Night time politics
The lower house has now adjourned people, so it is time to say goodnight and good luck.
- Today, as poor old South Australia sweltered and faced more blackouts, the major parties tried to apportion blame, which didn’t really help any of the people sweating it out in that state and/or trying to run a business.
- LNP senator Ian Macdonald defended the Gold Pass free travel card for ex-politicians, saying pollies did not get paid much ($200,000 base for a senator) and they could be earning a lot more outside. He said it was the retrospectivity that was the problem – in that it applied to people who had already retired and they had expected it to go on for life. It was just not fair. He said old pollies should get a chance to have a say, even though a few of them did take an earlier change to the high court and the high court chucked it out.
- June Oscar, a Bunuba woman from Western Australia who has fought successfully for alcohol restrictions in remote communities, and for the preservation of ancient languages, is the new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner.
- The petroleum resource rent tax has failed to collect billions of dollars in revenue and the Turnbull government should reintroduce royalties for natural gas projects off north-west Australia, a resource tax expert has said.
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Malcolm Turnbull continued his attack on Bill Shorten, saying the opposition leader did not have a fair dinkum bone in his body. Shorten said Turnbull - poor thing - was under pressure and he felt a bit sorry for him. Labor MPs made merry of his speech on Wednesday, with one suggesting red cordial had been tipped into his Grange.
Thanks to my brains trust, Paul Karp, Gareth Hutchens, Katharine Murphy and Mike Bowers, picture magician. Don’t forget parliament is sitting next week so you will find me back here on Monday, same time same bat station.
In the meantime, here is a photo of a treasurer in 2017.
Good night.
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As the country suffers a heat wave, the prime minister is really pushing the energy outrage.
Late today the cameras were invited down for him to address the energy committee of cabinet – something that happens rarely, if at all – for him to make some more remarks about what happens when governments follow an ideological approach to energy. He says Labor has been “complacently assuming that things would sort themselves out, without putting in place the measures to secure their electricity network”. Then he warned in WA the Labor opposition was also proposing a 50% renewables target.
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question time is still utter crap.
— Scott Ludlam (@SenatorLudlam) February 9, 2017
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There is an interesting development in the Senate. Remember the Four Corners episode on the salmon industry in Tasmania?
The Senate environment committee had questioned whether representatives of Tassal had improperly influenced a witness to the Senate inquiry into the fin-fish aquaculture industry in Tasmania.
The Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson asked the Senate president to consider whether the chamber could vote to send the matter to the privileges committee. The president agreed it could and today the Senate voted in favour of sending it to the powerful committee for a ruling. If the committee rules there was improper influence, it has the power to fine or impose a jail sentence.
The Parliamentary Privileges Act states: “A person shall not, by fraud, intimidation, force or threat, by the offer or promise of any inducement or benefit, or by other improper means, influence another person in respect of any evidence given or to be given before a House or a committee, or induce another person to refrain from giving any such evidence.”
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You know how I said there was something in the water...
Labor MP Joanne Ryan: "Who put the red cordial in the PM's grange... it'll forever be known as the 'Know Your Place' speech!" pic.twitter.com/6qVQxkJhoI
— Mark Di Stefano🐀 (@MarkDiStef) February 9, 2017
@gabriellechan For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, & lose his own soul..for coal? (Matthew 16:26+) photo: @mpbowers pic.twitter.com/UGsfG1odQ2
— The Matt Hatter (@MattGlassDarkly) February 9, 2017
DPM tries to keep it together.
There must be something in the water.
I shall take captions.
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There is much weirdness in the chamber.
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Tanya Plibersek is speaking to a matter of public importance on “the government’s $30bn of cuts to schools hurting Australian children”.
She says the government has no education policy and outlines schools that have benefited from Labor’s Gonski funding.
Plibersek contrasts it with the Coalition’s policy to cut corporate tax rates. She says business tax cut plan equivalent to asking every person in Australia to hand over $2000 to a big business, “probably a bank”.
She asks, would most Australians want to hand the money to a company or a school?
The assistant minister, Karen Andrews, answers Plibersek in her speech. She says the Coalition provides better educational policies because the Coalition has a holistic approach to education and does not believe more money will fix everything.
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F-F-F-F-F-Far out.
Release the beast.
Shorten to Turnbull: Is it still your government’s policy to make Australians work until they’re 70 to get the aged pension and can the prime minister confirm that he is giving Australia the oldest aged pension in the developed world?
