Night time politics
That is your lot for the night.
- One Nation chief of staff James Ashby came under fire for a recorded conversation in which he canvases various party fundraising methods, which include selling campaign marketing packages to candidates. He appeared with his boss, Pauline Hanson, who appeared to back him but the allegations have been referred to the Australian federal police by the Queensland Labor senator Murray Watt. Malcolm Turnbull said he would be getting a report from the AFP and they were serious allegations.
- Question time was dominated by Labor questions on the tax deductibility of the bank levy. The government has said the tax will raise $6.2bn net of taxes over four years. But Westpac estimated they would pay $260m a year and Commonwealth has estimated $220m so on those figures it looks as though there will be a shortfall. Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison were very careful not to mention any specific figures on tax raised. Westpac wrote to shareholders, underlining the fact that there was no such thing as absorbing the cost.
- The government tried to pressure Labor over reports of splits over whether to support the Medicare levy rise to further fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
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The head of the immigration department, Mike Pezzullo, conceded in Senate estimates that, during the Manus Island disturbance, shots were fired at refugees and staff rather than just in the air as previously stated.
- John Howard has questioned Donald Trump’s random tweeting activity and was critical of Trump carpeting the intelligence agencies, something that a conservative leader would not do.
Thanks to the brains trust in here and Mike Bowers for his photographic excellence. In the morning, there will be party room meetings and parliament sitting at midday, along with the usual bevy of estimates.
Good night.
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John Howard on Donald Trump and rando tweeting. What would Reagan do?
John Howard is asked about Donald Trump.
Howard, who before the Trump presidency said he trembled at the thought, says there was a sense of electoral entitlement in the Hillary camp and much of the mainstream media.
Sure I was cautious ... I expressed concern ... I remain concerned. I think his criticism of the intelligence agencies was very foolish.
No genuinely conservative political leader will publicly attack his country’s intelligence agencies.
I think he is too carefree in his communications habits for the president of the United States. Maybe I am reflecting my age. I don’t think random tweeting by the US president is necessarily the right way to take the nation with you.
If tweeting was available in Ronald Reagan’s era, I’m not sure he would have used it.
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John Howard is speaking to David Speers on Sky.
He is speaking about Tony Abbott’s characterisation of Robert Menzies’s Forgotten People speech, ahead of the commemoration dinner tonight.
He is waxing lyrical about Menzies’s skill as a communicator, getting the balance between policy and politics right.
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Back in estimates: legal and constitutional affairs is probing plans for a homeland security-style mega-department for the Australian government.
A review of Australia’s intelligence agencies is currently being undertaken by Professor Michael L’Estrange, former DFAT Secretary and High Commissioner to the Court of St James’s.
There is regularly-recurring speculation that some within the government would like all of Australia’s intelligence agencies consolidated within a mega-department akin to the US’s homeland security department or the UK’s Home Office.
Opening up, Labor Senator Murray Watt is on and about off-stump, but immigration department secretary Mike Pezzullo is playing the deadest of dead bats.
Paraphrasing Watt - would Pezzullo like to see a mega-department in the style of homeland security?
I have no position, says Pezzullo.
Are there any issues with the co-operation between Australia’s security agencies?
I am only aware of matters that are within my competence to discuss.
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Senator Derryn Hinch has downloading to Sky’s David Speers on One Nation. He is critical of allegations from the Ashby recordings. He says questions need to be answered by One Nation. He is also critical that Pauline Hanson and James Ashby were not in parliament for senate estimates hearings.
From my colleague Joshua Robertson:
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Labor to Turnbull: How is it fair that under your $22bn cut to schools that Tasmanian public schools get a cut of $68m over the next two years alone while the Friends School, a private school in Hobart, will get an extra $19.2m over 10 years?
Turnbull says 99% of schools will get more funding.
He wants to go to the Plibersek question on Nowra East Public School.
He outlines Tasmanian average annual per student increase over the next 10 years:
- Catholic schools 4.3%,
- Government schools 3.9%
- Independent 4.7%
As for the school in Nowra East, the estimator website shows that, far from losing money, over the next 10 years it will receive an increase of $3.8m.
Plibersek takes a point of order, saying even the New South Wales Coalition government takes issue with the schools estimator website.
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Tanya Plibersek to Malcolm Turnbull: How is it fair that in this budget the prime minister can find a spare $65bn for big business but Nowra East Public School in Gilmore loses $1.32m over the next [two] years alone?
