Night time politics
- The government and opposition have been at odds over the Natsem modelling commissioned by Labor, which found that most low income families would be worse off after budget measures from the 2014-15 budgets.
- The prime minister has moved slightly on the issue of same sex marriage, reportedly ready to allow a debate in the party room and suggesting the parliament own the decision rather than one political party.
- Norfolk Island has remonstrated the federal government over the removal of self government from the tiny island.
- Sunrise host and chair of the Organ and Tissue Authority David Koch delivered a blistering resignation on air this morning, over assistant health minister Fiona Nash’s review of donor rates.
- The new pharmacy agreement has been unveiled by the government, which governs the deal around services under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
So that’s it for us at #politicslive because quite frankly, I’m dredging the political pond. Thanks to Mike Bowers and his flu, Daniel Hurst, Shalailah Medhora and Lenore Taylor. It was quite a day.
Good night.
Lenore Taylor reports on the Natsem brouhaha.
The prime minister, Tony Abbott, has accused the Labor party of “using and abusing” a leading modelling firm by commissioning an analysis of the government’s budget without including so-called “second-round effects” of its policies, but the treasurer, Joe Hockey, has conceded such flow-on impacts were usually “not taken into account” by modellers.
The modelling, from the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (Natsem) found low-income families could lose $3,734 in 2015-16, equating to more than $70 a week, under measures in this year’s budget and those still pending from last year, while families on incomes of more than $120,000 were left marginally better off.
At first Labor released only some of the modelling’s findings, and then a longer report – but the government has rejected it out of hand because it did not include the so-called “second-round” or flow-on effects of its policies, for example their intention of getting more Australians into the workforce.
Asked about the modelling during question time, the prime minister said this omission meant the modelling was “a fraudulent misrepresentation” of the government’s budget because returning people to work was “the whole point of the policy measures”.
But shortly afterwards, treasurer Joe Hockey conceded that “as a rule second-round effects are not taken into account”, although they had been included in some modelling, for example, that undertaken by the former Labor government after it introduced its carbon pricing scheme.
Shalailah Medhora’s story on same sex marriage is up, with Tony Abbott’s latest formulation.
There is a rash of Origin rivalry breaking out today.
Senator Jacqui Lambie is grilling attorney general George Brandis whether the DLA Paper report into abuse in the defence force has been handed over the Royal Commission into child abuse.
Brandis says its not his jurisdiction. He has not seen the DLA Piper Volume 2 as it is confidential and he cannot interfere with the Royal Commission as it is independent from the government.
So the military and its dirty little secrets is exempt from that, says Lambie.
Senator Lambie says the DLA Piper report Volume 2 contains cases of sexual abuse against children and it should be passed over to the Royal Commission.
There are predators on the loose and some of them are still serving.
The week is wearing thin, by the looks.
What are they talking about?
Any suggestions?
Updated
From estimates:
We are 100% committed to football, SBS chief Michael Ebeid says, and rumours that we are withdrawing from the coverage of football are wrong. Only a “catastrophic” event would cause us to pull out of broadcasting the FIFA World Cup.
SBS has the rights to the next two FIFA World Cups, but we could withdraw if the government cuts our funding, Ebeid told Labor Senator Stephen Conroy.
Shalailah Medhora has told me that Labor’s same sex marriage bill will be introduced to the parliament on Monday.
My work is done.
Clive Palmer asks his question at 14.29 leaves #QT at 14.33 @GuardianAus @gabriellechan #politicslive pic.twitter.com/Pw6MylUmaL
— Mike Bowers (@mpbowers) May 27, 2015
A beehive for the Blues.
NSW v Qld: a meeting of the big men.
Norfolk Island remonstrates federal parliament
There has been a remonstrance delivered to the federal parliament from the legislative assembly of Norfolk Island. This relates to a takeover of their island’s government.
That is:
The Legislative Assembly of Norfolk Island presents its grievances to the commonwealth parliament.
These are that:
(1) The people of Norfolk Island having been granted self-governing powers, the duly elected representatives of the people of Norfolk Island are aggrieved that self-government should be removed without genuine consultation and negotiation.
