Later, good people of Team Politics Live
Right well that’s enough. Your company has been utterly delightful, but now I need a glass of wine and some ugg boots.
Thanks so much to Captain Mike Bowers and to Captain Daniel Hurst for their contributions to Team Politics Live today. Bless my partners in blogue crimes.
Let’s recap:
- Today started with Tony Abbott carving up funding for counter terrorism, and emphasising this was a crackdown on terror, not a repudiation of Muslims.
- It moved to Clive Palmer resolving, emphatically by Clive standards, that he would kill the GP co-payment.
- It then moved to Clive apologising to the Chinese ambassador for insulting the Chinese government on national television last week.
- Then the day moved to Labor beating up on Joe Hockey over his various undeniably imprecise public statements since the budget about the content of the budget.
- For Joe Hockey, the day then moved to the publication of a new poll which showed that people regard him a less proficient treasurer than the man he often takes great pleasure in laughing at, Wayne Swan.
- It should be noted, probably, at this point that two polls continued to show Labor in an election-winning position more or less – but there was a flicker of light for the Coalition in today’s Newspoll. That survey showed voters supported looming reforms on foreign fighters despite having no detail whatsoever as to the content of those reforms. In politics, I think that’s called living the dream.
That’s your main points. Nighty night. Let’s gather and do it all again tomorrow.
Updated
Just before we wrap for the night I must acknowledge that the education minister, Christopher Pyne, has joined the rush to complete the ice bucket challenge. If you’d like to witness Pyne cop it sweet for a worthy cause there is a very homemade video on his Facebook page. I’d hoped we might be able to rustle up our our version of the ice bucket video for people to share this evening but we’ve run out of time. Pyne has tagged Anthony Albanese, Sarah Hanson-Young and Steve Marshall as next cabs off the rank.
Updated
Bullock says he’s a man of faith. He suggests Labor would be better rejecting the flamboyance of progressivism and pitching itself politically more in line with his own world view. He rounds out with a shout out to his wife who persists in the notion that he possesses intelligence beyond his true capability. This is love, presumably, Bullock notes, before noting he loves her back.
Less cookie cutter Catholic right. More mecurial. Interesting entrance from this character.
Bullock notes the trade union movement created the Labor party. The Labor party, he says, is our party and can only remain such while the unions retain significant influence within it.
He intends to be a good soldier. He will abide by caucus decisions, except on matters of conscience. Bullock’s pro life, and he’s opposed to gay marriage. Bullock would like to widen conscience matters. But as a substitute he’ll express personal views. Now there’s a little frolic against political correctness. The PC brigade like to talk about tolerance, but they don’t always display it, is the new Senator’s conclusion. Bullock says he won’t replay the circumstances around his preselection. It would be an indulgence. I suspect we will get a little replay.
Ah yes, here it is. He says he didn’t expect to be here. There was a heart attack, a few years ago. Bullock says he came to politics because he was concerned Labor would not have senate representation. He prayed. Bullock says he was sorry that the woman he is replacing, Louise Pratt, did not get across the line.
Bullock says he will be standing up for the interests of his state. He isn’t a fan of the centralisation of power in Canberra. Canberra should not meddle in state affairs.
Trusting big brother in Canberra, frightens me.
Order. Order. Now it is time for West Australia’s Joe Bullock. Bullock is another parliamentary representative sent to Canberra by the shop assistant’s union. Bullock has been a shoppie for 37 years.
There is some interest in the chamber about this contribution. There are a couple of wry smiles from across the chamber when Bullock notes that Coalition folks would learn something about the concerns of ordinary people through organising for the shoppies. The government senate leader Eric Abetz looks a tiny little bit thrilled.
Bullock wants to pay tribute to the finest politician he has ever known, Brian Harradine.
A man of unions, a man of faith.
I’m proud to regard him as a friend.
Now we are buried deep in a hymn of praise to the SDA.
Ketter speaks of his concerns about declining public faith in institutions, in this case politics. He thinks that a loss of faith in democracy can lead to flirtations with authoritarianism. This is not a good thing.
He doesn’t have answers. But he does have a kicker for his speech.
Mr president I started my address by quoting JFK and his challenge to change the world. Like you, I am a politician and words and speeches are the tools of our trade.
I may not have changed the world tonight, but for the sake of my children and their generation, I intend to keep trying - one speech at a time.
Ketter’s introduction to politics thus far is ranging back and forth between the social justice teachings of the Catholic Church and trade unionism. We are also covering the fall of communism. And the family.
