Night time political summary
The end is nigh, the end of the political day at least. It was an odd day, dominated as it was by leaking advice followed by leaking. It was also dominated by the search for facts on exactly what the attorney general was planning to do to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation act.
This is what we discovered:
- After much confusion, we now know the government intends to abolish all of section 487 of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. At the start of the day this was not clear, which was surprising because if you were to pick a fight with environmental lawyers who know law, you would think the government would have their ducks lined up. Now we know that all of 487 will go and legal advice suggests that would mean any person wanting to challenge a federal environmental approval would have to prove they had been directly and personally adversely affected. This has sent farmer groups into a spin who had been told by Barnaby Joyce earlier in the day that their rights were safe.
- The fight over commissioner Dyson Heydon’s bias or lack thereof continued. A report of his previous critical comments regarding the Rudd government emerged, which Abbott laughed off in question time as the best thing that had ever been said about the Rudd government. It did bring back memories of the PM dismissing worries about Bronwyn Bishop. It is a fine line a leader must walk between hubris and considered judgement.
- If Tony Abbott is the master of the three word slogan, it should be stop-the-leaks. This morning his hard man in the senate, Eric Abetz described his fellow ministers as gutless for leaking. Until the talking points were leaked, approximately three hours later. We found out government members were exhorted to say the cabinet was functioning exceptionally well. That the government was focused on jobs, growth and community safety. And that the cabinet was deciding things. Why just this week the Abbott cabinet decided to wage a war on green lawfare. But then, we knew all that because the PM stuck faithfully to the script.
Tomorrow is the last sitting day for a fortnight. The PM will have a meeting with Indigenous leaders about his heretofore passion, constitutional recognition. This meeting will precede his promised week in indigenous communities. That will occur next week in the Torres Strait.
Thanks to Lenore Taylor, Daniel Hurst and Shalailah Medhora for their assistance. Mike Bowers provided his usual storm of outstanding images and has patented the Herbert filter - after the good sport Ewen Jones - for those pollies who are a little more shy about their image.
Thanks for your company. I enjoy your wit and ideas.
Good night.
This shall now be known as "The Herbert Filter" @EwenJonesMP @gabriellechan #politicslive http://t.co/UUKEPYwjxW pic.twitter.com/kEX75NKubs
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) August 19, 2015
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Just by the by, Dyson Heydon must be feeling confident. The royal commission is moving onwards and upwards. It has just announced a two week hearing block in Brisbane as part of its inquiry into the Queensland branch of the CFMEU.
Proceedings are scheduled to take place from Monday 14 September to Friday 25 September.
Tomorrow the ACTU will deliver its submission to Dyson Heydon by 2pm to disqualify Dyson Heydon. His hearing will be on Friday.
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Back to Kathy Jackson, who has been ordered to pay the Health Services Union about $1.4m after a court found she misappropriated the union’s money.
As reported by AAP, between 2003 and 2011 Jackson used credit cards to pay for travel, retail, food, alcohol entertainment and fitness. The court found $305,828 chalked up on union plastic was Jackson’s personal spending. As well the $1,338,626 in damages, she was ordered to hand back $67,912 in overpaid salary.
Tony Abbott has complimented Jackson on many occasions, such as this comment last year.
We’ve had people like Kathy Jackson heroically – heroically – say that enough is enough, it’s all got to stop and I think that the honest people inside the union movement, the honest people inside the Labor party will welcome this royal commission.
He called her a “very credible whistleblower” and spoke up for her during the Coalition’s campaign against fellow HSU official and disgraced MP Craig Thomson.
Abbott was asked in question time about his on-going praise for Jackson over the past few years. His reply talked about the unions and the value of the royal commission but he was not going to mention her name after the court decision.
Updated
Lenore Taylor has a story which seeks to put some detail around the government’s planned changes to environmental laws. While the agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce suggested this morning farmers will be protected, farmers have told Lenore that they are unclear at what the government is trying to achieve and has urged the Coalition to hold off until the effect is clear.
Essentially it could effect communities ability to challenge projects, even if they are relatively nearby.
The honourable member for Herbert, Ewen Jones rehydrates.
Every day is a wedge in Australian politics.
The Greens continue to make incursions into National party territory. Last year the Senate committee inquiry into beef levies found the tax should be overhauled and recommended that there should be a producer-owned organisation to receive and direct the levies.
