Well, that was a fun day back.
And sorry about that slight heart attack I may have inadvertently given some people, when my tech problems resulted in half a sentence publishing. (John Lloyd has stepped down from the Senate estimates hearing. The last bit of that sentence didn’t go through. It has been happening all day, but that one was a doozy.)
And just think – we have nine more ahead of us, just like it!
Tomorrow is going to see more of the same. Same estimates hearings, same question time shenanigans. With no Senate sittings, there are no chances of any laws passing, so it’s a political point-scoring fortnight ahead of us.
So I hope you get some rest tonight. You are going to need it.
A big thank you to the Guardian brains trust and to Mike Bowers, who all helped pull me through the tech difficulties today. You can find Mike at @mpbowers, @mikepbowers and occasionally making an appearance in the story of @pyjamapolitics.
And as always, the biggest thank-you to all of you for reading and following along. It does make all the difference to my day.
We’ll see you back here bright-eyed and bushy-tailed early tomorrow morning.
Take care of you.
Updated
The Commonwealth Bank has secured a significant victory at the banking royal commission, with the commission dismissing claims it deliberately defaulted loans of Bankwest customers after it bought the smaller bank in 2008.
CBA has been dogged by claims – for years – that it was motivated to impair the loans of some Bankwest SME customers in 2009 and 2010 after it acquired the smaller bank from HBOS in late 2008.
Former Bankwest customers have claimed that CBA unnecessarily defaulted their loans for its own financial gain, and their claims eventually led to a parliamentary inquiry in 2015 (thought the inquiry failed to produce a unanimous view on the events).
Senior counsel assisting the royal commission, Michael Hodge, told the commission he had investigated the “clawback ulterior motive theory” – pertaining to the claim that CBA deliberately impaired some Bankwest loans so it could “clawback” the amount of the impairment from HBOS under the price adjustment mechanism in the sale contract between CBA and HBOS – but he found no evidence for the theory.
“This ulterior motive theory is not supported by either the facts or the operation of the contractual mechanism,” Hodge said.
CBA executives will welcome the news with open arms – for obvious reasons.
Updated
John Lloyd has stepped down from the hearing (he is still public service commissioner)
Here is the statement Senate president Scott Ryan tabled in response to the public immunity stuff:
I can confirm that a search of office correspondence reveals nothing between my office and the parliamentary service merit service commissioner since I took office on 13 November. We are continuing this to ensure it is exhaustive, and I will advise the committee if this advice changes.
I am afraid cannot speak to any contact that may have occurred with my predecessor.
With respect to the issue of privacy of information, it is my view that the provisions of the Public Service Act do not prevent the disclosure of this information to the Senate. This is discussed in some detail in Chapter 2 of Odgers’ Senate Practice under the section “Parliamentary privilege and statutory secrecy provisions.”
I am not inclined to make a public interest immunity claim. I am not aware of sufficient facts to sustain such a claim.
However, it is not simply for the “minister”, to whom I am analogous in this circumstance, to make such a claim. In this instance, I refer to Chapter 19 of Odgers’, and the section entitled “Statutory authorities and public interest immunity”.
In my view it is within the purview of the commissioner, a statutory officer not subject to general direction, to make such a claim. Paragraph 8 of the Senate order of 13 May 2009 contemplates this approach.
Such a claim is eventually, of course, a matter for the Senate itself.
Finally, with respect to the role of the parliamentary service merit protection commissioner. This is a separate role to the APS merit protection commissioner.
To the best of my understanding and advice I have taken this afternoon, appreciating the desire of senators for my speedy response, I would expect any determination by the parliamentary service merit service commissioner that was relevant to or applied to the parliamentary service to be notified to the presiding officers, but I would not expect to be automatically informed of activity underway with respect to the APS Code.
Updated
Labor’s Mark Butler (well, his staff) have dug up some of the comments Malcolm Turnbull, Scott Morrison and Mathias Cormann made when following through with the Abbott-government asset recycling infrastructure fund. From Butler’s statement:
The Turnbull government has reached new levels of hypocrisy in their desire to use Liddell as a distraction from their inability to tackle energy policy.
Not only did AEMO [Australian Energy Market Recycler] not recommend Liddell Power station be extended when they considered the implications of its closure, but the reason Liddell was sold to AGL in the first place was because the Liberal New South Wales Government, supported by the Liberal Federal Government as part of their Asset Recycling program, privatised Liddell, in full knowledge this would lead to less competition and higher prices.
When asked about NSW power privatisation leading to higher prices at the time of the sale, treasurer Scott Morrison said: “The efficiency gains through privatisation of the NSW electricity network will place downward pressure on electricity prices.” [Speech – 18 November 2015]
And finance minister Cormann said: “We are keen to see further privatisations of State owned assets at the State level.” [ABC PM – 6 January 2014]
Prime minister Turnbull’s views on electricity privatisation have long been known: “I believe these businesses – businesses should be owned by the private sector rather than by government.” [Meet the Press – 4 May 2008]
The Liberal party’s support for Liddell privatisation stood against the view of the ACCC, which tried to block the sale, repeatedly warning it would lower competition in NSW and by implication lead to higher prices, saying “the ACCC considers that the proposed acquisition is likely to result in a substantial lessening of competition in the market for the retail supply of electricity in NSW.”
Updated
More on the $444m grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation in estimates this afternoon. Officials have told a hearing that the foundation wasn’t approached about whether it was interested in partnering with the government until early April.
And the government’s announcement just before the federal budget was only an “intention” to supply the grant; there had not yet been an agreement between the foundation and the department.
Labor and Greens senators have spent hours questioning the government on what due diligence was done before environment and energy minister Josh Frydenberg announced the grant on April 29.
Stephen Oxley from the department’s heritage, reef and marine division said:
“We are now going through quite a comprehensive due diligence process where we conclude whether it can be consummated, for want of a better word.”
Labor senator Kristina Keneally said the government did not seem to have undertaken any process at all before announcing the grant
“I did a lot of due diligence on my husband before we got married. You don’t seem to have done any due diligence on this organisation before you announced a half a billion dollar commitment to them,” she said.
Updated
Ged Kearney is gearing up for the Victorian branch conference this weekend – where the Left will firm up its demands in regards to refugee policy ahead of the national Labor conference in late July.
Updated
And the whole Ged Kearney speech:
I believe it’s respectful – and appropriate – to begin with acknowledgment of Australia’s first peoples.
Today, I pay my respects to the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet. I pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging, as well as to those of all Indigenous Australians in this room, and beyond it.
My seat of Batman is on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation – a proud people who have survived all challenges over the decades, and prospered.
Batman is a vibrant inner city electorate, with an electric arts and music culture, and a tradition of community activism.
The byelection that elected me was fought between competing progressive campaigns – and this says much about the unique values of our beloved Melbourne borough.
I acknowledge that genuine love of Batman’s diversity and engagement motivated the campaign of my opponent, Alex Bhathal, as much as it did mine.
I’d like to thank everyone who worked on and supported me in that election , especially Bill Shorten for his leadership, personal encouragement and support.
The Aboriginal community has always been at the heart of Batman’s identity. It’s the home of the Aboriginal Advancement League, the mighty All Stars football team and Aboriginal voice Radio 3KND – that’s Radio Kool-n-Deadly – to name just a few.
… But my seat is named after John Batman.
He was a mercenary with a private army who – in concert with the British military – spent the 1820s and early 1830s tracking and hunting the Indigenous people of Tasmania.
This history is not disputed.
The man himself wrote of shooting dead two Indigenous Tasmanians who were wounded and captured in a raid – because they wouldn’t walk at his required pace.
His colonial contemporary – the artist John Glover – described Batman as “a rogue, thief, cheat, and liar, a murderer of blacks and the vilest man I have ever known”.
I mention this history because I stand side by side with the thousands of people in my electorate who’d prefer instead to acknowledge Simon Wonga – the Wurundjeri leader of the 1850s.
And I mention this because in this parliament – bestowed as we are with the great and rare privilege of serving all Australian people – we can never forget the brutality, the cruelty and the dispossession of this land’s First Nations.
I also commit myself to advocate for the implementation of the Uluru Statement, and a First Nations voice within the parliament.
Today is my first speech in this house, but my actual first speech was to my dad’s dinner-time parliament – where he was always the Speaker and each of us nine – yes, nine – Kearney kids was cast in a parliamentary role.
Mick Kearney was a publican, like his own mum before him – a working widowed mother who, in her own way, was a beacon for what women can do if they get an opportunity. Nanna and my own mum – Nance – sowed the seeds for my own feminism.
I’m so proud to be standing here today in Parliament where women are 48% of the Labor caucus.
Nance ran the kitchen of our pub, the Lord Raglan.
She was a tireless worker, community organiser and mother.
The rowdy debates of dinner-time parliament were good practice for a pub that was full of politicians and priests, footballers and fighters, academics and alcoholics.
It was the favourite drinking place of the mighty Richmond Tigers: busy, crowded and loud.
Catholicism certainly informed my parents’ view of the world – but it was the community they created in that pub that formed mine.
Mum and Dad had an extraordinary sense of civics and were generous to a fault – from organising haircuts and meals for the barflys whose only family was the Lord Raglan, to helping out the parish school in Hoddle Street, or providing a helping hand for local people – even their business competitors in other pubs – when they needed it.