I believe that the essential work of government is to support Australian families and to ensure that as far as possible families are able to operate effectively. The family is the basic building block in our society and there is research to suggest that well-functioning families yield not only a productivity benefit to the economy but also social benefits such as reduced rates of crime and drug dependency.
It’s fair to say this speech could have been delivered by any member of the Catholic Labor right over the past fifty years. With no disrespect intended to this individual, who I have not yet met, this is a template speech in a very long tradition.
Here are our maidens. First cab off the rank is the new Queensland Labor senator Chris Ketter.
Mr President, John F Kennedy once famously said the only reason to give a speech is to change the world. With that ambit claim, I wish to start on a matter which is less lofty but nevertheless very personal to me – the pronunciation of my surname.
It is Ketter with an ‘e’ not Katter with an ‘a’, with all due respect to the honourable Member for Kennedy. That vowel is very important to me.
Poor Kennedy, so often invoked in vain.
Just some useful background. Ketter is a shoppie – he’s from the right wing, socially conservative shop assistants union.
The Chinese people are never to be insulted
We have a couple of maiden speeches coming up shortly in the Senate, including from Joe Bullock – the Labor man who ran into controversy during the re-run WA Senate election.
I’ll cover those contributions live.
Meanwhile here’s the statement from the Chinese embassy on the Clive Palmer apologia. Summary. We are not amused.
On August 26, Australian MP Clive Palmer sent a letter of apology to the Chinese Ambassador Mr. Ma Zhaoxu, offering a genuine and sincere apology for insulting the Chinese people in a recent media interview.
Ambassador Ma Zhaoxu pointed out that after Mr. Palmer’s media interview, the Chinese government expressed its strong indignation and severe condemnation at Palmer’s insulting remarks. The Chinese community in Australia also strongly protested against his wrong remarks. The Australian government and people from all walks of life also expressed their strong condemnation and emphasized that Palmer’s insulting remarks on China could by no means represent the Australian government and parliament, let alone its people.
Ambassador Ma stressed that the Chinese people are never to be insulted.
Any remarks attacking or slandering China would not gain support and were doomed to failure. The healthy and stable development of China-Australia relations is in the fundamental interests of the two countries and peoples, and cannot be overturned by any individual.
Sky political editor David Speers now has the shadow finance minister Tony Burke in his studio.
Q: How do you make the health budget sustainable?
[Very small pause.] We did various things when we were in government, was Burke’s reply.
Q: Will you increase the Medicare levy?
That’s not something that we are contemplating.
Q: When should the budget return to surplus?
Burke wants to take David back to the global financial crisis.
David, I suspect, just wants to know whether Labor still has an economic policy to run budget surpluses during times of economic growth – like, well, now.
But Burke has to zip.
The health minister Peter Dutton is now on Sky News, trying to keep his chin up on the GP co-payment.
Clive Palmer has chloroformed the co-payment today, in between apologising to the Chinese ambassador for offending .. well .. everyone in China.
If normalcy applies in this example, if people do what they say they will do in other words, GP co-payment looks to be over.
But Dutton is keeping things sunnyside up. That Clive, he’s a bit foxy. They are real nice in private, those PUPs.
The government is absolutely determined to strengthen Medicare. People make statements, they position themselves.
I was diverted by the Hockey metric. Sorry.
Essential’s two party preferred measure hasn’t shifted – Labor is ahead 52% to the Coalition’s 48%.
Newspoll was in the same zone this morning – Labor 51% to the Coalition’s 49%.
Well, the sad news from Essential is Joe Hockey’s afternoon isn’t going to get any better.
The former Labor treasurer Wayne Swan – a fellow Joe Hockey likes very much to sneer at – is polling ahead of him on a somewhat random best treasurer’s measure in this week’s survey.
Of the four options given in the Essential poll question, 30% thought Peter Costello had been Australia’s best treasurer – 23% thought Paul Keating had been the best treasurer.
Wayne Swan polled 8%. Hockey polled 5%.
The saving grace for Hockey is “I don’t know” won.
It polled 35%.
Updated
In honour of Hockey’s Greatest Hits in Question Time, and to amuse you further while I chase the new Essential poll.
Let’s raise the bar.
A few chamber shots from Mr Bowers while I get us going into the afternoon.
Hai Joe. (Hockey’s Greatest Hits was the theme of Question Time. Bill Shorten here looks pleased with his labours. Geddit. No, erase that from your memory.)
Hai Michelle. (Julie Bishop calls on Labor’s Michelle Rowland.)
Bye Pat. (Labor backbencher Pat Conroy was ejected during Question Time, as he very often is.)
Each side having their intra-day fill of we will protect the homeland and Joe Hockey is a total buffoon – the prime minister wisely places further questions on the notice paper.
