That’s where we are going to leave it today.
Will the election be called tomorrow? Who knows. It could be. There are those who are convinced it will be. But truly, we are all just guessing.
Only Scott Morrison and those he has decided to tell, would know. But it’s close.
We’ll be back early tomorrow morning to report on whatever else is happening in the Clayton’s campaign, as well as the remaining estimates hearings. It’s meant to be my Friday, which is an almost absolute guarantee that the election will be called tomorrow, because that just tends to be how my luck runs.
But we won’t know, until we know.
Thank you to everyone for following along with us today. We hope you join us in this very strange period of Australian history tomorrow.
I mean, how good is the 45th parliament?
Take care of you.
Updated
And this statement from earlier includes former senator and Liberal party resident Richard Alston. From Mitch Fifield:
The Australian Government has appointed Mr Michael Gannon, Ms Terri Janke, the Hon Richard Alston AO, and Professor Sally Smart as members of the Council of the National Gallery of Australia for three-year terms.
Mr Gannon is a Chartered Accountant and the Executive Chair of the Cremorne Group. He will bring substantial business and philanthropic experience to the Council.
Ms Janke is a lawyer and managing director of Terri Janke and Company Lawyers and Consulting. She has worked extensively in the arts sector and is recognised as an international authority on Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property. She has written the leading protocols and ICIP models in the film, arts, museum and archival sectors. Her Indigenous heritage is Torres Strait Islander (Meriam) and Aboriginal (Wuthathi).
Mr Alston is a company director and Adjunct Professor of Information Technology at Bond University. He has extensive experience in government, international diplomacy and business. He formerly served as Australia’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and as Federal Minister for the Arts.
Professor Smart is an acclaimed contemporary artist and Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne. She serves on the Board of the National Association of Visual Artists, the peak body representing artists. Professor Smart will bring significant knowledge of and experience in the contemporary visual arts sector to the Council.
The Government thanks outgoing members Mr Timothy Fairfax AC, Mr John Hindmarsh AM and Ms Jane Hylton for their significant contribution to the Council over the past nine years.
The NGA is responsible for the development, maintenance and display of Australia’s national art collection. The Council is responsible for the management and strategic direction of the NGA.
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A former advisor to Peter Costello has also just got a government board guernsey:
The Government is pleased to announce that Mr Philip Lindsay has been nominated for appointment as Australia’s Alternate Director to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). He will serve in the role to 31 July 2021.
The EBRD is an international financial institution founded in 1991, which uses investment as a tool to build market economies. Australia has been a member of the EBRD since its inception. Australia and Korea rotate the roles of Director and Alternate Director for our constituency, which also includes Egypt and New Zealand.
Mr Lindsay brings extensive private sector and government experience to the role. Mr Lindsay was a National Tax Director at KPMG and Touche Ross for 12 years, and later a Director of Tax and Risk at Deloitte for three and a half years. He has served as a full time senior member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for more than three years, and was a Senior Advisor to former Treasurer Peter Costello and other senior ministers.
Mr Lindsay began his career as a commercial lawyer at law firm Church & Grace after completing Bachelor degrees in Arts and Law at University of Sydney. Mr Lindsay also holds a Master of Commerce from University of New South Wales.
The Government would also like to thank Mr Phil Barresi for his significant contribution as Director and then Alternate Director from 2016 to 2018.
For the record, Sam Dastyari resigned after it was revealed that he had tipped off Huang Xiangmo that he was probably under surveillance by Australian security agencies.
The wedding attendance had been reported in 2016.
👰🤵Wedding? What wedding? Sneaky Bill. Sam Dastyari resigned for less than that! 😂
— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) April 10, 2019
By the way, super investigative journalism by @Ageinvestigates and @4corners 😂
I was just pointed to this profile of Christian Porter in the West Australian, published on Sunday.
Porter talks about his fight to hold his seat. From the Joe Spagnolo story:
He likened that new aggression to the Rocky III character Apollo Creed, who had trained Rocky Balboa to beat the favourite, Clubber Lang, played by Mr T.
“They [Labor] play Hunger Games, we have a tendency to be Queensberry rules,” he said. “They can expect that we will be a much tougher opponent for them, this time around.
“I like to think of us more as Apollo Creed in Rocky III – hard, but fair.”
That’s great and all, but did Porter see the next Rocky? Cos, and spoiler alert, it really didn’t end well for Apollo.
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Well usually these things wait until Friday afternoon, but if the election is called tomorrow, then I guess Wednesday is the new Friday.
But former Liberal MP Ewen Jones, who missed out on preselection for Herbert, has just been appointed to a government board.
From Mitch Fifield’s statement:
The Australian Government has appointed Mr Ewen Jones as a member of the Board of the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) for a period of three years.
Mr Jones has extensive business and government relations experience. He has a background in finance and real estate sales and is an auctioneer by trade.
He was the Member for Herbert from 2010 to 2016 and served on several House of Representatives Standing Committees and the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade.
The Board is responsible for the overall performance of the organisation, including setting the strategic direction and goals for management.
The NFSA collects, preserves and displays Australia’s film, video, television, stills and recorded sound.
For more information about the NFSA visit www.nfsa.gov.au
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Things have gone quiet in both political land and the hill, as rumours continue to swirl that Scott Morrison will call the election tomorrow.
That’s not new – and again, it’s people guessing.
But the Thursday rumour is gaining ground. Enough to make sure everyone has their bags packed and ready to go.
The governor general is in town, but he is a little busy for the rest of this week, with investiture ceremonies planned, but that is able to be worked around:
The Governor-General, His Excellency General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC (Retd), as Chancellor of the Order of Australia, will invest 143 recipients at Government House on Wednesday 10 April, Thursday 11 April and Friday 12 April 2019.
“The contributions of these amazing Australians are diverse yet there is a unifying theme: they have dedicated themselves to service. They have worked tirelessly for others, to improve local communities and to make Australia a better place,” the Governor-General said.
“While typically they haven’t sought thanks or recognition, they deserve both. Their generosity, selflessness, compassion, dedication, commitment to service and energy inspire and motivate all of us.”
The four investiture ceremonies at Government House, Canberra will be held at:
- 2:30pm on Wednesday, 10 April,
- 10:00am and 2:30pm on Thursday, 11 April; and
- 10:00am on Friday, 12 April.
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The National Farmers’ Federation has welcomed the government’s proposed legislation targeting trespassing animal activists:
“The move to throw the book at these offenders is a relief to farming families, who are right now under siege,” the NFF chief executive, Tony Mahar, said in a statement.
“Hard-working farmers are having their character, livelihoods and way of life attacked and it simply cannot continue.
“Much of the offensive behaviour is directly linked to an online ‘map’, which in January published the private address details of more than 3,000 farm and supply chain businesses and which remains live today.
“Since January we’ve seen dairies, feedlots, abattoirs and even aquariums targeted.
“The people behind these despicable acts are so fundamental in their views they don’t believe in pets or guide dogs.
“They certainly do not support animal production for food and the right of the majority of Australians to consume meat, dairy products and eggs.”
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Bill Shorten was asked today at his doorstop whether it was hypocritical to question Peter Dutton over his meeting, given his own links to Huang Xiangmo:
We have made it very clear about donations. The issue here is that it’s not me saying that Mr Morrison is wiping this under the carpet, it’s Malcolm Turnbull.
What is going on with these Liberals? They are shaking hands and best mates last year. No one can forget the footage of Barnaby Joyce and Malcolm Turnbull after the New England byelection. Mr Morrison putting his arm around Malcolm Turnbull in August of last year saying that Mr Morrison was ambitious for Mr Turnbull. But because all of a sudden they are bitter with hate, anything Malcolm Turnbull says is apparently wrong according to Mr Morrison.
