Night time politics
- We end the day as we began it, wondering how the Gonski 2.0 deal will land. Or not. The Greens continue considering their options, not least because the Australian Education Union is threatening to end their electoral chances in various seats. We know that they have pretty much got exactly what they asked for; an independent funding body, state coercion on funding, a special NT package and faster and higher funding all round. The past president of the AEU, the WA rep and the South Australian reps started to peel away from the AEU until there was a national phone hook-up when statements were hurriedly issued. Labor continues to hammer the Coalition in parliament, on needs-based funding even though the package is needs-based funding, albeit not at Labor’s promised level. It really has been a silly day. No resolution in sight.
- The Greens have landed Labor Senate support for a motion on political donations which calls for caps on election expenditure per seat, caps on domestic donations and increased public funding. It went through on the voices because the Greens had Labor support. Effectively, if Labor follows through it would amount to a policy shift for them. The motion doesn’t bind anyone, but it should clear the way for new Labor policy. The Greens have backed these policies at previous elections.
- Current president of the Australian Law Reform Commission Rosalind Croucher has been appointed president of the Human Rights Commission.
- Labor won’t support the government’s citizenship proposals, including the four-year wait for permanent residents for citizenship and the tougher English language test.
- The government announced it would abolish limited merits review, the appeal process which power companies use to protest price determinations. It is also acting on regulations to force gas companies to keep more gas onshore to improve gas prices. Labor’s Chris Bowen said when Labor suggested such a policy, the government predicted the world would end. Apparently it has not. The Turnbull government also asked the Australian Energy Market Operator to work out the best way to ensure ongoing “dispatch-able” power to ensure continuous supply.
- Chris Back gave a valedictory speech. Everyone congratulated him.
- Chief scientist Alan Finkel will speak to the press club tomorrow.
- More Gonski wrangling will occur.
Thanks to the brains trust, Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp, Gareth Hutchens and Mike Bowers. And thanks for your company.
Good night.
Updated
The Australian Education Union have released a statement for president Correna Haythorpe.
The Turnbull government’s education proposal is a complete shambles.
What was first presented last month appears to be completely different from what is on the table now. But nobody from the government appears willing to publicly outline what the current position is.
“We don’t know exactly what funding would be spent overall, how it would be distributed by state and sector and over what length of time.
“It is also unclear what concessions are being proposed to try and get the support of the Catholic school sector and the government’s own backbenchers.
There has never been an education funding plan developed in this shambolic manner, with no clarity around what is being proposed and no negotiations with state and territory governments, the independent or Catholic sector.
Trying to finalise a 10-year plan for schools in the next two days when nobody knows what form that plan will take is ridiculous.
The Education department’s own Senate inquiry submission said that legislation only needed to be passed by the end of the first half of the spring session.
The AEU’s unanimous position is that the government should abandon its plan to push this through parliament in the next two days to allow a proper process of negotiation and consultation with state and territory governments, stakeholders and the community.
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on World Refugee Day, the Senate (thankfully) votes down Hanson/Bernardi motion trashing the Refugee Convention + linking it to terrorism pic.twitter.com/OVH0fZiQ1U
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) June 20, 2017
Motion goes down 6-50. Very lonely on the "yes" side on the left pic.twitter.com/qr23Lm5j6i
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) June 20, 2017
National senator Bridget McKenzie is sitting on the Labor benches. She must be visiting a friend.
Labor backs Greens motion to cap election expenditure per seat
Greens senator Lee Rhiannon has won Labor support for a fairly ground-shifting motion on political donations. It doesn’t bind anyone but it makes for an interesting statement.
(a) notes that:
(i) the high court in McCloy vs New South Wales (2015) upheld a ban on political donations from property developers in New South Wales,
(ii) the high court stated that the particular concern was that reliance by political candidates on private patronage may, over time, become so necessary as to sap the vitality, as well as the integrity, of the political branches of government, and
(iii) large political donations from both foreign and domestic donors threaten the integrity of Australia’s democratic institutions; and
(b) calls on the government to
(i) ban foreign donations and place caps on domestic donations to protect the integrity of Australia’s democratic institutions;
(ii) cap election expenditure per seat; and
(iii) mitigate any caps with increased public funding.
Updated
It’s all been happening rather fast, so I missed Chris Bowen on Sky soon after the PM’s gas press conference.
Bowen has made the point that when Labor suggested some sort of national interest test to stop a gas shortage, it was pooh-poohed.
Casting your mind back, Katharine Murphy wrote about it here but Matt Canavan’s full quote was this:
We don’t make sure we have enough scotch fillet in the supermarket by telling farmers they can’t sell their beef or cattle to overseas markets. We let them sell to a wide range of markets which gives them confidence to invest, which gives them a good return when they can get a good price – and we have plenty of steak.