Tassie Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson’s motion attempted to remind the Senate that Barnaby Joyce has not acted on the tax, according to ABC Rural.
The Australian Beef Association, Cattle Council of Australia, the Australian Meat Producers Group, and concerned beef producers around the country, presented a united voice to the Minister of Agriculture. The Liberal and National parties say that they are supporters of the Australian beef industry but that support’s been undermined by the failure of the Minister to actually support what the producers want.
LNP senator Barry O’Sullivan described Whish-Wilson’s motion as “fatally flawed”.
This tofu tiger from Tasmania is a ‘Johnny-come-lately’ into this space, and what you will see here in this motion today is just an attempt at what’s called a wedge motion...a waste of people’s time in the Senate.
It turns out there is a bedtime story on You Tube about the Tofu Tiger, the little tiger with empathy.
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And then I said to Al...
Where is your bow sir?
Bill Shorten is speaking to a matter of public importance on “the government’s failure to invest and protect Australian jobs”.
Seven MPs were thrown out of question time, including one from the government, Deakin MP Michael Sukkar.
I’ve got the talking points.
“He has the manner of a likeable rascal but I hope that there is more to him than that.”
From a young Malcolm’s report card, reported in Fairfax.
Kevin Andrews and his hair.
Talk to the hand.
Next, a government question to Kevin Andrews, the defence minister assisting Dan Tehan. It is on submarines and ship building.
PDuddy says 41 457 migrants have been employed by unions across the country.
They don’t stand for anything and the Australian people are seeing through this.
Labor’s Tony Burke asks what the government is paying Dyson Heydon and whether it’s more than the $3.3m paid to counsel assisting Jeremy Stoljar. Is the PM aware that the Howard government disclosed the salary for commissioner Cole?
Tony Abbott does not answer the question but he suggests if there is a problem, undertake the procedure according to the commission.
In the meantime, do not smear ... who is doing the right thing by the workers of the country.
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Immigration minister Peter Dutton gets a question on 457 visas and is using it to talk about former Gillard advisor John McTernan, who was employed on such a visa.
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Labor asks Abbott about the Kathy Jackson case.
Abbott says Labor uses the findings of the trade union commission when it suits them.
It is interesting that having tried to get the royal commission into union corruption shut down a few minutes ago, now they are utilising its work. That is what they are doing. The ultimate hypocrisy from members opposite.
Labor asks about Dyson Heydon’s speech, reported in Fairfax by Latika Bourke, to the Centre for Independent Studies. He said the Rudd government did “non-substantive things”.
Tony Abbott makes fun of the question.
Frankly, that is the best thing has ever been said about the Rudd government. If there is any bias, it is bias in favour of the Rudd government. He is the least critical person of the Rudd government of anyone in Australia. The Rudd government was so non-substantive, the leader of the opposition executed the PM. The manager of opposition business went on television to re-enact his role in the political assassination of Kevin Rudd. Really and truly, the idea that Dyson Heydon’s statement that there was a tendency by the Rudd government to do non-substantive things, the idea that this is somehow evidence of bias, that is evidence of gentle tolerance.
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Labor asks Tony Abbott how Dyson Heydon came to be appointed to the royal commission.
Speaker Smith says no minister can carry every detail in their head but he allows the question.
Abbott says Labor is trying to suggest that because “Dyson Heydon agreed to go to a Liberal event, not a fundraiser, but a networking event, once he was no longer a royal commissioner, once he was no longer a royal commissioner, somehow he did the wrong thing”.
Abbott:
That is it, is it? They agree. That is the charge against ex-justice Dyson Heydon. All right, Michael Kirby addressed the society of Labor lawyers while a judge of the NSW court of appeal. Mary Gaudron addressed the society of Labor lawyers while a high court judge. Michael McHugh addressed the society of Labor lawyers while on the NSW court of appeal. Did any of them do anything wrong? No, they did not. Did anyone attack their integrity? No, it did not.
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A government question to Julie Bishop on the China FTA:
Bishop cries treason.
The leader of the opposition is in lockstep with Labor’s union masters who are running a campaign of economic treason against our nation’s interests by making dishonest and untrue statements about China’s free trade agreement, directly undermining Australian jobs and Australia’s future prosperity.
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Joel Fitzgibbon to Barnaby Joyce: Do you support the Shenhua coal project notwithstanding any impact it might have or does your support only apply when the project is not in your own backyard?
