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Labor targets bank tax and school funding in question time – politics live
Labor targets bank tax and school funding in question time – politics live
(35 minutes later)
7.58am BST
07:58
Murph has been busy. Labor senator Lisa Singh has departed from the script.
The federal Labor senator Lisa Singh has said the Adani coalmine would be “a huge mistake for this country” in a departure from the official Labor position. The opposition maintains the controversial project can proceed on its merits, but without any government support.
Singh, a left-leaning Tasmanian senator, told Guardian Australia on Tuesday the coal project had absolutely no merit.
7.53am BST
07:53
Katharine Murphy reports:
Tim Watts’ motion was supported by Liberal Russell Broadbent and the Nat’s Andrew Broad.
Victorian National party MP Andrew Broad seconded the Watts motion, telling parliament lived experience in his electorate of Mallee suggested sponsored refugees not only boosted economic activity but were also good for the soul of communities.
“I really think this needs a push along,” Broad said.
Broad said he had recently read a book about the origins of the Holocaust and the history had brought home to him the requirement for political leaders to deal properly with refugees and “take their population on the journey”.
Broad said in the community of Nhill, in western Victoria, a sponsored refugee program had “not only brought a labour force into the town, it’s changed the culture of the town, it’s opened the hearts of the people in the town”.
It has actually worked. And so what I say to people when they are a little bit apprehensive about Australia taking more refugees, it’s really about what are the services we are going to provide, what communities are we going to put in and how are we going to integrate people into our community. These are beautiful people. I am so proud of humble country folk who are being part of the solution. We can do this, we can replicate this in many towns across Australia and it will bring so much good.
7.40am BST
07:40
7.36am BST
07:36
Lovely bipartisan statement remembering the stolen generations, recognising the importance of the apology and calling on all governments to work towards addressing issues left unresolved from the Bringing Them Home report recommendations.
Listen to @KenWyattMP & @LindaBurneyMP reflect on today's #BTH20 launch & back to 1997 Bringing Them Home report: https://t.co/te6xzmbpAx
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7.27am BST
07:27
The house came back briefly after the matter of public importance to vote on the corrupting benefits amendment by Greens MP Adam Bandt.
The corrupting benefits bill outlaws payments to union officials to trade away pay and conditions for money.
Labor don’t like the bill and so they are are trying to gut the bill to strike out the penalty rates decision by the Fair Work Commission.
Bandt was trying to amend the bill to essentially to call on the government to establish a national Independent Commission Against Corruption. Ie. if you are so worried about corruption, establish a national Icac.
Labor, the Coalition and Rebekha Sharkie voted against the national Icac amendment.
Bandt, Andrew Wilkie and Cathy McGowan voted for a national Icac.
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Updated
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6.57am BST
06:57
6.48am BST
06:48
Further to the high five.
@edhusicMP @mpbowers @gabriellechan I was preparing to defend myself from Chifley's chief heckler and basketball rookie! #iamscared
6.44am BST
06:44
Paul Karp
Penny Wong has been asking the attorney general about Labor’s concern that MP David Gillespie’s eligibility to sit in parliament might fall foul of the same provision that struck out Bob Day.
Labor has claimed there are possible parallels between Day - who had an indirect interest in the lease of his electorate office by the commonwealth - and Gillespie - who has an interest in a company that leases a shop to an Australia Post outlet.George Brandis tells Senate Estimates that Gillespie had sought legal advice from Guy Reynolds SC and he concluded there was “no section 44 issue at all”.
Brandis said that on the advice and his own judgment of the law, the cases were “nowhere near” analogous. Gillespie has told the prime minister the conclusion of the advice.
The attorney general said:
In my own view, informed by the Bob Day high court decision, nothing in Gillespie’s arrangement goes remotely near section 44 because of the remoteness of his interest.
6.24am BST
06:24
Old mates, these two.
Ed Husic tries to high 5 Minister Frydenberg who instead manoeuvres for a hand shake @gabriellechan @GuardianAus pic.twitter.com/OVTOdZOQd4
6.22am BST
06:22
Cash. Accrual. Details, details.
Lalalalala...
6.13am BST
06:13
Tanya Plibersek is thrown out of the chamber. When Christopher Pyne rises, he says he is disappointed that Plibersek did not stay in the chamber, given she was going so well. Smirk.
Speaker Smith warns him he can arrange he goes out and continues the conversation with TPlibs. ie I will throw you out.
Pyne says no thanks even though TPlibs is good company.
6.06am BST
06:06
Plibersek to Turnbull: Given Victorian public schools face a $630m funding cut, according to the Victorian government’s own numbers, and with schools in Corangamite set to lose$12m over the next two years alone, how is this policy fair or needs-based?
Turnbull says year on year, the funding growth is going to be 4.6% in 2018, 4.6% in 2019, 4.6 in 2020 and 4.3% in 2021.
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6.04am BST
06:04
Tanya Plibersek to Malcolm Turnbull: How is it fair or needs-based that in this budget Peel high school in the deputy prime minister’s electorate will lose $1.68m over the next two years while the Armidale School, with fees up to $20,000 per year, gets an extra $16.3m over the decade?
Turnbull says Peel high school will receive over 10 years $8.5m in additional funding. The funding per student from the commonwealth is estimated at $4,171 and by 2027, it will be $6,659.
Updated
at 6.11am BST
5.57am BST
05:57
Ben Doherty
One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts has arrived in estimates and asked the immigration department secretary Mike Pezzullo to provide details on the number of Muslims allowed entry into Australia.
Pezzullo, wiping his eyes, he has been before the the committee for about 17 hours now, promises to take it on notice. The department’s information on religion is incomplete.
The pair has a short tete a tete about Roberts’s use of the phrase of “indiscriminate” to describe Australia’s immigration policy. Pezzullo says the terminology he has used is “non-discriminatory”.
Roberts: “The overwhelming weight of terrorist acts are committed by people of the Islamic ideology.”
“I would put it slightly differently,” Pezzullo says, drawing a distinction between the religion of Islam and Islamist fundamentalism.
“Twenty years ago it was Irish, I might say,” Ian Macdonald chips in, terribly usefully.
5.55am BST
05:55
Shorten to Turnbull: I refer to S.674 of the Corporations Act and Australian stock exchange listing rule 3.1 which requires corporations to provide accurate updates to the stock exchange on matters which may affect their share price. Inconveniently the figures that the banks have nominated they will have to pay is less than the prime minister’s budget forecast. What is it prime minister? Are the budget numbers wrong, or are the banks lying?
Turnbull says Labor has to learn the difference between cash and accrual accounting.
I have never seen a more pathetic or confused attempt to try to throw dust in the obstacles in the way of the major bank levy. It may well be if the banks have a different view about it, different assumptions, they are entitled to express that.
