Night-time politics
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The energy and environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, has announced changes to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation which will mean the green bank can fund carbon capture and storage.
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One Nation is under pressure after another recording surfaced in which Pauline Hanson expresses alarm to the former party treasurer Ian Nelson that a journalist is asking about the alleged donation of a light plane by the property developer Bill McNee. The Australian Electoral Commission is investigating the plane and its history. Hanson called the fixation with this story “disgusting” as she came to parliament this morning.
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The tax commissioner, Chris Jordan, said the Plutus scandal added up to $130m so far, with investigations ongoing. He told estimates he understood the need to restore trust in the office after the scandal.
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Jordan advised the committee it was too easy to be a company director. Labor has released policy details which would see directors registered.
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Matt Canavan said the “great stain” on the country related to Indigenous people was not allowing traditional owners to determine their economic futures. Hashtag Adani. But he was sceptical of a constitutionally enforced Indigenous voice to advise parliament.
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The Turnbull government has introduced the bank levy bill into parliament and the treasurer, Scott Morrison, advised the banks not to pass on the costs to consumers.
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The government made it a criminal offence for registered child sex offenders to leave the country without federal government permission.
Thanks for the company and to my brains trust Katharine Murphy, Gareth Hutchens and Paul Karp. I will shuffle off into the night, in readiness for a rather large day tomorrow.
It will be more estimates, including Asic, the big media chief powwow to “demonstrate support” for the government’s media package and the AFP commissioner, Andrew Colvin, at the National Press Club. Plus parliament. Plus plus.
I leave you with a picture of a moment just after Frydenberg pulled rank on the Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, to cut short a press conference which occurred at the same time. Di Natale hung around to watch Frydenberg. Not sure whether he was pulling faces.
So until then, goodnight.
Updated
One of the ramifications of the Plutus payroll scandal is that it will block a move for the Australian Taxation Office towards self-regulation.
This came out in questioning by the Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson at the estimates committee this morning when the tax commissioner, Chris Jordan, confirmed there used to be a internal independent integrity adviser but no more.
We don’t have the same as what it was. It was a part-time role providing oversight on the certificates of assurance – 3,200 pages of material each year from each one of the business line managers that basically said, assuring me that they were doing a good job.
He said that given he wasn’t reading them and they weren’t much good to the external auditors so he used the staff elsewhere.
We eliminated 50 full-time equivalent jobs to be deployed elsewhere on more productive material. So, that was a decision of mine, not to have these certificates of assurance. We have a much more comprehensive and modern risk-management framework that reports up through to our audit and risk committee with independent members that reports through on a more regular basis ...
But Whish-Wilson asked (given that two other junior officers were stood aside pending the Plutus investigation), what happens to junior officers who might be instructed to do something suspicious?
Jordan essentially says they should tell them it’s inappropriate.
This is a big question from ATO #estimates today. If your boss asks you to do something you think is suspicious, can you just tell them no? pic.twitter.com/2lWs7OeQdg
— Peter Whish-Wilson (@SenatorSurfer) May 30, 2017
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Hand on heart.
I'm told plenty of concern among conservative Libs over lunch at Parliament today about the ideological shift in school funding #auspol
— Kieran Gilbert (@Kieran_Gilbert) May 30, 2017
Anthony Albanese is having a bit of fun in the matter for public importance on infrastructure spending.
He says the $5bn Northern Australian Infrastructure Fund (Naif) employs people flying around the countryside but has yet to hand out any loans.
Albo says with the budget, the government has set up another Naif because he says so many of the projects are either old projects or non-existent.
He called this budget the:
No Actual Infrastructure Fund (Naif)
Treasurer Scott Morrison presents the bank levy bill.
Chris Bowen to Scott Morrison: The leaking of the bank tax on budget day saw billions of dollars wiped off the stock market. Is the treasurer aware that the secretary of the treasury told Senate estimates about the leak, “I’ve seen nothing [since] I’ve been secretary to make me think that it came from the Treasury.” The secretary of the Treasury is satisfied that it didn’t come from the five trusted officials who knew about the bank tax. Can the treasurer categorically rule out that the leak came from him or his office?
Morrison:
Course it didn’t and I resent the implication.
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Shorten to Turnbull: This health department indexation schedule reveals that his Medicare freeze stays until 2020 for Medicare item number 160, which covers prolonged consultations for patients, especially in remote areas far away from hospitals who are, and I quote from the Medicare benefits schedule, “in imminent danger of death”. Is the prime minister seriously keeping his freeze on the Medicare rebate for patients who are in imminent danger of death until 2020. Please reconsider.
Turnbull says the government is “managing” health in order to allow spending on important drugs and other aspects of the health system.
