Night time politics
- Preference deals in the WA election have become the focus after the WA Liberals confirmed they would do a preference swap with One Nation. The National party is not happy because the Liberals are preferencing Pauline Hanson above the Nats in some seats. Barnaby Joyce threatened in a sort of “two can play at that game” kinda way. Attorney general George Brandis said the WA Nats have already preferenced other parties ahead of the Liberals in the past. Later in the afternoon, Pauline Hanson accused Labor of trying to get a grubby preference deal with One Nation but Labor’s state secretary denied this. Evan Moorhead said it was One Nation chief of staff James Ashby who approached Labor and Labor rejected his proposal. To be helpful, Tony Abbott said he would personally preference the Nats ahead of One Nation if it were up to him. Which contrasted with Malcolm Turnbull who said very little.
- Energy policy was the other topic that dominated question time after freedom of information documents revealed the prime minister’s department had received advice over the September 2016 statewide blackout in South Australia. The advice said it was not caused by renewables. Malcolm Turnbull said he did not say the blackout was caused by renewables but due to the SA Labor government introducing more renewables without properly planning for it. While it is hard to find a Turnbull quote in which he directly blames renewables for the blackout per se, the key message from the government since the blackout has been against renewables for the sake of cheap energy. This is what Turnbull said after the blackout: “Let’s take this storm in South Australia … as a real wake-up call. Let’s end the ideology and focus on clear renewable targets.”
-
The prime minister marked the ninth anniversary of Kevin Rudd’s apology to the stolen generations. He foreshadowed the Closing the Gap report tomorrow, acknowledges the importance of the words and says deeds rather than words would get Australia on the path to reconciliation.
- As we close the blog, One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts has just suggested more guns equal less crimes. He is speaking against a government bill that would provide for a mandatory minimum sentence and increase maximum penalties for trafficking firearms or firearms parts within Australia, and into and out of Australia. “It is incumbent on us to promote freedom over control”. He has called the bill “Stalinesque”.
Thanks to the brains trust including Gareth Hutchens, Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp and Mike Bowers. Tomorrow is another day so join us for #politicslive for all the news from the party rooms.
Let me turn out the lights. Good night.
Updated
The member for Griffith will leave the chamber.
Senate blackout -the lights went out during debate this afternoon @gabriellechan @GuardianAus #politicslive pic.twitter.com/zAfxwmYWJx
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) February 13, 2017
Updated
BTW the lights literally went out in the Senate for a short time. I thought I was seeing things but Mike Bowers – who is in the chamber – confirmed it.
Updated
Scott Morrison is speaking to David Speers on Sky.
Morrison is trying to get out of questions on a preference swap with One Nation in Western Australia. That is a question for the WA Liberal division.
Morrison: "I literally put coal back on the table". Says investors don't want to invest in it due to "sovereign risk" #auspol
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) February 13, 2017
A baby will always make it better.
Queensland Labor secretary says James Ashby approached Labor and he was knocked back
Evan Moorhead, the Queensland Labor state secretary, told Guardian Australia that Hanson’s account of the discussion was “absolute nonsense”.
Moorhead said that it was Hanson’s chief of staff, James Ashby, who had approached him seeking a preference deal with Labor to cut out “lazy” Liberal National party MPs in the next Queensland election.
Ashby rang me looking for preference discussions and I said no. I said the issue is that in a lot of the places that they’re talking about, the two-candidate preferred battle will be between One Nation and the Libs. And we’ve always had a position on putting One Nation last.
He said he wanted to go after ‘lazy’ LNP MPs.
I said, well we’re not in the job of propping them up but we’re not going to preference you.
Hanson: You have all got a lot to learn about what grassroots Australians want
Get out your tissues Labor, says Pauline Hanson.
The fact is you should get our your tissues. The tears are running down your cheeks because you haven’t been able to do a preference deal with us. The fact is you have lost your way in this nation. Whether you’ve held government at state or federal, you have run this country into the ground because you have gone so socialist with your policies, you’ve got the CFMEU, the unions running you, so you’ve got no control over your own destiny. People can’t rely on you at all. So don’t talk to me about grubby deals ...
The Labor party have lost their way ... I’m not going stand here and support the Liberal or the National party either because I think they all have a lot to learn with what grassroots Australians really want. I said from the very beginning when it came down to doing preferences for Western Australia, I was going to do what I thought was best to get One Nation candidates elected for a parliament. That’s exactly what I am doing. I am not here to prop up the Colin Barnett government and I am certainly not here to get Mark McGowan elected either.
Updated
Pauline Hanson to Labor: Don't talk about grubby deals
More from Pauline Hanson to Labor on Labor’s alleged attempt at a deal.
So don’t talk about grubby deals. The fact is, I will not apologise for being a patriotic Australian and standing up for Australian values and the Australian people.
So you can do your deals with the Greens and all of the rest of it who want to see Australian coal destroyed, jobs destroyed, opened up for extremists in this country and all the rest of it. Do your deals with them, that’s absolutely wonderful. It is not what the people want.
