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Peter Dutton misses deadline to hand over Manus Paladin document – politics live Minister 'intervention' in Newstart report 'very dangerous precedent', Labor says – politics live
(32 minutes later)
Rex Patrick also has concerns about the temporary exclusion order bill:
.@Senator_Patrick says it’s ‘disturbing’ the recommendations from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security haven’t been adopted in full in relation to the foreign fighters bill. MORE: https://t.co/ykweMevBOK #amagenda pic.twitter.com/Bp2yPYKshb
Peter Dutton was on ABC radio this morning talking about why the government rejected some of the recommendations of the security and intelligence committee:
There were 19 recommendations. We accept 17. And we’ll implement their recommendations, but the Government, at the end of the day, relies not only on the advice from the committee, made up of Labor and Liberal members, but also, of course - and predominantly - the agencies, including ASIO, ASIS, my own intelligence units within Home Affairs, and we make decisions that we believe are in the best interests of the country.
And excluding people on a temporary basis from coming back to our country to cause harm is an absolute priority of the Government.
So, we look at all of that information, and we make decisions that we believe are in the best interest. There is an ability for the minister to make a decision under legislation.
Each decision, every decision, is reviewed by a retired judge or a member of the AAT. That process is in place. There is also an ability for matters to be heard right up to the High Court, but the Federal Court to start with.
So, there are checks and balances in place now.But you don’t have faith in a retired judge to make these decisions? Our judgement is, particularly in cases where you need to make an urgent decision, that that case is best considered by the minister, and then reviewed. We’re happy for the review to take place.
It’s an important check and balance. But as is the case with passport cancellations, for example, where the Foreign Minister might make a decision, that decision is made by the minister, and that’s consistent with legislation and practice under both Liberal and Labor over a long period of time.
Peter Dutton will hold a press conference at 11.45pm in the blue room - the second most fancy press conference location.
There is a lot of aqua in the public gallery as Zali Steggall delivers her first speech and a pretty big cheer from that same quarter when she mentions defeating Tony Abbott
Liberal backbench senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells continues to make her push for a broader “religious freedom act” than the defensive religious discrimination act currently being developed by attorney-general Christian Porter.
In the adjournment debate in the Senate on Tuesday night, detailed nine cases of apparent religious discrimination as she saw it.
The cases included those already publicly aired, including a wedding photographer sued for refusing to provide services to a same-sex wedding (the case was dropped), a student being investigated for comments about not agreeing with the “lifestyle” of a gay friend (the case was dropped), a teacher who was investigated during the postal survey for posting on social media articles about “homosexual marriage” (the case was dropped).
There was also a case about a Christian family being rejected for fostering children because of their beliefs.
“This is no dream; it is a reality. For those involved it has become a nightmare,” Fierravanti-Wells said. “This is supposed to be modern-day Australia, supposedly democratic and free. But this was not the case and isn’t the case for these people. You or I could be the next victims.”
It should be noted many of these situations are something gay people also face from religious organisations. For example, the Perth case where a teacher lost employment after revealing on social media he was in a same-sex relationship
Craig Kelly has a friend in the Australian Taxpayers’ Association:
Allowing wealthy individuals who live in multi-million dollar palatial mansions to claim handouts funded by hardworking middle and working class taxpayers is an unconscionable rort that must end now if our pension system is to be sustainable in the decades to come.” ATA director of policy Satya Marar, said in a statement.
“The pension isn’t some entitlement you get simply because you pay into the system over your working life. It’s meant to provide a safety net for those who genuinely need it. There’s nothing cruel or unfair about requiring wealthy Australians to support themselves with their own wealth by downsizing before depending on the government.
“Means-tested welfare is a shrewd, fair principle and pension eligibility is no exception.
“Both major parties have baulked at this commonsense change out of fear of political consequences. But the consequences of doing nothing and ratcheting up billions more in tax bills or unsustainable public debt to fund those who don’t need it are far worse. We commend Craig Kelly MP for recognising the need for this timely and taxpayer-friendly reform.”
Jim Chalmers on Rob Harris’s story that Paul Fletcher, the then social-services minister, intervened to remove a recommendation Newstart be raised from a bipartisan parliamentary committee report before the election.
I don’t involve myself in the goings on of that committee, but I think what is clear from the reports that have come out today, is that the report was going to recommend working towards an increase to Newstart, the government intervened at the last minute.
“They seem to be the only ones who don’t recognise the need for consideration for a need for change here.”
