Night time politics
- As I leave you tonight, the senate is still debating whether private companies earning more than $100m annually should be subject to tax transparency laws.
- As of today, we know Labor will block cuts to family payments - first revealed in the 2014 budget - which are intended to fund the Coalition’s childcare package. This forces the government to negotiate with the crossbench or go back to the drawing board.
- Labor will also oppose the $1000 baby payment which the Nationals insisted on when signing the Coalition agreement with Malcolm Turnbull.
- Peter Dutton confirmed tear gas was used to quell a disturbance at the Christmas Island detention centre. He described the Christmas Island detainees as “hardened”, suggesting a “core group of criminals” were causing the disruption that had occurred since the death of Fazel Chegeni.
- Bill Shorten has told TripleJ that if the voting age dropped from 18 to 16, he would consider whether teenagers should be allowed into parliament as members.
- Labor used question time to attack the government on a possible GST increase, while Turnbull countered that all tax reform options were live.
Tomorrow is Charles and Camilla Day. This involves a right royal tour of Canberra involving Remembrance Day, a sniff around for truffles involving dogs and pigs, Government House and kangaroos. Not necessarily in that order.
It is also Dismissal anniversary day. Plus the ordinary question time. Etc. Etc.
Good night.
"Other countries haven't gone to the dogs since they started letting 16yos vote" - @billshortenmp #triplejhack pic.twitter.com/Kon5IzjXe5
— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) November 10, 2015
Senator Peter Whish-Wilson has urged the senate to “regain what we lost” by supporting the Greens attempts to amend laws to ensure large private companies earning more than $100m were included in transparency laws to stop tax avoidance.
A number of senators, including Whish-Wilson, quoted journalist Michael West’s characterisation of the tax transparency bill which passed the senate last month as the “Rich Mates Tax Act”.
Forget the super-yacht, the fleet of European autos, forget the mansions and the BRW Rich List, the government reckons there is a “personal security” risk if tax information about private companies with turnover in excess of $100 million is made public.
Now the bill goes into committee, which means all the senators get a chance to grill finance minister Mathias Cormann on the bill.
Labor leader Bill Shorten says if 16yos get the vote, he'll think about whether they should be allowed to run for Parliament. #triplejhack
— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) November 10, 2015
In the senate, Richard Di Natale is speaking on the tax laws amendment (combating multinational tax avoidance) bill. This is the bill that increases the penalties imposed on significant global entities that enter into tax avoidance or profit shifting schemes.
The bill required transparency of multinationals on their tax obligations, with an important exemption. Private companies with an annual turnover of $100m - such as billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart’s company - were exempt on the grounds that the information could jeopardise their safety and possibly lead to kidnappings.
You may remember that while Labor opposed to the bill, they forgot to call for a division and it passed the senate a few weeks ago - partly because Labor was preoccupied with its attack on Turnbull’s investments in the Cayman Islands.
So now, Di Natale is trying to amend the bill in hindsight, to include the same tax transparency for private companies. The debate continues...
Malcolm Bingo.
Funny faces 1.
Funny faces 2.
The senate is debating a motion from the Greens:
That the Turnbull government’s commitment to Tony Abbott’s UN Climate Targets that deny scientific realities will contribute to catastrophic global warming.
Bowers! Head down!!
Tear gas used to subdue Christmas Island detainees
Peter Dutton has confirmed more details regarding the “use of force” to quell riots in the Christmas Island detention centre. This is what the department said at 2pm.
Some force was used with a core group of detainees who had built barricades and actively resisted attempts to secure compounds, including threatened use of weapons and improvised weapons.
The centre remains calm, with detainees secured in undamaged areas of the centre. Food, fluid and medical support continues to be provided.
Dutton advised that 113 of the 199 detainees at Christmas Island had criminal convictions, including armed robbery, assault, child abuse, drugs and grievous bodily harm. He said tear gas was used against “resisting” detainees and the minister lapsed into police language to describe how the operation was carried out.