Updated
Senator Sam Dastyari spoke after Hanson, reiterating Labor’s commitment not to do a preference deal with One Nation, adding that it is in Labor’s platform not to, but he did not address the alleged Queensland approach.
He says nothing has changed in One Nation in 20 years – “they even say they haven’t changed”. Dastyari says it is the Liberal party that has changed since John Howard ruled out doing preference deals.
You are just more desperate ... How is it OK that ‘we are being swamped by Asians’ has changed to ‘we are being swamped by Muslims’?
How is that OK?
Updated
Pauline Hanson says Labor approached One Nation for a 'grubby deal' in January
Senator Pauline Hanson has just said in the Senate that the Labor Queensland state secretary, Evan Moorhead, approached One Nation on 25 January asking for what she called a “grubby deal”.
Evan Moorhead wanted One Nation to run dead in all Queensland Labor seats and in return Labor would run dead in One Nation strongholds or seats they had no chance of winning.
This is a pretty explosive revelation, given that federal Labor leader, Bill Shorten, and the deputy leader, Tanya Plibersek, have said (albeit since then, in early February) that Labor will never trade preferences with One Nation.
Updated
The cranky level has been rising in the parliament since Malcolm Turnbull’s speech on Bill Shorten last week.
Today, Turnbull had rolled the word “illuminate” with great flourish.
To which, Labor’s Ed Husic yelled:
Don’t electrocute or elocute me.
Labor is baiting him now.
Updated
Updated
I see your coal and raise it by a solar panel.
Adam Bandt taunts minister Frydenberg with a solar panel during #QT @gabriellechan @GuardianAus #politicslive pic.twitter.com/3lJNwBILNY
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) February 13, 2017
Labor to Turnbull: I referred to the prime minister’s previous answer, and also to the Australian newspaper this morning, which reveals the highest price rises for electricity over the past decade occurred in the three states with the highest reliance on coal power and the lowest on renewables, New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. How does the prime minister explain these massive price rises when he can’t blame renewable energy?
Turnbull accuses Labor of trying to shift the blame away from the state Labor government. But he does not answer the question of why there are price rises in other states that do not have high reliance on renewables.
Updated
Labor to Turnbull: Today we’ve learnt through freedom of information that the commonwealth government was directly advised about the blackout in South Australia last year, and I quote, Australian energy market operators’ advice was that the generation mix, that is, renewable or fossil fuel, was not to blame. Why then, on the exact same day of receiving this advice, did the prime minister and his energy minister blame renewable energy for the blackout?
Turnbull says nobody is suggesting it was renewables that caused the storm.
Certainly nobody is suggesting that there was a solar panel that caused the storm, or that the extreme wind event was caused by an errant wind turbine going at excessive speed. We all know that. But the reality is that the South Australian Labor government introduced massive amounts of renewables into their grid and did not plan for the consequences. That’s the fact, that’s what the AEMO says.
Updated
There is another question on energy prices to the small business minister, Michael McCormack.
Updated
Malcolm Turnbull is asked by Labor to confirm the advice given to the prime minister’s department that the South Australian blackout in September was the result of a storm.
Nothing better illuminates the delusion of the Labor party than that question. They are in a state of denial. A complete state of denial.
Turnbull quotes the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), which said there was a lower resilience to extreme events.
Of course it wasn’t a windmill that caused the transmission line to fall down. No one said it was ...
Turnbull says Labor has lost the plot on energy policy.
They are on their way to the light on the hill through the darkness of the night. The light is there. It is still. There is not a sound but then you hear softly at first, and then louder and louder, the chug, chug, chug of the back-up generator because that is what you need to power the light on the hill or anywhere in South Australia. They have been sacrificed. The people of South Australia, on the altar of Labor’s incompetence and ideology.
But Turnbull does not answer the question regarding the advice to his department. Labor seeks to table the advice but the government refuses.
Updated
Labor’s Jenny Macklin to Turnbull: I referred to the government’s announcement today that it will use $3bn it wants to cut from families, pensioners and new mums to fund the national disability insurance scheme. Given the prime minister’s cuts have little chance of passing parliament, will he cut $3bn dollars from the NDIS? Why will he cut the NDIS instead of scrapping his $50bn handout to big business? What sort of out of touch government ...
Malcolm Turnbull, with a snarl:
Because the government I lead can count, which is more than you can say for the government the honourable member is part of. All members of this House and the parliament support the NDIS but it has to be paid for. And the Labor government left it massively underfunded and what we are doing is ensuring that measure after measure it is putting funds to support the NDIS.
Updated
Cory Bernardi was sitting in Pauline Hanson's seat. He got up and jokes he wasn't stealing her seat as she walked into #SenateQT.
— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) February 13, 2017
Barnaby Joyce:
The problem with the Labor party these days, Mr Speaker, is the Labor party doesn’t have any people getting any labour. There are no workers in it any more. They’ve given up on workers and taken up on union officials and university students. That’s what the Labor party is, union officials and university students. They don’t have the working men and women ...
Labor’s Tony Burke wants to table the preference tickets for the seats of Herbert, Dobell and others which have One Nation preferenced last. The government says no, you can’t table it.
