Night time politics
- The Turnbull government has pushed back on the hospital overhaul story up hill and down dale after a torrid questioning in Senate estimates. A leak suggested that a taskforce, part funded by government, was considering a hospital funding overhaul which would remove the private health insurance rebate and change the funding structure between state and federal governments. Nonsense, said health minister Greg Hunt. Health department boss Martin Bowles said it was just a policy thinktank group aimed at considering all health policy in the broad, not just government health policy. Labor spent question time on the theme.
- Government spent question time on the theme of the NDIS funding, urging Bill Shorten to back the idea of increasing the Medicare levy to fully fund the scheme. The government maintains this would take care of the scheme and put it in a “locked box”, except that the special NDIS fund has yet to pass the parliament and when it does, there is nothing to stop it moving funds out again.
- Treasury secretary John Fraser said the bank levy would have a negligible effect on interest rates. He also said the bank estimates which suggest the government would raise less than forecast gave him no pause for thought. These things are complex and he stands by the forecasts.
- He also suggested that perhaps Treasury should be giving journalists et al in the budget lock-up iPads and laptops for the duration to stop leaks like the bank levy. Expect that it leaked before the lock-up. The suggestion lasted about two hours.
- Barnaby Joyce has rejected the idea from the Uluru statement that there should be an Indigenous representative body to give advice to parliament on policies effecting Indigenous people. He says it will not get through the referendum process. There are various formulations on this from the Coalition so we will watch the party room meetings tomorrow, including Labor’s meeting. Joyce’s word won’t be the last on this.
- LNP MP George Christensen is making vague warnings of his dislike for the Fair Work Commission’s cut to penalty rates. He wants to amend Labor’s private member’s bill which seeks to draw a line under the cut to ensure it is not passed on. No details on his amendment as yet.
- After defence minister Marise Payne confirmed 30 more Australian troops were being sent to Afghanistan on the request of Nato, independent Andrew Wilkie said a proper national security policy would bring all troops home from there and the Middle East. He says that would really lower the terrorism threat to Australia.
- US Republican senator John McCain visited the parliament and sat on the floor of the chamber during question time. A lot of people wanted to meet him.
Thanks to the brains trust, Gareth Hutchens, Paul Karp and Katharine Murphy. Mike Bowers, love your work.
That’s your lot for the evening.
See you on the morrow.
Good night.
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Just while John McCain is around ...
US Vice President Richard Nixon at the incomplete Australian-American Memorial in Canberra, 1953 pic.twitter.com/CLlq0UZkWz
— Canberra Insider (@CanberraInsider) May 29, 2017
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George Christensen, Dawson LNP MP, has rejected the idea of an Indigenous body to advise the parliament. In an interview with Sky, Christensen says his constituents are not focused on these abstract notions.
We had this. It was called Atsic. It was a demonstrable failure. It was a corrupt organisation and it was an organisation that was effectively elevating one section of society to this special basis where there were special policies in place for them.
He says he would vote no on such a proposition.
He says the move towards reconciliation should not be about further dividing Australians, it should be about uniting Australians.
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The NXT MP Rebekha Sharkie says she will cautiously support the schools funding package (in the lower house) but will await more details from the Senate inquiry. So, like the Greens, NXT are reserving their right to oppose the package in the Senate.
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The last question was a Dixer to the social services minister, Christian Porter, on welfare reforms from the budget, including the drug and alcohol-testing trials for new dole recipients. It included some figures.
The number of job-seekers getting a fixed-period exemption because of drug and alcohol use has nearly doubled over the last five years to 5,500 people in September of 2016.
It’s further the case that the number of times that drug and alcohol issues were used as an excuse for not turning up to an appointment – like turning up to a job interview – increased in one year by 131% to 4,325 instances.
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The Labor MPs for Bruce (Julian Hill), Lindsay (Emma Husar) and Isaacs (Mark Dreyfus) have been thrown out.
Labor to Turnbull: A health department reveals that his GP freeze stays until 2020 for chronic disease health assessments. Why is the prime minister making Australians with chronic diseases like diabetes pay more to get the treatment they need?
Turnbull says the premise of the question is unfounded:
The government is committed to restoring indexation in accordance with the timetable that was set out in the budget and, as the minister has described, was agreed to with the AMA and the college of general practitioners. That’s our commitment. And we’ve undertaken that. We’re doing so affordably and we are delivering on our commitment to guarantee Medicare to fully fund Medicare, to guarantee it, to actually put the money for Medicare and the PBS in a lock box every year.
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Labor to the prime minister: The health department document reveals the GP freeze stays until 2020 for critical mental health care plans. Why is the prime minister making Australians, including those with autism, pay more to the treatment they need?
The health minister, Greg Hunt, takes the question.
Hunt says Labor started the freeze and the government is ending it. (Labor did start a temporary freeze and the Coalition extended it.)
