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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Gabrielle Chan

Lower house rejects Senate's 10.5% backpacker tax amendment – as it happened

Opposition leader Bill Shorten during a division just prior to adjournment in the reps chamber of Parliament House, Canberra this afternoon. Thursday 24th November 2016. Photograph by Mike Bowers. Guardian Australia
Opposition leader Bill Shorten during a division just prior to adjournment in the reps chamber of Parliament House, Canberra this afternoon. Thursday 24th November 2016. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Night-time politics

  • Today, lots of silliness happened in the parliament. Most developments related to the backpacker tax, which seemed to take all day, but there was no step forward. The situation remains a stalemate.
  • As growers wait for a stable tax rate for a fair portion of their harvest staff, the Senate debated, then amended, the working holidaymakers income tax rate to 10.5%, with support from Jacqui Lambie, Labor, the Greens, David Leyonhjelm and One Nation. The bill was then sent to the lower house, which threw out the 10.5% rate, leaving the rate at 19%. Now the bill goes back to the Senate and sits in a queue.
  • The $5 increase in the passenger movement charge passed the house after the government lost the vote due to a no-show by One Nation senators. Pauline Hanson and Brian Burston apologised to the Senate for their confusion between a quorum and a vote.
  • Pauline Hanson said there was reverse racism in Australia while debating a private member’s bill to remove a whole part (including 18C) from the Racial Discrimination Act. Labor senator Pat Dodson said “it is interesting that bigotry is back in favour”, giving a speech from personal experience.
  • Immigration minister Peter Dutton said he had been misrepresented by Bill Shorten over his comments regarding Lebanese Muslim Australians but would not identify in what way.
  • The Senate economics references committee report into the 2016 census, released on Thursday, found that IBM failed to check the system’s resilience and recommended open tendering be used to award the contract in future. The 2016 census was like a house with “a sinking foundation and cracks in the walls”, because IBM and its subcontractors are in dispute over the bad build, a Senate committee has said. But it said that “the primary responsibility lies with the government” and called on “the current minister, on behalf of the government, to take responsibility”. Labor isn’t calling for small business minister, Michael McCormack, to resign though, because of how soon before the census he took over responsibility for it.

That’s it for the week. Thanks to Paul Karp, Gareth Hutchens and Katharine Murphy. And Mike Bowers for the 13km he ran today with full camera gear. I kid you not, that’s what the pedometer says. It was well worth our while. And thanks to you dear reader. We could not do it without you.

We will be back next week, bright and early on Monday. At this stage staffers are being told to anticipate the last week of sitting will extend into Friday.

Goodnight.

Updated

MAMIL.

The member for Bowman Andrew Laming came straight from the gym for a backpacker tax division just prior to adjournment.
The member for Bowman Andrew Laming came straight from the gym for a backpacker tax division just prior to adjournment. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Long day at the office.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten during a division just prior to adjournment.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten during a division just prior to adjournment. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

What an extraordinary day.

Malcolm Turnbull, deputy Barnaby Joyce and leader of the house Christopher Pyne vote to send the bill back to the senate.
Malcolm Turnbull, deputy Barnaby Joyce and leader of the house Christopher Pyne vote to send the bill back to the senate. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

The lower house has adjourned so the MPs are off.

The Senate continues.

Updated

Lower house rejects 10.5% rate amended by Senate

The lower house has rejected the Senate’s amendments 75-70.

It is not clear whether the bill will go straight back to the Senate for another vote.

Updated

To be clear, the lower house now has to consider the backpacker tax amendment for a 10.5% tax rate.

In order to do this, the house had to knock off the adjournment debate.

The lower house is now voting on the question that the 10.5% change not be made.

That is, chuck out the 10.5% rate and restore the 19% rate.

In which case, the bill will go back to the government’s preferred option of 19% and will be punted back up to the Senate.

Updated

All I can hear from the backpacker division is Labor’s agriculture shadow, Joel Fitzgibbon, yelling at Barnaby Joyce:

Black Jack [McEwen] would be rolling in his grave.

You have sold your farmers down the drain.

Go out on the doors now and apologise now.

Updated

The backpacker tax bill is back in the house. A number of votes are happening.

Presumably the government will reject the amendments.

Here is the magic of David Speers.

In failing to back in the treasurer’s assertion that foreign workers will pay less tax than Australians, the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, looks as if he does not agree with Scott Morrison.

Show me the numbers.

Updated

There has been a blue in the Senate courtyard between the new National Farmers Federation president, Fiona Simson, and Jacqui Lambie.

The Tasmanian senator said if the NFF had done their job, farmers could have had a rate of 10.5%.

Simson said she would come and see her.

Lambie said don’t bother about me, go and see your farmers.

