The Week That Was – February 8 to February 14

Tony Abbott has survived the spill motion this week, after making a “captain’s pick” to move the spill vote forward from Tuesday to Monday. It upset a few pro-spill voters, who suggested that the change could work against him. Abbott had an interview on ABC News on Sunday, and seemed contrite about the whole thing, using hypothetical words and phrases.

On Monday morning, the spill motion was voted on, and it did not succeed.

He then spoke to the party room, describing the events as a “near death experience” and that the party was not going to end up like the Labor Party. He then recorded a statement for the media.

The political analysts are all suggesting that Tony Abbott is on borrowed time, and that if he doesn’t start showing improvement, the Liberal Party will sack him and pick someone else. They also said that Abbott should be concerned, because the Abbott supporters had said that they had a guaranteed 70 votes, and only received 61, so nine people lied to the Abbott camp. If one also looks at the numbers, if all those who voted for the spill were backbenchers, then two-thirds of the backbench do not support the PM. Another point made was that Abbott is still talking about “fighting” Labor, as if he is still an Opposition Leader, and not a Prime Minister – and he was formidable as an Opposition Leader.

People are also talking about how the Prime Minister should sack the Treasurer Joe Hockey and his Chief of Staff Peta Credlin. It appears that they will likely keep their jobs for the moment, as Abbott has promised to consult more with the backbench. However, in the last couple of days, Philip Ruddock has been sacked as Chief Whip, and replaced by Deputy Whip, Scott Buchholz. Many senior Liberals have been shocked by the decision and it is unclear why he was sacked.

In the days leading up to the spill vote, Abbott told several South Australian MPs and Senators that the submarine contract would be the subject of an open tender or a competitive evaluation process. It is unclear which, and no one is sure what the latter means. There are also rumours that a secret deal has been done with Japan and that this “competitive evaluation process” stuff was a way for Abbott to guarantee SA MPs and Senators.

The Human Rights Commission released a report on children in immigration detention, condemning both the current Liberal and the previous Labor governments for imprisoning children. The children in detention are mentally ill, and think they will die in detention. The report recommends that the government release all children immediately and that a Royal Commission be started. Tony Abbott is not impressed with the report at all, saying it is partisan, politicised and that the Commissioner, Professor Gillian Triggs should resign or be sacked. Professor Triggs has denied that the report is politicised.

It is becoming more apparent that the Bali Nine ringleaders are likely to be executed in the next few weeks, with Australian religious leaders pleading with the Indonesian government to spare the lives of the the men. The Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, and the Grand Mufti of Australia, Ibrahim Abu Mohammed, have made contact with the Indonesian government in the hope that the deeply religious country might respond better to religious leaders than politicians. However, there are rumours that the two men will be moved from Kerobokan Prison in Bali, to the prison where they will be executed in the next few weeks. Furthermore, Australian diplomats, along with diplomats from other countries have been called to the government offices in Jakarta, suggesting that their execution is nearing.

Channel 9 and Channel 7 had duelling Sunday night current affairs programs on the Sydney Siege, with Channel 9’s 60 Minutes and Channel 7’s Sunday Night both broadcast interviews with survivors, some of whom are believed to have been paid $300,000 for their stories. It has also come to light that the NSW Police negotiation van was not available on the day and the police had to be based in the NSW Leagues Club.

There were terrorism raids in NSW this week, with two men charged with planning a terrorist attack. Police say a machete, a flag affiliated with the Islamic State group, and a video were found in the raid, with the video apparently outlining the attacks and the reasons for it. Tony Abbott was briefed on the incident and shown the video, which he later quoted in parliament. This has concerned the legal community who suggest that the Prime Minister may have compromised the trial by publicly talking about the video.

Also this week, student protesters were pepper sprayed by police in Sydney, the two remaining Al Jazeera journalists were released on bail, there are changes to teaching qualifications for primary and secondary school teachers, and unemployment is on the rise.

Tweet of the Week

Lee Lin Chin.

https://twitter.com/corbinbluwaffle/status/564795020839235585

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

The Buzzfeed Australia editor (who is not Australian) makes his first trip to Canberra – Buzzfeed

Pets watching Q&A – Buzzfeed

Confusion over the whole submarine tender issue – Sky News

Tanya Plibersek on her husband’s drug conviction and the changes he made afterwards

The Result and The Aftermath

The spill motion has been defeated.

