Night time politics
- The prime minister has presented the Closing the Gap report on measures aimed at improving the lives of Indigenous Australians. Only one of the goals, halving the gap in Year 12 attainment by 2020 – is on track to be met. The government has announced a new Indigenous commissioner to assess policy at the Productivity Commission and another $50m for the policy process. Bill Shorten has called on the government to consider commonwealth reparation for the stolen generations - something only tackled so far by some state governments.
- Nick Xenophon will not back the omnibus bill in its current form. This means, after threatening there will be no NDIS or childcare reform, the government is forced to continue to negotiate with the crossbench. Labor and the Greens have ruled out supporting the bill. Which means they have to get Xenophon.
- The Coalition hammered power prices in parliament while Labor hammered the Coalition over the Liberal-One Nation preference swap in Western Australia. Joyce said Labor’s renewable targets were “bat poo crazy” while Labor’s Tony Burke asked the speaker to ensure Joyce spoke in English.
- The National Audit Office have come out with a critical report on the Abbott government’s $2bn loan to the WestConnex project on the basis there was very little analysis of the deal.
- The Australian Building and Construction Commission bill is currently going through the lower house following Derryn Hinch’s decision to cut back the two year phase in period for the building code.
That’s your lot for the evening. Thanks to Gareth Hutchens, Paul Karp, Katharine Murphy and Mike Bowers.
Tomorrow is Wednesday, which means we are expecting the committee report into the exposure draft of the same sex marriage legislation. Thanks for your company.
Good night.
I have just stumbled into a Senate debate on renewable energy to hear LNP senator Ian Macdonald complain that Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson had called him,
thick as two short planks.
Macdonald calls him an idiot.
He says there are 216 coal-fired power stations being built around the world.
Take that.
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The Australian Building and Construction Commission bill is before the lower house again. Lest you think you are suffering deja vu, remember Senator Derryn Hinch changed his mind, as Paul Karp reported last week.
Building companies risk losing government work immediately if they fail to renegotiate industrial agreements to meet the government’s strict new code after a backflip by senator Derryn Hinch.
On Wednesday the Turnbull government introduced a new bill to bring forward the operation date of the building code attached to the Australian Building and Construction Commission Act, which passed in November.
Hinch told Guardian Australia that over summer he discovered he was “suddenly regarded as a villain by small and medium builders and subcontractors” because he had negotiated a two-year phase-in period for the code.
That second ABCC bill is now before the lower house and will have to go through the Senate again.
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Barnaby Joyce has been speaking to David Speers on Sky re the preference deal in Western Australia.
Joyce could see the Coalition fight coming after the Liberals did the preference deal with One Nation ahead of the Nationals, he says.
This is what happens when you start picking on your business partner or your girlfriend. One scratches and the other one scratches back.
Now the Nats have done a preference deal with the Greens – a move Joyce thinks is a bad idea.
He is not keen to talk about whether One Nation is a different outfit in its latest incarnation.
Their delivery is more sophisticated, isn’t it?
Joyce acknowledges the question of preferences needs to be dealt with in future elections. He says he will sit down and work out where One Nation is.
The deputy prime minister says the Labor party has “bat poo crazy ideas” about renewables (the 50% target).
If you say ‘coal-fired power station’ it is like exorcist, they jump back … I think all electrons are born equal, it doesn’t matter what they come from.
Finally, Joyce thinks the Victorian government should step in and ensure Hazelwood coalmine does not shut.
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Audit report critical of WestConnex loan
A $2bn concessional loan from the Abbott government to pay for the WestConnex road project in western Sydney failed to protect federal interests or to speed up the project by up to two years, the audit office has found.
The Australian National Audit Office report, released on Tuesday, found that both the Abbott and Gillard governments committed at least $1.5bn to the WestConnex project while the project was still in a formative phase.
In May 2014 the Abbott government made a $500m advance payment and the $2bn loan, which the report said resulted in “the project being approved without there being any documented analysis and advice to ministers that the statutory criteria for giving such approvals had been met”.
Further, criteria for progress payments were set after milestones had already been achieved, ensuring payments flowed without providing accountability. The infrastructure department denies this charge.
The report concluded upfront payments “did not adequately protect the [federal] government’s financial interests”.
Labor transport spokesman, Anthony Albanese, said the use of a concessional rather than commercial loan had cost the government hundreds of millions of dollars which could have been spent on more ready projects.
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@gabriellechan @samanthamaiden @guardian how are 9% of greens voting for the Bernardipardy!?
— Stephen Lloyd (@stephenglloyd) February 14, 2017
Our political editor Katharine Murphy was overheard in the office, answering this very question.
Just for the LOLs.
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Bill Shorten makes a personal explanation, which basically says it was poor form of the prime minister to attack the Pratt family (in that speech). Shorten said he doesn’t mind personal attacks but it was not fair to attack the Pratts over their long-standing friendship between his ex-wife’s family.
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Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon to Barnaby Joyce: Yesterday in the Senate, the minister for defence confirmed she was aware before the election of the potential requirements for the expansion of the Shoalwater Bay and Townsville Field military training areas. Given the deputy prime minister is also deputy chair of the national security committee of the cabinet, and the minister for agriculture, and the leader of the National party, did he first become aware that the expansion could require the acquisition of prime agricultural land before or after the election?
