Papers, Parental Leave & Penalty Rates

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3818772.htm Panelists: Bill Shorten, Minister for Education and Workplace Relations; Kelly O'Dwyer, Liberal Member for Higgins; Tom Watson, Anti-Murdoch Campaigner; Sally Warhaft, Editor, Author and host of The Fifth Estate and Tim Wilson, Institute of Public Affairs. -- Bill Shorten Before entering Parliament Bill Shorten was one of Australia’s best-known trade union leaders. As secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union he was a major player in the national industrial relations debate and gained widespread prominence for his role on the scene of the Beaconsfield mine disaster in Tasmania in 2006. As a key member of the Victorian ALP’s right-wing Centre Unity faction for more than 20 years, Bill was always expected to pursue a career in Parliament. He was elected to the seat of Maribyrnong, covering Melbourne’s outer northern suburbs, in the 2007 election and was promoted straight to a senior role as Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services. After the 2010 election he was given a ministerial position as Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation. In 2011 he was promoted to Cabinet in the Employment and Workplace Relations portfolio. Bill was seen as a significant player in the 2010 coup that saw Kevin Rudd replaced as leader by Julia Gillard. His decision to switch his support back to Kevin Rudd three years later was regarded as a pivotal change that ensured the end of the Gillard leadership. Born in Melbourne in 1967, Bill graduated in arts and law from Monash University and – unusually for a trade union leader – completed a Masters in Business Administration from Melbourne University. Apart from his union and political activities he also served as interim CEO of the Australian Netball Players’ Association and on the advisory board of the Australian Cricketers’ Association. -- Kelly O'Dwyer Kelly O’Dwyer is the Liberal member for the seat of Higgins, in Melbourne’s south-east. The seat was formerly held by her old boss, Peter Costello, and she won it at a by-election in 2009 after he retired from politics. The by-election took place in trying circumstances. Kelly was forced to run her campaign while the Liberal Party in Canberra was embroiled in a bitter and public brawl over climate change policy and the leadership. In the end Tony Abbott won the leadership from Malcolm Turnbull on December 1 and Kelly was elected on December 5, achieving a solid swing of 3 per cent despite the mayhem prevailing in the pre-election period. Kelly, born in Melbourne in 1977, joined the Liberal Party in 1995 while a student at Melbourne University. She graduated with Arts-Law honours and joined legal firm Freehills, where she practised in corporate law, before joining then-Treasurer Costello as a policy adviser. She subsequently became chief policy adviser, but when the coalition lost office in 2007 she became an executive at the National Australia Bank. As an active Liberal member Kelly has held many branch and electorate positions. She is a seasoned campaigner, having campaigned in every State and Federal poll since 1995. She was considered a natural for the prestigious seat of Higgins, centred on Melbourne’s affluent south-east, when her old boss decided to retire, and beat a quality field to win pre-selection. Kelly is currently a Member of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, and Deputy Chairman of the Coalition’s Deregulation Taskforce. She writes a regular column for The Australian Financial Review and contributed a chapter on competition policy to the 2013 book Future Proofing Australia. She has also spoken in favour of same-sex marriage in defiance of coalition policy. Kelly and her husband Jon live in the Higgins electorate. Kelly can sometimes be spotted running (slowly, she says) along the Yarra foreshore. -- Tom Watson Tom Watson is a British Labour Party MP who has achieved international recognition for his pursuit of Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation over the phone-hacking scandal and political influence-wielding. Since being elected to Parliament in June 2001 to represent the people of West Bromwich East Tom has served as a Government Whip and Defence Minister as well as Parliamentary Private Secretary He co-authored Votes for All which examined compulsory voting and Taking Responsibility - dealing with the legacy of radioactive waste both published by the Fabian Society. Before entering the House of Commons, Tom worked as the political adviser to Sir Ken Jackson at the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union. He has also worked for the Labour Party and Save the Children. Tom's other policy areas include manufacturing, energy and law and order but his specialist interest is the digital world and social media. Tom established the Power of Information Task Force to advance the recommendations in the Power of Information Report by Ed Mayo and Tom Steinberg. In April this year he published the book Dial M for Murdoch which investigates the links between the Murdoch media empire and senior MPs. -- Sally Warhaft Sally Warhaft is an editor, author and broadcaster and hosts the Fifth Estate current affairs talks series for the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne. She is a former editor of The Monthly, a regular commentator on ABC radio and a frequent participant in public debates in Melbourne. Sally has a degree in anthropology, and for her PhD studied ethnography and the factors that make a strong community. To do this she spent a year living with the fisherfolk in Mumbai, India, who live traditional lives in shanty settlements