Night time politics
That’s it, my friends.
- Funding offshore detention is no longer illegal after the last minute migration bill was pushed through the senate this very evening. In the process, the Coalition and Labor combined to vote down mandatory reporting of abuse, access for the Human Rights Commission and the media and a three month time limit for detention. Voting against the main bill: Greens, Jacqui Lambie, David Leyonhjelm, Ricky Muir, Dio Wang, Glenn Lazarus.
- The war on terror continues tonight. Heads should roll, says Tony Abbott. The citizenship laws have gone to a parliamentary committee for review but it’s the ABC which needs to be accountable for allowing Zaky Mallah on Q&A. There is an internal inquiry underway at the ABC but the communications department will do a separate inquiry because the government does not trust the broadcaster to investigate without producing a “virtual whitewash”.
- The senate narrowly missed an opportunity to vote for a double dissolution trigger. It voted “not to proceed” with the fair work (registered organisations) bill. If it was brought to the full vote, the bill could have formed a DD trigger. It emerged that the PM’s office had invited MPs to update their photos with Abbott ahead of the break. When asked, Abbott said those speculating should have a Bex and a good lie down. Parliament returns on August 10, if there is no early election.
- Bill Shorten admitted he lied in 2013 in an interview when he said he was not speaking to Kevin Rudd about the leadership. Turns out he was speaking to Kevin and had discussed making the leadership rules more onerous. We know that because of The Killing Season and then Shorten came clean.
- The parliamentary entitlements report was released late this afternoon. Worker bees are poring over its content as I type.
- The tally of members booted out of the chamber under 94A reached 400 since the 2013 election. Take a bow, madame speaker.
Thanks so much for your company. It has been a pleasure and could not have been possible without the brains trust - Shalailah Medhora, Daniel Hurst, Lenore Taylor and of course Mike Bowers. His images help the blog come alive and what a corporate memory.
Good night.
Updated
Senate passes migration bill: offshore detention no longer illegal.
The migration bill, to provide for legal funding for offshore detention just passed the senate.
Voting for the bill: Coalition, ALP, Bob Day, Nick Xenophon and John Madigan.
Against: Greens, Jacqui Lambie, David Leyonhjelm, Ricky Muir, Dio Wang, Glenn Lazarus.
The Coalition and Labor vote against a time limit on detention for asylum seekers.
The Coalition and Labor voted against letting the Human Rights Commission and the media into offshore detention centres.
Sarah Hanson-Young is now putting her final amendments to the migration bill, placing a three month time limit on detention of asylum seekers.
She says quite apart from the moral issues, it costs Australian taxpayers $500,000 a year to keep a person in detention for a year.
These people deserve some hope. The worst thing about detention is the indefinite nature, the lack of hope.
Senator Hanson Young is speaking to her amendments to the migration bill. She wants to amend the legislation so that media and the Human Rights Commission are allowed in offshore detention centre so we know how the funding is being spent. Hanson-Young says the government refuses to let watchdogs into centres because the Australian public would be horrified at the conditions.
Attorney general George Brandis says the Australian government cannot make laws for offshore centres in other countries, such as Nauru and PNG.
The Senate is voting.
The major parties have already voted against her amendment for mandatory reporting of abuse.
Updated
Parliamentary entitlements dropped on the last sitting day
And it would not be a last sitting day before a long break without the government taking out the rubbish.
The honourable Michael Ronaldson, special minister of state, has made available the parliamentary entitlements (including Parliamentary Overseas Study Travel Reports) for the six months to December 2014.
Because the Senate vote on the Registered Organisations bill was a procedural one (that it not proceed), the Senate has yet to vote on the bill itself.
It is not a double-dissolution trigger until the Senate votes on the bill itself. It is unclear when the vote will happen.
The migration bill is back in the Senate in committee.
Updated
The government has presented Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment bill 2014 to the Senate, which voted not to proceed on the bill 36-31.
This bill – Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment bill 2013 – was voted down in the Senate in May last year.
So it just sits there now. We are checking as to its status as a double-dissolution trigger.
Updated
Mirabella mea culpa
Speaking of Indi, it will be a three-cornered contest after the National party announced they would be running a candidate. However it has also been reported that the Nats are considering “running dead” if Sophie Mirabella wins the preselection, such is their love for the former minister. Their votes could swing the result against the Liberals.
On Sunday, Mirabella is facing Melbourne-based anaesthetist Andrew Walpole and Wodonga businessman Kevin Ekendahl to win the right to represent the seat for the Liberal party.
