Well gosh eh? Let's go have a wine
Well blogans, bloganistas, that was a truly odd day. A bit like that Sean Edwards interview, I’m going to struggle to do it justice in the summary – but let’s give it a crack. Today, Tuesday, which is either day one or day two of good government, depending on when you hit the stopwatch:
- It became clear at first light that this was a day when the “unity” talking point would be used to obscure a burst of trolling or subtweeting, depending on your preference – where the various groups in the government would engage in some pretty blatant power struggles and free character references.
-
Julie Bishop set the tone early by pretending she didn’t use a batch of breakfast interviews to advise the prime minister to move on his chief of staff, Peta Credlin. (She did in fact advise him to do just that.) She later noted leadership spills were sooo yesterday.
- Malcolm Turnbull joined the fray in question time by advising anyone to whom the advice may be relevant that it was very important in politics to avoid the influence of noisy media players with enormous egos, like I don’t know, say Alan Jones. It was more important to be your own person. Given a number of people in the government complain that Alan Jones is a defacto cabinet member and part time life coach to Tony Abbott then this homily this may have been directed at the prime minster. Pure speculation, obviously.
- Christopher Pyne topped one of his Dorothy Dixers with the preamble, “in more good news for the Abbott government ..” – while Scott Morrison didn’t quite know whether the families package would be in or out of the budget – while Joe Hockey attempted to point out that dumping all the budget measures would mean the Coalition would never deliver a surplus .. which might be a bit tricky.
- Kevin Andrews acted like a man who didn’t really know what the prime minister had promised the South Australian backbencher Sean Edwards about submarines in an existential hour on Sunday, and didn’t much care given now he actually had to work out how to run a multi billion tender that was actually happening in the real world involving several important allies of Australia and several companies rather than being a tragi/comedy playing out in a remote hot house in Canberra.
- Sean Edwards for his part didn’t know all that much but he knew for sure you never get a second chance to ask your uncle to your wedding.
That was about it, I think.
It seems enough. Let’s laugh, cry and run around cackling like a chicken. Then let’s regroup in the morning and do it all again in the morning.
Thanks for the company. Champions. All.
Updated
I asked. Thanks Tom.
Must watch.
For those who asked - here is @David_Speers interview with @SeanC_Edwards on submarine building http://t.co/iy5ULeIU9c (@tomwconnell)
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) February 10, 2015
Updated
In the dark.
Yes, that’s a metaphor. My colleague Daniel Hurst has had three attempts at trying to explain the uncle at the wedding to me.
Submarines are the spaceships of the wedding: proof
RT @murpharoo: Submarines are the spaceships of the wedding. pic.twitter.com/kPG5gvW3Gq
— Mark Fallu (@brisvegas1) February 10, 2015
My work here is done.
Thank you, Mark Fallu.
Meanwhile, Christopher Pyne has:
1. Defected to the National party room.
2. Invented the side selfie.
At the RUN briefing in the National Party Room. A terrific group of teaching and research unis #auspol pic.twitter.com/4o2IsWDwQA
— Christopher Pyne (@cpyne) February 10, 2015
Sideselfie chris? @cpyne #sideselfie @murpharoo @GuardianAus #politicslive pic.twitter.com/yjFk8EEzkd
— Mike Bowers (@mpbowers) February 10, 2015
Updated
Edwards: You never get a second chance to ask your uncle to the wedding
The submarines car crash is continuing through the afternoon. It’s actually uncomfortable to watch the Liberal senator Sean Edwards staggering through an interview right now with Sky’s David Speers. Speers has spent ten minutes trying to extract from Edwards what the prime minister actually said to him over the weekend about an open tender for the submarine purchase. I cannot possibly do the encounter justice in this post. It is the weirdest televisualised encounter since the metadata interview.
Speers:
Q: Did he say there would be an open and competitive tender?
Edwards:
That’s my best recollection. I believe he did.
Edwards says the prime minister told him that Australian companies would be able to particpate in the process.
Q: Did the prime minister say it was an open tender or a competitive evaluation?
Edwards:
Don’t get caught up in all of this.
Q: With respect its not all the same.
No the prime minister indicted the Australian companies would be able to partcipate.
