We are going to shut down a little early today, because parliament isn’t sitting, and we’ll be back at the crack of dawn (it will seriously be the crack of dawn) tomorrow for the Unicorn Budget shenanigans.
Make sure you check back early tomorrow, because it’s going to be a pretty insane day. Parliament is also going to be sitting, so make sure you have your support mechanism of choice nearby.
A big thank you to Mike Bowers for dragging me across the Mondayitis line for today, as well as Katharine Murphy and Paul Karp for all they do.
Tomorrow, most of the Guardian brains trust will be in the office to help us through the day, and you are in for a treat with Chris Knaus coming in as your guest blogger while I descend the earth’s crust into hell, which is also known as the budget lock-up.
My tip for this Unicorn Budget as we slide towards election eve? Big spending in Victoria and Queensland, the problem states.
But we don’t have too much longer to wait to find out just how much money is to be splashed around. In the meantime, thank you to everyone who followed along – we have missed you, so it was lovely to have you all back. For those on Instagram, @pyjamapolitics will be back, with Bowers making his usual appearances during the day.
Rest up tonight. And, as always, take care of you.
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This is something which is also happening – as reported by Katharine Murphy:
The Morrison government will use Tuesday’s budget to allow 65 and 66 year olds to make voluntary superannuation contributions without meeting the current work test.
The proposal, to take effect from 2020-21, is part of the government’s efforts to court older voters ahead of the looming federal election, and potentially benefits 55,000 people.
The same cohort will be permitted to make three years’ worth of non-concessional contributions, which are currently capped at $100,000 a year, to their super accounts in one year. At the moment, only people under 65 can access those arrangements.
The government also intends to increase the age limit for spousal contributions from 69, where it is currently, to 74. At the moment, people aged over 70 can’t receive contributions made by someone else on their behalf.
The Morrison government is hoping Tuesday night’s budget – which will contain tax cuts, cash payments and a significant infrastructure spend – will revive its political fortunes ahead of the election, which is widely tipped to be called this weekend.
In case you missed it, Helen Davidson and Christopher Knaus have reported on the auditor general’s decision to look into the awarding of the Paladin contract. From their report:
The auditor general is expanding its inquiry into the government’s controversial deal with Paladin to cover all offshore processing contracts, after a string of revelations about the way it has handed taxpayers’ money to companies working on Manus Island and Nauru.
In February, Labor referred the $423m Paladin contract to the auditor general to investigate why the Department of Home Affairs chose the “inexperienced and unknown company” to take over garrison services on Manus Island following the closure of the detention centre.
On Monday, the auditor general agreed to expand its investigation and assess “whether the Department of Home Affairs has appropriately managed the procurement of garrison support and welfare services” for all of its immigration processing centres.
The audit, entitled The Department of Home Affairs’ procurement of garrison support and welfare services, is forecast to deliver its report in January 2020.”
That follows the recent decision of the auditor general to also look into the community sports program after the Liberal party’s Mayo candidate, Georgina Downer, awarded a giant novelty cheque with her face on it to a local group.
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Remember how the government announced a $6.7m grant to the Australian National Maritime museum to fund a circumnavigation of Australia to commemorate the 250th anniversary of James Cook’s landing in (what became) Australia?
And remember how Scott Morrison originally called it a “re-enactment” and then had to backtrack because of the pesky detail that Cook never actually circumnavigated Australia, but just sort of charted the east coast, recorded some snarky messages in his log and then bounced?
Well, recreating this government’s favoured parts of history, whether they actually happened or not, is set to continue, according to Christopher Pyne’s latest release:
The Government is pleased to announce the STS Young Endeavour replacement project is progressing and will be due for consideration by Cabinet later this year.
Minister for Defence, the Hon Christopher Pyne MP said the program is recognised internationally as a leading youth development program, with more than 500 young Australians taking part every year.
“More than 13,600 young Australians have participated in the scheme since January 1988,” Minister Pyne said.
“After 31 years of dedicated service the Young Endeavour is now approaching the end of her operational life and this project will deliver a new vessel by late 2023.
“The search for a new design is progressing and once selected, the new vessel will be built in Australia”, Minister Pyne said.
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Just again, for the people at the back, the PBO reports our ageing population will cost the budget more than Medicare.
