So long
The multi-tasking is now getting mildly dysfunctional so I’ll fold the Politics Live tent for today and trot off to record this week’s episode of our campaign podcast. Thanks to Mel and thanks to the readers for your company. Most marvellous.
Shall we summarise?
Today, Thursday:
- Malcolm Turnbull picked up the fog horn and shouted in the direction of Jakarta that Australia’s position was there was no (N-O) link between asylum boats and live exports. This became necessary after the deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce told the good people of Goulburn there was a link between the two issues, the live exports stopped and then the asylum boats came. Pretty much everyone said this contention was completely ridiculous, and the Indonesians, unsurprisingly, were not amused given this analysis had been presented as fact by the deputy prime minister of Australia. When the prime minister wasn’t gagging his deputy prime minister and launching a major diplomatic offensive he was promising dams in Queensland to sandbag the Coalition’s position up north.
-
Bill Shorten had to clean up his Victorian colleague David Feeney’s amnesia and his departing Senate colleague Nova Peris’ inconvenient departure from public life and proceeded to do that by first sending out Chris Bowen to say Labor would not (N-O-T) restore the school kids bonus and would not alter the government’s pensions assets test (promptly superseding Feeney’s Sky News offering on Wednesday of *no idea, sorry*) and next standing supportively next to Peris while she tearfully told reporters that no-one should judge her for departing politics. When Shorten wasn’t doing that, there was funding for indigenous initiatives in Darwin.
That was Thursday. Do join us Friday. See you then.
Sorry, bit of multi-tasking on this afternoon, which means I haven’t really dived into the Coalition’s policy announcement today very extensively.
Fortunately Michael Slezak is on the job.
Malcolm Turnbull has promised to spend $150m on dams in Queensland as part of a plan to double the agricultural output of northern Australia, but conservationists say it would mean thousands of tonnes of pollution would be dumped on to the Great Barrier Reef.
The prime minister committed $130m to one dam near Rockhampton and another $20m for feasibility studies for 14 others across the state.
The government said the Rockwood weir project near Rockhampton would create 2,100 farming jobs. The list of 14 possible dams, which will proceed to feasibility studies, runs the length of the state and was touted as having the potential to drought-proof Queensland.
But the environmental group WWF said if the six proposed dams in the Great Barrier Reef catchment were built, nitrogen pollution on the reef would increase by more than 2,500 tonnes each year as a result of increased fertiliser use.
Updated
Speaking of Barnaby Joyce, some free advice: eating raw produce doesn’t work well for a long political career.
DPM @Barnaby_Joyce warns @TurnbullMalcolm against eating a raw sweet potato #oniongate #auspol @australian pic.twitter.com/bRTxT7ASHb
— Rachel Baxendale (@rachelbaxendale) May 26, 2016
Updated
Simon Birmingham was also asked to disavow Barnaby Joyce’s comments on boats and live exports. He didn’t exactly do that. Birmingham just reframed Joyce slightly. He said it was just a fact that diplomatic relations soured between Jakarta and Canberra during the live export suspension, and poor diplomatic relations made everything harder to deal with. The prime minister said this morning there was no link between these issues at all.
The protagonists are asked for their views on a high-level nuclear waste dump for the state. Hanson-Young is against it; Wong says it will need a social licence and if people are ultimately for it, then Labor won’t get in the way; Birmingham says the Coalition will work with the state government to get it done, and Xenophon says there should be a referendum in South Australia before it proceeds.
Updated
Sky News political editor David Speers sticks with gaffes and asks Nick Xenophon does he regret saying a while ago on donations and influence that if someone gives a political party $100,000 they own them. Businessman Ian Melrose has donated more than $100,000 to Xenophon, which makes his remark somewhat inconvenient. Xenophon says sometimes he gives a line that’s too clever by half, and that was a too clever by half line.
Is it embarrassing, Speers wonders?
Nick Xenophon:
I’m embarrassed about what I say all the time.
Tory Shepherd from the Advertiser wants to know whether the campaign will get out of its current wheel- spinning and get on to big announcements.
Green senator Sarah Hanson-Young.
There’s been a lot of focus on gaffes because there’s been a lot of gaffes.
Updated
If it’s not already obvious, there is a big focus on South Australia in this contest because of the four-way contest between the two major parties, the Greens and the Xenophon team.
A journalist wants to know whether this will be a transient phenomenon – all eyes on South Australia. Nick Xenophon says his aspiration is get more Xenophon candidates elected, and that will keep South Australia firmly in the national game.
Updated
Oh no, here we go into questions now.
The first is whether there should be capital investment in Arrium Steel, which is in trouble in Whyalla?
Nick Xenophon has the microphone. He says there’s nothing wrong with concessional loans, or even a direct leg-up if the alternative is workers at Whyalla on the dole queues. Penny Wong says Labor will work constructively with the state government. Simon Birmingham says this shouldn’t get into a bidding war, a message repeated by Sarah Hanson-Young. Hanson-Young adds government projects should source Australian steel, and the trans-Pacific partnership won’t let us do that. Wong is asked for her view on that given she’s opposition spokeswoman on trade. She says Australian projects should use Australian standard steel.
Updated
Over in Adelaide we are still on opening statements.
'So look I find myself on the same page with Malcolm Turnbull in terms of keeping strong borders … '
Before we plug into South Australia, a short recap from the Ray Hadley program this morning. I did forget to tune in this morning for the regular fireside chat between Hadley and the immigration minister, Peter Dutton. Let’s join this duo just as Hadley notes he’s read somewhere that Malcolm Turnbull is keeping Dutton close.
Q: Is that what I read the other day? Is that right that you have been taken into the inner sanctum by the prime minister? That you’re now one of the key advisers on quite a number of matters? It’s a wonderful turnaround in fortune for you.
Peter Dutton:
RayI have got a good working relationship with Malcolm Turnbull …
Q: … Well should I congratulate you on that because you came from the other side of the fence and there are plenty that are appreciative of the fact that you are showing some strength in your portfolio and I guess that gives credit to the prime minister – he recognised your strength and to a certain extent he has let you off the leash, so to speak, with your various comments. I know that no one has to let you off the leash, that you are a very strong-minded man anyway, but it’s good to know that Mr Turnbull, who I have described as Labor-lite here, is listening to someone from the right.
Peter Dutton:
Well Ray look, all I can tell you is of my experience with Malcolm Turnbull and on this issue and many others he is rock solid. I mean, it’s a disaster in my mind that Bill Shorten would become prime minister because you know the Labor party wrecked our economy last time – look at what they’re doing in Queensland. They’re now raiding superannuation accounts. They’re taking money out to put into recurrent expenditure. That is a sure way of getting a credit downgrade, of making sure that you’re paying more interest on the debt that they run up, and I just don’t want to see that for our country at a federal level.
I think Malcolm Turnbull has demonstrated to people that he does have a very firm view in relation to keeping the boats stopped, stopping kids drowning, making sure that people are out of detention.
So, look, I find myself on the same page with Malcolm Turnbull in terms of keeping strong borders, I’m proud of the relationship that we’ve got and I think at this election there’s a big difference between what is an old Labor model and what has been proven to work, and that’s what we’re presiding over in border protection.
I find myself on the same page is an odd locution from a minister about a prime minister. #JustSaying
Updated
I’ve noted today is brisk and the pace is continuing. Over in Adelaide, Sky News is hosting a political debate for the South Australian Press Club involving Liberal Simon Birmingham, Labor’s Penny Wong, Green Sarah Hanson-Young, and Nick Xenophon. I’ll keep my ear on that while checking to make sure we are across everything we need to be across at this point in the day.
A dispatch from Jingil
Murph’s been driving the Politics Live bus relentlessly forward, let me take you back for a minute.
