Night time politics
That is it for the night.
- It looks as though the Coalition has the numbers to pass its amended school funding bill. Under joint negotiations with the Greens and the crossbenchers the bill, which implements a national student funding formula, will also have an independent school resourcing body, more and faster funding and mandated state contributions. We also think there will be a 12-month transitional fund for Catholic and independent schools. The government is relying on the crossbench votes – a fact that was settled on while the Greens still thought they were negotiating their deal.
- Chief scientist Alan Finkel says the Clean Energy Target is not dead even though it looks dead. A reverse auction, where power suppliers bid in, might be a thing, he said. But he would not buy into whether the Coalition should invest taxpayer dollars in a coal-fired power station.
- Anthony Albanese and Bill Shorten condemned the threats of CFMEU’s John Setka, when he told a rally that he would lobby the families and communities of Australian Building and Construction Commission inspectors. The Coalition made much of it in question time.
- Senator Lucy Gichuhi gave her first speech, talking about her childhood in Kenya, her migration to Australia and her philosophical views on welfare and work.
It felt like a much longer day than that but it was the incremental moves that have us falling asleep at the keyboard. Thanks to the brains trust, Paul Karp, Katharine Murphy and Gareth Hutchens. Mike Bowers’ photos were spectacular from the start of the day to the finish. I notice that the Pauline Hanson photo has gone viral.
Tomorrow is another Gonski day, given the Senate has voted to debate the school funding bill until it is done. That is, till midnight tonight and close of business tomorrow.
So it’s not over yet.
Good night.
P.S. One more family pic from Lucy Gichuhi, with her mum.
Updated
Alia leaves the chamber.
Given Lucy Gichuhi’s key role on the crossbench, everyone came to the chamber. It was a longish speech so it pinned everyone in the Senate, including Turnbull and Shorten and the education minister, who presumably still has school funding business to transact.
I must say though, it was a delight to hear about her childhood in Kenya, her upbringing and her transition to Australia.
Updated
Both leaders have visited the Senate for Lucy Gichuhi.
Updated
Lucy Gichuhi talks about her childhood in Kenya, spending time with her grandmother in her hut with goats and chickens. She talked about the stories by the fire.
There was so much laughter and stories about anything and everything, including the Mau Mau uprising.
She told me the only part of a woman should use to make money is her brains.
Gichuhi says corporate welfare model should be traded for a more sustainable approach.
I have learned that spending money you have not worked for an inhibits your capacity for becoming all you could be.
She agrees with Malcolm Turnbull’s statement that the best form of welfare is a job.
Gichuhi says for a while, she and her husband - an accountant -had no work. She says she was scared of getting welfare because she wasn’t used to getting money for nothing.
I could choose to be a victim and receive a hand out for a long time, or I could find a job and learn how to balance work and family life.
Lucy Gichuhi talks about her cultural dislocation in moving to Australia. She and her family moved into an Adelaide house with a vacuum cleaner on the wall. She didn’t know what it was and instructed her children not to touch the tortoise shaped thing. When a real estate agent inspected the place, he complained about the carpet and suggested she vacuum. I don’t have one, she said. He pointed to the tortoise on the wall.
The floor was spotless before he left.
She uses it as an analogy for the misunderstandings between different cultures.
Gichuhi is a lawyer and talked about how hard it is balance work and home life, for parents raising children, especially single parents. She talks about the difficulties for families.
Lucy Gichuhi says her father taught her to aim for the sun and land on the moon.
She talks about having no shoes as a child but she says she learned true poverty was being unable to freely choose your own destiny.
Gichuhi says Australia has shown her the strength of diversity.
I learned how beautiful it is when differences bring us together...I am proud to be a black African Australian.
Senator Lucy Gichuhi is making her first speech. She says she is proud to be the first black African senator in the Australian senate.
She was born and raised in Kenya.
I should clarify this hours motion is taking hours because there was first a suspension motion, then a closure motion and now the hours motion.
The hours motion is taking hours.
The horrors.
This is still going on.
Notwithstanding the assumptions all around that the schools bill has support, there is still furious lobbying going on.
The Senate is dividing now on the hours motion. Usually the government will have the numbers to change the hours of the Senate if they have the numbers for the bill itself.
Updated
Former Keating govt minister Con Sciacca has died after a long battle with cancer. Loved by both sides. Always good for a yarn. #auspol
— Mark Ludlow (@M_Ludlow) June 21, 2017
Very sad. He taught me new swear words. https://t.co/U4g4YGihQi
— James McGrath (@JamesMcGrathLNP) June 21, 2017
Updated
Tony Abbott is on 2GB declining the invitation to call out Pauline Hanson’s comments suggesting autistic students should not be in mainstream classrooms.
This is what Hanson said in the education debate.
These kids have a right to an education by all means, but if there’s a number of them these children should actually go into a special classroom, looked after and given that special attention.
Most of the time the teacher spends so much time on them they forget about the child who wants to go ahead in leaps and bounds in their education but are held back by those.
