Good night and hush hush
Well, children of the revolution, I must depart a little early this evening in order to make preparations for the event I’m not allowed to tell you about for reasons I don’t understand. Thank you for your company today, as always.
So today, Wednesday.
- The text of the Australia-China trade deal made landfall, amidst much clapping. Stop clapping, Madam Speaker requested. Small huddles formed around the building as people tried to locate the fineprint in said text. As we say in our business, more to come.
- The Greens gave the government what it wanted on pensions. The government did not give the Greens what they said they wanted in return for passing pensions. Labor said dirty deals done cheap.
- Labor attempted not to participate in any re-enactments during the parliamentary day in order to try and forget just how atrocious The Killing Season was for them on Tuesday night. The government had no intention of letting Labor forget its self styled atrocity.
- Labor remembered to ask questions about whether the government had paid people smugglers (criminals) to return asylum seekers to Indonesia rather than the more conventional spooky practice of paying informants to stop criminal activities. The government continued to decline to answer the questions. Foreign minister Julie Bishop was asked whether she regretted ruling out something the prime minister was obviously not ruling out. Bishop said she wasn’t the regretful type.
- Citizenship is bubbling away. People inside the government want to see legal advice from the Solicitor General enough to stir on the sidelines. Labor is sending up flares that it won’t play ball on this issue if there’s a ministerial power without a full judicial process.
There was more, but that’s the guts of things.
Have a lovely evening. See you bright and early on the morrow.
Ball update
Midwinter ball update. The auction for various political folks is beginning to cook away. Here’s the state of play as of two minutes ago. The zero bids from this morning for Bill Shorten, Richard Di Natale and the Senate cross bench are looking more respectable.
Phew, eh?
- Tony Abbott $10,200
- Bill Shorten $9,600
- Malcolm Turnbull $8,700
- Julie Bishop $30,300
- Christopher Pyne and Anthony Albanese $4,185
- Richard Di Natale $2,000
- Penny Wong and Tanya Plibersek $3,100
-
The Senate crossbenchers $2,125
Daniel Hurst and I are reading the text of the China FTA amongst the day’s other moving parts. On a superficial read, the labour market testing provisions look like they might be troublesome for Labor – but the text also contains what look like contradictions to me – (a person who speaks only conversational trade text, not fluent trade text.) Before giving you incorrect information, I’ll wait for fluent trade speakers to help us all decode the mysteries.
As predicted, the government invoked public interest immunity to ignore the Senate return to order.
Speaking of enough being enough, folks with me yesterday will remember the Greens pursued a return to order in the Senate requiring the government to produce documents related to the reported payments to people smugglers.
The cut off was 3pm today.
Govt has refused to give docs to the Senate regarding payments for people trafficking. Shameful. Will the Senate consider this contempt?
— Sarah Hanson-Young (@sarahinthesen8) June 17, 2015
As predicted, the government isn’t playing ball. Green senator Sarah Hanson-Young wants to know whether she’s at the barricades solo.
Labor MPs clap Tanya Plibersek’s contribution at the conclusion.
Madam Speaker:
I think the definitive statement on clapping is enough is enough.
Robb’s speech is followed by a speech from Labor’s foreign minister Tanya Plibersek, who welcomes the milestone of the concluded FTA, welcomes the Chinese commerce minister Gao Hucheng to the parliament, but she doesn’t welcome the months it has taken to table the full text.
The prime minister has placed further questions on the notice paper. The trade minister Andrew Robb is making a ministerial statement on the China FTA.
For those of you sweating on the text, it’s just been published now and you can find it here.
Updated
Labor’s Tanya Plibersek.
Q: My question is to the minister for foreign affairs. Does the foreign minister stand by her statement last month that people smugglers are starting to use money they receive to fund terrorism?
Julie Bishop, who weaves carefully through a preamble before reaching for a put down:
I don’t expect to be lectured by the member for Sydney on matters to do with people smuggling.
