On that note, we are going to call it a day.
The Clayton’s campaign will roll into it’s third day tomorrow, which is going to be non-stop fun for all of us.
The press club speech tomorrow will be delivered by Chris Bowen, giving the budget reply address. Estimates will also roll on. I can almost guarantee we are not going to get an answer to the “how much is the daily spend” question.
But then I had no idea where today was going to take us either. Did anyone have a Malcom Turnbull intervention this early in the piece?
No doubt electric cars and how they are coming for both your puppies and your freedom will be raised in some capacity.
Honestly, I can’t wait.
A big thank you to Mike Bowers and the Guardian brains trust. They bring me coffee and lols, as well as their considerable grey matter, which is more than anyone could hope for in this role.
And of course, as always, to you, for following along with us, on this weird non-campaign, campaign.
Just think – we’ve got at least another five weeks of this!
We’ll catch you tomorrow. So, until then, take care of you.
Updated
And on Melissa Price and the Adani approval, Scott Morrison says:
The environment minister has made a decision as I said that she based on the best environmental science advice. She has been waiting to receive that advice from geoscience Australia and CSIRO and they have made recommendations ... and she has made a decision consistent with the science advice provided by those agencies and her own department.
“I note that Mr Shorten is happy to say while he is up in central Queensland today that he is happy to abide also by the advice of the scientists. I wait to see whether he says at the same thing down in Victoria or elsewhere in the country.
“I am not surprised he is happy to say that in central Queensland but for the Liberals and Nationals we are happy to talk about it in the same way around the country.
“We are for primary industry, fisheries, agriculture, mining. We know the jobs they produce and we continued to stand by these industries.
“I welcome the fact that Mr Shorten has said that he will be supporting the decision of consent. Let’s see if he says that in Victoria.
“I know that the minister conducted herself in the manner you expect a minister to act.
“Before she made a decision she made sure she was completely satisfied and had all the information to make that decision which is exactly what she did.
“I note that she’s tough Western Australian ... I have another one behind me ... And they stay focused on what their job and accountabilities are and I want to thank minister Price for the very good job she has done in managing her responsibilities and exercising them as she has.”
Updated
Scott Morrison on political advertising:
On Easter Sunday and on Easter Friday and on Anzac Day, the Liberal and National parties will not be running any political advertisements if we are in an election campaign at that time.
“I understand the Labor party have said they will not do it on Good Friday and Anzac Day as well and I welcome that. I would ask them to extend that to Easter Sunday. That is sort of the whole point of the Christian Easter celebration so I would welcome that support and I would expect they would do that in good faith.”
Updated
Scott Morrison says he has spoken to Peter Dutton recently and all is hunky dory:
Yes, I have and I am very satisfied. We have meetings with people all the time. The suggestion here is that something inappropriate was done. There is no basis for that whatsoever.
“Absolutely none and, in fact, if you look at what has occurred in the government’s handling of this individual’s case, we cancelled his visa!
“I do not think that was a solution he was looking for, do you? He was seeking as I understand it to gain citizenship in Australia. Our government not only did not provide him with citizenship we cancelled his visa so he cannot return to Australia, and that was done by an agency under Mr Dutton’s responsibility, so I think the actions here speak far louder and the actions here are that we have acted against foreign interference in this country, not just by having the laws in place but by acting in those laws.
“Protecting Australia from foreign interference by contrast to the Labor party, through the former senator Sam Dastyari, took the same individual, put him in front of an Australian government logo and ran an ad for him. That is what I call foreign interference.”
Updated
'No issues here which trouble me at all' Morrison says on Dutton
Scott Morrison is asked about Malcolm Turnbull’s statement:
I have spoken to Peter Dutton and there are no issues here that troubled me. No suggestion that Peter in any way, shape or form has a sort or been provided with any benefit here.
“The individual we’re talking about here had his visa cancelled while he was out of the country by Peter Dutton’s department so if the object was foreign interference, well, the exact opposite has occurred.
“Peter Dutton has been in the vanguard of ensuring we have put foreign interference arrangements in place – in the budget we handed out last week over $36m have been invested in the agencies that Peter Dutton has responsibilities for to counter foreign interference and I think this is in stark contrast to the Labor party and senator Sam Dastyari, former senator, I should stress, who had to resign in shame because he had been intoxicated by that interference.
“If anyone has any questions to answer on this issue it is the Labor party.
“The Liberal and National parties have put these arrangements in place and so I have no concerns and ... I am happy to move on.”
Updated
Oxfam has declared the Adani approval to be “reckless”.
“The federal government approval – a major hurdle that brings the disastrous Adani coalmine a step closer to reality – is a reckless and shameful decision made just days before the election is to be called.
“The grossly irresponsible coalmine would be a disaster for vulnerable communities around the world. More coal will drive more people into poverty through the devastating impacts of climate change, as well as the direct impact of coal burning on local communities.
“We are urging Labor to commit to stopping this disaster should it win government.
“Whoever forms the next government, Australia needs to step up to stop climate damage. A commitment to no new coalmines – including stopping Adani – and a rapid transition to renewable energy must be part of any meaningful commitment to tackling climate change.
“It is not too late to stop the Adani project. Now more than ever we need to make this the climate election. The cost of digging and burning coal is being measured in more hunger, communities forced from their land and homes, and entrenched poverty.”
Updated
Scott Morrison is in Tasmania (he was in Gosford earlier today).
It’s all about the battery of the nation project.
Updated
It also looks like Scott Morrison was trying out a new campaign slogan:
I think there’s a great choice here. The choice is about having your choice at the end of the day.
“We want you to have the choices that you want for you and your family. People have decided, made the choice, to live here on the central coast. People have decided they actually want to buy a car that can tow a boat, or their tinnie, or a caravan or a trailer or whatever they want. We want them to have the choices, for people to have the choice to keep more of what they earn. I think money in the hands of an Australian is going to do a better job than money in the hands of the government. That’s why I think it’s better that they get to keep more of their earnings.
“The real choice between Labor and Liberal at this election is that we believe you should keep your choices. We’re not going to take your choices away from you.”
That’s 10 choices in less than a minute.