There were 61 “no” votes and 39 “yes” votes. There was one informal vote, and one absent MP, who is on paternity leave.

The concern is that around 40% of the parliamentary party do not support Tony Abbott, and would rather someone else ran the party. The ABC political brains – Barrie Cassidy, Annabel Crabb, Chris Uhlmann and Sabra Lane – suggest that this could be similar to the Hawke-Keating “two-step” spill, in which one spill was held in 1990 and another in 1991 – and the numbers are almost the same. The analysts and political brains also think that Abbott is not completely safe, and that he has only bought a bit of time to prove himself to MPs and Senators.

Abbott did not hold a press conference, which some are seeing as weak, but did make a press statement, which did have people saying that he might resign, but he did not.

The Week That Was – January 25 to January 31

So, Tony Abbott made Prince Phillip a Knight of the Order of Australia. That announcement kind of took away from the fact that Angus Houston – the former Defence guy that was coordinating the search of MH370 and represented Australia for a bit after MH17 – also received a knighthood, and that anti-domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty was named Australian of the Year.

Other than the awkwardness of the Prince Phillip knighthood “captain’s pick” issue, Australia Day was relatively normal, other than the heavy rain in Sydney. People who did some great things were recognised, there was some interesting helicopter and boat choreography on Sydney Harbour and Prince Phillip received a knighthood (the whole knighthood thing took over for a bit). Indigenous people also reminded people that they still see this day in a more negative light, treating it as a “Day of Mourning” or a “Day of Survival”, since over 200 years ago, they were basically invaded and colonised by the British.

Tony Abbott has been having a tough time this week, especially after his captain’s pick for the knighthood, with ministers and backbenchers saying they had no idea that was the plan and saying that it isn’t really an appropriate knighthood to have given. Those who haven’t specifically said that the knighthood was the worst idea ever, have at least placed all the blame on Abbott who has ignored social media backlash over the whole thing, calling it “electronic graffiti”. However, there’s more to it, because now there are rumours of serious rumblings behind the scenes over Abbott’s leadership, while some of his closest supporters in the media, like Andrew Bolt and Alan Jones, are suggesting his leadership could be at an end.

Abbott has admitted he should have consulted more with his party and the public over the whole knighthood saga, but the rumours have continued with talk that Julie Bishop, Malcolm Turnbull and others, including Mal Brough (responsible for the whole Ashby-Slipper saga back in the Gillard days), are canvassing the party for numbers, or if not them, backbenchers who think that some of these Ministers could be PM and win them the next election.

The whole thing got a little bit more insane and ridiculous when Abbott said the reason ministers like Malcolm Turnbull, Julie Bishop and Scott Morrison are any good at their jobs was because he is a great leader.

Meanwhile, the Queensland LNP is fully ready to blame Abbott if they get a poor result in the Queensland State Election, held on Saturday, which now looks increasingly likely. The number of seats needed by a party to rule Queensland is 45, and at last count just before midnight on Saturday night, the LNP had 40 seats, Labor had 43 seats, with three seats in doubt, and three seats to other parties and independents. The prediction is that Labor will get 45 (the magic number) and win the election, most likely with support from the three other MPs – a result nobody expected.

Matthew Gardiner, the Labor Party President in the Northern Territory, has left Australia for the Middle East in order to help the Kurdish forces fight against Islamic State. It has shocked the country, with Bill Shorten telling people it’s a bad idea to go, and asking Gardiner to return to Australia. Furthermore, the government has pointed out that regardless of who you are fighting for, it’s still illegal to go fight overseas.

While the Manus Island Detention Centre protests are over, it appears that the allegations of violence on the part of the security forces and PNG Police may have had some truth to them, with images showing detainees with what appears to be evidence of being beaten. 40 of the Detention Centre’s detainees have also been arrested by the PNG government, however, once again, both the Australian and PNG governments aren’t saying much.

Finally this week, Whitlam and Hawke government minister, Tom Uren died this week; it’s looking more and more likely that the two Australians on death row in Indonesia for drug offences will be executed in the next few weeks; the Sydney Siege Inquiry has begun; the Royal Commission into Child Abuse has released its recommendations for compensation and reconciliation for victims; and Brazil is upset that a NSW court acquitted all but one of four cops charged with a Brazilian student’s death – and the one that was found guilty was charged with assault for using three cans of pepper spray on the student and didn’t even get a conviction recorded.

