Nighttime politics
- Barnaby Joyce is the latest and most senior MP to be caught up by the dual citizenship furore, being declared a New Zealand citizen by none other than NZ prime minister Bill English. Joyce, whose father was born in NZ, said he had no idea and didn’t apply. While this defence did not cut it for former Greens senators Larissa Waters or Scott Ludlam or Matt Canavan, it has so far for Barnaby because the government said so. (Malcolm Roberts is a different kettle of fish.)
- Malcolm Turnbull was very bullish about Barnaby’s chances of surviving the high court, saying the government’s legal advice was strong and the DPM would sail through the court (or words to that effect).
- As a result, Labor tried to suspend standing orders to debate the fact that Joyce’s high court referral means we don’t even know whether we have a majority government (given the government only has a majority of one).
- Government leader in the house Christopher Pyne said be careful of throwing stones in glass houses and promptly named four Labor MPs who might be in doubt. They were Braddon MP Justin Keay, Longman MP Susan Lamb, Makin MP Tony Zappi and Calwell MP Maria Vamvakinou.
- We learned from the Australian Bureau of Statistics that our postal survey papers would have a bar code on them, so that is different from what the ABS originally said about no personal identifiers.
- Foreshadowing the Four Corners investigation into the Greens tonight, NSW senator Lee Rhiannon says former leader Bob Brown was only hurting his old party by criticising her.
- The Greens’ Peter Whish-Wilson tried to set up a Senate inquiry into trusts but Labor and the Coalition voted against.
That’s it for today people. Thanks to the brains trust, Mike Bowers, Paul Karp, Gareth Hutchens and Katharine Murphy.
Tomorrow, we have party room meetings in the morning followed by media reforms in the Senate.
Good night.
@gabriellechan 🐑Hi🐏 Sometimes being tied to the family tree ain't what it's all cracked up to be.. #auspol #politicslive @mpbowers pic.twitter.com/EgafOREUsl
— The Matt Hatter (@MattGlassDarkly) August 14, 2017
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Surprise! @Barnaby_Joyce #auspol #kiwi pic.twitter.com/THmav3aA6p
— 🌏Jeremy Buckingham (@greensjeremy) August 14, 2017
ALP national secretary says Labor citizenship checks exhaustive
Noah Carroll, national secretary of the Australian Labor party:
The Labor party has an extensive and exhaustive process for ensuring that every candidate satisfies all constitutional requirements before they are nominated, including section 44.
One part of this process is that candidates are required to declare the citizenship status of their parents and grandparents. Where there are any issues with respect to dual citizenship – potential or otherwise – candidates are required to take all reasonable steps to renounce and satisfy the requirements of section 44.
This is a critical part of our nomination process. A candidate will not be nominated by the ALP without being cleared through this process.
We are confident every member of the Labor caucus has been properly elected.
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Barnaby Joyce is taking urgent steps to renounce his New Zealand citizenship.
A-G George Brandis: the govt has received advice section 44 of the constitution doesn't apply to @Barnaby_Joyce. https://t.co/zLmaM4JqF0 pic.twitter.com/1znnIRsk1z
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) August 14, 2017
Which doesn’t really add up.
Brandis says, from previous cases, there has to be “conscious acknowledgement of an obedience or adherence” to a foreign sovereign. That is, because Joyce was shocked to learn he was a Kiwi dual citizen, there was no conscious acknowledgement.
Which seems a similar position to that of Waters, Ludlam and Canavan, though not Malcolm Roberts, who allegedly signed a document saying he was a UK citizen.
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The PM said in question time that the high court would clear Barnaby Joyce. His statement was unequivocal.
George Brandis was asked if he agreed.
That is my judgement.
What about Matt Canavan?
That is also my expectation.
Attorney general George Brandis talked to David Speers on Sky.
He said the government was confident in its advice on both Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavan. He was asked, why did Canavan stand down from cabinet and Joyce did not?
Brandis essentially said at the time of the Canavan announcement, it was a rapidly evolving situation and that was the course of action decided on by Canavan.
Brandis says there has to be "conscious adherence" to the foreign state... why did Canavan step down, Waters & Ludlam resign then? #auspol
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) August 14, 2017
Brandis also says he doesn’t want to say what the government’s position will be.
Brandis "doesn't want to constrain" what SG argues in High Court. PM just said what the court would find!!! Talk about constraint! #auspol
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) August 14, 2017
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Question time is over. During QT, Barnaby Joyce accused a number of Labor MPs of having trusts, the implication being they were hypocritical given Labor’s crackdown on trusts.
The deputy Labor leader, Tanya Plibersek, corrected the record, saying she did not have a trust nor was she a beneficiary.
The WA MP Matt Keogh said he did not have a trust either.
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Suspension of standing orders lost 68-73.
The chamber is voting on the suspension now. Senate question time has finished.
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Christopher Pyne names Labor MPs with potential citizenship issues
Christopher Pyne starts naming Labor MPs with “much worse cases”.
