The Unshackled Waves Ep. 104 Banking Royal Commission, Bennelong By-Election, Manus Removal and Rudd’s Anniversary

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Show Description
On this week’s review show following our Queensland Election livestream we discuss the rest of the week’s news with Unshackled Contributor Jacob Watts.

Only a week after Malcolm Turnbull was riding high after being on the winning side of the Marriage Law Postal Survey it is back to the continued state of chaos for his government. As a result of National MPs threatening to cross the floor to establish a Banking Royal Commission as the government’s numbers are down in the House due by-elections caused by dual citizenship it resulted in Turnbull taking the drastic action to suspend the House for one sitting week. It got worse as a cabinet leak revealed divisions over if they should backflip on their opposition to a Banking Royal Commission and an unnamed Coalition MP said they will quit unless Turnbull is replaced. A lot of Australians are receptive to a Banking Royal Commission however the cost and spectacle it would create offers limited benefits for public policy going forward.

What could bring down Turnbull’s government and leadership is the Bennelong by-election on Saturday 16th December, triggered by Liberal MP John Alexander discovering he was a dual British citizen. Labor has chosen former New South Wales Premier Kristina Kennelly, despite her baggage from her time as Premier polling is showing it is a 50-50 contest. John Alexander had a bad week with the release of video of him making domestic violence joke 25 years ago and a campaign photo which showed him and his staff phoning constituents with phones that aren’t plugged in.

The stand off on Manus Island was brought to a head this week with Papua New Guinea authorities physically removing men at the former Manus Island Dentition Centre to move them to a new $10 million facility built elsewhere on the island by the Australian Government. The refusal of the men to leave was another stunt by these asylum seekers and their advocates back in Australia to try and pressure the government to cave in on our strong border protection policies. Refugee activists have been staging disruptive protests over the past three weeks including driving a car onto Flemington racecourse during Melbourne Cup Day.

It was the 10 Year Anniversary of the election of the Rudd Government and also marked the defeat of the 11 year old Howard Government. Rudd sold himself as a conservative however he was making bold promises with the NBN, delivery an education revolution and action on climate change. Today we are still paying the price with expensive and unreliable power, the aftermath of our border security being dismantled, increases in government spending, taxation and debt as well as the revolving door Prime Ministership. One hopes that the Australian people have learned their lesson from the previous decade and will not be taken in by such a sales pitch again.

Theme Music Super Power Cool Dude by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

News Discussed
Malcolm Turnbull Back to His Typical Self
John Alexander: Liberal candidate for Bennelong by-election apologises for rape joke video – ABC News
The Circus Created on Manus Island
Ten Years on from Rudd’s Election: How Australia Has Fallen

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Author Details
Tim Wilms is the Founder and Editor in Chief of https://theunshackled.net. the Host of Tim’s News Explosion, the WilmsFront interview program and The Theorists with Andy Nolch. He based in Melbourne, Australia where he also conducts field reports.
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Tim Wilms is the Founder and Editor in Chief of https://theunshackled.net. the Host of Tim’s News Explosion, the WilmsFront interview program and The Theorists with Andy Nolch. He based in Melbourne, Australia where he also conducts field reports.