Bye bye birdies
Here was the deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, winding up to carp eradication.
I’m going to cut our collective losses now and get a few things done for tomorrow. You’ve been wonderful, and we’ll be seeing you again for all the glories of budget day. Let’s recap Monday, budget eve.
- The major parties tried out their budget arguments ahead of tomorrow in the way you do when nobody quite knows what the sum of the parts will actually say – either the budget itself or the Labor response to it. The treasurer wasn’t quite sure when the budget actually was. Presumably he’ll know tomorrow.
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Malcolm Turnbull wanted to make a moment of his government’s recent decision to purchase submarines from France, hosting the French prime minister in the courtyard for ‘a great day for our two countries’ session – which was rather undercut by a direct question from a French journalist during the press conference: why are we here?
- The government decided to have some fun with a new memoir from Bill Shorten in which the Labor leader says he wants to lead collaboratively, like a union official. The horror. The horror.
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Barnaby Joyce thought he’d talk about carp eradication in question time, proving once again his enduring talent for making a scene.
- The high court began hearing a challenge to the new senate voting reform laws.
Apart from that, everyone conserved energy, more or less. You should too. Have a great night, we’ll see you in the morning.
A quick update on matters constitutional.
Today’s high court hearing of Bob Day’s challenge of Senate voting reform got off to a testy start, with Chief Justice Robert French warning Day’s counsel Peter King not to deliver “normative speeches” when he claimed major parties would urge voters to just vote one above the line. Stick to the legal nitty gritty, was CJ’s advice.
The essence of Day’s argument was that the choice of voting above-the-line or below-the-line created different methods of voting, in breach of the constitution which requires only one method of voting.
Whereas an above-the-line vote under the old system equated to a comprehensive vote for all the candidates under the line, under the new system a vote above the line might exhaust if the parties’ candidates are knocked out. King said this meant voters had to choose whether to vote by what he called a first-past-the-post or optional preferential voting method.
King said parties had a “just vote 1 above the line campaign in their back pockets” which when rolled out would amount to “plumping the vote, and denying independents and minor parties the support they’d have under a full preferential voting system”.
Questions from the bench were highly sceptical, noting voters still retained the choice of whether to vote above or below the line regardless of what parties told them to do.
Day’s counsel is halfway through his arguments, the hearing resumes at 10:15 tomorrow morning.
For folks keen to swot mightily for budget day tomorrow, my colleague Gareth Hutchens has complied an incredibly handy ready reckoner about known knowns and unknown unknowns in the economic statement/the alibi for the past three years/budget for billionaires. Swotters, one and all, look here.
I keep getting distracted by visitors in the office, sorry I am punting on. Earlier in the day I mentioned Lenore Taylor and I will be doing a weekly Politics Live podcast throughout the election campaign. If you are looking for the iTines link in order to subscribe you can find it here.
This did actually happen today.
please enjoy this Vine of our esteemed Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce literally just yelling "CARP" during #QT today https://t.co/yg0UtrvmCR
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) May 2, 2016
Lest you doubt my word.
Here's a vine of Treasurer Scott Morrison saying tomorrow is two days away... #auspol https://t.co/yTwL6xzDWs
— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) May 2, 2016
Treasurer on budget eve. Scott Morrison, at a couple of points in question time, seemed not to know it was budget eve. Totally understandable.
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Tony Abbott on the verge of a spill.
We feel you.
Two questions to wrap that session, one on whether the former director of the Victorian Liberal party (who has pleaded guilty to stealing $1.2m of party funds) has paid the money back. Morrison, representing the special minister of state, says he’ll get back to Labor on that one. Then there is a Dorothy Dixer on stopping the boats and strong border protection policies into the future. Malcolm Turnbull has now called time on question time.
Give me a few minutes and I’ll be back with pictures and the rest of the afternoon.
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First it was Pistol and Boo, now carp.
— Matthew Doran (@MattDoran91) May 2, 2016
When will it end @Barnaby_Joyce? #qt pic.twitter.com/7wpVoTBG0o
The deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce has just launched an incomprehensible rhetorical assault on carp. I think. I think the government intends to stop the carp. The foreign minister Julie Bishop’s face, sitting behind Joyce, a captive consuming the carp story, was priceless.
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Labor would like to know whether the government will join Labor in supporting an Australian candidate to be the next secretary general of the United Nations.
Malcolm Turnbull has a bit of a chuckle at this. Is this a Voldermort candidate?
The prime minister:
Mr Speaker, and what the honourable member has omitted to mention is the name of the person that she’s actually proposing, who I suspect is somebody whose deficiencies she has set out in great deal at various times.