Turnbull says he will check the calculation.
He says “we do know” 99% of schools will receive funding under the new school funding package.
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Shorten to Turnbull: For years now, whenever costs for banks have increased, they invariably pass it straight on to customers but it seems whenever costs go down the banks pocket the difference. Given the banks have confirmed they plan to continue this behaviour by passing on the cost of the bank tax, when will the prime minister finally pull the banks into line and give them the royal commission they deserve?
Turnbull says the only ones to profit from a royal commission would be lawyers.
The government is already implementing measures to take action on banks through the financial complaints body, the senior executive registration and the unit within the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to oversee bank rate setting.
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Chris Bowen to Malcolm Turnbull: I refer to his confirmation that people who are negatively geared with claim an increased tax deductions if banks pass on the cost of the bank tax. How much will these increased negatively geared deductions cost the budget? Why do banks and property investors get tax deductions while everybody else gets increased bank fees?
Turnbull:
That bow is so long that the honourable member is pulling that it is taller than he is.
People could always deduct interest from income and have done for over a century, Turnbull says.
Bill Shorten to Malcolm Turnbull: The government has confirmed today that the big banks can claim an unspecified tax deduction for the bank tax. Can the prime minister advise whether bank customers will be able to claim a tax deduction if the banks pass the cost of the bank tax on to customers?
Turnbull says the bank levy is a business expense and they will be able to treat it like any other expense and flicks the question to the treasurer.
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Penny Wong is grilling the Department of Parliamentary Services about the accidental publication of phone numbers of parliamentarians and staffers, revealed in March 2017.
DPS official Ian McKenzie explained that the information was first published on 22 December 2016 and said that the contractor that produced the reports “previously completely removed” confidential information but, in that round of reports, “tried to redact the information by setting the font to white on white background”.
McKenzie said revealing the numbers would require copying and pasting the text and changing phone numbers’ font colour so it “wasn’t visible to the naked eye”. There’s now a check to make sure the information actually is removed rather than just left in and its colour changed.
He reveals that, of the 236 parliamentarians, some 980 files were downloaded from 88 unique IP addresses. Some 660 of the downloads were from three IP addresses, meaning that three people got “the whole set” and some people accessed a “smattering” of the other documents.
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Bill Shorten to Malcolm Turnbull: Today both the prime minister and the treasurer have refused to say the dollar value of tax deductions forecast to be claimed by the banks in connection with a bank tax. So prime minister, for the third time today, what is the dollar value of tax deductions forecast to be claimed by the banks in connection with the bank tax?
Turnbull points Shorten to the budget papers but does not give a figure.
The answer to that question is clearly set out in budget paper No 2.
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Bowen to Morrison: In the budget, what is the dollar value of the tax deductions forecast to be claimed by the banks in connection with the bank tax?
Morrison does not name the figure.
I refer the member to table 9 of statement 5 and that goes to the maters of the revenues that he is referring to.
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Labor to Turnbull: In the budget, what is the dollar value of the tax deductions forecast to be claimed by the banks in connection with a bank tax?
Turnbull:
In the first year, the net revenue received from the commonwealth shown in the fiscal balance impact is $1.6bn.
In the second year, it is $1.5bn because of the net impact on the taxes. The difference is the answer to the question. That is the cost in terms of other taxes, reduction in receipts of other taxes principally corporate tax.
This is an interesting question. Last week I reported the Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson estimated the revenue taken through the bank levy would be less than the $6.2bn carved into the budget.
The government rejected the analysis and said the $6.2bn was the tax take after deductions.
But Westpac’s numbers appears to be more inline with the Greens analysis.
Now Labor is drilling down into this point.
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Greens MP Adam Bandt to Peter Dutton: According to a transcript published on your ministerial website, you said yesterday in this country we have 7,500 people in at the moment who have not provided detail at the moment for protection is that they are fake refugees. Are you prepared to repeat to this parliament the misleading statement that 7,500 people are fake refugees or do you only make such accusations from the bully pulpit of a press conference because you know every one of those people is entitled to have their claim processed and they may be a genuine refugee and the government is beating up on a group of vulnerable people to try to lift your poll numbers?
Dutton says Labor-Greens mess to clean up etc etc but no repetition of the central allegation of fake refugees.
There are some people to which the member refers who have taken a decision that they have not provided information as requested, despite numerous requests by officials within my department.
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Second government question is on the NDIS to the social services minister, Christian Porter.