The first approach is to try to negotiate with people to have them come out peacefully and indeed some people did that and refused to partake in the melee. The situation obviously from there means the police on entry to the centre will use reasonable force and it will depend on the force used against them by the detainees. Bear it in mind, we have members of outlawed motorcycle gangs, there are people who are rated as extreme risk as part of that population.
He’s back!
Cheers Chilla.
Apparently Chilla has arrived, just so you know. South Australian premier Jay Weatherill looks positively excited.
PDuddy, otherwise known as Peter Dutton, has a presser coming up on Christmas Island.
Essential polling has Coalition on 52-48 on a 2PP basis.
Primary votes are:
- LNP 45
- Labor 35
- Greens 10
- Independents/others 10
- PUP 1
Respondents were asked: To raise more government revenue to maintain services and reduce debt, which of the following actions would you favour most? They were given three options, increasing GST, expanding GST or increasing income tax.
To raise more government revenue to maintain services and reduce debt, 27% favoured increasing the GST, 26% favoured increasing income taxes and 14% expanding the coverage of the GST.
Liberal/National voters (39%) were more inclined to favour increasing the GST while Labor voters (34%) and Greens voters (36%) favoured increasing income tax.
Women favoured increasing income taxes (30%) while men favoured increasing the GST (32%). For full-time workers, 33% favoured increasing the GST and 19% increasing income taxes.
Updated
Labor’s Rob Mitchell asks the PM: Single parents in Sunbury, my electorate, with an income of $31,000 and two teenagers will lose $4,700 every year because of the PM’s unfair cuts to family tax benefits. How is it fair to ask these families to then pay $3,000 more because of you jacking up the GST?
Turnbull flicks the question to social services minister Christian Porter, who says the $4700 figure is not honest and suggests Labor should reveal its budget changes.
PM, if the GST is increased to 15%, how much more will Australians pay for a secondhand ute?
The Opposition’s complete abandonment of any interest in discussing tax reform, the economy, jobs, they’ve become - the honourable member for Watson, who I have known for many years, is becoming a caricature of himself...now having not liked the short answer or the long answer, they now come up with a joke question. Really. The leader of the opposition, you should treat the Australian economy, the jobs of today and the jobs of the future with much greater respect here in the nation’s Parliament.
Meanwhile in the senate:
George Brandis really is outstanding at mansplaining. #senateqt
— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) November 10, 2015
Tasmanian premier Will Hodgman joins the fray.
Updated
The artist formerly known as Madam Speaker.
Labor asks social services minister Christian Porter why the government is bringing back a $1,000 baby bonus, costing the budget $380 million?
This is the initiative, enforced by the National party in the Coalition agreement. It has yet to pass the house. Labor is going to block it, as announced earlier today.
We are starting to see a pattern with these so-called backbenchers constituent questions, delivered with full notice to the minister. This means those questions are no different to the original Dixers, though they were trumpeted as a revolutionary change to question time. #justsaying
There is a Dixer of VET fee law changes and then another Labor question on a GST increase.
Labor’s Julie Owens to Christian Porter: Single parents in Parramatta in my electorate with an income of $55,000 and two teenagers will lose $4,700 every year because of the PM’s unfair cuts to family tax benefits. How is it fair to ask this family to then pay $3,700 more each year by jacking up the GST?
Porter says $4,700 doesn’t take into account any of the effect of the childcare package, which has yet to pass the house and also takes into account the school kids bonus, which was killed with the abolition of the mining tax.
In short, Porter quibbles with the figures.
There is a Dixer to Barnaby Joyce about the agriculture white paper and then Tanya Plibersek asks Turnbull: “What’s fair about cutting the family tax benefits of 1.5 million Australian families and then raising the price of everything by jacking up the GST to 15%?”
Our tax system, broadly speaking, is fair. It distributes the burden substantially on the basis of income. But it also has to be efficient because, you see, while an income tax is progressive, and people pay more tax as they earn more money, as they move up through the tax brackets, there is an increasing disincentive to work, save and invest because more of the income is being taken by the government. So getting the balance right is vital and getting fairness is absolutely vital.
Updated
Shorten to Turnbull: How can Australians possibly have a national conversation with the government if the prime minister refuses to answer our questions in the national parliament?
