The wrap
On that note, Mike Bowers and I shall leave you for the night.
We’ll be back early tomorrow morning to update you on what happened overnight. Including the fallout from the Four Corners report into the NBN which has had the government in a right tizz all day.
So what happened? What did we learn and what’s coming up?
- Everyone in the governent seems very worried about what Four Corners will say about the NBN, which has resulted in a PR blitz by both the government and NBN Co.
- Senate estimates revealed a 1,000-page security manual was lost, but don’t worry, it’s not a security risk, for reasons that can’t be stated because of security concerns.
- The “remuneration” Bill Billson received from a lobby group while still a minister was fine because “it is very appropriate for backbench members to receive remuneration from third-party sources not inconsistent with their responsibilities as members of parliament ... It is both consistent and commonplace.”
- Immigration estimates found the Australian Border Force had been without a commissioner since July and didn’t know when its commissioner would return.
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Malcolm Turnbull is still attempting to sell his energy policy, along with Josh Frydenberg, going so far as to host his own Q&A session during a press call today.
- Attorney general, communications, finance, agriculture, and the arts are among tomorrows estimates hearings
- The parliamentary security fence is on budget and on schedule.
- Electioneering has begun, both for Queensland and New England, despite the former yet to be called and the latter still waiting on a high court decision.
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Scott Ryan has returned from medical leave.
We’ll hopefully see you back here just after 8am tomorrow. In the meantime, you can reach Mike Bowers at @mpbowers and @mikepbowers and you can grab me at @amyremeikis.
Have a lovely evening, try not to yell at the TV too much tonight and we’ll catch you soon.
Updated
In Senate estimates the Greens immigration spokesman, Nick McKim, has said a speech given by the head of the immigration department, Michael Pezzullo, showed “fascist tendencies”.
McKim was referring to a speech given by Pezzullo to justify the home affairs department, of which he is secretary-designate. According to the Mandarin, Pezzullo warned a “dark universe” was emerging as a consequence of globalisation and Australia needs the new security mega-department to confront the forces of evil.
McKim: “I read your speech you gave for the philosophical context of the new department with interest and terror – equal parts I might say.”
Pezzullo: “Sorry, you were terrified?”
McKim: “I was terrified of your thought processes, yes, I don’t like fascists and authoritarians.”
Pezzullo: “I beg your pardon?”
McKim: “I thought that some fascist tendencies came out in that speech.”
McKim is asked to withdraw the comment, and he does so. He did not elaborate which part of the speech he was referring to.
Updated
Just on Kevin Rudd being blamed for the “train wreck” (Malcolm Turnbull’s description, not mine) of the NBN, he’s had a few things to say.
.@MrKRudd responds to @TurnbullMalcolm blaming Labor for the #NBN “train wreck”. More tonight on #abc730. #auspol @4corners pic.twitter.com/hcM7RZiVYJ
— abc730 (@abc730) October 23, 2017
Updated
Penny Wong says she has “quite a few questions” from John Lloyd’s description of how Nigel Hadgkiss’s resignation came about.
Was he aware of the fact of the federal court proceedings? No
Was he aware of the fact of the behaviour which formed the basis of the court proceedings? No
Was he ever asked to provide advice? No
He took no notes, that he recalls, during his discussions with Hadgkiss over his resignation. He can not recall if there are any records of those conversations, which included over the telephone. Over the two days, there were between eight and 1o phone calls.
Was he particularly unhappy with being asked to resign? “I think that initially he was surprised, as I say initially he took some time to consider it before he rang me back. Then I think he came to the view that as a senior public servant, that that was the course that was going to eventuate.”
Lloyd said he would describe Hadgkiss’s initial reaction as “surprised” he was being asked to resign.
How many other persons, in statutory office, has Lloyd been asked to procure a resignation from? Lloyd can’t think of any.
“It wouldn’t the usual role for the Australian public service commissioner to procure the resignation of a statutory officer?,” Wong asks.
Lloyd says he talks to other secretaries about the performance of statutory officers.
As for how he convinced Hadgkiss he should resign – “As the minister and I had discussed, there was nothing more to add to it than that, really. It was up to him to consider it.”
Updated
Back on the house debate over increasing the Medicare Levy, Chris Bowen had this to say in a statement:
The Turnbull Government’s plan to increase the Medicare Levy would increase the tax burden on Australians earning a little as $21,000 a year.
This from the party of lower taxes.
Mr Turnbull’s tax increase will mean a worker on $55,000 would pay $275 extra a year in tax, while someone on $80,000 would face an extra $400 in tax.
Updated
Picking up on one of those headlines, Labor’s health spokeswoman, Catherine King, has taken a different view on the Victorian euthanasia debate to the former PM Paul Keating:
My view is yes it should be passed. I think this is a very limited form of voluntary assisted dying, a very conservative model that the Victorian proponents of the legislation, Jill Hennessy as the health minister has put forward. It’s been something that has been, not suddenly put before the parliament, there has been a major inquiry in Victoria into the area. This is a very conservative model that the Victorians are putting forward. Obviously it now has the support of the lower house, there will be a couple of weeks break and then debate in the upper house and I do think it is time for this legislation to be passed in Victoria.
Updated
Kevin Rudd is the latest MP to launch a book (part one).
He’ll be chatting to 7.30 tonight but this morning had this to say:
I'm launching my book today that deals with the impact of Murdoch on the deterioration of Australian democracy, and they run this. #classic pic.twitter.com/D3FVgiU9x6
— Kevin Rudd (@MrKRudd) October 22, 2017
Updated
Under questioning from Penny Wong, John Lloyd described how Nigel Hadkiss’s resignation came about:
Following a discussion with the minister and [her staff] I later on in the evening conveyed to Mr Hadgkiss the government’s position that he consider his position, tendering his resignation. Following that, there were several discussions in the evening with Mr Hadgkiss. He obviously took some time, to consider the developments and the advice he received from me, so there were a number of discussions and some the next day and the arrangements were worked through, things like timing of the resignation, when it ought to take effect, and how an announcement would be made. Those arrangements are quite common in a situation like this.
Updated
Tony Abbott has decided to weigh in on the Manus situation:
For years, Greens and Labor allies demanded Manus close. Now it's closing, they're still complaining. They just can't be trusted on borders
— Tony Abbott (@TonyAbbottMHR) October 23, 2017
What they are “complaining” about is whether or not there are any services, like health and security, in place for the remaining refugees (about 600), given that the centre is closing in a few days.
Updated
Penny Wong has now turned her attention to John Lloyd, the public service commissioner, over Nigel Hadgkiss’s resignation.
Updated
Talking about estimates hearings which are coming up, this has just lobbed from Joel Fitzgibbon:
The Government tabled the Annual Report of the Department of Agriculture & Water Resources after Question Time today despite the fact Barnaby Joyce received it on September 27.
Senate Estimates for the Department begin tomorrow.
The 11th hour tabling of the Annual Report is a shameless attempt by the Turnbull Government to protect Barnaby Joyce and his mismanagement of his portfolio.
The Annual Report is a critical document for Senate Committee scrutiny and the Opposition should have been given more time to study it. The Department no doubt has found it challenging to justify Barnaby Joyce’s various boondoggles, pork barrelling exercises and massively underspent, poorly thought-through programs.
Barnaby Joyce can run but he can’t hide.
*end statement*
Updated
Penny Wong versus George Brandis is one of the highlights of any estimates hearing. For what it is worth, Brandis appeared to take quite a few questions on notice. Given that, it might be worth notice that he now has 18 answers overdue for questions relating to his role as attorney general on notice, with one dating back to October last year. They are supposed to be answered within 30 days.
As minister representing the prime minister, there are a further 26 questions unanswered, but to be fair, the prime minister is the hold up there. (He still has to answer them, despite Brandis representing him in the Senate.)