In a not entirely comprehensible answer, Joyce says the Shenhua project is up to the NSW government:
There is a process before the state government now and we have done everything within our power to make sure there is proper oversight on environmental instances but he brings to clear light the jobs of people in central Queensland which he does refer to and the jobs of people in central Queensland as attached to the Adani mine.
Barnaby says Labor care more about skinks than jobs.
Updated
Labor’s Graham Perrett has been booted BTW.
Barnaby Joyce is talking about the benefits of the China FTA.
The reason the government is focussing on the FTA, by the way, is because I’m told by those who know that union TV ads about labour provisions are biting.
Singing from the song sheet.
Another question to Andrew Robb, trade minister, on the China FTA.
Chris Bowen asks Joe Hockey, when was the last time more than 800,000 Australians were unemployed?
Hockey makes a few remarks about jobs before going to Bowen’s new book, The Money Men, which will be launched in Canberra tonight.
The treasurer appears to be unaware of the answer, says Bowen.
It was 20 years ago.
Hockey is attacking Wayne Swan again – his favourite topic.
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Andrew Wilkie asks health minister Sussan Ley: Clearly a better approach is desperately needed at federal and state levels yet the national Mental Health Commission’s review of mental health programs and services has been shunted off to another committee. What is going on and when will the community see some big changes for the better?
Ley says the national Mental Health Commission, appointed by the previous government, conducted a review which found an “alarming and disturbing picture of the patchwork of mental health services, poorly targeted and most importantly not producing the goods for the consumers and their families”. Kate Carnell is now in charge of an implementation taskforce which should be reporting soon.
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Tony Abbott keeps repeating the claim that there are 10,000 jobs created by the Carmichael mine in question time and out.
This is in spite of evidence from Adani itself.
The Carmichael mine in central Queensland and the related Abbot Point coal port would generate 1,464 jobs and up to $4.8bn in royalties, an expert economic witness for Adani has told the court.
A government question on the China FTA.
Joe Hockey is dumping on Penny Wong, Labor’s trade spokeswoman on trade. Hockey says Wong was very pleased about the China FTA until recently. He says Wong used to work for the CFMEU while at university.
Shorten to Abbott: Is the unemployment rate higher today than when the Liberal government got elected two years ago?
We are 335,000 more Australians in jobs now than there were when you were tipped out of office. You are sensitive about your record.
Plibersek to Abbott: Can the PM explain why the memorandum of understanding between the Chinese and Australian governments on this new investment facilitation arrangement states “There will be no requirement for labour market testing to enter into an IFA”.
It goes on to say there will be labour market testing before people will be actually employed...This from a shadow foreign minister who wants to create a terrorist picnic in Syria by dropping food parcels, she does not understand this agreement which is absolutely vital for the future of our country. I have a very simple challenge for the opposition. Do you support the China free trade agreement?
Next question on the China Free Trade Agreement. Abbott:
When President Xi was in this chamber late last year, the Leader of the Opposition said we believe in open markets. Driving economic growth, creating jobs, expanding the middle class, raising living standards and eradicating poverty. We believe in bilateral agreements. Not only did he support the free trade agreement then, he even tried to claim credit for it but his mates in the union movement, there is the CFMEU going around trying to sabotage a deal that will set up this country for its future.
Abbott says Shorten is:
silent in the face of racism.
Abbott to Shorten:
That smirking phony over there, that assassin, the two time Sussex Street assassin...
Speaker Smith says the PM was using “robust political language”.
Tony Burke said if “assassin” isn’t a reflection on a member, what is? The speaker rejects it. Abbott again:
Twice, this leader of the opposition led the Sussex Street death squads politically to assassinate two PMs and then he was caught out telling lies about it on the Neil Mitchell program.
Abbott is very shrill.
First question from Shorten to Abbott on the talking points.
How is cabinet function well when the document leaked straight away?
Tony Abbott says he is not taking advice from someone who “backstabbed” two prime ministers because they could not run an effective government.
Abbott just used the talking point about Gillard sending her bodyguard to cabinet.
He read it!
The ACTU will urge Dyson Heydon to disqualify himself
Statement from ACTU Secretary Dave Oliver:
Acting on behalf of a number of affiliated unions, the ACTU has today advised the Royal Commission into Trade Unions that it has determined to proceed with an application on Friday that the Commissioner disqualify himself.
The ACTU has always maintained that the Royal Commission is a political witch hunt by Tony Abbott designed to weaken his political opponents.
