Night-time politics
That is your lot for the evening. It was a bit of a weird day.
- The citizenship debate dominated the parliament in two veins. The Julie Bishop foreign collusion accusations aimed at Labor and the actual, what the hell will happen to Barnaby Joyce et al.
- The Liberal MP Russell Broadbent said that, when the US has finished its screening program, we should bring the remainder to Australia. It was a David Marr column that pushed him to the brink, he said. Enough.
- The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, could not confirm whether Australian terrorist Khaled Sharrouf and two of his children had been killed in an airstrike, as per reports.
- Question time was dominated by the citizenship issue, with Julie Bishop refusing to back away from various claims about collusion between the ALP and NZ Labour.
- A deal by One Nation to cut back the ABC and impose limits looks to be meaningless after Nick Xenophon – whose vote is crucial – said he would not cop the changes. A government deal with the Greens and Nick Xen is looking more likely but no promises made.
- The government lost a suspension motion in the Senate designed to censure Penny Wong over the discussions by her staffer with NZ Labor over Barnaby Joyce’s citizenship and a subsequent question by a NZ Labor MP. It failed when it did not win the support of Nick Xenophon, Cory Bernardi or the Greens.
That’s it, my friends, for the evening at least. The ABC is in the house, so tomorrow’s blog will be awash with Bowers’ pictures of MPs cuddling Bananas in Pyjamas. Thanks for your company and thanks to the brains trust, Gareth Hutchens, Paul Karp and Katharine Murphy. Mike Bowers was a brick as usual.
Catch you in the morning.
Good night.
Updated
Given his migrant background, it was interesting there was no reference by Peter Georgiou to his party’s ban on Muslims.
Updated
Peter Georgiou finishes with a callout to the Australian Brotherhood of Fathers on the issue of domestic violence.
The Brotherhood has this charter of sorts. The Brotherhood is campaigning for:
Our policies relate to the main issues arising from the break up of relationships with children and reflect a common thread found among families dealing with access problems.
- Equal shared care on separation with mandatory enforcement.
- Remove the CSA calculations and replace with a flat rate child payment.
- Introduction of heavy penalties for unfounded abuse allegations.
- Capped cost outcomes associated with family court access.
- Establishment of a family access tribunal for child access issues.
- Criminalise parental alienation as child abuse.
- Provide gender neutral access to crisis support.
The speech has ended with congratulations all around.
Updated
Peter Georgiou has called for a national one-stop shop for prevention and intervention for gambling issues funded by a tax.
Let me stress I am not anti-gambling.
Updated
Georgiou says he supports employing Australians while admitting he helped a Sri Lankan worker to emigrate to Australia who had work and family in Australia.
He urges the Senate to support One Nation’s “progressive” education and training policy.
He wants to stop foreign political donations.
He applauds tradies (like himself), saying who ever needs an archaeologist late on a Saturday night?
Georgiou loves the cashless welfare card. He said in the town of Leonora, in WA, less than 60% of the 100 children attend school regularly.
Updated
The One Nation senator Peter Georgiou has started his speech – a classic migrant story, born of Greek migrants. Dad was an electrician and spent a lot of time working away. The senator also became an electrician.
His themes will include:
- a fair share for WA
- keeping banks and multinationals honest
- education and training
- stamping out political correctness in all its forms.
Updated
Tory Shepherd of the Adelaide Advertiser reports that NXT senator Skye Kakoschke-Moore is attempting to bring on a marriage bill.
Plans are afoot to bring on a debate on same-sex marriage, trumping the federal government’s postal vote plan.
Nick Xenophon Team senator Skye Kakoschke-Moore has found a sneaky opportunity in an omnibus bill listed for debate this afternoon.
The Civil Law and Justice Legislation Amendment Bill contains a range of changes to different laws, including the Marriage Act 1961. The changes to the Marriage Act are technical but Senator Kakoschke-Moore can use the situation to move her own amendment to try to bring on debate, and possibly a vote.
Her amendment will have protections for religious freedoms.
She says she is hoping to save the $122m cost of the postal survey.
Updated
The One Nation senator Peter Georgiou will deliver his first speech at 5pm.
Updated
Liberal MP Russell Broadbent on asylum seekers: El Shaddai. Enough.
Katharine Murphy reports:
The Victorian Liberal moderate Russell Broadbent has called for “genuine refugees” in offshore detention to be settled permanently on the Australian mainland once the US resettlement deal has run its course.
Broadbent signalled his intention to break ranks with government policy in a short speech to parliament just before question time on Wednesday, saying it was “time for this parliament to act to resolve the situation on Manus and Nauru”.
The veteran Liberal, who has campaigned within the Liberal party and across party lines on behalf of asylum seekers, referenced a column from Guardian Australia’s David Marr as the prompt for him to call for a permanent resolution.
In his speech, Broadbent quoted the opening of Marr’s piece, which was published last week: “If only Christians fought like this for refugees. Imagine if the Coalition’s big men of faith threatened to tear down their own government unless it brings home the wretches we’ve imprisoned in the Pacific. Surely there couldn’t be a greater service for Christ?”
