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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Amy Remeikis

Labor presses officials over sports grants scandal – as it happened

Penny Wong questions PM & C at the Finance and Public Administration committee in Parliament House Canberra this morning.
Penny Wong questions PM & C at the Finance and Public Administration committee in Parliament House Canberra this morning. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

We have a big week ahead of us, so we are going to take the opportunity for an early mark while we can.

Estimates continues – we will bring you anything we miss early tomorrow morning.

Keep those tips and messages coming – we appreciate it.

A very big thank you to Mike Bowers, Sarah Martin, Paul Karp and Katharine Murphy, as well as the Guardian brains trust dedicated to the estimates hearings today.

If you need me before tomorrow, you’ll catch me here and here. Apologies if I don’t get back to you immediately, I sometimes run a little behind in replying, but I do read the messages.

I’ll see you back here early tomorrow. In the meantime, sneeze into your elbows, stop touching your face, wash your hands and take care of you.

Updated

As seen by Mike Bowers:

Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg during question time
Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg during question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
‘Maybe if we shift money into this column...’
‘Maybe if we shift money into this column ...’ Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Watching, watching, watching
Watching, watching, watching. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

Home affairs reviewing status of 23 Indigenous Australians in immigration detention

The department of home affairs is reviewing the number of Indigenous Australians in immigration detention following a high court ruling.

The high court found last month that Aboriginal Australians are not aliens for the purpose of the constitution and cannot be deported, prompting the immediate release of Brendan Thoms, whose case was considered by the court.

The department said it was currently negotiating with another 23 people to establish whether they met the test of indigeneity as set out by the high court.

The department would be unable to detain them further if they met the test, secretary Mike Pezzullo said.

“There would be an absence of power to detain people in those circumstances ... we’re working on that as quickly as possible,” he said.

Updated

Here’s what the National Archives told me when I asked about it:

Under the Archives Act 1983:

A record is a document, or an object, in any form (including any electronic form) that is, or has been, kept by reason of:

(a) any information or matter that it contains or that can be obtained from it; or

(b) its connection with any event, person, circumstance or thing.

A Commonwealth record is a record that is the property of the Commonwealth or a Commonwealth institution.

Under section 24.1 of the Archives Act 1983 it is an offence to destroy a Commonwealth record without the permission of the National Archives.

The National Archives provides permission to destroy Commonwealth records through instruments known as records authorities issued under section 24(2)(b) of the Archives Act 1983.

Without knowing the nature of the records contained in the notebooks, and the context of their creation, it is not possible to determine whether the destruction of the notebooks was allowable under the Archives Act.

We have an update on the senior departmental officer who destroyed her notebooks, which included notes on a hastily convened meeting in relation to the sports grants

Nicole Rose, the head of Austrac, made headlines over the weekend, with questions over her qualifications for the role.

She has answered some questions about that story in estimates:

Rose: To circumvent the enormous amount of work that it was taking my staff to answer, I provided a CV to the journalist and that has been put in the paper. Nothing in there is a surprise to anyone I work with or any of my employers.

Louise Pratt: So that is a diploma of what?

Rose: Hotel school diploma in hotel business and management.

Pratt: Thank you. And when did you complete that qualification?

Rose: I can’t recall.

Pratt: And that is your tertiary qualification?

Rose: I could go into the two university degrees I started and did not complete but did not think that was thoughtful for a CV.

THE TIMING

Lack of confidentiality at disability royal commission has had 'chilling effect' on potential witnesses

Disability advocates expressed concern last year that the royal commission could not guarantee anonymity to people who wanted to make confidential submissions to the inquiry.

Under current law, the commission can only provide confidentiality while the royal commission is ongoing – and advocates have argued that this situation has prevented some people from taking part.

The Greens senator Jordon Steele-John told Senate estimates on Monday that there had been a “chilling effect” on potential witnesses and that he was extremely concerned the government had not acted on this issue.

“I’m particularly concerned as you can imagine because we are now three hearings in to this royal commission process,” Steele-John said. “And we have now a schedule for the royal commission out to June.”

The chair of the royal commission, Ronald Sackville first raised this issue in a public hearing in November, he said.

Officials from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet confirmed that Sackville this month formally requested the government legislate to address the issue.

The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, told Senate estimates he would take on notice whether the government intended to heed his request.

The commission is due to release its interim report by 30 October.

Updated

Justin Hayhurst, the first assistant secretary of PMC’s international division, has answered a string of questions about the Trump administration’s request for assistance from Australia about the Barr inquiry into the origins of the Mueller inquiry on Russian interference in the US election.

Penny Wong wants a note Hayhurst says that he found shortly before 19 December, a read-out of the call between Donald Trump and Scott Morrison. Morrison was the only Australian official on the call, so the note is based on what Morrison told his staff and department.

Mathias Cormann explains the government has claimed public interest immunity on the basis releasing the note could harm Australia’s foreign relations, but promises to come back with more specifics.

Hayhurst tries to refer most questions to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, on the basis they are responsible for Australia’s input into the inquiry. Although foreign minister Marise Payne is the decision-maker, Hayhurst reveals Morrison “has been consulted on a decision in relation to the inquiry – in relation to the release of material”.

The committee then goes on break – bit of a cliffhanger really!

Updated

That would be the ‘back in black’ meme

The moody black and white smug one. They didn’t want it. They probably have the mugs

Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick is asking about the PMC’s handling of FOI requests, after a leaked information commissioner report revealed in 2017-18 only 35% were answered within statutory time limits.

Stephanie Foster suggested the poor result was caused by 87 requests lobbing in two days before the Christmas New Year shutdown, causing “some strain”.

The OAIC report will be published shortly, but Foster runs through the main recommendations:

  • An all staff statement, to note the pro disclosure emphasis in act.
  • The objects of the act be promoted through FOI training, and in inductions and refreshers.
  • Develop and provide administrative access to information.
  • Within three months, we review and update our FOI processing to address findings.
  • Improve search and retrieval timeliness, by escalating sooner when there is a delay of documents from another section.

“All of those things are in place,” she said, boasting that “a range of documentary and behavioural changes” have occurred since 2017-18.

Since the “very bad time” when the department was not meeting its obligations, there have been “very high levels” of meeting timelines. This calendar year, the department claims it is 100% compliant, with no overdue requests.

Last financial year, 90.2% of requests were met in time, which Foster describes as “huge progress in two years”.

Updated

Back in environment estimates, the Department of Awe (agriculture, water and the environment) has clarified an earlier statement that a staff member had been seconded to the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA).

We posted about this earlier. Dean Knudson, deputy secretary leading the environment protection group, this morning described the arrangement as a secondment after being questioned by Greens Senator Larissa Waters.

Knudson said he had since received information that it was not a secondment – the person in question had taken leave without pay from the department. This is also how the Minerals Council has described the arrangement.

Knudson said: “They have sought outside employment with the MCA. Part of the conditions of that are that the individual will have no access to departmental systems and (be) bound by confidentiality.

“Their pay and conditions (are) up to the MCA. The role that individual takes is up to their discussions with the MCA. But we do understand that the work includes the MCA submission on the EPBC (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act) review.”

Waters earlier said it was perverse that a staff member from the department could be writing submissions on revising environment laws on behalf of the lobby group for “big coal, big gas and big oil”.

Updated

So Scott Morrison’s department didn’t learn about Scott Morrison’s Hawaiian holiday until the Australian Federal Police contacted them about planning.

That was on November 11. Acting arrangements were decided on December 9, just a few days before the trip began on December 15. He was due to return on December 23.

That confirms what was reported at the time – that Morrison only returned to the bushfire crisis one day earlier than planned.

Updated

Question time ends.

Three minutes of Michael McCormack was still too much Michael McCormack though.

Updated

Madeleine King to Josh Frydenberg:

Can he confirm that since he became treasurer economic growth has almost halved, wages growth has stalled further, business investment and productivity have declined, underemployment has increased and household debt and net debt have reached record highs and all this happened before the bushfires and coronavirus.

Frydenberg:

I can confirm that ... this year the Australian economy is going to grow according to the IMF faster that continue United States, Japan, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany.

I can confirm that under this government the minimum wage has gone up every year.

