The wrap
And on that note, we shall call it a night.
The government was able to have that vote again, because of a procedure called a recommittal, which basically means Christopher Pyne argued that the vote didn’t properly reflect the chamber’s will. Once the apologies occurred, the chamber had the vote to have the vote and by that time the government had the numbers and then won the vote. And it was the Greens motion, which Labor supported (it was moved by Adam Bandt)
I’ve been informed it is actually about the fifth time the government has lost a vote in the House of Representatives. No wonder Malcolm Turnbull didn’t look happy.
The marriage equality debate will continue tonight before being picked up again tomorrow. At this stage, the house will run out of time to vote on it by the end of the sitting week, if all the speakers stay on the list and then the amendments are dealt with. We shall see.
Milo Yiannopoulos will speak to any interested MPs and staff in one of the parliament function/dining rooms tomorrow, at the invitation of David Leyonhjelm. Yay.
We should get to banning foreign donations sometime in the near future. As soon as the government finishes dealing with bills it makes a priority, in this case, the superannuation changes, and then filibusters on and then pulls from the priority list when the crossbench support seemingly dissipates, in the Senate.
And we have more citizenship saga to look forward to. How members will be referred is still being worked out but the government is not ruling out using its numbers (plus a crossbencher) to force opposition referrals. That has some way to play out.
Oh, and be prepared to never want to hear the word “Bennelong” again. Because the government is going to use every opportunity it has (read: dixer) to talk about that byelection.
(And for those wondering, there is still no official Queensland election result. This is going to take some time, as the Election Commission Queensland are now making their way through postal votes)
But in the meantime, congratulations on making it through Monday! And for helping me through it! For those asking, it doesn’t look as though Barnaby Joyce will be back in the parliament anytime before at least Thursday, which means the government is going to be short on the numbers for a few days more. That makes Bob Katter’s vote with the government pretty important today. Make sure you watch for that.
The biggest of thank yous to Mike Bowers and please make sure you check out his Twitter and Instagram for more of today’s insanity. As always, thank you to the Guardian Australia brains trust for all their help and typo catching (which are always just mine) and again to you, for reading, tweeting, and playing along. Even those of you who seemed a bit cranky today. We have three (scheduled) days left and I promise you we will get through them.
I’ll see you back here just after 8am tomorrow for more fun and games. Have a wonderful night.
Scenes from a lost vote and recount-missing Minister Ciobo explains his absence to PM during re-count, Tony Abbott straight from the gym, Chris Pyne talks to the cross bench @AmyRemeikis @GuardianAus @murpharoo #politicslive #auspol https://t.co/59rCyzjejs pic.twitter.com/R8NsKIP1zK
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) December 4, 2017
Updated
The unavoidably detained Steve Ciobo
Updated
We have had the final divide and the motion was voted down, 74-73.
It is at this point that Labor would like to remind you that Anthony Albanese didn’t lose a vote in the three years he oversaw a (minority) government’s business.
This is either the third or fourth time this has happened to this government. Which includes one in the first week of the 45th parliament. A nice bookend then.
Updated
See what I mean about the mood?
Another example of more bullshit from George. He paid to run this ad in his local paper a few months ago. Today he once again abandoned the people of Dawson who rely on penalty rates. pic.twitter.com/ZU3DdNN8kt
— Anthony Chisholm (@AnthonyChisholm) December 4, 2017
That feeling when you lose a vote the first day back after suspending parliament the week before. (That’s Bob Katter siding with the government there.)
Updated
So much being said in one photo:
With the support of 4 of the 5 independent MP's & 2 missing government MP's the opposition won a vote this afternoon in reps, the result seemed to surprise Andrew Wilkie @murpharoo @GuardianAus @AmyRemeikis #politicslive https://t.co/59rCyzjejs pic.twitter.com/0TVXBxKeTw
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) December 4, 2017
Tony Smith wants the two who missed the vote to explain why they missed the vote.
Steve Ciobo apologises for missing it. “I was unfortunately detained and not able to get here on time,” he says.
If I had known that was all you had to say, my teen years would have been a lot easier.
Warren Entsch also apologises and says it was “members’ misadventure”.
Smith says they have confirmed they did not deliberately miss the vote and calls the divide again.
Updated
From my perusal of that list, Steve Ciobo looks like he was the other missing MP.
Updated
Here's the votes from the NZ refugee motion the government just lost on floor of House of Representatives 73-72. pic.twitter.com/pIDgGz7HvC
— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) December 4, 2017
Actually, we must have had two missing persons.
I’m guessing Warren Entsch may have been one, as he was on Sky.
Working on finding out who the second one was.
Updated
Government loses vote in House of Representatives
Back in the House, the chamber just had a division to agree with a Senate resolution to accept the New Zealand offer to settle refugees in Australia’s offshore detention centres.
It was won 73 to 72. Christopher Pyne is calling for the House to divide again, which is just code for someone missed the division.
So the government lost the vote. But is calling for another one.
Updated
Speaking to David Speers on Sky, Warren Entsch is making the argument to keep any amendments to the marriage equality legislation separate from the legislation itself. He says the inquiry the government has set up (led by Philip Ruddock) is the place for anything else to be considered but he also believes that as time moves on “a lot of the fear will dissipate”.
Updated
The Greens have put forward a motion condemning “the offensive behaviour of alt-right figure Milo Yiannopoulos, as well as any senator who seeks to use parliament to provide a platform for the hate, abuse or harassment of women, Jews and members of the LGBTIQ and multicultural communities.”
From Richard Di Natale’s statement:
The Senate today condemned the despicable behaviour of Milo Yiannopoulos and any senator, like Senator David Leyonhjelm, who seeks to use the Australian parliament to provide a platform for people who preach hate and incite abuse and harassment of minority groups.
Milo Yiannopoulos is a white supremacist, a paedophilia apologist and a shameless self-promoter completely lacking in moral character. He aims to lower our political discourse into the sewer and turn neighbour against neighbour for the sake of his own bank account. It is a disgrace that Senator David Leyonhjelm is bringing him to our parliament.
Our parliament should be a place that celebrates the diversity of our community, not one where peddlers of hate are given a platform to preach their abuse.
Unfortunately the parliament’s presiding officers declined the Greens’ call to revoke his permission to speak here, which would have been the appropriate action. But we do commend the ALP and the Senate crossbench for standing with us and refusing to let hate go unchecked.
Updated
At this stage, it doesn’t look like we will have an answer on citizenship referrals or an end to the marriage equality legislation debate by the end of the week. This could change, and very quickly, but right now time is not on our side.
As you can imagine, the mood is not overly festive in this place right now.
Updated
That photo Labor used in question time has spilled over onto Twitter, with Labor and the Coalition playing a strange sort of pictionary game:
This photo of PM🎩 with Mr Huang from 2016 #auspol #qt pic.twitter.com/0DKbunUBz8
— Shorten_Suite 🌈 (@Shorten_Suite) December 4, 2017
ICYMI... pic.twitter.com/3HQBy65zQ4
— Coalition_Media (@Coalition_Media) December 4, 2017
You have literally cropped PM🎩 out of this photo you dumbos #auspol #qt pic.twitter.com/5t7dqIsCFN
— Shorten_Suite 🌈 (@Shorten_Suite) December 4, 2017
As mentioned a little bit ago, the speakers list is now up to 102 people on the marriage equality bill. As Lane Sainty points out, this is going to have ramifications ...