Since 2011 – when the first of the baby boomer generation turned 65 – the share of the population of retirement age has increased significantly and the share of the population of prime working age has begun to fall.
This flows through to the budget in the form of a reduction in revenue, due to lower labour force participation, and an increase in spending, reflecting greater demand for government programs that support older Australians.
Over the next decade, the ageing population is projected to subtract 0.4 percentage points from the annual real growth in revenue and add 0.3 percentage points to the annual real growth in spending.
In real dollar terms, this equates to an annual cost to the budget of around $36 billion by 2028–29. This is larger than the projected cost of Medicare in that same year.”
How much planning do you think we have actually done for that?
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The Parliamentary Budget Office has released a report on the cost of Australia’s ageing population.
It makes for dire reading. Part of the overview is below, but in short: “In real dollar terms, this equates to an annual cost to the budget of around $36 billion by 2028–29. This is larger than the projected cost of Medicare in that same year.”
The effects of ageing will be felt more over the coming decade than in the past due to the impact of the baby boomer generation retiring.
This change has already begun to detract from economic growth, after decades of providing a boost to growth.
Ageing will reduce tax revenue and add to spending pressures… Since 2011 – when the first of the baby boomer generation turned 65 – the share of the population of retirement age has increased significantly and the share of the population of prime working age has begun to fall.
This flows through to the budget in the form of a reduction in revenue, due to lower labour force participation, and an increase in spending, reflecting greater demand for government programs that support older Australians. Over the next decade, the ageing population is projected to subtract 0.4 percentage points from the annual real growth in revenue and add 0.3 percentage points to the annual real growth in spending. In real dollar terms, this equates to an annual cost to the budget of around $36 billion by 2028–29.
This is larger than the projected cost of Medicare in that same year. …with the budget impact coming in waves. The workforce participation and Age Pension impacts of the baby boomer generation reaching retirement age are already evident and are likely to peak during the next decade.
The impacts on health and aged care spending will increase more gradually and peak later, as baby boomers move into their 70s and 80s.
Demand for health services typically starts to increase when individuals are in their 70s, and demand for aged care services when they are in their 80s.
Expectations of Australians around increases in the quality of health and aged care services could further increase these costs.”
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And it ends.
Main takeaways?
Labor’s policy is a carbon tax, even though it builds from a Malcolm Turnbull plan, and is not at all a carbon tax.
We are doing things, and they are great things.
Your face is.
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Will the Coalition still use the Kyoto carryover credits if the United Nations determines they shouldn’t be used?
Melissa Price: “We believe we are entitled to use the carryover credits.”
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Melissa Price is no longer talking. She is nodding like a trooper though.
Angus Taylor just had this exchange with the Sydney Morning Herald’s David Crowe:
Crowe: You call this a carbon tax, if this is a carbon tax is your safeguard mechanism a carbon tax also?
Taylor: It is a fundamental misunderstanding of what the safeguard mechanism was meant to do. The intention is to deal with heavy polluters. That has been the policy, it is working and we are committed to 22 and reviewing that.
Crowe: This policy deals with heavy polluters, how can you call it a tax when this is the number of companies being affected?
Taylor: The target is completely different, what drives the outcomes here is the target. When you have a 45% emission reduction target, you are demanding almost half, half the emissions go. And that is going to cost a lot, we see independent modelling telling us the impact of that, $9,000 a year for the average Australian worker, 360,000 jobs or more, assuming the carryover is used. If you set a target like this, that’s the outcome, they are using the safeguard as a Trojan horse for a carbon tax.
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Shhhhhhhh.
Be very, very quiet. The Melissa Price environment minister is speaking. We don’t want to startle her.
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I’ve just come back from a whirlwind trip to Queensland (the greatest nation on earth) and I can tell you the Coalition are W-O-R-R-I-E-D. The big election story is in Victoria this year, at least at this stage, but in Queensland, the state that held in 2016, things are looking a bit wobbly. One of the seats on the bubble is Ross Vasta’s seat of Bonner.