Broadbent told parliament: “David Marr can be pretty hard when he writes. It comes out of his life experience and I accept that.”
The Liberal MP said he could not ignore the challenge he laid down. “I couldn’t walk past it. Eventually you come to a place in your time – as a former member once said – there’s a rubbish bin there, and it smells, and you can’t walk past it.
Enough. El Shaddai. Enough.
Read the whole thing here.
Updated
Government to delay marriage postal survey bill until after court challenge
The government is set to delay a bill to improve processes for the postal survey on same-sex marriage after the Greens and marriage equality advocates warned that passing it may undermine the high court challenge against the vote.
Guardian Australia understands that the Human Rights Law Centre, representing Australian Marriage Equality and the Greens LGBTI spokeswoman Janet Rice in the challenge, has advised that passing a bill to set rules for the survey run by the Australian Bureau of Statistics could harm their chances in court.
Marriage equality advocates are to write to Labor, the Greens and crossbench warning them not to pass any bill prematurely. The Greens have already written to the government urging it to delay legislation.
On Wednesday the acting special minister of state, Mathias Cormann, told Guardian Australia:
The most likely timing for consideration of a bill to provide for additional legal safeguards ... to support the fair and proper conduct of [the survey] will be after the high court’s hearings on 5 and 6 September.
On Friday the Cormann contacted Labor and the Greens, offering to extend electoral law provisions for authorisations of ads and banning misleading information, fraud, bribery and intimidation to protect the survey.
At first the government suggested the bill could be presented to parliament this week. It has given the bill to Labor, which is considering its position, and crossbench parties.
No details of the bill are publicly available but Guardian Australia understands it extends basic electoral protections and goes no further.
Immigration minister Peter Dutton was asked if he thought the Sharrouf’s children deserved to die.
Dutton:
Well, nobody would want to see Australian children die. Nobody would want to see any children die. But the fact is that Sharrouf and his wife took their children into a war zone. If they have been killed, what other outcome would they expect? They were obviously horrible people, atrocious parents, and to take their children into that war zone - you’ve seen the footage of the children - one holding up a severed head and the rest of it - who would expect any other outcome from parents and people obviously as evil as their father, Khaled Sharrouf?
Peter Dutton cannot confirm reports of Khaled Sharrouf's reported death
Immigration minister Peter Dutton cannot confirm reports from last night that terrorist Khaled Sharrouf and his two young sons have been killed in an airstrike.
As the government said before, it’s always very difficult to confirm these reports, given that we’re dealing with war zones in Syria and Iraq, so the point to make is that no Australian would mourn the loss of Khaled Sharrouf.
He’s a terrorist. He sought to harm Australians and, if he returned to our country, he would be a significant threat to the Australian public. So, nobody would mourn his loss, and the fact is that, if people make a decision to go to the Middle East or anywhere else to engage with Isis in a fight against countries like ours, then frankly they deserve the outcome that perhaps has met Sharrouf.
But I don’t have any confirmation in relation to that information at the moment.
Updated
I apologise for my absence. I was wagging the blog.
Mr Wright of the West Oz has been looking at the constitution.
Ah, the plan ... Sect 44 (ii) prevents someone in Parliament if convicted of treason. #auspol The one section that hasn't been tested...
— Shane Wright (@swrightwestoz) August 16, 2017
Disqualification
Any person who:
(i) is under any acknowledgment of allegiance, obedience, or adherence to a foreign power, or is a subject or a citizen or entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or a citizen of a foreign power; or
(ii) is attainted of treason, or has been convicted and is under sentence, or subject to be sentenced, for any offence punishable under the law of the commonwealth or of a state by imprisonment for one year or longer; or
(iii) is an undischarged bankrupt or insolvent; or
(iv) holds any office of profit under the crown, or any pension payable during the pleasure of the crown out of any of the revenues of the commonwealth; or
(v) has any direct or indirect pecuniary interest in any agreement with the public service of the commonwealth otherwise than as a member and in common with the other members of an incorporated company consisting of more than 25 persons;
shall be incapable of being chosen or of sitting as a senator or a member of the House of Representatives.
Updated
Labor loses the suspension of standing orders. Question time is over.
The house votes to gag Joel Fitzgibbon. Now the house votes on the suspension of standing orders.
The house votes to gag Burke and then Labor agriculture shadow Joel Fitzgibbon has a go. Pyne then moves to gag Fitzgibbon.
Labor’s Tony Burke moves to suspend standing orders. The motion:
Notes:
a) On Monday, this house unanimously asked the high court to determine whether the deputy prime minister is constitutionally qualified to be a member of parliament;
b) On Tuesday, the deputy prime minister admitted he had been a citizen of a foreign power right up until the weekend;
c) Former minister Matt Canavan has resigned from cabinet and will not vote in the Senate until the high court resolves doubts about his constitutional qualifications to be a member of parliament;
d) Yesterday, the foreign minister refused to accept that the conservative New Zealand internal affairs minister was telling the truth; and
e) This morning, on Sky News, the foreign minister refused to answer whether she could now work with a future New Zealand government; and
2. Therefore, calls on the prime minister:
a) To stop trashing Australia’s international relations in order to distract from the crisis the government is facing;
b) Rule out accepting the vote of the deputy prime minister while his constitutional qualifications are in doubt; and
c) Direct the deputy prime minister to immediately resign from cabinet.