Updated

David Speers of Sky News is valiantly trying to pin the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, down on the government’s arguments against the 10.5% tax rate.

In the House, Scott Morrison repeatedly said foreign workers would pay less tax than Australian workers on 10.5%.

Speers says given backpackers pay tax from the first dollar, does Cormann also assert backpackers would pay less tax than Australians?

Cormann does not repeat the Morrison assertion.

Cormann won’t go there.

The closest he will go is this:

Labor wants to deliver further tax cuts for foreign workers.

Speers tries the question every which way but Cormann sticks to his line. He is one of the most disciplined ministers in the government for sticking to his line. Often frustratingly so.

Make of that what you will.

Updated

Backpacker 4: the vote.

The Senate chamber during voting on the backpacker tax
The Senate chamber during voting on the backpacker tax. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Updated

Backpacker 3: the sprint.

One Nation senator Rod Culleton races back to his place during voting on the backpacker tax.
One Nation senator Rod Culleton races back to his place during voting on the backpacker tax. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Backpacker 2: Arm twisting.

One Nation senators Rod Culleton and Brian Burston talks to government ministers Mathias Cormann and Michaelia Cash
One Nation senators Rod Culleton and Brian Burston talks to government ministers Mathias Cormann and Michaelia Cash. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Updated

Backpacker tax 1. Rapproachment

Labor, the Greens and crossbenches during voting on the backpacker tax in the Senate chamber of Parliament House
Labor, the Greens and crossbenches during voting on the backpacker tax in the Senate chamber of Parliament House. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Updated

I have a veritable avalanche of Bowers magic so stay tuned.

Labor to Turnbull: In question time yesterday, in answer to a question from the Member for Gorton, the PM said he had no choice over his investments in 7-Eleven because he has no control over what his managed funds invest in. Labor says Turnbull managed to divest himself from tobacco interests through managed funds. Why not 7/11 funds?

Turnbull says his managed funds do not invest where there is a “material interest” in tobacco. He says most MPs would have superannuation funds that invests in foreign shares including tobacco and 7/11.

Updated

Labor’s Michelle Rowland to Turnbull: In 2013, the PM promised every Australian household would have access to the NBN by the end of this year. Is the PM at all concerned that, to deliver on his promise, he has to connect 7.8m premises in the next 37 days? Or does he have such a high opinion of his talents that he consider it is a breeze to connect 210,000 premises per day? That’s over 8,000 premises per hour or 140 premises per minute.

There is 3.5m premises that can get it now, and about 1.5m, somewhat more in fact are actually connected and activated. It is meeting its targets and it is beating it. The Labor party is relentless in its desire to mislead and spread falsehoods about the NBN.

Updated

Another union question.

Meanwhile:

Labor to Turnbull: There is an emergency meeting between the PM and the South Australian Liberal leader today. Given the South Australian Liberal leader has today called on the PM to implement the Murray-Darling basin plan in full, including the 450 gigalitres, will the PM now pull his deputy and the leader of the Nationals into line over his divisive threats to the bipartisan basin plan?

Turnbull repeats that the Murray-Darling Basin plan has conditions which require any extra environmental water to only be taken if there are neutral or positive effects on communities along the river.

He does not tell us whether he had an emergency meeting with the South Australian Liberal leader.

Updated

Labor to Turnbull: The PM a few moments ago referred to the targeting of old people. Yesterday in question time, the PM was unaware that his government had threatened to sue a Sydney grandfather for his use of the Medicare logo and today the minister for human services said he wasn’t aware of his department’s threats to sue, so is the PM aware of whether the government has also threatened to sue the Liberal party, the minister for trade (among others) for their use of the Medicare logo, or are these actions limited to a Sydney grandfather?

Turnbull commits to speak to the minister, look at the legal advice and review it.

Updated

The health minister, Sussan Ley, gets a question.

Liberal MP Russell Broadbent asks the speaker:

I clearly heard three times somebody cat-calling the minister. This is unacceptable behaviour.

Tony Smith:

If I catch anyone, either cat-calling or trying to impersonate members, there is a long history of being ejected from the House, and it won’t just be a warning. And if anyone wishes to withdraw, now having been informed of that, I will now give them the opportunity.

No one pipes up.

Updated

Shorten to Turnbull: After the election, the PM admitted there was some fertile ground in relation to the government’s policies on Medicare and, on 11th November, the PM said that this stemmed from the 2014 budget and the copayment. So can the PM confirm that the former prime minister, the member for Warringah’s 2014 budget is to blame for the community suspicion of the government’s current Medicare policies?

