Bill Shorten urges Coalition to ditch company tax cuts instead of 'threatening' voters – question time live
As Labor, Greens and majority of Senate crossbench rule out passing omnibus savings bill, Mathias Cormann warns the government will have to raise taxes
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The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, says the Coalition should abandon its company tax cuts.
Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
NXT MP Rebekah Sharkie: In regional areas, when with we have a bushfire.Our power is often cut. No power in a few hours means no mobile phone network. There is no legislation for telcos to provide backup. Does the Prime Minister agree that high risk bushfire areas need such protection, and if so, what will the government do it keep our telecommunications safe?
Minister Paul Fletcher and the prime minister talk about the government’s mobile blackspot program. He takes the point that it is important but the mobile blackspot program is the only answer provided for people in those areas.
She’s absolutely right to make the point it’s very important that we have to the maximum extent possible...reliability in telecommunications networks, and that includes robustness in the face of emergencies, such as bushfires, which can obviously have an impact on the network and can also have an impact on individuals and their homes.
Tony Burke to Malcolm Turnbull: (Turnbull) defended his industry minister, describing One Nation as more sophisticated. One Nation in Western Australia has said the gay community has developed a covert mind control project to campaign for marriage equality, using the strategies developed by the Nazis and the Soviets. How long can the Turnbull government continue to make excuses for One Nation?
Turnbull again compares the Liberals deal with One Nation as not as bad as Labor taking preferences from the Greens,
which advocates, advocates legalising drugs of addiction, it advocates abandoning the US alliance, it advocates de-industrialising Australia, and I don’t believe the Labor Party agrees with any of those policies.
The second government question is on the government’s plan for growing a competitive economy. (With the associated Labor alternative plan.)
Scott Morrison:
Those opposite are like a father and mother telling their kids out for a dinner, and they order up big, they order up big, everything they can, put it on the table, put it on the table, and then, before the bill comes, they walk out the door and they do a runner, leaving the kids to pay the bill.
Chris Bowen to Scott Morrison: The treasurer is threatening to increase taxes on Australians. Will the Treasurer be increasing the GST to 15%, extending the GST to fresh food or is everything on the table again?
Morrison says Labor should mend their ways and pass the omnibus savings.
Morrison says Labor wants to increase taxes because they are not passing the savings.
The government has absolutely no desire whatsoever to increase taxes on the Australian people.
First government question to Turnbull: Will the prime minister update the house on how the government is reducing cost of living pressures and helping hard-working Australians to get ahead, including in my electorate of Dunkley?
Turnbull goes to the cost of Labor’s renewable energy targets.
Shorten to Turnbull: Will the prime minister withdraw his $50m tax cut for big business, instead of threatening to increase the taxes for every Australian?
Turnbull says Shorten has argued for a cut in company tax cut before.
Turnbull doesn’t answer the question.
Speaker Smith warns he will not cop constant interjections.
I am not going to sound like a broken record all through question time.
(For young people, a record was the music thing before Spotify.)
Bill Shorten also traverses the history of the fall of Singapore and then about its effect on those who came home, who were marked forever by what they had endured”.
The Burma Thai railway runs straight through the heart the nation, and even as the veterans pass, the shadow lingers still. Frankly, that anyone survived is a miracle of the human spirit. But so many of our men and women came home is a tribute to the resilience of their spirit and I think also the depth of loyalty they showed to their brothers, far from home in a world, a world away from the war they had imagined, there was nevertheless a profound Australian quality, their solidarity.
He pays homage to Labor prime minister John Curtin, who enunciated the pivot away from Britain.
We would, in Curtin’s words, fight and work as we have never worked and fought before. While we sit here in this Parliament, I think all of us do not underestimate the difficulty and the courage that that decision took, or the magnitude in the shift in the national mindset. Robert Menzies had said that Great Britain is at war, therefore Australia is at war.
Now with invasion on the door step, Japanese bombs to rain on Darwin within the week. With Australia threatened in a war barely contemplated at the beginning of the war, Curtin spoke for our Australian identity that was more than just an outpost of empire. He spoke for a proud people determined to defend their country. He stood up to Churchill. He spoke in the honest language of equals.
Malcolm Turnbull remembers Tom Uren, Alexander Downer (senior) and other members who became prisoners of the Japanese.
His speech covers broad history of the fall and the personal history, remembering his stepmother’s father, following on to defeat of Japan.
In an age where ancient enmities seem to re-emerge, it’s remarkable that it was the generation who fought and suffered in the war against Japan that, in 1957, entered into the commerce agreement with Japan. That’s the foundation of our strong and growing economic and strategic partnership. What a generation. What a generation.
Malcolm Turnbull starts with a statement on the fall of Singapore.
Singapore fell to the imperial forces of Japan. It was a shattering moment. Australians had believed the might of the Royal Navy and the guns of Singapore’s island fortress would keep it safe. The fall began, as Curtin said, the battle for Australia. Almost 1800 Australians died and more than 1300 were wounded in the fight for Malay and the defence of Singapore.
