3. By Thursday the Government was so worried that they’d made a mess of the Free Trade Agreement with China they decided to change its name. All of a sudden it was now known as the “Export Agreement with China”. Julie Collins asked a really cutting question when she queried Andrew Robb: “I wonder if the Minister could tell us if any imports are allowed under the China Export Agreement he has just told the House about?”
4. Sometimes a speech just takes off. More than a million and a half Australians have already watched Jason Clare ‘celebrate’ the second birthday of the Abbott Government with a stinging 90 second speech. If you’re one of the few who hasn’t seen it yet, watch it here.
5. On Wednesday night Terri Butler had had enough of Government members claiming they cared about jobs yet always trying to destroy the organisations which are dedicated to giving people dignity at work. So just before Parliament finished for the night, Terri let fly.
WORST
1. You know those movies where robots take over the world? It may have already happened. Here’s the direct transcript of an interview Tony Abbott gave from Parliament House on Wednesday night.
Leigh Sales: When Labor left office, unemployment was 5.8%; it’s now 6.3%. Growth was 2.5%; it’s now 2%. The Australian dollar was 92c, it’s now around 70c. The budget deficit was $30 billion when you took office and now it’s $48 billion. How do you explain to the Australian people that you were elected promising, in your words, to fix the budget emergency, yet in fact, Australia’s economic position has worsened under your leadership?
Tony Abbott: Well I don’t accept that. The boats have stopped.
Leigh Sales: We’re talking about the economy.
Tony Abbott: The boats have stopped…
2. Even though Tony Abbott’s savage cuts to young jobseekers were defeated in the Senate, Scott Morrison again committed the Government to bringing the cuts back to the Parliament. These are the cuts that leave young unemployed Australians with nothing to live on for a month.
3. Anthony Albanese has been exposing “WorkChoices on Water”. When it became clear the Government had advised a cruise company on the “benefits” of sacking the Australian crew and bringing it back as a foreign vessel with a foreign crew, both Tony Abbott and Warren Truss denied it had ever happened. Albo and I moved to suspend parliamentary debate on Tuesday to expose both the PM and the Deputy PM for lying about the impact of their agenda.
4. Greg Hunt’s legislation to stop community groups from being able to test whether the decision of an environment minister has been made legally passed the House of Reps. If it makes it through the Senate we’ll end up with a situation where an environment minister could make an unlawful decision and no-one who would have an interest in fixing it will be able to do a thing about it.
5. Chris Bowen took Joe Hockey on about the fall in consumer and business confidence. The Westpac data is down 5.6%, ANZ fell by 5.8% and the NAB Monthly index has fallen to one. Remember Joe Hockey claiming his mere election would be an adrenaline charge to the economy? It’s been less adrenaline and more Mogadon.
We’re now one week away from the Canning by-election. Alannah MacTiernan has been unstoppable taking the Government on over the chaos in their approach to WA. Please keep doing what you can to help Matt Keogh. He’s a great candidate.
The #5and5 will be back next week.
Thanks
Tony
P.S. It was the second birthday of the Abbott Government and true to form the two-year-old birthday party was filled with tantrums and bad behaviour. So for the band, the name and the state of the Government: here’s LA indie pop band Fitz and the Tantrums with Merry-Go-Round.
