That is it for the evening folks.
It has been a big week and many thanks for staying with us. Thanks to Mike Bowers for his sterling pitchers, as well as the brains trust: Katharine Murphy and Paul Karp. Amy Remeikis is a trooper, I have just surfed in for the night.
I leave you with a few more pictures.
Good night.
Updated
Some quick analytical thoughts on Bill Shorten's de-facto campaign launch tonight. Direct appeals to the base, to women and young people. Many connection points, from tax relief for workers who haven't got wage rises, the return of lost penalty rates, to the cancer package.
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) April 4, 2019
The cancer pledge connects with so many people, speaks to their lived experience. It will make disillusioned voters sit up and take notice. It was unclear until tonight how Labor would recalibrate on Medicare. Now we have a sense of how that services campaign will be structured.
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) April 4, 2019
Shorten was confident tonight, as was the team sitting behind him. Labor is selling a team to voters, not a presidential leader. It's also framing a positive campaign, in the process projecting itself as the incumbents, daring the government to go negative.
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) April 4, 2019
Mathias Cormann has been asked about Labor’s cancer plan.
We have made significant investments in better treatment and better access to high-quality medicines for cancer patients across Australia. What I would point out that when Labor was last in government, not only did they deliver $240bn in total deficits over a sixyear period, they also stopped listing medicines, recommended medicines on the PBS because they ran out of money, literally. They delayed the listings of key medicines, including for cancer treatment, until fiscal conditions permitted. So, I mean our track record is one where we have listed $10bn worth of new medicines on the PBS. About 2,000 new medicines. Many new medicines for cancer treatment. We are always doing as much as we can in relation to all of this very important and essential services that Australians rely on.
Updated
And here is Katharine Murphy’s round-up of the budget speech with all the details of Labor’s big Medicare cancer plan.
Updated
The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, says now is not the time to go back to Labor.
Tonight, Bill Shorten had no plan to keep our economy strong. Instead, he put forward an agenda for over $200bn in higher taxes. On retirees, housing, income, investments, small and family business, electricity – you name it. That would harm the economy, put jobs at risk and hurt families. The truth is Labor does not know how to manage money. That is why they are coming after yours. Labor has not delivered a surplus but since 1989. In fact, when Labor was last in government for six years, they delivered six record deficits totalling $240bn.
Updated
Shorten was interviewed on 7.30 following the budget reply.
Given the promise to cover all sorts of cancer scans, consults and drugs, Leigh Sales asks when any future Labor government would overhaul how private health cover works, “especially given that anyone earning more than $90,000 a year is basically forced into having it?”
Bill Shorten says Labor will cap rises in private health insurance premiums to no more than 2% a year for the next two years.
We want to sit down with all of the participants, including consumers in our health sector, and do long-term reform.
Which leaves the question open.
Updated
Katharine Murphy sketches the final sitting day of the 45th parliament.
Updated
Updated
Updated
This kiss is a budget reply speech staple.
Updated
Updated
Shorten has wound up thus:
To summarise what our first four years of Labor’s Medicare cancer plan means for Australians – up to 6 million free cancer scans, 3 million free appointments with specialists and an affordable medicine guarantee.
This is our vision for the future, our vision to build Medicare. We can pay for it and we can deliver it because of our reform decisions. We choose our healthcare system over bigger tax loopholes.
So in conclusion, my fellow Australians, I suspect that some in the government will spend a lot of time telling you to be afraid, afraid of change, afraid of new ideas, afraid of our future, afraid of each other. I expect we will see more of that in the campaign ahead. I have a different view.
I’m optimistic about our nation’s future because this country has so much going for us, a continent to call our own, next to the fastest growing economies in the world. The resources to be an energy superpower. We have the skills and science and get up and go to create new industries, and best of all, we have our people. Australians are hardworking, caring, brave, smart and generous.
We will never be the biggest country many the world, we will never seek to impose our ideology on other nations but I believe if we’re not the biggest, we should still aim to be the best, the best in education and skills, the best in health and aged care and looking after people with dementia, the best in fair wages and fair reward for your work.
That is the real choice that our country faces at this election, it is the decision which every Australian has the right to make. Do we want the best healthcare system in the world or the biggest tax loopholes? Do we want our children to get the world’s best education or the world’s most generous tax subsidies? Do we want a fairer, more equal country where the economy works in the interests of everyone, or do we want another three years of drift with the top end of town profiting much better than everybody else? My team and I have made the reformed decisions to put a fair-go action plan forAustralia, so Australia can be the best we should be.
Labor offers stability and unity and a vision for the nation, we choose hope over fear, we choose the future over the past. We choose the best support possible for people with cancer. We choose fair wages and good jobs. We choose Tafe and apprenticeships, we choose a voice to First Australians enshrined in our constitution.
We choose renewables and we choose real action on climate change. We choose the ABC. We choose equality for women of Australia, equality for everyone. If these things matter to you, if you believe that when all is said and done about politics the most important things are family and health, if you believe that handing on a better deal to your kids than the one you inherited from your parents, if you believe that is what is the sort of vision we should have for Australia, then when you cast your vote in May, choose a Labor government for all Australians.
Updated
Greg Hunt heckles across chamber "that's already the case" - he's getting angry at Bill Shorten's promise to list every drug on PBS recommended by expert panel. That had been a Coalition trump card til tonight. #auspol
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) April 4, 2019
More details on the cancer plan.
First, if we win the election, we will invest $600m towards eliminating all of the out-of-pocket costs, for diagnostic imaging. Over four years this will mean 6 million free cancer scans funded by Medicare – CT scans, PET scans, mammograms, X-rays and ultrasounds, reducing the out-of-pocket costs for cancer patients from hundreds of dollars to zero and this will apply to MRIs, too.
Today only half of the MRI machines that – that amazing technology. Half of the machines in Australia a recovered by Medicare. People often have to pay thousands. If we win the election, not only will we provide new MRI machines to communities where they’re needed most, we will change the game. We will guarantee every single MRI machine that meets national standards is covered by Medicare for cancer scans full-stop.
The second part of our plan so to deal with the cost of seeing a specialist. As anyone knows, treating cancer relies on a marvellous team of experts, medical oncologists in charge of diagnosis in ongoing chemotherapy and surgeons monitoring your recovery, radiation oncologists designing targeted radiation therapy plans to destroy cancer cells. These appointments are part of your weekly routine often for years waiting treatment, recovery, thousands of dollars.
The new Labor government will invest $433m to immediately cover specialist consultations for cancer patients. What this means over four years is it means an additional 3 million appointments will be bulk-billed with no out-of-pocket costs, reduce what you pay from hundreds of dollars to zero ...
Thirdly, our affordable medicine guarantee. Every drug recommended by the independent expert also be listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme, not just cutting the cost of treatment but cancer medication, too.
Cancer is a curse. I wish I could stand here tonight and guarantee you will find a cure to reach cancer. No politician with give that promise. We will continue to support scientists in their work, invest in research in clinical trials. Until the day we find a cure, I promise the men and women of Australia this. Under Labor, if you’re battling cancer, you focus on getting well, without worrying about going broke. I can promise you that if you’re in the fight of your life, a Labor government will be alongside with you every step of the way.
Updated
Labor promises a $2.3bn Medicare Cancer plan to cover out of pocket medical costs
Shorten describes the terrible scourge of cancer and how common it is.
I think a lot of Australians would be surprised that all these consultations with specialists are not fully covered by Medicare. Instead they cost hundreds of dollars, adding to thousands, out of your own pocket.
Australia has has the highest rates of skin cancer and most people pay over $5,000 for the first two years of their treatment.
One in four women diagnosed with breast cancer pay over $10,000 for two years of scans and tests and someone with prostate cancer is paying more than $18,000. If you are in stage 4 cancer you have to quit work, so your finances are already under horrendous strain. If you live in the regions with the added costs of travel and accommodation.
Every year 300,000 Australians who need raidology don’t get it because they can’t afford it. That’s 300,000 of us. We’re a smart country. We’ve got the best healthcare staff. We are a rich country, a generous country. We are better than the statistics I read out.
If someone you love had cancer, you would sell the shirt off your back. Should you have to? Our fellow Australians pay their to Canberra, you pay your Medicare levy. If I’m elected Prime Minister,I will make sure that the healthcare system is there for you when you need it most tonight I’m announcing the most important investment in Medicare since Bob Hawke created it - Labor’s $2.3 billion Medicare Cancer Plan.
No numbers but there is a commitment to invest in safe accommodation for women fleeing violent relationships.
Infrastructure:
Labor has transport plans and projects ready to go in every state and territory, cross-river rail in Brisbane, western Sydney metro, suburban rail loop in Melbourne, the Bridgewater Bridge in Tassie, South Road in South Australia, Metronet in Perth, upgrading the roads around Kakadu and phase two of the ACT light rail and thanks to Albo’s hard work is just beginning ... Labor will continue to develop and support the development of northern Australia, including overdue upgrades for the roads and the Rocky Ring Road.
