Night-time politics
- The day started marking 20 years of the Bringing Them Home report into the stolen generations.
- It moved on to school funding when the education minister, Simon Birmingham, warned the sections of the Catholic education system he would not be backing down on Gonski 2.0.
- A Guardian Essential poll showed no budget bounce for the Coalition, and Labor retained its two-party-preferred lead 46-54.
- A Queensland Labor government split over Adani’s royalties is causing angst and Adani has put off its decision over whether to invest pending resolution. The resources minister, Matt Canavan, says royalty holidays are just like rent free periods to get someone in the door.
- The Labor senator Lisa Singh says actually the Adani coalmine would be a huge mistake for the country. Labor’s official posi is it supports the mine but not the loan for the railway.
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In question time, Labor concentrated on how much tax revenue the bank levy would raise and Gonski funding. The Coalition concentrated on Labor’s failure to back the Medicare levy rise for the NDIS.
Thanks to the brainy trust, Paul Karp, Katharine Murphy and Gareth Hutchens. Mike Bowers will have to bathe his clicking finger in unguents.
We will wander off into the night and see you on the morrow.
Good night.
Updated
Murph has been busy. Labor senator Lisa Singh has departed from the script.
The federal Labor senator Lisa Singh has said the Adani coalmine would be “a huge mistake for this country” in a departure from the official Labor position. The opposition maintains the controversial project can proceed on its merits, but without any government support.
Singh, a left-leaning Tasmanian senator, told Guardian Australia on Tuesday the coal project had absolutely no merit.
Katharine Murphy reports:
Tim Watts’ motion was supported by Liberal Russell Broadbent and the Nat’s Andrew Broad.
Victorian National party MP Andrew Broad seconded the Watts motion, telling parliament lived experience in his electorate of Mallee suggested sponsored refugees not only boosted economic activity but were also good for the soul of communities.
“I really think this needs a push along,” Broad said.
Broad said he had recently read a book about the origins of the Holocaust and the history had brought home to him the requirement for political leaders to deal properly with refugees and “take their population on the journey”.
Broad said in the community of Nhill, in western Victoria, a sponsored refugee program had “not only brought a labour force into the town, it’s changed the culture of the town, it’s opened the hearts of the people in the town”.
It has actually worked. And so what I say to people when they are a little bit apprehensive about Australia taking more refugees, it’s really about what are the services we are going to provide, what communities are we going to put in and how are we going to integrate people into our community. These are beautiful people. I am so proud of humble country folk who are being part of the solution. We can do this, we can replicate this in many towns across Australia and it will bring so much good.
Lovely bipartisan statement remembering the stolen generations, recognising the importance of the apology and calling on all governments to work towards addressing issues left unresolved from the Bringing Them Home report recommendations.
Listen to @KenWyattMP & @LindaBurneyMP reflect on today's #BTH20 launch & back to 1997 Bringing Them Home report: https://t.co/te6xzmbpAx
— Melissa Sweet (@croakeyblog) May 23, 2017
Updated
The house came back briefly after the matter of public importance to vote on the corrupting benefits amendment by Greens MP Adam Bandt.
The corrupting benefits bill outlaws payments to union officials to trade away pay and conditions for money.
Labor don’t like the bill and so they are are trying to gut the bill to strike out the penalty rates decision by the Fair Work Commission.
Bandt was trying to amend the bill to essentially to call on the government to establish a national Independent Commission Against Corruption. Ie. if you are so worried about corruption, establish a national Icac.
Labor, the Coalition and Rebekha Sharkie voted against the national Icac amendment.
Bandt, Andrew Wilkie and Cathy McGowan voted for a national Icac.
Updated
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Further to the high five.
@edhusicMP @mpbowers @gabriellechan I was preparing to defend myself from Chifley's chief heckler and basketball rookie! #iamscared
— Josh Frydenberg (@JoshFrydenberg) May 23, 2017
Penny Wong has been asking the attorney general about Labor’s concern that MP David Gillespie’s eligibility to sit in parliament might fall foul of the same provision that struck out Bob Day.
Labor has claimed there are possible parallels between Day - who had an indirect interest in the lease of his electorate office by the commonwealth - and Gillespie - who has an interest in a company that leases a shop to an Australia Post outlet.
George Brandis tells Senate Estimates that Gillespie had sought legal advice from Guy Reynolds SC and he concluded there was “no section 44 issue at all”.
Brandis said that on the advice and his own judgment of the law, the cases were “nowhere near” analogous. Gillespie has told the prime minister the conclusion of the advice.
The attorney general said:
In my own view, informed by the Bob Day high court decision, nothing in Gillespie’s arrangement goes remotely near section 44 because of the remoteness of his interest.
Old mates, these two.
