This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2016/jun/20/qa-malcolm-turnbull-makes-a-solo-appearance-in-brisbane-politics-live
The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Q&A: Malcolm Turnbull makes a solo appearance in Brisbane – politics live | Q&A: Malcolm Turnbull makes a solo appearance in Brisbane – politics live |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| 12.53pm BST | |
| 12:53 | |
| Medicare | |
| Turnbull gets the obvious question on Medicare: how can we believe you won’t privatise Medicare given what happened with broken promises in 2013. | |
| Malcolm Turnbull says again that this is the big lie of the campaign from Labor. | |
| I’m saying to all Australians, unequivocally, as PM, that no part of Medicare that is delivered by government today will be delivered by anyone else in the future. | |
| Q: That includes the payment system? | |
| Malcolm Turnbull: | |
| Absolutely. | |
| Q: You’ve reversed your position on that, or add least the goal of doing it? | |
| Malcolm Turnbull: | |
| There was no position to reverse. But the point is this - the payment system has to be updated. It has to get to a sort of smartphone era. I think, as we all know, it is pretty out of date. But we will revive it or renew it. We will modernise it but we will do so within government. | |
| On outsourcing more broadly, Turnbull says he’s not an unabashed fan. People can see that because he set up the digital transformation office within government. | |
| 12.48pm BST | |
| 12:48 | |
| Real Malcolm, part II | |
| Q: A bit over six months ago the Liberal party made you the PM on the promise that you weren’t Tony Abbott. Now, in two weeks... | |
| Malcolm Turnbull: | |
| I think that was a penetrating glimpse of the obvious. | |
| (Ouch). | |
| Q: But the real problem is that in two weeks you hope to continue in the same position on the argument that you’re not Malcolm Turnbull either. Are you? | |
| Malcolm Turnbull: | |
| Well, I’m 61 years of age. I’ve been a public figure one way or another for many years, for decades. I think every Australian knows who I am and knows what I stand for. | |
| 12.46pm BST | |
| 12:46 | |
| The prime minister fronts the Q&A audience | |
| Malcolm Turnbull is still smiling grimly while Tony Jones makes his introduction. Grin disappears with question one which is about trust. | |
| Q: I’m concerned about you doing deals with the far right of your own party that represent a smaller amount of voters than the Greens. Can you convince me to trust you when you’ve already been swayed on climate change, Gonski, Safe Schools, by the ultra-conservative wing of your own government? | |
| The prime minister says his views have remained constant on the issues flagged. He’ll put the yes case in the marriage equality plebiscite. He defends the government’s climate policies. | |
| Tony Jones asks whether he’s done deals with the right for the leadership. He says not, but he adds let’s call a spade a spade. Turnbull says the marriage plebiscite is not his idea. He wasn’t in favour of it. But he says the field evidence is people now welcome the plebiscite. | |
| Jones presses him on deals with the right. | |
| Q: I’m asking whether there was any deal done with conservatives in the party when you got the votes to overthrow Tony Abbott? Any formal or informal deal or arrangement? | |
| Malcolm Turnbull: | |
| The only arrangement is in the Coalition agreement with the Nationals. | |
| Q: What does that state in terms of the issues that we’re talking about? | |
| Malcolm Turnbull: | |
| It states a commitment to the plebiscite which was the government’s policy. And it also refers to committing, maintaining our position on climate change which, by the way, I support. | |
| Turnbull says he believes the world will push the level of ambition on emissions reductions. “We’ll agree on higher targets. At least by 2020, if not earlier. But we are well set-up to meet them and meet them we will.” | |
| 12.37pm BST | |
| 12:37 | |
| The prime minister, minus the pre-prime ministerial Q&A leather jacket, plus smile, is standing by in Brisbane. Hopefully he’s got some hot honey and lemon on stand-by. | |
| 12.30pm BST | |
| 12:30 | |
| Very close to kick off now, just time to refresh beverages. Do it. | |
| 12.23pm BST | |
| 12:23 | |
| The curiosity of Medicare and cabinet | |
| If you didn’t watch the action out on the hustings today, the main focal point was Medicare. The government is battening down the hatches to try and ride out Labor’s campaign in these last two weeks on universal health care. Malcolm Turnbull has dumped the Coalition’s proposal to outsource the payments system attached to Medicare in an effort to simplify the government’s message: there are no plans to privatise Medicare. Not now. Not after the election. | |
| Today, in an effort to play down the outsourcing proposal, the prime minister told reporters it hadn’t been to cabinet. This was a strange thing to say, because the decision to explore the outsourcing option for the Medicare payments system was a budget decision. All budget decisions go to cabinet as a matter of course. So it has been to cabinet on at least one occasion. | |
| Inquiries I made over the course of the afternoon suggest there was another pass in cabinet between 18 months or two years ago, a submission was circulated by the health department which examined options for privatising the payments system. This is obviously before Malcolm Turnbull’s time as prime minister, but he was a cabinet minister during the Abbott period. All pretty curious. | |
| Presumably what the prime minister meant to do was send a signal to voters that consideration of the outsourcing was at a preliminary stage: no decision had been made about whether to proceed or not, or how to proceed. Nothing to worry about, this was an idea floated in passing, which is now over. While it’s pretty obvious the government hadn’t resolved the issue one way or another, it’s not quite right to suggest it was a proposal with no direction or momentum. The issue was being spearheaded by an interdepartmental taskforce, with a budget of $5m. That’s a distance away from nothing to see here. | |
| 12.10pm BST | 12.10pm BST |
| 12:10 | 12:10 |
