Bonsoir
The debate in the senate is moving to conclusion, but given we know how it ends, I feel safe to leave you now and regroup in the morning.
A fascinating day. Thanks for spending it with me.
Today, in politics:
- After a marathon filibuster, the senate was poised on Wednesday night to disallow the government’s FOFA regulations.
- The PUP, teetering on the brink for days, finally blew up. Jacqui Lambie joined cross benchers in undoing the FOFA deal Clive Palmer did with the Abbott government on the FOFA package. Clive demoted her for that effort. Lambie hit back with claims of bullying and initimidation.
-
Tony Abbott raised climate change before the French president, Francois Hollande did – evidently the prime minister was sick of being ambushed on a subject he didn’t care to talk about. The prime minister looked terse: possibly it was having to put up with a question from The Guardian and from Le Monde in a single outing. Possibly it’s just been a rough fortnight.
That’s your helping. Love your work. Thanks to our dear Bowers, who told such a great visual story today. Round of applause.
See you later.
Meanwhile.
With Pacific Island leaders. pic.twitter.com/RFjrXbLWvG
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 19, 2014
Sorry, could not resist. Let’s wave to Narendra Modi.
Praise the Lord. Dear politics. Learn a little lesson today from the newbies.
Ricky speaks
Here is Ricky Muir, senator for Victoria. He’s unhappy to be characterised as a backflipper. (He’s been characterised in that fashion today, given he has, in fact backflipped.) It’s not fair. We were bombarded when we entered the senate, Muir says. He says he wasn’t given an option of talking to constituents. He didn’t have full and proper information.
We have an opportunity to revisit the bill.
He says he’s not interested in arguments from Labor about Liberals protecting big banks or arguments from Liberals about Labor protecting super funds. He’s interested in consumers. That’s it.
Muir sits down.
So many metaphors today. Sooo many.
National senator John Williams has told the chamber that reverting to Labor’s FOFA regulations would be like banning all wine in Australia, tomorrow. He’s concerned that this abrupt change in the regulatory regime will send small financial planners to the wall. There will be marriage break-ups and suicides, he suspects.
Updated
Facts: unions give donations to Labor. Big business gives donations to the Coalition. We know. There’s no breaking news here. What ordinary people focus on is whether policy passed by parliaments works ultimately in their interests. They don’t care about the fight club, or about institutional interests. It’s politics which is obsessed with the fight club and with institutional interests. Not people.
An absolute sweetheart deal for their mates.
That’s the Liberal senator Zed Seselja. He’s firing off indiscriminately now. Labor in bed with the unions. Jacqui Lambie’s a fool who can’t be trusted.
Seselja:
A coalition of commonsense led by senator Lambie.
I would say to other senators who are contemplating voting with senator Lambie that a coalition of commonsense led by senator Lambie – you have to be somewhat sceptial about (that).
Man.
Time for a bit of plain speaking here. The politics of this are idiotic, truly.
The Liberal senators yelling across the dispatch box today don’t seem to grasp that Lambie’s apologia will resonate. The message is actually quite powerful. And they are playing for today, not playing the long game. If Lambie’s vote is genuinely up for grabs, if she’s now outside the Palmer sphere of influence, calling her an idiot is really stupid. There will be more votes. Not just today’s vote.
Voters are watching, and listening. Ordinary people are not obsessed with whether super funds are run by unions or not – they just care whether they get fair returns. Same with advisers. Ordinary people just want good advice, they don’t fret over who gives it to them.
This is nuts, politically. Cartoonish. Student union Liberal club politics. You really do wonder when these guys are going to wake up.
Updated
A pit of a pit booool. If I can use that term nicely. A bit of a pit booool.
(Guess the senator. Doug Cameron. A pit bull himself. He’s speaking about John Williams, the Nationals senator, who has been a crusader on this issue of dodgy financial advice.)
Cameron:
It’s unfortunate senator Williams has gone from being a pit boooool to a bit of a poodle on this issue. The Liberals have got senator Williams under control as they always do; the doormats of the Liberal party.
Pit booools. One and all.
This whole narrative of the system ranged implacably against the person is the essence of Jacqui Lambie’s emerging political character.
She frames up every single issue through this prism. Every single issue.
Quite fascinating in its way. Tells you a lot.
Here is the full character assessment that Lambie just delivered on her boss, Clive Palmer.
Jacqui Lambie:
I want to briefly address the sly personal attack that the leader of the Palmer United party has waged against me in public in recent times.
I understand that he’s under pressure because of bad political decisions and legal action that’s being taken against him.
However that doesn’t give him the right to spread hurtful rumours about me in an effort to interfere with free and fair performance of a member of this senate who represents Tasmania.