Linda Burney:
“Not only the minister, but the then minister for social services intervened and that is a very, very, very dangerous precedent”
Zali Steggall is delivering her first speech in the chamber.
Just to make it clear: a quorum for the House is 31 government MPs (moved up from 30 after an additional electorate was added at the last election). Usually, no one cares. people have meetings, the parliament runs, yadda, yadda, yadda. But given that the opposition was messed around on Monday, when the government rushed through legislation it didn’t actually have to rush through, Labor is making life a bit difficult for the government.
I imagine those quorum bells are going to ring quite a few times in the near future.
Labor’s claim that the pension assets test will be changed to include the value of the family home is a lie. It’s not our policy and never will be.Labor’s claim that the pension assets test will be changed to include the value of the family home is a lie. It’s not our policy and never will be.
If anyone is wondering why Labor is playing so hard ball in the lower house, the manager of opposition business Tony Burke foreshadowed on Monday that it would not play nice. If anyone is wondering why Labor is playing hard ball in the lower house, the manager of opposition business, Tony Burke, foreshadowed on Monday that it would not play nice.The government pushed through the drought fund bill by suspending standing orders and moving straight to third reading on Monday, without giving Labor 24 hours for the bill to go to caucus – and with the consequence that MPs didn’t have time to read the bill.
The government pushed through the drought fund bill by suspending standing orders and moving straight to third reading on Monday, without giving Labor 24 hours for the bill to go to caucus - and with the consequence that MPs didn’t have time to read the bill. On Monday Burke warned that rushing the legislation through was a “really dumb idea” and made vague threats that “if the government decides proper process in this House no longer matters” it can’t come to the opposition seeking cooperation on other procedural matters.
On Monday Burke warned that rushing the legislation through was a “really dumb idea” and made vague threats that “if the government decides proper process in this house no longer matters” they can’t come to the opposition seeking cooperation on other procedural matters.So this morning’s shenanigans seem like straight-up payback. So this morning’s shenanigans seem like straight-up payback.
The Australian Council of Social Services has responded to this report from Rob Harris at the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age:The Australian Council of Social Services has responded to this report from Rob Harris at the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age:
A bipartisan call to increase the Newstart allowance was removed from a parliamentary report at the direction of the Morrison government on the eve of the federal election.A bipartisan call to increase the Newstart allowance was removed from a parliamentary report at the direction of the Morrison government on the eve of the federal election.
As Prime Minister Scott Morrison stares down growing demands by Coalition MPs to lift the unemployment benefit for the first time since 1994, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age can reveal former social services minister Paul Fletcher intervened in an inquiry to erase a major recommendation that would have turbo-charged the sensitive issue.As Prime Minister Scott Morrison stares down growing demands by Coalition MPs to lift the unemployment benefit for the first time since 1994, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age can reveal former social services minister Paul Fletcher intervened in an inquiry to erase a major recommendation that would have turbo-charged the sensitive issue.
Acting Acoss CEO Jacqueline Phillips: Here’s the acting Acoss CEO, Jacqueline Phillips:
“It’s outrageous that a Government Minister would step in and change a Parliamentary Inquiry’s recommendations, which should be based purely on evidence presented to the Inquiry. It’s outrageous that a Government Minister would step in and change a Parliamentary Inquiry’s recommendations, which should be based purely on evidence presented to the Inquiry.
“Rather than trying to avoid the issue, the Government should listen to the clear calls from the community, business sector and economists, for an increase to Newstart, which would reduce poverty, stimulate the economy and create jobs. Rather than trying to avoid the issue, the Government should listen to the clear calls from the community, business sector and economists, for an increase to Newstart, which would reduce poverty, stimulate the economy and create jobs.
“It’s telling that a Parliamentary Inquiry, made up of members from the Coalition, Labor and the crossbench, appears to have come to the conclusion, before the election, that Newstart needs to be increased. It’s telling that a Parliamentary Inquiry, made up of members from the Coalition, Labor and the crossbench, appears to have come to the conclusion, before the election, that Newstart needs to be increased.
“This shows that we can achieve bipartisan support on increasing Newstart, as does the growing consensus across Parliament, including agreement from majority of Nationals MPs. This shows that we can achieve bipartisan support on increasing Newstart, as does the growing consensus across Parliament, including agreement from majority of Nationals MPs.
“We call on the Government to urgently reconsider its position. The time to act on Newstart is now. We call on the Government to urgently reconsider its position. The time to act on Newstart is now.
