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Scott Morrison questioned over 'disastrous performance' in Wentworth byelection – question time live | |
(35 minutes later) | |
Mark Dreyfus to Scott Morrison: | |
In Question Time, the Prime Minister told the House “I came to this position of leadership not seeking it in support of the previous Prime Minister.” Does he stand by that answer, given the member for Warringah has told journalist David Speers that the now-prime minister “part his half a dozen votes into the prime ministership, manoeuvring to bring on the spill and then harvest Turnbull votes to get the top job”? | |
Is the reason why the Prime Minister won’t explain why Malcolm Turnbull deposed was because he was up to his neck in it?” | |
Christopher Pyne pipes up that Morrison is not responsible for the comments of Tony Abbott. | |
Tony Burke tries again, but Tony Smith is having none of it, and the question is ruled out of order. | |
All that does is inflict an Angus Taylor dixer on us earlier than it usually would be infliected on us, so really, there are no winners here. | |
Michael McCormack gets the next dixer, and apparently, being told you are almost about to lose your job has actually IMPROVED how he reads these answers. | |
I mean, it is still not great, and there are backbenchers behind him still asking for water, texting and passing papers to each other, but no one is turning to watch the paint peel off the wall. | |
It’s like how you would treat the substitute teacher you know, rather than just the one who rocks up out of the blue. | |
Susan Lamb gets a question. | |
It’s to Scott Morrison: | |
Can the Prime Minister confirm reports that he’s asked Malcolm Turnbull to come out of retirement to represent the Australian government at an international summit on oceans this week?” | |
Morrison: | |
Mr Turnbull will lead the Australian delegation at the next Our Ocean Conference in Bali on October 29 to 30 of 2018. He was personally invited to attend that originally by the Indonesian President. | |
It was the subject of our discussions when I met with the Indonesian President, President Widodo. | |
I was unable to follow through on that invitation and so, to ensure that we had very senior-level representation - which was well-received by the President of Indonesia - I did request the former prime minister to represent us at that conference, and he’ll be there representing the policies of our government. | |
Mr Speaker, in that capacity, I think he presents a very serious, a very senior, and a very duly recognised status of our relationship with Indonesia, and I know that his attendance at that summit will be well-recognised and appreciated by President Widodo, and I thank him for representing Australia on that occasion.” | |
A friend in America, interested in what it is we do down here, has begun listening to question time, and just sent me a video of what it sounds like to her, and honestly, I don’t think I have seen anything more accurate: | |
Lynx are experts at arguing 😳 | |
A post shared by The Dodo (@thedodo) on Oct 22, 2018 at 12:48pm PDT | |
Chris Bowen to Scott Morrison: | |
Wait, it is interrupted for Christopher Pyne to get in trouble by the Speaker, for what sounds like being Christopher Pyne. | |
We return to Bowen’s question: | |
A week before the Wentworth by-election, the Prime Minister warned that a hung parliament would cause “uncertainty” in our economy. Does the Prime Minister stand by this statement? If not, why does the Prime Minister always say one thing before an election, and something completely different after the election? | |
Morrison: | |
“The Shadow Treasurer may not be aware that, following the weekend’s results, the ANZ consumer confidence index actually fell over the course of the weekend, and the ANZ economists attributed that result to the uncertainty that resulted from the election result on the weekend.” | |
The House goes a bit mental, because Morrison has seemingly, just admitted that losing Wentworth has created an uncertain economy. | |
He continues: | |
“..the outcome and uncertainty of the election on the weekend did produce a - Mr Speaker, it did produce the result that I indicated that it would. | |
... Now, that said, the government that we have been part of - and particularly over the last eight weeks, we have been effectively in the position of a minority government ever since that time. (Because Kevin Hogan became the Clayton’s crossbencher) | |
And in that time, we have worked constructively with those on the crossbench to deal with legislation, to get measures through. | |
We’ve passed small business tax cuts, Mr Speaker. We’ve passed important legislation to protect our strawberry farmers. | |
We’ve passed legislation every single day we have been in here, and we have been getting on with the job of government. Now, we will continue to do that. | |
The business as usual of our government of getting things done will continue. And that business as usual means more jobs, it means lower taxes, it means lower electricity prices. | |
It means ensuring that we pay for affordable medicines. It means that retaining our AAA credit rating. It means a stronger economy that guarantees the essential services that Australians rely on. | |
That’s what we’re getting on with. The leader of the Labor Party is stuck in the Canberra bubble.” | |
We are back to more dixers that should just be a press release. | |
