Frenemies, Enemies & Chocolate. Top 5 Best And Worst Moments In Parliament This Week.
Some weeks you’re just left wondering. Here are this week’s top five best and worst moments in Parliament.
BEST
1. Bill Shorten telling it how it is.
The best moment this week came just after Question Time on Thursday when Bill Shorten stood up and told the truth about how Tony Abbott will really hurt low and middle income earners.
2. Are some jokes best left at home?
While US comedian John Oliver was making a joke of Tony Abbott with this video, US President Barack Obama was announcing sweeping reforms to tackle climate change. Labor MP Matt Thistlethwaite nailed it with this question to the PM: “Will the Prime Minister raise his views on the science of climate change with President Obama next week, or are some jokes best left at home?”
3. Preferred Liberal PM: Malcolm Turnbull 31%, Don’t Know 21%, Someone Else 19%, Tony Abbott 18% & Joe Hockey 6%.
The Essential Poll for preferred Liberal PM came out this week: Malcolm Turnbull31%, Don’t Know 21%, Someone Else 19%, Tony Abbott 18%, Joe Hockey 6%, Scott Morrison 1%, Christopher Pyne < 1% and Andrew Robb… not applicable.
4. Your friend Andrew Bolt or your ‘frenemy’ Malcolm Turnbull?
Wannabe PM Malcolm Turnbull went head to head this week with Tony Abbott’sfriend, Andrew Bolt. Jason Clare summed the situation up perfectly when he asked: “Prime Minister, who is right: your friend Andrew Bolt or your ‘frenemy’ Malcolm Turnbull”?
5. Slamming the door on the next generation of Australians.
It was great seeing Labor MP Clare O’Neil ask Christopher Pyne: “How many members of the cabinet were beneficiaries of free university education or manageable HECS? How, in good conscience, can they now slam the door on the next generation of Australians and take away the same opportunities from which they all benefited?” The Libs and the Nats hated hearing the truth.
WORST
1. “Where is the problem?” We’ve created a tracker.
When every Australian and even prominent Liberals know that Tony Abbott’s wrong priorities hurt, his question to the Parliament is about as out of touch as you can get. Anyway, we’ve found the problem and I can report that, as of writing, it’s in France. You can track the problem here.
2. A “tactic to play the Nats” to get them to support the petrol tax…
In a stunning admission on Wednesday a Senior Liberal MP told a journalist that stories the Government was considering cutting the diesel fuel rebate were a “tactic to play the Nats” to get them to support the petrol tax. Let’s face it, this just meansTony Abbott and Joe Hockey lie to the National Party the same way they lie the Australian people.
3. Chocolate Diplomacy? $7.6 billion cut to foreign aid, but $16 million for Cadbury in Tasmania from the Foreign Affairs budget?
You may have heard about the $7.6 billion cut to foreign aid, but what you might not have heard is that there’s been some new expenditure in the foreign affairs budget - $16 million to Cadbury in Tasmania. That’s right, they’re cutting funding that could go towards things like vaccination programs to invest in some chocolate diplomacy.
4. SBS Chair Sophie Mirabella? The SBS have told seven billion stories and counting. I bet that’s one they don’t want to tell.
What started out as an April fool’s joke may have turned into something far more disturbing yesterday when Malcolm Turnbull refused to rule out appointing former Liberal frontbencher Sophie Mirabella as the next Chair of SBS.
5. That’s a question for the PM, Malcolm.
We all know Malcolm Turnbull loves to talk, and when answering a question from his own side in Parliament this week, he had to ask the Speaker for more time. I couldn’t help but remind Malcolm that the only person who would decide whether or not his time was running out was the Prime Minister. I suspect Bronwyn Bishop had the same thought as the PM when she told Malcolm he had two seconds left.
I think I might start a song of the week. This week in honour of Malcolm Turnbull, What About Me – Moving Pictures.