The Unshackled Waves Ep. 97 High Court Citizenship Verdict, GetUp, Michaelia Cash and NBN Rollout
Video Version
Show Description
On this week’s review show we discuss the shocker of a week for the federal government. To do this we are joined again by Unshackled Contributor Jacob Watts.
The High Court handed down its decision on the citizenship seven declaring Nationals Leader Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, Deputy Nationals Leader Senator Fiona Nash, Greens Senators Scott Ludlam and Larissa Walters and One Nation Senator Malcolm Robert ineligible to sit in the federal parliament due to holding dual citizenship. The High Court clearly still interpreted Section 44 of Australia’s Constitution very strictly and have applied it to citizenship by descent. We agree it is a humiliation for Malcolm Turnbull who did not ask Joyce or Nash to stand aside which means decisions they made as Ministers could potentially be challenged.
The Australian Electoral Commission this week listed left-wing activist group GetUp as associated entity after pressure from conservatives which means its funding will be required to be disclosed. We discuss whether it is a good political move for the government to go after GetUp given that Labor could go after organisations such as the Institute of Public Affairs in response. Perhaps rather than complaining about GetUp’s activity the right just needs to get better at grassroots activism and better fight the left in the battle of ideas.
The government through their establishment of the Registered Organisation Commission and under the direction of Employment Minister Michaelia Cash commissioned an investigation into a 2006 donation of $100,000 the Australian Workers’ Union headed by Bill Shorten at the time gave to GetUp. This week the Australian Federal Police raided the offices of the AWU on behalf of that investigation. The raids smacked of being politically motivated and have backfired with Michaelia Cash misleading the Senate when denying her office tipped off the media about the raids. Following a media report she stated staffer in her office told her they did tip off the media who then resigned. We discuss whether it was okay in this case for a journalist to reveal source given misleading parliament is serious offense and predict that Michaelia Cash will not survive.
The National Broadband Network was back in spotlight this week after an ABC Four Corners episode which revealed a 160% increase in complaints about the NBN, the cost of completion has now blown out to $50 billion and the government owned and operated NBNCo may never turn a profit. Both sides of politics have blamed each other with Labor claiming Coalition changed the rollout process however Malcolm Turnbull was correct when he said the NBN project should never have been undertaken. We ponder the private sector innovation that has been stifled over the past ten years and now we have internet speeds lower than Keyna. We highlight this is another example of big government inefficiency.
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
A Week of Chaos for the Turnbull Government
GetUp: Activist group in fight with Australian Electoral Commission over funding disclosure rules – ABC News
The Great Union Raid Backfire
Is Australia Doomed to Live in Both Energy and Internet Poverty?