Bowen said Labor had warned of a gas crisis.
Malcolm Turnbull and Josh Frydenberg were two people who during the election campaign ran around and said that Labor’s policy of a national interest test on gas exports was protectionist and destructive. That’s what they said. They said that you shouldn’t have restrictions on gas exports. That was just 12 months ago, when I and Mark Butler announced that policy. They said it would be the end of the world. Now they are playing desperate catch-up. They said there was no problem. We were warning of a gas crisis.
Updated
Di Natale seen wandering in the vicinity of the PM's office
My building spies tell me that Richard Di Natale has been seen wandering towards the prime minister’s office. Wonder what that is about? #Gonski2.0
Updated
The Australian Greens have stated they are ready to back moves to start reining in spending by power network companies, as announced by the Turnbull earlier.
Greens MP Adam Bandt:
This change is only part of the solution, but it is well overdue. The power companies have been fleecing consumers for years, gold-plating their networks and ignoring more cost-effective alternatives, like managing demand. Recent court decisions only reinforced the need for action.
But they are more cautious about the push to require AEMO to look at dispatchable generation, as it seems predicated on coal-fired generation remaining in the system for an unreasonably long time.
Bandt:
AEMO already makes forecasts on the future for generation … We need to close the equivalent of a Hazelwood a year to meet climate targets, which means a government regulated timetable or other mechanism to drive an orderly transition and timely new investment. We don’t need another review, we need a national plan for the energy transition.
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NCEC's Christian Zahra says Catholics have received no compromise yet #auspol #Gonski ping @gabriellechan pic.twitter.com/JdkrDRKBUq
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) June 20, 2017
Plibersek to Turnbull: Is the prime minister aware when speaking about the government’s $22bn cuts to schools, Senator Back warned, “Please don’t make me vote against the government in my last week in the Senate.” Isn’t it the case that any changes the prime minister wants to make to his school cuts package have nothing to do with the children and everything to do with appeasing the members for Warringah, Menzies, Dawson, Senator Abetz and Senator Hanson-Young?
Turnbull says Labor’s politics will not distract him from delivering for Australian children.
We are spending $18.6bn over the next 10 years but we are doing more. We are going forward with another Gonski review to ensure that we identify what measures will ensure that we get the best use of that funding to get the best teaching and the best educational outcomes. We have been spending more on schools but results haven’t been improving. That is something we have got to address. The money is there, the commitment is there, the needs-based funding is there.
Updated
PM: if some Catholic schools are getting less money, other Catholic schools must get more
Plibersek to Turnbull: In an 11th hour meeting last night, the Catholic Education Commission warned the education minister that this Liberal government would wear its cuts to Catholic schools like an albatross around its neck and said, “In the 50 years we have been dealing with government, we have never had a government not engage with us on major changes to policy.” Isn’t it time that the prime minister dropped his cuts for good, instead of just postponing them from one party room meeting to the next?
Turnbull says:
The funding under our plan for Catholic schools will increase on average, per student, by 3.5% over 10 years. The 2017 per student funding on average will be $8,837 in 2027 it will be $12,493. In NSW, which is the subject of an earlier question, the average annual per student increase will be, over the decade, 3.6%, rising from $8,767 today to $12,522 in 2027. Those are the facts.
Turnbull says the government gives a per student amount. It has been given to the state Catholic system in one lump sum.
Funding is rising and the proposition is that schools in one part of a state’s Catholic system would get less money then it follows that schools somewhere else must be getting more. You can’t have funding going up by so much every year and then all schools losing.
Updated
At the same time, Broken Bay parents announced a doorstop after question time.
A group of mothers representing concerned parents of children in Broken Bay Diocese schools have today met with federal minister for education and training, Senator Simon Birmingham.
The group has undertaken a series of meetings over the past 48 hours at Parliament House to plead their case, culminating in today’s meeting with the minister.
Alexis Silver will speak to the outcome from that meeting over the issue of funding for Catholic schools and then take media questions.
Updated
Labor to Josh Frydenberg representing the education minister: Catholic educators and parents from the diocese of Broken Bay are in the public gallery today. They have calculated that under the government’s $22bn cuts to schools, they will lose around $30m across 44 schools in 2018 alone. Has the prime minister had any representations from the member for Robertson about these cuts in her electorate?
Frydenberg lists the various Catholic schools in the area and how much funding they will get. Nothing to see here.
Updated
Bowen to Turnbull: The governor of the Reserve Bank has said, “The crisis really is in real wage growth.” When there is a crisis in real wage growth with real wages going backwards, why in just 11 days time is the prime minister giving millionaires a tax cut at the same time as supporting a pay cut for ordinary workers? How come on July 1, millionaires get more take home pay and 700,000 ordinary workers get less take home pay?
Turnbull says he knows wage growth is a problem, that’s why he is giving business tax cuts.
