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Version 11 Version 12
Parliament reacts to Liberal turmoil – question time live Parliament reacts to Liberal turmoil – question time live
(35 minutes later)
3.53am GMT
03:53
Labor to Turnbull: The prime minister’s former Energy advisor Danny Price, said that the prime minister’s refusal to even consider an emissions intensity scheme “shows a lack of spine”. By doing this it means they are the party of increasing electricity prices and reduced energy security. Will the Prime Minister confirm that his lack of spine and his failure to stand up to Senator Bernardi has made theLiberal government the party of increasing electricity prices and reduced energy security?
After an introduction involving squirrels, Turnbull reasserts that the Coalition stands for jobs and reliable affordable energy.
Who doesn’t?
3.49am GMT
03:49
There is a government question to treasurer Scott Morrison about the need to cut company tax cuts.
I should also say his shadow Chris Bowen was chucked out in the previous answer for taking a frivolous point of order.
3.47am GMT
03:47
Labor’s Mark Butler to Turnbull: Energy markets commission modelling shows emissions intensity scheme would save consumers $15bn on their power bills. Within hours of Senator Bernardi objecting to the government even considering such a scheme, the Prime Minister caved in and ruled it out in December. Given that Senator Bernardi has now quit the LiberalParty, will the prime minister reconsider an emissions intensity scheme or are there still too many government MPs who hold the same views as Senator Bernardi to prevent the prime minister from taking the right action?
Turnbull doesn’t answer on the savings to be had on an emissions intensity scheme.
The reality is very simply this - that the Labor Party has pursued renewable energy as an end in itself, without having regard for the need for base load power, without having regard to the fact that all of their assumptions about gas prices have been overtaken by both a massive rise in the cost of gas and its constrained availability and without making any plans for the storage that is needed to make renewables viable.
3.43am GMT
03:43
Malcolm Turnbull takes a government question on energy so that he can talk about Labor governments and their renewable energy policies.
3.37am GMT
03:37
Shorten to Turnbull: It is a matter of record that 34,000 full-time jobs have been lost in the last year. Underemployment is close to a record high. Wages are growing at the slowest rate on record. When 34,000 full-time jobs have been lost in the last year alone, why are you only worried about your own job and not theirs?
Turnbull:
It gives me the opportunity to remind the honourable member that there were 100,000 new jobs in manufacturing. It has been a long time since we have seen growth in manufacturing. The reason we are seeing it is because of the big export markets we have opened up and he would like to close in his new protectionist guise.
Updated
at 3.47am GMT
3.35am GMT
03:35
The first Dorothy Dixer is about how the government is helping hardworking Australians get ahead.
Turnbull’s answer relates to energy prices and Labor’s determination to revert to protectionism.
Updated
at 3.37am GMT
3.33am GMT
03:33
Shorten to Turnbull: Australians have been shocked and sickened by the crimes that have been revealed through the royal commission into child sexual abuse, including yesterday’s tragic and indefensible revelations. Will the prime minister join with me in reassuring the people of Australia that we will do everything in our power together to make sure that this never happens again and that survivors get the justice and redress they deserve?
Turnbull says the scheme will be established next year and will provide monetary payments, psychological counselling and a direct personal response to acknowledge the wrong doing inflicted upon survivors.
He invited the states, territories and other non-government institutions to join in the commonwealth scheme to deliver redress.
Updated
at 3.38am GMT
3.30am GMT
03:30
Without enough hands, I have not given a full account of the pledge by the government not to force land sales of farmers around the defence facility at Shoalwater Bay. But Colin Bettles has the story here.
3.27am GMT
03:27
US senators send Australia a message: Hey buddy, we love you.
Meanwhile, in the US, AAP reports:
US senators have gone into damage control for the American-Australian alliance following president Donald Trump’s acrimonious phone call with prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.Republican senators Lamar Alexander and Marco Rubio, along with Democrats Ben Cardin and Ed Markey, have introduced a bipartisan resolution “reaffirming a strong commitment to the United States-Australian alliance relationship”.It describes the alliance as a “sacred vow of friendship and trust” and Australia as a faithful and reliable partner.Senator Alexander told the Senate on Monday night he did not know what happened during the infamous phone call between the leaders.But he did know the people of the US did not have better friends than the people of Australia.
Even though they lived down under on the other side of the world, for a century Australians have stood with us every time we were at war. And we have stood with them.
Updated
at 3.34am GMT
3.24am GMT
03:24
Independent Andrew Wilkie is giving a statement on the 50th anniversary of the Black Tuesday bushfires in Tasmania.
3.23am GMT
03:23
Going the full Cory. His resignation speech.
3.21am GMT
03:21
Check out Katharine Murphy’s wrap of the Cory Bernardi resignation.
3.20am GMT3.20am GMT
03:2003:20
Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten are giving a statement on indulgence the death of writer and broadcaster Anne Deveson. Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten are giving a statement on indulgence on the death of the writer and broadcaster Anne Deveson.
Updated
at 3.25am GMT
3.16am GMT3.16am GMT
03:1603:16
Paul KarpPaul Karp
Labor has made a submission to the high court in the Bob Day case.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. Jeremy Kirk, representing the 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. 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 whom 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 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. Kirk highlighted the fact that Bob Day was the top of the ticket and 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 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.The high court resumes with submissions on behalf of Bob Day at 2pm.
Updated
at 3.26am GMT
3.13am GMT3.13am GMT
03:1303:13
Everyone in the chamber stands to remember the victims who died in the Bourke Street Mall. 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.
UpdatedUpdated
at 3.04am GMT at 3.26am GMT
2.59am GMT
02:59
Australian Conservatives unite.
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
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”.