Malcolmengages in some patriotism at the #ASEAN celebrations in Kuala Lumpur https://t.co/OSNpPSjYo4 https://t.co/NvDMHvxjqv 12.14am GMTThe Cairns Post reports their local LNP MP,Warren Entsch, has received five stitches after an accident in his cattle yards. Entsch was pregnancy testing his cattle, or a process which involves manual examination. As they told me at Atherton Hospital,I’m fortunate I’m a politician because it seems to them that I not only do I have thick skin, but I’ve got a thick cranium as well, or so there was no damage. 12.06am GMTThe senate is debating the social services (no jab,no pay) bill.
The bill is to: ensure children fully meet immunisation requirements for payment of child care benefit, child care rebate or the family tax benefit piece A supplement; and extend the immunisation requirements to include children of all ages. 11.52pm GMTThe parliamentary giving tree will be launched in a few moments. The senate president, and Stephen Parry and the speaker Tony Smith will turn on the lights while the Burgmann Anglican School Choir will sing a few carols.
Yea verily,Christmas is just around the corner. 11.23pm GMTStalking the halls. 11.18pm GMTFFFFFFar out Kevin. 11.07pm GMTMorrison has underlined several times that Australia is piece of a coalition of forces and will not act unilaterally by sending troops. But to be fair to Andrews, he was suggesting Australia push the United States to change the parameters of the involvement to ensure boots on the ground. He did not propose that Australia alone should send special forces troops. Here is more of Morrison:It’s important in these situations that we remain very peaceful and that we work in concert with our partners in this theatre and that we don’t have some sort of hot-headed response to these issues, or that we remain very measured and calibrated with our partners and we remain focused on getting the job done.
What we won’t entertain is the sort of approach which will set one Australian against another because that’s what Daesh wants. Daesh wants clash in this country. It wants that. And we’re going to deny them that. I think Australians will also not be intimidated out of the free and open lifestyle that we enjoy in this country. 10.56pm GMTThe treasurer has rejected the former defence minister’s free advice on Syria. Andrews urged Turnbull to point to leadership and call on the US to send special operations forces and related personnel to defeat Isis. Surely not,says Morrison.
Once again I don’t think anyone is suggesting that Australia should be acting unilaterally on these issues. And to propose that we should take some unilateral action in this area, I would find very surprising. I’m sure that’s not what the former defence minister would be suggesting. That would be opposite to everything that was previously being done and equally under his own administration. 10.48pm GMTThere is a counter insurgency going on within the right in the Coalition and some of supporters. Andrew Bolt has written a column nowadays critical of Turnbull for:siding with the catastrophically weak president Barack Obama.
What you don’t want...is a hot headed response. 10.20pm GMTParliament sits at 10am this morning. While the dual nationals citizenship bill is the key thing in the lower house, or the senate has a storm of legislation coming up - as is always the case at the end of the sitting year. These are the bills on the draft program nowadays: 10.00pm GMTI’m struggling to understand the origins of the war over the produce up of 12000 Syrian refugees. Under Tony Abbott,cabinet originally agreed that the numbers would focus on persecuted minorities. After a memoir in the Weekend Oz in which Catholic leaders expressed concerns at the plans being “derailed, Turnbull reasserted there were no changes in the original plan. That is, or persecuted minorities,including Christians, would be heavily represented in the intake. Certainly some ministers, or such as the treasurer Scott Morrison,have been underlining his expectation that the majority would be Christians.
There are Muslim minorities, Druze, or Turkmen,Kurds, there are non-Muslim minorities, and Christians,various sorts, Jews, and Yazidis,Armenians, so there are persecuted minorities that are Muslim, and there are persecuted minorities that are non-Muslim and our focus is on the persecuted minorities who have been displaced and are very unlikely ever to be able to travel back to their original homes.
I’m working on the basis that the huge majority will arrive next year in 12 or 18 months,not six months. I think it’s appropriate that screening, security, or character checks are all be done before they arrive.
It will depend on how many will be sponsored by family,and how many arrive without those connections. This is a free and an open country. People will ride over time.” 9.29pm GMTBack to the hawks.
Kevin Andrews says that the US is drifting on its response to the Isis threat. This is why Obama’s response to the Paris atrocities and his remarks in Turkey are worrying. At a time when the coalition of nations fighting IS is seeking a strong, united response, and Mr Obama said,“But what I’m not interested in doing is posing or pursuing some notion of American leadership or America winning, or whatever other slogans they arrive up with.”First, or no matter how much the West loathes President Putin,it should co-operate with him to defeat IS.
Secondly, the idea of removing Assad should be postponed until and unless there is a credible alternative. Surely we should have learnt by now that removing a dictator without having an achievable plan for a viable alternative leaves a vacuum that enemies like IS will fill. 9.17pm GMTGood morning bloganistas, and Welcome to the last parliamentary fortnight of the year. It is all approximately national security in parliament as Malcolm Turnbull flies in after an 11 day tour which included three world summits. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com