That is it for today.
- The Australian Bureau of Statistics released a ZERO inflation rate for the quarter today.
- Labor has announced a commission of inquiry into the $80m Eastern Australia Agriculture water buyback under minister Barnaby Joyce.
- GetUp withdrew an advertisement that parodied Tony Abbott as a lifesaver failing to help drowning person as a statement on climate change.
- The Coalition has strengthened its opposition to gay conversion therapy after Labor committed to work with the states to ban it.
- Both leaders were up north – Scott Morrison in Darwin and Bill Shorten in Townsville.
- Labor announced another policy to assist casual workers in jobs longer than 12 months apply to convert work to permanent part-time or full-time jobs via the Fair Work Commission.
Thanks to the brains trust, Paul Karp and Sarah Martin. I will be back tomorrow a little later than usual, in deference to the public holiday.
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The Australian Electoral Commission has referred former One Nation senator Rod Culleton to the federal police to investigate whether he has made a false declaration in breach of the criminal code.
In February 2017 the high court held that Culleton was ineligible to stand at the last election due to a conviction (later annulled) and he was also found to be an undischarged bankrupt by the federal court.
In a statement the AEC notes that Culleton has nominated for the upcoming election, and it cannot reject a completed nomination form:
However, given Mr Culleton’s prior disqualification by the High Court, the AEC has referred Mr Culleton’s candidate Nomination Form to the Australian Federal Police (AFP) to examine if a false declaration has been made under provisions of the Criminal Code Act 1995, relating to his status as an undischarged bankrupt and the prima facie disqualification of such persons to be chosen or to sit as a Senator or Member of the House of Representatives under section 44(iii) of the Constitution. A search of the National Personal Insolvency Index indicates that Mr Culleton is currently listed as an undischarged bankrupt.
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You might have missed that the original keep-the-bastards-honest party has made a comeback.
The Australian Democrats are running a couple of Senate candidates in NSW, Victoria and South Australia, plus a lower house candidate in SA.
In NSW, Boggabilla farmer Peter Mailler is one of the candidates, after his micro party CountryMinded merged with the Dems. He has run against Barnaby Joyce in the past but now he is standing in the Senate.
I interviewed Mailler the other day. Here’s what he said:
My focus is [that] in order to fix politics you start with honest politics. The adversarial process is leading people up the garden path. It used to be an honest process where you worked collegially and got on with the job.
There needs to be [a] credible crossbench because that’s where we need to bring pressure to bear. We are not going to fix issues like energy, climate and water if we keep playing an adversarial match.
He described the crossbench as lacking credibility, talking specifically of Pauline Hanson and potentially Clive Palmer, saying “Palmer arrived with four senators and left with one”. He said Australia needs to get away from instability to concentrate on values and principles and then “go where evidence takes you”.
It is not about having all the answers but instituting a robust process of discovery.
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Is this what is known as economic headwinds?
ANZ says today's low CPI result ... "leaves the RBA will little choice but to cut the cash rate by 25bp at its May meeting"...
— Shane Wright (@swrighteconomy) April 24, 2019
Preference talks pay off. Sarah Martin reports:
The ballot draws for the seats are dribbling out. The Greens’ candidate Benedict Coyne is pretty happy about Dickson, but then Peter Dutton would be happier than his main challenger, Ali France.
#VoteGreensFirst✅🗳👍 #DicksonVotes #Ausvotes2019 #Auspol pic.twitter.com/Vpk0gGHxRU
— Benedict Coyne for Dickson (@bennarama) April 24, 2019
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One more exchange between John Howard and journalists in Gilmore.
Q: What do you think of the Coalition’s prospects of winning Gilmore?
I think the Liberal party will win Gilmore but I’m not taking it lightly and neither is Warren, neither is Arthur. You never take anything lightly.
Q: Is that why you’re here?
Yes, because I want to help in marginal seats. It’s not a mystery tour, an election campaign. You naturally work in electorates that you might think are under threat and Gilmore is a marginal seat. We’re not denying that. I don’t think I’ll be spending a lot of time campaigning in the electorate in which I live, North Sydney, which is a very safe Liberal seat. That’s not meant disrespectfully to the member, it’s just a statement of reality. There is nothing strange about coming to marginal seats.