In a suburban park at Jingili, members of the stolen generations and dozens of schoolchildren gathered to mark Sorry Day, and hear from Bill Shorten, Pat Dodson, Warren Snowdon and Nova Peris. Shorten told the crowd, sheltering a cavernous distance away under the shade, this land “always was, always will be, Aboriginal land”.
Dodson began by acknowledging the people in the crowd who had raised families after having been taken from their own parents. The politicians then met with the nanas and aunties of the Northern Territory Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation. One woman waggled her finger at Peris, who was making her first public appearance since announcing her shock resignation.
“The amount of shit you’ve been through this last week,” she told Peris, telling the senator she’d done a good job. “You have to live your own life.”
Peris, who was yet to hold her teary press conference, thanked her and moved on quickly. Aunty Pina – who gave the name she had at birth rather than the one Catholic authorities had given her – said this was the first time a Labor politician had come to their Sorry Day event. “It’s a surprise, we all look at him and say what is he doing here?” she told Guardian Australia.
Pina and the other aunties and nanas meet every Tuesday. “Saying sorry had nothing, still didn’t do anything for us,” said Kathy. “They just said sorry, which we don’t believe really.”
Pina said the senior stolen generations ladies were “all suspicious” that the visit was “about votes”. “Regardless of what they say, will it be done?” Pina asked a few reporters if they were suspicious of politicians too. “Always,” was the reply.
Updated
The final question is on constitutional recognition – when will the referendum be? Shorten says at the earliest possible moment.
Q: On Barnaby Joyce, do you think it’s appropriate that he is our acting prime minister when Malcolm Turnbull is overseas in light of his comments about our live animal exports and asylum seekers?
Bill Shorten:
Barnaby Joyce is loose and dangerous. And is Mr Turnbull seriously asking Australians to consider voting for Barnaby Joyce as deputy prime minister? Because if he’s not, that’s exactly what he is currently doing while he keeps Barnaby Joyce as deputy prime minister. Malcolm Turnbull is asking Australians to vote for Barnaby Joyce as deputy prime minister and that’s not good for Australia.
Q: We have seen yet another serious error from David Feeney. Has he blown his chances of being a minister on your frontbench if you win the election and were you given talking points about the talking points today?
Bill Shorten:
No, to your second question. In terms of Mr Feeney, I’m sure he’s had a couple of rough days. My particular favourite media outing in the last couple of days was my new best buddy with Mathias Cormann with his not once but twice endorsement not only about policies but me personally. In terms of Mr Feeney, he knows he has to focus on his seat and that’s what I expect him to do.
(You see he didn’t answer the question about Feeney and the ministry.)
Updated
The Labor leader is asked about Indigenous incarceration. He says there are too many Aboriginal men receiving custodial sentences, and he throws the detail to Pat Dodson, who is campaigning with him. Dodson recently gave a very tough speech to the National Press Club about incarceration.
Pat Dodson:
We have this sorry state of affairs where the incarceration rates are absolutely shameful and that further to that, we have an increase in the rates at which Aboriginal women are being incarcerated. So we have also on the other hand a propensity of jurisdictions to introduce mandatory sentencing, introduce law and order type campaigns without any real consideration of the factors that underlie why people commit crime. That is because we live in poverty, because the lack of proper education, the lack of opportunity for jobs, the lack of real engagement with the society.
That is what Labor is trying to achieve, a change to circumstances so we can impact the causes for why people go to – become the subject of police detection in the first instance.
Updated
Shorten is asked about a CFMEU agreement seeking pay rises for workers of 18% over the next three years – is that responsible? The Labor leader says if you want to talk responsibility how about the remuneration system in the big banks. Let’s have a royal commission into the banks.
Q: Your leaked talking notes yesterday, I believe referred to something like the payment of commitments that Labor is making over the medium term. Could you be specific for us as to what you mean by the medium term and further to that, given that the government is getting to surplus we think one year beyond the forwards, can you guarantee Labor will get to surplus just as fast or are your commitments going to take longer to cover?
Bill Shorten says the talking points Feeney left behind in the Sky studio show Labor has positive plans to talk about.
Bill Shorten:
More of the economic detail of our policies, I’m looking forward to, will be revealed in tomorrow night’s debate between Chris Bowen, my very capable treasurer and Scott Morrison, Mr Turnbull’s treasurer.
Let me be clear about this matter about Chris Bowen and Scott Morrison. Chris Bowen has been doing a great job for the last three years. He is an outstanding treasurer in waiting. I can say if we get elected, Chris Bowen will be our treasurer. I wonder if Mr Turnbull can give the same guarantee?
Shorten later comes back on this question to repeat his formulation from before, Labor won’t commit to policies it can’t fund.
Updated
The Labor leader is asked about Indigenous policy. The current government moved the portfolio into the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. What would you do as leader? Shorten says he’ll have more to say about it over the course of the campaign.
Q: John Setka from the CFMEU has compared the proposed building code to Nazi Germany. What do you have to say about those comments?
Bill Shorten:
It’s a stupid comment. I thought it was stupid when Tony Abbott started using the word Holocaust. I don’t approve of the person saying it.
It delivers nothing full stop, it’s dumb.
Updated
Shorten is asked about the backpacker tax and funding for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena). He won’t commit one way or other on those measures.
Updated
Questions are about Labor’s position on Schoolkids bonus and pensions and other issues.
Q: You said earlier this year you promised to stand with Australians against these cuts every day until the next election. Given what we have heard from Chris Bowen this morning, is this a broken promise?
Bill Shorten:
Obviously this is a difficult decision, we would like to be able to restore the funding which is due to be terminated in the future. What has happened since then, on top of the tripling of the deficit revealed at the budget, on top of the threat to our AAA credit rating, last Friday the most recent set of independent budgetary numbers have revealed a very tough financial situation, brought about by Liberal incompetence, Liberal mismanagement. So we were clear after last Friday we will have to make some difficult decisions. Let me also be clear, we are rock solid that the only policies that we will support are policies that we can fund. The only policies that we are going to promise are policies that we can deliver. We are rock solid on that commitment.
Q: This is extended to also the government’s changes to the pension, the assets test for the pension. Labor won’t be making any changes there either, you will stick with what the government has done?
Bill Shorten:
We think the government’s policies are really unfair on part pensioners. We think there will be a whole series of unintended consequences and unfairnesses and there is a whole lot of complexity in their measures. But the facts are that the fiscal outlook which was released last Friday …
(Plug in formulation above on AAA credit ratings.)
Updated
Bill Shorten is embarking on his main Darwin press event now, which is an announcement of funding for the Michael Long Learning Centre. Shorten says funding this project will see young Indigenous kids get a chance to get the trades training which will “set them up for life”.
Updated
'This is so silly'
Bill Shorten’s main press conference is coming up but, while we idle, the news wire service AAP reports the prime minister had some sass in Rockie this morning at the Paradise Lagoons cattle farm.
While the cattle mostly behaved themselves, four-year-old twins Orlando and Presley Acton were less than impressed about being forced to pose for photos with the prime minister. “This is so silly,” Presley told AAP, tugging at his straw cowboy hat. Orlando wasn’t happy about the media attention either. “I was scared because those lights were getting in my eyes.”
Happy to be here. Never a more exciting time.
Updated
It’s slightly odd that Morrison is saying Labor has signed up to the dairy package – unless I’ve gone mad (possible) I thought the shadow agriculture minister, Joel Fitzgibbon, was complaining that this didn’t happen yesterday.
Updated
Oh look, goodie gumdrops, the treasurer, Scott Morrison, has taken to Twitter to clarify how the concessional loans for dairy farmers measure from yesterday hits the bottom line. No cost to the budget.
