The wrap
This is where we will leave you tonight.
We are absolutely guaranteed to hear more about the AWU raids tomorrow. That fallout is going to continue for quite some time.
As for what else happened today? Well, a lot. AFP resources, ABC estimates, a one-sided energy debate, the Productivity Commission report and marriage equality all got an airing at one time or another.
We also got an answer on the high court decision – 2.15pm on Friday. Right now, that seems a very long time away.
In the meantime, I would recommend you cleanse your palette by letting your opinion be known on what is Australia’s best and worst bird. Clearly, the cassowary is the best bird and the noisy myna is the worst. You may have another opinion (but you’d be wrong) but feel free to tell me on Twitter at @amyremeikis. Why not let Mike Bowers know your thoughts at the same time – @mpbowers and @mikepbowers.
Big thank you to the Guardian Australia brains trust and to everyone who played along. It’s only Tuesday, if you can believe it. We have two whole more days of this, plus a high court decision! Then, knowing my luck, we’ll also have the Queensland election called, plus a potential byelection in New England.
On that note, sweet dreams and I hope to see you back here just after 8am tomorrow.
Updated
A statement from the Registered Organisations Commission:
Investigation into the National Office and the Victorian Branch of the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU), under Section 331 of the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009.
The Registered Organisations Commission (ROC) commenced an investigation on 20 October 2017 into whether donations made to GetUp Limited during the financial year ending 2006 were approved under the AWU’s Rules and separately, whether donations to a range of recipients during the financial year ending 30 June 2008 were approved under the AWU’s Rules.
Those investigations relate to whether the making of any of these donations amounted to contraventions of numerous civil penalty provisions of the predecessors to the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009 (RO Act).
Since the investigation commenced, the ROC received information which raised reasonable grounds for suspecting that documents relevant to this investigation may be on the premises of the AWU (at both its Sydney National office and its Victorian Branch office) and that those documents may be being interfered with (by being concealed or destroyed).
The ROC has put the information to a magistrate, who earlier today issued warrants under section 335K of the RO Act to enter the Sydney National office and the Victorian Branch office of the AWU to seize documents related to the ROC’s investigation.
The RO Act provides that warrants under section 335K authorise the Australian Federal Police, with other assistance, to enter premises, search for and seize documents. This afternoon, officers of the AFP executed these search warrants in Sydney and Melbourne on behalf of the ROC.
Section 337AC of the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009 (the RO Act) provides that it is an offence for a person to engage in conduct that results in the concealment, destruction or alteration of a document relating to an investigation being conducted, or about to be investigated by the ROC. The ROC is unable to comment further on this matter, as it remains an open investigation.
Updated
Meanwhile, back in estimates ...
Updated
A statement from a government spokesperson has just come through:
The AFP is completely independent of Government.
It is absurd and false to suggest the AFP is in any way politicised. Labor is attacking the independence, integrity and professionalism of the AFP and its officers.
This is an offensive slur and a disgraceful distraction.
This matter was referred to the Registered Organisations Commission weeks ago and it is important it is allowed to investigate without hysterical smears from Labor.
This baseless attack is a repudiation of what Bill Shorten said in 2015:
“We recognise that the AFP is independent, they’ll make their own decisions about what they choose to investigate or not and that’s as it should be. We should never forget that when Mr Abbott and his team were in opposition they were constantly writing to the AFP on all sorts of matters. But let’s be very clear here, we believe the AFP’s an independent institution and it makes its own decisions.” (Source: Bill Shorten, doorstop interview: Melbourne: 19 July 2015)
*end statement*
Updated
I’m transcribing as quick as I can, but Brendan O’Connor was speaking exceptionally fast, so it is a little heavy going.
Here is a bit more.
I am afraid to say, as a result of today, it is clear now that the government is using the power of the state and using taxpayers dollars to attack its political opponents. Nothing has changed since the conduct of the royal commission, this is just a continuation of the same approach by this grubby prime minister, this loser of a prime minster, who when he can not control his own government, when he can not develop any policies he calls the police.
He goes on.
Let’s look at the history of this government, the royal commission called three Labor leaders, it has never happened in our history, since federation, two prime ministers and a Labor leader called to two royal commissions. And now, we have a situation where we have a registered organisation commission established – what is their first public act? To raid the union offices of the AWU in an attempt to attack them. In an attempt to smear federal Labor and its leader. Now, indeed the prime minister does have questions to answer. He needs to explain what he knew about these raids, what he knew about the role of the commission and indeed the minister, who of course who is responsible for oversight of this commission, the minister for employment must explain exactly the role she had in these raids, because it is quite clear now that if this was a one off I would understand that there might be some scepticism, but it is clear now that there is never an end to the political abuse of commonwealth agencies by this government. When Malcolm Turnbull is in trouble, he calls the police.
Updated
Brendan O’Connor:
What we know is, that the Registered Organisations Commission, a body that was established after the double dissolution has been used by the government, by minister Cash and by the prime minister in an attempt to attack federal Labor and the leader of the opposition. What we know is clearly, as a result of the referral by the minister to the registered organisations commission they have sought to use their coercive powers to deploy police to raid offices to deal with what could be a civil matter at best. Now, let’s look at the pattern of behaviour of this government since it was elected in 2013. They established the royal commission into their political opponents, they summoned three Labor leaders including Bill Shorten to those royal commissions, they had, in sofar as the last royal commission was concerned, they had Bill Shorten in the stand for two days, asking him 900 questions and there were no findings against the federal leader Bill Shorten, and yet this continues. It continues because Malcolm Turnbull when he is under pressure, calls the police. Malcolm Turnbull called the police i relation to senate staff at the beginning of the last federal election, Malcolm Turnbull threatened to call police n the night of the election because he wasn’t happy with the result. Malcolm Turnbull has clearly misused the police.
Now today, we of course discovered through senate estimates that there are resource issues with the Australian Federal Police, there are areas that are under resourced to the extent that very serious drug importation crimes are occurring without sufficient resources deployed by the AFP. At the same time that that was uncovered, we have a situation where the government is treating the police as its play thing, using the police to investigate a civil matter, an allegation that was made 10 years ago, about whether in fact money was authorised and provided to a third party. Now it is clear, from anyone watching, any reasonable person, any independent person would be well aware that this is the intervention by the prime minister, an abuse of ministerial power, the abuse of police resources at a time when police should be dealing with far more serious matters. Malcolm Turnbull now must explain what office his office and he played what role his minister and her office played in engaging with the registered organisation commission, a body by the way that federal Labor said we will not support, because it could be used to attack the political opponents of the government. And what has happened? It’s first public foray we see the registered organisation commission was used in a matter in an attempt to attack the federal leader, the federal Labor leader Bill Shorten. Well, we said it was going to be used for base political purposes, it clearly is now being compromised, as a result of the conduct today. As I say, there is a patten of behaviour, a royal commission, a discredited royal commission, we found out the commissioner was raising money for the Liberal party, even so, that royal commission did not find against Bill Shorten after two days of questioning and yet the government is relentless in misusing its powers and misusing the resources of the federal police.
“I think it is extremely politically motivated ... our union has been operating for 130 years ... but they are purely looking at Bill Shorten’s time,” Walton says.
Updated
“Why is the AFP here today, to raid the union offices in search of a couple of pages of historic minutes from 10 years ago,” ask the national secretary, Daniel Walton.
Updated
The union says it received notification on Friday that an investigation had been opened but had no warning of this step, calling it “extraordinary”.
Updated
The union boss Sally McManus describes the raids as “an attack on democracy” and “a sad day for democracy”.
Updated
“None of these allegations, even if they are true, warrant this conduct,” O’Connor says and ends the press conference.
O’Connor says “this grubby prime minister is willing to use the police like his play thing” and calls the raids, by a civil regulator, over a matter from 10 years ago “remarkable”.
O’Connor:
This is a civil regulator and yet we have crime fighters raiding offices because of the role of civil regulator … the priority of this government is about deploying police for civil matters … against their political opponents.
He says the government treats the federal police as its “play thing”.
Updated
O’Connor:
I saw the raids happening on television, the first I saw of it, was when it was public ... I did not know of these raids until they were happening and I dare say the federal leader did not know.
Of course the media knew, because all the cameras were waiting outside two premises … and indeed the government knew.
Updated
“He beggars belief that this is not a political raid, it beggars belief,” O’Connor says of the commission’s first public act.
He says the prime minister needs to explain what he knew of the raids, what his role was and what Michaelia Cash’s role was.
“It is clear now that there is never an end to the political abuse of commonwealth agencies by this government.”
Updated
He says the raids validate Labor’s decision not to support the Registered Organisations Commission because it believed it would be used against the government’s opponents.
He said Labor did not support the ROC “because it will be used for political purposes, base political purposes”.
He accused the government of using “taxpayer dollars to its attack its political opponents” and hits out at this “loser prime minister”.
Updated
Labor responds to AWU raids
Brendan O’Connor has gone live in a press conference slamming the raids on the AWU offices.
He is not mincing his words:
“Malcolm Turnbull, when he is under pressure, calls the police ... Malcolm Turnbull clearly has misused the police.”
He says it is a “civil matter at best” and calls it “an abuse of ministerial power, an abuse of police resources”.
Updated
The AWU’s Victorian secretary, Ben Davis, has spoken to media outside the union’s Melbourne office.
“This is a shameful abuse of process” - Ben Davis - @AWUnion - Melbourne. @AusFedPolice conducting raids on Sydney and Melb AWU offices. pic.twitter.com/O59U6IYhhv
— 7 News Sydney (@7NewsSydney) October 24, 2017
Updated
While we’re talking about the AFP and its protection of the prime minister’s Point Piper home, I’ve been reminded of this joke Malcolm Turnbull made on the Today show on 18 October.
I’ve got a big power bill but not least because I’ve got a small police station in my garden, as you know.