Tweet of the Week

So Triple J disqualified Taylor Swift from the Hottest 100, only to play another Top 40 song in spot #6

https://twitter.com/KKeneally/status/559657461620027392

Things I’ve been Looking at Online

Kristina Keneally is a Catholic and a Feminist – The Guardian

Things that would have been different if Harry Potter was set in Australia – Buzzfeed

Your Argument is Wrong: “Guns don’t kill people”

The Week That Was – January 18 to January 24

The unrest at the detention centre on Manus Island has ended albeit with a lot of silence from the government, and conflicting accounts over whether or not violence was used to end it once the health and safety staff cam. The asylum seekers in the detention centre were blockading the entry to one of the compounds to the point where water had to be left outside the gate.

Several passports have been canceled in the hope that those at risk of heading to the Middle East will not be able to go, however communities have been saying that it doesn’t stop radicalisation. They suggest that a cosmetic approach is not enough and that rehabilitation is better than prosecution – to the point where people are setting up counselling and community groups to help people, with one group being funded by an organisation based in Dubai.

It’s believed that the Prime Minister pushed for the change to the Medicare rebate against the advice of both the Treasurer and the Health Minister. It’s also been suggested that once it became obvious that the Senate would throw the policy out when they returned to Canberra (and the public was not going to support it) he abandoned it, and left the new Health Minister Sussan Ley to clean up the mess. While the $20 cut is gone, the $5 rebate cut to doctors is still there, and it’s though that most doctors will pass that change onto patients.

To add to the drama, there are rumblings on the backbench, as people begin to question Abbott’s judgement. There are suggestions that Abbott is a liability, with rumours that people are seeing who might have the numbers to take Abbott on.

The government has cut $271 million from the Social Services budget, leaving community organisations to apply for tenders so that a select few can get funding. Only 700 groups have been shortlisted, and by the end of the tender process 4000 groups will have lost funding, including a suburban Sydney community aid group and a teenage mother support group.

Cross bench senators are making clear that they still do not support the plans to deregulate university fees. Christopher Pyne is indicating that he may compromise further on the policy, but many cross benchers are still saying that any changes to university funding will not be supported at all.

Australia is trying to save the lives of two men on death row in Indonesia after both their pleas for clemency were denied by the Indonesian government. It’s thought that if the executions do go ahead, they will be carried out in the next few weeks. It’s not looking good for them, as Indonesia executed five foreigners for drug trafficking offences last week, including a Dutch citizen and a Brazilian citizen.

Back at the 2010 election, Tony Abbott said that Work Choices was “dead, buried and cremated”. It appear however that some form of Work Choices may be returning after the Productivity Commission said that changes to penalty rates could be on the table. This has made several industries, like the hospitality industry quite pleased as they won’t have to pay workers so much, while workers, particularly those who work for emergency services and in hospitality are not pleased, as part of the reason they put up with being rostered on weekends and public holidays is because they are paid more money.

Finally this week, David Hicks could have his conviction overturned, Campbell Newman has said that the Queensland Labour Party is being funded by bikies, and has also told voters that if they don’t vote for the LNP candidate in their seat they will not get what was promised by the party for the electorate.

Tweet of the Week

MT @MiddleEastEye: Documents show IS & Saudi Arabia's near-identical punishments for crimes http://t.co/O1yD7kQav2 pic.twitter.com/2wOdRzti7r”

— Helen Tzarimas (@Tzarimas) January 23, 2015

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

First Dog on the Moon on Australia Day Honours – The Guardian

Emma Watson should run for US president in 2016 – Buzzfeed

The Week that Was – January 11 to January 17

The Queensland Election is forcing some to start paying attention to politics again, and even those not living in Queensland are hearing about it. In the 2012 Queensland Election, the LNP won in a landslide that left only seven ALP MPs in the House of Representatives, since the there have been by-elections that have pushed that number to nine Labor MPs. This election is being watched closely because while the incumbents are disliked, the Opposition has a lot of ground to make if they are going to win the election, not to mention the fact that should the incumbent government remain in power, their leader, Campbell Newman may lose his seat.

