Medevac repeal dominates last sitting Wednesday
That’s where we’ll leave the live blog for the day. Thanks for following along.
It’s been another messy day. Many say the medevac repeal has made it one of parliament’s darkest.
If it helps, I’ve been silently chanting ‘one more day, one more day, one more day’ for the past three hours. It’s no real comfort, to be honest. But it does busy the mind. Feel free to give it a go. Don’t blame me if you go insane.
This is what we learned today:
- The government won Jacqui Lambie’s vote using unknown promises, thereby securing the passage of its medevac repeal bill. We suspect they promised to give new energy to their efforts to resettle the refugees on Nauru. But the repeal means the effective end of doctor-led decisions on healthcare transfers for asylum seekers and refugees. The decision has been condemned by GPs, refugee advocates, human rights groups, the opposition, the Greens and Centre Alliance. There is real anger that the vote took place without anyone truly knowing what the Lambie-Coalition deal actually entailed.
- On the Angus Taylor front, there was an unconfirmed report in the Australian naming one of Taylor’s staff, Josh Manuatu, as the person who obtained false travel figures about Clover Moore and sent them to the Daily Telegraph. The Guardian also reported that police have asked Clover Moore for a statement, and Taylor revealed in question time that he had set up a “point of contact” with New South Wales police.
- Also on Taylor, the US author Naomi Wolf has challenged Taylor to correct “disinformation” about her in his maiden speech to parliament. So that’s still bubbling along.
- Senator Cory Bernardi gave his valedictory speech, speaking of the difficulty of defecting from the Liberals.
- GDP figures were released late this morning, showing a 0.4% quarterly growth in the economy. It’s still well below the long-term growth average. The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, said there were reasons to be positive. Others weren’t so rosy.
- Malarndirri McCarthy gave an emotional speech to the Senate about the vile death and rape threats she has endured in office. The threats were truly horrific and McCarthy’s speech gave a powerful insight of what it’s like for victims of such abuse.
- Early on in the day, Barnaby Joyce called for changes to allow more of the commonwealth’s environmental water holdings to meet critical human need. The Nationals have been placed in a tricky position by all of this. They are bearing the brunt of farmer anger over water arrangements, and risk losing their traditional constituents to minor parties or elsewhere.
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Police ask Clover Moore for statement on Taylor
Another development on the Angus Taylor front.
The City of Sydney’s lord mayor, Clover Moore, has been approached by police to provide a statement for their investigation into accusations Taylor relied on a falsified document to attack her travel-related emissions. The council said in a statement:
“NSW police have asked the lord mayor for a statement. She will cooperate with the police request.”
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Naomi Wolf challenges Taylor to 'correct' disinformation
Naomi Wolf has called on Angus Taylor to correct the record after it emerged his first speech to parliament wrongly stated that she had attempted to have a Christmas tree removed from their student accommodation at Oxford University, which Taylor used as a gross example of “political correctness”.
I hate that you can be a woman with ostensibly all the voice in the world and still have no voice. I'm a serious person asking a powerful man to please correct globally public disinformation about me that he stated in a national legislative forum. Crickets. @AngusTaylorMP.
— Dr Naomi Wolf (@naomirwolf) December 4, 2019
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Bernardi becomes emotional when he talks about his family and wife, Sinéad.
He concludes by saying he wanted to live life in politics “walking lightly through these corridors, wondering, ‘what if?’”.
Looking back, I’d like to think I took Kipling’s words to heart in that here I met both triumph and disaster, and treated those two imposters just the same.
That said it isn’t for me to pass judgment on my contribution over the years. However, I want to conclude on reflecting on the very nature of success. Each of us will have different measures of what it means to be a success. But when I think of the difficult life of modern politics, if you can get through it without harbouring malice or discontent you have achieved success. If you can end your time here with more firm friendships than when you began, that too is a good measure of success. If you can leave the Canberra bubble with your marriage stronger, a family you are truly proud of, and completely at peace with yourself, then that to me is the ultimate measure of success.
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Bernardi talks about the focus directed to him from the press.
To the troops of the fourth estate – where do I start? I naively thought that knowing so many of you from my days as a publican might give me an easy ride.
Fat lot of good that did me though. In fact, I think that you, knowing that I knew what you were really like, simply seemed to focus your aim at me.
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Bernardi gives valedictory speech
Conservative senator Cory Bernardi is giving his valedictory speech in the Senate. He praises the Liberal senators Nick Minchin and former Senate president Alan Ferguson for their guidance. He speaks of Jeannie Ferris, a senator who died of ovarian cancer in October 2005. Bernardi says a day after Ferris’s death, the Senate machinery kicked back into gear.
That was my greatest and most important political lesson. That experience taught me that none of us here are indispensable.
Bernardi speaks of defecting from the Liberal party. He says he lost many friends and colleagues.
Suffice to say, I made choices that I thought were necessary and in the best interests of the country. Those choices were very difficult for me and my family. They were painful.
He speaks of the “awesome foursome” who united in their opposition to the carbon pollution reduction scheme 10 years ago. That group included Mathias Cormann, Michaelia Cash, Bernardi and David Bushby.
We had an enormous amount of fun and I think we really did change the course of political history.
He jokes about his friendship with Labor senator Don Farrell, who lost his seat in 2013, but has since returned to parliament. He says he was the sole keeper of “the Farrell flame” in the Senate.
As a cheer squad of one, I have to tell you even I was surprised when he got back. But it has been good to have you back Don, and I only wish some on your own side felt the same way I do.
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GPs have slammed the government’s repeal of medevac laws, saying it will increase the risk of further deaths and compromise patient care.
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners refugee health network chair, Kate Walker, said the heads of 12 prominent medical colleges were united in their support for medevac for “good reason”.
“Last week I expressed concern that the repeal of the legislation would compromise patient care and increase the risk of further deaths. I stand by that statement,” Walker said.
She said 12 refugees and asylum seekers had died in offshore processing in the five years prior to medevac. None had died since.
Without medevac, the government must take urgent action to ensure patient safety. They must be transparent in their processes and accept medical advice. Australia has a duty of care for those most vulnerable who remain offshore. Border protection is important but so is our duty of care to the health and safety of those in offshore detention.
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The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, has welcomed news that Behrouz Boochani has applied for asylum in New Zealand. We’ve known for some time that this was likely.
Breaking: Behrouz Boochani has applied for asylum in New Zealand, @jacksonw____ understands. He has the exclusive story on Sky now.
— James O'Doherty (@jmodoh) December 4, 2019
Di Natale tells the ABC:
We wish him all the best, we hope that he’s able to put this trauma behind him. Most people don’t.
On behalf of the many decent Australians, we are so sorry for what Behrouz has had to endure.
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Our political editor, Katharine Murphy, has written this report on the events of today. Murphy reports Jacqui Lambie wanted a re-energised pursuit of the New Zealand resettlement deal from the government in exchange for her support. She may have gotten a letter of assurance from the government to that end.
The talk around parliament on Wednesday is Lambie emerged from the tortuous medevac tussle with a letter from Morrison indicating the government will pursue resettlement with New Zealand after the current deal with the United States is exhausted – but I haven’t seen the letter.
