Night time politics
- Today, chief scientist Alan Finkel agreed that policy uncertainty was stifling energy investment.
- The use of a personal bank account by Pauline Hanson for donations and allegations that there was a lack of transparency of activities in that bank account led the day. The Greens have referred the matter for investigation by the Australia Electoral Commissioner. One Nation says everything was declared in accordance with the rules.
- The phoney war over whether there is a link between refugees and terrorism continued. Immigration minister Peter Dutton said if anyone has a problem with the immigration program causing terrorism, talk to him. He backed Asio boss against conservative commentators and Tony Abbott. Barnaby Joyce said if you want to link terrorists with refugees, you might as well draw a link between “terrorism and testicles”. It was a fairly forceful pushback against Abbott’s strong criticism of government “pussyfooting” around the alleged link.
- Question time was fought over tax figures, who taxes more and at what end. Lots of rhetoric, little meaningful headway.
-
As we close for the evening, contemplate a US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. It seems like a fait accompli but let’s go to bed with a little hope in the heart.
Thanks to the brains trust, Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp and Gareth Hutchens. Thanks to Mike Bowers who ends the day with a couple of well aimed images.
We will be back here in the week after next, June 13, for the final sitting fortnight ahead of the winter break. Thanks for your company.
Good night.
Updated
The Malcolm Roberts question.
Updated
Ken Henry, the chairman of NAB, gave a speech today at Sydney University on Australia’s infrastructure problem.
He made a fascinating/depressing point about our growing population.
He said the population is projected to grow by another 16 million people over the next 40 years, but among NAB’s customers (according to its research) there is not wholesale support for a larger Australia.
For many, the prospect of a higher Australian population means more stress in the ability to buy a house, to live where you want to live, to get to work with a reasonable commute time.
And many in the community are also concerned about our ability, as a nation, to maintain norms of Australian social and economic inclusion, and to continue to provide access to high quality services in areas such as healthcare and education.
These concerns are playing out against a backdrop of rapid technological advancement that is seeing the digitalisation and automation of many aspects of our lives, including in the workplace – and with it growing concerns about job security.
But what about the business perspective?
The same NAB research … showed that most of our business customers would strongly prefer a larger population which supports better business growth,” he said.
It is time for business and the community to stop talking past one another.
Joyce on Abbott's Muslim comments: It’s like saying there is a link between testicles and terrorism
Barnaby Joyce has rejected Tony Abbott’s suggestion of a link between terrorism and Islam. He tells David Speers at Sky – and he has said it before – that there is a small number of extremists in all groups. Joyce said it would be like painting all men as terrorists because a small number commit terrorist acts.
It’s like saying they are all blokes.
It’s like saying there is a link between testicles and terrorism.
Good people in all communities provide information so we can keep Australia safe. With a few exceptions that’s working well for us and let’s keep that program going.
On Abbott’s other views around Islam, Joyce says Abbott had the right as a backbencher to have those discussions.
Updated
Anne Aly cannot be ignored.
Updated
Bill Shorten has begun a matter of public importance speech on the government’s unfair budget. He starts with Healthy Harold the Life Education giraffe copping it in the neck.
Updated
Bruvvers.
Labor asks Turnbull about the reports that Trump will withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement, given Craig Kelly and others are getting excited about a possible withdrawal.
Turnbull says the government remains committed to the Paris Agreement but segues onto “real action” like Snowy Hydro 2.0 (a feasibility study) and threats of export controls on gas companies if they don’t make more gas available to domestic customers.
Tanya Plibersek to Malcolm Turnbull: How is the fair that under the prime minister’s $22 million schools cut, students at Our Lady in Adelaide will lose half their funding. Doesn’t the Prime Minister realise all the students in this school have an intellectual disability and many students have multiple disabilities, including complex health, and personal needs.
Christopher Pyne yells:
Shame on you. Playing politics with disabled kids.
Turnbull says Plibersek has abandoned needs based funding have spoken so eloquently in support of it in the past.
Turnbull describes the School Resourcing Standard (SRS) which is basic formula, loaded for factors of disadvantage.
There have been many arguments made by improving and refining the SRS measure and that’s a commitment the government has. We will continue to work with the sector to improve and refine it.
