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Josh Frydenberg wins a battle, but energy war still looms – politics live
Josh Frydenberg wins a battle, but energy war still looms – politics live
(35 minutes later)
Matt Thistlethwaite, the MP’s whose name, as someone who had a debilitating speech impediment as a child, I dread saying on live broadcasts, is launching the ‘BBQ for an Australian Head of State’ campaign, with Peter FitzSimons today, with, what else - a BBQ.
And further to that Neg modelling update a couple of posts ago, here’s the letter the government sent when lodging the documents, which we already had.
Govt response to Greens/Senate order production of NEG documents - just pointing to docs already on record #auspol ping @AmyRemeikis and @murpharoo pic.twitter.com/SxJXwNdPbV
The Greens and Labor have both emerged from their respective party room meetings.
The Coalition is still working through the Neg.
Fairfax’s Dana McCauley reports Barnaby Joyce has passed on a letter written by his partner Vikki Campion to Emma Husar, through Bill Shorten’s office, offering her “support and sympathy”.
You can read the story here
Kristina Keneally is continuing to lead the Labor charge into the Great Barrier Reef Foundation grant. That would be the $444m one which was handed to the foundation, unsolicited, and which has been causing all sorts of headaches for Josh Frydenberg and Malcolm Turnbull as they struggle to explain why.
Here is what Keneally had to say this morning:
Yesterday, we learnt that the government’s top environment bureaucrat has decided refer this grant to the Audit Office. And well he should – well he should – it shows that the government’s own environment department does not have confidence in the government’s decision to award $444mil dollars of public money to a private foundation. But what did we learn today? Revelations in the media that the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, within days of getting this nearly half a billion dollars of public money, took their mining and banking mates from their Chairman’s Panel on a three-day luxury holiday to Hamilton Island.
Now, this is a very disturbing revelation today. As I read it, as I see it, there is nothing in the partnership agreement struck between the Turnbull government and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation that would prevent the
Foundation from spending taxpayer dollars on holidays for its Chairman’s Panel - for its banking and mining mates. Under the agreement, there is wide latitude for stakeholder engagement and fundraising, which means, under this agreement – where the Turnbull government has given away half a billion dollars of taxpayer monies – now we’ve got a foundation with a demonstrated track record of taking their mining and banking executives on luxury holidays – they’ve got the capacity to do that again under this agreement struck by the Turnbull Government.
It is time for Malcolm Turnbull to get this money back – to get this nearly half a billion dollars back, and invest it into our public sector science agencies – our public sector agencies tasked with looking after the Reef. The CSIRO, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the Australian Institute of Marine Science – we have public bodies who can look after the Reef, they should get the public money to do so.
Meanwhile, because sports and politics go hand in hand in this country and you can’t have the fun without the games, Andrew Leigh is pushing for the ACT to get an A-League team:
The A-League needs a team from the capital region. Maybe you’ve already committed to joining the Canberra and capital region A-League bid. Maybe you’ve already signed up as a foundation member. If you haven’t, do it now. Put your name to the cause. Be a part of the bid to bring A-League football to the capital.
Your support is just the start. What about your friends, your family, your teammates? Clubs need volunteers at all stages. You’re on board with the bid already? Why not visit the website for the capital region bid and get the tools to sign up more foundation members.
Yesterday, the Senate voted to have the national energy guarantee modelling released, after a push from the Greens.
The government responded – by putting up the spreadsheet which was already on the website.
Adam Bandt is not happy:
Yesterday the Senate ordered the government to release the full modelling behind the Neg and its wild claims of $550/yr power bill cuts. The government tabled their response this morning, confirming what analysts feared. That there is no proper modelling, just a single Excel spreadsheet. Previous modelling reports for government reviews of the electricity market by Jacobs have run to hundreds of papers. It is now clear the government’s claims for the Neg are built on a foundation of sand. The Neg is a toxic farce.
There’s officially a Possum in caucus.
Act natural
From the Coalition party room meeting:
Coalition party room update, thus far, only Tony Abbott expressing opposition to the #NEG according to one fly on the wall @AmyRemeikis #auspol
Basically, the cheese stands alone.
Matt Thistlethwaite, the MP whose name, as someone who had a debilitating speech impediment as a child, I dread saying on live broadcasts, is launching the “BBQ for an Australian Head of State” campaign, with Peter FitzSimons today, with, what else - a BBQ.
He gets the gig as Labor’s shadow minister for an Australian head of state, which I imagine is an awkward title to fit on a business card.
He gets the gig as Labor’s shadow minister for an Australian head of state, which I imagine is an awkward title to fit on a business card.