I am entirely confident Lambie has been pursuing the New Zealand resettlement option in her protracted talks with the government about medevac repeal, but the rest is speculative, and the government claims no deals have been made.
Still, there is an obvious way to square this “I’ve got a deal, sort of”/“no deal” circle.
Despite appearing reluctant to pursue New Zealand’s kind offer to resettle the asylum seekers Australia sent to moulder in offshore detention, the home affairs minister hasn’t really ruled out doing that. The line has been that now is not the time.
Assuming that New Zealand remains willing, perhaps a more convenient time to pursue resettlement will materialise soon. Perhaps the government signalled this to Lambie, or some other viable resettlement plan involving another country – a plan to slowly dismantle the life-force sapping apparatus of offshore detention. Not a deal so much, as a sharing of (as yet unannounced) government policy (if you will).
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The Australian has just named one of Angus Taylor’s staff, Josh Manuatu, as the person who obtained false travel figures about Clover Moore and sent them to the Daily Telegraph.
I have no evidence that Manuatu was involved in this at all, but there has been talk around the government that he might have been the staffer who handled the material.
But even if he did (and I said I don’t know if he did or not), the letter did go out under the signature of the minister. Old fashioned to reference the concept of ministerial responsibility I know.
Taylor’s office has told my colleague Anne Davies when she made inquiries about this yesterday: “I reject absolutely the suggestion that I, or any members of my staff, altered the document in question.”
The Labor MP Andrew Giles, like many of us, cannot understand how the deal between Jacqui Lambie and the Coalition came to be. On Sunday, Lambie said she had given the government a choice:
I have given the government a choice, it can either pick A or B. Out of all due respect to the prime minister and Peter Dutton, and to make sure those talks continue over the week, I don’t want to be saying too much about this.
Today it sounded simply like Lambie had accepted the government’s assurance that it would continue to implement its resettlement policies. Though that’s still not entirely clear.
Giles:
It doesn’t sound like any of the things Jacqui was talking about last week or even on Sunday.
What an awful way to make law. What an awful way to make law. Where even cabinet ministers wander into the Senate without even knowing what they’re voting for.
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A new report shows inadequate Centrelink payments are driving people into poverty and heightening their risk of homelessness.
The Homeward Bound report, authored by the lawyer Sophie Trevitt with the National Social Security Rights Network and Canberra Community Law, examined the experiences of 567 clients in Canberra. It found Centrelink recipients are struggling to meet their basic daily needs, including food and housing. It found women, single parents, Indigenous Australians and people with disabilities are suffering the most, and are most at risk of homelessness.
The report called for an increase in Newstart, reforms to the social security system and additional social housing.
“People on the Newstart allowance are struggling to live on less than $40 a day. They are entirely cut off from the private rental market; and with extremely long wait times for public housing, many were forced to sleep in their cars, in the living rooms of friends and families, in parks, caravans and refuges,” Trevitt said.
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Nick Martin, a GP and former senior medical officer on Nauru, has written on the repeal of the medevac laws for the Guardian. It’s pretty strong stuff.
Today Australia became just a little crueller, just a little more sadistic. A bill that was working well was repealed because a self-professed Christian thought that his values aligned with denying care to the vulnerable. Absolutely nothing to do with border protection – boat turnbacks provide the assurance that boats will be stopped.
I saw firsthand the damage to people kept in indefinite detention. It was why I spoke out in the first place. I am not a politician; I simply wanted correct and timely medical care to be given to those in need of it. To see the politicians engage in this carnival of cruelty, dressing up their arguments with consistently debunked statements on stopping drownings at sea has been demoralising. God only knows what the refugees stuck offshore must think. Australia has yet again signalled to the world that we are prepared to inflict suffering on those who flee terror and risk dangerous journeys to seek asylum.
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Question time, as seen through the eyes of Mike Bowers.
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Lovely shot from Mike Bowers of Timothy Weeks, a recently freed Taliban hostage, getting a standing ovation during question time this afternoon.
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Question time ends
Question time has ended with a sustained attack on Angus Taylor, yet again.
This is what we learned:
- Angus Taylor has established a “point of contact” with NSW police over its investigation of his office’s reliance on a falsified document to attack Clover Moore. So we’re not yet at the stage of a police interview. But there is contact, of some description. Taylor continued to duck questions on why he hasn’t produced evidence to back up his claim that he downloaded the document with erroneous figures from the council’s own website. Mark Butler pointed out that the document had accurate figures at four points in March, April, June and October. That would make Taylor’s version unlikely, to say the least.
- The repeal of the medevac bill dominated many of the questions. Labor asked why the government was claiming it had not done a deal with Jacqui Lambie, when she intimated that they had. Scott Morrison said Lambie had simply supported government policy. He then attacked Labor for sending women and children to Manus Island, prompting an uproar in parliament.
- In the Senate, Richard Di Natale asked a more targeted question than Deal or No Deal – was there an exchange of letters with Jacqui Lambie?
- There was another angry exchange between Michael McCormack and Joel Fitzgibbon, who seem to be having quite a week. McCormack said Fitzgibbon was a disgrace and “wouldn’t know a farmer if he met one”. Take that.
- Timothy Weeks, a freed Taliban prisoner, was in the house and received a standing ovation from the chamber. Weeks had been a Taliban prisoner for three years since he was taken hostage in 2016.
- Labor led its attack on the poor school performance results released overnight, which show Australian school students are falling behind the rest of the world. Scott Morrison said “funding is at record levels”. Dan Tehan said funding wasn’t everything and Australia needed to find other ways to improve performance.
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Taylor again. Mark Butler points out that publicly available internet archives show the annual report on the council’s website contained accurate figures on four dates in March, April, June and October. How does that square with Taylor’s claim that his office downloaded a version of the report with inaccurate figures from the council’s website? Butler asks:
Does the minister seriously expect Australians to believe the report with the correct figures was on the website on each of those dates, then inexplicably replaced with a report with incorrect figures, which only his office downloaded, then the report with the correct figures was put back up again, for only him to see?
The question prompts some wry smiles from the Labor benches. It does all seem, er, rather improbable.
There’s some scuttlebutt about whether the question would interfere with an active police investigation.
Eventually, Taylor says:
I made a statement on this which I have tabled in the house, while there are ongoing police inquiries as a result of those opposite, I have nothing more to add.
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Taylor has established 'point of contact' with NSW police
Another question to Taylor. Mark Butler asks if he has provided metadata and download logs to police.
Taylor reveals he has established a point of contact with NSW police.
As I said, I will always cooperate with matters of this sort.
My office has established an administrative point of contact with the NSW police, and I don’t propose to say anything more while police inquiries are continuing.
Labor shifts to Angus Taylor. They ask why he hasn’t complied with a Senate order to produce evidence to back his claims that he downloaded a false document from the City of Sydney council’s website, which he then used to attack the lord mayor, Clover Moore.
The Speaker, Tony Smith, makes his position on the matter fairly clear. Oy Senate, bugger off. I’m paraphrasing slightly, but you get the drift.
Taylor gets up:
I will always cooperate with matters of this sort. I tabled a statement in this House last week... as I have repeatedly told the House I reject absolutely the scurrilous accusations of those opposite. They are so transparent. They seek to distract from their own failings with smear.
That’s fine and all, but he still hasn’t provided any evidence that he downloaded the dodgy document from the council’s website.