Shorten to Turnbull: Is the prime minister aware that under his government, real wages for high paid executives are growing, and they get a tax cut. And the real wages for people on modest incomes are going backwards but they get a tax increase. Does the prime minister have any idea what is going on in the real world?
Turnbull says Shorten is practicing the politics of envy.
I ask the leader of the opposition this, how do you look to thousands of Australians on middle incomes and say to them in good faith, everything Labor policy does, will discourage you from getting ahead? Every single measure is an attack on middle Australia and their aspirations for a better life.
Updated
Labor asks another question about a flight attendant on $60,000 getting a tax increase (Medicare levy rise) but a millionaire gets a tax cut (higher earners deficit levy removed minus the Medicare levy rise).
Turnbull says Labor’s policies hurt middle Australia.
The flight attendant on $60,000, in Parramatta, would pay additional tax as part of the increase on theMedicare levy, and she and her family would be protected by the National Disability Insurance Scheme and it will apply across the board, in exactly the same way that her party’s former leader, Julia Gillard, and her party’s current leader, the member for Maribyrnong, said it should, all those years ago.
Greens refer Pauline Hanson allegations to electoral commissioner
Greens senator, Lee Rhiannon, has written to the Australian Electoral Commissioner, Tom Rogers highlighting reports that donations were directed to Pauline Hanson’s personal bank account on One Nation’s website.
In Senate estimates last week AEC officials confirmed the provenance and use of the plane used by Hanson for One Nation campaigning is under official investigation.
Rhiannon asked the commissioner to expand the AEC’s current investigation to specifically investigate personal donations to Hanson if it had not already inquired into that matter.
Labor to Turnbull: How is it fair that in this budget, an early childhood teacher in my electorate earning $60,000 a year gets a $300 tax increase while a millionaire gets a $16,400 tax cut?
Turnbull says Labor’s policy to keep the high earners’ deficit levy and increase the Medicare levy by 0.5% (also a government policy) would create a disincentive for middle income earners.
Updated
Alan Finkel agrees lack of energy policy affects system reliability
Australia’s chief scientist, Alan Finkel, who is poised to deliver a major report to Coag on the future of the National Electricity Market, told senators today he agreed the government’s lack of policy in the sector was affecting the system’s reliability.
Labor senator Kim Carr asked Finkel: “There has been the view … that the lack of clear policy which has led to disincentives which have led to stifling investment. Would you agree with that proposition?”
Finkel responded:
I would senator. I’m certainly agreeing with the statement that the submissions are indicating that, and there is a lot of reason to agree with the sentiment there.
He went on, and indicated this would be a central concern of his review, which is to be handed to Coag next week.
What we are hearing loud and clear is that the lack of clarity in the future policies around the electricity sector is giving great concern to investors and that discourages them from making the necessary investment to bring on the new generation for low emission and reliability that we require. So that is a key consideration in our minds as we are formulating our recommendations.
Updated
Independent Bob Katter asks Barnaby Joyce a question about power that is not entirely comprehensible to me and it runs over time so he is cut off. It was about Hells Gate dam.
Joyce says he gets the gist so continues on in a similar vein to Katter.
Joyce makes it a practice these days to attack Labor MP for Herbert Cathy O’Toole on Adani. (Herbert is Labor’s most marginal seat.)
Chris Bowen to the PM: Labor’s plan to protect low- and middle-income workers from a tax hike and keep the budget repair levy raises more revenue than the government over the medium term. Is the reason the prime minister is shouting about Labor’s plan is because it raises more money? Or is he simply angry that Labor won’t give millionaires a tax cut?
Scott Morrison takes the question.
Morrison does not answer that rhetorical question but says Labor is spending money several times over.
Updated
Kate Ellis to the PM: Analysts in Fairfax newspapers [by the National Foundation for Australian Women] shows a couple renting where one partner has left university and the other is still studying, has an effective marginal tax rate of over 97%, when their income reaches just $37,000. Why is the prime minister outraged about marginal tax rates for millionaires, but says absolutely nothing about families who will pay an effective marginal tax rate of over 97%?