Updated
The PMO have released the transcript from this morning’s press conference.
Here’s everything Scott Morrison had to say about Peter Dutton at the time – which was moments before Malcolm Turnbull made his opinion known:
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the individual you’re referring to has actually been prevented from ever returning back to Australia. So I think when it comes to our government acting on foreign interference, we’ve got a pretty strong track record. I think that compares very significantly to that of the Labor party, where senator Sam Dastyari had to resign in disgrace, because he not only compromised himself in standing in front of an Australian government insignia – standing there with the very individual you’re referring to – that was a disgrace and he had to resign in disgrace.
So when it comes to countering foreign interference, my government, our government, has put in place the legislation to ensure that we counter that foreign interference. We put around $36m into our security agencies in the budget last week to ensure that they can be countering foreign interference and I think when it comes to these issues our government’s record is squeaky clean.
JOURNALIST: As a former immigration minister, how many citizenship ceremonies are held in the offices of MPs and senators each year?
PRIME MINISTER: It happens with members all around the country; all members can be swearing in citizens. When I was immigration minister, I had those powers and I did as a local member. So it all depends on each electorate and each individual member.
JOURNALIST: Why was Huang Xiangmo’s family [inaudible] approved to have their citizenships bestowed [inaudible] Sam Dastyari’s office [inaudible] Coalition government [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you make reference to Sam Dastyari. I mean Sam Dastyari, the Labor senator who had to resign in disgrace over his involvement in foreign interference. I mean it was an absolute disgrace. Labor’s record on foreign interference is there for everyone to see and it’s pin-up boy is Sam Dastyari.
JOURNALIST: [inaudible] when he made that approval, was aware of who they were or should have have known who they were?
PRIME MINISTER: All I know is Sam Dastyari had to resign in disgrace over foreign interference and behaving in a reckless and shameful way, betraying his own country.
Updated
Well this is timely:
Former Liberal minister and lobbyist, Santo Santoro, has just updated his listing on the foreign influence register to include a heap of Chinese companies... pic.twitter.com/0jCaO2ienS
— Primrose Riordan (@primroseriordan) April 9, 2019
Penny Wong has made a rare appearance in the rural and regional affairs estimates.
She just pointed out that it has been “many years” since she was part of this committee, so something must be about to go down.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has been investigating whether some media outlets breached broadcast rules in showing footage filmed by the alleged killer in the Christchurch mosque attacks last month.
The chair, Nerida O’Loughlin, told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra that broadcasters were cooperating and a significant amount of footage was under review.
She flagged findings would be made public in coming weeks. No non-compliance had been identified so far.
O’Loughlin said if there are gaps in regulation, ACMA would provide advice to government.
Updated
Mike Bowers has been out and about:
Updated
Lead us not into Derptation: some gems from the Coalition’s EV vault
While all the nonsense about electric vehicles keeps thundering through the Claytons election campaign, just a couple of fun facts from the Coalition’s EV vault.
Josh Frydenberg, when he was environment minister, advocated for the pollution standards Scott Morrison now wants to characterise as a “war on the weekend”. As recently as August 2017 Frydenberg said efficiency standards were about “reducing fuel costs and carbon emissions at the same time”.
“In Australia in 2016 the average amount of CO2 emitted per kilometre was 182 grams, while the EU is moving to 100 grams per kilometre by 2021, and in the US the target is 105 grams/km by 2025,” he said.
Frydenberg said if Australia had fuel efficiency standards in line with comparable nations, “estimates of the fuel saving per passenger vehicle could be above $500 per year, or nearly $28bn in total by 2040. Given the long distances travelled in regional Australia, the savings could be even greater for people living outside the main cities.”
Just in case you were wondering, the standard Labor has flagged in the 105 grams/km that Frydenberg referenced in 2017 (which was a live option the then Turnbull government looked at before retiring hurt, clubbed by motoring groups, the Institute of Petroleum, and the Nationals).
Another fun fact.
If you go to the website of the environment department and poke around for information about the emissions reduction fund, you will find the government’s story hasn’t quite caught up with itself.
In a document explaining the emissions reduction fun (rebadged the climate solutions fund by Scott Morrison recently) the government claims emissions reduction through “the emissions reduction fund and its safeguard mechanism; support for the uptake of renewable energy and energy efficiency; vehicle emission standards; and measures to reduce ozone depleting greenhouse gases”.
These would be the vehicle emissions standards Morrison says will lead to the confiscation of utes.
Really does pay to get your story straight. At least a little bit straight.
Updated
Adani has responded:
“We welcome the Minister for the Environment’s approval of the groundwater management plans for the Carmichael coalmine and rail infrastructure project.
“This approval follows more than 18 months of consultation with the department, and the independent evaluation and endorsement of the plan by CSIRO and Geoscience Australia.
“The independent evaluation and endorsement by CSIRO and Geoscience Australia verifies that the measures outlined in the plans will ensure groundwater at the mine, and the ecosystems that depend on it, are protected.
“The groundwater dependent ecosystems management plan and the groundwater management and monitoring plan detail all the activities we will undertake and safeguards we will implement to ensure that we meet the approval conditions for the mine relating to groundwater. This includes a network of more than 100 monitoring bores to track underground water levels.
“The plans will ensure we achieve sustainable environmental outcomes and we’re now looking forward to delivering the thousands of jobs our project will create for people in north and central Queensland.
“Throughout the past 18 months, the federal department provided us with certainty of process and timing, including the steps involved in the independent review by CSIRO and Geoscience Australia experts.
“In contrast, the Queensland government has continued to shift the goalposts when it comes to finalising the outstanding environmental management plans for the mine and is standing in the way of thousands of jobs for Queenslanders.
“It’s time the Queensland government gave us a fair go and stopped shifting the goalposts so we can get on with delivering these jobs.”
Updated
Bil Shorten is now headed to Rockhampton.
Ian Macdonald name gaff to hit WeChat
Remember when Barry O’Sullivan made this comment in estimates:
“Here’s my question: there’s a bigger chance of us having a biosecurity breach by us having a bloody old Chinaman who brings in his favourite sausage down the front of his undies.”
And then Scott Morrison was forced to go on to the Chinese social network WeChat to apologise in Mandarin?
