With Wednesday having delivered the visual of the deputy prime minister throwing his John Deere out of the cot, we are going to call it a night and await, feverishly, what Thursday will deliver.
Will Michael McCormack remain spicy, or return to a more stale ham sandwich sort of vibe?
That, my friends, is the magic and mystery of the 46th parliament.
In all seriousness, Thursday shouldn’t be quite as frantic, because there is another sitting next week and the government needs to stretch out that legislation cupboard as long as possible.
A big thank-you to Mike Bowers, Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp and Sarah Martin for keeping my fires burning, and to all those in the Guardian brains trust who come along and make me make sense.
As always though, the biggest thank-you goes to you for coming along with us. We appreciate you for choosing to spend part of your day with us as we navigate this place and its shenanigans. I hope you can all switch off for a bit now. That’s what I’ll be doing – at least until early tomorrow morning. As always though – take care of you.
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Just a quick note on the Coalition’s proposed integrity commission.
The shadow attorney-general, Mark Dreyfus, today criticised the government for its lack of progress on establishing a federal integrity commission, something it promised to do in late 2018.
Dreyfus said the proposal was not even on the government’s published legislative agenda for 2019.
But attorney-general, Christian Porter, has reaffirmed the government’s intention to finalise a bill by the end of the year. In a statement to AAP, Porter said the draft was currently being prepared and would be released for public consultation once ready.
”The experience at the state level has been that this is the worst possible area in which to engage in policy on the run,” Porter said.
“This is one area where the hard detailed work must come before the headlines.”
The Coalition’s proposal has faced significant criticism for its weaknesses.
It will be unable to hold public hearings into public sector corruption, cannot take tip-offs from the general public, requires a high threshold of evidence before investigations can begin, and will be unable to make findings of corrupt conduct. Critics say it has been set up in a way that effectively shields politicians.
The Greens have proposed a stronger model and passed legislation through the Senate on Monday with the support of Labor and parts of the crossbench.
The Greens will face a difficult task in getting their legislation before the lower house.
Sam Dastyari is standing on the middle of a street, being broadcast into the Sky studios, for an interview with David Speers.
It’s ... interesting and very Sam-Dastyari-hasn’t-seen-the-cameras-for-a-while.
His point is that he made the right decision to step down when he did and thinks that Gladys Liu should be held to the same standard he was.
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New Labor SA senator Marielle Smith is delivering her first speech:
I have been fortunate throughout my life to be surrounded by strong, passionate and remarkable women. I’ve been fortunate beyond words to have the mentorship of two in particular who have travelled from Adelaide to support me today.
To Kate Ellis, a great trailblazer of our movement and parliament. Simply, and on many levels, I would not be in this place without you and all that you have done for me.
And to Julia Gillard, whose contribution to this place, and legacy to our country, is immeasurable. Julia, your belief in me has been sustaining, your advocacy humbling, and your friendship is one of the most cherished I have ever and will ever have. I promise to make you proud here.
A familiar face in an unfamiliar place, Julia Gillard in the senate chamber to watch the first speech of South Australian Senator Marielle Smith @AmyRemeikis @GuardianAus #polticslive https://t.co/Ll819yRZyk pic.twitter.com/zYIbYBa6l5
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) September 11, 2019
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Asked if he had watched the Andrew Bolt interview with Gladys Liu, Barnaby Joyce told Patricia Karvelas he had.
His verdict?
Everyone has a bad day in the office and that was one.
I mean, he would know.
Thousands of mature-age students – including Newstart recipients, single parents and the disabled – would have their welfare payments slashed under a revived Morrison government plan.
On Thursday, the Coalition re-introduced legislation to parliament that would effectively reduce two top-up welfare payments received by older students who do not study full-time.
The changes, which would save the budget $80 million, mean a person studying part-time would get half the annual $208 education entry payment rather than the full amount. The $62.40 a week pensioner education supplement will also be tightened.
It comes as the Coalition pushes ahead with plans to drug-test welfare recipients and expand the cashless debit card to the North Territory, and as it refuses to heed calls to lift the rate of Newstart allowance.
The Australian Council of Social Service (Acoss), which opposes the bill, says 56,100 people – mostly disability support pensioners and people receiving parenting payment single and carer payments – would be impacted by the cuts to the education entry payment.
Changes to the pensioner education supplement would impact about 39,700 people who would no longer receive this payment during university semester breaks, Acoss says, while about 30,000 would have these fortnightly payments cut in half because they study part-time.
The Department of Social Services previously told 9,629 Newstart recipients also received one or both of these two supplementary payments. The government consistently points to supplementary payments as a reason why Newstart does not need to be raised.
The bill, which also bars students studying overseas from receiving the Relocation Scholarship, to save a further $1.9 million, was rejected by the Senate in the previous parliament.
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You may notice here the lack of reaction from Scott Morrison to his deputy having a complete and utter meltdown at the despatch box.
I mean, a cynic would think that some sort of distraction was ... almost ... planned.
Very angry exchange between Deputy PM Michael McCormack and Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon. #qt pic.twitter.com/ReWW8aiGo5
— Guardian Australia (@GuardianAus) September 11, 2019
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.@AngusTaylorMP just gave a 10-minute speech in Parliament on climate change WITHOUT mentioning the term "climate change" once! Fantastic. Great move. Well done Angus.
— Mark Butler MP (@Mark_Butler_MP) September 11, 2019
In all seriousness though, what was that hour?
Well, if one of your MPs has done a trainwreck interview, against advice, which has made them the story, at a time when you are attempting to play as beige as possible, and you know question time is coming up, what do you do?
Attempt to divert attention.
Michael McCormack just McCormacked his bit, but you had Peter Dutton twice, giving his best Dutton, Christian Porter doing his Porter, and Josh Frydenberg ramping up both the yelling and class clown act.
The problem is, it doesn’t seem like the government QT strategists considered that most of the questions would be ruled out of order.
So the distraction became the main show.
And, well, you saw the result.
How Mike Bowers saw the rest of the Michael McCormack snaps hour:
Updated
When you ask for meat and three veg, and get onion.
Question time ends
Question time ends.
As does my will to keep typing.
But Oma didn’t raise no quitter, so we keep on.
Updated
For a visual of what is not happening in question time today
PM Scott Morrison is asked about the member for Chisholm Gladys Liu after reports about her ties to bodies linked to the Communist party #qt pic.twitter.com/Xw1C8yT6gk
— Guardian Australia (@GuardianAus) September 11, 2019
All of this
Just to cut a long story short. No one wants to get to the bottom of anything today, (apart from the chum bucket) #qt
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) September 11, 2019
Mark Dreyfus to Scott Morrison:
Doesn’t matter, it is ruled out of order.
