Day of drama comes to an end
It’s time to call time on what has been a rather extraordinary start to the Senate sitting week. Thanks for sticking with me today. Just to recap on the (many) key events of today:
- James Paterson, a Liberal MP, proposed a new private members bill for same-sex marriage, presenting an alternative to the original Dean Smith bill. The Paterson bill gives far broader rights for people to discriminate against same-sex weddings. Yes campaigners have condemned it as a step backwards and a “licence to discriminate”. Malcolm Turnbull said the original Smith bill was a good place to start. Education minister Simon Birmingham also expressed support for the Smith bill.
- Malcolm Turnbull met with Donald Trump and Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe. Turnbull will dine with Trump later tonight in Manila. Earlier, he met with controversial Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte, and the pair discussed the country’s violent war on drugs.
- Three new senators – Fraser Anning, Jordon Steele-John and Andrew Bartlett – were sworn in. A new Senate president, Scott Ryan, was also voted into the big chair.
- Fraser Anning, within hours of being sworn in as a One Nation senator, either defected from the party or was given the boot. Conflicting accounts emerged from Anning and One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, about his departure from the party. Regardless, he’s now sitting as an independent. At the heart of the dispute appears to be Anning’s employment of former Malcolm Roberts staffers. Anning also blamed Hanson’s chief of staff, James Ashby, for forcing him out of the party.
- The date for the Bennelong byelection was set for 16 December. Liberal candidate John Alexander, who was forced to resign on Saturday, appeared unaware of the date on Monday afternoon. He faces a race against the clock to determine whether he is a British citizen, and have that citizenship renounced, prior to his candidacy.
- An agreement was struck between the government and Labor over the disclosure of politicians’ citizenship status. Members of parliament will need to disclose their citizenship status, including that of their parents and grandparents, by 1 December.
- Question time in the Senate was dominated by an explosive exchange between Greens senator Nick McKim and attorney general George Brandis over Manus Island. McKim said both major parties had blood on their hands. Brandis said McKim’s visit to Manus was designed to foment violence.
I’ll catch up with you again tomorrow, when we’ll do it all again.
Updated
The PM, President @realDonaldTrump and Prime Minister @AbeShinzo at their trilateral meeting today in Manila 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/wrUngWAjPQ
— The PMO (@thepmo) November 13, 2017
Our political editor, Katherine Murphy, was in the Senate to witness the explosive exchange between Greens senator Nick McKim and attorney general George Brandis over Manus Island. She’s written a piece on what proved to be a difficult first question time for the new Senate president, Scott Ryan.
Updated
Marriage equality campaigner, NSW independent MP Alex Greenwich, has slammed the alternative James Paterson same-sex marriage bill as a “licence to discriminate”.
“It seeks to take us back to a time where a shop could put a sign out the front, saying who they would serve and who they wouldn’t serve. This is not what Australians have voted for in this postal survey,” Greenwich told Sky News.
Greenwich said the original bill, proposed by moderate Liberal MP Dean Smith, was robust and reasonable.
“I’m not sure Senator Paterson’s bill has the numbers,” Greenwich said.
“There are a lot of sensible people in our parliament who have been calling out what he is seeking to achieve with this bill, which is take Australia backwards when people have been voting to move Australia forwards,” he said.
Our youngest Australian senator, Jordon Steele-John, 23, has picked quite a day to arrive in parliament. How does the Greens senator sum it up?
“It isn’t every day that you’re sworn in by the governor general and then your first act is to elect the president of the chamber that you’re serving in, but I guess those are the crazy times in which we live,” Steele-John told the ABC.
“I can only describe it as a mess, I arrived here in Canberra last week and since then MPs have been dropping like flies.”
“The young people of Australia are not getting what we need from our parliament. We deserve a new deal.” 23-yo Senator @JordonSteeleJoh pic.twitter.com/TX2ye0rDP6
— ABC News (@abcnews) November 13, 2017
Updated
A transcript of the remarks made by Turnbull, Trump and Abe before their trilateral meeting has just been released.
There were a few interesting exchanges, including this between Trump and Turnbull:
Trump:
We’ve made a lot of big progress on trade. We have deficits with almost everybody. Those deficits are going to be cut very quickly and very substantially.
Turnbull:
Except us. (Laughter.)
Trump:
Except with you. You’re the only one. (Laughter.) And if I check it, I’ll probably find out that was ...
Turnbull:
Oh, no. It’s real.
Trump was also very keen to highlight how much red carpet had been rolled out for him across Japan, China and South Korea.