| I’ve got an eye on Four Corners, which tonight is looking at the contest in New England. At the moment the deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce is wondering about climate change. He started wondering about climate change a month or so back, during a profile interview with the Good Weekend. Up until then he was the $100 lamb roast man in Tony Abbott’s swingeing campaign against the carbon price. Joyce tonight says: “I believe there is a drying of the climate in certain areas. And it’s nothing deeper than an observation.” | I’ve got an eye on Four Corners, which tonight is looking at the contest in New England. At the moment the deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce is wondering about climate change. He started wondering about climate change a month or so back, during a profile interview with the Good Weekend. Up until then he was the $100 lamb roast man in Tony Abbott’s swingeing campaign against the carbon price. Joyce tonight says: “I believe there is a drying of the climate in certain areas. And it’s nothing deeper than an observation.” |
| 11.53am BST | 11.53am BST |
| 11:53 | 11:53 |
| Take it as a comment | Take it as a comment |
| Hello good people and welcome to tonight’s live coverage of the prime minister’s appearance on the Q&A program. Given Malcolm Turnbull is battling a heavy cold I’ll be amazed if he manages to get through tonight with his voice intact. He was battling on gamely but struggling during campaign appearances in Sydney this morning. | Hello good people and welcome to tonight’s live coverage of the prime minister’s appearance on the Q&A program. Given Malcolm Turnbull is battling a heavy cold I’ll be amazed if he manages to get through tonight with his voice intact. He was battling on gamely but struggling during campaign appearances in Sydney this morning. |
| Turnbull’s appearance tonight follows Bill Shorten’s decision to front the program a week ago. Shorten wanted the campaign Q&A appearance to be a head-to-head for obvious reasons, such appearances increase your stature when you are in opposition, particularly if you can pull off a debate-like encounter. | Turnbull’s appearance tonight follows Bill Shorten’s decision to front the program a week ago. Shorten wanted the campaign Q&A appearance to be a head-to-head for obvious reasons, such appearances increase your stature when you are in opposition, particularly if you can pull off a debate-like encounter. |
| But the prime minister declined the double header. So that’s the backstory to tonight. Solo or bust. | But the prime minister declined the double header. So that’s the backstory to tonight. Solo or bust. |
| Last week when I launched the special edition of Politics Live for Shorten’s Q&A appearance, I explained why the live call, given most people can watch the program. As I said last week, I’m bunging on the special edition for two reasons. | Last week when I launched the special edition of Politics Live for Shorten’s Q&A appearance, I explained why the live call, given most people can watch the program. As I said last week, I’m bunging on the special edition for two reasons. |
| I know there are a bunch of political tragics who count down the hours until they can shout in unison at the television during Q&A on Monday nights. You know who you are. I tip my hat to that level of dedication, which leads me to the second imperative. There are another bunch of political tragics who would rather punch themselves in the head than waste an hour of their lives watching the ego-saturated talking points sass fest that is Q&A. You know who you are. I might even count myself among your number. | I know there are a bunch of political tragics who count down the hours until they can shout in unison at the television during Q&A on Monday nights. You know who you are. I tip my hat to that level of dedication, which leads me to the second imperative. There are another bunch of political tragics who would rather punch themselves in the head than waste an hour of their lives watching the ego-saturated talking points sass fest that is Q&A. You know who you are. I might even count myself among your number. |
| So you can consider tonight’s live call a public service to both camps. If you are in tribe A then the beauty of tonight is we can all come together and bellow in unison. We may even succeed in raising the #ausvotes roof if we try hard enough, which is an aspiration worth shooting for. But if you are firmly in tribe B then I can take the hit of watching Q&A and keep you updated on your smart phone or your tablet or your laptop, and you can maintain your Q&A ban. Call it passive consumption. Win-win people. Who says there are no win-wins in Australian politics? A pessimist, that’s who, and that’s a self indulgence no-one can afford in an eight week campaign. | So you can consider tonight’s live call a public service to both camps. If you are in tribe A then the beauty of tonight is we can all come together and bellow in unison. We may even succeed in raising the #ausvotes roof if we try hard enough, which is an aspiration worth shooting for. But if you are firmly in tribe B then I can take the hit of watching Q&A and keep you updated on your smart phone or your tablet or your laptop, and you can maintain your Q&A ban. Call it passive consumption. Win-win people. Who says there are no win-wins in Australian politics? A pessimist, that’s who, and that’s a self indulgence no-one can afford in an eight week campaign. |
| Let’s crack on with tonight’s coverage. The comments thread is open for your business. If the thread’s too bracing for you, feel free to give me a shout on Twitter: I’m @murpharoo. If you only speak Facebook you can join my daily politics forum here. It’s very polite over there. And if you want a behind-the-scenes look at the day and the campaign as a whole, give Mike Bowers a follow on Instagram. Here’s a sample from the hustings today. | Let’s crack on with tonight’s coverage. The comments thread is open for your business. If the thread’s too bracing for you, feel free to give me a shout on Twitter: I’m @murpharoo. If you only speak Facebook you can join my daily politics forum here. It’s very polite over there. And if you want a behind-the-scenes look at the day and the campaign as a whole, give Mike Bowers a follow on Instagram. Here’s a sample from the hustings today. |
| You can find him on Instagram here. | You can find him on Instagram here. |
| Charge your glasses and pop the popcorn, here comes Q&A. | Charge your glasses and pop the popcorn, here comes Q&A. |