So long and thanks for all the fish
Let’s say goodnight with some wonderful pictures from Mike Bowers, who is over at the War Memorial with Tony Abbott and Bill Shorten for the last post ceremony honouring Cameron Baird, who died in Afghanistan.
Looks very moving.
I won’t clutter this moment up with too much political nonsense.
I’ll just say good night, thanks for your company and your comments, and I’ll see you for another long day tomorrow.
Updated
My wife doesn't share her money with me: Hockey
Last post before we sum up and wrap for the night. So much gold in the interview between Alan Jones and Joe Hockey earlier today. Just one little morsel.
Q: But how do you justify $300,000 – people with $300,000 getting $10,000 per child childcare?
Joe Hockey:
Well I’ll explain that. I mean, you can have…
Q: They can pay their own.
Joe Hockey:
You can have a senior manager – a senior manager earning $250,000. So you can have a senior manager earning $250,000 and they’re married to a nurse who wants to go back to three or four days a week but because of childcare issues, isn’t able to do so…
Q: Well, I presume they share their money, don’t they?
Joe Hockey:
Well, not always.
Q: They’re married. They share their dough. Come on, Joe.
Joe Hockey:
My wife doesn’t share it with me.
Given the prime minister drew attention to it in question time, I thought I’d take some time to listen to Bill Shorten’s interview on the Neil Mitchell program this morning.
Most of it was straightforward. The back end got testy. Mitchell was trying to get Shorten to accept responsibility for Labor leaving office with the budget still in deficit. Shorten clearly did not want to do that.
The Labor leader tried several artfully non-specific formulations about responsibility. Mitchell wasn’t interested in any of them.
Shorten:
We accept the responsibility of reducing the deficit.
That one was offered several times.
Mitchell felt that wasn’t a direct answer to a direct question, which of course, it wasn’t. He wanted Shorten to say something about the legacy. It was silly of Shorten to let the inquisition run on so long when just acknowledging the past was all that was required by his host. There is actually an explanation for the past, which Shorten could have invoked.
Sloppy, but not quite a car crash. I’ve heard worse outings from the King of Zing.
Cory Bernardi gets his halal inquiry
South Australian Liberal senator Cory Bernardi has achieved his ambition to secure an inquiry into certification of halal, kosher, organic and genetically modified food.
Bernardi moved a motion in the Senate on Wednesday to launch an investigation into food certification schemes, including whether the public is given enough information about certifiers’ financial records.
The conservative backbencher said the six-month inquiry by the economic references committee would not be confined to halal alone.
“There seems to be a number of concerns about some certification schemes that are operating and in the interests of transparency and establishing the facts and being able to act in the national interest I think it’s wise for the parliament to consider all certification schemes and how they operate,” he said.
“I keep getting told any number of things about certification schemes and I don’t know what’s true and what’s not true, so I want to establish the facts.”
Several high-profile companies have been targeted by anti-halal campaigners.
In January, the head of one of Australia’s largest certifiers launched defamation proceedings in the New South Wales supreme court after a campaigner made allegations about a financial link to terrorist organisations.
The parliamentary inquiry will examine “the extent of food certification schemes and certifiers in Australia including, but not limited to, schemes related to organic, kosher, halal and genetically-modified food and general food safety certification schemes”.
Bernardi’s terms of reference include labelling requirements, certification fees paid by food producers, and “whether current schemes provide enough information for Australian consumers to make informed purchasing decisions”.
Tony Abbott has previously played down calls by several members of his own party for an inquiry into halal certification.
But the inquiry got up with backing from government senators.
Updated
Let's take stock
Given today, top to tail, is a long day, let’s do a quick stocktake post question time before we power on through the afternoon.
- Tony Abbott has spent the day spruiking the budget, and not quite ruling out an early election.
- Labor will say yes on the budget’s small business package, but is holding fire on other budget measures.
- Labor spent question time zeroing in on the flip side of the bright side – the long long path back to surplus, and the savings measures required to bankroll things like the government’s new childcare package.
- The prime minister got into a tangle about whether the social services minister Scott Morrison had called PPL claimants rorters or not.
Lawyers at 20 paces.
Tony Abbott: The minister for social services never called anyone a rorter.
Scott Morrison: Well she will get the balance through the paid parental leave scheme which is provided by the taxpayer. She will get the same thing as someone working for the bakery and that’s the important thing here, we are getting rid of what is an inequity and frankly in many cases I think is a rort.
Is a “rort” a “rorter”?
In any case, further questions have been placed on the notice paper.
Updated
Oops
Does the prime minister not know what Morrison said?
Tony Abbott:
Madam Speaker, let’s get this absolutely crystal clear. The treasurer never called anyone on paid parental leave a fraudster and the minister for social services never called anyone a rorter.
Either the prime minister isn’t briefed about what Morrison said or he’s sailing very close to the wind.
Updated
Just for the record on rorts
From Scott Morrison’s official transcript – Sky News, 11 May:
Q: Sometimes employers don’t give generous programs. I know of a lawyer in Canberra she gets six weeks, how is that generous?
Scott Morrison:
Well she will get the balance through the paid parental leave scheme which is provided by the taxpayer. She will get the same thing as someone working for the bakery and that’s the important thing here we are getting rid of what is an inequity and frankly in many cases I think is a rort.
Updated
Jenny Macklin.
Q: My question is to the minister for social services. Does the minister stand by the statement that he made on the radio where ... on the television .. where he said, ‘In many cases I think it’s a rort where parents take paid parental leave that they’ve got from their employer and in the government. Do you still think it’s a rort?