But, Mr Speaker, these matters are - in the event of this matter becoming a live one, then certainly the Cabinet will consider it and give it due attention.
Let me say this ..
The environment minister Greg Hunt is about to sail forth in Pyne territory. Or perhaps not. Perhaps this will be our emissions reductions are better than your emissions reductions. Yes, that’s where we are. I’m sure we’ll get to the carbon tax. It seems inevitable. Oh no, it’s an electricity tax. Here it is. A wicked electricity tax. Go big, Greg. Go big.
(Sorry, but honestly.)
Manager of government business, Christopher Pyne.
So we now know the choice that Labor has made – they’ve decided to go for the cafe latte set in the inner city, rather than support the workers in the Hunter Valley, or in Whyalla, or in Port Kembla and all around Australia. Mr Speaker, instead of supporting jobs and growth, they have chosen to pander to their particular minority interest ..
(Latte drinkers? I don’t have an ABS stat to hand but I wouldn’t think latte people were a minority subset of coffee drinkers.)
Pyne is expounding on Labor reintroducing a carbon tax – something that it has never actually done (the clean energy policy was a carbon price with a fixed period, it wasn’t actually a tax), and has no current plans to do.
But why let facts get in the way? This is question time.
Negative gearing now.
Q: Does the prime minister agree with his Liberal colleague for Bennelong that because of the government’s current negative gearing policy, and I quote, “Too often we see the young couple getting beaten at the auction and then renting out the very place this they were trying to buy”.
My colleague Paul Karp referenced this development for us earlier this morning.
The prime minister is glad the shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, has cited the member for Bennelong as an authority.
Malcolm Turnbull:
Mr Speaker, in this rowdy chamber, it’s touching to see a note of bipartisanship and I thank the member for McMahon because the member for Bennelong observed, and I will quote the member for Bennelong: “Labor’s irresponsible proposal to abolish access to negative gearing on existing homes will devastate the housing market”.
Well, there it is.
A Dixer on submarines, and AFL, and Bill Shorten switching footy teams.
A Dixer on submarines, then Labor persists with education funding.
Q: The Abbott/Turnbull government cut $30bn from Australian schools. Yesterday, the prime minister promised to reverse $1bn of those cuts. Does the prime minister really expect people to be grateful that he is now only cutting $29bn from Australian schools? Cuts which will mean less individual support and less individual attention for every student and every school?
That question is punted to the treasurer, who says Labor never comes up with money to fund its promises.
Scott Morrison:
When those opposite try to fund important expenditure through tax measures, Mr Speaker, with the leader of the opposition, with Bill Shorten, we just know it never adds up.
Speaking of schools, the Labor MP Clare O’Neil was ejected before question time for arguing this point, with props.
A Dixer on submarines before Labor returns on schools.
Q: Why is the Turnbull government giving large multinationals a tax cut, while cutting billions of dollars from Australian schools?
Malcolm Turnbull:
Mr Speaker, what we have is a plan that will ensure that we get the outcomes parents value - that children will have the skills that enable them to compete in the 21st century economy, that teachers will be rewarded for their high capabilities, to encourage the most capable teachers to stay teaching.
We’ll ensure that kids are assessed for literacy and basic numeracy when they come into school at age five and the reason for that, Mr Speaker, is that we know that what is happening at the moment is the gap between the best performing kids and the worst performing ones is growing, that we have to recognise.
We have been spending more and more on education but the outcomes have not been improving.
Now, the answer to that is ensuring that the taxpayers’ dollars, the parents’ dollars, are better deployed so that we get the better outcomes.
Independent Cathy McGowan has a question about trains in north east Victoria. This is to the transport minister, Darren Chester.
Thank you, Mr Speaker, and I thank the member for Indi for her question and I note her ongoing interest and determination to take credit for all of the Coalition’s policies in Australia.
There is a whole smorgasbord of great Coalition policies for regional Australia and the member for Indi, as an independent member, has had no impact on those – in relation to mobile phone blackspots or the bridges renewal program, no impact whatsoever.
(I probably wouldn’t go straight for McGowan’s head given the Liberal candidate, Sophie Mirabella’s recent forays. I’d probably play it cool. But then I’m like that. Wimpy when it comes to self defeating behaviour.)
Chester goes on.
Those opposite asked what about Sophie, well, she has rung me as well and she is passionate about the future of the infrastructure needs in the community of Indi. She rang me in support of her community on road and rail infrastructure!
Bill Shorten is on to regional Queensland now. Possibly we will work our way comprehensively around the AEC electorates grid by 3pm.
