Night time politics
- Question time was dominated by penalty rates again. Labor began questioning around the issue of conflict of interest. That is, if a government MP has a small business and benefits from the penalty rate cut, it is a conflict of interest according to Labor. While the point is arguable IMO given the penalty cut was a Fair Work Commission decision, Malcolm Turnbull did not answer the question. He preferred to point out previous deals negotiated by Bill Shorten at head of the Australian Workers’ Union which remove penalty rates in enterprise bargaining agreements.
- Labor has also sought to target various government backbenchers for veiled or open support for the penalty rate cut. Ann Sudmalis was one, who described the cut as a “gift” which would create more jobs. After two days of question time targeting, she appeared a bit teary.
- The national account figures came out and behold, they were good. At least, not bad, certainly a big improvement on the last lot. Australia escaped falling into a technical recession.
- Barnaby Joyce went the full National party press conference to talk about his plan for decentralisation in a bold move to head off laughter over estimates evidence that heard APVMA staff were working in McDonald’s for wifi in Armidale. APVMA is the agency Joyce moved to his electorate in the lead-up to the Tony Windsor fight at the last election. Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon said decentralisation? It rarely works at a federal level, says he.
- George Brandis could not recall when he had his first conversation with the WA attorney general Mischen about the Bell litigation, even though Mischen said it was a month earlier than Brandis told the Senate.
- The omnibus bill went through the lower house and it will sit in the Senate queue.
That’s your lot for the evening. Thanks to the brains trust Paul Karp, Katharine Murphy and Mike Bowers. Tomorrow is the last sitting day but who’s counting.
Herewith, some pics for your viewing pleasure.
Nighty night.
Updated
Senator Cory Bernardi is questioning in estimates. He has a case of a constituent who was asked to sign a childcare agreement with “priority of access” guidelines which state the child could be kicked out of the centre with 14 days notice if a more needy family needed the place.
He said needy families would include Indigenous families, low socioeconomic families, disabled families etc. Bernardi says this is wrong.
The department spokesman says while his advice on the guidelines is correct, anecdotally no one is displaced. Usually the centres renegotiate with all their families to squeeze in the child in need.
Education (and childcare) minister Simon Birmingham says he was not aware of this issue and would take it up. Department and minister suggest guidelines should be clarified to the practice.
Updated
Curiouser and curiouser.
Updated
I promised to confirm the quotes from the Liberal MP Ann Sudmalis regarding penalty rates.
She told one of her local newspapers on the New South Wales south coast, the Illawarra Mercury, that the penalty cut was a gift.
“It’s not cutting wages, it’s opening the door for more hours of employment and in a regional area like Gilmore, with almost double the national youth unemployment, that’s a gift; that is a gift for our young people to get a foot in the door of employment,” Ms Sudmalis told the Mercury.
Asked if she supported the cuts, the MP reiterated the move was a good one for young workers and urged people to “look more broadly than our own hip pocket”.
“There are some people who are very dependent on those penalty rates, and I get that and I understand that, but there are some others who might be able to pick up an extra day,” she said.
“There’ll be opportunities for more people to get more work, rather than just people losing part of what they believe is ‘I’m working on a Sunday, I should get paid more’.
Labor has used question time to target her comments and by association Malcolm Turnbull who recently visited her electorate.
Updated
The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, is being pressed by Ben Fordham on 2GB about his leadership prospects. Fordham thinks he will be the next prime minister.
My job is to be loyal to the prime minister ... that is the only thing I am concentrating on.
I have lots of people who loathe me and fortunately some people who like me.
You take the bouquets and brickbats and do the best you can.
Updated
In the flurry of the day, I missed Labor agriculture shadow Joel Fitzgibbon, who replied to Barnaby Joyce on his decentralisation press conference. Fitzgibbon says it was more about shoring up seats in the coming Queensland state election.
Fitzgibbon has been critical of the APVMA move to Armidale.
He keeps talking about research and relationships with universities. By the way, the relationship with UNE is so good that they are camping in McDonald’s. Barnaby Joyce said they would be located in UNE, but they are in McDonald’s. The APVMA does no research as such. They analyse data provided to them by the big multinational companies. So, he doesn’t understand what it does. On that basis, I don’t think he fully comprehended the consequence of gutting the APVMA, an organisation that has lost half of its staff. In some areas of expertise, 50% of the people have walked out of the building. Now he is going to have some sort of cyberspace experiment where people will be working from their homes here in Canberra. Well that’s hardly going to bolster the economy of Armidale.
