So long and thanks for all the fish
Well kids, that’s the parliamentary week. It’s been marvellous, but having written a novella this week I think we’ll part ways for now.
Let’s wrap Thursday.
- Tony Abbott has signalled there may be some hope for the two men facing the death penalty in Indonesia for drug offences. Abbott spoke to his Indonesian counterpart overnight, and emerged from that conversation saying he believed Widodo was carefully considering Indonesia’s position.
- With community agitation about bad imported berries high, the prime minister said it may be time after all to have a look at country of origin labelling for food products. Last week that didn’t seem so necessary but now, the government has ordered up a cabinet submission by March.
- The Triggs fracas continued to roll through politics. Labor pursued the government over inconsistencies in accounts of evidence given at senate estimates earlier this week. Today’s target was the foreign minister Julie Bishop, who provided on Wednesday a not entirely complete answer on what role might have been offered to the president of the Human Rights Commission in the event she was to depart he post. An attempt to censure the government failed.
That’s the guts of it. Have a good weekend folks. You’ve been a joy to work for, as always. The wonderful Gabrielle Chan will be driving the Politics Live bus next week. Do join her.
Thursday afternoon seems a reasonable time to share Christopher Pyne – some time brick unicorn, sometime human emoji.
@cpyne the human emoji ping @JulieBishopMP @murpharoo @GuardianAus http://t.co/Nh5LTvZCjS pic.twitter.com/QLZvQ6cGYw
— Mike Bowers (@mpbowers) February 26, 2015
We can begin to exhale because we’ve hit Thursday afternoon. But I did overlook this before from the treasurer’s interview on Sky at lunchtime. I covered foreign investment but not the signal he sent concerning tax breaks for older workers.
Q: Final question on superannuation, and this is on behalf of a viewer that I spoke to this morning. He’s 78 and he works full-time, he wants to keep on working. He’s healthy and happy doing so … and this is the sort of thing you’re trying to encourage. The point he made though is that under the rules at the moment, once you turn 75, you no longer get a tax deduction for voluntary contributions to super. Now, I appreciate most people at that age are drawing down their super, not putting in, but is this the sort of thing you’re going to have to look at changing if you want to keep people working into their 70s?
Joe Hockey:
Well, this is exactly the sort of consideration that needs to be factored into future policy because we do want Australians to keep working if that’s what they choose to do, we want to encourage that and it’s vitally important for our future prosperity that Australians keep participating in the workplace – whether they be older Australians or they be, in particular, women coming back into the workforce after having children. So, we are going to have to have a policy framework that is focused on the future rather than the current policy that is focused on the past. We need to reshape all of these policies to meet head on the demographic changes that are going to be a part of Australia’s future and that’s an exciting process because it gives people a bit of certainty, it gives them a bit of predictability around the policies that will influence their quality of life.
Labor’s Michael Danby also made an inquiry about Hansard. Could Madam Speaker check the hansard of Julie Bishop’s answer on Wednesday to the Triggs job offer question. (The words that caused all the fuss in today’s question time.) Danby asked, are you aware of any change? If she was not aware of the text, could she investigate?
Madam Speaker seemed a little reluctant, but noted:
Well I’ll take a look at it.
At the conclusion of question time the manager of government business Christopher Pyne asked Madam Speaker to examine whether or not Labor’s Jim Chalmers has engaged in a contempt of the parliament for this tweet.
Time and time again Tony Abbott has proven to be a #pathologicalliar - Triggs, pensions, SBS, health, ed the list goes on and on #auspol #qt
— Jim Chalmers MP (@JEChalmers) February 26, 2015
Chalmers has been suspended from the services of the House for this interjection, subsequently repeated on social media.
Updated
People on death row will be shot for the sake of macho posturing
Thanks to my colleague Lenore Taylor for bringing this to my attention. With a whole lot of bated breath about the fate of the two Australians on death row, there’s a stinging editorial in today’s Jakarta Globe. Absolutely stinging.