I suggest she goes back to her special subject – continents that aren’t countries.
Regrets. I (haven't had) a few
The shadow immigration minister Richard Marles wants to know if the foreign minister now regretted ruling out payments to people smugglers. Julie Bishop says she doesn’t do regrets.
Updated
The manager of government business, Christopher Pyne, has been itching to get at the Killing Season, a program which reminded him of the Kardashians meets World Wrestling Federation.
Not bad, that.
The surprise, Pyne notes, was the key role played in the leadership coup by Tony Burke.
Most members of the Labor party would have been surprised, they wouldn’t have recognised the central role in the destruction of Kevin Rudd until they saw him talking about it himself on ‘The Killing Season’.
Most will remember he had absolutely nothing to do with it whatsoever.
Labor has decided to resume asking questions about payments to people smugglers.
Q: I refer to reports that the government is paying wads of cash to criminal people smugglers at sea to smuggle asylum seekers back to Indonesia. Is the prime minister concerned that these reports in Indonesia give criminal people smugglers new incentive to set out for Australia?
The prime minister says why should he address a question that Labor itself wouldn’t answer in specifics.
Tony Abbott:
I am going to say to members opposite that we adhere to Australian law. We add here to Australian law and we stop the boats. That is what we do.
I want to say to the leader of the opposition who asked this tawdry question, not only is what this government has done legal, it is moral, it is absolutely moral, because the most moral thing to do is to stop the boats and save lives.
The government is now asking itself to comment on its tax breaks for small business. How good are those tax breaks? Well, as you’ve asked me, good. Very good indeed.
On the way through, the treasurer Joe Hockey awards the manager of opposition business, Tony Burke, best supporting actor in a tragedy.
For his performance in The Killing Season.
Labor’s Jenny Macklin.
Q: Independent analysis shows that couples on incomes of $62,000 a year who are still in the work force and due to retire in 10 years time stand to lose over $8,000 a year from the prime mnister’s cuts to part pensions. Why is the prime minister making hard working Australians in their 50s and 60s pay for his broken promises?
This question is to the social services minister Scott Morrison.
Morrison says Labor is relying on poor advice.
In the red room, the attorney general George Brandis keeps trying to bring his answers around to last night’s episode of The Killing Season. When asked about allegations that the government paid people smugglers, he declared to the opposition benches in general:
Kim Jong Un was kinder to his uncle than you were to Kevin Rudd.
Labor’s Tanya Plibersek.
Q: Under this prime minister’s deal with the Greens to cut the pension, a single age pensioner with an income of less than $25,000 a year will lose $8,200 of their part pension every year. Does the prime minister think that pensioners with a super income of $25,000 a year are rich?
Tony Abbott:
No, I don’t, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, this line of questioning is driven by two things. First of all the Labor party’s embarrassment that the Greens are actually more economically responsible than they are on this issue – and, Madam Speaker, the wonky moral compass of a political party which wants to take money off pensioners with modest assets so that millionaire can get a part pension.
Oh dear, here’s the Shorten trousers.
The trouser king!
I missed Bob Katter deflowering coral. I confess I’m not sorry.
Wonderful chamber pic from Mikearoo.
And I want to say publicly thank you to the ABC. Thank you to the ABC.
I don’t normally say thank you to the ABC but I have to say Australia is indebted to you on this instance.
Labor’s Jenny Macklin.
Q: The leader of the Greens, Richard Di Natale, says that superannuation tax concessions are on the table as part of the deal to cut up to $8,000 from part pensioners. Prime minister, is that the case?
Tony Abbott:
Madam Speaker, no it’s not.
The prime minister says the government has extended the white paper process and some new submissions will doubtless be on retirement incomes.
I suspect that many of those submissions will say whatever you do, don’t increase taxes on superannuation. Whatever you do, don’t make superannuation more restrictive.
Madam Speaker, I will be able to say that this government will never do that. We are not going to increase taxes on superannuation and we are not going to make superannuation more restrictive but I tell you what we are going to do – we are going to give pensioners with modest assets a much better deal.
