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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Gabrielle Chan

Australian budget 2017: Tony Abbott says he gave Morrison the applause 'he deserved' – as it happened

Tony Abbott
Tony Abbott claps after Scott Morrison delivered the 2017 budget in the House of Representatives chamber of Parliament House on Tuesday. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Night-time politics

I am shuffling off into the night good readers.

  • Today, the banks are hitting back at the government over the $6bn tax hike unveiled in the budget. Banks are suggesting they will pass on costs, just like every other business does. Scott Morrison pleaded with them not to pass on costs to ordinary customers, given people don’t like them much already. Meantime, Derryn Hinch has referred to share value wiped off the banks three hours before the measure was announced. He alleges it looks like insider trading and has referred the matter to the federal police.
  • Despite a number of commentators calling the Coalition’s budget Labor-lite, Bill Shorten said meh. Labor would never cut corporate tax or give higher-income earners a tax cut by dumping the temporary deficit levy.
  • The zombie savings measures from the 2014 Budget of Doom were finally dumped in the House. Labor applauded. The treasurer declined to say whether he would have preferred to bank those savings or bank the extra revenue from the increased Medicare levy. He said it was a moot point.
  • The Greens and Jacqui Lambie called for drug testing of politicians, in line with a trial for drug testing 5000 new welfare recipients. Barnaby Joyce said it would go down well in his constituency and you can’t turn up to work smashed or drugged out.

That’s it for tonight. Tomorrow, we have Bill Shorten’s budget in reply speech at 7.30pm so I hope you will join me for that. I will be here from the usual time, for politics in full stereo. Thanks to my brains trust Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp and Gareth Hutchens. Mike Bowers has gone above and beyond to bring you the visuals.

Good night.

Updated

Tony Abbott says the government had tried to implement savings prior to the bank tax and again calls for senate reform.

He largely sticks to the government line that this budget is the best way forward ...

Then he has to go for a division.

Updated

Tony Abbott: I gave the treasurer the applause I thought he deserved

Tony Abbott is having a bit of fun on the wireless. Those with us yesterday will remember Bowers reported that Abbott gave the treasurer a very slow clap. 2GB’s interviewer Ben Fordham says his lack of applause was noticed.

I gave the treasurer the applause that I thought he deserved.

Abbott says there were things to applaud in the budget, including:

  • $20,000 instant asset write off for small business
  • inland rail
  • increase in defence spending.

Updated

Self-explanatory statement from senator Derryn Hinch.

Senator Hinch has today written to the Australian federal police, seeking an investigation into the leaking of confidential budget measures.

Measures in the 2017 budget included a levy on the major banks. It appears this budget measure was leaked, leading to a massive drop in the value of share prices for the major banks.

Shares in the major banks began to plummet three hours before the budget lock-up. This drop saw a reduction of $14bn in the value of shares in the major banks.

“This appears to be a classic case of criminal insider trading, possibly involving a federal government employee, or even a politician. I would like to know who the short-sellers are and did they have links at Parliament House?” Hinch said.

Updated

Tony Abbott coming up on 2GB.

The Northern Territory is “on its own” after the federal budget, the chief minister, Michael Gunner, has declared.

The Labor-led government, elected in August, has been particularly unhappy about the new proposed GST redistribution, which the NT says would strip $2bn from the NT’s budget over the next four years, and which were confirmed on Tuesday.

Morrison has previously said he didn’t know where the NT government got its figure from, but did admit the NT faced large cuts. On Wednesday Gunner claimed the budget confirmed “the biggest GST cuts in the history of the Northern Territory”.

The NT government was hoping for some help in the federal budget, including further federal investment in agricultural and resource sector infrastructure, and initiatives geared towards closing the gap in Indigenous health.

The NT has the country’s highest proportion of Indigenous residents, with many living in remote communities in poor living conditions and low levels of service delivery.

Tonight was a test of whether or not Canberra is serious about developing the north and Closing the Gap – it failed that test. The federal government has turned its back on us – which makes our record investment in jobs, infrastructure and housing even more important to the economic future of the Territory. The Territory has the most disadvantaged people in Australia and tonight’s budget did little to improve their lives.

This morning the Coalition senator Nigel Scullion dubbed Gunner’s complaints as “crocodile tears” and said the Territory was well supported.

He highlighted a number of previously announced federal investments in the NT contained in the budget, including road upgrades for remote communities and the cattle industry.

It is not up to the commonwealth to meet the costs of Territory Labor’s unfunded election promises.

Updated

Everyone around here has a touch of the faded glory today.

Stephen Jones, Claire O’Neill, Ed Husic and Tim Hammond during question time.
Labor MPs Stephen Jones, Claire O’Neill, Ed Husic and Tim Hammond during question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Chris Bowen is prosecuting a matter of public importance following the end of question time: “The government’s continued failure to deliver a fair budget.”

Updated

SA Steel, Christopher Pyne, gets a Dixer on the budget bits for South Australia in the budget.