Chris Bowen to Malcolm Turnbull: Budget paper No 2 states that the bank tax will raise $6.2bn over the forward estimates. Is that $6.2bn before or after the banks claim a tax deduction?
Turnbull says:
The $6.2bn are the receipts of the Treasury from the bank [levy] as the honourable member fully understands. That is the calculation that is set out in budget paper 2 in accordance with the standards that applied throughout all the term of the Labor government and, indeed, for governments beforehand.
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Shorten to Turnbull: Is the bank tax, which the government announced in its budget, tax-deductible for the big banks?
Turnbull says he is advised it will be.
That is a yes.
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Question time now.
The first question is from Labor to Turnbull regarding the Ashby recordings.
I will be getting advice from the federal police commissioner and the minister for justice and the attorney as we review the media reports in the course of the next day.
The second question – a Dixer – is a chance to whack Labor on the Medicare levy. Turnbull says it is a test of character for Labor.
It is the test of our character. Now, when we embark on a National Disability Insurance Scheme, Mr Speaker, the test is have you paid for it? Have you paid for it? That’s the question.
Or are you just filled up with all the rhetoric of the moment but you’re not prepared to pay the price? Are you prepared, as the opposition leader was, to get the plaudits from the sector, to get the plaudits from advocates for people with disability, to get the thanks from parents of disabled children but then not pay for it? This was a shameful abdication of responsibility on the part of the Labor party.
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Labor senator to refer One Nation allegations to the AFP
Senator Murray Watt will refer allegations regarding James Ashby and the secret recording to the Australian federal police.
This is Watt’s statement earlier:
What seems to be happening according to the reports today is that One Nation is encouraging its candidates to pay up a higher fee, an above cost fee, for election materials that are then printed by One Nation entities and then put in falsely inflated invoices to the Electoral Commission of Queensland (ECQ), to gain a higher level of taxpayer funding than what is legitimately allowed under Queensland electoral laws.
If these allegations are true, and if they have been carried out by Pauline Hanson and James Ashby, they amount to a massive defrauding of taxpayers, a massive abuse of electoral laws to benefit One Nation and potentially the One Nation party’s leadership. These claims need to be thoroughly investigated and that’s why today I am going to be referring these new allegations for further investigation, firstly to the ECQ but also to the Queensland police (QPS) and the Australian federal police (AFP).
These are extremely serious allegations, which, if they are true, amount to very serious criminal conduct. They need to be treated that way and need to be properly investigated by police forces. We know that today’s allegations relate to a plan to defraud the taxpayers in the Queensland election, we don’t know whether similar activities were undertaken by Pauline Hanson and James Ashby in last year’s federal election, and that’s a matter that needs to be seriously investigated by the federal police, as well as having the QPS take a good look at what’s happening in Queensland.
Asked to clarify who he is referring, the Labor senator says:
Later today I’ll be writing to the AFP, the Queensland police and the ECQ to investigate these allegations in general. They will clearly involve the activities of James Ashby and Pauline Hanson, so I expect that they will be personally investigated and their personal activities in this affair will be investigated.
Both Hanson and Ashby have stated that the recording contained ideas only (not a plan as categorised by Watt) and it did not go ahead.
It was knocked on the head, said Hanson.
Hanson told reporters in Perth she would “welcome the investigation”. She said it could “only be a criminal case if it was enacted” but the party “never looked at it because we never implemented it”.
At a media conference on Monday, Ashby said: “If the Labor party want to float this idea of writing to the Electoral Commission, the AFP, let them go ahead with it. That’s fine. We’re open and transparent and the system was there.”
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Senate president Stephen Parry tells estimates that the construction on the 2.6m fence around parliament has begun.
It won’t change how the public enter the parliament and Parry says the Australian parliament will remain one of the most open parliaments in the world.
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I missed this one, thanks Josh.
Wong points out that all the Liberals in Tasmania who lost their seat in the last election now have government jobs. #estimates
— Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) May 22, 2017
Lunchtime politics
- One Nation chief of staff James Ashby says he made a mistake in remarks caught on recording regarding candidate charges. Ashby says he was brainstorming, Hanson said they never followed through with the money-raising ideas.
- The head of the immigration department, Mike Pezzullo, conceded shots were fired at refugees and staff at Manus Island, though the department had previously maintained shots were fired into the air.
- 1440 refugees have applied to go to America under the US-Australia refugee deal.