Turnbull flicks the question to social services minister Christian Porter. He says the study is incorrect and misleading.
Graduates earning $51,000, most of whom are likely to be women, will have less disposable income, appears to assume there’s changes to rental assistance in the budget, that’s not the case, and I’m further informed that statement from the NFAW based on the research that members opposite cite, that graduates earning $51,000 will have less disposal income is in the advice of my department, incorrect and misleading.
Updated
Shorten to Turnbull: New research by ANU published in today’s media reveals that when the government’s tax plans are compared to Labor’s, it leaves twice as many households worse off compared to Labor’s plan, and those worse off are those who can least afford it. Why is the prime minister targeting ordinary Australians who can least afford the government’s plans?
Turnbull comes armed with an example of Mary the Midwife.
What he is proposing is that there would be the half a per cent increase would come in at $87,000. That’s what he said. He said that’s very fair. Well, let’s, let’s have an example. Let’s consider Mary. An experienced midwife, in New South Wales. She earns $87,000.
Under Labor’s policy, if Mary earns an additional dollar, she would begin paying an additional half a per cent on her entire income. On the additional one dollar, she would pay an additional $435.39 in tax.
Updated
Bill Shorten joins Turnbull in speaking on the bombing.
While some injuries were suffered by foreign workers, including American and German embassy staff, the people murdered by his act of terror were overwhelmingly Afghan citizens with the followers of the Islamic faith. I don’t know if they conformed to every single tenet of their religion, few people of faith do.
I suspect they were good Muslims, living the lives we take for granted, going to the shops, heading to work, taking their children to school, and I want to say I believe their Islam was more true, more valuable, more worth while than anything that the terrorists claim to believe in. At the beginning of this most holy time in the Islamic faith, this act of terror is a crime against Islam, and a crime against humanity.
The parliament rises as a mark of respect to the dead and injured.
Turnbull says Australia is the second largest non-NATO troop contributing nation and the overall second largest financial contributor to the sustainment of the Afghan security sector.
Yesterday’s bombing only reinforces our commitment to this important mission, and to continuing the support the Afghan national defence and security forces as they continue to build that capacity that is essential for Afghanistan to fight and defeat terrorism at its source.
Malcolm Turnbull starts question time with a statement on the bombing in Afghanistan which has killed 89 so far and injured 350.
This latest attack follows a fortnight where we have seen the evil scourge of Islamist terrorism continue to exact its murderous campaign against civilians around the world. From the bombing of the arena in Manchester,and the slaughter of innocent children, to a suicide attack in Jakarta, the ISIL insurgency in the southern Philippines to the slaughter of Coptic Christians in Egypt. We continue to see the indiscriminate brutal attacks admitted by the terrorists.
Question time coming up.
SENATE ESTIMATES#CSIRO and the #peerreview process
— Sen. Malcolm Roberts (@SenatorMRoberts) June 1, 2017
The one where I said 'conceptual penis' https://t.co/eucqpkHEhU#auspol #qldpol
Katharine Murphy reports:
I’m sorry I missed this but luckily AAP was there:
The question of whether penises cause climate change has triggered tense debate among senators.
They don’t, as far as scientists are aware, but One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts – a renowned climate change denier – used the hoax, published in a scientific journal, to grill CSIRO scientists over their peer-review methods.
They claimed that penises cause climate change. I’m very concerned about some of the peer-reviewed papers.
The line of questioning prompted a frustrated response from Industry minister Arthur Sinodinos.
You’ve quoted two papers and you’ve then jumped to a general proposition that this means every peer-review paper in the world potentially is subject to some sort of potential for fraud.
We really are in a very Kafkaesque world.
Roberts insisted he had been misrepresented. He was just pointing out there may be holes in the scientific peer-review process, he explained, continuing to ask the scientists about their methods.
I need a biscuit, said Sinodinos.
Updated
Is inequality a drag on growth? No answer from the treasurer
Treasurer Scott Morrison earlier spoke to Ceda’s state of the nation conference in parliament house.
During the Q&A session, he was asked for his views on the problem of record-low wages growth. He said the only way to boost wages was through economic growth.
