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Labor attacks Turnbull budget on fairness – question time live
Labor attacks Turnbull budget on fairness – question time live
(35 minutes later)
6.40am BST
06:40
Anne Aly cannot be ignored.
6.23am BST
06:23
6.21am BST
06:21
Bill Shorten has begun a matter of public importance speech on the government’s unfair budget. He starts with Healthy Harold the Life Education giraffe copping it in the neck.
6.19am BST
06:19
Updated
at 6.33am BST
6.17am BST
06:17
6.15am BST
06:15
6.12am BST
06:12
Bruvvers.
6.10am BST
06:10
Labor asks Turnbull about the reports that Trump will withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement, given Craig Kelly and others are getting excited about a possible withdrawal.
Turnbull says the government remains committed to the Paris Agreement but segues onto “real action” like Snowy Hydro 2.0 (a feasibility study) and threats of export controls on gas companies if they don’t make more gas available to domestic customers.
6.02am BST
6.02am BST
06:02
06:02
Tanya Plibersek to Malcolm Turnbull: How is the fair that under the prime minister’s $22 million schools cut, students at Our Lady in Adelaide will lose half their funding. Doesn’t the Prime Minister realise all the students in this school have an intellectual disability and many students have multiple disabilities, including complex health, and personal needs.
Tanya Plibersek to Malcolm Turnbull: How is the fair that under the prime minister’s $22 million schools cut, students at Our Lady in Adelaide will lose half their funding. Doesn’t the Prime Minister realise all the students in this school have an intellectual disability and many students have multiple disabilities, including complex health, and personal needs.
Christopher Pyne yells:
Christopher Pyne yells:
Shame on you. Playing politics with disabled kids.
Shame on you. Playing politics with disabled kids.
Turnbull says Plibersek has abandoned needs based funding have spoken so eloquently in support of it in the past.
Turnbull says Plibersek has abandoned needs based funding have spoken so eloquently in support of it in the past.
Turnbull describes the School Resourcing Standard (SRS) which is basic formula, loaded for factors of disadvantage.
Turnbull describes the School Resourcing Standard (SRS) which is basic formula, loaded for factors of disadvantage.
There have been many arguments made by improving and refining the SRS measure and that’s a commitment the government has. We will continue to work with the sector to improve and refine it.
There have been many arguments made by improving and refining the SRS measure and that’s a commitment the government has. We will continue to work with the sector to improve and refine it.
5.57am BST
5.57am BST
05:57
05:57
5.55am BST
5.55am BST
05:55
05:55
Shorten to Turnbull: Is the prime minister aware that under his government, real wages for high paid executives are growing, and they get a tax cut. And the real wages for people on modest incomes are going backwards but they get a tax increase. Does the prime minister have any idea what is going on in the real world?
Shorten to Turnbull: Is the prime minister aware that under his government, real wages for high paid executives are growing, and they get a tax cut. And the real wages for people on modest incomes are going backwards but they get a tax increase. Does the prime minister have any idea what is going on in the real world?
Turnbull says Shorten is practicing the politics of envy.
Turnbull says Shorten is practicing the politics of envy.
I ask the leader of the opposition this, how do you look to thousands of Australians on middle incomes and say to them in good faith, everything Labor policy does, will discourage you from getting ahead? Every single measure is an attack on middle Australia and their aspirations for a better life.
I ask the leader of the opposition this, how do you look to thousands of Australians on middle incomes and say to them in good faith, everything Labor policy does, will discourage you from getting ahead? Every single measure is an attack on middle Australia and their aspirations for a better life.
Updated
Updated
at 6.00am BST
at 6.00am BST
5.46am BST
05:46
Labor asks another question about a flight attendant on $60,000 getting a tax increase (Medicare levy rise) but a millionaire gets a tax cut (higher earners deficit levy removed minus the Medicare levy rise).
The flight attendant on $60,000, in Parramatta, would pay additional tax as part of the increase on theMedicare levy, and she and her family would be protected by the National Disability Insurance Scheme and it will apply across the board, in exactly the same way that her party’s former leader, Julia Gillard, and her party’s current leader, the member for Maribyrnong, said it should, all those years ago.
5.42am BST
05:42
Greens refer Pauline Hanson allegations to electoral commissioner
Paul Karp
Greens senator, Lee Rhiannon, has written to the Australian Electoral Commissioner, Tom Rogers highlighting reports that donations were directed to Pauline Hanson’s personal bank account on One Nation’s website.
In Senate estimates last week AEC officials confirmed the provenance and use of the plane used by Hanson for One Nation campaigning is under official investigation.
Rhiannon asked the commissioner to expand the AEC’s current investigation to specifically investigate personal donations to Hanson if it had not already inquired into that matter.
5.39am BST
05:39
Labor to Turnbull: How is it fair that in this budget, an early childhood teacher in my electorate earning $60,000 a year gets a $300 tax increase while a millionaire gets a $16,400 tax cut?
