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Labor targets Malcolm Turnbull over cuts to Sunday penalty rates – question time live Labor targets Malcolm Turnbull over cuts to Sunday penalty rates – question time live
(35 minutes later)
3.44am GMT
03:44
Scott Morrison gets a question on the G20 meeting.
3.43am GMT
03:43
3.41am GMT
03:41
Shorten to Turnbull: I refer to reports that the prime minister’s colleagues are seeking to water down protections against race-hate speech. Will the prime minister rule out making changes to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act and, if not, what exactly does the government want people to be able to say that they’re not allowed to say now?
Turnbull says his government is considering the report of the human rights committee on the subject.
Nothing to see here.
Updated
at 3.43am GMT
3.39am GMT
03:39
Dan Tehan, the assistant minister on cyber security, gets a government question on energy and cyber security and how the Snowy Hydro will strengthen national security. He lists moments when the defence department has had to rely on generators.
Updated
at 3.43am GMT
3.37am GMT
03:37
Tony Burke to Turnbull: I refer to his previous answers where he has defended his industry minister describing One Nation as more sophisticated. We had a clear result in WA during – at one time in the campaign One Nation praised Vladimir Putin and made divisive comments ... Will he direct every political party division to put One Nation last an every single ticket across the nation the same way as John Howard did?
Turnbull said he strengthened policies on immunisation, pointed out president Putin’s conduct and association in the shooting down of MH17 and said Australia was the most successful multicultural country in the world.
Updated
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3.34am GMT
03:34
Government question to the energy minister, Josh Frydenberg: I ask this question when only moments ago the spot price for electricity in South Australia was approaching 50 times the cost of electricity in Victoria. I ask the minister about a retail business in my electorate in Mt Gambier. This business has seen an increase in the cost of its electricity bill for one month alone of $18,000. Can you update the House on what action the government is taking to ensure Australians have access to affordable and reliable power?
Tony Burke takes a point of order.
Under standing order 100 and the requirement for authentication, we heard in the question about it being, I think, 50 times. Given the spot price is nowhere near 50 times right at this moment could he either table his calculator or table the document he is basing it on.
Speaker Smith says there is no point of order.
Updated
at 3.37am GMT
3.32am GMT
03:32
Meanwhile in the Senate:
Janet Rice is LITERALLY knitting in #senateQT as she asks about Dutton's "stick to their knitting comment". It's an orange and grey scarf.
Updated
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3.30am GMT
03:30
Anthony Albanese to Turnbull: Now that the results of the WA election are so clear, will the prime minister listen to Western Australians, respect the mandate of Mark McGowan and finally dump your dud Perth freight link project and instead invest in the public transport Metronet project that Perth urgently needs – or does the prime minister plan to punish Western Australia, like he did Victoria, for having the temerity to vote Labor by withholding $1.2bn in federal infrastructure funding?
Turnbull says he awaits the application.
If they are not going to build it, then the money is obviously not required. As far as the Metronet project is concerned, we look forward to an application and will examine it on its merits as I have advised the new premier.
Updated
at 3.34am GMT
3.26am GMT
03:26
Nationals MP Andrew Broad to Barnaby Joyce: What action is the government taking to improve energy and water security for hard-working Australian farmers and families in regional communities?
Updated
at 3.28am GMT
3.23am GMT
03:23
Indi independent Cathy McGowan asks Turnbull: There is strong interest in regional Australia in the terms of reference for the regional task force, timelines, budgets, community engagement processes and the relationship between the task force and the budget process. Prime minister, will you commit to delivering a full white paper process that sets out a vision for edge natural Australia with strategies that enables us to reach our full potential?
Turnbull lists a whole heap of regional initiatives but avoids the question of a white paper.
We shall take that as a no.
Updated
at 3.25am GMT
3.21am GMT
03:21
Labor to Turnbull: Is the prime minister aware that just last week the now former West Australian minister Joe Francis said on 6 PR radio, and I quote, “Penalty rates, I know people that didn’t vote for us at a state level because of that.” Prime minister, why won’t you use your power to stop the pay of almost 700,000 workers from being cut?