Q: Four out of five workers in regional Queensland earn less than $80,000. Why is the prime minister giving the top 1% of income earners a tax cut at the same time as leaving four out of five workers in regional Queensland with absolutely nothing?
Malcolm Turnbull has a brief on Bill Shorten’s ebook memoir. While we are speaking about low income workers, the prime minister says, how about those workers you failed to look after at the AWU?
Shorten says hang on a minute, I have objected previously to misrepresentations about my past in this chamber. Shorten says he’s given a personal explanation. He asks Smith to take action. Speaker Smith says he’ll review the personal explanation this afternoon and monitor answers throughout the week.
Malcolm Turnbull:
Mr Speaker, I recognise the sensitivity of the leader of the opposition on Clean Event and we’ll move on, Mr Speaker, because the low-paid workers that the leader of the opposition betrayed didn’t just work at Clean Event, Mr Speaker.
It was only a few weeks ago that 50,000 self-employed owner-drivers in the trucking industry were put out of work!
Labor is continuing to object.
Turnbull says he’s never seen so many glass jaws in his life.
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The next Dixer.
Q: How important is sound economic management and fiscal discipline to promoting jobs and growth in our new economy?
Manager of opposition business Tony Burke is on his feet.
Mr Speaker, the prime minister has just made clear we shouldn’t be asking questions about the budget today. Does this only apply to members on this side of the House?
House Speaker Tony Smith, playing straight man.
I’m not here to answer questions. The treasurer has the call.
Labor leader Bill Shorten.
Q: My question is to the prime minister. Data from the Australian Tax Office shows that four out of five Tasmanian workers earn less than $80,000 a year. So why is the prime minister giving large multinationals a tax cut at the same time as leaving four out of five Tasmanian workers with absolutely nothing?
Malcolm Turnbull:
I can well understand the excitement, the anticipation, that the leader of the opposition has as he awaits the treasurer’s budget tomorrow night and I can understand him being convulsed with all of the speculation and questions, but he only has to wait until tomorrow night and rather than asking speculative questions based out of fantasy, he can learn it all tomorrow night from the treasurer, who will set it all out.
First Dorothy Dixer concerns how the government’s economic plan will help Australians work save and invest, which inevitably brings Malcolm Turnbull to the business of pulling levers.
Labor moves on to the business of the day. Budget eve business.
Q: Can the prime minister explain why his government is cutting $5,000 a year from a family earning $60,000, but giving $2,600 a year tax cut to an individual who is earning $300,000 a year?
Malcolm Turnbull:
Mr Speaker, the premise on which the leader of the opposition has asked the question is completely fallacious.
The Whitlam era tributes continue. There’s another motion for Tom Lewis, a former premier and treasurer of New South Wales, who died in April.
The Labor leader Bill Shorten notes:
So often, Mr Speaker, there is a melancholy symmetry to the passing of old political warriors. Having just honoured a man brought down by the dismissal, we now honour someone who helped to create that. With the conservative mayor of Albury, [Lewis] set the Senate on a path to the gridlock and obstructionism that eventually brought down the Whitlam government.
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Question time
We have arrived in one piece at the hour of glower, which is opening today with a condolence motion for Rex Patterson, a former Whitlam government minister, and member for Dawson. Patterson died last month.
Bit unkind, yes.
If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing: Napoleon. Unkind?@murpharoo? #auspol pic.twitter.com/ieh6dCwZUb
— Viscount Hinemoa (@pananian) May 2, 2016
Just enough time to boil the kettle before question time folks. Do it.
To other matters before question time. While launching a report on discrimination in employment, attorney general George Brandis has officially announced the government will appoint separate age and disability discrimination commissioners, after the roles were merged in 2014.
Age and disability discrimination commissioner Susan Ryan, who retires in August, welcomed the decision. “I understand it was a decision for the attorney to make when he decided to give the extra role to me and I did them to the best of my ability. But I firmly believe there are two jobs that need to be done there, and certainly the community believes that,” she said.
“There were so many things happening like the disability insurance scheme, that the disability community felt it was better to have someone totally focused on their issues. I’m very happy that’s happening.” Brandis did not take questions after releasing the report, instead racing off to question time.
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Just to cap things off, there was a sneaky full Bonaparte moment. Check the Turnbull hand.
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To understand how that fizzed, let’s compare and contrast.
Here was Malcolm Turnbull, opening his shoulders in the press conference on a great day for our two nations.
These submarines are the best. They offer us the opportunity to have, to develop, to build 12 regionally superior submarines. We are an island nation and we need to ensure that we have the best defences. Now, that is the primary objective. That’s what we’re talking about. As part of that – as we build up those defences, as we give those capabilities to our navy, we do so building the submarines in Australia. We partner with our French partners to ensure that we have the best technology and we work together to develop the supply chain here in Australia right from the shipyard to every person, every firm that is contributing to this effort.