Further information on dairy concessional loans announcement #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/tgWuKlzDLG
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) May 26, 2016
Updated
Let's take stock
Well that’s been brisk, let’s take a moment to assess where we are.
-
Malcolm Turnbull has moved in with an industrial strength vacuum cleaner to clean up the mild diplomatic debacle unleashed when the deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, last night suggested the Indonesians had sent unauthorised boat arrivals our way when Australia suspended live cattle exports. This morning Joyce has attempted to reposition his incendiary comments in the national campaign while firing a wedge into his local campaign in New England. What does Tony Windsor think of live cattle exports, eh? Eh? The prime minister says there is no link between between these issues, boats and live exports, and has heaped lavish praise on the Indonesian president. Wonderful, wonderful man, Jokowi, met him last year. Joyce’s opponent, Tony Windsor, has told reporters meanwhile that Joyce is a buffoon in slightly more polite terms.
-
Bill Shorten has had to clean up another bout of campaign stumble bum from his factional colleague David Feeney, who yesterday had no idea about Labor’s policies on the Schoolkids bonus and on the pensions assets test, and no idea on live television. Shorten, who is in Darwin, also had to field some intense interest in the departure of Nova Peris from the Senate. The lady herself has declared, tearfully, at a campaign event, that no one should judge her actions. The shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, has also fired up the Dyson in order to clean up Feeney: Bowen took to the radio to confirm Labor would not restore the Schoolkids bonus, or create a new assets test for pensions. See, the treasurer, Scott Morrison, declared triumphantly, we’ve flushed Labor out! Victory was declared shortly before Morrison refused to answer a question about whether $500m promised by the Coalition yesterday had been accounted for in last week’s PEFO.
Campaign Thursday.
On we go.
Updated
I reckon we need a summary, don’t we? I’ll attend to that very shortly.
Senator Nova Peris breaks down at a press conference at a sorry day event in Darwin @murpharoo @GuardianAus pic.twitter.com/lpJakEI1tp
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) May 26, 2016
Q: Senator Peris why didn’t you make this announcement earlier instead of during an election campaign?
Nova Peris:
I didn’t call the election.
Bill Shorten:
Good answer.
Q: You are also a Senator for all Territorians?
Nova Peris:
Correct.
Q: Did all Territorians not deserve a better explanation as to why you’re leaving?
Nova Peris:
I’m a 45-year-old woman. I am sure you don’t go around every day justifying the things that you do. Listen to me. I am a politician but I am also human.
'No one should judge me'
Bill Shorten is speaking to reporters with Nova Peris at his side in Darwin.
Nova Peris
Thank you, Bill.
I want to acknowledge that we meet here on this land, I’m a Darwin girl, born on this country. Three years ago, I walked into parliament as a first Aboriginal woman and until you are an Aboriginal person do not criticise me for the decisions I have made. This isn’t easy. It’s hard. And today I’m here with my mum, Joan, my aunty Jenita, who are also members of the stolen generation, and we’ve come here today to honour their resilience. It also is a day that 18 years ago that the Bringing Them Home report was tabled in federal parliament. And we still have a long way to go. A long, long way to go.
And I want to acknowledge the work of the Australian Labor party for the work that they have done in trying to elevate and empower the lives of Aboriginal people. But that [work] will not stop until Aboriginal people are treated as equals in this country.
I may be leaving but I am leaving on my terms and I want to make this clear – no one should judge me. I am an inherited Aboriginal women with strengths and resilience that I have had to endure for 45 years. And it’s not easy to wake up every morning and bounce out of bed and pretend that life is fantastic. Because it isn’t.
Aboriginal people have no inherited wealth. They have inherited pain. But we have a vision and I know that Bill Shorten and Uncle Pat Dodson who we are descendants of the Yarru people, people like your Warren Snowdon who is my old history teacher and a good friend and mentor. I have nothing but the utmost respect for Bill, Warren and Uncle Pat – and the door that’s now been opened by me exiting – I wish that person well and I know that their time in parliament they will make a significant difference.
It can only be done with the Australian Labor party because the vision of the Australian Labor party is a vision of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
So I am not going to make any further comment apart from this decision that I’ve made has on been family – and I have to look after my children.
Updated
Dear Joko, very soz, Cheers Malco. Doesn’t get more lavish than that.
Must move on, we need to look north, because Nova Peris has broken down in tears.
Jokowi an inspiration: Turnbull
Now we get to the inevitable point in the press conference where the prime minister has to eat a turkey sized crow to settle the Indonesians thanks to the Joyce sortie last night.
Q: Julie Bishop this morning has said that the government doesn’t believe there is any link between the Indonesian government and people smugglers. That is in contrast, Mr Joyce, with what you said on Seven. You said you were stating the bleeding obvious.
Turnbull intervenes quickly.
Malcolm Turnbull:
Hang on, let me deal with that. You’re being unfair to my good friend, the deputy PM here. Let me be quite clear about this. There is no link between the Indonesian government and people smuggling. The Indonesian government, and I count the Indonesian president Joko Widodo, Jokowi, as a good friend and leader. He and his wife and Lucy and I spent a very, very productive time together in Jakarta last year and I believe our relations between Australia and Indonesia have never been better than they are today.
He says the Coalition had to clean up the damage done by the live exports saga.
Malcolm Turnbull:
That did enormous damage to the cattle industry across Australia, but it was an incredible affront to Indonesia. Now, the only point that I want to stress is that our cooperation with Indonesia, in terms of stopping people smuggling, is very, very strong. They are as committed to stopping that trade as we are, and indeed all the other countries that are party to the Bali process. But what the Labor party did - we often look at these things naturally as Australians, from our own perspective. And Australians many Australians, most Australians I think were horrified by that live cattle ban, not least because of what it did to farmers in Australia and cattle producers and beef producers here in Australia. But it was also an outrageous affront to Indonesia.
And we should treat our neighbours, our friends, and neighbours, with respect and I do and we do. We have a good relationship with them and as I say I think president Jokowi is a great leader. He is in fact an inspirational leader and one whose importance is quite profound because it goes beyond Indonesia.
Jokowi, as he often says, as the popularly elected leader of the largest Muslim country in the world, as Jokowi says regularly, he says Indonesia is proof positive that Islam, democracy and moderation are compatible and he is a great role model and great leader in a troubled worlds. He has my immense respect for the leadership he’s shown both internationally and in terms of his relations with us.
Fate of Depp dogs uncertain: Joyce
Q: Have you heard about Johnny Depp and Amber breaking up. Do you feel partly responsible for this and are you getting custody of the dogs?
(I haven’t had time to tell you about this, sorry, yes, it’s splitsville.)
Barnaby Joyce:
All seriousness, the one thing I will never revel in is any relationship breakdown, no matter what animosity that might be seen on the air waves between Mr Depp and myself.
I have always hoped and wished the very best for people. No I would never ever revel in something like that.
Updated
But so far, the Turnbull excitement, peppered with screaming by Joyce, is keeping questions on dam building.
This is really quite mad.
The prime minister is now observing agriculture has been around as long as humans have been around.
Barnaby Joyce is screaming about who he will take the call from in the press pack.
The prime minister is excited about turning water into dams.
Joyce is screaming: Michael, Michael, Michael, speak up mate.
Here are the questions.
Q: You’ve been a bit wishy-washy on asylum seekers in the last 24 hours, Mr Joyce?
Barnaby Joyce:
I know what you’re referring to. This is quite clear. You don’t try and fix one problem, which was the problem of people coming in here under their own arrangements by boat, by creating another one, which was the banning of the live cattle trade.
It’s as clear as that. You don’t fix one problem by creating another one.