This is not the way to run the national security of the nation. This is not the way to run the government of the nation. A party that can’t govern itself can’t govern the nation. And it is not me saying this, Malcolm Turnbull is criticising this current crew but the people of Australia are fed up with a lot of them.
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On the new laws the government wants to introduce, if re-elected:
.@cporterwa: There is no doubt that well organised, activists based criminal trespassers have been perpetrated against Australian farming families & Australian agriculture businesses, which is causing them very serious commercial damage.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) April 10, 2019
MORE: https://t.co/Cic4UutQyj pic.twitter.com/KUHn7FVHSo
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At this point, it might be easier to provide a list of Australian senior politicians who did not have dealings with Huang Xiangmo.
But let’s remember what the actual Four Corners episode revealed:
RECORDING OF SANTO SANTORO: One of my best friends is Peter Dutton. He is the most honest politician that I have ever come across, but he tries to be helpful. Like if there is, you know, a capability or a critical mass of investments that comes into Australia, or that can come into Australia, he will try to help.
Santoro tells his clients he can help with attempts to expedite immigration applications
RECORDING OF SANTO SANTORO: There is nobody else anywhere who is better placed than me to help you through this particular part of the project. Nobody. I can go to somebody in the Minister’s office and say ‘can you have a close look at this.’
Santoro charges at least 20 thousand dollars to access Peter Dutton’s office.
RECORDING OF SANTO SANTORO: If I am going to be doing the work and going to Canberra with a copy of the visa application and hand it over to somebody and say ‘can you help’, no, no, I want to get paid and get paid up front.
In 2016, as Huang become increasingly anxious about securing his own citizenship, he put Santoro on a retainer. In March that year, Santoro delivered ... arranging a lunch between Huang and Dutton and the minister’s senior staffer in a private room at Master Ken’s restaurant in Sydney’s Chinatown. This gave Huang Xiangmo direct access to the man most citizenship applicants could only dream of meeting to push their case. Santoro told Four Corners his work with Huang was limited to providing introductory services. Both Huang and Santoro deny their arrangement was aimed at getting Huang citizenship. Peter Dutton confirmed the lunch, but denied he assisted Huang. Huang’s attempt to get a passport failed and last November, on advice from ASIO he posed a risk of foreign interference, he was banned from re-entering Australia.”
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The Queensland environment minister, Leeanne Enoch, has spoken to reporters in Brisbane about the approval process for the Adani Carmichael coalmine.
Enoch called on her federal counterpart, Melissa Price, to hold a press conference and explain her decision to approve Adani’s groundwater plan and “to call out the bullies in her own party that pushed her to make this decision at this very time”.
Enoch also said there were “a number of questions” about whether Adani’s groundwater plan would pass more the more stringent environmental conditions imposed by the Queensland government.
As we reported today a review by the CSIRO and Geoscience Australia found Adani had not conclusively identified the source of the Doongmabulla Springs.
Enoch said that identifying the source was a “core component” of the state environmental conditions for the Carmichael mine.
“From the very beginning, the identification of the source aquifers was in [Adani’s conditions].
“They have a requirement [to identify the source of the springs] and that’s what the regulator will be seeking.
“Certainly in terms of the [Geoscience Australia] and CSIRO report, there are a number of questions with regards to that, but I will allow the regulator of course to look at the current version of the [groundwater plan] in relation to the recommendations.”
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For the record, here is what Bill Shorten said on the matter yesterday, when he was asked if he had any dealings with Huang Xiangmo
Yeah, I think a lot of people have. But I don’t think anyone has ever had to pay $20,000 to have a meeting.
Updated
Totally different:
There is nothing wrong with ministers meeting with dominant members of the community at the request of a lobbyist. Every minister and mhadow minister has done that, nothing unusual.
However, Bill Shorten chose to criticise that is something remarkable or unusual or in his words, a revelation of a national security issue and he makes that criticism of what is a fairly routine meeting at the same time that he knows Bill Shorten, a) received $55,000 into the Labor party and had lunch with Huang Xiangmo and, b) as these photos demonstrate, Bill Shorten is that guest of honour at Huang Xiangmo’s daughter’s wedding.
Wouldn’t you think the credibility part of your brain would be whispering to you perhaps this criticism is a little over-cooked given that Bill Shorten himself had a relationship with Huang Xiangmo goes well beyond one business meeting arranged by lobbyist. It goes to attending the bloke’s daughter’s wedding.
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Christian Porter says that it is completely different that a lobbyist was apparently paid $10,000 to set up a meeting with the immigration minister though:
There is a world of difference between the closeness and intimacy of a relationship which is evidenced by one lunch to the intimacy and closeness of a relationship that is evidenced by being invited to that person’s daughter’s wedding.
I mean, they are qualitatively different events. The point is, Bill Shorten is incredibly happy in the context of the soon-to-be-called election to get out there with this absolutely over-the-top criticism of a lunch with Huang Xiangmo at the same time that he knows in his own mind that he went to Huang Xiangmo’s daughter’s wedding as a guest of honour. As much must surely speak to the credibility that he would speak to any level, stoop to any level of criticism if he thinks is going to get him a day’s news cycle to advantage him. Even the credibility gulf, if it is as wide as the Grand Canyon.
Updated
From a 2017 Sydney Morning Herald story:
A spokesman for Mr Shorten said: “Along with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, former prime minister Tony Abbott, Foreign Minister [Julie] Bishop and other senior ministers of the Liberal Party, Mr Shorten has attended functions with Mr Huang in the past.”
Ms Bishop told Fairfax Media said she had never visited Mr Huang’s home.
A spokesman for Mr Turnbull replied: “The Prime Minister has not visited Huang Xiangmo’s home.”
However, Mr Turnbull has been pictured at an event with Mr Huang well after the first ASIO warnings to party officials in 2015.
Former trade minister Andrew Robb - along with Mr Shorten - also attended the wedding of Mr Huang’s daughter Catrina in January last year.
Mr Shorten’s office said it would “not divulge details of confidential briefings” but stressed his home visit did not compromise Australia’s national security.
“Mr Shorten is in regular contact with security agencies. At every single stage, he has always followed the advice given by security agencies. At all times, Mr Shorten has and will continue to work in close concert with security agencies,” the spokesman said
“He has made it clear Labor will no longer accept donations from Mr Huang. It is unbelievable that Mr Turnbull still refuses to do the same.”
Labor says the wedding attendance was reported two years ago “several times” and Andrew Robb was also at the wedding.
Christian Porter:
This now is an essential issue about will Shorten’s credibility. He was a man who offers up the most remarkable, over-cooked criticism of the minister for having lunch with a person who is a prominent Chinese figure in the Australian community at the time of that lunch and while he offers up the criticism, Bill Shorten knows in his own mind that he himself was the VIP guest of honour at the same person’s daughter’s wedding.
It can’t be the case that the credibility part of your brain is firing, particularly well, if you offer criticism of a fairly standard meeting at the same time that you in your own mind know that you have been to an intimate function which demonstrates a high level of closeness to the same person.
A personal invitation to the guest of honour of that person’s daughter’s wedding. The photographs demonstrate quite clearly that Bill Shorten has a depth of relationship with Huang Xiangmo that he has been absolutely silent about while he is delivering criticism of a lunch where business is discussed with a prominent figure of the Chinese community.
Updated
Those photos Christian Porter was talking about?
I want to make some comments with respect to the issue that arose yesterday. Bill Shorten said yesterday that the fact of Minister Dutton having a conversation over lunch with Huang Xiangmo who, at the time, was a notable and prominent figure in the Chinese community in Australia was, and this is a completely overstated and hyperbolic criticism, but these are the words of Bill Shorten.