Labor’s Brendan O’Connor to Turnbull: How is it fair that on 1 July, the very same day that cuts to penalties rates become law, the prime minister is giving a $16,400 tax cut to millionaires?

The reference is to the end of the temporary deficit levy imposed under the Abbott government.

Turnbull:

We have ensured right across the system that burdens are born equitably. We have imposed a levy on the major banks. We have ensured that we are giving support to people seeking support disabilities, parents of a disabled child will know it is fully funded. We are asking all Australians from 2019 to share in that burden just as members opposite did.

Updated

Malcolm Turnbull and treasurer Scott Morrison during question time.
Malcolm Turnbull and treasurer Scott Morrison during question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Immigration minister Peter Dutton is asked about the revenue-raising measures on employers who hire foreign workers. The money will be put into a skills fund.

Updated

Anthony Albanese to Malcolm Turnbull: Does last night’s budget confirm that this financial year, federal infrastructure spending has been cut and will continue to fall to $4.2bn by 2021. Is this why the peak industry body, Infrastructure Partnerships Australia have said the real budget cuts has cut it to its lowest level in a decade, using profiling to disguise the cut?

Turnbull spruiks general infrastructure stuff but does not answer the substantive funding question.

Updated

Brought to you by the data magic of Nick Evershed and Greg Jericho.

Shorten to Turnbull: What is the punishment for the big banks if they pass on this new tax to customers, and is that the point when he will finally see sense and set up the royal commission of the banks that the Australian people are asking him to do?

Turnbull says his government’s senior executive registration measures and new penalty system will be a lot more effective than a banking royal commission, which he said would become a lawyers’ picnic.

The one-stop-shop will be a recommendation as recommended by Prof Ramsey. We are getting on with the reforms to executive remuneration and regulation so that senior executives who do the wrong thing and don’t act on malfeasance will be out of the business. These are tough measures and we are doing them now …

The banks are not scared of a royal commission, sunshine. They have got plenty of lawyers and law firms. They are being held to account and that is what we have done.

Updated

Social services minister Christian Porter gets a question on welfare changes in the budget.

Updated

Bowen to Turnbull: How is it fair for this government to continue to give investors buying their sixth or seventh home more support than a young couple trying to buy their fist home?

Turnbull makes opening remarks and flicks the question to Scott Morrison.

He talks through the housing measures in the budget.

Tanya Plibersek to Malcolm Turnbull: How is it fair that in this budget the prime minister is going after uni students by jacking up their fees and cutting funding to universities, but can find a spare $50bn for big business tax cuts?

Turnbull says it is reasonable to ask students to pay an increased amount for the extraordinary benefit of a higher education which gives students additional earning capacity.

Corporate tax cuts are need to drive growth, says he, plus the US (Donald Trump) is cutting tax to 15%.

Updated

Deputy PM, Nationals leader and agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce gets a question on budget stuff in regional Australia, including inland rail. The proposal that keeps giving.

Updated

Bowen to Morrison: Last night the treasurer quietly increased the government’s debt limit beyond half a trillion dollars. Why didn’t he mention this in the budget speech? How can it be taking the national credit card beyond half a trillion dollars didn’t rate a mention? Can the treasurer now reveal what the new debt level is?

Morrison says $600bn. And blames Labor for the debt.

We set a new debt limit and the government will seek to ensure the government has lower debt than it otherwise might have. Those opposite are the authors of the debt we have today.

Updated

Scott Morrison takes a government question on the NDIS. He again calls Labor to meet him on the middle. Given the savings measures didn’t pass, meet us on the levy.

Labor asks Scott Morrison what the gross figure debt will peak at is.

Morrison:

The gross debt position in 2021 will be $606bn over the budget in the forwards estimates, that is what is in the budget.

[PS: Morrison corrected the record at the end of question time to say the figure was actually $649bn.]

Updated

PM fully exercised.

Malcolm Turnbull during question time.
Malcolm Turnbull during question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

NXT MP Rebekha Sharkie to Malcolm Turnbull: the treasurer announced $75bn for nation building and infrastructure but only $3.5bn was earmarked for South Australia. Just based on our population, an equitable share for South Australia would have seen us receive over $5bn in infrastructure money. Given South Australia is being shortchanged on infrastructure, would the federal government at least guarantee that Australian steel will be used in the nation infrastructure projects, and in particular, South Australian steel for its proposed rail projects.

Turnbull talks about South Australian projects but does not commit to using SA steel in other infrastructure projects in other states.

Turnbull flicks the question to Christopher Pyne, aka SA Steel.

Pyne also lists off SA projects. But does not answer Sharkie’s question.

Updated

The bank round-up by Paul Karp.

Updated

Labor’s Catherine King to Turnbull: If the prime minister really got the message on Medicare, why do his cuts to Medicare continue for years?

