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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2019/nov/14/stuart-robert-brushes-off-questions-about-ndis-secrecy-politics-live
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| Stuart Robert grilled about whether Centrelink robodebts are illegal – as it happened | |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Government services minister tries to avoid question at National Press Club, but urged to address the issue. This blog is now closed | |
| We have reached the ‘get me out of here’ section of the Senate sitting, where nothing new is being discussed and everyone is responding to comments made earlier in the day. | We have reached the ‘get me out of here’ section of the Senate sitting, where nothing new is being discussed and everyone is responding to comments made earlier in the day. |
| Plus, after this week, and the new depths we have plunged, everyone is quite happy to lie low. | Plus, after this week, and the new depths we have plunged, everyone is quite happy to lie low. |
| There are two more sitting weeks left in this year, with just a week’s break in between. | There are two more sitting weeks left in this year, with just a week’s break in between. |
| So I hope you get to take that time to recalibrate and prepare for insanity ahead. | So I hope you get to take that time to recalibrate and prepare for insanity ahead. |
| A very big thank you to Mike Bowers, Katharine Murphy, Sarah Martin and Paul Karp, as well as everyone else in the Guardian brains trust. | A very big thank you to Mike Bowers, Katharine Murphy, Sarah Martin and Paul Karp, as well as everyone else in the Guardian brains trust. |
| But mostly, thank you to everyone who followed along with us this week, despite the lows, and the bushfire emergency surrounding so much of the east coast. | But mostly, thank you to everyone who followed along with us this week, despite the lows, and the bushfire emergency surrounding so much of the east coast. |
| Make sure you check back to the Guardian site for the latest breaking news. The blog will be back on 25 November. | Make sure you check back to the Guardian site for the latest breaking news. The blog will be back on 25 November. |
| In the meantime – take care of you. | In the meantime – take care of you. |
| Murray Watt is in the Senate, asking why the government can’t produce the documents on the regional jobs and investment packages. | Murray Watt is in the Senate, asking why the government can’t produce the documents on the regional jobs and investment packages. |
| Tony Burke is on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, talking about the climate change debate – and the intervention from the former fire and emergency chiefs. | Tony Burke is on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, talking about the climate change debate – and the intervention from the former fire and emergency chiefs. |
| So what didn’t we get this week? | So what didn’t we get this week? |
| The ensuring integrity bill or medevac. | The ensuring integrity bill or medevac. |
| Christian Porter has admitted the ensuring integrity bill won’t be coming on until that last sitting. That’s because the government doesn’t have the numbers. One Nation is not on board and Jacqui Lambie is not across the line. That is a problem for the government. | Christian Porter has admitted the ensuring integrity bill won’t be coming on until that last sitting. That’s because the government doesn’t have the numbers. One Nation is not on board and Jacqui Lambie is not across the line. That is a problem for the government. |
| And medevac? Well, no word on that one yet, but if the government had the numbers, it would be listed. | And medevac? Well, no word on that one yet, but if the government had the numbers, it would be listed. |
| What does that mean? | What does that mean? |
| Well, we are either about to get a ‘soz, can’t’ letter from Michael McCormack, tabled by a senator representing him, or we’ll get silence. | Well, we are either about to get a ‘soz, can’t’ letter from Michael McCormack, tabled by a senator representing him, or we’ll get silence. |
| Either way, it doesn’t look like the documents will be forthcoming. | Either way, it doesn’t look like the documents will be forthcoming. |
| The government still gets to use commercial-in-confidence and cabinet-in-confidence as reasons it can’t produce documents, even when ordered to by the Senate. | The government still gets to use commercial-in-confidence and cabinet-in-confidence as reasons it can’t produce documents, even when ordered to by the Senate. |