It’s no good saying we have to allow these kids to feel good about themselves and we don’t want to upset them and make them feel hurt.
Abbott says there is a whole “industry” outraged at Pauline Hanson and supporting Hanson and he is not going to buy in.
Updated
Penny Wong speaks against the hours motion because we don’t know what the deal is.
George Brandis, leader of the government in the Senate, is varying the hours in the Senate to get the Gonski 2.0 bill through. If this motion passes, the Senate will sit until midnight tonight and tomorrow until the bill is dealt with.
This is a rare opportunity for this Senate to break a decades-long dispute about school funding.
Updated
Message to Pauline:
The proof is in the pudding @PaulineHanson. Mainstreamed all the way now so many world firsts. A valued & loved man. Inclusion works.#autism pic.twitter.com/sVcWvEExUj
— laser beak man (@Laser_Beak_Man) June 21, 2017
Lisa Singh is moving a pro-yoga motion in the Senate for the International Day of Yoga. pic.twitter.com/GLLsp1MGnC
— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) June 21, 2017
Richard Di Natale says if the government wants to do a transition deal for the Catholics, the Greens will not support it.
There is additional funding for the Catholic sector under this model.
(But we have yet to see the details of the amendments for the crossbench.)
Hanson-Young jumps in to say one more thing.
It’s disgusting that Pauline Hanson thinks kids with autism should not be in our classrooms...what sort of woman is Pauline Hanson, what sort of mother? It is disgusting.
Hanson-Young: we have secured more money for public schools and a national funding body. #auspol
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) June 21, 2017
Richard Di Natale is being very cagey about the role of the Australian Education Union. He does not want to criticise the union’s role.
He says the AEU supported the four elements the Greens took into negotiations.
After sweating blood, nothing.
Richard Di Natale says he thought the negotiations with the government were going OK.
We thought those talks were progressing really well when the bells rang.
He says he thought the party was making progress on special funding for disabilities and ditching the deal done with the Catholic education sector.
Updated
Greens: we cannot see needs based funding if the Catholics get a special deal
Greens leader Richard Di Natale and Sarah Hanson-Young are up now.
Di Natale says they are disappointed that the government have offered a special deal to the Catholic sector, which is a 12 month delay.
Di Natale says he literally found out about the crossbench deal when they were called from the negotiating room to the chamber for a vote.
Hanson-Young says there should be no special deals.
That means no special deals for the Catholics.
She says she always wanted to do the right thing by the public school sector, given she is a result of a public school and her daughter goes to a public school.
She says part of the reason Gonski 1.0 was not effective was that the “Catholics squealed like hell because they didn’t want the light shone in dark corners”.
We need to make sure public schools are the gold standard, not the safety net.
Hanson-Young says it seems needs based funding will not occur if the Catholic system get a special deal.
Updated
Calla Walquist reports:
Two of the Turnbull government ministers who could face contempt of court proceedings have deleted tweets containing criticisms of the Victorian judiciary.
The human services minister, Alan Tudge, the health minister, Greg Hunt, and the assistant treasurer, Michael Sukkar, were ordered to appear before the Victorian court of appeal on Friday to explain comments they made to the Australian, describing the appeal bench as “hard-left activist judges” who were “divorced from reality” and conducting an “ideological experiment”.
Bowen to Turnbull: In 10 days time nearly 700,000 Australians will have their penalty rates cut. While millionaire also get a tax cut. Given real wages are going backwards, will the Prime Minister use what’s left of this Parliamentary sitting week to stop millionaires getting the tax cut and stop ordinary workers getting their pay cut?
Turnbull goes to the company tax cuts as the method for increasing wages. But he spends most of the answer on CFMEU official John Setka.
Shorten to Turnbull: This morning it is reported that a Liberal Party member and a mother of a child at Corpus Christi said “I can’t begin to describe how disappointed I am with the government right now, that we are being hung out the dry by our own MPs. Why is the Prime Minister hanging the parents of school children out to dry just because they choose to send their children to a Catholic primary school?
Turnbull says the Catholic sector will see a substantial increase in funding over 10 years - $81bn or an increase of $3.4bn in total.
Plibersek to Turnbull: On Monday in question time the prime minister claimed funding for students with a disability in Tasmania would not be cut by one-third or $12 million in 2018. Yesterday the prime minister again refused to admit he was cutting their funding. Has the prime minister now seen this answer to a question on notice issued by his own education department which confirms his cut? Will the prime minister now admit that he mislead the House on Monday, or is he so arrogant that he can’t admit he got it wrong?
Turnbull says under Gonski 2.0, the funding loading for disabled kids will change. Previously students with disabilities were funded at the same rate no matter what their level of disability.
Now there will be three different loadings from:
- supplementary: 42% in primary, 33% in secondary.
- substantial: 146% in primary, 116% in secondary.
- extensive: 312% in primary, 240% in secondary.
It is a nationally consistent measure and what it means is that more students in Tasmania and across the country will be receiving supplementary support.
