Doomed to fail

In the last two days nearly every politician in both the House of Representatives and the Senate have had the opportunity to voice their opinions about the current asylum seeker legislation that has been before the parliament since yesterday lunchtime. All three major parties, the ALP, the Liberal National Coalition and the Greens have different views, with many individuals not willing to compromise on the details. Last night the House of Reps passed Rob Oakeshott's bill, and the PM hoped that today it would pass in the Senate. Throughout the day members from both chambers of parliament have given press conferences, each reiterating their opinions and stances on the issue with many political commentators commenting, that the likelihood of this bill passing was next to zero. This comes after Greens MP Adam Bandt voted with the Coalition last night, however speculation was only to be silenced late this afternoon when the Senate negated the bill 29/39. Although this is a blow to the government, Prime Minister Julia Gillard this evening gave a joint press conference with Immigration Minister Chris Bowen outlining a commission that she had just set up. She announced that the commission would be headed by Angus Houston, who was a consultant to John Howard when he was Prime Minister and has assisted the incumbent PM at times. Ms. Gillard said the idea behind the appointment and the commission will be to look at the best solutions for Asylum Seeker policy and are expected to release their findings before the parliament resumes in August. It is doubtful that politicians will come to the senses and decide on a solution, the best solution, when the government holds an opposing view to the opposition and the Greens (especially in the Senate), but until a policy is agreed upon the boats will keep coming and the chance of people dying at sea will continue to grow. The governments Malaysia Solution has been fiercely opposed by both the Greens and the Opposition but Tony Abbotts Nauru option, and the Greens amendments to Oakeshotts bill have also been voted against. In reality the Opposition wants the government to agree to only have off shore processing in countries that have signed the convention that ensures rights to refugees and asylum seekers.  This would mean the government needing to do a back flip on their Malaysia solution, as it is not a signatory to the convention. The greens on the other hand, as was seen in Senator Hanson-Young’s speech earlier today, hold the view that under no circumstances should offshore processing be a legitimate answer. And so it shall be an interesting time as we watch MP’s away from parliament for the next 6 weeks and wait until parliament resumes for real action to take place.

breakingnewsbreakingnewsbreakingnews

Since early this afternoon, members in the House of Representatives have been locked in a fierce debate about amendments to the migration act, due to another distress signal from a boat of asylum seekers 107 nautical miles off the coast of Christmas Island. Earlier today Opposition Leader Tony Abbott tried to table his own bill which would see that asylum seekers are dealt with overseas, in Nauru, a country which HAS signed the convention that ensures rights for refugees and asylum seekers, however leave was not granted. Saying that, the government did back Independent Rob Oakshott’s bill, which would allow both the governments’ Malaysia solutions, and the Oppositions solution of Nauru to both be viable options under this legislation. At 2.00pm AEST, Prime Minister Julia Gillard stood up in the chamber and said that it was time to come to an agreement that “No-one [has] won, No-one [has] lost, we just have to get the job done”, this then led the way for an afternoon filled with MPs having the opportunity to voice their opinion about this issue. From listening to this debate the underlying fact is that although some of the technicalities differ from the government and the opposition both sides of politics want to come to some sort of agreement as soon as possible. Obviously the events that have happened today, are just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, boast of refugees are continuously coming to seek asylum in Australia, but this debate is one that must happen, one that unless reaches an outcome tonight, or in the very near future will just keep on happening, and at smaller intervals than it currently is. So far the debate has been going on for more than 6 hours straight, will MPs come to a decision? Let us hope so, and as I write this, the sunset amendment clause was agreed to and the House of Representatives has passed Oakshotts bill 74/72, and so it is with hesitant eyes and ears that we watch the Senate tomorrow, where the legislation will have a harder time passing.

In bocca lupo!!