This has happened three times now – there have not been enough government members in the chamber for a quorum.This has happened three times now – there have not been enough government members in the chamber for a quorum.
I take back everything I said about missing the bells.I take back everything I said about missing the bells.
The bells are ringing again, but not for a division. Member for McEwen @RobMitchellMP has drawn the Speaker's attention 'to the state of the House', which means a quorum is not currently present. The bells are rung, calling Members to the Chamber. pic.twitter.com/qxshBAYvDKThe bells are ringing again, but not for a division. Member for McEwen @RobMitchellMP has drawn the Speaker's attention 'to the state of the House', which means a quorum is not currently present. The bells are rung, calling Members to the Chamber. pic.twitter.com/qxshBAYvDK
Member for Werriwa @AnneWerriwa has drawn the Speaker's attention once more to the state of the House. The bells ring again for a quorum call.Member for Werriwa @AnneWerriwa has drawn the Speaker's attention once more to the state of the House. The bells ring again for a quorum call.
Member for Lalor @JoanneRyanLalor has drawn the Speaker's attention to the state of the House, prompting a quorum call.Member for Lalor @JoanneRyanLalor has drawn the Speaker's attention to the state of the House, prompting a quorum call.
Jim Chalmers and Linda Burney will hold a door stop on Craig Kelly’s latest intervention in just a few minutes.Jim Chalmers and Linda Burney will hold a door stop on Craig Kelly’s latest intervention in just a few minutes.
Kristina Keneally was just on Sky News, talking about what she sees as the consequences of the government rejecting recommendations from the joint committee on security and intelligence:Kristina Keneally was just on Sky News, talking about what she sees as the consequences of the government rejecting recommendations from the joint committee on security and intelligence:
I would say the government has sought to blow up the compact of the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security.I would say the government has sought to blow up the compact of the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security.
If you will, this is the beginning, unfortunately, of the compact of a committee which has worked very well and unlike any other committee, has produced bipartisan recommendations that have improved every piece of national security legislation.If you will, this is the beginning, unfortunately, of the compact of a committee which has worked very well and unlike any other committee, has produced bipartisan recommendations that have improved every piece of national security legislation.
Now if the government is intent on on disregarding the recommendations and not working with the committee, it may be that some of the government’s recommended changes are sensical. It may be that in some cases they have misunderstood the committee’s recommendations, and we need to have a conversation with them. All of that has been thrown out the window, and that does, I believe, pose a risk, to the good functioning of that committee into the future.Now if the government is intent on on disregarding the recommendations and not working with the committee, it may be that some of the government’s recommended changes are sensical. It may be that in some cases they have misunderstood the committee’s recommendations, and we need to have a conversation with them. All of that has been thrown out the window, and that does, I believe, pose a risk, to the good functioning of that committee into the future.
And it is unfortunate, because I think it has been of great benefit to security agencies and to Australians generally.And it is unfortunate, because I think it has been of great benefit to security agencies and to Australians generally.
Labor did not take on all of the committee’s recommendations on the telecommunications data retention bill, which the government is using as precedent for not taking all of the recommendations on this one.Labor did not take on all of the committee’s recommendations on the telecommunications data retention bill, which the government is using as precedent for not taking all of the recommendations on this one.
Labor is supporting the bill, despite its concerns. One of those being that the minister is the power which will get to decide who the temporary exclusion order applies to, not, as it is in the UK, on which the Australian laws are based on, a retired judge, or independent judiciary member. Peter Dutton says that would undermine the intent of the bill. Keneally says the UK, which has had these laws since 2015, has not found that.Labor is supporting the bill, despite its concerns. One of those being that the minister is the power which will get to decide who the temporary exclusion order applies to, not, as it is in the UK, on which the Australian laws are based on, a retired judge, or independent judiciary member. Peter Dutton says that would undermine the intent of the bill. Keneally says the UK, which has had these laws since 2015, has not found that.
But again – it doesn’t matter, because the laws have bipartisan support to go through the parliament.But again – it doesn’t matter, because the laws have bipartisan support to go through the parliament.
Oh lookie here.Oh lookie here.
Malcolm Roberts has the Senate matter of importance debate today and he has chosen the topic:Malcolm Roberts has the Senate matter of importance debate today and he has chosen the topic:
That the flawed and dangerous medevac legislation undermines Australia’s border security and must be urgently repealed.That the flawed and dangerous medevac legislation undermines Australia’s border security and must be urgently repealed.
