This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2017/oct/16/parliament-turnbull-coalition-politics-live
The article has changed 17 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 9 | Version 10 |
|---|---|
| Labor pressures Coalition over clean energy target – question time live | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| 5.09am BST | |
| 05:09 | |
| 5.08am BST | |
| 05:08 | |
| Oh I hadn’t realised it was that time yet. We are moving quickly today! Christopher Pyne is gifted his regular slot to talk about how terrible the terrible unions are. | |
| “It goes to a question of if this Leader of the Opposition is not prepared to stand up to the CFMEU, despite all their heinous crimes, how will he stand up for Australia’s national interests on the overseas stage? How will he stand up for Australia’s national interests in Australia and beyond if he’s not on prepared to stay enough is enough to the CFMEU?” | |
| 5.05am BST | |
| 05:05 | |
| Paul Karp | |
| In the Senate, the Greens have been asking Michaelia Cash, representing the immigration minister, about plans to close the Manus Island detention centre.Cash confirms that Papua New Guinea will close the regional processing centre by 31 October, 2017 and will provide alternative accommodation for refugees in Manus province. Refugees eligible for transfer to the US can go to Nauru. Non-refugees will be sent back to their country of origin - voluntarily or involuntarily.Cash says people will be “removed by lawful means” but does not rule out cutting off water or sewerage at Manus. | |
| 5.05am BST | |
| 05:05 | |
| Julie Bishop receives a dixer to talk about her recent visit to North Korea, where she reiterates her call for the rogue state “to abandon its illegal tests, to return to the negotiating table, and to direct its resources and energy into alleviating the suffering of the North Korean people”. | |
| Then we move on to our non-energy issue - did anyone have the NBN? | |
| Michelle Rowland says the “NBN Co has recently revealed it spent $177 million of taxpayers money buying over 15 million metres of new copper. Why is the government still investing in20th century copper, when Australia needs a 21st century National Broadband Network?” | |
| Turnbull feels a personal connection to the NBN, having had oversight of it while he was communications minister. | |
| “The honourable member might reflect on the fact that the NBN Co is activated more customers every 10 days, than the Labor Party did in six years. Quite an accomplishment. 51,000 customers, paying customers, in six years, that is what Labor did. Now had we persisted with Labor’s failed project, it would have taken between six and 8 years longer and $30 billion more.” | |
| He raises his voice as the interjections grow, but manages to say the project is on track to finish by 2020.” | |
| 5.00am BST | |
| 05:00 | |
| Tony Burke breaks from our scheduled energy attacks to talk about Bruce Billson | |
| “On the 10th of Australia, the Prime Minister promised to conduct an investigation into Bruce Billson. With the Prime Minister verify this letter that the investigation did not speak to any ministers, did not review the public documents that are table in this Parliament. Can the Prime Minister confirm the investigation involved Mr Billson simply giving an assurance that he he -- that he had complied with the code?”” | |
| “I will take that question on notice,and respond in due course when I have from the secretary,” the prime minister says. | |
| Just a short while later, we get the answer as Turnbull responds to another question. | |
| “...Whether in respect of the complaint he raised about Bruce Billson, whether the secretary of my department had interviewed any ministers, as opposed to former ministers, the answer is I’m advised he did not, and I table the letter of the secretary of my department wrote to me on the fourth September.” | |
| 4.56am BST | |
| 04:56 | |
| He’s still red though. | |
| Updated | |
| at 4.57am BST | |
| 4.54am BST | |
| 04:54 | |
| Back to dixers–and it’s Barnaby Joyce’s turn at the box, which just thrills Labor. | |
| Katharine Murphy, who is in the chamber, reports that as Joyce rumbles to his feet, Labor MPs can be heard shouting “one for the road, Barnaby” and “give us a haka”. | |
| It’s the little things, really. But it doesn’t stop the deputy PM from launching into a defence of the agricultural industry and how it could potentially be impacted by the emissions reduction target put forward by Labor. | |
| For someone who usually sounds like he is just one word away from losing complete control over the English language, Joyce is almost demure today. | |
| The reality is, that we need cheaper power for irrigation, we need cheaper power for meat processing, we still believe, we still believe that blue collar workers deserve a job. The Labor party believes that blue collar workers are politically incorrect. There is nothing that – when we see them come forward, and keep talk about targets that are going to put working men and women out of a job, shut down the manufacturing industry, more people out of a job, we are doing everything in our power to keep these people. You can either have cheap power, or you can have cheap wages, or no jobs. We believe in cheap power, and we’re going to bring it about.” | |
| Updated | |
| at 4.57am BST | |
| 4.50am BST | |
| 04:50 | |
| Tanya Plibersek is up. | |
| “My question is to the prime minister. The prime minister has said a clean energy target would, and I quote, ‘Certainly work. There is no question it would work”. Does the prime minister stand by that statement or has the member for Warringah been drafted to lead the government in developing a new energy policy?” | |
| No one quite enjoys delivering questions like Plibersek. | |
| Turnbull says there are “many approaches to energy policy that can work”, but the question “is ensuring that you adopt the best”. | |
| “That’s the task of government. To get beyond the slogans, and the three-letter acronyms that honourable members opposite don’t understand and to get a policy that works and have the one that works best. That is our commitment. Engineering and economics, not three-letter acronyms and terms that honourable members opposite and laugh about but do not understand.” | |