It was red carpet like nobody, I think, has probably ever received. And that really is a sign of respect, perhaps, for me a little bit, but really for our country. And I’m very proud that.
Hmmm.
Updated
Turnbull on North Korea, same-sex marriage, and citizenship
The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has just spoken in Manila after talks with the Philippines president, Rodrigo Duterte, the US president, Donald Trump, and Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe.
Turnbull said he raised the controversial war on drugs in the Philippines, which has involved extrajudicial and indiscriminate killings.
“We talked about the war on drugs and he talked about the fact that leadership of that campaign has been taken over by the drug enforcement agency and he certainly recognises the concerns that have been raised,” Turnbull said.
North Korea was a key point of discussion at the Asean summit. Turnbull praised China for stepping up its efforts to pressure North Korea.
Trump’s visit to China had been valuable in encouraging a coordinated effort on North Korea.
“We’ve got to make sure we keep the squeeze on North Korea. China has the biggest leverage,” he said.
Turnbull was asked about a range of domestic issues, including news that a second private member’s bill for same-sex marriage had been proposed by Liberal James Paterson. The bill includes a broader right to discriminate against same-sex couples.
“We’ll find out the result on Wednesday ... If it’s yes, we said we’ll facilitate a private member’s bill. It’s a free vote ... We’re going to have a free vote. And if it goes to the Senate, the senators will work out which bill they want to deal with first,” Turnbull said.
Pressed on which bill he would support, Turnbull said the Dean Smith bill would be a good place to start in considering same-sex marriage.
He was asked whether Australia’s parliament looked particularly unruly, given the current citizenship crisis.
“Everyone looks at parliamentary events at any given time and says gosh it’s unruly, and you know what, it’s always been so,” he said.
Updated
Hotels could freely refuse to host a same-sex marriage or reception under an alternative bill proposed by a Liberal MP, James Paterson.
Paterson has just appeared on Sky to discuss his same-sex marriage bill, which he proposed today as an alternative to the private member’s bill of Dean Smith, a moderate.
The bill gives a broader right to freely discriminate against same-sex weddings.
Paterson said he has great respect for Smith, but said Smith’s bill’s religious freedom protections were “too narrow”.
“It doesn’t extend to the congregation ... and it doesn’t extend to people who have the same views, but for secular reasons,” he said.
Paterson, an agnostic, said religious freedom was one of the most important cornerstones of a democracy.
Updated
Malcolm Turnbull is preparing to speak after his meeting with the US president, Donald Trump, and Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe. We’re expecting a press conference in 15 minutes.
I thought this day couldn’t get much stranger. But with Trump involved, who knows?
Updated
John Alexander, who resigned from parliament on Saturday, has revealed he wasn’t aware that a date had been set for the byelection in Bennelong.
Alexander is attempting to win back the safe Liberal seat.
The date was set this morning for 16 December.
That gives Alexander very little time to get formal advice on his citizenship status from the British home office, and renounce any foreign citizenship before he formally nominates.
Alexander, speaking in Sydney, said he remained confident he could renounce any British citizenship in time.
“We hope to hear back from the Home Office within a week. It’s been only a matter of days for others who have gone through this process,” he said.
Asked whether he was aware the date for the Bennelong poll had been announced, he said: “I wasn’t aware of that. I think that’s good, I think the Australian public are really tired of this entire episode.”
Alexander, a former tennis champion, said it was absurd for a person who represented his country in sport to be deemed ineligible for parliament over citizenship.
“It is an absurdity. It defies common sense. as every ounce of my body tells me it defies common sense,” he said.
“But it is the law. We might disagree with the law. The law might need to be changed, I think there’s a general agreement to that.”
He said he resigned once he got to the point “where I couldn’t be certain enough”.
Updated
Updated
The employment minister, Michaelia Cash, is refusing to answer questions on her office’s media tip-off about the raid on the AWU offices, which landed her in hot water in October.
Labor’s Kimberley Kitching has picked up the attack in question time. Kitching asks whether anyone in the prime minister’s office had knowledge of the raid.
“I refer to my previous answer: this is now the subject of an AFP investigation, and given it is an ongoing investigation, it would be inappropriate for me to comment any further,” Cash said.
Updated
Scott Ryan getting a brisk work over in his first #qt
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) November 13, 2017
Senate #qt just rolling points of orders today. Please have some courtesy, says the new president #auspol
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) November 13, 2017
Turnbull and Trump to have private dinner
An update on Malcolm Turnbull’s movement in the Philippines. It now looks as though Turnbull will have a private dinner with the US president, Donald Trump, tonight.