Updated
Happy times.
Joel Fitzgibbon to Barnaby Joyce: Today he said of the One Nation deal: “This is a disappointing move – I hope the architects of it understand the ramifications of the decision.” Given the finance minister was involved, has he ever conducted negotiations with One Nation on behalf of the deputy prime minister or any other National party ministers? Is he happy to have the minister for finance negotiating with One Nation on his behalf?
Speaker Smith rules it out of order and Tony Burke takes issue. He allows Joyce to answer a small part of the question.
Joyce starts talking about the Labor MP for Herbert getting in on One Nation preferences.
Updated
Energy and environment minister Josh Frydenberg is asked about energy policy.
Greens MP Adam Bandt gets up to brandish a solar panel (in answer to the treasurer’s lump of coal).
Speaker Tony Smith gives “fair warning” and says any more props will be dealt with. It is not going to become a regular feature of question time because it is “unbecoming”.
Frydenberg quips:
I wonder if the member for Melbourne knows that it takes 220 tonnes of coal to make a wind turbine? And a dozen metals and minerals to make a solar panel?
Independent Andrew Wilkie asks Turnbull: your commitment to healthcare is compromised by the freeze on the Medicare rebate for a visit to the GP. Indeed, yours is a regressive policy that burdens the poor because the freeze is driving down bulk billing rates. This is just playing dumb because primary care at 7% of the health budget is not the cause of health-care inflation. It is what helps keep people out of expensive hospitals. Tasmania is being slugged hard because bulk billing was down 2% in the last quarter even though we are the most disadvantaged and sickest state. Prime Minister, please, will you immediately lift the freeze on the Medicare rebate for a visit to the GP?
The prime minister talks about healthcare spending in Tasmania but does not go to the freeze on the Medicare rebate.
There is a government question on cost of living pressures.
Now Labor’s Tanya Plibersek to foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop: One Nation has called to end the position in the United Nations and Pauline Hanson dismissed concerns over Vladimir Putin’s role in the deaths of 300 people, including 38 Australians on flight MH17. What does it say about the government approach to foreign policy when a member of cabinet describes a party with this approach as sophisticated? Have they been concerned about Senator Pauline Hanson’s influence?
Bishop says it’s a bit rich given the member for Dobell, Emma McBride, got into parliament on One Nation preferences. She goes on:
I think it is pretty rich for the member for Sydney to seek to lecture us on preferences that are determined by the state divisions when the Labor party unquestioningly accepts Green preferences and entered into a coalition with the Greens who has a view of one-world government, who wants to tear up the US-Australia alliance, and who would have to represent the most dangerous political train of thought in Australian politics. Labor unquestioningly does deals with the Greens. They are the risk to foreign policy in this country. A Labor-Greens coalition.
- NB: The government has also done deals with the Greens on things like the backpacker tax.
Updated
Labor’s Tony Burke to Turnbull: Is the prime minister aware that in the last few months that being a single parent is a lifestyle choice according to One Nation. The port Arthur massacre was a fake and the 9/11 terrorist attack was a hoax. Does the prime minister agree with his industry minister who said the One Nation of today is different to what it was 20 years ago, they are a lot more sophisticated.
No doubt this causes the honourable member discomfort when he reflects that the member for Herbert wouldn’t be sitting in this parliament were it not for One Nation preferences.
That was the seat formerly held by Liberal MP Ewen Jones in north Queensland which went down to the wire and was eventually won by Labor’s Cathy O’Toole.
Updated
The government question to Malcolm Turnbull doubles down on high energy prices: will he update the House on how the government’s energy policies will keep our bills affordable and approve security for hardworking Australian families and businesses, including in my electorate?
Turnbull again attacks state Labor governments for renewable energy targets.
We have set out the road map to do that, a technology agnostic approach that will give us three things – affordable energy, reliable energy and will meet our reductions target.
Updated
Shorten to Turnbull: “Is the prime minister aware that the West Australian Liberal premier has confirmed that the Liberal party is referencing One Nation at the forthcoming Western Australian state election? Will the prime minister advise the premiere of Western Australia to put One Nation last in every seat?”
Speaker Smith rules it out of order on the grounds that the prime minister is not responsible for the preference deal.
Labor’s Tony Burke points out that John Howard answered a question from Kim Beazley almost exactly the same. (Labor have obviously based their question on the previous one.)
Smith acknowledges Labor’s research. But he says he has reflected on such questions and basically tells parliament that the question is still out of order.
Which means Labor lose their question and we go straight to the government’s own question.
Updated
Bill Shorten also spoke:
The moment I remember most vividly was not the offer of the apology, fundamental as that was, but the way it was accepted. On that day, there was the giving of forgiveness and are seeking of forgiveness. There was a sense of hope and of joy.
Malcolm Turnbull will report to parliament on Closing the Gap report tomorrow.
We not only reaffirm the apology that was given by prime minister Rudd, but, while we recognise the importance of words -after all, this is a house of words - we recognise nonetheless that it will be deeds that will set us surely and truly on the path of reconciliation and recognition.