But Hunt keeps mixing up the AMA (Australian Medical Association) with the ALP.
It all makes for a messy answer.
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Shorten to Turnbull: After the election, the prime minister said that he’d learned his lesson about his cuts to Medicare. So why does this health department document reveal that hisMedicare freeze stays until 2020 for 113 different types of Medicare services? Doesn’t this only confirm that the prime minister has actually learned nothing since the election about Medicare and that he and his Liberal government cannot be trusted with Medicare in Australia?
Turnbull welcomes a debate on trust.
This is the man whose eyes filled with tears talked about the importance of raising the Medicare levy by 0.5%, better to fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme. And he called on the Coalition to support it – and we did. And we did. But now, of course, now when the opportunity comes to fill that gap that he left and his party left, he chooses tactics over principle.
He chooses politics over policy. He chooses his own shabby political path of self-interest over the advice of the majority of his own shadow cabinet.
Tony Burke take a point of order on relevance.
Speaker Smith essentially says, yeah get back to the point.
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The deputy PM, Barnaby Joyce, gets a Dixer on how great the Adani Carmichael mine is for jobs.
Joyce defends himself over the inference regarding the Beaconsfield mine I covered earlier.
I’ll take the interjection. The inference drawn by the member for Maribyrnong, in front of a full press gallery this morning – a very competent fourth estate – not one of them drew that inference. Not one of them drew the extension and exaggeration that the member for Maribyrnong has now placed on the record.
Labor’s Tony Burke asks Joyce to apologise to the family of Larry Knight who died as a result of the Beaconsfield mine collapse.
Burke to Joyce: Prior to question time, the leader of the opposition asked the deputy prime minister to apologise to the family of Larry Knight for his “left them for dead” comment. The deputy prime minister was asked to make this apology prior to writing to on the issue. Does the deputy prime minister honestly consider the performance he just gave in the House was more important than an apology to the Knight family? Does he have any understanding of the gravity of the office that he holds?
He knows full well that the inference that was drawn by the member for Maribyrnong is completely and utterly out of order. That exaggeration extension was merely for his political purpose. For his political purpose. If that inference was clear and prevalent and relevant, then a very competent fourth estate would have drawn that to my attention during the press conference. But it wasn’t there. I have the greatest respect for Larry Knight who, at 44 years old, lost his life, and not once would I besmirch his character. Not once would I besmirch his character.
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Shadow Chris Bowen has been thrown out.
As has the Labor MP for Lyons, Brian Mitchell.
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Labor’s Catherine King to the PM: I refer to the prime minister’s previous answer. How can this government claim the secret Medicare taskforce is no longer government policy when the deputy secretary of the health department has confirmed in Senate estimates today that the government will continue to engage with the exact same task force? Why is the prime minister determined to move Australia towards an American, user-pays healthcare system?
Turnbull flicks the question to Greg Hunt, health minister.
This idea of ripping the private health insurance rebate apart is not something we would support but it is something – again – that Labor supports.
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US senator John McCain in the reps chamber for #QT today @gabriellechan @GuardianAus #politicslive pic.twitter.com/OnKFmfO7qq
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) May 29, 2017
Catherine King to Malcolm Turnbull: If the government’s secret Medicare taskforce has been stopped, how come it’s still going?
Turnbull:
What the honourable member obviously regrets is that the Medicare scares he and her colleagues ran before the election has run out of steam. So she now wants to find another one.
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As for Dixers, a number of government questions have been on the NDIS and one has been on the economy.
The NDIS questions have largely revolved around pressuring Labor to support the 0.5% increase to the Medicare levy across the income scale to fund the NDIS.
The social services minister, Christian Porter, quotes previous Shorten arguments for the NDIS/Medicare levy increase.
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The Indi MP, Cathy McGowan, to the infrastructure minister, Darren Chester: On May 10, the prime minister assured the House that the government commitment of $100m would fix the problem for the north-east train line. Senate estimates have revealed the commonwealth is seeking a co-contribution from the Victorian government. It’s a matter yet to be resolved and has made an already complex problem even more so. Clearly, the Victorian government is part of the solution but the answer is not only funding – it needs leadership and collaboration. Minister, a deeply personal request – will you please take a leadership role and bring together the ARTC relevant departments, V/Line, PTV and New South Wales Trains to develop a plan that will fix this problem?
Chester says the $100m can be used to improve “ride quality”.
It is perfectly reasonable to expect a co-contribution from the state.
He is still negotiating with the Victorian government.
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Catherine King to Turnbull: This morning, the health minister said he put a stop to the proposal from the government’s secret Medicare taskforce before the 24th of March Coag meeting. So, why did the government’s secret Medicare taskforce meet on 28 March and its proposal was again discussed just two weeks ago? Why did the deputy secretary of the health department today confirm the government would continue to engage with the secret Medicare taskforce. If the taskforce has been stopped, how come it’s still going?
