Senator Barnaby Joyce

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Read all the politics, debate, commentary and local action from you, the Project Democracy community as you monitor Senator Joyce. To join the discussion and comment on a post, click on an individual post below. To submit your own blog post, go to our submission page.

Frustrating end to the Senate's Spring sitting

Posted on October 24th, 2008 by Jason Wilson (2 comments)

Estimates this week have covered a number of issues that are pressing for all Australians. But the treatment of these issues hasn't always been as serious as we might have hoped. Australia's response to the financial crisis has been under scrutiny - in particular the role of Treasury honcho Ken Henry in providing advice leading to the guarantee of bank deposits. Opposition Senators grilled Doctor Henry about whether or not he'd consulted adequately with the Reserve Bank before offering his advice, but as Bernard Keane pointed out in Crikey, in doing so they squandered the opportunity to...

P-FLAG supports same-sex equality

Posted on October 24th, 2008 by Judy Brown (1 comments)

Judy Brown is Preseident of P-FLAG NSW. Speaking as president of PFLAG NSW Inc. (a support group for parents, families and friends of lesbian & gay people), I have come across many same-sex couples who have been together for more than twenty years. In most cases they are very committed to each other and have endured many years of social discrimination and human rights abuse. They feel that it is their social right to make a formal and legal commitment to each other and we support them in this. If they are committed in a loving same-sex relationship, they virtually have no legal rights...

Should the weatlhy be taxed more?

Posted on October 23rd, 2008 by Richard Denniss (8 comments)

Richard Dennis is the Director of the Australia Institute. The wealthiest one per cent of Australians receives more than 35 per cent of all dividend income and more than 38 per cent of all capital gains according to the ATO. Luckily for them, both company profits and capital gains are taxed concessionally, ensuring that the tax system helps to exacerbate the gap between high- and low-income earners. At the other end of the spectrum, the bottom 20 per cent of income earners receive just 3.2 per cent of all dividends paid and only 4.2 per cent of all capital gains. â€˜Capital...

Senate Estimates

Posted on October 22nd, 2008 by Jason Wilson (6 comments)

Although the Senate isn't currently sitting, our Senators are very busy with Estimates hearings. Estimates hearings originally came about so that the Senate could keep a closer eye on how budget money was being spent. Since they were initiated in 1970, they have grown into an opportunity for oppositions to put Governments under pressure. Harry Evans explains on the Senate website: From the start the estimates hearings were an opportunity to question ministers and officers about any activity of government departments and agencies. They were a general inquisition into the operations...

ABC Pours Fuel on Radio National's Fire

Posted on October 21st, 2008 by Darce Cassidy (1 comments)

Darce Cassidy is a former Radio National broadcaster, and a former senior executive with the ABC Presenter of highly acclaimed RN program The Religion Report, Stephen Crittenden, has been suspended by ABC management following his on-air comments last week regarding the axing of his program. The ABC has announced an inquiry, but not into the decision to wind up nine programs - the inquiry will be into Stephen's comments! He has, of course, been instructed by ABC management not to make any further statements. There is a link on Crikey's site to an MP3 of Crittenden's remarks....