“The remarks made by Senator Barry O’Sullivan do not represent my views. Nor do they represent the views of the Liberal and National parties’ Coalition government.
“For more than 200 years, Chinese immigrants have worked hard to contribute new ideas, helped shape Australia’s identity, and made outstanding contributions to the prosperity of Australian society.”
Well WeChat users are about to receive Ian Macdonald’s exchange over Penny Wong’s name in Mandarin, thanks to Labor, who is working on making sure they see it.
What is said in estimates, does not stay in estimates.
Updated
New economic data shows 110,000 first home buyers in the past year. Over 275,000 since the last election. First home buyers as a share of the market up 5 percentage points since the last election.#BuildingOurEconomy
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) April 9, 2019
Dig up Ian Macdonald. You’re meant to dig up.
Kimberley Kitching: You asked about Senator Wong and Huang Xiangmo. You said, “Huang. Is he any relation to Senator Wong?” Now these names are obviously dissimilar, but if you were attempting to smear Senator Wong with an association of relations ...
Louise Pratt: Just because they are Chinese,
KK: ... with Mr Huang, then I think you should apologise to Senator Wong.
Ian Macdonald: I am not the leader of the Labor party in New South Wales where I make disparaging remarks against the Chinese community. I didn’t see this program last night ...
KK: It’s not about that.
IM: Quite frankly I’ve never heard of ...
LP: Just happens to be Chinese ...
IM: Hang on, hang on. People are throwing the name around and it sounded to me, sounded to me, as if you were saying Wong and as a throwaway line I said ...
LP: It was very inappropriate.
IM: You are very sensitive about it.
KK: It was a desperate attempt to distract from the line of questioning.
IM: Well senator, the only attempt to distract was about a senator who was mentioned in a royal commission for criminal activity.
KK: You are smearing Senator Wong ...
IM: That is hardly a smear ... and if Senator Wong has taken offence to that throwaway comment in the context of Labor senators continuously during these hearings smearing anybody and everybody, including the secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, if Senator Wong takes offence at that, without in any way bringing her senators to account, the smears that you have been doing all along, then I will apologise to Senator Wong. But I think if she does take offence to that she has a very thin ... er, skin.
LP: Senator Wong has not raised this issue.
IM: If Senator Wong has taken offence then I apologise to her, but if she does take offence she has a very thin skin.
Updated
NBN Co’s chief, Stephen Rue, has told Senate estimates the company has stopped some taxpayer-funded advertising over the weekend, ahead of the government going into caretaker mode.
“If we perceive that it could be thought of in any shape or form as political, we cease that advertising,” Rue said.
He said some business as usual advertising would continue, including public information about disconnections or NBN Co workers operating in particular suburbs on particular days.
Updated
Over in finance estimates, things are going as you would expect:
Liberal Senator Zed Seselja says the government won't be giving "a rolling update" on the cost of advertising #estimates
— Tom McIlroy (@TomMcIlroy) April 9, 2019
Labor's Penny Wong accuses the government of spending $136 million "to buy yourself an election". She wants Zed Seselja to provide a figure if he disagrees with the amount #estimates
— Tom McIlroy (@TomMcIlroy) April 9, 2019
Updated
In Estimates, the new Liberal Democrat senator Duncan Spender was concerned the Abhorrent Violent Material Act may ban S&M videos.
Attorney-general department officials didn’t know any better, but adult industry adviser and criminal law lecturer Jarryd Bartle has good reason to think the new law DOES NOT have this effect.
He told Guardian Australia:
“The explanatory memorandum of the bill states that the definition of ‘abhorrent violent material’ does not encompass ‘sexual acts that involve elements of violence’ so I’m not overly concerned about those unintended effects.”
“It should be noted that existing classification laws already prohibit depictions of consensual sadomasochistic activity and I’d encourage Senator Spender to look more closely at those laws”
Other videos that are OK include “violent sporting events (for example, boxing), medical procedures, or consensual sexual acts that involve elements of violence”.
MMA and S&M fans, breath a sigh of relief.
It looks like the ACF will be looking at whether there is another legal challenge in this latest approval. From its statement:
“Australians are right to be deeply sceptical about the process that led to this decision.
“Coal-loving Coalition MPs appear to have strongarmed the Environment Minister into granting Adani access to Queensland’s precious groundwater on the eve of the election.
“There remain serious questions about how this contentious proposal to take at least 270 billion litres of precious groundwater was approved at the last minute.
“CSIRO has raised significant concerns about the limitations of Adani’s plans, including that it may have lowballed the amount of groundwater drawdown that will occur and the continued uncertainty about the source aquifer of the Doongmabulla Springs.
“The only way to truly protect Queensland’s precious groundwater for our environment and farming communities is to stop the Adani coal mine from going ahead.
“If the minister was pressured to rush through this approval before the election, that may open such a decision to legal challenge.
“It is wrong to think Adani now has the green light start digging up coal in the Galilee Basin.
“A number of approvals remain outstanding and the Queensland government is yet to sign-off on Adani’s Black-Throated Finch Management Plan and Groundwater Dependent Ecosystem Management Plan.
“And, importantly, Adani does not have federal approval for the proposed above-ground water infrastructure it requires to support its proposed thirsty coal mine.”
Adani hopes to take up to 12.5 billion litres of water – 5000 Olympic-sized swimming pools – from the Suttor River in central Queensland, a river that floods and dries up at different times and on which farmers and wetlands rely.
In an ongoing Federal Court case ACF is challenging the Federal Environment Minister’s failure to apply the water trigger to Adani’s proposed water pipeline project.
Bill Shorten has a view on the latest Adani approval:
... Trying to pressure people now creates a cloud over a process that didn’t need to be there but for the government’s division in their own ranks.
“There could be another explanation of course. It is explosive and very surprising revelations on Four Corners last night about the conduct of the minister in charge, one of the ministers in charge of national security where it is cash for access and meeting people connected to the Chinese government.
“This is – this is very unhealthy. Maybe the government’s decided to rush the decision out on Adani so they don’t have to talk about a bigger problem that they have created on their own.
