Good evening
Well, I think that will do for today. Thanks for your very fine company on the day before the week that was. Or wasn’t. Or was-n’t. (Yes I will stop now.) Do join me again on the morrow for the springing of the parliamentary sprung. (Yes, I really will stop now.)
Let’s wrap with a summary:
- Today dawned with the budget emergency unresolved. It ended with the budget emergency unresolved. In the interim, there was a council of war (it’s called Cabinet, it meets most Mondays); the budget was a marathon; and a process that sometimes took years; and it was calm and purposeful and nothing to get in a flap about. And the lack of resolution of the budget was cancer. And we are in danger of running out of money in Australia. Make of that what you will. At least there were no fire engines.
- The Labor leader Bill Shorten determined the public really did not want it to support the budget, and the opposition would therefore, fight this wicked document on the great Labor ground of fairness. When the budget might return to surplus was a footnote Shorten wasn’t inclined to get into given he was very preoccupied currently on the budget fairground. And thus far, given the budget fairground is cluttered with fire engines, and poor people not driving their cars, and the marathon, and the ‘tax hikes unless you give me my cuts’, and the ‘adjustments here and there’, and it’s ‘already through the parliament anyhow, mostly’ – it’s quite hard to see anyone’s surplus right now. Particularly if you don’t want anyone to see it.
That’s the day.
See you in the morning.
I note in passing that former News Corp boss Kim Williams has rivalled Nick Xenophon for interviews undertaken in a single day. Williams is out and about at present promoting his new book, Rules of Engagement. Processes like this tend to trigger a hall of mirrors experience where competing versions of history are traded in public. I think that’s a polite way of putting it – the media’s capacity to turn on one another is legend.
Williams has breezed through the ABC and is now on Sky News, where he’s speaking to political editor, David Speers. He’s presenting the News culture as being singularly hostile to change. Williams told the ABC earlier today Rupert Murdoch approached his company in feudal fashion. The inference here is the management culture of news is out of touch with their readers as a consequence of various official fixations or shibboleths, such as the internal reverence about print. Williams suggests that kind of mindest is lethal for any company.
Williams:
Power has moved from producers to consumers and people who don’t recognise that are idiots.
My colleague Daniel Hurst has just returned from the Labor caucus debrief. Here is the breaking news.
Shorten was, in his address to caucus, (as could have been predicted), firmly on that fair ground. The Labor leader, to the colleagues:
Our meeting here is about fairness.
The other meeting down the corridor is about tactics.
Having blasted the Coalition for its tactics addiction, Labor then promptly moved to their own tactics for the coming parliamentary week. Here’s the prevailing disposition on various pieces of legislation.
The oppositon will support schedule one of the Migration Amendment (Protection and Other Measures) Bill but oppose schedule two. According to the bill’s explanatory memorandum schedule one “contains amendments which contribute to the integrity and improve the efficiency of the onshore protection status determination process. The measures clarify the responsibility of asylum seekers and encourage complete information to be provided upfront. The measures apply to all asylum seekers regardless of their mode of arrival.”
Schedule two deals with the principle of non-refoulement. (This is the principle in international law which prevents refugees from being sent to places where they could be persecuted.) The government wants to impose a new threshold quantifying a person’s specific risk of suffering harm. Again, from the EM: “This schedule inserts new section 6A into the Migration Act which makes clear that the minister can only be satisfied that Australia has protection obligations .. in respect of the non-citizen, if the minister considers that it is more likely than not that the non-citizen will suffer significant harm if removed from Australia to a receiving country. The risk threshold of “more likely than not” means that there would be a greater than fifty percent chance that a person would suffer significant harm in the receiving country.
Labor will oppose the ARENA repeal bill (this is one of the agencies attached to the Gillard government’s clean energy package.) Labor will support legislation which is intended to crackdown on the synthetic drug trade – apart from the mandatory minimum sentences contained in the current bill.
The oppositon will also oppose a social security bill which converts student start up scholarships into loans. Labor actually proposed this idea when they were in government but pulled out when the Coalition signalled it would not follow through with all of Labor’s commitments on the Gonski school reforms.