Fitzgibbon says decentralisation rarely works though he accepts that “moving the APVMA to Armidale can do no harm to Armidale”.
Decentralisation has rarely worked. Where it has worked, it’s worked at the state level best. Where it has worked it has been successful because people have spent a long time developing a strategic plan and a transition. Barnaby Joyce has no strategic plan for the APVMA. It was a thought bubble. A thought bubble to shore him up in Armidale where Tony Windsor constantly defeats him at the ballot box. This is not a plan for decentralisation, this is a plan to get Barnaby Joyce re-elected.
While the APVMA move may have been a plan to get re-elected by Joyce, Fitzgibbon cannot assert Windsor beat Joyce at the one and only election they fought. Joyce is here and Windsor is not.
Updated
An emotional prime minister ends question time with a statement on the 75th anniversary of the sinking of the HMAS Perth.
Bill Shorten follows with his own speech.
Updated
Put up your dukes.
Liberal MP Ann Sudmalis (above Julie Bishop) visibly uncomfortable after two days of questions over her comments on penalty rates. pic.twitter.com/6mbt2sSkzJ
— Mark Di Stefano 🤙🏻 (@MarkDiStef) March 1, 2017
Sudmalis has been taunted about a visit to her electorate with Turnbull and her comments on penalty rates. I will confirm those comments.
Liberal MP Ann Sudmalis has been seen wiping tears from her eyes during #QT #auspol
— Roje Adaimy (@rojeadaimy) March 1, 2017
Labor to Turnbull: Given the prime minister’s statement yesterday that he supports the decision to cut penalty rates, can the prime minister confirm his colleague, the Liberal member for Ford, was reflecting government policy when he said in relation to the decision to cut penalty rates, “The reductions are minor.” For this prime minister, is a $77 per week pay cut just a minor reduction? ?
Turnbull does not answer this $77 question.
He repeats, the FWC is an independent umpire. Shorten made the referral on penalty rates as minister. Shorten also negotiated away penalties as a union leader.
Updated
Labor to Turnbull: Yesterday during question time, the prime minister finally confirmed he supports a decision to cut penalty rates. The prime minister’s support for cutting penalty rates means workers at the cane land central shopping centre in Mackay in the electorate of Dawson will have their pay cut. Is the reason the prime minister is refusing to stop the penalty rates decision is because he and his Liberal-National government, including the member for Dawson [George Christensen], support cuts to penalty rates.
Turnbull:
This is abandoning every principle of the Labor party, and as Jenny George said, in words that honourable members opposite should reflect on very carefully, be careful what you wish for. The independent umpire has served workers well, it has served employers well, it has served Australia well. Decisions have been controversial, to be sure. But backing the independent umpire has been a joint commitment for many years, now abandoned as a politically cynical effort by the Labor party and their hypocritical leader.
Updated
Labor to Turnbull: My question is to the prime minister and I refer to the prime minister’s recent visit to the electorate of Gilmore, and the member for Gilmore’s statement yesterday that it is a gift for our young people that their penalty rates have been cut. On that visit, did the prime minister and the member tell the people of Gilmore that it was government policy to cut their penalty rates? And why does the prime minister and the member for Gilmore support cutting penalty rates of Australians?
Turnbull says it is the FWC’s judgement and their judgment alone.
Their judgment and their judgement alone, is that these reductions in this case a reduction for casuals from 275% penalty rate to 250%, that that reduction will assist in creating more job opportunities. That was the trade-off.
Turnbull quotes Shorten prior to the election, warning off the Greens from changing any (future) FWC decision.
[Shorten said] I caution the Greens from their sideshow position. They need be careful of what they’re playing with fire by proposing a government should be able to legislate on specific penalty rate outcomes. They are loading the gun for a future conservative government to pull the trigger because what a government has the power to put in, a future government has the ability to dismantle.
A couple of comments here.
A: Let’s not pretend the government does not support the penalty rate cut. They clearly do, but they will not crow about it, lest they give material to Labor for future election ads.
