Fare thee well
Well folks, that’s about as much as I can manage this evening. Thank you for your delightful company over the past ten hours. Another big day tomorrow, I look forward to seeing you then.
Let’s assess the sum of Wednesday.
- The government hit every open microphone to sell the budget. Jobs and growth. Jobs and growth. Jobs and growth. It also promised to deliver the bracket creep tax cuts on July 1, by regulation if legislation couldn’t be procured.
- The prime minister stumbled over home ownership on the Jon Faine program, advising his host to kick in for the Faine kids if they couldn’t crack the Melbourne property market, which led him to question time, and an accusation from Labor that the government’s housing affordability policy was “have rich parents.”
- Labor pressed the case on the company tax cuts – what is the cost to the budget of this measure over the full ten years? The government said don’t you worry about that old (Labor) son.
- A bunch of people said goodbye to politics, including the lady pictured in this Magic Mike sequence. Bronwyn Bishop largely kept it nice, only one barb, that she’d been asked to resign as speaker to protect Tony Abbott.
Have a great evening.
The Labor MP Alannah McTiernan, in her valedictory, has told the chamber she’s leaving because she didn’t feel like she could influence policy, she felt something like an extra in a blockbuster.
Bishop gets a bit emotional at the close. She says she has the greatest gift as an Australian woman: freedom.
I will miss this place, but as I said, it is not the end, it’s simply a change of course.
Hugs all round.
Bronwyn Bishop says she was asked to resign the speakership to protect Tony Abbott
There was an expense problem or two .. but it was a wonderful opportunity.
Bronwyn Bishop lets one barb go. She says she was asked to resign from the speakership to protect Tony Abbott. She says there’s more to this saga, but not for now. A little coat trail, then back to dignity, always dignity.
Updated
Bishop has arrived at the speakership. A great privilege, she says. Bishop says she came to like the recalcitrants in the parliament. There’s some nervous laughter on the other side.
Aged care now.
There was a difficulty in the aged care area. Standards were appalling.
She says she didn’t have many friends in the aged care sector. Then there was Riverside, and a cup full of kerosene in a bath for residents. This controversy saw her dropped from the Howard ministry.
I did get to fly an F111.
Bronwyn Bishop is recounting exciting times in RAAF planes. The only stipulation from the pilots was no pins, no hairspray. A bombing raid ensued, with Bishop dropping the payload and pulling the plane into a barrel roll. (Presumably this adventure happened outside a war zone but I’m not sure.) She was determined, she says, not to throw up. Someone told her Kim Beazley had thrown up.
Bishop left the Senate for the House because, as she says, there was talk about her becoming the first female prime minister of Australia. She says neither John Hewson, nor Paul Keating, wanted that outcome.
She says someone told her Keating described her as a Catherine Wheel. She returns the favour, describing Keating as a sparkler, burns bright but reduces down to a thin black stick.
Bishop tells the chamber she was a supporter of Andrew Peacock. She notes she had a chance to run as leader of the Liberal party when Alexander Downer ultimately went on to lead the party.
Bronwyn Bishop:
A mistake, however, one does make mistakes in this place and in life.
We are lingering presently in the history of Senate estimates committees.
Bishop says the dirtiest fight she’s ever been in in politics was to become president of the Liberal party. She got there in the end.
Bishop is going through her path to politics. She became a lawyer she says to understand the process of lawmaking. She became a Liberal because she agreed with the philosophy of enterprise which is immutable as the law of gravity.
Bishop says she met Philip Ruddock when they were both in the young Liberals. Women weren’t permitted to be presidents of the youth branch.
But I set out to change those things.
The member for Mackellar has the call now.
Bronwyn Bishop rises in her place.
Can I begin by saying the timetable has become a little disorderly today.
Once Madam Speaker ...
Labor’s Bernie Ripoll is saying farewell in the House at the moment. He’s very emotional.
Ray and Scott agree heartily with one another
Before we move on to Bronwyn Bishop just a segment of the treasurer’s conversation with Ray Hadley from earlier today that I thought I might share.
Let’s call this class warfare is unAustralian. And Abs. It will make sense. Trust me.
Scott Morrison:
I think people are so over these, these left-right arguments and all of this sort of thing, honestly, I think people are so over it, I mean Bill Shorten’s out there saying, “oh you know millionaires and all the rest of it”, tell you what Bill Shorten hangs out with a lot more millionaires than I ever have, I mean, he went to Xavier, I think in Victoria, I went to a public school, so mate if he wants to have that argument, well I suppose we can, but I’m frankly, if people get to go to private schools, good for you, your family has invested and giving you the opportunity to go there, I mean honestly, these people have just got to move on.
Ray Hadley:
I think the class war is crass, whoever enunciates it, whether it’s you or Mr Shorten, the class war is crass, and it is beneath contempt.
Scott Morrison:
Well it’s just not us, it’s not us.
Ray Hadley:
It’s not Australian.
Scott Morrison:
No.
Ray Hadley:
The class war’s not Australian, it belongs on another planet, not this planet, anyway I think we’ve just about covered everything we needed to cover, and congratulations on the budget and one of the things I’ve said to you previously is that, um, you are you know, for all your other faults, a polished media performer, and you present particularly well, however, have you seen the front page of the Daily Telegraph, today, and I saw Lisa on the Today Show this morning take you to task about the 007 photograph, someone at the, at News Limited, has conned you and I don’t know who it was but obviously, you know the holding of the tie like James Bond, 007, and we had a bit of fun with that yesterday.
Scott Morrison:
My collar was down Ray, my collar was down.