Updated
Shorten to Turnbull: A press release by the National Catholic Education Commission this afternoon calls on senators to vote against the plan that will not deliver needs-based funding. Why is this prime minister punishing parents who choose to give their children a Catholic education with this rushed legislation? Why won’t he take it back to the drawing board and start again?
Josh Frydenberg takes the question and goes over the same ground.
Updated
Labor to Turnbull: According to the National Catholic Education Commission St Theresa’s Catholic Primary School in the electorate of Corangamite will have to increase its fees by as much as $2,841 because of the Prime Minister’s $4. 6bn cut to Catholic schools. Why is the prime minister making parents of Catholic school children pay more while giving millionaires a tax cut in just 10 days’ time?
Turnbull accuses Labor of mocking children.
Not sure how we got there ...
But what is interesting is the PM is still using the $18bn of additional funding over the decade – which was the original bill.
The Greens and the crossbench were negotiating more money at a faster rate, some $5bn on top of the $18bn. It may be that the extra funding needs to be ticked off by the expenditure review committee. Or maybe there is something different in the compromise package.
Updated
So the questions are going back and forth on school funding.
Then Christopher Pyne takes a question on the CFMEU official John Setka, which was covered earlier.
Pyne contrasts Anthony Albanese’s condemnation with Shorten’s comments.
Indi MP Cathy McGowan asks Darren Chester: In 2016 the government commissioned an independent review of the Regional Development Australia program to make recommendations on the future scope, structure and delivery model of RDAs. I understand that the government received the final report after the independent reviewer, Warwick Smith, in January. Minister, RDAs have the ability to play a crucial part in the inquiry into the regional development and decentralisation, which has been undertaken by theHouse of Representatives, but to do this they need certainty about their future. Minister, can you tell the House when will the government release this report, provide certainty to the RDAs.
Chester says the minister has received the report and the government is considering its options. He does not say when it will be released.
Chester tells her to get on board with the Coalition.
You have to pick a team.
Note to Chester: McGowan is an independent.
Updated
Labor to the PM: Data released by the New South Wales government show that because of the prime minister’s $22 bn cut to schools in the electorate of Gilmore over the next two years, over $1.3 m will be cut from Nowra East public school, and over $890,000 will be cut from Sanctuary Point public school. Has the member for Gilmore made any representations at all to the prime minister about these cuts to schools in her electorate?
Speaker Tony Smith rules it out of order.
I’m ruling that question out of order. I will say it is very clearly out of order, because the prime minister is not responsible for the statements of other members. Whether they have made representations or not.
Labor rephrases the question to end with, what would the prime minister say to the parents of the students in those schools about these cuts?
That question is in order and the PM says all schools in the electorate of Gilmore will receive more money.
Turnbull says parents deserve to know whether the money is there in the budget.
It is committed and it’s paid for and it’s in the budget. We’ve done that. We have done the hard yards.
Updated
The latest wrap on Gonski 2.0 from Paul Karp.
Shorten to Turnbull: When will the prime minister simply withdraw this rushed legislation, go back to the drawing board, and stop $22 bn worth of cuts to schools?
Turnbull says the $22bn was funny money.
It was never, ever paid for. And every member of the Gillard government at the time knew that. It was a parting shot. A parting shot nobody in the schools sector – Catholic, independent or public school sector – ever believed.
Updated
Plibersek to Turnbull: In the prime minister’s Closing the Gap report this year, the prime minister appears in a photo at Fregon school in the remote APY lands. Can the prime minister confirm that Fregon school will lose over $100,000 next year compared to actual funding it received in 2015? Why use these kids for a photo opportunity and then cut funding to their school?
Turnbull says the teachers in the APY lands are doing an amazing job.
My government is providing more funding to support schools and particularly children in remote areas, Indigenous students, than ever before.
He commits to reporting to her later in QT.
Updated
Baby Alia, in time for the Gonski 2.0 debate.
Updated
Question time coming up people.
In the meantime, Labor MP Pat Conroy is brandishing the parliamentary state of origin touch footy game this morning. He commends small biz minister Michael McCormack for side stepping Pauline Hanson to score a try. He also notes that he is (NOT) too modest to say that he scored a try past Barnaby Joyce. NSW beat Queensland 9-4.
Lunchtime politics
- The Turnbull government has won widespread crossbench support for its schools package in a Senate vote after making concessions, including a purported promise that Catholic schools will not have their funding growth cut pending a review.
- Concessions to the Nick Xenophon Team and Jacqui Lambie, as described by those senators, include the creation of a national schools resource body, delivering the package in six years not 10 with an extra $4.9bn in funding; compelling the states to increase their funding; and preserving the status quo for Catholic schools for 12 to 18 months.
- Early on Wednesday afternoon the government won a vote at the second reading stage of the bill with the support of One Nation, NXT, Lambie, Derryn Hinch and Lucy Gichuhi.
