to be in the role. She, along with Michaelia Cash (Minister for Employment, Women and Assistant Minister to PM on Public Service) and Kelly O’Dwyer (Minister for Small Business and Assistant Treasurer), join Julie Bishop and Susan Ley to make five women in the cabinet. Christopher Pyne has moved to Industry, Innovation and Science, while Simon Birmingham takes education. Christian Porter becomes Social Services Minister, Mitch Fifield takes Communications and Arts. That’s not the whole list of the new Cabinet, but Peter Dutton, Greg Hunt, Matthias Cormann, and George Brandis are keeping their jobs, while Eric Abetz and a few Abbott supporters have been booted. Several people who helped Turnbull into power did not get roles in the Cabinet because Turnbull told them he wanted renewal and freshness and they understood.

The most interesting move has been the inclusion of a new Ministry, held by Jamie Briggs, for Cities and Built Environment, as well as the reinstating of the Cabinet Secretary – a role to be filled by Arthur Sinodinos as part of Turnbull’s return to “traditional cabinet government”.

As for the role of Treasurer, Scott Morrison now holds the job, and Joe Hockey is not only out of a ministry, but will be leaving Parliament altogether, albeit “in due course”, making people thing that Hockey will be sent to Washington as the next Australian Ambassador to the United States – a very cushy job.

Meanwhile, one of the Murdoch papers caught up with Tony Abbott over the weekend. Technically they just bothered him while he was working out at the beach, but either way, Abbott took a swipe at Scott Morrison, accusing him of misleading the public in an interview. Morrison said that he had warned Abbott the Friday before Turnbull challenged that there was discontent in the party and that it wasn’t looking good for Abbott at all. Abbott disputes this and has not spoken with Morrison since the spill.

Scott Morrison spent his first week as Treasurer talking about opportunities to save and invest, saying the country doesn’t have a revenue problem, but a spending problem. Some experts dispute this, saying that the only way problems can be solved is if there is changes to the tax system. Meanwhile, Morrison has to figure out what to with the rising debt, that is now in fact his government’s doing and not Labor’s doing at all.

The Turnbull government has announced $100 million dollars for “practical” domestic violence measures, mainly through the improvement of front-line services and safety tools for victims such as panic buttons. As of September 24, 63 women have died at the hands of their partners and 3000 are turned away from shelters every year (both figures reported by ABC News NSW). Experts are welcoming the perception change, where the focus is on the offender’s actions and the onus of safety is not left to the victim, however they would like to see more money for shelters and other safe locations that women go to when they leave their abusive partners.

The UN Human Rights investigators have cancelled visits to Australian detention centres. They say they were not able to guarantee that detention centre workers who spoke to them would not be prosecuted under the Border Force Act, which prevents workers from talking on the public record about conditions in the centres.

Also, Australia is considering including the Assad government in the fight against Islamic State, with Julie Bishop saying that a political solution that includes both Russia and the Assad government is the only way that Islamic State can be stopped. The British Foreign Minister has suggested that there is a role for Assad in getting rid of Islamic State, but would have to be followed by Assad stepping down and allowing a transition to democracy. Regardless of the terms, the ALP is concerned about choosing a side in the Syrian Civil War. Bill Shorten was possibly a little stressed when he commented on the issue as he spouted some pretty random words, such as “ethno-facists” which left the people in my house poking a bit of fun at the Opposition Leader.

Finally this week, the government got a bounce in the polls now that Turnbull is PM, Peta Credlin appeared at a Women’s Weekly event talking about gender equality, Peter Greste is likely to get a pardon too, after his colleagues received pardons on Wednesday, a Senate Enquiry has begun into the payment activities of 7-Eleven and the trial for the men who killed asylum seeker Reza Berati in an Australian detention centre has begun in Papua New Guinea.

Tweet of the Week

A bag full of thank you cards from a local school after I spoke at their assembly @NSWDET #gorgeous pic.twitter.com/avH9L0sdrI

— Tanya Plibersek (@tanya_plibersek) September 20, 2015

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

First Dog on the Moon’s guide to the Turnbull Ministry – The Guardian

Annabel Crabb on Turnbull’s Cabinet and how we are all now part of a ‘Turnbull experiment’ – ABC The Drum

John Oliver has been paying attention to our politics, it would seem…

The Week That Was – July 19 to July 25

The week began with “Reclaim Australia” protests in major capital cities, most of which were countered by anti-racism protesters, who had a tendency to call the Reclaim Australia protesters ‘fascists’. At least in Sydney, the police kept the apart for most of the day, considering their operation a success with only five arrests and two people charged.

The saga with Bronwyn Bishop continues, with Bishop insisting that while her use of taxpayer funds to pay for a chopper ride from Melbourne to Geelong (which is perfectly accessible by a highway and you can get there in about an hour) was an ‘error of judgement’, it was official business and she paid back the over $5000 the ride cost. Abbott is standing by Bronwyn Bishop, although she is ‘on probation’, which is leading to calls of hypocrisy from both Labor and the public, given the last time a Speaker got in trouble for spending taxpayers’ money for dubious transport claims Abbott was calling for their resignation. For those who don’t remember, that was Peter Slipper, the LNP MP that became Speaker so that Labor had another vote – he spent $900-ish on cars to wineries.

This week also saw a COAG retreat and meeting, with all of the Chief Ministers and Premiers, along with the PM discussing the GST, Health Funding, Medicare and other ways to bring some more money into the states after the government cut funding to health back in the 2014. No decisions were made but they had “constructive discussions”. They also considered some more finding for domestic violence and also looked into making the Northern Territory a State.