Shorten takes a point of order on relevance, saying he asked a very specific question.
No swerve to detail in the PM’s answer.
Updated
Labor’s Stephen Jones got a question on the hospital funding taskforce but did not get it out on time and lost the right to question.
Now on to a Dixer to the immigration minister, Peter Dutton: Will the minister update the House on action the government is taking to strengthen rules around obtaining Australian citizenship? Why is it important for aspiring Australians to share Australian values? And is the minister aware of any alternative approaches?
Dutton makes the point that Labor has said very little on the citizenship changes. #wedge
Labor’s Tony Burke says if you want us to speak about it, table the bill. (There is no legislation sighted).
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The foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, talks about the ban on registered child sex offenders travelling overseas without permission.
Some numbers.
In 2016 alone, almost 800 Australian registered child sex offenders travelled overseas.
About 50% of them went to south-east Asia where child sex tourism is rife and sexual exploitation of children is far too commonplace.
About 50% of them were already recorded by police as representing a medium, high or very high risk of re-offending.
Many of them had been convicted for sex offences against children under the age of 13.
Many of them had travelled overseas in direct breach of their reporting obligations to relevant state and territory authorities.
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Plibersek to Turnbull: Wasn’t Stephen Elder, the executive director of Catholic education Melbourne, absolutely correct when he told Alan Jones this morning that a small parish primary school opposite housing commission flats, where parents are making sacrifices to send their children there, 10% of the kids are on healthcare schools, that they’re saying to the government that this is richer than Geelong Grammar. That is how flawed this system is.
Turnbull says the claim is wrong.
He says the Catholic system takes needs-based funding as a lump sum and they can distribute it as they wish and explain how they distribute it.
Turnbull:
The honourable member knows that and she is betraying the principles she claimed to adhere to for many years. She can twist and turn as much as she likes. She can tie herself into tighter and tighter knots on the ABC if she wishes. But she can’t escape the fact that everything she argued for, she has abandoned. Every principle she said she stood for, she has abandoned.
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Labor to Turnbull: Last night, government MPs including the member for Page, voted six times to push through a $22bn cut to schools. How is it fair that over the next two years, $1.6m is cut from the Rivers secondary college in the electorate of Page at the same time as Trinity Grammar in Sydney gets a funding increase?
Josh Frydenberg, representing the education minister, takes the question instead.
He repeats how many schools will get extra funding under the Gonski school plan.
Has another crack at Labor education shadow Tanya Plibersek.
Suggests Labor doesn’t know how much funding they will put into schools.
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George Christensen to Barnaby Joyce on the importance *again* of the Adani Carmichael mine. Joyce quoted the Queensland supreme court, which allegedly said:
If the mine proceeded, the Carmichael Mine, it would not increase the amount of global greenhouse gases or any environmental impact resulting from those gases. There would be the same or greater harm if the mine did not proceed.
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Ed Husic to Malcolm Turnbull: Last night, every member of the government including the member for Banks, voted six times to push through the $22bn cut to schools. How is it fair that over the next two years, $1.1m is cut from Beverly Hills high school in Banks while Sydney Church of England Grammar school gets a funding increase?
Turnbull says Husic has dudded his own electorate.
What he’s done is seen the opportunity to support additional funding based on need for the schools in his electorate and for pure political reasons voted against it.
Labor to Turnbull: Last night, every member of the government, including the member for Chisholm, voted six times, to push through a $22bn cut to schools. Prime minister, how is it fair that over the next two years, $600,000 will be cut from the Aurora school from the deaf and the deaf/blind in Chisholm while Geelong Grammar gets a funding increase. How is that fair, prime minister?
Turnbull says the government is proud of the school funding legislation passing the lower house last night.
[What] it does is set up now the prospect of the first time David Gonski’s vision of transparent, consistent, needs-based school funding being delivered.
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Adam Bandt to Malcolm Turnbull: According to a transcript on your site, you justified putting $1bn into the ticking Adani time bomb saying, “It will create tens of thousands of jobs”. Yesterday, your energy minister said the figure was 4,000 direct jobs and up to 8,000 indirect jobs”. Adani has said that it wants to automate it from mine to port and their own expert witness said in court, “around 1,464 direct and indirect jobs would be created.” Knowing that there are penalties for deliberately misleading the House, are you prepared right now to repeat your false claim that the Adani project will create tens of thousands of jobs?
He declines to repeat the job claims but instead says:
A) don’t you want Queenslanders to have jobs?
B) don’t you want Indians to have electricity?
