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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Gabrielle Chan

Greens do deal with government for a 15% backpacker tax – as it happened

Greens Senators Peter Whish-Wilsonm Richard Di Natale and Janet Rice announce a backpacker tax compromise which drops the 95% superannuation tax for working holidaymakers to 65%.
Greens Senators Peter Whish-Wilson, Richard Di Natale and Janet Rice announce a backpacker tax compromise struck with the Coalition government. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Night-time politics

  • The backpacker bills have moved to the Senate now. While Labor’s Penny Wong is speaking against the Coalition-Greens compromise, the bills are set to pass with 30 Coalition votes and nine Green votes. The bills set the backpacker tax rate at 15% with a 65% superannuation tax rate on departure and $100m towards Landcare. The deal will save the government less than it had planned in the budget and less than the 13% rate would have delivered. But Landcare is the big winner.
  • Richard Di Natale praised it as a good deal, Barnaby Joyce commended the Greens for their good works. Malcolm Turnbull praised the Greens, One Nation and Nick Xenophon for their good works. And we all shuffled off into a parallel universe.
  • And the backpacker tax, in its various iterations, took up most of the day.
  • At the beginning of the day, protestors hit the parliament for a second day in a peaceful protest, unfurling a banner on the front of the building. It spurred on the Speaker, Tony Smith, to pass the new security measures through the House.

Thanks for everything, readers, to the brains trust Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp, Gareth Hutchens and Mike Bowers.

See you next year – barring blow-ups – and Merry Christmas.

Good night.

Updated

Now the backpacker superannuation tax rate bill has passed the lower house at a rate of 65%.

The two backpacker bills will now return to the Senate, amended and are expected to pass the Senate tonight – all things being equal.

Updated

Malcolm Turnbull, pretty pleased, at his press conference on the final day of sitting.
Malcolm Turnbull, pretty pleased, at his press conference on the final day of sitting. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Labor senator is playing for LOLs in the senate. He says he really wants to like Richard Di Natale but he keeps making these deals with the Coalition. He doesn’t blame the Coalition - they want the deal - but the Greens are supposed to be centre left.

A feel like a burnt lover, Mr President.

Updated

Richard Di Natale mentions this tweet and says the Greens are proud to have achieved a better deal.

PM Malcolm Turnbull, the deputy, Barnaby Joyce, and the treasurer, Scott Morrison.
PM Malcolm Turnbull, the deputy, Barnaby Joyce, and the treasurer, Scott Morrison. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Updated

Penny Wong is teasing Liberal senater Jonathon Duniam and senator Nick McKim – both from Tasmania and not overly fond of each other.

We could senator Duniam and senator McKim in a picture together maybe with a love heart around it – brothers in arms.

Richard Di Natale supports the change in hours to get the backpacker tax bills through.

Updated

George Brandis accuses Labor of delaying the Senate chamber because they are upset at the deal done on the backpacker tax.

Labor are grumpy, he says.

Penny Wong answers:

It’s probably his last sitting day, so he’s probably feeling a little sensitive.

Updated

The Coalition Senate leader, George Brandis, is now trying to vary the business of the Senate to allow for the backpacker bills.

Updated

Christmas cheer.

Michael McCormack, Dan Tehan and Alan Tudge play up to the cameras .
Michael McCormack, Dan Tehan and Alan Tudge play up to the cameras. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Maybe this isn’t such a good idea...

Michael McCormack, Dan Tehan and Alan Tudge play up to the cameras doing two-thirds of the three wise monkeys.
Michael McCormack, Dan Tehan and Alan Tudge play up to the cameras doing two-thirds of the three wise monkeys. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Updated

On the extra cost of Landcare, Malcolm Turnbull has a newfound love.

It really is a great investment. It supports so many groups across the country, so many volunteer groups, and we’re very pleased to be able to do that. Extremely pleased, actually. And as far as the overall – the deal on the tax – as you’ve heard from the treasurer, this is a saving, but of course it does preserve for all time that 15% rate.

Updated

Dennis Atkin asks: Isn’t it embarrassing to have the party of Black Jack McEwen rescued by inner-city Greens?

Look, I think that, once more, politics is about getting things through and what I think is important for my people, for people in regional areas, is they’re going to get their fruit picked, they are going to get cash coming in, that money is going to go into the towns.

Updated

Scott Morrison: 70% of something is better than 100% of nothing

Scott Morrison is asked: you’ve given up on your savings?

We’ll achieve over 70% of the revenues that were set out in the budget. And in the 45th parliament, it’s about getting things done, and you’ve heard me say often and the prime minister, that 80% of something is better than 100% of nothing. Well, today it’s 70% of something rather than 100% of nothing.

Updated

Thanks Crowey...

BREAKING: Barnaby commends the Greens

Turnbull thanks Richard Di Natale and the Greens for their support and also the continuing support in the Senate of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, and, of course, the Nick Xenophon Team.

Barnaby Joyce redoubles his theme from question time.

Swarmy smile and I know swarmy, I know exactly what I’m saying, I’m not talking about a guru, I’m talking about Urban Dictionary. That swarmy smile, that conceit, that idea that they’re approaching it for just one purpose – to be clever fellas and blow this up...

I commend the Greens, I commend One Nation, I commend the Liberal Democratic party, I commend the work that has been done.

Updated

Meanwhile, Malcolm Turnbull is “getting on with the job” down in his prime ministerial courtyard.

We were lectured in question time by the Labor party, that we should compromise and come to a resolution, and we have done so, and I want to thank our Senate team and in particular senator Cormann for his negotiations with the Greens, in assisting all of us in ensuring that we can come to that resolution. We’ve come to a resolution and what is the Labor party doing? Using their best endeavours now to frustrate it.

Updated

The Senate has passed a motion by senators Rodney Culleton and Jacqui Lambie about the information that was before the Senate when it agreed to refer Culleton’s eligibility to the high court.

Basically, Culleton has fished out one fact that wasn’t before the Senate (that the judge in his larceny case was not able to sentence him to imprisonment because the conviction was in absentia).