Pyne has moved to gag Burke so the division is in progress.
Updated
Tanya Plibersek to Julie Bishop: In her travels, the foreign minister has made it clear she has constructive meeting with the president of Iran, the presidents of Russia and the Philippines. How can the foreign minister bring credibility and professionalism to her job if we are meant to believe she will work with Iran, Russia and the Philippines, but maybe not New Zealand?
Bishop sets into TPlibs.
This is a question from a member of parliament who called Ariel Sharon a war criminal and called Israel a rogue state. She has no credibility whatsoever because she thinks Africa is a country, not once, not twice, but three times she called Africa a country. What is the capital of Africa again? Mr Speaker, the fact is the New Zealand Labour leader has now distanced herself from the Australian Labor party.
Five Labor MPs have been thrown out so far, including Plibersek.
Updated
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop #QT #seriousStinkeye @gabriellechan @GuardianAus #politicslive pic.twitter.com/20DOvuH1Ze
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) August 16, 2017
This will be our frontline weapon when we invade New Zealand in the next stage of Operation Jandal
— Pat Conroy MP (@PatConroy1) August 16, 2017
Updated
Labor’s Tony Burke to Malcolm Turnbull: My question is to the prime minister, going to the extraordinary theories the government is advancing as to why Labor is to blame. Which is Labor’s fault? That the leader of the house moved a motion to refer the deputy prime minister to the high court? That the deputy admitted yesterday he was a citizen of a foreign power? Or is it Labor’s fault the deputy prime minister’s father was born in New Zealand in 1924?
Pyne says the standing orders are very clear about the responsibilities of the prime minister and they do not go to the failures of the Labor party.
Speaker Smith agrees.
Updated
Mark Dreyfus to Julie Bishop: Yesterday, the foreign minister refused to accept the conservative internal affairs minister of New Zealand was telling the truth when he said it was media inquiries that prompted the response to the deputy prime minister’s citizenship. On what basis did the foreign minister call the internal affairs minister of New Zealand a liar?
Julie Bishop:
The questions from the Fairfax media, in fact, do not give rise to an obligation on the part of the New Zealand government to answer it. But as Senator [Wong] well knew, as her chief of staff well knew, it was raising questions in the parliament that put an obligation on the New Zealand government to act.
Updated
Tom McIlroy at Fairfax has the most extraordinary story. He reports:
The Trump administration has listed Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party as a threat to religious freedom in a new report released in Washington.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson released the annual assessment of religious persecution and intolerance on Wednesday, using a chapter on Australia to highlight Senator Hanson’s 2016 maiden speech to the Senate in which she claimed the country was “in danger of being swamped by Muslims”.
Updated
Oh that Bowers...
Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce grits his teeth through another #qt @gabriellechan @GuardianAus #politicslive pic.twitter.com/HlfxhT9lYp
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) August 16, 2017
Greens MP Adam Bandt asks a question which starts with congrats to the Yarra council on moving citizenship ceremonies.
Bandt to the PM who flicks it to the former environment minister Greg Hunt, for Josh Frydenberg who is away: During a recent debate about coal, climate change and the Great Barrier Reef in this chamber, one of your backbenchers, and I quote from Hansard, said, “There is nothing wrong with the reef, I live on the reef”. Will you condemn it or is it your official position? Is it why you are happy to bankroll the Adani coalmine, using the drug dealer’s defence: if we do not give other countries our product, someone else will? And with Adani under investigation for siphoning money into offshore tax havens, why are you leaving a questionable minister in charge?
Greg Hunt says the government is the best manager of the reef in the entire universe. (Or thereabouts.)
We inherited five major dredge disposal projects on the reef and we ended them all. We banned capital dredge disposal in the Great Barrier Reef, which had been a practice for over 100 years, right through the Greens’ partnership with the ALP ... they are environmental frauds.
Updated
Labor’s Tony Burke bowls up a piss-take question to Julie Bishop: Would the minister for foreign affairs please tell the house some more about the evil, treacherous conspiracy she has exposed in this house time and again?
Bishop walks to the dispatch box with a face like stone.
The hubris of the Australian Labor party on this issue is extraordinary. Apparently, the Labor party believes that they are above the law. There is one rule for the Labor party and one rule for the rest of Australia. Craig Thomson was allowed to sit in this parliament when he was in clear breach of the law. The leader of the opposition condones the lawlessness of his unions. The Labor party have breached the most fundamental international principle and they laugh about it?
Updated
And with the second government question to foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop we are back to foreign conspiracies.
As the New Zealand media are reporting, the New Zealand government is under no obligation to answer questions from the Australian media, but as soon as the questions were put on notice in the New Zealand parliament, the New Zealand government had an obligation, a legal obligation, to answer. So the Australian Labor party set up the New Zealand government. As Prime Minister Bill English said, these are serious issues.
