Politics wrap
That’s it for today. It was an odd campaigning day that ramped up the tempo early ahead of the prepolling on Monday and then died off, somewhat.
- Bill Shorten was back in his home town of Melbourne, launching a women’s policy, which included a big chunk of money, $660m, for domestic violence and associated measures such as new housing, accommodation and prevention campaigns.
- Scott Morrison was in Queensland in the seats of Herbert and Flynn. He accused Labor of dragging its feet on national security, prompting a ferocious attack from Penny Wong, who said the Morrison and Palmer deal was the marriage of convenience between “an ad man and a con man”.
- Both leaders were questioned heavily on potential preference swaps with Clive Palmer. (A $50m ad blitz gets you into a few doors.) The Liberals look like they have done the deal, while Labor was stumbling over whether they were in talks or not. Palmer says Labor has talked to the party. Already though, UAP candidates include Brian Burston (Senate candidate), Greg Dowling (Herbert) and Suellen Wrightson (Warringah) have said they favour the Coalition. Dowling, in fact, has said he would walk away if the UAP did a deal with Labor, which is a shortcut to the disintegration that happened last time after the election.
- Morrison was asked if “Scott stood for coal” given the LNP MP O’Dowd is running a campaign “Ken stands for coal”. Morrison said given there are 55,000 mining jobs in Australia, coal is great.
So thanks for your time, blergers. It was a pleasure to be back in the driver’s seat. Amy Remeikis is back in the chair next week, as per usual. Thanks to my brains trust, Paul Karp and Katharine Murphy.
Good afternoon.
Updated
Bendigo Weekly reports on their local Anning candidate, Julie Hoskin, potentially falling foul of section 44.
Hoskin election bid to fall foul of section 44https://t.co/o4JD511OR3 #section44 @nicholas_nakos pic.twitter.com/j3EarlubsE
— Bendigo Weekly (@bendigoweekly) April 26, 2019
Palmer says Labor has approached his party
Clive Palmer says Labor is lying on preference talks with his United Australia party, reports the Oz.
I had Senator (Anthony) Chisholm approach me when I was down for the budget in parliament.
He came over to see me.
He called me on Wednesday, when he was with Bill Shorten, he said he’d been with Bill in central Queensland, and he said, ‘is it too late to do preferences’.
It’s not true that I wasn’t approached by the Labor party, I certainly was.
Which would contradict Albanese and Burke’s fulsome denials this morning, as reported earlier in the blog.
Updated
Pardon me.
I abhor what Fraser Anning stands for and his candidate will be placed last on my how-to-vote cards. #auspol #ausvotes
— Michelle Landry MP (@mlandryMP) April 25, 2019
The incident at the Fraser Anning press conference seems to have caused a rethink in Queensland regarding at least one LNP MP’s preferences. Ken O’Dowd says he was putting Labor and the Greens last but after the attack, he is now putting Anning’s party last.
Updated
Q: A journalist and a photographer were attacked at a press conference held earlier today. What are your thoughts on that? And also, have you done enough to condemn the anti-Islamic and racist behaviour of Fraser Anning?
Morrison:
Well yes, I have. And I have done it, and I haven’t minced my words about it, as you would well know. And that type of behaviour has no place in Australia, that type of violence that we’ve seen today. And I’m glad our local police and security people down in the shire have taken that matter into hand. And there’s no place for that in Australian politics either. People should be able to go to work, whether you’re a photographer or anyone else, and not be subjected to that sort of violence. And I find it absolutely appalling. And his number – he is placed last on my ticket, on our party’s ticket.
But not on the LNP in Queensland, as we discovered in Michelle Landry’s seat of Capricornia this morning.
Updated
Coal is great, says Morrison
Scott Morrison is speaking in Flynn, next to LNP MP Ken O’Dowd.
Q: Ken O’Dowd is running a campaign in this electorate: “Ken stands for coal”. Does Scott stand for coal? Could we put your name in there and would you say as much in Wentworth or Higgins as you will in Gladstone? You stand for coal?
55,000 jobs depend on our coal mining industry. That’s what it does. And I think that’s great for Australia.
Updated
Christopher Knaus reports:
The major parties have charged taxpayers $440,000 for powerful software that uses personal data and campaign intelligence to track, profile and influence individual voters.
