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Coalition backbenchers nervous about negative gearing as parliament resumes – politics live Coalition backbenchers nervous about negative gearing as parliament resumes – politics live
(35 minutes later)
11.49pm GMT
23:49
Shalailah Medhora
To another variety of door slamming, to double dissolutions. The leader of the House, Christopher Pyne, has been on Channel 7 earlier today, and gave his strongest indication yet that the government would go to a double dissolution election if the Senate doesn’t pass the government’s industrial relations legislation.
We would prefer the Senate to pass the Australian building and commission bill for example to clean-up building and construction in Australia, which is important for productivity and growth and jobs.
If they refuse to pass the legislation it makes us very difficult not to go to the polls - how else do we do the things we are elected for? We had a mandate for change before the last election, it was our policy. The crossbenchers, Labor and Greens are blocking it. Only a couple of options left available to a government in those situations.
11.37pm GMT
23:37
Stephen Conroy apparently left the meeting of the electoral matters committee when members declined to allow him to hear an answer to a question. I don’t know if he slammed the door.
11.32pm GMT
23:32
Sham and ram.
This is Labor’s Sam Dastyari, sledging the Greens.
Is this onomatopoeia? Sham and ram. Someone will jog my memory.
11.26pm GMT
23:26
I didn’t catch the beginning of this debate, but I gather, reading between the lines, that Labor’s Stephen Conroy has been ejected from a meeting of the joint committee on electoral matters. I’ll chase particulars when there’s a moment. Labor’s Doug Cameron is now engaging on the subject of Richard Di Natale’s glass jaw. Cameron says at this rate, the Greens will go the way of the Democrats – dealing their way to disappearing.
11.20pm GMT
23:20
Di Natale says Labor is objecting to a short inquiry into a proposal it has no intention of supporting anyway. The Greens leader suggests Labor is hiding behind the process rather than debating the substance.
Senate Bob Day of Family First has the call now.
This is third world stuff, wiping out independents is what they do in third world countries!
11.17pm GMT
23:17
Greens leader Richard Di Natale, in response to Penny Wong.
There is something that is always in short supply in this chamber, and it’s logic.
11.15pm GMT
23:15
The chambers have begun their daily duties. The finance minister and special minister of state Mathias Cormann has been telling the red chamber he wants the Senate voting reform package on for debate in the middle of this week.
There’s much finger pointing down there right now. Green Lee Rhiannon is talking about Labor’s Stephen Conroy slamming a door at a meeting of the joint standing committee on electoral matters. Now Labor’s Senate leader Penny Wong is talking about strange bedfellows in politics, and ramming legislation through the Senate.
Penny Wong:
The biggest changes [to the voting system] in thirty years with half a day’s hearing!
11.05pm GMT11.05pm GMT
23:0523:05
A statement from the shadow climate minister Mark Butler, on Lenore’s story this morning about land clearing in Queensland threatening Australia’s international emissions reduction commitments.A statement from the shadow climate minister Mark Butler, on Lenore’s story this morning about land clearing in Queensland threatening Australia’s international emissions reduction commitments.
Mark Butler:Mark Butler:
The Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) is the centrepiece of Direct Action, which has spent the majority of its funds in land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) emissions abatement. In 2015, two ERF auctions were held, with $1.2bn spent to purchase greenhouse gas abatement of 92 Mt CO₂e. Of this, more than half (51 Mt CO₂e) was in the LULUCF sector.The Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) is the centrepiece of Direct Action, which has spent the majority of its funds in land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) emissions abatement. In 2015, two ERF auctions were held, with $1.2bn spent to purchase greenhouse gas abatement of 92 Mt CO₂e. Of this, more than half (51 Mt CO₂e) was in the LULUCF sector.
In 2013-14, emissions from tree clearing in Queensland were 36 Mt CO₂e. If clearing continues at this speed, in 18 months, tree clearing in Queensland alone will negate the entire LULUCF abatement achieved by the ERF in 2015. This government has proven to be incapable of reducing emissions and taking any meaningful action on climate change.In 2013-14, emissions from tree clearing in Queensland were 36 Mt CO₂e. If clearing continues at this speed, in 18 months, tree clearing in Queensland alone will negate the entire LULUCF abatement achieved by the ERF in 2015. This government has proven to be incapable of reducing emissions and taking any meaningful action on climate change.
