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| Senate voting legislation will go to parliament today, Turnbull says – politics live | Senate voting legislation will go to parliament today, Turnbull says – politics live |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| 3.04am GMT | |
| 03:04 | |
| Question time | |
| Golly Gee Wilickers, it’s 2pm. We are kicking off today with a motion of condolence for Bob Halverson, who is a former speaker of the House of Representatives, who died of cancer recently. | |
| 2.56am GMT | |
| 02:56 | |
| This deal will wipe out micro-parties in the Senate: Leyonhjelm | |
| Xenophon is followed by the LDP senator, David Leyonhjelm, who isn’t very happy. The government, he says, is transacting a dirty little deal with the Greens and Nick Xenophon. | |
| Can I point out when I say the Greens and Nick Xenophon, I repeat myself, Nick Xenophon is a Green for all intents and purposes, he votes with the Greens more than Labor. | |
| So, for the government to do a dirty little deal with the Greens and Nick Xenophon was a surprise and very disappointing. | |
| The end result, the bottom line of this proposal is that it will be extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible, for the minor parties to ever win seats again in the Senate. | |
| (I think if we looked at Leyonjhelm’s voting record we’d see some lining up with the Greens on issues like intelligence and security, but perhaps I digress?) | |
| 2.51am GMT | |
| 02:51 | |
| Nick Xenophon is explaining to reporters why he’s a supporter of the Senate voting reform package. | |
| In my case, in my home state of SA, I received close to 25% of the vote: 1.75 quotas but didn’t get in because of a series of bizarre preference deals. We have Family First in the Senate. | |
| At the moment as a result of the Labor party preferencing (we get) someone who is to the right of the Liberal party. It’s not a criticism of Bob Day, making a solid contribution, and not a criticism of all my colleagues, my cross-bench colleagues in the Senate who really add to the value of the Senate. | |
| But I want a Senate voting system that is fair, a Senate voting system that reflects the will of the people, a Senate voting system that takes away from the back room deals and the preference whisperers and gives the power back to the people – and I believe substantially this is what these reforms will do. | |
| 2.45am GMT | |
| 02:45 | |
| Greens leader Richard Di Natale is on the ABC talking Senate voting reform. | |
| Q: Did you discuss at any point in your negotiations with the government, preferencing at the next election? | |
| Richard Di Natale: | |
| No. | |
| Q: Not in any seat? Lower or upper house? | |
| I know this might be a huge surprise to people. People assume in these negotiations that some of these things that don’t relate to the legislation are put on the table. | |
| We made it really clear, this is a long-held position, a position of principle, fundamental to any democracy, that an outcome reflects the voters’ intentions. | |
| 2.35am GMT | |
| 02:35 | |
| Politics this lunchtime, the very short version | |
| I apologise, this isn’t going to be much of a summary, wedged as I am between significant events. But it’s important to take stock, particularly if you are just tuning in with a sandwich at your desk, and wonder how it is you’ve fallen into roiling white water. | |
| So, today, Monday: | |
| There’s more, but that’s the main thrust. | |
| Onwards and upwards, towards 2pm. | |
| 2.15am GMT | 2.15am GMT |
| 02:15 | 02:15 |
| Back to Stan Grant, who is asked how he’ll manage expectations if he chooses to leave the media and run for politics. | Back to Stan Grant, who is asked how he’ll manage expectations if he chooses to leave the media and run for politics. |
| Stan Grant: | Stan Grant: |
| Would you disappoint people? Inevitably. I might disappoint people with what I write now. | Would you disappoint people? Inevitably. I might disappoint people with what I write now. |
| Some people, our own people, Brooke, who might not like the fact that I can stand here and acknowledge the greatness of Australia because they are still dealing with the depth of the wound that Australia has inflicted – but that’s how I feel, that is what I have seen. | Some people, our own people, Brooke, who might not like the fact that I can stand here and acknowledge the greatness of Australia because they are still dealing with the depth of the wound that Australia has inflicted – but that’s how I feel, that is what I have seen. |
| To say otherwise would repudiate the experiences of my life. | To say otherwise would repudiate the experiences of my life. |
| 2.07am GMT | 2.07am GMT |
| 02:07 | 02:07 |
| Poor Ray, thwarted | Poor Ray, thwarted |
| Now I mentioned a bit earlier (through a sledge Chris Bowen hurled at Scott Morrison across the dispatch box a little while ago) that the treasurer did not enjoy his usual chat this morning with the Sydney talkback host, Ray Hadley. | Now I mentioned a bit earlier (through a sledge Chris Bowen hurled at Scott Morrison across the dispatch box a little while ago) that the treasurer did not enjoy his usual chat this morning with the Sydney talkback host, Ray Hadley. |