B: I agree with this previous Shorten position. Once you change the FWC decisions you don’t like, you licence future governments to do the same.
Updated
There is argy bargy between the speaker, the government and Labor over the latter’s call for relevance. Speaker Smith rules Turnbull is relevant because he is talking about the penalty rate cut decision (albeit in regard to Shorten’s previous work at the AWU).
Labor’s Tony Burke to Turnbull: Have any ministers disclosed potential conflicts of interest in relation to the Governments response to the recent Fair Work Commission decision as required by the statement of ministerial standards? How many members of the Government will profit from the decision?
Turnbull says it is not the government’s decision, it is from the Fair Work Commission.
So this would be an interesting question, whether a small business owner and politician would have a conflict of interest on a penalty rate decision made by an independent body. (Given the small business operator would benefit from a cut in penalties.) I think it’s a long bow myself but let’s watch where it goes.
*this post has been amended to correct the question.
Updated
Labor to Turnbull: This morning on Adelaide radio the assistant minister for agriculture said “The overall decision of this commission, which I have got to say I support, being a small business operator. “. Have any ministers disclosed potential conflicts of interest in relation to the government’s response to this decision, as required by the statement of ministerial standards? How many more members of the government will profit from the decision to cut the pay of 700,000 Australians?
Turnbull does not answer the question, which references Anne Ruston, the assistant ag minister and primary producer.
He talks about Bill Shorten’s negotiated EBAs with Cleanevent and Cirque Du Soleil.
Bob Katter to immigration minister Peter Dutton: The The Daily Telegraph, October 2014 reports young New South Wales is the unofficial Muslim capital of the outback, population 7,000 Arabic as the second language and home to 400 Middle Easterners. Yesterday, Haisem Zahab was arrested on allegations of assisting ISIS to develop long range missiles. Last week the Federation of Islamic Councils President reportedly stated domestic violence is the last resort. Will the minister listen to his own backbench and the United States and ban visas from North Africa and the countries between Greece and India, exempting of course persecuted minorities, namely Sikhs, Jews and Christians?
Dutton makes three points.
One.
It is important to point out that the vast majority of people who are working hard in that community, supporting the abattoir that can only stay open because of that local Muslim population, it provides support to local farmers and to that local economy. They are hard working people. They are doing the right thing. Like 99% of people from the Islamic community in this country, they are doing the right thing.
Two.
Where we find the 1% and where the 1% are doing the wrong thing or people who would seek to do harm to our country, we will come down on them hard.
Three, re Keyser Trad’s comments:
This is Australia and if you come to our country, you abide by our laws and one of the things that sets us apart from many other nations is our respect of women” we all want our daughters to succeed, be in loving relationships,get a good education, get a good job and be the equal of any man in this country”. It is unacceptable for the vast majority of the Islamic community as well, I am sure.
Shorten to Turnbull: The prime minister has said he supports the decision to cut penalty rates. Will the prime minister please advise the 700,000 Australians who rely upon these penalty rates whether he will intervene to stop these pay cuts? Yes or no, will the commonwealth intervene to stop these pay cuts?
He notes correctly that Shorten said he would accept the decision of the Fair Work Commission on penalty rates.
It does not look like there will be an answer from the PM on the substantive issue of whether he supports the penalty rate cut.
Updated
Chris Bowen to Scott Morrison: This morning at Senate estimates the secretary of the Treasury was asked whether the decision to cut penalty rates would create more jobs. The secretary said “I don’t have an opinion on that”. Can the treasurer confirm that his own department has not advised the government that this will create jobs and in fact this is just a straight pay cut for 700,000 Australians?
Morrison says the Fair Work Commission has decided to cut penalty rates following the referral from Bill Shorten, former workplace minister.
Morrison again declines the opportunity to give Labor a grab lauding pay cuts that could be used in the next election.
Malcolm Turnbull’s first Dorothy Dixer spruiks the national accounts. The question comes from a WA MP which allows him to talk about the strong economic leadership of his government and WA premier Colin Barnett. Can I hear a state election coming?
Shorten to Turnbull: Why is it that under the Turnbull government, when companies receive record profits, they get tax cuts and when wages flat line, workers get pay cuts?
Turnbull is shuffling through a pile of enterprise bargaining agreements signed by Bill Shorten’s delegates at the Australian Workers Union under his leadership.