When there were hotel strikes, my dad still fed his staff – and their families – every night.
It was within that large extended family of pub life and the working class in the suburbs where I grew up, that has nourished and inspired in me the most important value in my life – as a mum, as a nurse, as a trade unionist.
It is the value I hope will define my contribution to this parliament.
The value of solidarity.
Solidarity is the expression of our shared humanity. It is the importance of not merely reaching out, but standing beside.
Solidarity is not individual charity, but collective empowerment.
Solidarity does not subsidise, it does not patronise
It is the fundamental recognition that the greatest human dignity is the experience of opportunity and equality.
Now, not only did the Kearneys have a family parliament. We also had a family trade union.
It was called the Kearney Family Union. All nine kids were members, we paid dues, we made demands on the bosses – Mum and Dad – and we even went on strike once when Mum wanted to get the cat spayed.
This led to a sit-in in the kitchen.
But a strike-breaker appeared – my mum, with a broom – and we were forcibly dispersed.
We didn’t win that one, neither did the cat.
But we were happy with the fight we put up – and Dad thought we were pretty wonderful.
My Dad died at the age of 54 from a rare pituitary cancer in 1984. I was 21.
It was that year that I began my career in nursing.
Nursing demands immediate solidarity with people in their hours of greatest need.
Nursing is also about teamwork and collaboration across the health professions.
It obliges hard, exhausting physical and emotional labour – yet no one had a more humble appreciation of its rewards of community and generosity than I did, when I found myself pregnant with twins in the middle of my training.
With the support of the Mercy Hospital and my family I was back at work to finish my training when the twins were only seven weeks old.
I went on to have another two wonderful children and I worked full-time shift-work all their young lives.
I could not have done that without my Mum and my village – that is my sisters and brothers – two of my wonderful sisters are here today and I know the others are watching. To them I say: thank you.
And those beautiful twins Bridget and Alex are in the gallery today, together with Ryan my son and all their partners. My youngest, Elizabeth and her partner, are overseas.
I have an extended family now, and they are here as well; my step-family, Lil, her partner Davey and Ros. My step daughter Maeve and her partner also live overseas.
And a very special mention of my beautiful granddaughter Isla – may there be many more Islas to light up our lives.
I also acknowledge my loving Canberra and Sydney families, some of whom are here today.
I love you all very much.
I learned directly from my experience about the needs of working mums, and the crucial need for paid parental leave – because I didn’t have it.
Raising children should not be a struggle for economic survival.
Everyone deserves the financial security to bond with their babies.
Everyone deserves access to quality childcare.
When my fourth child Elizabeth was born, my husband was a chef, working split shifts. I worked full-time night shift at the Austin Hospital. Our lives were a tag-team wrestle to feed and care for our family – and it nearly destroyed us both.
Be aware: I will take on anyone in this room who has a crack at the Federal paid parental leave scheme and paid parental leave entitlements in enterprise agreements.
Every primary carer deserves the very best our nation can provide.
I worked at the Austin hospital while completing a degree in education at La Trobe University – a world class university that I’m very proud to say is in the seat of Batman!
I progressed to become head of Clinical Nursing Education at Austin Health.
What I taught is what I’d learned …
Nursing is about listening.
Listening to patients.
Listening to colleagues.
Listening to difference, and accommodating it.
And at Austin I learned how quality vocational education and training can complement and enhance the work of service providers – even as it trains its students.
One of my most rewarding roles at the ACTU was to sit on the board of Skills Australia.
You can never invest enough in education, and it makes me proud to represent an Australian Labor Party that will restore the full Gonski funding model when it wins government – as well as open the doors to a re-established, properly-funded and accessible TAFE system.
It also makes me proud to represent the party of Medicare, one that defends with ferocity a quality, universal healthcare system.
It was in 1993 when I began my union journey as a rep for the Australian Nursing Federation, during the struggle to overcome the savage staffing cuts of the Kennett Government.
Chronic understaffing resulted from cuts to nurse numbers and the workloads were unimaginable.
The fight lasted years – not just to protect jobs and improve conditions, but to defend standards for the quality of care.
John Cummins – a legend of the Victorian union movement – would always finish a speech with:
“Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win”.
Then he’d say “If you don’t fight” and the workers loud response would always be “You lose”.
We nurses heeded that lesson and we demanded nurse-to-patient ratios. We took direct industrial action and it was really hard – but we fought, until we won.
I’m proud to be part of a union movement that fights not only for its members’ benefit, but for the benefit of the whole community.
I was also at the Austin when Kennett tried to privatise it – which would have been a disaster.
Australians are right to distrust privatisation. It rarely delivers benefits to everyday people.
We won that battle – and the Austin was saved with the election of the Bracks Labor government.
In that campaign I worked with Jenny Macklin – the member for Jaga Jaga – who I am excited to join as a colleague today.
I became honorary president of the Victorian Branch of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation and then honorary federal president, while continuing to work full-time as a nurse.
I take this opportunity to thank my comrades both at the Austin and in the ANMF for the encouragement and support that has led me here, especially the wonderful Belinda Morieson, Lisa Fitzpatrick, Mark Petty, Jen Hancock, Jill Iliffe and Lee Thomas to name just a few.
In 2003 I was elected assistant federal secretary of my union, and started to work heavily in aged care funding and policy.
While some enterprises are caring providers that struggle to stay afloat, too many are simply investors who cut costs and services to maintain profit.
When 80% of your industry income comes from federal government coffers, your company should not be listed on the stock exchange.
It should not be an option to keep your books a secret.
Staffing and skill mix is at a crisis point in private aged care and it must be fixed.
We must show solidarity for the needs of our ageing population, because how we treat our elderly says everything about our values as a nation.
My experience of aged care and other privatised services has disabused me of any faith in “trickle-down economics”.
Nowhere on earth has diverting national wealth to the richest resulted in gains for ordinary workers, let alone those who are vulnerable, or poor.
Our own history demonstrates that when you provide an unemployed person a Newstart increase – or a low-income family a tax cut or a wage rise – then they spend every dollar of it.
And I learned from my publican parents what it means to an enterprising small business to see consumer spending increase.
It is what the Rudd Government did to save Australia from going into recession, even depression – pump money into the economy for the benefit of those who will spend it quickly.
Australia’s relatively high minimum wage has been the bedrock of our economy and stopped us going into recession more than once.
Let me acknowledge Justice HB Higgin – who established Australia as the nation with the first living wage in the world, when he delivered his Harvester judgment in 1907.
He said wages should be sufficient for a human being to live in a civilised world, regardless of an employer’s capacity to pay.
His judgment spoke to a fair go - and a more equitable society.
Of course, it took decades for the same consideration of workplace equality to apply to Indigenous Australians or to women, or even to our LGBTIQ community, who have fought their own battles within the great movement of working people.
Poor old HV McKay, the owner of Sunshine Harvester, never got over the judgment against him.
He was still railing against the setting of fair wages 15 years later, insisting that pay should be – and I quote – “a minimum wage for the minimum man – and maximum wage for the maximum man”.
That was the ideological battle in 1907 and in 1922.
It is still the battle today.
For the last decade, corporate profits have been steadily increasing to an all-time high, while the share of wages is at a record low:
Workers work longer and harder, in less secure, more fragmented jobs.
This is the real economy that working Australians live in, not the fantasy world that neoliberals would have us imagine.
Australians have BS detectors taller than the telescope at Parkes.
They can see the unemployed in our suburbs and towns.
They know that their wages haven’t risen in real terms.
They know enterprise bargaining is one-sided.
They know there are less apprenticeships for their kids, that TAFE hasn’t had the funding to provide opportunities and that casual jobs can stay casual forever.
They know gig economy jobs are more prevalent, that permanent workers have to take pay cuts or become “independent contractors” in the very same place they used to be an employee.
Penalty rates have been cut and wage theft is rampant.
I congratulate the fearless Sally McManus, the ACTU and State Labor Councils for leading the campaigns to deliver fairness on the job and workplace rights. Unions fight for better minimum standards and a new living wage, even for those who are not members of unions.
Labor’s commitment is to change workplace relations laws to make them fairer for workers. Labor will change the rules.
I do not believe it serves working people or Australia to give handouts of $80bn in corporate tax cuts to the big end of town, not least of all $17bn in tax cuts to the big banks, whose combined after-tax profit was over $31bn last year.
Last year, employment didn’t jump in financial services.
Wages didn’t shoot up, either. Not even a trickle.
$80bn!
Budget items this size should be for nation-building infrastructure, for job creation, for revitalising depressed communities and modernising services.
Eighty billion dollars can build skills, support innovative projects, and target and fund growth strategies for high wage and high skill industries – niche manufacturing, science and technology, logistics, education, health and social services.
There is also the need for new jobs as we transition industries to meet the new reality of climate change.
… And it could also be better spent ensuring we live up to our international obligations.
This brings me to the issue of asylum seekers – a passionate and emotional issue for voters in Batman’s community.
I think proudly of the great achievements of both sides of this house – of Malcolm Fraser and Bob Hawke – who with bipartisan support provided sanctuary to those fleeing the consequences of wars in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia and later from the events of Tiananmen Square.