As for estimates questions, Brandis has not returned answers on any of the questions he took on notice at the May budget estimates round for the Attorney General’s Department. Lucky for us, there is another hearing featuring the AG tomorrow.
Updated
Labor infrastructure spokesman, Anthony Albanese, has said officials in Senate estimates have confirmed that the Coalition government has spent $3.9bn less on infrastructure than promised.
The Senate committee heard that the annual underspend on infrastructure was $829m in 2014-15, $1.2bn in 2015-16 and $1.7bn in 2016-17.
Albanese:
It appears the tactic here is to promise big on budget night, when Australians are watching the treasurer’s budget speech, but then fail to deliver what was promised in the hope nobody will notice.
In September the infrastructure minister, Darren Chester, said the Turnbull government had committed to a record $75bn in infrastructure investment.
Updated
I missed this earlier, while watching another committee, but worth noting.
" I don't think torture is a laughing matter"- @NickMcKim and Mike Pezzullo clash over the closure of Manus Island RPC pic.twitter.com/oUAYGwANsj
— Stephen Dziedzic (@stephendziedzic) October 23, 2017
The Labor senator Jenny McAllister has had a bit of fun with Fiona Scott’s appointment to the National Film and Sound Archive.
McAllister says that among Scott’s qualifications is the fact that she “grew up visiting Disney and ABC film sets” with her grandfather and she was “wondering if that’s the kind of experience the cabinet ... was contemplating for making appointments of this kind”.
George Brandis assures McAllister that Scott’s experience was “more extensive than that”.
Updated
The lengths the government and NBN Co have gone to today to get ahead of tonight’s Four Corners report shows just how worried they are about it.
The NBN has been bubbling along as an issue for a while now. With more connections come more complaints and Labor has belatedly grabbed hold of that. The PR blitz, combined with releasing entire transcripts of interviews (which is not a usual step, at least for the year and a bit I’ve been covering federal politics) only seems to have pointed attention at the flaws.
Updated
The communications minister, Mitch Fifield, said the government had legislation before parliament to impose a levy on fixed-line broadband, which NBN customers would be exempt from, to make clear the size of the subsidy to the regional network.
When it comes to the mobile network, that is not something that’s readily substitutable for the NBN, in terms of the costs of data, [people] ... will still need a fixed-line network. We don’t have a proposition to apply that levy to the broader mobile network.
Updated
The office of Mitch Fifield has taken the somewhat unusual step of releasing the entire transcript of Fifield’s interview with Four Corners, hours ahead of the program’s scheduled release.
Here is a bit of what Fifield said during his press conference just before question time:
I have said that the model that the straight in Labour party adopted was flawed and had failed. We put an alternative model in place, which will see a completed six to eight years sooner than would have been the case under at predecessors, and between $20bn and $30bn less cost
The NBN under our predecessors existed only in theory. The NBN today is a practical reality, available to more than half of the nation. But we do recognise that when you’re talking about a project which is endeavouring to do, in about seven years, what it took over 70 years for the government and PNG to do, there will be a transition. This is a once in 100-year transition, with everybody moving to a new network. There have been some issues and migration.
NBN and retailers have been working hard on those. There has been an important net migration. When it comes to the issue of speeds in the applications that people have, there can be a number of reasons why people don’t have the experience that they would be expecting. One is modems. Sometimes, retailers will send households the wrong modems, or modems that are a poor body. In-house wiring is also an issue for a number of households – poor quality. But this is a issue for retailers. We have done a number of things to address that.
Firstly, we have charged the ACCC and given the money to bid 12,000 probes into premises, to report on the relative expressed that people are having enters a speeds, and what retailers are providing. The ACCC has also given clear guidance to retailers as to how they should their products.
The retailers have not always been doing a good job at that. The ACCC has made it clear to retailers that if they do not lift their game, there, that they will come down on them like a ton of bricks …
I never want to diminish the express that any individual or business has that is not all it should be. We are working hard to improve the customer experience, and the retailers have an absolute obligation to deliver for customers that which they promised.
Updated
In round #4,578 between Penny Wong and George Brandis, Wong has asked Brandis about Michaelia Cash’s knowledge of Nigel Hadgkiss.
Wong: She is aware in October 2016 of the conduct, which was subsequently found to be unlawful.
Brandis: I think you’ll find she was made aware of allegations.
Wong: The conduct which was subsequently found to be unlawful, I want to know at which stage the prime minister or is office became aware of that conduct.
Brandis: If at all.
Wong: I would also like to know, did the department attend, or does the department have any record of Senator Cash advising the prime minister of Mr Hadgkiss’s conduct?
Brandis: Senator, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet wouldn’t ordinarily keep a record of a meeting or a conversation between the prime minister and a minister.
(James Paterson attempts to go to a break)
Wong: Well, hang on. He has’t answered the question, I will ask it again. Is the department aware of any advice ...
Brandis: We’ll take the question on notice, but I simply make the point, that ordinarily, if a minister has a conversation with the prime minister, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet would not ordinarily have visibility or awareness of that conversation. It may, but not ordinarily.
And the committee takes a break.
Updated
A little earlier ...
In estimates, Penny Wong has been grilling prime minister and cabinet officials about the former small business minister Bruce Billson’s failure to declare that he was paid a salary by the Franchise Council of Australia while still an MP.
The deputy secretary, David Gruen, sets out the timeline that Billson ceased being a minister in September 2015, his appointment as executive chairman of the Franchise Council was announced on 23 March 2016 and he left parliament on 9 May.
He then reads a briefing note on the outcome of an investigation by the secretary, Martin Parkinson, which concluded:
- Billson didn’t breach post ministerial employment provisions because his advocacy on joint employer liability for franchisors and franchisees “fell within the portfolio responsibilities of minister for employment”, not his responsibilities as small business minister; and
- Billson didn’t breach lobbying rules because he was not engaged in lobbying activities on matters which he dealt with in the last 18 months as small business minister and didn’t fall within definition of lobbyist in code of conduct, because he was not lobbying for a third-party client. Bilson does not need to be and isn’t registered as a lobbyist on the lobbyist register.
Wong asks a broader question – is it appropriate to receive remuneration from another employer while still an MP?
The attorney general, George Brandis, replies:
It is very appropriate for backbench members to receive remuneration from third-party sources not inconsistent with their responsibilities as members of parliament ... It is both consistent and commonplace.
Updated
George Brandis is still in the hot seat in the finance and administration committee and Penny Wong is asking about Nigel Hadgkiss.
Updated
Michaelia Cash’s office has released another statement on the outcome of a court case involving a union and its delegate. Here is is in full:
Today the militant CFMEU incurred yet another penalty in the Federal Court for breaking Australia’s industrial laws at a Victorian building site.
The CFMEU and its delegate, Andrew Harisiou were penalised $90,000 and $8,000 respectively for breaches of laws relating to coercion, at the Pacific Werribee Shopping Centre site in 2015.
The court found that the CFMEU prevented workers from working on the construction site unless they joined the CFMEU and immediately paid the required membership fees.
In handing down his decision, Justice Tracey made the following remarks;
Having regard to the history of offending by the CFMEU to which I have referred, it may be doubted that any penalty falling within the available range for contraventions of the kind presently under consideration would be “sufficiently high to deter repetition”. Any penalty will be paid and treated as a necessary cost of enforcing the CFMEU’s demand that all workers on certain classes of construction sites be union members.
Justice Tracey is the second judge in two weeks to express concern that penalties that can be imposed by the courts are too small to act as a deterrent in light of the CFMEU’s ongoing policy of deliberate law-breaking.
