Night time Australian politics summary
The day has ended where it began, with Australia’s decision to provide arms and humanitarian assistance to Iraq.
- Tony Abbott has laid out the case for Australian military involvement in Iraq, telling parliament that a failure to act “means leaving millions of people exposed to death, forced conversion and ethnic cleansing”. The Iraqi ambassador has contradicted claims that Australia’s involvement had been welcomed by the Iraqi government, saying it would prefer to have the weapons go through the central government.
- Australia has stepped up sanctions against Russia, banning arms exports to the country and denying Russian state-owned banks new access to the Australian capital market.
- The government and Labor blocked moves by the Greens and Andrew Wilkie to force parliament to garner approval for any military deployment.
- The Coalition sprung a new mining tax repeal bill on the parliament, “laying aside” the 2013 version in a bid to pass it through the senate. Clive Palmer said he would not be supporting it.
- The royal commission into the home insulation scheme, which led the deaths of four young installers, found “obvious” dangers were ignored by the Labor government.
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Meanwhile Palmer senator Jacqui Lambie launched a scathing and personal attack on Tony Abbott, suggesting he was living off the Anzac legend. She said the Liberal National government had an appalling record on veterans affairs and said the government should fix entitlements before sending more troops overseas.
Queensland National MP George Christensen expressed regret in the parliament at the past treatment of Australian South Sea Islanders, who were taken in the practice of “blackbirding” during the late 19th century.
Christensen said the practice was the “closest thing Australia has had to a slave trade”.
He said 63,000 South Sea Islanders were bought to Queensland, mainly from the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Once here, there was “discrimination by legislation” in 1901 with the White Australia Act which saw thousands deported, followed by acts to stop islanders being employed and also growing cane, using a literacy test.
He called better recognition for islanders in the census and better access to health care benefits.
Lambie’s attacks government’s record on veterans
I gave you a taste of Jacqui Lambie earlier. Here is more of her extraordinary attack on the prime minister in the Iraq debate in the senate.
Will we have the situation that young veterans created by this conflict say I’d rather face the Taliban or Isis rather than face the process of the (department of veterans’ affairs)?
This Liberal National government has an appalling record of caring for our veterans. They cover up the suicide rate of our veterans because they are ashamed of the amount of young veterans killing themselves. The Liberal National Party has chosen to take money away from war widows and totally or permanently incapacitated former service personnel...
What kind of person would take away from war widows and those badly injured fighting Australia’s enemies? I’ll tell you. The same kind of person who would salute the flag and shed a tear on Anzac day commemoration while taking a $211 education bonus from the orphans of soldiers killed or badly wounded in battle.
It’s the same kind of person who would offer a casual shrug and offer the comment “shit happens” when learning of the death of another Australian digger in Afghanistan and then stare bizarrely at a TV reporter for 24 seconds when confronted with those comments and offer no apology. That’s the sort of man I’m talking about. That’s the kind of person Australia today has as a leader.
Until we have leaders who can live up to the Anzac legend and not off it, we are going nowhere fast as a country. And I find it very hard to trust their decisions.
Greens senator Richard Di Natale picks up on a common theme in the Iraq debate, that opposition to Australia’s current intervention does not mean support for Isis barbaric acts. He says he is not a pacifist, he supported intervention in East Timor, and he has often felt helpless in the face of recent conflicts including Iraq and Gaza.
There would be a lot more respect if both sides came into the chamber and said we have been asked by an ally for support and we will honour that request.
That’s what this is about, says Di Natale.
Independent senator Nick Xenophon is making a statement to the Senate, supporting the Australian government’s move to provide aid in Iraq. However Xenophon is concerned the government has not discussed the role of the United Nations. He says the situation could escalate and all parties must be wary. He wished the troops well.
Jacqui Lambie has been speaking to the Australian Defence Force Welfare Association about the government’s decision. She says the ADFWA members are not radical but conservatives and even they are worried.
Lambie is using the Iraq issue to highlight the shortcomings in the government’s treatment of veterans.
She is critical of Tony Abbott for budget cuts to military orphans, pension cuts and his comments in Afghanistan when he said “shit happens” when discussing the death of an Australian soldier.
Fix it before you send more troops.
Former servicewoman PUP senator Jacqui Lambie says the government and Labor are charging into battle without thinking about the consequences to the service men and women.
