And hello Barnaby Joyce entering the Lower House in the next election. Maybe he’ll make spilling Tony Abbott his first priority?
Categories: media, parties and factions
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Hoyden About Town 
*runs screaming and hides under her desk*
Tell me when it’s over.
That is basically my reaction to ALLLL of the media about Australian politics at the moment.
With one exception (from a couple of days ago, but I only saw it this morning) – this article from Lenore Taylor in the Guardian about the Cth government backing off on the plan to collect metadata: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/24/government-shelves-metadata-collection-plan
I can figure out if they are just feeling a bit sensitive as a result of Snowden’s NSA revelations, and have realised the shitstorm involved in passing that legislation will be even bigger than they realised/following those revelations, or if (this is the cynical part) they figure they can just get all the info they need (including content! yay!) from the USA …
* can’t figure out
Also, can’t proofread!
Someone has cursed us to live in interesting times. Who was it? Own up now.
I’m not surprised Mesrrs. Oakeshott and Windsor are retiring from politics at the end of this term, given they’ve been doing the majority of the heavy legislative lifting in this particular parliament. With the Opposition under Abbott basically saying “no” to everything regardless of how good, bad or indifferent the proposal is (seriously, the ALP could make an interesting legislative game out of putting forward something which meets all the Libs’ policy positions and watching it get shot down by them in the House) it’s fallen to Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott to do most of the reviewing and revising of bills, and that has to get exhausting after a while.
Good health and good luck to the pair of them (especially good health to Tony Windsor) and may their constituents find it in themselves to go for equally decent MPs in the future.
Mindy: It might be worth it to start worrying about the next level of that set of Chinese curses: “May you come to the attention of powerful people”. Given the shadow Attorney-General is promising to make the Australian security intelligence apparatus bigger and better and newer and shinier, we may all have reason to dread that one in future.
The third in the series is really nasty: “May you find what you seek.”
That is concerning, but it is the LNP which consistently opposed mandatory internet filtering. So hopefully the LNP faction which managed that keeps them reigned in on the internet front. And unfortunately the ALP did not rollback any of the extra powers which ASIO were given post 9/11.
I’m really hoping Ludlum survives the next election. He’s been pretty much a lone voice when it comes to advocating freedom on the internet.
Chris, I beg to differ. The promise of a bigger and better Australian intelligence budget was made in response to the government making the slightest hint that maybe, just maybe, it might be an idea to move on from the notion of “constant vigilance” against terrorist threats. Given that information (and the xenophobic nature of existing Liberal attitudes toward refugees – “turn back the boats” etc), plus their emphasis on cyber-security as a priority, I tend to be looking rather askance at the whole business.
Let’s not forget, the historical examples (both present-day US and UK, plus earlier examples from behind the Iron Curtain) point to the most common actual use for a beefed-up intelligence apparatus being spying on the domestic population.
Oh, and a link from The Conversation about the coalition’s plans:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/not-so-smart-the-coalition-intelligence-review-repeats-old-mistakes-15466https://theconversation.com/not-so-smart-the-coalition-intelligence-review-repeats-old-mistakes-15466</a>
They both strike me as being honourable men. And, you know, not in the manner of Brutus.
7.46pm WST – Well, that was a day.
Ugh. I am refusing to read any actual articles about the ALP debacle, but have not been able to refrain from reading some of the headlines and sub-heads on the front pages of a couple of the newspaper sites, while trying to look for actual news. (Ok, the spill, now it has happened, is news. But we do not need a million articles analysing it. Because THAT IS PART OF THE PROBLEM.) Ugh, ugh, ugh. My brain feels dirty.
On the other hand: YAY WENDY DAVIS. And all of the media I have seen about her filibuster has been pretty great.
I will not be sorry to see Tony Windsor go. A clever man, and not backward in defending his choices – but he struck me as being utterly untrustworthy. Take as one small example his rant in parliament about there being ‘significant rumours’ that Gina Rinehart was funding the campaign of a ‘certain National Party candidate for New England’. Rinehart issued a statement directly denying that she was; but Windsor didn’t care – why should he? He was just passing on scurrilous gossip; and if there was a chance that he made an out-and-out lie about it, well, he said it under the protection of parliamentary privilege.
I read a while ago that he sold a good part of his properties in New England to coal seam gas miners; so it’s interesting that one of the last pieces of legislation he helped pass that he’s been given credit for is anti-CSG (I can’t remember the details, sorry). It’ll be interesting to look into that; I wonder if any reporters will bother though?
I find Tony Windsor to be a considered man, and a lot more consistent than many other politicians. My understanding is that he’s not anti mining, but about “getting it right”:
From http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/06/21/3786849.htm
“If there’s a low risk, my personal view is I’m not against these things but if there’s a high risk of cumulative impacts and mixing of groundwater systems and upsetting rivers, maybe we should slow the process down and get it right.”
Rob Oakeshott, in his valedictory speech, proved what a loss he’s going to be to Australian politics, with his very telling remarks to Ms Gillard about her father being proud of her. It’s a shame there weren’t more politicians in the house to hear them. A good man to the last, and I’m sorry to see him go.
I live in Tony Windsor’s electorate. Buggered if I know who I’ll vote for now. Bloody Bananaby Joyce will romp it home. I never understood why country people vote National. The Nats abandon their country priorities as soon as they hit Canberra, in order to suck up to the Libs. If the Nats stood alone, the interests of country Australia could hold the balance of power.
And as far as Windsor goes, he always struck me as a decent person. I have had dealings with him on a couple of issues, and he’s been friendly, frank and helpful. I think he did lease his property out for coal exploration, but he has been vocal about not giving mining companies carte blanche to do what they like.
For purely selfish reasons, I’m sorry Windsor has decided to retire – I was really looking forward to Barnaby Joist having his arse handed to him on a plate.