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Nationals under pressure over drought response – politics live
Nationals under pressure over drought response – politics live
(about 2 hours later)
Greens senator Nick McKim has been quizzing the Australian Law Reform Commission about its family law inquiry, and then turns his guns on the government to ask why it supported a joint parliamentary inquiry with Pauline Hanson in the deputy chair given the work already done.
Anthony Albanese asks Scott Morrison about his comment yesterday that politicians shouldn’t decide who is prosecuted in terms of media freedoms which is in contradiction to what Christian Porter has said, given the AG will have the final say on whether charges, if any, go ahead, once he has seen a brief from the commonwealth director of public prosecutions.
Foreign affairs minister Marise Payne (the duty minister) said the ALRC review was “primarily focused on procedural and substantive law” but the parliamentary inquiry includes issues that “haven’t necessarily been fully explored previously”.
Morrison says Albanese should have paid attention to his whole answer,
McKim suggests it is a replication of the ALRC’s work - citing Sarah Derrington’s evidence its inquiry was open to public submissions via an online portal.Payne responds that parliament has an opportunity - and an entitlement - to consider broader issues such as child support, domestic violence, the cost of cases and regulation of professionals.
There is a process, Mr Speaker, for the investigative authorities to look at these matters, to hand that over to prosecution authorities and then there is a process for the Attorney-General. But what the Leader of the Opposition wants to do is throw that all away and he wants to make the decision if he were Prime Minister about who gets prosecuted or who doesn’t even before those agencies, Mr Speaker, have even considered the matter.
There had been “some opportunity” to discuss family law issues in the ALRC inquiry but the parliamentary inquiry is a “further opportunity”.
What I said yesterday is exactly what I mean and that is no-one should go and be prosecuted, Mr Speaker, on the basis of what occupation they hold. The only basis upon which they should be prosecuted is if they have broken the law and I’ll ask the Attorney-General to add to the answer.
Payne rejected the assertion it was a tradeoff for support from Hanson and One Nation.
Christian Porter:
“Around the country, in the offices of MPs and senators those issues continue to be advanced. For the parliamentary to take the opportunity to examine these matters ... is the role of the parliament,” she said.
Yes, so with respect to the question as to what would be the difference between a prosecution on the whim of a politician and the prosecution under consideration in the Smethurst matter, section 79 of the crimes act part of the Crimes Act actually embeds the requirement to come to the Attorney-General for consent.
Madeleine King was on RN breakfast this morning, where she was defending Labor’s support for the free trade deals, despite criticism from the unions (and as we have seen from Doug Cameron, some Labor members themselves)
What might a prosecution at the whim of a politician might look like. This would be the worst-case scenarioment an opposition leader who said yesterday that the government should shut a prosecution down, breaching the fundamental convention that you do not as a government tell the AFP to drop an investigation. And if that’s not remarkable enough, if that’s not remarkable enough, what is remarkable is who was the politician who actually called for the investigation in the first place? The Shadow Attorney?General was the politician!
Well, it’s important to recognise the overall economic benefit, but more so than the economic benefit is the matter of a strategic benefit of a closer relationship with the Republic of Indonesia. I listened to Michele’s interviews before and she’s quite right to point out that there hasn’t been contemporary economic modelling of this agreement.
A letter to the Prime Minister 29 April 2018. “I write with extreme concern. I’m sure I do not need to emphasise with you the gravity of such a security breach. It is, therefore, incumbent upon you to establish an investigation. I am deeply concerned that this national security leak is potentially the result of political tensions.” He sees the political advantage and pressures the AFP to start an investigation. He sees a political advantage in having it shut down. They call for the same investigation that they’re asking to be shut down in breach of the fundamental convention that the AFP remains independent. So they want to know what a prosecution at the whim of a politician might look like - it would look like what would happen if you ever got into government.
But there has been economic modelling in the past, under a Labor government actually, that started negotiations for this agreement. And that demonstrated that there would be significant economic benefit for the country.
Everyone is late today.
On the anniversary of the apology to survivors and victims of institutional sexual abuse, Linda Burney has put out this statement:
But question time gets underway.
The scheme is projected to provide redress to an estimated 60,000 survivors. Yet, over a year since the scheme commenced, only one per cent of this figure has received redress, survivors are still waiting too long and some institutions have still not signed up.
And David Littleproud gets the walking in privileges with Scott Morrison again today.
The scheme has received over 5,040 applications for redress. 618 applications have been placed on hold because the relevant institution has not yet joined the scheme.