What about the workers? The cleaning workers at Cleanevent who were paid thanks to the leader of the opposition $18.14 an hour when they were entitled to $50.17 under the award. That is what he did. Where did the money go? Was there a payment to the AWU? Were membership lists provided to the AWU? Follow the money.
Updated
Bill Shorten is using a 90 second MP’s statement just before question time to speak against changing the Racial Discrimination Act.
The ball is now in the prime minister’s court
He should rule out the right to be a bigot once and for all.
Cory Bernardi has delivered his Weekly Dose of Common Sense blog. He is using the 18C report by the human rights committee as a bit of a recruitment drive for Australian Conservatives.
The committee bowed at the altar of political correctness, they heeded the caution of the saturated mattress.
It is time to take a stand, says Cory.
This snowflake-protecting, damaging ideology and its proponents are hurting our country. If the political class won’t support freedom of speech what will they support? What other of your freedoms will they limit to make their already-cosy lives easier?
There really is a better way…a principled way that does the right thing no matter how tough it is. That’s the attitude parents have shared with their children for generations. Do the right thing, do it once and do it right.
Our political class need to hear that message loud and clear. Australian Conservatives are committed to taking it to them.
He notes he will name founding members in weeks to come.
Bernardi really is the master of the political tease.
From Matt Hatter with love:
@gabriellechan To all public servants let us cheer pockets ONation on a decentralised bunfight. @murpharoo #politicslive pic.twitter.com/IE5i7xDU0r
— The Matt Hatter (@MattGlassDarkly) March 1, 2017
I should say Barnaby also launched a website for anyone who would like to make a submission on decentralisation.
We have been trying to get the major parties to engage in the conversation about decentralisation, which is growing jobs in regional Australia and saving government money by relocating government agencies out of the major cities.
Which sounds like the Nationals are not part of the government.
Lunch time politics
In keeping with good blogging practice, herewith a lunch time summary.
- As predicted by Scott Morrison and the consensus, the national accounts were good. The economy grew by 1.1% in the December quarter - the best one quarter result since March 2012, and comes off the back of the September quarter result which saw the economy shrink by 0.5%. Recession under the technical terms has been avoided. Again.
- Barnaby Joyce says evidence given in senate estimates APVMA workers had to access wifi at McDonalds was ridiculous. The agency was moved to his own electorate based in Armidale.
- Joyce was calling for towns across regional Australia to put in a bid for their own agency through a senate committee on decentralisation.
- Former Howard minister Amanda Vanstone said Tony Abbott was a narcissist. Julie Bishop said he wasn’t.
- The omnibus social services/childcare bill passed the lower house. Indi independent Cathy McGowan tried to amend it to put some structure around mobile childcare funding for regional Oz but it was voted down by the government.
-
Treasury head John Fraser said the demographics of immigration meant migrants did have an effect on house prices.
I asked Treasury if they knew how many young people can't afford a home. This is what they said... 😐 pic.twitter.com/eG1Jd74jT6
— Peter Whish-Wilson (@SenatorSurfer) March 1, 2017
Treasurer Scott Morrison has been speaking on the national accounts. He covers the numbers, the company tax cuts and their passage through the Senate and the increase in commodity prices.
While Treasury secretary John Fraser suggested in estimates earlier today that any increase in revenue should be banked, Morrison said it was too early to be definitive and he would consider Treasury forecasts in the lead up to the budget.
He is pushed again on why the government will not prosecute the yes case for the Fair Work Commission’s decision on penalty rate cuts. He steadfastly refuses to do this. He just says the government supports the independent umpire and will abide by the decision.
Updated
Who is that man?
Would you like fries with that?
Hold off on the cartwheels, not quite the beautiful set of numbers
The GDP figures out today showed the economy grew by a rather stunning 1.1% in the December quarter. That is the best one quarter result since March 2012, and comes off the back of the September quarter result which saw the economy shrink by 0.5%.
While the figure is very good, there needs to be a bit of caution before you limber up to do cartwheels. One reason the figure is so strong is because the September quarter figures were so bad – and they were bad for a number of one-off reasons, including bad weather which reduced housing construction. So it’s not like the economy has suddenly got a lot better, more we just didn’t suffer the same bad events in December that occurred in September
The annual growth figures of 2.4% remains below the long term average (historically a figure of 3%, but now considered to be closer to 2.75%).