The Iraqi ambassador to Australia, Mouayed Saleh, told Speers that he was concerned with two issues. One is that the Australian-funded weapons could fall into the wrong hands and the other issue was the government had to balance the threat of Isis right across the country, not just in northern Iraq.
As you know (Iraq) is a sovereign country and as such, (the weapons plan) should go through the central government which is Baghdad and that is the proper protocol... just like if I want to give weapons to Victoria, I go through Canberra in order to pass it to Victoria.
As My Story goes to print, I have recorded the prologue and epilogue for the audio book. JG pic.twitter.com/ZcdMHXPds9
— Julia Gillard (@JuliaGillard) September 1, 2014
The now-rare tweeter Julia Gillard, steps into the stream to give her book a plug.
David Speers has an interview with the Iraq ambassador in Australia Mouayed Saleh who has urged the Australian government to give weapons to the Iraq government rather than the Kurdish fighters.
We are not saying they shouldn’t have weapons to fight IS, just should be organised through central government.
Earlier today Tony Abbott said the Australian decision had the full support of the Iraqi government.
MPs given the order of the boot today.
94A-ed another busy day for Madam speaker-opposition185-coalition 3 #politicslive (Ping @billinKL ) @GuardianAus pic.twitter.com/td4b4dzelK
— Mike Bowers (@mpbowers) September 1, 2014
Updated
Labor leader in the senate, Penny Wong, spoke in the senate on the Iraq debate, urging the government to be open with the Australian people on Australia’s involvement.
Greens leader Christine Milne is documenting the horrors around the world by way of contrast with Australia’s decision to intervene in Iraq. She notes murders in Sri Lanka, beheadings in Saudi Arabia, rape in Nigeria. Why have we not intervened in those places?
We need to ask serious questions on why are we there or are we blindly following the United States?
Milne says in order to intervene, the government needs a clear understanding of what is in the national interest, what can be achieved and the long term strategy.
Bowers and I are taking bets as to when Speaker Bronwyn Bishop’s tally of Labor MPs will reach 200. As of this afternoon, there have been 185 Labor MPs thrown out of the parliament since Bishop took charge of the house on November 12 last year. Liberal MP Ewen Jones remains the only Coalition MP to have been turfed. Even then, she was provoked by the Queenslander by a reference to the State of Origin.
Defence minister David Johnston is delivering a ministerial statement on Australia’s involvement in Iraq. We are expecting a more fulsome debate in the senate around the decision to provide arms to the Kurds in northern Iraq.
Behind closed doors.
Six Labor MPs thrown out during question time: Tim Watts, Terri Butler, Pat Conroy, Nick Champion, Graham Perrett and Alannah MacTiernan.
Updated
Clive Palmer has taken to Twitter to voice his opinion of the new mining tax repeal bill.
Ill-conceived mining tax repeal bill won’t pass Senate without low income super contribution, income support bonus & the schoolkids bonus
— Clive Palmer (@CliveFPalmer) September 1, 2014
Islamic state is not a state, it’s a death cult.
This is not 2003.
Does the government want to frighten people?
Labor asks justice minister Michael Keenan about the criteria for the $50m Safer Streets program. Keenan says it is available on the internet and helpfully suggests it can be accessed with a computer.
This came after reports by Fairfax colleague Mark Kenny that the auditor general is examining the program after accusations that it is being used as a pork barrelling program for Liberal and National seats.
What about us? Debate on Iraq was shunted to the Federation chamber.
Shorten asks Abbott: On what date did the PM tell the Australian people before the election that he planned to slug them with a new GP tax and when will the PM of Australia give an answer, not another excuse?
Abbott began into his answer about Bob Hawke, before he was interrupted by Shorten and decided to bail out while the going was good.
Christopher Pyne gives a dissertation on the many ways that university students will be better off under the governments changes to tertiary education. In the process, four Labor MPs are thrown out of the house.
Catherine King asks the prime minister again about the Medicare co-payment. Abbott again harks back to Bob Hawke and Andrew Leigh.
Environment minister Greg Hunt is asked about the home insulation report. Lenore Taylor has done a full report on the royal commission’s findings.
The former Rudd government ignored dangers that “ought to have been obvious to any competent administration” when it devised its home insulation program and should have done more to protect inexperienced workers, the royal commission into the scheme has found.