Someone is feeling a bit more comfortable
Updated
Labor senator Nita Green has continued to push the Coalition on the Biloela Tamil family, noting in Senate question time that Nationals MPs Ken O’Dowd and Barnaby Joyce, independent Helen Haines and conservative broadcaster Alan Jones have all called for the family to stay.
The government leader in the Senate, Mathias Cormann, responded by arguing Labor has been inconsistent on the point:
“I refer to the statement of the deputy prime minister [Anthony Albanese] in 2013 that nobody who arrives in Australia by boat without a visa will be permanently settled. We are committed to protecting the integrity of our borders, and preventing vulnerable people being subjected to the vile trade of the people smugglers.”
So that was a no, they won’t be allowed to stay.
As my colleague Helen Davidson has noted in this factcheck, the idea that nobody after the July 2013 deadline would be allowed to stay is demonstrably false – as Guardian Australia reported in July, Peter Dutton himself has allowed at least one accompanied minor refugee to stay. But, as Cormann notes, the Biloela family have been found not to be refugees.
Updated
Anthony Albanese asks Christian Porter when the government will introduce its national integrity commission legislation.
Porter says the government is making its way through it. He then says the phrase “flip flop” about a million times (time moves slowly in this place) in relation to Albanese. That’s one of Peter Dutton and Scott Morrison’s favourites as well, as they try and get it happening.
I don’t have enough can’ts to even. All I can say is student politics has a lot to answer for.
Updated
Mark Dreyfus to Scott Morrison:
Did the minister for home affairs’ actions meet the high standards expected of ministers under ministerial standards, given an ABC report that the minister for home affairs had a lunch with a man arranged by a lobbyist who called the minister one of his best friends, and said he could arrange access to the minister’s office for $20,000, and has the prime minister taken any steps to investigate that report?
Morrison:
Thank you, Mr Speaker. The declarations that are made in relation to donations are set out on the public record. I want to make something very clear. When I was talking about money changing hands, I wasn’t talking about donations. I was talking about expenses that were picked up personally by Senator Dastyari, by Senator Dastyari personally, his legal expenses and his travel expenses. I have made no reference, Mr Speaker, to donations. Donations should be declared in the ordinary course of business, and they are, and they should be transparent, and that is the case here, Mr Speaker.
Updated
Mark Dreyfus to Scott Morrison:
Can the prime minister explain why it was proper for the Liberal National party to accept a donation from the CEO of Brisbane-based company Canstruct which resulted in a lucrative contract.
It is ruled out of order. Tony Smith says it is about the third one in a row, and if he thinks that this is an attempt to raise issues Labor knows will be out of order, he will cut off the question.
One of the points that is well-established is that ministers and prime ministers are not responsible for political parties’ statements by members, by ministers, obviously, occurrences and party rooms, and a range of statements. I won’t keep repeating myself, it is clear. The question is out of order.
Tony Burke says the prime minister opened the door for the question, by giving an answer to the House yesterday about donations, which should allow the question.
Smith says the question didn’t actually address that.
Certainly members’ statements can be referred to. I mean, that’s a well-established precedent, I couldn’t stop that. But just because the prime minister has made a statement, it doesn’t allow the member for Isaacs to ask whatever he feels like.
And let’s be frank here, we are all politicians. I am ruling the question is out of order, and there doesn’t seem to be, you know, any upset or outrage from my left. I mean, let’s just call a spade a spade.
Sorry, I should have corrected that. I don’t...
(The government side goes nuts.)
Let me correct my statement. There doesn’t seem to be any outrage or upset from those on my left to know what they are doing.
Updated
Awwwww Peter Dutton gets another opportunity to smile, with another lickspittle on JUST HOW SAFE ARE WE.
tl;dr – VERY. BUT JUST IMAGINE IF PETER DUTTON AND THE MORRISON GOVERNMENT DIDN’T WIN THE ELECTION.
Mark Dreyfus to Scott Morrison:
I refer to his comments in the House yesterday and today, the front page headline of the Daily Telegraph... Why does he promise to go over the top when he sees political advantage, but go into hiding when there is Liberal party corruption in his own party members are breaking the law? (he holds up a front page)
Tony Smith:
The member for Isaacs will not use props, the question is out of order, it offends. Ministers could stop interject! The member for Sydney is warned. If the member for Isaacs is having difficulty, I suggest he acquaint himself with pages 553 and 554, a practice that outlines a whole list of elements that ministers can’t be question on, and he offended five of them.
Updated
At the National Press Club, Mark Dreyfus gave some hints about his thinking on press freedom – which is significant because he is a Labor member of the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security examining the issue.
Dreyfus suggested the raids on the ABC and Annika Smethurst were “a product, not of the laws which have been in place for very, very many years, but of the way that this government has chosen to go about demanding that leaks are investigated”.
Dreyfus said:
I’ve been a bit concerned about some of the public commentary in this area because it’s been so focused on black letter law. I think some of it needs to be focused on what you call unwritten law on the exercise of discretions on the conventions which have surrounded the way in which, just to take a simple example, section 70 and 79 of the Crimes Act 1914, have been there since the first world war, have manifested. What’s happened to them? On the face of them, they criminalise a lot of journalistic activity. They criminalise the publication when the journalist know that is it is a leak from government. But no journalist has been prosecuted for that in the more than 100 years which have gone past. And you have to ask the question is why is that so? It’s so because of the way in which governments exercise discretions and apply conventions to make sure that journalists and ordinary media work in this country is protected.
So Dreyfus seems to be suggesting instead of changing laws, governments should just stop complaining to the cops about some non-critical leaks.
Dreyfus also opposed a blanket exemption for journalists to national security disclosure laws. He downplayed expectations around the PJCIS review, suggesting the report would likely be “rather securitised”, by which I assume he meant opaque, technical or not expansive. He suggested a separate Senate review might be more fruitful.
Updated
Christian Porter delivers the ‘unions are terrible’ lickspittle.
Mark Dreyfus to Scott Morrison:
I refer to the prime minister’s previous answer where he said the test was whether money had changed hands. I refer to the responsibility for the AEC and its role in political parties, and I refer to the article in the Herald Sun by James Campbell that the Liberal party returned $300,000 in donations from dinner guests associated with the member for Chisholm because of security concerns, and to the member for Chisholm’s statement last night that the donation and its return was all made up. Prime minister, is she correct?