That was a revelation of a national security issue. It’s now come to the attention of the government that there are a number of photographs that depict the same person who offered that criticism, Bill Shorten, as the VIP guest of honour at Huang Xiangmo’s daughter’s wedding.
There are a number of those photographs which depict that in the plainest of terms. If you consider this now and that criticism is hyperbolic, overstated criticism of Bill Shorten yesterday, at the same time Bill Shorten engages in this completely cooked criticism of the Home Affairs Minister, having a meeting at lunch with Huang Xiangmo, Bill Shorten knows that he was a VIP guest of honour at the wedding of the daughter of the very same person.
Updated
Christian Porter has begun his press conference – adding this in to his introduction:
I note that I will end my presentation to you today with respect to some photographs that have emerged which we will share with you which demonstrate the closeness and depth of the relationship between Bill Shorten which became an issue yesterday.
Updated
And that’s time on the Press Club address.
Updated
What keeps him up at night? And will he admit when he gets it wrong?
I would like to think so, yeah. I think the Australian people don’t expect politicians to be superheroes. They expect them to be fallible, to try our best, to work very hard, to put our best policies and ideas forward and we will make errors from time to time. I do. Every politician does. Every human being does.
... Of course I think a lot about international economic circumstances. I do think about what the bond markets are doing, which goes to your question earlier. I think about the implications of Brexit, what’s happening in the continental European economy, which is not flash. I am an optimist, but I think about the implications if it isn’t.
I think about market predictions of a 60% recession in the United States in the next couple of years. I think about that.
I think about what it would mean for Australia if those things play out.
They are on my mind. I wouldn’t say they would keep me awake. They are on my mind. I think in the context of Australia’s record high debt, second-highest household debt in the developed world, not a good record to hold.
Updated
Will Labor commit to reviewing the federal approvals of the Adani Carmichael mine, if it wins government?
Bowen:
The first point is, what a farce we are seeing. I mean, Melissa Price should hold a press conference today and explain herself. I know they don’t happen very often.
Today is a good day for it, fair dinkum. If she got in a press conference and explained the decision and explained who lobbied her, what bullying occurred, who threatened to resign from the cabinet, what threats were made over this ... this is extraordinary.
The environmental decisions are a matter for the minister, they are not a matter for the cabinet or the government.
They are actually a legal obligation on the minister. And for her to have been, it appears, bullied in this way with threats of resignations, threats of colleagues threatening to call for her resignation, it is just extraordinary. So this important issue, very important for the people of Queensland, and Australia has been affected by this chaos and division at the heart of it.
Now there are still some approvals required. But I would say that our minister for the environment, and as I said it is a ministerial decision, would act in accordance with the law.
We won’t put government money into it. Taxpayer funds, as 49% of the government thinks is a good idea, the minister for the environment should do this.
Updated
Why do the polls keep showing Bill Shorten to be unpopular?
Chris Bowen:
The leader of the opposition is a difficult job. Some would say the hardest in Australian politics. There is a case for that assessment. You’ve got to hold the government to account, point out their errors, argue that they are wrong and keep a sunny disposition and be a positive personality in the debate.
And that is really hard. I think Bill has done an outstanding job as leader of the opposition. He has held the Labor party together, embraced robust policy agendas, which many of the opposition would be too cautious to do. Put forward an alternative vision for the country and hold the government to account, so successfully that they have changed prime ministers on multiple occasions to try to find a way to beat him.
But because it is a hard job often your ratings are not that great as leader of the opposition.
Usually, not exclusively but usually the preferred prime minister of Australia is the person who happens to be the prime minister of Australia and when the leader becomes prime minister, they become preferred prime minister that day.
That is what history would teach us. I would hope and expect it is the same for Bill.
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Does Chris Bowen regret his role in the downfall of the Rudd-Gillard government? And will Bill Shorten still be leader at the next election, if he wins this one?
Yes. To your question about whether I regret the Rudd-Gillard years in the broad and the instability, of course I do.
I think we all do. That is the point. We learned the lesson. Our opponents didn’t learn our lessons. We learned our lessons.
We got that wrong. So we changed the rules. That is not unimportant. More importantly, we changed the culture.
We are not going to do that again. Now, you raise Bill. Who would have said in 2013, independent commentators, the Labor party will stick with the leader, stick together, good days and bad days, make mistakes, stick and focus on the task at hand, they will have a stable leadership team in six years and in six years an observer might say ‘you’re in a competitive position’?
Not many. We have. Collectively and individually. And we will. I meant what I said, with every fibre of energy I can muster. We’ve got to be a good government for Australia. Australia can’t afford another bad government like this one with all of the instability that goes with it. We will have our good and bad days, like every government does.
Some days are better than others. But if you stick with the policy agenda which we have laid out, and you stick with each other, on the good days and bad, we will be a good government and the Australian people will recognise that.
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On whether or not Australia’s political lobbying industry needs to be more transparent:
I think in fairness to all involved there has been increased transparency with the lobbyist register and that has happened at federal and state level under governments of all persuasions and that is all pretty appropriate.
I am aware for example this government has resisted FOIs of ministers’ diaries at considerable public expense which we don’t approve of. Anyone can FOI a ministers’ diary under this government.
I am aware of the suggestion. Some states make ministers’ diary available and New South Wales and Victoria do that, and other states, Queensland does.
Maybe others as well, I’m not aware. I am aware of that and I know the Grattan Institute argued for that. There is a balance to be struck. Ministers have some business which appropriately is discrete. You know, all appropriate and proper but is part of the day-to-day business of the government. That doesn’t necessarily apply at state level. This is a balancing act.
Updated
Further to the story about the negative gearing figures, Chris Bowen says the story was wrong because it started with incorrect assumptions:
We have the most rigorous costings process of any opposition ever. We have had the Parliamentary Budget Office. It has been made available to us.
A fine institution. When I get angry when I see reports like that, I get angry on behalf of the Parliamentary Budget Office.
Fine economists, qualified modellers and they do their job well and then we have over and above that for extra rigour, [in addition], all Labor’s policy costings are reviewed by a panel of eminent Australians: Prof Bob Officer, Dr Mike Keating and James MacKenzie, who satisfy themselves that the methodology is correct.
That’s more rigorous than, with respect, asking a mortgage broker as the Financial Review has done this morning, how many of your reviews go to new properties? They say, around half. Our process is more rigorous than that.
The PBO stands by their costings and I stand by the PBO.
Updated
I believe there were some issues with the family law court reform link I posted before – so try this one.
Updated
When would the rest of the tax reforms come into place?
By and large, they start 1 July this year. The big budget repair levies would run out in 2023 and the negative gearing and capital gains with the only ones we hadn’t previously announced a start date for because we announced it of course in the lead-up to the 2016 election with a start date of July 2017, which was no longer available to us.
We had to update that in light of the election being held in 2019, which I did several weeks ago and announced they would apply from 1 January 2020.
That is a sensible start date for that reform. It gives us time to draft the legislation, et cetera.
We have announced start dates for all the other measures. In relation to the point you made about $200bn.
It’s interesting, I am sure you will hear a lot about that. It doesn’t take into account investment guarantee and things like that. It is a decade-long figure. It doesn’t matter who wins the election, the tax revenue over the next 10 years will be in the vicinity of $6tn over the next decade – $200bn, are they really say it will be $2.6tn for Labor? Is that the basis of their election campaign? Ring it on.
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Chris Bowen says he has been watching New Zealand’s tax reforms:
Obviously I watch closely what the Jacinda Ardern government is doing in New Zealand.
