Tony Abbott will be giving surf lessons to a refugee after activist organisation GetUp! paid over $16,000 to secure the event in the Mid-Winter Ball charity auction.
Abbott, not the most avid Twitter user in the Parliament, posted his third update of the month after the auction closed, saying: “I’m looking forward to Getting Up on the surfboard with my successful auction bidders.” He will go surfing and have breakfast with Riz Wakil, an Afghan man who as an asylum seeker spent time in detention centres and was recently granted refugee status.
Wakil arrived in 1999 and is now an Australian citizen running a printing business in Sydney. He said: “[Abbott] can teach me a thing or two about surfing and I’ll teach him what refugees go through to build a new life in Australia.”
The Age reports other dates with politicians auctioned yesterday were barefoot bowling with Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan which raised $12,600, and a dinner or lunch with Julia Gillard which went for just over $10,000.
These at least are promises politicians can keep. This morning The Australian reports the PM has dumped one of the key features of his proposed health reform, the National Funding Authority.
It wasn’t necessary, the PM’s department told a Senate inquiry, and its role in overseeing the cash in the “funded nationally, run locally” system would be performed by Treasury. But the opposition says it will reduce transparency in the health system because “they have have less ways of keeping track of the states”, according to Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells.
Hang on. Isn’t that side supposed to be in favour of smaller government less bureacracy, not the other way around?
Anyway this is more of a policy adjustment than a u-turn, but it’s a good reminder of how policies change once they move towards implementation stage. Announcements are made to fanfare but when the actual scheme gets up and running it can be unrecognisable.
And we are going to see a swathe of announcements during the campaign proper. Rudd has learned, to his party’s cost, that keeping all your promises in office isn’t always as easy and adjustments need to be made for practical reasons.
On the other big policy debate of the moment Jennifer Hewett also writes in the The Oz today that the big miners say negotiations on the RSPT are still going precisely nowhere, although there are some more soothing noises coming from resources minister Martin Ferguson.
Given this imbroglio, as Michelle Grattan notes in The Age, the PM is desperate to change the conversation.
Facebook Recommendations
Read all about it
Punch live
Up to the minute Twitter chatter
RT @popculturechris: Meanwhile, Gotye holds no.1 for a sixth massive week in the US - "that" song has now sold over 4 million copies there.
I like how a tip erodes so only you can use it MT “@paulwiggins: BBC News - Why are fountain pen sales rising? http://t.co/0hk2MRtf”
Recent posts
The latest and greatest
Protecting the Barrier Reef is the Fin end of the wedge
When you take on a job like being Environment Minister there’s some hits you can see coming. …
ICB: Is white bread the worst thing since sliced bread?
Welcome to this week’s I Call Bullshit column. It’s a regular column that looks at skulduggery…
Sometimes, you’ve just got to stick it to the bloody ref
We are taught early in life that we should not question authority. We must listen to our parents, our…
Nosebleed Section
choice ringside rantings
From: They must pay for one’s bitter disappointments
Michael S says:
"A teacher at Geelong Grammar had criticised her for using words that were too long, which had left her confused and had made her doubt her ability to write essays. She became ''quite distressed'' when her English marks began to fall." I can sympathise. My scholastic mentors conveyed to me a causal relationship… [read more]From: Welfare for breeders is a bonus for everyone
Change Up! says:
I have no problem paying my taxes. As a single, childless person on a very decent income, I can afford it and not have my life severely altered. Plus I understand that my taxes paying for things like schools, childcare and infrastructure is ultimately a good thing. A better community is better for me… [read more]Gentle jabs to the ribs
They must pay for one’s bitter disappointments
A private school girl’s family is sueing her elite, extremely expensive private school for not… Read more
Most commented