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Frydenberg says coronavirus impact will be 'more significant than bushfires' – politics live
Frydenberg says coronavirus impact will be 'more significant than bushfires' – politics live
(32 minutes later)
The treasurer lowers expectations for the budget as the major parties grapple with climate policies. All the day’s events, live from Canberra
The treasurer lowers expectations for the budget as the major parties grapple with climate policies. All the day’s events, live from Canberra
Mark Butler to Scott Morrison:
Vincent Connelly continues to be possessed by the ghost of a community theatre thespian who was doomed to serve as a stage hand and spent every performance in the wings, acting out the lead actor’s lines.
Is the Prime Minister critical of the New South Wales Government for committing to net-zero emissions by 2050?
Richard Marles to Melissa Price:
Can the minister explain why she counts nights in the Novotel Barossa Valley Resort as Australian industry content for the future submarines?
Narrator: she could not.
Peter Dutton in the “How safe are you” dixer once again “both sides” the terrorism threat.
Mike Burgess mentioned “rightwing extremism” six times in his annual speech on threats to Australia. He did not mention “leftwing” extremism or terrorism at all.
And yet:
Dutton:
The inspector general of the Australian defence force’s 2018-19 annual report has been tabled in the Senate and reveals new details of the investigation it has been conducting into Australian special forces’ conduct in Afghanistan.
After interviewing 338 witnesses, the inspector general has revealed “there were 55 separate incidents or issues under inquiry covering a range of alleged breaches of the law of armed conflict, predominantly unlawful killings of persons who were non-combatants or were no longer combatants, but also ‘cruel treatment’ of such persons”.
It said:
The inspector general said the inquiry “is now approaching the final stages of evidence-taking”.
The inspector general described its task as “very difficult” because the investigation was prompted by “vague rumours” of wrongdoing and it had taken time to gain the confidence of special forces who have spent their career “in an environment in which secrecy is treated as fundamental”.
The inspector general has committed to report to the chief of the defence force with a conclusion about whether the laws of armed conflict were breached.
It suggested this might provide “closure” to serving and former soldiers and special operations command “by exposing past misconduct where appropriate to do so, enabling it to be considered separate from but informing the present and future development of the command”.
Scott Morrison:
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
My question is to the Prime Minister: And I refer to his misleading of Parliament in a previous answer. Isn’t it a fact that the evidence given by the Australian National Audit Office to the Senate Committee referred to section 4.32 and 4.33 of the Audit Office report that indicate that 272 ineligible projects were funded?
(He got there for this one, with 10 seconds to spare)
Morrison:
Morrison:
Michael McCormack is doing his leadership impersonation, but despite his characterisation of his own reviews, the crowd is not rolling in the aisles.
The Labor side of the house gets very loud, and Albanese raises a point of order on relevance.
Needs improvement.
Tony Smith:
Probably not the smartest attack line, given Scott Morrison’s stated mission to improve mental health, suicide rates, and child welfare in this country.
Anthony Albanese doesn’t get his question to Scott Morrison out in time:
Josh Frydenberg mocks the “wellbeing budget” Jim Chalmers has spoken on (which has been adopted by New Zealand).
So we move on to a dixer.
Good to know that the wellbeing of the Australian public is considered such a laughable matter by the treasurer.
David Littleproud somehow manages to mess up his own dixer, and is pulled into line by Tony Smith for answering a question he was not asked.
Jim Chalmers to Josh Frydenberg:
This is still for sale in the Liberal party store
Why won’t the treasurer admit that since he took over, economic growth has almost halved, wages growth has stalled, consumption growth has weakened, business investment and productivity have declined, underemployment has increased, government debt and household debt have reached new record highs, and that all of this happened before the fires and the coronavirus hit?
It appears to be as “limited edition” as the surplus itself.
“Give us a hug! Come over here for a hug!” Labor MPs yell (I would bet the drawer full of chocolate I have one of these came from Ed Husic.)
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
Frydenberg:
The prime minister has now had more than one full sitting day to correct his misleading of the parliament that only eligible projects were funded under his sports rorts scheme. Why has he failed to correct the record when the auditor general has given evidence to the Senate that his claim is just not true? That, in fact, 43% is the correct figure?
He’s sitting across from you, minister.
