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Cory Bernardi: 'Every Liberal voter knew what they were getting' – politics live Parliament reacts to Liberal turmoil – question time live
(35 minutes later)
2.44am GMT 3.20am GMT
02:44 03:20
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”. Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten are giving a statement on indulgence the death of writer and broadcaster Anne Deveson.
2.41am GMT 3.16am GMT
02:41 03:16
Ex-politicians gold pass is abolished and independent authority bill revealed Paul Karp
Special minister of state Scott Ryan is speaking to the government’s announcement: Labor has made a submission to the high court in the Bob Day case.
Cutting the parliamentarians gold pass 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.
establishing an independent authority to oversee politicians expenses. 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.
The Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (IPEA) bill will be introduced in the house this week. 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.
IPEA will have the core functions of auditing and reporting of parliamentarians’ work expenses. It will also have a specific focus on the administration and compliance of travel and related claims from parliamentarians, including ministers, and their staff. This will ensure that taxpayer’ funds are spent appropriately and in compliance with the rules. IPEA will operate as an independent statutory body. 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 government will also introduce the Parliamentary Entitlements Legislation Amendment Bill to abolish the life gold pass for eligible former parliamentarians, apart from former prime ministers and their spouses. The commonwealth is content for Day’s replacement to be chosen by a recount that would include above the line votes flowing to Gichuhi.
This legislation means that the gold pass is dumped immediately rather than the previous phased proposal. The high court resumes with submissions on behalf of Bob Day at 2pm.
We have the opportunity to show Australians that the current generation of parliamentarians will subject themselves to higher standards than ever before. 3.13am GMT
The gold pass will remain for ex-prime ministers but Turnbull has made it clear he will not use it. 03:13
2.33am GMT Everyone in the chamber stands to remember the victims who died in the Bourke Street Mall.
02:33 3.13am GMT
Q: Don’t you need to appeal to people outside of your narrow far right constituency? 03:13
Bernardi: Shorten talks about the victims, individually and then praised the people who helped.
There is a pejorative sort of characterisation. This is the difficulty that we have. We have a case where the political class is held in very low regard because of what they say, what they failed to do and what they do do. We don’t need that to be compounded in elements of the media. 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.
2.32am GMT 3.11am GMT
02:32 03:11
Bernardi says he cannot identify the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Bill Shorten speaks on Bourke Street.
He goes to the US election and urges people to look past Trump’s personality. 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.
I don’t want you to confuse the personalities of the individuals involved with the policy outcomes. What the Republican candidate took to their election was the fact that they wanted to cut taxes, deregulate the economy, make sure their borders were secure and that their trade policy would be acting in their interests, not in anyone else’s. They are mainstream concerns and added to why they are so demonised by those who chose not to get past his personality and look at what he was putting forward. 3.09am GMT
2.28am GMT 03:09
02:28 Turnbull commissions strategy to protect places of mass gathering
Bernardi has been criticised for not telling his party room directly. He says he did not go to the party room meeting because he was no longer a member. Turnbull tells the parliament of the Bourke Street Mall incident:
2.26am GMT The Victorian government is examining and reviewing the state’s bail laws and processes, as they should.
02:26 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.
Bernardi won’t criticise his conservative colleagues. He won’t answer a question about whether he would rule out rejoining the Liberal party. 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.
2.24am GMT 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.
02:24 3.05am GMT
Bernardi on how he will be different to One Nation: 03:05
I have the utmost respect for her, she is tenacious. This is about Australian Conservatives though. This is about applying principles which will be enshrined in all our documents and asking people if you want to come and join us because we will take a principled approach to all policy, rather than just chasing any manner of headline, assess policy on what is in the best term for the national interests. That is my goal. Paul Karp
2.22am GMT 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.
02:22 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.
Bernardi says he had no intention of breaking away from the Liberal party at the time of the election. 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:
2.18am GMT 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.”
02:18 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.
Cory Bernardi says he has no idea whether Gina Rinehart will fund his campaign. 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.
He avoids a question over whether he will apologise to Liberal voters. 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.
Q: Isn’t it true only 2,000 voted for you below the line. Haven’t you betrayed those voters? 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.
Every single Liberal party voter and those party members knew exactly what they were supporting. My principles have not changed. My advocacy has not changed. 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.
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02:15 02:59
Bernardi: if the government puts forward good policy, I will support them Australian Conservatives unite.
Bernardi hopes to run candidates at the next election. He does not outline his funding plan but says he received 700 donations at the last election.
On dealing with the government:
My heart, my ethos is, is steeped in the Liberal party. It is about lower taxes and living relationship your means and better outcomes for families, fostering enterprise, restricting the scope of government and building society. It is how we build the base. Read into that what they will. If they put forward good policy, I will support them. If they err, I will tell them and try to amend it.
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at 2.21am GMT at 3.04am GMT
2.12am GMT 2.56am GMT
02:12 02:56
In the last seven months, you said two answers ago, things haven’t gone the way you would like them to go but you are only identifying one policy that has precipitated you doing this today. Lunchtime politics: Day 1, a summary
Bernardi: 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.
I was asked for a policy but the voters have rendered their verdict. After the last election I said there was a problem. We need to fix it. When the pollster says the base doesn’t matter, when the election campaign is lacklustre and we hang on by one seat and trumpeted it as a great victory and no one is investigating it, we have got a problem. That problem is getting worse. It is getting worse. The minor parties are growing exponentially because people have lost faith in the major parties. I want to give them a viable, a credible and a principled alternative in which they can vote. 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.
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2.48am GMT
02:48
Before the resignation, a quiet word over the table ...
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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”.