Ray Hadley:
I know the collar was down, I know the collar was down Treasurer, but the caricature, that is written about an illustrator on the front page of the Telegraph, in case you haven’t read the side of the paper, where you’re adorned as Superman, Clark Kent, ScoMo, in brackets abs not to scale.
Scott Morrison:
I can’t.
Ray Hadley:
So the abs are not to scale.
Scott Morrison:
Just in case anyone needed that, are in doubt.
Ray Hadley:
In case his wife or family parents, loved ones think that all of a sudden he’s been working out in the federal parliamentary gym, it’s not the case, the abs are not to scale.
Scott Morrison:
That is absolutely right.
Ray Hadley:
All right then, nice to talk to you.
(Onya Ray. Go hard or go home.)
Updated
Legal action from asylum seekers on Manus Island
The ABC has some breaking news.
More than 700 asylum seekers held on Manus Island have launched legal action calling on the federal government to immediately move them to Australia. The application for an urgent injunction was filed with the High Court on Wednesday by human rights barrister Jay Williams. It follows last week’s decision in the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court which ruled that the Manus Island detention centre breached the country’s constitution.
While still on valedictories, Magic Mike took some terrific shots of Bill Heffernan’s farewell which happened just before question time.
Coming up within the next hour or so, we expect Bronwyn Bishop to bid her farewell to politics. Compulsory viewing, that.
The mildly random Palmer beat downs on former colleagues roll on.
Cliver Palmer on Glenn Lazarus:
We will talk about Senator Lazarus if you want to, and he won 6,000 votes in his own name for the election, while our party won 225,000 votes for our party. Senator Lazarus would not be in the Senate without those votes.
He crumbled and couldn’t take the pressure, he was chairman of the Queensland inquiry which got rid of Campbell Newman in Queensland, and if you went to any of those inquiries you would have seen all the senators from the LNP screaming and shouting and abusing him. I guess, when you play football a lot you like to see how your game is going, so he is used to good publicity. In my case I am used to bad publicity so it doesn’t worry me.
Down in the courtyard, Clive Palmer is apologising to the people of Tasmania for Jacqui Lambie’s “behaviour” when she left the PUP.
Just because, really.
Updated
In the House, further questions have been placed on the notice paper.
Meanwhile, outside the House.
Clive Palmer announces Tas & WA Senate team at "farewell" presser. Says PUP will scrap pollie entitlements. #auspol pic.twitter.com/0uEzFbZKjs
— Mark Ludlow (@M_Ludlow) May 4, 2016
I gather from reporters there Palmer has declined to say whether he’ll run for the Senate.
Labor now wants to know why Australian’s have to wait longer for new childcare benefits while millionaires get an annual tax cut worth $17,000 a year.
The prime minister says this question is about the deficit levy. Turnbull says there is no change in this budget to the deficit levy. It was introduced for three years, it adds two percent to the top marginal rate and now it’s going. It was always going to go this budget. Labor now wants to keep it. Turnbull says that’s fine, if Labor wants to increase the top marginal rate, then propose that. But the government is sticking with the status quo.
Health minister Sussan Ley.
Mr Speaker, we are in the dying days of the 44th parliament and we don’t have a single health policy from Labor. Not a single health policy! We haven’t heard one!
Bowen is back asking why the treasurer told Ray Hadley last year that super changes shouldn’t be retrospective and then made retrospective super changes in the budget.
Scott Morrison says he did no such thing.
We are currently hearing about a tax cut for the Great Northern Laundry.
Bowen is back on the corporate tax cuts. Are you seriously trying to tell us there’s no costings on a key budget measure, Bowen asks?
Scott Morrison says of course there’s a costing.
Our plans are fully costed, Mr Speaker.
They are fully costed and they are accurate and they can be relied upon.
A Dorothy Dixer on innovation from Jamie Briggs, once a minister, now a backbencher. Briggs holds the seat of Mayo. I’m told the Liberals have been robocalling in Mayo in the past few weeks, which is a seat they normally wouldn’t plough resources into. It’s considered safe. Interesting they are flinging some Dorothy Dixers Brigg’s way, and putting resources into the seat. He might be in a spot of bother.
The shadow treasurer Chris Bowen persists on the ten year costs of the company tax cut. Morrison persists on the blocking motion. Aren’t you the people with the $20bn black hole, the treasurer wonders? Didn’t you get your tobacco excise costing wrong?
The deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce has just invoked a corridor of commerce from Melbourne to Brisbane. Hopefully no carp are cluttering the corridor. Then things could get weird real quick.
Labor is back seeking the ten year costs of the government’s plan to cut business taxes. The treasurer Scott Morrison defends on that question by quoting Chris Bowen to Chris Bowen. “We don’t need to have the lowest corporate tax rate in the world. We do, however, need to be concerned if our company tax rate is on the higher side of the world’s advanced economies. While 30% sounds low, compared to the rate that Paul Keating inherited, it is how the rate compares to those of our competitors to what counts.”
Morrison says Bowen wrote this in one of his books. And it’s quite right. Bowen has certainly floated a company tax cut in the past. The shadow treasurer’s argument now is it’s not the right time.
In any case, none of us got the ten year costings.
Not drowning, burning
Greens MP Adam Bandt, to Peter Dutton, immigration minister.
Q: With two refugees setting themselves on fire after being sent to offshore detention camps, will you finally accept the consequences of putting desperate people in a situation even worse than the trauma they are fleeing? Minister, aren’t you just showing pure cowardice by blaming the advocates helping the vulnerable, instead of accepting responsibility for your actions? Can’t we do better than this Labor-Liberal policy of not drowning, but burning?
Labor’s Tony Burke is on his feet in less than a second. He wants the last part of the question ruled out of order. Burke says no-one in the House has a policy of that nature. Bandt withdraws.
