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Rod Culleton says he won't be led after voting against Pauline Hanson's proposal – politics live
Question time suspended as refugee protest disrupts parliament – politics live
(35 minutes later)
2.57am GMT
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03:34
Just before QT, a short quote from Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm last week in the first senate vote when he opposed the 19% rate (prior to its amendment to 15%).
How the refugee protest unfolded by Mike Bowers
With their backpacker tax bills, the Liberal and National parties are raising revenue, discouraging backpackers to the detriment of Australians and doing the bidding of the unions. Accordingly, I oppose each of these bills and I hope the government’s efforts to pass them into law fail miserably.
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02:50
Gareth Hutchens says the protestors are from the Whistleblowers Activists and Citizens Alliance.
Essentially Turnbull bats away all questions or suggestions of embarrassing backflips or failures on the backpacker tax.
3.30am GMT
He claims credit for passing the ABCC bill which he correctly says could not pass the bill.
03:30
He encourages the press pack to be more optomistic, in keeping with the 21st century opportunities.
Incredibly wild scary scenes in parliament as protesters dragged away pic.twitter.com/YYDeHwiBQA
He returns to his office for question time.
3.28am GMT
That hour is coming up in 10 minutes.
03:28
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Protestors still being dragged from the public gallery by security. pic.twitter.com/muSDGhJxES
02:47
3.28am GMT
Malcolm Turnbull is speaking on the triumph of the ABCC.
03:28
But he is asked mostly about the backpackers.
here's the start of the refugee protest in #QT - they shouted over Melissa Price, who tried valiantly (in vain) to continue her question pic.twitter.com/DARCMwnLaU
Here are the main points:
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Gareth Hutchens
The government still need one more number to pass 15% backpacker rate by my calculation.
A small group of protesters has linked and is standing near theentrance to the House of Representatives.They are yelling in unison:
Government support on 15%:
We are here today because you have become world leaders in cruelty! You have shamed us on the international stage ... You use our money to abuse refugees!
Government needs 38 to win.
A queue of visitors waiting to enter the House are a captive audience.Meanwhile, dozens of security guards are removing protesters one by onefrom the House.Cameras and journalists are everywhere. The protesters’ chant is loudand unceasing. There aren’t enough guards to remove them.
2.35am GMT
Your policies are killing innocent people. They’re separating families. You use our money to abuse refugees.
02:35
The group is protesting against Australia’s immigration policies, includingthe detention centres on Manus Island, Christmas Island and Nauru.
David Leyonhjelm to swap and support government's 15% backpacker tax rate
David Leyonhjelm will support the Coalition’s 15% backpacker tax rate after previously supporting the 10.5% rate.
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The prime minister and employment minister Michaelia Cash will do a press conference on the ABCC bill at 1.30pm.
Protestors in the #QT gallery should be physically ejected, and by force if necessary.
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I am in the press gallery from my station so I don’t have vision of the protesters. Bowers is down there so we should have some vision shortly. Question time has been suspended until it is clear. Seven protestors have superglued their hands to the railing in the public gallery.
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Lunchtime politics
From Labor MP Tim Watts:
So much of our democracy relies on respect for basic conventions. Allowing the Parliament to meet in civil debate is surely fundamental.
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Shane Wright asks: One of the arguments used was on the backpacker tax that it had to be internationally competitive with New Zealand. Given your position on the company tax rate, which at 30% for our biggest businesses is not competitive with, say, where Donald Trump is going with the US, where Theresa May is going in the UK and elsewhere, how can the ALP stick with a company tax rate without any change and without any acknowledgement of what’s going on with our major competitors?
It seems the remaining 6 protesters really have super glued their hands to the leather of the public gallery and aren't moving.
Bowen says backpackers look at the headline rates while investment decisions are made in a “slightly more complicated environment”.
3.18am GMT
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Big refugees protest continues outside the House of Reps after bringing question time to a halt #auspol @westaustralian pic.twitter.com/5Zds2hZMpm
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03:16
Chris Bowen is speaking at the National Press Club.
Well done to security for dealing so professionally and calmly with these pro-illegal immigrant protesters who have shut down parliament.
His theme is The End of Australian Exceptionalism?
"Close the bloody camps now. Bring them here. Let them stay" protesters continue to shout. pic.twitter.com/tO3EPeXhqP
He has spoken about Labor’s record in government:
3.11am GMT
When Labor came to office in 2007, 16 countries had the ‘triple triple-A’ or three triple-A ratings with a stable outlook. We weren’t one of them.
03:11
When we left office, we were one of only eight countries with the same three AAA ratings and a stable outlook.
Politicians were told, "You are fear-mongers!" #qt
We joined the club just as it was becoming much more exclusive.
3.10am GMT
It was about this time that the OECD described Australia as ‘the iron man’ economy. This is part of a broader story of Australian exceptionalism.
03:10
Bowen outlines the factors he says are changing in the economy and why the AAA rating is under threat:
Looks to be about 30 protestors. Coalition MPs have walked out. #qt #auspol
This patchy growth story is partly why we are seeing the disappearance of full-time jobs, with some disturbing trends in underemployment.
3.09am GMT
Despite a growing population, there are now fewer people in full time work than there were a year ago.
03:09
And there are now 90,000 fewer full-time jobs than there were at the beginning of the year.
Most of the government benches have cleared but the Labor Party has stayed put. The chants continue "Where is your moral compass".
While unemployment is below 6%, underemployment is at a record high.
3.08am GMT
This underutilisation of labour in Australia is why wages are growing at their slowest rates on record.
03:08
And why he thinks the Coalition prescription is not the answer:
Some have glued their hands to the railing.
They talk about jobs and growth but in truth the centrepiece of their jobs and growth plan, the company tax cut, makes the economy just 1% bigger in 20 years’ time.
