Later blogans, bloganistas
I was going to sign off with it’s been real. Unfortunately it’s been surreal. In any case, it has been enough. I need to go shortly and see my good friends at the ABC for tonight’s episode of The Drum.
That’s your lot for this parliamentary week.
Let’s wrap with a helicopter view of the week, rather than today.
Tony Abbott saw off a move against his leadership. While temporarily shell shocked he promised he would change. But given everything in politics is connected to everything else change is more difficult than it sounds or seems.
He’s been dogged all week by a deal he tried to pull off when he was counting numbers against the spill motion. Submarines has consequently turned into a debacle.
The government is not on the same page about the budget. Joe Hockey says if cuts don’t happen then a surplus will never happen. The prime minister says the priority is the household budget not the Commonwealth budget. The copayment is either finished or being fine tuned depending upon who is speaking.
Abbott has morphed from humble and conciliatory Abbott into bellicose Abbott who evidently intends to belt his way out of a diminshed corner. As Scott Morrison said this morning, what’s required is the stomach for a long game, not a big bash. Abbott (unfortunately) knows he’s only got the short game left to play.
That’s the week. We’ll be back in this format when parliament next sits. Until then you’ll have to put up with me in my other forms.
Thanks to colleagues, to Bowers and to the readers. We are humbled by you support and we actually mean that.
Good night.
One thing worth noting through the fog of the day. Several times today the prime minister has asked the rhetorical question – where was the Human Rights Commission during the last Labor government? This is part of the case of partisanship – why just focus on the Coalition?
Reasonable point, if it was actually true.
From the report:
Data collected for the purposes of the inquiry covers the period 1 January 2013 to 30 September 2014. The law and policy review of this Inquiry spans a 10 year period; 2004 to 2014.
So given the election was in September 2013, this report actually covers nine months of the Gillard and Rudd governments and the first 12 months of the Abbott government. And it references policies in place for a decade.
The answer to the question of where was the commission? In Sydney. Where it has always been.
England didn’t take Hong Hong back to England but it sure made a lot of money out of it
Agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce is the latest member of the government to be Speersed. Joyce is on Sky News now. Liberal senator Sean Edwards has set a very high bar for failing to function on live television but Joyce isn’t exactly stroking strongly.
Sky editor David Speers wants to know what problem the proposed new triggers for FIRB scrutiny on purchases of farmland is trying to fix. Is someone currently out there buying up the farm?
Joyce doesn’t quite know, but he hears a great deal of speculation about that around the traps. You hear people talking about it.
Are there any specific examples?
I’m not going to start putting it on your show.
(Ok then.)
Joyce says people say, in defence of liberalised investment policies, that foreign purchasers of Australian farmland can’t actually take the land away from Australia. (That on the face of it would seem to be a true statement.)
But Joyce wants Speers to understand where all this leads.
Madness is where it all leads.
England didn’t take Hong Hong back to England but it sure made a lot of money out of it.
A couple of compilations from Mr Bowers from the chamber that I didn’t get to in between the fire and brimstone.
Good to see both sides observing no props rule in #QT @murpharoo @GuardianAus @politicslive http://t.co/i5wtPrKocs pic.twitter.com/QBT8bqUfaF
— Mike Bowers (@mpbowers) February 12, 2015
Expulsions without notice-this must be Thursday @GuardianAus @murpharoo #politicslive http://t.co/i5wtPrsNkU pic.twitter.com/8kKZBBmLJJ
— Mike Bowers (@mpbowers) February 12, 2015
Big bash slasher.
@murpharoo #brickbill (with new improved face) at the parliamentary crease #bigbashslasher #brickparliament #auspol pic.twitter.com/CPJWCRdSLE
— Viscount Hinemoa (@pananian) February 12, 2015
Except Bill has a face!! (You can give him one, auspol – we are holding fire on that. I repeat. We don’t endorse this face.)
Reasons to love the internet.
Updated
The prime minister knows the holocaust lob was a terrible stuff-up. You do not go there. The faces in the shot behind him said it all.
Tony Abbott rises at the conclusion of question time to add to an answer.
The prime minister:
In answering one of numerous questions about submarines, I should not have used the term holocaust. I did withdraw it.
Shorten is baiting him across the chamber, and Abbott leans over the dispatch box, pointing at the Labor leader. He’s so riled up he’s just bumping here, pure adrenalin.
He gets past it.
Abbott, trying to tidy.
I shouldn’t have used it. I did withdraw it, I do apologise for it, but what I should also say, in response to that, Madam Speaker, is that whatever happens with our future submarine contract, there will be more jobs for South Australians.
That’s the bottom line.
Updated
The testosterone has leached out of the chamber gradually since the brain pop on the holocaust. Thank heavens for small mercies.
I hadn't broken promises then, but sure, I did later
Labor has mined Nikki Sava’s column which I linked to first up this morning – Abbott is being presented with the anecdote of him unloading the F-bomb on Queensland backbencher Wyatt Roy when Roy had the temerity to ask how the government might explain all his broken election promises.