Tony Smith moves to rule the question out of order, given the PM doesn’t have any responsibility for the AEC.
Morrison wants to answer it. “On indulgence?” he asks Smith.
Tony Burke and Christian Porter both make their arguments – Porter, seeing that Morrison wants to answer the question, just asks for a small tweak.
Smith rules the question out of order.
Updated
Peter Dutton has waited very patiently for almost 24 hours and now gets to give the answer to the lickspittle he had lined up yesterday, after Andrew Hastie says the magic words “alternative approaches”.
“Give us a smile,” Labor backbenchers call out. It is, after all, a year after Dutton told us all he wanted was to smile more.
But Dutton is never happier than when he gets to talk about how terrible Labor is, unless of course it is talking about how terrible unions are.
He gives the answer he prepared yesterday.
Updated
Mark Dreyfus to Scott Morrison:
When Sam Dastyari failed to support the bipartisan position on the South China Sea, the prime minister said Sam Dastyari has been caught betraying his country, and that means he is betraying every patriotic Australian in this country. Does the prime minister stand by that statement, and the standard it sets? Will the prime minister apply this test to the member for Chisholm?
Tony Smith allows the question.
I further comment on the statement by the member for Chisholm today which makes it very clear her support for the government’s position.
The prime minister can pause for a second. I have made it clear I need to listen to the question, because I need to make rulings on these matters. I am going to listen to the answer without interjection. Prime minister.
Morrison:
Thank you, Mr Speaker. So I refer the member to her statement which makes it very clear about her support for the government’s position in the long-standing position we have taken in relation to those matters. What the member has raised with me is the conduct of the former senator, Sam Dastyari.
Now, what he will remember about Senator Sam Dastyari is, not only, Mr Speaker, not only was he a minister, shadow minister, I should say, in the executive of the opposition at that time, he seems to forget the fact that money changed hands between then senator Sam Dastyari... Money changed hands...
... And his position was bought by that, Mr Speaker, with a concession alone, with alone, I should say, to off his legal expenses, and he was caught in his own web of corruption, Mr Speaker. He should have resigned, and he did.
Updated
Goodness. Michael McCormack just got so worked up during that previous lickspittle, he shifted from 11-4001 TPG to 11- 4801 TPG on the Pantone colour chart.
Deputy PM Michael McCormack gets a little heated during and answer to a dixer when Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon interjected @AmyRemeikis @GuardianAus #PoliticsLive https://t.co/Ll819z9AWU pic.twitter.com/MJInEVaChh
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) September 11, 2019
Mark Dreyfus to Scott Morrison:
What steps did the prime minister take to ensure that the member for Chisholm is a fit and proper person to sit in the Australian parliament?
Tony Smith immediately rules it out of order, before Christian Porter is even fully out of his seat.
That question is out of order. It doesn’t go to the prime minister’s responsibilities at all.
We move to another lickspittle, which Josh Frydenberg is very excited to answer, particularly about whether or not he knows of any “alternative policies”.
He still doesn’t seem to realise that the Liberals won the election. And have been in power since 2013.
Updated
It’s been 116 or so days – can someone please tell Josh Frydenberg he won the election?
Updated
Tanya Plibersek to Scott Morrison:
The Australian Industry Group warns the nation has a skills crisis, 75% of businesses struggling to find qualified Australians to fill jobs. Why has this government ripped $3bn from Tafe in training and done nothing to stop the loss of 150,000 apprenticeships and traineeships?
Morrison:
Mr Speaker, between 2011 and 2013, when the member for Sydney was sitting around a cabinet table, Labor cut employer incentives to businesses, nine times, that totalled 1.2 million. The member would be fully aware Tafe is funded by state government, not commonwealth governments. That is why last year, I initiated a review conducted by Stephen Joyce. That review found the funding and spending going into skills education, every year, was not getting the results, the results they were not getting was that people weren’t being trained with the skills, for the skills needed by the employers who wanted to employ them.
That’s because of the outdated funding model, the process is put in place over many years, run by previous governments, these other things we need to fix and this is what we intend to fix.
Updated
Michael McCormack appears to have sprinkled too much sugar on his Weet-Bix this morning, as he gets very worked up at Joel Fitzgibbon over not caring about farmers. He screams that Fitzgibbon is “a disgrace”. Fitzgibbon gets upset. The chamber is upset, but at different things.
It’s amazing what happens when salt is added to bland carbohydrates.
Updated
Michael McCormack is attempting to act like a politician.
It’s going about as well as you would expect.
Updated
Tanya Plibersek to Scott Morrison:
As Plibersek is announced, a small cheer goes up from the government benches:
The number of Australians doing an apprenticeship or traineeship is lower than it was a decade ago. Why has this government cut $3bn from Tafe and training?
Morrison:
I have learnt when the member for Sydney puts forward figures they can never be taken at face value. At the last election our government committed to 80,000 new apprentices, as the government program has been wound out, 2000 people have taken up the program. We look forward to further success.
Plibersek attempts to table the document which shows the cuts, but is denied.
Updated
Luckily, there is already a press release on that lickspittle, for those who need the information (and given the fires, there will be some of you), so here it is:
Disaster-hit communities will be back on their feet faster, with the Government introducing legislation for a new $4 billion future fund.
The Emergency Response Fund will grow to up to $6.6 billion over the next decade.
...The type of assistance provided could include, but is not limited to, recovery project grants, service provision, adoption of technology helping recover and resilience or economic aid packages for affected communities or industry sectors to help build their resilience to future natural disasters.
The Fund will be managed by the Future Fund Board of Guardians. The Board has a proven track record of managing investment portfolios on behalf of Government and maximising returns over the long term.
Phil Thompson gets the first lickspittle of the day, but given he has tomato sauce on his bacon and egg roll instead of barbecue (and hot sauce if you are me), I can’t listen to anything he says.
Updated
Question time
Question time begins and we are straight into it.
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
My question is addressed to the prime minister. Can he confirm wages have grown more slowly than the last 38 consecutive forecasts?
Morrison:
I can confirm when it comes to wages growth, and the most recent quarter, it was 0.7%. I can confirm, in the September quarter of 2018 when we came to office it was 0.5%. Wage growth was higher than what we inherited from the Labor party.
Updated
Scott Morrison on prostate cancer:
But the message today is pretty simple, blokes – don’t muck about with your health. If, like me, you’ve hit the big 50 then you’ve absolutely got to get on to it straight away and must be getting on to it much sooner than that.