He names:
- Braddon MP Justin Keay
- Longman MP Susan Lamb
- Makin MP Tony Zappia
- Calwell MP Maria Vamvakinou
If the government decided to refer those members to the high court to seek clarity about their status, would we insist they not be allowed to vote in the House of Representatives until justice had been able to take its course? Of course we wouldn’t. Of course we wouldn’t. We’d expect their status to be resolved by the high court and, once resolved, they would be able to continue to do exactly what they’d done before unless, they were found to be disqualified. And there are many more, Mr Speaker. There are many more. If Labor wants to open this Pandora’s box, that is a matter for them.
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Christopher Pyne: We are behaving ethically in every respect
Christopher Pyne, leader of government business, answers the suspension motion. He goes through a history of Labor minority government – including the move to install the former Liberal MP Peter Slipper into the Speaker’s chair.
So for the Labor party to lecture us when we are behaving ethically in every respect on every part of this journey, we have done the right thing ... The Labor party thinks they can come in here, lecture the government about the right course of action to ensure that ... people have absolute confidence in how the constitution works. Because this government is the adult in the room.
Pyne says on Burke’s logic, the government could use its numbers to refer a Labor MP to the high court and that person would have to stand aside, losing the vote.
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Barnaby’s shadow, Joel Fitzgibbon, speaks second.
Not without cause I have often said the deputy prime minister is all hat and no cowboy. Now we question whether he is fit to wear the hat.
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Labor’s Tony Burke continues:
There are Australians all around the country, in the automotive industry, in shopping complexes, saying if only he fought [for] their jobs as tough as he is fighting for his own. If only he would care and put as much commitment into fighting for Australians as he does for his own job.
We have a situation where we have a prime minister who said with respect to the Green party, “those two senators knew exactly what the rules are”.
Apparently the deputy prime minister of Australia hadn’t heard of this constitution document. Then he said, “Why they wouldn’t have turned their minds to it and dealt with it is beyond me.”
Burke says it is the first time the lower house has referred an MP because it did not know whether the MP was eligible.
This is not business as usual.
He says we don’t know if Joyce is eligible.
He says we don’t know if the government has a majority.
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Tony Burke says Labor is confident that its MPs have been well checked, in a party process that goes back to grandparents.
He says it was extraordinary that Malcolm Turnbull used his prime minister’s office to say the high court would not find Barnaby Joyce was ineligible.
According to what the deputy prime minister has said today, every single fact is based on something he has known for his life. All these decisions are based on facts the deputy prime minister has known all his life. And yet, the protection racket continues.
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This is the Labor motion by Tony Burke:
Notes:
a) Today, this House unanimously asked the High Court to determine whether the Deputy Prime Minister is constitutionally qualified to be a Member of Parliament;
b) The New Zealand Government has since confirmed that the Deputy Prime Minister is a New Zealand citizen despite the Prime Minister’s assurances on this matter;
c) The Government has relied on the vote of the Deputy Prime Minister to block a Royal Commission into the banks and to block amendments to legislation which would have stopped nearly 700,000 Australians from having their penalty rates cut; and
d) The former Minister for Resources and Northern Australia resigned from Cabinet because there were doubts over his constitutional qualifications; and
2. Therefore, calls on the Prime Minister to:
a) Release any legal advice it has received about the constitutional qualifications of the Deputy Prime Minister;
b) Rule out accepting the vote of the Deputy Prime Minister while his constitutional qualifications are in doubt; and
c) Direct the Deputy Prime Minister to immediately resign from Cabinet.
Labor moves a suspension on Barnaby Joyce citizenship
Tony Burke to Turnbull: Can the prime minister confirm that is he governs in this house with a majority of one, that he is allowing the deputy prime minister to remain in office based on secret advice even though the house has referred the question of his qualifications to the member of the high court? Prime minister, how can the Australian people have conversation in the legitimacy of this government if it is based on a secret agreement and clinging to office on secret advice?
Christopher Pyne says it is a sneer and smear.
Then Tony Burke moves a suspension of standing orders to debate the Joyce situation.
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"Unwittingly or not he is a New Zealand citizen" - Bill English on Barnaby Joyce @SkyNewsAust
— James O'Doherty (@jmodoh) August 14, 2017
Joel Fitzgibbon to Turnbull: What is the difference between the legal advice received with respect to Senator Canavan and the legal advice received with respect of the deputy prime minister? How is it that Senator Canavan has had to step aside and the deputy prime minister is still here, and will he table the advice?
Speaker Smith warns about requests for legal advice. (The hard part here is that Turnbull has referenced legal advice in his defence of Joyce’s position in the house.)
Turnbull refers Fitzgibbon to earlier answers.
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Shorten to Turnbull: Moments ago, the prime minister of New Zealand, Mr Bill English, has confirmed, unwittingly or not, the deputy prime minister of Australia is a New Zealand citizen. So I ask again – how can the prime minister possibly defend keeping him in his cabinet and letting him vote in the house?
Turnbull refers him to his earlier answers. Nothing to see here.
Labor MPs are making sheep noises sotto voce.
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Barnaby Joyce is looking very rattled today.
Barnaby Joyce gets to talk about agricultural production as part of the Dixer question.
As Barnaby Joyce stands to continue with his question, Tony Burke makes another point of order regarding the time limits on questions.
