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| Coalition accuses Labor of Adani backflip to woo Batman voters – politics live | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| And now Labor is clearing out. So with that, I’ll pop back into the office. | |
| The government MPs clear out very quickly. Labor remains, although Bill Shorten has popped out and Anthony Albanese has stepped into his chair. | |
| Emma Husar gives us a throwback Thursday, by reminding us of the advice Barnaby Joyce delivered last week while speaking to the LNP faithful at Toowoomba, when it came to housing affordability: | |
| The deputy PM has told first-home buyers in Sydney to move to the country, saying, “Houses will always be incredibly expensive if you can see the Opera House or the Harbour Bridge.” Is this why you won’t take up Labor’s reforms to negative gearing? Has the PM told people in Sydney are not looking for the PM’s harbour views, they just want to be able to afford their first home” | |
| Queue the same negative gearing answer we heard before. | |
| And we finish with a dixer. | |
| Just before Peter Dutton got his regular spot to talk about how many days it has been since there was a successful boat arrival and just how amazing he is at the home affairs portfolio (although he manages it without raising his voice, so he must still just be warming up) Bill Shorten asked Malcolm Turnbull about his federal anti-corruption body idea: | |
| All Australians deserve to have confidence in their government, their parliament and of course the commonwealth public service. The PM has indicated that he’s open to considering Labor’s proposal to establish a national integrity commission. Will the PM join to work on a national integrity commission straight away? | |
| Turnbull: | |
| The summer break is a time for reflection and renewal no doubt but I don’t think the leader of the opposition has turned into an anti-corruption warrior. This is Sam Dastyari’s great defender. Great defender. It took weeks and weeks and weeks of public pressure and outrage before finally, finally he had to cut Senator Dastyari loose. And leave him out into the wide blue yonder. He’s now of course standing up, standing up for the integrity of the parliament. He really is. He’s standing up for the right of UK citizens to sit in the House of Representatives. That seems to be his current passion, Mr Speaker. At least David Feeney finally did the right thing and resigned. | |
| Yadda, yadda, yadda, he doesn’t answer the question. | |
| Also, Kristina Keneally time appears to have been replaced with Ged Kearney time. Huzzah. | |
| Chris Bowen questions Scott Morrison on negative gearing: | |
| The PM and the treasurer both claim that Labor’s reforms for negative gearing would be like a sledgehammer to property prices. Why were the PM and treasurer claiming one thing publicly while receiving different Treasury advice behind closed doors? Why is the government’s only answer to Australians struggling to buy their first home to mislead them about policies that will actually help them? | |
| Morrison upgrades his indignation to ‘the Sharks just got a wrong call which lost them the grand final’ levels. | |
| House price growth in Sydney has fallen from 17% per year down to less than 3% in the last 12 months. That followed the targeted, calibrated interventions by Apra to deal with the overheating that it had caused in the Sydney and Melbourne market. It was a targeted, tailored intervention which was about ensuring the hotter investment activity in those markets could be curtailed and we could have a soft landing in the Australian housing market. It’s gone from 17% down to 3%. The leader opposition and the shadow treasurer are now saying on top of that we should abolish negative gearing and increase the capital gains tax by 50%. If it’s fallen to less than 3%, how far do you want to see property prices fall in this country and undermine the consumer confidence which is at the highest level in four years? | |
| Back to #deathtodixers | |
| While Christopher Pyne extolled the government’s defence strategy, we took a quick look at the chamber. Labor has managed to bring back some of the rowdiness, after a relatively quiet start. Barnaby Joyce has spent the entire time reading. The Coalition backbench is very interested in its laptops and phones. Anne Aly looks like she is questioning every life choice which has led her to this moment. | |
| We have a whole week of this. | |
| Steve Ciobo is next on the dixer stage. We move on #deathtodixers | |
| Catherine King is next up from the opposition: | |
| Some of the big private health insurance companies are making a return on equity of over 20%, a return even larger than the big banks. At the same time they’re charging Australians record amounts for private health insurance. Why is the PM giving a $65bn handout to big business, including big insurers, instead of doing something for ordinary Australians who are struggling with the spiralling costs of private health insurance? | |
| Health minister Greg Hunt steps up: | |
| Labor hates private health insurance. Labor hates private health insurance. Last time they came into government they took an axe to private health insurance. They promised before the election they wouldn’t slash the rebate. Every promise I made I paid for. How did I pay for it? I paid for it by targeting private health insurance. That’s what they did about private health insurance. But what did they do on costs? Here are the private health figures under them. An increase of 6%, 5.8%, 5.5%.5%. 5.6%. 6.2%. Health insurance premiums skyrocketed under Labor as well as the fact they slashed the rebate. And they want to do it again because what is their real policy? Whilst we have just delivered after real reform the lowest change in premiums in 17 years, lower than any year, any year under Labor, their average is more than 40%, 40% above what we achieved this year whilst that is what we’ve done. Their real policy is to slash the rebate and on top of that a 16% increase in private health insurance rebates. How does that come about? That comes about because their policy is to abolish low-cost choice of doctor premiums. That’s their policy. It’s clear, it’s outright and absolute. A 16% increase. What we saw yesterday was a con, a game and a smokescreen. It’s to pretend they can keep some headline rate. | |
| Etc, etc, etc | |
| Barnaby Joyce had the next dixer. | |
| Moving on. | |
| Bill Shorten asks about private health insurance: | |
