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Coalition to establish inquiry into section 18C of Racial Discrimination Act – politics live Coalition to establish inquiry into section 18C of Racial Discrimination Act – question time live
(35 minutes later)
3.42am GMT
03:42
Politicians play politics
Tanya Plibersek to Malcolm Turnbull: I refer to reports that the Government awarded a college linked to former Senator Bob Day a $1.84m grant despite the fact he only asked for $1.4m. Why did the college give the college almost $500,000 more than was requested?
Turnbull flicks the question to defence industry minister Christopher Pyne.
Pyne starts up:
It’s absolutely remarkable, Mr Speaker, that the Labor Party, the party of the home insulation scheme, the party of the school halls debacle, the party of the cash for clunkers, FuelWatch as the Deputy PM points out, GroceryWatch, would have the gall to ask this government.
There was absolutely no financial connection between former Senator Bob Day and the North East Vocational Educational College. It went through all the normal processes that such a grant would go through, and was awarded on its merits, and Mr Speaker, the Labor Party stands condemned for trying to play politics with it.
3.38am GMT
03:38
Fifth government question on border security to justice minister Michael Keenan: Will the minister update the house on the threat of terrorism? What is the government doing to keep our community safe and the Brisbane community safe and our borders secure?
3.36am GMT
03:36
Labor to assistant treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer: The collapse of former Senator Day’s building empire has left hundreds of people who are building houses facing an uncertain future with the prospect they will lose not only their savings, but their dream homes. Can the minister confirm that the Tax Office and the National Australia Bank will be paid ahead of these people in the liquidation of Bob Day’s building empire, and that no action has been taken to recover former Senator Day’s donations of over $2 million to Family First, a party which preferenced the Liberal Party at the last election.
O’Dwyer says check out the corporations act because she cannot talk about individuals.
3.34am GMT
03:34
Labor to Turnbull: Documents tabled in the Senate confirm that the Minister for Finance agreed to back pay rent on Bob Day’s electorate office from 1 July 2015. More than a year before the rent was legally required under the lease. The question is why? Why did the Minister for Finance attempt to back pay over $30,000 in rent when the Commonwealth was not legally obligated to do so, and, no, PM, the matter is not fully dealt with in the Minister for Finance’s statement.
Turnbull says the matter is dealt with in the finance minister’s statement.
Another question to Scott Morrison relating to the importance of balancing the budget.
3.32am GMT
03:32
Barnaby Joyce: it's not just the people who come in, it's the things they might be carrying
Warren Entsch to Barnaby Joyce: Will the Deputy PM outline to the house how the Indigenous ranger program assisting to protect Australia from biosecurity threats and is the Deputy PM aware of any alternative policies?
Joyce notes:
the $12.4m to be put to the Indigenous rangers program that is so vitally important, how we keep our borders strong and protected. We note also in the member’s electorate...you can see the boats leaving Papua New Guinea.
BOATS! Joyce mentions screw fly and foot-and-mouth disease.
But it’s very important to remember that it’s not just the people who come in, it is the things that they might be carrying which would cause our nation such a catastrophic outcome if these diseases were to outbreak.
3.26am GMT
03:26
Third question on refugees to foreign minister Julie Bishop.
Labor to Turnbull: Why do documents tabled in the Senate confirm that the minister for finance agreed to back pay rent on former Senator Day’s electorate office, effective from 1 July 2015,which was more than a year before rent was legally required under the lease?
Turnbull says the finance minister covered it in the senate statement.
3.22am GMT
03:22
Labor senators Katy Gallagher and Alex Gallacher have targeted finance minister, Mathias Cormann, over what he knew about the lease at the centre of Bob Day’s eligibility.
Gallagher asks about why the government didn’t know Day was linked to Fullarton Investments, that bought the property where he housed his electorate office off Day’s family trust, given an Asic search would have turned the link, and Bob Day was emailing from bobday@fullarton77.com.au.
Cormann explained that “not a single dollar of rent was paid” for the electorate office.
It wasn’t until after it emerged in August that Day had offered vendor financing, lending the money to Fullarton to pay for the property, that the government got advice about the alleged indirect pecuniary interest now to be considered by the high court.
Cormann denied the government was doing “everything it could to keep its most reliable crossbench senator happy”.
3.21am GMT
03:21
Bob Katter asks a question of Scott Morrison regarding the sale of S Kidman and Co. Why have you, minister, refused to give any guarantee that a majority shareholding in Kidman will not shift to foreign control over the sale to the Shanghai Cred?