The White House’s press office has just issued an update on Trump’s schedule at the Asean summit in Manila.
It suggests Turnbull and Trump will also have a bilateral meeting this morning, despite earlier suggestions it had been replaced with a trilateral meeting which would include Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe.
Updated
There are some serious fireworks going off in the Senate at the moment over Manus Island, where hundreds of asylum seekers are left stranded in the closed detention centre.
The Greens senator Nick McKim, who was in Manus last week, has launched a ferocious criticism of the attorney-general, George Brandis, and government senators. He’s asked when the government will intervene on Manus, restore the “essentials of life” like water, and bring the men to Australia or a safe third country. When will the government accept New Zealand’s offer to take the men, McKim asked.
“Doesn’t your government’s refusal to accept this offer categorically give the lie to your claims that the detainees are not your responsibility?”
Brandis described McKim’s actions on Manus as “despicable and contemptible”. Brandis said McKim went to Manus with television cameras in tow with the “explicit purpose of fomenting violence”.
That prompted requests from McKim and the Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, for Brandis to withdraw the accusation.
Updated
The resources minister, Matt Canavan, after being saved by the high court, is on his feet in the Senate. He’s asked a dixer on Adani and the Queensland government’s decision to dump its support for a $1bn federal loan for a railway for its Carmichael coalmine.
Canavan is scathing of the decision.
“It was an act of betrayal, Mr President, to the people of Queensland,” he said.
Updated
The former Senate president, Stephen Parry, may have left the building, but his presence is still being felt in the chamber. Labor is using question time to press the government on what it knew of Parry’s dual citizenship woes, and when.
The communications minister, Mitch Fifield, is their main target. Fifield has previously admitted he knew weeks before the high court decision that Parry faced an issue. Fifield made a short speech on the matter earlier today, and is now refusing to offer any further detail.
The attorney-general, George Brandis, returned fire, using a dorothy dixer to attack Labor’s Justine Keay and Susan Lamb, both of whom have citizenship doubts.
Updated
Monty Python is writing the script for Australian politics today.
Officials in Canberra, when updating the Parliament House website to include the office details of new senator Fraser Anning (who only hours ago parted ways with One Nation) have listed the wrong phone number for him.
In the place of where they should have listed the phone number for Fraser’s Queensland electorate office, they’ve put the phone number for new Greens senator Andrew Bartlett.
It means Greens staff working in Bartlett’s Queensland electorate office have been fielding calls all afternoon from journalists wanting to speak to Anning.
“It’s hilarious. That’s one way of putting it,” a Greens staff member said.
Updated
My colleague Nick Evershed has prepared this rather, ah, illuminating graphic on One Nation after the Fraser Anning fiasco.
I’ll leave it here for your viewing pleasure.
Updated
There are reports that Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie will learn whether she is a dual citizen in the next 24 hours.
Lambie sought advice from British authorities last week over her citizenship status. Her father was born in Scotland.
Speculation has been mounting in parliament about her future, and it is understood Lambie has discussed her intentions with others in parliament.
If she’s found to be a dual citizen, it is unclear whether she would resign immediately, or refer herself to the high court.
Updated
Some more wonderful shots from Mike Bowers in the senate this morning. The Greens welcomed two new senators, Jordon Steele-Hope and Andrew Bartlett. Here, Greens leader Richard Di Natale holds court during a fast-paced morning in the upper house.
Fraser Anning denies defecting from One Nation
There’s been yet another twist in the Senate saga of newly minted senator Fraser Anning. Anning was sworn in this morning as a One Nation senator. Within hours, Pauline Hanson claimed that he had defected from the party.
Anning has disputed that version of events. He says he was kicked out of the party without notice.
The employment by Anning of former staff of Malcolm Roberts seems to be at the centre of the dispute.
Anning said he tried to bring his staff into a party room this morning, but was denied. He was then “verbally attacked” in the meeting. The attack was “so vitriolic that I was obliged to simply walk out”.
He had expected to be accompanied by One Nation senators into the Senate chamber for his swearing in, as is usual practice, but that changed at the last moment, he said.
“The next thing I knew, I saw on the TV that I had supposedly become an independent. This was news to me!
“It seems without even contacting me, Pauline has unilaterally kicked me out of her party.
“I have to say that I’m stunned.”
Updated
Cory Bernardi warns there’s “more to come” after a tumultuous day in the Senate. The Australian Conservatives leader escorted Fraser Anning, the former One Nation senator, into the Senate this morning, shortly before Anning quit the party.