Pride and vanity has ... taken hold of President Joko Widodo, who is attempting now to look tough in the midst of a leadership crisis. People on death row will be shot for the sake of macho posturing. Our national standing is at stake, and pressing forward with a cruel and unusual punishment, by international standards, is no way to advance our interests in the world. Joko should consider how far he wants to pursue this course of action before it gets out of control. Now’s the time to stop without losing face. Message delivered, Mr. President. We get it, the whole world does: You mean business. Now knock it off.
Let’s all bow to brevity and specificity.
A new benchmark from Anthony Albanese.
Updated
Every day another lie, every day there is a new lie from this government.
Labor’s Mark Dreyfus got that shout in before the gag. Ring the bells.
Shadow Minister for sass. pic.twitter.com/Cg3mgbetU3
— Matt Burke (@matttburke) February 26, 2015
Five paws .. sorry .. stars
While the bells are trilling, let me draw your attention to the best press release from a politician that I have ever seen.
From Labor’s Anthony Albanese.
MEDIA STATEMENT ON NEWS THAT SYDNEY AIRPORT CORPORATION CHAIRMAN MAX MOORE-WILTON PLANS TO RETIRE
Good.
Suspension – gag
Here is the motion you’d expect.
Bill Shorten:
I move ... that the House censures this government for one, launching an unprecedented attack on the Human Rights Commission designed to undermine its independence; two, treating an independent statutory holder with contempt; three, directing the secretary of the department of the attorney-general to offer an inducement to the president of the Australian Human Rights Commission in return for her resignation; and four, attempting to mislead the Australian people in its bid to cover up its offer of an inducement.
There is no doubt that Tony Abbott is the worst prime minister in Australian history.
Here’s the response you’d expect.
Christopher Pyne:
As the leader of the opposition has elucidated no new information at all today, I move that the member be no longer heard.
I really don’t follow what quotes Labor is alleged to have made up in these exchanges. Perhaps I’m dim.
Beltway Bill.
Q: My question is to the prime minister. I refer to his foreign minister’s previous answer that a role was raised with Professor Triggs that related to international affairs. Now that the government has finally admitted a specific role was discussed why won’t the government tell Australians what it was?
Pyne is back about making up quotes. Tony Burke offers to table a document that might authenticate the quote. Leave is not granted.
Tony Abbott:
The leader of the opposition should stop verbaling the minister for foreign affairs. He should stop verbaling the minister for foreign affairs. If he is going to quote the minister for foreign affairs he should quote her accurately and in full, accurately and in full.
While the leader of the opposition is engaged in character assassination and semiotic analysis of senate estimates this government is getting on with doing the right thing by the people of Australia.
The reality is, the Labor party in embarking on this project did not even know basic facts. They did not have the management skills to know what it was costing. They were billions and billions of dollars out reminding us yet again that Labor cannot manage anything.
Malcolm called up to create some light relief.
Now Pyne implies that Mark Dreyfus has said a rude word. Burke insists that he has not. Dreyfus withdraws in any case.
Manager of government business Christopher Pyne has had about enough.
Question time is about asking questions of the government, it’s not a fishing expedition by the Opposition, especially when they make up quotes which were not mentioned in the Senate estimates yesterday.
Madam Speaker has therefore ruled a Triggs question out of order.
Manager of opposition business Tony Burke.
I’m just trying to work out what the ruling is on why that was out of order?
There is a world of difference between a specific role and a job offer
Beltway Bill, boiling it down to the essence.
Q: Madam Speaker, my question is to the foreign minister representing the attorney-general and I refer to her earlier answer. What is the difference between a specific role and a job offer?
Julie Bishop
There is a world of difference, Madam Speaker. It depends on who raised the issue of a role and no specific job offer was made.
Bishop needs a slight prod to respond to her Dorothy Dixer on countering extremism. She kicks in, and again bowls up a completely different tone than the one being adopted by the prime minister on Islamic leaders. Tony Abbott said the other day they needed to do more. Bishop seems happy with their contribution.
They are working to counter the lies and deceits spread by Daesh and to prevent members of our community from heading down the path of radicalisation.
I thank all Muslim community leaders for this vital support.
Dreyfus is persisting trying to get Bishop to square up her own words in the chamber with the evidence given in estimates.