Matters non-rhetorical to follow. Lots still on the agenda this afternoon. I’ll take stock briefly and be back with you shortly.
The Hockey biography is being brandished by Labor’s Ed Husic. The treasurer notes the biographical tome is selling well, and will likely sell better than a manifesto-style tome produced by Bowen.
First Tuesday book club. Burn.
Some days ..
.. you might not want to walk through this door. It might feel like a chore.
Hockey is thrown a Dorothy Dixer on the mining tax which allows him to consider Labor’s general deficiencies.
Labor is then back to Hockey’s general deficiencies. Shadow families minister Jenny Macklin wants to know about changes to the pension. Are they being legislated before or after the election? (Hockey in August implied nothing was happening on pensions prior to the election. This answer neglected to mention the legisation currently making its way through the parliament.) Hockey acknowledges there is legislation making its way through the parliament.
And of course we have moved on to poor people not driving their cars somehow meaning a regressive tax is actually a progressive tax. That question is from Shorten. Do poor people really not drive their cars very much?
Hockey:
Madam Speaker, I dealt with this last week.
Furthermore, she’ll be right is not a policy prescription for a political party, the treasurer adds.
Back to Hockey’s greatest hits. The treasurer is now being reminded about his comparison between the GP co-payment and a couple of middies of beer. (Hockey, on May 15: One of the things that quite astounds me is some people are screaming about $7 co-payment… You can spend just over $3 on a middy of beer, so that’s two middies of beer to go into the doctor.)
Hockey:
It astounds me that the Labor Party is in denial about debt. That’s unfair.
There’s a minor fracas in the public gallery. A visitor has let out a loud whistle in the chamber, apparently directed at Madam Speaker. He’s refusing to be ejected.
Labor is back to Joe Hockey. Bowen wants to know whether a co-payment is a tax by another name.
Madam Speaker is bemused. Bronwyn Bishop notes this is a strange question, and a very broad question.
On May 13, Hockey agreed with the proposition that a co-payment, a levy and a tax are all taxes by any other name.
Not today though. He’s powering on to the contribution we all must make in order to live within our means.
Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt wants to know if the Coalition is already enaged in mission creep in Iraq. He’d like to know if the prime minister will bring the matter of Australian military involvement in overseas conflicts to the parliament for a vote.
Abbott notes this is a serious issue, and the question should be treated with respect. Abbott says the government will not commit forces in Iraq without first consulting Cabinet, and then consulting the opposition.
Not the parliament in other words. That’s obviously a bridge too far.
The foreign minister Julie Bishop gets her security Dorothy Dixer.
She notes Australia’s work with the United States to bring the issue of domestic threats posed by foreign fighters to the UN next month. (This was announced during the recent AUSMIN talks in Sydney.) Bishop notes she spoken to the US secretary of state, John Kerry, today, on this subject.
Updated
The point of the Bowen question was Hockey said on radio in April that his electorate of north Sydney had one of the highest bulk billing rates in the country.
It doesn’t, actually.
Labor is back to Hockey. Does your electorate of north Sydney have one of the highest bulk billing rates in the country, the shadow treasurer Chris Bowen wants to know?
Hockey:
At various times it has been high. It’s not high at the moment.
Why is that funny?
The condolence debate has been sent to the Federation Chamber.
Labor has opened the batting for Question Time with Joe Hockey. Shorten is interested in his precise knowledge of how the GP co-payment works. Hockey refers Shorten to the budget papers.
The Coalition riposte to this, is of course, national security. The prime minister gets a Dorothy Dixer on the national security threats.
Q: What measures is the government putting in place to combat foreign fighters and keep Australia safe?
Abbott:
I can assure the member that the safety of the community will always be the first priority of government. It has been the first priority of all governments of political persuasions. It will certainly be the first priority of this government. I think all Australians, I’m sure every member of this House, has watched events unfolding in northern Iraq and eastern sir pages of our newspapers beheadings, crucifixions and mass executions of innocent people.
The Labor leader Bill Shorten is also making his contribution in the condolence motion. In the course of his remarks, there’s a very strong hint from Shorten that Labor will support the government if the government decides ultimately not to invite the Russian president to the G20 meeting.
Question time
Yo ho, here we go. Question time today is opening on a note of solemnity – first up is a condolence motion on the Ukraine plane tragedy.
The prime minister is outlining the sequence of events, the specifics of the atrocity, and the actions the government took in the aftermath of the tragedy. He says the first Australian victims are only this week coming home to their families. Abbott says a memorial will be erected in the parliamentary garden to honour the victims.