The Liberal and Labor campaigns use “constituent management software” that combines personal data from the electoral roll with intelligence gathered by the offices of MPs and teams in the field, who record and log all voter interactions.
The software can help parties identify undecided voters and their primary concerns. An MP’s office might mark a particular voter as concerned about healthcare, for example, and the system can then be used to better target them with mailouts or door-knocking.
Updated
OK people, the candidate list, with qualification checklist, has been published.
We will go through them but this is a call out. Let me know if you see anything interesting.
Updated
Find a happy place, find a happy place.
Regarding the dance between Labor and the Greens. Remember Bill Shorten said this in Katharine Murphy’s story this morn:
Shorten said he would behave constructively post-election in the event of a victory, but referencing the Gillard process explicitly, he said: “There will not be signings at the table with a sprig of wattle for everyone.”
The Greens are ready to work constructively with the next Government to deliver the best climate policy possible, and I’m pleased Bill Shorten says he is open to listening to the Greens. And if he doesn’t like wattle we could do banksias...
— Richard Di Natale (@RichardDiNatale) April 26, 2019
Updated
Samantha Maiden from New Daily reports Eliza Barr is OK after altercation with one of Fraser Anning’s (%$&^#).
Called Eliza to see if she’s OK and she’s fine. Pretty scary though. He said some predictably sexist and offensive things to her too. Really disgusting. https://t.co/KrPu8JS0Dc
— 𝕤𝕒𝕞𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕙𝕒 𝕞𝕒𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕟 (@samanthamaiden) April 26, 2019
This is appalling.
Some of the supporters took a dislike to the line of questioning reporter @ElizaJBarr took with Fraser Anning. When the conference ended they proceeded to follow her out of the park. https://t.co/9W6kVI9MQ7 via @SBSNews
— Rashida Yosufzai (@Rashidajourno) April 26, 2019
Wong on the Liberal-Palmer deal: an ad man and a con man
Penny Wong is given her head, at the end of that press conference, on the Palmer deal.
This is a marriage of convenience. A marriage of convenience between an ad man and a con man. That’s what Scott Morrison is offering the Australian people. That’s what Scott Morrison is offering the Australian people. I’d make this other point. What this really shows is Scott Morrison’s desperation. Does anybody in this room believe you can actually govern with Clive Palmer? Do any of you believe that? Scott Morrison doesn’t believe that. But he’s so desperate to cling onto power, he’ll do a deal with Clive Palmer even though he knows he can’t govern with him. You know what that means, ladies and gentlemen? What it means is more of the same, more chaos and division. Thank you very much.
Updated
Q to Shorten: Could you just clear up the situation with Clive Palmer? You said a couple of things about him in this press conference. Did Michael O’Connor or anybody else negotiate with Clive Palmer on your behalf to share preferences with Labor?
There’ve been no formal negotiations.
Which does not rule out O’Connor having quiet conversations.
Given your views on Clive Palmer, can you then therefore rule out doing any deal with his party to pass legislation through the Senate if you’re elected?
Well, my aim is to get as many of our people elected first.
(That sounds like they are talking.)
Q: Several commentators have said that the PM has outperformed you in the first couple of weeks – Mr Morrison himself has called you a “cranky bear” today?
Shorten:
I guarantee you all that Mr Morrison can say is yell out ‘liar, liar’. That’s all he can do. You guys should keep account – every time he says it. He’s been bottle-fed by a focus group to say ‘if you just keep attacking Bill, then somehow they’ll make people forget your disunity and chaos’.
What is shameful about this fellow is he’s always up on the hill giving the preaching lecture, saying he’s such a good fellow, then reaching for the bottom of the barrel.
He’s trying to confuse people, saying we’re taking their utes, which we’re not. He’s trying to say we’re introducing a death tax, which we’re not. He’s tried to say we’ve somehow delayed security legislation despite having a unanimous position – he’s wrong on that.
This fellow knows that the only chance they have is to totally talk about me and not talk about their own policies, and to scare people about the future. This election, I believe in the first two weeks, has shown two diametrically different paths. One path is the low road – just nothing good to say about anyone, every excuse in the world about everything, why he can’t do something.