What a big morning in Senate...expect more to come later today.
— Cory Bernardi (@corybernardi) November 13, 2017
Pity the poor taxpayer who has lost all confidence in their parliament and their politicians.
There has to be #ABetterWay #auspol @auconservatives
Updated
Back on same-sex marriage for a moment. David Marr has just written this excellent piece on the change of tactics employed by the ‘no’ campaign in its final stages. It’s well worth a read.
Bilateral meeting between Turnbull and Trump called off: reports
We’re just receiving reports that the bilateral meeting between Malcolm Turnbull and Donald Trump has been called off, to be replaced with a trilateral meeting between Trump, Turnbull, and Japanese prime minister, Shinzō Abe. The Australian Financial Review, Channel 9, and Sky News have all reported the bilateral meeting is no longer on the cards.
Trump and Turnbull meeting now a three way with Abe #auspol #asean
— Phillip Coorey (@PhillipCoorey) November 13, 2017
No word on why the meeting between the President and PM had been called off. The two will speak at a three way meeting with Japan’s Abe.
— Chris Uhlmann (@CUhlmann) November 13, 2017
The foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, has just spoken in Queensland on the citizenship disclosure agreement struck with Labor. She accused Bill Shorten of being “utterly devious” on citizenship, seeking to use the crisis to undermine government while protecting Labor MPs.
“For months Mr Shorten has been trying to protect his members of parliament who have serious questions about citizenship, applying one rule to his members and another to everybody else,” Bishop said.
“Mr Shorten has been utterly devious in this issue and has had to be dragged to accepting the Coalition government’s plan to resolve the citizenship issue.”
Bishop said this morning’s poll – showing a fall in support for Malcolm Turnbull as preferred prime minister – was “not surprising”.
“But we have a plan to resolve this issue. We’ve had no support from the Labor party,” she said.
Updated
The communications minister, Mitch Fifield, has given a short speech in the Senate about Stephen Parry’s British citizenship after admitting he knew weeks before the high court decision that Parry faced an issue.
Fifield said he had discussions about citizenship with his colleagues and the “complexities” of foreign citizenship law, and Parry was “no exception”.
He said:
Given the varied and casual nature of these discussions I can’t be definitive about when Parry reflected on his circumstances. It was more than a couple of weeks before the high court decision, but it was not months.”
Fifield said Parry told him he was checking his family records, and he had encouraged Parry to do so. Fifield:
The former senator acknowledged it was the responsibility of each senator and member [to confirm their eligibility] ... The responsibility is individual and personal. It can’t be abrogated, outsourced or transferred. Suggestions that I directed the former senator are wrong.”
Updated
Fraser Anning’s defection from One Nation has given Queensland’s Labor government a boost in its re-election campaign.
Learning the news at the end of her first press conference, the premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, showed her first genuine smile of the day, with Labor fighting a particularly hard battle with One Nation for regional Queensland seats.
“That says it all doesn’t it,” she said, breaking into smiles.
“This is what we saw previously and it could all happen again. If you want chaos, vote for One Nation and Tim Nicholls. If you want stability, you are looking at it.”
Updated
The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull ,is far removed from the drama unfolding in Canberra. He’s at the Association of South East Asian Nations in Manila, where he plans to meet the US president, Donald Trump.
Turnbull has met the Philippines president, Rodrigo Duterte, overnight. The pair discussed the threat of Islamic State in the southern Philippines, where extremists are attempting to establish a caliphate. Australia is providing assistance to the Filipino military in its fight against Isis.
The two leaders are also thought to have discussed Duterte’s controversial war on drugs and intelligence sharing between the two nations. The precise details of what was raised – including whether Turnbull expressed concern about indiscriminate killings occurring in the drugs war – are not yet clear.
Turnbull had met Duterte in Da Nang, Vietnam, at the Apec summit last week.
Updated
Mike Bowers has been in the Senate for this morning’s proceedings. Three new senators were sworn in, and the Senate got a new president. Here’s all the colour from the chamber.
Updated
Citizenship, defections and same-sex marriage dominate
Well, it’s been quite a morning here in Canberra. My head’s spinning. I’m sure yours is too. So let’s take a moment to recap:
- Fraser Anning abandoned the One Nation party within hours of being sworn in. Pauline Hanson apparently refused to allow his staff into a party room meeting this morning, causing further friction between the pair.