We will never, ever, forget them.
Updated
As well as partyroom angst on GP co-payments and the RDA backdown, Fairfax reports there was also a smackdown of Liberal senator Ian MacDonald – who has transformed himself into something of an angsty rent-a-quote on various issues.
According to the snippet, Abbott was late to the party room. Macdonald chastised him for being late. The colleagues chatised Macdonald for being an angsty rent-a-quote.
Then the bell rang for recess.
The shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus has pulled on the quickie pre-Question Time media conference. Dreyfus says he is delighted the government has reinstated funds to combat radicalisation through its counter-terrorism funding announcement today – given the Coalition cut these programs on winning office.
Today’s announcement, he says, is just the latest ..
.. embarrassing backflip on counter terrorism.
Dreyfus is listing Coalition security bungles. Allowing a convicted terrorist to leave the country on his brother’s passport. Allowing another person of interest to get as far as Dubai. Forgetting to reappoint the head of the overseas spy agency Asis for five days. The Labor man is asked whether he will support the government’s terror package. Dreyfus says Labor will not give the Coalition a blank cheque. He notes there are important legal principles at stake, as well as security questions. These things need to be balanced is the argument.
Updated
Just to ensure that nobody misses his remark from earlier today – it is, after all, in competition in the news cycle with his apology to the Chinese – Clive Palmer has just made a statement to parliament about the GP copayment.
It is o-v-e-r.
Well the $7 one anyhow.
Captain Clive:
As far as the Palmer United Party is concerned, the $7 GP co-payment is history. There is zero chance of the Palmer United Party supporting it in the Senate.
"It only takes one person to engage in a violent terrorist act"
The quote in the heading is what the prime minister told his Coalition partyroom colleagues this morning, in support of the government’s counter-terrorism package.
Abbott’s message to the colleagues was don’t under-estimate the current threats. The secondary message was we are not targetting Muslims with this package. Abbott noted the overwhelming majority of Muslims in this country were fully subscribed members of Team Australia.
Security dominated this morning’s discussion – although a couple of MPs also had the temerity to point out the GP copayment was not very popular in their electorates; and there was some angst about the prime minister ditching the overhaul of the Racial Discrimination Act without first consulting the partyroom.
On the budget, Abbott said his intention was to work
.. patiently, carefully, courteously and methodically ..
to achieve legislative success. With the first anniversary of the election now in plain sight, Abbott noted the government had enjoyed a pretty good 12 months, because it had worked as a team.
The Nationals leader Warren Truss observed that the national security committee of Cabinet had meet for half of the days of the winter recess. At one point, shortly after the plane tragedy in the Ukraine, it met 17 times in 14 days. Abbott’s decisiveness was noted. If the Australian prime minister hadn’t stood up – then maybe others wouldn’t have.
(Thanks to Daniel Hurst, who attended the debrief just a little while ago.)
Updated
Politics, this lunchtime
While we all eat peanut butter straight from the jar (perhaps that’s just me); while Bob Katter speaks of his personal love of arbitration and his fear of forces at work that will take us back hundreds of years; while my colleagues are down at the debrief after the Coalition’s joint party room meeting – let’s bring the lunchtime summary.
Main points thus far today ..
- The prime minister has allocated some of the funding the government has set aside for counter-terrorism measures – 60-odd million – to policing and community engagement programs.
-
Abbott was at pains to say the government was intending to target terrorism, not any particular community. The anecdote about the Imam who recently called him capitain of Team Australia got another mention. The enemy here is terrorism. It’s not any particular religion. What we are targeting is extremism, not members of any particular community.
- Clive Palmer said never ever on the GP co-payment, and then he said sorry to the Chinese for his outburst last week (which of course raises the question about how ‘never ever’ that co-payment opposition might be .. but let’s not digress, or trip up a man while he’s trying to clambour on down.)
Just a brief moment of housekeeping before we are kidnapped by the afternoon.
In my coverage this morning of the prime minister’s press conference in Melbourne I did mention that Abbott was sounding affirmative about continuing the government funding for the royal commission into child sexual abuse, but I wasn’t quick enough to get the quote.
Here it is.
Abbott:
We certainly support the royal commission’s work. We’ve supported the royal commission from the beginning. Child sexual abuse is an utterly horrific crime – an utterly horrific crime. It does need to be completely eliminated from our community.
The royal commission is a very important part of that and the last thing we want to do is to see the royal commission’s work prematurely curtailed.
(Thank you for indulging my fact tic.)
Back to the first Tuesday book club.
Is the prime minister indulging the time honoured practice of scanning the index for personal mentions?
