Did Hogan really say that?!

Letter to the editor in The Daily Examiner on 8 July 2014:

Kevin's tongue slips

Kevin Hogan's slip of the tongue must be highlighted so that all electors in the Page electorate can now realise his comments on local radio on Wednesday morning appertaining to what he does for the electorate were "nothing" and laughed as he repeated "I don't mind doing nothing."

A typical National's answer as they don't have to do anything to be re-elected.

Charles John Lincoln

Gulmarrad

Sexism in the National Party of Australia - why am I not surprised?

It’s boys behaving badly again in a political party – this time the NSW Nationals.

The Sydney Morning Herald 4 July 2014:

A NSW Nationals MP verbally attacked a female cabinet minister, threatening to "tear her a new orifice" and saying she had "never had a real man", because he was angry at her department's decision.

The attack on then environment minister Robyn Parker was made by Murray-Darling MP John Williams in front of about 100 Nationals members during his bid for preselection for the upper house in April. 

Ms Parker was raped as a teenager, and had spoken about her ordeal in parliament in 2004, recalling she nailed her bedroom windows shut in the aftermath.

Multiple sources who attended the Nationals preselection meeting on April 4 at Parliament House said they were offended by Mr Williams' comments. The event was filmed, but the slurs went uncensured by party leaders in the room, including deputy premier Andrew Stoner.

Mr Williams emerged as an endorsed candidate, albeit in the almost unwinnable fourth position.

Critics said the attack highlighted a "boys' club" culture within the Nationals that was alienating women from politics. The leak of the incident comes as the number of women in the NSW upper house from all parties is set to plummet…..

Another Spot the Difference

The Daily Examiner (and probably all its stablemates in the APN network) provided readers with a bit more brain food with its presentation of Ginger Meggs on Thursday July 10.

Daily Examiner

GoComics

Remember, send your entries to The Daily Examiner. Surely the Examiner can find a few prizes for its keen-eyed readers.

Credits: The Daily Examiner and GoComics.com

Political Cartoon Of The Month

@davpope cartoons can be purchased via Scratch! Media

Meme of the Week

Thanks to Clarrie Rivers for passing on the meme

Quote of the Week

…a Palestinian child has tragically been killed every three days for the past 14 years. That bears repeating, since such deaths are rarely, if ever, given any attention in America: Palestinian parents have had to bury a child every three days for the past 14 years. [Daily Kos 5 July 2014]

Abbott Government's conniving falls apart in the Senate

The Abbott Government’s attempts to take advantage of the inexperience of newly-elected senators saw its bills repealing the carbon price mechanism and associated measures rejected by the Senate on 10 July 2014, culminating in this vote:

The PRESIDENT (12:21): The committee has considered the Clean Energy Legislation (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013 [No. 2] and has disagreed to the bills. The question now is that the report of the committee be adopted…..

The question is that the report of the committee, disagreeing to all of the bills, be adopted.

Senate divided. [12:23]

(The President—Senator Parry)

Ayes ...................... 37

Noes ...................... 35

Majority ................. 2

Not ten minutes later, this came to pass……

The Sydney Morning Herald 11 July 2014:

The Coalition is reaping what it sowed. It has repeatedly treated the Parliament with contempt in its effort to neuter parts of Labor's financial advice laws before they had full force on July 1.

Rather than put changes before the Parliament as an amendment to Labor's act, it introduced them by regulation when the Parliament wasn't sitting. It was aware of legal advice from Arnold Bloch Leibler that they would not survive a challenge in the High Court. Regulations are meant to assist the implementation of acts, not to nullify them.

Labor alleges that Treasury sent a copy of the regulations to the Senate tabling office on July 1 and then attempted to withdraw them, saying it didn't want them tabled until the last possible date, next Tuesday, July 15. What is not tabled cannot be disallowed.

Directed by a vote of the Senate to table the regulations immediately, the Minister, Mathias Cormann, refused. Cynics suggest he was trying to delay the process long enough to get through to the five-week parliamentary break and then accuse the Senate of creating uncertainty when it tried to exercise its rights.

Then Labor's Senator Sam Dastyari pulled a stunt, one worthy of Cormann himself.

He read from the regulations and had a Labor senator demand that he table the document he was reading from.

In the confusion the motion passed with the help of the Greens and a handful of independents. On Monday Labor will give notice of a motion to strike the regulations down. If it succeeds, consumers will be protected in the way Parliament originally intended. It will have got around the workaround.

Twitter: @1petermartin