Go and talk to your doctor. I did that last Friday as part of my usual check-up and did the usual thing in making sure that these issues were totally sussed out. That’s what we all should be doing on a regular basis. Go to your doctor, know the risks, get the test. Treat it like your life depends on it. Because it does. And it’s important that we appreciate that.
And if you can’t do it for yourself, do it for your family, do it for your kids, do it for those who love you. Because you know how much you love them.
And you should understand that they love you just as much, and they want you around for as long as possible.
Updated
It’s almost question time.
Put your predictions down below
As Sarah Martin, who has had a read through the drug testing bill, has pointed out, the government is not releasing the cost of the trial.
The financial impact of these amendments is not for publication.
That’s despite the front page in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph saying up to $65,000 would be available for those determined to need referrals.
Also, it just appears to apply to those on a “job seekers” payment (which will become the new Newstart term) or youth allowance. No other welfare appears to be included.
Updated
Someone has been paying attention:
It’s clear @GladysLiuMP needs to answer some serious questions. Her statement is shocking. She should be held to the same standard that I was - a standard the PM set. I resigned. I took responsibility. That was the right decision in my circumstances.
— Sam Dastyari (@samdastyari) September 11, 2019
Updated
Does Mark Dreyfus see any reason for a religious discrimination act?
Dreyfus:
Some of the public commentary and some of the submissions, Senator Lambie, for example, the day before yesterday, expressed the view that the legislation wasn’t necessary at all. I imagine that that’s going to be part of the debate because some people are expressing that view – but speaking for myself, I think that there’s a number of groups in the Australian community that have suffered discrimination because of their religious belief, and the community that most springs to mind in recent years would be the Muslim community among us, who directly suffer discrimination in employment and the provision of services.
I think that it’s absolutely a worthwhile innovation that the attorney general has produced to add this additional ground of discrimination to our existing set of anti-discrimination laws.
Precisely how that’s going to be done is the argument that’s ahead of us. But I hear the voices that have said, ‘What’s the need for this?’, or, ‘Why are we doing this?’
Other voices saying the reason we’re having the discussion is because of what occurred in the same-sex marriage debate.
Put that to one side, there’s been calls now for a long time for a new ground of discrimination based on religious belief. Four states of the commonwealth have acted to create that ground of discrimination.
I’m very happy we’re having that debate at the federal level now.
Updated
The whole question and answer exchange is here:
Paul Karp:
In the context of the marriage debate, Bill Shorten gave a very simple commitment that Labor would not vote for legislation that watered down the protection of LGBT Australians.
Now, I know the religious discrimination bill is just an exposure draft and I know Labor is still consulting about it, but will you recommit today that Labor will not vote to water down existing protections in state and federal discrimination law?
And if not, why is that principle no longer a red line for Labor?
Mark Dreyfus:
Well, I don’t want to give an absolutely clear answer to Paul’s excellent question.
It’s one of the questions raised by the exposure draft bills that Christian Porter released about 10 days ago.
The reason I don’t is that, as I said publicly as recently as yesterday at a press conference that Paul asked me a similar question about, I said these are exposure drafts.
Labor’s now consulting on those exposure drafts and when the government resolves on whatever final position it gets to and introduces legislation to the parliament, that will be the time for Labor to form a final view of whether the legislation that the government has introduced to the parliament is an appropriate change to Australia’s anti-discrimination law.
One thing I can say, though, is that we have longstanding Labor values in this area.
Labor is committed to the elimination of all forms of discrimination in our community.
We have shown that since 1975, when we enacted the Racial Discrimination Act, through to the Sex Discrimination Act through to the Disability Discrimination Act, another Labor enactment, and then supporting the Howard government when it enacted the Age Discrimination Act.
Those are the four acts of the Australian parliament that set up the anti-discrimination framework that governs conduct in Australia today.
We look carefully at the other provisions that have been enacted at the state level, because one of the parts of the debate prompted by the exposure drafts that Christian Porter has produced is whether or not, in addition to the existing framework of the four acts, there should also be a new attribute protected against discrimination, namely religious belief.
Four states already have such a protected attribute in their anti-discrimination frameworks. There’s a question raised by this legislation as to whether or not at the federal level we should have that as well.
And one of the questions that’s going to need to be resolved, as it always has been when a new anti-discrimination statute is produced, is how that new anti-discrimination statute needs to interact with the existing anti-discrimination statutes.
This is something that international human rights has dealt with and political rights deals with directly. It’s where you have potentially conflicting rights.
And the resolution of that conflict or competition between rights is the subject matter of the debate. We have seen bits of it so far in the commitment that the prime minister made during the Wentworth byelection, for example, to abolish the exemption that’s there for religious schools to discriminate against students and children in those schools – that’s unresolved, of course, because the prime minister didn’t keep that promise, and still hasn’t.
[That] perhaps demonstrates the degree of difficulty, but that’s the issue that’s going to have to be resolved.
The issue raised by your question is going to have to be revolved when we come to debating the legislation that the government says it’s bringing forward.
Updated
Sighhhhhhhhh
Mark Dreyfus refuses to recommit to principle @billshortenmp established that Labor won't vote to water down protections of LGBT Australians. Says it's "not of assistance to commit" and he doesn't want to "pre-empt" consultation by giving that guarantee. #auspol #NPC
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) September 11, 2019
Cory Bernardi has been unable to file his weekly “commonsense” missive to supporters, because he is “under the pump in Canberra”.
Given what the Senate is dealing with this week, he may be the only one, but I guess we all handle transitions differently. Or in this case, approaching a transition.
Updated
On the ongoing Labor review, and what may happen to some of the policies of the last six years, Mark Dreyfus says this:
I’m not going to pre-empt the outcome first of all of the review being conducted by eminent former figures of the Labor party. That review is going to report to the party later in the year. And this will be an ongoing debate in the Labor party, as it should be after an election defeat.
It’s an election defeat where the government increased its majority by precisely one seat, moving from having a one-seat majority after the 2016 election to a two-seat majority after the 2019 election.
But it’s an election result which has caused shock right across Australia because of the deep expectation that Labor was going to win the election.
We do have to review the way in which we campaigned; we do have to review the policies we took to the people at the last election. That’s an entirely appropriate process for us to be engaging in.
And might I say – we are not going to win the 2022 election by making announcements right here and now – or for me to make an announcement at the Press Club of what our policies are going to be.
One of the striking things, I would say, about the last election was just the way in which the winning party, the one that won a majority of seats, 77 seats in the parliament, in their Coalition, was able to go from the knifing of a prime minister for the second time in five years to a just winning position in May of 2019.
But it does tell you something about the speed in which things can change in Australian politics and the closeness to the election that changes a position that might be able to be achieved.