Labor is yet to comprehensively decide on where it will land with the Neg - they are waiting to see what the government comes up with as a final package and hear from their state counterparts before coming up with that decision - but Nick Champion was the latest to comment on the government’s process in developing an energy policy:
Labor is yet to comprehensively decide on where it will land with the Neg – they are waiting to see what the government comes up with as a final package and hear from their state counterparts before coming up with that decision – but Nick Champion was the latest to comment on the government’s process in developing an energy policy:
The NEG was not our preferred model, in the first instance we preferred Finkels report. A report which was very comprehensive and was given a lifespan of about a month. That’s how long it lasted. We had the chief scientist do a report that went to government, it lasted a month. Then they came up with the National Energy Guarantee. So it’s not good enough of this government to cry for bipartisanship when they can’t even get certainty within the government about their own policy making processes, their political processes and what we see here is division writ large.
The Neg was not our preferred model. In the first instance we preferred Finkel’s report. A report which was very comprehensive and was given a life-span of about a month. That’s how long it lasted. We had the chief scientist do a report that went to government, it lasted a month. Then they came up with the national energy guarantee. So it’s not good enough of this government to cry for bipartisanship when they can’t even get certainty within the government about their own policy making processes, their political processes and what we see here is division writ large.
Some Mike Bowers for your morning
Some Mike Bowers for your morning
It’s all gone a little quiet now, as practically every MP is in a party-room meeting.
Bill Shorten has allowed the cameras in for the start of the Labor party room meeting – they called Mike Bowers and co in for a photo opportunity a smidge bit earlier, now that Susan Lamb, Justine Keay and Josh Wilson are back in the parliament. Labor also welcomed Patrick Gorman to his first federal party room. (Emma Husar and Brendan O’Connor are both still away for personal reasons.)
Here’s some of what he had to say:
Today the government is back to doing their favourite past time – fighting each other. The only thing guaranteed to come it of today is higher power prices and less renewable energy. We have a cobbled together today a Frankenstein’s monster of a policy, whilst Mr Turnbull goes around attacking Mr Abbott, Mr Turnbull is in fact giving in to a lot of Mr Abbott’s values when it comes to climate change and energy.
What we will see is promises to deliver new money, new coal-fired power stations. We will see less renewable energy in the system which means higher prices. What we have now is the dreadful situation in Australia where Mr Turnbull is so weak that although he may call something an energy guarantee, the fact of the matter is he is surrendering energy policy making in this country to people who do not believe in climate change.
What we must do every day between now and the next election, is stand up for more renewable energy, which will lead to lower energy prices and more action on climate.
An important story from Chris Knaus - NSW Labor has decided to condemn the prosecution of Witness K - the whistleblower who alleged we had bugged the East Timor cabinet room, during the gas pipeline negotiations (which no subsequent government has denied).
Federal Labor has been largely silent on the issue. Why? Well, the smart money would be on electoral concerns – that it would be giving Peter Dutton ammunition to accuse them of being soft on national security. And there are not too many votes to be gained by standing up and saying this is a terrible move.
One of the fascinating things in the debate about euthanasia is whether senators and MPs see it as a vote on the rights of the Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory to govern themselves or a proxy for the substantive issue of the right to die.
The ACT Liberal senator Zed Seselja has explained his reasons for voting against – “it’s a matter of life and death”, he says in a Fairfax Media opinion piece, and Labor has voted to override the territories’ self-governing powers (on other issues) before.
I’ve just spoken to ACT Labor senator David Smith - who opposes euthanasia but will vote for the David Leyonhjelm bill because he sees it as a territory rights issue.
He said:
“The ACT assembly has a right to conduct a mature and respectful debate about this issue ... there’s a reason we have self-government in the ACT.”
Smith says he has “grave reservations” about voluntary euthanasia because “we have to be very careful” that there is not pressure on the “vulnerable and weary” to end their lives.
Smith is currently locked in a preselection contest with Katy Gallagher who wants to come back to the Senate after being disqualified for dual citizenship. After the resignation of Labor MP Gai Brodtmann, Smith could attempt to move to the lower house but he said it was too soon to say if he would seek preselection in the seat of Bean.
Barnaby Joyce has again been blaming renewables and the Paris agreement for electricity price hikes, despite the number of independent reports that point to the gold plating of the poles and wires being the main price driver. The network charges.
And let’s not also forget that Joyce was part of the government – led by Tony Abbott – which offered states a sweetener from a $5bn infrastructure pool if they ‘recycled’ their assets, the power assets they still owned. Which Victoria and NSW took advantage of. And now these same two people want the government to fork out for new coal-fired power stations, after criticising the private companies for doing what they want with the assets they bought off the states, at the Abbott government’s request.
THIS IS WHY THE EMUS WON, PEOPLE.
Here was Joyce this morning:
Right now, it is a reality, especially in New England, that people cannot afford power and they’re trying to make up for it by doing things, such as pensioners going to bed early so that they can stay warm. Now, I can’t go back to them and say, this is about the Paris agreement. The reason that you’re going to bed early is that you can lie back and think of the Paris agreement. We have to have an a mechanism that is able to enforce the savings that we’re talking about.
