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Nick Xenophon says Coalition may be 'wasting billions' on defence – politics live Nick Xenophon says Coalition may be 'wasting billions' on defence – politics live
(35 minutes later)
11.34pm GMT
23:34
Paul Karp
Labor’s deputy leader, Tanya Plibersek, and shadow assistant schools minister, Andrew Giles, are out this morning demanding the government release its proposed schools funding model for 2018 and beyond.
On Monday afternoon the Senate passed a motion noting that the government had cut $30bn from the schools budget in the 2014 budget and abandoned years 5 and 6 of needs-based funding agreements negotiated by the Labor government.
It called on education and training minister, Simon Birmingham, to release the new funding model.
Liberal senator, James McGrath, spoke against the motion noting schools funding is rising from $16.1 billion in 2016 to $20.2 billion in 2020, and claiming that decreasing the rate of projected funding growth does not amount to a cut in schools funding.
The motion passed on the voices, without a division, which Plibersek and Giles have characterised as the Liberals agreeing to the motion.
11.30pm GMT
23:30
The Matt Hatter moment has come early in the day.
@gabriellechan ✈Hello✈ @Nick_Xenophon has a point; (eg) supporting the barely-fly's can't-shoot-straight F35 is throwing good 💰 after bad. pic.twitter.com/gJPDjxm6re
11.29pm GMT
23:29
The Xenophon wishlist
The detail of the Xenophon requirements is worth a look so we know where this Omnibus may land.
NXT has long opposed:
the four-week wait for Youth Allowance, and
PPL cuts at both the initial 18-week proposal and the subsequent 20-week proposal announced last week.
In a statement, NXT said before considering cuts to everyday Australian families, the government needs to:
take future company tax cuts for big business off the table at this time;
crack down on multinational tax avoidance and ensure companies such as Google and Facebook pay their fair share;
urgently free-up funds in the Automotive Transformation Scheme to stem the flow of jobs as auto-making shuts down in this country in October, in order to keep people off welfare and contributing to the nation’s prosperity; and
establish an Emissions Intensity Scheme which will lower power prices for families, pensioners and businesses and increase reliability.
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11.21pm GMT
23:21
Perhaps as Christian Porter considers those negotiations, he may take some advice from Laura Tingle in the Fin Review. She notes that Porter is a conservative leadership contender, a former Western Australian attorney general and treasurer.
What he hasn’t got is any political touch. He rather showed that last year when he missed a huge opportunity to parade himself as an innovative policy maker with some interesting ideas – and create a new platform for debating welfare spending – when he instead sold the government’s adoption of the New Zealand investment approach to social welfare as yet just another exercise in ways to save eleventy billion dollars in a hundred years’ time.
So here’s a tip Christian: don’t pick on disabled people.
It’s one thing for the politically tin-eared treasurer Scott Morrison to try to play funny buggers with the National Disability Insurance Scheme but for the two of you to try to double the stakes on the government’s omnibus childcare/family payments/welfare cuts bill by appearing to be playing off poor people against disabled people is just appalling.
And it was only made worse by opening the press conference announcing the cunning plan by talking about how important it was to cut company taxes.
The Coalition has always claimed Labor did not fund the NDIS properly. Labor has always claimed they had budgeted for the NDIS. Even from yesterday, the shadow social services minister, Jenny Macklin, said:
In the 2013-14 budget, the Labor government clearly identified how the NDIS would be funded for 10 years.
This included a 0.5 per cent increase in the Medicare levy. The Medicare levy was always intended to cover some – not all – of the cost of the NDIS. That’s why Labor made responsible budget choices to help fund the NDIS.
Figures underpinning these savings were developed and published by the Treasury – led at that time by Martin Parkinson, now the secretary of the prime minister’s department.
I am chasing the “figures underpinning these savings”.
Updated
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11.06pm GMT
23:06
As the parties settle down to talk among themselves, I have some time to consider the next step for the government after the Xenophon rebuff.
After the huffery puffery of yesterday, where the three amigos threatened to stick it to the NDIS if the omnibus did not pass, this morning the social services minister, Christian Porter, said the government was willing to negotiate.
The main issue here is finding a way to fund a very serious $1.6bn investment in childcare, which parents and families and mums are screaming out for. We can’t do that other than find money with the expenditure. The first project here is to look at the savings that Nick thinks that he can agree with and see where he can get to the figure of $1.6bn. If Nick has a view that there are other savings out that there can fill the gap and agree to the savings, we’ll obviously have a look at that.
But from defence industry minister Christopher Pyne’s Twitter interventions, we can assume defence will not be one of those savings.
Xenophon wants us to find $5.6B in defence savings to fund welfare.That's entire OPV program cancelled! Less jobs & investment in SA. Shame.