- If those 10 crossbench senators continue to vote with the government, the bill can be passed without the Greens, who have been dealing extensively with the government but have not concluded a final position and voted against the move to bring on the second reading.
- If the Senate grouping holds, education minister Simon Birmingham will have crafted a package that addresses retiring Western Australian senator Chris Back’s concerns for the Catholic sector, and avoids the added difficulty in the Coalition partyroom of being seen to deal with the Greens.
- Chief scientist Alan Finkel has refused to buy into whether the Coalition should in invest in new coal facilities.
- Both Anthony Albanese and Bill Shorten have distanced themselves from a CFMEU officials alleged threat involving Australian Building and Construction Commission inspectors and their families. Albanese said it was appropriate that the matter was referred to the police.
Updated
Over to chief scientist Alan Finkel because there is just not enough going on in the building ...
Katharine Murphy asks ‘Is it a good idea for any government at this point in the economic transition, with a view to Australia’s emissions reduction agreement and the world’s emissions reductions agreements, to be contemplating building an HELE [high-efficiency low-emissions] coal plant?
Finkel
So my personal opinion, the panel’s opinion, the review, it’s all about the long term, and what you’re trying to do with that question and the other questions is get me to pass an opinion or a judgement on a [system]
Murph: “You’re perfectly qualified”
Finkel:
for a short-term need. It’s not going to be decadal impact. I just don’t know enough about how the process will be run, what the result will be. Even whether the process will be run in the first place. It is what you have to call a hypothetical.
Updated
Chief scientist Alan Finkel sees a place for "reverse auction" to get bids to reduce emissions. @PressClubAust
— David Crowe (@CroweDM) June 21, 2017
Finkel offers no endorsement for coal. Says it's up to government on taking bids to build new coal power. https://t.co/vuLxwaNzWn
— David Crowe (@CroweDM) June 21, 2017
Christopher Knaus reports:
A Chinese student organiser and gold trader linked to ALP Senate candidate Simon Zhou used a shell company to donate $45,000 to the Labor party while working for the shadow assistant treasurer in last year’s federal election campaign.
Xin “Filip” Shu, then 26, began working casually for Labor’s Matt Thistlethwaite during the election campaign, after finishing stints with several gold traders, including one now known to be involved in a $143m gold-trading tax scandal.
Mike Bowers was in the chamber when for the second reading of Gonski 2.0.
Birmingham was on the phone in the latter stages of the debate.
After Derryn Hinch spoke in favour, the speakers ran out and the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, called on a vote.
Bowers says that took the Greens by surprise and there were hurried conferences as the vote was taking place.
And just after.
Soon after, it became clear the government “at this stage, says Lambie” has her support. That is the 10th vote, the magic number.
It would appear the Greens were cut out, in favour of a deal with the crossbench.
Not relying on the Greens vote makes it politically easier for Turnbull and Birmingham in their own party room with the three As – Tony Abbott, Eric Abetz and Kevin Andrews.
Updated
While it seems that the government has a deal with the crossbenchers, there are no official amendments on the chamber documents yet. But the consensus in the debate from the players is:
- Faster rollout of funding, from 10 years to six
- Binding the states to commit their funding
- Independent school funding body to oversee funding formulas and audits
- For the next 12 months, a delay to changes to the Catholic system. The details on this are a bit sketchy and may mean different things to different senators, so all things are liable to change without notice.
Updated
Nick Xenophon predicts the cross media ownership will not get through the Senate this week.
Updated
UPDATE: I will support Gonski 2.0 at this stage pic.twitter.com/b15x6Fduo2
— Jacqui Lambie (@JacquiLambie) June 21, 2017
Jacqui Lambie, Nick Xenophon and his colleagues Rebekha Sharkie and Sky Kakoschke-Moore are holding a doorstop on Gonski 2.0.
They were asked about threats by the Australian Education Union to campaign against them.
Lambie gets her back up and says she will put it back on the AEU and ask them why they are not teaching kids properly.
Xenophon says meh, there is such a long list of people out to get me...
Meanwhile at the Press Club, Alan Finkel is comparing the national electricity market to an Italian novel.
Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel will conclude press club speech by comparing the electricity market to plot of an historical Italian novel: pic.twitter.com/Aso3RrRdaY
— Mark Di Stefano 🤙🏻 (@MarkDiStef) June 21, 2017
Government appears to have numbers on Gonski 2.0
Independent Jacqui Lambie is supporting the school funding bill “at this stage”.
This would appear to give the government the numbers to pass the bill.
Education minister Simon Birmingham paints himself as the saviour of Gonski, the guy that fixes the problem.
He says the Greens have been thoughtful contributors in the public debate on this issue.
He says Labor would rather play politics on this issue.
It’s never been for them about applying needs-based funding across Australia. It is about a political wedge.
This how I see it.
- Labor’s original intentions under Julia Gillard was to sort school funding through Gonski.
- Due to the leadership fights and the minority parliament, her hands were tied and she could not complete deals quickly enough. The Coalition states were agin her but Gonski 1.0 was a good start.