The motion notes the fact was not made known by attorney general George Brandis at the time, and asks him to explain why.

It passed 35-28, meaning at least Labor and the Greens agreed.

It’s a very preliminary step in Culleton’s bigger goal for the Senate to tear up the referral to the high court that could see him ejected from the Senate. Although Pauline Hanson and the other One Nation senators supported the referral, Culleton has claimed that Hanson will support him when she has the “full facts”.

But what did they do when Culleton and Lambie put up the motion? All three One Nation senators voted against it. So it doesn’t look like they’ve had any change of heart about referring his eligibility and they’re not impressed by his attempt to relitigate it.
Full support with full facts? Not quite.

Updated

Press conference with Malcolm Turnbull, Barnaby Joyce and Scott Morrison coming up.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the treasurer Scott Morrison.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the treasurer Scott Morrison. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Updated

Joel Fitzgibbon is using the backpackers debate to talk about Joyce’s decision to move the pesticides authority, APVMA.

The agriculture minister, Barnaby Joyce, during question time.
The agriculture minister, Barnaby Joyce, during question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Updated

So the government wins the vote and the debate on the superannuation bill continues with Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon.

Fitzgibbon makes these points:

  • The headline rate is higher so it will still put backpackers off
  • But the total package raises less money for revenue
  • They will put $100m into Landcare, even though the Coalition has removed $300m from Landcare since 2013.

Scott Morrison says the extra $100m for Landcare would be covered in the mid year economic and fiscal outlook on December 19.

Updated

You will be familiar with Opposition’s moving suspension of standing orders to disrupt the House, but in this case, the government – no less the treasurer, Scott Morrison – is moving one. He needs to cut in to business to put the backpacker superannuation tax rate bill at the new level of 65%.

Updated

The House is starting the many tortured procedural votes to get through the backpacker superannuation tax and the headline 15% rate.

Updated

One Nation is upset that it could not clinch the deal.

Tony Burke is baiting the backbench and Tony Abbott, suggesting the former PM would know the implications of the deal just done with the Greens.

Who knows who will be in that particular job at the next election.

Tony Burke is objecting to the government trying to push through the backpacker superannuation tax bill when only one copy was brought into the chamber.

Tony Burke says Scott Morrison has given Richard Di Natale his job.

It never occurred to the treasurer that anyone else would want to look at the legislation ... They have no other chance for their backbenchers to know what their government has signed off on with the Greens.

Updated

Scott Morrison is now introducing the new bill to change the superannuation tax rate for departing backpackers to 65%.

Tony Burke and Labor want copies of the bill so the Speaker, Tony Smith, says there will be copies of the new bill.

We might pause here and have some light conversation.

Bob Katter wants one too.

What? You want me to hand deliver it to you, do you? The bills are on the table, says Speaker Smith.

Updated

The House is doing a series of votes to throw out the Senate’s amendment of a 10.5% backpacker tax and add the Greens amendment.

Updated

The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, speaks to the media after the Greens deal on the backpacker tax.
The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, speaks to the media after the Greens deal on the backpacker tax. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

Let me just get something clear on the backpacker tax deal.

The 15% headline rate and the 65% superannuation rate is broadly the same amount as the Hinch/Culleton/Lambie/Labor rate of 13% and 95% superannuation. Or revenue neutral, as they say in the classics.

BUT:

The spending commitment of an extra $100m to Landcare is ON TOP of the tax deal.

So the Greens deal costs the government more than the Labor deal would have at 13%.

The lower house is debating the backpacker tax now.

As a result of the Greens-Coalition deal, the government has allowed the bill back into the lower house so they can send it back to the Senate.

The lower house needs to deal with it because the Senate amended it to 10.5% last week.

The lower house will get rid of the 10.5% amendment and put the agreed Greens amendments of 15%, 65% superannuation tax on departure and $100m for Landcare.

The House is now voting on the backpacker bill.

Updated

Updated

Richard Di Natale says negotiations only began with the government today.

He was asked about the National Farmers Federation’s position.

I would love to claim credit for the National Farmers’ Federation changing their position. I mean, really in the 21st century an organisation that denies the impact of the climate change when the people who will be most impacted will be people working on the land. The National Farmers’ Federation on this issue were all over the shop. In the end what we have done is brokered an outcome by talking to farmers.

Richard Di Natale:

The important thing here is people right around the country didn’t know whether their businesses were going to be viable. That is what we were facing. We had this ridiculous spectacle brought on by the government before an election, no consultation, blindsiding everybody, including farmers, saying we were going to claw all this money back from backpackers and the agricultural community said, “No, hang on, we need these people, they are vital”.

So what we then saw was the government during an election campaign not have the guts to take a policy to the people, pushing it off to the never never, and then here we are a minute to midnight with the government saying, “No, we are not going to accept 13%”, and we were going to force some of these producers to the wall.

Updated

Greens strike compromise of 15% with cut in superannuation tax rate to 65%

The backpackers tax compromise has been announced by the Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, the treasury spokesman, Peter Whish-Wilson, and the agriculture spokeswoman, Janet Rice.

  • It maintains the headline rate of 15% which is the same as the Pacific islands program.
  • But it drops the backpacker 95% superannuation tax to 65%.
  • The government have also committed to put $100m extra to Landcare.

The change in superannuation rates means the total cost is the same as a 13% headline rate.

We have seen the Greens clean up the mess that is of the government’s own making.

Peter Whish-Wilson says farmers wanted to see some of the money back-paid straight to government via backpackers’ superannuation.

Updated

Bill Shorten is speaking to a matter of public importance:

The government’s year that has harmed Australians.

The Greens are doing a press conference in five minutes on their deal with the government for a 15% backpacker tax.

He says a security overhaul will take place and he thanks the security guards who took part.

The Speaker, Tony Smith, says everyone wants people to have access to the parliament but it is not fair for people to shout down elected representatives and frighten other members of the public, including school children.

Updated

The Speaker is making a statement on the protest yesterday.