- Westpac have made a statement to the market saying the bank levy would cost the bank $370m or $260m after tax. The bank says it cannot absorb the cost, so it will be passed on under consultation with the shareholders.
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One Nation's James Ashby: One Nation must have the funds available to 'keep us running' #auspol MORE: https://t.co/HVJ3f3MpSP pic.twitter.com/Rs86Uo829k
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 22, 2017
Who is that nice looking lady standing next to the One Nation leader 🤔 https://t.co/x0wMugdESU
— Samantha Maiden (@samanthamaiden) May 22, 2017
Worth noting that Hanson is in WA again, and not in Senate #estimates.
— Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) May 22, 2017
Pauline Hanson was asked whether she had chastised James Ashby.
Don’t forget that I was at the meeting as well. Don’t forget that you don’t have the full recording of the meeting. We knocked it on the head at the meeting. It didn’t go ahead.
Take that as a no.
James Ashby: It's embarrassing ... no doubt about that
James Ashby:
It’s embarrassing. There’s no doubt about that. Poor choice of words on my behalf, no doubt about that. But let’s not forget that these were secretly recorded conversations in what we thought was an environment where we could safely put any idea on the table and it wouldn’t go any further. We’ve never implemented this idea that was put forward and it’s regretful that [an] obviously poor choice of words on my behalf had to be aired in such a manner.
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Hanson says the candidates' package is actually worth more
Pauline Hanson:
The package that we offer the candidates is because it is all controlled with the labelling, the templates. So it’s all professional. And actually, the $3,500 that we charge them, it’s actually worth $4,700. So it is not gouging the candidates at all.
Pauline Hanson: we are just trying to cut costs to the taxpayer
James Ashby and Pauline Hanson are answering allegations from the secret recording.
The recording was just a matter of brainstorming, he says.
We are just trying to cut the costs to the taxpayer, says Hanson.
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Phil Bowen of the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) has confirmed there are only two of the phalanx of walking dead from the 2014 budget.
The two remaining 2014 budget measures are:
- increasing the pension age to 70
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scrapping the energy supplement
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Infrastructure Australia just confirmed the #Adani rail line is not a priority project. Time to can this shocker of an idea. #estimates
— Richard Di Natale (@RichardDiNatale) May 22, 2017
Infrastructure Australia asked at #estimates if Adani rail line is a "priority project" for them. Answer: "Not at this stage." #auspol
— Anna Vidot (@AnnaVidot) May 22, 2017
James Ashby: a silly idea and a poor choice of words
James Ashby’s suggestion in a One Nation planning meeting that the party could “make some money” on its campaign packages for Queensland election candidates was part of “a brainstorming session that has been taken right out of context”, he told Guardian Australia.
It was a silly idea and a poor choice of words and I’ll be the first to admit it.
Ashby said it was “clearly not an idea that we went forward” and the party’s subsequent minimum $3500 package for candidate material did not cover its costs for campaigning for them.
He said the party was “not about ripping people off and, once again, it was another secretly recorded audio, and look, there’s nothing I can say”.
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Matt Hatter evokes Ming.
@gabriellechan 🗿Hello🗿The Member for Warringah ought reflect upon Mr Menzies wise words before his next venture into historical distortion. pic.twitter.com/oij6ykISQc
— The Matt Hatter (@MattGlassDarkly) May 22, 2017
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Immigration department head concedes shots fired directly at refugees and staff
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection has conceded shots were fired directly at refugees and staff at the Manus Island immigration detention centre, and that nine people, including Australian staff, were injured.
Following the incident on Good Friday, a spokesman for the immigration department told the Guardian there were “reports PNG military personnel discharged a weapon into the air during the incident – no one was injured”.
However, under questioning from the Greens senator Nick McKim, the immigration department secretary, Mike Pezzullo, told Senate estimates there was more than one weapon fired and that rounds were “fired laterally into the compound”.
His department confirmed nine people were injured in the shooting assault on the centre: five employees of service providers (including Australian citizens) were injured; one PNG defence force soldier; one PNG immigration officer; and two refugees within the detention centre.
Pezzullo said the information in the initial statement was “based on available evidence at the time … in the first hours after the incident”.
The PNG police have said soldiers went on a “drunken rampage” following a dispute over the use of a soccer field nearby to the detention centre. They reportedly fired 100 shots at the detention centre, assaulted an immigration official and tried to ram a car through the fence in an attempt to storm the centre.