I looked at the tax review recently released which introduced a capital gains tax with no relief, which is different to us. Some of it has certain interest for those of us passing, watching the passing and reform debate in New Zealand.
I have also looked closely at the budget reforms and they are interesting. I am not proposing to make that change at this point but I would certainly monitor how they go. And how it is being implemented there. I would watch with close interest going forward over coming years.
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The Christian Porter/David Littleproud statement continues:
The Attorney-General said the new laws would include appropriate exemptions for bona-fide journalists and for situations where the information being released shows a law being broken, such as whistleblowing on animal cruelty.
The new criminal offence and penalties build on other actions taken by the Morrison Government against vigilante animal activists, including prescribing Aussie Farms under the Privacy Act, meaning the organisation could face fines of up to $2.1 million for breaches of the Act and asking states and territories to consider their own trespass laws.
Minister for Agriculture, David Littleproud, said farming families deserved protection.
“I’ve been fighting this Aussie Farms attack map for activists for months and this is a great day,” Minister Littleproud said.
“If you use the personal information of our family farmers to incite trespass then you deserve to go to jail.
“Farming families grow our food and there are children on these farms.
“Now states must beef up farm trespass laws – if 100 of my mates stormed a house in Sydney we’d expect to be locked up and farmers deserve the same protection.
“The Morrison Government will always protect farmers, whilst ensuring that those who do mistreat their animals face appropriate action.”
Updated
Christian Porter has just released a bit more information about putting animal activists in jail:
A re-elected Morrison Government will introduce a new offence designed specifically to protect farmers and primary producers from the unlawful actions of animal activists.
“We have seen with Aussie Farms the malicious use of personal information, including farmers’ names, addresses and workplaces, designed specifically to encourage others to trespass on properties and damage businesses,” the Attorney-General said.
“This is not acceptable and the Morrison Government will, if re-elected, introduce a new criminal offence specifically designed to protect Australian farmers from the sort of vigilante action we have seen this week.
“Penalties of up to 12 months imprisonment will apply to individuals who use a carriage service, such as the internet, to disclose personal information with the intention that another person would use that information to trespass on agricultural land. The law would also apply to other primary producers such as abattoirs.”
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What about all the gathering storm clouds coming for the Australian economy? How would Labor handle a future recession?
Bowen:
The reasons for a surplus is twofold. We need to reduce the national interest bill. We are spending too much on interest and it would be better spent on schools and hospitals but also it is to provide, as Bill Shorten has put it, a fighting fund or uncertain times.
I won’t get into hypotheticals with you. Any treasurer should assess the situation with a change of international circumstances and get Treasury advice.
I won’t preempt what that will be. There is downside risk in the international economy but I don’t foresee the circumstances of an incoming Labor government having to deal with what the last incoming Labor government had to deal with.
I don’t think that is something that is realistically on the horizon. You can look at the chances of a US recession, you can look at the trade war, you can look at Europe and the implications of Brexit and see plenty of downside risk.
I don’t see coordinated risk that we faced in 2008 and 2009. All the evidence facing us and the chances are that are pretty slim.
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How would a future Labor government deal with a hostile Senate crossbench?
Bowen:
Our first budget will implement the things we have a mandate to do. That is I think the necessary opening part of the conversation with the Senate crossbench. That doesn’t necessarily mean they automatically support our policies. But it is the essential door opener to the conversation to say you are going to have questions about some of these policies and you are going to want to talk to us about some of them. But we start with a moral authority of a mandate from the Australian people.
Updated
Labor 'hopes' to have negative gearing policy in place by 1 January 2020
Question:
If young people vote for Labor, when can they expect to purchase cheaper houses? Labor tends to give broad statements about overtime or a steady transition. Can you give a specific timeframe, in the next term of government, for example?
Bowen:
We will seek to implement the policy from 1 January 2020. That is when we hope it comes into effect.
The thing about our policy – I know there is a focus on housing prices, I understand that.
It is also about the mix of housing purchases. That is the important part. The mix between investors and first-time buyers.
First home buyers can provide more demand if they are in the market and feel confident turning up at auctions and bidding and they are outbid by investors.
... There is a range of factors.
We never said negative gearing is the be all and end all of housing affordability. There are a range of factors, supply, ratio levels, all sorts of things. We have never over claimed that negative gearing reform would magically solve all housing affordability problems.
But it is the biggest lever the commonwealth have. The states have levers with housing supply, the councils have levers. The commonwealth, the biggest lever we have is tax reform, particularly negative gearing reform. Putting first-home buyers on a playing field with investors.
Nothing wrong with investing. With the most generous tax concessions in the world for property investment, and we have an ongoing, despite the fact the Liberal senators think the problem is over, and based on your question you don’t agree the problem is over for young people trying to get into the housing market. They have the banner up on the aircraft carrier, mission accomplished. I think young people beg to differ.
Updated
The questions begin:
You have done a great deal of PBO analysis of the cost and revenue raised by your various measures. If you were to become treasurer would you ask Treasury to do economic modelling of those policies to see what sort of economic impact they would have? And if they were to show the economy would deteriorate, with some of those policies, would you change them?
Bowen:
I don’t think I can accept the premise. Of course if I was incoming treasurer I would seek and get Treasury advice on all manner of things. We are seeking a mandate to implement policies stop taken as a whole – we have a very comprehensive policy agenda.
You take one area of housing. Understandable focus on negative gearing. I understand that. National rental affordability scheme. Built to rent reform. These are positive measures for the economy.
We do need to build a budget surplus buffer to provide for a fighting fund for uncertain times.
We need to do that regardless of what the circumstances are now. They will be elements of our policy which are expansionary, if you like.
The low-income tax policies which the government has now caught up with sort of, but would certainly have a positive economic impact in the short term.
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And in finishing:
Labor at its best has always been about aspiring, building and planning for the future, making big calls to best prepare us for an unknowable future.
I don’t mean just preparing for the worst. I mean arming Australia to make the most of a changing world. Preparing our economy for the future and improving society for all. We face this election as the party of the future.
Our opponents sadly are stuck in the past. Focused on the arguments of the past and longing to return to it.
They spend time thinking of ways to justify spending taxpayer money on coal-fired power generation.
We spend time thinking of ways to make Australia a renewable energy powerhouse. They rip money out of education and education training as an essential arm for our young people and workers with the skills to compete in a rapidly changing world.
They spend ways of thinking about how to avoid action on climate change. We spend time thinking of ways to tackle it while providing an investment framework to put downward pressure on power prices and generate green jobs. We are comfortable with modernity. They seem determined to avoid it.
We want to embrace the future with confidence. We have big ambitions for our country. There is an aspiration to make it a better, fairer, more inclusive place. We ask for the opportunity to serve as your government. And be the government Australia deserves. Nothing less.
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He continues:
A country in which every Australian child has the same investment in their education and can grow to their full potential regardless of their parents’ wealth or postcode.
A country in which young children, young people who don’t wish to go to university have a properly publicly funded vocational system in which to build knowledge and skills.
A country in which home ownership is not a forlorn dream for many. A country which doesn’t provide more support to somebody buying their fifth or sixth time than someone struggling to buy their first.
A country in which public hospitals everywhere are world-class and in which you get that diagnosis, which we all dread, that you have cancer, that you can concentrate on fighting the disease, not wondering how you will ever pay for the treatment.
A country in which our First Peoples have the same life expectancy and life chances as the rest of us, which recognises the traditional owners of the land in our constitution and provides for a constitutionally enshrined voice for them to parliament.