Updated
Bill Shorten and Penny Wong have slammed Scott Morrison for trying to turn national security into a partisan issue.
Q: The prime minister today has accused Labor of continually dragging its feet on national security legislation, including over foreign fighters. The days of bipartisan support in this area – are they dead?
This bloke should be ashamed of himself, playing political games –especially in the shadow of the shocking Sri Lankan murders. He should be ashamed of himself. He loves to be on the high ground, this prime minister, but he never fails to reach for the bottom of the barrel when it suits him.
Updated
Shorten is asked how he will force large companies to disclose their gender pay gaps.
We are going to say to our big business, “Don’t hide behind pay-secrecy contracts anymore. We want to see what you’re paying the men in your organisation and the women. And if you’re not paying them the same, why not? If not, why not”. We’re going to make an impact on procurement - what is happening to companies bidding for Commonwealth work? Why should a company paying its men and women equally be at a financial disadvantage to a company who doesn’t when they’re bidding for Commonwealth work?
Shorten is asked about some comments by a NT Senate Labor candidate expressing views about women on social media, and which have been framed as vulgar, around Natasha Briggs and Emma Alberici. (Will have to track these down.)
Shorten said they were stupid comments, he is taking them down and he is in an unwinnable spot.
On the debate, Shorten says if Morrison wants to spend time listening to him, he should have the parliament sitting more regularly.
Updated
Labor deputy Tanya Plibersek is speaking on women’s policy announcements this morning. She talks about the details of the package and gives the Coalition a whack on the way through for the lack of female representation.
Economic security and independence are absolutely critical to women having real choice and control in their lives – making sure that women are paid equally to men, particularly low-paid workers in industries like childcare. Making sure that their wages actually reflect the complexity and the seriousness of the work they do. Making sure that women are better paid in their retirement by reducing the superannuation pay gap. Of course, we have policies throughout this plan for women’s health, as well. We’ve got a very strong focus on sexual and reproductive health in this women’s plan too. I’m very proud of what we’ve included in the plan. It is very comprehensive.
Bill Shorten is doing a doorstop now, flanked by Plibersek and Penny Wong.
Updated
The ALP’s First Nations justice package has been welcomed by Change the Record, the coalition of leading Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander human rights and community organisations.
The announcement includes, over four years, $40m for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, $4m for their peak body Natsils, $21.5m to family violence prevention legal services, and $20 million for refuges and safe houses.
“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are the fastest-growing prison population, and most of these women are victims of violence,” Change the Record co-chair Cheryl Axleby said.
“We welcome this strong commitment, as critical community-controlled services are needed to end these injustices.”
But Amnesty says the ALP’s policy is a “missed opportunity”.
It welcomed the announcement but is calling for greater action on locking kids up, and wants the ALP to commit to raising the minimum age for criminal responsibility to 14.
“It is fundamentally wrong that Australia continues to lock up children as young as 10 despite the growing evidence that it can harm them and trap them in the justice system,” Amnesty’s Indigenous Rights adviser Rodney Dillon says.
“A child arrested before the age of 14 is three times more likely to be locked up as an adult than a child arrested after 14. Indigenous kids are 25 times more likely to be locked up than non-Indigenous kids.
“Other countries have a median minimum age of 14, which is the age recommended in the latest medical research and by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
“Australia must stop lagging behind the rest of the world and raise the minimum age immediately.”
The Greens have also announced their First Nations Youth Justice policy, which commits to closing down the notorious Don Dale detention centre, and raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14 years.
“This would have a huge impact in pulling generations of First Nations children out of the quicksand of the justice system,” Axleby said.
Updated
Given Bill Shorten’s whack to the Greens on climate policy, it’s worth mentioning this, via Helen Davidson.
The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, said his party would seek to block legislation of the Beetaloo project in the Senate.
We are in the middle of a climate emergency and we can’t be opening up any more coal, oil or gas fields if we are going to hand over a sustainable environment to our children and grandchildren.
The Greens will use our numbers in the new Senate to exclude any Naif [Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility] funding for fossil fuel projects because taxpayer money shouldn’t be used to continue subsidising polluting industries.
Updated
The Australian Council of Trade Unions is launching its largest ever election advertising blitz on Friday.