This is a great national enterprise and it will drive our economic plan, our economic plan for jobs and growth in the 21st century and the 21st-century economy.
That is our commitment.
French journalist.
Why have you cooked this up at the last minute? What are we doing here exactly?
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I suspect the Australian prime minister won’t be entirely delighted with that “what is point moment”. Somewhat off script.
Updated
A French journalist certainly cuts to the chase.
Q: Mr Prime Minister, your team has developed a lot of energy in organising this private trip, this very short trip in Australia. There is no announcement on the details of the contracts so what is the point of this visit?
[Ouch].
Manuel Valls says he planned a visit in March, but wasn’t able to follow through.
From the moment of the announcement that Australia had chosen France to build these 12 submarines then I was already in New Zealand. It was only normal that I would come here in Australia. And the decision was taken Monday evening with the president of the republic.
It’s not because you had very late notice of it that it was not planned. And what’s important here is to say that we will keep up our promises and our commitments. Our values, this strategic partnership and our commitment deserved that I would come here. And we talked about the ... timeline, about the strategic partnership, about the job creation and the details of this agreement.
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The first question to Turnbull is did we buy the French submarines in order to keep our options open on nuclear propulsion in the future? (There is some commentary around to this effect.)
No, says the Australian prime minister.
That issue of nuclear propulsion did not form any part of our considerations.
The French prime minister is asked to clarify confusion in Australia about where the submarines will be built.
Manuel Valls:
There’s no confusion. The choice of the Australian government was to have the 12 submarines built in Australia and this was the basis of our agreement.
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The French prime minister notes the submarine decision is a decision that comes with responsibility.
Manuel Valls:
We want to be up to the task and for the trust that Australia put in us.
Should the context not be obvious, the French prime minister is in town because we intend to buy French submarines.
Turnbull welcomes his French counterpart by referencing our shared history.
Malcolm Turnbull:
One hundred years ago the diggers of Australia and France were battling together to defend the liberty of France ..
Then a chunk on the spaceships of the ocean, as the independent Senator John Madigan once called submarines.
Then back to the strategic links.
Malcolm Turnbull:
Beyond the matter of submarines we work closely together in freedom’s cause. We are working closely together as part of the global coalition to counter the activities of Daesh or Isil in the Middle East and of course we have expressed our deepest sympathy to the people of France, consequent upon the shocking terrorist attacks in Paris last year.
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Je suis excité.
Press conference with the two prime ministers very shortly.
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Politics this Monday lunchtime
I did but see him passing by ...
Let’s pause for a moment and track the developments of the day.
- From the sum of the sanctioned leaks, it appears the budget will be about tax cuts that you may or may not get and infrastructure spending that may or may not be new. It will also be about a bunch of other things we don’t yet know about. Stay tuned, things can only improve.
- In lieu of facts, politics is going full meta. Depending on who you ask, this budget is an economic plan for the future, or an alibi for the past three years, or a budget for the billionaires.
- Apart from the blizzard of definitive sounding fighting words about something that is yet to happen, Pat Dodson has been sworn in as a Labor senator, at least until the prime minister calls the election.
- The treasurer Scott Morrison has given a hint that the government may not try and push legislation through the parliament delivering its planned tax cuts for the top 25% of Australian income earners before we hit the campaign trail – they may have to be an election promise. Labor is continuing to reserve its position on budget measures, including the tax cuts.
- The government has bowled up several supply bills to make sure the government doesn’t go broke while surround-sound nonsense breaks out for the next eight weeks.
That’s about the nub of things. Onwards, a prime ministerial press conference looms.
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Politics Live, via a podcast
It’s time to take stock of Monday morning. Hang five I’ll post a summary shortly.
In the interim, a bit of news. With campaignageddon almost upon us – my colleague Lenore Taylor and I are planning to embark on a weekly election podcast called Politics Live – a bit like the blog but with speak singing, on your iPod wireless.
We did an election podcast last campaign and it was an enormous amount of fun. Here’s a little preview of Politics Live, the podcast for election 2016. I’d be very happy if you’d subscribe. I’d clap my little hands, actually.
I was just going to flip over to the explanatory memorandum to dig out the figures on the supply bills but Malcolm Farnsworth has moved faster than me.
$35 billion Supply Bill being moved in the House by Peter Hendy. Carries government through until November.
— Malcolm Farnsworth (@mfarnsworth) May 2, 2016
Peter Hendy moving Supply Bill No.2 to appropriate $6 billion. Based on five twelths of normal annual expenditure.