Updated
"I will not be told how to vote, not by anyone."
Lambie says she intends to vote with like minded senators. She says she will not be bullied or threatened – she won’t be swayed with threats to be dumped from the PUP. She will back the underdogs in a fight.
While it is not a sin to be powerful, it is a sin to abuse that power. It is sin to suck up to power. The big end of town, the billionaires, have been allowed by successive government to abuse their powers.
(Cliev. Awks.)
Lambie is using this speech to go the full beat down on Clive. She understands he’s under pressure from poor political judgments and from legal actions. But that’s no excuse for intimidation, she says.
I will always vote how my conscience dictates. I will not be told how to vote, not by anyone.
The most rare of contributions in politics: I got it wrong. I'm sorry.
I’ve let you down, and I’m sorry.
This is Jacqui Lambie now, apologising for supporting the FOFA deal in the first place.
Ronaldson is very fixated on next Thursday. He wants to know why the senate didn’t form a sharing circle and hug this one out until next Thursday. We could have sorted this out if only we’ve waited until next Thursday. We could have been contenders. We could have been compromisers.
There was also an ACDC reference which Ronno fluffed.
This is a really sad day for this place.
(And for ACDC fans.)
Updated
Big unions win. The small business man or woman just gets thrown out.
Thrown out.
Liberal senator Michael Ronaldson, clearing his throat. With some yelling.
Clusterbusta roster, part two.
If someone could drop off a cup of tea I’d be most grateful. Black, no sugar.
First speaker for the affirmative, the Labor senator Sam Dastyari.
Dastyari (amongst other arguments) is citing Alan Jones as an authoritative source critiquing the government’s FOFA package. Sharks, criminals and conmen. A handful of criminals and conmen have given the financial advice industry a bad name, he says. They need to be drummed out of Dodge.
I don’t want you to get too excited but we are out of the procedural bog. We are OUT OF THE BOG. Here comes the disallowance debate.
Currently the chamber is considering a motion on a motion. That equates to slow motion. Motion plus motion.
Things are getting testy in the red room. The senate president, Stephen Parry, a Liberal, has done a very impressive job today of presiding with a very straight bat. He’s shut down special pleading from government senators several times. He’s just very calmly told Victorian Liberal Michael Ronaldson in not so many words that he won’t get the call and he should sit down. Penny Wong will get the call because she’s on her feet and she has seniority.
More quick dispatches from planet blast-off.
Great response! 1000 people have joined me in wanting ABC production to remain in SA. Have you signed it? http://t.co/dlgpdoU5g1 #auspol
— Christopher Pyne (@cpyne) November 19, 2014
Christopher Pyne, a senior minister of the government resolved on cutting the ABC’s budget, is circulating a petition to make sure the cuts don’t impact production in Adelaide. He’d like you to sign it.
Busta-fil.
By Mike Bowers.
Big questions and inner dorks
Too much bounty, simultaneously.
In the senate – Eric Abetz has a big question. Are Ricky Muir and Jacqui Lambie simple? Are they saying with this backflip that they didn’t have the intellectual aptitude to understand the FOFA package the first time round?
(Brave, this bloke. Way brave.)
Outside, Bill Shorten is embracing his inner dork on the ABC and funding cuts. Shorten suggests he wants to defend Shaun Micallef’s inalienable right to portray him as a zinger dropping goose every week on Mad as Hell.
Q: Do you believe the ABC’s coverage is accurate and impartial?
Shorten:
Yes.
Q: Even Shaun Micallef?
Shorten:
He’s funny but I’m still as mad as hell about these cuts.
Eric Abetz has backed up for a sprint down the long run. He wants to defend the able craftsman of the FOFA regulations, Mathias Cormann.
He also wants to style this as a David versus Goliath battle – the struggling financial adviser in struggle street versus those big nasty industry superannuation funds who control the unions and Labor – or Labor perhaps controls them. It’s hard to keep up.
We are for the little guy, Abetz says. Not the big guy in the crowd. (No, sorry, that was China, wasn’t it?) Abetz means industry super funds. He says Labor is pursuing this disallowance not for consumers, but for the super funds.
A vanity project for Sam Dastyari. Liberal senator Mitch Fifield loves this observation. He’s given it a solid workout today.
The standing orders have been suspended.
Voting yes: ALP, Greens, Lambie, Madigan, Xenophon, Muir.
Voting no: Coalition, Lazarus, Wang, Day, Leyonhjelm.
The Liberal senator Chris Back is now standing up for Bob Day’s inalienable right to ask one Dorothy Dixer, sorry, probing question, a fortnight. How dare we strip this man of his rights?
Cory Bernardi, on hs feet, with feeling:
There is such a thing as natural justice.