The answer goes back to Shorten. Turnbull says:
When the leader of the opposition had the power to determine penalty rates, when he was representing the workers and the Australian Workers Union, what did he do? He sold them out. He sold them out for a bag of gold.
Updated
at 3.26am GMT
3.19am GMT
03:19
A government question to Turnbull: Will the prime minister advise the House how the government’s snowy mountain scheme mark two will make renewables reliable, help stabilise Australia’s electricity supply for households and businesses including all of those in Gilmore?
Turnbull attacks Labor, including the South Australian government, for their renewables policy.
Labor wag Watts:
It's the colt from old regret at the dispatch box #qt
Updated
at 3.27am GMT
3.15am GMT
03:15
Plibersek to Turnbull: Kerry works as a pharmacy assistant in South Australia and she is here in the gallery today. Kerry says the decision to cut penalty rates will cost her around $1,500 a year from an annual wage of just $34,000. The prime minister’s support for cutting penalty rates will mean Kerry will struggle to pay her bills. Why does the minister think that Kerry deserves a pay cut?
Turnbull says Labor including Bill Shorten and Brendan O’Connor supported the independent umpire. He reads off the quotes.
What about in February last year, the member for Gorton [O’Connor], who was very vocal on the doors this morning I see, dripping with sanctimony, drowning in hypocrisy. He said, ‘Labor believes the Fair Work Commission is the appropriate body to consider these matters and it should be left alone by the Liberals to do just that, conduct its business as the independent umpire.’
Labor used to stand for the independent umpire, Labor used to defend their decisions, the Fair Work commissioner is standing up for small business and Labor should do so too.
Updated
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3.10am GMT3.10am GMT
03:1003:10
First government question goes to Turnbull on union agreements and payments. Turnbull:
We have only seen the tip of the iceberg in the Heydon royal commission. There is a culture of deceit, a culture of selling out the workers, a culture of trading away workers’ rights in return for membership lists and in return for cash and we will put a stop to it with the regulation we are introducing in the house this week.
Updated
at 3.12am GMT
3.10am GMT
03:10
Labor objects to personal reflections on Shorten.Labor objects to personal reflections on Shorten.
Turnbull had said:Turnbull had said:
The Leader of the Opposition has been selling workers down the river for years, trading away penalty rates for years. Taking backhanders, for years and we’re gonna stop it. The leader of the opposition has been selling workers down the river for years, trading away penalty rates for years. Taking backhanders for years, and we’re gonna stop it.
Speaker Tony Smith says he did not think the PM was saying Shorten personally benefited.Speaker Tony Smith says he did not think the PM was saying Shorten personally benefited.
I don’t believe the prime minister suggested that the Leader of the Opposition was literally taking a back hander, I think was the term you’re objecting to. I don’t believe the prime minister suggested that the leader of the Opposition was literally taking a backhander, I think was the term you’re objecting to.
I don’t think the prime minister was saying that the Leader of the Opposition personally benefitted. I don’t. I believe it was a...political characterisation and if you want me to go to the aspect of practise, I can give you many examples where that’s been allowed. If members want a literal interpretation of the Standing Orders, I will be ruling questions out of order left, right and centre. I don’t think the prime minister was saying that the leader of the opposition personally benefited. I don’t. I believe it was a ... political characterisation and, if you want me to go to the aspect of practice, I can give you many examples where that’s been allowed. If members want a literal interpretation of the standing orders, I will be ruling questions out of order left, right and centre.
