Night time politics summary
Here is what happened today.
- The mining tax was repealed after the Coalition did a deal with the Palmer United Party to keep a means-tested school kids bonus, the income support bonus but deferred superannuation increases. Abbott, who promised there would be no adverse changes to superannuation before the election, said it was not a broken promise because increased super meant less in workers’ pockets.
- The Iraqi ambassador backtracked on Monday’s strong comments which suggested Australia did not consult with the Iraq government. Australia did all the right things and followed all the right protocol, the ambassador said.
- The attorney general, George Brandis, told the Senate the government would extend the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse by two years at a cost of $126m. He said the new reporting date would be 15 December 2017.
- Tony Abbott compared the atrocities of Isis with the Nazis, saying the west was justified in using extreme force against them.
Thanks for your time today.
Good night
The Brick with Ties
At this time of night, it is often dangerous to attempt any sort of clever analysis, particularly after the day we have had in politics. So I will leave you to draw your own conclusions from this little snippet of an attorney general’s speech. George Brandis was speaking about the need for the government’s national security changes in the current climate and the heightened terrorist threat.
Today I will speak about the threat posed by another insidious enemy – the trusted insider.
Trusted insiders are exactly that – they work within our organisations, they have access to our information – they know how things work.
And, from that privileged position, a trusted insider can cause enormous damage.
The trusted insider is of course a familiar figure throughout our history, and indeed, our literature. Macbeth, Brutus, Diargo??? (sic) were all trusted insiders. Judas Iscariot is one of the historically best-known examples of a trusted insider. Guy Fawkes was part of a revolutionary group, who plotted to blow up most of England’s aristocracy, including the King, in 1605. Using a pseudonym, Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators leveraged their positions and contacts to place barrels of gunpowder under the House of Lords. The infamous Gunpowder plot was foiled by authorities who caught Fawkes before he could carry out his treacherous intentions.
More recently, I don’t need to remind anyone in this room about the damage caused to the United States and her allies through the treachery of Edward Snowden.
Suffice to say, the government is managing the “trusted insider” threat with its wide ranging security measures. Businesses, though, can get a hold of a handy booklet “Managing the insider threat to your business,” which has been prepared by the Attorney-General’s Department.
The handbook provides practical advice on the risks and factors leading to a trusted insider going rogue.
You have all been warned.
Enter the spirit of the Anzacs. It is the Australian way to look after the “sick and needy”, but Lazarus is worried the country is losing that spirit. Wayne Bennett told him he could sit back and complain or get in and do something.
He decided to get in and do something. Lazarus quotes Nelson Mandela on courage:
I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
I not afraid to tell you I am scared. Scared of the personal attacks and the ridicule I will attract in my role. Scared of the mistakes I may make in my efforts to be the best version of myself as a proudly elected senator of Queensland. But I am prepared to put this fear aside and say the things that should be said and do the things which must be done if I am to grow this great nation.
Updated
Lazarus talked about his family, including his son Hayden, who was nicknamed The Paver because he was not quite a brick yet.
From the look of Hayden in the gallery, he is now brick-like.
Now we are on to Clive and his unwavering support. (Clive is up the back of the senate.)
Palmer United Party senator Glenn Lazarus is giving his first speech in the senate. He is describing his footy career which earned him the nickname The Brick With Eyes. Football coaches Tim Sheens and Wayne Bennett in the senate gallery.
More in sorrow than in anger.
In a final question, the two men are asked, given the superannuation rises are so far out, aren’t they meaningless.
Cormann acknowledges the government has not done what it said it would do.
Blame Labor, says Cormann. If Shorten respected the government’s mandate, the compulsory super increases would have been in place, “consistent with what we said we would do before the last election”.
The only reason there is a further delay is that was the only way we could get legislation in the national interest through the Australian parliament.
This is an interesting point because Julia Gillard’s much touted promise “there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead” was broken because it was the only way her government could get the Greens on board to support the government.
Updated
Hockey is asked about his comments on WA premier Colin Barnett. Both Hockey and Cormann say their policies need to be sustainable for the whole country.