Turnbull flicks the question to Christian Porter, who promptly reads out former press releases from Wayne Swan and Jenny Macklin, not to mention an op-ed by the Labor economist and frontbencher Andrew Leigh.
Porter quotes Macklin:
She said increasing the aged pension age is a responsible reform to meet the challenge of an ageing population and the economic impact it will have for all Australians. Australia must move towards a higher pension age over the next decade.
Porter quotes Leigh:
He says a better approach would be to index upper age limits in all laws.
Porter does not answer the question on whether the aged pension will be increased to 70.
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Labor’s Kate Ellis to Turnbull: In September last year, the government announced more than $3bn for its childcare policy. But legislation introduced by the government yesterday showed that this policy has now shrunk to a $1.6bn policy – half of the original amount that was promised by the prime minister. Why is the prime minister still making pensioners, new mums and over 1.5 million Australian families pay for his shrinking childcare package at the same time as giving a $50bn corporate tax cut to big business?
Turnbull says “we are delivering is exactly what we promised” but does not go to the overall cost envelope – the $3bn.
I will try to get further clarification as to the change in the figures.
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A government question on boats to the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, allows him to attack Bill Shorten.
The Australian public knows – they instinctively know, when they look at this leader of the opposition – there is something that is not right. They have a hesitation about this leader of the opposition because they know that he says one thing to one part of the country and he says something very different to another part of the country.
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This is the earlier question from the Greens MP Adam Bandt, which shows the very different tone Malcolm Turnbull is taking in parliament the last two days. Labor MPs are calling it the return of “Bad Malcolm” – a reference to the Annabel Crabb Quarterly Essay on the prime minister in which she said Turnbull had two sides, Good Malcolm and Bad Malcolm.
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Labor’s Jenny Macklin to the social services minister, Christian Porter: I refer to his previous answer when he said, “We invest all of the money we’re saving in the family tax benefit system”. But, under the government’s policy, it’s cutting $2.7bn in family payments and only spending $1.6bn on its childcare policy. Is the minister aware he was misleading theAustralian people, or is he just plain incompetent?
Porter admits he made a mistake.
I should have said ‘almost all’. That is true, that is true.
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The Kings of Coal.
Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce juggles a lump of coal during #QT @gabriellechan @GuardianAus #politicslive pic.twitter.com/9MAvfyWwn0
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) February 9, 2017
Labor to Frydenberg re South Australian blackouts: I refer to the statement recently released today by the operator of the Pelican Point power station which reads, “The second unit at Pelican Point is not able to provide a market response under the current rules of the NEM unless directed by the market operator”. Why did the federal regulator that reports to this minister force blackouts on South Australian households and businesses instead of directing Pelican Point to switch on the second unit?
Frydenberg says the energy market operator disputes Labor’s version of events.
Pelican Point could have come on with the high demand and the high prices. Now, the issue in South Australia was not Pelican Point. The issue in South Australia was the low supply from wind power.
Labor tries to table the statement from Pelican Point power station. The government refuses to allow it.
Another government question on the South Australian blackouts and energy policy to Josh Frydenberg. The treasurer, Scott Morrison, also took a government question and brandished a block of coal at the opposition.
This is coal – don’t be afraid, don’t be scared.
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Shorten to Turnbull: Is the prime minister aware that almost three million children are in families that receive family tax benefit part A. Prime minister, how many of these three million children are in families that will have their payments cut?
Turnbull flicks the question to social services minister Christian Porter.
Porter says there are about 1.5 million families that described as family tax benefit families in the system.
- 725,000 of those families have children of childcare age between 0-5.
- Of those 1.5 million families, 480,000 of those families have children of after-school care age, aged 6-12.
- There are 1 million children of long day care aged between 0-5,
- 1 million children of 0-5 years inside the Family Tax Benefit system.
- There are 1.2 million children of after-school care age between 6-12 years and the families of those children all stand to benefit from reform to childcare.
All of those families with children of those ages stand to benefit from generation-changing childcare reforms.
(So again, the minister went to childcare increases rather than family tax benefits cuts.)
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In response to a Dorothy Dixer in Senate question time, communications minister Mitch Fifield, has revealed he’s written an angry letter to the board of Australia Post about executive pay after it was reported its chief executive, Ahmed Fahour, earns $5.6m.
Fified said that the prime minister, he and the community believe that pay packet is “out of step with community expectations”.
He’s written to the Australia Post board requesting “more rigorous consideration of remuneration packages” including being conscious of community expectations and the need to reduce operating costs.