Tonight I can announce we will deliver $1.5bn to upgrade the Gateway Motorway from Bracken Ridge to the Pine River and the next stage of the Bruce Highway from the northern suburbs to Caboolture. There’s another big difference between Liberal and Labor on infrastructure.
Updated
Small and medium business over here:
We backed a tax cut for small and medium businesses and we will provide an extra 20% tax break for every business that invests in productivity boosting equipment above $20,000, whether that’s a big manufacturer buying new technology or a tradie getting a new ute.
We will invest in industries where Australia can be the best in the world. I speak of agriculture and tourism, hydrogen energy, science and research, advanced manufacturing, mineral exploration to unearth new wealth. The defence industry and commercial ship building, to revive our merchant marine and see more Australian ships try flying the Australian flag.
Embracing renewables will also create thousands upon thousands of new jobs for Australia.
Updated
Hot off the presses, Paul Karp has done a story on the Tafe promises.
Updated
A number of government MPs, including Scott Morrison, are on their phones.
Shorten:
My mother was a great teacher but she taught me that you can measure a nation’s values by how much it values education. I want every child in Australia to get the one-on-one attention they need to thrive. I want Aboriginal kids to get genuine, equal opportunity, children with disability or learning difficulties getting the support their need.
I want every child participating in sport, trying drama, learning music, going on camps, having access to new technology and not as optional extras to which parents pay levies and not luxuries that rely on teachers raising the money. I want it guaranteed, guaranteed because every school in Australia should offer every child the same world of opportunity. There is one more thing that we will do to make Australian schools the best in the world. We will make Tanya Plibersek the minister for education.
Experts tell us that 90% of a child’s brain develops before the age of five ... If you vote Labor, we will guarantee universal access to preschool or kinder for every three-year-old and every four-year-old in Australia – 15 hours a week, 40 weeks a year, two years of preschool is global best practice and it’s only just good enough for our kids.
Updated
Shorten underlines climate change is real, references the terrible climate wars and then moves to education.
He promises to renovate Tafe campuses.
We believe that Australia does best when working class and middle-class Australia gets a fair go, when the economy is managed in the interests of everyone, when the people who create our national wealth get their fair share of the national wealth and when everyone has an equal chance to fulfil their personal potential.
This is why investing in the future always begins with education and this is where the difference between Labor and the government could not be more stark.
Nine out of 10 new jobs created in the next four years will require either a university degree or a Tafe qualification and only a Labor government will be prepared to properly fund both. We will uncap university places, opening the doors of higher education to an additional 200,000 Australians.
When it comes to vocational education, Labor is backing public Tafe all the way. I’ve been fortunate to visit about 30 Tafes around Australia since the last election, the teachers and students are inspirational. So tonight I’m pleased to announce we’re going to double the size of our rebuilding Tafe fund, up to $200m to renovate campuses in regional and outer suburban Australia.
Updated
He confirms the negative gearing policy will stay.
Instead of patronising millions of young Australians with lectures about cutting back on smashed avo, why don’t we tell them the truth? Getting together a 20% deposit plus stamp duty is so much, much harder than it was 20 or 25 years ago. It is even more difficult when your government uses your taxpayer money to subsidise the property investor’s bidding against you.
He puts the argument rebutted negative gearing as a right.
If the tax office pays a tax credit to someone who pays no tax, this is a gift, it is a gift, that is costing taxpayers nearly $6bn every year and it is growing so fast it will soon be more than what we spend on our public schools. Now, it’s not immoral or illegal, but it’s just not sustainable anymore.
Updated
Shorten goes to stability and the need for good government.
Nearly six years ago, my united team and I made a choice. We decided not to be the kind of opposition who just stay quiet, cross our fingers and hope that the government would tear its apart. We decided to lead the reform debate with a bold agenda. We believe the Australian people are hungry for a united, stable government with a real vision for the future, one that can make hard decisions. We believe the government has a responsibility to leave the place better than when we found it. That is why we are going to stop the intergenerational unfairness in our tax system.
Updated
Shorten rules out the flatter tax structure that the Coalition announced on Tuesday.
6.4 million working people will pay the same amount of income tax under Labor as the Liberals and another 3.6 million will pay less tax under Labor but we will not be signing up to the Liberals’ radical, rightwing, flat tax experiment, way off in the future, a scheme that would see a nurse on $50,000 paying the same tax rate as a surgeon on $200,000.
We won’t back a plan that gives a retail worker on $35,000 less than $5 a week, while an investment banker pockets more than $11,000 a year. This is not a tax plan, it’s a ticking debt bomb.
Updated
Here are the tax cuts:
Tonight I can confirm that, from 1 July, if you earn between $48,000 and $126,000, no matter who you vote for in May, you will get the same tax refund but the Liberal tax plan does not do enough for 2.9m Australians who earn less than $40,000.
Now, about 57% of these are women – childcare workers and classroom assistants, hairdressers, office managers and they are parents returning to work part-time. In a lot of these cases these are the very same workers in retail, hospitals, pharmacy and fast food, who have already had penalty rates arbitrarily cut.
Tonight I am pleased to say that in Chris Bowen’s first budget, Labor will provide a bigger tax cut than the Liberals for 3.6 million Australians, all-told, an extra $1bn for low-income earners in this country.
Updated
Shorten promises to lift the cap on NDIA staff numbers to “get the support out the door”.
Working with Jenny Macklin, working with people with disabilities, and their carers, an army of advocate to help create the National Disability Insurance Scheme is one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever been part of and tonight I can give every Australian living with a disability and the people who love them this personal commitment – that if we are elected as the next government of Australia, we will lift the NDIA cap on staff numbers so we can get the support out the door.
Updated
Shorten seems pretty calm. He started with a slower delivery but he speeds up to his normal pace as the speech continues.
Shorten goes straight to the NDIS:
The short-changing of the National Disability Insurance Scheme by $1.6bn to prop up a flimsy budget surplus forecast. Now, it looks a lot more like dodgy accounting than good economic management. I freely acknowledge the government members sincerely care about people with disability, but the truth is the record of the last six years – the government has made a record of poor decisions regarding the NDIS.
Updated
Shorten makes his first commitment.
The same void for where an energy policy should be, the same failure on stagnant wages and rising cost of living, the same denial on climate change, the same $14bn cut to schools and the same $1.8bn cut to hospitals. So tonight the first commitment I can give Australians and one of the most important – if we win the next election, we will put back every single dollar that the Liberals have cut from public schools and public hospitals.
There is huge applause from Labor benches and the public galleries.
Updated
Women and men of Australia, a Budget should sketch the big picture be ambitious, be as bold as the Australian people. That’s what a Labor government will do - strive for the best, becauseAustralians deserve the best. But instead on Tuesday night, we received an exercise numerology, a recitation of numbers - no passion, no national story, no vision laid out to decide where the country is and where the country is going and no reform. The same promises made and broken six years running.
OK, here we go. In the chamber, there is a big roll-up. Labor senators are filing in. Justice party’s Derryn Hinch. Dr Brian Owler, the former head of the Australian Medical Association and now Labor candidate for Bennelong. There is a big health announcement expected in this budget reply speech.
Chloe Shorten is here.
Updated
Coalition loses the final vote in the 45th parliament
Just now, in a rather ignominious end for the Coalition parliamentary sitting, the government has lost the final vote.
It was a procedural vote – which means it meant nothing – but it was a vote nonetheless.
It was about a motion passed in the Senate (but not the house). That motion basically says the government should lift the 1,500GL cap on commonwealth water buybacks. It passed the Senate due to the numbers so it came down to the lower house, for a vote there.
It says:
That the Senate –
(a) notes that:
(i) the Murray-Darling Royal Commission recommended that future water recovery for the environment, including the 450 GL, should be purchased through buyback, which requires repeal of the 1,500 GL cap on buybacks in section 85C of the Water Act 2007; and
(ii) the future environmental health of the Murray-Darling Basin relies on additional water recovery; and
(b) calls on the federal government to support the urgent repeal of the 1,500 GL limit on Commonwealth water purchases.
The Senate requests the concurrence of the House in this resolution.
The agriculture and water minister, David Littleproud, tried to move a motion to ensure the house did not agree with lifting the caps which were put in place by this government.
That vote came down 72-72. In that case, the Speaker, Tony Smith has a casting vote and at first he sided with the government. The manager of Opposition business Tony Burke quietly reminded him that the precedent - something Smith has been a stickler for - was for the Speaker not to make a decision the house has not made. Or in other words, the Speaker should not create a majority where there is none.
Smith acknowledged his mistake, saying:
At this late hour, I don’t want to be inconsistent. That’s my decision.
Smith has been an honest and fair speaker, right down to the final sitting day, in my opinion.
As to the Murray-Darling motion, the house does not have a position on it because the chamber did not get around to voting on the substantive issue.
But the final point was made.
Updated
Senate estimates has heard continuing concerns about Coalition candidates being involved in presenting taxpayer-funded grants to community groups instead of the elected MP.
It follows the establishment of an inquiry last month into a commonwealth funding program after Georgina Downer presented a giant novelty cheque emblazoned with her nam and image to a sports club.