At the moment the list is too long to get speeches & amendments done by the end of the week (unless heaps of people run under-time, which is possible). House will likely have to a) extend hours, b) shorten speaking times, or c) come back next week. https://t.co/hFUP3kTcuj
— Lane Sainty (@lanesainty) December 4, 2017
Updated
Over in the Senate ...
The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, asked the attorney general, George Brandis, a series of questions a while ago about a vague donation to the NSW Liberal party from controversial Chinese billionaire businessman Huang Xiangmo.
Di Natale:
Malcolm Turnbull reportedly hinted at a probe into Labor senator Sam Dastyari’s dealing with businessman Huang Xiangmo, someone who intelligence experts believe was, until recently, part of a global campaign run by the Chinese Communist party to advance China’s interests overseas.
Since 2012, Mr Huang has donated almost $3m to both sides of politics, but, importantly, on 27 September 2017, some two years after Asio had briefed both the Liberal and Labor parties about the threat of taking donations from Mr Huang, an amended return was lodged with the Australian Electoral Commission by the NSW Liberal party, which reveals a $44,000 payment from Mr Huang.
Minister, what’s the purpose of this payment? And, given the prime minister’s concerns, will you now commit to repaying the money?
Brandis responded:
Well, Senator Di Natale. First of all. We don’t ever speculate upon investigations.
That little opener led to guffaws from the opposition bench. The Senate president, Scott Ryan, had to bring the chamber to order.
Brandis continued:
Senator Di Natale, I have actually reviewed the transcript of the prime minister’s remarks this morning and, in my view, it is not a fair or indeed an available construction of anything he said to suggest that he hinted, even hinted, at the existence of an investigation.
In addressing these matters, what I have said is that certain matters have been credibly alleged by reputable journalists against Senator Dastyari and that is undoubtedly true.
But I will not comment on, nor will the prime minister or any minister, comment on, confirm, or for that matter deny, the existence of an investigation.”
Di Natale then asked Brandis to return to the point of his question. Will the Liberal Party commit to repaying the $44,000 donation from Mr Huang?
Brandis said:
I don’t know the details of that donation but I can assure you that the Liberal party is compliant with all of its disclosure obligations under the commonwealth electoral act.
All electoral parties receive donations from business people. My side of politics does, the Labor party does. The Greens do. And there is no prohibition on business people donating to political parties just because they are Chinese.
Di Natale said he just wanted to know if the Liberal party would repay the $44,000 donation.
Brandis replied:
What is alleged against Senator Dastyari has nothing whatsoever to do with the disclosure of donations, it has to do with other matters, as you’re aware.
Updated
George Christensen has weighed in on the penalty rate amendments Labor forced onto the Fair Work bill:
Statement from @GChristensenMP on Labor's penalty rates amendments #auspol pic.twitter.com/AEYW253BVJ
— Political Alert (@political_alert) December 4, 2017
Time for some Mike Bowers magic:
Updated
Back in the Senate and George Brandis is now arguing to remove the superannuation bills as a priority. Labor had attempted to do that last week and failed. So, I guess we can take that as a given that the government no longer has the numbers for all the moving parts on those ones.
Tanya Plibersek is up again with another question on the NBN:
Last week, the NBN announced it was halting the HFC rollout of the second-rate NBN. Can the prime minister outline just how many millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money is being wasted by this latest failure?
Malcolm Turnbull:
I can tell the honourable member that there are billions and billions of dollars being saved by not doing the NBN in the way the Labor party had proposed to do and, of course, between such – $30bn in savings and six to eight years in terms of time to complete it. The reality is that the NBN is one of the fastest rollouts of a telecom network, ever. It is extraordinary. 40,000 premises being activated just about every week.
Now, Mr Speaker, what we’ve seen, I gave some figures just a moment ago, is 6.5 million premises as of the last published data, are available to be connected right now. So that’s so people can sign up and get hooked up now, and there’s three and a quarter million paying customers right now. Of course, like any big rollout like that, it has challenges in some areas. What the NBN is doing, is ensuring with respect to HFC, it’s making sure the technology works well. It is a complex business rolling out this network, they’re doing an outstanding job and making sure they put the customer experience first.”
And after working himself up in to a lather, he puts further questions on notice and question time is over.
Updated
While that Dixer is going on and my will to live is dripping out of my fingers, an update on the speaking list for the marriage equality legislation.
There are now 102 speakers listed. Out of an eligible 147.
Labor – 57/69 MPs (50 to go)
Coalition – 41 out of 73 (34 to go)
Crossbench – 4/5 (Katter is not on the list)
We now have a total of 102 speakers listed (out of a potential pool of 147 – minus Speaker, Alexander and Barnaby)
- ALP 57/69 (with 50 still to go)
- Govt 41/73 with 34 still to go
- Cross 4/5 (No Katter)
So 88 to go. So far, the average speaking time has been just under 15 minutes.
Updated
A Dixer for Scott Morrison on what the government is doing in regards of tax cuts, including for the people of Bennelong.
Sigh.
Tanya Plibersek has another question on the NBN HFC delay: “Can the prime minister confirm he first became aware of the problems back in 2015 and did he take any actions?”
He is taking it on notice.
Another Dixer, now on Medicare, from Greg Hunt. Who makes it a whole minute before mentioning Bennelong and Kristina Keneally. My liver is lucky this is not a drinking game.
Updated
Another Dixer aimed at attacking Kristina Keneally. Anyone would think the battle for Bennelong is bothering the government.
Bill Shorten also wants to talk about Bennelong and what is happening with the NBN there.
The prime minister and John Alexander promised voters in Bennelong before the last election that they’d all have NBN now. But last week NBN announced it will delay the rollout to 40,000 premises. Why do those 40,000 premises now have to wait even later. If John Alexander couldn’t even deliver on his last promise, why should the voters in Bennelong believe him now?
Malcolm Turnbull (after attacking Keneally’s infrastructure record while premier).
Out of the, I think, 3.3 million customers that have got the NBN now activated, there’s well over 6 million premises that have got it available. It’s on track to be available to around three-quarters of Australian households this coming year, Mr Speaker, and the company has said it’s on track to be completed in accordance with their schedule by 2020. So the project is under way. The rollout on the hybrid fibre coaxial network has experienced some technical difficulties and what they’ve done is they’ve delayed it ... delayed it or paused it so as to get those difficulties sorted out.
Updated
Peter Dutton takes a Dixer designed to attack Kristina Keneally. Who, last time I checked, was not in parliament.
Then we move on to Mark Dreyfus who asks:
My question is to the prime minister. I refer to Labor introducing a bill to parliament to ban foreign political donations over a year ago and I also refer to reports in the Daily Telegraph that Mr Huang’s right-hand man is campaigning for Liberal candidate and former MP John Alexander in Bennelong. What else have Mr Huang and his associates given to the Liberals to help keep the prime minister in his job and is this one of the reasons why the prime minister has delayed banning political foreign donations for over a year?
Speaker Tony Smith only rules the part of the question dealing with policy (foreign donations) in order.
“The foreign donations legislation will be introduced into the House this week,” the PM says.
Malcolm Turnbull then starts talking about Sam Dastyari and Tony Burke points out part of the question was ruled out of order and the prime minister can’t address it. So, we move on.
Updated
Christopher Pyne gets a Dixer designed to let the government talk more on Sam Dastyari.
We move on to Tony Burke who asks about where the information regarding Dastyari came from, without actually mentioning Dastyari:
On Wednesday and Thursday Fairfax reported two stories on national security. The attorney general even confirmed that national security information should never find its way into the hands into the media but it has. Has the government ordered any investigation into what the attorney general has admitted a leak of national security information and who had possession of that information among ministers and their staff?