Well slather me in vinegar and call me pickled – that just happens to be the very thing the government wants to talk about!Well slather me in vinegar and call me pickled – that just happens to be the very thing the government wants to talk about!
Jim Chalmer’s adjournment speech was on this very topic last night:Jim Chalmer’s adjournment speech was on this very topic last night:
We’re told at least a dozen Liberals want to strip Australians of the super increases they need, deserve, and were promised.We’re told at least a dozen Liberals want to strip Australians of the super increases they need, deserve, and were promised.
I gave the Prime Minister multiple opportunities in this House to rule out any changes to increasing the Super Guarantee to 12 per cent and he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do it.I gave the Prime Minister multiple opportunities in this House to rule out any changes to increasing the Super Guarantee to 12 per cent and he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do it.
The Treasurer too; he was given five opportunities on Insiders.The Treasurer too; he was given five opportunities on Insiders.
The Trade Minister would only say they wouldn’t change it at this point in time.The Trade Minister would only say they wouldn’t change it at this point in time.
The Finance Minister said they’d leave it alone – but now we hear there was a barney about it in their party room today.The Finance Minister said they’d leave it alone – but now we hear there was a barney about it in their party room today.
The weasel words and sly language gives the game away.The weasel words and sly language gives the game away.
Here we go again.Here we go again.
They’ve got form and not just on super.They’ve got form and not just on super.
It always begins with backbench extremists putting pressure on the Treasurer, and it ends with him folding.It always begins with backbench extremists putting pressure on the Treasurer, and it ends with him folding.
It happened on energy and it will happen again on super.”It happened on energy and it will happen again on super.”
Anthony Albanese’s ban on the word ‘liar’ just means shadow frontbenchers and their staff have to break out the thesaurus a little more. Hence - weasel words.Anthony Albanese’s ban on the word ‘liar’ just means shadow frontbenchers and their staff have to break out the thesaurus a little more. Hence - weasel words.
The government has a majority in the House, so the motion goes nowhere.The government has a majority in the House, so the motion goes nowhere.
BUT Craig Kelly’s latest thought bubble is in defiance of Scott Morrison’s order to the party room on Tuesday, to shut up.BUT Craig Kelly’s latest thought bubble is in defiance of Scott Morrison’s order to the party room on Tuesday, to shut up.
You can’t keep Kelly down though. There is not a debate in this country that man doesn’t have an opinion on.You can’t keep Kelly down though. There is not a debate in this country that man doesn’t have an opinion on.
Jim Chalmer’s attempt to suspend standing orders is over this story in the New Daily, where Craig Kelly had a chat to Samantha Maiden over what he thinks first-home owners should be able to do with their super:
Liberal MP Craig Kelly has called for first-home buyers to be able to access super for a housing deposit, and also include the family home as part of the pension asset test.
Defying the prime minister Scott Morrison’s call that Liberal MPs toe the party line on the superannuation debate, Kelly told the New Daily there should be a debate about including the family home in the asset test for the pension.
“Your family house at the moment is 100% exempt from the asset test,” Kelly said.
“If you decide you could use super to pay for your house you could say, ‘I want a larger family home now when the kids are young, knowing when my kids move out I will downsize’, there would be some discount of the family home that would be counted in the asset test.”
Over in the House of Representatives, Jim Chalmers is attempting to suspend standing orders for this motion:
That the House:
1) notes that:
a) the member for Hughes has called for the family home to be included in the pension assets test, meaning more retirees will be pushed off the pension, out of their homes or both;
b) 12 members of the government have now called for changes to the legislated increase to the superannuation guarantee;
c) the government has already shortchanged pensioners by refusing to properly adjust deeming rates for years despite five interest rate cuts;
d) the government made a deal with the Greens to change the pension asset test, which meant that the pension was cut for 370,000 pensioners, with 88,000 losing their pension altogether;
e) the government tried to scrap the energy supplement for years, meaning 1.5 million pensioners would have had their payments cut;
f) the government has repeatedly sought to raise the pension age to 70;
g) the government tried to cut pension indexation in the 2014 budget, which would have forced pensioners to live on $80 a week less within 10 years; and
h) the government cut $1bn from pensioner concessions in the 2014 budget.
2) therefore, condemns the government for undermining the retirement incomes of millions of Australians.
As I slowly make my way through last night’s Hansard (what can I say, I live a wild life) I see that Nick McKim used his parliamentary privilege overnight to accuse Peter Dutton, or his office, of leaking confidential security advice to the media.