He does not contest the report of his behaviour.
Abbott:
When I gave the answer in question to the member for Longman, it was absolutely true.
(Abbott in between dropping expletives is reported to have denied there were broken promises to defend.)
But.
There were subsequent developments. There were subsequent developments.
I absolutely accept that the commitment that I gave standing on the side of the Penrith Panthers home ground the night before the election not to cut the ABC – we have broken that.
And frankly, it’s just as well we did. It’s just as well we did, because, Madam Speaker, the ABC have not been subject to an efficiency dividend since 1996.
Updated
Education minister Christopher Pyne is invited to explain to the chamber why the government’s higher education reforms are a socially advantageous development. He obliges.
Labor’s Kate Ellis, to Scott Morrison.
Q: Before the last election, the government promised not to means test the childcare rebate. Does the minister stand by this election commitment today, or will this be the latest broken promise?
Morrison says Labor can come forward and cooperate with the government on a new families package, or it can continue to engage in unfunded empathy.
Then we are back into the Morrison frame for the day.
What we see in the leader of the opposition is not a test match performer but a big bash slasher, Madam Speaker, who is happy to go for the big hit, for the big flash, the big effort – but he can’t put it in week in and week out unless he’s putting it in to someone else who he used to work for.
Big bash slasher. So perfect that, a tiny jewel.
But I don’t think it can be applied to Bill Shorten. Big bash zinger perhaps. I think it has some utility with the prime minister’s disposition today. Fighting for your political hide rarely brings out the best in people. We’ve all lived through this since mid 2010. We know how this ends.
The tone of the chamber today, in one picture.
Updated
Oh thank God for Warren Truss. A few minutes where we can all breathe.
David Feeney again.
Q: My question is to the minister for defence. Can the minister confirm that his office or his department are in possession of draft talking points, draft media releases, or any other draft supporting documents announcing that Australia’s new submarines will be built by Japan?
The defence minister, Kevin Andrews.
I don’t know how many times it has to be said until the opposition understands, are but the government has not made a decision upon the future submarine program.
The government has not made a decision on the future submarine program.
How many times do I have to say it? We have not made a decision.
Labor’s David Feeney.
Q: When is the government going to come clean on what it promised Japan on the subject of submarines?
Why do you hate Japan, Labor? Tony Abbott wonders why members opposite engage in this constant denigration of Japan and the Japanese.
What is wrong with defence cooperation with Japan, which has been a friend and partner of Australia for the last 50 years?
There is absolutely no doubt that I have raised the subject of submarine corporation with the Japanese prime minister. It would be irresponsible of me not to raise the subject of defence and submarine cooperation, given this country risks a serious submarine capability gap because members opposite sat on their hands for six years.
We know what we are
If you haven’t got a strong constitution, turn away.
We’ve had the immigration minister Peter Dutton blaming Labor for the arrival of the two suspects under their watch. One arrived in 2009, the other in 2012. Join the dots peeps. Oh yes, the government already has.
Now Labor is returning fire about Khaled Sharrouf – the jihadist who fled Australia on his brother’s passport three months after Tony Abbott won the election. Labor joined the dots on that one last year in a somewhat more low-key fashion than today’s discussion. But dots were indeed joined.
Abbott said Sharrouf happened because it takes time to change dodgy systems.
We have the will to stop this problem, Madam Speaker. Members opposite in the end just didn’t know what they wanted. They just didn’t know what they wanted.
They couldn’t decide whether they were human rights lawyers or executiveness charge of the security of this country. That was the problem, Madam Speaker. Well, we know what we are, Madam Speaker, we know what we are.
Updated
Just stepping back one step before the next run over the trench, to my knowledge, police have not divulged the content of the video allegedly shot by the two men who are currently being held in Sydney. Perhaps something has changed over the course of the day which I’ve missed – if so, I’ll correct – but I don’t believe the contents have been divulged.
The prime minister invokes the holocaust
Abbott hasn’t finished. Asked again to explain his actions in relation to the submarine acquistion, the prime minister unleashes this analogy about conditions prevailing under the former government.
There was a holocaust of jobs in defence industries.
Holocaust? Really?
Fortunately he withdraws.
Updated
Striking necks and stabbing kidneys
Abbott follows up his full-frontal assault on the Human Rights Commission with a blow-by-blow of the video allegedly shot by the men in Sydney who are being held currently after the counter-terror raids.
The prime minister says at his security briefing this morning ..,
I was shown a pre-attack video that had been prepared by the men arrested. Madam Speaker, kneeling before the death cult flag with a knife in his hand and a machete before him one of those arrested said this – “I swear to all mighty Allah, we will carry out the first implementation for the soldiers of the caliphate in Australia.
There is a reference to the suspects talking about striking necks and stabbing kidneys.
Well, Madam Speaker, I don’t think it would be possible to witness uglier fanatacism than this, monstrous extremism, than this; and I regret to say it is now present in our country.
We are a compassionate and free society but we will never allow evil people to exploit our freedom.
