Abbott Government: Week 4 in review

A relatively quiet second  half of the week as Abbott seeks to consolidate progress made on ruining Australia.

• In the wake of rortgate, Abbott rules out reform on MP expenses
• Tony and Mal Brough take home the silverware at the Ernies
• Clive Palmer thinks he has Abbott on the ropes, legislatively speaking
• Abbott speaks of his desire for three Free Trade Agreements in 12 months. And a pony.
• Scott Morrison takes a break from hoping people don't notice any boats to hoping people won't notice he paid back expenses.
• Soon afterwards the Coalition claimed GREAT SUCCESS as only one boat arrived this week.
• Scott also convinced some asylum seekers that the Coalition has made Australia so terrible, they went back where they came from.
• Everyone loves a good expenses scandal, even the Poms.
• George "I'm a QC you know" Brandis confirms the Government feels threatened by gay marriage and will challenge the ACT's prospective laws.

Palmer holds Abbott's legislative agenda to ransom

Shine on you crazy diamond

Mining magnate Clive Palmer is threatening to block all the Abbott government's legislation – even measures he supports such as scrapping the carbon price – unless his party gets more staff and resources. Fairfax

Abbott confident of repealing carbon tax

Labor and the Greens are against the move, so in the new Senate Mr Abbott will have to convince six crossbenchers to pass the legislation.
Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm, Democratic Labour Party Senator John Madigan and Family First's Bob Day also support moves to scrap the tax, but not all of them back the Coalition's carbon reduction policy.
Billionaire mining magnate Clive Palmer has indicated his party supports the repeal but says its three senators will wait to see all bills before guaranteeing support. ABC

Abbott will treat all senators with respect

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has acknowledged it will not be easy to get legislation through the Senate, saying he will have to treat all Senators with respect. ABC

Abbott needs Palmer, Palmer needs Abbott to repeal carbon tax

The other newcomers are Palmer United Party (PUP) senators Glenn Lazarus from Queensland, Jacqui Lambie from Tasmania and Zhenya Wang from Western Australia.
Mr Abbott will be able to count on the three PUP senators, Family First's senator-elect Day and Senator Madigan as all have publicly opposed the carbon tax.
PUP supports reimbursing carbon tax that has already been paid. Fairfax

Palmer v Brough

Clive continues sticking the boot into his old party.  Mal Brough just filed his defence of Palmer's defamation allegations.

In August, Mr Palmer claimed Mr Brough had approached him to fund a sexual harassment case against former Speaker Peter Slipper. Mr Brough denied the claims.

Mr Palmer later lodged an $800,000 defamation suit against the new Member for Fisher. News

In other Clive news,  he won Fairfax by 7 votes.