Confusion over future of co-payment proposal – as it happened
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Version 0 of 1. 5.23pm AEST06:23 Night time politics The senate is expected to rise at 7pm tonight and both houses will return next Monday for the final four days of sitting. Many thanks for following Politics Live and to Mike Bowers for his wonderful pictures. Also thanks to the Guardian blog brains trust, Lenore Taylor, Daniel Hurst and Shalailah Medhora. Katharine Murphy will be driving the blog next week, through the twists and turns of the final senate negotiations before the Christmas break. Personally I would like to thank readers for your support this year. Good night. 5.03pm AEST06:03 The lower house has adjourned until next week. The senate will sit until 7pm. 4.58pm AEST05:58 A report by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has found more than a quarter of all projects in the last two rounds of the former Labor government’s Regional Development Australia Fund were not recommended for funding. The projects, which received the funds anyway, represent 48% of the total funding pool. Assistant infrastructure minister Jamie Briggs released the report into the RDA, which was designed to fund infrastructure in rural Australia. The former Labor government faced criticism for opening up the fund to suburban city projects, notably projects marginal seats in western Sydney prior to the 2013 election. Catherine King, as the former minister, approved a total of $226m in grant funding for 121 projects. Worse still, the minister approved 23 projects worth almost $91m (or 40 per cent of the total funding) that the panel specifically recommended not to fund as they did not represent value for money or achieve the objectives of the programme, said Briggs. King said the report confirms that two third of the projects funded across rounds three and four of RDAF were in seats not held by Labor. These included $7.5m for the construction of the Fleurieu Regional Aquatic Centre in Jamie Briggs’ electorate. Every single one of these projects was recommended by Regional Development Australia Committees and then went through a panel process. They were then assessed by (the department). The program guidelines state ‘The panel may choose to consider the distribution of funding of projects rated ‘Recommended for Funding’ or ‘Suitable for Funding’ in its recommendations to the Minister’. It is disappointing that the report ignores this and wrongly reclassifies all projects declared to be “suitable for funding” as “not recommended”. 4.22pm AEST05:22 Tony Abbott: a young life cut short Tony Abbott has put out a statement on the death of Phillip Hughes. Phillip Hughes was a young man living out his dreams. His death is a very sad day for cricket and a heartbreaking day for his family. What happened has touched millions of Australians. For a young life to be cut short playing our national game seems a shocking aberration. He was loved, admired and respected by his teammates and by legions of cricket fans. Australians’ thoughts and prayers are with the Hughes family. 4.18pm AEST05:18 We simple folk are still struggling with the government’s GP co-payment position. Here is the chronology. Last night the government was briefing journalists that the copayment was dead. This morning three of the most senior government ministers, Joe Hockey, Eric Abetz and Peter Dutton, said the policy was alive. In question time, Tony Abbott confirmed it was alive. Either way, the co-payment will not get through the senate. So by Abbott’s analogy, the barnacle was scraped off and then stuck back on, leaving the government with neither budgetary gains of getting the policy through or political gains from dropping the unpopular police. This is the only way I can characterise what happened today. 4.00pm AEST05:00 In the middle of the matter of public importance comes news that the cricketer Phillip Hughes has died of head injuries after being hit during a match. Labor MP Andrew Giles, who was on his feet, pays tribute to Hughes and hopes parliamentarians will get a chance to express their condolences at a later time. 3.55pm AEST04:55 We’re behaving and you aren’t. 3.44pm AEST04:44 But Madam Speaker? 3.25pm AEST04:25 Labor has started on a matter of public importance: The Government’s incompetence, broken promises and complete failure to provide leadership and vision for Australia. 3.23pm AEST04:23 Question time ends and Labor’s Tony Burke gets up to make the point that 18 Labor members were thrown out, which is a federation record. Christopher Pyne is on his feet to defend the speaker. If they continue to behave like idiots they will continue to be thrown out....We’re behaving and you aren’t. Speaker Bishop concurs. The behaviour today is an absolute disgrace. I notice from the list quite a few (thrown out) are Victorian members who may wish to go home and campaign. To stand there and say you all behaved like little angels and were picked on is pathetic. I simply won’t bear it...Every moment there was nothing but disrespect and a wall of noise. Empty opposition seats-18 evictions is apparently a record @gabriellechan @GuardianAus http://t.co/gFj2b91TJm pic.twitter.com/GR4ujSA0g0 3.17pm AEST04:17 Labor asks the health minister Peter Dutton about the GP co-payment. We travel back to the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years. Now we are onto a government question to social security minister Kevin Andrews on the national rental affordability scheme. It simply has not delivered the benefits that were expected of it and why hasn’t it delivered those benefits? Because of the poor and incompetent administration of it by the Labor Party. In June 2014, only 19,000 of the 35,000 dwellings had been built, says Andrews. 