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Shorten to Turnbull: Last night, every member of the government voted not once, not twice, but six times to cut in this House for cuts to school funding. A cut, which according to this document from the prime minister’s own office, means that $22bn will be ripped away from schools over the next 10 years. Prime minister, how is it fair that your government is cutting $22bn from schools at the same time as you’re giving $65bn to big business and tax cuts?
Turnbull asks how it is fair that the parliament is subjected to Shorten’s “hypocrisy and cant”.
We don’t need the leader of the opposition’s endorsement because he swings from one side of the fence to the other. We have David Gonski’s endorsement.
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Tony Burke begins a question on One Nation. Pyne interjects: "For goodness sake! What about the budget?"#qt #auspol
— Luke Henriques-Gomes (@lukehgomes) May 30, 2017
Burke to Turnbull: In question time on February 15, the prime minister defended preferencing One Nation with these words “parties will reach preference deals in order to maximise their chances of success”. Does the prime minister stand by the answer he gave in question time that day and if so, how can it still reflect the government given today’s allegations between the members of parliament and the Australian Electoral Commission. When will the government depart from that and stop pretending that One Nation is the same as any other political party?
Next government question is on schools funding to enviro and energy minister Josh Frydenberg, presenting education minister Simon Birmingham.
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Turnbull makes fun of Labor’s Tanya Plibersek, who this morning got numbers wrong regarding the number of Catholic schools losing out.
She said this morning that thousands of Catholic schools were going to lose out under our model. There’s only 1,700 Catholic schools in the whole country. Drawing one long bow after another. Unable to defend any element of her inconsistency.
The first government question is on the schools funding package.
First question from Tony Burke to Malcolm Turnbull asks why the PM hasn’t referred One Nation allegations to the federal police.
Turnbull says the AFP should be able to do its work independently.
The matter is in hand. The police are investigating it. And they should be allowed to do their work.
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Minerals Council of Australia executive director, coal, Greg Evans, has welcomed the change to the Clean Energy Finance guidelines.
The Australian coal industry supports the government’s sensible policy which recognises the role of our high-quality coal in helping to curb emissions.
If the policy intent is all about reducing emissions we should have a technology-neutral approach and that means considering the opportunity coal offers when utilising both high-efficiency low emission (HELE) and carbon capture and storage (CCS).
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The full tax story from estimates this morning by Gareth Hutchens.
Anna Bligh of the Australian Bankers Association is coming up shortly in a press conference on the bank levy bill.
And there is question time at 2pm.
Josh Robertson reports:
Turnbull government lifts CEFC ban on investment in carbon capture on storage
Environment and energy minister is lifting a legislative prohibition on the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) to allow it to invest in carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies.
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Lunch time politics
- Another One Nation recording has emerged, this time a conversation between Pauline Hanson and her party’s former treasurer Ian Nelson. In it, they have a conversation expressing alarm at how anyone knew of an alleged donation from property developer Bill McNee involving a light plane used by Hanson. The ON leader also states she thought that everything had been recorded with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC). Hanson called the fixation with this story “disgusting” as she came to parliament this morning.
- The tax commissioner, Chris Jordan, answered questions regarding the Plutus scandal, confirming it was worth $130m so far, a slight departure from the $165m originally reported following AFP investigations. He said the ATO systems were tight, ensuring people could not access info unless they needed to know. He did say it was too easy to be a company director, implying perhaps that is something the senators could look at. Labor has released policy details which would see directors registered.
- Matt Canavan is sceptical of the need for an Indigenous body to advise parliament but he said the “great stain” on the country was not allowing traditional owners to determine their economic futures. Hashtag Adani.
- The Turnbull government has introduced the bank levy bill into parliament, lifting the veil of secrecy required during negotiations with the banks.
- The government has also made it a criminal offence for registered child sex offenders to leave the country without federal government permission.
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Malcolm Turnbull has addressed the Coalition party room on the need to sell the budget (fairness, opportunity and security), the Gonski 2.0 schools plan (Catholic opposition is abating) and the Manchester terror attacks (“vicious, cowardly and vile”).
Turnbull also addressed the fact the Finkel review will shortly report back to Coag, and promised that the government “won’t be introducing an emissions trading scheme or an emissions intensity scheme”.
He said the government will “solve” mistakes of the past in energy policy, and that Australians were looking for leadership due to high power prices.
Barnaby Joyce spoke about division in the Labor party on the Adani Carmichael coalmine, between those who represent workers and wanted the jobs it would create and those who represent the “prejudices and fashions of the inner city”.
Republican senator, John McCain, visited the party room, took questions primarily about international affairs and left to a standing ovation.
Turnbull talked about the need to harden Australia’s physical infrastructure, particularly to prevent terrorist attacks by vehicle.
