"NO Confidence" in Prime Minister Abbott: 774 citizens petition the Australian Parliament

Since 2008 anyone can prepare a petition, gather signatures, and have it presented to the House of Representatives by the Chair of the Standing Committee on Petitions or by another member of parliament. 

Once a petition has been presented to Parliament the Committee refers it on to the responsible minister who then has 90 days to respond.

A ministerial response to the petition below would be due by 18 January 2015.

House of Representatives Hansard 20 October 2014:

Dr JENSEN (Tangney) (10:01): On behalf of the Standing Committee on Petitions, and in accordance with standing order 207, I present the following petitions:.........

  Prime Minister 

To the Honourable Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives

we, the undersigned, believe we represent a widely enough held opinion within the Australian people to warrant a motion of NO CONFIDENCE in the current Prime Minister, The Honourable Tony Abbott, being tabled in Parliament, and being put to a vote in the House of Representatives.

The reason we are petitioning the House is that, so far (as at the 15 August 2014's version of this petition), and despite requests made directly to various Members, both in Government and in Opposition, to table such a motion, there has been abject failure - by any of the many Members who publicly proclaim TO have "No Confidence" in the Prime Minister - to take that first step which is necessary to initiate a remedy via the Reserve Powers of the Governor General; which include being able to dismiss a prime minister.

Examples of reasons for having "NO Confidence" in Prime Minister Abbott are too numerous - and well known to not only Members of the House but also to the public, in Australia and in many places overseas - to mention.

We therefore ask the House to ensure that such a motion be tabled as a matter of urgency, and — if possible under the Rules of the House — to not require a Division, in order that Members may vote freely and completely in accordance with their conscience, instead of so as to abide with party constraints. Thank you.

from 744 citizens

Petition received.

A small puzzle within the history of Christopher Pearson and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott

I mourn the passing of Christopher Pearson.
Christopher was one of our country's finest conservative intellects. He was also a steadfast friend.
I valued Christopher's counsel and his wisdom.
I suspect he never fully appreciated the impact he had on others and the sense of gratitude we have for him.
Australia will miss him.

[Tony Abbott, 9 June 2013]

Sometimes trawling though the Internet archives one comes across intriguing puzzles.

This one concerns Christopher James Pearson, writer, newspaper columnist, speech writer for former Australian Prime Minister John Howard and current Prime Minister Tony Abbott, as well as editor of three of Mr. Abbott’s books The Minimal ­Monarchy, How to Win the ­Constitutional War and Battlelines - who died on 7 June 2013 and whose probate details appear in CHRISTOPHER JAMES PEARSON [2014] SASC 77 (19 June 2014).

In his first will dated 1 May 1996 he made a specific disposition of his shares in The Adelaide Review Pty Ltd and his units in The Adelaide Review Unit Trust to his friend, Anthony John Abbott. The residue of the estate is to be divided in equal parts between the deceased’s mother and Mr Jones and, if either of those persons predecease the deceased, their share is to pass to the survivor. If both predecease the deceased, the residue is to pass to Mr Abbott.

The value of the estate was estimated to be $300,000 and included a small but impressive antiques collection comprising quality Georgian mahogany furniture, Artworks including a rare Cressida Campbell woodblock painting, a good selection of Hester Bateman sterling silver, important colonial cedar furniture, and many fine and rare books of Australian interest.

On 13 May 2008 Mr. Pearson made another will. His mother had died and the aforementioned shares/units had been previously sold, so could not be included. However, Mr. Pearson went one step further than removing a specific bequest – he removed Anthony John Abbott from the will entirely.

The beneficiaries of the will were changed to Jack Snelling and Aaron Russell.

One has to wonder what Mr. Abbott thought of this rather novel way of losing out to his political opposition.

I do wish journalists would look at methodology before quoting surveys

The Sydney Morning Herald on 29 October 2014 published an article containing this statement:

The level of trust in the Abbott government has soared in three months as public attention shifts from the budget to a heightened sense of nationalism in the context of national security, a new survey indicates. 

In the middle of the year only 26 per cent of people thought the federal government could be trusted to do the right thing for the Australian people.

At the end of October the figure had climbed to 36 per cent - the highest level of trust in the federal government recorded since 2009 by the Mapping Social Cohesion survey. 

What the journalist failed to note about this survey was that:

The target for the project was to achieve n=1000 completed questionnaire with respondents aged 18 and over, who were born in Australia and whose parents were both born in Australia.

Now the 2011 national census revealed that almost a quarter (24.6 per cent) of Australia's estimated population of 21.5 million people were born overseas, 43.1 per cent of the population (or 9.2 million people) had at least one overseas-born parent and 15 per cent did not have citizenship. Approximately 84.5 per cent of the population at that time would have been 18 years of age and over.

What this indicates is that the Mapping Social Cohesion survey did not include the possibility of canvassing the opinions of large section of the Australian community.