(No, I am not joking. I’m reporting.)
The finance minister thinks the senate needs to have a rest and a little think. I’d say Cormann needs a rest and a think but he’s a machine. I mean this in a complimentary fashion. Cormann is completely indefatigable.
Family First senator Bob Day is unhappy with the subversion too.
Day rises to express his complaint. To fellow crossbenchers, concerning the suspension:
Don’t let them get away with this. Where is going to lead?
I only get one question a fortnight. I wasn’t aware question time could be suspended.
Let me have my one question a fortnight.
[Meaningful pause.]
Thank you.
[Sits down.]
Updated
The opposition have been doing nothing other than playing games all day.
That’s Mitch Fifield.
Why aren’t you asking more questions about the ABC and SBS, Fifield asks Labor? Question time is an important accountability mechanism, he notes. (This would be the chap who just pretended a few minutes ago there was no pre-election commitment from the Coalition not to cut the ABC and SBS budgets.)
Fifield:
Do your job. Hold us accountable.
Green senator Rachel Siewart says the senate is holding the government accountable for its crook FOFA package. We are holding you accountable, she notes.
Is this .. subversion I see before me?
Rather like Tony Abbott subverted question times most days with routine suspensions of the standing orders during the Gillard years. High level subversion. Ear drum rupturing subversion.
#JustSaying
Labor moves to bring the FOFA disallowance back
Labor is attempting to push off question time now in an effort to get back onto the main game – the disallowance of the FOFA regulations.
Eric Abetz leaps to his feet.
Question time is being ..
.. subVERTED ..
he says, with some passion.
Yes, quite.
Fifield ploughs on with the various formulations the government now invokes in order to pretend it didn’t give a clear cut commitment on the broadcasters.
Absurd. Black is not white. Doesn’t matter how often you say it.
For the record, this is how Turnbull wrapped in Adelaide – with a defence of the ABC and a challenge to the ABC and some free advice on balance and integrity in ABC coverage.
Now, we all expect a lot from our national broadcasters. We have every right to. Projected expenditure of $6.6bn over the next five years after the proposed savings I’ve outlined today represents a significant commitment by taxpayers to those two organisations by any reasonable measure.
It’s the Australian people who will judge whether or not they are getting value for money. It’s the millions of citizens who tune into ABC or SBS each week who will decide whether the government should continue to invest billions of dollars in these two great national institutions on their behalf.
To their credit, the ABC and SBS are well loved and well trusted. Certainly more so than any political party, minister, or indeed angry columnist.
And I’ve noted before, the role of the public broadcasters in our national life is more important than ever as the business model of newspapers in particular is under threat and newsrooms dwindle.
With this growing importance comes even greater pressure for both ABC and SBS to uphold even higher standards of balance and integrity in their coverage. And I’ve discussed today, to demonstrate greater professionalism, transparency and efficiency in their handling of scarce public resources.
If the management of the ABC think they cannot find a 5% saving through efficiencies, well, they’re selling themselves short. And letting down the people of whose resources and trust they are the custodians.
Synergies are a wonderful thing. Question time is currently considering the budget cuts to the ABC and SBS, which Turnbull has just confirmed.
The government senate leader Eric Abetz gets a question which he passes to Mitch Fifield, who is representing Turnbull in the senate.
Fifield:
The government never said the ABC and SBS would be immune from savings.
(I suppose that’s technically true. They were in opposition when they said no budget cuts.)
Question time
Running behind – sorry, Turnbull clashed there with the onset of senate question time.
Let’s tune in now.
The cuts to the public broadcasters, according to Turnbull.
- The full savings the broadcasters will return to the budget amounts to $308m over 5 years.
- For the ABC this means it will receive $5.2bn over 5 years rather than $5.5bn, a saving of $254m or 4.6%.
- The ABC expects that it will have implementation costs over this period of $41m in order to achieve those savings.
- For the SBS, this means its operating budget will be reduced by $25.2m over the 5-year period or 1.7%.
- A legislative change to allow SBS to generate further revenue by changes to its advertising arrangements brings SBS’s total savings returned to the budget to $53.7m or 3.7%.
"These remarks need to be understood in context"
In Adelaide, the communications minister Malcolm Turnbull is currently competing for the most imaginative reframing in history.
He’s confirming budget cuts to the ABC and SBS, and massaging the prime minister’s clear pre-election commitment not to cut their budgets.
Turnbull:
Is it seriously argued that the public broadcaster should be exempt from the spending cuts that apply to almost every other government department and service?
Some have pointed to a statement made by Tony Abbott on the eve of the election that there would be “no cuts to the ABC or SBS.”