(2) The removal of self-government in Norfolk Island breaches one of the conventions of self-government in the Westminster tradition that once self-government is granted to a political entity, it should not thereafter be taken away except in the most extreme circumstances, for example, war or civil disturbance. See submission of the Commonwealth Attorney General’s Department to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Northern Territory, page 8 of parliamentary paper No. 281 of 1974 where it also states that it would be politically unthinkable to take away such powers after they had been granted.
Updated
A question to Malcolm Turnbull on the improvements to the NBN, who has a go at his own zinger.
There has been a bit of coding going on in the ranks of the opposition, a bit of programming. And there is a program it’s called Zinger. And it’s been - Zinger and it’s been written by the member for Grayndler! And I would say to the honourable the leader of the opposition he should be very careful about whose programs he uses to write his sound effects.
A government question to Greg Hunt: Will the minister update the House on the unprecedented action the government is taking to protect our Great Barrier Reef for future generations?
Then Shorten to Abbott, regarding Malcolm Turnbull’s remarks about teaching coding to children at six.
Abbott says under the government’s industry, innovation and competitiveness paper which states on page 51:
The government will provide a further $3.5bn to encourage the introduction of computer coding across different year levels in Australian schools. We are doing it.
Which does not answer the primary school question.
Updated
Labor to Abbott: Will the PM commit to ensuring that coding is taught in every primary school in Australia to ensure our children have is the skills for the jobs of the future?
Let’s just understand exactly what the leader of the opposition has asked. He said that he wants primary school kids to be taught coding so they can get the jobs of the future. Does he want to send them all out to work at the age of 11? Is that what we wants to do? Seriously, seriously?
Bring back Christopher Pyne.
A government question to Christopher Pyne on how the government is prioritising STEM subjects, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
Pyne is getting to Bill Shorten’s commitment to “coding” in his budget reply speech.
I would hate to break it to him but it’s already in the national curriculum. It’s called the Australian curriculum.
Labor to Abbott: Can the PM confirm he has abolished the GP after hours helpline in this budget? The service that provides medical advice to over 200,000 Australians a year including mums with children sick children and elderly patients late at night?
Sussan Ley takes the question for Abbott.
The funding to GP after hours (services) will be delivered through our primary health networks and there is a significant allocation to GP after-hours networks.
(Which does not account for people near a GP service.)
Updated
A government question to foreign minister Julie Bishop on how the government is keeping Australia safe from terrorists.
Bishop says 115 passports have now been cancelled, 14 have been refused and 10 suspended.
Also that 30 foreign fighters have been killed overseas.
Labor to Abbott: Can the PM confirm that page 100 of his own budget paper number 2 shows that he has cut $125m from children’s dental care?
Tony Abbott:
I can confirm that there has been a pause in indexation for some benefits in the budget. I canconfirm that there has been acause in indexation for some benefits. But this shouldn’t come as a shock to members opposite because that is exactly what they did in the 2013 budget.
A government question to defence minister Kevin Andrews on the restoration of defence funding to 2% of GDP.
Labor asks again about cuts to a program for people with inborn errors of metabolism. When will the PM reverse his budget cut of more than $250 a month from these 900 families across Australia?
Tony Abbott says the program (which was cut) is:
worth about $3m a year, is more than compensated for by the some $19-$20 a year that we spend on drugs for people with this condition.
In estimates on Struggle Street:
Michael Ebeid is trying to distance SBS from the promo which depicted a participant in the film, the Kennedy family patriarch, farting on his front step.
The infamous promo was “not a promo” after all and never aired on SBS TV, Ebeid says. It was only ever put online and as soon as we knew it offended the man who was depicted farting we took it off air.
Ebeid says the Kennedy family was “influenced” by the mayor of Bankstown to make derogatory claims about the film, and later they said they would be in it again.
Michel Ebeid tells senators he grew up on struggle street. He went to primary school in Mount Druitt and lived there for 15 years.
But Ebeid is reluctant to go back and debate the program’s merits at a forum in Mount Druitt, despite a standing invitation from the mayor of Blacktown. Ebeid calls the mayor “a noisy individual”.
Updated
A government question to Morrison on how the Budget supports the typical Australian family by reforming child care and increasing the opportunities for families to from welfare to work?
