Night-time politics
- Penalty rates dominated question time as Labor raised the cases of workers losing a proportion of penalty rates under the Fair Work Commission decision. The government argued that enterprise bargaining agreements had previously traded away penalties under agreements between bosses and unions.
- Sticking to industrial relations, the government began the day by announcing plans to make secret payments between unions and employers illegal.
- The Coalition party room is still struggling with the issues of 18C and marriage equality. On the Racial Discrimination Act, the moderates are pushing for changes in process rather than the law while the conservatives want to remove “insult and offend” from the act. On marriage, conservative MPs are reportedly investigating the potential for a postal voluntary plebiscite to avoid the need to pass legislation through the parliament and thus get an indication of the public mood.
- Many politicians phone numbers were published inadvertently. The Department of Parliamentary Services blamed a private contractor.
- George Brandis’ diaries were published and we all heaved a sigh of relief.
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Newspoll showed a bump for Malcolm Turnbull, increasing the Coalition’s primary vote by three points and his lead as preferred PM by three points. It still leaves Labor ahead in the two-party preferred vote 52%-48%.
That is your lot for today. I am running off to a podcast. Stay tuned for an interesting guest ahead. Thanks to the brains trust of Gareth Hutchens, Paul Karp, Katharine Murphy, Greg Jericho and Mike Bowers.
Tomorrow is another day.
Good night.
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Politicians phone numbers reportedly published
Fairfax’s Adam Gartrell reports the private mobile phone numbers of hundreds of federal politicians, former prime ministers and senior political staffers have been inadvertently published online.
It allegedly happened after the Department of Parliamentary Services did not properly delete the numbers before they published the most recent round of politicians’ phone bills.
While in previous years the numbers were taken out of the PDF documents altogether, this time it appears the font was merely turned white – meaning they could still be accessed using copy and paste.
The only numbers absent were those of the very top cabinet ministers including prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, treasurer Scott Morrison, attorney general George Brandis and a handful of others.
But who was on the list?
- Julia Gillard
- John Howard
- Paul Keating
- Bill Shorten and some staff
- Barnaby Joyce
- Christopher Pyne
- Mitch Fifield (communications minister)
- Christian Porter
- Richard Di Natale
- Former Liberal trade minister Andrew Robb
- Former Liberal minister Jamie Briggs
But the department is blaming a private contractor, Telco Management. I have requested a comment from Telco.
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File this under B for bizarre.
Sharri Markson of the Daily Tele has reported that Coalition conservatives are actually considering a marriage plebiscite by postal vote. Markson has confirmed with the Australian Electoral Commission that it is an option.
Under this model, the Australian Electoral Commission would send out postal ballots and it would be voluntary for Australians to partake in the vote on same-sex marriage.
MPs told the Daily Telegraph this option did not require legislation change and would get around the decision by Labor and the Greens to kill off the plebiscite.
The Australian Electoral Commission’s chief legal officer, Paul Pirani, has confirmed to the parliament that a plebiscite could be held without the parliament passing enabling legislation, using a “voluntary postal vote methodology”.
The point would be that the voluntary ballot could be held without the need for legislation through the parliament.
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Luci Ellis, a Reserve Bank assistant governor, just spoke at the ACT launch of the Women in Economics Network in Parliament House in Canberra.
The topic of her speech was “women in the economy and in economics,” and she made some fascinating points about the gender divide in Australia’s workforce.
During the Q&A session, when talking about the reasons why some professions were dominated by men or women, she was asked by a young woman working in Treasury how the RBA was teaching all of its staff – both men and women – that everyone would benefit from a gender-diverse workforce.
Ellis replied by saying people needed to understand that diversity was actually about merit selection, because no one could honestly believe that 90% of the talent in economics was male.
She also wondered if it was a good thing for society that finance was still dominated by men.
Maybe funds management should be reconstructed as a ‘caring profession’, so we’re caring for peoples’ money.
It drew laughter from the mainly female audience but she persisted.
I’m actually serious with that proposal [more laughter], because I think how we socially construct these things is really important.
It’s a great point.