Which makes this email blast from Australian Christian Lobby head Wendy Francis verrrrrrry interesting:
Dear ACL friends
I have worked with ACL now for 9 years and I am well placed to know the DNA of this organisation. We do not support one political party over another. That being said, I believe that the upcoming federal election is the most important in my lifetime and there are huge ramifications associated with the outcome. To educate voters I have been asking the following three questions of candidates and sitting members.
Abortion
Freedom of belief
Do you believe that schools, Bible colleges, and religious institutions should be forced to employ people who fundamentally disagree with their beliefs?
Gender
Do you agree with States being required to remove gender from all documents such as birth certificates, drivers licenses, social security forms?
In your electorate of Bonner, your sitting member, Ross Vasta, has a voting record which aligns with Truth on all of these issues and many others.
He has asked me if there would be any of our supporters who would be prepared to support him by placing one of his signs in their yard. I pass this on for your consideration. If you would be happy to assist him with this request can you please contact his office at ross.vasta.mp@aph.gov.au I know he would be very grateful.
Please pray for our nation.
Kind regards, Wendy
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*extreme David Attenborough voice*
It is a very rare sighting of the Melissa Price environment minister in the open.
The Price environment minister usually does press conferences on the run, if at all. We’re excited to see her not only standing still, but attempting to communicate.
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This was just announced:
Minister for the Environment, Melissa Price, and Minister for Energy, Angus Taylor, will hold a doorstop to discuss Labor’s economy wrecking climate announcement.”
I wonder what their take will be? The media alert is so ambiguous.
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Mike Bowers has been out and about this morning:
Which reminds me – we have officially entered Australian politicians and would-be politicians looking at things season:
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It’s always the summer of 69 in some people’s hearts.
It is a cast of thousands for Labor’s official climate announcement (which is being held at an electric vehicle charging station in Civic, in Canberra’s centre).
Mark Butler, Anthony Albanese, Kim Carr, Pat Conroy and (candidate) Alicia Payne have joined Bill Shorten:
First of all – what is the cost of not taking action on climate change? It is huge. It was estimated that last year $18bn is the cost of the extreme weather events we’ve been having in insurance, in property values, in damage, in lost production.
There is a huge opportunity cost when we don’t take action. We’re confident by the sensible, evidence-based, pragmatic and consultative policies we’re putting forward, that we can protect traditional jobs in steel, in cement, in aluminium.
Industries I’ve spent my working life representing blue-collar workers in. I’m confident that with our fund to work with emissions intensive trade sectors like that, we can make sure that the changes for them are done in a way which protects those jobs.
But I’m ambitious for new jobs in Australia. I don’t want us just to be ... financial service vendors or casualised part time workers. I want us to have full-time jobs in renewable energy. We have the best scientists in the world, so why on earth aren’t we adding that to value-added manufacturing? We have some of the best resources of lithium in the world. We can put together ... in Australia, we have all of the parts for a lithium battery. So why can’t we be a nation that says we want to step up and have more manufacturing jobs?
In terms of electricity, we see that under this current government, even in the last three years since they got elected the second time around, the price has gone up 20%. I don’t know if it was you, Mark [Butler], or someone observed yesterday, who observed yesterday, that this $1.45 a week for pensioners, a one-off payment, a total of $75.
It’s like a very small refund for their failure to do anything on energy policy in the last three years. I have no doubt that we will put downward pressure on energy prices.”
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You are going to hear a lot about Queensland’s land clearing laws in the next few weeks – because that is essentially what Labor is talking about when it says it’s an area it wants to tackle.
So, in a nutshell, what are they?
Well, in 2004, the then Labor Queensland state government passed laws which added a lot more bureaucracy for farmers who wanted to clear land. Basically, they had to get permission from the department before they could move forward. Landowners complained the process was too onerous and delayed, and they were unable to prepare for fire season and natural disasters.
So when Campbell Newman’s LNP government came in, they scrapped the laws and gave the landowners the power to make their own decisions (essentially).
And then land clearing went a bit nuts.
The rate of excessive tree clearing in Queensland has skyrocketed, reaching an alarming rate of 395,000 hectares in 2015-16, according to the annual deforestation report released today.
The 2015-16 Statewide Landcover and Trees Study (SLATS) also showed the rate of tree-clearing in the Great Barrier Reef catchments had soared by almost 50 per cent since 2012-2013.