Low wages growth is an issue, it is. We are aware of it. That is why we are supporting Australian business.
Updated
West Australian journalist Sarah Martin, who with Phoebe Wearne wrote the story on WA teachers union boss Pat Byrne, says the statement was not at odds.
SSTUWA statement not at odds with today's report which said union would not support bill in "current form". Said should consider if amended
— Sarah Martin (@msmarto) June 20, 2017
Pauline Hanson has just left question time but no word yet on Derryn Hinch’s ominous prediction of a bombshell this morning.
Bob Katter asks a question but I don’t really know what it was about as he did not get a chance to finish. It was about power but I don’t really know the thrust of it.
Turnbull takes the chance to claim it as support for the government’s technology neutral approach.
Plibersek to Turnbull: Is the prime minister aware the state school teachers union from WA has issued a statement denying they support the government’s schools funding legislation saying “the legislation, in its current form, should be opposed in the federal parliament”. The prime minister’s been caught out making up data, is he now making up endorsements?
Turnbull says Plibersek no longer gives a Gonski.
The issue for the honourable member is really her own consistency. She has campaigned for years for needs-based funding. She has cited David Gonski for years.
Updated
WA teachers union statement #qt #auspol pic.twitter.com/IdIkyaqwT1
— Paul Osborne AAP (@osbornep) June 20, 2017
You didn't see anything: AEU reunite against Gonski package
The small breakouts in the Australian Education Union over the Turnbull government Gonski schools package have been shortlived.
After a phone hook-up with officials around the country, AEU South Australian president Howard Spreadbury has clarified there is no change in position, meaning the teachers union has rejected concessions won by the Greens.
The Greens bidding with Simon Birmingham is their own business, that’s their call. Our position is that no amount of amendments is going to enhance the government’s unfair funding arrangements.
Spreadbury also noted that the president of the State School Teachers’ Union in WA, Pat Byrne, has repudiated a report that her branch has split on the merits of considering the policy:
Total misrepresentation of #sstuwa position re Turnbull plan in today's West. AEU united in opposition
— Pat Byrne (@SSTUWA) June 20, 2017
Queensland, Victoria and now South Australia are referring inquiries to federal president, Correna Haythorpe. The Australian Capital Territory is also fully aligned with the federal position.
Updated
Shorten to Turnbull: Today’s newspapers report confidence in Libs lost. Catholics have officially declared war on government. When Catholic schools have declared war on this Liberal government over its $4.6bn cuts to children in Catholic schools, isn’t it time for the prime minister to drop his cuts for good, go back to the drawing board and start again and replace this failure of a Government schools policy?
Turnbull quotes David Gonski on the package, chair of the original panel.
The public sector, the Catholic sector, the independents will receive more funding over the decade, in total $18.6bn. That is real money, that is paid for, that is funded. That is the difference. Labor fantasised, we got into the business of financing.
Updated
The house is rowdy. Speaker Smith says no more warnings. You’ll be tossed out.
First Dixer is on Labor’s opposition to the citizenship bill.
Shorten to Turnbull: Will the prime minister finally admit that his schools policy is a train wreck? Public schools hate it. Catholic schools hate it and its government’s own members despise it. Will the prime minister please put his schools policy out of its misery, withdraw the legislation and go back to the drawing board for a better schools policy?
Turnbull quotes support for the policy from Pat Byrne, State School Teachers Union of WA and Diane Foggo, past president of the Australian Education Union.
The reality is Labor knows full well that what we have delivered with our schools funding package is a funding package that focuses not on union officials,not on politicians, not on bureaucrats, it focuses on the children.
It focuses on getting fair and transparent funding for our children and ensuring right across the board, whether you are at a State school, a Catholic or independent school, the funding is fair, it is transparent and it is needs-based.
Bill Shorten also rises to condemn the attack.
Designed to spread fear and incite hatred and, despite the injuries it inflicted, despite the pain it has caused, the attack has failed. It failed because the people of London and Britain, whose resilience has been sadly tried far too often in recent days and weeks because the people of London and Britain are bigger, are braver, are better than the extremists who seek to test and divide them.
Statement in the house on terrorism. The prime minister condemns the Finsbury Park mosque attack, the overnight botched attack in Paris.
The metropolitan police have described the Finsbury Park attack as a clear attack on Muslims. As Prime Minister Theresa May said last night,terrorism attempts to break the precious bonds of solidarity and citizenship that we share. We stand with the UK, resolutely defiant against terrorism in all its forms. We are not halfway through 2017 but for the United Kingdom, this year has already been marked by terror and tragedy.
'Don't underestimate' impact of AEU shift on Gonski: Greens
The Greens are stirring after two Australian Education Union state branch presidents (WA and SA) have suggested the union should consider the government schools deal and the former federal president, Dianne Foggo, has said the teachers should take it.
