Libs to decide on gay marriage this week probably, perhaps, pretty sure
Energy prices are going up and up. The Sunday Telegraph, yesterday:
Half of all Australian households are being ripped off up to $587 a year on their power bills by sneaky companies who roll their customers onto more expensive deals after luring them in with discounted offers.
Homelessness is growing and growing. News.com.au, Friday:
Young people with a mental illness are three times more likely to wind up homeless, after which their prospects of positive health and social outcomes dwindle significantly.
One of our biggest banks is mired in a major scandal. The Australian,
Friday:
The Commonwealth Bank risks fines of hundreds of millions of dollars after the federal government’s financial crimes agency accused it of ignoring police warnings to monitor suspicious accounts, and failing to report tens of thousands of transactions worth more than $500 million, in breach of money-laundering and terrorism-financing laws.
And North Korea is going to kill us all with horrible nuclear missiles ... David Kilcullen in The Weekend Australian, Saturday:
... given North Korea’s continuing provocations, the forward deployment of US armoured brigades on rotation into South Korea, increased readiness for war on all sides, and the possibility of miscalculation by unstable and fractious governments, today these forces look less like a preventive deterrent and more like frontline troops positioned for the opening rounds of a potentially devastating conflict.
So what was the No 1 topic all the pollies wanted to talk about before parliament this week? WA Liberal senator Dean Smith on Insiders, yesterday:
I would like to see the government sanction a free vote, and then any member of the house would be free to introduce that bill ... to bring to it the Senate, and then hopefully we’ll have a parliamentary resolution of the issue of same-sex marriage once and for all.
If North Korea hits us, will we stop talking about gay marriage? Kilcullen in The Weekend Australian, Saturday:
Australian territory will eventually be in range of Korean nuclear weapons once the ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) program reaches full capacity.
Labor says it won’t be blowing anybody up over gay marriage.
Tony Burke on Sunday Agenda, yesterday:
We will not use this issue as an issue of confidence ... we will not immediately follow (a successful vote on gay marriage in the House of Representatives) with a motion of no-confidence.
But Labor could turn it into a confidence issue if they wanted to ... House of Representatives Practice (Firth Edition) , “Motions”:
By defeating an issue central to government policy or rejecting a legislative measure proposed by the Government, the acceptance of which the Government has declared to be of vital importance. Conversely, a vote by the House agreeing to a particular legislative measure or provision contrary to the advice and consent of the government could similarly be regarded as a matter of confidence.
Come on, they wouldn’t be tempted? Chris Kenny in The Weekend Australian, Saturday:
The Liberals could reach their nadir as soon as next week, or the slide could continue into the protracted ignominy of opposition.