“For us it has also been the same – doesn’t matter where we’ve been in Australia or it doesn’t matter what month or year it is: it has to stack up.
“I do say and make it very clear, and I think people agree with this, that taxpayer money should not be used to fund this project. Now the Queensland government has to go through its processes.”
Updated
GetUp was first off the block with a response to the groundwater approval:
This approval has already been slammed by water experts. It poses a clear and direct danger to aquifers of the Great Artesian Basin.
“We’re talking about a company who has shown a complete inability to follow the law, and Scott Morrison has rushed through a dangerous approval maybe just hours before his government goes into caretaker mode.
“Make no mistake, they will feel the backlash. This will cost them seats. The Coalition can expect to lose a swathe of seats around Australia for their capitulation to a single coal company at the expense of the community.
“A storm of local groups are already hard at work in Kooyong and Flinders, and now GetUp is going to make an extra 100,000 calls into Flinders and 80,000 calls into Kooyong. This could cost Josh Frydenberg and Greg Hunt their jobs.
“Adani has already been prosecuted for breaking the law over water violations, and are being investigated over two more criminal acts.
“Every single part of Adani’s approval is rotten, and none of it is worse than their complete disregard for water. The only responsible thing to do is review the whole thing from the top.
“Scott Morrison caving to Adani and jeopardising our water is a huge electoral misstep. People want to protect water. People don’t want a destructive coalmine. And they especially don’t want to see Morrison handing out special treatment to coal companies at five-minutes-to-midnight.
“The process has been so shonky and come under such heavy duress from within the Coalition that the legality of the decision has already been questioned.
“This last-minute capitulation might have been rushed, but the damage it might do will last forever. Once these springs are gone, there’s no getting them back.”
Updated
Bill Shorten is in Gladstone announcing Labor’s $500m pledge to cut cancer surgery waiting lists, as well as a new radiation centre in the central Queensland region.
Updated
That whole exchange Paul Karp pointed to earlier between Ian Macdonald and Louise Pratt:
Macdonald: Well, you’re not going to answer questions about Mr Wong. If you can answer that in a generic way … Is it Wong, is it? Any relation to Senator Wong?
Pratt: No, Huang, H-U-A-N-G.
Here's video of Ian MacDonald asking if Huang Xiangmo is related to Penny Wong #auspol #estimates pic.twitter.com/ZrjSmOcVzf
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) April 9, 2019
Updated
Just in case you missed it, Adam Morton has written this great explainer on why our politicians are suddenly obsessed with electric vehicles:
What else is Labor promising?
Arguably just as significant is that the ALP says half the cars in government fleets should be EVs by 2025. The 2030 target is mostly intended to send a signal to carmakers and the public, but analysts say the fleet policy would quickly drive change, including ensuring some long-promised recharging infrastructure would be built and creating a second-hand EV market.
Labor wants to introduce vehicle emissions standards requiring light cars to on average emit 105 grams of CO2 per kilometre, based on a US example and less than most cars on Australian roads. It would allow businesses to claim a 20% deduction on EVs that cost more than $20,000, kick in $100m for charging infrastructure and require federally funded roads and developments to include EV tech.
What about the government?
Although it has been highly critical of Labor’s stance, the Coalition promised its own national electric vehicle strategy as part of its “climate solutions” package in February. Few details have been released but the policy document says it would deliver cleaner air, better health, smarter cities and lower transport costs and emissions for all Australians.
It considered introducing the same vehicle emissions standard proposed by Labor, receiving advice it would result in a net economic benefit, but balked.
The government and its media supporters have been scathing of Labor’s approach. Scott Morrison accused Bill Shorten of wanting to “end the weekend” by forcing people out of four-wheel drives, denying people a choice on what they drive and ending the Australian love affair with cars “with a bit of grunt”.
Sounds like everyone’s on roughly the same page?
Not exactly. Other claims: critics say EVs are expensive; that a rapid expansion would just mean more greenhouse gas emissions given Australia’s reliance on coal to generate electricity; supporting EVs would deny the government billions in fuel excise; Shorten had incorrectly claimed that an EV could be charged in 10 minutes when they in reality take much longer.
Updated
The new Liberal Democrat senator Duncan Spender has just established that the Australian parliament may have inadvertently criminalised failure to take down videos depicting sado-masochism.
In estimates, Spender asked about the new Sharing Abhorrent Violent Material Act, which creates an obligation on websites to expeditiously take down certain material, including videos which depict “torture”.
The Attorney general deputy secretary, Sarah Chidgey, replied that the effect of the bill was not to ban websites but to require companies to take material down and “Yes, if it fits the definition of torture in that bill”, sado-masochism may be captured.
Spender noted the definition of torture DOES NOT specify that the act must be non-consensual.
Torture is defined as an incident where:”The first person inflicts severe physical or mental pain or suffering upon the other person; and the other person is in the custody, or under the control, of the first person; and the pain or suffering does not arise only from, and is not inherent in or incidental to, lawful sanctions.”
Chidgey: “if it meets definition of torture they will need to remove it if they become aware of it.”
Updated
The energy minister, Angus Taylor, talking to Sky News about the Adani approval – and whether James McGrath’s intervention had anything to do with it:
“Look, these processes can’t be political and they are not. They are ultimately about good policy. You’ve got to do the scientific work. All sides of this debate at times want to make it political, but it can’t be. It is scientific. GeoScience Australia and the CSIRO have both endorsed these groundwater management approvals; they’ve gone through a very rigorous process. For them to endorse them, with very strict conditions which have been accepted by the company, is good news for the project and of course it is great news for the people of central and northern Queensland.”
Updated
You may have noticed in that statement that there are a further nine environmental plans still to be finalised or approved by the state and federal governments. So this does not mean Adani gets to break ground.
Updated
Melissa Price gives Adani groundwater approval
From the environment minister’s statement:
CSIRO and Geoscience Australia have independently assessed the groundwater management plans for the Carmichael Coal Mine and Rail Infrastructure project.
Both CSIRO and Geoscience Australia have confirmed the revised plans meet strict scientific requirements.
Following this independent assessment and the Department of Environment and Energy’s recommendation for approval, I have accepted the scientific advice and therefore approved the groundwater management plans for the Carmichael Coal Mine and Rail Infrastructure project under Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
This decision does not comprise the final approval for this project.