Malcolm Turnbull:
The honourable member omitted one important fact which was the information he is describing as having been referred to in the Fairfax press apparently, it was something on Wednesday and Thursday. Now, is he talking about Senator Dastyari ... is that right?
No, OK, very, good. He’s referred to Senator Dastyari’s, he’s referred to Senator Dastyari and the – my observation is very simply this, that leaks of national security information should never occur, full stop. Now, if the honourable member is alleging that a security agency was responsible for putting information into the press, then he should make that allegation.
Burke interrupts to say that Turnbull is answering a question that wasn’t asked.
The Speaker allows it and Turnbull finishes:
If the honourable member wants to ask me a question about information published in the Fairfax press, or anywhere else, then he should actually spell out what this information is,because he has, in some rather coy way, failed to actually describe it, which makes me think it might have something to do with a certain senator. The senator whose name, apparently, cannot be mentioned by the Labor party. Let me say this to the honourable member – if you’re not prepared to name him, you shouldn’t be prepared to keep him in the Senate.
Again, Labor can’t sack Dastyari from the Senate, only disendorse him.
Also, how many questions on national security information appearing in the media does the prime minister take that he needs names to be able to answer ... oh, that’s right. Politics.
Updated
Rebekha Sharkie has the independents’ question and wants to know when the government will action the findings of the royal commission, which included the Don Dale investigation:
Malcolm Turnbull:
My government will now consider the recommendations made in the report and with the Northern Territory government, in respect of whose activities most of the recommendations apply to, key stakeholders and communities, to form the development of our response.
Now, most of the recommendations, as I noted, are matters for the Northern Territory government. The Australian government will now also carefully consider the findings that are directed to the commonwealth. We have already committed to ratifying the optional protocol to the convention against torture will ensure that oversight of places of detention, including youth detention, is strengthened in the Northern Territory and of course everywhere else. Mr Speaker, when children are safe, the whole community benefits as well.
This is our greatest obligation, to look after our children, we understand that. All children deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, all children deserve to be safe and that’s the responsibility of the whole community and, importantly, of course, families and government agencies.
Now, I want to make a note I observe to the honourable member’s benefit, an observation about funding. I quote from the royal commission here. The commissioners wrote: ‘A consistent theme heard by the commission was that there is insufficient funding in the Northern Territory to address the issues it’s grappling with. However, having reviewed financial data available to the commission, the commission considers it is underlying problem is not the level of overall funding but that commonwealth and Northern Territory government investment is not rigorously tracked, monitored or evaluated to ensure that it’s appropriately distributed and directed. Value for the money expended cannot be demonstrated. The major investment in Aboriginal affairs over many years has delivered mixed success, often with dismally poor returns. A combination of underperforming programs, poor coordination across governments and a lack of engagement with Aboriginal people in the design and delivery of services is producing continually poor results. The approach must be changed.’
Now, we absolutely recognise the force of that observation. As you know in 2017-2018, the Northern Territory government will receive $4.2bn from the commonwealth. We are determined to ensure that every dollar that we spend on Indigenous affairs [and] Indigenous welfare delivers the outcome [we need]. So I thank the honourable member for her question. It is a very important question.
Updated
Back in the House and it is a Dixer. Scott Morrison tries to appear enthused.
Then on to Chris Bowen. He wants to know about Phil Coorey’s report in the Fin about the banks expecting the royal commission, and that the terms were “worked out” a long time ago because “it was inevitable”. “So why was the treasurer kept in the dark for so long?”
Morrison:
The terms of reference for the inquiry and the announcement of the royal commission into the banking sector was made at nine, Mr Speaker, on that day and that was the first that the banks and others were aware that this government was going to put a royal commission in place. There is no doubt, Mr Speaker, that the government over a period of time had been aware of the various arguments that had been put in place. Indeed, the arguments being put by the opposition over two-and-a-half years, which I note over all that period of time they called for a royal commission for the banks they never came up with the terms of reference, not once, Mr Speaker. Not once, not once did they come up with the terms of reference yet they were the ones that wanted to announce a royal commission into the banks, Mr Speaker. So, to my knowledge, and the minister for revenue’s and the prime minister’s acknowledge, that Treasury has been working into the terms of reference but at the end of the day the decision to go forward with a banking royal commission was made. But the recklessness of the leader of the opposition and the shadow treasurer for over two years calling into question the security of the financial sector, on which the entire economy depends. It was the point of their recklessness that required to government to take control over the situation and that’s what we have did. They have demonstrated a reckless behaviour towards the economy. If they put ever got to put that into office, it would be a shocker.
Updated
Over in the Senate, the Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, is asking George Brandis about a $44,000 donation the Liberal party received from Huang Xiangmo sometime in the 2015-16 election year, which doesn’t appear to have been declared until recently:
Di Natale: “Question is to the leader of the government representing the prime minister:
1. On 27 September 2017, some two years after Asio had briefed Liberal and Labor parties about the threat of taking donations from Mr Huang for being closely linked to the Chinese government, an amended political party disclosure return was lodged with the AEC by the NSW Liberal party.
Because our donations laws encourage secrecy, the public don’t know what the $44,000 provided by Mr Huang’s Yuhu Group and Mandarin International Investment was for. It is simply listed as ‘other receipt’. What was the purpose of this payment? A few tables at Liberal fundraising dinners? Free rent? Please inform the Senate of its precise purpose.
2. Can the government assure the Australian people that no foreign donations, ‘other receipts’, or in-kind support such as Yuhu Group employee Tim Xu campaigning for Mr Alexander will have made their way into the Bennelong byelection campaign and that any such donation or payment will also be returned?
3. The government and opposition’s response to the Senator Dastyari and Mr Huang controversy has deftly sidestepped the deeper problem lying at the very heart of this scandal and our entire democracy – that political influence can be bought, especially without an ICAC. Whether they are foreign sourced, from corporations, unions or wealthy individuals – big donations create a sense of obligation or generosity to the donor. With this in mind, will the government examine strict caps for political donations across the board, no matter where it comes from?
Amended donation declaration: http://periodicdisclosures.aec.gov.au/Returns/60/VQRP9A02.pdf
Brandis says he doesn’t know the details of the donation.
Updated
Tony Burke is next with a question for Malcolm Turnbull:
I refer to the photograph of Mr Huang, which was published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 12 February 2016. Can the prime minister please identify the person on the right?
Spoiler – it is the prime minister.
I’m delighted to get that question. I really am. Because it shows the desperation of the Labor party. Their desperation, so desperately trying to spread, blow some smoke around and cover up the intimate relationship between Senator Dastyari and, so it would seem, the leader of the opposition. So they have a photograph with me at an event in a public street in Sydney. Hooray for that. What a revelation. If you had had a wider-angle lens, you could have got the other 5,000 people that were there as well. What we really need to know is this: What did the leader of the opposition say to Senator Dastyari directly or indirectly that prompted him, Senator Dastyari, to go to Mr Huang’s house, the house that the leader of the opposition had visited and knew well, to go to Mr Huang’s house and tell him how to avoid surveillance activities by Asio? The leader of the opposition has got to tell us that. He hasn’t.
Updated
First Dixer.
Just how amazing is this government (is the general gist) particularly when it comes to cost of living?
Oh so very amazing, says the prime minister. Actually, the most amazing.
Rinse and repeat.
Updated
Question time
Question time!
First up is Bill Shorten to Malcolm Turnbull:
Can the prime minister confirm that since the House last sat five weeks ago, he has cancelled parliament, ruled out a banking royal commission, then announced a banking royal commission, halted the NBN rollout for 2 million households, had cabinet ministers calling for investigations into each other over cabinet leaks and been accused by his own backbenchers of a failure of leadership. When will the prime minister admit he has lost control of his government and lost authority as prime minister?