A country in which we had on a better deal to the next generation of Australians. These are some of the things I aspire for full our country. These are some of the things Labor aspires for for our country. So I say bring on a debate about aspiration, bring on an election about aspiration. A debate about the aspirations and future of our country.
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In conclusion, Chris Bowen says:
So after six years of this government, the Australian people will soon be asked to cast judgment on those last six years, but also on our competing plans for the future.
Perhaps I am being too generous. We have a plan for Australia’s future. Our opponents have a plan for a scare campaign.
You will hear a lot in this coming campaign about aspiration. As if all Australians aspire to is access to more and more tax concessions as they climb up the income scale.
Labor’s reason for being goes to backing Australians who work hard and aspire to lift their incomes and standard of living. But we also relish a debate and an election about aspiration. About what we aspire for our country. Our aspiration is very clear – we aspire for a lot for Australia.
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And on Labor’s tax plan:
I also make a second prediction. During the campaign and debates you will hear the Liberals talking about Labor’s taxes.
What Josh lacks in creativity he lacks in hard fact. Labor is making changes to fund vital investments.
Australia will remain a low-taxing government by international standards and a Bill Shorten Labor government would be a low-taxing government compared to some predecessors, and I specifically mean the Howard government.
Last week KPMG released independent analysis of the tax-to-GDP ratio under the Coalition government and the Labor government, it’s independent, they estimate Labor’s tax to GDP would be a touch over 24%.
If the Liberal party want to attack us for that they would be attacking one of their own.
Tax-to-GDP was at or above 24% of GDP five times during the Howard government – that is roughly half their time in office.
It was 24.3% in two of those years.
Far from being high-taxing, based on KPMG analysis, we have lower tax take as a proportion of the the economy than under the Howard years.
Our plans stand up to scrutiny internationally as well. The overall tax take is important for competitiveness and the KPMG analysis shows under a Labor government, far from pushing us up the league tables of tax collectors, we barely move.
Under a Labor government we would have a lower tax than Japan, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and most OECD economies.
We would remain in the bottom third of all comparable OECD economies, so we are proud of our agenda.
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On the upcoming campaign:
When I am back at the podium in a couple of weeks debating Josh Frydenberg in the election debate I predict we will both talk about Labor policies.
I said before it was unusual for an opposition to claim that voting to change the government was the best way to bring about enhanced stability but it’s also unusual for the government of the day to be the one embracing the small target strategy. I think it is bad for the country that we have a government without an agenda, but obsessed with ours, but I relish the debate. Because the case for our policies is strong and I welcome the opportunity to put that case.
Every time the treasurer tries to stoke fear in our policies he increases the moral authority of our mandate should we receive one.
Not only are we putting our policies before the Australian people to judge, we have placed them up for debate and analysis a long time before the election.
No one could accuse us of hiding our policies under a rock.
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Chris Bowen:
Independent parliamentary budget analysis shows the physical impacts of the government’s stage-two and three-tax cuts is an astonishing $286bn over the medium term, coming in at an annual cost of nearly $50bn a year by the end of the decade.
Factoring in the cost of Labor’s enhanced lower and middle-income tax offset, the difference between the Labor in the Liberal plans is $226bn.
Imagine if I stood before you today and committed a Labor government to spending $286bn over the medium term on a program which was important to us.
If I told you it was important and therefore we didn’t need to pay for it, we could just assume spending cuts somewhere else in the budget without outlining what those spending cuts would be.
I’ll tell you what would happen if I tried that, you would laugh me out of the room. But that is effectively what Josh Frydenberg is doing.
We have the more fiscally prudent offering at this election. Not just because Jim Chalmers and I will be presenting bigger budget surpluses when we outline our budget bottom line during election campaign but also because we prefer more traditional budgeting, making spending and tax relief decisions when we know that they can be afforded, not making in the never-never with no outline insight.
The stage-two and three tax cuts are fiscal recklessness on an unprecedented scale.
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Chris Bowen:
Now, it’s remarkable that the leadership group which takes the Labor party to this election is effectively the same group which took over the leadership of the party after our 2013 defeat.
We have developed into a cohesive and effective team for Labor. We intend to be the same team for Australia. Half the shadow cabinet is served in the same roles for the last six years, building expertise, experience, contacts and understanding in their field.
Experience that will stand them in good stead and make us a better government. If we are fortunate enough to be elected by the Australian people in 38 days’ time, we would come to government with the most experienced income incoming cabinet.
There were three cabinet ministers who had previously sat at the cabinet table. When the Howard government was elected in 1996, they were also three with prior cabinet experience.
With Labor’s victory in 2007, they were just two cabinet members who could draw on their experience to inform them in their roles.
If Labor forms a government, 16 out of the 21 of us in the cabinet will have served at cabinet level before – 16 out of 21. I can’t begin to tell you what a difference that will make, making us a better government for that experience.
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Chris Bowen has begun his National Press Club address:
It’s often remarked that our team is united and stable and this of course is very true. But we have more than that. We have a sense of shared responsibility: not only to our movement and the millions of people who rely on us to win this election, but a deeper responsibility to the nation, to be a government that fixes our broken politics; that ends the chaos; that provides policy coherence and the fortitude to stick to difficult issues, to have an ambitious, bold and carefully designed agenda.
I have some confidence that we can be the government for Australia if the people give us that opportunity.
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The Department of Jobs and Small Business has been answering questions at Senate estimates this morning.
In the budget, the government announced it would overhaul the employment services system, the $1.3bn Jobactive program.
By moving more people on to online services, the government said it would create some savings, but the money would be reinvested into the system to boost face-to-face services for the most vulnerable jobseekers.
Officials said on Wednesday that, in fact, the sum of all changes to the employment services meant the “net result was a saving of $59.4m”.
Asked by the Greens’ Rachel Siewert why it wasn’t all reinvested into employment services, officials said it was a question for the government.
Before the budget, Australia spent spent 0.23% of GDP on employment services, well below the OECD average of 0.53%, according to the non-profit employment services providers’ peak body Jobs Australia.
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Ahead of his press club address, Chris Bowen has responded to the stories about the discrepancies in Labor’s negative gearing numbers:
Federal Labor’s reforms are driven by putting negative gearing to work to support new construction – and our costings are done by the independent and universally respected Parliamentary Budget Office.
The PBO consulted with the ABS, the RBA and major banks in order to estimate the proportion of lending to investors for purchases of existing housing. The PBO has drawn upon these sources and adopted a considered assumption that the proportion of negatively geared investment by individuals in new dwellings is 22% in the first year and rising over time.
The PBO costing has relied on ABS data on owner-occupier lending with other data sources, including unpublished data by the RBA regarding lending to households for residential property investment, and other surveys of investor lending.
Our policy has been fully costed by the independent PBO. The PBO has indicated they stand by their costing. In addition, all Labor’s policy costings are reviewed by a panel of eminent Australians: Prof Bob Officer, Dr Mike Keating and James MacKenzie, who ensure they are satisfied with the robustness of the costing.
Every reputable international economic agency and many Australian thinktanks back reforms to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. While vested interests in the property sector will continue to try and undermine Labor’s reforms, the case for putting first-home buyers on a level playing field with property investors is greater than ever.
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Norway has already proven it could be done last month. No question Australia could do this in far fewer than 11 years.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 10, 2019
The statement continues:
The Attorney-General noted today that the Government had already pursued in Parliament a clear and cautious plan to merge the family court system to end the delays and costs to Australian families that have been widely agreed are caused by a split federal court system that has multiple family law courts in the one federal jurisdiction.
The Government is completely committed to ending unnecessary costs and delay for Australian families and was disappointed that Labor rejected sensible reform to the family court system to create a single integrated court with a single set of rules and procedures with increased funding for the court after the proposed merger,” the Attorney-General said.
