One whole day in committee
August 10th, 2007 by tigtog | Published in Ethics, Federal Elections, Government, Indigenous, Law, Policy, Politics | 38 Comments
Andrew Bartlett notes that the Government has used its Senate majority to stifle thorough examination and debate of the legislation it’s proposing over indigenous communities in the Northern Territory and over water management in the Murray-Darling Basin: both bills were introduced only this week, and they will be in Committee for only one day – today.
Many witnesses/experts/stakeholders were only informed yesterday that they would be required to give testimony today. But two witnesses who weren’t asked to appear were the authors of the Little Children Are Sacred report which the government used to justify its indigenous intervention under the emergency powers.
Rex Wild QC and Pat Anderson are going to the Senate and making themselves available for questioning despite not being invited – there is a lunch break in the Committee proceedings and Anderson and Wild will present themselves to interested Senators at that time. As Andrew says,
Given they were obviously available to give evidence, it is amazing that they weren’t invited to evidence to the formal Committee proceedings.
Bernice Balconey notes that the more we learn about the legislation for the indigenous emergency intervention plan, the more it smells of unredeemed racism, seeking to roll back every minor gain made by our indigenous people in the last half-century.
This sort of railroading of legislation, cynically bypassing full and proper review by the Upper House, is exactly why we need a Senate which balances the Lower House by not having a government party majority.
Who has a say in the invitations? Is it just the guvmint? This legislation is worrisome and just a day for debate is a disgrace.
According to Andrew Bartlett:
Love your “balance the senate” badge, tigtog!
I reckon this is a key part of the Howard Government’s end game. They know they’re going down, and now that they’ve got control of both houses and a relatively silent opposition, they’ll just ram through a lot of nasty and ideologically driven legislation that they’ve wanted to pass for 11 years.
Turn the clock back a few decades to make it that much more difficult for a new Labor Government to take the country forwards. It’ll take 2 terms to just catch up to where we were, let alone move forwards!
I would prefer to see the Senate abolished.
So, they’re not even bothering to seek the opinions of those experts whose report constituted the basis for the Federal Intervention in the first place.
Just goes to show what a political stunt the whole thing is.
John Greenfield on 10 August 2007 at 10:32 am
Tim, the badge is creative commons – anyone can use it.
Is that Nabs on your monitor TT?
tigtog
Wow, how original! A leftist feminazi dismisses anybody who disagrees with her as a troll!!
Why would they seek the opinion of the report authors when their intervention plan goes against the recommendations of the report? That would be very inconvenient. But nobody reads long reports, right? Certainly not journalists.
Tigtog,
It would do you well to read up on NZ recent history to see what not having a second house can lead to. What you are seeing now is the tip of the arrogance iceburg.
BilB,
I’m well aware, thanks. It’s Greenfield who is trying to divert a discussion from Balancing the Senate to abolishing the Senate for shits and giggles.
Wow, how original! A leftist feminazi stamps her jackboot all over a thread deciding on the hop that what the thread “really” is about is agreeing with her!
Try the BlogWarBot, John. It has a high tolerance for tedious vexatiousness.
Wow, how original. A tory calling people names when it’s pointed out he’s off topic.
Maybe we should have an ignore the troll policy when it comes to Greenslade.
It’s becoming very tedious having to wade through his drivel on post after post and providing him with the attention he obviously craves, only encourages him.
I don’t get why anyone is surprised.
BlogWarBot thanks you for the reminder of a phrase it had neglected to add to its collection.
Tigtog:
So the Howard regime has “turned Communist” and uses the national assembly of Australia’s “Peoples’ Democracy” to rubber-stamp the edicts of the central committee.
Why the surprise? That’s how such regimes always work.
Of course, governments that have a majority in both houses push through their own legislation; that’s just democracy at work …. but this is different, very different.
Tim, you said
You’re making the assumption that a federal election will not be delayed or suspended by some cooked-up emergency or another …. until just now, I myself had assumed that such a stunt would be based on a terrorism scare [real or made-up] but the tsunami-like effects of the US subprime loans crisis might give this regime a different excuse to prevent an election.