Turnbull:
The Labor party put in a strong showing comfortably ahead of the informal vote, just got into double figures. Barnaby Joyce’s swing was larger than the Labor party’s primary vote. It only happened on Saturday but I’m not surprised the leader of the opposition has blotted it out of his memory.
One of the things that has occurred over the last five weeks that the leader of the opposition should not blot out of his memory is what advice he gave to Sam Dastyari. Before he met with Mr Huang. The leader of the opposition should not easily forget Mr Huang because he visited him at his house last year. He has a very good familiarity with the gentleman. Mr Speaker, the leader of the opposition remembers very well the function that he attended on 17 June with Senator Dastyari, with Mr Huang and then, shortly after that, Senator Dastyari had a press conference with Mr Huang. In the media briefing room at the commonwealth parliamentary office in Sydney. There are two lecterns there, two podiums. Each of them has the Australian coat of arms. Dastyari stood at one. Mr Huang stood at the other.
Senator Dastyari stood at one and Mr Huang at the other. Senator Dastyari said these words, apparently written for him by someone else, “The South China Sea is China’s own affair”. This came after Mr Huang paid off debts for Senator Dastyari. It reads like talking points from the Global Times in Beijing. That’s what it was. Senator Dastyari contradicting Australian government policy, Labor party policy, on the South China Sea. He got sacked for that. But then, then, perhaps the leader of the opposition, as he trolls through the last five weeks, could remember what advice he gave Senator Dastyari that prompted him to tell Mr Huang how to avoid surveillance by Asio.
Updated
The House is dealing with condolence motions.
In the Senate, George Brandis said he had never heard of the NSW deputy premier, John Barilaro (that broad church must be very broad indeed) until Friday and said his comments (you know, the ones where he said the prime minister needed to step down for the good of the nation) were the rants of “an obscure politician who no one outside of NSW has heard of”.
Count down to question time is on. In the words of Taylor Swift, are you ready for it?
Over in the Senate and the superannuation debate appears to be going well, if “by well” you mean the government appears to be filibustering its own bill.
Labor has no further speakers but government senators have many, many things to say about super, which has some speculating it may have some problems with crossbench support for the part of the bill that seeks to change the governance structures of super boards.
Updated
“Politically correct bigotry” is emerging as a late contender for this year’s T-shirt competition.
Updated
Arthur Sinodinos has taken to Twitter to update his citizenship declaration with a document that was missing from his official citizenship declaration.
The Senate motion requires documentary evidence only of those who have held citizenship of a foreign country. For completeness, I attach a letter from the Greek Government so as to confirm my status. pic.twitter.com/vlDYZTXibo
— Arthur Sinodinos AO (@A_Sinodinos) December 4, 2017
Updated
The marriage equality legislation debate has been suspended (House timetables and all that) and the chamber has moved on to members’ statements, in the lead-up to question time.
Cathy O’Toole is up first and she is congratulating Annastacia Palaszczuk on her election win (almost) with Labor inching towards 47 seats and a majority in the Queensland one-house parliament.
The ECQ is still counting tens of thousands of postal votes, there are still preferences to be distributed (and those preferences have been all over the place, so it has made it very difficult to predict) and Labor won’t be declaring victory until the seats are declared by the commission. For those playing along at home, the LNP have still not conceded for the same reason.
There has been a lot of interest in this election (especially from me, because it’s my old patch, but also because it has been fascinating) and you can watch the seat results here.
Seats like Maiwar are particularly interesting – a handful of votes will decide them.
Updated
The La Trobe MP Jason Wood says he used to “stand very proudly in firm opposition” to same-sex marriage, despite the protests outside his office, the angry emails and former colleagues in the police service criticising his decision.
He said he then met some youth from his electorate, who told him about the rates of homosexual men taking their lives because of a lack of acceptance and a conversation with a friend in a same-sex relationship, who simply told him “I would love to get married”.
“I love Anna and want to marry her,” his friend said when he asked why.
He then began meeting same-sex couples and families in his electorate “and for the first time I started to see that my views on same-sex marriage were causing great sadness to others”.
“I then realises it was time for me to seriously rethink this issue … following that, which I did, I decided to support same-sex marriage”.
There will be cynicism to this view, I know. But I also think that it is a positive thing when our politicians make an effort to change their views.
Updated
Anthony Albanese finishes his speech by mentioning something that has been left out a little in this debate, the idea that a child needs two parents to be part of a complete family.
Albanese, raised by a single mother, said every time he heard that, “what I hear is intolerance, what I hear is that, somehow, some families are better than others”.
“What matters in a family is love and care,” he says. “What matters in a family is love, it is is simple as that and no other family arrangement is better than another.”
Updated
Anthony Albanese says he is “very proud” to support the legislation – but notes that the parliament is not leading but following in this instance.
He is not supporting any of the amendments and says he has argued for it to be a conscience vote “but the fact is that people’s religious freedom will not be impacted by this legislation, just as the institution of marriage will not be undermined.”
He also paid tribute to Paul O’Grady and those who marched in the first mardi gras, towards police, in 1978.
Updated
You can follow along with the bill’s progression here
Amendments moved on marriage equality legislation
Tony Abbott has moved amendments on the marriage equality bill.
I would like this to be a unifying moment for our country. And the best way to make this a unifying moment for our country would be to acknowledge the continuing concerns that many decent Australians have about freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of religion and parental rights. The best way to make this a unifying moment for our country would be to ensure that the anti-gay prejudice of the past is not replaced by s new politically correct bigotry. We certainly do not want new forms of division to replace old ones.
I believe that the passage of the bill, as amended, will enable our country to go forward together, united in decency and in respect for the rights of all. Now, Mr Speaker, I certainly do not pretend to be an overnight convert to supporting same-sex marriage but I pledged to respect and facilitate the verdict of the Australian people. Same-sex marriage should now be recognised. It will now be recognised. There should be a clear distinction between how marriage is understood by the church and marriage as recognised by the state and, on that basis, I looking forward to attending the marriage of my sister, Christine, to her partner Virginia early in the new year.
Tony Abbott speaks during the debate on the bill to amend the marriage act "we don't want to see a new politically correct bigotry" @AmyRemeikis @GuardianAus @murpharoo #politcslive #marriageequality #auspol https://t.co/59rCyzjejs pic.twitter.com/SGFLPDSCzh
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) December 4, 2017
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Katy Gallagher is not in parliament today – she’s with her child in hospital.
She has put a statement out on Facebook in regards to her citizenship issue (she remained a dual citizen until a month after the election).
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Labor MP Warren Snowdon tells the chamber he is a Catholic but “this is a matter of equality, not faith”. He thanks Warren Entsch for the work he has done.
There has been a lot of cross-party thanks given today. Malcolm Turnbull did not single out any opposition MPs. But he did take the time to say this:
Previous governments have failed to take it on. The Labor party did nothing about it for six years in power. Now with a strong message from the Australian people which my government enabled, the way is clear.
For those wondering, Bill Shorten did say a cross-chamber thank you
Now this legislation will bear Senator [Dean] Smith’s signature and that is a worthy tribute to his patience and hard work down the years.
And to his Liberal and conservative colleagues who stood up to be counted, you know who you are, you know what you did and what you have accomplished.
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Scott Morrison is speaking on the marriage equality bill now. He has a lot to say about the separation of church and state.
You just can’t help but think that if parliament hadn’t been suspended last week, we would be voting on this now.
