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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Amy Remeikis

Donald Trump tweets on Reserve Bank of Australia's interest rates cut – as it happened

Donald Trump
Donald Trump has tweeted over Australia’s interest rates cut, saying US rates are too high. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

It has been a pretty gross day, so we are going to close off the blog.

We’ll be back tomorrow morning with whatever else the sitting week throws at us. Come Thursday, there will be a two-week break in between sittings, then parliament returns for one week before a six-week hiatus.

That’s a mess of numbers – basically, there are six sitting days left until the budget is handed down in May.

Not that there is a lot of legislation to discuss. Last week, the Coalition party room was shown three pieces of legislation for debate. This week it was two.

The Senate isn’t sitting, but still. It shows you just how empty the legislation cupboard is at the moment. And that the government is working very hard on that small-target strategy.

Estimates continues tomorrow, and we will bring you all of that and more. A big thank you to Mike Bowers, Sarah Martin, Paul Karp and Katharine Murphy. We are all thinking of our next-door colleagues, AAP, as we finish up today. It’s a blow, not just to the industry at large but also to some very, very good people, who kept reporting even as they learned they’d lost their jobs.

We’ll see you tomorrow morning. Take care of you.

Updated

Donald Trump seems to be a fan of the Reserve Bank.

Updated

I am still fuming over a senator – who “didn’t believe” he could be British, because he didn’t feel British, ahead of the high court ruling that, yes, no matter his feelings, he was, under citizenship law, actually still British – demanding “empirical evidence” on anything.

Updated

Kristina Keneally has put together a list of questions not answered by the Australian federal police during estimates, in terms of the Angus Taylor investigation:

The AFP decided in February to discontinue the Taylor investigation. However, when questioned in Estimates about that decision and the investigation, the AFP could not answer the following questions:

    • Did the AFP determine if the documents are a forgery?
    • Who doctored the documents?
    • Who downloaded the documents?
    • When were the documents downloaded, including resolving conflicting dates from minister Taylor, whose office claimed to the Daily Telegraph that the documents were downloaded on 6 September but who said in a subsequent public statement that the documents were “accessed” on 9 September?
    • Is there any evidence to support Mr Taylor’s claims in public – including on the ABC’s 7.30 last night – and in the parliament that the document he gave to the Daily Telegraph once existed on the City of Sydney’s website?
    • Is there any evidence that a member of Mr Taylor’s staff, or any person linked to Mr Taylor, was involved in falsifying information?
    • Did the AFP review the City of Sydney’s metadata that shows that both the PDF and Word versions of the annual report have not been altered, changed or removed since they were uploaded in November 2018?
    • Did the AFP review the City of Sydney’s Google analytics data that showed there were only 13 direct downloads of the annual report from the City of Sydney website between 6-9 September?
    • Did the AFP determine the location of the IP addresses for the 13 direct downloads of the annual report from the City of Sydney website between 6-9 September?
    • Did the AFP determine if other methods of downloading the document occurred? For example, did the AFP examine if minister Taylor or any member of Mr Taylor’s office visited the direct URL to the PDF or Word file version of the document, or shared the document via email or some kind of electronic messaging service?
    • Did the AFP access emails and other electronic messages that the government, including Mr Taylor’s own staff, have withheld from Freedom of Information requests?
    • Did the AFP interview any of Angus Taylor’s staff, including Mr Josh Manuatu?
    • Did the AFP interview any Department of Environment staff?
    • Did the AFP interview any of the Sydney lord mayor’s staff?
    • Did the AFP interview any of the City of Sydney staff?
    • Why did the NSW police refer this matter to the AFP?
    • What brief of evidence did the NSW police provide to the AFP with their referral?

Updated

And the exchange itself:

Murray Watt: (Quotes from Asio briefing.) Are you familiar with this information?

Rosalind Croucher : Yes.

Watt: (Quote about online forums promoting rightwing extremism.) Do you have any comment on that report in light of your own knowledge of rightwing extremism in Australia?

Croucher: Certainly they are a matter of concern. Our national anti-racism strategy aims to deal with this. Chin Tan is the best person to answer this ... And ask Ed Santow about anti-terror laws.

Watt: What’s your perspective on those comments from Mr Burgess and your concerns?

Ed Santow: We acknowledge that Asio and other agencies are the primary experts on this. We advise on legislative responses.

Watt: Have you provided advice to government in recent times about the threat of rightwing extremism?

Santow: Not specifically on rightwing extremism, but on terrorism more generally.

Watt: Whether by reference to complaints to the AHRC or other means, are there any trends you can see re rightwing extremism?

Croucher: Most of our complaints are about disability. Only a few are about extremism.

Watt: Asio was not identifying a new threat, just an increase in the threat.

Stoker: Yesterday we said it should be referred to as “far-right extremism”.

Watt: Why are you so defensive? Surely the term “extremism” provides a sufficient distinction?

Stoker: We’re not sensitive! I give the call to [senator] Henderson.

Watt: You are a right-wing extremist.

Stoker: Withdraw that!

Watt: OK.

Updated

Labor’s Murray Watt has asked the Australian Human Rights Commission about rightwing extremism, after Asio’s evidence it is on the rise.

Commission president Rosalind Croucher said its anti-racism work was directed at “rightwing extreme views”.

Human rights commissioner Ed Santow said Asio and other law-enforcement agencies “are the primary experts on the nature and scope of threats to national security” but the commission did advise the government on the legislative response.

The Liberal chair, Amanda Stoker, asked Watt to refer to “far-right extremism” instead of “rightwing extremism” and noted that Asio prefers this term. This sparked a to-and-fro between the pair, with Watt accusing her of dictating how he asked questions and referring to her as “commandant Stoker”.

Watt suggested Stoker was sensitive because of her attendance at the conference of CPAC, a conservative US outfit transplanted to Australia which caused controversy in August.

Stoker rejected the suggestion, saying she was “not sensitive, loved the conference, [it’s] not a problem”.

Eventually Watt continued to bait Stoker, so she gave the call to Liberal Sarah Henderson, which Watt suggested proved the point that rightwing extremism was growing. He withdrew the remark.

Updated

Over in estimates, Murray Watt and Amanda Stoker (who is chasing the conservative branch member vote in Queensland as she fights for her Senate spot against James McGrath) have gone head to head in the human rights section of the hearing

Ed Husic on Scott Morrison’s Brian Houston admission (speaking to the ABC)

This is a pattern of behaviour from this Prime Minister when he belittles people asking legitimate straightforward questions. He stonewalls, takes his time, hopes it disappears, in the middle of something else going on, decides then to drop it, in one interview he does with 2GB and thinks he can get away with it.

This is repeated in other major issues. I don’t think it’s good enough. It shows you this sort of arrogance that’s crept into the way he does this job.

Tim Wilson on the same topic (short answer, nothing to see here)

I mean, he’s not avoiding it.It’s putting forward a proposition that people are saying lots of things. In the end, he made it clear what has actually happened. I think frankly everyone else is focused on much more substantive issues like the government’s response to the coronavirus and the challenges that Australians are facing.

Discussion central in QT today:

Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg
Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg have a word. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Peter Dutton and Andrew Hastie
Peter Dutton talks to Andrew Hastie. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton
Morrison and Dutton. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Except when it wasn’t.

Anthony Albanese grills Morrison
Anthony Albanese grills Morrison. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

I’m sorry, Amy can’t come to the blog right now. Why? Oh, she smashed her head against the desk so hard it is rolling down the parliament lawns.

You’ll find it lolling against the stupid, unnecessary fence.

Updated

Paul Fletcher is now on Afternoon Briefing with Patricia Karvelas, where he talks about AAP closing down:

Well, obviously, very troubling for the journalists who are affected and certainly my sympathies are with them. It’s a response to the trends that are applying to the media and communications sector.

It’s a global sector, it’s a digital sector, some types of content are struggling, other types of content are booming.

Streaming services are booming. So businesses’ media and communications sector are seeking to reposition themselves, building in areas that are growing and reallocate resources from other areas.

We’ve seen that in the results in recent weeks from the TV and integrated media companies, Nine Entertainment Limited, talking about their share of business, their growing share of business now coming from digital.