Q: Madam Speaker. My question is to the minister for foreign affairs representing the attorney-general. On Tuesday, the secretary of the attorney-general’s department said, “A specific role was considered for the president of the Human Rights Commission.” Minister, what was that role?
Julie Bishop:
There was no job offer made to the president of the Human Rights Commission. There was no request for her to resign and there was no inducement offered.
A role was raised that related to international affairs. As the secretary of the attorney-general’s department said in Senate estimates, it was a sensitive matter that he did not wish to give details of in Senate estimates so I don’t give details of it.
Dreyfus, back.
Q: My question is to the minister for foreign affairs representing the attorney-general. Yesterday the minister said in relation to the role the government offered the president of the Human Rights Commission, and I quote, “I can advise no such offer was made.” In fact the secretary said the attorney-general had wished me to point out that the government was prepared to consider a specific senior role. If the minister believes what the secretary said, why did she say the exact opposite to him?
Julie Bishop.
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his question. Yesterday I said no such inducement had been offered and I said she was not asked to resign and that no such job offer had been made.
(Yeah, no.)
The independent MP Andrew Wilkie has a question for the communications minister.
Q: What is the situation exactly with the NBN in Denison and what is the plan to finish the job? A detailed answer by suburb in my electorate including time lines and a comment about the situation in Tasmania more broadly would be very helpful. Thank you.
(No pressure or anything.)
As it happens, Malcolm Turnbull has the details to hand. Well some of them anyway.
Virtually no other electorate in Australia will be as advanced as Denison in terms of the NBN roll out.
Now, it’s impractical to outline each suburb and their upgrade timetable but I will give the Honorable Member details of that later in writing.
Shadow attorney-general, Mark Dreyfus.
Q: My question is to the prime minister. I refer to evidence at Senate estimates that the secretary of the attorney-general’s department took notes of his phone call with the attorney-general where a specific role for the president of the Human Rights Commission was discussed.
Given the seriousness of these allegations will the government release the notes?
Tony Abbott:
They’re notes that belong to the gentleman that made them, whom we have total trust and confidence in, and Madam Speaker, members opposite, members opposite should not attack the honesty and the integrity of the secretary of the department of the attorney-general.
(The evidence the secretary gave at estimates was he’d lost his notes.)
Madam Speaker advises the House the naming vote is resolved in the affirmative, and the Member for Rankin is suspended from the services of the House for 24 hours.
Madam Speaker:
The prime minister has the call.
Tony Abbott:
Thank you, Madam Speaker. And Madam Speaker, I do welcome questions from the leader of the opposition on this subject because every time the leader of the opposition questions me or other ministers on this subject it gives us the chance to let the people of Australia know that Labor started the boats, and this government stopped them.
Labor put children into immigration detention, this government is letting them out. The most decent, the most compassionate, the most humane thing you can do is stop the boats because that means there are far fewer people in immigration detention – and that is what every single one of us wants.
I withdraw pathological liar.
That’s Labor’s Jim Chalmers, who was ejected under 94A. For that bit of smarty pants Madam Speaker has now named him. Ring the bells.
Shorten again.
Q: Yesterday and again today, the prime minister has said of the president of the Human Rights Commission that she was not asked to resign and no inducement has been offered but at Senate estimates the attorney-general said Professor Triggs’ position was untenable and he hoped Professor Triggs could be encouraged to serve the government in other capacities. Why is the prime minister persisting with a position that no-one believes?
Tony Abbott:
Madam Speaker, this isn’t a question, this is more an accusation from the leader of the opposition.
With great respect, I don’t know what I said that was unparliamentary but if I’ve upset those cheap petals over there I do withdraw.
Bye bye Warren Snowden. The Labor man has just been shown the door under 94A.
The first Dorothy Dixer invites the prime minister to share his plans to strengthen the economy and create more jobs. He is currently sharing.
Question time
It being 2pm. “Beltway Bill” to the prime minister.