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Blessed are the veggie growers:
Vegies up by 7.7% in the quarter, high school up 4.2% and cars up 2.4%. But offset by 8.7% drop in petrol, 3.8% fall in dom tourism and 2.1% fall in international travel
— Shane Wright (@swrighteconomy) April 24, 2019
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BTW:
The fight to get inflation into the economy fails again ... ABS says ZERO rise in CPI in March quarter ... annual rate down to 1.3%...
— Shane Wright (@swrighteconomy) April 24, 2019
I missed John Howard while I was having lunch so let’s pick up there. The former PM was campaigning down in the NSW seat of Gilmore, held by the Liberals on a margin of 0.7%.
He was with his former chief of staff Arthur Sinodinos and the Liberal candidate, the former Labor prez Warren Mundine. Howard was walking the line around local questions regarding the de-preselection of the local choice Grant Schultz, who is now running as an independent.
There is also the former state member for Cootamundra, Katrina Hodgkinson, running for the National party. Hodgkinson is a former state agriculture and water minister, who resigned in Cootamundra. That electorate was very cranky about the NSW government’s plans over council amalgamations.
Anyway, Howard and Sinodinos talked about Warren’s wide life experience, who understands the challenges of family life. (I’m not sure why, more so than any other candidate.)
Howard is seeking to dampen any angst between the Coalition partners and deliver the message there is nothing to see here. We are all friends.
Naturally, I want everybody to vote Warren as the Liberal candidate. If people who are disposed to Coalition politics, don’t want to do that, I encourage them to vote for the National party candidate and to give their preference to Warren. There is nothing unusual about having a three-cornered contest. It’s been a long-standing part of the arrangement between the Liberal party and National party in New South Wales.
Sinodinos says:
He’s a man who believes in families, he believes in small business and he believes in all those retired folk who have been taxed all their lives, worked hard, want nothing more in retirement than to live off their own savings and have a capacity to get on with their lives with the government not interfering.
(I’m not really sure who does not believe in families, but if you’re out there, let me know.)
Howard’s first question is about why the retiring Liberal member was supporting the National party.
That is a personal decision. The important thing to remember is the Liberal party and National party have been the most successful political partnership in Australian political history ...
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Julie and Julia, the movie. The synopsis begins: “Frustrated with a soul-killing job, New Yorker Julie Powell (Amy Adams) embarks on a daring project ...
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I missed the Deidre Chambers story this morning by Rob Harris in the Herald Sun.
Purely by chance, Julie Bishop met Julia Banks at a breakfast joint in Flinders, where Banks is challenging Greg Hunt on crazy out-there issues like climate change. Banks, of course, was a keen Turnbull supporter and left the party, accusing the leadership agitators of bullying.
Bishop was very complimentary of Banks before she left the parliament and it will accelerate the theories that some senior Libs are supporting independents to knock off the right.
The Herald Sun has been told the pair met by “pure coincidence” at DOC Mornington while Ms Bishop was spending Easter with her partner David Panton.
One senior Liberal, on hearing the news, told the Herald Sun: “Julie and Julia just bumping into each other? Deidre Chambers … what a coincidence!”
Harris reports Bishop’s spokeswoman said there was nothing to it.
A spokeswoman for Ms Bishop said the pair’s meeting was “unplanned” and Ms Banks and her campaign team were simply walking past the restaurant while Ms Bishop was having a coffee.
Asked who Ms Bishop was supporting in the seat, the spokeswoman said: “Julie is a member of the Liberal Party and supports the party.”
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After fighting for days a Coalition campaign wrongly accusing it of introducing a death tax ...
Can you trust Labor on taxes? pic.twitter.com/noM2cvNs7C
— Liberal Party (@LiberalAus) April 23, 2019
... Labor has put out its own scare ad:
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Just going back to the commission of inquiry. It will not be established via the parliament, as considered for the banking inquiry before the Turnbull government agreed to the banking royal commission. It will be a judicial inquiry. But here is an interesting point, as to whether it could see cabinet documents released early:
I still remember when Tony Abbott ordered the early release of Cabinet documents to the Home Insulation Program RC. I wonder what precedent will be followed here. https://t.co/hJI7q635KN
— Tim Beshara (@Tim_Beshara) April 24, 2019
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The Coalition has suggested it will work to discourage gay conversion therapy just a day after Scott Morrison poured cold water on Labor’s push to stamp the practice out.
In a response to peak LGBTIQ group Equality Australia, the Morrison government has committed to work with the states “to ensure such practices are not supported or occurring”.