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Senator Penny Wong has quizzed Senate president Stephen Parry in estimates about the defeated Liberal MP Eric Hutchinson and the circumstances he was employed in his office.
Parry said that Hutchinson was hired after the election to help represent him in Tasmania after an increased workload dealing with parliament’s security upgrades took other staff to Canberra. He left when he was appointed the administrator of Norfolk Island from 1 April.
Parry denied that the job was a stopgap to tide Hutchinson over until he found another job, saying the election “happened to coincide” with an increased workload and Hutchinson had been replaced in the role because the need for it still exists.
In answers to questions on notice, Parry has said Hutchinson attends various events and Wong queries why he has not provided a specific breakdown.
Parry accuses Wong of asking questions that are “akin to a backdoor request for [his] diary”. Parry said Hutchinson “may well have” attended Liberal party events during his time of employment but it wouldn’t have been at Parry’s request. He said it’s sometimes “hard to distinguish” whether he is invited to events as a Tasmanian senator or president of the Senate.
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Malcolm Turnbull is asked about the refugee announcement yesterday.
To backtrack, Ben Doherty has all the details here but this is the substance of an announcement made at the weekend.
Asylum seekers in Australia who are part of the “legacy caseload”, have been given until 1 October to formally apply for protection or face deportation, the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, has announced.
“The Turnbull government has today set a deadline … the October cut-off for lodgement of protection claims will ensure that Australian taxpayers are not providing financial support to people who have no right to be in Australia,” Dutton said.
The legacy caseload is about 30,500 asylum seekers who arrived in Australia by sea between August 2012 and January 2014. Their claims for protection were frozen under Labor’s “no advantage” rule.
The majority – 23,000 – of the 30,500 people in the legacy caseload have applied for protection. About 7,500 have not yet formally applied, most because they have not been formally invited or are on a waiting list for legal assistance.
Dutton questioned their bona fides, leading to the implication that they are “fake refugees”.
We are not going to allow, given the level of debt that our country is in, for more debt to be run up paying for welfare services, for people who are not genuine, Dutton says.
So this morning, Turnbull was asked if he would call them “fake refugees”.
If people are here, if they are here and are not taking the opportunity to make that claim, then they should do so. They should get on to it and make the application.
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Malcolm Turnbull has seen the reports on James Ashby’s recording regarding alleged money-raising plans.
I think that James Ashby and Pauline Hanson will no doubt have to respond to them but plainly, plainly, it is vitally important that all of our electoral laws are strictly complied with. They go to the heart of our democracy.
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Asked about extending the bank levy to foreign banks, Turnbull says he is concentrating to delivering what was in the budget – that is, 0.06% on certain liabilities held by the big four Australian banks (in return for the implied guarantee on those institutions).
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Malcolm Turnbull is speaking to media, calling on Labor to support the increase in the Medicare levy.
I would certainly be seeking Labor to follow what was clearly the correct instincts of the majority of their shadow cabinet. How can we, in good conscience, not fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme? Every Australian benefits from it.
You may have seen over the weekend that the Catholic education system is preparing for a marginal seats campaign against the Turnbull government’s Gonski 2.0 school funding package from the budget.
Over the weekend, former education minister and defence industry minister Christopher Pyne said it was dishonest.
The Catholic education system really is running a very dishonest campaign. They’re getting an extra $1bn out of this agreement [over four years].
The education minister, Simon Birmingham, was asked about his comments this morning.
I think elements of the campaign that start to talk about ridiculous fee increases in some schools in states like Victoria or New South Wales are quite dishonest because those states are all seeing significant funding growth going into the Catholic education system and, if they want to retain their existing models for distributing funding, there is nothing in what we are proposing that prevents them from doing so.
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It is easy to forget that the House is sitting today. This morning is devoted to private members’ business. Labor’s Canberra-based members are moving a motion to put some framework around the National party’s decentralisation policy a.k.a. APVMA.