Updated
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10.55pm GMT10.55pm GMT
22:5522:55
Pat Dodson: the effect of the apology was powerful but remains symbolicPat Dodson: the effect of the apology was powerful but remains symbolic
Senator Pat Dodson tells his party room:Senator Pat Dodson tells his party room:
In this place, we collectively represent the many Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander nations across this great country whose lands have been occupied and stolen.In this place, we collectively represent the many Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander nations across this great country whose lands have been occupied and stolen.
I acknowledge the generations who have gone before and those yet to come. Nine years ago, the apology and Labor’s commitment to Closing the Gap [combined] the symbolic and the practical after a tumultuous decade of denial under the Howard Government. I acknowledge the generations who have gone before and those yet to come. Nine years ago, the apology and Labor’s commitment to Closing the Gap [combined] the symbolic and the practical after a tumultuous decade of denial under the Howard government.
Prime minister Rudd’s apology was cathartic. The positive responses of the wider Australian public was heartening. Affirming that with right political leadership, we can transcend the politics of fear and guilt as a nation, and work towards a reconciliation based on truth-telling, healing and justice. Wrongs can be righted. The effect of the apology was powerful whilst remaining symbolic.Prime minister Rudd’s apology was cathartic. The positive responses of the wider Australian public was heartening. Affirming that with right political leadership, we can transcend the politics of fear and guilt as a nation, and work towards a reconciliation based on truth-telling, healing and justice. Wrongs can be righted. The effect of the apology was powerful whilst remaining symbolic.
Updated
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10.48pm GMT10.48pm GMT
22:4822:48
Bill Shorten is opening the Labor caucus meeting. (Remember there are party room meetings this morning.) He says the Indigenous flag will stay in the Labor caucus room.Bill Shorten is opening the Labor caucus meeting. (Remember there are party room meetings this morning.) He says the Indigenous flag will stay in the Labor caucus room.
We need to change the relationship between First Australians and all other Australians. It’s not about listing the pluses and minuses of the balance sheet and what works and what doesn’t.We need to change the relationship between First Australians and all other Australians. It’s not about listing the pluses and minuses of the balance sheet and what works and what doesn’t.
He introduces senator Pat Dodson.He introduces senator Pat Dodson.
Dodson teaches Labor members to say g’day in his traditional language.Dodson teaches Labor members to say g’day in his traditional language.
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10.39pm GMT10.39pm GMT
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10.33pm GMT10.33pm GMT
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KRudd gives a short history on carbon policy.KRudd gives a short history on carbon policy.
.@MrKRudd says Australia's energy policy can be described in three words: "Dumb, dumb, dumb!" pic.twitter.com/JSgI0x8aDu.@MrKRudd says Australia's energy policy can be described in three words: "Dumb, dumb, dumb!" pic.twitter.com/JSgI0x8aDu
10.32pm GMT
22:32
Kevin Rudd is asked by Kieran Gilbert about the current Liberal leadership issues and Tony Abbott’s muscle-flexing. He mentions the prime minister’s sotto voce criticism of renewables.
For God’s sake, stand up for what you believe in ... The authentic Malcolm Turnbull believed in renewable energy. He has been hijacked by the right wing of his party.
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10.25pm GMT
22:25
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10.22pm GMT
22:22
Kevin Rudd has popped up in Canberra.
He remembers the apology nine years ago and the establishment of the Closing the Gap report to measure seven areas of improvement.
He agrees that resourcing needs to be “from the ground up”.
Rudd said an example of a successful program is one he funded to address trachoma rates in Indigenous children. He said the rates of trachoma in children had dropped from 20-something per cent to 4%.
That’s improvement.
Asked about energy policy debate, he characterises it as:
Dumb, dumb, dumb ... Every government I run into around the world thinks we are nuts on carbon policy [for repealing the price].
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10.13pm GMT
22:13
Barnaby Joyce did a doorstop this morning. He talked about the need for negotiations in the Senate but his main point appeared to be about Labor’s unsustainable renewable energy targets. After yesterday’s release of documents showing the prime minister’s office was told the SA blackout was the result of trashed transmission towers, Joyce was careful to say South Australia’s mismanagement (something, something, renewable energy targets, something, something) caused the blackouts.
But asked about the reported death of the omnibus savings bill, he said it was all about negotiation. And, by the way, the Turnbull government has got more through the Senate than the Abbott government. (Ouch).
Everything we do in the Senate is about negotiation. We’ve got more through the Senate under the previous iteration under Mr Abbott. But we can’t avoid the truth. We are trying to get our nation’s finances under control.
Updated
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9.54pm GMT
21:54
I mentioned that Nick Xenophon had raised earlier – with Fran Kelly – the possibility of cutting defence spending to find some more money for other government programs. He said it was a matter of thinking outside the square.