Turnbull again admits there was fertile ground after the 2014 Abbott/Hockey budget:

The measure referred to in the 2014 budget was abandoned. It was abandoned because it was not acceptable to the public, and every member of the cabinet, including myself, takes full responsibility for the 2014 budget. But we learn lessons. We learn lessons from the measures that we take that are not successful ... and we are addressing that. There is clearly a vulnerability there. We acknowledge that. But what we have done is been straight and honest and upfront about it. What the Labor party has done is seek to lie and deceive to people the outrageous Mediscare scandal.

Updated

Greens leader Richard Di Natale has asked attorney general George Brandis about his answer yesterday on the immigration minister’s comments about allowing Lebanese migrants to come to Australia was “a mistake”. Brandis had said the remarks did not prejudice engagement with the Lebanese community.

Di Natale suggests the Australian Federal Police have reached out to Muslim leaders who are concerned about Peter Dutton’s remarks that 22 of 33 people charged with terror offences are a second or third generation Lebanese immigrants.

Brandis doubles down that “no such concerns have been expressed to me ... by either my department or my agencies”.

Brandis demands Di Natale to reveal what his source is for the claim the AFP has contacted Muslim leaders and to quote it, then makes a great deal of the fact he chooses not to.

Asked whether Dutton got his numbers right, Brandis said he is “confident any statement made by my ministerial colleague is accurate”, and said the AFP had not given him any advice Dutton’s claim is wrong.

Just back a point before the last few questions.

The speaker Tony Smith admits an error in ruling out the question but flags in future, he will be tougher.

That question - the final part of it is just in order, but I want to caution those asking questions that I will in future rule out of order questions that are, you know, a substantial proportion out of order just with a tag at the end.

Labor to Turnbull: Is the PM aware that the publisher of the former prime minister’s book has said, and I quote, “I expect Tony to make the case for the Liberal Party to return to its conservative roots about his new book.” Isn’t it now clear that no matter how many concessions the PM makes to extreme right of his party, it will always be followed by new policy demands? Why does the policy of this government always reflect the demands of the Liberal Party’s extreme right?

Turnbull:

What does it say about the Opposition that when we have great matters of financial management, when we have a ministerial statement and a bitter and virulent reply on infrastructure today, when we’ve had a ministerial statement on national security, and again another bitter and inflammatory reply from the Opposition Leader, the Opposition does not have the courage to ask one question on either matter? And instead, what we get is these childish, undergraduate questions about trying to play political games.

Labor to Morrison: I refer to reports the former prime minister, the member for Warringah, is having a range of policy ideas costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office. Has the PM been helpfully presented with any of these costed policies?

The speaker rules the question out of order and moves to a government question, which relates to export trade deals though I suspect we are heading to the backpacker tax.

Updated

In Senate question time, Labor is asking the communications minister, Mitch Fifield, about statements on government websites that the NBN “only requires $29bn of public funding”, after the government gave it a further $19.5bn from taxpayer-backed loans.

Fifield said that the equity cap of $29.5bn “remains the case”. A loan is “entirely different” because it is repaid, he said.

Labor leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, interjects that this amounts to arguing “a taxpayer funded loan is not taxpayer funding!”

After a follow up on whether the loan means NBN wasn’t able to borrow on commercial terms, Fifield responds that its credit ratings are good but “the government can borrow at better rates”.

Ian MacDonald then repeatedly shouts “Penny! Penny!” to stop the interjections. We’re now onto a Dorothy Dixer about the ABCC bill.

Scott Morrison gets a question on the balancing the budget and threats to the AAA rating.

Rebekha Sharkie, Nick Xenophon Party to Christopher Pyne: My constituent Rick is 63 years of age. He was unemployed on Newstart and registered with Max Employment. He looked for work for over two years. Max stood to receive up to $10,000 for placing Rick in work. Max Employment sent Rick to a so-called job interview with Soft Tech Homes and won the role but he realised he was not an employee but required to pay invoices. Rick is now owed more than $12,000. He has no money nor a lawyer, no longer hears from Max Employment an...Soft Tech Homes. What checks and balances are in place so that people like Rick are not taken advantage of?

Pyne, who represents employment minister Cash, says he will check on the individual and get back to Sharkie.

He also says the Coalition has created 500,000 jobs since coming to government.

(I would like fact check on that figure...)

Labor’s Jim Chalmers to Scott Morrison: Given no Australian worker pays any tax onthe first $18,200 of earnings, isn’t it the case that under Labor’s sensible backpacker tax proposal, there is no income level at which Australians would pay more tax than working holiday-makers? Why is the Government misleading the Australian people?

Morrison says foreign workers will pay less tax than Australian workers.

Government question to Barnaby Joyce: Can the Deputy PM explain to the house why it is important for hard-working Australian farmers and workers, that the Parliament passes the 19% tax rate for backpackers?

Joyce said industries had settled on the 19% tax rate and now Bill Shorten is favouring “Alberto from Milano” over local workers..