(I’ll say it again – test innings or populist big bash. You decide. I’m grateful to Scott Morrison for providing this yardstick this morning. Extremely helpful.)
Updated
It would be a lot easier to respect the Human Rights Commission if it did not engage in transparent stitch-ups
The Labor leader Bill Shorten opens on the Human Rights Commission report.
Q: The Human Rights Commission has detailed serious concerns about the wellbeing of children in detention. Beyond the statement of senator Brandis last night, how will the government respond to these new disturbing findings?
Tony Abbott opens his shoulders and belts for the boundary (to draw on Scott Morrison’s cricket analogy from this morning.)
Madam Speaker, I really am amazed that the leader of the opposition should raise this subject in question time today because, Madam Speaker, at its peak in the middle of 2013 under members opposite when they were in government, there were almost 2,000 children in detention.
Madam Speaker, if members opposite are upset they should be hanging their heads in shame at their own performance.
Madam Speaker, at the time of the election there were almost 1,400 children in detention. Now there are under 200 children in detention. So, Madam Speaker, under us, under us, there has been a 90% improvement.
Madam Speaker, why are there only 10% of the numbers in detention under us than there were under Labor? Madam Speaker, because we stopped the boats.
Madam Speaker, I say to the leader of the opposition, who asked a question of baffling folly, of absolutely incomprehensive folly – I ask the leader of the opposition where was the Human Rights Commission when members opposite were in government – the boats were coming, the people were drowning and the children in detention were mounting up and up and up?
Where was the Human Rights Commission?
We do know from evidence in the Senate that there were conversations between the Human Rights Commission, there were conversations between the Human Rights Commission and ministers in the former government.
Well, Madam Speaker, it would be a lot easier to respect the human rights commission if it did not engage in what are transparent stitch-ups like the one the other day.
(Test innings or populist big bash. You decide.)
Updated
Question time
Today’s session is opening with the house formally endorsing the clemency debate from this morning. There’s another endorsement for the motion concerning the Martin Place siege. MPs are rising in their places.
Updated
This is a case of shooting the messenger when you don’t like the message.
The shadow immigration spokesman, Richard Marles – on today’s prime ministerial takedown of Gillian Triggs.
Marles is on Sky News now. We are on the ramp for question time. Refresh your beverages.
Updated
Ibrahim Al-J’afari is asked whether Australian troops are in Iraq with diplomatic passports rather than on a status of forces agreement because of concern in Baghdad about the way Australia voted on Israel during our period on the UN security council.
Bishop jumps in.
She says the agreement predated the relevant security council vote, so the question is based on a false premise.
The passport arrangements was something we agreed with the Iraqi government and something we’ve considered in the past.
In the circumstances of seeking to get our people there as soon as possible so that we could be part of building capacity with the Iraqi defence force – it was agreed that this was the most effective and most efficient way of doing it.
The legal status of Australian forces in Iraq has never been enitrely clear. The government points to Iraqi sensitivites whenever this is raised.
Updated
The foreign minister Julie Bishop is holding a joint press conference with the Iraqi foreign minister Ibrahim Al-J’afari.
Bishop is asked about the US organising American special forces to directly target Isis leaders. Would we send special forces?
Julie Bishop:
We have not sought to expand our role to include combat troops. We’ve not had that discussion. We have talked about opportunities to continue to train Iraqi defence forces in circumstances where that would be required.
Q: Would Iraq welcome a broader contract role for Australia?
Ibrahim Al’Jafari:
We have never asked for ground forces contribution.
Updated
Adjournment debates are interesting things.
I heard one of the classiest speeches you will ever hear in the chamber on my way home last night, where the Liberal senator Brett Mason was paying tribute to the Labor man John Faulkner, who is off to get a life in less stressful climes. I must chase that if I ever get five minutes. It really was quite something in the politicians-are-actually-humans frame.
Down in the other place, Liberal Teresa Gambaro delivered a message that could have a number of different interpretations.
If we want Australians to have access to the best quality healthcare in the world – which is what our citizens have come to expect and which they rightly should have – then Medicare requires structural reform. In my view, this is the one of the greatest public policy challenges confronting our country right now – we need to properly acknowledge it and move collectively and cooperatively to address it.
Failure to do so will fundamentally change Australians quality of life for the worse. A sustainable future for Medicare cannot be achieved through a process of finger pointing and recrimination. Demonising doctors, engaging in cheap political point scoring or going for a quick fix, dare I say it - a Band Aid – will not get the job done.
Updated
Proof that Malcolm Turnbull is an agent of one-world government? What is this “internet of everything”? Eh?
Great to meet David Bray @fcc_cio today to discuss cyber security and the internet of everything. pic.twitter.com/hXvU0dZKiK
— Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) February 12, 2015
Updated
Employment minister Eric Abetz is addressing the media about unemployment figures, which thus far appear to be the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews’ fault.
Employment figures bounce around from month to month, Abetz notes.