He says he made the decision to suspend until protestors were removed because it prevented the business proceeding.

Updated

Note the Greens have been, until now, the most consistent on the backpacker tax. They always plugged for the status quo – which they suggest is zero, given most backpackers were claiming resident status and therefore benefited from a tax-free threshold.

Updated

As the votes continue, Joel Fitzgibbon shouts across the chamber at Barnaby Joyce:

How much will a lamb roast cost if we go to 32.5%?

Tony Burke is successfully shut down by the House.

Joel Fitzgibbon rises to second the motion, yelling:

This is Barnaby Joyce’s greyhound ban.

Pyne gags Fitzgibbon.

Updated

Labor’s Murray Watt has given a valedictory speech on attorney general George Brandis’s behalf, the conceit being that he accepts rumours that Brandis will leave parliament if appointed to a plum job and wants to send him off in style.
The valedictory is a timeline of Brandis highlights:

  • 2004 Called John Howard a “lying rodent”
  • 2006 Awarded Queen’s Counsel, despite having been overlooked by the Bar Association when he last practised as a barrister six years before
  • 2013 Repaid taxpayer expenses he claimed to attend a wedding
  • 2014 Purchased expensive bookshelves
  • 2014 Tried to amend section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act and defended “the right to be a bigot”
  • 2015 Couldn’t explain metadata in Sky News interview
  • 2015 Committed a “criminal offence, wearing that grey jumper, that crime against fashion”
  • 2016 Seeking to control solicitor general’s advice; “stacked the Administrative Appeals Tribunal with Liberal mates”; allegedly misled parliament over consulting the solicitor general (which Brandis denies).

Updated

Now this is a suspension motion.

Fashion police.

Christopher Pyne shields his eyes (from my bright festive coat) as he arrives for question time.
Christopher Pyne shields his eyes (from my bright festive coat) as he arrives for question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

The vote continues, by the way, for the last suspension of standing orders in the last question time for 2016.

Pardon! They are voting on the gags before the suspension motion.

Updated

Bipartisan friendship.

The former member for Maranoa Bruce Scott talks with the Opposition deputy leader, Tanya Plibersek, during question time.
The former member for Maranoa Bruce Scott talks with the Opposition deputy leader, Tanya Plibersek, during question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Tanya Plibersek always gets an invite to the Nats’ Christmas party FYI.

Updated

The Opposition leader, Bill Shorten, and the manager of opposition business, Tony Burke, discuss tactics.
The Opposition leader, Bill Shorten, and the manager of opposition business, Tony Burke, discuss tactics. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Updated

Tony Burke’s motion notes the different backpacker tax rates proposed since the 2015 budget change and that the government has been “unwilling to accept the sensible compromise put forward by the Labor party” and condemns the PM for preferring to hurt rural and regional Australia and the tourism industry with a 32.5% tax rate instead of accepting a sensible compromise.

Updated

Labor has moved a suspension of standing orders on the backpacker tax.

Labor to Scott Morrison: I refer to the treasurer’s claim in question time that a 32.5% backpacker tax was introduced in the 2012 budget. If that is true, why was no revenue raised from backpacker tax in 2013, 2014 or 2015? Isn’t it the real truth that this government introduced a 32.5% backpacker tax in the 2015 budget?

Morrison:

The non-resident tax rate which now applies was set by the member for Lilley and he claimed more than $80bn in revenue in that budget. Now, when this became clear, Mr Speaker, that this is what had transpired, the government sought to give certainty to these arrangements.

Updated

A new Senate inquiry has been established to investigate the problem of employers underpaying or not paying their employees’ compulsory super.

Labor senator Katy Gallagher called for the inquiry. It will be due to report by 22 March 2017.

The underpayment of compulsory super is a huge problem in Australia. A report from the Commonwealth auditor general last year found:

The Australian Tax Office’s internal risk assessment indicates that as many as 11% to 20% of employers could be non-compliant with their super guarantee contributions, and that non-compliance is “endemic”, especially in small businesses and industries where a large number of cash transactions and contracting arrangements occur. Importantly this non-compliance primarily affects lower paid employees and those are most likely to rely on the age pension in later years.

The Senate economics references committee will hold the inquiry.

Updated

Labor to Barnaby Joyce: what will be the consequences for rural and regional Australia of a 32.5% backpacker tax?

Joyce says the hours are counting down before the parliament can fix the backpacker tax:

We have approximately two hours left to do it. Approximately two hours left to do it...we are looking into the heart of the Labor party to say, “Do you honestly believe in the Australian Labor party, the party of shearers, the party of farmers, do you honestly believe that it is morally right that a person from Paris is going to have a tax advantage over Australian workers? Do you honestly believe that? Or have you travelled that far, have you travelled that far from your base, is it that far in the past?

Updated

The NFF continues to mop up.

In reply to Sky’s tweet:

.@David_Speers reports the @NationalFarmers are urging the government to accept Labor’s 13% backpacker tax proposal

Labor to Turnbull: Since being elected PM, the PM has been willing to back down on everything he has ever believed in. Why doesn’t he back down on the backpacker tax and fix this mess before parliament rises today?

Turnbull flicks the question to Scott Morrison.

Morrison notes that former treasurer Wayne Swan changed the tax rates for non-residents in 2012.

He says Swan’s rate lives “on and on”.

Updated

The NFF tweet Turnbull referred to:

Updated

The beard between.

Labor to Turnbull: Is the PM saying the following words were not said by the president of the NFF with in an interview with David Speers. “Do the deal today. Well, look, we don’t want to leave here with 32.5. But I do need to be consistent in this and we’ve always called for 15.” “Speers interrupted, “Yeah, yeah, but if it needs to be 15, just do it.” The president of the NFF, “Do a deal, do a deal.” Is the PM saying that that didn’t happen?

(We are in danger disappearing up our own tax schedules here.)

Turnbull:

What this shows is the utter inability of those opposite to tell the truth. I was talking earlier today about post-truth politics, this is what is called truthiness. It used to be a satirical term used by Stephen Colbert where people say things which are sort of true but not really true ...