Turnbull flicks the question to the health minister, Greg Hunt.
Let me put a very simple proposition: Labor hates private health insurance. We love private health insurance. This idea that they are proposing is not government policy, will not be government policy and will never be government policy under the Coalition.
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There is a bit of a fan club occurring up the back.
Honorable members very keen to meet John McCain who is sitting in the House of Reps for #qt. At times there has been a queue! @Henry_Belot
— James Vyver (@jvyver) May 29, 2017
what would parliament be like if it wasn’t shouty? #qt
— Jonathan Green (@GreenJ) May 29, 2017
Labor’s Catherine King to Turnbull: This morning, the health minister said the government’s latest secret Medicare taskforce “long predates me” – how, prime minister, can your health minister possibly claim his secret Medicare taskforce predates him when he was sworn in as the minister for health in January, the secret Medicare taskforce met on 28 March and the taskforce proposal was again discussed just two weeks ago?
All lies, says Turnbull.
The honourable member is following firmly and faithfully in the footsteps of her leader with the dishonest Mediscare campaign they ran in the last election.
Besides, getting rid of the private health insurance rebate sounds like a Labor policy.
As far as I can divine, [the policy] would to undermine the private health insurance system, you would imagine would be an unlikely policy to come from our side of the house in any event and more likely to come from the Labor side.
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Sounds like the treasurer’s office has pulled back the treasury secretary, John Fraser, on the lock-up issue. This is a statement from treasury.
All budget lock-up security measures are currently being reviewed as they are after each budget event. The intent is to improve the security and integrity of Treasury lock-ups without compromising the media’s ability to report.
At this morning’s Senate estimates hearing, the secretary stated his preferred approach to the IT security arrangements for these events in the future.
There are a range of matters to be worked through to implement these changes including working with media outlets on their requirements. The final form and arrangements will be decided in conjunction with the treasurer’s office.
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Shorten to Turnbull: People with disability suffer higher rates of violence than the rest of the community. Ninety per cent of women with intellectual disability have been sexually assaulted. Children with a disability are at least three times more likely to experience abuse than other children. So, will the prime minister support the establishment of a royal commission into violence and abuse against people with disability?
Turnbull thanks Shorten for discussing his call for a royal commission with him last week.
Turnbull says he will be raising the issue with state ministers at the Coag meeting of Australian governments next week, given most abuse occurs in state-funded bodies.
He calls on Shorten to support the increase in the Medicare levy for the national disability insurance scheme.
The social services minister, Christian Porter, says the solution is action and not more inquiry. That means that, under an agreement between all the states and territories, the commonwealth will establish the NDIS quality and safeguards commission which was funded in the budget.
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Bill Shorten welcomes McCain:
I can’t promise that your visit will guarantee better behaviour during question time but I certainly believe that our parliament is better for your presence. I think you represent all of what we hope our alliance should be. And the fact that you are the third generation of your family to help put meaning to the close relationship between Australia and the United States is testament to the importance of your visit.
Shorten is talking about his war service.
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All praise for the leader of the Trump resistance #qt
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) May 29, 2017
Malcolm Turnbull is welcoming senator John McCain, who has led a life of leadership and selfless courage.
As a prisoner of war for five-and-a-half years, he selflessly – despite torture and cruelty – refused to be transferred back to the United States in advance of his colleagues. True leadership. True grit. True courage.
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The chamber is waiting for the arrival of the US senator John McCain on the floor of the house.
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Question time coming up.
Note to Barnaby: read the brief
My colleague Calla Walquist has spoken to Uluru delegates who are scratching their heads about Barnaby Joyce’s rejection of an Indigenous representative body. Read the report before misinterpreting, they say.
Most delegates who spoke to Guardian Australia about the proposed model at Uluru described it as a representative body that parliament would listen to when forming legislation that specifically affected Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples; something more closely resembling the dismantled Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (Atsic) than another layer of government.
“What we did hear a lot was the understanding that Atsic was a statutory body and Atsic was able to be abolished by statute,” constitutional lawyer Gabrielle Appleby said. “They wanted to create something that was not vulnerable to being dismantled.”
Delegates at the Uluru meetings elected a working group to work with both politicians and the Indigenous community to finalise the reforms proposed in the Uluru statement.
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If we want to diminish the risk of terrorism in Australia we should pull out troops from Afghanistan and the Middle East, says the former intelligence officer and independent MP Andrew Wilkie. That would be good national security policy, he says.
.@WilkieMP says Australia should pull out of Middle East not increase presence, as government increases personnel https://t.co/Z73k1ljZoI pic.twitter.com/ayaFd5Aww3
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 29, 2017
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Lunchtime politics
- Barnaby Joyce has rejected the idea of an Indigenous voice in the parliament on the grounds it would never pass a referendum. He tells Indigenous groups: give me something I can sell to the Australian people.