Back to how great is that China FTA.
So great than even Simon Crean says its great, says Andrew Robb, the trade minister. (Crean is a former Labor trade minister.)
Robb:
What China wants, we’ve got. What we want, China’s got. This agreement allows both our countries to play to our strengths and to make the most of our strengths.
This is a landmark agreement, one that is going to stand Australia in great stead.
The prime minister rises on indulgence. He’s seeking a round of applause for Andrew Robb because Australians yet unborn owe a debt of gratitude to this minister for this agreement.
Someone on the Labor side notes things just got weird.
Madam Speaker chooses another construction.
That was an unusual intervention. I said that was an unusual intervention and is not to be taken as a precedent.
Labor is still on pensions.
Bill Shorten.
Q: Independent analysis reveals that couples on lower than average incomes will be hardest hit by the prime minister’s cuts to part pensions. What does the prime minister say to hard working Australians in their 50s and 60s who suddenly find that the prime minister has cut their plans for modest retirement incomes?
(I suspect we should brace ourselves for Bill Shorten’s trousers.)
Tony Abbott:
What I say to all those decent hard working Australians who are putting something aside for their retirement is that their savings are safe under the Coalition.
(I was wrong. Still pants free Wednesday. Winning at life.)
The first Dorothy Dixer is ‘how great is that China FTA. Way great.’
Tony Abbott thanks the ABC. Mark it in your diaries
The prime minister continues.
Madam Speaker, it’s typical, I fear, of the leader of the opposition that he would verbal others in the way that he has just sought to verbal me. Madam Speaker, as everyone knows, the quote in question was in reference to the formation of a minority government. I was speaking about the formation of minority government and I said, Madam Speaker, that when it came to the formation of a minority government after the 2013 election, that there would be no deals with the Greens, there would be no deals with Independents, there would be no deals with anyone to form a minority Coalition Government because, Madam Speaker, we all know what happened the last time someone did a deal with the Greens to form a minority government.
Madam Speaker, that is exactly what the Labor party did.
Abbott returns to the Killing Season. He looks up into the gallery to make eye contact with ABC reporters.
And I want to say publicly thank you to the ABC.
Thank you to the ABC.
I don’t normally say thank you to the ABC but I have to say Australia is indebted to you on this instance.
Bill Shorten is opening on the dirty deal with the Greens.
Q: Before the election, the prime minister said, ‘Only the Coalition can be trusted when we say there will be no deals with the Greens. No deals with flaky Independents, no deals whatsoever. Given the prime minister has now done dirty deals with the Greens on the debt ceiling and slashing part pensions, how can Australians believe a single word this prime minister says?
Abbott lobs back right between the eyes.
I am a little surprised that the leader of the opposition should choose to start question time today talking about trust!
Given what we were told on ‘The Killing Season’ last night.
Question time
It being 2pm.
The prime minister is paying tribute to athlete Ron Clarke, who died today.
Over in the red room, the attorney-general George Brandis is declining to confirm that only portfolio minister Peter Dutton, himself and the prime minister has (thus far) seen advice from the Solicitor General about the citizenship revocation proposal. Brandis cannot confirm that, no.
Politics, this lunchtime
Good grief it’s nearly 2! Quick summary.
Today, Wednesday morning:
- We are in the process of signing an FTA with China. There are many fine diplomatic words about this happy day, this happy happy day. Facts will emerge later this afternoon. Labor wants to see the labour provisions and the ISDS clause.
- There is much finger pointing about the pension deal between the Greens and the Abbott government. Labor says it’s a dud. The Greens say it’s a start. The government says it’s a finish.
- Boats and payments to people smugglers are still hovering in the background, and a bunch of religious protesters concerned about children in detention, hovering peacefully in the front foyer, have been coveyed in orderly fashion to the exits.