When it came to light that Commissioner Dyson Heydon had agreed to speak at a Liberal Party fundraiser we called on Prime Minister Tony Abbott to shut down the Royal Commission.
Given Tony Abbott has failed to act the ACTU must now take further action.
The ACTU again calls on the Prime Minister Tony Abbott to shut down the Royal Commission into Trade Unions and to stop wasting millions of tax payer dollars pursuing his own political agenda.
Question time coming up people. Grab a double double decaf soy latte.
The Glimmer Twins: T-i-i-i-ime is on our side - yes it is!
Lunchtime politics
It being 1pm, here is your lunchtime wrap, slathered in good healthy outdoor press conferences.
- Tony Abbott wants Labor to choose between green activists and workers, apropos his slicing and dicing of the Howard government’s environment laws.
- Labor has postponed a Senate debate urging the governor general to revoke Dyson Heydon’s commission. They are waiting to the next parliamentary sitting week starting 7 September.
- Tony Abbott and trade minister Andrew Robb travelled to Yass to stand in a lot of cattle manure to talk about the benefits of the China Free Trade Agreement and Labor’s dishonest campaign on jobs.
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By way of the gutless, the government’s talking points leaked into the public domain via Fairfax. We learned that the prime minister stuck to the script well but there were a few points that were too silly. I am paraphrasing here but the message ran along the lines of “we may be bad but Labor were worse”. The document arrived shortly after Eric Abetz described leakers as gutless.
Updated
Repeat after me: our cabinet is functioning exceptionally well.
James Massola of Fairfax has one of those gutless leaks from the government. It is the talking points from PMO this morning.
- We don’t comment on cabinet discussions
- The government is focused on delivering jobs and growth. Just yesterday the government announced its decision on lawfare
- In contrast to the experiences of Rudd and Gillard governments, our cabinet is functioning exceptionally well. Everyone knows that under Labor, cabinet submissions were almost never lodged on time and would instead more often arrive on the day or weekend before a cabinet meeting. Julia Gillard sent her bodyguard to NSC meetings. Our cabinet processes are far more effective and productive than Labor’s chaos.
Having followed the government interviews all day, I can report that no one has delivered the Julia-Gillard-sent-her-bodyguard talking point.
Perhaps today’s competition should be around the theme of “talking points too stupid to mention”. I will take entries on all parties - major and minor.
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Regarding that Labor motion on Dyson Heydon, Eric Abetz has been defending the commissioner, suggesting Labor was making “a sordid, squalid attempt” to smear an eminent former high court judge.
Abetz denounced the “venom and hatred being spewed forth by Labor and the trade union movement against the messenger who is uncovering scandal after scandal.
That should not be determined by a kangaroo court in the Senate where the chief prosecutor is Senator Wong – a former CFMEU employee herself, hardly coming with clear mind to this issue. That is why the royal commissioner should hear any application if it’s made and then if any party is aggrieved it should go to the courts.
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Bill Heffernan is trolling Clive Palmer in the Senate courtyard.
Senator Heffernan keeps a close watch on Clive Palmer #presser @gabriellechan @GuardianAus http://t.co/UUKEPYwjxW pic.twitter.com/wvkDLIZz5X
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) August 19, 2015
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Queensland LNP senators have dumped on independent Queensland senator Glenn Lazarus for opposing the government’s attempts to change environmental laws.
In the lowest of the low, Matt Canavan, Ian Macdonald, James McGrath and Barry O’Sullivan have accused Lazarus of “playing for the Blues” on the laws.
This is a very serious issue, with thousands of regional Queensland jobs at stake. The Adani Carmichael coalmine was stopped thanks to legal action brought by the NSW Environmental Defenders Office. As a senator from central Queensland, I think the people of north and central Queensland deserve to be heard on this important project before interstate green groups. Glenn Lazarus is backing activists in NSW ahead of jobs in Queensland. He is betraying the interests of Queensland by doing so.
Ian Macdonald said he agreed with Lazarus’s old boss Clive Palmer.
I agree with him that Glenn Lazarus is proving to be an untrustworthy senator. He was elected on an anti-green platform of opposition to the carbon tax and the mining tax. Since being elected, he is voting lockstep with the Greens. Voters don’t like having their trust breached but Glenn is on the pathway to doing that.
Clive is up shortly on the green laws.
Updated
Labor's Dyson Heydon motion postponed
After maximum sound and fury yesterday, Labor will postpone consideration of a Senate motion addressing the conduct of commissioner Dyson Heydon until Monday, 7 September.