Also the big 1.1% growth figure is the seasonally adjusted figure which can be a bit erratic. The trend growth figure is a rather less ebullient 0.3%, and the trend annual growth figure is a fairly pathetic 1.9%.
The big driver of growth was household consumption – which contributed nearly half of the 1.1% growth – exports and also non-dwelling construction.
There is good news for the government from the nominal growth figures. Nominal GDP measure the size of the economy in current dollars and this figure has more of an impact for government tax revenue. In the December quarter nominal growth grew by 3.0% in seasonally adjusted terms – the best result since June 2010. It means nominal GDP grew by 6.1% in 2016. Given the December mid-year fiscal and economic outlook estimated growth for 2016-17 of 5.75%, that is good news for the budget figures.
Updated
The house is now voting on the omnibus bill. As the National party was doing its thing, the house voted down a very detailed amendment from Indi independent Cathy McGowan.
Her amendment sought to put some structure and process around mobile community childcare funding which seeks to fill the gaps in childcare places in rural and regional towns.
It would require the government to assess hard data around the number of places in various areas so that it provides a more transparent process and funding.
McGowan said the minister had been helpful, but was only offering grants and guidelines without a permanent process.
She said especially for the National party, this policy affected poor and needy women in rural Australia, including Indigenous communities.
In speaking to the bill, McGowan had a warning for the major parties. You are already bleeding votes and until you start recognising that regional communities have different needs (and responding to them), you will lose more votes to minor parties.
Labor voted for the McGowan amendment but the Coalition including the National party voted against.
Updated
Australia’s economy has rebounded, recording 1.1% growth in the December 2016 quarter.
The result reverses the shock negative result in the September quarter and means Australia has avoided a recession, as was widely projected by market economists.
Figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday show Australia’s gross domestic product (GDP) has now grown 2.4% through the year.
Australia has now recorded 101 quarters between the June 1991 and the 2016 December quarter without two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth.
Australia continues to close in on the Netherlands’ record of 103 quarters without a recession, which Deloitte Access Economics has predicted it will surpass this year.
Updated
Australia avoids recession after recording 1.1% economic growth in the last quarter.
— Shalailah Medhora (@shalailah) March 1, 2017
Someone left a bag of Macca’s on the lawn in the courtyard when the National party emerged for its press conference.
Updated
John Fraser (treasury secretary) says there is a problem in Australia's gas market and there's a group within treasury looking at it #auspol
— Uma Patel (@umabp) March 1, 2017
John Fraser (treasury secretary) says Treasury has not looked into the affects of the wages decision #auspol
— Uma Patel (@umabp) February 28, 2017
Treasury secretary John Fraser says demographics of immigrants mean they congregate in cities, so yes, they can be a driver of house prices.
— Mark Di Stefano 🤙🏻 (@MarkDiStef) February 28, 2017
There is no clear answer from Barnaby Joyce on whether he supports a “debranding” of the Nats from the Liberals in Queensland. He does say he has been going to Queensland regularly.
People clearly understand who we are. I’ve never had anybody confused which party I’m in.
So to be clear, the National party has started a Senate inquiry and has urged rural and regional towns across Australia to make a bid for a government office.
Barnaby Joyce says the Nats don’t need to carve out a new identity because they already have a strong identity.
This relates to the idea that in Queensland, the Nats in the LNP want a separate identity.
Updated
Asked about APVMA expertise is being lost, Joyce says:
Well, we’ve also had an awful lot of inquiries about people who want to work there. Everything balances off.
Barnaby Joyce: APVMA Macca's claim ridiculous
Barnaby Joyce says the APVMA workers have plenty of office space. They don’t need to work from McDonald’s.
This is ridiculous. There are so many areas up there if they wish to have office space, they could get it. Armidale was one of the first cities to get the NBN. So the idea that you have to work out of Macca’s is a choice that they’ve made. I’ve been overwhelmed by people saying it was ridiculous and there was office space if they wanted it.
Updated
Barnaby Joyce is freewheeling on the benefits of decentralisation. He says Bob Hawke previously supported some decentralisation. As did Gough Whitlam BTW. But I digress.