Christopher Pyne rises and says the question should go to the person representing the defence minister in the lower house (running interference for Joyce).
Labor’s Tony Burke says fair go, government members ask Joyce about issues relating to agriculture (in this case the land acquisitions) all the time. Speaker Smith says the question is not in order. Which allows the prime minister to call the end of question time (something that is set by the time or the number of questions).
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Plibersek to Turnbull: Last night, the Senate passed a motion demanding the minister for education immediately release the government’s plan for school funding. Sir, when will the prime minister end the uncertainty and come clean about just how badly schools will be hit by his $30bn of cuts?
Turnbull says we investing more money than ever before in education funding (I covered this earlier) and he then goes to the VET-FEE help debacle which saw some private colleges ripping off students. The policy was implemented under Labor.
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A government question to the energy minister, Josh Frydenberg: Will the minister update the House on the government’s actions to reduce emissions and lower electricity bills for hardworking Australians, without compromising their energy security? What hurdles stand in the way to achieving this security for hardworking Australian families?
Frydenberg mentions the new standards to reduce emissions.
A national energy productivity plan to get a 40% boost by 2030. You can reduce pressure on the grid, creating more stability.
If you can reduce consumption, you can lower costs.
If you can reduce consumption, you can also lower emissions.
He says the government has introduced:
- new standards for buildings through the commercial disclosures program, which “could lead to a $50m energy saving”,
- new standards around appliances which means a state-of-the-art are air-conditioner sold in Australia in 2003 wouldn’t meet the minimum conditions and standards today
- new lighting standards as well which could save a household up to $2,400 over the next 10 years.
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Trade minister Steve Ciobo gets a Dixer which allows him to run a Counterfeit Bill (Shorten) joke.
Then Labor to Scott Morrison: Now that the minor parties have joined with Labor to oppose the government’s latest unfair cuts, will the treasurer take his cuts to families, pensioners and carers and new mums out of the parliament and out of the budget? Why does the treasurer continue Joe Hockey’s practise of artificially propping up his budget with measures that will not pass the parliament?
Shorter Morrison is that people have to cop the cuts because the budget is unsustainable.
We think that the generation that is incurring this expenditure has to be the generation that pays for that expenditure. Now, we think that expenditure should be more affordable. We think that expenditure should be more sustainable.
Labor to Turnbull: Under the government’s latest cuts to paid parental leave, a female police officer in Victoria will lose 12 weeks of paid parental leave. That’s a loss of around $8,000. Can the prime minister explain to police officers who sacrifice so much to protect our community why he wants them to return to their challenging work sooner, with less money, because of his cuts to paid parental leave?
Turnbull said the government stands by police, defence forces, etc etc.
He flicks the question to social services minister Christian Porter, who does not go to the detail of the question.
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A government question to foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop: Will the minister advise the House how high-efficiency, low-emissions coal technology is helping countries meet their Paris agreement targets? Is the minister aware of any alternative approaches that would increase cost-of-living pressures for hardworking families?
Julie Bishop says the International Energy Agency clean coal centre in London, found in a report in September 2015 that new Healy technology, “the high-energy, low-emissions technology”, in 10 Asian economies, has already reduced carbon emissions by some 479m tonnes per year.
Now, the assessment by the International Energy Agency clean coal centre in London is: if all the new power stations embracing high-efficiency, low-emissions technology had been ultra-super-critical, the decrease in emissions would have been not 479 million tonnes a year, but over 2 billion tonnes a year.
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Jenny Macklin to Malcolm Turnbull: Why is the prime minister choosing to harm 1.5 million Australian families, and threaten the national disability insurance scheme, instead of scrapping his $50bn handout to big business?
Turnbull:
The honourable member – she has a great heart, and I don’t doubt that. And I’m sure she wants the NDIS to work. But, Mr Speaker, somebody has to pay for it. You cannot keep on borrowing your way into the future. I wish the honourable members opposite would show one-tenth of the compassion they talk about all the time for the generations to come. Their failure to provide to live within our means is imposing an unconscionable burden of debt on our children and grandchildren.
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In the Senate...
One nation leader Pauline Hanson during #QT in the #Senate @gabriellechan @GuardianAus #politicslive pic.twitter.com/ljDxjLgIcq
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) February 14, 2017
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A government question to immigration minister Peter Dutton: Will the minister update the House on steps the government is taking to ensure that the 457 visa program is a supplement to, and not a substitute for, Australian workers? How would an alternative approach jeopardise job security and opportunities for hard-working Australians?
Then Tony Burke to Barnaby Joyce: Yesterday in Question Time, the Deputy Prime Minister ridiculed anyone who received preferences from the Green political party. Given the WA Nationals have now retaliated against the WA Liberals by cutting a deal to preference the Greens Party ahead of the Liberals, does the Deputy Prime Minister stand by the answer he gave in this place yesterday? Is he now determined to just ridicule himself for the sake of consistency and every other member of the WA National Party?
Joyce begins with a long circuitous answer on Bill Shorten’s personal poll numbers. The vibe is about Labor leadership tensions but I can’t really give you an example of a whole sentence.
Tony Burke takes a point of order:
I refer to page 505 of practice, which reads, “Although there is no specific rules set down by standing order, the House follows the practice of requiring members’ speeches to be in English.”
Barnaby does not answer the question.