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Senator Cory Bernardi – who is due to give his valedictory speech this afternoon – got what is likely to be his final question in Senate question time.
Bernardi asked the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, to explain the evils of socialism and why the government has not implemented such policies. It was all very Auspol101, and a bit of a nostalgia lap for the Australian Conservatives senator who started his career as a Liberal.
Kim Carr interjected “they have” (implemented socialism) – asking “what’s the big stick all about”. Green Peter Whish-Wilson also got in on the action suggesting “the question should have been directed to Matt Canavan, the minister for nationalising coal-fired power stations”.
Cormann then expounded on the different growth rates in East and West Germany – which Tim Ayres suggested hardly proved his point because West Germany was a social democracy.
The first supplementary question was about Marxism, which Cormann described as “socialism on steroids”.
In his final supplementary, Bernardi asked if Cormann was aware of a certain senator standing 6 foot 5 inches who had consistently railed against socialism (himself).
Cormann responded:
I once knew a guy who was in the Liberal party party room, sadly he left us. In more recent times I feel that senator has been coming back closer to the bosom of the Liberal party.
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Lambie simply supported government policies: Morrison
Scott Morrison is asked how the government can claim it has done no deal with Jacqui Lambie, when she herself claimed such a deal was brokered.
I’m not aware of what the member is referring to. I have before me Jacqui Lambie’s comments... and it makes no mention of it.
Morrison says Lambie simply confirmed her support for government policies, including its policy on medevac.
He then prompts an uproar when he accuses Labor of sending women and children to Manus, which he says was a new low.
This mob on this side Mr Speaker, this Labor party were the party that sent children to Manus Island.
So I will not take lectures from the Labor party that showed themselves to be the most outrageous treatment of women and children in sending them to Manus Island and then did nothing while we sought to stop the deaths at sea.
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On the topic of border protection, the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at the University of New South Wales said the repeal of medevac and the Independent Health Advice Panel “in no way extinguishes Australia’s duty of care” to those held in offshore processing.
It said medevac saved lives and de-politicised the health care of refugees and asylum seekers.
Under both international and domestic law, Australia has a duty of care with respect to the health and well-being of people transferred offshore to Nauru and PNG. The medevac system assisted the Government meet this duty of care, by ensuring that there was a clear, transparent and effective process for people in need of transfer to be brought to the attention of the Minister, and for urgent medical decisions to be made by people with the requisite qualifications and expertise, within appropriate clinical timeframes. It minimised the risks of delay, uncertainty, and politicisation of medical decisions. It was a measure designed to save lives, and did so without compromising the ultimate power of the Minister to exclude any person who he or she deems to be a safety or security risk to the Australian public.
The Kaldor Centre told a Senate inquiry in August that medevac was a “necessary, reasonable and appropriate” measure.
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Peter Dutton gets an energetic dixer from the backbencher Vince Connelly. Hands were flurrying. Dramatic pauses. Gesticulation, emphasis abound. The dixer is on border protection, which leads Dutton down a well-worn path.
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The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, quotes Scott Morrison’s words back to him on the economy. At the end of the last quarter, Morrison said “you’d expect that things would improve in the next quarter”. Albanese says:
Given economic growth has slowed in the September quarter ... how did the prime minister get it so wrong?
Morrison responds:
September quarter this year was higher than September quarter last year. Now I note that the leader of the opposition is not even economically literate, Mr Speaker ...
Albanese protests on relevance.
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The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, gets a dixer on the economy. He says despite the drought and other economic headwinds, the Australian economy has shown great “resilience” and continues to grow.
In the first time in more than 40 years, we have seen a current account surplus... it’s a result in part of the free trade agreements that this side of the House have supported.
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#passion The Deputy PM @M_McCormackMP in Parliament @mpbowers @murpharoo @knausc pic.twitter.com/EQxgLDjG6B
— Lyndal Curtis (@lyndalcurtis) December 4, 2019
In Senate question time, Richard Di Natale has asked a more targeted question than Deal or No Deal – was there an exchange of letters with Jacqui Lambie?
The government leader in the Senate, Mathias Cormann, refused to rule it out:
I won’t go into private conversations … What I can say is there has been no deal to change our stance on border protection or anything else.
We provided briefings, we did not provide any undertakings to change policy ... We provided detailed information about what the policies of the government are.
The supplementaries are all the same question – and now all the Greens are interjecting “any letters?”
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Timothy Weeks, Taliban prisoner, receives standing applause
A nice moment in the House, for a change. Timothy Weeks, the Australian man who was held hostage by the Taliban for three years, is in the chamber.
His presence is noted by the Speaker, Tony Smith, and the lower house rises united in standing applause. Weeks was freed after a prisoner swap deal earlier this year.
Weeks was teaching English at a Kabul university when he and an American colleague were abducted at gunpoint in 2016.
After surviving three “long and tortuous” years as a Taliban hostage, Timothy Weeks is now enduring Question Time (where MPs have given him a standing ovation) pic.twitter.com/nI7hJzbw8G
— Andrew Greene (@AndrewBGreene) December 4, 2019
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Fireworks again in the lower house between Michael McCormack and Joel Fitzgibbon. The pair have got some odd competition going on this week about who knows more about farmers. McCormack said:
He wouldn’t know a farmer if he met one, quite frankly.
Over in the Senate, it looks like Mathias Cormann is explaining his “no secret deal” comment by claiming nothing in government policy has changed as a result of its negotiations with Jacqui Lambie. Righto.
Mathias Cormann tells #SenateQT that there is "absolutely secret deal" with Jacqui Lambie. "No changes in policy or administration when it comes to our border protection" but the government did provide her briefings of the "clasified secret level"
— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) December 4, 2019
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We get a dixer to the PM on the economy. Then Labor asks the education minister, Dan Tehan, about the Pisa results. Tanya Plibersek asks when the government’s education reforms are going to start to work. Tehan says:
We want to ensure that there are progressions in place so that we can map for every student across the nation the progressions they are making on literacy and numeracy. That is something that was never done on the other side.
He then objects to criticism. You’re in the wrong business, mate.
Rather than coming in here and lecturing us about this and that, why don’t you actually encourage the state and territory ministers to come to that meeting next week and be bold.
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Morrison continues:
The outcomes of the Pisa 2018 results today are deeply concerning to the government, they are deeply concerning to the government.
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Labor leads the question time attack on school performance
Labor kicks off question time with a question on the Pisa results, which show Australian school students are falling behind the rest of the world. Scott Morrison responds:
Our education funding is at record levels, and the reason we can fund our schools at record levels, Mr Speaker, is because we know how to manage money.
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The shadow climate change minister, Mark Butler, has told Guardian Australia that the resources minister, Matt Canavan, “doesn’t even pretend to care about our international commitments” on climate change after the minister gave two interviews to the climate science denier Alan Jones on Monday.
Jones asked the Queensland senator if he would be going to the UN climate talks that are under way in Madrid, but Canavan joked he had “got some better things to do” and that he had “not committed enough sins” to have been sent there.
The Greens climate spokesman, Adam Bandt, accused Canavan of engaging in “smug mockery”.
Canavan claimed terms like “climate emergency” were being forced upon members of the public, which he said was “Orwellian” and an attempt to shut down “alternative viewpoints”.
