Senate estimates continue, with three senior ministers in Labor’s spotlight. All the days events, live
Ugh. Now that I have wrestled with tech demons, I can tell you that as expected, the motion to suspend standing orders goes down, 69 to 74.
The division is called – to see if Labor can suspend standing orders.
It does not look like the Nationals will be backing it.
Continue reading...Earlier Mathias Cormann admitted he books holidays by calling CEO of travel company, who is also Liberal party treasurer, directly. All the day’s events live
Wayne Swan is on his feet, talking about his career, which included eight election wins and one loss, since 1993. Or as he describes it, enough days to cover almost four continuous years of parliament.
Wayne Swan says yesterday was his 35th wedding anniversary, and two hours ago, he became a grandfather again.
So it’s a good week to be Wayne Swan.
Continue reading...Penny Wong says it’s ‘deeply concerning’ a company with ‘such a poor track record’ was awarded a lucrative sum through closed tender
Penny Wong has indicated Labor will target the Paladin offshore detention security contract in Senate estimates this week, accusing the government of failing to explain why the company was awarded $420m in contracts through closed tender.
The Australian Financial Review has reported that Paladin Group’s $420m of contracts to provide security to refugees on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea was extended by the home affairs department in January after a closed tender process.
Continue reading...Labor, the Greens, Tim Storer, Derryn Hinch and the Centre Alliance vote in favour of the refugee transfer legislation. This blog has now closed.
That is where we will leave you today. It’s been a big week and after the last few days, I think we all need a bex and a lie down.
Obviously, for me, when I say bex, I mean vodka, but insert whatever self-care aid is necessary.
From the valedictories
Continue reading...Key crossbencher Kerryn Phelps indicates she would consider Labor’s changes to the medevac legislation. All the day’s events, live
The PMO has released the transcript of Scott Morrison’s doorstop this morning:
JOURNALIST: Prime minister, if you lose the medevac bill today, why should you not drive to Government House and call an election?
You may remember from Luke’s report yesterday, that David de Garis declined to answer how he found out about the AWU raid. Looks like shiz is about to get reeeal interesting in the federal court.
Justice Bromberg has ruled Michaelia Cash's former media adviser David De Garis will have to give evidence about who tipped him off that federal police were set to raid the AWU's offices. #auspol
Continue reading...Labor has been holding talks all day and has agreed on three principles. All the day’s events, live
And that is where we are going to call it quits tonight.
But fear not – we’ll be back in about 12 hours. It is going to be that sort of year, me thinks.
Scott Morrison and Marise Payne will hold a press conference at 8.45 tonight to talk about Hakeem al-Araibi.
Party will rally its base and harvest undecided voters by banging the drum on Labor’s tax measures
This weekend, I think it’s productive to take you into the world of Coalition MPs as they pack their bags anticipating the return of federal parliament next week.
The parliamentary weeks show the Morrison government at its most vulnerable because the Coalition no longer commands a majority in either chamber, but it’s not the resumption of parliament many MPs are fretting about.
Continue reading...Tim Wilson, in his hurry to ‘help’, has overreached and anyone can see his position isn’t tenable
If it wasn’t already obvious, we have entered the “whatever it takes” stage of proceedings.
The Coalition wants to get back into the contest, and is on the hunt for the knockout blow, or blows. The core objective at the moment is to get the whole country roiling about Labor’s “retirement tax” (that isn’t a tax, just like the carbon tax was never a tax despite what Tony told us).
Continue reading...Treasurer says climate change is real and Scott Morrison’s government takes emissions reduction ‘very seriously’
Josh Frydenberg has defended the Coalition’s record on climate change and says he will work hard to earn the trust of his constituents in the face of a challenge from long-time Liberal and now independent Oliver Yates.
Yates, a former Macquarie banker and head of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, confirmed on Wednesday he would run in Kooyong at the coming federal election, declaring Frydenberg deserved to be challenged because of a lack of action on the environment.
Continue reading...Women account for 37.5% of those honoured – a record but still short of the 40% target promised by Labor
This year’s Australia Day honours list has the highest proportion of women ever – but female recipients still make up just over a third of the list, only a 4.5-percentage-point increase from last year.
Seven former Liberal or National male politicians have been honoured in the 2019 awards, including former Nationals leader Warren Truss, former deputy Liberal leader Peter Reith and former Liberal national director Tony Nutt.
Continue reading...Indigenous leader and former Labor boss to be parachuted in as a Liberal in the NSW electorate held by retiring MP Ann Sudmalis
Indigenous leader Warren Mundine will be parachuted in to contest the marginal seat of Gilmore under a Scott Morrison-endorsed plan being considered by the New South Wales Liberal party executive.
On Tuesday the state executive voted to block the preselection of real-estate agent Grant Schultz, who had been picked by local members to contest the seat held by the retiring MP Ann Sudmalis.
Continue reading...Murray-Darling commissioner offer to include Menindee fish kill in inquiry rejected by South Australia attorney general
Another 80cm Murray cod has died in the Lower Darling River on Friday afternoon, raising fears among Menindee locals that the predicted drop in temperature overnight will trigger another fish kill incident.
The Guardian saw the large cod, estimated to be about 30 to 40 years old, floating about 1km downstream from where another large cod died on Thursday.
Continue reading...Tony Abbott in second place as activist group looks to extend list of targets
Peter Dutton is the most unpopular Australian politician among GetUp supporters, with the activist organisation now looking to extend its “hard right” MP target hit list for the upcoming federal election.
The home affairs minister, who is already facing an established GetUp campaign against him in his marginal Queensland seat of Dickson, dominated the activist group’s poll of most loathed politicians, attracting 22,028 first-place votes.
Continue reading...Deputy Labor leader says Liberals cannot use ‘merit’ argument, considering some of its ‘unimpressive blokes’
The Liberal party cannot fall back on the argument it preselects candidates on merit, given “some of the blokes” it counts among its parliamentary ranks, Tanya Plibersek has said.
Responding to frontbencher Sussan Ley’s push for the Liberal party to work towards a “sensible number” to improve its female representation and break ranks from the majority who remained opposed to quotas, Plibersek said it was beyond time this happened.
Continue reading...