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Deputy PM says linking bushfires to climate change is 'woke capital-city greenies ravings' – politics live
Coalition grilled on regional jobs package – Senate question time live
(32 minutes later)
The Senate-only sitting week has started in the midst of a debate on climate change as ‘catastrophic’ blazes threaten swathes of NSW and Queensland. All the day’s events, live
The Senate-only sitting week has started in the midst of a debate on climate change as ‘catastrophic’ blazes threaten swathes of NSW and Queensland. All the day’s events, live
Nita Green gets the first question - on the Regional Jobs and Investment Packages program that Sarah Martin and Paul Karp have been writing about.
Apologies for the dairy/diary typos.
Bridget McKenzie is taking all the questions on notice.
But you try listening to this guff without your entire being glazing over
You can find some of the problems with that scheme here:
“I’m sorry Senator Hanson, I forgot you were actually new to this issue, so let me walk you through it,” Bridget McKenzie says.
And here
Someone get the aloe vera.
Bridget McKenzie says her “thoughts and prayers” are with the communities facing the fire emergency.
Pauline Hanson is now asking Bridget McKenzie about the exposure draft for the dairy code.
Larissa Waters says on the fires that “we cannot say that we weren’t warned this was going to happen” and mentions a 2006 CSIRO report handed to the John Howard government, talking about the danger of fires becoming worse by 2020 because of a changing climate.
This would be the issue that One Nation has seemingly taken over from the Nationals, leaving the Nationals rather annoyed.
“We need more than thoughts and prayers to keep Australian communities safe,” Waters says.
Hanson put through a bill today for regulation of the industry, which was lost after the Nationals voted against it (Centre Alliance was absent from the vote) so she lost it by one.
Penny Wong says that individual weather events can’t be linked to the fires, but trends can, and Australia needs a plan to deal with what is coming in the future.
Hanson is very much enjoying how discomforted this is leaving McKenzie.
The defence minister has authorised all local base commanders for the armed forces to respond where they can during the fire emergencies.
This is becoming the Bridget McKenzie hour, which is wayyyyy too much Bridget McKenzie.
Senate question time begins with an acknowledgement of the fires and a thank you to fire fighters.
She is basically taking every single question on notice. Which includes why Moira council found out from the media it was no longer getting the $1m drought funding it thought it was, after a miscommunication between Damian Drum and the water minister.
We are just a few minutes away from Senate question time.
McKenzie can’t tell you much about that. But she can tell you that it is a “great program”.
I am finding it very hard to contain my excitement.
Can you be a raving inner city greenie lunatic, if you are from Michael McCormack’s electorate? Asking for a friend.
On another note, I hate bananas (it’s a consistency thing) but I still force myself to eat them, because they are so good for you and I kinda feel like I have to.
Honestly, I would prefer to eat a bunch of bananas then sit through this.
Senate question time is a lot like eating a banana.
Bridget McKenzie just had a bit of a fraudian slip with the term “climate reduction fund” instead of emissions reduction fund as she answers a question from Larissa Waters.
There is a cross-parliamentary working group, which includes George Christensen and Andrew Wilkie, looking to see Julian Assange before his extradition hearing.
I mean, at least it is honest.
They are still waiting on permission from the UK government.
McKenzie now accuses Waters of using the “misery of those in regional NSW and Queensland for your political advantage.”
The final division on Pauline Hanson’s dairy bill was just held – she lost
Oh that’ll fix it.
Ayes 30
We are now hearing a dixer on how the parliament and government will be acknowledging Remembrance Day.
Noes 31
Which occurred at 10.30am.
That Senate chamber light.
Asked more questions on the Regional Jobs and Investment Packages issues, Bridget McKenzie says she will take the questions on notice “and that is all I can really do”.
Labor is supporting this, but the government is not.
Even Penny Wong cracks a smile at that one.
Katharine Murphy has written on Michael McCormack’s Michael McCormacking this morning:
Strangely, McKenzie doesn’t seem to have anything prepared on this, despite the auditor-general report basically calling it a trash fire, meaning her staff are now madly sending her sheets of information via the Senate clerks.
You’ll find the whole piece here:
Noted raving inner-city greenie lunatic Margaret Thatcher:
The bells have rung for the beginning of Senate-palooza, which means I am about to enter the little known ninth circle of hell – Senate QT supplementary questions.
Cory Bernardi has told Chris Kenny on Sky News he will be quitting the Senate some time in 2020. That is not a surprise – he has all but announced he is out of here, and said he wanted to leave when he was 50 (this year).
Plus, there was the whole political-party-didn’t-quite-work-out thing.
Elected as a Liberal for a six-year term in 2016, his seat will revert back to the Liberals when he officially pulls the pin.
This is the big bill in the Senate today
Neither medevac nor ensuring integrity is listed as yet (which means the government doesn’t have the numbers).
Penny Wong was also asked about Jim Molan’s return to the Senate this morning, while chatting to ABC radio:
I know a few hours have gone by since that interview with Michael McCormack, but I am still flabbergasted.