- LDP senator David Leyonhjelm has bravely taken on big wind, going where tasteful types fear to go.
Doubtless there’s more. But sadly that will have to be it.
Stonewall time beckons.
Richard Marles is asked why Labor has backed off asking questions about the reported payments to people smugglers by Australian authorities.
He says Labor is not backing off. If people smugglers were paid, then ...
That is the equivalent of paying murderers not to murder, paying drug dealers not to go out there and make ice.
If that allegation is true, it is a disgrace.
So you’ll raise it at 2pm then?
Marles says people shouldn’t get hung up on question time tactics.
Labor signals again that citizenship stripping should occur only with a full judicial process
The shadow immigration minister Richard Marles is on ABC24, where he’s being asked about citizenship. Marles says the government should respect the expert view of Bret Walker, the former national security legislation monitor.
He made the point that he was only imagining people’s citizenship being stripped wither there had been a conviction, so he that implies a full judicial process.
Q: Is that the standard that you are seeking to apply?
Well, that’s what makes sense to me.
Marles is asked whether cabinet should have access to the legal advice from the Australian Solicitor General before the citizenship legislation is presented to parliament.
Q: You’ve been involved in these processes before. What’s important for them to see, the legal advice behind it or the bill that they are going to bring to the parliament? Do they have to see both?
Both. Obviously they have to see both. Cabinet is the supreme decision-making body in executive government.
Updated
Back to Love Making a Way, thanks to my colleague Shalailah Medhora.
About forty protesters were forcibly removed from parliament’s main foyer after a peaceful sit-in lasting about half an hour. Before security guards started moving them on, a female guard addressed the crowd, asking them if they would move on their own. She told them they were not in a designated protest zone, which was outside the building, and if they did not move willingly they would have to be removed by guards. When protesters said they understood but would not move, security guards began removing them. Each was helped up and removed by two guards. It was all very peaceful and orderly, with organisers praising the “respectful” way in which guards treated them. After being escorted out of the building, protesters regrouped and began singing outside the front doors of parliament. They moved on their own after a few minutes.
Updated
Back to the FTA.
The prime minister is saying things one would say when signing a big trade deal. Tony Abbott says Australia is a leading trading nation and our prosperity depends on that remaining the case.
Abbott says too that trade is about trust. This agreement is another giant step in the relationship, he says. He says this FTA is much more than just a bet on the world’s coming economic superpower, it’s proof of our trust in China.
Today is a truly historic step forward in our comprehensive strategic partnership. I hope all of you will remember today. One day we will be able to say to our children and grandchildren, that yes, we were there the day this extraordinary agreement was signed between our two countries.
Love, making its way.
Serious multi-channelling today. Unavoidable. Sorry. The formal signing ceremony for the China FTA is underway with the dignitaries. We expect to get a text this afternoon.
Love Makes a Way .. out the front door
This is the statement from the group protesting down at the front, Love Makes A Way. Mr Bowers informs me the ejection was all pretty orderly.
- A group of 40 Christian priests, nuns, pastors and other leaders, including a Catholic Bishop, have begun a sit-in prayer vigil in the main foyer of Australian parliament house, risking arrest by police for civil disobedience. The group, part of the Love Makes a Way movement, is calling on both major parties to have a change of heart on asylum seekers, beginning with the immediate release of all children and their families from Nauru Detention Centre.
Sister Jane Keogh, a 70 year-old Brigidine (Catholic) nun, said:
The ongoing shocking revelations of physical, sexual and psychological abuse of children on Nauru demand an immediate response. But instead of protecting these precious children, our government and opposition continue to put them in harm’s way. In fact, we are deporting even more children to Nauru, despite expert medical advice. We are here today to say to both major parties that the abuse has to stop.
Just while I wait for Mikearoo, here’s a flavour. Not an exceptionally friendly look in the people’s house, is it?