Warren Truss has been in Queensland on the campaign trail for the LNP, as has Bill Shorten for Labor. Shorten has pointed out that the LNP can only get truss and not Abbott. The official excuse for Tony Abbott not being on the campaign trail has been that he is on leave, although some have pointed out that Abbott never showed his face in the Victorian State Election at the end of last year, and suggest that people are trying to keep him out of the way so he can’t mess anything up.

Julie Bishop is condemning Boko Haram’s use of girls as young as ten in suicide bombing missions. The East African terrorist cell has been attacking villages and towns in Nigeria for months, but most recently killed 2000+ people in a village, mostly women and children, and used a ten year-old girl in the suicide bombing of a market, as well as several other young girls on other occasions.

Now for another round of Government Policy Gymnastics. Earlier this week it was announced that the rebate cut of $20 for short (10 minutes or less) consultations that Peter Dutton – former health minister, now immigration and border protection minister – decided to make were to begin on January 19. It was made clear that both Labor and a majority of the Senate’s crossbenchers would support a disallowance motion that would effectively stop it. However, the new Health Minister, Sussan Ley, had announced that it won’t come into effect, and that while she supports a co-payment or change to the medicare rebate to those who can afford it, she wants to consult people before she makes a change.

Several asylum seekers are on hunger strike, some have sewn their lips together and some have recently attempted suicide. The government has said that actions like these will speed up the refugees’ applications, although I am inclined to think that these actions are more to do with the mental health of asylum seekers than their wish to move up the list and be allowed to move to Australia.

Finally this week, Australia has been appealing to Indonesia to spare the lives of two Australian men on death row for drug trafficking, the USA is thanking Australia for its help with the fight against ISIS, and a security expert is suggesting that one way to deal with people returning from Syria or Iraq, who are suspected to have fought, should be made to wear GPS trackers to surveil them.

Tweet of the Week

Shorten was talking about Medicare the other day and decided to quote a famous Australian movie.

DON'T AD LIB BILL

— Latika M Bourke (@latikambourke) January 15, 2015

NO. DON'T QUOTE FROM THE CASTLE BILL.

— Latika M Bourke (@latikambourke) January 15, 2015

He quoted from the Castle.

— Latika M Bourke (@latikambourke) January 15, 2015

aksdnflkjasdflkjasdlfkjsdalkjfds

— Latika M Bourke (@latikambourke) January 15, 2015

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

First Dog on the Moon’s Love Letter to Medicare – The Guardian

Yes they Can: Women of Wit are Winning – SMH

Is YouTube a “Real Job”?

The Week That Was – November 30 to December 6

The Victorians held an election last weekend, and a first term government was thrown out. That hasn’t happened in decades. Labor won a comfortable majority to beat the Liberal/National Coalition. There is a suggestion from the left that the current government is to blame for the Liberal election loss, and that this is, or at least should be, a wake up call to the current federal government, telling them that people are not happy with them. The new Victorian Premier, Dan Andrews has said that he will work with the federal government and Tony Abbott, but not for them. The election loss of a one term government isn’t the only shock though. Shepparton, which was considered the second safest seat in Victoria and held by the Nationals, has swung 32 percent against the Nationals to become an Independent-held seat.

After a shocking week last week, Tony Abbott held a 45-minute long press conference in which he took responsibility for some of the broken promises, and announced that the government will give back the days off it was planning to take away from people in the ADF. The budget is still in trouble, not just because the government hasn’t got major legislation through but because mining revenues are down, which is how the government was making a lot of money before. This week is the last week of sitting for 2014, so the government is hoping next week is better. To add to the government’s concerns, the GDP is down again, and worse than the most pessimistic forecast.

With this week being the last week of Parliament for 2014, there has been a lot of nagging about legislation that people want to pass through the Senate, especially the university fee deregulation legislation and Temporary Protection Visa (TPV) legislation. The university fee legislation did not pass, with PUP senator Glenn Lazarus complaining that Education Minister Christopher Pyne had been texting him non stop about it – Lazarus was in hospital with kidney stones last weekend and Monday. Pyne was not to be deterred, as he has tweaked the legislation and is sending it through next year, although my understanding is that the tweaking will not mollify students as they are more concerned with the cost of tuition than with having to pay it back. One success for the government has been the passing of legislation for Temporary Protection Visas. TPVs will be introduced, allowing genuine asylum seekers to be released into the Australian community.