Hockey points out that Labor has committed to reintroduce the mining tax at the next election. He is asked what the Coalition will put to the next election.
We will tell you closer to that election, says Hockey.
Lenore Taylor asks Joe Hockey about the long term impact of the superannuation changes, which could push more people on to the pension
This wasn’t our preferred option, says Hockey but:
Clive Palmer is only relevant because Labor and the Greens keep voting with him.
Corman quotes Bill Shorten, who as a minister, said superannuation rises come out of people’s wages.
Cormann admits the mining tax bill is not the preferred plan but it was
the best we could get.
Finance minister Mathias Cormann declares:
Today is a great day for Australia.
We said we were open for business, says Hockey.
We know the budget has been tough but it is the only way to ensure prosperity into the future.
We came into government to govern and we have had to deal with the cards we were given, says Hockey.
We promised to get rid of the mining tax and we delivered.
Joe Hockey on now.
The mining tax has caused enormous uncertainty, placed a “dead hand” on the industry and done reputational damage to Australia, says Hockey.
Clive Palmer is on Sky News talking about why he agreed to delay the planned superannuation rise.
I don’t think it’s an answer to take $3000 off someone’s wages & give it to trade union movement to manage in a super fund.
Wong fired up on the superannuation
Joe Hockey and Mathias Cormann have a press conference coming up at 4.30pm.
Can you believe it’s only Tuesday?
Government wins vote and question time is over. Six members ejected, including the Liberal Luke Simpkins and five Labor MPs.
Obviously given the numbers in the house the government will win its amendments.
Even though Abbott’s motions do not relate to superannuation - which is what they are supposed to do - Speaker Bishop has ruled the amendments are in order.
The house is now voting on the Abbott amendments to the Shorten motion.
These are both political motions.
Shorten condemns Abbott for broken promises specifically in relation to the superannuation changes just made in the mining tax bill.
Abbott amends Shorten’s motion to suggest that government has kept all its promises.
Exam time
In opposition, you need to be constructive
Hockey is now speaking on the motion in the house. He says Shorten is a man who is only loyal to himself.
Bill Shorten has no core values, he is a man who blows in the wind.
Shorten also gives a Gonski.
Pyne gives a Gonski
Miner votes down mining tax
Speaker Bishop rules in favour of the government. Now Chris Bowen is speaking now against Abbott’s amendment.
Tony Abbott wanted to amend Bill Shorten’s motion in favour of the government. Speaker Bishop has allowed it and Labor’s Tony Burke is arguing against it because in the past, Speaker Bishop has set another precedent.
Abbott’s is arguing that the superannuation guarantee levy left less money in the pockets of employees because they (and employers) were forced to put it into their superannuation accounts.
Throughout question time today members opposite acted as though the Superannuation Guarantee Levy was the perfect answer to every person’s retirement dreams. Well, for the benefit of members opposite let me remind them that there is no nirvana in Superannuation Guarantee Levy as the Henry tax review reported. Employees bear the cost of these contributions through lower wage growth.
Thanks to Daniel Hurst for this snap from the senate on the royal commission.
The attorney general, George Brandis, told the Senate the government would extend the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse by two years at a cost of $126m.
He said the new reporting date would be 15 December 2017.
I’m assured by the chairman of the royal commission, Justice McClellan, that this will be sufficient to enable the royal commission to complete its work. The extension of the royal commission will be at a cost of $125.8m. That is in addition to the $377m currently budgeted for, bringing the commonwealth’s total commitment to slightly above $500m. Although this is a very significant amount of money, it is the view of the government given the importance of the royal commission’s work that this outlay is justified.
Tony Abbott is now responding to Bill Shorten’s motion. He is lecturing Shorten and suggests he should be a more constructive opposition leader.
The house roars.
This is not an opposition Leader who is running an alternative government, this is an opposition Leader who is running the national complaints bureau. That’s all he can do and until such time as the leader of the opposition can remember that the job of opposition is to be a constructive alternative, Labor will be in the doldrums.