In the chamber and it is now time for who’s that MP?
This means that over 3,600 applications – or three quarters – are waiting as a result of administrative delay.
It’s the new Jane Prentice - Julian Simmonds.
Applicants are waiting an average of eight months for their applications to be processed.
The Coalition party room meeting has met - and it’s interesting that with all the drought funding related tensions between the Liberal and National parties that both Scott Morrison and Michael McCormack mentioned the successful partnership in the context of the Liberals’ 75th birthday celebration context.
In August, Labor successfully re-established a parliamentary inquiry to oversee the administration of the National Redress Scheme. The Government cynically used its numbers to take control of the committee. Two months later, and survivors are waiting and wondering what is happening with the Inquiry.
Morrison beat up on Labor, accusing them of “talking down the economy” and somehow claiming that Australia is “broke and need fixing”. He urged MPs and senators not to get complacent in the final few months of the year, because although Labor have some problems it can’t and won’t last.Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said that after meetings with the IMF he is persuaded of the need to “stay the course” - which is interesting - because the IMF called for further stimulus. He said Australia’s interest bill is $19bn - implying we should push on with surplus and paying down debt.
Institutions that have not joined the scheme must do so immediately – the time for excuses has come to an end.
Retiring senator Arthur Sinodinos reprised some of the themes of his valedictory - including the observation that there is an alignment of views between the current leadership team and the party room today that is distinctive and was not always the case under Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, and that Morrison’s is seen as a “first term not a third term” government, which is a useful opportunity.
While additional investment is a step in the right direction, survivors are still waiting too long. Some are elderly. Some are unwell. Some are passing away before seeing justice.
Liberal MP Craig Kelly raised the issue of textbooks, complaining that their treatment of climate change suggests Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd did a good job and Tony Abbott and John Howard a poor job, which he labelled “disgraceful” because it was tantamount to teaching children to vote for Labor or the Greens.
The Government needs to get Redress right.
Education minister Dan Tehan noted that NSW is conducting a curriculum review, by way of reply.
Gone, but not forgotten
It is almost question time - I’ll be heading into the chamber.
Unimpressed by latest attempt to justify @AustralianLabor capitulation on trade agreements by @MadeleineMHKingAsserted more jobs and the need to engage with Indonesia.Dodgy modelling and more vulnerable temporary workers means increased pressure on Australian jobs and wages.
What’s going to be today’s theme?
The house will sit at 12 today.
THE SUSPENSE IS KILLING ME
You’ll find the program here
Big stick looks set to clear the parliament
In caucus Labor added an extra condition on its support for the Coalition’s big stick (energy divestiture) bill.
The big stick legislation has finally lobbed in the House of Representatives. The shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers is telling the House Labor will insist on three amendments – no partial privatisations, a review of the legislation before it sunsets in 2025, and a third, which has emerged over this past weekend.
Labor has already said it will only support the bill if a clause is added banning partial privatisation of power companies. Now it wants a proviso that workers entitlements be protected if divestiture occurs, so that workers in split entities will still have the same redundancy and other benefits.
The third is ensuring that the transfer of business provisions in the Fair Work Act apply in the event that businesses are broken up (which impacts workers redundancy entitlements).
Anthony Albanese addressed the brou-ha-ha over the Indonesian free trade deal in his leader’s speech, saying the government had agreed to Labor’s key demands and the concessions allow Labor “continue to pursue our agenda on trade”.
Chalmers has also told the House the government has agreed to these three amendments unless something has changed since this morning. Which means we are now on our way to legislating a divestiture power for the energy sector. It really is amazing that we are going to get there with this legislation, given business hates it,
“There are a lot of 55/45 calls in this job - but this was not one of those, it was a good outcome,” he said.
Labor used to hate it but now will pass it, and more than a handful of Liberals hate it but will grit their teeth and pass it. Quite the journey.
Albanese said the week would be dominated by the drought, the right to know and the economy.
Further to Paul’s post about Labor and the big stick, Jim Chalmers and Mark Butler have put out this statement:
On drought, he said Australians wanted the politics taken out which is why he offered a joint war cabinet.
The Government has dealt with some of our reservations by introducing a different Bill in this Parliament, which makes improvements, particularly in relation to privatisation.
On the economy, he noted the IMF has called for fiscal stimulus and accused the government of underspending on infrastructure because it has spent more on ads ($17m) than its urban congestion fund. At Senate estimates yesterday we heard none of those projects has yet commenced.