11.01pm GMT11.01pm GMT
23:0123:01
Trying to find anyone in the government to defend the safe schools program is hard work at the moment. Readers here last week will know the government has launched a review into the program because of concerns from conservative MPs that it preaches rainbow ideology to our innocents.Trying to find anyone in the government to defend the safe schools program is hard work at the moment. Readers here last week will know the government has launched a review into the program because of concerns from conservative MPs that it preaches rainbow ideology to our innocents.
Talking to a bunch of government people yesterday in preparation for another sitting week, it was clear that the prime minister really hadn’t intended to launch a full tilt review into this program. His intention was to get the education minister to focus on the complaints and report back. Be that as it may, there’s a review on now, and government defenders of the program (which aims to prevent bullying of LGBTI kids in schools) are not exactly thick on the ground.Talking to a bunch of government people yesterday in preparation for another sitting week, it was clear that the prime minister really hadn’t intended to launch a full tilt review into this program. His intention was to get the education minister to focus on the complaints and report back. Be that as it may, there’s a review on now, and government defenders of the program (which aims to prevent bullying of LGBTI kids in schools) are not exactly thick on the ground.
AAP tells me Ewen Jones, a government backbencher from Queensland, is prepared to trust teachers to implement this program sensibly. Jones told reporters in Canberra on Monday that two kids at his son’s school took their own lives. Jones said his wife and younger brother were both teachers.AAP tells me Ewen Jones, a government backbencher from Queensland, is prepared to trust teachers to implement this program sensibly. Jones told reporters in Canberra on Monday that two kids at his son’s school took their own lives. Jones said his wife and younger brother were both teachers.
What we must do is make sure we are backing our professionals.What we must do is make sure we are backing our professionals.
He said the program was important because if teachers were asked questions about gender and sexuality they needed the appropriate resources to be able respond.He said the program was important because if teachers were asked questions about gender and sexuality they needed the appropriate resources to be able respond.
10.50pm GMT10.50pm GMT
22:5022:50
Communications minister Mitch Fifield, on this morning’s NBN story.Communications minister Mitch Fifield, on this morning’s NBN story.
The NBN is on track to meet its targets for the financial year, within the budget set out in the company’s corporate plan. Any suggestion to the contrary is just wrong. The company has met its targets for the past six quarters in a row. This is in stark contrast to management under Labor, when the company had barely managed to connect 50,000 users after four years.The NBN is on track to meet its targets for the financial year, within the budget set out in the company’s corporate plan. Any suggestion to the contrary is just wrong. The company has met its targets for the past six quarters in a row. This is in stark contrast to management under Labor, when the company had barely managed to connect 50,000 users after four years.
10.44pm GMT10.44pm GMT
22:4422:44
Ray has had Antony Green on. Green is the ABC election analyst. Dates and double dissolutions. Those dates are critical. May 11 is the cut off date, Ray says.Ray has had Antony Green on. Green is the ABC election analyst. Dates and double dissolutions. Those dates are critical. May 11 is the cut off date, Ray says.
Morrison agrees that’s an accurate assessment of the situation. For added drama, the treasurer notes that when it comes to double dissolutions, it is clear the prime minister isn’t bluffing. But the treasurer notes it will be Turnbull’s call whether or not we go to a double dissolution election. What would the treasurer’s counsel be, Morrison wonders? Oh come on, mate, Morrison says. Haw haw haw.Morrison agrees that’s an accurate assessment of the situation. For added drama, the treasurer notes that when it comes to double dissolutions, it is clear the prime minister isn’t bluffing. But the treasurer notes it will be Turnbull’s call whether or not we go to a double dissolution election. What would the treasurer’s counsel be, Morrison wonders? Oh come on, mate, Morrison says. Haw haw haw.