The Government has demonstrated a clear plan and is committed to fixing the well-known inefficiencies that cost Australian families arising from the split family law courts system. If re-elected, the Government will remain fully committed to a clear path forward of merging the Federal Circuit Court with the Family Court into a single, new and more efficient court and would also be fully committed to considering and developing individual responses to the complex issues raised in each of the 60 recommendations made in the final ALRC report.
I have asked my department to commence its consideration of the ALRC’s report and to develop comprehensive advice about each of the reforms suggested by the ALRC to ensure that the family law system supports modern Australian families to resolve their disputes safely and as efficiently and cheaply as possible.
Now that the ALRC’s recommendations are publicly available the Government envisages a further period of engagement with key stakeholders would also be necessary in developing options for reform and responding to the report, to ensure the family law system is reformed in a manner that delivers just, effective and safe outcomes for Australian families.
I thank the ALRC, the Advisory Committee and the Commissioners for their dedication and hard work. I would especially like to thank Professor Helen Rhoades and the Honourable Justice Sarah Derrington who have ably led this review.
The final report, as well as further information about the review, is available on the ALRC’s website at https://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/family-law-report.
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Christian Porter has released this statement on the family court reforms:
The Australian Law Reform Commission’s (ALRC) final report into the Family Law System has been publicly released after being tabled in Federal Parliament today.
This is the first time the family law system has been comprehensively reviewed since the commencement of the Family Law Act in 1976.
The ALRC was asked to undertake a broad and far reaching review of the family law system, focusing on key areas of importance to Australian families. These included ensuring the family law system prioritised the best interests of children, best addressed family violence and child abuse, and supported families, including those with complex needs to resolve their family law disputes quickly and safely while minimising the financial burden.
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Josh Frydenberg was also on 2GB this morning, talking about Labor’s negative gearing plan and the Grattan Institute analysis of the numbers (which found discrepancies in the amount of new investment predictions).
“The Labor party in reality may see a big black hole in them because they have underestimated the number of negative gearers who use new homes.
“Clearly ... there is a black hole in their costings ... they have overstated the amount of savings they will get from this policy, and this is a $35bn slug on the taxpayer.
“Chris Bowen needs to come clean about the data.”
Bowen will be up at the press club soon.
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Senator Nigel Scullion says it is "completely unremarkable" that people are dying while on a waiting list for a home care package, as they are doing so at the same rate as everyone else. #estimates
— Dana McCauley (@Dana_Adele) April 10, 2019
Just so we are clear, despite:
“People have decided they actually want to buy a car that can tow a boat, or their tinnie, or a caravan or a trailer or whatever they want” (Scott Morrison yesterday)
... and ...
“Well, you know, I said this yesterday: Bill Shorten is declaring war on the weekend when it comes to his electric vehicles” (Morrison on Monday)
... and ...
“Bill Shorten wants to end the weekend. When it comes to his policy on electric vehicles, where you’ve got Australians who love being out there in their four-wheel drives, he wants to say ‘see ya later’ to the SUV when it comes to the choices of Australians” (Morrison on Sunday)
… electric vehicles are now totally awesome.
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On whether the Coalition party is “playing politics” on this issue, Josh Frydenberg says:
As I said, I encourage people to take up electric vehicles, I believe that this technology will come along very strongly in the years ahead. But at the same time Bill Shorten is the one who has got policies to mandate CO2 emission reductions in the transport sector but he can’t even explain the impact on the cost of your vehicle.
So we are not against electric vehicles, far from it, we have policies to support that. But we are against is a Labor party who can’t explain how they are funding their policies, what the actual cost to the taxpayer will be, and a leader of the opposition who can’t even explain some of the basic fundamentals around his own policy.
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Josh Frydenberg was in Sydney, also talking about Labor’s electric vehicle policy:
What the prime minister has pointed out is these mandated carbon reduction emissions within the transport sector will push out, a number of our traditional vehicles. And this is up to Bill Shorten to now explain to the Australian people the cost of his policy.
He has a 45% emissions reduction target but he can’t explain how much it will cost the Australian people, he can’t even explain how we will actually get to that target. So there is a lot of virtue signalling coming from the Labor party, but a lack of detail and a lack of costing for their policies.
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An URGENT media alert has just been sent out from Christian Porter’s office:
Attorney-General, Christian Porter, will hold a media conference this morning at 11.30am in Perth to announce details of new penalties to protect farmers from animal activists.
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Captain GetUp, the Advance Australia campaign, has picked up a friend.
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A little estimates titbit, from AAP:
The Morrison government is spending about $350,000 a day to promote the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
Department of Health officials confirmed that the campaign, which has a $3.8m spend on media, began on 28 March and will finish on 13 April.
The total cost of the campaign will be $5.6m.
The timing decision was made by the department in conjunction with health minister, Greg Hunt.
The department had $19.5m to spend on advertising over the financial year and the PBS campaign is the biggest in the health portfolio.
The television, newspaper, radio and online campaign aims to teach Australians about the PBS and how it keeps medicines affordable.
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Anti-abortion campaigners lose high court safe zone case
The high court has unanimously dismissed two appeals by anti-abortion campaigners, who challenged the validity of safe zone laws preventing protests outside abortion clinics in Victoria and Tasmania.
In the Tasmanian case, the justices unanimously held the burden on implied freedom of political communication was justified by the protection of the safety, wellbeing, privacy and dignity of persons accessing premises at which abortions are provided and ensuring unimpeded access to lawful medical services.
In the Victorian case, the majority held that the burden was justified. The other justices got the same result on a different basis – that it was not established that Kathleen Clubb’s conduct involved political communication.
This is a significant result because Tasmania’s laws were blunt and directed specifically at anti-abortion protests but were still found to be constitutional. This means that well-drafted safe zone laws including those in New South Wales and Queensland will definitely be safe from challenge.
The different treatment of the Victorian case will also have a bearing on future implied freedom cases. Judges were split on whether lobbying someone not to get an abortion is political speech:
- The plurality – chief justice Susan Kiefel, justices Virginia Bell and Patrick Keane – found that the ban would impact “communications about whether governments should encourage or discourage abortions and whether laws should be changed to restrict or facilitate abortions” – and therefore there was a burden on political speech.
- Justice Geoffrey Nettle – the great dissenter of this court – found that “a woman’s decision whether or not to abort her pregnancy is not a political decision” and therefore “a communication directed to persuading a woman as to whether or not to abort her pregnancy is not a political communication”.
- Justice Michelle Gordon said protest was “almost inextricably linked with matters of political and governmental content”.
In short, the court has adopted a wide interpretation of what is political speech but accepted the laws had a legitimate purpose.
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Bill Shorten would not have known that as he was talking, Scott Morrison seemingly declared the war on the weekend to be over (but not the war on Labor’s policy).
But on the most insane fight this country’s political scene has thrown up for some time (and that is saying something), Shorten said:
I have noticed that this government ... they are so addicted to scare campaigns they even want to scare you about their own policies because there are many similarities between our policy and that of the government …
But we must have one of the few governments in the world who has not read about the future of electric vehicles. All of the big car companies around the world are moving to producing electric vehicles.
What we want to do is make sure that Australia is in that debate. We are giving Australians [choice] for cheap vehicles powered by electricity.
It is quite clear and all experts have said that electric vehicles over time will decrease the cost of owning a car.
But we need to send a signal to the world to start selling is cheaper versions of electric cars.
Do not forget that under the current Liberal-National government we lost the car industry.
We lost tens of thousands of jobs. Other first-world countries are manufacturing cars but our shortsighted Luddites gave up.