| Updated | |
| at 4.55am BST | |
| 4.47am BST | |
| 04:47 | |
| Paul Karp | |
| Back in the Senate for a moment. | |
| One Nation’s Pauline Hanson has asked the defence minister, Marise Payne, why the Australian defence force is paying for gender reassignment surgery after a report that 27 personnel have been treated for gender dysphoria in the last five years. | |
| Payne replied that the ADF provides necessary healthcare to all defence members, because they are not covered by Medicare, including “comprehensive healthcare that is clinically necessary for health conditions”. | |
| She said gender dysphoria “is managed in accordance with best practice clinical guidelines, the same as any other health condition”, according to doctor’s orders, and no cosmetic or elective surgery is covered. | |
| When Hanson then asks how the money could be spent to support returned service personnel, Payne replied: | |
| It’s invidious to to try and distinguish between one health condition or personal circumstance over another. In no way does treatment of personnel with gender dysphoria diminish the strongest possible support for returned service personnel.” | |
| Updated | |
| at 4.50am BST | |
| 4.46am BST | |
| 04:46 | |
| The Greens MP Adam Bandt has the floor. He also wants to talk energy. | |
| “After the government scrapped the carbon price, pollution went up. It went up in 2015, again in 2016 and this year too. You’re making climate change worse, but over that time, wholesale electricity prices have doubled, too. Instead of letting climate deniers dictate your energy prices, wouldn’t it be better to increase the renewable energy target, so that we cut population, cut power bills, and keep the lights on? | |
| Frydenberg picks up the answer. | |
| “I hate to reminded the member for Melbourne, when they were in coalition with the Labor party, the power prices increased by 100%. That was the Greens legacy. And the confected outrage, the confected moral outrage from the Greens when it comes to climate policy is amazing. When they were dealing with the constituents with cyclone Debbie, and speaking with their constituents with the fires in Sydney, who was out there, on their soap box, blaming climate change? The member for Melbourne. That was disgraceful. That was absolutely disgraceful. Now it may be, it may be an inconvenient truth, an inconvenient truth for the member for Melbourne, that emissions in Australia are at their lowest level in 27 years. Their lowest level in 27 years, in terms of GDP and per capita. Lowest level in 27 years. Even the electricity sector has been falling for the last two quarters.” | |
| Updated | |
| at 4.51am BST | |
| 4.41am BST | |
| 04:41 | |
| Scott Morrison takes a dixer on just how amazing the government has been in tackling rising electricity prices (very amazing, with plans to do more, is the short version) and then Bill Shorten is back. | |
| “I refer to the prime minister’s previous answer, where he claimed he had obtained contractual commitments from the big gas companies to supply more gas. Given this is a contractual agreement, can the prime minister confirm what penalties will apply to the big gas companies under the contract, and will he table the contracts to the parliament?” | |
| Malcolm Turnbull is very pleased to tell Shorten, and you, the gas agreement is public. | |
| In short, it’s an agreement, as a contract. Of course it is. Of course it is an agreement, it’s a contract. You can use whatever semantics you like. The bottom line is, we have, we had the character and the commitment to bring those gas companies to Canberra and get them to do the right thing by the Australian people. And the Labor party did nothing. Nothing. The Labor party allowed gas to be exported from eastern Australia, without doing anything to protect Australian consumers.” | |
| Updated | |
| at 4.52am BST | |
| 4.32am BST | 4.32am BST |
| 04:32 | 04:32 |
| Labor’s energy spokesman Mark Butler steps up to the dispatch box | Labor’s energy spokesman Mark Butler steps up to the dispatch box |
| “My question is to the minister for energy. In his presentation to the Coalition joint party room room, he confirmed that a clean energy target lowers prices. Given the energy minister told the government’s own party room it would lead to lower prices, why is the government caving into the demands of the former prime minister, by abandoning the clean energy target, that would save Australians money on their power bills?” | |
| Josh Frydenberg is just thrilled to be able to answer. | Josh Frydenberg is just thrilled to be able to answer. |
| After the mandatory South Australian blackout reference, Frydenberg moves on to the other 49 recommendations in the Finkel report and the government’s action on those, before going into issues from the last parliamentary session – when Labor asked about power prices increasing by $1,000, a figure which was found to be wrong. | |
| “One thing we don’t do on this side, we won’t tell lies to the Australian people like the member for Port Adelaide did, like the opposition leader did in the last sitting fortnight, when they came to the despatch box and said that power prices have gone up with $1,000. You won’t hear them repeat it any more,because the Australian energy regulator and the Australian energy market commission, in correspondence, tabled in this house, have that directly – contradicted directly the claims made by the Labor party. Stop making things up. Have the courage of braveheart, walk up to the despatch box and repeat the lies of your past. You know it’s misleading the Australian people. | |
| He’s asked to withdraw, and does, following it up with a “I do say” which is the parliamentary equivalent of ‘I’m sorry, but...” and Speaker Tony Smith shuts him down. | He’s asked to withdraw, and does, following it up with a “I do say” which is the parliamentary equivalent of ‘I’m sorry, but...” and Speaker Tony Smith shuts him down. |
| “No, you can resume your seat. No, you can resume your seat. No, no, you’re finished.” | “No, you can resume your seat. No, you can resume your seat. No, no, you’re finished.” |
| Updated | Updated |
| at 4.52am BST | |