Fifield said while it’s up to the board to set pay, they have to be able to justify the levels. In short: hint, hint, give the executives a pay cut.
Greens MP Adam Bandt to Turnbull: The new United States president Donald Trump appears to be dangerously unhinged, has a sycophantic relationship with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, and is surrounded by far-right ideologues who seem hell-bent on war particularly in our region. So far, Australia has followed the US into war every time they’ve asked. Do you understand why Australians are worrying that you will lead Australia into another American-led war? Will you commit to a full parliamentary debate and decision before Australia follows the US into their next war?
Turnbull turns on Bandt. He says no party’s policy endangers Australia more than the Greens. He uses the endorsements of US politicians since the dreaded phone call as a restatement of the commitment to the Australian-US alliance and cuffs the Greens along the way.
As Theresa May said in the House of Commons, the honourable member is part of a protest movement, I’m the leader of a nation. I’m standing up for Australia’s security. You, the Greens party, would undermine it at every turn.
The American alliance is the foundation of our national security. It has been built by millions of Australians and Americans, on sacrifice, on standing shoulder-to-shoulder on every major conflict since the first world war.
In the last week, we have seen more recognition and support for the Australian alliance in the United States than we’ve seen for many years ... But I say to the honourable member, the policies of his party would put this nation at grave risk and we will not have a bar of them. We’re standing for Australia...
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Shorten to Turnbull: Kelly is a mum for Ballarat with three children in school aged 7, 8 and 11. Kelly says that she relies on family payments to keep her car on the road, which she says is her only means of getting her children to and from school. The prime minister’s cuts to family payments mean that Kelly will lose around $1,000 a year. Why is the prime minister taking money from families like Kelly, but still persisting with a $50 billion tax giveaway to large businesses, big banks and multinationals?
Turnbull says:
I assume the business tax cuts that the honourable member referred to are the ones that, in 2012, he said delivered productivity, investment, jobs and economic growth.
I mean, this leader of the opposition says one thing in one place and another in another place, depending on what the audience is, and whether it suits him.
Note that Labor’s question relates just to family tax benefits. The pea and thimble trick going on between the two parties is that the government provides modelling that takes into account the childcare subsidy (slightly increased) AND the cuts to the family tax benefits. Labor is asking specifically about the cuts to family tax benefits, which show those who receive those benefits lose under just those cuts.
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Every government question has been about energy and affordable power so far.
Labor’s Mark Butler to Josh Frydenberg, energy minister: Why did the Australian Energy Market Operator – the federal regulator that reports to this minister – force blackouts on South Australians last night, when there was sufficient spare gas generation capacity at Pelican Point which the federal regulator refused to turn on?
The government benches roars in feigned outrage.
Frydenberg says the problem was lack of supply.
Wind power fell to 2.5% of supply yesterday in South Australia. At times, it can provide up to 80%. So the whole problem was the failure to provide sufficient wind. I mean, the only wind blowing in South Australia is the hot air of the Labor Party, Mr Speaker.
Frydenberg quotes the energy regulator AEMO from last year.
But Tony Burke makes the point comments made from last year cannot be relevant to “the refusal to turn on additional power yesterday”.
The reality is the market operator and the market commission actually pointed to the failure in South Australia because there is this increase in the generation of intermittent power...the market operator has made it very clear he disputes the Labor Party - Jay Weatherill and the Federal Labor Party - trying to blame the umpire for the bad game that they’ve played when it comes to South Australia’s energy mix.
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There has been general argument on Turnbull’s answer. Tanya Plibersek objected to his shouting, to which Turnbull replied it was the content she was objecting to. Labor’s leader of opposition business Tony Burke described it as insane. Speaker Smith gave Burke a lecture, warning him not to reflect on his judgements.
The attorney general, George Brandis, has appointed June Oscar as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner in the Australian Human Rights Commission.
Oscar is a Bunuba woman and community leader from the central Kimberley region of Western Australia. She is currently the CEO of the Marninwarntikura Women’s Resource Centre in Fitzroy Crossing.
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Shorten to Turnbull: After repeatedly refusing to say exactly how many Australian families will be worse off because of the prime minister’s cuts to family payments, the government today was forced to admit the 1.5 million Australian families who receive family payments will be worse off. Why is the prime minister cutting the living standards of 1.5 million Australian families?
Malcolm Turnbull is on his feet shouting.