The question relates to reports, including this one from the Oz:
The WA Nationals have preferenced the Greens ahead of their Liberal colleagues in two upper house regions, including putting the state’s agriculture minister Mark Lewis behind a sitting Greens legislative councillor.
The move will deepen a rift between the two Coalition partners who have clashed over the Liberal Party’s decision to do a “grubby” and “disgraceful” preference deal with One Nation to help Colin Barnett cling on to power in WA.
Shorten to Turnbull: This year it is reported Queensland has experienced more than 23 times as many extreme power price spikes, and that NSW almost four times as many as South Australia. Given that NSW and Queensland are the states with the highest dependence on coal, and the lowest levels of renewable energy in the nation, how does the prime minister explain these massive power spikes in Queensland and New South Wales when he can’t blame renewable energy?
Turnbull starts up with the vaudeville.
There’s a wonderful retro quality about the leader of the opposition’s performance today. He reminds me as one of those old Soviet leaders whose country slipped backwards and backwards and they would be able to produce some figures from Gosplan showing the umbrella factory was beating production levels and he would be able to produce all the...
....and he holds up The Guardian!
( Much thigh-slapping on the government backbenches and frontbenches.)
Extreme price spikes in Queensland’s fossil fuel-dominated electricity market this year have far eclipsed those seen in South Australia last July, which sparked calls of a national inquiry into renewable energy and led the federal Coalition to call for a halt to state-based renewable energy targets.
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Barnaby Joyce gets a question on the importance of the dairy industry to the Australian economy.
He uses it to belt Labor on electricity prices (given dairy and irrigation businesses use a lot of power).
Bob Katter asks about Australia Post CEO Ahmed Fahour’s $5m salary. In 2014 Australia Post sacked 900 staff and in the same year, the CEO donated $2.2m to his brother’s Islamic museum. In light of Australia Post’s generosity, minister, can I get $30,000 to repair the Catholic church in Julia Creek?
(Australia Post did not donate the money, Fahour did as a private citizen.)
Minister rep for communications Paul Fletcher says the prime minister has already expressed disapproval at the salary and if you want money for the church, apply through the “building better regions” program.
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Labor’s Meryl Swanson to Turnbull: On Friday, prime minister, a supply shortage in coal-dependent NSW meant power was cut to Tomago, Australia’s largest aluminium smelter in my electorate. Yesterday, the CEO of Tomago said, “The way the energy system is working at the moment is dysfunctional, what we saw on Friday was a genuine system security risk.” When will the prime minister stop blaming renewable energy and admit he has an energy crisis on his hands?
The energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, is yelling, another lie, another lie, another lie.
He is forced to withdraw.
Frydenberg takes the question after a short introduction by Turnbull. Frydenberg says:
Tomago, as the prime minister said, makes up around 10% of NSW demand. Now, since their contract with AGI, I think, goes back to 1991, there is a provision when prices go high for AGL to enter a relationship to reduce the supply to Tomago and the key point is that the member for Port Adelaide said there was residential load shedding. Now, in the press release at 7:30pm on 10 February, he said that didn’t happen. Now, this is a consistent pattern. You’ve been found out. Mistruths, misleading the parliament again and again.
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Government question to Scott Morrison: Will the treasurer update the House on the action government is taking to promote investment that creates jobs and reduces costs of living pressures on hard-working Australian families? Is the treasurer aware of any alternative approaches that put the Australian economy at a competitive disadvantage?
Answer:
He will.
He is.
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You can’t handle the truth.
First government question to Turnbull on energy policy.
Mark Butler to the prime minister: Last week in NSW, power was cut to households in the electorates of Bennelong, Reid and Robertson. Power was also cut to the Tomago smelter whose normal power consumption is equivalent to 1 million households – this is despite the fact that NSW has the highest dependence on coal power in the nation. When will the prime minister stop blaming renewable energy and admit he has a national energy crisis on his hands?
Turnbull starts up.
That blackout in September cost Arrium $30m. And what did the member for Port Adelaide describe it as, Mr Speaker? It was a “Hiccup”! It was a hiccup! Just another hiccup! And he complains about one hiccup after another in South Australia. You are seeing businesses being put to the wall in his own state.
Butler takes a point of order, the Speaker turns him down and Butler argues the point. Speaker Smith throws him out for defiance.
The honourable member who is leaving the chamber now – he cannot cope with the truth.
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Question time:
Shorten to Turnbull: Why is the prime minister holding the future of the national disability insurance scheme hostage to his cuts to families, carers, pensioners and young people?
It is hard to imagine more gall than we’ve got from the leader of the opposition. There he is – he told Peter Van Onselen that the NDIS was good political motivation, good stuff, he said, and we’ve all signed up, we all supported it, as prime minister I’ve signed up every jurisdiction. But there’s a little thing the Labor party forgot, Mr Speaker - it’s paying for it!
The problem with socialists is eventually they run out of other people’s money.
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Lunchtime politics
- Nick Xenophon has said nyet to supporting the omnibus savings/childcare bill, sending the social services minister, Christian Porter, back to the drawing board. The Coalition will continue negotiating with the crossbench, given Labor and the Greens have also ruled out support. Barnaby Joyce says notwithstanding Xenophon’s decision, the Turnbull iteration has got more through than the Abbott iteration.
