Night time political summary
Here is what we know tonight:
- Tony Abbott has confirmed an extra 300 regular Australian troops will go to Iraq, joining 200 already there, for a training force. Independent Andrew Wilkie and the Greens condemned the move.
- Health minister Sussan Ley has confirmed that there will be no Medicare co-payment but she has no policy. She is still in consultation mode. Tony Abbott declared he had listened and learned and told the parliament the co-payment policy from last year was “dead buried and cremated”.
- Postage stamps will rise from 70c to $1 in a bid to turn around losses at Australia Post. The price rise has to be ticked off by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
- The senate has commended president of the Human Rights Commission, Gillian Triggs, after a motion was moved by Labor and the Greens. It was supported by the Palmer United party and the independents.
Thanks to my brains trust, Daniel Hurst, Shalailah Medhora and Lenore Taylor, plus the wonderful images of Mike Bowers. Also thanks to you, the readers for constant tips and pointers. We enjoy the conversation.
Tomorrow is another day. The National Press Club has an International Womens’ Day event with a panel including Bill Shorten and Michaela Cash, as minister assisting the minister for women. Remember the minister for women is the PM.
Good night.
I don’t know where to start with this. So I won’t.
When selfies go wrong @edhusicMP #SLRselfie #heavy pic.twitter.com/n99Svs8Aqu
— Mike Bowers (@mpbowers) March 3, 2015
Man of the Mo: George B.
Google has been snuggling up to MPs and senators in the great hall showing off its wares. As if a selfie isn’t enough, Leigh’s modelling a camera has a 360 degree view plus top and bottom.
All the better to spy on you.
There is a matter of public importance in the senate via senator Claire Moore.
The Abbott government’s confused and chaotic approach to hate speech provisions in the Racial Discrimination Act 1975.
This has come about as a result of the government’s previous plans to amend 18C. That was turfed in August last year because Tony Abbott said he needed the support of the Muslim community to pass national security laws.
As a result, Family First’s Bob Day cosponsored a bill with Liberal senators, Cory Bernardi, Dean Smith and Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm to go ahead removing “insult” and “offend” from section 18C.
Senator Bernardi is rejecting accusations of bigotry and racism.
Somehow that is racism. That is simply not true.
Bernardi and Smith have quoted Greg Barns, Julian Burnside and others who allegedly support the move. (I’ll have to check that.)
Bernardi said 18C “cultivates a sense of victimhood” but does not believe free speech should be unfettered.
This is a failing that we can’t stand up and have a discussion without the sorts of slurs, that have been put forward in this chamber and been put forward out there in the public domain.
What passes for debate in this country and what passes for media reporting in this country is more often than not some outraged lefty on Twitter being quoted by the media, saying look how upset Cory Bernardi’s made everyone today.
Bernardi says we need to have serious discussions that risk offending people.
Essential poll results out today show Labor leading the Coalition on a two party preferred basis: 53-47.
On the question of terrorism,
- 75% think that the threat of terrorism happening in Australia has increased – up from 57% recorded in September.
- 20% (down 13%) think it has stayed about the same
- 2% (down 4%) think it has decreased.
- those most likely to think it has increased were Liberal/National voters (84%) and those aged 55+ (85%).
I’m flagging slightly, but not so the flag jokes.
Number cruncher/data journalist Nick Evershed has analysed the flags.
Senate commends Gillian Triggs
Labor, Greens, Palmer United and independent senators joined to pass a motion supporting the president of the Human Rights Commission Gillian Triggs. The motion by Labor’s Jacinta Collins and the Greens Sarah Hanson-Young was:
- commends the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and its president on delivering The forgotten children: national inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention 2014 report
- acknowledges that the Department of Immigration and Border Protection has referred all allegations of abuse involving children in detention, including those evidenced in the report, on an individual basis to police for investigation and action;
- respects the independence and integrity of the AHRC and its mandate to promote and protect human rights in Australia; and
- expresses its support for, and confidence in, the AHRC and its president.
All right. We’ll call it a draw.
@gabriellechan This is at least a draw pic.twitter.com/t9gHWPjzTI
— Sean Brooke (@SeanBrooke23) March 3, 2015
Back to that property held unlawfully by the foreign investor. It turns out it is Villa de Mare, in case you were wondering.
Phillip Coorey and Samantha Hutchinson have the details of the property, which is a $39m house in Point Piper formerly owned by recruitment specialist Julia Ross.
The federal government has announced the forced sale of the $39 million Point Piper mansion Villa de Mare, formerly owned by recruiter Julia Ross, in one of the first such acts in a decade.