I cannot comprehend how a nation that provided a safe home to so many in the wake of world war two – including our large Jewish community of Holocaust survivors – allowed the Tampa and the “children overboard” scandal to evolve into the shameful policy of indefinite detention on Manus and Nauru.
Racist dog-whistling has demonised and vilified a community that has everything to give to Australia – and the sacrifice of this human potential has been made solely for political gain.
Facts remain facts:
The overwhelming majority of asylum seekers are from places of conflict. And the overwhelming majority have been assessed as refugees under the International Conventions to which Australia is a signatory.
We are a rich country. We can afford to take more refugees.
I doubt, however, we can afford the ongoing cost to our national psyche of subjecting men, women and children to years of punitive, indefinite detention.
We must – as a priority – move the asylum seekers off Manus and Nauru to permanent resettlement, and ensure that indefinite detention never happens again.
My commitment in this house is to the cause of humane refugee policy.
It is to foreign policy and foreign aid that pro-actively supports people as they flee conflict.
It is to assessment, not punishment – assessment, within a fair time-limit, and as part of regional agreements for humane resettlement.
It is to collaboration with the UNHCR and more funds for its operation, as well as a greater permanent intake of refugees, with an expansion of our humanitarian program.
It is ensuring all refugees have access to social services, and income support.
Offering sanctuary to refugees does not need to compromise or undercut other paths to citizenship that Australia offers to migrants, like family re-unions.
My own community is living evidence that we have, actually, done this before.
Just as migration benefits us, so too does meaningful engagement with our neighbours within Pacific and Asian countries.
In my role as ACTU President, I was on the board of APHEDA – an international aid agency led in true solidarity by the wonderful Kate Lee.
APHEDA runs small-scale aid projects that empower communities.
But APHEDA and the many other aid agencies need more resources to expand their work.
The United Nations and OECD international benchmark for official development assistance is 0.7% of gross national income – but our current aid budget is 0.27%.
Shamefully, we are 16th on the OECD list of contributors.
Labor has committed to increasing our aid and development contributions.
Lifting the living standards and opportunities of our neighbours is in our national interest – especially as this region grapples with the destabilising political and social consequences of the global climate emergency.
Sea level rises aren’t “some theory” or a “future problem” for our Pacific neighbours – our practical solidarity both assists them and prepares us for the changes to come.
Strategically, it’s a bit rich to voice concerns about the growing influence of China in Asia and the Pacific, when many of those countries see Australian leadership dwindling.
Nor is it good enough for Australia to act as someone else’s police-force in the region, or globally.
Labor’s recognition of the climate emergency is the framework for our policy deliberations, from environmental protection to job creation.
I was proud to promote Labor’s commitment to climate action as both ambitious and achievable during the by-election.
Labor has clear goals for reduced carbon emissions, for renewable energy, for de-carbonising our economy.
We comprehend the reality of climate change as it impacts refugee movements, health and land use.
We are committed to our international responsibilities under the Paris agreement. As we urgently shift away from thermal coal-fired power, we need to protect our world heritage areas, including the Great Barrier Reef.
In the task of transitioning energy generation to renewable sources we are committed to a just transition for workers and communities who rely on coal based industries.
We will never abandon any community.
We will bring them with us, into the creation of new clean industries, jobs and new opportunities.
This is what the Andrews Government in Victoria has done to support the closure of Hazelwood power station through a Just Transition approach – an initiative I was proud to support as ACTU president.
I am here, of course, to ultimately fulfil the obligation of the Labor movement and the Labor Party – to make people’s lives better.
I will not be the last on this side of the house to quote Ben Chifley’s speech to 1949 NSW Labor Party Conference which says this so eloquently. Chifley said:
I try to think of the Labour movement, not as putting an extra sixpence into somebody’s pocket, or making somebody prime minister or premier, but as a movement, bringing something better to the people, better standards of living, greater happiness to the mass of the people. We have a great objective – the light on the hill – which we aim to reach by working for the betterment of mankind not only here but anywhere we may give a helping hand.
This is the solidarity to which Labor commits.
Of course, that Light on the Hill keeps moving. The moment you think you reach the ultimate goal of justice and fairness, it seems just that much further away.
But in making the journey, in challenging ourselves to reach out for that Light, we change ourselves and we change the course of our society.
I’m both humbled and excited to be continuing my journey in public life in this Parliament and as a member of the Australian Labor Party. I am excited to join a most excellent cohort of comrades representing Labor in this house and the senate.
And this journey as I have said has been supported by so many but none more than by my long suffering, hardworking wonderful partner, Leigh Hubbard, whose wisdom and love keeps me going.
In honour of the many people I have referred to in this speech, but especially the thousands of union members I have had the privilege to serve, I recommit myself to making ‘solidarity’ the cornerstone of everything I do in this place.
I hope my small contribution ultimately adds to the brightness of that magnificent light on the hill, as we collectively strive to achieve that great objective of the mighty labour movement.
May that light be a beacon for us all.
Updated
Mike Bowers is in the chamber as Ged Kearney is giving her speech and has reported the government benches are decidedly empty.
Updated
Listening to Penny Wong in estimates as she talks John Lloyd through his previous (non) answers and all I can say is I am so glad I will never be in the position of one of her children coming home late as a teenager, because wow.
Updated
Katharine Murphy has reported on Ged Kearney’s first speech. From her report:
Australia as a wealthy country can afford to take more refugees, but it cannot afford “the ongoing cost to our national psyche” of subjecting asylum seekers to “shameful” indefinite detention in offshore immigration centres, Labor’s Ged Kearney has said.
Kearney used her first speech to parliament on Monday to telegraph her intention to work towards a “humane refugee policy” during her time in federal politics – a public signal before a policy debate expected at the Labor conference in July and a state party conference in Victoria this coming weekend.
... I cannot comprehend how a nation that provided a safe home to so many in the wake of world war two – including our large Jewish community of Holocaust survivors – allowed the Tampa and the children overboard scandal to evolve into the shameful policy of indefinite detention on Manus and Nauru.
“Racist dog-whistling has demonised and vilified a community that has everything to give to Australia and the sacrifice of this human potential has been made solely for political gain.”
Updated
Over in immigration estimates
Immigration officials say about 250 people who came for the Commonwealth games have remained illegally in Australia #estimates
— Stephen Dziedzic (@stephendziedzic) May 21, 2018
On top of this, another 205 people have applied for visas - the vast majority of them have asked for protection visas #estimates
— Stephen Dziedzic (@stephendziedzic) May 21, 2018
Ged Kearney is about to deliver her first speech in the chamber.
Updated
John Lloyd is back in estimates. Paul Karp is all over that.
Over in communications estimates, Richard Di Natale and Simon Birmingham have had a little fun.
Di Natale just asked Birmingham whether or not he watched the ABC:
“Yes, but don’t tell my colleagues,” he answered.
That sound you hear is Eric Abetz running down the hallway to the senate committee rooms.
Well, why I have a Bex and a lie down after that QT and the estimates insanity, here is some of what Mike Bowers has been up to in the last couple of hours:
Updated
So basically John Lloyd, the public service commissioner, is trying to see if there is a public interest harm to him disclosing whether or not he is under investigation.
This is insane. We have reached a new level of batshit chicanery and it is only Monday.
In case you didn’t notice it in question time (and honestly, it was as subtle as a sledgehammer) Labor had as many women as possible stand up during question time.
Anyone would think they were making a point about gender representation in parliament. On the other side of the chamber, a group of the Coalition’s (much, much smaller) pool of women MPs walked in around the same time as the prime minister.
Updated
Still no date for for byelections
Tony Smith says he is still talking to the Australian Electoral Commissioner about the dates for the byelections, and there are some issues over changed regulations for section 44, so he doesn’t feel like he can issue the writ today. (Which means no 23 June byelection)
Tony Burke says “we are currently in a situation where a government could delay a regulation for as long as it wanted and that would determine when a byelection could be held” and that we are now in a situation where “it is taking longer to fill five seats than it would take to fill 150 seats”.
Updated
Question time ends - but to be honest, I checked out at the last dixer, because Penny Wong is serving so many looks in estimates, it’s mesmerising.
John Lloyd is taking on notice to get advice about the basis on which he can make a public interest immunity claim. "I will do it expeditiously...as quick as I can". Someone turned up to school without his "dog ate my homework" note. #estimates #auspol
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) May 21, 2018
Updated
Sidebar: Telstra says the outage issue is not resolved.
Talking about moods, looking over at the Senate Finance and Public Administration estimates, and Michaelia Cash and John Lloyd’s refusal to give a straight answer over whether or not he is under investigation has Penny Wong clutching her head in her hands. (This has been going on for about an hour)
Cash and Lloyd have broken Penny Wong.
Sharon Bird to Malcolm Turnbull:
Will this arrogant and out-of-touch prime minister support Labor’s plan to cover-upfront fees for 100,000 TAFE places to train Australians for jobs that have been languishing on the visa skills shortage list for years and years?
Turnbull: Mr Speaker, I thank the honourable member for her question. Mr Speaker, the government is not going to be taking lectures on vocational education from the Labor party. The complete debacle that the Labor government left us with, with billions of dollars being advanced in loans for courses that had little or no value to people that are no prospect of ever being able to repay them. It was a complete catastrophe. We’re cleaning up that mess, putting vocational education on the right track. I refer the honourable member to the answer of the minister just a few moments ago.