On Tuesday Labor promised to work with the states to introduce a national ban on gay conversion therapy.
Asked about the policy, Morrison told Sky News: “I don’t support gay conversion therapy, don’t recommend it, never have, but it’s ultimately a matter for the states.
“I think we should focus on the things we actually have control over and that’s taxes. I’m looking to lower taxes.”
But in its response to Equality Australia, signed by the Liberal federal director, Andrew Hirst, the Coalition went further, stating that “the use of conversion therapy has long been discredited with no scientific or medical evidence to support its use”.
“The Morrison government remains committed to addressing the mental health of all Australians, including the LGBTI community, and this also relates to opposition to gay conversion therapy,” it said.
“The government will work with the states, which have legal responsibility in this area, to ensure such practices are not supported or occurring.”
Equality Australia also asked the major parties about Safe Schools, offshore detention and a range of other LGBTIQ issues.
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Q: Is your party doing preference deals in the upper house with Clive Palmer? If that helps his department to get back into the Senate, how would you explain that to Townsville workers?
Morrison:
Well, at the moment, there are no such arrangements that have been concluded and – to the extent there are any discussions, where they land is where they land.
Nothing to do with him, says Morrison.
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Morrison is asked about WeChat and setting up the account via an unnamed person in China.
The way you set up a WeChat account, because of where it’s run, is you have to work through these overseas structures and we have been in the process now over the last week or so of seeking to repatriate how that’s done, but the initial set-up has to be done through those overseas arrangements. It’s fairly standard practice.
Q: Would you or government flirt with nationalising a coal-fired power station?
Morrison:
We have no such plans to do anything like that.
The CPI figures come in at 0% inflation for the last quarter, surely that’s bad news?
Morrison:
I welcome the fact that we have seen a reduction in electricity prices over the past year in those most recent figures. I certainly welcome that.
Morrison has been hammering the NT Labor government.
He is asked: “Politicians have long said voters are smart enough not to confuse federal and state issues. And yet you have come here asking them to confuse federal and state issues and make a federal judgement based on a Territory government. Is it – isn’t that at the very least a little odd and says something about how many campaign points you got here?”
So he goes straight to a campaign point:
What it says is my point in this campaign has been very simple about the Labor party – Labor can’t manage money, therefore, Labor can’t run the country.
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In the Northern Territory, Scott Morrison has been asked if he would top up the GST and commit money for the states.
We have legislated. It’s part of the GST package that was agreed between the states and territories and legislated through the Senate, and we have not only provided those top-ups, that’s the first guarantee we can give to Territorians – we have already delivered half a billion in additional GST support to the Territory government.
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Bill Shorten was asked about his gas policy that takes $1.5bn out of the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility and puts it into gas development, including in the Betaloo Basin. How does it sit with the 45% emissions reduction target by 2030?
Gas is going to be a transition baseload energy source of the future. What we also need to do as we move towards 45%, we have still got to make sure we got an Australian manufacturing sector. Therefore, opening up the gas reserves will ensure cheap domestic gas for Australia, so we can keep tens of thousands of people in – in their jobs in the south-east and indeed in Darwin and Brisbane.
(The NT’s report into fracking shows a new gasfield would increase Australia’s onshore emissions by 6.6%.)
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Shorten is asked about the WeChat story.
I’m not fussed at all. I do not feel censored by the Chinese government. I left the setting up of the WeChat account to the Labor party.
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Shorten still has “no plans to review Adani”.
Q: You have one candidate saying there will be a review of Adani and another saying there won’t be. You say there are no plans to review it. Do you concede your messages on this issue is inconsistent?
Shorten:
I say my messaging is consistent.
Someone tries again but Shorten says he was sceptical, but then Adani got its finance, so he will follow the law.
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Shorten is asked about Huawei but the question is not audible to me.
I’ll take the national security advice. When it comes to taking foreign donations we led and the government followed. Our view is clear. What I have also said about our relations with China is they shouldn’t be viewed through the strategic prism of disaster. In other words, you’ve got to reach out and deal with the Chinese government not just in the worst-case scenario but as economic opportunity, and as a country we’ve had so many exchanges between people to people, business to business.
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Bill Shorten is asked why not a royal commission?
This is an acknowledgement there’s something suspicious about water buybacks conducted by this government. This is an acknowledgement that there are questions to answer.
