That will do us for this evening
As delightful as today is and you all are, I reckon that will do us for this evening. Let’s wrap with our usual summary.
- Today, the leaders hit the west for a day of campaigning as pre-poll voting got underway round the country. Labor’s policy announcement was about apprenticeships, the Coalition’s was a baseball field in Gosnells. Bill Shorten is pushing through as we fold the Politics Live tent for the evening. He’s talking to listeners on JJJ. He’s just been asked to list Malcolm Turnbull’s three stirling qualities: they were, for the record, articulate, republican, supporter of marriage equality.
- Apart from the set pieces, Malcolm Turnbull was unhappy with Bill Shorten for raising the spectre of a treaty with Indigenous Australians instead of focussing on constitutional recognition. Bill Shorten said he was happy to lock down recognition as soon as possible but he also thought it was possible to talk about more than one thing at the same time. So did Pat Dodson and Warren Mundine. The prime minister himself forgot to focus exclusively on Indigenous recognition and thought, since someone was kind enough to ask, that it was fair to describe the colonisation of Australia as an invasion. The sound of various people choking on their paninis was muffled by the relentless advance of the campaign caravan (as opposed to the caravan of chaos that Scott Morrison is deeply fond of telling Ray Hadley or Ray Hadley’s stand in about – the one Rob Oakeshott is somehow implicated in. Best you don’t ask because it really could not be less important.)
- Former Liberal MP Dennis Jensen is continuing to prosecute the relationship between Parakeelia and the Liberal party with all the relentlessness of an MP scorned. Today he thought there might be double dipping going on: donations and tax breaks. No, the Liberal party said, because the payments are not donations, they are other receipts. A question from me asking the Liberal party to specify the nature of the payments categorised as other receipts went unanswered. Turned out the Labor party also had one very modest example of an other receipt from its preferred software provider, which sponsored a data conference in 2014-15.
There was more, but that’s the guts of things. I’m heading to Sydney tomorrow for the first of our election live events so you will be in the elegant hands of Calla Wahlquist and Gabrielle Chan for the next 48 hours while I transact all that business. Until we meet again, be well.
Updated
The campaigns are rolling on in Perth. Malcolm Turnbull has promised $6m for a baseball park extension in Gosnells. Bill Shorten has sailed forth with events this afternoon, he’s just spoken again to reporters briefly, but didn’t take questions.
Updated
While I was face first in Parakeelia and Magenta Linas, Warren Mundine, who is the chair of the prime minister’s Indigenous advisory taskforce, has told Sky News Australia could manage both recognition and a treaty conversation at the same time – although he’s stressed the treaty discussion is at a very preliminary stage. This was after the prime minister rebuked Bill Shorten earlier today for flagging the conversation about a treaty.
Updated
Window smashed in Cathy McGowan's Wodonga office
Let’s look elsewhere for a bit. Things are getting a bit hairy in Indi by the sounds of this report from the Border Mail.
Cathy McGowan campaigners will explore new security measures, after their Wodonga headquarters was targeted twice in six days. A window in the front door of the Beechworth Road building was found smashed on Monday morning, less than a week after a glass panel beside it was also shattered. Police say two paving blocks from the front garden at property were used to cause the damage. A rock was also found inside following the incident, which The Border Mail understands occurred sometime between Friday afternoon and Monday morning. Wodonga police were investigating the determine whether the damage caused on both occasions were linked.
I’ve sent a further query to Liberal CHQ to see if I can ascertain what category the payments from Parakeelia Pty Ltd to the Liberal party fell into, now that I’ve shared the definition of “other receipts.” If I get a response I’ll share it.
Various people are asking me online about other receipts as opposed to donations. This is the definition the AEC has on its website.
Other receipts:
- This term refers to those amounts received by a party or associated entity which do not meet the legislative definition of ‘gift’ (commonly referred to as donation). Examples of amounts which fall into the category of ‘other receipts’ are interest on investments, dividends on shares, market rate rent received on properties owned. All other receipts disclosed in the return must show the gross amount.
One "other receipt" from Magenta Linas
Back to Labor again and Magenta Linas.
There is one “other receipt” in Labor’s records as well from the party’s data mining supplier. Not a donation, a cost recovery exercise.
In 2014/15 the company sponsored a Labor data conference at a cost of $1,018. The sponsorship covered the cost of holding the event.
So there are overlaps and differences here. Parakeelia is owned by the Liberal party and funds are being transferred between the entities.
Magenta Linas is privately owned. The transaction with Labor I’ve outlined above it the only one I’m aware of. If there are others that people know about, get in touch.
Here is a list of Magenta Linas clients, in the event you are interested. Labor and the unions are a prominent client, but there are also governments and corporates. Here’s the company information.
The Liberal party has come back to me now on the suggestion that Dennis Jensen raised on Sky this afternoon that there might be double dipping associated with the data mining operation: the Liberal party could be getting a donation from Parakeelia and then claiming a tax deduction.
This is the response from a spokesman for the Liberal party. No donations, therefore no double dipping.
Payments from Parakeelia Pty Ltd to the Liberal Party were not donations.
It wrong to claim or report that they are.
Mr Jensen’s claims are false.
(I mentioned a couple of posts ago if you look at how the Parakeelia payments are characterised in the disclosure logs on the AEC, they are actually classified as “other receipts” not donations.)
Speaking of Labor CHQ, I mentioned before I would chase down Bill Shorten’s comment during his media conference this morning that the Labor party’s data mining operation is a matter of record. I’ve asked a Labor campaign spokesman to point me to the record the Labor leader was referring to.
They’ve come back with two sources from Fairfax Media articles. One quote from a Herald article, from June 9.
Labor, which runs similar software known as ‘‘Campaign Central’’, licences its programs from Magenta Linas and pays the company to use the software under licence. The company does not appear to have donated money to Labor.
Another from an Age article dated June 10.
Labor pays a third party for its software, Magenta Linas, which has not donated money to the party. SA lower house MPs paid $60,000 to that company in 2012-13. Labor has confirmed it runs its software at a net cost to the party.
I think two newspaper references is a distance short of a record myself, but these references do give readers some information on the Labor data mining operation which is called Campaign Central, and it provided by Magenta Linas.
Readers are asking me online what data political parties collect. Basically they collect information on contacts with constituents. It helps with targeting and micro-targeting if you keep extensive records about what people are concerned about. If you know what people are worried about, it helps you communicate successfully with them.