Ekendahl has won the backing of the Victorian Liberal president Michael Kroger, which is a pretty big endorsement, while Walpole reportedly told preselectors:
Realistically we are faced with the possibility of losing this seat for decades, not just one term. We must choose wisely. I am a grassroots member of our party, not a career politician.
Meanwhile Mirabella is telling all and sundry that she has changed and she “got it wrong” by getting caught up in Canberra. The Liberals need to run a “community campaign” to combat the incumbent, Cathy McGowan.
In a letter to preselectors, leaked to her local paper, the Border Mail, Mirabella said:
Clearly, I got the balance wrong and needed to spend more time here in Indi. This is something I take full responsibility for. My time out of the Canberra bubble has provided me with a renewed perspective... The North East is where my home and heart is.
Updated
As Malcolm Turnbull said in question time, he has announced 499 new mobile phone base stations. Turnbull anticipated a pork barrel question because in question time he said this was not about favouring electorates.
Mobile signals are no respecters of electorate boundaries and there are a number of electorates – I think of the member for Hinkler’s seat – for example, where there is no base station being funded within that seat but a large part of the blackspot problem is being addressed from connectivity from a base station across the electoral boundary. The benefits of this go well beyond the electorates that have got the base stations being built but there is more. From July 1,2016, for two years there will be another $60m so those black spots that missed out on being remediated this time will be back into the mix.
It caused me to look south to Victoria as this was one of the issues Indi independent Cathy McGowan campaigned on in the last election, when she shocked all and sundry by knocking off former Howard minister Sophie Mirabella.
East of Indi:
10 new mobile phone base stations for Gippsland under blackspots program. Delivering better coverage for business, families & in emergencies
— Darren Chester MP (@DarrenChesterMP) June 25, 2015
West of Indi:
Fantastic results for Wimmera Mallee, 22 new and upgraded base stations addressing over 250 black spots in our region.
— Andrew Broad MP (@broad4mallee) June 25, 2015
In Indi:
28 new mobile phone towers for Indi - terrific outcome - and round 2 announced - committee to continue to speak up for regional Aust!
— Cathy McGowan (@Indigocathy) June 25, 2015
The Liberal preselection in Indi is coming up this weekend. It should be worth watching.
Updated
Alannah MacTiernan taking issue with Christopher Pyne in question time.
Heads should roll.
In question time, Tony Abbott was horrified at the Victorian Liberals’ attempt to use national security as a fundraiser.
It was wrong, it was in poor taste. It was, I suppose, an attempt to take advantage of something which shouldn’t be taken advantage of and certainly the instruction that I’ve given is that no such use of anything to do with this parliament should ever take place.
400 & out- Howzat? Nick Champion becomes madam speakers 400th expulsion @gabriellechan @murpharoo #politicslive pic.twitter.com/cs94gE1azH
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) June 25, 2015
QT is finished.
Labor is arguing a matter of public importance on Tony Abbott’s broken promises.
The constitutional recognition report brought to you by...
Shorten to Abbott: For over a year the prime minister has pretended that he hasn’t cut $80bn from Australian schools and hospitals despite it being written in his budget papers. But this week the NSW Liberal treasurer described these cuts, and I quote, “A cut to growth funding which is substantially a cut to the budget.” No doubt about that. When will the prime minister finally admit he’s cut $80bn from our schools and hospitals?
Abbott says Labor never put the $80bn into the forward estimates in the budget.
We made it clear that beyond the forward estimates this was just pie-in-the-sky. It didn’t exist. It was a myth. It was a fantasy.
Someone needs to tell the NSW Liberal treasurer Gladys Berejyklian.
Updated
Mark Dreyfus makes a fruitless point of order before he is named.
Updated
Nick Champion becomes 400th booted from the house by Bronwyn Bishop
A government question to Christopher Pyne on unions, regarding the registered organisations bill.
Labor MP Nick Champion has been booted from the house. Anthony Albanese makes the point he is the 400th member to be thrown out of the house under Speaker Bishop’s rule.
Bishop says there are only 150 members and Labor has a lot of “recalcitrants”.
Champion, though is the champion of getting thrown out. I’m pretty sure he leads the tally.
Updated
Labor asks Tony Abbott about cuts to education funding and broken promises.
Abbott says the Labor government had been conducting intergenerational theft.
Unlike members opposite, we don’t think that it’s just all about money. That’s the problem with members opposite. They think it’s only about money.