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Labor’s Mark Butler to Turnbull: Will the prime minister reconsider an emissions intensity scheme given an overwhelming number of organisations now support one including BHP, AGL, Energy Australia, the Business Council, the National Farmers’ Federation, Origin Energy, the CSIRO, the chief scientist … how long will the prime minister continue to stand alone in opposing this scheme?
Turnbull:
He talks about emissions intensity schemes but the fact of the matter is this, that an emissions intensity scheme is designed to shift generations from coal fired power to gas.
All of the assumptions that have been built in over the years assumed abundant gas at an affordable price. Again, thanks to the decision of Labor governments locking up our gas resources, we are in a position where gas is not available in the quantities it should be and it is certainly not affordable.
Which seems to suggest that Australia cannot have an emissions trading scheme because there is not enough gas available.
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Shorten to Turnbull: An eminent person, who is often quoted by the prime minister, has described allowing Australians to access super to purchase housing as a thoroughly bad idea. Will the prime minister now rule it out?
Turnbull goes straight to the 1993 Keating policy.
The eminent prime minister does, however, have the contradiction of having advocated the very policy he denounced so graphically on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald. It is remarkable that the 1993 election platform has been so quickly forgotten by so many people, not least the distinguished, eminent person.
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Greens senator Janet Rice with her knitting during #QT @gabriellechan @murpharoo @GuardianAus #politicslive pic.twitter.com/wNKWi0mL8e
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) March 20, 2017
Scott Morrison is asked by Chris Bowen about any plans to access superannuation for housing purposes.
Morrison says the government has no such proposal but points to Keating’s policy taken to the 1993 election. The only one had formally proposed such a policy is Labor, says Morrison.
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Labor senator Murray Watt has asked George Brandis whether anything has changed since he told the Senate last year that changes to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act were off the table.
Brandis notes that since then there has been a public discussion about the RDA, including the Australian Human Rights Commission president, Gillian Triggs, suggesting a revised complaints handling procedure and the Australian Law Reform Commission suggesting “substantive” changes.
We’ve seen vigorous debate on these issues, and the government is mindful of that debate. I have no further information to provide.
The Labor leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, leapt on the fact he did not repeat the “off the table” formulation:
Brandis refuses to affirm his commitment, given to Senate in August last year, that 18C changes were 'off the table' #senateqt
— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) March 20, 2017
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Kevin Andrews gets a question to the defence industry minister, Christopher Pyne: Can he outline how the government’s commitment to industrial relations reform will help protect employees’ pay and conditions by putting an end to the corrupting benefits paid by businesses to unions and, secondly, can he outline why it is important that the union movement be run honestly on behalf of all hard-working Australians?
Pyne goes through all the payments listed in the trade unions royal commission.
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Chris Bowen to Scott Morrison: Can the minister confirm that the minister for finance said, “We went to last election promising no increases in taxes on investments, specifically no reductions in the capital gains tax discount, no changes to negative gearing, we stick to our commitments.” Does this reflect the position of the government? Is the budget being drawn up according to the principles of the finance minister?
Morrison attacks the Labor policy to remove negative gearing on housing and reduce the tax discount on capital gains. He does not give an answer to the question.
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A government question allows the foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, to update the house on counter-terrorism.
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Labor’s Jenny Macklin asks Turnbull to rule out pension cuts in the budget. This relates to a story in the Sunday papers.
Turnbull says:
There will be no change to the current rules that provide age pensioners on the taper rate with a minimum rate per fortnight.
It was just a suggestion put forward by the department, he says.
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Scott Morrison gets a question on the G20 meeting.
Shorten to Turnbull: I refer to reports that the prime minister’s colleagues are seeking to water down protections against race hate speech. Will the prime minister rule out making changes to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act and, if not, what exactly does the government want people to be able to say that they’re not allowed to say now?
Turnbull says his government is considering the report of the human rights committee on the subject.
Nothing to see here.
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Dan Tehan, the assistant minister on cyber security, gets a government question on energy and cyber security and how the Snowy Hydro will strengthen national security. He lists moments when the defence department has had to rely on generators.