Turnbull gives a dissertation on the relative merits of both income tax as a progressive tax, and goods and services tax as a regressive tax.
The challenge is to ensure that ... lower-income households are properly compensated and that is clearly part ... of the design in 2001. It was part of your own government’s design when you imposed a similar broad-based tax on energy, the carbon tax, and of course ... if there were to be in the future any change to the GST, equity and fairness would be absolutely foremost.
Updated
A Dixer on the Chafta to foreign minister Julie Bishop.
Shorten to Turnbull: Over the last 10 years, the cost of fruit has risen by 43%. The cost of vegetables has risen by 34%. So in the interests of open debate, PM, why exactly is your government now contemplating a 15% price rise in fresh food in Australia?
The honourable member should recall that the leading advocate of a 15% GST on a broader base is in fact the Labor premier for South Australia.
Updated
A chat before QT.
Bob Katter asks why the $5bn northern Australian loan program is not going to northerners but to “JBS Swift, foreign corporations with plantation farming, foreign fly-ins, contractors and mill workers. What benefit to Australia, minister?”
As far as I can tell, agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce does not directly answer the question, except to say the government is keen on the north.
Next, a Dixer to Warren Truss on the benefits of the Chafta.
The first question from Shorten to Malcolm Turnbull: could the PM please explain how exactly will jacking up the GST to 15% grow Australian jobs and the Australian economy?
The leader of the opposition leads a party that comes with a rather undistinguished record in fiscal management. The Howard government left office with $44 billion of cash in the bank.
Tony Burke takes a point of order.
This is suspiciously old style politics.
Turnbull continues.
Having started an informed discussion on tax, the opposition wants us to shut it down. Why would they want us to do that? Because they’re afraid of confronting the real fiscal mess that they’ve left us. They’re afraid of confronting the fact that there are elements in our tax system that are profoundly unhelpful to strong economic growth. Bracket creep is seeing Australians on average earnings move into the second highest tax bracket. That’s not right.
A Dixer to Morrison about on the latest OECD report on positive signals within the Australian economy.
I refer to reports that the minister for innovation reassured nervous Coalition MPs that the government would in fact not jack up the GST. Will the treasurer join his senior cabinet colleague and rule out raising the price of everything by increasing the GST to 15%?
Morrison says the Pyne story was complete rubbish.
A Dixer to Turnbull: Will the PM outline to the house what steps the government is taking to grow the economy and generate jobs and why is it important to open up new opportunities for Australian businesses to export into large and growing markets such as China?
Turnbull speaks to the China Free Trade Agreement as the enabling legislation passed the senate last night.
Labor asks the first question to Christopher Pyne: My question is to the leader of the house who is responsible for the government’s legislative program. Can the Leader of the house confirm he has no intention of bringing any legislation into the House that will increase the price of everything by raising the GST to 15%. Are the reports true? Has he fixed it?
It’s a remarkably juvenile question from a remarkably juvenile opposition that is practising old politics every day and finding it very hard to get a handle on this government which is striking out in new directions and offering new hope and optimism to the Australian public, to business, to consumers, everyday through our policies that we are implementing.
Lunchtime politics
- Labor will block cuts to family payments - first revealed in the 2014 budget - which would fund the Coalition’s childcare package. This forces the government to negotiate with the crossbench or go back to the drawing board.
- Labor will also oppose the $1000 baby payment which the Nationals insisted on when signing the Coalition agreement with Malcolm Turnbull.
- Peter Dutton has described the Christmas Island detainees as “hardened”, suggesting a “core group of criminals” were causing the disruption that had occurred since the death of Fazel Chegeni.
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Legislation has passed to oblige Australian students working overseas to repay their HECS debts.
Now to the parliament.
The customs amendments required for the China Free Trade Agreement have passed the senate and come back to the house.
Bills passed last night to create an overseas payment obligation for Australians living overseas with a Higher Education Loan Programme (HELP) or Trade Support Loan (TSL) debt.