Labor to Scott Morrison: Has the PM just confirmed NATSEM is Australia’s most reputable and authoritative modelling organisation? NATSEM’s independent modelling shows a single income family on $65,000 a year such as a nurse will be around $6,000 a year worse off as a result of this year’s budget. How can the PM possibly claim that his budget is good for families?
Morrison says six out of the seven of the Natsem cameos (used to model outcomes) didn’t have a child under five.
I think the leader of the opposition conception of a family is the Benjamin Button model, where someone is born they go straight from the delivery room to primary school or high school.
In estimates:
Michael Ebeid says the cost of the entry fee for the Eurovision Song Contest was paid by Sony Music not SBS. SBS paid the standard broadcast fee. Senator Sam Dastyari wants to know how much SBS paid to be part of Eurovision but Ebeid says that is commercial in confidence and that the fee is a “pittance”.
Clive Palmer asks Joe Hockey: If companies are not making a profit, how is the economy stimulated by tax cuts for small business? If a business dies and does haven’t the capital, how could it benefit from a tax write-off? Shouldn’t we be stimulating the demand by reorganising government to boost demand so business can achieve a profit in a confident Australia?
Hockey says Palmer would understand what a big part the mining and resources industries play for the Australian economy. What Joe seems to be saying is ‘as much as we love you Clive, we need to diversify’.
The big area of opportunity is 70% of the Australian economy is services, health services, education services, tourism services,financial services, accounting services, property service - 70% of the Australian economy but only 17% of our exports. And so by investing in small business we are investing in the innovators.
A government question on the pharmacy agreement for Sussan Ley.
Labor to Abbott: I refer to the PM’s answer a few moments ago in which he criticised NATSEM modelling because it does not include second round behavioural impact. PM, is there any modelling in the government’s own budget which includes such second round behavioural impacts?
Joe Hockey:
As a rule second round impacts are not taken into account. But there are a few exceptions. One of the exceptions was when Labor modelling the carbon tax.
Which sounds like a no.
Shorten to Abbott: NATSEM is Australia’s most authortive modelling organisation. NATSEM’s modelling shows that nine out of 10 of Australia’s highest income families will be better off because of the government’s budget. In light of this, how can the PM possibly claim that his budget is fair?
Tony Abbott:
What the leader of the opposition failed to tell us was that NATSEM says, ‘The NATSEM analysis does not include any potential second round effects such as behavioural changes in the policy measures.’...The whole point of the policy measures to is to encourage people to from welfare to work because this government understands in a way that members opposite appear to have forgotten that the best form of welfare is work. Not only does the NATSEM modelling fail to take second round changes into effect, it is not even modelling of the 2015 budget. It’s not modelling of the 2015 budget.
(The Natsem modelling was designed to take into account 2014 budget measures which survived the senate or that the government remains committed to and 2015 measures.)
Check it out, Madam Speaker.
Speaker Bishop is a keen blues follower. She has the scarf on her desk, so expect a lot of goading from NSW Labor members this question time.
Sussan in the spotlight.
A government question on the Medical Research Future Fund.
First government question on small business.
Labor asks Abbott: Will he agree with his treasurer and remove the GST on sanitary products?
Peter Dutton interjects: “your politics on this is...(inaudible).
Uproar ensues and Speaker Bishop remarks:
I hear a lot of male laughter on this but not much female laughter.
Abbott says it’s not the most important issue but if the states
all agree on this, obviously we’d be happy to be accommodating.
A Queensland Liberal member jumps up to get a question in before Shorten. She is sat down promptly with a State of o)rigin joke from the Speaker.
Shorten to Abbott: Will you allow a free vote on marriage equality?
Abbott says it is a serious matter and the Labor bill will be dealt with in the “ordinary way”.
As he proceeds, the parliament hushes to hear Tony Abbott on an issue to which he has been vehemently opposed. In the manner of, OMG what is he going to say ...
Abbott:
I can’t foresee the future. I don’t know how our society will develop. I don’t know how this parliament will proceed in the months and years ahead. I do just make this one point, though, Madam Speaker. If our parliament were to make a big decision on a matter such as this, it ought to be owned by the parliament and not by any particular party.