- The defence minister, Marise Payne, confirms 30 more Australian defence personnel will go to Afghanistan in a training capacity.
- Tony Abbott says Muslim leaders should disavow terrorist attacks more than they do now and says there is a strain of “death to the infidel” in Islam. He also said governments should not be judged by polls (underlining that he should not have been judged by 30 consecutive bad polls).
- George Christensen has oppose the Fair Work Commission’s cut to penalty rates but has tried to amend Labor’s bill to criticise Labor. (Christensen is getting a hiding from One Nation in his seat over penalty rates).
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Treasury is considering giving everyone in the budget lock-up iPads to stop leaks following the leak of the bank levy prior to the lock-up. (Notwithstanding that it appeared the horse had already bolted.)
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Matt Hatter. Cruel but fair.
@gabriellechan 🚲Hi🏊 I'd like Tony Abbott to publicly apologise every time we're subjected to lycra-clad loons & budgie-smuggling buffoons. pic.twitter.com/cIL0a49yMN
— The Matt Hatter (@MattGlassDarkly) May 29, 2017
On budget leaks: let them have iPads
In Senate estimates, the Treasury secretary, John Fraser, says he’s considering overhauling the annual budget lock-up to make it harder for leaks to occur.
He says Treasury and the government rely on people’s honesty at the moment but it is too easy for people to sneak mobile phones inside and to use the internet on their personal laptops.
He says everyone may be given a Treasury-issue iPad in the future, with a USB stick, to make it impossible for people to access the internet while inside.
He said he would be “devastated” if any Treasury staff were responsible for the leak of information about the government’s proposed bank levy which saw the value of Australian bank stock prices lose billions of dollars in the hours before the budget was released publicly.
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The LNP MP George Christensen has come out against the Fair Work Commission’s decision to cut penalty rates in the retail and hospitality industries.
In a Facebook post this morning, Christensen said:
I do not support any worker forcibly having his or her take-home pay eroded. And so I oppose the recent decision of the Fair Work Commission to cut Sunday penalty rates, effectively eroding the take-home pay of workers.
But, there’s a catch: Christensen will amend Labor’s bill to block the penalty rate cut so that “not only are workers protected from the recent decision of Fair Work but also that workers in big businesses have their penalty rates restored that were previously cut with the support of unions”.
So, all in all, it’s a pretty safe bet because Christensen can say he opposes penalty rate cuts and wedge Labor at the same time.
It’s a similar play to what unlikely bedfellows the Greens and One Nation did in the Senate when they proposed amendments that industrial deals can’t cut a worker’s full rate of pay, including penalty rates, below the award, in a bid to embarrass Labor and unions that strike such deals.
In a lower house motion on Monday, Christensen noted that Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association agreements at Woolworths, Coles, Bunnings, McDonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut cut penalty rates (the union argues they also lifted other conditions), as well as a number of agreements at Bill Shorten’s former union, the Australian Workers’ Union.
Labor’s shadow employment minister, Brendan O’Connor (see earlier post), and Australian Council of Trade Unions president, Ged Kearney, are unimpressed.
@Paul_Karp @VicUnions Just a union bashing exercise then?
— Ged Kearney (@GedKACTU) May 29, 2017
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The One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts wants to know about the Treasury secretary’s salary and others. Note to senator: it’s on the Remuneration Tribunal website.
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Treasury will ban people taking in their own ipads or laptops into budget lock ups in the future. Will be supplied with Treas ipads.
— Lyndal Curtis (@lyndalcurtis) May 29, 2017
Bill Shorten is making a statement in the House, speaking of his distaste about Barnaby Joyce’s comment about leaving workers “for dead”, comparing Shorten’s stance on the Beaconsfield mine disaster and Labor’s stance on the Adani mine.
This is not a random comment from a Twitter troll.
He called on Joyce to apologise to the family of Larry Knight, who died at Beaconsfield.
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.@Barnaby_Joyce... a maverick, even behind the scenes. #auspol pic.twitter.com/7YtngkN3zS
— David Sharaz (@DavidSharaz) May 29, 2017
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I will be introducing a bill to protect penalty rates from Fair Work & restore penalty rates cut by union agreements. Will Labor support it?
— George Christensen (@GChristensenMP) May 29, 2017
I oppose workers having penalty rates cut, whether it be via Fair Work or union agreements. What is Labor's view? https://t.co/F7i2T5E3MA
— George Christensen (@GChristensenMP) May 29, 2017
@GChristensenMP .@GChristensenMP if you really oppose workers having #penaltyrates cut, then you need to vote for Labor's Bill #auspol
— Brendan O'Connor (@BOConnorMP) May 29, 2017
Christensen, as reported earlier, wants to amend Labor’s bill. (See earlier post)
Tony Abbott on terrorists: nearly all yelling out ‘Allahu Akbar’ as they kill
Last week the head of Asio Duncan Lewis was questioned by Pauline Hanson.
