And with that, we shall leave the blog for today.
But never fear, we shall be back tomorrow. Mostly because it’s our job and I do like to get paid, but also because where else would you be?
Estimates continues, plus party room meetings, plus question time ... it never ends. (Except for Thursday when it will, until April)
A massive thank you to Mike Bowers, Katharine Murphy and Paul Karp and the rest of the Guardian brainstrust, secret squirrels included.
And of course, to you. We couldn’t do it without you. Get some rest and we’ll be back bright and early tomorrow. And in the meantime – take care of you.
Updated
Mike Bowers sat through that estimates hearing
The explanation of #shoegate is as dull as a pair of white sneakers.
so the PM's photoshopped shoes were the work of a graphic designer who wanted to see what the white shoes would look like with the white dresses in the photo, and most versions cropped them out. The pic was inadvertently saved as "final" and used on his site #estimates
— Angus Livingston (@anguslivingston) February 18, 2019
A spokesperson for Peter Dutton says on the issue of whether there was a relative of Dutton’s working for Paladin (following on from Derryn Hinch’s question which Murph updated you on just a short time ago), the answer is “no”.
Ian MacDonald just made reference to someone as a former “very senior important minister” and that sound you hear are business card requests being madly filled out.
Well this is interesting.
Natalie Whiting is the ABC correspondent in PNG
#PNG’s Immigration Minister has issued a statement on Paladin. #auspol pic.twitter.com/0IV5zxqg6a
— Natalie Whiting (@Nat_Whiting) February 18, 2019
Updated
Now the Chamber lighting is making everyone look like some sort of film negative in a Dynasty episode (the Joan Collins edition, of course)
And now Melissa Price has announced the government has filled the five vacancies on its threatened species scientific committee, which makes assessments on threatened species protection.
Guardian Australia reported on the weekend the committee was set to meet with the five former members observing in the event replacements hadn’t been appointed.
Professor Helene Marsh has been reappointed chair of the committee, and professors Dave Kendal and David Keith have been reappointed as committee members.
“I have strengthened the committee’s ability to provide advice that draws on Indigenous knowledge and helps land managers to care for their country by appointing Ms Cissy Gore-Birch, a Jaru/Kija woman from Western Australia, and Dr Richard Harper from the School of Veterinary and Life Sciences at Murdoch University,” Price said.
“During my time as assistant minister and now as minister for the environment, I have worked closely with the committee on 63 listing decisions relating to threatened species and ecological communities, including the addition of 42 threatened species and two ecological communities, the transfer of eight species between listing categories, and delisting of eight species.”
Updated
David Gillespie makes a joke about bringing in candles but how that might “offend the Gods of Co2”. It gets the response it deserves.
The light outage is giving a lovely old-timey sepia filter to the House.
Everything else is working (microphones, recorders etc) – it is just the lights.
They dimmed up here in the gallery, but bounced back.
Which is a shame, because I think this afternoon could call for some mood lighting.
“Are we still going,” Tony Burke who is delivering a speech on Labor’s small business justice laws asks?
Given the affirmative, he says fantastic and continues.
The lights have gone out in the chamber.
The Home Affairs department has put up a statement on its website about the Paladin tender:
Paladin Group is a global company which has delivered security and related services to a broad range of government and private sector clients across the Asia-Pacific region since 2007. It has been operating in Papua New Guinea (PNG) since 2009 via its PNG entity, Paladin Solutions PNG Ltd.
Paladin Holdings PTE Ltd registered in Singapore, is the parent company of Paladin Solutions PNG Ltd (registered in PNG).
On 21 September 2017 Paladin Solutions PNG Ltd was engaged under Letters of Intent valued at$89,243,817.76 (AusTender). This allowed the commencement of transition activities and continuity of service delivery to support the closure of the Manus Regional Processing Centre by 31 October 2017, and allowed for contract negotiations.
On 28 February 2018, the Department signed the initial PNG Services Contract (the Contract) withPaladin Holdings PTE Ltd valued at $176,876,834.40 for Garrison and Security Services at the East Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre, as well as services at other sites including Hillside Haus, West Lorengau Haus and in Port Moresby, PNG.
On 17 September 2018, the Contract was extended to 31 December 2018.
On 3 December 2018, the Contract was extended to 30 June 2019.
The Contract for the period from 28 February 2018 to 30 June 2019 is valued at $333,546,146.40(AusTender).
The procurement of Paladin Solutions PNG Ltd/Paladin Holdings PTE Ltd was conducted under the Special Measures procurement designated in accordance with paragraph 2.6 of the Commonwealth Procurement Rules.
In applying this Special Measure key factors were taken into consideration including: the urgency of ongoing services to support PNG Immigration and Citizenship Authority and the US Resettlement process and other service providers including Pacific International Hospital, Port Moresby; the limited number of potential suppliers (based on previous attempts to procure similar services); and the remote operating environment.
The procurement complied with other requirements under Division 1, in particular Value for Money, Records, Efficient, effective, economical and ethical procurement, and Procurement Risk. This procurement also complied with the Department’s High Risk, High Value governance process, which includes additional governance oversight such as Deputy Secretary or Deputy Commissioner financial approval, and clearance of key documents at senior executive level.
External probity advisors, external legal advisors from AGS, and commercial and financial advisors were also engaged during the procurement process.
The Department administers a strict contractual Performance Management Framework to ensure that Paladin Holdings PTE Ltd is accountable and delivers services to refugees and non-refugees as per the contractual requirements. This includes monitoring Paladin’s performance and undertaking a User Acceptance Testing process of Paladin Holdings PTE Ltd to ensure their contractual compliance.
A copy of the Paladin Holdings PTE Ltd PNG Services Contract (7MB PDF) (which only removed commercial in confidence information) was made publically available on the Department’s FOI disclosure log on 16 August 2018.
Victorian senator Derryn Hinch asks Mike Pezzullo whether Peter Dutton, the home affairs minister, has a relative working at Paladin.
“I have no idea,” Pezzullo tells the committee. Hinch wonders whether he’ll look into it. Pezzullo hedges. “If it falls into my responsibilities,” he says.
He then tells the committee (as he did earlier) that Dutton had nothing to do with this tender, apart from confirming the government’s policy regarding offshore detention at Manus Island.
Updated
The environment minister Melissa Price has upgraded the threatened status of the spectacled flying fox, whose populations suffered mass losses during the recent Queensland heatwave.
Humane Society International, which has criticised the government for delaying decisions about threatened species protection, had nominated the species to have its listing status changed to reflect the declines.
Speaking today, Price said it was necessary to transfer the species’ status from vulnerable to endangered because its population had halved in the past decade and it was “heavily impacted by a recent heat stress event in Queensland”.
Price said the government was also moving to implement recovery plans for the brush-tailed rabbit-rat and the central rock rat.
“Any uplisting is concerning to me, but I have tremendous faith in the science and planning that goes into monitoring and supporting our environment, its flora and fauna, and in the strength of these plans in protecting our native species,” she said.
Updated
GetUp is not an associated entity, the AEC has found:
The AEC finds insufficient material and evidence that GetUp was an associated entity. No reporting obligations #auspol pic.twitter.com/B5wi0aYiJL
— Amy Remeikis (@AmyRemeikis) February 18, 2019
In his statement, Paul Oosting sounds pretty happy with the decision:
“The AEC has declared that there is an important place for everyday people in our democracy. We put everyday people and what they want back at the centre of our politics.”
This is the third time hard right politicians have forced the AEC to investigate GetUp’s independence and the third time the agency has ruled in GetUp’s favour.
“The Australian Electoral Commission has strongly rejected the push by the hard right faction of the Coalition to shut everyday people out of politics.
“The hard right forced this expensive, two-year investigation on the GetUp movement, in the hope it would silence all one million of us. But it has done exactly the opposite.
“You don’t make our democracy stronger by penalising a grassroots organisation for talking to voters.
“Today sets an important precedent for independent grassroots campaigning in Australia.”
We were dealing with an urgent situation, but were never desperate
Lots of questions continuing on Paladin.
The objective is to check whether basic probity protocols were followed.
The secretary of the home affairs department, Mike Pezzullo, repeats the evidence about the department needing to move quickly given the tight timelines after the PNG government said they wouldn’t provide services.
He tells the committee there was a real possibility of no service provision on Manus at the end of October.
The Greens senator Nick McKim interjects at this point, reminding people he was on Manus last year and there were no services. No meals. No services.
Pezzullo and fellow officials are asked, given the timelines, wasn’t there time to put this to a wider tender?
Pezzullo tells the committee “my strong preference” would have been to engage a service provider in a process running for 12 months or more, after a global search. He said that objective worked until PNG told the Australian government they would not provide the services.
So you were desperate, the Labor senator Kim Carr editorialises.
Pezzullo has a different construction.
We were dealing with an urgent situation but we were never desperate in doing so.
Updated
Feel the noise
Sticking with Paladin. Home affairs officials also indicated that other companies did not want to tender for services on Manus Island because, as one put it, there was “too much noise around regional processing”.
Updated
Jordon Steele -John:
The prime minister failed to take the one step which would have brought joy and elation to disabled people, and that was to commit his government to call for a royal commission.
He used a lot of big, kind words, but he failed to say the one thing that we needed to hear from him, which was that he would pick up the phone to state and territory ministers and solicit their report and call the royal commission.
As the prime minister was leaving the chamber, I asked him to give us a clear timeline for the taking of those steps, and he said to me: ‘I’ve said what I said’. Prime minister, that is not good enough.
The disabled people of Australia, those who watch you in the gallery, deserve more, they deserve better. You must tell us immediately the timeline you intend to contact states and territories. You must call a royal commission.
Updated
Annnnnnd
.@Barnaby_Joyce on the ‘big stick’ energy policy: I don’t think that will see the light of day before the election.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) February 18, 2019
MORE: https://t.co/HgTtpxHIOF #speers pic.twitter.com/pgJC0OKOXQ
We went with Paladin because the PNG government changed its mind
Home affairs officials are now back in estimates being asked about the Paladin contract which has attracted a lot of attention over the past week or so because of diligent reporting by the Australian Financial Review.
I’ll just paraphrase the evidence to keep this ticking over briskly.
The home affairs officials have told senators they went with Paladin in a direct source arrangement, as opposed to the more conventional open source tender, because the PNG government initially told the Australian government it would deliver services on Manus Island, and then advised the government in early July 2017 that it wasn’t able to do so, because the government had entered a caretaker period.
According to the version just given at estimates, home affairs officials then had to scramble to find a service provider.
They sought advice from the finance department and the Australian government solicitor about what options they had.
The resolution was to invoke a regulation 2.6 – which allowed the home affairs department to approach a provider directly rather than advertise more widely for service delivery.
Officials said they had no choice but to move quickly because there was a hard deadline of October.
The evidence this afternoon is Paladin was already on the scene in PNG, working as a contractor for Wilson Security.
Officials say the contract is with Paladin based in Singapore, not a subsidiary headquartered at a beach shack at Kangaroo Island (which is what media reports have said in recent days).
Officials have also told the committee this is a “full service” contract, not just the provision of security (which I think is an attempt to explain why the arrangement is worth hundreds of millions).