Dutton takes the question. He says Australia’s humanitarian record is a proud one, but Australia’s border protection policy will not be determined by the people smugglers.
Peter Dutton:
We are working on third country settlement options, but we need to structure any arrangement in such a way that it will not create a pull factor opportunity for people smugglers to get back into business. We have dozens of health workers working on Nauru at the moment, including mental health workers and including support people who are spreading support to refugees and to people on Nauru to try and provide them with support, but to deliver a very clear message and that is they are not going to settle in our country.
We are not going to tolerate a situation, Mr Speaker, which allows people smugglers to get back into business. It does mean that we need to take tough decisions to ensure that we don’t see women and children going to the bottom of the ocean, as they did only a few short years ago, and we should speak for the 1200 people who drowned trying to make the journey across to our country and we should never allow that to happen again.
Q: My question is to the prime minister. How can the prime minister justify giving someone earning $1m a tax cut of nearly $17,000 every single year confirmed in last night’s budget?
Malcolm Turnbull gestures that one to Scott Morrison. Much haw hawing ensues on the opposition benches.
Morrison says he’s delighted to grab that one. He has exhumed some quotes from Bill Shorten in 2011.
“The government”, the then Labor government, “recognises that higher taxation reduces incentives to work, save and invest!”
That’s what he said!
Back to jobs and growth.
Q: My question is to the prime minister. Can the prime minister confirm that in the past two weeks his advice to young Australians struggling to buy their first home is to have rich parents or to have parents who buy you a home when you turn one? Prime minister, just how out of touch are you?
Malcolm Turnbull, with possibly the most Malcolm Turnbull response in recent memory. You have to imagine this with a Rumpolian inflection.
There has never been an opposition that has surrendered so totally to a budget as this one. Here we are, the day after the budget, the day after the budget, and not yet one question on the budget itself.
Turnbull attempts to return fire.
The Labor Party is sneering at the aspirations of parents. Sneering at the hard-working Australians who seek to make something for their children and they dare to talk to us about being out of touch.
Mr Speaker, this a war, a political war, they want to commence against aspiration, against ambition, against enterprise. Mr Speaker, we stand up for enterprise. We stand up for family businesses. We don’t put family businesses out of business. That is the Labor party’s way. We are for enterprise.
First Dorothy Dixer is, of course, jobs and growth.
Question time
Labor opens today with the prime minister’s comments on housing on the Jon Faine program this morning about tipping in for the kids.
Q: On ABC radio this morning when Jon told the prime minister his children were locked out of the housing market the prime minister replied and I quote: “We should shell out for them. You should support them. A wealthy man like you.” Is that really the prime minister’s advice for young Australians struggling to buy their first home? Have rich parents?
Malcolm Turnbull goes to Labor’s negative gearing policy. He says it isn’t a housing affordability policy. Anthony Albanese has said so. Turnbull quotes Albanese saying: “What you will see as a result of our policy isn’t, you know, some fall in housing prices. It is not doing that at all.”
Turnbull pivots back to jobs and growth. Evidently he’d rather not revisit Faine.
To my great horror I have missed the Liberal senator Bill Heffernan making his farewell speech. I’ll see if I can reconfigure that if time permits.
Meanwhile on planet #Cliev
Clive Palmer says he has to talk more with his wife about whether to run for the Senate at the election, but it's a "live option" #auspol
— Rosie Lewis (@rosieslewis) May 4, 2016
Question time coming up, just time for a quick down dog.
Quick backtrack before question time. Green Sarah Hanson Young bids farewell to Labor’s Melissa Parke after her valedictory.
Lovely shot from Magic Mike.
This is how Morrison wraps at the NPC.
We have got to stop looking at the economy as if it’s a whole bunch of individuals, and they are all looking for their little bit out of the government. If that’s the sort of country we are going to run, we’ll run it into the ground and we’ll run each other into the ground. Australians are over this class warfare, they are over the us and them. They are over it. They know the big economic challenges that are out there facing them and their future. What they want from us is a stronger economic plan that gets them to that other side.
Q: There was a cracking front page on the ‘Courier Mail’ with a picture of you and a headline: “Hello ladies”, talking about how the budget was to woo women. Sydney University and ANU have done some analysis and they say only 29% of people who benefit from the tax cuts will be women, they say it’s a budget for blokes. So, which is it?
Scott Morrison:
Again, I noticed the interest in the sort of winners and losers analysis, but the changes that we made particularly to superannuation, I think are very important for women.
Updated
Next question is seeking clarity on the backpacker tax. It isn’t forthcoming. Morrison says that issue remains “live.”
Mal Farr from news.com wants to know why the government won’t scrap the five cent piece given it costs more than five cents to make. The treasurer says he’d like some questions on the budget.
Updated
Q: Your budget contained $857m for the Melbourne Metro under the asset recycling initiative. Given that the port hasn’t been sold and we don’t have a final price, would you commit to increasing the allocation if a higher price was achieved to ensure Victoria gets its full 15% privatisation bonus?
Scott Morrison:
We’d have to address that if that eventuated.
The treasurer is then pointed to previous remarks of his supportive of foreign aid. Why is the government cutting aid? Because of Labor, Scott Morrison says, setting fire to the budget. That’s why. Because of Labor’s fiscal vandalism.
It’s regrettable, it grieves me, I know it grieves Julie [Bishop, foreign minister] terribly.
Another question on retrospectivity and superannuation.
Scott Morrison:
The simple thing is I have not changed the tax treatment of retirement accounts. Those retirement accounts remain tax free. We are not taxing the earnings out of retirement phase accounts. Full stop.
What we have done is we have set a limit on what can go into those retirement accounts. That’s a different position. And it’s one I’m very comfortable with.