Ed Husic tries to high 5 Minister Frydenberg who instead manoeuvres for a hand shake @gabriellechan @GuardianAus pic.twitter.com/OVTOdZOQd4
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) May 23, 2017
Cash. Accrual. Details, details.
Lalalalala...
Tanya Plibersek is thrown out of the chamber. When Christopher Pyne rises, he says he is disappointed that Plibersek did not stay in the chamber, given she was going so well. Smirk.
Speaker Smith warns him he can arrange he goes out and continues the conversation with TPlibs. ie I will throw you out.
Pyne says no thanks even though TPlibs is good company.
Plibersek to Turnbull: Given Victorian public schools face a $630m funding cut, according to the Victorian government’s own numbers, and with schools in Corangamite set to lose$12m over the next two years alone, how is this policy fair or needs-based?
Turnbull says year on year, the funding growth is going to be 4.6% in 2018, 4.6% in 2019, 4.6 in 2020 and 4.3% in 2021.
Updated
Tanya Plibersek to Malcolm Turnbull: How is it fair or needs-based that in this budget Peel high school in the deputy prime minister’s electorate will lose $1.68m over the next two years while the Armidale School, with fees up to $20,000 per year, gets an extra $16.3m over the decade?
Turnbull says Peel high school will receive over 10 years $8.5m in additional funding. The funding per student from the commonwealth is estimated at $4,171 and by 2027, it will be $6,659.
Updated
One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts has arrived in estimates and asked the immigration department secretary Mike Pezzullo to provide details on the number of Muslims allowed entry into Australia.
Pezzullo, wiping his eyes, he has been before the the committee for about 17 hours now, promises to take it on notice. The department’s information on religion is incomplete.
The pair has a short tete a tete about Roberts’s use of the phrase of “indiscriminate” to describe Australia’s immigration policy. Pezzullo says the terminology he has used is “non-discriminatory”.
Roberts: “The overwhelming weight of terrorist acts are committed by people of the Islamic ideology.”
“I would put it slightly differently,” Pezzullo says, drawing a distinction between the religion of Islam and Islamist fundamentalism.
“Twenty years ago it was Irish, I might say,” Ian Macdonald chips in, terribly usefully.
Shorten to Turnbull: I refer to S.674 of the Corporations Act and Australian stock exchange listing rule 3.1 which requires corporations to provide accurate updates to the stock exchange on matters which may affect their share price. Inconveniently the figures that the banks have nominated they will have to pay is less than the prime minister’s budget forecast. What is it prime minister? Are the budget numbers wrong, or are the banks lying?
Turnbull says Labor has to learn the difference between cash and accrual accounting.
I have never seen a more pathetic or confused attempt to try to throw dust in the obstacles in the way of the major bank levy. It may well be if the banks have a different view about it, different assumptions, they are entitled to express that.
Updated
Bowen to Morrison: I refer the treasurer to his previous answer and I refer to Morgan Stanley’s note issued today which indicates the bank tax will raise $1bn in 2017-18. Given the government has gone from claiming it will raise $1.6bn yesterday by the prime minister to $1.2bn today by the treasurer, what will be the shortfall in the bank tax over the forward estimates?
Morrison says:
The banks and their advisers and their boards have all been provided with copies of the draft legislation and we have continued to consult with them over the course of the last week or so and that legislation will be introduced into this parliament during this sitting fortnight as I suggested.
Updated
Bowen to Morrison: it refers to his previous answer which he claimed the relevant figure that will be raised by the bank tax is $1.2bn this year. If that is the case, why did the prime minister yesterday tell the house that the net revenue received by the commonwealth shown in the fiscal balance impact is $1.6bn? Why is this tax so poorly implemented and why is this government so incompetent?
Morrison repeats the cash and accrual figures. Then:
The shadow treasurer has gone out to some accountant’s picnic and thinks somehow he has come back with some clever observation. All I know that the shadow treasurer is doing is running the lines of the banks. I don’t know how many bank executives you met with in the last couple of weeks?
Updated
Chris Bowen to Scott Morrison: The budget forecasts that the bank tax will raise $1.6bn in its first year. The big four banks have reported it will cost them just $965m after tax in the first year. Does the treasurer stand by the forecast for the bank tax in the budget which he brought down just two weeks ago?
Scott Morrison does stand by them.
I do.
The cash gross estimate for 2017-18 is $1.2bn.
The accrual figure is $1.6bn.
Updated
The next government question is to social services minister Christian Porter on the Medicare rise to fund the NDIS.
Bob Katter asks the energy and environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, if he will meet with the Queensland Labor government and get the Adani agreements sorted out, lest 500 million Indians go without lights and the world suffer as low grade Indian coal and cheap technology belches eruptions of CO2.