Updated
From Kate Ellis’s valedictory:
Updated
People with Disabilities Australia have responded to the motion for a royal commission into disability abuse passing in the parliament.
“We welcome today’s vote on a royal commission into the violence, abuse and neglect that is a devastating reality in many of our lives,” said Therese Sands, co-chief executive of People with Disability Australia, a member of Disabled People’s Organisations Australia. However, we are concerned that there was not a definite announcement or timeframe to establish a Royal Commission, nor a commitment to look at the breadth of issues we have raised with the Federal Government over many years.
“We have fought for a standalone Royal Commission on this issue for decades and we are ready to work with the Federal Government to make the Royal Commission happen as soon as possible.”
Carolyn Frohmader, executive director of Women With Disabilities Australia, a member of DPO Australia, said: “A royal commission is essential due to the violence that has impacted many of our lives, causing trauma, harm and even death.
“Women with disability experience higher rates of violence, including sexual violence than non-disabled women. We need to make sure that the royal commission takes an intersectional approach to the examination of violence, including gender, age, sexual orientation, intersex status and race.
“The specific issues that affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability must also be addressed by this Royal Commission, including extensive consultation with Aboriginal controlled organisations of people with disability, particularly given the over-representation of Aboriginal people in care, in prison and living in institutions.
Damian Griffis, chief executive of First Peoples Disability Network Australia, (a member of DPO Australia), said: “People with disability from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds must have equal access to the Royal Commission, with appropriate supports, translations to make sure our voices are heard.
Updated
From Mike Bowers’s lens to your eyeballs.
Updated
The disability abuse royal commission motion passes on the voices.
It’s Paladin time in estimates, with Kim Carr beginning the questioning.
Jordon Steele-John has ben live tweeting his reactions from the floor
Thank you @AdamBandt, and especially thank you @SenatorSiewert for being a tireless advocate before my time in this place #Auspol
— Senator Jordon Steele-John (@Jordonsteele) February 18, 2019
PM just shook my hand and said "well done"
— Senator Jordon Steele-John (@Jordonsteele) February 18, 2019
I said "a timeline is what is needed now"
Response "I've said what I've said".
Not a good start @ScottMorrisonMP #RoyalCommissionNow #auspol
On the cost, the aged care royal commission has a budget of $130m, while I think the banking royal commission had a budget of around $75m.
Updated
Bill Shorten:
This is a very, you know, politically contested time in Australia’s politics as we are in the 45th Parliament.
[There was] debate last week about what was the right or wrong thing to do. I’m unequivocal that what we’re doing today is the right thing do. Of course, only the executive can implement a royal commission, we understand that. But what I would say to the government is this is a good step forward.
But we need to provide a timeline and, yes, the states and territories need to provide their cooperation but it wouldn’t be the first time that a state and territory has said no to a Commonwealth Government and the Commonwealth Government has still steamed ahead.
I accept there needs to be some discussion - that’s good - but I really think we’re capable of allocating a budget or work out how much it costs.
We’ve allocated, if we form government, $26 million. But if the Government has a different view about a higher quantum, we’re obviously not going to quibble with that.
But what we’ve made clear is that people with disability need to be at the to drawing up of the terms of reference. We get that.
That’s one reason why Labor has chosen to, whilst we put out principles, and we did two years ago, we want to hear the voiceless in this debate. I think this afternoon this is a good resolution. I’m really pleased because I have a real passion and interest in helping people with disabilities.
This is some way to give back. It has been on the books for too long, this proposition. I’m very pleased we’re doing it. But we do so on the basis that this is not about recognising a particular institution but people need to go through their historical experiences. But fundamentally, I, and Labor, are voting for this royal commission because it is the right thing to do, because the evidence says it is the right thing to do, it’s been our stated policy for the best part of two years to do.
But even beyond all of that, we must redefine Australia’s relationship with Australians who live with disability, we’ve got to re-value and re-evaluate our relationship. We have to recognise that while we’re a nation who devalues people with disability, then we will never get to the root cause of violence and the prevention of violence, abuse and neglect. But this is a very good moment and I’m very pleased to support it.
Updated
Scott Morrison:
Mr Speaker, on Friday I received correspondence from Senator Steele-John which contained a draft terms of reference for the proposed royal commission into disability services and I thank him for doing so and I appreciate...the very detailed suggestions that he has been able to provide to us on this issue. They, of course, will be of assistance as we consider now this motion and move forward on this matter.
I note his terms of reference seeks to look into the experiences, rightly I express, of people affected or indirectly affected of people in institutional, residential or other context.
As the Attorney-General noted on the weekend, that a royal commission looking into past issues, backwards, around disability care is essentially a royal commission that would look into state facilities and, at the very least, require consultation with the states and likely letters patents from the states. We understand this to be true.
This should not be a royal commission that only looks at a narrow area of responsibility that has only become part of the Commonwealth’s responsibility in recent times.
The issues that are relevant here go back over some period of time. Certainly back a decade. And they, principally, involve the conduct of state and territory governments in the delivery of disability services. And they should, obviously, be considered in any royal commission that was held into this area.
I do note, as I did in Question Time today, though, that the establishment of a royal commission was previously discussed through the Council of Australian Government and the COAG Disability Reform Council and, at that time, states and territories did not support, did not indicate support for a royal commission.
So these are hurdles that would have to be addressed. I want to keep all Australians safe, Mr Speaker, and to use whatever powers we have to do so. But this work often requires us to work in partnership with the states and territories and that’s what we’ll have to address ourselves to going forward.
Violence, abuse and neglect of people with disability outside service settings such as at home or in the community is mostly covered under state and territory law.
So working with the states and territories in this area, both looking at matters in the past as well as looking forward, will be absolutely essential. So I will be seeking further advice from all states and territories to discuss this important matter of establishing a royal commission as well as consulting directly and extensively with stakeholders about what the precise terms of reference might be, and what other royal commissions, in particular the aged care royal commission, might be able to offer as a way to address these issues.
These are the options before the government. As the House knows, calling a royal commission is a matter for the executive government. The House, as the Senate, has put forward a motion and it will not be opposed by the government, it will be supported by the government, but it will be the government that then will take that matter into consideration and work through all the necessary issues to be able to do something positively in this area and to act on these issues.
That’s exactly what we’ll do. We have no interest, Mr Speaker, in making any partisanship of this issue.
One of the reasons I decided to establish the royal commission into aged care is I believe the royal commission into aged care would provide a fact base, a new platform, to support a further decade of bipartisan in action on aged care because I was concerned that that bipartisanship was waning.
I sincerely hope that that is not the case in relation to the disability care and to go forward with this issue, that is the good faith I seek to go forward with this issue.
I’ll report back to the House when I have further advice and able to make announcements. With that I move that the resolution of the Senate be agreed to.
Updated
#estimates caused me to miss what I hear was a quality valedictory by my SA colleague @KateEllisMP. We may be political foes but I congratulate her on her service, commitment to #Adelaide & policy contributions. All the best Kate for a future filled with many @Adelaide_FC wins!
— Simon Birmingham (@Birmo) February 18, 2019
The issue of the Paladin contract should be coming up in the Home Affairs estimates now-ish.
Updated
Coalition to support disability royal commission
The motion to bring on a royal commission into disability abuse has reached the House.
The upshot of Scott Morrison’s speech is that the government is looking at ways to look forward and consulting with the states and territories.
The government will support the motion, but Morrison says the government will look at all the issues and how to move forward and will report back to the House. Which can only come in April, around the budget.
Bill Shorten is now delivering his reply.
Jordon Steele-John is once again on the floor as as guest from the Senate.
Updated
You can hear Kate and David [Penberthy]’s young sons, Sam and Charlie, in the public gallery as Kate delivers the final thank yous of her speech, which is directed towards her family.
Her mum appears to be crying. Her kids are as impressed with proceedings as you would expect two toddlers to be.
She makes it clear she is not leaving a job she loves because of them.
“I am leaving a job that I love for me, I am leaving because you have given me something more than I love than this [amazing job].”
Updated
Kate Ellis says “restoring unity, allowing shadow ministers the space and trust to delve deep into policy development” has been among her favourite moments of the Labor opposition, thanking Bill Shorten for pulling the party together after 2013.
She also thanks Julia Gillard for her leadership.
She thanks Tony Burke and Tanya Plibersek for their friendship, but also singles out chief whip Chris Hayes and his staff for helping her balance work and home life.
And of course, a special thank you goes to Don Farrell, for the reason she was given the opportunity to serve her community. Thank yous also go to those who helped fight to establish a childcare centre at the parliament, and the staff who work there.
Updated
Kate Ellis said she felt “a great burden” to show that women could be parliamentarians and have a family.
She also says no male power structure is dismantled voluntarily.
But she feels that change has happened within the Labor party and she feels that now she can leave, with more women coming through than ever.
Julie Bishop is among the 22 or so government MPs who have remained to listen (as is Kelly O’Dwyer and Melissa Price). All three women are listening intently.
Updated
On the exchange between the home affairs boss, Mike Pezzullo, and the Liberal senator Jane Hume on the advice Bill Shorten and Labor received (particularly relevant given Peter Dutton’s dixer answer earlier in question time):
Pezzullo: “Just to be abundantly clear, the director general and I did brief Mr Shorten and his very senior colleagues, on the Senate amended bill.
“There was no discussion of, and nor were we able to as public officials, unless authorised by the government, to engage with the opposition, on what alternative constructions might look like.
“... So I think your question went to Labor’s amendments?”
Hume: “Yes it did.”
Pezzullo: “I want to be very clear about this, the briefing was about the Senate-amended bill.
“... As I made clear in my introduction , which was precisely designed to anticipate this line of questioning, the opposition in the Westminster system makes up its own mind which amendments to pursue, and I would infer, because it happened after our briefing, on the basis of that briefing Mr Lewis and I provided along with several of our colleagues.
“I want to stress again the briefing was on the Miscellaneous Measures Bill, as amended by the Senate.”
Updated
For those wondering, yes the motion for a royal commission into disability abuse has arrived from the Senate.
The government will not be opposing it.
Kate Ellis is delivering her valedictory to the House.
She says when she started she said she was young and idealistic and she hoped that when she left she would be old and idealistic.
Fifteen years later, she says that idealism has survived.
“Just.”
Updated
Scott Morrison calls time on QT.
Updated
There’s been a tense exchange between Labor senators, the environment department and Coalition senator Simon Birmingham over how Australia is tracking toward its 2030 emissions targets.
Labor senators Anne Urquhart and Kristina Keneally asked about the department’s most recent quarterly emissions projections, which say on current trajectories
Australia’s emissions will be 563 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2030, which would be a 7% reduction in emissions on 2005 levels.
Australia’s target is for a 26-28% reduction on 2005 levels. The amount of emissions for 2018 was 534 million tonnes the department tells the hearing.
Senator Urquhart wants to know if this means Australia’s emissions are increasing (they are). But the department is arguing that it’s not that simple.
“It’s always important for us to clarify that this is a projection. It’s not a forecast of what is the potential to happen. I guess what I’m saying is while it’s a projection, it’s very conservative,” says Jo Evans, the deputy secretary for climate change and energy innovation.
