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Parliament reacts to Liberal turmoil – question time live | |
(35 minutes later) | |
3.20am GMT | |
03:20 | |
Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten are giving a statement on indulgence the death of writer and broadcaster Anne Deveson. | |
3.16am GMT | |
03:16 | |
Paul Karp | |
Labor has made a submission to the high court in the Bob Day case. | |
Jeremy Kirk, representing former South Australian Labor senator Anne McEwen, has told the high court that if Bob Day was ineligible to be elected to the Senate, the next Family First candidate should not be automatically elected. | |
In submissions to the high court on Tuesday, Kirk said that above the line votes should not count for the second candidate Lucy Gichuhi because “the group’s square was not properly there” as it only had two candidates, one of who was invalid. | |
Kirk said that allowing the votes to flow down the list “presupposes there was a valid box there [above the line]” and, instead, votes should flow to the groups voters had chosen second above the line. | |
Kirk highlighted the fact that Bob Day was the top of the ticket, had the higher profile, and the “close association” between Day, who he said was ineligible, and the Family First party. | |
The commonwealth is content for Day’s replacement to be chosen by a recount that would include above the line votes flowing to Gichuhi. | |
The high court resumes with submissions on behalf of Bob Day at 2pm. | |
3.13am GMT | |
03:13 | |
Everyone in the chamber stands to remember the victims who died in the Bourke Street Mall. | |
3.13am GMT | |
03:13 | |
Shorten talks about the victims, individually and then praised the people who helped. | |
In a world where we have seen too much iPhone footage of violence on the street, too many helicopter angles of attacks on the innocent, it would have been entirely understandable of Melburnians to flee the scene in that moment of fear. But the footage only shows our people, our fellow Australians running towards the danger. Administering CPR, comforting the wounded. Even as there were still shots ringing out. They did what I think we hope we all would when confronted by the same set of circumstances, but perhaps we wonder in our hearts if we would be as brave as these fellow Australians. | |
3.11am GMT | |
03:11 | |
Bill Shorten speaks on Bourke Street. | |
My home town was packed with tourists, shoppers, workers. And then that day was shattered. I have lived in Melbourne nearly all of my 49 years. The Bourke Street Mall is a place that every Melburnian, every Victorian and probably every Australian knows. We have caught the 86 and the 96 tram along the mall. Many of us can picture the mall with our eyes closed. I visited the Myer Christmas windows as a child and I have taken my own children to see them. I think perhaps that is why this tragedy has affected us so strongly. Unlike some of the tragedies and disasters which confront the human condition, this one wasn’t somewhere else. It was one which could have affected any of us, as we have all been there. | |
3.09am GMT | |
03:09 | |
Turnbull commissions strategy to protect places of mass gathering | |
Turnbull tells the parliament of the Bourke Street Mall incident: | |
The Victorian government is examining and reviewing the state’s bail laws and processes, as they should. | |
Last year, following the truck attack in Nice, terrorist attack, I tasked the counter-terrorism coordinator to review the challenge of protecting places of mass gathering. While the review found that we had largely robust protections in place, it was also clear that more work was required. | |
I have therefore commissioned a national strategy for protecting places of mass gathering and agencies are working closely on this with the states. This is a very real issue. | |
We have seen in Nice what a truck was able to do. We saw in Melbourne what a motor car, a completely, widely available vehicle, a simple motor car was able to do. This protection of places of mass gathering is a very important issue. | |
3.05am GMT | |
03:05 | |
Paul Karp | |
The high court, sitting as the court of disputed returns, is holding a hearing into former Family First senator Bob Day’s eligibility to stand at the last election. | |
In Tuesday morning’s hearing the solicitor general Stephen Donaghue argued that Day was ineligible because he had an “indirect interest” in an agreement with the Commonwealth, namely the lease of his electorate office housed at 77 Fullarton Road. | |
Day’s family trust sold the property using vendor financing to a trust benefiting his business partner, Fullarton Investments. Donaghue said that in an email dated 2 December 2013, Day’s accountant explained that the purpose of the arrangement was that: | |
The trust will simply hold the property and collect rent on a regular basis. That rent will then pass back to the Day Family Trust so there will be no profit nor loss in the new trust.” | |
No rent was ever paid to Day, but Donaghue quoted at length a request from Day to then special minister of state, Mathias Cormann, in late December 2015 asking for almost $60,000 in back payments from 1 July that year because the commonwealth had failed to find a new tenant for his predecessor’s office, which triggered the obligation to pay rent. | |
Cormann asked for evidence that Day had paid rent for his office, which led Day to respond to the Finance Department on 25 January 2016 that Fullarton was to receive rent then make vendor finance payments to him. “No rent, no vendor finance repayments,” Day wrote. | |
Donague said this amounted to Day “directly equating” the rental allowance with repayments to be made to his family trust. That evidenced an indirect interest in the lease, “a reasonable expectation of moneys arising out of the lease”, Donaghue said. | |
Donaghue said there was an “obvious capacity” for the commonwealth to influence Day’s financial position by paying rent in future or the almost $60,000 in backpay, and that was the kind of conflict of interest the constitutional disqualification was designed to prevent. | |
Donaghue submitted a parliamentarian should be ineligible “where there is objectively a real risk the senator or member could be influenced or perceived to be influenced by a monetary gain or loss by performance or non performance of an agreement”. | |
3.04am GMT | |
03:04 | |
Statement: Gina Rinehart says she's not funding Cory Bernardi's new party @PoliticsFairfax #auspol pic.twitter.com/O0OwsS8FBm | |
3.02am GMT | |
03:02 | |
Bill Shorten begins with a short speech on the royal commission into institutional responses into child sexual abuse. He underlines the need for a proper national redress scheme. | |
Malcolm Turnbull begins remembering the victims of the recent Bourke Street mall incident. He thanks the emergency services and all those who assisted. | |
Updated | Updated |
at 3.04am GMT | |
2.59am GMT | |
02:59 | |
Australian Conservatives unite. | |
Updated | Updated |
at 3.04am GMT | |
2.56am GMT | |
02:56 | |
Lunchtime politics: Day 1, a summary | |
Liberal senator Cory Bernardi has resigned from the party he stood for eight months ago. The prime minister and senior Liberals have voiced their disappointment - suggesting he should resign his Senate spot and recontest under his new party name. | |
Tony Abbott said (unknown people) should have done more to keep Cory in the party. | |
The government has introduced a bill to dump the lifetime free travel goldpass for all politicians except ex-prime ministers and their partners. Turnbull has ruled out his future use of the pass. A bill will also be introduced for the independent body to oversee pollies expenses. | |
Malcolm Turnbull addressed his party room with a bit of a stump speech for the first day back in parliament. | |
Question time coming up in five minutes. | |
Updated | Updated |
at 3.05am GMT | |
2.48am GMT | |
02:48 | |
Before the resignation, a quiet word over the table ... | |
Updated | |
at 3.05am GMT | |
2.44am GMT | |
02:44 | |
In the party room, at the news of the death of the gold pass, I’m told one MP joked “we will all have to get corporate sponsorship”. |