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| Greens round on Labor after Trans-Pacific Partnership bill passes the Senate – politics live | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| We are about to roll into question time. | |
| My feed is still not great, so I’ll be heading into the chamber– so hit me up with your predictions while I cross this giant bloody building. | |
| Time to take a leaf from Canada’s policy book? | |
| Congratulations to Canada for taking the common sense step to legalise cannabis for personal use. It is high time 😉 that Australia follows suit. 💚 | |
| Peter Maurer, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, delivered his speech to the National Press Club just a few moments ago. | |
| Here’s a taste: | |
| Let me briefly specify six trends of particular concern to us: | |
| One, wars are lasting much longer than they used to 20 years ago. | |
| The ICRC – initially working on short-term emergency situations – is increasingly active in many places around the world for decades. In our ten largest operations, we have been on the ground for an average of 36 years. | |
| Two, wars are more often fought in highly populated urban areas, and when high powered explosive weapons are used, large numbers of civilians are at risk of death, injury, but also of losing their infrastructure – water systems, electricity, and jobs. | |
| These protracted, urban conflicts impact the basic health, water and sanitation systems, causing long-term, systemic impacts. | |
| Three, increasingly the root causes of violence are unclear and difficult to address – they are often a tangled web of politically-motivated violence, terrorism and disproportionate reaction by states, inter-community and social violence, which often go hand-in-hand with economic crime. This also defies traditional legal concepts (like IHL, criminal and anti-terrorism legislation) and challenges us with complex overlap between the legal frameworks. | |
| Four, armed actors are more numerous, more radical but also less political and less structured. | |
| Our research shows that more than six times the number of armed groups have been created over the last six years than during the six decades before that. | |
| Today only a third of conflicts are fought between two belligerent parties, and a fifth of conflicts have 10 or more parties involved. In a city like Taiz, Yemen, our colleagues recently counted around 40 armed groups, all of them in control of some territory, population and authority, making consensual humanitarian approaches and negotiation particularly challenging. | |
| This makes core aspects of ICRC’s work – engagement with belligerents on IHL and access to victims – acutely more complicated and problematic. | |
| Five, wars often involve partners, allies and coalitions – leading to a dilution of responsibility, fragmentation of chains of command and an unchecked flow of weapons. | |
| There is also a trend of denying responsibility for IHL violations, including for direct or proxy partners – or of passing responsibility to someone else down the line. | |
| This only increases the climate of impunity and ultimately causes yet more suffering. | |
| And finally, as you know, we are on the brink of a fourth industrial revolution with increasingly sophisticated and more deadly weapons, but also the potential to harness technology to find new ways to provide humanitarian assistance. | |
| In this environment we can’t afford to stand still when the gap between needs of populations affected by war and violence and our ability to respond gets bigger by the day. | |
| The Senate is likely to begin debate on discrimination protections for LGBT teachers under a Greens plan to suspend standing orders with Labor and crossbench support on Wednesday. | |
| The tactic to force debate on Richard Di Natale’s private senator’s bill means the issue will be considered before the Wentworth byelection on Saturday, despite Scott Morrison refusing to give bipartisan support for ending religious exemptions to discrimination law for teachers and school staff. | |
| The move will add pressure on Morrison, who already faces a divided party. The deputy Liberal leader, Josh Frydenberg, Wentworth candidate Dave Sharma and Liberal senator Dean Smith – the architect of the successful marriage equality legislation – have called to protect teachers. | |
| Labor and crossbench senators, including Derryn Hinch, Tim Storer and Centre Alliance, support ending the exemptions for religious schools and the Greens expect them to support the suspension of standing orders after question time on Wednesday. | |
| Labor and Centre Alliance’s Rex Patrick have confirmed to Guardian Australia that their senators will support the plan. However, no vote is expected this week. | |
| Full story here. | |
| Anthony Albanese and Christopher Pyne came together for their weekly slot with Adelaide radio 5AA. And the usually jovial pair had a small skirmish over the “it’s okay to be white” motion screw-up: | |