Updated
Shorten to Turnbull: Why then did the government refer the deputy prime minister to the high court?
The PM says he has answered the question on more than one occasion.
Updated
Shorten to Turnbull: Can the prime minister guarantee to the house that he is leading a majority government that meets all of the requirements of the Constitution?
Yes.
Updated
Bill Shorten jokes that he thought he was in Yarra council, drawing heckles from the government benches. His answer is more nuanced, weaving a careful way through the issues and constituencies.
There is no doubt, even before the prime minister spoke, that Australia Day is a most important national day. It does commemorate the first British penal colony established in Australia. And it also, I believe, is a source of great celebration for Australians right up to the current day. But it does also acknowledge, as the prime minister said, that for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the 26th can speak of dispossession and sorrow. It also needs to recognise, I believe, that before the British settlement there were 65,000 years of continuous occupation by the world’s oldest continuing culture, in our country. Now, I do not support changing the date of Australia Day.
It is a day of citizenship ceremonies, of looking to the future, of celebrating all our cultures and faiths and traditions. And the member for Barton [Linda Burney], for example, has spoken most eloquently about this.
Reconciliation is more about changing hearts and minds than it is about moving public holidays. But, of course, if we look at national days important in the history of this country, there is March 1,1901, when the Australian parliament, the Australian nation, came into being, when our old friend the Constitution came into being. And there is, of course, another potential national public holiday, which has not yet been gazetted. And that will be when we finally have an Australian head of state.
Updated
Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese yells,
prime minister responds to Yarra Council!
Labor MP.
What crock of shite #qt delayed for this crap.#auspol Do a Min statement
— Rob Mitchell (@RobMitchellMP) August 16, 2017
Malcolm Turnbull asks to make a statement on indulgence about Australia Day following the Melbourne council’s decision (the city of Yarra) to stop holding citizenship ceremonies on January 26.
We recognise that the history of European settlement in Australia has been complex and tragic for Indigenous Australians. We recognise the complexities and the challenges of our history. But on Australia Day, we recognise the greatness of our achievement as Australians.
We recognise the remarkable nation we have become. We recognise and honour our first Australians and our newest migrant citizens. We bring all that together in a day that is uniquely and proudly Australian and that is why, Mr Speaker, my government and every government before me, in this house, has urged Australians to celebrate Australia Day.
Updated
We have a condolence motion on Liberal senator Brian Gibson.
Then on to questions.
What meme is that?
Question time coming up.
The One Nation media deal cannot be delivered, says Xenophon and Greens
The Greens and Nick Xenophon have held back-to-back press conferences on media reform.
Both groups have made it plain the Turnbull government has entered a deal with One Nation that it has no prospect of delivering, because it lacks the parliamentary numbers to deliver the deal.
Neither group will support the changes One Nation wants to the ABC’s charter. The numbers aren’t there.
That will not get across the line in the Senate,” Xenophon told reporters.
Xenophon says he is committed to trying to land a deal with the government, and will meet with the communications minister Mitch Fifield before question time. He is continuing to pursue his wish list, and says he hopes the Greens will be able to come to the party in the event One Nation steps back from the table.
Given the internal pressures the Greens have been facing, and the NSW senator Lee Rhiannon declined to comment when I asked her this morning whether she supported the Greens negotiating on media reform, I asked the party leader Richard Di Natale whether he was confident his party room would stick behind any media deal.
Of course. We wouldn’t proceed on any other basis.
Updated
I’ve had a look at this site, Libs and Nats for yes and there appears to be no contact on it.
More like Lib Nats for YASSSSSSSSS ping @LibNatsYes, who don't want to be outdone by Labor #auspol #SSM #plebiscite https://t.co/v7clURFKYQ pic.twitter.com/pLNiWdy5JL
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) August 16, 2017
One Nation need not apply.
I haven’t brought you this yet ... just in case you missed it from AAP.
An inner-city Melbourne council could be stripped of its power to host citizenship ceremonies after deciding to stop holding them on Australia Day.
City of Yarra councillors voted unanimously on Tuesday night to no longer refer to 26 January as Australia Day and end its tradition of holding citizenship ceremonies on that date in recognition of it being a day of distress for many Indigenous people.
The decision came despite a warning from the assistant minister for immigration and border protection, Alex Hawke, that councils could have their power to host citizenship ceremonies revoked if they politicised the events.
Updated
Ask a dumb question...... pic.twitter.com/NBjv5v9aoI
— Sam Dastyari (@samdastyari) August 16, 2017
The Barnaby crush.
Updated
Christopher Knaus has filed this report after some digging in the Oz:
A bid by Donald Trump to build Sydney’s first casino was rejected 30 years ago after police expressed concerns about his links to the mafia.
News Corp revealed on Wednesday morning minutes of the New South Wales cabinet that show police had warned the state government against approving a 1986-87 bid by a Trump consortium to build and operate a casino in Darling Harbour.
Trump, in partnership with the Queensland construction company Kern, was one of four groups vying for the lucrative project. The NSW government dumped it from the process on 5 May 1987, along with two other bidders.