What the government committed to in the budget was to unfreeze the freeze on indexation put in place by the Labor party. It was your freeze. What we are doing is restoring indexation in a measured and consistent way.

[Labor did impose a temporary Medicare rebate freeze in 2013. The Coalition extended it for the Abbott term and it will now be phased out over three years.]

Turnbull flicks the question to health minister Greg Hunt to discuss his negotiations with doctors.

Updated

Second government question to Scott Morrison on budget.

Labor’s Tanya Plibersek to Malcolm Turnbull: How is it fair the prime minister is cutting $22bn from schools but he can find a spare $50bn for big business tax cuts?

Turnbull reads out quotes from Labor MPs walking away from the $22bn figure.

On 4 May, the deputy leader herself was asked about this. “Are you still committed to the additional $22bn over the next decade?” asked David Speers.

The deputy leader said, “Well, we will have to work out exactly what the figures are, as the next election approaches”. Well, Mr Speaker, the facts of the matter is Labor never had the $22bn when they promised it.

Updated

First government question is on key budget measures to Turnbull, including Gonski 2.0 schools policy, the NDIS, Inland rail and the Western Sydney Airport.

Malcolm Turnbull refers to Labor as “ranks of serried hypocrites”.

All of you, you never put the money in place, dripping with empathy, hypocrites to the last ... the budget is fair ... the only thing that matches the anxiety of the leader of the opposition is the energy of the member for Grayndler [Anthony Albanese] in the press gallery today.

Updated

Question time now.

Shorten to Turnbull: How is it fair that a millionaire will receive a $16,400 tax cut while every other Australian has to pay more tax?

Turnbull turns the question around.

How is it fair to sell out low-paid workers at CleanEvent and trade away their penalties rates? How is it fair to promise parents of disabled children that there is a National Disability Insurance Scheme and never fund it?

Then he goes to Shorten advocating for the Catholic system to have its extra schools funding protected under the proposed schools policy.

Re the pie incident.

He refuses to back away from advocating on social issues.

Updated

The strong reaction against the government’s proposal to drug test welfare recipient is continuing today.

The government’s trial will see 5,000 recipients tested for ice, marijuana, heroin and other drugs using urine, hair, and saliva samples. It’s worth remembering the Abbott government rejected a similar proposal in 2014.

I’ve spoken with a number of academics and welfare groups about the plan this morning.

Melbourne University drug expert, John Fitzgerald, said similar measures had proven an expensive failure in the US. The Coalition has so far not revealed how much the measure will cost, saying it is commercial in confidence. The foundation of Australia’s safety net is built on the principle of needs-based support. Income support is provided to those who need it most.

The National Social Security Rights Network has warned the drug testing plan chips away at that principle.

Its executive officer, Matthew Butt, said the trial may also have unintended consequences for those battling addiction.

Without income support, those addicted to drugs may become completely dependent on their families to survive, or may be pushed into criminality.

It’s well known that successful treatment of drug addiction is very difficult. So putting people in this position if they are addicted to a substance raises the risk that they may seek income from another source. That would also often be family as well.

Updated

The last question to Scott Morrison came from Tory Shepherd of the Adelaide Advertiser: Would you prefer to have had option A, as in the $13bn zombie measures go through to raising the Medicare levy?

It’s now moot. And you know what, if you’re practical, you don’t dwell on things like that.

Which bank? Ian Narev: every extra cost borne by customers, shareholders or both

Ian Narev, chief executive of the Commonwealth bank, has issued a statement.

As with the many recent new regulatory imposts, we need to take some time to work through the implications. This is particularly so given the lack of detail and the absence of any consultation. However, as every business owner or employee knows, every extra cost needs to be borne by customers or shareholders, or a combination of both.

We look forward to Treasury outlining how this tax will apply in practice.

Once we have received all the details on the new tax, we will do our best to strike the right balance to ensure we continue to enhance the financial wellbeing of people, businesses and communities.

He clearly hasn’t listened to the treasurer’s addresses, or has and disregarded it.

Scott Morrison on his brother in law Garry Warren: I don’t know a finer man

Scott Morrison’s brother in law Garry Warren who was highlighted in the treasurer’s speech.
Scott Morrison’s brother in law Garry Warren who was highlighted in the treasurer’s speech. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Andrew Tillett of the West Australian asks about the higher education reforms which have to be repaid earlier (at a lower income rate) under budget changes at an income rate that still allows some welfare benefits. How is that right for the working poor?

Morrison goes through the government’s justifications for the higher education reforms but does not answer the basic question of where the government sees the appropriate income line for the working poor.

Scott Morrison says foreign aid is a significant investment (in spite of cuts).

He rejects suggestions that the parliamentary budget office should do forecasting as an independent agency – as opposed to Treasury. He has full confidence in Treasury.

Updated

Michelle Grattan asks about the Liberal view on the role of government, given John Howard thought about selling the Snowy Hydro and Malcolm Turnbull wants to buy the states’ 87% shareholding.