Q: On Tuesday the secretary of the attorney-general’s department said that the attorney-general had wanted him to point out that the government was prepared to consider a specific senior role for the president of the Human Rights Commission. But yesterday the prime minister said that she was not asked to resign and no inducement had been offered. Prime minister, what is the government’s story today?
Tony Abbott:
The same as the day before that, same as the day before that. Our story is always consistent, it’s always correct and it’s always to do the right thing by the people of Australia.
Madam Speaker, to put the leader of the opposition’s mind at rest she has not been asked to resign. No inducement has been offered as the president of the Human Rights Commission herself has said.
But Madam Speaker, the bottom line here is this, it is all about the children, that’s the truth, Madam Speaker – it’s all about the children. Under members opposite there were 2,000 children in immigration detention because they started the boats and they couldn’t stop the boats.
Under this government there are just over 100 children in immigration detention.
It may help first-home buyers in the market for new apartments, where there has been a lot of foreign investor interest, it seems mostly to do with that, but I think there may be a jingoistic element to it, for the government to be seen to be doing something about foreign investment.
But how far can a country like Australia, totally dependent on foreign investment, afford to go down that path?
Former Liberal party leader John Hewson on the new foreign investment proposals for real estate that are either a stealth tax, a seachange for Aussie battlers, or nothing much.
Slightly less than full house for that defence update. Mike Bowers was there, though.
Along the coconut flakes supply line
Right now, the ABC’s Greg Jennett and the agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce are passing a packet of museli back and forth on live television.
BYO props @GregJennett @Barnaby_Joyce ! pic.twitter.com/CDY7pxmUOU
— Daniel Hurst (@danielhurstbne) February 26, 2015
Jennett is deep into the coconut flakes supply line right now.
Barnaby Joyce.
It’s what’s inside the package that counts.
Updated
Politics this lunchtime
I apologise if this photograph feels a bridge or two too far. For me, it feels quite wonderful.
Let’s take stock of where we are, this lunchtime.
- Tony Abbott has made a call to Indonesian president Widodo about the two Australians awaiting execution on drugs charges, and has indicated the president is now considering his position. A shift? Well, we can but hope.
- After indicating last week that he wasn’t inclined to impose more red tape on business, and suggesting it was up to business to ensure it did the right thing by consumers, Tony Abbott has now called for a cabinet submission on country of origin labelling by March in the wake of the contaminated berries scare. The people have spoken, Abbott noted.
- The treasurer Joe Hockey has indicated that new foreign investment curbs are more in the category of enforcing the existing law and applying some cost recovery than a radical adjustment that will impact the residential property market. Which makes yesterday’s flying visit to Sydney and the fighting words about good foreigners and less good foreigners from Tony Abbott more eccentric than they actually appeared yesterday.
Onwards and upwards. Sideways and backwards.
Defence minister Kevin Andrews is currently updating the House about Afghanistan and Iraq. In passing he notes that an announcement about Iraq and additional troop deployments will be made after discussions between Tony Abbott and the New Zealand prime minister John Key.
Updated
We’ve published a very sensible comment piece this morning from the former NSW premier Kristina Keneally about the Triggs furore. One of the weird things about the partisanship claim in relation to the Human Rights Commission’s work is the inference that the major parties must have different approaches to detaining children. They do not. Keneally makes the point that if Labor wants credibility on this subject, it needs to address past policy failures – not just point fingers about Liberals being bovver boys about Gillian Triggs.
Keneally:
Much of the Commission’s report is highly critical of the actions taken by the ALP when in government. If Labor wants to regain any moral authority on the issue of children in detention specifically, and asylum seekers generally, it should stop sidestepping its own past policy decisions. The Labor opposition can and should face up to the disastrous consequences to children of its immigration and detention decisions in government. Labor should also fully acknowledge that the Abbott government has made improvements, such as releasing some children into the community. Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs says in her report that the Commission “is pleased to recognise (the Abbott government’s) changes as being in the best interests of many asylum seeker children.”
Only once Labor has taken these steps will it possess the credibility to demand that the Abbott government face its own failings: using children locked up in detention as bargaining chips in Senate negotiations and as a cruel human warning system to other asylum seekers, keeping children in detention for longer periods of time, and turning a blind eye to the suffering of children when presented with the Commission’s report.
