Night-time politics
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Donald Trump has been elected the next president of America.
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Malcolm Turnbull was shocked. The US alliance will survive.
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Bill Shorten was not backing away from calling Trump’s views barking mad. I’ll call it as I see it.
That’s it from me. Thanks to my brains trust and to Mike Bowers for his images. Check them out.
Good night.
Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian
Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian
Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian
Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian
Updated
Bill Shorten: US alliance is strong enough for honesty, I call it as I see it
The opposition leader has taken to Facebook with a very strong statement.
Every time the people of the United States choose a new president, it has consequences for the world – and for Australia.
The American people have spoken and as always, Australia will respect their decision.
Australians should also know our alliance with the United States has grown and thrived for seven decades – no matter who’s in charge.
It is far bigger than any individual, far more powerful than any personality – and it will endure.
The friendship between our nations is strong enough for honesty.
I will always call it as I see it.
If I see women being disrespected, I’m going to call it out.
If I see people being discriminated against because of the colour of their skin or their religion, I’m going to call it out.
As the alternative prime minister of this country, Australians are entitled to know where I stand.
Updated
Asked about the divisiveness of the US campaign, Malcolm Turnbull quotes an unnamed American politician.
He said, “We campaign in poetry, but we govern in prose.” Whether you regard the debates in this last American campaign as poetry, the fact is that when an administration takes office, and a president takes office, he is confronted with the realities of the national interests of the United States, the strategic realities that confront the United States.
Updated
Asked for lessons from the election of Trump and the Brexit campaign, Turnbull says:
We need ensure that everybody in the community, all sectors of the community are included. That the strong growth that we have, for example, in Australia includes all Australians, that sectors and are not left behind and that when we defend our free trade and open markets, we make it very clear why it is in Australia’s interests in our country to do so.
Malcolm Turnbull is up again, this time on the 7.30 Report.
He starts with the same points recorded earlier.
Then:
Q: As prime minister could you comfortably deploy Australian troops, risk Australian lives, on the judgment of Donald Trump?
Can I say to you that when Australian troops are deployed, when Australian servicemen and women’s lives are put on the line, with their professionalism, their heroism, those decisions are taken in the judgment of their government. The Australian government. Not any other government.
Updated
Thoughts.
It was clear that about halfway through question time that it was dawning on the Coalition that a Trump presidency was a real prospect. Malcolm Turnbull, foreign minister Julie Bishop, the front bench didn’t have to say it. It was written all over their faces. And their phones.
Barnaby Joyce, being Barnaby, said it anyway. Trump is ahead. Careful what you say.
As the afternoon and results wore on, the mood in the Turnbull end of the Coalition was dark. The mood in the Abbott end of the Coalition was ebullient. Cory Bernardi, George Christensen, Eric Abetz and Tony Abbott himself sent out messages, statements or tweets. Like so many other issues these days, the US election has divided the Coalition.
Turnbull came out immediately after president-elect. The historic nature of the US election result was written all over his face. He was clearly trying to get the tone right. Turnbull did all the right things. He congratulated Trump - he had to. He offered Hillary the government’s best wishes. He thanked president Obama for his leadership. He reassured the Australian public on the US alliance. He essentially said the alliance would outlive any individuals, governments, administrations. But he was clearly rocked.
And if he was horrified by the thought of a Trump presidency, he could not say it - no matter how many Australians were wishing it. Greeting isolationism with isolationism, greeting pigheadedness with pigheadedness is not in the interests of Australia.
Turnbull: politicians will come and go but the US bond will be all G
The prime minister also thanked President Obama for his leadership.
This is a historic moment, it’s been a long campaign, it’s one that Australians have witnessed with awe, with consternation, indeed, from time to time, but let me reassure all Australians that the ties that bind Australia and the United States are profound, they’re strong, they’re based on our enduring national interests.
Politicians and governments, congressmen, senators, prime ministers and cabinets, will come and go, according to the will of the people of Australia and the United States but the bond between our two nations, our shared common interests, our shared national interests, are so strong, are so committed that we’ll continue to work with our friends in the United States through the Trump administration, just as we have through the Obama administration, just as we always will.
We have so much in common. Shared values, democracy, the rule of law, maintaining the international order upon which our security and prosperity depends. So the American people have made a great and momentous choice today. We congratulate President-elect Trump and we look forward to working closely as ever with his administration as it is formed and when it takes office earlier next year.
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Turnbull: We have no stronger relationship than with the US
The prime minister reassured Australians that the American-Australian relationship is our strongest one.
We have no stronger relationship whether it’s on the battlefield or in commerce, than we have with the United States. They’re a great and powerful nation, they’re a great and powerful friend. And our relationship with the United States is built on millions of Australians and Americans who have been working together, fighting together, serving together, for over a century.
We have stood together in so many conflicts. Stood together side by side. Americans understand that they have no stronger ally, no better friend, than Australia. And the enduring national interests of our two countries as such that our relationship will continue to be strong, will continue to work together as we have done, with many presidents in years past to chat, to take on the challenges of our time.
Whether it is the challenges of global terrorism, whether it’s the challenges of ensuring that we maintain the stable of our economic record, whether it’s the challenge of ensuring we maintain the stable in our region, which is underpinned by the strength of the United States, which has been the foundation of the rules-based order in our part of the world that has seen the most extraordinary transformation in living standards in human history.
So I have great confidence that all our engagement will continue to be strong and intimate.