There is frustration among rural communities, and in particular indigenous communities, with the announcement that people will have to work five hours a day, five days a week all year round in order to receive their welfare benefits. It’s meant to stop “sit down welfare”, but it also forces people into jobs. It’s also criticised as discriminatory as it only affects rural and indigenous communities and not people in the city.

The Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has announced that DFAT is going to be stricter on Australians who cause trouble abroad, suggesting that they may charge some people for consular assistance and may not even help some people who break local laws. Bishop has said that consular assistance is a privilege and not a right, and has also said that people need to stop asking DFAT stupid questions, like if they will feed your pets while you are away or requesting an embassy car to take people to and from their hotel.

Meanwhile, the Department of Defence is beginning an investigation into the leaking of receipts from restaurants, showing that the Defence Minister, while wining and dining foreign officials, has spent thousands of taxpayer dollars on food and drink at upscale establishments, including at Adelaide Casino, where a steak that cost $98 was ordered, along with several hundred dollars on drinks.

Finally this week, the Child Abuse Royal Commission investigated a yoga retreat where children were abused, there are mutterings of a cabinet reshuffle with the Treasurer and Defence Minister in the rumoured firing line, Australian medics are will soon be off to West Africa, once they’ve completed some critical situation training and safety training in Australia, and ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher is stepping down in order to be eligible to be considered for the casual vacancy that Kate Lundy is leaving in the Senate.

Tweet of the Week

No. 1 network in daytime – and #ourABC: No.3 in prime-time. Nice work @ABCTV – a great year. http://t.co/D2mWF7mnLs

— Mark Scott (@mscott) December 4, 2014

Things I’ve been Looking at Online

Australian parents publish a correction in the Births, Deaths and Marriages section of the local paper – Mirror UK

Dame Quentin Bryce says men have to confront domestic violence – The Guardian

The ABC’s top 30 clips on YouTube

The Week That Was – November 23 to November 29

The Palmer United Party has split. Jacqui Lambie has left, and become an independent. There are still two PUP Senators for now, five months after they started in the Senate. Clive Palmer has been accusing Lambie of fraud and generally does not seem to be taking the split well, given he started hurling insults at Lambie via the mainstream media. Lambie has indicated that she is willing to negotiate with the government, mainly on Defence pay, but will be blocking changes to university fee deregulation. This now makes the Senate a little more difficult to deal with as there are more groups to negotiate with, especially if Ricky Muir keeps himself independent of the PUP.

This week also saw the ABC announce the cuts it has to make in order to survive the government’s funding cuts – or “efficiency dividend” as the government is calling it. You can read what is going to be cut here. Mark Scott, the ABC’s managing director explained that it was a sad day and that he was upset that he had to sack 400 people. Meanwhile Tony Abbott admitted during question time that he had promised not to make cuts to the ABC or SBS. Mind you, either the ABC executives doing the cutting are very cunning or it was an incredible coincidence, because the five regional outposts being cut are in Liberal or National held seats. The Nowra, Wagin and Port Augusta posts are in the Liberal-held seats of Gilmore, O’Connor and Grey respectively, while the Nationals hold the seats of Gippsland and Flynn, where the outposts of Morwell and Gladstone are based. There were protests at Parliament the next day, while Christopher Pyne bemoaned the ABC’s decision to cut the Adelaide-based production unit, while Australian tweeters called him a hypocrite and trolled his petition.

The ADF has been in the news this week for multiple reasons. First, Tony Abbott has agreed to review the ADF pay issue, to see if there is anything he can do. There is no plan to meet with Jacqui Lambie at the moment, thou, and Abbott has pointed out that you can’t always get what you want. Meanwhile, the Defence Minister, David Johnston, has got himself into hot water over a comment made in the Senate about the Australian Submarine Corporation (ASC), in which he said he would not trust the ASC to build a canoe. That obviously upset the ASC’s staff, as well as the opposition, with people calling for his resignation. It doesn’t help that the government is trying to sell the ASC, and saying something like that, kind of devalues it. Staying with defence, the ADF has released a report into sexual assaults at ADFA. The report says that many senior officers who were told of the allegations either did noting or did not believe the cadets. Some are even calling for a Royal Commission into ADFA and its culture.