Updated
The AFP have just posted a statement in response to the ABC story on the leaked internal memo which dominated question time (and some of the ABC estimates hearing).
The AFP is disappointed an internal working document, which sought to provide confidential operational advice and revealed operational sensitivities, has been made public as this undermines the AFP’s ability to ensure its resources are used efficiently, effectively and appropriately. This is now subject to a Professional Standards investigation.
Over the past 12 months, the AFP and its partners have made record drug seizures, dismantled significant and multi-national organised crime syndicates, and disrupted a number of plots with people allegedly planning to carry out terrorist attacks in Australia.
The AFP makes decisions daily on operational priorities, resourcing and determining which matters pose the greatest risk to the safety and security to the Australian community, and directing its resources where they are most needed. The AFP has systems in place to manage its resources as flexibly as possible against the highest priorities.
The AFP has a broad range of Protection obligations in Sydney (including the AFP’s own people and premises). Protecting Prime Ministers and Australian high office holders has always been part of the AFP’s operational remit. The provisions in place for Prime Minister Turnbull are entirely consistent with both the current enhanced security environment and protection measures in place for previous Prime Ministers.
The challenges for law enforcement have evolved significantly over the past decade. This calls for the use of innovative operational practices and techniques, including offshore disruption when the AFP feels that this is the most appropriate way to manage a criminal investigation. Technological advances and increasingly complex criminal methodologies require the use of more specialist capabilities.
In this year’s Budget, the Government invested an additional $321.4 million to bolster the AFP’s capability, and ensure the agency is best-placed to combat its future challenges.
*end statement*
Updated
And some more:
Statement from @SenatorAbetz on AFP raids #auspol pic.twitter.com/hsTL635SVL
— Political Alert (@political_alert) October 24, 2017
Labor’s employment spokesman, Brendan O’Connor, has released a statement of his own on the AWU offices’ raids.
On the same day Parliament was told that Turnbull’s cuts to the AFP have meant serious crimes like drug smuggling could not be properly investigated, we see these extraordinary raids. Turnbull and his Government openly directed the Commission to start this witch hunt.
He is entirely responsible for this turn of events – it’s an alarming misuse of ministerial power.
The Liberals have already wasted millions of taxpayers’ dollars on their witch hunt into unions.
They will stop at nothing to attack workers and their representatives.
This is the NBN raids during the election campaign all over again.
Australians will see this for the desperate tactic that it is.
*end statement*
Updated
Statement from AWU National Secretary re AFP raids pic.twitter.com/v59uPUiljS
— David Lipson (@davidlipson) October 24, 2017
Sky News has been showing images of the AFP raid on the AWU offices. Looks like it is going to go on for a while.
We believe Bill Shorten’s lawyer just walked into the AWU offices currently being raided by AFP
— Chris Reason (@ChrisReason7) October 24, 2017
(Just an update on this–Sky are not the only media outlet there, but they are showing live pictures. The raid has been going on for a while and as far as I can see the ABC broke it. Then media outlets headed to the AWU Sydney and Melbourne offices)
Updated
Over in the legal affairs estimates hearing and George Brandis and Penny Wong have been discussing the appointments of former Coalition MPs to things like the administrative appeals tribunal.
It has been jokingly referred to by some wags as the “no Liberal left behind” policy.
Wong pointed out that six of the 23 full-time members of the AAT have strong links back to the Liberal party, or 26%.
Brandis says that he does not “consider service in parliament as a disqualification”.
A rough transcript of some of the afternoon’s hearing follows:
Wong: It is the case that the 76 appointments you made on the eve of the election last year, none were made through committee process?
Brandis: Most of those appointments were reappointments.
[Secretary of AG department] Chris Moraitis: I cannot recall any committee process being used in those appointments, or recently.
Wong: How many of all the appointments you made were advertised, or recommended by selection committee?
Brandis: [Takes on notice]
Wong: Do you recall a selection committee being established at all by this government in any appointments?
Moraitis: No.
Wong: How many of the appointments that the government has made to the AAT since protocol put in place have been recommended for appointment without any process whatsoever?
Brandis: There’s always been a process …
Wong: What is it?
Brandis: [Neither] Justice Kerr nor [David] Thomas [president of the AAT] have ever raised a complaint with me that they were dissatisfied about how complaints were being handled.
Wong: You announced appointments at end of September. Did the president supply you with a list of positions that needed to be filled? If so when?
Brandis: I have had a very full process with the president about appointments.
Wong: How many were reappointments recommended? How many were publicly advertised ...
Brandis: [Takes on notice]
Wong: Did you advertise any of them? You don’t remember?
Brandis: I want to check. [Takes further questions about full-time v part-time appointments on notice]
Wong: You’re responsible for about 95% of appointments to the AAT?
Brandis: Sounds about right.
Updated
I am going to take an educated guess that the AFP raid has something to do with the allegations in this story, published by the Australian yesterday
Brad Norington reported:
Bill Shorten faces investigation over a large sum of union funds he donated to his own election campaign in 2007 – possibly without proper approval – when he led the Australian Workers Union and first ran for parliament.
The Registered Organisations Commission is understood to be inquiring into a $25,000 union payment that Mr Shorten arranged to help his campaign as Labor’s candidate in the federal Victorian seat of Maribyrnong.
Also under scrutiny are two other AWU donations to Labor candidates in federal seats that were handled by Mr Shorten when he was in charge of the union — $25,000 for Petrie in Queensland and $20,000 for Stirling in Western Australia.
The commission’s investigation of these AWU donations during the 2008 financial year is in addition to another it started on Friday into Mr Shorten’s union handout to GetUp! in 2006 when he sat on the activist group’s board as well as leading the AWU.
Updated
The AFP is currently raiding The Australian Workers’ Union offices in Melbourne and Sydney, via @StephieBorys @abcnews
— Henry Belot (@Henry_Belot) October 24, 2017
A bird (a currawong, I think) was trapped in the mural hall this afternoon. It’s bogong moth season in Canberra, which sends the birds inside.
Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian
Updated
Here is the announcement on the high court judgments.
Please be advised the following judgments will be handed down in Canberra this week:
Friday 27 October 2017 at 2.15pm
1. In the matter of questions referred to the Court of Disputed Returns pursuant to section 376 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Cth) concerning Senator the Hon. Matthew Canavan (C11/2017)
2. In the matter of questions referred to the Court of Disputed Returns pursuant to section 376 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Cth) concerning Mr Scott Ludlam (C12/2017)
3. In the matter of questions referred to the Court of Disputed Returns pursuant to section 376 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Cth) concerning Ms Larissa Waters (C13/2017)
4. In the matter of questions referred to the Court of Disputed Returns pursuant to section 376 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Cth) concerning Senator Malcolm Roberts (C14/2017)
5. In the matter of questions referred to the Court of Disputed Returns pursuant to section 376 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Cth) concerning The Hon. Barnaby Joyce MP (C15/2017)
6. In the matter of questions referred to the Court of Disputed Returns pursuant to section 376 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Cth) concerning Senator the Hon. Fiona Nash (C17/2017)
7. In the matter of questions referred to the Court of Disputed Returns pursuant to section 376 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Cth) concerning Senator Nick Xenophon (C18/2017)
Copies of the judgment summaries will be accessible on the High Court website following the delivery of judgment.
Copies of the full judgment will be accessible on http://eresources.hcourt.gov.au/browse once uploaded.
Updated
In other One Nation news, one of the party’s policies has managed to pull off the impossible and has united both the Queensland Labor party and the LNP in condemnation.
Terri Butler also had a few things to say about it:
One Nation’s policy, announced today, to allow visitation rights to fathers regardless of an emergency protection order, puts women and children’s safety at risk.
This policy is abhorrent. Why is One Nation ignoring Australia’s family violence crisis? Australians look to elected representatives to keep women and children safe, not recklessly expose them to the risk of violence and harm.
This policy is life-threatening.
Pauline Hanson has a woeful record in relation to violence against women and children.
In June 2016, the Townsville Bulletin reported on her comments as follows:
“We need a full overview of the child support system and the family law courts to find the answers (because) you know some (women) are going out there and claiming domestic violence because they’re told ‘I don’t like the colour of your dress’,” Ms Hanson said.
“They (women) are making frivolous complaints and it’s time that our court system (is looked at) – especially for men who are the subject of domestic violence themselves.
“Men have nowhere to go – (domestic violence against males) is very widely spread.
“I want to sit down with these (male-focused) organisations, these groups, and give them a voice, because they feel like they’re not being heard.”
Townsville Bulletin – 10 June 2016
And in her recent first speech to Senate, when she returned to the Parliament, she said:
HANSON: Children are used as pawns in custody battles where women make frivolous claims and believe they have the sole right to the children.
Children have two parents and, until we treat mums and dads with the same courtesy and rights, we will continue to see murders due to sheer frustration and depression and mental illness caused by this unworkable system.
First Speech to Parliament – 14 September 2016
Violence against women is an epidemic. Victim-blaming, and making victims less safe, is destructive and wrong.
I congratulate the Queensland Minister, Shannon Fentiman, and the Shadow Minister, for jointly opposing One Nation’s latest policy today.
It stands in stark contrast to the actions of the Minister for Women, Liberal Senator Cash, who hugged Senator Hanson.
The policy that One Nation has today announced is not only ignorant; it is incredibly dangerous for women and their children.
One Nation have stooped to a new low with this policy, proving that they cannot be trusted to keep the community safe.
*end statement*
Updated
“One more question here. The ABC, I’ve read somewhere or maybe Ms Guthrie said, has more investigative journalists than anyone else. In Australia. Is that correct?,” Malcolm Roberts asks.
It is correct, he’s told.
“Yet, none of the ABC’s investigative journalists have recently confirmed or recently found in what we have done, just ourselves, in investigating the CSIRO through there own presentations. SO there is a whole other side to this climate debate that I never hear about it on the ABC. One of the characteristics of groupthink, people who participate in groupthink actually think they are doing the right thing? “
“I am sure we all think we are doing the right thing,” Alan Sunderland says.