Updated
Cabinet is still downstairs contemplating whether or not the budget is a) a marathon, or b) a melanoma. In addition to the shadow cabinet meeting today, caucus has also met. I should be able to bring you some particulars from that in a little while.
Let’s break ourselves out of the beltway for a little minute.
Bob Katter has issued a statement which contains a clear inference that the environment minister, Greg Hunt, is soft on wild pigs, and soft on the causes of wild pigs.
Katter:
There is a real issue with the wild pig population in north Queensland. I have had several meetings with the federal minister for the environment with solutions for eradicating the wild pigs, but there is no real solution forthcoming. The programs in place now are ridiculously inadequate and I think we should open up the industry for game hunters and hunting weekenders. Promoting pig hunting as a tourism opportunity will have enormous financial benefits, not only for the local communities, but could also provide the government a solution for the burgeoning pig population crisis in north Queensland.
I wasn’t aware there was a burgeoning pig population crisis in north Queensland. Last time I spent time with Katter it was a bat crisis.
It’s such a lovely day and people have been wandering in to my office to catch up before the parliamentary storm hits tomorrow which means my attention has wandered. I have promptly stamped out this brief flash of humanity in order to concentrate once again. My apologies.
My colleague Lenore Taylor has been hot on the budget trail. There are various proposals on various issues doing the rounds. She’s learned that the Abbott government has ..
.. floated the idea of combining the cap on the annual amount that pensioners and concession card holders have to pay for visits to the doctor and for medicines – as it begins detailed budget negotiations with the Senate crossbench.
The budget proposed to increase the pharmaceutical co-payment for concessional patients by 80 cents to $6.90, with the upper limit on the number of scripts for which they have to pay that amount increasing from 60 ($366 a year) to 62 in 2015 ($427.80 a year) and 68 in 2018 ($469 a year). It also proposed the introduction of a $7 co-payment for visits to the doctor, with concession card holders and children under 16 required to pay for their first 10 visits, a maximum of $70 a year.
As federal cabinet met to discuss the apparently stalled budget, crossbench senators told Guardian Australia the government has floated the idea of a single cap on out-of-pocket payments for both visits to the doctor and medicines, in line with the current cap on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).
While I’m in visual mode, here’s a YouTube of the Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt from earlier today.
It’s worth posting, given my primary focus earlier went to Wilkie in terms of the Iraq issue. (Andrew Wilkie and the Greens want to introduce parliamentary approval for Australian troop deployments.)
As for Mathias Pyne ..
Chris Bowen and Bill Shorten, on the fair ground fight.
My colleague Daniel Hurst has been chasing down the ‘will we bomb Iraq, or won’t we bomb Iraq’ story.
This is quite a nice line from the Lowy Institute’s military fellow, James Brown.
It’s quite clear that Abbott is taking his lifting not leaning strategy onto the international stage …
What’s not clear to me is what Australia’s strategy is; what we want to achieve other than a symbolic commitment in support of the US alliance.
Politics Live reader Mickey Cogan has been taking me to task for my remarks earlier about Labor, and budget management. I’ve addressed his point in the thread but I think it’s worth projecting the conversation up here to see what others think.
Here’s Mickey’s perspective on Labor’s core values.
The clearly stated, important enduring principles of the Labor Party are universal healthcare, equity of access to education, a fair welfare and social security system, the rights of workers and a belief that big business should pay its share, along with a belief that renewable energy is an important part of a progressive energy policy. Rubber stamping ideoligically driven and socially destructive budgets through both houses is not an enduring principle.
As I’ve indicated in my reply to Mickey in the thread, this is 100% correct. But it’s not quite the full picture. Labor actually has a detailed economic policy as well. It’s in the platform.
Shorten twice this morning declined to answer a question about when he thought the budget should return to surplus. Here for the record is what Labor’s economic policy in its national platform says.
Labor believes that public finances should be managed responsibly, and that the budget should be kept in surplus on average over the medium term. This strategy provides the flexibility for the budget to vary with economic conditions to support macroeconomic stability, while ensuring public finances remain strong over time. In a growing economy, returning to surplus will help protect our future and ensure our continued productivity and prosperity.