(Clear as mud.)
The prime minister is travelling with the deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, today. This should be interesting once the questions roll around. Joyce is currently saying the Coalition has the ticker to turn Emu Swamp into a dam.
(I didn’t know dam building was a ticker test. When did that happen?)
Updated
The prime minister says he has a plan for jobs and growth, unfortunately Labor does not.
Malcolm Turnbull:
Now, I regret to say our opponents don’t have a plan. They’re in chaos at the moment. As you have seen, their shadow ministry doesn’t know what their budget plans are, doesn’t know what their economic policies are. We have seen backflips today already. They are at sixes and sevens as to where they’re standing on their spending and their taxing.
The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, has picked up the microphone in Darwin and is speaking about a range of issues in indigenous communities.
In Rockhampton, Malcolm Turnbull is talking dams.
Updated
Morning to my colleague Helen Davidson, who is bringing us an arm pit view of Bill Shorten.
My current view. Press pack slightly bigger than normal for Darwin @murpharoo pic.twitter.com/XoDKDd4EcV
— Helen Davidson (@heldavidson) May 26, 2016
Above and beyond the call.
Funny money, facts, and election Gods
So the purpose of this exercise? Framing tomorrow’s encounter at the press club. Scott Morrison wants to have a conversation about the next four years, not the medium term. This is actually a valid frame of reference. It would be good if both sides stowed the 10-year budget fudges. I’d be into an armistice on medium-term assessments given the inherent rubberiness of the exercise.
There’s a but though. Fact of the matter is Morrison is not the designated election God. He can’t actually control everything. I suspect we will also have conversation tomorrow about why Morrison started with a $200bn black hole over 10 years, that then shrunk down to sixty something billion – and now he won’t even nominate a specific figure. If you are going to talk about funny money, best do it from a factual standpoint. Perhaps he could have started today by answering honestly whether the Coalition has already accounted for the $500m commitment it unveiled yesterday?
Updated
Q: Are you looking forward to the debate tomorrow?
(The treasurers have a press club debate scheduled for tomorrow).
Scott Morrison:
I am sure it will stop the nation.
The treasurer is then asked about his own spending, how about yesterday’s dairy package, which commits half a billion in concessional loans. Reporters want to know when this decision was taken, pre-budget, in which case it’s already built in to the forward estimates, or in the election, which would mean it hasn’t hit the bottom line?
Morrison doesn’t want to answer the question about when.
These decisions are made in response to demands and circumstances that arrive. And they are fully offset and they will be fully offset.
Q: When was the decision taken, that’s all?
Scott Morrison:
We announced it the other day. That was the decision. These are issues that had to be dealt with and he has taken that decision, and I think it’s a good decision.
Morrison again hammers the point the fiscal test is over the forward estimates, not the medium term. Four years, not 10 or 11.
Scott Morrison:
Now Labor have chosen to try and make the test to be over this longer period of time. Now, that’s not how budgets are done, that’s not how the charter of budget honesty requires budgets to be done and so Labor need to be held to account about whether they can offset the incredible increases in spending they’re announcing in this election and have already made going into this election against their savings and tax measures.
Updated
'I'm not making an estimate now'
Morrison is asked for his estimate about Labor’s black hole as of now. The treasurer says his previous view was it was up to $67bn.
Scott Morrison:
I’m not making an estimate now other than to say it’s up to $67bn.
If you believe everything the Labor party said prior to Tuesday that’s what it was. How much weight I can put on what they’re saying now it’s not 100% clear.
Morrison says the bottom line is Labor’s numbers don’t add up over the forward estimates and the forward estimates are the key measure for charter of budget honesty.
Scott Morrison:
They can’t make it add up over the next four years. That’s why you’ve heard Labor for some time now being very open about the fact that they want to talk about things over 10 years. The charter of budget honesty will require them to do that over four years and it takes me back to where I started. And that is that Labor has a black hole. They are spending more than they are able to save or raise in revenue to pay for the things that they’re putting forward in this election and to pay for the things that they’re opposing that the government is putting forward.
So others will debate how big that is but one thing is clear: if Labor is elected the deficit will be higher, the debt will be higher, taxes will be higher and spending will be higher.
Updated
Scott Morrison says yesterday Labor had a school kids bonus petition on their website.
Scott Morrison:
Yesterday! It was all about the school kids bonus that they were going to restore. Today it’s vanished. It’s no longer there!
How big is your black hole? The black hole could be there, was there …
The treasurer, Scott Morrison, is addressing reporters on the subject of Labor and black holes.
It’s all basically unravelling on them. There are three things that I think have been clear over the events of the last 24 hours, in particular. It’s not a question of whether there’s a black hole when it comes to Labor’s unfunded spending, it’s just a question of how big it is.
The other day I made it very clear about the extent of the black hole that could be there, that was there, based on the Labor party’s clear articulated statements over several years. And what is very clear now is that there is a big black hole. There is an addition to the deficit over the next four years, over and above what is in the current budget and forward estimates, over and above what is in PEFO because Labor is spending too much and they’re not offsetting that spending with other savings or tax measures.
Updated
Reader feedback.
@murpharoo You said in the feed that Feeney is having a blinder. I think you're mixed up. In AFL terms, a blinder means someone's going well
— David Hall (@davysalimmalik) May 25, 2016
I was being ironic, and hoped the irony would be clear, but if it isn’t, I mean David Feeney isn’t having a blinder. I was being a bit arch. I hope that’s now clear.
Mark Textor: Mind your liver
To other matters, the Liberal party’s pollster Mark Textor has used his regular column today in Business Insider to launch a beat down on opinion polls and the obsession political journalists have with them.
This might seem odd, pollster goes nuts about polls, except his point is largely about the quality of the field evidence and the subsequent analysis of it. Textor reasons polls, if they are to be worth anything, need to measure more than voting intention. They need to drill deeper: explore the reasons sitting behind the choice and the resonance of various campaign issues.
He’s described the current poll fevers in memorable terms. He says it’s a western democracy sickness.
Mark Textor:
If you are an unfortunate goose in France you may have a pipe rammed down your throat three times a day and force-fed fat. Your liver would then swell to such a grotesque size that it would be in danger of rupturing. You would be kept in a dark shed, covered in shit. And why? So your engorged liver could be ripped out to make the fine foie gras Pâté favoured by the food commentariat. Like these innocent geese who are force-fed animal byproducts and kept in a dark place to sate the narrow market of those who have a fetish for such things, we are now the geese being force fed the polling byproduct of campaigns to sate the media.
Updated
'Barnaby Joyce is unfit to be a leader'
Independent Tony Windsor is holding a media conference in Tamworth now to try and counter Barnaby Joyce’s little frolic on live exports. Windsor points to the motion he shared on Twitter earlier this morning, a motion in the last parliament from the Nationals deploring the inhumane treatment of cattle at some abattoirs in Indonesia.
Tony Windsor:
Now what Mr Joyce did last night was prove that he is unfit to be in a leaders debate. He is unfit to be a leader.
He has insulted Indonesia, our nearest neighbour, 220m people. We need those people for the future. They are going to be very important, not only in terms of live cattle trade, but in terms of trade in total, to insult them again, to suggest that they retaliated to minister Ludwig’s suspension of the live export trade at that particular time is an absolute insult, and is part of a sort of opportunistic process that this man goes through.
Windsor says he hope Malcolm Turnbull will step in and clean up the diplomatic mess with Indonesia. He thinks the Indonesians could retaliate, not with boats, but by adjusting the export quotas for beef. There are only so many times you can offend Jakarta is Windsor’s argument.
Q: Do you think there’s any correlation with that influx of boat arrivals with the 1-month ban?