Updated
Mood:
Anne Aly 0 to 100 in one answer from the PM this afternoon #qt @AmyRemeikis @GuardianAus #politicslive pic.twitter.com/tOCDjm2bkF
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) May 21, 2018
Tanya Plibersek to Josh Frydenberg (representing Simon Birmingham)
In responding to Labor’s plan to provide 100,000 fee-free TAFE places, he criticised everything from energy healing to basket weaving. Is this the government’s view of TAFE and vocational education and is this why this arrogant and out of-of-touch prime minister is cutting another $270m from this year’s TAFE budget on top of the existing $3bn cuts to skills?
(When was it that politicians decided that just saying the same words over and over again would make it stick?)
Frydenberg:
When Labor was last in office, they saw the largest single decline in apprentice and trainee figures. Between 2011 and 2013, Labor was responsible for cuts of $1.2bn, Mr Speaker. And then when Labor put forward its alternative plan, there was no detail around it, Mr Speaker. No detail except we know there are $200bn of extra taxes. The Turnbull government will be establishing a new $1.5bn ongoing Skilling Australians Fund. We will ensure through the $70bn plus of infrastructure spending that there are new jobs for these apprentices and for Australians around the country. So, we’ve also introduced a number of other measures to support apprentices. The $900m Australian apprenticeship support network to support employers to recruit, train and retain apprentices. We’re introducing trade support loans which have seen over 53,000 apprentices access up to $20,000 each in government support for their apprenticeships. So, Mr Speaker, we don’t just talk about doing something for apprenticeships, we actually deliver, while Labor’s promises are always on the never-never.
Updated
Over in estimates
#estimates has spent 1 hour trying to get Public Service Commissioner John Lloyd to say if he is the subject of this investigation. He doesn't deny it, but NO DICE so far https://t.co/HgNmjEnv1T
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) May 21, 2018
Jim Chalmers to Scott Morrison:
What is the total cost of corporate tax cuts over 10 years from 1 July this year both legislated and proposed to be legislated, by this government?
Morrison:
WORDS, LOUD WORDS, LOUDER WORDS, LOTS OF EXPOSITION FOR A RHETORICAL POINT HE MAKES ALL THE TIME, MORE LOUD WORDS, BAD PUN, WITHDRAW
“...If the Labor party were ever to occupy these benches, what would be the single biggest revenue earner over the budget and forward estimates if the shadow treasurer became the treasurer?
Would it be putting up taxes on big banks and businesses?
No, it wouldn’t be at all. Would it be, indeed, on lifting the marginal tax rates on the highest income earners in Australia? It wouldn’t be that either. Wouldn’t come close.
Would it be on family businesses, on family trusts? No. Would it be negative gearing and capital gains tax increases, all of this does add up to a lot of tax, I admit.
A lot of taxes coming from that side. The single biggest tax slug that the leader of the opposition, the Labor party, is going to put on Australians in their first budget, if they are elected, over the budget and forward estimates, is on retirees. Over $10bn. And that’s just two years. They’re just cranking it up. Retirees are being forced under the Labor party’s policy to get their shovels out and put their hard earned into the leader of the opposition’s pockets so he can run around and make big political promises that Australians understand this, leader of the opposition, they know how shifty he is, Mr Speaker. They know he’s as shifty as when it comes to using other people’s money to try to put forward and promote his own political agenda. He is unbelievable, Mr Speaker. He is completely unbelieva-Bill.
And that’s the story of how Scott Morrison became the Gretchen Weiners of the Australian parliament.
Updated
It’s your daily dose of ‘Just how safe are you?’ featuring Peter Dutton.’
Answer: With him in charge, very, very safe. But JUST IMAGINE an alternative world where he wasn’t there. Very, very bad.
(Translated)
Chris Bowen to Scott Morrison:
Given it is two weeks since the treasurer provided the budget, can the treasurer provide year-by-year costs for the tax scheme? If not, how can the treasurer expect the parliament to vote for his scheme?
Morrison:
I note, Mr Speaker, it is one rule for the Labor party and one rule for everyone else. Because I’m looking here at Labor’s plan to crack down, it says, on tax loop holes and protect and pay for schools and hospitals. I’m looking at their, they call it a fairer tax system on dividend imputation. These policies, Mr Speaker, they have provided a 10-year estimate, not a four-year estimate but no year-by-year after the four years, so they expect the government to do something they don’t do themselves, Mr Speaker. But more than that, they have released policies on negative gearing and CGT back in 2016, PBO. Did they release the PBO costings? No. Family tax benefit. Did they release the costings? No. Making superannuation fairer? No, they haven’t released that. Tobacco taxes? No, they haven’t released that. The half a per cent Medicare? No. The trust tax of 2017, they didn’t release that. The retirees’s tax, they didn’t release that. The Labor party think they can run the country like they run unions. One rule for the union bosses and one rule for everyone else. The union bosses get the credit cards, everyone else gets the bill.
Updated
Chris Bowen to Scott Morrison:
Here is my red flag. I am waving it. You may yell now.
Morrison:
LOUD NOISES
Updated
Anne Aly to Malcolm Turnbull:
Why is the prime minister giving an $80bn handout to big business instead of supporting Labor’s personal income tax plan, which will leave middle-income Australians better off? Why is this arrogant and out-of-touch prime minister looking after big business instead of middle-income Australians?
Sigh. Here we go again, on all counts. (And not in the cool Whitesnake way)
After some yadda, yadda, yadda:
What the Labor party is doing is putting at risk the jobs that have been created since September 2013, the 1,013,600 jobs, the fastest, largest jobs growth in our nation’s history in 2017, all of that is being put at risk by an anti-business tax grab from the Labor party. Over $200bn, taxes on grannies and grandpas, yes, it is. Going after them, self-funded retirees, and Mr Speaker, the honourable member would have quite a few of those in her electorate. She should perhaps go to a seniors meeting.
We move on to the latest chapter of Christopher Pyne’s ongoing series of “Unions. Bad. And also, why are they?”, in a dixer that not even he seems that excited about.
Updated
Scott Morrison is winding up – the under-12s obviously made it to the finals and his vocal strain has jumped in volume – and he takes us to an image none of us needed.
The leader of the opposition wants to put his grubby hand into their pocket and rip out their tax refunds. Because the one single issue that came up in Nowra or elsewhere, they have a clear message for the leader of the opposition ‘get your hands out of our pockets’, Mr Speaker. The single biggest tax measure over the budget and forwards estimates, he wants to spray around the country is being paid for by self-funded retirees, by retirees, by pensioners, by small business owners, he’s got his hand so deep in their trousers, Mr Speaker, they are wincing at the prospect of a Labor government.
Updated
Amanda Rishworth to Malcolm Turnbull:
Why won’t this arrogant and out-of-touch prime minister support Labor’s personal income plan that would give a child care worker earning $50,000 a tax cut of $928 a year? Almost double the amount they’ll get from the government?”
Look, I am just a humble reporter, but I am going to say that it’s probably because he’s not a member of the Labor party?
But Turnbull turns the answer to pensioners.
The honourable member is part of a team, a Labor team, that is going, she said she’s proud of it, proud of going after self-funded retirees’ savings, proud of raiding the life savings of grandfathers and grandmothers. She’s so proud, proud, Mr Speaker, proud of cutting the income of the lady in her 80s I was with in Queanbeyan recently, by 28 per cent – 28 per cent. That’s what the leader of the opposition and his team, his proud team want to do. They want to rip $5bn a year out of the savings of older Australians. They want to do that. They want to do that so they can fund their reckless spending plans.”
Tony Burke jumps in with a relevancy point of order, and Tony Smith says he is talking about tax policy, so it stands. Christopher Pyne then jumps in to point out the name calling in the question:
The question began with epithets about the prime minister’s character which means they open up, a very wide gamut which the prime minister is entitled to respond to. It’s not just a question about personal income taxes, it was also a question about the prime minister’s character and he’s responding to that part of the question. If they don’t want him to do so, they shouldn’t put the epithets in the question.”
Turnbull then continues with some sick burns about Bill Shorten and the CFMEU:
“... He turns up to the controller shareholders’ meeting, that is to say meeting with the CFMEU” before finishing up, so Labor can go hunt down all the aloe vera in Canberra.
Updated
In the meantime, my colleague Calla Wahlquist has alerted me to the RSPCA’s response to Sussan Ley’s private members’ bill.
The RSPCA has welcomed today’s Private Member’s Bill to end the long-haul live export of sheep and says it’s time for producers to take the final steps to protect the welfare of these last remaining sheep.
“This is a historic moment in Australia’s history of animal welfare,” said RSPCA Australia Chair Gary Humphries.
“We warmly congratulate the government’s members, including Sussan Ley and Sarah Henderson as well as Jason Wood, for reflecting the overwhelming science, as well as the views of the community, that says it’s time for live export to come to an end.
“For decades, Australian sheep have suffered immensely in the live export trade – from overwhelming heat and humidity as well as lack of space, food, water, and reliable veterinary care.