Me pointing this out is not an argument that Labor should just fold its tent and pass the budget – the critique of the Abbott government’s first budget on equity grounds is a compelling one in my view.
That said, the Commonwealth budget does require repair. Every serious political party has to make choices given the current fiscal outlook: do we tax more and raise revenue, or do we cut expenditures? The current budget debate is mostly around priorities, not about the central question of whether it is desirable to get Australia’s finances into better shape for the future.
There is no budget emergency. That was always rubbish. But there are structural problems policymakers need to address.
The media rituals inside this place, are, frankly, bizarre.
The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, invited the television cameras in just a few minutes ago to record the start of today’s shadow cabinet meeting. These stooged “events” always look completely awkward. All the colleagues looking on lovingly at the dear leader, privately thinking, my God, please, get me out of here.
Shorten has told the colleagues (or the cameras, it’s not quite clear) that Labor will fight this darned budget on the beaches. No, it won’t. It will fight the budget on the great Labor ground of fairness. Fighting on the fair ground.
One day more. Another day another destiny. Do you hear the people sing, singing the songs of angry ..
Updated
By the by, the House program looks like this – these are the bills listed.
Looks sparse, doesn’t it?
- Fair Work Amendment
- Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Repeal)
- Corporations Amendment (Streamlining of Future of Financial Advice)
- Australian Citizenship Amendment (Inter-country Adoption)
- Migration Amendment (Protection and Other Measures)
- Crimes Legislation Amendment (Unexplained Wealth and Other Measures) Bill
With parliament resuming tomorrow, there are various draft programs circulating. Here’s the draft senate program.
Tuesday
- Health Workforce Australia (Abolition) Bill
- Australian National Preventative Health Agency (Abolition) Bill
- Land Transport Infrastructure Amendment Bill
- Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Bilateral Agreement Implementation) Bill
- Tax Laws (Research and Development) Bill
- Condolence motion – Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (likely to be approx. 3.30 p.m.)
- At 5.00 p.m. – First Speeches – Senator Ketter and Senator Bullock
Wednesday
- Social Security Legislation Amendment (Stronger Penalties for Serious Failures) Bill
- Business Services Wage Assessment Tool Payment Scheme Bill
- Business Services Wage Assessment Tool Payment Scheme (Consequential Amendments) Bill
- Carbon Farming Initiative Amendment Bill
- Textile, Clothing and Footwear Investment and Innovation Programs Amendment Bill
- Excise Tariff Amendment (Fuel Indexation) Bill
- Customs Tariff Amendment (Fuel Indexation) Bill
- Fuel Indexation (Road Funding) Bill
- Fuel Indexation (Road Funding) Special Account Bill
- National Health Amendment (Pharmaceutical Benefits) Bill
- At 5.00 p.m. – First Speech – Senator Rice
Thursday
- Migration Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1)
- Energy Efficiency Opportunities (Repeal) Bill
- Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Repeal) Bill
- Omnibus Repeal Day (Autumn 2014) Bill
- At 12.45 p.m. Non-controversial legislation (list to be confirmed)
- Corporations (Simple Corporate Bonds and Other Measures) Bill
- Meteorology Amendment (Online Advertising) Bill
- Social Services (Seniors Health Card and Other Measures) Bill
With the news today that the RAAF (may or may not) be shortly bombing Iraq, an argument is once again circulating in politics concerning whether future Australian military deployments should require parliamentary approval.
Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie wants parliamentary approval. This was Wilkie, from a bit earlier this morning.
Eleven years ago we helped start a war that has run for 11 and a half years that has created the circumstances in which these so-called jihadists are now running riot across the country and committing terrible atrocities. The other regrettable dimension is that the government is at real risk of repeating the mistake of 11 and a half years ago of a prime minister, virtually alone, declaring war in another country.
If Australia is to recommit combat troops to Iraq it must be, it must be, with the approval of the federal parliament.
The Greens hold a similar position. The Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt has just argued the case for military intervention has not been made. Humanitarian assistance – of course – but what’s the military case?
Updated
Lunchtime summary
It is a magnificent thing: live blog days where you can actually hear yourself think. It doesn’t happen very often. I even have time today to conform with best live blogging practice by posting a lunchtime summary. Woot.