- The Coalition never believed in needs-based funding until recently – Tony Abbott broke his promise about being on the Gonski ticket in 2013 – so this latter-day conversion to needs-based funding is the ultimate reverse ferret.
- But now that most of the Coalition have accepted it, Labor should welcome it and promise to ramp up funding when we get there. Due to competing constituencies, Labor will find it harder to stare down Catholic and independent schools.
- If Labor are worried about enshrining the 80-20 split between public and private schools, they can also fix that with Greens support when they are in government.
Updated
Labor's attempt to amend Gonski 2.0 fails
Senate now votes to move the school funding bill to a committee stage, where senators can ask direct questions of the minister about the legislation.
#BREAKING Independent senator Lucy Gichuhi will support the government's Gonski 2.0 school funding package.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) June 21, 2017
Meanwhile... Australian Government MP George Christensen is up praising Philippines president Duterte as "one of the great world leaders" pic.twitter.com/Wy5b2SGPkG
— Mark Di Stefano 🤙🏻 (@MarkDiStef) June 21, 2017
The Labor amendment says this:
the Senate notes that the bill: (a) would result in a $22.3 billion cut from Australian schools, compared with the existing arrangements;
(b) removes extra funding agreed with states and territories for 2018 and 2019, which would have brought under-resourced schools to their fair funding level;
(c) locks in sector specific payments of 80% SRS for non-government schools and just 20% for government schools, the very opposite of a sector blind model;
(d) sees the Commonwealth government abandon all responsibility for ensuring that Australian students reach, at a minimum, 95 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS).
(e) reduces funding to some wealthy overfunded schools, which Labor supports. However, it also increases funding for other overfunded schools, while cutting funding to some of our most vulnerable school students;
(d) would particularly hurt public schools, which receive less than 50% of funding under the Government’s proposal, compared to 80% of extra funding in Labor’s school funding plan; and
(e) results in only one in seven public schools reaching their fair funding level after 10 years.”
Note d,e,d,e. That is what the amendment says.
The Senate is voting on the Labor amendment moved by Jacinta Collins.
Updated
Jacqui Lambie has finished her Gonski speech and I am no clearer as to which way she will vote.
Derryn Hinch is speaking now. He will support.
Simon Holmes a Court has taken issue with my definition of dispatchable power.
dispatchable: power that can be turned on & off at will
— simon holmes à court (@simonahac) June 21, 2017
baseload: min. cont. power required
(coal's dispatchability has significant limits)
I bow to his knowledge.
Independent senator Jacqui Lambie is critical of the government’s lack of consultation with the Catholic sector. She says the Coalition is always waiting until the last minute and then tries to push legislation through while blaming the chaotic Senate.
She also criticises Labor for claiming they implemented the full Gonski when their model was a compromise on the “true Gonski”. She says Labor’s system has not improved the Tasmanian system.
Updated
Nick Xenophon up now in the Senate.
He says David Gonski’s appearance at the Turnbull press conference was an endorsement of the bill.
I strongly support the intent of the legislation but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement.
Xenophon says the fast-tracking of the funding means the schools will get to the School Resourcing Standard in six years rather than 10.
He says the states’ requirement to maintain their end of the funding is important.
He strongly supports an independent body to monitor the funding model, including the socioeconomic model which is such a concern to the Catholic sector.
Xenophon says Labor’s Gonski was a flawed “knock-off” of the original report which perpetuated special deals.
The $22bn is Labor’s promise … they have not been able to follow through on it.
He says it is not comparing apples with apples but imaginary pears.
Xenophon will not vote against a bill that provides extra funding and a better model.
This will be a good outcome for students around the country and I don’t want the perfect to be the enemy of the good.
Updated
Malcolm Roberts has spoken on the Gonski report. It involved East and West Germany and his kids’ Montessori school.
Updated
The cross-media ownership bill passed the lower house and will sit in the Senate queue.
Updated
@DavidLeyonhjelm says won't vote for any Gonski deal that increases spending, esp the 6-year bring forward.
— Phillip Coorey (@PhillipCoorey) June 21, 2017
Greens senator Janet Rice is speaking on Gonski 2.0.
She says the Labor claim that the Turnbull plan cuts $22bn in school funding is meaningless.
It is a cut of what Labor promised at the 2016 election, not a cut on the status quo. That is, if this bill does not pass, schools will not get $22bn extra over the next decade. She says if Labor wanted to lock in that $22bn, they should have locked it in in 2013 before the election that brought Abbott to power.
They chose not to do this because they wanted to use school funding in political game playing.
Updated
With NXT, PHON and Hinch (8 votes) pro, govt only needs 2/3 of Lambie, Gichuhi and Leyonhjelm to do #Gonski deal without Greens #auspol
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) June 21, 2017
Chair of the Senate committee which inquired into Gonski 2.0, speaking in support of the legislation.
Updated
Speaking list on Gonski 2.0.