There has been loads written about this in the US, but hardly anything in Australia, largely because the Australian political scene was perceived to be well behind the models and methodologies deployed routinely by political parties in the US. Data mining is much more important in America because of the importance of the ground game: getting out the vote is half the battle. Less critical here because of compulsory voting, but still very important to political communication.
On walking and chewing gum at the same time
Labor HQ has released a statement from Pat Dodson criticising the prime minister for smacking down Bill Shorten on the treaty.
Dodson says Australia can manage both debates: constitutional recognition and a debate about treaties.
Pat Dodson:
Mr Turnbull should lead on these matters, not follow. Bipartisanship is critical to going forward on the pathway to reconciliation. These issues aren’t mutually exclusive. We need to talk about both. The constitutional change to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is the immediate priority and we await the outcomes from the Referendum Council’s Constitutional Conventions. But what flows from further parliamentary consideration has to be made meaningful in the eyes of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. A conversation about these matters is well overdue and essential for the good of the nation. Both can be done.
Updated
In the event you want to have a look at the disclosures on Parakeelia on the AEC website you can find them collated here. The payments to the Liberal party are recorded not as donations but as other receipts, so if we are adhering to the definitions the electoral commission uses these payments aren’t donations, strictly speaking. They are classified as other receipt. I’ll bring you the response from CHQ if one is forthcoming.
I was interested to see the Labor leader Bill Shorten say this morning that the Labor party’s data mining practices were a matter of record. I’ve put in a question to Labor HQ about which record the Labor leader was referring to. If I get an answer to that, I’ll share that too.
Here’s one common element: political parties don’t really like talking about their data mining operations. It gives voters an insight into the sausage making process that professional politics would regard as unhelpful.
I have approached the CHQ of the Liberal party to see if they are commenting on the Jensen intervention.
Is there a double dip: Parakeelia
Former Liberal Dennis Jensen, running in this campaign as an independent, is on the warpath about Parakeelia, the data mining operation that also makes donations to the Liberal party. Jensen is on Sky News now, still on the warpath. He’s lost all his data to the Liberal party now he’s out of the flock. Today, Jensen wants to know whether the Liberal party is also claiming a tax deduction for the donation from Parakeelia, double dipping in essence. The double dip comes from taxpayer funds (through allowances) going to the data mining company, which then makes a donation to the Liberal party, then a tax break is claimed.
Sky host Peter Van Onselen says why now. You benefitted from this system, why are you speaking out now?
Jensen says he only recently discovered the fact of the donations from Parakeelia to the Liberal party. He also says his ire was raised when the Liberal party “unilaterally pulled my access to Feedback” (which is the relevant program which stores the data on constituents) even though it had been funded by him through allowances until later in the year.
Updated
Let's take stock
Today really has a bit of everything, so I’m glad we are all together. You wouldn’t be dead for quids really. Let’s work out where we are in the grand scheme of things.
- The first thing to observe is we are now running at conventional campaign pace. Blame the opening of pre-polling. I said this last night during the Q&A live call, it’s now a sprint to the finish, nostrils flaring, ears pinned back.
- Today is short, sharp, hand-to-hand combat. Malcolm Turnbull has accused Bill Shorten of risking constitutional recognition with his ill-disciplined musings on a treaty last night on Q&A. Bill Shorten has responded by saying bring me the proposition for the referendum and let’s close the deal next year. Malcolm Turnbull also allowed a hustings digression of his own on Indigenous affairs, thinking it was fair to characterise colonisation as an invasion. I suspect that won’t go down exceptionally well in conservative quarters of the party.
- The prime minister has been talking jobs with young folks in Perth in one of his roving “yeah baby” sessions which, thus far in the campaign, have centred on T-shirt-clad startup gurus, not apprentices in high viz. [Old economy, paging Malcolm Turnbull, report to a campaign event, stat.] The optics weren’t terrible by any stretch, but it was all pretty forced. Bill Shorten, also in the wild west, has unveiled a policy on apprenticeships and retraining, and was peppered with questions about the untidy sections of his Q&A performance last night.
- The Coalition is also reviewing the visa of a controversial cleric in the wake of the massacre in Orlando. The prime minister also warned about the potential for attacks by lone wolves – self-motivated, self-styled people not necessarily taking direct orders from groups like Islamic state.
Onwards into the campaign afternoon.
Updated
Just a quick backtrack. Some would call this initiative. Other snippy feminist sorts might call it MalSplaining® the art of the selfie.
How to take a selfie, a lesson by PM Turnbull in Perth today @murpharoo @GuardianAus #politicslive pic.twitter.com/KFFkb21omr
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) June 14, 2016
Ah, look, Peter Dutton is back
I will take stock very shortly because we need it but first, the immigration minister Peter Dutton is speaking to reporters in Queensland. We haven’t seen much of the immigration minister since he kicked a hornet’s nest with his declaration in about week three that refugees were coming to Australia to both steal our jobs and recline on our welfare. It’s been strictly Ray Hadley and need to know for PDudds in the national campaign since that edifying outburst.
But today Dutton smells a rat with Bill Shorten talking transparency in detention centres. This is all a slippery slope to letting the people smugglers control Australia’s immigration program, Dutton thinks. It’s a tough sell to tell journalists that allowing them to scrutinise detention centres is the road to chaos, but Peter Dutton is a tough seller from way back.
Eventually the question rolls round to the controversial cleric. Dutton says the department is reviewing the case and the government has no tolerance for hate preaching.
Updated
A question is asked of the candidate for Swan about her previous criticism of Australia Day being on 26 January. Bill Shorten says Labor has no plans to change the date of Australia Day. He adds the Labor party is a broad church and that’s a good thing. The candidate says she made that remark a long time ago, but she thinks there should be conversations about these sorts of issues.
Updated
A question about the preacher. Bill Shorten says the government needs to get on to this problem quick sticks.
Q: Mr Shorten, on health funding, you have made a commitment over four years but how about over 10 years? Will you make a commitment to growth funding and in the absence of commitment from both major parties, isn’t it true both parties are shirking one of the most crucial and important questions we’re facing?
Bill Shorten:
Not at all. It’s not both major parties but even the Greens are adopting the same approach.
A question on why he won’t restore funding for Arena, the renewable energy agency.
Bill Shorten:
We’ve got to make tough decisions.
Updated
'I think we need to scrap anonymous donations over $50 full stop.'
Labor’s Indigenous candidate for Swan is asked if she supports a treaty. She says she supports conversations about a treaty.
Then Bill Shorten gets a question about Parakeelia, the Liberal party’s data mining operation.