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Tony Burke to Turnbull: I refer to his previous answers where he has defended his industry minister describing One Nation as more sophisticated. We had a clear result in WA during – at one time in the campaign One Nation praised Vladimir Putin and made divisive comments ... Will he direct every political party division to put One Nation last an every single ticket across the nation the same way as John Howard did?
Turnbull said he strengthened policies on immunisation, pointed out president Putin’s conduct and association in the shooting down of MH17 and said Australia was the most successful multicultural country in the world.
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Government question to the energy minister, Josh Frydenberg: I ask this question when only moments ago the spot price for electricity in South Australia was approaching 50 times the cost of electricity in Victoria. I ask the minister about a retail business in my electorate in Mt Gambier. This business has seen an increase in the cost of its electricity bill for one month alone of $18,000. Can you update the House on what action the government is taking to ensure Australians have access to affordable and reliable power?
Tony Burke takes a point of order.
Under standing order 100 and the requirement for authentication, we heard in the question about it being, I think, 50 times. Given the spot price is nowhere near 50 times right at this moment could he either table his calculator or table the document he is basing it on.
Speaker Smith says there is no point of order.
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Meanwhile in the Senate:
Janet Rice is LITERALLY knitting in #senateQT as she asks about Dutton's "stick to their knitting comment". It's an orange and grey scarf.
— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) March 20, 2017
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Anthony Albanese to Turnbull: Now that the results of the WA election are so clear, will the prime minister listen to Western Australians, respect the mandate of Mark McGowan and finally dump your dud Perth freight link project and instead invest in the public transport Metronet project that Perth urgently needs – or does the prime minister plan to punish Western Australia, like he did Victoria, for having the temerity to vote Labor by withholding $1.2bn in federal infrastructure funding?
Turnbull says he awaits the application.
If they are not going to build it, then the money is obviously not required. As far as the Metronet project is concerned, we look forward to an application and will examine it on its merits as I have advised the new premier.
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Nationals MP Andrew Broad to Barnaby Joyce: What action is the government taking to improve energy and water security for hard-working Australian farmers and families in regional communities?
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Indi independent Cathy McGowan asks Turnbull: There is strong interest in regional Australia in the terms of reference for the regional task force, timelines, budgets, community engagement processes and the relationship between the task force and the budget process. Prime minister, will you commit to delivering a full white paper process that sets out a vision for edge natural Australia with strategies that enables us to reach our full potential?
Turnbull lists a whole heap of regional initiatives but avoids the question of a white paper.
We shall take that as a no.
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Labor to Turnbull: Is the prime minister aware that just last week the now former West Australian minister Joe Francis said on 6 PR radio, and I quote, “Penalty rates, I know people that didn’t vote for us at a state level because of that.” Prime minister, why won’t you use your power to stop the pay of almost 700,000 workers from being cut?
The answer goes back to Shorten. Turnbull says:
When the leader of the opposition had the power to determine penalty rates, when he was representing the workers and the Australian Workers Union, what did he do? He sold them out. He sold them out for a bag of gold.
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A government question to Turnbull: Will the prime minister advise the House how the government’s snowy mountain scheme mark two will make renewables reliable, help stabilise Australia’s electricity supply for households and businesses including all of those in Gilmore?
Turnbull attacks Labor, including the South Australian government, for their renewables policy.
Labor wag Watts:
It's the colt from old regret at the dispatch box #qt
— Tim Watts MP (@TimWattsMP) March 20, 2017
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Plibersek to Turnbull: Kerry works as a pharmacy assistant in South Australia and she is here in the gallery today. Kerry says the decision to cut penalty rates will cost her around $1,500 a year from an annual wage of just $34,000. The prime minister’s support for cutting penalty rates will mean Kerry will struggle to pay her bills. Why does the minister think that Kerry deserves a pay cut?
Turnbull says Labor including Bill Shorten and Brendan O’Connor supported the independent umpire. He reads off the quotes.
