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Bill Shorten asks Coalition about robodebt duty of care – question time live
Bill Shorten asks Coalition about robodebt duty of care – question time live
(32 minutes later)
The former prime minister has stepped into the climate debate, with a stark warning to moderate Liberals to act. All the day’s events, live
The former prime minister has stepped into the climate debate, with a stark warning to moderate Liberals to act. All the day’s events, live
Other MPs are taking the opportunity to hit twitter
Why we go through the final stages of the divisions, the MPs take the chance to sledge each other.
Richard Marles just accused the prime minister of being “more nervous than a baboon in Camperdown”.
Who says Australia has no culture.
While it is interesting that there were 136 emails exchanged between Bridget McKenzie and Scott Morrison’s office, it’s important to keep it in perspective.
On the one hand – the Australian National Audit Office found the prime minister’s office made both direct and indirect representations about which projects should be funded.
On the other, the auditor general, Grant Hehir, said that not all representations changed the outcome of funding decisions and the ANAO did not find sufficient correlation between representations and an outcome to make it a focus of the audit.
On 13 February Hehir told a hearing:
“The evidence before us was that the minister was the decision-maker ... If we had have identified someone else as the decision-maker, we would have gone down that path.”
Hehir concluded that the community sport infrastructure grant program was “not informed by appropriate assessment process and sound advice”.
Christian Porter has moved that Anthony Albanese no longer be heard, which will pass, and then Labor will have another go, which will also be shut down, before we get to the final vote, where question time will resume for one or two more dixers.
The motion (which will fail)
I seek leave to move the following motion —
That the House:
1) notes:
a) the prime minister claims his only involvement in the corrupt sports rorts scheme was the passing of information by his office;
b) the Audit Office found there were 136 emails between the prime minister’s office and Senator McKenzie’s office over a six-month period about the corrupt sports rorts scheme;
c) the Audit Office also found the prime minister’s office emailed Senator McKenzie’s office about projects under the corrupt sports rorts scheme indicating “these are the ones we think should be included in the list of approved projects”;
d) the Audit Office found the colour-coded spreadsheet was shared between Senator McKenzie’s office and the prime minister’s office; and
e) in preparing his report, the prime minister’s former chief of staff and now secretary of his department relied on only one version of the colour-coded spreadsheet when there were dozens of versions; and
2) therefore, calls on the prime minister to:
a) correct his repeated misleading statements to the parliament that only eligible projects were funded under the corrupt sports rorts scheme when paragraphs 4.32 and 4.33 of the audit of the scheme show 280 ineligible projects were funded;
b) explain how his story can withstand the findings of the Audit Office; and
c) explain why he has used taxpayer money as though it was his own personal marketing fund.
Anthony Albanese is moving to suspend standing orders over the sports grants affair.
This is the document the opposition is referring to.
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
My question is addressed to the prime minister and it follows his extraordinary answer to my last question. The prime minister has said about the corrupt sports rorts affair program and said that “All we did was provide information”.
Christian Porter tries to stop the question. But he probably should spend less time practicing his dixer replies (which are remarkably similar) and more time studying the standing orders, because you are allowed to ask the prime minister about inquiries he has instigated, involving the head of his own department.
Why did the office tell the [minister] and I quote “These are the ones we think should be included in the list of approved projects.”
Morrison:
Morrison:
Thank you, Mr Speaker. I repeat what I just said. I said that our office ... Mr Speaker, what I just said to the House in response to the last question, is that we passed on information about other funding options or programs relevant to project proposals and provided proposals based on representations made to us.
Morrison is made to withdraw his final remark, which I missed, but I think involved the word “hypocrite”.
Why do the Leader of the Opposition have an issue with the government talking to people in communities about what their priorities for community projects should be?
Scott Morrison, who told journalists to settle down in a press conference lately, is now telling the opposition to settle down.
Mr Speaker, what I know Andy makes reference to my earlier answer, Mr Speaker, I and theAuditor-General reported that the leader of the Labor Party in response to the program...
Paul Fletcher says some things.
There is also this (given that Melissa McIntosh was the Lindsay candidate at the time, not the MP)
On what? Who knows. There are words.
It’s time for Just How Safe Are You with leftwing warrior, Peter Dutton.
After all, as Dutton himself says:
“You can use leftwing to describe everybody from the left to the right.
“I said today, I don’t care where people are on the spectrum, if they pose a threat to our country and want to do harm to Australians, then they are in our sights.”
One of the points of relevance is Scott Morrison’s use of the ‘member for Lindsay’, given that the member for Lindsay at the time was Emma Husar.