- The dates have been set for the Bennelong byelection, where the Liberal MP John Alexander will recontest the seat he won comfortably last year. The poll will be held on 16 December. Labor has pledged to run a candidate in the ethnically diverse seat, and will seek to capitalise on anger over the government’s stalled citizenship plan and preference deals with One Nation interstate.
- The government has struck an agreement with Labor over the disclosure of politicians’ citizenship status. Members of parliament will need to disclose their citizenship status, including that of their parents and grandparents, by 1 December. If they have held other citizenship in the past, they will need to detail what steps have been taken to renounce.
- The former special minister of state, Scott Ryan, has been voted in as the new Senate president, replacing Stephen Parry who was lost amid the citizenship crisis.
- Aside from Anning, two other senators were sworn in: Andrew Bartlett and Jordan Steele-John, both for the Greens. Steele-John, a disability activist, is the youngest senator, at the age of 23.
- Bill Shorten has addressed caucus declaring the party has “nothing to hide” on citizenship.
- The Liberal senator James Paterson has proposed his own private member’s bill on same-sex marriage, offering protections for wide-ranging discrimination against same-sex weddings.
Updated
Liberal MP and long-time same-sex marriage supporter Warren Entsch has blasted Senate colleague James Paterson for his rival same-sex marriage bill.
Entsch told Guardian Australia he was “surprised and disappointed” by the move but conceded Paterson was entitled to put his name to the bill.
Entsch:
“For someone who claims to support same-sex marriage he does seem to have two bob each way. I question his commitment here, that he is seen to be doing the bidding of those opposed to same-sex marriage.”
Entsch suggested that the Australian people are right to be cynical that conservative opponents were now showing a “sudden interest” in marriage equality and proposed a bill winding back anti-discrimination law “at a federal state and territory level for a particular cohort”.
Entsch:
“I’m not sure how comfortable the Australian public will be with this. What about realtors selling properties to a gay couple, or doctors refusing to treat children with gay parents? Where does it end? ... They won’t sit back while we have a debate for three years about what class of citizen we should make the gay community. It won’t stack up.”
Updated
Tony Abbott was on 2GB radio within the past hour talking to host Ray Hadley.
The former prime minister spoke at length about the protesters who assaulted his sister, Christine Forster, as she was trying to enter a Liberal party fundraiser on Friday evening in Redfern, Sydney.
Forster’s jacket was torn violently, she was reportedly spat upon, and she needed police to shield her as protesters made it difficult for her to enter the fundraiser.
Abbott said the protesters must have been living under a rock for the past few months because they mustn’t have realised his sister has been one of the strongest advocates for same-sex marriage, and holds many progressive views.
His parents, who also attended the event, were badly shaken by the experience.
“It’s a real tragedy that people have become so incredibly intolerant as to treat someone like Chris, who is herself a bit of a human rights campaigner, to treat her this way is just outrageous,” he said.
“Chris is certainly no uncritical member of the conservative right. She’s on a different side to myself on the same-sex marriage debate. She’s, I think, on the progressive side, if I might use that term, of the Liberal party, as she’s entitled to be.”
On the citizenship saga, Abbott said it was good to hear that Malcolm Turnbull and the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, had come to an agreement for the new citizenship disclosure regime.
The deal for the upper house means disclosures will happen by 1 December.
Abbott said the agreement was a sign that Turnbull and Shorten realised that the issue was getting out of hand, after Christopher Pyne’s threat at the weekend to start referring Labor MPs to the high court led Labor to threaten to start going nuclear with its own dirt files on at least five more Coalition MPs.
On Monday’s Newspoll – the 23rd poll in a row showing the government trailing Labor – Abbott said he still believed the government could win the next election.
He didn’t take the opportunity to criticise Turnbull, saying lots of factors conspire against every prime minister, making it difficult for them to do their job.
He said Jim Nolan would make a great replacement for Nationals senator Fiona Nash if Hollie Hughes – the next on the ticket after Nash at the 2016 election – is ruled ineligible.
Updated
New One Nation senator abandons party immediately
Fraser Anning, One Nation’s newly sworn-in senator, is leaving the party. He was sworn in about an hour ago as the replacement for Malcolm Roberts.
Anning will sit as an independent. The One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, has issued a statement saying she spoke to Anning this morning, but the talks broke down when she refused Anning’s staff entry into a party room meeting.
“Mr Anning was advised that David Goodridge, Leon Ashby, Richard Howard and Boston White were not welcome to this morning’s party room meeting because of their disloyalty to their former employer and myself,” Hanson said.
Anning said “I know where this is going” and stood up and walked out of the room.