I’m not here to give ideological homilies. I’m here to deliver a budget. It deals with the practical needs of Australians. John Howard was a very pragmatic prime minister.

The message is there is no ideology. It’s just pragmatic.

Updated

Scott Morrison to banks: don't hike fees, customers already don't like you very much

Scott Morrison gives the banks a lecture on the possibility of hiking fees to cover the $6bn tax slug.

One-and-a-half billion (annual) is raised and there’s an annual profit of those banks combined of more than $30bn. Give me a break. That’s what Australians will also be saying. And with great respect to the bankers in the room, families absorb costs, small businesses absorb costs.

This is where I think a company has its value. A company has its value in the way it treats its customers. The services it provides and how it looks after them. The banks want to send a message to their customers about how much they value them?

Don’t do what they may be contemplating doing. Don’t do it. They already don’t like you very much. They don’t like us as politicians universally that much either ...

Prove them wrong. Don’t confirm their worst impressions. Tell them another story. Tell them you will pony up and help fix the budget.

Updated

Laura Tingle wants to know the government’s position on bracket creep and is wondering whether there will be changes before the next election, given the tax cap of 23.9%.

You’re right to say that the medium term projection of our surplus position we constrain by ensuring that the taxes remain less than 23.9% of GDP ... And what the technical assumption is, is that government also take decisions when that tax cap is at threat of being breached to ensure that the taxes remain below that level.

That sounds like a tax cut before the next election.

Updated

Katharine Murphy asks Morrison: Given you seem to be meeting the most political resistance today in funding the NDIS, because of your decision to share the costs of that down the income scale, so could I ask, why the government didn’t impose the costs of funding the NDIS on high income earners? Why have you spread it down the income scale?

We do, Kath. I mean, if you earn more money, you’re paying a higher levy. If you earn less, you pay a lower levy. And for lower income earners, particularly low income earners, they don’t pay the Medicare levy, and if you have more children there’s a higher cut in rate on income for those families. This is an insurance levy. We’re all affected by it.

David Crowe of the Oz pursues a similar point. Are you open to changing the tapering of the levy to get it through the Senate?

Morrison says there are exemptions for the levy and the government has not tampered with the way the Medicare levy operates. But he does not answer whether he will change it. He just says let’s get on with it.

Updated

First question from Mark Kenny of Fairfax, newly back at work after strike action.

You’ve just said yesterday and today this is an honest budget. In it you consigned as you said about $13.5bn of zombie measures to the dust heap, they’re no longer in the budget. Can I ask you – was it therefore wrong for you to pursue those measures for so long given you have come up with what I think most would say is a very moderate and optimistic budget and a constructive budget, but without those measures in it and therefore did the Senate and the opposition parties save the government and the nation from those harsh measures?

Morrison does not answer the assertion the Senate saved the government.

We had 25bn reasons to ensure we kept pursuing the [zombie] measures after the last election, because that is the sum of budget improvement measures we were able to implement after the last election.

Updated

Australian Bankers Association chief executive Anna Bligh is in the audience, as are many chief execs, lobbyists and assorted hangers on.

Scott Morrison has gone through budget measures and a number of graphs from the budget, including the one showing the growth in the Future Fund for future generations, given the Fund was not raided in the budget. He praises former Coalition treasurer Peter Costello, chair of Future Fund, on the way through.

I owe a lot of Peter Costello, finest treasurer this country has ever had. I don’t think I’m troubling him on that front. Yet.

He is coming to questions.

Cory Bernardi on Budget 2017: a pale red imitation of the Labor party

On its regular Wednesday schedule, in the middle of the treasurer’s speech, former Liberal Cory Bernardi releases his weekly Australian Conservative newsletter.

He also believes this Coalition budget is Labor-lite.

Under the major parties, Australia is headed toward European levels of national debt. Trust me when I tell you it will not end well.

The Libs have abandoned any pretext of leaner, more efficient government and chosen instead to become a pale red imitation of the Labor Party. In fact many of the measures introduced last night were modifications of Labor policy and their vision of a big spending, big taxing, big deficit government...

In short, this is not a Conservative budget. Debt continues to grow out of control, welfare spending is out of control and three big new taxes were introduced.

Frankly, it vindicates the suspicion held by many that the Liberal Party have abandoned their core ethos and have lost their way. Australian Conservatives now stand as the only check against us having two Labor parties running the country. It means our mission to gain effective representation is more important than ever.

Scott Morrison continues on with other family cameos from business, in the housing market and others. Outlining the issues of real people in order to portray the measures in the budget.

Morrison goes into a story about his brother-in-law and fireman Garry Warren and his wife, Michelle Warren. Garry was diagnosed with MS.

He drew down after he left the fire brigade on an annuity but worked every single day from then until now.

As a result he has not had to draw down on disability support pension. The family is supported by the carers payment and a mobility payment, as should be the case.

Michelle supports the family as a school teacher.