Updated
Malcolm Turnbull: I understand Australians have been confronted by the US election
Malcolm Turnbull:
Let me say that I understand that Australians have been confronted by the intensity of the political battle in the United States. President-elect Trump himself described it as being at times a nasty campaign, and it was certainly by our standards, avery bitter one. You have seen already the way he reached out to bring Americans together. And the American people do fight their political contests hard. But this great nation of the United States has the capacity to come together and it will, behind the leaders, behind the president, that they have chosen.
Malcolm Turnbull is making a short statement about the Trump victory shortly. He will take no questions.
Updated
Pollsters underestimating quiet and shy Trump voters. https://t.co/eFbqUOkVle
— James McGrath (@JamesMcGrathLNP) November 9, 2016
US should continue to have no better friend than Australia.
— Tony Abbott (@TonyAbbottMHR) November 9, 2016
Congrats to the new president who appreciates that middle America is sick of being taken for granted.
— Tony Abbott (@TonyAbbottMHR) November 9, 2016
Hillary Clinton has conceded defeat to Donald Trump.
Mike Pence, vice-president elect, is speaking now.
Given we are the Oz blog, we expect Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten to comment shortly.
The Donald appears.
Updated
Greens leader Richard Di Natale says we need to consider the US alliance under Trump
What we’ve seen tonight in the United States presidential election is shocking and disappointing. An American president has been elected on a platform of racism, xenophobia and nationalism. I expected more from our American cousins. They have let us down.
The following weeks and months will reveal what leaders across the world will be wondering tonight: if the American moment is truly over and, if so, what will replace it.
But the true strength of democracy comes from all of us respecting the will of the people, regardless of the decisions that they make. The darkest moments provide us the opportunity to test the strength of our beliefs, and our commitment to them. We cannot retreat from democracy out of fear and anger. We can, however, turn a sober eye to our alliance and consider whether it continues to serve our interests.
We are bound to respect the outcome of a democratic election, but we are not bound to any country which does not reflect our values and Liberal-Democratic traditions.
Global markets have been severely rattled by tonight’s results. People across Australia and the world have been rattled by these results. But now more than ever, in light of everything we’ve seen in the United States, we must work to defend the values that underpin our great Australian democracy. I am confident that we will do just that.
Updated
Everyone is out for a frolic. Eric Abetz has helpfully sent out his thoughts.
As was on display with Brexit, the US election result shows that commentators and leftwing activists were out of touch with everyday people. While the media and commentators fell over themselves to write Donald Trump off, President-elect Trump remained focused on his task.”
President-elect Trump tapped into a widespread disaffection with the self-appointed politically correct elites.”
There are many lessons to be learned from both Brexit and the US election on which the media and commentariat might like to reflect.”
Updated
The ABC election analyst Antony Green has called the US election for Donald Trump.
There are the current numbers, 259 for the Republicans, if you give Pennsylvania the Republicans, 279 and they can quote that. We think the Republicans will win Wisconsin as well. So they’ve got two paths. But Associated Press have given Pennsylvania away and they’ve got 97% of the votes counted of the precincts counted in Pennsylvania and the Republicans are more than 1% ahead. It looks like that’s the state that’s put Donald Trump over the quota and into the White House.”
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Kimberley Kitching quotes Kerry Packer on royal commissions
Kimberley Kitching has given her account of her time as general manager of the Health Services Union No 1 branch in her opening speech.
It’s an upbeat account of two years turning the union around when it faced financial turmoil and declining membership under the previous leadership, allied to disgraced former national secretary Kathy Jackson.
Kitching took aim at Malcolm Turnbull, saying she was “disappointed ... [he is] pretending the Heydon royal commission is a credible resource just to score some cheap political points”.
The trade union royal commission made adverse findings about Kitching and referred her for possible prosecution for her role in cheating on right-of-entry tests, necessary for union officials to exercise special rights to enter work sites.
She quoted Turnbull’s former client, Kerry Packer, for his denunciation of the Costigan royal commission for putting him in the position that he “effectively has to prove [his] innocence”.
Kitching has continually denied she cheated on the tests, but it’s worth noting the Fair Work Commission also concluded she had done so, and described her evidence was “inherently unlikely”.
In her speech Kitching stressed she has private-sector experience, including work in a human resources company and as a lawyer, greater than her time in government or unions.
I also wish to put on the record that this parliament should give serious consideration to the best and most serious way to fight corruption.
Updated
Back to senator Kimberley Kitching. Paul Karp will update us shortly on the royal commission intervention.
But she touched on the criticism she faced on coming into parliament, Kitching says:
I want to record here I embrace all of it, the good, the bad the ugly.
I hope to do all within my power to protect a free press and public accountability within Australia. Even and especially when it is critical of whatever it is I am doing or not doing.
Final edition of tonight's paper pic.twitter.com/d2w6O2zNFu
— Dan Roberts (@RobertsDan) November 9, 2016
The Labor senator Kimberley Kitching is giving her first speech. As a Shorten ally, she was chosen after much angst in the party. Shorten is sitting on the floor of the Senate. So is Richard Marles, who opposed her in favour of Diana Taylor.
She has talked about Australian exceptionalism and (her predecessor) Stephen Conroy’s role in that exceptionalism. And the rest of the Labor party, she says.
Kitching goes through her family and moves on to the importance of creating jobs.
She now moves to royal commissions.
Updated
Updated
.@SenatorWong defends Bill Shorten, saying many leaders have criticised @realDonaldTrump #auspol https://t.co/Gk3H1lQSZU
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) November 9, 2016
The deputy Nationals leader, Fiona Nash, has called on Woolworths to honour its deal to SPC after the supermarket giant announced it would break the deal earlier today.