Q: Do you think it is appropriate for taxpayer funds to be used buy the software and can you rule out the ALP doesn’t have a similar arrangement?
Bill Shorten:
The matter of how the ALP purchases software is a matter of record. I think the issue with Parakeelia is the corporate connections with the Liberal party. I wish the Liberal party would get on with donation reform. Let’s call it as it is today, people.
The truth of the matter is the Liberal party should stop hanging on to the ban which, as you can’t know who donates money unless they donate more than $13,000. If I’m elected, we’re just going to clean up this transparency issue. I want to make it the case that if you donate more than $1,000, the identity of the donors be revealed. I think many Australians are sick and tired of the way the Liberals wash their money through various foundations and it’s hard to identify the source of the funding. I think we need to scrap anonymous donations over $50 full stop.
I think Australians reasonably expect the highest possible level of transparency. We’re not going to move to elections which are all publicly funded so there is a role for private funding but what I know is the best antiseptic towards dodgy dealings and public disquiet and cynicism is lower the donations cap in terms of what amount above which you have to reveal the identity of the donor and I think $1,000 is eminently reasonable.
A couple of questions about letting journalists into Nauru and Manus, which comes from his undertaking on Q&A last night to allow more disclosure about conditions in the detention centres. The questions are how Bill Shorten can allow access to centres when they aren’t in Australian territory? Shorten says various things will have to be taken into account but, in principle, he’s in favour of transparency.
I will govern with the principle of the Australian public’s right to know.
Updated
Next question is bouncing off the prime minister’s criticism of Shorten earlier today for raising the spectre of a treaty instead of keeping the focus on recognition.
Bill Shorten says this is just a distraction. He says he’s at the prime minister’s pleasure on recognition. “Whenever and where ever you want to meet, and work out what the questions are” – he’s ready to get recognition done. He says he’s also listening to the voices of Indigenous people about what happens after constitutional recognition.
Q: Mr Shorten, in that, though, the one important thing you haven’t said is do you support a treaty?
Bill Shorten:
I am up for the conversation on a treaty, absolutely, but what I’m not going to do is impose paternalistic top-down solutions.
He says Indigenous people have to be in the self-determination conversation and the closing the gap conversation.
I for one am not going to tell Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people what they’re allowed to talk about, what they’re allowed to put on the agenda.
Updated
Questions now, Bill Shorten says he’ll go local first, so he gets a question on the GST, the same question the prime minister got a little earlier: what’s the conflict between the treasurer and the premier on the GST carve-up – who is right?
Bill Shorten says he doesn’t know about the fight but he knows that Malcolm Turnbull doesn’t want to campaign with Colin Barnett. On the broader question he says he’ll work cooperatively with the states “to make sure they get a fair deal”.
Updated
Updated
Bill Shorten addresses the media in Perth
The Labor leader is in a different part of Perth, making today’s announcement about apprentices. You cannot be a party of jobs unless you are serious about apprentices, Shorten says.
Bill Shorten:
That’s why Labor is going to increase by 10,000 the number of pre-apprenticeship training spots and will provide another 5,000 mature age workers with a chance to take up an interest in apprenticeships.
The Labor also makes his pre-poll pitch ahead of going down to one of Labor’s pre-poll booths in Perth.
Bill Shorten:
This election is clearly, as I’ve said from day one, is a matter of choices and now Australians start to choose. They can choose Mr Turnbull’s $50bn tax giveaway to large companies, banks and foreign shareholders or choose Labor’s great plans for jobs, education, Medicare.
Today I will be saying to people at the pre-poll, vote Labor if you want to protect Medicare, or a royal commission into our banking sector, or you want well-funded childcare, or ensure schools are well resourced and kids can go to TAFE and university and mature age workers can re-train.
Vote Labor if you want to promote Australian jobs and Australian apprenticeships.
Quick backtrack on the preacher who was the subject of a question in the Turnbull press conference. My colleague Michael Safi reported yesterday a controversial British cleric who preached that “death is the sentence” for homosexual acts is scheduled to speak in Sydney throughout June. Farrokh Sekaleshfar, a British-born doctor and senior Shia Muslim scholar, travelled to Orlando two months ago to give a lecture about homosexuality in Islamic law. Just some background in the event (like, eh hem, me) you had too many balls in the air and weren’t fully across this development. So this preacher’s visa is now under review.
Updated
It will be interesting to see how the conservative base of the Liberal party responds to that acknowledgement from the prime minister just then that the colonisation of Australia could be fairly described as an invasion.
The prime minister ended his comment about invasions by again emphasising the importance of discipline.
Malcolm Turnbull:
I just say that it is very important as leaders for us to focus on the goal and have the discipline to do that. See, if you want to achieve constitutional recognition of our first Australians and we do, our government does, and I believe Mr Shorten does as well, then we should focus on that. We’ve got to be very careful about creating issues whether they come in the course of a discussion where it maybe gratifying to a particular audience to indicate support for one proposal or another. We have to be very careful that you don’t set hares running that undermine the real goal, which is to secure overwhelming consensus of Australians, overwhelming majority for constitutional recognition of our first Australians.
Then he terminates the press conference.
Turnbull on invasions: 'Well, I think it can be fairly described as that … '
Q: Do you agree that the colonisation of Australia can be described as an invasion?
Malcolm Turnbull:
Well, I think it can be fairly described as that and I’ve got no doubt and obviously our first Aboriginal Australians describe it as an invasion. But, you know, you are talking about an historical argument about a word. The facts are very well known. This country was Aboriginal land. It was occupied by Aboriginal people for tens of thousands of years, 40,000 years. Some of the most ancient works of art are rock carvings – in the world – are here in WA.
Updated
Turnbull rebukes Shorten over the treaty
The prime minister is asked about a treaty with Indigenous Australians, which was flagged by Bill Shorten on Q&A last night. Turnbull rebukes Shorten for a lack of discipline.
Malcolm Turnbull:
Mr Shorten should have more discipline and more focus on ensuring we maintain support for constitutional recognition rather than introducing other concepts which will, in my view, undermine the prospects of getting the very high level of public support you need for constitutional recognition of our first Australians.
Q: On the GST, you say you need consensus with the states to change it. That puts you at odds with the premier who says the federal treasurer can instruct the commission to change the distribution. Which of you is wrong, and if you are right, can you point us to the evidence of that?
