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Senate votes on Nauru bill Scott Morrison has vowed to fight – question time live
Bernardi and Hanson spin out Senate vote for Nauru bill, as Morrison vows not to let it pass – politics live
(35 minutes later)
Ed Husic is still going.
This has become a complete and utter farce:
This is what everyone is watching in QT right now. No one is listening. Everyone is just waiting on the Senate.
This is just a farce.Senators are physically and verbally filibustering by walking across the chamber slowly and moving absurd points of over.
I really can’t believe I can get away with this rn. I don’t think Hart is going to forgive me. I think I’m going to start following a stack of bad twitter accounts on his behalf
The crossbench women have gathered at the back of the chamber.
If you needed any more proof everyone is just winding down the clock, Ed Husic has gone back to Twitter.
They abstain from this vote to suspend standing orders.
When Ross leaves hs twitter open and Ed Husic is around, this will be dangerous
Ed Husic is officially back on Twitter, commandeering Ross Hart’s Twitter account - AMA rn
Mathias Cormann is on his feet defending the Cory Bernardi filibuster.Cormann:
We should not be dealing with this bill until the proper consideration of the Senate has taken place. Mr Shorten knows this is a reckless move when it comes to our national security. He’s quite happy to sacrifice … our offshore processing arrangements.”
Jenny McAllister says the filibuster is “pathetic”, one of many Labor interjections. Liberal senator Zed Seselja asks they be called to order.Penny Wong: “Time wasting – more time wasting. We have a national security bill to deal with later today.”We’re now having a four-minute bell ring and a vote on Bernardi’s stalling tactics.
Last night the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security handed down a bipartisan report with 17 important recommendations for amendment to the telecommunications and other legislation amendment (assistance and access) bill.
The government provided Labor with more than 167 amendments, totalling 49 pages, at 6.30am this morning, and yet more amendments at 9.22am.
In the limited time we have had to scrutinise these amendments, it is clear that they do not fully reflect the recommendations put forward by the committee.
Therefore Labor will move some minor but important amendments in the Senate to make the amended bill conform with the recommendations of the committee. The government already tried to cut off the committee’s work before – it shouldn’t ignore it completely.
Labor is working constructively with the crossbench to secure support for our amendments.
As Katharine Murphy reported, Cory Bernardi is helping to wind down the clock:
Another #senate chamber chat between @MathiasCormann and Cory Bernardi pic.twitter.com/GKfFk2EIQk
For those wondering how the government finishes parliament early.
As the notice paper stands, the adjournment is scheduled for 4.30pm. That is usual. And then, with all the business, it usually gets extended.
This time, the government is attempting to ensure it won’t be extended. That parliament automatically rises after the adjournment debate at 4.30pm.
No motion. No vote.
The scheduled time, which is always changed, will stand.
So Scott’s Choice – encryption, or not?
As Murph just pointed out, it is now encryption v medical evacuations.
If the government wants encryption to be passed, it has to keep sitting.
If it keeps sitting, then the medical evacuation bill can come up.
The government will lose that vote.
Cory Bernardi has tried to suspend standing orders, twice. The first attempt lost 31-29.
He’s now on his feet pulling a similar trick. One Labor senator asks him if he’s “doing the government’s dirty work”. There are now heckles of “which government – are you rejoining them, Cory?”
Bernardi says the bill has been “hijacked” and turned into “a weapon of political destruction”. He accuses Labor and the Greens of “sheer bastardry by the use of numbers” to cut short debate.
“It’s about sick kids,” respond Labor senators.
Christopher Pyne is attempting to wind Labor up into heckling, by talking about the deaths at sea and the “cheap political stunt Labor wants to pull today to impress their friends” and force the men and women of the Australian defence force to pull dead bodies from the sea.
I kid you not.
I kid you not.
The reply to this is from the former IHMS chief medical officer on Nauru.
After all of the grandstanding and the screaming, the government looks ready to sacrifice its precious encryption legislation to stop the medical transfer bill.
The situation has never occurred. Never. He is making up ridiculous scenarios.
Paul Karp reports Cory Bernardi has found a new tactic to drag this out:
This entire question time is like a visit inside Michael McCormack’s head.
But first, there are government amendments to the Storer-McKim amendments. Cory Bernardi, to keep the filibuster going, indicates he intends to vote differently on each government amendment. This is going nowhere quickly folks.”
While question time is under way, just a brief sit rep on the tactical outlook for the afternoon. Right now the Senate is moving through the amendments to the Migration Act. Cory Bernardi is assisting the government in dragging out that debate at the moment.
And he has help:
The objective is to drag out the final vote in the Senate for as long as possible. The House of Representatives adjourns automatically at 4.30pm.
Ian McDonald, Barry O’Sullivan and Eric Abetz sat with Labor so they could waste time crossing back to the government side
The House will need about 45 minutes to deal with the message from the Senate. If the Senate vote is dragged out, it is possible the House will adjourn before the message is resolved.
There is movement in the Chamber, as Labor MPs gather with Tony Burke at the back.
There is a but here though. The Senate is also dealing with the encryption bill today, and amendments are expected. That bill can only be proclaimed if the House continues to sit, and agrees to the amendments.
There are a lot of people looking at their phones.
We’ve been saying it all day, in one form or another.
"Enough of the time wasting", Penny Wong declares in the Senate @AmyRemeikis #auspol
Some game of chicken, this.
We are almost at the point where the Senate will return the medical transfer bill to the House.
Will the House adjourn at 4.30?
It is the only way the government will be able to avoid the loss.
The migration bill has passed the second reading stage 32 to 30. Labor, the Greens, Derryn Hinch, Tim Storer and Centre Alliance have passed it, and the Coalition have voted against its own bill.The next stage of this long drawn out theatre is voting on the Storer-Nick McKim amendments (to add provisions about medical transfers). Then we’ll get a final, third reading vote and it will pass the Senate.
Bob Katter is talking in the suspension of standing orders debate, on energy.
The Senate is now voting on the medical evacuation bill.
A few more of your take aways:
Chris: As a former staffer now living in China, the year started (sort of) with me drinking pink bubbly with a lesbian bar owner after the House of Representatives passed the same sex marriage bill by an overwhelming majority. However, it wasn’t long into 2018 before we returned to the same sort of back-biting and infighting that the Coalition is used to. We saw Barnaby Joyce relegated to the backbench and the introduction of the “bonk ban,” where he promptly started undermining the PM. The climate wars continued to bubble away, along with the culture wars left over from the Same Sex Marriage bill. The Coalition removed a sitting PM for reasons that make no sense, and replaced him with someone that wasn’t actually on the original ballot!What really stuck out for me was having intelligent people ask me “What’s wrong with your politicians?” This was coming from people of all nations, whether they were Chinese, American, British, Italian, Colombian, Indian, Canadian ... in a year of crazy politics, Australia seemed to be the oddest sore thumb among them all. Regardless of what MPs tell you, the Coalition is almost certainly in for a hiding at the next election. It’s going to be bad.
Margaret: The Russian ambassador’s press conference is my pick for 2018. I spend far too much time reading [Politics Live] during the day so will really miss it during the break.
As it stands now, the government, with help from Cory Bernardi and Pauline Hanson, look to have successfully, wound down the clock on the Senate debate on the medical evacuation bill.
It looks like the government are going to keep the scheduled adjournment at 4.30pm, sacrificing the passing of the encryption bill.
At this stage.
But it will stop the medical evacuation bill.
Again, there does not need to be a vote, or a motion. The House will automatically adjourn at 4.30pm.
Parliament will be suspended early, and it will be done by the notice paper.
