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Labor targets Coalition MPs who say voters penalty rate cut is positive – question time live 'I feel very sad' for Pauline Hanson, says Australia Post's Ahmed Fahour – question time live
(35 minutes later)
3.33am GMT 4.08am GMT
03:33 04:08
Labor’s Tony Burke has asked a backbencher Andrew Laming a question, in his position as chair of the standing committee on employment, education and training. He wants to know whether Laming, a bit of a rebel, would consider public hearings into the penalty rate cuts. Labor’s Tanya Plibersek to Turnbull: I refer to the Prime Minister’s answer to my question yesterday. Does the Prime Minister acknowledge that 77% of pharmacy workers are women? Did the Prime Minister avoid mentioning these workers yesterday because he knows that cutting wages in female dominated industries will increase the gender pay gap?
Burke says it is in order. Christopher Pyne, as leader of the house, says it is not in order. Turnbull says of FWC president Iain Ross:
Speaker Tony Smith allows the question. The president comes from a lifetime’s experience in the Australian Council of Trade unions. So there is no question about their backgrounds and their experience.They considered, very carefully, the modern award’s objective of maintaining equal rates of pay between men and women for comparable work, and that’s one of the objectives of modern awards. They considered that. And they concluded that the awards that they agreed on were appropriate ones. Now, we support the independent umpire doing that detailed work.
Laming says the committee will consider it at its next meeting, given the public hearings are already scheduled. 4.04am GMT
3.28am GMT 04:04
03:28 Labor to Shorten: Last financial year, Harvey Norman increased the profit by 30% to over $348m. If the prime minister gets his way, it will also receive a generous tax cut. At the same time, the decision to cut penalty rates will mean thousands of Harvey Norman workers will have their pay cut. Is this the prime minister’s Australia? Taxpayer-funded handouts to big business, but pay cuts for hardworking Australians?
3.27am GMT Turnbull again asks if Labor has checked whether the workers are on an enterprise bargaining agreement or a modern award.
03:27 He repeats his statement that the Fair Work Commission is an independent umpire which spent a lot of time assessing its decision.
Denison independent Andrew Wilkie to Turnbull: I met recently with Daryl Gangel, who has now lost his part pension and must live on just $26,000 a year from his superannuation. This is barely above the poverty line. I’ve also met with [those on] defined superannuation benefits who have had the pensions slashed and are also struggling. Prime Minister, the government is doing no better with aged care, despite my repeated representations, and in particular, it’s gutted funding for residential care to the tune of $1.2bn. Prime Minister, what will you do to end this ruthless campaign against older Australians?
Turnbull says the changes only apply to those with significant assets apart from the family home.
He said the expectation is that “people will draw down on the assets to support themselves in retirement where they can”.
He reminds the parliament that Labor and the Greens supported the changes and John Howard was responsible for them.
Now, in 2007, when the government was banking surpluses and had billions of dollars in the bank, the asset test was made more generous. That decision was changed, as I said, around 18 months ago in the middle of 2015. Times had changed and we had to live within our means, and that was the tough decision that was taken by the government.
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3.22am GMT 3.59am GMT
03:22 03:59
Labor’s Jason Clare to Turnbull: The trade minister said today about people impacted by the cuts to penalty rates, and I quote, “It’s only those on the margins.” Why does this government think that a wage cut of up to $77 a week of nearly 700,000 low paid Australian workers is just a marginal issue? Ahmed Fahour is feeling sad for Pauline
Turnbull: While the question time hurly burly thunders overhead, the Australia Post CEO Ahmed Fahour is in the estimates chair.
No individual in this parliament had more to do with setting up that review of modern awards and penalty rates than the leadership. He owns it, it’s his process. Is he seriously suggesting that it never occurred to him that any of these penalty rates would be reduced? He has faced questions about Pauline Hanson’s role in his departure from the organisation in the middle of a furore about his remuneration package. The committee chair, Liberal senator Linda Reynolds, was inclined to shut the questioning down when it came around to issues of race and ethnicity, but the questions went ahead despite her initial reservation.
This is what trade minister Steve Ciobo said. Hanson was chief among the critics of Fahour once his $5.6m package became a matter of public record. She was also critical of his decision to make a donation to an Islamic museum out of the proceeds of his executive bonus. Fahour was asked whether there was a racial dimension to her criticism. (Hanson denies this, for the record.)
Council of Small Business said that 80% of people will not be affected by this decision … because they’re on EBAs. So it’s only those on the margins, the 20% that are likely to be affected. He took a long pause before answering.
Ahmed Fahour:
I felt really sad for the Senator that she would descend to that level of commentary. I felt it was very ill-informed. I also felt it was hurtful to my wife, who is English-Irish and went to a Catholic school, and our four beautiful children.
We love our country. I love my country so much. So I feel sorry for Senator Hanson.
We came here legitimately. We assimilated, and we love being in this country.
It’s interesting to note that Hanson is not at today’s estimates hearing, where she could have pursued Fahour across the estimates table.
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3.17am GMT 3.56am GMT
03:17 03:56
3.15am GMT Trade minister Steve Ciobo has been up late writing jokes. He answered a government question and riffed on the Oscars.
03:15 There was actually power on in South Australia today and that meant that they could actually broadcast the Oscars. And I have to say, there were a few envelope stuff-ups yesterday.
Let me give are recap. Because there’s no doubt that the Oscar for best special effects should have gone to the former treasurer, the Member for Lilley, [Wayne Swan because] he made his surplus disappear. And may I say Mr Speaker, that the Oscar for best supporting actor should have gone for the member for Grayndler [Anthony Albanese] for the role in Get Shorten - sorry, Get Shorty!