Why is he threatening the jobs of every Australian? Do you want to know how many Australian families will be worse off under a government led by this man? Every single one. Every single one. How many South Australians are worse off because of the Labor left ideological approach to power? I tell you, every single one. Every single one that wants to turn the lights on, wants to put the air conditioner on, wants to have a job, wants to have some investment. The Labor party threats every job, every business.
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Labor MP Pat Conroy has delivered his Turnbull gags.
Over the PM’s leadership, we have seen Abraham Turnbull, who grew up in a log cabin.
We have seen Malcolm Trump, with the “know your place” speech.
This government is deeply out of touch.
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Labor MPs are using their 90-second statements before question time to take the mickey out of Malcolm on the speech.
Tim Watts said as a public school boy, he knows what toffs and snobs mean when they say call someone a social climber.
It means don’t rise above your station.
Joanne Ryan said the speech should be known as the “know your place” speech.
Question time coming up at 2pm.
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Lunchtime politics summary
- Malcolm Turnbull doubled down on his attack on Bill Shorten, suggesting his colleagues knew he was a fake. At the same time, Labor’s Rob Mitchell interpreted the Turnbull speech as “if you are not a billionaire, you are not worth shit”. Shorten said poor Turnbull, under so much leadership pressure.
- The parliamentary entitlements authority legislation was introduced to parliament by Turnbull, including a new interim body to get the expense business in hand before the authority formally begins. LNP MP Warren Entsch has already said it was unfair for former pollies to have the scheme changed retrospectively and today LNP senator Ian Macdonald has said the same thing.
- The Greens tried (for the third time) to get a federal corruption body on the agenda – after Labor succeeded with its Senate committee inquiry into same. The Greens said we don’t need another inquiry, just establish the thing. Or something like that.
- Barnaby Joyce has (again) raised his personal view – following the prime minister’s push to lift state bans on CSG exploration – that farmers should be paid for CSG mining on their land. Talk to the wallet, he said.
- After rolling blackouts in South Australia, the prime minister and energy minister have attacked the Labor SA government for its renewable policy.
- Labor has seized on the fact the Coalition’s plan to lift the pension age to 70 is absent from its omnibus welfare bill, calling on the government to ditch the measure entirely. The government maintains it is still Coalition policy but the deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, has said it is subject to Senate negotiations.
Excuse me, while I perambulate the building to guard against deep vein thrombosis.
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Greens Rachel Siewert lost a motion to change the date of Australia Day after Labor and the Coalition voted it down.
All sides of parliament, particularly Labor, purport to advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In this instance, they have turned their back on them.
As a reminder, when Ian Macdonald suggests that former politicians should get a say, there was that case in the high court last year.
Four former federal politicians lost their high court challenge over reduced post-parliamentary perks, AAP reported.
The four – a Howard government defence minister, John Moore, the Hawke government minister Barry Cohen and Labor MPs Barry Cunningham and Anthony Lamb – had used the same legal principle made noteworthy by the Australian comedy movie The Castle.
They argued their entitlements under the Superannuation Act and to a life gold travel pass were their property which had been acquired by the commonwealth other than on the just terms required by a section in the constitution.
High court judges unanimously held that amendments to legislation and rulings by the remuneration tribunal did not constitute acquisition of property.
A majority held that changes to the life gold pass legislation, reducing return air trips for retired MPs from an unlimited number to 25 and now 10, also did not constitute acquisition of property other than on just terms.
In The Castle, the Aussie battler Kerrigan family resort to the high court when developers seek to acquire their home to expand an airport.
The case hinged on Section 51 (xxxi) of the constitution which says that property can’t be acquired other than on just terms.
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FYI Independent senator Cory Bernardi is directing business in the Senate from the chair. (It works on a roster system.)
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LNP senator takes a stand against populism: politicians don't get well paid, bring back the Life Gold Pass
LNP Senator Ian Macdonald would like to reinstate the Life Gold Pass, the free travel pass for politicians that was dumped by his government .
Earlier this morning, Macdonald revealed a few of his thoughts on the Gold card move.
As I said in our party room the other day: I do not want to indicate what was said in the party room but these are my own thoughts, not the party room’s thoughts especially. It is about time our leaders – all of our leaders, and Senator Di Natale would be a good start – started emphasising how much work politicians do, how much commitment most of the people who sit in this parliament – most, I might add – have. They are here because they believe in Australia and they believe that they can make a contribution to Australia. By the standards in the community they do not get particularly well-paid, and there are hundreds of examples of that.
Someone has to stand up, rather than just Senator Ludlam joining the populist theme and denigrating by innuendo everybody in this chamber and the other chamber, and start arguing for politicians, arguing for parliamentarians, saying why they are there.
