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Scott Morrison says he expects GDP figures to avoid technical recession – politics live
Scott Morrison says he expects GDP figures to avoid technical recession – politics live
(35 minutes later)
12.14am GMT
00:14
Barnaby Joyce is freewheeling on the benefits of decentralisation. He says Bob Hawke previously supported some decentralisation. As did Gough Whitlam BTW. But I digress.
Here is Barnaby:
What’s happened to the Labor Party is it’s lost a vision for the nation and it’s become myopic and is going into the parochial paces of saying they’re going to support where things already are. If that was the vision that was around at the time that they developed the constitution for our nation, before federation,we would not be having this press conference here. There would be a city called Melbourne and a city called Sydney and one of them would be slightly bigger because all of the administrative centres would be there.
12.02am GMT
00:02
Julie Bishop also spoke about her plans to bring home more than 100 diplomatic staff to nut out Australia’s foreign policy.
We hear from them through communications all the time but what we are seeking to do is replace the meetings and the regional meetings that occur regionally or around the world with one significant meeting to gain the insights and perspectives of our most experienced diplomats.
In fact, it’s within the budget. There is no new money required and I believe it’s a very efficient and effective way of hearing from them on their experiences, observations, their real-time experiences. These are people situated in countries, in our missions across the globe, over 100 missions, and they are coming back to Australia to be part of our white paper on foreign policy.
Updated
at 12.04am GMT
12.00am GMT
00:00
By the way, former Howard minister Amanda Vanstone (again) calls Tony Abbott a narcissist.
It’s always been about Tony from the minute he was born.
Whoa! @amandavanstone slaps down @TonyAbbottMHR #sun7 pic.twitter.com/9NXf1fr1wq
The foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, has been asked about it.
Is Tony Abbott a narcissist?
That’s not how I’d describe him.
Updated
at 12.05am GMT
11.47pm GMT
23:47
Hey kids, join the Department of Finance and you get to eat paleo pear and banana bread.
This little video to applaud the features of the department’s graduate program drew a questioning in estimates last night. And a little tittering.
But don’t laugh too hard. There may be a future head of treasury in there.
Updated
at 11.54pm GMT
11.42pm GMT
23:42
Jenny Macklin was trying to knock off the omnibus bill because:
It will hurt pensioners, families, new mums and young Australians while holding childcare assistance and the National Disability Insurance Scheme to ransom;
The motion also called on the government to:
(a) drop their unfair cuts to pensioners, families, new mums and young Australians; and
(b) fix their childcare changes so that vulnerable and disadvantaged children are not worse off and Indigenous and country services do not face closure.
The Labor motion failed.
Updated
at 11.54pm GMT
11.39pm GMT
11.39pm GMT
23:39
23:39
The lower house has moved onto the omnibus/social services/childcare bill. Labor’s Jenny Macklin is trying to amend the legislation. The house in voting now and we could expect on the numbers Labor will lose this vote.
The lower house has moved onto the omnibus/social services/childcare bill. Labor’s Jenny Macklin is trying to amend the legislation. The house in voting now and we could expect on the numbers Labor will lose this vote.
11.36pm GMT
11.36pm GMT
23:36
23:36
Let’s just touch base on the morning
Let’s just touch base on the morning
We have GDP figures coming out at 11.30am.
We have GDP figures coming out at 11.30am.
We have the leader of Nationals Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce and National members and senators launching a new decentralisation campaign at 11am.
We have the leader of Nationals, Barnaby Joyce, and Nationals members and senators launching a new decentralisation campaign at 11am.
Which will be a chance for journalists to quiz him on the workers from the APVMA from Canberra to Joyce’s electorate.
Which will be a chance for journalists to quiz him on the workers from the APVMA from Canberra to Joyce’s electorate.
AAP reported late yesterday from estimates committee:
AAP reported late yesterday from estimates committee:
Senior executives at a pesticides agency being forcibly moved to the electorate of Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce are working from a fast food restaurant as they search for a temporary office.
Senior executives at a pesticides agency being forcibly moved to the electorate of deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce are working from a fast food restaurant as they search for a temporary office.