Quite true. They do bounce around. Sadly they tend to bounce around in the context of broader economic conditions, which are somewhat weak. Abetz says looking forward, the government’s program will create jobs. The Coalition has put beneficial inputs into the economy. They will take some time to wash through.
Abetz says cutting spending will help. (Actually, that won’t help at all, which is why the government is repositioning on the next budget.) The minister is attempting to wind this up quickly. Given his somewhat flimsy grasp of the material, this is probably a good idea.
Updated
Touching down in the whirlwind
Daylight. I can see it. Quick then, let’s do a summary.
Politics, this lunchtime:
- The Abbott government has launched an aggressive pushback against the Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs and her report which reveals a shocking picture of institutionalised abuse and neglect against children in immigration detention.
- In close in combat, the prime minister branded the report blatantly partisan. Triggs responded by keeping things simple. The practice of locking up children taints us all she said.
- The prime minister had an early security briefing in the wake of the terror raid in Sydney and then noted Australia faced a metatstasising threat from radicalised people who would do us harm. That’s why all undesirables had to be kept out of the country. On the way through he noted that the previous government had not been great at keeping the bad people out of the country.
- Parliament paused to make one last and very profound plea to the Indonesians to spare two Australians who may shortly be executed for drug offences. Foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop gave a very strong speech outlining Australia’s desire that the men be spared, and Tanya Plibersek used her personal story as a means of explaining her own view on the intrinsic value of remorse and rehabilitation. Plibersek also inflected carefully on the subject of the AFP giving intelligence to Indonesia – a death penalty country.
- New unemployment figures came in higher than market expectations, at 6.4%. The government will respond to those figures shortly.
As we say in the news business, more to come.
Shadow employment spokesman Brendan O’Connor says there is a growing jobs crisis in Australia as a hook to getting back onto the Coalition’s leadership woes. They are worried about their jobs, not your jobs. Exactly what the Coalition used to say about Labor.
O’Connor:
The prime minister is consumed with saving only one job – his own.
Crisis might be a bit strong for 6.4% unemployment. Bad, for sure – particularly given most of us are worried about our job security a lot of the time.
Crisis? Well the word is over-used isn’t it. Perhaps conscious of this O’Connor reaches for youth unemployment numbers which he says breach 30% in some parts of the country.
Unemployment at a glance
Thanks to my colleague Martin Farrer for the key facts concerning today’s unemployment figures.
Unemployment in Australia rose to its highest level for 13 years in January, figures on Thursday showed. The headline rate rose to 6.4%, the worst recorded since August 2002, as the total number of people with jobs fell by 12,200 to 11.669 million in January. The figure was much worse than the decrease of 5,000 expected by economists and sent the Australian dollar to a near six-year low. The currency fell to US76.56c after the figures were released at 1130 AEDT, from US77.26c just prior.
Well, we couldn’t resist, could we? Feels like last week, the morning has accelerated so quickly, but how could we not do a #BrickParliament re-enactment of the China Plate dinner we started with on Politics Live first up.
I see Mike in his caption has outed the fellow I described only as our roving restaurant reviewer in order to give him plausible deniability. Our colleague Daniel Hurst can be seen wielding a microphone in front of #BrickChris #BrickCormannator and #TheClievTroll.
As well as outing Daniel, we are actually unveiling #TheClievTroll in this outing. Drum roll please.
Things might get uncomfortable in our office after (DH) returns from the defence briefing. Fortunately there were other witnesses.
Updated
The diplomatic defence man is Vice Admiral David Johnston. Not the former defence minister and part-time canoe fancier David Johnston.
Updated
Conflict in Iraq will take years
I’m just quickly scanning the defence briefing on Iraq. The defence man must be a part-time diplomat. Every time he’s asked to comment on an assertion made by someone in and outside the government he suggests there are a range of views.
The defence official is asked when Islamic State might be thrown out of Iraq. (Years, is the answer. Iraq must reassert sovereignty and secure its borders. A large task, that.)
That is a difficult question to answer. But there’s a number of experts starting to comment, particularly on the US side, that it’s years in order to achieve outcomes.
Updated
Unemployment 6.4%. Yikes.
— Bernard Keane (@BernardKeane) February 12, 2015
Really? Yowsers.
Interesting times
This joint never lets up seriously. There’s a defence briefing on Iraq right now which I’ll track back to get shortly.
The deluge of today has thus far prevented me sharing a very interesting story by Sean Nicholls in the Sydney Morning Herald today about the leadership ballot that installed Bill Shorten as leader.
Let’s catch up now.
Sean Nicholls:
The integrity of the vote that installed Bill Shorten as federal Labor leader is under scrutiny after an ALP tribunal found the mailing addresses for dozens of ballot papers were altered at the request of a staff member of senator Sam Dastyari.
Politics Live readers might remember that the vote was the first time the party rank and file participated in the election of the federal leader. Previously this has been the exclusive province of the caucus.
Anthony Albanese won the vote of the rank and file, but he split the left vote in caucus. Bill Shorten won the day there – and carried the ballot. There has been some rancour about this around the ALP – and there was rancour during the ballot about binding and stacking and all the usual things.