Social services minister Scott Morrison.
Madam Speaker, this government doesn’t support double dipping. We don’t support double dipping.
Labor’s Tanya Plibersek has been shown the door by Madam Speaker.
Updated
After the third PPL question, the prime minister brandishes a transcript.
Tony Abbott:
I have the transcript, Madam Speaker, I have the transcript!
Madam Speaker, I defy the member for Sydney or any other member opposite to point to any time where the treasurer used that word ‘fraud’.
Do you know who used the word fraud? It was Laurie Oakes. He said, ‘This is basically fraud, isn’t it?’ And the treasurer made it very clear that he supports people on paid parental leave.
Labor’s Tanya Plibersek is having a very loud shout.
Updated
Labor’s family spokeswoman, Jenny Macklin.
Q: My question is to the prime minister. Does the prime minister agree with the minister for social services that mums who get more than 18 weeks paid leave at home with their new babies are rorters or does he agree with his treasurer who believes they’re committing fraud?
Tony Abbott:
Madam Speaker, the premise of the question is simply false. Is simply false. Simply false. Madam Speaker, I have seen too many members of the Labor party verbal members of the Coalition to accept that.
The prime minister sits down. That’s rather remarkable. Does this mean he doesn’t intend to answer the question?
Ah, no. Abbott is back at the dispatch box.
Now, Madam Speaker, the member who asked the question – I am sure she’s very committed to a good paid parental leave scheme because with my support, Madam Speaker, she helped to introduce a paid parental leave scheme.
But, Madam Speaker, what the member who asked the question supports now is double dipping. That is what she supports. Madam Speaker, public servants in this town, public servants right around the country, they have access to generous taxpayer-supported paid parental leave leave through their employers – and the member who asked the question wants them to double dip on the taxpayer.
Now, I want to see a decent and a fair paid parental leave system and I want to know why members opposite think that there should be double dipping on the taxpayer. It’s not right. It shouldn’t happen and it won’t happen under this government.
Perhaps the government might regret telling people to have a go, because Labor’s Tanya Plibersek is back having a go.
Q: My question is to the prime minister. Is the prime minister aware that Woolworths workers have negotiated an extra 8 weeks parental leave? Why does the prime minister want to take this extra bonding time away from mothers and their babies? Does he agree with his ministers that these mothers are rorters and fraudsters?
Tony Abbott:
Madam Speaker, members opposite should stop telling lies about ministers in this government.
They really should.
Updated
Meanwhile, back in the chamber.
Chris Bowen.
Q: I refer to the prime minister’s promise, ‘There will be no overall increase in the tax burden whatsoever.’ Why is the government increasing tax as a percentage of the economy every year under this budget?
Tony Abbott:
Madam Speaker, we are reducing tax by some $5.4bn.
That’s followed by references to Bill Shorten’s trousers, clammy hands, stealthy fingers – and smashed up piggy banks.
Meanwhile, back on the interwebz.
Govt prepares to deal with Planet Tax #qt pic.twitter.com/ek2JS5Vdxc
— James Jeffrey (@James_Jeffrey) May 13, 2015
Nationals leader Warren Truss is invited by the member for Indi, Cathy McGowan, to tell her constituents how the budget will deliver goodies in Indi. Truss does his best to make the budget general Indi specific. Then he finally arrives in Indi.
Truss:
We are also funding the board walk and bike track which was a commitment we made at the last election, which we are honouring even though the seat was not won by a Coalition member – but we are honouring the commitment that we made in in sincerity.
Bill Shorten. Q: Why is the prime minister taxing Australians at a higher level than at any time since the Howard government?
Tony Abbott:
What planet is this guy living on?
Members opposite live on planet tax, Madam Speaker.
Joe Hockey, on every tradie gets a pony.
I say to tradies, of which there are quite a few in the member for Corangamite’s electorate, go out, buy a car, if that suits your needs, a second-hand car even, because you can have accelerated depreciation applied to that.
Buy new tools and upgrade your equipment that helps you to be more productive. It might be a home computer that might be used to help do the paperwork associated with your business.
Go out and have a go. Improve your productivity.
Updated
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen.
Q: My question is to the treasurer. Why has the treasurer blown gross debt out by $50bn since his last budget?
Joe Hockey:
Labor wants us to have increased spending and they claim to be concerned about spending. It doesn’t work for you. It doesn’t work for you because it smacks of hypocrisy.
So I’d say to the honourable member come up to the plate. Come up to the plate, and actually do something to reduce the legacy of debt and deficit left behind by Labor.
It was an ugly legacy, an ugly legacy.
The first Dorothy Dixer is about having a go with a 100% tax deduction. Shocked? Thought so.
Labor opens on the budget emergency. Where has it gone? The deficit has doubled since the Coalition took office.
Tony Abbott:
Madam Speaker, the leader of the opposition might have forgotten about Labor’s debt and deficit disaster but no one else has!
The prime minister says Shorten has done a horror interview today with Neil Mitchell on 3AW. (I haven’t heard it, so I don’t know whether it was a horror interview or not.)
Tony Abbott:
It was with Neil Mitchell and 13 times Neil Mitchell asked the leader of the opposition: ‘Do you, as Labor leader, accept any responsibility for the problems with the deficit?’
Thirteen times he slid around, he evaded, he obfuscated and then, Madam Speaker, on the 13th time, on the 13th time, he finally said no.
Well, Madam Speaker, the leader of the opposition might have selective amnesia but the Australian people don’t. They know that members opposite created an absolute mountain of debt and deficit. They know that members opposite created the debt and deficit disaster and they know that only this government will fix it.
