This week Mal Brough made up with Eric Ripper, while the PM made friends online, and tried to keep them in Cabinet. Meanwhile Kevin Rudd's brother lost a few friends, the CCC looks in danger of following and Mohamed Haneef needs as many as he can get.
This week Mal Brough made up with Eric Ripper, while the PM made friends online, and tried to keep them in Cabinet. Meanwhile Kevin Rudd's brother lost a few friends, the CCC looks in danger of following and Mohamed Haneef needs as many as he can get.
Climate Change and Emissions Trading
In another non-sitting week, Prime Minister John Howard elaborated on the national emissions trading scheme the government plans to launch in 2011.
The announcement included $627 million in new funding on climate change measures, more than half of which will pay for water tanks and solar water heating at schools.
The nascent nuclear industry Mr Howard favours as a low-emission energy provider would receive $12.5 million for research.
Emission reduction targets would not be set until economic modelling is completed next year.
Under his scheme, the impact on companies would be softened by issuing some emission permits free and providing a safety valve - a fee charged for industries polluting above their permit.
The free allocation would be mixed with the auctioning of single-year dated permits, handed out by an independent regulator.
Legislation will be introduced this year for mandatory emissions and energy reporting, with the system expected to be in place by July 2008.
Initially companies emitting more than 125,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases would be required to report.
That would be phased down "over time" to 50,000 tonnes, Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull said.
"Around 700 companies will be required to provide detailed reports on their greenhouse gas emissions and energy use and production under the new system," Mr Turnbull said in a statement.
He said the scheme would cover 70-75 per cent of Australia's emissions, or almost 100 per cent of industrial, energy and mining emissions.
A team would be established within the federal Treasury to oversee the system and assess the impact on the economy and Australian families.
Federal Labor said the absence of an emissions reduction target was the scheme's glaring flaw.
"This ongoing delay will deny businesses the certainty they need to drive investment in low carbon technologies and other climate change mitigation measures," Labor treasury spokesman Wayne Swan said in a statement.
But Mr Turnbull said Australia already had a target - the Kyoto target of
108 per cent of 1990 levels, which it was on track to meet.
"What we are talking about now is a set of policies - including an emissions trading scheme - which is designed to take us beyond the Kyoto period ... past 2012 and into the decades to come," he told ABC television.
"Given the scheme trading is going to start in 2011, it doesn't make a lot of sense to be identifying targets now when you haven't done the economic analysis."
Mohamed Haneef
It took 12 days for the Australian Federal Police to complete their analysis of Gold Coast Doctor Mohamed Haneef, with him being formally charged on Saturday with providing support to a terrorist organisation, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment.
Almost immediately after Brisbane magistrate Jacqui Payne set Dr Haneef's bail at $10,000, Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews announced he had revoked his visa, and would arrange for him to be transported to Sydney's Villawood detention centre.
"I am satisfied the cancellation is in the national interest," Mr Andrews said.
"Based on information and advice I have received from the Australian Federal Police I reasonably suspect that Dr Haneef has had or has an association with persons involved in criminal conduct, namely terrorism," he said.
Dr Haneef's barrister Stephen Keim said the Government was abusing its anti-terror laws.
"The record with regard to secret information is that it's secret when it's convenient to the commonwealth," Mr Keim told ABC radio.
"Now the minister is making his decision on the basis of what the AFP tells him and on what he says is secret information and yet we're seeing what is secret information published in the newspapers today," he said.
But Opposition Immigration Spokesman Tony Burke said the Minister had acted in the proper manner.
"On the information he has presented today it appears he has acted entirely appropriately under the Migration Act,'' Mr Burke said.
"On that basis, Federal Labor is able to provide in principle support for the decision taken today.''
But he said Labor would now seek its own briefings in relation to Haneef and the decision to cancel his visa.
"The legal system separates administrative law from criminal law, you have to keep a separation...,'' Mr Burke said.
"The minister has obligations under the Migration Act and based upon what's publicly available he's exercised those obligations appropriately.''
Nonetheless, the use of the immigration laws was condemned by minor parties, with claims the government had usurped the role of the court system and jeopardised his chance of a fair trial for political purposes.
Democrats Senator Andrew Bartlett told Fairfax that the decision was a "gross perversion" of the law.
"The Government is throwing away centuries-old basic freedoms for base political advantage," he said.
But Mr Andrews deflected criticism that he could prejudice Haneef's case and denied that the move was a political stunt.
"This is very much about the national security of Australia and what's in Australia's interest," he said.
"This is simply a matter of me looking at the responsibilities that I have under the migration legislation."
For the record, bail has not been posted for Dr Haneef, meaning he will remain in Brisbane's Wolston Correctional Centre.
Singing from the same songsheet on Welfare
It seems that counter-terrorism activities aren't the only area where the Federal Government and Opposition agree, with both the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader unveiling new welfare policies over the weekend.
Mr Howard, speaking at a Liberal Party conference in Tasmania, unveiled plans to restrict government welfare payments, replacing them with restrictive electronic spending cards if the children of recipients are neglected or regularly miss school.
The crackdown, which will be progressively introduced from July 1 next year, would apply to all government income paid to Australians who fail to be responsible parents.