The real minimum wage has gone up every year whereas under those opposite it did not. I can confirm that under this government we have passed through the parliament more than $300bn worth of tax cuts. Including ensuring that those earning between $45,000 and $200,000 pay a marginal rate of no more than 30 cents in the dollar.

I can confirm that for the first time in 11 years under this government the budget is back in balance. I can confirm for the first time in more than 30 years that welfare dependency is down to a record low and I can confirm to this House that the current account is in surplus for the first time in more than 40 years. But I had a bit of spare time on the weekend and I got to read – I got to read an excerpt from Samantha Maiden’s new book. I got to read an excerpt from Samantha Maiden’s new book.

Tony Burke is up in a flash to ask about relevance. Tony Smith tells Frydenberg to stay on the question.

Frydenberg:

The key point is that to strengthen the economy, to deliver higher wages, to deliver more growth, to deliver more jobs, to deliver more debt you need to lower taxes and those opposite took to the last election $387bn in higher taxes that the member for Rankin and the member forMcMahon cooked up and on the weekend there was some very clear evidence that Labor elders like Bill Kelty didn’t think much of it.

Updated

We’re none the wiser about what a cryptic handwritten note that has emerged during the Angus Taylor grasslands affair actually means.

To recap: energy minister, Angus Taylor asked for at least one meeting with departmental officials in 2017 about the protection of native grasslands, known as a listing, at the time a company part-owned by Taylor was under investigation for illegally clearing grasslands. Illegal land-clearing carries a maximum penalty of over $1m.

But there were no notes taken at that meeting by any of the bureaucrats present.

A handwritten record of a conversation between senior departmental officer and someone in the minister’s office, written a few weeks later is intriguing.

“Heads up. Minister keen to see Angus Taylor’s requests accommodated.”

So what did Taylor ask for? The question was asked multiple times.

According to Dean Knudson the deputy secretary, that question has been answered in the past.

The note related to the concerns raised by farmers about the communications surrounding the grasslands listing, he said.

Another put it this way: “There was an interest from Minister Frydenberg [then environment minister] to put better information into the farming community about the grasslands listing. The minister’s staffer also asked for information regarding what would be needed to change the thresholds [that determined whether the grasslands were protected or not].

But they insisted this was not what Taylor was asking for.

Thirty months on, the Jamland case is still “being actively managed” and the department is “close to closing it” but because it is still an active case, the department cannot comment on it.

Nor can we FOI the case file while it’s an ongoing matter. We’ve tried.

“There is no pressure from the government in relation to this case at all,” said Knudson.

Updated

Christian Porter looks stressed enough about Covid-19 in this dixer to maybe consider eating a carb.

That’s pretty serious guys.

Updated

Clare O’Neil to Josh Frydenberg:

Can the treasurer confirm that recent data showed that in the December quarter construction work fell by 3 per cent and capital expenditure fell by 2.8 per cent. Can he also confirm that this was before the outbreak of coronavirus?

Frydenberg can not confirm those things, as he just ignores them, but he can confirm that everything is fine. (Insert this is fine gif here.)

Updated

This is fine (not actually fine)

I am offended that neo-Nazis think its fine to meet in suburban garages and practice their hate, but sure. Go off, Connie.

Updated

Liberal senator says Asio’s rightwing warning has the potential to ‘offend’ conservatives

The Australian security intelligence organisation (Asio) chief Mike Burgess is up before the legal and constitutional affairs estimates, speaking about rightwing extremism.

Burgess delivered a speech last week identifying right wing extremism as a growing security threat.

Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells is offended by Burgess’ use of the term “rightwing”.

“I am concerned about this and concerned about the use of terminology of ‘right’,” she says.

“’Right’ is associated with conservatism in this country and there are many people of conservative background who take exception with being charred [sic] with the same brush.”

“I think that you do understand that your comments, particularly when you refer to them solely as ‘rightwing’, has the potential to offend a lot of Australians.”

She tries to describe rightwing extremists as being actually of the left.

Burgess says his intention was not to offend any “innocent people” in his remarks.

Earlier, Labor senator Kristina Keneally asked Burgess whether Asio has any plans to set up a dedicated centre to investigate and disrupt rightwing terror, similar to those that exist in nations like Germany. Burgess says:

“I and ASIO have no plans to set up a form of dedicated centre. My organisation focuses on the threats we are able to identify and need to investigate, and that drives where our resources go. As I said the other night, this one is a growing concern for us but it ... is not currently my principal concern.”

Burgess is also asked why no rightwing extremists have been listed as designated terror groups, and whether they are sophisticated enough to know how to avoid such a listing.

“Senator obviously we constantly review prescription of certain groups. Obviously when we do that we are mindful of the intelligence that we have, the legal threshold for which we can do so, and the purpose that would allow us to achieve by listing such organisations. whilst its constant review I can’t go into detail of those particular matters.”

He says he does not believe the groups are sophisticated enough to know how to avoid prescription.

Updated

So there you have it. The declaration that the budget was back in the black, when it wasn’t, was based on predictions that were credible, as opposed to Labor’s predictions which weren’t credible.

I predict the back-peddling come May will make Markus Stöckl look slow, but again, that’s just a prediction. I’ll let you know if it was credible or not.

Anthony Albanese asks Scott Morrison if he stands by “his 2019 statement that he, and I quote, ‘Brought the budget back to surplus next year’.”

Morrison starts with an attack on “Obi-Swan” and his “padawan” Jim Chalmers.

Is that a Star War?

He’s pulled into line on relevance:

Mr Speaker the point I was making is that the budget that was handed down by the Treasurer for 2019-20 was based on the assumptions of the economy at that time.

And the assumptions of the economy at that time, which were very credible assumptions, as opposed to the assumptions that were made by the previous Labor party when they were in government and forecast surpluses were based on pure fantasy.

Our surpluses, the surpluses that we forecast at the last budget, were based on the outlook that was a very credible and a very sensible outlook at that time.

Now, Mr Speaker, the challenges we now face that have emerged in literally just the last few weeks, will definitely have a significant impact and they are being evaluated by Treasury as we move towards the next budget but this is what the Australian people will know.

That the actions of our government will always put jobs first, will always put those businesses first, will always put that investment first and the reasons we worked so hard to bring the budget to a balance, which we achieved last year, Mr Speaker, the balance we achieved last year means we can now confront the challenges of bushfires, of coronavirus, of floods and of drought.

That’s why the Australian people trusted us at the last election.

Those opposite thought the best antidote to what the country was going to face was higher taxes and higher spending.

That was rejected by the Australian people at the last election. This leader of the Labor party still clings to those policies and that’s why the Australian public don’t trust him with the economy any more than the last bloke.

Updated

Terri Butler gets kicked out and Peter Dutton pipes up with “thank goodness for that. Much more pleasant”.

Updated

Joanne Ryan to Scott Morrison:

My question is to the prime minister. Today the prime minister’s own department told the Senate that Mr Gaetjens wasn’t aware of the 136 emails and 28 colour-coded spreadsheets that passed between his office and the office of Senator McKenzie and further didn’t interview anyone in the prime minister’s office. Isn’t his defence of the corrupt sports rorts scheme based on an ill-informed sham report by his former chief of staff?

Morrison:

No.

That’s it. That’s the whole answer.

Updated

Jim Chalmers to Josh Frydenberg:

My question is to the treasurer and I refer to his earlier answer about Alinta energy. Can the treasurer explain why he’s protecting the privacy of his company but not protecting the privacy of over 1 million Australians?

Frydenberg:

Thank you, Mr Speaker, and again I can read from the Treasury statement which says, ‘We can confirm that Alinta energy is engaging instructively with the Foreign Investment Review Board ... Activities will be completed by December 2020. Whilst the Foreign Investment Review Board is engaging with Alinta it would not be appropriate to comment further.’

Mr Speaker, those opposite will know that the head of the Foreign Investment Review Board is David Irvine, the former head of Asio, former ambassador to China and a distinguished Australian and public servant. Australians trust him to get these measures right.

Updated

The walking book of country homilies gets summoned to the despatch box and a little light goes out of every member’s eyes.

Today’s homespun bullshit includes this line:

As I travel throughout the country I see a resilience in our people unmatched anywhere in the world.