Updated
Question time
It being 2pm. Gather round, blogans.
Just a few more, because they are lovely.
Are you there, God, it’s me, Joe.
Hockey has wrapped. Either sleet or hail is falling outside. A couple of pictures before we refresh our beverages for question time.
Don't mention the R word
There’s a longish question about whether the government is still committed to the NDIS, and whether the scheme is affordable. Hockey says the scheme has not been fully funded yet, but the government is committed to it.
Q: Given your second budget is aimed at jobs and growth, why is the unemployment rate still going to be rising next year? Why is growth going to remain below trend? Don’t you have faith in your own policies, or would the economy be worse off without them and dare I say, heading into a recession?
We’re not going to go into recession unless the world collapses and then we’ll have many other problems.
Michelle Grattan from the Conversation
Q: You’ve been very dismissive of suggestions that the accelerated depreciation could lead to some rorting of the system. What sort of safeguards do you think can be built in to ensure that this is not so beyond just the normal tax rules and regulations? And on the subject of possible waste, do you think in retrospect you should have done more due diligence on the advertising campaign for the intergenerational report?
(The second part of the question relates to the red faces after the IGR campaign star, Karl Kruszelnicki, basically disowned the whole exercise.)
Joe Hockey:
Ah, no. The campaign I understand has been very successful in starting a national conversation about the challenges that lie ahead and, in fact, we’ve had a discussion about how we can improve workforce participation and how we deal with an ageing population – and that (campaign) has accelerated that conversation, and the feedback has been enormous.
So there’s no apologies at all about engaging in a conversation, and you’re from the Conversation – engaging in a future with the Australian people about the future.
I make no apologies for that.
Updated
Hockey is asked about double dissolution elections. The treasurer says government is hard won, and you don’t give it up easily.
He’s asked about the prime minister’s recent offer to consider alternative savings measures for the childcare package. How does that actually work in practice?
We are prepared to sit down with anyone who is sensible in the Senate and show them that in order to pay for new initiatives you have to make savings. When I became the treasurer and after the new Senate came in, I opened the whole of treasury to all the independents in the Senate and I offered the Greens the same. Some of them came, some of them spent a few hours, some didn’t come at all and on one occasion didn’t even return our phone calls.
So we’re trying our best.
Updated
Wither Margaret, treasurer?
Joe Hockey says he wants to eliminate bracket creep. But there’s no particulars about how and when that might happen.
Sophie Morris from the Saturday Paper reminds the treasurer about his appearance at the NPC this time last year. It’s a good question. The treasurer isn’t that happy to get it.
Q: When you were here last year you spoke of your correspondence with Margaret from Langwarrin and how she’d written to you urging you to stay the course, make the tough decisions to repair the budget. Have you written back to her to say, “Sorry I couldn’t do it Margaret, it was too difficult, I’ve put it off” – and do you feel you’ve disappointed her?
(Much was made of Margaret and her endorsement of austerity this time last year.)
Joe Hockey:
No.
No, not at all. And she is a serial writer too! She’s a lovely woman. And even though I haven’t spoken to her for a little while she’s been sending a lot of letters and they’re very lengthy.
They’re all full of good advice.
Updated
The treasurer is asked about the budget’s anti-avoidance measures. The budget papers won’t put a figure on how much revenue is expected to be raised.
I’m not going to count the dollars before they’ve come in. That’s what the previous government did.
(Budgets always count the dollars before they come in. That’s the point of budgets. Presumably he means he won’t spend the dollars before they come in.)
Have a go, Adelaide
Q: Did you forget about South Australia in your budget, because everyone else got a bit of something and South Australia kind of missed out?
Hockey tells Tory Shepherd of the Adelaide Advertiser, if she wants cash, she can take a number. (Yes, that’s a joke.) He then urges Adelaide to have a go.
It is a fantastic state with enormous potential. But also it’s a state that should start to believe in itself and unfortunately you got a premier that keeps talking you down – but I actually believe with my colleagues from South Australia that there’s huge upside opportunity in that state.
Into questions now. Hockey is asked whether he actually means it when he says there will be no new superannuation taxes.
Hockey says now’s not the time to hit superannuants with higher taxes and it’s wrong to do so and it is a clear point of difference between the Coalition government and the Labor party, which does want to introduce new taxes on superannuation.
We mean what we say.
The treasurer says he won’t be having a review into retirement incomes. There’s enough reviews already underway.
He’s then asked about the $80bn cut to health and education funding. The states aren’t happy. Tough luck, says the treasurer.
We can’t continue to give bonus payments when we haven’t got the money to do it and by the way, a number of the states have a better balance sheet than us, they’re in surplus a number of the States. So they run the hospitals, they run the schools, that’s their primary responsibility.
Updated
The treasurer then delivers a segment on Australian entrepreneurialism. He says there are great stories and great possibilities in this country. He mentions various companies, like Atlassian – the software developers.
Hockey:
Australians are on the threshold of our greatest ever era. Why? Because we’re in the time zone of growth, the Asian time zone, where we’re seeing the emergence of two billion people in a middle class.
They want what we have the capacity to give them. Better health care, better education, better accounting and financial services, better IT services, better legal structures. We can do it.
We have the best in the world.
Hockey works through the various budget initiatives, arguing this is all about future proofing. The world is changing, and we must change with it.
When our family opened up a small business back in the 70s, everyone thought you need to convince someone to come in the door by the display in the window out the front, convincing people to come in the door like a salesman, as they should.