The Project now requires further approvals from the Queensland Government prior to construction commencing. To date, only 16 of 25 environmental plans have been finalised or approved by the Commonwealth and Queensland Governments with a further 9 to be finalised.
It must meet further stringent conditions of approval from the Commonwealth before it can begin producing coal.
This project has been subject to the most rigorous approval process of any mining project in Australia.
Approvals for the project by the Commonwealth in 2015 and the Queensland State Government in 2016 resulted in the setting of 180 strict conditions to protect the environment.
The Project’s water management plans have been thoroughly assessed by the Department of the Environment and Energy, which commissioned independent technical advice from Geoscience Australia and the CSIRO.
That advice identified areas of groundwater modelling, monitoring and management that required further work.
That advice recommended a number of actions, which the Company has accepted in full, including:
•A substantial increase of early warning monitoring between the mine and the Doongmabulla Springs using additional deeper bores and an additional bore site to monitor flows
•Tightened corrective action triggers requiring an immediate response to any unexpected groundwater impact
•Commitments to re-run the model addressing all Geoscience Australia and CSIRO concerns within two years of the commencement of coal extraction (noting there are no predicted impacts to nationally protected matters within 15 years).
Geoscience Australia and the CSIRO have provided written assurances that these steps address their recommendations.
The advice from Geoscience Australia and CSIRO has been provided to the Queensland Government.
This process reflects our commitment to ensuring robust environmental protection while balancing the needs of Australia’s economy.
This is a commercial project. The Australian Government is not providing any financial support to the mine or to its rail project.
The advice from Geoscience Australia and CSIRO is available here:http://www.environment.gov.au/protection/assessments/key-assessments
Just a reminder on the time line on the Adani groundwater approval (from Friday)
The department delivered its brief and recommendation to minister Melissa Price on Monday April 1, one day before the budget.
Officials also confirmed it had received advice on the project from CSIRO and Geoscience, but those agencies had not seen the updated Adani plan.
BREAKING: Environment Minister Melissa Price has just announced she has given groundwater approvals for the Adani Carmichael mine, based on Geoscience Australia & CSIRO advice. But she says these do not constitute final approvals for the project. Qld Govt must sign off. #auspol
— Karen Middleton (@KarenMMiddleton) April 9, 2019
Updated
For those wondering, Malcolm Turnbull was stopped and asked about Peter Dutton (the man he created the Home Affairs portfolio for, in a bid to keep him onside. It ended really well) outside Natasha Stott Despoja’s book launch.
Updated
Just a normal day in estimates.
Senator Ian MacDonald just asked in #estimates if Huang Xiangmo (Mr Huang) was "any relation" to Penny WONG. Reply: no, Huang. MacDonald: Oh! Huang! #auspol
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) April 9, 2019
Updated
'Scott Morrison has to deal with this Peter Dutton issue': Malcolm Turnbull
Malcolm Turnbull is not mincing his words:
Look, Peter Dutton has got a lot to explain about this. He is supposed to be the minister responsible for the domestic security of Australia, he is supposed to be the minister responsible for ensuring our politics is not influenced by foreign actors.
The laws that I introduced at the end of 2017 about foreign influence and foreign interference are very important laws and responded to a rising concern in the community.
Now, the idea that the minister responsible for enforcing those laws has had a meeting of this kind does raise a lot of questions but Peter Dutton is the only one that can answer it and Mr Santo Santoro should equally be answering questions about his role.
I think it is very, very concerning and very troubling for anyone, and I would say that is every Australian who is concerned about ensuring that our politics is not influenced by foreign actors and that our politics and political decisions and access is not available to be hawked around in the way that it is alleged it was.
...The first thing I learned about it was in the media. The decision was, if such a fast tracking of Mr Huang’s family’s citizenship application was in fact made it was made by Mr Dutton. It wasn’t a decision that I had any part in.
...Scott Morrison is the Prime Minister and you can’t wave this off and say it is all part of gossip and the bubble.
This is the national security of Australia. Remember the furore that arose against Sam Dastyari?
All the same issues have arisen again and this has to be addressed at the highest level of security, priority, urgency by the Prime Minister.
The buck stops with him. I know what it is like to be Prime Minister and, ultimately, you are responsible.
So Scott Morrison has to deal with this Peter Dutton issue.”
Updated
We heard from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) in estimates a little earlier this morning.
The office, which acts as the privacy and freedom of information watchdog, was given a $25m boost in last week’s budget. But estimates heard none of that money will go to helping the OAIC deal with a huge backlog of FOI cases.
The OAIC was gutted of funding and staff under the Abbott government, forcing the previous information commissioner to work from his home, for a time. Funding levels have been gradually restored, but critics say the money has mainly been directed to the OAIC’s privacy arm, rather than FOI.
The OAIC plays a critical role in ensuring government is transparent and open, and its lack of resourcing means those who challenge FOI decisions will continue to face extensive delays.
Estimates heard that the oldest FOI review before the OAIC had taken 11.9 months before even being assigned to a case officer.
Elizabeth Hampton, deputy commissioner, said the OAIC’s FOI team were working hard to address the backlog, and had a “deep belief in the objectives of the FOI act”.”With the resources that we have and the initiative they’re showing, we’re absolutely doing our best to get through the backlog,” Hampton said.
“However the volume is such that - and the increasing volume over some years - is such that we aren’t able to make the inroads that we would all like to be making.”
The communications department is spending $135,897.80 on government advertising this week promoting e-safety.
On why he had the lunch with Huang Xiangmo:
He was a significant leader within the Chinese community. I was the immigration minister. There is nothing unusual in that at all. That’s the facts. Again, strip it back to the facts and tell me what the allegation is.”
Updated
Peter Dutton in answer to a question that, along with the au pair story, this story gives the impression “that your office is up for sale”:
If you want to say that publicly I would be happy to take you on. I’m not going to stand for those sort of claims.
As I see reported too I was referred to as the most honest politician that that lobbyist had ever met.
I wear that as a badge of honour. I work very hard on matters that are brought to me by members of parliament.
