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Ricky Muir moves to disrupt the Senate program – politics live
Ricky Muir moves to disrupt the Senate program – politics live
(35 minutes later)
1.21am GMT
01:21
I couldn’t hear the first question to Turnbull but I suspect it was about the Greens saying this morning they won’t bring the parliament back in May. The prime minister says this week is about Senate voting reform. He says that’s the focus of the Senate. Being more democratic.
1.17am GMT
01:17
Malcolm Turnbull confirms new appointments to the board of Innovation and Science Australia
The prime minister is in the blue room with the innovation minister Christopher Pyne unveiling a high powered board to help guide the government’s innovation agenda. It’s very tech heavy, apart from an appointment from the Meat and Livestock Corporation (Nationals, anyone?). On the board, the heads of Google Australia, Atlassian, Seek and venture capitalists like Daniel Petrie (who I think is ex Microsoft). You’ll pull me up if I’m wrong.
Now, to the tax breaks.
Malcolm Turnbull:
Today or this week we’ll be introducing legislation to provide the tax incentives and capital gains tax exemptions for investments in early stage start-ups. Investors will receive a 20% tax offset based on the amount they invest in these early-stage start-ups.
You can work out the segue, can’t you.
Let me just note the Labor party are doing the exact opposite. What they are doing is discouraging investment at every turn.
Christopher Pyne fortunately knows when the legislation is happening. It’s tomorrow.
1.07am GMT
01:07
Summary at the speed of light
Things are going to go bonkers for the next several hours, so quick as a wink, Tuesday morning, in three points:
1.01am GMT
01:01
Peak nah
Back to the subject of the environment minister, Greg Hunt’s prediction on radio this morning that Australia had hit peak emissions a decade ago.
Yeah, nah, say the experts. Hugh Grossman, the executive director of Reputex, said his company’s analysis of the government’s own data showed Australia’s emissions would continue to grow and that “there is no peak in sight”.
My colleague Lenore Taylor has filed a story on this, which you can read here.
12.57am GMT
00:57
Fun times with nodes.
Thanks Gabi, we’ll do what we can to catch up on the NBN later on, but today is officially insane.
12.54am GMT
00:54
Gabrielle Chan
Back to NBN before I have to scoot out of this hearing. Stephen Conroy is now going to how many nodes would be built across the country. NBN Co Bill Morrow says around 30,000 nodes are to be built by 2020.
NBN Co’s chief network engineering officer Peter Ryan says of connecting mains power to nodes, “it took a bit longer” than envisaged. He confirms the electricity cost of running each node is $2000 a year.
Conroy asks whether it is correct that there is an average of 350m of copper required to connect each (FTTN) node to each Telstra pillar. Fun fact. Conroy says the 10.5 million metres of new copper required to connect up all of the nodes would run from Melbourne to Mumbai.
Morrow - looking slightly exasperated - says on average there is 50m of copper from the node to pillar, (though you may have a number of lines within the one sheath.)
When Conroy asks if the copper remediation costs are close to $650m, Morrow says it is running at less but will not disclose a figure.
(Now, apologies people, I’m off to a Turnbull press conference. Just so you know, NBN Co peeps are being questioned for the rest of the day.)
12.52am GMT
00:52
We have a prime ministerial press conference coming up – and the Senate chamber will form a scrum in just over half an hour.
12.50am GMT
00:50
The key phrase in that last post would be Senate majority. It obviously requires more than the Greens. The attempt to defer the marriage debate off until Thursday is an effort to prevent the politically uncomfortable alternative: the Greens voting to prevent consideration of marriage equality, and not only marriage equality, their own legislative proposal. Awks.
12.42am GMT
12.42am GMT
00:42
00:42
Shalailah Medhora
Shalailah Medhora
The Greens will not support bringing the Senate back in the first week of May. A Senate majority can overturn the discretion of the Senate president to recall the chamber.
The Greens will not support bringing the Senate back in the first week of May. A Senate majority can overturn the discretion of the Senate president to recall the chamber.
12.40am GMT
12.40am GMT
00:40
00:40
Ringside at the Greens partyroom
Ringside at the Greens partyroom
Shalailah Medhora
Shalailah Medhora
The Greens will support debate on same sex marriage taking place during private member’s time on Thursday. The party has reserved judgment on the issue being debated today, because they haven’t seen the Leyonhjelm motion. The inclination is to wait til Thursday.
The Greens will support debate on same sex marriage taking place during private member’s time on Thursday. The party has reserved judgment on the issue being debated today, because they haven’t seen the Leyonhjelm motion. The inclination is to wait til Thursday.
12.15am GMT
00:15
Gabrielle Chan
Back to NBN. Stephen Conroy is now onto the NBN Co executives, including chief Bill Morrow (in person) and chief technology officer Dennis Steiger (on video conference).
Conroy asked Steiger to hold up a today’s newspaper, to determine “proof of life” to make sure it’s not a “time lapse video”. (My earlier post showed that Steiger has been reluctant to appear.) Steiger looks vaguely uncomfortable.
Morrow says the NBN Co currently has 1.91m premises connected with the “fastest growth rates” yet in NBN’s history. He says Fibre to the Node (FTTN) is the key to the fast rollout. He says they are well within their goal of striking 2.6m premises by June 30 2016.