We think a commission of inquiry has the powers of a royal commission, it’s set up under the Royal Commission Act 1902. We don’t think this should be a long or expensive inquiry but the people are owed the truth. This is one of the many reasons I’m backing a national anti-corruption commission because under this government there is too much dodgy behaviour when it comes to the government and ministers.
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Bill Shorten is speaking now at a doorstop. I will come back to the commission of inquiry model shortly. Suffice to say, it is a rare model, used so far only for an investigation into the former justice minister in the Whitlam government Lionel Murphy but abandoned.
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Labor promises a commission of inquiry for Eastern Australia Agriculture
Tony Burke is standing up soon but here is a statement on the water buybacks.
Note it is only into the EAA buyback and none other, either under Coalition or Labor.
If elected, a Shorten Labor Government will establish a Commission of Inquiry into the purchase of certain water entitlements from Eastern Australia Agriculture Pty Ltd, under the Royal Commissions Act 1902.
The Commission of Inquiry will investigate all of the circumstances relating to the purchase of water entitlements from Eastern Australia Agriculture Pty Ltd in 2017 under then Minister for Water Resources Barnaby Joyce from the ‘Kia Ora’ and ‘Clyde’ properties.
This Inquiry would be established under the Royal Commissions Act 1902 and have the same powers as a Royal Commission.
If elected, Labor will consult on the full terms of reference and an appropriate commissioner.
Labor has not received a satisfactory response to the many questions we have asked of the Morrison Government about purchases made during Barnaby Joyce’s time as minister.
Scott Morrison is desperately trying to cover up the Liberals and Nationals’ chaos and incompetence.
Only a Commission of Inquiry, with coercive powers, can properly investigate this matter.
This commitment is in addition to Labor’s response to the four inquiries that have recently been undertaken in to the Murray-Darling Basin. The four reports are:
- The South Australian Murray-Darling Royal Commission
- The Productivity Commission review of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan
- The report by the Australian Academy of Science into the fish kills
- The Independent Assessment of the 2018-19 fish deaths in the lower Darling
Labor wants to see the Basin Plan get back on track and we have committed to:
- Lifting the 1,500GL cap on buybacks
- Restoring the original socio-economic definition for delivering the 450GL of additional water for the environment to the system
- Restoring the integrity of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority by moving its compliance functions to the Environmental Protection Agency and ordering a formal review of claims public servants acted unlawfully
- Urgently reviewing climate change impacts on the Basin now and into the future to determine any change in inflows and evaporation rates; and
- Urgently renegotiating the Menindee Agreement which determines how the lakes are managed and is now decades out of date
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Bill Shorten has spoken to workers in Townsville, attacking Clive Palmer for his failure to pay workers.
He notes 787 employees had to get paid $74m from the government, ie YOU.
Every time [Palmer] sends you a text message, send him one back and ask him where is the rest of the money for Townsville.
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From Mike Bowers, in Townsville.
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This is an interesting story from Steve Cannane and agencies at the ABC.
Australian politicians including the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader risk being kicked off China’s largest social media platform WeChat for using official accounts set up by Chinese citizens.
The practice appears to be a breach of the platform’s terms and conditions as well as leaving Australian politicians open to Chinese Government censorship.
WeChat claims it has a million active users per month in Australia.
There has been an increasing use of WeChat to get to Chinese Australians and it’s worth watching this debate. It has been highlighted by the first lower house contest between two Chinese Australian candidates in the seat of Chisholm with a debate conducted in Mandarin. Chisholm was vacated by former Liberal MP Julia Banks, who is contesting Flinders against Greg Hunt.
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We are expecting a statement from Tony Burke shortly on the water inquiry.
In the meantime, Simon Birmingham is on Sky justifying the water buyback from EAA. He said the alternative would be to buy lots of smaller amounts of water from smaller (read family) farms and Australians would not want to see that.
Birmingham is also asked about the looming presence of Clive Palmer in the parliament on the (possible) back of Liberal preferences. Isn’t this just buying power with a lot of money – given his campaign spend is estimated to be $30m? Birmingham advises:
Voters should weigh that as part of their consideration.
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In Indi, Cathy McGowan is retiring and the community group Voices for Indi conducted what was essentially a preselection process that has backed rural researcher Helen Haines. The seat was formerly held by the Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella, which was the thing that mobilised the community to topple her in 2013. The Liberal party put her up again in 2016, only to see her roundly defeated. This time the Liberals have chosen Steve Martin, an engineering manager, and they are bullish about their chances, given the fact that an independent has never handed over to another independent.