Last week, Justice Vasta of the Federal Court remarked that;
There has been no remorse from the CFMEU. There has been no evidence of the CFMEU training any of its officers as to the provisions of the FW Act to ensure that such abominable behaviour is not undertaken by any of its representatives ever again.
As I have noted, the approach of the CFMEU has been that the imposition of pecuniary penalties are nothing more than an occupational hazard.
This Court has been asked to ensure that the industrial relations regime as created by Parliament is observed and complied with. The Parliament has given the Court only one weapon to ensure such compliance, and that is the ability to impose pecuniary penalties.
In the main, this weapon has been of great value. If a Court has dealt with an employer who has contravened the FW Act in an appropriate manner, the use of the pecuniary penalty has deterred that employer from breaching the FW Act again. Very rarely has the FWO, or a union, had to bring a recalcitrant employer back to the Court for breaching the FW Act a second time.
But this cannot be said of the CFMEU. The deterrent aspect of the pecuniary penalty system is not having the desired effect. The CFMEU has not changed its attitude in any meaningful way. The Court can only impose the maximum penalty in an attempt to fulfil its duty and deter the CFMEU from acting in the nefarious way in which it does.
If I could have imposed a greater penalty for these contraventions, I most certainly would have done so.
The Court can do no more with the tools available to it to ensure compliance with the industrial relations regime. If the community at large are not satisfied with the actions of the Court to ensure compliance with the FW Act, then the next step is a matter for the Parliament.
While the CFMEU continues to pay out significant penalties on a regular basis, it also continues to funnel millions of dollars to the Australian Labor Party.
Labor Shadow Employment spokesman Brendan O’Connor recently confirmed that penalties for such behaviour would be “lower” under a Shorten-led Labor Government. What he failed to say was that the penalties under Labor would in fact be zero, as Labor’s policy is to abolish the ABCC and have nothing in its place to enforce the law.
Whilst judge after judge condemns the CFMEU for its deliberate flouting of the law, and complain that penalties are not sufficient, Bill Shorten’s policy is to give the green light to the CFMEU with no penalties whatsoever. Nothing more starkly illustrates Mr Shorten’s unfitness for government than his approach to the CFMEU.
It is now clearer than ever that Bill Shorten and the Labor Party have been utterly compromised by the millions of dollars the ALP continue to receive from the CFMEU. Exactly what will it take for Bill Shorten to financial and political ties with this corrupt organisation.
*end statement*
Updated
The chamber has moved on to debating the Medicare levy amendment – that’s in relation to funding the NDIS.
You can find more on that here
Updated
Some question time visual action, from the wonderful Mike Bowers:
Updated
Steven Michelson, a longtime Bill Shorten staffer, has resigned, the Australian reports.
One of Bill Shorten’s most trusted aides has abruptly resigned amid an escalating ‘blackface’ scandal https://t.co/UyE4EBjogY
— The Australian (@australian) October 23, 2017
Updated
Barnaby Joyce gets a question on a Rockhampton flood levy from Jason Clare (Queensland election, what Queensland election?) and why the Coalition won’t commit to funding it.
It’s a complicated issue and Joyce, once he has got his blue-collar worker lines out, says there is some division in the community over whether it is wanted. He then continues his attack.
Question time moves to Dan Tehan who talks about the upcoming 100-year anniversary of the Battle for Beersheba and Malcolm Turnbull says that’s a good time to end question time, on reflection of the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice.
Which means we made it through another question time – how did you go with those topic bingo cards?
Updated
Malcolm Turnbull is asked again why One Nation got to announce $15m of government grants.
If it also usual for the government grants announced by non-government members and senators, in this case with oversized cheques with the focus on One Nation senators, in Coalition agreement with One Nation, will the prime minister table a copy of that agreement right now? If there is a Coalition agreement with One Nation?
Turnbull:
I refer the honourable member to my question, my earlier answer that he obviously noted. All government grants are approved by the appropriate ministers in the normal way.
That announcement got Pauline Hanson a nice front page in the Queensland town of Ipswich, which may go some way to explain why even the Coalition MPs were annoyed.
Updated
Peter Dutton is protecting us all from gangs.
Moving on …
Updated
Greg Hunt then takes another question on energy policy and once again uses the line keeping the lights on in hospitals and I tune out. So does most of the chamber, by the looks of it.
On to Bill Shorten:
“My question as to the prime minister. Can he confirmed that under his government power prices have never been higher, pensioners will lose their energy supplement, weekend workers lose their penalty rates, low- and middle-income families face a tax hike and the only benefit that anyone can look forward to is a lousy 50 cents a week in three years time?”
Malcolm Turnbull says he has dealt with these issues before.
“But there is one set of statistics that I can confirm. That is in the last 12 months, 371,500 jobs were created in Australia. Of which, 315,900 were full-time. And, Mr Speaker, Mr Speaker, that does compare with another 12 month period. The last 12 months when the leader of the opposition was employment minister. During that time, Mr Speaker, there was 129,000 jobs created of which only 32,900 were full-time. Mr Speaker, nearly three times as many jobs created in the last 12 months as in the last 12 months when he had responsibility for employment.”
The last year of the Labor government, Australia was still recovering from the delayed affects of the global financial crisis. This may need to become a regular reminder, given this is the second time in two weeks the Coalition has used this line.
Updated
Back to the opposition questions and Tanya Plibersek moves the agenda to tax:
Thanks to this legislation being debated today, someone earning $60,000 is guaranteed a tax hike of $300 a year. Yet the prime minister cannot even guarantee they will save a lousy 50 cents a week on their energy bills in three years’ time. One is the only guarantee that this prime minister can make is that thanks to him, working Australians will always have less?
Turnbull, whose voice seems on the brink of disappearing all together, seems to think this question is about energy policy and South Australia. Or something:
Australians know that Labor governments can be guaranteed to deliver higher energy prices and less reliable energy. The Labor party, the Labor party’s track record, Mr Speaker, whether it comes to border protection, the NBN or energy, reveals astounding incompetence. The Labor party has demonstrated both at the federal level and at the state level, particularly in South Australia, that they cannot be trusted with energy policy, but they are are incompetent, the combination of incompetency and actually results in less reliable energy. The lights do not stay on, the air-conditioners do not stay on, the hospitals do not have their plants running.
The Labor party’s failing to look afterAustralia’s energy security. It is one of their great failures in government and it goes hand in hand with all of those examples of Labor incompetence, whether it is failing to protect our borders, failing to defend the integrity of our nation’s orders, whether it is there incompetence with the NBN, wasting billions of dollars in sheer mismanagement or whether it is putting our energy security at risk. The Labor party cannot manage. They are incompetent and it has been proved by them again and again.
Updated
Kelly O’Dwyer take a dixer on the Neg and economic growth and, well, she does her best to look as though she believes what she is saying.
Updated
Mark Butler asks Labor’s first question on energy, although I am not sure if there is anything left to be said after all the dixers this afternoon.
Honestly, dixers should be outlawed. But I digress.
I refer to his latest energy policy. On the 1 July electricity prices for the average energy Australia household in New South Wales increased by nearly 20%. Does the prime minister seriously expect people in New South Wales to thank him for a lousy 50 cents a week saving they might get in three years’ time?
Malcolm Turnbull decides to take this one too. He comes out with his usual answer, about the energy industry being on board, about the experts recommending the policy, but he doesn’t answer the question. But as we know, this is not answer time.
Updated
Another dixer on energy, with Christopher Pyne deemed the latest salesman. Most of it is the same of what we have heard over the last week and a bit, but Pyne adds his own flourish at the end:
The Australian public are not interested in politics. They aren’t interested in the Labor party wanting to play the old politics of negativity and division. What they want is to see at Coag in November is the state and territory governments getting on board with this government’s attempt at solving one of the most significant issues facing households and businesses everyday. We don’t want the snake oil salesman ... the leader of the opposition, pretending to be bipartisan when all he wants is a political fight. The Labor party needs to support the households and businesses of Australia this time.