Oh no! It couldn’t possibly ever ever happen in Australia, we’re too nice to have that happen to us …. yeah, right. :-(
ABC latest
Graham, maybe I am not being open enough to that prospect, but I just can’t see it happening. And it’s not because I don’t understand how incremental evil of this kind can happen. As the grandchild of holocaust survivors, I grew up on tales of such processes, and my political education is thanks to my grandfather, in particular.
But the world is a very different place now from what it has been. When even Mugabe holds elections, they won’t be suspended here.
Since Brough and Howard haven’t explained how getting rid of the permit system and native title will address child sexual abuse and there is no apparent link, one has to assume other motives.
Labor voted for Brough’s legislation (including Garrett, even though he “spoke against it”) and my guess is they probably won’t repeal it.
So the Howard dictatorship is ramming through corrupt and discriminatory legislation in what looks like its dying days. No big surprise here really, but dissappointing that our democratic system has been abrogated so that the Executive can pretty much do as they please without scrutiny or accountability.
Also note that the legislation provides Brough with more discretionary executive powers regarding changing the legislation – without having to refer back to parliament.
The Senate was the last bastion of democracy – and has been reduced to a rubber stamp with some psuedo-enquiries added for PR purposes. It will be interesting to look at what arises from their 1 day review. They probably won’t even finish reading the 500 pages, let alone reviewing and/or amending them. Its a flipping disgrace.
He gets his shits and giggles out of this topic because he is a racist.
I wouldn’t bet on Labor not repealing – or at least, vastly altering – the laws when they come into office. I spoke with a Senator friend of mine and she indicated that this is part of the reason they are playing a dead bat with this issue.
I suspect that once Labor has won the election then this will be one of the first things they will look at. But, then again, it will also depend on the make-up of the Senate. I can’t see Labor getting numbers in the Senate after the election (and even if they did, there is the “lag” relating to when the new members take their positions) but even if the numbers are borderline then it might be that some of the disaffected Libs – who clearly have issues with this whole intervention – might side with Labor and the minors to either repeal it or make appropriate changes.
I’m not holding my breath, but you never know. It ain’t over until the fat lady sings, as they say.
This is becoming a common tactic of the government. However I understand from articles with lots of words in them, written by Paul Kelly (the most important person in Australia) and Janet (intrepid and courageous defender of Western Civilisation) Albrechtsen that ‘Executive Action trumps consultation with civil society’, every time.
As we all know, people who don’t support the government had their chance at the last election. They lost. Which bit of ‘loser’ don’t they understand?
I expect to be reading equally spirited defences of executive action, untrammelled by the need for consultation with losers, after the next election.
silkworm
Getting the shits and giggling = racist!!?? OK, I’ll play. Please explain.
Those discretionary powers are, in one sense, the most disturbing element of the legislation, I reckon. Yes, these law discriminate nastily against one section of the community. But if we get into the habit of allowing the executive to alter laws without parliamentary oversight, the flood gates are wide open…
Lynda, firstly, there’s no mathematical way Labor can get the numbers in the Senate. But if the ACT swings either 2 ALP or 1 ALP 1 Green, instead of 1 ALP 1 Lib, the right lose control of the senate immediately, since senators from the territories take their seats immediately.
And secondly, I wish I had your faith in the ALP simply repealing these laws. Sadly, I’m not so sure.
Silkworm, I have to say that the racist accusation is just as much, if not more, an attempt to derail the thread in just the same way I criticised Greenfield for earlier.
Quit it.
Gee tigtog, a bit harsh- silkworm makes one comment…(reminds of a joke) whereas Greenfield is clearly a serial abuser (reminds me of another joke…).
Back to the topic. It will not be pretty or edifying if Labor is elected in the lower house and, as is likely, the coalition retains control of the Senate. Since most of them lack any semblance of principle, they will reject everything the lower house throws at them as a matter of principle, the principal one of which will be money supply. (Sorry, just wanted to get those two words in the one sentence.)