Malcolm Turnbull:
I understand Colin’s position very well and Julie understands it better than any of us, I guess. WA is very well represented in our government and, indeed, in our cabinet. There is no doubt that WA has had a raw deal out of the GST formula in recent years ... in the past, WA has been a beneficiary of the GST distribution. It’s important to remember that. But the key thing is we are a federation. We raise the GST at the federal level but it all goes to the states. Any changes to the formula need agreement, consensus, among the states and territories.
Q: On national security would you characterise the Orlando shooting as a radical Islamic terrorist attack and how did the British anti-gay preacher get a visa and what will you do to stop him preaching hatred?
Malcolm Turnbull says on the preacher, his visa is being reviewed as we speak.
His visa is being reviewed at the request, the direction, I should say, of the minister, even as we speak.
On terrorism, Turnbull says the risk of self-motivated, self-activated acts of terrorism, of individuals who through one means or another are inspired by or claim to be inspired by terrorist organisations and terrorist ideology – is clearly a very real risk.
We take that extremely seriously. Our intelligence and security services are tireless, relentless, in monitoring the situation, monitoring the intelligence and seeking to protect us from instances like that.
The prime minister gives the statistics of intelligence interventions that have foiled attacks.
Malcolm Turnbull addresses reporters in Perth: polling, schmolling
The prime minister is flanked today by the deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop.
The first question is about polling. Is Colin Barnett a drag on the Coalition’s polling in the federal contest?
Malcolm Turnbull:
I am focussed on the future of these young people. They are not asking about polling. They are asking about what sort of job they can have.
A press conference is coming up very shortly.
Updated
Hai.
Updated
The Cowan forum is winding down now. Probably a good call. That contained a healthy dose of the awkwards. Political awks is always a sliding scale, it’s a relative condition. That wasn’t Mitt Romney awkward, that would be a terrible exaggeration, but awks enough.
The prime minister has moved on to a builder and young Harry, the apprentice. The builder says the property market is soft in Perth. The prime minister thinks Labor’s negative gearing policy will make that worse.
Malcolm Turnbull:
That will undermine property values.
Builder:
I think people are losing their jobs in the mines.
Turnbull, in Lib-held seat of Cowan, interviews employers and apprentices about youth employment. pic.twitter.com/3LDNh7uZ99
— Sophie Morris (@Sophie_D_Morris) June 14, 2016
The prime minister has taken a seat now in front of the young apprentices for a bit of small talk.
One carpenter gives a brief biography, including a recent trip to Canada.
Malcolm Turnbull:
Bit colder over there, eh?
Carpenter:
Yeah, that’s why I came back.
Now the small talk is treading to slate. Is slate big in Perth? No, we’ve segued into galvanised copper.
The prime minister is streaming this youth session via his Facebook page, by the by.
'Lucy and I have started many businesses over the years and employed many people, including many young people.'
Malcolm Turnbull has his foot up on a ledge of some kind.
Lucy and I have started many businesses over the years and employed many people, including many young people. One of the things we’ve always been very keen about, and interested in, is the way in which social capital and social networks through clubs and associations help young people get into employment. Now, Lachlan, tell us about how the football club that you’re president of, how you’ve used that as a means of creating the opportunity for young people to get a job? And the message here, for anyone who’s watching is: there are all sorts of good reasons to join the football club, one of them is to get a job. But go on, tell us the story.
Lachlan:
This year, I’ve been lucky enough to be president of the football club in the electorate of Cowan. One of the good things, I’m learning myself on the job but I help young kids who come down from school, finish school, have nothing to do. They want to be a part of a community still. Still want to play some football while they’re young. But unfortunately, a few of them don’t have jobs.
Malcolm Turnbull at a forum with young folks in Perth
The prime minister has kicked off his day in Perth with a forum in Luke Simpkin’s electorate. Previously we’ve seen the prime minister in evangelical mode with startup folks, entrepreneurs. Today there are kids in high vis as far as the eye can see. Today Malcolm is in the temple of the apprentices and the interns.
Malcolm Turnbull:
Jonathan. There’s that handsome fellow hanging back. You should be in the front row. Keep going. Fantastic!
Do you know a third of people who are unemployed in Australia are under 25?
(The visual gear change is a little abrupt here. It reeks of let’s dispatch the prime minister back to the old economy, stat.)
Updated
From my Facebook forum this morning, from Simon Hansford, from Tamworth.
Good morning, I’m not clear why the MBA is opposed to the ALP negative gearing policy when the ALP policy is that negative gearing will be retained on new housing.
A more than reasonable question.
More from the pre-poll frontline. Work it. Work it.
The first big frost of the season & it's pre-poll, the fire fighters are standing up for unionists in Eden Monaro. pic.twitter.com/2T2sK6SbZN
— Jeremy Kirkwood (@JJ_Kirkwood) June 13, 2016
Prepoll in Warragul is pretty cold-need some green gloves #greens16 pic.twitter.com/DnJcKKkEgT
— donna (@LancasterDonna5) June 14, 2016
The Victorian Liberal president, Michael Kroger, is on Sky News and is being asked about preferences, given he was signalling since the start of the campaign a willingness to preference the Greens in Victoria on the basis that Labor was no longer the party of Hawke and Keating. (It was always slightly hard to comprehend why the Liberals would preference a party that was never the party of Hawke and Keating over the party that was once the party of Hawke and Keating, and still is in most respects, but logic isn’t the prime indicator here as we all know.)
In any case Kroger was clearly for preferencing the Greens. But there were obstacles. The former prime minister John Howard was heard to utter early on over his dead body or words to that effect. It was pretty obvious that the federal director, Tony Nutt, wasn’t that interested in the Kroger proposal either. So on that basis, in a development shocking no one, Kroger’s frolic has been cut off at the knees. The Liberals will not preference the Greens and that’s that.
Why did that happen, Kroger is asked?
Michael Kroger:
Malcolm decided in consultation with us …
(Ah yes, go on …)
Kroger says the view was Liberals/Greens footsie might deliver a hung parliament. Everything today returns inexorably to the caravan of chaos, have you noticed?
Updated
Still more on momentous choices. Jacqui Lambie says she’ll run an open ticket.
No preference deals with any Political Party, says @JacquiLambie #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/zhlQ71M1nS
— Political Alert (@political_alert) June 14, 2016
More on momentous choices.
Malcolm Turnbull:
The choice is very clear. It’s between a stable Coalition government with a clear economic plan for jobs and growth. On the other hand, you have the spend-o-meter and a chaotic and dysfunctional alliance of Labor, Greens, independents.
