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| Version 2 | Version 3 |
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| Malcolm Turnbull backs away from a GST increase – politics live | Malcolm Turnbull backs away from a GST increase – politics live |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| 10.58pm GMT | |
| 22:58 | |
| Morrison is asked whether it is appropriate for Stuart Robert to use his prestige as an Australian government minister with his business mate in China? The treasurer is not amused. He says that categorisation is offensive and this morning’s story is a shocking beat up. | |
| 10.55pm GMT | |
| 22:55 | |
| Here's your hat Jay, what's your hurry? | |
| Q: Do you agree with Jay Weatherill’s comments that the Commonwealth is leaving the states to hold the can on health options? | |
| Scott Morrison: | |
| Jay has been making contributions to this debate. We have always welcomed that. But if the proposition was you should increase the GST to give the states a bucket of money to spend more, that has never been a proposition I’m sure you know I or the government have countenanced. I was very clear with the treasurers when we met last year. That has never been something the government has given any comfort to. | |
| 10.52pm GMT | |
| 22:52 | |
| The treasurer has moved out of the studio to the Mural Hall to speak to reporters. He notes the reform conversation remains alive. Morrison, like the finance minister, is a man in search of a landing strip. | |
| Scott Morrison: | |
| Ultimately governments have to come to a landing. That hasn’t taken place yet but we are getting to the end stage of the process. | |
| Q: A week ago you were talking about ready to go into bat for unpopular changes, boat turn backs, do you feel as though the debate has shifted since then because of political reality? | |
| That’s for you to commentate on. | |
| What I said last week right here was the government will seek to do what’s right for the national economy. That’s where we are at. We will do what’s right for the national economy. | |
| 10.46pm GMT | |
| 22:46 | |
| Ray moves on to 457 visas. He doesn’t much like them. Then to the case of Stuart Robert. Ray senses a beat up here. Ray notes that Stuart went to China at his own expense. Morrison is inclined to agree with Ray about that, noting that Robert not only paid his own way, he was also on leave at the time. Ray notes that you tend to meet Communists when you go to China. Not too many fascists there. Treasurer: Haw haw haw. | |
| 10.41pm GMT | |
| 22:41 | |
| Q: But you wanted to increase the GST? | |
| Scott Morrison: | |
| Not to raise spending, to deliver tax cuts. That’s the only way it could be done. | |
| Morrison says people should know his focus as treasurer is on the strivers – the people who go to work and run businesses. Lowering the tax burden for them wherever I can. | |
| But sometimes this can’t happen. | |
| (Presumably like when the prime minister goes on Insiders and says no, I don’t think we’ll follow that particular road map.) | |
| Scott Morrison: | |
| On every occasion circumstances won’t allow it. | |
| 10.35pm GMT | |
| 22:35 | |
| The treasurer is telling Ray when it comes to increasing the GST, the government was never going to increase the GST in order to give the states the money for schools and hospitals. Morrison says he was only interested in increasing the GST to deliver sizeable income tax cuts. | |
| He says if that’s no longer possible, we’ll have to go the long road. | |
| 10.32pm GMT | |
| 22:32 | |
| Speaking of no point in yielding to emotional gestures, the treasurer Scott Morrison is speaking now to his favourite radio host Ray Hadley. | |
| Hadley sounds cranky about the Turnbull retreat in the GST. Morrison, who suggested the hike was on only a couple of weeks ago, and is now obliged to suggest that it’s off, sounds a little flat. | |
| Tax reform is tough, the treasurer says. | |
| The red sea is not going to part every time for you. | |
| 10.27pm GMT | |
| 22:27 | |
| Outside estimates, Labor is turning up the temperature on Stuart Robert following his trip to China. Shadow defence minister Stephen Conroy says the trip (which I posted about at 8.56am) is a clear breach of the ministerial code of conduct. Conroy says if the facts are as reported then the prime minister should be asking for Robert’s resignation. | |
| 10.16pm GMT | 10.16pm GMT |
| 22:16 | 22:16 |
| Shalailah Medhora | Shalailah Medhora |