Q: In what? Did he say that?
They are my words. Other people use different words.
It went on, and on, and on.
Edwards:
You never get a second chance to ask your uncle to a wedding.
(I can’t explain. I’m sorry.)
From today’s new Essential poll. Disapproval of Tony Abbott is up 9%. It’s his worst rating since taking the party leadership.
62% of respondents disapprove of the job Tony Abbott is doing as prime minister – up 9% since the last time this question was asked in January; and 29% approve of the job Tony Abbott is doing (down 8%).
This represents a change in net rating from -16 to -33 – his worst since becoming leader of the Liberal Party.
65% (down 18%) of Liberal/National voters approve of Tony Abbott’s performance, with 29% (up 19%) disapproving. 89% of Labor voters and 86% of Greens voters disapprove of Tony Abbott’s performance.
By gender men were 34% approve/61% disapprove and women 24% approve/64% disapprove.
@murpharoo a Catweazel reference? Oh joy. My caption would be "but why are these Birds so angry?" pic.twitter.com/9E0oJcDPN3
— wonk_arama (@wonk_arama) February 10, 2015
I knew there was someone out there who would understand me.
Electrickery!
Sorry, a bit of an obscure reference for readers who don’t worship at the altar of Catweazle. You are welcome to suggest captions.
If anyone knows what this might mean – please get in touch.
#notsurewhatsgoingonhere @murpharoo @GuardianAus #poloticslive http://t.co/4TLvu5EQnt pic.twitter.com/XBQ9Nl8yvC
— Mike Bowers (@mpbowers) February 10, 2015
Ms Murphy, Mr Bowers c/o Guardian Australia bureau – planet blast off.
It’s vital to win the respect of the public and indeed of the media itself, to stand your ground and stand up for what you believe in and not be bullied into an echo chamber.
Updated
So yesterday.
Bill Shorten has lobbed the procedural. Christopher Pyne declares it lies. Madam Speaker requests a withdrawal of unparliamentary language. Shorten is pressing on with his censure. Or the suspension to consider the censure. So it goes.
Pyne is shutting Shorten down. He’s moved the member be no longer heard.
* This post is corrected from the original, which said Bishop had not sought a withdrawal of the word “lies.” This was incorrect.
Updated
In more good news from the Abbott government ..
Madam Speaker, what we are not going to do is rip off the future to satisfy ourselves. That’s what members opposite did. They ripped off the future to try to buy an election. That’s what they did. They were prepared to sacrifice our children and grandchildren’s future for their own political purposes. That’s the ultimate unfairness and that’s what we are saving this country from.
The prime minister.
On Labor.
A whole column could be written on this statement.
Readers who watched Q&A last night might remember frontbencher Jamie Briggs doing a little mis-speak – with Jones on the panel, he noted that everyone had to agree with Alan Jones. In my belief, he did not mean to say it. I suspect the unconsious aside might have reflected a weariness in some quarters of the government about Jones’ influence in high places. Not everyone in the government thinks this is a good thing. Some people think it drags the government way off centre.
It is a day of burn and double burn. Talking in their little codes, the government is tearing strips off each other in the guise of a reset. Quite extraordinary.
Malcolm shifts into plain sight
In the course of answering Burke, Turnbull makes a very thinly veiled swipe at the man sitting next to him at the dispatch box. This is a message for Tony Abbott.
No-one else. Just Abbott.
Malcolm Turnbull:
The truth of the matter is interviews with Alan Jones are always entertaining, always entertaining. He is a very colourful interviewer and I was delighted to see parts of that interview broadcast. It was a colourful one and one where each of us stood our ground.
I would say you could say of Mr Jones (and I think he would probably say of it it of me), we are often wrong but never in doubt.
It’s important not to be bullied by him. I can say over the years the great mistake that politicians have made ... including a Labor Premier of NSW – is allow yourself to be bullied by the media. It’s vital to win the respect of the public and indeed of the media itself, to stand your ground and stand up for what you believe in and not be bullied into an echo chamber.
You cannot get a more pointed broadside than that.
Manager of opposition business, Tony Burke.