On the Kidman and Co sale.
Q: I wonder whether FIRB gave any advice second time around on this matter?
Scott Morrison:
They always give advice, but it’s my decision.
(That would be yes.) Morrison goes on to say he was always concerned by how large the land holding was. He made that clear. That’s why the sale shouldn’t proceed.
Scott Morrison:
I am surprised that Labor had a different view. But if Chris Bowen is the treasurer on the other side of the election, I suppose we know what he’ll do.
The next question concerns nothing for people earning below $80,000.
Q: Those people are going to be paying $5 more on prescriptions, they are going to pay a larger gap at the GP because the Medicare rebate is being frozen, they’ll wait longer for increased childcare benefits, the Family Tax Benefit changes are going ahead, the school kids bonus is being abolished. Is this the price that those families have to pay for jobs and growth?
Scott Morrison says people need the economy to grow, they don’t need sweeteners.
The next question is also about super: won’t the super changes direct savings out of super and into negatively geared property?
Scott Morrison says initially he doesn’t agree with the premise of the question. Then he says this. People who engage in negative gearing are engaging in legitimate activity.
The treasurer:
If they can do that, to provide for a better retirement income for themselves outside of superannuation, well, good for them. They are the decisions they are making and I don’t intend to get into the way of that decision. We know that they are doing that to support themselves and their families over time.
They are into questions now at the NPC. The first question is on retrospectivity in the super changes.
Q: Your $500,000 lifetime non-concessional cap is going to apply to fund balances from 2007. Your $1.6m cap on balances will impact savings built up under the existing rule. How do you justify those two changes when you’ve said in the past you absolutely guarantee no retrospectivity on superannuation?
Scott Morrison:
I don’t believe this is retrospectivity, others can have a view they may wish to argue for.
Every treasurer has their own style. Morrison loves to present like a motivational speaker. Businesses just want young people to get ahead. Yes they do. I’ll allow the treasurer to take up the story.
Scott Morrison:
Business people in this country, there is nothing more that pumps them up than seeing young people get - a young person getting a job and actually succeeding in that job. It’s not all about the profits. We all know that. It’s not all about the sales and about the revenue. The thrill of seeing a young person come into your business and get that opportunity and succeed, you can’t match, I don’t think, when it comes to creating those opportunities for our future. So we are going to back that in. We are going to invest in it. We are going to give it everything we have got.
Grisly, grisly end
Content warning. Apparently raising taxes to fund spending comes to a grisly grisly end.
Scott Morrison:
What we do is we save, spend cautiously and reduce the deficit.
You’ll never chase the higher levels of spending that everybody would like with higher taxes. It’s a self-defeating purpose.
It will all come to a grisly, grisly end if you go down that path, but that is what our opponents are suggesting. We are not going to do that.
A zinger! Good grief, it’s catching.
Scott Morrison, on the new Google tax:
The only penalty rate you’ll see in the budget is the penalty rate we are putting on multi-nationals who seek to shift profits offshore and not pay tax in Australia.
They’ll pay 40%. They won’t pay the corporate rate, they’ll pay 40%.
The treasurer is sticking to the jobs and growth script at the NPC. He’s on to company tax cuts at the moment. You cut tax for business so they invest and create jobs. Anyone who doesn’t get that is a bum. No, sorry that was Bob Hawke, after we won the America’s Cup.
Back to the treasurer.
Scott Morrison:
Anyone who wants to do that, doesn’t get what’s driving this economy. They don’t get what’s going to drive jobs and growth into the future.
This government does get that, and that’s why we have done it and that’s why we’ll continue to lift that threshold over time to ultimately extend it to a position where the company tax rate will be able to reach 25% and ensure that we sit in a competitive position right across our region and right across the world.
I’m sorry of course I’m listening to the treasurer, and still to Melissa Parke in my other ear, but unfortunately Magic Mike just flashed this picture across my desk.
Obviously I had to share.
Back to business, apologies.
Scott Morrison addresses the National Press Club
The treasurer is underway now in his traditional post budget address at the NPC. Scott Morrison opens the address on the welfare package in the budget, with an anecdote about a young homeless man who had managed to turn his fortunes around with the help of a medium sized business.
Scott Morrison:
He is no longer homeless, he is in private rental accommodation and he is supporting himself. Small business growing, backing young people, giving them the chance - everybody wins. Everybody wins.
Parke also calls for a standing national integrity commission to look under rocks at the Commonwealth level, to obviate the need for expensive, ad hoc, royal commissions.
Updated
Parke doesn’t miss in this farewell. She decries the boats debate. She says it’s infused with faux concern for people drowning at sea in order to justify draconian policies.
Melissa Parke:
Offshore detention is a festering wound that is killing people and eroding our national character and reputation.
Labor MP Melissa Parke is making her valedictory now. Presumably this is why Sarah Hanson-Young is in the chamber. Parke has been a consistent critic of her own party’s positions on asylum policy and on national security. A number of colleagues from Parke’s Labor left faction are there to hear her farewell.
Updated
Sharman Stone tears up at the end of her contribution, saying she leaves parliament happy with the achievements and sorry about the problems that persist.
Green Senator Sarah Hanson-Young is in the chamber. So is a certain lady in blue.
While I’m in foreshadowing mode, the treasurer, Scott Morrison, is coming up at lunch time. He’ll be addressing the National Press Club.
Another valedictory is underway in the House of Representatives – Liberal Sharman Stone. We expect Bronwyn Bishop to make her farewell today also.
The member for Herbert @EwenJonesMP asks the question while Clive speaks @murpharoo @GuardianAus #politicslive #Reps pic.twitter.com/zcei6KB7px
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) May 4, 2016
Sometimes I wonder
Where I’ve been
Who I am, do I fit in?