Frydenberg uses it to attack Bill Shorten and the Labor Herbert MP Cathy O’Toole, who he said met with Adani representatives when they announced Townsville would be the head office for the coalmine.
There’s some 11% unemployment in Townsville. Youth unemployment is some double that. And the member for Herbert has now gone quiet. And so with the leader of the opposition. The leader of the opposition goes to Townsville and says he’s all for jobs and he’s all for apprentices. But when he goes to the rest of the country, he says it’s too hard.
Updated
Shorten to Turnbull: I refer to the bank tax which Labor will not stand in the way of. But I note concerns, reported in today’s media, there is a $2bn hole in the government’s bank tax. Does the PM stand by the forecasts on the bank tax. What it will raise in the budget, a budget handed down two weeks ago. Or is his budget already falling apart?
Turnbull does not address any budget hole but rather accuses Labor of walking away from its commitments to the NDIS.
Dreyfus tries again. To Turnbull, yesterday the PM undertook to report to the House after he had taken advice from the commissioner of the Australian federal police, the minister for justice and the attorney general about revelations of One Nation irregularities. What can the PM report?
Turnbull says the One Nation matter (in the Ashby tapes) has been referred to the AFP so it would be inappropriate to comment.
Updated
Coalition asks a question on funding the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
It is a chance to attack Shorten on the NDIS. Malcolm Turnbull:
Only yesterday, as he endeavoured to justify defying the wishes of the majority of his own shadow cabinet, defying the advice of his own colleagues to support the government’s decision to increase the Medicare levy by 50 basis points, instead of supporting that he’s wanted to differentiate himself and play the old politics to which he is so accustomed nowadays.
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Labor opens question time on One Nation.
Mark Dreyfus to Malcolm Turnbull: This year there have been allegations that One Nation failed to declare the donation of $100,000 plane, adopted a constitution which breached electoral laws and conspired to defraud electoral authorities. When allegations against One Nation have been mounting for months, why is it that when Labor raised this issue yesterday, the PM had taken no action? Is the PM dragging his heels because he is more interested in One Nation preferences?
Speaker Smith does not allow the question in that form and there is no opportunity to rephrase. The Coalition gets the first question.
Malcolm Turnbull:
This incident, this attack, is especially vile especially criminal, especially horrific because it appears to have been deliberately directed at teenagers. This is an attack on innocence. Surely there is no crime more reprehensible than the murder of children. This is a direct and brutal attack on young people everywhere, on freedom everywhere.
Bill Shorten:
What makes this different to a casualty on a battlefield is that you think when your kids go to listen to music, they would be safe. My eldest two are teenagers, they go to concerts, like so many here and so many elsewhere. When you see that shaky iPhone footage on that relentless 24-hour coverage, you see so many young people.
They’re dressed to go out to a concert, to dance, to listen to music. And I can only begin to imagine the pain of parents wondering where their kids are when the first reports come out and the first texts and they realise that their family, their kids are at this concert. And I can only begin to dimly imagine the parents whose calls are being unanswered and the messages go through to that voicemail. And then I also think today – how do I explain this to my own kids?
Updated
Both the prime minister and the opposition leader are speaking on the Manchester explosion.
Re the use of acting deputy prime minister by Fiona Nash, someone has been busy...
Here are all the times that acting deputy prime minister have been used.
Arthur Calwell, member for Melbourne, VIC (QT on 28 April 1950): “I direct a question to the acting deputy Prime Minister.” – http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/genpdf/hansard80/hansardr80/1950-04-28/0009/hansard_frag.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf
[Arthur Calwell was a Labor politician]
Senator Don Farrell (Senate chamber speech on 12 December 2013): “What also amazed me yesterday, when it was clear that there was a serious issue here in that Prime Minister Abbott had not contacted the company, was what the acting prime minister or the acting deputy prime minister – I am not sure what he was – Minister Truss did.” – http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/genpdf/chamber/hansards/8c194fbe-dfed-4da6-82c2-d9a2425960e0/0213/hansard_frag.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf
John Howard as leader of the opposition (press conference on 15 November 1995): “It is Jennie George who is the acting deputy prime minister of Australia and this idea that in some way it is a cook up between the Liberal Party and CRA is absolute nonsense.” – http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/media/pressrel/HPR02010440/upload_binary/HPR02010440.pdf;fileType=application/pdf#search=%22acting%20deputy%20prime%20minister%22
[Jennie George was a Labor politician in the Keating government]
Charles Webb, member for Stirling, WA (QT on 28 May 1968): “My question is directed to the treasurer, or should I say to the acting deputy prime minister twice removed…” – http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/genpdf/hansard80/hansardr80/1968-05-28/0045/hansard_frag.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf
[Charles Webb was a Labor politician]
Fred Daly, member for Grayndler, NSW (QT on 5 October 1960): “…will the right honourable gentleman inform the House whether there is now an acting leader of the parliamentary Liberal party, acting as acting deputy prime minister, or whether the parliament is now subject to a take-over by the Australian Country Party?” – http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/genpdf/hansard80/hansardr80/1960-10-05/0037/hansard_frag.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf
[Fred Daly was a Labor politician]
Keating believes Howard was wrong to send Australian troops to Iraq in support of the US invasion. He recalls being acting deputy prime minister when George Bush snr called to ask Australia for help in the first Gulf War of 1991. “Bob Hawke and I were the first two people in the world to join the Americans in that coalition, ahead of the British and ahead of the Canadians, because Saddam Hussein invaded a sovereign country,” he says. – http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/The-prime-minister-we-had-to-have/2005/05/27/1117129901088.html
Updated
We are coming to the Human Ken Doll in estimates.