— Malcolm Farnsworth (@mfarnsworth) May 2, 2016
Supply Bill No.3 being moved by Peter Hendy. Appropriates $97 million until November for Parliamentary departments: House, Senate & PBO.
— Malcolm Farnsworth (@mfarnsworth) May 2, 2016
Labor has indicated it will support the money bills. (The implication in the agreement is unlike some people, say, in 1975).
Down in the House, the government has moved to introduce the supply bills. I mentioned this was on today’s order of business first up this morning. Can’t have government running out of cash during elections. Distinctly inconvenient.
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Back to the events of the day, Labor has seized on reported comments by the government backbench MP John Alexander that negative gearing has helped make property unaffordable for first-home buyers as evidence the tax deduction must be wound back.
According to an ABC report before his appearance on Four Corners on Monday, Alexander said negative gearing had led to a housing market “dominated by speculative investors”.
“Too often we see the young couple getting beaten out at the auction and then renting out the very place that they were trying to buy,” he said. “First-home buyers have really been unable to compete.”
Alexander headed a parliamentary inquiry into housing affordability, which is due to report this year. The Turnbull government has ruled out changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax, arguing driving down the value of Australian homes would harm growth and prosperity.
Alexander had some praise for negative gearing, saying: “It has worked very well when it has provided affordable rental properties.
“The moment that it intrudes on the marketplace and stops young families from buying the house, that’s not ideal. And that’s what’s happened in this moment when interest rates have gotten so low.”
Labor’s financial services and superannuation spokesman, Jim Chalmers, said in Canberra on Monday it was “John Alexander’s Kelly O’Dwyer moment”, in reference to her statement that Labor’s negative gearing policy would drive up prices in apparent contradiction to government claims it would have the opposite effect.
“I mean, twice now we’ve seen members of the Turnbull government completely torpedo the scare campaign, the dishonest, unhinged scare campaign that the prime minister has been proceeding with,” he said.
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As is our tradition ..
Let’s give the last word to the #BrickParliament
Back down to the House, Labor is bringing forward a private member’s bill on multinational tax avoidance. The shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh is on about to the top end of town paying their fair share.
The private member’s bill amends the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 to introduce a specific penalty regime for significant global entities with country-by-country reporting obligations. Under the regime proposed by Labor, the maximum penalty for failure to lodge a country-by-country report would be $270,000. The bill also empowers the Commissioner of Taxation to audit firms which still fail to lodge their reports after the maximum financial penalty has been reached.
Labor has also used the opportunity to match a recent Turnbull government commitment to create a register of beneficial ownership of shell companies. This decision must have been made in the last week or so. Labor’s proposal would also extend to trusts, which I think goes further than the government’s commitment.
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Not for the first time, I’ll say bless Paula Matthewson. A retro hot take from the Budget Inc™ stooge factory.
@murpharoo 2015 pic.twitter.com/WVfjx99AZe
— Paula Matthewson (@Drag0nista) May 2, 2016
There there, Joe. There there.
In the same genre, Mitt Romney and the Infinite Sadness. One of my all time favourites. “I live for laughter.”
Meanwhile, down in the House, Greens MP Adam Bandt is introducing a bill creating a new government statutory authority to oversee the planned closure of coal-fired power stations, invest in clean renewable energy, support affected communities through the transition and rewrite energy market laws.
Adam Bandt:
Our existing energy generators, grid and market are no longer ‘fit for purpose’. The transition task is huge and requires government coordination if we’re to ensure no-one is left behind.
Hmm, fancy seeing you here.
As promised, hot from the Budget Inc™ stooge factory, here’s the prime minister and the treasurer looking distinctly pleased with themselves in the prime ministerial suite.
Not a cigar or an awkward hand gesture in sight. Gather round. Have you seen my graphs? They are lovely.
William Bowe in Crikey has produced a good read on the high court challenge on the Senate voting reform package. A hearing on that matter will happen this afternoon. Subscribers can read that piece here.
Here’s his conclusion. Not hopeful for Bob Day.
On any score, a ruling to strike down the reforms would defy a long tradition of the high court deferring to the sovereignty of parliament in relation to such matters.
Failing a very considerable surprise, the prime minister should be free to pursue his widely reported plan to visit the governor-general on Friday or Saturday, kicking off a gruelling eight-week campaign ahead of a July 2 double dissolution election.
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Photographers have been called down to the prime minister’s office to capture the traditional budget eve photograph with the PM and the treasurer casually thumbing the budget papers in front of a pack with cameras – because that’s how things roll.