Our Fin-ny Friends report that the owner is still unclear but there is some speculation.
Ownership of the property is still unclear, but some property experts said the home was bought on behalf of Chinese billionaire and property developer Xu Jiayin.
Xu Jiayin, is China’s 15th-richest man with a net worth of $7.6 billion, according to the Hurun Report. He is also the founder and chief executive of Evergrande Real Estate Group, one of China’s largest apartment developers.
Hockey had announced the government would enforce the foreign investor rules following a committee report which addressed concerns about property prices in Sydney and Melbourne.
I should note the (government) final question was to Christopher Pyne, asking what is standing in the way of the rule of law in workplaces?
Answer: Labor helping to block the fair work bill which would have established a union watchdog. (It was voted down in the senate yesterday.)
"Union thugs" @cpyne fires up during #QT @gabriellechan @GuardianAus #politicslive http://t.co/W8Gi51Jelk pic.twitter.com/yOTUn0Ywjw
— Mike Bowers (@mpbowers) March 3, 2015
The house is now debating a Matter of Public Importance:
The government’s unrelenting attack on Medicare and the damage it is inflicting on Australians”.
Catherine King has spoken followed by Sussan Ley.
Excellent, Smithers...
On indulgence Madam Speaker.
Clive Palmer asks an accounting question of the Liberal party.
"Out of order"speaker sits down Clive when he asks PM about Lib. Financial statements @gabriellechan #politicslive pic.twitter.com/PxD6h3HtEH
— Mike Bowers (@mpbowers) March 3, 2015
Shalailah Medhora reports on the Coalition party room:
Tony Abbott spoke on Australia’s military commitment in Iraq, which he described as a “behind the wire mission”.
He also spoke on metadata by warning that the information that is currently being lost due to mandatory retention meant that there is currently a “burning platform”.
Malcolm Turnbull spoke on the need for appropriate governance structures and transparency in Australia Post, saying that the organisation must take an “open kimono” approach.
An MP stood in the joint party meeting to talk through his colleagues on how to remove the iMessage function to stop them getting emails on their phone - and thus leaving them open to hacking.
He quipped that if the MPs weren’t sure on how to do it, they should ask “someone young” in their offices.
Updated
A Labor question to social services minister Scott Morrison on the cut to funding of $234,000 for the Mirabel Foundation which helps children orphaned by parental drug use.
Morrison says he is working through any gaps in frontline services as a result of the end of funding and members should come and see him with any issues.
You won’t get a fight out of Morrison these days.
Malcolm Turnbull gets a question on Australia Post, which he says is facing an “existential threat”. The letters business is declining year after year and losses accumulated since 2008 have totalled $1.5bn.
The two-speed service is comparable to what is already being used by 70% of business customers.
The second part of the reform is to increase the price of stamps and the company is seeking to increase the stamp price from 70 cents to a dollar and over the next three or four years or thereabouts the letters business should be able to get back into the black which is where exactly it should be.
He says there are 32,500 employees and while there are “implications for jobs in these changes”, 61% of those people have been successfully redeployed elsewhere in the company.
Let me say the company and the government are absolutely committed to the LPOs (licensed post offices). These changes will put the company assures me, about $75m of extra revenue into the LPOs, about $20,000 each per annum.
Updated
Joe Hockey announces he has moved against a foreign investor unlawfully holding a property in Sydney. This goes to the noises that are being made over foreign property acquisition.
Just before question time I issued - under that the foreign acquisitions and takeovers act - to force a divestment of a major residential property in the middle of Sydney held unlawfully by a foreign investor and they have 90 days to sell the property. We are very serious about enforcing the law. We are very serious about integrity in our foreign investment system.
A question to Warren Truss on infrastructure in NSW - aimed at belting NSW Labor ahead of the state election. Cut to the roads of the 21st century.
Joe Hockey is up next on the same issue.
Labor in NSW wants to stop the development in western Sydney and close down WestConnex costing immediately18,000 jobs, 18,000 jobs just like they’ve just torn up contracts for 7,000 new jobs associated with East-West in Melbourne.
#StopTheGiggling
Tony Abbott:
I conclude this answer by indicating if members opposite are serious about Medicare, we won’t see that constant giggling. If they’ve got serious questions they will treat the answers with the seriousness that they deserve.
Updated
Labor MP Graham Perrett gets the royal order of the boot, under 94A.
Tanya Plibersek asks Tony Abbott:
At the G20 summit in November, the PM told world leaders, including US President Obama, German Chancellor Merkel and Japanese PM Abe that he wanted, and I quote, “To inject more price signals into our health system.” Given the PM felt so strongly about the GP tax that he tried to sell it to the world’s most powerful leaders, how can Australians believe that his unfair GP tax is really gone?