You can’t underestimate how much this will impact internally, the more unions shift like this,” a Greens source said.
The AEU has so far dug in against the package, and the collective wisdom is that where they go so will go the Greens.
The teachers’ union is now having a phone hook-up to discuss the Gonski 2.0 package and concessions offered to the Greens. Question is: will they come out singing from the same song sheet? And will a difference of opinion be enough political cover for the Greens to make a deal with the government?
Updated
Question time in 4, 3, 2, 1...
Rosalind Croucher has been appointed president of the Human Rights Commission.
Emeritus professor Rosalind Croucher has been appointed president of the Human Rights Commission.
Attorney general George Brandis has issued a statement:
I am pleased to announce that His Excellency the governor general has accepted the government’s advice to appoint Emeritus Professor Rosalind Croucher AM as the next president of the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). Professor Croucher will commence her seven year term on 30 July 2017.
Professor Croucher is currently the president of the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC). She was first appointed a full-time commissioner of the ALRC by the Howard government in 2007 and was made president in 2009. Professor Croucher was reappointed president in 2014 and subsequently in 2015 for a further three year term.
Professor Croucher has had an illustrious career as a lawyer and member of the academy. She has an outstanding reputation for her pragmatic, constructive and analytical approach to law reform. Her strong leadership of the ALRC, and expertise in complex areas of the law, has enhanced its respected public image.
Updated
AEU South Australia flags movement on Gonski deal
AEU South Australian branch president, Howard Spreadbury, told Guardian Australia that changes to the Gonski deal - such as speeding it up to 6 years and compelling states to increase their funding - “could well make a difference” to the union’s opposition.
Asked about concessions the Greens believe they can secure, including that states would be forced to pay 75% of the school resource standard, Spreadbury said “if that is what the Greens have negotiated then it may well shift the landscape”.
Asked about AEU WA president, Pat Byrne’s, suggestion an offer should be considered if states were compelled to give 80% of the SRS, Spreadbury said “that does change things significantly”.
The AEU is about to hold a phone hookup to be briefed about concessions the cross bench have won and to consider whether it will change the union’s position.
Dispatchable power = a proportion of power accessible at any given time...
Katharine Murphy asks the prime minister given there has been some talk on reverse auctions, does this mean you are stepping away from the Clean Energy Target?
Before I give you the answer, you need to know that the backbench environment committee chair told Murphy the government needed to consider implementing a scheme of “reverse auctions” to deploy dispatchable power into the grid.
Kelly said the “reverse auction” scheme would be set with an emissions intensity threshold to allow high-efficiency coal to bid into the system, but he said coal could be outbid by wind power with gas back-up, or large-scale solar with battery back-up.
Now you need to know what Turnbull said to Murph:
One of the mechanisms that AEMO could recommend to us, to governments, and it is consistent with practice in many other jurisdictions, including the United States and the UK and Germany and others, is a reverse auction. But of course, it would have to be technology neutral so that you would be saying and this is why AEMO’s role is very important.
The export gas regulations is a disallowable instrument so as I understand it, the Senate could knock it off but it would be unlikely Labor would stand in the way.
Abolishing limited merits review would require legislation.
From the Coag consultation paper:
LMR allows parties affected by Australian Energy Regulator decisions to have the decisions reviewed by the Australian competition tribunal where it can be established that there are grounds for this to occur; for example, regulatory errors and that addressing them would result in a materially preferable decision.
Frydenberg:
It would require legislation so it is a moment of truth for the Labor party. Are they prepared to cut household bills given that networks make up to 50%. I point out that the Labor governments in Victoria and South Australia joined with the Commonwealth at the end of last year to abolish the limited merits review, so I would expect that Bill Shorten would support this measure.
Updated
Malcolm Turnbull is asked whether the measures announced will stop the huge price rises (electricity 20%) on 1 July.
In fact, the foreshadowing of the regulation has already resulted in wholesale prices and of course, how they translate into retail prices or prices for industrial users is another thing. But on the wholesale market, on the spot market, you have seen prices come down.
Updated
Turnbull also whacks the Labor party for not supporting citizenship proposal.
The Labor Party does not value Australian citizenship enough to say, as we do, that it must be more than simply the outcome of an administrative tick and flick form-filling process.
Josh Frydenberg says the poles and wires make up nearly 50% of the household bill.
He will be increasing the funding by $67m over four years for the Australian Energy Regulator.
By abolishing the limited merits review process, we believe that that will put downward pressure on electricity prices.
Ding! Penny drops.
The resources minister, Matt Canavan:
It is unsustainable for our country to be the world’s largest exporter but to be paying some of the largest prices for gas.
Updated
Turnbull will ask the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) to identify the existing and potential loss of continuous, dispatchable base load.