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Could everyone who is commenting on some of the issues today take a breath and think about the origins of their comments, and how it may be coming across. Not all racism is intentional, but it still needs to be called out.
I don’t need comments defending some of the terms or nicknames. Just think about it, before posting.
And if it doesn’t apply to you, cool. Enact one of the most golden social media rules – if it doesn’t fit, let it slip.
Moving on.
Updated
This is either “farmers don’t take drugs” or “if farmers take drugs we don’t care”, because not all welfare is equal, apparently.
If the point is to try and find drug problems and help people defeat them, shouldn’t everyone be involved?
Farmers in welfare drug test sites who receive farm household allowance are exempt, according to the legislation tabled today:
— Sarah Martin (@msmarto) September 11, 2019
'recipients who receive a payment of farm household allowance made under the Farm Household Support Act will not be subject to the drug testing trial'
Updated
And here are Mark Dreyfus’s problems with the government’s proposal for a national integrity commission:
The government’s model proposes a body with two wings – one wing is essentially the existing Australian Commission for Law Enforcement and Integrity, with a few new departments brought under its jurisdiction. The second wing is designed to cover politicians, their staff, and the commonwealth public service.
The government proposes vastly different powers for the two wings, which would be in effect two different bodies. The ACLEI wing would retain all its previous investigatory powers and the ability to hold public hearings – although notably it has not held a single public hearing since its foundation in 2006. The second wing, however, would be far more limited:
- It can not self-start inquiries or act on tip-offs from the public, as it must rely on referrals of allegations of serious or corrupt conduct from agency heads. How that will work in the case of politicians is unclear.
- It can not hold public hearings, full-stop.
- It can not make findings of corruption – instead it will simply determine whether any case is strong enough to refer to the CDPP.
- It can not investigate serious misconduct due to the threshold for investigation being set at a reasonable suspicion that the conduct in question constitutes a criminal offence.
- It will not have the power to seize evidence nor conduct surveillance – powers that have proved key to several cases in state-based anti-corruption systems
... As the prime minister might put it, “how good is a national integrity commission that can’t investigate anything that embarrasses my government?”. (He did a voice for that)
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Mark Dreyfus acknowledges the NSW Labor situation in his speech:
There has been a great deal in the news recently about the conduct of individuals in the NSW Labor party in relation to election donations, aired at the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption. Other matters at Icac over recent years have resulted in the resignation of some 11 Liberal party MPs, and just this morning we read that another Liberal minister has serious questions to answer. Without prejudging any possible findings of the current investigation, let me make an unequivocal statement, and that is that Labor stands for integrity, accountability and transparency in government. And that we do not tolerate misconduct, whether in government, business or unions. In keeping with this guiding principle we have always worked to foster a culture of integrity in government. And in opposition.
And if misconduct does occur, action must be taken. Not just action against the individual or individuals involved, but serious action to ensure that such conduct never occurs again.
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This is a statement from Gladys Liu to me less than 24 hours ago denying any connection with a number of Chinese organisations. She now accepts she did have an association with three of the groups #auspol pic.twitter.com/luJAliP5PN
— Anthony Galloway (@Gallo_Ways) September 11, 2019
Gladys Liu conducts audit of memberships
Gladys Liu is putting her statement out via twitter:
not take sides on competing territorial claims but we call on all claimants to resolve disputes peacefully and in accordance with international law.
— Gladys Liu (@GladysLiuMP) September 11, 2019
Our relationship with China is one of mutual benefit and underpinned by our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. China is not a
being the first Chinese-born member of Parliament. I know some people will see everything I do through the lens of my birthplace, but I hope that they will see more than just the first Chinese woman elected to Parliament. I hope they will see me as a strong advocate for everyone
— Gladys Liu (@GladysLiuMP) September 11, 2019
•Honorary President of the United Chinese Commerce Association of Australia. My involvement was done for no other reason than to support the promotion of trade between Australia and Hong Kong, and to encourage individuals in the Australia-Hong Kong community to undertake
— Gladys Liu (@GladysLiuMP) September 11, 2019
Association in 2011. I no longer have an association with this organisation
— Gladys Liu (@GladysLiuMP) September 11, 2019
My Labor opponent in the recent election also had an association with the United Chinese Commerce Association of Australia and was honorary President of the Australian Jiangmen General Commercial
I am in the process of auditing any organisations who may have added me as a member without my knowledge or consent.
— Gladys Liu (@GladysLiuMP) September 11, 2019
I am a proud Australian, passionately committed to serving the people of Chisholm, and any suggestion contrary to this is deeply offensive.
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Labor’s new senator from South Australia, Marielle Smith, will make her first speech in the Senate later this afternoon.
There will be one or two very familiar faces in the gallery as she delivers it – Smith worked with former prime minister Julia Gillard on delivering a global education policy for about five years. Kate Ellis is a big supporter as well.
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Mark Dreyfus is delivering the National Press Club address on the need for a national integrity commission:
The proof of the government’s lack of commitment to integrity and hence, the title of my speech, Time’s Up!, is that more than 20 months after Labor’s announcement that we would establish a national integrity commission, and more than eight months after the Liberal government announced the same commitment, we still don’t have, from the government, so much as an exposure draft for legislation to establish such a body.
Indeed, legislation to establish such a body is not even on the government’s published legislative plan for the rest of this year. And this is despite the fact that at the time of the December press conference, the government claimed to have been working on legislation since January 2018. It seems Mr Morrison’s statement in November that ensuring integrity in government is a ‘fringe issue’ continues to be an accurate statement of his view on this matter.
You have to ask just how serious this government is about a national integrity commission when 10 months after announcing the need for one and putting out a discussion paper, there is no proposal before the parliament, and no sign it’s even on the government’s agenda for the rest of this year.
We have a government that is obsessed with a bill about unions that they have called ‘ensuring integrity’. But the same government adamantly refuses to ensure its own integrity can be put under scrutiny.
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This piece from Michelle Grattan was interesting. Russell Broadbent has also been pushing the government to end mandatory detention.
Liberal moderate Russell Broadbent will not vote for government's mandatory sentencing legislation https://t.co/OuhMndYzdf via @ConversationEDU
— Michelle Grattan (@michellegrattan) September 10, 2019
A spokesman for foreign minister Marise Payne has confirmed Australia is assisting families of three Australians who have been detained in Iran:
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing consular assistance to the families of three Australians detained in Iran. Due to our privacy obligations, we will not comment further.