We have a three-word slogan for Australia: ‘Made in Australia.’
We will fund this and if electric vehicles are part of a manufacturing future we will provide them cheap finance.
I would like to see is make electric cars in Australia because Australians are top-class manufacturers with the government who supports them.
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On the cancer plan, Bill Shorten says:
Even in this press conference here, even if you did a survey on the street, one in every two Australians will get a diagnosis of cancer in their life and ask anyone in the street here if they have a family touched by cancer, yes, they know one.
And we know that the system, as good as it is, is not good enough. The reality is that if you go through the public system, there waiting times. There are out-of-pocket costs. And many people have to move between the public in the private system.
I think it is a shock to a lot of people before they get that diagnosis of cancer. That not only does cancer make you sick but it can make you poor. The strategy for fighting cancer is to not out waited on a waiting list to get a life-saving treatment or scan.
That is why I am here today. In terms of what people are saying about wages policy, I understand the frustration of millions of Australian wage earners who are frustrated with the fact that everything except their wages is rising.
Electricity bills have gone up 15 to 20% under this government. Energy bills for small businesses have gone up. Your out-of-pocket to see a specialist is up nearly 40%.
There is no action in terms of wages. If you work in hospitality and retail your penalty rates have been cut. Women in industries where they prominently predominantly employee women get paid less than the men do. No wonder people are frustrated with the current system.
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Bill Shorten was up at the same time as Scott Morrison, selling Labor’s regional health and cancer treatment plan.
On his own meeting with Huang Xiangmo (which had been previously reported):
Firstly, we have said that we should not have foreign donations in our system. So the matters to which you have referred have already been previously canvassed in the media.
I understand the government wanting to repeat old news to distract from their own problems but Labor took ... we impose the voluntary ban on ourselves not to take foreign donations long before the law caught up with it.
We asked the government to do the same thing but they did not. They love that money. They did not want to stop it flowing.
Now, foreign donations have been banned two years later and I am pleased. In terms of the issue arising out of what happened yesterday … what we see as a business model of the Liberal party, where powerful Liberal lobbyists broker tens of thousands of dollars for organising meetings with their mates in government.
This is a bad look. But, believe it or not, as bad as that is that is not the key issue. The problem is that you have the former prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, he has been the chair of the national security committee.
He is the leading spokesperson for three years on the national security of the nation. He has blown the whistle on these revelations. Not the ones already out there in the public domain, he has blown the whistle on revelations about this and has said that Mr Morrison needs to explain this conduct and he has said that you cannot wipe it under the carpet, you cannot brush it off as gossip.
What we have is the former Liberal prime minister accusing the current government of not dealing with an issue and does that not just highlight again the complete division and dysfunction of the government?
Australians are sick of the infighting of the Liberals, especially when it comes to national security. We have had plenty of meetings with all sorts of people where we talk about foreign policy and domestic policy.
One thing is for certain. Any donation that was given to Labor, and I thought, to the Liberals, is always the disclosed.
Labor has a self-imposed standard that if anyone wants to make a donation above $1,000 it has to be disclosed. What we have seen here on Monday is a revelation that senior Liberal power brokers are pocketing money for themselves, not even their party, money for themselves providing cash for access.
What has compounded the problem for the current government is that the former prime minister, the man the Liberal party told us to vote for in 2016, the man we said we should vote for at the last election has now blown the whistle on the conduct of the current prime minister and his senior ministers.
How much division under the current government is this nation have to put up with before this current government realises they cannot just cover up these matters and what they have to do is focus on the national interest of the people rather than their own infighting?
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And in a pretty big shift, Scott Morrison is no longer hating on electric vehicles as coming for your weekend (you may remember the “they can’t pull your trailer or your boat and you won’t have a ute/four-wheel drive, we want cars with grunt” arguments of the last few days).
Now, electric vehicles are totally fine, it’s Labor’s policy which is the problem (the policy which is very similar to the Coalition’s own abatement policy):
My criticism of Bill Shorten’s policies is he can’t explain it. This is the point. We have a policy to encourage the take-up of electric vehicles and investing charging stations and putting that infrastructure and invest the CFC and development technologies.
“This isn’t about electric cars, this is about the fact that Bill Shorten can’t explain what his policies mean to Australians, and it’s not just about the 50% target that he has to achieve to take the car market from 0.2% to 50% in the next 10 years, it is the vehicles emissions standard that he is not telling you about – 500g per kilometre.
There are only three out of the top 20 selling cars today that actually meet that standard. That means that there are 17 that failed, 17 vehicles that are the preferred choice of Australians. He won’t tell you that it puts the cost of the car you want to buy up by $5,000.
As I say again, Bill Shorten can’t explain his policies or won’t explain his policies … Bill Shorten can’t explain his policies. We haven’t even started the election campaign, and his policies are unravelling. They are already around his ankles when it comes to how they are unravelling in this campaign and it hasn’t even begun yet.
He’s had five and a half years to explain these things to the Australian people and he can’t answer the most basic questions.
Bill, what will it mean for the price of a car for your vehicles emissions standards?
What for the mean for the people who work in refineries are you will reverse the decision we took as a government in terms of the sulphur content of petroleum production in Australia, what does it mean for their jobs, Bill?
He’s had long enough to explain these things to theAustralian people and the fact that he hasn’t been able to explain them to you today means you shouldn’t vote them.
And then he bounced.
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Scott Morrison on Huang Xiangmo:
The individual you are talking about has met with people from all sides of politics. He had a meeting with Shorten after he donated $50,000 to the Labor party, so at the end of the day, when it comes to this issue, the only person it seems that completely disgraced themselves on this issue which was the former Labor senator Sam Dastyari.
He’s the one actually clearly crossed the line and had to resign in disgrace, in shame, and so he should have. Dastyari. Australia’s sovereignty is not up for sale, and that is the case with our government.
We have taken action from the day we were elected to not only strengthen our borders but strengthen our national security. Our government was the government that banned foreign donations, our government was the one that introduced the foreign interference laws, that we put in $36m last week to give the resources to [agencies] to police these foreign interference laws.
Mr Huang has met with many people in politics – it’s a free country, they can meet with who they like – but, at the end of the day, we are the ones who cancelled his visa.
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You’ll hear a lot of this in the next month and a bit. Scott Morrison:
What you’ll hear from the Labor party from now until the next election is lies and high taxes.
That is what Labor is offering the Australian people as we go to the this election. They will lie about what was my happening with healthcare and education.
Under this government we have increased funding to hospitals around the country for more than 60% already.
We have increased funding for public schools around the country are more than 60% already.
We’ve increased funding for Medicare by 27% already. We’ve raised bulk billing levels across the country to the highest levels on record. That’s a stronger Medicare which is being delivered by an economic plan that actually makes that possible.
See, Labor can’t manage money, and when you can’t manage money you can’t fund the health system, and that’s why Australians can’t rely on the promises of Labor, because they always run out of money.
And when they run out of money, they come after yours. When their wallet’s empty, they look for yours and that’s where they seek to make it up from. You can’t run a strong economy on higher taxes, higher taxes are never the answer to Australia’s economic challenges.
A strong economy, hard-working families and businesses, farmers who are working out there working hard in some of the toughest conditions they have seen in a long time and have been subject is vicious and cowardly attacks that we have seen from these big and activist and others which seem to have support in some corners of the political spectrum in this country.
We even have Labor’s shadow agricultural minister not denounce them the other day – thought that was disappointing. He was making excuses, maybe that’s a better way to phrase it.
I’m not going to make excuses, I’m going to legislate and lock them up.