Woolworths was happy to cash in on the good publicity when it announced a five-year, $70m deal with SPC when national attention was focused on the issue. Woolworths said its sales of tinned fruit increased 48% when it switched to SPC.
Now we learn Woolworths has already dumped SPC as a tinned tomato supplier for its Woolworths brand and we read the supermarket is in talks with SPC over the future of supplying other lines to the supermarket.
Woolworths should honour its word.
Updated
Pauline Hanson toasts people power.
Updated
.@SenatorWong says Labor is focused on Australia's national interest #electionnight #auspol https://t.co/FCdLNVGQux
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) November 9, 2016
Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts toasting Donald Trump with champagne outside Parliament House #auspol pic.twitter.com/zIQ5bZAKah
— Tom McIlroy (@TomMcIlroy) November 9, 2016
Meanwhile, Scott Morrison is introducing the superannuation bills into the lower house.
Updated
Penny Wong is playing down previous comments by Bill Shorten, who described Trump’s views as “barking mad”.
She says Josh Frydenberg has described him as a “dropkick”. Malcolm Turnbull has described his comments about women as “loathsome”.
Wong repeats Bishop’s comments that Labor will work with whoever is in office.
She won’t nominate – to David Speers on Sky – any point of agreement she was with Trump. She won’t enter into it.
Updated
Thanks for the reminder, Frank.
Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi (November 3, 2016)
— Frank Keany (@FJKeany) November 9, 2016
"Donald Trump is not my ideal candidate, he's not conservative enough for me"
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Hey @AlboMP , do you think now is about the right time for @billshortenmp to consider his position? #Trump #MakeAmericaGreatAgain
— Cory Bernardi (@corybernardi) November 9, 2016
Make Australia Great Againhttps://t.co/xdHZpbjmgZ #MakeAustraliaGreatAgain
— Cory Bernardi (@corybernardi) November 9, 2016
Looking promising...#MakeAmericaGreatAgain
— Cory Bernardi (@corybernardi) November 9, 2016
The artist formerly known as Madame Speaker.
I'm at a #Trump party in Sydney. Bronwyn Bishop enjoying the results #Election2016 #auspol @abcnews pic.twitter.com/5JQSFnp98X
— Jason Om (@jason_om) November 9, 2016
Julie Bishop to the US: stay in the region
There is a palpable sense of shock and nervousness in this building.
You can hear it in the last two questions to Julie Bishop.
Q: Mr Trump can appear to be an incredibly volatile and orphan belligerent character. That’s how he often comes across. What would your message to Australians be? Are we heading for a greater risk of conflict?
We work with many different global leaders of different qualities, characteristics and traits. The Australian people can be assured that the Coalition government is prepared and ready to work with whomever becomes the president of the United States in a positive and constructive way that will further our national interests.
Q: A trade war with China, perhaps. If there were – in the case of a Trump presidency – how would Australia respond?
Australia welcomes China’s peaceful rise. We also acknowledge that the United States has been the guarantor of peace and security and stability in our region. And we would certainly appeal to any incoming administration for the United States to maintain that role.
Updated
Bishop was not surprised at the probable win, she always thought it would be “competitive”.
She says the challenge for the new president is to bring the country together.
Bishop says Australia will be working with the transition team to ensure Australia’s interests are enhanced.
The transition team, whomever is the president, has a significant task ahead of them putting together an administration. There are about 4,000 politically nominated positions that have to be filled. So, we will continue to work with the Obama administration during the transition period but remain closely engaged, as much as we can, with their transition teams, to look at issues of foreign and domestic policy that would affect Australia.
Updated
Julie Bishop hopes the TPP passes before new president takes office
The foreign minister does not expect there to be any change to the Australia-US free trade agreement.
Should there be a Donald Trump presidency, then the likelihood that there could be a majority of Republicans in the House and the Senate increases.
If that were to be the case with Republican majorities in the house and the Senate, we could see the end of the gridlock that has bedevilled United States politics for such a long time.
In relation to the TPP, it’s my understanding that the Obama administration intends to pass the TPP into law during the transition period, that so-called lame-duck period between 9 November and midday on 20 January. So, we are hopeful that the Obama administration, through President Obama, can pass the TPP.
Updated
Julie Bishop: Trump most likely to claim presidency
Julie Bishop:
At this stage, it would appear that Donald Trump is most likely to claim the presidency, and as I have said for many months now, the Australian government is ready and prepared to work with whomever the American people, in their wisdom, choose to be their president.
A presidential election in the United States is always a momentous occasion. In this instance, it has been a particularly bruising, divisive and hard-fought campaign.
However, the new administration will have a number of challenges, including in our region.
And we want to work constructively with the new administration to ensure the continued presence and leadership of the United States in our region. Australia has a number of economic and security interests that we wish to continue to pursue.
The United States is our major security ally. The United States is our largest foreign direct investor and our second-largest trading partner. The United States is also the guarantor and defender of the rules-based international order that has underpinned so much of our economic and security issues and interests.
Updated
Julie Bishop is speaking to David Speers on Sky.
.@JulieBishopMP says the government has reached out to both the @realDonaldTrump and @HillaryClinton campaigns https://t.co/HbIh4sZ97q
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) November 9, 2016
And a million doomsday preppers yell WHO'S A PARANOID DICKHEAD NOW? #electionday pic.twitter.com/7SGGF3izMD
— The Matt Hatter (@MattGlassDarkly) November 9, 2016
Updated
By George!
Labor MPs were yelling:
Someone read it to him.
Updated
The Australian share market and Australian dollar fell sharply as Donald Trump’s chances of winning the US presidential election firmed following the declaration of some key battleground states.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was down 3.5% at 2.32pm AEDT, after trading in positive territory all morning on expectations Hillary Clinton would win the tightly contested race to the White House.