.@kimbakit asking #estimates about the Prime Minister's #budget2017 function
— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) May 23, 2017
.@kimbakit asking about who decides the guest list of #Budget2017 night parties... pic.twitter.com/YrvlpzIo6A
— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) May 23, 2017
Question time coming up people.
Eric Abetz is taking issue with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet over some correspondence over the national anthem.
Essentially, a group of people took it upon themselves to rewrite Advance Australia Fair which strips out the words offensive to Indigenous people.
Here is a Courier Mail’s take:
Victorian Supreme Court judge Peter Vickery, via the Recognition in Anthem Project, changed the second line of verse one from, For we are young and free to In peace and harmony. The revision acknowledges Indigenous culture.
He has also written 10 new lyrics for a third verse, which makes mention of Dreamtime, Uluru and respecting country.
Because the Commonwealth owns the copyright, Justice Vickery, who is also a poet, wrote to Mr Turnbull asking if he could make the changes in his campaign to overhaul Advance Australia Fair.
Justice Vickery said the project, which he had undertaken as a private citizen, planned to embark on a process to consult with Australians to gain support for the changes.
“Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people find the words For we are young and free hurtful and offensive, and find it difficult – if not impossible – to stand or sing the anthem with these words,” he said.
The PM said yeah, nah.
Prime Minister and Cabinet assistant secretary Peter Rush responded on behalf of Mr Turnbull earlier this year, advising Justice Vickery, “I appreciate the effort and intent of your thoughtful and creative proposals for changes to the anthem.
“It would not be appropriate for alternative versions of Advance Australia Fair to be presented as the Australian national anthem, which should be performed as proclaimed.
“However, there may be occasions when your version of Advance Australia Fair could be performed as a patriotic song.
#estimates is now debating whether or not Australia a "young" country.
— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) May 23, 2017
It's in relation to national anthem " we are young and free"
Quickly reaching peak #estimates here. Brandis takes issue with the idea Aus is young, given we are one of the oldest democracies ...
— Judith Ireland (@CanberraCamper) May 23, 2017
Abetz wants reassurances that the anthem will not be changed.
He also wants to know the definition of a patriotic song.
Staff assure him there is no suggestion of changing the anthem.
Updated
All hands on all the tillers, and coalmines
Government MPs have gathered for their regular Tuesday party room festival of fellowship. Perhaps things were jolly because the meeting was short. There’s lots on around the building today, and the Senators are detained in various estimates committees.
The prime minister addressed colleagues. Malcolm Turnbull thought the budget had been well received and he told colleagues to get the word out. Like, now. Get out and sell the budget, was the advice. Turnbull referenced the stand off between Catholic education and the government about Gonski 2.0. Again, the prime minister thought everything would be fine if people would get those budget facts out. Turnbull thought voters wondered these days whether governments ever followed through with things – hence all the follow-through. Follow through, people.
The deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, was also heavily into follow-through on the budget. True to form, he was also 100% behind the Adani project. The coalmine would mean jobs, jobs, jobs. It also meant split, split, split with the ALP. Queensland Labor was divided, Joyce noted, in Canberra, Bill Shorten was “silent” – and the Labor party needed to decide quick sticks whether it supported “jobs for working Australians”.
The deputy Liberal leader, Julie Bishop, spoke of a recent trip to Wagga, which was apparently about making foreign affairs less ... foreign. This seems like quite an ambitious task, just quietly, but who are we to judge?
When the great ones finished their various summations, five government MPs (four Queensland one NSW) backed in Joyce’s feelings about the Adani project. This needed to happen, and the government had to stump up $1bn through the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility to fund it. One other MP made positive noises about how the budget had been received locally.
Updated
You blend up your hopes and dreams, brought to you by Channel Dastyari.
From our friends at AAP.
A senior bureaucrat says there is no position of “acting deputy prime minister” despite the title having been used a number of times by Nationals deputy leader Fiona Nash.
