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| Wayne Swan wins Labor presidency – question time live | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Adam Bandt has the independents’ question: | |
| People in Melbourne are grieving at the death of Eurydice Dixon. Melbourne is full of strong, funny women like Eurydice Dixon, and this is why it is so hard. Thousands of people will be gathering at Princes park around the country to remember Eurydice. Many people are in mourning. Many are angry, and many of us, prime minister, are agreed that whatever we are doing in Australia to change man’s behaviour, we need to do more. And we need to do more so than ever [so we] can feel safe. | |
| Malcolm Turnbull: | |
| Our hearts go out to Eurydice Dixon’s family and loved ones. Our thoughts and prayers are with them … Women must be safe everywhere. On the street, walking though a park, in their homes, at work. We need to ensure that we have a culture of respect for women. Not all disrespect of women is violence against women, but that is where all violence against women begins. And so ensuring that we start from the very start, ensuring that our sons and grandsons respect the women in their lives, is vitally important. We all as parents and grandparents have a duty to do that. And also we have a very profound duty to ensure that our public places, our streets, our parks, are safe places in which to work and walk. I know that we are all united in this. This is not a partisan issue. But, you know, when we sit down with state and local government and work through our city plans and city deals, the key part of that is insuring that we have an environment that is safe. And as my wife Lucy often says, in her capacity as chief commissioner, the greater Sydney commission, a measure of the livability of a city is whether women are safe to walk wherever. And that has got to be another vital priority | |
| This is a heartbreaking tragedy. But what we must do as we grieve is ensure that we change the hearts of men to respect women. We start with the youngest men, the little boys, our sons and grandsons, and make sure that they respect their mothers and sisters and all the women in their lives. As grown men, we must lead by example and treat women with respect and we must ensure that our cities, our towns, our country, everywhere is safe for every Australian to walk and work, whether it is a park, a workplace, whether it is in their own home. That is our commitment. Thank the honourable member for her the question, and I believe, Mr Speaker, that I speak for every honourable member when I say we must never, ever, ever, tolerate violence against women. Eurydice Dixon, we mourn the loss. We grieve with her family. And we say never again | |
| Wayne Swan has put out a release on his ALP presidency win: | |
| It’s an honour and a privilege to be voted the next president of the Australian Labor party. | |
| My thanks to the many thousands of Labor members who participated in this important election, and of course to all the candidates who put themselves forward for the honour and hard work of being president of our party. | |
| My campaign was driven by the belief that Labor’s future lies first and foremost in being clear about what we stand for. | |
| Our success won’t be determined by tinkering with internal processes or by the outcome of votes over single issues at national conferences. | |
| To get new members coming through our door, and a new generation campaigning and voting for us, we have to show them we mean business about creating a better, more democratic and more equal society. | |
| This means getting better at addressing the big picture. Around the world and here in Australia, democracy and equality are under threat from powerful and well-funded vested interests. | |
| We need to take them on and beat them. Labor must be re-organised so it can better fight that battle. We have to be more than a campaign machine for winning elections; we have to be a campaign machine for winning the battle of ideas. | |
| The idea that we live in a corporation, not a community must be defeated for once and for all, and Labor has to take the lead in defeating it. | |
| Ultimately, Labor must restore people’s faith in the idea that collective action through government can create a better society and better lives for all of us. | |
| Winning that battle is the starting point for having Labor governments that can succeed in office | |
| Julie Collins to Malcolm Turnbull: | |
| How is it fair that under this arrogant and out of touch prime minister, a banker from Point Piper, earning $1m, will get a tax cut of $7,000 a year, while a retail worker in Strahan will only get a cut to penalty rates? Is this not what happens when a former banker is running the government and a former banker, Brett Whitely, is running in Braddon? | |
| Turnbull: | |
| Again, here is the main bit: | |
| So what we’re [doing] is providing the incentives, providing the encouragement for Tasmanians to invest and get ahead and they are seeing growth, especially in [Braddon], and above all, we are showing the integrity to treat Tasmanians with respect and not mislead them, as Labor is doing. We are delivering more funding into public health in Tasmania and the only reason we can do that is because of the stronger economy, supported by our economic plan | |
| Scott Morrison sounds like he has a little bit of a cold – his voice barely gets above “wandered past the TV and my second team were up” levels for this dixer. | |
| Tanya Plibersek to Malcolm Turnbull: | |