The attorney general, George Brandis, fielded a question about why Hizb ut-Tahrir is not classed as a terrorist organisation (advice from Asio says it doesn’t meet the definition).
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Bank levy bill: negligible impacts on the real economy
In the explanatory memo for the bill, the government sticks by its forecasts as at budget time, that is that it will raise $1.6bn in the first year and $6.2bn over the forwards.
The memo also says there will be $15m compliance costs to the banks, given:
- Apra (Australian Prudential Regulation Authority) will create a new reporting form to collect the data required to calculate the major bank levy.
- While this will impose some additional compliance costs, banks already collect much of the data required for existing APRA reporting forms and other purposes.
- Any risks to financial market disruption arising from the major bank levy have been minimised by its design.
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The major bank levy should have a negligible impact on the real economy.
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Government releases bank levy legislation
At the same time, treasurer Scott Morrison is presenting the major bank levy bill 2017 in the lower house.
Morrison says again the major banks should not pass the levy on.
Yet he says the bank levy will increase competition (which would assume the levy is passed on – forcing customers to look for the best deals).
Updated
Passport ban for registered child sex offenders
Foreign minister Julie Bishop announces details of the passport ban.
It will be a criminal offence for registered child sex offenders to leave Australia without permission.
The foreign minister will have powers to deny passports to those offenders.
This is an interesting proposition from Peter Lewis of Essential.
What if there is no populist surge on the horizon? What if Australia has already had its populist moment ahead of the other western democracies and we are now dealing with the consequences of that misadventure?
Think about it: emotive slogans, simple solutions, isolationist and divisive rhetoric fuelled by a partisan conservative media, leading to bad policy outcomes that ultimately let down the very people who respond to the clarion call.
Stop the Boats, Axe the Tax, Cut the Debt, Ditch the Witch: all would be at home at any Trump rally.
A government that closed our borders, albeit borders already girt by sea; that turned its back on the scientific consensus on climate change; that willed away complexity by promising no one would suffer. Until they did.
We also have the passport ban of paedophiles announcement by justice minister Michael Keenan is coming up at midday. We await details as to who, what, when, where and why. Suffice to say that campaigner and senator Derryn Hinch is pleased and will speak just after Keenan.
The bank levy legislation will be introduced today.
Hooray! We have been wondering where the legislation was. Remember bank executives had to sign confidentiality agreements. Soon it will all be on show.
In addition to Bill Shorten’s usual rah-rah (the Liberals want to give tax cuts to millionaires, are cutting $22bn from schools, and even that he has run a total of 1,000km this year) the opposition leader has addressed the Uluru Indigenous recognition proposal at Labor caucus.
Shorten said “any constitutional change requires an understanding of what the post constitutional change settlement is”. Treaties were not specifically referred to, but it was understood to mean all additional issues not in the constitution. “We do want to maintain bipartisanship,” he said.
Patrick Dodson said Labor should wait and see what comes from the Referendum Council’s final report, and noted that South Australia and Victoria are pursuing treaty processes that are focusing on services and service delivery.
We do need to have the prime minister at the front,” Dodson said.
Earlier in the meeting, one Labor MP said he was “sick of the sanctimony and hypocrisy of the Liberals [on occasions like the anniversary of the 1967 referendum] given they’d opposed land rights, voted against the Mabo legislation and refused to issue an apology in government”.
The same person noted a government frontbencher walked out on the apology to the stolen generation, presumably a reference to immigration minster, Peter Dutton who boycotted the event.
Updated
Resources minister Matt Canavan re Uluru statement, Adani and the great stain
Resources minister Matt Canavan has said he doesn’t pretend to know the views of the Australian people on the Indigenous voice for parliament following the Uluru statement.
I mean I am a little sceptical though of the need for another body for Indigenous peoples, when the main game for me is unlocking the economic opportunities that exist for Indigenous people in existing native title Law and traditional ownership.
The great stain on our country that remains is that we have not provided the ability for traditional owners to unlock the economic opportunity, the financial security that should be embodied in something like native title Laws. And we still have problems with this.
If I could go back and use the Carmichael mine in the Galilee basin, the traditional owners there, the Wangan and Jagalingou peoples met last year and voted 294 to one in favour of the Adani mine. Yet we still hear in our southern media that somehow there’s a suggestion that traditional owners are against this mine, which is patently absurd.
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One of these things is not like the other...
One of these things just doesn’t belong.
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Tax officials in Senate estimates say there were 221 taxpayers using operating here while billing overseas.
The tax office has cleared 102 of them because the new diverted profits tax law couldn’t be applied to them.
We have no taxing rights with those trading with Australia, the tax officer said. But where companies have have staff here “we can challenge that and we do senator”.