We’ve seen that film before. So it’s a very, very critical choice.
Thus far, no word from Perth on caravans of chaos.
Despite the fact the third head-to-head election debate of the campaign has been scheduled for a time when people will find it quite difficult to tune in, (6pm, Friday) – the questions are pouring in from people on Facebook. I’ll take the top three from the news.com.au thread as it currently stands.
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Is Labor going to protect borders or just let everybody else in. What exactly are you going to change Don’t waffle on ! Be specfic ! Liberals have stopped the boats What are you going to do to keep Australia safe?
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Placing hundreds of thousands of disability pensioners onto Newstart and making it just about impossible to get DSP is forcing more vulnerable people into poverty. They now have to try to compete for jobs and employees would not even hire them if there are healthy non-disabled people to take on the job - considering the unemployment rate is high and worsening. How are you going to help these people?
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Which of you will commit to implementing a Federal anti-corruption body with the powers of a Royal Commission to investigate corruption, compel witnesses to testify and then press criminal charges against perpetrators and organisations?
Mind the momentum
Back to the Master Builders Association’s negative gearing ads, I was keen to know when they started – last Thursday is the answer, and I’m told the intensity will ramp up over the next few weeks.
Over in Perth, the prime minister must have done some radio earlier on that I missed. Malcolm Turnbull has declared the day, today, Tuesday, a day of “momentous choice”.
Malcolm Turnbull:
This is the first day Australians can vote in this election – this is a day of a momentous choice.
I feel a trumpet should sound somewhere. Perhaps a French horn. Certainly not a recorder.
Updated
Events, get on it.
Given the leaders are on the west coast, which means my morning is relatively orderly before the campaigns stir into action, I can launch one last reminder about our two live election events. Our events people have just launched a last call for tickets for the Sydney event, which is tomorrow evening, 15 June.
Lenore Taylor and I will be joined by Tanya Plibersek, deputy leader of the opposition and shadow minister for foreign affairs and international development, Trent Zimmerman, the Liberal MP for North Sydney (Joe Hockey’s successor) and Cassandra Goldie, chief executive of Australian Council of Social Service. We will be examining fairness. What does “fair” policy look like? Is fairness more important than ever in the Australian political debate?
Tickets can be found if you click on this link.
Turn that frown upside down Melbourne. We’ll be in your fair city next week. The live link has details for that event also. Hope to see you there.
Updated
The #ausvotes interwebs is now littered with crushed caravans. I’d ask what have we all become, but I already know the answer.
When will we get the Coalition's housing affordability policy offering?
I mentioned earlier today I’d seen a new ad from the Master Builders Association about keeping negative gearing. Here’s one of the two ads in the campaign – the MBA tell me they are running online and on “some TV” which I suspect means predominantly Sky News. The MBA’s pitch is housing affordability is a land supply issue, not a tax concession issue.
Incidentally, the Coalition has not had a housing affordability policy offering in this campaign to date. I strongly suspect we’ll get one, given Labor’s negative gearing policy seems to be going down reasonably well if the temperature in public events is any reliable guide. There was huge applause in Penrith last night in the Q&A audience when a young businessman asked the housing affordability question. Biggest affirmation of the night.
Full Gif marks to the AFR’s Jacob Greber. Scott Morrison, who appears tired this campaign of taking himself and his position seriously, is fond of “caravan of chaos” as a description of minority government. The caravan of chaos showed up this morning on 2GB somewhere between the Labor/Greens alliance and Rob Oakeshott. Here’s a visual.
@PhillipCoorey #caravanofchaos pic.twitter.com/qRMhPDDw9w
— Jacob Greber (@jacobgreber) June 13, 2016
Pre-polls this morning, as far as the eye can see.
Prepoll voting begins - with my volunteers at Glynde! Find your nearest prepoll: https://t.co/SehgJeaRek #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/nyhMfm5nnX
— Christopher Pyne (@cpyne) June 13, 2016
And so it begins. #Corio #Corangamite pre poll in #Geelong. #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/9QXE86zU9t
— Richard Marles (@RichardMarlesMP) June 13, 2016
Luke Grant is also unhappy about plebiscites on the local government council amalgamations – something Labor flagged over the weekend. Scott Morrison says even when people might agree with the odd thing Bill Shorten says, they always wonder why he’s saying it.
There’s always a political motive.
A question then about why the Coalition is now funding the football stadium in Townsville when he, the treasurer, was up in Townsville at the beginning of the campaign and sounded distinctly underwhelmed by the proposition. Morrison says that was early in the campaign, first point. And he says the government is not just throwing money at a stadium, that wouldn’t cut the mustard. No, this is a cities plan, for Townsville. Much better.
Scott Morrison is pointed in the direction of last night’s Q&A program and Bill Shorten saying journalists and others will be able to go to the offshore detention camps for the purposes of oversight.
Grant, just to be clear, says he doesn’t want journalists over there, leftwing agitators, with film crews, something about whooshka.
Scott Morrison says Bill Shorten doesn’t understand how the system works. Nauru and PNG are sovereign governments. They decide who enters the country. Then with a quick hop we are back into Labor Greens chaos, and Rob Oakeshott.
Updated
Luke Grant moves on to events in Orlando. A tragedy.
Scott Morrison agrees it is an awful thing.
It’s an attack on all freedom-loving people.
LGBTI people for sure, Morrison says, but more than that – all people who love freedom.
Updated
Oh, no I won’t, here he is! A patient man, the treasurer. Nothing much else to do than hang on the line with 2GB, right? A fellow called Luke Grant is now in for Ray. Alan has departed. The two are deep in conversation about the Sharks. Go Sharks.
Still no treasurer, perhaps it’s a case of no Ray, no treasurer.
I’ll keep an ear on it and move on.
Be sensible, Ray be sensible.
Alan Jones, on Ray. Still no sign of the treasurer, who was due on at 9.20am. (Stay strong, Ray.)
I did wonder why I was listening to Alan Jones rather than Ray Hadley. It seemed a bit late in the morning for Alan. Alan has just informed the listeners that Ray has gone home sick.
Speaking of Donald Trump, he’s taken the decision to ban the Washington Post from covering his campaign. Here is the paper’s response.
"nothing less than a repudiation of the role of a free and independent press."
— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) June 13, 2016
Washington Post statement on ban: pic.twitter.com/6PnidUfFB9
Pre-polling, up the road, (for me at least), in Goulburn.