A dozen staff at the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority were due to move to regional NSW in March, but their hunt for Armidale real estate continues.
A dozen staff at the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority were due to move to regional NSW in March but their hunt for Armidale real estate continues.
“We need a base rather than sitting in McDonald’s using their free wi-fi,” chief executive Kareena Arthy told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra on Tuesday.
“We need a base rather than sitting in McDonald’s using their free wifi,” chief executive Kareena Arthy told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra on Tuesday.
“It (the office) is there really as a practical basis for the APVMA staff who go to Armidale, because honestly, we sit in McDonald’s to do our work.”
“It [the office] is there really as a practical basis for the APVMA staff who go to Armidale because honestly we sit in McDonald’s to do our work.”
Updated
Updated
at 11.36pm GMT
at 11.57pm GMT
11.27pm GMT
11.27pm GMT
23:27
23:27
Updated
Updated
at 11.35pm GMT
at 11.35pm GMT
11.07pm GMT
11.07pm GMT
23:07
23:07
Let me explain the shenanigans in the house.
Let me explain the shenanigans in the house.
The government introduced two bills, one on vulnerable workers and one to remove the requirement of the Fair Work Commission to conduct four-yearly reviews of modern awards from the beginning of 1 January 2018. Labor supports these bills.
The government introduced two bills, one on vulnerable workers and one to remove the requirement of the Fair Work Commission to conduct four-yearly reviews of modern awards from the beginning of 1 January 2018. Labor supports these bills.
The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, introduced them, said they were urgent. So Labor called his bluff and said effectively, bloody oath. Let’s push them through right now.
The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, introduced them, said they were urgent. So Labor called his bluff and said effectively, bloody oath. Let’s push them through right now.
Dutton said, yeah, nah. We don’t want to do it right now.
Dutton said, yeah, nah. We don’t want to do it right now.
So Labor suspended standing orders in the house to allow the bills to be rushed through.
So Labor suspended standing orders in the house to allow the bills to be rushed through.
The house has just voted against the motion to suspend standing orders.
The house has just voted against the motion to suspend standing orders.
Updated
Updated
at 11.15pm GMT
at 11.15pm GMT
10.59pm GMT
10.59pm GMT
22:59
22:59
The house was debating the fair work amendment on vulnerable workers.
The house was debating the fair work amendment on vulnerable workers.
Tony Burke tried to suspend standing orders to debate.
Tony Burke tried to suspend standing orders to debate.
The government gagged him.
The government gagged him.
Then Anthony Albanese tried to take up the suspension motion.
Then Anthony Albanese tried to take up the suspension motion.
The government is now in the process of gagging Albanese.
The government is now in the process of gagging Albanese.
Updated
Updated
at 11.15pm GMT
at 11.15pm GMT
10.33pm GMT
10.33pm GMT
22:33
22:33
The house starts at 9.30am and begins with government business.
The house starts at 9.30am and begins with government business.
The government will introduce a bill to protect vulnerable workers, the omnibus social services/childcare bill and the NDIS savings fund (created for the savings out of the omnibus bill).
The government will introduce a bill to protect vulnerable workers, the omnibus social services/childcare bill and the NDIS savings fund (created for the savings out of the omnibus bill).
10.27pm GMT
22:27
It is the way of governments to rally their base to help push for policy arguments they support. But it would seem there is a little fraying at the edges in the business community over the recent penalty cuts decision by the Fair Work Commission.
Phil Coorey at the Fin reports that the employment minister, Michaelia Cash, has been on the phone to business groups to gear up for an expected fight from Labor, the Greens and unions for the hearts and votes of the 680,000 people effected by the decision.
Senator Cash called the Business Council of Australia chief executive, Jennifer Westacott, the Australian Chamber of Commerce CEO, James Pearson, and the Australian Industry Group’s Innes Willox.
“As part of this discussion they discussed the disgraceful misinformation campaign being waged by unions in relation to the Fair Work Commission’s penalty rate decision,” a spokesman for Senator Cash said.
But the BCA argued its members, the nation’s 127 largest businesses, were not directly affected by the decision and therefore it was not the BCA’s fight.