He says $400m has been raised on income tax so far due to the laws.
The laws have raised $200m on GST on taxpayers who have or will restructure their affairs.
The ATO is working with 29 companies who have restructured their affairs to bring sales on shore.
The law changes will lead to $16.4bn in income reported onshore as a result.
This means another $100m in extra tax will be paid.
Hanson asked if internet gambling company Lottoland is being investigated.
Tax officers says they don’t comment on individual taxpayers but they have a team specifically examining internet-based gambling.
Updated
Pauline Hanson wants to know why multinational companies are not paying their fair share of tax.
Tax commissioner Chris Jordan gives a quick history of international tax laws but the shift is now to tax multinational companies in the countries where they earn the income.
Most are falling into line because they know the game is up.
Pauline Hanson asks if any ATO call centre employees are based overseas or if there are any plans to base them overseas. No and no.
Hanson asks commissioner Chris Jordan what his responsibilities are. He looks confused.
Once a law is passed we are responsible for the administration of laws, he says.
Hello senator.
I was always liked @SenJohnMcCain but after hearing him today I have a schoolboy crush. #auspol https://t.co/wQdRpbmDLG via @youtube
— James McGrath (@JamesMcGrathLNP) May 30, 2017
There is a flock of One Nation senators gathering at estimates include Peter, Pauline and Malcolm (Roberts).
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Fergus Hunter of Fairfax Media reports that Australian paedophiles will have their passports cancelled under new laws.
Senator Derryn Hinch has a press conference coming up after midday but the changes were to be discussed at the Coalition party room this morning.
In a bid to protect children in developing countries, the laws will prohibit convicted offenders from travelling overseas. There are more than 20,000 people on the National Child Offender Register.
Senator Hinch, who has prosecuted a tough message on child sex offenders since his time as a broadcaster, said he was “over the moon” with the changes, which he has pushed for following his election to Parliament in 2016.
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Jordan reduces liabilities in Plutus case to $130m, of which a third has been collected
— Shane Wright (@swrightwestoz) May 29, 2017
That is from the original figure of $165m released by the AFP.
Tax commissioner Chris Jordan says we stand by the figure of $130 but investigations continue.
Updated
The party room meeting continues.
Great to welcome @SenJohnMcCain to the Coalition Government partyroom, speaking about the strength of 🇺🇸 🇦🇺 alliance. #auspol
— Alex Hawke MP (@AlexHawkeMP) May 30, 2017
Eeeeeeeeeexelent-Cory at estimates this morning @gabriellechan @GuardianAus #politicslive pic.twitter.com/7OaL7TuCn8
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) May 30, 2017
Katharine Murphy reports:
Renewable energy comprised 17% of Australia’s electricity generation in 2016, up from 14% the year before, but the industry is warning it needs policy certainty and support beyond 2020 if the growth trend is to continue.
A new report by the Clean Energy Council says 2016 was a year of recovery for the Australian renewables sector after the sustained policy uncertainty generated by the Abbott government’s review of the federal renewable energy target (RET) cost jobs and investment.
The report, to be released in Canberra on Tuesday, says the increased market share for renewables in 2016 was delivered by a 26% increase in hydro generation, which reflects improved rainfall in Tasmania and the snowy region.
Things that make you go hmmm.
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BTW, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has moved against the NIB health fund.
The ACCC has instituted proceedings in the federal court against NIB Health Funds Limited (NIB), alleging it contravened the Australian consumer law by engaging in misleading or deceptive conduct, unconscionable conduct and making false or misleading representations.
The ACCC alleges that NIB failed to notify members in advance of its decision to remove certain eye procedures from its “MediGap Scheme” (MediGap Change) in 2015.
Under the MediGap Scheme, members had previously been able to obtain these eye procedures without facing out-of-pocket costs when doctors participated in the scheme.
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Please explain? What a stupid question.
Senator @PaulineHansonOz is not happy that she's been asked to please explain her plane donation. #auspol @SBSNews pic.twitter.com/c6tnFAzxJ6
— David Sharaz (@DavidSharaz) May 29, 2017
Kylar Loussikian of the Daily Telegraph reports:
Attorney general George Brandis spent nearly $20,000 in a single day crisscrossing the eastern states using military and private jets.
In a 12-hour period that included mystery movements in Sydney, the senator also attended the last third of a budget razor gang meeting and a 55-minute meet-and-greet in north Queensland in the wake of Cyclone Ita.
Senator Brandis flew to the town of Ingham to meet locals in April 2014, the same month he billed taxpayers $1123 for dinner in London and after putting $35,000 in books and bookcases on the public credit card.
And he is refusing to say what an extended private block in his diary, which ended his day after attending the last hour of a long budget meeting, was for.