Basically the moot point is whether the clock should stop or keep running when procedural motions are moved. Labor says the clock should have kept going.
Speaker Smith warns it cuts both ways.
Be careful what you wish for.
Labor loses its attempt to gag Barnaby Joyce 66 to 75.
Barnaby sitting next to Immigration Minister during division, just to be safe #qt
— James Jeffrey (@James_Jeffrey) August 14, 2017
While the lower house is voting, here is the Shorten reply to Turnbull’s letter, inviting him to nominate any Labor MPs.
Dear Mal,
Thanks but no thanks. We are all G.
Love Bill.
Bill Shorten has replied to the Prime Ministers' letter, agreeing it should be resolved quickly, but declining to refer any Labor MPs to HC. pic.twitter.com/Ha28zA9eRU
— Henry Belot (@Henry_Belot) August 14, 2017
Labor is gagging Barnaby Joyce: a vote is required. This is feeling a lot like the 43rd parliament.
Barnaby Joyce gets a government question.
Before he takes it, Tony Burke takes a point of order with Speaker Smith.
The house has unanimously resolved to refer the high court case due to lack of knowledge on Joyce’s eligibility, therefore Burke says he should not take the question.
Smith says if the high court rules Joyce is ineligible, that is when the seat of New England is vacant. Not when Burke asks the question.
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Tony Burke to Turnbull: Can the prime minister confirm the government has relied on its one-vote majority to block a royal commission into the banks and block amendments to legislation that would have allowed for 700,000 Australians to have their penalty rates cut? There is now doubt over the deputy prime minister is able to sit as a member of parliament and exercise a vote in in house. Will the prime minister rule out accepting the deputy prime minister’s vote in this house while his constitutional qualifications are in debt?
Turnbull again says the government is very confident of advice that Barnaby is all G.
We did not refer this matter to the court because of any doubt about the member for New England’s position. But, because of the need, plainly, in the public interest, to give the court the opportunity to clarify the operation of this section so important to the operation of our parliament.
Which does not make entire sense, given the high court was already going to review section 44 with senators Waters, Ludlam, Roberts and Canavan. Why include Barnaby is he is in the clear?
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The Diputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce arrives for #QT @gabriellechan @GuardianAus #politicslive pic.twitter.com/igdVn8Q8Fv
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) August 14, 2017
Shorten to Turnbull: Just before question time, the New Zealand internal affairs minister, Peter Dunne, confirmed that the deputy prime minister is a citizen of New Zealand. Now that the deputy prime minister has been confirmed as a citizen of New Zealand, how can the prime minister keep him in the cabinet and allow him to continue in this house?
Turnbull predicts that the high court will back up the government’s advice that:
the leader of the National party, the deputy prime minister, is qualified to sit in this house and the high court will so hold!
Over. Reach. #separationofpowers
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The first government question is on corporate tax cuts and small business. Turnbull turns it into how Bill Shorten is the most leftwing Labor leader in the history of the universe. Or thereabouts.
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Turnbull on Barnaby's eligibility: very confident
Shorten to Turnbull for question time: Today the government has asked the high court to determine whether the deputy prime minister is constitutionally validly a member of parliament. Can the prime minister confirm the Turnbull government is the first government in Australian history to ask the high court whether in fact it has a majority?
Turnbull comes armed with solicitor general’s advice.
The high court has made it very clear that the operation of section 44 (1) is not without limits and that it must be read in light of its purpose and intent, which is to prevent conflicts of loyalty arising among people who are members and senators.
Now, if an Australian citizen, who became a incident of this country by reason of being born here, was to be ineligible to stand for parliament because the law of a foreign country imposed foreign citizenship on them without their knowledge, due to their descent from a parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, then, plainly, millions of Australians could be disqualified from standing for parliament.
Based on advice from the solicitor general, the government is the very confident the court will not find that the member for New England is to be disqualified from the parliament. Very confident. As I noted in my letter to the leader of the opposition today, because we want to give the court the opportunity to clarify the operation of the law in this vitally important area, which goes, obviously, to the heart of our democracy.
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NZ Internal Affairs Minister tells me the Crown Law office has confirmed Barnaby Joyce is definitely an NZ citizen @SkyNewsAust
— James O'Doherty (@jmodoh) August 14, 2017
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Internal Affairs has confirmed Australian Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce is in fact a NZ citizen.
— Katie Bradford (@katieabradford) August 14, 2017
The Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson will support the effects test because the party supports farmers and small business. He says it has campaigned for an effects test in the past.
He says the problem with Section 46 – which will be changed – is that if small business wants to challenge big business practices they have to prove intent to squash competition. Very difficult, Whish-Wilson says.
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I have been keeping a sheep’s eye on the GoFundMe page for the high court challenge to the postal survey.
It was started six days ago and has already raised more than $78,000.
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The Senate is now debating the competition and consumer amendment (misuse of market power) bill – otherwise known as the effects test. The test stops big business from abusing their market power over small business.
The changes were advocated in a review of competition policy by the economist Ian Harper and were backed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). Under the Abbott government, the cabinet was split over the issue (Turnbull was known to be opposed) and the effects test was delayed indefinitely.