Labor still has concerns about potential impacts of the Bill, which is why we will fight to secure amendments that:
On the right to know campaign, Albanese said that Labor members should link the media campaign to “the prime minister, who won’t give a straight answer to a simple question” - presumably in reference to refusal to say if he lobbied for Brian Houston to be invited to the White House.
Rule-out partial privatisation of publicly-owned energy assets in the event of any divestment order; and
Labor Senate leader Penny Wong noted that public servants are taking more questions on notice than in previous years, warning that unless there is a political cost to the government accountability will be weakened.
Ensure workers affected by divestment have access to protections under the Fair Work Act.
She said stonewalling in Estimates is “worse than it has ever been” and it should be a key part of the Right to Know campaign.
Rule-out partial privatisation of publicly-owned energy assets in the event of any divestment order; and
The Future Fund is factoring the risk of climate change into its investment decisions, according to evidence provided by the agency to the Greens.
Ensure workers affected by divestment have access to protections under the Fair Work Act.
Raphael Arndt, the agency’s chief investment manager, said the vast bulk of the future fund investment was taken by external fund managers, who were advised about the agency’s approach to climate change risk management.
Labor’s support for the Bill in the House is conditional on these proposed improvements passing.
He said the fund saw the future path of carbon pricing and the market response to that as a long-run risk. “In terms of carbon disclosure ... we support companies that the public is able to invest in being open about the risk exposure to those types of risk,” Arndt said.
We also remain sceptical that this Bill will lower power prices, as the Government claims. That’s why Labor will propose an amendment to review the Bill before it sunsets. We will also examine any other outstanding issues as part of the Senate inquiry.
Agency head David Neal said the fund managed “dozens of risks” at any one time, and managers were asked to provide information about these, including carbon exposure.
Someone has gone even further (today is that sort of day) and done a ctrl+F search of the PM’s transcripts and found curry turns up 25 times.
Neal said the agency continued to invest in fossil fuels.
Including to the ADF troops in December 2018
The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, said it was “entirely appropriate” for the fund to make such investments.
It’s a great pleasure and it’s an honour and it’s a privilege to be here with you, the serving men and women of Australia’s Defence Forces. Last night, a few of you had a meal with me. We had a curry. I love curries. One of the reason I love curries - there is a point to this story, I promise - is how you put it all together. You start with your oil, so last night it was a Sri Lankan chicken curry, how good is that by the way. Start with the oils, you put your curry leaves in there, get your spices in there, your whole base. It infuses the oil, you put your onions in, it’s layer on layer. You may have marinated the chicken with coconut cream. It comes out like magic. How you blend it together, all of these different ingredients, to produce something which is pretty magnificent, is how I have experienced seeing what you do here. Whether it is here, or over in Taji, it’s the time I’ve had to spend. I can’t tell you how impressed I am about how all the different specialist units, components, skills and backgrounds, are blended together to make an amazing team. I think that’s the real impressive thing about our Defence Forces and our partners and those we work with see.”
“I believe that fossil fuels continue to be very, very important,” Cormann said. “There is a significant social benefit in fossil fuels.”
And then a colleague reminded me of this story
I am not sure the “climate change conspiracy is finally over” petition (now at 23 signatures) will receive the same reaction.
I wish this day would curry up and end.
Ready to be presented to the House of Representatives at 1.30pm today! https://t.co/OZNkiVQizK
Big stick is in the house.
Bridget McKenzie is having a great day, and clearly loving every minute of this.
The curry metaphor, an eagle-eyed reader has just informed me, was also trotted out at an Indian business summit, reported here by the AFR.
@senbmckenzie slaps down the Prime Minister saying, “He’s not the leader of the National Party.” @ScottMorrisonMP , are you the leader of the Coalition?#auspol pic.twitter.com/ZmNoQkrYav
I just switched over to the house, and Bob Katter is talking about communism.
The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, has downplayed a report in the Australian today about an increase in the unfunded superannuation liability to $233.1bn, an increase of $50bn.
So situation normal there.
Cormann said the figure, revealed in the department’s annual report, was subject to annual variations, but did not place the commonwealth under any immediate financial risk.
Switching back.
He said changes in the discount rate could appear to have an impact on the value of the unfunded liability, but it was expected the valuation would “move around” depending on what assumptions are used over the next decade.
And yes, I have to keep all of the press transcripts, and yes, I worked that out by searching for garam masala in my inbox.