Make-believing is hard alone
Out here, on my own
We’re always proving
Who we are
Always reaching
For that rising star
To guide me far
And shine me home
Out here on my own ..
I believe I have the courage today to leave the House of Representatives
Clive Palmer, rounding out his contribution:
I feel with the love and support of my wife Anna I can contribute further to our great country. Public service is not just about parliamentary or government service. There are thousands of Australians serving our country all over Australia. I hope I can go in serving our country in the future.
We need to have courage to let go and move on.
I believe I have the courage today to leave the House of Representatives, satisfied with what Palmer United Party has done and knowing it would have been a different Australia if we hadn’t stopped the 2014 budget and the Newman government in Queensland.
We need to praise the incorruptibility of our public officials, the integrity of our marriages and worth of our people. It’s ideas that matter.
Governments may come and go but ideas go on forever, it’s ideas that will shape this nation, it’s ideas [that endure] through time when we are gone and forgotten, in history and in commerce and in politics, it’s ideas that capture the nation and will endure.
It’s ideas that endure when all else is gone.
We need to unite this nation we serve and we love to discover our future too, share our trials and tribulations, to overcome adversity, to pull together for the common good under the Southern Cross.
As a wise man once said, “That on this earth, God’s work must truly be our own.”
Clive Palmer:
Time remains one of the most important things we have.
We are onto the PUP’s achievements now. And Clive Palmer’s analysis about the political debate.
The prime minister believes in innovation, but innovation doesn’t put food on the table.
He also thinks we need more love and compassion.
Palmer says the PUP will be aiming at the coming election to get Senate balance of power to break up what sounds to be a conspiracy between the Liberals and the trade unions, through superannuation funds. A new conspiracy, that one.
Palmer says the attacks in recent times have centred on Queensland Nickel, and the attacks have been unfounded. The various allegations being made are false, Palmer says.
Palmer says he has been the subject of unprecedented personal attacks during his political life. The attacks related to his business interests, he says. Media attacks and attacks by the two party political system, which is hostile to outsiders, he says.
But before he does that.
Clive Palmer:
I will not seek re-election to this House at the next election.
Palmer is on his feet now in the House. He wants to reflect on what his party has contributed to the debate.
#WaitingForCliev
Clive Palmer is remaining in the House, waiting for the call. We are waiting for Clive, who is waiting for the call.
You can provide a bit of intergenerational equity in the Faine family
I see there’s a fair amount of interest among readers about Malcolm Turnbull telling Jon Faine to shell out for his kids if they are locked out of the property market. I pointed you towards this exchange earlier today. The full sequence, courtesy of my colleague Paul Karp, who has transcribed that section.
Malcolm Turnbull:
Well you should shell out for them – you should support them, a wealthy man like you.
Faine chuckled and said “that’s what they say!”
Malcolm Turnbull:
Well exactly, there you go, you’ve got the solution in your own hands.
You can provide a bit of intergenerational equity in the Faine family.
Meanwhile, another showman, cooling his heels in the House.
Sticking with the thing we aren’t watching. This is the RNC chairman, confirming Donald Trump as the presumptive nominee.
.@realDonaldTrump will be presumtive @GOP nominee, we all need to unite and focus on defeating @HillaryClinton #NeverClinton
— Reince Priebus (@Reince) May 4, 2016
#YesHeDid
Meanwhile to that other thing we all aren’t watching.
Ted Cruz ends campaign by accidentally hitting, elbowing his wife in the face pic.twitter.com/epO1tzKgTT
— Jon Swaine (@jonswaine) May 4, 2016
Meanwhile, Clive being #Cliev.
Palmer press conference delayed until 3PM AEST pending "more details to come". Hmm.
— Frank Keany (@FJKeany) May 4, 2016
Presumably he’ll run for the Senate, but who knows, and in any case we’ll find out in due season.
Cruz is suspending his campaign.
Team Trump watching Cruz suspension speech pic.twitter.com/kRKioeX5FW
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 4, 2016
In case you are sticking exclusively with Politics Live (bless you) and not secretly watching events in the US, (which of course I’m not doing, because you know, the budget): Donald Trump has won in Indiana, not Ted Cruz.
Drink em if you got em #nevertrump pic.twitter.com/iQIDzMTavZ
— Colin Jones (@colinjones) May 4, 2016
Feel the #Cliev
No, Clive Palmer will not announce he’s about to win the election. He will confirm shortly he won’t recontest his House of Representatives seat.
Goodbye Clive Palmer, goodbye pic.twitter.com/hyeeh5z1LF
— Julia Holman (@JulesHolman) May 4, 2016
Updated
Quick stocktake of the news points of the morning
Given the gushing torrent of words since dawn, let’s pause for a moment and take stock of the major breaking news points of the morning.
- The government has signalled it will use an administrative measure to deliver the bracket creep tax cuts by July 1, which means they arrive in voters’ pay packets even if they haven’t been legislated. Labor supports these tax cuts, which Bill Shorten characterises as having the value of a cup of coffee and a biscuit.
- Labor is keeping pressure on the government over company taxes, saying the government hasn’t revealed the full cost profile of the measure over 10 years. The government has responded by saying don’t you worry about that, we have built savings into the budget. The government for its part is saying it will legislate its full ten-year package, not just the commitments visible within the current budget cycle.
- The prime minister said first up he’d call the election this weekend, then walked that back a little so as to appear a little Delphic. Malcolm Turnbull has said he’s quietly confident he can win on 2 July, but you never take anything for granted. Bill Shorten says Labor can win too. Perhaps Clive Palmer will declare himself a probable winner by day’s end just for completeness.