These are trends that media and communications companies are responding to, with a view to surviving, and indeed prospering, by going into growth and withdrawing resources from the areas not growing so strongly.

You know what started this? Ending the competition laws for the media space. Not doing anything about Facebook and Google ripping off stories did this. But sure – go off, Fletcher.

Updated

I want to scream.

Updated

The Law Council of Australia has issued a statement on the legal powers to detain and control people to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The council’s president, Pauline Wright, said:

We absolutely support action by the government to keep Australia safe and stop the spread of potentially dangerous infectious diseases.

However, powers under the Biosecurity Act 2015 (Cth) are extraordinary and must be approached with the utmost caution and should only be used as a last resort.

The exceptional powers under the act do not have the types of safeguards and independent oversight protections afforded to our law enforcement and security agencies’ exercise of coercive powers.

The determination of a particular disease as a listed human disease (LHD) can have significant repercussions under the bill, particularly in relation to control orders.

While control orders in cases of infectious disease may be justified, there is no requirement for a person to actually be infected or for the officer to even reasonably believe or suspect that the person is infected, or may be infected, with a LHD, before a control order can be made.

Control orders can potentially have a significant impact upon a person’s liberty as they can, for example, require isolation or restricted movement measures to be in place. While the use of such a power may be necessary to limit the spread of potentially dangerous infectious diseases, the threshold for determining a LHD and then for imposing a control order needs to be carefully considered to ensure it achieves this purpose based on reasonable grounds.

Updated

Richard Marles was on Afternoon Briefing, where Patricia Karvelas asked him about Scott Morrison’s Brian Houston admission:

Ultimately, the prime minister is not a straight shooter. That’s the only thing you can make from this. It’s good he answered the question, he should’ve answered it a few months ago. In your introduction, you made the point absolutely.

When he was asked about this a few months ago, he said this was just gossip.

Now he accepts this is actually true. When he said it was gossip, he hasn’t been straight within the Australian people. That’s been the hallmark of Scott Morrison since he’s been the prime minister of the country.

If he’s asked a difficult question, he will always double down, and the truth is not his friend.

Karvelas: He has confirmed it now, he has been straight with people now. Does it matter he sought to invite the Hillsong pastor Brian Houston?

Marles:

That’s a matter for his judgment. When we were asking the question last year, it’s reasonable the Australian people get to see the judgements the prime minister makes.

It’s a matter for him to justify the steps he took in relation to that invitation. The critical point: last year he said this was gossip.

When he said that, he was not being straight with the Australian people. What we are seeing with sports rorts and a matter of other things, when he’s put in a difficult position, he does not tell the truth. Australians are seeing that now.

Updated

Holy moly – I am being told there are four nuns in the gallery at the moment.

Seems about right, given the way today is going.

Labor shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers has held a press conference to accuse Scott Morrison of “inaction and incompetence” for refusing to stimulate the economy when the RBA and others were asking for it, well before the coronavirus outbreak.

Coronavirus “might explain” the fourth rate cut since the start of 2019 but “not the first three”, Chalmers said, and the outbreak “doesn’t explain or excuse the weakness” evident in the economy for a while.

Rate cuts have meant that savers have “copped it in the neck” and have also “puffed up asset prices”, he said.

Chalmers noted the Reserve Bank doesn’t want to resort to quantitative easing, but has had to contemplate itbecause the government is “sitting on its hands”.

He said he will not speculate on the national accounts out tomorrow, or whether Australia is headed for recession, although investment has been “clearly quite weak”.

NAB has also announced it will pass on the rate cut, leaving just ANZ to make an announcement.

Scott Morrison on 5 December:

Richard Marles: My question is to the prime minister: why does the prime minister believe that he shouldn’t be subject to the normal rules of integrity and accountability, demonstrated by his failure to answer questions about why he prevented any member from speaking on his union-bashing bill today, why he has repeatedly misled the parliament, why he interfered in a New South Wales police investigation into one of his own ministers, why he was sacked as CEO of Tourism Australia and why he invited his mentor Brian Houston to the White House?

Scott Morrison: The Labor party like to talk big about these issues but when it comes to calling them to account and asking them to outlaw thuggish and bullying behaviour in this country, this is their reaction: smears, accusations and even attacking people’s faith. I’m not intimidated by the leader of the opposition or any of the Labor party members.

Updated

Scott Morrison on 14 October:

Richard Marles: Why won’t the prime minister give a straight answer to this question: did the prime minister or his office seek to have Brian Houston invited to the White House?

After initially refusing to comment on the story, deriding it as “gossip”, Morrison told parliament the invitations were handled by the White House and it was “a matter for the White House”.

I think the Australian people are more interested in who Jamie Clements was inviting to dinner, and how much cash was in the wine bag,” Morrison said, in reference to revelations about illegal Chinese donations made to the NSW branch of the Labor party.

... If they are suggesting anything serious, or casting any aspersions on the individual which is the subject of the question, then perhaps I suggest they go and attend that church and they explain their concerns directly to their parishioners.

Updated

Scott Morrison on 2 September:

PM: No, I don’t think it’s helpful, David. I mean there’s one unpublished source, comment, coming out of allegedly…”

David Speers: But you can clarify this?

PM: Well, I don’t feel the need to comment on those things, David, I really don’t. If people want to put their –

Speers: But why is that, though?

PM: Because, David, I’m not going to go into the habit of just because one journalist somewhere in the world talks to someone who won’t put their name to it, and all of a sudden apparently we’ve got to play “20 questions”. That’s just not how I’m going operate. If people have an established source who’s prepared to put their names to things, well that’s a different matter.

Updated

But today, it’s no big deal.

Ben Fordham: Let me clear something up with you because I promised my listeners I would including some people who had been sadly victims of child sexual abuse and I’ve got to keep my promise to them.

It relates to your trip to Washington last year and whether or not you asked the Trump administration to invite the Hillsong founder Brian Houston to the White House state dinner.

Now the reason this is of interest is because Brian Houston is under investigation by New South Wales police for not reporting child sex abuse allegations involving his father.

Now this may have been a case of you not knowing at the time that Brian Houston was under investigation, I don’t know. But what I do know is that you didn’t really give a straight answer. When asked about it, you dismissed it as gossip. So I wanted to clear it up once and for all and keep the promise that I made to my listeners: did you seek an invitation to the White House for Brian Houston?

Scott Morrison:

I’ve known Brian for a long time and Hillsong Church has a very big network of churches all across the United States and the ministry when it comes to the music, and so many other things have been very big. It’s probably the single largest church organisation that is known in the United States.

And so, Brian Houston actually turned up to the White House a few months later at the invitation directly of the White House.

On that occasion, we put forward a number of names that included Brian, but not everybody whose names we put forward were invited.

But the point about this is, I mean, they’re a very large church. I mean, well known in the United States, and a lot of people in the United States came along to the services every week.

So I’m not quite sure what the accusation is about that.

Fordham: It was relevant because, as it turns out, he was under police investigation, and he still is, according to New South Wales police. Would it be fair to say you weren’t aware of that, at the things I followed closely?

Morrison: All I know is that they’re a very large and very well-attended and well-supported organisation here in Australia.

And, you know, they’re very well known in the United States, so well known that Brian was actually at the White House a few months after I was. So the president obviously didn’t have an issue with it.

And that’s what, I think, that’s where the matter rests.

But honestly, people chased this round and round for months and what’s important is the relationship we have with the United States and it’s never been better.

It is worth noting that while Houston did appear at the White House with other religious leaders, he did not meet Donald Trump. Trump was not there. Trump was at the state dinner, though.

Updated

This is how Scott Morrison dealt with the Brian Houston story at the time:

Journalist: It was reported in the Wall Street Journal that an invitation was sought to the White House for Hillsong pastor Brian Houston, who’s a friend of yours, and that was not backed? Can you tell us what happened there?

PM: I don’t comment on gossip.

J: So it’s not true?

J: Did you actually put a request in for him to …

PM: I don’t comment on gossip or stories about other stories.

J: Does that mean it’s not true, though?

PM: It means it’s gossip.

J: But it …

PM: It means it’s gossip.

J: But not true?

PM: I’ve answered the question.

J: True or not true?

He avoided answering it for months. MONTHS.

