Night-time politics
The Senate is now due to sit most of the night debating the media reform legislation, so expect some tired and cranky senators when we return tomorrow.
But given the number of people who want to speak on the legislation, the bill will probably still be on the agenda for Thursday.
The government doesn’t look like shifting its focus off energy policy anytime soon and Labor doesn’t appear inclined to let it. I hope everyone is as excited by that prospect as I am.
Summing up today:
- We learnt nothing concrete about the government’s position on its energy policy, other than it is still struggling with how to handle a clean energy target, which in itself, is also not new.
- The anti-vilification legislation, designed to place safeguards around the marriage equality campaign was passed, with support from the Coalition, Labor, Greens, Derryn Hinch and the Nick Xenophon Team.
- Pauline Hanson said she is concerned marriage equality could lead to people not being able to call parents ‘mum and dad’.
- The head of the ACL, Lyle Shelton gave the no case at the National Press Club and apologised for comments Christians made during the height of the Aids crisis in the 1980s, but did not apologise over his “stolen generation” reference in regards to children of same-sex couples.
- The head of the ABCC, Nigel Hadgkiss, resigned after admitting to breaching the Fair Work Act in the federal court on Tuesday.
- Employment minister Michaelia Cash admitted she was first aware of the allegations against Hadgkiss in October 2016, just months after the government went to a double-dissolution election over establishing the ABCC.
- The Greens, with the support of Labor and others on the crossbench, have scuttled Peter Dutton’s citizenship bill, unless he brings it up for debate within four sitting days.
- Josh Frydenberg returned to the chamber after question time to correct an assertion Labor has been making since Monday – that power bills in Sydney have increased by $1,000.
- He said the Australian energy regulator’s State of the Energy Markets report from May 2017 showed the average Sydney bill on standing offers, had varied from an increase of $1 to a decrease of $473.
- Olivia Newton-John was the cause of more than one dopey grin across the parliament.
We’ll be back tomorrow for the last sitting day before October. A big thank you to Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp and Gareth Hutchens for the lend of their brains today and to everyone who played along.
A massive pat on the back to Mike Bowers for being my eyes and ears across the hallways and beyond – you’ll find more on his Instagram and Twitter if you need a fix between now and tomorrow. You can reach me at @amyremeikis if you have a burning thought overnight.
Have a wonderful evening and we will catch you tomorrow.
Updated
Shadow minister for citizenship Tony Burke has explained Labor’s reasons for opposing Peter Dutton’s citizenship legislation:
Labor has objected to the changes because:
the university-level English language requirements are snobbery – it sends a message to all Australians that unless you have university-level English the government doesn’t want you here; and
the proposed delays are harmful and unfair - leaving many potential citizens waiting for more than a decade before they are ever asked to pledge allegiance to Australia
Citizenship is meant to be the way we build ourselves as a society, not the way we divide. The bill put forward by Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Dutton is an absurd, snobbish mess that should be dropped immediately.”
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Things are going well this evening
Turnbull Govt just voted to gag me and 10 of my Labor colleagues from speaking about their university cuts. #auspol
— Andrew Leigh (@ALeighMP) September 13, 2017
Labor is going to town on the Hadgkiss matter, but Michaelia Cash is still finding some humour in the day.
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Employment Minister Michaelia Cash has some context to put around her admission during Senate question time she had been aware of Nigel Hadgkiss, who has just resigned as the head of the ACCC after admitting to breaching the Fair Work Act, since October last year.
Her spokesman said Cash learnt of the allegation then, but only learnt of his admission yesterday, with everyone else.
“Minister Cash was first advised of the CFMEU’s allegations against Mr Hadgkiss in October 2016.”
“Yesterday Mr Hadgkiss admitted to a contravention of the Fair Work Act. He has today submitted his resignation to the Government which the Government has accepted.”
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Peter Dutton now has four sitting days to put his citizenship bill up for debate, reports Gareth Hutchens:
It is a major embarrassment for the Turnbull government, with a majority of senators – Greens, Labor, the Nick Xenophon Team, and Jacqui Lambie – supporting the motion on Wednesday.
The motion passed 32 to 29. It was moved by Greens senator Nick McKim, with an amendment from Lambie.
Lambie’s amendment gave the government until 18 October to bring the bill on for debate. The Greens originally wanted to strike the bill from the notice paper immediately.
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Labor has been making the ‘$1,000 increased power bill in Sydney’ claim all week, but Josh Frydenberg has just walked back into the chamber to address it.
Mark Butler said the figure came from “the Australian Energy Regulator and the Australian Energy Market Commission reported in the Australian newspaper”.
But Frydenberg says “this is false”, returning to the floor of parliament to make his point.
“The data published by the Australian Energy Regulator on May 2017 in the state of the energy markets report shows between the start of the Coalition government in 2013 prices across average Sydney households on standing offers varied from increasing by $1 to falling by $473. I call on the leader of the opposition to come to the House and correct the record.”
If anyone’s power bill has dropped by $473, be sure to let us know.
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The Catholic bishop of Parramatta, Vincent Long Van Nguyen, has written a pastoral letter encouraging his flock to “exercise their consciences” in the upcoming postal survey, but making a crucial distinction between the religious and civil institution which appears to give the green light for people to vote yes.
Van Nguyen:
“It is important to remember from the very outset that the postal survey is about whether or not Australians want the legal definition of civil marriage changed to include same-sex couples. It is not a referendum on sacramental marriage as understood by the Catholic Church.
“Many years ago, divorce was legalised in Australia but this change did not alter the law of the Church. Therefore, whatever the outcome of the survey or the eventual legislation by the government, the Church will continue to hold that marriage is a natural institution established by God to be a permanent union between one man and one woman, directed both to mutual companionship and to the formation of a family in which children are born and nurtured.
“For many Catholics, the issue of same-sex marriage is not simply theoretical but deeply personal. These may be same-sex attracted people themselves or that may be the case with their relatives and friends. In such cases, they are torn between their love for the Church and their love for their same-sex attracted child, grandchild, sibling, cousin, friend or neighbour.
