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Labor steps up its campaign against Senate voting reform – politics live
Labor steps up its campaign against Senate voting reform – politics live
(35 minutes later)
11.58pm GMT
23:58
All the channel surfing required this morning is preventing me from catching some of the best lines of various proceedings. In the JSCEM, David Leyonhjelm, has just asked a question about Antony Green. I think he was trying to discount one of his points on the basis of a legal action (but I didn’t hear the full exchange.)
Tony Nutt brushes this off. He notes that Green works for the ABC ..
.. which last time I looked was not a lick spittle apologist for my party.
11.51pm GMT
23:51
Meanwhile, a dispatch from the Coalition party room.
Reports from inside Coalition Party Room: Tony Abbott "laid down the challenge on tax". Calling on leadership to make savings not lift taxes
Tony. Helping.
Meanwhile, Tony Nutt, in JSCEM.
The truth is only God and Malcolm Turnbull knows when the election will be, and neither have told me.
11.48pm GMT
23:48
Meanwhile, the interwebz.
@mpbowers @murpharoo @GuardianAus enhanced for dramatic effect pic.twitter.com/ibwG7THcPr
11.47pm GMT
23:47
The federal director of the Liberal party, who has just introduced himself as Tony Basil Nutt, is in the chair at JSCEM. Nutt is talking group voting tickets with Labor’s Stephen Conroy.
Stephen Conroy:
The total people who understand how the science and the maths [of group voting tickets] work is a very small number.
Conroy wants Nutt to nominate how many people he believes would understand the science of group voting tickets. Nutt agrees that would be a quite limited number.
Possibly just you and Gary Gray, seems to be Conroy’s inference. Nutt declines to be offended by what he calls a flick on the way through.
11.38pm GMT
23:38
Busy morning, where are things up to?
While the JSCEM is on a tea break, a quick summary to take stock in the event you are just tuning in.
And on we go.
11.25pm GMT
23:25
Portrait of an excitement machine.
11.23pm GMT
11.23pm GMT
23:23
23:23
Behind you. Cory, behind you.
Behind you. Cory, behind you.
11.17pm GMT
11.17pm GMT
23:17
23:17
Meanwhile, sitting up the back of the party room.
Meanwhile, sitting up the back of the party room.
11.11pm GMT
11.11pm GMT
23:11
23:11
Antony Green and Stephen Conroy are engaged in a willing discussion about the merits of voting above the line.
Antony Green and Stephen Conroy are engaged in a willing discussion about the merits of voting above the line.
Conroy points out that many people are happy to vote above the line, and the party’s preference deals are publicly available for people who want to be very clear about the implications of their vote.
Conroy points out that many people are happy to vote above the line, and the party’s preference deals are publicly available for people who want to be very clear about the implications of their vote.
Green says people vote above the line because it is too complex to vote below the line.
Green says people vote above the line because it is too complex to vote below the line.
Antony Green
Antony Green
You have been herding people above the line for the last three decades! It’s a herding process to make people vote above the line.
You have been herding people above the line for the last three decades! It’s a herding process to make people vote above the line.
11.03pm GMT
11.03pm GMT
23:03
23:03
Mackerras.
Mackerras.
The [Senate voting] system is unconstitutional!
The [Senate voting] system is unconstitutional!
Q: And has been since 1984?
Q: And has been since 1984?
Yes.
Yes.
10.57pm GMT
10.57pm GMT
22:57
22:57
Back to the JSCEM. Malcolm Mackerras is fomenting revolution. He says senators must challenge this new Senate voting regime if it happens to pass the parliament. He says the system being proposed is the worst of all worlds.
Back to the JSCEM. Malcolm Mackerras is fomenting revolution. He says senators must challenge this new Senate voting regime if it happens to pass the parliament. He says the system being proposed is the worst of all worlds.
Have a system based on principle. Have a decent system. It will get a good reputation. Let the chips fall where they may.
Have a system based on principle. Have a decent system. It will get a good reputation. Let the chips fall where they may.
Updated
Updated
at 11.05pm GMT
at 11.05pm GMT
10.54pm GMT
22:54
Excitements and filibusters
Turnbull has a section in this morning’s pep talk on Senate reform. The government is trying to put choice in the hands of the people, while Labor wants to keep power with the power brokers, the prime minister says.