Right now, the house is debating a migration amendment which makes it illegal to:
give or receive a benefit in return for a migration outcome in relation to certain skilled work visa programs; and enable visa cancellation to be considered where the visa holder has engaged in such conduct.
Labor partyroom motion on offshore detention
Here is the wording of the motion that Labor passed on detention centres.
Caucus notes the further deterioration of detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru.
In particular, caucus notes:
1. Continuing serious and concerning reports of abuses, assaults, rapes and attempted suicides of asylum seekers and refugees, including children, on Nauru and Manus Island;
2. The lack of oversight and transparency and the culture of secrecy that surrounds the detention system;
3. Australia’s refugee processing system must at all times be conducted in a way consistent with our international obligations particularly regarding the UN Refugee Convention and respecting our National Platform including the following (ch. 9, par. 247):
Detention that is indefinite or otherwise arbitrary is not acceptable and the length and conditions of detention including the appropriateness of both the accommodation and the services provided will be subject to regular review;
Detention in an IDC is only to be used as a last resort and for the shortest practicable time;
People in detention will be treated fairly and reasonably within the law;
People in detention will be provided an appropriate standard of care including the provision of health, mental health and education services;
Conditions of detention will ensure the inherent dignity of the human person.
In light of the above, the caucus decides:
Labor in government will ensure the conditions of offshore processing meet with human rights standards and negotiate with PNG and Nauru for independent oversight of these facilities and calls on the government to do the same.
The Dismissal: Bring on the republic
Bill Shorten finished on a question which asked him to reflect on the dismissal of the Whitlam government, 40 years on. (The anniversary is tomorrow.) He said it was wrong and caused a “convulsion” and ended with a plea for Australia to become a republic, now that both the PM and the opposition leader were committed republicans.
It is time for Australia to set its own path in the world. It is time when we have those visits from other heads of state, that the slightly bemused look when foreign visitors come here and when we toast the head of their state and they have to get up and toast the Queen. It is time for Australia to be independent, truly, not just in terms of foreign policy but in terms of our constitutional arrangements.
Bill Shorten: we haven't started on the GST campaign yet
Shorten is asked about the Newspoll numbers which have the Coalition and Labor on 53-47 2PP – in the context of a GST debate. In other words, the GST debate has not dented voter enthusiasm for the Turnbull government.
Bill Shorten isn’t having any of it.
We haven’t even begun to debate the GST campaign yet. I wouldn’t predict that Australians want to pay 15% more on everything. The government though is ... trying to say in some sort of a dinner party way, let’s talk about everything. Are they seriously talking about putting 15% on fresh food or not? Are they seriously talking to Australians that they’re going to put up the price of everything? I think that the government should get down to business and tell people what they actually plan to do. Running government isn’t like running a dinner party.
Updated
Bill Shorten has been asked about superannuation plans, reported earlier in the blog, which would increase the tax on super contributions for higher incomes.
Labor’s been talking about reining in the excessively generous tax concessions that people who have millions of dollars in retirement currently enjoy. There’s been no case made that once you already have $1m in your superannuation, why you should get the income stream from it – tax-free – when other people going to work have to pay taxes on their income at a much lower level. So Labor’s been very forthright and remember that we’ve been basically pilloried since we announced ... everyone said it’s the end of the superannuation system and bad old Labor and we shouldn’t be talking about it.
Updated
Labor opposes Nationals deal for $1,000 baby payment
Labor will also oppose the $1,000 family payment for single-income families with a child under one, promised by Turnbull in his negotiations with the National party. If that measure doesn’t proceed it will save the budget $380m.
Chris Bowen is speaking in the Labor party room:
Labor in government abolished the baby bonus, we will not be part of his plan to bring back $1,000 payment for newborn babies. Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison lecture Australians about the need for cuts, the same time they’ve done a dirty deal with the National party as parts of Malcolm Turnbull’s transition to the prime ministership, taking the prime ministership off Tony Abbott. That’s a matter for them ... we’ll oppose it in a fiscally responsible approach. If they want to throw money at a deal with the National party that’s a matter for them.
Updated
Labor to block Turnbull's cuts to family payments
From Lenore Taylor.