on the Arabian Sea shore adjacent to downtown Mumbai. While in India after the 2011 terror attacks she rode a motorbike from New Delhi to Mumbai to visit them. After her PhD Sally lectured in politics at La Trobe University and edited Well May We Say: The Speeches that Made Australia. In recent years Sally made contact with two of the Bali Nine drug smugglers, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, both of whom are on death row. She visits them in gaol when she can and has become close to both their families in Australia. Sally grew up in Melbourne and lives in Collingwood. -- Tim Wilson Tim Wilson is the Director of Climate Change Policy and the IP (intellectual property) and Free Trade Unit at the Institute of Public Affairs and a Senior Fellow at New York's Centre for Medicine in the Public Interest. In 2009 he was named by The Australian newspaper as one of the ten emerging leaders of Australian society, and is a recipient of an Australian Leadership Award from the Australian Davos Connection. He is regularly published in Australian and international newspapers and journals, including The Wall Street Journal, Australian Financial Review and The Australian. He is also a frequent commentator on television and radio. Tim is currently a Director of Alfred Health and formally served on the Board of Monash University and a number of service companies in the tertiary education sector. He has previously worked in consulting and international aid and development, as well as for a number of State and Federal Members of Parliament. He was also twice elected President and Chairman of the Monash University Student Union and was also elected to the Council of Monash University. He completed a Masters of Diplomacy and Trade from the Monash Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts from Monash University. He has several international diplomas and is a trained carbon accountant. Tim is a member of a large number of civil society organisations, including the Australian-American Association, the Australian Institute of International Affairs, Melbourne Football Club, Melbourne Cricket Club and the National Gallery of Victoria. ---- Audience: ALP 36%, Coalition 46%, Greens 10%, Other 2%, Not specified 6% DOES THIS GUY EVER SHUT UP? Daniel Komesaroff asked: One of the more unexpected moments of the Rudd-Abbott debate last week was Tony Abbott asking 'Does this guy ever shut up?' Was this a strategic ploy by Tony Abbott to ridicule Prime Minister Rudd's long-winded responses or an accidental remark in the heat of argument? MURDOCH POWER Natalia Antolak-Saper asked: Since the start of the 2013 election campaign the Murdoch print media has elected to engage in one of the most targeted partisan propaganda campaigns in Australian political history. What are some mechanisms – whether regulatory or otherwise – for ensuring a more balanced role of the media during the coverage of political campaigns? HOW KEVIN LOST HIS MURDOCH David Anderson asked: It seems to me that the issue of media dominance by the Murdoch empire and the complete one sidedness of the reporting is less significant than why Rupert Murdoch is so strident in his opposition to the Labor brand. In 2007 Murdoch newspapers endorsed Kevin Rudd. What did Kevin 07 do or not do to lose that endorsement? POLITICIAN HONESTY Timothy Mannix asked: Given that the fact checking website “Politifact” has found over 70 percent of both Tony Abbott's, and Kevin Rudd's claims on the campaign trail within the first two weeks sit between 'half true' and 'completely false'. Can the panel offer an explanation as to why politicians seem not to be held to the same professional standards of honesty and integrity as other professions? As a teacher, If I were to teach students something that was deemed 'half true' or 'completely false' I would be fired. Why is it when it comes to politics, honesty never seems to be the best policy? PAID PARENTAL LEAVE Caitlin Spence asked: As a young woman looking to enter the workforce in the next 2 years I am prepared to work hard and hopefully be successful. My dream would be to one day have a family. My fear is that people like you Mr. Shorten and the Labor Party are attacking women who have been successful and would qualify for the Coalition Paid Parental Leave Scheme. As I see it, it is a fair scheme because it gives all women the same pay as their regular wages, no more, no less and it's for six months- the recommended minimum time to breast feed a new baby. How can you call that unfair? IR – WORKERS PAID TOO MUCH Ryan Hollingsworth asked: How do Labor expect business to remain profitable and continue to employ Australians, when unions over-price workers, and are more interested in protesting, disrupting progress, and generally avoiding actually working together, while earning top dollar? Are unions pricing Australians out of work, as well as sending Australian companies overseas, if not shutting them down completely? IR – PENALTY RATES William Olson asked: My colleagues and I in the hospitality industry, as well as other lower-paying industries, who love our penalty rates and live off of them, are frightened of losing them and other entitlements if the Liberal Party gets elected. What evidence do we have that Tony Abbott is on the side of the average worker in Australia, as opposed to favouring big business? LABOR LEADERSHIP Georgina Moir has asked: Myself and the public felt betrayed by the removal of elected Prime Ministers Kevin Rudd and of Julia Gillard, both of which you were instrumental in orchestrating. As a politician with obvious leadership ambitions, do you think that the public’s tainted opinion of you will affect your future leadership prospects?