Tony Abbott:
We consulted, we heard and we responded.
Sussan Ley flags no new Medicare policy. Yet.
Tony Abbott says s-s-s-s...I should have known better on health policy
Asked about the Medicare non-policy, Tony Abbott offers a mea culpa on mucking up the Medicare co-payment policy.
As a former health minister, I suppose I should have been more conscious of this. I should have been more conscious of the fact that proper health reform in this country does require...the support, the cooperation, the consent of the medical profession.
Sussan Ley gets a government question on the same issue. She follows up with:
We are a government that listens. We are a government that consults.
The measure will not proceed and has been taken permanently off the table.
A question to justice minister Michael Keenan on metadata. He talks about all the cases that have been solved via metadata and the fact that internet companies at present do not need to keep this information. And we’re onto the privacy issues.
We appreciate on this side of the house the people’s concerns about privacy but I want to assure all Australians security of our personal information is a key priority of the government. And we’re taking steps to ensure that that’s the case.
Data under this new regime, can only be accessible on a lawful case by case basis. Agencies which access metadata which currently stands at 80, will be reduced to around 20. The Commonwealth ombudsman and the privacy commissioner will continue to assess industries compliance with privacy principles and the inspector general of intelligence and security will continue to report back of ASIO’s access to data.
Clive Palmer asks a question:
Where is the $70m contributed by public funds and members of the public been spent? Why does your president and director of the Liberal party refuse to provide the party’s financial accounts to the national executive.
It is ruled out of order by speaker Bishop and he is sat down.
This goes to the Liberal party treasurer’s email.
Updated
This is the nub of Bill Shorten’s statement.
From the outset, Labor’s support for Australia’s current mission in Iraq has been bipartisan and our foundation of that is based upon the invitation of the Iraqi government as part of an international coalition with responsibility to protect Iraqi civilians from Daesh. It’s been underpinned by four key principles.
- Australian operations to be confined to Iraq.
- That our involvement should continue only until the Iraqi government is ready to take full responsibility for the security of their people and their nation.
- That we don’t support the deployment of Australian ground combat units to directly engage infighting Daish.
- If the Iraqi government and its forces engage in unacceptable conduct, Australia would withdraw its support.
Updated
Tony Abbott crosses into a common theme on the nature of soldiers and a reflection of their courage. It is a slight obsession.
I respect and admire, I honour, I am in awe of the professionalism and the commitment of the Australian armed forces. They are the bestof us, Madam Speaker, and the rest of us should do whatever we can to support them and encourage them in their work. Madam Speaker, I love all my time spent with the Australian Defence Forces, I really do. I’ve tried to make it my business to visit their bases as often as I can, to speak with them as often as I can. I obviously can’t go out and fight with them but, Madam Speaker, I try at least to sweat with them which is one of the reasons why I’ve tried so often to have physical training at the very least with the members of our armed forces when I am on their bases.
Updated
As Tony Abbott is speaking, have a read of his mate Tom Switzer, in our pages.
Tony Abbott’s announcement to deploy 300 Australian army instructors to Iraq by the middle of this year reminds one of Talleyrand’s observations of the Bourbon monarchs: he has learnt nothing and forgotten nothing since the invasion in 2003.
As much as it pains me to say this, the prime minister and other western interventionists – including (of all people) Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek – are showing the same contempt for the lessons of history.
In the process, Tony Abbott is allowed to speak at length without interruption by Madame Speaker.
Then he segues into a statement so that Shorten can say his piece.
Updated
But then Tony Abbott goes on to say he has briefed Labor since January on the troop deployment and latterly by the PMO today, when the press conference was underway.
Updated
The point is that by using a question on the troops rather than a statement, Tony Abbott has denied Labor a chance to speak on the troop deployment.
Christopher Pyne tries to be helpful to the speaker and then Abbott realises he is heading down a political cul de sac.
Abbott says he is happy to make a statement so Labor can respond.
Updated
Bill Shorten rises to mention the troop deployment to make the point Labor’s thoughts are with the troops.
Obviously decided he needed to say something.
Speaker Bishop says it is amounting to more of a statement, rather than just “seeking indulgence”.
She asks how long the statement is and after learning it is four pages, she says you can do it after question time.
Labor is outraged.
Philip Ruddock asks Julie Bishop about the government’s efforts to start Daesh of all support.
Bishop says the deployment is a “building partner capacity initiative”.
She says Daesh annually raises $2 billion derived from various criminal activities including oil smuggling, drug trafficking, extortion, donations including through nonprofit organisations and fund-raising through online networks.