Joyce did say he was a fan of the ACCC report though, particularly the recommendations which target the market power the electricity companies have.
The latest Guardian Essential poll is out – as Katharine Murphy reports, Labor and Bill Shorten are both up.
The latest survey of 1,032 voters has Labor ahead of the Coalition on the two-party preferred measure, 52% to 48%, an improvement within the poll’s margin of error since the result last fortnight, which was 51% to 49%.
There has also been a three-point improvement in the Labor leader’s approval ratings. 34% approved of the job Shorten is doing as opposition leader (up 3% from last month), and 44% disapproved (down 3%) – a change in his net approval rating from -16 to -10.
Greens leader @RichardDiNatale will move a censure motion against David Leyonhjelm in the Senate today for "humiliating and intimidating" Sarah Hanson-Young by making "derogatory, defamatory and sexist statements" and refusing to apologise. pic.twitter.com/cbyGY3tfjQ
Craig Kelly has been doing his best to explain his opposition to the Neg, despite the biggest users in the country – the industry groups – asking the Coalition to back it in.
I’ll let him explain it, because it’s a bit all over the shop:
.@Kieran_Gilbert: Previously you have said the NEG was well received by the backbench. Why don’t you support it today?.@CraigKellyMP: The target of the 26 per cent reduction in emissions could be backloaded out to 2030. That has since changed.MORE: https://t.co/h6UWHBKM1Y pic.twitter.com/9uLcepKIWI
Mark Butler has been out early this morning talking all things Coalition and Neg:
There is now no ground left for Malcolm Turnbull to concede to the hard right on energy policy. This morning, Malcolm Turnbull will present an energy plan where there is not a single energy renewable project built for an entire decade that will mean that the rates of installation of rooftop solar for Australian households is cut in half. And we learned today billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money will be directed to building new coal-fired power plants.
This is a plan that will smash jobs and investment in renewables, will fail to achieve cuts from the power sector and will push power prices further and further up. No matter what the debate, the vote in the party room today, the hard right and Tony Abbott have won the day. Any shred of credibility around energy change and power prices lies in tatters today.
I also want to talk about reports about taxpayers’ money being directed towards coal-fired power stations. Every industry body and expert that advises government on energy policy has said that new coal-fired power stations are, to use the words of the industry, “simply uninvestable”. The chair of the Energy Security Board, Kerry Schott, said there was no way investors would put money into coal-fired power stations.
And welcome to the next battle in the energy war, where Josh Frydenberg is entering the Coalition party room with the endorsement of the backbench committee.
Well, most of them.
After a marathon meeting overnight, most voted to support the national energy guarantee, while, as Katharine Murphy reports, Craig Kelly and Ken O’Dowd said they wanted more information and Tony Abbott called it a “crock”.
Or, as Murphy explains:
According to one source at the meeting, Tony Abbott was opposed and two others, Craig Kelly and Ken O’Dowd, were unhappy but accepted there would be further discussions. Another person present insisted Abbott, Kelly and O’Dowd were all against the package proceeding to the party room with the committee’s endorsement.
Both sources who spoke to Guardian Australia after the meeting said Abbott branded the government’s proposal a “crock”.
Barnaby Joyce is also still unsure, telling reporters this morning he will hear Frydenberg out, but he still has concerns:
What I’ll be listening to in the debate today is how we can do that – how we can have a better control on price, have the same concentration on price as we do on emissions reductions, on we do on dispatchable. This is not a case of being in a team with Abbott or being in a team with somebody else. Not that at all. In fact, I find that, to be honest, a complete misreading of it. I’m not in a team with anybody, except in a team with people who are trying to pay their power bills and making sure that the legislation that will be put before the joint party room today does everything within its power to make sure that we maintain the dignity in the lives of people who find it so difficult to pay their power bills as they are.
But they look to be in the minority. We’ll let you know how it all turns out. And just a reminder – passing the party room doesn’t mean the Neg is a go. It just means the federal legislation is a step closer – it still has to pass the states, who have to enact their own legislation. And the Labor states are yet to come on board.
In other battles, the exposure draft for the data encryption backdoors the government wants to force into encrypted messaging sites is out for consultation. You can find it here .
The Greens senator Jordon Steele-John has been a big critic of the laws, which were among George Brandis’s last gifts before he became our man in London.
But we’ll get to all of that and more – Mike Bowers has been out and about this morning, and will be prowling the hallways all day. The Guardian brains trust has been burning the midnight oil and are back bleary-eyed but bushy-tailed and I have hit coffee No 3. You can follow Bowers at @mpbowers and @mikepbowers, where he updates during the day, as well as making guest appearances on @pyjamapolitcs. You can catch me in the comments and @amyremeikis.