We are now finished week one of a two week period in which the Federal Parliament will sit. This in itself is not all that important, but the fact that it is the last time parliament will sit before July 1st and the introduction for the 'tax on carbon', before an extended break makes it all the more important. The Carbon Tax has been the dominant issue 'debabted' in parliament and I am sure it will continue for the next 4 sitting days. This coupled with the fact that both News Limited and Fairfax Media have announced a complete overhaul of their news operations, Marriage Equality will be debated in the Lower House, the Prime Minister attended the G20 summit in Mexico and Gina Rinehart has upped her stake in Fairfax, will make for an interesting time. Just yesterday News Limited announced a reduction in their print news, as a way of keeping up with demand, and to streamline their online and print news. This does not really come as a surprise as earlier this week  Fairfax Media announced a reduction of 1900 staff and also decided to change from their traditional broadsheet layout to tabloid style layout newspapers. Although these actions seem to be quite sudden the idea behind the move is probably not all that new, and as I look back over the last 12 months this has been an issue I have been thinking a lot about. This is highlighted after watching a keynote address online given by Annabel Crabb at Melbourne University from 2010. She, even back then was speculating about how the change, inevitably she said at the time, would affect journalists and their ability to do their jobs, in a time when people want analysis of breaking (political) news as it happens not just at the start and end of every day in news bulletins and in newspapers. Therefore in the weeks ahead it shall be interesting to see the fallout from these announcements. The PM this week has been absent from Question Time, and left the country in the hands of Wayne Swan whilst she travels to Mexico for the G20 summit. She met leaders from all over the world including the United States President Barack Obama and talked up the state of our economy on the world stage. Overall this week has been fairly hectic, but then again any week in which the population of Canberra increases 2:1 will be a week, in which watching the news will bring about highly amusing results.

Monday nights are for listening

Three days ago, Prime Minister Julia Gillard, was the sole panel member on the ABC’s QandA with Tony Jones. The just-over-an-hour question and answer session with the PM was extremely interesting and captivating to watch as it gave a number of people the opportunity to ask questions of the PM. Some may say that it was almost an ambush, and it did put her on the spot yes, but also allowed her to answer questions that everyday people had in relation to a wide range of topics. These included Gay Marriage, the benefits of the Carbon Tax and the compensation that will ensue, Kevin Rudd, Julian Assange, schools, Mabo and her hobby of knitting. The questions that were asked came in via email, in person and video from different sections of the community and there weren’t any areas left untouched as even questions about the Peter Slipper and Craig Thomson scandal were asked. I found the program fairy informative in that it allowed people an uncensored view at the PM; however I found that I was disgruntled at times with host Tony Jones because he came across quite blunt and rude when trying to get a direct answer out of the PM if she had not fully answered a question. This was the biggest downfall of the segment and re-watching the show I found that I became quite annoyed at Mr. Jones because in most cases it was uncalled for and just plain nasty, saying that I did enjoy it all the same. Ms. Gillard I think tried to answer as truthfully as possible especially when asked about the issue of Marriage Equality, and Gay Marriage. Her answer yes may not have been to everybody's liking but at least it was honest, and I think the positive thing that came out of her comment was that she said the Labor Party would be allowed to have a conscience vote if the time arose in Parliament. The closing comments from the PM about what advice she has for someone aspiring to be the PM I thought closed the show beautifully, because it showed how she deals with the criticism that gets directed at her, about her fashion (especially the jackets she wears); but more importantly it just reinforced the reason why someone goes into politics in the first place, which is because they are passionate about a particular issue or something you ‘desperately want to change’. For me personally this was the most important point that PM made as that was the idea that has stayed with me, because when I fell in love with politics in 2007 it was because I was upset with the lack of knowledge people had about politics and I wanted to change that. Since then I have started to radically alter my life, I read as many articles, newspapers and blogs as I can, and every day I watch as many news programs as I can manage, to try and absorb as much as I can, in the hope that I can better understand an issue. My goal leaving school is to make sure that people understand an issue before they make a concrete opinion about it. I don’t care if my opinion differs from somebody else so long as their opinion is based in fact, because I believe that it is a crime when people who are misinformed about an issue tell the world and then become disgruntled when someone tries to correct them. If they had the right information and still had the same view then fine, but until that happens it will be one of my goals, to make sure people know the facts, and on Monday night I believe that, that is what the Prime Minister tried to do.

It's that time of the month again . . . .

Last week saw the first Tuesday of the month, and we all know that that means, don' t we? Blood pressure was just a little bit higher as will was tension in the air. All because The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) sat down to look at whether or not they needed to lower or increase the target cash rate. At the start of May this year the RBA lowered the cash rate by 50 basis points (or half a percent) to 3.75%, this was mainly due to the fact that inflation (one of the RBA's goals) was at a low of 1.6%, rather than between 2-3% over the Business Cycle. This month they decided to again lower the rate but by 25 basis points taking the target cash rate to 3.5% This type of policy is called Monetary Policy and more so, either expansionary or contractionary policy depending on whether the change decreases or increases. In the current economic climate when the global outlook looking bleak, especially in Europe, the RBA will almost certainly look to either lower the cash rate or keep it the same in the months ahead. Expansionary Monetary Policy is used when the Unemployment is low, or inflation is too low, to try and stimulate the economy. It can be the consequence of a sick economy that the cash rate would be lowered dramatically to increase spending. Compared to our International Counterparts we are faring quite well, this can be seen by the fact that most other developed Countries went into a recession during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and we didn't, and the fact that last September, Mr. Wayne Swan won the award of World's Best Finance Minister, only the second Australian so to do. Economically, as a country are not doing so badly, however you would not get that from listening to the Leader of the Opposition nor the Shadow Treasurer. It will be interesting to see, what the RBA decides to do, in terms of increasing or decreasing the Target Cash Rate in the next few months because although the global outlook is still looking bleak the mining sector of our economy is firing away and in some instances might benefit from an increase in the cash rate rather than a decrease. So it is with anticipation that we wait for the next, first Tuesday of the month, to see what it will bring.