That’s in relation to this story. The AFP declined to investigate the leak, with the referral not even getting past the first hurdle. Outgoing chief Andrew Colvin said it was deemed to have a low chance of a success.
McKim:
We so desperately need a charter of rights in this country so we can protect and enshrine those fundamental rights and freedoms that actually are amongst those things that make Australia such a great country.
Those rights and freedoms that so many of us take for granted are now being taken away, hand over fist, by a combination of the major political parties in this place, the LNP and the ALP.
They do that because they stitch up cosy deals behind the closed doors of the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence and Security, a committee that operates often in total secret, without public scrutiny and which denies any crossbench representation and input into its decision-making process.
What we get because of that collusion is the ongoing giving away of fundamental rights and freedoms in Australia.
The crossbench should be on the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence and Security; there’s no doubt about that.
I want to give a couple of examples of issues that have arisen in the last year or so in Australia.
Firstly, the leaking, which I have no doubt came either from minister Dutton or from his office to Simon Benson, to a journalist at the Australian, of classified Asio information, a leak which was condemned by Mr Lewis, the head of Asio, when it happened but which inexplicably the Australian federal police have declined to investigate.
When you superimpose that on to the recent raids by the Australian federal police of prominent media outlets in this country, including News Corp and the ABC, you can understand why there is nervousness starting to emerge amongst our media, amongst journalists about the intimidatory nature of those raids.
I say to our media that in fact the issue here is far broader than just press and media freedom; it’s about the freedoms of ordinary Australians to go about their day-to-day business without unnecessary spying and intrusion into their personal privacy by intelligence agencies in this country.
It’s time we had a charter of rights to protect a broad range of rights, including our rights to privacy.
It’s time that we had an informed conversation in this country about the ongoing erosion of rights and freedoms in the name of national security and an informed debate about whether or not giving away those rights and freedoms is necessary or, indeed, whether giving them away makes us any safer at all from the threats that no doubt exist today.
Andrew Giles:
Justice Murphy, presiding over the case, stated, ‘There is a strongly arguable case that in evacuating the applicant to PIH rather than to a hospital in Australia, the respondents provided inadequate medical care to the applicant.
The evacuation resulted in the applicant being sent to a hospital which, at least arguably, did not have the capacity to properly respond to her medical needs. The case of this little girl demonstrates that decisions about medical care should be taken by medical professionals. The advice of doctors should be listened to and acted upon. The Australian people are good, decent and generous.
They don’t want to see vulnerable, sick people in our care suffering when medical care is available to treat them. They appreciate that these circumstances are distinct from the complex policy debates in this area.
This is why the parliament must not allow the medevac legislation to be repealed.
This is why we are proposing our second reading amendment to the bill, which is before the House.
I move:
That all words after “that” be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: “whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House notes that the:
(1) minister for home affairs has: (a) failed to accurately describe the processes providing for the medical transfer of people from Papua New Guinea and Nauru; and (b) consistently mischaracterised the effects of these processes;
and (2) minister for home affairs and the minister for immigration and citizenship have failed to put forward any amendments which would address any genuine concerns they may have with the operation of the processes.”
Debate was interrupted by the adjournment. But you know where that amendment will go.
Andrew Giles spoke in the House late last night on the medevac repeal bill:
I want to briefly share with the House the human story I think best illustrates what a difference this regime has made and how dangerous it would be to go back.
The story concerns a two-year-old girl known as DIZ18. Her parents fled Iran to Australia, arriving in 2013 without a visa.
They were taken by the Australian government to Nauru and recognised as refugees under the refugee convention in 2014.
DIZ18 was born in Nauru on 5 June 2016. This little girl became ill in June 2018 and her illness rapidly got worse over the next few days.
On 12 June the treating doctors, with the International Health and Medical Services – the medical service contracted to provide healthcare to refugees on Nauru – diagnosed her with severe sepsis.
In short, IHMS recommended that the little girl be urgently medically evacuated, to a tertiary-level hospital, to Australia or a third country.
A senior officer of the Australian Border Force involved in the decision inquired whether it was possible for the applicant to, instead, be evacuated to a hospital in Papua New Guinea or Taiwan.
Each doctor and specialist who recommended her medical evacuation recommended that she be taken to a tertiary hospital in Australia or another first-world country; however, the sick little girl was treated at the hospital in Papua New Guinea. It rapidly became clear that the standard of care required, including MRI brain scans and other scans, were not available at this hospital.
The medevac repeal bill is low-key simmering away in the background. It won’t reach the Senate for a debate until it has been through a committee, which is not due to report back until October – and then the Senate will consider it in November.