- Malcolm Turnbull has presented the Closing the Gap report. The target to improve life expectancy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by 2031 is not on track to be met. The target to halve the gap in child mortality by 2018 is also not on track, despite longer-term improvements in child mortality rates between 1998 and 2015. Just one of the seven Closing the Gap targets – halving the gap in Year 12 attainment by 2020 – is on track to be met.
- Turnbull also committed to an Indigenous commissioner in the Productivity Commission and $50m to assess and research Indigenous policy.
- Bill Shorten has called for the commonwealth to take the lead on reparation for the stolen generations of Indigenous children removed from their families under government policy. His senator Pat Dodson has addressed the Labor caucus and Labor has added the Indigenous flag and a welcome to country into their party room process.
- Cory Bernardi’s new Australian Conservatives party could win support from 18% of Coalition voters according to the latest Guardian Essential Report, which also shows the two major party leaders in the doldrums with voters.
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Meanwhile, in the Senate the Greens have ambushed the Coalition over its refusal to produce documents into a commonwealth investment in the Roe Highway.
The Roe Highway is looming as a key issue in the Western Australian state election.
The federal government has a policy that for any commonwealth investment of more than $100m they need to produce a business case and a full cost-benefit analysis.
The Greens want the analysis of this road project but the government have refused even though the Senate has ordered the Coalition (on the numbers) to produce the documents.
$1.2bn of your funds are going to fund this environmental obscenity, says Greens senator Scott Ludlam.
The Greens “stopped the clock” at 12.30pm, and Senate business has been given over to a statement by the finance minister, Mathias Cormann.
(Stopping the clock means the Senate won’t be dealing with government business or anything else from 12.30pm at least until they hit the question time marker at 2pm.)
The government has said it is a matter of commercial in confidence.
Ludlam says bollocks. Just redact any sensitive bits so we can see the rest.
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Bill Shorten:
It’s time for truth-telling. Our ancestors drove the First Peoples of this nation from their Bora Ring. We scattered the ashes of their campfires. We fenced the hunting grounds, we poisoned the water holes. We distributed blankets infected with diseases we knew would kill. And there has been plenty of damage done in different ways, with better intentions. By the belief that forced assimilation was the only way to achieve equality.
It’s time to write a new story. And it is a story of belonging. Because Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people belong to a proud tradition, to nations who fought the invaders, brave people who fought and died for their country as Passchendaele, Kokoda and Long Tan, now in the Middle East and Afghanistan, who have fought and continued to fight for justice, for land, for an apology, for recognition.
You belong to a tradition of sporting brilliance in the face of racism from opponents, teammates, administration and even spectators. You belong to humanity’s oldest and most continuous culture. You do not belong in a jail cell for an offence that carries an $80 fine. You do not belong strapped into a chair with a hood on your head. You do not belong on the back of a windowless van away from your family and loved ones. You do not belong in a bureaucrat’s office, begging for money. You do not belong on the streets with nowhere to go. You belong here. As members of parliament, as leaders of this nation, you belong in the constitution, recognised at last.
You belong in schools, teaching and learning. You belong on construction sites, building homes, gaining skills. You belong on country, caring for land. You belong here, growing up, healthy, raising your children in safety, growing old with security. You belong here, strong in your culture and kinship and language and country. You belong here, equal citizens in this great country, equal partners in our common endeavour. This is your place. This is our place.
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Bill Shorten wants a justice target included in the Close the Gap report and a new priority on stronger families, adding a target for reducing the number of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care.
Bill Shorten calls for commonwealth lead on reparation for stolen generation
Shorten references Paul Keating’s Redfern speech, when he asked, how would we feel if it were done to us?
Shorten also pays tribute to Kevin Rudd, who is in the gallery, for his apology.
And he raises the prospect of reparation to the children who were removed from their homes, known as the stolen generations.
We know that many members of the stolen generation are still living with the pain of their removal, the harm done by years of having their story rejected and denied. It was why I applaud the state governments of New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania, already taking steps towards providing reparations to families torn apart by the discrimination of those times. Decency demands that we now have a conversation at the commonwealth level about the need for the commonwealth to follow the lead on reparations. This is the right thing to do. It’s at the heart of reconciliation, telling the truth, saying sorry, and making good.
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Bill Shorten calls for a cross-cultural approach such as the use of Aboriginal healers for health assessments or the Koori court in Parramatta which uses diversionary sentencing as an alternative to jail.
And if these young people muck up, the elders address them with that straight-talking freedom of family and culture, a frankness and reassurance that even the judge can learn from. There at this court, the police, the prosecution and defence show sensitivity to culture, yet still deal with a young person who has behaved in an antisocial way. This cross-cultural approach enhances the system. Bringing Aboriginal cultures to the centre, allowing justice to be done without diminishing the individual or denying identity,
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Bill Shorten takes up a similar theme, listening to Indigenous communities and recognising the value of role models. He looks forward to the day when “one of our First Australians is our prime minister or, indeed, our head of state”.
I believe in a new approach. We must forget the insulting fiction that the First Australians are a problem to be solved. And instead, a new approach, to listen to people who stand on the other side of the gap.
A new approach that, from now on, the First Australians must have first say in the decisions that shape their lives. A new approach that means a stronger voice for the National Congress of Australia’s First People and the resources to make it happen.