When asked on radio by Jones why he was not in Spain, a laughing Canavan said: “I’m sure it’s lovely this time of year but I’ve got some better things to do. I haven’t committed enough sins in my life to be sent there yet, Alan.”
Later on Sky, Jones again asked Canavan why he wasn’t in Madrid.
“Ha!” said Canavan. “Well, Alan, it would not exactly be how I would like to spend my Christmas let’s just say that, but good luck to all those beautiful people who aggregate there.
“Obviously we need to have international meetings to discuss these things, but then there are all these hangers on who seem to use this as a PR exercise to preen their moral vanity.”
In each interview Jones, who has described human-caused climate change as a hoax, promoted a climate science denial group known as Clintel, before then introducing the minister.
Clintel is promoting a declaration that “there is no climate emergency” and that “CO2 is plant food”.
Canavan did not comment on the Clintel group, which has signed support from more than 100 Australians, including Hugh Morgan, a former president of the Business Council of Australia, and Ian Plimer, a director on Gina Rinehart’s Roy Hill Holdings iron ore project.
The Queensland state MP Colin Boyce, of the LNP, is the only Australian elected official to have his name appear on the Clintel declaration.
Later in the Sky interview, Canavan said: “What’s wrong with this agenda that’s being pushed by some people going to these conferences is that they want to regulate what we say and do.” He added there was an attempt to “shut down debate”.
He said: “They are worried about alternative viewpoints. As you said in your intro we now have to call it a climate emergency.
“It is not enough to call it climate change or global warming or greenhouse gases of the ozone layer – it’s now a climate emergency. This is true Orwellian stuff that we have to use these kinds of terms.”
Canavan also used the interviews to heavily promote coal-fired power and coal generally, claiming coal generation was growing in other parts of Asia.
“We are as a government backing coal-fired power,” he told Jones on 4BC, adding the government was “progressing an option” for a new coal-fired power station at Collinsville in north Queensland.
Canavan said the renewable energy target had “destroyed our energy systems” and had been a “massive mistake”.
Butler told Guardian Australia Canavan’s comments on the climate talks “tells us everything we need to know about the government’s attitude to action on climate change.
“Matt Canavan doesn’t even pretend to care about our international commitments under the Paris agreement. The hard-right of the Coalition dictates Australia’s climate policy, as a result emissions are continuing to go up and our children will pay the price.”
Bandt said anyone attending the Madrid talks should be applauded, adding: “This smug mockery from the minister for coal is part of a broader assault on climate action by a government in the pocket of the polluters.”
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Malarndirri McCarthy makes emotional speech about abuse and vile threats
The Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy has revealed she has suffered “threats of violence, graphic threats of being gang-raped and beaten, being killed for doing [her] job” which she described as “reprehensible”.
These included “threats of executing me in the federal parliament” that were taken seriously by the Senate president, the speaker of the House, and the Australian federal police – which served a personal protection order against the person making the threats.
She told the Senate:
Today I share my experience of what threats of violence in the workplace can feel like and how it has been a long and often times paralysing shadow over all that I do …
Next month it will be two years when the first abusive phone calls began … the tone of constituent calls took a turn for the worse, call after call, message after message on my answering machine both my Canberra and Darwin office became an obsessive focus for the caller so fixated on wanting to inflict pain until finally I said enough.
In my nearly 15 years since becoming Labor member in NT and now federal parliament I have never had to be concerned daily for my personal safety until now.
McCarthy said she suffered anxiety about safety when she attended public events and even attending rallies now requires AFP protection.
She said the threats are “designed to maximise fear, render them incapable of doing their job” and to put the target in “a prison of impending danger”.
McCarthy also revealed that Pat Dodson was “also now a focus for similar threats” and thanked police in the NT and the AFP for taking the threats seriously.
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It is very obvious from what the PM is saying is they've told Lambie resettlement is alive and kicking #auspol
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) December 4, 2019
Morrison says government will 'implement resettlement policies' after medevac repeal
Scott Morrison says he has “fulfilled a promise” to the Australian people by repealing medevac laws.
We’ve always understood that that type of loophole doesn’t strengthen our borders, it only weakens them.
A year ago, we were defeated in the parliaments but we stood firm. And we stood firm and went to an election and said, support the Coalition and we will repeal those laws and so today, we fulfilled that promise to the Australian people.
Peter Dutton says the law was always about getting people here through a “back door”.
He pays tribute to the “independent senators” – read Jacqui Lambie – and says medevac was “bad policy”.
Morrison will not be drawn on what deal the Coalition struck with Lambie. He says the only condition he gave was to implement the government’s policies.
One of those policies, he says, is to resettle those on Nauru. Asked whether that would include accepting the New Zealand deal, he responded:
The government is always looking at ways to resettle those who are on Nauru.
Morrison is choosing his words very carefully here. He is not saying anything about accepting the New Zealand refugee resettlement deal.
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We’ve just published this story on a whistleblower complaint concerning Peter Dutton and statements he made about the case of a convicted drug trafficker who was spared deportation.
Andrew Wilkie says parliament has “sunk to a new low” with the repeal of medevac laws. He has just issued this statement:
The people marooned on Manus Island and Nauru are Australia’s responsibility and it is a basic human right that every person has access to appropriate medical care. What have we come to as a nation when we are prepared to treat human beings so cruelly?
Clearly medevac has not started the boats again and has not created a national security problem. The government is hiding behind the term “national security” because they know there is no legitimate reason to have repealed the legislation. They are simply intent on punishing innocent people in the name of ideology.
Medevac has reduced the preventable suffering of ill asylum seekers and refugees and is supported by medical experts. There are many politicians who should be ashamed of their willingness to throw innocent people to the wolves.
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Angus Taylor refuses to provide exculpatory evidence to Senate
Labor is continuing its pursuit of Angus Taylor through all of this. Penny Wong spoke in the Senate a little earlier.
Labor had ordered Taylor’s representatives to table documents explaining how he came to rely on a falsified document to attack Sydney lord mayor, Clover Moore. Wong says Labor was giving Taylor a chance to provide evidence to support his position that the falsified document came from the City of Sydney website. He failed.
This motion was a test for the government and it has failed that test. It was a motion that required the government to table any evidence that it had to support Mr Taylor’s repeated claims he didn’t doctor a document to attack his political opponent. Because this is a scandal ... which started with a dodgy trick by a mediocre minister and it’s ended with the integrity of the entire government in tatters.
Mr Taylor has labelled this fiasco a “grubby smear”. Well, if that were true he’d be able to prove it but he refuses to put forward any evidence to clear his name. And the only reason you would choose not to clear your name is because you can’t.
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GetUp and the Human Rights Law Centre are holding a press conference right now.
GetUp’s human rights director Shen Narayanasamy said what is needed, more than anything, is a solution for the refugees still on Nauru and Manus.
There is a reason that they are getting sick, and it is because we are holding them there, in conditions that we know are inhumane, that will cause them to be sick.
She said she can only hope that the deal struck by Lambie does something for their lives.
We saw today incredible scenes in our senate as senator Lambie got to her feet with tears in her eyes to say that she had done some sort of deal with the government.
We can only hope what that may be.