Politics thus far, today, Monday:
- MPs are making their way back to Canberra in preparation for the Spring session.
- Various parliamentary stakeholders are road testing their lines and formulations for said resumption of the hay fever session.
- The Coalition (today) says (variously) the budget is under control, a marathon not a sprint – or alternatively a financial melanoma requiring prompt treatment as we are at risk of running out of cash. (Actually the second proposition in that sentence is a diagnosis of the status quo, minus the corrective budget measures.)
- One Senate stakeholder, Glenn Lazarus has noted it would be political suicide for the Coalition to increase taxes.
- Labor says it won’t pass the budget because, a) it is unfair, and, b) people just don’t want the opposition to pass the budget. And Mathias Pyne must be stopped.
I’ve just been down for a brief frolic in the PL comments thread.
Lively. Excellent.
There was interesting segment in the Lazarus interview about national security also. The PUP senate leader was asked whether he agreed with Palmer’s headline grabbing comments last week about negative Chinese influence.
Lazarus stepped around that one carefully – it was a great thing about the PUP, the freedom to speak your mind. He noted the PUP reps don’t always agree with one another.
But on the general point of standing up for Australia in troubled times – well Glenn Lazarus is all for that.
The world is in a pretty tough part of time I guess. We see what’s happening in Gaza and places like that.
The threat of terrorism attacks is certainly on our doorstep. We see it in the media all the time.
Lazarus says we need resources for defence and the protection of our shores. (That sounds like an affirmative vote for the government’s counter terrorism package, should it come to that. The Coalition is relying on Labor’s support for its various measures, but this issue has a long way to run.)
The PUP senate leader Glenn Lazarus has been on the radio in Brisvegas this morning. Lazarus has told 4BC listeners the Liberal party approached him when he retired from rugby league. He knocked them back. But Clive, he says, is a very persuasive man. He’s spoken about what it’s like to be a crossbencher in the current parliament. Lazarus says the PUP bloc is being courted all the time by the government and the opposition. It’s challenging to look through the the rightness of various propositions, but that’s the job.
Lazarus says there’s a case right now to stimulate the economy and reward people who want to work. He says we need to keep more money in the economy rather than taxing businesses. He thinks people know how to spend their money. Governments, by contrast, waste money. (How that fits with the stimulus call is a bit difficult to judge.) He’s asked about the finance minister, Mathias Cormann’s recent threat about increased taxes if the budget measures don’t pass.
I think it would be political suicide for the Abbott government if they tried to introduce new taxes.
Will the PUP support the GP co-payment?
(Nope.)
I don’t think we are in a time when we need to be paying to see the doctor.
Is Clive the best bloke to be running the PUP?
Lazarus says he remains astounded by Palmer’s energy and intelligence.
I see no reason why Clive wouldn’t be our leader in the future.
It is interesting, going back to Paula Matthewson’s argument this morning (if you’ve just tuned in, see the post at 9.26am for particulars) – her point that the Coalition should open dialogue with Labor in order to salvage something of the budget.
In the normal run of the political cycle, Labor would be under some pressure by now to come to the table.
(I know the opposition thought long and hard about how obstinate to be in terms of the budget. There were different views internally about how far to push the oppositionism. Labor still has something of a siege mentality left over from that combative last period in government – basically they are always waiting for someone to turn up and start clubbing them.)
But thus far at least, Labor hasn’t felt any serious heat at all. Shorten evidently felt quite comfortable in that press conference declining to specify when the budget should return to surplus. He’s made it clear that the political trend out there in the real world is against the Coalition, so what’s the incentive to actually come to the table?
The political incentive right now is very slim indeed.
There are of course other considerations: like certain enduring principles – such as your general disposition on the subject of responsible budget management, like spelling out what sort of alternative government you propose to be. That sort of thing.
Perhaps the dynamic will shift, but there’s little sign of it right now.
Updated
A reporter asks Shorten whether we are about to start bombing Iraq.
Shorten:
I did read those reports. The government hasn’t informed the opposition of that.