10.39pm GMT10.39pm GMT
22:3922:39
Now we are in a segment of the interview where Ray notes that the government didn’t actually own that dairy company in Tasmania (which has been a controversial recent foreign investment transaction). Not sure anyone did think the government owned the company but let’s not digress. Ray’s a bit distracted by a golf tournament.Now we are in a segment of the interview where Ray notes that the government didn’t actually own that dairy company in Tasmania (which has been a controversial recent foreign investment transaction). Not sure anyone did think the government owned the company but let’s not digress. Ray’s a bit distracted by a golf tournament.
Scott Morrison:Scott Morrison:
I knew people would be upset about [the sale] but I have to make decisions in the interest of jobs and growth in Australia.I knew people would be upset about [the sale] but I have to make decisions in the interest of jobs and growth in Australia.
10.35pm GMT10.35pm GMT
22:3522:35
Ray wants to know why the GST was on the table then off the table. The GST is off the table because the bill for the compensation went up and up and up, Morrison says.Ray wants to know why the GST was on the table then off the table. The GST is off the table because the bill for the compensation went up and up and up, Morrison says.
How about negative gearing, Ray wonders? He references a Daily Telegraph story this morning which has some options for capping losses, including some modelling indicating what revenue could be collected.How about negative gearing, Ray wonders? He references a Daily Telegraph story this morning which has some options for capping losses, including some modelling indicating what revenue could be collected.
Morrison doesn’t sound that chuffed with the modelling.Morrison doesn’t sound that chuffed with the modelling.
I hope the Daily Telegraph didn’t pay too much for that advice.I hope the Daily Telegraph didn’t pay too much for that advice.
Ray persists. What’s going to happen on negative gearing?Ray persists. What’s going to happen on negative gearing?
We’ve made it clear the government is continuing to consider all the options.We’ve made it clear the government is continuing to consider all the options.
Morrison says government’s need to be cautious when it comes to negative gearing.Morrison says government’s need to be cautious when it comes to negative gearing.
Q: So you agree with John Howard then?Q: So you agree with John Howard then?
I think you’ve got to be very careful. We aren’t going to rush to the crazy idea Labor has put up.I think you’ve got to be very careful. We aren’t going to rush to the crazy idea Labor has put up.
10.30pm GMT10.30pm GMT
22:3022:30
Ray opens with inquiring whether the treasurer is out of witness protection.Ray opens with inquiring whether the treasurer is out of witness protection.
Scott Morrison:Scott Morrison:
G’day Ray I’m glad you missed me.G’day Ray I’m glad you missed me.
Ray would like to know where he was last Monday. Morrison says last Monday I was meeting treasury officials and there was a special meeting about Senate voting reform.Ray would like to know where he was last Monday. Morrison says last Monday I was meeting treasury officials and there was a special meeting about Senate voting reform.
Scott Morrison:Scott Morrison:
It may comes as a surprise but I have a very busy job. I’ll continue to do this where the schedule permits.It may comes as a surprise but I have a very busy job. I’ll continue to do this where the schedule permits.
Ray thinks Scott wasn’t very good at the National Press Club the week before last.Ray thinks Scott wasn’t very good at the National Press Club the week before last.
It was a tough week.It was a tough week.
10.22pm GMT
22:22
Good news of great joy. The treasurer Scott Morrison will rejoin Ray Hadley on the wireless this morning. Readers with me last week will know that Morrison skipped his weekly Hadley spot and Ray was sad because he had wanted to berate the treasurer for coming on his show and having nothing to say. Ray will get his chance in a few minutes. Right now on 2GB, it’s apparently Tim Flannery’s fault that Australia has desalination plants.
#YouKnowItMakesSense
10.12pm GMT
22:12
Before the hoo ha about tax inevitably cranks up once politics breaks clear of the early morning cover imposed by Pell’s testimony – it might be useful for some readers to have a look at this piece Tim Colebatch has written for Inside Story about the tax debate. I very much recommend it.
Colebatch (a former Age colleague of mine and that paper’s long time economic editor, now commentator-at-large) gets into the detail of Labor’s negative gearing policy and considers its potential consequences for the housing market, as well as examining the political dynamic on the government side.
Colebatch says looking at negative gearing is necessary “because the negative gearing tax break alone is now so widespread that it costs revenue – that is, other taxpayers – between $3bn and $6bn a year, depending on the level of interest rates. In effect, other taxpayers are subsidising the beneficiaries in their aspiration to become landlords.”