And then one day someone invented the internet and it started to change. And all of a sudden you’re a salesman or a saleswoman to the whole wide world. Everyone is a buyer, everyone’s a potential purchaser and everyone’s a potential vendor.
So this budget is a step further in our economic plan to future proof the nation. This budget is a step forward in ensuring that Australia has the very best opportunities.
As the world changes, as the economy globally changes, as the Australian economy changes I have absolutely no doubt that we are better prepared as a nation today than we were two years ago because of the decisions made by the government – but significantly by the contribution made by the Australian people to that journey to rebuild the nation and give every Australian the opportunity for a better life.
Updated
Hockey goes into an overview of the global economy, and then there’s a longish riff about China. The treasurer said he first visited China in 1978. He says he’s not worried about China’s economy, because China “must” grow.
I’m not as bearish as many others about China. Why? Because China must grow. Beijing needs to make sure that their country grows to create the jobs that ensures it does not have social dislocation into the future. So I am far more optimistic about China.
Joe Hockey addresses the NPC
The treasurer looks cheerful in the great hall of parliament house. He’s glad people have come along to hear about the government’s economic plan.
Joe Hockey:
It is important to remember where we started at. When we were in the deep, dark days of opposition, we thought very carefully about the economic plan that we wanted the Australian people to have and we developed that economic plan after extensive consultation with the Australian people.
(Er .. wut? Bit of wut around today.)
When we came to government we had to make some difficult decisions, and I know they were unpopular, but we did what was right. We had to make some big calls, not writing out cheques to businesses that were in financial distress. Also, we had to make some difficult, but appropriate calls in relation to the budget. There was never any doubt in our mind or my mind that the mining tax and the carbon tax had to go and the associated expenditure with those programs.
(Possibly not Hockey’s best example, that last one. One of the expenditures the government scrapped was the instant asset write off, which it has just restored in last night’s budget.)
Updated
Just a bit more Kylesplaining.
KYLE: Sorry to bump you up against the ‘man in the women’s underwear’ segment, but here you are talking about the budget. Now they said the budget winners - business owners, working parents, Aussies from the top end, sick people and farmers; that’s good. Budget losers – stay at home and expecting mothers, no one cares about that …
JACKIE O: Oh, yes they do.
KYLE: [inaudible] backpackers, no one cares about them. Welfare cheats, and public servants; all losers. Is that pretty much right?
JOE HOCKEY:
Well, it’s nearly all right, but you’re absolutely right.
(Er .. wut?)
Updated
What about the countries that are killing our citizens over there? Are they still getting any money?
Analysis of the aid and development budget – with Sydney’s Kyle and Jackie O, and the treasurer Joe Hockey.
KYLE: What about the … what are the countries that are killing our citizens over there? Are they still getting any money?
JACKIE O: Indonesia… KYLE: Or have you pulled that back as well?
JOE HOCKEY: Well, there has been a reduction in Indonesia. It’s not linked to that, but there has been a significant reduction in the aid for Indonesia.
KYLE: I sense a wink in there somewhere…
TREASURER: No winks here.
JACKIE O: Okay, how much of a cut? What have we cut? KYLE: All of it!
JOE HOCKEY: No, no. It is a substantial reduction, but again, you know, Indonesia is a big and growing country. And look, where we have foreign aid, it’s got to do real things. We don’t want it to go to governments, we actually want it to build things on the ground like water and sewerage, schools for kids that have no education. That’s really important.
Updated
Having a go, this lunchtime
Let’s take stock just before Joe Hockey faces the National Press Club at 12.30pm.
Today, Wednesday:
- Tony Abbott is saying various things suggesting he’s ruling out an early election while not actually ruling out an early poll after producing a budget on Tuesday night that looks, for all the word, like an election budget.
- Labor has said yes to the budget’s small business package but no on childcare if it involves the savings measures the government has nominated.
- Tony Abbott reasons that last night’s ‘every tradie gets a tax deductible pony’ budget looks entirely different to last year’s austerity budget because that was then and this is now. The same reasoning has been deployed to explain why the Coalition once blasted Labor for offering small businesses a tax deductible pony and has now produced the self same pony. Ponies are quite different when Tony Abbott offers them.
Tony’s tradies in the Canberra suburb of Fyshwick this morning. (Do you mind if I call you Tony’s tradies?)
Just some blokes. Having a go.
Updated
Medicos have managed to see off the GP co-payment from last year’s budget. But the Australian Medical Association is still not happy with the government. There are still cuts to hospital funding.
The AMA president, Brian Owler, is speaking to reporters downstairs.
Last year we saw not only the GP co-payment introduced and a number of other measures but we had the savage cuts to the public hospital system. There is no indication in this budget that those cuts are going to be restored.
Nor is there any indication about the required changes for the indexation freeze that we are seeing for GP and specialist patient rebates. People need to remember that the indexation freeze is a freeze for the patient’s rebate. It is not about the doctors’ income. It is about the patient’s rebate and their access to services.
Unfortunately, we have seen in the health budget last night no indication that those freezes will be lifted any earlier than 2018.
Updated
Sky News is very quick with that video, in which the prime minister doesn’t rule out an early election.
#HaveAGo
Abbott: I can guarantee the public that we will do what we told them we were going to do at the last election. http://t.co/waLxuXtUrW
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 13, 2015
Can you guarantee there won't be an early poll? Well, actually, no, I can't.
Q: Can you guarantee the public that you won’t be taking them to an election this year?