This is from Labor Senate leader Penny Wong’s statement:
This decision provides Commissioner Heydon with the opportunity to respond to any submission made in the royal commission seeking his disqualification before the parliament deals with this matter.
Labor maintains that commissioner Heydon’s decision to accept an invitation to address a Liberal party fundraiser is unacceptable and his position is untenable.
This matter has only come before the parliament because the prime minister has failed to demonstrate leadership and deal with his ‘captain’s pick’.
Updated
The PM’s latter-day realisation that the Liberal party has to become “less blokey” has been taken up by Oz columnist Janet Albrechtsen. She has a warned that unless Tony Abbott “lifts his game” he will lose the next election. And he could start by bringing more women into the cabinet, she says.
Those who demand blind partisan loyalty will stop reading about now. But remember it did Gillard no favours when the leftwing commentariat became blinkered barrackers for her flailing leadership. Blinding idolatry is less common on the centre-right of politics because individual and intellectual curiosity tends to trump groupthink.
An astute prime minister respects advice from the right quarters, especially when his government has languished for 28 consecutive Newspolls, and Monday’s Ipsos poll confirms a dismal downward trend. Voters are not happy with the prime minister or the Abbott government.
Let’s be honest. Cabinet is full of cobwebs. It has a fusty old smell. Julie Bishop and Sussan Ley aside, it looks like a gathering of old (or older) white men. The cabinet has deeper problems, too. Not enough people are scoring runs. There’s a single here and there, but where are the boundaries? Not enough ministers are doing what is needed to win re-election: attract voters beyond the base of loyalists.
Given Ley and Bishop are two of the better cabinet performers, it would seem like good advice.
Updated
There is a crimes bill before the Senate right now. Among many other things, it will:
- expand the definition of forced marriage in the Criminal Code to include circumstances in which a victim does not freely and fully consent because he or she is incapable of understanding the nature and effect of a marriage ceremony
- increase the penalties for the forced marriage offences in the Criminal Code to ensure they are commensurate with the most serious slavery-related facilitation offences
- introduce mandatory minimum sentences of five years imprisonment for firearm trafficking.
LNP senator James McGrath is speaking to the bill now. The explanatory memo states that since forced marriage was criminalised in 2013, referrals to the Australian federal police have included children as young as 12 who purported to “consent” to a marriage.
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This is not a sign.
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The Senate is voting now on the Bonfire of Redtape. The first vote is procedural stuff.
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Several views of a horse are always worth a run.
AG George Brandis launches the Tom Roberts exhibition at NGA @gabriellechan @GuardianAus #politicslive pic.twitter.com/zSJjKeTIv8
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) August 19, 2015
The Arts Minister launching the Tom Roberts exhibition at the National Gallery... pic.twitter.com/Cl3D69lPbD
— Charles Croucher (@ccroucher9) August 19, 2015
Gather ’round partners.
Updated
What I have failed to mention today is the Bonfire of Redtape. In the Senate, they are discussing the Omnibus Repeal Day (Spring 2014). They are talking about submarines. Which makes no sense unless you know that Labor frontbencher Stephen Conroy is proposing an amendment relating to the submarine build.
Updated
Senate crossbencher Glenn Lazarus has already said he will not support the moves to restrict environmental laws. Tony Abbott was asked whether he was confident of getting support in the Senate.
This is an issue for the crossbench, this is an issue for Labor. The only time that the crossbench have power is if the Labor party are standing in the way of the government’s proposals. So forget the crossbench, where does Labor stand on this? Why is the Labor party supporting the green movement in its sabotage of investment, jobs and growth in Queensland? Why is the Labor party supporting the CFMEU in its dishonest campaign to sabotage your future? This is an issue for Labor, not for the crossbench and I say again where does Bill Shorten stand? Does he want the Carmichael mine to go ahead?
Here is Lukas Coch’s view in Yass.
Are they scared of me or am I scared of them...? PM Tony Abbott inspects a cattle yard in Yass. #auspol pic.twitter.com/s4AjwzRxqe
— Lukas Coch (@cochl) August 19, 2015
If there is one thing cattle know, it is always put your backside to the threat.
Updated
Barnaby Joyce stands up for coal
Q: Have you got any concerns about changes to the EPBC Act flagged this week ?
