Culture

Avocados, Pardoning War Criminals And Shotguns: Parliament Got Really Weird Today

Just another day in our nation's capital.

by Osman Faruqi  19 October 2016

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Australian Parliament is an incredibly weird place. First of all, it’s in Canberra. This makes it hard for politicians and their staff to interact with normal people. Sometimes (actually, quite regularly) that lack of regular human interaction leads our elected representatives to do some very strange things.

Today was no exception. Between an avocado being used as a prop during a Senate committee, a Senator wanting to preemptively pardon war criminals en mass and a debate about weakening gun control, Parliament got weird as well. Let’s take a look.

 

We’ve Defended Smashed Avocados, Now It’s Time To Fight For Houses, Free Uni And Better Jobs

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Everyone Is Still Obsessed With Bloody Smashed Avocados

All good memes die when politicians jump on the bandwagon. Yesterday Labor MP Tim Watts flagged the impending death of #smashedavogate when he delivered a speech in Parliament estimating the average house in his Melbourne electorate would cost the same as 150 years worth of smashed avocado brunches.

But today Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson took it to the next level. During a senate committee hearing with the head of the Treasury department, Whish-Wilson kicked off a discussion on housing affordability before whipping out an avocado.

“Do you agree with Bernard Salt that young Australians are spending too much money on $22 smashed avocado at cafes rather than saving to invest for a house?” he asked. Fraser acknowledged that housing affordability was an issue and that young people were becoming more reliant on their parents for supports. You can watch the full exchange below:

Even though the whole avocado thing has gotten out of control, both Watts and Whish-Wilson deserve props for bringing up the issue of housing affordability. As we wrote yesterday, if it takes a really bad take on smashed avocados to get the public, and politicians, to talk more about housing, so be it.

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Some Coalition MPs Really Want To Legalise This Shotgun

Yesterday the government got pushed slightly off-track from its plan to re-establish the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) thanks to a surprise debate on… legalising a shotgun. Crossbench senator David Leyonhjelm has been playing hardball and won’t support the government’s legislation until Malcolm Turnbull agrees to suspend the ban on importing the Adler shotgun.

The gun is controversial because it can fire eight rounds in eight seconds. Just one day after Turnbull clarified that he wasn’t planning on reversing the ban, a number of Coalition MPs helpfully spoke out against him. Nationals MPs Mark Coulton and Bridget McKenzie both think the shotgun should be able to be imported, as does the NSW deputy premier, Troy Grant.

The Nationals are arguing that the gun will help farmers control pests like wild pigs. But a number of farmers and pest control experts support the ban and think the Adler shotgun is unnecessary. “We don’t need a weapon like this, which has the potential for use in the community detrimentally, to be placed in the community. It should be wiped out completely,” one expert told the ABC.

But regardless of where you stand on the Adler shotgun the fact that it’s become the big news story of the week, instead of the government’s plan to re-establish the ABCC, shows Malcolm Turnbull is having serious problems controlling his own government.

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Jacqui Lambie Went Rogue… Again

Here’s a cool thing (JK! It’s not cool at all…) Senator Jacqui Lambie did today: she asked the government whether it would support exempting Australian soldiers “from any rules of war or international human rights”. Lambie said that because of “the Taliban and Islamic State fighters’ sub-human behaviour and vile, disgusting culture and ideology” Australian defence personnel should be preemptively pardoned for any war crimes they might commit.

The minister for defence, Senator Marise Payne, said the government wouldn’t be “stepping outside the international norms and conventions of armed conflict.”

Lambie’s question comes just a week after a former Australian commando claimed he had helped shoot a captive prisoner, and has asked to be held responsible. The Defence Department has kicked off an investigation into potential war crimes, which seems like a much more measured and rational response than a preemptive pardon.

All up it’s just another day in our nation’s capital.