Turnbull says Labor’s policy to keep the high earners’ deficit levy and increase the Medicare levy by 0.5% (also a government policy) would create a disincentive for middle income earners.
Updated
at 5.41am BST
5.34am BST
05:34
Alan Finkel agrees lack of energy policy affects system reliability
Michael Slezak
Australia’s chief scientist, Alan Finkel, who is poised to deliver a major report to Coag on the future of the National Electricity Market, told senators today he agreed the government’s lack of policy in the sector was affecting the system’s reliability.
Labor senator Kim Carr asked Finkel: “There has been the view … that the lack of clear policy which has led to disincentives which have led to stifling investment. Would you agree with that proposition?”
Finkel responded:
I would senator. I’m certainly agreeing with the statement that the submissions are indicating that, and there is a lot of reason to agree with the sentiment there.
He went on, and indicated this would be a central concern of his review, which is to be handed to Coag next week.
What we are hearing loud and clear is that the lack of clarity in the future policies around the electricity sector is giving great concern to investors and that discourages them from making the necessary investment to bring on the new generation for low emission and reliability that we require. So that is a key consideration in our minds as we are formulating our recommendations.
Updated
at 5.40am BST
5.30am BST
05:30
Independent Bob Katter asks Barnaby Joyce a question about power that is not entirely comprehensible to me and it runs over time so he is cut off. It was about Hells Gate dam.
Joyce says he gets the gist so continues on in a similar vein to Katter.
Joyce makes it a practice these days to attack Labor MP for Herbert Cathy O’Toole on Adani. (Herbert is Labor’s most marginal seat.)
5.27am BST
05:27
Chris Bowen to the PM: Labor’s plan to protect low- and middle-income workers from a tax hike and keep the budget repair levy raises more revenue than the government over the medium term. Is the reason the prime minister is shouting about Labor’s plan is because it raises more money? Or is he simply angry that Labor won’t give millionaires a tax cut?
Scott Morrison takes the question.
Morrison does not answer that rhetorical question but says Labor is spending money several times over.
Updated
at 5.39am BST
5.25am BST
05:25
Kate Ellis to the PM: Analysts in Fairfax newspapers [by the National Foundation for Australian Women] shows a couple renting where one partner has left university and the other is still studying, has an effective marginal tax rate of over 97%, when their income reaches just $37,000. Why is the prime minister outraged about marginal tax rates for millionaires, but says absolutely nothing about families who will pay an effective marginal tax rate of over 97%?
Turnbull flicks the question to social services minister Christian Porter. He says the study is incorrect and misleading.
Graduates earning $51,000, most of whom are likely to be women, will have less disposable income, appears to assume there’s changes to rental assistance in the budget, that’s not the case, and I’m further informed that statement from the NFAW based on the research that members opposite cite, that graduates earning $51,000 will have less disposal income is in the advice of my department, incorrect and misleading.
Updated
at 5.39am BST
5.18am BST
05:18
Shorten to Turnbull: New research by ANU published in today’s media reveals that when the government’s tax plans are compared to Labor’s, it leaves twice as many households worse off compared to Labor’s plan, and those worse off are those who can least afford it. Why is the prime minister targeting ordinary Australians who can least afford the government’s plans?
Turnbull comes armed with an example of Mary the Midwife.
What he is proposing is that there would be the half a per cent increase would come in at $87,000. That’s what he said. He said that’s very fair. Well, let’s, let’s have an example. Let’s consider Mary. An experienced midwife, in New South Wales. She earns $87,000.
Under Labor’s policy, if Mary earns an additional dollar, she would begin paying an additional half a per cent on her entire income. On the additional one dollar, she would pay an additional $435.39 in tax.
Updated
at 5.37am BST
5.10am BST
05:10
Bill Shorten joins Turnbull in speaking on the bombing.
While some injuries were suffered by foreign workers, including American and German embassy staff, the people murdered by his act of terror were overwhelmingly Afghan citizens with the followers of the Islamic faith. I don’t know if they conformed to every single tenet of their religion, few people of faith do.
I suspect they were good Muslims, living the lives we take for granted, going to the shops, heading to work, taking their children to school, and I want to say I believe their Islam was more true, more valuable, more worth while than anything that the terrorists claim to believe in. At the beginning of this most holy time in the Islamic faith, this act of terror is a crime against Islam, and a crime against humanity.
The parliament rises as a mark of respect to the dead and injured.
5.06am BST
05:06
Turnbull says Australia is the second largest non-NATO troop contributing nation and the overall second largest financial contributor to the sustainment of the Afghan security sector.
Yesterday’s bombing only reinforces our commitment to this important mission, and to continuing the support the Afghan national defence and security forces as they continue to build that capacity that is essential for Afghanistan to fight and defeat terrorism at its source.