Opposition leader is doing is thoroughly misrepresenting the farmers of the union, of course we want a resolution, but this is what the leader said, “The president of the National Farmers’ Federation has called on the government to adopt Labor’s position on the backpacker tax”, and in fact that’s exactly what they’re not doing.

Updated

Senator Kimberley Kitching has asked the attorney general, George Brandis, why the prime minister won’t rule out getting rid of him with a diplomatic or judicial appointment.

Brandis then gets up and accuses the shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, of “crying wolf” over the many times he has called him to resign or criticised his performance.

The only thing Dreyfus’s criticisms lacked was “any relevant facts”, he said, before labelling Dreyfus’s “obsession” with him “icky”.

Brandis then begins attacking Kitching over the referral of her for possible criminal prosecution by the trade union royal commission, and notes that Dreyfus had reportedly threatened to resign if Kitching were made a senator.

Labor’s Penny Wong objects on relevance numerous times, to no avail.
Brandis accuses Kitching of wasting question time with “political gossip and tittle tattle” over reports Alexander Downer is annoyed at rumours Brandis could be posted to London.

Updated

The National Farmers’ Federation has just called me to say they do not support 13%.

I reported on it earlier in the day based on an interview with the NFF president, Fiona Simson, by David Speers of Sky.

This is the transcript of the exchange.

Do the deal that it takes to get the deal done. If 13% is the rate that is going to fly today, well, look, we don’t want to leave here with 32.5%. I need to be consistent in this and I have always called for 15%.

Q: If it needs to be 13, just do it?

Do the deal.

The NFF says the NFF has never supported 13%.

The NFF support 15%.

Updated

Labor to Joyce: Is it seriously the government’s position that it would rather inflict a 32.5% tax on rural and regional Australia rather than accept Labor’s sensible 13% compromise offer?

I want to quote exactly what the National Farmers’ Federation said and then place it clearly before the leader of the Opposition and see if he wishes to correct the record after misleading the House. The National Farmers’ Federation says, and I quote, “to be clear, we continue to support 15% as the best policy outcome”.

Updated

Independent Bob Katter asks energy minister about supporting ethanol in contrast to former National and LNP ministers. Part of the question from Katter:

Minister [John] Anderson rejects biofuelling and now works for an oil and gas company. [Mark] Vaile works for an oil and gas companies. [Ian] McFarlane heads the Resources Council. To quote the AMA, atmospheric health [expert], Professor Carney, more people die from motor vehicle emissions than motor vehicle accidents...Minister, will you consider a health safe, cheap, reliable home-grown fuel supply, biofuels, or are you just another oil puppet?

Frydenberg says the government does not support mandates but is absolutely committed to the biofuels industry.

Labor to Scott Morrison: Last week the Treasurer declared there was no room for compromise on a backpacker tax of 19%. Today the Treasurer stated that 15% was the line in the sand? Is this the Treasurer’s final position, or just his latest? Why doesn’t the Government negotiate with the Senate the same way the PM negotiates with the hard right of his party room, and just give in?

Scott Morrison goes through the history of the backpacker tax and says Labor is playing political games.

Joyce answers a government question on backpackers tax and goes all stream of consciousness.

Joyce yells at Shorten:

He sits there with a Cheshire grin and the Member for Hunter [Joel Fitzgibbon], you are so clever with the damage you’ve done, you’ve so clever with the damage you’ve done. You don’t care about Australian workers, you never have cared about Australian workers, you are so inside the belt way, that is all this is about. You are a disgrace about what has happened today, when you should have shown tomorrow turnaround, show some ticker, get that grin off your face, it is not funny at all. The whole point of what you are doing to the Australian horticultural industry is exactly what you did to the Australian live cattle industry.

Labor to Turnbull: On the backpacker tax, the PM has gone from 0% to 32.5%, then to 19%, then threatened 32.5% again, then to 15%, then threatened 32.5% again and every time he said it was his final offer. When will the PM accept Labor’s sensible compromise of 13%? PM, it’s time to end the chaos.

Turnbull says Bill Shorten is a representative of the foreign workers union.

Foreign backpackers from some of the richest countries in the world pay less tax than Australians, and they even pay less tax than Pacific islanders working here as part of an aid exercise, designed to enable them to remit money to their families in their communities in some of the poorest countries in the world. The Labor party has no principles, it has no consistency, it has no values.

Updated

Labor to Turnbull: Today the President of the National Farmers’ Federation has called on the government to adopt Labor’s position on the backpacker tax, stating, and I quote, “Do the deal today. Do what it takes to get the deal done. Do the deal. Do a deal!” Is the PM seriously going to inflict a 32.5% backpacker tax on rural and regional Australia because he is too arrogant to sign up to Labor’s sensible compromise?

Turnbull describes Labor’s position as “sheer satire”.

Turnbull flicks the question to Barnaby Joyce, who says the government has come further than Labor.

This is the sort of contemptuous approach of the Labor party and they talk about it as if it is all about a number and they say it must be a number, if you’ve moved from 10.5% to 13%. We’ve moved from 32.5% to 19% to 15%, and yet all the time all you do is destroy. You are a wrecker, you want to destroy...

Well, the Australian people are watching you with your swarmy look, your swarmy little press conferences, your smile, it is all just a joke. It doesn’t matter. It is just other people’s jobs and at the heart of this, what is it? What does he stand behind? He stands behind having a worse rate, a worse rate for Australian workers, actually discriminated against.

Updated

Question time is in two minutes.

Senator Derryn Hinch walking to a press conference on the backpacker tax.
Senator Derryn Hinch walking to a press conference on the backpacker tax. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Lunchtime politics

  • The backpacker tax debate limps. There are no landing points as yet. Labor has moved from 10.5% to 13%, as has the Greens, Jacqui Lambie and Rod Culleton. Hinch has moved from 19% to 13% but not 15%. The government is staying at 15%.
  • Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten have given their Christmas speeches. Turnbull shared some touching stories about the way certain people he met through the year had effected him, including the cancer and domestic violence survivors. Shorten ended with an uplifting reflection on the refugee cab driver who saved 11 people on the bus left burning after the terrible attack which killed the bus driver, 29-year-old Manmeet Alisher.
  • Refugee protests have continued for a second day with two people to appear before court after scaling the front of the parliament to hang a sign urging justice for refugees in detention.