- In matters rhetorical, radio host Jon Faine made a dig about the prime minister’s tax affairs during an interview this morning, and the prime minister for his part thought for his part if the Faine kids were locked out of the Melbourne property market, dad should do the right thing and kick in.
- Turnbull also avoided an invitation to back his immigration minister Peter Dutton, who yesterday blamed refugee advocates for the trouble on Nauru. Turnbull first empathised with the detainees, then rounded on Labor, and drifted past Dutton on the way out.
Updated
Regular readers of Politics Live will know we are serially unhappy with the bizarre photographic restrictions in the Senate that prevent us documenting what our elected representatives do. A small war has broken out between photographers, including our own Mike Bowers, and the Senate on twitter this morning, about a curious photograph that has been published by the red room online – a picture that appears to breach the chamber’s own guidelines.
@AuSenate under your rules how is the 1st shot legal, was @MathiasCormann given the call on his way into the chamber? Please explain
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) May 3, 2016
. @AuSenate @mpbowers @MathiasCormann so when the Senate is adjourned, photography of Senators without the call in the chamber allowed?
— ellinghausen (@ellinghausen) May 3, 2016
Here’s a compelling sort of graph.
The government has also projected a very long road to a very small surplus #budget2016 https://t.co/RtxSQKpWcr pic.twitter.com/PMtSTc5AoT
— Edmund Tadros (@edmundtadros) May 3, 2016
For other compelling words and graphs about the budget, have a read of my colleague Greg Jericho’s budget commentary, which you can find here.
Here’s the short version.
The treasurer said before budget day that it would not be a typical budget and he was right, because – unlike any budget before – the big economic news of the day came from Martin Place with the Reserve Bank cutting the cash rate to a record low 1.75%.
And crucially, the RBA decision highlights the common theme throughout the budget papers – that the economy is not about to get greatly better any time soon.
Faine thinks the government isn’t stimulating the national economy with the infrastructure spend. He says the Victorian government is stimulating the local economy with transport projects. Turnbull says this is, effectively, a $50bn spend. (It isn’t this year. The new spend this year is about $700m).
Faine wonders why the government is backing the boomers against aspirational youth in this budget. The inter-generational wars. Turnbull suggests Labor isn’t backing young people with its negative gearing policy.
Turnbull then has a question for the radio host.
Q: Are your kids locked out of the housing market?
Jon Faine:
Yes.
Malcolm Turnbull
Well you should shell out ... and provide some inter-generational equity in the Faine family.
Faine then asks Turnbull whether, like his immigration minister Peter Dutton, he blames the advocates for self harm on Nauru. Dutton went the full beat down on advocates yesterday after two detainees have burned themselves on Nauru.
Q: Do you blame the advocates?
The prime minister describes the detainees as “poor souls. These are tragedies. These people are going through great mental anguish.”
Q: Well you can do something about it.
Turnbull says the people in offshore facilities are getting services, but they can’t come back to Australia, otherwise the people smugglers will be back in action.
Faine persists on whether the prime minister blames advocates. He choses his words carefully. I would encourage everyone who particpates in the debate not to offer false hope, he says.
We know this is a tough policy but the alternative is thousands of people dying at sea.
Q: Its not as binary as that.
Turnbull says the government encourages people to return to their country of origin.
The melancholy reality of this is we have to be very strong in terms of our border protection because we know what the alternative is.
He says Kevin Rudd conducted a real life experiment in dismantling the Howard border protection regime.
Faine asks Turnbull what if there’s a hung parliament and the Greens demand an end to offshore processing as a condition of the Coalition forming a government.
Jon, Jon, we are are focused on forming a government after the election.
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Faine also isn’t sold on the welfare changes. He thinks the new internships might keep kids from getting a proper job. The prime minister thinks the new scheme will be transformational. Faine thinks probably not. The prime minister thinks he’s being cynical. Faine thinks he’s holding the prime minister to account. The prime minister thinks the radio host doesn’t need to get defensive. Faine thinks the prime minister needs a glass of water and if he was in an ABC studio instead of his office someone would be able to help him.
'I have always paid a lot of tax'
Faine is on to multinational tax avoidance now. He says rich people will always find evasion and avoidance worth their while, it makes good business sense. He suggests the prime minister knows about managing his tax affairs from his business days.
The prime minister isn’t impressed.
Jon, I have always paid tax in Australia. I’ve always paid a lot of tax. I don’t have a family trust. I’m very conservative in the management of tax affairs, I assure you, and the innuendo you made there was unworthy.
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Jon Faine wants to know where the evidence is that a 1% cut in company tax will boost economic growth. Turnbull says the advice is the tax cuts will boost GDP by 1%.
Faine is caustic.
Over decades, don’t mislead us.
That’s over decades.
The prime minister is now doing ABC radio in Melbourne. Host Jon Faine says the basis on which the government is going to call the double-dissolution election this weekend – the ABCC – didn’t get a mention last night.
Malcolm Turnbull:
Well Jon as you know restoring the rule of law is a very important reform.
Q: Didn’t get a mention in the budget?
It didn’t require expenditure Jon.
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Bill Shorten:
We’ll have a look at [the budget] with a very open mind but let’s also recognise, this is a government who takes out a bucketful then hands back a cupful.
The Labor leader Bill Shorten has dusted off the sandwich and a milkshake tax cut for 2016.
What Mr Turnbull is giving you is a cup of coffee and a biscuit.
Up the corridor ...
Out of the studio ..
Out of the press gallery ...
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Tax cuts to be delivered on 1 July, even if there's no legislation
My colleague Lenore Taylor (bless her) has been making calls about the prime minister’s remark during the Fran Kelly interview that the personal tax cuts would be delivered through an administrative measure.