A new approach to extend ourselves beyond hand-picked sources of advice. A new approach to be in the places where our First Australians live and work and play. From Mount Druitt to Logan, in the APY Lands and East Arnhem. Not treating local consultation as a box to be ticked but applying the wisdom of people who know. Understanding and recognising there are many Aboriginal nations across this country.
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The Liberal/National benches look half empty during the prime minister's #closingthegap speech. pic.twitter.com/LeX6etxTyk
— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) February 14, 2017
Turnbull pays tribute to the Indigenous people who are working in the frontline services. He says the government will embark on a new approach using the knowledge and wisdom of Indigenous people.
My government will not shy away from our responsibility. And we will uphold the priorities of education, employment, health and the right of all people to be safe from family violence. We’ll not waver in our quest to achieve these outcomes but we will have the humility to admit that we must travel this road together, with open hearts, and a determination to ensure that our First Australians and all Australians will be able here, more than anywhere, to be their best and realise their dreams.
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The prime minister says the government is changing the way the Indigenous affairs portfolio operates:
From transactional government to enablement, from paying for services to linking funding to outcomes, and from a one-size-fits-all mindset for program design to local solutions.
The Productivity Commission will have a new Indigenous commissioner to assess Indigenous policy and $50m for policy research and implementation with the guidance of the Indigenous Advisory Council.
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Turnbull says Indigenous life expectancy is increasing over the longer term, babies are being born healthier, more people are studying and gaining post-school qualifications, and those adults are participating in work.
But he says incarceration rates and rates of child protection remain too high with 63% of Indigenous people incarcerated last year in prison for violent offences and offences that cause harm.
Central to reducing incarceration is reducing the violence and, of course, protecting the victims of violence.
Malcolm Turnbull again balances the acknowledgement of progress in the last 50 years with the need for further improvement in Closing the Gap. He says:
This report demonstrates that all Australian governments have much more work to do. The proportion of Indigenous 20-to 24-year-olds who have achieved Year 1 or equivalent is 61.5%, up from 45.4% in 2008. This target is on track to halve the gap. A new target for Indigenous four-year-olds enrolled in early childhood education is 95% by 2025...
We’ve seen improvements in reading and numeracy for Indigenous students, but this target is not on track. Last year, 640 more children needed to read at the Year 3 benchmark to halve the gap. This year, that figure is around 440...
Around 20% of the gap in school performance between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students can be explained by poor attendance. But there are examples of real progress with families and communities.
I’m very saddened and disappointed that the target to halve the gap in Indigenous child mortality is not on track. With the 2015 data being just outside the target. We must redouble our efforts to reduce smoking rates during pregnancy, continue to improve immunisation rates, lift rates of anti-natal care, reduce foetal trauma and keep our children safe.
We’ve seen improvements in reducing mortality from chronic diseases, however the mortality rates from cancer are rising. The overall mortality rate has declined by 15% since 1998. And life expectancy is increasing. However, it is not accelerating at the pace it should.
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Malcolm Turnbull starts his speech with Indigenous language. And then:
We’re meeting together on the land and we acknowledge and pay our respects to their elders, past and present. And we pay our deep respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people gathered here today, including our Aboriginal members of parliament and all across Australia who have been the custodians of these lands and whose elders hold the knowledge of their rich and diverse cultures.
He is introducing the Closing the Gap report. He acknowledges Kevin Rudd in the House.
Nothing brought a quiet moment of humanity to the 2016 election campaign more than the handing of the title deeds to the elder Raelene Singh, 37 years after the Larakiya people submitted a claim to what had always been theirs. For families like Raelene’s, despite their old people passing on before the Kenbi land claim was settled, the past continues to live in the present. And acknowledging past wrongs enables healing to begin. And we saw that with the national apology to the stolen generations, delivered by prime minister Rudd, who also joins us today.
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On this day.
February 14, 1966: Australia changed to a decimal currency, replacing pounds, shillings and pence. pic.twitter.com/2Xv1Hiu5yp
— Canberra Insider (@CanberraInsider) February 13, 2017
Closing the Gap statement by Malcolm Turnbull coming up at midday.
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The other eventful part of the Hadley-Brandis exchange was about the Liberal-One Nation preferencing deal in Western Australia.
It gave Ray Hadley a chance to agree with the government line that the Greens were also an extremist party and Labor was prepared to trade preferences with them.
To which Brandis replied:
Sure, I mean [Greens senator] Lee Rhiannon is an old commo and you scratch the surface …
Hadley laughed.
Brandis:
Well she is.
Hadley:
Well she may take offence to the old part but she’s certainly a commo.
Brandis:
Well a lifelong commo.
Then Brandis criticised Labor Senate leader Penny Wong for not being able to open her mouth without insulting Pauline Hanson. Brandis says:
She’s an extremely pleasant person. She’s very polite. All she wants, as everyone is entitled to, is to be treated with professional courtesy but that’s what the Labor party refuses to do.
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George Brandis said the native title issue is a particular problem for Queensland* because there are about 130 registered Indigenous land use agreements of which 109 are in Queensland*.
Then Brandis says he does not want to play politics while accusing Labor of possibly playing politics.
So it is a particular priority for that state. And look, I don’t want to be party political about this. I’ve worked with the Queensland Government, I’ve been in discussions with the Queensland mines minister, Dr Anthony Lynham, who has been very cooperative. So on this occasion, please, please, let the federal Labor party break the habits of a lifetime and not play politics.