Houston also denied it. And then clarified that it might be true, but he didn’t know whether it was or not.

Updated

Morrison admits his office put forward Hillsong leader's name for White House dinner

Scott Morrison just admitted on Sydney radio 2GB for the first time that he put Hillsong leader Brian Houston’s name forward for the White House state dinner.

Morrison referred to this as “gossip” for months and refused to answer this question. For months.

Now he’s all *shrug emoji* over it.

Updated

Eric Abetz covering off the big issues on his favourite day of the year.

Updated

Scott Morrison ends question time with a statement on AAP, expressing his regret over the news wire closing. He thanks the reporters past and present for their service.

Anthony Albanese stands on the same issue. The Labor caucus holds up handwritten “Thank you AAP” signs.

There’s not enough to say about this. The ramifications for Australian media are going to be huge. The void this will leave can not be filled.

Updated

ABC boss David Anderson in his opening statement to estimates:

The pause in the ABC’s indexation announced in 2018 will reduce the corporation’s fund $84m over three years and will result in an ongoing cut of $41m per annum from 2022. It is important to remember that this comes of top of $64m of ongoing cuts that were imposed on the corporation in 2014. To summarise, the ABC will have to absorb cumulative budget cuts that amount to $105.9m per annum by the time we reach the 2022 financial year. This is an extraordinary strain on our ability to meet community expectations.

At this point it is not possible to absorb further cuts without an impact on jobs and services.

Which brings me to the savings challenge the ABC is faced with. Since 2014 we have had cumulative budget cuts that amount to $105.9m per annum by the time we reach the 2022 financial year. This is an extraordinary strain on our ability to meet community expectations...

Later this month I will deliver the ABC’s strategy for the next five years, the pathway that will guide us as we continue to deliver the very best of what Australians expect of us. We are still determining how the pressures from budget cuts will be met, but there will likely be some job losses announced as part of that strategic outlook.

We are determined to continue to be an ABC that is capable, reliable and flexible to whatever demands come our way. The committee is aware that I have asked the communications minister to end the current indexation pause so we can continue to make the greatest contribution. Our chair, Ita Buttrose, and I have also raised this with the prime minister and I’m pleased at the positive nature of that conversation.

Updated

The Commonwealth Bank joins Westpac in passing on the full RBA rate cut.

Updated

Jim Chalmers responds to the rate decision:

Today’s decision by the Reserve Bank to cut the cash rate to 0.5% is a new low for the cash rate and a new low for the Morrison government’s economic credibility.

Today’s decision represents the fourth interest rate cut in 10 months, leaving the cash rate close to zero, at only one-sixth what it was during the depths of the global financial crisis.

Australian families, workers and businesses were already counting the cost of Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg’s inaction and ineptitude before the fires and coronavirus hit.

The absence of economic leadership and an economic plan has left Australians dangerously exposed to economic risks.

In his statement today, the RBA governor highlighted that unemployment has increased and that subdued wages growth “is not expected to pick up for some time”.

While the virus will have a substantial economic impact, it doesn’t explain or excuse seven years of economic mismanagement and underperformance under the Liberals and Nationals.

Before the fires and the virus, growth had already deteriorated, stagnant wages were driving weak consumption, business investment and productivity were falling, and government debt and household debt had reached record highs.

Updated

To sum up what ABC managing director David Anderson is saying in estimates: the $84m indexation cut will mean job losses and content cuts, but not in the regions.

The ABC has completed 930 emergency broadcasts in the past financial year, which cost $3m. Future emergency broadcast responsibilities are being costed at about $5m.

The national broadcaster services almost 70% of the Australian population, with more than 11 million adults tuning in, either through radio or television, or reading its sites online.

Updated

There is also this in the Australian media space today.

Updated

Westpac has announced it will cut its variable rate by the full 0.25 points.

Jim Chalmers will hold a press conference at 3.45pm to talk about the RBA decision to cut rates.

The motion will fail – it is, once again, a numbers game.

Updated

Anthony Albanese is moving to suspend standing orders for this motion:

That the House –

1) notes that

a) at 12.21 pm on 10 April 2019, senator McKenzie’s office sent a letter from senator McKenzie to the prime minister attaching a list of sports rorts projects she intended to approve;

b) at 8.30am on 11 April 2019, the election was called and caretaker conventions commenced;

c) at 8.46am on 11 April, senator McKenzie’s office emailed the approval brief dated 4 April 2019 to Sport Australia, with a list of approved projects attached;

d) according to the Audit Office, between the 12.21pm email to the prime minister’s office on 10 April and the 8.46am email to Sport Australia on 11 April, one project had been removed and one project had been added “at the request of the prime minister’s office”;

e) at 12.35pm on 11 April, senator McKenzie’s office sent a different list of projects to the prime minister’s office, with one project removed and nine new projects added;

f) at 12.43pm on 11 April, senator McKenzie’s office sent the approval brief dated 4 April to Sport Australia, with the final revised list of approved projects attached;

g) the Audit Office found there were emails between the prime minister’s office and senator McKenzie’s office on 10 and 11 April “sorting out what the final list of approved projects would look like”;

h) the Audit Office confirmed that although senator McKenzie’s approval brief was dated 4 April, the list of approved projects attached to the brief kept changing up until 12.43pm on 11 April;

i) the prime minister has repeatedly claimed his office simply passed on information about sports grants and claimed the projects were approved on 4 April, but this new evidence proves beyond doubt:

i) the prime minister was up to his neck in decisions on his corrupt sports rorts scheme;

ii) the approval brief dated 4 April 2019 kept changing up until 12.43pm on 11 April; and

iii) the final list of approved projects wasn’t sent to Sport Australia until four hours after the election was called and caretaker conventions commenced; and

2) therefore, finds this prime minister has repeatedly and deliberately misled the parliament and the Australian people about his corrupt sports rorts scheme.

Updated

Vince Connolly delivers a dixer (on a quite serious subject – child sexual abuse and exploitation) with the ham energy of a retiree in a Florida retirement home, finally allowed to shed the bank manager’s tie and live their true life as an amateur thespian.

Honestly – time and place, dude. Time and fricking place.

Scott Morrison finishes with this:

Our government are going to keep focusing on the issues that seriously matter to the Australian people.

Whether it’s the coronavirus, whether it’s responding to the bushfire crisis, whether it’s dealing with the drought, as we prepare for the budget, getting skills into Australian employees, so they can grow our economy and we bounce back strongly. Whether it’s the plastics summits or getting emissions down, or providing certainty in our electricity system around the country.

Those opposite want to come in here and engage in political smears, I know they’re used to doing that in their own caucus against each other, but if they’re not interested in the serious issues confronting the Australian people, there is no wonder why the Australian people have no confidence in the Opposition, or this Leader of the Opposition.

And we get to the crux of what Anthony Albanese has been setting up:

Why has the PM repeatedly told the parliament and the Australian people that the decision on the sports rorts project was made on 4 April, when the Audi office has found the list of sports rorts projects attached to that brief kept changing until hours after the election was called on 11 April? Isn’t it absurd to claim a decision was made on 4 April when the list determining which projects were funded and which missed out was still changing a week later?

Scott Morrison sticks to the 4 April defence:

Well, the member has raised comments and statements I’ve made in this house regarding this specific matter, on 4 April. Let me say what I said:

The evidence provided today that Sport Australia advised the committee this morning they received a brief from senator McKenzie dated 4 April 2019.

That was the evidence. That’s what I said. The authority and a later question, the authority for approving the projects, was signed, dated 4 April 2019. The testimony today from Sport Australia and other response was they received a brief from senator McKenzie dated 4 April, 2019.

It was authorised by the minister for April 2019, that’s when the approval was given. Mr Speaker, I’ve been very clear in this House about when that authority was provided for that brief, which was on 4 April. And so, Mr Speaker, I don’t think it would be any clearer. The leader of the opposition seeks to come to this dispatch box and, Mr Speaker, treat question time as smear time; to treat question time as baseless assertion time. And, Mr Speaker, the Australian people can see through a leader of the opposition who is so desperate that he has to resort to smears and assertions when the real issues that Australians are facing today, Mr Speaker...

Anthony Albanese: The quotes are from the audit office. In order to be relevant, he needs to talk about the audit office.

