Resources, News & Commentary from Malcolm Farnsworth
Queensland Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced her Shadow Cabinet following the ALP’s devastating defeat in the recent election.
The ALP was reduced to seven members in the 89-seat Legislative Assembly. This may fall to six if the party loses the South Brisbane by-election caused by the resignation of former premier Anna Bligh.
The six members all have multiple responsibilities. [Read more...]
Alby Schultz, the Liberal member for Hume, has announced that he will not contest the next federal election.
Schultz has represented the safe Liberal seat in south-east NSW since 1998. Prior to that, he served ten years in the NSW Legislative Assembly as the member for Burrinjuck.
The Hume electorate includes Bargo, Binalong, Boorowa, Bundanoon, Cootamundra, Cowra, Crookwell, Goulburn, Grenfell, Gundaroo, Gunning, Harden/Murrumburrah, Jugiong, Marulan, Murrumbateman, Picton, Sutton, Tahmoor, Tarago, Thirlmere, Wilton, Yass and Young.
At the 2010 election, Schultz polled 53.56% of the primary vote, an increase of 12.96%. After distribution of preferences, he won with 58.72% of the two-party-preferred vote, an increase of 3.37%.
Text of statement from Alby Schultz
As 2012 is the commencement of my 25th year in State and Federal politics as the elected Liberal Member representing the Liberal Party of Australia (NSW Div) I have advised the New South Wales State Director Mr Mark Neeham that I will not be contesting the next election. The time is right for me to move on and allow the Liberal brand to be maintained in Hume by a capable committed Liberal. [Read more...]
Senator Bob Brown has resigned as leader of the Australian Greens.
Brown’s surprise decision was announced at a party meeeting in Canberra. Senator Christine Milne was immediately elected as the new leader.
Later in the day, Melbourne MP Adam Bandt was elected deputy leader.
Brown said he would leave the Senate later in the year when the Tasmanian Greens division has finalised pre-selections. [Read more...]
The Liberal Party’s Western Australian Senator Judith Adams has died, aged 68.
Senator Adams reportedly died as a result of breast cancer.
She was in her second term in the Senate, having been first elected in the 2004 federal election. Her term commenced on July 1, 2005.
A former nurse and farmer, Senator Adams was Deputy Opposition Whip and had been Temporary Chair of Committees since July last year.
According to her personal website, “Judith was born in Picton, New Zealand and after completing her secondary education trained as a general nurse, a midwife and gained a Diploma in Operating Theatre Nursing.
“In 1963 Judith joined the NZ Territorial Army as a Nursing Sister, obtaining the rank of 1st Lieutenant and in 1967 was appointed to the NZ Surgical Team in Vietnam as a civilian nurse auspiced under the Columbo Plan. [Read more...]
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced that former NSW Premier Bob Carr is to enter the Senate and become Foreign Minister.
After several days of uncertainty and denials, the announcement came as a surprise today when Gillard announced the ministerial reshuffle arising from the resignation of Kevin Rudd and his failed leadership challenge.
Carr will fill the casual Senate vacancy created by the resignation of Mark Arbib. [Read more...]
This is video of the new House of Representatives Speaker Peter Slipper’s procession into the chamber today.
Andrew Wilkie has withdrawn his support for the Gillard minority government.
The independent member for Denison says the problem gambling proposals announced today by Julia Gillard are in breach of the agreement he signed with her after the 2010 election.
However, Wilkie said he will support the government’s problem gambling legislation in the House.
Wilkie said Gillard put the proposals to him last Sunday. He said he wanted to be “a man of my word” but that he didn’t want poker machine reform to “slip through our fingers”.
On the question of Supply, Wilkie said there were measures he didn’t support last year but he was bound to support the Budget bills in Parliament. “I can now provide no certainty when it comes to budgetary measures. Previously, the government could rely on me in matters of confidence, now it can’t.”
Wilkie said he still believes the numbers were there in the House to pass mandatory pre-commitment. He said it wasn’t a threat to the government but his relationship with the opposition might now be “warmer”. He said: “I can now be more independent than ever.”
Wilkie said he felt very let down, “very disappointed”, with the Gillard government, as did many Australians.
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This is the text of a statement released by Andrew Wilkie:
ANDREW WILKIE WITHDRAWS SUPPORT FOR GOVERNMENT
The Independent Member for Denison, Andrew Wilkie, has withdrawn his support for the Federal Government due to the Prime Minister’s failure to honour her agreement on poker machine reform.
“I can no longer guarantee supply and confidence for the Government because the Prime Minister has told me she can’t honour the promise to introduce mandatory pre-commitment on poker machines by the end of 2014,” Mr Wilkie said.
“Consequently I regard the Prime Minister to be in breach of the written agreement she signed, leaving me no option but to honour my word and end my current relationship with her Government.