This day can’t get sillier.

Backpacker tax rate by numbers

Now that the Greens’ Nick McKim has confirmed they will back the 13% rate, we will have:

  • Labor 25
  • Greens 9
  • Lambie 1
  • Culleton 1
  • Hinch 1
  • 37

And on 15%

  • Coalition 30
  • One Nation 3
  • Leyonhjelm 1
  • NXT 3
  • 37

You can see we are at even stevens, noting that Bob Day is no longer in the Senate.

The other thing to note is unless the government is prepared to bring the amendment to the House and back to the Senate, the opposing parties can do nothing.

Just on the move by the NFF, the government will be furious.

Updated

National Farmers Federation: If 13% is the rate that is going to fly...

Fiona Simson, NFF president told Sky:

Do the deal that it takes to get the deal done. If 13% is the rate that is going to fly today, well look we don’t want to leave here with 32.5%. I need to be consistent in this and I have always called for 15%.

Q: If it needs to be 13, just do it?

Do the deal.

[This post has been amended.]

Updated

Two protestors have been summonsed appear in court after the protests this morning.

Greens moving towards a 13% backpacker tax

The Greens have flagged they will consider a 13% backpacker tax.

Updated

Labor agriculture shadow Joel Fitzgibbon says he has been receiving phone calls from farm representatives all morning all saying while they backed Labor on 10.5% “but if you can get 13%, please let’s just do this”.

But the most significant call was one from Stuart Armitage. Stuart Armitage is the chair of the Queensland Farmers Federation, an arm of the National Farmers Federation, very, very interestingly.

He said, ‘Joel, I’m backing you at 10.5, but, mate, if you can’t get 10.5, can you go 13?’ I thought that was a significant contribution from him.

Fitzgibbon has been critical of the NFF’s role on the backpacker tax, saying he was getting different messages from the peak body to other state and representative bodies.

Updated

Bill Shorten confirms Labor will accept 13% backpacker tax

Bill Shorten:

We are prepared to support a 13% backpacker tax from every dollar earned by backpackers. We think it gets the balance right and I will get Chris to explain more about that in a moment. There is a solution on the table for Malcolm Turnbull. Our message to Malcolm Turnbull is grow up, swallow your pride, accept a solution.

Labor, Hinch, Lambie, Culleton all on 13% backpacker tax

Derryn Hinch is speaking alone on the backpacker tax.

He said the crossbenchers could not come to an agreement on the backpacker tax.

I got into the chamber and realised the 15% could not pass. I just want to get a deal done ... I don’t care what figure ... the figure doesn’t fuss me.

Labor now prepared to go to 13%.

Updated

More of the freedom conversation, widening from Murph to Tim Wilson and cartoonist Fiona Katauskas.

I did not get to this final reflection from Bill Shorten in his Christmas speech.

On the 30th of October this year, in a moment of unthinkable horror, a Brisbane bus driver was set on fire and killed while still behind the wheel.

As the flames spread, the fire trapped 11 of his passengers in the back of the bus – unable to access the front door.

The smoke was getting thicker, panic was setting in.

But a Brisbane cab driver, who’d just happened to pull over for a haircut, came to their aid.

He did what we all hope we would do in that situation but we wonder if we could. Selflessly, heroically – he ran towards the burning bus, kicking in the rear door and helping those 11 frightened people to safety.

That cabbie’s name was Aguek Nyok –just over ten years ago, he came to Australia as a refugee from South Sudan.

When he saw the flames that afternoon, when he ran towards the smoke and the screams …

He didn’t stop to ask where the people on the bus were born.

He didn’t pause to question which god they were praying to for rescue.

He saw his fellow human beings in mortal danger – and he saved their lives.

How lucky are we, that he came to this country.

How lucky are those 11 Australians and their families together this Christmas, that he came to this country.

Aguek was born 13,000 kilometres from where we sit – but on that day he showed us all the spirit of Australia.

The courage, the compassion, the sense of community we revere.

Updated

No comment II.

Quick recap prior to crossbench conference.

The government’s proposal for the backpacker tax is now 15%.

Derryn Hinch, Rod Culleton and Jacqui Lambie are proposing 13% as a compromise between Labor/Lambie’s 10.5% and the government’s 15%.

Rod Culleton, Jacqui Lambie and Derryn Hinch are holding a press conference – in answer to Scott Morrison’s no deal presser earlier.

Updated

No comment.

Updated

The safety fence in question.

Police climbing over the safety fence that is supposed to stop access to the parliamentary roof.
Police climbing over the safety fence that is supposed to stop access to the parliamentary roof. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Police in climbing gear pack up after protestors who hung a sign on the front facade of parliament.
Police in climbing gear pack up after protestors who hung a sign on the front facade of parliament. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Protestors are taken away.

Protesters who climbed into the from facade and hung a protest sign give themselves up to security.
Protesters who climbed into the from facade and hung a protest sign give themselves up to security. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Police are waiting for the protestors.

Police nab the climbing protestors on the roof.
Police nab the climbing protestors on the roof. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Protestors pack up the sign and come down.

Protesters pack up and prepare to climb down.
Protesters pack up and prepare to climb down. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Police negotiate with protestors to pack up.

Police negotiators speak with protestors as they start a second day of action.
Police negotiators speak with protestors as they start a second day of action. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

With all the parliamentary protests, with the PM saying protests in parliament are an interruption of democracy, Katharine Murphy expressed her confusion on Twitter and got a reply from the former freedom commissioner and now Liberal MP Tim Wilson.

Labor is trying to amend the VET bills in the house.

The government is gagging Labor MPs who want to speak on the bill, including Kate Ellis and Anne Aly. That required two votes.