Most parliamentarians – or those on this side – would have done infinitely better financially staying in their legal practice, staying in their business, staying in their veterinary practice, staying in the jobs they had before. That is not why they have come into this chamber.
I will be talking on this again in another bill coming up, where I will be opposing my government and again moving amendments.
It is a bit wordy but given I speak Macdonald, here is the shorter version:
- most politicians are hard-working
- populism is making our lives harder
- LNP politicians are better at making money than Labor and are therefore taking a pay cut to take these poorly paid jobs (base senator salary = $200,000).
He has just risen again to speak. Macdonald says the Life Gold Pass will not benefit him because he will leave the Senate “in a box”. He is thinking of elderly MPs now and the evils of retrospective legislation.
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Labor is now moving in the Senate to refer the omnibus savings-childcare bill to a committee for a short inquiry.
Speaking on the same bill, Greens leader Richard Di Natale says the tactic of combining “nasties” with some reasonable reforms is a tactic imported from the US. He also notes by calling the bill and “omnibus” it covers the fact that the bill has some fairly severe welfare cuts from the 2014 Abbott budget.
(A reminder if you were not with us yesterday. The omnibus bill contains the childcare policy to streamline numerous subsidies into one payment but has savings attached which cut family tax benefits, has a four-week wait for the dole for young people, cuts youth payments and cuts pensions for those overseas for longer than six weeks. Among other things.)
Di Natale said the government has designed the bill to avoid the “scrutiny of the media that moves from issue to issue with the attention span of a goldfish” and the Australian people.
The Greens are supporting the reference of the bill to committee.
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Barnaby Joyce on CSG: cut a good deal with farmers – everybody wants to make a buck
Energy policy has been a theme in this first sitting week and I am just running this up the flag because I think we could – granny pants required* – see changes in this area at some stage.
So to step back.
This morning Barnaby Joyce was asked about recent comments by the PM and energy minister who want the bans on coal seam gas mining addressed in particular states to address what the government claims is a shortage of gas. The Nats have had a lot of blowback on CSG, particularly in the NSW election where they lost a seat to the Greens on the north coast. The Baird NSW government bought back CSG licences to stop the electoral backlash. In Victoria, farmers want it banned.
Sabra Lane asked, do you want to see those bans lifted?
Joyce says he has always said, stay away from prime ag land but if it is not prime land and not in danger of destroying water aquifers, there should be a return to the landholder.
(At present, the landholder does not own the resources underneath the ground. In some other countries, such as the the US, farmers get paid for resources.)
Joyce continues:
Now, people say, “Oh, well, they don’t own the resources.” Well, that historically is incorrect, because hydrocarbonous (sic) material – coal, oil, gas – in many instances was vested with the landholder.
It was divested from the landholder without payment by a range of acts over the last 100 years.
So if you cut a good deal with the farmers, then I think – as long as you’re not destroying aquifers and you’re not destroying prime ag land – then I think you can find a happy medium in this debate. Because everybody wants to make a buck. Talk to them where they listen most and that’s through their wallet.
Watch this space. Joyce has been saying this for a while. With the Coalition shifting on to household energy costs, things could change.
*granny pants = backside covering
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It is Thursday and the last sitting day so I thought I would bring you peak irony.
The Daily Telegraph reports that Andrew Forrest has warned thousands of Australians will lose their jobs if Labor continues to block the government’s company tax cuts. The report says:
Mining boss Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest said “self-interested” Labor and crossbench MPs should be kicked out of parliament if they refused to agree to business tax relief.
Bill Shorten was asked about it this morning.
Andrew Forrest would say that, wouldn’t he? It is in his interests to see company taxes reduced. He is entitled to his opinion. What I think is a bigger problem, that a million Australian families will have family payments reduced. We have lost 130,000 apprenticeships in the last four years. That is a bigger problem. People have to pay upfront fees to get ballooned cancer tests. What is a problem is when we don’t have needs-based funding in schools. We have over 700,000 people unemployed, over a million of our fellow Australians who regularly record they would like more work, people who have given up looking for work. Pensioners are worried about changes to the pension assets test. Mr Forrest and Mr Turnbull can worry about large corporates, I will worry about the people of Australia.
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It’s hard to look serious next to a dinosaur.
It is disappointing that Labor would oppose the omnibus bill.