Tony Smith: The prime minister has the call. He’s been relevant to the question. I was listening to – I’m not going to have commentary reflecting on the chair. The prime minister is being relevant to the question asked, that included a preamble. The prime minister has the call.

Morrison: Well, Mr Speaker, more than a preamble, it dealt specifically with the reference to 4 April 2019, which was the specific question which was put to me about that matter.

Smith: I say to the prime minister, I was actually agreeing you were relevant ... Whether it’s good or bad, I said you were relevant.

Updated

Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:

How can the prime minister possibly claim his office was only passing on information when the audit office found there were emails between his office and senator McKenzie’s office on both the 10 and 11 April, and I quote the audit office, “sorting out what the final list of approved projects would look like”.

Morrison:

Mr Speaker, I just simply say what I have said consistently on this matter: my office provided information based on the representations made to us, including information about other funding options and programs relevant to project proposals. That’s exactly what we’ve done. I’ve been very consistent in these representations.

The leader of the opposition can be wishin’ and hopin’ it was something different to that, but he’s wrong.

Updated

Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:

Last Friday, on ABC TV, he was asked to confirm, and I quote, “There was no direct involvement by any of your staff members in deciding whether the money went in tandem with Bridget McKenzie’s staffers”, and the PM replied, “Of course not”.

In light of evidence from the audit office that his staff sorted out the final allocations of projects over email, will the prime minister apologise for repeatedly misleading Australians and this parliament?

Morrison:

I don’t accept the assertions of the leader of the opposition. He constantly comes to this dispatch box and makes assertions and as to what things are, Mr Speaker.

And those assertion are not true.

Updated

The Reserve Bank of Australia has cut official rates by 0.25% to a new record low of 0.5%.

Futures market traders had been banking on a cut, with ASX data showing trading on the exchange implied a 100% chance of a reduction to 0.5%.

The probability of a cut had been tracking at between 10% and 20% last week but suddenly surged to 100% on Monday.

Further out, traders expect the official cash rate to drop to 0.25% by July.

Updated

RBA cuts rate by 25 basis points

That brings us to a new low of 0.50%.

Updated

Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:

Can the prime minister confirm the list of sports rorts projects was changed more than four hours after the election was called and caretaker conventions commenced?

Morrison:

Well, the member is referring to evidence that’s been put before the Senate committee.

I can only advise the House, Mr Speaker, of matters that relate to the actions of my own office. And I’m – I don’t have knowledge when emails are sent by ministers’ offices to other places. I don’t have direct knowledge of those matters.

Those are matters that are attended to by the ministers who have the authorising authority, Mr Speaker, for approving those programs which I have stated.

... So, in relation to issues that relate to the caretaker period, Mr Speaker, those opposite have put questions to the government about this. But, Mr Speaker, I remember the 2013 election very, very well.

And I remember on that occasion the secretary of finance, David Tune, said he was given a formal direction by the then special minister of state, where they spent $6.5m in the middle, Mr Speaker, of an election campaign, advertising in the Sydney Morning Herald, in the Sydney Morning Herald, suggesting people shouldn’t come to Australia illegally by boat.

They ran the advertisements in the Sydney Morning Herald; I don’t know what they were doing in terms of running advertisements up in Indonesia, where the boats were coming from, but it was one of the most prolific uses of political advertising by a government in an election campaign, it was absolutely disgraceful.

This leader of the opposition can only throw mud ’cause he sits in a puddle of mud.

Updated

We have lost tveeder because the ABC has gone to the RBA’s rate decision.

Michael McCormack is once again impersonating a statesman and it’s like serving up goon from a Grange bottle.

Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:

Can the prime minister confirm that, contrary to his repeated statements that senator McKenzie alone determined sports rorts funding on 4 April, at 12.35 on the 11th of April, senator McKenzie’s office sent a list of projects to the prime minister’s office with one project removed and nine new projects added, and minutes later, at 12.43pm, senator McKenzie’s office sent the final revised list of projects to Sport Australia?

Morrison:

Thank you, Mr Speaker. As I’ve said before, I’m not responsible for the email service in the former minister’s office...

(Tanya Plibersek almost passed out she guffawed so loud – and then got thrown out.)

Morrison:

I refer the member to the evidence by Mr Boyd that was provided regarding the issues that he’s just raised. It says that the changes made later that day – the 12.43 version – none of them were evident as being at the request of the prime minister’s office, rather than the minister’s office.

Updated

Updated

Ed Husic has just been booted from question time for telling Greg Hunt that he has had better death stares from Julie Bishop, after heckling the health minister for not making a formal ministerial statement on coronavirus.

94a is not the punishment, it seems.

Updated

AAP has had to write about its own closure, and send out the story on the wire, to all the other media outlets:

Australia’s AAP Newswire will close after 85 years of supplying content to national and global newspapers, broadcast outlets and digital editions.

The business is no longer viable in the face of increasing free online content, CEO Bruce Davidson said on Tuesday, when confirming job losses and the cessation of output at the end of June.

Australian Associated Press’s Pagemasters editorial production service will also close at the end of August.

AAP is owned by Nine, News Corp Australia, the West Australian and Australian Community Media.

AAP chairman Campbell Reid described the newswire as Australian “journalism’s first responder”.

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Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:

My question is again to the prime minister: is the prime minister aware that, after the election was called, senator McKenzie’s office sent not one but two emails to Sport Australia allocating sports rorts funding? One at 8.46am and another at 12.43pm? Is he also aware that the second email at 12.43pm removed one project and added nine more?

Morrison:

Thank you, Mr Speaker. The leader of the opposition has simply just set out evidence that was provided in the Senate today.

Updated

Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:

My question is again to the prime minister: how can the prime minister claim he simply passed on information on the corrupt sports rorts scheme when the Audit Office told parliament last night the list of sports rorts projects was changed after the election was called? I quote the Audit Office here, “at the request of the prime minister’s office”.

Morrison:

Mr Speaker, I simply say again ... as I’ve said, Mr Speaker, in this House before, and going back to my Press Club address earlier in the year: what my office did was very straightforward. They passed on information based on the representations made to us, and that included information about other funding options or programs relevant to project proposals, Mr Speaker. That statement is completely consistent with all of the matters that have come before this House and in other places.

Updated

This is an absolute travesty. An absolute travesty.

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Question time begins

It’s straight into sportsrorts:

Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:

Can the prime minister confirm that after senator McKenzie wrote to him about sports rorts on April 10 – the day before the election was called – his office requested changes to the list determining which projects were funded and which projects missed out?

Morrison:

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I’ll confirm, as I always have on this matter, that my office provided information based on the representations made to us, including information about other funding options or programs relevant to project proposals.

Updated

Tfw you’ve run out of toilet paper:

Scott Morrison at a press conference with health minister Greg Hunt and chief medical officer Brendan Murphy
Scott Morrison at a press conference with health minister Greg Hunt and chief medical officer Brendan Murphy. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Anthony Albanese speaking about “on-rorter matters”:

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese goes on the attack in the House of Representatives
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese goes on the attack in the House of Representatives. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

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It’s 90-second statement time.

Vince Connolly wants you to know he has a “personal” connection with Africa, because he has been to some countries on the continent.

Ed Husic opened his statement with “friends, rorters and countrymen, lend me your taxpayer dollars”.

He also got in “Scomo and his technicolour coat of rorts”.

Updated

Who says no one pays attention?

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It’s the downhill slide to question time, and about an hour before the RBA hands down its cash-rate decision.

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Paul J Keating has issued a statement on Paul Fletcher’s suggestion that the ABC look at selling its inner-city offices in Ultimo and Southbank and look at “purpose built” facilities elsewhere (for the record, both *were* purpose built for the ABC. And owning costs a lot less in the long run than renting).

Anyways, from PJK:

Pressure by the federal Communications minister Paul Fletcher on the ABC to explore the sale of its Sydney and Melbourne studios and premises represents nothing other than an attempt by the Liberal and National parties to fracture the ABC at its foundations, in settlement of its ideological contempt for the organisation.

...Communications minister Paul Fletcher’s pressure upon the organisation to explore the sale of its Sydney and Melbourne premises is simply the Liberal and National parties coming to the conclusion that these major aggregations of staff and functions stand in the way of the preference and bias they believe is owed them or which they can otherwise procure.