You know what investigative journalists did manage to find out? That Malcolm Roberts was a dual citizen when he nominated to parliament. Despite the repeated denials. And the “hand-on-heart” protestations all the documents were in order. It was reporting, which, like climate reporting, is not based on what we feel, or choose to believe, but in what the facts say.
Let’s see what the high court has to say about those empirical facts on Friday.
Updated
Alan Sunderland responds to the groupthink discussion: “One of the things we pride ourselves on at the ABC, we certainly don’t pride ourselves on being perfect, but we pride ourselves on having the most, the greatest level of commitment of any Australian media organisation, to a set of editorial standards designed to challenge preconceptions, to deliver impartiality, to deliver accuracy, for a whole range of outcomes to make sure we can be trusted as a media organisation that doesn’t engage in bias, in inaccuracies, in group think or anything else you want to discuss.
Malcolm Roberts thanks Sunderland, but says: “I can assure you that a lot of people I listen to across Queensland and around Australia do not see the ABC as anything but groupthink. With the exception of regional reporters in Queensland.”
Updated
Malcolm Roberts moves on to groupthink. Without irony.
He has made a point of calling it “Your ABC” in his questioning.
“One definition is group pressures leading to groups making faulty decisions through deterioration through mental efficiency, reality testing and moral judgment,” Roberts offers.
“That’s One Nation for ya,” quips Sarah Hanson-Young.
Google tells me that definition came from a site like this, which looks like it was built in the 1990s.
Updated
“Let’s consider commentators moonlighting as journalists,” Roberts says. He is talking about Insiders. He says only five of the 32 journalists who recently appeared (the past eight weeks) were “right of centre”.
Also worth noting, one of the biggest ideological warriors in parliament, who is part of the one of the most ideological parties seen in Australia, “does not like the term right and left but that is what our society has degenerated into”.
Alan Sunderland, the director of editorial policies, said Insiders is “a program which does not bring together leftwing and rightwing commentators to provide leftwing and rightwing prospectives on the news. Insiders is a program which by and large seeks to bring together senior journalists, the majority of them working in the press gallery and others who are senior commentators on the matter of politics.”
Roberts doesn’t say how he came to the conclusion of who is left and who is right.
That is an average of 0.625 conservatives per episode and that is not including Talking Pictures presenters. So over a total of eight weeks, 15.6 %, and, if you include the Talking Pictures commentators, it is only 12.5. So I am not advocating you must have rightwing and you must have leftwing, I am advocating you must have balance. Do you consider when we have only 12.5% of the commentators from the right wing, do you consider that to be fair and balanced representation of our society?
It might be worth noting that it was on Insiders that Pauline Hanson made her now infamous anti-vaccination comments.
Sunderland says given he doesn’t understand how Roberts has done his analysis on who is left and who is right, it is difficult for him to respond.
“I take it you are finding it difficult to understand about the concepts of fair and balanced,” Roberts concludes.
“I am just questioning your assumptions,” Sunderland says.
“Just because it is what you believe, Senator Roberts, doesn’t make it true,” Sarah Hanson-Young says.
Updated
Malcolm Roberts has just stepped up to the microphone for the ABC estimates. “This will be good,” Sarah Hanson-Young says.
His first question is on how the Australian public “can trust you without the facts, if they just simply go on opinions”.
Michelle Guthrie: “We don’t go on opinions”.
Just extraordinary scenes in both question time and estimates.
Mike Bowers, as always, was catching it all.
Updated
In estimates Michelle Guthrie is being asked about the possibility the competitive neutrality review could conclude that there should be a paywall on the ABC’s iView online TV playback service.
Guthrie said that the idea “would seem to be double-dipping” because the Australian public had paid for ABC programming and would have to pay again to access it on iView.
“They’ve already paid for the programming, in terms of taxpayer funding,” she said. “iView is simply taking those programs and making them available in a different window.”
Asked if she’d raised this concern with the minister, Guthrie responded:
I’ve certainly raised my view that ABC has operated within dual environment since the beginning. Just because technology and audience habit is changing doesn’t mean the ABC is the cause of any economic difficulties [of commercial broadcasters]. That trend is happening everywhere in the world. The idea we might have to retract from particular platforms is not the expectation of Australian people.
Updated
Back to estimates and Linda Reynolds is pressing the ABC representatives in estimates about how that question time came about.
Reynolds calls it an apparent “coordinated attack on the govt”.
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) October 24, 2017
Guthrie: "all speculation, I have no idea of sequence of events" #estimates
A Dixer to Michael Keenan on “the measures the government is taking to protect our community from our worst criminals” ends with Keenan saying this:
Now let me show you what is the current situation. This is the current situation. This is the status quo that the Labor party supports. 42% of Commonwealth child sex offences do not spend one day in prison. Not one day. And of the 58 ... {I] want to repeat that, Mr Speaker, because this is a status quo that the Labor party supports. 42% of the files not spending one day prison, not one day. 58% of those actually do go to prison, the most common length of time served is six months.
Tony Burke interrupts on a point of order asking Keenan to “withdraw the statement that there are members that want to see paedophiles on the street”.
Tony Smith says he didn’t hear the minister say that and there is a back and forth where the Speaker says he has to balance “what is very robust debate, with frankly, freedom of speech”.
It ends with a division after Burke moves the minister be no longer heard. And that is most likely the end of question time.
Updated
Following a Peter Dutton Dixer (the government has switched from energy to how it is protecting Australians) Bill Shorten again asks about the AFP budget.
“How can the prime minister claim he is cracking down on drug importers on a scale never seen before when an AFP leak says thanks to his 184,000,000-dollar cuts to the AFP, the federal police was unable to properly investigate the importation of 1.6 tonnes of cocaine and an additional 600kg cocaine importation from Mexico?
Malcolm Turnbull responds:
As the minister has said, the track record of the AFP in intercepting drug importation speaks for itself. The way in which the Labor party wants to challenge the competence, the efficiency of the AFP is disgraceful. The Labor party have no ... no basis for the claims they have made. We know that we have provided the Australian federal police with record levels of funding. We know that they are intercepting drugs on a scale unprecedented. I note the challenge, the threat is also unprecedented. When we ask the Labor party for some real support in this place on law enforcement, where do they stand? Where does Labor stand? Where does Labor stand on punishing people who commit sexual offences against children? We have asked for mandatory sentences. You know why? Because we want to make sure they go to jail! That’s why. We want to make sure they go to jail. Where is Labor? Labor won’t support that. Labor won’t support that and perhaps they can explain why they don’t want to support, why they won’t support managed or offences, mandatory sentences for some of the most disgusting crimes in the criminal calendar. Mr Speaker, what about guns? What about guns trafficking? What about gun runners, gun smugglers? We want there to be mandatory sentences for them as well because we want to make sure they go to jail. We want to make sure there is the strongest deterrent message and that they are ... Where is Labor on that? Nowhere to be seen. Why won’t Labor support us in putting paedophiles and gun runners behind bars?
Updated
Back to estimates:
Michelle Guthrie has told Senate estimates about the ABC’s concerns that “fair and balanced” will be added to its charter: “We are concerned with how those words will be read by people who choose to take an aggressive view towards achieving a false balance, not based on the weight of evidence.”
The words already appear in the ABC’s editorial policies but include that important rider – based on the weight of evidence. The other ABC official at the table explains that “stripped of context” the terms fair and balanced might be construed to imply “false balance and he said she said journalism”.
Updated
Clare O’Neil is next on the AFP question line:
Today the justice minister said the government has ‘never been more effective in the fight against drugs’ but earlier in estimates AFP Commissioner Colvin said the AFP is having to look at our organised crime work to make up the government’s $184m cut to the Australian federal police. Who is right? You or the Australian federal police commissioner?
Michael Keenan:
Don’t verbal a respected public servant. Don’t walk into this place and try and make out he said something that he didn’t. It is absolute nonsense to say we have cut the Australian federal police’s budget by $184m. It’s complete nonsense. As I said at the start of question time ... I’m very happy to run through the record and compare and contrast our record in government with your record when you were in government for six years which saw our law enforcement not given the support and the resources that, quite frankly, they deserve. We have invested, since 2013, $1.5bn in our national security and counter-terrorism operations. $128m to fund the serious financial crime taskforce. Very difficult crimes to investigate. We’ve got specialist capability in there with this investment to do it. $116m in the national anti-gang squad. $25m to expand the AFP as national forensic’s rapid lab capability $21m to extend the royal commission taskforce, something we know those opposite don’t support. $15m for the fraud and anti-corruption centre. On top of the resources we have given to our agencies, what is also very important is we’ve given them the powers to do their job. If the Australian Labor Party is so worried about fighting crime, why don’t they join us is in helping to lock up paedophiles? Why don’t they support what we want to do to lock up paedophiles?”
And that starts a firestorm of complaint from the Labor party. Keenan did this last week as well, after he made a similar accusation. Here is what Tony Burke had to say on this:
Practice 516 and 517 specifically refers to two points. One, that a comment does not need to be levelled against an individual member. It can be levelled generally to be offensive. Secondly, if language of a nature likely to create disorder is included as well as words that are generally considered unparliamentary. Specifically, criminal offences such as sedition, treason, support for corruption, deliberate dishonesty are referred to as being unparliamentary terms. Anything that associates members of parliament with in some way being approving of paedophiles is something ... in terms of directly saying, ‘They don’t want them to be locked up’, is an extraordinary claim. I would draw members’ attention to quotes from Senate estimates today that were not used by the opposition that this sort of language is going to have an impact on the chamber and both sides of politics should be above it.