The Member for Maribyrnong is going to punish Australian workers by having somebody working beside them on a half to a third of the tax rate, doing exactly the same job.

Chris Bowen to Turnbull: Can the PM explain to the House why he would prefer to have an internationally, uncompetitive backpacker tax rate of 32.5%, instead of agreeing to the Senate’s resolution that it should be the same as New Zealand at 10.5% why would the PM prefer to punish Australia’s tourism, agriculture and hospital apt sectors, rather than swallow his pride and accept a compromised rate of 10.5%?

Turnbull flicks the question to Scott Morrison.

Those opposite come into this place everyday, lecturing about the need for more revenue measures, and in the other place, and in here, Mr Speaker, they have voted to give foreign workers a tax cut at the cost to the Australian taxpayer of $500m. That’s the priority of those opposite.

The first government question calls on Labor to support the ABCC.

Coalition will not compromise on backpackers tax rate

Question time right now in both chambers.

Shorten to Turnbull: Today the Senate has delivered a humiliating defeat to the government on the backpacker tax. Will the PM now accept the sensible compromise offered by the Senate? Or will the PM instead confirm that because of his government’s actions and budget incompetence, Australia will have an internationally uncompetitive 32.5% backpacker tax from the beginning of next year if the PM cannot compromise?

Turnbull says Labor’s support of a 10.5% rate is economic vandalism and they will cause backpackers to pay 32.5%.

The only reason backpackers would pay 32.5 cents tax is because the Labor party ...

This is a plain act of economic vandalism by the Labor party, a plain act of undermining – undermining Australian businesses, Australian horticultural businesses, Australian tourism businesses.

This means the government will block the amended 10.5% tax rate.

It is a signal that the government will not compromise on the 19% rate.

Updated

Richard Di Natale says it’s great to hear of the new coalition between the government and One Nation.

He says for all the people in and out of Senator Hanson’s office,

We weren’t one of them ... you have been dudded ... you are right out of the mould of the National party.

Updated

Pauline Hanson says Wong is indulging in “political grandstanding”.

It’s all right for Brendan O’Connor or Anthony Albanese to come to my office.

All of us have got new staff and we are trying to learn the ropes.

I have appreciated all the help we have received from mainly the Coalition.

The passenger movement charge $5 increase passes.

Finance minister Mathias Cormann commits to move One Nation’s amendment to freeze the passenger movement charge for five years.

But he says he will do it in the lower house because that is the best place to do it.

Penny Wong yells, this is the deal! One Nation has been had!

Two cabinet ministers were trying to get the deal on the floor of the senate, she says.

Any future government can simply make a change. It is worthless. This is a stunt. Labor will oppose this amendment.

This is a stunt...the things that matter to the Australian people are ignored by the government.

Don’t you criticise me with your crap.

Jacqui Lambie gets very animated during debate on the backpacker tax.
Jacqui Lambie gets very animated during debate on the backpacker tax. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Now the Senate has the second vote on the passenger movement charge (PMC) increase – the one that was botched last night.

By way of explanation ...

After the Coalition changed its planned backpacker tax from 32.5% to 19%, Scott Morrison said in order to make up the difference in the budget, he would raise the PMC by $5 to $60 and raise the tax rate on backpackers’ superannuation – when they leave the country – to 95%.

So the PMC is one of the savings measures coupled to the backpacker tax.

Updated

Labor facilitates an explanation from Pauline Hanson and Brian Burston as to why they missed the passenger movement charge vote. They both say they thought it was a quorum bell, not a vote.

Apologies, fellow senators.

Labor’s Senate leader, Penny Wong, says Labor will grant the new vote, but:

a government that can’t run the chamber can’t run the country.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale answers Mathias Cormann’s accusation that he missed his speech on the vote.

Senator Cormann misleads the parliament here by suggesting I was not in the chamber.

No Senator Cormann, you messed it up, like so many other things, and you reap what you sow.

Cormann rises to speak but his alarm goes off. *general laughter and tittering*

He says of Di Natale’s charge, no such thing.

Updated

Senate amends backpacker tax to 10.5%

The senate votes to amend the backpacker tax to 10.5% as per Lambie amendment with support of Labor, Greens, One Nation, Leyonhjelm.

Remember that the bill has to pass the lower house before it becomes law.

Scott Morrison has said in the past, the government would not accept the amendment in the lower house.

Barnaby Joyce, in recent days, has refused to say either way. We shall wait and see.

Updated

The Senate is now voting on the Jacqui Lambie amendment for a 10.5% rate.

Updated

Jacqui Lambie rips into National senator John Williams. She resents the implication that he is suggesting she is putting Australians out of work by wanting a lower tax rate.

If we had every youth in Tasmania working, we would still not have enough to pick our fruit.