When Malcolm Turnbull is overseas, the position of acting prime minister is filled by Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce.
During these times, Nash has issued media releases using the title “acting deputy prime minister”.
Labor senator Penny Wong asked officials from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet on Tuesday whether it was standard practice to appoint an acting deputy PM.
“No,” replied DPMC deputy secretary Elizabeth Kelly.
Two other ministers were next in seniority to Joyce – the attorney general and the foreign minister.
Updated
Lunch time politics
- Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten have commemorated 20 years since the Bringing Them Home report, again apologising to the Indigenous children taken from their parents.
- Labor retains its lead over the Coalition 53-46 on a two party preferred basis.
- Former senator Rod Culleton is in the parliament agitating for the Senate to force Brandis to explain his referral of Culleton’s election to the high court, which subsequently ruled his election invalid.
- Education minister Simon Birmingham said he is not for turning, going back to existing school funding deals favouring some sectors over others. He was looking at sections of the Catholic education system, some of which claim it is unfair to that sector.
Updated
In the House, the first debate is on the fair work amendment (corrupting benefits) bill that criminalises payments to unions in return for trading worker pay and conditions.
Labor’s employment shadow, Brendan O’Connor, wants to amend the bill:
Whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House calls on the government to:
(1) abandon its support of the decision of the Fair Work Commission to cut penalty rates because it will mean nearly 700,000 Australians will have their take-home pay cut by up to $77 a week; and
(2) legislate to prevent the decision from taking effect to stop Australians from having their penalty rates cut.
Greens MP Adam Bandt wants to amend the bill:
The bill contains some improvements to the existing law, they are not enough and the House declines to give the bill a second reading and calls on the government to establish a national independent commission against corruption.
Updated
@SenatorAbetz this is you pic.twitter.com/xDqoGh7Inn
— Stuart Fazakerley (@stuartfaz) May 23, 2017
Get a hobby, Eric. https://t.co/gpGqrGPXva
— Tim Watts MP (@TimWattsMP) May 23, 2017
Breaking news: Under questioning from Labor, George Brandis says there is no selfie officer for the prime minister.
Labor held its caucus meeting this morning and concerns were raised about a potential government loan to a South African coalmine.
As reported in Guardian on the weekend, the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (Efic) is considering a loan to develop the Boikarabelo coal project in Limpopo Province, South Africa.
The mine has approval to extract 32m tonnes a year of raw coal, making it of similar size to some proposals in Australia’s Galilee Basin.
With Efic’s help, the project could lead to the development of one of the biggest coalfields in the world, the Waterberg basin, a resource of about 75bn tonnes.
But the progressive thinktank the Australia Institute has questioned the rationale of the loan in a new report, African White Elephant: Should Australian taxpayers finance a South African coal mine?
Jason Clare, the shadow minister for trade and investment, says he will now be raising the matter in Senate estimates next week.
Updated
Rod Culleton wants George Brandis to explain his Senate reference to high court
Former One Nation senator Rod Culleton has been around the House over the past two days. He wants the Senate to re-examine attorney general George Brandis’ original referral of him in the Senate to the high court. He is seeking the support of Labor, the Greens and various crossbenchers to force Brandis to explain, given the Senate passed a motion last year calling for a Brandis explanation.
This was the motion that passed the Senate:
(a) the Senate notes that:
(i) on 25 November 2016, solicitors on behalf of the commonwealth attorney general filed a statement of agreed facts in the high court sitting as the court of disputed returns in the matter of re Rodney Culleton,
(ii) paragraph 1 of the statement of agreed facts includes the following statement: the magistrate in convicting Senator Culleton as an absent offender was precluded by section 25 of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW) from making an order for a sentence of imprisonment, and
(iii) the facts set out above and agreed by solicitors acting on behalf of the commonwealth attorney general were not before the Senate on Monday, 7 November 2016, when it considered the motion moved by Senator Brandis to refer the matter to the high court under section 378 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1908; and
(b) the Senate calls on the attorney general (Senator Brandis) to attend the chamber and clarify this matter.
As yet, there is no suggestions that Labor, the Greens and crossbenchers will combine to force Brandis to explain. But we will keep a sheep’s eye on it.
Bowers and I ran into Culleton with Saraya Beric, the former national secretary of One Nation, who has since had a falling out with Pauline Hanson.
Yesterday Hanson blamed former Beric and former national treasurer and Queensland director Ian Nelson for leaking against her on the Ashby tapes. Those recordings have Ashby suggesting the party could make some money selling campaign packages to their own candidates. Ashby and Hanson said they never followed through on the idea.
Nelson came out and said they both categorically denied he or Beric were responsible. Beric was not talking about it last night.