Christopher Pyne responds:
What the minister for justice in his statement was referring to, which is well understood by the entire chamber, is that the government has legislation before the House to introduce minimum mandatory sentences for people who have been convicted of sentences to do with paedophilia and gun smuggling and the Labor party’s indicated they will not support that. It is, therefore, a statement of fact. It is not an insult ...it is not an insult to the opposition. It wouldn’t have been made as an insult to the opposition. It is a juxtaposing this government’s record on tough sentences on things like gun smuggling.
Tony Smith rules:
I have listened to the manager of opposition business. I listened carefully the other day to the minister for justice and what the leader of the House says – I ask forbearance of all members of the House while I complete my remarks – is quite right that is not what the minister for justice said. He didn’t refer to any legislation. He did make a very specific statement. On the manager of opposition business’s point of order, I’m very familiar with the practice and I’m very familiar with the pages. I spend a lot of time reading practice. He’s right when he says that offensive remarks directed at individuals have been asked to be withdrawn regularly and there have been occasions where speakers as far back as Speaker Sneddon has said remarks to groups to be withdrawn. It cuts both ways. You can pick what you wanted to out of all of those precedents. But I’ve reflected on what the minister said. He didn’t say what the leader of the House said. In fact, if he’d framed it that way, whilst I wouldn’t have approved, as I said the other day,that would have been a different matter but in terms of what I heard,I’m going to ask the minister to withdraw that and continue on with his answer.
So how does Keenan apologise?
“Well, I withdraw. I’m sorry that the facts are such a deep inconvenience.”
He’s told to sit down.
Updated
Christopher Pyne gets his weekly “just how terrible are the terrible unions” question and surprise, surprise the CFMEU is this week’s subject.
Here is his concluding flourish:
The member for Sydney was asked about the CFMEU today. She defended the CFMEU. She said this, “Unions get to have a say. Business gets to have a say. Non-governmental organisations get to have a say.” The CFMEU is no worse than any other organisation engaged in robbery, no worse than the AIG, no worse than our friends in the Country Women’s Association, or Unicef, non-government organisations, the CFMEU, CWA, the ladies who invited weary travellers for a cake at the royal show, they are the same as the CFMEU. Perhaps the member for Sydney, next time John Setka is in dispute, he have a bake-off.
Updated
Back to estimates.
Under questioning from Eric Abetz, Michelle Guthrie concedes that the timing of an Australian Story special on Sam Dastyari, which coincided with release of the senator’s book, was “a mistake”.
But Guthrie noted the program didn’t refer to his book. “My concern was not around the program itself but around the timing ... and the way others have taken that as a tie, which didn’t exist,” she said.
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The ABC story they are fighting over, is this one
Greg Hunt says some things about energy. Dixers will be the death of me.
But the main game is Bill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull and their battle over the AFP funding today. And both are getting visibly annoyed.
Shorten: Given the prime minister just advised the parliament to listen to the AFP, does the prime minister consider the AFP is wrong when it says the resourcing shortages left the AFP unable to properly investigate a 1.6 tonne cocaine importation? When will the prime minister finally stop blaming everybody else and take some responsibility for the decisions that his government makes when it comes to the AFP?
Turnbull: The Labor party’s commitment to the rule of law would be taken somewhat more seriously if they weren’t wholly owned and beholden to the CFMEU.
Let’s have a look, let’s have a look, very important ... to look at the corporate structures to see who the shareholders are. That’s where the money comes from. The CFMEU ... As at eight days ago ... there were 84 CFMEU representatives before the courts facing a total of 896 alleged breaches of the law.
The CFMEU, or its representatives, were respondents in 41 separate matters before the courts facing a total of 1,779 suspected contraventions and over $10m in penalties has been awarded against the AWU by the ABCC and its predecessors. Mr Speaker, the fact of the matter is Labor continues to defend an organisation that breaches the law as a matter of course, that treats fines as parking tickets. They know that if the leader of the opposition had the courage or the character of Bob Hawke, he would do what Bob Hawke has said, “You know what I did...”
Updated
Bill Shorten: My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, we support the AFP efforts but why are the AFP advising that they lack the resources to properly investigate serious crime including drug importation? I quote the ABC online where they say, “The AFP document said New South Wales AFP did not have sufficient resources to meet the operational load”.
Malcolm Turnbull: If the honourable member spent more time listening to the AFP and less time coordinating his Question Time tactics with the ABC, he’d have abetter insight into national security.
Barnaby Joyce whips himself into a frenzy, combining several of his most recent favoured attack lines, some Queensland election lines, and well, read for yourself.
“Unfortunately, those on the other side, a lot of university graduates, no problem with that, a lot of solicitors, but no labourers in the Labor Party. They believe labourers are politically incorrect. You can see that in Jihad they run against some of the vital coal-fired assets in our electorate. Gladstone, Stanwell, all employing blue-collar workers because the member for Flynn is not embarrassed about blue-collar workers, he has been a blue-collar worker, unlike the Labor Party, very rarely do you find someone in the Labor Party who’s done a labouring job, a labouring job. Then the teachers stick up their hand. Teachers...Where are these people who actually ever worked for a living in the Labor Party? Where are the labourers in the Labor Party?
“...They don’t exist any more. We are going to make sure that we keep the jobs in Flynn, the people in Flynn,the industrial city of Gladstone, we are going to look after the people in Gladstone, rather than just the people of Annandale. We are going to make sure the basket weavers do not reign supreme in our nation. We look for to member of Maribyrnong, he used to represent them, to come to the Despatch Box and tell us about his grand vision for Australia. 50%renewables. There won’t be a job left in this place. They say today in the paper 75% of coal-fired power stations will have to be closed down. What does the member for Hunter have to say about that? The member for Shortland? What does the member for Herbert have to say about that? They say nothing because they don’t stand up for workers any more. They don’t stand up for workers anymore. We hear the piste de resistance. We are waiting for Mr Rudd’s book to come out because the moment we hear the member for Lilley, the former Treasurer of the millennia was put there as a poisoned pill. He was there to blowup Rudd. He ended up blowing up a whole budget. He ended up blowing the budget of the nation. He was there as a joke. He was there as a joke. They never saw the funny side of it. They kept him there. They made him the Treasurer of Australia. What an enlightenment the Labor Party is. What a wonderful grace for our economic future the Labor Party is. The joke is still here! I think the joke is making a comeback!
Back in estimates:
Guthrie: I note comments ... by One Nation that part of the reason they've asked for names is they want to find “dud presenters”. #estimates
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) October 24, 2017
Next up is Josh Frydenberg, taking another Dixer on energy, where he says Bill Shorten is like “that Japanese soldier, Hiroo Onoda”.
“Thirty years he was stuck in the jungle, Mr Speaker, lost in the jungle, refusing to surrender, refusing to surrender while everyone was getting on. In fact, they found the leader of the opposition there in the jungle with his emissions intensity scheme in one hand, Mr Speaker, and the climate wars in the other, Mr Speaker, and the climate wars in the other. There was the leader of the opposition.”
Hardy ha, ha
Then it is on to a two-in-one answer to a Labor question.
“In question time today the prime minister said, ‘Every decision, every policy, every measure relating to the AFP is focused on ensuring they have the capacity to keep us safe.’ How does the prime minister describe an ABC report, “A July AFP memo revealed resourcing shortages left the AFP not properly able to investigate a drug shipment meaning it could not be properly explored”?
Malcolm Turnbull: I will invite the minister to add to this answer but let me say this. In terms of intercepting drug importation, we have seen record seizures, met hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of drugs seized and extraordinary cooperation between the AFP, Border Force and foreign police and security agencies overseas. We are cracking down on those drug importers on a scale never seen before but I should say, Mr Speaker, the challenge is on a scale never seen before and we will need to do more and more. We understand that. But the combination of great policing, great investigation, great intelligence is a credit not simply to the AFP and the other agencies with which they worked but also to the extra resources, intelligence, legislative, financial, that we are putting behind our effort to stamp out drug importation.
Michael Keenan: I will just invite the opposition to look at the scoreboard that our law enforcement agencies have actually managed over the past four years. Record seizures of cocaine. Record seizures of crystal methamphetamine. Record seizures of precursors such as ephedrine. The Australian federal police, working in conjunction with Australian Border Force, working in conjunction with the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, and we have seen these record seizures. We have sent our law enforcement agents out to the world incredibly effectively. Taskforce Blaze in China. The only joint taskforce of any foreign law enforcement agency with the Chinese National Narcotics Control Bureau. AFP officers working side-by-side with their Chinese counterparts has stopped 13 tonnes of drugs hitting Australian streets in the past two years. We have similar taskforces with the Royal Thai Police and the Royal Cambodian Police. We have a significant problem with the high demand for illicit drugs inAustralia. We have been tackling it by tackling the supply side and our efforts have never been more effective with the law enforcement operations that I’ve just outlined. We have also tackled the demand side, particularly in relation to crystal methamphetamine or ice with the largest investment in drug and alcohol rehabilitation in Australia’s history. I’m very pleased to report to the House, because it’s the first time we’ve ever had comprehensive information, that we are seeing the embryonic start of a decrease in ice usage throughout our community. This is a direct result of the efforts of our law enforcement community combined with what we have done to decrease demand for this insidious drug.
Updated
Dipping out of question time for a moment ...
The ABC chief executive, Michelle Guthrie, has given a powerful opening speech in Senate estimates.
Guthrie asks people who “seek to restrict the activities of the ABC”: What problem are we trying to solve here? She points to the fact that 80% of Australians are happy with the job it is doing.
Guthrie:
ABC independence is highly valued by the community and I submit that you cannot have it by degrees. The ABC board, which is appointed by government, is ultimately responsible for the performance of the national broadcaster and must do so by carefully balancing its obligations and audience expectations. It should not be burdened with quotas, sectional claims, red tape and political vendettas in achieving what the community expects of it.”