Meanwhile Nick Xenophon makes his feelings felt on the mining tax repeal bill and the associated superannuation changes.
Mining tax repeal digs a hole for Australians’ superannuation savings, and Gov ramming it through by stealth erodes our democracy. #auspol
— Nick Xenophon (@Nick_Xenophon) September 2, 2014
Hang on, George Brandis is extending the royal commission into child abuse. We are assuming extra funding has been approved but will bring more details shortly.
Now Jacqui Lambie is asking Brandis whether under section 44 of the Constitution, should support for sharia law disqualify someone from being a member of parliament? Given section 44 makes it unlawful to support a foriegn power?
Brandis says section 44 doesn’t deal with religious belief.
Will this day get any stranger?
Bill Shorten moves his motion about what he describes as Abbott’s lies.
After a technical disaster, we are back on board to hear the last of a question to Christopher Pyne, who has suddenly found faith in David Gonski, who was on the front page of The Australian supporting deregulation of Australians universities. Gonski was of course head of the Gonski report which formed the foundation of Labor’s education reforms. After giving him a bollocking while in opposition, Pyne says now:
I give a Gonski. Does Bill Shorten?
Bill Shorten is trying to move a motion and suspend standing orders on Abbott’s broken promises. Speaker Bronwyn Bishop says the government needs to have another question first.
Bishop says she gave Liberal MP Jane Prentice first.
Shorten asks Abbott if he is proud of the “dirty deal” he did with Clive Palmer on the mining tax repeal.
All of the measures that we have in this words of the Leader of the Opposition teamed up with Clive Palmer to implement are promises that we took to the election. They are all commitments that we took to the election.
Warren Truss is asked how the government will deliver the roads of the 21st century.
Truss says the new Infrastructure Australia board will complete an audit and prioritise road projects over the next 15 years.
Plibersek asks Abbott: Can the PM advise the house how many more Australians will be reliant on the aged pension if the increase to the superannuation guarantee is frozen for 6 years?
I want to see a more self-reliant country and the best way to do that is to ensure that our economy is as strong as possible and the stronger our economy is the more sustainable a generous social security system will be, the more sustainable a generous and appropriate retirement income system will be.
Hockey is asked how the removal of the mining tax will boost competitiveness.
Hockey quotes the heads of mining companies saying the how important it was to get rid of the mining tax.
True story.
Bernie Ripoll asks Abbott: Because of the Government’s changes to the superannuation guarantee, a 25-year-old Australian earning $55,000 a year will be over $9,000 worse off by 2025. PM, why should every Australian with superannuation pay for your broken promise?
Abbott:
No thanks to the Labor Party, which has dealt itself out of responsible government in this country but thanks to the cross-bench senators, and I do acknowledge the help that they have provided to the Government in this respect...We are determined to have a strong and decent social safety net and that’s exactly what will happen as a result of the changes that have passed through the Senate today.
Joe Hockey is crowing. He says the modern Labor party is irrelevant for blocking all the government reforms. The savings will be put into infrastructure:
We’ve built the equivalent of 8 Snowy mountain schemes in additional infrastructure over the next 8 years.
The senate has voted down out the mining tax with the support of the Palmer United Party.
The mining tax has been officially killed in the senate.
Updated
Bowen asks Abbott: Why is the PM so determined to make Australians work longer and receive less from the aged pension at the same time as making it harder to save for their retirement?
Abbott begins by thanking Shorten for his gracious comments.
Then into it.
Abbott says its important to appropriately increase the pension age due to the increased life expectancy.
As for the superannuation system, we propose to raise the Superannuation Guarantee Levy to 12% by 2025, well in time to deal with the increase in the pension age that we are also proposing.
Julie Bishop is asked for an update on MH17. She says the process of body identification is progressing slowly.
Meanwhile in the senate, a number of procedural divisions on the mining tax repeal bill have been held, all won by government with the support of the crossbenchers (except for Nick Xenophon).
Senate question time has just started 20 minutes late. Which is highly unusual.
Back in the house, Bill Shorten congratulates the government on their handling of the MH17 disaster.