That’s the job of the Immigration Minister, as I was at the time, and so let’s be realistic about it.
I have never received a donation from him. If you have a specific allegation to put then you should put it but make it publicly and then we’ll deal with the consequences.
(Question: [What about] Santo Santoro being heard on recording touting you as a best friend and claiming he can get access to your office for migration matters?)
“Lobbyists, whoever they are, Graham Richardson, Santo Santoro, Dastyari, whoever they are, that is their business, their business is to represent their clients and as for me, I don’t receive any money.
I don’t - I have never received a dollar of donation from this individual. Even if I did I promise you it would never influence the outcome of a decision that I had to make.
You can accuse me of a lot of things, and people often do on social media, as being too hard and don’t smile enough and all the rest of it but I will tell you this, nobody has ever accused me of acting improperly or receiving payments or anything of that description. I won’t tolerate any inference.
If you have lobbyists who are saying that they represent their clients, that is their business model, but what influence they have over me is nil, I can assure you of that.
The evidence obviously is in this case. This individual is seeking, I think, to become an Australian citizen.
He is now, as a result of the decision taken by one of the agencies in my portfolio offshore stranded, can’t come back to Australia, not on his visa and certainly not to become an Australian citizen. So what is the suggestion here?”
Updated
Peter Dutton (who literally just brought up that he is criticised for not smiling enough on social media)
Sam Dastyari can answer the question himself as to why he wanted to hold a citizenship ceremony but it is not uncommon for members of parliament, senators, members to approach the immigration minister of the day to ask for a ceremony in their office.
As I’m advised, the advice my office received was that the people were intending to go overseas. I had never met the people, I don’t know them, but you take at face value what somebody like Sam Dastyari, as a member of parliament, was vouching for and they ask for the ceremony and it would be very unusual for a minister of the day to knock that back.
So if Mr Dastyari has not been above board or misrepresented the reason for the citizenship ceremony then I think that is something that he, and frankly, Mr Shorten need to explain.
But as I say, not for MPs or senators to make representations about wanting to have a citizenship ceremony in their office. There is nothing unusual about this at all. If Mr Dastyari lied for the reasons that he wanted to hold that citizenship ceremony I am not aware of them.
At the time certainly not. His conduct since then has been the reason that he’s been expelled from the parliament and he’s got questions to answer, he can answer them. That is nothing out of the ordinary that a member of parliament would request such an event.”
Updated
Peter Dutton, speaking in Rockhampton, calls the allegations against him “nonsense”.
There is a lot of beat-up here, the usual beat-up by the ABC and Fairfax but strip down here what happened. I met with an individual from the Chinese community and he was interested obviously in politics and other issues of the day. Didn’t make representations to me in relation to matters.
As it turns out, this individual is now offshore because an agency within my department took a decision to take certain action in relation to his visa so that person wouldn’t be able to return to Australia.
So the suggestion that somehow I’ve provided anything to this individual is just a nonsense.
There are lobbyists who are registered on both sides of parliament, people that operate as lobbyists.
Their transactions and how they conduct their business is an issue for them. I have never received a dollar from this individual. I had that one meeting with him over lunch. I have never seen him since.
As I say, what has he got from me? He is now offshore and prevented from coming back into Australia. So somehow, you know, the beat-up of what I’ve seen of last night just doesn’t stack up.”
Updated
Mark Dreyfus says questions remain over what we don’t know:
“We don’t know whether Mr Dutton pushed this along.
“We don’t know whether he fast tracked processing of Mr Huang’s application, only to have at the last minute Asio put their foot down and say this citizenship can’t happen.”
Mark Dreyfus:
“How many times has Mr [Peter] Dutton or his office had representations from Mr [Santo] Santoro?
“How many times has Mr Santoro been paid cash to arrange meetings with Mr Dutton?
“And was Mr Dutton aware of Mr Santoro taking cash payments in return for arranging meetings with him?
“As I say, we need to see the documents, we need to see the documents because all that we know is that Asio finally, put its foot down and said no to Mr Huang’s citizenship application. What we don’t know is whether Mr Dutton was pushing the application, whether he was on the point of approving the application for Mr Huang’s citizenship and it was only because at the last minute Asio said no, this man is not suitable for Australian citizenship that the citizenship didn’t actually happen.”
Mark Dreyfus is holding a press conference in Melbourne to talk about the Peter Dutton/Huang Xiangmo lunch.
He also just called on Scott Morrison to “stop being a wimp” and call the election.
Ahhh, the discourse
Malcolm Turnbull: "There is a lot of government advertising on at the moment and most of it is not particularly compelling". @politicsabc [tweaking earlier tweet]
— Henry Belot (@Henry_Belot) April 9, 2019
Further to Katharine Murphy’s story from earlier today:
Bullying of Environment Minister could land Adani decision in court: After I heard some Govt MPs were threatening the Minister to approve Adani I sought urgent advice from the Parliamentary Library on whether the bullying could give rise to a legal challenge. The answer is YES pic.twitter.com/qNwdQHQ86Z
— Sarah Hanson-Young💚 (@sarahinthesen8) April 9, 2019
If you want to know more about the water rally today, I highly recommend this piece by Gabrielle Chan:
Water politics is about to go into hyperdrive in rural Australia and you need to know why.
On Tuesday morning, southern farmers, irrigators and fellow residents will drive tractors and trucks into the centre of Albury-Wodonga to protest about water.
Also imminent is the report into fish kills by a government-appointed expert panel, headed by Robert Vertessy, whose interim work suggested that without more inflows more fish kills could be expected.
With an eye to the rising anger, the government has announced a Murray-Darling Basin-wide study to assess social and economic conditions in river communities, reporting in December.
While you will hear some government members say we just need rain, the Albury protest is about so much more than that.
It is not farmer versus the environment, though some farmers clearly rail about the environmental take.
Farmers largely accept there needs to be environmental water. The rub is that once that water is taken out, southern irrigators believe it is not allocated fairly according to the government’s own rules.
That is, they argue big operators in northern New South Wales, Queensland and in South Australia get priority over the average farmer because of the political imperatives of marginal seats and big corporate lobbyists.