RUOK?
A government question goes to Julie Bishop on starving terrorism organisations of funds.
Updated
Here is a contribution from George Christensen on Mark Dreyfus.
Mark Dreyfus not the spycatcher but the early flight catcher. #auspol #qt #theygotnothing
— George Christensen (@GChristensenMP) June 25, 2015
Labor question to Tony Abbott on breaking his election promises on cuts to health.
Abbott says if Labor thinks the money has been cut, put it back.
Over the winter recess the opposition should have a long hard look at themselves ... this country needs a responsible opposition.
Updated
Malcolm Turnbull is asked a government question on regional mobile phone blackspots. The Coalition had a $100m blackspot program. He says there will be 499 new mobile base stations. Out of 6,000 blackspots nominated, 3,000 will be addressed in whole or part.
Updated
Labor to Abbott: I refer to this email produced last night to the Senate inquiry into the Monis letter to the attorney general. That email confirms the secretary of the prime minister’s own department, made a call from the prime minister’s personal office on the evening of Monday 1 June to ensure the attorney general’s department corrected false information to the parliament. Prime minister, given this, why did it take the government until after question time on Thursday 4 June to correct the record?
Tony Abbott:
Once there was a realisation that there was a possible problem with the testimony of the senior officer of the attorney general’s department, a thorough review was undertaken and as soon as that review had been completed the record was corrected by the attorney general and by the foreign minister.
Abbott says Bill Shorten took two years to correct the record on the Neil Mitchell interview (see earlier posts).
Updated
Bruce Billson, small business enthusiast, cracks me up.
There is a reason every season to get behind small businesses but I have two requests, Australian consumers do your bit too. Get behind a local small business, there’s no substitute for customers.
Abbott: Victorian donation email in poor taste
Labor asks if Tony Abbott authorised his image to be used in the Victorian fundraising email which sought donations because Labor was “playing politics” on national security.
Abbott starts by praising the Labor MP for Holt, Anthony Byrne, for his interest in national security.
I think the member for Holt more than most on the other side of the parliament appreciates that this government would never knowingly politicise national security.
The appeal that was put out by the Victorian division of the Liberal party was put by that division without any consultation or foreknowledge from me, from my office or from the federal secretariat of the Liberal party. It shouldn’t have been done. It was wrong, it was in poor taste. It was, I suppose, an attempt to take advantage of something which shouldn’t be taken advantage of and certainly the instruction that I’ve given is that no such use of anything to do with this parliament should ever take place.
Updated
Warren Truss is freezing the heavy vehicle user charge for another year.
He is speaking to a government question on the “roads of the 21st century”.
Joe Hockey is excited. Trussy is getting on with the job. Creating the infrastructure.
Andrew Wilkie asks Tony Abbott, the ban on same-sex marriage is legislated discrimination and plain wrong. In response to the recent Irish referendum, you stated that marriage equality in Australia is an issue for the parliament. To that end, will you now rule out a plebiscite on same-sex marriage?
My position on this question is well known, says Abbott and with that, he sits down.
This is Mark Dreyfus’ crime:
for continuing to interject after having been warned by the Chair.
Dreyfus is ejected on a vote of 80-48.
Speaker Bishop says because it is the second time he has been named this year, Dreyfus will be suspended for three more consecutive sitting days.
Lenore Taylor has this story while we wait for the division:
Bill Shorten is looking for a new chief of staff as he tries to regroup after a damaging political fortnight and prepares for the possibility of a federal election before the end of the year.
The former Rio Tinto executive Ken Macpherson joined the opposition leader’s office as chief of staff in October 2013, soon after Shorten won the Labor leadership ballot.
Macpherson has suffered ill health for several months and intends to leave the demanding job. Labor’s staffing committee, headed by the frontbencher and former national secretary Gary Gray, and the current national secretary, George Wright, are searching for a replacement.
During the division, there is a lot of yelling, including “shame” and other (epithets).
Pyne asks Speaker Bishop to point out that during a division, parliamentary privilege does not apply.
In other words - members can be sued for defamation.
She warns members.
Mark Dreyfus is thrown out for asking a point of order. Anthony Albanese takes up his case. Bishop tells him to sit down.
Dreyfus refuses to leave and wants to argue the point.
Mark Dreyfus is “named” and therefore thrown out of the parliament for 24 hours.
Christopher Pyne moves that Dreyfus is “no longer in the service of the house”.