Cathy McGowan asks treasurer Joe Hockey: In previous years to avoid potential disadvantage to country people a budget impact statement on regional Australia has accompanied every budget. Not so this year.
Will you please commit to including a budget impact statement on regional Australia in 2015 and ‘16 budgets so that we can understand impact and effectiveness?
Joe Hockey says Warren Truss has already made a statement (which was not a direct impact statement from the budget). And then Hockey proceeds to tell the parliament how they have got rid of the carbon price and are in the process of getting rid of the mining tax,
which is to the great benefit of regional Australia.
So, the answer to McGowan’s question was essentially - no I cannot commit to making a budget impact statement for regional Australia.
Julie Bishop outlines the invitation to Australia to become an enhanced partner of NATO, mentioned earlier.
Chris Bowen asks Tony Abbott: My question is to the PM and I refer to his previous answer in which he claimed a mandate for delaying the superannuation guarantee rise by 6 years. PM, isn’t it the case that your superannuation policy at the last election admitted only a 2-year delay in increasing the superannuation guarantee? PM, isn’t it the case that far from having a mandate your government has broken a commitment to almost 9 million Australians?
Abbott said he took a superannuation pause (for 2 years) to the last election, therefore it is not a broken promise.
Shorten asks Abbott if he said compulsory superannuation was the “greatest con job ever foisted by government on the Australian people”.
Abbott refuses to answer his old quote and says he understands Shorten’s frustration.
Tony Abbott is asked for an update on national security measures to combat home grown terrorism.
Question time begins in both houses.
Bill Shorten asks Abbott about his broken promises on superannuation.
Abbott tells the chamber Shorten has made himself irrelevant by refusing to accept the government’s mandate.
There are no adverse changes as a result of this because Madam Speaker, by delaying the increase in the Superannuation Guarantee Levy we are keeping more money in workers’ pockets. That’s exactly what we’re doing. We are keeping more money in workers’ pockets.
H for chutzpah.
Wong says due to the government’s guillotine, the senate will not get a chance to debate substantial changes that will delay rises in the superannuation of 8 million workers.
Penny Wong is moving to suspend standing orders to point out that the senate is about to vote on amendments relating to superannuation that have not been debated yet.
So the bill will not go to committee. Labor lost that move on a vote of 31-34.
Clive Palmer ends his press conference, as usual, with God bless all Australians. To which a journalist from The Australian quipped:
God bless The Australian?
Clive failed to answer.
Looks like these senate votes are going to run straight into question times in both houses.
Senate now voting on whether to refer the MRRT bill to a senate committee.
Palmer is asked about the Medicare copayment.
For the 100th time, we will never support the copayment.
Although given his recent changes, that could change by the 110th time. Or the 187th time.
Clive Palmer is now defending his decision in the senate courtyard. He said PUP always said they would vote to remove the mining tax.
Asked why people should not see his decision as a vote for his interests, Palmer said he does not pay the mining tax, nor do any of the big miners like BHP, because it was poorly drafted.
Penny Wong says she does not remember Tony Abbott telling Australians about cuts to superannuation.
This is government by deal making.
Wong then turns on the PUP Senate leader, Glenn Lazarus.
He is making you break election commitments and you don’t even have the spine to get up and tell Australians why ... you’re voting to cut the things you said you would defend.
Updated
The Senate is debating Conroy’s motion to refer the new Minerals Resource Rent Tax repeal and other measures bill to a senate committee.
Penny Wong says the 8 million Australians whose superannuation will be affected deserve to know how the deal was done.
There is one thing Australians need to know. This government and the crossbenchers have agreed to freeze your super for seven years.
Updated
Christine Milne is on a roll.
Why is it fair that politicians and public servants like us get 15% sitting here but others sit there and get 9%?
This country has become a plutocracy, a government for the wealthy by the wealthy.
Here we have a a coal mining billionaire abolishing a tax on coal mining profits.
To have the bill dumped in here and expect us to deal with it in this time is wrong.
