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Jacinda Ardern says Australia has not approached New Zealand on offer to take refugees – politics live
Scott Morrison to slash number of departments in public service overhaul – politics live
(32 minutes later)
Fallout from medevac repeal continues as Angus Taylor controversies roll on. All the day’s political news, live
Prime minister says cutting government departments from 18 to 14 will lead to greater efficiency. All the day’s political news, live
Morrison says this is not a “savings measure”.
Morrison says there will be no change to ministerial portfolios.
Morrison announces we’re losing five departmental secretaries as part of the shake-up.
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, is speaking to the media. He’s speaking about changes to the public service. The Australian reported this morning that he was “poised to put an axe through the public service today with plans to dramatically cut the number of government departments with another round of mandarins set for the chopping block”.
Morrison announces he will reduce the number of government departments from 18 to 14. He says the APS will need to provide services more “efficiently and effectively”.
This sounds very much like a standard machinery of government change. Departments being renamed and subsumed into others. You know, the type we do every few years for some reason.
Every time this happens, I can only think of all the corporate merchandise that’s suddenly become redundant due to departmental name changes. I’m weird, I know. But what do they do with it all? So many spare pens. We could use them over here at the Guardian, just FYI, if departments are feeling charitable.
So far he’s named changes to the education, agriculture, environment and industry portfolios. We’ll have a full list of changes shortly.
Morrison says he wants a public service that “is very much focused on implementation”.
Mick Keelty, the inspector general of the Murray-Darling basin water resources, spoke to ABC radio a little earlier about just what the government has asked him to do. Keelty was tasked with a review of water sharing arrangement amid damaging protests for the Nationals in Canberra this week.
He’s asked precisely what he’s actually going to do:
Keelty is asked how the protesters, previously furious at Littleproud and the Nationals, came away feeling comfortable with the result. He said the protesters were not promised any additional water as a result of the review.
The prime minister has just called a press conference for 10.30am. Stick with us.
The prime minister has just called a press conference for 10.30am. Stick with us.
On the Murray Darling, Nationals MP Damian Drum is saying the water sharing agreements between the states are outdated. He hopes the review by Mick Keelty, the Murray Darling inspector general, will improve them.
On the Murray Darling, Nationals MP Damian Drum is saying the water-sharing agreements between the states are outdated. He hopes the review by Mick Keelty, the Murray-Darling inspector general, will improve them.
Drum was out the front of parliament with Barnaby Joyce a little earlier this week, copping an earful from farmers. He says:
Drum was out the front of parliament with Barnaby Joyce a little earlier this week, copping an earful from farmers. He says:
Greens senator Nick McKim urges the prime minister, Scott Morrison, to pick up the phone and talk to Jacinda Ardern for the “sake of humanity”.
Greens senator Nick McKim urges the prime minister, Scott Morrison, to pick up the phone and talk to Jacinda Ardern for the “sake of humanity”.
Ardern is asked whether New Zealand would consider preventing asylum seekers who go to NZ on resettlement would be prevented from later coming to Australia. She says:
Ardern is asked whether New Zealand would consider preventing asylum seekers who go to NZ on resettlement would be prevented from later coming to Australia. She says:
During the interview, Ardern mentions multiple times the deportation of New Zealand citizens from Australia, an issue that has caused much angst across the Tasman. Ardern is asked whether she would want something in return for accepting refugees. She says:
During the interview, Ardern mentions multiple times the deportation of New Zealand citizens from Australia, an issue that has caused much angst across the Tasman. Ardern is asked whether she would want something in return for accepting refugees. She says:
New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has spoken to Sky News. She said NZ’s offer was still on the table.
New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has spoken to Sky News. She said NZ’s offer was still on the table.
She says Australia has not approached NZ about the deal recently.
She says Australia has not approached NZ about the deal recently.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent a fair chunk of my morning watching and rewatching that Wolf call.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent a fair chunk of my morning watching and rewatching that Wolf call.
On to other things. Adam Bandt is planning to move to suspend standing orders in the lower house. He wants the house to note that the medevac repeal deal was done in secret.
On to other things. Adam Bandt is planning to move to suspend standing orders in the lower house. He wants the house to note that the medevac repeal deal was done in secret.
Towards the end, the staffer says:
That Naomi Wolf call is off the charts.