A division is called for a vote.
No prizes for guessing who wins.
Updated
Labor asks Tony Abbott whose idea it was to take the TV cameras to Asio.
Abbott says Asio was very pleased to have the cameras at the new headquarters:
because it helps to highlight the very important work that Asio does to keep our country safe.
A government question to Joe Hockey about the economy.
Now is the time to go out and have a go.
Dreyfus to Abbott: Yesterday when asked for copies of maps on display at the prime minister’s media event, Asio replied – and I quote – “we are unable to provide the documents. They are for official use only”. But this morning Asio described the documents as – and again I quote – “carefully edited and unclassified”. What contact did the prime minister, his office, his ministers or their officers have with Asio after the initial response?
Abbott calls Dreyfus “the man who wants to bring terrorists to Australia”.
Who does the shadow attorney general think produced the maps in question? Does the shadow attorney general think that somehow I rolled up a few maps and took them into Asio? Madam speaker, the maps in question were produced by Asio, they were produced by highly professional Asio officers.
Updated
A dixer to Abbott: “Will the minister update the House on the progress of the government’s plan for a strong, safe and prosperous future for all Australians?”
This is a clue as to the next three-word slogan for an election. Strong. Safe. Prosperous.
Abbott is speaking about what a productive fortnight it has been for the government. He names the small business legislation and the pension changes as highlights.
Updated
First question from Labor on Asio. Whose idea and what security arrangements were in place?
Tony Abbott says Labor is impugning the professionalism of Asio.
The idea that there would have been any release of classified information to the media is insulting.
And the trophy goes to...
Lunchtime politics
- Tony Abbott says “heads should roll” at the ABC as a result of the Q&A program, which featured Zaky Mallah, convicted for making death threats to Asio officers. He promises a government inquiry because the ABC inquiry would be a “virtual whitewash”. The communications department will run the government inquiry.
- Tony Abbott brushed off election speculation, suggesting people have a Bex and a good lie down, but details have emerged of an email from his office inviting MPs to update their photos with the PM. They can get the pictures taken today – the last day everyone will be together before August 10, when parliament returns.
- Bill Shorten admitted he lied in 2013 in an interview when he said he was not speaking to Kevin Rudd about the leadership.
- The migration bill to resolve the potentially illegal funding of offshore asylum seeker processing has gone to the senate. The Senate has heard the government knew about the legality issues as early as February this year but only just rushed the bill into the parliament yesterday.
Question time in 20 minutes.
Updated
Tony Abbott says he has discussed the Q&A matter with the communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and they will do their own government inquiry because the ABC inquiry would be a “virtual whitewash”.
We’ve announced that we are not satisfied with an internal ABC inquiry because so often we’ve seen virtual whitewashes when that sort ever thing happens. There is going to be an urgent government inquiry with recommendations, and frankly the ABC ought to take some very strong action straight away.
Abbott was asked “whose heads should roll” but the prime minister ended the press conference.
Updated
Tony Abbott says heads should roll over Q&A repeat
Tony Abbott says someone should be sacked over the Q&A episode showing Zaky Mallah and then its repeat.
Utterly incomprehensible. Here we had the ABC admitting a gross error of judgment and then compounding that terrible mistake, that betrayal, if you like, of our country, about giving a platform to this convicted terrorist and sympathiser, they compounded the mistake by re-broadcasting the program. Now, frankly heads should roll over this. Heads should roll over this.
Hold the phone. Tony Abbott is being nice to Labor on national security. Bill Shorten’s speech on migration may have worked. Quotes shortly.
Is this the Liberal equivalent shot to #hotAlbo?
#tbt Riding my old #Peugeot fold-up bike on my last day as MP for Parramatta. #auspol #offtodundas #turtleneck pic.twitter.com/gdp8S1TGUN
— Philip Ruddock (@philipruddockmp) June 25, 2015
What is the difference between a turtleneck and a skivvy?
Here is that Trans-Pacific Partnership myth-busting sheet.
Abbott is addressing the defence white paper, which is due when it is due. Like the agriculture white paper.
He says it will specify “a force structure that enables our military to be even more effective in securing our nation”.
And on defence equipment (subs et al):
It is certainly not necessary or practical that all our defence equipment be made here in Australia but it is necessary that it be sustainable in Australia. That said, our preference will always be for local build where world class equipment can be obtained at a reasonable price in a way that doesn’t limit inter-operatibility with our allies.
