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| Senate voting reform legislation passes after 40 hours of debate – politics live | Senate voting reform legislation passes after 40 hours of debate – politics live |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| 3.38am GMT | |
| 03:38 | |
| Birmingham says the program won’t be funded past its current life, and there was never any intention to fund it in perpetuity. | |
| The education minister is asked about advocates for the program over-egging and being ideological. He’s advised people to not to over step. (His message couldn’t be clearer: I’m trying to defend this program against a tide of internal opposition, please help me do that.) | |
| Simon Birmingham. | |
| Just as prosthelytising is not part of the school chaplaincy program, advocacy must not be part of the Safe Schools program. This is here to help children in their wellbeing in schools and people who might have engaged in the past as presenting themselves as representatives of the program and in doing so speaking about political matters and advocating in those political matters have frankly done themselves and the program an enormous disservice and would be well advised to keep their mouths shut on such matters in future. | |
| 3.33am GMT | |
| 03:33 | |
| Q: Do you think the way some of your colleagues talked about this issue during the week exercised that necessary caution in terms of the language they use? And what kind of precedent does it set for the marriage equality debate? | |
| Simon Birmingham: | |
| I hope that everybody learns from this debate and goes into the future debate when we have it around marriage equality being very mindful of making their cases but making them in a respectful way. | |
| Q: Your colleagues? | |
| I think the message the prime minister gave yesterday was one rightly applied very broadly, certainly not exclusively into this building. | |
| 3.28am GMT | |
| 03:28 | |
| Birmingham says he believes this is a strong but measured response to the types of concerns the government has heard. | |
| Conservatives won’t like it because the program is not defunded and there is no commitment here to a parliamentary inquiry. | |
| Q: No parliamentary inquiry and no suspension of the funding. Will George Brandis and his allies let you get away with this? | |
| Simon Birmingham: | |
| I think you may not be referring to George Brandis there, Paul. | |
| Q: I was referring to George Christensen. | |
| They’re rather different characters, I find, but I love them both dearly. | |
| 3.24am GMT | |
| 03:24 | |
| Safe Schools response | |
| The education minister Simon Birmingham is talking to reporters now. He says the independent review found that some of the Safe Schools material was not appropriate. | |
| What Professor Louden found was that a number of the resources do have some lessons and some content in lessons that is not necessarily appropriate for all children. We’ve also of course heard extensive criticisms and concerns about some of the linkages from this program into different websites and the content of those different websites. | |
| Now, to specific actions: | |
| Updated | |
| at 3.41am GMT | |
| 3.12am GMT | |
| 03:12 | |
| Apparently members of the Socialist Alliance have trashed the office of the Liberal senator Cory Bernardi in Adelaide. I’m dimly aware this has happened from social media but I’m not across the details yet. | |
| Rhiannon is asked what would her message be to the protestors? | |
| I’m not aware of the case. If what you’ve said is accurate, I certainly support protests and direct actions but I think actually damaging an office is not advisable but I would check up on what the facts are. | |
| 3.06am GMT | 3.06am GMT |
| 03:06 | 03:06 |
| Q: Do you feel, as Labor is predicting, that this could be akin to the deal the Democrats did with the Howard Liberals – and you’ll suffer accordingly? | Q: Do you feel, as Labor is predicting, that this could be akin to the deal the Democrats did with the Howard Liberals – and you’ll suffer accordingly? |
| Greens leader Richard Di Natale. | Greens leader Richard Di Natale. |
| No, I don’t obviously. I’ve heard that refrain used I think against all sorts of pieces of legislation that we’ve supported in the past under Bob and Christine. There’s a key difference here. This is a long-held policy position of the Greens that is something we’ve supported for a very longtime. It is something that I think the community understands. | No, I don’t obviously. I’ve heard that refrain used I think against all sorts of pieces of legislation that we’ve supported in the past under Bob and Christine. There’s a key difference here. This is a long-held policy position of the Greens that is something we’ve supported for a very longtime. It is something that I think the community understands. |
| 3.04am GMT | 3.04am GMT |
| 03:04 | 03:04 |
| Meanwhile, the Greens are claiming victory on Senate voting reform. | Meanwhile, the Greens are claiming victory on Senate voting reform. |
| Green senator Lee Rhiannon. | Green senator Lee Rhiannon. |
| The reform’s in place. We were determined to get it in before the coming election and that’s been achieved. In many ways, the beauty of this is that it’s very simple. Effectively, the only change is that it’s now the voters who will determine their preferences and the change above the line, the change below the line means it will be much easier for the voters. | The reform’s in place. We were determined to get it in before the coming election and that’s been achieved. In many ways, the beauty of this is that it’s very simple. Effectively, the only change is that it’s now the voters who will determine their preferences and the change above the line, the change below the line means it will be much easier for the voters. |
| 2.59am GMT | 2.59am GMT |
| 02:59 | 02:59 |
| Looking ahead, the government will shortly announce its intentions on the Safe Schools program. | Looking ahead, the government will shortly announce its intentions on the Safe Schools program. |
| 2.52am GMT | 2.52am GMT |
| 02:52 | 02:52 |
| David Leyonhjelm. | David Leyonhjelm. |
| This week, we learnt that there’s no principle that the government, the Greens or Nick Xenophon will not abandon for a few extra seats in parliament. This unholy alliance has raised the bottom rung of the ladder to exclude new parties from the Senate, make it a lot harder for those of us already here. | This week, we learnt that there’s no principle that the government, the Greens or Nick Xenophon will not abandon for a few extra seats in parliament. This unholy alliance has raised the bottom rung of the ladder to exclude new parties from the Senate, make it a lot harder for those of us already here. |
| But the minor – the fightback of the minor parties – starts now. | But the minor – the fightback of the minor parties – starts now. |
| Updated | Updated |
| at 3.09am GMT | at 3.09am GMT |
| 2.49am GMT | 2.49am GMT |
| 02:49 | 02:49 |
| Over in the Mural Hall, David Leyonhjelm and Bob Day are telling reporters they are intending to run candidates in seats at the forthcoming election and preference against the Coalition. They will direct preferences to the ALP. | Over in the Mural Hall, David Leyonhjelm and Bob Day are telling reporters they are intending to run candidates in seats at the forthcoming election and preference against the Coalition. They will direct preferences to the ALP. |
| 2.46am GMT | 2.46am GMT |
| 02:46 | 02:46 |
| I’m out of the chamber and back at my desk. Give me a few minutes to work out what I’ve missed and then we’ll push forward. | I’m out of the chamber and back at my desk. Give me a few minutes to work out what I’ve missed and then we’ll push forward. |