On Thursday, Senator Louise Pratt raised a case involving Kathy Ganley, the Country Liberal party candidate for Solomon, in the Northern Territory, who had apparently been informing grant recipients of their success before the elected Labor MP, Luke Gosling, was aware of it.
The home affairs secretary, Michael Pezzullo, said his department administered the grants program and advised the minister, and that in this case they had also prepared correspondence for the members of parliament to sign and send off.
However, he didn’t know about any plans for candidates to attend the handing over of “fostering integration” grant cheques.
How they came to be involved “would be a matter I’d refer to government”, he said.
“Is it appropriate for Kathy Ganley to be informing applicants when … Luke Gosling didn’t know?” said Pratt.
She asked if the correspondence had sat in the minister’s office until a time that Ganley was endorsed as candidate.
Liberal senator Linda Reynolds said Pratt’s assertion was “highly inappropriate”.
A question on the date the drafts were sent to the minister was taken on notice.
Asked again if it was appropriate or if it was policy for a candidate to inform taxpayer-funded grant recipients, Reynolds said she had provided the extent of the knowledge she had on hand.
Updated
Good evening, good blogsters. Long time no see.
I have taken up the cudgels, cast down by Amy R, to cover the budget in reply tonight. Bill Shorten is polishing his notes, practising his lines and straightening his tie. The weird thing about Australian politics right now is this cold war, prior to the announcement. So this speech is essentially a chance to start Labor’s campaign.
In most years, the budget reply speech allows the opposition leader to refine his (and it has been his) own policies. The opposition leader puts the case against the government and hopefully comes up with a few ideas. But the landscape as it stands has Labor in front in all polling, though the seats are tightening. There is an election some time in the next month. This adds some heft to the budget reply speech for Shorten so it also means there will be greater interest in both his performance and his offerings.
So get dinner out of the way, kick back and stay with us for the evening until close of business. It’s lovely to be back with you.
Updated
I have an unavoidable appointment I have to keep, so I am putting the blog on hiatus for a little bit, before Gabrielle Chan, in a special treat, picks it back up again for Bill Shorten’s budget reply speech later tonight.
We’ll be back with you for the election campaign though, so you’ll have plenty more of me in your future. It looks like Sunday is the day it will most likely be called, with 11 May shaping up as the favoured date.
But keep your browsers open – Gabi will be with you very soon.
In the meantime – take care of you.
Updated
The “sharp wit, incredible sense of humour, and amazing verve” of @cpyne was all on display in his valedictory today. Enjoy the gins & tonic my friend! https://t.co/q7hagShkIZ
— Simon Birmingham (@Birmo) April 4, 2019
So that’s the final question time for the 45th parliament and it was spent much the same way we are going to spend the election campaign.
It’s going to be a nasty one. You can just feel it. The Coalition has often lamented it did not go negative enough in the 2016 election, where it only just won by the skin of its teeth, so you can expect it to rectify that this time round.
There’s been a lot of legislation that has passed today – including a budget measure to expand the instant asset write-off for small business that was proposed by Josh Frydenberg and agreed by Labor.
Under the changes:
- The instant asset write-off threshold will be increased from $25,000 to $30,000 and small business will be allowed to make a deduction every time an asset under that amount is purchased.
- The scheme will be expanded beyond small businesses with a turnover of $10m to medium-sized businesses with a turnover of $50m, an additional 22,000 enterprises.
Together the asset write-off measures cost $400m over the forward estimates, on top of $750m already committed for changes in January that lifted the threshold from $20,000 to $25,000.
Updated
Christopher Pyne’s valedictory, as seen by Mike Bowers
Updated
Updated
Earlier in estimates, the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, claimed that a Guardian report about high-level internal Liberal party discussions over One Nation preferences was inaccurate and wrong. He has now walked back from those statements and now no longer says the report was wrong. In doing so, Cormann says he had relied on an inaccurate characterisation of the Guardian report made by Labor senator Penny Wong.
Senator Wong made an assertion that a story written by Katharine Murphy of the Guardian referenced a cabinet discussion and I made a very firm statement that that report was wrong on the basis that I believed senator Wong accurately had related the story as written by Katharine Murphy. It subsequently became clear that that was not the case, that she had not asserted in that story that there was a cabinet discussion and so I just thought I’d clarify that my very strong statement was based on my belief that Senator Wong had accurately related by Katharine Murphy.
And then later:
I just wanted to make clear that my statement from the top about the inaccuracy of the report was on the basis of me believing that the report had been accurately related, which it hadn’t been.
Updated
Just on the health funding fight, both Labor and the Coalition are right.
The Coalition cut the amount funding was meant to increase by in the 2014. There have been some increases in subsequent budgets to the lowered funding trajectory, but it is not as big as it was supposed to be.
Health funding is also at record levels, because it always will be. I can predict that the next health minister will say the same thing. It’s always true in health and education, because they are among our biggest expenses.
I’ve had my eyes briefly on the finance and public administration estimates, where the government is being questioned about Australia’s deeply flawed lobbyist oversight regime. If you’ve been following our work on The Transparency Project, you’ll know that the only public window into the activities of lobbyists is the lobbyist register.
The register is basically a list of lobbyists and their clients. It doesn’t cover in-house lobbyists, those who work directly for the biggest corporations in the country. It doesn’t tell us which lobbyists have met with which MPs, when they’ve met, or what they talked about. Independent senator Tim Storer asked the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, whether the public should expect more transparency about who its government is meeting with.
In response, Cormann claimed it wouldn’t be practical to publish the details of who ministers had met with.
“I don’t think it would be practical to go to the extent that you are suggesting,” Cormann said. “That’s despite two states – New South Wales and Queensland – both doing precisely that. NSW and Queensland governments, with less resources than those available federally, routinely publish ministerial diaries.”
The diaries tell the public who ministers have met with, when, and what they’ve talked about.
The diaries also give transparency over interactions with in-house lobbyists. Cormann says there’s enough transparency provided through Senate estimates and questions from the media.
I’m sure you’ll all be comforted by that. We also hear, again, that the government can do nothing to punish lobbyists who breach the lobbying rules, except for take them off the register.
Even then, they never do this.
Updated
Tony Burke makes some remarks on indulgence on behalf of Christopher Pyne, and thanks him for his service, and for gifting the chamber with some levity and grace during some very heavy times, when it was needed.
Updated
It’s short and sweet from one of the longest serving members of the chamber:
Finally, Mr Speaker, I want to thank my colleagues on all sides of the House. I once described their health as my natural habitat, you are all my fellow species in this unnatural space.
This place brings out the best of us and the worst in us. I’ve seen some truly dreadful people come through here over the last quarter of a century, Mr Speaker. It is true.
But I’ve seen many more outstanding people, Mr Speaker, including my current colleagues. Something drives us all to get here, in most cases a fierce competition internally within our own parties and then within the campaign. But we are driven on, nonetheless because my friends we know that each one of us that to get the chance to influence the society in which we live, to make a difference in the lives of our fellow citizens is worth the sacrifices.
To be part of politics is to be part of history and no one can take that away from anyone of us.
We have all followed in the footsteps of great deep doers, people who have built a great nation. As a member for Warringah is fond of saying, you win the lottery when you were born in Australia and everyone around the world knows that. It did not happen because of accidents, it happened because of good governments doing their best.
I relish the opportunity to attend great deeds in the one forum in our democracy allows every Australians the chance to do so, the House of Representatives. Thank you. Goodbye, good luck.
He gets teary and choked up and says sits down.
Updated
Christopher Pyne:
In a few weeks, my political career comes to an end. Roosevelt said a long time ago that the test of our progress is not if we add more to the abundance but whether we provide enough to those who have little. I’m trying to keep that as my motto throughout my career because, Mr Speaker, I’ve had a fortunate life.
I do not have a log cabin* story like so many people in this place but I did have to get my own lemon for my own gin and tonic once.
The whole chamber cracks up. Scott Morrison grabs his head.
*rags to riches
Updated
Christopher Pyne:
After almost 27 years it’s time for a new one in Sturt again. I’d like to thank the Liberal party in South Australia and in Sturt for giving me the opportunity to carry the Liberal banner in this seat for nine elections for over a quarter of a century. They’re a wonderful group of people. The Liberal party in South Australia and nationally can be a rambunctious group of but I believe in the party and always will. Like the member of Grayndler, I’m a team man, I happen to go for the team that is the election winning machine, Mr Speaker.
Anthony Albanese laughs.
Updated
Question time ends with a fizzer and Christopher Pyne takes the stage for his valedictory speech.
Jane Prentice asks her final question, which is not ‘why did you not save me after I got screwed over at my preselection, like everyone else’, so I stopped paying attention.
Julia Banks gets a chance to skewer Greg Hunt through a question to Melissa Price on the AGL gas project in Flinders: (you may remember her speech I posted earlier in the week on this same topic)
Minister, I refer to the proposed AGL project for a floating gas import terminal at Crib Point Western Point Bay and a 55km pipeline through the seat of Flinders. Minister the current member for Flinders has stated he opposes the project. Does the Minister agree with the member for Flinders? And has the member for Flinders made any representations to the Minister to stop this AGL project and to save Western Port?