Shorten’s office is saying there should be zero tolerance for funny business. Shorten’s spokesman:
If there is any wrongdoing then it should be looked at.
Updated
We’ve shared the conventional dispatch box picture of Julie Bishop delivering her speech.
Now some lovely candour around the edges. Here are Bishop and Plibersek after the delivery of their clemency contributions. I do love Labor frontbencher Mark Butler in this shot. Thursday will make you weary.
The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven.
I think these pictures speak for themselves.
Updated
I should note I’m very grateful to my colleague in Sydney, Ben Doherty, who made a huge effort to keep me across the Triggs press conference while the clemency debate was underway in the House.
Live blogs. It takes a village.
What a morning.
It’s been maximum political expediency versus a profound moral clarity.
National affairs is in dialogue with itself.
I know which side is winning.
The practice of locking up children taints all of us: Gillian Triggs
The ladies of public life are excelling themselves this morning. I’ll catch up properly but I just caught the tail end of Gillian Triggs, the president of the Human Rights Commission, who is speaking to journalists following the release of her report into children in detention. This is the report described by the prime minister as a partisan and political exercise.
Triggs has her chin up and her shoulders squared.
Gillain Triggs:
May I now conclude on a rather more personal note? Leading this inquiry has been a life changing experience for me. Although I’ve been a lawyer for 46 years, this inquiry has taught me how very important it is to respect the dignity of every human being and how vulnerable the rule of law can be to abuse, even in a mature democracy like Australia’s.
(I learned these lessons) in the dust and heat of Christmas Island – telling her a mother that her baby born a few weeks in Brisbane to not be able to apply for citizenship. These lessons I have learned as I talked to a very young girl as bright and eager as any Australian when she broke down in tears, not because her family had been killed by al-Shabab in Somalia ... but because she had been denied an education for a year on Christmas Island.
The practice of locking up children taints all of us and is contrary to the values we admire so much in the Australian spirit, a sense of a fair go and a generous hearted welcome to those needing our protection. And support.
I appeal for a more humane and legally responsible approach to refugees who seek our help and I ask you to read this report and to decide for yourself.
That was exceptional, truly. Politics at its absolute best. Gives you hope.
We must cooperate but ensure we avoid the imposition of the death penalty: Plibersek
Plibersek is working a very careful line here concerning the role of the AFP in this case, in sharing intelligence which led to the conviction of these men.
She’s making a point but trying very hard not to over egg the point.
We must continue to build our agency to agency links wherever we have those established with other nations. The work that the Australian federal police does with the Indonesian police is vital for both countries and our cooperation should remain strong.
It is important that we work with all other nations to prevent serious transnational crimes, such as the crime that these young men have been convicted of. However, we must also make sure we take a principled approach to the death penalty to ensure that we are not involved in the imposition of the sentences in other nations.
Building the capacity to cooperate to prevent transnational crime while ensuring that we don’t become a party to the imposition of the death penalty needs to be a focus of our engagement with other nations.
Tanya Plibersek: I have a particular view about remorse
The shadow foreign minister Tanya Plibersek joins Bishop in support of this motion. She has a powerful personal story to share with the chamber.
Tanya Plibersek:
We need to have a principled and methodical approach to punishments of serious crime. I perhaps have a particular view on remorse and redemption because of experiences in my own life.
In 1988, my husband left prison after being charged and convicted of a similar crime to these young men. I imagine what would have happened if he had been caught in Thailand instead of in Australia where that crime was committed, where he was coming back to Australia. I think about – I didn’t know him at the time, this is 30 years ago – what would the world have missed out on? They would have missed out on the three beautiful children we have had together. They would have missed out on a man who spent the rest of his life making amends for the crime that he committed.
I have another perspective on this, too. In 1997, I lost my brother to a violent crime in Port Moresby. I know that if I had been the one making the decision about the punishment of the person who did that crime, I couldn’t have thought of a punishment bad enough.
That’s why we don’t make decisions about punishment on the basis of how we feel but on the basis of universal, consistently-applied rules. I think it is important to say that when it comes to the death penalty, there has been for many years in Australia a bipartisan rejection of the death penalty.
Apologies, this morning is a deluge of content.
This is the motion currently being debated.
That the House note:
(a) that two Australians, Mr Andrew Chan and Mr Myuran Sukumaran, are presently imprisoned in Kerobokan prison in Indonesia and are facing execution for the crime of drug trafficking;
(b) the serious nature of Mr Chan’s and Mr Sukumaran’s crimes, befitting lengthy prison terms as just punishment;
(c) Australia’s abolition of capital punishment, the international trend away from capital punishment, and the success of lndonesia’s efforts to save the lives of its own citizens sentenced to death in foreign jurisdictions;
(d) the genuine remorse demonstrated by Mr Chan and Mr Sukumaran and their efforts at rehabilitation and reform in Kerobokan Prison, benefitting other prisoners; and
(e) the widespread support of the Australian people for the commutation of the death sentences of Mr Chan and Mr Sukumaran to lengthy prison sentences, as shown in the recent campaigns across the country calling for mercy to be shown to them;
And:
(2) encourages Indonesia to:
(a) give consideration to the circumstances of Mr Chan and Mr Sukumaran and their rehabilitation in prison, their suffering and that of their families; and
(b) stay their executions and commute their sentences to an appropriate term of imprisonment.