Coming out of the most recent role as the man with two faces, the Leader of the Opposition should receive the Oscar because in his renewable energy La La Land, everyone will be living in Moonlight.
3.51am GMT
03:51
Shorten to Turnbull: Can the prime minister explain to the house why when company profits have increased by almost $26bn to record levels, he wants to cut company tax? And when there is record low wages growth, he does nothing to stop wage cuts of up to $77 a week for Australians? Prime Minister, why is it when profits are surging, companies get more and when wages are flat, workers get even less under your government?
Turnbull quotes previous Shorten support for company tax cuts.
Economics has been thrown out the window. We are now in a parallel populist universe of the leader of the opposition where apparently, there is no connection between the rate of tax companies pay and what they invest. That’s La La Land. Another part of La La Land says that you can stop trading with other countries and you can be a protectionist.
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3.46am GMT
03:46
Where is Pauline Hanson? After bragging about Aus Post she hasn't shown up to Senate Estimates. pic.twitter.com/XcpSdy718N
3.43am GMT
03:43
I am not sure what is going on here.
Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce in #QT @gabriellechan @GuardianAus @murpharoo #politicslive pic.twitter.com/eafzGWQ4Zs
3.42am GMT
03:42
Government question to Peter Dutton on restoring integrity to the migration program.
3.41am GMT
03:41
Labor’s Tony Burke to Turnbull: In question time a few moments ago, the prime minister said that he supported the penalty rates decision and also said, “We support the independent umpire whether it is the courts or the Fair Work Commission.” Given this parliament regularly changes the law following the decision of courts and tribunals when they are not what the government wanted, including when the government abolished the road safety remuneration policy, they’re doing exactly that on native title before the Senate now. Is the reason the prime minister refuses to act in this simply because he supports the pay cut?
Turnbull again quotes Shorten’s support of the “independent umpire”, the Fair Work Commission.
Here’s a real fact to bear in mind. A person working in a dress shop, a clothing shop, is entitled to be paid $38.88 an hour on a Sunday, as a shop assistant.
If they’re working for Target, just down the road, they can be paid $31.02 an hour. Why? Because there’s been a deal done with the union. The union of which the member for Watson was an organiser has traded away their penalty rates and doing so in a manner that disadvantages small business.
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3.37am GMT
03:37
Paul KarpPaul Karp
Sam Dastyari is trying to drill down into whether Australia Post’s chairman, John Stanhope, had discussions with the government about executive pay before it blew up as an issue in October. Australia Post chairman, John Stanhope, has already conceded it was a mistake that it did not disclose the CEO’s pay when the regime changed in 2015 (and no longer required it).
Stanhope does not recall a discussion with communications minister, Mitch Fifield, although Fifield said he had mentioned when he became minister that executive pay was a matter that drew attention from time to time. The committee is now asking chief executive, Ahmed Fahour, if he will also join the mea culpa.
Stanhope does remember a discussion with then-communications minister Malcolm Turnbull about pay, in which Turnbull queried why it was so high closer to September 2013. Stanhope said it was to attract executive talent, because Australia Post is a parcel business that competes with commercial operations. At first, he won’t repeat that it was a mistake:
There’s a kerfuffle as Dastyari keeps calling Turnbull the “prime minister” rather than “then-communications minister”. The cheeky Labor senator quips that Turnbull was “planning to be but wasn’t yet [prime minister]”. That’s not a matter for me anymore. My opinion is no longer relevant. We did everything we were required to.
3.13am GMT Sam Dastyari tries again asking about the perception that Australia Post was not being transparent. Fahour backs the chairman and says “clearly it’s regrettable” in relation to that perception.
03:13 3.36am GMT
Labor to Turnbull: Does Government policy agree with the member for Chisholm who told Kristina Keneally on Sky Today that she would be telling her electorate the decision to cut penalty rates for 700,000 Australians is a good thing? 03:36
Question time is continuing as it did yesterday. Christopher Pyne gets a government question on Labor’s ideological approach to renewable energy.
Labor is hammering the penalty rate cut. Turnbull is saying Labor supported the Fair Work Commission and it is the independent umpire. Labor appointed the five members of the FWC.
3.05am GMT
03:05
Shorten to Turnbull: Can the prime minister confirm his colleague, the Liberal member for Gilmore, was describing Government policy when she said, “It’s a gift for our young people that their penalty rates that been cut?”
Turnbull says the hardworking member for Gilmore knows the penalty cut will create more employment opportunities by allowing small businesses to open on weekends.
Let me look at the comparison between big business and small business. This is a very important issue. Now, we stand for small business. Labor invariably lines up with big business. How is it that a small take away business pays $29.16 on a Sunday for an employee under the award, whereas McDonalds down the street can pay $21.08 for the same worker doing the same work? Why? Because they’ve done a deal with the union.
3.00am GMT
03:00
I’ll just cross to question time now but Paul Karp will keep us up to date on Ahmed Fahour.
2.56am GMT
02:56
John Stanhope says Aus Post salary structures are referenced on salaries offered by similar businesses which are major global parcel companies.
He underlined that the board does not need to seek permission for the salary but communication of the salary to government has been traditionally through the annual report.
In 2014-15, it was no longer a requirement.
He said it was a mistake not to disclose the salary (voluntarily).
Stanhope says he will disclose the 2014-15 salary – on notice. That is, not now.
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at 2.58am GMT at 3.36am GMT