The campaign is bigger than its 2007 Your Rights at Work campaign, which toppled the Howard government and WorkChoices laws. That campaign had a $10m+ ad spend.
The peak union body’s new television and radio ads feature workers aged 20 to 60 talking about their working life and their difficulties with job insecurity, cost of living pressure and low pay rates.
Some are tradies, transport workers, miners, bar managers and swim teachers.
In one ad a young woman called Laura talks about having five jobs to make ends meet. Another young woman says she’s worked seven days but only pulled $300.
A miner called Glenn says his employer made everybody redundant and said it was closing down the site. A year later the company reopened the mine using labour contractors, hired at a cheaper rate with no sick or annual leave.
The union movement is concerned about growing casualisation in the workforce, workers in the gig economy, as well as poor conditions for labour hire contractors.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus says the stories demonstrate this is “not the Australia of the fair go”:
We can continue down the low-pay, insecure American path, or we can change the government and change the rules to win a fair go for working people.
Updated
Shorten is talking about his mother, Anne McGrath, who was a teacher. He ran into a dairy farmer who was taught by her.
It’s funny how a chance reflection from a stranger can make you think.
McGrath won a teacher’s scholarship to a Catholic university and, while she wanted to go into law, she took the scholarship to help look after her siblings.
Later, when Shorten went into university his mother was enrolled in the same faculty and won the supreme court prize. Shorten tells his audience that he, obviously, did not.
She was never bitter about the lack of opportunity and I can’t fix that now ... but I can make it better for my own daughters.
Updated
Bill Shorten promises a Labor government will ensure big businesses report on gender pay gaps.
If your company isn’t trying to close the gender pay gap, you won’t be able to cover it up any longer.
He says every government department and agency will have to disclose gender pay gaps and report on what the plan is to close it.
Updated
Bill Shorten is speaking in Melbourne.
He references Labor’s oldest promise, “a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay”.
In 2019, too many women are excluded from this promise ... Women earn less than men and retire with less than men.
He notes feminised industries have been historically underpaid.
Shorten says the only thing the Coalition has done to equalise the income gap is to suppress all wages and make sure everyone is paid less.
Updated
Bill Shorten is speaking in Melbourne on the domestic violence policy.
He says unfortunately, while people are getting better about talking about domestic violence, the number of deaths have not.
Words are not enough, words don’t pay the bills if your partner has closed the accounts ... if you’re caught up in this frightening ordeal of family violence, you need practical help, you need real money.
Updated
The campaign has taken on a new edge today. That may have something to do with prepoll voting starting on Monday. The harder edge shows the need to register with voters, many of whom don’t even know there is a campaign. I was in the marginal electorate of Gilmore at the weekend and was told by a local the Liberals had already won down there. He was talking about the NSW election. #justsaying
'The man who let you down' ... PM and his Herbert candidate squib questions on Palmer
Scott Morrison gets a number of questions on Clive Palmer’s preferences, given he is talking in Townsville, the place where workers lost their jobs and entitlements.
Q: [What about the] preference deal, [with] someone who is facing criminal charges and hasn’t paid his workers and seems to be buying his way into parliament?
Morrison:
Well, I will let Clive Palmer speak for himself. At the end of the day, Clive Palmer has the view and the people who support him have the view.
Morrison continues batting off questions. So reporters turn to Liberal candidate Phillip Thompson:
Q: Phil, how do you justify to voters in Herbert, many of whom lost their jobs when Clive Palmer’s refinery collapsed, you’re trying to get their votes and yet the party has done a deal with the man who let them down. How do you justify that to voters?
I, my team, the party, are all talking about it. I’m not out here talking about the how-to-vote card, like the prime minister said, I’m wanting people, to put number one next to my name.
Morrison:
Let him answer the question.
Thompson:
That’s what I’m doing and that’s what I’m out here talking to people [about]. I want people to put the number one next to my name. Not anywhere else down the line. I’m not talking about any other parties. Minor, major, whatever, number one next to my name.
Morrison butts in to run interference for Thompson. And then, essentially, says they are offering no deals on policies with Clive, he just wants his government to be elected.