And that is before you even come to the price of water, which has skyrocketed in a free market in drought, leaving them to compete with Bourke and Pitt street investors as well as foreign countries.
It is a primal scream by those who believe they are not getting treated fairly under the Murray-Darling Basin plan and who are angry about actions of huge irrigators, some of whom have been accused of water theft and fraud.”
For those who missed it, the Four Corners transcript is here
Did anyone have masked ‘truth crusader’ character in the what will election 2019 bring?
No?
In the ‘this is an actual thing which is happening as part of the 2019 election campaign and not a Betoota Advocate spoof’ file, The Australian brings us this:
Conservative lobby Advance Australia will today unveil a “truth crusader”, a mock superhero called Captain GetUp, whose mission is to travel to marginal seats and “tell the truth about GetUp’s agenda”.
Captain GetUp, dressed in orange tights, will be launched in Manly today and help Tony Abbott in his fight to retain the seat of Warringah. The figure will also make appearances in other electorates targeted by GetUp including Wentworth in Sydney, Josh Frydenberg’s Melbourne seat of Kooyong, and attorney-general Christian Porter’s West Australian seat of Pearce.
Captain GetUp, who has a cape featuring the Greens’ and Labor’s logos, will hand out anti-GetUp leaflets and read out a script when he speaks to voters.”
It's a bird! It's a plane! No! It's the saddest idea I've heard of this year in a highly competitive field! https://t.co/LKtkhyo5dm
— Michael Roddan (@MichaelRoddan) April 8, 2019
Updated
Kimberley Kitching is once again trying to get to Peter Dutton and his dealings with a Chinese donor (who is now banned from re-entering the country) in legal and con estimates. Ian Macdonald suspends the committee meeting.
Scott Morrison slaps down James McGrath over Adani threat
Well that was pretty clear.
Asked about the Adani approvals, Scott Morrison says:
The government will make all decisions based on the expert scientific advice of organisations, not just including the Department of Environment, but Geoscience Australia and the CSIRO.
So we will always make - as we have all along the way of this process - there have been many decisions made in relation to this and other projects, but in relation to this project we’ve always been following the advice of the scientists and we will continue to do that.”
As for James McGrath’s intervention, Morrison comes back with:
When it comes to recommendations, it will be based on ministers listening to scientists, not on senators listening to themselves.”
Updated
On the Four Corner episode last night and the revelation Peter Dutton had a lunch with Huang Xiangmo Scott Morrison says there is nothing to see here, and also, Labor:
Well, the individual you’re referring to has actually been prevented from ever returning back to Australia.
So I think when it comes to our government’s acting on foreign interference, we’ve got a pretty strong track record and I think that compares very significantly to that of the Labor Party, where Senator Sam Dastyari had to resign in disgrace because he not only compromised himself in standing in front of an Australian government insignia, standing there with the very individual you’re referring to, that was a disgrace.
And he had to resign in disgrace. So when it comes to countering foreign interference, my government, our government, has put in place the legislation to ensure that we counter that foreign interference.
“We put around $36m into our security agencies in the budget last week to ensure that they can be countering foreign interference and I think when it comes to these issues, our government’s record is squeaky clean.”
And as for Huang’s family receiving a private citizenship ceremony, which was approved by Dutton?
Oh, it happens with members all around the country.
All members can be swearing in citizens. When I was immigration minister, I had those powers and I did as a local member. So it all depends on each electorate and each individual member.
“... You make reference to Sam Dastyari, the Labor senator who had to resign in disgrace over his involvement in foreign interference. I mean it was an absolute disgrace. Labor’s record on foreign interference is there for everyone to see and it’s pin-up boy Sam Dastyari.”
But did Dutton know who he was approving?
“All I know is Sam Dastyari had to resign in disgrace over foreign interference and behaving in a reckless and shameful way, betraying his own country.”
Updated
Scott Morrison is at a car service centre in Gosford, talking about how Labor is coming for your cars.
We’re all about getting public charging infrastructure in place, we’re investing in new technology to see it realised, but it will be demand-led, about Australians making choices about the transitions they want to undertake.
We won’t go down this mandatory route where we’ve got these mandatory vehicle emission standards of 105 grams per kilometre, where 17 out of the 20 cars being sold today would not meet that standard. And it’s not just the Hilux and it’s not just the ranger, but it’s the Mazda3 and the i30 from Hyundai - these are vehicles that will not measure up to Bill Shorten’s emissions standards and they’re the vehicles that will be ultimately outlawed under a plan that Bill Shorten is putting on the Australian people.
But when it comes also to their policy on fuels, that will also push up the price of petrol and I don’t think it’s fair, frankly, that if you’re living here on the Central Coast, if you’re living in regional areas, that you should have to pay for the choices that those are making in the inner cities.
You should be able to have your choices about the sort of vehicle you want to drive, that you want to get round in on the weekend. You want to put the under-sixes soccer team in the back of your SUV, which is done by mums and dads all over the Central Coast and around the country on a regular basis – these are the choices that Bill Shorten wants to take away with the sort of policies he’s talking about and he can’t explain the details of them.
Updated
Ian Macdonald is doing his best to shut down any questions in Senate estimates about the Four Corners episode overnight.
Things appear to be going well in the Melbourne seat of Macnamara (which used to be called Melbourne Ports)
In answer to a question from the floor on what zionism meant to them, the Liberal candidate Kate Ashmor answered:
“It means being proud to be Jewish. Being proud to be Jewish. I have a mezuzah on the door of my campaign office, because I am proud to be Jewish. He doesn’t. Because I am proud to be Jewish.”
Labor candidate Josh Burns:
“I’m sorry you just said I am not proud to be Jewish because I don’t have a mezuzah on my campaign office?
“... Yeah, I am a proud Jew and I am a proud Australian.”
Updated
On the most pointless battle since Alien versus Predator, James McGrath was on Sky News last night, after the Courier Mail reported he had threatened to call on Melissa Price to resign if she didn’t approve the Adani groundwater plan:
“I won’t talk about the minister and the process, she’s going through that at the moment.
“But I am a senator for Queensland, I am not a Canberra senator. Yes, I want it to go ahead because it’s about jobs. People get caught up in this coal argument, it is about jobs and infrastructure for central and north Queensland.”