3.09pm AEST04:09 A government question to agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce is asked how the free trade agreements will benefit the Australian seafood industry. Somehow he segues on to how many Labor members have a trade, given they are supposed to represent the Australian people. Joyce says he knows Labor’s Bernie Ripoll has a trade but no one else. Yet they say they represent the Australian people. I know the member for Oxley actually does have atrade but I can’t see another one there. Not one. His contrast is meant to be as opposed to farmers on the Coalition side. 3.03pm AEST04:03 Another happy chappy. Must be Thursday. 3.01pm AEST04:01 Happy chappy. 3.00pm AEST04:00 Plibersek to Abbott: Will the prime minister, sometimes described as Box Office Poison, be visiting Victoria tomorrow? Or has Victorian premier Denis Napthine told him to stay away because he’s no John Howard? Plibersek is asked to rephrase the question. Tony Abbott says he has been campaigning in Victoria three times. 2.57pm AEST03:57 Trade minister Andrew Robb takes a question on free trade agreements and how local industries will benefit, specifically in Victoria. Melissa Parke tries to take a point of order, and gets thrown out. Since I last reported, Anthony Albanese, Michael Danby and Kelvin Thomson have joined her. A total of 14 Labor members have been thrown out in less than an hour. 2.53pm AEST03:53 Labor to Abbott: Today, senior Australian Financial Review journalist Laura Tingle described the prime minister’s budget strategy as “dead - seriously ex-parrot.” Does the prime minister agree that his budget strategy and unfair GP tax are dead or, prime minister, is it just a flesh wound? Abbott starts by defending David Johnston. (Does that mean Abbott would rather talk about Johnston than the budget? I’m confused at the strategy.) Abbott says Johnston has his confidence because Johnston wants to be defence minister. He talks about previous Labor defence ministers and then moves onto the budget. Our budget strategy is simple. It is to get the budget back to surplus...Labor is simply congenitally incapable of delivering a surplus. 2.45pm AEST03:45 A government question to Julie Bishop of the free trade agreements. 2.44pm AEST03:44 Labor to Abbott: It’s clear that the prime minister lacks the leadership to sack the minister for defence today. Prime minister, will senator Johnston still be the defence minister when parliament resumes next year? Shorten is asked to rephrase. Speaker Bishop rules it unsuccessful and gives the Labor question to the government. Tony Abbott intervenes to say he wants to answer the Labor question but Speaker Bishop says no, I gave the call to government backbencher Craig Laundy. Abbott cannot answer the question. I wonder what he would have said? 2.39pm AEST03:39 Labor’s Terri Butler, Joel Fitzgibbon and Clare O’Neil have all been thrown out. Anthony Albanese takes a point of order and is warned to sit down or leave by Speaker Bishop. 2.37pm AEST03:37 The chief co-payment negotiator. 2.35pm AEST03:35 A Labor question on defence force pay to Abbott: The minister for defence has failed our defence force men and women by cutting their real wages and conditions including Christmas and recreation leave. If he won’t say sorry for cutting the real wages of our defence force men and women, why won’t you just sack him? I can assure members opposite that no-one in the public sector will be get a better deal than our defence force personnel. 2.31pm AEST03:31 The A Team. 2.30pm AEST03:30 The speaker warns everyone in the chamber. That is, no warning before a member is thrown out. 2.30pm AEST03:30 A government question to justice minister Michael Keenan on crime and corruption in Victoria, specifically around the CFMEU. Here is the key. We will continue to work against organised crime, we will not accommodate it like the Victorian Labor Party and its leader Daniel Andrews. 2.27pm AEST03:27 Since Ed Husic, Michelle Rowland, David Feeney, Richard Marles, Julie Collins and Nick Champion have been booted from the lower house by Speaker Bishop. 2.26pm AEST03:26 In the senate, defence minister David Johnston is under attack from Labor on his “canoe” remarks. Now PUP senator Glenn Lazarus asks about the effect of Fly In Fly Out (Fifo) workers on small communities. Johnston says he shares Lazarus’ concerns. In the meantime, Christopher Pyne has taken a question on union corruption in Victoria. (election.) A Labor question to Tony Abbott on why he won’t sack David Johnston. The minister has repeatedly said how much he regretted that statement which was something that was said in the heat of debate and which shouldn’t have been said. 2.21pm AEST03:21 Labor shadow Andrew Leigh is waving a prop around. Christopher Pyne complained, calling the opposition an “absolute rabble today”. Speaker Bishop admits she did not see Leigh’s prop “because it was being blocked by the splendid head” of the opposition leader. 2.18pm AEST03:18 Shorten to Abbott: Given that the government’s own ministers can’t get their lines right (on GP co-payment), isn’t this just the latest example of an incompetent government in utter and complete chaos? This from the leader of the opposition who back-stabbed two Prime Ministers. 