- COLLINS
- McKIMM
- FAWCETT
- BERNARDI
- HANSON
- McKENZIE
- RICE (speaking now)
- WATT
- LAMBIE
- MCCARTHY
- CHISHOLM
- LINES
- O’NEILL
- PRATT
- URQUHART
- ROBERTS
- BIRMINGHAM
Barnaby Joyce was asked this morning about his Nationals colleague George Christensen crossing the floor over the Fair Work Commission’s decision to cut penalty rates.
He says the Nats believe in freedom more than any other party (on some things ... I’m thinking marriage equality not so).
Barnaby, who crossed the floor 28 times as a young senator, says the Greens never cross the floor.
Were they all born peas in a pod?
In the Nats, they can cross the floor though they can expect “some time in Coventry, otherwise known as the seat of Dawson”.
Looks at George. George smiles.
Updated
Bipartisan ball sports.
Smile and wave boys, smile and wave.
Updated
Bill Shorten also disassociates Labor from CFMEU warning
Bill Shorten has joined Anthony Albanese in disassociating himself from Victorian CFMEU official John Setka’s remarks targeting the families and communities of Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) inspectors.
I repudiate in the strongest terms what was said yesterday. I understand there is frustration about penalty cuts, that construction workers have a separate set of laws for them but bad laws get changed at elections. Bad laws get changed at the ballot box. Federal Labor disassociate ourselves from the remarks that were made yesterday.
Nick Xenophon Team: We are very optimistic on Gonski 2.0
Nick Xenophon Team education spokeswoman, Rebekha Sharkie, told Guardian Australia “things are going really well, we’re very optimistic we’ll come to a finalised position with the government [on its schools package] this morning”.
NXT’s demands were:
- For the package to be rolled out in six years, not 10
- A national schools resource body
- A requirement on the states to be compelled to give 75% of the school resource standard to public schools; and
- A review of the SES model for needs-based funding.
Asked if they had reached in-principle agreement and were just waiting for a deal in writing, Sharkie said: “Yes, that’s exactly right, but a deal’s not a deal until it’s in writing”.
Shorten turns up the heat: Greens are in danger of a GST moment
Tanya Plibersek and Bill Shorten are speaking in a Catholic school playground in Canberra.
Shorten says the former Australian Education Union president Diane Foggo was wrong when she appealed to Labor and her old union to allow this bill to pass for the sake of students.
They say the education bill represents a $22bn cut. (This is based on what Labor promised at the last election).
He hits back at Richard Di Natale’s claims that Labor has chosen politics over fixing its flawed Gonski 1.0 model.
The Greens are divided. I think they are a protest looking for a cause. The problem for them in education is that they are in danger of having one of those moments on the GST. People might remember the Democrats were going to keep bastards honest. Then they used to sell out on the GST. I hope Senator Di Natale does not sell out government schools and blows the Catholic schools to this government for a few trinkets.
He says the government and the Greens should “park the legislation”.
Updated
Anthony Albanese: CFMEU official's warning shocked me
Senior Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese has given a CFMEU official a whack over reports of threats in the Oz.
Ewin Hannan’s reports Victorian construction union boss John Setka has threatened to reveal the home addresses of ABCC inspectors and lobby their local shopping centres and football clubs to ensure their “kids will be ashamed of who their parents are”.
Setka told a rally:
Labelling the nation’s leading builders as “corrupt”, Mr Setka told 20,000 union protesters in Melbourne the ABCC inspectors were “f..kers trying to take us to court and jail us”.
“Let me give a dire warning to the ABCC inspectors: be careful what you do,’’ he said, claiming that many did not have their names on the electoral roll.
“They have got to lead these secret little lives because they are ashamed of what they do,” he said. “You know what we’re going to do? We’re going to expose them all.
“We will lobby their neighbourhoods. We will tell them who lives in that house. What he does for a living, or she. We will go to their local football club. We will go to the local shopping centre.
“They will not be able to show their faces anywhere. Their kids will be ashamed of who their parents are when we expose all these ABCC inspectors.
“If they think they are going to walk around and desecrate construction workers, take away our rights, and then ride off into the sunset, and there’s going to be no consequences, well, they’re in for a big surprise.’’
Albo welcomed Setka’s reporting to the police.
I find it extraordinary that any Australians would raise kids in particular. That just made me, just shocked that anyone would raise people’s families for goodness sake of people who are employed in work.
I think the idea that people should be targeted is completely reprehensible. It’s been reported to the police, my understanding is. And that’s appropriate.
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Chris Bonnor and Bernie Shepherd are education policy experts who have both long campaigned for Gonski implementation for equity in school funding.
They have been watching the school funding train wreck for years, analysing the dollars, considering the options and this is what they think.
Before they vote, legislators might like to consider what the Centre for Policy Development analysis of the latest My School data shows: the failure to implement Gonski 1.0 has made a bad school equity and achievement situation worse. The wrong decision on Gonski 2.0 might make it irreparable.