Guthrie rejects the view that the ABC is “just a market failure broadcaster, doing only what the commercial sector does not want to do or cannot”, noting the ABC charter does not limit its activities in that way.
That has never been our defining role, nor should it be in the future. Our corporate accounts, which are publicly available on our website, provide a detailed breakdown of our remuneration for all employees earning over $200,000 – all without sacrificing individual privacy, as the current law demands.
In follow-up questions, Guthrie says the ABC has advice that publishing individual names next to these salaries would breach the Privacy Act, which suggests the government would need legislation to force it to do so.
Updated
Julie Bishop is sent out to answer a dixer on energy.
Then we are back to opposition questions, with Tony Burke asking about George Brandis’s comments about Bruce Billson from estimates yesterday.
‘It is very appropriate for backbench members of parliament to receive remuneration from third-party sources not inconsistent with their responsibility as members of parliament. It’s both consistent and commonplace.’ Is the behaviour of Bruce Billson commonplace for this government? Just how many members of the government are we talking about?
“Really,” the Labor backbench queries as Burke reads Brandis’s comments (you’ll find that transcript a bit back in the blog).
Malcolm Turnbull takes this one as well, but it is not an answer.
The members’ interest disclosure system, which all honourable members here are very familiar with, does provide for the disclosure of income over and above a member’s parliamentary salary and it’s open to the honourable member or anyone else with an interest in the matter to go through all those disclosures and determine how many backbenchers are in receipt of income from third-party sources, as the honourable member described it.
TL:DR – You want to know how many are getting paid from third-party sources, go through the register and find out. (Which doesn’t help with those who “forget” to update their register though, does it?)
Updated
Andrew Wilkie has the independent question today. He uses it to make further allegations against Crown Casino and says a fourth whistleblower who has come forward “fears for his safety”.
Prime minister, a fourth Crown Casino whistleblower has now come forward and levelled further serious allegations of poker machines being illegally tampered with. Significantly, he names the Crown staff he alleges told him to modify machines and asked me to give these names to the police, which I’m doing. However, this worker fears for his safety and doesn’t entirely trust the police or the regulators and, for that reason, he asks you personally, and the opposition leader, to support a transparent inquiry. So, prime minister, will you establish a parliamentary inquiry so that the Australian people can learn the truth about the casino industry and, Speaker, I seek leave to table these latest allegations?
Smith doesn’t have a chance to ask if leave is granted before Christopher Pyne is on his feet:
As to the last part of the question, Mr Speaker, the purpose of tabling documents is not to allow slanderous or defamatory material to be covered by parliamentary privilege and, as I haven’t seen the documents, I will not be granting leave on this occasion.
That just leaves Malcolm Turnbull to answer, which he does, by saying the right authorities will investigate the allegations.
The police, the gambling regulators in Victoria and Austrac are the appropriate people to investigate and examine these allegations. Those agencies have the necessary powers, extensive powers and, indeed, powers far greater than a parliamentary committee. Now, the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation, I’m advised, is investigating the allegations and Austrac is also examining the specific nature of allegations of money laundering. If any members or senators are aware of allegations of unlawfulness, I strongly encourage them to report those directly to our law enforcement and regulatory agencies. Our law enforcement agencies do an outstanding job in keeping us safe and enforcing and upholding the rule of law upon which our democracy depends.
Wilkie jumps up to say that the man in question “is in fear of his life and lost faith in the regulator”.
Turnbull says the “idea that those investigations would be assisted by a simultaneous parliamentary inquiry almost beggars belief. I say to the honourable member that if he is really concerned with ensuring that these allegations are investigated, that due process is applied and justice is done, then he would confine his revelations and his communications, his information on this matter, to the police and the regulators. That is his duty as a member of this parliament, as someone committed to upholding the law.”
Updated
Back to Bill Shorten who repeats his question from earlier, with an additional detail:
“I repeat: is the prime minister aware of any policies or decisions taken by him or his government that have diminished the operational capacity of the Australian federal police and specifically to investigate major drug importations including the importation of cocaine?”
But a short question does not bring about a short answer from the prime minister.
“The chutzpah of the leader of the opposition. He stands up here and asks us about national security. This is the leader of a party that outsourced our border’s sovereignty to people smugglers. This is the leader of a party that, despite all of the warnings and all of the knowledge, chose to abandon the integrity of our own borders, abandoned all of that, outsourced ...”
The manager of opposition business, Tony Burke, interrupts with a point of order on relevance – it’s a direct question, he says, and deserves a direct answer.
Tony Smith allows the prime minister to continue.
“50,000 illegal arrivals and over 1,000 deaths at sea was not enough on border protection, that was Labor’s track record, that is your glorious record, that’s your record of failing Australians and security. What about the ADF? How many naval ships did the Labor party commission in six years? None. Nothing. Nothing at all.
“... As far as the Australian federal police is concerned, I can say this to honourable members: every decision we’ve taken, every policy we have set out, every measure relating to the AFP is focused on ensuring they have the capacity to keep us safe and the skills and the technology to do so in these dangerous times.”
Updated
Dixer to Scott Morrison, who manages to combine the productivity commission report with energy policy.
I’ll leave you with his big finish:
The shadow treasurer is like Grandpa Simpson shouting at the clouds, shaking his fist at the clouds. There he is, angry and empty, Mr Speaker, is the shadow treasurer and the members of the Labor frontbench because their policy is to put prices up by $192, not to put prices down by $115. What a bunch of muppets.
Updated
Bill Shorten takes the next question as well, which is again on the AFP:
“Is prime minister aware of any policies or decisions, taken by him or his government, that are diminishing the operational capacity of the Australian federal police?
The prime minister takes this one:
As the minister for justice very eloquently and comprehensively replied, the support that we have given to the Australian federal police is at an unprecedented level. $321m in the last budget. The largest single funding boost for the AFP’s domestic policing capabilities in a decade. Mr Speaker, what we have provided the AFP ... to fill new specialist positions so vital to keep Australians safe in the threat of terrorism, 100 intelligence experts, over 100 tactical response and covert surveillance operators and just under 100 new forensic specialists.
I don’t know whether honourable members opposite have had the opportunity to visit the federal police headquarters there ... to see the extraordinary work that’s undertaken by the tactical response team, by the forensic specialists ... We are dealing with ... The police there are at the absolute cutting edge of science and technology. That’s what we need to keep Australians safe and we are providing them with the financial resources to enable them to do that. But in addition, Mr Speaker, what we’re also doing is providing them with the legislation, with the laws, that they need to keep us safe. Again one tranche of national security legislation after another has been passed through this parliament at the instigation of my government and, indeed, the government headed by the member for Warringah. We have done that. We have done everything to make Australians safe and give our agencies, our national security agencies, our intelligence services and, indeed, the ADF all of the tools they need to keep Australians safe in dangerous times.
Updated
First dixer is on energy.
There is nothing new in Malcolm Turnbull’s answer.
Mark that off your cards.
We have had our first removal under 94a–who had Brian Mitchell? Might have had something to do with the member for Lyons bringing in two cans tied with a piece of string, Mike Bowers tells me. We’ll bring you that image very soon.
The Guardian Essential poll was pretty damn close on this
#breaking ABS estimates 74.5% of Australians (11.9m) have voted in #SSM postal survey #auspol pic.twitter.com/GR7QX5VXG6
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) October 24, 2017
Question time begins
The MPs are taking their seats and Bill Shorten is taking a moment of indulgence to announce the changes to the shadow cabinet.
This has the government side of the chamber VERY excited. Speaker Tony Smith calls for calm and we begin with a question on...
The $184m cut to the AFP, with “117 officers cut this year”.
“Is the commissioner correct when he says these cuts will ‘mostly apply to our discretionary funding. That is areas that fund a large portion of our anti-narcotics, our organised crime work, our general operation work, our fraud and anti-corruption’?”
Malcolm Turnbull sends the question to Michael Keenan, who Turnbull says is “very knowledgable” as he takes his spot at the despatch box (or at least that is what it sounded like).
Keenan has a lot of information, but doesn’t really answer the question, other than to say that “budgets work over a four-year-cycle”.
“If we make an announcement about extra funding to the national anti-gang squad, that exists in the budget for four years and terminates at the end of those four years. The logic that the ALP that, the opposition, are bringing to this argument is if I were to stand up tomorrow and say, ‘We are adding an extra $100m worth of funding to the AFP’, the opposition will say, ‘We are cutting the funding to the AFP in four years’ time.’ The facts are very clear. We have made record investments in the capacity of the Australian federal police.”
The very knowledgable Keenan says the Australian federal police have “never been better supported”.
Updated
But Sarah Henderson has managed her own uncomfortable situation by trying to argue the national energy guarantee will mean lower prices, which, as Kristina Keneally points out, can’t be guaranteed, given there is no modelling and nothing to really back it up.
Updated
Tim Watts, debating Sarah Henderson, live on Sky, just told Henderson to “shut up”. It didn’t go over well, and judging by the look on Watts’ face as he continued, he knew it.
Updated
While we wait on question time (and from what I can see, the estimates hearings are in a bit of a lull) here is portrait from Mike Bowers on the “man in the mirror” Wal Merriman.
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Coming up to question time, so let me know what is on your QT bingo card today. I’ve got NBN, energy, with some productivity commission-related issues and maybe a nice high court reminder.