* Queensland election this year.
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This is Labor’s position on the native title legislation being proposed by George Brandis.
In short, maybe.
Labor recognises the concerns expressed by Indigenous groups, industry and different levels of government over this court ruling, which has the potential to impact not only resource projects but also the designation of new national parks.
Labor has received a briefing from the attorney general’s department and will wait to see the details of any proposed legislation before commenting further.
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The Greens have ruled out supporting the omnibus bill as it stands. They will clarify their reasons in a press conference later.
This is important because it rules out the possibility of a last minute backpacker-style deal between the Coalition and the Greens. At this stage.
(Remember the Greens came in at the last minute to support a compromise on the backpacker tax at the end of last year.)
Readers may be familiar with the federal court ruling relating to native title in the past fortnight regarding the Adani coalmine.
At the time, Helen Davidson reported:
Resources projects including Adani’s Carmichael coalmine, pastoral leases and a number of national parks across the country are potentially in doubt following a shock federal court decision striking out a native title deal in Western Australia.
The ruling by a full bench of the federal court on Thursday has prompted speculation the Native Title Act will be amended in response.
On Thursday the federal court ruled in favour of a challenge against the Noongar Indigenous land use agreement (ILUA), which sought to exchange $1.3bn in land, payments and benefits over 12 years in return for the Noongar people extinguishing native title rights on 200,000 hectares in south-west WA.
The court agreed with five Noongar applicants who argued the deal was invalid because they had refused to sign on with other representatives. Four of the six agreements struck could not be legally registered, the court found, because the Native Title Act required “all” claim group members to agree.
That’s the background you need to understanding the following comments by the attorney general, George Brandis.
Brandis told Ray Hadley this morning that the legislation that would remove the need for all representatives to sign land use agreements is ready to be introduced.
Whether it can be passed through the parliament quickly or whether there’s delay is now entirely in the hands of the federal Labor party. The Queensland state government, where most of these projects are at risk of being held up, has called upon the federal Labor party to work with the government to pass this bill. They haven’t ruled it out but they haven’t committed to it either. So once again I’m calling on Mr Shorten and Mr Dreyfus, the shadow attorney general, to cooperate with the government and to pass the bill swiftly.
I am seeking comment from Dreyfus’ office.
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Pat Dodson fan in the caucus.
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You will remember the Senate changed the rules recently to allow media photographers to take pictures of senators who do not have the call (those who are not speaking at the time).
The newly minted independent Cory Bernardi made a complaint yesterday to the chair about a senator taking a photo from the floor. The president is taking up the matter.
Bernardi said:
I wonder whether the president has made a ruling in light of a recent event to do with photographs being taken within the chamber. Perhaps it might be pertinent at some point for the president or the deputy president to remind senators about whether it is possible to take photos within the chamber.
Madame deputy president, who was in the chair, said president Stephen Parry would be in touch.
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To be clear on school funding, Labor promised to fund the full six years of the Gonski reforms but given a government budget only has four years of forward estimates, years 5 and 6 were promised.
The Abbott government cut great whack of money out of the first budget – even though they promised they were on a unity ticket on Gonski at the 2013 election. The Coalition also said they would rewrite the Gonski agreements for years 5 and 6.
So that’s the “cut” that Labor is talking about.
The Coalition claims that it is not a cut to education funding because overall education funding is rising as it always does due to indexation.
Thus – pea and thimble – there is no such funding cut. Because, as McGrath says, decreased growth is not a cut.
I think a pub test would determine it is a cut.
And in my opinion, these in-and-out-of-a-feline’s-backside arguments are exactly what gives voters the irrits. Let’s just call it how it is, hey people?
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Labor’s deputy leader, Tanya Plibersek, and the shadow assistant schools minister, Andrew Giles, are out this morning demanding the government release its proposed schools funding model for 2018 and beyond.
On Monday afternoon the Senate passed a motion noting that the government had cut $30bn from the schools budget in the 2014 budget and abandoned years 5 and 6 of needs-based funding agreements negotiated by the Labor government.
It called on the education and training minister, Simon Birmingham, to release the new funding model.
The Liberal senator James McGrath spoke against the motion noting schools funding is rising from $16.1 billion in 2016 to $20.2 billion in 2020, and claiming that decreasing the rate of projected funding growth does not amount to a cut in schools funding.
The motion passed on the voices, without a division, which Plibersek and Giles have characterised as the Liberals agreeing to the motion.
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The Matt Hatter moment has come early in the day.
@gabriellechan ✈Hello✈ @Nick_Xenophon has a point; (eg) supporting the barely-fly's can't-shoot-straight F35 is throwing good 💰 after bad. pic.twitter.com/gJPDjxm6re
— The Matt Hatter (@MattGlassDarkly) February 13, 2017
The Xenophon wishlist
The detail of the Xenophon requirements is worth a look so we know where this omnibus may land.
NXT has long opposed:
- the four-week wait for youth allowance, and
- PPL cuts at both the initial 18-week proposal and the subsequent 20-week proposal announced last week.
In a statement, NXT said before considering cuts to everyday Australian families, the government needs to:
- take future company tax cuts for big business off the table at this time;
- crack down on multinational tax avoidance and ensure companies such as Google and Facebook pay their fair share;
- urgently free up funds in the automotive transformation scheme to stem the flow of jobs as auto-making shuts down in this country in October, in order to keep people off welfare and contributing to the nation’s prosperity; and
-
establish an emissions intensity scheme, which will lower power prices for families, pensioners and businesses and increase reliability.