The Palaszczuk Labor government attempted to change the laws after winning the 2015 election, but without majority numbers, failed.
So they brought the laws back after the 2017 election when, with a majority, they passed (but not without a fight – the committee looking at the bill received 13,000 submissions, the most any Queensland government committee has ever received).
So land clearing in Queensland, in a lot of cases, needs oversight once again.
Farmers are still annoyed. Very annoyed. Environmental groups think the laws are better, but still have massive loopholes. So no one is completely satisfied. And as federal Labor looks to move forward with similar laws from a national standpoint, you’ll hear a lot more from all sides.
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Senator Tim Storer has released a proposed integrity package in the last sitting week of parliament. Storer is up for re-election and although he came in on the Nick Xenophon/Centre Alliance ticket he has since gone independent, a tough path to re-election, meaning this week is likely to be his last.
I’ve done some poking around and while the proposal – which will come before the Senate in the form of a motion – has some support on the crossbench, there are a few planks that go too far for Labor. Those include the proposed overhaul of lobbyist rules, binding standards for parliamentarians expected to mirror the ministerial standards and a parliamentary integrity commissioner.
Here is the full proposal:
- National Integrity Commission – Establish an independent National Integrity Commission to oversee the activities of public officials and empowered to conduct public hearings and make public findings of fact
- Real-time disclosure of political donations above $1,000 – Amend political donation laws to require disclosure of donations above $1,000 by recipients in as close to ‘real-time’ as practical
- Enhanced freedom of information arrangements – Boost funding to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and FOI units within departments and agencies and improve FOI review processing times
- Enhanced whistleblower protections – Further consolidate the whistleblower protection regime and enhance existing whistleblower protections
- Overhaul lobbyist rules – Legislate lobbying code of conduct and require lobbyists to disclose who they meet with and the subject matter of their meeting on a monthly basis. Expand lobbyist register to include in-house lobbyists
- Conduct standards for parliamentarians – Develop a Statement of Parliamentarian Standards, modelled on the Statement of Ministerial Standards, applicable to all parliamentarians
- Parliamentary Integrity Commissioner – Establish an independent Parliamentary Integrity Commissioner, empowered to enforce standards of parliamentary conduct, oversee interest disclosure requirements and deal with allegations of misuse of public funds, blatant falsehoods in political advertising, and breaches of lobbyist rules.
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On Saturday the Morrison government announced strict new laws to crack down on social media companies which fail to remove violent content quickly enough. Creating criminal offences for failure to remove content would include penalties including fines and jail terms.
A spokesman for the attorney general, Christian Porter, told Guardian Australia the government would “certainly be introducing [it] this week with [a] view to having it dealt with in both houses”.
So it’s a top priority – just like the big rush to increase penalties for putting needles in strawberries.
Trouble is, Labor hasn’t seen the legislation yet (and nor have we, for that matter).
Labor is now warning this is a “ridiculous timetable”. The shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus:
Labor is committed to holding the social media companies to account – they can, and they must do better. What happened following the Christchurch attack can never happen again.
Despite repeated requests, the government is yet to provide draft legislation regarding proposed social media regulation to the Opposition for scrutiny. If the government wishes to make this legislation law this sitting week, it will need to pass both the House and the Senate by end of day Wednesday. This ridiculous timetable is a direct result of the government being too frightened to hold an adequate number of parliamentary sitting days before the election.
Once the legislation is received, Labor will scrutinise it thoroughly and provide further comment.
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There is no budget tree this year (even though winter has arrived ALREADY despite only just being April and if you think I am struggling dealing with it now, watch this little Queensland duck absolutely lose it in about six weeks’ time when she’s chipping ice off her windshield with her numberplate in the pitch dark) so our intrepid photographers and visual artists are having to find their own flame notes.
Mike Bowers found this one:
A Gang Gang (I think) tucks into berries on the trees at Parliament House #auspol @AmyRemeikis @GuardianAus #parrotslive pic.twitter.com/40HhHKgg1Y
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) April 1, 2019
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The Nationals have found another “big stick”.
Probably because the last big stick suffered from a little bit of deflation and ended up being less of a big stick and more of a modestly sized toothpick. (That was the threat to break up electricity companies.)