Morrison:
When the parties have finalised what they’re doing with preferences, that will be clear next week. That’s a matter for once the parties have concluded any discussions they’re having, but I want to make something really clear. There are no policy elements to any discussions that have been had with minor parties. None whatsoever. What we’re interested in doing, I’m interested in forming a government on the other side of this election. I’m going make sure I do everything I possibly can to ensure that we’re able to form that government.
Updated
Asked about Labor’s doubling of the domestic violence budget, Scott Morrison says when he was social services minister he ensured funding going as a priority to families.
There are reports that Michelle Landry is going to preference Fraser “final solution” Anning above Labor.
Morrison says that’s a matter for the National party.
THERE IS ONLY ONE COALITION PARTY IN QUEENSLAND AND THAT IS THE LNP.
Sorry for shouting.
Updated
Scott Morrison doesn’t comment on Clive Palmer’s failure to pay workers their entitlements and the fact that the commonwealth is taking legal action against Palmer.
Someone who hasn’t paid his workers and is subject to charges for breaches of takeover?
Party organisations will make their decisions on what they have been able to learn in the days ahead.
In other words, the PM is not involved or doesn’t have a view on dealing with this bloke.
He says he does not share Colin Barnett’s concerns about Palmer’s threat to the China relationship.
Updated
Scott Morrison accuses Labor of dragging its feet on national security
Scott Morrison is talking national security in Townsville (the seat of Herbert), off the back of the Sri Lankan attacks. He is critical of Labor’s approach on national security.
He says briefings overnight confirm it was a locally based Islamic terrorist organisation responsible for “those heinous and cowardly attacks against Christians” that occurred just this past week on Easter Sunday. He says there were links between this group and the Daesh (Isis) network.
What we are seeing is the new front in combatting terrorism around the world and that is returning … fighters going back to wherever they come from, where they were fighting in Syria or elsewhere, going back with skills and training and capability to be able to deploy these types of attacks and plugged into a broader Daesh network that can provide support, money, instruction and target identification.
Here it comes ...
You will be aware that we have been endeavouring to bring in temporary exclusion orders which would effectively put any person, Australian citizen, that may be seeking to return to Australia, on an effective parole-type arrangement, which would mean that we could keep them under close monitoring, reporting and surveillance. It was our hope to pass that legislation and I was disappointed that Labor once again dragged their feet on that legislation.
He says usually these things are bipartisan but here is the political point:
This is a very important issue and it is one that instinctively the Liberal and National parties respond to and always make the right calls on. Our instincts are always to protect, defend, Australia and to secure the wellbeing of our citizens, and to ensure they’re protected from these sorts of threats.
Updated
Mikey Slezak of the ABC (oh, how we miss him) has a story overnight regarding the last minute sign-off by the Morrison government on a controversial uranium mine one day before calling the federal election.
Then there was a sneaky “public announcement” by the environment department when it uploaded the approval document the day before Anzac Day.
A spokesman for the environment minister, Melissa Price, said the approval of the Yeelirrie Uranium mine, located 500 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie, is subject to 32 strict environmental conditions.
In 2016, the West Australian Environment Protection Agency advised the mine not be approved, saying the risk of extinction to some native animals was too great.
The former Liberal Barnett government approved the mine in 2017, just weeks before it lost the West Australian election.
But the state approval of the proposed mine is still being fought in the state’s supreme court by members of the Tjiwarl traditional owners.
Question to Tony Burke: Do you stand with the traditional owners on this or do you stand with the government on this decision? Labor, of course, doesn’t oppose uranium mine development.
And Burke’s response:
I want to find out what on earth has happened. The minister made no comment, no announcement beforehand. It looks like it might have been rushed. We don’t know ... The reason I can’t tell you I’m on this side or the other side, we need to know what on earth she has done and what her reasons for it, and the minister has gone missing.
Labor not going there yet.
Updated
Tony Burke was also asked about Labor’s very specific, siloed commission of inquiry that only looks a the one water buyback conducted under Barnaby Joyce as minister from Eastern Australia Agriculture.
What we have announced is there is a specific transaction from Barnaby Joyce that is different to anything that Simon Birmingham, David Littleproud, Bob Baldwin, different to anything that any other minister has engaged with. And anything else … can be dealt with properly by the Australian national National Audit Office. This one, there was no tender. There [are] arguments about conflict of interest. And it has links all the way back to the Cayman Islands, where there is complete secrecy about who is involved. Everything else you don’t need coercive powers.