I don’t know a finer man than Garry Warren. So last night I was very proud to declare that as a treasurer in the Turnbull government, we would fully fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). That’s what this is about.

A tad emotional, Morrison calls on the parliament to come together and support the Medicare levy increase.

I’m not saying no to Garry. And the 500,000 Australians counting on this. They have asked for nothing but we deserve for them to show our support. So we should end the political games around this. We should gather together and meet in the middle as a parliament and finish the funding job that was started.

Morrison’s brother-in-law is very emotional, tearing up.

Updated

By way of example of practicality, Scott Morrison raises the cashless welfare card, which was introduced through a trial.

When we brought it in, people said we can’t do that, that won’t work. Communities won’t accept it. Guess what? They have. We’re expanding it as we should, because we’re not a government that is afraid to try things. If they don’t work, guess what? We will stop doing them. If they do work, guess what? We will keep doing them and we will expand them because that’s what practical people do.

Treasurer Scott Morrison starts his press club speech. He speaks to the themes of the budget but underlines the budget needs to be practical. (pass Senate)

It understands the new reality that we’re working in, in this place. Canberra is a strange place. People watching this program understand that ... increasingly that means in this Parliament, wherever we can meet in the middle to make sure that happens.

That means many of us have to move from positions we’ve been holding previously. We have to, otherwise we run around the building making excuses as to why nothing has happened. That won’t cut it in this new reality of Australian politics.

This is a budget that recognises Australians are not interested in those political games. They are interested in governments that will focus on getting things done.

Updated

Lunch time summary

Given that I am eating lunch early – live blogging-style at the desk – I will give you a lunch-time summary before the treasurer’s post-budget address to the National Press Club.

  • Malcolm Turnbull has defended his $6bn bank tax, saying Australian banks are the most profitable in the world and also benefit from government guarantees. The money will go towards budget repair. Morgan Stanley foreshadows the banks passing on the tax to consumers. The PM says the ACCC will be watching.
  • Bill Shorten has rejected the characterisation of the budget as a Labor-lite document. He says it still contains tax cuts for the wealthy (the end of temporary deficit levy) and corporate tax cuts.
  • Barnaby Joyce said you can’t go to work smashed or drugged out, following the government’s plans for a trial of 5,000 new welfare recipients who will receive drug and alcohol testing with punitive measures for positive tests. Turnbull says the message is, don’t do drugs. The Greens and Jacqui Lambie want to bring in similar testing for politicians.
  • A woman has been taken to hospital after dousing herself with petrol on the front lawn of Parliament House in front of rolling budget coverage.
  • The zombie savings measures from the 2014 Abbott-Hockey Budget of Doom have been officially dumped by the lower house.
  • Income amendments for the youth path program, where unemployed work 25 hours a week for an extra $4 an hour on top of the welfare payment, have passed the Senate with Nick Xenophon amendments. More details shortly.
  • The Greens and senators Sam Dastyari, Nick Xenophon and Jacqui Lambie have joined forces to establish a Senate select committee looking at the future of public interest journalism.

We are also expecting a guest appearance from Tony Abbott on 2GB this afternoon. There is the regular question time at 2pm.

Updated

The zombie measures are “discharged”.

Tony Abbott arrives during a division to discharge the so-called ‘zombie measures’ from the 2014 budget.
Tony Abbott arrives during a division to discharge the so-called ‘zombie measures’ from the 2014 budget. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Updated

I am still cleaning up the morning interviews. I want to cover off on some points made by Bill Shorten.

The lifting of the Medicare rebate freeze is staggered.

Shorten:

We campaigned at the last election – Mr Turnbull said we were making it up. Last night we’ve watched the Liberals recant and say well they have a credibility and a trust problem with Medicare but the devil is in the detail. They are not unfreezing the rebates which ordinary patients gets across the board until the next three years.

The bank levy should not stop a banking royal commission.

This is a government who want to look like they are doing something but they are not really, are they? On one hand, they have got a bank levy and we are up for that. We’re not going to get in the way of that, but on the other hand, they’re still going to give these same banks, whose levy they are putting on, a corporate tax cut.

Updated

Richard Di Natale: Medicare levy hike should be on high-income earners

The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, has responded to the budget by saying though it “maybe be Labor-lite, it is not Green-lite” because it did nothing to address climate change, and in fact encouraged fracking.

Asked about the 0.5% Medicare levy increase to pay for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Di Natale said:

Our view is that if you’re going to increase what is effectively a form of income tax – it’s called the Medicare levy but we all know it’s no different to income tax – you do it on high-income earners. That’s why we would’ve liked to have seen the levy on high-income earners remain permanent, we think that’s a much fairer way of doing it.

Di Natale said people on high incomes such as $1m in effect got a tax cut when people on middle or low incomes, for example $22,000, would get a hike.

The Greens leader didn’t lock in to oppose the levy rise but said his party would negotiate with the government. He supported lifting the threshold that exempts low-income earners from the Medicare levy.