What about in February last year, the member for Gorton [O’Connor], who was very vocal on the doors this morning I see, dripping with sanctimony, drowning in hypocrisy. He said, ‘Labor believes the Fair Work Commission is the appropriate body to consider these matters and it should be left alone by the Liberals to do just that, conduct its business as the independent umpire.’
Labor used to stand for the independent umpire, Labor used to defend their decisions, the Fair Work commissioner is standing up for small business and Labor should do so too.
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First government question goes to Turnbull on union agreements and payments. Turnbull:
We have only seen the tip of the iceberg in the Heydon royal commission. There is a culture of deceit, a culture of selling out the workers, a culture of trading away workers’ rights in return for membership lists and in return for cash and we will put a stop to it with the regulation we are introducing in the house this week.
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Labor objects to personal reflections on Shorten.
Turnbull had said:
The leader of the opposition has been selling workers down the river for years, trading away penalty rates for years. Taking backhanders for years, and we’re gonna stop it.
Speaker Tony Smith says he did not think the PM was saying Shorten personally benefited.
I don’t believe the prime minister suggested that the leader of the Opposition was literally taking a backhander, I think was the term you’re objecting to.
I don’t think the prime minister was saying that the leader of the opposition personally benefited. I don’t. I believe it was a ... political characterisation and, if you want me to go to the aspect of practice, I can give you many examples where that’s been allowed. If members want a literal interpretation of the standing orders, I will be ruling questions out of order left, right and centre.
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Shorten to Turnbull: Andrew lives in Gawler in South Australia. He is here in the gallery today. Andrew worked at Spotlight on a Sunday to pay his way through university. Andrew says that he will lose around $1,000 per year because of the cuts to penalty rates, cuts which the prime minister has supported. Can the prime minister tell Andrew why he has to take a pay cut?
Turnbull says if Andrew was working at KFC he would be earning less because of an enterprise bargaining agreement struck between the company and the unions.
[Unions] have traded them away in circumstances where they have received money from the employers concerned. We might well ask what about the great agreement of the Australian workers with Cleanevent ...
Imagine if he had been getting, thanks to the great advocacy of the leader of the opposition, this champion of the working class, this hero of the people, he would have got Andrew would be getting $18 an hour instead of $50 under the award. But, Mr Speaker, there was something else. Payments to the union, not disclosed ...
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Question time coming up people.
Lunch-time politics
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Making or receiving payments that encourage unions to improperly trade off workers’ rights will be criminalised under a plan unveiled by the federal government.
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The Victorian Liberal moderate Russell Broadbent has pushed back against amending 18C to remove insult and offend and urged process changes within the Human Rights Commission. This puts him in line with the 18C human rights committee’s parliamentary report.
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George Brandis has released his diary after a three-year freedom of information brouhaha with Labor shadow Mark Dreyfus. The info suggests he did not consult with legal groups ahead of cuts to legal assistance, which was the original reason for the barney.
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Paul Keating has carpeted the Liberal party for considering allowing first home buyers to dip into their super, though history shows the former PM was once in favour of the idea himself in the 1990s.
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Liberal MP: 18C changes should be about process, not amending the law
The division inside the Coalition over marriage equality continues.
Victorian Liberal moderate Russell Broadbent says the government doesn’t need to amend 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act if it overhauls processes ensuring vexatious complaints are thrown out at an earlier stage.
Broadbent, who is a member of the federal parliament’s joint human rights committee which ran a recent inquiry into 18C, told Guardian Australia on Monday: “Changes to the RDA should be about process, not about the wording of the section.”
Broadbent’s public intervention, insisting that process changes are sufficient to address the major criticisms of how the RDA works in practice, comes ahead of formal government consideration of the contentious issue this week.
Part three in the Malcolm Roberts prosecution/persecution of Christian street preachers. He was cleared.
@gabriellechan, that post from Malcolm Roberts about the street preacher. He was found not guilty late last yr https://t.co/hD76bE32OW
— David Marler (@Qldaah) March 20, 2017
While the prime minister was doing his press conference, Bill Shorten was speaking to the parliament and to workers affected by the penalty rate cut decision by the Fair Work Commission.