The prime minister Scott Morrison has called a press conference for 1pm. We’ll bring that to you as it happens.
One question he may well be asked is: was there a secret deal with Jacqui Lambie?
She seemed to think there was. It seemed pretty obvious to everyone watching that there was. Yet Mathias Cormann said categorically that there was not.
'Deal or no deal?' Mathias Cormann tells the Senate "there is no secret deal" moments before Jacquie Lambie says she can't talk about the deal she has done with the government on repealing #Medevac because of national security. Follow live: https://t.co/EXa3Eu4W87 #auspol pic.twitter.com/XiqiOGXBss
— Guardian Australia (@GuardianAus) December 4, 2019
Updated
'Reasons to be positive' on economy: Frydenberg
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is speaking on the GDP figures out today. He’s got slides.
The figures were softer than expected at 0.4% quarterly growth for the September quarter, which remains below the long-term average.
“Australia is back in black and back on track,” Frydenberg says to kick things off.
Frydenberg says the labour market remains strong, with annual jobs growth at 2%, more than double the OECD average. He said the overall growth was broad-based, contributed to by household consumption, net exports and public final demand.
Household consumption has only increased by 0.1%, just so you know.
He says household disposable income grew by 2.5%, the fastest quarterly rise in a decade, leading to an increase in household savings .
But Frydenberg said the drought was having a significant impact on the Australian economy. Farm GDP are at record lows and rural exports are down.
Mining investment is down 7.8% in the quarter. Total new business investment fell by 2%.
In conclusion, Australia is not alone in facing significant domestic and global economic headwinds, but there are reasons to be positive about our economic future.
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Médecins Sans Frontières says the medevac repeal will endanger patients and is “unethical and harmful to vulnerable people and the entire medical profession”.
“Asylum seekers and refugees who remain indefinitely contained on Nauru and PNG have been blocked again from accessing treatment for critical health conditions where adequate care is not available locally,” said Paul McPhun, executive director of Médecins Sans Frontières Australia.
MSF noted there was still no access to proper psychiatric care on Nauru, a problem that has existed for almost a year.
“During our time working with patients on Nauru, MSF psychiatrists and psychologists determined that the majority had their lives impaired by mental illness,” McPhun said.
“To now deny medical professionals from taking decisions in patients’ best interests – and to effectively hand that power back to unqualified officials – entrenches dangerous precedents set in the last years and puts those most sick and vulnerable at risk.
“Preventing access to medical care as a policy tool is unethical and harmful to vulnerable people and the entire medical profession.”
Updated
We’ve got some vision now of Jacqui Lambie’s speech to the Senate.
Jacqui Lambie gives an emotional speech to the Senate as she votes to repeal #medevac. "I get that this vote will disappoint many, and I apologise for that. This is a matter of conscience". Follow live: https://t.co/Kt6fUKvdXH #auspol pic.twitter.com/KyYUXC2RdP
— Guardian Australia (@GuardianAus) December 4, 2019
'Cruel, bloody-minded politics': angry reactions to medevac repeal
The Human Rights Law Centre has issued a statement on the repeal of medevac. It says the government stripped away “a humane, transparent and doctor-led process for the refugees in its care”.
David Burke, the centre’s legal director, said it was a “shameful day” for the government and the senators who voted with them.
“Fear and lies have dominated at the expense of men and women who need medical care,” Burke said.
“Peter Dutton and the Morrison government have today played cruel, bloody-minded politics with peoples’ lives. The Morrison government has stripped away the basic shred of humanity that meant that when someone was sick they could get the care they needed.”
The centre said since the laws came into effect in March 2019, about 200 people have been evacuated to get medical care. More than 500 people remained in PNG and Nauru, Burke said.
“Now that the government has robbed these people of the medevac laws, it is more urgent than ever that they ensure every single person is resettled to safety. We will continue to challenge these cruel policies.”
Updated
anytime you think the bottomless cruelty of refugee politics in this place can't get any worse, it always does
— Scott Ludlam (@Scottludlam) December 4, 2019
The near-universal reaction to those GDP figures? They’re softer than expected and of concern.
Disappointing GDP:
— Stephen Koukoulas (@TheKouk) December 4, 2019
Up just 0.4% q/q. And to think, the RBA met yesterday and did nothing ...
AU Q3 GDP slightly softer than expected, consumer subdued and private investment weak - private final demand again negative, the public sector again the key driver of growth #ausbiz pic.twitter.com/kCTX6xcWQ3
— Alex Joiner (@IFM_Economist) December 4, 2019
Contribution from household consumption to Australia Q3 GDP just 0.1point. The last time contribution was this low as June 2013#ausbiz #RBA
— Sophia Rodrigues (@CentralbkIntel) December 4, 2019
Mike Bowers was in the chamber for that vote to repeal medevac, where Lambie used her critical vote to side with the government. Refugee advocates, Labor, the Greens, and human rights groups say it is a “dark day” for Australia. Here’s how it unfolded in the chamber:
Updated
Australian economy grew 0.4% in September quarter, well below average
The Australian Bureau of Statistics have updated GDP figures for the September quarter.
The Australian economy grew 0.4% in seasonally adjusted chain volume terms in the September quarter 2019 and 1.7% through the year. Growth of 0.4% this quarter is down from 0.6% in the June quarter.
ABS chief economist, Bruce Hockman, said:
The economy has continued to grow, however the rate of growth remains well below the long run average.
The government had held out hope that the September quarter would produce a bounce on the back of tax cuts for middle income earners of up to $1,080.
Household gross disposable income increased by 2.5% due to the tax cuts and lower mortgage repayments after three interest rate cuts this year.
But the results show household expenditure increased by just 0.1%, with weakness in spending on discretionary goods and services.
The household saving ratio rose to 4.8. Hockman said:
The reduction to tax payable did not translate to a rise in discretionary spending, which led to a visible impact to household saving.
While mining investment declined 7.8% this quarter and 11.2% through the year, the public sector was again the saviour: Government final consumption expenditure rose 0.9% in the quarter and remains strong through the year at 6.0%.
New Zealand says refugee offer still on table
The New Zealand government has refused to confirm whether they have recently been approached by the Australian government on the Manus deal, only reiterating that the offer remained live.
“The offer to take 150 refugees is still on the table,” immigration minister Iain Lees-Galloway said in a statement to the Guardian.
In November last year, the New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, reiterated her government’s offer to take up to 150 refugees after a weeks-long standoff at Manus Island detention facility led to a desperate humanitarian situation for the remaining detainees.
New Zealand has made the same offer to the Australian government since 2013, but it has been strongly and repeatedly refused. The Australian home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, described it as a “bad option” and suggested it may encourage people-smuggling boats to intensify their efforts to reach Australia.
There is a precedent for New Zealand accepting refugees that Australia does not want.
In 2001 Helen Clark’s Labour government offered asylum to 130 refugees who were rescued from the Tampa after it sunk off the Australian coast. Twenty of the 130 asylum seekers were young boys and adolescents, and became known as the “Tampa boys”.
Abbas Nazari, 23, a Tampa refugee who resettled in New Zealand, recently won a Fullbright scholarship to study in the US. He says the country welcomed him with open arms.
“I can’t recall any instances of racism and that’s the same experience for the vast majority of my family and community,” says Nazari.