That means they would talk to suppliers and energy suppliers and particularly large-scale emissions intensity suppliers about what they need to do to secure future investment and examine how much continuous power is needed in the short term to stabilise power prices.
On the back of that identified need, we’ll be asking AEMO how best to ensure the new continuous dispatchable power is provided, optimising affordability for consumers.
Updated
Government announces gas regulations
Malcolm Turnbull announcing the government will be implementing gas regulations that affects exports.
The government is also abolishing the limited merits review, which he says gas companies have taken advantage of, “to the tune in recent years of about $6.5bn additional cost to consumers”.
Updated
Hang in there Correna: Queensland teachers stick with AEU federal position
After the Australian Education Union WA branch president, Pat Byrne, said the Coalition schools deal should be considered, and former AEU president Dianne Foggo also supported Gonski 2.0, so far it seems the rest of the AEU is sticking with the position expressed by current president, Correna Haythorpe, to oppose a deal.
The Queensland Teachers Union president, Kevin Bates, told Guardian Australia there was no change in that branch’s position.
Money [is] only one consideration – the conditions, command and control [structure], and the rule by the federal minister through regulation all remain unacceptable. Support for the AEU position remains strong.
The Greens did not decide a definitive position at their Tuesday party room meeting and a split in the AEU could provide cover for it to do a deal with the government. The Greens will consult their national council this evening for guidance on how it should handle the contentious schools package.
Updated
The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, is speaking about Bill Shorten “being mugged by the left of his party” on citizenship.
Dutts is confident he will get the citizenship bill through the Senate. The Greens do not support it. Presumably One Nation will support but I would be surprised if Nick Xenophon would without some amendments. Dutton needs the Xen Master to get across the line without Labor or the Greens.
Mr Shorten quite frankly should go with his first instinct.
Updated
The Coalition party room meeting has ended. Tony Abbott and Kevin Andrews spoke about their concerns for the Catholic sector. Andrews also spoke about the complaints of the lack of consultation with the Catholic sector.
More coming.
Also Malcolm Turnbull, the resources minister, Matt Canavan, and the energy and environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, have a press conference in the blue room in five minutes.
Updated
Anne Aly, the Labor MP for Cowan and a deradicalisation expert before she entered parliament, spoke to Sky about the Finsbury Park attack that left one person dead and a number injured outside a mosque.
She makes the point that we need to ensure that all terrorist attacks are treated even-handedly and some were loath to call it a terrorist attack.
Well I think one of the most disappointing things is hearing this attack being portrayed as some kind of ‘revenge attack’. Terrorism is terrorism and all forms of terrorism have an element of revenge or retribution in them but that doesn’t make them not terrorism. It still makes them terrorism.
The other thing Ben is this isn’t as uncommon as we would think. Just yesterday, on the same day as this attack happened, a young girl, 17-year-old Muslim girl in Virginia, in the United States, was set upon and beaten to death while on her way back from a mosque, from a place of worship. Last week, in Sweden, a similar attack was attempted with a far-right extremist mowing into a group of Iraqis. Twice, in Sweden. So these attacks aren’t as uncommon as we would think but they are not as publicised as other forms of terrorist attacks.
Just FYI, I noticed LNP MP George Christensen was quick to come out and condemn the Finsbury attack on his Facebook page 17 hours ago.
This terror attack is just as vile as those perpetrated by the radical Islamists. Wanting to kill or harm people because of their religion goes against every traditional western value.
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Tony Burke on citizenship.
.@Tony_Burke: Don't lie and pretend something is for national security when it is not. #auspol MORE https://t.co/Ms8CrJCPuo pic.twitter.com/40AbJKGxUN
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) June 20, 2017
A sonata ripping through Mural Hall while Tony Burke confirms Labor's opposition to the citizenship laws @gabriellechan #auspol
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) June 20, 2017
Happy refugee week.
Former Australian Education Union president urges senate to back Gonski 2.0
Here is the letter to Senate crossbench & current AEU leadership from former AEU fed president Dianne Foggo urging them to back Gonski 2.0 pic.twitter.com/X4NkrymR1z
— Matthew Knott (@KnottMatthew) June 20, 2017
Labor won't support Dutton citizenship laws
Labor shadow Tony Burke says the government’s citizenship bill is massive overreach and puts some laws in place that “Australia should never take and are inconsistent with who we are as a country”.
He describes the tougher English tests as a “bizarre act of snobbery” and says the longer wait to apply for citizenship essentially delays a person’s allegiance to Australia.
By definition, everybody who is affected by this is a person who Australia has said should live here and should live here permanently. If there is a national security problem for these people, then why on earth does the government have them already living here permanently?
The second challenge with the legislation is the delay. At the moment you already have to wait for years before you are able to take on Australian citizenship. The four-year start is already there.