Hanson asked senators Burston and Georgiou to mediate with Anning to find some common ground, but they were told Anning would stand as an independent only minutes before he was sworn into the Senate.
“Before the citizenship cloud hovered over Malcolm Roberts’ head, I had already approached Fraser Anning to contest the seat of Gladstone in the upcoming Queensland state election,” Hanson said. “I was of the view at the time, Fraser would be a solid candidate for that electorate.
“Mr Anning dismissed the request on the grounds that he and his wife were determined to make a permanent move to the United States to join their two daughters and grandchildren, who own a business venture on the west coast.”
Hanson said she had tried to contact Anning while he was overseas, but “those efforts fell on deaf ears”. She was forced to communicate with him through his brother, Harry Anning.
“I indicated to Harry Anning at the time that given the work Malcolm Roberts had achieved as chair of the banking inquiry and his role in challenging climate change, it would be in the federal party’s and Australia’s best interest for Malcolm Roberts to be returned to the Senate,” she said.
“I was disappointed Mr Anning made no attempt to contact me or any One Nation executive member off the back of multiple requests to discuss his future plans.
“Instead he chose to release scathing media releases demanding I pledge my support to him without even meeting or speaking to him.”
Anning was not flanked by One Nation senators when he first entered the Senate to be sworn in this morning. He was instead accompanied by David Leyonhjelm and Cory Bernardi.
Updated
The dates are set for Bennelong
The writs for the byelection in Bennelong have been issued.
The date of the poll will be Saturday 16 December.
Here’s a full rundown of the dates:
- Issue of writ – 13 November
- Close of rolls – 20 November
- Close of nominations – 23 November
- Declaration of nominations – 24 November
- Date of poll – 16 December
- Return of writ on or before – 21 February 2018.
Updated
New details are emerging about the agreement struck between Labor and the Liberals on citizenship disclosure. Labor has won some key concessions, including a requirement to detail the citizenship of grandparents.
We’ve just seen a draft resolution that will be put to the Senate, requiring senators to disclose details of their citizenship no later than 5pm on 1 December.
It requires senators to declare:
- that the senator, at time of nomination, was an Australian citizen
- that the senator is not a citizen of any other country
- the senator’s place and date of birth
- the citizenship held at the time of birth
- the place and date of birth of parents and grandparents
- whether the senator has ever been a citizen of a country or another country, and if so, which countries
- the steps taken to assure that citizenship has not been inherited from a parent or grandparent
- the steps taken to renounce any foreign citizenship
If the senator has been a citizen of another country at any time, they will be required to disclose:
- details and evidence of the date and manner in which the senator’s citizenship of the other country was renounced
- if it has not been renounced by the date of nomination to the Senate, evidence will need to be provided of the steps that have been taken to renounce the citizenship prior to the date of nomination
Senators will need to update the register within 21 days of becoming aware it is no longer accurate.
Updated
Well, all sorts of records are tumbling during this morning’s changing of the guard in the Senate.
First we had the youngest ever senator sworn in, 23-year-old Jordan Steele-John.
Now we have the youngest ever Senate president in Scott Ryan, who is 44.
Thanks to our colleagues in Auspic for these pictures from this morning's proceedings pic.twitter.com/D3omlmRvzj
— Australian Senate (@AuSenate) November 12, 2017
The attorney-general, George Brandis, has spoken glowingly of Ryan, calling him a friend, a fellow “classical liberal”, a protege of Peter Costello, and a strong believer in the role of institutions in Australian democracy.
Fortuitously, he’s apparently also an expert in the constitution and constitutional law, a valued skill given the current citizenship quagmire.
“We trust that you will continue to be Senate president for many years, if not decades to come,” Brandis said.
Brandis also spoke of the departure of the former president, Stephen Parry, who was forced to depart during the citizenship scandal.
The controversy surrounding Parry’s departure should not reflect on his work as president, Brandis said.
“The fact senator Parry is no longer with us is a cause of regret to the many of us who were his friends, and I wish to take the occasion to thank senator Parry for what he did for this institution.”
Updated
Citizenship disclosure deal
While the Senate is holding a ballot for the new president, the government has come to terms with the ALP on the new citizenship disclosure regime.
The deal for the upper house means disclosures will happen by December 1.
I’ll bring you more particulars as they come to hand.
Updated
We’ve just got confirmation that Liberal Scott Ryan has been voted the new president of the Senate, easily defeating the only other candidate, Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson. The vote was 53 to Ryan and 11 to Whish-Wilson.
Bizarrely, one senator managed to lodge an invalid vote.