The program, devised as part of the economic stimulus packages during the global economic crisis, led to an unsustainable and poorly regulated boom in the insulation industry, during which four young men lost their lives.
Labor’s Stephen Jones asks “one year ago today the government promised a government of no surprises or excuses. Sue Drury of Victoria is on a disability support pension and requires multiple medications that cost her more than $140 a month. And fortnightly visits to the GP to treat her chronic conditions and leukaemia. When did the PM tell Sue before the election he would make it harder for her to visit the doctor with his GP tax and increased cost of medicines?
Tony Abbott said he accepted the woman in question was “doing it tough” but that the Medicare copayment had been on the national agenda for years.
Blue Steel.
Small business minister Bruce Billson is asked what the government is doing to energise the small business sector.
Fixing the budget, he says. Please let the government get on with its job.
Labor asks Tony Abbott why he did not tell doctors about the $7 GP co-payment? Abbott again outlines the fact that former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke and the assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh once proposed a co-payment.
Immigration minister Scott Morrison is giving his monthly update on the numbers of boats, including policies stopping rot, counting fingers and toes, etc etc.
There are now 300 transferees who have gone to offshore processing who have now had their claims assessed. I can tell you how many claims assessed when (Labor) were running it and it was a big fat zero. 179 people have also been resettled.
Clive Palmer asks the health minister Peter Dutton,
As most Australians were against the co payment, Palmer United Party, the Greens and Labor have now formally declared war against it. There is no prospect of it becoming law, so why does the government insist on maintaining this and by putting forward proposals that will never happen? Do they want to frighten people or undermine business confidence?
Dutton thanks Palmer for his cooperation (not) and moves swiftly onto Labor’s record, so as not to offend the big man. Given Dutton has been suggesting that Palmer is more conciliatory on the co-payment behind the scenes, it was a difficult sandwich served up by Clive.
Justice minister Michael Keenan is asked how the new National Disruption Group will “work to keep Australians safe from the threat of home grown terrorism”?
He says half of the $64m package would be spent on the National Disruption Group, which allows any government agency to be co-opted.
Tony Abbott is asked about Russia’s actions in Ukraine. He uses the opportunity to announce the government will lift its sanctions against Russia to the same level as the European Union.
This means:
- no new arms exports
- no new access by Russian state-owned banks to the Australian capital market.
- no new exports for the oil and gas industry,
- there will be no new trade or investment in the Crimea
- further targeted financial sanctions and travel bans against specific individuals
The foreign affairs and defence ministers will meet with allied countries at the NATO summit later this week for further consulation.
Shorten asks Abbott: One year ago today, the PM promised a government of no surprises and no excuses. This morning as part of dementia awareness month, I visited an aged care facility where the PM has cut the dementia and severe behaviour supplement for 16 residents. Why didn’t you tell them, asks Shorten.
Abbott says it was a poorly designed program and was grossly underfunded by the former government. It will be redesigned, he says.
The government moves the Iraq debate to the secondary chamber, the Federation chamber. Andrew Wilkie and Adam Bandt protests vociferously. They are told by Speaker Bishop to sit down.
Shorten reminds the parliament that Simon Crean as opposition leader opposed Australia’s involvement in the Iraq invasion in 2003. He says unlike that time, when the world did not agree with invasion, this latest situation is different.
History has vindicated (Crean’s) judgment. The decision to go to war in 2003 was based on false evidence. It was a rushed decision, devoid of an effective plan to win the peace, devoid of clear objectives and devoid of widespread international support. But as the government has said, the situation we face today is very different. This is not 2003. In 2003, we went to Iraq without international support or the support of the Iraqi nation. Today the Iraqis are seeking our assistance.
Bill Shorten says Labor will support the government based on three principles.
- Responding effectively to the humanitarian crisis in Iraq to prevent genocide and suffering.
- Promoting a unity government in Iraq that is inclusive and can achieve national cohesion, a government that would reject sectarianism and the alienation of minorities, enabling the control of Iraqi territory.
- Denying motivation and opportunity for Australian foreign fighters.
Abbott again underlines the government is not targeting Australian Muslims but extremism.
The target is terrorism, not religion.We need to understand, though, that people who kill without compunction in other countries are hardly likely to be law abiding citizens should they return to Australia. They have come to hate us, no less than they hate their victims in Iraq and Syria.They don’t hate us for what we do, but for who we are and for how we live.They hate us because we let people live and worship in whatever way they choose, and I thank you God that we do.