These remarks need to be understood in context. Prior to the election many people, including competing media groups, urged the Coalition to take an axe to the ABC in order to curtail their on-air and online activities.
Both Joe Hockey, the shadow treasurer at that time, and I the shadow communications minister, made it quite clear that we had no plans to make cuts of that nature at the public broadcasting.
But if there were to be savings made across the board and plainly there were, the ABC and SBS could not be exempt, could not expect to be exempt from the obligation to contribute by eliminating waste and inefficiencies.
Now unless you believe that Mr Abbott was in that one line on election eve intending to contradict and overrule the very careful statements of intention made by Mr Hockey and myself, his remarks can only be understood in the same context which left open savings of a kind which would not diminish the effective resources ABC and SBS had available to produce content.
(So the Turnbull rationale is what Abbott meant was we won’t kill the public broadcasters, not that they wouldn’t get a major haircut. Honestly, is it any wonder that most sensible people don’t believe a word of what comes out of politicians’ mouths?)
Updated
This is just so precious I have to do some dialogue.
Bonjour Bill.
Bonjour Francois.
Parlez vous zinger?
Oui, oui.
My colleague Lenore Taylor has penned some analysis looking through the colour and movement of the day to the consequences of this fracture within the PUP. The senate crap shoot looks likely to intensify.
This is bad news for the Abbott government. It needs six of the eight crossbench votes to pass legislation that is opposed by Labor and the Greens.
When PUP had three votes, that meant that if the Palmer party opposed a bill, it went down. But the government had a pretty good track record of talking Palmer around and winning his support in exchange for relatively small concessions, even on issues he had been vociferously opposed to just weeks previously.
Now – if Lambie’s split proves irreconcilable and she eventually stops her self-defeating stance of voting against everything until the government gives way on defence force pay and starts wielding the power of her voting position – the government will have to look for deals with the non-PUP six.
That is a truly eclectic mixture of ex-PUP, ex-DLP, free marketeer LNP, Motoring Enthusiast-and-god-knows-what-else-they-stand-for, Family First and Xenophon, the wily and popular dealmaker from South Australia. It is clearly also bad news for PUP. With two votes instead of three its power is diminished.
Back with Hollande for a moment. The two leaders have issued a statement pledging cooperation on the return of remains from French museums.
The French and Australian governments have committed to establishing a consultation process aimed at facilitating the return of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ human remains from French public collections. The French and Australian governments are committed to working together on this subject in a spirit of cooperation and mutual understanding. This process aims to take into account both the rights and interests of Australia’s Indigenous communities, as well as the objectives and concerns of the international scientific community. Both countries commit to cooperating with the aim of enhancing cultural and scientific exchanges. The French and Australian governments will respect the sensitivities and values of the two countries and consider the requests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities as well as the specific framework of the French legal system.
Breaking.
A short update on lunchtime dining, given issues are in flux. Freelance spies for Politics Live inform me that Nick Xenophon, Ricky Muir and John Madigan are currently sharing a meal at the parliamentary cafe.
Whether or not this insurgency sticks depends on whether or not this band of brothers (and Jacqui) hang(s) together. The Coalition is doing everything possible to run down the clock in order to buy time to persuade folks like Muir to come back inside the FOFA tent. Today, there’s safety in numbers. Or then again, perhaps they just like each other and have a lunchtime bookclub every other Wednesday.
Breaking.
Today is World Toilet Day.
Just for the recod.
This is the first window I’ve had to bring you a radio interview from the PUP leader Clive Palmer this morning. I’m grateful to my colleague Daniel Hurst for the Palmer quotes from 4BC.
Palmer’s spin on the disintegration of his senate voting bloc is this is a very sad situation for Jacqui Lambie.
It’s very interesting that she hasn’t resigned from our party. She knows in her heart that she fully believes in everything we stand for. That’s why she hasn’t resigned. We hope she can reconcile all those things in the coming days.
Palmer also criticised Motoring Enthusiast Party senator (and voting alliance member) Ricky Muir for changing his mind on FOFA.
Ricky Muir has just done a backflip after he’s got the government to accept all the changes that he wanted; he’s decided to change his mind when it comes to him delivering on his arrangement. That’s very disappointed because it means the government will no longer probably deal with him or be able to rely on whatever he says.
Asked if the Palmer United Party was unravelling, Palmer said:
No, not at all. We’ve just got one member who’s having a few problems. And we’ve got thousands of members joining every day and we’ve got to make sure we stay true to what we believe in.
And how long can PUP stay united?
Well we’re 100% united, all our members are.
We are united. [Lambie] is just one person, one member out of thousands who’s having a particular problem, who hasn’t resigned from our party. She was unable to attend the last three party meetings and we’ve got a responsibility to the other members that we can’t put her in a deputy leader’s position if she can’t even attend the meeting, if she’s having that sort of difficulty. We want to take the pressure off her.