And then Turnbull’s speech took a slightly strange turn:
Codependency is a good thing ... and gay people are better off together then living alone comforted only by their respective cats.
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Last one, because it will probably be the last nice moment we have in this place this week.
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Prepare for the amendment debate. Here is why Malcolm Turnbull says he will be supporting amendments to the bill (which he admitted last week):
There is nothing in the bill which prevents anyone from maintaining or adhering to the teaching of their church on marriage or morality. But we must not fail to recognise that there is sincere heartfelt anxiety about the bill’s impact on religious freedom. And that is why I will support amendments to the bill which will provide the additional reassurance and respect of these fundamental rights and freedoms.
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Turnbull has made a point of making this known:
I am the first prime minister of Australia to be unequivocally and consistently in support of legalising same-sex marriage.
.@TurnbullMalcolm: with the passage of this legislation the message to every gay person is that the state recognises your relationship as legitimate and as honourable as anyone else's. #auspol MORE: https://t.co/hq8EQ6nXpK pic.twitter.com/K1DjY2urL8
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) December 4, 2017
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The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, is speaking on the marriage equality bill.
I am very firmly of the view that families are the foundation of our society and would be a stronger society if more people were married and by that I mean formally, legally married and fewer were divorced.
If consulted by friends about marital dramas I always encouraged the singles to marry, the married to stick together and the neglectful to renew their commitment and the wronged to forgive. I am utterly unpersuaded by opposition [to marriage equality] that my marriage to Lucy or indeed any marriage is undermined by two gay men or women setting up house down the road whether it is called a marriage or not.
Let’s be honest with each other, the threat to traditional marriage is not from gay people but a lack of loving commitment, whether found in the form of neglect, indifference, cruelty or adultery to name just a few manifestations of that loveless desert in which to many marriages come to grief.
If the threat to marry today is lack of commitment, then surely other couples making and maintaining that commitment is as good example rather than a bad one.
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Speaking of citizenship, Katy Gallagher appears to have been a dual citizen until after the election.
I doubt she is the only one who is going to be relying on the “reasonable steps” argument, as this train continues down the track.
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Senate citizenship disclosures are made public
We go on to the Senate citizenship disclosures.
The #Senate's Citizenship Register is now online https://t.co/OZgugrR2ZI
— Australian Senate (@AuSenate) December 4, 2017
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Just back to the Senate and the penalty rates amendment, here is what Brendan O’Connor had to say in a statement:
Labor’s amendment to reverse the cuts to penalty rates and protect penalty rates in the future has successfully passed the Senate this morning.
Turnbull and his Liberals are so emphatically against penalty rates that they voted against their own bill – the Fair Work Amendment (Repeal of 4 Yearly Reviews and Other Measures) Bill 2017 – after we forced the government to bring it on for debate.
The government voted against protecting penalty rates, because they support wage cuts for 700,000 workers.
One Nation voted against protecting penalty rates by voting with the government and against the bill at the third reading stage.
Now the heat is on George Christensen to see whether or not he will cave into his Canberra masters or remain loyal to his commitment to his electorate to stop cuts to penalty rates.
Turnbull and his Liberals have a callous disregard for Australian workers and this was on display in the Senate today.
Just how out of touch can this government get?
Under the Turnbull government we are headed to a low-wage, easy-to-hire, easy-to-fire society.
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Champagne all round
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The mea culpa continues
Andrew Bolt has not done anything wrong. He reported what was reality at the time. Circumstances changed. That's not Bolt's fault. Those challenging his integrity are motivated by revenge and ideology.
— George Christensen (@GChristensenMP) December 4, 2017
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There are at least 77 speakers on the marriage equality bill.
But this is what everyone is talking about at the moment:
Liberal MP @timwilsoncomau proposed to his partner Ryan during his same-sex marriage speech to the House of Reps. He said YES! 👬💍🌈 pic.twitter.com/of9N21WYMh
— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) December 4, 2017
For those wondering about the speakers, here is the list so far:
Here's the #MarriageEquality speakers list. They sort of ping pong left to right, going govt-opposition one by one. #auspol pic.twitter.com/ZRtysV1956
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) December 4, 2017
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The ACCC will start its inquiry into Facebook and Google.
From its release:
The ACCC’s inquiry will look at the effect that digital search engines, social media platforms and other digital content aggregation platforms are having on competition in media and advertising services markets.
“The ACCC goes into this inquiry with an open mind to and will study how digital platforms such as Facebook and Google operate to fully understand their influence in Australia,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said. “We will examine whether platforms are exercising market power in commercial dealings to the detriment of consumers, media content creators and advertisers.
The ACCC will look closely at longer-term trends and the effect of technological change on competition in media and advertising.
We will also consider the impact of information asymmetry between digital platform providers and advertisers and consumers.
You’ll find more on that here
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The Nationals party room met this morning, where they celebrated Barnaby Joyce’s byelection victory.
They just invited the media into their party room so Joyce could say thank you to New England voters, via the television camera.
An ebullient Joyce, who was wearing a visitor’s pass (he doesn’t have official access yet to Parliament House), reminded everyone in the room that they shouldn’t take for granted that they can work in the building.
“What an incredible honour it is to be able to walk through the door without one of these things on,” he said, tugging his pass. “Don’t take it for granted. Treasure it. And note that every day is almost a sacred duty you have, the Australian people give you a sacred responsibility, and we have to earn it, and re-earn it, every day we come in here.”
He said his re-election proved that New England voters liked what the Nationals stood for, while his time on the campaign trail reminded him that voters will not support politicians in Canberra who lose touch with their electorate.
He extended a non-partisan-but-still-obviously-partisan hand to the Greens, saying at least they “fessed up” about colleagues of theirs who were were found to be ineligible to sit in parliament, due to their citizenship status, just like Nationals MPs had done, and unlike Labor.
“Bill Shorten, it says something about you … that even to this day you have given us all of these slippery words, you know full well that you have people in your party who have questions to answer and you should have put them out,” he said. “There could have been all these byelections on the one day but you didn’t do it.”
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We have a marriage proposal
Tim Wilson cries as he proposes to Ryan Bolger, again, who is sitting in the gallery.
Ryan gives a very enthusiastic yes and it is marked in the Hansard.
Mark Dreyfus offers his congratulations before giving his speech.
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Liberal MP Tim Wilson is talking about his engagement to his partner, Ryan. He tells how he told one person who said “why bother?”, and did not want to throw an engagement party as he thought the muted reaction he received from those who he told meant no one would come.
But he says the survey have answered the question for him and the result shows “the Australia we want to be”.
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Quick trip to the Senate, where Labor’s amendment to reverse the penalty rates cut got up 35 to 26, which meant the government had to vote against its own bill.
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Labor MPs went over to pay homage to Penny Wong and Louise Pratt following Bill Shorten’s speech.
But there is a lot of cross-party support here as well. Terri Butler gave Trent Zimmerman’s shoulder a squeeze as she walked by. Liberal MPs are also stopping by to chat to Dean Smith and George Brandis.
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A little more from Bill Shorten’s speech and then I’ll grab some of Mike Bowers’ pictures for you.
I think this is an uplifting moment in our nation but we need to be mindful to match our joy without humility. Humility to acknowledge on so long on marriage equality, Australia has trailed the world.
The humility to seek forgiveness from LGBTQI Australians, forgiveness I speak of the long delay but the injustices and the indignities are both great and small. Forgiveness for subjecting you and your relationships to public judgment. Forgiveness for the hurt and harm you and your families have suffered.