Now Colin Bettles of the Land reports:
Former WA senator and anti-farm-debt-banking crusader Rod Culleton is being pursued for about $700,000 by the commonwealth government over debts related to his six months service in federal parliament.
Mr Culleton has returned to farming in Kojonup since being disqualified from parliament in February, after the high court ruled he was ineligible to stand at last year’s July 2 election due to constitutional electoral rules regarding convictions and sentencing.
Those who have followed his story will know that the Senate and the finance department are pursuing both Culleton and Bob Day over previous salaries, staff expenses and allowances since they were declared ineligible.
Updated
Thanks to Tom.
Some of the costs of keeping the Prime Minister in official residences #estimates pic.twitter.com/I8NdIy0dAK
— Tom McIlroy (@TomMcIlroy) May 23, 2017
Good morning Alan
After a night of celebrating Robert Menzies, Tony Abbott rose early for a chat with Alan Jones, who had travelled to Canberra to officiate at the anniversary proceedings.
Jones is clearly moved and inspired this morning, because Abbott was hanging on the line for a full seven minutes of monologue before being permitted to speak briefly at the conclusion of Alan’s Great Insights.
One such Jones insight compared Abbott to Menzies in his wilderness years, which then prompted the two to ruminate on Tennyson later in the conversation, and the coda of the poem Ulysses – “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
Hint hint. Striving. Not yielding.
With such an epic preamble, Abbott really didn’t get a clear run at his task but he shared some general insights. Governments should never punish success. (Banks, anyone?) Punishing success only hurts everyone, Abbott thought.
Everyone in the end has to pay for government spending because there is “no such thing as free money.”
And with that he was off. Striving. Seeking, Finding. Not yielding.
Updated
Estimates get on to ATO scandal
Nine ICT contractors which utilise Plutus providing services to government agencies.
Plutus Payroll is at the centre of an alleged $165m tax fraud, one of the biggest white-collar investigations in Australian history. Ten people were arrested on Thursday following dramatic raids across Sydney.
We knew nine agencies could be exposed.
Labor’s Penny Wong is questioning prime minister and cabinet officers. She wants to know what safeguards are in place to ensure government does not engage with companies under investigation by the Australian Tax Office.
Elizabeth Kelly, of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, says PMC had no relationship with Plutus.
Updated
ANZ is the last of the big four banks to warn its shareholders about the costs of the Turnbull government’s bank levy.
Last last night it issued a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange telling its shareholders the levy will cost $240m a year after tax.
So here’s what the big four say the levy will cost each year (after tax):
Westpac: $260m
Commonwealth Bank: $220m
NAB: $245m
ANZ: $240m
The bank levy will apply to the big four plus Macquarie Bank, and Macquarie has yet to make a public statement about the costs of the levy.
However, it is understood Macquarie does not plan to make a statement until it sees more details from the government.
The question now is: do the Turnbull government’s numbers stack up? It has been saying the bank levy will generate $6.2bn in revenue over four years.
The Greens say the levy could raise $1.5bn less than expected over four years, given the levy would be tax-deductible.
Analysis by the Tasmanian senator Peter Whish-Wilson, a former banker, suggests the amount raised could be almost quarter less than expected over the next four years.
Updated
Paul Karp with the full Adani story.
Christian Schools policy forum offering a prayer for Sarah Hanson-Young #auspol #prayforSarah
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) May 23, 2017
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young is making vaguely opposing noises in the direction of Gonski 2.0.
SHY is speaking at an event in Canberra.
Sarah Hanson-Young going back to Gonski report says "bastardized ever since by both sides of politics" #auspol ping @gabriellechan
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) May 23, 2017
Sarah Hanson-Young: I fear the current package that buy in from states will be difficult #auspol @gabriellechan
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) May 23, 2017
Thanks to Matt Hatter for a decade of great victories.
@gabriellechan 📷Hello📷 Have no fear, here's a photo of the event we prepared earlier. Much, much earlier. @mpbowers pic.twitter.com/pdwuz5lWfB
— The Matt Hatter (@MattGlassDarkly) May 23, 2017
Labor’s Kim Carr is asking immigration department head Mike Pezzullo about changes to Australia’s 457 visa regime for skilled workers coming to Australia.
Pezzullo has said the department is keen to move away from the “blunt 457 scheme” which has become “bloated out and ... a proxy pathway to permanent residency”.
You do not use the 457 as a churning recruitment tool … which is a distortion of the original purpose.”
Carr is not happy about the university sector not being adequately consulted, and says “the government has comprehensively stuffed this up”.
Liberal Senator Michaela Cash says Senator Carr has become “the champion of bringing foreign labour in to this country”.
It gets ugly. Very quickly.
“I don’t want to turn this into a political slanging match,” chair Ian McDonald says, slamming the gate as that horse bolts down the road.
