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Jacqui Lambie says Syria crisis could affect her medevac repeal decision – politics live Scott Morrison grilled on Coalition funding for new dam – question time live
(31 minutes later)
In case you can’t read that tweet, here is the text: Alan Tudge is taking a lickspittle and I’m suddenly reminded of those old school end of transmission broadcasts I’ve seen on YouTube.
That the House: Jim Chalmers to Scott Morrison:
1. notes that: Why do the prime minister’s talking points make no reference to the 1.9 million Australians looking for a job or for more work, the worst wages growth on record, weak household consumption and retail spending. The worst household savings rate in a decade?
a. climate change is a significant threat to our economy, natural environment, farming communities and national security; Morrison:
b. Australia’s annual emissions have been rising in recent years; I’m very pleased the member made reference to the talking points. I suspect we might want to make a habit of issuing these on a weekly basis because it was the first time I had seen our policies faithfully recorded in some publications for some period of time.
c. as a global problem, the solution to climate change requires concerted international cooperation to limit the production of greenhouse gasses; (It’s us. He’s talking about us. OH THE HILARITY.)
d. as the only global agreement designed to address climate change, the Paris Accords must play a central role in addressing climate change; There’s a lot about tax after this.
e. the Paris Accords require signatory countries to deliver actions consistent with keeping the global temperature rise this century to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius; Josh Frydenberg, who has once again forgotten HOW MICROPHONES wOrK, is doing his best to explain that the economy is JUST FINE.
f. based on the latest scientific advice, the world is currently on track for warming of above 3 degrees, and efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions need to be strengthened to avoid catastrophic climate change impacts; and Somehow, the people who are not in government are still very relevant here.
g. as a result of the threat posed by climate change, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Portugal, Argentina and the Republic of Ireland have declared a climate emergency; Andrew Wilkie has the independent’s question today – and it’s to Angus Taylor:
and The government claims Australia will meet its Paris agreement targets at a canter. The truth is the government is relying on accounting tricks to meet the targets, by counting artificially inflated credits left over from the Kyoto protocol, credits most developed countries have agreed to reject. Official government figures show emissions have reached record highs and continue to rise, feeding the climate emergency, the effects we are seeing in our backyard with the drought and fires. Our planet is cooking while the government cooks the books. Minister, why the denial and when will the government take real action to reduce emissions?
2. therefore, the House affirms that: Taylor starts talking about how Australia will meet its targets, without addressing the Kyoto issue.
a. Australia remains committed to delivering on its obligations under the Paris Accords; “Literally no one believes you,” calls out someone from Labor.
b. failing to meet the goals of the Paris Accords would have unprecedented and devastating environmental, economic, societal and health impacts for Australia; and the threat posed by climate change on the future prosperity and security of Australia and the globe constitutes a climate change emergency. Even the government benches seem to have given up on this one.
Despite appearances, this is not a mugshot: There is barely a hear, hear to be heard.
Tabling Labor’s motion to declare a climate emergency with @PatConroy1. pic.twitter.com/SOGyLB1iUu Anthony Albanese is asking to table the prime minister’s media release – which shows the government has offered 50/50 funding contributions for dams, without mentioning that 25% of those contributions will be concessional loans – but the request is denied.
And the motion itself is here: Anthony Albanese is back with a question for Scott Morrison, asking again why he is raising hopes and claiming the federal government is funding a new dam 50%, when it is only 25% (25% funding and 25% concessional loans).
Labor will declare a climate emergency. pic.twitter.com/ECEaPDfBkF Morrison:
Looks like Jim Chalmers has found one of the question time attack lines: I refer again to my answer. I was very clear, our 50-50... Our contribution is comprised half of grant and half of concessional finance.
In its latest Board minutes, the Reserve Bank of Australia has confirmed what Australians know but the Government will not acknowledge: Australia’s economic growth is the lowest in a decade, wages are stagnant, and employment is fragile. That is the commitment we made and we set out on Sunday. I refer the members opposite to the statements that have been made about this. We were very upfront.
The Reserve Bank has highlighted that “Year-ended growth had slowed to 1.4 per cent, the lowest outcome in a decade” and that “employment growth was forecast to slow over the period ahead.” I’m pleased the New South Wales premier was so pleased to receive the support because it was a month ago, we sat down, the deputy prime minister and I with the deputy premier and the premier of NSW to see how we could fast track important water infrastructure projects in NSW.
Collapsing confidence and weak growth are the inevitable consequence of a Liberal Government which has a political strategy but not an economic policy. I was very pleased to get that collaboration and cooperation and the urgency the NSW premier was going to bring to this task, not only to bring their resources to the project, but their commitment to blast away the bureaucracy and congestion to prevent those projects going ahead.
Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg have recklessly left the Reserve Bank to do all the heavy lifting in the face of worsening home-grown economic challenges and increasing global risks. We are happy to partner in the way we have, took a $75m commitment to one of those projects to $280m indirect grant assistance, a very significant increase on the commitment we have made for important water infrastructure.
Right when Australians need and expect a plan from the Morrison Government to get the economy going again all they get instead is finger-pointing, blame-shifting and wedge politics. Now that the man has finished telling us how wonderful women are, we move on.
It is time Josh Frydenberg and Scott Morrison brought forward a budget update to fix their forecasts and properly outline an economic plan that supports the floundering economy and better safeguards Australians from global turbulence. Michael McCormack has Michael McCormacked his way into this dixer. It’s meant to be about the role of rural and regional women, but he manages to Michael McCormack it from the first line.
And yup, as we reported a bit earlier, the Greens’ climate emergency hot air balloon, which was technically against Casa rules, was able to be inflated (but not really get off the ground) because it was outside the authorised assembly area – and therefore outside of the parliament precinct rules. I thank the member for Mallee for her question and acknowledge that she is one of those fine women and there are many in the house, appreciate many on this side...
Just a point of order there – Labor will be moving its own climate emergency motion. M E R I T
The Greens have responded to Labor’s announcement it will move a climate emergency motion: Terri Butler has a question for Scott Morrison, on dams, but he does not have an answer for the specific question. He has an answer for the question he wanted to be asked – why are Labor state governments standing in the way of dams.
The Australian Greens welcome Labor announcing that they support the Greens-led crossbench Climate Emergency Declaration, said Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale and Greens Climate Change Spokesperson Adam Bandt MP. We’ve had our first lickspittle and it’s about just how amazing is this government and are there any alternative views.
“It’s great to hear the Labor Party’s announcement today that they support the Greens-led Crossbench Climate Emergency Declaration,” Di Natale said. It’s a great government, thanks for asking. Also, Labor is terrible.
“I know that there are ongoing divisions within Labor regarding taking strong action on climate change, so it is heartening to see them publicly joining the Greens and the community in support of a climate emergency declaration.” I am paraphrasing, but you know. It’s the mood.
“With Labor coming onboard and joining the Greens and the crossbench, there is now a very real chance that Parliament will declare a climate emergency before the end of the year,” Bandt said.
“Now it’s time for Liberal members to decide which side they’re on and go on the record. History will judge them for how they vote on the climate emergency.”
Back in the chamber, the crimes legislation amendment (sexual crimes against children and community protection measures) is being debated.
Labor wants to move this amendment to the legislation:
Labor moving a second reading amendment to the bill #auspol pic.twitter.com/1JpmidGbVU
Kenneth Hayne finished with this:
To take any step of that kind will require honesty and courage. It will take honesty to recognise that there may be a problem and courage to devise means for dealing with it. It will take honesty to recognise that slogans may sell, they do not persuade. It will take courage to recognise that slogans sell by appealing to emotion not thought or reason. It will take courage to engage with facts and issues knowing that their depth and breadth cannot be reduced to, or explained by, a series of sound bites that capture a single 24 hour news cycle. It will take courage, in the world as we now know it, to engage with facts and issues rather than pursue the path to populism.
Honesty and courage are needed if we are to maintain trust in our institutions. Maintaining trust may require the legislature to explain better than it now does what policy choices are made in the law it enacts and why they were made as they were.
If trust has been lost or has been damaged, we can hope to repair it only through qualities of the kind we celebrate with the awards that are made today. And central to the criteria for those awards are what I earlier called standards of eloquent simplicity: honesty and courage.
Kenneth Hayne:
If you seek a model of the kind of argument I have in mind, go back and look at the submissions that were made to Cabinet in 1965 and again in 1967 about what was to become the Constitutional Alteration (Aboriginals) Act 1967. Those submissions laid out in elaborate detail the arguments for holding a referendum to amend constitutional provisions referring to Aboriginal Australians. And the submissions identified the arguments that were later placed before the voters before the referendum which so decisively made the amendments to s 51(xxvi) and s 127 of the Constitution.
We readily accept that electors should not be asked to consider constitutional amendment without articulation of the arguments for and against the proposal. Are we at a point where we need to think again about how we are recording and publishing why policy choices embodied and reflected in legislation were made as they were?
We have long required judges to state their reasons for decision. More and more we require administrative decision makers to give reasons for decision. Are there some analogous steps that the political branches of government, and in particular the legislative branch, should consider taking?
Kenneth Hayne continued:
Notice that I divide the issues in three: how policy is formed; how the policy that is formed is explained and justified; and how the policy is being applied.
Development of policy is almost always very hard. It is hard because, much more often than not, there are competing considerations pulling in diametrically opposed directions. And because there are competing considerations, choices must be made.