| The head of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, Michael Pezzullo, is first up in estimates. He’s pursuing a hardline against people who seek to come to Australia by boat, following a failed high court challenge against offshore detention. “You will never be settled in Australia,” Pezzullo said during his opening statement. “The path is shut with no exceptions.” The government has given the department very clear instructions on the matter, Pezzullo said. “The policy will not change ... there is no compassion in giving people false hope.” Pezzullo appeared to take a swipe at state and territory governments who have offered to resettle the 267 asylum seekers whose fate remains unclear as a result of the high court challenge, saying there was no point “yielding to emotional gestures” on the issue. | The head of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, Michael Pezzullo, is first up in estimates. He’s pursuing a hardline against people who seek to come to Australia by boat, following a failed high court challenge against offshore detention. “You will never be settled in Australia,” Pezzullo said during his opening statement. “The path is shut with no exceptions.” The government has given the department very clear instructions on the matter, Pezzullo said. “The policy will not change ... there is no compassion in giving people false hope.” Pezzullo appeared to take a swipe at state and territory governments who have offered to resettle the 267 asylum seekers whose fate remains unclear as a result of the high court challenge, saying there was no point “yielding to emotional gestures” on the issue. |
| Updated | Updated |
| at 10.21pm GMT | at 10.21pm GMT |
| 10.10pm GMT | 10.10pm GMT |
| 22:10 | 22:10 |
| Senate estimates has begun its business for today. We have immigration, environment and regional affairs amongst other issues – I’ll tune in periodically and keep you up to date as much as possible considering the basic limitations imposed by being one woman with two ears, two hands and one brain. | Senate estimates has begun its business for today. We have immigration, environment and regional affairs amongst other issues – I’ll tune in periodically and keep you up to date as much as possible considering the basic limitations imposed by being one woman with two ears, two hands and one brain. |
| Updated | Updated |
| at 10.12pm GMT | at 10.12pm GMT |
| 10.00pm GMT | 10.00pm GMT |
| 22:00 | 22:00 |
| Shalailah Medhora | Shalailah Medhora |
| A quick update about the fate of an Australian couple kidnapped in Africa. Foreign minister Julie Bishop has been on a media blitz this morning, talking about the release of Australian woman Jocelyn Elliott who was taken by an extremist group in Burkina Faso. Bishop has spoken to Elliott, who was in good spirits but the foreign minister remains concerned about the fate of her husband, Ken, who is still being held by the al-Qaida affiliated group. “We are greatly concerned about his safety,” Bishop told Sky News on Monday. “They [the Elliotts] are in their 80s.” | A quick update about the fate of an Australian couple kidnapped in Africa. Foreign minister Julie Bishop has been on a media blitz this morning, talking about the release of Australian woman Jocelyn Elliott who was taken by an extremist group in Burkina Faso. Bishop has spoken to Elliott, who was in good spirits but the foreign minister remains concerned about the fate of her husband, Ken, who is still being held by the al-Qaida affiliated group. “We are greatly concerned about his safety,” Bishop told Sky News on Monday. “They [the Elliotts] are in their 80s.” |
| Updated | Updated |
| at 10.12pm GMT | at 10.12pm GMT |
| 9.56pm GMT | 9.56pm GMT |
| 21:56 | 21:56 |
| There is more to today than tax, so let’s catch up with a few other developments. A very good story this morning from Ellen Whinnett in the Herald Sun. Whinnett reports that the human services minister Stuart Robert made a “secret” trip to Beijing with a Liberal donor and friend who was finalising a mining deal. | There is more to today than tax, so let’s catch up with a few other developments. A very good story this morning from Ellen Whinnett in the Herald Sun. Whinnett reports that the human services minister Stuart Robert made a “secret” trip to Beijing with a Liberal donor and friend who was finalising a mining deal. |
| Ellen Whinnett: | Ellen Whinnett: |
| Robert told the Herald Sun he was acting in a “private capacity” when he attended a signing ceremony with Nimrod Resources’s Paul Marks and high-ranking Communist Party officials who run Chinese Government-owned company Minmetals. Mr Robert has previously said Mr Marks was a “close personal friend” and he’d bought shares in two of the Melbourne millionaire’s companies. Mr Marks has also donated $2 million to the Liberals in the past two financial years. Last year, then prime minister Tony Abbott flew on a taxpayer-funded jet to Mr Marks’s birthday party at Huntingdale Golf Club. | Robert told the Herald Sun he was acting in a “private capacity” when he attended a signing ceremony with Nimrod Resources’s Paul Marks and high-ranking Communist Party officials who run Chinese Government-owned company Minmetals. Mr Robert has previously said Mr Marks was a “close personal friend” and he’d bought shares in two of the Melbourne millionaire’s companies. Mr Marks has also donated $2 million to the Liberals in the past two financial years. Last year, then prime minister Tony Abbott flew on a taxpayer-funded jet to Mr Marks’s birthday party at Huntingdale Golf Club. |