All Australian citizens and holders of dual nationality with Australia who are travelling to or through Iran are urged to follow the travel advice on the DFAT Smartraveller website.
That advice?
“Reconsider your need to travel”. Part of the country is on the do-not-travel list.
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Pauline Hanson is giving a masterclass in ‘we need answers to these questions that take this situation out into the stratosphere that I have just thought of, but I have no idea whether or not that is the actual case’ on Chris Kenny’s show.
It’s a wonderful technique:
‘I have no idea if they murder puppies and deliver the carcasses to small children in the night, but I think those questions need to be answered’.
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The Big Aussie BBQ is on in parliament today, raising awareness for prostate cancer.
Scott Morrison will attend.
Prepare for Morrison-with-BBQ-tongs photos. There will absolutely be a “how good” face.
No word on whether or not angus is on the menu.
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Gladys Liu has released her statement:
“Last night in a TV interview I was not clear and I should have chosen my words better. As a new member of parliament I will be learning from this experience”
Australia’s longstanding position on the South China Sea is consistent and clear.
— Pablo Viñales (@pablovinales) September 11, 2019
We do not take sides on competing territorial claims but we call on all claimants to resolve disputes peacefully and in accordance with international law. @SBSNews #auspol
I’m sure that will be the end of it*
*Yes, that is sarcasm
Melisssa McIntosh, another class of 2019 alumnus as the new Liberal MP for Lindsay, has announced she will be delivering a speech ahead of question time in the chamber, talking about September 11 and the Australian flag that was found in World Trade Centre 3.
McIntosh talked about how not being in the September 11 attack changed her life during her first speech.
At 23, I entered the corporate world. Like many young people — like many young women — I was rushing to get ahead and achieve it all before kids.
I was also the girl from Penrith, wanting to be the best and to take all the opportunities. People from western Sydney are really committed; if you have to commute three hours a day or more for your job, you have to be.
But then an experience changed things. I was given a wonderful opportunity to travel to New York for work.
A couple of days out from my departure, the trip was cancelled. I was disappointed. I was going to be staying at the famous Twin Towers.
I would have been in one of those towers on September 11.
I will never forget that day, sitting in an almost empty office in Sydney, about 20 storeys up, overlooking Hyde Park, wondering what would have happened if I had made it to New York.
Rushing for a career wasn’t so important after that, so I put it on hold and I went travelling the world with Stuart and his sporting career.
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Terri Butler fronted up to doors this morning to have a chat about David Littleproud’s admission that he is unsure if climate change is manmade.
But she wouldn’t say which way Labor would vote on the climate emergency proposal the crossbench is putting forward. Why? Because Labor doesn’t know yet:
Journalist: Will you be supporting the motion from the crossbench re this climate emergency?
TB: Well, it’s actually up to the government to decide whether there will be a declaration of a climate emergency, and frankly, I don’t have any confidence that they even believe in climate change.
They’ve had their own minister out there saying that he’s not sure whether manmade climate change exists, he doesn’t know whether it’s even real.
How can we be confident that this government will take any action on climate change, or take any serious action whatsoever, when they’ve got science-denying ministers in their own frontbench, which is threatening the prosperity of our country.
Journalist: Will you be voting for the motion?
TB: Well, as I say, it’s a matter for the government whether there is a climate emergency declaration.
The question is, what will the prime minister do? What will his ministers do? We’ve got a senior frontbencher, someone who is the drought minister, the water minister, out saying he’s not sure if manmade climate change is really a thing.
I don’t know whether we can be confident that the government will actually do anything at all.
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The latest independent health advice panel (the government-appointed panel for the medevac bill) has tabled its latest report.
It has found that, in terms of ministerial refusal to transfer patients to the mainland for treatment, the panel agreed with the minister’s decision in nine of the 15 cases.
Which means the panel of health officials appointed by the government overruled the minister in just six cases, because they judged the need for treatment in the mainland to be critical.
That’s not exactly a “flood” of people. And as far as I know, our public hospitals have not fallen. Society stands. And some very ill people who are in our care are receiving the treatment doctors have judged them to need.
Also in the report – the panel is planning a visit to the regional processing centres.
And just a reminder that anyone transferred to Australia for treatment remains in detention and is escorted to appointments/remains under guard. They do not get free rein to run around the community.
The medevac repeal bill is due to come back to parliament in November. Jacqui Lambie is the crucial vote.
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Linda Burney chatted to Sabra Lane this morning on ABC AM. She gave Labor’s positions on the upcoming welfare legislation the government is putting forward.
On drug testing:
LB: Labor is not supporting that policy. This is the third time the government has dusted off this policy and I just heard on Radio National there is a group of experts meeting in Canberra today. They are saying this is punitive. It’s not going to work. And the biggest issue is that there is just not enough treatment centres or treatment available for people that want to come off drug addiction. And that is where the government needs to focus.
SL: The cashless welfare card. The government wants to roll this out nationally. 80 per cent of money is quarantined in that for rent and food. The government says it works. Has the Labor party got a position on that yet?
LB: The Labor party does have a position. We’ve had a position for some time on the cashless welfare card. And that is that if a community has proper consultation and proper consent, and the community wants the card, then Labor would not stand in the way. But we do not support a national rollout of this card. It goes to whether or not it’s effective. And I have to say Sabra, just in closing, that the evaluations so far have been quite inadequate and there needs to be proper evaluation, and Labor has a very strong view and a very persistent view on this particular card.
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We are still waiting on the statement.
Massive clean out of Gladys Liu’s office planned. Victoria’s Liberals believe she is unsupported and therefore unprepared #auspol
— PatriciaKarvelas (@PatsKarvelas) September 11, 2019
So @GladysLiuMP office says there’s a statement coming - but not to Parliament where she faces penalties for misleading the House - and referring all questions to the Prime Minister’s office! So that’s unusual.
— 𝕤𝕒𝕞𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕙𝕒 𝕞𝕒𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕟 (@samanthamaiden) September 11, 2019
Zed Seselja, who has obviously taken his shitstirrer tablet this morning, says he is unclear if Kim Carr is supporting the bill or not, because it has been “19 minutes” of talking the bill down.
Carr is having none of it. He says the government is ignoring the big issues and using things like this bill as a distraction.
He really, really, really doesn’t like Labor’s position on this one.
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Kim Carr, who spoke up during yesterday’s caucus meeting about Labor’s intention to vote for what has become known as the “vegan terrorist” bill, is forcibly listing his concerns about the bill in the Senate.
He’ll vote for it, because that is the caucus position, and to go against the caucus position in Labor is grounds for getting kicked out of the party.