Abbott says 60 Australians are fighting with terrorist groups across Iraq and Syria, supported by another 100.
We know, or at least should prudently assume, that many of them will seek to return to Australia. They will return accustomed to kill.
Tony Abbott is making his statement on Iraq.
Many Australians are understandably apprehensive about the risk of becoming involved in another long and costly conflict in the Middle East. The situation in the Middle East is indeed a witches brew of complexity and potential danger. Doing anything involves serious risks and weighty consequences.
Abbott says doing nothing means leaving millions of people exposed to death, forced conversion and ethnic cleansing. The prime minister says he refuses to call IS Islamic state.
It’s not a state, it’s a death cult.
We are just a smidge before question time begins. QT will start with 10 minute statements on Iraq from both the prime minister and the opposition leader.
A final vote on the mining tax repeal bill is underway.
Chris Bowen and Tony Burke are battling to be heard but the government pushes onwards. Speaker Bishop quips:
It’s all starting to sound like the Hunger Games.
The house approves the second reading of the new mining tax repeal bill and the bill is now in its final stages before going to the senate with absolutely no debate.
The final vote begins.
Bowen loses the motion. He rises to speak to the motion and before he utters one word, Bowen is gagged. Division required.
Apologies. Gag on Bowen just won by the government. Now Bowen’s suspension motion is being put.
The government won the division and the debate on the new mining tax repeal bill continues. Labor’s Chris Bowen has moved to suspend the debate until tomorrow so that the opposition can understand the bill.
Government frontbencher Steve Ciobo has moved to gag Bowen.
Jenny Macklin reserves her right to speak to Bowen’s motion.
Ciobo gags her as well.
The bells ring to consider Bowen’s motion.
Lunchtime Australian politics summary
Here is your lunchtime wrap:
- The Greens and independent Andrew Wilkie have failed in both the Senate and the House of Representatives to suspend normal debate to consider Australia’s decision to arm Kurdish forces in Iraq.
- Labor supported the government to maintain the right of the executive government to decide on military intervention while the government supported a Labor private members bill to support Iraq’s minorities in the face of the Islamic State threat.
- The Abbott government has introduced a new mining tax repeal bill into the house after setting aside the old bill after the senate voted to keep the school kids bonus and the low income measures.
- Tony Abbott has addressed the parliament on the recommendations of the royal commission into Labor’s home insulation scheme, during which four young installers were killed.
The house is now voting on another procedural motion to push the new mining tax repeal bill through.
Essentially a house division over whether to divide on the MRRT 2014 bill.
Hashtag contempt, hashtag confused, hashtag children.
We now have a copy of the bill. A quick reading shows it is pretty much the same as the old one. That is, it still has spending measures such as the school kids bonus.
As far as not outlining its contents in parliament, Steve Ciobo did not read a speech supporting the bill but now the government’s other treasury parliamentary secretary Michael McCormack is reading Ciobo’s speech. Clear?
McCormack says the repeal will add $17bn to the budget (over the current forward estimates).
The repeal of the mining tax will restore confidence in the industry.
Bill? What bill?
So as the house divides, just to underline this is a highly unusual move to introduce a bill without actually speaking to its contents.
The bill is not on the website.
Information unnecessary.
Parliamentary secretary Steve Ciobo is moving to suspend standing orders for private members bills which normally happen at 1pm so that the house can deal with the new mining tax repeal bill.
In the chamber, Labor’s Jenny Macklin is handing out some copies of the bill while Tony Burke continues, opposite the leader of the house, Christopher Pyne.
The parliament is being treated with contempt by the government...this is a government being run by children.
It’s one thing for the members of the backbenches to wander in like lemmings but the parliamentary secretary is the lead lemming, says Tony Burke.
Burke is accusing the government of not allowing Steve Ciobo to read the words of the bill. Burke says courts will go to the Hansard to make judgements on the law but in this case, they would have no understanding of the bill because Ciobo said nothing.
Normally the person subjected to the gag is not the person introducing the bill.
Labor’s Tony Burke is in full voice, over a debate on a piece of legislation that members are not allowed to see.
Government wins 79-53 that the house suspend standing orders to consider the Minerals Rent Resources Tax repeal bill 2014. As opposed to 2013.