Come in, watch me with this budget book. Mmmmm. Budget book.
I’m trying to remember when that particularly peak awkward shot of Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey was taken – 2014? 2015? This one is from 2015.
Time flies when you are having all the fun times.
Other classics of the “on three, look natural” genre.
All hail the budget tree, a thing of beauty.
Parliament has resumed and the trees in the courtyard have changed colour in time for the budget #budgettrees pic.twitter.com/fQ7UCeQmBc
— Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) May 1, 2016
Meanwhile, down in the courtyard, Greens leader Richard Di Natale is joining in let’s define the budget.
This is a budget for billionaires, not a budget for ordinary Australians.
A few more lovely frames of welcome for Pat Dodson.
Pat Dodson, minus the famous hat.
There’s also a picture coming of Dodson sans hat but I should cover off a rhetoric warning that I didn’t stretch to while the treasurer was looking at things in Queanbeyan. Morrison has obviously had time to speed read Bill Shorten’s new memoir, which I pointed you to earlier today.
Scott Morrison:
I notice today that Bill Shorten says he wants to run the country like a union. Well, I can assure you in this budget we won’t be going to the accounting standards of the union movement ... we all know what they do when it comes to book keeping in the union movement and with credit cards.
Bill Shorten certainly wants to put Australia’s future on the credit card with a higher tax burden on the Australian economy. That will not support companies like Lintech here to drive jobs and growth needed for our economic future.
(You see what he did there, right?)
A bit of Pat Dodson now, being sworn in.
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Would Labor work with the government to get tax cuts passed this week?
Chris Bowen:
Scott Morrison couldn’t answer questions this morning about the legislative approach. We have made our position clear on appropriations, on supply, as you would expect, as a responsible opposition.
If Scott Morrison can’t outline a process, we’ll wait to see the process before responding in detail.
Bowen is being pushed now on whether Labor would support tax cuts for workers or for business. The shadow treasurer says given the treasurer won’t confirm what’s in the budget Labor won’t speculate about its response until it sees the detail on Tuesday.
Bowen says most Australians would miss out on the mooted tax cut.
The median income in Australia is about $64,000 and the average income of all wage earners is about $60,000 and about 75% of earners would miss out on a tax cut that cut in at $80,000.
The treasurer appears unaware of that.
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A small definitional war has now broken out about the budget. I pointed out first up that Morrison contends tomorrow’s budget is not a budget but an economic plan.
Now the shadow treasurer Chris Bowen has joined the fray.
Tomorrow night’s budget is an attempted alibi for the last three years.
The Labor leader Bill Shorten, deputy Tanya Plibersek, and a clutch of lower house frontbenchers have come over to witness the Dodson swearing in. Down in the House, Labor’s Anthony Albanese is pointing out a hiccup in private member’s business courtesy of the proroguing of the parliament. He’s talking about absurd propositions enabling parliament to function.
Dodson has been sworn in. A large line of greeters has ensued.
The chambers are whirring into life. Pat Dodson is about to be sworn in in the red place.
Mr President, a new senator approaches the Senate chamber!
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Fast facts on average incomes
Well, according to the ABS:
- Full-time earnings for men and women are currently $80,927.
- If you want male full-time earnings, that’s $87,604.
- If you want female full-time earnings, that’s $69,846.
- But if you want everyone – average earnings across the board – which includes people who work full-time and part-time and casually, that’s $59,571.
If you want one last fact, if you earn $80,000 you are in the top 25% of income earners in Australia.
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Me, in the office, to Greg Jericho, who is sitting directly over my computer screen, can you give me the figures on average earnings? We need to fact check the treasurer.
So many possible captions here. I’ll leave this one to you good people.
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Quick bit of translation. One of the key process questions doing the rounds today is about the tax cuts floated for budget night – will the government try and legislate them before parliament rises, or will they fall back to the category of Coalition election promise – we promise to give you a tax cut after the election and backdate them to our nominated start date.
Promise.
Morrison isn’t saying one way or another, only that budget measures will be legislated in the usual way, which is a brave locution given so much of previous Coalition budgets haven’t quite made it out of the Senate in one piece. But these are brave times.
Q: How many workers here do you think will expect some tax cuts come tomorrow night?
Scott Morrison:
They’ll find out the same time you will tomorrow night.
Q: Is there a scheme used for public transport for both Melbourne and Sydney? That’s not what the former PM Tony Abbott would have done.
Scott Morrison:
How so?
Q: Firstly, that scheme was reserved for rail outside of the cities. Why this turn around now?