Indonesia seeks clemency for its citizens, we are doing the same
Bishop rounds out on this note.
Madam Speaker, the Australian government will continue to seek clemency for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukamaran.
We urge the Indonesian government to show the same mercy to Andrew and Myuran that it seeks for its citizens in the same situation abroad.
Madam Speaker, colleagues, we must not give up hope and we will continue with our efforts to save the lives of Australian citizens Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.
Updated
Australia and Indonesia have a shared commitment to reduce the scourge of narcotics
Bishop:
We by no means under-estimate the problems of drug and drug-related crimes in Indonesia. In Australia, we too face these challenges.
That is why Australia and Indonesia share a commitment to reducing the scourge of illegal narcotics and their destructive impact on our countries, on our societies, the impact of which falls disproportionately on the poorest and most vulnerable members of our communities.
Australia and Indonesia work in partnership to address drug-related crime at all levels. No country has done as much as Australia to support Indonesia in this area.
Indonesia is a sovereign nation but we ask for mercy
Bishop:
We reiterate our respect for Indonesia’s sovereignty while pointing out the special circumstances that warrant mercy.
Indonesia can be in no doubt about our position.
Updated
These men have changed
Bishop statement in continuation.
A decade on from their crimes, Andrew and Myuran are changed men. They are deeply committed to a new path. Both men are paying their debt to society with dedication and unwavering commitment, they are improving and enriching the lives of their fellow prisoners.
Andrew’s completed a theology degree in prison. As a pastor, he now provides religious counselling and guidance to fellow inmates. On the day he received the president’s rejection of his clemency application, Andrew’s Australian lawyer Julian McMahon said that Andrew was nowhere to be found, for even at this moment of undeniable personal anguish, Andrew had taken time out to comfort a fellow inmate who was seriously ill. Myuran, referred to by many as the gentle giant, has nearly completed a fine arts degree in jail. He has had the opportunity to become an accomplished artist. His raw talent recognised and fostered by his friend and mentor, renowned artist Ben Quilty.
Updated
Well done Julie, indeed
From the perch on the chair in the PMO, the foreign minister has made a short sprint to the chamber to make a plea for the two men imprisoned on drug charges in Indonesia – men who face excution, possibly within days.
Julie Bishop:
Whatever one’s views of the rights and wrongs of this situation, after speaking to the mothers of Australian citizens Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, I ask others to place themselves just for a moment in the shoes of these young men and their families.
Sons, brothers, facing death by firing squad for shocking actions, for shocking mistakes made over a decade ago. Australia’s strong opposition to the death penalty at home and abroad is reflected in the Government’s determination to do all possible to seek a stay of execution and clemency for Andrew and Myuran.
Updated
The Iraqi foreign minister is in town. Mike popped down just before to take some happy snaps. Our foreign minister Julie Bishop was a bit late, as you can see from this delicate chair perch.
Through a translator, the Iraqi foreign minister gave Bishop a huge wrap.
Tony Abbott:
Well done Julie.
On the art of chumming
So a great deal of content there in the end.
Earlier in the day, Mike Bowers gave me a tutorial in the practice of chumming. It’s a fishing thing. It’s a practice where fisherfolk throw “chum” into the water to lure the big fish – tuna usually.
It’s what everyone is doing just at the moment. The anti-Abbott forces are doing it. And Abbott returned some fire there in that interview.
After sounding very conciliatory after the stagger of the leadership spill – yes it would all change, it would all be better and different and group huggish – he’s telling his internal critics to get stuffed in that office segment.
That should calm things down nicely.
Chumming. I love it.
The prime minister is also doing his man of steel impersonation. This is a fight to the death. He evidently suspects his road back is to go full tilt on the culture war: to smash enemies wherever they may be, and hit the accelerator on fear and loathing.
Boat people. Gillian Triggs. Labor. Colleagues. Knock out blows. Don’t leave anything in the cupboard. Don’t die wondering.
That's an impertinent question Neil
The final segment of the interview is about internal process.
Mitchell wants to know whether he will replace his mcuh maligned chief of staff, Peta Credlin.
Abbott:
That’s an impertinent question Neil.
Abbott says he doesn’t give Mitchell advice about his production staff, or the internals at 3AW, so perhaps he should desist from those inquiries. The prime minister says he has a great office, which delivered the Coalition an election victory.
I’m a person who stands by my team. I take responsibility.
Updated
I feel no guilt whatsoever
Mitchell moves on to the budget and the economy.
It’s a balancing act, the prime minister says. Abbott says he doesn’t want to talk down the economy.
I don’t want to destroy confidence but I need to alert people to the long term threats that we face.
