Tony Abbott Attempts To Move No-Confidence Motion In Gillard

Mar 21, 2013 Leave a Comment

2.15pm – Ten minutes into Question Time, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott moved a no-confidence motion in Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Denied leave, Abbott moved a motion to suspend Standing Orders to enable the no-confidence motion to be moved. He is now speaking to that motion.

Abbott

“This is a government that has lost its way,” Abbott told the House, echoing Gillard’s words on the day she took over from Kevin Rudd in 2010. “But it’s not a good government,” Abbott said.

Kevin Rudd can be seen working quietly at his desk on the government’s backbench.

Bishop

Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop seconded the motion to suspend Standing Orders. “Irrespective of who wins the ballot, there will be stability with this government,” she said. She said the government was riven with splits that will not go away.

Gillard

Gillard attacked the opposition over its attitude to the global financial crisis and lauded her government’s economic performance and its job creation record. Her speech, possibly her last as Prime Minister, canvassed the government’s achievements.

Rudd

The House has now divided on the motion to suspend Standing Orders. If passed, Abbott will be able to move his motion of no-confidence in Gillard. If carried by an absolute majority of 76, the motion will pass.

The motion was passed 73-71 but is lost because the absolute majority was not achieved.

  • Listen to the start of Question Time (9m)

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  • Listen to Abbott’s speech on the suspension of Standing Orders (10m)

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  • Listen to Julie Bishop second Abbott’s motion (5m)

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  • Listen to Julia Gillard respond to the motion (11m)

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Filed Under: A.L.P., Audio2013, Gillard, House of Reps, Liberal Party, Question Time Tagged With: , , ,

Subtlety Lost: Craig Emerson On The Australian Media

Dec 23, 2012 3 Comments

The Minister for Trade, Craig Emerson, has written an opinion piece criticising coverage by the Australian media of recent political controversies.

EmersonEmerson focuses on the Gillard-AWU issue and the issues surrounding the sexual harassment case brought by James Ashby against Peter Slipper. He is especially critical of coverage by the News Limited papers, The Australian and The Daily Telegraph.

Emerson also directs his fire at Tony Abbott, Julie Bishop and Christopher Pyne.

Of the media overall, Emerson says: “I am not asserting there is a general bias in the media. Some editors and a few journalists are blatantly biased. That has always been the case. But the real problem is the abandonment of professional standards to give effect to that bias. All subtlety is lost.”

Text of an opinion piece by the Minister for Trade, Craig Emerson.

Subtlety lost

At Sydney University in the early 1970s a course simply called “Government” was offered to economics, arts and law students. It was a time of social upheaval and the election of the Whitlam Government had ended 23 years of conservative rule. The Murdoch press had backed a change of government.

My tutor in Government, Lex Watson, a gay rights activist, had set us a task: to identify bias in the media. But as left-wing as Lex was, the six-week project wasn’t about left versus right, it was about the techniques used by the print media to slant a story to suit an editorial position. [Read more...]

Filed Under: A.L.P., Gillard, Media, Political History Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Graham Perrett Refers Slipper Conspiracy Allegations To Federal Police

Dec 23, 2012 1 Comment

Graham Perrett, the federal Labor member for Moreton, has referred information from the Federal Court decision on the Peter Slipper-James Ashby sexual harassment case to the Australian Federal Police.

In his letter, Perrett says Mal Brough, Christopher Pyne, Julie Bishop, Mark McArdle, James Ashby and Karen Doane “may have committed criminal offences in relation to their participation in a political conspiracy designed to harm the Honourable Peter Slipper MP and the Federal Government”.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: A.L.P., Gillard, Liberal Party, Parliamentary People Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Gillard Fights Back Over AWU Allegations: Complains To Fairfax, Attacks Opposition

Nov 29, 2012 Leave a Comment

Julia Gillard’s office has reacted strongly to suggestions that the Prime Minister did something wrong in her work as a solicitor at Slater & Gordon in the 1990s.

As the final day of parliamentary sittings for the year unfolded, Gillard has complained to Fairfax newspapers over “the grievous misrepresentations in your reporting” of the AWU slush fund affair.

Her office has also issued a statement calling on the opposition to give up its “discredited smear campaign”.

Text of statement from Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s spokesperson, as published in Fairfax newspapers.

Statement from a spokesperson for the Prime Minister:

It’s time for the Liberals to give up their witch hunt and start talking about things that matter.

The whole country is sick to death of Tony Abbott and Julie Bishop pursuing a discredited smear campaign against the Prime Minister, when we could be talking about jobs, health, and education.

After months of speculation about a smoking gun, the Liberals have nothing.

So, the Prime Minister wrote to the WA Commissioner? So what? She did what lawyers do. Act on instruction. Provide legal advice.

So, the Prime Minister can’t remember writing one letter from 20 years ago. So what? Lawyers write thousands of letters in their careers. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Gillard, Media Tagged With: , , , , ,

Gillard Government Moves Yet Closer To Howard On Asylum Seekers

Nov 21, 2012 Leave a Comment

The Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen, has announced a new policy of ‘bridging visas’ for asylum seekers who will be released into the community.

Chris Bowen

 

Bowen said: “Consistent with ‘no advantage’, people from this cohort going onto bridging visas will have no work rights and will receive only basic accommodation assistance, and limited financial support.”

The change of approach is a tacit acknowledgement that the government’s refugee policies are now in tatters. Bowen said, “given the number of people who had arrived by boat since 13 August, it would not be possible to transfer them all to Nauru or Manus Island in the immediate future”.

Condemnation of the government came swiftly from the Opposition and the Greens, but for different reasons.

  • Listen to Chris Bowen’s press conference (26m)

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  • Listen to Shadow Immigration Minister Scott Morrison (11m)

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  • Listen to Greens Senators Christine Milne and Sarah Hanson-Young (21m)

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  • Listen to Tony Abbott and Julie Bishop speak to the media today (15m)

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Media releases from Immigration Minister Chris Bowen.

No advantage onshore for boat arrivals

People who arrived by boat post-13 August and all future arrivals will have the ‘no advantage’ principle applied to their cases onshore, even if they are not transferred offshore for regional processing, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Chris Bowen MP, announced today.

Mr Bowen said given the number of people who had arrived by boat since 13 August, it would not be possible to transfer them all to Nauru or Manus Island in the immediate future.

‘Accordingly, some of these people will be processed in the Australian community. They will not however be issued with a permanent Protection visa if found to be a refugee, until such time that they would have been resettled in Australia after being processed in our region,’ Mr Bowen said.

‘People arriving by boat are subject to this ‘no advantage’ principle, whether that means being transferred offshore to have their claims processed, remaining in detention, or being placed in the community.

‘Transfers to Nauru and Manus Island will continue, however in the coming weeks and months my department will begin releasing some people who arrived by boat on or after August 13 into the community on bridging visas.

‘Consistent with ‘no advantage’, people from this cohort going onto bridging visas will have no work rights and will receive only basic accommodation assistance, and limited financial support.’ [Read more...]

Filed Under: A.L.P., Audio, Audio2012, Gillard, Greens, Liberal Party, Refugees, Video Tagged With: , , , , ,
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