My question is to the minister for communications. Under broadcasting licences issued by the Commonwealth last year, Australian television stations relayed footage of an interview minister for communications did on the Alan Jones program. These asserted that the minister said “I support unreservedly and wholeheartedly every element in the Budget, every single one”. Minister, were these broadcasts accurate and appropriate uses of the broadcasting licences?
Madam Speaker.
I will call the Honourable minister for communications who probably will enjoy the answer.
(I think she has no idea how mauch he’s going to enjoy this answer.)
Malcolm Turnbull:
Thank you madam speaker. I have to compliment the honourable member of that rather elaborate way he tried to make this question relevant to my portfolio. But of course every single member of the government supported every element in the budget.
(Note the past tense.)
More to come of an incendiary character.
I thank the member for Bennelong for his question. In more good news from the Abbott government ..
That’s Christopher Pyne, joining in troll Tuesday.
The shadow treasurer Chris Bowen has asked the prime minister, given he expressed full confidence in the former defence minister David Johnston just before he was removed from the portfolio, would he express full confidence in the treasurer, Joe Hockey.
The prime minister would, as it happened, express full confidence in Joe Hockey. No problem. Joe was 100% not vague.
Madam Speaker has just ruled lie, misled and tricky unparliamentary.
Bill Shorten made three attempts to ask the prime minister whether he’d been less than forthright to the backbench senator Sean Edwards concerning open and competitive tenders for submarines in exchange for a vote against the spill motion.
We won’t get an answer to that question.
While there’s a brief argument about unparliamentary language .. must be love, love love.
Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt to Abbott.
Q: Will you be putting your bad ideas through a competitive evaluation process?
(Next.)
Updated
What is going on about the submarines?
I’m large and in charge, and I’ll have to come back to you.
A question from Labor trying to fathom what may be the policy now on submarine aquisitions. The prime minister says there will be a competitive process. What that means is still entirely unclear. Absolutely 100% vague.
Tony Abbott:
We want the best possible submarines at the best possible price because again we have to be fair and reasonable to the taxpayers of this country. But, of course, while we want the best possible subs and best possible price – we want to maximise Australian participation in this particular arrangement.
We do want to maximise Australian participation in this agreement so there will be a competitive process. Of course there will be a competitive process. You would expect a competitive process and Australian entities should be part of it.
They are certainly encouraged to be part of it and I expect them to be part of it.
Unless there has been an update I missed over Christmas, a Dorothy Dixer for Julie Bishop just contained some news points about the conflict in the Middle East. (Apologies if this is old news and I’m behind the times.)
Julie Bishop:
I can update the house. Approximately 16,000 foreign fighters from some 90 countries are believed to be in Syria and Iraq. Ninety Australians are believed to be in the conflict along with 3,000 fighters from western European states. We believe that over 20 Australians have been killed in the Syria-Iraq conflict. To address the threat we have cancelled around 90 passports of those seeking to travel to Iraq and Syria or to return. I have suspended five passports under our new counter-terrorism legislation and refused to issue a further 10 of those who we believe pose a national security threat.
Updated
The prime minister is berating Bill Shorten for being against nuclear energy.
You know, the South Australian premier – the South Australian premier actually came up with a positive idea. He said we better have a look at nuclear energy. And the leader of the opposition is even against that. He’s even against that!
(I wasn’t aware the government was actually for it. Last I looked, John Howard’s efforts to create a nuclear debate had been abandoned by the Coalition. Julie Bishop recently called for a resumption of the debate. But is nuclear energy back as national Coalition policy now?)
The prime minister is invited to reflect on the government’s magnificent free-trade agreements, and explain how they will deliver for businesses in Colac.
Happy days in Colac, Tony Abbott predicts.
What we are on about is a stronger economy, with more prosperous businesses, more jobs and happier families. That’s what this government is delivering.
Updated
Abbott: good government might have had a holiday last week
Labor opens on good government. If it starts now, what’s been happening up ‘til now?
Tony Abbott:
Madam Speaker, good government in this country stopped at the end of 2007. It started again in September 2013. It might have had a holiday last week and started again yesterday. That’s exactly what happened. That’s exactly what’s happened.
Updated
Question time
Brick Bronwyn is in her chair.