Tim Colebatch:
Second, unless rental investment is used to supply new housing – which only 7 per cent is – rental housing can expand only by shrinking owner-occupied housing.
Lower- and middle-income people who want to buy their own home are outbid at the auctions, and forced to remain renters. Sydney housing economist Judith Yates told the recent House of Representatives inquiry into home ownership, under Liberal MP John Alexander, that since 1981 – which was roughly when negative gearing started to spread as a tax avoidance strategy – home ownership rates among households headed by people aged twenty-five to thirty-four have fallen from 61% to 47%.
Among those aged thirty-five to forty-four, they have plunged from 75 to 64%, and among those aged forty-five to fifty-four, from 79 to 73%.
This is a cost of the tax break that’s always ignored by its supporters.
9.57pm GMT
21:57
I did hear an NBN spokesman on the radio a short while ago hosing down that Fairfax story on the delays in the rollout. I’ll chase a direct quote when I get a moment. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Cardinal Pell giving his evidence via video link.
9.52pm GMT
21:52
The great thing about the Politics Live community is you have eyes, everywhere.
@murpharoo Hello! No confirmation yet that the bidding on this old badge comes primarily from certain govt offices. pic.twitter.com/L54vBVkc9S
9.50pm GMT
21:50
Speaking of cross benchers, in the parallel universe that is the #BrickParliament, Jacqui Lambie has some choice words for Nick Xenophon, while friends look on. The sounds of saxophones and clarinets can be heard trilling in the background.
9.41pm GMT
21:41
The other big issue of last week, reforms to the Senate voting system, is still bubbling away in the background.
The voting reform legislation, brought forward last week, abolishes group voting tickets, the party-submitted mechanism determining how preferences flow when people vote “above the line” rather than filling in all the candidate squares “below the line”. The package would also enshrine an optional preferential system above the line. Instead of just voting 1, people would be advised to fill in at least six boxes in their order of preference. The ballots would still be valid if people just voted 1: if their preferred choice did not win, the ballot would “exhaust” and not be reallocated to others.
The government, the Greens and Nick Xenophon support the proposal. Labor has been internally divided on it, but has now resolved to oppose the legislation. The cross benchers who aren’t Nick Xenophon are ropable about the proposal, viewing it as end times for micro parties.
The legislation is being examined by a super fast inquiry by the joint committee on electoral matters. I reported yesterday a submission from constitutional law expert George Williams, who thinks the package an improvement on the status quo – but he’s highlighted problems. He thinks the package as it currently stands is still weighted towards the interests of the major parties rather than the interests of voters. “In particular, introducing optional preferential above-the-line voting, while retaining full preferential voting for below the line, creates an obvious and unfortunate disparity,” Williams says in his submission to the inquiry. “The result will be a system in which below-the-line voting is significantly more onerous, thereby privileging the party-selected voting tickets applied in the case of an above-the-line vote.”
Michelle Grattan has reported a submission from a former official of the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), Michael Maley, who, like Williams, attacks the package as internally inconsistent. “Maley says the scheme proposed will create an anomaly never previously seen at Senate elections – identical preferences for candidates may produce a formal vote if the elector expresses them “above the line”, but an informal one if they are expressed “below the line” because the ballot paper would be insufficiently completed.”
The government has already had to bring forward a bunch of technical amendments when the proposal was put through the House last week – will it have to revisit the package again?
Act in haste, repent at leisure?
9.23pm GMT
21:23
Shalailah Medhora
Looking more closely at the leaked NBN documents, the NBN Co has managed to meet only one-third of its construction targets and less than half of its design targets for fibre to the node rollout of its ambitious national broadband network. The document shows that the fibre to the node (FTTN) roll out is “significantly delayed”. By 12 February, the organisation tasked with the telecommunications infrastructure project, NBC Co, had expected 94,200 construction completions of its FTTN network, but had only managed to complete 29,000 - or one-third - of its targets. Final designs for FTTN rollouts are also behind schedule. Of the nearly 1,403,000 target, just under 663,000 homes had had their final designs completed.
Updated
at 9.24pm GMT
9.21pm GMT
21:21
To some other interesting political stories in the news cycle this morning.