Ryan’s election makes him the 25th Senate president.
Ryan has just briefly addressed the Senate.
“I do emphasise: I’m now your servant, I do now represent all senators,” he said.
Updated
The Liberal senator James Paterson has told Guardian Australia he will seek a meeting with Dean Smith to discuss the rival conservative same-sex marriage bill Paterson released on Monday that winds back discrimination law protections of same-sex weddings.
Paterson said he wanted to talk about a “shared path forward” and that he would prefer the Coalition party room to discuss marriage bills before any “material steps” are taken in parliament.
In the event of a yes vote, Smith has committed to introduce his marriage bill on Thursday so it sounds like Paterson wants Smith to hold off (or at least to prevent a vote) before the party room next meets in two weeks.
The deputy Labor leader, Tanya Plibersek, told Radio National the Paterson bill was “one more delaying tactic from the people that brought you the $122m waste of money postal survey”.
But Paterson insists his efforts are not directed at delay. In the event of a yes vote parliament should legislate same-sex marriage “before Christmas, with additional sitting weeks if necessary”, he said.
Updated
Arise president Ryan
Liberal Scott Ryan will be the new president of the Senate after the departure of Stephen Parry courtesy of the citizenship imbroglio.
Ryan, who was special minister of state before this appointment, is expected be elected to the post shortly.
The Greens are also putting up a candidate for the position, Tasmanian Peter Whish-Wilson.
It’s been busy in the chamber already this morning. Three new senators have been sworn in by the governor-general: One Nation’s Fraser Anning, and Greens Jordan Steele-John and Andrew Bartlett.
Updated
Disclosure deal or no deal
Folks following the citizenship debacle over recent weeks will know that the major parties have been haggling in unseemly fashion over a new disclosure system to ensure parliamentarians comply with the eligibility requirements of the constitution.
A subset of this haggling has been legal advices at 20 paces, which is connected to threats at various times that various people will be referred to the high court outside the normal conventions where the parliament refers by consensus, rather than on partisan interests.
Over the weekend, the government made various threats about referring Labor people to the high court, perhaps forgetting momentarily that it lacks the numbers in the lower house to do anything at all without the support of one crossbencher.
As a prelude to the tough talk, the government produced an opinion from David Bennett QC that three MPs – the NXT’s Rebekha Sharkie, and Labor’s Justine Keay and Susan Lamb – weren’t eligible to sit in parliament because they were British citizens when they nominated.
Today Labor has produced a contrary opinion from Peter Hanks QC. It says: “On the factual assumptions made by Mr Bennett QC, which are incomplete, there is no basis, consistent with Re Canavan, for any argument that Justine Keay, Susan Lamb or Rebekha Sharkie are incapable of being chose or of sitting as a ... member of the House of Representatives under s 44(1) of the constitution.”
The Hanks opinion says all three lodged a declaration of renunciation of British citizenship with the relevant UK authority before submitting their nominations.
Labor has been relying on the argument that its folks took reasonable steps to fix up the dual citizenships, where as various government MPs took no steps.
The duelling legal advices rather underscore the basic layman’s point that each position is arguable, and probably the best way to resolve the standoff is to put a number of people before the high court and let the good justices sort it out.
But perhaps that’s just me.
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One Nation will refuse to pass legislation over citizenship woes
One Nation has declared it will not vote on contentious legislation until the citizenship status of everyone in parliament is known. That, obviously, would include the same-sex marriage bill.
@PaulineHansonOz and sarahinthesen8 debate the dual citizenship crisis as Senator Hanson says she won't pass legislation due to the crisis. pic.twitter.com/pJlJvvib22
— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) November 12, 2017
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Bill Shorten addresses caucus, declaring Labor has 'nothing to hide'
The opposition leader, Bill Shorten ,has just addressed the Labor caucus, declaring the party has “nothing to hide” on citizenship. Shorten said Labor had done its homework on the eligibility of its members and had legal advice that two in-doubt members, Justine Keay and Susan Lamb, were safe.
“I do not doubt the extent of the loss of faith of the Australian people in the government and through the government’s ineptitude in the parliament,” he said.
“We are prepared to work with the government to resolve this crisis and we are prepared to do this in a timely matter which restores people’s confidence.”
Labor also rallied the troops ahead of the byelection in Bennelong, while conceding that the opposition would have a tough time overturning the Liberal margin of almost 10%.
He signalled Labor would again pressure the employment minister, Michaelia Cash, over her office’s tip-off to media about a raid on the Australian Workers Union offices.