Turnbull told Kelly it will be covered administratively.
For people who don’t speak Canberra – what this means is this: there may not be time before the election is called to pass legislation giving effect to the bracket creep tax cuts. Labor has signalled it supports the measure. On that basis the government can implement the change administratively, possibly by directing the tax office to adjust the threshold, and clean up the legislative niceties after the poll.
The practical effect of this is eligible people get the tax cuts on 1 July, not backdated in a few months’ time.
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We will pay for the company tax cut by savings built in over the forward estimates
While Turnbull was on Nine, the treasurer was on AM. AM host Michael Brissenden pushed Morrison on the 10-year horizon for the company tax cuts. That means the cost of the big tax cut – the tax cut applying to all companies – is outside the forward estimates. Labor is making quite a bit of that in its critique of the budget. Don’t you worry about that, Morrison tells his host.
Q: You have put a 10-year plan in what is essentially a four-year document. Labor says it’s costed and unfunded outside the forward estimates?
Scott Morrison:
What we have done with our tax plan, we have got tax increases in some areas like multinationals in particular. That is $3.9bn over the budget and forward estimates. Those revenues continue out beyond the forward estimates. The tobacco excise, I admit the figure is a lot lower than the Labor party had. I know they have got a $20bn hole in their funding commitments because they want to use higher taxes to pay for their commitments.
We are making savings in the budget to pay for our commitments in health and education and roads and all of these areas. That’s real money because we found it in savings, not by jacking up taxes.
Scott Morrison:
Q: On this tax plan, you can’t say how much it’s going to cost in the forward estimates?
It’s covered in the forward estimates because the multinational tax arrangements, the superannuation tax incentives that have been closed off for those on high incomes, they continue beyond the budget and forward estimates.
What the difference is, where we are putting the proceeds from those changes in the tax system supporting small and medium-size businesses and middle income earners to make sure they can work hard, continue to invest and not be taxed more for the privilege.
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Stefanovic asks Turnbull whether he’ll have to move money out of his super fund to comply with the new cap of $1.6m. Turnbull says all of the provisions apply to every superannuant, including him.
Given Karl led with his chin, the prime minister doesn’t decline the opportunity to return friendly fire. These changes apply to all high-income earners, Turnbull says, and indeed yourself Karl.
Q: Will you be prime minister in two months?
I’m quietly confident, but you can’t take anything for granted.
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The prime minister tells Karl Stefanovic the election will be about who do you trust to manage our economy in this time of transition.
Party like it’s 2004.
Q: How much better off are you under your tax concessions?
Malcolm Turnbull:
Around $300 a year better off.
The prime minister says people like him are caught by the super changes. They hit people at the wealthier end of the spectrum.
The prime minister is now on Nine and the treasurer, Scott Morrison is on the ABC.
Malcolm Turnbull is asked again when he’ll call the election. Chill, Karl.
All in good time, in days, for sure.
First comes empathy, then comes politics
Kelly pushed the prime minister on asylum policy. The prime minister responds with empathy first, then sinks the boot into the political opponents. The asylum seekers are waiting, waiting for a change of government.
Q: Did you ever think you would be in a position where you would be defending keeping people in a situation where the desperation is so intense they are killing themselves?
Malcolm Turnbull:
Fran, the misery that many of those people are in, the mental anguish that many of them are in is something that we sympathise with, we grieve for them. But we have to recognise this, that if we want to stop people drowning at sea, 1,200 people drowned at sea under the Labor party’s administration.
Q: This is not just a plan to keep people in hell, is it?
Malcolm Turnbull:
If we want to keep our borders secure, if when want to stop the people smuggling, then those people who seek to come to Australia with people smugglers by boat cannot settle in Australia.
Q: So what will we do with them?
Malcolm Turnbull:
The people that are on Nauru and on Manus will have the opportunity of settling – they are free, the ones in Nauru are free to move around. They are not in detention at all.
The people that have been given refugee status in PNG that have been assessed as refugees can settle in PNG. There are third-country options and we continue to work to encourage them. Those that have not been given refugee status can return to their country of origin.
As you know, many of them have been led to believe that whether it is because there is a change of government to the Labor party, that there will be a relaxation, the Australian government will then admit them to Australia.
Q: Labor says there is not going to be any kind of alleviation.
Labor’s track record in government is not one that would encourage anyone to believe they can be safely relied on to keep our borders secure.
Updated
The prime minister doesn’t bite when Kelly asks him whether he will be more free to be the real Malcolm Turnbull if he wins the coming election.
(Turnbull told David Koch earlier he would call the election this weekend, just in case you were wondering. That’s when we expect the election to be called – Friday, Saturday or Sunday.)
Q: Prime minister, when are we going to the polls?
Malcolm Turnbull:
There will be an election, on on 2 July.
Q: When will you call the election?
Malcolm Turnbull:
Between now and 11 May.
Q: So in a few days time, you will be calling the election. Since you have taken the job from Tony Abbott, you have taken a dive. Voters had high hopes. Why do you think you have dashed your hopes?
Malcolm Turnbull:
I think that is something for you and Michelle to talk about.
Q: Doesn’t keep you awake at night?
Malcolm Turnbull:
I sleep well.
Updated
Kelly notes the government has performed a massive U-turn on its attitude to welfare, from punitive in 2015 to active management in 2016.
Q: The measures you both supported in the 2014 budge were incredibly arduous and penalising?
Malcolm Turnbull:
And Scott Morrison acknowledged they had not been sufficiently successful and we are trying something new that is going to ensure that young people who are unemployed get the skills, get the skills that they need to be an effective employee and then get the internship with the employer – there is an incentive for them and the employer, and that gives them the experience, the engagement with the workforce.