Australia’s taking a lead role internationally to protect the integrity of international financial systems and to prevent the transfer of funds to terrorist groups.
Abbott is asked about his previous commitments to the co-payment. Abbott repeats the same formula, that he is committed to Medicare and consulting with doctors.
Tony Burke takes a point of order over the government using a question to speak about the Iraq deployment. He says the convention is a ministerial statement. The implication being, it needs to be taken out of the political arena.
There goes the bipartisanship, says Christopher Pyne.
Tony Abbott says to Burke, if you’re so concerned, why didn’t you ask a question about Iraq?
In other words, I’ll have you! Step outside.
The troop deployment question from PM’s friend Liberal MP Luke Simpkins.
Abbott gives a very similar formula to his press conference.
Eric Abetz is taking similar Medicare questions in the senate question time.
Sussan Ley:
Because we understand that universal coverage, equitable distribution in costs and simplicity of administration from time to time may need to be managed, modernised, consulted with, appreciated and built into the future and that’s what my consultations are doing.
We are onto question time.
Tony Burke starts by inviting Tony Abbott to make a statement on the troop deployment.
He declines.
So Catherine King asks if the health minister will introduce a “value signal” to Medicare.
Sussan Ley notes it is King’s first question to her.
Ley says she is still consulting.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
I’ll see your flags and raise them.
@gabriellechan @GuardianAus - count these ones. I am almost certain more out of shot. pic.twitter.com/JOXJydbYz1
— Duane Gorry (@DTrainGorry) March 3, 2015
Blue Steel.
Tony Abbott flags troop deployment.
Ok we have some great flag-offs ahead of question time at 2pm.
@gabriellechan Ah Ha! pic.twitter.com/mGXcPqhLPO
— Danny Russell (@nonshedders) March 3, 2015
Lenore Taylor asks Ley if keeping the indexation pause in place would achieve their cost cutting objectives over time. Ley does not want to answer that.
I would rather answer that question by saying we’re pausing the indexation on the rebate while we consult with the medical profession. The medical profession has made no secret of the fact that they don’t like that, but they understand that a sensible, sustainable policy needs to be arrived at.
She rules out raising the Medicare levy as a “lazy option”.
Why would you raise taxes to fund inefficiencies? You must be much better to fund those efficiencies in the first place.
Sussan Ley is asked about the more than 50 occasions when the prime minister defended the copayment, to which she says it’s more useful to “look forward than backwards”.
Updated
Sussan Ley won’t give guarantees around the end of the indexation pause due to ongoing consultations.
Ley remains committed to the $1bn medical research fund.
What stuffed this up? (my words)
The policy intent was and remains a good one.
Ley is asked if she is committed to Medicare and will pause continue?
Sussan Ley:
What I’ve said about the pause to the indexation of the rebate, is yes that will continue. We will consult the profession, patients, consumers, everyone with an interest in this area to make sure we come up with sustainable options.
Updated
Copayment dumped but no final decision
Health minister Sussan Ley wants to keep Medicare sustainable.
She will keep the pause on indexation, dump the copayment because it has no support and continue to consult.
There is no final position. Breaking.
Updated
Lunchtime politics
- Tony Abbott has announced a “training” troop deployment to Iraq, likely to be 300 regular soldiers. He has compared it to the original Anzacs.
- Australia Post is to apply to the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission for a rise in stamps to $1 with 60c for concessions.
- Clive Palmer will oppose all government legislation in the senate due to the Liberal party’s accounting methods.
- Sussan Ley is announcing the new co-payment plan as we post.
-
More shortly.
Australia Post applies for $1 stamps
A snap from communications minister Malcolm Turnbull on the price of stamps.
The price of regular letters will be overseen by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), consistent with the current practice. Australia Post has advised the government it will apply to the ACCC to raise the regular stamp price from $0.70 to $1.00. This is necessary to support a more sustainable letters service with an aim of breaking even over time. The priority service will be a commercial product.
Australia Post will continue to deliver mail five days a week to 98% of addresses, and the delivery speed will vary depending on the service. The priority service will be delivered to a faster timetable than the regular service.
Concession card holders will continue to be offered a concession rate stamp, which will be frozen at $0.60, and all Australians will continue to have access to a $0.65 Christmas rate stamp.
Updated
Australia-New Zealand troop deployment to Iraq has parallels with original Anzacs
Tony Abbott links the involvement to the original Anzac forces and the centenary of Anzac this year.
I should point out that even in the Anzac operation at Gallipoli, the New Zealanders were in their units and the Australians were in our units and so that’s a perfectly normal thing for the nationals of particular companies to serve in their national units.