“But just as importantly, they’ve suffered from the lack of a political will to protect them from those circumstances, to say ‘these profits aren’t worth it’ and put a stop to that suffering.
“We have to do better, and we can do better, and this bill is a step in that direction.
“The RSPCA understands the bill is based around a five-year phase out of live sheep exports, with an immediate end to trade during the hottest months from July to September.
“We’d certainly rather the bill reflects the evidence that says halving of the stocking density and, particularly, a stop to May to October exports are the most immediate needs to improve animal welfare outcomes,” said Mr Humphries.
“Right now, sheep are travelling into temperatures of over 40 degrees and intense humidity, and it’s very likely we’ll see conditions again like we saw on the Awassi Express, the ship featured in the recent footage aired on 60 Minutes.
“As it is however, the bill is based around a very generous timeframe that will hasten the end of the trade in a steady, measured and sustainable way.
“We urge members of Parliament, and the Australian community, to loudly and enthusiastically support this bill and stop the cruelty of live sheep exports once and for all,” said Mr Humphries.
“Live sheep exports have halved in the last 10 years anyway, so this bill will effectively end the industry in half the time it would take to die away naturally.
“Live export is also just a very small part of sheep production – last year around 30 million sheep were sent to Australian abattoirs to be killed under Australia laws and conditions, while just 1.8 million were sent on ships to be killed overseas while fully conscious.
“It’s also a business model that can’t survive if animals don’t suffer.
“One way or another, live sheep export is coming to an end.
“But no one wants to make these decisions without the input of farmers, and right now is the opportunity for forward-thinking farmers to join and lead the conversation about how we go about exiting this cruel trade as soon as possible.
“Live export is just too risky, too uncertain and too volatile – we continue to urge farmers to work with governments to find a better way.
“A better future for Australian farmers and Australian rural communities means turning our attention to alternatives that support regional economies as well as support good animal welfare,” said Mr Humphries.
Updated
Andrew Wilkie has the independent question today - it’s on the damage bill after the flooding in Hobart.
We move on to a dixer from Kevin Hogan, who is desperate to know about any updates to “nation building”. I am just as desperate for my head to hit the desk after hearing that question, so I understand where he is coming from.
Gai Brodtmann to Malcolm Turnbull:
Why won’t this arrogant and out-of-touch prime minister support Labor’s personal income tax plan that will give a married couple, one serving in our Defence Forces earning $90,000, these people don’t care about the ADF, Mr Speaker, and the other working in aged care of $50,000 a total tax cut of $1,658 per year, double what they get from the government?
Christopher Pyne asks for the insults to be toned down.
Turnbull: (after relaying the government’s planned tax reforms)
Now, Mr Speaker, the Labor Party have made a number of false statements about our personal income tax reform. One of them, which has been comprehensively debunked but it bears repeating, is that it is unfair. Mr Speaker, a person on $200,000 under our reforms will pay nearly 13 times as much tax as somebody on $41,000. Earn a little less than five times as much but pay13 times as much tax. In fact, tax payers in the 45 cent tax category will pay a higher percentage of total tax receipts than they do today. So this is a plan that is thought out, it is considered. It is long term and it provides the assurance that we will be respecting and encouraging the incentive and the enterprise, the spirit that has delivered us 1,013,600 jobs and that is what Labor would destroy.”
Tony Smith then rules on Pyne’s point of order and says while insults don’t belong in questions, he is also not overly happy with the insults in questions, particularly when referring to Bill Shorten and he wants everyone to cut it out, or he’s turning this parliament around and driving home.
Updated
What do you know? A second Queensland MP gets a dixer! Anyone would think there is a byelection up there (the greatest nation on earth) the Coalition really wants to win. It would probably help if it had a candidate – but that’s coming tomorrow.
Anyways, Scott Morrison’s yelling-range is around ‘under-12s-qualifying-finals-but-it’s-been-a-hard-season-and-we’re-just-happy-they-made-it-this-far’ levels, so we are building towards something.
Updated
Oops – I was wrong. it wasn’t a no. It was a “John Setka”.
“If even John Setka doesn’t trust the leader of the opposition, and he pays for the campaign of the Labor Party. He’s the principal funder, the controlling shareholder, the primary financier of the Labor Party. If John Setka doesn’t trust the leader of the opposition, why would any Australian voter, any Australian worker, trust the leader of the Opposition? How could you trust the leader of the opposition, with his rolled-gold guarantees? Not so long ago there were a few more faces sitting opposite, Mr Speaker. They were apparently rolled-gold guaranteed to be eligible to sit here. Well, they have all had to resign. Mr Speaker, the fact is the leader of the opposition cannot be trusted on one promise at all. This is a leader, a man who seeks to be prime minister who stood at this Despatch Box and said, ‘Lower company taxes deliver more investment, greater productivity, more jobs and higher wages’ great stuff. Did he believe it then? Who knows. Does he believe what he’s saying now? Who knows. John Setka doesn’t know. Nobody knows.”
Updated
Bill Shorten to Malcolm Turnbull:
“Will the prime minister support Labor’s bigger, better, fairer income taxes that will give a teacher earning $65,000 a year a tax cut of $928 a year, almost double the amount they have been promised by the government?”
I’m going to go with a no on this one.
“UNBELIEVA-BILL” yells Scott Morrison. (Stop trying to make fetch happen. It’s not going to happen.)
Updated
Totally natural poses: a study
It’s National Volunteers Week & I recently had the privilege of acknowledging some local volunteers their generous contribution to our community. Marion Blackwell is the warden at Whitfords Anglican Community Church and Phyllis Bawden has been their pianist for the last decade. pic.twitter.com/EpZe5Mbpnw
— Ian Goodenough (@IanGoodenoughMP) May 21, 2018
First dixer goes to Luke Howarth, over something-something strong buisness and choices-something-something.
I don’t need to listen to this answer, because I am more than capable of reading a press release myself.
Joel Fitzgibbon to Malcolm Turnbull:
Given there are reports today that up to six government MPs support the member for Farrow’s private member’s bill to phase out live sheep exports, does the Prime Minister support the bill? And will the Prime Minister support further debate on the bill and ensure that government members on this election committee are aware of his views so that all members can have their say on this very, very important issue?’
Christopher Pyne jumps up to say that scheduling issues are not the prime minister’s concerns. Tony Burke says only the prime minister can answer what his views are. It’s that part of the question which is ruled in order.
Turnbull:
The government supports live export trade that respects animal welfare and obviously, respects community views on animal welfare, and we are taking immediate action to ensure that animal welfare is maintained and the jobs of thousands of Australians are preserved and our export markets are respected and maintained.”
The rest of the answer is about the report, which was released last week, and the new regulations, and not wanting a repetition of the “debacle” of when live cattle exports were stopped overnight.
Updated
Question time begins
Julie Bishop and David Littleproud are both overseas.
I have to tell you, I don’t think I can handle more than one unbelieva-Bill.
I am willing to accept at least two muppets.
We are in the lead up to question time – hit us up with your theme predictions in the comments.
Updated
Buzzfeed has captured the moment Paul Karp was talking about a little earlier:
A senior Parliament House security official was asked in #Estimates if he threatened to "burn this security division to the ground and start again". pic.twitter.com/YUv3X8jZx5
— BuzzFeedOz Politics (@BuzzFeedOzPol) May 21, 2018
Richard Di Natale says the Greens’ decision not to support tax cuts is because the party believes more money needs to be spent on services – with raising the rate of Newstart payments one of the biggest priorities.
Updated
Barnaby Joyce was just questioned on Sky News about what he did regarding regulations for the live sheep export industry while he was ag minister – Crikey’s Bernard Keane wrote about this earlier this month and the parliamentary library was asked to put together a chronology on the live sheep exports saga in 2016, which included some of Joyce’s actions.
.@ljayes puts a list of live sheep trade failures to @Barnaby_Joyce that occurred under his watch as Agriculture Minister.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 21, 2018
This is how he responded.
MORE: https://t.co/feoWRok1Tt #newsday pic.twitter.com/BanMQxqnYn
Updated
Over in environment estimates, Kristina Keneally still has a lot of questions about the Great Barrier Reef grant Lisa Cox was talking about a little earlier:
What we have learned so far from this #estimates is that the Turnbull Govt decided to grant the largest ever funding for the Great Barrier Reef ‘in Australian history’ - nearly half a billion dollars - to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation with no open or transparent process.
— Kristina Keneally (@KKeneally) May 21, 2018
Updated
Totally cool friends with China.
In #Argentina for #G2018 to discuss global🌏economic & political issues & meeting up with ministerial colleagues. Warm discussion with #China FM #WangYi ahead of tomorrow’s formal meetings 🇨🇳🇦🇺#BuenosAires #G20 pic.twitter.com/LgLHWzjgQ4
— Julie Bishop (@JulieBishopMP) May 21, 2018
Updated
In his press conference, Josh Frydenberg is not angry, he’s just disappointed. Really, really disappointed.
But he said it was always going to be a commercial decision.
So no, it doesn’t look like there is going to be a lot of support for the Tony Abbott call to JUST MAKE THEM SELL IT, ALREADY.
Updated
In Senate estimates Labor senators are grilling the Department of Parliamentary Services about various stories of white powder incidents in parliament, including this in January from our own Amy Remeikis and more recently in May by BuzzFeed.