Updated
at 3.12am GMT
3.05am GMT3.05am GMT
03:0503:05
Shorten to Turnbull: Andrew lives in Gawler in South Australia. He is here in the gallery today. Andrew worked at Spotlight on a Sunday to pay his way through university. Andrew says that he will lose around $1,000 per year because of the cuts to penalty rates, cuts which the Prime Minister has supported. Can the Prime Minister tell Andrew why he has to take a pay cut? Shorten to Turnbull: Andrew lives in Gawler in South Australia. He is here in the gallery today. Andrew worked at Spotlight on a Sunday to pay his way through university. Andrew says that he will lose around $1,000 per year because of the cuts to penalty rates, cuts which the prime minister has supported. Can the prime minister tell Andrew why he has to take a pay cut?
Turnbull says if Andrew was working at KFC he would be earning less because of an Enterprise Bargaining Agreement struck between the company and the unions. Turnbull says if Andrew was working at KFC he would be earning less because of an enterprise bargaining agreement struck between the company and the unions.
[Unions] have traded them away in circumstances where they have received money from the employers concerned. We might well ask what about the great agreement of the Australian workers with Cleanevent... [Unions] have traded them away in circumstances where they have received money from the employers concerned. We might well ask what about the great agreement of the Australian workers with Cleanevent ...
Imagine if he had been getting, thanks to the great advocacy of the Leader of the Opposition, this champion of the working class, this hero of the people, he would have got Andrew would be getting $18 an hour instead of $50 under the award. But Mr Speaker, there was something else. Payments to the union, not disclosed... Imagine if he had been getting, thanks to the great advocacy of the leader of the opposition, this champion of the working class, this hero of the people, he would have got Andrew would be getting $18 an hour instead of $50 under the award. But, Mr Speaker, there was something else. Payments to the union, not disclosed ...
2.58am GMT
02:58
Question time coming up people.
2.29am GMT
02:29
Lunch-time politics
Making or receiving payments that encourage unions to improperly trade off workers’ rights will be criminalised under a plan unveiled by the federal government.
The Victorian Liberal moderate Russell Broadbent has pushed back against amending 18C to remove insult and offend and urged process changes within the Human Rights Commission. This puts him in line with the 18C human rights committee’s parliamentary report.
George Brandis has released his diary after a three-year freedom of information brouhaha with Labor shadow Mark Dreyfus. The info suggests he did not consult with legal groups ahead of cuts to legal assistance, which was the original reason for the barney.
Paul Keating has carpeted the Liberal party for considering allowing first home buyers to dip into their super, though history shows the former PM was once in favour of the idea himself in the 1990s.
UpdatedUpdated
at 2.35am GMT at 3.10am GMT
2.16am GMT
02:16
Liberal MP: 18C changes should be about process, not amending the law
The division inside the Coalition over marriage equality continues.
Katharine Murphy reports:
Victorian Liberal moderate Russell Broadbent says the government doesn’t need to amend 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act if it overhauls processes ensuring vexatious complaints are thrown out at an earlier stage.
Broadbent, who is a member of the federal parliament’s joint human rights committee which ran a recent inquiry into 18C, told Guardian Australia on Monday: “Changes to the RDA should be about process, not about the wording of the section.”
Broadbent’s public intervention, insisting that process changes are sufficient to address the major criticisms of how the RDA works in practice, comes ahead of formal government consideration of the contentious issue this week.
2.11am GMT
02:11
Part three in the Malcolm Roberts prosecution/persecution of Christian street preachers. He was cleared.
@gabriellechan, that post from Malcolm Roberts about the street preacher. He was found not guilty late last yr https://t.co/hD76bE32OW
2.08am GMT
02:08
While the prime minister was doing his press conference, Bill Shorten was speaking to the parliament and to workers affected by the penalty rate cut decision by the Fair Work Commission.
Labor has been rolling out robocalls, which sound like this:
Malcolm Turnbull’s cuts to penalty rates will rip off 700,000 workers, losing up to $77 per week.
Turnbull told Neil Mitchell on Friday: “He is lying, just like he lied to you.”
Before the election, Shorten was critical of the Greens for threatening to block any penalty rate cut, suggesting he would support the Fair Work Commission who decides these sorts of things.