But he is not happy about it. At all.
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It being Wednesday, means it is National Press Club day.
Mark Dreyfus will be delivering today’s speech. It’s on the need for a national integrity commission.
Seems the seat of Chisholm comes with a side of “hanging the MP out to dry”.
Julia Banks held the seat before Liu.
Govt confident there’s no “smoking gun” with Liu but she was told not to do the interview with Bolt, but did. Govt believes her office is out of ifs depth #auspol
— PatriciaKarvelas (@PatsKarvelas) September 11, 2019
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We saw the home affairs minister briefly yesterday, during a failed lickspittle attempt (when you want to talk about how terrible the opposition is, you kinda have to add the “alternative approaches” kicker to the question, which wasn’t there yesterday) but Peter Dutton has kept relatively quiet, for him, this sitting week.
We aren’t hearing from him anywhere near as much as we usually do.
Just making a note.
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Don’t think the Biloela community have forgotten.
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John Hewson says Liberals have 'lost their roots' on climate
The former Liberal party leader John Hewson says his party membership has lapsed but he remains motivated by liberal values which “got me into the parliament in the first place”.
Speaking to Annelise Nielsen on Sky, he says that he is part of the push for the parliament to declare a climate emergency because not enough is being done.
“Rather than be a laggard in the climate debate, we should be a leader,” he said.
“We have tremendous sun and wind and other resources, there is a capacity to lead in the world in the response to climate change and we just squandered that opportunity over the last couple of decades.”
Asked if he still considers himself a Liberal, Hewson says: “I have predominately liberal values, in terms of the significance of the individual and the significance of market forces and low levels of government and government regulation, but what I see in the Liberal party today, is if you were a true conservative and you did believe in small government and you did believe in low levels of regulation, you did believe in market forces, you would immediately put a price on carbon.
“That is the obvious Liberal solution to this problem and fundamental to the transition that has got to be made.
“So, I just think they’ve lost their roots, quite frankly.”
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AAP has written about the latest banking royal commission move from the government.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg released draft legislation on Wednesday for consultation to strengthen the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s enforcement and supervision powers.
It includes strengthening Asic’s licensing powers by increasing the standards required of an Australian Financial Services entity, both at the time of application and on an ongoing basis.
It also extends the watchdog’s powers to ban a person from performing functions in a financial services or credit business while harmonising Asic’s search warrant powers to bring them into line with the search warrant powers of the Crimes Act.
“The exposure draft legislation is further evidence of the government’s commitment to strengthening financial regulators like Asic and restoring trust in the financial system as part of our plan to build a stronger economy,” Frydenberg said in a statement.
Consultations close on 9 October.
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Over in the portrait hall, the outgoing head of Asio, Duncan Lewis, has called for a public service college and referred to the apolitical public service as a “precious jewel”.
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And the bells have tolled for the beginning of the parliamentary session.
Duncan Lewis is doing his valedictory speech to the Institute of Public Administration Australia.
That’s in the portrait gallery, if anyone is interested.
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If Gerard Rennick’s speech wasn’t enough, I have just discovered that Phil Thompson, the LNP MP for Herbert (also class of 2019), has his bacon and egg roll with tomato sauce.
On behalf of all of Queensland, I apologise for this travesty.
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Labor on the fence about whether it will support the climate emergency motion
Just back to the climate emergency motion (hello, good people of blogues), Labor hasn’t made a decision yet about whether to back the Greens motion. If you aren’t across the details of this story, read it here. The frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon (who faced a backlash from constituents in the Hunter in the May election) said on Radio National this morning he was more supportive of outcomes than gestures.
During the May election campaign, Bill Shorten adopted language about climate change referencing an emergency. He declared in a speech during the final week: “We will take [the climate change] emergency seriously, and we will not just leave it to other countries or to the next generation.”
But the shadow climate change minister, Mark Butler, is in a holding pattern.
Labor will consider any motions brought forward through our usual processes. The Morrison government needs to make up its mind about whether they think climate change is even real, let alone an emergency.
Just yesterday we had the spectacle of the minister for water resources and emergency services say he doesn’t know if human-induced climate change is real in spite of a clear consensus from all Australia’s scientific agencies about the impacts of climate change on the frequency and severity of extreme weather events and drought. No wonder we’ve seen no real climate policy from this government, and emissions that keep on rising.
If you aren’t across Butler’s reference about David Littleproud and human-induced warming, read Paul Karp’s story here.
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Gladys Liu 'a test of Scott Morrison's leadership', Labor says
Penny Wong went by the doors this morning, because Labor has decided how it is going to tackle the Gladys Liu story. The Liberal MP has refused to explicitly criticise China after questions about her connections to Chinese Communist party propaganda organisations. Liu also would not say China’s actions in the South China Sea are unlawful, despite an international tribunal finding otherwise.
Wong says Scott Morrison needs to assure Australia that the Chisholm MP is “a fit and proper person in the Australian parliament”. She raised the government’s response to Sam Dastyari’s actions, with a “samesies” tone:
He needs to come into the parliament, make a statement and assure the Australian parliament, and through them, the Australia people, that sheis a fit and proper person in the Australian parliament …
I would make this point: I can recall the Liberal party making Sam Dastyari a test of Bill Shorten’s leadership. Well, this is Scott Morrison’s test.
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Two British-Australian women detained in Iran
Two British-Australian women and another foreign national, also believed to be Australian, have been detained in Iran.
The Times of London has reported that a blogger who was travelling through Asia with her Australian boyfriend, and an academic who studied at Cambridge University and has been working at a university in Australia, were seized separately.
The two women are believed to be at the Evin prison in Tehran, where Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a 41-year-old British-Iranian national, has been incarcerated on spying charges since 2016.
You can read more from that report from Michael McGowan and Kevin Rawlinson here.
Marise Payne’s office has been contacted.
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Zali Steggall is speaking to Laura Jayes on Sky about why she wants the parliament to declare a climate emergency.
Essentially, she says, it boils down to a need to act.
John Hewson, the former Liberal leader, is on board.
The crossbench, led by Adam Bandt in this case, is pushing for this. It comes after David Littleproud said he didn’t know whether climate change was human-made or not.
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Lisa Cox and Anne Davies have an update on the grasslands story involving Angus Taylor:
Department of the environment officials were acutely sensitive about meeting Angus Taylor over critically endangered grasslands while his family’s company was being investigated for alleged illegal land clearing in New South Wales, according to internal emails.
The information is revealed in correspondence that had previously been partially redacted from documents obtained by Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws in June this year.