Updated
Bill Shorten:
As a child he knew the hardship of the Great Depression. As a young man aged 14, he went to work to support his family and later put himself through night school. Les served in turbulent times, from the split to the dismissal. In many ways, he was made for them. He was tough. He was resolute and he was resilient.
Les Johnson was aboriginal affairs minister when Whitlam returned Indigenous land.
Age catches us all eventually but our country will never forget what we owe to that generation, says Abbott.
Tony Abbott starts first up with a condolence motion for former member for Hughes, Whitlam minister and deputy speaker Les Johnson.
Question time coming up.
SBS managing director Michael Ebeid is up now at Senate estimates, telling the committee of the success of Eurovision for SBS. Ebeid is just back from attending Eurovision and cheering on Australian wildcard Guy Sebastian. He says it’s an important event for promoting “Brand Australia”.
Struggle Street, the controversial program on SBS recently, was an important part of the national conversation and was never just about Mount Druitt. “We accept that such topics can be polarising.”
Updated
Government brings forward tax write offs for drought measures by one year
From agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce et al,
Australian farmers can now claim a tax deduction on all capital expenditure on water facilities, fodder storage assets and fencing incurred since the 2015 Budget was handed down at 7:30pm on 12 May.
Farmers can fully deduct the cost of water facilities and fencing in the year they are purchased and deduct the cost of fodder storage assets over three years.
Australian small businesses got a boost on Budget night being able to immediately claim accelerated depreciation on business assets costing up to $20,000. Farms with turnover of less than $2 million qualify as a small business and are therefore also eligible to immediately write-off all asset purchases up to $20,000.
There was argy bargy after the budget on making the deadline different for farmers, given the drought is occurring now and also, many are small businesses under the $2m turnover.
Joyce obviously got a win.
Sussan Ley says the government has listed $1.3bn worth of over new medicines in the last budget.
The Abbott government has doubled the number of drug listings delivered under the previous Labor Government worth a total of $2.9bn and we’re only halfway through our term. If you were to average it out, we’re making an average of about 30 new and amended listings to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme per month versus an average of just eight under Labor. This is not a political point that I’m making as I very much consider this is an area that requires bipartisan support as much as possible.
Lunch time politics
- Tony Abbott says terrorists should not get off scot-free just because they see the error of their ways.
- Immigration minister Peter Dutton tried to reassure that its new citizenship laws that strip dual nationals will not leave any person stateless. Dutton said if another country stripped a dual national of citizenship first, Australia would be compelled to take back citizens.
- Assistant health minister Fiona Nash said David Koch’s on-air resignation as chair the Organ and Tissue Authority was a loss. Koch resigned on the Sunrise program after he said Nash caved in to rich lobby groups when she called a review.
- Key Coalition marriage equality supporter Warren Entsch is not supporting Bill Shorten’s same sex marriage bill. But he wants the issue to at least be debated in the party room by August. Pressure is building on the Coalition for a free vote.
- Health minister Sussan Ley is currently releasing details of the new $19bn pharmacy agreement.
BREAKING: Bruce Billson dodges leadership questions.
Q: The budget has thrown a spotlight on you and your portfolio. We’ve seen your enthusiasm for small business. Fairfax Media has a profile of you today with colleagues in the business sector referring to you in glowing terms. So everyone seems to agree you’re a nice guy and there has been leadership ructions in the party of late. My question is do you have enough of the mongrel to one day lead the party yourself?
All I can say is you’ll have to ask mum that.
We're not very supportive of failure, says Bruce Billson.
Steve Lewis asks Billson: Do you think as small business minister and somebody who’s advocating in favour of innovation that might make sense, the Government should look at perhaps some changes to insolvency laws along the lines of the Productivity Commission has recommended?
Thank you for your question. The Treasurer and I instigated that inquirywith the aim of teasing out the very point that you raise. We have an interesting culture in Australia. If a small business gets a sniffle there seems to be a race to harvest the organs. Maybe a tissue might be a more appropriate response and we really need to tackle this. The appetite to wind up businesses when there may be a way of working through perhaps a short-term financial challenge that’s bringing solvency questions into play, we think there’s room for that.