The protestors are singing as they are being walked out #asylumseekers pic.twitter.com/bF2KIn1iol
— Karen Barlow (@KJBar) June 17, 2015
I gather some pro-asylum protesters are being marched out of the building by security as we speak. I’ll have pictures and particulars shortly.
Big wind
The Senate is now debating the renewable energy target legislation. I’ll keep half an ear on that in amongst other things.
LDP senator David Leyonhjelm is currently bagging big wind. Yes, I’m afraid he is. Leyonhjelm says “compared to this bill” (the one that reduces the RET) he would prefer that nothing was done to the target.
He says if the RET remained at current levels, it would fail, it would drive up electricity prices and a strong public backlash would kill it.
The RET, he says, is ..
No more than a wind industry support fund.
The RET achieves nothing apart from making wind energy companies rich and consumers poor.
From Malcolm Farr at news.com.au
A former ALP powerbroker has firmly denied ever labelling Bill Shorten untrustworthy, after explosive claims were aired last night. Mark Arbib, then a Labor senator but now out of Parliament, told news.com.au: “It didn’t happen.”
(This is the comments I referenced earlier today from former Gillard staffer, Gerry Kitchener, who said Arbib had labelled Shorten untrustworthy during Labor’s leadership woes in 2010.)
Mark Arbib got a fair thrashing on episode two. Kevin Rudd suggested he didn’t have a soul.
I have a pants inquiry from The Matt Hatter – a dear soul and a great friend of Politics Live.
@murpharoo G'morning. An important question that can't be avoided - what's the trouser situation? #politicslive pic.twitter.com/UE1VVD6qRm
— The Matt Hatter (@MattGlassDarkly) June 17, 2015
Thus far I can report we are blissfully pants free. Given the social services minister Scott Morrison late yesterday withdrew his rather risque description of Bill Shorten as the trouser bandit we can dare to dream that this will be a pants free Wednesday.
Breaking. The Labor leader Bill Shorten is off the mark in the mid-winter ball auction. One bid $4,000.
Phone re-enactments over canapes optional.
Ni hao ma
Mikearoo is in exceptional form today.
Foreign minister Julie Bishop is firing up the pomp and paperwork I promised you in the first post.
It’s China FTA day.
A useful case study of why you don’t hold doorstops in the rain.
If you are a politician, and you hold a doorstop in the rain, you want to look like you are answering questions. But your actual intention is to get a line up and then flee as quickly as possible.
But it looks a bit of a mess, doesn’t it?
A short dispatch from Numptyville
I’d love to be able to share ball highlights with you all tomorrow morning – it’s always fun in one way or another.
But for reasons I don’t comprehend, we’ve apparently agreed that contributions at the ball this evening are off the record.
I just want to be clear that I haven’t agreed to that, I don’t know who did, and I don’t think we should have agreed as journalists to hold an off the record function where politicians will address many hundreds of people.
Not to put too fine a point on this, I think it’s ludicrous.
Ludicrous for us to sign up. Ludicrous for politicians to insist on sotto voce. Ludicrous for the politicians to give up a chance to be human in public. Look at the benefit the American president extracts from the annual Washington correspondents dinner – a chance to poke fun, a chance to demonstrate they are something more than a talking points spouting robot.
Imagine being human in public.
The horror. The horror.
Canberra really is numptyville.
Awks
Folks who keep close tabs on our affairs will know tonight is the annual nerd fest, the Mid Winter Ball – where the press gallery attempts to raise large sums for charity. Politicians kindly donate themselves to be auctioned off each year: lunches, dinners, soirees, anything.
The first thing I should say is there is always a last minute flurry with this auction. The second thing I’ll say is Julie Bishop is currently leading the bids at $25,100 for dinner (granted she has some bells and whistles, the dinner is in New York, with Hugh Jackman.) Next is Malcolm Turnbull on $8,100. The prime minister brings up the rear on $7,600.
Grimmer for the group we’ll call “others.”
Bill Shorten currently has Zero bids. The cross bench is zero. The Greens leader Richard Di Natale is zero.