But many people start on a temporary visas, sometimes on a series of temporary visas that take much more than four years and the requirement is at least one of those years has to be a year of permanent residence.
At the end of that time Australia has had agood chance to look at the contribution that somebody is already making.
How can it be good for Australia to be further delaying whether or not someone takes allegiance to this country? It is not that it is just good for that individual, how can it be good for Australia to be saying someone who is ready to be fully part of this Australian society, and the Australian government is going to stand in its way.
The third issue we have to take very direct exception to is the issue of the English language test. Now, Peter Dutton got all confused on radio today and claimed that, at the moment, level 5 is basic English. That’s not true. Basic English, depending on exactly your definition, kicks in at either a two or a four. They’re talking about level six ...
That’s not just an argument to potential citizens – that’s an argument to a whole range of Australians who don’t get their personal literacy and English all the way up to university entrance level. And that, in a bizarre act of snobbery, is exactly where Peter Dutton and Malcolm Turnbull have landed.
Updated
Labor’s shadow education minister, Tanya Plibersek, has written to her counterpart, Simon Birmingham, to ask for funding estimates for what schools would receive under the current arrangements in 2017.
She says that, on the schools estimator website, it gives what the school would receive under the new system, whereas it is important to know what they would receive if the system stayed as is.
She also wants details of dollar amounts for every one of the 344 schools that lose under the new funding deal.
Updated
It is such a weird day in here. #justsaying
But if the Catholics get a special deal, independents out
Independent schools also telling me they have NOT been offered a one-year delay like Catholics and could dump support if it's special deal https://t.co/o9cUlY7OFy
— Samantha Maiden (@samanthamaiden) June 20, 2017
A possible peace deal: delay of funding formula for Catholic sector
There is a Catholic compromise option floating around the building that involves some sort of delay of the school funding change for the Catholic sector for 12 months, pending a review of the socioeconomic measure that governs funding formulas.
The Catholic sector believe that the model does not properly reflect the Catholic school population.
The government is not confirming it will consider this but that’s what Liberal senator Chris Back and Nick Xenophon wants. Given there is no show without Xenophon (he has three of 12 crossbench votes) and Back makes things even trickier, you could take a bet this option would be in the mix.
Eric Abetz has taken to Facebook but I am not sure it clears much up as far as whether he will cross the floor on school funding.
In resolving education funding, I would prefer a deal with the Catholic system rather than a deal with the Greens.
Mums and dads who with tight household budgets use their after-tax dollars to pay for the non-government school sector, saving their fellow taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars each year. They deserve a fair deal.
Tony Burke is coming up on citizenship and Peter Dutton is coming up on refugee week.
Things are accelerating here as everybody leaves their party room meetings.
From the Labor briefing.
Labor opposing the citizenship bill #auspol
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) June 20, 2017
Derryn Hinch predicts One Nation bombshell
Radio station 3AW is reporting Derryn Hinch has predicted there is a bombshell coming on One Nation that could relate to James Ashby.
Senator Derryn Hinch has told Neil Mitchell there will be a One Nation bombshell dropped today.
He got cagey after that but, reading between the lines, we reckon there’s a fair chance it involves Pauline Hanson’s controversial right-hand man, James Ashby.
“It involves a staffer, not a senator,” he said.
“There will be a bombshell dropped today about One Nation.
Neil: Is James Ashby doing something?
Hinch: Oh … umm … ah … Move on.
Neil: Is that a ‘No comment’?
Hinch: It’s a ‘No comment’. My first ‘No comment’ ever.
Updated
One Nation has told government it will support Gonski 2.0 but not happy about lock in
The One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts has confirmed to Sky News that the party’s whip, Brian Burston, has told the education minister it will support Gonski 2.0.
We like the fact that this proposal from the federal government will reduce spending and make spending fairer. I’ve talked to Senator [Cory] Bernardi and Senator [David] Leyonhjelm and they say the same things. They’re going to move amendments – we’re going to have a close look at them.
We’re also not happy about looking out at 10 years – we can’t commit future governments to doing things right now.”
Although Simon Birmingham prefers the figure that Gonski 2.0 boosts government spending by $18bn over 10 years compared with current spending levels, presumably Roberts is referring to parliamentary budget office modelling for Leyonhjelm that shows that, over 10 years, it cuts funding by $1.2bn compared with regular increases in current legislation.
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The ABC of the Greens' demands
The Coalition party room meeting has begun.
Now that we have some space, let’s recap on what the Greens had asked of the education minister, Simon Birmingham, in return for their support.
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An independent body, as recommended by the original Gonski report, would essentially oversee school funding across the country and provide advice to governments and other authorities. It could audit schools and sectors, monitor funding and spending and review the school resource standard (SRS) – the per student funding levels – and the socioeconomic status measure which currently underlies the SRS.