It prompted an audience member to say:
This gets to the question of whether in fact growth leads to the ability to increase wages and reduce inequality, or the more common view amongst leading economists these days that in fact it is growing inequality that has become the anchor on growth.
The audience member wanted to know if Morrison was putting the cart before the horse.
Morrison replied by talking about the “four key messages” in his budget.
One, was we needed to grow the economy to support more and better paid jobs; secondly, we needed to guarantee essential services; thirdly, to put downward pressure on the cost of living; and fourthly, to ensure the government lived within its means.
The two middle messages there, I think, go to your question.
He explained that Australians have a heightened sensitivity to essential services like Medicare, the NDIS, schools, and hospitals.
That’s why in this budget we have sent such a strong message, and given such an unequivocal guarantee around those services.
[We] recognise the real sensitivity and difficulty that Australian households have been facing because of lower wages growth.
If Australians are worried about their services they will be more reticent in the economy and they need to know that the government has their back on these services.
That was the architecture [in the budget], if you like, of trying to reassure Australians about these two key issues, which we do know they’re very concerned about.
He said the government was also focused on regional infrastructure, and addressing the disparity in growth between different regions of the country.
Updated
Lunch time politics
Here is what we know of today thus far.
- One Nation’s former treasurer Ian Nelson said the party had no way of monitoring the activities of Pauline Hanson’s personal bank account, which was taking donations through the party website up until two months ago.
- Immigration minister Peter Dutton has defended Asio director general Duncan Lewis, from conservatives’ criticism of the spy agency chief’s suggestion that the refugee program is not the source of terrorism. “If people want to criticise this government in relation to the refugee program, criticise me,” he said.
- As the world creeps closer to a Trump decision on the Paris Agreement, there has been signs of a looming climate war within the Coalition predicted by environment and energy minister Josh Frydenberg. Conservative Liberal Craig Kelly is hoping for a US withdrawal while the government line sees US withdrawal as against Australia’s national interests. Barnaby Joyce won’t say what he thinks but just waits for the next Trump tweet.
- Bill Shorten has defended Labor’s opposition to the Medicare levy rise for those under $87,000 given low wages growth. Conditions are different.
People in covfefe houses shouldn't throw covfefe. https://t.co/M7oK5Z6qwF
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 1, 2017
Greens continue to wrestle over Gonski 2.0
There’s a lively debate going on in the Greens about whether to support the Turnbull government schools plan.
At a meeting on 24 May the Australian Young Greens adopted a form of words opposing the plan and praising MP Adam Bandt for his stance on it.
In a letter signed by co-convenors, Axeris Sondyre and Robyn Lewis, the Young Greens said:
The Australian Greens must reconfirm their support for the full funding allocation to public schools as recommended by the Gonski Review.
At the 2016 election the Greens committed to the full Gonski. Our MPs and candidates joined the Gonski bus, spoke at public education events and signed up to support the campaign.
What we campaigned for is in no way similar to the Turnbull Government proposal. What we supported was the implementation of the full Gonski for public schools, including years five and six of the funding model.
We agree that the Rudd-Gillard Government’s School Funding Plan did not go far enough; however, the Coalition’s ‘Gonski 2.0’ is a complete insult to students, teachers and staff of public schools.
It’s interesting they’ve referred to the Gonski bus and adopted the Australian Education Union’s language of the “full Gonski”.
They have also said Bandt’s stance will “go some steps in resolving tensions with unions around Australia”.
That’s where the greatest opposition is coming from and where the greatest blowback if the Greens try to let the policy through – the teachers union.
The Australian Young Greens stand in solidarity with Australia’s teachers and their unions, parents, student groups and many other community groups and call on the federal party room to publicly reconfirm support for the full and original Gonski.
Updated
Scott Morrison trying out some new lines about Labor's policies. Says they'll be an "economic mogadon", a "sedative" for the economy #auspol
— Gareth Hutchens (@grhutchens) June 1, 2017
.@SenatorWong asking Brandis about the @CraigKellyMP facebook post about "putting champagne on ice" re Trump Paris decision @dfat #estimates
— Stephen Dziedzic (@stephendziedzic) June 1, 2017
"It is the government's position that we will remain a party to the convention." - George Brandis reiterates govt support for Paris accord.