The priority this week is to put in place arrangements which will deliver for the long term. In particular, fast-tracking the funding boost to disadvantaged schools and creating a National Schools Resourcing Body to make it all happen have to be priorities.
These two things weren’t done after Gonski 1.0 and the parlous state of current school funding and achievement is a part consequence. Let’s start with the money and where it went after Gonski reported the first time around.
Yes, we spent more money on schools, but we did not, across Australia, make sure the funding increasingly favoured those with the greatest need. And this is just on average: in money terms, large numbers of our struggling students and schools went backwards.
Why this happened is a long story which includes the patchy implementation of Gonski 1.0, but also reflects the special funding deals made to some school sectors – deals which have corrupted past attempts to fund schools on need.
The fast-tracking of funding and the independent funding body are two of the conditions already extracted by the Greens.
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Education minister Simon Birmingham has just held a flash doorstop in a corridor. There was nothing much new in it, negotiations etc, think of the children etc.
I’ve always been a hopeful person and I remain hopeful.
He was asked if it will be resolved by Friday.
Hopefully.
Argh! No decision from Greens party room meeting on Gonski 2.0
The Greens party room meeting has concluded, and there’s been no final decision on the Gonski 2.0 package. The party is seeking more granular detail on government concessions – it seems like an abundance of caution rather than the leader, Richard Di Natale, and the education spokeswoman, Sarah Hanson-Young, failing to get the package through.
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Debate on the Australian Education Amendment bill, AKA Gonski 2.0, has started in the Senate.
Labor senator Jacinta Collins has accused the government and the Greens of running a sectarian campaign against herself and the Catholic education sector.
Collins says Labor settled the school funding issue for good in government.
The Greens senator Nick McKim rises to take issue. He was Tasmania’s education minister at the time and was involved in Julia Gillard’s negotiations. He says of Collins’ claim that Labor fixed the school funding wars,
I have rarely heard a piece of spin that bears so little relationship with reality.
He says while Tasmania signed on, the national Gonski 1.0 agrements were a mish-mash of seperate agreements where some sectors win over others, some states were happy and others were not.
He says Labor claims to be the true champions of the public education system but they have not asked any questions on public schools.
Not one question on public schools from Labor. The DLP is back.
Collins yells interjections, that is not true.
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NSW Greens direct Rhiannon not to support Gonski 2.0
The New South Wales Greens have directed the state’s federal Greens senator, Lee Rhiannon, not to support the Coalition’s Gonski 2.0 package.
A spokeswoman for Tamara Smith, the NSW Greens education spokeswoman, told Guardian Australia the education committee of the NSW Greens, the relevant democratically elected reference group, has directed Rhiannon not to support it.
This will be awkward because signs from federal leader, Richard Di Natale, this morning are that the Greens are moving towards supporting it. It’s possible Rhiannon could abstain on the Senate vote and comply with the direction.
The spokeswoman said that Rhiannon and Smith will release a statement shortly.
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The action is in the Senate today.
The three government bills listed on the notice paper are:
- School funding
- Cross-media ownership laws
- Fair work amendment bill
There are two Senate committee reports landing today at some stage relating to Centrelink and the Bell Group, otherwise known as the Adventures of George Brandis.
Bell inquiry’s real name is:
Nature and scope of any agreement reached by the commonwealth and Western Australian governments in relation to the distribution of proceeds of the liquidation of, and litigation concerning, the Bell Group of companies (the proceeds).
We also await former Family First senator Lucy Gichuhi’s first speech at 5pm.
On Gonski, the trouble with the debate is that the Senate can’t really debate the amendments required until the deal is nailed down (because the amendments probably change depending on whether the the votes land with the Greens or the crossbenchers).
There could be a lot of filibustering today to allow negotiations to continue.
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Matt Hatter on Gonski 2.0 negotiations. That just might be Simon Birmingham on top.
@gabriellechan 🎓Hello🎓 "It is true the govt has gone back to the drawing board & they have shifted a long way.." That's quite the effort. pic.twitter.com/F1QwzlGmfc
— The Matt Hatter (@MattGlassDarkly) June 20, 2017
Former NSW education minister Adrian Piccoli, a big supporter of Labor’s Gonski 1.0 to the detriment of his own career in the Coalition, has tweeted:
If Greens and AEU stop Gonski2.0 they can never again complain about overfunded private schools. Take the concessions and pass the Bill
— Adrian Piccoli (@PiccoliMp) June 20, 2017
Australian Education Union:
Who got to you?
— Glenn Fowler (@GlennFowlerAEU) June 20, 2017
It's not perfect and it's not enough money but it does improve the model. It gets rid of the special deals you have always complained about https://t.co/9DCJ5alw8H
— Adrian Piccoli (@PiccoliMp) June 20, 2017
The bill enshrines 80% funding of private schools and only 20% of public schools. We will certainly be complaining about this.