Australians who value the plurality of our society, and the importance of the ABC to its integrity, should resist and make known their contempt for minister Fletcher’s and the government’s pressure on the organisation.

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“The prime minister has misled parliament on at least seven different occasions, including five times in the same day,” says Anthony Albanese.

“This is not an accident ... this is a deliberate mislead of the Australian people.”

He is talking about sports rorts.

Updated

The whole point of that coronavirus press conference was to tell people to stop panic-buying toilet paper and to issue a warning to the banks.

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Anthony Albanese is delivering the speech he has wanted to deliver on Scott Morrison for weeks, but keeps getting shut down, in the appropriation bill debate.

Mark Riley gets the last question:

On the basis of life going on as usual, I have a question on another subject. Previously you have said that the involvement of your office in the sports grants project was passing on representations from other offices.

In evidence to the Senate last night it was revealed one of the final spreadsheets that was changed by your office to extract one project and to add another after the government ... another nine, I think it was – after the government went into caretaker mode, and subsequent to that, another nine changes were made by the minister. Haven’t you misled the Australian people on this issue?

Scott Morrison:

Absolutely not. I will repeat exactly what I have said before, Mark, and this is exactly what occurred. This is what I said to the parliament and I will say to you here, as I said at the National Press Club: my office provided information made on the representations made to us, including information about other funding options or programs relevant to project proposals. Authorisation of the projects was provided by the minister for sport, she was the one authorised to provide those authorisations, and that is what she did and that is the fact.

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Why did Scott Morrison speak to Coles and Woolworths? Is he worried about supplies?

I am not concerned but I thought it was important to have an understanding from those major companies about the processes they are putting in place about how they will continue delivering services to the Australian community.

What they were able to feed back to me was very positive and I’m pleased with the plans they have in place.

The prolific nature of this has been presented on social media and things like that; it is not as widespread as those images suggest. They have got measures in place to deal with that. They’re obviously some lines which will be more tested in the short term, but they are working on those.

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Oh, by the way, the economic impact of coronavirus is now looking U-shaped, as opposed to V-shaped.

I don’t know what happens if it becomes A-shaped.

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Scott Morrison says the economic impact of coronavirus is completely different to the global financial crisis:

What you don’t do is solve last week’s problem. You solve today’s problem, not the problem of 10 years ago. This is not the same issue as the GFC.

It is a very different set of economic circumstances and issues we are seeking to address. The most important thing is the cashflow, particularly of more vulnerable small- and medium-sized enterprises; [and] the workers – those who work for those businesses – and ensuring that they are in a position to be there on the other side when the economy bounces back. And our economy is going to bounce back and Australia is going to bounce back, and I want to bounce back stronger than anywhere else in the world.

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A journalist (I think it is Mark Riley) attempts to ask about sports rorts and gets this response from Scott Morrison:

I am happy to deal with other matters but I have to say I think coronavirus is an issue of much greater concern to Australians today than the politics of Canberra.

Updated

The country’s chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, has clarified what “social isolation” means:

Social isolation should be focused on people who have returned from countries or people who have symptoms that might suggest they have picked up this – the same as you would if you think you have the flu. But if you have come back from South Korea or Italy or Iran, then we would certainly want you to practise some social distancing, not go to mass gatherings; and in that context, shaking hands ... is probably best to be avoided.

We are not suggesting those practices should be considered by the broader general community.

Updated

Stop stockpiling toilet paper.

We are not going to run out of toilet paper. We actually make toilet paper here. You’ll be just fine.

And no one should need 72 rolls for two weeks.

PM calls on banks to 'show up' for Australia during coronavirus economic impact

Scott Morrison is now calling on the big four banks to be more like Qantas and “show up” by cutting the rate if the RBA decides to cut the cash rate:

There is no doubt that if the Reserve Bank were to take a decision today on cash rates that the government would absolutely expect the four big banks to come to the table and to do their bit in supporting Australians as we go through the impact of the coronavirus.

That is why, if the bank were to go down that path, they would be going down that path.

And honestly, I don’t see it any different to what Qantas did when we called out to Qantas and we said, ‘We need your help. We need to get some people out of China. We need to get some people out of Japan.’ And Qantas showed up – frankly, as they always do. A great Australian company.

And this is the same callout, on behalf of all Australians, but if the Reserve Bank moves today then I would expect they would do the right thing by those Australians who are looking to see any support. But the Reserve Bank would be seeking to provide at this time for these reasons, but the big banks would do their bit, just like Qantas did their bit, and that they would follow through.

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Scott Morrison on the definitely-not-a-stimulus-don’t-call-it-that economic “boost”:

On the economic response, the Treasury is working closely together with the other relevant agencies of government to address the boost that we believe will be necessary, which I will have more to say about once we have worked through the details of that plan.

It will be a targeted plan. It will be a measured plan. It will be a scalable plan. It will be targeted on the real diagnosis of the economic issue we are looking to confront here.

We will ensure that we do not make the same mistakes of previous stimulus measures that have been put in place.

There is a lot of learning from what happened last time and it is important as the business sector bounces back – as it will, on the other side of this. This is why this health crisis – with economic, significant economic implications – is different from a global financial crisis.

There is no problem with the banking system.There is no problem, structurally, with the stability of the economy or things of that nature. This is a health crisis which has had serious disruptive impact on ... the movement of people, and of goods around the world. That obviously disrupts supply chains and has a suppressing impact on demand.

Updated

Scott Morrison:

Australians should continue to go about their lives and our normal way and just exercise commonsense – in the same way that you would during a severe winter season, where there may have been an outbreak of influenza or something like that.

I mean, that isn’t uncommon, in people exercise the same normal, commonsense decisions they would. That is what we would encourage people to do...

I spoke to Coles and Woolies on the way in. They would send the same message I am sending you today: it is important that people just go about their business and their normal processes in a calm manner. They have spoken to me about the arrangements they have in place around their supply lines and things like this, but I would just urge people to be going about their business in the normal way when it comes to those matters.

Updated

Scott Morrison holds press conference

Scott Morrison is giving an update on Australia’s response to the coronavirus.

Australia is one of 75 countries impacted by the virus.

Morrison:

I have also, today, asked that issues around travel and border control also be reassessed again in relation to higher-risk groups from nations – that obviously includes looking at the issues in the Republic of Korea and in Italy.

But I would note that those cases are quite different to some of the others because we are dealing with more advanced health systems in those places, and we will continue to look to the health advice, which has not been, up until this point, to make any changes to those arrangements.

As is always the case, we will keep looking at it each and every day.

Updated

Still in finance, Labor’s Katy Gallagher can’t contain her incredulity.

“She [Bridget McKenzie] signed the decision brief, and then made decisions. A week later!”

Mathias Cormann says he thinks we are going round in circles.

Sticking with finance, Katy Gallagher is still wanting Mathias Cormann to reflect on his evidence.

She tells him his evidence to estimates thus far is that decisions on sports grants were taken on 4 April, and subsequent conversations between Bridget McKenzie’s office and the prime minister’s office were based around the logistics for announcements.

Gallagher says the ANAO’s evidence makes it clear the conversations between the two offices were substantive.

Grants went in and grants went out.

That’s the ANAO evidence.

But Cormann can’t help. “The answers reflect the advice I was given.” Cormann says he had no visibility about the allocation of the money. “None.”

Updated

Labor’s Mark Dreyfus has noted in a statement that attorney general Christian Porter “falsely claimed” that existing state and territory integrity commissions could only examine matters where a crime had been committed.

Here’s the exchange between Radio National’s Fran Kelly and Porter:

KELLY: Well, it’s an integrity commission, it’s investigating matters of integrity. That doesn’t necessary mean criminal offences.
PORTER: That’s just not correct. So, integrity commissions or corruption commissions or whatever that they’re called, investigate things which are written into statute as offences.
KELLY: But not the sports grants?
PORTER: Neither the police nor integrity commissions investigate things that aren’t offences. That’s just how it works.

In estimates, Sarah Chidgey, from the attorney general’s department, has taken on notice whether various state independent commissions against corruption can investigate things that aren’t criminal offences. She confirms the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption can investigate “corrupt conduct” that may not be an offence.