Tony Abbott:
I can guarantee the public that we will well and truly and faithfully do what we told them we were going to do at the last election. We said at the last election that we were going to stop the boats, scrap the carbon tax, build the roads and get the budget under control – and to the best of our ability, in the circumstances in which we have found ourselves, that is exactly what we have sought to do.
I am very pleased that because of last night’s budget and the tax cuts that we have given to small business, the access to their own money we have given to small business, we really will encourage people to have a go because I like to think that is deep in our Australian character. We want to extend to everyone a fair go and we can do that because so many Australians are out there every day having a go. People like the Camerons here in this business, there are a couple of million small businesses out there and each and every one of them is feeling much more optimistic and much more confident about the future today because of the budget last night.
Updated
Paid parental leave now.
Q: What do you say to a parent who as recently as January was planning for your more generous scheme and now you have put in place a less generous scheme, what do you say to them?
Tony Abbott:
They know that we have taken the scheme that was proposed off the table. What we are saying is that in the current circumstances, there shouldn’t be double-dipping. For instance, here in the ACT, there are lots of Commonwealth public servants who have quite a generous paid parental leave scheme. Why should there be double-dipping? Once, as a public servant, and another time through the social security system.
It doesn’t seem right.
That is why we are ending the double-dipping and it is interesting that the Labor Party seem to be supporting that double-dipping and I think it is important that people ask them why they are continuing to support this double-dipping. Why should Commonwealth public servants or state public servants for that matter have two goes at the taxpayer when it comes to paid parental leave.
(It might not seem right but fact is that’s the way the scheme operated right up until the government proposed to change it to find its childcare package.)
The prime minister doesn’t want to get into whether or not the 100% depreciation initiative will be temporary (as it is now) or permanent.
Is he entirely confident this won’t turn into a great big tax rort?
Tony Abbott:
This will be administered by the tax office and the tax office is well practiced at ensuring that people are only doing what is legitimate under the rules.
When things are different, just because you are doing them. A case study.
Q: You dumped Labor’s instant asset write-off provisions saying it was un affordable at the time. Do you concede that was a mistake, you could have kept them?
Tony Abbott:
I think that the context and the circumstances are entirely different. That was something that was supposed to be funded by the mining tax which wasn’t actually raising any money.
This is very different. We are doing this today.
[Perhaps we should start preparing the next batch of stories about whether Bruce Billson is the next Joe Hockey?]
The prime minister says the budget is all about transformation. And reaching out. And grasping.
Don’t fret, this is a case of being alert not alarmed.
Tony Abbott:
It is all about building the better country that we all yearn for, the better country that we all know is within our grasp, and this budget makes it easier for us to grasp the success that is waiting for people. I am really pleased with the way small business, in particular, has responded to the budget. I want to particularly thank Bruce Billson, the minister for small business, who has been an evangelist for small business. There is hardly a small business in the country that Bruce hasn’t been reaching out to over the last 18 months – and the small business measures in this budget are a tribute to his advocacy and his analysis.
Here’s the prime minister in an auto shop. The Liberal senator Zed Seselja provides the warm up patter.
We are hear with some of Tony’s tradies today.
(God give me strength.)
Deck shuffling: a case study
It really is that kind of budget. From the ever vigilant Daniel Hurst.
The Abbott government has given a two-year lifeline to a landmark research program but will fund it through cuts to another research scheme.
The budget reveals how the government will fund an extension of the national collaborative research infrastructure strategy (NCRIS), which emerged as a controversial bargaining chip in unsuccessful Senate negotiations.
About 1,700 highly skilled jobs were in placed in jeopardy this year when the education minister, Christopher Pyne, warned crossbenchers the government would withhold a $150m NCRIS funding extension if the Senate did not pass the broader higher education package.
Pyne ultimately relented, agreeing to provide the previously budgeted $150m to continue NCRIS for another year after 30 June 2015.
The budget papers show the government will also provide $150m to achieve a further one-year extension, providing certainty until mid-2017.
The lifeline will be offset by $263m in savings from the sustainable research excellence program between 2016 and 2019.
The budget papers said funding for the program would continue to increase each year, but would grow at a slower pace – thus producing savings compared with previous budget allocations.
In that same spirit of laying down weapons in the service of a higher cause, health minister Sussan Ley and shadow health spokeswoman Catherine King.
We may not agree on all things @CatherineKingMP & I stand together in support of @CancerCouncilOz Biggest Morning Tea pic.twitter.com/EpKQDSWJ5F
— Sussan Ley (@sussanley) May 13, 2015
What politics can achieve when people get serious
Various interest groups are still in the house providing their thoughts about the budget. Ian Yates from the Council on the Ageing thinks it’s about time we had a serious conversation about pensions and retirement incomes. He’s not seeing that conversation in the budget. He is seeing progress, however, in aged care. Last night’s budget allocated $73.7m over four years to give consumers more control of their home care.
Ian Yates, making a good point:
It was intriguing to note the announcement in the budget of major initiatives taking aged care reform much further. Aged care reform is another major area of concern for older people and a huge cost in the budget.
We have seen a big step forward in the revolution in aged care that will give greater control to consumers and a more efficient and effective aged care budget. This has been achieved in a bipartisan way because we had an independent inquiry and review and we had a conversation and agreed on where we needed to go.
It is a role model for what could occur in the retirement income space.
While the prime minister speeds east in order to seek a televisually friendly meeting with his people (remember, Tony’s tradies) the House is debating the delightfully named Migration Amendment (Maintaining the Good Order of Immigration Detention Facilities) Bill 2015.