Look, I’m very pleased and proud that in this centenary of Anzac year that Australia and New Zealand will be contributing to this important mission. I know it’s not strictly speaking an Anzac mission ... but it certainly is an Australia and New Zealand military contribution, a joint military contribution to an important mission and I think there are obviously historical parallels.
Updated
Asked why he did not want to announce it earlier when the NZ prime minister effectively leaked it, Abbott says it was important to take the party room into his confidence.
Given the Iraqi army “melted like snow in summer”, Mark Binskin is asked if the Iraqi soldiers are “trainable”.
Mark Binskin:
If I didn’t think they were trainable I wouldn’t make a recommendation to government we could go in and do this, but it’s going to take a concerted effort to do it.
Australians will be deeply uncomfortable with this, so what will success look like?
Tony Abbott:
If I may say so, what the Australian people want is security at home, but you can’t have security at home without doing your bit for security abroad.
Oz troops needed in Iraq due to "apocalyptic throwback to the middle ages"
Tony Abbott is asked why he thinks it would be any more successful than the last involvement in Iraq in 2003.
He takes issue with the question, as a misconception of the training role this time around.
It is a mission which is necessary, because obviously in the face of the initial death cult onslaught, the Iraqi regular army melted like snow in summer. That’s been a disaster for the people of Iraq, millions of whom now live in a new dark age.
It’s been a disaster for the people of the wider world, including the people of Australia, because the declaration of a caliphate, this apocalyptic throwback to the middle ages, the declaration of a caliphate has obviously excited people all around the world who are susceptible to this particular ideology and that’s why it’s very important not just for the people of Iraq, but for the people of the wider world, that the Iraqis regain control over their own country and demonstrate that this caliphate is not something which is going to have any lengthy existence.
If Daesh is on the run, why not put boots on the ground and finish them off?
Tony Abbott says it’s a fair question but he’s working “in lockstep” with the Iraqi government.
They do not want foreign combat troops on the ground and obviously working with the Iraqis, we are doing what they have requested of us.
He is asked about the measure of success but the PM does not want to get “too prescriptive” at this stage.
Tony Abbott does not rule out “additional work” for special forces troops.
Two year timeline for Iraq
On the timeline - two years:
We expect this training mission to be fully operational, should we make the final decision to commit in June. After 12 months we’d review it, we’d review it again every 12 months and like our New Zealand partners, we at this stage are saying that it’s a 2-year mission with that 12-month review.
Updated
Tony Abbott is asked to guarantee whether it will be the last escalation of troops.
He declines to answer the question, not in so many words.
Re the risk of blue-on-blue attacks:
Tony Abbott:
As for blue on blue,you can never rule these things out, but one of the reasons why there is a very strong force protection element in this training contingent is to prevent precisely that.
Mark Binskin:
It’s a real risk, it’s a risk I take very seriously. As the prime minister said,there is a large force protection element involved in this deployment and we’re making sure that we take all our lessons learnt after the last 10 or so years of operations in the Middle East into account when we’ve been planning.
Abbott rejects a suggestion of mission creep.
It’s not mission creep. It’s making sure we do what we reasonably can to protect ourselves and Iraq and the wider world from the Daesh death cult.
Mark Binskin, chief of defence forces, says the campaign has been successful since Australia took part.
The campaign so far has been successful in storming the advance of Daesh across Iraq. Since October, Daesh have not made any significant territorial gains.
Kevin Andrews, defence minister:
As the prime minister said, we know that more than 90 Australians are involved with Daesh in Iraq and the Middle East and more than 140 supporting them here in Australia so it is worth remembering why our forces are actually operating in Iraq. The depravity, the brutality which we have seen on our television screens and on YouTube and in the media indicates that this is something that the world cannot ignore.
Updated
Tony Abbott:
We are naturally reluctant as a peace-loving people to reach out to far-away conflicts but, as we know, this conflict has been reaching out to us for months now. The government’s decision has the support of the prime minister of Iraq and it responds to a formal request from the United States to contribute specific Australian Defence Force capabilities to this international coalition.
It is a matter of domestic and international security, says the prime minister.
Abbott says he has not taken the decision lightly and other forces include the United States, Spain, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands “in training”.
Australian troops to Iraq
Tony Abbott says Australia will contribute to a “building partner capacity training mission in Iraq and this follows requests from the Iraqi and from the United States governments”.
Numbers are still being finalised but likely to be 300.
The troops will be working with New Zealand troops, likely to number 100.
I challenge anyone to find a pollie picture at a press conference with more than eight flags, even in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
My Twitter pal @MattGlassDarkly has captured the Bollard Squad.