— Fergus Hunter (@fergushunter) June 1, 2017
It’s a pretty ruff video from Andrew Leigh but if you haven’t noticed it, the Labor shadow assistant treasurer has been lately pushing for a change to the way company directors are registered.
The former university ANU economics professor believes the simple solution to cracking down on phoenixing is to give company directors an identification number. What happens at the moment is a dodgy director can shut down a company owing a lot of money to workers and contractors and start a new company without being chased. A slight difference in spelling on names, addresses or a wrong digit in a birthdate can make it easy for directors to hide the trail between companies.
The head of the Australian Tax Office Chris Jordan told estimates this week that the laws governing company directors were slack. Jordan told Nationals senator John Williams he could register Williams as a director in a company without him even knowing.
Australian Restructuring and Turnaround Association chief executive officer John Winter told the AFR you could almost register your own dog.
That you can, almost literally, register your dog as a company director makes a joke of our corporate registration process and that has been clearly slated home in the current ATO-Plutus debacle.
Enter Texas.
There are a few people on government benches who think Labor’s policy is quite sensible so watch this space.
Oh by the way, David Murray, author of the Financial System Inquiry and former Commonwealth Bank chief has called the bank levy a Hate Tax in the Financial Review.
It’s a hate tax. So the question becomes, who else do we hate? Which sector comes next?
As the world awaits this:
I will be announcing my decision on Paris Accord, Thursday at 3:00 P.M. The White House Rose Garden. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 1, 2017
Bloomberg reports that two of the world’s biggest oil producers want Trump to stay in. Why? To continue pissing inside the tent.
Both companies reiterated their support Wednesday for the global agreement to cut greenhouse gas pollution amid reports that Trump planned to ditch a pact he says hurts the U.S. economy. Their argument: The US is better off with a seat at the table so it can influence global efforts to curb emissions that are largely produced by the fossil fuels they profit from.
Two of the world’s biggest oil producers reiterate their support for the Paris climate deal https://t.co/3VEZYDOAmx pic.twitter.com/FfS7vdNV3E
— Climate Changed (@climate) May 31, 2017
In Australia, the lines are blurring.
Yesterday’s statement by the employment minister, Michaela Cash, to estimates outlined the Australian government position.
Australia’s national interests are best served by the US participation in the Paris agreement consistent with our support for a collective global response on climate change.
But this morning, Barnaby Joyce declined to repeat that statement when asked by Paul Karp.
Asked at a press conference on Thursday if Australia should consider pulling out of the Paris climate agreement if Donald Trump takes the United States out, Barnaby Joyce said
Well, to speculate on a whole range of things is dangerous, to speculate on what president Trump might do is insanity.
When pushed why he couldn’t say whether Australia should stay in, regardless of Trump, the deputy prime minister replied:
I’m just going to watch my Twitter and see what happens next.
Updated
Apropos Josh Frydenberg’s predictions on climate wars, Liberal MP Craig Kelly has told his Facebook followers he has the champagne on ice, waiting for Trump to pull out of the Paris agreement.
Updated
Michelle Grattan of the Conversation reports that Victorian Liberal MP Russell Broadbent has resigned from two parliamentary posts in protest against the way aged care places are allocated.
[Broadbent] is angry that an aged care provider from outside his electorate, Menarock Aged Care Services, was awarded approval for a new 60-bed facility. He claims that “a better process may have given the local community a more beneficial outcome”.
Separately, he believes health minister Greg Hunt and aged care minister Ken Wyatt misled him over bed allocation for another facility, at Bunyip. He says they gave him the impression it would be awarded locally, but then indicated the decision rested with public servants.
Broadbent said on Wednesday that the message being sent was that “little people don’t count” and “my resignations were to make the point that they do”. The 60-bed facility had been “awarded to wealthy city accountants” when the beds could have gone to a local provider, he said.
Malcolm Turnbull has announced his first trip as PM to Singapore from tomorrow to Sunday.
He will deliver the keynote address at the opening of the 16th Shangri-La Dialogue and will hold the second Australia-Singapore annual leaders’ talks with Singaporean Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong.