CHIGDEY: There are state and territory integrity commissions that can investigate things that are not offences.

So Labor got what it wanted: the department contradicting the attorney general.
I’m not sure how far it takes us beyond that Porter’s proposed model of the National Integrity Commission will not be investigating things that aren’t criminal offences. It’s based on expanding the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity to the rest of the public sector, not the state Icacs.

Updated

The Coalition has just held its joint party room – the chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, has addressed the room.

Coronavirus is not going anywhere soon. It’s looking like sticking around for at least a year.

And stimulus is on the cards, just as long as you don’t call it stimulus. It’s “targeting spending”. Because you don’t need to stimulate a healthy economy, see.

See the difference?

The bells are ringing for parliament.

My eye twitch is twitching in time.

Mathias Cormann insists sports grants brief signed on 4 April

Finance committee estimates has rolled back around to sports grants. The Labor senator Katy Gallagher is drawing on evidence the ANAO gave last night about correspondence between Bridget McKenzie’s office and the prime minister’s office about the proposed grants.

The ANAO said last night that at 12.35pm on 11 April (which was after the caretaker convention took effect) McKenzie’s office sent another spreadsheet to the PMO with a different allocation of funds: one project had been deleted and nine were added.

After that, a final brief went to Sports Australia at 12.43pm. Background: Previously we were only aware that McKenzie’s office had communicated with the PMO on the 10 April (sending a brief that had been signed off on 4 April); and that brief had gone to Sports Australia early on the day where the parliament was prorogued.

Gallagher wants to know whether Mathias Cormann needs to adjust any of the evidence he gave in estimates yesterday, given what the ANAO said last night.

Cormann says he does not need to do that. He tells the committee he checked during a lunch break yesterday with McKenzie whether she signed the final brief on 4 April. (Labor has been asking, given all the traffic back and forwards between the PMO and McKenzie’s office just before the election was called, whether McKenzie might have backdated the brief after having made a final decision during caretaker mode.)

Cormann says McKenzie told him the brief was signed on 4 April – “no ifs or buts”.

He signals the brief might have taken a couple of days to get to Sports Australia because she was travelling.

As for himself: “I had no involvement and no visibility over the sports grants decisions made by Senator McKenzie.”

Updated

Chris Moraitis, the secretary of the Attorney General’s Department, confirms it has been working for “at least two years” on a bill for a national integrity commission, although the first version of the bill was only produced in January 2019 because it is a “massive undertaking”.

Marise Payne, who is representing the attorney general in estimates, said the government wants to “enhance national integrity arrangements across the federal public sector” and suggests the exposure draft legislation will be released this year.

The AG has admitted he missed his own deadline to release it by the end of last year.
Payne said the government doesn’t want to engage in “policy on the run”, so Murray Watt quips it is instead “policy in the slow lane” – especially when contrasted with the bill to increase penalties for putting needles in strawberries.

Sarah Chidgey, the department’s deputy secretary of the integrity and international group, said it has written an exposure draft bill but “final decisions are to be made” by the AG about its release.

Updated

Labor has also examined the number of family law and domestic violence reports and recommendations the government has received.

It puts the count at six reports in five years, with 180 recommendations still to be either responded to or put into action, including the Australian Law Reform Commission Family Law System review which was handed down in March 2019.

It’s cool though. Pauline Hanson and Kevin Andrews are leading another review into the family law system, which will definitely fix it.

Updated

Over in legal affairs estimates, officials have admitted the government has now been working on some sort of federal integrity bill for two years.

No draft legislation has been produced. The government missed its own deadline of the end of 2019 and now says you’ll get it when you get it.

Marise Payne defended it as not engaging in “policy on the run”, prompting Murray Watt to respond:

It’s not policy on the run, it’s policy on the crawl.

Updated

Scott Morrison has called a press conference for midday in the Blue Room.

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Oh good. Nineteen tranches of national security legislation in the past six or so years, but our data sets don’t talk to each other.

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We are about two weeks away from someone seriously suggesting we just print more money.

BRING BACK THE HOLEY DOLLAR

Gerard Rennick seemed to invoke Alexander Hamilton when talking about issuing infrastructure bonds.

Hamilton took charge of the US Treasury in 1789. He was killed in a duel with the vice-president, Aaron Burr, in 1804.

Good. Times.

Updated

Someone has allowed the LNP senator Gerard Rennick on Sky again.

There was a vacuum after Craig Kelly was encouraged to avoid the cameras (once again) – but some voids just should not be filled.

Updated

Anthony Albanese has addressed MPs about the prime minister’s involvement in the sports rorts affair, saying evidence now showed that a “direct change” had been made by Scott Morrison’s office “in direct contravention” of his claims:

Sports rorts now embroils the prime minister directly – it is the most direct involvement of a prime minister in a scandal that I have seen. You can’t spin this: Morrison just lies. It is not conceivable when he gave answers last week that he did not know these facts.

The Labor leader also talked about the bushfire agency that the government had claimed to establish, saying the agency and the $2bn fund announced to go with it “did not exist”.

“There has been no appropriation of that amount – there has been only $200m, 10% of what the prime minister said would be made available, has been made available,” Albanese said.

“On bushfires, the government says they can’t get money out of the door because of the states, and yet they have had no trouble getting money out of the door when it comes to sports rorts.”

On the economy, Albanese said it was important to point out that the “economy was flatlining” before the bushfires and the coronavirus outbreak. “The government set itself a test with the surplus, and we need to continue to point out their failures on the economy.”

Updated

Quick update from finance estimates this morning.

Officials from the Future Fund Management Agency have told the committee they are “thinking very hard” about the potential impact of the coronavirus on Future Fund earnings.

They say they are looking at the exposures to sectors that are likely to be hard hit by the virus, but the Future Fund is “highly diversified” and well positioned for this event.

The Greens senator Peter Whish Wilson is also pursuing a series of questions about carbon risk. He wants to know how seriously the Future Fund is taking the challenge of exposure to fossil fuels.

The official at the table says carbon risk is significant, and this is an issue the sovereign wealth fund is examining, along with many other risks.

“Energy transition and global warming is a significant risk,” the official says. The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, says the Future Fund should be free to invest in “legitimate legal businesses” (apart from tobacco, which the fund no longer invests in).

Whish-Wilson wonders whether Cormann understands the impact of 4C warming.

Updated

Calls for assistant multicultural minister to be sacked

Jason Wood, the assistant minister for multicultural affairs, still thinks there is nothing wrong with this post on his social media. It is still up, despite several multicultural groups calling it irresponsible.

The Chinese Community Council of Australia, the National Sikh Council of Australia and the Multicultural Communities Council of NSW have joined together to call for Wood to resign or to be removed from his position by Scott Morrison.

“The remarks of Jason Wood MP totally negate the great work and effort done by minister Alan Tudge,” the groups’ joint statement reads.

“In short, Mr Wood has sabotaged the government’s good work, good will and confidence when it comes to dealing with racism in Australia. All of Alan Tudge’s effort has gone down the gurgle in one Facebook post.

“It would not be surprising that Mr Wood’s inflammatory remarks have given credibility to those people raising concerns about the Asian-American medical staff treating their children, at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne last week …

“We believe that Mr Wood’s remarks as an assistant minister for multiculturalism is highly inappropriate ... his position in the multiculturalism portfolio is now untenable.”

Updated

We have a market update:

With all stocks trading, the Australian market was up almost 1.6% about 10.40am.

Updated

It was also left to Christian Porter to defend the sports grants program this morning, in the wake of last night’s revelations. Here he is talking to Laura Jayes on Sky:

Well, I must say there’s been a number of, sort of, very extravagant statements made over the last several days in Senate estimates. I mean, we had Kristina Keneally yesterday accusing the former minister Bridget McKenzie of forging a document – I mean, accusing Bridget McKenzie under parliamentary privilege in a Senate estimates committee of a serious criminal offence with absolutely no evidence whatsoever.

Jayes: But didn’t we learn yesterday, attorney general. Sorry to interrupt, but didn’t we learn yesterday that the prime minister changed the projects in round three of this funding scheme on the day the election was called? That stinks, doesn’t it?