Melissa Price:
The Crib Point gas point projects are intended to provide a cost-effective, secure supply of natural gas to south-eastern Australia by importing LNG from Australia to international markets. The current proposals are being thoroughly assessed for impacts for matters protected under the national environment law, such as the Western Port wet land and threatened and migratory species.
Once it’s finalised, separate decisions will be made by the Victorian and the Commonwealth governments. Thank you for your question.”
Catherine King to Scott Morrison:
Why didn’t the Prime Minister use his budget to reverse his government’s billion dollar cut to hospitals including its $1million cut to Bega Hospital in Eden-Monaro. It’s $1 million in Gladstone hospital in Flynn. $1.7 million cut to Shoalhaven hospital in Gilmore? It’s $2 million cut to Launceston general hospital in Bass. $2.8 million cut to Mid-land Hospital in Hasler. The $2.9 million cut to Caboolture Hospital in Longman...
Greg Hunt gets the nod:
You know what, Mr Speaker? That funding is up from $13.5 billion under Labor, $13.3 billion under Labor to this budget, $24 billion, $25 billion, $26 billion, a new doubling of the finding that Labor provided over the course of this budget.
In essence, Labor cannot tell the truth. The reason why is because they are ashamed of their own record. We have the man in the red tie over there, what was his greatest achievement?
He stopped the medicines. That is something for which he should apologise tonight. This is his time to shine this is his time to stop the medicine. Around Australia what we see is not only record funding each year every year for hospital funding which can only come about when you have a strong economy.
And economy built on well over a million new jobs, and economy built on paying down and bringing back the government budget to surplus and an economy which comes from the hard work of Australians and that allows us to do things such as record funding for Medicare, record funding for hospitals and record numbers of new listings.
Now in particular, in particular, and if the Minister - or the Agriculture Minister can pass me that, I just happened to have come into my hands a statement from the 2011 budget. Vital lifesaving medicines are being shelved by the Federal Government.
This was the Federal Government of the day. And that was the consumer health watch. What did they say? Quote, “Affordable medicines and vaccines that save and prolong lives are being denied to the most vulnerable and chronically Australians by a short-sighted decision by theGovernment to disregard the recommendations of the PBAC.
Consumers fear a backlog of medicines caught in the Cabinet process as more and more necessary medicines placed in definite.
In the end Labor are medi-frauds and we are are the medi-frauds that list the medicines - medifriends. Medifriends.”
Ahh the danger of reading a clever line you didn’t write and fluffing it.
Trent Zimmerman gets up for his dixer, stumbles, and says “sorry, I am being molested by the member for Leichardt). Warren Entsch goes as red as a Barnaby.
“I think he turned after seeing the photos of the treasurer this morning”.
Bill Shorten to Scott Morrison:
The member for Dunkley has said that environmental grants were approved. The minister for the environment says that the grants were not approved. Prime minister, your minister is saying one thing, the member for Dunkley is saying another. Who do you believe?”
Morrison:
“I believe both members are passionate about the environment. I believe they’re both passionate about the environment, Mr Speaker.”
(Labor loses it more than my parents did when I denied driving the ride-on mower into the garage while still sitting on the ride-on mower)
I think the members on this side of the House want to do the right thing about the environment, Mr Speaker.
Updated
Ahhhh another sparkle of wit and charm, Paul Fletcher, displaying every ounce of personality we have come to expect from him in this dixer.
Tony Burke again:
Given in the previous answer the minister of the environment said she was only seeking expressions of interest, how is she doing this for a program that at the time did not exist and had no guidelines? Given that – does the minister stand by her earlier answer? Or when the media release went out announcing successful projects, has the member for Dunkley misled his electorate?
Melissa Price:
The date that we announced this program was on 4 March and there was significant information out available in the public which is what the member for Dunkley has relied upon.”
She then asks what Labor has against the projects Chris Crewther appears to have jumped the gun on, which is asked in the same tone as ‘why does Labor hate freedom and puppies?’
Updated
Tony Burke is back Paul Keating-ing Melissa Price:
If no announcements under the program had been made, why does the minister appear with quotes in the media release and is in videos with the announcement of $10,000 in Frankston, $7,500 in Boggy Creek and $10,000 at Downs Estate? Each of these announcements are accompanied by a video with the minister present. How can it be that she claims none of it ever happened when she’s quoted in the media release and is personally in the video?
Price:
So the good member for Dunkley takes me to identify four very, very good environmental projects that he proposes to be able to put forward for expressions of interest. Nothing more and nothing less.
The old, I was there, just looking at it excuse. Just waiting for a mate, if you will.
Updated
Tony Burke:
Given the minister just said the government has not awarded any [community grants], how does the minister explain the public statement, “I was very happy to announce with the environment minister that the applicant will be receiving an additional $10,000 as part of the federal Liberal government’s community environment program”. How’s the minister explain personally appearing in a video with the member and the community group at the exact same time that Labor members were being told by the department that no information on the program was available?
The minister does not answer the question.
Updated
Alan Tudge dazzles the chamber with his non-stop charm and charisma, talking about not high-speed rail, or very fast rail, but fast rail, which is slightly faster than slow rail, but not as fast as very fast rail.
He becomes the second person to utter the words “ScoMo express” today, in what appears to be complete seriousness.
Updated
Melissa Price is asked about the community grants Lisa Cox wrote about a few posts down – which Chris Crewther announced for his electorate, before the application process had even opened.
Senate estimates has revealed that the member for Dunkley announced tens of thousands of dollars worth of grants in his seat under the community’s environment program before the applications had even opened.
Can the minister explain how it’s appropriate for a government member to be giving away tens of thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money when applications hadn’t opened, guidelines had not been published and the department was completely unaware?
Price reads from the paper in front of her. I imagine there wold have been a lot of help with this one. Tony Burke, who asked the question, is amused. Very amused.
Price talks about the program and ends with:
The government has not awarded any funding under this program because the program is not open.
And it’s no surprise that the members opposite have not been out there engaging with their communities because their spokesperson for the environment has said, ‘should they occupy these benches’, that they’re not going to, they’re going to abolish the $22m program. We know what the threat is to those communities and it’s not us sitting on this side. That’s right – under Labor, the local communities will not have the opportunity to contribute in the $22m fund. What a disgrace.
Updated
Linda Burney to Scott Morrison:
Is it a moral failure for the prime minister to pay for his forecast election surplus by starving the NDIS of money, leaving Australians with a disability without the services they need like the young family in Victoria whose daughter with an intellectual disability waited 10 months for her NDIS funding to be processed which delayed her getting the speech therapy she needed to learn to engage at school?
Morrison:
Thank you, Mr Speaker. I refer to my earlier answer – the NDIS is one of the biggest social projects we have been engaged in and to ever come out of this chamber and of the bipartisan support of – I’d say multi-partisan support – the crossbench and others supporting this program and it needs all of our attention to continue to improve its delivery. And so whether it’s the case that the member refers to or any of the many other cases that we are all aware of as we deal with these, as we implement this very difficult program that requires tailored program support and packages support to each and every single individual.
Our government is committed to that, but I’ll tell you what is shameful, Mr Speaker – what is shameful is for the member to seek to exploit the disabilities of Australians and to cause fear and anxiety amongst Australians who are living with disability, Mr Speaker. That is what is shameful.
That is what morally is shameful. We will stand here ready to support every dollar that the NDIS needs, every single day. We will do it as we have done when we were in opposition and we will do it as we have done in government, Mr Speaker. It has our full attention.
It has our full support and it will get every single dollar it needs and I would appeal to the Labor party not to engage in these dark political shameful questions that reflect not on the morality of the government, but on the morality of the leader of the opposition. And if he wants these questions asked, perhaps he should ask them himself.
Updated
The Australian man accused of the Christchurch far-right terror attack has now been charged with 50 counts of murder.
He had previously appeared in court charged with one murder.
Updated
Final day of school indeed.
Nicole Flint’s eyebrow is arched so high, I think they can feel it in Brisbane.
George Christensen inflicts Michael McCormack upon us. Just add it to his sins.
McCormack then has to explain his own jokes:
“The age of infrastructure is now. The age of infrastructure is here. The age of infrastructure is upon us. They’re very noisy over there, Mr Speaker. More red coats over there then there was the battle of Bunker Hill, and that was about taxes too ... They like red because their budgets are usually are usually in red. Are in red. Are in red. Are in loss.”
Not even Christensen is listening.
Updated
Yup
100% last day of school in here @AmyRemeikis #qt
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) April 4, 2019
Not sure if its relief or complete delirium, this last day of school #qt @AmyRemeikis
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) April 4, 2019
Linda Burney to Scott Morrison:
This government has forecast an election surplus by starving the National Disability Insurance Scheme of money leaving Australians with a disability without the services they so desperately need. Why should Australians living with a disability pay the price for the prime minister’s con job budget?
(There is a lot of yelling. A lot. “How low will you go”, is yelled from the government benches.)