Prime minister acknowledges Rudd apology to stolen generations
Malcolm Turnbull begins question time with a statement on the “remarkable and historic” apology to first Australians made by Kevin Rudd nine years ago.
It was a remarkable and historic moment. The galleries were filled overwhelmingly with our first Australians. There was almost no room in the great hall. The area in front of parliament was a sea of humanity, expectation and support. The prime minister, Mr Rudd, gave an apology on behalf of us all for the laws and policies of successive parliaments, successive governments, successive generations. In particular he apologised for the policies that removed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, communities and country. It’s an apology that today we reaffirm, and it’s an apology that has echoed through the years and will echo for centuries to come.
Updated
BTW:
High-profile WA One Nation candidate Margaret Dodd has said she will refuse to preference the Liberal Party https://t.co/kkP7xKoSaC #wavotes
— Leroy (@Leroy_Lynch) February 13, 2017
Question time coming up.
Money, money, money.
Note to Libs from Andrew Broad: Libs need Nats more than Nats need Libs
National party MP for Mallee Andrew Broad – who has faced a three-cornered contest in the past – has a reminder for the Liberal party. He told Guardian Australia:
It is a political reality that the Australian Liberal party needs the Nationals more than the Nationals need them. The Liberals have never (and could never) form government without the Nationals. It’s wise to remember this.
Updated
Scott Morrison: Pass the omnibus or the NDIS gets it
Here is the key strategy from this press conference by Scott Morrison, Christian Porter and the education minister, Simon Birmingham.
Morrison:
The NDIS’s account will be poorer for it, if the bill is not passed. There are no easy decisions here ... And childcare changes would already be in the much now, if the Labor party had agreed with them.
Updated
The treasurer cannot tell us whether the crossbench will support the omnibus bill.
We will see how they ultimately respond to what we put in front of them in the parliament.
Scott Morrison has announced the balance of the savings achieved through that omnibus bill will be provided and debited into the NDIS special account.
This means that some $3bn extra will be put into the special account to fund the NDIS, now, that is on top of the just over $900m which is already dedicated to that special account from the changes of removing the carbon tax compensation for a carbon tax that no longer exists.
So to be clear, the government is also tying the omnibus savings measures (four week wait for dole, overseas pension cuts plus other measures) to the national disability insurance scheme.
In other words, cop the cuts so that we can pay for increased childcare subsidies and the NDIS.
Updated
Just while there is a rolling debate on energy policy, Renew Economy has a story via Giles Parkinson that the prime minister has put a bit of battery storage in his home at Point Piper.
New South Wales residents were spared rolling outages in the weekend’s heatwave but if the lights had gone out in Pt Piper, Malcolm Turnbull just might have been able to stay cool: that’s because the PM’s harbourside property now has battery storage.
RenewEconomy on Monday confirmed with the PM’s office that a battery storage device was installed in Turnbull’s private property late last year. It is believed an LG Chem lithium-ion battery, to complement his rooftop solar array previously installed and recently upgraded.
That battery storage – depending on its configuration, and the choice of inverter – might be able to provide back-up to keep the lights and many other appliances on in the event of any blackouts in coal-dependent NSW.
It could also help the multi-millionaire save a few dollars a day by storing the output of his solar array for use in the evening, particularly after the loss of any premium solar tariffs he may have had.
In the case of forced rolling blackouts, a waterside suburb like Pt Piper would be a sensible choice for the “load shedding”, given that the temperatures are likely to be significantly below inland suburbs.
The installation of battery storage into his home highlights the incredibly conflicting signals from Turnbull, a man who once spoke glowingly about 100 per cent renewable energy goals.
Updated
Lunchtime politics
- A Liberal-One Nation preference deal in the West Australian election is causing ructions in the federal Coalition. Barnaby Joyce has threatened the Liberals with running National candidates in Perth seats and preferencing elsewhere. The attorney general, George Brandis, says the WA Nats have preferenced against the Liberals in the WA upper house before. Tony Abbott said if it were up to him, the Nats would be preferenced ahead of everyone else because they are the Coalition partner.
- The trade minister, Steve Ciobo, has rebuffed any suggestion that One Nation is extremist, contrasting with John Howard who in the 1990s refused to preference One Nation. Ciobo says the Greens are the most extreme party in modern Australian politics. He also says One Nation is more mature in economic policy than Labor, which sounds implausible given One Nation has a policy for a two% flat tax rate.
- Malcolm Turnbull has rejected suggestions he linked last year’s South Australian blackout to renewable energy. Turnbull says he always said it was caused by a storm breaching power lines but that SA’s massive amount of wind power had made the system “vulnerable”. Labor’s Mark Butler accused the prime minister of lying to the nation during an emergency.
-
Labor has introduced a private member’s bill on political donation reform which would lower donation caps and ban foreign donations. It will sit until a debate is brought on.
- Scott Morrison and Christian Porter are about to hold a press conference.
Updated
The treasurer, Scott Morrison, and the social services minister, Christian Porter, are coming up in a press conference in the blue room.