Look. Regional and rural Australians have had it very tough. But they haven’t faced ongoing war. Or ebola. Or crippling and systemic poverty. They haven’t been colonised. They haven’t been abused or in some cases killed, for who they are, or the religion they practice.

If you see a resilience in Australian people “unmatched” anywhere in the world, then you haven’t actually opened your eyes to what is happening in the world.

Updated

Jim Chalmers to Scott Morrison:

When did the prime minister first become aware the foreign investment conditions he imposed on Alinta energy as treasurer which were meant to protect the privacy of over 1 million Australians were not being enforced?

Josh Frydenberg gets the call up. After some back and forth about relevance, he gets to this:

In relation to the specific issue and the specific matter that was raised by the member opposite, this is what the Treasury statement said: ‘It is not the practice of treasurer to comment on matters which may involve a foreign investor applicant or compliance matters. This is due to protected information, privacy provisions contained in the foreign acquisition and Takeovers Act and which recognise that information provided to Treasury can be commercially sensitive.’ I think that makes it very clear.

Updated

Josh Frydenberg, using his “shiz is serious” voice, once again outlines the government’s plans for an economic stimulus in response to the Covid-19 impact.

He actually looks quite exhausted. Facing a recession on your watch as treasurer will probably do that to a person.

Frydenberg:

Clearly the trade tensions between the United States and China had an impact on the global economy including here in Australia.

The ongoing drought, Mr Speaker, and, of course, the flood and the fires and now the coronavirus.

Now, the spread of the coronavirus is clearly – it’s still evolving but the economic impact of the coronavirus will be much more significant than both Sars and Mers before it.

And we know that because China is a bigger part of the global economy since that time.

In fact, the Chinese economy is four times the size it was at the time of Sars, Mr Speaker. In terms of Australia’s economic relationship with China, it’s a lot greater than – greater today than it was at the time of Sars.

Our two-way trade with China is worth more than $200bn a year and indeed about a third of our exports go to China.

China is the number one source of international students to Australia.

And that market is worth more than $12bn a year. In terms of tourism, China is the number one source of international tourists to this country and that market is worth more than a billion dollars a year.

Now, at the same time, we are seeing as a result of the spread of the coronavirus disruption to international supply chains and disruption to international students and tourists coming to this country. But our response, our fiscal response, will be responsible.

It will be considered and it will be targeted. There won’t be the reckless and wasteless that we’ve seen from those opposite when it comes to economic shocks. What we will see is we’ll see responsible, considered and a targeted response focusing on ensuring that businesses and those affected as stronger when they come out.

And we continue to see strong employment growth across the Australian economy.

Updated

David Littleproud, in response to a question from Mike Kelly, admits there are some problems with the administration of the relief payments for businesses in response to the bushfires – but he blames the states:

We’ll work with them to make sure they can streamline the process in administering that is their role, that is their responsibility.

But the federal government will not turn their back an any state or territory, we’ll help them to do this better because it needs to be done better.

No one is walking away from that. We work hand in hand with every level of government in making sure we support farmers, small business and particularly those Australians that have lost it all.

Updated

We have gone almost halfway through question time without Michael McCormack

I thought the hour seemed lighter.

Josh Frydenberg takes a dixer, confirming a stimulus is coming in response to coronavirus.

Notably, he gets through the whole dixer without an attack on the wellbeing budget.

That’s how bad shiz is.

Frydenberg:

Mr Speaker, the spread of the coronavirus is a global health crisis with a significant economic impact on major economies around the world.

Here in Australia we are seeing disruption to supply chains. We are seeing disruption to our tourism markets and we are seeing obviously disruption to international students not being able to get to Australia to start their course. We’ve also seen significant volatility in credit and equity marks both here and globally, and we’ve seen the International Monetary Fund downgrade their forecasts for global growth.

But Australia will meet these challenges posed by the spread of the coronavirus because we have prepared economically we approach the challenge ahead of us from a position of economic strength.

... Now, our fiscal response will be considered, it will be responsible and it will be targeted.

In stark contrast to the reckless spending that we have seen from those opposite. Mr Speaker, the Australian people can trust us to manage the economy to steer it through this very challenging period.

(That “reckless spending” was the $900 or so each eligible Australian received from the government during the GFC. Australia avoided going into recession. But there is no quarter being given here.)

Updated

Susan Templeton to Scott Morrison:

Why has the prime minister broken his promise of immediate support for bushfire-affected communities given that fewer than 20% of applications for small business grants and fewer than 5% of applications for small business loans have been approved?

Morrison:

Over $167m has been paid to families and individuals in direct support in response to the bushfire crisis, $145m paid to more than 121,000 eligible individual disaster recovery payment and disaster announce and $27.1m has been made for impacted children as at 1 March. $7.1m has been paid to volunteer firefighters. $47m has been paid in primary producer grants and there’s some 767 grants that have been approved.

... I am also concerned about the progress of the small business grants and some just over three weeks ago I invited the leader of the opposition to submit any proposals that he had to see to how he thought that system should be changed.

I haven’t received any.

... I would welcome any proposals. What I have done is just over a week ago I had the opportunity to talk to the state member for Bega and the state member for Bega has raised I think some important suggestions that can increase the access to the small business grants.

Those issues were raised also with the minister responsible for emergency management and the head of the national bushfire recovery agency Andrew Colvin.

I met with Andrew Colvin last week and the minister and we are currently in the process of looking to rephrase and to revise how those grants are being constructed. We will be doing that to ensure that we’re backing those businesses in that can see where they have a future where they, not just over the next three months but over the next 12 months. That’s what we’re applying to do.

The New South Wales is working to deliver those arrangements. They have heightened those issues because they’re the ones who are processing those applications and I look forward to us being able to deliver a better program and when the leader of the opposition would like to submit his proposals as I invited him I’d be happy to receive it.

Updated

Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:

I ask can he confirm that he is the only permanent member of the cabinet office policy committee?

Morrison:

I refer the member to my earlier answer. Cabinet committee have various memberships. What matters is who attends those meetings and on the matters which have been recently before the government committees those meetings were attended by myself...

Tony Burke jumps up on relevance. Tony Smith allows Morrison to continue, given the “imputations” in the previous question.

Morrison:

The cabinet office policy committees meet together on a regular basis to focus on key challenges and issues facing the Australian people. And as the conveyor of that committee, I bring in to that cabinet office policy committee, members of the cabinet, of the executive and members of the government, Mr Speaker.

The policy committee has been dealing with issues like getting electricity prices down, dealing with the issues of how we manage plastics waste, ensuring how we can get focused on the energy needs of Australia into the future, how with can focus on meeting the damage and challenges of the drought.

These cabinet office policy committees have been crucial mechanisms used for the government to come together, to pull together the experience and the learnings and the wisdom of those who sit on the government benches to focus on the issues that are most important to the Australian people.

And what the Australian people are getting a lesson from, from the opposition at the moment, is they are more interested in the trivial politics of Canberra than the serious issues that are confronting the Australian people.

Updated

Question time begins

And the first question is on the cabinet of one:

Anthony Albanese: Today the minister representing the prime minister told the Senate that the cabinet office policy committee is made up of just one permanent member, the prime minister.

Can the prime minister advise in relation to this one-man cabinet committee do the committee’s discussions take long?

Is there a lot of disagreement in this committee and are the meeting of this committee held in the prime minister’s head? Isn’t this just an abuse of the cabinet designed to hide government documents?

Scott Morrison:

I can confirm that the governance committee of cabinet regularly has attending its meetings myself, the attorney gGeneral, the deputy prime minister and the treasurer, Mr Speaker.

Updated

Labor’s Penny Wong has asked about the cabinet office policy committee which appears to have only one member: Scott Morrison.

This is the committee responsible for Morrison’s policy deep-dives. Mathias Cormann confirms Morrison is the only “permanent” member but others attend meetings. Officials confirm this includes at times other cabinet members, public servants and stakeholders (ie not everyone is a cabinet member).

Stephanie Foster and Cormann suggest the committee informs directions that inform further work, but decisions are taken by the expenditure review committee or cabinet itself.