| ALBANESE: Well let’s be very clear here. Pauline Hanson spoke on this motion in the Senate. They were sitting there listening to her do the dog whistle to rightwing extremists, use language that is used by the KKK and other extreme rightwing groups. And then the bells rang and they voted for it.PYNE: Because it was mistake.ALBANESE: But they were there in the chamber during the debate. It’s been on notice for a month.PYNE: Are you seriously suggesting that people like Simon Birmingham and Marise Payne, and Christopher Pyne for that matter, are racist? Is that what you are saying?ALBANESE: Simon Birmingham walked into the chamber and it is understandable that sometimes when the bells ring you go in and you sit with your team …PYNE: So you are saying that Lucy Gichuhi is a racist?ALBANESE: But there were a range of people sitting there. I am saying that, from time to time, people who are associated with your side of politics have been prepared to sit back and listen to dog whistles.PYNE: So Anne Ruston is a racist? Is that what you are saying?ALBANESE: You have been, from time to time, people on your side of politics …PYNE: No of course you are not saying that, because it’s not true. You know as well as I do that it is not true and it was a mistake end everyone knows it was a mistake.ALBANESE: They behaved like stuffed dummies incapable of independent thought. What were they doing, auditioning for a remake of Weekend at…. | |
| Here’s why the Greens were against the policy – and, it has to be said, some within the Labor caucus: | |
| “Labor has abandoned its own party platform, Australian workers, our environment and our sovereignty in rolling over for the Morrison Government to pass the TPP,” the Greens trade spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said in a statement. | |
| “This is a deal for big corporations, at the expense of the rights of the community. | |
| “The economic benefit to Australia from the TPP is something between nothing and a rounding error – while the cost to everyday Australians, and our environment, are huge. | |
| “Our environmental policy limbo and action on climate change cannot be addressed without serious risk of multinational corporations suing our nation. If the US decides to rejoin, the costs of new cancer medications would go through the roof. And, as the deal stands, vulnerable workers from six nations will be put into jobs without offering them first to Australians looking for work. | |
| “We cannot address the TPP’s most devastating failures – ISDS provisions and weak labour market testing – now the deal is done. Labor has squibbed the opportunity to do the right thing, and to hold the Morrison government to account. | |
| “We must, of course, be a trading nation, but what has happened today is chaining us to trade for the sake of multinational corporations and shareholder profits, rather than engaging in deals that help take our nation forward.” | |
| The final vote on the TPP was 35 to 15 | The final vote on the TPP was 35 to 15 |
| And the division created some interesting bedfellows, at least for this Senate. | And the division created some interesting bedfellows, at least for this Senate. |
| Ayes: Labor, Liberal National party, Cory Bernardi, David Leyonhjelm and Derryn Hinch. | |
| Noes: Greens, One Nation, Centre Alliance, Fraser Anning, Brian Burston and Tim Storer. | Noes: Greens, One Nation, Centre Alliance, Fraser Anning, Brian Burston and Tim Storer. |
| The Prime Minister’s Office have also just issued this statement on the TPP: | The Prime Minister’s Office have also just issued this statement on the TPP: |
| This landmark agreement is one of the most comprehensive trade deals ever concluded and strips 98% of tariffs for 11 countries with a combined GDP of more than $13.8tn and close to 500 million consumers. | This landmark agreement is one of the most comprehensive trade deals ever concluded and strips 98% of tariffs for 11 countries with a combined GDP of more than $13.8tn and close to 500 million consumers. |
| Independent modelling shows Australia is forecast to see $15.6bn in net annual benefits to national income by 2030 from the TPP-11. | Independent modelling shows Australia is forecast to see $15.6bn in net annual benefits to national income by 2030 from the TPP-11. |
| International trade creates jobs and drives investment. | International trade creates jobs and drives investment. |
| The TPP-11 offers significant advantages for Australian exporters including accelerated reductions in Japan’s tariffs on Australian beef, greater quota volumes for wheat and barley, new access for dairy products and clear investment regimes for mining and resources. | The TPP-11 offers significant advantages for Australian exporters including accelerated reductions in Japan’s tariffs on Australian beef, greater quota volumes for wheat and barley, new access for dairy products and clear investment regimes for mining and resources. |