Yet it remains an essential role of government to explain to the governed why it takes the steps it does. It is essential because, if governments do not do this, trust in the institutions of government is damaged or destroyed.
Explanation is often difficult. It is difficult because spelling out an argument simply and persuasively is hard. And it is all too easy to treat simplicity and persuasion as demanding reduction of the argument to some conclusory proposition cast in terms that appeal to or rely upon universally desired objectives like a strong economy, supporting the family, or keeping the nation safe.
There cannot be a hint of criticism about pursuing those objectives but demonstrating how a particular measure supports the objective demands more than bare assertion. There is always an intermediate step which connects the measure in question with the desired end. Identifying and explaining how a measure contributes to achieving an end like “strong economy”, “supporting the family” or “keeping the nation safe” is no easy task. Not only is it not an easy task, it demands honesty and courage. It demands those qualities because it demands honest acknowledgment of choice and the courage to lay out, for the world to examine and criticise, the argument that supports the conclusion that was reached.
Kenneth Hayne, the former high court justice and royal commissioner to the banking royal commission, presented the awards to both Cathy McGowan and Tony Smith today.
In doing so, he made a speech about the trust in institutions, and how the recent increased calls for royal commissions may be a symptom of that.
Hayne:
If I am right to think that trust in institutions has been damaged or destroyed, we must consider what the increasingly frequent calls for royal commissions are telling us about the state of our democratic institutions. Has trust in the political processes been damaged? If it has, what can we do about it?
No doubt individual actors in those processes must have the courage to act and continue to act with complete integrity. Individual integrity is essential for maintaining, or (if restoration is needed) restoring, trust.
But it is necessary to ask whether some additional measures may be desirable, even necessary, to maintain or restore trust. More particularly, do we need to examine more closely the ways in which policy is formed, explained and then given effect?
Centre Alliance’s Rebekha Sharkie supported that motion. Once the matter of public importance is done later this afternoon, the division will occur.
Here is the motion Andrew Wilkie wants to move:
That the House of Representatives calls on the Australian government to establish a royal commission to inquire into and report on the Australian casino industry, with particular reference to:
Allegations of Crown casino’s links to organised domestic and foreign crime, money laundering, tampering with poker machines, domestic violence and drug trafficking, including but not limited to:
Andrew Wilkie’s motion has been delayed until later in the session.
*I misheard that and originally thought it failed on the voices, so apologies.
In the Senate, the Greens will also be moving some motions, including Mehreen Faruqi’s motion calling for an inquiry into truth in electoral advertising (along with a petition on the same issue with 35,00 signatures)
“We know the last election was riddled with false or misleading advertising which eroded public trust in our democracy. I’m proud to table this petition of tens of thousands of Australians demanding this problem be fixed once and for all,” she said.
“People are really concerned about the total lack of accountability for the scare campaigns run by political parties. They are sick and tired of politicians openly lying to voters with no consequences.”
The Greens will also be looking to move a motion calling on the government to review the Commonwealth rental assistance rate, after the productivity commission report into low income renters.
Stepping outside of the parliament for a moment - former Indi MP Cathy McGowan has just been awarded an integrity award.
The Accountability Round Table (ART), which aims to improve accountability and transparency in the nation’s parliaments, awarded McGowan the Alan Missen award for her “commitments to reforms” which were seen as “essential for open, accountable and transparent government”.
“We recognise her commitment to those in her electorate, and her embrace of significant issues crucial to Australia’s parliamentary democracy, in particular her work on the National Integrity Commission and parliamentary standards bills,” ART chair Fiona McLeod said.
Speaker Tony Smith was presented the John Button award for being “an outstanding example of an independent/non-partisan speaker in the finest traditions of the office, and has done much to restore its standing in recent years”.
Over in the House, Andrew Wilkie has kicked off proceedings by attempting to move a motion to have a royal commission into Crown Casino.
The government isn’t supporting it, so we are heading to a division (which will be lost on the numbers, even if Labor supports it).
The bells are ringing for the beginning of the parliament session.
This is what doom sounds like.
Anthony Albanese:
We’ll continue to hold the government to account in question time. It’s important that the Prime Minister can’t just walk away from questions. We asked a simple question that’s about his evasion, nothing else, about his evasion of whether he sought to have Brian Houston invited to the White House.
How is it that the Prime Minister thinks he can get away with saying, ‘Oh, that’s just a report in the newspaper?’ The question is, is it true or not?
The question is why is this Prime Minister, when he’s asked questions, responding with, ‘Oh, that’s just in the bubble,’ or other prevarications, which are all designed to avoid scrutiny?
Well, our job, as the opposition, is to hold the government to account and we’ll continue to do just that.