Social services minister Christian Porter is speaking at Ceda. You can hear the livestream here and Scott Morrison is coming up.
Education minister Simon Birmingham is answering school funding questions in estimates from Labor’s Jacinta Collins about Catholic school funding.
Indi independent Cathy McGowan has won government support for a decentralisation inquiry which would inquire into:
- best practice approaches to regional development
- decentralisation of commonwealth entities or functions, as a mechanism to increase growth and prosperity in regional areas
- actions of the commonwealth that would encourage greater corporate decentralisation and what can be learned from corporate decentralisation approaches.
This has just passed the house.
The point to this is to try to get a plan wrapped around the one-off decisions like Barnaby Joyce moving the pesticides regulator APVMA to his electorate of New England.
Separate to this, deputy Nationals leader Fiona Nash has already called for all ministers to report back to cabinet on which of their departments, entities or functions are suitable for relocation to a regional area by August.
Labor’s Stephen Jones spoke to the motion which I will have to catch up on later, as he was speaking at the same time as the Dutton.
Updated
The Abbott editorial went a step further, calling for special courts for terrorists.
There is another massive problem that was beyond the Coroner’s remit: What to do about returning jihadis?
The only safe jihadi is one who’s been lawfully killed, lawfully imprisoned, or thoroughly converted from Islamism.
The government has stripped dual national terrorists of their right to return. We need to find ways to keep all the others out of the country or in jail.
The government has made it an offence to travel to designated terrorist zones, without lawful cause. We need to ensure every returning jihadi can readily be charged and convicted, possibly through the creation of special courts that can hear evidence that may not normally be admissible.
In case you missed it, Tony has tweeted:
The only safe Jihadi is one who’s been lawfully killed, lawfully imprisoned, or thoroughly converted from Islamism: https://t.co/KwRPt2QMZO
— Tony Abbott (@TonyAbbottMHR) May 31, 2017
Peter Dutton: pick a fight with Duncan and you pick a fight with me
Tony Abbott has doubled down in his criticism of Islam without mentioning Asio boss Duncan Lewis while making everyone remember Duncan Lewis.
The root cause of this disorder is not mental illness, poverty, Islamophobia or Western foreign policy.
It’s in the Koran, which too many people take literally.
Immigration minister Peter Dutton speaks after the Hadley interview. He is more clearly backing Lewis away from the Hadley editorialising.
If people want to criticise this government in relation to the refugee program, criticise me. I’m the person in charge of this portfolio.
But I don’t get too much criticism in terms of people saying I need to harden up or take a tougher stance in relation to security checks. I conduct the program in away that I think is of benefit to our country.
I’ve cancelled a record number of visas of people who have done the wrong thing, committed offences or crimes against Australians.
Regularly I’m criticised by many of the left-wing media outlets for being too tough in relation to decisions around visas and I’m not going to change that approach.
Our problem is with people of any background, whether they are born here or when they come here, who are radicalised and go out and commit these offences.
Updated
Immigration minister Peter Dutton is asked by Ray Hadley about Duncan Lewis, DG of Asio.
I believe he is a good decent man who has the interests of the country at heart.
You don’t agree do you...what I know of you, says Hadley, hammering Dutton.
Dutton says the government excluded 30 people in the Syrian intake of 12,000 refugees due to security concerns. We have rigorous tests, Asio has foiled attacks and we should be grateful for the work that they do, says Dutton.
Just re Murph’s story on the Josh Frydenberg prediction over climate wars, consider how a US withdrawal will ramp up the pressure on those in the Coalition who want emissions policy to actually do something.
I will be announcing my decision on the Paris Accord over the next few days. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2017
Remember the Commission of Audit?
Bowers, what have you done...
Bill Shorten is speaking to the Ceda conference, followed by defence industry minister Christopher Pyne, social services minister Christian Porter and treasurer Scott Morrison.
Here is one Katharine Murphy prepared earlier.
Here is the top:
Bill Shorten says Labor made a “values decision” when it decided to retain the deficit levy and only apply an increase in the Medicare levy to workers earning more than $87,000.
