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Labor uses Mike Baird to attack Coalition over negative gearing – question time live | |
(35 minutes later) | |
3.40am GMT | |
03:40 | |
Shorten to Turnbull: in question time the PM was asked whether the attorney general had given the solicitor general a verbal instruction to run a particular argument in the high court. A question that the PM and the attorney general repeatedly refused to answer. So I ask again: Did the attorney give this instruction, yes or no? | |
Turnbull says George Brandis dealt with the matter in his statement on Monday. | |
Updated | |
at 3.42am GMT | |
3.39am GMT | |
03:39 | |
George Brandis: two people can have a different understanding from same meeting | |
Paul Karp | |
Labor is asking the attorney general, George Brandis, if there was a deal between the federal government and the Western Australian government to let the state leapfrog the ATO in the list of Bell Group creditors. | |
No there was not – not in my opinion and not to my knowledge. | |
Brandis re-explains that the letters between the then federal treasurer, Joe Hockey, and the WA treasurer, Mike Nahan, don’t evidence a deal, in his opinion. | |
The Labor senator Glenn Sterle asks whether Nahan misled the WA parliament by saying there was a deal. | |
Brandis replies that two people can come away from the same meeting with a different understanding. He said he believes Nahan is honest and told the parliament that there was a deal in good faith. | |
I do not have any knowledge of those discussions and the only evidence I have seen does not support that conclusion [that there was a deal]. | |
Updated | |
at 3.40am GMT | |
3.36am GMT | |
03:36 | |
Labor’s Kate Ellis to Barnaby Joyce: Can the deputy PM assure the House that there are no documents which confirm that the government considered cutting funding to the Murray-Darling Basin plan? | |
Joyce says any changes would need legislation so it would be brought into parliament. | |
Updated | |
at 3.40am GMT | |
3.34am GMT | |
03:34 | |
Tony Burke asks Barnaby Joyce: As a result of water entitlement prices doubling in some major catchments of the Murray-Darling Basin, has the deputy PM been trying to secure additional funds to secure 450 gigalitres can be delivered or has the deputy PM been trying to cut government funding to the Murray-Darling Basin? | |
Joyce said there will a review in 2019, which Burke would know full well as he wrote the act. | |
Updated | |
at 3.39am GMT | |
3.31am GMT | |
03:31 | |
The Greens MP Adam Bandt to the energy and environment minister, Josh Frydenberg: In a Senate committee report tabled yesterday, AGL, which runs coal-fired generators like Loy Yang in Victoria and Bayswater in NSW, called for a clear national plan for the orderly retirement of coal-fired generators. For the first time ever, the companies running coal-fired power stations are joining with affected communities, unions and environment groups in calling for a government-led orderly and just transition to a clean economy. Minister, will you do what the Senate committee report recommended and take a plan to the December meeting of the Coag Energy Council, or for this government is plan still just another four-letter word? | |
Frydenberg says there is a transition, with eight out of the 12 most emission intensive power stations close. It will be nine when Hazelwood closes next year. | |
InAustralia, 60% of our power is being generated by coal and we have a transition plan which involves putting energy security at number one ... We will not sacrifice blue-collar jobs in the regions in order to win green votes in the city, which is not just the position of the Greens but unfortunately has been now joined by the Labor party who are in partnership with the Greens – a bit like they were during Julia Gillard and Bob Brown’s time. | |
Updated | |
at 3.35am GMT | |
3.24am GMT | |
03:24 | |
Labor to Joyce: Last week in question time, the deputy PM said the current funding for the promised 450 gigalitres was insufficient, saying, and I quote: “You have not got a hope in Hades of delivering 450 gigs. Not a hope.” One week later, is that still the deputy PM’s position? | |
Joyce basically confirms this is still the case – not in so many words. He says the problems were caused by the former Labor water minister Tony Burke, who asked the question. | |
Updated | |
at 3.31am GMT | |
3.21am GMT | |
03:21 | |
Joel Fitzgibbon to Barnaby Joyce: Was the president of the National Farmers Federation accurate this morning when she said, “We were absolutely blindsided by an item in the budget that came in, that we weren’t consulted about, that said that they were going to put the backpacker tax up to 32% from 0%”? | |
Barnaby Joyce again suggests the backpacker tax was a result of Labor’s actions. | |
This is not correct. | |
I will keep fact checking this until he stops saying it. | |