Morrison:
The National Disability Insurance Scheme is one of the most important social changes that we have seen in this country.
It has enjoyed the support of both sides of this House. There is not, I suspect, a member of this House who does not have either a direct or indirect association with someone who lives with a disability or family with a disability in this place. And for the National Disability Insurance Scheme to be used today as it was yesterday by the political plaything of the Labor Party to try to score cheap points in this chamber is shameful. It is absolutely shameful, Mr Speaker.
The National Disability Insurance Scheme is fully funded under the budget. It’s fully funded, Mr Speaker. And the estimates have demand contained in that budget if those estimates are increased on greater demand, then every single claim, every single package, every single payment will be made to support that program.
If the estimates of the demand for that program are greater than what is in the budget, Mr Speaker, then there’ll be a variation to reflect that and the funding will flow.
There is no impediment whatsoever to the additional of funds to the NDIS for this program. And for the opposition to cause needless anxiety amongst people in families with disabilities shows just how low they are prepared to go at this election, Mr Speaker.
This should be a matter of bipartisanship. Mr Speaker, in our budget, we have put in place $500m, $527.m to support the royal commission into people with disabilities, Mr Speaker. And I hear from the leader of the opposition interjecting.
The leader of the opposition thought a royal commission of this size would cost $26m and would not require even the cooperation of the states and territories. Now, when you want a job done properly, Mr Speaker, you get the Liberal and National parties to do it because the half-baked ideas and the faux empathy that comes from this callous leader of the opposition, Mr Speaker, is something to behold. Mr Speaker, the National Disability Insurance Scheme is something that I believe personally in, it is something that our party believes strongly in, it is fully funded, and we will not stand to see it used as the political play-thing that the members opposite seek to do.
They should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.
Updated
Even Matt Canavan thinks Newstart needs reviewing. If only he had been in government for the last five or so years and could have done something about that.
.@mattjcan says the level of Newstart hasn’t kept pace. It is “something we have to look at in years to come” .@ALeighMP says a Labor Govt would review it as it did with pensions in 2007 which led to a large pension rise. #budget2019
— NATSEM (@NATSEM_UC) April 4, 2019
The Law Council of Australia President Arthur Moses:
Media freedom and whistleblowing of atrocities here and overseas have been put at risk by the ill-informed livestream laws passed by the federal parliament.
The Law Council is disappointed and concerned these ‘world-first laws’, which were rammed through in 24 hours without scrutiny and consultation, will have negative unintended consequences.
We now have a situation where important news can be censored across social media platforms, which is contrary to the democratic principle of a free press, which exists to hold governments to account.
While the Law Council agrees that action needs to be taken in this area, consultation was required. These laws should have been subject to the committee process.
When parliament returns after the federal election these laws must be reviewed and amendments made to deal with the negative impacts they have the potential of causing.
Updated
Josh Frydenberg has just absolutely lost it at Andrew Laming’s shirt, which is apparently from 1989, “when Labor last delivered a surplus” and Frydenberg had a mullet.
Which we know, because he keeps telling us. And then released pictures to the media.
Politicians. They are just like us. Business at the front and party at the back.
Updated
Chris Bowen to Scott Morrison:
Is the prime minister aware the deputy secretary of economics, his own department told Senate estimates he did not find out about the government’s $80m backflip on emergency payments until a colleague told him he heard it on the radio? Just six weeks out from an election and with a budget that fell apart on the night it was delivered, does the prime minister seriously expect he can con the Australian people into forgetting the last six years of cuts and chaos?
Morrison:
I know you are, you said you are, but what am I?
Updated
Trevor Evans gets the first dixer.
It’s more of the same.
Moving on!
Question time begins
We are straight into election attacks, and boy – is this campaign going to be a nasty one!
Bill Shorten:
Given that the prime minister’s budget still continues with $14bn of cuts to public schools, including over $15m from schools in Corangamite and still continues with cuts to hospitals including a $4m cut to Concord hospital, will the Prime Minister finally tell the Australian people why Malcolm Turnbull is no longer the prime minister?
Scott Morrison:
The leader of the opposition is incapable of telling the truth, Mr Speaker. He’s completely incapable of telling the truth and that’s what I suspect we’ll hear tonight when he comes to this dispatch box and continues to tell the untruths, Mr Speaker, because what he won’t tell you tonight is that under our government over the last five years, funding from the commonwealth for hospitals has increased by 63.2%.
In New South Wales, that’s up by 56.4%. In Victoria it’s up by 54.8%. In Queensland it’s up by 95.6%, Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, in Tasmania, it’s up by over 40% and here in the ACT it’s up by over 100%, Mr Speaker. Under our Government, we have been increasing our investment in hospitals all around the country and the same is true on schools, Mr Speaker.
The same is true on schools. Under our government, when it comes to public schools, it’s state schools, those funding over the last five years, that funding is up by 62%, Mr Speaker. 62%! Funding for preschools has also gone up by 87%, Mr Speaker. This is the record of our government – investing in the essential services, Mr Speaker. That’s what a strong economy does, that’s what managing a budget does – it enables you to invest in these essential services. So the Labor party, they will go to the Australian people and they won’t tell them the truth, Mr Speaker, about what the government has done, but I tell you what they will do – they’ll tax Australians and they’ll tax them hard and they’ll tax them when they’re old and they’ll tax them when they’re young and all stages, Mr Speaker – all stages. That’s what they’ll do because that’s what the Labor party always does.
When they run out of their own money, Mr Speaker, they come running after the hard-earned savings and the hard-earned earnings of Australians. Mr Speaker, at the next election, the choice will be all about the future when it come it is to who the prime minister of this country is and the choice will be very clear. On this side of the House, if I’m elected again, Mr Speaker, at this next election ... I was elected as the member forCook, Mr Speaker, at the last election. I was elected as the member for Cook, Mr Speaker. But at this election next, there is a clear choice between myself as prime minister of this country leading the Liberals and the Nationals team, or the leader of the Labor party and him leading his team. It will be between myself as the prime minister and the leader of the opposition, but the election will all about Australians and the choices that they want for themselves.
Updated
We are in the downhill slide for the final question time for the final time of the 45th parliament.
Cathy McGowan managed to bring everyone together for her farewell
Cathy McGowan and her Indi army of supporters in the entrance hall of Parliament House after she delivered her valedictory @AmyRemeikis @murpharoo @GuardianAus #PoliticsLive #auspol @Indigocathy pic.twitter.com/JFBXyn53ol
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) April 4, 2019
Coalition MP announces environmental grant before grant applications open
In environment estimates, Labor’s Kristina Keneally has asked about now-deleted Facebook posts by Victorian Liberal MP Chris Crewther in which he announced tens of thousands of dollars in community environment grants for which applications have not yet opened.
Crewther posted on his Facebook page in March that he and the environment minister Melissa Price had announced that three organisations in his electorate would receive grants of up to $20,000.
The grants were to be from the government’s recently announced communities environment program and Crewther posted videos of himself and Price.
But environment department officials told the estimates hearing that applications for the program had not opened yet and funds associated with the program still had to be appropriated.
“Is the department aware that the member for Dunkley, Mr Chris Crewther, posted images on facebook of him awarding successful grants under the community environment program?” Keneally asked.
“Not specifically but that would be a matter for him. But there is no successful grant under that program because the money is not appropriated,” Steve Costello, the department’s assistant secretary for programs said.
“There has been no application process.”
Keneally said she couldn’t understand how Crewther could have made such an announcement before the program was open for applications.
“How did this happen? Does he have a crystal ball?”
Simon Birmingham said he had not seen the Facebook posts referenced.
“Mr Crewther is a very active and engaged member in his local community,” he said.
“Clearly Mr Crewther is indicating projects he’s committed to supporting in terms of getting applications.
“Whether he misworded his facebook post...I don’t know. I’ve not seen it or heard of it until today.”
The department’s secretary Finn Pratt said he also had no knowledge of the post and that as far as he was aware no departmental staff were present at the announcement.
Updated
On the IPA’s concerns that media executives could be punished, Christian Porter says:
It depends on the context. If you look at an organisation like 4Chan, which is a hosting service, that was created, owned and operated by an individual and if you traced back the origins of a terrible platform like 8Chan it is likely you will find individuals responsible for those platforms.
So there are often loads of individual responsibility in the smaller platforms and the legal advice including that from the Commonwealth DPP is with respect to the larger platforms like Facebook, YouTube, there could be instances where an individual is so complicit with the reckless availability of violent material that they would be individually liable.”
And in regards to legacy media:
Mainstream media and new media has a blurred edge. It is the case that of all the organisations represented today the government hasn’t had presented to it and cannot conceive of an instance where the responsible mainstream media would live stream or play on the Nightly News or livestream on one of their platforms mass murder.
Nevertheless, mainstream media are now using platforms such as webpages to post footage. The law has to be the same for everyone. But the reality is that organisations represented today have never to the best of our knowledge done anything like what Facebook did after the Christchurch attack. Nevertheless the law has to apply to everyone.
Christian Porter and Mitch Fifield have held a press conference in the wake of the social media laws passing.