Now, let there be division bells, and light. The House of Representatives has begun sitting for the day. The House is kicking off on the asset recycling bill. The House and the Senate are in disagreement on this proposal. Labor’s transport spokesman, Anthony Albanese, is speaking in the debate now. (Asset recycling is a Coalition budget initiative which is intended to reward state governments with cash if they privatise their existing publicly owned assets, and invest the proceeds in infrastructure.)
Abbott notes that Paul Kelly stands apart from other political commentators in Canberra because he is generous and perceptive.
Not for Kelly the shallowness which is sometimes the subject matter of so much commentary. He is interested in the big picture, in what really matters, not in just the gossip of the day or of the week.
Interestingly Abbott takes issue with Kelly’s contention that Australia’s political system is in seriously trouble.
The prime minister:
Paul suggests that the relentless negativity of our contemporary conversation, the culture of entitlement that he thinks has sprung up over the last decade or so, means that good government has become difficult, perhaps impossible.
There is no doubt that good government today is harder than ever before, in part because of the 24/7 media cycle which politicians inevitably need to feed.
It is difficult to avoid trivialising what shouldn’t be trivialised.
If this system could produce, in the recent past, two outstanding governments, there is no reason why it can’t in the near future produce other outstanding governments.
It is not the system which is the problem, it is the people who, from time to time, inhabit it.
Abbott then lobs his equivalent of Julia Gillard’s advice that reporters (and their readers) would be best served by not writing crap. The current prime minister doesn’t resort to the vernacular, nor does he blame journalists entirely.
He reasons we must all rise above the system. We must prove Kelly’s contention wrong so that Kelly, himself, can be happy with our collective labours.
Abbott:
Our challenge at every level is to be our best selves.
The challenge for all of us and everyone in this room today is .. to lift ourselves so that we see the system at its best, not the system at its worst.
Updated
Paul, even then, was the sage of Canberra.
That’s the prime minister, Tony Abbott, launching Kelly’s book.
This is the thing about Paul Kelly, you never read a Kelly column, you never have a conversation with Kelly which is not utterly instructive.
I have benefited enormously, not just from Paul’s friendship but from his wisdom.
Abbott says the new Kelly book makes it clear that the tragedy of the last government – the Labor government that is primarily the subject of the new book – was ..
.. much better at politics than government.
It wasn’t able in the end to set the agenda even though it was very good, at least early on, at generating headlines.
While we cool our heels and keep our heads for the book launch, I’ve managed a couple of trips down to the comments thread.
Gerpac has made this contribution – which contains a little bit of snark, which I’ll look through, and a serious point which I’m happy to address.
An observation: is News Ltd , the Tele and the Australian in particular the governments media managers. It appears that the govt. drops all its press announcements through the one media outlet only. Have they now taken over as the Govt. press bureau which allows the government to save money and have their own press office downsized or is this a way for the Govt. to help prop up News Corp.s bottom line , Now that we know how bad their financial position is. By giving them and them alone selective leaks the govt seems to be hoping that they improve their circulation. What do others like the Guardian do ? How do you get news when its so tightly controlled and selectively leaked?
It is quite an interesting phenomenon, this. The government is largely briefing just the News Corp papers for various announcements. This is a fact, not a contention.
In addressing this point, we need to acknowledge first up that not all stories that look like “drops” or briefings are in fact “drops” or briefings. Some of the stories are genuine scoops from the hardworking reporters in the tabloids and at The Australian. They aren’t drops, they are scoops in the truest sense of the word. But some of them are drops.
So why just News? Well, all governments follow different media strategies. The previous Labor government was not inclined to favour individual outlets if it was in briefing mode – briefings (of the sanctioned kind) generally went everywhere, or they were shared around various outlets.
The Abbott government, or more precisely, the prime minister’s office, has thus far favoured News and tried to shut out other outlets it considers unhelpful. Again, that’s a fact, not a contention.
It does this basically for very straight forward reasons: to try and land a clean message into the morning news cycle. It’s very hard to land a clean message into the morning news cycle.
The internal view is a front page story in the tabloids or The Australian moves promptly to the radio airwaves and the breakfast TV programs. This view is demonstrably correct. A lot of material in the first instance runs unfiltered across various news outlets and platforms.
This allows the government to frame a message. For five minutes or so. The shelf life these days is literally, minutes. A lot of the problems faced by the government relate not only to obvious missteps and gaffes but to the limited shelf life of a message.
So with that context and explanation in mind – the question from Gerpac is what do other news outlets do?
Well, we do what we always do. We chase our own information. We speak to the people we have always spoken to and will go on speaking to whether that conforms with the government’s media strategy or not. We have normal transactions with political offices.