You should be congratulating me ... helping to sell your welfare card.

Don’t you dare criticise me with your crap because I am not taking it.

Updated

Senator Lambie is moving her amendments to change to 10.5%. Senator John Williams gets up to ask a question regarding unemployment in Tasmania.

Penny Wong is ripping into the government. She smells a rat. She accuses them of filibustering.

She says Labor agreed to bring on the bills and recommit the vote to be helpful and now they are stalling.

What a joke. Can’t you run the parliament? Let’s get on and vote.

Cormann:

That was an unnecessary contribution.

Updated

If you get a friend request from George, do not open it.

Please be aware that if something sounds to good to be true, it almost certainly is.

Jacqui Lambie is cranky that Barnaby Joyce and the government have told people that she and Labor are voting against the backpacker tax bill. (She is trying to change the rate.)

Nationals senator Barry O’Sullivan is in the chair. He wants her to withdraw.

I will withdraw ‘Barnaby’s porkies’ to keep the piece.

She says Barnaby is obsessed with her, blaming her for all the problems in the bush.

Saying Jacqui Lambie, Jacqui Lambie, Jacqui Lambie. He said Jacqui Lambie seven times. I mean, get a life.

The Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie says the whole committee process embarked on has caused the delay.

She says farmers want it fixed and says the world is watching.

Updated

The Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson takes issue with the government’s assertion that the default tax rate is 32.5%.

Whish-Wilson has been on top of the backpacker stuff from the start and did a lot of work in the committees to pin down the tax office on whether backpackers would be treated as residents or non residents.

He describes the government’s assertion as “spin and BS”.

He wants to know what work the tax office has done to determine that the majority of backpackers will be treated as non-residents. Show me the numbers.

Minister Cormann says the tax commissioner has been very clear on the ruling. No figures though.

Updated

*Choir sings, angels descend*

The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, said the backpacker tax proposal was designed to provide certainty. He describes the ruling, which found working holidaymakers were non-residents for tax purposes.

He says that, if the bills don’t pass, backpackers face a 32.5% tax rate.

Cormann says backpackers in Australia will still be better off given the wage rates and the tax rates at 19%.

I didn’t come to Australia as a result of the tax rates, says Cormann.

I came because it was a beautiful country.

Updated

There is a question over where One Nation will go on the backpacker tax.

We know Labor and the Greens are supporting Jacqui Lambie’s amendment to put the backpacker tax at 10.5%.

We know Derryn Hinch and Nick Xenophon are supporting the 19% rate with Xenophon wanting the amendments.

Updated

The backpackers debate has started in the Senate.

The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, says the government has the reverse Midas touch at the moment. The backpacker tax is a mess.

The Greens have never supported any change to the tax.

Di Natale recounts the history of uncertainty since the 32.5% tax was announced in the 2015 budget.

Updated

Coalition establishes infrastructure financing unit in his department

Malcolm Turnbull has announced he is establishing an “infrastructure financing unit” in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

The unit will “develop the funding and financing solutions for landmark projects through the use of public-private partnerships, measured use of the balance sheet and value capture”, he said.

Turnbull used his speech to call for the Senate to pass the Australian Building and Construction Commission.

He also attacked Labor over the national broadband network, saying the project was “failing” when the Coalition inherited it in 2013.

But with new management, a new plan, it is now meeting and beating its targets, and it is on track to be complete by 2020.

Bill Shorten is now on his feet responding, calling Turnbull’s handling of the NBN “biggest infrastructure stuff-up in Australian Government’s history”. He said the cost of the NBN has doubled under the Coalition.

Updated

Malcolm Turnbull on infrastructure process:

My government is changing infrastructure in Australia, the way we plan it, the way we fund it, and the way we partner to build it. Such reform is the only way to deliver the infrastructure that will best serve the modern Australian economy,and will enable us to leave our children and grandchildren the infrastructure they will need to succeed in this, the 21st Century. But as Infrastructure Australia does make clear, many of the reforms relate to responsibilities of state, territory and local governments. So we will continue working with our State and Territory colleagues, including at COAG, about how we can work together to deliver real change.

Bill Shorten is replying to the prime minister’s infrastructure statement.

He says public transport is not a hobby to Labor, it is embedded in the party’s policy. He describes the Abbott-Turnbull government’s record on infrastructure as dismal.

We don’t look at a train carriage and see a selfie studio. We know that public transport is about quality of life, particularly for Australians who live and work in our growing suburbs. It is about making it easier for people to get to work quicker and get home sooner, and I want to make this point very clear. Charging Australians more to drive their car without investing in public transport as an alternative inevitably means punishing those who can least afford it. Any proposal to change the funding arrangements for Australian roads should be based on equity, and investing in public transport in the outer suburbs.

