Sochi, Inquiries & Subsidies

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3934246.htm Panellists: Malcolm Turnbull, Minister for Communications; Mark Dreyfus, Shadow Attorney-General; Dave Hughes, Comedian; Yolanda Vega, CEO of Australian Women Chamber of Commerce & Industry; and Janet Albrechtsen, Opinion columnist for The Australian. -- Malcolm Turnbull Malcolm Turnbull is the Minister for Communications and is generally seen as one of the most progressive members of the Abbott Cabinet. Though one of the richest man in Parliament and regarded by many as having a privileged background, Malcolm’s early years were spent in comparatively humble circumstances. Born in Sydney in 1954, he grew up in a single-parent household with his father, Bruce, after his parents separated. They lived in a series of flats, mostly rented. Malcolm attended Vaucluse Public School and, with the aid of a scholarship, Sydney Grammar, to which in later life he donated a new scholarship program in his father’s name to help underprivileged students. After graduating from Sydney University with an arts-law degree, he won a Rhodes Scholarship and completed a further degree at Oxford. Malcolm worked as a journalist, lawyer and in business, and became widely known in the late 1990s for leading the Australian republican cause. He entered Parliament in 2004 and represents the seat of Wentworth which covers Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. Malcolm and his wife Lucy have two adult children and live in Point Piper in Sydney. -- Mark Dreyfus Mark Dreyfus was elected to the House of Representatives as Labor member for the Melbourne seat of Isaacs in the 2007 election which saw the ALP come to power. He became a parliamentary secretary in 2010 and by the time Labor left office in 2013 he was Attonrey-General. Before entering Parliament Mark was a Melbourne barrister, and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1999. He served as an adviser to the Victorian Attorney-General and Minister for Planning between 1985 and 1987. He has worked as Research Fellow at the National Research Institute of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine and at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. Mark is an expert in commercial and planning law and was regarded as one of the top defamation lawyers in Victoria. He also acted for Federal, State and local governments and appeared in a number of landmark cases in the High Court, including the Stolen Generations litigation. -- Dave Hughes Dave Hughes is a natural and unmistakably Australian comic whose laconic style thinly disguises one of the fastest minds in the business . It was at the Melbourne Comedy Festival in 1999 that Hughesy was forced to move from a tiny upstairs city bar into a 300-seat room at the Melbourne Town Hall. Word had started to spread about this ridiculously laid back guy from Warrnambool. Since then he’s become one of the most loved names in Australian stand up comedy. Last year Dave made the decision to return to the stage, leaving both his gig with Nova 100 breakfast radio and his co-hosting role on The Project after almost 5 years on the desk. 2013 also saw the final series of Before The Game, the iconic AFL Footy show that Dave had co-hosted since 2003. Now with a clean slate Dave is hitting the road and getting back on stage with a brand new show, Pointless. This is his first national tour in more than a decade and he’s planning to stretch his legs with seasons in every capital city and shows in pretty much any town with a stage and a PA. Dave will also be playing London’s West End in August. -- Yolanda Vega Yolanda Vega is the CEO at the Australian Women Chamber of Commerce & Industry (AWCCI), a not-for-profit apolitical organisation that advocates to make women more independent and their business profitable. Yolanda was part of the delegation to represent Australia at the first APEC Women's Economic Summit, chaired by Hilary Clinton in September 2011. The following year, she presented findings from the AWCCI national research at APEC in Russia. Yolanda also represented Australia as a ‘Young Leader’ at the 2009 International Women’s Forum World Conference. Yolanda has owned several small businesses and was appointed to the Federal Government Small Business Advisory Committee in 2012 . In 2013, Yolanda was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Council of Small Business of Australia (COSBOA) and the Consumer and Small Business Committee of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC). Yolanda works to promote the importance and value-add of women-owned firms to the economy and supports the development of women through research, education and advocacy. She migrated to Australia from Madrid