I was a senator for Queensland and it was an incredible honour to be a senator for Queensland for eight years, seven months and one day. And one of the biggest things is that coal is a major driver of that economy, a massive driver. And the idea that whatever it is, a special snake and a skink, is going to put at risk the working conditions of men and women is perverse. The question you ask is about standing in the courts. Farmers still do have standing in the courts but how someone can have standing in the courts when they’re not actually standing near the mine is beyond me.
Remember, Barnaby is facing opposition to the $1.2bn Shenhua Watermark coalmine on a ridge above the Liverpool Plains. The community is divided over the project, which was conceived under disgraced former NSW Labor planning minister Ian Macdonald, approved under the NSW Liberal government and ticked off by Greg Hunt under the EPBC Act with conditions.
Updated
Moo.
The cattle are mooing in the background while the PM is asked about Lenore’s story.
Have you had any discussions with Philip Ruddock about the environmental law changes?
Look, there was very enthusiastic support in the cabinet on Monday night and in the party room yesterday for these changes because everyone wants jobs, growth and community safety. Everyone wants to give the Carmichael mine in Queensland a fair go. Yes, it’s got to pass strict environmental standards, all projects in this country have got to pass strict environmental standards, but once they’ve passed those standards they should be allowed to go ahead. They shouldn’t be subject to endless legal sabotage because the law gives green groups an unusual level of access to the courts. We just want to normalise the standing so that people have got to have a real interest in the matter before they can bring an action.
Updated
Tony Abbott is on message: jobs, growth and community safety.
That is what we are on about – jobs, growth, community safety, whether it’s removing the activist charter from the EPBC Act, whether it’s getting on with getting the China-Australia free trade agreement through the Senate, this government is always focused on jobs and growth.
Updated
As foreshadowed, Tony Abbott is in a cattle yard at Yass to talk about the China free trade agreement.
The CFMEU is claiming that there is some kind of a back door deal that will import Chinese workers into this country – dead wrong. Dead wrong. There is no change to workplace relations laws required by the free trade agreement. There is no change to investment facilitiation agreements required by the free trade agreement. Labor’s workplace laws stay, Labor’s investment facilitation agreements stay, it is an absolutely dishonest campaign by the CFMEU and the CFMEU, as always, are being egged on by Bill Shorten ... this government is on the side of the workers.
Updated
Treasurer Joe Hockey was just interviewed on a range of topics on Melbourne’s 3AW.
He said that most cabinet members were getting on with the job, but conceded that “there has been a temptation for some to pass comment on other issues”.
The focus, he said, is on “jobs, jobs, jobs”, and while “unquestionably there’s more work to be done”, the government will have “the political will to do what is right for the economy”.
When asked about reports that the communication minister, Malcolm Turnbull, was a “likeable rascal” at Oxford, the treasurer revealed what he was like in school.
He told interviewer Neil Mitchell that when moving office recently, his staff found his report card from when he was 10 years old.
In it, his singing teacher said: “Joseph is unruly and his behaviour is puzzling”.
Updated
Eric Abetz gets out the whip on gutless colleagues.
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Parliament has begun sitting.
The legislation to trial the cashless welfare card has had a second reading in the house. This is the bill that came from Andrew Forrest’s Review of Indigenous Jobs and Training.
The trial will test whether significantly reducing access to discretionary cash, by placing a significant proportion of a person’s welfare payments into a restricted bank account, can reduce the habitual abuse and associated harm resulting from alcohol, gambling and drugs. It will also test whether cashless welfare arrangements are more effective when community bodies are involved.
There will be three locations “selected on the basis of high levels of welfare dependence and where gambling, alcohol and/or drug abuse are causing unacceptable levels of harm within the community”. A total of 80% of the payment will be restricted and will not be able to be used for grog, drugs or gambling.
From the explanatory memo:
Recognising that we do not live in a cashless society and that people need cash for minor expenses such as children’s lunch money or bus fares, the remaining 20 per cent of payments will be available for use at a person’s discretion.
Why would a journalist even bother reporting a cabinet leak?
The riot act has been passed to employment minister Eric Abetz to read this morning. Here he was on AM, discussing the rules for cabinet ministers:
I talk to my colleagues face to face, or not at all. I am not one of those people that ... [makes] unattributed comments in the media. One, I think it’s gutless. Two, it’s a breach of the rules. So if somebody is gutless and in breach of the rules, one really wonders why a journalist even bothers to repeat comments from such an individual.