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Perhaps as Christian Porter considers those negotiations, he may take some advice from Laura Tingle in the Fin Review. She notes that Porter is a conservative leadership contender, a former Western Australian attorney general and treasurer.
What he hasn’t got is any political touch. He rather showed that last year when he missed a huge opportunity to parade himself as an innovative policy maker with some interesting ideas – and create a new platform for debating welfare spending – when he instead sold the government’s adoption of the New Zealand investment approach to social welfare as yet just another exercise in ways to save eleventy billion dollars in a hundred years’ time.
So here’s a tip Christian: don’t pick on disabled people.
It’s one thing for the politically tin-eared treasurer Scott Morrison to try to play funny buggers with the National Disability Insurance Scheme but for the two of you to try to double the stakes on the government’s omnibus childcare/family payments/welfare cuts bill by appearing to be playing off poor people against disabled people is just appalling.
And it was only made worse by opening the press conference announcing the cunning plan by talking about how important it was to cut company taxes.
The Coalition has always claimed Labor did not fund the NDIS properly. Labor has always claimed they had budgeted for the NDIS. Even from yesterday, the shadow social services minister, Jenny Macklin, said:
In the 2013-14 budget, the Labor government clearly identified how the NDIS would be funded for 10 years.
This included a 0.5 per cent increase in the Medicare levy. The Medicare levy was always intended to cover some – not all – of the cost of the NDIS. That’s why Labor made responsible budget choices to help fund the NDIS.
Figures underpinning these savings were developed and published by the Treasury – led at that time by Martin Parkinson, now the secretary of the prime minister’s department.
I am chasing the “figures underpinning these savings”.
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As the parties settle down to talk among themselves, I have some time to consider the next step for the government after the Xenophon rebuff.
After the huffery puffery of yesterday, where the three amigos threatened to stick it to the NDIS if the omnibus did not pass, this morning the social services minister, Christian Porter, said the government was willing to negotiate.
The main issue here is finding a way to fund a very serious $1.6bn investment in childcare, which parents and families and mums are screaming out for. We can’t do that other than find money with the expenditure. The first project here is to look at the savings that Nick thinks that he can agree with and see where he can get to the figure of $1.6bn. If Nick has a view that there are other savings out that there can fill the gap and agree to the savings, we’ll obviously have a look at that.
But from defence industry minister Christopher Pyne’s Twitter interventions, we can assume defence will not be one of those savings.
Xenophon wants us to find $5.6B in defence savings to fund welfare.That's entire OPV program cancelled! Less jobs & investment in SA. Shame.
— Christopher Pyne (@cpyne) February 13, 2017
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Pat Dodson: the effect of the apology was powerful but remains symbolic
Senator Pat Dodson tells his party room:
In this place, we collectively represent the many Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander nations across this great country whose lands have been occupied and stolen.
I acknowledge the generations who have gone before and those yet to come. Nine years ago, the apology and Labor’s commitment to Closing the Gap [combined] the symbolic and the practical after a tumultuous decade of denial under the Howard government.
Prime minister Rudd’s apology was cathartic. The positive responses of the wider Australian public was heartening. Affirming that with right political leadership, we can transcend the politics of fear and guilt as a nation, and work towards a reconciliation based on truth-telling, healing and justice. Wrongs can be righted. The effect of the apology was powerful whilst remaining symbolic.
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Bill Shorten is opening the Labor caucus meeting. (Remember there are party room meetings this morning.) He says the Indigenous flag will stay in the Labor caucus room.
We need to change the relationship between First Australians and all other Australians. It’s not about listing the pluses and minuses of the balance sheet and what works and what doesn’t.
He introduces senator Pat Dodson.
Dodson teaches Labor members to say g’day in his traditional language.
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KRudd gives a short history on carbon policy.
.@MrKRudd says Australia's energy policy can be described in three words: "Dumb, dumb, dumb!" pic.twitter.com/JSgI0x8aDu
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) February 13, 2017
Kevin Rudd is asked by Kieran Gilbert about the current Liberal leadership issues and Tony Abbott’s muscle-flexing. He mentions the prime minister’s sotto voce criticism of renewables.
For God’s sake, stand up for what you believe in ... The authentic Malcolm Turnbull believed in renewable energy. He has been hijacked by the right wing of his party.
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Kevin Rudd has popped up in Canberra.
He remembers the apology nine years ago and the establishment of the Closing the Gap report to measure seven areas of improvement.
He agrees that resourcing needs to be “from the ground up”.
Rudd said an example of a successful program is one he funded to address trachoma rates in Indigenous children. He said the rates of trachoma in children had dropped from 20-something per cent to 4%.
That’s improvement.
Asked about energy policy debate, he characterises it as:
Dumb, dumb, dumb ... Every government I run into around the world thinks we are nuts on carbon policy [for repealing the price].
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Barnaby Joyce did a doorstop this morning. He talked about the need for negotiations in the Senate but his main point appeared to be about Labor’s unsustainable renewable energy targets. After yesterday’s release of documents showing the prime minister’s office was told the SA blackout was the result of trashed transmission towers, Joyce was careful to say South Australia’s mismanagement (something, something, renewable energy targets, something, something) caused the blackouts.