If the selling is maintained, the market will take a bigger hit than the 3.2% plunge recorded in June when the UK voted to leave the European Union.
The Australian dollar hit a six-month high of 77.72 US cents at about midday on Wednesday, but dropped an hour later and was at 76.23 US cents at 2.32pm AEDT.
CARP!
Pyne (Channel 10, November 8) "I think Hillary will win, and win easily, and I think that will be the best outcome for Australia"
— Frank Keany (@FJKeany) November 9, 2016
Julie Bishop and Christopher Pyne check US results in question time.
Former Liberal MP Ross Cameron...
Ross Cameron just punched the head off a Hillary cutout at this #trumpsaussiemates party pic.twitter.com/jNXSkYGibS
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) November 9, 2016
Meanwhile, the Australian stockmarket is struggling at the thought of a Trump presidency.
The Australian stock market going through stages of grief…. pic.twitter.com/2mIz5NdlRE
— Mark Di Stefano (@MarkDiStef) November 9, 2016
I will not be lectured to by that man (Scott Morrison).
Updated
Question time is over.
George Christensen is showing off his Trump book #qt
— Rashida Yosufzai (@Rashidajourno) November 9, 2016
Joel Fitzgibbon asks Barnaby Joyce about Paul Grimes, the former head of the agriculture department who was sacked by the Coalition.
It refers to a letter only released by the government recently in which Grimes told Joyce he could no longer work with Joyce as agriculture minister “to resolve matters of integrity”.
The government fought the release of the letter under Freedom of Information laws for a year.
Joyce bluffs and blusters through the answer without answering.
Labor yells across the chamber,
Don’t go on leave Malcolm.
Joel Fitzgibbon to Barnaby Joyce: Speaking about Donald Trump this morning you said “What people say on the campaign trail is mitigated by the strong advice they get once they get into office because if you just fly solo on every issue, you will create major problems for your nation”. Has this been your experience with your own handling of the backpacker tax, drought relief and the relocation of the pesticides authorities to your own electorate, just to name a few?
Joyce:
I think it is very important if you look at the current polling to be careful about what you say about what might be the next President of the United States, noting that Mr Trump is currently ahead...
Joyce is yelling very loudly.
The answer involves Santa Claus, foreign workers v Australian workers, shearers from Uruguay, brain explosions and senator Jacqui Lambie.
His point is that Labor’s is supporting a 10.5% backpacker tax that will be lower than the Australian rate.
Six MPs have been thrown out so far by Mr Speaker. He is cranky today.
Chris Bowen to Scott Morrison: It has been revealed today that the NSW Liberal government has lobbied credit ratings agencies to defend their AAA rating in anticipation of the commonwealth losing its AAA credit rating. Is the Turnbull government so ... incompetent that even Mike Baird has lost confidence in this treasurer’s ability to defend Australia’s AAA rating?
Morrison says Labor’s debt is to blame.
That is the approach of those opposite, when they sit on these benches, they carelessly engage in reckless spending, drive up taxes, drive up debt, drive up a deficit and as a result, they have placed the nation’s finances in the position that we inherited as a government.
This is quite something in the same day in the context of the backpacker tax.
Updated
Shorten to Turnbull: The prime minister has praised the action taken by his special minister of state in August 2016 to investigation Bob Day’s eligibility to sit in the Senate. Given that the special minister relied upon the same information that his minister for finance had back in February 2016, why didn’t the minister for finance take the same action back then that the minister for state took in August 2016?
Turnbull refuses to answer and says again, see the special minister’s statement in the Senate on Monday.
Updated
A question to small business minister Michael McCormack on the backpacker tax. The government has been holding up the National Farmers Federation’s support as a shield.
Treasurer Scott Morrison gets a backpacker question. He is yelling very loudly.
Labor to Pyne: Did the North West College, linked to Bob Day, receive the amount they asked for or did the government give this organisation linked to Bob Day more than they actually asked for and is this normal process for this government to provide organisations more money than they asked for?
Speaker starts to rule it out of order but Pyne says he will take it.
Pyne:
Apart from the fact that the college is called the North East Vocational College as opposed to North West. I am prepared to overlook that. I would have been sacked when I was the manager of opposition business under the Member for Warringah and getting that wrong. Let’s pretend that the question was correct. The simple facts are, being lectured by the Labor party on these matters shows a great audacity.
Burke makes a point on relevance and Pyne says:
I take the point, I am surprised I got that far.
For sheer entertainment value, Pyne is easily one of the the best parliamentary performers on the floor.
Updated
I think the American election has given the Australian parliament a case of the crazies.
Barnaby Joyce has just been forced to sit down in the middle of a government question because he failed to call someone their title. (He used their name.)
Plibersek has asked Christopher Pyne about the North East Vocational College again and Pyne went into a rant about the former Labor government.
This is the Labor party responsible for the home insulation program, called the pink batts program which was responsible for killing people. It was responsible for peoples’ deaths. The home insulation program was responsible for the deaths of young Australians put into danger in the ceilings of homes in Australia because of the Labor party’s pink batts program. This party dares to lecture us about the delivery of programs. You should hang your heads in shame. You should be embarrassed to come into this house and ask us that are fixing up the mess of the six years of the Gillard-Rudd government, to ask us about questions to do with this.
Former Labor treasurer Wayne Swan interjects something unparliamentary. He refuses to withdraw so gets thrown out.
Updated
Deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce gets a government question on the backpacker tax. Which gives me a chance to run this, from earlier in the day.