Labor will support only $500m of the Turnbull government’s revamped plan to cut $4.8bn from family payments - meaning the Coalition will be forced to return to protracted negotiations with the unwieldy Senate crossbench to try to get the long-stalled measures through.
Announcing that Labor would oppose almost all the government’s proposed changes, Labor leader Bill Shorten said they were “unfair”.
“If ever there was a demonstration of how out of touch Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberals are with the lives of Australian families, this is it. Labor has demonstrated that we are not opposed to fair and reasonable changes to family payments – but it should not be at the expense of families who can least afford it,” he said in a statement.
The Coalition has always said the family tax benefit cuts - first announced in its disastrous 2014 budget - are necessary for it to proceed with the 2015 budget’s generous $3.5bn childcare package.
It has already softened the family tax benefit cuts to try to win parliamentary approval and it is understood cabinet is considering changes to reduce the childcare payments by cutting generous increases in benefits to the richest families – allowing the government to further soften the family payment cuts while keeping the connection between the two policies.
But shadow cabinet decided on Monday night that it would only support cuts to family tax benefit part B paid to single-income two-parent families, which would save only $500m over four years, but would oppose changes to benefits for single parents and grandparent carers.
Labor also decided to oppose the $1,000 family payment for single-income families with a child under one, promised by Turnbull in his negotiations with the National party. If that measure doesn’t proceed it will save the budget $380m.
Labor’s stance means the government is now reliant on Senate crossbench support for both policies, and the crossbench has been demanding all kinds of trade-offs unrelated to either family tax benefits or child care in negotiations that have been dragging on for months.
Updated
Labor’s party room meeting has just broken up. According to a spokesman, Melissa Parke took a motion to the meeting which did three things.
Call upon the government to immediately ensure the conditions of offshore detention meet with human rights standards and independent oversight or, if the government is unable or unwilling to implement these standards, to close the centres on Manus Island and Nauru forthwith.
Parke received support from 258 prominent Australians including a former Australian cricket captain, Ian Chappell, author Tim Winton, singers Kate Miller-Heidke and Missy Higgins, the ACTU president, Ged Kearney, film critics Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton, Janet Holmes à Court, and John Bell.
Updated
This is an important story from Ben Doherty.
Australia is being assessed before the universal periodic review, a quadrennial assessment of countries’ human rights record by the UN human rights council.
One hundred and ten countries spoke at Australia’s session in Geneva overnight, putting forward 300 recommendations for the country to improve its human rights record.
Because of the large number of countries who wanted to comment on Australia – more than half of the countries of the UN – each nation had only 65 seconds in which to address the broad issue of Australia’s human rights regime.
The issue of asylum seekers dominated concerns.
Indonesia – with whom relations have been strained over Australia’s asylum boat turnbacks – urged Australia to “ensure that the issues of refugees and asylum seekers are addressed in line with the principles of the Bali process and Australia’s other human rights obligations”.
India, a country to where Australia tried to return 157 Sri Lankan asylum seekers, said Australia should review its mandatory detention policies and ensure refugees were never sent back to places where they might face persecution.
It being Tuesday, parliament does not sit until midday.
Andrew Probyn of the West Australian reports that the refugee Fazel Chegeni Najad who died on Christmas Island was languishing in detention after former Perth magistrate Barbara Lane sentenced him to a jail term later found to be “manifestly excessive”.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said the centre was a place for people who “pose a high risk because of their own conduct” but the report raises questions as to whether Chegeni should have been there at all.
Refugee advocates are questioning why the 33-year-old was in detention in the first place, given his failure to pass the character test was partly based on a legal process later criticised by the WA Supreme Court.
The Iranian Kurd was sentenced to six months and one day jail by Magistrate Lane after he and three others pleaded guilty to assaulting a fellow detainee in Curtin detention centre in December 2011.
The Supreme Court last year found Ms Lane had erred by not giving him a suspended sentence but did not quash the conviction. A conviction is grounds for a person to be refused a visa by the Immigration Minister under the character test.
Just a quick stocktake.
Party room meetings are in full swing.