Bruce Billson, small business minister is answering questions at the National Press Club.
He is, as Katharine Murphy dubbed him, a serial enthusiast and he is delighted to have his portfolio in the centre of the government’s budget strategy.
It’s like small business is the new black, the new kale of the cafe scene.
Marriage equality supporter Warren Entsch will not vote for Labor bill
Liberal marriage equality supporter Warren Entsch has announced he will not support Labor’s same sex bill. He believes rushing the bill through amounts to sabotaging its success.
Entsch says Bill Shorten is “destroying the opportunity” of getting the bill through the parliament.
He met with Tony Abbott last week on the subject and wants the Coalition party room to address the issue by August - but that does not necessarily mean voting on it by then. (There is a large winter recess in between now and then.)
Updated
George Brandis is giving a dissertation on how appointments are made to arts boards and other bodies, following Labor senator Catryna Bilyk’s questions on the appointment of former Liberal politicians such as Paul Neville and Peter Collins and a conservative commentator Janet Albrechtsen.
Brandis says it’s not right to say the prime minister chooses the appointments. The PM is advised of the minister’s recommendation before they go to cabinet.
Bilyk asks if the PM doesn’t agree, it doesn’t happen?
It’s impossible to generalise.
Bilyk goes on to ask about the appointment of Sophie Mirabella to the board of ASC and how it marries with the promise by Tony Abbott not to appoint former Coalition members to jobs.
Brandis says it is common practice to appoint former politicians on both sides. He notes a Coalition government reappointed former Labor leader Kim Beazley as Australian ambassador to Washington. Kevin Rudd appointed Brendan Nelson to Nato.
Labor is getting to Barrie Cassidy, the ABC journalist who was forced to resign as chair of Old Parliament House’s Museum of Democracy.
I have the view that it was inappropriate for someone actively engaged in the political process as a working journalist, says Brandis.
Brandis says he approached former Labor leader Simon Crean for the board because he had “retired from the political fray”.
It doesn’t matter so much for other boards, says Brandis, but it does for Old Parliament’s Museum of Democracy, which is a:
shrine of political democracy.
Updated
Assistant health minister Fiona Nash responds to Koch from the independent authority, the Organ and Tissue Authority.
I note the resignation of David Koch from his position as advisory board chairman of the Organ and Tissue Authority following the announcement of an independent review aimed at improving organ donation rates in Australia.
The review has been welcomed in a media release from the Organ and Tissue Authority.
The Organ and Tissue Authority was informed of the review more than a week ago and given the chance to have input into the terms of reference.
Mr Koch’s unexpected resignation is a loss to the organisation.
The review is seeking to establish if there is anything else we can do to improve organ donation rates in Australia and save lives.
It is always unfortunate to lose people of Mr Koch’s calibre from such a good cause. I acknowledge the great contribution Mr Koch has made to support increased rates of organ donation in Australia and would welcome his input into the review.
Updated
In which, David Koch, host of Sunrise, roasts assistant health minister Fiona Nash over her handling of a review of organ donation rates.
Mark Scott says the ABC is in the process of closing more than 100 websites and is “looking at” the future of the ABC’s technology and games online gateway, after Stephen Conroy pushes him on whether the website is being closed.
Conroy is unhappy that there have not been many detailed articles about the NBN as there once were.
Updated
Stephen Conroy wants to help the ABC fact check unit.
From Amanda Meade:
Labor Senator Stephen Conroy has joined the senate committee hearing on communications and is clearly unhappy with the way the ABC’s Fact Check Unit is keeping track of the Coalition’s promises about the NBN. He wants Mark Scott to look into how the unit is “framing” the questions around the NBN as he alleges they have broken their promises.
Updated
ABC Mark Scott not seeking extension of his term, which ends July 2016
Scott is now being asked by Senator Dastyari about the search for a new managing director for the ABC when’s Scott’s second five year term ends in July 2016.
Scott tells the committee that reports he had asked the board for an extension of his term as managing director was incorrect.
ABC: They didn't expect the Hunger Games
Mark Scott told Labor senator Sam Dastyari he is confident he will achieve all the ABC cuts but there are still some decisions to be made about how they are achieved.