Cormann argues this is “good process” to get the “broadest possible input” to government decision-making. Cormann accuses Wong of “confected outrage”. “Nothing about anything you’ve raised is concerning,” he said.

Wong suggests this is a cabinet committee of one that gets the benefit of cabinet confidentiality, even if no other cabinet members are present and non-parliamentarians are. Wong labels this an “abuse of cabinet in confidence”.

She said: “You use these conventions to cover up blatant political decision-making ... [it’s] Yet another Morrison government cover-up.”

Updated

Prime Minister and Cabinet has confirmed there has been no inquiry or referral of energy and environment minister, Angus Taylor to the ministerial conduct committee.

Greens senator Larissa Waters asked whether the grasslands affair, which involves Taylor’s request for departmental briefings on the listing of native grasslands as endangered, had been referred.

Guardian Australia has reported extensively on the affair, which involved a special briefing for Taylor at a time when a company associated with his family, Jamland was under investigation for clearing native grasslands. No notes were taken.

“That’s because there were no facts that warrant such a course of action,” Matthias Cormann, representing the prime minister said.

Updated

Parliament has now passed legislation that may dramatically reduce the number of Centrelink recipients accused of owing a future welfare debt.

In a move that appears long overdue, the aim of the legislation is to reduce welfare overpayments by helping people to correctly report their work income.

From 1 July, about 1.2 million welfare recipients will now be able to report their fortnightly employment income to Services Australia using the details on their payslips. Previously they were forced to estimate the income they would receive in advance – which, aside from the other issues around robodebt, lead to many people being issued debts.

We explained the changes here.

“By taking the guesswork out of reporting the government will have much more accurate information to process payments, reducing the chances of under- and over-payment,” said the social services minister, Anne Ruston.

Social service groups, Labor and the Greens backed the changes, but pointed to the botched robodebt scheme as evidence that policy would need to be carefully implemented.

Updated

It’s Anthony Albanese’s birthday.

Question time starts with birthday wishes for the opposition leader.

Question time is about to begin.

What a time to be alive.

Updated

Larissa Waters has asked the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet officials to confirm Scott Morrison has not asked for an investigation about possible breaches of ministerial standards regarding the Angus Taylor grassland controversy and various grants programs including the urban congestion fund and female facilities and water safety stream.

No, there have been no investigations – beyond the one reported into Bridget McKenzie’s handling of community sport infrastructure grants.

In relation to Taylor, Mathias Cormann explains that is because “there is nothing at all in the public domain that would warrant that course of action”.

Waters is then forced to withdraw a remark about Taylor so the hearing can continue.

Updated

Greg Hunt on Australia’s response to Covid-19:

What we announced on Friday is that as part of the work of Coag, we’re constantly reviewing primary care, aged care, hospitals and the medical stockpile.

We’re continuing to do that. I met this morning with the head of the TGA, Professor John Skerritt, who is reviewing all of the medicines requirements in Australia. It was actually very comforting.

He has a team within the TGA that is looking at medicines and all medical equipment in Australia. They already have that role, but they have stepped that up, and what he was finding in terms of medicines was stronger than I had hoped, which was very good. And in terms of personal protective equipment, we have a national stockpile which has 20 million, but we’re always looking to add to those 20 million masks and other items.

Updated

Mathias Cormann has come back into the estimates hearing with new information from former sports minister Bridget McKenzie, who advised him that the brief approving the third round of sports grants “was signed by her on the 4th of April – no ifs, no buts”.

This is to refute suggestions from Labor that McKenzie can’t have signed the round 3 brief on 4 April, because she sent the proposed list to Scott Morrison on 10 April and Sports Australia on 11 April.

PMC official Stephanie Foster told the committee the brief was not equivocal, it was a “decision brief” with a list of projects.

Updated

You might remember last week the federation chamber was shut down by the government in a bid to stop Labor shutting down members from speaking. That is in response to the government not allowing debate on issues such as sports rorts and Angus Taylor.

Tony Burke spoke about this in the parliament a short time ago:

On indulgence — this is not the first time that you’ve given a report of that nature. I think it’s important to advise the House that the fact that the conduct continued was not a rejection of the reports that you’ve given. There is a very specific context that has led to those motions being moved in the Federation Chamber, and it goes to what happens in this chamber.

It has become the practice in a way that it never used to be — in particular, the leader of the opposition, when moving suspension motions, is not allowed to deliver a speech anymore. That the member be no further heard is moved immediately. Certainly when I first arrived — and as I saw under the Howard government, the Rudd and Gillard governments, the Turnbull government and the Abbott government — the question is whether or not leave is granted. If leave is not granted, then ordinarily the suspension debate takes place. If it is felt that the opposition have moved it out of the blue or that they’ve been moving them too often, occasionally that the member be no longer heard would be moved. Instead now it’s just become how this place operates. In those circumstances, the opposition has no way of pushing back other than to move resolutions of that form.

I don’t want to delay the House any further but, given the seriousness of the report — and it’s not the first time that you as the Speaker have reported that— it should be made absolutely clear that if the House returns to its ordinary procedures and way of operating, then we will not see that again in the Federation Chamber. But if we continue, this term, to have a situation which has no parallel in this chamber, then the sorts of reports that have been given just now by the Speaker will refer to events that will occur again.

Updated

A Liberal party donor that received $5.5 million under the $220m regional jobs and investment packages program has only created 18 jobs as a result of the grant, despite the department being told that it would create 200 positions.

Last week, bureaucrats revealed that they had not been present when a ministerial panel decided to award donor Nolan Meats the grant, even though it was ineligible under the department’s guidelines because it was a registered training organisation.

Nolan meats made a $3000 donation to the Queensland LNP during the assessment process, and despite its project being ranked 48 out of 62 in the Wide Bay Burnett region, successfully secured funding.

Labor senator Tony Sheldon questioned bureaucrats from the department about the jobs claim, saying there were serious questions to answer about the decision.“We find that the department is still in a situation where there was an expectation of 200 jobs that still haven’t materialised,” Sheldon said.

“This is an extremely serious matter. In the two years since the grant was awarded only $1.1 m was provided to Nolan Meats creating just 18 full time jobs.”

He asked minister Anne Ruston if she believed that $61,000 per job was good value for taxpayers.

The minister said she would get more detail about the project.

Rachel Bacon from the department said that the Nolan project was still under way.”That $1.1m payment was against the first contracted milestone ... and the project still has further to run,” she said.

She said the projects still had until the end of the year to deliver the jobs claimed.

“We will obviously look at that in the context of evaluations when the project is completed.”

After repeated questioning about the jobs claim, Ruston said “the project still has some time to run.”

On the conflict of interest of ministerial panel member John McVeigh, whose brother had a contract with Nolan Meats, Ruston told the hearing that “the minister recused himself on the grounds that he believed he had a conflict of interest, which was the appropriate thing to do.”

Bacon said that the project was reassessed after the relevant minister at the time - Fiona Nash – expressed a “strong preference” in having the project declared eligible because its training functions were “incidental” to the project.

“There was an interest in this project, so we took it upon ourselves to commission the merit assessment ... to better advise the minister,” Bacon said.

When asked if the department had ever advised the minister’s office to fund the project, department secretary Simon Atkinson said he would not make advice public as it wanted to be consulted for future decisions.

Updated

The number of times this happens, over issues which have been in the media for months, is ridiculous.

The Prime Minister and Cabinet estimates breaks for an hour.

Updated

Still with PMC, in finance estimates, the Green senator Janet Rice wants to know whether the secretary of the department, Phil Gaetjens, declared any conflicts of interest before doing his report into possible breaches of ministerial standards with sports grants.

PMC official Stephanie Foster replies: “No, he did not. Did not”.

Rice persists.

The secretary declared no conflict before he investigated, despite the fact Gaetjens was formerly Scott Morrison’s chief of staff?, Rice wonders.

Finance minister Mathias Cormann objects to the question.

He notes that about half the current heads of commonwealth departments have spent time as staffers in ministerial offices, some Labor, some Liberal.

Updated

On the matter of whether or not the Morrison government is over-reacting, Peter Dutton tells Neil Mitchell:

No, I don’t think we are. I think when we look at all of the international advice and we look at the advice that we’re getting from doctors here, I think our response has been prudent. I think it’s been measured. I think it’s been based on all of the facts that are available to us.