The DPS secretary, Robert Stefanic, is not pleased:
These leaks are calculated to generate publicity and create false impression of the security operation that may undermine public confidence in the security of Parliament House, they also have a significant impact on morale ... These leaks by certain officers certainly represent spills of security classified information.
The department is consulting with the Australian federal police about investigating the leaks, and DPS staff will be warned of that.
Labor asks the assistant secretary Graeme Anderson if he threatened “to burn the security division to the ground” and rebuild. Anderson says he can’t recall but it “sounds like something I might have said”.
Updated
The Labor senator Murray Watt has a lot of questions about the story that came out last month over the possibility that the Australian Signals Directorate might be getting expanded powers to collect the data of Australians, at home. (There are agencies who can already do this.)
Mike Pezzullo says the story was incorrect in how it “described the nature of the expansion”.
After a very long back and forth, including the need for a “high-security facility” to answer some of the questions (I guess the cone of silence wouldn’t cut it), it boils down to the fact that home affairs IS looking at “policy options to defend Australian critical infrastructure” as well as to “disrupt crime online”.
So no plan for unwarranted, unauthorised bulk collection of data, but there is a group looking at “gaps” in our intelligence.
Updated
Over in DPS estimates, we have had an update on the missing security manual – it is still missing.
And the leaks about the handling of white powder incidents? DPS claims those whistleblowers are compromising security and has called in the AFP to investigate the leaks.
So, missing security manual is a shrugging emoji, leaks about how white powder incidents are being managed (which included one senior staff member tasting the powder) is a big enough deal to call in the AFP.
Updated
The energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, has responded to the AGL decision. He has called a press conference for just after midday but had this to say in a statement:
This morning, I received a call from AGL Chairman Graeme Hunt informing the Government the AGL Board has decided to reject Alinta Energy’s offer for the Liddell Power Station.
AGL’s decision is disappointing given the sale of Liddell to Alinta and the continuation of the power plant beyond its scheduled closure in 2022 would benefit consumers and had the backing of some of Australia’s largest manufacturers. It is also disappointing because it was AGL’s CEO that first raised the prospect of Liddell’s sale in a meeting with the Prime Minister and other ministers last year.
While AGL ascribed zero value to the Liddell Power Station in its investor presentation following its acquisition in 2014, the company now claims the Alinta offer which included a $250 million upfront cash payment, preservation of employee entitlements and extensive remediation costs ‘significantly undervalues future cash flows to AGL of operating the Liddell Power Station until 2022’.
The head of the ACCC Rod Sims has previously said if Alinta acquired Liddell ‘it would benefit competition because, all else being equal, you would see lower power prices and you would see a new competitor in both generation and the retail market’.
The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has also raised its concerns about the closure of Liddell given it is the third largest power station in NSW and supplies more than one million households, large industrial customers and around 10 per cent of that state’s power.
AEMO’s advice to the Turnbull Government in March 2018 on AGL’s proposed replacement plan stated: ‘there remains a high risk of load shedding following the closure of Liddell. Specifically the analysis shows that once in every three years approximately 200,000 households in NSW may experience power outages lasting five hours.’
Significantly, AEMO goes on to say the ‘risks grow every year due to projected increases in NSW electricity demand driven largely by continued population and economic growth forecasts’.
While the Government recognises AGL has put forward a replacement plan, it has only financially committed to a fraction of the projects – namely, a 100MW upgrade to its existing coal fired Bayswater power plant and a 250MW gas peaking plant.
The Government calls on AGL to financially commit to all other stages of its replacement plan.
Wholesale power prices in the National Electricity Market have declined nearly 30 per cent year on year and AGL’s latest half yearly report announced a 91 per cent, or $297 million, increase in statutory profit after tax for the half. Given this, customers are entitled to expect to see lower wholesale prices passed through to them in the next round of retail price determinations in July.
Updated
Over in legal and constitutional affairs estimates, Ian Macdonald has once again chosen the timing of senators’ questions as the hill he will die on.
His iPad timer has been getting quite the workout. Again. He also just spent what felt like an hour arguing with non-government senators about the need to stick to the schedule.
Updated
Mike Bowers has been out and about this morning:
Warren Entsch and Michelle Landry have both been called before the LNP candidate review committee.
Updated
Tony Abbott may be advocating for a hostile takeover of Liddell, but the Greens are quite happy with the result:
Adam Bandt:
This is a decision our kids will thank us for. Keeping coal-fired power stations open is a recipe for more intense bushfires, worse heatwaves and more deaths. Coal kills. The coal huggers in the Coalition should stop trying to prop up Liddell with public money.
Just as we wouldn’t take money from the health budget to fund the asbestos industry, we shouldn’t use public money to fund coal-fired power. The Greens have introduced legislation to prohibit the government from using public money to keep coal-fired power stations open.
It’s time for both Labor and Liberal to get behind this legislation and plan for the orderly phase-out of all coal-fired power stations in Australia.
Updated
Sussan Ley is not backing down:
I think there is a misunderstanding about the opportunities that members of the Liberal party have to advocate for a cause. There is a tradition of that in our party going back to Menzies where people stand up for what they believe in, and while I appreciate that there is a wish to put politics into this from our point of view, exactly not particularly political. The response across the political spectrum has been broad and wide and from every sector.
But it all might be a moot point. The government are not going to want to debate this. So to even bring it to a debate, Ley would have to suspend standing orders. Which needs 76 votes. Which usually wouldn’t be a problem, with Labor set to support the bill – except Labor is down four members. So, that leaves it in the hands of the crossbench and a few more Coalition MPs heading to Ley’s side – which doesn’t look like happening.
Updated
Oh and just on the “dangerous times” answer Malcolm Turnbull gave last week, when asked why these new powers were being provided to police now, apparently our terrorism threat alert has sat on “probable” since 2014.
For anyone interested, the Saturday Paper ran an interview with former the Border Force chief Roman Quaedvlieg on the changes, which was quite interesting.
Updated
The government has come under pressure for its decision to give a $444m grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation in the federal budget.
Under sustained questioning from Labor, Greens and crossbench senators in estimates hearings on Monday, department officials were unable to describe what process was used to award the foundation the largest government grant for the reef in Australian history, instead of allocating the money to departmental agencies.
The Labor senator Kristina Keneally:
I’m trying to understand what was the process that led to this massive amount of taxpayer dollars going to one foundation? Was there any competitive tension? Was there any testing of capacity? Was there any open invitation?
Was there any opportunity for any other organisation to put forward a plan? Was there any contest between the foundation and between the [Great Barrier Reef Marine Park] authority’s capacity to deliver this outcome? How was this decided?
With the greatest respect, it seems you can’t answer these questions here today – or you’re unwilling to.
Updated
Over in the finance estimates, there have been some … unexpected issues, with the security upgrades the building is undergoing.
It seems that the umbrellas which have been installed at the temporary entrances to protect people (MPs and senators) from the rain as they get out of their cars, have been blowing away in the strong winds and knocking over temporary walls.
Updated
Derryn Hinch is now asking Mike Pezzullo how he can gurantee these new AFP powers won’t lead to racial profiling – or that we start to see “Starbucks and Waffle House scenarios” (where white people have called the police on black people for doing everyday things, such as waiting for a friend at a coffee shop, leading to a potentially very dangerous police response).
Pezzullo:
In terms of the operational methodologies and techniques, both the minister and I alluded to this, but I will be more direct – the question of how the commissioner instructs his officers on how they engage with the public, whether it is an airport or otherwise, is really a matter for the commissioner and I think you will have him before you on Wednesday morning from memory, and I don’t really want to speak on behalf of the AFP commissioner.
Suffice to say, I know the commissioner’s mind on this and I am sure that Mr Colvin would not have any difficulties in me saying that he expects his officers to act in all times ethically, in accordance with the directions that he sets, which includes engaging with members of the public in a respectful and positive manner and I think he can explain much better than I can, and he is the statutory officer in any event, that positive engagement actually leads to better policing outcomes.
And this notion that I think I am seeing in the commentary that this is a way of intimidating people, potentially profiling them, which I think is your question, I think Mr Colvin, if you asked him on Wednesday, would say that is not in accordance with the values and with the best practice standards that police hold themselves to and indeed probably isn’t particularly productive in any event, it is probably counterproductive.
Updated
The Liberal MP Sussan Ley has just introduced her private member’s bill to suspend live sheep exports in the northern summer months and ban exports to the Middle East permanently from five years’ time.
Ley said after 15 years advocating for the live export industry, she had looked again with “fresh eyes” and had been “shocked, angered and disappointed”.
She said:
“I have researched the science, the facts, economics and the opinions. I have not allowed emotions overcome reason. The case for live sheep exports fails on both economic and animal welfare grounds …
“The live sheep trade is in terminal decline, dropping by two-thirds in the last five years ... The litany of animal cruelty in the light sheep trade makes a mockery of the ‘No pain, no fear’ mantra. If the rules were actually enforced, avoiding high heat stress, no commercial operator would undertake the trade. Exporters have explained to me that it would not be viable. Unfortunately, this is an industry with an operating model built on animal suffering.
Ley applauded the government’s reforms to export rules but said they “will not go far enough”, noting that a 60kg sheep would get an increase in space “equivalent to just under two A4 pieces of paper”.