Updated
That reminds me – still no word from the high court.
Updated
Tony Abbott continues his recent form of wandering into QT a little late.
Updated
Australian Border Force has been without a commissioner since July
It’s only early, but we are getting into strange territory with the Department of Immigration and Border Protection before Senate estimates.
The Australian Border Force – not an organisation unused to controversy and scandal – has been without a commissioner since the man who held that job, the married Roman Quaedvlieg, stood aside in July pending an external investigation into allegations he had used his position to help his girlfriend get a job with the organisation.
But later that month, while he was on leave, Quaedvlieg’s official commissioner Twitter account “liked” a black-and-white (I know, classy, right?) pornographic video on twitter.
Department staff – professional obfuscationists who give up pieces of information to senators like they were teeth being pulled from their heads – conceded eventually that the department has been conducting an “investigation” into the incident.
It has been, apparently, terribly comprehensive. It asked Quaedvlieg if he did it. He said no. So then it asked some other people.
First assistant secretary Cheryl-Anne Moy: “There were approximately six staff who had authorisation to use the account.”
Senator Kim Carr: “And they all said they didn’t.”
Moy: “That’s correct.”
Quaedvlieg has been on paid leave – his salary is $731,000 – since July. It is not known when, if at all, he will return.
Updated
Dipping out of QT for a moment ...
Labor’s Penny Wong has been quizzing David Gruen, a deputy secretary in the department of prime minister and cabinet, about the National Energy Guarantee – trying to get him to say the obligation for emissions reduction amounts to a carbon price.
Gruen says the government “imposes a trajectory for low emissions” and then the market, through retailers’ contracts with generators, meets that obligation.
Wong asks if the Neg “ascribes a value profile” to both energy reliability and emissions reduction, and Gruen accepts that “there is a symmetry between the two obligations”.
Does it ascribe a value to a low emissions profile?
Gruen: “It depends on whether the system left to itself achieves the required emissions intensity or not. If it did, there would be no value. If it didn’t, there would be a value.”
The obligation to meet a low emissions intensity profile would be “reflected in the value of the contracts” and will be set “through supply, demand and competition”, he said.
Updated
Justine Keay has the next NBN question and she is talking fast enough to rival a race caller.
And no wonder, she just ran out of time before getting it all out. This is the problem with trying to include all of your attacks in one question.
“Is the Prime Minister aware because of his incompetent handling of the NBN the business has been allocated a satellite connection when its neighbours 650m away can get fibre, given we are in the Prime Minister’s fifth year of mismanagement of the NBN, isn’t it clear...”
This is the funniest thing the Coalition has allegedly ever seen, given the gaffaws which come from that side of the chamber, but given the standard of debate in this place lately, I guess the bar is low.
Tanya Plibersek comes to the rescue by pointing out the question included “is the Prime Minsiter aware” which counts as a question in Speaker Tony Smith’s world and Malcolm Turnbull is called to the box.
“...What is very clear about the NBN is that we inherited a complete mess from the Labor Party,just as we did on energy policy I might add. As with energy policy we are fixing it and turning it around and cleaning it up. With the NBN, the honorable member raises a particular case and we will take note of that and we will make sure that BNP and...”
Lisa Chesters gets thrown out for heckling and Turnbull decides he has concluded his answer.
Barnaby Joyce gets the next dixer, which is something about energy reliability and agriculture, but is really just an excuse for Joyce to continue his attack line which he really grabbed on to last week, about Labor turning its back on blue collar workers. No Dewdrop or Moonbeam this time. In fact, no real nicknames or references to basket weavers at all. Once again, his heart doesn’t seem in it.
Updated
Michelle Rowland asks the prime minister another question about the NBN and the prime minister once again flicks it to Paul Fletcher.
Rowland:
The prime minister promised Australians that is second-rate copper in the end would be fast, affordable and soon. Given that we now know it is slower than that of Labor, has doubled in cost and has not delivered what was promised, when will the prime minister take responsibility for the fact that the NBN is slower, more expensive and late?
Brace yourself for a lot of numbers. A lot. Fletcher:
I am pleased to have the opportunity to look further into the comparative records of the Labor party and the Coalition. When it comes to rolling out the NBN. It is extraordinary that Labor keeps hitting their head against a brick wall on this topic. I think it is instructive to have a look, I think it is instructive to have a loyal and what Labor promised in the first NBN corporate plan, 2011-13. By 30 June 2011 they were to be 223,000 premises past. Actual number? 10,575. That is less than 10%. By 30 June, 2012 there were to be 496,000 premises asked. Actual premises, 95,799. By 30 June 2013 there were to be 1.7m premises past. They were building confidence. Actually, 292,000 ...
On any assessment that is a dismal record of rank in incompetents. It is also instructive to look at what the NBN committed to when the Coalition came to power and what has been delivered. Because what was committed by 30 June 2015 was 1.93m. What was delivered was 1.165m. By June 30, 2016, what was committed was 2.632m. What was delivered was 2.893m. June 30, 2017, what was committed, 5.442m premises past or covered. Actually delivered, 5. 713m premises. So a very consistent record under the Coalition government of consistently delivering what has been committed to. Compared to the record under Labor of consistently and by a very wide margin, failing to deliver on what was in the business plan. Very few people on this side have worked in business but many of us over here have. If you saw that kind of performance in a business world you would be out, fact, gone, and that is what you all deserve when it comes to the NBN.
Updated
Another energy dixer, from Brisbane’s Trevor Evans. That gives Josh Frydenberg a chance to talk about the Labor Queensland government. You know, the one that didn’t sell its electricity network.
I know that he and his constituents have been paying the high price of the Palaszczuk government’s electricity tax because it has been the government-owned generators in Queensland that have been bidding artificially high prices to line the coffers of the Labor government and put this hidden electricity tax on the people of Queensland. That is why they welcome the efforts of the Turnbull government to make sure we rein in the power of the network.
Ah, the upcoming Queensland election should be fun. The rest of the answer is not anything we haven’t heard before, so let’s move on.
Updated
Cathy McGowan has the independents’ question and she uses it ask about detainees on Manus Island:
On the 14 September this year, minister, you told parliament in question time that there will be about 200 asylum seekers found not to be refugees moved into a detention centre in Papua New Guinea. There are eight days now until the Manus Island centre closes. Can you provide an update on how many asylum seekers will be left behind after October 31, what will happen to them, and will the government continued to provide these asylum seekers, in line with UN convention, with appropriate medical and healthcare, torture and torture support-… trauma and torture support and security services.”
Peter Dutton spends most of his answering time talking about facts and figures – the remaining population is 606 people, there were 141 who were found to be non-genuine refugees and the remaining people can move into another facility which has been set up.
McGowan interrupts on a point of order to state her question was about the media, healthcare, torture and trauma services, which Dutton says he was about to get to.
That sets off a firestorm of heckling from Labor, which Dutton addresses before getting to his answer:
I was coming to that point. Nothing was provided by Labor, you put the people there. I will not be lectured by Labor ... The honourable member has a much more distinguished record in this area and has the ability to ask these questions sincerely. The services she speaks off, they will continue to be provided and there will be transport arrangements from the new centres to transport people regularly.
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Back to the NBN and it’s once again Bill Shorten’s turn at the dispatch box:
We are now in the [fifth straight year of a Coalition] government and the prime minister has made a choice, first as communication minister and now as prime minister, to build a second-rate copper NBN instead of the first-rate fibre NBN. When will the prime minister stop blaming everybody else and finally take some responsibility for the system he has been in charge of four years and years?”