During that interview the treasurer also confirmed that the intergenerational report will be released next week – Thursday. I think we knew this yesterday, but I know I forgot to tell you about it. Thursday. Stick it in the diary.
The treasurer Joe Hockey is being interviewed by Sky News about the new foreign investment discussion paper. Again, this is kind of confused. This policy is either going to make a difference to behaviour or it isn’t going to make a difference to behaviour. Hockey has said at least twice in this interview that the new application fees the government is proposing won’t make any discernable difference to the activity by foreign investors. (He’s defending himself against criticism from the property council about stealth taxes that I flagged on the blog this morning.) This change will, however, allow cost recovery for screening of foreign investment transactions, and ..
.. there may be some left over to help repair the budget.
So it’s a revenue and cost recovery measure? I am nit picking here because the general frame of what he’s presenting is more rational and considered than good foreigners and less good foreigners .. but I’m just pointing out the motivation for the policy change depends on who in the government is talking.
Fascinating little story this morning from my colleague Daniel Hurst. The education department is currently opposing in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal the release of documents detailing the modelling underlying the Abbott government’s higher education reforms. Education department associate secretary, Robert Griew, has invoked a couple of arguments against releasing the material. The first is it will undermine the tradition of public servants providing frank and fearless advice to their ministers. (This is a common argument in these administrative cases.) The second is the figures are .. well .. essentially invented.
Here’s Daniel:
Griew’s statement – tabled in a Senate estimates committee hearing on Wednesday – argued the release of predictions about university fees could undermine “genuine price competition” and “have a potential dampening effect on the frankness of advice” provided to ministers in future. Griew also noted that a series of spreadsheets depended on “a number of assumptions about relevant parameters such as student population, level of fees for various kinds of university courses at various locations, rates of completion of study and other factors. In each case, while presented as assumed facts and informed by departmental analysis and research, these figures were essentially invented by departmental officials for the purpose of providing material for analysis based on assumed patterns of behaviour,” he wrote.
Dr Hewson. Behind you. behind you!
Milne was asked about Abbott’s comments this morning about the Australians facing execution.
Q: This morning Tony Abbott said he believes Indonesia is carefully considering its position on Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. Is this a glimmer of hope that they may be released – and does he know something that we don’t know?
Christine Milne:
I would love to think that the Indonesians were still seriously considering affording clemency to our Australian citizens, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. I would welcome that news. I think across Australia thousands have come out in the I Stand for Mercy campaign wanting to see that clemency extended.
I am pleased the prime minister has picked up the phone. I think it is essential we do everything we can for as long as we possibly can to seek clemency.
I’ve said this a bit this week but the trend is becoming more and more stark.
The government is caught between an ebbing instinct to be economically rational and to be consistent with its past heavily simplified slogans – cutting red tape, tending the debt crisis, being open for business; and its current mad survival insitinct, which prioritises populism and bouncing around on the talkback preoccupation of the moment over everything else. The scramble is so profound and such a feature of daily existence now that nothing, apparently has to be consistent with anything else. The prime minister doesn’t bat an eyelid when he says one thing one day and something else entirely the next.
It’s always the risk with aggressive simplicity. So much in politics is about periodic repositioning – you have always got to give yourself some room to move because events change and priorities change. There is no deftness about any repositioning going on now – just desperation.
Greens leader Christine Milne is downstairs in one of the courtyards welcoming the prime minister’s commitment this morning on country of origin labelling. Abbott said this morning he wants a submission to cabinet on labelling by March, after last week saying nothing should happen.
Milne:
I am pleased the prime minister is moving to address country of origin food labelling. I don’t think we need any more talk. We have had endless consultation. The solutions are there. It is very clear that we just need to re-label products and to say this is produce of Australia, this is manufactured in Australia or this is packaged in Australia.