The kicker is the suggestion that the vote “should not be a simple answer yes or no”.
“It should be an opportunity for us to witness to our deep commitment to the ideal of Christian marriage. But it should also be an opportunity for us to listen to what the Spirit is saying through the signs of the times.”
“Sign of the times” is somewhat cryptic ... is the suggestion simply: it’s time?
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Labor’s South Australian MPs have come together to release a statement in relation to Nick Xenophon – another SA MP – and media reforms.
The government plans on debating those laws all night. A deal is imminent, but not yet signed, so Labor is taking advantage of that window to put a bit of pressure on Xenophon.
South Australia is already an extremely concentrated media market that has seen too many media jobs go in recent times. We cannot afford further concentration of ownership, and further losses of jobs and news services interstate.
Senator Xenophon must stand up for South Australia, stand up for media diversity, or be accountable for every media job lost in the state as a result of his latest deal with the Turnbull government.
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Malcolm Turnbull is not the only one excited to receive a visit from Olivia Newton-John
The Greens’ (apparent) victory in striking off the citizenship bill from the Senate notice paper may go some way to explaining why Peter Dutton had a spray against Labor in question time today. Here is a little more on what he had to say about the citizenship bill:
The Labor party don’t want this debate because they are torn internally in relation to it. You see what happens when the Labor party cuddles up beside the Greens.
You know they are in a battle in seats in inner cities around the country where they’re desperate to stave off the attacks from the Greens. What does it result in? In relation to boats, when the Labor party cuddled up next to the Greens, 50,000 people came on 800 boats and1,200 people drowned at sea. You know what else? We know that when the Labor party cuddled up beside the Greens and they were in coalition with the Greens, you know what happens when that happens in relation to energy policy? The fact is we get blackouts and we get blowouts in electricity prices.
The fact is that under the Labor party, particularly when you’ve got a weak, shifty leader like this leader of the opposition, you will know boats will always come under that Labor party and you will know energy prices will always be higher under that leadership.”
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Greens look like having the numbers to strike citizenship bill
The Greens flagged this yesterday, and it looks like they actually have the numbers.
A majority of Senators will soon be voting on a motion to strike the Turnbull government’s controversial citizenship bill from the Senate notice paper.
It will be a major embarrassment for the government if it happens, and throw their citizenship plans into further disarray.
The Greens, Labor, the Nick Xenophon Team, and Jacqui Lambie will be supporting the motion, apparently.
The motion will give the government until 18 October (which will be in the next sitting week to allow its citizenship bill to be debated in the Senate, otherwise it will be struck off.
If that happens, the government will have to move a motion to restore the bill to the notice paper if it wants to put it back in the Senate, and the chances of that happening?
The Greens say they are tired of Peter Dutton telling voters how crucial his citizenship bill is while simultaneously withholding it from the Senate so it can’t be debated, so that want him to put his money where his mouth is, as the saying goes.
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Here is a little more on what Kevin Rudd just tweeted
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd has just sent this out. We are attempting to contact him to find out more information about what happened.
So many warnings to Turnbull about what the postal vote cld unleash. Now my godson Sean has been punched standing up for #MarriageEquality pic.twitter.com/6maLZkNmfC
— Kevin Rudd (@MrKRudd) September 13, 2017
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It is all fun and games until someone ... well, in this case, breaks a leg.
Queensland Labor senator Murray Watt got a taste of the ACT hospital system after a pre-parliament game resulted in a potential broken tibia.
Watt told us it is a small break and hopefully won’t need surgery.
I’d love to blame a Tory, but I think it was just aging bones,” he said with a laugh.
@ABarrMLA I can report your Canberra public hospital team delivering excellent service to interstate visitors (and dodgy ⚽️ players) today! pic.twitter.com/d6dO4yjsEt
— Senator Murray Watt (@MurrayWatt) September 13, 2017
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Media reform to go all night
We are told the deal is all but done, but the Senate is preparing to burn the midnight oil, with the media reforms to be debated well into the night.
So clearly there are still some I’s to be dotted and T’s to be crossed before Mitch Fifield can relax.
We didn’t learn too much more in that question time. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull cemented the government’s change in language focussing on ‘affordable, reliable power’.
That’s not really new, but it is becoming a little more forceful in its delivery.
Labor is sticking to its plan of pointing out just how long the Coalition has been in power, while attempting to wedge Turnbull on his views on a CET, given his previous support.
So really, we got nowhere.
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One person who was not in question time today was Tony Abbott – he was granted a pair as he had firefighting duties to attend to.
But he found time to retweet Wallabies star Isreal Folau
I love and respect all people for who they are and their opinions. but personally, I will not support gay marriage.✌❤🙏
— Israel Folau (@IzzyFolau) September 13, 2017
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Olivia Newton-John has been in parliament since last night, lobbying politicians for more money for brain and breast cancer research.
It is a topic close to her heart – Newton-John’s sister died six weeks after she was diagnosed with brain cancer, while she herself has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer for a second time.
But she has just told David Speers that if she could vote in the marriage-equality survey, it would be a ‘yes’.
To me, love is love and I don’t see any debate in it.”
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Labor has seized on Michaelia Cash’s admission in the Senate that she had known about Nigel Hadgkiss’s breach of the Fair Work Act since October 2016.
Hadgkiss resigned from the ABCC after making the admission yesterday.
In a statement, Brendan O’Connor said Cash should have stood Hadgkiss down as soon as she knew.
Over the past three years, the conduct of Mr Hadgkiss has been called into question time and time again, yet the minister has stood by him and his performance.
The Commonwealth Ombudsman questioned the behaviour of Mr Hadgkiss, when he was director of the Fair Work Building Commission (FWBC), saying he breached the confidentiality of people he was interviewing and used questionable interviewing techniques.
This is in addition to previous statements by a federal court judge and a Fair Work commissioner that Mr Hadgkiss was “unjustifiably vexatious” in his attack on the union movement and prone to “unsubstantiated hyperbole”.
Unbelievably, the Turnbull government took the Australian people to a double dissolution election in order to reinstate a botched watchdog headed up by a dodgy commissioner that they knew about since day one.”