She says there are measures that the department hasn’t yet factored into its projections that could close the gap further - basically changes in technology that could drive emissions down further, or changes in policy.
But Urquhart wants to know if it’s correct that, based on the department’s own data now, Australia is set to miss its minimum 2030 target by 19%.
“The only way that would be a true statement is if nothing else happened between now and then...which would be predicated on nothing further happening either in unexpected ways or in changes or amendments to the current policy suite.”
Keneally asks in what sense the government’s current policies are working, to which Birmingham replies that they have “steered” Australia toward beating its 2020 target.
Keneally asks if this means “hope” is guiding the government’s claims the country will meet its commitments under the Paris agreement.
Birmingham says its confidence is based on Australia’s performance under the Kyoto agreement and the government “continually working” on policy settings that will help Australia meet its Paris targets.
“So if I could summarise, you’re hoping that past performance is an indicator of future success and that future success will be predicated not on policies you’ve already announced but on some things you’ve yet to announce,” Keneally says.
We are going a bit longer into question time, so Bob Katter gets a question about help for farmers.
He asks about the government-backed bank. I think.
Scott Morrison touches on what Paul Karp reported on earlier about aid for flood-hit communities:
Tonight I am assembling a cabinet task force to consider a series of recommendations and proposals we will work through over the course of the week. they will come off the back of my learning when I was up there last week, with the deputy prime minister who was here on the weekend and the assistant minister for home affairs who has been there.”
Updated
Amanda Rishworth to Melissa Price:
There is an ecological disaster in the Murray-Darling River. Why is it that the environment minister has not visited and is completely missing in action.
Price:
It is indeed very disappointing at a time when many communities along the Murray-Darling basin are in a very distressed state, you should come to this place and politicise this. Very disappointing. We know the recent fish [kill] in the basin are a terrible reminder, of the devastating effects of drought on the environment. It is distressing for all those communities along there, and does highlight the importance of water for the environment, during the [drought] times.”
She ends by saying the Coalition are “a team”. Labor explodes as one.
For more on Melissa Price’s low-key performance as environment minister, check out this feature by our environment writer Lisa Cox:
Updated
Bill Shorten to Scott Morrison: (He is also very loud in asking this)
Can the prime minister confirm he cannot control the Parliament, he cannot control the National party, cannot control his own government, and that today, he will 1) backflip on a disability royal commission, 2) backflip on access to justice laws for small business, and has already shelved his 11th energy policy.
Morrison
I can confirm this leader of the Labor party can’t get his head out of the Canberra bubble.
(That’s not me cutting it down - that’s the whole answer)
Updated
Labor senators have probed Duncan Lewis’ barbed opening statement and have successfully joined the dots back to Simon Benson’s article in The Australian on the medevac bill.
Lewis said that Asio gave advice that was “narrow” in scope, relating only to the Asio Act and how it related to the Senate version of the medevac bill. “If the Australian has gone beyond that, then that is not correct,” he said.
Home affairs department security Michael Pezzullo clarified:
The headline was Asio advice. But when one unpacked the article and read it, it said something like ‘advice from home affairs, based on contributions from Asio [and Border Force]. That was the Benson article, if you read down the column it was transparently apparent it was from the department and drew on, in part, advice from Asio.
Lewis confirms he checked and there was no leak from ASIO.
Labor’s Kim Carr asks if this is the sort of behaviour that undermines confidence in Asio (the misattribution of advice), and Lewis confirms: “Yes.”
Lewis: "it is unhelpful when inaccurate reports are circulated." #auspol #Estimates
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) February 18, 2019
Updated
Asio chief Duncan Lewis appears to have had a bit of a go about the leaking of its advice, in the opening statement to his estimates hearing:
We recognise that our security intelligence advises unique and that it is only one important drawn on for a policy development advice. In this context, I’d like to make to direct comments about Asio and officers. Firstly, Asio does not and will not use its position to influence the national debate on security relevant issues through unauthorised disclosures. I have the greatest confidence that Asio officers work with integrity and do not leak information to 3rd parties, as has been repeatedly implied in the media. Second, Asio does not finalise policy or provide running public commentary on the effectiveness of policy proposals. These are important considerations because they go to the trust that the parliament and ultimately the Australian people have in the effectiveness of their security service and the confidence that they have in Asio. I scarcely need to remind senators of the important limitations placed on intelligence services in successful democracies such as ours.
When reporting wrongly attributes advice from Asio, or our classified advice is leaked, it undermines all that we stand for. I want to make this point, as it is often difficult for me as the director-general of security to correct the public record. We do not want to enter into a running commentary upon every reporting error. Asio’s advice is provided agencies to assist with policy development, and there are strict controls on how that advice is managed and disseminated, and breakdown of these controls are seriously damaging.
Updated
“I’m asked if there are any alternative approaches, Mr Speaker....”
Due to personal reasons, I am going to run screaming from this building.
Mark Butler to Scott Morrison, asking why the PM is refusing to put his so-called big stick legislation before the House.
Josh Frydenberg takes this one, saying that the Coalition believes in lower power prices and asking why Labor is on the side of big energy companies.
Etc, etc, etc
Updated
Liberal senator Jane Hume has been fishing for Asio director Duncan Lewis to criticise the provisions of the medevac bill, particularly the provision that gives the minister 72 hours to block a medical transfer on security grounds.
Lewis and home affairs department secretary Michael Pezzullo both specified that they briefed Labor on the Senate bill (ie when the timeframe was 24 hours, not 72 hours).
Lewis said it “depends on the circumstances” how quickly the agency can do a background check.
Hume suggests the medevac bill is unworkable, but Lewis clarifies that’s not what he said.
Asked if background checks could potentially take months, Lewis agreed “sometimes it could, indeed”.
Updated
Andrew Leigh to Scott Morrison: (he is very loud)
Last week the government voted against Labor access to justice for small business reforms in the Senate. Today the government is briefing the media it is intending to backflip because Nationals are willing to cross the floor and vote for the Labor reforms. Isn’t it the case this prime minister will say and do anything to desperately cling to power?
Morrison:
I will do everything in my power to support small and family businesses. This is the track record! Cut the tax rate to 25%, introduce legislation as we are doing this week under the securitisation funds to make sure small businesses can get access to the capital and finance they need.
Making sure small businesses get paid on time, reducing the payment times to 20 days. Down from 30 and getting state and territory governments to back that as well as well as large businesses. This government has done more for small and family businesses than any other government.
...Time after time after time, when it comes to small and family businesses, they have a lot of friends in this parliament. They are only sitting on this side of the chamber.
Updated
Nicole Flint is up with the next dixer, asking about how safe we are and what are the alternative approaches?
Immigration minister David Coleman ramps it up with this:
We know the Labor party’s handling of this issue, with 50,000 people arriving, 8,000 children forcibly placed in detention, with 1,200 people drowning at sea, was the greatest postwar failure in Australian public policy history.
Yup
Updated
Brendan O’Connor to Scott Morrison on the AWU leak case:
Can he confirm two of his ministers refused to provide witness statements to the federal police investigation?
Morrison:
This is a matter before the courts I do not intend to provide any comment other than to remind the House what this matter is all about. Why did union fund money go to GetUp?
Updated
This is going to be a long and very painful election campaign.
In today’s edition of How Safe Are Your Borders? Peter Dutton says:
Under the Immigration Act it has 12 subsections, the Labor party has discounted 11 of those and included only one, that means we could stop somebody hopping on a plane in Singapore today accused of molesting a child, [pulled] that person from the plane and denied them access to our borders. But, we can’t do that, with people coming from Manus and Nauru under the Labor law ... The reality is, as we have seen ...
The House explodes:
They say it’s not true, they say it’s not true! It is true, if you listen to the advice, if you had taken the advice from the security agencies you would know it is true.
The trouble is you acted against the advice of the security agencies you are now paying the price. Mr Speaker, I can say to the house under Labor’s law, we have no power to prevent the transfer of a man charged with the rape of a minor.
No power under Labor law, to prevent the transfer of a man charged with an indecent act in relation to a child under 16 years of age.
Under Labor’s law, we have no power to prevent those people and others coming to our country. Mr Speaker, if they don’t understand the laws they have introduced, no wonder the mistakes of the past will be recommitted, it is obvious, this man who wants to be prime minister is weaker than Gillard and Rudd put together.
He couldn’t stare down the left of his party which is a repeat of what happened with Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd. If Mr Shorten was ever to have control of this public policy again it would be a humanitarian disaster.
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Bill Shorten to Scott Morrison:
Will the prime minister please confirm that every government senator including his ministers in the Senate, voted against the disability royal commission last Thursday. Could he please advise which minister made the recommendation for the government senators to vote against the disability royal commission.
Morrison:
The answer is the same.
Updated
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation chief Duncan Lewis has just smacked down the media for misrepresenting its advice and implying it leaks to influence political debates.
Lewis said that despite the move from the attorney general’s department to home affairs, Asio’s “statutory independence” remains.
Lewis then makes two points:
- “Asio does not and will not use its position to influence national debate with unauthorised disclosures”. He said the organisation “doesn’t leak as repeatedly implied in the media”.
- Asio “doesn’t provide running public commentary on the effectiveness of policy proposals”.
When reporting wrongly attributes advice from ASIO or our classified advice is leaked it undermines all we stand for.
Lewis said these issues are important because they go to public trust and confidence in Asio. Breakdown in controls on how Asio advice is disseminated is “seriously damaging”.
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Tanya Plibersek to Scott Morrison:
Which minister directed government senators to vote against the disability royal commission last Thursday and given the prime minister desperately wants people to believe he never opposed this royal commission, why did he allow one of his ministers to direct government senators to vote against it?
Morrison:
The shadow minister makes a whole range of assumptions in the question, which are a lot of speculation. I’m so used to the member of Sydney coming to the box and making a bunch of assumptions, Mr Speaker ...
...We won’t engage in this rank partisanship, where the opposition is simply trying to use people with disabilities for their own political purposes.
Updated
Chris Crewther had the next dixer about the housing market.
Negative gearing good, Labor bad is the short version of the answer from Josh Frydenberg.
Frydenberg mentions Paul Keating, prompting Ed Husic to yell out “all tip and no iceberg” but he times it for when the chamber is silent and it echoes across the chamber.
He is warned.
Updated
Kerryn Phelps has today’s crossbench question:
The mortgage broker model originated as a disruptor to the market [control] of the major banks regarding clients. With the government’s proposed changes to the broking industry resulting from the royal commission into banking, how can the government ensure that the big banks do not benefit financially while average families and small business once again forced to pay the price of limited [competition]?
Josh Frydenberg takes it:
The reality is that only this side of the house supports mortgage brokers. Those opposite, don’t, Mr Speaker. Those opposite don’t.
He then goes on to attack Labor for not having a response to the royal commission.
Updated
Emma Husar to Scott Morrison:
Children with a disability are waiting months to receive a NDIS plan and the support they need. Governments figures are showing a wait time of 15 weeks, adults waiting on specialist accommodation to be included in the plans so they can live independently. When will the government join with Labor to get rid of the NDIS staffing caps so people with a disability can get the support they need in a reasonable timeframe?
Morrison hands it to the minister Paul Fletcher:
The NDIS, is the most significant change and social policy we have seen for decades.