The hour of glower is in session.
Madam Speaker:
The prime minister will resume his seat! We’ll have some silence. The question has been asked and we will now listen to the answer.
Updated
We are on the ramp for question time. Labor MPs are using member’s statements (one of my personal favourite times in the parliamentary day) to implore Indonesia to show mercy to Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran – the Australians facing execution for drug offences.
Clive Palmer is meanwhile on Sky News. Thus far I haven’t grasped a word that he’s said. That may say more about me than Clive.
Might need a fizzy pop.
Updated
That’s a solid conversation in the thread. Just paid you a visit. Will try very hard to get back.
Introducing ... Brick Joe
The treasurer’s contribution in the party room allows us to unveil another key player in #BrickParliament, brick Joe. Here he is, practising for question time.
Poor Hockey used today’s party room to tell colleagues just a couple of simple facts: the Coalition would never preside over a return to surplus if the government dumped all the savings from their lead balloon first budget. (Lead balloon is obviously my construction, not Hockey’s construction.)
He said there was no credible growth path back to surplus.
One of the colleagues thought the Coalition had to get the debt and deficit message out. I’m not sure if anyone laughed, or screamed. Silently. In their own heads.
Updated
Other bits and pieces from the partyroom in no particular order.
- The prime minister told colleagues that he got the strong message of recent days in no uncertain terms.
- The health minister Sussan Ley said the GP copayment had become a dirty word – but people understood the policy if it was explained to them.
One more to come, but it deserves its own post.
Haven’t you heard? I’m going to be OK. I’m just a bird that’s already flown away.
Updated
Soooo yesterday. It is the Comedy Channel.
I wonder if the deputy Liberal leader managed to say this without opening her teeth.
Bishop told party room meeting "leadership spills are so yesterday"
— Lanai Scarr (Vasek) (@pollietracker) February 10, 2015
Gracious.
PM Abbott told party room that upcoming budget will contain "firm clamps" on new spending.
— Matthew Knott (@KnottMatthew) February 10, 2015
Lunchtime summary, el desko
We are waiting for the official briefing after the Coalition party room meeting. Mike has discovered a slight malfunction with the manager of government business, Christopher “Unicorn” Pyne. It would appear that his magnificent tail prevents him from sitting down in the new Reps chamber we are building. Doesn’t matter. He’s a very busy person. He doesn’t sit much.
Moving on.
Politics, this lunchtime:
- We are either in day one or day two of good government – depending on when the clock started.
- Thus far today, the deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop pretended she wasn’t giving the prime minister public advice about his office while telling him he probably needed to move on Peta Credlin.
- Defence minister Kevin Andrews said he wasn’t getting into definitions when it came to processes for future submarine acquisitions – at least until they were worked out, which certainly wasn’t yet – and backbencher Sean Edwards then verballed Andrews after it became clear he’d got the wrong end of the stick from the prime minister, or perhaps he didn’t. It wasn’t quite clear. Don’t worry – only several billion on the line.
- Social services minister Scott Morrison said we’d get the families package when we got the families package and not one moment before.
- Bill Shorten said ... something about bring back social justice to contrast with a government that was now socialising its processes.
More to come. Get supplies. We may be here for some time.
Updated
It is kind of hard to know how the prime minister would sack staff for “briefing” if there was no record of the transaction and no one confessed.
I will not use the word metadata. No, I will not.
Updated
Clearly it wasn’t just me who thought that Daily Telegraph story had a vague waft of North Korea about it. Entirely coincidental that I ran through the conventions in the run-up to Lenore’s news break – but I’m glad we did it.
Updated
Some breaking news from Lenore Taylor: Abbott says he will sack staff who brief against MPs
Tony Abbott has told his party room he would sack any member of his staff who briefed the media against parliamentary colleagues, as anger continues over the operation of his office despite promises that there would be greater consultation and “no retaliation” against dissidents.
Don Randall, the backbencher who seconded Monday’s dramatic “spill” motion, asked the prime minister at Tuesday’s party meeting whether he would sack anyone in his office who briefed the media against members of parliament.
Tony Abbott said briefing against members of parliament was a “sackable offence”.