“We wove naturally into the fabric of New Zealand society. So when I hear stories of prejudice and racism, I know for sure that it exists but my experience in New Zealand has been amazingly warm and welcoming.”
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Senator @JacquiLambie during the final stage of the #Medevac vote and exiting the chamber @mpbowers @murpharoo @knausc pic.twitter.com/WRsTeLVhZc
— Lyndal Curtis (@lyndalcurtis) December 4, 2019
#BREAKING #Medevac has been repealed by the Senate. A shameful and dark day in Parliament and a betrayal of our values and national conscience. To the refugees in PNG and Nauru, the @ASRC1 will be there for you, please don’t lost hope. We will keep fighting and standing with you
— Kon Karapanagiotidis (@Kon__K) December 4, 2019
'Cruel', 'dark day', 'heartless': reactions to medevac vote
Reactions are flowing thick and fast after that vote. Shamindan, a refugee still in Papua New Guinea, said it was a “very dark day” that would allow politicians to deliberately deny medical care to those who need it.
It is a very dark day that will mean refugees lives will again be in the hands of politicians who have shown they will deliberately withhold medical treatment from people who desperately need it #auspol @NickMcKim @drkerrynphelps #doctors4refugees
— Shamindan (@Shamindan1) December 4, 2019
Anthony Albanese said “you can be strong on borders without being weak on humanity”.
You can be strong on borders without being weak on humanity. And on every issue, that’s what’s missing from this Government – humanity.
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) December 4, 2019
From robodebt, to the aged care crisis, to medevac.
This mob has no heart.
Richard Di Natale said it was clear someone had lied about the deal struck between Lambie and the Coalition. He just held a press conference:
Someone’s lying here. Either senator Lambie is lying, or the government is lying. It’s very clear. According to senator Lambie there was a proposal put to the government that was negotiated in secret, yet the government denies it.
It is cruel, it is heartless, it is absolutely an assault on the parliament.
Amnesty International Australia has described it as a “shameful day” for Australia. Advisor Graham Thom said:
It’s a shameful day when the Australian parliament turns its back on sick people in desperate need of medical attention. Let’s not forget that this offshore detention system is the one under which 12 innocent people have died.
Updated
Although one Labor amendment was voted on (to continue the medevac process for those with existing applications), I’m advised the rest weren’t circulated in time so the gag motion effectively prevented them being voted on.
Jacqui Lambie leaves the chamber alone. She walked past Stirling Griff and Rex Patrick, without making eye contact.
Updated
Medevac repeal bill is passed
The medevac repeal bill is passed 37 votes to 35.
This is effectively the end of the medevac laws.
Updated
As they vote, Centre Alliance senator Stirling Griff has sent us this statement:
A government that has no empathy for people in need of critical medical care is a government that doesn’t deserve to govern.
This repeal is all about a government desperate for a win – any win – ahead of the summer break.
Prior to medevac there were many deaths in detention. There have been none since medevac came into force.
This repeal will damage lives. It is a heartless action that shows complete disdain for humanity.
Updated
We’re now up to the final vote on this bill.
This is it. We’re expecting the repeal bill to be passed. Division in progress.
Lambie is voting against this amendment and it is defeated by one vote.
That’s a pretty grim forecast for the rest of Labor’s proposed amendments.
Updated
We’re currently voting on an amendment to allow people already in the medevac process to remain in the medevac process. Seems sane. Let’s see what our Senate thinks.
Labor and the Greens trying to get an amendment through protecting people already in the #medevac process #auspol
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) December 4, 2019
Pauline Hanson is shepherding Jacqui Lambie through these divisions.
At the moment, Lambie is penned between Hanson and the Liberal frontbencher Anne Ruston. It must be pretty intense, sitting between Hanson and Ruston right now.
Updated
We’re now into a series of votes on the second reading of the medevac repeal bill.
Labor is attempting now to move its amendments. The amendments are unlikely to be passed, but if they are, the bill will need to return to the lower house.
Kristina Keneally is using the amendments to call for government backbenchers “with some semblance of a beating heart” for support.
Labor has put in a whole bunch of amendments to the medevac bill. If Jacqui Lambie continues voting with the government they may not be successful, but they will trigger a series of votes after 11am that will delay its final passage.
These amendments would:
- Require home affairs minister Peter Dutton to make a detailed report every time a refugee or asylum seeker is settled in a third country.
- Allow minors to continue to come to Australia for psychiatric and medical assessments.
- Continue the work of the Independent Health Advice Panel in making independent health assessments which then must be tabled in parliament
- Stipulate that where the minister fails to make a decision about a proposed transfer, the more generous medevac provisions will continue to apply.
These would, in effect, soften the blow of repeal and try to set new rules to prevent the government refusing to deal with proposed medical transfers, as occurred before the medevac provisions were introduced.
Updated
Updated
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Lambie was obviously emotional during that speech.
There is fury in the chamber.
The Greens who sit close to Lambie, heckled her throughout.
A Labor senator shouted “this is undemocratic” as Lambie apologised for not revealing the detail of her conversation with the government.
As Lambie spoke, Penny Wong, Kristina Keneally and Katy Gallagher stood at the front of the chamber, in conclave, arms folded.
Richard Di Natale is furious. Mathias Cormann has just insisted there was no “secret deal”. But Lambie has just confirmed, clearly, that there is a secret deal.
Di Natale:
Who on earth is misleading this parliament?
Someone is misleading the Senate about one of the most important pieces of legislation that has been before this parliament.
Updated
Lambie:
I get that this vote will disappoint many, and I apologise for that. This is a matter of conscience.
She says she cannot allow the border protection system to unravel again and have people drown.
Lambie breaks down, refuses to say why she has given support
Lambie is breaking down in tears as she says she still cannot explain why she has given her vote to the government. She again cites national security for her lack of reasoning.
I’m not being coy or silly when I say I genuinely can’t say what I proposed. I know that’s frustrating to people and I accept that.
When I say I can’t discuss it for national security concerns, I am being 100% honest with you.
This was not an easy decision: Lambie
Jacqui Lambie finally gets up to speak. She says the decision was not easy and apologises for taking so long.
Medevac isn’t a national security threat, but there are real problems with the way it is operating.
They cannot be amended away. The Labor party and the Greens might think it’s a-OK, but I’m not comfortable with it.
She says the system is not as perfect as the activists would have you believe but not as bad as the “media loudmouths” would have you believe either.
Updated
Kristina Keneally points out 62% of Australians support medevac. She’s referring to this Guardian Essential Poll.
“Boy they don’t like hearing that, do they?” she says.
Keneally continues: “What you’re voting on today will deny sick people treatment,” she says. “It will deny sick people the opportunity to see a doctor and get treatment.”
Updated
A bit more activity at the back of the chamber. Penny Wong has just paid a visit to the Greens advisers. Pauline Hanson is also heckling Nick McKim.
Jacqui Lambie is looking straight ahead.
Nick McKim says it is a “dark day for the Senate”. But it’s darker still for those still on Manus and Nauru.
It’s the darkest day for those people who remain on Manus and Nauru. That’s who this is the darkest day for.
Pauline Hanson is repeating the fact (which we’re also seeing in a lot of newspapers) that people brought here under medevac aren’t in hospital.