... There will be instances where the level of service is not what it should be and we continue to work towards improving that. At the same time, what we are seeing is systemic reform, across the scope of the work of the NDIS agency, improvement to the participant pathways from the 1 October last year, a new general participant pathway rolled out with a face-to-face meeting for every participant coming into the scheme.
... The member asked about specialist disability accommodation. This is a very important priority, especially for those who have especially high needs. They need specially designed accommodation which might need [re]designed bathrooms, and many other facilities.
That is why over a week ago we announced a range of significant changes to the guidelines for specialist disability accommodation which have already produced responses from specialist providers, people like Summer Housing and Youngcare indicating they see these changes is very positive is likely to increase the flow of specialist disability, coming forward.
Accommodation designed to meet the needs of Australians with disability. Giving them the opportunity to live in accommodation which meets their needs, frees them from living in institutional settings, [and gives them the opportunity ] to achieve the control, and the dignity, and the autonomy, which is a critical objective of the national disability insurance scheme.
Updated
You can always tell when Michael McCormack is nearing the end of his dixer because he suddenly gets a lot louder.
It’s Michael McCormack time, which gives everyone, including the vast majority of the government benches, to catch up on paperwork and their phones.
Updated
Linda Burney to Scott Morrison:
Every government senator voted against the disability royal commission just four days ago, why won’t the prime minister just tell the truth and admit he opposed the royal commission? It has been forced to back that because he lost control of the parliament. Isn’t it clear this prime minister will do anything to desperately cling to power?
“Unbelievable,” yells Luke Howarth from the government benches.
Morrison:
I was going to thank the member for the question but I specifically made a request to the leader for the opposition ... not to engage in partisan politics on support for people with disabilities.
Mr Speaker, this is beyond a Labor Party, obsessed with the politics of the Canberra bubble, seeking only to try to score political points off people with disability. I will not do that.
We will continue to take action to put in place the National disability insurance scheme, we will fund that, we will work towards all the issues and there are many in implementing what is a significant scheme, we will continue to make sure the commission is in place to allow us to receive complaints and act on them operate.
I’m disappointed when the Labor Party raised this issue for the first time in almost two years, they come in here and seek to play partisan politics over people with disabilities. I would ask them to refrain from that and the government will get on with the job.
Updated
Sarah Hanson-Young has also responded to the report released today on the fish kill:
Economists, lawyers and now scientists have highlighted the mismanagement of the Murray Darling basin as the leading factor in the dire state of our river. The river desperately needs more water if it is going to survive, and we need a federal royal commission to clean out the corruption, maladministration and incompetence,” Greens environment and water spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.
“The Academy of Sciences has made clear that planning, management and decision making needs to be informed by science, and in consultation with River communities and traditional owners. Their recommendations for a pumping embargo, and for water to be bought for the river need to be implemented immediately.
“This report highlights the limitations of environmental water accounting and the grave danger posed by water use including floodplain harvesting and theft of overland flows, particularly in the Northern Basin.
“The decision by Labor and the Government last year to reduce environmental flows in the Northern Basin must be reversed, as the SA royal commission and now, the Academy of Sciences report recommends.
“This latest report, together with the SA royal commission and the Productivity Commission report, shows the river desperately needs a drink. It is a matter of life or death. These fish deaths are a symbol of mismanagement and misplaced priorities.
“This is another opportunity for the Liberal National government, and the Labor party, to do right by the river. There must be cross-party support for these recommendations and a federal royal commission.
Updated
The voice is raised up a few levels for the first dixer on how safe is Australia and are there any alternative views.
It is straight into questions.
Bill Shorten to Scott Morrison:
How can the prime minister claim his government never opposed a disability royal commission, when every government senator voted against it 14 days ago. Will the prime minister reverse the government’s position and commit to establishing a royal commission into violence and abuse and neglect of people with a disability before the next election?
Morrison (who is speaking very quietly. Someone seems to have had an anti-yelling refresher course) replies:
I welcome those in the gallery who I know have a keen interest in the issue of disability and live disability and their families.
The government takes the abuse and neglect of those disabilities seriously. At no point as a prime minister have I said I oppose a royal commission.
What I said clearly in the House last week was we would consider this matter clearly and that matter will come before the House later today. I expect the motion to be passed as I made clear over the weekend, Mr Speaker.
... I’m not seeking to make partisan points about this. Unlike the leader of the opposition, who is sadly is trying to make a partisan issue out of this, Mr Speaker.
The last time the leader for the opposition raised a question regarding his proposal for a royal commission for these matters was in May 2017... until last Thursday, all of a sudden, Mr Speaker, the leader of the opposition recalls a proposal for which he has had no terms of reference, no specific details as to how it would be conducted.
Mr Speaker... in response to the message from the Senate today the government will take this matter on, do what we always do, consult with stakeholders, states and territories. These are matters that had up until this time, before the formation of the national disability insurance scheme, were handled by state and territory governments.
... We will do the work to make sure when we take this issue forward, it will be done, in a well-thought through manner, without any partisan rancour. I invite the leader of the opposition to stop seeking to make this a partisan issue and make sure we have bipartisanship on the issue of people with disabilities. We provided that when we supported the national disability insurance scheme, we will continue to provide that ... and I invite the leader of the opposition to not play politics with disabilities.
Updated
The House is all but in place and question time is about to begin.
Who’s that MP?
It was Lisa Chesters.
Kerryn Phelps in her 90-second statement:
It was heartening over the weekend that the response in my electorate to the passage of last week’s emergency medical transfers Bill was overwhelmingly positive.
The people of Wentworth are compassionate, engaged and principled - they can see through the deliberate misinformation campaign currently being waged by the prime minister, the minister for home affairs and the attorney-general.
In this spirit I note the following from a White House transcript of the phone call between ... Malcolm Turnbull and Donald Trump on 28 January 2017.
The topic of discussion was the transfer deal struck between Mr Turnbull and US President Barrack Obama for the transfer of refugees from Australia’s offshore processing centres to the United States.
Mr Turnbull said and I quote: ‘We know exactly who they are. They have been on Nauru or Manus for over three years and the only reason we cannot let them into Australia is because of our commitment to not allow people to come by boat. Otherwise we would have let them in … it is not because they are bad people.’
Now we read in today’s Daily Telegraph that around half of those refugees held in offshore processing centres on Manus Island and Nauru still do not have their identities confirmed and one in six checked so far have a red flag.
Both of these things cannot be true.
It really does appear that the current government cannot help itself when trying to score political points on refugees and asylum seekers.
I am proud to continue the fine tradition of moderate small-L liberalism in the seat of Wentworth.
I told the people of Wentworth that I would work to get kids off Nauru and for the humane treatment of people seeking asylum.
The medical evacuations legislation delivers just that. It is a compassionate solution to a long-running humanitarian problem.
The final bill addresses security concerns, it deals only with the current cohort of people in indefinite offshore detention while allowing doctors to do their job in helping patients get the medical care they desperately need.
It gets the balance right.
It is the hard right of the Liberal party that has left the people of Wentworth behind.
The hard right refuses to embrace New Zealand’s offer to resettle some refugees and now their shameful rhetoric puts the US deal at risk.
Why would anyone trust what the current government says about refugees?
Updated
We are about to head into the chamber – so hit us up with your QT predictions.
The report makes clear that while the drought played a role in the fish kills, the underlying cause is that there just isn't enough high quality water in the Darling River.
— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) February 18, 2019
Now we have the facts, our responsibility is to act - for the river & for the communities who rely on it.
Labor’s Murray Watt is quizzing AFP commissioner Andrew Colvin about this Canberra Times story about a car driven by home affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo colliding with a cyclist.
Colvin said there was a report to the police, the police attended and spoke to a range of individuals. “I believe they concluded that no charges should be laid and no further police action is necessary,” he said.
Watt said it was a very serious incident. The cyclist’s collarbone was broken and he was unable to drive for three months. Watt asks whether it was Pezzullo who reported the accident to the police - or someone else - and wants to know if anyone was drug and alcohol-tested. The AFP takes these questions on notice.
“I understand Mr Pezzullo left the scene without waiting for police, is there any requirement for people in accidents to wait for police to arrive?” Watt asks and whether Pezzullo complied with that requirement. All on notice.
Legal and constitutional affairs committee chair Ian Macdonald accuses Labor of “trashing reputations by innuendo ... This is an outrageous abuse of parliamentary privilege”, he says.
Liberal senator Linda Reynolds objects to “the imputation the AFP didn’t follow procedures”.
Updated
Alistair MacGibbon is speaking about the cyber targeting of the parliamentary and party networks (he’s the head of the cyber security centre):
While the compromise of any network is extremely unfortunate, the public can be reassured that our agencies detected the intrusion and acted decisively to confront it. While this offender was sophisticated enough to compromise the networks, it was not sophisticated enough to remain undetected.
The cyber security centre is undertaking significant remediation activities. We are working closely with affected organisations.
We’ve provided technical details to anti-virus companies so that this malicious activity can be identified globally. We have briefed state and territory electoral commissioners. Those responsible for cyber security in states and territories and the privacy commissioner.
We’ve also acted the cyber incident arrangements with our state and territory colleagues to ensure that this incident is managed in a controlled and collaborative manner.
Our focus has been and continues to be on securing the affected networks. I can say that there is no evidence that this is an attempt to interfere in our electoral processes. This incident, again, shows that Australia and Australians are targeted by malicious actors.
Our political institutions represent high-value targets. But we have resilient systems in place to detect compromises and remediate them. It’s also a reminder that no system is 100% secure. The methods used by offenders are constantly evolving and all organisations should consider cyber security as an integral part of their business model.
Updated
Helen Davidson has reported on the AFP pointing the finger at home affairs for what led up to Hakeem al-Araibi’s detention in Thailand, from this morning’s estimates hearings:
Here is her full report:
Updated
Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick has drawn our attention back to the outcome of the Australian Academy of Science review of the Menindee fish kill.
The deputy prime minister Michael McCormack and other Nationals blame the lack of rain – and only the lack of rain – not the amount of water being taken out by irrigators.
The report says - yeah, nah, it’s both:
The conditions leading to this event are an interaction between a severe (but not unprecedented) drought and, more significantly, excess upstream diversion of water for irrigation. Prior releases of water from Menindee Lakes contributed to lack of local reserves.
The root cause of the fish kill is that there is not enough water in the Darling system to avoid catastrophic decline of condition through dry periods.
The Australian Academy of Science’s report into the cause of the mash fill kills at #Menindee has been released today. It makes for interesting reading, particularly the points highlighted below #MurrayDarling pic.twitter.com/lkUWzyPC9b
— Rex Patrick (@Senator_Patrick) February 18, 2019
Updated
Now I know you are all waiting on Paladin to be brought up in estimates – that won’t be happening until later this afternoon.
We are on the downhill slide into question time. And I don’t know much, but I know it won’t go for 150 minutes and that may be all I need to know.
The Great Barrier Reef marine park authority has been telling Senate estimates about the impact of the Queensland floods on the Great Barrier Reef.