Q: Is the age of entitlement finished?
We are preparing a families package which will come out in weeks not months.
(So no, then.)
Mitchell asks about pensioners, can they expect more pain? Abbott says the changes to pensions are coming up, they haven’t happened.
Yes there were election commitments that weren’t quite kept.
I freely admit that a couple of election commitments we have not been able to keep.
He says this coming budget will be quite a different budget this year to last year.
Then the Human Rights Commission report about kids in detention.
Q: Do you feel any guilt?
Abbott:
None whatsoever.
Q: There are ten year olds on suicide watch?
The most compassionate thing you can do is stop the boats.
He says this report is a blatantly partsian political exercise and the human rights commission ashamed of itself.
Abbott says Scott Morrison should get a herogram.
What’s up with the copayment? Abbott says people who can afford to pay for their healthcare should.
There wont be any further proposals coming from the government without the backing of the medical profession.
Is there a deal with Japan on the submarines? Abbott says he indicated to prime minister Abe that we were interested in submarine cooperaion.
We need to get cracking on this Neil.
Neil Mitchell.
My second day in Canberra, or third. I hate this place. They not in the real world here. The best thing for Australia would be to close Canberra.
(Neil has had a bad morning and he’s having to fill massively here.)
We need to ask ourselves the question what useful purpose does it serve to have these people here?
This is a reference to the security lapse which Dutton has been highlighting on television.
At every level we are lifting our game when it comes to national security.
(Unlike the other mob.)
We want them out, people who come to this country illegally by boat, we want them out.
Abbott opens in the interview with this new line about the metatstasising threat posed by Islamic State. Abbott said yesterday things will get worse. He says it again with Mitchell. Things will get worse because the terrorists have been checked but not routed.
Mitchell notes Abbott has had a security briefing about events yesterday. What can he share about the incident?
Tony Abbott:
They wanted to be the first soldiers of Allah in Australia.
Updated
Mitchell is complaining about the prime minister’s rules of engagement. His office asked that the interview be conducted in the prime ministerial office ‘arm chair to arm chair’ so a TV camera could film it as well. Neil is unhappy both with the strictures and the sound quality. He suspects the prime minister wanted to avoid presenting himself in the press gallery. He’s pressing ahead in any case.
Updated
Neil Mitchell interviews the prime minister
3AW host Neil Mitchell has been in Canberra for the past few days. He put the treasurer through ten rounds of heavyweight boxing yesterday. Today, his chat is with the prime minister. As I flagged earlier, this interview was recorded earlier this morning, presumably aafter those high level briefs with police.
Mitchell:
What’s going on with pineapple?
(I like the Alan Jones lead ups to prime ministerial interviews better. You generally get a musical. Or a metamucil ad.)
Mitchell:
Tony hello ..
Different Tony. The other one is coming up.
In the game of chess that is politics, (and it the moment the chess is as brutal as it gets), I suspect the Coalition is intent this morning on extracting a bit of payback for Labor’s temerity in pointing out last year that convicted terrorist Khaled Sharrouf fled Australia on his brother’s passport three months after Tony Abbott won the election.
Immigration minister Peter Dutton is pointing out this morning that one of the men involved in the alleged incident in Sydney yesterday entered Australia on Labor’s watch, possibly with false documentation in 2009. He made the point on breakfast television that Australia’s borders were porous in 2009.
My colleague Shalailah Medhora stopped Dutton in the corridor just a little while ago, and asked for an update.
Dutton:
Bear in mind that over that period of time, about 50,000 or 800 boats arrived in our country. Now, this man came by air, but none the less the security agencies need to conduct their assessments on people who come by air or by sea. And I think at the time, and it has been documented since, that our security agencies were well and truly overwhelmed with that surge of people.
Now we have stopped those boats. We have to make sure that we give our security agencies all the necessary financial support they need to stare down this threat.
Updated
A metastasising threat
Tony Abbott has (I believe) called by the AFP this morning in the wake of the terror raids in Sydney – the other dominant story of the day.
I know this not because I was informed about it in advance, but because an official transcript has just arrived in my inbox.
Prime minister to the policeman:
Well, Andrew, obviously it was quite a development over the last 24 hours or so and I really appreciate the work that you’ve done; our colleagues in New South Wales have done. It is absolutely vital that we maintain our vigilance because obviously there is a different kind of terror threat today to the one that we faced just a few years ago. It is, it seems, a metastasising threat and the influence of our agencies at every single level, at all levels, is more important than ever.
AFP commissioner Colvin to the prime minister:
You are quite right, from a law enforcement and security agency perspective this is our worst concern and the ability for people to move very quickly from an idea to an intention through to action is what law enforcement in this country is dealing with every day now. It was good work by our police and security agencies to stop this attack but of course the work is not finished and as we will brief you in a minute we need to keep vigilant and continue to work on this problem.
On Seven Sunrise, Kochie had read the foreign relations blog and declared this underscored a global sense of crisis around the leadership of Tony Abbott and by extension his guest, the treasurer Joe Hockey.