Scott Morrison:
The prime minister made it very clear when he became prime minister that he knows that rail and public rail in particular is an important part of the productivity and functionality of our cities. So we make no apologies for investing in things that improves Australia’s productivity, supports jobs and supports growth.
The asset recycling initiative introduced by my predecessor and Tony Abbott has been a very important initiative for getting funds and to leverage state governments into turning assets they held before into more productive infrastructure now. The announcements that I confirm today are doing just that. This has been a positive partnership with the states and territories and it’s good to work with them.
Q: Have you allocated money ... treasurer, taking into account full-time, part-time and casual workers, is someone on $80,000 an average income earner?
Scott Morrison:
The average full-time earnings in Australia is $80,000.
Thank you.
Q: The prime minister told us to expect substantial tax reform tomorrow. Is that the kind of language you’d use?
Scott Morrison:
What we are doing in the budget tomorrow night is backing in companies like Lintek. This is not a time to be throwing money around, you have to spend money wisely, you have to target it and the ultimate test is will it drive jobs and growth.
Q: Does supporting these businesses involve a company tax cut?
Scott Morrison:
All of that will be revealed tomorrow night in the budget.
Q: Any budget measures need legislating before parliament is dissolved at the end of the week?
Scott Morrison:
It will be legislated in the normal way.
Q: There will be tax cuts in the budget, will you try to legislate that before the end of this week, and can workers at this factory at Lintek expect to see income tax relief tomorrow night?
Scott Morrison:
Again those details will be spelt out in the budget tomorrow night and the legislative program will follow the usual course. There will be some special appropriation bills that will come into the House of Representatives today, which deals with the unusual situation we have, going to an election on 2 July, and that will ensure continuity of supply over the course of the election period.
But the budget will be legislated in the usual way.
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With P’s appropriately muffled, here’s Scott Morrison in Queanbeyan. The company he’s visiting this morning is the hope of the side in the transitioning economy, Morrison says. No pressure or anything.
Stop the P’s.
Monday morning campaign insight from Queanbeyan - when the boss visits a factory, cover up the 'P for parking' sign. pic.twitter.com/CI2GzFVbvj
— James O'Doherty (@jmodoh) May 1, 2016
Mike Bowers is keeping morale high. He’s gone full arthouse with the Family First Senator Bob Day at the doors this morning. This is Mike’s photographic depiction of the rising waters of history subsuming crossbench senators in the coming double dissolution. He’s termed this portrait, glug glug.
Day is leading the legal challenge to the new Senate voting reform regime in the high court. That matter is being heard today. I’ll keep an eye on that to the extent that I can.
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The government is pushing new infrastructure spending in the budget as a key theme this morning. Morrison told the Australian in an interview NSW would get $2.2bn and Victoria $2.4bn in the budget.
Labor’s infrastructure spokesman, Anthony Albanese, is warning voters to keep the champagne on ice.
There is no new infrastructure investment coming from this budget. This was a fund that was set up essentially to say the only way that we will fund infrastructure for public transport is if state governments sell their assets. The assets that people own.
Just so you know, I’m making no analytical calls on the budget one way or another until I’ve seen the document. Governments always use the week before the budget to leak or drop various things that frame expectations for Tuesday night. That exercise may or may not accurately represent the tone and substance of the statement as a whole. So while I’ll report all breaking developments, my practice in terms of commentary is to wait until we’ve seen the document as a whole.
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As we speak the treasurer, Scott Morrison, is motoring to the marginal seat of Eden-Monaro to look at things, which is standard operating procedure ahead of budgets-to-be-followed-in-quick-succession-by-election-campaigns.
Is this a sausage I see before me?
Meanwhile the Liberal senator Cory Bernardi is keeping it chilled. Always wise not to peak too soon.
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Too late to turn back now.
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Federal parliament’s newest recruit, arriving for business at the Senate doors.
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Again while we have time, Bill Shorten has produced a campaign eve memoir which includes some remarks about how he conceives leadership.
Some people think strong leadership means telling people what they must do or being the smartest person in the room. That’s wasn’t my view as a unionist, and nor is it my view now as Labor leader.
Real leadership shows that consensus and negotiation is a sign of strength, not weakness. Real leadership means understanding the minimum and the maximum that people will accept. You go for the maximum, yet always understand the minimum. In every negotiation I have been involved in, I refer to the 90:10 rule – let’s work on the 90% we agree on, not the 10% where we differ. This is the belief I have carried into politics.
As Labor leader, I still think like an organiser. Whether it’s dealing with the rising influence of vested interests or solving a community-level problem, empowering people is the key. Relationships are crucial: get people to come together, define their position and work from there. Don’t begin with a pure ideological solution. Take account of all viewpoints.