Travel itineraries seen by the Daily Telegraph show Senator Brandis took his chief-of-staff, James Lambie, and three other advisers on the trip with him.
Those flights would have cost less than $500 per person if booked on a commercial airline.
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In 2016-17 to date, the ATO investigated 30 people of a staff of 20,000 who have breached the code of conduct to get unauthorised access to tax information. As a result, 12 officers were terminated. There were 23 cases of unauthorised access the previous year.
Chris Jordan assures senators (politicians) they have an extra layer of security on their affairs.
(Pity about the rest of us.)
Updated
Katharine Murphy reports:
Australians are behind a recent declaration by the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, that asylum seekers should be deported to their country of origin if their claims for protection are unsuccessful, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.
The new weekly survey of 1,783 voters suggests 67% of the sample agreed with deportation as a valid course of action, and 53% of the sample disagreed with the statement “the government is too tough on asylum seekers”.
Public opinion was more finely balanced when voters were asked whether asylum seekers who could not be sent safely elsewhere should be brought to Australia when the Manus Island immigration detention centre closed. Thirty-two per cent of the sample agreed with that proposition, while 40% disagreed.
The latest poll has Labor continuing its election-winning lead over the Turnbull government post budget, with the ALP ahead of the Coalition on the two-party-preferred measure 53% to 47%. Last week, Labor led the Coalition 54% to 46%.
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Tax commissioner: it's too easy to be a company director
The National senator John Williams asks if any laws need to be changed.
Chris Jordan says it is too easy to be a company director. He says in other countries you need to have a three-month check before you can be a director.
He tells Williams he could make the senator a company director without Williams even knowing.
He said in some cases vagrants are made company directors. People can hang outside Centrelink and offer unemployed $1,000 to sign them up.
It’s a matter for Asic, whose senior officers are on tomorrow.
Labor has already released a policy where they would force company directors to be registered to stop phoenixing, where companies are shut down with assets and started up by the same directors.
Labor’s Andrew Leigh said this morning:
We believe that we need stronger laws to make sure that directors can’t simply strip the assets out of a company and set up a new one. One expert said recently that the laws are such that it is almost possible to register your dog as a company director. It’s much harder to set up a bank account in Australia than it is become a company director. Labor’s proposal is we should have that 100 point ID check apply to directors as well.
Updated
Chris Jordan is asked by Labor’s Katy Gallagher about this story by Noel Towell, which reports:
Senior tax official Michael Cranston was investigated by the ATO’s anti-fraud unit last year over claims he improperly used his influence to have a court case against a “high-wealth individual” dropped, internal tax office documents reveal.
Although the deputy commissioner of taxation was cleared by the probe, the public servant who was ordered to drop the case is demanding a “proper and independent” investigation and says they were ordered to act outside proper ATO procedures in stopping the prosecution.
Jordan says he doesn’t know about that case.
(Gallagher as a former ACT chief minister and has the advantage of knowing the mechanics of the public service inside out.)
Updated
Chris Jordan is laying it on with a trowel.
He tells the senators he will do anything possible to help the politicians front their constituents to help them give them full confidence in the Australian Tax Office.
Updated
Tax commissioner Chris Jordan is defending the ATO while saying he is not being defensive about it.
I am not in any way trying to be defensive ...
He says the ATO system meant the things were locked down and Michael Cranston could not even get into it (notwithstanding his seniority) and bearing in mind he was apparently unwittingly caught up by his son’s actions.
It’s not as though there was a big breach there that exposed a big gap in the system, says Jordan.
But he will wait and see what comes the review of the investigation.
The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, says the government has full confidence in the ATO and based on advice by the AFP.
Updated
ATO commissioner Chris Jordan says Michael Cranston had normal access to the ATO systems until the raids against his son Adam, one of the alleged ringleaders.
Jordan says the AFP asked him to keep it that way to ensure no one in the case was tipped off. But he says officers in the tax office – including Cranston – only had access to files on a needs-to-know basis and Cranston would not have had access to those specific files.
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Tax commissioner: we understand the ramifications of a loss of confidence in us
The Australian Tax Office commissioner, Chris Jordan, has given a statement to the estimates committee. Apologies for the long post but the details are fascinating. The full statement can be read here but the bits regarding Plutus are here.
So far, over 200 entities in layered structures and complex transactional and business relationships have been identified.
When officers in the ATO working on the investigations were certain that one of the principals of the syndicate had a personal connection with deputy commissioner Michael Cranston, they took steps to further isolate and lock down the casework – this was in addition to the extra security and compartmentalisation already in place for such tax crime cases.