Abbott reaffirms that the government will increase the defence budget to 2% of GDP by 2024.
Here is a little more from Tony Abbott:
Australia seeks no dominion. We threaten no-one. We seek only to be a good neighbour, a reliable ally and a steadfast friend. But a serious country needs capable armed forces to defend its citizens, to advance its interests and uphold its values around the world. As a peaceful pluralist democracy, Australia never picks fights. Our instinct is to settle differences, not to inflame them. Still, we have never shirked our share of responsibility to help people in trouble, to keep the peace and to deter and defeat aggression.
FM @JulieBishopMP with a Matlidas jersey from David Gallop & the FFA @gabriellechan @GuardianAus #politicslive pic.twitter.com/zpmBNq6yaX
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) June 25, 2015
Tony Abbott opens his speech:
Expect the unexpected has to be the first law of defence planning. Prior to the event, who would have thought that Australia would send 5,000 troops to East Timor in 1999? In early 2001, who would have thought that Australia would participate in military operations in Afghanistan later that year, let alone the invasion of Iraq two years afterwards? Who would have imagined that our subsequent military rotations in Afghanistan lasting over a decade would ultimately involve almost 35,000 Australian troops? Who would have imagined that the beginning of last year, Australian personnel would be retrieving our dead from Ukrainian fields under the noses of the Russian Army or that a decade after the execution of Saddam Hussein, another Australian contingent would be in Iraq with no early end in sight to this deployment?
And, it is George Orwell’s birthday.
Happy birthday George Orwell. 1984 is here.
— Melissa Parke MP (@MelissaParkeMP) June 25, 2015
Labor’s Kim Carr wants to know why, if the government knew about the high court challenge in February, they did not bring legislation earlier, rather than rushing it through at the last minute. Brandis is not providing an answer.
Tony Abbott is speaking at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute shortly.
I have to rush back to the senate now because the migration bill is “in committee”. This is where senators get to question the government on the bill. Sarah Hanson-Young wants to know how much the government is paying to fight the high court case by the Human Rights Law Centre on funding offshore detention.
We don’t share that sort of information, says attorney George Brandis, who is in the chair.
Labor also wants to ask questions even though they are supporting the bill.
You probably know that Obama got his fast track through on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. This means the TPP is looking a whole lot more likely. There is a piece here by Paul Lewis from Washington.
Barack Obama was given the authority he has long sought to expedite negotiations for a massive trade deal with countries on the Pacific rim, propelling the US toward a landmark agreement that, both proponents and critics agree, will reshape the global economy.
The Republican-controlled Senate finally passed legislation on Wednesday that gives the president the power to “fast-track” negotiations with the 11 other countries party to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The vote, which passed 60-38, was a significant victory for multinational corporations which have been lobbying hard for a trade agreement expected to lower tariffs and create new regulations for sectors as diverse as agriculture, banking and the pharmaceutical industry.
One of the things critics have been worried about is the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). DFAT has just put out a “mythbusting” sheet.
FOURTH MYTH: THE TPP INVESTOR STATE DISPUTE SETTLEMENT (ISDS)PROVISIONS WILL ALLOW FOREIGN COMPANIES TO SUE THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT IF A FOREIGN COMPANY MAKES A LOSS ON ITS INVESTMENTS IN AUSTRALIA
REALITY: NO
ISDS provisions provide an opportunity for investors, including Australian investors, to protect their investments overseas against expropriation and to ensure that they are afforded a certain minimum standard of treatment, and treated in a non-discriminatory manner. ISDS does not protect an investor from a mere loss of profits and does not prevent a Government from changing its policies or regulating in the public interest. Modern ISDS mechanisms incorporate explicit safeguards to re-affirm the right of governments to take decisions in the public interest, including in the areas of health and the environment, and reduce the chances that foreign investors bring frivolous claims.
I will try to find the link to the full info sheet.
Jacqui Lambie speaks to the government’s charge that the senate was chaotic with the number of minor parties and independents:
The definition of chaos is when a government rushes dodgy legislation through parliament in order to make a pre-emptive political strike on the rule of law while paying international criminals $30,000 worth of bribes.
Lambie says Tony Abbott is:
milking the terror threat for all it’s worth.
She says the main reason for Australian troops in the Middle East is to stop the coalition backbench from revolting (against Abbott’s leadership).
Senator Jacqui Lambie describes the migration bill as a
get out of jail free card.
Lambie wants the government to wait and see what the high court says.