Porter:

Well again, your characterisation of it relies on what I’ve got to say is assertions made by Labor members which don’t actually bear out to the facts. On 4 April the decision by the minister was made. Now, that was clearly the case. You’ve now got Labor [shadow] ministers accusing the minister of backdating that decision-making document – like, forging a document. They’re accusing the minister …

Pressed on whether backdating briefs ever happens, Porter says:

Well, it clearly did not happen here – the minister has quite clearly said that that’s not the case. But you know, Laura, surely it’s a matter of some seriousness when parliamentary privilege is used by Kristina Keneally to accuse a former minister of a criminal offence with zero evidence. And they’ve got form here. The Labor party and Mark Dreyfus have overseen 10 referrals of government ministers to law enforcement agencies for investigation for criminal offences, with zero results …

Jayes: As a lawyer you must be – have been embarrassed by some of the flimsy arguments that have been put forward by your side of politics as well?

Porter:

Well, the Sports grant program was run in accordance with the guideline. Now, people might take views about whether or not ministers should assert their own views as to the merit of programs over and above the views of the department. I happen to think that that is a fair and reasonable process. But I understand that people might have different views about that process.

But allegations of criminal conduct by minsters with no evidence whatsoever to support that allegation, to me that’s the problem that’s emerging here. I mean, how many times does the Labor party have to make a false allegation, totally unsupported by evidence; refer it to the police, and it doesn’t get investigated – for that to be an actual issue? Like, 20 times, 50 times, 10 times?

Updated

The Greens senator Janet Rice has been grilling the Department of Agriculture on what work it has done to model the future effects of climate change, including the scenario of four degrees warming.

Rice said the department should have modelled the impact on agriculture based on forecasts from the Bureau of Meteorology that had been warning about warmer conditions for many years.

The department secretary, Andrew Metcalfe, said the department was working on the issue, and had established a new division focused on climate adaptation and resilience.

“Australian farmers have been adapting to Australia’s climate for decades – this is not a new phenomena, we have noticed this warming trend and drying trend across the country for quite some time,” Metcalfe said.

But he said the department was not using the specific temperature increase of four degrees.

His deputy, Matt Cahill, who is responsible for natural disaster management, said the department was doing work that acknowledged there would be changes in the Australian landscape due to climate change, but these would vary across the country.

“Our focus is to be able to support that, I think unilaterally looking at one scenario for the whole Australian continent is not going to help us to be able to make Australia adapt, and therefore we are looking at what are the practices that need to be put in place depending on where you are in Australia,” Cahill said.

Rice said the changing conditions would have a significant impact on wheat and dairy farmers, whose businesses may no longer be viable.

“This has been staring us in the face and what I want to know is what is your department doing in terms of informing your stakeholders, telling the truth to the farmers of Australia that this is the future we are facing.”

The Liberal senator Anne Ruston accused Rice of a “doomsday rant”.”It is not a doomsday rant, it is a reality,” Rice said.

In response, Ruston said the government was “well aware” of the changing climate.

“The government acknowledges that we have a changing climate, and we have committed significant funds to a number of initiatives to address both the impact on our farming community as well as the impact on our environment ... to make sure that we build resilience and adaptation into our communities to make sure they can deal ongoing with the changes in our climate.”

Updated

The legislation Christian Porter has been talking about today can be found here.

Updated

The main game for Labor today will be the sports grants affair.

Last night’s email revelations between former minister Bridget McKenzie’s office and the prime minister’s office (new emails and new spreadsheets) opens up new avenues of questioning for Labor, and they are going to go after them.

Updated

Also from estimates last night, Murray Watt was asking questions about the National Bushfire Recovery Agency in finance estimates.

That ‘national bushfire recovery fund’? It doesn’t officially exist, according to officials. It’s a notional fund, meaning it’s not recorded in the budget. That makes sense – it was set up after the budget was released. But it means that the department has had to use existing measures, like the disaster recovery allowance and payments, to prop up the “fund”.

Updated

The Australian market has opened up more than 1%, its first rise after more than a week of falls caused by concerns about the economic damage caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

This morning’s increase follows relief rallies on overseas markets that saw the US S&P500 index soar by 4.6% and the UK’s FTSE book a more modest 1.1% rise.

It comes ahead of a meeting of the Reserve Bank of Australia this afternoon at which the futures market expects interest rates to be cut from 0.75%, which is already a record low, to 0.5%.

Futures market trades imply a 100% chance of a rate cut today, according to ASX data. Further out, traders expect the official cash rate to drop to 0.25% by July.

Updated

Asked about whether or not we all need to stop shaking hands, Christian Porter says:

Well I shook [Nine Newspapers’ national political editor] David Crowe’s hand when I was in the elevator … forgot, first of all, that he was a journalist … but, look, I think people will just need to be mindful, people will just need to be mindful that we’re going to have a very challenging several months and perhaps towards the end of the year.

And that will require some changes in the way that we behave and think and what our expectations are about a range of issues.

And again, it may be at some point in time that you need orders around people coming and going from medical facilities.

It may be that there are particular requirements and things that we would be very wise to do before we come and go from childcare or schools.

But I think that information will flow always very swiftly and accurately from the commonwealth government, from state governments – always informed by medical advice.

But I think Australians can be assured that because of the fact the government prepared the legislative and statutory framework that we can actually do things that we see might require to be done.

That would have been impossible under the 1908 Quarantine Act. So we are very well prepared both in terms of resources, advice, but also in terms of the types of laws that we have at our disposal to ensure that this can run as smoothly as possible during what will no doubt be a challenging period.

Updated

Christian Porter’s main focus this morning though were the biosecurity laws being put into action in response to coronavirus. What do they look like for Australians?

What it would most likely look like is that at a period once the disease was more prevalent in Australia, if you had something that’s described as a fever clinic where people are able to coalesce and return to health after the acute fever that occurs with coronavirus – people visiting relatives or medical staff coming in and out, might be required to undergo certain requirements such as decontamination.

They might be prevented from entering or exiting if it was considered that it was too dangerous for them to do so.

They’re the types of practical things that are likely to happen. So, the absolute extreme-case scenarios are not ones that are likely. But what is likely to happen is that people will find that there will be more refinements on them coming and going into places, particularly medical facilities.

People are used to walking into hospitals in Australia and emergency department rooms, without necessarily having to go through a decontamination or being questioned.

It may be that, as this disease does roll through the Australian community that those type of circumstances will change, and there’ll be greater controls on people’s coming and going to certain places where the disease is prevalent.

Updated

Larissa Waters opened her questioning on that this morning but was shut down by government senators in the hearing.

For the record, integrity bodies are more than capable of investigating matters involving integrity. It happens quite frequently.

Updated

Christian Porter was also asked about whether the government’s promised federal integrity commission could look at something like sports rorts, while talking to Fran Kelly on RN this morning. He says it wouldn’t, because there is no criminal offence.

Kelly: The government has promised us a national integrity commission. We don’t have it yet. But there are complaints about your model as we as we know it now. Some legal experts say it wouldn’t have the power, for instance, to investigate the so-called community sports grant scandal, because the conduct in question doesn’t constitute a criminal offence. Is that correct?

Porter: Well, all corruption and crime commissions have to investigate criminal offences, that that’s what they do. There hasn’t been any suggestion whatsoever that there’s been a criminal offence committed, or reasonably suspected, by anyone with respect to the matter that you’ve just mentioned. So the complaint that an integrity commission that we might design wouldn’t investigate things that weren’t offences..

Kelly: Well, it’s an integrity commission, it’s investigating matters of integrity. That doesn’t necessary mean criminal offences.

Porter: That’s just not correct. So integrity commissions or corruption commission or whatever that they’re called, investigate things which are written into statute as offences. So for instance, the model that we’ve designed would be able to investigate a very wide range of commonwealth offences which attain to issues of integrity.

Kelly: But not the sports grants?

Porter: Neither the police nor integrity commission investigate things that aren’t offences.

Updated

The Reserve Bank will make its rates decision today. It is expected to cut rates to a new historic low of 0.5% – a move that it wasn’t predicted to make until June.

The coronavirus is biting the economy – the supply chains are impacted, and that has the government so worried, it is working up a stimulus plan of its own.