The Labor leader Bill Shorten and the shadow treasurer Chris Bowen are now addressing reporters. Labor has been listening during the winter recess, the two men note. The Coalition, meanwhile, has been on a foot-in-mouth tour across the country.
Bowen says this nonsense from Mathias Pyne must stop. (That is something we can all agree on, hushing up that Mathias Pyne.)
Shorten:
Tony Abbott doesn’t have a sales problem. He has a budget problem. He has a fairness problem. We’ve seen in recent days the government move from insulting the Australian people – telling them they just don’t understand the unfair budget when in fact they do; the government’s moved from insulting the people of Australia to threatening the people of Australia.
We now see a desperate government keen to draw attention away from its unfair budget, threatening Australian people with tax rises, threatening cuts in medical research. This is an unfair budget. No three-word slogan will save this budget. It’s time to dump the budget and dump it now.
There are a bunch of questions from reporters along the lines of ‘shouldn’t you people just be a little bit constructive’?
Shorten lobs the realpolitik.
We are not getting stopped in the street with people saying please vote for this government’s promises and its election lies.
Bowen is asked about Barnaby Joyce’s suggestion this morning that we’ll run out of money.
Barnaby Joyce is just the latest of a long line of cabinet ministers who haven’t adjusted to being in government. There is a responsibility on members of the government to keep their rhetoric in line with the national interest.
So we’ve seen Joe Hockey talking about budget emergencies. We’ve seen Andrew Robb talking about sovereign risk in the budget. Now we see Barnaby Joyce reverting to his old role as shadow finance minister which he was sacked from when he made similar sorts of comments. When you’re a senior Cabinet minister your words count.
What we’re seeing is shrill and irresponsible and ill-judged rhetoric from the government, from the treasurer, and his colleagues. Which are having an impact on confidence in the community. And which are extremely irresponsible.
Pollster Mark Textor is always a good read on a Monday morning. (Tex has a regular column in the AFR. Subscribers can find today’s offering here.)
This morning, he’s working a nesting metaphor in order to make some very specific points about where the voters are currently at. Decoding the domesticity – Textor is telling us the electorate is worried about the economy, fretful about external events, both economic and geo-political. There’s a degree of wanting to control things in our own backyards through strong environmental protection. The pollster notes a desire for leaders who protect and care – who don’t leave particular groups behind. He also indicates that the sum of all these parts creates and environment where voters are not inclined to accept disorder or chaos in politics, and not inclined to accept self indulgence.
Disorganisation and ideological indulgence at the political level is now given zero tolerance.
Very, very interesting, that analysis. Wonder if the people he advises – the folks now occupying the government benches in Canberra – are listening?
Team Budget.
Agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce on the imminent danger of running out of money, roosting chickens and the merits of prompt melanoma treatment.
Joyce, ABC radio, this morning.
As little bush accountant talking here – if you tried to turn around the finances of a family or a business or a nation, you’re not going to do it without actually making changes. If we don’t turn it around, then that is just basically being completely and utterly irresponsible because in five or 10 or 15 years time, the chickens will come home to roost and we’ll be closing down hospitals, we won’t have an ABC, we won’t be able to defend ourselves because we will have run out of money.
Now the only way you can fix it, is to fix it early, this is our first budget, I understand the concerns people have, I fully understand them, but what is our alternative? We either accept that we’ve got a debt problem and we’ve got to turn it around or we basically say “no, this is only a small melanoma on our arm and if we just wait long enough, it’ll go away”. No, as a financial melanoma, it will kill you.
Updated
Speaking of Team Budget – after that rather tricky week recently where poor people didn’t drive their cars very much and therefore wouldn’t mind the Coalition’s aggressively progressively regressive petrol tax – the treasurer Joe Hockey has had a spell not talking very much and clearing the space to think about things.
Generally, thinking before speaking is a practice to be encouraged. The sum of that thinking has washed up in a column in the Australian Financial Review this morning.
The budget, Hockey notes, is completely under control. Everyone is calm for the marathon.