He went on to explain the impact of the job losses on the staff.
I am advised it was worse in apprehension than it was in reality.
Scott says the staff reacted the way they did because they didn’t expect the so-called “Hunger Games” and some were surprised to find themselves in a pool.
However, once he identified the various skill levels, it quickly worked itself out.
I appreciate it wasn’t a happy time for staff.
Updated
The joys of Senate estimates.
Updated
Back together again for a limited time only.
ABC redundancies
Mark Scott and his chief financial officer David Pendleton are being asked about how the ABC is managing the efficiency measures brought on by the Coalition’s budget cuts.
Scott has told the committee that the ABC’s staff redundancies totalled 400 and 200 of those have already left the organisation.
Scott said most of the staff in the content and programming areas had already left their jobs and the next wave of redundancies would be in the support areas.
The 400 total was on top of the 80 people who lost their jobs when the Australian Network was de-funded, the committee heard.
The managing director said “a range of projects are now under way” to help the ABC to continue to deliver the 1% efficiency dividend as well as the other cuts the government made to the ABC budget.
Areas targeted include corporate affairs and “big items like transmission contracts”.
The committee has taken a break and Scott will return for more questioning when it returns.
The nominations for the Husic-Frydenberg boy band are coming in.
- Steady Eddy & The Fry Man
- The Dadbods
Indigenous leaders summit on constitutional recognition: 6 July
Here is the prime minister’s statement:
A meeting of Indigenous leaders to discuss constitutional recognition will be convened in Sydney on 6 July 2015.
The meeting will include eminent First Australians who are playing a significant role in the debate on Indigenous constitutional recognition.
It will be an important opportunity for the prime minister and opposition leader to hear the views of a range of Indigenous Australians as our country contemplates change.
Indigenous leaders from across the country will be invited to participate in the meeting.
The meeting will help to inform the process for deciding on a referendum proposal that will have the best chance of success.
The prime minister and opposition leader reaffirm our bipartisan commitment to constitutional recognition.
Recognising Indigenous Australians in the constitution will complete our constitution, rather than simply change it.
This should be a unifying moment for our nation and this meeting will be an important part of this journey.
Today is the anniversary of the 1967 referendum which removed two references in the Australian constitution that discriminated against Aboriginal people.
Updated
The latest Canberra boy band: Two Directions.
Updated
You never know who you will run into with Senate estimates on this week.
Updated
Penny Wong is questioning finance minister Mathias Cormann on the leak of an audit on the eve of the launch of the first Air Warfare Destroyer last week. Wong said the strategic leak of the audit, which showed the ships cost three times more to build in Australia than a comparable ship in Spain, was designed to torpedo (pardon) jobs in South Australia.
Cormann rejected the assertion. The finance minister has said previously that as a result of the audit the government would begin a limited tender to ensure there was a managing contractor placed into the Australian shipbuilder, the ASC.
Cormann says under the previous government, the project was in bad shape...
And we are off to morning tea. End of questions.
The ABC chief, Mark Scott, is up now in front of Senate estimates hearings.
Updated
Here is a bit more from immigration minister Peter Dutton on how to decide who is a terrorist risk. He is responding to a question on Khaled Sharrouf on AM.
This is why it’s important for there to be a ministerial discretion as opposed to an operation of law, so that if there was a blackletter provision which said that every(one) coming back including children would face revocation of their citizenship, I think that would be something people would want to debate.
What we have said here and again it operates in the UK, there is the ability for ministers to assess individually the cases that come before them. I am not going to comment individually on this matter (Sharrouf family) but people face very serious consequences when they return to this country if they have broken Australian law and if they’re in prescribed areas and don’t have a reason for being there. If they’ve been involved in terrorist activities they will face the full force of the law when they return to Australia.
Updated
Fiona Nash, get a backbone.
The host of the Sunrise program, David Koch, has resigned in protest as chairman of the Organ and Tissue Authority advisory council after he was not informed of a government review.
He has delivered a scathing editorial on a “rich lobby group”, pressuring the assistant health minister Fiona Nash in relation to organ donation.
