Comments for Andrew NortonAndrew Norton

Comment on The Wikileaks Party’s actual and potential problems with campaign finance laws by Andrew Norton

Andrew Norton — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 21:43:55 +0000

Linda – Under current law Wikileaks.org would be able to give money to the Wikileaks Party, with disclosure. However under the proposed law the ‘source’ of the money would become the critical issues. If it was deemed ‘foreign’ it would be prohibited.
However, there would be other options. The proposed law would not stop Wikileaks.org directly campaigning in its own right for the Wikileaks Party. It is also aimed at ‘gifts’ rather than ‘sales’. So Wikileaks Party could invoice Wikileaks.org for services.

Comment on The Wikileaks Party’s actual and potential problems with campaign finance laws by Linda Steven

Linda Steven — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 09:10:18 +0000

If the money was then sent to Wikileaks.org as stated in the article that I read, would Wikileaks then not be able to donate to the Wikileaks Party? Albeit it might have to be declared.

Comment on The Wikileaks Party’s actual and potential problems with campaign finance laws by Andrew Norton

Andrew Norton — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 01:08:42 +0000

If you download the pdf guide there is material about donations starting on page 10, which is also here.. The most important parts of the Commonwealth Electoral Act for third parties are sections 314AEB and 314 AEC. It's a multi-step process. Did you spend more than the threshold amount on political expenditure? If so, was it financed by a donation exceeding the threshold amount? If yes, it needs to be disclosed.

Comment on The Wikileaks Party’s actual and potential problems with campaign finance laws by Karwalski

Karwalski — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 00:07:42 +0000

Hi,

Do you have any links, quotes or further details on the suggestion that 3rd parties must declare donations?

AEC section on Third Parties is regarding expenditure not donations http://aec.gov.au/Parties_and_Representatives/financial_disclosure/guides/third-parties/index.htm

My understanding from reading the above is the party has to declare expenditure.. but no mention of donations prior to the party being registered.

Comment on The $2.3 billion higher education ‘saving’ that nobody is talking about by Federal Government Banks Student Loan Margins as “Savings” | Central College Online Blog

Wed, 29 May 2013 08:20:44 +0000

[...] about a $2.3b Federal budget saving on student loans that is a-little-too-cleverly calculated, in an article this [...]

Comment on Union and business political activity under threat in Queensland by MichaelC58

MichaelC58 — Fri, 24 May 2013 22:30:30 +0000

While your last paragraph is theoretically true, it often does not work in practice, admittedly due to member apathy.

Arguably, unions and representative bodies have increasingly been populated by those interested in the jobs – activists, political aspirants and professional administrators with their own agendas and yet deemed to be representative on all they say and do. The organisation is often necessary for your job, candidates are all similar activist so you just put up.

Take student unions as a prime example – you can’t argue their antics represent the student body.

Where members’ apathy harms only themselves – it’s their problem – and it’s where they are likely to act anyway. Where the organisation influences outside society, maybe spurring a bit of democratic responsibility helps.

Comment on Greg Craven on education and federalism, then and now by Terry

Terry — Thu, 23 May 2013 06:24:21 +0000

Teacher training has become a very crowded place with the States, the Commonwealth and the universities all jostling one another. In March ministers Bowen and Garrett announced a four-point ‘plan’ to improve teacher training including a review of all teaching courses by TEQSA.
When the TEQSA bill was first shown in 2010 to invited parties nobody was more enthusiastic than Greg Craven, who took the stage, sprayed the States, and hived off to a separate room with the Canberra bureaucrats and university types. He reappeared some hours later to tell us all how he’d fixed the bill’s problems.
Following the subsequent Melbourne lock-up and in response to a query as to whether the TEQSA act was intended to override the course accreditation functions and powers in State acts, written advice was given that it was not the Commonwealth’s intention for the TEQSA legislation to interfere with the operation of state or territory occupational licensing laws. Sure enough, this intention was enshrined in the provisions of section 9 of the bill that passed and was still in the TEQSA act the last time I checked. That is, the power to accredit – or not accredit – teacher preparation courses lies with State and Territory teacher registration acts, not with the TEQSA act. And, the accreditation standards are those developed by AITSL, not TEQSA’s Provider Course Accreditation Standards, which are quite different. Moreover, there is a question as to whether the announced review of teacher education by TEQSA is within power.
The NSW minister is well within power to do what he is proposing in relation to teacher preparation in that State and there appears to be not much Greg can do about it, short of getting the TEQSA act amended so that it overrides the State law.

Comment on Science demand keeps increasing, despite a higher student contribution by TJW

TJW — Wed, 15 May 2013 10:23:17 +0000

My experience with a BSc(Hons) specialising in Biochemistry was a year of contract work and in all likelihood a future of year to year contact based employment with a lot of pressure and little reward. I later studied law and now think that science is a degree that best compliments other degrees, such as Arts, Law and Engineering. I mainly went into science on the basis of the whole ‘Knowledge Nation’ crap in the early 90s so I can see how many naive high school students could go into science on the basis of government and university propaganda, assuming huge sophisticated labs are just waiting to be filled with BSc graduates.

Comment on Union and business political activity under threat in Queensland by Queensland IR changes threaten free speech | Freedomwatch

Queensland IR changes threaten free speech | Freedomwatch — Mon, 06 May 2013 05:51:16 +0000

[...] Norton has written some excellent analysis on this issue over on his blog. He [...]

Comment on Union and business political activity under threat in Queensland by kme

kme — Mon, 06 May 2013 03:59:46 +0000

I too wonder whether this would contravene the implied right to freedom of political expression that the High Court has found in the Constitution.