But Turnbull announced the change last year. The Nationals support the change and some of the Liberals. The Business Council have opposed the changes but the small business lobby has welcomed them.
The Greens will also support the bill.
Senator Cory Bernardi, generally a free marketeer, says he supports the bill with some reservations. He said it is the plight of very small businesses that worries him.
Sometime it means trading off the short-term immediate benefits of a lower price tag, Bernardi said.
The Nats senator John Williams said the effects test is needed because big business has a capacity to squash small business. That’s why the law has to change.
David and Goliath. That’s how it is. And it’s not often that David wins, says Williams.
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kia ora barnaby
— Scott Ludlam (@Scottludlam) August 14, 2017
One of those days.
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Lunchtime politics
- Deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce is facing calls for him to step down pending a high court hearing of his eligibility to sit in parliament owing to questions over his citizenship. His father was born in New Zealand and Joyce said he wants to clear up the issue so has referred himself to the high court – though his office has previously suggested that he cleared it up before entering parliament. The government will continue to take his vote in the lower house, where Malcolm Turnbull has a majority of one.
- There will be barcodes on the postal survey forms for marriage equality, even though previously the Australian Bureau of Statistics ruled out personal identifiers.
- The Parliamentary Budget Office has denied modelling quoted by various News Corp papers detailing a $167bn Labor tax grab was produced by the independent office.
- Kevin Rudd has said Malcolm Turnbull was irresponsible in giving the US a blank cheque on the Anzus treaty regarding any future conflict on North Korea.
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So one National Senator Matt Canavan resigns from Cabinet, says he won’t vote until High Court but Dep. PM. Joyce stays and will vote. Duh?
— Derryn Hinch (@HumanHeadline) August 14, 2017
Red herrings.
Barnaby Joyce told Sky two weeks ago he would leave it up to others to clarify whether or not he was a New Zealand citizen. pic.twitter.com/8OJY2rUfpW
— BuzzFeedOz Politics (@BuzzFeedOzPol) August 14, 2017
Labor argues Turnbull government should not accept Joyce's vote
Labor’s Tony Burke is speaking on the reference to the court of disputed returns. It has to be referred on a resolution of the lower house.
Burke questions whether the government should be allowed to rely on Barnaby Joyce’s vote, given that it doesn’t know if he is an eligible member of parliament.
Remember the Turnbull government has only a one-seat majority.
He says the parliament has never seen such chaos, not in this parliament or the old parliament or the exhibition centre.
We have never had to go to the high court and say we’re not really sure there is a majority government in this country.
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Barcodes on marriage postal survey forms
The ABS has released a statement with new details about the postal survey on same-sex marriage. The key facts are:
- Despite suggestions 16- and 17-year-olds may qualify, Australians will have to be 18 or older by 24 August 2017 to have a vote
- Timeline: rolls close 24 August; forms mailed out 12 September; last day to request replacement ballot 11 October; Australians “strongly encouraged” to return forms by 27 October; responses must be in by 7 November; results to be announced 15 November
- There is a promise that Australians living in remote areas, overseas,in the Antarctic, government personnel on overseas deployment, and those without access to mail (which I assume includes silent electors whose addresses aren’t on the roll) can vote – but there are no details on what the special “arrangements” are in place for them are.
Earlier I posted that the ABS has revoked a promise that no personal identifiers will be used on the ballot. This statement in effect confirms there will be an identifier, in the form of a barcode.
The ABS promises that “survey responses will be anonymous”, which it says can be achieved by “keep[ing] the identity of all respondents separate from their survey responses at all times”.
The barcode on the survey form will be used for ‘mark-in’ purposes only and is a single-use, anonymous, code. No person who sees or has any access to any completed forms will know both the name of eligible Australians and the related single-use code.”
I’ll ask privacy experts what they make of that but I think the point stands: if the barcode is unique to the individual there is the potential it can be linked to your name, address (and yes/no response).
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The Oz reported Barnaby Joyce’s spokesman last month said he was not a dual citizen and had established that “many years prior to entering parliament”.
But Joyce did not go back there today in his statement. There was no mention of what efforts were made to establish citizenship “many years prior to entering parliament”. (He came to the Senate in 2005.)
It sounds as though it might have been along the lines of, “Hey, Dad …
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There has been private member’s bill from the SA MP Amanda Rishworth in private members’ biz this morning. I missed this but Burke reports:
Damian Drum Nat MP for Murray just seconded a Labor motion criticising Barnaby Joyce over Murray Darling. #auspol
— Tony Burke (@Tony_Burke) August 14, 2017
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Parliamentary Budget Office part 2
Further to the kerfuffle between the Parliamentary Budget Office, News and the treasurer’s office.
The PBO said the Labor tax grab story was not based on their modelling.
We now have a transcript from an interview between Sky’s Kieran Gilbert and the treasurer:
Gilbert: First of all the big story in the News Corp papers, the Herald Sun, the Tele and the Courier Mail relate to this Parliamentary Budget Office modelling of Labor’s tax plans. Can you talk us through it? Is this from the PBO?