ASIO's Duncan Lewis shutting down Pauline Hanson's questions on Muslims and refugees is worth watching. #estimates #auspol pic.twitter.com/ycONVWGO3K
— Luke Henriques-Gomes (@lukehgomes) May 25, 2017
This has exercised Ray Hadley and Tony Abbott in their regular chat this morning, specifically Lewis’s saying he sees no evidence of first-generation children of refugees being radicalised.
Tony Abbott:
We keep tiptoeing around this subject and the problem is that nearly all of the terrorist incidents are associated with people yelling out ‘Allahu Akbar’ as they kill.
I’m not saying for a second that all Muslims can be lumped into the same basket – of course not, of course not. The overwhelming majority of Muslims right around the world, particularly here in Australia, are decent people but there is this strain of ‘death to the infidel’ in Islam and that’s why it’s vital that we work with ‘live and let live’ Muslims to try to ensure that this ‘death to the infidel’ strain is gradually massaged away.”
Abbott says Lewis has to command the confidence of the Australian community while extracting information from the Muslim community.
Obviously Asio has to have good relations with the Muslim community and obviously Asio has to be able to get information from the Muslim community but, by the same token, Asio has to command the confidence of the Australian community and that’s why you’ve got to be open and upfront about these things and you can’t pretend we that don’t have a problem. That there is a strain of Islam which is doing enormous damage to the whole world.
And again, the call for Muslim leaders to disavow terrorist incidents. He agrees with Hadley that this disavowing ceremony does not happen enough.
It is a problem. I mean we need more decent Muslims speaking out against this evil that is being done in the name of their faith.
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The Treasury secretary, John Fraser, has been questioned by Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson about housing affordability, particularly for first home buyers. Fraser reflects on his own experience buying a house. It has got worse, he concedes.
I don’t take any joy that when I was buying a house in the 70s it was a far easier process.
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The foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, will meet United States Republican senator John McCain, the chairman of the Senate committee on armed services, at around midday today. McCain will also meet Malcolm Turnbull at some stage.
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This is the national coordinator of the Australian Wind Alliance.
So @GChristensenMP doesn't realise that the Qld market that gave us $14k/mwh was dominated by coal? @gabriellechan https://t.co/TCq1fh2CM5
— Andrew Bray (@andypbray) May 29, 2017
The very public faces of the “secret” taskforce.
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Labor’s Catherine King says the flagged hospital funding issue is the way policy is developed in this ole town.
The government’s been clear this is not its policy, I mean isn’t this how policy is developed, you get experts together to have these kinds of conversations, you put all these sorts of ideas on the table?
Catherine King:
This is exactly how policies are developed – they are actually developed under this government in secret. It defies credibility that the government is saying that this is not its policy. This is a very well-developed policy. It has involved, according to the papers this morning, senior officials. We’re not just talking about some junior policy officers in the department beavering away, we’re talking about the secretary of the Department of Health and other senior officials in the Department of Health meeting with stakeholders in secret and developing up a policy proposal.
Again, this policy proposal has been floated by this government since 2014, it substantially will involve a cut to public hospitals and the abolition of the private health insurance rebate. I think it defies credibility that the government is saying, “oh, oh no, we’re not going to do anything”. This is of course a government that said it wasn’t going to have a GP tax. There’s not much you can believe of it when it comes to health.
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Good morning Matt, lately of Talking Pictures.
@gabriellechan Hi. Again It seems pretty words are fine, but when Indigenous Nations request a real say regarding their shared inheritance.. pic.twitter.com/f9T99sBkBm
— The Matt Hatter (@MattGlassDarkly) May 29, 2017
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For the love of coal. By George Christensen
George Christensen has delivered a coal sonnet in private member’s business this morning.
That this House recognises:
(1) the long-term global demand predictions for coal in providing reliable, secure and affordable baseload power;
(2) that power prices in Queensland have reached record highs, including up to $14,000 MW/H in January 2017;
(3) that the high cost of electricity supply in north Queensland has been a disincentive to business investment for many years, putting a strain on Australian businesses and households;
(4) that Australia has an abundance of high-quality coal, better than in many countries around the world; and
(5) that Australia should utilise this natural advantage by maintaining its prominent role in providing secure, reliable and affordable energy, and that in order to do this, there should be a coal-fired power station built in north Queensland.
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Treasury officials join finance minister to answer questions for Senate estimates on the bank levy.
It reminds me to bring you some comments from Australian Bankers’ Association chief executive, Anna Bligh. Her assessment is that rating agencies fundamentally misread the implicit guarantee between the Australian government and the banking industry.
James Eyers at the Fin reports:
The notion that only the big four banks and Macquarie would be supported in a crisis “presupposes that there are other banks which the government would allow to fail”, Bligh said.