Scientists are still monitoring the impact but GBRMPA warns that some of the things we could see in coming weeks and months are freshwater bleaching of corals stressed by a drop in the water’s salinity levels, a dying off of some seagrasses and, potentially, deaths of animals that feed on seagrass such as dugongs and turtles.
“There is likely to be a time lag of weeks to many months before we will know exactly what the impacts of this event are,” Bruce Elliot, the acting chief executive of Gbrmpa tells the hearing.
He says the one piece of good news is that the cooler weather up north has markedly reduced the chance of a mass thermal bleaching on the reef this year, but forecasts for coming months will be critical in determining how the reef will fare this summer.
David Wachenfeld, the chief scientist at Gbrmpa, elaborates on the extent of flood plumes moving from Queensland’s rivers out into the marine park.
He says they plumes are being monitored by scientists from James Cook University and the Australian Institute of Marine Science and are “extensive”.
He also warns that unusual wind conditions are carrying those flood plumes further east and offshore than they might normally go.
He tells the hearing a bit more about freshwater bleaching, which is less well known than thermal bleaching of the kind that hit the reef in 2016 and 2017.
Wachenfeld says it doesn’t usually occur on the same scale as thermal bleaching but it can be rapid.
The bad news is that scientists are already detecting areas on the reef where salinity levels have dropped to almost half their usual levels because of the flooding. This causes stress for corals and other marine life used to a saline environment and coral bleaching can result.
He says there could be some overlap between areas affected by the last two mass bleachings and now the floods.
“There probably will be reefs that were both affected by thermal stress in 2015/16 and/or 2016/17 that may now be affected by one of the various impacts that might come from this flooding,” Wachenfeld says.
“We have teams out under the marine monitoring program that GBRMPA manages.”
Only time will tell what the affect is, he says.
He adds: “I’m certainly not able to put any kind of a figure on the spatial extent of the park that’s affected by the flood plumes but I think I can safely say that they are extensive because there are rivers flooding all the way from the Whitsundays in the central Great Barrier Reef, right up to Cape Tribulation in the northern Great Barrier Reef.”
“So a substantial part of the central Great Barrier Reef is being affected by these plumes now.”
Updated
Labor’s shadow industrial relations minister Brendan O’Connor has been out and about on Senate estimates revelations about the AWU raid and leak investigation:
There was testimony today in Senate estimates from the AFP that evidence was destroyed - evidence that would’ve provided a greater likelihood of criminal prosecution was destroyed ...
If you look at what’s happened this morning, what you see is this: two ministers who have refused to make statements, even though they were requested by the AFP, evidence being destroyed ... and the AFP – who have conceded a criminal offence was committed – but it was harder to convict or to proceed to charge due to the lack of evidence.
That goes directly to the conduct of ministers: the former minister for justice [Michael Keenan] and minister [Michaelia] Cash, who should now be called the minister for obstructing justice for refusing to provide statements to the AFP.
Updated
Estimates Penny Wong is some of the best Penny Wong.
She has just spent the last five minutes trying to get a prime minister’s department official to tell her who started the Nauru/Manus US-refugee swap deal.
We finally get there. About five minutes later.
It was Malcolm Turnbull. Probably.
Wong now wants to know “how it came about”. The committee is going on lunch now, until 1.30pm and then we move on to another department, before the department of PM and C is back.
“Just to note this, I will be returning to this, at that point,” Wong says.
Updated
Now, why is the the cyber targeting such a big deal?
Because it is about five minutes out from an election. The parliamentary network includes emails. The party networks includes all sorts of things. Polling, plans of attack, internal emails between party heads, campaign briefings....
So what happens if any of this information shows up ahead of the election? Thats the issue.
Updated
The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, has just held a presser and has confirmed that the small business access to justice measures – which passed the Senate on Thursday over Liberal objections – will pass on the voices in the House.
Frydenberg declines to explain why the government has reversed its position – although the breakout of Nationals who backed Labor’s policy explains it.
Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce immediately followed the treasurer to take credit for the backdown:
So to hear today that we’re actually going to provide equality of access to justice - where people get a fair outcome not because of the size of their cheque book or their capacity to have a legal department but because they have a just case. This is something the National party have been fighting for for so long and it’s great to see it looks like it’s going to prevail ...
So often you’ve seen farmers in the past have a just position against the major supermarkets but no capacity whatsoever to pay the legal fees that would be required to take it on.
Joyce also called for the government to revisit the divestiture powers, noting a bill to allow courts to break up big energy companies is still on the notice paper. He did not rule out amending the small business bill, explaining the Nationals “want both”.
On a separate issue, Frydenberg did not commit to a lower house vote on payday lending, he simply noted there is a committee inquiry report due on Friday.
Updated
Penny Wong is asking the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet about when it first became aware the medical evacuation bill may have been unconstitutional.
When it was tabled (and reported) is the answer.
Updated
This seems timely:
The joint committee of public accounts and audit has commenced a new inquiry into cyber resilience, based on auditor-general’s report No. 53 (2017-18), Cyber Resilience.
Committee chair senator Dean Smith said the cyber resilience of commonwealth agencies continues to be a key focus of the joint committee.
“Effective implementation of a comprehensive cyber security framework across commonwealth agencies is critical to protect Australians’ privacy and Australia’s social, economic and national security interests from emerging cyber threats,” Smith said.
The committee invites submissions to the inquiry by 4 March 2019, addressing the terms of reference. A public hearing will be held in mid-March.
Further information about the inquiry can be accessed via the committee’s website.
The JCPAA is parliament’s joint public administration committee. It scrutinises the governance, performance and accountability of commonwealth agencies, and has the power to inquire into all expenditure of commonwealth money.
The committee examines all reports of the auditor-general tabled in the Parliament and can inquire into any items, matters or circumstances connected with these reports.
Updated
Barnaby Joyce has an idea of where to look:
Barnaby Joyce says we are in a kind of “cold conflict” with China - citing recent hacking attempts... after the PM reveals a “sophisticated state actor” was behind APH system attack. #auspol
— James O'Doherty (@jmodoh) February 18, 2019
Bill Shorten:
I thank the prime minister for his statement and the opportunity for the House to address such an important matter.
The integrity of our democracy and trust in our political institutions is fundamental to our national security.
I agree with the prime minister that whatever the rhetorical political or indeed substantial differences between government and opposition on any given day, whatever disagreements and disputes may consume the Parliament even in the coming hours, when it comes to national security, we all have a joint obligation.
We are in this together. Keeping Australians safe is not a political slogan. It is the highest priority of every political party and every member of this place.
So, obviously, the attempted hacking of the Parliament House network is a source of grave concern to us all.
Over the past few years, we have witnessed a range of attempted infiltrations and manipulations in the democratic processes of Germany, Japan, to Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States, France and Canada.
We cannot be complacent and, as this most recent activity reported by the prime minister indicates, we are not exempt or immune.
Now, as the prime minister has indicated, government institutions, such as our Electoral Commissions, are largely well protected, but our party political structures perhaps are more vulnerable.
We have seen overseas that it is progressive parties that are more likely to be targeted by ultra-rightwing organisations.
Political parties are small organisations with only a few full-time staff, they collect, store and use large amounts of information about voters and communities.
These institutions can be a soft target and our national approach to cyber security needs to pay more attention to non-government organisations.
Our agencies shouldn’t just be providing advice to political parties, but actively assisting in their defence. I have to say today to people listening in Parliament that my words are not just about political parties, but for Australia’s small and medium businesses, our educational institutions and individuals.
Everything that depends on internet technology, even if it is not actively connected to the global internet at all times is part of cyberspace. Cyberspace is a fully functioning reality. It is an ecosystem.
The virtual world of cyberspace has created an ecosystem.
New domains of human experience and millions of community within it that mimic the real world. It is an eco-system that has generated prosperity, and profound benefits to millions. It is an eco-system that also has spawned multiple threats to individuals, to businesses of all sizes, critical far, national security and our democratic systems.
It is an echo-system that is growing rapidly each and every day. In 2015, it was estimated that 25bn devices were connected to the internet. That is eight times the number of people considered online.
By 2020, the number of devices connected to the Internet is estimated to increase to 50bn devices. So the economy is no longer just merely enabled by cyber. Cyber is part of the economy and we are all connected in the economy. Cyber security affects every Australian in every way nearly every day.
So we need every Australian equipped ... to protect our institutions, freedoms and values. It means improving awareness of cyber risks and strategies the guard against them.
It means that we need to train up more Australians in our universities, TAFEs, research centres and our workplaces to fill national skill shortages and cyber security.
In closing, I would say that I have great trust in our security agencies and their professionalism to do all that they can to protect our nation against cyber threats, but we constantly need to be asking ourselves our settings are right.
The Commonwealth national cyber security adviser is dual in its policy role reporting to the secretary of home affairs that also is operational head of the Australian cyber security centre reporting to the director-general of the signals directorate.
Some are concerned that this creates piping. We need a cohesive national approach through the cyber security centre as a single entity, responsible for managing the cyber mission in totality and reporting up there a single chain.
We perhaps need to consider whether the Australian cyber security centre should be the single point of contact and accountability for all cyber-related communication, reporting, sin response, crisis communication, management, threat intelligent capability, operations and policy.
This centre should remain based in the defence portfolio and continue to report to the director-general of the signals directorate.
The threats we face in this field are always evolving and changing so we must continue to adapt and update our methods in defences because what we are defending, the integrity, transparency and health of our democracy, matters to every decision that we make in this place and every Australian that we serve.
Updated
Scott Morrison:
Australia’s democratic process is our greatest asset: our most critical piece of national infrastructure.
Public confidence in the integrity of our democratic processes is an essential element of Australian sovereignty and governance.
While we will vigorously argue over many issues in this place, we are all united in our commitment to democratic principles.
Members will be aware that the Australian Cyber Security Centre recently identified a malicious intrusion into the Australian Parliament House computer network.
During the course of this work, we also became aware that the networks of some political parties - Liberal, Labor and the Nationals - have also been affected.
Our security agencies have detected this activity and acted decisively to confront it. They are securing these systems and protecting users.
I do not propose to go into the detail of these operational matters.
But our cyber experts believe that a sophisticated state actor is responsible for this malicious activity.
Let me be clear though – there is no evidence of any electoral interference. We have put in place a number of measures to ensure the integrity of our electoral system.
I have instructed the Australian Cyber Security Centre to be ready to provide any political party or electoral body in Australia with immediate support, including making their technical experts available.
They have already briefed the Electoral Commissions and those responsible for cyber security for all states and territories. They have also worked with global anti-virus companies to ensure Australia’s friends and allies have the capacity to detect this malicious activity.
We have acted decisively to protect our national interests.
The methods used by malicious actors are constantly evolving and this incident reinforces yet again the importance of cyber security as a fundamental part of everyone’s business.
The Australian Government will continue to take a proactive and coordinated approach to protecting Australia’s sovereignty, our economy and our national security.
That is why the Government has invested in cyber security, including strengthening the Australian Cyber Security Centre by bringing all of the Australian Government’s cyber security capability together in one place (July 2018).
Our political system and our democracy remains strong, vibrant and is protected. We stand united in the protection of our values and our sovereignty.
The Government has chosen to be transparent about these matters. This in itself is an expression of faith by our Government in our democratic system and our determination to defend it.