We seek your forgiveness, we salute your courage and we thank you for including us in your historic moment. And, let me be clear, in voting for marriage equality, the campaigners for marriage equality have not just delivered equality for them, they have made the Australian identity better.
The gift of this legislation is not just in allowing people to get married, the gift of the legislation is it says Australia can be a better place, a more inclusive place.
I want to say to all these LGBTQI Australians who found themselves for subsequent days examining the result, seeing it as some kind of reflection on them in percentage terms, let me declare this. You are not 61% anything, you are 100% equal, 100% loved and you are 100% right to live your life the way you want and we are lucky to count each and every one of you as our fellow Australians.
This law is not the end of the ancient institution of marriage. It is a new beginning for a more equal world. In a generation to come, I hope and imagine that Australians will look back to these days and this debate and most will wonder what was the fuss all about.
My children will attend the weddings of their friends and not give a moment’s thought to whether they are gay or straight, whether it is in a church or a park. All that will matter is do the couple love each other and want to spend the rest of their lives together.
All that will matter is that they are people like us, our friends, neighbours, our family members, our loved ones, our fellow Australians. This moment, this debate, this week, belongs to all those who have waited.
This moment belongs to all those who have fought. It belongs to all those who did not live to see their dream realised, it belongs to those who have felt that inequality in the law has meant they are unequal in our eyes.
We have come too late to this moment but we are here at last. Today is an outstanding day when we vote on this bill will be an outstanding moment. It will be, I predict, an uplifting moment. So it is with joy, with humility, with privilege, with love for our brothers and sisters and, with hope in our future, I commenced this bill to the house.
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Katharine Murphy is in the chamber and reports that Labor is out in force for Shorten’s speech. Penny Wong and Louise Pratt are also in the chamber.
The other side of the chamber is looking a little bare. We count Warren Entsch, Trent Zimmerman, Trevor Evans, Tim Wilson and a couple of other Liberals. Oh, and Tony Abbott.
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Bill Shorten is now speaking on the bill.
This is a chance for our parliament to demonstrate that we are worthy of the people that we serve. A chance to honour the courage of LGBTIQ Australians to recognise our rights and celebrate our love. It is a chance to atone for the inaction and failures of the past.
After years of discrimination, disappointment and delay, to write into law a truth that we know in our hearts. Marriage is defined by love and loyalty, not gender. And while this final legal change depends on the overdue vote of our parliament, today is not actually about the parliamentarians.
For me today, it is about the teenager in the country town who stood in front of his footy club, asked his teammates to support him to be the person that he has always been.
Today is about an office worker in the city who challenged her colleagues to put aside their old thoughtless prejudices and respect her right to equality. Today is about tens of thousands of loving same-sex couples who prove every day that they are wonderful parents, parents raising brilliant kids ... Today belongs to all the LGBTIQ Australians who have borne the burden of a long battle for equality.
Some of whom could deservedly be described as proud warriors who remember when their very existence was considered to be a criminal offence but always knew it was the law that had to change and not their love.
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The Brisbane MP Trevor Evans also seems to point to not wanting amendments in his speech on the bill. Brisbane voted yes overwhelmingly – 79.5%. I was at the Brisbane Pride ball this year, where Evans was heckled as he gave his speech in support of marriage equality, while part of a government which was then blocking it. He took the heckles then but seems very pleased to be able to deliver this speech today.
This is a bill that finds a good balance between the need to protect important religious freedoms while still implementing the clear will of the Australian people to change the marriage act to allow same-sex couples to marry. This bill contains specific protections for religious organisations, it contains protections for individual ministers of religion, even if they are acting outside the tenants of that organised religion. It contains protections for the civil celebrants and four chaplains and for businesses and organisations and other bodies if they are set up probably for religious purposes ... I accept that not all religious organisations agree with this bill, and nor do all of the gay advocacy groups, but this bill does have the blessing of many of the religious organisations and gay advocacy groups that are capable of reaching agreement on this matter.
This bill has the support because it doesn’t open any new forms of discrimination and equally, it does not remove any religious freedoms or protections. In conclusion, Mr Speaker, it is with pride and joy and love that I second this bill.
It is a good bill. It strikes a good balance and it enjoys wide support across our community. Now that the Brisbane community and the broader Australian community has voiced its strong support to the same-sex marriage, it is time for us in this parliament to do all bit. This week, in the businesslike fashion. I second this bill.
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George Brandis is also in the House.
For those asking, Barnaby Joyce is in the party room, not yet the parliament. And yes, he is considered a “visitor”.
Welcome back @Barnaby_Joyce Wearing 'escorted visitors' pass back into Party Room @James_Jeffrey @srpeatling #auspol pic.twitter.com/beYvO0UP7H
— Darren Chester MP (@DarrenChesterMP) December 3, 2017
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The Fairfax-Ipsos poll was also published today. It reported the same 53 to 47 result to Labor. It also found that 71 per cent of respondents do not think the prime minister should be rolled. Which just makes me wonder what the other respondents were thinking, and whether they had paid any attention over the last seven years or so.
TFW you are just wondering what John Wayne would do
George Christensen as the House of reps resumes sitting this morning @AmyRemeikis @GuardianAus @murpharoo #auspol #politicslive https://t.co/59rCyzjejs pic.twitter.com/kOIqdHLRcF
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) December 3, 2017
As my colleague Paul Karp just pointed out, there are a lot of MPs on the speaking list for this one. A lot.
I think the predictions we won’t see a vote on this until at least Wednesday night is correct.
TFW you are Number 55 on a speaking list. #auspol #marriageequality
— RossHartMP (@RossHartMP) December 3, 2017
I’m very proud of my very good friend, Warren Entsch. He’s moving the legislation for #MarriageEquality in @AboutTheHouse right now. He’s as kind as they come. I love him to bits.
— Kate Doak (@katedoak) December 3, 2017
Senator Dean Smith is in the House watching as Entsch speaks on the bill. Entsch seems a little choked up. It has been a long time coming for him, as he said, and he makes a point of saying he doesn’t believe the “religious freedom” amendments needs to be part of this debate.
This bill is about marriage and only about marriage. Nothing in this bill takes away the existing rights of freedom. It doesn’t create different classes of marriage. What it does is give same-sex marriage the same legal rights as other couples. We have made sure we have removed any element of discrimination in this bill while ensuring that religious freedoms are protected. The LGBTQI couples will be free to marry the person they love in the civil marriage and religious marriage celebrants to only perform religious marriages in accordance to religious beliefs remains unchanged. There may be an amendment is proposed, amendments on free speech, discrimination, education, charity law and tax law. They are all worthy causes and important debates but they don’t need to form part of this bill today. Australia’s sick of excuses and are sick of delays. The majority [voted] yes on same-sex couples being able to marry in this country that they call home in front of friends and family that loved them.
They did not vote for a new form of discrimination. Amendments about unrelated issues, amendments which seek to delay same-sex marriage, with a 61.6% of Australians who made their preferences clear ... amendments who seek to unwind or remove any legal rights or discrimination protections will be posed. Australians did not vote for fairness and equality to have their rights peeled away this bill.
He finishes and there is applause. But it’s naive to think there is not going to be a very rough amendment debate.
Updated
Marriage equality legislation reaches the House
Warren Entsch, rainbow tie and all (no one tell Ian Macdonald), has the floor and is talking about the marriage equality legislation.
As you are well aware, I have been a longtime advocate to changes in this area and initially found the journey to be very lonely but something that I was absolutely determined to do. In 2004, when the parliament changed the definition of marriage to exclude LGBTIQ Australian, I stood in the party room and questioned the decision. I didn’t understand why we needed to do this.