Willox told the Fin that his group, which argued in support of the FWC, would continue to speak in support but business risked a backlash if they spoke out individually.
Our members and the business community generally are very pleased with the decision but individual business are understandably reluctant to speak up, knowing the risk of union intimidation, thuggery, boycotts or protests.
Updated
at 10.29pm GMT
10.11pm GMT
22:11
Thanks to Matt Doran of the ABC for another Brandis snippet.
When do the words "I recall" take effect, and when don't they? See if you can keep up at home... #estimates pic.twitter.com/8ROO3MTh63
10.10pm GMT
22:10
The treasurer, Scott Morrison, was nonplussed by all the talk about changing 18c, an issue which exercises the conservative end of the Coalition.
As reported earlier, he said it would not create a single job.
Labor’s Ed Husic said it was a joke that the Coalition was now fighting over the outcomes of the human rights committee report, which gave a range of recommendations without any clear call to change the act. Rather, the committee suggested the processes around complaints under the Racial Discrimination Act should change in the first instance. There is disappointment in some quarters of the government and relief in others.
Husic says:
They are fighting about an inquiry they pushed for.
They are hatin’ about hate speech.
Updated
at 10.34pm GMT
10.03pm GMT
22:03
Today, senate estimates continue and the lower house sits at 9.30am.
Community affairs committee has the health department so I’m thinking Medicare freeze.
Economics has treasury head, John Fraser, as well as the Australian Tax Office.
Defence will have the defence minister Marise Payne in the comfy chair. We could see questioning around the Singapore-Australian military training deal which threatened compulsory land acquisitions, among other things.
Education might consider the new education funding agreements yet to be unveiled - the so-called years 5-6 of Gonski and we have the education minister Simon Birmingham in the chair.
9.55pm GMT
21:55
Aforementioned Murray Watt and George Brandis exchange words.
So, Senator Brandis says his statement on the Bell matter is entirely consistent with his WA counterpart.Then this happened. DING DING! pic.twitter.com/WeyeLte2m9
9.53pm GMT
21:53
The Queensland Liberal MP Karen Andrews has given a message on Sky to her fellow members. Knuckle down, she says. But she praised George Christensen for doing the right thing and stepping down as whip.
Updated
at 10.06pm GMT
9.39pm GMT
21:39
Labor senator Murray Watt gives a physical impression of WTF.
Updated
at 9.44pm GMT
9.32pm GMT
21:32
The chairman of Universities Australia, Barney Glover, is due to make an interesting speech to the National Press Club today in defence of experts.
I know experts are passé but there is something to be said for listening to people who know stuff.
Paul Karp reports Glover will say the public square has been overrun by “extremists and polemicists” in the post-truth era. He will warn of a “creeping cynicism – even outright hostility – towards evidence and expertise”.
Who can forget British Conservative MP Michael Gove declaring after the Brexit vote that “the people of this country have had enough of experts”?
Glover will say that expertise is needed to solve problems as broad as curing cancer and preventable disease, navigating technological disruption, lifting living standards, overcoming prejudice and preventing catastrophic climate change.
What a quaint notion.
Updated
at 9.45pm GMT
9.22pm GMT
21:22
Scott Morrison: consensus is GDP figures will be positive
Paul Karp
The treasurer, Scott Morrison, has spoken on ABC’s AM about the GDP figures out today.
He says it is “certainly the consensus” that it will be a positive figure – avoiding a technical recession after the shock 0.5% contraction last quarter.
It was a surprise contraction and it’s my expectation that that will be corrected in today’s figures.
Host Sabra Lane pushes Morrison on whether the government will separate tax cuts for businesses with a turnover of $10m or less because the Senate won’t back a tax cut for big business.
The treasurer says the “Senate will decide”, implying it’s all or nothing, but doesn’t say so explicitly.
Asked about the Fair Work Commission cuts to penalty rates, Morrison repeats the mantra that it’s not the government’s decision to defend but then does back it more strongly than many of his colleagues.
You can’t get a job and you can’t get hours in a business that isn’t open.”