Updated
Scott Morrison says the attack appear to have come from a “sophisticated state actor” from overseas.
All major parties targeted by a 'sophisticated state actor'
It wasn’t just the parliament which was targeted.
Prime minister Scott Morrison is telling the parliament that the Liberal party, Nationals party and the Labor party were all recently targeted.
More to come.
Updated
Over at the home affairs estimates hearing, Michael Pezzullo says he referred the leak of the Asio brief to NewsCorp (which has since been declassified by the government) without consulting with minister Peter Dutton.
He says that is normal when he sees “slabs” of information he knows his department prepared in the media. The AFP is evaluating the information.
Linda Reynolds jumps in to say that “clearly part of the evaluation has to be if a leak occurred” and that Murray Watt’s assertion that it was “a leak” is an assumption.
“How else did it happen,” Watt asks.
Reynolds sticks to the line that it is still to be determined if it is a “leak”.
Pezzullo: “On its face it appears to be the case that it is possible...”[that classified information ended up in the news report]
Updated
Mathias Cormann was just caught out sitting on his phone while David Leyonhjelm was asking a question, and upon being called out with a “hello minister” looked like every teenager found with their phone at the dinner table ever.
Over in the PMO estimates, Penny Wong has entered the room – she wants to know who is leaking Asio briefings. She wants to know if the prime minister has satisfied himself it didn’t come from home affairs minister Peter Dutton.
Mathias Cormann has taken that on notice (he’s the minister representing the minister)
Updated
A spokesman for assistant treasurer Stuart Robert confirmed to Guardian Australia that the government will support Labor’s small business access to justice measures that passed the Senate on Thursday.
The Nationals supported the reform, risking a Coalition boil over that the Morrison government has now avoided
Next up at environment estimates is the Bureau of Meteorology. They’ve had an extremely busy summer due to record-breaking heat, bushfires and other natural disasters, including the Queensland floods.
The Bom’s director, Andrew Johnson, opens by answering a question from Labor’s Anthony Chisholm about the recent extreme weather.
He states what all Australians have felt this season, which is that a lot of records have been broken.
“The most outstanding ones I think would be both heat and rainfall,” Johnson says. “We know that right across the country there were heat records broken at both the back end of 2018 and January 2019 was the hottest month on record since records have been kept.
“Also, as you know, there was very significant weather in north Queensland during late January and into February.
“Right across that part of the world there were records broken – weekly totals, monthly totals, again the list is extensive.”
He says he will supply a more detailed list on notice but you can read more about January’s heatwave here
Chisholm asks whether the record-breaking weather shows Australia is feeling the impacts of climate change. Johnson says when it comes to the recent heat and bushfires there is no doubt that is the case.
“We certainly know that the heat situation is very strongly driven by climate change,” Johnson says.
“There’s a strong drying and warming trend in this country which we can attribute to increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
“The rainfall situation is much more difficult. At this stage the science is really still working to attribute specific rainfall events to climate change. But on things like fire and heat, the science is quite strong in terms of the link between recent events and anthropogenic climate change.”
Updated
On the medical evacuation bill attacks, Bill Shorten had this to say:
I think what we need to do is call out shameless Coalition lies about Labor policy. Anyone who tries to get on a boat, we will send them to regional processing, Manus island or – what we have done is codify when people who need medical treatment, in our care, instead of having Peter Dutton in charge of health plans are individuals, we will have a listen to the doctors.
Ask yourself, when you are feeling sick do you go and see Peter Dutton or do you go and see the doctor.
We have the same policy, all we are doing is codify in it. This is where the government are such a cheeky bunch of roosters. They have brought 900 people here already from Manus and Nauru based on medical advice.
Yet somehow when Labor and Kerryn Phelps and the conscience of the Liberal party proposed to codify and put some rules around it, the government said somehow that was a terrible idea.
The government cannot have that both ways. I promise Australians we will fight the people smugglers. If we win the next election we will have the same navy and the same air force and the same Border Force, doing all the same things, but we’ll make sure we have strong borders without sacrificing the humanity of treating a few people who are in our duty of care.
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So question time should be fun.
Bill Shorten at a press conference calling on the government to announce a royal commission into disability abuse:
This is a government that is out of control. You can all see it, why don’t we say what it is, it doesn’t matter if it is refusing to vote on a disability royal commission, because they are so puffed up with their own pride they don’t want to be seen to lose a vote, or, we have got the scandalous Paladin, where they can hand out contract, Peter Dutton yet again at the centre of an incompetency scandal, handing out $423m and then saying it has nothing to do with me, it’s my department.
Well, hello, Peter, you are the minister.
If it isn’t your department, whose is it? And they carry on with this anti-union bias, yet they never have anything to say about how everything is going up in Australia except wages.
Australians can smell a desperate government at a hundred paces and this is a desperate government. They opposed Labor’s measures to protect small business. We want to give small business the power to take on big is this when they believe the business is behaving badly to small business, and we have done this by saying that small business shouldn’t face the litigation hurdle of paying the cost of big isn’t as in the court case. So essentially we are backing David in a David and Goliath struggle.
The government is splitting the Senate and split in the House. The problem in Australia is that we have a government to incompetent and too divided to run a government, but too desperate and too scared to taste the people.”
Dutton has said he did not have anything to do with the contract, and that it was done within the department, after going through a commonwealth procurement process.
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David Littleproud has responded to the announcement from Woolworths that it will end the $1 milk sales. All litre milk containers will include a “drought levy” and sell for $1.10. The extra 10c goes back to farmers. Two and three litre milk will sell for $2.20 and $3.30 respectively.
The move comes after many, many dairy farmers have been forced to shut up shop or sell overseas because they couldn’t make ends meet in Australia.
“The $1 milk disaster began on 1 January 2011, and I hope today is the beginning of its end,” Littleproud said in his statement.
“Whilst I wish Woolworths was taking a much bigger step, they’re miles head of their competitors and it’s sad it has taken National party pressure to get to this point.
“Coles and Aldi continue to sell milk at $1. This drives down prices to farmers. Supermarkets can’t pretend selling milk cheap doesn’t hurt farmers and they’ve got to be called out on this rubbish.
“Consumers have the power here. If everybody who clicks ‘like’ on a Facebook video bought branded milk instead of cheap supermarket brand milk, or punished Coles and Aldi by going elsewhere, big changes would occur overnight.
“All supermarkets should pay a fair price for all dairy – this includes cheese and yoghurt, not just fresh milk, which is a small fraction of the market.
“The ACCC report into the dairy industry clearly says supermarkets use their market power to drive down how much they pay processors, and processors then use their bargaining power to drive down what they in turn pay farmers.
“There were around 7,500 dairy farmers in 2010 and now there are just under 6,000 as the industry has consolidated.
Updated
Earlier this morning Scott Morrison spoke with Alan Jones on 2GB, particularly about the floods in north Queensland and the effect on farmers.
Here’s an interesting tidbit from Morrison:
“It’s going to require a reconstruction plan, property by property. It’s going to require dealing with existing debt. It’s going to have to deal with future debt. It’s going to have to deal with subsidies for how you rebuild your stock. So this is what we’re putting in place.”
This sounds a lot like demands Bob Katter was making last week for a cattle reconstruction board which would allow the government to borrow at 2.4% interest and provide low-interest loans to cattle farmers.
Katter is due to introduce a private members bill for the same this morning in the House of Representatives.
We’ll try to find out the details of the government package for you.
Updated
The department and the Australian Antarctic Division have been asked about Japan’s whaling activities in the Southern Ocean.
In December, Japan announced it would leave the International Whaling Commission and resume commercial whaling for the first time in more than 30 years.
Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson has asked if Japan’s ships have been in the Southern Ocean, if they are still there or if they have left. He also asks what knowledge the AAD has of Japan’s activities.
Matt Cahill, deputy secretary of strategy and operations for the environment department, says the issue is the responsibility of Home Affairs.
But Dean Knudson, the deputy secretary of the environment protection group, confirms Japan’s ships were there this year.
“Our understanding is that the Japanese whaling fleet absolutely went to the Southern Ocean this year,” he says.
“But it made a commitment, obviously, as part of their process of changing to observer status at the International Whaling Commission that they intend to not conduct any further whaling in the Southern Ocean in future years.”
He says department officials will be able to give more specifics later on.
Updated
Helen Davidson wrote a little about what some of those laws are already doing:
The Australian government is attempting to deport another Indigenous man to New Zealand, despite him having no ties to the country where he was born while his parents were visiting the country more than 30 years ago.
Tim Galvin’s mother and three brothers are Australian-born citizens, and his father is a UK-born citizen. His mother has signed a statutory declaration stating she is of Aboriginal descent. Galvin’s wife is a Noongar woman and they have four children together.
Last week Galvin was about to be released on parole after serving most of a two-and-a-half year prison sentence at Acacia Prison for burglary.
“Then the day before I was getting out on parole … they told me they were coming to take me to the detention centre,” Galvin told Guardian Australia from the Yongah Hill facility, outside of Perth.
Galvin learned he was a New Zealand citizen when his Australian visa was cancelled in 2016. He appealed and said his lawyers had pushed for a resolution before his release but 17 months later, there was none and he received a notice of deportation.”
New Zealand acknowledges Australia’s sovereign right to take actions to protect the community and to manage its borders. New Zealand’s principal concern relates to visa cancellation of New Zealanders who arrived in Australia as children. By cancelling their visas, Australia is not taking responsibility for these people’s failure to succeed in Australian society, despite them, in many cases, being a product of Australian society.”
Labor senators on the committee sent in a dissenting report, noting that of the 17 submissions the committee received on the bill, just one was in favour of the changes – the home affairs department.
Updated
Leaked government talking points on migration bill
And just on that below post, here is what you’ll hear government MPs say about it (gotta love those talking points)
Talking points
• This bill is about ensuring our migration program meets community
expectations.
• The Australian community expects government to keep people safe – that’s why we introduced this bill.
• This Bill ensures that non-citizens who have been convicted of serious offences, and who pose a risk to the safety of the Australian community, are appropriately considered for visa refusal or cancellation.
• Those who choose to break the law and fail to uphold the standards of behaviour expected by the Australian community should expect to lose that privilege.
• The Australian government remains committed to protecting the Australian community from the risk of harm posed by non-citizens.
• This bill acknowledges that offences of this nature demonstrate a disregard and unwillingness to be part of a cohesive and safe community.
• These offences conflict directly with Australian values and breaks the fabric of our society.
Updated
David Coleman has sent out a missive to colleagues about the migration amendment the government announced last year. In case anyone in the government missed it, you can find it below (with thanks to our secret squirrels).
The aim of the bill is to: amend the character test by providing grounds to consider visa cancellation or refusal where a non-citizen has been convicted of offences involving violence against a person, weapons, breaching of an apprehended violence order (or similar) or non-consensual sexual acts; and make consequential amendments.
As you’d be aware, the migration amendment (strengthening the character test) bill 2018 is listed for debate this week.
Our government has been very successful in kicking criminals out of Australia. This bill is about strengthening these provisions within the Migration Act even further.
The bill amends the character test by providing grounds to consider visa cancellation or refusal where a non-citizen has been convicted of offences involving violence against a person, weapons, breaching of an apprehended violence order (or similar) or nonconsensual sexual acts.