2.16pm AEST03:16 Another government question from a Victorian MP Russell Broadbent: How does a stronger economy help the people in my beautiful majestic home State of Victoria? Joe Hockey on the East West Link (Victorian election). 2.13pm AEST03:13 Shorten to Abbott: If the prime minister genuinely believes that taxing the sick and the vulnerable every time they go to the doctor is in Australia’s long-term national interest, will the prime minister take his unfair GP tax to the next election? Tony Abbott says the while Shorten does “a good line in indignation”, Bob Hawke supported a co-payment (and got rolled for it) and the GP co-payment is no different to the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme co-payment. Madam Speaker, this is probably the most irresponsible opposition in Australia’s history. Uproar. 2.09pm AEST03:09 Tony Abbott quotes Bill Shorten who supported the East West link. Who said this: “The new East West Link is crucial to jobs and economic growth.”? I wonder who said that. Well, it was someone called Bill Shorten, national secretary of the Australian Workers Union. 2.07pm AEST03:07 Six minutes in, Labor’s Ed Husic gets thrown out. 2.06pm AEST03:06 A government question to Abbott on the Victorian election, or rather infrastructure funding provided from the federal government to the state Liberal government for the East West Link. 2.05pm AEST03:05 Today question time now. Shorten to Abbott: Australians want to know is the prime minister still committed to forcing families to pay his new GP tax every time they visit a doctor? I’m very committed, the government’s very committed to keeping our Medicare system sustainable. Abbott said he does want to see price signals in the health system and he does want to fund the $20bn medical research fund. He does not confirm how it can be done. 2.02pm AEST03:02 As regular readers will know, the speaker’s record of punting MPs has passed the 250 mark. Bronwyn Bishop says it is because Labor are so badly behaved. The manager of opposition business Tony Burke was thrown out of question time yesterday for asking what was a very argumentative question, it must be said. He posted the question to Speaker Bronwyn Bishop on his website. It is interesting for the silent exchange between the speaker and the prime minister after Burke asks the question. Updated at 2.03pm AEST 1.51pm AEST02:51 Lunch time politics 1.45pm AEST02:45 As you may have guessed, this whole barnacle scraping exercise is not going so well. Perhaps that’s why the prime minister’s office chose not to notify the press gallery - or maybe just us - about his appearance at the Australian Cyber Security Centre earlier today. Increasingly, his office is not issuing general invitations to press but rather allows a “pool” media representative to come along. Scrutiny does not appear to be on the priority list. Luckily we were provided with an outline on exactly what the cyber security review will do after the fact. The review will: We are ever grateful. 1.23pm AEST02:23 A Penny Wong fan - hitherto known as a Wongster - rushed into the office and kidnapped our #BrickSenate Warrior Wong. Apparently Wong agreed to a picture with her mini-me avatar after a serious speech on the customs amendment bill speech. Our price was the photo. 1.11pm AEST02:11 Meanwhile Lenore Taylor considers a brief history of barnacle scraping. Rule number 1: Neuter the issue. A brief history of political barnacle cleaning shows how comprehensively the Abbott government is botching it. John Howard popularised the “cleaning the barnacles” metaphor to explain abandoning or shelving policies that were becoming a political liability. In the lead-up to the 2007 election, for example, the term was applied to his decisions to abandon legislation paving the way for an Australian nuclear industry and securing the return of prisoner David Hicks. But barnacle cleaning only works if the difficult issue is neutered. It works best if the media can be persuaded to present a government’s acceptance of parliamentary or public opinion defeat as some kind of victory for strategic realpolitik and listening to the electorate. The sound of scraping barnacles is a bit like the sound of finger nails down a blackboard. Which is about as appealing as the current strategy. 12.58pm AEST01:58 The ghost of Tony Abbott is haunting the Victorian election, on this Saturday. Our Victorian editor Gay Alcorn has written about the prime minister who wasn’t there. The conventional wisdom is that Australians are perfectly capable of distinguishing between state and federal politics. We know that Denis Napthine can’t do much about foreign affairs, and Tony Abbott’s isn’t responsible for running Melbourne’s hospitals. Wild claims about state election results being a serious blow to Canberra tend to fade quickly. Yet in the final stages of this strange Victorian election campaign, the unpopularity of Abbott’s government is a constant low rumble. He’s here, even though he’s not here. John Howard and Julie Bishop have come to help out the government, only serving to underline that neither of them are the prime minister, who is not really welcome. 