And on that note, we are going to call it a night.
A big thank you to Mike Bowers, Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp and Sarah Martin. They’ll be back tomorrow, with more of the 46th parliament’s fun and games (yes, our fun radar is very low).
And of course, to you, for making it all worthwhile. I’ll be back early tomorrow morning, but you can catch me on the socials, if you have a burning issue. In the meantime though – take care of you.
Updated
Meanwhile, this just happened:
Here’s how my day went...
— Kristina Keneally (@KKeneally) October 15, 2019
First, Immigration Minister @DavidColemanMP this morning cancelled a meeting he scheduled last week with me to discuss legislation that the Government claims is "urgent" (Strengthening the Character Test Bill).
Coleman says he won’t reschedule.
The time available in the Senate to raise Mr Dutton’s failures to answer my questions was after Question Time.
— Kristina Keneally (@KKeneally) October 15, 2019
So, yes, I asked the Department of Home Affairs to reschedule (not cancel) my briefing so I could do my job and speak in the Senate.
They agreed.
Maybe @PeterDutton_MP wants to play political games, I don’t know.
— Kristina Keneally (@KKeneally) October 15, 2019
But if he is going to politicise the Department of Home Affairs and leak the details of portfolio briefings to the media, I’m just going to call him on it.
On the leaks from the right caucus, Joel Fitzgibbon tells Patricia Karvelas that he would never stop debate in the Labor party and it is “no skin off my nose”.
Despite multiple attempts from PK, Fitzgibbon does not concede that his 28% emissions reduction target idea is dead, and just says the discussions within Labor will continue.
@PatsKarvelas: "Do you think it (28%) can meet our obligations?" @fitzhunter "The science is all over the place on this"#auspol #climatechange #RNDrive
— RN Drive (@RNDrive) October 15, 2019
The government is also calling for a do-over on the vote it messed up overnight.
The government in the House rejected the amended legislation (the sunset clause on the police powers at airports bill that Rex Patrick had inserted – and won) so it has sent the bill back to the Senate.
Obviously the government will have made sure it has the numbers for this now.
Honestly, I wish I could have a do-over this easily. I have new ideas about how to ruin my life and I’d like to see how they play out.
Updated
On the emissions target debate, Joel Fitzgibbon says he posed the question that Labor match the government target to highlight that Scott Morrison is “telling porkies” over the government meeting its target “in a canter”.
He says he doesn’t regret raising those questions because he wants the focus to be on Morrison and the government.
But he acknowledges that there have been “various views” from his colleagues over his intervention.
Updated
Meanwhile, remember this story from Helen Davidson?
The Morrison government is sitting on a major review it commissioned last year to explore better ways of resettling humanitarian migrants in Australia.
The review into integration, employment, and settlement outcomes for refugees and humanitarian entrants, was led by Prof Peter Shergold, the former secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, now coordinator general of refugee resettlement in NSW.
Guardian Australia understands the final report was delivered to government in February but the immigration minister, David Coleman, does not intend to release it until the end of this year, when it’s expected to be published along with the government’s response.
The government has repeatedly refused requests for both the report and for an explanation of why it hasn’t been released.”
The Senate just passed a motion demanding the government produce it.
Updated
On whether or not he believes there is a climate emergency, Joel Fitzgibbon says yes, and that is the terminology which has been used by other nations, including the UK.
He says he supports it.
But he says that what he has been arguing is that Labor needs to get “the focus on him”, meaning Scott Morrison, and ensuring that Morrison does the things that he says he is going to do.
Updated
Joel Fitzgibbon says Labor offered the government a “blank cheque” to support drought-stricken communities (as in Labor will support any motion) but the government hasn’t taken it up on the offer.
Updated
Joel Fitzgibbon tells Patricia Karvelas on ABC radio that the government has been promising it would build dams for six years “and is yet to break ground”.
He says the government didn’t mention that 25% of its 50% commitment was in concessional loans, and that the states haven’t agreed because they don’t have the money to match the funding.
Given all the dam debate in the parliament this week, this story from AAP is interesting:
Queensland’s Natural Resources Minister says the federal government has him feeling like a jilted teenager over dams.
Minister Anthony Lynham says the state government has made $872 million worth of promises for water projects across the drought stricken state.
Dr Lynham said the government has applied for $95 million through a Commonwealth development fund for projects including at Wamuran, Theodore, Bungunya, Lockyer Valley and at the Lower Burdekin - with little success.
“We have had more knockbacks than I had as a teenager,” Dr Lynham told parliament on Tuesday.
“We have not seen a brass razoo for Rookwood (Weir) from the LNP.”
Politics and sport. You do the rest.
PM Scott Morrison catches a cricket ball thrown by co-captain of the PM’s XI Peter Siddle when he and Dan Christian visited Parliament House Canberra this morning @AmyRemeikis @GuardianAus #politicslive pic.twitter.com/MOvv0vs625
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) October 15, 2019
Updated
This will be good:
Joining me on @RNDrive at 6pm is Labor’s’Joel Fitzgibbon #auspol
— PatriciaKarvelas (@PatsKarvelas) October 15, 2019
Updated
Labor just managed to pass this amendment to a motion in the Senate (the bit in bold)
Senator Ciccone : To move—That the Senate—
(a) notes that:
(i) after six years under this Liberal-National Government’s watch, from 1 July 2014 to 19 31 August 2019:
(A) 95,943 people have come through Australia’s airports and sought asylum, as is their right to do, and
(B) in nearly the same period, bridging visas have blown out from 94,000 to almost 230,000 - an increase of over 140%,
(ii) of the protection visa applications decided by the Department of Home Affairs in that period, 62,732 - 84.2% - were rejected,
(iii) those waiting in Australia on a bridging visa as their claims for asylum are assessed are often being exploited and trafficked by labour hire companies and criminal syndicates,
(iv) stakeholders have expressed concern as racketeering around visas and asylum applications have been allowed to flourish,
(v) the Assistant Minister for Customs, Community Safety and Multicultural Affairs, Mr Wood, remarked on the blowout of airplane arrivals and stated ‘Organised crime and illegitimate labour hire companies are using this loophole...’, and
(vi) the Minister for Home Affairs, Mr Dutton, stated that: ‘...If you cannot control your borders, you cannot govern the country’; and
(b) condemns the Morrison Government and the Minister for Home Affairs, Mr Dutton, for losing control of Australia’s borders and allowing exploitation, slavery and trafficking to go unchecked, having a devastating impact on workers and their families, and the ability to do basic mathematics and provide accurate data to the Senate on the number of people who have been trafficked to Australia under their watch.
The Red Meat Council has put out the free lunch klaxton for tomorrow.
Turns out they are a brisket crowd.
(Archer fans will get the joke.)
Updated
In the midst of all of that is this nice little alert from DPS:
The official portrait of Ms Nova Peris OAM, the first Aboriginal woman to become a federal parliamentarian and Senator, will be unveiled at Australian Parliament House, Canberra on Wednesday 16 October 2019.
The Department of Parliamentary Services commissioned the portrait for Parliament’s Historic Memorials Collection. The portrait was created by Dr Jandamarra Cadd, a Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Warung descendant. This is Dr Cadd’s first portrait for the Historic Memorials Collection and he is also the first Indigenous artist to paint a portrait for the Collection.
Dr Cadd has been a finalist in several prestigious portrait competitions and his work is held in a number of collections. He is a graduate of Deakin University and holds an Honorary Doctorate in Creative Industries from Central Queensland University.