Malcolm Turnbull takes this one himself:
The leader of the opposition and his communications spokesman, neither of them understand the technologies for the NBN at all. Now let’s deal with some FAQs … Had the government, had the Coalition continued with fibre to the premises, as proposed by Labor, it would have taken six or eight years longer and $30bn more... The people who had no broadband would have been waiting for many years longer to get it and the cost of providing it would have obviously been much higher because the capital cost would be greater. The only advantage of, the big advantage is that it can carry a higher line speed. That is the deal. That is the proposition.
Mr Speaker, let me make this observation. The NBN now knows what Australians would be prepared to pay for. Seventy-nine per cent of people on fibre to the premises order speeds of 25 megabits per second or less. And they are on fibre to the premises. Eighty-seven per cent of fibre to the node order speeds of 25 megabits or less. Seventy-seven per cent of those on a hybrid car lacks order the same and the same pattern is true with others.
So the whole premise of the fibre-to-the-premises argument by the Labor party has been comprehensively disproved by what the public are prepared to do and use. It was a folly ... The Labor party set it up and we are sorting it out.
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The government still really wants to talk energy. It sends out Scott Morrison, via a dixer, to link the national energy guarantee to jobs growth.
I’ll just pull out the highlight for you:
Certainty is required for business investment and that’s what the national energy guarantee is providing, the national energy guarantee provides certainty for businesses to invest in greater energy supply to ensure more affordable and reliable energy for Australian businesses so they can continue to invest in their businesses and create even more Australian jobs, Mr Speaker. The national energy guarantee means more and better-paid jobs and Labor remain opposed.
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Back to Labor’s questions and Michelle Rowland picks up the NBN case:
Today his hand-picked CEO said about the NBN that it is too early to tell whether it’s a success or a failure. In the fifth year of the prime minister’s mismanagement of his second-rate copper NBN where no one else is to blame, is this the best the government can do? Why isn’t the government doing anything to fix the problems that are plaguing the NBN on his watch?
“Why don’t you clean up our mess better,” one Coalition MP yells across the chamber.
Paul Fletcher picks up the answer and starts talking about other lands in an attempt to be funny, to which Anthony Albanese interrupts to state: “None of us are from the land of nitwits.”
I guess that depends on your position in the chamber.
Fletcher picks up from Turnbull’s attack
We are rolling out the NBN as fast as it can be rolled out and just a couple of months later, just a couple of months later, they exited office with their leave 50,000 premises able to connect, barely 50,000 premises able to connect. We now have well over 6 million premises able to connect and over 2 million that actually are connected. When the shadow minister says says and presumes to contrast this government’s record of delivery of the NBN with Labor’s shambolic and hopeless record, I said to her, we didn’t want to start from where we did but we have been getting on with the job, over 6 million premises now able to connect.
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Sarah Henderson gets the first dixer and gives the prime minister permission to talk more about “affordable and reliable energy”. (Side note: where did “responsible” go?)
Oh wait, I spoke too soon. Malcolm Turnbull has remembered responsibility is meant to be part of the non-three-word-three-word-slogan.
What we have now is a recommendation from the energy security board that will deliver affordable and reliable energy and will enable us to meet our emissions reduction fund obligations, affordability, reliability, responsibility. This is not a political proposal, it’s come from the experts in the business, experts appointed by Coag, chaired by an independent chairman with the energy market operator, the rules make, the regulator all on that board. This is what they’ve recommended – rules maker.
What did the leader of the opposition say in response to that? He called it science fiction. Then he called it nonsense. No respect whatsoever for people whose intellect and experience makes them the best qualified in the industry. It’s no wonder, Mr Speaker, that one group after another is endorsing our national energy guarantee. The head of Bloomberg energy finance solves problems in an incredibly elegant way, that’s what they said. Mr Speaker, we’ve seen from ACCI, AIG, the Minerals Council, the BCA, BlueScope, BHP Billiton, Ryder – across-the-board support for the guarantee and Labor should back it and back the experts.
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Who had the NBN as the first question?
Bill Shorten jumps straight into it:
My question is to the prime minister, the prime minister’s second-rate copper NBN is creating a digital divide across Australia. With the one side of some streets getting first-rate fibre, while the other side gets second rate copper. How is this fair? Will the prime minister admit his second-rate copper NBN is creating a digital divide across this nation?
Malcolm Turnbull continues his defence of the NBN rollout, which is a matter very close to his heart, given he oversaw it while communications minister. He’s settled on his attack against Labor though, having given it a test run earlier today, and shouting to be heard over Labor’s heckling, he unleashes it:
The Labor party said when they announced they were going to establish a government company to build a national broadband network that it would be the most fantastic commercial opportunity. Kevin Rudd said that mums and dads would be lining up to invest, but, but he said he was stern, he said even though it was going to be the best investment ever, the government would hold 51%. He was going to hold back all of that wall of investment enthusiasm delivered at 49%.
What a train wreck it was. Tens of billions of dollars wasted by the Labor party, leaving us with the biggest corporate train wreck ever undertaken by a federal government. Now, what we’ve done is we’ve get on – on with the job and we’re playing the hand of cards we were dealt with by Labor and we are building it – got on with the job. We are building it for $30m less than under Labor and six to eight years’ less time.
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I’ve headed into the chamber for question time.
Get those QT bingo cards ready!
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Back to estimates for a moment and George Brandis is back and defending Julie Bishop’s event attendance.
As part of that, he has had a lot of trouble pronouncing “Thor” and jokes about how his pronunciation of names has got him in trouble lately. He’s referring to when he had trouble saying Richard Di Natale’s name, which was corrected after Brandis was referred to as Senator Brand-arse by the Greens in the Senate.
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And just a few minutes after Michelle Rowland finishes speaking, communications minister Mitch Fifield announces how he will be holding a press conference in the next 10 minutes.
Would Labor’s NBN have cost $30bn more?
Michelle Rowland:
This is absolute rubbish coming from a government that said they would deliver the NBN by 2016 $42.95bn. It’s now blown out to $50bn, and 2016 came and went. We know that this government has failed to deliver on every single measure, whether it be increased speed, rolling it out faster and greater reliability – all those factors have failed. So we don’t accept for one minute that this government’s botched copper – based NBN is actually going to deliver dividends for the economy, and is actually what we need in the 21st-century.
Updated
Labor’s communications spokesperson Michelle Rowland said there is a “frenzied state of panic” going on in Malcolm Turnbull’s office, as the NBN roll out goes on.
“We are very concerned about these reports about putting increasing taxes and new taxes on wireless broadband,” she says.
She dodges questions over the figures the government have put out about some of the individual costs (one case was close to $100,000) of connections under Labor’s plan. But she does say Australia was a “broadband backwater” when Labor first looked at the NBN.
I hope you have the NBN on your QT bingo card.
Brendan O’Connor has released a statement ahead of QT:
Labor is seriously concerned that the Turnbull government is incapable of addressing consistently flat wages growth – and in fact they’re making things worse by cutting the penalty rates of Australia’s lowest paid workers.
Turnbull and his Liberals have NOTHING to say about these terrible record lows and have NO agenda to address them.
According to the latest data, wages growth for enterprise agreements approved in the June quarter fell to 2.6%, from 2.% in March – a 26-year low.
In addition to low wages growth, there were only 845 approved enterprise agreements in the June quarter, the lowest since 1995.
Expect a little more on that during question time.
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Looks like there has been an interesting development in the Nigel Hadgkiss ABCC case
#breaking Ex-ABCC boss Nigel Hadgkiss "at no time" discussed the case that led to his resignation w/ ABCC top lawyer https://t.co/GO0IRbl4w9
— David Marin-Guzman (@dmaguz) October 23, 2017
We are about an hour out from question time. So far we have learnt a lost 1,000-page security manual is not a security risk and the NBN is Labor’s fault.