Trioli asks, from the outsider and to the independent voter it may seem like a reasonable thing too, when the government has raised questions about purchases that were overseen by Penny Wong in the Murray-Darling basin as well. So if you feel you’ve done nothing wrong, why not make it a broader inquiry that you’re calling for?
In terms of making sure that we’ve got probity, we will establish a national integrity commission and there will be an ongoing watchdog on probity. In terms of the purchases by Penny that you referred to, they went fully through the National Audit Office, a report in 2011 [and were] given a complete bill of health. If I was arguing that things should apply to every other member of the government who has been involved, then the government’s characterisation would be fair. The point is no other purchase is like this.
Updated
Labor’s Tony Burke spoke to Virginia Trioli this morning. He also categorically denied Labor was doing any deals with Clive Palmer for how-to-vote cards.
That story [is] entirely wrong ... the concept that someone was commissioned from the union movement to negotiate on behalf of the Labor party is wrong ... I spoke to some people this morning to confirm whether or not it was accurate, and it’s wrong.
We’re talking about somebody who ripped off his workers and who ended up costing the taxpayer $70 million. When Bill Shorten said this election would be a referendum on wages, Scott Morrison has just walked straight into that by supporting someone who ripped off workers and then sent the bill to the taxpayer.
Updated
Back to Katharine Murphy’s report on Malcolm Turnbull’s speech:
Turnbull revisited one of the last decisions he took as prime minister before being deposed by colleagues last August. He said cabinet’s national security committee had banned high-risk vendors from Australian 5G networks. That decision was taken amid the leadership tensions that culminated in the conservative-led move against him.
The exclusion angered the Chinese government. “The Australian government has made the wrong decision and it will have a negative impact to the business interests of China and Australia companies,” its commerce ministry said.
Turnbull said the National Security Committee’s definition of high risk was firms that “could be subject to directions from foreign intelligence services to act contrary to our national security”.
“The Chinese National Intelligence Law of 2017 makes it abundantly clear that Huawei and ZTE are subject to such obligations and accordingly they were excluded from the 5G rollout in Australia,” he said. Australia had been the first nation to impose a ban and “our decision was not taken lightly”.
Updated
The Liberal party has just released a statement on the election debates:
The prime minister looks forward to Monday’s debate in Perth and next Friday’s People’s Forum in Brisbane.
The Liberal party has also been in discussions with Nine and the ABC to participate in two further leaders’ debates in the final weeks of the campaign.
Mr Shorten is so far refusing to participate in either of these nationally televised debates.
The fact that Scott Morrison wants more debates suggests he thinks he may be able to knock Shorten off his game. And that he needs the debates more than Shorten. Scrutiny has turned to Shorten as people start to consider him the next prime minister, not to mention that Labor has a much bigger policy suite than the government, so the details of those policy ideas are interesting and want interrogating.
Updated
Labor has made a major announcement overnight – $660m for a program tackling domestic violence against women and children.
Labor has promised to double the the $328m Fourth Action Plan to prevent and respond to family violence, delivering $660m in commonwealth funding.
It includes $60m for emergency accommodation, $90m for legal assistance, $88m for a safe housing fund including 250,000 new affordable homes. There is also $62m for local prevention and frontline service grants, including dedicated funding for Indigenous women, women with disability, culturally and linguistically diverse women and LGBTIQ people.
Updated
Of course Palmer still owes money to the workers and the government.
After not paying for ages, Palmer has now promised to pay workers $7m in outstanding entitlements. Mind you, the commonwealth had to step in to pay $74m through the unpaid wages safety net, the Fair Entitlement Guarantee, when the company went into liquidation.
Mathias Cormann has been asked whether Clive Palmer should pay the $7m back to the workers he owes before the election.
Cormann says “of course he should”.
Just a reminder of the Liberals’ tenuous relationship with Clive Palmer. This round-up from Paul Karp yesterday charts their rocky road, which just goes to show some people in politics will do just about anything to get their bums on benches.