@gabriellechan *EXCLUSIVE* 1st picture of the Parliamentary Roving Bollard Squad (PRBS). @ellinghausen #politicslive pic.twitter.com/kIgB5zpDIj
— The Matt Hatter (@MattGlassDarkly) March 3, 2015
PMs presser eight flags @gabriellechan @GuardianAus #politicslive pic.twitter.com/Dcwv5qmyzO
— Mike Bowers (@mpbowers) March 3, 2015
An eight-flag day
Remember at the last national security press conference at the Australian federal police headquarters for the release of the Lindt cafe siege report, Tony Abbott was flanked by six flags.
As we await his announcement on the Iraq troop deployment, we have discovered this is an eight-flag day.
Updated
Treasurer Joe Hockey has been speaking after a tax announcement, which I will bring you to shortly.
But just before health minister Sussan Ley unveils the new co-payment plan, Hockey has stated the obvious – which is the Medicare co-payment reversal will blow another hole in the budget. Mathias Cormann would not admit as much this morning, sticking clearly to the talking points. But here is Joe:
The thing is Labor doesn’t understand that whenthey knock off savings measures, it does have a negative impact on the budget. Yesterday they announced a new initiative in multi-national taxation. Everyone has panned it because it is not credible; it doesn’t stack up, like so much of what they did in taxation doesn’t stack up.
Updated
Tony Abbott is holding a press conference at 12.45pm on troops.
The curious case of contorting Clive
Clive Palmer has performed contortions in the past 24 hours.
Yesterday Palmer said his senators Glenn Lazarus and Dio Wang were abstaining from all votes on government legislation until the “chaos ended”.
This morning, Palmer said the central point was the way the Liberal party accounting process.
It is not so much about the leadership, it is about the state of the Liberal Party. We saw their treasurer raise a number of concerns last week where the Liberal Party has received millions of dollars of public money but they still won’t publish their accounts and they won’t make their accounts available to members of their own executive.
Palmer has told my colleague Shalailah Medhora that PUP is not so much abstaining but opposing. They will continue to vote against bills which don’t have bipartisan support and they will review others.
And then, the PUPs will review whole arrangement by the end of the week.
Clear? Good.
Andrew Wilkie says Australia is joining the "war on the ground" with Iraq troop decision
Independent and former intelligence officer Andrew Wilkie is urging the media and the public not to let the government fool them on 300 extra troops for Iraq.
This is not part of a multinational coalition. This is a virtually unilateral decision by the Abbott government to put troops on the ground in that country. It’s dressed up with a small number of Kiwis but, at the end of the day, it is a virtually unilateral decision to go back and join the war on the ground.
Wilkie says the decision, to be announced shortly by Tony Abbott, to deploy another 300 Australian troops to Iraq on top of the 200 already there, is a bad decision.
It is further evidence that we should not have helped create this mess in the first place 12 years ago. I make the point again – we are now reaping what we sowed in 2003 when we helped start a war that has run unabated for 12 years, which created the instability in that country which has allowed the emergence of Islamic State.
BTW, Bill Shorten was asked by his party room whether the increase in troops was a matter of “mission creep” in Iraq. Shorten repeated his principles, which included ensuring Australia did not have independent formed combat units.
The government has said the troops will go in as part of a training force and Labor are expecting a brief before question time. Which may or may not be after the public press conference.
Updated
Daniel Hurst has received a Labor party room briefing. They were mainly talking metadata. Bill Shorten made the point that Malcolm Turnbull’s bill to force telcos to keep customers call records and emails for two years was “inadequate” prior to a review by a joint committee. The bill is yet to be amended according to the recommendations so Bill is keeping his powder dry.
We cannot determine a position today because the government has still not provided us with the amendments they will be moving to the bill.
Labor’s position is opaque but Shorten says he will be considering three important issues.
- greater oversight of security agencies
- freedom of press
- arrangements for storage of retained data
There were five questions on metadata from MPs and senators, one of which was whether the ombudsman will be funded adequately to perform at a more expansive role.
Other questions were around Labor’s public statements on the issue. One member or senator asked when the leadership was going to start talking about the benefits of the bill. One suggested Shorten et al needed to explain Labor’s position better.
While we wait for the party rooms to break up, there is an interesting Coalition stoush occurring down in Gippsland South, the Victorian seat which is facing a byelection due to the retirement of Nationals MP Peter Ryan.
The retirement gives the Liberals a chance to compete, as the parliamentary partners are not normally into three cornered contests.