The Historic Memorials Collection is Australia’s longest-running art commissioning program. Founded by Prime Minister Andrew Fisher in 1911, the collection has commissioned portraits of the Head of State, Governors-General, Prime Ministers, Speakers and Presidents for more than a century.
Meanwhile, over in the Senate, a Greens motion to ban any new thermal coal mines in Tasmania failed.
Ayes - 8
Noes - 47
(Which means Labor voted against it)
Updated
Parliamentary climate emergency declaration attempt fails
The attempt to suspend standing orders to move a climate emergency declaration has been lost.
Ayes 65
Noes 72
Updated
There was a division a little earlier, that caught Greg Hunt on the hop:
Anne Aly meanwhile, had a lot to say:
Updated
Labor, the Greens and the crossbench (except Bob Katter I would assume) are calling for the climate emergency declaration.
The government is not.
Zali Steggall says she is disappointed listening to the government submissions, and if the government “accepts the science that we need to reduce emissions, then it has to accept the science that is saying we are not doing enough”.
“If the science is telling you have to do more, then you have to adjust,” she said, adding that is not a failure – it’s just a normal response.
Updated
Adam Bandt is moving the crossbench climate emergency motion in the House right now.
He is moving to suspend standing orders to debate it this afternoon.
(It will fail, with the government (obviously) not on board.)
Updated
Over in the Senate and Kristina Keneally was having a little dig at Peter Dutton for not answering questions on notice.
Dutton has so far not lodged answers for questions asking for details about the breakdown of country of the arrivals, where in Australia they are, or what actions he has taken to address these surges from countries such as Malaysia and China.
Question on Notice 382 – asked on 12 August 2019 – 35 days overdue
Question on Notice 698 – asked on 13 September 2019 – 3 days overdue
Also, we do this over Twitter now too.
During House #qt, @PeterDutton_MP was bragging about the number of asylum seekers & refugees remaining on Manus.
— Kristina Keneally (@KKeneally) October 15, 2019
He forgot to mention:
1. People have only been relocated to Port Moresby
2. He’s relied on medical transfer for this achievement
3. Manus was closed in Oct 2017
Updated
From Mike Bowers’ lens to your eyeballs:
And on a nice note:
Updated
Because it is only “radicals” who care about the climate, apparently.
#owningtheleft
Labor's declaration of a climate emergency is just a sop to the superglue protestors and radical greens. Labor remains desperate to receive the support of the radical activists despite what they've said since the election. Labor can't be trusted to fight for jobs.
— Matthew Canavan (@mattjcan) October 15, 2019
Updated
Tony Burke jumps up to congratulate Tony Smith on the integrity award he received today (have a look a few posts down and check out Kenneth Hayne’s speech) and thanks him for some of the difficult decisions he took during the medevac debate (you may remember that Smith stuck to the parliament rules, and ensured the parliament had a vote, and also ordered the solicitor general advice Christian Porter was relying on to shut down the debate, be tabled – which revealed the advice was not iron-clad).
Scott Morrison then gets up to add his congratulations, and a few in Labor respond with “now you think about it” to which Morrison gets very upset and accuses Labor of politicising the moment.
It’s like divorced parents fighting over a speech at wedding.
So, I guess, congratulations Tony Smith?
Updated
Scott Morrison, the folders having been stacked, calls an end to whatever the hell this last hour was.
We bring Angus Taylor back for a lickspittle on the 70th anniversary of the Snowy Hydro, which the Rhodes scholar (don’t you know) attempts to link to the 75th anniversary of the Liberal party.
Taylor:
He is right, this week does mark the 70th anniversary of the Snowy Hydro scheme and it is a great time to reflect on that iconic engineering feat and its long history in serving our nation. Indeed, this week we are also celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Liberal party and it is important to note that the snowy scheme is just another incredible achievement of Liberal government.
This is TOO far for Anthony Albanese:
Ben Chifley was no Tory. You opposed it, your lot.
#goodjobAngus
Updated
Amanda Rishworth to Scott Morrison:
My question is to the prime minister. Why won’t the prime minister admit childcare fees have increased by 30% under his three-term government?
Morrison:
I will invite the minister for education to add to this answer, but on this matter, as minister for social services, which had responsibility for childcare at the time, it was actually our government that introduced a package to childcare, which those opposite when they were in government and those opposite when they were in opposition failed to deliver.
And that is ensuring the people particularly on low and middle incomes are getting access to up to 85% rebates, 85% rebates, and our government and we got rid of the caps that were applied to those seeking childcare rebates that had previously seen them run out of childcare support by about February and March of every year. We took action to address the manifold issues in the childcare system that turn into a money pit from what was designed under those opposite when they were in government and I invite the minister for education to add further.
Dan Tehan:
And thanks prime minister, because it pretty much covered it all.
(“Dill, dill, dill,” yells Labor.)
Tehan finishes his non-answer with “and, prime minister, I commend you for what you did because you have put this sector on the right path”, which just leads to a chorus of “get a room” from the opposition.
Updated
Phil Thompson, who can’t be taken seriously, given his preference for tomato sauce on bacon and egg rolls (I mean honestly – and for this to come from a Queenslander as well is a knife to my hot sauce heart) invokes Peter Dutton for the HOW SAFE ARE YOU troika of minutes.
VERY SAFE. BUT JUST IMAGINE HOW UNSAFE YOU WOULD BE IF LABOR WAS IN POWER.
“You’re the government you dill,” someone from Labor yells.
There seems to be some who are yet to get the memo. I mean, they could just check their salaries. That’s one hint, if the side of the chamber they sit on isn’t enough of a clue.
Updated
It’s such a mishmash of a QT that even Shayne Neumann gets a question.
My question is to the prime minister. Why does he claim the government has a drought policy, when the National Farmers Federation president says it doesn’t.
Michael McCormack gives his best impression of having a personality and tries to interject with something, but no one is buying it.
“Throw him out,” the Labor benches holler.
He stays and I’m pretty sure I saw a fairy die.
Scott Morrison:
I thank the member for ... his question because it gives me an opportunity to point out exactly what the National Farmers Federation has presented to me on these issues.
The National Farmers Federation has been extremely supportive of the government’s response to the drought. They said as much and last night at the 40th anniversary of the National Farmers Federation, I’m not sure whether the member was attending that night, I thank those members from around the chamber, including from the opposite side, that were attending.
The National Farmers Federation and the president was very clear about the appreciation they had for the extensive and comprehensive response that has been provided to the drought by the government in concert with the state and territory governments, where they are affected.
The point the National Farmers Federation has been making about the issue they have raised is about an agreement they would like to see, between all the states and territories, with the commonwealth, common standards and triggers for the activation of state-based drought response. That is what they are seeking, and that is what is currently not in place.
After the drought summit last year we have put in a reformed national agreement on drought, which added to the original agreement which made it clear states and territories were responsible for the initiatives that went directly to the welfare of animals, that is the fodder and support for the animals themselves. The commonwealth government was responsible for the direct assistance, income support for the farmers and graziers.
That’s what the agreement was reached at the end of last year. What they would like to see is a common set of standards, and triggers and policies by state governments. There has not been the response from the state and territory governments to move to that level of standardisation on the drought responses.
They believe they would like to keep complete autonomy about how they customise their response to the drought in their jurisdictions. That’s a matter for them. They are sovereign, they have constitutional authority for these matters, that’s what they would like to see, I understand why the National Farmers Federation would like to see greater consistency across these areas, that is a matter I have undertaken to work with them to see what such a common standard might look like.