Updated
To the relief of probably everyone by now, the senate has just clicked back into ordinary business for a bit. I got caught in the Hollande cross current and need to double check – but I think the morning’s debate resolved nothing. Labor is trying to bring on the disallowance. The government is trying to talk it out.
I’ll keep you posted.
Updated
Huddle, huddle, toil and trouble.
With apologies to the Bard.
The finance minister Mathias Cormann is digging in for a long night. Pure speculation on my part but I reckon there’s a filibuster roster being sorted up the back here. (Or, as Bowers would have it, a filibuster cluster.)
Eric Abetz says the crossbenchers have been ..
... seduced ..
by somebody’s dark persuasive arts. Apparently politics is no longer a numbers game. Well it’s no longer a numbers game if you don’t have the numbers.
Politicians are like goldfish. They endlessly rediscover things.
Oh, no. Sorry. We are not ascending at all.
The Coalition is continuing to try and filibuster here. Another amendment now from the government leader in the senate, Eric Abetz. Rush of blood. Baby out with bath water. To hell with the consequences. Breathe people, says yoga meister Eric. Breeeeeathe.
Let’s track back now to the madness raging uncontrollably in the red room. We are finally ascending out of procedure-ville. Slowly. I think. All things subject to changes without notice.
Labor’s senate leader Penny Wong has moved the motion that the question now be put.
The breaking news is the PUPs (minus Lambie, who is now in the #PUPsUp column) are now back in logical formation – that is, back voting with the Coalition. Lazarus and Wang have voted against the motion requiring that the question be put.
I got a little bit red cordial earlier today when Lazarus and Wang were voting with Lambie on the procedural gumph. I wondered whether they were going to recant on their FOFA deal as well. Not, on current indications.
Not happy, Tony, by Mike Bowers.
In fairness to Abbott this is very hard territory as a host. You sense your guest may try and embarrass you on an issue you don’t really want to talk about. How, then, do you respond? Do you let your guest embarrass you – or do you try and reframe the embarrassment into a positive by taking the initiative?
Abbott chose the latter option. It’s a reasonable course. Pretty hard yards to have someone take the platform you give them and use it to give you discomfort.
But perhaps the Abbott redirect would have been better, more defty executed, with some levity rather than with a face like an Easter Island statue. After all, being embarrased by the French president is a less horrible scenario than being embarrassed by America and China.
But today is clearly not a levity day.
Those division bells in the senate – they keep on ringing.
In terms of foreign fighters, Hollande detailed the legal provisions applying in France, which sound reasonably similar to Australia. I’m pretty sure there was a successful prosecution in France just recently of a fighter returning from the Middle East.
Then the leaders wrap.
(That was a fun tango, wasn’t it?)
The leaders are asked about foreign fighters and free trade.
Abbott is asked whether he wants a free trade deal with the European Union.
Abbott:
Well look, on the free trade deal, we want to move as quickly as we can and I think that Australia has demonstrated that we are capable of moving quickly. Over the last twelve months we’ve finalised deals with our three largest trading partners, with Korea, with Japan and now with China, so we think it is possible to move quickly.
I’m conscious of the fact that it took Canada, which has already done a deal with the EU, some years to get its deal done; but I think right around the world now there’s a determination to move here. Probably the best discussions at the G20 were on trade and the need for freer trade at every level, unilateral, bilateral and multilateral.
Hollande says France is keen to improve market access into Australia (which is funny given how aggressively protectionist Europe is, but anyways, here’s what he said.)
In relation to the trade element which is being opened we’re very much in favour of this. As the European Union that will bring this forward with a design that has to be very wide ranging and allow for certain products, which currently do not - cannot come into Australia, be admitted and I’m thinking of pork producers who have a lot of difficulty in terms of having their products tasted by Australian consumers.
The French president says he would like the cultural exception to prevail, but we believe it is very important to have this exchange because while coming to Australia – we can access the Asian markets as well.
The Le Monde question also covered terrorism.
Hollande refers to the activities of Islamic State and the horrific attack overnight in the synagogue in Jerusalem.
We must be very clear that we condemn these sort of actions. We must act and we must be responsible in our actions.
Abbott says in response to a follow up question from Le Monde on climate change that he’s just answered a question from The Guardian on climate change – but he’ll say this.
Abbott:
We will be considering our position in terms of targets, in terms of contributions to various funds in coming months. But when it comes to funds, let me just make this observation: We’ve just passed a law in our parliament to establish a $2.55bn fund over the next four years to purchase abatement. So, this is a very significant fiscal contribution to the task of global emissions reduction, our $2.55bn fund to purchase abatement. That’s the first point I make.