The Manus Island centre is due to be closed on 31 October, but there do not seem to be a lot of answers about what will happen to the 600 or so people still there. And energy policy is still being debated.
Fun times.
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Over in the chamber:
HoR now debating Treasury Laws Amendment (Improving Accountability and Member Outcomes in Superannuation Measures No. 2) Bill 2017 #auspol
— Political Alert (@political_alert) October 23, 2017
Dean Smith notes a Bishop media release from 2015 stating the Australian government invested $47.2m to attract Thor: Ragnarok and a new Ridley Scott film to Australia.
Attorney general George Brandis has defended Bishop:
“[Bishop] may have attended [the premiere] in the role she assumed as foreign minister in advocating Australia’s interests including promotion ... of Australian cinema and the film industry.
“As a former arts minister, responsible for Australian film industry, I had discussions with Bishop and encouraged her, particularly in the US, to promote and advocate for the work of the Australian film industry. I know that the advocacy was greatly appreciated by the industry and very effective. [Her attendance at the premiere] may well be related to that.”
Updated
Kimberly Kitching is asking about ministerial standards and whether Julie Bishop met them with some of the events she went to, mentioning the recent trip she took to the Thor premiere.
George Brandis defends the foreign affairs minister:
“You may be reassured Senator Kitching, that Ms Bishop as one of the most experienced and most respected ministers in the Australian government is well aware of the standards and is always observant of them.”
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The Parliamentary budget office has warned it will run out of funding completely in 2020-21 if new federal funding can’t be secured.
Jenny Wilkinson, the parliamentary budget officer, has told senators that the PBO has already started drawing down on its special appropriation to continue paying its 40-odd staff, and it has roughly three years left before the money runs out.
The PBO was established in July 2012 to provide independent and non-partisan analysis of the budget cycle, fiscal policy and the financial implications of policy proposals from major parties.
Its work has become well-respected, and it works hard to protect its non-partisan name.
In August, it was forced to reject reports that it produced new modelling of Labor’s tax policies, showing Labor’s policies would increase the tax burden on households by more than $100bn.
News Corp papers the Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun and the Courier-Mail published the much-hyped story, and Treasurer Scott Morrison promoted it heavily.
Morrison’s office had dropped the story to the newspapers the afternoon before, and told their journalists the new figures came from “independent modelling by the PBO and Treasury.”
Wilkinson said on Monday that the PBO had had some discussions about its ongoing funding with the joint committee of public accounts and audit about the need for more funding, but it had not had direct discussions with the government yet.
“I would expect that over the next year or two we should be having those discussions so that everyone is well aware of the sort of level of resourcing that we would need to supplement the PBO with, just in order to maintain the same level of resourcing that we have had over these first five years.”
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Over in the Finance and Public Administration committee again, and George Brandis is in the hot seat, and Julie Bishop’s travel is on the agenda.
Looks like parliamentary staffers and members (including your correspondent) are about to get help reaching their 10,000 steps a day– the parliamentary carpark lifts (not the public one) will be out of action between December and May. So I guess we can expect them to be out until November then.
On to slightly more important matters, Penny Wong is questioning officials from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet about the leaking of the COAG agenda on terrorism offences to the media. George Brandis pointed the finger at the states, who had the agenda.
Sky News is reporting the man charged with headbutting Tony Abbott has faced a Hobart magistrates court.
He entered no plea and the case has been adjourned until January.
Pat Conroy has come out swinging against Josh Frydenberg and the government’s energy policy this morning in a doorstop. So I guess those bipartisanship talks are going well:
This is the quality of policy making from this government. No modelling, no regulatory impact statement, nothing but an eight-page letter from the Energy Security Board, done behind the back of COAG and he’s expecting consumers, he’s expecting households, he’s expecting Labor to sign off on a document and a plan without any details where at best they claim something between 50 cents and $2 of savings a week. While I wouldn’t expect any different from a man [Frydenberg] more intent on knocking off Malcolm Turnbull than doing his day job.
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Quite a few revelations from the immigration estimate hearing.
Manus men to be denied drinking water and food and abandoned to the PNG navy which tried to kill them early this year pic.twitter.com/PYKj7bDfdM
— Nick McKim (@NickMcKim) October 23, 2017
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While the environment committee estimate hearing goes on, it might be timely for you to have a look at Mike Bowers’ latest amazing project, looking at the survival of Kiribati, which is dealing with the direct impacts of climate change.
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Caption this:
Lyle Shelton is on Sky for his regular segment arguing marriage equality with Christine Forster, talking small slim stages and wide chairs. He makes a joke about the fall, which took down Mark Latham, Miranda Divine and himself, who were all arguing the no side (shocking) for a weekend event, was a plot by the yes campaign. But it gives us an excuse to run this.
— Tom Day (@tomdaymusic) October 22, 2017
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Stephen Parry steps in again and says he wants to make it very clear in the public domain that this relates to “matters that would have taken place in the future”.
“Not matters that had actually taken place, which gives the department the opportunity to modify and change is a risk is deemed to be out there because of this issue and I will go through the other aspects again that it was an early draft, a lot of the matters are now redundant, a lot of the matters have been modified and over 50% of the materials which were going to be sourced were commercially available ... so I’ll just leave those matters. It is not a security breach of security and security at parliament house has not been compromised.”
The committee moves on.
The Greens senator Lee Rhiannon asks how many lobbyists have access to the building.
As of August 2017 there are 1,710 “sponsored passes”, which is the category of pass given to lobbyists.
The names are not released, Parry says, because of security issues.
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Australia will spend between $150m and $250m supporting refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island in the year after the regional processing centre closes.
The impending closure – next Tuesday – of Australia’s immigration “regional processing centre” on Manus Island has dominated early questioning in Senate estimates.
The vast majority of the men held on Manus Island have been there more than four years. More than 71% have been found to be refugees – they have a “well-founded fear of persecution in their home country”, they cannot be returned home, and are legally owed protection.
The Manus detention centre at Lombrum was ruled “illegal and unconstitutional” by the PNG Supreme Court in April 2016, but the government has now outlined more of the new regime that will follow the Lombrum closure.
Deputy commissioner with the Australian border force, Mandy Newton, told Senate estimates it was estimated Australia would spend $150m and $250m for “support services” for those still held in PNG over the next 12 months.
Refugees will be housed at accommodation built at East Lorengau and West Lorengau. Asylum seekers will be housed at a separate site, Hillside House.
Healthcare will only be provided at East Lorengau.
Australia will still retain effective control of refugees and non-refugees in PNG. The Australian government is currently negotiating contracts with: Paladin Solutions, as the primary contractor for East Lorengau; IHMS, to continue to provide medical care; JDA Holdings (settlement services); and NKW Holdings (site services).
There is no proposed end to these arrangements, though there is an “expectation” services will be transitioned to PNG responsibility.
“Australia will meet all reasonable costs,” department secretary Mike Pezzullo said.
Updated
The parameters which were set for these questions to be asked publicly, include not asking about the content of the manuals.
But Senate president Stephen Parry wants to give the committee “a little bit of an outline of the manual Senator Kitching has been referring to.”
“First of all, it was an early draft ... secondly, some of the portions in that early draft are now redundant, thirdly a number of aspects have been modified and finally, about 50% ... are commercially available products,” Parry said.
“You start off with the worse case scenario, once the investigation was completed, our fears were allayed considerably. However, we still don’t want to identify aspects of this, so people don’t go looking in areas that we don’t want people to go looking, just in case matters are discovered, but we are comfortable at the moment that there are no compromise to the security arrangements to parliament house.”