Despite the obstructionism of Labor and the Greens, who have offered no solutions of their own, this government is calmly getting on with the job of running the country and negotiating a sustainable budget that will safeguard services into the future. Many budget measures are already through the parliament and those that aren’t are being negotiated with the crossbench senators. As my good friend and colleague Mathias Cormann often says, “it is a marathon, not a sprint”.
Stirring stuff.
Now given we live in an era where prime ministers apparently telegraph their message to Cabinet colleagues through the media before actually sharing it with the people in question – and oppositions telegraph their parliamentary tactics in advance, thereby allowing the government plently of time for preparation – I note this big hint from Labor MP Tim Watts, this morning.
I've arrived back in Canberra today to hear more from this knock-about, everyday Australian.. #RoosterToFeatherDuster pic.twitter.com/uxBx6PHqwn
— Tim Watts (@TimWattsMP) August 24, 2014
Could this mean Labor intends to target Hockey when parliament resumes tomorrow? Gasp.
Updated
Morrison has now stopped outside the 2GB digs. Everything is going very well with the budget, the immigration minister notes. Sometimes it takes years for measures to pass. Morrison is asked whether he sees any merit in allaying community concern about some of the measures.
What is important is fixing the budget. What is important is unshackling the country from a future of debt and deficits that impact on future generations. That is what we are working together, as a team, to address, and that will be our focus going forward.
Team Budget.
Non-rabbits Ray has read the Australian and wants to know if we will shortly be bombing Iraq. Morrison isn’t going there, apart from noting the barbarism and the medieval horror of the conflict.
Updated
The immigration minister Scott Morrison has popped in to see his favourite broadcaster, “rabbits” Ray Hadley. (Oh no, sorry, that’s another Ray isn’t it ... the rabbits one?)
Hadley wants to know whether the head of the human rights commission, Gillian Triggs, has apologised to Morrison for some recent thought crime or other.
Morrison:
She’s doing her job as she sees it Ray.
Hadley asks whether Triggs likes Morrison.
Morrison:
I don’t know I’ve ever asked her. She’s not a fan of our policies Ray, I think that’s fair to say.
The penny is starting to drop with Hadley. So she was appointed by the previous Labor government, the broadcaster inquires?
Morrison:
That’s right Ray.
Updated
I linked you earlier to Lenore Taylor’s piece about the government entering the passive aggressive phase of the budget “sell”.
Political blogger Paula Matthewson has another suggestion: rather than all the forelock tugging with the crossbench, how about a serious strategic reboot?
How about sitting down with Bill Shorten and Labor in an effort to break the impasse? (Her point is this would neutralise Clive Palmer, who is in competition with the Coalition for votes.) Here’s a bit of Paula, who is published on the ABC today.
Instead of making empty threats in an attempt to arrest its ill-fated budget, the government could make better use of its time working out which is the greater threat to its political survival. Labor may compete with the Coalition for the swinging vote, but Palmer and PUP are stealing the Coalition’s base. On this measure, Labor is clearly the lesser evil and ironically the means by which Abbott could regain control of his careening budget.
Updated
If we must have Groundhog Day, best to make it pretty.
— Luke Maniskas (@Tom2_0Live) August 24, 2014
Yes, I do like sunrises, and sunsets. Hate me if you will.
Updated
I did neglect to mention earlier on that the Australian is also this morning foreshadowing more involvement by the Australian military in Iraq and Syria. It’s been clear for some weeks that Tony Abbott would be quite comfortable expanding Australia’s involvement in the Middle East.
But the central question is not what Abbott might want in any given circumstance, but what the Americans ultimately do. There are all kinds of interesting reports coming out of the US right now. What will the Obama administration do about Islamic State (Isis)? Is the administration split?
The critical point here is what America decides, not what Australia aspires to do. Over.
Updated
With the budget still stuck in Groundhog Day, there’s a fair lick of direct action floating in the news cycle this morning. Direct action, is, of course, the Coalition’s emissions reduction policy. It’s about as friendless as the budget – although there are signs talks are afoot ahead of parliamentary consideration of the policy this week. Over the weekend, there was movement at the station. That movement at the station, talk of a grand bargain, has travelled through the weekend into the morning news cycle.