At the end of the day we have to respect the autonomy of each of the state governments to deal with the issues they present at the end of the day. I thank the member for this opportunity to make the issues crystal-clear.
Updated
Meanwhile, in the Senate:
Jacqui Lambie has been asking about replacement of old tools in TAFEs.
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) October 15, 2019
Simon Birmingham: "I regret that there's an opportunity to talk about Soviet-era equipment when Kim Carr is not present in the chamber..." #auspol #SenateQT
Updated
Tony Burke raises a point on the unparliamentary language.
The way Scott Morrison pronounced ‘dill’, you get the feeling that ‘dill’ wasn’t originally the ‘d’ word he was reaching for.
Tony Smith warns against the unparliamentary language, and says that if the government keeps doing it, then both sides will get to use it.
“Bring it on,” says someone from the government benches, because this is now apparently a schoolyard.
But with less cool kids.
Updated
Joel Fitzgibbon to Scott Morrison:
When will the prime minister admit his Future Drought Fund hasn’t delivered and will never deliver one cent directly to desperate farming families.
Morrison:
Mr Speaker, the question that has just been posed by the member for Hunter once again demonstrates his complete lack of understanding of the policy issues that that fund is seeking to address.
The drought fund, which he opposed from the day I first announced it at the drought summit, which he attended, and we were pleased for him to attend, on the very day he was speaking against it, he sought to have it frustrated even in this place, the national drought fund which begins at $3.9bn investment, over the course of the decade will grow to $5bn, from 1 July next year, it will draw down $100m to invest in water infrastructure resilience projects from the 1 July of next year.
That’s what we said the purpose of the drought fund was, it will draw down on investment from 1 July next year as we put it in place and we seek the advice of the board.
The $300m we spent last year on infrastructure and farm household allowance projects, and support, I have already explained to him once. He is interjecting again.
The drought fund, the Future Drought Fund, is not to provide direct financial assistance payment to farmers, it’s there to provide direct support for water resilience projects, to fund for the future.
If the member for Hunter doesn’t think it’s a good idea to invest in water resilience for the future of Australian agriculture, he should leave the post of spokesman on agriculture immediately because he doesn’t understand one of the most fundamental elements of agriculture in this country, which is you have to provide water!
When there is a drought, it means there is no water, therefore you need to provide storage facilities...
Fitzgibbon is getting in trouble for his interjections, and Michael McCormack takes the opportunity to make a joke, because David Littleproud acts like it is the funniest thing he has ever heard. I mean, I know the Nationals party room isn’t the most supportive of rooms, but there has to be limits.
Morrison:
If he took the time to understand what the Future Drought Fund was for, rather than seek to pay petty politics with this, he might understand that funder is there to provide for future water resilience.
What doing on farmhouse allowance in rural financial counsellors and support for mental health, to do everything from on-farm water infrastructure, whether it is to increase allowances for silage investments, or on-farm water infrastructure projects to farmers doing it themselves, or the water we are putting into counsellors to make sure they are keeping local community supported through the drought, or the more than $50m we have directly put into charitable organisations like the Salvos and Vinnies, this is a comprehensive response.
I would appeal to the member for Hunter to support the government initiatives reaching out to farmers and stop being such a dill.
Updated
Labor’s Louise Pratt is testing the minister for youth, aged care and sport, Richard Colbeck, by asking if youth underemployment has risen from 12 to 20%.
Colbeck pauses to thumb through his brief, Pratt gives him a few moments but then starts up with cries of “where’s that brief” and “it’d be under U for underemployment”.
Colbeck finds some pre-canned lines about 1.4m jobs created in the last 12 months, more than 100,000 of which were for young people.
By this stage Anthony Chisholm and Murray Watt had started heckling about “Johnno” [Jonathon Duniam] not having to wait long for elevation to the ministry because “they’ll need another Tasmanian”.
When he gets through an answer, Labor applauds, which was ruled disorderly.
Updated
Jim Chalmers to Scott Morrison:
Why won’t the prime minister be upfront with the Australian people? About the slowest economic growth in a decade, the fact the OECD has lashed Australia’s growth outlook by twice as much as the G20 average, declining productivity and the fact that net debt has more than doubled on his watch?
Morrison:
Australia’s economic growth is the second highest in the G7, Mr Speaker. 1.4 million jobs have been created under the stewardship of this government.
In fact, today there are more people who are employed as a share of Australia’s total population than at any other time in Australia’s history.
Now, only the Labor party could find a problem with that. And that is why we took the strong economic plan we did to the election and it was a complete contrast to the plan that was taken by those opposite.
What we took was a plan to lower taxes, to ensure that we are cutting the cost of doing business in this country, that we are investing in the skills needs of the future of this country, that we are expanding their horizons of our economy by both supporting our traditional industries and developing new export markets and that we are investing in the infrastructure that Australia needs to grow.
That is what we are doing, that is what we talked of to the Australian people.
Those opposite offered a very different plan. Those opposite took a plan which was going to impose $387bn of higher taxes on the Australian economy.
How they thought that that was going to actually support Australia’s growth into the future was a mystery to Australians and they rightfully rejected those policies at the ballot box.
And so there is a clear alternative. It is a clear choice as we have continued to demonstrate and that is the sound, stable and certain policies – not getting riled up, not getting spooked by the international conditions we are faced with, but ensuring we protect budget resilience that enables us to meet the challenges ahead.
The shadow treasurer would have us blow the budget on reckless spending. The shadow treasurer would have us blow the budget of individual Australians and their families by putting up their taxes.
The shadow treasurer, who knows what his position is on the climate reduction targets? There is a climate fight club going on over the other side. The thing they have forgotten about climate fight club is you are not supposed to talk about it. They can’t help talking about it.
We have support for the 28 position over here from the member for Hunter, we have the, for the 28, but I am not sure if I’m for 45% from the climate change spokesperson, the minute is hidden – like the member for Sydney and the leader of the opposition who wants to come into this place and effectively engage in a protest and glue his hands to the dispatch box, with his latest today, which I know would see the full banning of coalmining in Australia.
Updated
Melissa Price gets a lickspittle for the first time in a while.
“Manufacturing in this country is alive and well,” Price says.
Scott Morrison nods along. He actually hasn’t stopped watching her deliver the dixer answer. It’s like a teacher watching a recalcitrant student do a make up oral exam.
Catherine King to Scott Morrison:
Why won’t the prime minister admit to this table from his own minister by the department shows that not a single project under the urban congestion fund announced over 18 months ago has actually commenced? Not one.
Alan Tudge takes it. (sigh)
Can I thank the member for Ballarat for her question, and what I can confirm is that we have 130 projects under way right now as we speak, supporting thousands of people across the country in work, across the country.
On top of that, we have 280 major projects under way as we speak. If I can find the list, I could go through them one after another after another of those projects, which are well under way.
“You sound like Bruce McAvaney,” yells Ed Husic. “So many projects, I’ll name them all.”
“Name them in alphabetical order,” someone else yells.
(The joke being he is not naming the projects.)
Tudge continues:
On top of the 130 major projects which we have under way, we also have 166 smaller scale urban congestion front projects which we announced before the election of which we are working in close consultation with state governments to get them going and the first ones will begin at the end of this year.
I just remembered, I just mentioned ones in Brisbane which will begin at the beginning of next year. She asked me again what about projects which haven’t started. Mr Speaker, there are two projects which haven’t started.
The one I mentioned last time is the East West Link. That is one we do want to get under way. We have $4bn on the table to get this started. The Labor party constantly said bring forward projects, get them done.