It should come as no surprise that the Labor party has decided to oppose this bill.
Labor has learned nothing from when they were last in government; Labor is soft on border protection having voted with the Greens and independents last week to weaken our border security and now they are set to vote against measures that seek to keep dangerous criminals from coming to, or remaining in Australia.
The Australian public expect the government to keep them safe and know the Liberal and Nationals parties are the only ones who can do that. I encourage you to speak in support of this bill.”
Updated
A little more on that exchange Murph reported on earlier between the AFP and Labor senator Murray Watt on evidence in the AWU raids leak case the AFP looked into:
Watt: What did your investigation reveal regarding the destruction of evidence? For instance, text messages, emails or anything like that by anyone?
AFP: Senator, I don’t have that detail before me. We compiled the evidence, the witness statements, all the material that we had available to us and provided that to the commonwealth DPP to consider.
Watt: Did you find any evidence that evidence relating to the leak may have been destroyed?
AFP: We understood that could have been the case in some instances, yes.
Watt: Involving ministerial staff?
AFP: It’s impossible for me to speculate today who that may or may not have been. I also did not hear the evidence in the trial.
Watt: Sure. But in your investigation you found some evidence that evidence relating to this leak had been destroyed?
AFP: Yes senator, we did find some of that material may have been destroyed, but we spoke to over 67 people, senator.
The AFP has made clear that it put forward a brief on one unnamed person, to the commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions, which found there was insufficient evidence to move forward (inefficient evidence to gain a conviction).
Updated
Josh Frydenberg is giving us an insight into what he’ll be concentrating on this question time: Labor’s response to the banking royal commission. From his release:
The Coalition government is getting on with the job of implementing the recommendations of the royal commission and, in a number of important areas, is going further to reform the financial services sector.
We have passed legislation through the Senate to:
• extend civil penalties to superannuation fund trustees and directors for breach of their best interests duty (recommendation 3.7);
• ban superannuation funds from inducing employers (recommendations 3.6);
• provide the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (Apra) with more powers to deal with underperforming superannuation funds;
• proactively reunite superannuation members with their low-balance and inactive accounts;
• ban superannuation exit fees and cap fees on certain accounts; and
• significantly increase criminal and civil penalties for corporate and financial sector misconduct.We have announced a capability review of the Apra (recommendation 6.13). We have announced an immediate review of financial counselling services. We are working with the states and territories towards establishing a national farm debt mediation scheme (recommendation 1.11).
In contrast to the government’s immediate action, the Labor party has not even responded to the final report after two weeks.
Labor has said it will implement all the recommendations “in principle”. The government says that is not good enough. This is all over the fight the government is hoping will shape up between the Labor party and mortgage brokers, over the “user pays” change Kenneth Hayne recommended.
Updated
The committees are on break, giving us all a chance to catch our breath.
In the House, the private members bills are being introduced by the independents and crossbench.
These are not expected to go anywhere in what is left of this parliament.
Ian MacDonald’s iPad timer has just gone off in the legal affairs committee.
Hold on to that sound people. This will be one of the last times we hear it. Think of it as his swan song (MacDonald has been relegated to an unwinnable spot on the Queensland LNP ticket).
Updated
The Greens are asking the government about its plan to underwrite power plants to encourage new power generation.
The department has taken many of the questions on notice or tells Sarah Hanson-Young it’s the subject of budget preparations and not up for discussion.
Secretary Finn Pratt does say there have been 66 expressions of interest – which we already knew – in the scheme, but doesn’t provide more detail.
“Has the government made a decision on how to implement the program ... do you know, Mr Pratt?” Hanson-Young asks.
“That decision is subject to the budget process, which we’ve got under way,” he says.
Hanson-Young then asks whether the rollout of the program would require supporting legislation, following legal advice commissioned by The Australia Institute, which suggests some form of legislation will be necessary.
“The constitutional risk of all government expenditure programs or legislative initiatives are all considered as part of the cabinet process,” government senator Simon Birmingham says.
Updated
Michaelia Cash’s former chief of staff, Ben Davies, has told the federal court he learned about the impending AFP raids on the Australian Workers’ Union from the union regulator’s acting media adviser Mark Lee.
Under questioning from the AWU’s lawyer, Herman Borenstein, Davies told the court Lee called him on 24 October and “volunteered” an “unsourced tip-off”.
“[The information was] unsolicited, unprompted and unexpected,” he said.
The pair had been organising the arrangements for Lee to start in Cash’s office as a new media adviser. At the time, Lee was working the Registered Organisations Commission, which was investigating the AWU.
The court heard last week that Davies went on to pass the information to Cash’s former media adviser David De Garis, who then worked with an aide to Michael Keenan to tip off news outlets before the raids.
Cash said in court last week she first learned about the raids when she watched them unfold on television.
Davies said on Monday he did not think to tell Cash that operational information was being disseminated because she was in “back-to-back” meetings.
“The information at the time was an unsourced tip-off whose veracity had not yet been confirmed,” he said.
Lee did not “indicate his source of the information”, Davies told the court.
Davies also acknowledged there were “obvious political implications” to what Lee had told him – that the donations were made when “Mr Shorten was involved with the Australian Workers’ Union”.
Updated
Kate Ellis is also due to give her valedictory speech in the House today. She announced she would not be contesting the next election last year.
We are getting all these speeches in early, because the next scheduled parliamentary sitting is in April, when the budget will be handed down. And shortly after that the election will be called.
Updated
Labor and the Greens will both be pushing Scott Morrison to call a royal commission into disability abuse.
While the calls for this have gone on for years, Jordon Steele-John most recently tried to have disability abuse added to the aged care royal commission and was rejected by Mathias Cormann.
Morrison says he is not against the royal commission, but has given no indication he will call one. Instead, the government wants to consult. Labor is moving forward with its attack, with this release giving an insight into where we can expect question time to go:
[Scott Morrison] needs to unequivocally get behind this today. This must be voted upon today. We must get a result today.
People with disability deserve nothing less than a broad-based and dedicated royal commission. It cannot be tacked-on the aged care royal commission as an afterthought.
The royal commission must examine a wide range of contexts, including health, mental health, education and justice – not just disability services and the NDIS.
And the terms of reference must be finalised in consultation with people with disability and advocates.
Scott Morrison can’t just let this slide through the parliament today and then forget about it.
He cannot obfuscate any longer. He needs to put aside the resources and start taking action immediately.
People with disability have waited long enough – the time has come to get this done.
Updated
Evidence may have been destroyed in AWU case – AFP
“We understood that could have been the case”
Labor senator Murray Watt is persisting in the Cash investigation.
Watt references evidence given last week in the court case that text messages were deleted. Cash’s former media adviser, David De Garis, told the court he deleted three text messages he’d exchanged with a colleague in Michael Keenan’s office about the leaks before his phone was collected after he resigned.
Watt wonders whether any of this behaviour could be considered perverting the course of justice.
Linda Reynolds says this is entirely hypothetical and cautions Watt against asking the AFP about evidence given in the court last week.
It’s subjudice, she says, and says the police aren’t across the specifics of the court testimony.
Watt changes course. He asks the police whether during the course of their inquiries into the leak, they formed an impression that evidence might have been destroyed.
One of the police at the table says:
We understood that could have been the case.”
Another police witness repeats that observation about the destruction of evidence.
The AFP commissioner, Andrew Colvin, repeats an earlier observation that leaks of police operations are detrimental, potentially putting the safety of officers in jeopardy.
Watt asks him whether the AFP might reopen this investigation in the light of the court evidence.
Colvin hedges. “It always remains a possibility to reopen” an investigation, he says, but declines to suggest one way or the other whether he’ll reopen this one.
Updated
The AWU federal court case is still underway.
Michaelia Cash's former chief of staff Ben Davies tells the federal court he learned about the AFP raids on AWU from Mark Lee, who was then the Roc's media adviser. #auspol #estimates
— Luke Henriques-Gomes (@lukehgomes) February 17, 2019
Davies took the call while in Cash's office. She was in "back to back" meetings at the time, and Davies says he did not consider informing her that "operational info" was being improperly disseminated #auspol #estimates
— Luke Henriques-Gomes (@lukehgomes) February 17, 2019
Scott Ryan can’t say as yet if any information was taken in the parliamentary computer network breach.
But he said if necessary the relevant security agencies may brief MPs.
Labor has now asked the department about the export of Australian birds to the Association for the Conservation of threatened parrots, a German organisation run by a convicted criminal.
Hundreds of endangered and rare Australian birds have been exported, despite multiple allegations to the department that they are being traded for large sums of money.
Labor’s Anne Urquart has asked whether the department is examining Australia’s export laws and whether it’s had discussions with DFAT and the Australian embassy about the case.
Dean Knudson, the deputy secretary for the environment protection group, is telling Labor to ask questions later in the day.
“Yes, we’re absolutely aware of the issue and are looking into it,” he says.
Updated
AFP points to Home Affairs over Hakeem al-Araibi
Andrew Colvin has fronted his estimates hearing and given a short introduction.
The AFP commissioner addressed the Hakeem al-Araibi “issue” – namely its handling of the Interpol red notice which led to his detention. He says the AFP stayed silent to give Al-Araibi’s the best chance of a safe return. He then points to the actions of Home Affairs.
“As the committee would know, the AFP hosts the Australian-Interpol national central bureau and AFP staff are seconded to the NCB. On the 8th of November 2018 at the request of Bahrain, Interpol issued a red notice for Mr Al-Araibi, which AFP conveyed to the Australian Border Force of the 9th of November.
“This is a routine process as many names come on and off Interpol watch lists regularly. At this time, neither the AFP nor the Australian-Interpol national central bureau was aware of Mr Al-Araibi’s visa status. This was not known until after his detention in Thailand.
“Neither the AFP or the Australian-Interpol NCB can access visa information. We rely on notifications from the Home Affairs department. The Home Affairs department provided Mr Al-Araibi’s visa status to the AFP on the 28th of November, the day after his detention in Thailand. On 29 November, the AFP sought and was granted permission by the Department of Home Affairs to refer Mr Al-Araibi’s visa status to Interpol’s office of legal affairs on the 29th of November.
“Interpol removed the notice within 24 hours of the AFP’s provision of this information. The red notice was rescinded on 1 December Australian and Thailand time, which was the 30th of November France time. I cam confident that at all times the Australian-Interpol NCB adhered to the policies and procedures of Interpol.
“The Home Affairs portfolio has undertaken a number of reviews to establish a chronology of actions with a view to improving information exchange and reducing the risk of similar cases in the future.”
Updated
Ray Hadley is going back to 2001.
He talks about how John Howard was down in the polls, but then mentions the Tampa incident in August. He forgets about what happened that September, though.
“It’s an illustration about what can happen in a very short amount of time,” he says.
Tony Abbott hmmmmms very thoughtfully.
“Governments that have conviction and character can come back and what we have seen from the prime minister and ministers over the last few months is conviction and character and I think we’ll see more of that.”
Updated
Cash and Keenan decline to give witness statements
Home affairs estimates has kicked off this morning with evidence from the Australian federal police. Labor wants to know why Michaelia Cash isn’t at the table this morning. The junior home affairs minister, Linda Reynolds, is at the table instead.