Labor has been rolling out robocalls, which sound like this:
Malcolm Turnbull’s cuts to penalty rates will rip off 700,000 workers, losing up to $77 per week.
Turnbull told Neil Mitchell on Friday: “He is lying, just like he lied to you.”
Before the election, Shorten was critical of the Greens for threatening to block any penalty rate cut, suggesting he would support the Fair Work Commission who decides these sorts of things.
Afterwards, Shorten abandoned his Fair Work Commission solidarity and is moving to block the rates cut in parliament.
Shorten has since tried to recast the penalty rate cut as belonging to the Coalition on the grounds that they had refused to fix it. Shorten expanded that theory today.
This parliament has never had a more straightforward choice than it does today.
This parliament can vote with Labor to protect the conditions of up to 700,000 working Australians, to protect the take-home pay of up to 700,000 Australians.
That’s what they can do.
Or they can vote to cut wages in retail, hospitality, pharmacy and fast food.
This is the choice.
There’s no wiggle room, there’s no to fence to sit on here, no hole to go and hide in, there is no playing in traffic on this issue.
This isn’t a time for another lecture from a party that knows nothing about industrial relations; saying it’s not our fault, leave it to someone else.
Here is the kicker:
Make no mistake, the prime ,inister’s cuts, the Coalition’s cuts to penalty rates – and they may hate us calling it ‘their’ cuts but, when you vote not to reverse the cuts, you own the cuts.
IMO, Shorten is on dangerous ground trying to disavow one FWC decision, which would leave future governments open to disavow (and change) other decisions, such as a rise in the minimum wage.
What say you?
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A modern history lesson from Stephen Murray regarding Paul Keating’s previous support for using superannuation for housing.
ALP's 1993 Election Platform, launched by Paul Keating, promising access to super for housing deposits pic.twitter.com/WkRuRQG2xU
— Stephen Murray (@smurray38) March 19, 2017
The Accord Mark VII between the Keating Government and the ACTU, released on 3 March, 1993 provided for access to super for housing deposit pic.twitter.com/jkgRBHjR1b
— Stephen Murray (@smurray38) March 20, 2017
Regarding that Malcolm Roberts matter of public importance ... re the question of prosecution or persecution of Christians in south-east Queensland.
@SenatorMRoberts serious note. I plan to speak on this too. Is there a more specific point (an article or something) you can refer me too?
— Sam Dastyari (@samdastyari) March 19, 2017
Looking forward to you speaking on protecting freedom of #religion#Queensland street preacher arrested & charged https://t.co/jYe21OABiP https://t.co/sEqQEINtZ3
— Sen. Malcolm Roberts (@SenatorMRoberts) March 20, 2017
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While Turnbull was doing his press conference, Bill Shorten was speaking to workers who would have their penalty rates cut under the Fair Work Commission decision.
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There have been a number of private member’s bills in the lower house.
There has been a Labor penalty rates bill, a Greens penalty rates bill and independent Andrew Wilkie has moved a bill to end live export.
Cathy McGowan has moved a rail bill that would require the government to look at the regional impact of rail projects under the National Land Transport Act 2014. In other words, if you make changes to rail transport, make sure it does not do over regional Oz.
Now they are on to penalty rates though a motion by Labor’s Herbert MP Cathy O’Toole, which notes that:
(a) families in regional and rural Australia rely on penalty rates to survive;
(b) the Fair Work Commission’s (FWC’s) decision to cut penalty rates will hurt retail and hospitality workers and their families in regional and rural Australia;
(c) the take home pay of families in regional and rural Australia will be severely impacted as a result of the FWC’s decision to cut Sunday and public holiday penalty rates for retail and hospitality workers;
(d) cutting penalty rates in regional and rural areas would also have a devastating flow-on impact for regional economies; and
(e) the McKell Institute estimates that disposable income in regional areas will fall by between $174.6m and $748.3m if penalty rates are cut in hospitality and retail awards;
(2) condemns government members and senators who called for cuts to penalty rates and their continuous pressuring of the FWC to reduce penalty rates; and
(3) calls on:
(a) Government members and senators to stand with Labor to protect low paid workers take home pay; and
(b) the House to support Labor’s Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Take Home Pay) Bill 2017, to amend the Fair Work Act 2009.