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Christopher Pyne was all of us as social services minister Christian Porter attempted to link Seinfield with Bill Shorten:
What you do is you apply what public policy analysis will call the Costanza method of policy participation.
In the famous Seinfeld episode, the notoriously shifty George decides the best way to make decisions is to do the precise opposite of what you think to do first.
When you apply that method to the leader of the opposition, it is uncannily accurate. Tax cuts to decrease welfare dependency. First the leader of the opposition says, ‘friends, corporate tax cut reforms create jobs up and down the ladder, including people who might be on welfare’. He now says the same tax cuts are a crazy plan.
The marriage plebiscite. First he said, ‘I’d rather the people of Australia could make their view clear on this than leaving the decision to 150 people’.
Apply the method, now the 150 people are the only people who get their say, the Australian people get no say. On the cashless welfare card, the leader of the opposition had two opposing points of view in the same sentence, ‘There are some people who will probably benefit from this scheme’ and then said, ‘but it is a hard measure just to get a headline’.
The only leader of the opposition shiftier than George Constanza.”
What we can take from both Pyne’s earlier throwback to Muriel’s Wedding and now Seinfield is that it may be time for the Coalition to update its pop culture references.
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A picture really is worth 1,000 words
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Question time ends as it began, with a question from Bill Shorten to Malcolm Turnbull on energy:
What has been the net reduction of energy capacity in the national energy market since this government came to office in 2013?
Turnbull turns it back on Labor over the $1,000 bill increase in Sydney power bills:
Two statistical matters I want to conclude with. The first is that the opposition leader has claimed in the house that the Australian Energy Regulator has stated that the average price for electricity in Sydney has, since the date of the Coalition government being elected, four years ago, increased by $1,000 per household. That has been his claim. We have noted that. He has not produced any evidence for it but we have noted it.
He has produced no evidence for it. He hasn’t cited any publication at all. In terms of the changing energy mix, I can refer the honourable member to AEMO’s advice to the government just a few days ago, in September this year, and it says, ‘Over the past decade, 5,199 megawatts has been retired and been replaced by 273 megawatts of hydro, 91 megawatts of liquid fuel, 2,965 megawatts of wind, 265 megawatts of largescale solar, 240 megawatts of coal plant expansion and 160 megawatts of other sources’.
I encourage him to read the rest of the report.”
Labor says the figures are “based on data from the government’s own Australian Energy Regulator and the Australian Energy Market Commission reported in the Australian newspaper”.
Updated
Labor is sounding quite rowdy today. Especially after Tanya Plibersek asks Malcolm Turnbull:
The prime minister used to say, ‘I will not lead a party that is not as committed to effective action on climate change as I am.’
Has the prime minister forgotten that when Labor was in government, not only did he support the policies he just ridiculed, he crossed the floor to vote for them?
Turnbull mixes up his usual answer with an attack on Tony Burke mid-speech
The member for Watson there is shouting his head off. What a pathetic display. Go redder. He is getting so red. He is settling down now. He is settling down now. That’s good. That’s good for his heart. Very important. Don’t overdo it. Don’t overdo it.
We need affordable and reliable energy because the reality is, if we don’t have it, Australians will pay the blackout bill.”
Updated
After another question on energy policy that goes nowhere, Peter Dutton answers a Dixer on Australian citizenship laws, making the point that the government has cancelled 2,800 visas over the past few years and pivots to talk about his bill which is currently stalled in the Senate.
We have ramped up by about 1,200% the number of those visa cancellations and made Australia a safer place as a result of that action.
The reality is that, under the Labor party, many of those people would have gone on to become Australian citizens.
... We have introduced a bill into the parliament which has passed the lower house and is in the Senate in relation to tightening up in relation to citizenship so we can make sure people who have abided by Australian laws, adhered to values and integrated into Australian society can become Australian citizens and those that haven’t do not become Australian citizens.
The reality is that when you are looking at a Labor leader, you know he or she is most weak when he or she sides with the Greens. We saw it in Julia Gillard. We saw it in Kevin Rudd. We see it with this leader as well.
The fact is that, in the Senate at the moment, the Greens have moved a motion to wipe off this citizenship bill from the notice paper and it has only been supported, you wouldn’t believe it, not by Nick Xenophon, not by Cory Bernardi, not by Pauline Hanson, not by anybody else except for the Labor party.”
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Sometimes the main event is happening away from centre stage
Christopher Pyne takes a question, as the representative for Michaelia Cash in the House.
Cash has been busy answering questions on the resignation of Nigel Hadgkiss in the Senate. Pyne gets a dixer on “why it is important for employer and employee organisations to act in away that promotes truthfulness,integrity and manages the potential for conflict of interest?’ as a way of addressing the Hadgkiss issue.
I hear the members of the Labor Party cat calling about the head of the ABCC but I didn’t hear them say John Setka should be sacked for the terrible things he did. So they stand up for John Setka while they criticise Nigel Hadgkiss. Doesn’t it sum up the Labor Party of today? It sums up the modern Labor Party.”
Pyne then talks about Bill Shorten’s AWU history and manages a Muriel’s Wedding reference:
All these moments we have experienced with the Leader of the Opposition, all these amazing coincidences, they remind us of Muriel’s Wedding.
It ended up catching up with Deidre and Bill. Eventually Deidre and Bill were undone by these coincidences.
You can only be this shifty for so long before the public work you out.
You can’t get away with being this shifty for this long.”
A short break from QT for some birthday wishes
A big Happy Birthday to @DarrenChesterMP! pic.twitter.com/oXIUtJpKjT
— The PMO (@thepmo) September 13, 2017
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Mark Butler picks up Labor’s attack over a clean energy target:
Just over three months ago, the prime minister described the clean energy target this way. ‘It would certainly work. There is no question it would work and it has a number of virtues, very strong virtues and again it has a lot of merit. We will look at it very favourably.’
Will there be a clean energy target? Yes or no?
Turnbull gives a short history lesson in response:
As I made very clear, we are considering the 50th recommendation of the Finkel review, which is about a clean energy target.