Morrison:
Morrison again brings up the auditor general report critical of Anthony Albanese released about 10 years ago. Tony Smith pulls him up on relevance, so Morrison ends with this:
Totally normal discourse.
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison
Morrison:
There is a back and forth over whether the prime minister is being relevant.
Christian Porter is delivering the next dixer, but he appears to have practiced this once too many times in front of the mirror, because it seems a bit stale.
The human vision board is entertaining the prime minister though, so he can count that as a brownie point.
Tanya Plibersek to Scott Morrison:
Why have nearly 140,000 apprentice and trainee places been lost under the seven-year-old government?
Morrison:
Angus Taylor attempts to answer a question (he’s a Rhodes scholar, don’t you know) and the similarity to a test pattern is uncanny.
Yup. And you know what we need to make snowy viable? Katharine Murphy does:
Josh Frydenberg ends his dixer with another attack on the “wellbeing” budget, which Jim Chalmers said Labor would look at delivering, at the same time as the budget budget. New Zealand has announced it will deliver one. It basically lists what the government is doing to tackle well-being issues impacting its population – things like mental health, suicide prevention, child welfare, indigenous welfare, homelessness and equality.
Frydenberg thinks this is hilarious:
This is the same government that scrapped the women’s statement in the budget (the one which worked out how the budget would impact women) under Tony Abbott (before Kelly O’Dwyer insisted it be reinstated) so sure. Let’s attack wellbeing.
How about we kick some puppies into the sun a bit later? Maybe burn some kid’s art?
Adam Bandt delivers a question which covers War and Peace and everything in between, which just gives the prime minister carte blanche to talk about whatever he wants.
Bandt:
Scott Morrison:
Morrison then wanders into dixer territory about why his government is the greatest government to govern ever in the history of governments.
Julie Collins to Scott Morrison:
My question is to the prime minister, why is the prime minister privatising aged care assessments?
Greg Hunt gets the nod:
Michael McCormack’s performance is so bad, even the Speaker alerts him to the concept of the inside voice.
We were so preoccupied with whether or not we could turn a loaf of bread into a politician, we didn’t stop to think if we should.
Michael McCormack is now pretending to be a leader by acting as if he has just discovered hands and wants you all to know about it.
Bill Shorten to Scott Morrison:
The government social security law guide, which was released on 10 February this year, states Australian government employees have a duty of care to the public in performing their duties. But government lawyers on February 14 stated the policy in the robodebt class action does not owe Centrelink recipients a duty of care. Does the government owe a duty of care to Centrelink recipients?
Morrison:
If anyone is managing to pay their bills on Newstart, let me know.
Scott Morrison answers a dixer on how amazing the government is as an economic manager by talking about Labor.
Bill Shorten asks about the government’s duty of care in regards to robodebt and Stuart Robert loses his mind:
“Let me say we will not be lectured on duty of care by those opposite who have presided over 1,200 deaths at sea and those opposite have the hypocrisy to...”
Tony Smith tells him to pull his head in and Robert’s withdraws his comment.
Robert again starts talking about the wonderful social safety net, so Shorten raises a point of order on direct relevance. Smith once again tells Robert to get on with it.
Robert:
Labor groans.
Remind you of anyone in Australian politics?
I regret to inform you the Liberal party store $35 ‘Back in Black’ coffee mug, is now sold out.
DEIDRE CHAMBERS
Universities Australia chair Deborah Terry has just spoken at the National Press Club about the need for science and expertise to guide Australia’s response to the coronavirus and climate change, although she steered clear of political commentary when asked why some politicians refuse to believe the science.Terry had a few pointed lines on the issue of freedom of speech on campus:
“Last April, a review by a former high court chief justice [Robert French] found that claims of freedom of speech crisis were ‘Not substantiated’. But offered a guide for each university to consider how its existing policies breathed life into those freedoms. So, in the 10 months since, each university has carefully and thoughtfully mapped that guide against its own policies.”
Earlier today the education minister, Dan Tehan, spoke to the Universities Australia conference, and revealed the government would include freedom of speech in the school experience survey.
Asked if the university sector would seek some form of federal funding to compensate for the impact of coronavirus, Terry responds that the first priority is the wellbeing of students, but does not rule out seeking assistance in future.
She said: “Yes, in the background, we are looking at what the implications of it might be, [we’re] doing some modelling in the background. But that is not what is taking up our time at the moment. It is too early to tell. It is too early to tell what effects some mitigating arrangements might have. It’s too early to tell what, for instance, might be something that will come out of the fact that actually, our semester two starts earlier than the northern hemisphere teaching periods. So it’s too early. What I want to say is here - our focus is on the students and what they need at the moment. They are our students. They are part of our community and we must keep our focus there.”
