Michael Danby
Fudging the Drift in Negotiations on Iranian Nukes
Wednesday, 11 February 2015 22:37
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Commentators have spent a lot of time rightly focusing on the situation in Syria and western Iraq, with the atrocities committed by Daesh. Yet dangerous gains by Iran seem to slip under the radar. Iran, as most people in this House would know, has diligently been pursuing nuclear weapons for years, in violation of its treaty commitments and despite ongoing negotiations with the US, the UK, France and Germany to prevent Teheran’s nuclear break-out capacity. Iran's military aid to its friends has allowed Iran to accumulate hegemonic power in four regional capitals—Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad and, most recently, Sana'a, in Yemen—to the detriment of those who want to resist Iranian hegemony in that region.
Re-emergence of the GP co-payment
Wednesday, 14 January 2015 02:13
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Australian public opinion overwhelmingly rejected the Abbott Government’s attempt to introduce a $7 GP co-payment. The Senate voted to block this proposal. The Government’s response to this forced reversal on GP co-payments was to issue a pre-Christmas change to the schedule Medicare payments. The schedule can be changed by Government fiat through regulation (although this must eventually be brought back to Parliament and must be ratified by the Senate). For instance, until now GPs received $37 reimbursement for a consultation up to 20 minutes. With the stroke of a pen—after Parliament had risen for the year and before Christmas—Health Minister Dutton reduced the reimbursement for consultations lasting less than 10 minutes to just under $17. Thus, the doctors will be paid $20 less for 25 to 30 per cent of consultations, and will effectively be asked to charge patients the $20 difference. There is an online petition urging the Government to reverse its decision. I encourage you to sign it.
Vale PM Gough Whitlam
Tuesday, 28 October 2014 04:45
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Occasionally through the years I saw Gough Whitlam, and our relationship slowly revived. He occasionally sought to refine my speeches and questions in this place and approved of many of the historical, linguistic and geographical allusions in my parliamentary contributions. Our last conversation was several years ago at the ALP National Conference in Darling Harbour, where Mr Whitlam, typically, exhibited a keen interest in my role, as he had done with many Labor members of this parliament, as the ranking member then of the federal parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters. Former Prime Minister Whitlam was very anxious that the Liberals not roll back ‘one vote, one value’.
IRAQ, 1 YEAR OF SHORTEN LEADERSHIP, FOREIGN AFFAIRS, RUSSIA, EBOLA.
Wednesday, 15 October 2014 23:55
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TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY - THE DALLEY SHOW
MONDAY, 13 OCTOBER 2014
Responding to the Caliphate - From Hamas to ISIS
Friday, 22 August 2014 06:47
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“It’s easier to fool people than convince them they’ve been fooled” Mark Twain
Around 2 weeks ago I was in Israel for the UK/Israel/Australia Dialogue in Jerusalem. Whenever my wife and I are there, our custom is to always visit my brother’s in-laws – the Galpers. Dr Galper is a twice-retired, doctor of geriatric medicine who worked at the Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon. He is much beloved in the city of some 120,000 people. Ziko and Blima are a hospitable couple, now in their 80s. Quietly, stoically, they stay in their home despite the entreaties of friends to take some refuge further North. Amanda and I thought it would be cowardly not to follow our normal custom of visiting them, regardless of the war and constant missile attacks on Ashkelon. Their experiences reminded me of the stories of my late father in law who told me of WW11 in England. He endured the Blitz in London, patiently sitting it out in an Anderson Shelter.
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