| Australia’s leadership on the TPP-11 has been another important demonstration of our commitment to the international rules-based approach to trade. | Australia’s leadership on the TPP-11 has been another important demonstration of our commitment to the international rules-based approach to trade. |
| That’s why our government will continue to pursue a trade agenda that opens new markets for Australian businesses and creates certainty for exporters. It is a key plank of our government’s plan to further strengthen our economy and guarantee the essentials Australians rely on. | That’s why our government will continue to pursue a trade agenda that opens new markets for Australian businesses and creates certainty for exporters. It is a key plank of our government’s plan to further strengthen our economy and guarantee the essentials Australians rely on. |
| The TPP-11 will enter into force 60 days after six countries have ratified the agreement. So far, Mexico, Japan and Singapore have completed their domestic processes. | The TPP-11 will enter into force 60 days after six countries have ratified the agreement. So far, Mexico, Japan and Singapore have completed their domestic processes. |
| This passage of legislation through parliament brings Australia one step closer to being part of the first group of countries to ratify the Agreement. | This passage of legislation through parliament brings Australia one step closer to being part of the first group of countries to ratify the Agreement. |
| Scott Morrison was celebrating the TPP this morning ahead of it passing the Senate (as per the PMO transcript) | Scott Morrison was celebrating the TPP this morning ahead of it passing the Senate (as per the PMO transcript) |
| Can I tell you, I remember when the TPP-11, which now become … when the TPP was then made known. I was treasurer at the time and I was actually in Germany on some G20 business and the number of countries that came to us and said, “Are you still going to push ahead with this? Are you really going to keep going with this? Isn’t it a waste of time?” And I said, “Absolutely.” | Can I tell you, I remember when the TPP-11, which now become … when the TPP was then made known. I was treasurer at the time and I was actually in Germany on some G20 business and the number of countries that came to us and said, “Are you still going to push ahead with this? Are you really going to keep going with this? Isn’t it a waste of time?” And I said, “Absolutely.” |
| The prime minister was saying at the time. And I can’t underscore enough how this agreement demonstrates our government’s commitment to expanding our trade markets. | The prime minister was saying at the time. And I can’t underscore enough how this agreement demonstrates our government’s commitment to expanding our trade markets. |
| It’s pretty easy to walk away from these sorts of things, and we saw the opposition um and ah over the China free trade agreement, we saw them actually parody this agreement. Parody what we’ve been able to achieve. And I think that says to every small and family business out there, every business out there, that when it comes to trade, we’ll back you in every time. We won’t walk away, we will always stand up. Australia is an open, trading nation, exporting quality products and services all around the world. We know that, we get that, we’ll back it in every single time. | It’s pretty easy to walk away from these sorts of things, and we saw the opposition um and ah over the China free trade agreement, we saw them actually parody this agreement. Parody what we’ve been able to achieve. And I think that says to every small and family business out there, every business out there, that when it comes to trade, we’ll back you in every time. We won’t walk away, we will always stand up. Australia is an open, trading nation, exporting quality products and services all around the world. We know that, we get that, we’ll back it in every single time. |
| Liberal senator James Paterson popped up on Sky to talk about why the Israel embassy should move to Jerusalem. | Liberal senator James Paterson popped up on Sky to talk about why the Israel embassy should move to Jerusalem. |
| It’s no surprise he is in favour. It’s also a policy that is put forward by the branches at state and national level quite frequently. Until Tuesday, the parliamentary team response was “this won’t be happening”. | It’s no surprise he is in favour. It’s also a policy that is put forward by the branches at state and national level quite frequently. Until Tuesday, the parliamentary team response was “this won’t be happening”. |
| “ ... It is Israel’s capital. The only question is, should we persist with the fiction, should we pretend it is not really Israel’s capital, or should we pretend another city to the north is actually Israel’s capital? I don’t think there is any value in pretending, when we know what the truth is. | |
| “ ... I would be very surprised if it cost us a free-trade agreement, because there are very good reasons for Indonesia to have that free-trade agreement, just as there are very good reasons for Australia to have that agreement. It is in both our interests.” | |