Updated
Guardian Essential Poll: Labor remains in front
The Guardian Essential poll came out overnight, as reported by Katharine Murphy.
Almost 80% of Australians believe the big banks will pass the Turnbull government’s $6bn bank levy straight through to their customers, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll, which continues to put Labor comfortably in front of the Coalition post-budget.
The new poll, released on Tuesday, has Labor ahead of the government on the two party preferred measure, 54% to 46% – which is the same as last week’s survey, and broadly in line with major polls taken in the week following the budget.
The recent run of static polls suggests there has been no immediate political fillip from the budget, despite a considerable effort from the government to reset the political contest with a pivot towards the political centre.
Also interesting are the numbers on Labor’s stance to apply the Medicare levy increase only to people earning more than $87,000.
While the proposal was controversial internally, Labor’s plan to restrict the proposed increase in the levy to higher income earners was supported by 55% of the Guardian Essential sample.
A majority (54%) also favoured Labor’s current policy to maintain the 2% deficit levy on earnings over $180,000 a year – a levy the Coalition plans to abolish on 1 July.
Last night there was a Menzies Foundation commemoration dinner celebrating 75 years since Robert Menzies made his Forgotten People speech. John Howard was around yesterday and said there was no appetite for leadership change in the party.
It was also a chance for the Liberal party to celebrate its foundation and its legacy and tell a longer, deeper story about its values and traditions.
Mike Bowers headed off down there with other camera people to record the event, which would have been a positive story for the Liberal party, you would think. But, strangely, he and others were barred from the event – unlike News photographers and Sky – until later in the night, when he would be allowed to stand up the back.
So we have no pics for you of the prime minister, John Howard, Tony Abbott and Menzies’s daughter Heather Henderson et al.
But I take you to an interesting point made in the comments section by BlackAbbott who makes this point on the issue du jour:
The Adani mine does not supply sufficient jobs and revenue to justify endangering the current existing jobs at the top end that will be impacted and across the country, let alone including the greater impact of climate change on the country in general.
And then draws my attention to the Menzies speech. Robert Menzies said:
One of the great blots on our modern living is the cult of false values, a repeated application of the test of money, notoriety, applause. A world in which a comedian or a beautiful halfwit on the screen can be paid fabulous sums, whilst scientific researchers and discoverers can suffer neglect and starvation, is a world which needs to have its sense of values violently set right.
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Estimates continue apace today. I will try to keep across the four hearings but, in case you missed it last night, the Human Ken Doll featured in the finance and public administration committee.
If, like me, you were not aware of this person, behold. HKD came to a budget function and selfies were snaffled. Thanks to the Mark Di Stefano at Buzzfeed for this insight.
Senate president Stephen Parry says he doesn't recall meeting (and taking selfie with) Human Ken Doll at #Budget2017 https://t.co/d7YrN9DD1U
— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) May 22, 2017
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Malcolm Turnbull to stolen generations: again we say sorry
Malcolm Turnbull, Bill Shorten and many MPs including Indigenous members Pat Dodson, Ken Wyatt, Linda Burney, Malarndirri McCarthy and Jacqui Lambie have attended a breakfast to acknowledge the 20th anniversary of the Bringing Them Home report. It documented the stolen generations, Indigenous children who were forcibly removed from their parents by government.
The prime minister has apologised, following on again from Kevin Rudd’s historic apology in 2007.
Today, we again acknowledge the stolen generations, those Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who were forcibly removed from their parents, simply because they were Aboriginal and, again we say sorry.
We acknowledge that this removal separated you from your families, lands, languages, cultures of 50,000 years your ancestors had protected and cared for and we acknowledge the continuing deep personal pain that affects your lives and those of your families.
This is a period of our history where loss and grief almost consumed a people. As prime minister, I had a window into both this loss and grief but also the survival and resilience in a very real way early last year.
In preparing the first Closing the Gap speech that I gave as prime minister, I wanted to show my respect to the original inhabitants of this land by speaking in language. I wanted to show the richness and diversity of the culture of our First Australians, something of which I believe we should all be proud.
While working with the Bell family and the language group here in Canberra and one of the linguists from the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, I was told, “We have lost many words.” Only fragments remain.
But those are cherished and they’re being recovered, drawn out from all of that loss and built patiently together, rebuilding with research.
And so, for the first time as prime minister, I was able to speak in the House of Representatives in the language of the original inhabitants of this place. I realised that not only had Aboriginal people been denied the access to their families but we denied them the right to their stories, their language, their culture, and all Australians lost from that.
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I just want to double back on Adani. Here is a version of the internals of the Queensland Labor government from Sarah Elks in the Oz. Aside from the politically wounded bit, the point is there is a split in Labor at a state level. Again, in a broad sense, this is a philosophical argument over where Labor goes – towards its traditional worker base or towards more progressive climate policy.