Gareth Hutchens:
An unofficial game of chicken has begun.
After Labor’s announcement yesterday that it will support the government’s backpacker tax legislation only if the government agrees to a couple of amendments, the Coalition is more than pissed off.
The government has spent months trying to clean up the mess left by the former Abbott government when it decided to increase the backpacker tax to 32.5% in 2015.
In September, the treasurer, Scott Morrison, finally decided on a compromise tax rate of 19%, after drawn-out talks with the agricultural industry, and he was hoping to get the legislation passed before Christmas.
The government says if the legislation isn’t passed before the new year then the higher tax rate of 32.5% will kick in, which won’t be good for anyone.
Again, this is a mess of the government’s own making. But Labor’s proposal yesterday ruined their plans.
Labor says the government should cut the tax rate to 10.5%, rather than 19%, because that would make it equivalent to the tax rate in New Zealand, making Australia internationally competitive.
It says it will only support the government’s legislation if the government agrees to its proposed amendments.
But the Coalition isn’t budging.
It says Labor will be responsible for the 32.2% tax rate come 1 January if it doesn’t support the government’s legislation as it stands.
No one on the Coalition frontbench is willing to compromise. Morrison said the government will be testing Labor’s amendments in the senate.
Barnaby Joyce said today that the situation was “infuriating”.
He said the government had negotiated with Tourism Accommodation Australia, the National Farmers’ Federation, the Victorian Farmers Federation, with Tasmanian farmers, with the Lockyer’s horticultural producers, with farmers all around our nation, and Labor had put the 32.5% tax rate in its budget.
But it had changed its mind at the 11th hour, only to cause dissent and confusion.
“It is literally like a wedding, and as the bride makes it to the front of the alter the groom turns around and says ‘oh actually I’ve changed my mind, I wanna marry someone in the front row’. You can’t do that,” he said today.
He said Labor should do the honourable thing and support then 19% tax rate, and if it wants to make the rate lower than that it should take it to the next election.
But Labor won’t budge.
Now the Coalition isn’t sure when the legislation will be introduced to the senate. “Everything is in flux at the moment,” said one Coalition staffer.
“It’s a game of chicken I guess,” said a Labor staffer.
Updated
Plibersek to Turnbull: Yesterday the minister representing the minister for education said that the $1.84m grant to a college linked to former senator Day “went through all the normal processes”. Can the prime minister outline what these “normal processes” were?
Turnbull flicks the question to Pyne.
Pyne says there is no financial involvement between Bob Day and the North East Vocational College.
Updated
Greens MP Adam Bandt to Turnbull: Since the election, you have attacked renewable energy and defended coal, proposed permanent bans on refugees coming to Australia seeking our help. Now you are caving in to senator Pauline Hanson and the Donald Trumps in your party on race hate laws. Will you rule out allowing Donald Trump-style hate speech to flourish in Australia by changing the law to make it easier to say racist things? Are you now so beholden to the far right that you are letting Pauline Hanson write your policy? Prime minister, do you actually believe in this Trump-style agenda or are you just content with being the poor man’s Tony Abbott?
Because parliamentarians are supposed to refer to titles rather than names, Speaker Tony Smith calls him out on this.
I have cautioned many members on this and I have made it clear I am not going to keep cautioning them continuously, the member for Gellibrand learned this in the 90-second statements, pity he is not here to hear it now. Members will refer to members by their correct titles. I am not allowing an opportunity to rephrase the question. I am moving to the next question.
Speaker Smith refuses to let him have the question which is unheard of over using a name - in this case “Tony Abbott”. I have certainly never seen anyone lose a question like that.
Updated
Dreyfus to Turnbull: is the prime minister aware that the attorney general’s 37 new appointments to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal included Liberal donors, former Liberal MPs, failed Liberal candidates and Liberal party operatives, such as Saxon Rice, John Sosso, Nicholas McGowan and Bruce McCarthy. Is this what the prime minister meant when he referred to “excellent qualifications”?
Turnbull says if you have any allegations, raise them.
Then he segues to new Labor senator Kimberley Kitching.
Did the leader of the opposition satisfy himself that contrary to the finding of the Heydon royal commission, she was truthful in her evidence? What did the leader of the opposition do to satisfy himself that the royal commission had no basis for referring her conduct to the Director of Public Prosecutions for investigation, consideration for bringing criminal charges against her? Kimberley Kitching’s conduct has been the subject of findings of a royal commission, presided over by a retired high court judge.
Updated
Shorten to Turnbull: On 19 October, the prime minister defended the attorney general’s 37 new appointments to the AAT, saying “I have no doubt that all the persons appointed were excellently qualified.” Given there was no merits-based selection process, no advice from the department, no advertising of position, simply handpicked by the attorney general, what exactly were the excellent qualifications that justified these people receiving jobs paying up to $370,000 a year?
Turnbull says he will send Shorten their resumes.
Second government question is to Peter Dutton, allowing “Labor weak on border security” answer.
Updated
Second question (Dixer) to Turnbull on border security and lifetime ban bill.
We know how serious a threat irregular migration is. The foreign minister spoke yesterday of John Kerry saying it was viewed in Europe as an existential threat. When I was at the United Nations only a few weeks ago, one leader after another from Europe talked to me about the extraordinary threat they faced from irregular migration. What it does to promote intolerance. What it does to undermine a civil discourse. What it does to undermine their union, maintaining our border is absolutely essential.
When we brought in this legislation before the house this week, we asked the Labor Party to do no more than prove again that they are on that unity ticket. To do no more than send with us the strongest, most unequivocal message to the people smugglers that you will not succeed and they have failed us. They have failed Australia. They have failed the integrity of our borders.