First votes lodged in Hume as Prepoll opens in Goulburn. Sue Pearson from Towrang one of many voting early #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/cChS7nmMwz
— Angus Taylor MP (@AngusTaylorMP) June 13, 2016
Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten are on the ground in Perth. The treasurer Scott Morrison is coming up on the Ray Hadley program. Alan Jones is currently quoting Donald Trump in glowing terms on 2GB. What a time to be alive.
Calla mentioned first up that pre-poll voting opens today. I’ve only had Sky News on this morning but already there’s been an intensification of advertising from interest groups as well as the parties themselves. This morning I’ve seen a protect negative gearing advertisement from the Master Builders Association. I haven’t seen that one before. Has it been on an I’ve missed it? (One of the problems of watching little or no free to air commercial TV .. not keeping up with election ads .. )
Some utterly reasonable reaction to this morning’s news that the election debate meant to engage the public is being scheduled for 6pm Friday night.
@murpharoo if you want a debate that will engage otherwise disengaged voters, especially young voters, 6pm on Friday seems a poor choice.
— Gabriel Fattal (@Gab282) June 13, 2016
Things that make you go hmmm.
Good morning
Thanks Calla, good morning everyone and welcome to Tuesday. Let’s open with two interesting bits in the news cycle slightly off the beaten track this morning: Malcolm Turnbull and the Russians, and central Queenslanders flirting with Pauline Hanson. Let’s deal with each in turn. The Australian Financial Review has published a long piece this morning about what journalist Neil Chenoweth dubs “Malcolm Turnbull’s great Russian gold adventure”. This is a follow-up piece from a report a little while back that established that Turnbull had turned up in the Panama Papers as a director of a British Virgin Islands company, Star Technology Systems.
The AFR says new documents show Turnbull’s firm earned an estimated $7m from a venture with a company called Central Mining (which acquired Star Technology) “including a $1.8m commission paid in shares held in Mossack Fonseca companies that an independent director says he was unaware of”. Chenoweth then takes us on an extended romp through a complicated and colourful (read, an alleged bribe among other things) business transaction involving Russians, before concluding that Turnbull “remained blithely unaware, the happiest and most unwitting of beneficiaries” from all the ins and outs. Chenoweth makes it very clear that Turnbull didn’t know about the bribe, and he, the reporter, is not suggesting anything to the contrary. That fact notwithstanding, I’d be surprised if the prime minister didn’t face questions about this over the course of today.
It’s a big leap to central Queensland, I know, but stay with me. Radio National broadcast a report earlier this morning from a pub crawl in the seat of Capricornia. Seemingly everyone in the pub(s) were declaring themselves a vote for Pauline Hanson, who is of course back in contention in this election cycle, and has the benefit of the double-dissolution poll, where the Senate quotas are halved.
Obviously some vox pops in a pub are a distance short of science, but it was interesting nonetheless. Workers in the pub were disillusioned with Labor, seen as too close to the Greens (this sentiment has been a problem for Labor in mining seats for quite some years), and with the Coalition. They were looking for non-major party alternatives, which is one of the key themes this election season. We are living in interesting times.
Let’s crack on. A reminder 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 only speak Facebook you can join my daily forum here. And if you want a behind-the-scenes look at the day and the campaign as a whole, give Mike a follow on Instagram. You can find him here.
Onwards, into Tuesday.
Updated
Details of that agile and innovative Facebook Live/News.com.au election debate have been announced. You may recall that Malcolm Turnbull proposed the debate last week as part of his justification for skipping the Sky News debate in Brisbane, which Bill Shorten attended on his lonesome.
News.com.au has announced that it will be held at 6pm this Friday, 17 June, and hosted by News Corp columnist Joe Hildebrand. The venue will be Facebook’s Australian headquarters in Sydney and of course your device of choice: this is live and participatory after all.
With that, I’ll hand over to Katharine Murphy.
Updated
Daily front page roundup
The Australian front page. Tuesday 14 June 2016. @GuardianAus #ausvotes #election2016 #orlando pic.twitter.com/vJzZNzqIQV
— Dave Earley (@earleyedition) June 13, 2016
The Sydney Morning Herald front page. Tuesday 14 June 2016. @smh #ausvotes #election2016 #orlando pic.twitter.com/KtkvYgDb55
— Dave Earley (@earleyedition) June 13, 2016
The Daily Telegraph front page. Tuesday 14 June 2016. @dailytelegraph #ausvotes #election2016 #orlando pic.twitter.com/9orE1Aajvz
— Dave Earley (@earleyedition) June 13, 2016
Financial Review front page. Tuesday 14 June 2016. @FinancialReview #ausvotes #election2016 pic.twitter.com/yHREQtcRzL
— Dave Earley (@earleyedition) June 13, 2016
The Courier Mail front page. Tuesday 14 June 2016. @couriermail #ausvotes #election2016 #orlando pic.twitter.com/BEm76gO4JG
— Dave Earley (@earleyedition) June 13, 2016
The Canberra Times front page. Tuesday 14 June 2016. @canberratimes #ausvotes #election2016 #orlando pic.twitter.com/U3sqLq9hoJ
— Dave Earley (@earleyedition) June 13, 2016
The Herald Sun front page. Tuesday 14 June 2016. @theheraldsun #ausvotes #election2016 #orlando pic.twitter.com/cBYss9GgLy
— Dave Earley (@earleyedition) June 13, 2016
The Age front page. Tuesday 14 June 2016. @theage #ausvotes #election2016 #orlando pic.twitter.com/ZazTZVoH6y
— Dave Earley (@earleyedition) June 13, 2016
ABC News front page. Tuesday 14 June 2016. @abcnews #ausvotes #election2016 #orlando pic.twitter.com/eDF7WmF3vQ
— Dave Earley (@earleyedition) June 13, 2016
Guardian Australia front page. Tuesday 14 June 2016. @GuardianAus #ausvotes #election2016 #orlando pic.twitter.com/Wla4TpeT6C
— Dave Earley (@earleyedition) June 13, 2016
I’ve been watching the reaction to Bill Shorten’s comment on Q&A last night that he would look at a treaty with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, in addition to constitutional recognition.
Indigenous Australians have been calling for a treaty for decades, and many community conversations about the constitutional preamble have concluded that a treaty, not recognition, should remain the goal.
University of New South Wales Professor Megan Davis has written extensively on this issue (her piece on The Monthly is a good primer) and appeared to cautiously welcome Shorten’s comments.