We’re starting with the number one priority of keeping Australians safe and I think if you start with that as your priority – there is going to be a lot of hurt within small businesses, within the business community, and the economy otherwise; the prime minister has already indicated that the government’s considering ways in which we can support those industries or across the economy as well; so there are different phases of our response – but again, I think we’re as well-placed in the world as anybody.

Updated

Peter Dutton has all but ruled out Australia “closing its borders” in response to Covid-19 (coronavirus).

A pandemic declaration basically means – it’s out there, you can’t stop it, so there is no point in closing the borders. Plus, it is here already.

Dutton was asked on Melbourne radio 3AW about border protection in the face of a virus and said:

I think it’s very unlikely that we close borders, Neil, but in the end, as I say, we rely on the best medical advice in the world and that has been available to us so far.

We’ve made the right judgements. We’ve made, I think, the right calls and we’ll continue to do that, but we’ve done it based on the medical advice.

There is a very, very high level of preparedness. We have one of the strongest border protection systems in the world. We’re an island nation. We have the ability to deal with these threats and these pandemics and for a long time the agencies right across the federal government, but the state governments as well have been planning about they respond to such an incident.

Updated

Over in environment estimates, the committee has heard that a department staff member has been seconded to work for the Minerals Council, and the department is “pursuing” a similar secondment with environment group WWF.

Larissa Waters, the Greens Senate leader, has issued a statement describing the arrangement with the Minerals Council as “highly improper”.

She says it “hands the playbook on environment protection” to a mining lobby group that is pushing for conservation laws to be weakened.

There is some dispute about the nature of the arrangement with the Minerals Council. Dean Knudsen, deputy secretary of the environment protection group, described it as a secondment, following questioning by Waters.

The Minerals Council says this is incorrect – that the employee was hired on a fixed-term contract after taking leave without pay from their government role.

Guardian Australia has established that discussions with WWF about its potential secondment began after it became aware of the Minerals Council appointment.

Both the Minerals Council job and potential WWF appointment involve helping the organisations respond to a review of national environment laws, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, being run by businessman Graeme Samuel.

In a statement, Waters says:

It’s perverse that someone from our environmental regulator could be writing submissions on revising environment laws for big coal, big gas and big oil who already undermine our democracy with their massive donations.

The special arrangement for the Minerals Council risks disadvantaging the best interests of protecting our water, our environment and communities.

Updated

‘Nothing to see here’ seems to be the running theme ahead of estimates.

And then the departmental officials are questioned.

Phil Gaetjens will be appearing in front of the Senate inquiry into the administration of the sports grants on March 16.

Stay tuned for that one.

Updated

Estimates, as seen by Mike Bowers:

‘Oh really’
‘Oh really’ Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
The eyebrow is up
The eyebrow is up Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
‘So let me get this right’
‘So let me get this right’ Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
The Deputy Secretary of PM & C Stephanie Foster before the Finance and Public Administration Committee in Parliament House
The Deputy Secretary of PM & C Stephanie Foster before the Finance and Public Administration Committee in Parliament House Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Not a great morning
Not a great morning Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Mathias Cormann later accused Janet Rice of wanting to “get on the evening news” with Penny Wong:

Executives from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development say they cannot recall if they liaised with then minister Bridget McKenzie about a controversial $150m sports fund that was announced in the 2019-20 budget.

Under questioning from Labor senator Murray Watt, senior bureaucrats from the department refused to reveal whether they were involved in policy work for the $150m female facilities and water safety stream program.

Dr Rachel Bacon, from the department, said she would need to check her records as she could not recall whether discussions were had between the department and the minister’s office in the lead-up to the budget.

“I can’t recall, I would have to check,” Bacon said.

“We do need to go back and look at the records from last year ... I can’t recall the form that these records took.”

Social services minister Anne Ruston said it would be “unusual” had this not occurred.

But department secretary Simon Atkinson said that if the discussions had informed the budget decision, then this information may not be released, because “it could potentially reveal the deliberations that took place in the cabinet.”

The FFWSS fund was announced by the Coalition less than two months before the election and was all allocated during the election campaign, despite the government indicating that details about the program would be made later in 2019.

Bacon said that she was expecting the department would provide advice to government on the guidelines for the program after the budget.

However, administration for the program was transferred to the Department of Health on 21 August, before these guidelines were developed.

Updated

Everything is totally normal and fine:

Alice Workman had a tidbit in Strewth last week that the AFP categorised the alleged hacking of Greg Hunt’s Twitter account (after it “liked” a porn tweet) as more important than the document saga:

The CCPM lists the Taylor ‘fraud’ investigation as an ‘essential’ priority — the same classification (and the second highest) given to the 2018 inquiry into the porn tweet ‘liked’ by Hunt’s official Twitter account. (Spoiler: Hunt cried hack but the AFP concluded no offence was made.) The Hunt probe was rated as a ‘very high’ impact investigation with a ‘high’ value to the AFP and ‘critical’ to the client. Taylor’s was just a ‘high’ impact inquest of a ‘medium’ value that was ‘significant’ only to the client. A whopping $0 in the budget was assigned to the six-week scrutiny, along with a team of two to five officers. AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw admitted last week he was ‘not aware the minister was interviewed, or even offered an interview’ before police dropped its investigation.

Updated

Asked if there is any chance Phil Gaetjens would re-open his inquiry, given some of the extra information that the Senate inquiry into the sports grant affair has revealed, Stephanie Foster says she doesn’t know.

Mathias Cormann says he sees no reason to re-open an inquiry based on Labor’s political motivations:

If Scott Morrison found the cure for cancer, you would accuse him of putting doctors out of work,” he tells Wong.

Updated

In finance estimates, picking up from my last post, Penny Wong wants to know whether it is a criminal offence for a minister to backdate a brief.

Stephanie Foster from PMC says:

I genuinely don’t know. I’ll seek advice.

The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, wants that question binned on the basis that officials shouldn’t be asked to give legal advice.

The Liberal senator James Paterson, chairing the hearing, allows the question to stand on notice.

A bunch of questions from Wong now about the inquiry by Phil Gaetjens, the secretary of PMC, into the ANAO report on the sports grants, and possible breaches of ministerial standards.

If you’ve been following the sports grants controversy, you’ll remember the Gaetjens report.

Morrison sought this report as part of considering whether Bridget McKenzie should remain on the frontbench.

The evidence is Gaetjens spoke to McKenzie as part of his inquiry.

Foster says she spoke to the CEO of Sports Australia. Nobody in the prime minister’s office was interviewed as part of the Gaetjens process.

Foster tells the hearing no one was interviewed in the PMO because “the secretary was not tasked with reviewing the administration of the grants program”.

He was looking at breaches of ministerial standards.

Just for the record, the Gaetjens report has not been released. The prime minister read out sections of the secretary’s findings at a press conference on the day McKenzie departed the frontbench.

Wong wants all the documents. Transcripts, emails, all the things. Foster signals this is cabinet-related material.

“We will not be releasing cabinet documents,” Cormann tells Wong. Wong is back to cover-ups.

Updated

“136 emails is not providing information, it is running the program,” says Penny Wong to Mathias Cormann.

Cormann responds that in the Morrison government they “talk to each other” and that maybe Wong’s government should have talked to each other more. Wong responds that Labor has been out of government for a long time, so Cormann responds with something like “maybe if more people had spoken to Bill Shorten”.

Wong:

You can always tell when we are getting close to something Mathias, because all you do is talk about us.

Updated

PM&C departmental deputy secretary Stephanie Foster just told Penny Wong she was “unable to assist” with an inquiry (related to the colour coded electorate grants) and that causes Wong to put down her pen, pause, cross her arms and lean back.

She is now in an argument with Mathias Cormann, where she is referring to him as “Mathias”.

It turns out that no one from the prime minister’s office was interviewed for the report that Phil Gaetjens (PM&C departmental head) prepared on the sports grant affair.

Murph will have more for you on that exchange very soon.

Still with PMC in the finance committee, Penny Wong is now on to the date of the brief that was sent to Scott Morrison on 10 April, outlining the sports grants Bridget McKenzie intended to approve.