| Treasury has confirmed that the entire $140bn stage three of the personal income tax scheme goes to the top 20% of income earners. How can a banker from Vaucluse earning $1m get a tax cut of over $7,000 per year while a hospitality worker from Caboolture will only get a tax cut of $10 per week and will have their penalty rates cut as well? | |
| Turnbull: | |
| (There’s some stuff at the beginning, but this sums it up) | |
| What we want to ensure is for that part of the tax system, the income tax system, there is every incentive and no disincentive for people to do more, to have a go, to invest, to be ambitious, to aspire and get ahead. And the Labor party members, they seek to dismiss that in the contemptuous way the honourable member opposite did a moment ago. I say shame on the Labor party. They used to believe in workers getting ahead, they used to believe in giving people a hand. Nowadays they sound very much like a privileged elite that wants to keep the workers in their place | |
| We then move onto the first dixer – which is on “just how strong is our strong economy”, which, after the very serious and necessary addressing of child abuse still occurring, just makes dixers sound all the more stupid. | |
| Bill Shorten to Malcolm Turnbull: | |
| Since this house last sat, the government released its response to the recommendations to the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse. Can the prime minister please update the house on the important recommendations of the royal commission which will help address the wrongs suffered by the survivors of child sexual abuse and help keep children safe in the future. | |
| Turnbull: | |
| The commonwealth has accepted all of the recommendations that relate to it from the royal commission. The ... tragic events of recent times in the Northern Territory, particularly the assault on the young girl in Tennant Creek, is heartbreaking. The protection of children is our most sacred duty. I will ask the minister for social services to go into more detail about precise measures we are undertaking in the Berkeley area. I just want to say that we recognise, as the chief minister Michael Gunner has said to me, that we are dealing with very dysfunctional families facing enormous challenges of substance abuse. | |
| The chief minister has recognised … that the government has failed these children. Their need, as he has acknowledged, to have more senior child protection officers working in the community who have greater confidence to intervene earlier – also vitally important to ensure that people with cultural, particularly speaking about Indigenous committees, people with cultural authority are engaged so that the child protection agencies are working with the Aboriginal communities and people with cultural authority to ensure that there is that support that is provided both from government and from the community when families are failing their children. | |
| He then calls on Dan Tehan to talk some more: | |
| As the prime minister has said, there were specific recommendations, which we are working with the Northern Territory government on. The most important of which is that joint review of children and families, funding and services. We are establishing a commission. That commission will meet in the coming weeks. We are finalising the terms of reference with the Northern Territory government on that commission. Obviously, we are trying to expedite those terms of reference as quickly as we possibly can and we look forward to the first meeting in the coming weeks so we can get on implementing all of the important recommendations which were made by the royal commission. | |
| Back to the story in the Australian this morning, regarding Labor’s dividend imputation policy. | |
| These types of stories have a habit of recurring in Australian politics, like cycles of the moon. | These types of stories have a habit of recurring in Australian politics, like cycles of the moon. |
| Remember in 2013 when Kevin Rudd was prime minister? | Remember in 2013 when Kevin Rudd was prime minister? |
| Rudd claimed Tony Abbott, the then opposition leader, was incorrectly boasting about having found $30bn in savings when Abbott’s own figures showed he’d only found $20bn. | |
| “It is quite clear that there is now a massive $10bn hole in the $30bn that they are claiming,” Rudd said of Abbott’s opposition at the time. | “It is quite clear that there is now a massive $10bn hole in the $30bn that they are claiming,” Rudd said of Abbott’s opposition at the time. |
| Now it’s the Coalition’s turn. | Now it’s the Coalition’s turn. |
| In today’s story, the Coalition asked Treasury to look at Labor’s dividend imputation policy to see what behavioural impacts it will have on shareholders and how much revenue it will generate after shareholders have responded to it. | In today’s story, the Coalition asked Treasury to look at Labor’s dividend imputation policy to see what behavioural impacts it will have on shareholders and how much revenue it will generate after shareholders have responded to it. |
| It calculated Labor’s policy will raise $10bn less over a decade than Labor has claimed ($45.8bn rather than $55.7bn). | |
| Treasury came up with that figure by assuming many shareholders will respond to Labor’s policy by rebalancing their portfolios away from franked dividend-paying shares, and that the size of their behavioural response will differ depending on the source of the franked dividend and the size of the refund. | |