Gai Brodtmann, Andrew Leigh and Mike Kelly are supporting it. The motion says:
(a) Canberra was established to be the commonwealth seat of government, administration and policy support;
(b) more than 60% of the Australian Public Service is located outside of Canberra, serving the needs of communities around Australia; and
(c) the proposed relocation of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority from Canberra to Armidale demonstrates the adverse impact of the Government’s ad hoc decentralisation decisions on the Canberra community and economy and effective and efficient government; and
(2) calls on the government to:
(a) commit to a cost-benefit analysis of its proposed decentralisation strategy and make the outcome of that analysis available to the public;
(b) agree that:
(i) decisions regarding decentralisation should only be made subject to an open and transparent public consultation process and take into account the outcome of a cost benefit analysis; and
(ii) any decentralisation of government agencies is based on a demonstrated net benefit to the nation and does not come at the expense of the Canberra community and economy and effective and efficient government; and
(c) protect the Sir Robert Menzies vision of Canberra as the commonwealth seat of government, administration and policy support and a “worthy capital” that Australians can admire and respect.
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Shane Wright of the West Oz has been ferreting through the budget papers, two weeks after its presentation. He finds more people aged 65 or above are staying in the workforce, reducing the call on the age pension, which is the single biggest expenditure in the budget. It’s worth a read.
A crackdown on welfare recipients and an end to a string of tax office investigations are combining to reduce spending and help bring the budget back to surplus.
Even the start of an increase in the age at which people can access the pension is now helping to bring government spending to heel.
And it all centres on 2019-20 which, if treasurer Scott Morrison is right, will have one of the smallest increases in government spending on record.
The government hopes all spending will increase by 0.9 per cent in 2019-20, the year in which the budget is forecast to show a deficit of $2.5bn.
Since 1970 there have been just seven years when spending has risen by so little. It is due to big falls in expected spending in three key areas – pensions, GST transfers to the states and funding to the tax office.
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1,440 refugees apply to go to America
Senate estimates has heard further details about the “US deal” for resettlement of refugees from Australia’s offshore detention centres on Manus and Nauru.
There is still no confirmation on how many refugees the US will resettle, and none have been accepted yet, but the legal and constitutional affairs committee was told 1,440 refugees from Australia’s two offshore detention centres have applied.
More than 900 have had a first-stage interview with the US state department and 800 have had fingerprint and biometric testing. The US Department of Homeland Security has conducted security interviews with 200 refugees. Medical testing, the final stage of screening, will begin on Nauru this week.
The US has proposed the resettlement of 1,250 refugees from Australia’s offshore regime, although there is no commitment for the country to resettle any. All refugees, the administration has consistently stated, will be subject to “extreme vetting”, though this has not been precisely defined.
In a refugee transfer deal announced by the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, last September, Australia is considering accepting refugees for resettlement from central America.
The deputy secretary of the immigration and border control department, Rachel Noble, told the committee that vulnerable people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, who have been transferred to safe, temporary housing in Costa Rica, can then be assessed for permanent resettlement in Australia.
El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras – known as the Northern Triangle – are riven by drug and gang violence, which has caused a significant exodus by people seeking safety.
Australia is involved with seven cases – involving 30 individuals – for screening and likely resettlement in Australia.
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Westpac says bank tax equivalent to eight cents a share
Westpac has made a statement to the stock exchange relating to the bank tax.
Key takeouts:
- We don’t like the tax.
- The cost of the levy would be $370m a year.
- After tax (it’s tax-deductible), it will cost Westpac $260m.
- That is equivalent to 8c a share on dividends.
No company can simply ‘absorb’ a new tax, so consideration is being given to how we will manage this significant impost on the bank. We plan to consult with stakeholders, including shareholders, on the levy.
To dimension the impact of the levy for our shareholders, the $260m after tax cost is equivalent to around eight cents per share (using the above estimates). Based on Westpac’s 2016 full-year dividends of 188c per share, this represents 4.3% of dividends paid.
Westpac has strongly objected to the levy on the grounds that it is an inefficient tax that targets just five companies; it places the major banks at a competitive disadvantage relative to international peers; and it is a tax on growth because as lending and investment increases the cost of the levy also rises.
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1440 refugees have expressed interest in US deal, 900 have had first intvw, 800 had biometrics scan, 250 had security intvws #Estimates
— Michael Koziol (@michaelkoziol) May 21, 2017
38 refugees have taken up resettlement in PNG outside Manus Island, immigration says #Estimates
— Michael Koziol (@michaelkoziol) May 21, 2017
Andrew and Nicola Forrest giving $400m to charitable causes
Malcolm Turnbull speaks at the Andrew and Nicola Forrest ceremony.
Every dollar we spend, the government spends, will buy as much as a dollar that a philanthropist like Nicola and Andrew give, it gives the same amount. But what you give and what other philanthropists give and what other people whom you will inspire give, comes with their love.