It’s somewhat perplexing, the playground politics of ‘access’ or ‘no access’, or ‘limited access’ – people inside the government find these tactics from the prime minister’s office somewhat puzzling, and not necessarily in the government’s best interests – but in truth, it’s not particularly troublesome from our perspective.
Hope that explanation helps.
Before parliament gets underway, the prime minister will launch the new book by The Australian’s editor-at-large Paul Kelly, in the Mural Hall. That’s coming up in around half an hour.
I want to make it 100% clear that I am not secretly reading our live Emmy’s blog while simultaneously doing Politics Live. I therefore cannot explain how I know that Julia Louis-Dreyfus has just won an Emmy for Veep. And I cannot say why I am now posting this clip. It’s like I’m being controlled by a foreign power, the one that makes me the slave of politics tragics, everywhere.
That was then, this is now.
Last week on Q&A Clive Palmer accused the “communist Chinese government” of trying to take over Australia’s ports, and steal Australia’s resources.
I don’t mind standing up against the Chinese bastards and stopping them from doing it.
Roll forward a week.
Captain Clive:
I most sincerely apologise for any insult to Chinese people caused by any of the language I used during my appearnace on the ABC television program Q&A. I regret any hurt or anguish such comments may have caused any party and I look forward to greater understanding for peace and cooperation in the future.
We always must have an open mind; an open mind allows us to put ourselves in the other person’s position and brings greater understanding and less conflict to the world. An open mind at least helps me understand why people think the way they do and how we can avoid traps for better understanding.
In keeping an open mind, I now come to the realisation that what I said on Q&A was an insult to Chinese people everywhere and I wish to assure them they have my most genuine and sincere apology, that I am sorry that I said the things I said on the program.
Clive Palmer resigns as spokesperson for Team Australia pic.twitter.com/h78ChrtixT
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) August 26, 2014
Clive apologises for .. being Clive
Speaking of Captains, Captain Clive (Palmer) has just issued an apology to the Chinese Ambassador for sailing forth on the Q&A program last week. I’ll give you an extract in the next post.
Updated
As an (unidentified) Imam once said .. to a prime minister ..
We are all part of Team Australia and you are our captain.
Updated
Breaking: we will decide the carrots that come here, and the circumstances in which they come
#stopthecarrots
As they said in Spinal Tap ..
Anyhow, back to the root veg. Just in, from the desk of agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce.
International trading partners have been notified that Australia will implement emergency quarantine measures from 20 October this year to protect our carrot and celery industries from an exotic bacterial pathogen that has become widespread in Europe.
The pathogen, ‘Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum’, causes leaf curling, leaf yellowing, stunting and root abnormalities in carrots and celery.
The government’s first priority is to protect our domestic industries from this exotic threat. Australia’s carrot industry is worth more than $190m a year, with celery valued at about $34 million. Our biosecurity system is designed to ensure that Australia’s unparalleled reputation as a producer of clean, green agriculture is maintained.
Yes I know biosecurity is a serious matter. But every day is better with a Spinal Tap reference.
Still in dot joining mode, I’ve already mentioned on the blog this morning that Iraqi diplomats made a low key visit to parliament house late yesterday. Over the last couple of days, reports have appeared in The Australian and today in news.com suggesting that contingency planning is being undertaken by the Australian military in the event things suddenly accelerate in northern Iraq.
Still in the counter terrorism space, The Australian has an interesting scoop this morning which details the consultations the government is having with telcos and ISP’s on the mandatory data retention plan I flagged in the first blog post this morning.
Subscribers to The Australian can read that story here.
If you are not following the counter terrorism issue closely let me spell out the various issues.
There are currently three tranches of legislation in contemplation. The first allows Asio to surveil more computers and whole networks, and cracks down on whistleblowing; the second tranche relates to the prosecution of foreign fighters returning from war zones; and the third concerns a mandatory data retention regime for consumer metadata. Again, if you aren’t following the issue closely metadata is the record of a communication, not the content of the communication.
The Aus story deals with the third tranche, mandatory data retention. The proposal, in principle, would see telos and ISPs required to hang on to the data of their consumers for two years or more. There are discussions underway about how such a scheme would work.
This morning’s report suggests companies would be required to retain records includng the names and addresses of account holders as well as information to trace and identify the source of a communication and the device used.
Mitchell Bingemann:
In a sign the government could be widening its net for what type of data is retained, the paper suggests the scheme should be able to capture “any current or historical supplementary identification” – which it says could include “date of birth, financial, billing and payment information, other transactional information, or contact information”.