Updated
George Brandis is asked about the Liberal-One Nation preference swap. He makes two points:
- In 2008 the WA Nats preferenced One Nation ahead of Libs in the upper house.
- In 2013 the WA Nats preferenced the Shooters and Fishers party ahead of the Libs in the upper house.
It would be quite wrong to think this hasn’t happened before.
Updated
There are reports that two senior Democratic congressmen have said Malcolm Turnbull should be invited to address a joint meeting of US Congress.
In the aftermath of Turnbull’s volatile phone call with the US president, Donald Trump, the pair have said an invite would reinforce America’s “long-standing, close relationship” with Australia.
Eliot Engel, the ranking Democrat on the House foreign affairs committee from New York, and Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House armed services committee from Washington, have penned a letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, urging Turnbull be sent the invitation.
Updated
The attorney general, George Brandis, is speaking to Sky News.
He reminds people that the failed plebiscite was scheduled for last Saturday.
He has no doubt it would have passed.
We could have had marriage equality this week.
Updated
Oh dear. Riffing on the new NT tourism campaign. And other slang.
YOU'VE SCOTT TO BE KIDDING US @ScottMorrisonMP ... IT'S TIME TO SEE U IN THE NT pic.twitter.com/CnxYwM3kRm
— The NT News (@TheNTNews) February 12, 2017
Labor loses the suspension motion.
Meanwhile:
NO BETRAYAL: WA Nats ldr Brendon Grylls tells ABC Perth he doesn't feel "betrayed" by LIB/One Nation preference deal. pic.twitter.com/XgecBRbbdq
— Andrew O'Connor (@aocreporting) February 13, 2017
Steve Ciobo: One Nation more mature on economic policy than Labor
With this preference deal in Western Australia, we are seeing the Liberals bringing One Nation into the fold. I reported some of trade minister Steve Ciobo’s comments on the Greens being the really extreme party. He also said One Nation had been more responsible economically than Labor.
If you look at the way, for example, Pauline Hanson has gone about putting her support in the Senate, you’ll see that she’s often voting in favour of government legislation. There’s a certain amount of economic rationalism, a certain amount of an approach that’s reflective of what it is that we’re trying to do to govern Australia in a fiscally responsible way. One Nation has certainly signed up to that much more than Labor.
One Nation, certainly when it comes to their votes in the Senate, have supported the government in our efforts on savings and different initiatives like that, whereas the Labor party has been prepared to make sure that we keep consigning more debt to future generations. So on that basis, I think, yes, their support indicates a mature approach to economic policy in this country, whereas Labor’s continues to pretend like there is no problem with debt.
Updated
The parliament has voted to gag Chris Bowen. Labor’s Tony Burke gets up to continue with the housing suspension and Christopher Pyne moves to gag him. The house is voting again.
Labor is moving a suspension of standing orders on the Coalition’s dumping of the Kevin Rudd’s housing affordability agreement, which will be reportedly dumped in the May budget.
The Oz reported last week:
The $9bn national housing affordability agreement is set to be axed in the May budget following a report revealing that the states and territories had failed to meet almost every benchmark set by the federal government since it began in 2009.
Figures obtained by the Australian revealed that the Rudd government scheme, with a price tag of almost $1.5bn a year in grants to the states, had not delivered any measurable improvement in the provision of affordable housing.
Labor’s Chris Bowen starts to argue for Labor’s policies to dump negative gearing and cut capital gains tax concessions but the government has moved to gag him to shut down the debate.
The house is now voting on the gag motion.
Updated
As we are all going down memory lane to remember the John Howard approach to One Nation, here is a 1998 quote from Howard on Pauline Hanson’s suggestion that Indigenous Australians were getting preferential treatment and her campaign against native title.
The strict definition of a racist is somebody who believes that his or her race is superior to other races. Now, what she is doing, of course, is, I think, on this particular issue and what she said in this speech is appealing to irresponsible racist sentiment in the Australian community. It is a very irresponsible speech and the more it is analysed the more reason there will be for people not supporting her.
Q: So she is racist in this context?
Well, I’ve said, I mean, she is fanning racist sentiment. Now, let’s not sort of, I mean, you and I had a discussion about the definition of a racist before we came on air and I think we agree that a racist, strictly speaking, is somebody who believes one race is superior to another. But by using this sort of language she is, I believe, appealing to racist sentiment.
The Matt Hatter take on the Lib-Nat preference imbroglio.
@gabriellechan 🚌Good morning🚌 All aboard the Preference Bus. #auspol pic.twitter.com/GDKYJIBOG7
— The Matt Hatter (@MattGlassDarkly) February 13, 2017
There is just a bit more from Barnaby Joyce this morning. It is interesting because it cuts through the crap of realpolitik regarding preference deals – that is that the ends (in this case a win for a Liberal government) justifies the means (dumping a Coalition partner for One Nation and their values).
Of course it’s naturally disappointing that the Liberals in Western Australia have decided that the next best people to govern Western Australia after the Liberal party are One Nation in the upper house. It’s obviously that is something they will have to explain to their own constituents.
