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Nationals under pressure over Murray-Darling Basin plan – politics live
Labor slams ‘secret deal’ between Coalition and Jacqui Lambie on medevac repeal bill – politics live
(32 minutes later)
Angry protests by farmers outside parliament force a review of water plan, debate on medevac repeal bill continues and GDP figures expected to show weakening economy. Follow all the day’s political news, as it happens
ALP fears Senate won’t have opportunity to see the deal before the vote as government moves a motion to push through bill. Plus Nationals under pressure over Murray-Darling Basin plan. Follow all the day’s political news live
The Senate is sitting and we’re expecting debate on medevac to kick off fairly early. It’s the first item on the government’s business orders of the day.
The government’s deputy Senate leader Simon Birmingham has dismissed Labor’s position that medevac is needed to ensure sick people re brought to Australia, saying the government has had its own system where people are assessed and brought here if needed.
Finance minister Mathias Cormann is suspending standing orders and is up speaking.
Which is true - they do have such a policy.
This suggests they may have come to some arrangement with Jacqui Lambie. Nothing is certain yet.
But it was been widely criticised as inadequate. Data reported earlier this year showed that some people on Manus Island had waited as long as five years for treatment to start after the government’s contracted doctors recommended it.
Stay tuned.
We’re now voting on the suspension of standing orders. A division is required and the bells are ringing. If this passes, the government will be able to effectively guillotine debate and force a vote on the medevac repeal bill.
Jacqui Lambie delivered a fairly damning speech on foreign influence in the Senate last night. She lambasted both parties for not doing enough to combat Chinese government foreign influence.
Penny Wong is on her feet.
Lambie referred to the NSW Icac’s inquiry into the $100,000 cash allegedly delivered in an Aldi bag to Labor HQ by Huang Xiangmo, a Chinese billionaire. She said at least NSW had an integrity commission to investigate and detect that kind of activity.
Wong says it’s consistent with the government’s attitude to scrutiny and transparency.
Lambie said Australia needed to develop a national strategy to handle the relationship.
Jacqui Lambie is now in the chamber. Wong says to Lambie:
The crossbench senator is wielding a fair bit of power at the moment, given the government’s desperation to repeal medevac.
Di Natale continues:
There’s a few other tidbits around this morning. Channel Nine newspapers have reported that Gladys Liu, the Liberal MP, lobbied on behalf of a Chinese Communist party-endorsed company that was a large Liberal donor and was involved in some fairly shady dealings.
In the chamber, while Richard Di Natale is speaking, Penny Wong is engaged in a conversation with Mathias Cormann across the table.
The papers have also reported that Kristina Keneally was set to become Australia’s ambassador to the US if Labor won office.
Kristina Keneally is camped beside the advisers box.
Mike Bowers caught Anthony Albanese talking to the media a little earlier.
Jacqui Lambie is not in the chamber.
We learned this morning that the government plans to bring back its union-busting bill in the lower house today. That, of course, is the bill that was defeated by One Nation on Friday, despite the government making changes to assuage their concerns. We’re not expecting a vote on the legislation until the new year.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale says the Senate is being asked to repeal laws that enshrine a “fundamental human right” on the basis of a secret deal.
Albanese said:
Labor senator Katy Gallagher is slamming the Lambie-Coalition deal, saying they were “obsessed with getting a win after a shocking week”.
A coalition of legal groups, including the Law Council of Australia, have issued a statement calling on the government to scrap plans to merge the various family courts into a single specialist court.
“Trying to get a win off the back of more than 500 people,” she said.
This week, the government reintroduced legislation that would merge the family and federal circuit courts.
Gallagher said Labor is hearing “on the grape vine” that the Senate will have no opportunity to see the deal before the vote.
But the coalition said the legislation was flawed and would do little to “alleviate the fundamental problems plaguing the family law system, including the risk of victims of family violence falling through the cracks”.
Greens senator Nick McKim says there are lives at real risk. He says doing secret deals on such a critical piece of legislation is one of “the most reprehensible things you could do as a member of parliament”.