Updated
Peter Garrett is using his NPC speech as a rallying call against Adani’s plans to open up the Carmichael mine in Queensland
Stopping Adani is emerging as the battle of our times, just as the Franklin dam and Jabiluka were to earlier people. The Stop Adani campaign is a defining moment that must be won if we are to have any hope of preserving a safe climate and the reef itself … The medical journal Lancet recently published research that claimed 9 million premature deaths already occurring over 2015-16 [were due] to pollution. Fifteen times the losses from war and violence. The burning of Adani’s low-grade Carmichael coal will only lead to more deaths, making a mockery of Josh Frydenberg’s so-called moral case for coal. Added to this, if Adani’s mine and rail link ever get off the line, the entire Galilee basin coal reserve could be opened up as well. The Galilee is the largest untapped coal basin in the world, containing 29bn tonnes of low-grade coal. That would be a nightmare scenario for the world’s coral reefs and oceans, which absorb 93% of global carbon pollution. A quarter of all marine life use coral reefs for their life cycle, so losing coral reefs would have a devastating knock-on effect. Such a gargantuan expansion of coalmining would completely undermined the world trying desperately to reduce greenhouse emissions with action is large and small. Yet the federal and Queensland governments still remain in thrall to Adani, and despite significant reservations concerning the corporation’s business practices, and both the economics and operations of the proposed mine and existing port, that situation remains.
Updated
Malcolm Turnbull discussed the national energy guarantee in the Coalition party room, noting that even the government’s “usual critics” have said it is a “very elegant” solution to the need to achieve affordable, reliable energy that meets greenhouse gas reduction commitments.
He predicted Labor would argue for a higher mix of renewable energy but would do so within the same framework, and households and manufacturers would be on the Coalition’s side.
Barnaby Joyce claimed Labor was divided between those backing blue collar workers and those backing “basket-weavers”.
There was a bit of a kerfuffle about codeine, which is due to change classification so that people need a doctor’s script to buy it at the pharmacy. Guardian Australia understands that six or seven people raised codeine in the party room, citing the inconvenience and cost of needing a script to access it.
The health minister, Greg Hunt, said the reclassification had occurred on the basis of advice from the chief medical and pharmaceutical officers of the states and territories, and since it was a state and territory responsibility they had the power not to follow the recommendation and continue to allow codeine without a script.
Updated
High court to hand down its decision on Friday
Sound the klaxon: the high court decision on the citizenship issue will be handed down at 2.15pm Friday.
Which means – no stranger in the house.
Updated
The Australia Post chief executive, Christine Corbett, has told Senate estimates that it refused to distribute one piece of unaddressed mail during the marriage law survey period because it was offensive.
Guardian Australia has established the mail was not about same-sex marriage, though, it was a promotion which the Courier Mail has ably reported on: Burger Urge’s flyers for its Kim Jong Yum burger featuring “ballistic” pork belly and “oppressive” sweet potato crisps.
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Former Labor minister and Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett is speaking to the National Press Club this afternoon.
Here is a taste:
I believe this is the most critical address I’ve given here. After many years both outside and inside the system, in inverted commas, I’m convinced more than ever that we face an existential threat greater than any other as humans literally upend the world’s climate and natural ecosystems. To do nothing in the face of this threat, of which we are well aware, is to acquiesce to a world diminishing in front of us. We will deservedly reap the scorn and anger of our children if we fail to act now. There’s a fundamental divide in our response but it’s not between insiders and outsiders, it’s between those who are willing to [change] and those clinging desperately to an corrupted ideology. I’m willing to open their eyes or their hearts to what’s happening around them. Regardless of our day jobs and status in the political environment, it still boils down to one basic proposition: are we part of the problem or part of the solution? Our world is astonishing in its diversity and beauty, but one thing is crystal clear. The oceans, the continents, the atmospheres, they are finite.
Updated
The “man-in-the-mirror” scandal which has engulfed the Australian Wool Innovation boss has been the object of much fascination in estimates (and the press gallery). That has a lot to do with both the case (the AWI secretly monitored woolgrowers who had been invited to take part in a focus group) and the fact that Wal Merriman later told a ABC journalist who asked about it to “fuck off”.
He apologised for both. AAP have covered the hearing here. Key point: Merriman, who is facing calls to resign said: “Never before have meetings been held in a room with a one-way mirror ... this was all very strange to me when I went to observe the process.”
As for his use of profanity, that was because he was “from the bush” and “occasionally come across in a way that causes offence”.
I’ll let one of the experts in this field have the last word here:
In 10 years rural reporting I don't recall anyone "from the bush" telling me to "f*ck off" while doing my job. Let alone an industry leader. https://t.co/qMUds54lMF
— Anna Vidot (@AnnaVidot) October 23, 2017
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Given the opportunity from Penny Wong to explain what she saw as the commission’s role, Rosalind Croucher talks about the educational outreach programs and conciliation programs, which she describes as “quiet achievements” and “quiet service”. She adds to the list of “quiets” with “quiet assistance”, which she says occurs when the commission acts as an invited intervenor.
Asked why she used the adjective “quiet”, Croucher said:
“I chose the word quiet because I think it is the aspects of the commission’s work that I think are often not observed or not out in the observance.”
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Australia Post chief executive, Christine Corbett, has told Senate estimates that 100% of the marriage law postal survey forms were delivered.
Of course, that only means that the letters went where the Australian Electoral Commission and Australian Bureau of Statistics sent them, not that they always had the right address.
Asked about reports of postal survey forms being dumped around letter boxes, Corbett said Australia Post was aware of two instances of that, one in Brunswick, Melbourne and one in Canberra.
Corbett: “In both those two instances, the items were delivered correctly and it appears there was theft from mailboxes after delivery had occurred.
“After the postal survey forms were dumped, Australia Post was contacted by the media and worked with the ABS to communicate to affected residents to get replacement forms.”
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Further to Gareth’s post on the recommendation from the Productivity Commission to put a price on carbon, you may be interested in this exchange from estimates overnight. (I’m slowly working my way through what happened after I clocked off yesterday.)
Penny Wong (who was very busy yesterday) had some questions for Rob Heferen, the deputy secretary of energy, about the government’s energy policy:
Wong: “So have you assessed what the implicit carbon price might be under a pro rata abatement scenario as we were discussing before, for this mechanism?”
Heferen: “So there’s ... when you talk about an implicit carbon price.”
Wong: “No, I am because I think there is one and so do many others but ...”
Heferen: “I am, I obviously hear what you’re saying but I can’t...”
Wong: “What do you call the value?”
Heferen: “There will be a price paid.”
Wong: “Thank you.”
Heferen: “And that price paid will reflect the emissions level, the reliability and, of course, the retailers capacity to be able to influence what their customers use.”
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Emeritus Professor Rosalind Croucher, the president of the Human Rights Commission is fronting her first estimates hearing. She said she appreciates the opportunity to “reset” the government’s relationship with the commission.
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Simon Birmingham also had some things to say about the Productivity Commission report while talking to Sky this morning:
Now, this Productivity Commission report really is a call to arms to the Labor party, to the Senate crossbench – particularly the Nick Xenophon Team – to reconsider their position around higher education reforms, because the government is already one step ahead of the Productivity Commission. We’ve already put a focus on how we can get better bang for our buck in education, drive efficiencies and drive the public dollar, the taxpayer dollars further. We’ve already put a focus on how we actually put in place a performance metric for universities that will hold some of their funding contingent upon a range of things including, ultimately, graduate outcomes. We’re taking action here and the only roadblocks are those who seem to want to call for another reform or review.
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The ACCC have tabled their annual report. You’ll find it here
The treasurer, Scott Morrison, has been trumpeting the new five-year productivity review from the Productivity Commission, which was released this morning.
He’s been curiously quiet about one recommendation.
Now that we’ve got a copy of the review, here’s what the PC says the Turnbull government should do to improve Australia’s productivity (remember the PC is the government’s market-obsessed thinktank).
Recommendation 5.1:
“Stop the piecemeal and stop-start approach to emission reduction, and adopt a proper vehicle for reducing carbon emissions that puts a single effective price on carbon.”
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Not sure if everyone picked up on this yesterday (it was a loooong day with a lot going on), but I think it may be mentioned in question time, so I thought I would revisit it.
The Bruce Billson investigation (after it was revealed he was being paid by a lobby firm while still sitting in parliament. He was cleared) was discussed yesterday and during that discussion, Penny Wong and George Brandis had this exchange:
Wong: “I would like to know whether Mr Turnbull thinks it is appropriate for a member of the Liberal party, representing the people of Dunkley, to take a salary from a third party whilst sitting in this parliament?”
Brandis: “I will take that on notice, but might I point out to you senator, it is very appropriate for backbench members of parliament to receive remuneration from third-party sources not inconsistent with their responsibility as members of parliament.”
Wong: “Wow. That’s hilarious.”
Brandis: “It’s both consistent and commonplace.”
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Mike Bowers has been in and out of the committee rooms this morning:
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Labor’s caucus has decided to oppose both bills that implement the government’s media deal with One Nation, including the imposition of a “fair and balanced” test on the ABC.
Bill Shorten told caucus the only thing that is fast about Malcolm Turnbull’s national broadband network is “the speed with which he finds someone else is to blame”.
The climate change spokesman, Mark Butler, said the government’s national energy guarantee is “nothing more than a plan to strangle renewable energy, investment and jobs”. He said achieving a mix of 28% renewable energy by 2030 would mean “a two-third cut to rooftop solar installation and no large-scale projects built over the next decade”.
Also worth noting that after the shadow cabinet reshuffle, there are now 31 people in the shadow ministry and Andrew Leigh who had to take a $40,000 pay cut last reshuffle will now get a pay rise.
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Australia steps up counter terrorism support in the Philippines
Marise Payne has made quite a few announcements while visiting the Philippines. Here is a bit of her brief conference:
The ADF will provide mobile training teams that will begin providing urban warfare counter-terrorism training in the Philippines in the coming days. It is very practical training by the ADF which will support the Philippines defence force to be able to counter what are very brutal tactics by terrorists.
Through our significant involvement in the last couple of years in the counter-Daesh campaign in Iraq and Syria, Australia has acquired skills and knowledge that we are able to share with the Philippines armed forces. As part of our increased cooperation, we have also agreed to work together to enhance intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance in the southern Philippines, to strengthen our ... information sharing and enhance our maritime patrols.