We’ve also got the clean energy finance corporation (CEFC), a $10bn institution which is in the business of funding various projects which have economic and environmental outcomes.
Finally, a significant part of our aid contribution, our overseas aid, particularly in the Pacific, is climate mitigation.
So, Australia is doing a lot and obviously we’ll consider what more we can do in the weeks and months ahead.
(The CEFC is the agency that the Coalition intends to abolish. Here it is, again, invoked as a virtue. And best we step quickly past the aid budget, right?)
From my colleague, Lenore Taylor, who does not take the diplomatic cue.
Q: My question is for president Hollande. Mr president, how confident are you that the meeting you will host in Paris next year can reach a successful and ambitious agreement? How important is it that other countries all make contributions to the Green Climate Fund to reach that deal? And when would you like to see other countries put their own individual targets on the table ahead of that meeting?
Hollande, taking the opportunity to express the view he presumably would have expressed if he wasn’t just hip-and-shoulder charged by his host:
We have a conference planned in Lima in December of next year, and the basis of the agreement already must be set before then, of course, and there is what we mean when we say a worldwide agreement, a global agreement.
It has to be – it has to be legally binding, and it has to be differentated and it has to have some sort of link with the Green Fund and I do hope that quite a number of countries will be able to join us, and during the whole of 2015 we can have prepatory stages for the Paris conference because what I want to avoid is waiting until the last minute.
Abbott steps in again. He’s sounding defensive.
He says Australia has a good story to tell on climate change. He says he agrees with Hollande that the worlds doesn’t need another disaster like Copenhagen. Then there’s a generalised rebuke.
It was good to hear Francois talking about a binding agreement coming out of Paris. What’s important is that the agreement is strong and effective and that the targets are met.
That’s the point - targets have to be met and when it comes to Kyoto Australia more than met its reductions targets, and that can’t be said of other countries.
Updated
Hollande takes the diplomatic cue. He goes through the range of topics of mutual agreement – security and counter-terrorism, Iraq, commerce – before coming at the end to global warming.
Hollande:
How can we control the warming, global warming? We know that this is an area where we have potential for creating wealth.
Tony Abbott and Francois Hollande address reporters
It’s pretty clear that the Abbott government is having a rough day. I think that’s a fair statement. I suspect the Australian prime minister must have anticipated a rough joint press conference with the French president, because he’s headed off the issue of climate change at the pass.
In a joint press conference, underway now, Abbott has stepped resolutely in front of any opportunity Hollande may have sought at this event to raise the topic of climate change in a negative sense for Australia.
Abbott:
I raised climate change. It’s very important that we get strong and effective outcomes from the conference in Paris next year. Climate change is an important subject. It is a subject that the world needs to tackle as a whole. Yes, each country has to do its bit to tackle the emissions problem. We all are doing what we can, Australia as well, and we need a strong and effective agreement from Paris next year.
Australia has been stood up by just about everyone (except Saudi Arabia) on the subject of climate change over the past week or so. Abbott was obviously determined to have the first word today.
Updated
Much as I’m enjoying senator Bernardi’s contribution I must switch modes now. We need the French president. Coming up in the next post.
Macdonald is saying if this FOFA debate proceeds and runs without a gag then Labor won’t get an additional estimates hearing tomorrow.
The Liberal senator Cory Bernardi warms to this theme – he’s telling the chamber he wanted to use the normal run of business to thank a Labor senate colleague, Claire Moore.
Moore recently defended Bernardi against suggestions he condoned domestic violence. The South Australian Liberal says senator Moore (who has moved these procedural motions this morning) is denying herself the opportunity to hear Bernardi’s gushing thanks to her.
Bernardi says Moore stood resolutely with him against the Twitterati and an MP he’s never heard of (that’s the Labor MP Tim Watts, a chap who Bernardi notes has more product in his hair than Vidal Sassoon) and the forces of progressivism ..
... that sought to decapitate a conservative senator.
(Bernardi is full tilt trolling here. It’s really very funny. Yes, he did say decapitate. Let the record show.)
For once, senator Cameron is right, I did get a little carried away.
(Labor’s Doug Cameron has asked Macdonald to come back to the substance of the motion. Macdonald is happy to snap back to the topic at hand having achieved a digression into an inquiry into Queensland which has been established at the behest of Clive Palmer – who’d like to give Campbell Newman a spot of bother. Macdonald is objecting to this FOFA issue preventing him from attending a committee meeting for an inquiry he doesn’t actually support. Don’t ask. You don’t need to know. Just accept what I’m telling you.)
Macdonald says this motion allows the senate to talk about FOFA all night.