And then the threat comes:
The game can be played in any way. It could easily be that the National party could stand in every lower-house seat in Perth and preference another party. And what would that mean? You could lose a heap of seats. It’s as simple as that.
Updated
Tony Abbott: I would be putting the National party ahead of everyone
Tony Abbott says Nationals should be preferenced ahead of One Nation.
Pauline Hanson is a different and, I would say, a better person than she was 20 years ago. Certainly I think she has a much more nuanced approach to politics today than then. It is not up to me to decide where preferences would go but, if I was, I would certainly be putting One Nation ahead of Labor and I would be putting the National party ahead of everyone because the National party are our coalition partners in Canberra and in most states and they are our alliance partners in Western Australia.
Turnbull has already said it is not up to him and was very careful not to provide an opinion on this point. Tony Abbott has created the contrast.
Abbott is the only one who has stood up for the Nats BTW.
Updated
.@TonyAbbottMHR tells @2GB873's Ray Hadley, if he was in charge of preferences, he wouldn't put One Nation ahead of Nationals. 1/2 #auspol
— Stephanie Borys (@StephieBorys) February 12, 2017
There are some interesting private members’ bills this morning. Independent Bob Katter has introduced a bill to prevent “non-first Australians and foreigners from benefiting from the sale of Indigenous art, souvenir items and other cultural affirmations and thereby depriving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders of the rightful benefits of their culture”.
Concern is that an influx of mass-produced Indigenous-style artwork, souvenirs and other cultural affirmations are being imported from overseas and undermining:
- the ability of Indigenous artists to gain economic benefit from their work; and
- Indigenous culture.
Katter has brought in some items, showing the different sounds of the foreign-made sticks and a boomerang made in Thailand that “doesn’t come back”.
Updated
Just hanging out with the PM.
Shovel ready.
Bill Shorten introduces a bill to reform political donations
Bill Shorten says Australians want politicians to lift their game. He is introducing the political donation reform bill to assist in this process.
He says parties must help solve the problem of soft influence.
The Coalition has not caused this problem but I invite them to help solve it.
This is the guts of the Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Donation Reform and Transparency) Bill 2017.
It is a private member’s bill by Labor so it will not pass without government support. This possibility is highly unlikely. But here are the details from the explanatory memo.
The bill contains provisions that will:
- reduce the disclosure threshold from ‘more than $10,000’ (indexed to the consumer price index annually) to $1,000 (non-indexed);
- ensure that for the purposes of the $1,000 threshold and the disclosure of gifts, related political parties are treated as the one entity;
- make unlawful the receipt of a gift of foreign property by political parties, candidates and members of a Senate group. It will also be unlawful in some situations for associated entities and people incurring political expenditure to receive a gift of foreign property;
- extend the current prohibition on the receipt of anonymous gifts above the threshold to prohibit the receipt of all anonymous gifts by registered political parties, candidates and members of a Senate group. It will also be unlawful in some situations for associated entities and people incurring political expenditure to receive an anonymous gift;
- provide that public funding of election campaigning is limited to declared expenditure incurred by the eligible political party, candidate or Senate group, or the sum payable calculated on the number of first preference votes received where they have satisfied the 4% threshold, whichever is the lesser;
- provide for the recovery of gifts of foreign property that are not returned, anonymous gifts that are not returned and undisclosed gifts; and
- introduce new offences and penalties related to the new measures and increase the penalties for existing offence provisions.
Updated
Denison independent Andrew Wilkie is speaking to his private member’s bill to fix the debt recovery system used by Centrelink.
This bill seeks to prevent the Department of Human Services from recovering a social security debt or a family tax benefit debt from an individual if the debt is under review. The bill responds to significant community concern about false debt notices being issued by the department and individuals being required to repay the debt immediately, even if it is later found to be incorrect.
Wilkie says no one expects government would not seek to have debts repaid but the government needs to respond when there are problems. He says the Centrelink debacle shows that governments are not responsive and admitting mistakes.
The major parties wonder why voters are shifting support to minor parties and independent.
Updated
This week will also see a committee report come down on the exposure draft of a marriage bill presented by the government ahead of the failure of the plebiscite.
Katharine and Paul Karp report new polling suggests 71% of people would look more favourably on the Turnbull government if it allowed a free vote on same-sex marriage instead of holding a plebiscite, including 64% who lean to voting Liberal.
Labor brings private member's bill on political donations to parliament
Monday morning in parliament is for private member’s bills and other assorted stuff.
Katharine Murphy reported that Bill Shorten would introduce a private member’s bill that would:
- reduce the donation disclosure limit from the current level of $13,200 (indexed to inflation) to a fixed $1,000,
- prohibit the receipt of foreign donations,
- ban donation splitting where donations are spread between different branches of political parties and associated entities – like the Free Enterprise Foundation – to avoid disclosure obligations.
- ban the receipt of anonymous donations above $50, link public funding to campaign expenditure and introduce new offences and increased penalties for abuses of the political donation disclosure regime.
Shorten said on Sunday it was time for the Liberal party to stop resisting disclosure reform.