He said the commission had heard “case after case after case” of small business owners who said they work on Sunday because they can’t afford other workers, demonstrating a rate cut could boost employment.
Morrison cited the seat of Gilmore, which has 20% youth unemployment, as a place that could benefit from the decision.
Asked about 18C after a Senate report failed to recommend any particular method to amend the section, Morrison said that he was focused on the budget and changes to the Racial Discrimination Act would not create “one job”.
Updated
at 9.46pm GMT
8.57pm GMT
20:57
Good morning blogans and blatherskites,
Welcome to the first day of autumn, when Canberra turns to colour and not just in the halls of parliament.
Last night, after the legal and constitutional affairs Senate committee managed to put off the attorney general’s statement regarding the Bell litigation for most of the day, Brandis eventually gave a statement. (He had tried earlier in the day but chair Ian Macdonald put him off.)
He was required to make the statement because, in November, he told the Senate that the first “personal involvement” he could recall in the matter was “on 3 March [2016], although my office had been dealing with the matter prior to that time”.
But on Thursday Andrew Probyn of ABC’s 7.30 reported that Brandis spoke to the Western Australian attorney general, Michael Mischin, about Bell on 1 February 2016, although Brandis said he had no recollection of it.
In a joint letter demanding Brandis explain the inconsistency, signed by Penny Wong, Richard Di Natale, Derryn Hinch and Nick Xenophon, the group warned the Senate treats misleading statements “very seriously”.
Last night, Brandis repeatedly told the committee he could not recall the exchange and it would really mislead the Senate if he said he could recall.
At the time I made my November 28 statement, I had no recollection of the exchange to which Mr Mischin refers. I still have no recollection of it. Were I to say that I recall such an exchange, I would be misleading the Senate, because I do not.
I will have more on this throughout the morning.
Katharine Murphy reports that the former treasurer Wayne Swan is going to come out in support of the Buffett rule, where high earners pay a minimum tax rate. The idea is opposed by the current shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, so that will make for some lively caucus debate. Swan says working people voted for Donald Trump “not out of any hard-right ideology or an entrenched racial intolerance but because they no longer saw the Democrats as the party who spoke or acted for them”.
Consider if you’re a truck driver in Logan or a steel worker in Wollongong, you’re constantly told to work harder for less while tax cuts go to the top end – you might suck that up for a while because you have to,” Swan will say.
“All the while you see progressive social issues dominate the news. Eventually you reach a breaking point and your job is sent offshore or made casual.
“Suddenly you’re tossed on the economic scrapheap and, like a drum of kerosene dumped directly on the smouldering fire, your frustration with progressive issues erupts in an inferno of white-hot rage.
“And quite a lot of that rage might express itself with immigration, gender equity or other favoured progressive issues – not because rage by definition doesn’t contain itself very well but very much because the right will always supply scapegoats of various types. Anything to ensure the blame isn’t sheeted home where it really belongs: the policies they designed to fleece working people and redistribute the gains to the top.
George Christensen is feeling the anger. Phil Coorey at the Fin reports that Christensen and fellow Queensland LNP MPs are pushing for a “debranding” of the LNP to respond to it. That is, separating the brands of the Liberal and National party in a state that merged the two parties in 2008.
There is a growing view among MPs and others that there should not be a demerger but a debranding,” he said. This would include, but not be limited to, resorting to the use of separate National and Liberal party logos on electoral material and ballot papers.
This merger crankiness has been an ongoing headache for the Nationals leader, Barnaby Joyce. Over the past year, he has made a number of mercy dashes to Queensland to try to sort out the angst caused by the threat of One Nation. John Howard’s view of the Nats was that they played an important function in holding the space on the right. Sucking them into the one party leaves the parking space open for parties on the right. Like One Nation. Like Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives.
In other news, Amy Remeikis of Fairfax reports that foreign minister Julie Bishop is recalling all Australian ambassadors for a three day meeting to map out Australia’s strategic foreign policy.
Mike Bowers was up late at the Brandis committee so I have more treasures to unveil. Talk to us in the thread or on the Twits @gabriellechan and @mpbowers. My Facebook page is also open for business. Walk with me.