Oh, and by the way, don’t forget about this court action on taken by the commonwealth against Palmer. This was announced by Asic this time last year:
Following an ASIC investigation, Mr Clive Frederick Palmer, 63, of Broadbeach Waters in Queensland, has been charged with breaching takeover law arising from a proposed takeover of The President’s Club Ltd (TPC).
Palmer Leisure Coolum Pty Ltd (Palmer Leisure Coolum), previously known as Queensland North Australia Pty Ltd, has also been charged over the proposed takeover.
ASIC alleges that in April 2012 PLC publicly proposed to make a takeover bid for securities in TPC but subsequently did not make an offer for those securities within two months, as required under section 631(1) of the Corporations Act 2001. Mr Palmer, a director of Palmer Leisure Coolum, has been charged with contravening section 631(1) - through the operation of section 11.2 of the Criminal Code - for aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring the company to commit that offence.
The charges carry a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment and fine of $11,000 for an individual, and fines of $55,000 in respect of a corporation.
The matter remains in the courts.
Updated
Good morning and welcome to the blogue,
There is a fair bit of political news around this morning.
The Liberal party continues dealing with Clive Palmer on preference deals while the senior Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese has denied reports that Labor is in similar preference talks. In any case, the former One Nation senator turned UAP candidate Brian Burston says he would prefer to deal with the Coalition owing to Labor’s proposed tax changes on franking credits, superannuation and negative gearing, though he underlines he is not doing the talking with the Liberal party.
The Liberals preference dealing has freaked out at least one senior Liberal, the former WA premier Colin Barnett, who described Palmer’s public record as “appalling” in an interview with the ABC’s Andrew Probyn:
It may help in some seats, if United Australia party preferences flow to the Liberal party, although I doubt that would be certain.
But my real fear and concern for the Liberal party is that many Liberal supporters, perhaps soft or swinging voters, will react adversely to any sort of deal with Palmer.
And the consequence could be that in some country areas, the Liberal party may hold on to seats because of the arrangement, but in other areas — particularly metropolitan cities, the major cities — there is a danger of a backlash.
And indeed it could be the case that while a couple of seats might be saved, a number, significantly more, could be lost simply because of this.
On China, Barnett says:
I think there’s a big economic trade risk if Clive Palmer is seen by the Chinese to have undue influence over Australian politics.
Nevertheless, by all reports, the Liberal party will press on.
Burston has spoken to Fran Kelly, defending Palmer’s big advertising spend, saying advertising happens because it works. He says that’s why companies like Domino’s and Woolworths do it.
*falls off chair*
I don’t think we’re buying votes, we are just putting our policies in the mind for voters.
Asked whether Palmer will gain personally if there was a deal in the Galilee basin, Burston says:
I don’t think Clive’s in it for his own interests, he’s in it for Australia.
*falls off other side of chair*
In other news, Katharine Murphy reports that Malcolm Turnbull spoke overnight in New York.
It appears Turnbull encouraged Donald Trump to “take the lead” and develop 5G networks in cooperation with allies, including Australia, to hold out “ferocious competition” from China and safeguard networks against cyber-attacks.
In a speech in New York overnight, Turnbull said in response to concerns China was stealing a technological march, he urged Trump to “ensure that we had at least one viable and secure 5G vendor from the United States and/or its Five Eyes partners”.
“It is, frankly absurd, that in this arguably the most important enabling technology of our time the United States and its closest allies like Australia are not leading players,” Turnbull said.
We will have that report up shortly.
Bill Shorten is taking a fairly hard line on negotiations over climate policy with the Greens after Labor’s previous experience.
The Greens cost us action on climate change in 2009. I didn’t come down in the last shower. Just because Richard Di Natale proposes a sequence of events doesn’t not make those events inevitable.
I’m not going to negotiate before an election what happens after an election, but what I am saying is – we use the word mandate a lot in politics. It gets thrown around. In my case, though, I think people can genuinely accept we have been upfront with the people, we’ve got our mandate, they will be my negotiating instructions.
The Greens really stuffed up climate change in the 43rd parliament by their terms. I’m not going to sign up to a deal that damages our chances to deliver [enduring action] on climate change.
Katharine Murphy has this exclusive.
Stay with us as we have plenty more coming up. Talk to me on the Twits @gabriellechan or below in the thread.
Updated