David Littleproud is not ready to let go of big sticks just yet though. So he has come up with this (from his statement) – warning, it includes an offer of flowers:
Labor’s new land-clearing laws are a big stick to bash farmers when they should be rewarded for the biodiversity on their properties, minister for agriculture David Littleproud said today.
Labor has announced it will extend Queensland-style land-clearing laws all over the country. The laws punish farmers for managing vegetation rather than rewarding them for the vegetation on their land.
Queensland farmers have staged huge protests, given they are having large parts of their properties made unproductive without any compensation or financial reward.
‘Labor needs to come clean on what carbon gain it has modelled from banning vegetation management nationwide,’ Minister Littleproud said.
‘If Labor is getting carbon gains from stopping farmers making money on part of their farms then it should pay compensation. Labor should not take something from our farmers for nothing. If farmers are doing the heavy lifting for Labor’s carbon target, they deserve to be paid.
‘Taking away part of a business’s assets and offering nothing in return is wrong. Labor has no right to declare farmers can’t use a big part of their farms without compensation.
‘Labor wants to bash farmers with a big stick but I want to give them a bouquet.’
There is just so much wrong with that line, I am honestly at a loss of where to start.
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Sigh.
Someone spent a lot of time coming up with this line, and it probably got an uptick in their group chat, so here you go:
What we’ve got here is a re-Rudd of failed policy that cost jobs, that costs businesses, that will cost Australians at least $9,000 a year with the reckless targets that Bill Shorten will make law.
That’s another way Scott Morrison is leading this attack. “Re-Rudd”.
I know Bill Shorten is going to come up with equally ridiculous lines because that is how we do politics in Australia – but please, someone, for the love of Rhianna, just fire me into the sun already and get it over with.
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Scott Morrison finishes his press conference with an attack on the Greens, which in this political climate is an attack on Labor:
Now, the Labor party have got to apply their own rule to their own decisions. If they want to have this rule, which says minor parties should be considered separate to the mainstream parties, well it seems that the Labor party doesn’t think the Greens have these extreme views.
They’ve got to apply the same ruler to themselves. We’ve made our decisions on this. The challenge is on Labor now. Are you for national security? Are you for the US alliance? Are you for border protection? Are you against death taxes? If that’s your view, if you’re for all of those things, then by all means put the Greens ahead of the Liberal party. But if you’re not, then you shouldn’t do that.
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Coalition re-heats "carbon tax" furphy
We now need to change the national anthem. We are no longer girt by sea, apparently, because – Labor.
Scott Morrison:
The only difference, when it comes to the National Energy Guarantee in terms of what Labor are proposing, is this: the reliability energy guarantee, which was part of the Neg we brought forward at the time, that’s now happening.
That’s the important part. The bit Labor are applying to that is legislating a 45% emissions reduction target. That’s what Labor are doing. They are going to legislate that. That’s not going to reduce power prices. Labor’s Neg actually put prices not down, because they are going to legislate a reckless target that will hit wages, that will hit jobs, that will hit production.
Let’s not forget what they’ve announced today is the extension, effectively, of the native veg laws in Queensland from Queensland Labor, which is basically going to land-lock the country and tell farmers and graziers and pastoralists around the country what they can do, or rather what they cannot do, on their own land.
This is a massive tax on agricultural Australia. It’s a massive tax on jobs. It’s $35 billion that Australian companies are going to have to spend, sending money offshore to foreign carbon traders, carbon credits for Kazakhstan. This is what this is for.
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Say it with me now: a talking point does not make it true.
Scott Morrison on Labor’s climate policy:
Bill Shorten does not have a plan, he just has another tax. That’s all this is. Bill Shorten does not have a plan, he just has a tax.
And then there is this absolute pearl of wisdom:
“You make the point about electric vehicles. Well, the government is already taking a number of steps to support the growth in electric vehicles.
“I mean, if you buy an electric vehicle, one of the things you don’t pay is fuel excise. That is already a major advantage for those buying electric vehicles, a big significant leg-up.”
Could that be ... because they are electric?
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Actually no, I need to correct that. This election campaign is going to be a very long century.
Scott Morrison:
“That’s why we’ll be handing down a budget surplus tomorrow night, the first in 12 years. It’s been about keeping expenditure under control and it’s been about supporting the growth in the Australian economy and getting Australians off welfare and into work.