Afterwards, Shorten abandoned his Fair Work Commission solidarity and is moving to block the rates cut in parliament.
Shorten has since tried to recast the penalty rate cut as belonging to the Coalition on the grounds that they had refused to fix it. Shorten expanded that theory today.
This parliament has never had a more straightforward choice than it does today.
This parliament can vote with Labor to protect the conditions of up to 700,000 working Australians, to protect the take-home pay of up to 700,000 Australians.
That’s what they can do.
Or they can vote to cut wages in retail, hospitality, pharmacy and fast food.
This is the choice.
There’s no wiggle room, there’s no to fence to sit on here, no hole to go and hide in, there is no playing in traffic on this issue.
This isn’t a time for another lecture from a party that knows nothing about industrial relations; saying it’s not our fault, leave it to someone else.
Here is the kicker:
Make no mistake, the prime ,inister’s cuts, the Coalition’s cuts to penalty rates – and they may hate us calling it ‘their’ cuts but, when you vote not to reverse the cuts, you own the cuts.
IMO, Shorten is on dangerous ground trying to disavow one FWC decision, which would leave future governments open to disavow (and change) other decisions, such as a rise in the minimum wage.
What say you?
Updated
at 2.20am GMT
1.38am GMT
01:38
A modern history lesson from Stephen Murray regarding Paul Keating’s previous support for using superannuation for housing.
ALP's 1993 Election Platform, launched by Paul Keating, promising access to super for housing deposits pic.twitter.com/WkRuRQG2xU
The Accord Mark VII between the Keating Government and the ACTU, released on 3 March, 1993 provided for access to super for housing deposit pic.twitter.com/jkgRBHjR1b
1.28am GMT
01:28
Regarding that Malcolm Roberts matter of public importance ... re the question of prosecution or persecution of Christians in south-east Queensland.
@SenatorMRoberts serious note. I plan to speak on this too. Is there a more specific point (an article or something) you can refer me too?
Looking forward to you speaking on protecting freedom of #religion#Queensland street preacher arrested & charged https://t.co/jYe21OABiP https://t.co/sEqQEINtZ3
Updated
at 1.38am GMT
12.59am GMT
00:59
While Turnbull was doing his press conference, Bill Shorten was speaking to workers who would have their penalty rates cut under the Fair Work Commission decision.
Updated
at 1.06am GMT
12.11am GMT
00:11
There have been a number of private member’s bills in the lower house.
There has been a Labor penalty rates bill, a Greens penalty rates bill and independent Andrew Wilkie has moved a bill to end live export.
Cathy McGowan has moved a rail bill that would require the government to look at the regional impact of rail projects under the National Land Transport Act 2014. In other words, if you make changes to rail transport, make sure it does not do over regional Oz.
Now they are on to penalty rates though a motion by Labor’s Herbert MP Cathy O’Toole, which notes that:
(a) families in regional and rural Australia rely on penalty rates to survive;
(b) the Fair Work Commission’s (FWC’s) decision to cut penalty rates will hurt retail and hospitality workers and their families in regional and rural Australia;
(c) the take home pay of families in regional and rural Australia will be severely impacted as a result of the FWC’s decision to cut Sunday and public holiday penalty rates for retail and hospitality workers;
(d) cutting penalty rates in regional and rural areas would also have a devastating flow-on impact for regional economies; and
(e) the McKell Institute estimates that disposable income in regional areas will fall by between $174.6m and $748.3m if penalty rates are cut in hospitality and retail awards;
(2) condemns government members and senators who called for cuts to penalty rates and their continuous pressuring of the FWC to reduce penalty rates; and
(3) calls on:
(a) Government members and senators to stand with Labor to protect low paid workers take home pay; and
(b) the House to support Labor’s Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Take Home Pay) Bill 2017, to amend the Fair Work Act 2009.
Updated
at 12.38am GMT
12.04am GMT
00:04
Updated
at 12.39am GMT