In December and January 2017, our audits and investigations culminated in a series of actions, starting with assessments and recovery of unpaid taxes through garnishee notices. We have raised liabilities to date of more than $130m from Operation Elbrus and have collected almost a third of the amount so far, including from garnishees.
We were able to collect these amounts because we targeted bank accounts with significant balances and current payroll activity so that they could be garnisheed as soon as the tax liability was assessed – protecting the revenue at risk.
The ATO garnishee action in December and January caused significant disruption to the syndicate and alerted the AFP’s Operation Elbrus team of the ATO’s interest in their targets.
AFP commissioner Colvin visited me on 11 January this year to make me aware of their investigations and the personal relationship between one of the principals they were interested in and deputy commissioner Michael Cranston.
Commissioner Colvin was clear to me that Michael Cranston was not suspected, and is still not suspected, of being involved in the syndicate and its activities of defrauding the commonwealth.
Let me cite the AFP’s quotes in the media recently:
“The AFP always needed to consider whether Michael Cranston was involved in the conspiracy, however, subsequent investigation clearly demonstrated he was not involved ... Michael Cranston is not being considered for conspiracy to defraud the commonwealth.”
I was not asked by the AFP to intervene, in fact the ATO was asked to leave things as they were, and to keep all existing arrangements in place, keeping Michael Cranston in the deputy commissioner position while further information continued to be gathered about the syndicate and its operations.
Let me assure you, evidence to date shows that at no time did Michael Cranston directly access taxpayer data systems or access the audit cases under this investigation. And there is no evidence of actual intervention or influence on the audit cases, or of money being refunded, or of tax liability being changed. And no deals were done.
In February, the ATO and AFP joined the tax crime intelligence with the AFP criminal intelligence to put a fuller picture together and both agencies continued working on investigations and compliance actions.
In April we undertook further steps to collect outstanding taxes, like we do in cases like these; we froze bank accounts due to the high risk of the removal of funds by account owners.
Conscious of the impact this can have on innocent third parties, especially regarding wages, we established the names of those due to be legitimately paid so that funds could be released to pay the wages owing. We did not stop people being paid. We are continuing to look into how we may be able to have any of the remaining funds released to pay outstanding superannuation guarantee amounts.
In mid-May the warrants that were executed by the AFP yielded seizure of a large volume and high value of cash and assets. With these significant amounts of cash and assets seized, we would hope and expect there to be recovery of significant amounts for the commonwealth.
For workers, employers and businesses affected by Operation Elbrus we have put in place a range of help and support. Yesterday, general advice was published to our website and we have a dedicated helpline for people to call. We have committed to updating the advice as we learn about different scenarios and we will be reaching out in a more targeted way to those who might need our assistance in readiness for lodging their 2016-17 tax returns.
We will be honouring the PAYGW amounts that have been deducted from people’s pay, so that when they lodge their tax return they are credited with those amounts.
As you would also be aware from the publicity around Operation Elbrus, we took action against a handful of ATO staff – to stand them down while investigations related to their alleged actions were ongoing. As I have already said, I cannot overstate how seriously we take the allegations of wrong doing by ATO staff – we understand the ramifications of a loss of confidence in us.
Three of our SES officers are being investigated for potential breaches of the APS code of conduct and these investigations are being conducted by Barbara Deegan, former fair work commissioner. If breaches are found, potential sanctions range from a reprimand through to demotion or termination of employment. I will not say anything further about the details of those cases – it is not appropriate to do so.
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Where's the finance minister?
The former Labor treasurer Wayne Swan is no fan of the Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility. He’s been on the warpath about the Naif for some time and he’s managed to get it on to the forward work program of the Australian National Audit Office.
Last night Swan gave an adjournment speech ripping into the Naif and ripping into the resources minister, Matt Canavan, for championing a $1bn loan for a rail line from the mine to Abbot Point.
Minister Canavan should not be subsidising billionaire friends of the National party. Kerry Packer said ‘you could only get one Alan Bond’, Mr Adani knows he’s only going to get one Matt Canavan.”
Swan is keen to get eyes focused on the fact the finance minister doesn’t have a role with the Naif, unlike with other commonwealth investment vehicles.
There is one significant difference between the Naif and other large government corporations like the CEFC, EFIC, ARTC and NBN Co is that they handle billions of dollars of taxpayers’ funds,” the Labor man said.
That is there is no formal or statutory role for the finance minister within the Naif, a body which controls $5bn – and no finance minister whose job it is to look after the taxpayer.
It is unprecedented for an individual minister to oversee the board of a government corporation without the minister of finance. And for that minister to set the investment mandate which is a non-disallowable instrument, meaning that parliament cannot review it.