Scott Morrison:
Any proposal that triggers the foreign investment threshold review, which a parcel of that size certainly would always have to come back and be considered by Firb [Foreign Investment Review Board] and by me as Treasurer, and I remind the member that on the two occasions that I was asked to consider the sale of the Kidman land, I rejected it. I note that the ShadowTreasurer indicated that he would have approved it of about the last election.
3.18am GMT
03:18
Mark Dreyfus to Malcolm Turnbull: This morning the member for Bennelong said that watering down section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act was not a good use of the government’s time and is causing fear. Why is the PM opening the door to changes that even his own MPs think are a waste of time?
Turnbull:
The honourable member is obviously not paying any attention to what is now a very lively and active debate about the application of the provisions that he spoke about, the application of the provisions to some university students, to a cartoonist from the Australian. There is a lively debate about that, and as a barrister, he would well understand the importance of free speech.
The Labor party cannot escape the consequences of its failure, and what we have done, we have stopped the boats. We’ve stopped the drownings. We have ensured that children are not in detention, and we will continue to do that, and we won’t be lectured on human rights. We won’t be lectured on human rights by a party that was so neglectful, so careless of the human rights of those who lost their lives at sea.
Updated
at 3.26am GMT
3.15am GMT
03:15
Just back on Dutton. His postscript is that he will tell Labor the details of the travel lifetime ban shortly (presumably regarding third-country destinations). Just support the bill.
Trust me.
Updated
at 3.25am GMT
3.14am GMT
03:14
Government question number two on boats to immigration minister Peter Dutton.
Cory Bernardi, in his weekly Common Sense email, says we need to "drain the swamp" in Australia too pic.twitter.com/n7qWAymhCr
3.12am GMT
03:12
Shorten to Turnbull: On 17th October, the PM right here ruled out changes to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. Less than a month later, the PM has opened the door to changes. PM, what change between then and now, what insults do you want people to be allowed to say?
Turnbull says to Shorten, let the committee do its work.
Talk about post-truth politics. The leader of the opposition has no regard for the record. No regard for consistency and his attempts to mischaracterise, to caricature anybody that stands in his way of inventing his Shortonian reality, which has no reality, no connection to the real world.
Updated
at 3.25am GMT
3.06am GMT3.06am GMT
03:0603:06
As flagged earlier, the first government question is on refugees.As flagged earlier, the first government question is on refugees.
Malcolm Turnbull tries to execute the political wedgie.Malcolm Turnbull tries to execute the political wedgie.
What Labor needs to recognise is that the complacency they are exhibiting today is exactly what led [Kevin] Rudd into his mistakes some years ago. Now, during the election, the leader of the opposition said he was on a unity ticket with us in terms of border protection policies.What Labor needs to recognise is that the complacency they are exhibiting today is exactly what led [Kevin] Rudd into his mistakes some years ago. Now, during the election, the leader of the opposition said he was on a unity ticket with us in terms of border protection policies.
UpdatedUpdated
at 3.08am GMTat 3.08am GMT
3.04am GMT
03:04
QUESTION TIME!!!
Labor’s Anne Aly asks Malcolm Turnbull: The former prime minister, the member for Warringah, cited national security concerns as the reason for dumping charges to section 18C saying, and I quote, “When it comes to cracking down on terrorism and cracking down on things that aid and abet terrorism,the 18C proposal was becoming a needless complication.” Has the current PM sought the advice of the AFP or any other security agency on the implications of watering down section 18C?
Turnbull:
It is perfectly appropriate for a committee of this Parliament, the human rights committee, no less, to consider those matters. And the honourable member may reflect that only this morning the president of the Human Rights Commission, Prof Triggs, welcomed such an inquiry and recognised that there should be changes. So the fact of the matter is ... there is a broad array of opinion.
Updated
at 3.08am GMT
2.59am GMT
02:59
Paul Karp
Paul Karp reports:
The government has set up an inquiry into section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, whether it unreasonably burdens freedom of speech and how the Australian Human Rights Commission deals with complaints.
The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, told the Coalition party room section 18C had become a matter of public discussion and concern. The government wanted to get the balance right between a successful multicultural society and freedom of speech.
Dean Smith’s plan to refer the issue to a joint parliamentary human rights committee for an inquiry was backed by the party room, but his broader proposal to have the committee investigate free speech generally – including defamation law - was not taken up.
The attorney general, George Brandis, set up the inquiry on Tuesday. The committee will report by 28 February.