Shorten mentions a treaty settlement. Shorten's comment is clearly reflecting the current conversation in the Aboriginal community. #qanda
— Prof M Davis (@mdavisqlder) June 13, 2016
Other commentators were equally careful.
Treaties should take as long as long as is necessary for informed agreement to be reached. The mechanism not so long https://t.co/XjSsv3bn2S
— Greg McIntyre SC (@McIntyreGregory) June 13, 2016
#qanda Finally in this election a question about dispossession & invasion. More please.
— Paul Daley (@PPDaley) June 13, 2016
Let's see if the resources matches the rhetoric in Indigenous affairs #qanda
— Joe Hedger (@cuz888) June 13, 2016
As Sky News journo Dan Bourchier explained, people were cautious with good reason.
Almost to the day in '88, fmr PM Bob Hawke told the NTs Barunga Festival, a treaty should happen. That debate still has not progressed
— Dan Bourchier (@Dan_Bourchier) June 13, 2016
The Australia Institute has released a report this morning that says the Abbott/Turnbull government has, on a range of economic measures, performed worst of any government since Menzies took power in 1949.
That’s clearly a rather unfortunate finding for the Coalition, which trades on being better economic managers than the other mob.
As Guardian columnist Greg Jericho explains, the report also found little correlation between “business friendly” policies and economic performance.
The report examines economic performance across a range of 12 indicators – including GDP per capita, the unemployment rate, employment growth and the growth of real business investment and intellectual property investment.
The findings by economist Jim Stanford showed that on all but two measures, the performance under the Abbott/Turnbull government has been worse than that under the Gillard government.
Only on the measure of growth of government debt as a share of GDP is the Abbott/Turnbull government “better”. But even if you agree with the proposition that lower government debt is a good thing, the Abbott/Turnbull growth of 2.16% of GDP is only marginally better than the 2.26% of GDP growth observed under the Gillard government.
While we wait for our leaders in the west to wake up, here are some of the images from the Orlando massacre vigil in Sydney last night.
Perth-based election analyst William Bowe, who you may know as @PollBludger, has just wrapped up an interview on AM about the current state-of-play in Perth.
Bowe said marginal WA seats could decide the election, which would be a nice change.
That’s always the dream in Western Australia, that we won’t be shunted aside as an afterthought on election night, that the nation will be watching with baited breath to see the outcome in the key seats… that will be down to how close the contest is overall, and that remains to be seen.
Reporters in Western Australia today will be keenly watching Malcolm Turnbull’s public appearances today for signs of Colin Barnett, to confirm a theory that the increasingly unpopular premier has been asked to stay away.
Barnett didn’t pop up on Turnbull’s first campaign visit, earlier in the campaign, but he is expected to be at Julie Bishop’s Curtin campaign launch with the PM tonight. Dissatisfaction with the Barnett government has been blamed for the slipping Liberal vote in the west.
Social services minister Christian Porter, once considered the next premier of WA, told The West Australian that the popularity or otherwise of Barnett’s leadership was a state issue.
I am in the middle of a very long Federal campaign and it’s taking up 110 per cent of my time.
The State parliamentary party will sort its own affairs. I’ve been campaigning for four weeks and not had a constituent raise it with me.
This is A+ trolling by the deputy prime minister, and I am here for it.
Who says @Barnaby_Joyce can't have fun? You can always DEPPend on him having a laugh #ausvotes #auspol pic.twitter.com/qRWxyXveyI
— Jamieson Murphy (@jamiesonmurph) June 13, 2016
Just on that national security story in The Australian: the ABC’s Frank Keany has pointed out that a law allowing for the ongoing detention of convicted terrorists was supported at COAG in April.
Re: Brandis comments in The Australian, this was discussed in COAG in April https://t.co/xyX2VKiIR7
— Frank Keany (@FJKeany) June 13, 2016
The Oz story says the Coalition would “move quickly to enact a pledge to change Australia’s terror laws,” a possible nod to COAG that I did not pick up.
From the COAG release on April 1:
COAG agreed today that the Commonwealth will draft legislation to introduce, as soon as practicable, a nationally consistent post-sentence preventative detention scheme, with appropriate protections, for high risk terrorist offenders.
It is an unfortunate reality that some convicted terrorists may not be rehabilitated and continue to pose a risk to the community at the end of their sentence. In light of the national security challenges facing Australia, measures need to be put in place to ensure that we can protect the community from the threat these individuals may pose if they are released.
Updated
Labor is clearly going for that pre-poll vote. This is their morning campaign comment:
As Australians begin to head to the polls today, they have a clear choice – A Shorten Labor Government that will protect Medicare, invest in our schools and hospitals and build a first rate NBN or Mr Turnbull’s Liberals whose only plan is for a $50 billion tax giveaway to big business including a $7.4 billion profit giveaway to the big banks
‘The Indi of 2016’
Is Higgins, apparently.
The Age has got its mitts on some polling, commissioned by The Greens, which reportedly shows that assistant treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer’s primary vote has fallen to 44.1% in the inner-city Melbourne seat. That’s lower than the 44.7% former Indi MP Sophie Mirabella took to the 2013 election.
Meanwhile Greens candidate, Jason Ball, is riding on 24.1% while the ALP’s Carl Katter is third on 18.5%.
Age senior editor Mark Hawthorne writes:
Mr Ball needs a swing of 9.9 per cent to win the seat and preferences to flow the Greens’ way. The ALP, along with a number of independent candidates, have already pledged their preferences to the Greens.
According to the poll, Ms O’Dwyer has a lower primary vote count (44.1 per cent) than the 44.7 per cent Ms Mirabella recorded in Indi in 2013. The Liberals ended up losing Indi by just 439 votes after preferences, with a swing against them of 10.2 per cent.
The Lonergan Research poll of more than 1100 registered voters in the seat of Higgins was conducted on June 3-4. On a two-party preferred basis, it still shows the Liberal Party leading the Greens 53-47. “We have turned a safe Liberal seat into a marginal seat,” Mr Ball said.
Good morning
Gather your how-to-vote cards and sound the klaxon: the polls in this inordinately long election campaign open today.
Well, the pre-polls open. It’s not quite the same and, as my colleague Paul Karp reminds us, you’re not just supposed to vote early because you feel like it.
But it seems an increasing number of people do – vote early, that is. Karp reports that as many as 40% of people could vote early this year, which would be twice as many as in 2013. The official 2 July polling day falls in school holidays, which is inconvenient, and, as Josh Frydenberg remarked, “a lot of people just want to get their vote in and get on with the rest of their lives.”