What we need to achieve in our policy is to ensure energy becomes more affordable, that it becomes more reliable and that we meet our emissions reduction obligations ... The fact is a clean energy target is an evolution of a refinement, if you like, of a renewable energy target.
What the renewable energy target did not do, has not done, is provide support for the storage and the back-up that is required to make renewables reliable.
This is not taken seriously by the Labor party. The problem is, however, blackouts and unaffordable power bills are taken seriously by Australians. They know that they’re the ones that have to pay for the blackout bill.
They’re the ones that have to pay for ... Well, they do. They do have to pay. They do have to pay.
Tony Burke calls the “blackout Bill” reference “too cute by half”.
Updated
A quick dash to the Senate shows Michaelia Cash has been forced to answer questions about the resignation of Nigel Hadgkiss, who had headed the ABCC.
Doug Cameron asks: Mr Hadgkiss has admitted to recklessly breaching section 503 of the Fair Work Act. When did the minister first become aware of the behaviour Mr Hadgkiss now admits to was a breach of the act?
Cash gives a simple answer:
I became aware of the behaviour in October 2016.
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Barnaby Joyce is enjoying his time being able to speak without the interruption of Labor attempting a gag order. He responds to a Dixer with an attack on Labor and its position on the Liddell power station, throwing in a couple of new nicknames:
Now federal Labor do not stand by Liddell and we can see this because they’re all going for that great title that they now have in the Labor party. They used to sing Solidarity Forever, now they are fighting to be basket weaver No. 1.
I think the member for Hunter did a good job last night, ‘Andy Vesey and AGL did us a big favour’. They are doing what no one else has ever done before, which is put the member for Hunter’s workers out of jobs, put more pressure on manufacturing industries and coal workers.
Then we see the Labor party policy. Wind chime No. 2 ... Labor will introduce a framework to kick start coal-fired power stations. You can’t get any better than that. That is the Labor party.
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Can you believe question time is free?
It’s the independent’s question – today it’s NXT’s Rebekha Sharkie and we leave energy for a moment to look at water.
In a letter enclosing the interim investigation into New South Wales water management, Ken Matthews stated, ‘Compliance and enforcement arrangements in New South Wales have been ineffectual and require significant and urgent improvement’.
He stated that individual cases of alleged non-compliance have remained unresolved for far too long and that a systemic fix is required.
Given Ken Matthews’s findings and water theft allegations in at least two states, do you now agree with we need an urgent inquiry into the implementation of the $13m Murray-Darling basin plan?
Barnaby Joyce takes the question:
What I can say? It must be important that at this point they remain allegations and I am also aware of other issues that have been brought forward in regards to defamation cases so we have to be very careful we differentiate between allegations and proof.
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Julie Owens, the Labor MP for Parramatta, questions the prime minister: “The Liberal party promised families they would be $550 a year better off because of lower power prices. This government is in its fifth year in office. Can the prime minister confirm the average Sydney household is paying almost $1,000 more on power bills this year than when the federal Liberal government was elected in2013?
Josh Frydenberg takes the question.
She has just made that number up. Where is your evidence? There is absolutely no evidence for that. But what I can tell you is the evidence from the ACCC’s report from 2015, which said, ‘The commonwealth treasury’s estimated $550 cost savings to households is reasonable’. That is what came from the abolition of the carbon tax.
I had a feeling this link would come in handy again – here is the ABC Factcheck on that $550 figure
Updated
Correction: An earlier post (11.08am) made mention of Senator Louise Pratt’s former partner. Apologies for the mistake.
Before we get to the next government dixer, Speaker Smith announces a special guest is in the public gallery, to the applause of the House:
Just before I call the member for Bonner, I’d like to advise the House that we have present in the gallery this afternoon very prominent Australian Olivia Newton-John, accompanied by her husband, John.
And her team from the Olivia Newton-John Institute. A warm welcome. She is a prominent Carlton supporter!
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Shorten tries again, this time without the preamble:
My question is to the prime minister. I just ask again: prime minister, how much of power bills for Australia has gone up since the Liberals formed government in 2013?
Turnbull tells us the bills have gone down. And up. But that’s Labor’s fault.
They came down significantly when the Coalition came into government and the carbon tax was abolished.
They came down significantly. We have seen them going up again recently. The reason they’ve been going up is because of the impact of decisions taken by the Labor party ... They can wave their arms around and shout as much as they like but it was the Labor party, it was the Labor party that allowed gas to be exported without any protection for the domestic market.
None. They did not give any thought to the protection of the Australian market.
Speaker Tony Smith disagrees with the prime minister on a small matter:
The one thing I will disagree with the prime minister on. They can’t shout as much as they want and anyone that continues to do so will be leaving under 94(a).
Updated
The first government Dixer gives the PM a chance to repeat himself, with the member for Chisholm, Julia Banks, asking what steps the government has taken to lower power prices.
Turnbull gives another version of the answer he just gave Shorten. Which is just a variation of the answers he gave yesterday and the day before and, we can assume, a preview of the answers he’ll give tomorrow.
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And so it begins
Question time has started with a question from Bill Shorten to Malcolm Turnbull.
It is, you will not be surprised to learn, on energy:
My question is to the prime minister. On Monday, the prime minister was asked if power prices were higher or lower since this government came to office and he refused to answer.
On Tuesday, the prime minister was asked about the average Sydney household paying $1,000 more since this government came to power and refused to answer.
So, prime minister, just answer: how much have power bills increased since the Liberals came to office?
Turnbull seizes it as an opportunity to describe the steps he says the government has taken to lower power prices:
We’re bringing down gas prices already. In terms of dispatchable energy, we’re taking practical steps with AGL on Liddell, the obvious one option to avoid it creating a big gap is to keep that power station running for longer so we are exploring that with the company.
In the longer term, we are building the biggest renewable power system in the country’s history since Snowy 1, Snowy Hydro 2, which will make renewables reliable, [and which] is derided by the Labor party as a stunt.
They have no policies and no plan. The only thing we know Australians will have to pay for is the blackout bill.