Hadn’t LGBTIQ people been through enough? Why do we need to kick them on the way out the door? To me, it did not make any sense, denying any Australian equal status, and the same of dignity and respect is, in my mind, completely unAustralian.
To me, it was really quite simple – I don’t understand how one section of our community should be treated any different to any other. Life is tough enough and sometimes very hard. And if you are lucky enough to find someone to join you in the good and the bad, well, in my mind, it is fantastic. I strongly believe that couples seeking would like a strengthening the institution of marriage.
There have been a lot of commentary about the length of my advocacy and some very flattering remarks in the media. I was labelled as fiercely heterosexual, far north Queensland ... liberal.
However, the 12 or 13 years I have been raising this issue to seek the removal of legal and financial discrimination within the gay and the transgender community, and also educating for the right to same-sex and couples to marry, has been relatively short. Compared to those Australians who have had to endure these inequalities of their entire life.
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Pyne ends the resolution with a celebration over the New England result:
We had a byelection in New England, which we have spectacularly won on the weekend, and we have a spectacular win on Saturday, a record-breaking win, the biggest win for a government in a byelection by the way since 1911. Since 1911! The swing was bigger than the Labor vote. As the deputy leader of the House points out, Mr Speaker, we have a byelection in Bennelong as referred to this morning, Mr Speaker. So we have done the right thing on this side the House but I think it is in everyone’s interest to make sure that everyone sitting in the parliament is legitimately sitting here and that is why we move this motion and I look forward to the support of the opposition and the crossbench.
I know the government is very excited and all about the New England byelection result but I can’t help but think that if Bennelong doesn’t go its way, or it comes close to not going its way (and honestly, I have no idea how it will all play out on 16 December), the reaction has to go both ways.
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You can find the whole motion here:
Leader of the House @cpyne motion on the proposed Citizenship Register #auspol pic.twitter.com/C43KmwW9Xv
— Political Alert (@political_alert) December 3, 2017
Citizenship resolution unanimously agreed to
Christopher Pyne has the floor in the House of Representatives moving the citizenship resolution.
Once those disclosures are in, the parliament will decide how any referrals to the high court will occur – basically, will the government follow through on its threat to use its numbers (plus one crossbencher) to refer opposition members?
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The bells are ringing. Hope you’re all ready.
Burke also popped up on ABC radio this morning. Responding to questions about Bill Shorten’s meeting with Huang Xiangmo, which came after a 2015 Asio briefing on the potential for Chinese interference with Australian politics, Burke said Labor had responded as the advice had strengthened and stopped taking foreign donations.
And this is why as the security advice strengthened Labor took a decision that the government still hasn’t taken that for the people who had concerns raised about them we would stop taking donations from them, even if that put us at a disadvantage. And you’re talking about people who have been significant donors to both sides of politics. You know, for every photo of Bill Shorten there’s a photo of Julie Bishop or some senior member of the government with the people concerned. But Labor, as the advice strengthened, took the decision that we would no longer be taking donations and to this day even for donations to the Bennelong byelection the government won’t rule out whether or not they’re receiving that no matter what advice they get from the security agencies.
As for calls to “sack” Sam Dastyari, well, my understanding is he could be disendorsed by the party. But it can’t remove him from the Senate. But nothing like a bit of hubris to kick the morning along.
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Tony Burke has been out and about this morning.
Here is a bit of what he had to say about the government’s threat to refer Labor members to the high court, a massive break from convention, which has the potential to have a lot of implications for the future:
The government, in cancelling parliament last week, thought they were going to avoid chaos. This government’s able to deliver chaos all on its own. It doesn’t need parliament to help with that. But today, the parliament will have to make a very significant decision because there is a change in the way this place is going to operate.
Mr Turnbull has made clear that we will no longer have the practice where referrals are made to the high court on the basis that members of parliament come forward and indicate that they want their cases checked by the high court. He said now it will be made, those decisions would be made by rival political parties and he’s already flagged his intention for the Liberal party to move motions of that nature against Labor and against the Xenophon team. We can’t have a situation, if they’re the new rules, where the new rules apply to the benefit of the Liberal party and no one else.
At the moment, the government is going down a path where the parliament will be able to refer members of the Labor party or the crossbench to the high court but will not be able to refer members of the Liberal or National parties any more to the high court if those motions are moved by the Labor party.
We need to have a change resolved by the parliament today that, at the end of this week, any member of parliament can move that somebody should be referred to the high court and, if the majority of the parliament votes that way, then the referral will happen. It is born to rule to the extreme. To have a situation where the Liberal party can refer its opponents to the high court but nobody else can do the same back to the Liberal party.
It’s not a surprising approaching from Mr Turnbull but it’s completely unacceptable and we’ll be pushing in the parliament today to make sure that we don’t have yet another example of one rule for Mr Turnbull and another rule for everybody else.
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Someone is having a good morning.
Christopher Pyne, who has been subjected to attacks from both Peta Credlin and Andrew Bolt in recent months, seems to be enjoying how they were dragged into the George Christensen non-event. That would be where Bolt admitted he was “authorised” to send a message to the government that an unnamed MP was going to quit if Malcolm Turnbull wasn’t dumped, only for Christensen to reverse course. Again.
Speaking to the ABC this morning, Pyne was positively chipper.
“I think it is interesting that George Christensen apparently made those comments to Andrew Bolt and Peta Credlin, who are supposed to be columnists and journalists, and they were engaged in that discussion with him,” he said.
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Barnaby Joyce will address the Nationals’ party room at 10.30. It is amazing how encouraged a government that claims not to govern by Newspoll is by the New England byelection result.
They are taking it as an endorsement of the government. I would have thought it was probably more a reaction to the high court decision more than anything, given that there didn’t seem a lot of people there happy with the ruling, but what would I know?
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The Brotherhood of St Laurence has released its report into long-term unemployment.
From its release:
Among 267,000 unemployed people aged 15 to 24 in Australia, almost one in five – or 50,500 young people – fall into the ‘long-term unemployed’ category; that is, they have been out of work for a year or more.
Amid recent improvements in overall unemployment, the national anti-poverty group’s analysis of Australia Bureau of Statistics data paints a more uncertain picture for millennial job hunters in the labour market.
The Brotherhood’s latest report said the consequence of the 2008 global financial crisis remains defining in the trajectory of Australia’s youth unemployment story.
Long-term youth unemployment in Australia is presently three times the number it was before the GFC hit and youth unemployment generally has been hard to shift in the fast-changing modern economy, according to the report, Reality Bites: Australia’s youth employment in a millennial era.
Released as part of the Brotherhood of Laurence’s campaign for youth employment, the report points out that the unemployment rate for 15 to 24-year-olds in the labour force sits stubbornly high at 12.4% (trend rate in October 2017) – more than double the overall unemployment rate of 5.5%.
Digging deeper to probe stereotypes of unemployed youth, the report also analysed Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey data and found that unemployed youth undertake as wide a range of job search activities as older jobseekers.
“Blaming young unemployed people for their predicament is simply not supported by the facts,” the report said.
You can find more information here
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The Nationals MP Darren Chester says it is disappointing that his Liberal National colleague from Queensland, George Christensen, lied to journalists and others about his plans to quit the Coalition.
He said in the “spirit of Christmas” we should forgive George and move on.
Christensen admitted on the weekend that he was the anonymous Turnbull government backbencher who had been threatening to quit the government last week but that Malcolm Turnbull’s decision to open a royal commission into the banking industry had changed his mind.