There is a project with $4bn ready to go and if only the leader of the opposition, the member for Ballarat would pick up the phone to her state counterparts and just say, let’s get the job going!
And the other one which I know is also strongly supported over in Western Australia is the railway project. Another project which we would like to see delivered.
The other not being delivered but our other projects absolutely are getting under way, delivering on our agenda, 166 smaller scale projects which we are negotiating with state governments, getting the job done and they will begin at the end of this year.
Updated
Alan Tudge is taking a lickspittle and I’m suddenly reminded of those old school end of transmission broadcasts I’ve seen on YouTube.
Updated
Jim Chalmers to Scott Morrison:
Why do the prime minister’s talking points make no reference to the 1.9 million Australians looking for a job or for more work, the worst wages growth on record, weak household consumption and retail spending. The worst household savings rate in a decade?
Morrison:
I’m very pleased the member made reference to the talking points. I suspect we might want to make a habit of issuing these on a weekly basis because it was the first time I had seen our policies faithfully recorded in some publications for some period of time.
(It’s us. He’s talking about us. OH THE HILARITY.)
There’s a lot about tax after this.
Updated
Josh Frydenberg, who has once again forgotten HOW MICROPHONES wOrK, is doing his best to explain that the economy is JUST FINE.
Somehow, the people who are not in government are still very relevant here.
Andrew Wilkie has the independent’s question today – and it’s to Angus Taylor:
The government claims Australia will meet its Paris agreement targets at a canter. The truth is the government is relying on accounting tricks to meet the targets, by counting artificially inflated credits left over from the Kyoto protocol, credits most developed countries have agreed to reject. Official government figures show emissions have reached record highs and continue to rise, feeding the climate emergency, the effects we are seeing in our backyard with the drought and fires. Our planet is cooking while the government cooks the books. Minister, why the denial and when will the government take real action to reduce emissions?
Taylor starts talking about how Australia will meet its targets, without addressing the Kyoto issue.
“Literally no one believes you,” calls out someone from Labor.
Even the government benches seem to have given up on this one.
There is barely a hear, hear to be heard.
Updated
Anthony Albanese is asking to table the prime minister’s media release – which shows the government has offered 50/50 funding contributions for dams, without mentioning that 25% of those contributions will be concessional loans – but the request is denied.
Updated
Anthony Albanese is back with a question for Scott Morrison, asking again why he is raising hopes and claiming the federal government is funding a new dam 50%, when it is only 25% (25% funding and 25% concessional loans).
Morrison:
I refer again to my answer. I was very clear, our 50-50... Our contribution is comprised half of grant and half of concessional finance.
That is the commitment we made and we set out on Sunday. I refer the members opposite to the statements that have been made about this. We were very upfront.
I’m pleased the New South Wales premier was so pleased to receive the support because it was a month ago, we sat down, the deputy prime minister and I with the deputy premier and the premier of NSW to see how we could fast track important water infrastructure projects in NSW.
I was very pleased to get that collaboration and cooperation and the urgency the NSW premier was going to bring to this task, not only to bring their resources to the project, but their commitment to blast away the bureaucracy and congestion to prevent those projects going ahead.
We are happy to partner in the way we have, took a $75m commitment to one of those projects to $280m indirect grant assistance, a very significant increase on the commitment we have made for important water infrastructure.
Updated
Now that the man has finished telling us how wonderful women are, we move on.
Michael McCormack has Michael McCormacked his way into this dixer. It’s meant to be about the role of rural and regional women, but he manages to Michael McCormack it from the first line.
I thank the member for Mallee for her question and acknowledge that she is one of those fine women and there are many in the house, appreciate many on this side...
M E R I T
Terri Butler has a question for Scott Morrison, on dams, but he does not have an answer for the specific question. He has an answer for the question he wanted to be asked – why are Labor state governments standing in the way of dams.
Updated
We’ve had our first lickspittle and it’s about just how amazing is this government and are there any alternative views.
It’s a great government, thanks for asking. Also, Labor is terrible.
I am paraphrasing, but you know. It’s the mood.
Question time begins
I have obviously pissed off the technology gods because OMG this has been a drama.
But we are back and running.
Question time has begun with a question focusing on asbestos victims and it has got angry very, very fast.
In case you can’t read that tweet, here is the text:
That the House:
1. notes that:
a. climate change is a significant threat to our economy, natural environment, farming communities and national security;
b. Australia’s annual emissions have been rising in recent years;
c. as a global problem, the solution to climate change requires concerted international cooperation to limit the production of greenhouse gasses;
d. as the only global agreement designed to address climate change, the Paris Accords must play a central role in addressing climate change;
e. the Paris Accords require signatory countries to deliver actions consistent with keeping the global temperature rise this century to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius;
f. based on the latest scientific advice, the world is currently on track for warming of above 3 degrees, and efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions need to be strengthened to avoid catastrophic climate change impacts; and
g. as a result of the threat posed by climate change, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Portugal, Argentina and the Republic of Ireland have declared a climate emergency;
and
2. therefore, the House affirms that:
a. Australia remains committed to delivering on its obligations under the Paris Accords;
b. failing to meet the goals of the Paris Accords would have unprecedented and devastating environmental, economic, societal and health impacts for Australia; and the threat posed by climate change on the future prosperity and security of Australia and the globe constitutes a climate change emergency.
Updated
Despite appearances, this is not a mugshot:
Tabling Labor’s motion to declare a climate emergency with @PatConroy1. pic.twitter.com/SOGyLB1iUu
— Mark Butler MP (@Mark_Butler_MP) October 15, 2019
And the motion itself is here:
Labor will declare a climate emergency. pic.twitter.com/ECEaPDfBkF
— Mark Butler MP (@Mark_Butler_MP) October 15, 2019
Updated
Looks like Jim Chalmers has found one of the question time attack lines:
In its latest Board minutes, the Reserve Bank of Australia has confirmed what Australians know but the Government will not acknowledge: Australia’s economic growth is the lowest in a decade, wages are stagnant, and employment is fragile.
The Reserve Bank has highlighted that “Year-ended growth had slowed to 1.4 per cent, the lowest outcome in a decade” and that “employment growth was forecast to slow over the period ahead.”
Collapsing confidence and weak growth are the inevitable consequence of a Liberal Government which has a political strategy but not an economic policy.
Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg have recklessly left the Reserve Bank to do all the heavy lifting in the face of worsening home-grown economic challenges and increasing global risks.
Right when Australians need and expect a plan from the Morrison Government to get the economy going again all they get instead is finger-pointing, blame-shifting and wedge politics.
It is time Josh Frydenberg and Scott Morrison brought forward a budget update to fix their forecasts and properly outline an economic plan that supports the floundering economy and better safeguards Australians from global turbulence.
And yup, as we reported a bit earlier, the Greens’ climate emergency hot air balloon, which was technically against Casa rules, was able to be inflated (but not really get off the ground) because it was outside the authorised assembly area – and therefore outside of the parliament precinct rules.
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Just a point of order there – Labor will be moving its own climate emergency motion.
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The Greens have responded to Labor’s announcement it will move a climate emergency motion:
The Australian Greens welcome Labor announcing that they support the Greens-led crossbench Climate Emergency Declaration, said Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale and Greens Climate Change Spokesperson Adam Bandt MP.
“It’s great to hear the Labor Party’s announcement today that they support the Greens-led Crossbench Climate Emergency Declaration,” Di Natale said.