| The cost of private health insurance has never been higher. So why won’t the PM support Labor’s plan to cap private health insurance increases which will save Australian families an average of $340? Why won’t the Australian PM use his power to help Australian families instead of protecting big private health insurance companies? | |
| Malcolm Turnbull starts by saying Labor hates the private health system. But he eventually gets to a point. | |
| The private healthcare industry, their representatives, on February 4, made this point and it’s a very powerful one and worthy of reflection by the honourable members opposite, many of whom I imagine have their private health insurance covered by smaller union-based, employee-based private health insurance schemes. | |
| An enforced premium pathway will put at risk a number of small employee-based and regional mutual health funds who were already close to breaching prudential reserves. Those health funds have been serving their local communities for decades and this election focus policy will directly threaten their future and competition in the sector. With this level of interference, bankruptcies will occur and further they add, the leader of the opposition should explain how Labor intends to override Apra’s strict prudential requirements. We’ve seen an increase in the premiums, the lowest since 2001. We would like it to be lower still. But the opposition leader’s cynical move will only disadvantage millions of Australian families. | |
| Adam Bandt has the independents question and he uses it to talk about Batman. | Adam Bandt has the independents question and he uses it to talk about Batman. |
| “Wasn’t Bernie Sanders right when he said the electricity grid should be in public hands because it’s an essential service and shouldn’t be run for profit?” is the basic gist of the question. He ends it with a call to “bring a bit of Bernie to Batman” and elect a Green. | “Wasn’t Bernie Sanders right when he said the electricity grid should be in public hands because it’s an essential service and shouldn’t be run for profit?” is the basic gist of the question. He ends it with a call to “bring a bit of Bernie to Batman” and elect a Green. |
| Malcolm Turnbull: | Malcolm Turnbull: |
| I couldn’t find anything in it that the Labor candidate for Batman would disagree with. I was wondering whether the manager of opposition business had dropped some speaking notes from the Labor Batman campaign – nationalising the energy grid? I’ve heard Ged Kearney talk about that. Mr Speaker, it’s got a certain retro aspect to it. I think we have all learned that nationalisation and state intervention of that kind has not been successful. I know in the Greens party they hanker for the good old times. They want to get back to the USSR but sadly that’s all over from their point of view. Happily for everybody else. | I couldn’t find anything in it that the Labor candidate for Batman would disagree with. I was wondering whether the manager of opposition business had dropped some speaking notes from the Labor Batman campaign – nationalising the energy grid? I’ve heard Ged Kearney talk about that. Mr Speaker, it’s got a certain retro aspect to it. I think we have all learned that nationalisation and state intervention of that kind has not been successful. I know in the Greens party they hanker for the good old times. They want to get back to the USSR but sadly that’s all over from their point of view. Happily for everybody else. |
| I guess we are all meant to forget that for a good chunk of last year, the government was talking about building a new coal-fired power station? I suppose that is different. | I guess we are all meant to forget that for a good chunk of last year, the government was talking about building a new coal-fired power station? I suppose that is different. |
| Tony Burke has a question on Adani (the reports he is talking about is ours, and you’ll find it here.) | Tony Burke has a question on Adani (the reports he is talking about is ours, and you’ll find it here.) |
| I refer to reports Adani tampered with scientific evidence in relation to contamination of sensitive wetlands with coal laden water. Is the government investigating this matter? Who is conducting the investigation? And will it report publicly? | I refer to reports Adani tampered with scientific evidence in relation to contamination of sensitive wetlands with coal laden water. Is the government investigating this matter? Who is conducting the investigation? And will it report publicly? |
| Josh Frydenberg: | Josh Frydenberg: |
| The shadow minister knows that is a state matter. And we on this House look after the most vigorous environmental assessment on the Adani mine and it led to 36 of the strictest requirements. And, as a result of the Adani mine going ahead, thousands of people will be employed in regional Queensland. Thousands of people. In Mackay, in Townsville, and where are those opposite standing up for workers in their electorates? And the leader of the opposition, he once said that Adani should go ahead. He was in favour of the Adani project. But then when Mr Feeney, the then member for Batman, lost his homework, Mr Speaker, lost his homework, subsequently resigned from his seat, Mr Speaker, and now they’re in a battle with the Greens, he’s had to move his policies to the left to placate the green left flank of the Labor party. So it’s a state matter, we continue to impose the most rigorous environmental assessments. | The shadow minister knows that is a state matter. And we on this House look after the most vigorous environmental assessment on the Adani mine and it led to 36 of the strictest requirements. And, as a result of the Adani mine going ahead, thousands of people will be employed in regional Queensland. Thousands of people. In Mackay, in Townsville, and where are those opposite standing up for workers in their electorates? And the leader of the opposition, he once said that Adani should go ahead. He was in favour of the Adani project. But then when Mr Feeney, the then member for Batman, lost his homework, Mr Speaker, lost his homework, subsequently resigned from his seat, Mr Speaker, and now they’re in a battle with the Greens, he’s had to move his policies to the left to placate the green left flank of the Labor party. So it’s a state matter, we continue to impose the most rigorous environmental assessments. |
| Scott Morrison is the next to be delivered a dixer, and as usual, he gives his ‘angry uncle shouting at the ref through the TV’ performance. | Scott Morrison is the next to be delivered a dixer, and as usual, he gives his ‘angry uncle shouting at the ref through the TV’ performance. |