| There’s nothing wrong with that assumption. Research shows people are highly sensitive to tax rates on different savings options, and that people do tend to shift their savings towards tax-preferred vehicles. If Labor does eventually remove refundable imputation credits then some people will shift their investments away from high-yielding Australian equities into other things. | There’s nothing wrong with that assumption. Research shows people are highly sensitive to tax rates on different savings options, and that people do tend to shift their savings towards tax-preferred vehicles. If Labor does eventually remove refundable imputation credits then some people will shift their investments away from high-yielding Australian equities into other things. |
| But the real question is what the revenue impact will be on Labor’s budget bottom line after shareholders have changed their behaviour. | But the real question is what the revenue impact will be on Labor’s budget bottom line after shareholders have changed their behaviour. |
| The problem is, we don’t really know. That’s because Labor’s policy was modelled by the Parliamentary Budget Office, and the PBO said it took behavioural changes into account but we don’t know what those assumptions are because Labor has refused to release the modelling. | The problem is, we don’t really know. That’s because Labor’s policy was modelled by the Parliamentary Budget Office, and the PBO said it took behavioural changes into account but we don’t know what those assumptions are because Labor has refused to release the modelling. |
| So, the Coalition is essentially using today’s story to try to force Labor to release the assumptions underpinning its PBO modelling. | So, the Coalition is essentially using today’s story to try to force Labor to release the assumptions underpinning its PBO modelling. |
| It’s all pretty messy, and tedious. Surely voters are sick of these games. | It’s all pretty messy, and tedious. Surely voters are sick of these games. |
| Labor’s responded by questioning the legitimacy of the Treasury analysis because it turns out the analysis was put together by a Treasury official who used to be a staffer for Kelly O’Dwyer and Mitch Fifield, and who was also a former vice-president of the Young Liberals. | Labor’s responded by questioning the legitimacy of the Treasury analysis because it turns out the analysis was put together by a Treasury official who used to be a staffer for Kelly O’Dwyer and Mitch Fifield, and who was also a former vice-president of the Young Liberals. |
| And now Chris Bowen, the shadow treasurer, has written to Treasury secretary John Fraser asking him to explain what the Treasury “analysis” is all about. | |
| He asked Fraser if Treasury has even modelled Labor’s policy, or if it simply modelled a policy that shared characteristics with Labor’s policy. | He asked Fraser if Treasury has even modelled Labor’s policy, or if it simply modelled a policy that shared characteristics with Labor’s policy. |
| “He replied that [Treasury was] asked by the government to cost a policy relating to the deniability of refundability of franking credits to certain entities,” Bowen said. | “He replied that [Treasury was] asked by the government to cost a policy relating to the deniability of refundability of franking credits to certain entities,” Bowen said. |
| Brendan Coates, from the Grattan Institute thinktank, says Labor and the Coalition need to release the assumptions underpinning their various modelling exercises for transparency’s sake. | |
| “We simply don’t know what assumptions the PBO and Treasury have made,” Coates told Guardian Australia. | “We simply don’t know what assumptions the PBO and Treasury have made,” Coates told Guardian Australia. |
| “The behavioural responses are very complex, so there’s significant uncertainty regarding the revenue that will be collected from the policy change.” | “The behavioural responses are very complex, so there’s significant uncertainty regarding the revenue that will be collected from the policy change.” |
| The votes for the Labor presidency were: | The votes for the Labor presidency were: |
| Wayne Swan – 46.94% | Wayne Swan – 46.94% |
| Mark Butler – 37.69% | Mark Butler – 37.69% |
| Mish-Elle Myers – 10.94% | Mish-Elle Myers – 10.94% |
| Claire Moore – 4.3 % | Claire Moore – 4.3 % |
| Myers, a Maritime Union officer, was put forward in a move seen as an attempt to divide the left vote – and it looks like it worked. Her 11%, assuming it all went to Butler (and for left unions, it most likely would have) would have just got him over the line. | Myers, a Maritime Union officer, was put forward in a move seen as an attempt to divide the left vote – and it looks like it worked. Her 11%, assuming it all went to Butler (and for left unions, it most likely would have) would have just got him over the line. |
| Butler had talked about reform of union powers in Senate selections and the like, while Swan ran a campaign based on inequality. | Butler had talked about reform of union powers in Senate selections and the like, while Swan ran a campaign based on inequality. |
| It’s largely a ceremonial position – but is on the national executive so the president is powerful, from an institutional point of view. | It’s largely a ceremonial position – but is on the national executive so the president is powerful, from an institutional point of view. |
| The votes are in – and Wayne Swan will take over as ALP president from Mark Butler. | The votes are in – and Wayne Swan will take over as ALP president from Mark Butler. |
| I’ll bring you some more on that as soon as I can. | I’ll bring you some more on that as soon as I can. |