If you’d like to change the calculus, and give money to charities, you can always storm ebay.
Various persons will thank you.
Updated
More scenes from prayers.
Madam Speaker, radiant, post prayer. Hymning in the rain.
And the prime minister meets a new friend. Nice chat here between Tony Abbott and Labor’s Joe Bullock, a fellow social conservative. I’m certain the PM’s grimace is just a trick of the light.
Updated
Pensions: looking through the fog of contention
Looking through the blame game of the morning on pensions, here’s some facts. The government’s pension reform proposal is fairer than their first go in the budget in 2014. But there are winners and losers. Folks with modest assets get more – 170,000 pensioners will gain $30 a fortnight according to the government’s figures. But folks at the top end lose out. Once a couple has assets worth $832,000 in addition to the family home, the part pension goes out the back door. At the moment the cut-off threshold for the part pension is just over $1m.
Now for some analysis.
Have the Greens done the right thing? Well that depends on whether or not you think there’s now enough pressure in the system to lead to a more substantial overhaul of the retirement incomes system, which currently feather beds the well off at the expense of people of modest means. In addition to the equity problem, there’s also a fiscal problem. The tax concessions for super are completely unsustainable. Anyone with a calculator and five minutes to think can see that.
If you think facts and logic mean that the government will inevitably have to look at changing the whole system, including the generous tax concessions for wealthy superannuants, then you’d probably back in this version of the pension overhaul, because it’s less nasty than the first government thought, which was to change the indexation of the benefit.
If you are an optimist, you’d say yes, and use your support to build momentum for the next change. That’s Richard Di Natale. Glass half full.
If you lack faith in the capacity of politics to get the real job done, then you might pass on this proposal. That’s Labor. Glass half empty.
Updated
Just because we deserve it.
The common denominator is him.
Bill Shorten. The new Albo
To the Killing Season now. Judging by the Twitter conversation last night, every politics tragic in the country was glued to Labor’s operatic bout of self indulgence, hosted by Sarah Ferguson.
Episode two really was quite something. Knowing these protagonists reasonably well, I didn’t expect them to all of a sudden wake up to the fact that the Australian public wasn’t much interested in their self-created drama then, and won’t be particularly empathetic about it now – but I confess I did not expect to see people re-enacting key moments in their own soap opera. The Labor senator Sam Dastyari was filmed in a Melbourne street re-enacting a phone call during the leadership crisis – leading various people to note he should aim high, perhaps best new talent in next year’s Logies? For this viewer, the acting sequences moved the piece elegantly from tragedy to high farce. You really do wonder what goes on inside their heads sometimes.
Bill Shorten is also appearing now – rather as Anthony Albanese did years ago in Rats in the Ranks, religiously off camera, but relentlessly in the thick of every plot. Gerry Kitchener, a former Gillard staffer, proved himself a pithy narrator in the episode. As my colleague Lenore Taylor reports in her summation this morning:
When Gillard emerged from the late-night meeting resolved to mount a challenge, Kitchener recounts the role Shorten played in getting her the numbers. “Shorten was in the office, he was down the back but he throughout the evening he was bringing in MPs, a lot of MPs from Queensland, to meet with Julia. I think it is fair to say, whatever Bill’s faults may or may not be he knows how to work the numbers and he was bringing people until late into the night,” he said.
But he also revealed what New South Wales right factional leader and then senator Mark Arbib thought about Shorten. Arbib had played a key role in fomenting the leadership plot. “He pulled out a ministerial list and started going through his thoughts about Julia’s next ministry,” Kitchener said.
“He then went through and had a rant about Kevin Rudd and how he couldn’t be allowed in the ministry. And then he came down to Bill Shorten’s name and he said you couldn’t trust Bill Shorten, that he would do Julia in, that the one thing she couldn’t do was ever give him industrial relations cause he’d use it to solidify the union base to knock her off.”
Given this will thunder all day, let me do you a favour and just give you the edited highlights of the political “discussion” about the pensions deal struck overnight.