| A bunch of ministers squatting in front of open microphones this morning have been asked about this story. No one is wanting to engage with the material. Everyone is saying they are not across the detail. | A bunch of ministers squatting in front of open microphones this morning have been asked about this story. No one is wanting to engage with the material. Everyone is saying they are not across the detail. |
| Updated | Updated |
| at 10.12pm GMT | at 10.12pm GMT |
| 9.44pm GMT | 9.44pm GMT |
| 21:44 | 21:44 |
| Over on Sky News, the assistant treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer is telling her host Kieran Gilbert that the government is currently kicking the tyres on all the options when it comes to tax reform. | Over on Sky News, the assistant treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer is telling her host Kieran Gilbert that the government is currently kicking the tyres on all the options when it comes to tax reform. |
| Has the prime minister gone to water, Gilbert wonders? | Has the prime minister gone to water, Gilbert wonders? |
| O’Dwyer purses her lips ever so slightly. | O’Dwyer purses her lips ever so slightly. |
| This isn’t a masculinity discussion. | This isn’t a masculinity discussion. |
| 9.40pm GMT | 9.40pm GMT |
| 21:40 | 21:40 |
| Right, now to business. The business community is Disappointed about this back track on the GST. We know this because the Business Council of Australia chief Jennifer Westacot has also penned a tut tutting column this morning in The Australian Financial Review. If you are not an AFR subscriber, let me summarise: clap clap, chop chop, come along Malcolm, come along Bill you wicked terrible man. How can you go to water so quickly? Because, well, reform – which could, possibly not entirely coincidentally, involve lowering business taxes. | Right, now to business. The business community is Disappointed about this back track on the GST. We know this because the Business Council of Australia chief Jennifer Westacot has also penned a tut tutting column this morning in The Australian Financial Review. If you are not an AFR subscriber, let me summarise: clap clap, chop chop, come along Malcolm, come along Bill you wicked terrible man. How can you go to water so quickly? Because, well, reform – which could, possibly not entirely coincidentally, involve lowering business taxes. |
| Jennifer Westacott: | Jennifer Westacott: |
| The tax debate cannot afford to be limited to a simplistic fixation with one tax. | The tax debate cannot afford to be limited to a simplistic fixation with one tax. |
| It has to be about how we organise the tax system to help grow the economy. This won’t be achieved by changing one or two taxes, but by changing the mix of taxes to create incentives that drive productive, growth generating behaviour. | It has to be about how we organise the tax system to help grow the economy. This won’t be achieved by changing one or two taxes, but by changing the mix of taxes to create incentives that drive productive, growth generating behaviour. |
| It must be about lowering the overall deadweight burden of taxation including the burden borne by families and by businesses so our economy grows faster. | It must be about lowering the overall deadweight burden of taxation including the burden borne by families and by businesses so our economy grows faster. |
| This involves the total tax package – income tax relief, reducing the tax burden on businesses and investment, how the states fund crucial services and how we compensate people for any changes we make, for example to the GST. | This involves the total tax package – income tax relief, reducing the tax burden on businesses and investment, how the states fund crucial services and how we compensate people for any changes we make, for example to the GST. |
| 9.24pm GMT | 9.24pm GMT |
| 21:24 | 21:24 |
| I have to keep ignoring business for the moment because the South Australian premier Jay Weatherill is taking his turn on the wireless. Unlike the finance minister, Weatherill is not searching for a landing point, he’s executing a Monday morning performance take off. | I have to keep ignoring business for the moment because the South Australian premier Jay Weatherill is taking his turn on the wireless. Unlike the finance minister, Weatherill is not searching for a landing point, he’s executing a Monday morning performance take off. |