The brief was dated 4 April. Wong wants to know whether the brief was backdated. (Background: Curiously, the brief was not sent to Sports Australia until the morning the federal election was called, which was some days after 4 April. I think it was 11 April, from memory).

The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, says in response to the question about backdating:

To my knowledge, absolutely not.

Wong asks why the brief was sent to Morrison on the 10th if Mckenzie was the decision-maker.

Cormann said the brief would have been sent for announcement purposes and “associated logistics”. Wong wants the brief. She wants to see it.

Stephanie Foster from PMC takes that question on notice. Wong asks Foster whether has she seen it.

She wants to know if the language in the brief suggests a decision has already been made or whether any final decision is pending Morrison’s approval.

Foster isn’t entirely sure, but she thinks the language in the brief suggests a decision “has been made, I believe senator”.

Updated

Penny Wong’s systematic dismantling of the PM&C officials and Mathias Cormann over the sports grant affair brings to mind this piece of advice from Sun Tzu:

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”

The senator did not come to play today.

Cormann doesn’t seem to have his same fighting spirit. But the slight air of ennui which cloaked Wong at her last estimates appearance is gone. The senator has her eye on her mission.

The AFP commissioner, Reece Kershaw, has shot down any prospect of re-opening the Angus Taylor investigation.

“The matter is finalised. Full stop,” Kershaw said.

The issue has dominated this morning’s Senate estimates hearing.

Earlier, Greens senator Nick McKim became frustrated at the lack of investigative action and suggested the AFP was running a “protection racket” for Taylor.

McKim had been pressing Kershaw on why the AFP didn’t interview Taylor, despite Taylor having clearly signed a document containing false information.

“This is Alice in Wonderland stuff,” McKim said.

“I can’t help but think there’s a protection racket being run here on Mr Taylor’s behalf here.”

The comment provoked an angry response from Liberal senators.

Marise Payne, the foreign minister, says: “If you’re impugning the Australian Federal Police, I would suggest you think very carefully about that.”

McKim responds:

“Well, I have thought very carefully about it and I stand by my comment.”

Sarah Henderson, the Victorian Liberal senator, described McKim’s suggestion as outrageous and “appalling”.

“It’s an outrageous statement to suggest that the AFP is in any respect running a protection racket ... I would ask that Senator McKim withdraw,” Henderson said.

Updated

Over in legal affairs estimates, things are going JUST GREAT for the AFP commissioner, Reece Kershaw:

Kristina Keneally: Commissioner, do you know who downloaded the document Minister Taylor relied on to cite the incorrect costs in the City of Sydney’s annual report?

Kershaw I personally don’t know, no.

KK: Did the AFP reach a conclusion?

Kershaw: Again, I think we’ve been very clear on our process, on the letter, the decision that’s been made, um, you know, I just go again that going down these lines we could probably be here all day, asking all these questions, and you’re going to get probably the same answer from me, which is ‘I’ll have to take that on notice’.

KK: Do you know if the document was doctored or altered?

Kershaw : Again, I’ll have to take that on notice.

KK: Do you know who altered or doctored the document?

Kershaw: : I’ll take that on notice.

Updated

Labor presses PMC officials over sport grants

PMC is now fronting the finance committee.

Labor’s Senate leader, Penny Wong, has kicked off the hearing with full force.

Wong is chasing details of correspondence between the former sports minister Bridget McKenzie and Scott Morrison about sports grants on April 10, 2019.

She wants officials to tell her precisely what material was logged on the departmental document management system.

They tell her they aren’t prepared to answer the specific questions Wong wants answered. Wong dials it up immediately.

“Well, Ms Foster, I want [that information].” Stephanie Foster from PMC says: “We will see what records exist.”

Wong: “I want them today Ms Foster.”

Wong dials it up again, blasting the process as “corrupt”.

The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, at the table, says Wong is “close to the line” with this commentary.

He wants her to withdraw. Wong withdraws.

Another official from PMC appears at the table and indicates PMC does not have records of the email from McKenzie to Morrison on 10 April.

Wong congratulates the official for her candour.

Updated

The economy is going to be the underlying issue for the next few months – and beyond – as the government tries to work out what it is going to do about it’s promised – nay, claimed – surplus in the face of growing economic instability.

The ABC had an interesting piece on what Westpac’s chief economist, Bill Evans, thinks needs to happen:

The bottom line is that a country that is running unemployment well above its NAIRU [non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment], and is well below its inflation targets, should not have the luxury of a fiscal surplus.

It’s clearly saying that the policy settings are inappropriate. I believe that we will start to see the government reviewing that issue over the next few months.

And, as you know, we’ve been strongly of the view that they should be bringing forward the tax cuts — and what we’ve seen of the last month only makes that a stronger argument, not a weaker argument.

Those comments were made ahead of the expectation the RBA would be dropping rates this week, as it attempts to navigate the impact of the coronavirus spread.

Updated

Labor’s Anthony Albanese and Brendan O’Connor have held a press conference with MPs representing bushfire-affected regions to call for a wage subsidy to small businesses, citing the slow processing of claims for federal grants and loans.

Under the plan, small businesses would receive a payment equivalent to the rate of Newstart for every full-time employee, essentially helping them with their wage bill to keep more people in work in areas now suffering economic aftershocks.

After Cyclone Yasi, Labor extended similar payments for six months (26 weeks).
Albanese and O’Connor cited reports that just 20% of businesses who applied for grants have received them, and less than 5% who applied for loans.

In the roll-call of MPs:

  • Fiona Phillips says Dive Jervis Bay was not able to hire skippers due to the evacuation and closure
  • Mike Kelly said in Merimbula a survey of 140 businesses found none had yet received federal assistance
  • Susan Templeman said businesses “didn’t burn down ... but they might as well have” given the downturn

Albanese suggests small businesses are “worried that the spotlight is on others” – a suggestion that coronavirus is now grabbing the headlines and they will be left behind.

Albanese calls for bipartisanship, suggesting Labor will work with the government to get this idea up. They’ve been ahead of the curve so far on bushfire assistance – time will tell if the Coalition copies their homework again.

Updated

It is all coronavirus and estimates today, but Labor’s Deborah O’Neil is also trying to shine a light on Alinta Energy:

In 2017 the then treasurer Scott Morrison signed off the deal for the purchase of Alinta Energy by Chow Tai Fook, a Chinese company. One of the conditions that was put forward to Mr Morrison for tick off by the Foreign Investment Review Board was that privacy of Australians was paramount.

I have spoken to a whistleblower who knows what’s going on inside Alinta.

This is a company that has failed to comply with the Foreign Investment Review Board conditions of sale and purchase.

The man who was ultimately responsible for making sure that compliance occurred in a timely way for Australians was none other than Mr Morrison, our prime minister.

When Australians need him to stand up for them he is missing in action. He was missing in action over the summer.

He was missing when he was the treasurer and failed to protect Australians’ identities.

This is a very serious failing by a treasurer who was more interested in getting the job of prime minister than looking after 1.1 million Australians who use Alinta Energy.

Updated

Sussan Ley was talking about this during the summer holidays – and now she is getting it off the ground:

Australia’s largest manufacturer of rigid plastic products will invest $500 million into transforming the economy around plastic waste, keeping plastics in Australia for reuse, rather than sending them overseas.

I am delighted to announce that Pact Group will partner with government and industry to invest in existing and new facilities for sustainable packaging, reuse and recycling initiatives over the next five years as well as investing further in innovation, technology and research to use more recycled content.

As a result, Pact will have 30 per cent recycled content across its product portfolio by 2025 and keep nearly two billion plastic containers out of landfill.

Pact’s announcement at the National Plastics Summit today follows announcements from major brands McDonald’s and Nestlé, with McDonald’s committing to phase out plastic cutlery by the end of 2020, removing 585 tonnes of plastic waste per annum.

This adds to McDonald’s previous commitment to phase out 500 million straws every year and takes the total annual plastic reduction to 860 tonnes.

Nestlé is partnering with waste management company IQ Renew in a trial that will see soft plastics collected from over 100,000 homes, diverting tonnes of soft plastic otherwise headed for landfill.

No one tell the IPA though - it also includes a plan to help “support households in sorting soft plastics which are poorly sorted at present and which have significant recycling potential.”