“Frankly, a deal’s a deal and it must be honoured. Our democracy is simply too precious to trash with broken promises and backroom compromises. So I will walk, take my chances and so be it.
“As someone said to me this week, millions of people are concerned about poker machines, but everyone should care about politicians being true to their word.
“Moreover the Government has failed to seize the opportunity to enact genuinely meaningful poker machine reform. This Parliament presents a remarkable opportunity to finally do something about poker machine problem gambling and its devastating social and financial damage cost. But instead the Government took the easy way out.
“The Government’s explanation that it doesn’t have the numbers is simply wrong. The legislation should be debated in the Parliament and tested on the floor of the House. After all, that’s what democracy is supposed to be about.”
Mr Wilkie acknowledged that the Government is pursuing limited reform and expressed the hope that this first step would lead to meaningful reform.
“I will not stand in the Government’s way because I do feel that in the circumstances it would be better to achieve at least some reform.
“The push for pokies reform has not failed,’’ he said. “Poker machine problem gambling is now a hot topic, polling shows a strong groundswell for reform and the Commonwealth is set to intervene in gambling regulation for the first time in our history.
“But our foothold is small, so it’s more important than ever that pressure is kept on the Government to deliver the reform package announced today and eventually much more.
“Some people will ask why I would still withdraw my support for the Government when it’s progressing reform.
“But the issue is not that the Government is not progressing poker machine reform. Rather the issue is that the Government has decided it can’t deliver on the reforms it agreed to, which I’ve insisted repeatedly were the basis for my ongoing support and which I’ve honoured since the agreement was made some 16 months ago.”
Mr Wilkie added that in relation to matters of confidence, it’s in the public interest for parliaments to be stable and go full term.
“I will only support motions of no confidence in the event of serious misconduct and not support politically opportunistic motions. I will consider budget measures on their merits.
“As far as I’m concerned it’s still early days in the campaign for reform because too many people are being hurt by the pokies and the vast majority of people are looking to their elected representatives to do something about the problem.
“This and future governments must be forced to understand that this is just the start. The millions of people affected adversely by poker machines now and in the future deserve nothing less than our full support to minimise the damage.
“I will continue to push for mandatory pre-commitment and $1 maximum bets.”
An article of mine appeared in today’s edition of the Sydney Morning Herald.
It comments on the changes announced yesterday by the Remuneration Tribunal, increasing politicians’ pay, but abolishing the gold pass and restricting non-salary benefits such as travel entitlements.
The Remuneration Tribunal’s report can be downloaded here. (5mb PDF)
The article appears on The National Times.
The Senate Select Committee on the Reform of the Australian Federation has released its report.
The committee was established in June 2010 to:
The Committee comprised three Liberal senators (Russell Trood, Chris Back and Scott Ryan), two ALP senators (Mark Furner and Claire Moore) and one Greens senator (Scott Ludlam).
This is the text of a speech in the Matters of Public Interest debate by Victorian Liberal Senator Michael Ronaldson.
The speech was given at 1pm on June 15, 2011.
The transcript is taken from Hansard.
At the heart of this Gillard Labor government lies the truth that it is an illegitimate government. The government is not only illegitimate but also hopelessly divided. Only today we read how Labor backbenchers are at war with each other about policy decisions taken by their own party. It is a tale of zombies and daleks. The members—described by one of their own as ‘zombies’—are generally too frightened to speak out. The factional warlords—the ‘daleks’, according to one past leader—are angry at their loss of power and influence.
Today’s media reports describe a vicious exchange in yesterday’s caucus meeting between a backbencher from the New South Wales Central Coast, the member for Dobell, Mr Craig Thomson, and his New South Wales Labor colleague Senator Doug Cameron.
Paul Keating famously declared that where New South Wales Labor goes, so too goes the nation. This is indeed a troubling omen for our nation. Today I wish to discuss renewed allegations against the said Mr Thomson—all of which are on the public record. Mr Thomson’s actions go to the heart of this government’s legitimacy. Mr Thomson is now into his second term as a member of the House of Representatives. Nevertheless, serious concerns remain about Mr Thomson’s past as a union heavy in the Health Services Union. There are serious allegations including allegations of fraud and electoral misconduct. It is time to end Labor’s deafening silence concerning these very serious allegations. Put simply, it is time for the Prime Minister to show leadership. Mr Thomson is not fit to be a member of parliament and he should be stood down immediately. Of course, the Prime Minister knows this. In normal circumstances the member for Dobell would not be allowed to continue. But, in the so-called ‘new paradigm’ where the government has only a wafer-thin majority, the Prime Minister lacks the courage and the leadership authority to deal with the member for Dobell appropriately. [Read more...]