Big smiles in the Liberal Party, big smiles around the coalmining board room ... but if anyone tried to do this in a board room they would be forced to leave the meeting.
Updated
Greens leader Christine Milne asks how Australia can have a mining billionaire (Clive Palmer) voting down a mining tax to benefit himself and the big miners like BHP, Rio Tinto,
This is the same Mr Palmer who is trying to open the big Waratah coal mine in the Galilee Basin.
Everyone around the world looks up to our superannuation system, says Conroy. He is comparing Glenn Lazarus to Norm Gallagher, the Builders Labourers Federation leader. He said the Senate needed time to scrutinise the bill, rather than have the bill:
pushed through like a sausage machine.
Updated
You have to justify and explain to the superannuation receivers in Australia why they are getting less, says Conroy, who is tearing strips of the PUPs.
The Senate has just passed a motion to have the bill read a second time: 34-30.
Labor’s Stephen Conroy wants the refer the bill to a Senate committee, which is a way of blocking it for a while. He wants to know:
What is the filthy deal? We are learning more from Twitter.
Updated
Senate now voting on the second reading of the new mining tax repeal bill. That is, the debate stage of the bill.
Vote is the same again, government wins 34-30.
The government leader of the lower house, Christopher Pyne, was seen coming through the doors of the Senate.
Updated
Another procedural vote on the suspension happening now.
So we know three Palmer senators should vote with the government plus Ricky Muir. Government wins the first procedural motion for suspension 34-30.
The Senate is now voting on a motion to suspend standing orders to debate the Palmer-endorsed mining tax repeal bill.
Updated
The PUP Senate leader, Glenn Lazarus, who is due to make his “first speech” this afternoon at 5.30pm, said the party wanted the amendments until after the next election when voters could decide on the performance of all members and senators.
Updated
So the mining tax repeal package has been agreed to by a majority of senators with the forced amendments.
Amendments include:
- Low-income super contribution will stay until 2017.
- Income support bonus will stay until 2016
- Schoolkids bonus, means-tested for families up to $100K, will stay until 2016.
- Compulsory superannuation will be increased to 10% in 2021, instead of 2015-16 as it was under Labor.
Updated
PUP and Ricky Muir have leveraged the establishment of two joint select committees to establish an “Australia Fund” for natural disasters and another to boost trade and investment performance.
The government has agreed to removal of mining tax without the removal of the schoolkids bonus, the low income superannuation contribution and the low income support bonus.
Essentially PUP has extended those spending measures until after the next election. They have also put a means test of $100,000 on the school kids bonus which is currently available to all students.
Updated
PUP has always supported the removal of the mining tax, says Lazarus.
Glenn Lazarus says PUP is supporting the government amendments to remove the mining tax.
It appears the government has done a deal on the mining tax repeal bill. Palmer United senators are putting forward a motion to the senate in the next few minutes.
Our colleagues at Fairfax, Latika Bourke and James Massola, are reporting the Treasurer Joe Hockey has been slapped down in the party room for criticising the WA premier Colin Barnett. WA MP and former state treasurer Christian Porter was reportedly calling for his state to get more of a share on GST - a running sore for the big resources state. Hockey apparently launched into an attack on Barnett and deputy leader Julie Bishop, also from WA, tried to delicately intervene to stop him.
Abbott then delivered fulsome praise to Barnett, interpreted as another slap down to Hockey. Of course Joe has not had a great run since the budget, with some of his colleagues blaming him for a poor sales job. They were also not so happy with the timing of his biography.
Shorten is now speaking in the house on higher education changes by the government.
His message is making university education more expensive will hit women particularly and lower income students generally.
Shorten says Tony Abbott and his ministers had found it easy to go to university. They would have found it easy because it was free and it allowed students, such as the PM, to take time out to go into the priesthood, for example.
He said the government plans to tie student debt to the government bond rate rather than the consumer price index would push debt onto students’ families.
Australians will have the goal posts dramatically shifted ... this government has have no idea how 90% of Australians structure their lives.
Labor doesn’t believe Australia has to choose between equity in education and quality in education, says Shorten.