Now the Labor party supported these changes, as you know in the unanimous joint standing committee recommendation sometime ago that Tony Smith so ably chaired. And now, for pure political purposes because they see a tactical advantage, they are filibustering in the Senate and standing in the way of this reform!
Labor is standing in the way.
Then back to the excitements + naughty Labor.
We have a strong case because what we offer Australians is a clear vision, a clear vision with every measure, every policy counting towards the achievement of the great jobs, the great opportunities of the 21st century.
These are the most exciting times to be alive. This is the most exciting time to be an Australian but we need the vision, the plans, the measures to take us there. We have them and Labor’s answer is simply to stand in the way of that progress.
Updated
at 11.04pm GMT
10.46pm GMT
22:46
Meanwhile, the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, is delivering a pep talk to the Coalition party room with cameras present. He’s in ‘I’m the innovation prime minister’ mode.
There is much ‘hear hearing’ from the colleagues.
Malcolm Turnbull
We know these are the most exciting times! We’ve got to have the right policies to deal with it.
Labor – well they are standing in the way of the new economy, and sinking the value of the family home.
Updated
at 11.04pm GMT
10.43pm GMT
22:43
Stephen Conroy asks Green about a blog post where he suggested the new system would be beneficial for the Coalition and for Nick Xenophon. He’s not inclined to repeat that here. Green notes the last election is hard to model because of the large number of candidates.
10.35pm GMT
22:35
Ricky Muir in this morning’s committee hearing, with a couple of crossbench friends. Things that make you go hmmmm.
Updated
at 10.51pm GMT
10.31pm GMT
22:31
Up now at JSCEM we have professor George Williams, the ABC’s election analyst Antony Green, psephologist Malcolm Mackerras and Kevin Bonham from the University of Tasmania.
Each are making opening statements.
Williams says the Senate voting system needs reform but this bill only does half the job. He outlines his argument about the disparity between above the line and below the line being a problem. Optional preferential should apply for at least six below the line, Williams says, both as a point of principle and also to ensure the new regime can’t be challenged in the high court.
Green agrees the disparity could allow a foot in the door for a high court challenge. He says it’s good action is being taken to reform the system, but it should have happened sooner.
Mackerras is back with Doc Evatt, and in the present with the big party conspiracy, and Gary Gray’s dummy spit. He says he looks forward to the inevitable high court case with both fear and delight.
That’s a tough act to follow for Kevin Bonham but he’s cracking on on a crackly line from Tasmania. No, the line is lost. The committee will have to call him back.
Updated
at 10.43pm GMT
10.18pm GMT
22:18
Meanwhile, outside the building.
Updated
at 10.41pm GMT
10.15pm GMT
22:15
LDP senator David Leyonhjelm wonders when Tom Rogers’ “three months” clock starts? Now, or when the bill is passed?
Not now, says the commissioner.
Until the legislation passes it is difficult for us to implement it.
Updated
at 10.41pm GMT
10.13pm GMT
22:13
The electoral commissioner is asked about a submission from Michael Maley, a former AEC official.
Maley argues in his submission to JSCEM 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.
Stephen Conroy asks whether the commissioner accepts that Maley has expertise in this field.
Tom Rogers
He absolutely does.
So it he right?
Rogers says Maley has expressed a number of different views in his submission. He says he has no view on his political statement about the dichotomy above and below the line.
I have no view on that.
Rogers says the AEC will be advising Australians to lodge a formal vote.
Updated
at 10.41pm GMT
10.03pm GMT
22:03
Nick Xenophon wants to know how difficult it would be to amend the bill to fix the problems a couple of experts have raised – the disparity between practices above the line and below the line.
As constitutional law expert George Williams put it:
In particular, introducing optional preferential above-the-line voting, while retaining full preferential voting for below the line, creates an obvious and unfortunate disparity. 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.
The AEC officials don’t know how complicated this would be because they haven’t considered it. Can you consider it, Xenophon wants to know. Be good if you could.
Updated
at 10.13pm GMT
10.00pm GMT
22:00
Crossbencher Ricky Muir isn’t convinced the AEC will have the time it needs to get the change implemented.
Tom Rogers repeats his advice that three months is the minimum.
If the bill changes significantly I will need to review that. If we don’t get the time we need and the funding we need its going to be very difficult to implement.