Freya Newman, the young woman in court over the leaking of information regarding Frances Abbott’s scholarship to the Whitehouse art school, has been sentenced to a good behaviour bond, with no conviction recorded. This is good for her, however now that the case is over, people have been asking why Newman sent the information to The New Matilda and not the NSW ICAC.

The government has said that a boat carrying Sri Lankan asylum seekers was turned back to Sri Lanka two weeks ago near the Cocos Islands, while the UN committee that looks into torture has condemned the government’s treatment of asylum seekers. Meanwhile, refugee legal services are being inundated with clients wanting clarification over a clause in the “Code of Conduct” they are required to sign. The clause basically tells them that if they engage in anti-social behaviour that disrupts the peace of the Australian community, they can be deported. This makes the refugees concerned, because many fear that if they make an innocent mistake, they could be kicked out of the country.

Finally this week, medics are finally headed to West Africa to join the fight against Ebola, Medibank was listed on the ASX, Clive Palmer was in court to deal with allegations from a Chinese company that was part of a joint venture, Bronwyn Bishop has broken the  record for the most members thrown out in one sitting of the House of Representatives – 18, and the $7 co-payment may be binned.

Tweet of the Week

https://twitter.com/JamelleWellsABC/status/536682521421836288

Fun fact: Annual #OurABC cuts of $50m would fund less than 4 days of Abbott's PPL scheme.

— Paul Syvret (@PSyvret) November 24, 2014

Things I’ve been looking at Online

Where Mark Latham got it wrong on mothers – AFR

Annabel Crabb on Mark Latham – SMH

23 Things Australians can thank the ABC for – BuzzFeed

Broadcast Battleground

The Week that Was – November 9 to November 15

It would appear that this week has been international summit week, with Tony Abbott attending three summits. The first was APEC in Beijing, where Abbott met Putin on the sidelines, and China probably had way too much fun, placing Putin and Abbott next to each other or near each other at every opportunity. They were sat next to each other at the roundtable and Abbott was placed behind Putin in the “Family Photo” (called that because they all get a photo in the requisite costume). The big thing at APEC was the US-China emissions deal. Abbott then headed to Myanmar for the ASEAN Summit, where he discussed regional security and economy and met Aung Sun Suu Kyi.

Brisbane was shut down for the G20, security was tight, and 19 world leaders came to visit. Russia decided to send ships round to the Coral Sea as a show of force, and climate change was forced onto the G20 agenda thanks to the US-China deal. There was a retreat in Queensland Parliament and Tony Abbott had some words to start their conversation, which included complaining about how he couldn’t get his policies through.

Other than that, they’ve discussed Ebola, the economy, climate change (or at least, Obama made pointed comments that appeared to be aimed at Abbott) and took a family picture, albeit without the APEC costumes. The “wives club” got to cuddle koalas on Saturday.

Australian troops have finally started to head to Iraq, and it appears that Obama may want Australia to send more, but there hasn’t been a specific request yet. They will only be there in an advisory role, helping with tactics and training, but they could be there for a few years.

The Palmer United Party is in turmoil following Jacqui Lambie’s promise to block all government legislation because of a below-inflation wage raise. Clive Palmer and the PUP executive expelled Lambie’s Chief of Staff from the party, called Lambie a “dram queen” and dared her to challenge him for leader. Lambie told Palmer expelling her Chief of Staff from the party was a low blow and that he should take shots at her and not her staff. Lambie is a unique senator, and sometimes says some interesting things, but her interview with Leigh Sales on 7:30 during the week was sensible, coherent and reasoned. There is fear that the PUP could split, which could possibly make the government’s job more difficult as they will have to negotiate with more people.

The government is still trying to pass their university fee legislation, and are hoping to pass it by Christmas. However if it doesn’t, they may have to push back the start date to 2017. Christopher Pyne has told people that the number of university applications are up, which he says shows that people aren’t worried about the new legislation. However, given that next year’s students won’t be affected by the fee deregulation, my money is on the fact that people are getting in to uni without massive fees while they still can.