It’s published today as a ebook by MUP.
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Just while we have time, an interesting story from Dennis Shanahan in the Australian today.
Peace in our time. Let the church bells ring.
Malcolm Turnbull has taken the first tentative election campaign steps to settle the ferocious feud with powerful broadcaster Alan Jones that led the Prime Minister to black-ban Sydney’s highest rating radio network. Turnbull has personally reached out to Jones, whose breakfast show on 2GB is also carried in Brisbane and parts of Queensland, as a first step in potentially ending his boycott of the entire network. A private meeting was scheduled in Sydney two weeks ago but was postponed when Jones became ill. There is expected to be another attempt at a reconciliation this week.
If you’ve missed this whole saga let me cut a long story short. Liberal folks view 2GB as the direct line to their base. The prime minister, who famously declared at some point while still communications minister that he was a cabinet minister and as a consequence of that would not be bullied by Jones, has been too busy to appear on GB since becoming prime minister.
This “talk to the hand” disposition has not gone unnoticed, either by GB, or by conservatives, who view the prime minister’s choice as further proof that he is a secret communist. This rapprochement was inevitable. But I’d keep popcorn on hand for the reunion interview if I were you.
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The education minister, Simon Birmingham, has been deployed on the wireless to back in the government’s school funding plan, which contains a lot less money than Labor’s school funding plan. Won’t this trigger a fight with state governments, who want the Gonski plan implemented in full, Birmingham is asked on the ABC’s AM program?
Simon Birmingham:
States will always ask for more money. It’s predictable as night following day.
On another radio network, the deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, has told listeners that the government doesn’t have to approve every single foreign investment transaction, and in fact, if the government approved another forty foreign investment transactions like the Kidman and Co sale, then “they’ll own all our agricultural land.”
“They”, one presumes, is China. China apparently has a secret plan to buy all the agricultural land in Australia. #YouKnowItMakesSense.
Joyce goes on to tell listeners on Radio National that he thinks Australia’s superannuation funds should buy up farm land. He professes frustration that super funds aren’t doing that. I suspect super account holders might be the ones expressing frustration if super funds started allocating their savings into dicey investments that impacted their returns. But perhaps that’s just me, worried about fund performance and about having enough savings to fund my retirement. Yes, I am a deeply strange person.
Joyce says the Australian government has the right to say no to foreign investors. Yes, indeed it does. It’s called the national interest test. It’s been the test for transactions like the Kidman sale for a goodly period of time.
Economic nationalism is in full swing this election season. #Straya is being shouted from the rooftops. Good times.
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Good morning good people of blogue and welcome to budget week, which is always epic, and will be particularly epic this year, given its proximity to the election campaign. It’s great to be back with you on Politics Live for what I suspect will be a long stint. I hope you are rested, hydrated, and have set your tolerance levels to extreme nonsense.
It’s Monday in Canberra, budget eve. Winter is finally threatening to arrive. The leaf blowers are in full swing. The budget tree in the courtyard is trying to blaze into its full glory which is difficult, given its been a bizarrely hot autumn in the national capital.
The newspapers are full of various budget crumbs. Tax cuts for workers earning over $80,000 that apparently kick in on election eve, a company tax cut, infrastructure spending.
Both the treasurer, Scott Morrison and the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, were interviewed on television networks yesterday to help set up budget week. Apparently tomorrow is not a budget, but an economic plan.
Scott Morrison:
This budget is an economic plan. It’s an economic plan for jobs and growth and a stronger new economy, a more diversified economy. That’s what Australia needs. This is not a typical budget, I agree with you on that, it’s not a typical budget because this economic plan is so essential to the country’s future.
No, it’s not a typical budget in this sense. We will have the budget tomorrow, then we will have Labor’s budget-in-reply on Thursday night, before Malcolm Turnbull makes a mad dash to the governor-general to open the longest election campaign since the mid-1980s. Reasonably atypical set of circumstances, that.
Apart from today’s what’s in the budget game, we have the resumption of parliamentary business. The House will consider the money bills required to stop government running out of cash during the election period, the High Court will consider a challenge to the new Senate voting rules, and Labor’s newest Senator Pat Dodson will take his place in the red chamber before leaving it for a campaign.
Believe me. There has never been a more exciting time to run around like a headless chook.
Enough with my preamble. Today’s comments thread is wide open for your business. Magic Mike and I are up and about on the twits – he’s @mpbowers and I’m @murpharoo If you speak Facebook you can join my daily forum here. And if you want a behind the scenes look at the day and the looming campaign, give Mike a follow on Instagram. You can find him here.
Happy times. Here comes Monday.