It’s worth noting (again) that the purpose of medevac is to bring people to Australia for medical care or assessment which is unavailable in PNG and Nauru. That does not necessarily equal hospitalisation. And a lack of hospitalisation does not equal a scammed medevac.
Hanson then says a bunch of stuff that are not facts.
Pauline Hanson is on her feet. She doesn’t seem perturbed about not knowing the nature of the deal between Lambie and the Coalition. Instead, she’s attacking Labor and claiming medevac repeal is wanted by most Australians.
Katharine Murphy, who’s in the chamber, reports that a Labor interjector has given her a handy fact.
“The majority of Australian support medevac, you silly woman.”
Updated
The current debate is on Labor’s attempt to force the government to table all documents about its deal with Jacqui Lambie before the repeal bill is voted on.
It’s expected to go for about half an hour. Labor will need an absolute majority, but if it wins, it would effectively mean the bill cannot pass until those documents are provided to the Senate.
Finance minister Mathias Cormann is up on his feet.
There is no secret deal. There is no secret deal. There is no secret. the Australian people know extremely well the work that we have done to strengthen our border protection arrangements.
He continues:
Obviously the Labor party doesn’t believe anybody can ever be persuaded by argument.
While Penny Wong is in full flight, Mathias Cormann makes a brief check on Lambie, who has resumed her seat.
Jacqui Lambie is now wandering, at large, at the back of the chamber.
The government wins the vote and we’re now debating the bill. Labor is attempting to move amendments to force the government to disclose its deal with Jacqui Lambie.
Penny Wong is attempting to suspend standing orders.
She wants debate delayed until “all documents relating to negotiations between the government and Jacqui Lambie” are laid on the table.
At the moment we have cabinet ministers coming in here like lemming, voting on a legislation based on a deal you haven’t seen.
What sort of cabinet government is that? What sort of process of democracy is that?
She continues:
You should require of this government some disclosure. You should require of this government some disclosure.
You should require something more than secret deals done in the shadows.
We’re now voting to bring on consideration of the bill immediately.
The government wins the vote to limit debate 38-36.
Mike Bowers is in the chamber.
Updated
The government wins the vote to suspend standing orders 38-37, with Lambie’s vote critical.
It is now bringing on a vote to limit the debate.
Updated
Lambie is voting with the government in this division. There is much bonohomie on that side of the chamber.
Over the other side, the two Centre Alliance senators Stirling Griff and Rex Patrick are boxed in by Kristina Keneally and Katy Gallagher.
Updated
Jacqui Lambie has just entered the chamber. She looks cheerful. Malcolm Roberts from One Nation meanwhile is engaged in conversation with the Greens senator Janet Rice.
There is some speculation from senators that Scott Morrison has agreed with Lambie to pursue the New Zealand deal but only after the US deal has been fully executed. That’s what people think.
The government’s deputy Senate leader Simon Birmingham has dismissed Labor’s position that medevac is needed to ensure sick people are brought to Australia, saying the government has had its own system where people are assessed and brought here if needed.
Which is true – they do have such a policy.
But it was been widely criticised as inadequate. Data reported earlier this year showed that some people on Manus Island had waited as long as five years for treatment to start after the government’s contracted doctors recommended it.
Updated
We’re now voting on the suspension of standing orders. A division is required and the bells are ringing. If this passes, the government will be able to effectively guillotine debate and force a vote on the medevac repeal bill.
'Show us the deal': Wong
Penny Wong is on her feet.
It appears there’s been a deal done to repeal medevac. Well the Australian people wants to see the deal, this Senate wants to see the deal.
Wong says it’s consistent with the government’s attitude to scrutiny and transparency.
It’s not a government that likes scrutiny. It’s not a government that likes transparency.
Jacqui Lambie is now in the chamber. Wong says to Lambie:
Do not make them to require you to vote for legislation with the requirement of secrecy around it. It is not a reasonable proposition.
Updated
Di Natale continues:
If this government had a shred of integrity, it would allow this parliament to scrutinise the basis for the repeal of a law that protects what is a fundamental human right.
In the chamber, while Richard Di Natale is speaking, Penny Wong is engaged in a conversation with Mathias Cormann across the table.
Kristina Keneally is camped beside the advisers box.
Jacqui Lambie is not in the chamber.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale says the Senate is being asked to repeal laws that enshrine a “fundamental human right” on the basis of a secret deal.
So what we’ve got is we’ve got a government working with senator Lambie to repeal laws that provide people access to healthcare, that’s all this does. Medevac says if you are sick, you have a right to see a doctor, and it is a doctor who has the right to decide what kind of healthcare you receive.
That is a fundamental human right. That’s all the medevac laws do. Now we know that those laws that enshrine what we all understand to be a basic right afforded to every citizen, are going to be repealed but repealed on the basis of a secret deal.
Labor senator Katy Gallagher is slamming the Lambie-Coalition deal, saying they were “obsessed with getting a win after a shocking week”.
“Trying to get a win off the back of more than 500 people,” she said.
Gallagher said Labor is hearing “on the grape vine” that the Senate will have no opportunity to see the deal before the vote.
This chamber has every right to stand up and demand that any detail of the deal that’s been done should be provided to this chamber. We should be allowed to debate it, we should be allowed to disagree with it.
Updated
Greens senator Nick McKim says there are lives at real risk. He says doing secret deals on such a critical piece of legislation is one of “the most reprehensible things you could do as a member of parliament”.
The debate we are currently having is literally a life-or-death debate. It is literally a debate that will make such a difference, will have such an impact on so many people.
He says such a critical debate cannot be allowed without senators knowing what deal Lambie and the government have done.
I can only urge both parties of that deal to come clean on what they have agreed on. How can we have this debate when the majority of the Senate is in the dark about what that agreement is? How can we actually have a debate that is going to determine whether some people die or some people live without the full facts at our disposal?
He continues:
Don’t do a secret deal when people’s lives are in the balance. Because that’s what I fear has occurred ... playing through people’s lives through some secret arrangement is one of the most reprehensible things you could do as a member of parliament.
Updated
Things are moving rather quickly now. The government is moving a motion to effectively push through the medevac repeal bill as soon as possible this morning.
This would suggest it has done a deal with Lambie.
The process from here is as follows:
- There will be a debate on the government’s motion to suspend standing orders. That will last 30 minutes.
- If they’re successful, debate on medevac will continue until about 11am. If not all speakers are finished by that time, debate will be gagged and the vote will come on.
Updated
Keneally turns to One Nation, who have already given their support to medevac. She asks:
Does senator Hanson know what is in this secret deal? Does senator Roberts know what is in this secret deal?
She says Lambie cannot trust whatever promise the government has made to her.
Do you trust this prime minister? I say to senator Lambie, think about this prime minister he will say anything to get himself out of a bind.
Labor slams 'secret deal' between government and Lambie on medevac
Cormann says it is in the “national interest” to bring on a vote.
That is why I am moving this suspension and of course intend to move the motion circulated in the chamber.
Labor’s Kristina Keneally says it is clear there is a “secret deal” between Lambie and the Coalition.
Is this what this government has come to? Secret deals done behind closed doors, and now dragging it in here, guillotining debate.
The Senate is sitting and we’re expecting debate on medevac to kick off fairly early. It’s the first item on the government’s business orders of the day.