Friends, Romans, Countrymen – heeeere’s Clive Palmer. Palmer has invited journalists to an event with former Liberal party leader John Hewson about renewable energy. This is about saving the renewable energy target. Hewson says if we don’t have a carbon price, and we aren’t sure whether the government is actually serious about climate change, then the RET is all we’ve got, and we need to hang on to it. There are also issues here of sovereign risk and certainty for industry, Hewson says. Cliev is hovering.
I’ve been staying away from emojis because there’s only so much you can deal with on any given day in this place without feeling the urge to stab yourself in the eye with a fork – but it seems disloyal not to note for our readers that Mike’s wonderful chamber photo from yesterday is emoji currency between Julie Bishop and Christopher Pyne.
“@cpyne: .@JulieBishopMP missed my emoji in Parliament today... 😳 #auspol @TheTodayShow pic.twitter.com/O8ozB0ua4Q”thanks for sharing that...🙀
— Julie Bishop (@JulieBishopMP) February 25, 2015
The foreign minister is into emoji’s as a means of interpersonal communication. I’m not sure whether Pyne is emoji positive or negative.
Updated
For industrious folks wanting to read the Slipper judgment from this morning, you can find that here.
Just in case we missed it, George Brandis is back at foreign affairs estimates and outlining various donations Apsen Medical has made to the ALP.
George Brandis:
The innuendo from Senator Wong seems to be seen in the cold light of truth.
Updated
Still bubbling away in the background is the controversy about internal processes in the Liberal party kicked off by the incendiary leak earlier in the week of emails from the honorary treasurer, Phillip Higginson – who was worried about conflicts and about the party accounts. This fracas is either a storm in a teacup (Tony Abbott) or an issue the executive needs to reflect on seriously (Malcolm Turnbull.)
I did laugh last night when my colleague Lenore Taylor quoted the former federal treasurer Shane Stone – himself the author of the famous “mean and tricky” internal memo in 2001 – advising colleagues not to send incendiary emails. Apart from the irony mining (an honest trade, someone has to do it) – both Lenore and The Australian’s David Crowe are detecting some movement at the station around the party’s executive. Crowe has filed an update in The Australian. He reports the Liberal Party’s peak council appears set to agree on reforms to its financial rules to respond to a dramatic call from the party treasurer for more scrutiny over its affairs. “The housekeeping changes will respond to warnings from Philip Higginson about the “stonewalling and obfuscation” in the party’s federal office when he sought more information about the accounts,” Crowe says. Oz subscribers can find that here.
Back to estimates, Labor’s Penny Wong is pressing the Dfat officials why the government didn’t send AUSMAT – government multi-disciplinary health teams incorporating doctors, nurses, paramedics, fire-fighters and allied health staff such as environmental health staff, radiographers and pharmacists – to deal with ebola in Africa.
There have been a few different formulations on AUSMAT over the past ten minutes or so. The officials have said Aspen was selected because in the government’s view, the company was best placed to provide an end to end service. When queried whether this was a reflection on AUSMAT’s capability, it was said that the government wanted to keep AUSMAT resources for possible deployment within the region should the ebola outbreak prove that necessary.
Just for the record the latest financial returns to the Australian Eelectroal Commission (2013-14) reported by my colleague Shalailah Medhora recorded a $30,000 donation by Aspen to the Liberal party.
Former Speaker Peter Slipper wins appeal against his conviction
Thank you to AAP for this snap from the ACT supreme court.
Former House of Representatives Speaker Peter Slipper has won an appeal against his conviction for dishonestly misusing taxpayer-funded taxi vouchers. While admitting to using government travel entitlements to visit vineyards outside Canberra in 2010, Mr Slipper always denied he acted dishonestly. An ACT magistrate convicted Mr Slipper in September 2014, ordering him to serve 300 hours community service and repay $954 to the Commonwealth. The ACT Supreme Court on Thursday set aside the conviction.
That was then, this is Thursday
Just while we are back with the country of origin labelling press conference from this morning ..
.. it might be instructive to remember that just last week, this is what the prime minister said on the subject of country of origin labelling.
Tony Abbott:
The last thing I want to do is put a whole lot of additional requirements on business that will make their life very, very difficult and will raise unreasonably prices to consumers because everything we do in this area has a cost.
Cue Reservoir Dogs.