The Senate is has voted on the change of business that allows the backpacker bills to be presented, as reported earlier.

Updated

Malcolm Turnbull is on his feet in the House of Representatives, giving an update about the government’s infrastructure achievements ($80bn of spending, funding for 14 of the 15 projects on Infrastructure Australia’s priority list). He’s also giving the government’s response to Infrastructure Australia’s 15-year plan.

The most interesting news out of the response is that the federal government will commission a study into a road user charge for light vehicles as part of a “10 to 15-year journey” towards a possible new tax on commuters to replace petrol excise.

The urban infrastructure minister, Paul Fletcher, announced the study on Thursday.

Infrastructure Australia had asked the government to “commit to the full implementation” of road user charging in the next 10 years.

The government noted the recommendation but said it was “premature” to express any views about the merits of a commuter charge.

That didn’t stop Turnbull saying the point of the study was to come up with a “fairer and more sustainable” way to fund infrastructure. Watch this space.

Just so you get the full context.

Pauline Hanson speaks on amendments to the Racial Discrimination Act.

Pauline Hanson: “I’ve had it up to here with my tolerance”

Updated

Labor-Coalition agree to new PMC vote with backpacker bills done before 2pm

There will be a recommital of the vote on the passenger movement charge last night.

This has happened because Labor and the Coalition have come to an agreement.

This is the longstanding practice in the senate. It allows the government to clean up the mess of last night’s vote, which went down due to One Nation not realising the vote was on.

We understand the agreement means the backpackers bills will be debated AND VOTED ON before question time.

In theory.

Pat Dodson: "It's interesting that bigotry is back in favour"

Pat Dodson gives his own perspective on moves to amend or remove parts of the Racial Discrimination Act.

Pauline Hanson has taken issue with Pat Dodson, who discussed his experience prior to the 1967 referendum that decided to count Indigenous people in the census. Dodson said the federal government didn’t even have the power to make laws for Indigenous Australians so the battle for freedom to access basic rights was real to him.

Hanson, however, linked it to the White Australia policy and said that policy was not aimed at Indigenous people but was aimed at the Chinese who were bringing in opium.

Is it really going to far to have an opinion that we offend, insult or intimidate others?

I’ve had it up to here with my tolerance.

But:

I welcome anyone who has come to this country to join us, assimilate and enjoy our way of life.

Updated

Pauline Hanson is up now.

She is talking about the speeches relating to racism. Her first husband was Polish. She had a Laotian woman working in the fish and chip shop. She rented out a property to an Aboriginal family.

Respect must be earned.

Hanson goes through the migration history in Australia.

She says Greeks and Italians used to be called wogs. They took it in that good Aussie way.

Racism is when someone thinks one race is superior over another, she says.

I am fed up with people in and out of the house calling me a racist when they cannot find one thing that I have said that is racist, she says.

Hanson says she has been called a pig in mud and white trash and the newspapers printed it.

I could have taken it up but I never did. What I am hearing here is all one-sided.

Hanson says the QUT students highlighted something that was racist - a computer room that was only allowed to be used by Indigenous people

It’s come down in Australia to reverse racism.

She says as a politician she is protected inside the chamber but Australians who are outside are not.

We can’t have an opinion. We cant say anything any more.

Nothing wrong with freedom particularly if you are from the ruling class

Labor senator Pat Dodson speaks on Senator David Leyonhjelm’s private members bill to amend the Racial Discrimination Act.
Labor senator Pat Dodson speaks on Senator David Leyonhjelm’s private members bill to amend the Racial Discrimination Act. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Senators Derryn Hinch and Liberal senator James Patterson have also spoken.

Hinch talked a lot about the Bill Leak cartoon of an Indigenous father, his son and an Indigenous policeman.

I am offended and insulted that we have any law in this country which is a bad law. I am offended and insulted that such emotive and subjective words as offend and insult can be on our lawbooks. With freedom of speech, you have to stand alongside with people whose opinions you don’t share.

The Hansonites, you don’t share their opinion, but it is freedom of speech. But when you try to make martyrs and block it and shut it down, then it is dangerous.

Pat Dodson said the Labor party would stand shoulder to shoulder with communities across the country against changes to 18c.

He says the Coalition forget that this debate is about human beings, people of different cultures who are Australians, “who have all sorts of different ways of interpreting English”.

Here are more fulsome quotes that give you a flavour of the speech.

English has its own form of tyranny and that tyranny is what causes wars, assaults, arguments and violence and the speakers who grow up with English have to understand that that is not the only frame of reference through which the world is interpreted.

Because there’s no clear definition, it seems to me, of what constitutes whiteness and the culture of whiteness. We talk of all sorts of other people that make up the Australian nation. Chinese, Indians, Lebanese, all sorts of people, Africans, who are part of the Australian population, who bring with their cultures a richness to this nation.