They were put forward after the Christchurch attack and aim to punish platforms for livestreaming acts of violence, as well as make them more responsible for the content which appears on their sites.
Porter:
I would just simply say that this is most likely a world first in terms of legislating the conduct of social media and online platforms. I would make the observation that appeared to us as a government that there was a near unanimous view among Australians that social media platforms had to take more responsibility for their content, that they could not and should not and the law should prevent them from live streaming or playing acts of the most horrendous violence and there was an expectation that the government would move urgently to ensure that such a law existed which is precisely what we have done today.
DRONES IN DETENTION.
There is currently some legislation before the house about banning items inside detention centres. This has mostly focused on phones, which detainees are using to film alleged mistreatment by guards and posting it on Facebook and Twitter.
Senator Ian Mcdonald asks what else the department wants to ban.
Pezzullo says anything that can be constructed as weapons.
Home affairs #estimates just had a wild conversation about drones in detention centres which I will bring you shortly. But let's just say a distinct Yes Minister theme remains despite previously mentioned wishes against it.
— Helen Davidson (@heldavidson) April 4, 2019
ABF deputy commissioner Mandy Newton adds in “items that are flown in to the detention centre by aerial methods”, which both I and Ian McDonald wonder: do you mean drones?
She does.
Newton says “there are occasions where drones have been utilised both in the broader detention network where something could be dropped into the centre”.
She says it’s a “potential” and “could be” used to drop drugs and phones into the centre.
McDonald, again, has the same question I do: has that actually happened?
“Id have to follow up on the exact occasions,” says Newton. “But there have been occasions where there have been drones in the air and concerns about items being placed into the centre.”
McDonald asks for an example.
Newton says there were some drones being flown near the Christmas Island detention centre. Which had no one in it.
Over in Home Affairs estimates, Michael Pezzullo said security agencies had no information to put the 28-year-old Australian accused of the Christchurch far-right terror attack on a watch list.
“There was no reason to restrict his movement because nothing had come to attention ... to suggest that he was on a pathway to violence,” Pezzullo said
“There was nothing in any of our systems that would have suggested that either this person’s travel be restricted, or that he otherwise be the subject of laws enforcement attention, up to and including arrest.”
Mike Bowers has been busy today:
Updated
Updated
Bob Katter has wandered into the chamber, just as Cathy McGowan says she wishes the crossbench will grow and multiply and continue giving voice to forgotten Australians.
Updated
Today at #estimates the Department for Environment confirmed that, in relation to the Community Environment Program:
— Kristina Keneally (@KKeneally) April 4, 2019
-Funding is not yet allocated
-Applications are not open
-Guidelines have not yet been drafted
The Digital Industry Group Inc, which represents Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon and Verizon Media in Australia, has responded to passage of legislation to crack down on violent videos on social media.
DIGI managing director Sunita Bose:
“This law, which was conceived and passed in five days without any meaningful consultation, does nothing to address hate speech, which was the fundamental motivation for the tragic Christchurch terrorist attacks. In fact, the only legal definition of hate speech we have under Australian law does not include religious and gender-based speech.
“Let’s be clear: no one wants abhorrent content on their websites, and DIGI members work to take this down as quickly as possible. But with the vast volumes of content uploaded to the internet every second, this is a highly complex problem that requires discussion with the technology industry, legal experts, the media and civil society to get the solution right – that didn’t happen this week.
“This creates a strict internet intermediary liability regime that is out of step with the notice-and-takedown regimes in Europe and the United States, and is therefore bad for internet users as it encourages companies to proactively surveil the vast volumes of user-generated content being uploaded at any given minute.
“This ‘pass it now, change it later’ approach to legislation, such as we saw with the encryption law, creates immediate uncertainty for Australia’s technology industry. It threatens employees within any company that has user-generated content to be potentially jailed for the misuse of their services – even if they are unaware of it. This is not how legislation should be made in a democracy like Australia.
Whichever party forms government must commit to taking this law to urgent review by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) as soon as Parliament reconvenes.”
Updated
Anthony Albanese has some thoughts on that $100bn infrastructure promise in the budget:
Australians would have to re-elect the Morrison government at least twice before they see the bulk of the extra infrastructure investment promised in Tuesday night’s budget.
Less than 48 hours after it was delivered, Scott Morrison’s budget has emerged as a pre-election con job, with the bulk of the promised infrastructure funding not due to flow for at least four years.
Updated
While we are watching Cathy McGowan, who is surrounded by every member of the crossbench (except for Bob Katter), her sister, Ruth McGowan, will be launching her book, Get Elected, later today, with the outgoing member for Indi.
Updated
Cathy McGowan takes the floor to begin her final speech.
“Hello everybody. And thank you for coming,” she says, throwing her arms wide.
The public gallery, many wearing orange in support of McGowan, burst into a long applause.
Updated
The IPA is not a fan of the social media laws which have just passed parliament. From it’s release:
“Throwing media executives in jail will increase costs to taxpayers without improving community safety or addressing concerns about violent content being shared on social media platforms,” said Andrew Bushnell, research fellow at free market thinktank the Institute of Public Affairs.
On 3 April, the Senate passed a government-backed Criminal Code Amendment (Sharing of Abhorrent Violent Material) Bill 2019 that will create criminal penalties and massive fines for media companies that allow users to share material created by terrorists and other violent criminals during the commission of their crimes. Media executives will be personally liable for material disseminated on media platforms. They will face prison sentences of up to three years if they are proved to have recklessly failed to remove abhorrent violent material quickly enough, or notify the Australian Federal Police quickly enough.
“This is a blatant attack on the freedom of the media to report on matters of public interest and goes well beyond what would be necessary to achieve the stated goal,” said Bushnell.
“The main function of prison is to take dangerous criminals off our streets. Media executives do not meet this standard.”
Updated
Home affairs has been asked about their terrorism focus post-Christchurch.
“As abhorrent as we find what happened in Christchurch, do you reallocate resources on anything other than a ruthlessly, scientifically calibrated assessment of the scale, global reach and intensity of the threat?” says Michael Pezzullo.
“If we drop our guard in relation to other terrorist groups who might have global capacity – up until recently in some cases running whole territories known as caliphates – potentially able to mobilise tens of thousands of regrettably battle-hardened operatives, trained in explosives, assassination, long range sniping and the like.
If you modulate and you overcorrect your efforts and campaigns in relation to one threat group – as abhorrent as what we find having occurred in Christchurch – you give rise to the possibility that you create space for those other actors to conduct their attacks.”
Senator Linda Reynolds jumps in: “Extremism is extremism, whether it’s the right, the left, whether it’s Islamist background.” She says the AFP and intelligence agencies later today will be able to confirm “this is not a new issue for them” and they have been looking at it.
Updated
Peter Dutton has taken the seat right behind Steve Ciobo as he delivers his valedictory.
Updated
Senator Linda Reynolds has told estimates the reopening of Christmas Island served as a “very successful” deterrent because no one had boarded a boat.
“In light of the amended bill the government had some very clear and I think very sound advice from the department, which the government took.”
She said it sent a clear message to people smugglers and asylum seekers that “if you do jump on that boat you will go to Christmas Island, you will not come to mainland Australia”.
“The fact that nobody has jumped on a boat that we are aware of, and certainly that nobody has died on that trip, demonstrates the wisdom of the government’s advice.”
Updated
Steve Ciobo said his ability to back the second place winner in leadership contests is “legendary”, starting with Peter Costello over John Howard.
He also backed Peter Dutton if you were wondering.
Updated
In environment estimates hearings, officials have been asked about a new paper published in Nature about the state of new coral on the Great Barrier Reef.
Scientists have found that the number of new corals crashed by 89% along the entire reef after the mass bleaching events of 2016 and 2017.
The Greens senator Larissa Waters asked if officials had read the report and if the minister had been briefed. It seems they’re not across the study, which was published overnight. They say they’ve been preoccupied with estimates.
“Can I ask anyone here any questions about it or would it be pointless because no one has read it?” Waters said.
Simon Birmingham asks if Waters herself has read the paper.
“Yes,” she said.
Updated
Steve Ciobo is addressing the House for the final time.
He pulled the pin following the leadership change, when he went for deputy leader, and, as you can see, is not deputy leader.
Back to estimates. Mathias Cormann is refusing to answer questions about the story I wrote last week about the post-cabinet deliberation about One Nation preferences https://t.co/PfbCA7Z2qb #auspol
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) April 3, 2019
Cormann says my report was "wrong" but declines to say in what respect it was wrong, or whether it was a cabinet discussion or a Liberal party discussion. The report wasn't wrong #auspol
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) April 3, 2019
The social media bill looks like it is about to pass the parliament.
Amendments put forward by Adam Bandt asking for it to be reviewed by the Parliamentary joint intelligence committee, reporting back by August 1, (because the bill is considered to be quite rushed) have fallen with both Labor and the Coalition voting against it.
So, the social media laws flagged after Christchurch look set to pass, but there are still a lot of questions about the legislation – so expect to hear a lot more about that in the coming months, when the new parliament is formed.