12.51pm AEST01:51 Residential real estate report recommends fees on foreign investors The report into foreign investment on residential real estate recommends a fee on all foreign property investors to fund better enforcement of the current rules on foreign investment and tougher penalties for breaches. Michael Janda of the ABC reports the joint committee on economics recommended: 12.11pm AEST01:11 The first government business expected in the senate - due around 12.45pm - is the higher education deregulation. The government has chosen to bring on the debate, even though the numbers do not appear to be there to support it. There is a long list of speakers on the bill so it won’t come to a vote today. Other parties have questioned the strategy, given there are a lot of other bills waiting in line that could be ticked off. Obviously the government have chosen to put this issue on the agenda today. Possibly it’s better than talking about the co-payment. 11.59am AEST00:59 Stand and deliver Treasurer. 11.50am AEST00:50 Back to Liberal senator Ian Macdonald at a later doorstop. (He really is not happy.) He also does not like the government’s moves to bypass the senate without debate on contentious issues. It could help with future barnacles. Q: Do you think that it’s appropriate to introduce things like a GP co-payment via regulation to essentially bypass the Senate? No I don’t - and I don’t think - I mean, it was clever in all credit for cleverness - but I don’t think it was appropriate with the fuel excise either. These things should be debated. I have to say that in both instances (petrol indexation and co-payment) these things were never discussed in the joint party room before they were announced and they do need to be subject to debate. By and large I think most parliamentarians would support it, most government members would vote for it, but I do think there needs to be consultation, particularly with the parliamentary party so that some of these prospective barnacles into the future could be addressed. 11.43am AEST00:43 Joe Hockey was also asked about the defence pay issue, given Jacqui Lambie was is threatening to vote against government legislation until the pay is increased. Hockey says the government has no plans to increase defence force pay. We have no plans to change what the independent Remuneration Tribunal has decided is the appropriate increase. Lambie was planning to meet the prime minister in coming days on that very issue. So we are not sure what they will discuss. 11.40am AEST00:40 Joe Hockey is on now after launching the book Stand and Deliver. Hockey says the Medicare co-payment policy stands. He said he had not heard the government were briefing journalists yesterday that the policy would be dumped. Twelve hours later, government ministers were saying the policy stands. Hockey said he had not heard that (government had briefed they would dump the policy). 11.34am AEST00:34 At his announcement, Tony Abbott gave a little anecdote about when he moved “from the ancient to the modern era about the middle of 1993”. I’d left the office of the then Leader of the Opposition (John Hewson) and I was between jobs and for the first time in several years I did not have access to a computer. Without access to a computer, I felt like I was almost a non-person because I couldn’t write. In my time working in government, from 1990 to 1993, I had gone from writing with a pencil and paper to writing and thinking on a keyboard and without access to an operating keyboard, it was like I was in prison, denied books, denied writing materials. And that was a significant insight that I gained about the way the world was changing and today, if I want to absolutely annoy other member of my family, I try to ensure that the Internet doesn’t work because nothing annoys the other members of my family more than a failure of the Internet. What all this illustrates is that in today’s world it’s not just our personal security, it’s not just the security of our physical infrastructure that matters, it’s the security of our information and the security of our IT networks which are absolutely critical to the way we live our lives. 11.30am AEST00:30 Tony Abbott announces Cyber Security Review Tony Abbott has announced a cyber security review into government information, communications and the security of business and individuals at the Australian Cyber Security Centre in Canberra. The centre takes in the Australian signals directorate, ASIO, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Crime Commission and the Attorney-General’s department computer emergency response team. Abbott appointed a panel to assist with the review: 11.19am AEST00:19 Kevin Andrews: Divorce too high, "some children of divorced parents do not perform" Although recent data shows divorce is declining, social security minister Kevin Andrews has suggested it is still too high and “research shows some children of divorced parents do not perform well in terms of their education, health and employment outcomes”. He says data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show more than 47,638 couples divorced last year, a decrease of 2,279 (4.6 per cent) recorded in 2012. Half of the divorces granted in 2013 (47.4 per cent) involved children “who can be affected by family breakdown”. Strong, healthy parental relationships give children the best chance of growing up happy and confident. Single parents do an heroic job in difficult circumstances but the reality is, research shows that some children of divorced parents do not perform as well in terms of their education, health