Fiona Nash, get a backbone. You didn’t even ring me ... ‘This leaves me no choice but to resign from the position and actively counter the tripe dished up by rich lobbyists.
Updated
What do you get for 7c? 5c
In other news...
Best story in today's papers. It costs 7c to make a 5c piece @theheraldsun pic.twitter.com/U37b958uA3
— Rob Harris (@rharris334) May 27, 2015
Next cab off the rank is the national health amendment (pharmaceutical benefits) bill 2015 via health minister Sussan Ley. She will be speaking to media at 1.30pm today to explain the the deal which governs 5,000 community pharmacies and how they dispense PBS medicines and deliver pharmacy programs and services.
The government has been negotiating with the Pharmacy Guild – one of Canberra’s most powerful lobby groups – over the shape of the next community pharmacy agreement.
The fifth such agreement, which expires at the end of June, was worth $15.7bn over five years. In March the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) warned of “persistent shortcomings” in the Department of Health’s record-keeping during negotiations on the fifth agreement signed in 2010, including a failure to keep formal records of its meetings with the Pharmacy Guild.
Updated
We have had a few lighter moments in the political tsunami this morning.
Labor’s Ed Husic and assistant treasurer Josh Frydenberg are friends across the divide and they are sparring partners on Sky. Mike Bowers caught them in the corridors of glower. Husic saw Bowers’ lens and did what he does so well – hammed it up.
Updated
Greg Hunt comes to the contentious use of native wood waste, which has been included as an eligible energy source as a way to meet the renewable energy target.
He says the bill reinstates native forest wood waste on the same conditions as were previously in place under Labor. It contains safeguards to ensure wood waste is harvested in a responsible way.
Hunt says that provision has been made because there’s no evidence the practice is unsustainable.
This is about use of wood waste, its not about cutting down biomass to burn.
Bill to cut the renewable energy target introduced
The environment minister, Greg Hunt, is introducing the renewable energy (electricity) amendment bill 2015.
The bill adjusts the renewable energy target from 41,000 gigawatt hours of energy to be delivered from renewable sources by 2020 to 33000 gigawatt hours in the same time.
It will be maintained at 33,000 per annum 2021-2030.
The new target “is achievable”.
Lenore Taylor has written on this many times, but this was her most recent story.
Updated
Medical Research Future Fund comes to parliament
Joe Hockey has just introduced the medical research future fund bill 2015 into the lower house.
The treasurer is talking about Australia’s excellent record on medical advances and this funding is all about maintaining that record.
He also mentions the late Matt Price, the press gallery journalist at the Oz who passed away of brain cancer during the 2007 election. “Everyone at the time” said something needed to be done.
That’s one of the things to come out of this legislation.
Updated
Labor on citizenship: We kinda like it but we might not
Opposition leader Bill Shorten agrees with the stripping of dual citizenship in principle, but wants to see the legislation.
I don’t believe that if you’re a dual citizen and you’re fighting for a terrorist organisation you should automatically assume that you can have the rights of Australian citizenship. But let’s work through the detail.
He was less forthcoming on the proposal to strip sole citizens of their Australian nationality where they can apply for other citizenship, saying there is an important role for courts in interpreting the laws.
Just so you know the nature of plate-spinning job here at #politicslive, we also have today:
- A number of Senate estimates committees on today, including George Brandis appearing for the government.
- Small biz whiz, Bruce Billson will be at the National Press Club talking budget measures.
- The house is about to sit. In five minutes.
- The house will consider the employee share scheme bill.
- The budget bills will continue to be debated.
- Don’t forget question time.
- I’m also told from you good people in the conversation below that there were some interesting things that came up in Senate estimates late last night, after I took my eyeballs out to rest.
It’s all coming. Strap yourself in.
Updated
Marriage equality is also under discussion after Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek have brought forward a bill to use the momentum of the Irish referendum.
Shorten is asked why the sudden sense of urgency around the debate, given there have been private members bills coming through the parliament for the past few years.
I voted for the legislation back in 2012 and last year I advised the Australian Christian Lobby at their forum that I believe it was entirely possible for someone of Christian views to also support marriage equality. There’s no doubt, though, that the Irish referendum on the weekend has again renewed debate in Australia and my view is that we should grab the opportunity to have the parliament introduce marriage equality and legalise it in Australia.