Joe Hockey:
It is a difficult time to govern when the Labor controlled senate is determined to block anything this government suggests.
(Hockey rounded up the chat with Kochie by urging his host was looking good. Kochie did not deny that.)
Social services minister Scott Morrison has busted out a cricket metaphor in an interview with an ABC just a few moments ago. He says the government needs to build a test match innings performance, and avoid the big bash populist swinging.
I quite like this metaphor. I suspect it can become extremely useful.
Who will be the night watchman? Who will prove to be the 12th man?
F-bombs and foreign relations
Tony Abbott woke up to two comforting opinion pieces this morning. (Yes, it is opposites day.)
Council on Foreign Relations – Washington
In less than two years as prime minister, Abbott has proven shockingly incompetent, which is why other leaders within his ruling coalition, following a set of defeats in state elections, may now scheme to unseat him. They should: Abbott has proven so incapable of clear policy thinking, so unwilling to consult with even his own ministers and advisers, and so poor at communicating that he has to go.
(This piece was written before the leadership spill debate, but picked up by The Sydney Morning Herald this morning.)
Nikki Savva in The Australian, (among many other things), has a choice anecdote in her column today about the prime minister dropping the f-bomb to Queensland backbencher Wyatt Roy last May:
Roy, trying to be helpful, stood at the table to tell the prime minister that broken promises were the fundamental cause of the government’s problems. It might be a good idea, Roy suggested, to apologise to people a la Peter Beattie and move on. Abbott was furious. He rounded on Roy, yelled at him, then directed his remarks to all of them that there were no effing broken promises and no one should concede there had been. The incident stuck in the mind of MPs, first because of Roy’s bravery in broaching it, then because of the prime minister’s use of the F-bomb.
Good morning prime minister. He’s been interviewed by Neil Mitchell on 3AW apparently. I don’t think that encounter has been broadcast yet but I’ll chase it up.
Did you reach agreement? Pass the dumplings
I’m just listening to the audio of the Clive, Chris and Mathias post soiree doorstop sent to me by our hardworking open all hours restaurant reviewer. The three parliamentarians were spotted and then set upon on the footpath by twenty of their closest journalist friends. You cannot dine in Kingston during a parliamentary sitting week and expect to be left to your own devices. The eyes, the eyes, they are everywhere.
Q: This is a Wild Duck moment isn’t it?
Clive Palmer:
This isn’t the Wild Duck, this is the China Plate.
Q: Did you reach agreement on anything tonight?
Christopher Pyne:
They have the best dumplings in Canberra.
Q: What about the 2014 budget?
Clive Palmer:
Let’s talk about the 2015 budget.
Christopher Pyne:
You are not talking to a man dressed in gym gear.
Good night Clive.
Good morning blogans and bloganistas, and welcome to Thursday. The political day dawns with the usual smogasbord of the good the bad and the truthy.
The Human Rights Commission’s report (released late on Wednesday) is dominating the morning news. As my colleague Ben Doherty reports, more than 300 children in immigration detention “committed or threatened self-harm in a 15-month period – 30 reported sexual assault, nearly 30 went on hunger strike and more than 200 were involved in assaults.”
It is grim reading, to say the least. But the Coalition is disappointed and surprised that this report wasn’t carried out under the previous Labor government, when there were a great many more children in immigration detention. Perhaps this is a plot of some kind. Expect to hear more of this passive aggression to the messenger throughout the day.
This is an historical look at the detention network, insists the immigration minister Peter Dutton. Dutton was asked on Radio National just now why the government is pushing back against a royal commission for this evident horror fest when it was happy to have royal commissions into Labor’s pink batts scheme and Labor’s industrial base. It’s an excellent question by Ali Carabine. Dutton says this is quite a different thing. The government has a fundamental difference of opinion with the Human Rights Commission. He insists this is all historical, meaning all Labor’s fault (which on the normal rationale would mean yes to a royal commission but not in this instance, strangely.)
Before we press go on the day, a quick social report. According to our roving restaurant reviewer, Clive Palmer dined last night with Christopher Pyne and Mathias Cormann at China Plate in Kingston.
Presumably these latest victuals are less incendiary that the victuals a little while ago enjoyed by the Clive Troll and Malcolm Turnbull at Wild Duck – a soiree which was interpreted in some quarters of the government and the commetariat as foment and thought crime. As Julie Bishop might say, all that {paranoia} is soooo yesterday.
On the third day of good government, or perhaps its the fourth day of good government, the Senate is now part of socialising the decisions of government (when it isn’t being branded the Labor-controlled resistance to everything the government proposes.) So dinners like this are now probably ok now. Well they will be ok right up until the minute they are not ok.
So much to get across. The comments thread is open for your wisdoms. There has been a great conversation in the thread all week. You don’t need me to pat you on the head for the conversation so I won’t – I’ll just say thanks for lending your voice to the political day. Jump on board, or give us a shout on the Twits if that’s your thing @murpharoo @mpbowers