It instead wants the government to act on recommendations of the Australian Law Reform Commission and retain and enhance specialists courts and consider a “a specialised, standalone family law court system”.
He says such a critical debate cannot be allowed without senators knowing what deal Lambie and the government have done.
The Nationals remain under considerable pressure from the Murray Darling Basin plan protests in Canberra. Farmers yesterday labelled Nationals leader Michael McCormack spineless and lacking passion, and warned him his party faced looming electoral destruction unless they stood up to the Liberals.
He continues:
NSW threatened to pull out of the basin plan yesterday, and the Coalition announced yesterday it would review water allocation arrangements between states.
Things are moving rather quickly now. The government is moving a motion to effectively push through the medevac repeal bill as soon as possible this morning.
Barnaby Joyce has been out and about this morning, calling for amendments to free up more of the commonwealth’s environmental water holdings for farmers. He told the ABC:
This would suggest it has done a deal with Lambie.
Joyce said he was thankful for the protests because they had focused the mind of politicians. He said he understood farmers’ venting.
The process from here is as follows:
One Nation and Bob Katter have been attempting to win over some of the Nationals’ traditional constituents on the issue. Malcolm Roberts was out the front of parliament yesterday trying to fan the flames of protesters and direct their anger towards the government.
There will be a debate on the government’s motion to suspend standing orders. That will last 30 minutes.
Matt Canavan this morning criticised the approach of those with “big hats and dyed hair” who “like to jump up and down” for their “15 minutes of fame”.
If they’re successful, debate on medevac will continue until about 11am. If not all speakers are finished by that time, debate will be gagged and the vote will come on.
“That’s not the approach that works, that approach does not work,” he told Sky News.
Keneally turns to One Nation, who have already given their support to medevac. She asks:
We’ve had a few voices out already today speaking about Australia’s poor school results in the Program for International Student Assessment. Australia recorded the sharpest fall of any nation in the Pisa, which has caused considerable alarm.
She says Lambie cannot trust whatever promise the government has made to her.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese has said the results were a “shocker”.
“This is an f for fail in Australia for education,” he said this morning.
“We’re falling so far behind our competitors. We live in a globalised world, we can’t afford to be going backwards.”
Education minister Dan Tehan said simply injecting more money into the system was not the answer.
“I think we all now realise that equally important is school results and outcomes, that now needs to be the focus,” Tehan said. “We’ve got to put aside this obsession that some have of money, money, money.”
Here’s what we’re expecting from today.
The GDP figures are out this morning, about 11.30am. The numbers are expected to be less than rosy for the government, given the last figures put Australia’s growth at the lowest level since 2009. Labor has been leading its attack on the government this week with criticism of its economic mismanagement.
Protests over the Murray Darling Basin plan are continuing to spur debate in parliament. The protesters are angry over their lack of access to water under the plan and want it scrapped. There was a little bit of movement yesterday when drought minister David Littleproud announced a review. The Nationals have been having a torrid time with it. Pictures of Michael McCormack being given a healthy serve outside parliament have been played ad nauseam on TV and radio. Not a great look.
Debate will continue on the medevac repeal bill. We’re still none the wiser on Jacqui Lambie’s position, which will be critical in deciding the fate of medevac. Lambie’s demands are still unclear, though she did last night make a fiery speech in the Senate about inaction on Chinese government interference.
Angus Taylor will be back in some form, I can assure you of that. Whether it’s the grasslands controversy, the forged documents controversy, the Naomi Wolf controversy, the phone call controversy, the pecuniary interests controversy, or some other unknown controversy yet to emerge. I’ve never said controversy so many times in a single sentence and doubt I ever will again.
We’re also likely to hear some debate over the terrible school results out today. Australia recorded the sharpest falls in performance of any country in the Program for International Student Assessment.
Hello friends and welcome to the last sitting Wednesday of the year.
We’re expecting another busy one, likely dominated by economics (GDP figures are out), further debate on the medevac bill, the Murray Darling Basin, Chinese influence and, of course, your man Angus Taylor, who is hard pressed to find a way out of the news at the moment.