Kimberly Kitching wants to know why a private investigator was hired to look into the missing manual, and why it wasn’t done by the AFP.
The security controller was verbally advised of the situation, and DPS said it was not the sort of matter the AFP would be engaged on, as it was not “identifiably a criminal matter”.
So they hired a PI.
Updated
DPS and Parry have both said there was no “substantial breach of security” with the manual’s loss.
Wong says she “doesn’t understand that evidence”.
Hang on ... there is no substantial breach of security. It is common ground that a manual has been misplaced, correct? ... That is correct isn’t it. To this stage, as I understand the president’s evidence, he is saying we can’t find any evidence that it has got into the hands of someone untoward, but we don’t where it is, so we don’t know who’s got it. Is that right?”
The committee is told: “It’s definitely lost”.
“By definition, that means we don’t know where it is,” Wong says dryly.
Updated
The finance committee is back. Kitching is continuing her line of questioning, reiterating that it was not DPS which lost the manual, but a private contractor. Now we are moving on to how DPS reacted.
The secretary of the department, Robert Stefanic, has confirmed the manual was lost by a contractor in November 2016. In February DPS was advised by letter that the manual had been misplaced.
Penny Wong wants to know why the contractor waited to advise DPS about the missing manual – but no one can say why they waited three months.
The AFP were made aware of it, Stefanic says, on the same day. DPS can’t say if the prime minister’s office was advised, or whether Michael Keenan, or George Brandis were advised (as the minister for justice and attorney general) “It’s a matter for the parliament,” Parry, the Senate president says.
Updated
The curious case of the Department of Parliamentary Services and the lost security manual
The Department of Parliamentary Services is citing operational security as the reason it cannot discuss the loss of the security manual.
Kitching is having none of that:
“I don’t want to talk about operational security, I want to discuss the fact that a 1,000-page security manual was lost last November,” she said.
“How was the manual lost? I am not asking about the manual, I am not asking about the details in the manual, I am asking how a 1,000-page security manual was lost last November.”
After Stephen Parry also objected to the allegations being made public, Kitching tried again:
On this matter, we are spending $126 million approximately to security upgrades to parliament house, there is a security manual that has been missing for nearly a year, I am going to go to some questions around some mitigation that DPS has tried to do, which involved the hiring of a contractor to investigate this, which started in February. So over the Christmas holidays, no one did anything. Then in February they decided they should perhaps go into this. I would like to ask some questions about that. I will put them on notice if they are not able to be asked in a public forum. Remember this is public money that is being spent – and the fact that we are spending a lot of money ... yet some of this may be undone, because a security manual was lost by another contractor, I think is in the public interest.”
Chair James Paterson says Kitching should feel free to ask her questions, but to tread sensitively, given the security concerns.
The committee then went on break.
Updated
Further funding for Rohingya crisis
Julie Bishop has just announced a further $10m for the Myanmar humanitarian crisis:
The Australian government remains deeply concerned by the ongoing violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar, and the resulting humanitarian crisis in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Australia will contribute a further $10m to help address the humanitarian needs of those people affected by the crisis.
The United Nations estimates that more than 582,000 Rohingya people fleeing violence have crossed into Bangladesh since August 25, 2017.
Most of these people have few possessions and are reliant on humanitarian aid for their survival. Many are injured and traumatised. Almost 70% are young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women.
Australian support will go towards providing food, clean water, shelter and essential health services. Our assistance will also help treat children for malnutrition, create safe and secure areas for vulnerable women and provide maternal health services.
The new contribution will include support for the World Food Program, Save The Children, Oxfam and Care. It will also support an upcoming joint funding appeal with the Australia Red Cross and Australia for UNHCR.
The funding is in addition to the $20m announced in September, bringing our total commitment to $30m.
The Australian government condemns the ongoing violence in Rakhine State. We continue to call for the protection of civilians and unfettered access for humanitarian workers.
Updated
Senate president Stephen Parry is suggesting a (private) briefing regarding the issue, which department of parliamentary services (DPS) is trying very hard to keep out of the public arena.
He says there has been “no compromise” of security.
Just to recap – as the government is spending $126m or so on a giant fence around parliament because of confidential security issues, a 1,000-page security manual may have been lost by a contractor. Kitching says no action may have been taken on the loss of the manual for at least three months.
Updated
In finance and public administration estimates, Labor senator Kimberly Kitching has just alleged a 1,000-page security manual has been missing for almost a year.
Updated
Malcolm Turnbull has continued his defence of the NBN roll out:
Well, look, the NBN was a calamitous train wreck of a project when we came into government ... in 2013. Billions and billions of dollars were wasted by Labor, and there was no way to get them back, OK? As communications minister, I had to play the hand of cards I was dealt – as I often used to say, you know, in the words of the Irish barman when asked for directions to Dublin: ‘If I were you, I wouldn’t be starting from here.’ No-one would have wanted to start from where Labor left us. So, we have done the best we can getting that project on track. It is on track in terms of the rollout. They are activating many more households and premises a fortnight than Labor did in six years, but there have been real problems – both with the installation experience and with people not getting the speeds that they believe they’re paying for, or that they have paid for. We are very, very focused on improving on both of those counts. Of course, as the network expands, you will always get more complaints because, if you’ve got 3 million customers, you’ll get more than if you’ve got 50,000. Plainly. But one complaint is one complaint too many. So I am determined to ensure that we address those issues, and that people get the speeds they have paid for.
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The Bureau of Metrology is up in the environment estimates. Labor senator Sam Dastyari, who seems to have forgotten his popcorn and appears to be having a hard time containing his glee, got in ahead of a certain senator, by demanding empirical evidence about the Illuminati.
Dastyari asks BoM...
— Lane Sainty (@lanesainty) October 22, 2017
How many members of the Illuminati work at BoM?
To what extent to George Soros direct daily activity?#estimates
But as for the conversations that matter–the ones with the states – Turnbull is a little more guarded.
I’ve had conversations with several of them. I know Josh has been talking to the energy ministers. I think the next step is the energy ministers’ meeting in late November, and obviously there is modelling underway now, as you know. That’ll be – that’s the next step.
Have they been receptive?
Well, the conversations I’ve had, they’ve been very receptive. But there’s often, as you know, a mismatch between the private conversations and the public rhetoric. But, ah ... there it is.”
Updated
Malcolm Turnbull and Josh Frydenberg are at a brick glass and mirror factory talking all things Neg. And in a change of pace, Turnbull is hosting a Q and A with one of the workers at the factory, as well as with Frydenberg.
It’s like an infomercial, but without the exercise gear.
Turnbull: As you know, we’ve taken strong action on gas recently to ensure there’s enough gas for the east coast market. What has that done to the gas supplies and gas market?
Worker: We’re a big gas user, obviously, in our glass and bricks businesses. We’ve had to enter the wholesale market for gas to ensure we have supply. So we’ve sort of cut the retailers out of that in certain parts of our business. What we’ve also seen is the spot price comedown, which is very beneficial. The work you and the energy minister have done to guarantee the supply has meant spot prices have come down, and that’s great for us an as an organisation. It’s great for the people, actually; 4,200 employees. Our objective every day is to keep those people in work.
Turnbull: That’s our objective too. That’s what – that’s what the national energy guarantee is about. That’s what all of our energy policies are about, that Josh and I have been developing and rolling out. It’s about ensuring Australians have affordable and reliable power – vitally important for households and families, but vitally important for jobs. These jobs depend on affordable energy. Peter, how important is energy, the cost of energy, to making glass? Just talk a bit about that, and the jobs that you support at Dandenong where we were in February, and then at all of your plants around the country.
And so on.