This is not extracted from you by force of law, this is a matter of conviction, of your love and your commitment.
Turnbull announces the Forrests are giving away $400m.
- $75m for coordinating world cancer institutes to make cancer history for the coming generation
- $50m towards building stronger communities
- $75m for higher education and breakthrough research
- $75m towards giving every child their best chance
- $50m towards creating equality of opportunity among all Australians
- $75m towards removing modern slavery from human history.
A love of mankind. That is what the Greek means for the philanthropy. This is an act of love. It is an act of generosity. Above all, it is an act of leadership that will inspire other Australians.
Actor Russell Crowe is MC.
Andrew Forrest speaks.
I have been very fortunate, with my wife, Nicola, to be able to accumulate and then as soon as we can to commence giving it away. We had a slightly unsustainable business model previously where we would actually borrow money to give it away.
And fortunately, we don’t have to do that now thanks to the strength of the iron ore sector, the leadership of this country throughout the ages and that word I would like to introduce more commonly into the dialogue of leadership is “courage”.
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In immigration estimates, department boss Michael Pezzullo is taking extensive questions over plans to spend $250,000 to upgrade facilities and move some public servants to a new office 9km away.
Under questioning from the Liberal senator Jane Hume, Pezzullo says Manus Island detention centre will close on 31 October this year.
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Liberal senator Dean Smith is excited.
.@AuSenate Budget #Estimates are about to begin. pic.twitter.com/GDYwfVEz8d
— Dean Smith (@DeanSmithWA) May 21, 2017
The Senate clerk Richard Pyne says that the debt notice applies to Bob Day from the day the high court ruled he became ineligible to sit which is 26 February 2016.
However for Rod Culleton, his debts are incurred from the date of election in July 2016 because he was not eligible to run for the Senate due to a his larceny conviction, which was later annulled.
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Mining magnate Andrew Forrest is also in the capital to announce he and his wife Nicola are giving away a portion of their wealth to various causes.
That will happen this morning.
Senate estimates have started.
Senate president Stephen Parry is appearing with Senate staff first thing, under questioning from the Labor Senate leader, Penny Wong.
They start with the pursuit of former senators Rod Culleton and Bob Day for salaries and allowances, given they were not eligible to be senators. This arose last week after the Department of Finance wrote to the former senators asking them to repay salaries and allowances.
Richard Pye is the new clerk of the Senate and is answering questions.
Pye says it seems “uneconomic in broad sense” to pursue money the commonwealth is unlikely to see.
FYI Culleton was declared bankrupt in the December last year. Culleton told me last week he was still in control of his assets.
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Sarah Vogler in the Courier Mail reports she has obtained recordings of One Nation chief of staff James Ashby.
Pauline Hanson’s right-hand man James Ashby suggested an apparent plan to turn the looming Queensland election into a cash cow for the party by duping candidates and the state’s Electoral Commission, an explosive recording reveals.
The recording, obtained exclusively by The Courier-Mail, reveals a conversation understood to have taken place late last year during a meeting at which Senator Hanson was also present.
During that conversation Mr Ashby — Senator Hanson’s chief-of-staff — tells the meeting how he thinks they could make money out of the state election including by selling items purchased for the campaign to candidates at inflated prices.
“There is an opportunity for us to make some money on this if we play this smart,” Mr Ashby can be heard telling the meeting.
“I will deny I ever said this but what stops us from getting a middle man or gracing … I am happy to grace in cash, double the price of whatever it is.
We are chasing Ashby for comment but this is what he told the Courier.
Mr Ashby yesterday denied any suggestion he was putting forward such a plan when contacted by The Courier-Mail for comment.
“That’s not what the party does and prices are reflective in the invoices paid by the party and candidates. To suggest otherwise is false,” he said.
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Now on to Robert Menzies and Tony Abbott’s interpretation of the famous Forgotten People speech.
Abbott has written a comment piece for the Oz which underlines the bits that back in his arguments and on the way through, gives Malcolm Turnbull a cuff for his penchant for compromise to get legislation through the Senate.
Tony Abbott:
These days, it might be said that he was appealing to the middle ground. And yes, in 1942, Menzies’ “forgotten people” were often caught in a vice between big business and big labour. But this wasn’t about splitting the difference between two sides and calling it a good compromise. A few years later, for instance, the forgotten people didn’t support nationalising just some private banks rather than none of them at all. The values that Menzies ascribed to the forgotten people were mainstream and decent but they were also, in his judgment, right, true, and always worth standing up for.
