We’re back with the highlights from this week – covering national politics, global issues, and some interesting sport and pop culture moments. Here are your weekly talking points.
Politics
It has certainly been another eventful week in Australian politics. Although federal parliament is enjoying the winter recess (read: escaping the brutal Canberra winter), that doesn’t mean they aren’t working. Politicians are traversing the country selling their message and trying to build support on a variety of different issues.
Robodebt
We’re sure you’ve heard the term Robodebt at least once over the last 12 months, but what does it actually mean?
In 2015, the then government replaced Centrelink’s manual system of calculating overpayments and issuing debt notices to welfare recipients with an automated system – this system is the Robodebt scheme.
On face value, it sounds fine – using technology to automate is nothing new. However, the problem comes from the scheme estimating average annual incomes which over a five-year period resulted in 470,000 debt notices being wrongly issued. The Morrison Government ended the scheme in 2020 after the Federal Court found the scheme to be unlawful.
Prime Minister Albanese ordered a Royal Commission into Robodebt, a key 2022 election promise, and the Commission heard devastating stories from thousands of victims. The Commissioner released her report this week and referred several people involved, believed to include some politicians and senior public servants, for civil action or criminal prosecution, to the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) and the newly established National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC).
While the identify of those referred is not known, there have been calls for former Prime Minister Morrison to resign from parliament over his involvement in the unlawful scheme. Former ministers Stuart Robert, Alan Tudge and Christian Porter, who all had responsibility for the scheme at some point, have all left parliament.
No doubt the Albanese Government will seek to capitalise on the Royal Commission report when Parliament resumes on 31 July.
The Voice to Parliament
In the final June parliamentary sitting week, the government secured parliament’s support for the referendum question. Later this year (date not yet determined), Australians will be asked to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a single question:
“A Proposed Law: to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.
Do you approve this proposed alteration?”
If the referendum is successful, the Constitution will be amended to establish a new body called the ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice’ and this body will make representations to the government on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Concerns have been raised around the third element of the change which gives parliament the power to make laws about the composition, function, powers and procedures of the body.
Before the wording for the referendum passed parliament, questions were raised about the undefined power given to government in the third element and some called for greater details on the scope and parameter to be made clear.
Those opposing the establishment of The Voice have questioned the scope of the bodies powers and whether their recommendations to government will be binary. There have also been conflicting opinions about which matters the body will advise on. For example, the Indigenous Australians Minister, the Hon Linda Burney MP, says the body won’t give advice on matters like changing the date of Australia Day, however ‘Yes’ campaigners strongly believe matters like this are within the scope for The Voice to consider.
The latest Newspoll conducted for The Australian, had support for the ‘yes’ vote at 43 per cent and support for the ‘no’ vote at 47 per cent. The same poll had the majority of respondents in Queensland, WA, SA and Tasmania voting “No”, with only Victoria and NSW delivering majorities for ‘yes’.
There is no doubt The Voice to Parliament is an important topic and one that will dominate our media cycle and conversations for a longtime.
EU Free Trade Agreement
This week, the Trade Minister and Prime Minister travelled to the EU to meet with their EU counterparts to discuss the Australia-European Union Free Trade Agreement after negotiations stalled.
Having worked for the former Trade Minister who started the Australia-EU FTA negotiations, this week’s developments (or lack thereof) came as no surprise. Even during the scoping agreement, secured 2017, the geographical indicators – think feta and prosecco – and the protectionist nature of EU farming were a challenge.
Australian farmers will not compromise on what they can call their products, and nor should they, but the EU offers Australia access to over 440 million consumers, so it is a valuable opportunity to increase Australian exports.
Perhaps Australia would be willing to compromise on other areas – for example, the luxury car tax. As the largest producer of luxury cars, maybe Europe would value a reduction, or even abolition, of Australia’s tax (in our opinion ‘unnecessary tax’) imposed on vehicles over the cost of $76,950.
The EU’s trade agreement with Canada took almost ten years to secure, so Australia shouldn’t give up hope just yet.
Global
This week, global news was dominated by the NATO summit. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is made up of the US, UK and many nations across Eastern and Western Europe. The political and military alliance was formed in 1949 as the Soviet Union’s power and influence in Europe grew.
NATO met this week in Lithuania, with Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia invited as guests, and the discussions focused largely on Russia’s war in Ukraine and Ukraine’s future membership of NATO.