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Lunchtime summary
As we get ready for question time, let’s review the day so far:
- Energy has again kickstarted the day, with Josh Frydenberg and Barnaby Joyce out making the hard sell on behalf of the government. But nothing has shifted since earlier this week,
- The clean energy target has raised its head again, with the government still working out what it is going to do moving forward – and if it has one.
- Labor is looking to wedge the government on the issue. The government is looking to wedge Labor on its plan for reliable energy supply. In other words, we’ve moved nowhere.
- The safeguard legislation for the marriage equality campaign has been passed during an emotional debate in the Senate. Labor, the Coalition, the Greens, Derryn Hinch and the Nick Xenophon Team stood in support of the legislation, while Cory Bernardi and One Nation voted against it, citing concerns over ‘freedoms’.
- Hanson believes that under marriage equality, people will be stopped from saying ‘mum and dad’.
- ACL head Lyle Shelton and Liberal party vice-president Karina Okotel gave the ‘no’ case for marriage equality at the National Press Club.
- The head of the ABCC, Nigel Hadgkiss, has resigned after admitting he breached the Fair Work Act.
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Head of ABCC resigns
The chief of the Australian Building and Construction Commission has resigned the day after he admitted to breaching the Fair Work Act in 2013.
The Australian Financial Review reported yesterday Nigel Hadgkiss had admitted “to recklessly misrepresenting union rights to employers for more than two years”:
From January 2014 to July 2016, the ABCC published downloadable posters and fact sheets on its website that advised employers that union officials “must comply with your reasonable requests” over which areas they could use to hold discussions with workers.
However, the CFMEU pointed out new Labor right of entry laws, which came into effect on January 1, 2014, carried no such requirements and in fact gave unions a default right to use the lunchroom to meet workers if they could not reach agreement on a location with the employer.
Internal emails uncovered in discovery revealed that ABCC staff knew the correct position internally but continued to maintain the information on the site.
Emails showed Mr Hadgkiss insisted that planned corrections be “canned” because the incoming Coalition government had indicated it would seek to reverse Labor’s new laws by February that year.
The repeal never happened and in an agreed statement of facts Mr Hadgkiss admitted he “did not turn his mind to the possibility that the legislation repealing the right of entry amendments might not be passed”.
Michaelia Cash has thanked Hadgkiss for his service
Michaelia Cash's top law enforcer ABCC boss has admitted to breaking laws. Will she sack him or is it one law for us and another for them?
— Sally McManus (@sallymcmanus) September 12, 2017
We have an update on Paul Karp’s story from this morning on the robo-call which has been doing the rounds- here is a quick refresher on that
A robocall asking Australians their opinion about the same-sex marriage postal survey has suggested that marriage equality may lead to “radical gay sex education” and threats to freedom of speech and religion.
The poll, which was first reported by social media users on Tuesday night, stated that it was conducted by the Republican-linked American pollster WPA Intelligence.
Marriage equality advocates fear the call, which contains no authorisation disclosing who commissioned it, may be push-polling designed to boost the no campaign.”
The Australian Market and Social Research Society have put out a statement saying the WPA Intelligence are breaching its code of practice.
AMSRS have received a number of calls in regards to a survey being conducted by WPA Intelligence.
We wish to advise that WPA Intelligence has no members of AMSRS; they are a company operating out of America.
The survey WPA Intelligence are conducting in regards to the same-sex marriage postal survey appears to be “push-polling” – an activity that attempts to impart information to individuals rather than collect information from individuals. This practice is not genuine social research and runs contrary to the AMSRS Code of Professional Behaviour and may contravene aspects of the Privacy Act (Australian Privacy Principles).
Lyle Shelton may have apologised for comments made during the 1980s but no apology has been forthcoming for his ‘stolen generation’ comments.
Instead, he has framed his case around concerns for freedoms and children.
I just want to say if you are concerned about freedom, if you’re concerned about what your children are taught at school, you’re not a bigot.
You’re not homophobic, you don’t have irrational fear. These are valid and reasonable concerns which you should be allowed to express, even express them on social media with your friends.
If you’re concerned about these things, I would encourage you to vote no.
If you don’t know where the final frontier in the LGBTQI sex agenda is, same-sex marriage agenda is, if you don’t know where that is, vote no.
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Bill Shorten has formally written to Malcolm Turnbull requesting more funding for LGBTIQ counselling and trauma services “to assist them with the increase in demand for services that is occurring as a result of your postal survey on marriage equality”.
Shorten writes that Beyond Blue has reported a 40% increase in call services since August, while QLife, a LGBTIQ phone counselling service, has reported a 20% increase in demand.
Given your determination to proceed with this survey despite the harm it will cause, you have a responsibility to ensure that services around the country are able to cope with the consequences.
We cannot leave LGBTIQ Australians and their families on their own through this process”
Lyle Shelton has taken his place at the National Press Club’s podium and he starts his speech with an apology.
I want to start my address today by offering an apology. This is a very emotion-charged debate for many people in Australia and Karina has talked about some of the vitriol we have experienced that at ACL and, yes, it does exist on both sides of the debate. But going back to the early 1980s at the height of the Aids crisis in San Francisco, when gay men were dying like flies, people who represented Christian organisations said some very hateful and hurtful things.
And I just want to say here today that for those who might think that people like myself and Karina represent that viewpoint, I want to say – we’re sorry for what happened back in those days.
It was a generation ago, it was before my time, but nonetheless wounds were there and I think still exist to this day and probably with some justification by our friends in the LGBTQI community.
So I just want to start by offering that as an apology from myself. I’m not here representing the church or anyone else, but I just think that needs to be said.”
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Stepping outside parliament to the National Press Club now. Vice-president of the Liberal party, Karina Okotel, and managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby, Lyle Shelton, are making the arguments for the ‘no’ case in the marriage equality debate.
Paul Karp is there and will report on all the proceedings a little later, but here is a taste from Okotel:
A culture has developed whereby it’s acceptable to vilify, mock, abuse and shame anyone who stands in the way or even raises questions about whether we should legalise same-sex marriage.