The staffer doesn’t seem to quite believe he’s talking to Wolf. There’s a commotion in the background on Taylor’s side at some points. It’s past midnight in Australia. The staffer doesn’t want to give his name but he says he’s not a media adviser. He says he only picked up call by “accident”.
What is going on.
Wolf:
Taylor’s staffer:
Naomi Wolf uses the call to directly dispute Angus Taylor’s claim that she was in Oxford in 1991 and the inference she was involved in campaigning against Christmas. She was actually in New York, touring for her bestselling book.
“He can’t make up where I was,” Wolf says in the call.
The staffer (who is not a media adviser and is taking the call after midnight) responds:
Wolf responds:
A little later, the staffer says:
This. Is. Incredible.
Naomi Wolf, the well-known US author, called Angus Taylor’s office to dispute his initial speech to parliament.
Taylor used his maiden speech to describe a time when he was a student with Wolf at Oxford University. Taylor claimed students had wanted to remove a Christmas tree, which he described as “moral vanity” and political correctness.
Please watch her response:
His maiden speech to parliament in 2013 is here, if you’re interested in reading it:
Naomi Wolf is really going after Angus Taylor on this one. I’ll let her tweets do the talking.
My colleague Helen Davidson has just filed on further developments in the unlikely stoush between Angus Taylor and the US author Naomi Wolf:
The fallout is continuing from the Australian government’s repeal of medevac laws. Australia is now being urged to take New Zealand’s offer to accept 150 refugees from Manus and Nauru a year. We mentioned earlier that there is speculation that Jacqui Lambie was pursuing resettlement when she gave her vote to the government.
David Manne, executive director of the Refugee & Immigration Legal Centre, said there was no logic to the government’s refusal to accept the NZ offer. He described suggestions that it would create a “pull” factor for people wanting to come to Australia as “spurious”.
“It doesn’t make any rational sense,” he told Sky News.
Manne also dismisses the government’s figures showing that most of those who came to Australia through medevac are not in hospital. We’ve reported already that medevac is designed for assessment and healthcare, not just acute hospital care, so it’s not surprising. Manne makes a similar point:
So what exactly are we expecting from today?
Well, it’s another day of parliament, so of course we can expect another Angus Taylor controversy. And lo and behold, it’s not yet hit 8.30am, and there’s already something unfolding. Naomi Wolf, the well-known US author, is on the warpath against the minister over his misrepresentation of an alleged encounter they had at Oxford University in their student days. That encounter happened, in Taylor’s telling, at a time when Wolf was on the other side of the ocean. We’ll bring you a bit more about that in a moment. On another Taylor front, there were reports yesterday naming the staffer said to have obtained and distributed the document with dodgy figures about the City of Sydney council’s travel expenditure. Expect more of a pursuit on that from Labor.
We’re also anticipating more fallout from the medevac repeal yesterday. The critical question remains: what did Jacqui Lambie secure from the government in exchange for her crucial vote? There’s been some suggestion that she’s won an agreement from the government to pursue the resettlement of refugees from Manus and Nauru. But she’s staying silent on the whole thing, and the government is insisting there is “no secret deal”.
The Murray-Darling basin is continuing to cause headaches for the Nationals. The government has announced a review of water sharing in the Murray-Darling. The protesters have left Canberra with a sense of victory. But the question remains: what will the review actually achieve? How will it deliver more water for those without any? Have the Nationals actually resolved the issue?
The poor school results out yesterday are still prompting reaction this morning. Tanya Plibersek has been out this morning saying the focus must be on teacher investment, through professional development and mentoring. The government says throwing more money at the problem is not working.
There’s another report out this morning in the Sydney Morning Herald about Gladys Liu, reporting that she asked the Liberal party to give her back a donation of at least $100,000. The report claims Liu says the donation she gave was a loan.
Happy last sitting day of the year!
It’s a momentous occasion. Who knows what else parliament can achieve today? It’s already denied doctor-led medical care to those we’ve condemned to remote islands for daring to seek asylum. Hard to top, even for this bunch, you’d think.
But I digress. Alongside the fallout from medevac, there’s plenty of issues on the boil. Angus Taylor. The Murray-Darling basin.The fallout from medevac. Chinese government influence.
Stick with us and we’ll get through it all together.