Sweden entry into NATO
On Monday, just hours before the alliance’s meeting Lithuania, the Turkish President finally agreed to Sweden’s long-delayed bid to join NATO. Sweden applied for membership in May 2022, along with Finland which was admitted in April 2023, but membership had been help up largely due to Turkey accusing Sweden of hosting Kurdish militants.
Sweden made a number of concessions to join NATO and their membership means that all Nordic nations are now part of NATO. This is strategically important because of their location – Finland shares a massive border with Russia, while Sweden possesses the critical terrain of the Baltic Sea island of Gotland.
France blocking an Indo-Pacific base for NATO
The Indo-Pacific region is often talked about as being strategically important – but where is it? Different nations define the Indo-Pacific differently, but for the sake of this update, we will use the broadest definition and say it is the geopolitical area stretching from the west coast of the United States to the west coast of India which encompasses the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and the seas connecting the two in the general area of Indonesia – a very important passage.
With the rise of China, other nations have realised the strategic importance of the Indo-Pacific and increased alliances with those in the region – especially Australia and Japan.
As such, at this week’s NATO meeting, discussions about opening a NATO office in Japan continued. France, however, strongly objected and French President Emmanuel Macron said NATO should keep its focus firmly on the North Atlantic region.
When the proposal was first raised in May, China said a NATO office in Japan would not be welcomed in the Asia-Pacific region, however NATO Secretary Stoltenberg made it clear that the idea was still up for discussion. Stoltenberg said NATO was concerned with China’s heavy military buildup and stressed that developments in the Indo-Pacific had an impact on Europe.
More support for Ukraine
Last week we highlighted the military and humanitarian support Australia has provided to Ukraine in support of their efforts against Russia’s invasion.
When Prime Minister Albanese met with Ukraine President Zelenskyy at the NATO summit he announced even greater support, including an additional 30 Bushmaster military vehicles (we gave 90 last year) and the deployment of surveillance aircraft – the E-7A Wedgetail. This brings Australia’s total support to around $890 million.
Ukrainian soldiers using the Bushmasters that Australia provided last year have praised the vehicles and detailed how they have saved lives while fighting on the frontline.
Sport and Pop Culture
This week’s three sport and pop culture topics are broad as our interests are diverse, and we believe it is important to be well-rounded.
Will Threads end Twitter?
At the end of last week, Meta (Mark Zuckerberg) launched a new social media platform – Threads – which is nearly identical to Twitter. In the first five days of launching, Zuckerberg disclosed the platform had attracted 100 million subscribers.
Some media outlets have dubbed Threads as the “Twitter killer” or “Twitter clone” so it’s not surprising that the new platform sparked a row with Twitter owner Elon Musk. We won’t repeat some of the language Musk used but a quick google search will likely deliver some interesting results.
Having not yet signed up, we are interested to see what the hype is all about. Looks like we will be adding another platform to the mix – as if Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter aren’t already enough!
However, one must wonder, with Twitter said to be on a downhill spiral and considering their massive staff layoffs, could Threads be the end of Twitter?
FIFA World Cup
Over recent years, there has been an increasing use of sport to promote political and social issues. Just this week, one women’s football team used their arrival in Australia for the FIFA Women’s World Cup to highlight a very important issue that we wholeheartedly agree with.
The aircraft carrying the Brazilian women’s football team paid tribute to Iran protestors Mahsa Amini and Amir Nasr Azadani by displaying the words ‘No woman should be forced to cover her head’ and ‘No man should be hanged for saying this’.
Amini was arrested and died in custody in Iran in 2022 after she didn’t wear a headscarf. Her death sparked protests in Iran and Azadani, a former football player, was arrested during these protests and sentenced to 26 years in jail.
Well done to the Brazilian team for standing up for the women who have been silenced – we stand with you.
The Betoota Advocate
Aussies are known to have a dry sense of humour and not take ourselves too seriously – so it’s no surprise the much-loved The Betoota Advocate has landed a show on Paramount+.
If you are one of the few Aussies who hasn’t discussed The Betoota Advocate, do yourself a favour and check them out. They are a satirical news site that put a comedic spin on current news stories and broader social topics. Their name comes from a deserted regional Queensland town – Betoota – and they purport to be “Australia’s oldest newspaper” who made the “jump to digital in 2014”. They also run a successful podcast that has interviewed a variety of people, including former Prime Ministers and sporting icons.
Having reached significant popularity, the satirical news site has now been transformed into four documentary style episodes covering some of Australia’s most polarising news stories – including the Cronulla Riots and the Fine Cotton horse racing scandal.
We hope you enjoyed this week’s update!