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The magic of Bowers.
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Malcolm Turnbull references the statement, which I have yet to sight.
The multicultural statement this year, 2017, renews and reaffirms our commitment to a multicultural Australia in which racism and discrimination have no place and which integration and contribution are core elements of our success. We are rich in our diversity, but we are bound together in our commitment as Australians, our commitment to those values and, as I said, the glue that binds us together is mutual respect.
Malcolm Turnbull:
We are much more diverse in terms of the number of people who are born overseas or the children of parents who are born overseas than any comparable nation. Much more than the United States, which prides itself on being one of the great melting pots of the world of people coming from so many different countries. Only California has a percentage as a diversity that approaches Australia. Since 1945, more than 7.5 million people have come from all corners of the world to make their life here. They have added their own identity to the extraordinary project that is modern Australia.
The PM has segued into the multiculturalism statement.
Malcolm Turnbull is speaking about the Snowy Hydro scheme and the achievement of that postwar migration project. He also talks about the first Australians, Indigenous Australians whose history stretches back 60,000 years.
No one can say Australians only look like this. Australians look like every race, every face and every background.
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The prime minister does not answer a question over whether he has any indication he can get the proposed laws through the parliament. He says it’s up to Labor.
Asked about a poll suggesting a large majority of West Australians want him to act on the GST revenue share, Turnbull says he is trying to get agreement from the states to place a floor under the GST revenue so states don’t get the big drops in revenue.
I wrote to the all the premiers and chief ministers and I raised it at COAG. I was attacked, unrelentingly, by the Labor Party, including by Mr Shorten. So, really, the question now is we will seek to achieve that. That is our goal, we think it is fair and it is achievable with goodwill but the fiercest opponents of what I propose is Bill Shorten and the Labor leaders, including South Australia, Victoria and Queensland.
Guardian correspondent Paul Karp asks Turnbull why not go a step further and ban payments from companies to political parties (if you think secret payments have a corrupting influence on outcomes)?
You are not seriously suggesting to me that a corrupting benefit should be allowed as long as it is disclosed? Is that what you are putting to us?
Why do you assume (political donations) don’t impact on public policy outcomes?
I wouldn’t have thought there would be anybody here actually defending employers paying bribes to unions, but there it is. It is a broad church. Chris Uhlmann?
Turnbull refuses to answer any further questions from Paul and goes to Chris but Chris gives the floor back to Paul. The PM insists on moving to the next person.
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Michaelia Cash rejects the suggestion that it is already an offence to make payments with a corrupting intent.
Cash says all the jurisdictions have different laws and they are difficult to prove. This will be made consistent, she says.
Turnbull says he is introducing it now because they have been doing other important IR business such as the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC).
Turnbull rejects the suggestion he did not mention these issues in the election. (These were recommendations from the trade unions royal commission.) Turnbull said the very election was called over industrial relations.
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Michaelia Cash is asked how you distinguish between dodgy ones and legitimate ones (my words):
If a payment is being made into a safety training fund, you would need to show that you actually have a program of basically safety training, you would need to show that that has been undertaken, but you would also need to show that it has been charged out at market rate.
Coalition to ban secret payments between employers and unions
Malcolm Turnbull and Cash are responding to the recommendations of the Hayden royal commission:
The Coalition will:
- make it a imprisonable offence, a payment with a corrupting intent in the sense of encouraging a union or union official to act improperly.
- make it an offence punishable by up to two years in prison for any payment to be made by an employer to a union or a union official other than for clearly legitimate purposes (such as the remittance of union dues).
- ban secret payments from employers to unions. Certain legitimate payments will continue to be allowed, such as payments for genuine services that are provided by a union or genuine payment of membership fees. Criminal penalties will apply to both the employer and the union. The party that makes the offer of the payment will be penalised in the same way as the party that solicits or receives the payment.