at the age of 7 and now lives in Sydney. -- Janet Albrechtsen Janet Albrechtsen is one of Australia’s most prominent conservative commentators. She is a columnist for The Australian and has also written for The Wall Street Journal Asia, The Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Janet was a member of the board of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from 2005 to 2010. She has also been a member of the Foreign Affairs Council since 2003. Janet was born in Adelaide and has a doctorate in law from the University of Sydney Law School. She has also worked as a solicitor, practising in the areas of banking and finance, corporate and securities law. ---- Audience: ALP 35%, Coalition 46%, Greens 11% SOCHI GAY LUGE Pat Birgan asked: Malcolm, imagine you are a young gay man competing in the luge at the Sochi Winter Olympic Games. You win a medal. Do you use your moment of glory to protest against Russia's anti-gay propaganda laws or refrain, despite one of the fundamentals of Olympism being the right to practice sport without discrimination of any kind? UNIONS ROYAL COMMISSION Joe Ortenzi asked: If we really want to get to the bottom of illegality in unions, why does the government prefer a Royal Commission, which is expensive, has no significant powers and may preclude any legal activity, rather than a police investigation which would exert the rule of law? It looks to many of us like a desire to keep it a political, rather than a criminal decision. CANS AND CARS Mitchell Comans asked: Why are there so many on both sides of politics who refuse to let uncompetitive businesses die a quiet death? If we don't want to eat tinned fruit or if we want to drive a European hatchback instead of a huge Australian sedan, why fight it? Personally, I enjoy not living in 1983 and wonder why others don't. QUESTION FROM THE FLOOR An audience member asked: What is the role of Coles and Woolworths in bringing down small business? QUESTION FROM THE FLOOR An audience member asked: The Shadow Attorney-General doesn’t actually present any real solutions, the issue is that we are spending a lot of money on an industry that isn’t functioning – could that money not be spent to re-tool those skills into an industry that can be profitable? And what initiatives are being developed? NBN SATELLITE FULL Bobbie Oakley asked: Dear panel and audience and viewers. Are you aware that just before Christmas I was informed that the NBN satellite for satellite broadband for a lot of regional people (our only option) is now full? There is no room left on the satellite for us. Apparently there are over 30,000 people registered or waiting for that satellite and about 200,000 people will need it in the near future. Malcolm, this is a serious problem for us. We have no other option for the internet. Do you find this satisfactory? NAVY INQUIRY Reinilda Delima-Froyland asked: A recent Fairfax report featured a detailed interview with the asylum seeker who made the original allegation against the Navy. It’s triggered unanswered questions about the validity of the ABC's report on "asylum seekers' burnt hands" versus the government's attack on the ABC. Will the government come clean now by allowing an independent inquiry? QUESTION FROM THE FLOOR An audience member asked: I don’t think Australians are disappointed about the boats – I think it is the secrecy behind what we feel that the Abbott government is doing. I feel that you are taking Australia back to an archaic form of dictatorship under the guise of democracy. AUSTRALIA NETWORK Jack Yang asked: Ms Albrechtsen and Mr Turnbull, when other countries are pouring huge sums of money into their international broadcast operations, ABC has been the subject of much discussion and speculation over the past few weeks and debate about its future funding. The Australian Network operated by ABC is now relayed through 679 re-broadcasters in the region with the capacity to reach 131.4 million people - up 32 per cent since July 2013. ABC’s partnerships have extended our digital reach by 109 per cent in the past six months from 1.1 million to 2.3 million visitors a month. One example of this is the growth in ABC Learn English community, which now includes almost 900,000 followers. The BBC's comparable English learning community is 498,000 and Voice of America is at 662,000. Janet and Malcolm, if you think ABC is not precisely and quietly fulfilling its brief, why do media partners across the Indo-Pacific region sign up to the Australia Network again and again? CORBY: PROCEEDS OF CRIME Gerard Hosier asked: Should Australia's "proceeds of crime law" be applied to Schapelle Corby ,for her exclusive interviews, book and films, in the same way as it was attempted to be applied to David Hicks?