I have been called a homophobe, a bigot, and been told my views are disgusting.
… Why is this? The yes campaign have framed their debate about being one for equality and for justice. And who could stand against this?
When I first considered the legalisation of same-sex marriage several years ago, I was all for it. I thought if two consenting adults want to get married what would it hurt anyone else. At that point in time I would have voted yes, but the more I looked into the issue, and the more I observed the experience of other countries that have legalised same-sex marriage, my concerns grew.
You cannot, after all, fundamentally shift an institution we have always had, that is practised the world over, without there being consequences.”
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The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has met with Olivia Newton-John as she promotes the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute. I’ll leave the captions to you.
You better shape up-PM Malcolm Turnbull meets Olivia Newton-John @AmyRemeikis @GuardianAus #politicslive pic.twitter.com/jkRjMa2vXl
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) September 13, 2017
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The Marriage Law Survey (Additional Safeguards) bill 2017 has passed
The Senate moves on to media reforms.
This is the legislation that will scrap the two-out-of-three media ownership rules, which stop a company from owning a newspaper, TV station and radio station in the same market, as well as scrapping the 75% reach rule.
These reforms have been on the Coalition’s agenda since Tony Abbott was elected in 2014.
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Outside in the courtyard, Barnaby Joyce has been continuing the power attack, complete with his giant hat.
He’s repeating his lines from yesterday, questioning why AGL won’t just sell Liddell, if it “such a dog of an asset”.
If it is something that, just, horrible, if it is something that just warrants being pulled down, if you want to take on the costs of pulling it down, then surely that would pose the question, ‘Why would you take to it the market and see if someone wants to buy it?’
If it is such a terrible asset, surely if someone wants to buy it that would be a much better outcome. But it doesn’t seem at this point in time that AGL have any contemplation about anybody wanting to buy Liddell. They seem very focused on wanting to pull it down. Then they say, ‘We will put up other renewables in that space.’
I have no problems with renewables, Australia is a big place. There are a lot of renewables in New England. If you want to put them up, sure, knock yourself out. The idea of pulling down one of the major supplies toNSW for no apparent – I haven’t had a cogent reason as to why they want to pull down a power station, just doesn’t stack up. We have to make sure that we keep the lights on in Sydney. We have to make sure that the Coalition policy of keeping power affordable and reliable is a predominant policy, not the Labor policy, which you can see in live form in South Australia.
You can see it. Highest power prices in Australia and driving Australia to have the highest power prices in the OECD.
For a refresher on what happened yesterday, here is Katharine Murphy’s report.
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In between having their say on what they believe vilification to be, or if it even exists, One Nation has been hearing from the communications minister, Mitch Fifield.
Mr Bowers spotted a quick chat between Fifield and Pauline Hanson as the anti-vilification debate carried on around them.
Once this debate is finished and it’s almost done, with a Greens amendment to extend the survey to 16 and 17 year olds about to be defeated and Mathias Cormann just dealing with some lingering questions from Cory Bernardi – the Senate will move on to Fifield’s media bill.
Take from the body language what you will.
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Pauline Hanson has had a lot to say about this legislation, which One Nation will not be supporting, as it believes it will shut down debate.
Hanson uses the case of Dads4Kids, which she says was stopped from being able to run a Father’s Day commercial because of political correctness but was actually just asked by Free TV to add an identification tag, in line with the Broadcasting Services Act, which requires ads with political matter to say who is responsible for the ad.
But let’s not let pesky facts get in the way of this debate.
Hanson is also very concerned over whether calling people “mum” and “dad” will be seen as a form of vilification.
Once you have marriage equality, you have the right of any couple that is married in Australia. What about the rights of the child? Have we considered the children, what may come of this, is we go to school now, or kids go to school, and they say, ‘I want you to draw a picture of mum and dad’, or ‘What’s mum and dad done?’, or ‘Have you had time with grandma and granddad?’
So then is [someone] going to come in and say, ‘Sorry, you can no longer call that parent mum and dad, because it is going to offend the children who don’t mum and dad. So it is going to be, ‘You must call that person by Peter or Anne or John?’
So there is no longer mums and dads, grandma and granddad. This is the impact that it is having in other places, so I have been told.
Malcolm Roberts has also had a bit to say.
We need to stop weakening people and instead we need to strengthen people. Instead of singling out people as the term LGBTIQ does and becomes divisive and hurts people, that is the same as singling out people because they are Aboriginals or females or aged or teens. Instead we need to include all people and that is real equality of opportunity.
We need to stop the division, we need instead to unify.
Now hate speech to confess, really, is not on people’s minds. Because the incidence is low. And most people can understand the point that I am going to make in a few minutes. We can deal with hate speech by showing that we don’t accept it. That is the key, that we don’t accept it.
So while I empathise with Senator Wong’s pain, I do not sympathise with it. I can empathise with any hurt she feels, yet I am not going to reinforce her pain.
Because all pain in my experience comes from within.
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Wearing your heart on your scarf, as you do
Labor senator Louise Pratt delivered an emotional speech, where she talked about an anti-marriage equality pamphlet that was handed to her three-year-old son.
I want to talk to you about what is most important. And that is, to the LGBTI community – to stay strong, as strong as you can. To acknowledge your feelings. To look out for each other. To take care of yourself and each other.
But most of all, we are going to be dealing with this by getting busy winning their debate. We will be getting to work. We will be going door-to-door, making hundreds of thousands of phone calls, we will be knocking on doors all around the country.
So it is my plea to all Australians who support equality, please keep an eye out for your ballot paper, which is being sent out this week. Fill it out, post it back, stand up for equality and make your vote count.
*Correction: this post previously made mention of Senator Pratt’s previous partner. Apologies for the mistake.
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Cory Bernardi is against the legislation – he says there is a principle at stake. “If we are trying to protect everyone in this country from having their feelings hurt, we are on a path to I don’t know where.”
Bernardi says it is “essentially 18c on steroids, to protect their feelings from being hurt”.