and employment outcomes. The answer, says the former premarital education counsellor, is relationship counselling. Andrews’ Stronger Relationships trial gives $200 to “eligible couples” for relationship education. We know that relationship counselling and education can play a pivotal role in helping to keep marriages strong and preventing divorce. The Minister For Lerv was featured in this profile in the Weekend Australian. So the government’s re-election campaign is going well. Now that Andrews has offended all divorced couples and their children, we can add that to the rest of the demographics, including pensioners, university students and their parents, the unemployed...the list goes on. 10.51am AEST23:51 Liberal senator may cross the floor over co-payment Ian Macdonald has suggested he would cross the floor on the co-payment and would have crossed the floor on the increase in petrol indexation if he had got the chance. Macdonald, a rural senator, believes both the co-payment and petrol indexation would hit regional Australia more heavily. He told Sky: Well look I think a (health) price signal is important, I think the scheme that they introduced by surprise, I might say on budget night, is not the right way to go. I’ve had several discussions and correspondences with the health minister and the Prime Minister about this. I recognise the real danger the health budget is in in the years ahead but I don’t think this is the right one and I’ve indicated to the prime minister and others and to the party Room that I will be opposing it should it come forward in its present position. I see in the paper today that there is suggestion that it can be done by regulation – Q: But that would be disallowed anyway wouldn’t it, in the senate? Well eventually, you know, it’s the same sort of thing with the fuel price, the excise increase which again I made my view very clear, I would be voting against that, of course I didn’t get the opportunity. I’m against that not because I’m not mindful of the governments real problem in paying off Labor’s $600 billion debt but that’s an issue that impacts more heavily on rural and regional Australia. If Macdonald did cross the floor on those issues, not only would it be a terrible look, but it would make the government’s job even harder by requiring seven of the eight crossbenchers for support. 10.24am AEST23:24 Is that Monty Burns? We don't have a #BrickReps couldn't resist this likeness to the father of the house @GuardianAus @gabriellechan pic.twitter.com/Mh3GHORpHo Mike Bowers have been having fun in the lower house this morning. 10.23am AEST23:23 If you haven’t seen Lenore Taylor’s exclusive this morning: The government would be forced to provide 31,000 asylum seekers with the possibility of a permanent visa or else abandon sweeping new asylum laws under a plan being negotiated by Labor, the Greens, the Palmer United party and other crossbench senators. The asylum bill is one of a number of unresolved issues – or “barnacles” – the government wants resolved by Christmas. But the numbers in the Senate are now firming to force Scott Morrison, the immigration minister, to make a big concession – to honour a deal he did with Clive Palmer in September in which the PUP believed it had won support for a new five-year “safe haven enterprise visa” (for refugees who agreed to work in regional areas) that would lead to a permanent visa. The legislation implementing the deal between Morrison and Palmer, which passed the lower house last month, went far beyond what had been agreed with PUP and did not provide any details or any clear pathway for safe haven visa holders to achieve permanent residency. Here is the nub: Guardian Australia understands the Senate is very likely to insist on a clear “pathway to permanence”. Morrison has insisted this won’t happen – leaving the likely fate of his legislation resting on his willingness to compromise. 10.15am AEST23:15 The bill storm in the lower house included these bills: 10.07am AEST23:07 Further to the last post, Nikki Savva has an interesting column in the Oz this morning about Tony Abbott’s leadership and the Coalition party room meeting. If you have been following this, there was a fair bit of grumbling reported out of the meeting about Abbott’s “verbal gymnastics” over the ABC/SBS broken promise. Eventually the message got through and Abbott admitted the promise and “regretted” the comments. Savva suggests that Abbott is aware of the leadership grumbles and has tried to protect his job with a little manoeuvring. WHEN his government was travelling through another bad patch recently, Tony Abbott told unhappy senior Liberal figures they had a choice: him or Malcolm Turnbull. Leave aside that Julie Bishop would now trounce Turnbull in any ballot (not that one is being contemplated), the sentiment the Prime Minister expressed was designed to frighten disappointed conservatives into staying true to him. But it also showed that leaders operate in a perpetual state of vigilance when it comes to their survival. Savva says the prime minister needs a major reshuffle and major behaviour change if he is to stay in the top job. That depends largely on the Prime Minister and how he conducts himself in the next little while. It is not as if he hasn’t been warned publicly by his friends, even more vehemently by them in private, that unless he changes, or unless changes are made, he risks becoming a one-term wonder. You only had to look at the faces of those behind him on Monday to realise how bad it is. One of them later described that question time, where Abbott refused to even accept ownership of his own words, as the worst of the government’s period in office. Others confessed their anguish in having to listen. 