In a leak that has angered some MPs, the Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday that it had been “given the names of at least six ministers who are believed to have broken with duties of loyalty to the leader in the secret ballot” for the leadership on Monday and said one of them had been “caught” at the weekend making calls on behalf of Malcolm Turnbull.
Meanwhile, the prime minister’s chief of staff Peta Credlin has faced calls for her resignation from commentators, and from some within the Liberal party.
Deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop said Tuesday that “specific staffing matters relating to the PM’s office are a matter for him. People have been very frank and blunt on their assessment of the PM’s office, and the prime minister is a smart man.”
She said the prime minister would take those views into account, adding that “Peta Credlin is a very powerful figure in the sense she’s strong, there’s a lot of opinions, she is very protective of the PM and has been an indispensable part of our team in opposition”.
“The PM is very close with Peta, she offers him good advice and they work together as a team. Now his particular staffing arrangements are a matter for him. The PM must respond to their concerns if they are valid concerns,” she said.
Updated
Again, let’s cut to the chase about all this quickly.
- It was cheeky of the prime minister to create the impression that block voting by the ministry was a hard rule, but understandable in the circumstances.
- But given it was a fudge in the first place, it’s quite incendiary to use this as a method of enforcement after the fact. And sloppy of people to repeat the convenient invention that this is a hard rule.
Updated
Tracking back now to the point we were debating earlier about whether ministers were obliged to vote according to Tony Abbott’s wishes on the spill motion.
Don’t take my word for it, or Paula’s word for it. We are notoriously argumentative and unreliable.
Take it away father of da house Phillip Ruddock.
Q: There’s been much made about the concept of ministerial solidarity within the meeting and the way in which that might affect the casting of votes for or against in the spill motion.
Ruddock:
I have heard those comments. Yes, it’s hard to escape them.
Q: What’s your understanding?
Ruddock:
I am not a commentator in relation to these matters. I would ordinarily expect that people who have been appointed by the prime minister would give the prime minister their loyalty and their commitment. That’s certainly the approach I take. But in relation to what happens in a secret ballot, people may have an understanding, but how they implement it, is really a matter for them.
Q: So you are describing that as an understanding, it’s not – is it a convention, is it a rule?
Well, I just simply make the point that these issues, when you’ve elected to have a secret ballot, become much more opaque, don’t they? And, yes, there is an understanding that those who have their office at the request of the office holder, the principal office holder, would give them loyalty. But I don’t put it any higher than an understanding.
Peta the proxy
This whole transaction-within-the-bubble about the fate of Peta Credlin is so bizarre in so many ways. Never has there been such fuss about a backroom type – it says something about this particular politics moment that the backroom is looming larger that elected officials.
Given the anti-Abbott forces touched him up badly but failed to force a resignation of the prime minister yesterday, Credlin now must resign on his behalf. Like everything about this story: it’s part perfect, given the chief complaint against Credlin is that she blithely assumes she is a proxy for Abbott – and part bat poo crazy.
Tony Abbott’s close friend, Greg Sheridan, in the Australian today.
If Tony Abbott is to have any chance of making a success of the quite limited breathing space he has won, he must convince both his party and the nation he understands that in major ways he has got it wrong and will change. This requires a big gesture of repentance, and part of this now must be for his chief-of-staff, Peta Credlin, to move out of his office and resign.
Updated
Michael Brissenden on AM persisted in asking whether the Australian federal police had done the right thing tipping off the Indonesians about the activites of the Bali Nine – given Indonesia has a death penalty.
Australia does not support the death penalty. This was a consequential tip-off.
Bishop, however, did not criticse the AFP.
Q: Was it right for the AFP to tip the Indonesians off though? That’s the question.
JULIE BISHOP: I’m not about to question the AFP’s operational matters. There is a high level of cooperation between Australia and Indonesia on law enforcement. It is to our benefit on many occasions. In this occasion it was not to the benefit of two individuals involved. But I am not going to question the AFP’s operations in working to defeat the scourge of drug trafficking in and out of Australia.
Updated
I don’t know if Politics Live readers caught Four Corners last night on the fate of the two Australians facing execution in Indonesia? If you missed it, try and iView it, because it was deeply uncomfortable viewing.