Penny Wong has entered estimates – she is facing off against the prime minister and cabinet departmental head (and former Scott Morrison and Peter Costello chief of staff) Phil Gaetjens over #sportsrorts.

Updated

Anthony Albanese and Brendan O’Connor, along with Fiona Philips and Mike Kelly, whose electorates were impacted by the bushfires, are calling for more economic support for small and medium sized businesses, in the recovery period.

Anthony Albanese:

This is not business as usual. This is not business as usual. And I reject the idea that this is business as usual.

... In terms of the response, this was a national crisis that requires national leadership. We make no apologies for what we did during that crisis and say it required a national response. I think that was correct.

We did not try to politicise it and we do not want to politicise it now.

What we are saying is that [in] the recovery period, it is important that, [among] the feedback that I have had from businesses is that they are very worried that now that the spotlight is on other issues, their issues will be forgotten.

Updated

Further to the download revelations, Christopher Knaus says:

The AFP is still being asked about the Angus Taylor investigation (or lack thereof).

We have already learned police did not interview City of Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore or Taylor before abandoning the investigation.

Labor senator Kristina Keneally is now asking what police did to test Taylor’s claim that he downloaded the false document from the City of Sydney’s website in September.

Keneally asks whether police examined Google Analytics, showing that the annual report in question was only downloaded 13 times in the four-day window relevant to Taylor’s defence.

She asks whether the AFP examined City of Sydney metadata, which shows the reports did not change from the accurate versions since they were first uploaded.

Reece Kershaw, the AFP commissioner, is also asked if police interviewed staff at the City of Sydney council, the Daily Telegraph journalists to whom the false figures were leaked, staff at the federal environment department, staff in Taylor’s office, or Josh Manuatu, a former Taylor staffer.

Kershaw takes all of Keneally’s questions on notice.

Updated

Back in finance estimates, we’ve gone from connectivity to coffee.

There have been questions to officials about the recent refurbishment of coffee facilities in the building.

(Background: On the top floor of the parliament (in the press gallery, actually) there used to be a coffee cart. That’s gone now, and there has been a substantial refurbishment to create a permanent cafe-style presence, (which some people complain about because the coffee joint is right in front of some heavily trafficked lifts, which seems somewhat suboptimal from a design point of view).

We’ve just completed a deep dive into coffee stats.

DPS officials have just told the hearing in 2018/19, 85,000 coffees were sold at the old cart, for revenue of $330,000 (a fact that tells me I am in the wrong business).

Business is, reportedly, booming in the refurbished joint (booming, I tell you), with “well over” 100,000 coffees sold this financial year. Officials have been asked to detail the costs of the refurbishment.

The DPS folk say the estimate by the quantity surveyor came in at $538,000 (which is extraordinary .. this is a modest coffee outlet, not a suburban house).

But good news, officials report.

The total delivered cost was $391,000 “with rounding”. Not sure how much rounding.

(That is still an eye popping amount of cash for a modest hole-in-the-wall cafe. Just quietly).

Back in legal affairs estimates, Kristina Keneally is asking about the City of Sydney analytics, which show the downloads of the the annual report from its servers.

Angus Taylor said, in his statement, that his office accessed the report on September 9, 2019.

Here is the download list for the days leading up to September 9

September 6: Twice

September 7: 0

September 8: Once

September 9: 10 times

Sigh.

As a Queenslander, I feel the need to point out that not all Queenslanders feel this way.

Updated

We also learned just how bad 2019 was, and how the trend for warming is only going up:

Andrew Johnson: “The observations the Bureau has taken are well and truly on the record. 2019 was a very difficult year – national average the hottest and most driest we’ve seen since records began being kept at the beginning of the 20th century.”

Marielle Smith: Would the BoM say there is a trend to warmer and drier years?

AJ: “Certainly yes.”

MS: Will this trend continue for the foreseeable future?

AJ: “Based on current trajectories of global emissions – that trend is likely to continue.”

Updated

Gerard Rennick and Craig Kelly might have decided to start donning tinfoil hats when it comes to BoM data, but thankfully, there are still plenty of people who understand weather and climate are two different things and that it can be an imperfect science, but the best one we have at the moment.

In environment estimates, Labor senator Marielle Smith is asking about the pressure BoM was under during the bushfires:

MS: Was there a spike of activity to the BOM app during the bushfire crisis?

BoM: Dr Andrew Johnson: “I’m not sure about the spike of activity into the app but I’m sure there was a spike of engagement with the Bureau and the community during the bushfire crisis.

We received nearly 4,5000 media requests and did many, many, many radio crosses and other engagement with the community.

It wouldn’t surprise me at all that our statistics with the app increased. I know, as of last week, nearly six-and-three-quarter million Australians had the app on their mobile device. Just within the last seven months or so we’ve had nearly 900,000 new users so once could extrapolate that was driven by the severe weather at the backend of 2019.

Updated

So the hole-in-the wall coffee cart turned kiosk that lives at the end of the press gallery hallway in parliament house cost something in the range of $390,000.

THAT’S A HOME.

Why did it cost so much? Who knows. It took forever to build and we were all very fine with the coffee cart.

But not only did it cost the better part of an apartment to build, it is also designed so the queue forms across the lifts. There are only a handful of places to get coffee in this building, so the queues are loooooooong during sitting weeks. Which means there are scores of people standing around in front of elevators as people are rushing around.

It’s a complete and utter fricking disgrace.

Updated

The business indicators are not looking so good.

The Australian stock market has dropped more than 2 points on the back of the coronavirus spread.

Covid-19 is different to some of the other pandemics we have seen, as it is impacting end-to-end supply chains. So it is not just a case of people not going out and buying/travelling – it is also a case of not being able to get goods in and out of countries, and that includes parts.

This has some way to play out.

Updated

Hello good people of blogs. I’m watching finance estimates this morning. At the moment the Labor senator Kimberley Kitching is attempting to terrorise officials in the Department of Parliamentary Services about poor morale in the organisation.

In between those questions, which officials are pretty unhappy about, there are also questions about connectivity in the building.

(Background: I love this building. We are very privileged to work here. But the lack of reliable connectivity in this building drives us all bonkers, just quietly. Calls drop out. All the damn time. Which is a problem, obviously, if you need to make calls.)

Back to the hearing: Kitching asks the Senate president Scott Ryan whether we are “still on track for better connectivity by October”.

Ryan says, after a slight hesitation: “That’s my advice.”

There is then talk about a much-improved antenna.

PRAISE GOD. Thank you for listening.

Updated

Josh Frydenberg’s almost-daily attack on the “wellbeing” budget last week are continuing to rub. Not only did the treasurer poke fun at elements of eastern customs and religions, he also shat all over the idea of having a statement outlining what your government is doing to protect and support some of the most vulnerable members of society.

Andrew Leigh has some things to say about it, ahead of national accounts:

According to its latest annual report, Outcome 1 of the Australian Treasury is “to improve the wellbeing of the Australian people”. Treasury has included wellbeing in its mission statement since John Howard’s era, so it’s bizarre that the treasurer is now rejecting his own department’s mission.

As the shadow treasurer has noted, measuring wellbeing is now an accepted part of how many countries do their budgets, taking account of indicators such as child poverty and mental health. As we teach students in first-year economics, economics isn’t about maximising money, it’s about maximising wellbeing.

But instead, the treasurer decided to attack Treasury’s wellbeing approach! On the way through, he managed to offend New Zealanders. He offended the millions who practice meditation. And he offended Hindus, with the Hindu Council of Australia describing his comments as “brazen, racist and Hindu-phobic”. NSW Liberal party member Dhanya Mani said he “turned a key part of my identity into a racist punchline”.

Here’s the bizarre thing. Since 2013, growth has slowed. Wage growth is the worst on record. Business investment is at its lowest level since the 1990s recession. Household spending is growing at its slowest pace since the global financial crisis. The Liberals’ promise of surpluses every year have turned into six deficits. So you’d think that the treasurer would be happy to add alternative metrics. It just goes to show: any time the Liberals have a choice between policy and point-scoring, they’ll choose point-scoring every time.