The terms of reference ask the committee to consider whether the AHRC should have greater powers to throw out trivial or vexatious complaints, and to review the whole part of the act, including the defence of good faith publications in the public interest contained in section 18D.
Updated
at 3.09am GMT
2.55am GMT
02:55
But Scott Morrison was not going prejudge the outcome of the inquiry. Orderly process. No distractions.
I look forward to that. It won’t distract me or Kelly [O’Dwyer] from a day’s work as we continue through the midyear uptake and the budget next year and won’t distract the government in any way shape or form.
Updated
at 3.09am GMT
2.49am GMT
02:49
Scott Morrison is asked about the 18C inquiry, in terms of distraction.
Q: You said a couple of months ago when 18C was being kicked around to create a single job ... it now has been referred to a committee and there will be some form of debate over the next few months and presumably after the reports, are you worried this could start to intrude on your economic message?
Morrison, unsurprisingly, says nothing to see here.
I don’t think so. I think the timetable and the process that the cabinet endorsed last night and went through the party room today, I think is a proper and effective process to work through this issue.
Updated
at 3.09am GMT
2.46am GMT
02:46
Scott Morrison confirmed that if Labor successfully amended the backpacker tax to 10.5%, the change would not be supported when the bill came back to the house.
(In other words, two government MPs would have to cross the floor for that to happen.)
2.43am GMT
02:43
Scott Morrison on backpackers tax: Labor says foreign workers deserve a bigger tax cut
Morrison says under the same working arrangements:
In Australia, a backpacker earning $13,000 in Australia takes home $10,530.
In Canada, a backpacker would take home $9,837.
In New Zealand, It would be $10,126.
In the United Kingdom, it’s 10,470.
Scott Morrison:
So the package we’ve put in, ensures that backpackers working in Australia will be at least on the same wicket as if they’ve chosen to go to one of the other countries. And Labor is saying, “No. Foreign workers deserve a bigger tax cut than that and we’re going to make small businesses in this country, and Australians who work for a living, pay for it.”
2.34am GMT
02:34
Scott Morrison: If backpacker bills do not pass, they will pay 32.5% on January 1
Scott Morrison is asked, “If I’m a Swedish backpacker, what tax rate will I be paying if I’m here for a year starting January 1. I have an option of 32, 19, 10.5?”
You have to ask Joel Fitzgibbon because we’re offering 19 cents. Under the Labor party they’ll be paying 32.5. At the moment it is 32.5. If these bills are not passed then what they will be paying is 32.5.
Updated
at 2.45am GMT
2.28am GMT
02:28
Scott Morrison is continuing apace so hopefully I can cover most of it.
Remember that when Labor and the Coalition did the deal on the some $6bn of savings, a month or so ago, there was great hope in government ranks that Labor would do a deal on superannuation – given Labor supports limiting generous superannuation concessions.
Morrison is asked about his discussions with the crossbench.
Discussions have been going on for some time in this issue. Remember, Labor only raised one concern with this package and that was on the issue of the lifetime non-concessional cap. That was the only issue.
If you go back to the budget-in-reply, that was the matter that was raised by the leader of the opposition and that matter has been totally dealt with. So, all I can assume, from this latest announcement, is that Labor, once again, is choosing to play politics with a very serious issue, not addressing the substance.
Updated
at 2.29am GMT
2.20am GMT
02:20
The treasurer, Scott Morrison, and the assistant treasurer, Kelly O’Dwyer, are doing a press conference, pushing back at Labor over their superannuation overnight, which winds back some of the government’s latest package.
Just to recap, Labor had yet to decide on its final position.
Overnight, Labor proposed lowering the annual cap on non-concessional contributions to $75,000, lowering the high-income superannuation contribution threshold to $200,000 and opposing two other “loopholes”.
The first “loophole” is the ability to make catch-up concessional contributions, which would mean that if individuals do not reach their $100,000 cap in any given year they can access their “unused” cap space on a rolling five-year basis.
The second is a change the government proposed in the 2016 budget to allow all individuals up to age 75 to claim an income tax deduction for personal superannuation contributions. In September the government moved the start date of the deduction to 1 July 2018.
Updated
at 2.27am GMT
2.12am GMT
02:12
The Coalition will establish an inquiry into section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act by the parliamentary human rights committee.
This has been flagged for the last few weeks. Malcolm Turnbull has pretty clear about it.
The Institute of Public Affairs is quick out of the stalls.
IPA welcomes inquiry on free speech #18C #auspol pic.twitter.com/9mrnvZvvMT