3.08am GMT
This is why the majority of 31 prominent Australian economists in an Economic Society of Australia survey agreed that “Australia will receive a bigger economic growth dividend in the long run by spending on education than offering an equivalent amount of money on a tax cut to business investment”.
03:08
Bowen says Labor will continue to present a big target by releasing policies, on a number of occasions adopted by the government such as tobacco excise and superannuation.
"We will not stop until you close all the detention centres" They have linked arms as more guards arrive. Some applause from gallery at end
Some might assume that, with this parliament so close, we would draw up the bridge on policy boldness and adopt a small target strategy, riding on the coattails of what has already been done but doing little more.
3.07am GMT
That’s not our intention. The last thing the nation needs is a government with a thin mandate ...
03:07
For too many years, the Australian public have been fed simplistic solutions. “Vote for us and it’ll be OK, there’ll be surge to growth and confidence and the budget will return to surplus”.
I count 27 people, arms locked. 1 more being dragged away. 4 guards on scene. No police.
But it doesn’t work like that.
Tough decisions are necessary.
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Paul Karp: How big a deal is the ABCC?
Paul Karp
Labor’s employment spokesman, Brendan O’Connor, has responded to the passage of the Australian Building and Construction Commission bill by saying the government has made so many changes it may as well have stuck with the current regulator, Fair Work Building and Construction.
That’s because the current regulator already has coercive powers and many checks and balances have been reinserted by crossbench amendments.
At the same time, Labor has said the new ABCC is an attack on workers’ rights, so it does seem to be having a bob each way about how big a difference it will make.
One part of the ABCC bill that will have a major impact is the building code, which regulates the content of industrial agreements of construction companies that want to win government work. There is a two year phase-in for the code so no companies will lose government work immediately.
As the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union national construction secretary, Dave Noonan, has noted, the code prevents the union bargaining over things such as limits on casualisation of work, promoting apprentices, limits on overtime and job security.
These are bargaining restrictions that are not contained in the Fair Work Act, imposed on the construction sector but not other industries through government procurement policies.
The risk the government runs with all this, though, is that the Senate will disallow the code, or that Labor will tear it up when it returns to government. Similarly, it could move to abolish the ABCC (again). The Greens’ industrial relations spokesman, Adam Bandt, has already said the Greens will do both.
Labor tried to regulate industrial relations indirectly through procurement as well, by setting generous conditions for cleaners of Commonwealth buildings in its last term. The Coalition tore the policy up.
The problem all this sets up is that industrial relations becomes less about conditions negotiated between employers and employees (and their representatives) and more about a see-sawing tug of war between Labor and the Coalition about who will encourage more generous conditions and employee representation rights when one is in government, and the opposite when the other wins.
Part of the success of the Fair Work Act is that Australia has finally enjoyed the same industrial relations framework for (almost) a decade. But, for the highly politicised construction sector, that stability doesn’t exist.
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Paul Karp
Some context for Rodney Culleton voting with Labor and the Greens on the 10.5% backpacker tax.
As Guardian Australia first reported, a spokesman for Pauline Hanson had said One Nation would be prepared to accept a tax of 12-15% if the government rejected the 10.5% level, which it did in the lower house.
On Friday, Culleton told a press conference he was “not at all” prepared to accept a tax higher than 10.5%. He said he wanted the tax to be “fair right across the board” and to encourage workers to undertake fruit-picking.
When told Hanson was prepared to go up to 15%, he said he was “not aware” of that and believed the position was to keep it at 10.5%. Asked about the difference of opinion, he said, “It’s an opinion, it’s nothing final, until it’s a fact, we’re still discussing it.”So ... don’t say the government wasn’t warned that Culleton thought differently to his colleagues.
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Just to my last point, Rod Culleton made the final point lest you think he was not independent on his leader.
There’s no nose ring. No one is going to lead me around.
1.11am GMT
01:11
One Nation senator Rod Culleton says he never supports more costs for farmers because he is one. He avoids the question of whether he told Pauline Hanson specifically that he was going to vote against the 15% proposed by her.
Everything is on the table until the vote is in the chamber.
Culleton says the amended backpacker tax is back in the government’s court. He says the tax cannot be set at 15%.
My disappointment is with the Nationals who should be out there protecting farmers, which clearly they are not.
Rod Culleton is essentially an independent. Government has to negotiate with Hanson and Culleton separately.
.@NationalFarmers: "We're absolutely frustrated, disapointed and can't believe this insanity continues." Re #backpackertax @abcnews #auspol
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1.04am GMT
01:04
Just back to the Labor press conference on the backpackers tax.
Joel Fitzgibbon has foreshadowed the Coalition attack on Labor. Indeed the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, has already accused Labor of forcing the tax rate to 32.5%.
This will happen if no resolution happens.
Labor says the government should just accept the will of the parliament and set the rate at 10.5% – Jacqui Lambie’s original proposal.
The government has already said they will not accept that rate.
Anthony Albanese makes the point that as government leader in the lower house in the Gillard-Rudd government he had a hung parliament to deal with on every bit of legislation. Get over it, he says.
Albanese uses the example of when One Nation thought they had a deal on the five-year freeze on the passenger movement charge, only to find out the legislation could not be binding.
[The Coalition] couldn’t keep their word on the floor of the parliament for 15 minutes. They then know that that was a con because it’s been said by everyone, including the speaker of the House, that that is not actually binding.
Now, I managed a parliament where 70 votes out of 150, without losing a vote on a piece of legislation, and I did it by treating crossbenchers with respect, by not lying to them, by not conning them, by engaging in proper, good faith discussions.
This government thinks it is smart when they try and con crossbenchers and then they wonder why it comes back to bite them.