So while Scott Morrison helps drain what is left of my will to keep typing, a big thank-you to reader Cressida for the small plaque she sent us – for surviving dixers that should have been a press release. | |
We appreciate it. | |
#deathtodixers | |
Tanya Plibersek to Scott Morrison: | |
Just before my question, can I add my words of support to acknowledge what an important day yesterday was. | |
My question is to the prime minister: On Sky News this morning, when asked why Malcolm Turnbull was no longer prime minister, the minister for defence industry said it was “because Malcolm Turnbull couldn’t sell the government’s message.” | |
Is this why the government … deposed Malcolm Turnbull and installed “the advertising guy” as prime minister? And given the government’s disastrous performance on the weekend, how does he think The Muppet Show’s going? | |
Scott Morrison gives a rundown of the government’s achievements and then returns to his latest favourite catch-phrase (sigh). | |
There is no surprise that the Labor party only wants to talk about politics. Because they have no plans for the future. They want Australians to pay more for everything. Higher taxes, higher electricity bills, more for their private health insurance, Mr Speaker. These are the issues that Australians are focused on. These are the issues our government is focused on. The leader of the Labor party is just another politician trapped in the Canberra bubble. | |
Ok – you can’t have no plans for the future and then list how the party wants people to pay more. Because that makes no sense. Because if Labor wants people to pay more things, then obviously it has plans for the future. | |
Someone outside the Canberra bubble would probably pick that up. | |
The first dixer is on yesterday’s apology. | |
It’s worth a read: | |
Scott Morrison: | |
I want to thank all those survivors who attended here yesterday – not just in this building but outside of this place and on the lawns, where we had the opportunity to meet and listen to their stories. | |
And as they came back into this parliament and in the offices of members and they recounted their stories, I want to thank all members of this chamber for the welcome that they provided to all of those survivors, and all Australians for their solidarity in standing by those survivors and their families. | |
It was a very, very moving day. But an apology without action, as we said yesterday, is just a piece of paper, and the concrete actions that are necessary are about implementing the recommendations of the royal commission – 108 of those 122 recommendations are being implemented. | |
There were ones directed towards the commonwealth, and 18 further recommendations have been worked through with the states and territories. The National Redress Scheme has commenced. The national office of child safety was stood up in July, and now, as I said yesterday, it will report directly to me – not just to the Department of Social Services – and I’ll be assisted in that role not only by the minister for social services, but by the assistant minister to the prime minister, who has done an outstanding job in working with the advisory group and working towards the national apology yesterday. | |
I want to add my thanks to my assistant minister. The national database to ensure higher standards for child protection is under way with states and territories. | |
The work with survivors who are anxious about going into institutional aged care as a result of their most horrific experiences when they were last in institutions is an important issue that has been raised, and is one that we’ll be working closely with the minister for aged care and minister for senior Australians, but also be looking to the royal commission into aged care that we have announced to be sensitive to that issue and the solutions that need to be made available. | |
We are establishing the national centre for excellence to raise awareness and understanding of the impacts of child sexual abuse and removing the stigma so the stories can be told, and so the understanding can be generated. The national museum, which we announced support for, [and on] which we’ll be working with survivors, in particular, so the stories can be told, and we will never turn our back again on the shame that is rightfully sitting across our country – a stain on our country – and that national museum will be a place for reflection, for learning, for understanding. | |
And I would add to that that it will draw on excellent proposals from the care leavers who have got a particular proposal relating to an old orphanage building, and whether it’s that proposal – that’s what inspired this idea for this museum – and I want to thank the representatives for bringing that forward. | |
There were many people yesterday who I know felt they weren’t recognised, and I particularly also want to recognise, if I can have indulgence on this one point, to recognise those in our defence forces who also suffered sexual abuse. I want to acknowledge them here today, and I particularly want to thank the member for Dunkley for bringing that to my attention. | |
And I want to particularly, in this place, acknowledge their suffering as well. | |
Bill Shorten: | |
It was a very emotional day, as the prime minister and I discussed in the Great Hall, the level of emotion and hurt, and all of the conflicting emotions – it was almost physical, you could almost feel it against your skin. | |