Updated

Senator Kristina Keneally has just asked whether the AFP considered that Angus Taylor’s wife, Louise Clegg, planned to run for the City of Sydney lord mayorship in its investigation of the doctored document scandal.

The question prompts outrage. Liberal senator Sarah Henderson describes it as a “disgraceful” political attack.

The chair, Amanda Stoker, asks her how it’s relevant.

Keneally responds:

I think it’s quite relevant. We have a federal minister who used a doctored document to attack not only his political rival in terms of policy terms, but also potentially his wife’s rival in political terms.

The police have decided to discontinue the investigation, not to proceed to an investigation, it’s well within my rights to ask these questions.

Updated

Over in legal affairs estimates, Nick McKim asks AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw whether or not the AFP even considered ringing Angus Taylor “and ask him if he’d done it. Isn’t that the first thing you’d do?”

Apparently not, according to Kershaw, who has a little laugh and says “that is not what we do”.

Updated

The bells are ringing for the start of the House sitting. Huzzah.

Peter Dutton announces boat turnback

From the home affairs minister’s office:

Eight potential illegal immigrants have been returned to Indonesia after a people-smuggling vessel targeting Australia was intercepted by Australian authorities.

All eight people on board were safely turned back to Indonesia.

Minister for home affairs Peter Dutton said this interception and turnback reaffirmed that the Morrison government remains steadfastly committed to stamping out people smuggling and stopping people risking their lives at sea.

“We will not tolerate a return to past circumstances where more than 1,200 people died at sea attempting illegal and dangerous journeys to Australia.”

“Illegal maritime travel to Australia is as pointless as it is dangerous. There is zero chance of illegal migration to Australia,” Dutton said.

Since the implementation of Operation Sovereign Borders in 2013, Australia has returned 873 people from 38 people-smuggling ventures to their country of origin or departure.

Updated

The House is still sitting as normal.

Adam Bandt has a plan for today:

Greens leader Adam Bandt will introduce a bill into the House of Representatives this morning, seconded by the member for Warringah Zali Steggall OAM, to formally declare a climate emergency, require every government department to be guided by the declaration and mandate the establishment of a “war cabinet” to tackle the crisis.

It is up to the government to decide when the bill is debated – and it probably won’t be any time soon.

Updated

Anthony Albanese and Brendan O’Connor have called a doorstop for 10.30am.

Updated

In Finance and Public Administration, Scott Ryan is giving an update on the cyber attacks against the parliamentary network.

MPs were asked to not use their personal emails (outside of the internal secure email system) for seven days recently, as part of the defence against “almost daily” cyber attacks.

Over in the legal and constitutional affairs estimates, Kristina Keneally is still trying to ascertain from the AFP how a “politically motivated attack” on a local government officer was designated a “low-order issue” (that would be the Angus Taylor issue).

Updated

It is also national accounts week, with the latest figures to be released on Wednesday.

That’s the December quarter – so it will be before the bushfires really took hold.

Today you’ll get the business indicators which feed into them, so you’ll get an idea.

The market is also bracing for a rate cut from the RBA tomorrow, given the bushfires and coronavirus – it had been expected in June, but things are not great on the economic front.

If that happens, rates will be at a new historic low of 0.5%.

Updated

AFP did not speak to lord mayor Clover Moore before deciding against Angus Taylor interview

The Australian federal police is first up before the legal and constitutional affairs Senate estimates this morning.

Commissioner Reece Kershaw has just given an opening statement and attempted to explain why the AFP decided not to investigate allegations against Angus Taylor.

You’ll remember, of course, that the AFP decided not to investigate Taylor following revelations in the Guardian that he used a false document to launch an attack on City of Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore for her travel-related carbon emissions.

Kershaw said police had taken into account the recent findings of had John Lawler, who reviewed how the agency handled sensitive investigations, including leaks, in the wake of the controversial ABC raids.

One of Lawler’s findings was that the AFP should consider the harm from any alleged offences when deciding whether or not to investigate.

“In deciding not to pursue the matter we have taken on board certain elements of the framework set out in Mr Lawler’s review report,” he said. “We provided clearer detail about our considerations in determining that the matter should not be pursued.

“I want to express once again my utmost confidence in the AFP officers who investigate a range of complex matters in a challenging environment, and do so to a high standard.”

Labor senator Kristina Keneally is immediately on the attack on the Taylor issue. She asks about comments from the AFP’s deputy commissioner Ian McCartney that there was a “low level of ongoing harm” in the Taylor matter. Kershaw said the decision was objective and considered.

“Harm was part of it and also so was the apology that was made as was the significant level of resources and operational priorities,” he said.

Keneally asks whether the AFP interviewed Moore.

“My information was that there was no interview,” Kershaw says.

Keneally: “How do you make a determination of harm and a decision not to continue to an investigation without speaking to the victim?”

Updated

Kristina Keneally is straight out of the blocks this estimates hearing.

Her office looked into border control numbers in the lead-up to the election campaign.

You may remember all the “warnings” from Peter Dutton and co that people smugglers were chomping at the bit for Labor to win an election.

From Keneally’s office:

Documents obtained under freedom of information laws show a dramatic drop in Australian Border Force Cape Class patrols right in the middle of last year’s federal election.

The data in these documents shows the ABF Cape Class fleet – made up of eight vessels – only patrolled Australian waters for a total of 14 days during April 2019.

Based on the data in these FOI documents, the number of Cape Class patrol days in the lead-up to and over the 2019 federal election were:

· February 2019: 102 patrol days

· March 2019: 127 patrol days

· April 2019: 14 patrol days

· May 2019: 122 patrol days

Based on these numbers, prior to the election being called, there were patrols protecting Australia’s borders until the Morrison government went to the polls.

Peter Dutton’s Department of Home Affairs must explain why these statistics show such a dramatic drop in the number of Cape Class patrol days.

Updated

Looks like Australia is getting serious about creating its own recycling industry (finally).

From Scott Morrison’s speech this morning:

Through months of consultation with industry, consumers, retailers and brand-owners, the one issue everyone comes back to is the need to increase demand for recycled products.

Different countries have tried this in different ways but, true to our principles, my government will not take a top-down, tax and punish approach.

We want to encourage and incentivise the best.

We want to support recycled products to compete in the market.

We want to see industry step up and be part of the solution.

And government must be part of the solution as well.

That’s why I am pleased to announce the first of a number of measures my government will take to build demand for these products.

We will be changing the Commonwealth Procurement Guidelines to make sure every procurement undertaken by a commonwealth agency considers environmental sustainability and use of recycled content as a factor in determining value for money.

We’ve used commonwealth procurement policy to energise our Indigenous businesses and had tremendous success – and we will do the same with Australian recycled product.

Updated

Good morning

Happy estimates week!

It is just the House sitting this week, with senators ready to do their thing in the estimates hearings.

Environment, DPS and Prime Minister and Cabinet and Home Affairs is up today, which is always a fun mix.

Speaking of home affairs, Peter Dutton was on Sky News this morning, talking about these comments from NZ prime minister Jacinda Ardern, regarding Australia’s deportation policy – in terms of deporting Kiwis who have committed crimes, even if they have spent their entire lives in Australia:

“I’m not asking that Australia stops the policy,” she said.

“You have deported more than 2,000 individuals, and among them will be genuine Kiwis who do need to learn the consequences of their actions.

“But among those 2,000 are individuals who are too young to become criminals on our watch, they were too young to become patched gang members, too young to be organised criminals.

“We will own our people. We ask that Australia stops exporting theirs.”

Dutton says the comments were “regrettable” and he suspects the NZ PM may have been grandstanding for her domestic audience.

Not that it matters – Australia has no plans to change its policy. New Zealand takes into account how long a person has been in the country before making deportation decisions. If you are considered to have strong ties to the nation, it doesn’t deport you. Ardern said that could change.

One to watch.

In PM&C, Phil Gaetjens is up, so #sportsrorts will get another run – with government senators doing all they can to shut it down. AFP are also up, which means Angus Taylor will also get a run.

We’ll have all of that and more. Mike Bowers, Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp and Sarah Martin with you. You also have beginning of a cold Amy, who has had half a coffee, so let’s see how that goes.

Ready?

Let’s get into it.

Updated

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