Dreyfus to Turnbull: Does the prime minister still support the direction that was issued by the attorney general?
Turnbull:
The attorney general has my full confidence, the committee, as you know, the majority report was written by his political opponents and should be viewed in that light.
Updated
Mark Latham addresses the crowd at #TrumpsAussieMates pic.twitter.com/covrkuuVIl
— The Newsroom (@MacleayNewsroom) November 9, 2016
Re the US election:
Rest of the world rn #ElectionNight pic.twitter.com/IEE04dBGJe
— Subrahmanyam KVJ (@SuB8u) November 9, 2016
The American embassy always throws a party in Canberra on election day at the National Press Club. The knees-up generally attracts a crowd of thinktank folks, diplomats and defence people, as well as journalists and the odd politician. Kim Beazley, Australia’s former ambassador to the US, said a few words just before I arrived. My arrival coincided with the first run of election results. It’s fair to say the mood inside the room had switched from cheer to mild apprehension. Small huddles huddled around the big screen watching the talking heads doing the talking heads business. Others hit the buffet, which was laden with donuts. If Donald Trump wins this contest there will not be enough donuts in the world, will there? You can take that as a comment.
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Nearly question time. MPs will have to be dragged from their televisions into the chamber ...
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The Donald is unloved. But is he?
This is a very red map in the live election results.
Posted without comment #PoliticsLive @gabriellechan pic.twitter.com/PRlFNcU4A9
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) November 9, 2016
Meanwhile, Katharine Murphy has decamped to the US embassy function for the election.
Heavy carbo loading at the US embassy function as the results trickle in #PoliticsLive @gabriellechan #ElectionNight pic.twitter.com/tAGr0ryxpS
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) November 9, 2016
Labor MP Warren Snowden is talking about the children overboard affair. Snowden was the one who received a large file of pictures that proved asylum seeker parents were not throwing their children overboard to get help from the navy.
Snowden says the government’s characterisation of Labor as wanting to help people smugglers is wrong.
Liberal MPs are heckling him.
Don’t be a clown. We have seen in this place people who are so insincere.
The Australian people are wise to you. What, they are not?
I can tell you brother. They are wise to you. They’ve pinged you ...
We are saying, don’t come and visit Uluru, though we’d love to have you.
You mugs.
You absolute mugs. What an insult the intelligence of the Australian community you are.
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Stuart Roberts is ramping up the rhetoric now. He has accused Bill Shorten of telling:
a great big bald-faced lie at the last election.
Roberts is asked to withdraw. It is unparliamentary language.
Roberts says Shorten had characterised the asylum seeker policy positions of Labor and the Coalition as separated by a cigarette paper.
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Stuart Roberts, the former defence material minister who resigned after it was found he breached ministerial standards, is arguing the case for the lifetime ban.
The Coalition’s policy has stopped the boats ... these are facts.
Roberts said he knows because he worked for the former immigration minister Scott Morrison in opposition and planned the policy.
Roberts says serious left people (such as the former Labor immigration minister Nick Bolkus) put regional processing in place under Labor. They understood the evils of people smugglers, says Roberts.
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The Greens MP Adam Bandt just read out some letters in the Federation chamber from Muslim Australian primary students from Carlton Public in his electorate.
11 year-old Sondos:
First Pauline Hanson targeted Asians, now Muslims. I mean, really? She hasn’t even met us. Now when I walk on the streets with my mum people stop and stare at us. They make me feel like I should be ashamed of wearing a hijab and being a Muslim. Also when I went to a sports carnival I got called a terrorist and during the 800m race I stopped. This makes me feel so sad and scared.
Elehi:
I have seen on the street where a woman’s hijab was pulled off her head. I ask why? Why did they do that? When Pauline Hanson says Muslims should be banned from Australia, I am not scared. This is my place, this is my country, I call Australia home.
Hadya:
Why do so many people hate us?
Hibo:
I am hopeful that Pauline Hanson will find a way to be kind to people. I would like to live in an Australia that accepts all people of all religions and cultures. Australia is a free country and this is why it is great.
Watching @AdamBandt read some letters from our students in Parliament. pic.twitter.com/Jo4ngjfhf1
— CarltonPrimarySchool (@CarltonPrimary) November 8, 2016
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Can’t wait for the new senator to report the replies to this appeal.
And so it begins. My 1st Senate speech set for 5pm today. Ideas welcome -> senator.kitching@aph.gov.au #auspol pic.twitter.com/uquebw9aHg
— Kimberley Kitching (@kimbakit) November 9, 2016
Labor says 3100 people would be effected by lifetime visa ban
Labor’s immigration shadow, Shayne Neumann, said that, according to the government briefings, 3100 people are effected by the visa ban.
It will affect:
- asylum seekers in Manus and Nauru
- those living in detention centres in Australia like Villawood
- those in community detention on bridging visas
- those who have returned to their country of origin
- those resettled in PNG and Cambodia.
It applies to people applying for visas for tourism, business or study.
It would cover examples like doctors attending conferences, athletes attending competitions, business owners expanding, families seeking to visit. Neumann says the bill would mean these people would rely on the discretion of an immigration minister.
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Shayne Neumann says the ban could lead to absurd outcomes and describes the bill as a method for Malcolm Turnbull to appease the right wing of his party and maintain his leadership.
He says refugees on Manus and Nauru had been languishing for three years.
Sorry. Momentarily mesmerised by America.
In the House, the debate on the Coalition’s migration lifetime ban bill has just begun.