“I know that there are ongoing divisions within Labor regarding taking strong action on climate change, so it is heartening to see them publicly joining the Greens and the community in support of a climate emergency declaration.”
“With Labor coming onboard and joining the Greens and the crossbench, there is now a very real chance that Parliament will declare a climate emergency before the end of the year,” Bandt said.
“Now it’s time for Liberal members to decide which side they’re on and go on the record. History will judge them for how they vote on the climate emergency.”
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Back in the chamber, the crimes legislation amendment (sexual crimes against children and community protection measures) is being debated.
Labor wants to move this amendment to the legislation:
Labor moving a second reading amendment to the bill #auspol pic.twitter.com/1JpmidGbVU
— Political Alert (@political_alert) October 15, 2019
Kenneth Hayne finished with this:
To take any step of that kind will require honesty and courage. It will take honesty to recognise that there may be a problem and courage to devise means for dealing with it. It will take honesty to recognise that slogans may sell, they do not persuade. It will take courage to recognise that slogans sell by appealing to emotion not thought or reason. It will take courage to engage with facts and issues knowing that their depth and breadth cannot be reduced to, or explained by, a series of sound bites that capture a single 24 hour news cycle. It will take courage, in the world as we now know it, to engage with facts and issues rather than pursue the path to populism.
Honesty and courage are needed if we are to maintain trust in our institutions. Maintaining trust may require the legislature to explain better than it now does what policy choices are made in the law it enacts and why they were made as they were.
If trust has been lost or has been damaged, we can hope to repair it only through qualities of the kind we celebrate with the awards that are made today. And central to the criteria for those awards are what I earlier called standards of eloquent simplicity: honesty and courage.
Kenneth Hayne:
If you seek a model of the kind of argument I have in mind, go back and look at the submissions that were made to Cabinet in 1965 and again in 1967 about what was to become the Constitutional Alteration (Aboriginals) Act 1967. Those submissions laid out in elaborate detail the arguments for holding a referendum to amend constitutional provisions referring to Aboriginal Australians. And the submissions identified the arguments that were later placed before the voters before the referendum which so decisively made the amendments to s 51(xxvi) and s 127 of the Constitution.
We readily accept that electors should not be asked to consider constitutional amendment without articulation of the arguments for and against the proposal. Are we at a point where we need to think again about how we are recording and publishing why policy choices embodied and reflected in legislation were made as they were?
We have long required judges to state their reasons for decision. More and more we require administrative decision makers to give reasons for decision. Are there some analogous steps that the political branches of government, and in particular the legislative branch, should consider taking?
Updated
Kenneth Hayne continued:
Notice that I divide the issues in three: how policy is formed; how the policy that is formed is explained and justified; and how the policy is being applied.
Development of policy is almost always very hard. It is hard because, much more often than not, there are competing considerations pulling in diametrically opposed directions. And because there are competing considerations, choices must be made.
Yet it remains an essential role of government to explain to the governed why it takes the steps it does. It is essential because, if governments do not do this, trust in the institutions of government is damaged or destroyed.
Explanation is often difficult. It is difficult because spelling out an argument simply and persuasively is hard. And it is all too easy to treat simplicity and persuasion as demanding reduction of the argument to some conclusory proposition cast in terms that appeal to or rely upon universally desired objectives like a strong economy, supporting the family, or keeping the nation safe.
There cannot be a hint of criticism about pursuing those objectives but demonstrating how a particular measure supports the objective demands more than bare assertion. There is always an intermediate step which connects the measure in question with the desired end. Identifying and explaining how a measure contributes to achieving an end like “strong economy”, “supporting the family” or “keeping the nation safe” is no easy task. Not only is it not an easy task, it demands honesty and courage. It demands those qualities because it demands honest acknowledgment of choice and the courage to lay out, for the world to examine and criticise, the argument that supports the conclusion that was reached.
Kenneth Hayne, the former high court justice and royal commissioner to the banking royal commission, presented the awards to both Cathy McGowan and Tony Smith today.
In doing so, he made a speech about the trust in institutions, and how the recent increased calls for royal commissions may be a symptom of that.
Hayne:
If I am right to think that trust in institutions has been damaged or destroyed, we must consider what the increasingly frequent calls for royal commissions are telling us about the state of our democratic institutions. Has trust in the political processes been damaged? If it has, what can we do about it?
No doubt individual actors in those processes must have the courage to act and continue to act with complete integrity. Individual integrity is essential for maintaining, or (if restoration is needed) restoring, trust.
But it is necessary to ask whether some additional measures may be desirable, even necessary, to maintain or restore trust. More particularly, do we need to examine more closely the ways in which policy is formed, explained and then given effect?
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Centre Alliance’s Rebekha Sharkie supported that motion. Once the matter of public importance is done later this afternoon, the division will occur.
Here is the motion Andrew Wilkie wants to move:
That the House of Representatives calls on the Australian government to establish a royal commission to inquire into and report on the Australian casino industry, with particular reference to:
Allegations of Crown casino’s links to organised domestic and foreign crime, money laundering, tampering with poker machines, domestic violence and drug trafficking, including but not limited to:
- the allegations concerning Crown, raised by the Member for Denison in the House of Representatives on 18 October 2017;
- the Member for Clark’s referral of the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation, and Victoria police, to the Victorian Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission on 24 July 2019;
- reports by Nine newspapers and 60 Minutes in July 2019 concerning alleged criminal activity involving Crown;
- the Member for Clark’s referral of the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation to the Victorian Ombudsman on 13 August 2019;
- the Member for Clark’s referral of Crown Perth to the Premier of Western Australia on 19 September 2019;
- the allegations of criminal activity provided by a driver formerly associated with Crown revealed by the Member for Clark in the House of Representatives on 30 July 2019, and again during a media event yesterday, including the failure to process inbound and outbound flights and passengers;
- the evidence of money laundering at Crown revealed by the ABC and the Member for Clark today;
- the response to these allegations, including the possibility of criminality, by relevant state and federal agencies including but not limited to the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation, Victoria Police, the Australian Federal Police, Border Force and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre;
- the conduct of people associated directly with Crown, including the possibility of criminality and corruption; and
- the conduct of serving and former politicians and party officials especially relevant to Crown, including the possibility of criminality or corruption.
- the performance of relevant federal agencies regarding the operation of Australian casinos generally including but not limited to the Australian Federal Police, Border Force and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre.
- the conduct of Australian casino owners, board members and staff generally;
- the conduct of serving and former politicians and party officials regarding Australian casinos generally; and
- any related matters.
Updated
Andrew Wilkie’s motion has been delayed until later in the session.
*I misheard that and originally thought it failed on the voices, so apologies.
Updated
In the Senate, the Greens will also be moving some motions, including Mehreen Faruqi’s motion calling for an inquiry into truth in electoral advertising (along with a petition on the same issue with 35,00 signatures)
“We know the last election was riddled with false or misleading advertising which eroded public trust in our democracy. I’m proud to table this petition of tens of thousands of Australians demanding this problem be fixed once and for all,” she said.
“People are really concerned about the total lack of accountability for the scare campaigns run by political parties. They are sick and tired of politicians openly lying to voters with no consequences.”
The Greens will also be looking to move a motion calling on the government to review the Commonwealth rental assistance rate, after the productivity commission report into low income renters.
Stepping outside of the parliament for a moment - former Indi MP Cathy McGowan has just been awarded an integrity award.