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And the really silly thing (sorry, I am a bit obsessed) is that the government’s war against people taking environmental action shuts down communities that are at the heart of the National party constituency.
When the government talks about the eligibility of protestors who have once worn a campaign T-shirt, increasingly the protestors are wearing RB Sellars workshirts and farm boots.
Land usage is one of the biggest issues affecting regional communities. If my place is 500km – rather than 5km – downstream from the Liverpool Plains, which sits on the top of the Great Artesian Basin and the water is contaminated, will the government argue that I have no interest in pursuing a case?
The truth is that environmental groups have been given the space to step in to fight battles for communities left bereft by the traditional party of rural Australian – the National party. That’s why Greens like NSW MLC Jeremy Buckingham and Senator Larissa Waters are increasingly welcomed into rural communities and the Nationals lost one, and very nearly two, NSW northern seats to a Green candidate.
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Remember the green laws stemmed from the decision by the federal court to throw out the federal government approval of Adani’s Carmichael coalmine. But, as Lenore writes:
And the real reason the Adani decision was overturned was that Mackay Conservation Group identified a mistake made by the federal department of environment. It had failed to include “conservation advice” on two species that will be harmed by the mine. The minister did not have all the information he needed when he took the decision. The mistake can be fixed within weeks.
So what is it about?
It feels like another tribal war. Another war waged against a people who do not support the Abbott government. Another war to shut down opposing voices. Like the war against unions. Like the war against the unemployed and students in the first budget. Like the war against the ABC and SBS. Like the war against the public service. Like the war against windfarms. Like the war against moderate voices in its own cabinet. And the war against media voices outside the tent. The list goes on.
Assistant treasurer Josh Frydenberg has just enunciated the message on Sky, that Labor is in that “no-mans land” between green activists and traditional blue collar workers who would benefit from jobs in resources.
Is that a wedge I see before me?
The Brilliant Matt Hatter.
@gabriellechan Hello! You can take our green shirts but you'll never stop us SINGING..🎵 I feel pretty oh so pretty... pic.twitter.com/ThB4XR5QKu
— The Matt Hatter (@MattGlassDarkly) August 18, 2015
Back to the green laws, announced yesterday by the attorney general George Brandis.
Lenore Taylor points out the inherent contradictions in the government’s approach in an analysis here.
The government claims green groups are waging a war against resources projects by “gaming the courts”.
The Australia Institute has done an analysis and the ABC has spoken to the institute’s Ben Oquist (former advisor to Bob Brown).
He reviewed legal action under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act – which governs projects of national significance – over the 15 years of the law (which was the creation of Liberal minister Robert Hill). In that time, fewer than 0.5% of the projects referred had been affected by the third-party appeal rights.
- That means only 22 projects out of 5,500 have been appealed.
- Six appeals have been partly successful.
- Two projects have been stopped.
This is Oquist:
In fact, what we’ve got is pretty weak environmental laws. And as those farmers who’ve been complaining about the Shenhua coalmine on the Liverpool plains and Barnaby Joyce know, the environmental laws really aren’t very strong.
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Good morning soldiers,
Stand up straight! We are at war this morning. The campaign today is targeting environmental groups. You there! With that green T-shirt on! I’m talking to you, layabout! If you think you can mount some kind of legal campaign just because you did Law 101, THINK AGAIN HIPPY.
Pardon me. I will pull myself together and launch into the news. Here are a few of the moving parts this morning.
Lenore Taylor reveals Philip Ruddock – the father of the house, former Howard government attorney general and pesky rule of law type of guy – was critical of Tony Abbott’s plan to knock out what he describes as green “lawfare”.
Michael Gordon at Fairfax reports that Tony Abbott is expected to tell four Indigenous leaders – Noel Pearson, Patrick Dodson, Kirstie Parker and Megan Davis – that “he is willing to support Indigenous conferences within an overall process designed to secure consensus on the referendum question”.
Labor is going to move a motion in the Senate asking the governor general to sack Dyson Heydon, the head of the trade union royal commission, after he accepted an invitation to a Liberal party fundraiser. He has since pulled out.
The prime minister is heading out to a farm in Yass. I’m thinking China Free Trade, I’m thinking rolling up the sleeves, I’m thinking gumboots. I’ll bring you some images in time for your flat white.
Stay with us and join the conversation in the thread. Love all the comments and I will be on the lookout for a word of the day. Mike Bowers is polishing his lens as we speak and you can join us on the Twits @mpbowers and @gabriellechan.
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