Malcolm Turnbull is now speaking to the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority Bill, the body that will manage politicians expenses. (This came about after the downfall of health minister Sussan Ley over the Christmas break.)

He said there will be monthly disclosures, the Authority will commence on July 1.

A new interim advisory body will work in the meantime, with an independent board. Once the Authority is in full flight, the interim body will be disbanded. Essentially it will mean that the oversights, such as monthly disclosures will happen sooner.

As parliamentarians we have a duty to make sure our expenses meet standards that Australians expect, he said. 

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2017/feb/09/bill-shorten...

Before launching into a tirade about how coal is the future of Australia’s energy security, Morrison handed the dirty black lump to deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, who waved it around excitedly like a kid with a glowstick. It was an embarrassing and deeply depressing spectacle, but only surprising if you’re new to the glorified sandpit that is question time or Australian politics in general.

Leaving aside the frightening implications of the fact that some of the country’s most powerful people can find endless entertainment from waving a rock around, there are reasons why young Australians can’t share in the mirth, besides Morrison’s weak comedy chops.

We need no introduction to the breezy contempt in which the current government holds us. It’s not like there’s any shortage of evidence for it. We can see it in the breathtakingly patronising calls for young people to “get a job” while the government presides over some of the highest youth unemployment rates in 15 years. Or in the suck-it-up responses to the country’s chronic and worsening housing affordability crisis. 

Or in the constant, slow-burn war against the welfare state: the reaping of fake debt from poor people, the ongoing cuts to university funding, the imposition of humiliating, draining conditions and waiting periods to access basic services like Newstart even as Liberal politicians fight tooth and nail to preserve their lifetime travel bonuses.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/10/morrison-and-co-ar...

It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. – Macbeth Act 5

Oh, how many times has this line from Shakespeare sprung to my mind as I listened to some mock outrage played out in the theatre of our nations’ parliaments.

But perhaps has this line never more aptly applied than last week during Malcolm Turnbull’s tirade against Bill Shorten.

Yes, Turnbull’s attack was nothing more than sound and fury. It was quite furious, a side of Turnbull we have seen before (election night) and hear whispers about – but rarely is that fury on such public display. Turnbull’s attack was laden with personal smear and insult. It signified nothing of substance.

But Macbeth’s lament is even more relevant to Malcolm Turnbull.

Macbeth utters these words as he realises his demise is near. He is reflecting that his great acts – namely, murdering King Duncan and taking his throne – are meaningless. His own reign, and indeed his life, is about to come to an end. 

In that moment, Macbeth possesses the self-awareness to see that his seizure of leadership has failed. King Duncan’s son – coincidentally, for our purposes, named Malcolm – is about to storm the castle and take back the crown. Macbeth sees clearly that all he has said and done will amount to little. He seems to grasp that he was probably not suited to the (literal) cut and thrust of leadership. 

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/14/sound-and-fury-mac...

Five-time Paralympian Kurt Fearnley has accused the Government of using the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) as a "political football", criticising the decision to fund it through cuts to other social services.

• The Government is seeking to fund the NDIS by revising welfare and social services funding
• Paralympian Kurt Fearnley says the move will hurt vulnerable people
• Scott Morrison says the funding change will not affect the bottom line, and the Coalition inherited "a black hole"

On Monday, Treasurer Scott Morrison announced the Government would redirect $3 billion to the NDIS if the Senate crossbench supported the omnibus saving measures — which includes changes to paid parental leave and welfare.

Fearnley, a former member of the NDIS advisory council, criticised the Government for taking funding from services that benefit vulnerable members of the community as opposed to re-evaluating its negative gearing program or big business tax policies.

"To sit there and draw a direct line between funding for people with disabilities and the cuts to other vulnerable members of our community — to those on welfare, to those on pensions — you could draw that line across a thousand different parts of the budget," Fearnley said.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-14/kurt-fearnley-slams-government-ove...

The inept, dishonest and unethical continue to prosper at the expense of the decent under this mendacious Government, all supported by its press gallery cheer squad, writes legal expert Ingrid Matthews.

AS SOMEONE who wrote about whether Tony Abbott should demonstrate that he is not a British citizen (here), I could spend today writing about s44(i) of the Australian Constitution. It was a simple question. Did the former Prime Minister comply with our founding legal instrument?

Or I could note the weird time machine effect of the press gallery wide boys, who mercilessly mocked anyone who raised this question. The minute Abbott tweeted a renunciation screen shot, the in-crowd acted like he had tabled an original document in the Parliament. They then morphed into constitutional law experts when anyone but Abbott potentially fell foul of the section (because their mum is Italian or Malcolm Roberts is a jerk or something).

I am no great fan of racist legal instruments enabled by Acts of the British Imperial Parliament. But I do not think Abbott’s flippancy towards these profoundest of privileges – Australian citizenship, the Prime Ministership – is funny. I think it behoves politicians and their gallery buddies to take the Constitution seriously. Without the Constitution, every statute passed and every dollar we pay politicians while doing so, is illegitimate. In return for these generous powers and pay and pensions, we get contempt.

Like Abbott tweeting his denouncement notice, which is dated January 2015, in July 2017. It says he renounced on 12 October 1993, before entering parliament on 26 March 1994, which would be consistent with his terra nullius thinking. Abbott applied for Australian citizenship to qualify as a colonial for a Rhodes scholarship. To a certain type of Brit, this country exists for their pleasure and enrichment.

Or like Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce saying he has never been to England. What level of routine dishonesty must one reach to misspeak on whether you have visited England?

The bit of my new editorial about Barney J. IA subscribers can read the rest of 'Weapons of mince destruction' HERE: https://t.co/Bt68aVY7MX pic.twitter.com/QIYi5TdXcC

Or the Prime Minister mobilising constitutional double dissolution provisions to pass a harmful bill nobody had ever heard of before.

Some might think you either respect Rule of Law and its source – here, the Constitution – or not. But as 1975 taught us, there are no limits to how conservatives will use the Constitution as their political plaything. The hallmark of the current government is the double dishonesty of its phony conservative conviction.

For example, Turnbull stubbornly adheres to the non-compulsory non-binding marriage equality plebiscite policy, while still saying he supports "gay marriage". Or remember the "free speech" amendment tabled in the Senate — when the Government has the numbers in the House? That achieved exactly nothing, except fanning the flames of racism. There was no poll bounce, for which the charade was designed.

Even what is not said reeks of hypocrisy.

Turnbull called out Greens Senators Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters for s44 "sloppiness", but had no comment on his own minister for mining, Matt Canavan. He calls press conferences on terrorism arrests, but says nothing when a suspect is released without charge. We heard the Prime Ministerial thoughts on a white woman shot dead by police in Minneapolis; yet when the white man who hunted down and killed black child Elijah Doughty was acquitted of manslaughter, Turnbull was silent.

Appallingly, but not surprisingly, the killer was not even charged with murder. Anyone expressing shock or disbelief at the low-level charge and lenient sentence is not paying attention. The anguish and fury of a grieving First Nations community is eloquently expressed by Indigenous affairs editor Natalie Cromb here.

read more:

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/and-another-t...