Christensen’s decision to stay with the government infuriated News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt, who responded by revealing yesterday that Christensen had encouraged him and Sky News host Peta Credlin to “spread the word” last week that an unnamed Coalition MP was about to quit the government if Turnbull did not step down as leader.
Bolt said the tactic was designed to “create maximum pressure on Turnbull” but it ended up going nowhere because Christensen wimped out on his threat.
Chester told the ABC on Monday that it was “disappointing” that Christensen had “misled a few people” but he hoped we could move on from it.
“He needs to reflect on that and I’ll have a chat to George privately this week,” he said. “He’s someone that I’ve always regarded as a mate. I think he’s made a blue but he’s owned up to it. In the spirit of Christmas, I think we should forgive him and move on.”
When asked about the role that Bolt and Credlin played in the conspiracy, Chester said it raised an important point about “what is the role of journalists”.
“I don’t like the thought that there are active players behind the scenes trying to conspire to bring down a prime minister,” he said. “I’m not sure that’s the role of a journalist or columnist.”
He did not mention the fact that Credlin is a former chief of staff to Tony Abbott, nor that Bolt is a partisan commentator and entertainer rather than a journalist.
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Darren Chester was just on Sky saying he did not believe Sam Dastyari would last the week.
That is picking up from Malcolm Turnbull who added from his comments last week calling on Dastyari to step down or be sacked from the parliament, with this yesterday: “He has betrayed Australia’s interests. How Shorten can stick with Dastyari and represent himself as a fit and proper person to be prime minister of Australia is utterly beyond me.
Dastyari took thousands of dollars from a Chinese businessman, Mr Huang, to pay off his personal debts. That in itself was incredible, incredibly wrong.
He did so and then went to a function for Chinese media and read a script – we haven’t found out who wrote it – he read a script in which he abandoned the Labor party’s policy on the South China Sea and essentially delivered the talking points that could have been written by somebody in Beijing. That was also an extraordinary betrayal of Australia’s national interests.
Then, we now know he goes to a meeting with Mr Huang and tells him they should leave their phones inside and walk out into the garden so that they can’t be listened into by Australian security agencies.
I mean, Dastyari must go. He is not putting Australia first and Shorten is utterly failing as a leader to leave him in the Senate.
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Just on marriage equality, here is what the prime minister had to say about those “religious freedom” amendments George Brandis moved in the Senate (and was defeated on), on Sky News on Sunday:
There are others that I may not be aware of but, broadly speaking, I support the amendments that George Brandis moved in the Senate that weren’t adopted. In particular, I don’t believe that a celebrant, a marriage celebrant, should be obliged to celebrate any wedding they don’t want to. You know, we could make this very simple, just simply say that if you’re authorised to celebrate a marriage, you’re not obliged to celebrate any particular marriage that you choose not to.
You know, there a plenty of marriage celebrants. No one is every going to have difficulty finding someone to celebrate their marriage, so you just deal with that in a very practical way. The other point that George raised – there are other amendments of similar intent – is to make it clear that there is nothing in the bill that prevents or inhibits or hinders anyone from expressing their views about what is the right, you know ‘morally right’ form of marriage.
I mean there are plenty of things that are legal but that people reasonably feel are morally wrong.
Adultery is wrong but it’s not illegal. Marrying somebody who has been divorced before, who has been married before, is perfectly legal but many churches teach that that is not in accordance with their teachings. So people are entitled to express their own heartfelt views on these issues and that shouldn’t be inhibited.
You know, frankly, the bill doesn’t do that, it doesn’t inhibit it. So what what George has proposed, what George proposed to the Senate, was really belt and braces to confirm that which was already plain.
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I have legitimately never heard of this word before. Never.
'Kwaussie' wins Australia’s Word of the Year, says @ANUmedia #auspol pic.twitter.com/Ud0RhJQMXc
— Political Alert (@political_alert) December 3, 2017
Newspoll #24 has Labor leading the Coalition 53 to 47 points on the two-party preferred measure.
That’s a slight bump from the 55 to 45 poll in the last Newspoll. It really speaks volumes that being behind, but not being as behind, is seen as a win by this government.
Any Coalition MPs who haven’t checked their emails as yet, a secret squirrel has passed this along to us from Nola Marino:
Members, including ministers, should attend the members’ annex at 9.30 today for a briefing with the prime minister, leader of the House and chief whip about proceedings in the House this week. Thank you for your cooperation.
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The House sits at 10, with the citizenship resolution up first.
For those wanting to follow along with the disclosures once they are published, you will find them here. They should be up from midday.
The House disclosures are due by 8pm on Tuesday.
The Senate is also sitting at 10, where the Fair Work bill is up first. Penalty rates will be part of this.
The House will probably get around to voting on marriage equality midweek.
Looks like we are not the only one preparing for a rough day.
George Christensen is indulging in the age-old tradition of Vague Booking to make his feelings know this morning.
Good morning
I hope everyone has had their breakfast and is gripping an extra large coffee, because you are going to need it today.
Barnaby Joyce romped it in at the New England election (no surprises there) and the government is hoping that is the start of a much-needed reset. The Turnbull government has lost its 24th Newspoll in a row (Malcolm Turnbull rolled Tony Abbott after 30). But the government is hopeful that the return of Joyce will bring the Nationals back in line. Joyce will attend party room today, which might be a slightly uncomfortable time for George Christensen who outed himself as the unnamed MP who “authorised” Andrew Bolt and Peta Credlin to make known he was planning on quitting the government if Turnbull remained PM.
Christensen, who denied to multiple journalists he was the MP in question, said he changed his mind about quitting after the government capitulated and decided to hold a royal commission into the banks. This is about the third or fourth time Christensen has made this threat and not followed through. Doubt he is in for a good day. Then again, the New South Wales deputy premier, John Barilaro, is standing by his Friday call that Turnbull should stand down and give the nation a Christmas present. Oh to be a fly on the party room meeting wall.
Also unlikely to have a good day is Sam Dastyari, as the government continues to seek the Labor senator’s resignation following revelations he met with a Chinese donor and warned him he was probably under surveillance by intelligence agencies. Bill Shorten demoted him last week but said he hadn’t broken any laws. On the weekend Turnbull said one shouldn’t assume Dastyari wasn’t under investigation. But either way the government is now seeking to tighten up some laws and will act on banning foreign donations.
Shorten himself is in the news, with Fairfax Media reporting he met with the Chinese donor in question, Huang Xiangmo, to secure donations ahead of the 2016 federal election, despite Asio warning the major parties about possible Chinese influence in Australian politics in 2015. Both major parties have dealings with Huang, with the Daily Telegraph reporting over the weekend one of Huang’s former advisers has joined John Alexander’s Bennelong byelection campaign. Stay tuned.
And all of that before we even get to the citizenship declarations, which are due this week. Christopher Pyne has warned the government will go against convention and refer Labor members with questions over the timing of their renouncements to the high court. Turnbull swears there are no other Coalition members with questions, something he said before Stephen Parry resigned over dual citizenship and then John Alexander resigned over dual citizenship. So it should be a fun week.
Then there is marriage equality, which hits the House this week, with a question over whether it will get through without “religious freedoms” amendments. Penalty rates are also on the agenda.
Who knows what else this week will throw up? Certainly not a festive spirit.
As always, Mike Bowers, fresh from Tamworth, is prowling the halls and chambers. Follow along with him here and here. You can reach me in the comments, or on twitter at @amyremeikis with updates here (including on the Queensland election, just head to the story) as well.
I am on coffee number three, so it’s going to be a great day!
Ready? Let’s get started.
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