On the point about Aspen and donations, Liberal senators at the table point out that Aspen has also donated to the Labor party.
Things are getting a bit heated already. The minister at the table, George Brandis, representing Julie Bishop, has asked Wong to be polite to the witnesses. Wong notes Brandis wasn’t very polite to the Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs earlier this week. Brandis says on the contrary he did not interrupt Triggs once and yet Wong interrupts witnesses all the time.
Wong says Brandis didn’t need to interrupt Triggs because he had bovver boys to do it for him. Brandis advises Wong to ..
.. please grow up.
Updated
Labor’s Penny Wong.
Q: At the time you made the decision were you aware of Aspen’s history of donations to the Liberal party?
Dfat official.
No senator.
The foreign affairs committee is opening on the decision by the Abbott government to appoint Aspen Medical to run an ebola treatment centre in Africa last year. Officials from Dfat say the government decided last October to fund an ebola treatment centre and to engage a provider for that via a direct source tender.
This is outside the conventional government procurement guidelines. The officials have told the committee this was because of “genuine urgency” – which is one of the ways you can short circuit the normal guidelines. On November 5, the government identified Aspen as the contractor. The phase one contract was signed on November 17. A second contract was signed on December 10.
Estimates are about to get underway here. I think I’ll poke my nose in the foreign affairs committee to begin with. All things liable to change without notice.
Riding between the old house and the new house. I love the zen in this shot. We can all use a bit of that.
Some lycra now. Mike Bowers has been up since the wee smalls capturing the riding. The prime minister has donated a bike and his famous blue tie to OPH this morning.
The prime minister was also asked when we might expect the announcement that the New Zealand prime minister John Key has already made about more Australian troops being deployed shortly in Iraq. Key told his parliament 48 hours ago that we were shortly off for a joint training mission. No formal confirmation yet from Australia. Abbott says it’s not been signed off. When it is, he’ll let us know.
Abbott adds this rider.
I don’t want to raise hope that might turn out to be dashed. I don’t want to reflect on Indonesia or my friend president Joko Widodo.
I want to ensure that as far as is humanly possible, I am speaking out for Australians and for Australian values. But I also have to respect and defend Australia’s friendships. One of the very best of our friendships is that with Indonesia.
Abbott signals that Widodo is considering his position on the executions
I don’t know what this means, but the prime minister has signalled quite clearly that the may be movement in Jakarta on Chan and Sukumaran.
Tony Abbott on last night’s call.
Well, it was a positive sign that the conversation took place. The fact that the president of Indonesia and the prime minister of Australia can talk candidly about these issues is a sign of the strength of the relationship and it’s a sign of the depth of the friendship between Australia and Indonesia. I don’t think it would help the case of these two young Australians if I was to start ventilating in public the contents of the conversation.
Suffice to say that the president absolutely understands our position. Absolutely understands our position. And I think he is carefully considering Indonesia’s position.
Country of origin labelling – bring me a paper
The people of Australia want better country of origin labelling.
The prime minister is now out of his lycra and into a suit. He’s announcing now down on the lawns that he wants a cabinet submission on this subject by March.
Abbott’s plain speaking industry minister Ian Macfarlane, who is with the prime minister, says this issue has been around for thirty years. He also says change will be costly. But it needs to happen.
Ian Macfarlane
We are now in a position where we are going to have to break eggs to make an omelet. There will be cost and there will be changes. But those changes have to be made if consumers are to have the information they need on their food products.
Abbott links berries and unauthorised boat arrivals. Berries and boats. Draw the dots.
Obviously we do need to have enhanced screening at our borders. We do want to ensure that our border protection measures aren’t just about ensuring that we don’t have illegal arrivals by boat, but ensuring that we have proper biosecurity as well.
Reporters are saying hang on, aren’t you the guy who hates red tape? Aren’t we having these repeal days? Is that off now?
Obviously, we do need regulation, but it’s got to be efficient and effective regulation. And it’s got to be necessary, not unnecessary regulation. So while I think we do need to ensure that the public knows where their food is coming from, the public knows where products are actually made, it’s also important that for instance the forms the public fill out are as short and as simple as possible and this is one of the other things that we’re looking at as part of our regulatory reduction program.