Finally this week, there are concerns about how Somali workers are going to send money home now that banks are stopping transfers to Somalia because they can’t guarantee that the money isn’t going to terror groups, there was a memorial in Amsterdam for the MH17 victims, and former Queensland Premier Wayne Goss has died.

Tweets of the Week

Asked if she'd like a Canberra suburb named after her one day @JuliaGillard tells @666canberra "Why not? As long as it's a nice suburb haha"

— Andrew Greene (@AndrewBGreene) November 11, 2014

David Cameron also joked that he vetoed a bicycle ride with PM Abbott b/c it would require "more lycra than is consistent with re-election".

— Naomi Woodley (@naomiwoodley) November 13, 2014

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Concerns about the university assignment black market – SMH

Controversy surrounding the ABC’s airing of a skit about Abbott vs. Putin on 7:30 – The Australian

The CIA ruins people’s fun by telling people how Argo got it wrong

The Week that Was – October 26 to November 1

This week saw the Labor party announce that they may keep the current government’s policy of turning back boats, because it appears to be working. However, they have said that they will only do it with Indonesia’s permission, which probably won’t happen, and then they didn’t say much else about it.

Clive Palmer has signed a deal with the government to pass the Direct Action Plan through the Senate, allowing the government to pay emitters to reduce their emissions. This has annoyed people, because Palmer had initially said he wouldn’t let it through because he believed it to be a wast of taxpayer money, and would only accept an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) if Australia’s allies would do the same, especially China. The government has also found a way to get the Fuel Excise to rise without taking it through Parliament. It will go up by half a cent every six months and is estimated to rain around $19 million. There is a catch though, if the government can’t get Parliament to agree within 12 months the money has to be given back, not to the taxpayers, but to the oil companies. Tony Abbot has also said that he wants an adult debate on the GST so it can be changed. It’s led to a few people wondering about this ‘adult debate’, given Abbott was part of the protests about the Carbon Tax during which he stood in front of some pretty nasty signs about Julia Gillard.

Tony Abbott during Protests about the Carbon Tax (from http://images-2.drive.com.au/2014/08/04/5651350/1407146829758.jpg-620×349.jpg)

Ebola scared the bejesus out of everyone again this week, after an 18-year-old Brisbane woman was taken to hospital with a fever after coming into the country from West Africa. She was in self-quarantine in her home before she came down with the fever, and as it turns out, she’s tested negative. However, refugees from West African Ebola countries will no longer be given visas for the time being, and those who already have visas will be quarantined for 21 days. This seems to be the only reaction Australia has made at the moment, as they haven’t forced aid workers into quarantine, like several US states have, although most aid workers are making sure quarantine themselves and check their temperature everyday, as is recommended by health authorities and aid groups. Again, the Australian Medical Association has said Australia should be sending staff to Ebola hot zones to help, however the government is still saying that they probably won’t until they have an evacuation plan in place should anyone contract the virus.

Parliament House got interesting earlier in the week, after three men staged a protest about the burqa ban being overturned. You can see the video from the ABC here.

Nova Peris is embroiled in scandal this week after being accused of using taxpayer money to get an international track star from the Caribbean to come to Australia because she was having an affair with him. She has denied the allegations and the Labor Party is standing beside her, while some believe News Corp may have got the emails illegally. Peris spoke in Senate to say that this is part of a blackmail attempt in a long running child access case.

The metadata laws passed this week, meaning that metadata will be held for two years. This is believed to cost the telecommunications companies money, so they will get subsidies from the government, but it is unclear at the moment as to how much money there will be. There are critics, especially the Greens and Nick Xenophon, but given Labor supported the legislation, it’s gone through.

The government is trying to confirm the death of an Australian ISIS member in the conflict zone. The man is thought to be the most high-ranking Australian in the organisation. Meanwhile, Australian troops are still in the UAE, yet to go to Iraq to advise the military there.

Finally this week, Medibank shares are on sale,  Australian couples are having trouble getting visas to India for surrogacy, Julia Gillard has been found by the Trade Union Royal Commission to have done nothing wrong, farmers are suing the government for damages after the live export ban a few years ago, and the West Australian town of Albany played host to commemorations for the centenary of the first ships leaving Australia for WWI.