Interesting. Obviously the talks are at an early stage, but concete detail has been thin on the ground.
Just the facts, part two. A press release has now arrived providing details of the counter terrorism funding carve up. This was the prime minister’s focal point this morning. (PS: I do love a multi-agency multi-agency disruption group.)
- $13.4m to strengthen community engagement programs in Australia with an emphasis on preventing young Australians from becoming involved with extremist groups;
- $6.2m to establish a new Australian Federal Police Community Diversion and Monitoring Team for returning foreign fighters and those who support them;
- $32.7m for a multi-agency national disruption group to investigate, prosecute and disrupt foreign fighters and their supporters; and
- $11.8m for the Australian Federal Police to bolster its ability to respond to the threat of foreign fighters at home and abroad including local and regional liaison officers and two new investigative teams to help reduce the threat of extremists leaving Australia.
The Senate has now published its official indicative order of business this week.
I posted a provisional timetable yesterday on Politics Live. Interesting to note that quite a few things have fallen off the agenda – including the proposed increase in fuel tax indexation, and the scapping of ARENA.
Here’s the update. As usual, all things liable to change without notice.
26 August 2014
- Australian National Preventive Health Agency (Abolition) Bill 2014
- Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Bilateral Agreement Implementation) Bill 2014
- Health Workforce Australia (Abolition) Bill 2014
- Land Transport Infrastructure Amendment Bill 2014
- Tax Laws Amendment (Research and Development) Bill 2013
27 August 2014
- Business Services Wage Assessment Tool Payment Scheme Bill 2014 and Business Services Wage Assessment Tool Payment Scheme (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2014
- National Health Amendment (Pharmaceutical Benefits) Bill 2014
- Social Security Legislation Amendment (Stronger Penalties for Serious Failures) Bill 2014
- Textile, Clothing and Footwear Investment and Innovation Programs Amendment Bill 2014
28 August 2014
- Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Amendment (Classification Tools and Other Measures) Bill 2014
- Corporations Amendment (Simple Corporate Bonds and Other Measures) Bill 2014
- Energy Efficiency Opportunities (Repeal) Bill 2014
- Meteorology Amendment (Online Advertising) Bill 2014
- Migration Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2014
- Omnibus Repeal Day (Autumn 2014) Bill 2014
Not even 8.30am and there are several things I need to nail down for you but we’ll get there, I promise.
But first of all, one of those only in Canberra moments. Grahame Morris – the dark haired chap in Mike’s picture – once advised John Howard. This morning, Morris was called upon to be Clive’s door opener. Literally.
Palmer found himself locked out. Lucky Morris was there to assist. A practical trade, politics.
On the airwaves, meanwhile, the Labor senate leader Penny Wong is telling ABC radio host Michael Brissenden that Labor is not for turning on the budget measures it objects to.
Good morning, Mike Bowers, hot on the trail of Clive Palmer realness.
The PUPs have gathered in their kennel at the National Press Club, as is their habit in sitting weeks.
There will be no co-payment, not one cent.
(That was Palmer a few moments ago, to Mike.)
Q: Have you told the government?
You can tell them now.
Abbott is sounding positive on giving the royal commission into church abuse the money it needs to complete its work. He says the work of the royal commission should not be curtailed prematurely.
He also backs in his agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce – who yesterday compared budget repair to cancer. That Barnaby is a bit of a wordsmith, Abbott notes. But he’s right, we have to get cracking on budget repair.
Abbott was asked whether he would cut research funding if the higher education package failed to pass. (The education minister Christopher Pyne, suggested this was an option recently.)
The prime minister doesn’t address the question directly – he says the Coalition is modestly reducing government funding for universities but at the same time ..
.. we are liberating – we are liberating our universities to achieve what they can, because if there is one institution that ought to be capable of looking after its own affairs, it is a university, which is by definition a bastion of our best and brightest.
A couple more questions on countering radicalisation at home – then the prime minister zips. A joint party room meeting, and the parliamentary day, awaits in Canberra.
Back to the budget.
Q: Will you raise taxes if you can’t get the savings measures through parliament?
Abbott:
We don’t support raising taxes. We support cutting taxes. We’ve just abolished the carbon tax and that means that every Australian household on average will be $550 a year better off. Our next major initiative before the parliament will be abolishing the mining tax.
Q: So you are contradicting your finance minister there?
I don’t accept the proposition you are putting to me. We will get the budget back under control but the way to get the budget back under control is by sensible savings so that we can get taxes down.
Abbott is asked what the government is doing on Iraq? He says the government will continue to have discussions about what Australia can do as part of the international community.