Frydenberg:
Now, the member for Rankin mentioned unemployment, Mr Speaker ...
(Yadda, yadda, yadda, when Labor was in power etc ...)
Josh Frydenberg still doesn’t know how to use a microphone, however he has discovered an octave only dogs can hear, so six of one.
We are back on the “Is the minister aware of any alternative approaches” dixer train and the five molars I have ground down with stress fractures from gritting my teeth so hard over the past couple of years are less painful than this.
Richard Marles and Peter Dutton have a slanging match across the chamber as Scott Morrison finishes that answer, which is as useful as looking for meaning in a Justin Bieber song.
Richard Marles to Scott Morrison:
Last night the director general of Asio said the extreme rightwing threat in Australia is real and it’s growing.
Also last night, the UK government prescribed additional rightwing extremist groups.
Why has the Australian government not listed a single rightwing extremist group as a terrorist organisation?
Morrison:
Morrison:
Scott Morrison is continuing the managing of expectations over the budget surplus it says it has already delivered, but has not – and may not – because of outside influences.
For context, none of the projects Sports Australia put forward were ineligible. But the minister’s office took so long to approve the grants, that by the time funding was awarded (using the ministerial discretion) projects had become ineligible.
Chris Bowen to Greg Hunt:
And we know that the minister rejected Sports Australia’s recommendations to decide on her own funding priorities. Which were in marginal and targeted seats.
There are Australian survivors, including one pleading with the government to respond to the parliamentary report into Australia thalidomide tragedy before more survivors die. Why hasn’t the prime minister responded to this report which was handed down in March last year?
So none of the projects put forward by Sports Australia were ineligible. But that didn’t mean that none of the funded projects were ineligible.
Hunt:
You’ll note that Hunt just blamed the opposition for not coming up with a response to a report it has had, as the government, since March last year.
It’s the downhill slide to QT.
Today’s topics should be a pretty easy guess.
Equinor is the third major company to pull out of the Great Australian Bight.
BP abandoned its plans in 2016.
Chevron followed suit in 2017.
That these are commercial decisions tells you everything you need to know about where the fossil fuel industry is heading.
Resources minister Keith Pitt has responded to Equinor’s decision to pull out of the Great Australian Bight:
That sound you hear is Wayne Swan’s satisfied sigh as he places his whisky class back down on his desk.
Scott Morrison was asked whether or not he believed Australians would forgive him for not delivering the surplus he already said he delivered (if indeed, that is what happens):
Government MPs have met in Canberra, with the partyroom discussion focused on the ramifications of the coronavirus on a range of industries, including tourism, education and trade.
But the prime minister, Scott Morrison, told MPs that while the effects will be “tough”, the virus did not give the government a “leave pass” to not act on the other issues that Australians expected the government to be focused on, such as aged care.
MPs were also assured by the health minister, Greg Hunt, that the government had a “pandemic plan ready to go” if it was required.
One MP urged that no taxpayer-funded bail-outs be provided to the university sector to compensate for the impact of the virus, saying universities were well placed to absorb the cost. Morrison used the warning about the economic consequences of the rapidly spreading virus to criticise Labor for adopting the target of net zero emissions by 2050.
“Given the economic challenge, Labor’s reckless approach on the economy is particularly troubling, signing up to a target with no knowledge of what it would cost,” he said.
“I won’t commit to anything that I don’t know the cost of, if I don’t know the impact on jobs. It is not about being for or against the target. The leader of the opposition has got no plan; he has got no clue what the impact would be.”
Morrison said the government needed to know the cost before making a decision on targets, while also criticising Labor for not yet outlining its 2030 target.
“The question is what will Labor do in 2030 if elected? What measures will they have in agriculture and transport? And they can’t answer those questions.”
Morrison, however, did concede that Australians wanted “jobs and lower emissions”.
“They want both, and we have a plan for both,” he said.
MPs also discussed other issues, including the costs of passenger security screening for regional airports and the government’s bushfire response.
It’s almost like sometimes there are things governments can’t control when it comes to its budgets, and you can make promises and not deliver? *cough global financial crisis cough*
Scott Morrison says there is no way the government could have predicted the coronavirus last year. The government has not said it will be delivering a surplus, but, as we have been saying for months now, the language has changed from when Morrison said this in May last year:
“I said we brought the budget back to surplus next year.”