“This is a fundamental misreading of the Australian political environment.”
During the depths of the global financial crisis, there was a 3½ week period when the federal government guaranteed all liabilities of all banks for no fee, she said. “The whole system was supported, not just the majors.”
S&P’s move last week frustrated the regional bank bosses who said it would make it harder to compete. Bank of Queensland chief executive Jon Sutton described the S&P decision as “incredibly perplexing”.
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George Christensen opposes cuts to workers' penalty rates
I oppose cuts to workers' penalty rates, whether its determined by the Fair Work Commission or via union agreements. About to speak on this.
— George Christensen (@GChristensenMP) May 29, 2017
Christensen is speaking in the lower house to a Labor private member’s bill.
The bill would:
Amend the Fair Work Act 2009 to: ensure that modern awards cannot be varied to reduce penalty rates or the hours to which penalties rates apply if the variation is likely to result in a reduction in the take-home pay of an employee; and provide that any such determination made by the Fair Work Commission made on or after 22 February 2017 is of no effect.
Christensen says has some sympathy with the stance taken by Bill Shorten but Christensen says he has turned a blind eye to penalty rate cuts in his own work agreements.
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Tony Abbott has spoken to Ray Hadley.
Asked about Newspoll, Abbott says he doesn’t think its fair to judge governments entirely by polls.
(Hello Malcolm Turnbull.)
I always said the important thing was to be a good government. And sometimes good governments are marked down by the polls.
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Fiona Nash, the regional development minister, is standing in for the health minister.
She is trying to shut down questions because they relate to a hospital funding models which have been ruled out.
Guess what? This is estimates and we ask questions, says Labor’s Murray Watt.
Martin Bowles categorically rules out any plans/work to take money out of the hospital system.
There is absolutely no work being done to take money out of hospitals.
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Given Barnaby’s intervention on the Uluru statement, it is worth noting it echoes with a loudspeaker a warning given by Malcolm Turnbull at the weekend.
No political deal, no cross-party compromise, no leaders’ handshake can deliver constitutional change.
To do that, a constitutionally conservative nation must be persuaded that the proposed amendments respect the fundamental values of the constitution and will deliver precise changes, clearly understood, that benefit all Australians.
Bill Shorten did not publicly back the Uluru statement either. Labor will look at the recommendations first.
We owe them an open mind on the big questions – the form recognition takes, on treaties, on changes required to the constitution and on the best way to fulfil the legitimate and long-held aspiration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for a meaningful, equal place in our democratic system,” he said on the weekend.
Richard Di Natale is the only leader to back the idea.
It means ensuring that Aboriginal people have a strong voice and a strong representative body, and the Greens stand with them.
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Martin Bowles strongly defends the health department’s right – nay duty – to think deeply and broadly about health funding issues.
If we are not thinking broadly about policy areas, we cannot give advice to government.
The Liberal senator Dean Smith is now walking Bowles through the process of setting up the GAP taskforce.
The idea of a commonwealth hospital benefit (restructure of funding between states and commonwealth) came out of the federation white paper. Then the taskforce was set up.
In the meantime the Turnbull government dumped the federation white paper in April 2016 but the GAP process continued to go ahead.
Now Dean Smith lays into Martin Bowles.
I think Di Natale is right ... were you freelancing?
Gasps of horror around the room, none more so than on Bowles’s face.
Bowles repeats his main point, which I have some sympathy for. We have to keep thinking about health policy and funding in order to provide advice.
If you want a department to be expert in a policy area, surely they need to think about full sweep of thinking in that policy area rather than the specific policies of one government at one point in time. Otherwise, how do you know when a particular policy is a dud?
(If you haven’t read it, AFR political editor Laura Tingle has written a very good Quarterly essay on the hollowing out of the public service and executive government called Political Amnesia: How We Forgot to Govern.)
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John Fraser, treasury secretary, has given an opening statement to Senate estimates.
It largely reflects the Scott Morrison message from the budget. We are turning a corner. Things are looking up. Ish.
I told the committee in March that there were, at that stage, a number of positive signs in the global economy.
Many of these positive signs have continued to develop and global growth is expected to recover over the coming years.
The reasons for this improvement are complex but reflect, I believe, the fundamental continuation of the business cycle, with indications that the long period of growth undershooting forecasts is beginning to come to an end.
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Martin Bowles, secretary of health, is in estimates on this very morning of this strategic leak on health funding. (Doncha love the way Canberra works.)
Bowles is describing the Global Access Partners (GAP) taskforce that was looking at hospital funding. GAP is a private, not-for-profit thinktank which the department paid $55,000 to contribute towards the taskforce to consider these issues. Hence the membership of Bowles and his deputy, Mark McCormack.