So Liberal Scott Rosetti is up against Danny O’Brien for the Nationals. The Nats have taken a stand against fracking in the seat, with a clear eye on community concerns and the loss of the nearby seat of Shepparton to an independent in the Victorian election.
Former Howard minister Peter Reith gave the Nats a whack yesterday on “being in bed with the Greens” on coal seam gas. Now the Libs complained of dirty tricks, complaining that 40 posters have been ripped down, some within hours.
The Nats weren’t directly accused but federal MP Darren Chester was in no doubt as to the accusation.
.@rharris334 Cry me a river Libs, someone stole our candidate's head... Clearly a surgical strike! #teamdanny pic.twitter.com/s6GQOb7Z9g
— Darren Chester MP (@DarrenChesterMP) March 3, 2015
Thanks to a bit of home publishing skills @KellieOc Now @DannyOBrienNats looks great - vast improvement #teamdanny pic.twitter.com/4fvvymTOOe
— Darren Chester MP (@DarrenChesterMP) March 2, 2015
@DarrenChesterMP @KellieOc For the record, I've always been Dobba, not Dobby!
— Danny O'Brien (@DannyOBrienNats) March 2, 2015
Updated
There will be a press conference on the Medicare at 1.30pm.
But before then, sometime, there will be a prime ministerial press conference on Iraq.
The Turning of the Screw
During the life of the government, the increased control over media has been an on-going feature. As someone who has had some experience with sheep yards, it is easy to feel more and more like journalists are being penned in and channelled down a race, both figuratively with spin and literally with bollards.
Of course there has to be orderly and polite conduct at public events and sometimes we fail on that measure, but in the bounds of parliament, there are clear areas where media are allowed to film and interview. Increasingly, those areas too are being restricted to ensure politicians do not face pesky questions.
Photographers and camera people are usually the first to bear the brunt and Fairfax photographer Alex Ellinghausen expressed his frustration with this tweet.
Day 23 of Good Govt and we now have a 'roving bollard squad' adding last minute bollards to stop media, what next? pic.twitter.com/aZBrV5tgCe
— ellinghausen (@ellinghausen) March 2, 2015
Today at the UN womens breakfast, parliamentary security guards tried to cordon off an area behind the media as they were walking backwards, raising issues of safety as well as public accountability.
Gallery committee should lodge complaint: RT "@ellinghausen: roving bollard squad to stop media, what next? pic.twitter.com/OVub1vzs1Z”
— Mark Riley (@Riley7News) March 2, 2015
It is not clear who gave the orders – the executive government or the presiding officers. It continues a certain tension between the journalists and the government, which has been characterised by a tribal treatment towards media outlets.
As a media organisation, you are either inside the tent or outside. BTW, #politicslive is not only outside the tent, but over the hills and far away.
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Labor’s leader in the senate, Penny Wong, was also keen to link the Medicare policy spaghetti with the prime minister’s leadership. Her line – “you can’t trust the Liberals when it comes to Medicare” – is very similar to a line that worked for Tony Abbott so well on asylum seekers. “You can’t trust Labor to stop the boats”. On Monday in the senate, Labor used a different version on industrial relations in regard to the government’s attempt to establish a union watchdog. You can’t trust the government on IR, or words to that effect.
It goes to those lists that pollsters regularly compile, regarding which party can be trusted on which issue. Labor is more likely to be trusted on health and education, the Coalition is more likely to be trusted on the economy and security.
There is a lot of discussion in the papers, a lot of conjecture about what is going to happen to the GP tax, Tony Abbott sending up smoke signals. If the prime minister moves away from the GP tax today everyone in Australia will know what made him. Not the voters, not the doctors, not because he believes in Medicare, but his own job. This is all about saving his own skin, that’s why the prime minister is looking at the GP tax, not because he likes Medicare and not because he has listened to the Australian people. You can’t trust the Liberals when it comes to Medicare.
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I mentioned Julie Bishop at the UN womens brekkie earlier. Bishop says she was still holding out hope for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. Labor’s Tanya Plibersek has expressed similar sentiments. Bishop noted the government has not received any advice on the timing of the executions.
On the troop deployments to Iraq, Bishop said she would not pre-empt the announcement by Tony Abbott.
Labor’s shadow health minister Catherine King is getting in ahead of the Medicare co-payment announcement to link the policy change to Tony Abbott’s leadership challenges.
It’s hard not to be cynical about the timing of all this. Whatever changes Tony Abbott announces, it’s pretty clear he’s been forced into the position because of the pressure on his leadership and the Senate and Labor standing up to them. It’s not because he doesn’t want to do this. We’ve heard him 53 times backing a GP tax as good policy and the best friend of Medicare we’ve ever had, he claims. We’ve had him support a $7 GP tax, a $20 cut, a $5 GP tax and a four year freeze on indexation. Let’s see what he comes up with next.