Finance minister Mathias Cormann is suspending standing orders and is up speaking.
This suggests they may have come to some arrangement with Jacqui Lambie. Nothing is certain yet.
Stay tuned.
Jacqui Lambie delivered a fairly damning speech on foreign influence in the Senate last night. She lambasted both parties for not doing enough to combat Chinese government foreign influence.
It’s about time the people in this place woke up to China’s attempts to infiltrate our economy and our democracy. I can tell you that the other 25 million Australians out there have. Both sides of politics need to take a good, hard look at themselves and make sure they’re acting in our national interest. Quite obviously, over China, they are not.
To be really clear to the Australian-Chinese community: I’m not talking about you. I’ve made that very clear in the past. Chinese-Australians have been here since the gold rushes, and their place in and contribution to Australian life is profound. I’m sure they join all Australians who are watching on in horror at the stories that have come out recently. It’s unbelievable what is being tolerated from inside this chamber.
Lambie referred to the NSW Icac’s inquiry into the $100,000 cash allegedly delivered in an Aldi bag to Labor HQ by Huang Xiangmo, a Chinese billionaire. She said at least NSW had an integrity commission to investigate and detect that kind of activity.
The fact is that there are basically no protections from stopping this happening at a federal level – not because there can’t be but because there’s no courage to make it happen. There’s no enforcement of the rules and there’s no follow-up if things look off. The scale of the problem is huge, and we’ve just been tinkering around the edges. The fact is that we’d never pick that sort of thing up if it happened at a national branch.
Lambie said Australia needed to develop a national strategy to handle the relationship.
The crossbench senator is wielding a fair bit of power at the moment, given the government’s desperation to repeal medevac.
Updated
There’s a few other tidbits around this morning. Channel Nine newspapers have reported that Gladys Liu, the Liberal MP, lobbied on behalf of a Chinese Communist party-endorsed company that was a large Liberal donor and was involved in some fairly shady dealings.
The papers have also reported that Kristina Keneally was set to become Australia’s ambassador to the US if Labor won office.
Updated
Mike Bowers caught Anthony Albanese talking to the media a little earlier.
We learned this morning that the government plans to bring back its union-busting bill in the lower house today. That, of course, is the bill that was defeated by One Nation on Friday, despite the government making changes to assuage their concerns. We’re not expecting a vote on the legislation until the new year.
Albanese said:
This is a government that needs an agenda for the 2020s. We’ve now just got a few weeks of this decade left. Their agenda for next year is that it’s the same as last year ... they’ve just got old stuff, that’s all they’ve got.
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A coalition of legal groups, including the Law Council of Australia, have issued a statement calling on the government to scrap plans to merge the various family courts into a single specialist court.
This week, the government reintroduced legislation that would merge the family and federal circuit courts.
But the coalition said the legislation was flawed and would do little to “alleviate the fundamental problems plaguing the family law system, including the risk of victims of family violence falling through the cracks”.
It instead wants the government to act on recommendations of the Australian Law Reform Commission and retain and enhance specialists courts and consider a “a specialised, standalone family law court system”.
To allow this to occur the joint select committee on Australia’s family law system should consider the bill. Its terms of reference are clearly inclusive of this as they require consideration of reform that may be needed to the family law and the current structure of the family court and the federal circuit court.
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Joyce calls for commonwealth to free up water for farmers
The Nationals remain under considerable pressure from the Murray Darling Basin plan protests in Canberra. Farmers yesterday labelled Nationals leader Michael McCormack spineless and lacking passion, and warned him his party faced looming electoral destruction unless they stood up to the Liberals.
NSW threatened to pull out of the basin plan yesterday, and the Coalition announced yesterday it would review water allocation arrangements between states.
Barnaby Joyce has been out and about this morning, calling for amendments to free up more of the commonwealth’s environmental water holdings for farmers. He told the ABC:
It’s got to deal in a more precise way with critical human and critical economic needs. Just so your listeners understand the biggest irrigator in Australia is you. You hold about 2.848m litres of water ... so you the taxpayer, the Australian government, holds the water that can alleviate some of these problems.
There’s got to be a capacity to say well we’re going to use more of that water for the critical needs of the irrigation towns, and deal in some way with the concerns these people raise.
Joyce said he was thankful for the protests because they had focused the mind of politicians. He said he understood farmers’ venting.
I went down the day before and got a dose of it myself, you know you just accept it. You’ve got to face up to your constituents. You’ve got to make sure you hear their message, that’s what’s a democracy is about.
One Nation and Bob Katter have been attempting to win over some of the Nationals’ traditional constituents on the issue. Malcolm Roberts was out the front of parliament yesterday trying to fan the flames of protesters and direct their anger towards the government.
Matt Canavan this morning criticised the approach of those with “big hats and dyed hair” who “like to jump up and down” for their “15 minutes of fame”.
“That’s not the approach that works, that approach does not work,” he told Sky News.
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We’ve had a few voices out already today speaking about Australia’s poor school results in the Program for International Student Assessment. Australia recorded the sharpest fall of any nation in the Pisa, which has caused considerable alarm.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese has said the results were a “shocker”.
“This is an f for fail in Australia for education,” he said this morning.
“We’re falling so far behind our competitors. We live in a globalised world, we can’t afford to be going backwards.”
Education minister Dan Tehan said simply injecting more money into the system was not the answer.
“I think we all now realise that equally important is school results and outcomes, that now needs to be the focus,” Tehan said. “We’ve got to put aside this obsession that some have of money, money, money.”
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Preview of the day
Here’s what we’re expecting from today.
- The GDP figures are out this morning, about 11.30am. The numbers are expected to be less than rosy for the government, given the last figures put Australia’s growth at the lowest level since 2009. Labor has been leading its attack on the government this week with criticism of its economic mismanagement.
- Protests over the Murray Darling Basin plan are continuing to spur debate in parliament. The protesters are angry over their lack of access to water under the plan and want it scrapped. There was a little bit of movement yesterday when drought minister David Littleproud announced a review. The Nationals have been having a torrid time with it. Pictures of Michael McCormack being given a healthy serve outside parliament have been played ad nauseam on TV and radio. Not a great look.
- Debate will continue on the medevac repeal bill. We’re still none the wiser on Jacqui Lambie’s position, which will be critical in deciding the fate of medevac. Lambie’s demands are still unclear, though she did last night make a fiery speech in the Senate about inaction on Chinese government interference.
- Angus Taylor will be back in some form, I can assure you of that. Whether it’s the grasslands controversy, the forged documents controversy, the Naomi Wolf controversy, the phone call controversy, the pecuniary interests controversy, or some other unknown controversy yet to emerge. I’ve never said controversy so many times in a single sentence and doubt I ever will again.
- We’re also likely to hear some debate over the terrible school results out today. Australia recorded the sharpest falls in performance of any country in the Program for International Student Assessment.
Updated
Hello friends and welcome to the last sitting Wednesday of the year.
We’re expecting another busy one, likely dominated by economics (GDP figures are out), further debate on the medevac bill, the Murray Darling Basin, Chinese influence and, of course, your man Angus Taylor, who is hard pressed to find a way out of the news at the moment.
Grab a cuppa and settle in.