The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, wants to know how the taskforce can be independent if the health department is paying for it. Di Natale says, by the way, I believe there is a need to look at health funding (just so you know).
Bowles said he was advised by the minister that the policy ideas were not government policy. He told the committee that.
Di Natale says why bother continuing with it if it is not government policy?
Bowles says it is independent of government.
Di Natale:
You are paying for and participating on this group. How can it be independent?
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In case you have not heard, there is a lot of talk of sending more Australian troops to Afghanistan at the request of the US (who was going to pull out in 2014 FYI).
The head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University, Prof John Blaxland, told AM:
While there is a strong imperative for Australia to contribute to the alliance in Afghanistan, it would be very helpful if there was a clear and compelling strategy that saw us move beyond the strategy that for the last 16 years has not got us very far.
The enduring problems in Afghanistan resolve around corruption, around what’s happening in Pakistan that’s outside of the reach of the forces in Afghanistan, and particularly in relation to poppy production and the revenue that comes from that, that goes in a large extent to the Taliban.
The defence minister, Marise Payne, has just told an estimates hearing that there will be 30 more personnel going for training and advice only.
Gray Connolly is a conservative writer and lawyer.
@gabriellechan @grhutchens Afghanistan is reverting to its traditional role as arena for competing Russian, Iranian, Indian and other powers. We are mere passersby
— Gray Connolly (@GrayConnolly) May 28, 2017
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Poor choice of words this morning from Barnaby Joyce. He accusing Bill Shorten of deserting the working man over the Adani project, having stood beside them at the Beaconsfield mine disaster.
I remember Mr Shorten, didn’t he stand outside a goldmine down in Tasmania, telling us all about how he, you know, he put on the hi-vis shirt and the bomber jacket, told us all how he was with the working man. Well he is not with them now. He has left them for dead.
Todd Russell, 34, and Brant Webb, 37, were trapped in a safety cage in the mine in the Beaconsfield after a 2.1 magnitude earthquake caused a collapse of underground rocks and killed their colleague, 44-year-old Larry Knight on 25 April 2006.
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Trouble, right here in River City: Coalition MPs on constitutionally enshrined Indigenous voice
It’s been pretty obvious since last week’s landmark meeting of Indigenous delegates at Uluru that a more ambitious reform proposal would struggle once it hit mainstream politics.
I’ve made a couple of calls this morning and I think it’s fair to say the ideas developed at Uluru have a fair way to go. The conservative Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly says having a constitutionally enshrined Indigenous voice in parliament would be “very divisive in the community” and he says a treaty could also be problematic, depending on what it says.
The Sydney conservative says many in the Coalition party room would be very reluctant to pursue the full recommendations agreed at a meeting of more than 250 community leaders at Uluru last week.
“I have great reservations about parliamentary representations based on race,” Kelly told Guardian Australia on Monday. “Do you then have representation based on religion?”
He said there were now a number of Indigenous MPs sitting in the federal parliament and they were a strong voice for their community.
Kelly said everyone was aware of the sensitivities involved in the debate but he said there would be great reluctance to follow through on 100% of the recommendations agreed at Uluru.
Julian Leeser, another Sydney Liberal, and a constitutional conservative, has a different take. He says he’s pleased to see the Indigenous delegates strongly reject symbolic recognition and anti-discrimination reforms which he characterises as a “one-clause bill of rights.”
But he says Uluru isn’t the end of the conversation. The government will be guided by the recommendations of the Referendum Council. Leeser says he’s happy to look at a representative body if it doesn’t have voting rights or a right of veto.
He says the Liberal party traditionally has been opposed to a treaty but he thinks a “settlement” could be contemplated.
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Barnaby Joyce rejects 'Indigenous chamber' in parliament: it's not going to happen
Barnaby Joyce has rejected outright the idea of an ‘Indigenous chamber’ in parliament.
He says he supports constitutional referendum as it was.
We’ve got to make a substantive statement in regard to Aboriginal people.
If you go with something that is beyond our capacity to get the Australian people on board with it then it’s a self-defeating proposition.
If you are asking for a new chamber in the federal parliament, and some of the articles I see are heading in that direction, it’s not going to happen. I am just going to be fair dinkum with people.
We’ve got enough problems with the Senate we’ve got. We don’t need another one.
Joyce says he wants something he can “sell” to the Australian people.
If you are suggesting we have local government, state government upper and lower house, then a federal government with a lower house, a Senate and then another chamber again, you don’t have to be Nostradamus to tell the future of what happens here. The Australian people will say no to that.
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Now let me just give you an idea of how the day will pan out.
The school funding package is still before the lower house.
There are also bills relating to the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, which may be related to the bank reforms, but there is no evidence of the bills on the parliament website as yet. We do not have a draft daily program yet but parliament sits at 9.30am.
There are estimates on and the treasury secretary, John Fraser, is up this morning at 9am. That should be worth a look.