Tony Windsor:
I wouldn’t have thought so. And neither do the Indonesians.
But to suggest it in a domestic sense, during an election for short-term political gain I think goes to the heart of the mind set that Barnaby Joyce is in. This is desperate politics about what’s going on within this seat and going on within the nation. It’s not what a diplomatic minister, a deputy prime minister, would be saying in terms of relations with our nearest neighbour.
Updated
To Barnaby and the boats.
Q: Last night Barnaby Joyce, he made some comments, the deputy prime minister suggested the influx of asylum seeker boats under the previous Labor government coincided with its decision to halt live cattle exports, what do you make of that comment?
Bill Shorten:
I just think the guy’s talking rubbish.
Q: There’s no correlation?
Bill Shorten:
No.
Q: Will comments like that make relations a bit prickly with Indonesia?
Bill Shorten:
I think it’s a really, really ignorant remark. You know, it’s one thing if he wants to have a fight with Johnny Depp about, you know, his wife’s dogs, that just makes us a figure of fun. But when he starts weighing into foreign policy, I think he should best leave that to the grown ups in the room.
Q: There was an ill-feeling between Australia and Indonesia at the time of the live export trade. It took a long time to heal those wounds and if you talk to any cattle people out there in the Territory, they will tell you they’re still recovering from that.
Bill Shorten:
I understand that.
Q: And they probably haven’t forgiven Labor for that.
Bill Shorten:
I understand the difficulty. I’ve commented on that subsequently. But what I’m not going to do is let the government sort of clown brigade roll into the circus and say that somehow the live animal export issue is tied up to asylum seekers and this is the first time it’s been raised. You know, you’ve got to ask yourself why are they raising this and is it anything to do with the coincidence of the timing of the election. Who benefits from what Barnaby Joyce is saying other than Barnaby Joyce? This is about politics. It’s not about good, sensible policy, relations with Indonesia, the live export trade or tackling people smugglers.
The Labor leader has been asked about the school kids bonus and the pension assets test. Shorten says now Labor is in possession of PEFO, which came out last week, it is in a position to make decisions about what to do on key measures.
Bill Shorten:
You’re asking about pension assets test. We’ve opposed it in the past but now we’ve had the most recent fiscal outlook, there is no doubt that this government has surprised Australians, including us, they’ve tripled the deficit, they’ve also put at jeopardy, under Malcolm Turnbull’s reign, the AAA credit rating. We do not believe, looking at the latest set of books that the government has just revealed last week, that we’re in a position to restore the changes they’ve made or reversed the changes they’ve made to the pension assets test. What we will do is that we will review our pensions income because we’re not convinced that meddling with part pensioners is the best way to go for Australians but this government has really systematically got things wrong with the nation’s finances, so we do not believe in all responsibility that we can simply reverse the changes they’re making.
Shorten says he found out Nova Peris wasn’t recontesting about a day before everyone else.
Q: Has she left you in the lurch by leaving at this time?
Bill Shorten:
No, as I said earlier on, there’s always more people that want to be candidates than spots.
Q: Do you think she’s flipping the bird at the Labor party at the moment by leaving now when she’s leaving?
Bill Shorten:
No, not at all.
Q: Is she trying to damage the party at all?
Bill Shorten:
No, no at all.
Updated
The Labor leader Bill Shorten is on ABC radio in Darwin at the morning being asked about the process for replacing Nova Peris in the Senate.
Q: Will Northern Territory Labor have a say in who becomes the candidate?
Bill Shorten:
It will be decided by the national executive.
Q: There was a lot of uproar last time, all respect to Nova Peris, but when Julia Gillard picked Nova Peris she made a meal of it and there was a lot of upset among Labor in the Territory.
Bill Shorten:
I’m conscious of that. When I ran for party leader every Territory got a say in the ballot. Because it’s within six weeks of the election itself, the precedent in the Labor party, not just for the Territory but all over Australia, is that our national body will make that choice.
Q: The the timing was interesting. When did you find out that she was thinking of abandoning ship?
Bill Shorten:
At the same time as most people found out. But what I’ve got to say about Nova is that she’s the first Aboriginal woman to be in the Senate and also the first from Labor. So quite frankly, if she doesn’t want to continue on for three years better she says it before an election than after because I think that can sometimes drive voters crazy.
Updated
Just for completeness, Chris Bowen’s clarification of Labor’s position on the school kids bonus and the pensions assets test.
Q: Chris Bowen, will Labor keep the SchoolKids Bonus?
Chris Bowen:
Fran, no. Labor opposed to repeal of the SchoolKids Bonus, that was our vote in parliament. The government got it through with the Clive Palmer Party. So if it was up to Labor we would still have the SchoolKids Bonus. But we’ve now had the pre-election economic forecast, we know the government has tripled the budget deficit. We know the AAA credit rating is under threat, so we are taking a very responsible approach with all our promises. Families will be better off under Labor because we won’t be proceeding with the cuts to family tax benefit in the way the government is proposing and that is a real difference for families. But we will not be able to afford to bring back the SchoolKids Bonus.
Q: So you won’t bring back the SchoolKids Bonus, what about the pension assets test?
Chris Bowen:
Well similarly Fran, the Liberal party and the Greens voted this one through again, this was something which we had a view on in the parliament but we can’t restore all the damage that this Abbott Turnbull government has done in one term. So we won’t be in a position to reverse that change immediately. We understand that these changes have introduced incentives in some cases so we will have a review of how the pension system and the assets test and the superannuation system interact. But again we are not going to make any unrealistic promises given the pressure on the budget, which the Liberal party has created on their watch, we are taking a very responsible approach and that is what I am saying to you as shadow treasurer this morning.
When Labor announces its policies, it’s best to get them from Labor spokespeople. Not Scott Morrison and Mathias Cormann because they just engage in a deceitful exercise, as has been blatantly exposed this week in a ridiculous and shrill press conference in which was not a mistake. If Joe Hockey had made those errors I’d say maybe he didn’t know but when Scott Morrison makes those errors I would say it was a deliberate intention of misleading the Australian people about Labor’s policies.
And this is called rapid response. Tony Windsor has already hit back.
Decision to suspend live export to Indonesia for 1 month had wide Parliamentary support, incl. the Nationals #auspol pic.twitter.com/fy7ouEgRB8
— Tony Windsor (@TonyHWindsor) May 25, 2016
All politics is local is both an adage and absolutely true. Interesting to see on Barnaby Joyce’s Facebook this morning with some insight into why he chose to elevate live exports in last night’s rural debate in Goulburn.
Joyce has this shared a post from Dylan Butcher observing the following.
Let’s talk about banning live trade and it’s devastating consequences which damaged Australia’s relationships with other nations and hurt our farmers across the country. Which side would Tony Windsor support in a hung parliament? How does he explain voting with Labor when John Cobb moved to condemn the ban? Great work by Jed of Armidale for keeping him accountable.
Readers will know that Joyce is locked in a contest for his seat of New England with the high-profile independent Windsor. Where does Windsor stand on live exports?
Easier to land that message locally if you lob a bomb into the national campaign.
Updated
End of lease cleaning
Thanks Mel, good morning everyone and welcome to Thursday, where the news cycle is still rolling around like a dog in a pile of crunchy leaves about the Labor man David Feeney’s screw-ups from late yesterday. Feeney, now routinely described as embattled, is having a blinder of a campaign it must be said.
The other hairy roll around in the garden compost concerns Barnaby Joyce, who literally stunned the good people of Goulburn last night when he suggested stopping live exports to Indonesia triggered an onslaught of asylum boats. For me, the audience reaction was the best part of the outburst. *Yeah nah*, was the voter’s reaction, and the government has been out in semi clean-up mode this morning. Joyce has repositioned, slightly. Government ministers are pointing to Joyce’s clarification. So when I say semi clean-up mode I mean the Coalition is happy to keep the boats discussion out there, because that’s helpful to the campaign, but make sure the attack lines are tight and tidy.