Instead of us moving in a way to accept and appropriate the better things of their cultures, we seek to continually divide and create ways to sustain divisions and sustain the denigration of our fellow Australians.

Nothing wrong with freedom, particularly if you are from the ruling class. There’s a hell of a lot wrong with freedom if you’ve got to battle to experience it. If you’ve got to fight for it.

Updated

Labor senator Pat Dodson is speaking on Leyonhjelm’s Racial Discrimination Act.

He is giving an amazing speech on the the bill, which I will get as soon as I can.

To be clear, the bill goes much further than the first Abbott changes to amend 18C and D. It removes a whole part of the act. This part.

PART IIA--PROHIBITION OF OFFENSIVE BEHAVIOUR BASED ON RACIAL HATRED

18B. Reason for doing an act

18C. Offensive behaviour because of race, colour or national or ethnic origin

18D. Exemptions

18E. Vicarious liability

18F. State and Territory laws not affected

Pat Dodson says the whole debate about 18C fails to take into account the fabric of the nation and the message it sends.

Updated

Peter Dutton: I have been misrepresented

Nick McKim has spoken to Sky News this morning, where he was asked about Peter Dutton’s comments regarding Lebanese Muslim Australians and Anne Aly’s threatening emails.

He has said the following:

We’re not disputing the numbers that [Dutton] quoted. Undoubtedly the advice he’s got is accurate. But just because something is fact doesn’t mean that it’s reasonable or productive to talk about it ...

So what we’ve got is a deliberate attack from Mr Dutton by quoting these numbers on a particular subsection of the Australian community. In this case Lebanese Muslim Australians.

Peter Dutton has come out on the strength of that, five minutes ago.

It is a particular character flaw of Mr Shorten that he would seek to misrepresent my words to try and gain political advantage. He has upset people within the community and he has deliberately done that. His conduct has been sneaky and tricky. It has been underhanded. Mr Shorten has a lot to answer for.

And then:

As the Greens have, I noticed comments by Senator McKim this morning saying what I have said is correct, it is factual, it is reasonable but that we shouldn’t speak about it.

Twenty-four hours ago the Greens were saying I was a racist and bigot. I want to have an honest discussion. I did that in all of the remarks I have had and that I have made in relation to what is a very important topic.

I have repeated it again this morning. I won’t step back from this. The vast majority of Lebanese Australians are law-abiding, hard-working, good, decent people who are besmirched by the small element within the community who are doing the wrong thing.

I made that clear. The fact that Mr Shorten would seek to misrepresent it shows he has been tricky but he has been caught out.

Updated

David Leyonhjelm is speaking on his private bill to amend the Racial Discrimination Act.

He has travelled through philosophers, discussed his experience when the Chaser crew went to his home with his own Wicked van after he defended Wicked’s right to free speech.

Leyonhjelm said, regarding the Chaser case:

Free speech does not require me to find them amusing.

He said it not require a lot of effort to find out where the Chaser team live and put offensive signs outside their houses.

He said if their response was to tell the good senator to F off, he would be happy but Leyonhjelm suggested they would run off to “nanny government”.

Updated

Someone in the thread mentioned private members’ bills.

As it happens, there are two first up in the Senate this morning before they get to government business.

Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm et al have a bill to amend the Racial Discrimination Act, which he calls the Free Speech Bill 2016.

This is a bill which:

Amends the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 to repeal Part IIA, which prohibits offensive behaviour based on racial hatred.

Given the support for this in sections of the Coalition, there could be an interesting debate in the senate this morning.

The Greens senator Larissa Waters has a bill on Landholders’ Right to Refuse (Gas and Coal).

This bill would give landholders the right to refuse gas and coal mining activities by corporations on their land without prior written authorisation. Waters has tried this before. It is a bit like a dare to the National party as well as the substantive issue. Do you support landholders? So far the Nats have not bitten.

These bills will be debated for just over two hours this morning. We won’t see the backpackers bills in the senate until after midday. Remember Senate question time happens at 2pm so then backpacker debate will not come back until late afternoon.

Updated

Feeding the chooks.

The deputy PM, Barnaby Joyce, emerges from a radio interview to a wall of cameras
The deputy PM, Barnaby Joyce, emerges from a radio interview to a wall of cameras. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Updated

The beautiful voices of the Canberra Choral Society.

The Canberra Choral Society perform Christmas carols in the members hall of Parliament House.
The Canberra Choral Society perform Christmas carols in the members hall of Parliament House. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Both chambers of the parliament sit at 9.30am. Already, spies who know stuff suggest building staff are being consulted about roster changes in case the government decides to push through into Friday or next week.