The government has been delaying its renewed policy stance on disclosure until after the joint standing committee on electoral matters produces a final report in March.
Updated
I have failed to bring you this statement put out earlier from the prime minister regarding Liberal state leaders committing to a single renewable energy targets.
Malcolm Turnbull:
I welcome the decision by the South Australian Liberal party, Victorian Coalition and Queensland LNP to do away with ad hoc state renewable energy targets in favour of a single national approach.
Bill Shorten wants to adopt South Australia’s failed ideological experiment, which will lead to even higher power bills and more blackouts.
The result of unrealistic state-based targets has been huge power bills for families and businesses and unreliable supply.
With a business-like, commonsense approach we can keep the lights on, keep power bills affordable and reduce emissions.
Dangerous Labor-Green ideology has no place in energy policy.
Updated
Labor says Malcolm Turnbull lied to the nation on the South Australian blackout
Labor’s Mark Butler came out the minute Turnbull left the press conference to get back to parliament.
It is clear from today’s revelations that the prime minister made a deliberate decision to ignore that advice and lie to the Australian people about the cause of this very serious event.
Not only did he lie to the nation, he lied to the nation during an emergency, while state emergency officials, people from our defence forces, were out in the field protecting the community from an ongoing risk caused by this extraordinary storm event which also led to very significant flooding.
Malcolm Turnbull needs to come clean. He needs to admit to the Australian people that he has been playing politics with a very serious energy crisis that is enveloping the country.
Updated
Turnbull is asked about the advice to his department on the South Australian blackout.
This is a classic case of misrepresentation by the Labor party and by the left generally.
Let me be very clear, of course windmills did not cause a blackout, the blackout, as I have said many times, was caused by a storm breaching transmission lines. That is perfectly obvious. That is the only point that was made.
However, the introduction of a massive amount of wind energy, so variable renewable energy made the SA grid very vulnerable. Very, very vulnerable indeed to breaches in transmission lines and the overloading or pressure on the interconnector with Victoria, which, as you know, is bringing in coal-fired power from the Latrobe Valley.
The point about renewables is this – we support and continue with the renewable energy target, No 1. Renewables have a very big place in Australia’s energy mix and it will get bigger. The cost of renewables is coming down. I have no problem with renewables at all. In fact, I welcome the advances in renewable technology – who wouldn’t?
Updated
First question to Malcolm Turnbull is on One Nation preferences. He avoids the question, saying that it was a matter for state divisions – in this case the Western Australian division.
Given Turnbull said there was no place for One Nation in the parliament before the election, he is asked why the change.
The fact is One Nation is represented, has been elected to the federal parliament and, I have to say, we work very closely with the One Nation senators. We work respectfully and constructively with them as we do with all of the crossbenchers in the Senate.
Updated
Malcolm Turnbull has started a press conference to push the crossbenchers to support the government’s childcare policy.
[The policy] assures that the largest amount of subsidy goes to families on the lowest incomes. It is a very fair reform and it makes childcare much more affordable and available. It removes the $7,500 cap for families with incomes of under $185,000 and for those over that level, it is a cap of $10,000. This is a vitally important reform and it is a policy that the Labor party and the cross benchers should support.
The problem is the childcare reforms, which do simplify the system, are planted in the omnibus bill that has some of the cuts from the infamous 2o14 Abbott budget, including the four-week wait for the dole for young people. Those cuts are the issue for the Labor party and some of the crossbenchers.
Updated
Ray Hadley is doing his regular interview with the treasurer, Scott Morrison. He says he is a stunt master and asks Morrison whether he was “channelling” him when he took a lump of coal to parliament last week. Morrison says he does all his own work.
We have to “make sure people don’t boil in the dark or shiver in the winter”.
Updated
Parliament begins at 10am this morning in both the house and the Senate.
Meanwhile, Malcolm Turnbull is at a childcare centre in Canberra with the education minister, Simon Birmingham, and Zed Seselja.
I start work too early to do the child care drop-off but at least the PM is making sure I don't miss the experience entirely pic.twitter.com/l6Z632zKOB
— Katina Curtis (@katinacurtis) February 12, 2017
Updated
This morning, the energy and environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, has nuanced the renewables message this morning following the release of the advice.
What happened in September and the subsequent blackouts in South Australia in December, January and just last week all related to the failure of planning in South Australia by the high uptake of intermittent sources of power, particularly wind and solar. My point is that the Labor party in South Australia and federally can’t escape that fact that their system has become a lot more vulnerable by virtue of the fact that they haven’t planned for the difficult issues involved in integrating renewables into the system.
Updated
Queensland: LNP One Nation preference deal doesn't mean we cuddle up, says Steve Ciobo
The trade minister, Steve Ciobo, suggests preferencing the Greens is way worse than preferencing One Nation. He says of Bill Shorten’s criticism of the WA preference deal:
This is coming from a guy who actually preferences the Greens – without doubt one of the most, if not the most, extreme political party in modern Australian politics. And yet, here’s Bill Shorten giving us lectures about preference deals.