Feeney’s horror show late yesterday involved the Labor man not knowing his party’s policy on key budget measures. As Mel just noted, the shadow treasurer Chris Bowen is out on clean-up duty this morning on Radio National. Will Labor keep the school kids bonus? “No,” says Bowen. What about the pensions assets test, passed with Greens support? Bowen says Labor will leave that for now, it can’t be reversed immediately, but there will be a review into pensions post election.
So there’s a couple of news lines there. Let’s crack on. A reminder that today’s comments thread is open for your business. If the thread’s too bracing for you, Mike Bowers and I are up and about on the twits – he’s @mpbowers and I’m @murpharoo. If you speak Facebook you can join my daily forum here. And if you want a behind-the-scenes look at the day and the looming campaign, give Mike a follow on Instagram. You can find him here.
Hold on to your hoovers, here comes Thursday.
Updated
Melissa Davey here handing over to deputy political editor Katharine Murphy in Canberra now. Darwin reporter Helen Davidson is with Shorten in Darwin, while Turnbull is focussing on Queensland today,
See you tomorrow at 6am.
I’ll leave you with Barnaby Joyce, who has reopened his verbal joust with Johnny Depp, saying he needs to get over his anger and move on. He told Seven Network’s Sunrise on Thursday:
Look, Mr Depp, Ms Heard, they just keep advertising our biosecurity requirements. They know they broke the law. They know that what they did was a threat of bringing rabies into our nation.
Meanwhile shadow treasurer Chris Bowen is being interviewed by Radio National’s Fran Kelly. She asks him directly, will you bring back the school kids bonus? It’s a ‘no’.
No. Labor opposed the repeal of the school kids bonus, the government got it through with the Clive Palmer party.
But we’ve now had the pre-election economic forecast. We know the triple A credit rating is under threat. So we are taking a very responsible approach with our policies. Families will be better off under Labor, but we will not be able to afford to bring back the school kids bonus.
Updated
More from Morrison’s interview with AM’S Michael Brissenden:
Brissenden: You clearly want to steer the debate back to economic responsibility and trust. But was it a mistake this week, with a list of spending promises you say Labor made that was wrong? You claimed $67bn but the figure quickly deteriorated to $32bn.
Morrison:
The $67bn was based on statements that the Labor party had actually made. I’m pleased for them to clarify. I made that very clear at the press conference. I said it was at worst $67bn and at best it was $32bn. What we were saying very clearly and I was very clear in my statements at that press conference, is that these are the things that Labor needed to clarify.
I know journalists like to play gotcha games at these press conferences but we were very clear, Labor had not been cheer about a whole range of issues like the school kids bonus, like the changes to pension, like the changes toIndigenous funding and like the changes to local government funding and the indexation of it and questions still remain out there on all of those issues. But the one thing that’s cheer is no one’s arguing about whether there is a black hole on Labor’s promises. There is a black hole, the question is just how big is it?
Updated
The treasurer, Scott Morrison, has just spoken to the ABC’s AM program. He says he does not accept that the deputy PM, Barnaby Joyce, linked the Gillard government’s live export ban with an increase in asylum seeker boat arrivals.
Last night, Joyce said:
Might I remind you when we closed down the live animal export industry, it was around about the same time that we started seeing a lot of people arriving in boats in Australia.
I think it’s absolutely the case that we created extreme bad will with Indonesia when we closed down the live animal exports.
But asked for his views on the comments, Morrison said:
I don’t accept that is the link that Barnaby made last night.
The export ban cost Australian jobs, he added.
He also told AM that Labor was not doing enough to combat multinational tax avoidance, and spoke of the importance of [the now much-used campaign slogan] “jobs and growth”.
You know what our priority is? Growth. Economic growth. If you don’t have economic growth, you don’t have jobs. Now, what Labor is doing in this election is running around committing money it doesn’t have.
Updated
Resources minister Josh Frydenberg has defended Barnaby Joyce’s comments drawing a link between the Gillard government’s live export ban and the increase of asylum seeker boats, effectively accusing the Indonesian government of allowing people smuggling.
Speaking on Sky on Thursday, Frydenberg said:
Barnaby Joyce was making the obvious point that you don’t go and insult a most important and critical neighbour as Indonesia, by undermining their food security, by banning, after a television show, a $1.5bn industry that creates 10,000 jobs, most of which are in northern Australia, many of who are Indigenous.
What’s he’s made clear is that that [the ban on] live animal exports ... was a disaster and, at the same time, we were seeking greater cooperation with Indonesia on the very difficult diplomatic and strategic issue of border protection.
Now we’ve cleaned up both issues: one, we’ve ensured the live animal export trade continues to strengthen and provide food security to Indonesia and now we’ve got much better cooperation with Indonesia, and been successful at stopping the boats.”
In a Facebook post, Coalition MP George Christensen has made his views clear on a deal with the Greens:
I would rather shove two Tasmanian Devils on heat down my pants or eat mung beans for the rest of my life (it’s on par with the Tassie Devils thing!) than do a deal with the Greens.
George Christensen rules out Greens deal... https://t.co/DerjR6GObz
— Melissa Davey (@MelissaLDavey) May 25, 2016
Updated
Annabel Crabb’s Kitchen Cabinet program on the ABC will tonight feature Independent senator Jacqui Lambie. Here is a preview: some comments from Lambie about what she expected from Malcolm Turnbull after he seized the leadership from Abbott.
We all had high hopes. I was out there from day one going, ‘Turnbull needs to be PM’. I was siting in the corner – I was a big supporter of his from day one. So yeah, I’m disappointed like everybody else is, I think.
It’s just really – it’s a real shame, too. I quite like him personally. I like having cups of tea with him. I don’t know what he puts in his cups of tea, but I always come out there of with a big smirk on my face.
Updated
Joyce’s opponent in his NSW seat of New England, Tony Windsor, has seized on Joyce’s comments linking the Gillard government’s live export ban with an increase in asylum seeker boat arrivals. Windsor described Joyce’s comments as “reckless and offensive”. He says:
This is politics of the worst kind.
Updated
Labor MP David Feeney – who forgot to declare his negatively geared, $2.3m house – left a campaign blueprint confirming Labor would secretly adopt the same asylum seeker policy as the government on a desk after an interview, accidentally leaking it.
The Daily Telegraph reports that the document left behind by Feeney also reveals that Labor can’t rein in spending until 2026.
The opposition’s confidential “talking points” provided to the property tycoon Labor frontbencher before a television interview last night, reveal the campaign tactics that Bill Shorten intends to launch against Malcolm Turnbull.
In another episode of high farce, the Labor powerbroker left the campaign orders on a desk after a train wreck interview in which he could not answer what Labor’s policy was on the School Kids Bonus.
Labor’s policy is in fact to retain the costly handout.
But the secret notes also revealed that Labor has also privately admitted that it will not be able to rein in its spending over the next budget cycle.
It also wrongly claims that Labor’s asylum seeker policy is the same as the Coalition’s – despite an admission yesterday that Labor would repeal the government’s legislation on temporary protection visas.
The Daily Telegraph front page. Thursday 26 May 2016. @dailytelegraph #ausvotes #election2016 #auspol pic.twitter.com/On3qfyY52a
— Dave Earley (@earleyedition) May 25, 2016
Labor frontbencher David Feeney accidentally 'leaks' sensitive opposition briefing notes https://t.co/ySUHDhbUUF via @smh
— Melissa Davey (@MelissaLDavey) May 25, 2016
Updated
He says he was “just stating the bleeding obvious”.