Updated
My colleague Daniel Hurst tells me Labor’s caucus meeting focused on Iraq, the constitutional recognition for Indigenous Australians and the budget negotiations, specifically the superannuation changes. (See the first post.)
Deputy leader Tanya Plibersek told her Labor colleagues Iraq was facing a large scale humanitarian disaster and she distinguished the current situation from the 2003 situation.
Plibersek backed the government’s decision to arm the Kurdish Peshmerga, as the most effective fighting force against Isis. She said it was important the government maintained continued briefings and opportunities for members to speak in parliament.
It appears there is no open dissent on Labor’s position on Iraq, though one member asked about how to use the United Nation’s security council to address the situation. Another expressed support for current position but also concerns about “mission creep”.
Shorten said Isis had “unleashed a sore of hatred, violence and ignorance” but “Labor would not support formed units on the ground going to Iraq”.
Updated
Saleh also said he had no concerns that the Australian-delivered weapons would fall into the wrong hands.
When you are in a battle you lose and some of the weapons go to Isis, these things happen but no, we have no concerns the weapons are going to fall into the wrong hands.
Mouayed Saleh had also made the point on Monday that the arms should be channelled through the Iraqi government because Isis is a threat right across Iraq. The defence needed to be “balanced” rather than arming one area.
Today Saleh said it is all good.
(Australians ) got the approval a couple of days ago.
Is the west saying the Kurdish Peshmerga are a more reliable ally in the fight against Isis?
No that’s definitely not true. The Peshmerga, the Kurdistan, the Kurdish they are all part of Iraq. Today the heavy fighting is going on in that part of Iraq and that is why he is arming the Peshmerga to fight.
The Iraqi ambassador to Australia Mouayed Saleh is today backtracking from some strong comments on Sky News on Monday.
Here is what he told David Speers yesterday.
As you know [Iraq] is a sovereign country and [the weapons plan] should go through the central government which is Baghdad and that is the proper protocol … or at least consult with the central government and then you can give it to a province like in Kurdistan, just like if I want to give weapons to Victoria, I should go through Canberra in order to pass it to Victoria.
It sounded like a contradiction of the Tony Abbott’s statement that Australia had the Iraqi government’s support for their plan to arm Kurdish fighters.
Today is a new day. Saleh has just told my colleague Daniel Hurst and others:
The (Iraqi government) approval has been obtained and the appropriate channels were contacted in Baghdad and the Australians went through all the normal channels to do what they needed to do in order to transfer the weapons to Kurdistan.
According to my resources there was full cooperation between the two sides so there was no issue. Unfortunately I was misquoted or taken out of context in some of the statements I made but the truth is Australia and Iraq worked together to do all the approvals.
Senate snakes and ladders. South Australian artist Peter Serwan has got the nod as a semi-finalist in the Moran Portrait Prize for his painting of independent senator Nick Xenophon standing in the middle of a snakes and ladders board. A fairly unambiguous message there.
I have had to chop his legs off for our blog but I am sure the good senator won’t mind.
It being Tuesday, there are party room meetings this morning so the house and the Senate don’t begin sitting until midday and 12.30pm respectively.
In the meantime I am reminded by Labor’s Ed Husic that the Prime Minister’s Science Engineering and Innovation Council has not met all year.
Science is a contentious issue with the government, notwithstanding its as yet unlegislated $20bn medical research fund, after the prime minister chose not to appoint a science minister and continued and increased Labor’s cuts to the CSIRO. And that is without even mentioning climate change and the government’s chief business advisor Maurice Newman.
Lenore Taylor did an interview with Australia’s chief scientist Ian Chubb a few weeks ago, when he said he was setting up a new council of business people, researchers and scientists “to reset the way the government was advised on science policy”.
Updated
As I mentioned earlier, Tony Abbott has been on 2GB with Alan Jones. He went for Isis, no holds barred, calling the group worse than Nazis.