The spurious claim is going to be my feelings were hurt, I feel vilified, I feel alienated, I feel upset and alarmingly, alarmingly, the person who will sit, from my understanding, sit in initial judgment on the merits or worthiness of that case will be the attorney general.
They will be the person who can interfere and direct things to the federal court or appeal against them to the federal court. Now do we want really a cheerleader, and I don’t mean this disrespectfully to the attorney, but anyone who is a partisan cheerleader for a side in a campaign to be sitting or rendering any form of judgment about a complaint about the conduct of one side or the other.
These concerns, Bernardi said, could lead to the worst of the Harry Potter sequels.
The court of public opinion will render its verdict. It doesn’t need Judge George and the chamber of outrage to determine whether things are offensive or not.
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Janet Rice said “given the circumstances that we are in” the Greens will support the safeguard legislation.
We are on a long, winding, damaging path to marriage equality but I know we are going to get there in the end. So we are taking stock of where we are at, we are moving forward and we accept that this bill is going to make some improvements on what would be an even more damaging process.
The issue of marriage equality is a personal issue for me as, well as a political one. My relationship with my wife, Penny, is one shared by not very many couples in Australia and it is an interesting, if not unique, perspective.
When my wife, Penny, and I were married 31 years ago, she was a bloke. So we fitted the stereotype of being the perfect couple. We married in a church, bought a house, we had two kids and fitted, hand in the glove, to being mainstream Australia.
Then, of course, some 17 years later, she transitioned. And became the woman she truly was. And we went from being the perfect couple, the ordinary couple, the mainstream Australian couple, to being weird. To being discriminated against.
Because suddenly we were weird. We were not normal. And suddenly, if Penny wanted to complete her affirmation as a woman by changing her gender on her birth certificate, we would have to divorce. Of course we didn’t want to get divorced. We were still a happily married couple. We had two wonderful children. But that is what our law said we had to do.
So, of course, Penny’s birth certificate has sat in her drawer since then.
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Debate has begun on the anti-vilification legislation for the marriage equality campaign
Mathias Cormann has introduced the bill to the Senate, with the Greens, Labor and the Nick Xenophon Team announcing their support – not surprising, given the parties worked with Cormann in developing the bill.
The speeches are quite personal. Penny Wong said that among all the hateful things that have been said “politely and abusefully” she takes comfort from the simple acts of acceptance in every day life.
I take comfort, I take faith from, the sort of open heartedness and acceptance that I have experienced in my life.
On the birth of our children, the generosity of so many strangers, sending gifts, sending cards, sending messages, sending flowers, lots of clothes, people stopping me and congratulating us.
When I drop my daughter off at school, the way in which parents of other kids talk to us, ask us about the latest happenings. Parents dropping their kids off for play dates, sitting down and having a cup of tea and just talking about what the class is doing.
In these simple acts there is an acceptance and respect that I hope will win in a debate that thus far as been too much characterised by a lack of acceptance and a lack of respect and I encourage those on the other side to stand with us in providing that leadership about the nature of the debate to come.
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The foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, has been speaking on North Korea, following her joint statement with the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, yesterday, which welcomed the new UN sanctions on the rogue state but called on China to do more.
This morning, the message is being handled delicately. Australia still believes China can wield its influence to convince North Korea into backing off from its nuclear mission but Bishop was not singling its ally out:
China has demonstrated its willingness to support the toughest and most comprehensive set of sanctions on North Korea to date. There is room for more sanctions. China has said it will fully implement all sanctions to which it has agreed and I take them at their word.
China and Russia, in fact, all members of the permanent five of the UN Security Council, have a unique responsibility to uphold the authority of the UN Security Council and that is a message that I have been sending to China, Russia and other members of the P5 for some time – that they have a responsibility to ensure that the authority of the UN Security Council is respected and upheld.
North Korea is in direct violation of numerous UN Security Council resolutions. Its sixth illegal nuclear test was the most powerful and it is in direct defiance of the UN Security Council. So, the permanent five have a unique responsibility to ensure that North Korea respect and abides by UN Security Council resolutions.
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The Greens are also on board with the anti-vilification legislation, with Senator Janet Rice saying the government included what the party had requested in terms of protections in the bill.
The key concerns that we raised publicly and in consultations with the government have largely been incorporated into the legislation being put forward today, which is why the Greens will be voting in favour of these emergency protections.”
It is absolutely critical that the LGBTIQ community feels supported throughout this process, which, as we’ve already seen, has the potential to cause great emotional harm, especially to young people.
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The energy war is ongoing, despite a brief ceasefire between Josh Frydenberg and Ed Husic this morning.
Just a couple of hours after playing up for the cameras, both Frydenberg and Husic had their game faces on for Sky News.
Frydenberg said the government was doing the only responsible thing, in talking to AGL about keeping its Liddell coal-fired power station open beyond 2022, given what he said were the energy market operator’s warnings about supply reliability.
Bill Shorten, or Blackout Bill, says this is an issue for down the track. We take AEMO’s words at face value and are working urgently to ensure there is no supply shortfall.
We have already seen a press release from Delta Electricity, which owns Vales Point, which has said it is prepared to do due diligence on the asset. AGL have certainly not been public in saying the asset is for sale. When that, if that was to occur, then no doubt you would see parties announce that they were interested.
Husic appeared in the studio just after to set out Labor’s attack lines for the day.
I think it is important to note that Malcolm Turnbull has overtaken Tony Abbott for the amount of time spent in the top job and he has ended up looking more like the bloke he replaced, every day. Malcolm Turnbull was the bloke who crossed the floor of parliament to support an energy approach he is fighting right now.
So instead of actually thinking how to generate more energy and cleaner, he’s continually doing a throwback to the past, committing huge amount of government funds to generate energy in a way that is not as efficient as we could be.
For those keeping count, Tony Abbott famously resigned by fax on 15 September 2015, the day after the leadership spill, an anniversary we are rapidly approaching.