The prime minister was also asked, including the call from Alan Jones for marriage equality. Abbott noted Jones was a friend, whom he had known for 30 years, but repeated his line about the ability of people to have different views. Like his own family, for example. But then swung off to his small business policy, which is developing into a habit.
I’m sure at that time we’d have a very full and frank and candid and decent debate inside the party room but I do have to say that my absolute priority, the government’s absolute priority right now and for the next few weeks will be helping small business.
Abbott: You don't get off scot free because you say I've seen the error of my ways
Tony Abbott is asked about the possibility of allowing foreign fighters back into the country for de-radicalization programs.
Q: If there’s an opportunity to use their experience for preventing others from following that path, though, isn’t that something worth considering?
I’m absolutely delighted when a criminal comes out of jail, reformed and rehabilitated for that criminal or former criminal to go and spread a message of obeying the law to others who might be tempted to disobey the law. But I’m afraid you don’t get off scot-free just because you say “I’ve seen the error of my ways.” If you commit serious crimes you should face serious punishment and as far as I’m concerned that will always be the case.
Tony Abbott was asked about the return of Khaled Sharrouf’s wife Tara Nettleton and their five children.
We’ve seen the beheadings, the crucifixions, the mass executions, the sexual slavery and people who are involved in that are doing evil things,evil things and criminal things and if criminals come within the reach of our law, whether they’re male or female, they will face the full severity of our law. That’s what the Australian public expect. Crime will be punished.
Tony Abbott was asked about Sharrouf’s children, given one of them appeared to have been “radicalised”, given he was holding a severed head. The kid was seven.
Abbott: the children ...will be dealt with in the same way that the children of criminals are normally dealt with. http://t.co/J8Emt0QyHg
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 26, 2015
Tony Abbott talking about Khaled Sharrouf’s family when a small business person intervenes, chiding the media for asking questions about national security. Abbott is at a small business function.
(It’s going to be one of those days.)
Abbott notes the man’s point, delivering a neat combination on the importance of small business providing economic security, “which is just as important as economic security”.
And then finishes up the press conference without answering any more details about the citizenship laws.
I should say he answered a fair few questions before that while I was publishing. I will bring to you shortly.
Morning politics: No one will be left stateless, says Dutton
It’s a difficult day when you can’t get through the corridor to the office for a government minister and media scrum.
The keeper of the message this morning is Peter Dutton. There are many questions for the immigration minister about the proposed citizenship laws and remember, no details of the laws - like a bill - have been released.
As far as we know, the new laws involve stripping dual nationals of their Australian citizenship at the minister’s discretion, if the government suspects the person has been involved in terrorism. The minister said given the difficulty of getting evidence in overseas war-torn countries, his decision would be informed by Asio. The Abbott government has committed to this measure.
A second element, reflecting the UK laws, involves stripping Australians of their citizenship if they have the option to a second citizenship. This measure, which caused uproar in the cabinet discussion, will be considered in the discussion paper. Philip Ruddock was appointed as captain of that discussion yesterday, with Concetta Fierravanti-Wells.
The key points from the government are these:
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Peter Dutton has promised no one would be left stateless as a result of the laws.
- Dutton says Australia would be compelled “constitutionally” to take back dual nationals if their second citizenship had been stripped by another country first. That is, if a UK-Australian citizen was suspected of terror and the UK government got in first, Australia would be compelled to take that person back.
Thanks to Shalailah Medhora for this little snippet from Dutton on AM:
Q: If the boot was on the other foot, would we take them back?
Yes we would if they were an Australian citizen. That’s the constitutional obligation.”
“They would be rendered stateless, which we are not going to allow.”
Already, the example delivered for debate through The Age is the case of Khaled Sharrouf and his wife and five children. This is the case where one of the children was pictured holding a severed head in the national daily.
Marriage equality is also front and centre today. Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek have been out already. Tony Abbott is taking questions now. My head is spinning.
However I will try to stay calm and deliver all the political news. Join me @gabriellechan and @mpbowers for the parliamentary sitting day.