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Health minister on overhaul: not today, not tomorrow, not ever
Greg Hunt has come out to categorically deny any plans for a hospital funding overhaul.
Our commitment to private health insurance is rock solid. By contrast, we’ve seen that only a few weeks ago Labor was reported as wanting to abolish the private health insurance rebate. It’s clear and categorical. Not government policy. Won’t be government policy. Will never be government policy.
He says the taskforce predates his time as minister (he replaced Sussan Ley in January).
It long predates me. I know that the issue was raised with me coming out of officials meetings with the states as a possible item for Coag and I struck it out. I rejected it. I’ve rejected it once. If it ever comes forward, I’ll reject it again. I made that clear to the department at the time that this is something that I understand was from the post-federation white paper discussions, and it’s been rejected along the way, and it will be rejected.
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Uluru statement: 'This is the torment of our powerlessness'
I want to put up the Uluru statement agreed to on Friday because there is a lot of discussion around the various party responses this morning and presumably this week.
Apart from the key political messages calling for substantial constitutional reform involving a voice in the parliament and a commission which would lead to a treaty, it is simply a beautifully written document. Its inherent truths are impossible to deny.
ULURU STATEMENT FROM THE HEART
We, gathered at the 2017 National Constitutional Convention, coming from all points of the southern sky, make this statement from the heart: Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands, and possessed it under our own laws and customs.
This our ancestors did, according to the reckoning of our culture, from the Creation, according to the common law from ‘time immemorial’, and according to science more than 60,000 years ago.
This sovereignty is a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or ‘mother nature’, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were born therefrom, remain attached thereto, and must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors.
This link is the basis of the ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty. It has never been ceded or extinguished, and coexists with the sovereignty of the Crown. How could it be otherwise? That peoples possessed a land for sixty millennia and this sacred link disappears from world history in merely the last two hundred years?
With substantive constitutional change and structural reform, we believe this ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood. Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future. These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem.
This is the torment of our powerlessness. We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country.
We call for the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution. Makarrata is the culmination of our agenda: the coming together after a struggle. It captures our aspirations for a fair and truthful relationship with the people of Australia and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination.
We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history. In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.
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The deputy PM, Barnaby Joyce, is free ranging in the corridors of the press gallery.
It is a full-throated attack on Bill Shorten, which involves kaftans and cafe lattes.
He wants Shorten to tell the Queensland deputy premier, Jackie Trad, to stop blocking support for the Adani megamine. Trad opposed plans by the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, to the give Adani a royalty holiday. At the weekend Queensland announced there would be no royalty holiday and Queensland would not act as the middleman for potential funding from the northern Australia infrastructure fund.
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Good morning, blogans,
Well, I slept fair through the alarm this morning so excuse my dishevelled appearance. I will try to work through this in an orderly fashion and we start with a surprising leak to Adam Gartrell of Fairfax regarding plans for a radical overhaul of the hospital system. It is something that James Ashby might call brainstorming.
This is what it involves:
The private health insurance rebate would be abolished, consumers would be charged more for extras cover and the states would be forced to find more money for public hospitals under radical funding changes being considered by top government officials.
Documents obtained by Fairfax Media reveal the nation’s most senior health bureaucrats are part of a secret taskforce developing a proposal for a ‘Commonwealth Hospital Benefit’ – a new funding formula for public and private hospitals that would have widespread ramifications for patients and the medical industry.
Under the plan, the Commonwealth would “pool” the approximately $20 billion it currently gives to public hospitals each year with the $3 billion it pays to private sector doctors and the $6 billion it spends on the rebate to help people pay their private health insurance premiums.
According to the report, the taskforce has met three times. It includes the health department boss, Martin Bowles, and his deputy, Mark Cormack.
The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, has denied there is a secret plan.
From time to time public servants might be working through various issues but the government’s policy is very clear. We have been boosting investment in Medicare, we’ve been boosting investments in hospitals, private health is a very important pillar of our health system. We need both a strong private and a strong public health system in Australia. That is the way we can ensure all Australians can have affordable and timely access to world-class hospital care so there is no such plan. It does not reflect government policy.
Let’s call that a complete repudiation of the policy but not a repudiation of the story. If you know what I mean.
The Newspoll gap for the government continues, Labor remains in front 53-47 on a two-party-preferred basis. Still no evidence of budget bump.
Status quo on key measures. #Newspoll Primary Vote: Coalition 36 (0), ALP 36 (0), Greens 10 (0), One Nation 9 (0) https://t.co/FGZk5PPm5V
— David Crowe (@CroweDM) May 28, 2017
Mr Calm N Reasonable, otherwise known as the education minister, Simon Birmingham, says while the budget went down well, these things take time.
All of these things take time in the way people perceive government.
Join us in the thread, on the Twits @gabriellechan and @mpbowers or on Facebook.
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