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Tony Abbott says Liberals should have made 'more effort' to keep Bernardi on side – politics live | |
(35 minutes later) | |
1.32am GMT | |
01:32 | |
Bernardi will give a statement and then Penny Wong is expected to seek leave to speak to it. | |
1.31am GMT | |
01:31 | |
Senate is sitting now as the president reads the Lord’s prayer and pays respect to Indigenous elders past and present. | |
1.30am GMT | |
01:30 | |
Human services minister Alan Tudge spoke to the motion, saying the system is designed to ensure that taxpayers only support those in need. | |
1.29am GMT | |
01:29 | |
In the lower house, independent Andrew Wilkie is trying to suspend standing orders on the Centrelink debt recovery system. The motion: | |
(1) acknowledges that Centrelink has, since late 2016, been sending out numerous incorrect notices relating to debt recovery – by its estimation, at least 4,000 of the 20,000 debt notices sent each week are incorrect; | |
(2) notes the severe financial and emotional toll that the debt recovery system has had on thousands of people, including some of the most vulnerable, with some going so far as to talk of suicide; | |
(3) notes the many well-documented problems with the system, including: | |
(a) incorrect debts being raised by a crude data-matching of a person’s annual income as reported by the Australian Taxation Office with their fortnightly income reported to Centrelink; | |
(b) alleged debts having been referred to debt collection agencies in a short amount of time, often when the person has not even been made aware of the alleged debt because they have not received adequate notice from Centrelink; | |
(c) people being asked for payslips and other proof of income from periods or in circumstances where they could not reasonably be expected to provide such documentation; and | |
(d) the Department of Human Services often refusing to explain how an alleged debt has been calculated, and in some cases recalculating the alleged debt seemingly at random; | |
(4) notes that while the Minister for Human Services has indicated that some minor changes will be made, the program remains deeply flawed and must be shut down immediately; | |
(5) condemns the Minister for not only refusing to admit that there is a problem with the system, but also for insisting that the system will continue to operate despite it incorrectly targeting thousands of innocent Australians and its failure to treat people fairly and humanely; and | |
(6) calls on the Minister to: | |
(a) ensure that all Centrelink debt recovery activities are timely and accurate, and are conducted in a fair and humane manner; and | |
(b) convene, as a matter of urgency, an expert stakeholder roundtable to design a fair and humane system of debt detection and recovery. | |
1.23am GMT | |
01:23 | |
Coming up: | |
I will be seeking leave to make a statement to the Senate when it commences at 12.30pm today. | |
Following my statement to Senate will hold press conference in Mural Hall @ 1pm | |
1.15am GMT | |
01:15 | |
#BREAKING: @TurnbullMalcolm has axed the lifetime gold travel pass for former MPS. | |
Updated | |
at 1.19am GMT | |
1.12am GMT | |
01:12 | |
Tony Abbott: we should have done more to keep Cory | |
Tony Abbott has taken to Facebook to decry the lack of effort being made to keep Cory in the tent. | |
Cory Bernardi has made an important contribution to our public life and I deeply regret his decision to leave the Liberal Party. | |
While Cory and I have sometimes disagreed I’m disappointed that more effort has not been made to keep our party united. | |
The Liberal Party needs more people, like Cory, who believe that freer citizens will make a fairer society and a stronger country and who are prepared to speak out and make a difference. | |
No government entirely satisfies all of its supporters. This is not an argument to leave; it’s a reason to stay in and fight more effectively for the things we believe in. | |
I appeal to everyone who wants smaller, stronger government and who wants a freer, fairer country to continue to support the Liberals because that is the only way to improve our party, our government and our country. | |
Updated | |
at 1.24am GMT | |
1.09am GMT | |
01:09 | |
Given new rightwing political parties are the topic of the day, I thought it was worth casting our minds back to the pulped book of John Hyde Page, called The Education of a Young Liberal. While the book was pulped in relation to another matter, the author gives an interesting account of a conversation with Malcolm Turnbull regarding the possibility of forming a centre-right party. Hyde Page was working for the former Liberal Wentworth MP Peter King at the time. (Turnbull knocked off King in a torrid preselection.) Hyde Page recalls the conversation was about the hollowing out of the Liberal party into what the PM had then called a “doughnut” – that is, Young Liberals at one end, pensioners at the other and nothing in between. | |
Hyde Page went on to interpret Turnbull’s words. | |
Indeed if something was not done, Turnbull predicted, the Liberal party would very soon be supplanted by some new centre-right party. It wouldn’t be hard at all, thanks to the internet – he took a moment or two to praise the marvel that is the internet – a couple of wealthy financiers, a few emails, an online recruitment campaign and voila, a new conservative force in Australian politics and no more Liberal party. | |
Voila indeed. | |
I have contacted the PM’s office to check whether it is an accurate account of the conversation and have yet to hear back. | |
A young social services minister Christian Porter – who back then was a senior state prosecutor in Western Australia before he entered state or federal parliament – wrote a review for the Centre for Independent Studies. | |