She said Australia had been “deceived by an export industry that has had 33 years and countless second chances” and the industry “has been very good at talking the talk and downright culpable when it comes to walking the walk”.
Exporters do not comply with the rules, most of the live export chain is outside of Australia’s legal jurisdiction in international waters and overseas countries. As one Western Australian consultant to the trade told me, regulations written on paper in Australia ceased to mean anything once the ship departs.
Updated
And Sarah Henderson seconded it with this:
It is my pleasure to rise to second the live sheep long-haul export prohibition bill 2018, which has been introduced by the member for Farrer. I also want to acknowledge the support of the member for La Trobe. I congratulate the member for Farrer on the stand she has taken, which takes courage, and I’m proud to join with her in our proposal to end the export of live sheep to the Middle East.
It is significant that we both, as Liberal members of parliament representing large regional electorates including many farmers and agribusinesses, have taken this stand. Overwhelmingly, the people of Corangamite are saying, ‘Enough is enough.’ After decades of noncompliance, after decades of inhumane treatment of sheep, after decades of tolerating a trade which continues to tarnish our international reputation, Australians are saying, ‘Enough is enough.’
The scenes on the Awassi Express, where more than 2,000 sheep died, many literally cooking to death, were utterly horrific. The government response has been swift and strong, and I commend the agriculture minister on his efforts to fix this trade and hold rogue exporters to account. But we need to do more. The bill proposes an end to long-haul live sheep exports only – not cattle or short-haul exports – over five years. This is a measured and responsible lead time, in stark contrast to Labor’s overnight shutdown of the cattle trade, which had dramatic consequences.
The interests of farmers and rural communities on this issue are paramount. If the bill is passed, it will provide our farmers, processors and the extended supply chain with the appropriate time to transition completely to chilled lamb and mutton exports to the Middle East, to grow our sheepmeat processing capacity, to invest with certainty, to protect and enhance our reputation as a nation of agricultural excellence and to invest in more Australian jobs. There must be proper consultation with farmers and industry.
This transition is, in fact, already under way. Where the live sheep trade is in rapid decline, we are seeing a dramatic increase in the export of Australian chilled lamb and mutton by air to the Middle East. This can, of course, only continue. Western Australia has the processing facilities to make this transition. The challenge is in securing and training the workforce, and that’s where governments can play a major role.
The bill also proposes that from 2019 there will be no export of live sheep to the Middle East during the hottest summer months: July, August and September. The highly credible scientific evidence from the Australian Veterinary Association is that sheep deaths and heat stress cannot be avoided during the extreme temperatures and humidity of a Middle Eastern summer, even with improved ventilation and lower stocking rates. It is incredibly disappointing that the McCarthy review has not followed the science and recommended the prohibition of live sheep export during the summer. If any person in Australia crammed sheep into a transport vehicle for 25 days in the searing heat with limited access to food and water, standing in their own excrement, that person would be charged with animal cruelty.
The time has come. Backed by the science and the facts and the economics, this is a trade which must come to an end. I commend this bill to the house.
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Sussan Ley has introduced her private member’s bill. Here is what she had to say:
This bill amends the Australian Meat and Live-stock Industry Act 1997 to insert a new section 16A, which states:
A livestock export licence is subject to a condition that livestock that are sheep or lambs must not be exported from Australia, by ship, to:
(a) a place in the Persian Gulf or the Red Sea … or (b) any other place, if the route of the ship to that place is through the Persian Gulf or the Red Sea;
in a July, August or September in the transitional period, or at any time after the end of that period, if the duration of the voyage is 10 days or more.
The transition period is five years.
From a childhood in the deserts of the United Arab Emirates to an early life as a mustering pilot and then a worker in the shearing sheds of western Queensland, with 17 years as a sheep farmer myself, and a representative of sheep and wool producers for my entire time in parliament, I have spent more than half my life close to Australia’s rural and pastoral industries. I know all the arguments that are used to support the live sheep trade because I ran them myself for 15 years. Recently, I found cause to look at the industry with fresh eyes. I have been shocked, angered, bewildered and disappointed. I have researched the science, the facts, the economics and the opinions. I have not allowed emotions to overcome reason.
The case for continuing long-haul live sheep exports fails on both economic and animal welfare grounds. Only 6% of our sheep and lamb offtake are exported live. Most of these are sourced in Western Australia, and I acknowledge that some farmers in this state will be affected and will move to alternative markets and/or production models. But we export sheep and lamb to 100 countries. In WA, the mutton price is 20 times greater than it was 20 years ago. Processing has built these markets. We can identify and fast-track new development in WA abattoirs and create more jobs and greater value-adding. If we set a five-year end date, investors can have the certainty and confidence to build new processing capacity.
The live sheep trade is in terminal decline, dropping by two-thirds in the last five years. It is based on just two customers in two countries, Kuwait and Qatar, who account for 70% of exported sheep. The demand for live sheep comes from its cheap retail price due to government subsidies, not cultural or refrigeration reasons. Ninety-nine per cent of consumers in the Gulf have refrigeration. Every Middle Eastern country accepts Australian halal slaughter. The subsidies are phasing out. Bahrain ended theirs in 2015 and went from 325,000 live sheep from Australia to zero. The transition was not to live sheep from another country but to the same number of carcasses, shipped by air from Australia. These countries are demanding more and more fresh bagged lamb and mutton, value-added in Australia and flown over in Middle Eastern airlines, growing from 260,000 head in 2004 to 2.7 million head in 2016. Our live sheep are discharged into a feedlot and slaughtered and end up under cellophane in a refrigerationed shopping mall next to the chilled product air-freighted from Australia 24 hours earlier.
The litany of animal cruelty in the live sheep trade makes a mockery of the industry’s ‘No fear, no pain’ mantra. If the rules were actually enforced –access to feed, water and rest and avoidance of high heat stress – no commercial operator would undertake the trade. Exporters have explained to me that it would not be viable. Unfortunately, this is an industry with an operating model built on animal suffering. As live export vet Lynn Simpson remarked: ‘I watched animals suffer and die for 57 voyages. The spectrum of their suffering differed, but the true death count has never been declared. It will likely never see the light of day, like so many animals who died below the waterline on a ship in the middle of the ocean.’
I applaud the strong response of the minister for agriculture and water resources to recent footage, but I’m not confident that the McCarthy review recommendations will go far enough. A 60-kilo sheep will be allocated extra space equivalent to just under two A4 pieces of paper. We’re told we need more research on an already questionable heat stress model to work out where to draw the line. Perhaps we should accept the existing overwhelming evidence of poor animal welfare associated with these voyages. It is farmers who have been deceived, by an export industry that has for 33 years and countless second chances, been very good at talking the talk and downright culpable when it comes to walking the walk.
Exporters do not comply with the rules. Much of the live export chain lies outside Australia’s legal jurisdiction in international waters and overseas countries. As one WA consultant to the trade told me, ‘Regulations written on paper in Australia cease to mean anything once the ship departs.’ In the modern world, ethics and sustainability in the production of food and fibre are vital. Sanctioning further voyages on these of shame, particularly into a Middle Eastern summer, damages our brand. Australians will no longer accept rural export industries with animal welfare practices that are inferior to those our farmers willingly comply with every day. Nor will they understand the logic of putting our clean, green sheepmeat industry at risk for a sector that is one-tenth the size of our domestic production, is in decline and actually competes with our domestic production.
Parliamentarians are certainly noting high levels of community outrage. I want to give the last word to Mrs Shirley Dale from rural New South Wales, who wrote to me saying, ‘I am 82 years, and in this last chapter of my life I did not think I would be so moved to want to stand up for any causes. But the plight of these suffering animals cannot be ignored. This is not an issue of economics. It is so much greater than that. It is a test of our humanity as individuals and as a nation.’ I will give the rest of my allotted time to my excellent seconder, the member for Corangamite.
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Nick McKim and Michael Pezzullo have had a little exchange over the new powers granted to Australian federal police to check the ID of anyone they’d like, even without a reason, at airports – and to ask them to leave if they’d like.
Pezzullo said it was correct that AFP officers can intervene if they have a reasonable suspicion an offence had been committed, or would be committed. But he said that wasn’t in keeping with “best practice”.
McKim wanted to know what “best practice” was:
That AFP should be able to demand, basically walk up to someone and say ‘papers please’, who they can’t currently do that to. Can you give me an example of anywhere around the world where that occurs?
Pezzullo:
There are different regimes around the world, we will get you a summary of what the laws provide to, if that is something you are interested in.
That led to what police would be asking people when they asked them to identify themselves.
Pezzullo:
I don’t accept the sort of throwaway line about ‘papers please’.
McKim:
What else are they going to say?
Pezzullo:
“Well, show us your ID … in your case, you are reasonably well known publicly, so it might not be required, but in the case of someone who is a bit more anonymous, police are well trained in polite, courteous engagement.
McKim:
‘Papers please’ is polite enough, isn’t it?
Pezzullo:
Well, ‘Excuse me, sir, can I see you ID?’ But anyway, we won’t split those hairs. ‘Papers please’ has a particular connotation which I am sure you are channelling to people who are interested in civil liberties in your views.
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Home affairs is under the Senate estimates microscope.