Labor announced yesterday that it would oppose the ban.
Labor’s immigration spokesman, Shayne Neumann, says there is a global migration crisis and Labor believes Australia should do more to look at regional frameworks to address that challenge.
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The counter-terrorism bill has passed on the voices with Labor’s support. Pauline Hanson’s amendment trying to means test legal aid failed, as did an amendment by the Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm.
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#abcnews24 you would think Oz reporters on #ElectionDay wld occasionally mention Oz women got vote 1901 and Gillard PM first female #auspol
— grace pettigrew (@broomstick33) November 8, 2016
Consider it mentioned.
Just moving onto 18C, where there is a whole lot of shouting going on.
Gillian Triggs is under renewed fire and facing a defamation action from Queensland University of Technology students who accused her yesterday of making false and damaging statements implying they and their Facebook posts were racist.
The Human Rights Commission president was asked by the students’ barrister, Tony Morris QC, yesterday to publish a retraction and apology, make no further “defamatory” comments about the students and pay damages and costs. The warning to Prof Triggs that she faces being sued comes after she told Fairfax Media and the ABC’s 7.30 that the human rights body had acted in “good faith” and in consultation with the students during a 14-month investigation into Facebook posts from May 2013.
George Brandis announced the terms of reference for the parliamentary inquiry into section 18C announced yesterday.
Those with us yesterday will know that the president of the Human Rights Commission told the ABC she was open to overhauling the act, including replacing the terms “offend” and “insult” with “vilify”.
But her race commissioner, Tim Soutphommasane, has stood fast on 18C, given he has consistently said there was no need to change it.
In his monthly update Soutphommasane writes:
The attorney general has announced a parliamentary inquiry into freedom of speech and part IIA of the Racial Discrimination Act, which will be conducted by the joint parliamentary committee on human rights. I will, as a matter of course, make my views known to the inquiry.
It remains my view that there is no case for changing section 18C of the act. Our society must have strong protections against racial abuse and vilification, while guaranteeing freedom of speech. As the attorney general made clear, all those with an interest should consider putting their views to the joint committee, which has been asked to report by 28 February 2017.
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In the lower house, in government business time, speakers are making statements on the death of former Israeli president Shimon Peres.
There have been eight speakers, which is odd. Usually condolence motions go to the Federation (minor) chamber.
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The brumby advocates have been out the front of parliament, protesting NSW government plans for a brumby cull.
No horsing around in Canberra today with a serious message from Snowy Mountains' locals to save the wild brumbies. pic.twitter.com/Zu7z9719j4
— Angus Taylor MP (@AngusTaylorMP) November 8, 2016
The counter-terrorism bill amends the Crimes Act. In regard to the control order on people 14 years and up, the bill will, among other things:
Impose an obligation on a person subject to a requirement to wear a tracking device to maintain the tracking device in good operational order and create offences for interfering with the operation of a tracking device; authorise the Australian federal police to ensure that the tracking device remains operational and to enter premises to install equipment necessary for the operation of the tracking device.
Pauline Hanson is trying to amend the counter-terrorism bill to ensure legal aid for juveniles under control orders is means tested. Under the bill, legal aid is only provided for minors who do not have a lawyer.
Hanson has been arguing that other legal aid is means tested. Why not means test this legal aid for control orders?
People have to take responsibility, says Hanson.
George Brandis says there have only been six control orders in the past 12 years.
He underlines that legal aid is only available for minors who do not have a lawyer.
Nick Xenophon makes the point that, while he understands Hanson’s reasons for the amendment, minors who are suspected of planning terrorist attacks are often separated or estranged from family. In other words, no matter how much money their families have, the minor may not have access to it.
Brandis again says very few control orders have been issued and none to juveniles. He says to Hanson, “We’ll have a talk about it.”
It may well be that the mischief you point to may be cured by regulation, says Brandis.
Under questioning from the Greens senator Nick McKim, Brandis says no have been no cases where control orders have been applied for and denied.
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In the Senate, another counter-terrorism bill is in committee.
The bill extends juvenile control orders from 16-year-olds to children as young as 14 and creates a new offence of advocacy of genocide.
When a bill is in committee, it means all the senators get to ask the minister questions. The minister, in this case, is the attorney general, George Brandis.
The committee process is a very constructive one because senators can actually discover the details and the purpose of bills.
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I am wary that this is the perfect day to take out the trash for the government, given all eyes are on the US.
So I will be keeping an eye on the chambers. This morning, the foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, has introduced the Civil Nuclear Transfers to India Bill 2016.
This is what the bill does:
The Civil Nuclear Transfers to India Bill 2016 (the ‘bill’) clarifies that decisions approving civil nuclear transfers to India are taken not to be taken as inconsistent with, or have been made with due regard to, Australia’s obligations relating to nuclear safeguards under specified international agreements if particular conditions are met.
The proposed bill will ensure that uranium mining companies in Australia may fulfil contracts to supply Australian uranium to India for civil use with confidence that exports would not be hindered by domestic legal action challenging the consistency of the safeguards applied by the International Atomic Energy Agency in India with certain of Australia’s international non-proliferation obligations. Any future bilateral trade in other nuclear-related material or items for civil use will also be protected.
That snippet is from the explanatory memo of the bill.
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I think Bill Shorten is having a press conference in Canberra but we have no vision of it because of the American election. Shorten is meeting bank victims but I will bring you the highlights as soon as I can see it.
The various ministers and shadows have been out and about this morning. Government ministers are being careful not to pick a side given “we have to work with whoever wins”.
Tanya Plibersek has not been so careful.