Together, Australia and the Philippines will cohost a multiagency civil military and ... law enforcement seminar on post-conflict rehabilitation of its later this year. This seminar will draw lessons from past operations and international and local civil military police expertise. These measures together will strengthen our ability and the ability of the government in the region, but here specifically in the Philippines, to combat this terrorist threat over the long-term. This inherent strength support will include a number of elements. The Australian army will provide training to the Philippines army and the Philippines marine corps. This training will be conducted on Philippines military bases. It will include a range of skills related to combat on urban environments. It will involve information sharing and experience sharing to ensure that we are best able to use the skills that we have two hand.
The Royal Australian Navy will conduct ship visits to the Philippines that involve a range of cooperative activities to support the development of capacity in the Philippines navy. This cooperation will begin with an Australian patrol boat visit in the next month. Our P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft have been operating in support of the fight in Marawi for some months now. The secretary and I have discussed their activities in the last couple of days. Now that the secretary of national defence has declared the end of combat operations in Marawi, we have been reviewing with the Philippines the need for that continuing engagement is and the reconnaissance support. We will work with the Philippines to address that in the coming days. Australian experts from military and civilian agencies will conduct a seminar in the Philippines, which is focused on the efforts of a whole of government response and approach to reconstruction, recovery and rehabilitation.
We are also going to increase our intelligence cooperation including expert advice on countering Daesh-inspired social media. We know the battle against terrorism does not just occur in a physical combat zone, it occurs in the internet zone, it occurs in the cyber worlds to a degree that it is difficult to appreciate unless you are very focused on that and this is something we have been very conscious of in Iraq and Syria.”
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We have the Productivity Commission report and are going through it now. We’ll have an update on it as soon as we finish reading it (it’s 253 pages).
Scott Morrison gave a speech at a Ceda event this morning, where he praised the government’s policies.
Following the speech, he held a press conference where he talked more about the Productivity Commission report, (and, because it’s Morrison, let us all know his latest thoughts on Labor):
The goal is clear. More and better paid jobs, lifting living standards. The report from the Productivity Commission I think provides good direction. The goals are for governments to work through. I commend Peter [Harris] and his team for what they have delivered. It is not just about issues in that report, as I said in my presentation it is also about getting on with the reforms we have on the table. Changes like taxes, tax changes that lead to higher wages, improved investment. Some 6.3 million Australians in 120,000 businesses, as a result of Chris Bowen’s press conference this morning, are living in limbo. 120,000 businesses, 6.3 million Australians at work for businesses that have a turnover between $2m-$50m a year. They don’t want you to sit on the couch and contemplate these things, they want to know what you are going to do, and they want to know if you are going to put up their taxes. You have had plenty of time to work it out, we have this debate at the last election, and the Coalition won the election. Key to that was decreasing taxes to increase better-paid jobs.
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Shadow cabinet reshuffle announced
Bill Shorten has announced a minor reshuffle in his shadow cabinet, in the wake of Kate Ellis’ announcement earlier this year she will not stand at the next election.
Today I announce minor changes to Labor’s shadow ministerial team following Kate Ellis’ decision to step down and not contest the next election.
Following this morning’s Labor caucus meeting, I have asked deputy opposition leader Tanya Plibersek to add training to her existing responsibilities as shadow minister for education and shadow minister for women. Working closely with Tanya will be Senator Doug Cameron, who will add Tafe to his current responsibilities as shadow minister for skills and apprenticeships.
Amanda Rishworth will join the shadow cabinet as the shadow minister for early childhood education and development, in addition to her current role as shadow minister for veterans’ affairs.
Matt Thistlethwaite will become the shadow assistant minister for an Australian head of state, in addition to his current role as shadow assistant minister for Treasury.
On behalf of the entire Labor movement, I want to once again record my thanks to Kate for her 13 years of outstanding parliamentary service. I know she will approach the next chapter of her life with the same hard work, honest charm and genuine concern for the lives of her fellow Australians.
In the mean time, we hope Kate, David and their growing family enjoy some well-earned time together at home.
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'What is it you hate about Guardian Australia?'
Labor senator Deborah O’Neil has been grilling communications minister, Mitchell Fifield about why the government’s media deal with the Nick Xenophon Team excluded Guardian Australia.
Nick Xenophon has said that it was a “non-negotiable” element of the package that none of the $60m go to Guardian Australia.
O’Neil asks in several ways: what is it you hate about Guardian Australia?
Fifield: “The government makes no apology for the fact that one of the tests is it can’t be controlled by an entity that is not Australian.”
Fifield said that none of the criteria relate to an organisation’s philosophy. “We don’t have a test for ideology.”
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Back in the legal affairs committee hearing and Derryn Hinch has picked up on the ACL van fire, seemingly to allow the police to clarify their comments about why they came to the conclusion it was not politically motivated. ACT police’s Justine Saunders:
Our understanding is he spent one to two months preparing for this event and during that time, he explored a lot of information through social media, both relating to the course of action he took, options available to him ... He certainly made statements to us that he felt religion had failed, and he had explored on social media a whole range of religious issues. As the commissioner said, the key here is context, so yes he did make a comment in regards to ACL, but it was in direct response to a leading question by a police officer about why he was there. So he certainly said other things in that statement at the hospital immediately after which gave greater context to this and he made it very clear that his intention was ‘to blow himself up’ quote. And that is why he had travelled there. And certainly the evidence we obtained from other medical staff and others he had interacted with is that he went to other locations on the evening with a view to committing suicide and then because of other people around at that time, he didn’t believe it was appropriate to undertake that act there, he drove to where the incident occurred and our understanding was that was in fact spontaneous on the night, that was not preplanned.
Hinch said his opinion was ACL head Lyle Shelton was “desperate to make the ACL martyrs in all of this. I think the ACL was quite keen to be seen as a target”.
Is this why the AFP within hours of it happening, were telling journalists, were telling other people this was a suicide, this had nothing to do with the same-sex marriage debate, it had nothing to do with anything?
AFP commissioner Andrew Colvin said he did not want to comment on what Shelton’s motivations may have been.
I accept that he is concerned for his employees and that is a very legitimate concern that he has. We needed to make a statement to the public in the morning to make sure there was an appropriate level of information so the public could understand the events of the evening. ... We didn’t back brief journalists, we did a press conference to everybody who was available and stated what we believed the facts to be at the time. And as I said before I am still confident that subsequent investigations, subsequent facts that have come out have only reinforced the view that we had on that day.”
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. Hotlines in other countries can be found here
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In the communications estimates hearing, the media reforms are under the spotlight. Sarah Hanson-Young is pressing quite hard about the journalism cadetship program at the moment. We’ll have more on that for you soon.
A few moments before, Sam Dastyari was pressing Mitch Fifield on what he believed his role was when it came to the public broadcasters and competition.
Dastyari: “Is there a role for the minister in reducing competition faced by commercial broadcasters ... be it from the ABC, SBS or Facebook or Google? You said before minister at the start, you wanted to see thriving commercial broadcasters, and I don’t think anyone doesn’t want to see commercial broadcasting, but to what extent is there a role for government to create, or to protect them.”
Fifield: “I think there is a role for government to help create an environment that is conducive to having a healthy and viable commercial media sector, alongside having a healthy public media sector.”
Dastyari moves on to SBS, and the role of the broadcaster when it comes to advertising.
Dastyari: “Do you see SBS in a different boat in this competitive neutrality enquiry than the ABC in that they do have an advertising component, so they are clearly going to be competing for commercial audiences. Is that correct?”
Fifield: “You are right, SBS is an organisation unlike the ABC that can take advertising, and that could well see SBS making different programming decisions and other decisions compared to the ABC.”
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Some deeply uncomfortable scenes in the legal and constitutional affairs estimates hearing. Eric Abetz and Ian Macdonald made a point of questioning the Australian federal police over their arson investigation involving a mentally ill man who attempted suicide by driving into the Australian Christian Lobby office late last year.
Jaden Duong, 36, who struggled with mental illness for much of his life, died by suicide in September. He was awaiting trial on arson charges for the December incident.
Head of the ACL, Lyle Shelton, has refused to concede the incident was not politically motivated, despite the AFP repeatedly stating Duong was motivated by a desire to end his own life.
On Tuesday morning, Macdonald and Abetz took up the ACL’s case during estimates with the AFP’s Andrew Colvin and the ACT police’s Justine Saunders.
Saunders said Duong looked at other locations, but decided against them because were too crowded. He decided on the ACL carpark, she said, because it was empty.
Macdonald and Abetz do not look convinced and Penny Wong and Louise Pratt attempted to stop some of the questioning, which went into methodology on the grounds it was damaging and breached guidelines on how to talk about suicide. It’s for those reasons we won’t go into the transcript here. Colvin eventually puts a stop to it when he says he is uncomfortable discussing something which is before the coroner.
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. Hotlines in other countries can be found here
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We are still waiting on word from the high court. There is no mention of the judgment on the court schedule for today.
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Labor’s shadow treasury spokesperson, Chris Bowen, said he is yet to see the Productivity Commission report Scott Morrison has been talking about this morning, but he said from what he saw, he welcomed its findings.
If the reporting is correct, and there is no reason to doubt it, it is humiliating for Scott Morrison. All he has got is a corporate tax cut. He wants to reduce the taxes on Australia’s businesses by $65bn and increase [the burden on] workers by $44bn over the next decade with the Medicare levy rise. On workers who earn as little as $21,000. If he talks about inclusive growth today, if he talks about putting people first, let him explain this: why is he standing by and watching penalty rates be cut? Why is he watching wages growth at record lows and then cutting wages through the penalty rate cut? Why is it acting [against Australians who earn as] little as $21,000 per year, while giving a $65bn tax cut to big business? That is not inclusive growth. That is the opposite of inclusive growth.
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Caucus and party room meetings are scheduled for today – we’ll bring you an update on what went on as soon as they get out.