Joyce has faced questions about his comments linking the suspension of live exports to Indonesia with an increase in asylum-seeker boat arrivals. It follows a response from an Indonesian government spokesperson this morning that:
There is no link between the policy of live export ban and the increased numbers of boats into Australia.
Indonesia was and remains committed to being a part of the regional solution to the common challenge we are facing of people smuggling.
When Joyce was asked by the Seven Network on Thursday morning whether he stood by the suggestion, Joyce said he didn’t claim the suspension caused Indonesia to send people to Australia.
But rather it made it difficult to negotiate with the country on the issue, he said.
I’m just stating the bleeding obvious. You don’t want to basically, what they would determine, insult another country by overnight ceasing the supply of a major requirement of their dietary intake which is meat.
According to Fairfax, Indonesia’s former foreign minister Dr Marty Natalegawa said any suggestion of a linkage between the ban and people smuggling was “patently false”.
“At best, it represents an over-analysis of the subject,” Natalegawa, who was foreign minister at the time of the export ban, said.
Worse still, it is shocking to suggest that the Indonesian government would risk the safety and lives of innocent asylum seekers in making the treacherous journey to Australia simply to make a point.
Joyce’s exact words last night were:
Might I remind you when we closed down the live animal export industry, it was around about the same time that we started seeing a lot of people arriving in boats in Australia.
Updated
Thinking of the mums, dads and children who've suffered due to unjust removal policies and practices. #unfinishedbusiness #nationalsorryday
— Kirstie Parker (@KirstieMParker) May 25, 2016
Today is National Sorry Day, and protesters will gather in Sydney in a bid to “turn the tide” of child removal from Indigenous homes.
The group, Grandmothers Against Removals, plans to march from Redfern to the Department of Family and Community Services today to call for more funding to stop children from being removed from families.
Funds should be directed at a “reunification program” with a review of all cases of Indigenous children in care, the group says.
Protestors to march on National Sorry Day #Live Sky News Australia https://t.co/GHdtEecd2G pic.twitter.com/GrI0kWd7BK
— 757Live Australia (@757LiveAU) May 25, 2016
Grandmothers Against Removals spokeswoman Suellyn Tighe, says:
“GMAR have begun the journey. We call on all people across Australia regardless of race to unite with us. No more will we accept political paralysis and social acceptance of the appalling practices that facilitate the deliberate separation of Aboriginal children from their families and their culture.
No more will we accept self-serving rhetoric from those in power – now is the time to act.
Updated
An announcement from the Greens now. Domestic violence victims would get paid leave and men would undergo behaviour-change programs under a $5bn plan they’re announcing today.
It’s important to note there is a lack of evidence about Australian men’s behaviour change programs and whether they actually work. A lot of work is being done by the sector to build evidence about their effectiveness.
However, the $500m annually over a decade will also fund new shelters, and legal programs. The party says the package would be paid for by reeling in negative gearing and superannuation tax breaks for the wealthy.
Greens deputy leader, Larissa Waters asks:
Why should women fleeing domestic violence go homeless while the very wealthy get taxpayer-funded subsidies for their multiple investment homes?
Updated
Nova Peris is yet to speak publicly on her resignation from the Senate this week.
But as opposition leader Bill Shorten’s campaign trail takes him to the top end, he’ll have some uncomfortable questions to answer about her surprise resignation, AAP writes.
Community services minister Christian Porter has called for her to front up to Territorians and explain why she’s leaving after a single term in a safe seat as Labor’s No 1 pick on the Senate ballot, in the same way she fronted voters when campaigning for the spot in 2013.
The revelation has been a distraction all week from Labor’s campaign as the party scrambles to find a last-minute replacement before nominations close on 9 June.
Former NT government minister and journalist Malarndirri McCarthy has been the first person to formally announce her nomination, and Senator Peris’ chief-of-staff Ursula Raymond is also considering her options.
Kon Vatskalis, who resigned from NT parliament in 2014, suggested on Facebook that he may also nominate.
Sad that my friend @NovaPeris is leaving the Senate. She's taught me a lot & will do great things in the future. pic.twitter.com/kMAiqTuWoj
— Andrew Leigh (@ALeighMP) May 24, 2016
Updated
Indonesia has shot down comments made by the deputy PM, Barnaby Joyce, last night linking the Gillard government’s live export ban with an increase of asylum seeker boats. Joyce pretty much accused the Indonesian government of allowing people smuggling.
But according to AAP, the comment was immediately dismissed by the Indonesian embassy in Canberra.
There is no link between the policy of live export ban and the increased numbers of boats into Australia,” a spokesman said.
“Indonesia was and remains committed to being a part of the regional solution to the common challenge we are facing of people smuggling.”
Joyce’s remarks elicited gasps and some laughs from the crowd gathered for the first rural debate.
The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, pressed the agriculture minister on whether he was suggesting the Indonesian government sent refugees to Australia.
“What’s that got to do with refugees Barnaby?” Di Natale said.
Joyce said Australia’s working relationship with Indonesia was affected by the cattle ban.
“I believe the independents and the Greens and Labor Party … created immense bad will and our capacity to manage other problems which became present were affected.”
Updated
The Turnbull government’s superannuation changes will hit women aged over 50 more than any other group, according to this report from Guardian Australia’s political correspondent, Gareth Hutchens:
New analysis from the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (Natsem) shows the government’s super reforms will actually discourage some women from contributing more to their super before they retire.
It has found women over 50 – who are earning enough to be affected by the policy changes – will be forced to pay a higher tax on their super contributions, as a proportion of their income, than men.
Natsem’s Prof Robert Tanton says the women most affected by the policy changes are at a stage in their lives where they should be contributing more to super, and are earning enough to do so, and should be encouraged to do so.
But he says the government’s policy will have the opposite effect, and he discovered the unintended consequences after running detailed modelling by age and gender.
“It’s a policy change that is intended to affect certain [high-income] groups, and is it affecting those groups, and that’s probably a reasonable change,” Tanton said.
“But inadvertently it’s affecting a particular group who should be increasing the amount of money they’re putting into super, and that’s females aged 50 to 64.”
According to the Australian Financial Review, Labor will possibly adopt the government’s plan to cap superannuation retirement funds at $1.6m.
Despite Labor having previously slammed the budget measure as retrospective, the shadow minister for financial services, Jim Chalmers, will use a speech to an industry conference to stress that Labor has not yet made a final decision on the policy as well as other elements announced on budget day and “will not be rushed into a view”.
By leaving open the option, Labor would be able to adopt the policy that saves more revenue than its comparative proposal of capping tax-free earnings in retirement at $75,000.
In Labor’s response, we are taking a cautious response. We want to fully understand the distributional impacts, as well as behavioural effects and any unintended consequences,” Chalmers’ speech notes say.
Read the full piece here.
Updated
The Australian reports that tens of thousands of Australians are being paid pensions while living overseas, and that the number has almost tripled in two decades, costing taxpayers nearly $800m a year to maintain.
The report says that “while the government has focused on the tax burden onshore, it has a growing problem offshore”.
More than 81,000 age pensioners and 6,500 disability support pensioners were living overseas in December, receiving all or part of their Australian pension, while pensioners from about 30 other countries living in Australia are required to access their home country entitlements first.
Social Services Minister Christian Porter wants to enforce the “residency-based nature of Australia’s welfare system” but welfare amendments limiting Age Pension portability have stalled in the Senate, with Labor opposing the moves.
The cohort of pension recipients living overseas is in addition to the 3.6 million Australian households who are officially listed as net beneficiaries of government payments.
These households, including 1.9 million of working age, get more back in benefits than they pay in income tax. They are typically age pensioners or parents with young children receiving family tax benefits.
