Life After Politics: where are they now?

Before Nicola Roxon’s resignation as attorney-general for family reasons in 2013, there were a record eight women in the Gillard Government ministry and five in the cabinet.

L–R: Penny Wong, Tanya Plibersek, Jenny Macklin, Julia Gillard, Kate Lundy, Kate Ellis, Julie Collins. 

© Tim Bauer

So what are they doing now?

THE FEMALE CABINET MEMBERS

Former Australian Prime Minister, Hon. Julia Eileen Gillard AC

Honorary Professor University of Adelaide, guest lecturer in Department of History and Politics

Chair, Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, King’s College London

Board Chair, Global Partnership for Education

Distinguished Fellow - Global Economy and Development, Center for Universal Education

Chair of beyondblue

Patron of Camfed, the Campaign for Female Education.

Patron the Layne Beachley Foundation

Former Minister for Sport and Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Hon. Kate Alexandra Lundy

Director, NRMA Group

Director, Electro Optic Systems Holdings Pty Limited

Director, Australian Grand Prix

Director, Australian Sports Technology Network

ACT Defence Industry Advocate 

Consultant, Technology Innovation Partners Pty Ltd

Former Australian Attorney-General, Hon. Nicola Louise Roxon

Now a professional company director.

Incoming chair of healthcare services provider Bupa Australia and New Zealand.

Roxon’s boards range from the Accounting and Ethical and Professional Standards Board (APESB) and Cancer Council Australia to ASX-listed Dexus Funds Management, and Lifestyle Communities, an affordable housing provider.

Patron of the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library, Perth.

Those that stayed on in the parliament…..

Former Minister for Employment Participation and Minister for Early Childhood, Childcare and Youth, Hon. Katherine Margaret “Kate” Ellis

Still the Federal Labor MP for Adelaide - now a backbench.

Leaving politics at next election to raise her young children.

Former Minister for Community Services, Minister for Indigenous Employment and Economic Development , Minister for the Status of Women and Minister for Housing and Homelessness, Hon. Julie Collins MP

Still the Federal Labor MP for Franklin.

Currently Shadow Minister for Ageing and Mental Health.

Former Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and Minister for Disability Reform , Hon. Jenny Macklin MP

Still the Federal Labor Member for JagaJaga – now on the back bench/

Committee member Joint Standing Committee: National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Former Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Hon. Penelope Ying-Yen “Penny” Wong, Senator

Still in the Senate.

Currently Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs

Former Minister for Health and Medical Research, Hon. Tanya Joan Plibersek MP

Still the Federal Labor MP for Sydney.

Currently Shadow Minister for Women and Shadow Minister for Education and Training. 

Liberals, Nationals and Labor all agree they would rather chill political activism to the point of hypothermia

At both state and federal level Australian citizens are finding their right o speak truth to power is being seriously eroded.

This is just the lastest move.....

Bills passed by the Australian Parliament 28 June 2018:

National Security Legislation Amendment (Espionage And Foreign Interference) Bill 2017

Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Bill 2018

The Guardian, 26 June 2018:

The espionage bill could criminalise protests and communication of opinions harmful to the Australian government, representing a threat to the limited protections on freedom of speech, according to legal advice produced for the activist group GetUp.

The advice comes after deals between the Coalition and Labor on the espionage bill and the foreign transparency register…..

Although the shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, has rejected GetUp’s claims that peaceful protests could be criminalised, his view has been contradicted by both the founder of Australian Lawyers for Human Rights, Kate Eastman SC, and the advice for GetUp by Wentworth Selborne chambers.

The advice to GetUp said that sabotage offences could cover “a wide range of protest activity” because the “damage to public infrastructure” element includes merely limiting or preventing access to it.

“For example, a person who intentionally blockaded the entry to a coalmine ... with the ultimate intention of ending the sale of coal by Australia to another country ... could be charged with an offence of this kind,” it said.

The advice suggested the significant penalties of up to 20 years prison “is likely to have a chilling effect on protest activity” such as blockading a farm to stop the sale of live animals to another country.

The advice to GetUp suggests that espionage offences in the Coalition bill may breach the implied freedom of political communication because of broad definitions in offences that criminalise dealing with information that may harm national security.

It warned that the definition of harm to national security did not distinguish between harm to Australia and to its government, meaning “espionage offences [appear] broad enough to capture reputational damage and loss of confidence in an Australian government.”

The bill could criminalise publication of information, including opinions or reports of conversations, to international organisations “which may pose little or no threat to Australia’s national security or sovereignty,” it said.

That could include information and opinions about food security, energy security, climate security, economic conditions, migration and refugee policies because these may affect Australia’s “political, military or economic relations with another country”.

Eastman told Guardian Australia those concepts “could cover almost anything” that embarrasses Australia in the eyes of another country.

Eastman cited examples of reporting that Australia spied on the Indonesian president and his wife, spied on Timor L’Este, criticism of Australia’s human rights record connected to its role on the United Nations Human Rights Council, or its treatment of foreign investment and major projects such as the Adani Carmichael coalmine.

Even dealing with the “substance, effect or description” of certain information is banned, a further bar to reporting.

How the media sees denizens of Parliament Drive, Canberra

One Nation’s lifetime president summed up in ten sentences

The Saturday Paper Editorial excerpt, 2 June 2018:

Despite what she says, Hanson is a politician. She’s just not a very good one. Burston’s defection is the end of her balance of power in this senate. The relief at this is great.

To see One Nation break apart again is to be reminded of the brokenness of racism. Hers is a dried-out vision of Australia, mean and unimaginative. It is a pleasure to see it fail. It is like watching a dirt clod give in to rain.

