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Senate voting reform legislation passes after 40 hours of debate – politics live Government outlines changes to Safe Schools program – politics live
(35 minutes later)
4.19am GMT
04:19
Green Adam Bandt rises to support the amendments. Labor’s Anthony Albanese rises to oppose them, and in so doing welcomes the Liberal/National/Green coalition.
4.13am GMT
04:13
The Labor leader Bill Shorten isn’t in the chamber. Tony Burke is launching the response. He says imagine if your only achievement as prime minister was this: rorting the Senate vote.
Updated
at 4.16am GMT
4.11am GMT
04:11
Malcolm Turnbull says this will end the practices of back room deals and preference harvesting. He says Labor used to support this change, but has flipped because of political opportunism. Only Gary Gray in the Labor party had a position of integrity.
4.08am GMT
04:08
Mr Speaker this is a great day for democracy.
The prime minister, launching the formalities in the House.
4.04am GMT
04:04
Here comes the bells, here comes the House, to stamp Senate voting reform.
Updated
at 4.09am GMT
4.00am GMT
04:00
A couple of pictures. And education minister, trying to walk a line.
And a prime minister, trying to look historical.
Better than hysterical. Which is where Magic Mike and I are hovering, just quietly.
3.54am GMT
03:54
Christensen adds one more point. He says Birmingham has told him that if the Safe Schools coalition reject what the government’s put forward then the funding will just be suspended.
That’s my understanding from my conversation with the minister.
3.51am GMT
03:51
George Christensen.
I am very surprised that [Simon Birmingham’s] gone as far as he’s gone. It is better than an inquiry. Effectively, gutting the program of all of the concerning content is what I wanted at the end of the day – or the program shut down.
3.50am GMT
03:50
Conservative backbencher George Christensen is speaking to reporters, apparently suing for peace. He says the program has been gutted.
Essentially the program’s been gutted of all of the bad content that’s been in it, all of the concerning content that’s been in it, and what we’ll see in schools will be something that is truly an anti-bullying program.
He says the Safe Schools coalition will likely reject Birmingham’s proposal.
3.46am GMT
03:46
Shalailah Medhora
Meanwhile back in the red room, Labor and the crossbench have passed a motion making it harder for the government to call a double dissolution election by limiting its ability to recall the Senate.
On Friday afternoon, manager of government business in the Senate, Mitch Fifield, proposed a motion that the Senate rise until Tuesday May 10 “or such other time as may be fixed by the president”.
Labor, the Greens and five independent and minor party senators joined forces to pass an amendment to that, saying that the president or deputy president can only only recall the Senate with the “absolute majority of senators where the leader or deputy leader of a party in the Senate can concur on behalf of every senator in that party”.
It makes it harder to sprint to an early election. It doesn’t make it impossible.
Updated
at 4.04am GMT
3.38am GMT3.38am GMT
03:3803:38
Birmingham says the program won’t be funded past its current life, and there was never any intention to fund it in perpetuity.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.)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.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.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
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?
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.
3.04am GMT
03:04
Meanwhile, the Greens are claiming victory on Senate voting reform.
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.
2.59am GMT
02:59
Looking ahead, the government will shortly announce its intentions on the Safe Schools program.
2.52am GMT
02:52
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.
But the minor – the fightback of the minor parties – starts now.
Updated
at 3.09am GMT
2.49am GMT
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.
2.46am GMT
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.