Updated
It’s the second incident of a federal election candidate being asked to stop wearing their Australian defence force (ADF) uniform in campaign material. The Member for Canning in WA, Andrew Hastie, has been asked to remove campaign ads in which he is wearing the uniform.
Brisbane Labor candidate Pat O’Neill was asked to do the same earlier this week. The ABC reports:
The West Australian Liberal MP won the seat of Canning in a by-election in September. Prior to that, he was a Special Air Service (SAS) officer in the ADF.
Mr Hastie resigned from the ADF before taking office.
In a statement, Defence said it had contacted Mr Hastie in relation to this matter and requested that any imagery featuring Mr Hastie in Australian Army uniform be removed.
“As a condition of their service, regular and reserve members of the Australian Defence Force are obliged to comply with various Defence instructions and policies,” it said.
“Defence policy is designed to ensure that the ADF remains apolitical. ADF members are therefore not permitted to participate in any political activity in uniform, unless they are pre-approved to do so by an appropriate authority.”
Updated
Good morning. We’re 38 days from poll day, but with this long to go, who’s really counting? Melissa Davey with you here taking you through the early morning before Katharine Murphy takes over from Canberra at around 8.30am.
In the mean time share your comments on the events of this early morn’ below, or reach out on Twitter or Facebook.
If you’re in Melbourne or Sydney and can’t get enough of Guardian Australia’s live political coverage, you can join our political editor Lenore Taylor and deputy political editor/ politics live blog guru Katharine Murphy in Sydney and Melbourne next month for a panel discussion about policies, candidates and key battlegrounds being fought during this never-ending election campaign. Details here – book early, book often.
The big picture
Oh yes he did. The deputy PM, Barnaby Joyce, has drawn a link between the Gillard government’s live export ban and the increase of asylum seeker boats, effectively accusing the Indonesian government of allowing people smuggling, writes Guardian Australia’s Gabrielle Chan.
Joyce made the comments during a debate on regional issues last night with the Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, and Labor’s agriculture spokesman, Joel Fitzgibbon. He said the ban had created immense bad will. Chan writes:
In the regional leaders’ debate in Goulburn, the deputy prime minister suggested Labor and the Greens were “crabwalking” to another live cattle export ban and then suggested the previous ban led to the flow of asylum seekers to Australia.
“Might I remind you when we closed down the live animal export industry, it was around about the same time that we started seeing a lot of people arriving in boats in Australia,” Joyce said.
The ABC compere Chris Uhlmann replied: “Do you realise you are suggesting the Indonesian government then unleashed the boats in response?”
“I think it’s absolutely the case that we created extreme bad will with Indonesia when we closed down the live animal exports,” Joyce said.
Uhlmann again asked, “Are you suggesting the Indonesian government is sending refugees here?”
“I suggest the Greens and Labor party created immense bad will and it was affected,” Joyce responded.
According to the ABC’s AM program, the Indonesian government are looking into the comments. There will no doubt be some reaction about later this morning as we get into the full swing of the day.
Ready to rumble @ABCNews24 @Barnaby_Joyce @RichardDiNatale pic.twitter.com/hstUS0fqvQ
— Joel Fitzgibbon (@fitzhunter) May 25, 2016
Today, the Coalition will roll out a $2.5bn dams policy in Queensland which is says will strengthen the agricultural sector and drive regional “jobs and growth”.
A re-elected Coalition will invest $150m to fast-track the feasibility assessment and construction of water infrastructure across the state. In a statement issued overnight, Turnbull said:
As the economy transitions and diversifies, agricultural exports are playing a more important role than ever before.
The Coalition is taking action by carrying out the most significant investment in infrastructure in Australian history, including an ambitious water reform agenda, so we can continue to build a strong national economy and create more jobs.”
To the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, now. A couple of days ago, international affairs and diplomacy reporter Roger Cohen wrote a piece for the New York Times titled: Australia’s Offshore Cruelty. Australia’s asylum seeker policy dehumanised people and left them languishing, he wrote.
Australia’s “offshore processing” is falling apart and must end. The supreme court of Papua New Guinea ruled in April that the Australian-funded detention centre on Manus Island was illegal.
Last night, Dutton responded to the piece. Cohen should “stick to US immigration matters” he told the Australian, adding that Cohen “doesn’t have a clue about the success we have had in Australia of actually securing our borders”.
People like this who tolerate a policy which results in children drowning at sea should hang their heads in shame. Even the Labor party has had the decency to say their border policies were a complete failure.
On the campaign trail
As mentioned, Turnbull will be in Queensland today. Just confirming whether Shorten will be hanging around Victoria.
The campaign you should be watching
The Labor safe seat of Whitlam in NSW, after Liberal candidate Carolyn Currie, resigned yesterday. She told ABC Illawarra she had decided to withdraw because she was “like a general with no troops”.
It is very difficult for me to mount any sort of reasonable campaign with no troops, as any general would know. This is a remarkable area; it needs quite a unique person to represent the disparate groups.
It needs a very, very strong person who can unite a number of people to preserve it – possibly an independent, possibly a Green. But somebody with a lot of leverage, in what looks like being a very divided government on a knife edge, to be able to instrumentalise the best outcomes for this area.
I cannot offer that and meanwhile I don’t believe that I need to be a sacrificial lamb, travelling a number of steep inclines that have yet to be fixed.
Currie said she was told by Liberal party members they did not want a candidate in the seat.
And another thing(s)
Former prime minister John Howard has told Sky News that he fears for the Australian middle-class, saying: “The great Australian middle class, which has held this country together for generations, will over time be eroded.”
One of the reasons for the Trump phenomenon in the United States is because the middle class is becoming markedly poorer.
I think he’s too unstable to hold that high office. I’m disappointed that the Republicans, who I feel an affinity for, haven’t been able to find somebody different.
He said that he “never lost the thirst for a political contest”.
But others are now in charge. I’m just a supporting act, nothing more.”
He spent yesterday in western Sydney helping with Liberal MP for Lindsay Fiona Scott’s campaign.
And the agriculture minister, Barnaby Joyce, has warned the big supermarkets that unless they axe their $1-a-litre home-brand milk, a re-elected Coalition government will force a price rise, the Australian reports.
Mr Joyce stopped short of backing a compulsory 50c levy on fresh milk called for by dairy farmer groups, but said he would not put up with the two dominant retailers causing a “rolling crisis”.
Mr Joyce’s price threat came as hundreds of dairy farmers rallied in cities, demanding a fairer milk price and an end to their exploitation by big dairy companies and Coles and Woolworths.
I’ll wrap this up with a comment piece from Fairfax, which asks: ‘What if Malcolm Turnbull trips and Bill Shorten vaults to victory?’
For commentators it would mean throwing a lot of conventional wisdom about the impossible task of first-term opposition leaders out the window. It would also mean a much quicker return to government than most Labor MPs, after being tossed out of office in September 2013, ever thought would happen.
Until recently they didn’t really think they had a chance to win. Some of the senior members of the shadow ministry probably thought it was unlikely they would ever become ministers again. Their careers in government were probably over. Labor was looking to the next generation.
For the Liberals, it goes without saying that a Turnbull defeat would be an absolute disaster for the party. That is always the case when a first-term government loses as happened with the Coalition state governments in Victoria (2014) and Queensland (2015). Particularly in Queensland, the state of bewilderment was overwhelming.
When the audience reaction says it all
Dep PM @Barnaby_Joyce has linked 2011 decision to suspend live exports with more asylum seekers @abcnews #ausvoteshttps://t.co/fmy3IG2oR0
— Matthew Doran (@MattDoran91) May 25, 2016
Updated