These people absolutely revel in killing. We have seen in the century just gone the most unspeakable things happen. The atrocities committed by the Nazis, by the communists and others, they were ashamed of them, they were trying to cover them up. This mob by contrast, as soon as they have done something gruesome and ghastly and unspeakable they are advertising it on the internet for all to see which makes them in my mind nothing but a death cult ... It’s quite proper to respond with extreme force.
Updated
Democracy is in the eye of the beholder. Who better to give advice to a mining billionaire than a bigger mining billionaire?
Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest as been on the ABC this morning dispensing a little advice about democracy, compromise and the budget.
Forrest, who makes a crust negotiating mining and land deals to the last dollar, has suggested that negotiating is all well and good but compromise is required. Furthermore, the Senate was put in place as the “ultimate arbiter” but “not to stand in front of a democratically elected government”. I’m confused but you may get a clear line on his thinking if I give you the whole quote.
I think if the government is selected and maybe there’s areas of the budget which are capable of negotiation, I’m saying let’s negotiate it and get it through but let’s not seek populist, short-term manoeuvres and gestures which holds up an entire country. That’s not what a Senate was put in place for. The Senate was put in place as the ultimate arbiter, not to stand in front of a democratically elected government.
Forrest was then asked whether Clive Palmer was good for democracy.
Clive is an enigma and not an enigma I’m going to comment on. What I would suggest to Clive is that he looks at a democratically elected government, compromises and let’s get on with the business of Australia whereas holding up an entire budget without any compromise doesn’t do anyone which votes here in this country a favour.
Updated
The Senate door dance.
Updated
It’s a sign.
Australian Defence Force chief Mark Binskin is out to scotch reports that Australian aircraft were directly fired at over Iraq. This from him minutes ago.
No reports RAAF C130 came under fire over Iraq on Sunday. Ground fire not directed at an aircraft is not unusual in a war zone
— Mark Binskin (@MarkBinskin_CDF) September 1, 2014
Good morning blogans,
There are some big stories around this morning regarding Australia’s involvement in overseas conflicts. Ian McPhedran of News Corp is reporting that Australian aircraft came under fire while flying over Iraq to deliver humanitarian drops. Both the prime minister and the trade minister Andrew Robb declined to confirm the reports. Abbott made the point that it is a war zone.
There may have been fire in the area but I am not advised they came under direct fire themselves, Abbott told Alan Jones.
Meanwhile The Australian is reporting that Abbott is considering increasing Australia’s “long term presence” in Afghanistan with the “potential deployment of 200 special forces troops”. It is in the context of Australia entering an “historic partnership” with NATO this weekend. Greg Sheridan reports that Barack Obama will officially dub Australia an “enhanced partner”.
And as you were sleeping, your fearless leaders have been out early. The man who never sleeps, Mike Bowers, ran into the other man who never sleeps, Tony Abbott, riding his custom bike around Canberra before dawn. Bowers’ beautiful photo is a reflection of how hard the prime minister has had to work to get his budget through the parliament. That fight continues today after the government presented a new version of the mining tax repeal bill on Monday, which still has a whole lot of spending measures attached, including the twice-a-year schoolkids bonus, the low-income superannuation guarantee payments and a bonus payment for welfare recipients. The senate refused to dump them the first time around and it looks as if nothing will change with this new bill. But watch this space.
Bill Shorten must have sprinkled a little of Gina’s iron ore on his brekkie because he came out early too, channelling his inner mongrel to take on the government over the superannuation changes in aforesaid mining tax repeal bill. It was the strongest performance Shorten has delivered for some time. Abbott, he said, had promised “no adverse changes” to superannuation 14 times before the election and now his planned changes meant that the superannuation rise from 9 to 12% would be delayed for 20 years to 2034. At the same time, Abbott (and Shorten) and his mates would enjoy 15%.
He is asking Australians to do as I say, not as I do. He is the Olympic gold medal winner of hypocrisy. You know how I tell when Abbott is lying about superannuation? When his lips are moving.
Just to whet your appetite, more on Abbott’s interview with Alan Jones and a whole lot more besides. Better let this thing fly. Follow us at @gabriellechan and @mpbowers for a conversation or jump into the comments.
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