He says NBN Co is exceeding 40,000 homes each week because the work over the last kilometre is not needed. (You will remember Turnbull dropped Labor’s Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) for FTTN - using the existing copper cables for the last kilometre.)
On the famous skinny fibre, Morrow admits that during trials - leaked earlier - skinny fibre reduced the cost of taking NBN to each premises by $450 per home and has taken four weeks of the “build time”. But Morrow says there are trade-offs with skinny fibre.
12.13am GMT
00:13
It’s that kind of week, the sequel.
The Greens party room will report its position on whether or not the party will vote against its own marriage equality bill at 11.30am.
11.59pm GMT
23:59
So perhaps this is a shadow cabinet decision? Or a decision in-principle leaving discretion for Labor’s Senate leadership to decide which way to jump on the floor of the chamber in about an hour.
Sorry I did warn you. It will be this kind of week.
11.54pm GMT
23:54
Strange, the official Labor caucus debrief suggests Labor’s support or otherwise for the Muir motion on the ABCC was not considered this morning. Funny that Labor’s deputy Senate leader just said it was being considered.
Here’s Conroy on the ABC, on the ABCC and caucus, about ten minutes ago.
Q: Time management becomes critical here because lurking in the background is what time, if any, might be left over to debate the building and construction commission watchdog. If Labor is opposed to it would you be opposed to bringing that on so you could bring it down?
Stephen Conroy:
That is something the caucus is deciding right now. There were many perspectives in the last few days.
Q: That is a live option?
That is being considered.
Updated
at 12.10am GMT
11.40pm GMT
23:40
Gabrielle Chan
Meanwhile, back at the NBN. We have just had a tech lesson from another contractor, Su-Vun Chung of Corning Optical Communications, who is the NBN executive account manager.
Corning has done two trials in Ballarat and Karingal for NBN Co for their new technology known as skinny fibre which reduces the number of cables and removes the Malcolm Turnbull cabinet and the need for to rely on the old copper wires. Chung brought in a show-and-tell bag of technology. The skinny cable to the house looks like your average TV aerial cable and the box that replaces the big green cabinet is the size of a mobile phone and goes into the ground. The connection is just a plug rather than splicing wires.
It looks like a no-brainer but hey, as Tony Abbott once said, I’m no tech head. Notwithstanding the skinny fibre trials, NBN Co is still going ahead with the FTTN office cupboard rollout.
Updated
at 11.54pm GMT
11.37pm GMT
23:37
Speaking of the Muir (and Leyonhjelm) procedural forays, I’ve mentioned the fur will start flying during the hours debate, which should be first up when the chamber meets at lunchtime.
Some scene-setting before we get lost in the invective.
Updated
at 11.56pm GMT
11.31pm GMT
23:31
Conroy has attempted to distance himself from the fact Labor has shifted position on Senate voting reform. He suggests some Labor parliamentarians signed up to a model of Senate voting reform like the model the government is currently pursuing during the joint standing committee on electoral matters inquiry – but the caucus didn’t.
Q: So those who were undertaking committee work as Labor senators or members aren’t to be in future regarded as reflecting the view of their party?
Stephen Conroy:
Not at all. The only time something becomes official Labor policy is when the caucus decides.
Speaking of caucus, Conroy says colleagues are currently considering whether to support Ricky Muir’s foray on the ABCC.
Updated
at 11.58pm GMT
11.25pm GMT
23:25
Labor senator Stephen Conroy has zipped out of the NBN hearing and onto the television.
Q: A lot of mind games, senator, but why doesn’t Labor just accept the inevitability of [Senate voting reform] and have a workmanlike debate and be done with it. Why all the brinkmanship?
Stephen Conroy:
This is the most significant voting change in 30 years. It will have a dramatic impact on the representation in the chamber, whether you like or dislike the current make-up of the Senate, this new voting system will dramatically change the outcome.
Updated
at 11.57pm GMT
11.18pm GMT
23:18
A joint statement just in from the prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and the Labor leader Bill Shorten says Pat Anderson has been appointed as the new co-chair of the Referendum Council, following the resignation of Patrick Dodson.
The Referendum Council was tasked in December 2015 with providing advice on progress and next steps towards a referendum to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Australian Constitution. Ms Anderson has been a member of the Referendum Council since it was formed. The work of the council builds upon the extensive work of the expert panel on Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians and the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
Pat Anderson is an Alyawarre woman and the chairperson of the Lowitja Institute. Previously Ms Anderson was chief executive officer of the Danila Dilba Health Service in Darwin, chair of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation and executive officer and chair of the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory. Anderson also co-authored the Little Children Are Sacred Report.
In June 2014, Ms Anderson was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to the Indigenous community as a social justice advocate, particularly through promoting improved health, educational and protection outcomes for children. Ms Anderson was awarded the Public Health Association of Australia’s Sidney Sax Public Health Medal in recognition of her achievements, and she was awarded the Human Rights Community Individual Award (Tony Fitzgerald Memorial Award).
Ms Anderson joins Mark Leibler as co-chair of the council.
11.11pm GMT
23:11
For close watchers of ministerial locutions, the finance minister Mathias Cormann has told Sky News this morning the government will consider the ABCC bill ..
... at the earliest opportunity when we come back in May.
The quote he gave at the doors of the Senate this morning was just May, not the earliest opportunity in May. Make of that something, or nothing.