So far we have learnt that the amalgamation of the super ministry, which has made Peter Dutton the most powerful minister in the government, behind only Malcolm Turnbull, cost $5.5m, which is “well under” the $10m estimate.
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The royal commission into the banks has got under way again. Follow along with Gareth Hutchens, who is watching it for us. You’ll find his Twitter at @grhutchens.
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Andrew Leigh, who has somehow crept under the skin, and into the dreams of Peter Dutton*, has managed to annoy Ray Hadley again with his take on the AGL decision on Sky this morning:
What this is about is an internal fight within the Liberal party – the coal dinosaur factions who want to see taxpayers’ money go to subsidised coal fire plants. That’s not good for energy prices in Australia and certainly not good for our carbon emissions that have continued to rise under a prime minister who once said he wouldn’t lead a party as committed to climate change as he was.
*I refer you to this exchange between Dutton and Hadley not that long ago:
Dutton: “Ah Ray, just hearing him talk, closing my eyes I can see him walking around in a robe, you know, like some, you know, Greek god, and he just gets weirder and weirder.”
Hadley: “Hang on, I know you have a vivid imagination but I can’t in any circumstance close my eyes and think of Andrew Leigh in a robe as a Greek god. As a wanker, yes, but not as a Greek god.”
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Sussan Ley is standing up in the chamber.
.@sussanley now introducing private members bill to ban live exports #auspol #agchatoz
— Natalie Kotsios (@NatalieKotsios) May 21, 2018
Ladies and gentlemen – Tony Abbott, a former minister for health:
Depression can be crippling, there is no doubt about that, but it also, also can be cured, and a lot of people, if they were more active, they would probably have a better approach to things.
And certainly, muscular-skeletal issues – there are a few middle-aged blokes who don’t have them – but on the other hand, if we look after ourselves, and if we get them looked after properly, well, then they can be active and proactive.
He was talking about the NDIS and his concerns over how “everyone not in the system will want to get into the system, because the system provides a much higher level of service”.
Now, if people really are genuinely incapacitated, obviously they have to be looked after, but there are a lot of people who are on the disability support pension, for instance, who you wouldn’t think have got particularly severe or particularly long-lasting conditions, and that is the thing that I fear.
The … pressure for people with disabilities of one sort or another, that aren’t necessarily incapacitating, trying to get themselves into the system and the system just getting more and more and more. It is that pressure, that in the end, will be more serious. I am not minimising the problem of people ripping us off. There’s if you like, the pressure of compassion.
We all want to be compassionate, but unfortunately we are being compassionate here with taxpayer dollars. And just how far can that go. That is the big question.
So, the man who just four minutes ago called for the government to use taxpayer funds to buy back a power station the NSW government only sold to AGL because of a policy HIS government created (anyone remember the $5bn asset recycling infrastructure fund? Anyone?) is now arguing we have to be careful of using taxpayer funds for compassionate reasons.
But don’t worry – cure your depression with exercise. HAVE YOU TRIED YOGA? GO SEE A SUNRISE. That will definitely fix the chemical imbalances in your brain.
I can not even with today.
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Sussan Ley will introduce her private members’ bill to phase out the live sheep export trade just after 10am. Sarah Henderson will second the bill.
But first up, Rebekha Sharkie will officially resign. The Centre Alliance MP announced she would resign in the last sitting but didn’t do so inside the chamber.
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It’s Tony Abbott time!
He is speaking to Ray Hadley and says the AGL decision is a “strike against the national interest ... it is a strike against the national interest in the same way a militant union may strike against the national interest”.
He says the government should “compulsory acquire” the station from the company.
Sooooo, a Liberal MP is calling for the government to just take an asset from a private company because it doesn’t like the decision its board made. The party of the free market. The party of small government.
Abbott uses the analogy that we moved from sailing ships to steamships because they didn’t rely on the wind to cement his point that we shouldn’t be focused entirely on renewable energy because “the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow”.
That proves too much for even Hadley, and he moves on to the royal wedding. Surprising no one, Abbott loved it, but wasn’t a huge fan of Bishop Michael Curry.
Sigh.
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Just in case you missed the latest chapter in the Coalition really wants more women to join its ranks, Michelle Landry, who is one of three women from the LNP’s 21 Queensland representatives, has been called in front of the candidate review panel, after she spoke out against Jane Prentice’s dumping.
You’ll find that story here.
Warren Entsch, who also spoke up against the decision to replace Prentice with a man, which he called “a bloody disgrace”, and was part of the push to bring on a marriage equality vote, has also been called in front of the committee. Trevor Evans, who also pushed for marriage equality, also got the call-up.
The LNP says its normal ... my contacts, and I spoke to so many of them yesterday my ear was burning from holding the phone up, said it’s “highly unusual” and that, usually, it’s done by a phone call. Make up your own mind.
(George Christensen, who has repeatedly threatened to leave the party, may also be fronting the panel. He says he has “been told no”.)
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Barnaby Joyce is back in front of the cameras – and looks to be enjoying it.
This time though, it is actually because of policy.
He starts off with some comments about the AGL board’s decision:
We need to grab AGL, cart them back in and say this is BS, you are taking us for a ride, you think we are fools and the Australian people are not, and they are not going to pay for your market manipulation which is what is coming next.
And then moves into the live sheep trade.
Many years ago, as the shadow water minister, I think I was at the time, I went to that door, out there, after I heard about the closure of the live cattle trade and I said quite clearly, even though it wasn’t my portfolio, that this was a very bad move. If this happens, it will have an affect which will resonate throughout northern Australia and through the cattle market in general. To be quite frank, I was poohed poohed and told that wasn’t going to happen, and it did happen.
And the other thing I can tell you quite clearly, that the second-tier effect is greater than the first and the second-tier effect is people who become poorer because their product is not worth as much as it was.
Everybody in rural Australia has lived in the time when sheep were shot. In the time when sheep had to be given away because they had no value. We remember a time when $40 a lamb was a great price, a great price. And now we are getting over $200 for lambs and we are getting prices for old sheep in excess of $100. And this means that people are making a buck and where they have sheep, are in these areas, where they can’t have cattle. Where they can’t grow crops. These are not the wealthiest farmers, especially in Western Australia and the western districts …
I grow up in that industry and if you shut down the live sheep trade, you are going to make people poorer. That is what is going to happen.
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AGL says no thanks to Alinta
In news that should surprise absolutely no one, AGL has given a big “yeah, nah” to Alinta Energy’s $250m offer to buy the Liddell power station. AGL announced this morning that its board has turned down the offer and still plans on shutting down the ageing power station in 2022 and repurposing it, as it moves towards renewable energies.
The government is still to respond but, as the rage machine whirls up, it is probably good to remember that the energy regulator didn’t recommend Liddell stay open beyond its life.
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Good morning and welcome back
It’s only been a week since we last met here but it feels like a lifetime.
Jane Prentice was dumped as the candidate for Ryan and replaced with a man, which set off a long week for the Liberal party as it attempted to explain that it really did want to encourage more women to join its ranks.
The government and the opposition engaged in the first week of the tax war campaign.
The super Saturday byelections date is still to be called. The Liberals still don’t have a candidate for Longman – that will happen tomorrow night when the former Newman state government MP Trevor Ruthenberg is expected to come out on top.
The live sheep export report came down and set new regulations but didn’t ban the practice or call for a halt over summer.
And the government announced new powers for federal police in airports; they will now be able to ask anyone for their ID, even if they don’t have a reason, as well as ask them to move on.
So, where does that leave us?
Well, estimates is on this week, and you can expect the super home affairs department to get its fair share of questions. That starts today, along with regional development, environment and prime minister and cabinet.
The House of Representatives MPs have already started the “our Senate colleagues have to work” joke, so you can tell everyone is pumped for the next fortnight.
In the House, Scott Morrison will introduce his tax bill. That should sail through, because, well you know, numbers.
The Senate is where these things always get tricky. The Greens have already said no – as well as saying no to Labor’s planned taxes, which is a problem for another Senate. The other crossbenchers have expressed some concern about the third tranche of the tax plan – the flat rate for $41,000-to-$200,000 earners – but potentially could be wooed with some other sweeteners, like a tax on those giant digital companies who operate here. Watch this space.
And Sussan Ley is pushing ahead with her private members’ bill to phase out the live sheep export trade, and to call a halt to it over the Middle Eastern summer months, which now has Sarah Henderson on board as a supporter.
But it is unlikely to get to debate. Labor needs to clear it through its caucus but it looks like supporting the bill, which, with Ley, Henderson and Jason Wood, who has also come out in support, would give it the numbers to get up. And the government, which just did a whole review and came out the other side saying they didn’t need to ban the trade, aren’t going to want the defeat. Henderson has said they won’t try to suspend standing orders to force a debate, so I think we all know where this is heading.
Mike Bowers is out and about. Because of course he is. The man doesn’t stop. Follow him at @mpbowers and @mikepbowers and of course, he makes appearances on the @pyjamapolitics story. You’ll find me in the comments and @amyremeikis.
I have had three coffees and managed not to murder my computer (tech problems, hence the late start, my apologies) but I think I have tamed the gremlins (turning it off and on again really is the greatest fix in history).
So strap in – we have a lot to get through today.
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