Josh ad Ed re-enact the Josh-Joel scrap @AmyRemeikis @GuardianAus #politicslive pic.twitter.com/kvdiJmImZE
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) September 12, 2017
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Overnight, the Victorian senator Derryn Hinch used parliamentary privilege to name another convicted paedophile, while some of the man’s now adult victims watched on from the public gallery. A court order means we can’t name him publicly but here is Hinch telling Patricia Karvelas why he did it.
This police officer for 12 years raped a five-year-old stepdaughter at gun point. He took her out of school almost every day … He took a young boy, he said ‘Do you want to see a police station?’, took him in there in his uniform and raped him in a room in the police station.
One of the victims came to me. She’s now 45. She was the five-year-old step-daughter. She came to me, she tried everything. When she was 15 her grandfather took her to the police station and was told ‘don’t worry about it’. When she was nine she started to bleed and her grandmother took her to the doctor and she was having a miscarriage.
Now that woman approached me and said, ‘Will you name him? He’s still there’, so I named him. We talked to every victim, of the nine [victims]. We approached them all and got their permission so they wouldn’t be blindsided and two of his victims came to Canberra, drove to Canberra from Victoria, and sat in the gallery last night and they felt like a weight had been lifted off them. It’s one of the proudest things I’ve ever done since I’ve got elected.
It’s not the first time he has done it and he told ABC radio that it won’t be the last.
If it’s necessary. I think I’ve done it twice in a year, that’s all. I’m not running out there naming everybody. But this case, the victims came to me and they said, ‘We’ve been trying for years to get this done.’ She said ‘I’m a victim. I want him named.’ So how is [the suppression order] protecting the victims?
If they want me to, and it makes them feel better and [allows] them to get on with their adult lives, yes I’ll do it. And I’m sure it will come up again.
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The anti-vilification legislation, which has been designed to place safeguards around the marriage equality campaign – at least as much as is possible – has been confirmed as the Senate’s first order of business.
But even though Labor has worked with the Coalition in creating the legislation, it doesn’t mean the party is happy about it.
Speaking earlier, Tanya Plibersek said it would not stop hate speech but was better than nothing.
The debate is already ugly. I have already had the homes of my constituents graffitied. I’ve seen all sorts of appalling stuff distributed, unauthorised and completely inaccurate, all sorts of foul stuff. The very fact that we are having this debate is bringing out some of the worse commentary and, personally, I hold the prime minister responsible for that.
However, some protections are better than none, so we have worked with the government to offer some protections, because it is better than leaving people on their own. Will this stop the hate speech? No. Because I have seen too much of it already.
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It was a long night for the crossbench as the communications minister, Mitch Fifield, pinned them down on media reform.
It’s not done and dusted as yet, but it’s almost there, as Nick Xenophon told ABC radio this morning:
It is fair to say that we are on the verge of reaching an agreement. I think the best thing to do is give details of that once it has been finalised. It will be a significant package for smaller and regional publishers. Media in this country faces a crisis for a range of reasons, particularly the impact of Google and Facebook and advertising revenue.
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It is going to be another loooong day for the energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, but he’s starting the day a little better than he did yesterday.
Around this time yesterday he was facing off with Joel Fitzgibbon in the parliament hallways in full view of the cameras. This morning, he’s still in front of the cameras and interacting with Labor opponents but he looks like he’s having a better time with Ed Husic.
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Last night Olivia Newton-John was a guest at Parliament House, talking about the work of the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute and her own experiences with breast cancer.
All sides of politics proved they were totally devoted to the power of ONJ, turning out in spades to hear Newton-John speak.
Malcolm Turnbull said the debate is not coal vs renewables but how reliable power can be assured.
What we are focused on is not a debate between coal on the one hand or renewables on the other, our focus is on affordable, reliable energy and meeting our emissions-reduction obligations we have entered into.
We are working hard to secure Australia’s energy future which means ensuring Australians have access to reliable, base load or dispatchable power.
But Labor’s Tanya Plibersek was having none of that:
Here you have got a government that is so at war with itself that it can’t do anything on energy policy. The prime minister once said that he didn’t want to lead a party that was not as committed to real action on climate change as he was. Well he has dumped that, as he has dumped every other single thing that he used to stand for. He is now on a short leash, jerked by the coal enthusiasts in the party room who say if it is not coal, it’s nothing.
We say there should more gas, more renewables, more storage and more certainty.
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A couple of quick points on the clean energy target:
It has been clear from the moment Alan Finkel produced his report that the government would not implement his recommendation as modelled in his report – it would produce a mechanism which allowed incentives for coal.
There has been positioning inside the government on this point since Finkel produced his report in June. The Nationals have made it clear coal being in the mix is the price of their support.
Work inside the government continues on the clean energy target model, and the government now has a new report from the Australian Energy Market Operator which quantifies the shortfall once the Liddell power station exits the system.
The government is now speaking about an investment framework rather than a clean energy target as a means of pivoting away from the specific Finkel recommendation (which was a CET, minus coal) to something more fossil fuel-friendly which has some prospect of clearing the Coalition party room.
But even if the government can get an energy investment framework through the party room, it’s not clear whether Labor will support it.
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Good morning and welcome to Politics Live
If it feels like we have been here before, it is because we have. Energy is once again the buzzword of the day, with government leaks hinting at what we already knew – that it looks like it is walking away from Finkel’s clean energy target in favour of an investor framework. We’ll hear plenty more on that today.
Media reforms have also been shifted to the top of the Senate agenda, which, at this stage at least, means the government is feeling confident it’s close to a deal.
Both Labor and the Coalition appear to have agreed on the anti-vilification legislation for the marriage equality postal survey campaign, which should be dealt with quickly, given both major parties are in support.
And Simon Birmingham is gearing up for another fight over education, with his higher education funding reforms also due in the Senate. But that could change, depending on how much debate we see over media reforms.
As always, I’ll have updates from the Guardian Australia political team, Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp and Gareth Hutchens across the day and the comments thread is open for your business.
If you prefer a more direct approach, you can reach the man with the camera, Mike Bowers on Twitter @mpbowers or, if you just want to see more of the day on Instagram you can do that here. I can be found at @amyremeikis or if Facebook is more your thing, you’ll find that here.
Let’s get into it!
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