Morrison:
It extends the Parliamentary Budget Office costings out just one extra year and at the last election we told the Australian people that Labor would have a $100bn extra slug on families, on small businesses right across the economy. Well, updating that now it is over $150bn when you include the small business family trust taxes, and their new superannuation taxes, you add to that their taxes on investment, their taxes on housing, lifting the top marginal tax rate. This is a six-shooter tax slug. There is a tax winter coming under Bill Shorten if he ever becomes prime minister.
Gilbert: This is using the previous PBO modelling?
Morrison:
That’s right.
Gilbert: And then extrapolating that out a further year?
Morrison:
And of course there will be further work done on these things but the point is that Labor wants to completely take the speed limits off tax in our economy ...
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In the lower house, Labor is speaking on the citizenship legislation.
In the Senate, the attorney general, George Brandis, is speaking on the telecommunications regulations bill.
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Re New Zealand’s amendments on citizenship.
@gabriellechan 1) The 1977 act as stated in act only applied to births after 1978 so no relevance to Joyce his father NZ cit under 16.1(a)
— Buckethead's Unite (@Zimmbra) August 14, 2017
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The full Barnaby story via Murpharoo.
Tony Windsor on Barnaby in the Alice: “I wouldn’t rule anything out.”
The independent MP Tony Windsor, who ran against Barnaby Joyce at the last federal election, has picked up the news this morning of Joyce heading off to the high court.
Windsor is on a big road trip at the moment, just outside of Alice Springs.
He’s told Guardian Australia it’s too early to be making any assessments about whether he would run again in any byelection triggered by a negative high court ruling on Joyce’s citizenship.
But I wouldn’t rule anything out.
Windsor says the whole s44 controversy has him scratching his head.
I think this rule is absurd. I reckon Turnbull and Shorten should sit down now and try and work this out. It really is time they tidied the whole thing up.
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Parliamentary Budget Office denies treasurer's claim it modelled Labor tax grab figures
There were big headlines this morning regarding a $167bn Labor tax grab purporting to be based on modelling by the Parliamentary Budget Office. I had been trying to substantiate it but was warned the PBO did not do this modelling.
Scott Morrison was out this morning, selling the message.
This was the Tele story:
Families and small businesses would feel the brunt of a $167bn tax hit from a Bill Shorten Labor government, according to new modelling.
Treasurer Scott Morrison seized on the figures as proof of Labor’s plan for an “unprecedented tax grab” – labelling it “the politics of envy”, which would fail to lift wages.
The Parliamentary Budget Office and Treasury conducted independent modelling of Labor’s tax plans, including its opposition to business tax cuts, move to scrap negative gearing and plans to increase capital gains taxes and change family trusts.
Now the PBO has issued a statement, via parliamentary budget officer Jenny Wilkinson.
References in the media this morning to modelling being released today by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) are incorrect.
The analysis reported in the media this morning was not conducted by the PBO.
The PBO publicly released a post election report on 5 August 2016, containing costings of all of the policies that the major parliamentary parties took to the last election.
In this term of parliament, confidential costings of policy proposals have been conducted, on request, by parliamentarians in accordance with standard practice.
Egg meet face.
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ABS revokes promise of no personal identifiers on postal survey
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has quietly removed a promise that the ballot forms in the postal survey on same-sex marriage will be anonymous.
As Guardian Australia reported on Thursday that privacy experts say the ABS is in a bit of a catch-22 on whether or not to include personal identifiers on ballots: include them, and it’s a privacy nightmare where individuals’ views can be matched to their census data, spoiling the secret vote; exclude them and the poll is more vulnerable to fraud.
On Thursday, the ABS issued a statement which said:
The ABS assures Australians that there will be no personal identifiers on the survey form and all materials will be destroyed by the ABS at the end of processing.
On Friday the ABS amended the statement, which retains the assurance to destroy all material but removes the promise that there will be no personal identifiers.
I’ve contacted the ABS to ask why this promise has been removed, and what information will be collected about an individual other than their yes/no vote. Will it include a number to identify their name and address?
Privacy experts have already issued warnings about including personal identifiers. Monique Mann, co-chair of the surveillance committee of the Australian Privacy Foundation, said it would be “incredibly problematic” because that would be “at odds with privacy rights necessary for a healthy democracy”.
The director of the privacy law practice Salinger Privacy Anna Johnston has said use of personal identifiers would spoil the secret vote because it can be matched to other information, including census data.
It affects trust in government – if I want to have my say but I am concerned about my vote being linked to me and used against me in some way ... the more people fear that, the more likely they are to not vote at all or to change their answers to what they think the government wants to hear. Then you can’t trust the data [collected].
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Botswana no, what about New Zealand?
This was a bit of a joke question to @Barnaby_Joyce just 2 weeks ago on @TheTodayShow on whether he might have any citizenship doubts... pic.twitter.com/evZodV0aDy
— deborah knight (@deborah_knight) August 14, 2017
Anne Twomey on Barnaby
I also asked constitutional law professor at Sydney University Anne Twomey about a week ago. This is her opinion, with the appropriate caveats that she is not the NZ law expert:
The crucial question would be whether, at the time that Barnaby Joyce was born, his father was still a New Zealand citizen. If yes, then Barnaby Joyce would have obtained citizenship by descent, which would have been preserved by the 1977 act. If no, then he never obtained citizenship by descent.