Updated

Tim Watts entered a new word into the Hansard overnight:

We’ve seen so many rorts that they have all combined in the public mind into one great big rort – a rort so big it has its own chaotic weather system, a ‘rort sharknado’, swirling with Liberal candidates and National party donors, all trying to get their taste of the latest corrupt program.

Updated

NZ's Winston Peters accuses Dutton of putting leadership ambition ahead of trans-Tasman relationship

While Christian Porter has been preparing Australians for the possibility of pandemics, New Zealand’s deputy prime minister, Winston Peters, has waded into the ongoing row of Australia’s policy of forced deportations of non-citizens.

If you were watching last Friday, you’ll know that Jacinda Ardern gave Scott Morrison a scolding in Sydney about forced deportations and, if you’ve been listening since, you’ll know that Peter Dutton has homilised that Ardern would be stamping her foot wouldn’t she because she’s about to go to an election and nothing plays better in New Zealand than a bit of Aussie bashing (or insights to this effect).

Peters is not amused. This morning on Radio National he accused Dutton of putting short-term domestic politics, including his own leadership ambitions, above the trans-Tasman relationship. Peters declared Dutton had implemented deportations for political reasons and for personal ambition, and Australia should be “better than that”.

He said Australia’s policy began with politics “and we know who began it, and we know what happened when he went to run for the Liberal leadership, and he gets to the door and he knocks on it and it ends up being Scott Morrison, not Mr Dutton”.

“We all know the background of this, so let’s not shilly-shally around. We are both better than that.”

Updated

This is the part of the sports grant evidence Labor will be pursuing today:

  • At 12.35pm on 11 April, Bridget McKenzie’s office sent another spreadsheet to the PMO with a different allocation of funds. One project had been removed and nine new projects were added.
  • At 12.43pm on 11 April, McKenzie sent the revised final approval brief to Sport Australia with the same spreadsheet that was attached to the 12.35pm email to the PMO.

The government went into caretaker mode at 8.30am on 11 April.

Updated

It’s Tuesday, which means it is party room day.

Apparently only two pieces of legislation were put forward for debate in the Coalition party room today.

Two.

It happened late and is being overshadowed by coronavirus, but as AAP reported, the sports rorts affair is rolling on.

Last night the Australian National Audit Office confirmed there was another version of the colour-coded spreadsheet (I think that makes 29 now) which was sent on the day the election was called. This spreadsheet is different to the one sent at 8.46am that day (which was about 15 minutes after the government entered caretaker mode). This one was sent at 12.43pm that day, which is well after caretaker period was entered into.

Also revealed last night: Bridget McKenzie’s office emailed a letter to the prime minister’s office with attachments (the spreadsheet) on 12.21pm on 10 April (the day before the election was called). One project was added and another taken away.

Non-government senators claim that shows the prime minister’s office was involved in the decision making.

Updated

Also, calm down on the toilet paper panic, people.

There is no need to doomsday prep, as yet.

Greg Hunt:

So, there is no indication yet that there will be health advice to that effect. What is happening, I think, this is very important for the public to understand the big picture here.

There is a national structure with the incident centre, the national medical stockpile ... but also all of the chief health officers and the chief medical officers from the states and commonwealth meeting every day.

So they are reviewing our needs. They are reviewing our travel advisories and travel bans.

They’re also reviewing our domestic arrangements on a constant basis. So as circumstances dictate, we’ll take the steps and we’ll take them fiercely. Fearlessly. At this point, they haven’t indicated there is need for change, but we’re not taking anything off the table.

If steps like that are required at some point then we’ll provide that advice to the public in advance. At this point there is no indication of that.

Updated

#sportsrorts rolls on.

From AAP:

The scandal surrounding the sports grants saga has deepened yet again, following revelations the federal government was still tinkering with the list of projects hours after the election was called.

The list of sports grants changed more than three hours after a final, approved version was sent to Sport Australia.

One version of the list of approved projects was sent from the office of then-sports minister Bridget McKenzie to Sport Australia at 8.46am on April 11.

Another version – with one project removed, and nine others added – was sent from Senator McKenzie’s office to the prime minister’s office later that day.

“The final version of the spreadsheet was circulated to Sport Australia at 12.43pm,” Brian Boyd from the Australian National Audit Office told a Senate estimates hearing on Monday night.

The timeline is significant because the government entered caretaker mode at 8.29am on April 11, when Scott Morrison called the election.

After that time, the government is supposed to avoid making major policy decisions or entering major contracts.

Updated

Senate estimates is back up and running. Today’s hearings include finance and public administration, legal and constitutional affairs, environment and communications and regional and rural affairs.

Labor has done a count – they think that 258 questions were taken on notice yesterday.

Updated

Christian Porter also spoke to Laura Jayes about the remodelled foreign interference transparency register.

Porter said he “wasn’t overly impressed” with the early stages of how the act was applied – and by that he means the former prime minister Tony Abbott getting caught up in it.

Well, I thought that was ridiculous. I thought it was poor target selection, I didn’t think it represented great triage or useful application of valuable government resources and the legislation.

So we’ve undergone a range of changes with respect to the way in which we are applying our resources, and very much looking at the types of behaviours that might be registerable under the foreign influence transparency register.

But those behaviours that occur in key sectors that potentially have the greatest concern to Australians and which Australians would most think they should know about – this is of course a transparency register.

There’s nothing wrong with acting on behalf of a foreign principal. And we’ve had many, many registrations already under the scheme. What we’re concerned about is those organisations, which would make the definition of a foreign government, private entity or foreign principal have working for them people who may be engaging in registered activities but haven’t registered.

So we’re into a next phase. And we’ve certainly brought in some specialist expertise to focus on particular areas of the Australian economy.

Updated

Christian Porter had a chat to Laura Jayes on Sky this morning, explaining that while Australians might be used to being stopped at airports, they would be “less used to the idea that that power might be used at a clinic that was established or at a hospital”.

But the reality is that these laws were updated in 2015. Prior to that our Quarantine Act dated back to 1908, and was more fit for a time when Australia got most of its vessels and incoming traffic by ocean liner.

So we prepared by updating our laws in 2015 for precisely the type of circumstances, where you may have to engage in pandemic planning, which very unfortunately we are doing at the moment.

Updated

Good morning

The first human transmission of the coronavirus Covid-19 in Australia has resulted in biosecurity laws being used on a larger scale, meaning Australians could find themselves detained by medical authorities if they present with symptoms of the pandemic.

The attorney general, Christian Porter, said the laws used to detain people at airports and other entry points could also be used to stop people elsewhere, as the government tries to keep a lid on the coronavirus spread in Australia.

“It’s very likely that these laws will get used on a larger scale,” Porter told ABC radio RN on Tuesday morning. “And it’s very likely that Australians will encounter practices and instructions and circumstances that they have not had to encounter before.”

It’s all based on laws from 2015, which replaced the old 100-year-old Biosecurity Act, but the powers have not yet been used on a large scale.

That looks likely to change, with the government looking at all measures, including the declaration of “human health zones” which could require screening for anyone looking to enter or leave a declared area.

Depending on how the spread of the virus occurs, mass gatherings could also be cancelled.

We are also going to be asked to enact “social distancing”.

Greg Hunt explained that to ABC Breakfast this morning:

So, social distancing means if for example, you have been to a high-risk country or you have any symptoms, the same thing you would if you had flu or a common cold, keeping distance, practising strong personal hygiene.

As well as, of course, washing your hands with soap and water. Although these are very basic things, they are very effective things at helping to contain and limit.

I think the message is very clear. As a nation, as a community, we’re all in this together and it’s about taking care of each other, so whilst the governments, both the Australian and the state and territory governments have the role of taking care of our health system, our message to the community is, it is also about taking care of each other and that includes how we buy and how we shop. Not trying to hoard. Not trying to have more than is required.

To make sure that we’re being careful in our personal hygiene, but caring in our conduct towards others.

Wash your hands. Stop touching your face. Sneeze or cough into your elbow. And maybe lay off the handshake/kiss on the cheek greeting for a bit (or forever – depending on the situation).

Senate estimates is still continuing as well, but at this stage, it’s the side act. Still, we’ll have all of that and more as the day goes on. You have the usual team, plus the Guardian Australia brains trust at your disposal.

Ready?

Let’s get into it.

Updated

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