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The department of energy fronted the environment committee in estimates overnight.
It looks like quite a few questions about the national energy guarantee were taken on notice. Penny Wong had a go confirming the price savings the government has been touting ($110/$115 as an average some time between 2020 and 2030) but those were taken on notice as well.
But the department did say that it did not have any modelling on the Neg. Which has given Mark Butler a fun morning, talking about what he is now calling the “national energy gimmick”.
Here he was in his press conference this morning, talking about estimates last night.
There is no paperwork about how this and analysis or modelling sections of the department with responsibility for carbon emissions and energy provision said they had no analysis about whether this policy was workable and how it would operate. We’ve also had confirmed from a range of agencies over the last day, statutory responsibilities, but the first they knew about the prime minister’s announcement was on TV. The Climate Change Authority has parliamentary statutory responsibility for policy in this area for climate change and energy and they were not consulted. And Arena, the renewable energy agency, again, wasn’t consulted at all about this policy. We’ve also had evidence confirmed from the Department of Energy about what everyone understands from this policy, that Malcolm Turnbull seeks to hide from his own Coalition party room and that if this policy goes through, it will inevitably set a price on carbon. It will inevitably lead to the market pricing the emissions reduction obligations that are set out in this policy which is a price on carbon.
He also had a little bit to say about today’s the Australian’s front page story (which is an analysis of modelling).
Can I also respond to the tired old beat-up on the front page of the Australian. The Australian presents this story as somehow new. If the reporter had done his research he would have discovered that News Ltd tried to kick this story along back in February to another one of its newspapers in Queensland. The problem with the story is that it reflects modelling of a policy that no one has ever supported. There have been lots of different electricity policies over the last year and Malcolm Turnbull is up to his third in one year. The policy on the front page of the Australian as far as I am aware does not reflect a policy that anyone has been advocating in this energy debate. The big difference between Labor’s policies and the government’s for that matter in the modelling on the front page of the Australian is the modelling assumes that the policy would be internationally linked and would start with a carbon price of $69 per tonne of carbon in 2020 ... Malcolm Turnbull is proposing a similar price but I can tell you the Labor party isn’t. If the Australian was interested in modelling about the emissions-intensity scheme idea the government was advocating until December, the energy markets commission, the CSI our row and others have model that scheme, the sort of scheme that Labor and the government was advocating in 2016 and shown that an emissions-intensity scheme which operates in a closed market, not internationally linked, without that sort of carbon price that the Australian is talking about, that would lead to power prices being up to $15bn lower over the course of the next decade.
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The rumours George Brandis will be moving on to an overseas post sometime towards the end of the year, (when Malcolm Turnbull is expected to reshuffle his cabinet, with Christian Porter moving to AG and Mathias Cormann as Senate leader the strongest of the reshuffle rumours) will not go away. New Zealand is one of the more recent suggestions. For the record, Brandis has repeatedly denied he is going anywhere.
But why is this relevant? Well, because he is fronting estimates this morning. And it may be one of the last opportunities we have to witness one of the best sideshows parliament has to offer Penny Wong v George Brandis. If you get a chance, I recommend you tune in. I’ll try to keep you as updated as I can.
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As we come to the end of this horrible marriage equality survey process, Q&A took a look at the debate. Magda Szubanski was the only LGBTI representative on a panel examining LGBTI rights. After sitting through a program (and not only holding her own, demolishing the no arguments and eloquently pointing out the hypocrisies contained within them) hearing people making judgement about herself, her loved ones and the LGBTI community, Szubanski returned with this:
I’m not a religious authority. I’m less of an atheist than people would think. 74.9% of people in Australia get married outside the church. I accept that the church will never marry me. That grieves me in ways you will never know. I’m the one in my family when I buried my parents I organised every detail of the masses, I wrote the orders of service, I put the pall over my mother’s coffin. Now I accept the Catholic church will never marry me but you won’t even let me marry outside the church. Why is it your right to determine – fair enough, in your domain, you do what you like. We live in a live and let live society. I don’t want to tell anyone else what to do. Why should you have the right to tell me or any other person, straight or gay, what they do in the civil domain? That’s not your domain.”
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Mitch Fifield was on Today explaining why the NBN back and forth was not a blame game, because it was Labor’s fault.
“It’s not a matter of playing the blame game, what we inherited from Labor was essentially a failed project.
“...It was a failed project. They’d spend about six and a half billion dollars over four years and connected a grand total of 51,000 people. We’ve turned it around. We’ve got it on track. NBN is now available to more than half the nation. It’ll be 75 per cent by the middle of next year. And it will be all done and dusted by 2020. And the good news is, that’s a good six to eight years sooner than would have been the case under our predecessors.
“But our job is not to look in the rear view mirror. Our job is to focus on getting this thing rolled out. Which we’re doing. Getting it completed by 2020. Which we’ll achieve. And, as I say, that’s six to eight years sooner than would have been the case under our predecessors. And the good news is because of the approach we’re taking, Australians will have internet bills of $500 a year less than would have been the case under Labor’s approach.”
Kevin Rudd returned to the Sunrise couch this morning. Other than giving brief descriptions of former colleagues and rivals (Mark Latham: slightly mad, Julia Gillard: doing well, Joe Hockey: good bloke) he also spoke about how he thought he handled the pressure of politics:
It honestly depends on the day. The thing I would say to bear in mind is that within six months of taking over we have the avalanche of the GFC, the global financial crisis. To put it in these terms we did two jobs at once. We got elected six months also before with a mandate for change in 40 or 50 different areas, chugging our way through that, I took my word to the Australian people seriously and then the tidal wave GFC comes. It was like you had that job, 12 hours a day, then the rest of it. The honest answer is many of us did not sleep much. Tough time.”
And as for reports he was hard to work with, the former PM had this to say:
What I would say to that is, who do you work most closely with? Your own staff. When I came back as prime minister, my own staff came back with me, people who worked for me for years. When people knife you in the back, which is what happened, they will invent their own narratives and say he was a nasty person to me, he didn’t smile at me in the lift one morning. Well, grow up.”
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Scott Morrison has also been out selling his new plan to boost the nation’s productivity.
Katharine Murphy had this report:
The treasurer, Scott Morrison, will flag ongoing reforms in health, education and energy to boost national productivity in response to an inquiry by the Productivity Commission to be released on Tuesday.
Morrison will use a speech to the Committee for Economic Development Australia to outline the main findings of the new work on productivity – which includes recommendations to adopt patient-centred healthcare, transform teaching capacity in the education system to help workers manage the profound transitions in the labour market, and the creation of more functional cities, which could boost gross domestic product by $29bn.
The report is the first instalment in a series of five-yearly reviews by the Productivity Commission examining contemporary methods to boost productivity – advice that will sit alongside the intergenerational report produced by the treasury every five years.
Speaking to ABC radio this morning, Morrison said the reason he initiated the report was “I wanted … a sister publication to the intergenerational report”.
And that looks at the big pressures on the budget over, you know, the next 50 years, and the things that drive living standards, boost more and better-paid jobs, really falls to productivity and I believed it was time that we had a close look at the things that would drive that. Now, as I said in my previous answer, the traditional areas where we’ve seen productivity growth lift in the past, they remain relevant and they – tax cuts remain vital to boosting wages because we know that the more capital there is invested per worker, then we know the better wages that are paid. I mean that’s the clear analysis from Treasury and the data that is available to us. It’s all of the above. Look,the Coalition has always been supporting health and education. It has always been part of our budgets and what we’ve always said is it’s not just about how much money you spend. The commission has said it’s how you spend it.
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As we said, it’s the prime minister’s birthday (63rd we believed). I predict there will be some FM radio interviews on the horizon. It’s one way to guarantee a softer landing.
He started the day with a walk.
Good morning
It’s day two of estimates and the House of Representatives’ second sitting week.
It’s also the prime minister’s birthday. And what a day it is shaping up to be. Mike Bowers was up and about early and snapped the birthday boy on his morning walk. But that may be the only bit of peace he’ll get all day.
The NBN blame game continues after the Four Corners report last night. Yesterday Turnbull pointed the finger at Labor for the “train wreck”. Kevin Rudd, spruiking his new book, pointed it right back at Turnbull for the decision to “change horses midway” and switch fibre-to-the-premise to fibre-to-the-node. Scott Morrrison has been sent out to sell the government’s side on that this morning and it is going as well as you could expect.
Josh Frydenberg has also been out and about early talking energy, as the government desperately tries to take back the agenda. It’s still after bipartisan support, while at the same time attacking the opposition over its policy. Yesterday, it tried to talk energy by making almost every dixer about it during question time, while Labor had moved on to the NBN. Will it have any better luck today?
Estimates continues and the attorney general, George Brandis, is back in the hot seat, this time representing his own department (yesterday he stood in for the prime minister). The Senate committees sat until late last night, so there are going to be a few cranky members on both sides of the table, which should make for fun viewing.
The Guardian Essential poll is out. Katharine Murphy reports:
More than half of people who have returned their ballot in the same-sex marriage postal survey say they have voted in favour of marriage equality, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.
The new survey of 1,859 voters records 60% saying they have voted yes, which is down 4% from the last time the question was asked three weeks ago, and 34% saying they have voted no, which is up 4% in the same timeframe.
Before new postal survey participation estimates from the Australian Bureau of Statistics expected on Tuesday, 75% of the Guardian Essential sample reports that they have already voted in the ballot, and 8% say they will definitely vote.
So stay tuned for all of the fun and games. Let me know how your question time bingo card is shaping up as we head into the afternoon. The Guardian Australia brains trust are on board, as always and Mike Bowers will be creating his magic throughout the day.
You can reach the man with the lens at @mpbowers and @mikepbowers and you’ll find me stalking the comments, or more frequently at @amyremeikis.
Grab that morning coffee, or whatever it is that helps you through the day (no judgment) and let’s begin!
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