| It should be noted for the record that Ray was not amused. Here he is. | It should be noted for the record that Ray was not amused. Here he is. |
| Ray Hadley: | Ray Hadley: |
| Now to another matter – every Monday since coming to power, firstly as immigration minister then social services minister more recently as treasurer, Scott Morrison’s appeared on my program. | Now to another matter – every Monday since coming to power, firstly as immigration minister then social services minister more recently as treasurer, Scott Morrison’s appeared on my program. |
| Even when he travelled overseas he’d make arrangements to be available to talk to me at about 20 past 9, 20 past 8 in Queensland. But today we’ve been told the treasurer is too busy with a meeting to appear. We offered a change in time, we said what about the second or third hour trying to maintain the continuity. No, not available today. What about tomorrow? Don’t know, don’t know. | Even when he travelled overseas he’d make arrangements to be available to talk to me at about 20 past 9, 20 past 8 in Queensland. But today we’ve been told the treasurer is too busy with a meeting to appear. We offered a change in time, we said what about the second or third hour trying to maintain the continuity. No, not available today. What about tomorrow? Don’t know, don’t know. |
| Now I’m not one for conspiracy theories, however there are government MPs talking to The Australian newspaper who say they’ve been astonished by the performance of the treasurer, including a poorly received speech at the NPC last week and a series of talkback radio interviews in which he was blasted for lacking vision, including his regular chat with me, as was the case last Tuesday, last Monday, I’m sorry. | Now I’m not one for conspiracy theories, however there are government MPs talking to The Australian newspaper who say they’ve been astonished by the performance of the treasurer, including a poorly received speech at the NPC last week and a series of talkback radio interviews in which he was blasted for lacking vision, including his regular chat with me, as was the case last Tuesday, last Monday, I’m sorry. |
| Labor will be buoyed by support to its negative gearing plan announced by Shorten and Bowen last week to restrict from July next year all future tax breaks for new housing but not change existing arrangements. And so it goes on. | Labor will be buoyed by support to its negative gearing plan announced by Shorten and Bowen last week to restrict from July next year all future tax breaks for new housing but not change existing arrangements. And so it goes on. |
| So I don’t know whether this is just a coincidence and I was going to put it to Scott Morrison that I thought his performance last week after he appeared on my program before the NPC was inglorious. That it was a whole lot of gobbly-di-gook, and I mean it appears to me that just perhaps these two blokes wished for the job they’ve now got, prime minister and treasurer, and wishing for it and getting it are two different things. | So I don’t know whether this is just a coincidence and I was going to put it to Scott Morrison that I thought his performance last week after he appeared on my program before the NPC was inglorious. That it was a whole lot of gobbly-di-gook, and I mean it appears to me that just perhaps these two blokes wished for the job they’ve now got, prime minister and treasurer, and wishing for it and getting it are two different things. |
| It’s a lot harder, a lot harder when you get it, than it appears when you’re looking from the outside. | It’s a lot harder, a lot harder when you get it, than it appears when you’re looking from the outside. |
| 1.58am GMT | 1.58am GMT |
| 01:58 | 01:58 |
| Notwithstanding the feeling that I really need eyes in the back of my head today, here’s one excerpt from Stan Grant’s speech. | Notwithstanding the feeling that I really need eyes in the back of my head today, here’s one excerpt from Stan Grant’s speech. |
| Stan Grant: | Stan Grant: |
| As a reporter I was drawn to those stories that mirrored my own. Always I sought to answer this question: how do we live lives of dignity and meaning when all certainty has been removed? What makes a man who has lost a son to war and natural disaster get up in the morning and find a job to put food on the table for his remaining children? How does a mother mourn and yet love and nurture at the same time? | As a reporter I was drawn to those stories that mirrored my own. Always I sought to answer this question: how do we live lives of dignity and meaning when all certainty has been removed? What makes a man who has lost a son to war and natural disaster get up in the morning and find a job to put food on the table for his remaining children? How does a mother mourn and yet love and nurture at the same time? |