Ciobo says it is up to the party’s state division to decide on preference deals.
In Queensland, Ciobo’s state, he said the LNP division would decide on any deals at the state election expected later this year.
I think we have got to make a determination based on what’s best for the people of Queensland, number one. And secondly, what can put us in a position to govern.
He says, based on polling over the weekend, One Nation is sitting on between 15-20%, “whatever the number might end up being”. (The Galaxy poll had the number at 23% over the weekend.)
That’s a fair swag of voters. That’s one in five voters ... now we can’t be dismissive of that. It doesn’t mean that we embrace or cuddle up to their policies.
That sounds like a preference deal between the LNP and One Nation in Queensland to me.
Updated
Barnaby Joyce : Colin Barnett flirting with preference deal which will put him in opposition
Right on cue, here comes Barnaby on the preference deal.
It is a statement of fact that the most successful governments in Australia are in Liberal-National government. Colin Barnett has been around the political game a long while and should seriously consider whether he thinks this is a good idea or whether he is flirting with a concept that ultimately will put his own side is in opposition.
Updated
Barnaby Joyce on the Liberals-One Nation preference deal: new friends are silver but old friends are gold
After weeks of speculation, it was finally confirmed at the weekend that the West Australian Liberal party will preference One Nation ahead of the Nationals in return for preferences flowing back to the Liberals in lower house seats.
His remarks followed confirmation at the weekend that the Liberal party in Western Australia would preference One Nation ahead of its alliance partner, the Nationals, in the upper house country regions, and in return, demand that One Nation preference the Liberals above Labor in all the lower house seats it is contesting in the state election.
In the 2001 election, the then Liberal premier, Richard Court, insisted that One Nation be put last on the ballot papers. The new preference deal for the coming election, which departs from that practice, is undermining the already testy alliance between the Liberals and the Nationals in WA.
Given that John Howard also took the position in 2001 of putting One Nation last, federal Liberals, including the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, have been attempting to avoid answering questions in recent weeks about whether preferencing One Nation was the right thing to do.
It should be said the Nationals are a different creature in the west though there is still an alliance between the two parties. The WA Nationals leader, Brendon Grylls, has famously not been afraid to leverage his Liberal party friends, threatening to talk to the Labor party in previous parliaments to get the royalties for regions funding package up.
But this preference deal by the Liberals sends the Coalition friendship to new lows. Which could have consequences for the federal Coalition. The Nationals leader, Barnaby Joyce, was muted at the weekend but I would expect more from him during the day.
Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce observed cryptically on Sunday that: “Always as times grow cold … new friends are silver but old friends are gold.” It’s a fair bet it won’t be his last word on the subject. In response to earlier talk of the plan he predicted it would bring “another blue in WA”.
Updated
Good morning blogans,
Here we stand, looking towards the second parliamentary sitting week. There are floods in the west of the country and bushfires in the east and the major political parties are bickering over energy policy.
Meanwhile, the rest of Australia is pulling their collective hair out. A range of groups have signed a joint statement urging politicians to get their collective wit together and work out a bipartisan policy on energy. For chrissakes.
Katharine Murphy reports:
A coalition of business, energy, investor, climate and welfare groups has issued a sharply worded wake-up call on the energy debate, declaring “finger pointing” and 10 years of partisan politics have destroyed investor confidence in Australia’s energy sector, “worsening reliability risks”.
The joint statement from 18 groups ranging from the Business Council of Australia to the Australian Council of Social Services follows months of zero-sum political debate about energy policy, power prices and reliability, during which time the federal government has pre-empted a major review by the chief scientist, Alan Finkel, by ruling out carbon trading in the electricity sector.
The pushback against toxic partisanship comes as the Liberal party in three states – South Australia, Victoria and Queensland – has agreed to do away with state-based renewable energy targets, lining up instead behind the federal scheme.
But proving that there are political calculations being laid over the top of a complex electricity market system, the Australia Institute has released documents obtained under freedom of information laws which shows the prime minister’s department was informed that wind energy levels were not to blame for the catastrophic South Australian power outage last year.
Fairfax’s Mark Kenny reports the advice said:
There has been unprecedented damage to the network (ie bigger than any other event in Australia), with 20+ steel transmission towers down in the north of the State due to wind damage (between Adelaide and Port Augusta). The electricity network was unable to cope with such a sudden and large loss of generation at once. AEMOs advice is that the generation mix (ie renewable or fossil fuel) was not to blame for yesterday’s events – it was the loss of 1000 MW of power in such a short space of time as transmission lines fell over.
Yet within hours, Turnbull and Barnaby Joyce were telling anyone who would listen the blackout was a “wake-up call” for state leaders who were trying to hit “completely unrealistic” renewable targets.
So it would appear Australia was enjoying alternative facts well before the Donald entered the White House.
Stick with us, because we have the One Nation preference deal in Western Australia coming up. Mike Bowers is off chasing Malcolm Turnbull, who will be leaving the building briefly to talk childcare policy. Talk to us in the thread, on the Twits @gabriellechan and @mpbowers or if you speak Facebook, check out my page here.
Updated