It’s the classic 12-point turnaround. That works in AFL and NRL. You stop one team scoring down one end and you score on the other.
“People receiving welfare under our government are now paying tax because they have jobs. That’s how you balance a budget.
Scott Morrison just said “the PBS to me spells H.O.P.E”.
This election campaign is going to be a very long decade.
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Andrew Leigh was asked about the government’s “carbon tax” (it’s not) criticism this morning while on Sky:
It’s not, and if it were, then their own policy would be a carbon tax. Kieran, this is simply an extension of a scheme put in place by Malcolm Turnbull. Business has told us that they are sick of the climate wars. They’re sick of the bickering over climate and they want bipartisanship.Our view is the best way of achieving that is to extend the Turnbull government’s safeguard mechanism that applies to 0.01 % of companies, puts in place a pollution cap and is part of our commitment to seeing Australia meet our internationally agreed carbon targets. As you’ve said before, we’re also taking advice from business to improve the scheme by giving firms access to international credits.
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Angus Taylor is also running the “it’s a carbon tax” line while attacking Labor’s climate policy on Sky.
Narrator: It’s not.
There is about to be so much more of this.
The Bill Shorten we know... pic.twitter.com/KJOvDWEJZ9
— Liberal Party (@LiberalAus) March 31, 2019
Labor will officially launch its climate policy at midday.
There has been a bit of talk that Scott Morrison could head to Government House as soon as the budget is handed down and deny Bill Shorten his budget-in-reply speech (which is usually done on the Thursday).
Back in November, when he announced the budget date, Morrison said this:
We’ll deal with the normal budget week in the way budgets are always handled. So yes, I would anticipate that the leader of the opposition would make his reply in the normal way.
Of course, Morrison is going to do whatever he believes is in the best interests of keeping the Coalition in power, so that could include a Wednesday trip down the road, but it is doubtful. Mostly because it would kickstart the election campaign with allegations of arrogance and bad sportsmanship, and I’m pretty sure those qualities don’t play so well in focus groups.
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On why Labor announced its climate policy today – budget eve, and usually one of the days when, as we say in the biz, the trash gets taken out (the budget tends to cut down on scrutiny because, well, there is usually plenty to scrutinise in the budget papers, even in a unicorn budget like this) – Mark Butler had this to say:
This is about making sure, as we lead into the election, climate change is a particular focus of the campaign, and recognising that five or six years of vandalism on climate change policy cannot continue. It is simply an abrogation of the responsibility we have to our children, our grandchildren, and those beyond.
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The Greens are not impressed with Labor’s climate policy, with Adam Bandt calling it a “dog’s breakfast”.
“There are a couple of good ideas here, but overall this is a dog’s breakfast of Liberal party leftovers, with no plan for coal and no hope of meeting the Paris agreement goals,” Brandt said in a statement.
“Coal is the single biggest contributor to climate change. If you don’t have a plan for coal, you’re not serious about climate change.”
You’ll find some of the Greens’ complaints below:
Safeguards:
“The Neg and so-called ‘safeguards’ were created by the climate change-denying Liberal party and should be put in the bin, not reheated by Labor and served up as a climate policy.”
“By adopting the ineffective safeguard mechanism with huge carve-outs for some sectors, it looks like the free ride for big business in this country on climate will continue under Bill Shorten.
International offsets:
“Labor has also confirmed it will adopt a dodgy accounting trick that even Tony Abbott opposes by allowing business to use international offsets.”
“International offsets delay climate action in Australia. More coal will be burnt at home and the transition to 100% renewables will be delayed.”
Electric cars:
“Not only does the target lack ambition, but the policy lacks mechanisms that would get us even close to 50% electric vehicles by 2030,” said Senator Janet Rice, Australian Greens transport and infrastructure spokesperson.
“Labor’s EV announcement is nothing but an attempt to grab some headlines on climate change without any actual substance.”
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Doesn’t this just sound like an absolute par-tay!
Deputy prime minister and Nationals leader Michael McCormack and minister for urban infrastructure Alan Tudge will discuss the Liberal and National government’s investment in infrastructure.
That’ll be happening at 10.30am.