Just in case you weren’t with me yesterday and missed the foreign investment announcement – the government has flagged that overseas buyers of residential real estate will pay fees of between $5,000 and $10,000, and need approval by the Foreign Investment Review Board. There are fines for investors caught breaking the rules. The government is both responding to and surfing a tabloid/talkback wisdom that has developed which says foreigners are driving up property prices. As Hockey said this morning the ‘evidence’ for this is largely anecdotal.
In his quick and eccentric side trip to Sydney yesterday to launch the foreign investment in real estate discussion paper, the prime minister was framing this issue as good foreigners and less good foreigners. The integrity measures (application fees and fines) the government proposed was going to make life easier for Aussies on struggle street trying to buy a house.
Hockey in his interview this morning says the evidence there is actually a problem in residential real estate is largely ancedotal. He also says these proposals don’t change the law in any significant way.
The Australian Financial Review reports this morning that the property industry has attacked the new regime, arguing the compliance measures amount to a 1% “tax” on foreign investment.
Q: The parliamentary inquiry found that overall foreign investment is good for Australia and good for property prices?
It is, there’s no doubt about that. We need foreign investment. We want foreign investment. But we also want to have integrity in the foreign investment regime. Now, you know, if a person goes along to an auction and they have a particular ethnicity about them, then there becomes a stereotype that they’re a foreigner trying to buy a property.
Q: Of course they’re not necessarily. They might be fifth generation, for instance?
That’s the point I’m making. They may be fifth generation Australian and perfectly entitled to. So I think people want to know and be reassured that they’re not being forced out of the property market by people unlawfully buying Australian real estate. Now, it’s not just about that. It is about setting up a register so that we can actually identify how much real estate in Australia is foreign owned. We do not have that information now.
I think the system needs integrity. We’re not changing the laws in any significant way. We are simply enforcing the laws which our predecessors in the Labor party failed to do.
Denigration? I'll give you denigration.
The treasurer Joe Hockey has been on the ABC talking about the foreign investment screening proposals the government lobbed yesterday by way of a new discussion paper about residential property.
More of that shortly. But first, one man’s denigration is another man’s light touch up.
Q: The point I’m asking you about is to you agree with the prime minister’s attack on the Human Rights Commission president, because Malcolm Turnbull one of your colleagues said yesterday the issue is not Gillian Triggs, the issue is the children in detention. Are you concerned or do you believe that the president of the Human Rights Commission deserves to be denigrated continuously denigrated by the government?
Joe Hockey:
Hang on, the prime minister said that he does not have confidence as did the minister, as has a number of others.
Q: That’s public denigration, isn’t it?
Joe Hockey:
Oh jeez, Fran, I mean, if that’s public denigration then I tell you what, I cop it every day as does everyone else.
Good morning and welcome to Thursday in Canberra. It’s a beautiful, cool and calm morning.
It became clear last night as I was wrapping Politics Live that Tony Abbott was seeking a call with his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo to discuss the fate of the two Australians currently on death row. The ABC has ascertained this morning that the call took place.
This has now been confirmed by Australia officials. Abbott made clear the government’s hope that the execution of the two men would not proceed, particularly in light of their rehabilitation. The ABC also reports that Widodo has also spoken to the leaders of France, Brazil and the Netherlands in recent days about their nationals also awaiting execution.
This was the scene outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta yesterday, with locals protesting Abbott’s recent reference to aid in his public comments about why Chan and Sukumaran should not face the death penalty.
Abbott is currently decked out in bright pink lycra to launch the 2015 pollie pedal, and event he’s supported and championed for 18 years. He’s speaking at Old Parliament House about the origins of the event – it was an effort to connect politicians to their community, an effort to remind people politicians are human.
The prime minister:
In those days politicians weren’t very popular. How things have changed.
Yes, that was irony. Bring your irony and your insight and your outrage and your questions to the Politics Live comments thread which is now open for your business. We are open for business on the Twits @murpharoo and @mpbowers