The Accountability Round Table (ART), which aims to improve accountability and transparency in the nation’s parliaments, awarded McGowan the Alan Missen award for her “commitments to reforms” which were seen as “essential for open, accountable and transparent government”.
“We recognise her commitment to those in her electorate, and her embrace of significant issues crucial to Australia’s parliamentary democracy, in particular her work on the National Integrity Commission and parliamentary standards bills,” ART chair Fiona McLeod said.
Speaker Tony Smith was presented the John Button award for being “an outstanding example of an independent/non-partisan speaker in the finest traditions of the office, and has done much to restore its standing in recent years”.
Updated
Over in the House, Andrew Wilkie has kicked off proceedings by attempting to move a motion to have a royal commission into Crown Casino.
The government isn’t supporting it, so we are heading to a division (which will be lost on the numbers, even if Labor supports it).
Updated
The bells are ringing for the beginning of the parliament session.
This is what doom sounds like.
Anthony Albanese:
We’ll continue to hold the government to account in question time. It’s important that the Prime Minister can’t just walk away from questions. We asked a simple question that’s about his evasion, nothing else, about his evasion of whether he sought to have Brian Houston invited to the White House.
How is it that the Prime Minister thinks he can get away with saying, ‘Oh, that’s just a report in the newspaper?’ The question is, is it true or not?
The question is why is this Prime Minister, when he’s asked questions, responding with, ‘Oh, that’s just in the bubble,’ or other prevarications, which are all designed to avoid scrutiny?
Well, our job, as the opposition, is to hold the government to account and we’ll continue to do just that.
Anthony Albanese is holding his press conference on the climate emergency motion.
He says Scott Morrison is “all rhethoric...when it comes to substance, he gets caught out that he is loose with the truth”.
[National debt] has doubled on this government’s watch. Household debt is the highest it’s ever been. When it comes to productivity, it’s gone backwards, fourth quarters in a row. When it comes to growth, the OECD has downgraded Australia’s growth predictions by more than it’s downgraded the UK, which is going through Brexit.
Interest rates are at 0.75%. When they were at 3%, the Coalition was saying that was emergency levels. That’s a sign of no confidence in this government’s capacity to stimulate the economy.”
The government’s climate policy is another example of that, Albanese says.
Mark Butler to move climate emergency motion.
Seems like Labor has settled on some sort of climate policy.
#breaking Mark Butler told caucus he will lodge a motion for parliament to declare climate emergency. Says UK & Canada have done so, and Labor should be "leading this debate". Greens have their own motion - but Butler chipped them for voting against ETS. #auspol @AmyRemeikis
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) October 15, 2019
Butler was asked because the climate emergency e-petition is the largest ever. Labor MPs have received emails asking their position. No vote taken on Labor's motion at caucus.
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) October 15, 2019
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Pauline Hanson on her ‘legislation strike’ (speaking to Sky News):
I said on critical, non-critical legislation, which I haven’t. And I think it’s very important that we do have security at the airports, which I did support that last night about the amendment that was put up by Rex Patrick.
So I said I will look at it.
But as far as I’m concerned, I’m not interested in looking at legislation.
This is important. I’ve got people here that ... suicide. They’re going under. This is an industry that we have to, I’ve got to take a stand on this, the government’s not doing anything about it, the National Party have done nothing about it. Labor will talk no action, the role, you know, full of BS, as far as I’m concerned, do something about it.
I’m sick of hearing that we’re giving money there.
Scott Morrison comes out and says we’ve put $318.5 million into the industry. He’s just giving $150 million to NASA. So he’s quite prepared to send the, you know, the astronauts into into space, and then meantime they come here and he is sending our cows to heaven.
Updated
Update from the Labor caucus meeting:
Labor has resolved to amend the big stick bill to prohibit partial privatisation - if that succeeds they will vote for it, if not they will vote against. Also wants a review before 2026. #auspol ping @AmyRemeikis
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) October 15, 2019
Save the Children Australia acting CEO Mat Tinkler and Kamalle Dabboussy, spokesperson for the 60-plus Australian children and women trapped in al-Hawl camp in north-east Syria, just held a doorstop about what is happening in the region “and the closing window of opportunity for repatriation”.
Dabboussy’s daughter is one of those.
I think there’s a great concern as to how the situation may change on the ground. As I said, it’s very difficult to predict what happens next in the Middle East and this region of the world. Part of the issue that we have a concern is not only who will take control, but the process between now and when they take control. There’ll be a period of lawlessness, areas where people are not being patrolled or supported, and in that environment you will have ISIS sleeper cells and radicalised women in the camp and they in turn may take action. Remember the Australian women have all been deemed as apostates or non-radicalised women who don’t believe in the ISIS ideology, and their ideology allows them to be killed as a result. So they are open and vulnerable at this point in time.
Without sounding too brutal, obviously knowing your own personal family situation, but are these people at risk of being killed or dying if we don’t get them out?
I’ve been saying that to the government for quite some time. Sooner or later, we’ll face an Australian death. At that point in time, I was explaining, that we would probably face an Australian death over their winter but they also face death from disease and they also face death from the lack of food and water, they face death from security threats from inside the camp, from attacks external to the camp. There is no other support to the Australian women in that environment at all and the only rescue – the only avenue for their survival, really – is through the Australian government, and sooner or later, there will be a death in the camp. And since the majority of the deaths in the camp have been children under five, they are the ones most exposed in this situation.
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Pauline Hanson is using this story from 2013 to justify her views on false allegations in the family court.
She says no one from the government has asked her to tone down her rhetoric on the issue, ahead of the inquiry she is about to deputy chair.
Updated
Mike Bowers is out the front of parliament at the moment.
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“ ... I will look at it,” Pauline Hanson tells Sky News about legislation.
“But as far as I am concerned, I am not interested at looking at legislation.”
Hanson also says something along the lines of Scott Morrison is quite happy to send astronauts into space, but meanwhile “he is sending cows to heaven”.
Updated
Anthony Albanese has announced a press conference for 11.45am.
That’s just after the caucus meeting and just before parliament sits (it starts at midday).
He’ll be in the opposition leader’s courtyard, which is Labor’s fancy press conference zone.
Updated
The balloon is not flying though. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority put the nix on that, although there are quite a few examples of hot air balloons flying over parliament.
I have been informed by a few people who know that the parliamentary precinct doesn’t actually extend all the way down the front lawns.
Updated
The hot air balloon is still on the front lawn of parliament, but I expect we will be seeing a parliamentary “get off my lawn” response fairly soon.
Updated
Paul Karp reported on some of the balloon dramas earlier this week:
The Greens’ hopes of flying a hot air balloon over Parliament House to protest global heating have been deflated by a last-minute restriction on flights due to security concerns.
Despite blocking the balloon plan, parliament’s presiding officers have approved an Extinction Rebellion protest at the authorised assembly area in front of parliament from 14 to 18 October, the Senate president, Scott Ryan, has revealed.
Last week the Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, wrote to members hoping to raise $10,000 for a hot air balloon to provide extra lift to the party’s efforts to get parliament to declare a climate emergency when it returns on Monday.
The Greens had obtained approval from the National Capital Authority to use the East Lawn at Parkes and Federation Mall for use in climate emergency protests and also claim to have consulted the Australian Federal Police about use of the balloon.
The Greens have a “climate emergency” balloon up on the lawns of Parliament House.
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On whether or not the government should be looking to try and bring some of those women and children home to Australia, Kristina Keneally told Sky News:
The government themselves are the only people who can make a decision about what to do in relation to the women and the children who are currently in the al-Hawl internal displacement camp in Syria.