Mathias Cormann just suggested that he and Penny Wong take over the (now over) Pyne and Marles show on Sky.
Wong is completely taken aback and laughingly admits she never watched it.
I don’t think we’ll be seeing Cormann and Wong anytime soon
“I think your government has cuddled One Nation, Penny Wong says, as Matthias Cormann and her have a back and forth over Fraser Anning and One Nation.
“...And you’re now regretting it.”
Oh, and Fraser Anning is still pretending he is relevant, announcing his party will contest the next election.
Good luck with that.
Penny Wong is now asking Mathias Cormann about Pauline Hanson handing over a cheque for $8.9m to the Ipswich Show Society, the money of which came from a government grant.
And further to Helen Davidson’s reporting and what has been spoken about in estimates this morning:
Home Affairs head Pezzullo confirms my story from Tuesday: Only one person has been transferred under medevac law - and not to Christmas Island. #estimates https://t.co/KzuXKtle1n
— Helen Davidson (@heldavidson) April 4, 2019
There’s been a bit of a stoush over allegations the committee was misled by home affairs officials at the last sitting.
Labor senator Kim Carr says he’d asked the department’s first assistant secretary David Nockels if it had concerns about the Paladin contract and Thrupp, and whether there was anything in the reports of Paladin that concerned them. Carr says he was told “none whatsoever” by Nockels.
Questions were taken on notice and the answers have since revealed that during the procurement process the department sought for managing director, Craig Thrupp, to withdraw from the contract arrangements.
Carr said this information was not provided in evidence to previous hearings.
The hearing this morning has heard officials had asked Thrupp to remove another more junior employee from the contract because of the department’s concerns over him, but he didn’t, and so for “non-compliance” the department requested Thrupp be removed.
Carr queried why the committee was not told any of these details at the time.
“I’d suggest we weren’t asked in regard to Mr Thrupp’s management of the contract,” replied department official Cheryl Moy.
Carr suggested the committee may have been misled by Nockels.
Pezzullo said Nockels was being asked “why the department didn’t add what would be ancillary, contextual, non-related, separable information about another matter.”
There’s some more back and forth but Pezzullo said he took suggestions of misleading the committee “very seriously” and he would ask the officials to “very carefully forensically go through their evidence, and if they were answering your questions tightly in relation to the specific elements of your question, very narrowly - which is not unheard of, most officials do that”.
Carr breaks in to say he understands that and “we’re not playing ‘Yes Minister’ here.”
Pezzullo said he will take responsibility if it turns out the officials misled the committee.
Updated
Mathias Cormann is now referring to the “prime ministerial megaphone” telling people smugglers to stay away.
I’m not sure if it is kept with the mace, or is something which is handed to you when you get the keys to the lodge. I am yet to see it.
In news we had all forgotten about, Kevin Andrews has handed down a report into the status of freedom of religion and belief in Australia – which the committee first started looking into in November 2016. I mean, I was at least 20 years younger then.
From his statement:
Australia’s laws must change to align with international conventions on freedom of religion or belief, according to a new report from the Australian parliament.
The report was tabled today by chair of the human rights sub-committee of the joint standing committee on foreign affairs, defence and trade, Kevin Andrews.
Mr Andrews says the report makes two recommendations as to how Australia can strengthen its commitment to protecting the human right of all citizens to freely practice their faith, follow the belief system they choose, or choose to have no beliefs at all.
“The right of individuals to believe in, and a society’s tolerance towards, differing religions or beliefs is a fundamental component of any healthy democracy,” Mr Andrews said.
“Striking the balance between these human rights and giving everyone the opportunity to pursue their faith whilst respecting the human rights of others in society is not an easy task for societies to accommodate, but the importance of doing so is self-evident.”
The report recommends that Australian law be reformed to fully align with Articles 18 of both universal declaration on human rights and the international covenant on political and civil rights and recommends that the states, territories and commonwealth governments work together to achieve this.
With the 45th parliament nearing dissolution, the report also recommends that the inquiry be continued in the 46th parliament,
Second Interim Report: freedom of religion and belief, the Australian experience is available online.
Updated
“It was a very important announcement focused on protecting our borders,” Mathias Cormann says of the prime minister’s Christmas Island trip.
That would be the press conference that was held for less than 30 minutes, as reported by the Sydney Morning Herald. David Crowe broke down the cost to about $2,000 a minute.
“ ... It was a very important part of keeping our borders secure,” Cormann starts again.
Updated
“What was the means of the prime minister’s trip [to Christmas Island],” Jenny McAllister asks.
“Oh, he flew,” the department official answers.
You. Don’t. Say.
Updated
Jenny McAllister has just taken up the questioning mantle – she wants to know about the prime minister’s media trip to Christmas Island.
You know, the one which had to be re-opened because of the medevac bill and the one which will be closed in July, having not accepted a single asylum seeker or refugee.
Or as the Betoota Advocate headlined it, “Christmas Island Closes To Win Votes Just Weeks After It Was Re-Opened To Win Votes”.
Updated
“You can always tell when you are getting stressed, because you talk endlessly,” Penny Wong quips.
“I’m not stressed,” Mathias Cormann insists.
“I am totally relaxed.”
Wong points out that even the non-partisan department officials are laughing at that one.
More asylum seekers in Australia for medical treatment than there are on Manus and Nauru.
Head of the home affairs department, Michael Pezzullo, has given an opening statement to the estimates hearing of the legal and constitutional affairs committee.
He says there are more asylum seekers in Australia for medical treatment than there are on Manus Island and Nauru.
Here are some numbers:
Migration outcome appeal numbers are growing. The number of cases awaiting review in the migration and refugee division of the administrative appeals tribunal has grown from 21,404 to 55,500 in the two years to February, resulting in a rise in the number of people on bridging visas.
Pezzullo said the majority of appeals were being rejected.
In the onshore detention centres “higher risk” detainees are now 74% of the population (we don’t have a specific definition of higher risk, but this is contested by those who note that at least some people facing deportation under character test clauses have served sentences and been deemed fit to return to the community by the justice system).
This financial year home affairs also absorbed the cost of medical transfers of people from Nauru, Pezzullo said. The number of transfers has grown from 35 in 2017/18 to 461 in this financial year (as at 26 March).
Offshore:
Since offshore processing was reintroduced in 2012, 4,177 people have been sent to Nauru and PNG.
The total population of refugees/asylum seekers now in those two countries is 915. Another 953 have been temporarily transferred to Australia for medical care or to accompany a family member getting medical care.
As at 26 March there were 508 people who have been resettled in the US under the refugee deal, with more expected.
Offshore detention costs $1bn a year but is dropping, Pezzullo says.
Oh, and he “welcomes” the decision by the national audit office to investigate the department’s procurement of all offshore contracts, which was launched in the wake of the Paladin and subsequent contract scandals.
Updated
Mathias Cormann is working very, very hard in Senate estimates (he’s the senator representing the prime minister) to not say when the prime minister knew of the decision to reverse the energy assistance payment Newstart decision.
He is taking absolutely everything on notice. Who was at the meeting, when the meeting was, when letters were written – everything
Penny Wong is using estimates to get info about the Newstart backflip. Cormann says there were two meetings where it was canvassed. He won't say whether there was a notetaker present. There was also a late Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, during the budget lockup #auspol
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) April 3, 2019
Wong grabs the late Cabinet meeting. She asks whether the late meeting on Tuesday was when ministers were briefed about the contents of the budget (meaning journalists would have been briefed first, to stave off leaks). Cormann says budget cabinet was on Monday #auspol
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) April 3, 2019
Just by way of background, my memory of Tuesday is the treasurer's speech arrived to the lock up late – after the budget papers. It turns out the govt discussed the Newstart backflip before the speech was delivered. Final decision wasn't made until later that night #auspol
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) April 3, 2019
Another curiosity of Tuesday was the media releases outlining the infrastructure spend arrived very late in the piece inside the lockup – late in the afternoon #auspol
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) April 3, 2019
Another curiosity of Tuesday was the media releases outlining the infrastructure spend arrived very late in the piece inside the lockup – late in the afternoon #auspol
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) April 3, 2019
Tayna Plibersek will also be delivering Labor’s women’s budget reply statement later this morning.
Amid all this on-again-off-again with the Christmas Island detention centre, there are 1,400 people whose livelihoods are in the balance.
The shire president of Christmas Island, Gordon Thomas, says the government’s “political decisions” are playing havoc with the island’s fragile economy.
Updated
Estimates is under way.
Penny Wong is having fun with Mathias Cormann about the crisis meeting that was not a crisis meeting to include Newstart recipients in the energy assistance payment cohort.
Prime minister and cabinet officials have admitted that they learned of the change when Josh Frydenberg made the announcement on Sabra Lane’s ABC radio program yesterday morning.
Updated
You’ll also be seeing a lot of this in the next few weeks
Updated
The Senate is done and dusted until the 46th parliament. Except of course, for budget estimates. You’ll find the schedule here. They should be able to get through today and tomorrow before the election is called.