At lunchtime, public health experts Michael Moore, Rod Wellington and Sheila McHale are speaking at the National Press Club on the need for the Turnbull government to drop its plans to cut nearly $800m in funding to key health initiatives over the next four financial years.
Also at lunchtime, the minister for women, Michaela Cash, and the social services minister, Christian Porter, will attend a launch of Change the Story: a Shared Framework for the Primary Prevention of Violence Against Women and Their Children in Australia. It is described as a “national, evidence-based road map to prevent violence against women and children”, from Our Watch, the Victorian health promotion foundation or VicHealth, and Australia’s national research organisation for women’s safety.
Updated
Now lurching on towards the tax debate. As my colleague Rob Harris has noted, there is so much on the table these days it is in danger of breaking.
Treasurer hasn't learned from mistakes of last administration. Last time everything was on the table this happened. pic.twitter.com/qXhFe8pIGm
— Rob Harris (@rharris334) November 9, 2015
The treasurer, Scott Morrison has done the rounds this morning, playing the not-rule-anything-in-or-out game. The speculation continues about what the Turnbull government’s tax reforms will actually consist of and eventually a verb will be required. But at this stage, it is all on the said table.
David Crowe reports in the Australian that the Coalition is cooling on the idea of a GST rise. He reports that innovation enthusiast Christopher Pyne privately told colleagues that a GST rise is off the table. Morrison told ABC Pyne has already denied the report – although I have not seen him stick his head up this morning.
The other element of Crowe’s story was the suggestion that the government was looking closely at changes to superannuation which would increase the tax on contributions for higher-income earners.
Here is the detailed bit:
Current laws apply a 15% tax on all super contributions regardless of a worker’s income, which means the advantages are greater for a person who pays the top marginal income tax rate of 47% while there is no incentive to save for those paying less than 15% income tax.
Deloitte Access’s economics director, Chris Richardson, called two weeks ago for a different approach that would reduce the contributions tax by 15 percentage points from a worker’s income tax rate.
Under that plan, a worker on the top marginal tax rate would pay 30% tax on contributions while a worker on a middle income would pay 17.5%, a 15 percentage point reduction on the 32.5% tax rate on incomes between $37,000 and $80,000.
Labor has already proposed changes to super for high-income earners.
Scott Morrison was asked about it this morning on AM.
What in particular are you looking at [for superannuation] because there are reports around again today about a single tax rate idea?
All these measures are on the table.
It’s an interesting idea, isn’t it?
It’s a very interesting idea and that’s why whether it’s that or what we’re already doing on multinational tax and so on. All of these things are important to get the right set of mix of taxes at state and federal level.
There was one new moving part though. Morrison confirmed that the tax green paper will be released next year, instead of this year, as originally suggested by Joe Hockey.
Updated
Now to those Newspoll figures in the Australian newspaper for the past fortnight.
Bottom line: Coalition increases its two-party- preferred lead on Labor to 53-47, the same as at the 2013 election.
- Coalition’s primary vote is up one to 46% – seven points up since Tony Abbott was dumped.
- Labor’s primary vote is down one to 34% – five points down since Abbott was dumped.
- Greens primary vote is down one point to10%.
- Other parties and independents were up one point to 10%.
- On preferred prime minister, support for Turnbull was down two points to 61%.
- Bill Shorten’s support was up one point to 18%.
Updated
Lenore Taylor has a story this morning which would suggest the Turnbull government could kick in more funding to a UN green fund derided by Tony Abbott.
The Turnbull government is considering options to increase its $200m contribution to the international Green Climate Fund, which will be a crucial issue at the UN climate meeting in Paris in December.
In what was seen as a shift in its stance on the global talks, Australia announced last week it had successfully sought to once again co-chair the fund, which was originally derided by the former prime minister, Tony Abbott, before he finally agreed to contribute $200m over four years after strong international pressure.
The fund is supposed to channel $100bn a year in public and private financing to developing countries by 2020. The OECD has calculated about $62bn a year has been committed, and making up the shortfall is a crucial demand from developing countries in the Paris negotiations.