Tweet of the Week

Plus in breaking news … the newsreader has a new short hairdo. #itsallaboutthehair

— Juanita Phillips (@Juanita_Phillip) October 29, 2014

Things that I’ve been Looking at Online

How British Colonialism determines which countries celebrate Halloween – The Washington Post

With the US Midterms coming up, people are being reminded to vote:

The Week that Was – October 19 to October 25

At the start of this week, Iraq finally found itself a Defence Minister, allowing Julie Bishop to finalise the terms of Australian troops coming to help advise the Iraqi defence forces. While there won’t be direct combat for the moment, the troops, mainly from the SAS, will advise and train the Iraqi army to deal with Islamic State (IS aka ISIS/ISIL). Speaking of Islamic State, Tony Abbott has been mentioned in a propaganda video spoken by a 17-year-old Australian who was able to get to the Middle East undetected by authorities. The young guy, a student from South-western Sydney told his mother he was going fishing and never came back. Abbott has used this to explain why Australia is in Iraq, and both sides of politics, not to mention community leaders are shocked that the young guy is there.

Meanwhile, the decision to make women wearing the burqa to watch parliamentary proceedings from a sealed-off section of the public gallery that is usually reserved for visiting students has been reversed. The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate met and decided that it would be better if women wearing the burqa were taken aside and asked to remove the covering for a moment so an officer could be satisfied of their identity. Some of the people who supported the burqa ban, such as Cory Bernardi and Jacqui Lambie are calling it ‘political correctness gone mad’, but most people seem to think that the Speaker and the Senate President are doing the right thing.

Also this week, we saw a shocking terrorist attack in Canada.

It saw Tony Abbott make a speech in Parliament about what happened in Canada, as did the Opposition.

Earlier in the week, Tony Abbott visited Indonesia for Joko Widodo’s inauguration. Widodo, often referred to by his nickname “Jokowi”, is the second democratically elected president of Indonesia. Abbott wants Australia and Indonesia to be closer and more friendly, but it is thought that Jokowi is going to be tougher on threats to Indonesia’s sovereignty, particularly by Australia, not to mention the fact that Widodo has domestic issues to deal with, such as a hung parliament and his promises to the Indonesian people.

Australia is apparently starting to frustrate the rest of the world when it comes to the fight against Ebola. The Health Minister has said that Australia will be focusing on the Asia-Pacific region and how we can help an outbreak there, as well as working on research into a vaccine. Australia has also sent $18 million to Africa to help them fight, but the opposition has demanded the government send personnel to West Africa to help fight the virus, as has, it turns out, the UK and the USA. Meanwhile, the chief medical people from each state and territory have met to discuss Australia’s plans to fight Ebola should someone in Australia be diagnosed with it, and they would also like Australian medical staff to be sent to Africa.

This week also saw Australia mourn the death of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. He died on Tuesday (the 21st) at the age of 98. He’s considered to be one of the best Prime Ministers the country has ever had, making major social change, such as no-fault divorce and free tertiary education. He is also well-known for his changes to Aboriginal land rights, so much so, that several Aboriginal communities entered a period of traditional mourning. Many tributes came in from across the political spectrum, including Malcolm Fraser and all parliamentary business was suspended, except for a sitting to pass a condolence motion and have a few speeches.His State Memorial Service will be held on the 5th of November in Sydney. You can read some editorials and tributes about Whitlam by Julia Gillard, David Marr and Lenore Taylor from the Guardian website.

Finally this week, Bill Shorten spoke about his dislike of hiding behind the bible when arguing against marriage equality, the AMA is criticising the government for its response to Ebola, the Governor-General met up with Australian forces in the UAE and Afghanistan, and Saturday saw National Mosque Open Day, in an attempt to inform people about Islam.

Tweets of the Week

The makeshift Whitlam memorial on the steps of Old Parliament House in Canberra

On the steps where he uttered his immortal 1975 words, flowers and tributes are being left for Gough Whitlam pic.twitter.com/LhO6j88ypk

— Andrew Greene (@AndrewBGreene) October 21, 2014

Things I’ve Been Looking at Online

Australia’s war on whistleblowers must end – The Guardian

Barry Spurr is the smoking gun of institutional racism – New Matilda

The death of a US-born journalist working for Iranian TV is believed to be the work of Turkish authorities – Daily Mail UK

The relationship you wish you had (about a gay couple on YouTube) – Huffington Post