Updated
Angus Campbell: if people are not respecting family they will not respect others
Chief of Army, Angus Campbell has explained further his concept of how fighting capacity of the army is deeply entwined with its culture.
The army, as an instrument of war, is an extraordinarily lethal element of our national institutions. And to use lethality, I need to have confidence in people and trust them.
People who are not respecting those closest to them, I would contend, are least likely in circumstances of extreme stress, to respect others that they do not know.
So, if we want an army that serves our nation and pursues the missions given to us, I need to know our people can do that.
I see some, as you are describing, who will not rehabilitate, who reject rehabilitation. I reject them as members of the army. They cannot serve in the army if they cannot find a pathway to the disciplined use of violence only in lawful circumstances.
Updated
The Western Australian Parliament is expected to hold a joint sitting at 11am AWST to fill the vacancy caused by Senator Back's resignation
— Australian Senate (@AuSenate) August 16, 2017
You will remember Chris Back will be replaced by Slade Brockman, described by our friends at the West Australian as a staunch conservative. He used to work for Mathias Cormann.
The chief of army, Lieutenant General Angus Campbell, is speaking at the National Press Club.
He is speaking about the campaign against domestic violence and abuse in the Australian defence forces.
He starts by going straight to the criticism from some commentators about defence chiefs running “agendas” as opposed to doing their core job – running the army.
I know some commentators decry agendas, which they regard as detrimental to the war-fighting capability of the Australian defence force. And some note that in their view there are many other important and serious defence and security issues to be talking about. Be assured, these other issues are also receiving my full and appropriate attention, and that of the other chiefs. But we can walk and chew gum at the same time. Indeed, as I will explain, the two are intimately connected. The culture helps to build the force.
Campbell said last Friday – the same day as he reviewed new infantry troops in Singleton – he read incorrect reports that the army had stopped recruiting men. He said the troop he reviewed had 19 men and two women.
To put things into perspective, last financial year, 16/17, 617 men and 23 women entered our first recruit training at Kapooka seeking to qualify for training in the infantry. It does not a revolution make.
Updated
Young farmer of the year: I just so happen to be gay. Vote yes
I’ve had a chat with Jason Smith, an openly gay dairy farmer who just won Young Farmer of the Year at an awards ceremony at parliament.
Smith says he’s worried the postal survey on same-sex marriage “will hurt a lot of rural LGBTI people” but “if it’s going ahead, we must all vote yes”.
I come across some challenging people in rural areas, there are some people who have been quite negative. But overall, there’s a lot of positive [people] for same-sex marriage in rural areas. They truly believe that whichever method it comes about – although I disagree with a postal plebiscite or vote – if it makes it so that we can get it and move forward, then so be it.
Smith says he’s “pretty busy on the farm” but makes regular media appearances and is urging people to enrol at public events.
My thing that I’m trying to get across is, I’m a normal farmer, I just so happen to be gay. This affects everyone, it’s across our community – rural, city, everywhere.
Jason Smith Young Farmer of the Year @ABCNetwork @KondininGroup @NationalFarmers pic.twitter.com/s6uuB10Fl5
— Fiona Simson (@afsnsw) August 16, 2017
Updated
Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce @ Aust.Farmer of the Year awards in P/H @gabriellechan @GuardianAus #politicslive pic.twitter.com/1WR8s1Wppp
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) August 16, 2017
Lunchtime politics
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The Coalition has lost a Senate bid to suspend standing orders to try to censure Labor Senate leader Penny Wong over her chief of staff Marcus Ganley’s contact with NZ Labour MP Chris Hipkins. Hipkins asked a question regarding citizenship relating to a case a lot like Barnaby Joyce, whose father was born in New Zealand. The Greens and Nick Xenophon voted against suspension, as did Australian Conservatives senator Cory Bernardi, who made the point people in politics exploit their personal contacts all the time. Der. Let he or she without sin cast the first stone.
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The suspension debate managed to push the media bill further down the Senate agenda to the point where we don’t think our elected representatives will get to it today. Nevertheless, negotiations continue. One Nation have been lauding their proposed amendments which would attempt to rein in the ABC in favour of commercial operations. ON senator Malcolm Roberts held up Rupert Murdoch as a fair and balanced player compared with the ABC, even though he says all privately owned media take sides. Recovering from my whiplash, ON senator Brian Burston has said his party’s “fair and balanced” amendments would mean the ABC would have to put both sides of the case (which they do under their charter), including on issues such as vaccinations.
Updated
One Nation Senator Brian Burston tells @SkyNewsAust the ABC must tell "both sides" of the vaccination "debate" to provide balanced coverage
— Julia Holman (@JulesHolman) August 15, 2017
Matthew Knott of Fairfax makes the point:
Looks like One Nation outfoxed by govt on media deregulation.
— Matthew Knott (@KnottMatthew) August 16, 2017
All their main ABC conditions are in separate legislation so will prob fail
Homeland.
Updated
An update on housekeeping.
After this morning’s flurry in the Senate, the media reforms have slipped down the order of government business. A cynic might suggest the suspension of standing orders against Penny Wong may have been an exercise to buy time for furious negotiations on the media bill. At this rate, the Senate will not get to it today, given there are a few bills in front of it.