Bowen says on the basis we have not seen the bill, that the government has not sought to share it with the parliament, we will oppose it.
It’s on the table, says Speaker Bronwyn Bishop.
Chris Bowen in full flight on the government’s plans for mining tax repeal bill.
Government wins the procedural vote 79-53.
Now the government is trying to suspend standing orders to rush through the new mining tax repeal bill (the B side) post haste.
Labor’s Tony Burke is saying the Coalition is pulling a swifty, that it has not shared the bill with Labor.
Steve Ciobo says meh.
He wants the motion (for the new bill) put.
As no one other than the government has seen the bill, we assume that the government is trying to split the bill to get some of the mining tax repeal bill through.
House is voting now that the motion be put.
Government wins the gag 79-53. Now the vote on laying aside the mining tax repeal bill. Wait!
Government is pulling on a new bill.
So to be clear, the house is first voting to cut short the debate on its plans to lay aside the mining tax repeal bill. After that, it will vote on the motion to lay aside the bill, which essentially puts in on the top shelf in the back shed, past the old tins of paint.
Jenny Macklin was speaking to the importance of keeping the school kids bonus, which is worth $410 for a primary school child and $820 for a high school child. Macklin says the payments are worth $15,000 over the school life of an average family.
The government seeks to gag the debate and the house is voting.
On to the next thing. Steve Ciobo, parliamentary secretary to the treasurer, has announced in the house that the mining tax repeal bill will be set aside because the government cannot live with changes made in the senate.
The senate insisted on keeping the school kids bonus, the low income superannuation contribution and the income support bonus.
Abbott said he hoped the report by royal commissioner, Ian Hanger, brought “some comfort to everyone affected” and described the program as a “bungled” and a “policy disaster”.
Abbott says the reports findings are grave and its recommendations are detailed. He says the government will carefully consider the findings and its a timely reminder of what can happen when governments act in “undue haste”.
Tony Abbott is speaking on the royal commission into the home insulation program in the lower house.
The loneliness of a bi-partisan debate by Mike Bowers.
The senate has resumed debate on the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation bill. This is Greg Hunt’s plan to, among other things, hand approval powers for coal mines and coal seam gas developments back to the states and territories. It was designed to take the “red tape” out of government approval process for environmental approvals, providing the “one-stop shop”.
Its critics suggest the changes would allow open slather on environmental resources. The EPBC Act also contained Tony Windsor’s “water trigger” powers which ensured that the federal government assessed the impact of conventional and unconventional mining on water resources.
Labor’s Lisa Singh is arguing Hunt’s bill allows federal government to evade its national responsibility.
The Abbott government clearly has no interest in protecting Australia’s environment for the future.
Without Labor and Green support, the vote will come down to the crossbenches and Palmer senator Dio Wang wants the water trigger taken out of the bill.
Thus far and for the foreseeable future, the Greens and independent Andrew Wilkie have failed to make a dent on Australia’s involvement in Iraq. The government and Labor have presented a united front on the executive government’s right to decide Australia’s military deployments without the intervention of the parliament.
Independent Andrew Wilkie is moving to suspend standing orders to debate whether Australian forces should be deployed to Iraq. Leave was not granted.
One of my colleagues reminded me about one Ricky Muir, Motoring Enthusiasts Party senator. Daniel Hurst, who was embedded in the Senate, has assured me Muir was not in the Senate for the Greens motion on Iraq.
Greens MP Adam Bandt has moved to suspend standing orders for the same debate as the Senate heard earlier. Liberal frontbencher Stuart Roberts moved that Bandt no longer be heard. Labor supported the government and Bandt was rebuffed.
Updated
Unlucky thirteen voting to debate parliamentary approval on Iraq.
A bi-partisan effort is happening in parliament in the other house right now urging the government to recognise the minorities in Iraq and use its seat on the UN Security Council to protect them.
Labor frontbencher Chris Bowen is moving a private members motion in the lower house, seconded by Liberal backbencher Kelly O’Dwyer.