I am just not sure we can handle that much charisma this early on a Monday morning.
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We also have Mathias Cormann once again uttering the words “carbon tax”, this time to ABC radio:
Labor talks a lot, but what they have put out would harm the economy, would harm families, would cost jobs, would drive up unemployment and, indeed, Labor would bring back a carbon tax, they would force people across Australia to pay tens of billions of dollars in higher taxes, only for them to send that money overseas to pay for international carbon credits.
... You seem to be deliberately ignoring the fact that Labor have confirmed that they want to send money overseas to buy international carbon permits. That means that they will be imposing tens of billions of dollars in higher taxes on Australians, which should remain either in Australians’ pockets, so they can spend it here on Australia ... or should be available to government to invest on essential services here in Australia.
If Labor wants to buy international carbon permits, as they have said they would, they will have to increase the tax burden on Australians ... and that clearly is going back to the carbon tax, the discredited carbon tax arrangements of past Labor governments.
He, of course, was attacking Labor’s climate policy.
But this time around we have the admission from Tony Abbott’s former chief of staff Peta Credlin, who in early 2017 told Sky News this about the last time the Coalition used the carbon tax attack line:
Along comes a carbon tax. It wasn’t a carbon tax, as you know. It was many other things in nomenclature terms but we made it a carbon tax. We made it a fight about the hip pocket and not about the environment. That was brutal retail politics and it took Abbott about six months to cut through and when he cut through, Gillard was gone.
Mark Butler, also speaking to Fran Kelly, responded just a few minutes after Cormann:
What rubbish. Maybe he should go and talk to every single big business, including all of the businesses in his own state of Western Australia that cannot understand why a supposedly pro-market party has an objection to businesses trading in international carbon markets.
We allow business to trade in every other robust international market – why on earth would we not allow them to trade in international carbon markets? Provided of course that they are robust and they are credible, which is Labor’s position – and it is also the position of the Australian business community.
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On why Labor won’t be using the Kyoto carbon credits as part of its own 45% emission reduction plan, Mark Butler told the ABC this morning:
The first point to make is that we’re not going to meet the Kyoto commitment in 2020 – certainly not going to beat it.
The bipartisan commitment was to reduce pollution by 14% by 2020. But because pollution has been rising under this government, the government’s own data released several weeks ago says we’ll only have cut pollution by 11%.
So let’s dispel the myth that somehow we’re beating the Kyoto commitment. Ironically, what Scott Morrison is trying to do is take credit for the fact that in the early part of this decade, under Labor, we were overperforming on emissions cuts because of policies that Scott Morrison opposed tooth and nail.
So we’re not going to have Australia join a club that only currently has Ukraine as a member.
We’re taking a position consistent with UK, New Zealand, Germany, Sweden and other countries, to which we usually compare ourselves. As I said, we need real cuts in emissions – not dodgy accounting tricks.
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I’m not sure that Josh Frydenberg has approved this.
Or that, you know, this is how governments work.
The Bendigo Advertiser reports the Liberal Bendigo candidate, Sam Gayed, plans on beating Labor with the “anything you can do, I can do 10% better” strategy.
[Sam] Gayed planned on asking the Liberals to match and add 10% more funds to any pledge for community projects or initiatives within the Bendigo electorate.
“I believe the Liberals are best at managing the economy, producing a budget surplus. That’s why we can spend more on schools, hospitals and community projects,” he said.
The Labor member for Bendigo, Lisa Chesters, said the idea sounded like a “catchy marketing campaign”, rather than listening to the people of Bendigo.
“Is this federal politics or is this Bunnings Warehouse?” she asked.
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We are just being visited by a group of 12 students from Rotary who are here at Parliament House – and awkwardly watching me type this.
Always great to welcome visitors – particularly future leaders.
The PEO is pleased to be hosting the Rotary Adventure in Citizenship students in Budget Week once again. This program has been going for almost 30 years and gives students an insight into the workings of the Parliament. Including the Press Gallery. @Aust_Parliament @AmyRemeikis pic.twitter.com/ikvpipPauK
— Sarah Kippen (@kippen_sarah) March 31, 2019
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Is anyone even pretending we haven’t been in an election campaign since December any more?