Updated
Actor Sam Neill passes on a note from his neighbours.
A note from small neighbours Ann & Zac to @JulieBishopMP& @TurnbullMalcolm @AllBlacks @InsidersABC @jacindaardern Barnaby Joyce New Zealand pic.twitter.com/9UEKhJKZu0
— Sam Neill (@TwoPaddocks) August 15, 2017
Updated
Not that we want to be starting anything ... given there’s too much of everything
I’ve been making calls this morning about the media reform package, given it is now obvious the government is inching towards a conclusion of sorts.
Let’s consider the current state of play.
One Nation and the government have come to terms. Nick Xenophon has signalled he’s not up for One Nation and the government’s terms.
The Greens have signalled a willingness to negotiate as well. Under the former communications spokesman Scott Ludlam, in my view there is no way the Greens would have supported a package removing the two-out-of-three rule, because removing the two-out-of-three rule makes the Australian media market more concentrated in terms of ownership.
But under the new communications portfolio holder, Sarah Hanson-Young, the starting position has become more flexible. The Greens are also concerned about the risk that the media-reform package could become an attack on the public broadcasters if the debate is left to One Nation and the government.
But bearing in mind this is a week in which the Greens have traded public blows with one another on a major current affairs program, I thought it prudent to try and discover whether everyone in the Greens is flexible about talking to the government on media reform.
I started with the obvious person you would start with, given the events of recent times – the NSW Greens senator Lee Rhiannon. I asked her this morning whether she thought it was OK to negotiate with the government on media reform. She replied: “No comment.” When I pressed her to expand on “no comment”, she told me her only comment was “no comment”.
I understand there is internal debate within the Greens about the merits of dealing with the government on this media package, both because of the risks of further concentration in the Australian media market (which various studies suggest is one of the most concentrated, in terms of ownership, in the developed world), and because of a basic political calculation: why throw a lifeline to a struggling Coalition government?
Hard to say how this story ends. It’s going to be interesting to watch how this story comes together.
Updated
Coalition closes loophole which allowed teens to vote on marriage
Acting special minister of state, Mathias Cormann, has released a statement announcing he has issued a direction to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, closing a reported loophole that could have allowed 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in the same-sex marriage postal survey.
According to the Australian Electoral Commission, 16- and 17-year-olds would never have been able to vote:
The normal enrolment processes apply – 16- and 17-year-olds are not added to the commonwealth electoral roll until they turn 18. They are ‘provisionally’ enrolled until they turn 18. Under section 90B of the Commonwealth Electoral Act the AEC only provided the details of electors that are enrolled, not provisionally enrolled. Section 90B is the AEC’s authority to provide the roll to the ABS, therefore 16- and 17-year-olds will not be included in the Australia Marriage Law Postal Survey.”
But now Cormann has put it beyond doubt, announcing he has issued a direction “to make the intention absolutely clear” that only Australians who are 18 years or older on 24 August, 2017 be allowed to vote.
Updated
Cory Bernardi on foreign conspiracies: no one here is without sin
Senator Cory Bernardi is always an interesting character to watch because he does not always jump the way you think he might.
He voted against the government’s suspension of standing orders on the Penny Wong censure, accusing the Coalition of overreach on the foreign conspiracy theory. He explained why to Sky:
Getting factual knowledge is what politics and politicians are all about. They will exploit that for their own base political purposes. I know myself the prime minister and others in the government contacted someone in the Tory party when I was flying over there [the UK] to speak at a conference because they didn’t want me to speak.
No one here is without sin and they would all exploit the same opportunity, and the fact is if the journalists knew about it, the Labor party knew about it, how did the government not know about it? That’s the real question, or were they trying to cover something up?
Updated
Barnaby: I'm terribly humbled and I love youse all
From Tamworth to Tenterfield, my office has been inundated with people offering their support. Thanks New England. #auspol pic.twitter.com/gfYjwmdoVB
— Barnaby Joyce (@Barnaby_Joyce) August 15, 2017
Meanwhile in the diplomatic sphere...
As much as it pains me, I have to turn to Malcolm Roberts and the logic trail, which is about as easy to follow as the scent of a mad hare.
He has been arguing in support of One Nation’s proposed media amendments which seek to cut bits off the ABC and feed it to our good Aunty.
Roberts says the media reforms have been a journey for him because he started this tour thinking Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp was the “one with the power”.
He has since learned that “Google and Facebook” and other interweb channels are making inroads into the mejia.
And that’s hurting ... some of the commercial media outlets. And what we’re seeing is that Guardian, Fairfax, are plummeting in circulation, plummeting in their influence, because the public is waking up.
(It is immodest to say but Guardian only started in Oz in 2013 and is in the top six news rankings by Neilsen:-P)
Anyway, sans facts, Roberts pushes on in his quasi-empirical fashion, suggesting the public is waking up to the likes of Fairfax and the Guardian. He says luckily we have audience numbers (yes we do) and that tells you all you need to know about why that Rupert Murdoch is totally savvy and smashing it out of the park.