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This is the reason Scott Morrison is in Tasmania today:
The Morrison government is investing almost $92m to support better healthcare for all Tasmanians, improving waiting times for elective surgery, boosting mental health and maternity services and increasing cancer diagnosis scans.
The Tasmanian Health Plan also provides greater support for Tasmanians in rural and remote locations while increasing a wide range of vital services, from GPs to hospital care and specialist health services.
Make no mistake, the government is doing all it can to neutralise any advantage Labor has on health policy.
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Scott Morrison on animal activists – 'lock 'em up'
The prime minister says Christian Porter will have more to say on it a bit later, but he is planning tougher penalties against some of the groups who have taken part in some protests today – most particularly the publishing of some landowners’ personal details:
The attorney general will stand up this afternoon and make further announcements on this and that is that our government would introduce legislation that would ensure that those who engage in using such information to incite criminal activity of people going and seeking to press pass or cause these types of injuries to the wellbeing of our farming industry, they will face jail terms of up to 12 months.
So we’re not kidding. I think what’s happening, and I am not talking about people engaging in civil [protests] in public streets in our communities. There is another big protest going on. I understand it is the union’s turn today and they will be shouting and screaming and doing all of that. That’s people’s democratic right.
I know it causes great inconvenience to people just trying to get to work. There was a woman trying to get to hospital the other day and she was obstructed by those protest.
What is being done by Aussie farmers, I believe, is that when they are using people’s personal information, details about their homes.
It’s not just their farm, it is their home. It is where their kids live and grow up. They are being targeted in the most mercenary way by an organisation that can only think of itself and not think to the real damage that is being done to the livelihoods of these hard-working Australians.
I can assure you, I have got their back and if we are re-elected, we will put that legislation in place and they will feel the full force of my government’s laws to bring them to justice. What I think is a despicable act.
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While the electric vehicles debate rolls on, and on, and on, I was reminded of this story from 2007, when Apple was preparing to launch its entry into the mobile phone market:
Telstra has all but ruled itself out of the running to carry Apple’s new iPhone mobile when it is released here next year with a senior executive launching a withering critique of the device.
Telstra’s operations chief Greg Winn, considered the telco’s second-in-charge and the man who oversees most of its big product decisions, believes the iPhone may meet some significant operational challenges when it makes its market debut.
“There’s an old saying – stick to your knitting – and Apple is not a mobile phone manufacturer, that’s not their knitting,” Mr Winn told AAP.
You can pretty much be assured that Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and ZTE and others will be coming out with devices that have similar functionality.
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Labor has asked to know about some of the work a Treasury working group is doing, on things like climate change, and modelling on any sort of national energy guarantee-like mechanism.
Zed Seselja steps in and takes the question on notice.
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Part of the reason that Ian Beckett is having worst day ever is the person who should be taking these questions, Philip Gaetjens, is not there.
Nor is his deputy.
So, the next person down the totem pole, Beckett, as a department head, is being left to answer questions he is clearly not comfortable answering, because, well, it’s not usually his job.
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Ian Beckett, a Treasury department official, appears to be having the worst day of his life in estimates, under questioning from Jenny McAllister.
She appears to be trying to ascertain who is carrying out some modelling. Beckett is giving his best impression of becoming a human shrug emoji.
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If you have been following Gabrielle Chan’s reporting, you know the Murray-Darling is an issue which is not going away.
David Littleproud was asked about whether or not there would be any more fishkills, as communities who rely on the river rally. He told the ABC:
You can’t say never. There have been over 600 of these events in the last 34 years. What we have done is given our water managers to give them the tools to use the best technology and science available to make sure we are equipped to prevent the event and even the scale of this event.
One of the measures is looking at securing some of the A class licences which takes the low flows and others are around technology, working with metering, we are looking at $25m, 25% rebate to farmers to put in, right across the northern basin but also $5m in putting cameras to make sure that we can monitor other water flows as they come through, which is coupled with the technology of satellites to be able to ensure that water gets to where we want it to.
We are also investing $10m into fish hatcheries for our native species in New South Wales and Queensland to ensure that we can protect that species.
There is also a bit over $5m to look at infrastructure, knocking down some dam walls so there is better connectivity for our fish. That was one of the inhibiting factors that was made quite clear and that’s what we have to address. Reality is not a perfect plan.
I get that. I have got to be honest, this is the best plan we will get and we will get a worse plan if we reopen it. This is a time for leadership, not politics. I get I may not be popular in parts but I have to get on with the job. This is a report that is one part of the plan that gives us a way forward in the northern basin around Menindee but even the professor said the Murray-Darling basin is the best plan for us and we need to stick to the course.
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The newsreader on KIIS FM just said Scott Morrison was “full of it” on electric cars and Kyle Sandilands described the scare campaign as “crazy”. I’m not sure this is cutting through.
— Michael Koziol (@michaelkoziol) April 9, 2019
The economics committee has gotten off to a great start, with at least two senior officials not present because they had booked travel for this week.
Estimates has been set down for this week from last year. So, it is unusual.
But not unusual when you consider that everyone, including department staff, assumed we would be in caretaker mode right now because an election would have been called.
Jenny McAllister is NOT impressed with the absences.
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But Chris Bowen will also be asked to explain a Grattan Institute analysis of Labor’s negative gearing policy, which found a gap of somewhere between $2.5bn and $7.6bn of overstated savings.
The Australian Financial Review reports the Grattan Institute’s Danielle Wood looked at Labor’s numbers, and found the level of investors in new housing stock would be about 14%, not 4% as Chris Bowen has said.
Part of the issue is that there doesn’t seem to be anyone who collates evidence of how much investors invest in new housing – the ABS included. Labor has repeatedly said it has based its policy on costings provided to it by the parliamentary budget office, but this will have some length to run.
Part of Chris Bowen’s budget reply address will include this, as reported by Paul Karp:
With the election expected to be called by the weekend, Labor launched its first ad on Tuesday evening before releasing another plank in its anti-cancer push – a $63m package to fight lung cancer – on Wednesday.
The centrepiece is $40m over four years to reboot the national tobacco campaign, anti-smoking ads that will aim to push the smoking rate to below 10%. A further $15m will be spent on lung cancer nurses, $6m to support investment portfolios go tobacco-free and $2.4m to the Lung Foundation Australia to raise awareness.
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Speaking at the Launceston Chamber of Commerce budget breakfast, Scott Morrison tells the crowd that he has taken up swimming to get fit. This will not be a surprise to anyone who has seen his Instagram, which, for a few days, was filled with sopping-wet ScoMo selfies.
He says if anyone had told him to wear a weight belt to go faster, he would have told them they were crazy. But that is what Labor wants to do to the economy, or something.
Stuart Robert is now on Sky, saying he was listening to the speech and “it sounded like a tremendous track record”.
Does anyone know if they are still looking for people for that one-way trip to Mars?
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Good morning
We are still rolling on through a Clayton’s election campaign. The prime minister is still in Tasmania. Bill Shorten is in Ballina.
Scott Morrison is speaking at another budget breakfast. I can’t tell you if he began his speech with “how good is [insert name here]?” but I can tell you he refers to Tasmania as the “turnaround state”.
It’s going to be a long campaign.
Chris Bowen is at the National Press Club, giving the budget reply address. We’ll bring you that, as well as whatever comes from estimates.
Expect to hear “strong economy” a lot in the coming day. As well as how electric vehicles are coming for your weekend. I imagine they came from the same factory as Stephen King’s Christine in some Coalition MPs minds, the way they are carrying out this debate lately.
Anyways, we’ve all had an insight into what it was like to be Sisyphus.
Ready?
Let’s get into it.
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