Updated

Or in the media?

The independent senator Jacqui Lambie wants politicians drug and alcohol tested.

So do the Greens.

Updated

Tony Abbott's zombie measures are officially dumped

The 2014 Budget of Doom zombie measures go down in the lower house vote. Labor applauds.

Bowers says the force is strong in this one.

Ed Husic plays up to the cameras with a Star Wars bag he ame across in the press gallery.
Ed Husic plays up to the cameras with a Star Wars bag he came across in the press gallery. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Updated

In the lower house, the leader of the government in the house, Christopher Pyne, is sick of the Labor contributions on dumping the 2014 zombie savings measures. He calls for a vote. Bells are ringing.

I will draw a curtain on this amusing pantomime by the Labor party and move the motion be put.

Updated

This is an interesting graph from John Daley of the Grattan Institute thinktank which shows the heroic nature of past wage growth forecasts compared with real wage growth.

Updated

The employment minister, Michaelia Cash, is answering questions about the the path program in the Senate.

She says the program is entirely voluntary and failure to complete internships does not result in a penalty.

Updated

I mentioned the youth jobs path bill being debated in the Senate.

Labor is opposed to the bill. In a previous debate, the Labor senator Doug Cameron set out Labor’s arguments.

Young Australian will be denied award wages and conditions. They will be classified as interns and not employees in a not-so-subtle expression of Coalition contempt for decent wages, decent conditions and health and safety on the job.

The latest iteration of the government’s anti-working agenda is this bill, the social security legislation amendment (youth jobs path: prepare, trial, hire) bill 2016. It continues the Coalition tradition of attacking worker protections. This bill sits comfortably in the tradition of Work Choices and the ABCC.

The bill is designed to give effect to so-called internships and provide wage subsidies, which were elements of the youth jobs path measure announced in the 2016-17 budget as part of the youth employment package.

The youth jobs path program is being marketed as providing jobseekers aged 17 to 24 years who have been in receipt of jobactive services for six months with work experience and to allegedly maximise their prospects of subsequently gaining employment. The reality is that it will expose them to unscrupulous employers with no access to workers’ compensation, no award wages and no union protection.

Updated

In the lower house, Tony Burke is speaking on the removal of the zombie measures.

Burke says the government has refused to disavow the zombie measures just in case the Coalition wants to bring the 2014 Budget of Doom savings measures back.

That is, government ministers do not want to be on the record arguing against them.

Everything is setting the parameters … for these measures to be reintroduced.

Updated

PDuddy is very busy in the chamber this morning. *thoughtfulface*

Immigration minister Peter Dutton talks with the trade minister Steve Ciobo in the house
Immigration minister Peter Dutton talks with trade minister Steve Ciobo in the house. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Updated

Anthony Albanese is being challenged on Sky by Sam Maiden after his forthright denunciation of Labor’s Employ Australians First ad, which was pulled after criticism that it was “too white”.

Some have interpreted this through a leadership prism. Albo metaphorically throws up his hands.

Q: Can you rule out challenging Bill Shorten before the next election?

That’s absolute nonsense. We have our leader. I’m part of the team and I am very happy staying in the job I am in.

The fact is this. If people want politicians to say what they think, what they shouldn’t do is this nonsense of trying to read other things into it.

Q: Can you rule out a challenge?

Absolutely. There is nothing going on on our side.

Updated

Barnaby Joyce: You can't go to work if you're smashed

The deputy PM, Barnaby Joyce, is speaking to Anna Vidot on ABC 24. Anna is trying to nail him down on some of the budget measures but he is lapsing into commodity price talk again.

She asks how the drug and alcohol testing will go down in rural Australia.

Very well … all those people watching this go to work and work all of Monday and a lot of Tuesday just to pay their taxes. They believe there is a contract between them and those people who are on unemployment benefits. They believe they have a duty to support the needy but it is a quid pro quo.

If I go to work and I can’t go to work drunk or under the influence of drugs, neither can you. People say, sorry, this goes all round. You should present yourself in a capacity you are ready to go to work. You can’t go to work if you are smashed or drugged out. We want to make sure you get yourself in a position where you can get work and can get help if you need it.

Q: How does the government force people to take a drug test?

We have to provide the money.

Updated

I missed Matt yesterday. Welcome back, Hat Man.

Updated

The Senate has been debating the youth jobs path (prepare, trial, hire) bill.

It would provide that fortnightly incentive payments made to young jobseekers undertaking internships under the youth jobs path do not affect social security payments or veterans’ entitlements; and Social Security (Administration) Act 1999 to provide that young jobseekers employed by a youth jobs path employer may have their social security payments suspended rather than cancelled in certain circumstances.

Nick Xenophon, the Greens and One Nation are trying to amend the bill so there are a number of votes.

Updated

Morgan Stanley advises banks could use 'oligopoly pricing power' to pass on tax

Warning from Morgan Stanley via my colleague Josh Robertson.