My colleague Lenore Taylor reports that a land-clearing surge in Queensland is set to create additional carbon dioxide emissions in just three years that are equivalent to those the federal government claims it is avoiding by paying other farmers over $670m to stop cutting down trees, according to a new analysis. “The Queensland land clearing along with weakening land clearing laws in several other states are threatening Australia’s chances of meeting the climate change targets it pledged in Paris last year and raising questions about the coalition’s “Direct Action” climate policy,” she says.
Mark Kenny from Fairfax Media reports (via leaked internal documents) that the NBN is being plagued by delays and rising costs. “By the company’s own assessment, the giant infrastructure project has fallen two-thirds short of its benchmark construction timetable. Connection costs to each house or business are also blowing out.”
My colleague Gabrielle Chan has obtained a poll that suggests the former independent, Tony Windsor, could potentially beat the deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce in his seat of New England. “A Reachtel poll of 712 residents in the seat of New England conducted on 11 January found 32.2% would vote for Windsor as their first preference if he returned – compared with 39.5% for Joyce. The poll found 11.2% would vote for Labor and 4.6% would vote for the Greens with 6.2% nominating others including other independents with 5.1% undecided. The Palmer United Party attracted just 1.3%. The polling results suggest if the majority of Labor and Greens preferences flowed towards Windsor, Joyce – who has been Nationals leader for less than three weeks – could lose New England.”
9.09pm GMT
21:09
West Australian Liberal, Chris Back, on the ABC.
I don’t see any reason at all to change the negative gearing processes.
9.04pm GMT
21:04
Welcome to Monday
Hello delightful people and welcome to Monday in Canberra, where the sky is glowering and the humidity is rising and your live blogger is relentlessly stimulant free, just high on politics. And why not? Another parliamentary week looms full of mayhem, mystery and misadventure.
Monday morning thus far has been an orderly business. The early morning news is dominated by Cardinal George Pell and the evidence he will shortly give in Rome to the royal commission into child abuse – and by various pundits who have very strong feelings that this will be Leo’s year at the Oscars.
When we roll round to federal politics, the main theme, as it was last week, is tax, and specifically what the government will or won’t do when it comes to tax reform.
It was beginning to be known late last week, but the prime minister took steps on the weekend to make it officially known that the government would produce a tax policy in advance of the May budget. No-one I spoke to yesterday was prepared to venture a concrete timing for said policy, but Laura Tingle in the Financial Review this morning says April, which is as good a punt as any given April sits neatly between the March parliamentary sittings and the May budget.
Some necessary context to explain this decision. Readers with me last week will know the government decided to go hell for leather slamming Labor’s policy on negative gearing. But the government learned last week that it is very hard to go hell for leather on an alternative policy if: 1. You don’t have a policy yourself; and 2. You are leaving open the option of doing something yourself to wind back negative gearing concessions. Hence the judgment from the Turnbull brains trust that the tax policy release could not wait until the budget.
The other factor looming broodingly in the background is the strong possibility that the government will bring down a budget and sprint off immediately into an election campaign. A pre-budget release of the tax policy would have an added benefit: it would allow a certain amount of dust to settle when it comes to tax, it would give voters five minutes to think about the alternative proposals on offer before being herded into their nearest polling place.
In any case, various backbenchers aren’t waiting for April to make their views known. I’ve quoted two in a story I wrote yesterday: Victorian Liberal Russell Broadbent is relaxed about the prime minister looking at negative gearing, while South Australian Cory Bernardi is in ‘over my dead body’ territory. On ABC radio this morning, West Australian Chris Back is also with Bernardi as president of the ‘not on your negative gearing nelly’ chapter of the Coalition party room. The restiveness points to an interesting Coalition party room meeting on Tuesday, or perhaps an interesting meeting before. The government’s backbench economics committee meets Monday morning, and the treasurer Scott Morrison suggested over the weekend that interested parliamentarians could just show up.
Enough about me, and them. More about you. Today’s comments thread is wide open for your business. Mikearoo and I are also limbering up our hamstrings on the twits. He’s @mpbowers and I’m @murpharoo You can find us there.
Hold onto your losses folks, here comes Monday.