Can anybody guess the backdrop/location for today’s made-for-TV news post budget event from the prime minister?
I’ll give you a hint. It may be a place where someone can buy something worth up to $20,000 and then claim a 100% deduction for the purchase.
Sorry Karl, what was that?
Reviewing too, the morning’s shock and awe. Karl Stefanovic, on the Nine Network, with the prime minister.
Q: The problem is believability is your biggest problem at the moment.
Tony Abbott:
I just missed you there Karl, I’m sorry.
Q: The problem is believability is your biggest problem at the moment.
Well, Karl, we have done exactly what we said we would do: we said we would stop the boats and we have; we said we would get the Budget back under control – that is what we are doing; we said we would scrap the carbon tax and the mining tax – we have done that as well.
I’m using this moment of relative calm to look back through the budget papers – something I always like to do the morning after the night before.
Just a couple of things that got a bit lost in the wash last night – the government is estimating it can achieve savings of $1.7bn over five years “by enhancing the Department of Human Services fraud prevention and debt recovery capability.” I’ll risk making a statement of the bleeding obvious by saying this is an awful lot of money.
A couple of other things worth a mention. The government has found $1.4m over four years to implement an injury compensation scheme for parliamentarians.
There is also $4m to establish something called Australian Consensus. “The Australian Consensus, which will be based on the Copenhagen Consensus approach, will bring together leading economists and other experts to deliver advice on the costs and benefits of solutions to national, regional and global challenges.” Scandi. So hot right now. This is actually the Bjorn Lomborg thing. Which is now not happening. But the dollars in the budget indicate that the government remains keen for this to happen. Somewhere. Somehow. Some way.
Updated
Apart from all the budget hoo ha, it’s a normal parliamentary sitting day. The chambers are sitting now. This afternoon in the Senate, one of the new Labor recruits, the former ACT chief minister Katy Gallagher, will make her maiden speech. The treasurer, Joe Hockey, will also deliver an address to the National Press Club at lunchtime. This is the traditional post budget address.
One major moving part, as always, is how much of the budget will actually clear the Senate. Various crossbenchers have been out and about this morning. Verdicts, obviously, are not firm at this stage.
Clive Palmer (remember Clive?) thinks the budget doesn’t do enough to stimulate demand.
I was the wealthiest person in Australia in 2009. I know how to stimulate demand.
South Australian independent Nick Xenophon thinks this budget is considerably better than the budget in 2014, but it’s not quite there. His verdict?
Close, but no cigar.
More of the early morning power walking.
Updated
Just while we can briefly hear ourselves think, here’s a sample of the post budget commentary from the papers and news websites this morning. I think it’s fair to say that nobody missed the clunk in the government’s gear change.
Paul Kelly, in the Australian
This budget aims to revive the Abbott government’s political fortunes, entrench the Coalition base vote with small business, families and farmers and give priority to growth and jobs over budget repair. The second Hockey budget is driven by two forces: the need to counter the onslaught on the 2014 budget that almost destroyed the government and the $52 billion revenue downgrade since last year. The bottom line estimates conceal the policy reversal at work. This budget’s real purpose is to save the Abbott government. The second related purpose is to boost economic activity in the teeth of faltering growth. Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey seek a neat and convenient harmony between these political and economic needs. No talk now of busting the entitlement culture.
Peter Hartcher, in the Sydney Morning Herald
Joe Hockey says that his budget is designed to encourage people to “have a go”. Foremost among those people? Tony Abbott. This budget is designed to give him the option of calling an early election.
Laura Tingle, in the Australian Financial Review
It’s the budget with everything, but not in a good way: heroic forecasts, unheroic savings decisions, panicky spending decisions and a political shallowness to make even the most craven practitioner blush. The nicest thing you can say about Joe Hockey’s second budget is that it won’t do any harm to the economy, minimises the number of voters who might be hurt, and, in cleaning up some of the government’s previous dumb decisions, miraculously allows it to more or less land on its fiscal feet.
Michelle Grattan, in the Conversation
This is a budget for when the economy has gone soft and the political situation is precarious. The bold reforming zeal, accompanied by a “we know best” attitude, of last year has gone. The government reaffirms its commitment to long-term fiscal repair. But this budget is driven by the imperative of short-term survival – Tony Abbott’s most immediately and the government’s at the election.
Bernard Keane, in Crikey
For a government that came into office insisting that it was the fiscal fire brigade ready to bring the debt-and-deficits crisis under control with its mere presence, it’s a humiliating abandonment of fiscal rigour, with even Joe Hockey’s 2014-15 approach of aiming for long-term savings abandoned in favour of pretending that the Coalition taxes less than Labor.
Updated
The mind boggles.
Kochies Canberra Angels! pic.twitter.com/lEa1MFyMnW
— Jacqui Lambie (@JacquiLambie) May 12, 2015
From the still revolving doors on the radios and televisions.
Confident. Not cocky. That’s Tony Abbott. The prime minister, speaking on Triple M, says he is “confident, not cocky, that the Senate will be constructive and collegial.”
Meanwhile, Joe Hockey on Sky News. We can’t be all things to all people.
We can’t do everything for everyone, it’s just impossible given what we’ve inherited... We’re helping those small businesses with their turnover, less than $2m, to help them grow.
More from the revolving doors down on the lawn.
Updated
Cacophony Wednesday, through the lens of Mike Bowers
Updated
The prime minister has been replaced in the AM chair by the Labor leader Bill Shorten.
Shorten won’t say whether or not a future Labor government would restore the $80bn in funding to the states for health and education.