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Scott Morrison and Greg Hunt will make a health announcement at 9.45.
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Back to domestic politics and for Labor, at least today, it is all about climate policy. As Katharine Murphy reports:
Labor will set a national electric vehicles target of 50% new car sales by 2030, and 50% for the government fleet by 2025, as well as allowing business to deduct a 20% depreciation for private fleet EVs valued at more than $20,000, as part of its climate change policy to be unveiled on Monday.
Bill Shorten will also flag a new pollution regulation on car retailers “in line with” 105g CO2/km for light vehicles, which is consistent with American emissions standards, but will consult on coverage and the timeline to phase in the change rather than impose it immediately.
That caveat notwithstanding, the signal is likely to trigger pushback. Efforts to impose pollution standards for vehicles have been derailed during the Coalition’s period in office, in part by internal opposition from Nationals, and by strenuous lobbying from influential stakeholders including motoring associations, driver groups and the Australian Institute of Petroleum.
As Guardian Australia revealed on Saturday, Labor will, if it wins the coming election, beef up the Morrison government’s heavily criticised safeguard mechanism.
It will use the existing architecture, but create new pollution reduction requirements for the aviation sector, cement, steel and aluminium, mining and gas, direct combustion and the non-electricity energy sectors.
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Things may be absolutely shizen at the moment.
But at least we’ll always have Kylie. Even Ireland wants to claim her. Or at least their prime minister does.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar asked pop star Kylie Minogue if he could welcome her to Ireland personally when she came to Dublin for a concert last year.
Mr Varadkar wrote a note to the Australian singer and actress on official headed notepaper from the Office of the Taoiseach, which was released following a freedom of information request.
The letter, which was signed “Leo V Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister)” was sent before Ms Minogue’s planned concert at Dublin’s 3Arena on October 7th, which she had to reschedule due to a throat infection.
“Dear Kylie,” the Taoiseach wrote. “Just wanted to drop you a short note in advance of the concert in Dublin. I am really looking forward to it. Am a huge fan! I understand you are staying in the Merrion Hotel which is just across the street from my office in Government Buildings. If you like, I’d love to welcome you to Ireland personally.”
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Mathias Cormann was sent out this morning to talk budget:
The budget tomorrow will show that the Coalition has been successful for the last 5.5 years in making the economy stronger, creating more jobs, driving the unemployment rate down and, indeed, putting the budget on a stronger and improving trajectory [for] the future … all essential things that Australians rely on funding can be guaranteed in the budget,” he told ABC radio this morning.
People will remember when Bill Shorten and Chris Bowen were last in government they left behind a weakening economy, rising unemployment and rapidly deteriorating budget situation. We have been able to turn this around. This is not the time to take risks with high-taxing, central command agenda. It would make the economy weaker and all Australians poorer.
That line – that Labor left the budget in a terrible condition last time it was in power – has been popping up from government MPs quite frequently lately. They all just seem to miss out the part about the GFC having occurred at the same time and the whole developed world saw their budgets tank at the same time.
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Speaking of April Fools’ and electioneering – Ed Husic has a new Facebook profile pic
Good morning
Happy April Fools’ Day.
More importantly, happy budget 2019 eve.
There is no budget tree in Canberra this year, because, well, it’s not the second Tuesday in May. But winter has arrived in the capital. So have the politicians. I am not saying our honourable representatives are the reason for the sudden chill, but I am not not saying that either.
Given how batshit crazy the last few weeks have been, and given how much we have to get through this week – censures, new senators, the last of the unofficial election campaigning, the budget, the budget reply, the upcoming trip to the governor general to launch the insanity officially – we have decided to run the blog a day early.
Parliament doesn’t officially sit until tomorrow. But Labor has announced its climate policy, just as the government is revving up its budget surplus preview, so there is plenty for us to chew over for the next few hours.
Mike Bowers is on deck, as is Katharine Murphy and Paul Karp and the rest of the Guardian brains trust. You also have 100% of my presence and the last 27% of my brain, so it should be a good brain.
While I hunt down a coffee to try to round my brain power up to 30%, remember you can find us in the comments, or social media – and I’m interested to know – when do you think Scott Morrison will head to Yarralumla? What day? What will be in the budget?
Ready?
Let’s get into it.
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