But the Queensland MPs I have spoken to (including those in regional areas) are just a bit agog over all of this. As one said to me
“Adani isn’t our problem up here, because no one doubts that we support it. It was Labor’s problem. And now we are forcing MPs and ministers to say they support it, and making it an issue, when we know the problems it causes down south.”
Which is kind of the point. Both the Coalition and Labor have said the same thing about Adani in Queensland (they support the jobs, but it has to stand on its own two feet), and then gone very quiet on it when south of the border.
Labor has managed this dance better than the Coalition. And now, two seconds out from the election, LNP MPs have inflicted an own-goal, where blue on blue attacks are dominating the headlines and every Coalition MP and minister is being asked their view.
S-M-A-R-T
On the election date:
This morning I screen captured and tweeted the text below from the AEC website. It was a statement on the last date for the coming Federal election. The reference has disappeared from the website at some stage today. pic.twitter.com/DXtWBjFTBq
— Antony Green (@AntonyGreenABC) April 8, 2019
Although, it could still be May 25 (would just require the AEC being given extra resources to get the count done in time for the Senate deadline)
Bill Shorten is in Gladstone today.
Scott Morrison is in Gosford.
Senate estimates starts in about five minutes time.
The legal and constitutional affairs hearings should be interesting, given last night’s Four Corners’ episode.
Updated
As for questions on the abatement measures the government is putting in place being very similar to a 50% electric vehicle target by 2030, Alan Tudge said that’s not his portfolio, and those questions are better placed to the environment or energy ministers.
“This is not my portfolio,” he says.
“I am concerned though about implications about Labor’s policy, forcing people, forcing the retailers, forcing the manufacturers to have to sell 50% of their cars to be electric when the market is not there to purchase them and that means higher prices for everyday consumers.”
Alan Tudge is on Sky News attempting to press the government’s latest culture war – electric vehicles.
This is despite Labor’s target of 50% of all new car sales by 2030 being electric vehicles being very, very similar to the government’s target, confirmed in Senate estimates last week, of 25% to 50%.
“Not only is it unaffordable for some people, but also I just don’t think it has been thought through, in terms of having the networks around the country for people being able to charge it, to people being able to efficiently, if they run out of battery power, to be able to efficiently and quickly to get more battery power in.
“The technology will come eventually, but it is not going to come overnight.”
So now we are arguing over electric vehicles, because, well, I guess we are running out of dog whistles. You get the idea that some of these people would have argued against DVDs and taking lead out of petrol if they saw a political advantage in it.
Scott Morrison has been running the line that Bill Shorten has declared “war on your weekend”, because apparently we all still load up the big beefy, grunty V8 and hit the wide open spaces.
Updated
Good morning
Welcome to day two of estimates and the unofficial offical election campaign, or the Clayton’s campaign you have when you aren’t having a campaign.
Yesterday, spy boss Duncan Lewis appeared in estimates, where he warned against the “unprecedented level” of the foreign interference threat.
“I have made very plain to this committee on previous occasions that the threat from foreign interference and foreign espionage in Australia was running at, what I described then and I describe again, as an unprecedented level,” Lewis said.
“... We have a challenge here with foreign interference in Australia.
“It comes, as I have said on a number of occasions, from a wide range of sources. I have not been country-specific and I will not be country-specific.”
Lewis’s comments came ahead of a Four Corners and The Age investigation into Chinese links to Australian politics, including a lunch Peter Dutton had with billionaire property developer, and political donor Huang Xiangmo, set up by former Howard minister, Santo Santoro in 2016.
As the Age’s Nick McKenzie reports:
Chinese Communist Party-aligned billionaire Huang Xiangmo paid tens of thousands of dollars to a former Liberal minister to secure a one-on-one meeting with Peter Dutton as Mr Huang mounted a back-room campaign to win Australian citizenship.
The former Liberal minister, Santo Santoro, arranged the lunch meeting with Mr Dutton, who was the Turnbull government’s immigration minister at the time, at a Chinese restaurant in Sydney in 2016.
The lunch was held in a private dining room, according to sources familiar with the gathering, and provided Mr Huang with direct access to a Cabinet minister in a way not often available to most people.
Mr Dutton and Mr Santoro, who is now a Queensland lobbyist, deny Mr Huang’s citizenship bid was discussed at the lunch. Mr Huang ultimately failed in his attempt after ASIO objected to his links to the Chinese Communist Party.”
Sam Dastyari, who was forced to resign from the Senate after some of his own dealings with Xiangmo were revealed, told the program Huang’s family was granted approval to have a private citizenship ceremony inside his office, a move which was approved by Dutton, who was the then-Immigration minister, in January 2015.
Dutton confirmed the lunch took place, but has denied providing any assistance to Huang.
Huang was banned from Australia late last year, following advice from Australia’s spy agencies.
In November, the parliament passed laws banning foreign donations, which were first floated after Dastyari’s story broke.
But expect more questions on that.
Also expect more questions over Adani, now some Queensland LNP MPs have decided to re-open a wound over an issue that everyone in Queensland knows the LNP supports anyways.
The Australian Conservation Foundation has warned the Morrison government will make itself vulnerable to a legal challenge if it rushes remaining approvals for the Adani coal mine before the election, or if the decision maker, the environment minister, has been subjected to political interference.
On Monday the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, was peppered with questions about the Coalition’s support for the controversial Queensland coal project, and the government’s lack of action on climate change, during a solo appearance on the ABC’s Q&A program.
Frydenberg’s appearance comes as a UComms poll in the treasurer’s seat of Kooyong, commissioned by the activist group GetUp, obtained by Guardian Australia, suggests he faces a tough fight to hold the blue ribbon seat, with 64% of respondents saying they would be more likely to vote for a candidate with a plan to tackle climate change by replacing coal with clean energy.
Smarts.
We’ll be covering all of that, as well as day two of ‘how much is the daily spend on political advertising’ in Senate estimates. Mike Bowers and the whole Guardian brains trust is with you. I am half with you. That might increase to 55% once I get my second coffee.
Ready?
Let’s get into it.
Updated