Even living in regional New South Wales as I do, it would exclude a good many voters in the town in which I live.

All of which changes the weight readers might have given to this newspaper article if they had realized the demographic limitations it contained.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott forgot that science is evidence-based

With science removed from its ministerial portfolio list, the dismantling of a number of science-based advisory bodies, savage cuts to science funding and climate change denialism rampant in its ranks – surely the Abbott Government must have expected this when it had the gall to hand out the Prime Minister’s Prizes For Science as though science mattered to this federal government.

http://youtu.be/N_EoFJwjEXk

The Guardian 30 October 2014:

Tony Abbott received a frosty response from scientists after he called on them to lobby Labor and Greens MPs to support the government’s plan for a medical research fund.

Abbott, speaking at the prime minister’s science awards in Canberra on Wednesday night, reiterated a message from his speech at last year’s awards when he said the government should be judged “not by its titles but by its performance”.

“I hope our performance has at least passed muster over the past 12 months,” the prime minister said, to a smattering of applause at the Parliament House awards ceremony.

“That was desultory applause, but at least it was some,” Abbott said, in response to the tepid response from the assembled scientists….

This exchange has been carefully omitted from the official transcript of Abbott’s speech which can be found here.

This is not the first time scientists attending these awards have signalled their dissatisfaction by failing to bring their hands together in unison en masse.

After last year’s prize giving The Guardian noted on 31 October 2013:

“It’s been remarked upon that we don’t have a minister for science as such in the new government and I know that there are people in the room who may have been momentarily dismayed by that,” Abbott said.

“But let me tell you that the United States does not have a secretary for science and no nation on Earth has been as successful and innovative as the United States. I’d say to all of you please, judge us by our performance, not by our titles.”

Abbott’s speech, which drew a smattering of applause from the audience, provoked a mixed reaction.

Congratulations, commiserations and condolences

The lads at the table of knowledge at the local watering hole were in all sorts of moods this afternoon. Some were over the moon that galloper Protectionist won the big event while others were terribly upset about the tragic demise of the race favourite.

To lighten the mood, Eric produced a copy of today's Examiner.

Eric, who's just a little bit longer in the tooth than other table members, had a real decent cackle about the typo in the Backward Glances column in today's DEX (see below). Eric  recalls his wife attending the 'elite" deportment school course but is adamant there was never any mention of young, or for that matter, any wine being part of the show.

Eric is now asking a lot of questions.

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Learn about Timebanking for Volunteers - Grafton Community Centre, Thursday 6 November 2014

Mayor: Richie Williamson LOCKED BAG 23 GRAFTON NSW 2460

General Manager: Scott Greensill Telephone: (02) 6643 0200

Fax: (02) 6642 7647

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 4, 2014

Opportunity to learn about Timebanking

CLARENCE Valley community groups and organisations who utilise volunteers have the

opportunity to learn more about Timebanking - a growing movement for the voluntary exchange of services between members – at a community engagement session in Grafton on Thursday.

Timebanking is based on a system that allows volunteers to exchange ‘time credits’ for the time they volunteer. When a member gives an hour of their time they are able to redeem a reciprocal hour in return or donate it to an organisation or individual.

It is a NSW Government initiative and the local session is being hosted by the Clarence Valley Council with a visiting presentation from NSW Volunteering.

Mayor, Richie Williamson, said members could help each other and organisations with all sorts of personal services such as gardening, computer tutoring, cooking or a host of other activities.

“It can also help non government organisations recruit volunteers and help coordinate the services they provide,” he said.

For more information, visit www.timebanking.com.au

Details

What: Timebanking community engagement session

Where: Grafton Community Centre, 51 Duke St, Grafton

When: Thursday (November 6), 1-2.30pm

Cost: Free

RSVP: Tomorrow (Wed) 10am

NSW National Party invites coal seam/tight gas miner Metgasco Limited's managing director to its Tweed 2014 Christmas Party

Tweed Daily News 1 November 2014:

METGASCO is coming to the Tweed – but only for one night.

Peter Henderson, the controversial managing director of the CSG company that wants to mine near Lismore, will be the guest speaker at the Murwillumbah branch of the National Party’s Christmas dinner on November 26.

Mr Henderson will speak about why the Tweed’s topography made CSG mining in the region unviable, according to National Party member and Tweed Shire councillor Phil Youngblutt.

Cr Youngblutt said he extended the invitation to Mr Henderson after he got in touch with him to endorse his reported comments made in the council that CSG was not a threat to the Tweed.

The dinner at Greenhills Reception Lounge is open to the public. Inquiries to Maureen Coleman on 0427 465 519.

While it has long been obvious that the National Party supports coal seam/tight/unconventional gas mining, one has to wonder why it is that Metgasco's managing director has decided to speak on this particular subject when it was the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council not Metgasco which had made an application for a special prospecting authority (which it later withdrew) and, it is Dart Energy which has an exploration licence which takes in a small part of the Tweed local government area.