“If you don’t like having me here, that is entirely your problem,” Reynolds tells the Labor senator Murray Watt.
At one point the committee chair, Queensland Liberal Ian MacDonald, wonders why Reynolds doesn’t answer questions in the chamber if she’s here at the table in estimates.
It’s not clear whether this question is rhetorical. She says she’s not in cabinet.
After this slightly strange preamble, which is designed in political terms to highlight Cash’s absence from the hearing while the AFP is answering questions into a police investigation into her office – we move to the substance.
Police tell the hearing they interviewed 60 people in connection with the leak from Cash’s office about last year’s AFP raids at the AWU’s offices, taking witness statements.
Cash and then then justice minister, Michael Keenan, did not give witness statements, but they provided written responses to the AFP.
The AFP says the letter the two ministers sent does not qualify as a witness statement.
Eight people declined to give the AFP witness statements.The cops confirm that some of the people who declined to give witness statements were involved in last week’s court hearings.
If you missed last week’s developments in the court, the latest news report is here.
Updated
Tony Abbott and Ray Hadley are having their fortnightly on-air lovefest.
Both are in good moods this morning.
“I am the first to admit that sometimes this government hasn’t been great at politics,” Abbott says.
But they have been very competent, he adds.
Updated
The environment department is up in Senate estimates hearings today and first up they are getting a grilling from Labor and Greens senators about the performance of the environment minister, Melissa Price, and her lack of public appearances since taking over the role.
Labor’s Anthony Chisholm has asked the department secretary whether the minister requested briefings on the Tasmanian fires, the Queensland floods and the mass fish kill in Menindee.
The department’s secretary Finn Pratt says, on the subject of the fires, “we are endlessly briefing ministers on things which happen which relate to their responsibilities”.
Dean Knudson, the deputy secretary of the environment protection group, says “I don’t recall whether a specific briefing was sought or sent” and senators should ask the department again later in the day.
Chisholm and Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young are asking the department about what interviews the minister has given on the natural disasters that have occurred over summer.
Knudson says they will have to take the questions on notice.
“Surely you can answer that,” Hanson-Young says.
The department also says it will have to take on notice questions about which stakeholders the minister has met with since taking over the portfolio.
Updated
Michaelia Cash is meant to be the minister representing the minister for home affairs in estimates, but she isn’t in the room. Linda Reynolds is, as the assistant minister.
That led to a fun exchange between Labor senator Murray Watt and Reynolds over why Cash wasn’t there, which ended with Reynolds basically saying, “You’ve got me.” Even Ian Macdonald seemed a little confused by that.
Updated
Scott Ryan is updating the estimates hearing looking at the parliament.
He updates the committee on the parliament network breach and says further security protocols are now in place, but the investigation is ongoing.
The parliamentary upgrades, which have been going on for more than a year – and were due to be completed in July 2018 and are still going on – are going to be delayed further because the subcontractor responsible for the steel has gone into voluntary administration.
Another subcontractor is being contracted, but the security upgrades won’t be finished until October this year now.
Huzzah.
Updated
The estimate hearings have begun – but the House is still sitting as normal and you’ll find today’s program, here
In his doorstop, David Coleman was asked about the Paladin contract. Expect it to be the big-ticket item of the Home Affairs estimates hearing:
Those processes are a matter for the department. They are run by the department and not by ministers. My understanding is that is the case for all of these sorts of contracts and they are subject to the usual rules, including audit rules of the commonwealth and so on and the department has stated quite clearly that it’s followed all of those correct rules.
Updated
I tweeted this out last week, but probably worth another reminder, given the number of stories we will no doubt see about asylum seekers and refugees we suddenly have security concerns over.
In the phone call between Malcolm Turnbull and Donald Trump, the one where the transcript was leaked, the then-prime minister told the leader of the free world:
We know exactly who they are. They have been on Nauru or Manus for over three years and the only reason we cannot let them into Australia is because of our commitment to not allow people to come by boat. Otherwise we would have let them in. If they had arrived by airplane and with a tourist visa then they would be here.”
He also said “it’s not because they are bad people”.
Just putting it on the record again, because no doubt it is going to come up time and time and time and time again in the next few months.
“We know exactly who they are.”
— Amy Remeikis (@AmyRemeikis) February 14, 2019
“It’s not because they are bad people.”
Then PM Malcolm Turnbull talking to Donald Trump in 2016, about the refugees and asylum seekers on Manus and Nauru - the same people we’re now being told could be dangerous criminals. https://t.co/CsoDj1ttzF pic.twitter.com/dt8vaxdWPc
You may remember last week the government took (what was left) of it’s “big stick” divesture legislation off the agenda, after the Greens looked like having the numbers to amend the bill, to prohibit the government from being able to fund coal-fire generation projects.
So the legislation which started as “we will break up electricity companies if you don’t do the right thing”, which became “we will break up the electricity companies if the federal court says we can and only after a bunch of warnings from the regulators” will now go to the election as a policy, rather than a set-in-stone piece of legislation.
So what is the government’s energy policy?
Angus Taylor tells Sky it has not changed.
“Lower prices, keeping the lights on.”
On what the government can do in the mean time, Katharine Murphy had this report:
A new legal opinion suggests the Morrison government will not have the ability to roll out taxpayer support to its controversial plan to underwrite new coal plants unless it enacts supporting legislation or amends existing legislation.
The advice, sought by the progressive thinktank the Australia Institute, argues assistance for new generation projects will require “some form of supporting legislation”, either new or existing, to operate and fund the program, otherwise the arrangements would be open to a high court challenge.
Federal parliament resumes on Monday for one of the last sitting periods before the May election, and the Morrison government has already pulled its much-vaunted “big stick” energy legislation because of concerns it would have to cop an amendment from the Greens and Labor, preventing the government from funding new coal projects.”
Updated
Looks like the Things That Matter is back as a LNP slogan.
Angus Taylor has certainly been practicing the talking points, given that he got variations of “Bill Shorten/Labor is weak on the things that matter” in his Sky News interview at least three times just then.
You may remember “Things That Matter” as the slogan which helped end Alexander Downer’s leadership of the Liberal party in 1994.
Updated
Oh this is going well.
"Perhaps it might be appropriate if we put a group of doctors in charge of the Murray-Darling Basin" says @MarkCoultonMP "Because it seems like according to the Labor Party and the Independents we should hand over the responsibility of government to doctors" #auspol @SBSNews pic.twitter.com/9NerAs8FrC
— Brett Mason (@BrettMasonNews) February 17, 2019
Not sure that is the best line to take, given what the reports are finding about the Murray-Darling basin.
NSW Nationals MP Mark Coulton made his first visit to Menindee on 7 February, more than a month after the fish kill was first reported. Guardian Australia reported at the time:
The Nationals leader Michael McCormack has made his first visit to Menindee since the ecological disaster which led to the death of up to a million fish, claiming “we’re all experts in hindsight”.
The deputy prime minister visited the fish-kill ground-zero site with local Nationals MP Mark Coulton, who was also making his first visit since the mass death was reported early last month.
McCormack, who attempted to limit the water returned to the environment even further in the 2012 Murray-Darling Basin plan, calling it an “assault on regional Australia”, and had earlier prescribed the mass deaths to “it just hasn’t rained”, told reporters “we’re all experts in hindsight” when asked if the river could have been managed better.
Updated
Despite subjecting us all to a 150-minute question time, Scott Morrison says the government was never going to oppose a motion calling for a royal commission into disability abuse. Here is what he had to say on it yesterday:
It won’t be opposed by the government and was not going to be opposed by the government. I think this was one of another of the cruel lies that was put around last week.
As prime minister I’ve never opposed such a royal commission. My priority has been to establish the royal commission into aged care, which I have done, and to conclude the royal commission into the banking and finance industry, which I initiated, which I commissioned, which is just recently completed. So these were my priorities.
We need to do everything we can to support Australians with a disability. And I’m disappointed that on Thursday the Labor party chose to play politics with this issue. There was no suggestion that the government was not going to support that motion that afternoon in the House of Representatives and the motion was not going to even come to the House of Representatives that afternoon. And so to suggest other things I thought was disingenuous and dishonest.
Except – that it was opposed by the government in the Senate. And question time was extended. Until 4.15pm. When any chance of the vote was moot. Despite the message not having come from the Senate, meaning the whole thing was for nothing anyway.
The message will reach the House today and it will be agreed to. Jordon Steele-John will be joined by disability advocates and survivors to watch the motion.
Earlier he told the ABC he wasn’t expecting much from the government, despite the decision to wave it through:
The government plans to not vote against this motion in the House today and then to send the attorney general out there mumbling nonsense about a need to consult with the between now and the federal election – I just want to say really clearly that is not good enough.
Updated
The immigration minister, David Coleman, is attempting to explain to Laura Jayes and Kieran Gilbert on Sky News why the medical evacuation bill is going to dismantle the nation’s border security regime, despite the government appointing the review panel that will look at any medical rejections.
It’s going well.
.@DavidColemanMP on the medivac bill: Labor's changes 'dismantle the current offshore detention system.'
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) February 17, 2019
MORE: https://t.co/q73YNHEwDW #FirstEdition pic.twitter.com/dP0egQu0Lu
Coleman says it’s because it means the Australian government doesn’t decide who comes here. Which is not true, because the Australian government appoints the panel which will review cases the minister rejects on medical grounds.
And Coleman’s argument also ignores the many, many cases the federal court has ruled on, which have overturned the minister’s decision and brought asylum seekers and refugees here for medical treatment. Where they remain in detention.
Updated
Good morning
Welcome to the second week of parliament for 2019 – and the last before the budget is handed down.
And presumedly, the election is called.
There is a lot to fit in.
The latest Fairfax-Ipsos poll is out and has Labor ahead 51 to 49 – but that is a fair shrinkage of the lead Labor had in December in the same poll, when it was 54 to 46.
The poll was taken last week, as the medical evacuation bill debate was taking off. The government has decided to fight this election on border security, as well as the economy, so don’t expect that to go away anytime soon.
There are a lot of comparisons being made to 2001 when John Howard won the un-winnable election. Yes, there was the Tampa and 9/11. But he also started from a stronger position. He had 80 seats. This government has to win every seat it already holds plus four or so. So the fight isn’t on, but it is not exactly the same.
While the House deals with some leftovers from last week, with the Morrison government set to wave through the motion asking for a royal commission into disability abuse (the one that it opposed in the Senate last week, and then extended question time to a record time to avoid, but then said it was going to support the whole time anyway) as well as Labor’s small business bills.
That’s to head off another defeat on the floor of the House.
Over in the Senate, it’s estimates time, with home affairs and that Paladin contract under the microscope. The Australian Financial Review has done excellent work on uncovering that secretive contract, which appears to have been awarded without any ministerial oversight.
And Jenny Morrison has done an interview with 9Honey, saying her husband is a very sensitive man.
And it’s only 8am.
Mike Bowers is on deck for you this morning, as are Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp and the rest of the Guardian brains trust. Find us on Twitter or in the comments.
I have found a coffee this morning, so the manic Monday is getting off to a good start.
Ready?
Let’s get into it.
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