There follows this fabulous exchange with Michael Rowland of the ABC.
Roberts:
[Murdoch]’s got outstanding newspapers, he’s got tabloids and what he does is he goes to the audience. And so Murdoch’s papers are more balanced than the ABC, more balanced than Fairfax and the Guardian, and that shows in his circulation. So what we’ve got now is a market that’s opening up to the customer and the customer deciding where he or she will put their money and their eyeballs ...
Rowland: Excuse the interruption, you’re looking at the News Corp tabloids just this week but certainly, over a period of time, they seem to be running a fairly strong campaign against Labor. How does that stand on your fair and balanced spectrum?
Roberts:
Well, you know, the Murdoch press has jumped [sides] over the years. I’ve watched them since I was a boy and that’s clear.
Rowland: But therefore you say they take sides. So how can they be balanced?
That’s correct. That’s what I said. All the media – privately owned – takes sides.
#that’swhatIsaid #fairandbalanced
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The latest on media via Gareth Hutchens:
Coalition loses attempt to censure Penny Wong
The vote to suspend standing orders to debate the censure of Penny Wong goes down 29-34.
While the Senate is voting, a bit of housekeeping. Later today in the Senate, we will have the vulnerable workers bill, which imposes maximum civil penalties on franchisors and holding companies for contraventions of the Fair Work Act.
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Given the numbers, Wong says just call it on the numbers, but the government wants a vote so vote it is.
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Nick X, Greens and Labor reject suspension on Wong staffer
Nick Xenophon says he does not support the suspension, so along with the Greens and Labor, the Coalition can’t win the suspension.
Derryn Hinch says he supports the suspension but it does not mean he would support a censure, given he thought Bishop’s attack yesterday amounted to underarm bowling.
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Labor frontbencher Kim Carr says the censure motion should be against foreign minister Julie Bishop and attorney general George Brandis who has aided and abetted her.
One Nation’s Pauline Hanson is giving a robust defence of the government, and Hanson and her ducklings will be voting for the suspension of standing orders.
There is general heckling and catcalls from the opposition side.
Hanson says if Labor was in government they would be screaming blue murder.
Even Senator Wong’s citizenship has been questioned.
Penny Wong’s eyebrow shoots up.
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Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson says the government is a joke and a citizenship audit is the way to go rather than pulling stunts and wasting taxpayer time and money.
If this is your version of a haka – looking the enemy in the eyes – it’s not a very good one.
Whish-Wilson says Australians would have no confidence in a foreign minister Julie Bishop when she picks a fight with New Zealand as a smoke screen.
He says Bishop’s press conference yesterday was a debacle.
If you want to suspend standing orders with Greens support, says Whish-Wilson, why don’t you suspend standing orders to discuss sending ADF troops to the Korean peninsula (for training exercises) when the madman is making threats?
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Communications minister Mitch Fifield says he has never seen Penny Wong speak in the chamber with less conviction.
He says the action of Wong’s staff member was inappropriate and unwise.
He wants to know what did she know, when did she know it and what did she do.
Penny Wong says it is a distraction from the government’s mess. She says by not conceding that the NZ conservative government had confirmed Barnaby Joyce’s citizenship as a result of media questions, the government is calling the NZ minister for internal affairs a liar.
I understand they are in trouble. I understand they are prepared to throw grenades.
But Wong does concede,
it was unwise for my staff member to engage in that discussion.
LNP senator Ian Macdonald says “why did you lie”?
He is asked to withdraw and does so.
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Government moves to censure Penny Wong
The government is trying to suspend standing orders in the Eenate to censure Labor Senate leader Penny Wong over her chief of staff Marcus Ganley and his discussions with NZ Labour people.
This is attorney general George Brandis’s motion:
I move that the Senate censures the shadow minister for foreign affairs (Senator Wong) for:
(a) causing her chief of staff to engage in inappropriate conduct with a foreign political entity for the purpose of causing damage to Australia;
(b) causing her chief of staff to interfere in the political process of New Zealand for the purpose of undermining the Australian government;
(c) misleading the Senate by suggesting that the issue of the deputy prime minister’s citizenship arose in New Zealand as a result of media inquiries, rather than orchestration by her chief of staff;
(d) embarrassing the government of New Zealand, and thereby potentially causing damage to Australia’s relationship with one of our closest allies; and
(e) engaging in conduct which makes her unfit to ever hold the office of foreign minister of Australia.
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A bit of snap analysis here. Two things about this citizenship debate and the charges of conspiracy.
Firstly, of all the grey lobbying, colluding and cross-pollination in Australian politics, the fact a Labor staffer rang and queried what the rules are in a politically aligned office across the ditch is hardly breaking news. Oppositions and governments specialise in digging up issues to trip the other side.
Secondly, the fact is Barnaby Joyce is a dual citizen. As a result, fairly or unfairly, the constitution appears to rule out the deputy prime minister’s eligibility on that plain unvarnished fact. So it should be tested in the high court along with the other four senators.