Updated

Labor’s Nick Champion is following on from Jenny Macklin.

He also wonders why there is no defence of the underlying foundations of the zombie measures.

Champion suggests the Coalition is like the Grand Old Duke of York.

They marched the zombie measures up to the top of the hill, hung around for 1,000 days doing not a lot, and now they have marched them down again.

This is a strategic retreat from these cuts.

Updated

Thanks to reader Faulty Powers for drawing my attention to the history of drug testing for the unemployed. Back in the Abbott days, the then social services minister, Kevin Andrews, was thinking about it such a policy.

Samantha Maiden, latterly of News Corp and now of Sky, reported in 2014:

Asked whether the reforms could include New Zealand’s most controversial change, drug testing for the unemployed, Mr Andrews said the Government was not ruling it out.

Two years ago, north Queensland Liberal MHR George Christensen raised the idea, arguing that many workers were already drug tested.

“If it’s good enough for a hard-working miner, who pays taxes, to undergo a mandatory drug test, then it’s good enough for the person who receives those taxes in welfare,” Mr Christensen said.

The drug testing of welfare recipients has been attacked as a waste of money by critics in New Zealand for its low rates of positive results.

Of the 8001 jobseekers sent for drug testing, only 22 tested positive to drug use or refused to take tests.

Updated

Jenny Macklin underlines Malcolm Turnbull’s comments this morning about dumping the zombie measures. He said the measures had “merit”.

She is now going through the zombie measures.

The six-month wait for the young people on the dole.

The cut to paid parental leave for 70,000 mothers.

Scrapping pension measures.

They have told us with a completely straight face these measures are fair.

Updated

But first, the social services minister, Christian Porter, knocks off the zombie tax measures.

He moves that they be discharged.

His Labor shadow Jenny Macklin – well – takes the piss.

She says all it takes is one line to dump the zombie tax measures. Yet Labor has been fighting them for the 1,000 days since they were introduced. Or thereabouts.

It’s all about survival for the PM, says Macklin.

Updated

FYI parliament is still sitting.

Four items on the agenda:

  • Parliamentary Business Resources
  • Parliamentary Business Resources (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions)
  • Enhancing Online Safety for Children Amendment
  • Treasury Laws Amendment (2017 Enterprise Incentives No 1).

Updated

No comment.

Official statement from AFP on protest

ACT policing has taken a woman into custody after an incident occurred this morning on the lawns of Parliament House.

· A woman was treated for minor injuries at the scene.

· Police can confirm that there are no concerns in relation to public safety.

Updated

We are just trying to nail down a few of the parliamentary positions on big budget measures.

Labor’s Treasury shadow, Chris Bowen, spoke to Fran Kelly this morning.

He said Labor would support the bank levy but he is leaving Labor’s options open on the Medicare levy.

On 1 July the deficit levy on high-income earners comes off. Someone on half a million gets a $4,000 tax cut, it’s still a case that the government is proceeding with their full corporate tax cuts at the same time as they are doing the Medicare levy.

Updated

Labor’s trade shadow, Jason Clare, tells Kieran Gilbert at Sky that the 2017 budget is not a Labor budget.

It is like a bucket of prawns in the sun … after a few days it starts to smell.

Updated

Parliament protester taken for treatment

Out the front of parliament it is very settled now.

We have a confirmed report that a woman doused herself in petrol. Security officers and passersby stepped in to stop her. The woman has been taken away and treated. There’s still visible puddle of petrol on the roadway and the path. Journalists say the woman protests in front of parliament regularly about family law issues. There is no formal statement from Australian federal police yet.

Updated

Reports person doused themselves with flammable liquid outside parliament

There are unconfirmed reports that a person doused themselves with a flammable liquid on the lawn and collapsed.

Police and fire crew are there. More shortly.

Day one of the #Budget2017 sell.

Scott Morrison warms himself by a heater as he sells his budget at the temporary TV studios
Scott Morrison warms himself by a heater as he sells his budget at the temporary TV studios. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Updated

Bill Shorten: This is no Labor-lite budget

Bill Shorten in a post-budget interview
Bill Shorten in a post-budget interview. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Bill Shorten has been asked about the common conclusion amongs some in the commentariat that this is a Labor-lite budget.

Michael Rowland asks, is this a budget you would have liked to have delivered under a Labor government?

Oh, that’s complete rubbish. Even a crocodile wouldn’t swallow that this is a Labor budget. A Labor budget wouldn’t have given millionaires last night a $16,500 tax cut. A Labor budget wouldn’t give the largest companies in Australia and multinationals a tax cut, and Labor doesn’t believe in just hiking up the cost of living. We would have fixed Medicare. We would make sure there weren’t cuts to schools and we wouldn’t be increasing the cost of going to university and we wouldn’t be cutting Tafe funding.

Updated

Is this a Trump shake?

Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten meet on the front lawn
Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten meet on the front lawn. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Not sure what is going on here.

Updated

Peak awks.

Malcolm Turnbull and opposition leader Bill Shorten do the rounds.
Malcolm Turnbull and opposition leader Bill Shorten do the rounds. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

I can see you, Mr Bowers.

Malcolm Turnbull sells the budget at the temporary TV studios on the front lawn of Parliament House
Malcolm Turnbull sells the budget at the temporary TV studios on the front lawn of Parliament House. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Updated

PM goes all Nancy Reagan: Don't do drugs

Malcolm Turnbull is being grilled by Fran Kelly on Radio National about the plan to trial drug tests of welfare recipients.

Kelly asks how it’s fair that having a joint at a party will push you on to the cashless welfare card.

Turnbull:

You know as well as I do that substance abuse, drug dependency and alcohol dependency have a very high correlation to unemployment and welfare dependency.

Kelly noted that a drug test doesn’t test drug dependency.

Fran, look, the lesson is don’t do drugs. And the bottom line is – if you’re on welfare, what you’ve got to do is get off.

Updated

Alan Jones gives Malcolm Turnbull a lecture on his debt. He makes the point that the average annual increase in debt under Labor was $36bn a year, but under the Coalition it has been $60bn a year. How do you stand up in the marketplace and say we are better economic managers than Labor?

Turnbull says both under Abbott and his leadership, the government has made many savings but many have not been able to get through the Senate. He has had a “red-hot go”.

Updated

Malcolm Turnbull: the forecasts are conservative

The prime minister was interviewed by Alan Jones on 2GB.

He was asked about the heroic wage and debt forecasts, which Jones characterised as “very rubbery figures”.

Well, we live in an uncertain world … the assumptions here are conservative.

Three per cent growth? It’s now 1.75%.

They are more conservative than the Reserve Bank and the IMF. They are relative.

He says the critical figure is net debt because the commonwealth has assets on the other side of the balance sheet.

Net debt is estimated this year to be 19.5% of GDP or $355bn.

That is too high and that will rise into next year and then it will start to come down as we move back into surplus.

Updated

This budget also drove a stake through the heart of the 2014 Budget of Doom zombie savings measures worth $13.5bn. It is not a repudiation of the Abbott budget, says the prime minister.

It has got nothing to do with personalities … 24 million Australians – personalities – are assuring their future and essential services and assuring them the budget is coming back into balance so they won’t be burdened with the debt for future generations.

Updated

Turnbull disappointed by criticism of drug and alcohol trial

Malcolm Turnbull is disappointed that there has been criticism of the drug and alcohol testing trial for 5,000 new welfare recipients. Dole recipients who fail tests will be given a cashless welfare card, subjected to further tests and possibly be referred to treatment.

I am so disappointed people are critical of that. Really, what is more important in the welfare area than getting people back into a job? The best form of welfare is a job. If people are on welfare and they have an addiction problem it needs to be identified and helped. It needs to be helped and get off the addiction so they can get back into the workforce. This is helping people.

Nick Xenophon has some concerns about the trial but Jacqui Lambie says she called for it two years ago. She adds that drug and alcohol testing should be put on the front door of parliament.

They are paid by the taxpayer, do drug-testing at the doors and lead by example and that way they won’t get so much flak.

Updated

Malcolm Turnbull says the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will keep an eye on the banks to ensure they do not pass on the levy to ordinary customers.

Asked about the increase of 0.5% in the Medicare levy to fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Turnbull says it is a great national enterprise.

All of us are beneficiaries or potential beneficiaries of it. All of us know people who need support with disabilities, kids with disabilities, families struggling with that.

The levy rise comes in 2018-19.

Updated

Over here *waves*

I will bring you a few front pages in between interviews.

Budget reaction: Malcolm Turnbull takes aim at the banks

It is a beautiful morning in Canberra for the wash-up of budget 2017. There are balloons over a crystal clear dawn and the front lawn of parliament has become a sea of jibbering as the experts flock together. A veritable boffinarium, as First Dog would put it.

Malcolm Turnbull is doing wall-to-wall interviews. I will get cracking with this and then if there is a lull, I will bring you my own budget take. With five hours’ sleep. (What could go wrong?)

Here is his opening gambit to the banks.

They are the most profitable banks in the word. They benefit from the implicit support of the government, that is a major benefit that they have. It is only fair that they pay this levy to help bring the budget back into balance. Levies like this are common right around the world.

This is a very conventional approach and it is one that will secure that additional money, $6bn over the next four years, that will assist us in bringing the budget back into balance and ensuring that our children and grandchildren are not burdened with a mountain of debt. We will, with the projections in the budget, $7.4bn of surplus by 2021, a big improvement forecast in last year’s budget.

Mike Bowers is trawling the front lawn. Talk to us on the Twits @gabriellechan and @mpbowers, in the thread or on Facebook.

Updated

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