We’re going to have to see what the final numbers look like.
He’s asked whether he’ll support the new assets test for the pension.
Shorten won’t say.
You and I both know we’ve got to see the detail. What sort of opposition leader would I be if I just gave Tony Abbott a blank cheque? After all, we know that Tony Abbott can’t keep a position longer than a day. So we will look at means testing, we always have.
Q: Let’s look at what you will support. You will support the small business tax cuts presumably?
We’re certainly open to what we can do in small business but again ..
Q: And the assets depreciation, you will support that?
They’re all part of the small business package. We recognise the importance of small business but it does beg the question, doesn’t it, where has Joe Hockey and Tony Abbott been for the first 613 days of their government?
Abbott has tidied up his line on superannuation from earlier on this morning. Michael Brissenden asks why the government won’t move on superannuation concessions.
Tony Abbott:
People who have put money aside on the basis of a certain set of rules shouldn’t have that money raided just because government has got a problem. Now, what we said going into the last election was that the former Labor government had constantly raided super, constantly changed the rules on super.
We thought it was important to have a period of stability.
There will be no changes to super, no adverse changes to super in this term of parliament and we have no plans to make adverse changes to super in the future.
Q: Your own figures say you’re not really tackling the spending problem, don’t they?
Tony Abbott:
We are doing the responsible thing under the circumstances that we find ourselves in.
Q: But circumstances change for every government, prime minister and you didn’t cut the previous government any slack when circumstances changed for them?
Again, Michael, we’re doing the responsible thing under the circumstances in which we find ourselves. The deficit goes down every year by about 0.5% of GDP and both of our two budgets so far have been significant tax-cutting budgets. Last year we got rid of the mining tax and the carbon tax, this year a historically large tax cut for small business.
A lot of coalition governments and indeed some Labor governments have talked about doing the right thing by small business. We do the right thing.
Q: But spending as a percentage of GDP is not going down that fast or much. You have a spending problem.
Michael, we are doing the right thing in these circumstances and again, I say to you, the former government increased spending by 3.6% real. It’s come down to 1.5% real.
Abbott confirms the surplus pathway is predicated on $80bn worth of cuts the states say they won't cop
Q: In opposition you criticised the treasury figures often. I mean Joe Hockey said we’d achieve a surplus in our first year in office, we’ll achieve a surplus every year in our first term but we’re not going to see a surplus for a decade. Why should anyone trust politicians or the Treasury when you come to figures because you’re all so bad at it?
Well, Michael, what we’re doing is we’ve got a credible path back to surplus. We inherited a deficit of $48bn and every year the deficit comes down by about 0.5% of GDP and I think under the circumstances that’s a very good result.
Q: Your credible path back to surplus is predicated on the states giving up their fight to get back the $80bn you took from them in health and education last year though, isn’t it?
What we did last year, Michael, was implement our election commitment and if you go back to 2013 we said we would honour the then government’s commitments over the then forward estimates period but beyond the forward estimates we wouldn’t do it.
Q: It is still unresolved at this stage, isn’t it?
What we’ve said to the states is we want to talk to them about how we can make the education and the hospital dollar go further. That’s what we want. We want to try to come up with efficiencies in the system and the point that the states made at the most recent COAG is that you can get savings in health. If you focus on better health outcomes, you can get significant health savings and that’s what we want to do.
Q: But your credible path back to surplus is predicated on that $80bn, isn’t it?
We made certain commitments in last year’s budget and those commitments carry over into this year’s budget.
Tony Abbott says it's not an election budget, it's a budget for the people
The prime minister is on AM now.
Q: Is it an election budget?
Well, it’s a budget for the Australian people, that’s what it is. It’s a budget to encourage the creative people in our country, the small business people who are at the engine room of our economy to get on and create jobs.
Q: But what happened to the budget emergency? I mean you can’t deny that a year ago it was a crisis that you were talking about, up hill and down dale. Now apparently we’re heading in the right direction, the plan’s working but the deficit is still forecast to be around $40bn?
Michael, what happened was there was a change of government.
Q: A change of government doesn’t change the fundamentals of a deficit?
Well a change of government means that people who were serious about expenditure restraint come in.
Let's take stock of the main themes, thus far
Just in this small lull before Tony Abbott and Bill Shorten hit the airwaves on the AM program, let’s summarise the main messages of the budget sell.
- The government says the budget in 2015 is completely different to the budget in 2014 because that was then, and this is now.
- Tony Abbott has left open the prospect the government will act in the future – post election – on superannuation concessions, and may also extend the 100% tax deduction for small business expenses under $20,000 beyond June 2017.
- Speaking of elections, the government is hosing down speculation that this budget is a springboard for an early poll.
- Labor is saying yes on the small business measures, and possibly on childcare, if you dump the savings measures we don’t care for.
Updated
Back on television, Bill Shorten also reminds the audience that accelerated depreciation for small business was brought in by Labor, and the Coalition nearly burst a valve.
When Labor had the idea, the Coalition wanted to stomp all over it in size ten boots.
His verdict about budget 2015?
What we see is some hand outs to small business and not a lot else.
Labor says yes on small business, and hmmm on childcare
Chris Bowen is being asked whether or not Labor will support one of the savings measures funding the new childcare package – ending so called “double dipping” with paid parental leave.
Bowen is toughening the language on this measure. He says it is outrageous that the government is trying to portray accessing both government and private sector paid parental leave as a rort when the PPL scheme was in fact designed as a top up.
It’s the way the scheme was designed.