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Senate debates federal Icac
Just let me cut away to a debate in the Senate on the national integrity commission bill. Labor received support yesterday to establish another Senate inquiry into establishing a national Icac. The Greens have today introduced their old bill, dated 2013, which would immediately establish a national corruption body. It would:
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Establish a national integrity commission as an independent statutory agency which will consist of the national integrity commissioner, the law enforcement integrity commissioner and the independent parliamentary advisor
- and provide for: the investigation and prevention of misconduct and corruption in all commonwealth departments, agencies, and federal parliamentarians and their staff;
- the investigation and prevention of corruption in the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Crime Commission;
- and independent advice to ministers and parliamentarians on conduct, ethics and matters of proprietary.
- Also provides for the establishment of a parliamentary joint committee on the national integrity commission; and makes consequential amendments to the Law Enforcement Integrity Commissioner Act 2006, Ombudsman Act 1976, Privacy Act 1988 and Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013.
A bit of history.
The former Greens leader Christine Milne first introduced the bill in 2013.
It has been debated four times and lapsed twice because it was not supported by either major parties.
Now the Greens are introducing it again, to make the point that the bill is sitting there – ready and waiting. They suggest, just get on with it.
Labor’s Jacinta Collins says Labor feels the committee needs to inquire first.
The Liberal senator Ian Macdonald says a federal Icac is not necessary.
In the last parliament, a similar federal Icac investigation was conducted in a senate committee set up by PUP senator Dio Wang and independent John Madigan. It was stopped midway because of the double dissolution election.
The Greens senator Janet Rice highlights the recent political donations and ponders what donors get in return. On heckling from Coalition senators, Rice acknowledges that the Greens were given $1.6m by Wotif founder Graeme Wood. She said he was keen to promote policies to address climate change.
We need to shine a light we need to clean up that river [of donations] because at the moment the waters are murky.
The debate is adjourned.
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Shorten is asked about George Christensen’s threat to cross the floor and vote for Bob Katter’s proposed commission of inquiry into the banks.
I will believe it when I see it. George is big in Canberra, he is big in his local constituencies, but I hope he stands up for a royal commission vote in Canberra. The banks do need a royal commission. Labor will, if elected, implement a royal commission into the banks because something has to give. We see scandal after scandal in banking and there is always the apologies and ‘we have learned our lesson’ until the next time. I hope George Christensen votes for a royal commission.
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Bill Shorten says people feel politics is like a Punch and Judy show
Bill Shorten:
What turns people off politics is the absolute – just yelling at each other. I am not perfect. I won’t say that. What I do understand is that we have to try and lift out of politics and go to a better place to restore confidence and politics. That is why we are seeing the rise of minor parties. People feel the mainstream politicians are always on at each other like a Punch and Judy show.
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Bill Shorten on Turnbull’s speech:
For me, what was important yesterday isn’t his name calling, what is important yesterday is that the government put forward proposals to cut the family payments to a million Australian families. That is what Labor does. We stand up for middle and working class Australians. Mr Turnbull, on the other hand, he is clearly showing signs of pressure in the job.
I am relaxed in my own skin.
Bill Shorten is speaking now at his press conference.
He repeats his line that he feels sorry for Turnbull because he is under leadership pressure.
He says it is not Turnbull’s wealth that is at issue, it is his policies in which he wants company tax cuts while pursuing Centrelink clients.
Shorten bats away suggestions that he raised Turnbull’s wealth by calling him Mr Harbourside Mansion. He says it was first used by Turnbull’s former chief of staff Peta Credlin. (She went on to work for Abbott.)
I have been representing workers for years. My dad was a fitter and turner. I am relaxed in my own skin.
Overnight, South Australia has been sweltering through more blackouts. The ABC reported:
South Australia’s energy minister is furious with the Australian Energy Market Operator after tens of thousands of South Australian homes were blacked out last night in scorching conditions.
As the temperature hovered about 40C at 6.30pm, power was cut to more than 40,000 homes for more than half an hour.
Demand for electricity forced SA Power Networks to implement blackouts, prompting an angry response from the SA government.
The temperature hit 46C in outback areas of the state on Wednesday, including Port Augusta and Ceduna, while Adelaide saw a top of 42C.
As many people arrived home from work and cranked up their air conditioners in the evening, SA Power Networks announced it would start load shedding to cope with demand, plunging some areas into blackouts.
The Coalition has jumped on it this morning, again criticising the South Australian government’s commitment to renewable energy. Of course it is more complex than that, but never let a political opportunity slide.