Paul Farrell has a story suggesting that whistleblowers could lose their citizenship under the government’s new laws.
Whistleblowers who speak out on serious matters relating to Australia’s national security – including those involved in the Timor-Leste bugging scandal case – and who are dual citizens could face having their citizenship revoked under proposed laws.
A bill introduced to the federal parliament by the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, on Wednesday enhances the power of the immigration minister to revoke or initiate a renunciation of citizenship for conduct deemed to relate to certain terrorism offences. The new bill seeks to strip only dual nationals of their citizenship.
Richard Di Natale is speaking on the migration bill.
I readily admit there are no easy solutions.
He says the Greens amendments will improve a “diabolical situation”.
And while I’m on interesting pieces, here’s one from lawyer and academic Fergal Davis in The New Daily who has written on hyper-legislating in the area of national security. It has the legislation by numbers.
The Federal Parliament is addicted to the thrill of enacting these laws. They are often draconian and frequently unnecessary.
Prof George Williams, a constitutional expert, did the maths. Between 2001 and 2007 the Howard government enacted 48 anti-terror laws.
The pace slowed under the Rudd/Gillard governments. They managed a further 13 anti-terror laws.
In 2014 the Abbott government enacted a further three “tranches” of national security laws.
By any measure Australia’s post 9/11 record is remarkable. The speed with which anti-terror laws are adopted, amended and superseded is astonishing.
But why does Australia hyper-legislate?
I have been remiss not bringing you the opinion piece by Ricky Muir in our very own G on the citizenship legislation. Here is a snippet.
Tony Abbott has left open the possibility of amending the bill so that it applies retrospectively. Although there is no express or implied prohibition on the making of retrospective laws in the Australian constitution, we need to tread very carefully.
I do not accept the mentality of ruling by fear and I worry about the slippery slope we may head down if we allow government to enact laws based on fear rather than rationale.
If our government has a desire to strengthen laws they should do so factually and calmly, not by spreading fear – that is doing the job of the terrorist.
You will remember that Muir only got 0.51% of the primary vote. Outrage ensued.
Any more of this sort of logic from him and we will definitely need those senate reforms to get rid of unrepresentative swill.
Sarah Hanson-Young says the Greens want:
- a three month time limit on detention and
- mandatory reporting of abuse
- access for journalists, the Human Rights Commission and the Ombudsman
- no children or parents transferred to offshore facilities.
Sarah Hanson-Young: migration bill about unfettered power in detention camps
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young is speaking to the migration legislation.
She says this bill does more than give the powers to pay contractors. It allows commonwealth “unfettered power as to how they want to run these places”.
This goes to the heart of lawfulfulness of detaining people indefinitely in these places.
This is not about plugging a loophole.
These detention camps have been getting worse for the last three years.
Now we find out they have been run illegally, paid for illegally.
We’ve got to put restrictions on how these places are run.
Very few senators are in the chamber.
Updated
The prime minister’s office commented:
The documents were selected by ASIO and the Director-General of Security is satisfied that no information of national security significance was visible while media representatives were present.
Asio: The content of the documents did not compromise national security.
Thanks to Shalailah for tracking down this statement from Asio.
There has been reporting in some quarters of the media regarding the sensitivity of documents used in briefing the Prime Minister yesterday.
The Director-General of Security confirms the documents used in the briefing were not the subject of a national security classification.
The documents were carefully edited and were unclassified. The content of the documents did not compromise national security.
The migration amendment (regional processing arrangements) bill 2015 is now in the senate. Labor’s Kim Carr is speaking to the motion. Labor will not support Greens amendments so the bill will go through as is. It allows the funding of offshore processing retrospectively.
Ken Wyatt is presenting the Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Committee report to the parliament now. This is about recognising Indigenous people in the constitution.
Shalailah Medhora has a report here.
Wyatt is urging all Australians to read the report in its entirety rather than taking “a shallow cursory look at the recommendations”.
While this journey has been a long one, I am confident in the success of this referendum today as opposed to when I became part of the process in 2012. Australia and by extension are diverse and multicultural. We are proud of our heritage and our culture. Let us make it stronger. Let us fill the silence. Let us complete our constitution. Let us recognise.
Back to the maps. James Brown of the US Studies Centre tweeted that the Washington Post had the same map as Asio.
. @washingtonpost map http://t.co/N6fM1joJI7 ASIO map pic.twitter.com/4pQUbhJwQR
— James Brown (@captainbrown) June 24, 2015
Meanwhile, another history lesson from Twitter friend Matt Hatter.