King commented on the option of a different payment system for the chronically ill, which she described as a “medical home”.
If that’s the pathway the government wants to start to go down, we’ll certainly talk to them. But again, what we’re concerned about at the moment is you’re not going to get there, you’re not going to start to engage and boost your primary care system if what you have got on the table is billions of dollars of cuts out of it.
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After the event, the prime minister exited – stage right but Malcolm Turnbull stayed for a chat. As did Julie Bishop, ever so briefly.
He For She is the UN’s campaign against domestic violence. It is designed to get men onboard to talk about domestic violence.
Pink ribbons all round.
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As we are talking the Medicare co-payment, it is a reminder that the government is still struggling to get through a number of last year’s budget proposals - just as this year’s budget is being designed.
The Business Council of Australia dropped their budget submissions to a number of media outlets overnight. They are just one of many industry groups, unions, lobby groups and other rentseekers who hope to push policy in one direction or the other. The head of the BCA, Jennifer Westacott had some advice for the government on why the coalition’s first policy fell so flat in the first place.
I think the lesson from last year’s budget is surely that if you don’t do the policy work properly, you get into trouble. And that’s why we’re saying look, you know, obviously the community has probably got some anxiety about more reviews, but good reviews, done well, is still the right way to tackle some of these big complex issues like health. But let’s do it properly and I think that’s the lesson from last year’s budget.
Westacott obviously felt – like most of the rest of Australia – the budget was not executed well. She named the changes to Newstart (which make young people wait six months for unemployment benefits) were “too harsh”. However she named higher education deregulation as “basically right”, with more safeguards.
On the current budget we’re saying some things should be redesigned so, you know, we believe the Newstart changes, the kind of people having to wait six months for the dole, was too harsh. Tertiary education, we think that reform is basically right, perhaps with some more safeguards. So that’s last year’s budget. Let me be really clear, we’re not talking about more cuts. We’re talking about slowing the rate of growth in the major spending programs because that’s actually the challenge for government.
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Clive Palmer has been out early on the news channels claiming credit for the government backflip on the Medicare co-payment. Labor was not the key here, says Clive. It was Palmer United senators that made the difference.
Though he looked a little tired, he gave little hint at his bereavement. Palmer’s beloved dinosaur Jeff has been destroyed by fire just after midnight. It would appear 95% of the T-Rex is gone and police suggested Jeff could not be saved. They will be investigating the fire.
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Good morning fellow travellers,
The ship of state has pushed off from the wharf already this morning and the news is that captain Tony Abbott is preparing to scrape off one of the largest most persistent barnacles, being the Medicare co-payment.
Cabinet met last night and presumably signed off on a plan which will - under the new era of good government - be taken to the party room for their blessing. Tony Abbott is now all ears.
You will remember this co-payment started at $7, dropped to $5 and then was put on hold while the government talked to doctors to check what they actually thought.
Down the hall at the Fin Review, Joanna Heath has a story suggesting the government may be considering a completely new Medicare model which dumps the “fee for service” approach.
In an attempt to reduce the churn of so-called “six-minute medicine”, the new model would pay GPs an amount in advance annually to look after some patients, most likely the chronically ill.
This would replace the per-service Medicare rebate charge, and has been introduced in other countries to incentivise GPs to improve patients’ health faster rather than see them as many times as possible to maximise income. The patients themselves would most likely fit into categories that are routinely bulk-billed.
Cabinet also apparently signed off on the new troop deployment to Iraq. This was the deployment Australians learned about via the New Zealand PM, as his announcement echoed across the ditch.
Our own PM, meanwhile, has been speaking at a United Nations Women Committee event in parliament house.
Abbott committed $120,000 over two years to support women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds through the court system.
It was a bit of a theme. Abbott said he was keen to focus on problems faced by migrant women, whom he said often lack support both inside and outside their own communities, dealing with “forced marriage, child marriage and worse”.
If you love a community you must face its darkness because that is the only way to change.
Okey dokey, there is plenty more coming up. Clive Palmer has been talking about chaos, Julie Bishop has been talking Bali 9, the Business Council of Australia has put in their budget recipe for success and the Australian Medical Association is trying to be helpful.
All that and more as we hoist the main sail and prepare to navigate the cross winds of parliament, due to begin at midday. Join us below or on Twitter @gabriellechan and @mpbowers.
Note Bowers wonderful picture of the Number 1 prime minister at the top of the blog. That must be Malcolm Turnbull lurking behind on table 2.
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