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More money, to get schools to their target over six years rather than 10 years. This would add $4b to $5b over the decade.
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The states funding should be locked in. The big benefit of what Julia Gillard was trying to do, and did with New South Wales, is to lock in the state’s contribution. The Birmingham deal increases federal funding of independent schools to 80% (feds have historically funded the majority of independent schools) and public schools to 20%. What worries the education unions – legitimately – is that the states will pull back funding, essentially cost shifting to the commonwealth. So the Greens asked for a mechanism to force the states and territories to increase their share of funding to 75% of the SRS within an certain time, to complement the feds 20% contribution and bring all schools up to at least 95% of the SRS.
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More money for the Northern Territory, which would increase the commonwealth contribution to 25% of the SRS rather than the 20%. This is because the feds already fund the NT at 23% of the SRS. Under this clause, the Territory government would only need to contribute 70% of the SRS to get to 95%, rather than the 75%.
All of this has been offered by the government to date.
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The independent (Australian Conservatives) Cory Bernardi is talking to Sky News about Gonski.
He says there is too much money being spent with no accountability and too much getting together between “Labor-lite [Coalition], Labor and the Greens on bad policy”.
He only supports the increase of education funding of $2bn already contained in the forward estimates.
I will not support some bogus pledge to put $18bn over 10 years.
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The head of the immigration department, Mike Pezzullo, has called for other countries to step up to take more refugees.
The immigration boss, Michael Pezzullo, has urged world leaders to increase their refugee intakes and stressed the need to rip apart international people-smuggling rings “piece by piece”.
Australia will boost its annual refugee intake to 18,750 in 2018-19 and is ranked third behind the US and Canada in terms of refugees resettled through the UNHCR.
The secretary of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection said Australia was showing strong leadership on the issue and other countries needed to step up.
“Unless countries are willing to put those sorts of numbers and more on the table, people will take the boats, people will seek the services of smugglers and traffickers,” Pezzullo told the Crawford Australian leadership forum in Canberra on Monday evening.
“But that is to be avoided – almost as a moral imperative – at all costs.”
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Scott Morrison told the ABC he was confident the Gonski reforms would go through the parliament.
Students have got to come before unions. Students have got to come before everything when it comes to this debate.
Those with us yesterday will remember the government dominated Senate committee recommended a two-year review into the bank levy, which passed parliament last night. It also made some recommendations about checking the mechanics of how it works with regard to double taxation and suggested a power for the treasurer to stop the tax in case a major bank slips into dire straits. In some parallel universe.
No there is no need to do any of those things. The bank levy has been legislated as I said it would be an it comes into effect on the first of July.
He said the other thing coming into effect is the diverted profits tax. That means on 1 July the only ones paying more tax are the big banks and big multinational companies.
(My, how the political circle has turned.)
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Eric Abetz threatens on Gonski 2.0 for Catholic sector
Overnight senator Eric Abetz is making vaguely threatening noises on any sort of Gonski schools compromise. Compromise = bad. Sharri Markson and Kylar Loussikian from the Tele:
“I hope they haven’t done a dirty deal with the Greens because that would be absolutely horrific,” he said.
When asked whether he would support the government’s legislation in parliament, he declined to commit to a position.
“I’m very concerned about the Catholic sector.
“I just wish there was more concentration on acknowledging the contribution of the mums and dads who pay for their children’s education with their after-tax dollars and not so much about so-called rich schools.”
Given he is a senator, if he drops off, that would mean the government would need 12 votes in support.
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Dutton says Bill Shorten should stare down the left of his party to support his citizenship bill.
He said the English test lifts the level from five to six on of a scale of one to nine.
This is a very different scenario than it was post-world war two with people fleeing war-torn Europe coming to Australian in the late 1940s and 50s where people went directly into manual Labor and had very little interaction with the education system or even broader society. People kept within their own communities.
In the 21st century, there is a lot of assistance available online and the reality is that people do better across their working life if they have better English language skills.
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Peter Dutton: People will improve their English language skills
The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, is on ABC Radio justifying the new citizenship test, since Labor has decided to reject the requirement for aspiring citizens to reach level six (a university standard) of English.
Asked what problem the government was trying to solve, and how many people would fail to meet that standard now, Dutton said the government doesn’t know how many pass under the current test that would fail the higher standard “because we don’t test for that now”.
Every study demonstrates that people who have greater English capacity, there is the ability for them to get better jobs, do better at school and integrate better into Australian society.
Asked how many people were likely to fail the higher standard, Dutton suggests they’ll swot up and pass:
If people take the opportunities that are available to them, and over the course of the four years they know that at the end this is the language test and this is the requirement to pass, people will improve their skills.