John Hyde Page’s book The Education of a Young Liberal is a very hard book to hate. And as a proud member of the Liberal party’s WA division I tried very hard. Indeed, it is probably a mistake to have a member of any political party review such a book because, of the several reviews published to date, each goes immediately to its accuracy and political meaning ... | |
Whether accurate or not, the several pages devoted to Peter King and Malcolm Turnbull leave the reader with a sense that he has been privy to some deep insight into complex and textured human beings. | |
Updated | |
at 1.13am GMT | |
12.24am GMT | 12.24am GMT |
00:24 | 00:24 |
Night of the living dead: zombie budget measures make budget hard to balance | Night of the living dead: zombie budget measures make budget hard to balance |
Gareth Hutchens | Gareth Hutchens |
The Parliamentary Budget Office has published an update on the budgetary impact of legislation still stuck in the Senate. | The Parliamentary Budget Office has published an update on the budgetary impact of legislation still stuck in the Senate. |
Labor will try to capitalise on it today, which the government won’t appreciate. | Labor will try to capitalise on it today, which the government won’t appreciate. |
It’s a quiet reminder of the problems the Coalition has faced in the Senate since the Abbott government’s infamous 2014 budget. | It’s a quiet reminder of the problems the Coalition has faced in the Senate since the Abbott government’s infamous 2014 budget. |
According to the PBO: | According to the PBO: |
The impact of the unlegislated measures on the budget deficit will be $8.5bn in 2019-20 and $42.8bn in 2026-27. | The impact of the unlegislated measures on the budget deficit will be $8.5bn in 2019-20 and $42.8bn in 2026-27. |
That means the government’s attempt to return the budget to balance by 2020-21 will be impossible, keeping other things equal, if the measures remain unlegislated. | That means the government’s attempt to return the budget to balance by 2020-21 will be impossible, keeping other things equal, if the measures remain unlegislated. |
Updated | Updated |
at 12.40am GMT | at 12.40am GMT |
12.20am GMT | 12.20am GMT |
00:20 | 00:20 |
Katharine Murphy has done a little bit of decoding of the various barrows being pushed around the Bernardi defection. | Katharine Murphy has done a little bit of decoding of the various barrows being pushed around the Bernardi defection. |
But folks intent on running a line of defence that says how dare Bernardi offend the custom and practice of the political establishment in Canberra, and think that is somehow a resonant argument, must have missed the past two years in politics. | But folks intent on running a line of defence that says how dare Bernardi offend the custom and practice of the political establishment in Canberra, and think that is somehow a resonant argument, must have missed the past two years in politics. |
If somehow you missed the past two years in politics, the bit where Brexit happened and Trump got elected and One Nation returned to the political scene, then you have only to read Monday’s Newspoll to know that Australian voters are parting ways with the major parties and are actively looking for alternatives. | If somehow you missed the past two years in politics, the bit where Brexit happened and Trump got elected and One Nation returned to the political scene, then you have only to read Monday’s Newspoll to know that Australian voters are parting ways with the major parties and are actively looking for alternatives. |
If you want to put some wind under the sails of a red meat conservative, who is looking to build a new political movement on a bedrock of disaffection, and is looking (somewhat against his own history) to position himself as a political outsider – I’d start throwing around words like “rat”. | If you want to put some wind under the sails of a red meat conservative, who is looking to build a new political movement on a bedrock of disaffection, and is looking (somewhat against his own history) to position himself as a political outsider – I’d start throwing around words like “rat”. |
2. Murpharoo suggests the conservative commentary that the defection is another test for Turnbull is bollocks. | 2. Murpharoo suggests the conservative commentary that the defection is another test for Turnbull is bollocks. |
Let’s get real. Looking at Turnbull, it really is hard to see how he could get more conservative than he currently is without also triggering a full-scale rebellion by party moderates. | Let’s get real. Looking at Turnbull, it really is hard to see how he could get more conservative than he currently is without also triggering a full-scale rebellion by party moderates. |
So let’s call this one out. The hard right of the Liberal party just don’t like Turnbull, so it doesn’t matter what he does, it won’t be enough. | So let’s call this one out. The hard right of the Liberal party just don’t like Turnbull, so it doesn’t matter what he does, it won’t be enough. |
Have a read here. | Have a read here. |
Updated | Updated |
at 12.33am GMT | at 12.33am GMT |
11.58pm GMT | 11.58pm GMT |
23:58 | 23:58 |
The minister for investment opportunities. The former minister of health. | The minister for investment opportunities. The former minister of health. |
Updated | Updated |
at 12.11am GMT | at 12.11am GMT |
11.53pm GMT | 11.53pm GMT |
23:53 | 23:53 |
Then and Now- fellow SA sen. David Fawcett takes Cory's seat in the party room this morn @gabriellechan @GuardianAus pic.twitter.com/AjojsbPGKI | Then and Now- fellow SA sen. David Fawcett takes Cory's seat in the party room this morn @gabriellechan @GuardianAus pic.twitter.com/AjojsbPGKI |
Updated | Updated |
at 12.12am GMT | at 12.12am GMT |