The motion:
- condemns the actions of the Islamic State in Iraq which amounts to attempted genocide of minorities including the Assyrian, Chaldean, Mandaean and Yezidi people;
- re-affirms the rights of the Christian and other minorities of Iraq to live in peace and freedom and calls for all steps to be taken to ensure that all members of the affected communities can live in freedom in Iraq;
- calls on the Australian government and the international community to provide humanitarian, financial and other forms of appropriate assistance to support those Christian and other minorities who have been internally displaced within Iraq;
- notes the aspirations of the Assyrian people for the establishment of an autonomous region in the Ninevah plains and welcomes the in-principle agreement of the Iraqi Government to this request earlier this year; and
- calls on the Australian government through its seat on the United Nations Security Council and the international community to take appropriate steps to protect the rights of minorities in Iraq, including the Assyrian Christian people.
Notwithstanding this defeat, the Greens will still put up a private senators’ bill on Thursday that would give the parliament a vote on military intervention.
Updated
Thereby, PUP appears to have split on the Greens motion to suspend standing orders so that the senate could debate parliamentary approval for the government’s plan to join the US in arming the Kurds in Iraq. Unless Wang and Lazarus were caught in a broom cupboard. In which case, it was not a split but a misadventure.
Coalition, Labor, John Madigan and Bob Day are voting against the Greens motion.
Greens get Palmer United Party senator Jacqui Lambie, independent Nick Xenophon and David Leyonhjelm. PUP senators Dio Wang and Glenn Lazarus are absent. (!)
Motion goes down 13-44.
Updated
After a short speech by Scott Ludlam backing in the Greens case for parliamentary approval for military deployment, the Senate is now dividing on the Greens suspension of standing orders. It will lose without Labor support.
Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm has suggested all Australian military deployment should require a two thirds majority in both houses.
He says in allowing the executive government to make the decision, there is:
significant potential for adventurism and posturing.
He hastens to add that this is not the case in this current deployment and believes that the Kurds should be given arms and then expresses the hope “it leads to a Kurdish state”.
Leyonhjelm notes in the US, there is a constant tug of war between the congress and the president, where the congress has the right to declare war and the president can declare war without congress support.
Labor’s senator John Faulkner says he does not support a change to allow parliament to allow approval for any decision to deploy the ADF.
But as a former defence minister, Faulkner is calling on the government to provide as much information as possible to inform the public and the parliament.
He says defence minister Johnston should make a ministerial statement as soon as he can to the parliament and then facilitate full debate around the statement.
Labor’s Stephen Conroy says there can be a debate on Australia’s contribution to Iraq but it should not be confused with requiring parliamentary approval. (The Greens are urging a parliamentary vote on Iraq involvement.) He says executive government is the most appropriate body to exercise civilian control of the defence forces.
The debate should not be done like this as a stunt to score cheap political points.
Conroy says parliamentary control of military intervention could also put Australian defence forces in jeopardy.
The government has access to classified information that the parliament does not.
Defence minister David Johnston says no government takes putting Australians in harms way with anything other than the “utmost seriousness”.
Johnston is documenting ethnic cleansing and “almost genocide” in Iraq and says the Kurds have provided the only real resistance to the advance of Islamic state.
We would not want to see that resistance fail for want of ammunition and supplies...there have been mass executions across Iraq and we need to protect these people.
The Greens have always argued the case they do...their quest is not the way to go.
Labor is not supporting the Greens suspension of standing orders.
Christine Milne is on her feet in the senate, calling for a suspension of standing orders to debate what she has described as “mission creep” and harking back to 2003.
What a vacuum that left.
What is not to say that the new involvement will not drive more committed support for an Islamic State, says Milne.
Her message is that we know there are barbaric acts being committed in Iraq - as there are elsewhere in the world - but it is critical that there is a legal basis for Australia’s involvement.
As the parliament is due to debate our involvement in Iraq, you may have seen a number of articles on the Sydney suburb of Lakemba, which has a strong Arabic population. It is an easy get to drop in there, Mission Impossible style for 24 hours and make rash judgements based on a few conversations and the lack of the Gideon’s bible in one of the “last Anglo holdouts”.
But the Guardian’s own Michael Safi and Bill Code have put together a video letting residents speak for themselves. It is well worth a view.
Back to Iraq and our particular role, it’s worth just going over the exact words of the PM this morn on a couple of points which have been debated ferociously in recent weeks. Lisa Wilkinson asked Abbott:
Critics say that this latest situation in Iraq is proof that the 2003 war on terror was a mistake and only gave rise to a much more dangerous jihadist movement. Why have you decided to involve our military in yet another conflict in Iraq?