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George Williams on Barnaby
As I said earlier, I have been obsessing over this issue since the Greens senators took a dive a month ago.
I asked the constitutional law professor at the University of NSW George Williams about it a couple of weeks ago and he said he was not an expert in NZ law but he made these points on 30 July:
What I can say is that a person may believe they are in the clear when they enter parliament but the law of a foreign nation can change down the track and render them a citizen, and so in breach of section 44 of the Australian constitution. It requires ongoing vigilance on the part of a member of parliament. Ignorance provides no excuse in these matters.
The Larissa Waters situation is a case in point, as it appears that a change in the law was what rendered her a citizen.
It is also to be recalled that section 44 disqualifies both where a person is a citizen of a foreign power, or whether they are ‘entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or a citizen of a foreign power’. The latter may be the case even where a person is not actually a citizen of the other country, but I should say that this is an area not yet elaborated upon by the high court.
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Labor’s shadow infrastructure minister, Anthony Albanese, is doing a doorstop on marriage equality.
Given the breaking news regarding Barnaby, he says he was born to a single parent, which is on his birth certificate.
My circumstances ... are very clear and my birth certificate is very clear as well.
Then he gives Karen Middleton’s Albo biography a plug. His story is well known, he says. Labor has very strict processes in place, he says.
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Barnaby Joyce, July, re throwing stones @ Greens over citizenship "You bet your life the stone will come back & hit you" #auspol @australian
— Rosie Lewis (@rosieslewis) August 14, 2017
Why are people so cruel?
Dear New Zealand.
— Shorten_Suite (@Shorten_Suite) August 14, 2017
This may be yours.
Regards,
Australia #auspol pic.twitter.com/Wjiax69CeD
Never tweet. pic.twitter.com/AvqiWXo5oN
— Mark Di Stefano 🤙🏻 (@MarkDiStef) August 14, 2017
Bring out your dead
Dear Bill,
Feel free to nominate any Labor members or senators who might not have done their homework.
Love Mal.
PM's letter to Bill Shorten over citizenship issues. pic.twitter.com/ihBluZQgU3
— Rob Harris (@rharris334) August 14, 2017
From the NZ government website on getting NZ citizenship:
Who can get it
If you were born overseas and at least one of your parents is a New Zealand citizen by birth or grant, you are an NZ citizen by descent. To get yourself an NZ passport, you need to register your citizenship. You can order a passport at the same time by ticking a box on the form.
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Barnaby Joyce's full statement on citizenship
Last Thursday afternoon, the New Zealand high commission contacted me to advise that on the basis of preliminary advice from the Department of Internal Affairs which had received inquiries, considered that I could be a citizen of New Zealand by descent.
Needless to say, I was shocked about this. I’ve always been an Australian citizen born in Tamworth. Neither my or my parents had any reason to believe that I may be a citizen of any other country.
I was born in Australia in 1967 to an Australian mother and I think I’m fifth generation. My father was born in New Zealand, came to Australia in 1947 as a British subject. In fact, we were all British subjects at this time.
The concept of New Zealand-Australian citizenship was not created until 1948. Neither my parents nor I had ever applied to register me as a New Zealand citizen. The New Zealand government has no record of registering me as a New Zealand citizen.
The government has taken legal advice from the solicitor general. On the basis of the solicitor general’s advice, they’re of the firm view that [I] will not be found to be disqualified by the operation of section 44.1 of the constitution of serving as a member for New England.
However, to provide clarification to this very important area of the law, for this and future parliaments, I have asked the government to refer the matter in accordance with Section 376 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act to the high court sitting as the court of disputed returns.
Given the strength of the legal advice the government has received, the prime minister has asked that I remain deputy prime minister and continue my ministerial duties.
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Barnaby Joyce will stay in parliament and in the deputy prime minister’s role while the case is heard. The government appears confident that Joyce is OK – which seems a little premature, given the twists and turns in this citizenship issue.
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The curious case of Barnaby Joyce's citizenship
As it turns out, I have been digging on this in the past few weeks and the government guidance was always that Joyce was OK on citizenship.
But I was advised otherwise by various sources and here is the nub of the issue.
I have been told the original versions of the Citizenship Act 1977 (NZ) provided for citizenship by descent to lapse if a birth overseas was not registered within a specified period.
However, I understand the lapsing provision was repealed after complaints, and citizenship restored to those whose citizenship had lapsed by amending acts passed in 2000 and 2001.
These are the various links for those citizen journos who want to pursue this.
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2000/0009/latest/whole.html#DLM54927
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2001/0095/latest/whole.html#DLM121275
Joyce’s spokesman said Joyce was not a dual citizen and had established that “many years prior to entering parliament”. (He entered parliament in the Senate in 2005.)
Joyce said his parents had never registered his birth and his citizenship by descent. In which case, it would have lapsed when he was a young man.
But the amendments of 2000-01 would have restored his citizenship by descent with effect from the date his citizenship had originally lapsed. In other words, under current NZ citizenship law, it may be that he is and always has been a New Zealand citizen.