Scott Morrison had a bit to say about Bill Shorten’s upcoming reply speech:
What you won’t hear from Bill Shorten tonight is the $200bn in higher taxes he is going to put on the Australian economy. But you’ll hear a lot of lies .... all you’ll hear, ultimately, from the Labor party is lies and taxes.
That is what Bill Shorten is about. Telling lies about what the government has done and funding anything he talks about with higher taxes. That is what the Labor party stands for, lies and higher taxes. And that is why people don’t trust Labor when it comes to managing money.
Updated
Tanya Plibersek was on Sky News this morning talking about Labor’s tax plan:
People below about $19,000 in the tax-free area, but there are a lot of people between that amount and $40,000 a year, and in fact, we had a bigger, fairer, set of tax cuts that we proposed after the last budget.
That was bigger and fairer for this group under $40,000 a year as well.
... It will go further than the government is proposing. We are proposing a tax cut that is about 30% larger for those people earning less than $40,000 a year.
Updated
Steve Ciobo and Craig Laundy will also deliver their final speeches today.
Cathy McGowan will also deliver her valedictory – hers will be held in the morning session, just before lunch.
Christopher Pyne will deliver his final speech in the chamber today, straight after question time. You know – when everyone will still be in the room. Such a strange choice for such a shy, retiring fellow.
Doug Cameron also delivered his valedictory. He quoted Leonard Cohen, spoke of why he believed so much in social justice and was such a firm believer in both the labour movement, and Labor.
While this Senate has faced some serious headwinds throughout my time here, it’s the recent contributions by neo-fascists masquerading as patriots that have caused me the most concern.
I’ll make this point very clearly.
It is not Australia’s Muslim community that is a menace and danger to our society and to what we collectively hold dear.
It’s not Australia’s Muslim community who invited a toxic foreign entity like the NRA to buy our democracy and expose our community to semiautomatic weapons. It’s the extreme right; they are the incubators of hate and intolerance.
It’s One Nation, people like Fraser Anning and the extremists on the far right of the Coalition that would destroy this great country if given half a chance.
The very wealthy, self-serving, anti-union former Liberal party candidate, Pauline Hanson, pretends to be a voice for those without financial or political power. One Nation does this while voting with the Liberals on key legislation including the ABCC, penalty rates, free trade agreements and tax cuts for the wealthy.
They pretend to love this country while dispatching their idiotic minions to sell us out to the NRA. They pretend to care about everyday Australians while subscribing to imbecilic conspiracies about the Port Arthur massacre.
And now they want us to believe they were all taken out of context with their half-baked plan to hijack this parliament with US gun money. I strongly urge working-class Queenslanders, working-class Australians, to give this treacherous, treasonous rabble the boot at the upcoming election.
I say to the Australian Muslim community: you are welcome here. You are an important part of our multicultural society. You contribute far more than senator Hanson and her poisonous policies. You belong here as much as anyone else, and don’t let anyone tell you any different.
Updated
Claire Moore also delivered her final speech. She again thanked everyone, including all the staffers, from those in Hansard, to the drivers, Senate attendants, and the dining room staff.
I also want to thank the governments who’ve been strong enough to say sorry. There was the time when my friend Kevin Rudd said sorry to Indigenous Australians in this place. I felt that this building actually throbbed.
I felt the earth move when that expression was made, across not just this place but the whole of our nation. That apology, that identification that we had people in our nation who had been wronged, Indigenous people who had been wronged, and that the government – our government, our prime minister – on behalf of each of us was prepared to stand up and say sorry was extraordinarily special, and it continues to be important.
That experience has been had three more times, and I hope it will continue to happen. For the people who were in institutional care, Kevin, again, was the prime minister of the day. It took a bit of encouragement, because he and other people were concerned about whether he would be known just for saying sorry. But I think the importance was known by the whole of the parliament – that when you have a wrong you need to apologise. From the experiences that we heard, again through the committee system, we have now made an apology to the people who were in institutional care, which continues to remain so important to them.
Then again, a few years later, we had the forced adoptions inquiry. We met women and their children and their families who were damaged by governments in Australia – some of them thought they were doing the right thing, but nonetheless lives were damaged – and again our parliament, our government, decided that this was such a great wrong that we needed to say sorry.
I, and people who have met those people, continue to understand how important that experience was. So I want to thank governments that are strong enough to say sorry.
Very recently Prime Minister Morrison actually took the apology statement to people who had been identified through the royal commission process as having suffered sexual abuse in institutions.
Again, you could feel the way that the parliament was connecting with people, with our community, and I think that’s what makes us strong. So thank you to those governments who knew that they could say they were sorry.
Updated
There were a few valedictories in the Senate late yesterday.
Nigel Scullion was one of them. He thanked his opponents, including Labor and the Greens, as well as his own Senate team. As a country Liberal, Scullion sat with the Nationals.
The Nats are the party for the regions, for remote Australia, whether it’s on the coast, in the bush, in the desert or in our major regional centres. We never, ever take our regions for granted, because there are threats.
We have this perverse situation where we have small but vocal groups of activists, primarily in southern and eastern Australia, dictating to rural Australians what industries they’re allowed to have, what industries they’re not allowed to work in, and what jobs they can and cannot have.
Well, we in the Nationals fight for rural industries, shamelessly and proudly. We fight for industries like farming, like mining, like forestry and like fisheries. There is no shame in being a diesel mechanic working on a bauxite mine or an iron ore mine or, heaven forbid, a thermal coalmine.
Nor is there any shame in being a beef producer, a dairy farmer or a cotton grower and growing the best food and fibre anywhere in the world. We on this side – and certainly I – are not afraid to support the proposed Adani Carmichael mine or the development of the Beetaloo Basin in the Northern Territory.
Not only will these projects meet all of the state and territory environmental approvals, as they must do; they also have the overwhelming support of traditional owners and the communities in those regions. The traditional owners support these projects; so do the communities.
They want the jobs, they want the opportunities and they want the economic development that they will deliver. As you know, I’m a very keen hunter and sporting shooter myself. So I was very pleased that we all supported a motion reaffirming our commitment to the national firearms agreement.
We all proudly support the legal rights of law-abiding firearm owners. The national firearms agreement hailed the most significant gun reforms in our nation. I believe these laws have achieved the right balance between keeping the community safe and giving firearm owners, whether sports shooters or farmers, a well-regulated and licensed framework to own and use their firearms. I should make special mention of that excellent class of 2001.
It’s amazing how few of us remain. As a member of that class, Senator Penny Wong, thank you for your leadership and your guidance of those opposite for many years – and a few of them needed a bit of guidance too! You’ve made an articulate, dignified and often courageous contribution to this chamber. Congratulations.
Updated
Remember that story from a little while ago, when the government was moving to change the electoral spending allowance to let them spend it on radio and television advertising?
It was essentially opening up an allowance that already existed to radio and television, which would have allowed MPs with cash strapped election kitties, to buy broadcast ads.
Labor and the Senate has said no.
Labor's Senator Don Farrell statement on this motion from earlier today #auspol pic.twitter.com/zVwJzpD47h
— Political Alert (@political_alert) April 3, 2019
“All you hear from Bill Shorten tonight is lies and taxes,” Scott Morrison says.
So it’s going to be a good, positive day.
“What Labor are about is just lies and taxes.”
I have a feeling that will show up in the talking notes across the day.
Jim Molan has also been allowed out!
He is finishing up in the Senate this term – he was handed an unwinnable spot on the NSW ticket.
As a consolation prize, he gets to spend his final day in the Senate being interviewed by Scott Morrison about how lucky Australia is to have a government so focussed on infrastructure spend.
Scott Morrison is out – surrounded by people in hi-vis.
Michaelia Cash has even been allowed out. That’s the power of an election campaign, I suppose.
Morrison is hosting a BBQ breakfast for tradies and apprentices. The Coalition just loves tradies and apprentices, don’t you know.
“We are all about backing Australians as a government, who are out there, having a go,” Cash says.
Good morning
It’s budget reply day, which is Labor’s chance to lay out its campaign foundation ahead of the election being called in the next few days.
Bill Shorten and Chris Bowen plan on filling in the gaps of the government’s tax cut plan, with bigger tax cuts for those earning under $40,000 - of which women make up a not insignificant chunk.
Health spending is expected to get a boost as well. In exchange, the tax breaks for those earning more than $200,000 won’t be quite as generous.
It’s part of what Labor is calling “forgotten Australians” using the government’s abrupt about face on extending the energy assistance payment to those on Newstart, and the lack of sweetners in the budget for the lowest income earners in the budget as its ammunition.
In the meantime, the government continues on its own budget sell, with MPs across the nation preparing for their upcoming election campaign. There is a lot of hard hats and hi-vis in your futures.
We’ll be covering it all, and you have Mike Bowers, Katharine Murphy, Gabrielle Chan and Paul Karp on board to keep you company.
As usual, you can find us in the comments and social media – things got a little crazy yesterday, but I did read through your memories of the 45th parliament late last night.
Keep that, and your predictions for the upcoming election coming.
I am yet to find a coffee, but will force someone to rectify that for me very soon. Ready?
Let’s get into it.