Now the house is moving to the Labor amendments.

In the lower house, Christopher Pyne is gagging Labor on the vocational education and training bills which seek to clean up some of the dodgy training colleges.

The Senate is voting on the criminal code amendment that enables continuing detention for high risk terrorist offenders.

Updated

Scott Morrison advises that growers should withhold 32.5% in tax from backpackers.

The ABC rural reporter Anna Vidot asks: as the 32.5% rate hasn’t come in yet, we’ve been contacted at ABC Rural who says that their bosses are already withholding the 32.5% because there is a lot of confusion out there.

Morrison:

My advice to them is they should, they should withhold at that rate because [backpackers] are non-residents for tax purposes and the compliance programs that will be implemented will be following things up.

In other words, the tax office will chase 32.5% the tax down.

Q: You say the tax rate hasn’t come in yet, so...

Legislating that specifically has not occurred and so the law will default to the common law position, and the common law position is 32.5. That’s what it is right now.

Updated

Scott Morrison is asked how he thinks farmers feel. In the answer, unlike Barnaby Joyce, he gives a nuanced reply that concedes it was a change in the 2015 budget that started this.

Like me, [farmers] will be very disappointed. I will be very disappointed and they will be very disappointed.

Let’s just understand what the 32.5% rate is. The 32.5% rate has not been introduced by the government. The 32.5% rate is the non-resident tax rate which was set by Wayne Swan.

Now, in the ‘15/16 Budget, we brought forward a measure that would have sought to legislate that 417 and 462 visa holders [taxed] at 32.5, the non-resident rate.

In the absence of that legislation...this is what this legislation is all about -then the common law position of backpackers being treated as non-residents refers back to that rate at 32.5 cents.

Updated

Scott Morrison on backpackers tax:

But this is not a game. This is not a game of ping-pong on legislation and tax rates. That’s not how sensible tax rates should be set in this country. We have been willing to engage in the spirit of reasonable compromise. Our position is 15%.

Why not compromise?

Because I think that would frankly make a farce of the whole process – 15% is based on the seasonal worker rate, it is a sensible rate. It has a basis that relates elsewhere in the tax system and that is the least administratively complex way to deal with it, with the agricultural sector, and if people are prepared to vote for it at 19, they could be prepared to vote for it at 15 in order to achieve an outcome. The 13% rate is arbitrary.

Updated

Scott Morrison: No compromise on the backpacker tax

Scott Morrison is speaking now on backpackers tax.

He has met with the crossbenchers last night and this morning.

He has seven but not eight crossbenchers needed to pass the 15% rate.

Updated

In the Senate, all eyes will be on the backpackers tax.

At the moment, the bill is listed for 12.45pm but all things liable to change without notice.

Updated

Scott Morrison has a press conference coming up.

There may be a resolution on the backpackers tax coming up.

Bill Shorten also mentions people he has met, troops serving overseas and firefighters. He mentions Indigenous kids and remembers mourning for the LGBTI people murdered in Orlando.

He also thanks all the parliamentary staff and his family.

Nobody in this chamber needs to be told how hard this job is on our families. Those Saturday night goodbyes, trying to help with the homework from the other side of the country, the netball games, the plays, the concerts you miss, the re-emerging you do when you return from these long parliamentary sittings, and the re-acquaintance with your family. None of our parents or children asked for a parent in public life, but they live with it, they live with us, and we couldn’t do it without them.

Bill Shorten starts by revealing he and Malcolm Turnbull actually get on quite well behind the scenes. He thanks the Speaker and the prime minister.

In fact, I recall one meeting where the prime minister actually asked me if there was some way we could be nicer about each other in public. I said we could swap jobs.

I thought I was pretty agile, really. I did discover there is a little limit to Malcolm’s commitment to innovation. The PM and I actually have more in common than people realise. We’re both married to brilliant women, we’ve both battled the Member for Warringah. We have both grown up wanting to help run the AWU and join the Labor Party.

The prime minister also thanks troops serving overseas, the parliamentary staff who “enable democracy”, his team in Coalition, including Barnaby Joyce, the Nationals and his family.

He also thanks the families of all MPs.

We are the volunteers, but our families are the conscripts and we could not do this job without the support and love of our families. So I urge all honourable members that each time over the summer break that someone asks you to set the table or do the dishes, play another round of backyard cricket, mind kids while the other half heads out for the night, or spend the day with the grandkids, to ensure your ongoing ability to serve in this place, I urge you to comply each time and do so with a very big smile.

Updated

Turnbull mentions Indigenous people he has met and the progress towards constitutional recognition of our First Australians.

There are now five Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the parliament and I want to thank them all, as I know the leader of the opposition does, for their wisdom and support.

And he goes to the usual “let’s all be kinder” message in these speeches.

Perhaps a more realistic goal is to vow to speak more plainly and with more candour to the Australian people. They are weary of the political games, the sense that politicians say one thing and could easily mean another, and that our promises are throw-away lines with a shelf life of a carton of milk. The Oxford dictionary has declared “post-truth” as the international word of the year. Mr Speaker, let’s do all we can to ensure that post-truth politics has no place in Australia. If we promise to be bound by our words, we will be much more careful in choosing them.

Updated

Turnbull talks about Lulu, a young cancer survivor he met while announcing another $20m for the Zero Childhood Cancer Initiative.

I’ve been brought to tears a few times in this job and I admit there was some more that day. I’m wearing Lulu’s bracelet and it reminds me, if I ever need reminding, that what we do here is about the future of our nation, about the future of people like Lulu, our children and grandchildren.

The prime minister says it has been a privilege to meet so many people around the country. And with their stories, he says he hopes it makes him a better leader.

He documents the story of a domestic violence victim whose children were murdered by their father, a woman who was suffering breast cancer, families of MH17 victims.