@gabriellechan Re govts releasing more info than they should; from a time when govts were fun.... #politicslive pic.twitter.com/AP99VxlPTZ
— The Matt Hatter (@MattGlassDarkly) June 25, 2015
You know those people who don’t read the body language?
A history lesson.
All this business about lying reminds me of an exchange between Kerry O’Brien at the 7.30 Report and the then minister Tony Abbott in 2003.
O’Brien: In your statement last night, you also referred to a Sydney Morning Herald’ report on March 11 2000...which challenged you on another conflict in the Sharples affair when you replied to the Herald, “Misleading the ABC is not quite the same as misleading the Parliament as a political crime”.
You acknowledged there that you misled the ABC?
Abbott: No, no, no.
It was a flippant comment and, as I said in that statement last night, I shouldn’t have made a flippant comment in response to the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’.
O’Brien: Where is it flippant?
You’ve said that you misled the ABC.
Abbott: Well, I appreciate, Kerry, that you might not have any sense of humour.
O’Brien: Oh, I have one.
Abbott: I thought it was a throwaway line, it was a flippant comment, and, of course, I should never be flippant about the ABC or about the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’.
O’Brien: These are your words - ‘misleading’.
Your word - “misleading the ABC”.
You have said there that you misled the ABC in that interview with..
Abbott: No, no, no, no.
O’Brien: Why isn’t a lie?
Abbott: No, no, no, no.
O’Brien: You mislead someone, aren’t you lying to them?
Abbott: Oh, Kerry, look, I think I’ve made my position abundantly clear.
Updated
Bill Shorten says no one in the caucus has contacted him about the events in 2013 and rejected suggestions he won the leadership unfairly.
Would you have won the Labor leadership if you hadn’t lied?
It was an interview in the heat of the most difficult period that theLabor Party was going through in many decades. I made a mistake and I regret that. What I also know is that I’m motivated at that time not to inflame the debate in the LaborParty. There is a lesson learned about using other words to answer questions.
Shorten: I certainly regret the answer I gave and I made a mistake.
Another formula from Bill Shorten regarding that interview.
Q: Is your own integrity going to be a problem in the lead up to the next election?
That is ridiculous. What I say is that the interview with Neil Mitchell was done in the heat of the worst period of internal division in the Labor Party for decades. They were particular circumstances. I certainly regret the answer I gave and I made a mistake.
Updated
Shorten: I am kicking myself in hindsight
Q: Mr Shorten, you say you made a mistake. Can you guarantee from here on in, you will not mislead the media and as a result the public on anything from this day forward?
I guarantee that when I’m asked about internal party matters, I won’t give the sort of answer I gave. You can rest assured, I am kicking myself in hindsight. If people ask about internal party matters, there are far better answers to give than the one I gave and we have learned that lesson. We have also learnt the lesson from that time period about disunity. Australians mark political parties down if they are disunited.
Shorten admits lying on the leadership in 2013
Bill Shorten is asked about his role in the leadership of the last Labor government. The Killing Season revealed Shorten was having conversations with Kevin Rudd in 2013 and that Rudd wanted to change the leadership rules to ensure it was harder to knock off leaders in future. At that time, he told Neil Mitchell that he was not having conversations with Rudd and was fully supporting Julia Gillard.
Do you concede you won the ALP leadership based on the lie of knifing a PM?
I made a mistake in that radio interview. I regret that. It was difficult times, as you are all aware. The Labor Party was bitterly divided and certainly I didn’t want to put any more fuel on that fire. In terms of what actually happened, I did speak to Kevin Rudd on the night of the 19th [June].He did ask me for support. I most certainly did not commit on that night to support Kevin Rudd. But they were tough times. What the Labor Party has learned since then is the fundamental importance of being united and we are united.
Updated
No props.
Speaker Bronwyn Bishop is giving an Australian Parliamentary Delegation report.
Meanwhile Bill Shorten is speaking at the Tuggeranong Action Bus Depot.
It must be the last day of sitting.
78-45. The prime minister is not censured.
77-46.
We have had three gags, which by the way, in parliamentary terms, is called a:
closure of member.
Now the substantive vote on the censure of the prime minister.
Labor is gagged. 75 47.
Now the government just wants to get on with the censure motion so they can defeat it on the numbers.
Another vote.
Labor is gagged. 73-47.
Anthony Albanese tried to second the motion. He points at madam speaker.