Very true. And yet why would you want to get on with your life when there is still so much politics to muck about in! Plus if you wait until polling day you can partake in the traditional election day sausage sizzle or cake stall, depending on your dietary preferences.
Anyway. Onwards and upwards. Welcome to day 37.
The big picture
Opposition leader, Bill Shorten, fresh from what Lenore Taylor dubbed a “confident” performance on the ABC’s Q&A program at the Penrith Performing Arts centre in western Sydney last night, is set to announce Labor’s “apprentice ready” program in Perth.
According to AAP, the policy will target long-term unemployed youths – those out of work and/or school for more than six months – for a 20-week pre-apprenticeship course in a trade on the national skills shortage list. Employers will get a cool $1,000 for hiring someone from the program and Labor reckons it will create 10,000 jobs. Shorten will also announce a new pilot program with 5,000 places for mature-aged workers who want to turn their years on the job into a qualification.
This ties into that target, announced in Adelaide last week, for one in 10 jobs on priority infrastructure jobs to be filled by apprentices. It is offered in contrast to the Coalition’s internship program, or Youth Jobs PaTH, under which employers will be paid $1,000 to take on a long-term unemployed youth for 12 weeks, which will earn said youth $200 a fortnight above their welfare cheques and give them on-the-job experience.
Meanwhile, the Australian is reporting that the Coalition, if re-elected, will change Australia’s counter-terrorism laws to allow those convicted of terrorism offences to be detained long after they have completed their sentence, if it can be shown they still hold radical views.
The policy is apparently in response to the “danger of home-grown radicals” after the Orlando massacre, although the attorney general, George Brandis, fortuitously flagged it with the Oz’s national security editor, Paul Maley, last week.
Maley writes:
Senator Brandis acknowledged the move was “a radical step’’ but argued that the unique nature of terrorism justified the change, which could lead to jihadists being imprisoned for life.
“The essence, in a sense, of any form of criminal law is prevention,’’ Senator Brandis said.
“But you can’t apply to terrorism an orthodox criminal law model.
“There is not always the same capacity for deterrence.’’
I’ll leave it to others (looking at you, Paul Farrell) to examine in detail this proposed reform, but it would be remiss of me not to mention that this is a prime example of stories surrounding the Orlando massacre erasing the homophobic nature of the crime.
It doesn’t mention that it occurred in a gay night club, or that Omar Mateen had been reportedly incensed by the sight of two men kissing a couple of months previously, or that the vilification of the LGBTI community is not confined to one religion.
As Michael Koziol writes in an excellent article on the Fairfax websites:
Words matter, and labels matter. The way we classify stuff is a window into our motives, our agendas, our prejudices. And so a white guy who massacres dozens in Norway becomes a madman, not a terrorist. And a jihadist who murders homosexuals hates freedom, not gays.
It’s hard to understand why some observers want to deny LGBTI people this ownership. But what it says is macabre. It shows how badly they want every act of terror to fit into a narrative of us-versus-them, Islam versus the West, hatred versus freedom.
On the campaign trail
Both leaders are in Perth today in an attempt to shore-up seats in a state that, ordinarily, could be considered a safe Liberal stronghold.
According to the Australian, Malcolm Turnbull will spend a good chunk of the day as the star attraction at a $10,000 a head lunch at the Cottesloe home of businessman John Schaffer, which is expected to raise $100,000.
Andrew Burrell writes:
Liberal sources say Mr Turnbull … is commanding the sort of money from Liberal backers that only John Howard was able to attract in WA. They say party officials were never able to charge $10,000 a head for events featuring Tony Abbott, despite the former prime minister’s relative popularity in WA.
Meanwhile, Lucy Turnbull and Julie Bishop will host their own $2,000 a head lunch at the Hyatt Hotel, before the gang gets back together for Bishop’s campaign launch in her seat of Curtin tonight.
The campaign you should be watching
Western Australia often feels neglected in election campaigns, and occasionally for good reason: until his plane touched down last night, Turnbull had spent just 14 hours of the 36-day campaign in the state. It’s ignored because it is safe, but that’s not the case this year. The Liberal-held seats of Cowan, Hasluck, and Swan are facing a strong challenge from the Labor party, who is also campaigning very strongly in the new seat of Burt.
Turnbull is expected to confine his efforts to Cowan, held by Liberal MP Luke Simpkins on a margin of 4.7%, which I wrote about here, and Burt, which I wrote about here.
According to the Oz, the WA Liberal party has a $7.6m campaign war chest, compared to Labor’s $2.5m.
And another thing(s)
And finally, I mentioned Family First senate candidate for Tasmania, Peter Madden, on the blog yesterday because he had been criticised for driving his campaign trailer, adorned with anti-gay slogans, around just hours after the Orlando shooting.
At the time, Madden’s only comment about the massacre had been one of condolences. Would that it had stayed that way.
Though Orlando is abhorrent, it doesn't change the real & present dangers of the gay marriage agenda to Aus children.
— Peter Madden (@petermadden2u) June 13, 2016
He defended the tweet as being a simple response to the criticism about his trailer but, unsurprisingly, people were quite upset.
@petermadden2u You are scum. They are still cleaning up the blood and you've made it a political tool to discriminate.
— Brendan Maclean (@macleanbrendan) June 13, 2016
Horrible fanatics like Peter Madden are the real and present danger to our society and to our children. https://t.co/xOfl2hDYBK
— Kim Foale (@frogpondsrock) June 13, 2016
Though Peter Madden is abhorrent, it doesn't change the real & present dangers of homophobic politicians to Aus children.
— screamapillar (@Patttt__) June 13, 2016
I firmly recommend putting "Family First" dead last in the #politas #Senate ballot, whatever your politics. #ausvotes
— Kevin Bonham (@kevinbonham) June 13, 2016
I would like to applaud the effort Buzzfeed’s Lane Sainty put into telling Madden to delete his account. It shows remarkable dedication.
.@petermadden2u pic.twitter.com/fAqxwlEWvL
— Lane Sainty (@lanesainty) June 13, 2016
Madden insisted he “condemned the massacre absolutely” and grieved for the victims, but didn’t seem to understand what he had done wrong.
This undue response to my reply to a critic is extraordinary. Both sides need to be heard as we head to the plebiscite
— Peter Madden (@petermadden2u) June 13, 2016
I am neither a homophobe,nor a hater. I'm simply a conservative concerned that education changes overseas(post gay marriage)will happen here
— Peter Madden (@petermadden2u) June 13, 2016
Updated