Julie Bishop was asked during her interviews this morning about what the government was doing to help. Had she spoken to the families, who are, naturally, beside themselves.
Q: The families have arrived last night, have you spoke to them?
JULIE BISHOP: Yes I have. I spoke to the families yesterday. They’re in fact on their way back from Indonesia. They spent some time with our embassy in Indonesia. We provided them with consular support. I have met with them before and I just say to people, put yourself in their shoes. It’s heartbreaking to talk to them. The challenge we have is that Indonesia is a fiercely sovereign independent nation. Drug trafficking is an offense that attracts the death penalty and both Mr Sukumaran and Mr Chan have been found guilty of drug trafficking and they are on death row. They are facing the death penalty. We are doing absolutely everything we can in terms of representations at the highest level, from the president and the president’s office to the foreign minister to the attorney general. And other we believe influential Indonesian figures are being contacted by people in Australia. We’re doing all we can, we don’t flag it all through the media because I don’t want to do anything that would precipitate an unfavourable outcome. So we’re working very closely with our Indonesian colleagues, with officials in Indonesia. We’re seeking a stay of execution and we’re seeking a reconciliation of the clemency pleas. And the point I keep making is that they have both been rehabilitated over the last 10 years. And this should be a positive for the Indonesian prison system. They have been able to achieve with Mr Sukumaran and Mr Chan what other prison systems around the world would love to be able to achieve and that is the rehabilitation of prisoners who have clearly lost their way through the drug trade.
Updated
For goodness sakes people, stop writing the ministry was 'obliged' to vote for Abbott. There is no such obligation, only an expectation.
— Paula Matthewson (@Drag0nista) February 9, 2015
Canberra blogger Paula Matthewson makes an excellent point here. In kill spill mode, Tony Abbott did his best to project the impression that his ministry was obliged to vote with him.
This edict was less about rules or respect for the polite conventions of politics – it was a simple number-crunching exercise. Given the spill vote was quite strong, Abbott could have been in real trouble yesterday if it had been a genuinely free vote. Now the nonexistent rule is being invoked to round up the dissenters even though there was a quite clear promise from Abbott not to bear grudges or hold show trials.
So let’s cut to the chase. It was in his interests to pretend a hard rule on voting by the ministry existed, just as it is in his interests now to pretend that the instability and back-biting was all just an outbreak of late summer madness and now everything will be perfectly fine.
Updated
The non-resolution of the leadership issue within the Coalition is best-case scenario for Labor right now. They are all terribly chirpy.
Mike Bowers paid a visit to caucus to take some pictures. Important to note Shorten’s general homily on love, peace and unity was watched over by the love, peace and unity merchants of the past. Not a plotter or a stabber in sight.
Updated
Fabulous lovelies. Keep them coming.
Will #BrickPeta come out fighting & unleash missiles to defeat @JulieBishopMP @murpharoo ? #brickparliament #auspol pic.twitter.com/6EWlVL52uy
— Project SafeCom (@PSOffice) February 9, 2015
The Adelaide press pack hasn’t finished, even though Kevin Andrews has walked off. They have turned their guns on Sean Edwards.
Q: Did you get this wrong?
I haven’t got this wrong at all. The minister is down here saying the Australian Submarine Corporation has a role to play.
(Andrews said no such thing. He said anyone with capability would get a look in. Remember – the previous defence minister David Johnston famously said the ASC couldn’t build a canoe. Tony Abbott appears to have played Sean Edwards like a trout.)
Edwards:
You’ve heard me on the radio this morning.
Q: No I haven’t.
(Complete debacle.)
Updated
Andrews: I'm not going to get into definitions
The defence minister Kevin Andrews has been deployed to South Australia to try and clean up the enormous political mess created by all the broken promises and flip-flops on submarine acquisitions – a significant policy which got drawn in to Tony Abbott’s leadership dramas. Abbott has promised backbenchers ... well ... something on submarines that might mean Australian manufacturers are involved.
Andrews has just bobbed up now. Andrews is telling reporters the government has resolved to have a competitive evaluation process. What is this exactly? Andrews says it means there will be an opportunity for anyone who can meet the requirements to be involved in the acquisition.