| Politics Live readers will recall the South Australian premier has endured threats of foul deeds from his federal Labor colleagues in recent weeks for choosing to facilitate a national debate on a GST increase. Because, well, hospitals. Weatherill is facing an $80bn shortfall in health and education funding courtesy of a cut to state government grants in the Abbott government’s first budget. He needs the money, and he’s been trying to give the prime minister some political cover to lead a debate that could lead to an improvement in his fiscal fortunes. | Politics Live readers will recall the South Australian premier has endured threats of foul deeds from his federal Labor colleagues in recent weeks for choosing to facilitate a national debate on a GST increase. Because, well, hospitals. Weatherill is facing an $80bn shortfall in health and education funding courtesy of a cut to state government grants in the Abbott government’s first budget. He needs the money, and he’s been trying to give the prime minister some political cover to lead a debate that could lead to an improvement in his fiscal fortunes. |
| Given the prime minister’s decision to turn tail on national television yesterday, the South Australian premier has had happier Mondays. He’s penned a column for the Adelaide Advertiser which accuses the prime minister of being infantile. | Given the prime minister’s decision to turn tail on national television yesterday, the South Australian premier has had happier Mondays. He’s penned a column for the Adelaide Advertiser which accuses the prime minister of being infantile. |
| Jay Weatherill: | Jay Weatherill: |
| Australians were promised a mature debate by the prime minister, but it now appears even he is not capable of having a debate that addresses both national revenue and expenditure together. Instead, we are back to the old Abbott model where the conversation about tax ignores the important debate about how revenue is spent. It’s infantile. We raise taxes to fund quality services — health and education being the most important. | Australians were promised a mature debate by the prime minister, but it now appears even he is not capable of having a debate that addresses both national revenue and expenditure together. Instead, we are back to the old Abbott model where the conversation about tax ignores the important debate about how revenue is spent. It’s infantile. We raise taxes to fund quality services — health and education being the most important. |
| Weatherill has been repeating these messages on Radio National. The premier notes he’s relaxed about the prime minister apparently dumping the option of a GST increase, but he won’t be letting him ignore the impact of the $80bn cut to services. | Weatherill has been repeating these messages on Radio National. The premier notes he’s relaxed about the prime minister apparently dumping the option of a GST increase, but he won’t be letting him ignore the impact of the $80bn cut to services. |
| Weatherill also notes that it’s complete nonsense for Turnbull to argue that he doesn’t want to see an increase in the overall tax take when he is perfectly happy to see state governments increase their taxes to fund services. It’s a nonsense argument, he says. | Weatherill also notes that it’s complete nonsense for Turnbull to argue that he doesn’t want to see an increase in the overall tax take when he is perfectly happy to see state governments increase their taxes to fund services. It’s a nonsense argument, he says. |
| Updated | Updated |
| at 9.36pm GMT | at 9.36pm GMT |
| 9.06pm GMT | 9.06pm GMT |
| 21:06 | 21:06 |
| I’ll get to the business reaction on the GST switcheroos shortly, but first, a brief breaking update from the “heads we win tails we win” school of opposition politics. | I’ll get to the business reaction on the GST switcheroos shortly, but first, a brief breaking update from the “heads we win tails we win” school of opposition politics. |
| Here’s Labor’s Doug Cameron, at the doors downstairs, having a crack (I gather) at the prime minister for not proceeding with a GST increase. This would be the same GST increase that Labor opposes. | Here’s Labor’s Doug Cameron, at the doors downstairs, having a crack (I gather) at the prime minister for not proceeding with a GST increase. This would be the same GST increase that Labor opposes. |
| Doug Cameron says Turnbull is the gov's "chief bed-wetter", for backing down on the GST #auspol pic.twitter.com/jpMLgm8PkJ | Doug Cameron says Turnbull is the gov's "chief bed-wetter", for backing down on the GST #auspol pic.twitter.com/jpMLgm8PkJ |
| 8.56pm GMT | 8.56pm GMT |
| 20:56 | 20:56 |
| Hello, good morning, here we all are again | Hello, good morning, here we all are again |
| Good morning blogans, bloganistas, and welcome to the festival of dangerous ideas and borderline defamations that is Politics Live. It is truly delightful to be back with you for 2016. | Good morning blogans, bloganistas, and welcome to the festival of dangerous ideas and borderline defamations that is Politics Live. It is truly delightful to be back with you for 2016. |
| Truly delightful to note too that despite the GST being fully on about a fortnight ago when the treasurer, Scott Morrison, gave his strongest suggestion yet that the goods and services tax hike was going to be on, (apart from on in health and education, where it would be off because that stuff was way complicated) – it is now off. | Truly delightful to note too that despite the GST being fully on about a fortnight ago when the treasurer, Scott Morrison, gave his strongest suggestion yet that the goods and services tax hike was going to be on, (apart from on in health and education, where it would be off because that stuff was way complicated) – it is now off. |