9.47am AEST22:47 There is a veritable storm of legislation going through the lower house at the minute. I will deal with those in a minute. The senate is just starting with a list of government bills to deal with that need to go through in the next five days. Already I have heard from the parliamentary staff that they have been told to sit an extra day to deal with the backlog. To be fair, this is a regular threat made by all governments. Notwithstanding the PM’s comments that in politics, “there are no fair measures”, we must address the grumbling within the Coalition party room about the government’s performance. Liberal senator Ian Macdonald has been on Sky this morning ever-so-gently suggesting that the prime minister’s office is not consulting with party members. He said there have been some decisions at the top “without a great deal of consultation”. Clearly I’m not in cabinet or the ministry these days so I can’t really comment on that but I have been around long enough to know how it all works and ideas sometimes dont get the sort of exposure, the robust discussion that perhaps is needed. There is always a great reluctance from parliamentarians of every party to robustly challenge the ideas that come from the top. I think that is unfortunate for democracy. Macdonald put in the rider that he thought the government “by and large” was doing a wonderful job. It just could do better. I think a little bit more involvement of the parliamentary party might pay dividends. 9.21am AEST22:21 First up in the lower house, Christopher Pyne is introducing the Fair Work Amendment (Bargaining Processes) bill 2014. This one amends the Fair Work Act, in the government’s words, to “promote harmonious, sensible and productive enterprise bargaining”. Eric Abetz has explained it thus: The bill will remove the effective union veto power over greenfields agreements, which have enabled them to frustrate the making of these agreements and delay the commencement of major projects worth billions of dollars. It adds an additional approval requirement for enterprise agreements to “ensure that when approving an enterprise agreement, the Fair Work Commission (FWC) must be satisfied that productivity improvements at the workplace were discussed during bargaining for the agreement”. It also restricts the circumstances in which a protected action ballot order - the authorisation for action - that can be made. Pyne says there is a problem in the Act because it allows industrial action to be taken in pursuit of almost any bargaining claim “regardless of how extreme, unreasonable or unrealistic it may be”. He says this has allowed action for “fanciful pay or leave increases without any proposed productivity increases”. Updated at 9.23am AEST 8.58am AEST21:58 The prime minister spoke to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry last night. It was a bit of a hurrah for the government and, as is often the case, a chance to urge supporters to campaign for the government’s agenda. It has been a difficult year for the government, with key elements of the first budget still sitting in the bottom drawer. But this was Tony Abbott’s take on it when he was introduced by the ACCI president Peter Hood. You made a very important comment I thought - that by any fair measure it’s been a successful year for the government. In politics, there are no fair measures, but I am not complaining. It is an absolute privilege to be in a position to help guide the destiny of our nation. 8.43am AEST21:43 Good morning bloganistas, This morning the Medicare co-payment is the main dish on our political smorgasbord. On our fifth last sitting day of the year, the government is still struggling to get major parts of its budget passed in the parliament. After wild speculation that the $7 co-payment was going to be declared a barnacle and scraped, the main messages coming through this morning are: Government leader in the senate Eric Abetz has already said this morning it remains government policy. Health minister Peter Dutton said this morning it will not be dumped and all options are on the table. This was the question to Dutton this morning. The Government has not dumped the Medicare co-payment, (so) you’re doing to do it by regulation? We’re pragmatic about the situation in the senate. We will continue negotiations with the senators but we will look at every option available to the government to ensure that we make Medicare sustainable. Remember the government put petrol indexation through by regulation earlier this year as a result of a senate impasse. The other major bill sitting in the senate is the university deregulation. More on that in a minute. But if the government don’t get the difficult budget bills passed, we could be coming back to politics in February after the break talking about the last budget, three months before the next budget. Awks. The other issues of the day will be the on-going fallout for defence minister David Johnston. We hear on the grapevine that he had a bit of a shindig last night, a couple of hours after being censured by the senate. Stay tuned and talk over the Twits with me @gabriellechan and Mike Bowers @mpbowers. |