A politically wounded [Queensland premier] Ms Palaszczuk was last night accused of allowing a factional stoush – led by deputy premier and left faction leader Jackie Trad – to undermine her leadership and threaten the 10,000 jobs, direct and indirect, which Adani claims would flow from the controversial Galilee Basin mine.
The split in Labor is deep, with federal Labor leader Bill Shorten opposing a low-interest taxpayer loan of up to $1bn from the federal government’s Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility for the project’s 800km rail line.
There are concerns the delay also risks a lifeline to Arrium’s struggling South Australian steelworks, from which Adani said it would source steel for its rail line.
A royalties concession or deferral for Adani – worth up to $320m – was expected to be decided at yesterday’s cabinet meeting. But Ms Trad came out publicly beforehand and declared any “royalties holiday” for Adani would break Labor’s election pledge of no taxpayer subsidies for the mine. Cabinet’s expected decision on a royalties arrangement with Adani was discussed and deferred.
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Labor is heaping pressure on the Greens not to support the government’s schools package. If the Greens agree to support the package in the Senate, the government would only need one crossbencher to come across. If they don’t, the government needs 10 of the 12 of the crossbench. That means basically all of One Nation, all of the Xenophons. Degree of difficulty? 547.
Labor’s education shadow, Tanya Plibersek, said she would be shocked if the Greens support the legislation.
I’m not sure how they missed the central part of the central part of the package which is the $23bn cut.
The state education ministers don’t think that this plan is dead. They said that they will not accept the funding cuts that amount to about $850m over the next two years for NSW public schools, $630m over the next two years for Victorian public schools, about $85m for Tasmanian public schools. About $265m for South Australian schools and the list goes on.
These are enormous cuts to public schools. You’ve also seen the reaction of the Catholic systemic system. There is very, very strong opposition to this and if the government and the Greens don’t listen to that opposition from teachers and principals and parents, from children, then I think that they’ve got a real mess on their hands and a real problem.
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The resources and northern Australia minister, Matt Canavan, has blasted the Queensland government for apparently reneging on a proposal to give the Adani Carmichael coalmine a $320m royalty holiday.
Canavan said it was a “shocking condemnation” of division in the Palaszczuk government that they could not tell Adani how much tax they would pay a week before its board was due to make a decision, and the confusion left a “serious question mark” over the project.
Canavan likened the proposed royalty holiday to a “rent-free” period when a new tenant enters a commercial lease. He said if the mine earned about $100m in royalties a year, the $300m tax break would amount to three years of royalties for a mine that would stay open for 60 years.
If the mine’s not developed we’re not giving them anything, of course, because we won’t have any royalties. It’s the hypocrisy and inconsistency of those opposed to this mine: that somehow ... they want to say you’re giving a concession by not taxing somebody.
And at the other hand they don’t want to develop the Galilee Basin at all ... They think it’s not something we should do, and that’s their right, but then of course we’re not getting any royalties, so we’re giving a $6bn concession away to … not go into an area which would of great benefit to our country.
Canavan said it was a matter for Adani whether the mine would be viable without the $300m concession.
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Good morning blogans,
The Gonski 2.0 school funding package comes to the lower house today as part of the Catholic education system intensifies its war with the Turnbull government.
The federal government provides funding on a needs basis to the Catholic state and territory education systems and then they distribute the funding according to their own funding formulas.
Matthew Knott of Fairfax documents the disparities between some of the Catholic schools within Victoria.
St Mary of the Cross MacKillop Catholic Parish Primary School, a low-SES school in Melbourne’s Epping North, received $1.86m in 2015 – $1.49m less than its federal government allocation.
The most socially disadvantaged Catholic school in Victoria, St Thomas Aquinas in Norlane, received 15% less than its federal government funding allocation in 2015.
Meanwhile, St Columba’s School in the affluent Melbourne suburb of Elwood received 15% more funding than its federal government allocation.
As the legislation comes to the floor of parliament, the education minister, Simon Birmingham, told Sabra Lane that he was not for turning.
We are not about to entertain ideas that would go back to different deals or creating a system that advantages one type of the non-government school sector over another or one state over another. Australians are sick and tired of that.
He said the Catholic education offices would retain autonomy about how they fund their schools but he does expect them to apply to needs based funding principles.
There is plenty more today. We have party room meetings this morning. We have the Adani storm brewing over the Indian-owned company’s applications for royalty holidays on the mega coal mine. We have the ACTU president, Ged Kearney, and the Australian small business and family enterprise ombudsman, Kate Carnell, speaking at the press club on penalty rates.
You can talk to me in the Twits @gabriellechan and him @mpbowers. Join the thread or take up your cudgels on Facebook.
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