| Well more than likely off. | Well more than likely off. |
| Certainly not on. | Certainly not on. |
| Here’s Malcolm Turnbull, on the ABC’s Insiders program yesterday, on the subject of GST increases. | Here’s Malcolm Turnbull, on the ABC’s Insiders program yesterday, on the subject of GST increases. |
| I remain to be convinced or be persuaded that a tax mix switch of that kind would actually give us the economic benefit that you’d want in order to do such a big thing. | I remain to be convinced or be persuaded that a tax mix switch of that kind would actually give us the economic benefit that you’d want in order to do such a big thing. |
| Just in case that billboard-sized hint wasn’t quite big enough, the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, has been dispatched this morning in the direction of the wireless in order to tell Australians that the government’s tax reform package will be both growth-friendly and fair, and possibly will not contain a GST increase. | Just in case that billboard-sized hint wasn’t quite big enough, the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, has been dispatched this morning in the direction of the wireless in order to tell Australians that the government’s tax reform package will be both growth-friendly and fair, and possibly will not contain a GST increase. |
| Unless of course, it does. | Unless of course, it does. |
| Cormann told the ABC’s AM program, then a bunch of hovering journalists in the corridor, that the government had not yet taken any final decision on this or any other tax related matter. The government was continuing the conversation and continuing to assess the evidence. | Cormann told the ABC’s AM program, then a bunch of hovering journalists in the corridor, that the government had not yet taken any final decision on this or any other tax related matter. The government was continuing the conversation and continuing to assess the evidence. |
| In an observation that could easily take its place in a merry light opera by Gilbert and Sullivan, Cormann, the very model of a modern major general, then went on to diagnose the government’s collective headspace. | In an observation that could easily take its place in a merry light opera by Gilbert and Sullivan, Cormann, the very model of a modern major general, then went on to diagnose the government’s collective headspace. |
| Here is one man’s brave search for a landing point. | Here is one man’s brave search for a landing point. |
| Mathias Cormann: | Mathias Cormann: |
| Right now, like the prime minister, all of us that are considering these issues, we haven’t reached a final landing point, so all of us remain to be convinced because that is obviously if we were convinced we would have made a decision by now. | Right now, like the prime minister, all of us that are considering these issues, we haven’t reached a final landing point, so all of us remain to be convinced because that is obviously if we were convinced we would have made a decision by now. |
| So let’s open our collective proceedings this morning by noting a GST increase was more than likely on a couple of Sundays back, then more than likely off yesterday, then neither on nor off this morning. | So let’s open our collective proceedings this morning by noting a GST increase was more than likely on a couple of Sundays back, then more than likely off yesterday, then neither on nor off this morning. |
| My bet? Self evidently more off than on – but this is #auspol. Never leave the building. | My bet? Self evidently more off than on – but this is #auspol. Never leave the building. |
| Lots more on the go and I have all the cobwebs of summer to blast out of my head. I know you’ll help me with that which is why I’ve thrown open the comments thread for your business. | Lots more on the go and I have all the cobwebs of summer to blast out of my head. I know you’ll help me with that which is why I’ve thrown open the comments thread for your business. |
| You can also reach both me and the Marvellous Mikearoo on the twits, even though I read reliably that Twitter is now dead. Despite those grim suggestions, do drive your chevy to that levee. Go on, you know you want to. He’s @mpbowers and I’m @murpharoo | You can also reach both me and the Marvellous Mikearoo on the twits, even though I read reliably that Twitter is now dead. Despite those grim suggestions, do drive your chevy to that levee. Go on, you know you want to. He’s @mpbowers and I’m @murpharoo |
| Fasten your seat belt first though, because here comes Monday. | Fasten your seat belt first though, because here comes Monday. |
| Updated | Updated |
| at 9.05pm GMT | at 9.05pm GMT |