Tony Abbott visits the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne
The prime minister has found the cameras in East Melbourne. Abbott notes that if we are serious about a better Australia, this is the kind of investment we need to make.
Abbott means medical research, which will of course be funded by the GP copayment.
The prime minister:
It’s a budget for saving, sure but it’s a budget for building as well. It’s a budget for living within our means, but it’s a budget for playing to our strengths and one of the very great strengths of Australia is our top class medical research community.
Enough about that. Having been briefed via The Australian that this was a terror announcement, that’s what the reporters want to know about.
What’s this new money?
Abbott:
We need to understand that this is a very, very big issue and it’s more of an issue today than it was a couple of years ago because of the unfolding disaster in northern Iraq and eastern Syria.
There are at least 60 Australians fighting with the ISIL movement in northern Iraq and eastern Syria. There is about a hundred Australians who are working to facilitate and support the ISIL movement. This is a movement, as we have seen on our TV screens and on the front pages of our newspapers, of utter ferocity. Medieval barbarism – that is how serious and dangerous this movement is.
Because of the Australians who are involved with this movement, what might otherwise be a problem in a far away country, is a problem for us. It is a problem for us.
Obviously we are boosting our security services generally. We have got new laws to ensure that people are coming back from terrorist activity in the Middle East can be arrested and detained.
It’s also important, though, that we engage with the community so that everyone understand that the enemy here is terrorism. It’s not any particular religion.
What we are targeting is extremism, not members of any particular community.
Q: What can you say about the government’s $64m investment in counter terrorism measures?
There is a range of elements to it. And beefed up police work is important, but so is greater engagement with the community. It’s very important that every Australian understand that we are all part of Team Australia and the job of the government is not to target any particular community but to target extremism, to try to monitor people who have been engaged in terrorist activity overseas and this is my constant message.
I have to say I’ve been heartened in recent days by the response that I’ve had from leaders of Australia’s Islamic community. One of them, indeed, at the end of last week’s consultations said quite exuberantly “We are all part of Team Australia and you are our captain”.
Just while I wait for Abbott in Melbourne, and speaking as we were, of security and developments in security policy – interesting that Iraqi diplomats made a visit to parliament house late yesterday.
Both the Cabinet and the national security committee of Cabinet met in Canberra yesterday. My colleague Daniel Hurst asked the prime minister’s office last night why diplomats from Iraq were in the building. As Daniel puts it politely, the prime minister’s office declined to state the purpose of the visit.
Meanwhile the shadow treasurer Chris Bowen has bobbed up on the doors of parliament. He wants to talk about the budget. Bowen notes the government has been so inept in the budget sell that it can’t even lob a consistent threat.
Good morning on a grey Canberra morning – and welcome to Politics Live. After our warm up session yesterday, we are back in the main game today. Parliament is resuming and the prime minister intends to approach the opening this morning in safer political territory.
As we noted yesterday, all the contentious budget measures remain friendless, despite the duchessing of the Senate crossbench over the winter break. So today, news reports suggest the prime minister will be outlining more detail about the funding he’s promised as part of the government’s national security reforms. (Tony Abbott is in East Melbourne as we go live, visiting a cancer centre.)
I say safe political territory based on the Newspoll this morning which suggests a high level of public support for making Australians explain their travel to warzones overseas. Newspoll indicates that 56% of its respondents are strongly in favour of a proposal .. for which there is still no actual detail. (19% are somewhat in favour.) Nit-picky I know, but the government thus far has only given directions about what it wants to do on foreign fighters, not provided actual concrete proposals or legislation.
If Newspoll asked its respondents in this survey about other proposed counter terror measures, the ones with a consumer dimension – like a requirement that communications companies hang on to our private metadata for two years or more just in case Asio or the police or the RSPCA or someone else needs it – it hasn’t told us yet.
While we are on the Newspoll, the measures of party support and support for the two leaders are largely unchanged. Labor is still ahead of the Coalition on the two party preferred measure (Coalition 49, Labor 51) – and Bill Shorten is one fifth of a nose in front of Tony Abbott as preferred prime minister.
If I was inclined to aggressive over simplifications I’d say this poll data tells the government talk about some elements of national security and don’t talk about that budget you can’t yet steer through the parliament. Like I say – I’m not inclined to aggressive over simplifications. I’ll leave them to people who are.
The Politics Live comments thread is wide open for your business. It was wonderful to have so many of you with me yesterday, and I’m certain today will give you a deal of material to chew on. Loud and proud people. Loud and proud.
If you want to talk to me on Twitter you can find me there @murpharoo The man with the lens is @mpbowers
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