Turnbull:
They want to blame it on everybody else. I suppose they could blame it on the wind because it wasn’t blowing yesterday. You know something, the history is in SA, which does have a history of heatwaves, when they have the biggest heatwave, there is no wind. When there is no wind, all their windmills don’t generate electricity. They haven’t planned for that. This is not an issue about the virtues of fossil fuel, one type or another, or wind energy or renewable energy, this is an issue about competence.
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One more from Paul Karp.
AG can order expenses body not to publish report on national security grounds #auspol pic.twitter.com/Ku6rKtsNpJ
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) February 8, 2017
Parliamentary expenses: pollies protected from producing incriminating documents
The expenses authority is not all sweetness and light. Paul Karp found these.
Pollies don't have to give new expenses authority documents that incriminate them. A right denied to workers inABCC bill! #auspol #ausunions pic.twitter.com/LhhHSlpmRG
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) February 8, 2017
Expenses authority can choose not to publish report based on "serious harm to individual". Does this include reputational harm? #auspol pic.twitter.com/R3PRYW1Dca
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) February 8, 2017
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.@TurnbullMalcolm has introduced a new expenses bill to parliament, saying ‘public money should be spent appropriately’ #auspol pic.twitter.com/Eb566ZCyN3
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) February 8, 2017
Malcolm Turnbull establishes interim politicians expenses body to ensure reforms implemented immediately
Malcolm Turnbull is now speaking to the independent parliamentary expenses authority bill, the body that will manage politicians expenses. (This came about after the downfall of health minister Sussan Ley over the Christmas break.)
He said there would be monthly disclosures and the authority would start work on 1 July.
A new interim advisory body will work in the meantime, with an independent board. Once the authority is in full flight, the interim body will be disbanded. Essentially it will mean that the oversights, such as monthly disclosures will happen sooner.
As parliamentarians we have a duty to make sure our expenses meet standards that Australians expect, Turnbull said.
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Malcolm Turnbull: I don't suck up to billionaires, I look them in the eye
He continues:
Politics is about many issues. It is about policies, it is about character. It is about strength of character. I back myself. I am my own man. I can’t be bought by anyone. I don’t suck up to billionaires. I look them in the eye and when I need to I take them on.
Bill Shorten sold his members out again and again and they know that. It is one of the oldest unions in Australia, perhaps the oldest, the Australian workers union. He sold their members out. That is a fact. That is not rhetoric. That is not a political line. That is fact. It is in the royal commission. He sold them out then, he is selling them out now and he will sell them out again because that is his character.
Turnbull uses the example of cuts to company tax, which Shorten has backed in the past.
Bill Shorten has made the case for reducing company tax as eloquently as anyone. He will say anything to suit his purpose. Let’s be quite frank. Bill Shorten doesn’t have the character to be prime minister of Australia. He does not have the integrity to be leader of the opposition, to be leader of the Labor party.
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Malcolm Turnbull says Shorten's colleagues know he is a fake
Malcolm Turnbull is going Shorten again.
He wants to play the politics of envy but he’s been a sycophant. Everybody knows. That everybody knows that. No union leader has tucked his knees under more billionaires’ tables than Bill Shorten. Everyone knows that. Those criticisms rang true and the people who know him best are his own colleagues. They know he is a fake. He has no integrity, no consistency. He doesn’t have a fair dinkum bone in him.
Labor's Rob Mitchell: PM said if you’re not a billionaire, you’re not worth shit
Labor backbencher, Rob Mitchell, rarely sighted on the early doorstops, said this of the prime minister:
Yesterday, we’ve seen extraordinary events where the prime minister proved that he’s out of touch, arrogant and petulant.
We’ve seen the big dummy-spit as the silverspoon got spat across the dispatch box when he was questioned about his attack on families.
We’ve seen a prime minister who said to Australians yesterday if you’re not a billionaire, you’re not worth shit and that is something I think Australians this morning have woken up and realised.
This prime minister has now turned full circle. He’s gone back to caring about only those in his station.
Labor's @RobMitchellMP says government's changes to childcare/family payments signal "if you're not a billionaire, you're not worth s***"
— Olivia Leeming (@olivialeeming) February 8, 2017
Barnaby Joyce: Shorten might be Labor leader but looks like he has never done a day's labour
Deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce further defined the Turnbull message to Sabra Lane on AM.
We had to put up with Mr Shorten coming out and he knows what he’s doing, he’s creating this class warfare, calling Mr Turnbull Mr Harbourside Mansion.