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So Joyce will join the high court cases of the One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts, the former resources minister Matt Canavan and the Greens senators Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters.
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Barnaby Joyce has asked to refer his own citizenship to the high court
Deputy prime minister Joyce’s father was a citizen of New Zealand.
"I have a relationship with my mates who I go cycling with on the weekend but I'm not married to them." - Kevin Andrews weighs in...
— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) August 13, 2017
Andrews says he has affectionate relationships with friends but there's no law about friendship...
— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) August 13, 2017
I’m so confused ...
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Housekeeping is in order, with parliament resuming at 10am.
In the Senate, we have government bills on a telecommunications regime “to better manage national security risks of espionage, sabotage and foreign interference, and better protect networks and the confidentiality of information stored on and carried across them from unauthorised interference and access”.
The bill to implement the effects test, the competition bill on the misuse of market power, is number two on the government’s list. That bill would strengthen legal protections for small businesses and farmers against abuse of market power by big businesses.
In the lower house, we have citizenship changes that toughen the English language test and the residency requirements.
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The Australia Institute has done an interesting study on the gaps in federal corruption laws, apropos the case for a national corruption body.
The report finds:
- There are significant gaps in the jurisdiction and investigative powers of the federal agencies responsible for scrutinising the public sector and government
- No agency has the power to investigate corrupt conduct as defined by our state-based commissions
- No agency can investigate misconduct of MPs, ministers or the judiciary
- The only agencies that have strong investigative powers can only use them when investigating criminal charges
- No agency holds regular public hearings, meaning that corruption and misconduct is not properly exposed to the public
- To fill these gaps, a federal anti-corruption commission will need strong investigative powers and broad jurisdiction similar to NSW Icac and other successful state-based commissions
The institute is holding a conference on this issue on Thursday, with a stellar line-up, including the former NSW Icac commissioner David Ipp, the former NSW director of public prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery, the counsel assisting NSW Icac Geoffrey Watson, the shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, the Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, Senator Nick Xenophon, Senator Jacqui Lambie, Prof George Williams, the former independent national security legislation monitor Bret Walker, Noel Hutley, the Law Council president, Fiona McLeod, Anthony Whealy, Assoc Prof Joo Cheong Tham, Assoc Prof Gabrielle Appleby and Prof AJ Brown.
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Sweet parliamentary business from Cormac Farrell, house bee wrangler.
This frame of #honey wasn't in there going into winter - all from our nation's Parliament! @Aust_Parliament @Aurecon @ANU_Bees pic.twitter.com/8951whtTkq
— cormac farrell (@jagungal1) August 13, 2017
Lee Rhiannon: Bob Brown is hurting the Greens with his attacks
Four Corners is doing an instalment on the Greens tonight, in which Bob Brown continues his sharp criticism of the NSW Greens senator Lee Rhiannon.
It comes two months after the open rift in the national Greens over Rhiannon and her opposition to the party negotiating with the government over the Gonski 2.0 schools funding package.
Rhiannon has put out a statement about Brown’s claims she is a team wrecker, saying Brown is upset because the NSW party preferred candidates other than his own.
"Bob Brown accuses me of being a team wrecker": Statement from Greens Senator @leerhiannon #auspol pic.twitter.com/7JhzPHwhnv
— Political Alert (@political_alert) August 13, 2017
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Hipster no more.
The beard is dead. #auspol #shave https://t.co/QdKFFDEeud pic.twitter.com/zStK30wIiI
— James McGrath (@JamesMcGrathLNP) August 13, 2017
The education minister, Simon Birmingham, has joined Tim Wilson to push back against the Archbishop of Sydney’s scare campaign of “same-sex coercion” in schools if Australia votes yes to marriage equality.
Birmingham on Sky:
I have seen no proposals that would change the operations or workings of those provisions in the Sex Discrimination Act that should give absolute confidence to Archbishop Fischer, to church leaders to faith-based schools around Australia that they could continue to be able to operate and teach precisely as they do today.
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#BREAKING: CommBank CEO Ian Narev to resign pic.twitter.com/hYz3wr0wOt
— Frank Chung (@franks_chung) August 13, 2017
Commonwealth bank boss Ian Narev to retire (cough)
The embattled bank boss, under the hammer over action against the bank by Austrac over alleged money laundering, will retire by the end of the 2018 financial year.
The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney is warming up the campaign against a possible yes vote in the marriage plebiscite, claiming religious freedoms could be threatened. Joe Kelly of the Oz reports:
Archbishop Anthony Fisher has warned that religious schools, hospitals, charities and welfare agencies could be jeopardised by a Yes vote for same-sex marriage in the government’s postal ballot.
Firing an opening shot in the church’s campaign, the archbishop has laid down battlelines for the No case by linking the redefinition of marriage to broader community concerns about issues such as the contentious Safe Schools program.
The Liberal MP and marriage equality advocate Tim Wilson has told Kieran Gilbert on Sky News, that is incorrect.
Wilson pulled out his trusty copy of the Australian constitution and has offered to send Fischer a copy. He quoted section 116:
Commonwealth not to legislate in respect of religion
The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.
