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Bernardi and Hanson spin out Senate vote for Nauru bill, as Morrison vows not to let it pass – politics live Emma Husar to sue BuzzFeed for defamation as Senate votes on Nauru bill – politics live
(35 minutes later)
Emma Husar’s full statement to the House:
On many occasions, I wish to correct the record on at least four of those now.
Too often during these past six months I have had to bite my tongue, and not defend myself publicly whilst being misrepresented.
I will not wait around for someone else to do what is right and show leadership.
Mr Speaker, there are two sides in every story, now is my turn to correct the record be my own champion and be the battler I have always been, in the pursuit of what is right and what is fair.
Mr Speaker, I do not object to the media doing their jobs, but misrepresenting members is not in their job description. I respect those who have shown good ethical conduct when reporting.
Let me be VERY specific.
At 9.33am on August 2, Ms Alice Workman of Buzzfeed published the most damaging article.
In it claimed she had requested my comment.
This is false.
At 9:34am, one minute after publication, she emailed me, requesting comment and answers to those 48 questions for the article that she had already published. I had no chance to refute or respond.
At 9.35am she further tweeted that I had bragged about who I was having sex with, that I sexually harassed an employee and intentionally exposed myself like Sharon Stone’s character in Basic Instinct. In front of a colleague and his infant son.
As a result of the initial misrepresentation, over 225 articles were republished each and every single one of them, misrepresenting me in so many respects.
Within 36 hours of this gross misrepresentation and the slut-shaming smears going viral, I was told to resign as the member for Lindsay … Mr Speaker – let me correct the record.
Buzzfeed and Alice Workman knew they had a confidential letter, which contained untested and contested allegations.
They also knew I was bound by confidentiality under the Whelan process, but they went ahead and published their slut-shaming story, knowing it would go viral.
Let me correct the record: They didn’t give me any notice in advance, they didn’t give me the opportunity to seek a release from my confidentiality obligations so that I could respond, they didn’t give me any opportunity to try to use our legal system to preserve the confidential process until it had properly played out.
In furtherance of me correcting the record today Mr Speaker, I have launched proceedings for defamation in the Federal Court against Buzzfeed and Alice Workman who were involved in this shameless misrepresentation and subsequent takedown.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant and today I bathe those misrepresentations in a flood of light.
To remind them they are not above the rule of law in this great country of ours.
Mr Speaker… I am not a bully. I am not Sharon Stone. I am not a thief, and I did not deliberately misuse my work expenses.
I will fight for my integrity, for my family and for Lindsay, which is full of battlers just like me and fight for the women who come after me.
I’m going to do my bit to make sure this never happens again.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year:
Tweeted during the Parliamentary christmas valedictory speeches 👇 https://t.co/oHAAR6NDxA
#grownupgovernment in @AuSenate ... Government members have now wasted exactly 2 hours to prevent Senate from supporting bill & delay transmission to house. #chaos #auspol
In the Senate right now, every single amendment is being broken into parts and voted on separately. I have never seen this happen before.
The government senators and those helping them are moving as slow as possible between each amendment.
If this is taken past 4.30, it won’t make it back to the lower house in time.
The government seems to be choosing to give up the encryption legislation passing to make sure this bill doesn’t come to the house.
The Storer-McKim amendments have passed 32-30 and 32-29. Bernardi abstained on one to make good his claim he wanted to vote differently on each. There are more government amendments, and Bernardi is still claiming he will vote differently on each as a stalling tactic.
Christopher Pyne is arguing that the encryption bill doesn’t need to come back to the House, because it has already passed the amendments.
But Labor are moving different amendments in the Senate.
We are no closer to working out if the government will suspend, but we have moved on to the Christmas valedictories.
“I am not a bully, I am not Sharon Stone, I am not a thief and I did not deliberately misuse my work expenses.
“... I am going to do my bit to ensure this never happens again.”
Julian Hill gives Emma Husar’s hand a squeeze.
Emma Husar is talking about the original BuzzFeed report which eventually led to her resignation.
She says she wasn’t given “any notice in advance” or any opportunity to review the confidential requirements she was under.
She says she has launched defamation proceedings against BuzzFeed and Alice Workman.
Derryn Hinch points out that Scott Ryan called the result of one division incorrectly. Bernardi helpfully offers: “Well let’s go through and have a new vote on everything.” Ryan says his inadvertent error will be corrected. Mathias Cormann is now asking for toilet breaks.
She says she has been misrepresented “on too many occasions”.
Husar says she has not been defended, so she is going to do it herself.
In fact most of the MPs from both sides stay in the chamber.
Christopher Pyne moves the leave of absence for all MPs.
But Scott Morrison stays in the chamber.
That’s rare.
Question time officially ends.
Division is lost 72 to 68
This has become a complete and utter farce:This has become a complete and utter farce:
This is just a farce.Senators are physically and verbally filibustering by walking across the chamber slowly and moving absurd points of over.This is just a farce.Senators are physically and verbally filibustering by walking across the chamber slowly and moving absurd points of over.
The crossbench women have gathered at the back of the chamber.The crossbench women have gathered at the back of the chamber.
They abstain from this vote to suspend standing orders.They abstain from this vote to suspend standing orders.
I kid you not.
After all of the grandstanding and the screaming, the government looks ready to sacrifice its precious encryption legislation to stop the medical transfer bill.
Paul Karp reports Cory Bernardi has found a new tactic to drag this out:
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.”
And he has help:
Ian McDonald, Barry O’Sullivan and Eric Abetz sat with Labor so they could waste time crossing back to the government side
There is movement in the Chamber, as Labor MPs gather with Tony Burke at the back.
There are a lot of people looking at their phones.
"Enough of the time wasting", Penny Wong declares in the Senate @AmyRemeikis #auspol
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.