Labor is characterising it as dirty deeds done cheap. The Greens are characterising it as the first step towards sensible retirement incomes policy. The government is self-congratulating its self-evident policy and tactical genius, and slamming Labor.
Scott Morrison is also firing up the zings.
Bill Shorten is characterised in a formulation that Shorten himself would approve of. Morrison says Shorten is ..
... stranded on an island of his own making.
The island of reactionary politics.
(You don’t want to think about that island, do you.)
I didn’t catch Bill Shorten’s contribution at the prayer breakfast but his office has now circulated his speech. Here’s an excerpt.
Like perhaps many of us in public life – like indeed like most Australians – I’m a bit shy about talking about my own faith. It is, though, a large part of who I am – it always will be. Of course, it’s not for me, nor I believe for anyone to co-opt their particular faith in their service of a political point. Instead for me, faith will always be a personal guide - a keeper of my conscience.
So this morning I would suggest perhaps there’s a higher duty we owe: as Muslims, Christians, Jews and Buddhists. There’s a duty of respect, of love, of compassion and care for all who share our Southern Cross.
A duty to embrace others for who they are, not judge them for who they are not.
This has never been more important than in trying times for our nation’s soul. At an American interfaith breakfast in February this year, president Obama warned of the dangers of: “Faith being twisted and distorted ... used as a wedge – and worse, sometimes used as a weapon”.
The same lesson holds here for us here in Australia. In a free society, we may choose to define ourselves by our faith.
But we must never seek to define - or exclude - others, because of their faith.
You’ve got to have faith.
The prime minister was stopped by reporters on his way back from the interfaith prayer breakfast at Old Parliament House. He was asked why the full cabinet had not yet seen legal advice from the Solicitor-General about the proposed citizenship laws. Given several leading constitutional lawyers don’t know how the government will make its proposal to revoke citizenship conform with the constitution – this legal advice would seem reasonably important.
Abbott resolutely ignored the question, and departed quickly.
It’s shock and awe on the airwaves this morning. In one of the Greens leader Richard Di Natale’s interviews, he’s confirmed the Greens remain in discussions with the government over indexing fuel excise. No resolution yet. Talks continue.
The communications minister Malcolm Turnbull has also been on ABC Radio National. Folks with me yesterday will know Turnbull continued the boundary riding he’s been doing recently on the government’s citizenship proposal. Lawyer Turnbull can’t quite hide the fact he’s a fan of the rule of law.
Funny fish that he is.
This morning, Turnbull tells his host Fran Kelly that arguing that a law needs to be constitutional (which is part of what he’s been saying recently) is ..
... about as revolutionary as saying laws need to pass the House of Representatives and the Senate.
That’s true as a point of fact.
But this is politics, where everything is out of joint. It’s a true sign of the febrile times that this intervention is characterised as foment. More working an angle than foment, I’d say.
Shadow trade minister Penny Wong has been interviewed by Sky News about the China free trade agreement. Wong said Labor has not yet seen the details of the text, but will “examine the agreement closely.” Wong expressed Labor’s long-held concern over whether local jobs were protected in the deal, and whether clauses allowing companies to sue to the Australian government were included in the document. But she stopped short of saying the inclusion of those elements would be deal-breakers for the opposition, saying China was “critical” to Australia’s prosperity. The deal will be signed later this morning.
Beyond superb. Madam Speaker at prayer. Good morning Mike Bowers.
On the airwaves, the social services minister Scott Morrison isn’t pretending the government gave the Greens a quarter inch for this pensions deal.
Q: The government has agreed, as you say, in return for the Greens agreeing to supporting this bill to look at superannuation as part of your tax white paper. But the government has already ruled out adverse changes to super this term and changes next term. So you’ve got a predetermined position on this. It’s a pretty good deal this?
Scott Morrison:
Our position is very clear.
We won’t be increasing taxes on superannuation.