And as I’ve said before, if I’m going to have a choice between someone running the country with the arse out of their pants who’s never made a buck or someone who has made a dollar, got ahead – remember Mr Turnbull owns a nice stack on the harbour because he’s worked very hard and been successful.
That’s what we want in this nation. We should celebrate success. The thing about Mr Shorten is such a hypocrite because we know he spends his whole life swanning it with Solly Lew and Richard Pratt and flying around in their jets. And good luck and God bless him but don’t go to the dispatch box and start this confected outrage of you and the working man as if you’re Clark from a coalmine in Wales. You’re not. Have a good look at yourself. You might be leader of the Labor party but you look like you’ve never done a day’s labour in your life.
When Sabra Lane suggested much of the voter criticism had been of personal abuse, Joyce said:
We’re not going to have Mr Shorten bucketing on us and take it on the chin every day. If that’s where Mr Shorten wants to go, we’re ready, willing and able to reply. He’s completely and utterly incompetent. He couldn’t run a pie shop and the thought of him running the country fills me with dread.
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There has been some reaction to the Turnbull speech from his colleagues.
Energy and environment minister Josh Frydenberg said Turnbull was talking to the people of Australia when he gave the speech because Bill Shorten was not fit to be prime minister.
He was speaking to the people of Australia, not just the colleagues in the party room. Bill Shorten is not fit to be prime minister.
Let’s take a moment to sketch out the day.
The prime minister has a press conference this morning on childcare at 9am and Bill Shorten is at 9.30am on skills.
In the house, we have:
- Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (the independent watchdog)
- Farm household support amendment
- Treasury laws amendment (combating multinational tax avoidance)
- Diverted profits tax
- Parliamentary entitlements legislation amendment
- Enhancing online safety for children amendment
- Health insurance amendment (national rural health commissioner)
- Appropriation (No. 3) 2016-2017
- Appropriation (No. 4) 2016-2017
- Treasury laws amendment (Bourke Street Fund)
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Good morning blogans,
I trust you have all had a fitful sleep after yesterday and are ready to get amongst it on this, the last day of the sitting week.
The news – in the sense of things that are new – this morning are thus:
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Gareth Hutchens reports George Christensen, Queensland LNPer and government whip, has threatened to cross the floor to support Bob Katter’s proposed bank commission of inquiry. This is the parliamentary inquiry which is more like a royal commission and has only been used once before for former high court justice and Labor minister Lionel Murphy.
- Last night, there was debate over a migration bill that would change the law to allow the immigration minister to have another look at “certain visa holders” after they have already been approved “if the minister determines that it is in the public interest”. Labor said it could give Peter Dutton Trump-like powers. This morning Dutton said the Labor shadow Shayne Neumann told him on Sunday in a phone call that Labor had no trouble with the bill except for a minor change.
- LNP MP and member of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters Scott Buchholz told the Fin that anyone who has a beef with Cory Bernardi standing as a Liberal and then quitting should make a submission to the current inquiry investigating the election.
But the news cycle continues to be dominated by the Turnbull speech in which the prime minister - taunted for months over his wealth - accused the opposition leader of sucking up to rich people and effectively selling out his union members.
On 7.30 last night, Bill Shorten adopted a “more in sorrow than in anger” face when he said:
Mr Turnbull was clearly fired up but that’s about saving his job. I mean this may sound a little incongruous, a little unusual, but I feel a little bit for Malcolm at the moment. He’s under great pressure. We take our orders in Labor from the middle and working class of Australia. Now, it is true that I was good friend with the late Richard Pratt. He died eight years ago. I think that Malcolm Turnbull wants to criticise our position on families and we have that argument. We should do that. But I think he was showing pressure when he referred to a bloke who died eight years ago. We’ve got to lift the tone of debate.
The shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, gave his thoughts to Fran Kelly this morning.
Firstly I thought it was shrill, desperate, un-prime ministerial. It was personal. The context here of course was that Bill Shorten had moved a motion about the government’s cuts to family tax benefits … what was Malcolm Turnbull’s speech about? Was it about Australians? Was it about the people who would be worse off? No. It was about him and Bill Shorten. The guy’s obsessed with Bill Shorten.
Bowen said the speech was bizarre, accusing Bill Shorten of not being a radical enough union leader.
Bill Shorten was a pragmatic union secretary, who got things done for his members but took a sensible approach working with employers on big major infrastructure projects. Sometimes union leaders are accused of not doing enough of that.
So there is your political brekkie for the day. Stick with us and chat on Twitter @gabriellechan and @mpbowers or my Facebook page.
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