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Regular followers will know the parliament chambers have “a matter of public importance” debate a number of times every sitting week. The crossbenchers and major parties take it in turns and today, One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts has won the prize. This is his debate topic:
The prosecution of the Christian community in south-east Queensland.
Does he mean persecution?
Under standing order 75 the proposed discussion must be supported by at least four other senators rising in their places. Given the new One Nation senator is not in the chamber yet, that leaves only two senators so he must have found two others in support. Presumably they will make themselves known.
The prime minister has a press conference at 10am with employment minister Michaelia Cash.
Parliament is about to begin at 10am.
Scott Morrison has just held a press conference. There were no significant news lines from it. He would not say whether he would negotiate on the omnibus bill to get the childcare reforms through the senate.
Why the Labor party wants Australians to pay more in higher taxes for a bigger welfare bill, they must explain. These should have been bipartisan measures if the Labor party was serious about ensuring that we can get the budget back into balance to reinforce and support our triple A credit rating.
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The multicultural statement is coming at 10.30am.
I have confirmed Integration is the key word.
The other thing around today is a multicultural statement of some sort. I know this because it is all over the Australian’s front page without the actual statement, which I gather is expected to be delivered today.
Without having seen the text, the Australian’s interpretation is here:
In an implicit reference to the controversial provisions of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, it has moved away from Labor’s past reference to the use of the “full force of the law” while denouncing racism and discrimination, and promoting mutual respect.
A keystone of the document is the inclusion of white Australia — British and Irish settlers — in a broadening of the definition of multicultural Australia to beyond ethnic minorities and Indigenous people. Introducing “integration” as the core principle over ethnic segregation to guide government policy, the statement signals a deliberate shift away from the emphasis placed on services articulated by Labor.
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Today the lower house sits at 10am with private members business.
Labor could do something with penalty rates in this space.
Later, the government bills include:
- National rural health commissioner
- National health amendment (pharmaceutical benefits)
- Education and other legislation amendment (No 1)
- Treasury laws amendment (combating multinational tax avoidance)
- Diverted profits tax
Question time is also likely to revolve around penalty rates.
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ACTU polling found the penalty rates cut was key issue for 52% of people in WA election. pic.twitter.com/Gbu2G76mbD
— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) March 19, 2017
Brandis of his diaries: Mr Dreyfus’ request was a long and exhaustive task
George Brandis’ office has put out a statement on the diaries.
Mr Dreyfus was informed that his request was being processed. It was typical overreach of Mr Dreyfus to suggest otherwise.
Processing Mr Dreyfus’ request was a long and exhaustive task and had to be done on top of the attorney’s ministerial and other responsibilities. Appropriate redactions had to be made to the diary before it was released.
As outlined in the letter to Mr Dreyfus, many meetings or appointments happen spontaneously or at short notice. Quite often, the attorney general arranges meetings himself and these are not always entered in the diary.
The government supports the important work of the legal assistance sector and is providing substantial funding to frontline services to help those who need it most.
Even in a resource constrained environment, the Australian government is providing over $1.6bn for legal aid, community legal centres and Indigenous legal assistance between 2015 and 2020.
On top of this, the Turnbull government has provided an extra $45m for frontline legal assistance services as part of its $200m investment to reduce violence against women and children. $16.5m of this is going directly to community legal centres.
The attorney general regularly meets with representatives from the legal assistance sector – for example – he has made seven visits to legal assistance providers in the last year.
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I am suffering from the freedom confusion again. It relates to the various campaigns being waged at the moment to win the heart and soul of the Liberal.
You may have seen conservative spear chucka Peter Dutton out on the weekend telling company CEOs to back off on the marriage debate. He suggested to business leaders to leave it to the big people in parliament.
Alan Joyce, the individual, is perfectly entitled to campaign for and spend his hard-earned money on any issue he sees fit, but don’t do it in the official capacity and with shareholders money,” he told the meeting.
And certainly don’t use an iconic brand and the might of a multibillion-dollar business on issues best left to the judgment of issues and elected decision makers,” he said to applause.