The former Labor government was an early donor, tipping in $500,000 in 2012 to help get the fund going, as well as almost $600m on a precursor “fast-start” fund. Labor’s climate spokesman, Mark Butler, says the Turnbull government should at least restore that funding.
Updated
Shalailah Medhora has some numbers on Christmas Island detainees, reported at Peter Dutton’s press conference on 9 October:
- 125 visa cancellations
- 57 visa overstayers
- 96 asylum seekers arrived by boat
- 5 asylum seekers arrived by air
- 2 others
There are no women and children in the centre.
Updated
Core group of criminals causing disruption on Christmas Island, says Dutton
So there seems to be some differences between the minister and his department as to what is happening on Christmas Island. This is from the department at 9pm yesterday.
The Christmas Island immigration detention facility remains calm as the department and its service providers work to restore order to the centre.
Service provider staff have re-entered and maintain control of central facilities of the centre, including the administration areas and health clinic. The perimeter of the centre remains secure, with regular patrols.
Service provider staff are continuing to engage with detainees and have commenced a food service.
A number of detainees with pre-existing medical conditions have now been without medication for some time and service providers are negotiating with those still protesting to allow the provision of medicines to these individuals.
A number of additional resources are being flown to Christmas Island this evening, to relieve departmental and service provider staff who have been engaged in search and rescue and incident response operations since the escape incident on Saturday.
The additional resources will ensure there are no time constraints on efforts designed to resolve the situation through negotiation without further property damage and without injury to individuals.
Asked this morning, Peter Dutton says there was still a “core group of criminals” causing disruption within the centre.
But on initial reports, early reports that I’ve received, the officers were met with little resistance, but nonetheless there’s still a core group of criminals who are causing disruption and the Australian federal police and the Serco guards no doubt will deal with that threat in due course.
Dutton says there has been no violence overnight, as far as he was aware, but he was getting regular updates.
Labor’s Richard Marles was asked about potential use of rubber bullets.
If we’re really talking about a situation that got to the point of using rubber bullets, then we absolutely need to have an explanation from the minister about how events have got to this point in the first place.
Updated
Here is a bit more detail from Peter Dutton about the detainees on Christmas Island.
Many of the people on Christmas Island in the detention centre there, bikies, people that have been committed or convicted of manslaughter, of serious grievous bodily harm charges, sexual assault against children, and we’re not going to tolerate destruction of commonwealth property and those people that have undertaken that sort of behaviour will face the full force of the law.
Labor’s Richard Marles wants to know why ‘hardened people’ are in together with asylum seekers.
Obviously this is a large facility and there will be different areas within the facility, but I think the Australian people do need to have a sense of confidence about that very legitimate question. Are those people in the same areas? Is there people being mixed? And the answer to that question goes to the safety of everyone concerned which is why I think it’s important that we actually hear from the minister about what’s going on here.
Updated
Good morning blogsters,
The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, has confirmed that federal police have moved into Christmas Island to control detainees as unrest continues for a second day after an Iranian Kurdish refugee, Fazel Chegeni, died.
Dutton spoke to reporters this morning and his main message was that Christmas Island detention centre is the home of “hardened” detainees who pose a high risk.
Christmas Island has been a hardened facility over recent times and it is designed to accommodate people who pose a high risk because of their own conduct. It may be that they have assaulted somebody in custody or that they have been out on a bridging visa and assaulted somebody or committed a crime. Nonetheless, the Australian government has been very clear about the fact that we are not going to tolerate damage.
There have been a number of interviews of detainees over the past 24 hours, who were worried about a hardline response and the possibility of rubber bullets.
I’ve not received any briefing; I’ve not seen any reporting of that. The Australian federal police response unit is a very professional one, and they will make judgments according to operational needs and they will respond to the threat according to their training and the law. So they’ll respond in the appropriate way.
Also today, the Coalition has increased its two- party-preferred lead on Labor to 53-47. I will have more on that in a minute. Mike Bowers has been chasing Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull around Lake Burley Griffin on their morning walk.
Lots more to come, including party room meetings, so stay with us in the conversation below or on the Twits @gabriellechan and @mpbowers. Here we go.
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