This concern adds to building pressure on the Naif from a range of groups. Geoff Cousins, businessman and president of the Australian Conservation Foundation, has made it known they will pursue legal avenues in the event the proposed Adani loan ever sees the light of day.
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If you are watching the party rooms closely today, you need to know about this story by Paul Karp and Katharine Murphy.
The rightwing thinktank Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) has sent up a little red flag on the Uluru statement regarding constitutional referendum and the Indigenous voice in the parliament. There were mutterings from various conservative voices such as Craig Kelly and George Christensen in the party yesterday, not to mention the deputy PM Barnaby Joyce coming out and saying a separate Indigenous body to advise parliament won’t work. To which, Indigenous delegates and experts said: read the proposal first. Others, such as the Liberal MP Julian Leeser were more open to the idea.
Given all these strands, you would think this would be a topic of great interest in both party rooms.
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Housekeeping.
Party room meetings this morning. The House sits at midday when debate resumes on:
- Social services legislation amendment (energy assistance payment and pensioner concession card)
- Treasury laws amendment (accelerated depreciation for small business)
- Veterans’ affairs legislation amendment (budget measures)
The energy assistance payment was the Xenophon bone thrown for his support of the business tax cuts.
The pensioner concession stuff was the budget measure that returned the card to various recipients whose payment or pension was cancelled on 1 January 2017 due to changes in the assets test. (This has been a big issue reported by MPs in blue-ribbon seats.)
The depreciation measure is the extension of the accelerated schedule first introduced in the 2015 budget. Remember Tony’s tradies?
The house will also see the introduction of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Asic) levy bills after the government strengthened oversight provisions of Asic on the banking industry and imposed a levy on said industry to fund the crackdown.
In estimates, apart from Plutus, health may touch on the budget measure for drug testing of welfare recipients and the National Cancer Screening Register.
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One Nation recording surfaces on a frosty morning in Canberra
Good morning blog people,
This morning was Canberra’s first big frost of the year. The green lawns atop the building have turned to ice and the White Queen – as the Quarterly Essay dubbed her – is in the news as more recordings emerge via her former officials.
One Nation’s former treasurer Ian Nelson provided the recording to the ABC and it follows his allegations made on Four Corners of an alleged donation of a light plane to the party by the property developer Bill McNee.
Nelson told the ABC he made the recording available because he claims it proves Hanson was aware the plane was donated and wanted it kept quiet.
On the recording, Hanson told Nelson of a reporter calling McNee about the alleged donation. Hanson tells Nelson:
They’ve already rung Bill and asked him and he said, ‘Yep, but I’ve donated to a lot of parties.’
Then they discuss who could have leaked any information.
Pauline Hanson:
Who knows Bill’s name? No one, we always kept it very quiet ... Who knows that he paid the money upfront for the office?”
Ian Nelson:
I have no idea.
Hanson:
There was only the four of us who knew. It was tight-knit.
Hanson also says in the recording that:
Everything was above board because it was all recorded with the AEC, those donations, so it was all done correctly ...
The Australian Electoral Commission is now investigating the provenance of the plane, as Paul Karp reported last week.
The Australian electoral commission commissioner, Tom Rogers, told Senate estimates on Thursday it had issued a number of compulsory notices to produce documents, converting its inquiry into a formal investigation.
Rogers also said a recording of Hanson’s chief of staff, James Ashby, discussing “making some money” from electoral reimbursements did not disclose any breaches of commonwealth electoral law but might breach other laws.
The AEC is investigating whether the plane – which Hanson has used in campaigning and described as her own but is reportedly registered and insured in Ashby’s name – was a gift from One Nation’s biggest recent donor, the Victorian developer Bill McNee, and should have been declared as such.
On the ABC’s Four Corners program McNee denied funding the purchase of the plane, saying he had not funded the party beyond what was publicly disclosed. Ashby has told Guardian Australia the hours flown for party business on his aircraft had been declared in accordance with the AEC rules.
One Nation are not commenting on the story this morning.
As to news from the actual parliamentary business, the Turnbull government’s school funding plan passed the lower house last night.
The bill now moves to the Senate, where the legislation will be examined in an inquiry. Overnight the Catholic Education Archdiocese of Brisbane told its 139 schools that the fee increases next year will be much the same as this year. The executive director of the diocese, Pam Betts, told schools she believed the Catholic sector had been disadvantaged compared with public and independent schools but hoped it could be resolved with the government.
Onwards and upwards. Estimates continue apace with the Australian Tax Office the one to watch this morning in the wake of the Plutus payroll scandal. I will have a parliamentary program to you shortly.
Mike Bowers is in the building. You can speak to us in the thread or on the Twits @gabriellechan and @mpbowers or on Facebook.
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