They are the only people who have the capacity and the information on national security.
... It is a moral issue as the prime minister has reflected, as has minister Peter Dutton about the terrible situation some utterly innocent children are in, some 40 children who are either Australian citizens, or who have a claim to Australian citizenship are ... in this camp in Syria.
By all accounts, they’re quite horrific conditions there, and they are innocent victims.
We also know, I know, I’ve been briefed by the Department of Home Affairs that some of the women there were taken against their will or taken as children are now adults, and they are victims too.
And it is incumbent upon the government to consider if it is safe to remove those children and women.
I’d also reflect that the United States president and the United States secretary of state have been calling on their western allies to deal with their citizens in Syria.
The independent national security legislation monitor here in Australia has warned that leaving foreign fighters in the Middle East in Syria in particular, is akin to leaving foreign fighters in Afghanistan in the 1970s.
Those people went on to form al-Qaida.
There is a risk yes, to bringing people back to Australia, particularly those who have a determination and I accept fully that there are some people either those manual imprisoned or some of the women in the camp who do have a determination to harm Australia.
But I think the prime minister and the minister for home affairs need to be straight with the Australian people that while there is a risk to bringing people back, there is also a risk to leaving them there and talk to the Australian people honestly about what those risks are to leaving people there.
Updated
From AAP:
Two Australian women trapped in a camp for relatives of Islamic States fighters have pleaded for Australia to help them as Syrian forces move in.
Mariam Dabboussy, a mother of three, is begging the Morrison government for help.
“Please don’t let us fall into the hands of the [Syrian] regime,” Dabboussy said in a recording given to the ABC by her father, Kamalle Dabboussy.
“We’re asking just as humans, just as regretful people.
“If this happens that’s it for us. That’s it for my kids.”
The second woman, Zara Ahmad, sent a message to her sister saying a woman’s mutilated body was found in the toilets at the al-Hawl camp.
“I’m so scared, I don’t know how much longer I can do this for,” she said.
Conditions at al-Hawl, where more than 60 Australian women and children are being held, have deteriorated since the United States announced its withdrawal from northern Syria.
This prompted the entry of Turkish fighters to the area in an offensive against Kurdish fighters.
Russia-backed Syrian forces have now responded by deploying forces deep inside Kurdish-held territory south of the Turkish frontier.
Updated
Women’s advocates will be in Canberra today, as the Greens attempt to move a motion to scrap the latest family court review. That would be the one headed up by Kevin Andrews and Pauline Hanson.
Advocates, legal experts and domestic violence survivors will be in parliament to try and convince senators to support the motion.
Where are we up to with the big stick?
I mentioned in a news story published last night about Joel Fitzgibbon’s lively session in the right and left caucus meetings that the shadow cabinet was considering its position on the big stick legislation.
Quick recap: Labor opposed this legislation (which creates a power to break up big energy companies if they engage in price gouging) in the last parliament. But the opposition has been warming up for a change of heart.
I’m told Labor will pass the government bill if the government accepts an amendment ruling out privatisations or partial privatisation as a consequence of the proposed regime.
I believe this is how it works: the effect of the proposed amendment is a public entity that is receiving a divested asset must not have a smaller share of public ownership than the original public entity subject to a divestiture order.
If you need a backgrounder, you can read one here.
Updated
Bridget McKenzie has called a blue room press conference (the second most fancy press conference room) after authorities at Sydney International airport became the first to cancel a visitor’s visa for a biosecurity breach.
McKenzie’s office says a 45-year-old woman from Vietnam had her visa cancelled for “failing to declare an extensive cache of food concealed in her luggage, including over 4.5kg of pork”.
That is a pretty big deal, particularly at the moment, as Australian biosecurity officials attempt to keep the nation free of African swine fever, a devastating disease which experts predict has wiped out about a quarter of the world’s pig population.
You may remember that Pauline Hanson has announced that she and Malcolm Roberts would be going on a voting strike in the Senate until the government decides to regulate the dairy industry.
The senator herself explained it last week on Sky News, creating what appears to be Schrödinger’s intervention:
— rob harris (@rharris334) October 9, 2019
Both Jacqui Lambie and Kristina Keneally have pointed out that One Nation voted with the government last night (in the vote the government lost). One Nation has said its strike will apply to “non-critical” legislation. Which seems a bit of a pointless strike really.
Just like that time I went on a talking strike because my family had annoyed me. As they liked to repeatedly remind me, they were the double winners in that situation.
But then again, these are also the people who think protests should be held at convenient times and places, so I guess it is on brand.
Updated
On the “ensuring integrity” bill, though, Jacqui Lambie is firm. If John Setka doesn’t step down from the CFMEU, she will vote with the government on the bill, ensuring it passes.
“Has John Setka resigned this morning? Then absolutely not,” she said.
“Absolutely not. Nope. John Setka needs to go. I would like to see the sisterhood out there, of the unions, that is the ACTU, all the women out there, who complain about ... issues, bullies, all of that sort of stuff, they have all gone quiet, they have gone amiss.
“Why aren’t they standing outside the CFMEU house down there in Melbourne and saying ‘remove yourself, we want you gone mate, you know, you are a meathead, see you later, this is what you have done to our union, we know what you are like, how you have treated your wife in the past’ and all the rest. John Setka needs to go. And the only person who doesn’t realise that is John Setka himself.”
Setka pleaded guilty to harassing a woman by text messages, with his wife Emma revealing herself as the woman, earlier this year. The pair have both publicly stated they have moved on from that period of their life. Setka has repeatedly said he sees no reason to step down, despite the Labor party moving to expel him from the party. But the political arm has no power over the union movement, with the CFMEU by and large flanking around Setka in support.
Updated
Jacqui Lambie was just on Sky News, where she said the same things about the medevac bill that she said on ABC radio.
For a good overview of the phonics debate in Australia, Michael McGowan has this piece from last year.
Updated
Like it or not the government is bringing back phonics to Australian primary schools.
From Dan Tehan:
“Our Government will fund the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership
(AITSL) to provide expert advice on incorporating phonics into the national accreditation standards for initial teacher education.
“I have tasked AITSL to create a small taskforce to advise on implementing the
Government’s phonics in ITE election commitment.
“AITSL will draw on the taskforce’s expertise, focusing on ensuring graduate teachers can teach the fundamentals of literacy through learning how to teach the five essential elements of literacy: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, reading fluency, comprehension.
“Our Government believes in the primacy of developing strong literacy and numeracy skills as the bedrock of a quality education.
“There is clear evidence that children benefit from phonics instruction in learning to read and spell so our Government wants teachers to have the skills to teach phonics well.
“AITSL will progress the proposed changes to the accreditation standards to all education ministers for endorsement in December 2019.
“Our Government will also introduce a free, voluntary phonics health check for Year 1
students so parents and teachers can better understand a child’s reading level and what
support they may need.”
We know there is a left and a right Labor caucus (with both, as Katharine Murphy reported yesterday, having something to say about Joel Fitzgibbon’s intervention in the emissions conversation) but now Labor has established a multicultural policy caucus committee as well.
From Andrew Giles, Anne Aly and Raff Ciccone:
The committee will be chaired by Anne Aly MP, and senator Raff Ciccone will be its secretary.
It brings together the lived experience and representational understanding of caucus members, in examining legislation impacting on multicultural communities, consulting with stakeholders and providing specialist advice to the leader and the shadow minister for multicultural affairs.