Nick Xenophon has had a pretty fiery contribution in Senate debate on whether to trim the phase-in period for the building code.
He’s been riled up by a Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union advertising campaign against him, saying his vote for the Australian Building and Construction Commission meant he had “sold out” on job safety on apprentices.
Xenophon started by labelling the campaign not just post-truth but “dishonest, devious, misleading, mischievous, manipulative, aggressive, unethical and – dare I say it – corrupt”.
He has sought an apology and retraction from the union in a legal letter threatening possible defamation proceedings.
Xenophon used his speech to outline his commitment to safety and various positive changes he had made to the ABCC bill and building code, including a legislative note that agreements are allowed to encourage employment of apprentices.
On safety, he said the Coalition’s 2016 code was better than Labor’s 2013 code in several respects including counting builders’ safety record before awarding government work and said that unions could still exercise right of entry for safety concerns.
On the substance of the bill, Xenophon said the changes were needed because small and medium builders were “suffering unduly” from union pressure to sign agreements that don’t comply with the code.
Liberal boss Tony Nutt calls for foreign donation ban on all entities including Get Up
Paul Karp
A ban on receiving foreign donations should apply across the board to Australian political parties, associated entities and activist groups, the Liberal party has submitted to a parliamentary committee.
The Liberal party director, Tony Nutt, told the committee on Wednesday that a level playing field would mean applying the ban to groups such as GetUp engaged in political campaigning.
Labor’s assistant national secretary, Paul Erickson, supported the level playing field in principle and consideration of extending the ban to associated entities or third parties undertaking campaign activities.
Nutt said that a foreign donation ban was a necessary prudential measure to prevent interference in elections by foreign entities, including states, who have “no legitimate role in our democratic society”.
Nutt said that rules “should be set in such a way as to capture all participants” in the democratic process.
@gabriellechan 🚁Hello🚁 Seems the ALP & LNP are opponents until it's suggested there be consequences for systemic entitlement abuse. Then... pic.twitter.com/K323XBheYy
The Coalition and Labor rejected attempts by the independents and minor parties to further toughen penalties on members who misuse their travel allowance. The bills to set up an independent authority and penalise those who wrongly claim expenses are in the process of going through the lower house. Cory Bernardi intends to amend the bills by change the rules so already retired politicians cannot access their pensions until 60. This will rattle retired (but younger) politicians who get a lifetime pension for service before 2004.
The treasurer and finance minister have raised the prospect of increasing taxes if the Senate does not pass the omnibus bill – having first linked it to NDIS and the childcare package. The prime minister has supported this “obvious” conclusion (of tax increases) if people want a balanced budget and don’t pass savings. Chris Bowen says the omnibus bill is a slow motion train wreck.
Bill Shorten has done a bit of ducking and weaving on the costings for the NDIS and the cost of the renewable energy target.
A ban on receiving foreign donations should apply across the board to Australian political parties, associated entities and activist groups, the Liberal party has submitted to a parliamentary committee. The Liberal party director, Tony Nutt, told the committee on Wednesday that a level playing field would mean applying the ban to groups such as GetUp engaged in political campaigning.
Malcolm Turnbull has met with the prime minister of Sri Lanka.
The amendment following the Hinch backflip on the Australian Building and Construction Commission bill is currently being debated in the Senate.
Drain the swamp: pollies should not access pensions until they are 60, says Bernardi
Katharine Murphy
With the entitlements bill now passing the lower house, eyes will switch to the Senate.
Newly minted Australian Conservatives senator Cory Bernardi is warming his jets for a little intervention in the red place on this legislative package.
He has three amendments on the boil. They would do a couple of things: Bernardi wants to implement a qualifying period for all prime ministers to access their benefits post service.
The other change would involve restricting the access the parliamentarians to the very generous defined benefits superannuation scheme that covers MPs elected before 2004.
Bernardi wants to prevent all current and former parliamentarians from accessing their defined benefits pension before they turn 60.
Once people wrap their minds round this little sortie, it will go off like a little hydrogen bomb in political circles, because the proposed amendments would affect current superannuants.
Bernardi has told Politics Live: “If the government maintains retrospective legislation is in the public interest for parliamentary entitlements then the area that arouses the most ire from the public is the annual unfunded pension payment that applies to some politicians respective of their age.
“Does anyone think it is reasonable for a politician to retire in their 30s and remain on the public purse for the rest of their lives?
“If the government is serious about cleaning up Canberra, then they can start here.”
A number of members have referenced the lack of clarity around claiming travel expenses. Adam Bandt is one who has asked the finance department if a proposed travel claim was in the rules. The department advises the member must make the decision themselves.
Bandt says the authority has no teeth because it does not include anything about compliance. There is also no clear distinction regarding misuse versus a slip-up such as filling out a form wrongly.
Bandt says the Greens will move in the Senate to give the entitlements authority some teeth.
We’ve got to make sure this is a watchdog, not a lapdog.
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