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Sarah Martin and Phoebe Wearne of the West Australian report:
The Australian Education Union has split over the Federal Government’s proposed school funding reforms, with the head of the WA division saying the legislation should be considered if it compels States to meet their funding obligations.
State School Teachers’ Union of WA president Pat Byrne conceded that WA schools would get a better deal under Gonski 2.0 than under the current system, with funding for public schools in the State to increase 6.8 per cent a year over the next decade compared with 4.7 per cent under the status quo.
She said that while she agreed with the position of the AEU to oppose the Bill in “its current form”, it should be considered if an amendment was passed to guarantee States funded 80 per cent of the School Resourcing Standard, with 20 per cent paid by the Commonwealth.
“Obviously we would prefer 6.8 per cent [funding growth], there is no question about that, but whether or not we say we’ll take the short-term gain in exchange for the longer-term disadvantage that is entrenched in the legislation, that is the issue,” Ms Byrne said.
She also said she would be unhappy with the outcome if the legislation was blocked, given that would allow 347 independent and Catholic schools nationally to continue to be overfunded including – in WA – Christ Church Grammar School, Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Methodist Ladies’ College and Santa Maria College.
“I am not comfortable with that at all,” Ms Byrne said. “We have been campaigning for a very long time around this issue and that is because we are not comfortable with that.”
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Birmingham not expecting changes in party room despite internal concerns
The education minister, Simon Birmingham, has told a media conference that he is “not anticipating changes in the party room” to the Gonski 2.0 school package.
Although some Coalition MPs have criticised the effect on the Catholic system, including the MP Kevin Andrews and the Western Australian senator Chris Back, the education minister said nobody in the Coalition was arguing for the government to spend greater sums of money.
I am confident that colleagues in the Coalition party room understand that what we are trying to do is address the legacy of Julia Gillard’s unaffordable promises ... [and] put in place a model that is consistent with the Gonski principles.
Birmingham said colleagues like Back speaking up for the Catholic sector wanted them to keep the autonomy to redistribute funding in their systems, and that was preserved by the government proposal.
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Good morning, blogans,
Things are warming up in Canberra and not just because there was no ice on the windscreen this morning.
The bank levy passed the Senate last night with no amendments. That has to be some sort of world record for a new tax. Australians appear united on banks, at least.
Labor’s shadow cabinet met last night. They discussed the immigration minister Peter Dutton’s citizenship bill, which would see permanent residents wait four years instead of one for citizenship applications. It would also see a tougher English-language test, which Labor has characterised as university-level English. Labor is set to reject these two aspects. The Labor frontbencher Linda Burney flagged her concerns on the English test last night on Q&A.
Is that really fair for people who are escaping terrible situations?
We also have our Guardian Essential poll out, which has Labor ahead 52% on the two-party-preferred measure, with the Coalition on 48%.
It also shows some interesting numbers on coal-fired power, as the Coalition continues its discussions on the Finkel report. Katharine Murphy reports:
A concerted push by federal Nationals to build more coal-fired power plants as part of the Turnbull government’s energy policy overhaul has been given the thumbs down by voters, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.
The survey of 1,790 voters found that 64% would prefer new investment in renewable energy sources to meet Australia’s future energy supply needs, while only 18% would prefer new coal-fired power plants.
The survey, taken in the middle of the Coalition’s internal debate over the Finkel review of the national electricity market, also found that a clear majority of voters, 75%, would support a clean energy target if it didn’t increase power prices.
Forty-one per cent would support the reform if the price rise was limited to 5%.
And we are still Waiting for Gonski.
The Greens are split on the decision, even though the education minister, Simon Birmingham, is throwing more money – reportedly $5bn more – at the Greens, with consideration for the independent school funding body to take the politics out of education. This was another recommendation of the Gonski report and was requested by the Greens. The problem is, the Australian Education Union does not want to take the politics out of school funding, because it has proved such a potent weapon with which to beat the Coalition. It is threatening to also campaign against the Greens. The AEU might need to rewrite its campaign to I Couldn’t Give a Gonski.
Parts of the Catholic education sector are also threatening to haunt the Coalition all the way up to the next election. The Catholic Education Commission senior executive reportedly told Birmingham:
You will wear this like an albatross around your neck until the day of the next election.
You know things are getting tough when educators start quoting The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Asked if he was worried about the threat on ABC brekkie, Birmingham said:
Well, we want to do what is right, Virginia.
Parliament starts at midday after party-room meetings this morning. The Coalition will be discussing Gonski 2.0. The Abbott ally Kevin Andrews is cranky about pulling back funding growth for the Catholic sector to a nationwide per-student rate and the outgoing senator Chris Back is threatening to cross the floor. If Back backs out, the Coalition would need 11 votes in the Senate or all but one of the crossbenchers. Or the Greens plus two.
Talk to me in the thread, on the Twits @gabriellechan or on Facebook.
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