Here is Barnaby:
What’s happened to the Labor Party is it’s lost a vision for the nation and it’s become myopic and is going into the parochial paces of saying they’re going to support where things already are. If that was the vision that was around at the time that they developed the constitution for our nation, before federation,we would not be having this press conference here. There would be a city called Melbourne and a city called Sydney and one of them would be slightly bigger because all of the administrative centres would be there.
Julie Bishop also spoke about her plans to bring home more than 100 diplomatic staff to nut out Australia’s foreign policy.
We hear from them through communications all the time but what we are seeking to do is replace the meetings and the regional meetings that occur regionally or around the world with one significant meeting to gain the insights and perspectives of our most experienced diplomats.
In fact, it’s within the budget. There is no new money required and I believe it’s a very efficient and effective way of hearing from them on their experiences, observations, their real-time experiences. These are people situated in countries, in our missions across the globe, over 100 missions, and they are coming back to Australia to be part of our white paper on foreign policy.
Updated
By the way, former Howard minister Amanda Vanstone (again) calls Tony Abbott a narcissist.
It’s always been about Tony from the minute he was born.
Whoa! @amandavanstone slaps down @TonyAbbottMHR #sun7 pic.twitter.com/9NXf1fr1wq
— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) February 28, 2017
The foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, has been asked about it.
Is Tony Abbott a narcissist?
That’s not how I’d describe him.
Updated
Hey kids, join the Department of Finance and you get to eat paleo pear and banana bread.
This little video to applaud the features of the department’s graduate program drew a questioning in estimates last night. And a little tittering.
But don’t laugh too hard. There may be a future head of treasury in there.
Updated
Jenny Macklin was trying to knock off the omnibus bill because:
It will hurt pensioners, families, new mums and young Australians while holding childcare assistance and the National Disability Insurance Scheme to ransom;
The motion also called on the government to:
(a) drop their unfair cuts to pensioners, families, new mums and young Australians; and
(b) fix their childcare changes so that vulnerable and disadvantaged children are not worse off and Indigenous and country services do not face closure.
The Labor motion failed.
Updated
The lower house has moved onto the omnibus/social services/childcare bill. Labor’s Jenny Macklin is trying to amend the legislation. The house in voting now and we could expect on the numbers Labor will lose this vote.
Let’s just touch base on the morning
We have GDP figures coming out at 11.30am.
We have the leader of Nationals, Barnaby Joyce, and Nationals members and senators launching a new decentralisation campaign at 11am.
Which will be a chance for journalists to quiz him on the workers from the APVMA from Canberra to Joyce’s electorate.
AAP reported late yesterday from estimates committee:
Senior executives at a pesticides agency being forcibly moved to the electorate of deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce are working from a fast food restaurant as they search for a temporary office.
A dozen staff at the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority were due to move to regional NSW in March but their hunt for Armidale real estate continues.
“We need a base rather than sitting in McDonald’s using their free wifi,” chief executive Kareena Arthy told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra on Tuesday.
“It [the office] is there really as a practical basis for the APVMA staff who go to Armidale because honestly we sit in McDonald’s to do our work.”
Updated
Updated
Let me explain the shenanigans in the house.
The government introduced two bills, one on vulnerable workers and one to remove the requirement of the Fair Work Commission to conduct four-yearly reviews of modern awards from the beginning of 1 January 2018. Labor supports these bills.
The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, introduced them, said they were urgent. So Labor called his bluff and said effectively, bloody oath. Let’s push them through right now.
Dutton said, yeah, nah. We don’t want to do it right now.
So Labor suspended standing orders in the house to allow the bills to be rushed through.
The house has just voted against the motion to suspend standing orders.
Updated
The house was debating the fair work amendment on vulnerable workers.
Tony Burke tried to suspend standing orders to debate.
The government gagged him.
Then Anthony Albanese tried to take up the suspension motion.
The government is now in the process of gagging Albanese.
Updated
The house starts at 9.30am and begins with government business.
The government will introduce a bill to protect vulnerable workers, the omnibus social services/childcare bill and the NDIS savings fund (created for the savings out of the omnibus bill).
It is the way of governments to rally their base to help push for policy arguments they support. But it would seem there is a little fraying at the edges in the business community over the recent penalty cuts decision by the Fair Work Commission.