Turnbull says the government will legislate the 10-year timeline for company tax cuts
Kelly pushes Turnbull on the company tax cut.
Q: Under the 10-year enterprise plan, big businesses will get their tax cut eventually, it’s 10 years hence, it’s aspirational and according to Labor, uncosted?
Malcolm Turnbull:
Neither of those points is correct. It is a commitment, it is a plan ...
Q: But it can’t be legislated for 10 years?
Malcolm Turnbull:
Absolutely, of course it can be. The legislation will enable us to deliver those cuts into the future. Obviously a future parliament could change that.
Q: You said, Labor’s Gonski funding was fantastic because it was 10 years hence.
Malcolm Turnbull:
All of this has been carefully costed and that is set out in the budget, that’s the Treasury’s job, you don’t have to rely on politicians to do that. The Treasury has done that.
Updated
Labor, Malcolm Turnbull says, is setting itself up for a war with business, for some kind of class warfare.
That’s the type of war of envy, the politics of envy which absolutely stands in the way of aspiration and enterprise and growth.
Turnbull notes Labor wants the deficit levy to continue.
So Labor wants to go to the election saying they want to increase income tax.
Q: I will come to small businesses but I want to nail down this tax cut thing. It will affect a lot of people who aren’t going to benefit from the company tax cuts. You are unlikely to be able to legislate this tax cut before parliament is dissolved, before the election. How will they be introduced by 2 July?
Malcolm Turnbull:
That is really up to the Labor party whether it’s legislated but certainly it will be covered administratively and after the election, we expect the parliament to come back and ensure all of the legislation supporting the budget measures is passed.
Q: They will get them from 1 July?
Malcolm Turnbull:
That is exactly the goal.
Q: You do appear to be playing to your base here?
Malcolm Turnbull:
We are focusing on ensuring that middle-income Australians, those that are on average full-time earnings, which, as you know, is nudging $80,000, don’t move into the second top tax bracket. It is a modest personal tax cut.
Q: It is a modest aim?
Malcolm Turnbull:
It is a modest aim to ensure that middle Australia does not move into the second-top tax bracket so they are not moving into that 37% tax bracket and that change will achieve that.
But the most important issue here is that we are ensuring that all of the measures in the budget are consistent with our plan for jobs and growth.
What we are doing with encouraging enterprise, entrepreneurship, small business, small businesses are the ones that move most quickly, they are able to hire people quickly, invest quickly, that is where you are seeing real jobs growth at the moment and we are providing them with real encouragement to continue doing that.
Updated
The prime minister is now in the Radio National studios with Fran Kelly, who wants to know how the budget is going to get the government re-elected. This is a long-term plan, Malcolm Turnbull says, this is a plan for the future.
Q: The government is still very much trying to get out from under the 2014 budget which was tagged as unfair. You put fairness as one of the tests of this budget. If fairness is the test, why is it fair to deny those on the lower wage ... why is it fair to deny them a tax cut?
Malcolm Turnbull:
Let me make it clear, Fran, everybody benefits from stronger economic growth and jobs.
Updated
Blue ties, blue books, left, right, left, right.
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The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, on ABC News Breakfast. Growth isn’t all about cutting taxes for business.
Unless we help reduce the deficit, unless we make sure we have world-class schools, unless we make sure that working-class kids can afford to go to university, unless you take real action on climate change, these are all handbrakes on growth.
Updated
There has never been a more exciting time to catch the sunrise.
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The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, is over on the Nine Network. In a tone of incredulity Shorten notes that in a beauty parade between hospitals and schools and big companies, the government chose big business in this budget.
Shorten is asked can he win the coming election. Yes we can, Shorten says. Nine host Karl Stefanovic looks not entirely confident.
Updated
Good morning
Hello good people and welcome to Wednesday on Politics Live, which is the day after Tuesday, which this week happened to be budget day, which is a few days before the calling of a double-dissolution election.
As we go live this morning the shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, is chipping away relentlessly on ABC Radio National, and the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, is sweeping down the parliamentary forecourt to speak to breakfast television presenters camped out in live broadcast tents down the front.
If budget day is the day of the calculator and the Nurofen Plus, the day after budget day is the day of the throat lozenge. The government seeks to occupy every open microphone to bed down its economic statement from first light to sunset.
If you weren’t with us last night and you’d like to review our full budget coverage, you can find it here. Naturally, I think it’s recommended reading. If you just want the short version, there are tax cuts for folks over $80,000, a tax slug on the super-rich, a tax cut for businesses, including very big business in stages over the next 10 years. There’s a refashioning of the work-for-the-dole scheme, a $2bn loan facility for dams and a profits tax on multinationals in an effort to clamp down on profit shifting. A curious feature of the budget, given it’s an election budget, is there is no goodies for people who earn more than $37,000 and less than $80,000.
I said last night it’s a budget for a slogan. The government wants the coming debate to be about jobs and growth, territory where it thinks it beats Labor, and it has structured measures accordingly.
The prime minister has bestowed his first interview this morning on the Seven Network. Host David Koch notes people are going to get sick and tired of the jobs and growth mantra. Nobody will get tired of having a job or the economy growing, the prime minister says.
Koch points out there’s zip in this budget for folks in the middle.
Malcolm Turnbull:
There’s stronger economic growth.
Nothing to do with a day like today other than plunge right in.
Today’s comments thread is wide open for your business. Magic Mike and I are up and about on the twits – he’s @mpbowers and I’m @murpharoo. If you speak Facebook you can join my daily forum here. And if you want a behind-the-scenes look at the day and the looming campaign, give Mike a follow on Instagram. You can find him here.
Pop on the ear muffs. Here comes Wednesday.
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