Jacqui Lambie is the key vote there. And she is not saying what she plans on doing.
Peter Dutton’s letter to the Senate regarding the Paladin document request pic.twitter.com/cm1p6oCL5D
After the Angus Taylor hour yesterday, nuclear power is once again floating around.
There is a growing number of Coalition backbenchers pushing for an inquiry into nuclear power, being led by the Queensland contingent. Keith Pitt is a particularly passionate advocate.
Taylor, as part of Labor’s focus on him in question time yesterday, was asked about the policy, as well as where he believed any potential nuclear power sites should go.
The government is not into nuclear power. During the election campaign, Scott Morrison’s comments to a Tasmanian radio station that nuclear power was “not ‘not’ on the agenda, wherever it can come from is fine, but it has to be self-sustaining”, caused a brief kerfuffle that the PMO was very quick to try and extinguish.
And yet, here we still are. Taylor hasn’t done the best job of ruling it out, even if, as his colleagues tell me, he has been told to.
So out comes Peter Dutton this morning on Sunrise:
The only thing we have said, let us be clear about it, we want lower electricity prices. We want reliability. We want people to turn lights on and his crazy renewable targets doubling power prices that Labor is proposing ...
Given that it is three years until the next election, Dutton was interrupted and asked if nuclear was the answer.
I don’t believe it is and the government has had a moratorium. Bob Hawke was the last letter to advocate, and he did strongly, for nuclear. The government’s position has been made clear, we are not closed to to debates. People can express their views but the government’s perspective is to get prices down and make sure people can turn lights on.
(Fun fact: Tveeder, the transcription service, changes nuclear to “new killer”, and I think that’s just beautiful.)
In news that seems to be like all James McGrath’s Milo and milks came at once, Boris Johnson is officially the UK prime minister.
Boris! pic.twitter.com/2PqTLp36X4
Good to see a battler finally come out on top (yes, that is sarcasm).
Former foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop welcomed the news, telling Network Seven:
“Boris Johnson has an unusually close relationship with Australia for a British prime minister,” she said.
“He spent his gap year here, attending Geelong Grammar. He’s visited Australia many times.”
Speaking of that gap year, Johnson mentioned it in a 2015 interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, where he told this story about getting lost in Canberra and somehow managing to camp on a roundabout.
I was driving there and I was about 18 and I got totally lost and I dossed down for the night in a roundabout. Well, I woke up and discovered it was a roundabout,” he explains. He pitched his tent on the roundabout in the middle of the night – an experience that went about as well as you’d expect for a young British kid sleeping in the middle of a Canberra street in the 1980s. “It was terrible. I thought it would be OK, then I got woken up by the traffic and then I looked at my hands, my hands had swollen up like blown-up washing-up gloves because I had been so badly bitten.”
I call bull shit, but then again, maybe it sounds different in Latin.
It’s day three which means the sitting is one day closer to ending.
Silver linings people.
After the latest national security fight, the government is now gearing up for the latest union fight. Christian Porter and the government are having another go at the ensuring integrity bill.
Labor have already said it won’t support this bill. That’s not unexpected – it goes against everything that the Labor party stands for. So it is the crossbench the government needs to convince and so far, Centre Alliance and One Nation are not impressed.
That will be debated in the House later today – and Porter has been out and about early to try and garner support.
Meanwhile, late last night, Peter Dutton rejected a Senate request to hand over documents related to the extension of the Paladin contract. From AAP’s report:
Senators instructed the home affairs minister to hand over information about the contract to ensure taxpayers were getting value for money, given it was awarded to the small company in a closed tender process.
In a letter to the Senate president tabled late on Tuesday night, Dutton said tens of thousands of documents were potentially within scope of the order.
“Due to the significant volume of documents, I assess compliance with the order would result in an unreasonable diversion of significant resources,” he said.
“I will therefore not be tabling any documents on 23 July 2019 as stipulated in the original order.”
Dutton is now locked in talks with Labor’s home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally to reduce the scope of required documents, pushing the deadline out by another month.
“Negotiations regarding the scope of the documents to be provided by this date are ongoing,” he said.
We’ll bring you that, and everything else which happens within these so-called corridors of power (and beyond) as it unfolds, so I do hope you’ll come along with us. Mike Bowers, Katharine Murphy and Paul Karp are all at your service, so while I browbeat one of them into getting me a coffee, we should jump into it.
Ready?
Let’s go.