One day we’re here in the House debating legislation, the next I’m at the Birdsville Hotel on the edge of the Simpson Desert, chatting to locals alongside a wall of well worn Akubras, great company, cold beer, and a curried camel pie. And the next, representing our nation overseas gave me the chance to meet Australians having a go around the world, like Nick and Andy Stone whose new cafe is booming, bringing decent coffee to all New Yorkers.

Updated

Malcolm Turnbull says he has learned the lessons from the elections elsewhere, including Brexit and the US election.

This year saw elections in other countries, too, with Britain’s decision to leave the European Union and the election of Donald Trump in the United States, both leaving pollsters and pundits red-faced. The forces at play in those countries and their political systems are, of course, very different to ours, but we must always be aware of what the public expects from its government, from its parliament, from its leaders. Many people are anxious about change or feel that their leaders are not listening, and we should not dismiss their concerns.

Updated

Malcolm Turnbull begins his Christmas speech.

He notes the election campaign.

Over eight weeks political parties and candidates of every size and persuasion presented their vision for Australia to the people. Mr Harbourside Mansion was surely the epithet of the campaign. Of course, Bill desperately wanted the title for himself, but like all good Socialists he wanted a harbourside mansion paid for by the taxpayer.

He talks about the state of the world, talking about Syria and Iraq.

The campaign was hard-fought, but while our political battles can bebruising, we resolve our differences by casting and counting votes, not with guns and violence, and I know we all take great pride in the way the Australian people peacefully choose their government many I want to thank, Mr Speaker, the electors of Wentworth for reelecting me this year.

Turnbull says the parliament is working:

In their wisdom, the Australian people elected a parliament that requires us to work together to talk, to compromise. The decision is proving to be a very workable one. The 45th parliament is making and passing good legislation for the benefit of all. Since the election, we’ve passed 38 bills, including those that took us to the double dissolution election.

Updated

Labor’s backpacker motion is voted down.

The Labor motion on backpackers currently being voted on:

That the House:

1. Notes that:

a) In the Budget, the government blindsided rural and regional Australia with an internationally uncompetitive 32.5% backpacker tax;

b) The government dropped the rate of the backpacker tax to a still uncompetitive rate of 19%;

c) The government again shifted the rate of the backpacker tax to 15% because of a desperate deal in the Senate;

d) The government’s desperate deal was rejected by the Senate which instead proposed a compromise of 10.5%;

e) The government has refused to accept the Senate’s sensible compromise, threatening to allow the backpacker tax to revert to its original internationally uncompetitive rate of 32.5% which will harm the tourism, hospitality and agricultural industries;

f) Only this morning, the minister for finance said:“The deal that is on the table for the Senate is a 15% rate; if it’s not 15% then it will be 32.5%”;

g) Therefore, calls on the government to end the chaos and deal with the backpacker tax immediately by accepting the sensible compromise offered by the Senate; and

2. Therefore, suspends so much of the standing and sessional orders as would prevent Order of the day No. 3 relating to the Income Tax Rates Amendment (Working Holiday Maker Reform) Bill 2016 being called on immediately.

Updated

Greens democracy spokeswoman Lee Rhiannon has appeared at the WACA protest, praising the activists and bringing them a gift of chocolates.

Asked whether the action, including hanging from the edifice of parliament, is appropriate she said: “It’s a non-violent protest” and “they should be here”.

The problem lies with the human rights abuses, the mental health problems, the anguish. We’re breaking our international obligations … that’s where the laws are being broken.

These people are courageous, they are showing what the parliament should do.

Rhiannon said she only found out about the protest an hour ago, in effect denying any coordination between the Greens and protesters.

Police have now taken a walk around the corner with some of the WACA organisers in fluoro vests, so we may have an update on how the protest will play out in a minute.

Updated

A little bit more from LNP senator James McGrath:

Anthony Albanese has a crack at the “chaotic government” and is shut down.

Now the house is voting that the motion be put. Then they will vote on the substantive motion.

The vote is proceeding in the lower house. Chris Bowen is successfully gagged 75-72.

Agriculture shadow Joel Fitzgibbon gets up to second the backpacker motion and yells into the mike before Pyne gags him:

This is Barnaby Joyce’s greyhound ban.

Barnaby Joyce and Fitzgibbon yell across the chamber at each other and the speaker tells them to shut it. (More politely)

As it turns out, both leaders were in the house for Christmas valedictories and goodwill to all men and women.

Christopher Pyne is gagging Chris Bowen.

Now Chris Bowen is moving a motion – presumably leading to a suspension of standing orders – on the backpackers tax.

Updated

Parliament deals with security first up

Parliament security is the first issue of the day.

Speaker Tony Smith is speaking about plans to improve security around and at parliament house. It will include new perimeter security, CCTV cameras and glassing off certain areas.

Parliament has always been known as the people’s house, says Smith

But he says it has to be a balance to allow for safety.

The world has changed since the original design brief.

Smith says:

  • The changes will not impede or change the way the public enter the building.
  • The public will still be able to access the roof of the building.
  • No one has been able to walk up the grass and over the top of the building for 11 years.

LNP senator James McGrath: Protestors are Kmart Castros – get a job

LNP senator James McGrath is furious at the protestors.

He told Sky’s Kieran Gilbert:

What a bunch of grubs. Parliament is the house for all Australians ... and we have these Kmart Castros out the front its all about them and their views and nobody else ... If they want their views to be heard run for parliament ... they should wake up to themselves and get a job.

Updated

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull ticking off his studio interviews in the press gallery.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull ticking off his studio interviews in the press gallery. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

I promised to bring you some of the commentary on the detail of what passed in the radically amended Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC).

Here is Judith Sloan from the Oz:

Let’s face it, Malcolm Turnbull hasn’t the faintest clue about the rough and tumble of industrial ­relations. His business experience was limited to fancy deal-making and appearing in court rooms.

So allowing himself to get ­involved in negotiating with populist, horse-trading crossbench senators about the details of the bill to re-establish the Australian Building and Construction Commission was a big public policy mistake. But just like the boy who has his heart set on a particular Christmas present, Malcolm really, really wanted the ABCC bill to pass the Senate, and he was prepared to do pretty much anything to get it.