Regardless of the election, whenever it occurs, the coalition will still hold the balance of power for six months after the election? & if mining interests are smart enough to use the laundry window of opportunity to get in & peg mining leases, the legislative privilege that such claims enjoy both federally & state-based, will make it extremely hard to wind this back without lengthy legal squabbles & the strong likelyhood of compensation – remember that nice tree trade agreement we signed with the US? oh I can see NAFTA all over again…
This legislation has to be stopped – is there a senator on the government side with a smiggen of humanity? We’re about to find out.
Tigtog:
It was wonderful news that some Senators had their own unofficial “hearing” [short though it was] with a couple of people well-informed, rather than well-coached, on what was happening to our Aboriginal fellow citizens.
Three mighty cheers!!!!.
Tim [at 12:57pm]:
At least you do indeed understand incremental evil. Unfortunately, a lot of people do not ….yet. Your grandfather would have told you all about what happened AFTER 1933 and how almost everybody still hung onto the irrational hope that things would get better sooner or later ….
If not a delayed or suspended federal election then almost certainly a rigged one. These people have shown time and again their ruthlessness, their lack of honour and their abandonment of fair-dinkum Australian values.
Very curious Graham as to whether you imagine it all too possible, or have come across something, well, concrete? You could argue that electoral fraud has been already committed by legislative changes to the closing of the polls, & the disenfranchiseement of those incarcerated. Can’t quite see how they could hang their chads, but preference deals in the Senate are a potential I suppose? Clandestine funding of Family First? Sounds like a job for the Embittered Brethren…
& for god’s sake EVERY ONE – make sure your electoral details are up to date – otherwise kiss that vote goodbye.
tigtog
Well blow me down with a feather, you actually stepped up to defend me!!! :) While I am bullet-proof when it comes to cheap insults like that, I can tell that YOU are serious about folks cheapening the “racist” label. Clearly you fully realise that racism is a very real and ugly phenomenon that even in 2007 still hurts millions of people. It would help if rather than framing your bossy-finger as a “don’t feed the troll Greenfield” opportunity, you actually slapped ‘silkworm’ properly about these realities.
Even if you don’t, props for at least doing something. Have a lovely night, sweetie. ;)
Bernice:
Have nothing concrete on any specific plans to delay or suspend the next federal election – just trends, track-record and an all-too-familiar pattern emerging.
Nor do I have any specific evidence of actual electoral fraud having being committed or being plotted right now – again, just trends, track-record and an all-too-familiar pattern emerging; although the disenfranchisement of the “undeserving” is cause for serious concern. Whilst I have respect for the dedication and the probity of the Aust. Electoral Commission staff themselves, there are still opportunities for electoral fraud …. and so long as the Liberal, Labor and Nationals have a christmas-grip on the process, don’t expect any beneficial electoral reform any time soon.
I will be only too happy to admit I was wrong if we do indeed have a completely free and fair federal election …. and in good time too.
Wow, indeed! Greenfield is both sexist and hates the poor, as he delightfully informed us over at LeftWrites about his opinion on public housing, which he described as ‘fetid social sewers’.
Chav, can we move away from making this thread all about John Greenfield? Reacting to vexatious contrarianism derails the thread. Don’t feed the contrarian unless he feeds you something that’s actually substantive first, folks.
Now, from today’s Age:
I wish I could find who said it, but it’s worth repeating anyway: students are given longer to write an essay than the Senate has been given to read this 500 page bill and evaluate it.
tigtog
And herein lies the conflict innate to the way luvvies think about indigenous issues. On the one hand, you move hell and high water to divide Australia into indigenous and non-indigenous, insist on policies and funding that apply only to aborigines. Yet here when policies and funding ARE directed exclusively at certain unique remote communities, you insist that all Australians must be treated the same.
Which is it going to be?
It is going to be neither, and JG frankly I think the answer to your question is damned obvious. The whole point is to provide *extra* help to Indigenous people because we screwed them over and they are still suffering from it. Indeed, there still is an incredible amount of public discrimination towards the Indigenous.
The whole point is that we are trying to *raise* their status to equals. In the mean time, we still need to give them full rights, like any other citizen – 1) because this is just, and 2) because they will never attain full equality and full ability to participate in society if they are dictated to like children. This is straight from the liberalism of John Stuart Mill.
Good one, Tig Tog.
Nothing they love better than beggaring up a thread.