Phil Coorey at the Fin reports that the employment minister, Michaelia Cash, has been on the phone to business groups to gear up for an expected fight from Labor, the Greens and unions for the hearts and votes of the 680,000 people effected by the decision.
Senator Cash called the Business Council of Australia chief executive, Jennifer Westacott, the Australian Chamber of Commerce CEO, James Pearson, and the Australian Industry Group’s Innes Willox.
“As part of this discussion they discussed the disgraceful misinformation campaign being waged by unions in relation to the Fair Work Commission’s penalty rate decision,” a spokesman for Senator Cash said.
But the BCA argued its members, the nation’s 127 largest businesses, were not directly affected by the decision and therefore it was not the BCA’s fight.
Willox told the Fin that his group, which argued in support of the FWC, would continue to speak in support but business risked a backlash if they spoke out individually.
Our members and the business community generally are very pleased with the decision but individual business are understandably reluctant to speak up, knowing the risk of union intimidation, thuggery, boycotts or protests.
Updated
Thanks to Matt Doran of the ABC for another Brandis snippet.
When do the words "I recall" take effect, and when don't they? See if you can keep up at home... #estimates pic.twitter.com/8ROO3MTh63
— Matthew Doran (@MattDoran91) February 28, 2017
The treasurer, Scott Morrison, was nonplussed by all the talk about changing 18c, an issue which exercises the conservative end of the Coalition.
As reported earlier, he said it would not create a single job.
Labor’s Ed Husic said it was a joke that the Coalition was now fighting over the outcomes of the human rights committee report, which gave a range of recommendations without any clear call to change the act. Rather, the committee suggested the processes around complaints under the Racial Discrimination Act should change in the first instance. There is disappointment in some quarters of the government and relief in others.
Husic says:
They are fighting about an inquiry they pushed for.
They are hatin’ about hate speech.
Updated
Today, senate estimates continue and the lower house sits at 9.30am.
Community affairs committee has the health department so I’m thinking Medicare freeze.
Economics has treasury head, John Fraser, as well as the Australian Tax Office.
Defence will have the defence minister Marise Payne in the comfy chair. We could see questioning around the Singapore-Australian military training deal which threatened compulsory land acquisitions, among other things.
Education might consider the new education funding agreements yet to be unveiled - the so-called years 5-6 of Gonski and we have the education minister Simon Birmingham in the chair.
Aforementioned Murray Watt and George Brandis exchange words.
So, Senator Brandis says his statement on the Bell matter is entirely consistent with his WA counterpart.
— Matthew Doran (@MattDoran91) February 28, 2017
Then this happened. DING DING! pic.twitter.com/WeyeLte2m9
The Queensland Liberal MP Karen Andrews has given a message on Sky to her fellow members. Knuckle down, she says. But she praised George Christensen for doing the right thing and stepping down as whip.
Updated
Labor senator Murray Watt gives a physical impression of WTF.
Updated
The chairman of Universities Australia, Barney Glover, is due to make an interesting speech to the National Press Club today in defence of experts.
I know experts are passé but there is something to be said for listening to people who know stuff.
Paul Karp reports Glover will say the public square has been overrun by “extremists and polemicists” in the post-truth era. He will warn of a “creeping cynicism – even outright hostility – towards evidence and expertise”.
Who can forget British Conservative MP Michael Gove declaring after the Brexit vote that “the people of this country have had enough of experts”?
Glover will say that expertise is needed to solve problems as broad as curing cancer and preventable disease, navigating technological disruption, lifting living standards, overcoming prejudice and preventing catastrophic climate change.
What a quaint notion.
Updated
Scott Morrison: consensus is GDP figures will be positive
The treasurer, Scott Morrison, has spoken on ABC’s AM about the GDP figures out today.
He says it is “certainly the consensus” that it will be a positive figure – avoiding a technical recession after the shock 0.5% contraction last quarter.
It was a surprise contraction and it’s my expectation that that will be corrected in today’s figures.
Host Sabra Lane pushes Morrison on whether the government will separate tax cuts for businesses with a turnover of $10m or less because the Senate won’t back a tax cut for big business.
The treasurer says the “Senate will decide”, implying it’s all or nothing, but doesn’t say so explicitly.