Asio should not be used as a prop for a Liberal party photo opportunity.
Government moves the gag.
Scott Morrison moved the gag motion.
While the house is dividing, there’s a bit of argy bargy between Labor and the Coalition about using the gag motion.
The government is seeking to gag Labor. A division now.
The substance of the suspension motion is around whether there was a security breach. I will get the text to you shortly.
Labor is seeking to suspend standing orders regarding the Asio press conference. First up. 9am.
Liberal backbencher Craig Laundy, whose western Sydney seats takes in many of hotspots shown in the map said he is aware of the problem of radicalisation.
This is a known issue. We know where these areas are... and this should be called for what it is, a beat up.
Updated
From Shalailah, the report from the cross-party committee on indigenous recognition. A story that was strangely tagged as exclusive by two outlets this morning.
A clause mentioning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders should be inserted into Australia’s founding document and another that discriminates on the basis of race removed, a parliamentary report will recommend.
The cross-party parliamentary committee examining different models for a future referendum on constitutional reform will hand down its report on Thursday morning. It will be tabled by Australia’s first Indigenous member of the House of Representatives, Ken Wyatt.
Guardian Australia understands the committee was unanimous in pushing for the the inclusion of a new clause recognising Indigenous Australians in the constitution.
Shadow defence spokesman David Feeney has questioned the prime minister’s instincts on national security.
How can it be that the prime minister who tells us day after day that he is at the heart of a very serious security conversation and tells us that’s a security conversation that involves each and every one of our interests, can suddenly be in a meeting being appraised of sensitive material and not recognise it for the sensitive material that it is. How can his own instincts, which he tells us are very finely honed, not ring with alarm bells when he is being briefed on material that is secret in full view of our cameras.
Good morning,
A glorious pink Canberra sunrise heralds in the last sitting day before the winter break. On the breakfast smorgasbord today:
- A national security debate
- An offshore detention debate
- An Indigenous recognition debate
In delivering the Magna Carta lecture last night, the prime minister justified the broad ambit of his legislation to strip dual nationals of Australian citizenship. He lamented how difficult it was to get evidence to put terrorists in jail, which is:
easier said than done, despite new laws making it an offence merely to be present in designated terrorist-controlled areas...We can’t readily put informers on the witness stand or always make available intelligence without risk to sources and it wouldn’t usually be possible, nor desirable, in such cases to bring witnesses from the Middle East to testify.
On the standard rules of evidence, without a confession, securing a conviction is hardly straightforward, let alone for crimes committed offshore in ungoverned space. Bringing foreign fighters back to face trial in Australia risks leaving them free on our streets rather than in our jails. That’s why the government has introduced legislation to strip citizenship from terrorists who are dual nationals.
Daniel Hurst has the full story here.
The peculiar thing about the national security debate is the confusing nature of the government’s narrative. On the one hand, Australians hear the prime minister speaking about death cults, evil and barbarous forces, coming for all of us. We must be both alert AND alarmed. (Gone are the John Howard fridge magnets.) On the other hand, the overnight story that terrorism recruitment hotspot maps were revealed for a prime ministerial photo op at Asio headquarters suggests there is a theatrical nature to this national security debate which makes the message feel disingenuous. It comes after the news last month that the attorney general’s office did not hear alarm bells at the letter from Man Haron Monis, the Martin Place murderer. Monis asked if he was allowed to contact Isis for a chat. The letter, (admittedly one of the thousands his office would receive every month), was not picked up, in spite of the Australia’s heightened terrorist alert. I’m confused.
The senate has a job ahead today. The migration amendment bill, which passed the lower house yesterday, will go to the senate today. This is the bill that the government rushed through once they worked out that the Human Rights Law Centre had a real prospect with their challenge in the high court. The HRLC was challenging the government’s very right to fund offshore detention, going back to Labor’s time. This embarrassing hole in the legal walls of fortress Australia needs to be plugged before the pollies head back to their electorates. Labor answered the government’s call but asked for an I.O.U. Remember this day, Bill Shorten said. The government has told the senate, no one leaves until its fixed but Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has promised to amend the bill to enforce some humanising elements. However she does not have the numbers, given the majors are joined at the hip so we can expect a few more gags before the end of the day.
I will end there before this post turns into war and peace. We have a whole lot more analysis of the citizenship legislation and I will get to the Indigenous recognition debate next. In the meantime, better publish and be damned. Talk to us below and on the Twits @gabriellechan and @mpbowers.