The Sunday Tele’s Annika Smethurst reported:
Conservative government MPs are frantically marshalling their numbers to foil a plot by moderate Liberals planning to reignite the same-sex marriage debate this week.
Conservatives, including one senior government minister, caught wind of the secret plan to lobby prime minister Malcolm Turnbull to abandon his commitment to hold a plebiscite on marriage equality.
Liberal moderate said all will be worked out in the party room – brackets – keep the discussion there, Dutts – brackets.
At the same time as this debate is happening, the same group is prosecuting the freedom of information case to change 18C in the Coalition party room. Two camps there as well.
Conservative camp says amend the law, by removing insult and offend.
Moderate camp says change the Human Rights Commission’s process to make it work better and chuck out vexatious cases.
So freedom of speech for some and not others, it would seem.
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If you have an interest in trawling the Brandis diaries, you can find them here at the ABC.
Dreyfus:
The FoI shows no evidence the attorney general met with legal assistance organisations before savagely slashing their funding in 2013 and 2014.
While the capitulation represents a victory for common sense, transparency and the principles of FoI, it is also ridiculous that it took such lengths to force the attorney general to comply with an act that sits within his own portfolio.
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Good morning, rentseekers, radicals and rationalists,
Here we are, the beginning of the last sitting fortnight before the budget. This is what you need to know today.
George Brandis has finally released his ministerial diaries.
This story stems from a dispute with Labor from the 2014 Tony Abbott budget. The Labor shadow attorney, Mark Dreyfus, challenged Brandis over whether he consulted with legal aid groups including Indigenous legal aid before cutting their funding. Brandis said yes he had. Dreyfus said show us the diaries. Brandis said no. A lot of bureaucratic fluffing and legal work down the track, including an Administrative Appeals Tribunal hearing, a hearing in the full court of the federal court, and the threat of contempt, Brandis has relented. The diaries show no evidence of any meetings with legal groups. Brandis’s spokesman has told the ABC that it does not necessarily prove he did not talk to them on the phone. But he has not confirmed he did talk to them on the phone. This is the sort of in-and-out-of-a-feline’s-fundamental that gives voters the cranks.
The Man from Snowy River gets a bump in Newspoll.
- Turnbull is up three points in the measure of preferred PM in frontBill Shorten, at 43% to Shorten’s 29% compared with 40% to 33% in the previous poll.
- The Coalition primary vote is up three from 34% to 37% over three weeks.
- Labor’s primary is down two points 37% to 35%.
- The Greens are at 9%.
- One Nation, despite the Western Australian election, is steady at 10%.
- This has the 2PP vote at 52% to 48% to Labor.
Paul Keating tells Scott Morrison to back off a superannuation raid for housing.
One of the options for the government is to let first-home buyers dip into their super to afford housing. Keating has written a piece of Fairfax which suggests this is nuts and will simply push the market higher while denuding savings for under 40s. Here is a little vintage Keating.
I have said before, you don’t expect conservative parties to believe in much but you do expect them to believe in thrift. And when a Labor government comes along and, in a cooperative way, encourages the workforce to save for their retirement, you would think any true conservative party would be eternally grateful.
Instead the Liberal party, limited by its ideological snakiness, continues biting at superannuation, as it does, periodically, Medicare.
The remains of the day.
Penalty rates are likely to dominate question time as the Coalition is trying to push back against Labor’s attempts to blame the government for the Fair Work Commission’s decision to cut them. The ACTU is bringing low-paid workers to parliament to highlight the need for the government to step in. The Coalition is expected to roll out enterprise bargaining agreements between unions and large companies which shows unions were happy to trade away penalties.
The omnibus bill is likely to be fought out in the Senate this week, with key crossbenchers telling the government to go back to the drawing board and separate the (good) childcare reforms from the cuts to family tax benefits, etc. Derryn Hinch has predicted it will not get the support to pass the Senate.
There is also 18C and multiculturalism, marriage equality, company tax cuts and much more to come. But I reckon that is enough for you to be getting on with right now. Talk to us in the thread, on the Twits @gabriellechan and @mpbowers or on Facebook.
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