The ALP had its National Conference at the end of the week, with Bill Shorten proposing that 50% of Australia’s energy to be renewable by 2030, with a possible ETS – the Greens were happy with that and the Liberals are not (no surprises there). However, the ALP is not all rainbows and sunshine, with both Bill Shorten and other senior party people proposing that Labor consider turning back asylum seeker boats if they win government. The party voted not to ban turnbacks, which means Labor has the option if they’re in government, but they do have some additional parts to the policy, such as money for the UN Refugee Agency, a Refugee Child Advocate, and doubling Australia’s refugee intake. Dutton suggests that this will make more boats come.

Speaking of boats coming, an asylum seeker boat was spotted off the Western Australian coast, which is believed to have Vietnamese asylum seekers on board – we’re not sure though because of the Operation Sovereign Borders Cone of Silence which also means we have no idea where they are now.

A nurse who ended up joining IS has returned to Australia and extradited to Victoria. He claims that he went to Syria for humanitarian purposes, as he was a nurse, and when hurt in an airstrike was taken to an IS-run hospital where they forced him to join the organisation. He is yet to be charged.

Finally this week, the National Party is split over the Shenhua Coalmine, telcos are upset about the new national security legislation being proposed that lets the government meddle in the way they secure their networks, Mike Baird suggests raising the GST which upsets almost everyone, and incumbent MP for Canning Don Randall died this week – most famous for expenses scandals and not being in Parliament during the apology.

Tweet of the Week

The ABC celebrated five years of ABC News 24…

It's our 5th birthday! Hip hip hooray @ABCNews24 #cakes #celebration pic.twitter.com/q7rl9CydBQ

— Kumi Taguchi | 田口久実 (@kumitaguchi) July 20, 2015

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

How the ABC’s female journalists are changing the newsroom – Daily Life

Virginia Trioli on renewable energy and engineers – The Weekly Review

ABC News 24 looks back at five years:

The Week That Was – February 22 to February 28

It’s been less than a month since the failed spill motion in the Liberal Party room, and already there have been some leaks from within the party. A message written by the outgoing Honourary Treasurer of the Liberal Party (a senior Liberal Party executive) has leaked in which he criticises the fact that Peta Credlin, Abbott’s Chief of Staff, is in a senior job within the party that her husband Brian Loughnane is in charge of, suggesting it is a conflict of interest. Also this week saw more leadership rumblings, with reports that backbenchers approached Malcolm Turnbull about challenging Abbott, telling him he would have the numbers to do so. Even more worrying is that many backbenchers are avoiding saying that Abbott will last to the next election.

Tony Abbott made a National Security Statement, in which most people in my house rolled their eyes, as Tony Abbott told us:

When it comes to someone like the Martin Place murderer, people feel like we have been taken for mugs.

He also said this:

I’ve often heard Western leaders describe Islam as a ‘religion of peace’. I wish more Muslim leaders would say that more often, and mean it.

Yes, he actually said that. Here is a transcript of the speech, complete with death cults.

And you can also watch it below (It’s 20 mins long)

Part of the National Security speech had to do with Man Haron Monis and the Sydney Siege, in which it was revealed that despite calls to the National Security Hotline and the fact that Monis was on the authorities’ radars, he was not seen as much of a threat in the lead up to the Sydney Siege.

Gillian Triggs has shocked many by telling a Senate Estimates Committee that the Attorney-General asked her to resign from the role as President of the Human Rights Commission and in return she would be given a senior legal job in the government. The Attorney-General believes that the Australian Human Rights Commission is biased against the government, and Abbott has said that the government has lost confidence in Professor Triggs. Triggs has said that she will not go, and several opposition members have asked the Australian Federal Police to look into the offer given to Gillian Triggs to see if the Attorney-General acted corruptly.

This week has seen two reports about private organisations that have been rorting the federal government systems that they are beneficiary to. The first, a jobs company that is meant to help get people jobs, and is taxpayer-funded, has been claiming money on people who have since found a job and no longer require the serviced of the company, it has shown that the system is open to rorts, and it has also become apparent that some people within the company knew about the activity. The other issue has been a Sydney-based private vocational college that has been claiming government subsidies through FEE-HELP students, by claiming students have completed courses that they have not, with one claim that an office assistant who was helping a student with literacy issues withdraw (for which the college had no form) was told to tear up the withdrawal letter and put it in the bin once the student was gone, under the impression they had withdrawn.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has agreed to facilitate the move of asylum seekers from Nauru to Cambodia, with Australia covering the cost. The IOM has guaranteed education, job and family re-unification rights for the refugees. However, few, if any, of the refugees in detention on Nauru want to be moved to Cambodia, and the Cambodian locals are not happy with the prospect of refugees being sent there.

Finally this week, New Zealand unintentionally threw Australia for a loop after including Australia in an announcement about sending more Australian and New Zealander troops to Iraq to help train troops there; the Bali Nine ringleaders have had their appeal rejected; Knox Grammar School has been investigated by the Child Abuse Royal Commission; there is a proposal for foreign buyers to pay a $5,000 fee when buying a house under $1 million and $10,000 when they buy a house for $1 million and then for every $1 million thereafter; and the Medicare co-payment may be dumped.

Tweet of the Week

Matthew Mitcham has been touring his Cabaret Show Twists and Turns around the country.

Setting up for our big opening night at @SeymourSydney tonight!! HOW EXCITEMENT!!! 😁 pic.twitter.com/RKRpIOQHI3

— Matthew Mitcham (@matthew_mitcham) February 26, 2015

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

That dress that sent social media crazy, explained – ABC Online

Julie Bishop’s Emoji Interview – Buzzfeed

If Dying Phones Were People