Bowen is asked whether Labor is ready to fight an election. The shadow treasurer says he thinks the budget is more about holding off another leadership challenge than softening up voters for an early poll ... but ...
If there is an early election, we are ready.
The sum total of this interview is:
-
Labor is happy with the small business measures, and not opposed to the government’s childcare plans – but Labor is opposed to the savings measures the government has nominated to pay for the childcare plans.
We have a stereo situation going on now where the Labor leader Bill Shorten is on television and the shadow treasurer Chris Bowen is on the radio.
Shorten says the opposition is very open minded on support for small business and he’s a different person to Tony Abbott. He won’t mindlessly oppose things. But he cautions of the budget ..
... there’s still a lot of harm and a lot of hurt.
Economically responsible Joe and soft and fuzzy Joe
Treasurer Joe Hockey is also doing the rounds this morning. He has been telling Fran Kelly this is NOT an election budget. It was all in the Coalition road map. Way back. The 2014 horror budget was the plan. The 2015 have a go budget was the plan.
Hockey:
It’s not about an election, it’s about doing what is right. This is the next step in our economic plan. Since we were elected, we have made some difficult decisions that have given us a stronger foundation in the budget but importantly have allowed Australia to withstand some of the headwinds we’ve had to face such as the biggest fall in terms of trade in 50 years, a massive fall in the iron ore price and yet we’re still getting the budget back to surplus and the economy is going to go faster.
But what about the end of the age of entitlement?
We’re still tough, says Joe. He names the government’s $80bn health and education payments to the states, which are still part of the plan. We’re giving the dividend back to the families and small businesses, says Hockey.
Fran is trying to make sense of why the Coalition scrapped Labor’s small business measures which were essentially the same thing, though on a lesser scale. Labor had accelerated depreciation, for example. Hockey says it because of Labor’s measures were tied to the mining tax, which didn’t raise the money. The message he is selling is the Coalition are not “big-spending” Labor.
We’re not writing out cheques. ..we giving them a tax deduction. We’re giving them back their own money.
The treasurer is walking the line between being economically responsible Joe and soft and fuzzy Joe. He makes the point small businesses are already allowed to depreciate business related expenses. All the budget does in bring the depreciation forward and load it into the first year, freeing up Johnny Cash.
What it is, is bringing forward the deductions they would have got at any rate...People aren’t going to spend money in their business if it is not going to earn them a dollar.
"Tony's tradies"
Now the prime minister is on Sky. Political editor David Speers points to the lack of fiscal consolidation in this budget.
Tony Abbott:
I know you are looking for things to criticise in this budget and there’s a sense that’s your job.
Speers asks Abbott about the small business incentives. There’s a big pitch to tradies. Is this Abbott’s tradies?
The prime minister corrects him.
Tony’s tradies.
I want to encourage them to have a go.
Speers asks why just give them a one-off sugar hit? Why not continue the 100% tax deductions unveiled in the budget for utes and the like beyond June 2017.
Abbott says let’s see.
Speers sees an opening. So you might continue that measure then?
Let’s not speculate, let’s look at what we’ve done.
Abbott says the Coalition will cut taxes in every budget.
Speers winds up by asking the prime minister whether he’s preparing for an early election.
We were elected to govern for three years.
That’s certainly my plan. It’s the government’s plan.
Tony Abbott is asked about superannuation, and the treasurer’s declaration in last night’s budget speech that there would be no new taxes on superannuation. Abbott says there will be no adverse changes to super “in this term.” He says there are no plans to adjust superannuation.
But.
I’m not saying super will never ever change ever again.
David Koch on Seven asks whether the government wants small business to just go out and spend.
Tony Abbott, somewhat primly:
Responsibly.
That was then, this is now
Tony Abbott on the Seven Network is asked by host David Koch about the abrupt change of tone between budget 2014 and 2015.
Well Kochie, last year’s budget was right for those times, this budget is right for these times.
The prime minister Tony Abbott has begun a round of breakfast television interviews. In the next twenty minutes he’ll do three networks.
On that early election speculation.
PM Tony Abbott says Australians should expect to go to an election "about the middle of next year". #budget2015 #auspol
— Naomi Woodley (@naomiwoodley) May 12, 2015
Good morning and welcome to Wednesday. If budget Tuesday is busy, Wednesday is a cacophony. As we go live this morning, all the TV networks have set up live broadcasts on the front lawns of parliament. A mobile coffee cart has taken up the treasurer Joe Hockey’s advice to “have a go” and moved into position. Talking heads are parading up and down between the lawns and parliament house.
If you weren’t with us last night, you can find all our budget coverage from yesterday and last night by clicking this link. If you’d prefer pre-coffee to watch rather than read, you can hear what we think, and get a sense of being in the budget lock-up, by watching this video.
If you just want the short version of the story of last night, small business are the big winners. Farmers do pretty well too. From a family perspective and a pensioner perspective, this budget is a lot less unfair than the budget they copped in 2014.
Given we’ve gone from bleak austerity to goodies bonanza in only 12 months, the talk in political circles in Canberra last night in the restaurants and pubs and in MP’s offices was all about early elections.
A budget this generous looks and feels a lot like an election budget. Or more precisely, it looks like a government creating an option of an early poll.
The treasurer Joe Hockey is on ABC radio as we go live. The prime minister Tony Abbott is coming up within the next half hour.
The Politics Live comments thread is wide open and waiting for your business. Get into it. I’ve fired up the Twits and you’ll find me there @murpharoo The Man with the camera is @mpbowers