Good, says the Labor senator Sam Dastyari.
Macdonald:
Who said good?
Dastyari:
Me.
Macdonald:
Thank you Senator Dastyari.
Updated
Senator Lam-beeeee, I’m told.
That’s the Liberal senator Ian Macdonald, making his presence felt as he generally does.
He’s been saying Senator Lamee all morning. Someone has chided him to correct his pronunciation. Lam-beeeeeee.
No-one does nonsensical filibuster quite like Ian Macdonald. At least he’s not wearing a mining costume. Not yet, anyway. The day is yet young, and this particular motion is to re-order the hours of business.
By the by, we are still in the procedural weeds here blogans. We’ve had the motion to suspend. This division now is the motion to give precedence to vary the routine of business. Voting to give precedence: Labor, Greens, Lambie, Lazarus, Wang, Muir, Xenophon, Madigan. Opposed: Coalition, Day Leyonjhelm.
(Bit odd that Lazarus and Wang are voting with Lambie to allow a debate to reconsider the FOFA deal they voted for five minutes ago. But this is the senate. Free range odd is the norm not the exception. Perhaps Lazarus and Wang will overturn the deal too.)
Cormann says the Coalition had an agreement. The government implemented everything the PUP and Ricky Muir wanted. This is bad faith, he suggests.
It is very disappointing for the government. Good public policy is now, sadly getting caught up in internal fighting.
(God. Honestly. You could not script this. Imagine, good public policy getting caught up in in-fighting and rat-f*%#ery. Never happened before. Except all those other times its happened.)
The finance minister is still playing for time. He’s trying to convince the senate not to act today. He’s asking this be dealt with in an orderly and methodical fashion between now and next Thursday.
Cormann:
There is a more sensible way to go about this.
It is not sensible to ram this through today.
Tactics on the sprint. Glenn Lazarus and Dio Wang hugging it out in the background during procedural motions at forty paces.
Updated
The Liberal senator Cory Bernardi wants to amend the motion giving scope for Jacqui Lambie and Ricky Muir to explain their change of heart on the FOFA deal. Cormann is complaining about the senate putting a gun to the head of the financial services industry. Metaphorical guns to the head all over the shop down there.
Labor, the Greens, Ricky Muir, Jacqui Lambie, Nick Xenophon, John Madigan voted to suspend the standing orders.
The Coalition, Bob Day and David Leyonhjelm opposed.
PUP senators Dio Wang and Glenn Lazarus also voted for the suspension.
Lazarus then sought leave to make a short statement. Lazarus confirms that Lambie has been stripped of her position in the PUP, deputy senate leader.
The @PalmerUtdParty has removed @JacquiLambie as party's deputy Senate leader & deputy whip & suspended her rights to attend party meetings
— Clive Palmer (@CliveFPalmer) November 18, 2014
I’m sure she’s shattered. Not.
Updated
The non-person
The motion to suspend the standing orders is being voted on now. While we are catching our breath, there has been much meta analysis of websites over the past 24 hours. Jacqui Lambie has dropped the PUP insignia from her website.
Now Jacqui seems to have fallen off the PUP contact list. Have a look.
The lady of the hour.
There really should be theme music. The senate demolition team, by Mike Bowers.
That’s the picture of the day.
Now for the quote of the day.
Sam Dastyari, in the senate.
Sometimes in this chamber, we caught caught up with politics.
Updated
Cormann’s argument is this ambush is reckless and irresponsible, and will have consequential implications for the financial services industry. That’s the point, is the riposte across the chamber. We want the old regime back.
Green senator Peter Whish Wilson rejects Cormann’s contention from the last post about delivering for special interests. Whish Wilson says he is representing no institutional interests in this debate. He suggests the Coalition is, however, very adept at delivering
.. for your donors, for you stakeholders.
(Yes, that’s how this conversation will roll. Those with delicate constitutions may want to tune out.)
Manager of government business Mitch Fifield is pedalling now in the debate (that’s a nice word for filibustering) on the procedural motion.
He notes this issue has become something of a vanity project for the Labor senator Sam Dastyari – who wants to prove to colleagues he’s more than a bovver boy, more than a backroom operative.
Take that as a note from one factional operative to another.
Rightio, back to the present. Labor has begun the move to suspend the standing orders in the senate. The Coalition has objected, saying the motion has not been circulated.
Now Cormann is on his feet. He senses a plot. The finance minister says this boilover has nothing to do with the interests of consumers. He says this is Labor delivering for its mates in the trade union movement.
Cormann:
The Labor party is the political arm of the commercial arm of the trade union movement. This is not the way to deal with it.
This regulation has been the law of the land for four months. There is no need to deal with this today.