But asked about the reported death of the omnibus savings bill, he said it was all about negotiation. And, by the way, the Turnbull government has got more through the Senate than the Abbott government. (Ouch).
Everything we do in the Senate is about negotiation. We’ve got more through the Senate under the previous iteration under Mr Abbott. But we can’t avoid the truth. We are trying to get our nation’s finances under control.
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I mentioned that Nick Xenophon had raised earlier – with Fran Kelly – the possibility of cutting defence spending to find some more money for other government programs. He said it was a matter of thinking outside the square.
There is a concern that we are literally wasting billions of dollars in defence, that more rigour in terms of defence expenditure would drive some significant savings without compromising our sovereign capabilities in terms of our defence as a nation. It seemed that the burden would fall too heavily on those who could least afford it.
The defence industry minister was quick to capitalise, with an eye to the politics in Adelaide.
Xenophon now wants to cut defence spending in favour of welfare. In 2016 he wanted 12 subs, 9 Frigates & 12 OPVs. Now he wants to cut them.
— Christopher Pyne (@cpyne) February 13, 2017
This would be diabolical for SA. https://t.co/sMSPYsAAlc
— Christopher Pyne (@cpyne) February 13, 2017
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I just got a clip of Bill Shorten, who spoke about getting away from constantly framing Indigenous affairs in terms of good or bad outcomes.
He said he wants to think in terms of healthier people, happier people, confident and proud people with no more fear and subjugation.
First peoples standing proud of culture with the place and the space to be themselves.
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I will bring you Bill Shorten’s speech on the Redfern statement as soon as I can get my hands on it.
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Malcolm Turnbull is speaking at the Redfern statement breakfast.
He says the government will work with Indigenous leaders to make sure programs are driven by Indigenous communities.
He will ask members of the renewed Indigenous Advisory Council to work with the Redfern Alliance ...
so that a broad range of views are heard and brought to bear on improving not only what we do but the way we do it. We’ll work to ensure that the Closing the Gap initiatives are community driven and recognise that Indigenous leaders are absolutely central, paramount to finding the solutions in a way that supports identity and wellbeing. We want to have more local decision-making models and we’ll continue to build the capability of governments and communities to engage in a better way of working together.
Turnbull called for Australians to consider the progress made in addressing Indigenous disadvantage over the 50 years since the 1967 referendum.
There are more Indigenous Australians in school, in universities, in employment, in business, living longer lives and in better health. We have come a long way over the last 50 years since the ’67 referendum but we have not come far enough. There are still significant challenges that remain.
Turnbull met with an Indigenous gathering of doctors, lawyers, nurses, disability advocates, scientists, business leaders, officers in the defence forces and senior public servants among others.
Those bright Indigenous Australians, bright and often young Indigenous Australians reflect the diversity of experience and aspiration that exist in our communities. It’s vitally important that the narrative is not solely one of deficit.
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Good morning,
The skies are dark over Canberra this morning as Nick Xenophon, wielder of three votes in the Senate and one in the lower house, has ruled out supporting the omnibus savings bill in total.
The omnibus bill has a bunch of savings measures – some harking back to the Abbott 2014 budget – which were repackaged to pay for the increase in childcare subsidies. Yesterday, as the Coalition read the signs that support for the omnibus bill was flagging, the treasurer, the social services minister and the education minister came out to link the savings to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). That is, they were throwing $3bn of the savings into a locked box for the NDIS.
In other words, if you don’t support the savings measures such as cuts to family tax benefits and the four week wait for the dole for young people, you won’t get the childcare increase or the NDIS fully funded.
Nick said no. I’m not playing that game. You can get the savings from elsewhere. Ooh, like defence.
He told Katharine Murphy last night:
As negotiating tactics go, this is about as subtle as a sledgehammer.
He said the government “should not pit vulnerable Australians currently receiving family tax benefit against another group of vulnerable Australians wanting to access the NDIS”.
Looking into the day, we are expecting the prime minister to present the ninth Closing the Gap report at midday in the parliament.
Katharine Murphy reports that Tony Abbott has bobbed up while we are speaking Indigenous affairs.
The former prime minister Tony Abbott said he was concerned that Malcolm Turnbull was no longer taking the government to spend a week each year in a remote community.
Speaking to the ABC radio on Monday evening, Abbott defended his record in Indigenous affairs and described his practice of spending a week in an Indigenous community when he was prime minister as a “very important indication to our country” about priorities.
He said it was “a little disappointing” that the intergovernmental pilgrimage to a remote community was no longer happening under Turnbull, who scrapped the visits when he took the Liberal leadership.
However, an extract circulated ahead of Indigenous affairs minister Nigel Scullion’s speech to the Senate on Tuesday said the government remained steadfast in its commitment to “do things with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, not to them”.
“This has meant as an overhaul in the way the Indigenous affairs portfolio operates,” Scullion will tell the Senate.
The prime minister and Bill Shorten are speaking to a Closing the Gap breakfast this morning ahead of Indigenous leaders presenting him with the Redfern statement, a call for a more “just approach” to Indigenous affairs. Mike Bowers is there and we will have some pictures shortly.
Talk to us in the thread, on the Twits @gabriellechan and @mpbowers or on my Facebook. Grab a hot beverage and strap yourself in.
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