Updated
Missing: smoke
PM Turnbull talks a photo of media taking photo of him in a mirror at Hume glass factory @AmyRemeikis @GuardianAus pic.twitter.com/KnFSAfBlDc
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) October 22, 2017
Secretary of the immigration and border protection department Mike Pezzullo has told the Senate’s legal and constitutional affairs committee it is “probable” he is appearing before the committee in his current capacity for the final time.
Pezzullo is secretary-designate of the nascent Home Affairs department, whose establishment is proposed for July next year.
On the front foot early, Pezzullo told the committee in his opening statement that early criticism of the new department as a “sinister behemoth” was “fallacious and unworthy”.
The new department will combine inter alia: all of the immigration and border protection department, including the Australian border force; the Australian security intelligence organisation; the Australian federal police; the Australian criminal intelligence commission; and emergency management Australia.
Pezzullo said the new department would be subject to oversight by parliament and “the rule of law”.
“Power must always be exercised legitimately,” he said.
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Tony Abbott has updated his interest register, declaring the travel and hospitality he received earlier this month when he gave his now infamous volcano gods climate speech in London.
The Global Warming Policy Foundation paid for both Abbott and his wife to travel to and stay in the UK.
travel and hospitality from the global warming policy foundation https://t.co/YV5MVYy5ZG
— Nick Evershed (@NickEvershed) October 22, 2017
In the Senate and public administration legislation committee, Labor is questioning Senate president Stephen Parry over whether LNP Senator Barry O’Sullivan has conflict of interests in regards to the Senate committees he sits on/chairs.
It’s getting quite heated.
Senator Murray Watt: “What I am saying is Senator O’Sullivan is asking questions about things he is making money of”. Senator Bridget Mackenzie says the questions are ridiculous, given so many of the Nationals MPs own farms, or have interests in the agricultural industry.
Updated
Question time is at 2pm, but the main show before that is the estimate hearings, with environment and communications catching a lot of attention – mostly because it is being seen as (potentially) Malcolm Roberts last chance to question the Bureau of Metrology over climate data.
Stay tuned for that!
In more serious news, expect Labor to hammer the government over its clean energy target.
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Special minister of state Scott Ryan has kept the ball running on the NBN publicity blitz, saying the cost of fibre-to-the-premises rollout for some individual premises, revealed the “folly” of the Labor plan.
Pauline Hanson has weighed in:
The original with fibre to the premises should be done. You’ve got NBN and then Telstra. It should be one company like the same as what New Zealand did and I just think the costs, the blow-out is unbelievable, the workmanship is poor in a lot of cases, and there’s a lot of questions to be asked over this. Good advice wasn’t taken initially from the beginning, trying to, you know, cut costs. That’s been a big issue here. And initially – if that had been done, it would have been cheaper to the taxpayer. Now, I believe it won’t do the job when it is finished. You have businesses who are not going to get the service they need, like the rest of the world is providing. They will leave our shores and I think that many should be put into it now to get it right from the very beginning. Wear the cost of it, but get it right.”
For those who are interested, advocacy levels on NBN technology were discussed in June this year in the last estimate hearings: 35% of people would advocate for fibre to the node, while 66% of people would advocate for fibre to the premise.
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Independent senator Jacqui Lambie’s campaign to reform the lobbyist rules is slowly bubbling along. Fellow crossbencher Cathy McGowan announced her support for it on Friday, saying she believed it was time to “restore respect and trust in the system”:
Lobbying is an important way people can participate in the democratic process. It must be transparent and equally available to all ... As an independent voice my call to the government is for effective change to make sure processes in parliament reflect community expectations.
Enshrining these expectations in law would be an important step forward.”
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The issue of renewables and where Australia is heading with them must have hit a sore spot.
Over the weekend, Josh Frydenberg released a statement defending the government’s action with a listicle:
The inconvenient truth for Labor is that the Coalition’s strong record on renewable energy couldn’t be clearer:
- In 2016 there was a five-fold increase in investment in renewables compared to 2015
- 2017 is seeing an unprecedented wave of investment in renewable energy worth over $8bn and over 4,000MW of capacity
- $4.3bn in investment commitments have been made by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, more than $3.5bn of which has been made under the Coalition.
- More than $1bn of grants through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, around half of which has been made under the Coalition.
- Investing in Snowy Hydro 2.0 which will be the biggest battery in the southern hemisphere and help to make wind and solar more reliable.
- More than one in five Australian households now have solar panels installed on their roof – the highest rate per capita in the world.
- Around 95% of the estimated renewable capacity to meet the large-scale renewable energy target is either operating or under way through firmly announced investment commitments.
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These investments have been based on the existing renewable energy target, which remains unchanged.
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Just on the Neg, Labor is still criticising the process, while not ruling out supporting the crux of the policy.
Joel Fitzgibbon had this to say on Sky last night:
This is the fourth policy in 12 months if you count the proposal to extend the life of Liddell power station in my electorate. That lasted some 24 hours. But we are now I think five days after the announcement of this if you like seminal policy and the government still can’t give us the detail. They can’t give us any modelling, they can’t give us any of the numbers that will be involved here. So it’s a really strange environment we are in. It is becoming a bit of a joke but I don’t think anyone out there in the electorate is laughing.”
Meanwhile the government has responded by putting Kevin Rudd’s energy policies under the spotlight.
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I am going to be a little spider like today, as I keep an eye on the estimate hearings as well as watch what is happening in the house.
You’ll find the schedule here. I’ll update you on the going ons as soon as I can.
Cabinet is meeting today, as usual, but first Malcolm Turnbull has some media to do, with Josh Frydenberg. Brace yourself for more Neg news.
Good morning
It is week two of the sitting, but only the lower house is meeting this week, with the Senate taken up by estimates hearings.
But before the government starts defending its spending, its defending the NBN. NBN Co executives have been hitting the airwaves early ahead of a scheduled Four Corners report into the project tonight. A blitz of information has been released, including cost comparisons with Labor’s plan, as the government and the NBN Co point the finger at the retailers for the promised speeds not being delivered.
In other news, GetUp is being asked to prove it is not an associated entity of the Labor party, with the Australian Electoral Commission taking a deeper look. Paul Karp writes:
Guardian Australia understands the AEC wrote to GetUp noting it might have to submit an associated entity disclosure because its 2016 election activities benefited Labor and the Greens.
The AEC said it had not come to a final conclusion on whether GetUp was an associated entity, but said the organisation could risk prosecution if it did not complete the return by the deadline of last Friday.
*The battle for New England is heating up, despite no one firing the starting gun as yet. The Nationals are claiming dirty tricks as fake polling was distributed over the weekend using an old party letterhead. Joyce’s personal life also received an airing over the weekend, but the deputy PM is staying mum on that.
Senate budget estimate hearings are scheduled all week, so that should provide some fun and games. Watch out for Penny Wong, who has become a master at these hearings, as well as some classic Ian Macdonald action.
Looking outside Canberra for a moment, and the Queensland election rumours are only growing stronger. November 25 is the latest date on everyone’s lips, but 2 December is also in the mix. But either way there are a lot of federal eyes looking north for an idea of how the country is feeling at the moment.
Energy will continue to dominate the Canberra agenda, with Labor still looking at whether it will support the Turnbull/Frydenberg Neg plan. But from the mood in the building this morning, it seems like there are some itchy feet walking around, as the government waits on the high court ruling. It seems like everyone is just waiting for that other shoe to drop and treading water in the meantime. Won’t that make for a fun week!
Follow along with the Guardian Australia brains trust. Mike Bowers is already out and about in the hallways and I am standing guard at the keyboard, ready to keep you informed. As always, you can find us at @mpbowers or on instagram or @amyremeikis, as well as the comments.
Grab your coffee and let’s get started!
*Correction–GetUp has just informed me they do not have plans to campaign in New England, if a by-election is called.
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