Hung what?

Political commentator Michelle Grattan, this week wrote an article in which she commented that the bitterness seen in parliament has to do with the 'hung parliament' status it currently has, this may be true, but, for me it raises more questions than it solves. A hung parliament simply means a parliament in which no party hold the majority of seats in the Lower House, or the House of Representatives (the green house). People then ask how can a government be formed if they don't hold the majority of seats? Well a government can govern with the majority of support, in the house also, and this is how Julia Gillard became Prime Minister in 2010. It is because neither The ALP nor the Liberal National Coalition gained enough seats that Julia Gillard had to make deals with the independents making the federal parliament 'hung'. Now one may think that this is an unusual phenomenon but in all the Westminster or Westminster Based parliaments in the world, not one party holds the majority of seats in any of the lower houses, meaning all have coalition governments. Not being able to govern outright means that the government can only pass laws that their 'support base' agree with. In other words either the Greens or some Independents must agree with the ALP's legislation for it to pass, therefore although the Australian People blame Julia Gillard for the infamous 'Carbon Tax' that is set to start on July 1st this year, the Greens must have played a role in its making for it to get through. Likewise for most things that the ALP pass, in terms of legislation, another party must agree, (probably not the Liberal Nationals but a party nonetheless) which makes legislation making, extremely difficult because every party has their own ideals and party platforms. It must take a great deal of negotiating and compromise before two parties are satisfied enough to agree, making this government all the more special. The fact that in the past Australia has seen long runs of both Labor and Liberal governments might lead you to believe that our country is going mad and that all hell has broken lose with politics, and although it probably has, this hung parliament is completely normal, we, Australia are the abnormal ones. Yes we have seen probably the worst fighting, insult throwing, name calling and bullying scenes in federal parliament ever, there is speculation that it is because of our new 'hung' parliament. Both party leaders have been acting as if they are in the final stages of an election campaign, trying to one up the other; when really all that is happening is that people are getting fed up. Both leaders have disapproval ratings of above 55% and although the Liberal party look set to win the next election opinion polls look to be hinting that people are starting to get sick of Tony Abbott and his negativity. Maybe, Maybe not, but all we can do is speculate and the hung parliament theory may just be the answer to our problems.

Is the world ending?

This week in politics, for the first time in a very long time we have had no SSOs for an entire WEEK! Who would have thought that this week would come? Not I. However in its place we have had a very interesting, some may say pathetic week of question times. The first example that comes to mind is yesterday morning, which resulted in Opposition Leader stony Abbott and Opposition Manger of Business sprinting out of the HOR chamber. Now most people have seen the footage, as it s played on all news programs continuously on Wednesday, but most people don't know why such drastic events occurred. Let me explain. On Wednesday morning Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey was attempting to debate whether or not the debt ceiling should be raised as outlined in the Federal Budget, on May 8th 2012. This raising is common practice because as GDP, or our economy increases, the amount of money that we CAN borrow will increase automatically,because theoretically we are better off. Although the Shadow Treasurer should be aware of this he wanted to debate the issue anyway, causing the government o try and place a gag motion on him. When the time can for a vote Craig Thomson voted in favour of the Coalition. This is also standard, because since Thomson is now an independent and sits on the cross bench he is free to vote how he sees fit. There is also a convention that says independents will always vote to block gag motions if they are going to stop debate, and therefore it was only natural for the newly independent Craig Thomson to vote WITH the Coalition. Was it a stunt orchestrated by the government? Maybe, but all it really did was give the media another story to write about the badly behaved politicians. You could be forgiven for thinking that this incident was the best thing that happened in Parliament this week, but in actual fact minimal policy was also debated. The Mabo decision was mentioned as its 20 years this weekend and the controversial Roy Hill Enterprise Migration Agreement was 'debated' and insults were thrown. Overall it was an interesting week in parliament, politician commentators did wonder marvel at the fact Opposition Leader did not call to suspend standing orders even once. So maybe the world is ending . . .