The Australian Financial Review points to the government potentially caving on the use of international permits. The Coalition has previously said it won’t allow the use of international permits – it seems to regard international permits as some odd type of foreign funny money – but some business groups argue permits are essential to create a functional scheme.
Nick Xenophon is pushing for a limited use of international permits. There’s some new modelling around this morning also which lends weight to the compromise position that Xenophon is pushing. (The discussion and the options are more broad-ranging than just the permits question.) The South Australian senator has assaulted the airwaves this morning, emphasising that he wants Australia to meet its 2020 target for reducing emissions. Xenophon’s done two ABC interviews, and he’s called by the Sky News studio as well.
Updated
My colleague, Lenore Taylor, has written a short comment piece on the various formulations the government has tried over the past several weeks to sell the budget to the parliament and beyond.
Here’s Lenore:
It began with the “budget emergency” – the repeated insistence that the need to repair the budget bottom line was so dire and immediate that the Senate had no choice but to immediately pass exactly this package of spending cuts and revenue increases. That didn’t work because even those senators who accept that there is a serious need to rein in spending in the medium term did not accept that the budget represented the only way to do it, or that it represented a fair way to achieve that end. Then came the culinary charm offensive over the winter break, when treasurer Joe Hockey and other ministers met, and often dined, with Clive Palmer and other crossbench senators to argue the merits of particular initiatives.
Now, she notes, we are in the passive aggressive phase. Over this recent weekend, the finance minister has been pointing to tax hikes and the education minister to cuts in research funding. Give us the cuts and revenue measures or the puppy gets it. Or something.
Updated
The agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce is obviously on radio duty this morning. He’s just done a stint with Michael Brissenden on the ABC’s AM program – and trotted out his various folksy analogies to explain why budget repair is necessary. Joyce suggests if we don’t embark on budget repair now, there will be all kinds of badness afoot. Hospitals will close. We won’t be able to defend ourselves. Perhaps we’ll have to start printing money. (That’s me, that last point, not the agriculture minister.)
Updated
Good morning and welcome to today’s live coverage from Canberra. The parliamentary calendar has declared winter over – bless it. Some of us still struggling to get out of the parka may beg to differ on that point. Nitpickers, obviously.
Yes folks, it’s the spring sittings. Well, tomorrow, anyhow. But I thought it wise to regroup today and catch up with blogans and bloganistas in order to prepare ourselves for tomorrow’s onslaught.
After all, there must be sooo many developments to recap.
Actually there are next to no developments to recap. The budget is more or less where it was when we said farewell (on the fast track to nowhere terribly much). National security is still glowering at us in the background. Apart from that, the break has been gaffes and finger-pointing and fairly confusing repositioning of various types. The South Australian independent senator Nick Xenophon has already reached for Groundhog Day on morning radio ... although he notes various Coalition folks are actually now negotiating on the budget. Talking can foreshadow action of various types.
But ... a breakthrough, perhaps, looms. The Australian told us Saturday and again today that Tony Abbott will today hold a “cabinet council of war” in order to fix things up. Here’s a couple of scene-setting pars from Sid Maher’s story.
Senior Coalition strategists say they don’t believe the budget has inflicted long-term damage on the government. But as the Coalition seeks to reboot its sales message, ministers will be told to reclaim the discipline and unity the Coalition showed in opposition and avoid “thought bubbles” which distract from key achievements.
Cabinet will be told, despite the inevitable “argy bargy’’ of a Senate where the government does not control the numbers, that ministers must focus on results such as the success of the boats policy and the repeal of the carbon tax.
What cabinet makes of “being told” via the Australian before “being told” in person by the chairman of the war council really remains to be seen. Whether it is really helpful for Tony Abbott (or Abbott operatives) to be setting expectations that the PM can fix a quagmire largely outside his control with a few well-placed mouth gags and a touch of wand-waving also remains to be seen.
But who am I to judge? Perhaps all that’s been lacking in the government’s modus operandi to date has been a meeting.
Now – the Politics Live comments thread is open wide and waiting for your business. Get in there: get loud, get proud. I’ll get down there for a chat if I can.
As per normal operating procedures, you can also chat to me on Twitter @murpharoo – and to the man with the camera, @mpbowers
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