Parliament sits Monday to Thursday next week but may extend.

Of course, these rumours happen every year but ...

Updated

The king of Jordan, Abdullah II Ibn Al- Hussein is in the building, just so you know.

Nick Xenophon and his two senators support the 19% tax rate only if unemployed Australians are able to earn up to $5000 for seasonal work without losing welfare benefits. So far the indications are good, he says.

We cannot understand why some of my colleagues won’t support the view that we should have as many Australians out there picking fruit. Right now the system is full of disincentives for people on welfare to give it a go to do the seasonal work.

Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm is on Sky. He says Pauline Hanson and Brian Burston thought the bells that signal votes and quorums was for a quorum rather than a vote. He says it was a simple case of missing the vote.

Leyonhjelm does not support the passenger movement charge or the increase in the backpacker tax.

If the backpacker bills don’t pass before the parliament rises, treasurer Scott Morrison has been stating that the rate reverts to 32.5%.

However this rate is for non-residents.

The sticking point is that many backpackers claim they are residents, which means they would pay zero because they would get the tax free threshold.

If they claim resident status, they are supposed to reside in the same place for more than six months. If they are on a working holiday maker visa, they can’t stay in once place for more than six months.

There was a recent Administrative Appeals Tribunal decision that said backpackers should be treated as non-residents - meaning they should pay 32.5%.

If that AAT decision holds, it would mean if the backpacker bills don’t pass, the rate will revert to 32.5% - as Morrison says.

But if backpackers keep claiming residency for tax purposes (and many use tax agents who specialise in this), then their rate will revert to zero.

And even though they do not qualify for this rate, while the tax office chase each of them down once they leave?

You can see how this complexity can be used by both sides to muddy the waters.

Leyonhjelm’s view is that the rate will return to zero because the AAT case hinged on backpackers with quite unusual circumstances.

The bulk of them won’t get caught [by the higher rate].

Elsewhere in Canberra:

Barnaby Joyce has been speaking to Fran Kelly about the backpacker tax which is the main game in the Senate today.

Kelly asks whether he is worried that thetax will impact on the National party vote after it lost the safe NSW seat of Orange. She is thinking particularly of Queensland, where everyone from George Brandis down is predicting One Nation will win a swath of seats at the next state election.

Joyce does not go to the substantive question.

If you are looking for a policy to stop complete acts of political bastardry I don’t know what that is. What is the policy to stop Bill Shorten from blowing the show up, making actions that he doesn’t believe in, that he just wants to drag the show down into the gutter.

How does this work? He is supposed to be the alternative leader of the nation. He’s not supposed to play dice with Australia’s regional industries and that is what he is doing.

Joyce will not say whether he will compromise between his 19% rate and the Lambie/Labor rate of 10.5%.

Re Orange, he feels people can differentiate between federal and state issues. He named council amalgamations and the greyhound racing ban as strong factors there. Joyce came out against the greyhound ban.

I got myself into more strife than the early settlers because I didn’t support it ... On the backpackers issue, they can see we are trying our best.

Updated

One Nation: where the bloody hell are you?

Good morning, dear reader,

Last night the glorious voices of the Canberra Choral Society rang out in the members’ hall of Parliament House, with the Financial Review journalist Laura Tingle. The crossbenchers – looking anything but cross – stumped up for their Christmas party and we were promised an early night in the Senate.

The government had started its backpacker tax package. It included a 19% tax rate for working holidaymakers and a $5 increase in the passenger movement charge. These are separate bills.

The government knew it had the numbers on the charge so it thought it would whack it through and get it out of the way.

But alas, the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, and her fellow senator Brian Burston went missing in action. Down went the vote 30-31.

Which must have galled the treasurer, Scott Morrison, who has been rolling it uphill with a pointy stick, trying to sell the charge to his former tourism industry. The tourism industry has stubbornly resisted but really has no choice.

Which must have left, Morrison yelling “Where the bloody hell are you?” – his very own Lara Bingle campaign line.

The government will probably hold a rerun of the vote today. This morning Labor’s Anthony Albanese has called for the government to drop the charge. That will not happen.

The rest of the backpacker’s package all passed through the second-reading stage and the bills will now go to committee process today, where other senators get to ask the minister in charge questions.

I have put in a call to One Nation to ask why they missed the vote but, as yet, it is to no avail. The party has released a statement saying that once the $5 charge is increased they want a freeze on it for five years.

This is a last-minute change. It also comes after the tourism lobby, the Tourism and Transport Forum, held its annual event. Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten were both speakers, as were other ministers. Hanson was on a panel late in the afternoon. Furious lobbying would have ensued.

So stay with us for the day. Talk to us in the thread, or on the Twits @gabriellechan and @mpbowers or my Facebook page. Keep calm and carry on.

Updated

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