| The government has missed the 3.30 deadline to table the documents regarding the regional jobs and investment packages – the grants that Sarah Martin has been writing on. | The government has missed the 3.30 deadline to table the documents regarding the regional jobs and investment packages – the grants that Sarah Martin has been writing on. |
| Thus ends the last question time during the Senate-only week. | Thus ends the last question time during the Senate-only week. |
| Thank Lizzo. | Thank Lizzo. |
| Marise Payne has released an official response to the escalating violence in Hong Kong: | Marise Payne has released an official response to the escalating violence in Hong Kong: |
| Ugh. No. | Ugh. No. |
| Don Farrell gets up to ask a question on sport funding to Richard Colbeck. | Don Farrell gets up to ask a question on sport funding to Richard Colbeck. |
| He’s taken so many questions today, I think we know the identity of Labor’s ‘wounded gazelle’ target today, if it wasn’t already obvious. | He’s taken so many questions today, I think we know the identity of Labor’s ‘wounded gazelle’ target today, if it wasn’t already obvious. |
| (Operation Wounded Gazelle is Labor’s new question time tactic in the House and Senate, where a minister it considers to be a “weak link” is targeted with the majority of questions.) | (Operation Wounded Gazelle is Labor’s new question time tactic in the House and Senate, where a minister it considers to be a “weak link” is targeted with the majority of questions.) |
| Oh we get to the reason why Bridget McKenzie is still in the chamber – it is to take a dixer on how terrible it is that Victoria has stopped the native forestry timber industry. | Oh we get to the reason why Bridget McKenzie is still in the chamber – it is to take a dixer on how terrible it is that Victoria has stopped the native forestry timber industry. |
| It is the last question. | It is the last question. |
| To which Penny Wong made another short statement: | To which Penny Wong made another short statement: |
| To which Mathias Cormann made a short statement: | To which Mathias Cormann made a short statement: |
| So then Mathias Cormann made a statement in response: | So then Mathias Cormann made a statement in response: |
| Penny Wong: | Penny Wong: |
| Mathias Cormann: | Mathias Cormann: |
| Scott Ryan: | Scott Ryan: |
| Wong: | Wong: |
| Meanwhile, it was the battle of the props at the press club: | Meanwhile, it was the battle of the props at the press club: |
| There is still a bit of confusion around why Bridget McKenzie, the deputy leader of the Nationals, is not the senator representing the leader of the Nationals, Michael McCormack, in the Senate. | There is still a bit of confusion around why Bridget McKenzie, the deputy leader of the Nationals, is not the senator representing the leader of the Nationals, Michael McCormack, in the Senate. |
| Matt Canavan is absent (fires) so he can’t represent McCormack, but McKenzie is there and she is not representing McCormack, because she is apparently leaving for New Zealand at any moment. | Matt Canavan is absent (fires) so he can’t represent McCormack, but McKenzie is there and she is not representing McCormack, because she is apparently leaving for New Zealand at any moment. |
| So Michaelia Cash is representing McCormack, and Simon Birmingham is representing Canavan. | So Michaelia Cash is representing McCormack, and Simon Birmingham is representing Canavan. |
| Which means that two Nationals are being represented by two Liberal senators, when the deputy leader of the National party is sitting there. I can see her. She’s holding up papers. | Which means that two Nationals are being represented by two Liberal senators, when the deputy leader of the National party is sitting there. I can see her. She’s holding up papers. |
| What she’s not doing is representing anyone in her party. | What she’s not doing is representing anyone in her party. |
| In taking a question from the South Australian senator Marielle Smith, Richard Colbeck responded with thanking Senator M Smith. | In taking a question from the South Australian senator Marielle Smith, Richard Colbeck responded with thanking Senator M Smith. |
| He seemed a little surprised to find himself corrected that her name was actually Marielle, and not M. | He seemed a little surprised to find himself corrected that her name was actually Marielle, and not M. |
| “Senator Marielle Smith if it pleases the chamber,” he says, adding he didn’t mean any offence but that M Smith was a “term I had heard in this chamber”. | “Senator Marielle Smith if it pleases the chamber,” he says, adding he didn’t mean any offence but that M Smith was a “term I had heard in this chamber”. |