Joe Hockey’s 2015 budget speech signalled the change in that budget. Hockey said: | |
And anyone on a working holiday in Australia will have to pay tax from their first dollar earned, rather than enjoying a tax-free threshold of nearly $20,000. This will save the budget $540m. | |
Joyce says: | |
The dilemma that we were placed in, was we made the promise that we would resolve this issue by the time the rate went back to 32.5%, which was 1st January next year. | |
IT WAS A PROBLEM CREATED BY THE COALITION GOVERNMENT. IT WAS THEIR DEADLINE. IT WAS THEIR RATE AFTER THEY CHANGED THE RULES. | |
*argghhh, live blogger runs screaming from the office* | |
Updated | |
at 3.30am GMT | |
3.10am GMT | |
03:10 | |
Shorten to Turnbull: An hour ago the premier of NSW confirmed it is the position of his [government that] negative gearing reform should be considered. Given the premier of the state of the heart of Australia’s housing affordability crisis has put negative gearing on the table, why does the PM continue to rule it out and is getting rich parents still his only policy on housing affordability? | |
Turnbull suggests Shorten might misrepresent Baird. | |
Shorten reads the transcript. | |
I would just like to table the transcript. It was a question from the Financial Review: “Do you and your government have negative gearing, is it a problem?” I think I have an answer to this. ... “My answer is yes, it should be considered.” Here in black and white. | |
Turnbull starts an attack on Shorten regarding his allies Cesar Melhem and new senator Kimberley Kitching. | |
It’s so touching to see the way he wants to be the ferocious class warrior. Oh, yes, Bill Shorten, defender of the poor and ... | |
(various points of order) | |
Did he ever call up Cesar and say, “Cesar, that was disgraceful.” No, absolutely not. | |
This was the Cesar Melhem story from the Oz this morning: | |
The Fair Work Commission has begun an investigation into Cesar Melhem, a key ally of Labor leader Bill Shorten, over Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption findings that he orchestrated deals where employers paid employees’ dues. | |
News of the investigation has broken just as the Turnbull government scrambles to secure the last few votes to pass laws reinstating the construction industry watchdog, the Australian Building and Construction Commission. | |
Updated | |
at 3.28am GMT | |
2.59am GMT | 2.59am GMT |
02:59 | 02:59 |
Question time in 3, 2, 1 ... | |
Updated | |
at 3.14am GMT | |
2.59am GMT | 2.59am GMT |
02:59 | 02:59 |
Apropos my earlier post, the New South Wales premier, Mike Baird, was asked whether he agreed with his planning minister, Rob Stokes, who suggested that supply issues alone could not solve Sydney’s housing affordability issues. He was also asked what he thought of the pushback from the federal government against the suggestion that tax deductibility (negative gearing) could be part of the problem. | Apropos my earlier post, the New South Wales premier, Mike Baird, was asked whether he agreed with his planning minister, Rob Stokes, who suggested that supply issues alone could not solve Sydney’s housing affordability issues. He was also asked what he thought of the pushback from the federal government against the suggestion that tax deductibility (negative gearing) could be part of the problem. |
It was a long and winding answer but Baird says Stokes is the most qualified planning minister. (He is a lawyer and academic specialising in environment and planning.) | It was a long and winding answer but Baird says Stokes is the most qualified planning minister. (He is a lawyer and academic specialising in environment and planning.) |
Baird says: | Baird says: |
Why doesn’t everyone come back a minute and say we have a credentialed planning minister making a credible contribution to one of the most complex challenges that we have. Why don’t we take a back seat and say, in terms of what is being presented, is that something we should consider further? That is really my position on it. | Why doesn’t everyone come back a minute and say we have a credentialed planning minister making a credible contribution to one of the most complex challenges that we have. Why don’t we take a back seat and say, in terms of what is being presented, is that something we should consider further? That is really my position on it. |
He says housing approvals have gone from 25,000 to over 75,000 – a record (supply is not the only problem). | He says housing approvals have gone from 25,000 to over 75,000 – a record (supply is not the only problem). |
Baird says he knows there will be political push back (from his own side) but he would rather they focus on the issue. | Baird says he knows there will be political push back (from his own side) but he would rather they focus on the issue. |
Updated | Updated |
at 3.10am GMT | at 3.10am GMT |