In order to pass the FOFA package with support from the PUP, the government agreed to changes including:
- A requirement for financial advisers to act in the best interests of their clients.
- Mandatory fee disclosure statements.
- A 14-day cooling off period for financial products, and the right of consumers to change financial advisers.
The agreement was reached through an exchange of letters between Cormann and Palmer, but the changes were immediately panned as tokenistic and meaningless by consumer groups and industry super funds.
The senate has begun today’s sitting. There’s already a bun fight over the business, and we are not even at FOFA yet.
While they all shout at one another, I’ll backtrack slightly.
When Clive Palmer did the deal with the government to pass the FOFA package in July (after saying that he would not do a deal to pass the FOFA package) he made his famous declaration about not needing to consult experts because he had his brain.
Palmer told reporters he had not met any representatives of the financial advice industry to discuss the changes he was considering.
Asked why, Palmer replied:
Because I thought it out.
What happens in parliament house is you get a series of people coming around saying you should do that or you should do this. I drew on my own experience and my own experience in industry, and looked at a couple of other areas of things that I thought were important.
"When you make it wrong, you have to go back in and make it right"
Reporters are trying to get to Lambie, given she’s the key person who has changed her mind. Xenophon tries to shield her from questions. In the end, she refuses to be shielded.
Lambie says she expressed reservations to Palmer about the initial FOFA deal.
Lambie:
I told Clive Palmer I had reservations. I believe we allowed it to be watered down.
She says at the point she supported the package she was a newbie and was working out how senate procedures worked.
But ..
I’ve found my way now.
Sometimes when you make it wrong you have to go back in and make it right.
The crossbenchers are having a press conference in the Mural Hall. They are all there. That suggests they intend to follow through with this plan. (You’ll forgive my continued hedging. It reflects the experience of the past few months.)
Nick Xenophon is making a statement.
This is genuinely a collaborative effort. Despite our political differences we have banded together as part of a coalition of common sense. Senator Dastyari has long championed this cause in the Senate on behalf of the ALP as has Senator Whish Wilson for the Australian Greens. Senator Madigan has been a steadfast opponent of the government’s approach. It is particularly pleasing that Senators Lambie and Muir have listened to the concerns of consumers and particularly victims to come to this position. Our common unequivocal objective is to have the government’s financial advice regulations disallowed today in the Senate. Because they unambiguously bad for consumers.
Xenophon says the group will move to disallow the FOFA regulations in the senate this morning. There will be an open-ended debate proposed until the motion is voted on. There will be no gag.
If the regulations are disallowed, it will mean the previous government’s regulations will be activated until a sensible compromise can be reached.
I gather the finance minister Mathias Cormann has been working much of the night to try and get crossbenchers – particular Ricky Muir – back in the tent.
The folks planning to derail the FOFA regulations will have a press conference very shortly.
Readers will of course remember that it was Clive Palmer who worked with Cormann to get the FOFA regime passed in the first place. So Lambie’s defiance here is very significant.
The PUP is in full scale meltdown. PUP senator Glenn Lazarus has told reporters this morning that he doesn’t know what Lambie plans to do – stay with the party, or depart.
I think this debate is now largely academic. If Lambie votes down Clive’s deal, she’s left the fold.
Good morning and welcome. Apologies for the late start, I confess I’ve been thinking about things. Dangerous I know, but it has to happen periodically.
It’s a mild spring day. Birds are chirping. Lawn mowers are ... mowing. Canberra is starting to wind down from the whirl of rock star Indian prime ministers (if I read that construction one more time I think I might scream) and wombat hugging Chinese presidents – although Xi Jinping is still with us, and we’ll keep an eye on him later today.
But the international visitation program is not yet over – the French president Francois Hollande is today’s special guest in Canberra, although he’s not quite special enough to be addressing the parliament. Hollande will meet Tony Abbott later this morning, and hold a couple of public events.
The big boilover of the morning is, however, the government’s future of financial advice (FOFA) regulations. A merry band of crossbenchers say they will join with Labor later this morning to knock out the government’s regime in the senate.
Now this is the senate crossbench, so nothing is every knocked out until it’s knocked out. But if the group holds and does what it say it intends to do, this is a big inconvenience to the Coalition.
It will also be the first time (almost) that the some time PUP Jacqui Lambie has stuck it very publicly to her leader, Clive Palmer.
I say almost because Lambie on Monday defied a PUP position which was to abstain on a social security bill. But this split today is more significant, more obvious, and it underscores her steady drift into independent territory.
So do jump on board. It promises to be a lively day.
The Politics Live comments thread is open for your business and the Twits are fired right up. You can chat to us there @murpharoo and @mpbowers