Lisa Martin had a look at the seat recently. While Voices for Indi are still strong, the McGowan family has a big following in that area, so it is a tough call for Haines, but I make no predictions.
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I have covered the leaders so let’s look at a few outliers in this campaign.
Former Lyne indie Rob Oakeshott is a good chance in Cowper, where Luke Hartsuyker is retiring. The Nats are running Patrick Conaghan, a policeman turned lawyer. Cowper has a notional margin of just over 4%, which is why the Nats are nervous.
Cowper was held by Nats royalty, Earle Page, who was one of the party’s founding fathers, so losing the seat to an independent would be a kick in the guts for the Nats. Especially Oakeshott, a former Nat who chose Julia Gillard’s government over Tony Abbott.
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GetUp has withdrawn a proposed election ad after it was accused of poor taste for parodying Tony Abbott refusing to rescue a drowning beachgoer.
Royal Life Saving Society Australia said the ad was inappropriate and insensitive, particularly after seven people drowned over Easter including the Victorian father and son lifesavers Ross and Andy Powell, who died trying to rescue a tourist at Port Campbell.
GetUp said:
We have heard the criticism of the Royal Lifesavers and are pulling our satirical ad about Tony Abbott’s inaction on climate change, which was slated to begin airing in cinemas next week.
We have the greatest respect for Australia’s lifesavers and apologise for the insensitivity of the timing and subject matter of our planned ad.
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Scott Morrison is speaking at a business breakfast. He is spruiking the Liberals’ candidates in the Northern Territory. Labor’s Warren Snowdon holds Lingiari but is under challenge by Jacinta Nampijinpa Price while the Liberals’ Kathy Ganley is challenging Luke Gosling in Solomon.
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Good morning, people.
The leaders are campaigning before a truce for Anzac Day tomorrow.
Scott Morrison is in Darwin, having spent the night at a vigil for the Sri Lankan community. He is promising $63m for veterans’ groups with a focus on their wellbeing. The political imperative of Darwin is to hold the Coalition’s Senate spot on the retirement of the CLP (Nat) senator Nigel Scullion.
Bill Shorten is in Herbert for Labor MP Cathy O’Toole – it’s the most marginal seat in the nation. He is talking about a plan to legislate a right for casuals to request conversion to part-time or full-time employment if they work regularly for the same employer for 12 months. The plan would give casuals the right to challenge any refusal in the Fair Work Commission.
In other news, the Australian reports that Morrison is close to nailing down a preference deal with Clive Palmer that could put him back in the Senate, because it was so successful last time (not). The deal would see United Australia party ahead of One Nation and Katter’s Australia party on Senate how-to-vote cards, while UAP would preference the Libs second on their lower house how-to-vote cards.
Labor has committed to a major inquiry with coercive powers – we don’t know what it’s called yet – into the water buybacks in 2017 by Barnaby Joyce if it wins government. At this stage, Labor is trying contain any inquiry into Barnaby’s buybacks lest it stray into Labor buybacks (though these have passed an audit already).
The Coalition spokesman Simon Birmingham told Sabra Lane that the #watergate agitation for an inquiry into the $80m sale of water from Eastern Australia Agriculture to the government was a “smear”.
Every water minister has acquired water ... on the advice of their department.
He said the water buyback from provide definite environmental benefits for the Narran Lakes and it was up to the bureaucracy to apply policy designed by the minister.
But Labor’s deputy leader, Tanya Plibersek, says “the problem is the company approached the government”. (Update: The senate documents seem to suggest the other way around but it is by no means clear.)
The government has paid top dollar for poor quality environmental outcomes. Where there is an open tender process and companies are able to bid for it, farmers are able to bid for it, that’s a very different matter to what seems to have happened here which is some quiet arrangement between the government and one company that others weren’t able to participate in.
After throwing out its biggest fundraiser, Malcolm Turnbull, the Liberal party has rallied the billionaires, according to reports in the Oz today. The Margin Call column notes that the pub billionaire Justin Hemmes is holding a cocktail party at his gothic Vaucluse mansion two weeks before the election.
If it’s modelled on the previous one for Turnbull, you would have to shell out $10,000 for a ticket, though I think you would need a bait even if you do have the money.
Talk to me on the Twits @gabriellechan or below in the thread. Depending on the pace, I will try to get there. Here we go ...
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