Shadow minister for multicultural affairs Andrew Giles said that the caucus committee will have a focus on consultation with multicultural stakeholders, especially new and emerging communities.
“The Morrison government has no plan to support multicultural communities, tackle racism and no plan to realise the strengths of Australia’s diversity.
“I look forward to working alongside my caucus colleagues to boost Labor’s engagement with established and emerging culturally diverse communities and ensure that we work alongside these communities every step of the way to better reflect their concerns in parliament.”
Caucus committee chair, Anne Aly MP said: “Approximately 1 in 4 Australians was born overseas, and many people born here will have migrant parents. This committee represents Labor’s commitment to ensuring that our policies are meaningful for all Australians. I look forward to my role as chair and working with my colleagues on this committee.”
Secretary of the committee, senator Raff Ciccone said that after six years under the Liberal National government multicultural communities in Australia have been overlooked and not given the respect they deserve.
“Labor is committed to working with people from every background who call Australia home.
“My parents left their home country in search of a better life to give my brother and I the very best opportunities that Australia has to offer. They believed that with hard work and dedication Australia was the best place to raise a family.
“I am excited to be helping make sure multicultural communities have a voice in the decisions of our Caucus,” Ciccone said.
The MPCC will operate in a similar fashion to existing caucus committees such as the status of women caucus committee and the First Nations caucus committee, and membership will be open to all caucus members.
Updated
The vote was one by one. According to the Senate Hansard, here is how that went down:
AYES
Ayres, T, Bilyk, CL , Brown, CL Chisholm, A Ciccone, R Di Natale, R Dodson, P Farrell, D Faruqi, M Gallacher, AM Green, N Hanson-Young, SC Keneally, KK Kitching, K Lambie, J Lines, S McCarthy, M McKim, NJ Patrick, RL Polley, H Pratt, LC Siewert, R Smith, M Steele-John, J Sterle, G Urquhart, AE Walsh, J Waters, LJ Watt, M Whish-Wilson, PS
NOES
Abetz, E Antic, A Bragg, A J Canavan, MJ Cash, MC Chandler, C Colbeck, R Davey, P Duniam, J Fierravanti-Wells, C Hanson, P Hughes, H Hume, J McDonald, S McGrath, J (teller) McKenzie, B McMahon, S O’Sullivan, MA Paterson, J Payne, MA Rennick, G Roberts, M Ruston, A Scarr, P Seselja, Z Sinodinos, A Smith, DA Stoker, AJ Van, D
PAIRS
Carr, KJ Fawcett, DJ Gallagher, KR Askew, W Griff, S Henderson, SM McAllister, J Reynolds, L O’Neill, D Birmingham, SJ Rice, J Ryan, SM Sheldon, A Brockman, S Wong, P Cormann, M
Kristina Keneally had a bit to say about it though:
“This is the latest chapter in the comedy of errors that is the Morrison government. The Liberals started the day by accidentally sharing their talking points with the entire press gallery and finished it by stuffing up a vote in the Senate.”
Updated
Speaking of the Senate, someone in the government side will be in trouble this morning after the government lost a vote in the chamber last night:
BREAKING: The Govt just lost a vote in the Senate.
— Kristina Keneally (@KKeneally) October 14, 2019
We successfully amended the Police Powers at Airports Bill to include a PJCIS review of the legislation & sunset clauses as safeguards.
As @ScottMorrisonMP says such matters "can’t be set & forget" -- now they won't be #auspol pic.twitter.com/bin2SBQMGj
It sounds like there are going to be A LOT of conversations this week.
“The legislation does serve its purpose and they do have the opportunity to get medical attention, I don’t think we need to be arguing about that,” Jacqui Lambie continued.
“But, I have got to look at the bigger picture as well, and, as I said, what has happened over the last four or five days in Syria, certainly that will come into the equation now.”
Lambie says she is not sure if she would have voted for the medevac bill if she was in the Senate last year when it passed. But she comes back again to her point that “things have changed in the last four or five days, so I just need to get more clarification from that on home affairs and we’ll go from there”.
The report doesn’t come out until Friday, but the Senate won’t have to vote on the repeal until the Senate returns the week of 11 November. There is also estimates next week, where the legislation will no doubt play a big role.
Updated
Syria situation could sway medevac vote, says Jacqui Lambie
Over on ABC radio, Jacqui Lambie says she still has not made up her mind on the medevac repeal legislation.
With One Nation siding with the government, and Centre Alliance firmly against the repeal, the Tasmanian senator is the swing vote. She says the government can’t give her anything for her vote, because her constituents would not “expect me to go in there and sell those people out, for a deal for Tasmania”.
“It is just not on the cards, it is not the way we operate down in Tasmania,” she told RN.
Instead, Lambie says she is approaching it as a conscience vote.
“This will be a conscience vote, from Tasmania,” she said.
Lambie says she will be going through the Senate report on the medevac bill, which is due to be handed down on 18 October, over the weekend, including the dissenting reports. This week is full of meetings, with the immigration lawyer who appeared with her on the SBS show Go Back To Where You Came From meeting with Lambie this morning.
“She has some concerns as well. She does not want the medevac repealed. She wants to put her concerns across the table. There will be a few other people with who I am meeting with this week as well,” Lambie said.
On the medical bodies who came together for a joint statement, asking for the legislation to remain in place, Lambie says she believes national security grounds need to be taken into account as well.
“Especially with the tempo that is happening in the Middle East in the last four or five days,” she said.
“We also always need to make sure and consider that boats making sure that those boats don’t start coming back in, and whether or not that signals, whether or not that is going to set off that domino effect.
“Word doesn’t always get back to people, where there are other war zones not to get on boats, because you won’t be allowed into Australia.
“So making sure that they get that information correctly. And I know those people right now, that are going to be under the medevac law, it is only contained to those people who are already there.
“... So there is a lot up in the air. “
Lambie says the decision by Donald Trump to pull out US troops from northern Syria has “put a whole new spanner in the works” and the “discussions have slightly changed”.
“I’ll be going to see home [affairs] this week as well, and catch up with them, and just see where they are at with that sort of stuff and what else is going on with the Middle East.”
Updated
Good morning
There’s been no release of the government talking notes this morning, so I guess the big red button has been moved.
Instead, the prime minister started his morning talking to Alan Jones, because I don’t know. People get their morning gee up in different ways, I guess.
The Sydney radio 2GB host was very vexed about the drought, but Scott Morrison said he couldn’t make it rain.
“We want the farmers and the communities to get through this drought, but we can’t kid ourselves that there’s a magic wand and a magic cash splash that is going to make this thing totally solved” he said.
As we saw from the talking points yesterday, the government is feeling a little vulnerable on the drought. It keeps pointing to its $7bn spend, but as we know, $5bn of that hasn’t been spent. It’s in a future fund, locked away.
Regional and rural advocates say while the government has a strategy, it’s ad hoc, doesn’t involve the states and needs a more wholistic approach.
The government, of course, defends its response.
Expect more on that.
Jacqui Lambie has been up early, speaking to ABC radio, so I’ll bring you that soon. We’ll also have the outcome of the party room meetings and caucus being held a little later this morning.
It’s also International Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. The Senate will acknowledge that during the sitting session. But thinking of all of those impacted by pregnancy and infant loss. I hope you get a moment today for yourself.
Mike Bowers is already roaming the hallways, and you’ll have the considerable brainpower of Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp and Sarah Martin at your disposal. I have two coffees in front of me, thanks to benevolent benefactors who have learned I am in a better mood when properly caffeinated.
Ready?
Let’s get into it.
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