The Labor leader will use a speech to an economic thinktank to defend a decision that divided his leadership group, saying the ALP “won’t ask millions of people on more modest incomes to pay more tax, and we won’t give millionaires a tax cut while making everyone else pay for it”.
Shorten will tell the Committee for Economic Development of Australia that, when Labor increased the Medicare levy by 2% in 2013 to fund the national disability insurance scheme, conditions were different.
“Wages growth was over 3%, we’d just tripled the tax-free threshold, giving low and middle-income Australians a sizeable tax cut, and our approach was paired with progressive revenue measures like reforms to private health insurance – bitterly opposed by the Liberal party,” Shorten will say.
Best to drink water when you are communications minister surrounded by media heavies.
There is a lot to look at in this photo.
Climate wars 10.23: Josh Frydenberg predicts big battles in Coalition over Finkel
Katharine Murphy has been following the climate wars within and without the Coalition and writes of a rather frank speech by the energy and environment minister Josh Frydenberg last night to the Committee on the Economic Development of Australia.
The energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, says the looming Finkel review will recommend a new policy signal driving investment in a “broad suite of generation capacity”, which, if implemented, will restore confidence in Australia’s electricity sector.
But he also foreshadowed a hard road ahead. Referencing the climate wars of the past decade, noting that energy policy had “destroyed two prime ministers and one opposition leader”, Frydenberg predicted “big battles” both within the Coalition – and potentially within Labor – and externally with stakeholders, as the government seeks to land a new policy.
Blessed are the deal makers
Good morning blogans,
More reports on One Nation this morning as the party appears to be under extreme pressure. Again, former party treasurer Ian Nelson – who has since fallen out with Pauline Hanson – has delivered some of the most disturbing insights into the party’s affairs.
Kylar Loussikian of the Daily Tele reports that Hanson received donations into her personal bank account and has refused to say what she spent the money on. He reports Hanson was advertising her personal bank account on the One Nation website alongside the official party account for three years. Her personal account was deleted two months ago.
Ahead of the July 2016 federal election, One Nation supporters donated more than $2,500 to Ms Hanson’s personal account. It is not known how much money — if any — she has received since that time.
Former One Nation treasurer Ian Nelson, previously a close confidant of Ms Hanson and her chief of staff James Ashby, said he had been unable to monitor Ms Hanson’s personal account but was aware of its existence.
“There was no way, in any way shape or form, that we could have monitored the activities of that account,” said Mr Nelson, who left One Nation last year.
Tracking donations and spending is the big thing in party disclosures.
Hanson’s chief of staff James Ashby told the Telegraph:
All money donated to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation has been recorded and reported in accordance with the AEC and (Electoral Commission Queensland) guidelines. Since the appointment of (party treasurer) Greg Smith in August of 2016, a number of former One Nation accounts have been shut down, with records provided to relevant electoral bodies.
Paul Karp is delving into this issue further so I shall have more to report later in the day.
Last night, media bosses were in town as a show of support for the government’s media packaaje [sic].
Blessed are the dealmakers for they shall inherit the earth.
Communications minister Mitch Fifield needs to get the proposed cross media ownership rules through the senate, which looks tricky at this stage. Labor, the Greens, One Nation and Nick Xenophon doesn’t support the bill in its entirety and Fifield is not going to split the bill.
Fifield was relaxed on ABC Brekkie.
It’s still a work-in-progress. We are having good discussions with the Senate crossbench. What we’ve seen during this term of parliament is that we can get good results with the current Senate, that they are open and that we can get some good things done.
He was asked if he told them to lobby the Labor and Greens to get this through?
I don’t need to tell the Australian media industry anything. This is a package that we have worked on with them. This is a package that they have helped craft. This is a package in which no media organisation gets everything they want but everyone gets part of what they want.
So stick with us. There is a storm of estimates including on the Gonski 2.0 schools funding package. Talk to us in the thread, on the Twits @gabriellechan and @mpbowers or on Facie-book.
Praise the gods for Mike Bowers’ sentiment.
senate car park will be full in an hour, Happy covfefe & welcome to the last sitting day @GuardianAus @gabriellechan pic.twitter.com/jrN3WspDqM
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) May 31, 2017
Updated
