Tag: Australian Parliament

The Double Diss: Canberra goes ‘Mean Girls’

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Image Credit: None that I readily admit to. Not my image,yet  my best and worst hack photoshop job, ever.

I can always use an excuse for a Mean Girls (2004) reference and tonight seemed as good of a time as any.

There’s chit chat around the Hill (Canberra) that Malcolm might call an early (pre-September) Election because the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) Bill was defeated for a second time. If a Bill is blocked by the other House three times, then it cannot be re-introduced, so this places the Prime Minister in a tricky spot – try again? or advise the Governor General (GG) to dissolve Parliament and call an early election?

Now for the Mean Girls references:

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Piggy Banks to Power Plays [Part One]: Globalisation and its impact

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******Firstly, however, A UPDATE ON MY PREVIOUS ENTRY: “The American Government Shutdown Explained!”*******

The Democrats, [Obama and his Government] have the majority in the Senate, not House of Representatives. The Republicans have the majority in the lower house [the HoR] – but the Democrats have the majority of seats over the total seats in both houses: 332 [to the Republicans 206]. US politics is a very different kettle of fish to Australia. Legislation doesn’t usually originate from the Upper House in a Westminster system [Aus, UK, Canada], but in the case of the US Presidential system, it can. But because the Americans are Bicameral [two houses of Parliament] it needs the approval of the other house, despite where it starts, so Obama is dealing with a hostile [Opposition majority] House of Reps. 

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