Asked about the Fair Work Commission cuts to penalty rates, Morrison repeats the mantra that it’s not the government’s decision to defend but then does back it more strongly than many of his colleagues.
You can’t get a job and you can’t get hours in a business that isn’t open.”
He said the commission had heard “case after case after case” of small business owners who said they work on Sunday because they can’t afford other workers, demonstrating a rate cut could boost employment.
Morrison cited the seat of Gilmore, which has 20% youth unemployment, as a place that could benefit from the decision.
Asked about 18C after a Senate report failed to recommend any particular method to amend the section, Morrison said that he was focused on the budget and changes to the Racial Discrimination Act would not create “one job”.
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Good morning blogans and blatherskites,
Welcome to the first day of autumn, when Canberra turns to colour and not just in the halls of parliament.
Last night, after the legal and constitutional affairs Senate committee managed to put off the attorney general’s statement regarding the Bell litigation for most of the day, Brandis eventually gave a statement. (He had tried earlier in the day but chair Ian Macdonald put him off.)
He was required to make the statement because, in November, he told the Senate that the first “personal involvement” he could recall in the matter was “on 3 March [2016], although my office had been dealing with the matter prior to that time”.
But on Thursday Andrew Probyn of ABC’s 7.30 reported that Brandis spoke to the Western Australian attorney general, Michael Mischin, about Bell on 1 February 2016, although Brandis said he had no recollection of it.
In a joint letter demanding Brandis explain the inconsistency, signed by Penny Wong, Richard Di Natale, Derryn Hinch and Nick Xenophon, the group warned the Senate treats misleading statements “very seriously”.
Last night, Brandis repeatedly told the committee he could not recall the exchange and it would really mislead the Senate if he said he could recall.
At the time I made my November 28 statement, I had no recollection of the exchange to which Mr Mischin refers. I still have no recollection of it. Were I to say that I recall such an exchange, I would be misleading the Senate, because I do not.
I will have more on this throughout the morning.
Katharine Murphy reports that the former treasurer Wayne Swan is going to come out in support of the Buffett rule, where high earners pay a minimum tax rate. The idea is opposed by the current shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, so that will make for some lively caucus debate. Swan says working people voted for Donald Trump “not out of any hard-right ideology or an entrenched racial intolerance but because they no longer saw the Democrats as the party who spoke or acted for them”.
Consider if you’re a truck driver in Logan or a steel worker in Wollongong, you’re constantly told to work harder for less while tax cuts go to the top end – you might suck that up for a while because you have to,” Swan will say.
“All the while you see progressive social issues dominate the news. Eventually you reach a breaking point and your job is sent offshore or made casual.
“Suddenly you’re tossed on the economic scrapheap and, like a drum of kerosene dumped directly on the smouldering fire, your frustration with progressive issues erupts in an inferno of white-hot rage.
“And quite a lot of that rage might express itself with immigration, gender equity or other favoured progressive issues – not because rage by definition doesn’t contain itself very well but very much because the right will always supply scapegoats of various types. Anything to ensure the blame isn’t sheeted home where it really belongs: the policies they designed to fleece working people and redistribute the gains to the top.
George Christensen is feeling the anger. Phil Coorey at the Fin reports that Christensen and fellow Queensland LNP MPs are pushing for a “debranding” of the LNP to respond to it. That is, separating the brands of the Liberal and National party in a state that merged the two parties in 2008.
There is a growing view among MPs and others that there should not be a demerger but a debranding,” he said. This would include, but not be limited to, resorting to the use of separate National and Liberal party logos on electoral material and ballot papers.
This merger crankiness has been an ongoing headache for the Nationals leader, Barnaby Joyce. Over the past year, he has made a number of mercy dashes to Queensland to try to sort out the angst caused by the threat of One Nation. John Howard’s view of the Nats was that they played an important function in holding the space on the right. Sucking them into the one party leaves the parking space open for parties on the right. Like One Nation. Like Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives.
In other news, Amy Remeikis of Fairfax reports that foreign minister Julie Bishop is recalling all Australian ambassadors for a three day meeting to map out Australia’s strategic foreign policy.
Mike Bowers was up late at the Brandis committee so I have more treasures to unveil. Talk to us in the thread or on the Twits @gabriellechan and @mpbowers. My Facebook page is also open for business. Walk with me.
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