There is a concern that we are literally wasting billions of dollars in defence, that more rigour in terms of defence expenditure would drive some significant savings without compromising our sovereign capabilities in terms of our defence as a nation. It seemed that the burden would fall too heavily on those who could least afford it.
The defence industry minister was quick to capitalise, with an eye to the politics in Adelaide.
Xenophon now wants to cut defence spending in favour of welfare. In 2016 he wanted 12 subs, 9 Frigates & 12 OPVs. Now he wants to cut them.
This would be diabolical for SA. https://t.co/sMSPYsAAlc
Updated
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9.46pm GMT
21:46
I just got a clip of Bill Shorten, who spoke about getting away from constantly framing Indigenous affairs in terms of good or bad outcomes.
He said he wants to think in terms of healthier people, happier people, confident and proud people with no more fear and subjugation.
First peoples standing proud of culture with the place and the space to be themselves.
Updated
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9.40pm GMT
21:40
I will bring you Bill Shorten’s speech on the Redfern statement as soon as I can get my hands on it.
9.38pm GMT
21:38
Updated
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9.33pm GMT
21:33
Malcolm Turnbull is speaking at the Redfern statement breakfast.
He says the government will work with Indigenous leaders to make sure programs are driven by Indigenous communities.
He will ask members of the renewed Indigenous Advisory Council to work with the Redfern Alliance ...
so that a broad range of views are heard and brought to bear on improving not only what we do but the way we do it. We’ll work to ensure that the Closing the Gap initiatives are community driven and recognise that Indigenous leaders are absolutely central, paramount to finding the solutions in a way that supports identity and wellbeing. We want to have more local decision-making models and we’ll continue to build the capability of governments and communities to engage in a better way of working together.
Turnbull called for Australians to consider the progress made in addressing Indigenous disadvantage over the 50 years since the 1967 referendum.
There are more Indigenous Australians in school, in universities, in employment, in business, living longer lives and in better health. We have come a long way over the last 50 years since the ’67 referendum but we have not come far enough. There are still significant challenges that remain.
Turnbull met with an Indigenous gathering of doctors, lawyers, nurses, disability advocates, scientists, business leaders, officers in the defence forces and senior public servants among others.
Those bright Indigenous Australians, bright and often young Indigenous Australians reflect the diversity of experience and aspiration that exist in our communities. It’s vitally important that the narrative is not solely one of deficit.
Updated
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9.02pm GMT
21:02
Good morning,
The skies are dark over Canberra this morning as Nick Xenophon, wielder of three votes in the Senate and one in the lower house, has ruled out supporting the omnibus savings bill in total.
The omnibus bill has a bunch of savings measures – some harking back to the Abbott 2014 budget – which were repackaged to pay for the increase in childcare subsidies. Yesterday, as the Coalition read the signs that support for the omnibus bill was flagging, the treasurer, the social services minister and the education minister came out to link the savings to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). That is, they were throwing $3bn of the savings into a locked box for the NDIS.
In other words, if you don’t support the savings measures such as cuts to family tax benefits and the four week wait for the dole for young people, you won’t get the childcare increase or the NDIS fully funded.
Nick said no. I’m not playing that game. You can get the savings from elsewhere. Ooh, like defence.
He told Katharine Murphy last night:
As negotiating tactics go, this is about as subtle as a sledgehammer.
He said the government “should not pit vulnerable Australians currently receiving family tax benefit against another group of vulnerable Australians wanting to access the NDIS”.
Looking into the day, we are expecting the prime minister to present the ninth Closing the Gap report at midday in the parliament.
Katharine Murphy reports that Tony Abbott has bobbed up while we are speaking Indigenous affairs.
The former prime minister Tony Abbott said he was concerned that Malcolm Turnbull was no longer taking the government to spend a week each year in a remote community.
Speaking to the ABC radio on Monday evening, Abbott defended his record in Indigenous affairs and described his practice of spending a week in an Indigenous community when he was prime minister as a “very important indication to our country” about priorities.
He said it was “a little disappointing” that the intergovernmental pilgrimage to a remote community was no longer happening under Turnbull, who scrapped the visits when he took the Liberal leadership.
However, an extract circulated ahead of Indigenous affairs minister Nigel Scullion’s speech to the Senate on Tuesday said the government remained steadfast in its commitment to “do things with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, not to them”.
“This has meant as an overhaul in the way the Indigenous affairs portfolio operates,” Scullion will tell the Senate.
The prime minister and Bill Shorten are speaking to a Closing the Gap breakfast this morning ahead of Indigenous leaders presenting him with the Redfern statement, a call for a more “just approach” to Indigenous affairs. Mike Bowers is there and we will have some pictures shortly.
Talk to us in the thread, on the Twits @gabriellechan and @mpbowers or on my Facebook. Grab a hot beverage and strap yourself in.
Updated
at 9.19pm GMT