The prime minister:
They are two very different situations. In 2003, there was a campaign in Iraq against the will of the Iraqi government. What’s happening now is an involvement, essentially a humanitarian involvement, and it is at the request of the Americans with the support of the Iraqi government. Our aircraft going into the Kurdish parts of Iraq will be landing at Baghdad for customs clearance and all the rest of it and then they will be going on to Erbil.
More on Iraq and our involvement in a mo.
We are expecting at some stage this week the report into Labor’s home insulation scheme. Unlike other reports such as the audit commission which languished for weeks, this will be hot off the presses, having only hit the government in-tray on Sunday. Yesterday.
The $16m inquiry was set up by the Coalition soon after coming to government. It investigated the deaths of four young installers. Former Labor ministers such as Peter Garratt will be watching closely.
At 10am Greens leader Christine Milne will move a suspension of standing orders to force a debate on Australia’s involvement in Iraq. The Greens also want the parliament to have a final say on military involvement, through a vote.
Lambie on the wattle
Dio Wang sporting skater chic
Green senators are considering a suspension in the senate to urge a debate on Australia’s involvement in Iraq.
I notice there is some debate in the comment thread regarding the government procedures for military involvement in overseas conflicts.
Here is Abbott on this very issue this morning.
There’s a standard procedure when it comes to the commitment of Australian forces. The National Security Committee of the cabinet considers the matter. The full cabinet considers the matter. A decision is taken. The opposition leader is consulted. That’s the standard procedure. It’s always been thus.
The prime minister as been out and about in the land of breakfast television, answering the Wroe story on special forces troops on board the RAAF planes dropping guns and ammo to the Kurds. Abbott said he could not comment on the story, given it was an operational matter.
He underlined the two elements to Australia’s involvement with the US in Iraq.
- The humanitarian air drops such as the one to Amerli early yesterday and Mount Sinjar a week ago.
- The military airlift involving a number of other countries to the Kurdish parts of Iraq.
Abbott was asked again about troops on the ground and here is the key quote.
I certainly don’t rule out further military involvement but I do rule out combat troops on the ground. That’s President Obama’s position. That’s the position of the Australian Government. As I understand it, it’s also the position of the British Government.
PUPs have a spring in their step via the ever-vigilant Mike Bowers.
Good morning blog peoples,
On this first day of spring, the politicians are streaming into the parliament here in Canberra for the second week back since the winter break. As you are no doubt aware, it is all about Iraq this morning after Tony Abbott, with Australian Defence Force chief Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin announced Australia would be arming Kurdish fighters in their battle against the Islamic State. It follows humanitarian aid drops in the past weeks.
Abbott says the move was at the request of the Obama administration and has the full support of the Iraqi government.
While Labor is supporting the move, the Greens and Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie have criticised the involvement. Christine Milne wants to hear what the Coalition’s long term strategy will be and Wilkie has labelled the intervention “insane” without the parliament’s approval. You will remember Wilkie, a former intelligence analyst with the Office of National Assessments, resigned from that job over what he claimed was the exaggeration of intelligence by the Howard government to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He can hear the drums Fernando.
Wilkie told Fran Kelly on the ABC that this latest development was just a re-run of 2003.
The government is saying trust us, we know the best course of action to make the decision. All I am saying is that in matters as grave and serious as this, there is in fact a role for the Australian parliament.
In answer to Wilkie and others, both Abbott and his foreign minister Julie Bishop said they were merely following convention. No one ever asks the parliament. It’s up to the government of the day to make such decisions.
Over at Fairfax, our colleague David Wroe is reporting that Australian SAS troops will be on board those RAAF planes when they drop arms to the Kurds in coming weeks. Their role, Wroe says, is on a just in case basis. That is, just in case an “emergency exit” is required - also known as a “hot extraction”.
Wroe goes on to say:
It is also understood the SAS could in future be stationed on the ground in Iraq if Australia joins any air strike campaign against the Islamic State militants wreaking terror through the country’s north. They would be there to find and rescue pilots and crews in the event that a RAAF plane is shot down, rather than for combat missions.
You can see how the temperature is rising and not just because it is the first day of spring.
So stay with us as we chart the murky territory. Mike Bowers and I will be wading in, both here and in the twitstream so join the conversation. Me @gabriellechan and he @mpbowers. In the event that we need a hot extraction, you will be the first to know.