Thirdly, the NZ conspiracy theory worked up ahead of yesterday’s Coalition party room has assured a Mutually Assured Destruction pact in the Australian parliament on this issue now. It was all very well while it affected the minor parties – said the majors – but the conspiracy theory has ramped it up to a whole new level. No gentlewoman’s pact will be observed on citizenship now.
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Julie Bishop questions Penny Wong's fitness for office
Foreign minister Julie Bishop has talked to Sky’s Kieran Gilbert. She has doubled down on the collusion angle. She asks whether Bill Shorten was raising the citizenship issue in other parliaments around the world regarding MPs in Australia. And Bishop rejects the suggestion that she would not have gone as hard on another country, such as China or India, in her charges of a conspiracy between NZ Labour and the ALP.
This is about an Australian constitutional issue and it is improper for Penny Wong to seek to use the New Zealand parliament and the person so being used, the New Zealand [Labor] leader has said the conduct was wrong, unacceptable and should never have happened. That calls into question Penny Wong’s fitness for office.
Maaaate, how about that Barnaby Joyce?
Labor foreign affairs shadow Penny Wong has addressed the issue of her chief of staff Marcus Ganley having discussions on the Barnaby Joyce dual New Zealand citizenship issue with friends in New Zealand.
Wong starts at the beginning.
The first point is the questions about the deputy prime minister’s citizenship have been on the record for some time. His office denied that there was a problem last month. He himself denied it last month.
Then she questioned why Joyce’s office told people that they had information from the New Zealand authorities that he didn’t have a problem.
Second, the story became public as a result of questions asked by an Australian journalist. That is very clear. That’s what the New Zealand minister has said.
Wong said her staff member did have a chat with some mates.
It is correct that my staff member has mates in New Zealand, he lived and worked in New Zealand for some time and he has had chats with people about the issue that’s consuming politics here and to some extent there, which is the citizenship issue, and amongst the people, the mates with whom he has had contact, is Mr Hipkins...
Chris Hipkins was the Labor MP who asked the question about citizenship in the NZ parliament.
Asked if one of those questions was about having a father born in New Zealand, Wong says citizenship was discussed.
At no stage did my staff member request questions be lodged in the New Zealand parliament. Mr Hipkins has absolutely made that clear. The second thing I want to make clear is this: neither I nor my staff member were even aware questions had been lodged until after this story broke. So any suggestion that this is somehow – what did Julie Bishop say? – a conspiracy, is ridiculous.
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Media reforms between a rock and hard place
Good morning media junkies,
It’s all about the mejia today people, apart from flurries of citizenship debacles and blustery conditions expected in question time.
The media bill, which has been a long time in the works, is coming to a vote in the Senate. Last night, One Nation announced they had a deal with the government.
The starting point was this: the bill would abolish the 75% reach rule that prevents Nine Entertainment, Seven West Media and the Ten Network from owning their regional affiliates and the two-out-of-three rule preventing moguls from controlling a free-to-air TV station, newspapers and radio stations in the same market.
Labor is opposed to the bill.
Pauline Hanson was originally opposed to the media package, particularly the two-out-of-three rule.
But last night she said the government had given an assurance it would ask the ABC to provide “details of the wages and conditions of all staff whose wages and allowances are greater than $200,000, similar to what is being implement[ed] by the British Broadcasting Corporation”. The requirement extends to “on-air talent”.
The government has also agreed to undertake a competitive neutrality inquiry into the ABC and to legislate a requirement for the ABC to be ‘fair’ and ‘balanced’.
She told Andrew Bolt, a fierce critic of the ABC and employee of News Corp, she had raised some of his points with the government.
WATCH: One Nation's @PaulineHansonOz on why she's backing the Turnbull Government's media law reforms. Live now on @SkyNewsAust pic.twitter.com/iB2nh4LvcW
— The Bolt Report (@theboltreport) August 15, 2017
But the government also needs Nick Xenophon’s three votes in the Senate and Nick has nixed the ABC changes on the grounds that it would disadvantage the ABC in favour of commercial broadcasters.
Xenophon told Fran Kelly he could not see where the ABC changes come into the media package, given the ABC already had a charter to be neutral.
I support the charter, I cannot see the need for a fair and balance test ... I don’t think the ramifications have been thought through.
He said he wants an inquiry into the effect of Facebook and Google on the media landscape, given their domination over advertising revenue, and tax breaks for hiring journalists at small publishing outfits. Xenophon said it would turbocharge media diversity in Australia and ameliorate media takeovers.
The upshot of the gap between the demands of One Nation and Nick Xenophon would mean the Coalition must again look to the Greens, who have cautiously entertained the abolition of the two-out-of-three rule in return for similar diversity measures to Xenophon.
The Greens will not entertain any limitations to the ABC and SBS and they want a commitment to local content. They are working with NXT on measures to protect journalists’ jobs while trying to ensure tax breaks are not exploited by larger publishers.
The government would pass the bill with the Greens and NXT so the Hanson deal might be all fluff and filler.
So stick with me, this my second-last day in blogland. Speak to me in the thread or on the Twits. I will post to my Facebook page as well. Penny Wong coming up next and her staffer, NZ Labor and citizenship shenanigans.
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