— Teachers Federation (@TeachersFed) June 20, 2017
Cth currently funds only 17% of public school SRS so 20% is better. And a future gov can increase that further. Take the win!! https://t.co/x0G0irYMW2
— Adrian Piccoli (@PiccoliMp) June 20, 2017
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Freud and Frydenberg: the political cost of power
In preparation for The Finkel today, there is a lot of talk now about the reverse auction.
(I can only ever think of Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie’s reverse ferret – where newspaper reverses its editorial campaign in the opposite direction.)
The energy and environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, told Sky’s Kieran Gilbert how a reverse auction system for dispatchable power would work. (Dispatchable power being the minimum continuous power required to run the system.)
- Ask the Australian Energy Market Operator to determine the amount of power supply you need, where you need it and over what period.
- And then you ask people to bid in, which is why its called a reverse auction.
- Power suppliers bid in to tell the regulator, how much they can supply at what cost ...
They bid in to say we can offer this amount over this period at this time at such political cost – ah – at such ah economic cost. Then the market regulator, or whoever is running that auction would make a decision as to what would provide that firm power.
It is, of course, the political problem of the decade, so who would not make the odd Freudian slip?
Kieran kept a very straight face.
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George: I get by with a little help from my friends.
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Baby it’s cold outside.
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Good morning blogan people,
Zero degrees at Canberra airport, pea soup fog, farnarkling clearing later in the day. Today is Gonski 2.0 day. Today we expect a vote in the Senate. More of that in a moment.
First let me catch you up on the overnight happenings.
The LNP MP George Christensen crossed the floor on penalty rates, so you know he will cross the floor.
George Christensen votes with Labor and the Indipendents on amendments to fair work act @GuardianAus @murpharoo pic.twitter.com/3INFnQmYsA
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) June 20, 2017
The vote failed, as Murphy reported:
So Christensen could make his point without anything much changing.
The chief scientist, Alan Finkel, is speaking at the National Press Club today. I guess when it was booked, his key recommendation of a clean energy target was a thing. But it is looking less like a thing with every day that passes. It seems like coal is still a thing in the Coalition party room. The lot of the chief scientist.
Yesterday Turnbull was counselling Murph not to be hasty.
But he denied his new brief for Aemo was a clear signal the government had either dumped, or was paving the way to dump Finkel’s clean energy target.
“I wouldn’t analyse it in that way if I was you,” the prime minister said.
Paul Karp reports the energy and environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, has been speaking on ABC AM about new measures to lower gas prices such as forcing gas companies to supply the domestic market and unilaterally abolishing the limited merits review accused of raising prices.
Asked if the reason the government is leaving open the possibility of financing new coal power plants is to appease conservative MPs, Frydenberg replied:
No it’s not, it’s designed to ensure Australians have reliable affordable power, in particular having dispatchable baseload power ... We will take an all-of-the-above approach: now, it could be coal, it could be gas, it could be renewables with storage, or it could be a combination of both [that the government supports]. But we are determined to ensure in this brave new world we don’t leave it to chance, we can’t afford to go forward without dispatchable baseload power.
Now to Gonski 2.0. The school funding bill for the 2018 school year will hit the Senate today, with no definitive signal yet from either the Greens or the crossbenchers on whether they will support. Those two paths are the only way to get the bill passed, after Labor ruled out needs-based funding on the basis that the dollar amount was not as high as they would like.
Di Natale has just spoken to Fran Kelly about the phone hook up with the national council. Their message:
They want us to put kids before politics.
The Greens want a fast-tracking of funding, higher funding, an independent funding body, states forced to keep their funding in schools and the NT package.
It is true the government has gone back to the drawing board and they have shifted a long way, a long way ...
If we get the architecture right and then we are satisfied that we’ve got some serious funding going into the model, then of course we would be prepared to support it. The government still has some way to go on that.
Di Natale put the prospect, commonly used, that if the funding architecture for a needs-based consistent funding formula is in place, Labor can ramp up the funding.
If we get the architecture right, the good news is that if Labor is elected we can work together to put more money into the system and know that it goes to the neediest public school.
Di Natale said he was working very closely with the Australian Education Union, which represents 170,000 teachers and educators. He says he was not aware of reports that AEU reps were threatening to campaign against South Australian Greens if they help pass Gonski 2.0.
We are satisfied that if we address those issues ... that it would be very difficult for anyone who has the best interests of children in this debate to do anything other than support a model that makes sure kids in our neediest public schools get the support they deserve.
He says he was “staggered” Labor would take decision not to support a bill that increased funding and improved the model.
I’m staggered that the Labor party have decided that they would rather campaign on education, make it a political issue, rather than take the opportunity to address the flawed funding model they put in place. What the education union will do is ultimately a question for them.
Di Natale said he would not support any delays for the Catholic system for a review – something favoured by WA Liberal Chris Back – as the problem with Labor model is it was not sector blind. It had carve outs for the Catholic system, he said.
Apologies for the War and Peace post, talk to me on the thread, in the Twits @gabriellechan or Facebook.
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