| What does the future mean when the now is so bleak? And when I reported these stories, I met myself in the eyes of Afghan refugees, I saw my family in the eyes of a peasant Chinese farmer looking for a foothold in the China dream, I saw my sawmiller father. Here were lives shaped by the great forces of our time, as surely as my own, and that of my people. | What does the future mean when the now is so bleak? And when I reported these stories, I met myself in the eyes of Afghan refugees, I saw my family in the eyes of a peasant Chinese farmer looking for a foothold in the China dream, I saw my sawmiller father. Here were lives shaped by the great forces of our time, as surely as my own, and that of my people. |
| I spent half my adult life away from Australia. I felt liberated from the chains of this history, no longer did I meet people across this chasm of race. | I spent half my adult life away from Australia. I felt liberated from the chains of this history, no longer did I meet people across this chasm of race. |
| I was free to be seen as a human being in my own right and delight in meeting people with my guard down, freed from the suspicion and mistrust that can still tear at us here. | I was free to be seen as a human being in my own right and delight in meeting people with my guard down, freed from the suspicion and mistrust that can still tear at us here. |
| But always I felt the pull of home, the smell of wattle and wheat that would burn my nose on a hot summer day, the feel of molten tar under my feet and the crack of frost on a winter’s morning, the cool waters of the Murrimbidgee. | But always I felt the pull of home, the smell of wattle and wheat that would burn my nose on a hot summer day, the feel of molten tar under my feet and the crack of frost on a winter’s morning, the cool waters of the Murrimbidgee. |
| Eventually I came back to a country fighting old battles. | Eventually I came back to a country fighting old battles. |
| 1.43am GMT | 1.43am GMT |
| 01:43 | 01:43 |
| My Guardian Australia colleague Stan Grant is currently giving an address to the National Press Club. I’ll try and look in on that once I get a small break from Senate reform. | My Guardian Australia colleague Stan Grant is currently giving an address to the National Press Club. I’ll try and look in on that once I get a small break from Senate reform. |
| Updated | Updated |
| at 2.17am GMT | at 2.17am GMT |
| 1.37am GMT | 1.37am GMT |
| 01:37 | 01:37 |
| Two crossbench senators, David Leyonhjelm and Bob Day (Family First) have been spotted in the corridor adjacent to the prime minister’s office. Not clear whether they have popped in to have a cup of spicy chai and a chat about Senate reform, or whether this is a lunchtime constitutional. | Two crossbench senators, David Leyonhjelm and Bob Day (Family First) have been spotted in the corridor adjacent to the prime minister’s office. Not clear whether they have popped in to have a cup of spicy chai and a chat about Senate reform, or whether this is a lunchtime constitutional. |
| 1.33am GMT | 1.33am GMT |
| 01:33 | 01:33 |
| Is there a seconder for this motion (having a gratuitous crack at the treasurer)? | Is there a seconder for this motion (having a gratuitous crack at the treasurer)? |
| Labor’s Chris Bowen: | Labor’s Chris Bowen: |
| The government has a problem when Scott Morrison can’t even go on Ray Hadley! | The government has a problem when Scott Morrison can’t even go on Ray Hadley! |
| (It’s true. The treasurer did miss his regular chat with Hadley this morning. We assume he was detained by the special party room meeting on Senate voting reform.) | (It’s true. The treasurer did miss his regular chat with Hadley this morning. We assume he was detained by the special party room meeting on Senate voting reform.) |
| Pyne is moving that Bowen be no longer heard. | Pyne is moving that Bowen be no longer heard. |
| 1.24am GMT | 1.24am GMT |
| 01:24 | 01:24 |
| For all the good folks sweating on the Senate reform bill, here’s a link. It’s just lobbed online. | For all the good folks sweating on the Senate reform bill, here’s a link. It’s just lobbed online. |
| 1.22am GMT | 1.22am GMT |
| 01:22 | 01:22 |
| The procedural skirmishes continue. Morrison has succeeded in tabling that legislation. Now Labor is attempting to suspend the standing orders to require the treasurer to make a speech outlining policies to improve the economy. | The procedural skirmishes continue. Morrison has succeeded in tabling that legislation. Now Labor is attempting to suspend the standing orders to require the treasurer to make a speech outlining policies to improve the economy. |
| Tony Burke: | Tony Burke: |
| Maybe he’ll want to talk about unicorns for 46 minutes. | Maybe he’ll want to talk about unicorns for 46 minutes. |
| That’s enough for Pyne. He’s moving that Tony Burke be no longer heard. | That’s enough for Pyne. He’s moving that Tony Burke be no longer heard. |
| 1.15am GMT | 1.15am GMT |
| 01:15 | 01:15 |
| Sorry, we really can’t help ourselves. | Sorry, we really can’t help ourselves. |
| Come. We ride. | Come. We ride. |
| 1.13am GMT | 1.13am GMT |
| 01:13 | 01:13 |
| Scott Morrison wanders to the dispatch box. I’m representing the special minister of state, he notes. The former special minister of state, Mal Brough, is sitting directly behind him. | Scott Morrison wanders to the dispatch box. I’m representing the special minister of state, he notes. The former special minister of state, Mal Brough, is sitting directly behind him. |