Andrews:
This will be something I’ll continue to work on.
The Adelaide press pack wants to know why a government backbencher, Sean Edwards, said on Sunday there would be an open tender process in the middle of the leadership dramas when there is clearly no open tender process. There is something else entirely.
Andrews:
I’m not going to get into definitions. I’m not a commentator.
On the doors of parliament this morning, Labor’s defence spokesman Stephen Conroy said no one in defence industry has ever heard of this process.
No one has a clue what this process involves.
Updated
Q: Is Joe Hockey the right man to be treasurer?
Morrison:
Of course he is.
Q: Why is that?
Because he is the one working together with the whole team to address the singularly biggest fiscal mess the country has been left.
Back to Scott Morrison, briefly.
Q: Minister, will your families package be in advance of the budget or do you anticipate it will be part of the release of the budget proper?
Morrison:
Well look, the families package will be out there when the families package will be out there.
One of our readers has an alternative Brick Peta.
@murpharoo Expect #brickcredlin to come out fighting!!#brickparliament #auspol pic.twitter.com/GktC38xSQ1
— Viscount Hinemoa (@pananian) February 9, 2015
Love it. Kapow.
Actually, technically this could be day one of good government, not day two. That right? Can anyone help?
Scott Morrison joins Julie Bishop in "not giving advice" on Peta Credlin
Q: Should Peta Credlin resign?
Scott Morrison has stopped trying to get a word in with Ray and is holding a media conference in the Mural Hall.
Morrison, on Credlin:
That’s a matter for Tony Abbott. I don’t give him lectures on his staff and he doesn’t give me lectures on mine.
(Exactly the same formulation as Julie Bishop. SPOOKY. Almost like there’s coordination going on. Almost like people might want the prime minister to move his chief of staff forward, out the door.)
Bill Shorten is, meanwhile telling the Labor caucus what he told radio listeners and pay television viewers this morning. Bad, wicked, damnation government.
Shorten:
This government is contributing to a far greater malaise because the Liberal party has moved too far to the right and they are inflicting an extreme ideology through their own unfair budget which Australians have rejected. It is simple. The Liberals told lies. Tony Abbott told lies, the whole of his cabinet have been party to the lies of the last 18 months. The Liberals have broken the fundamental accord, the fundamental compact, the fundamental covenant of trust with the Australian people.
That is Labor’s message, it is my message to the government. The Australian people do not trust them and they never will from here on in.
More Hadley – rooting out conspiracy wherever he finds it. How come you walked into the party room meeting yesterday with Arthur Sinodinos – a man who was voting for the spill motion. Hey? hey? Scott Morrison says he walked into the party room in the same way I always do, and I bumped into Arthur. People needed to take a chill pill.
Yesterday was a very ventilating and clarifying day for the Cabinet.
(This is Scott Morrison, currently speaking to Ray Hadley on 2GB, trying to get a word in.)
Day two of good government, the sequel.
@murpharoo Meanwhile, the Senate has very little to do. Half of all listed bills have already been passed or referred off.
— Danielle Forsyth (@_DanielleF) February 9, 2015
Is there any actual legislation on this list?
Day two of good government. Busy busy busy. pic.twitter.com/gCMGZBwlBB
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) February 9, 2015
I’m talking a bit too much to visitors and not committing myself to being a ferocious update machine. This rank self indulgence ends now.
I’ve already flagged that Tony Abbott will speak to colleagues again this morning after enduring a substantial vote of no confidence yesterday, and enduring the public advice he didn’t just get from Julie Bishop concerning getting serious about the reset of his government – starting in the office.
The Labor caucus will also meet for the first time this political year.
Introducing .. Brick Julie
In honour of this morning’s shock and awe exercise – we’ve decided to unveil brick Julie.
Here she is, holding court in the press gallery.
The prime minister is a smart man.
Poor Peta
Shorten’s courtesy call to the office prevented me listening closely to Julie Bishop’s fourth (?) interview of the morning on the ABC’s AM program. But with help from my colleague Shalailah Medhora, I’m cooking with gas now.