The net effect is an appalling mishmash of inconsistent and ­unworkable provisions that completely undermines any benefits that could flow from the restoration of the ABCC and the associated code for government-funded building projects.

Turnbull was asked about this particular column this morning and he said it was all very well to be an armchair commentator but he was in the biz of getting things done.

Whistleblowers Activists and Citizens Alliance (WACA) spokesman Phil Evans said today’s action “continues the call for urgent action on refugees” including closing offshore detention camps and bringing all refugees and asylum seekers in them to Australia.

Evans confirmed no charges were laid over yesterday’s protest, nor were they given any paperwork banning them from the parliamentary precinct.

Asked about their treatment by security yesterday he said it was “fine ... and pales in comparison to the treatment of people on Manus Island and Nauru” who are being “tortured raped and abused”.

Evans criticised Liberal MPs who turned their backs on the protest yesterday noting “protesters are part of democracy”.

Before I made it to the protest Nationals MP Andrew Broad commented to me in the hallway that protesters would be fined $5,000 if they did the same thing at the MCG.

Updated

Parliament will sit at 9.30am.

Richard di Natale has told Sky News as far as he knows, there is no involvement from Greens MPs and senators in the protests yesterday or today. Though there are reports that Greens senator Nick McKim may move a motion in the Senate congratulating the protestors.

Updated

That Xenophon digit is aimed at Leyonhjelm due to a story by Tory Shepherd of the Adelaide Advertiser.

Here is but a taste:

A NSW Senator has compared South Australia to a stinky fat man who enjoys artificially flavoured cheesy snacks.

In a sign other states are envious of the state for securing promises on shipbuilding and water, Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm said we should be stripped of some of our GST revenue and have our “bleatings” ignored.

“If the South Australia Government was a person, it would be an obese 40-year-old man with awful body odour who lives with his mother, refuses to work, and plays Xbox all day,” Senator Leyonhjelm told parliament on Wednesday.

“He pauses only to demand more Cheezels and iced coffee, or to complain when the lights go out.”

The state’s unemployment woes mean we’re at risk of “becoming one big, barren, candlelit retirement village”, he said, then outlined the concerns of one constituent who was hit by flooding that was exacerbated by environmental water releases in the Murray Darling Basin.

Updated

Meanwhile...

Protesters start a second day of of action on the forecourt of parliament house.
Protesters start a second day of of action on the forecourt of parliament house. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

I’ve spoken to Zianna Fuad one of the organisers. Thursday’s refugee protest at parliament is by the same group as Wednesday’s disruption of question time – that is Whistleblowers Activists and Citizens Alliance (WACA).

There are 13 protesters in the fountain, dyed red to symbolise blood. They are carrying signs singling out the Liberals as “world leaders in cruelty” and Labor for providing “no opposition to cruelty”.

Two professional climbers are hanging from the edifice of parliament with a “Close the bloody camps now #justiceforrefugees” sign. One of the climbers climbed the Melbourne arts spire as part of a similar protest earlier this year.

Police are on scene but there has been no attempt to move the protesters on yet.

Police attend the protest to work out how to remove the sign from the front of parliament.
Police attend the protest to work out how to remove the sign from the front of parliament.
 Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Updated

There are lots of pictures coming now of the protest. Here are some from Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young.

The Greens supported the protestors by the government and Labor have been critical of the protests in the public gallery.

Barnaby Joyce, deputy prime minister and Nationals leader, was critical of the Greens support including Greens leader Richard Di Natale, who hugged protestors yesterday.

Q: What sort of questions do you hope are answered in an investigation that will now ensue?

Did they have any affiliations with any groups? It was obviously organised so under what banner was it organised. I really question the Greens going down and congratulating them. Are you congratulating them for shutting down our nation’s parliament? Have you completely and utterly lost the plot Richard Di Natale? Why would you do that?

Now there is a security investigation of parliament today as more protests ensue.

Mike Bowers is out the front of parliament. There are more protestors outside. They have hung the sign on the building and dyed the fountain red. People are standing in the water with signs.

Malcolm Turnbull: protestors were interrupting democracy

Good morning,

Today, I am feeling lucky. It is the last day and I am almost done. You could say, I might get out scot-free. Because scot-free is the term of the day.

And so it is with the PM, who had rather a turbulent day – punctuated by protestors in the public gallery. They were protesting against the asylum seeker policies on both sides.

Turnbull told Kochie Sunrise they were interrupting democracy.

I wasn’t concerned for my personal safety but I was concerned that the parliament could be in trouble like that. The demonstrators, who rioted in the gallery, were interrupting the people’s house. They were interrupting democracy.

It’s not for me to press charges, Kochie. That is a matter for the police. They let them off scot-free. The security needs to be looked at.

But he baulked at trade minister Steve Ciobo’s musings that perhaps, the public galleries should be glassed off. He was asked if he would look at closing the public gallery.

We should never do that. This is the people’s house ... Our forebears fought very hard over centuries to secure parliamentary democracy to have their elective representatives come together and speak their mind. Interrupting that, is a denial of democracy.

Mind you, he did have a win on the Australian Building Construction Commission (ABCC), celebrated with an exuberant lung-crushing hug from the employment minister Michaelia Cash, caught by Mike Bowers. But commentators are not pleased. I will bring you some of their commentary in a moment.

But he had a loss on the backpacker tax and this morning the National Farmers Federation have described the state of affairs as a disgrace. Derryn Hinch, having voted for 19%, and against 15%, is now proposing a 13% rate.

Turnbull is out doing a lot of interviews this morning. He hopes to have the backpacker tax resolved today but is not prepared to compromise because he says the 15% rate is fair. He notes the rate for Australians – after the tax free threshold – is 19% and the rate for Pacific Island temporary workers is 15%.

Labor want our rich kid from Germany, from Norway to be paying less tax than someone from one of the poorest countries in the world.

I will start with that much breakfast news and crack on with this monster. Talk to me in the thread or on the Twits @gabriellechan or on Facebook.

Updated

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