“We do need to find out what she knew, we find out when she knew it and we need to find out when she told Malcolm Turnbull,” he said.
“This is a minister who for years has traded out and dined out on lecturing UnionsACT [on] transparency and accountability.”
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A bit earlier this morning the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, conceded what has been painfully obvious to you, me and anyone else with a fleeting interest in politics: it’s been a tough few weeks for the government.
“We’ve had a difficult couple of weeks, there’s no kidding ourselves, and it’s a difficult position for the government,” he told the ABC.
You’re not wrong, Mathias. But the finance minister sees light on the horizon.
The byelection in New England, where the Nationals are in a strong position, is less than three weeks away.
There is a chance the other vote in Bennelong could be resolved before Christmas. In normal circumstances both seats would be won back by the government. But I don’t know too many people who’d use “normal” to describe the state of our current parliament.
Labor is running a candidate in Bennelong, and was already out on the hustings on Sunday, trying to capitalise on the electorate’s increasing ethnic diversity. It warned of the impact of the government’s stalled citizenship changes, which would introduce a more onerous English language test, and of the potential for a Liberal-One Nation preference deal.
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There’s a lot happening in the Senate later this morning.
The governor-general, General Sir Peter Cosgrove, is expected to attend parliament to swear in three new, replacement senators.
They include West Australian Greens senator Jordon Steele-John, a disability rights advocate who will become Australia’s youngest ever senator, aged 23. He will replace Greens senator Scott Ludlam, the first senator to be caught up in the citizenship scandal.
The other two are Andrew Bartlett, for the Greens, and One Nation’s Fraser Anning.
Once the senators are sworn in, the Senate will elect a new president.
The successful candidate will take the chair, proceedings will be suspended for a short time, and the new Senate will be presented to the governor-general.
A reminder that only the Senate is sitting this week.
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Back to citizenship, temporarily. Doubts exist over two Labor MPs, Justine Keay and Susan Lamb, and NXT’s Rebekha Sharkie. Turnbull has accused Labor of running a protection racket for them.
On Sunday, Labor threatened to “go nuclear” if the government attempted to refer its MPs to the high court. It pointed to doubts over Liberal MPs Julia Banks, Nola Marino and or Alex Hawke.
Labor has now released legal advice showing that Keay, Lamb and Sharkie are not in danger.
Liberal MP Angus Taylor dismissed that legal opinion on Monday.
“The decision that matters is the decision of the high court. Bill Shorten has simply been hiding dual citizens in the basement,” Taylor told Sky News.
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I mentioned earlier that a new bill on same-sex marriage has been proposed by James Paterson in the lead-up to the release of the poll survey results on Wednesday. My colleague Paul Karp has written a piece on the contents of the Paterson bill, which allows for wide-ranging discrimination against same-sex weddings. This morning the deputy opposition leader, Tanya Plibersek, described Paterson as a “frontman” for conservatives.
The education minister, Simon Birmingham, has just said he will support the original bill put forward by a moderate, Dean Smith. Birmingham has warned against introducing “other forms of discrimination” if same-sex marriage is introduced.
“I remain of the belief that Dean Smith’s bill is the appropriate and logical starting point for any debate,” he told Sky News. “James Paterson or any other member or senator is absolutely free then to bring to the parliament any amendments that they so choose.”
Birmingham also said the issue ought to be dealt with quickly and decisively if the survey returns a yes result.
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Good morning and welcome
Welcome to another week in parliament, blog fans. It’s Christopher Knaus here filling in for Amy Remeikis, who is up in Queensland on the campaign trail in that state’s election. I’ll be carrying you through what is expected to be an intense week for the government.
Malcolm Turnbull, fresh from losing the government’s majority, wakes up today to find a Newspoll showing a significant drop in his popularity. He is down five points in the preferred prime minister stakes, narrowing the gap between him and Bill Shorten to just two points.
The citizenship cloud continues to hang over parliament. Three replacement senators are expected to be sworn in this morning after they were declared elected by order of the high court. A new Senate president will also be announced to replace Stephen Parry, who was forced out of parliament this month.
This all comes days out from the release of results from the same-sex marriage postal survey. Those results will be announced on Wednesday morning. Already a second private member’s bill is being proposed by the Liberal senator James Paterson as an alternative to the bill proposed by a moderate, Dean Smith. The draft of Paterson’s bill has been released. It is designed to beef up protections on freedom of speech and allow a limited form of conscientious objection.
So it’s set to be quite a day. Strap yourselves in.
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