Dissolution solution: A long
Turnbull limps across the line; Hanson comes back; Palmer fades to nothing
THE Turnbull Government is claiming retrospective vindication for its double dissolution now it has passed its Australian Building and Construction Commission industrial relations bill.
But it did not always look that way. The Liberal Party’s post-election shindig in Sydney has been widely hailed as one of the most depressing on record, with predictions of Labor being trounced proving to be entirely mistaken.
It took more than a week for counting to be completed and left the Coalition with just 42% of the vote and a very tricky crossbench.
The fallout prompted criticism of Mr Turnbull for ousting Tony Abbott as prime minister, amid claims no legislation would make it through Parliament.
Labor Leader Bill Shorten said the Coalition had “lost their mandate”.
“Whatever happens next week, Mr Turnbull will never be able to claim that the people of Australia have adopted his ideological agenda,” Mr Shorten told a room of party faithfuls.
Senate stalemates are now a very real threat, but the Government has hailed the ABCC bill’s passing as a symbolic victory.
“We feel pretty good about it, I have to tell you. It has been a slog,” Mr Turnbull told ABC’s 7.30.
“We took it to the election, we had the courage to prorogue the Parliament and bring the Parliament back, forced the Senate to vote on it, dissolve both houses of Parliament, fought an eight-week campaign on it and now we have secured the support of the Senate.”
Pauline strikes back
ONE Nation Leader Pauline Hanson’s maiden speech to the Senate truly set the scene for what would follow, warning Australia was being “swamped by Muslims” and telling those who did not adapt to the Australian way of life to “go back to where you came from”.
“Islam cannot have a significant presence in Australia if we are to live in an open, secular and cohesive society,” she said.
“We have seen the destruction it is causing around the world.”
All has not been peachy within the One Nation ranks, despite Senator Hanson’s resurgence as a major political player on the back of a groundswell of support from regional Queensland.
Senator Rod Culleton is facing a High Court challenge to his eligibility to have even been elected, over a since-dropped conviction for stealing a $7.50 key from a tow truck driver.
He has left One Nation to serve as an independent and consequently Sen Hanson has vowed to screen all One Nation candidates in the West Australian election in March.
But before that could happen, she lost her Gold Coast candidate who quit after one day on a “free speech” issue.
Mad witches and resignations
THE year had barely begun when Immigration Minister Peter Dutton was forced to publicly apologise for calling a female journalist a “mad f**king witch” in a text message.
There probably would have been no issue except the controversial MP
accidentally sent it to reporter Samantha Maiden herself, rather than to its intended recipient, minister Jamie Briggs.
Mr Briggs was embroiled in his own fair share of controversy, soon forced to resign from the ministry over a late-night incident with a public servant on an official visit to Hong Kong.
A few months earlier Mr Briggs injured himself during a party in Tony Abbott’s office the night he was ousted as prime minister.
Mr Briggs was filmed being pushed around in a wheelchair the following day.
Minutes after Mr Briggs announced he was stepping down from the ministry, fellow Liberal MP Mal Brough stood aside as well, pending a police investigation into claims he copied Peter Slipper’s diaries.
He did not recontest his seat at the July election.
Mr Briggs lost his seat at the election with a swing of almost 19% to independent MP Nick Xenophon’s team.
Conservative revolution
LIBERAL Senator Cory Bernardi emerged as a figurehead for right-wing Australian politics.
And he was not afraid to criticise his own party.
Senator Bernardi launched the Australian Conservatives in a reaction to the Liberals’ perceived snubbing of its conservative base following Malcolm Turnbull’s rise to party leader.
It was not a splinter party but a group for like-minded right-wingers meant to rival progressive group GetUp!
However, there was speculation Sen Bernardi was priming himself for an eventual split from the Liberals.
The senator claimed the Australian Conservatives had grown to more than
50,000 members within a month of being established,
Senator Bernadi also made headlines donning a Donald Trump-style “Make Australia Great Again” hat in a photo on social media.
He recently announced that he and equally controversial Queensland Nationals MP George Christensen would help raise funds for an anti-Islamic group fighting a defamation case brought by a halal certifier. INDEPENDENT Senator Jacqui Lambie made an impassioned but also very weird Australia Day video imploring Aussies to recite the country’s “Oath of Allegiance”.
She let loose while dressed in a sequined Australian flag singlet and a similarly themed feather hat.
“From this time forward under God, I’ll pledge my loyalty to Australia and its peoples, whose democratic beliefs I share, whose rights liberties I respect, and whose laws I will uphold and obey,” she said.
“Remember, if you don’t like our laws, equality for all including women, gay and indigenous people, there are plenty of other countries to choose from.”
Problem was, what she reciting was the Citizen’s Pledge, read by those receiving their Australian citizenship, not the Oath of Allegiance.
The outspoken senator sure had a way with words, though.
In September, she made a speech comparing conservative Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi to an “angry prostitute”.
“Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi lecturing this Parliament and displaying mock outrage regarding Labor Senator Sam Dastyari and Chinese political donations is like an angry prostitute lecturing us about the benefits of celibacy,” the outspoken senator said.
She then apologised to prostitutes who she said were more compassionate, humane and gave “more bang for buck” than Senator Bernardi. SENATOR Sam Dastyari has been released from Labor’s sin bin since being forced to quit the frontbench in September after it was revealed he sent his travel bill to a Chinese donor. The Turnbull government waged war on the young senator, suggesting he had been influenced by foreign interests, without actually claiming he had broken any rules or laws. Chinese-Australian media company Media Today Group had quoted Senator Dastyari as saying the South China Sea was “China’s own affair” and Australia should remain neutral on the issue. The position was in conflict with Labor’s official policy, which Senator Dastyari later said he supported.
He is now being touted as the next deputy opposition whip in the Senate after his exile from the front bench. COLOURFUL multimillionaire MP Clive Palmer announced he would abandon his seat at the July election amid claims he had siphoned millions of dollars from Queensland Nickel before the company’s collapse in May.
At first he hinted at a possible run for the Senate.
“I’m going to talk to my wife first and I’ll see what she says,” he told Sky News.
But that plan was eventually thrown to the dogs as well.
It was no great surprise: the Palmer United Party had fallen to tatters, and creditors and investigators were circling.
There has been an upside for the formerly portly MP.
Since leaving Parliament he has lost almost 50kg, telling Twitter he had shed almost a third of his body weight to reach 104kg. KEVIN Rudd had his heart set on becoming Secretary-General of the United Nations, or at least being nominated.
But it was not to be, with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull shutting down his dreams and refusing to back his candidacy.
He claimed Mr Rudd lacked the interpersonal skills and temperament for the role, which prompted the former PM to accuse Mr Turnbull of stabbing him in the back.
“What I don’t respect is, having pursued this campaign for United Nations Secretary-General for such a long period of time in absolute good faith, to then see that good faith dishonoured and trust broken,” Mr Rudd said.
“It was always assumed in these conversations that the Government would support me.”
Speculation another country would back his UN bid – possibly Botswana – emerged, but Mr Rudd has shot down such claims.
❝compassionate, Prostitutes are more humane and give more ‘bang for buck’. — Senator Jacqui Lambie