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Media laws before the Senate this week
Negotiations continue before the Senate debating media legislation this week. The bill would scrap the two out of three rule, so media could control television, newspapers and radio stations in the same market and the reach rule, 75% reach rule, which prevents Nine Entertainment, Seven West Media and the Ten Network from owning their regional affiliates.
The communications minister, Mitch Fifield, argues the new media landscape means that Australian media companies need to be able to grow to protect themselves against bigger global companies.
Nick Xenophon wants an inquiry:
We need to have a very thorough inquiry and action on the power of Facebook and Google. They have been complete disruptors in a very negative way in the sense they can cannibalise existing content of existing media outlets. And Facebook and Google are raking in more than $4bn year in advertising revenue which is cutting away from traditional media and hurting journalism, quality journalism in this country.
Labor is opposed to the bill and the government is negotiating with the Greens and crossbenchers including Xenophon.
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In case you missed it, Gareth Hutchens reports:
Six hundred of Australia’s biggest private companies could finally be forced to publish their high-level tax information, under a new push by Labor to repair a notorious piece of legislation.
Labor will introduce a private senators’ bill on Monday to amend the Taxation Administration Act 1953, to require private companies with more than $100m in turnover to release their tax information to the public annually.
The former Labor government passed similar legislation in 2013 but the provision was wound back by the Coalition in late 2015 before the changes could take effect.
Kevin Rudd: giving the US a blank cheque on North Korea is irresponsible
I want to bring you more of Kevin Rudd’s comments on Malcolm Turnbull’s approach to Anzus.
Rudd wrote a piece for the Financial Times about the real potential for conflict over North Korea:
Some of us fear that we are sleepwalking again, blindly unaware of the abyss that lies ahead.
Rudd told the ABC that we have entered into a difficult and dangerous time. He says war on the peninsula is not probable but it is becoming more and more possible …
which is why we need calm language, solid diplomacy and not the sort of waving of arms into the air which we seem to have seen from Mr Turnbull in recent days about his Anzus pronouncements.
Rudd’s central point about the substantive issue is that China does not seem to think the US is serious about unilateral action against North Korea but, in the US, it is a possibility.
But he saved his fire for the Turnbull government’s “joined at the hip” statement.
My response to this statement when I first saw it on the weekend was ‘good God, the conservatives in Australia have learnt nothing from the Iraq experience. John Howard gave president Bush a blank cheque on Iraq. You never as an Australian prime minister, as an ally of the United States, give the Americans before the event a blank cheque. There are multiple scenarios that could arise from the Korean peninsula and we cannot predict predict which if any of them would occur. But for an Australian prime minister to say that we automatically would become militarily involved in the event of a North Korean attack, frankly I think is irresponsible in terms of our core national security interests.
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There has been the sound of cannons this morning around the building, a welcome for Manasseh Damukana Sogavare, prime minister of the Solomon Islands, and his wife, Emmy Sogavare.
Malcolm Turnbull and Sogavare will witness the signing of a bilateral security treaty.
The PM put out this statement last week.
The visit by Prime Minister Sogavare is an important milestone following the conclusion of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (Ramsi) – a 14-year partnership that restored peace and stability to the Solomon Islands.
Prime Minister Sogavare and I will discuss the new era ahead for our bilateral development, economic, and security partnership.
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The long goodbye
Good morning blogans,
It is a glorious morning in Canberra, where a brilliant sunrise has dawned and the symphony of leaf blowers begins in the courtyards of parliament.
The political news is a mix of local and global. Adam Gartrell of Fairfax has dug up a sneaky move from last week which we all missed. The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, quietly introduced the Australian Border Force Amendment (Protected Information) Bill 2017 which would dump the extreme secrecy provisions that surround detention workers including teachers, lawyers and social workers from blowing the whistle if they saw neglect or abuse. The penalty at the moment is up to two years in prison.
This bill would repeal the definition of protected information – now any information obtained in a person’s capacity as an entrusted person – and change it to ensure “only specific kinds of information” are covered by the secrecy and disclosure provisions.
From the explanatory memo:
This bill seeks to balance the need to protect certain information, where appropriate, against the Australian government’s commitment to open government.
Doctors for Refugees’ Barri Phataford, who is involved in the court case, says bollocks.
He’s clarifying it now because the government is in the middle of a high court challenge which frankly they know they cannot win.
That bill does not appear to be up this week for debate.
Kevin Rudd has talked to Fran Kelly about the escalating tension between the US and North Korea. He has been highly critical of Malcolm Turnbull’s “arm waving” on any potential conflict between the two countries.
His comments come after Turnbull said on Friday the US were joined at the hip on defence matters.
Rudd suggested the conservative party had learnt nothing from the conflict with Iraq and Australian prime ministers should not be giving the US a “blank cheque”.
I will bring you some more of Rudd’s comments in a moment, in order to get this baby in the air. So grab a beverage, sit back and enjoy the ride of this week in parliament, my last on the #politicslive blog. For those who have missed the previous announcement, I am off to do other projects and Amy Remeikis, now of Fairfax, will shortly take the reins.
In the meantime, talk to me in the thread, on the Twits @gabriellechan or on Facebook.
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