In a special live performance the Prime Minister in the House of Representatives acted out his own interpretation of George Orwell’s 1984. What you thought he’d promised, he never said, what he said he’d abandon, hes now keeping and what some Australians thought was a Prime Minister turned out to be Tony Abbott. This week was a turning point. BEST: It’s an issue that needs to be above party politics, this week Bill Shorten and Tony Abbott came together in support of White Ribbon Day. Only by standing together on this important issue can we be part of the generation that eliminates violence against women. Bill Shorten stopped Question Time on Monday to censure the Prime Minister for his betrayal of Australians when he lied about: “No cuts to education, no cuts to health, no changes to pensions, no changes to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS. We all know that independent news is as easy as ABC. Tony Abbott breaking his promise of “No cuts to the ABC,” had Labor MPs enraged this week, but Bill made it clear that a Labor Government would increase funding to the ABC. From beginning to end, the fight from Labor this week couldn’t have been stronger. Bill crystallised it in an extraordinary speech on Thursday after Question Time when he said: “This Government has reached a tipping point in what has been the worst week so far in the life of the Abbott Government. Australians know that the Abbott Government has let them down.” On the same day the Government’s GP Tax was in chaos and Tony Abbott was under pressure to sack his Defence Minister, Bill used a speech at the National Press Club to outline Labor’s vision for a smarter, fairer and stronger Australia: “2014 was defined by the force of Labor’s resistance, today I commit to you that 2015 will be defined by the power of our ideas. WORST: It’s hard to know where to start when you’ve got a Defence Minister who tells the world that he wouldn’t trust the people who build our submarines “to build a canoe.” It’s impossible to see how Senator Johnston (the Defence Minister you’ve probably never seen - most MPs havent) can keep his job. Although when Bill asked Tony Abbott if Senator Johnston would still be Defence Minister in February next year… you guessed it, the Speaker said he didn’t have to answer. On Monday Tony Abbott refused to say whether he’d made his infamous election eve promise. So on Tuesday Bill asked: On the night before the election, somebody was interviewed on SBS and made the following statement: No cuts to education. No cuts to health. No change to pensions. No change to the GST, and no cuts to the ABC or SBS. Prime Minister, no-one will now own up to making that statement. Does the Prime Minister have any idea who said this? If Bill’s question didn’t jog Tony Abbott’s memory, Malcolm Turnbull certainly did. It was Liberal vs Liberal and there was no way Malcolm Turnbull was going to let Tony Abbott get away with claiming he’d kept his promise of “No cuts to the ABC.” I’ll leave you to wonder why that might be - in the meantime check out this video. Taxing people because they’re sick is about as cruel as it gets. Chris Bowen made sure Tony Abbott didn’t get away with his GP Tax chaos with this question on Thursday: Today senior Australian Financial Review journalist Laura Tingle described the Prime Ministers budget strategy as dead, a seriously ex-parrot. Does the Prime Minister agree that his budget strategy and unfair GP tax are dead? Or, Prime Minister, is it just a flesh wound? Ok, there’s a rule that says MPs aren’t allowed to be critical of the Speaker outside of the Parliament. So here’s some stats that maybe make the case for me: Since the beginning of the 44th Parliament the Speaker has ejected 285 MPs (280 Labor and five Coalition) the most of any Speaker since Federation. Of those, 47 were kicked out this week and 18 on Thursday alone - Zero to 18 in 75 minutes, a land speed record. Here’s the wrap up of some of Bronwyn Bishops rulings. On Wednesday Nick Champion was kicked out of Question Time at 2:01pm, one minute into Question Time, when after Bill asked Tony Abbott if he would sack the Defence Minister, Nick interjected “Put a fork in him, he’s done!”. On Thursday Bronwyn decided to inject a little of the Government’s chaos into Question Time when she said MPs would be “randomly asked to leave,” although the one that got me was when Joel Fitzgibbon was asked to “resume his seat and leave,” (which is pretty hard to do while seated). Finally, even Melissa Parke was ejected for the first time in her seven years as an MP, after simply quoting a Standing Order. I’ll leave you to think about that until next week when the #5and5 will be back for the final Parliamentary sitting week of the year. Tony PS: This week’s #5and5 song of the week is dedicated to the 18 people who yesterday heard
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 02:46:45 +0000
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