Faith doesn't make us good, it makes us better
Greens leader Richard Di Natale and social services minister Scott Morrison are tripping over one another in our corridor as they hit the airwaves to sell their ‘pension peace in our time.’ Both are facing questions about people smugglers. I’ll chase that down shortly.
Over at the interfaith breakfast, Tony Abbott has wandered in while people were praying. He’s a bit mortified by this, and apologises. The prime minister notes that parliament has long had a Christian group. He’s pleased to see this expand to an interfaith group, because faith is a bedrock.
The prime minister:
Faith matters. These days, more than ever, it’s important we have faith.
He recounts a prayer card I remember from my youth – the Footprints reflection. In case you weren’t given prayer cards to memorise as a child, here’s the reflection.
One night I dreamed a dream.
As I was walking along the beach with my Lord.
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
One belonging to me and one to my Lord.After the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,
especially at the very lowest and saddest times,
there was only one set of footprints.This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.
“Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,
You’d walk with me all the way.
But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I don’t understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me.”He whispered, “My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you.”
Abbott says the challenge for all of us is to believe that God carries us in moments where we feel alone. He says, frankly, faith is all we have in the difficult circumstances of life. If we lack faith in God, then we have faith in others, or faith in enduring values.
The prime minister says the Christian maxim of loving your neighbour as yourself is the engine of all moral progress. Faith, he says, doesn’t make us good, it makes us better.
Abbott notes he gets letters from people who want him to be better.
Yes, I want to do better too.
He thanks people for these letters, and he thanks correspondents ..
.. for what you do to keep us strong.
Good morning folks and welcome to Wednesday. The forecast is overcast and warm, with a strong chance of pomp and paperwork.
Despite the fact a new survey finds Australians are not much interested in political news, the political news thunders on vigorously irrespective of the alleged audience indifference. (Someone really needs to tell our readers they’re not interested in political news. They seem to think they are. Many of our peeps seem to be interested in following events in Canberra live, for ten hour stretches. Bless ‘em.)
Moving forward.
The main political story in the news cycle first up today is the pension deal between the Abbott government and the Greens which surfaced late yesterday. Blogans and bloganistas with me yesterday know the sequence. Early in the day Labor confirmed it would knock back the government’s proposed assets test for the pension. That punched a $2.4bn hole in the budget bottomline. Only a few hours later, the government emerged with a deal with the Greens. The Greens had indicated they might play ball on pensions if the government agreed to a review of retirement incomes, including a review of generous super tax concessions. In the end, the Greens agreed to pass the measure without a proper review into retirement incomes. The government gave them a few extra weeks consultation associated with the tax white paper. This morning, Greens community affairs spokesperson senator Rachel Siewert says the Greens are building the campaign for super reform. Labor says the Greens have been completely dudded.
Boats and alleged payments to people smugglers is still red hot for everyone apart from the Labor party, which yesterday went very quiet. The ABC has new documents. Take it away Indonesia correspondent, George Roberts.
The documents, provided to the ABC by local police deputy chief commissioner Ronalzie Agus, detailed the journey of the asylum seekers from West Java to the waters off East Timor and back to Indonesia. In their investigation into the turn-back operation and the allegations that Australia paid money to the crew, Indonesian police have interviewed six witnesses as well as the captain and crew of the boat. Some of the passengers have also reported that an Australian Customs official paid money to the crew of the asylum seeker boat.
As we go live this morning, Tony Abbott and Bill Shorten are at an interfaith prayer breakfast. I’ll let you know if any come to Jesus moment ensues.
We’ll also get the signing of the free trade agreement between Australia and China (hence my weather forecast.) That means we’ll finally see a text of this agreement, which will doubtless be interesting, and quite possibly, lively.
Lots on, as you can see.
The comments thread is open for business, so get into it. Mikearoo and I are open for business on the Twits @murpharoo and @mpbowers
Refresh your beverages, devour your morning gluten, here comes Wednesday.