It comes after Labor again pursued the energy and emissions reduction minister in question time on Tuesday and called on him to resign over the saga.
You can read the rest of that report, here.
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Of course, it’s not just Gerard Rennick who has people talking about the class of 2019. There is also Gladys Liu after her interview with Andrew Bolt on Sky News overnight, following up this ABC story.
It opened with this:
Bolt: Joining me is Liberal MP Gladys Liu. Gladys, thank you so much for your time. Can I just start, were you on the committee of two chapters of the China Overseas Guangdong Exchange Association, one in Guangdong from 2003 to 2015 and the other in Shandong?
Liu: Well, good to be that with you, Andrew. I can tell you that I cannot recall, if as is reported that from 2003 to 2015, 12 years long, that if I can’t recall, I can’t be an active member of that council, can I?
Bolt: How can you not recall a membership of 12 years? I mean, we have just shown your name listed there. I’ve got another document I can show other you, of your name listed in the other association. That is two associations, associations lasting, well, 12 years, and you can’t recall it?
Liu: Well, I can tell you that I have never been a member of this council and, yeah, it can happen. They can put your name there without your knowledge.
And didn’t get much better.
Liu would also not say whether or not she believed China’s actions in the South China Sea were unlawful. Australia has condemned China’s actions.
Bolt: Can I just hear you say it, that you support the Australian government’s position that the theft of the South China Sea by China is unlawful? Is it unlawful, yes or sure no?
Liu: Well, as I said, I want to make sure that Australians interests were put first and foremost and if it’s going to affect our trade or our air travelling, then that is something that I would not support.
Bolt: Well, in fact, it does affect our trade, 60% of it goes through that sea. We have been warned by China to stay away. We are thinking of challenging that with our navy, and you are here not able to actually support the government’s position that it was unlawful. Is there some problem with you agreeing that it was unlawful? It has been held so under international law. Why are you not going along with that?
Liu: Well, I never said that I’m not going along with it. What I’m saying is I always put Australia’s interests first. After all, I am a member of parliament for the Australian government and so of course I will put Australia’s interests first and whatever – as I said in my maiden speech too, I will always want to have a good relationship between Australia and China and I will put Australia’s interests first.
Before revelations the former Labor senator Sam Dastyari had warned a donor he may be under surveillance by security agencies, the government had called for his sacking after reports he contradicted Labor – and the government’s – position on the dispute. A recording eventually confirmed the report.
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Meanwhile, the Liberal senator Gerard Rennick, who appears to be a great fan of the settling “founding fathers” and that can-do convict spirit, was everything his LNP colleagues had told me he would be in his first speech.
Here’s a taste:
The greatest threat to our environment is not carbon dioxide but unsustainable immigration.
As the son of a farmer, I was taught from a young age about carrying capacity and never to overstock your paddocks. Yet immigration is doing just that, causing major city congestion and overdevelopment on our city fringes.
He is also very against regulations, and government intervention, except in the areas he would like to see regulation and government intervention, which includes, but is not limited to, what superannuation funds can spend their money on, what should be built, how universities are run, what foreign capital can be spent on, who can buy infrastructure, and the reserve bank. Oh, and a government bank, in line with Macquarie’s holey dollar.
After all, the convicts didn’t have regulations. Except for all those regulations that sent them here in the first place, and the regulations that kept them in a prison colony, and the regulations that saw them (and of course, First Australians) forced into slavery and chain gangs to build colonial infrastructure. But other than that, it was just good ole fair-go spirit.
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Labor, which went to the election with a plan to recognise climate change and reduce emissions, has not been overly vocal in linking the Queensland and NSW fires to what is happening to the climate.
While Sussan Ley copped some flak for saying this on ABC Melbourne radio late yesterday:
Ley: “I know that the climate is changing, and I know that the people I represent and rural Australians, see that every day. Now when there is an emergency of this sort, and people are worried about losing their homes, to have these high-level discussions about these issues, perhaps we leave them for another day and focus on helping people right here, right now.
Q: You don’t think the fires have anything to do with climate change?
Ley: Look, my honest answer to that is I don’t know. I don’t know what caused this particular fire on this particular day ...
Q: I am not asking about an individual fire – the science is pretty clear though isn’t it, climate change leads to more fires and more intense fires.
Ley: We have always lived on a continent which has been ravaged by fires, I am not going to become an expert on what is causing the fires.
It’s not that far from the line some in Labor are taking: “Let’s not talk about it now.”
Larissa, right now, people’s homes are burning & others are risking their lives to put out dangerous fires. You’re not alone in thinking about climate change, but is now really the time to be making political mileage?
— Senator Murray Watt (@MurrayWatt) September 10, 2019
Ain’t politics grand?
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Good morning
Well, there is never a dull moment in this place.
Less than 24 hours after the water minister, David Littleproud, admitted to Guardian Australia that he was unsure whether climate change was human-made or not, he went into further detail with on Sky News:
David Speers: You say the climate is changing and that is certainly true - the question is, is this manmade climate change.
David Littleproud: I have no idea, but does it really matter?
DS: Sorry, you have no idea whether ...
DL: I am not a scientist, I haven’t made an opinion one way or the other, but I don’t think it really matters.
DS: Sorry, I just want to be really clear on this – you are not sure whether man-made climate change is real.
DL: I am going to be honest with you – I don’t have an opinion, but I don’t think it really matters. I think these extremes from both sides have taken away the maturity of debate we should have about keeping, simply, a clean environment and making sure we give our people the tools they [need to address it].
The crossbench and former Liberal leader John Hewson have banded together to call on the parliament to declare a climate emergency.
The declaration motion to be released today calls on the House to declare an environment and climate emergency and to take urgent action consistent with internationally accepted science. The motion will be moved by Greens MP for Melbourne Adam Bandt, seconded by the independent Member for Warringah Zali Steggall OAM, and supported by the independent Member for Indi, Helen Haines, Centre Alliance Member for Mayo, Rebekha Sharkie and the independent Member for Clark, Andrew Wilkie.
It has been building for a while. Plus, the Queensland rainforest is on fire. In early September.
We’ll bring you that, plus everything else that happens today, including the Gladys Liu trainwreck interview with Andrew Bolt overnight.
Plus, people are still digesting Gerard Rennick’s first speech to the Senate. I know I am.
You’ve got the whole team: Mike Bowers, Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp and Sarah Martin on board, plus everyone else who keeps the blog – and me – ticking over. I am on coffee number three and have exactly 211 minutes’ sleep, so I hope you are as excited to tackle hump day as me.
Ready?
Let’s get into it.
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