“In the end it is not something the government will have to pay today it is something that will continue to be dealt with in a phased approach,” Cormann said under questioning from the Labor senator Katy Gallagher.
For the record, “curry” comes up nine times in PMO transcripts.
“From our point of view it is business as usual, but we rely on the future fund to continue to do of course its job to the best of its ability so it can ultimately bridge that gap.”
What a time to be alive.
Cormann said the government had made a policy decision not to draw down on the future fund, but to allow it to continue to accumulate.
When Scott Morrison finds an analogy he likes, he really sticks to it.
“The decision that we have made ... is to let the future fund to continue to invest to achieve very high returns, against of course the very low interest rates that is paid on public debt interest,” he said.
Morrison in November 2018 (at the unveiling of a Mahatma Gandhi statue in Parramatta):
David Neal, the head of the future fund, said the agency had secured returns of 10.4% a year over the past decade.
When I was at Diwali out here a couple of weeks ago, I told the story that Australia’s multiculturalism, Australia’s great success story as the best and most successful immigration country on earth, was like a good garam masala. It brings together all the great spices. The cloves, the black cardomom, the green cardamom, coriander seeds, all of this comes together – the cumin, don’t forget that. It all comes together. Have any of it on its own, it doesn’t taste as good. You blend it together, and that’s what Australia’s like.
“We have made good progress in the pursuit of our objectives to strengthen the commonwealth’s long-term financial position,” Neal said.
Morrison last night at the parliament Diwali celebration:
Joel Fitzgibbon was certainly happy to stop by doors this morning:
We are the most successful multicultural country on earth in Australia.
The National party could redeem itself today by standing up to Scott Morrison. You know, National party leaders of the past – back, back with John McEwan, Ian Sinclair, Doug Anthony – would never have allowed themselves to be bullied like the current National party MPs are being bullied by Scott Morrison.
And as I often talk about in functions like this, there are many metaphors which are given to explain multiculturalism in Australia.
They should forget about fighting amongst themselves and start collectively muscling up to Scott Morrison, who seems to think the drought response is a game, who has denied or given up the opportunity to work with us on a bipartisan basis. Why is that? Well, it appears Scott Morrison isn’t serious about addressing this drought.
But the one I like best is garam masala. Garam masala, that better? Getting there? Getting the cloves, the cardamom, you put it all together. You have one of them on their own – rubbish. It doesn’t leave a good taste in the mouth.
So, instead of standing around like swinging something – I am not sure I can use the word – they need to collectively muscle up, start standing up to Scott Morrison, and start insisting that he produce a meaningful response to this drought.
But when you blend them all together, you taste them, you grind them up – wow. And that is the fragrance that comes from Australia’s multicultural society, of which those of Hindu faith and the Indian national people have come here representing so magnificently.”
And of course on dairy – we’ve now been waiting since I think it’s April of 2018 – the ACCC completed its 18-month long inquiry into the dairy sector. It recommended a dairy code of conduct and, of course, here we are in October of 2019, we still don’t have a code of conduct for the dairy industry, we’re still told we won’t have one till July of next year.
Why should life be like a box of chocolates when it can be a bunch of different spices crushed together?
Now that stands in stark contrast to the time when Scott Morrison overnight – overnight – produced a code of conduct for the sugar industry to buy Pauline Hanson’s vote on the corporate tax cuts in the Senate.
So who is running Scott Morrison? Is it the National party? Or is it Pauline Hanson? I think we clearly know the answer to that question at the moment.
We’re advised that Member for Warringah @zalisteggall will table an e-petition on climate change today, during Members’ 90 Second Statements. This period of the sitting day runs between 1.30pm and 2pm. pic.twitter.com/HuzFdxH8q3
Back in agriculture estimates, Bridget McKenzie says she had not read David Littleproud’s ministerial charter letter, which is noteworthy because the pair have overlapping portfolio issues – she is agriculture, and he is drought.
I am confident that there is a very clear line of responsibility between minister Littleproud and I, as there is between minister Littleproud and minister McCormack,” she says.
The department has seen the two ministerial charter letters, Daryl Quinlivan, from the department of ag says.
The “big stick” energy legislation will be introduced in the house today.
Labor is now supporting it, so it is a done deal.
For 18/19 the #AAT received an increase in appeals related to #Centrelink debts of 31 %. Related to parenting payemnts appeals increased 30% and a 36% increase in appeals related to #Newstart#Auspol #Estimates