We appreciate the attendance of survivors and victims and all those who came to hear it. | |
It was a very big compliment these people paid to the parliament, having been let down by institutions and people in power their whole lives – to come here and trust us to apologise, at the very least, was remarkable. | |
We acknowledge, too, that too many people didn’t survive or weren’t able to be there yesterday. I also acknowledge that action, not words, is what people want. And we promise not to second-guess the royal commission – it’s a global standard, it’s the best set of recommendations, the best set of proposals, and I understand – especially for those who are dying and very ill at the moment – we need to do everything to speed up redress. | |
Kevin Rudd has blamed Rupert Murdoch for prosecuting a “direct agenda” through his newspapers that toppled both himself and Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister. | |
Speaking at the launch of the second volume of his autobiography in Canberra, Rudd nominated Australia’s media concentration in Murdoch’s hands as one of the factors in its culture of deposing leaders, which he said had become “nationally embarrassing”. | |
Rudd used the launch to publicly plead with the Liberal party to follow his lead and adopt a rule raising the threshold to depose a leader. | |
Rudd: | |
[Rupert] Murdoch – who I’ve met many times – is ideologically deeply conservative, deeply protective of his corporation’s commercial interests and, therefore, prosecutes a direct agenda through his newspapers which I’ve been on the receiving end [of]. So, most recently, has Malcolm [Turnbull]. Let’s not pretend it’s been anything other than that. | |
The launch was well attended by colleagues on both side of the aisle, with a few notable absences from the Labor leadership team. | |
The Coalition’s former foreign minister Julie Bishop and former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce were in attendance. | |
From Labor I spied: Chris Bowen, Kim Carr, Anthony Albanese, Richard Marles, Mike Kelly, Terri Butler, Andrew Giles, Justine Elliott, Gavin Marshall, Patrick Gorman, Joel Fitzgibbon, Steve Georganas, Mike Freelander, Julian Hill and Stephen Jones. | |
The book was launched by the Labor senator Claire Moore and the University of Melbourne vice-chancellor, Glyn Davis. Moore revealed that Rudd used to do a killer Alexander Downer impression back in the day but, sadly, he did not oblige with a reprise on Tuesday. | |
Bill Shorten opens the questioning with ... | |
Wentworth. | |
“[The government saw] … a primary swing in Braddon of 2%, and in Longman it was 9%. Then it deposed Malcolm Turnbull. But on the weekend, the government suffered a 19% swing in Wentworth … so, given the government’s disastrous performance in Wentworth, why is Malcolm Turnbull gone but you’re still here?” | |
Scott Morrison: | |
People have suggested that Labor were running dead in the Wentworth byelection. But the real proof of that would have been whether the leader of the opposition turned up in Wentworth, Mr Speaker. | |
Then they would have really known that they were running dead in Wentworth …because that would have suppressed the vote even more, Mr Speaker. | |
It is true – it is true – that a third – around a third of the Liberal party vote in Wentworth, Mr Speaker, was lost to the Liberal party in that Wentworth byelection. It is also true that a third of the Labor party vote was lost in the Wentworth byelection. | |
A third of the Greens vote was lost in that byelection, Mr Speaker. Now, as I said on the weekend, I am very, very happy to stand up as leader of the Liberal party and cop it on the chin, Mr Speaker, for the anger that was expressed by Liberal voters, in particular, about the events of two months ago. | |
And we said that, and we were honest with our supporters and followers about that on the weekend. And we have committed to them to ensure that, as we have continued to come together, unified as a party, to go forward and fight this Labor leader who wants to put more than $200 billion worth of taxes on Australians, who wants to see a resurgence in militant unionism in this country, who wants to put their electricity prices up with reckless policies, and we will fight this leader of the Labor party all the way until the bell rings, and we will be successful. | |
Question time is about to begin. | Question time is about to begin. |
While you get your bingo cards in order, Labor has launched its latest attack ad. | While you get your bingo cards in order, Labor has launched its latest attack ad. |
The book, volume two, is launched. | The book, volume two, is launched. |
Don’t count on ABC estimates starting on time: | Don’t count on ABC estimates starting on time: |
It's a total mystery how #estimates hearings get behind schedule pic.twitter.com/GVj9VtpN9e | It's a total mystery how #estimates hearings get behind schedule pic.twitter.com/GVj9VtpN9e |
Oh look – the government fixed Father Chris Riley’s funding issue, for his Youth Off the Streets schools. | Oh look – the government fixed Father Chris Riley’s funding issue, for his Youth Off the Streets schools. |
For next year. | For next year. |
Dan Tehan says the government will “look at the issue going forward” because it is a “unique” issue. | Dan Tehan says the government will “look at the issue going forward” because it is a “unique” issue. |