Abbott says:
First, know who you represent.
As a former wartime prime minister, Menzies knew successful leaders had to appeal to the nation, but he also knew they had to do so on the basis of values. His people – the people whose interests and instincts he was striving to advance – were “salary earners, shopkeepers, skilled artisans, professional men and women, farmers and so on … the middle class … the backbone of the nation”. They were, he said, “not leaners but lifters”. These days, they might be described as everyone who’s “having a go” rather than waiting for others to make things happen.
Second, know what your values are.
In Menzies’ case, these were family, country and the conviction that “self-sacrifice … frugality and saving” will produce not just a richer world, but a better one.
And, third, never shirk a fight in a good cause.
What would be the point of winning the war, if in the process we lose our character? Again and again, Menzies stressed the value of the individual and denounced the inroads made on personal responsibility in the name of equality of outcomes.
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Bill Shorten spoke to the Victorian state Labor conference on the weekend. He told the audience he remains fully focused on winning the next federal election and declared “there is not a shred of complacency in me”.
There is a lot of interesting movement in Labor at the moment over how Labor positions ahead around the budget and going forward. IMO it is not about dramatic challenges or manning the battlements, it is about the philosophical direction. All good arguments worth having.
Refugee organisations have warned the government – ahead of the immigration department appearing before budget estimates this morning – that they believe “further tragedy is inevitable” in the Australian-run offshore detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru unless Australia brings those held there to Australia.
The organisations are speaking in the Senate courtyard this morning, arguing that Australia has a legal and moral obligation to ensure those people it has sent to offshore islands are safe.
The deliberately punitive nature of Australia’s offshore detention regime was revealed in a cache of internal working documents published by the Guardian last week.
Graham Thom, refugee coordinator at Amnesty International, said there was ongoing risk to people’s lives on Manus Island, a situation highlighted by the Good Friday shooting rampage.
Enough is enough, the truth is out in plain sight and questions must be answered. The Australian government has designed a deliberately abusive system, intended to harm people. Such a callous indifference to the safety and well-being of refugees puts them at great risk.”
Tim O’Connor, director at the Refugee Council of Australia, said Australia was presiding over a humanitarian crisis of its own making.
Innocent people who came to us seeking safety have been trapped in a circle of hell while our governments have dithered and delayed. This is a time for commonsense and compassion. The immediate solution is to bring all those we have sent to Nauru and Manus to Australia immediately, it’s the fairest and quickest way to prevent another tragedy.
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Welcome back to parliament and politics live
Good morning blogan people,
I have my budget papers. Parliament is sitting. Senate estimates are looming. I am in lock down with a large bag of apples and a tub of pumpkin soup for the duration. Budget negotiations are in full swing between the parties and within the opposition and minor parties. The senate is not technically sitting but will begin estimates committees from 9am.
Nick Xenophon has ruled out supporting the bank levy unless it is applied to the big foreign owned banks. Labor has said it would support the levy but is open to extend it to foreign banks. The Fin’s Jacob Greber reports the Greens think including foreign banks is unworkable because exemptions for second-tier lenders would trigger challenges under free trade deals.
The government needs 10 senate votes to pass any legislation. That could be Greens plus one.
While the senate is not sitting in chamber this fortnight, the negotiations between the parties continue in public and private.
Labor has ruled out support for raising the Medicare levy for people earning less than $87,000 for the National Disability Insurance Scheme. As Katharine Murphy reported on Friday, there was a split in Labor over that position.
Some argued the government’s budget proposal needed to be adopted for two reasons: the levy was designed to apply universally, that principle was important, and should be respected.
The second source of reservation was its fiscal implications. The position Shorten ultimately adopted in the budget reply speech (keep the deficit levy, apply the Medicare hike to the top two income brackets) costs $400m over the forward estimates.
James Massola reports he has spoken to three shadow cabinet ministers who confirmed a majority of shadow cabinet did not support Shorten’s position.
Finance minister Mathias Cormann has been around this morning, describing the opposition as the...
Jeremy Corbyn of the Australian Labor party.
Stick with us. We have Tony Abbott on Robert Menzies on the 75th anniversary of the Foregotten People speech. There is a dinner at Old Parliament tonight, attended by his daughter Heather Henderson and John Howard. Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull will also be there.
Talk to me in the thread, on the Twits @gabriellechan and @mpbowers or on Facebook.
Up up and away.
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