Bishop’s AM appearance was not great news for the prime minister’s chief of staff, Peta Credlin. People following the Canberra dramas closely will know that there is an ‘anyone but Peta faction’ with a solid membership among Coalition MPs.
Bishop has basically told Tony Abbott this morning he should heed the wishes of the party room when it comes to his most senior adviser, who is not an elected official. Peta had been absolutely tops in opposition, Bishop noted. Tops.
Not that she’s giving advice, or anything.
Bishop:
The specific staffing matters relating to the PM’s office are a matter for him. People have been very frank and blunt on their assessment of the PM’s office, and the prime minister is a smart man.
He will take this into account.
Peta Credlin is a very powerful figure in the sense she’s strong, there’s a lot of opinions, she is very protective of the PM and has been an indespensible part of our team in opposition.
The PM is very close with Peta, she offers him good advice and they work together as a team. Now his particular staffing arrangements are a matter for him. The PM must respond to their concerns if they are valid concerns.
I’m not about to give the PM advice on how he should run his office, nor do I expect him to give me advice on how I should run my office.
But we both heed the views of the party room, and if there are valid concerns then I am confident that the PM will take that into account.
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Shorten just called by the Guardian Australia office on his way down the corridor. Readers with us yesterday will know we launched Shorten in his brick form as part of our ongoing #BrickParliament hijinks.
Shorten is a man without a face.
We have made the following undertaking to the opposition leader – we may give him a face over the course of this year if performance warrants it. Stay tuned.
It’s hard to top Julie Bishop’s early morning news cycle shock and awe, but the Labor leader Bill Shorten is also attempting to get the opposition’s head above the parapet. Shorten has called by Radio National and Sky.
An excerpt from Radio National.
Q: If voters have given up on Tony Abbott, they no longer trust him and his government, they will be looking more closely at you as an alternative PM. You can’t keep playing dead politically. Don’t voters deserve to know, don’t they deserve to see your policies sooner rather than later?
Shorten:
I don’t accept the assumption in that question that we are playing dead ...
Q: You were barely sighted in the last few days?
Shorten:
Of course in the last few days you could have sent a man to the moon and it wouldn’t have got over the Liberal instability news we have seen in Canberra.
Updated
Good morning everyone and welcome to troll Tuesday in the national capital.
Perhaps it’s the simple indignity of Tony Abbott having to face two party room meetings in the space of a week – perhaps it’s the milestone of “day two of good government” – but this morning, there is needling just about everywhere you look.
The Australian Financial Review says Joe Hockey’s under pressure (which of course he is on a number of different fronts – particularly given the prime minister forgot to endorse him yesterday, and the prime minister no longer cares whether the numbers add up in a budget that is only a few months away.) Speaking of a budget with numbers that don’t add up, cabinet had a discussion about all that last night.
The Daily Telegraph is pretending the prime minister was shocked (I tell you shocked) to discover some ministers used the cover of the secret ballot to vote in favour of the leadership spill. If in fact, they did. “The Daily Telegraph was given the names of at least six ministers who are believed to have broken with duties of loyalty to the leader in the secret ballot.” (Hmmm. Right then.) Mild developing atmosphere of North Korea. We all better mind our Ps and Qs.
I almost collided with the deputy Liberal leader, Julie Bishop, in the corridor just before. Bishop travels up tight corridors at great speed with a modest phalanx of high-heeled ladies in her wake. It really is best to stand aside.
Bishop was doing the rounds of breakfast TV. Karl Stefanovic on Nine was having a tremendous time trying to put Bishop in all sorts of corners. What Stefanovic doesn’t know is Bishop is a lady with many capabilities, including the capacity to say “this is a secret ballot” without actually parting her teeth – such is the gritty implacability of that smile.
People go on strike for the right to protect the secret ballot ...
... Bishop told Karl.
Indeed they do.
By the time Bishop washed up through the free-to-air networks into the booth at Sky News, the questions had become more direct.
Q: Is your relationship with the prime minister on a firm footing?
Bishop:
Absolutely.
My relationship with the comments thread is also on a firm footing. It is now open for your business. And I’ve fired up the Twits. You can reach me and the man looking through the lens @murpharoo and @mpbowers
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