Hers is a country of racist privilege, of conspiracy theories and clapped-out ideology. It is a godsend to see it founder.

Hanson arrived in this parliament with a party of Brits and car thieves. Scandal has claimed member after member. Those who are left, she cannot hold together. And it is good.

Barnaby Joyce’s death is announced

The Australian via outline.com, 1 June 2018:

The implosion of Barnaby Joyce — personally and professionally — in and of itself risks bringing down the Turnbull government. In fact, it puts the political potency of the Coalition at risk well beyond the Turnbull era.

The man once described by former prime minister Tony Abbott as Australia’s best retail politician has become a dead weight around the necks of his Liberal and Nationals colleagues.

The way Joyce has conducted himself generally, the contradictions in his calls for privacy versus selling his story to the highest bidder and some of the specifics (for example, blaming his partner for taking the cash or earlier suggesting the child might not even be his) have put Joyce’s retail days behind him. We’re not supposed to talk about this now that he’s on personal leave but not dwelling on it is perhaps the more realistic refrain.

There is no coming back politically from the way Joyce’s soap opera has played out in public. Anyone in the Nationals hoping for a return of the man who helped the party retain all its seats at the 2016 election, even picking one up from the Liberals, and saving the Turnbull government in the process are kidding themselves. Not now, not ever.

If the best interests of the Nationals are the only thing to consider, Joyce will quietly announce his intention not to contest the next election. He may yet do that. Let’s hope it doesn’t involve another paid interview.

Michaelia the Screecher in a nut shell

The Canberra Times, 1 June 2018:

The Liberal Party's loudest voice speaking up in defence of all the wrong things, while taking zero responsibility for what happens in her office. Who could possibly forget the way she dragged the Leader of the Opposition's female staffers through the sleaze earlier this year? Now she's been subpoenaed to appear before the Federal Court, which is examining last year's raids on the Australian Workers' Union. She's been moaning that it's all a union plot while appearing to forget the Federal Court doesn't get bullied into doing anything.

Liberal MP for almost 17 years and Federal Minister for over 4 years, Greg Hunt, reveals skills acquired as former Captain of Australian Universities Debating Team

Brisbane Times, 31 May 2018:

“He relocated his chair, pointing towards me and said 'you need to f***ing get over it, you need to f***ing make Senator Scullion your best friend'," Alderman Miller told ABC TV.

Political Cartoons of the Week - Budget Week Edition

Cathy Wilcox

Alan Moir

John Shakespeare

David Rowe

Mark David

Peter Broelman

So many Newspoll losses mean democratic processes at risk as Turnbull Government strives to claw back political ground

“The Coalition now trails Labor by 47.5 per cent to 52.5 per cent in two-party terms across the four polls. This reflects a 48:52 result from Fairfax/Ipsos, the same from Newspoll, the same from Essential and a 46:54 result from ReachTel on March 29.” [The Sydney Morning Herald, 9 April 2016]

From May 2014 to September 2015 the Abbott Coalition Government experienced 30 consecutive negative Newspoll federal voting intentions opinion polls*.

After the sacking of Tony Abbott by his party and the installation of Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister the Turnbull Coalition Government saw 12 positive Newspolls before this second rendition of a Coalition federal government itself experienced 30 consecutive negative Newspolls from 12 September 2016 to 9 April 2018.

This polling history indicates that the Liberal-National federal government is likely to have only had the national electorate’s approval for around ten of the last thirty-seven calendar months.

According to the Australian Electoral Commission; As House of Representatives and half-Senate elections are usually held simultaneously, the earliest date for such an election would be Saturday 4 August 2018. As the latest possible date for a half-Senate election is Saturday 18 May 2019, the latest possible date for a simultaneous (half-Senate and House of Representatives) election is also Saturday 18 May 2019.

Given that (i) between them the Abbott and Turnbull governments have experienced  experienced only 12 positive polls in the last 68 Newspolls; and (ii) the Liberal Party has already admitted that during its successful March 2018 South Australian election it had utilised the services of one of the known “bad actors” on  the international election campaign consultancy scene, the US-based data miner i360; it is highly likely that “bad actors” will be employed once more and over the next four to thirteen months voters will be subjected to a barrage of misinformation, bald lies, vicious rumour and false promises from both Coalition politicians and their supporters in mainstream and social media.

Voters will have to fact check what they hear and read as never before.

* A federal voting intentions Newspoll is considered negative for one or other of the two main political parties based on two party preferred percentage results. 
Newspolls surveys normally occur every two to three weeks outside of election campaign periods when they are likely to occur more often.
Newspoll results can be found at https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/newspoll.

26th Newspoll loss in a row for Turnbull Government

In the same week the 2018 Australian Parliament commenced business for the year Malcolm Bligh Turnbull was just four Newspolls short of the benchmark he created when he successfully challenged Tony Abbott in September 2015 and became Australia’s 29th Prime Minister.

As of 4 February 2018 Newspoll shows the Coalition is just one point ahead of Labor on the primary vote and on a Two Party Preferred basis it is four points behind.

While net satisfaction with leaders’ performance sees Turnbull a slender four points ahead at minus 13.

Should we expect a Libspill sometime in April-May 2018 if the polls continue this trend? Or are the Liberal and Nationals powerbrokers going to grit their teeth and soldier on until the forthcoming federal election?

Political Cartoons of the Week

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/cartoons/

http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/best-of-fairfax-cartoons-december-25-2017-20171225-h0a0vh.html