Certainly a Clinton presidency would see, I think, a US that continues to be much more engaged and focused on our region. But, of course, the relationship between the United States and Australia is bigger than any one person, and Australia would deal with any result in this election, no doubt.
You’re voting Clinton, asks the interviewer?
Well, if I had a vote. It is a terrifically robust democracy, the United States, and I’m sure they’ll manage to do what they always do which is see someone elected who can continue the relationship between our two nations. But, yes, if I had a vote I’d be voting Hillary.
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I will give you a little more Peter Dutton from his speech yesterday because the House will start at 9.30am and, after a few procedural flurries and introductions of other bills, they will get around to the refugee ban.
This is Dutton yesterday claiming harsh government policies are not developed using fear to scare people away because Australia is a multicultural country.
These policies and practices were not developed from a basis of fear – how could they be, because more than one in four Australian residents were born overseas and close to half of the population have at least one parent born elsewhere. Immigrants and their descendants are foundational to Australia’s human capital and social fabric.
The ban will apply to all visas, both temporary and permanent.
It is critical that the bar apply to all visas to Australia. Any visa that allows a former illegal maritime arrival to come to Australia has the potential to provide a pathway to permanent residence. We cannot and will not leave the door open for people smugglers to find a backdoor once again into our country.
People are coming:
In particular, if people believe that the door in Europe has now closed for them, they will make a path to Sri Lanka, to Vietnam, to Indonesia, to elsewhere to make their onward journey to this country. And this government is not going to preside over a re-emergence of boat arrivals, because we are not going to allow those 17 detention centres to be reopened. We are not going to allow the 2,000 children in detention, a legacy we inherited when we came to government, to stay in detention. And we have got those 2,000 children out of detention. Most importantly, we are not going to allow the deaths at sea of innocent men, women and children.
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Today the government is focused on the forever ban on Australian travel for those on Manus and Nauru, otherwise known as the Migration Legislation Amendment (Regional Processing Cohort).
The bill was introduced to the House yesterday and the debate will begin in earnest today.
It will be interesting to watch because it will be the first time in a while that the major parties have been divided on the issue of asylum seeker policy.
This was the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, yesterday:
The bill will amend the Migration Act to further strengthen Australia’s maritime border protection arrangements by barring certain illegal maritime arrivals, who are subject to regional processing, from applying for an Australian visa.
The legislation will apply to people transferred to a regional processing country after 19 July 2013, including people who are currently in a regional processing country, have left a regional processing country and are in another country, are in Australia awaiting transfer back to a regional processing country and who are taken to a regional processing country in the future.
This includes people temporarily transferred from regional processing countries to Australia for medical treatment and those who have since settled in another country or returned home.
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I’ve actually wondered about the same thing. If there is a press conference and no one is listening, did it actually happen?
"Is anyone actually listening out there?" Canberra is fixated on the US election, so @JamesMcGrathLNP confronts some philosophical questions pic.twitter.com/Gb7ivhkdKe
— Stephen Dziedzic (@stephendziedzic) November 8, 2016
Good morning and happy US election day.
There are a few plates spinning in the air today as the United States election slides down to a resolution of sorts. I am trying not to watch because once I start, I may not stop and #politicslive will slide to a stop. But Mike Bowers is having fun.
We shall overcomb. Happy election Day #PoliticsLive @mpbowers @gabriellechan pic.twitter.com/hMZdlMaxN1
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) November 8, 2016
Onwards people.
Three (Australian) issues up front:
George Brandis:
The backwash of the opposition-dominated Senate committee, which said – essentially – that the attorney general, George Brandis, was unfit to remain a minister because he failed to consult the former solicitor general Justin Gleeson over a legal direction. Brandis has said he did consult and his defence revolved around the Oxford definition of “consultation”.
Mark Dreyfus has been around this morning calling for Brandis to be sacked.
He’s misled the Senate and, worse than that, he’s now lying about lying because he is pretending that he didn’t mislead the Senate.
Backpacker tax:
Labor’s last-minute support of a Jacqui Lambie proposal to drop the Coalition’s proposed 19% backpacker tax to 10.5% has the government in a spin. The backpacker bills (and associated savings of 95% tax on backpacker superannuation and a $5 increase in the passenger movement charge) have passed the lower house. But they are yet to pass the Senate.
The treasurer, Scott Morrison, said Labor lied about the backpacker tax at the last election because they said they would resolve it in a revenue neutral way. He says a 10.5% tax rate would cost the budget $500m. Agricultural industries – which use backpackers for 25% of their labour – has been crippled by nearly two years of uncertainty.
Morrison said not us, your honour.
He said backpacker numbers had falling since 2012 – by 35,000 – well before Tony Abbott proposed a 32.5% tax in the 2015 budget. That’s why he was using some of the tax increase to pay for a tourism marketing campaign.
[Labor] want to give a bigger tax cut to foreign workers and ask Australians to pay for it.
Morrison said a lower rate would also give growers a greater disincentive to employ locals.
Lifetime ban on travel to Australia for asylum seekers on Manus and Nauru:
The government’s plans will be debated in the lower house but, with Labor and the Greens voting against the bill, it is all in the hands of the crossbenchers. The government needs 8 out of 10.
Senator Nick Xenophon is one who is crucial given he holds three votes.
I’ve got to say at this stage I think it’s pretty touch and go as to whether this legislation gets through. It’s a conscience issue for the team and I respect that.
The Xenophones will not vote as a block. The government needs at least one of them.
Apologies for the longest post in history. You can contact me on the Twits @gabriellechan and @mpbowers or on Facebook. We shall overcomb.
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