"The welfare state was never intended to let people evade their personal or social responsibilities, especially when it comes to care for children,'' Mr Howard said.
"Parents subject to income management will not lose any money and the proportion of government payments that will be managed on their behalf to pay for essential expenses will be tailored on a family basis to ensure that the needs of children are being met," he said.
The Prime Minister also announced that from mid-next year, state and territory governments will be able to ask the Commonwealth to quarantine the payments of welfare recipients if their children are considered at risk of neglect.
Mr Rudd, however, held a tougher line - telling reporters that under a Labor government, parents who neglect their children will have up to 50 per cent of their welfare payments withheld by Centrelink.
Mr Rudd says a Labor Government would introduce checks and quarantine payments to ensure children are being fed and given adequate shelter.
"The payment of electricity bills is maybe another reason why welfare payments may need to be quarantined, and the provision of proper clothing particularly in cold months like this," he said.
"We think if this is done in partnership with the professional child welfare protection agencies of the states and territories we can make a difference."
He says the money would be used by welfare workers to make sure neglected children are looked after.
Brough and Ripper make up
Also announcing plans to care for neglected children this week were Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough and Acting-Premier Eric Ripper, after a series of clashes over the best way to stamp out child abuse in indigenous communities.
Mr Brough announced on Monday the Federal Cabinet had approved a plan to extend its indigenous intervention package by providing military and logistical support and health checks to WA.
But he rejected WA's request for extra police officers to help in the law and order effort, saying the government could not spare federal police.
Mr Ripper subsequently accused Mr Brough of playing politics and said his "so-called offer amounts to nothing".
Mr Brough told ABC radio he had been reassured by Mr Ripper that the Western Australian government was going to place an emphasis on policing in the communities.
"I am satisfied that he is committed fully to this process and he knows that the Federal Government is not here to play politics," he said.
Mr Brough again said the offer of military and logistical support to stamp out child abuse in indigenous communities was open to all states.
But Mr Ripper declined the offer, saying the state needed extra police officers, and asking the Federal Government to free state police from their obligations at Perth airport so they could be sent to troubled communities.
Mr Brough has said he would consider the proposal.
Corruption and Crime Commission
One proposal Western Australian Opposition Leader Paul Omodei won't consider was Attorney General Jim McGinty's call for the dismissal of a senior staffer for leaking a report from the state's corruption watchdog.
A report by Parliamentary Inspector Malcolm McCusker QC found the Liberal leader's chief-of-staff John Kime leaked a report into Perth panel beater Pasquale Minniti's links with the WA police to the media last month.
But Mr McCusker said there was no evidence Mr Kime, who has been stood aside, had acted corruptly.
The leaked Corruption and Crime Commission report was critical of independent MP John D'Orazio's dealings with Mr Minniti but apparently cleared him of corruption or misconduct.
WA Attorney-General Jim McGinty said despite the parliamentary inspector's report, Mr Kime had acted reprehensibly and should be sacked.
But Mr Omodei said he will wait until a public sector management inquiry into the matter was finalised before making any decisions.
"I understand that the director-general of the premier's department will receive that this Friday so probably early next week," Mr Omodei said.
"The guy (Kime) has been scrupulously honest in his dealings over the years."
The parliamentary inspector's report also said the CCC had not given Mr D'Orazio a reasonable opportunity to respond to comments about him in the report and recommended it remove any mention of him in its final report.
It criticised the CCC for sending an embargoed copy of its report to Mr Omodei and Premier Alan Carpenter a day before its scheduled release and recommended it stop the practice.
Mr D'Orazio said he welcomed the findings.
"It indicates the processes used by the CCC were not correct, which is what all this was all about," Mr D'Orazio said.
"The final report from the CCC hasn't come down yet, but I expect to be cleared."
Labor backbencher John Quigley, who had lodged a complaint against the CCC to the parliamentary inspector, said the report confirmed his concerns.
"It confirms what I initially contended, that the CCC in this matter behaved very very shoddily, not strictly in compliance with its own legislation and as a result visited a grave injustice on Mr D'Orazio," Mr Quigley told ABC radio in Perth.
Mr D'Orazio was sacked as justice and police minister in May 2006 when it emerged he had been driving without a licence for two months.
He was forced to resign from the ALP last August when the CCC probe revealed Mr Minniti called him in May 2006, offering to "help" him with his political problems.
The final word
In a week where the Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd's brother Greg fell victim to the same fate as Julian Grill, being expelled from the ALP for making donations to other political parties, and the Prime Minister made his YouTube debut, only to be promptly "remixed" by the video-sharing website's budding satirists, the final word goes to Health Minister Tony Abbott.
Being interveiwed on ABC Television's Lateline, Mr Abbott was hosing down Liberal leadership speculation while admitting Treasurer Peter Costello's public criticism of Prime Minister John Howard could hurt the coalition.
"Not to put too fine a point on it - s*** happens ... we just have to cope," he said.
While interviewer Tony Jones thanked the Minister for "playing a straight bat" at the end of the interview, Mr Abbott's dropped clanger nonetheless drew questions from reporters this morning, with one asking if he regretted saying it.
Apparently, Mr Abbott drew a round of laughs with his response.
"S*** happens," he said.
Arch reckons that one speaks for itself.
